DS Daily - 25th January 2013

Campaigners make case for tougher alcohol measures

Alcohol campaigners are pressing the government for a minimum alcohol unit price of 50p and tougher licensing laws to help tackle problem drinking | BMA, UK

AHA UK response to the consultation on delivering the Government's
policies to cut alcohol fuelled crime and anti-social behaviour (PDF)

The AHA UK response welcomes the proposal to introduce a minimum unit price for alcohol and supports the end of multi-buy promotions in the off-trade | AHA, UK

Making Every Adult Matter – Is your area ready to tackle multiple needs?

During 2013 Making Every Adult Matter (MEAM) will be offering support to services in at least nine local authority areas who want to design and deliver new coordinated interventions using ‘the MEAM approach’ as a guide. To express an interest in this opportunity we are asking local areas to complete a short Expression of Interest form and return it to us by 31 January 2013 | MEAM, UK

New Zealand, legal highs and sensible supply-side policies

Existing policy in the UK is rooted in the false assumption that if you make something illegal, people will stop doing it | New Statesman, UK

Crisis on the Silk Road: If you can't trust Britain's biggest online drug dealer, who can you trust?

Over the weekend, Britain's biggest seller of marijuana on the illegal but very successful online drug-dealing website Silk Road (SR, to those in the know) seems to have cut and run, disappearing from SR with a huge amount of his customer's money | Telegraph Blogs, UK

Holland’s high life under threat

Questions are being asked about the viability of Holland's liberal drug laws | New Statesman, UK

Mexico arrests in drug gang dismembering case

The authorities in Mexico have arrested 11 gang members suspected of killing and dismembering up to 16 people in the last 10 days | BBC, UK

Fall in UK crime rate baffles experts

The classic theory that property crime rises faster in times of economic strife no longer seems to apply, latest figures show | Guardian, UK

School-based psychological interventions reduce risk of alcohol misuse, finds new study

Research commissioned by Action on Addiction suggests mental health approach to teenage drinking is successful | Action on Addiction, UK

Jeremy Sare: The cannabis reclassification saga began shortly after 9/11

Figures published last month show that Class B prosecutions (nearly all cannabis) had increased by about 70% since reclassification was reversed for spurious reasons by Gordon Brown in 2009 | BMJ Blogs, UK

Rapid withdrawal and opiate-blockers work for Iranian addicts

Further evidence from Iran that rapid withdrawal from opioids under anaesthesia followed by the opioid-blocking drug naltrexone can work for highly motivated caseloads with copious ‘recovery capital’. For others it generally quickly ends in overdose-threatening relapse | Drug and Alcohol Findings, UK

Gene Interactions Discovered That Make Death From Cocaine Abuse 8 Times More Likely

Scientists have identified genetic circumstances under which common mutations on two genes interact in the presence of cocaine to produce a nearly eight-fold increased risk of death as a result of abusing the drug | Medical News Today, UK

Have we lost the battle to improve health inequalities?

Health inequalities have ceased to be fashionable. From a position where the goal to reduce inequalities was a core objective of the health system – with national targets to reduce them by 10 per cent – we have seen it steadily marginalised | King Fund, Think Differently Blog, UK

Evictions warning over housing benefit reforms

Changes to housing benefit later this year could lead to a rise in evictions, a key housing body has warned | BBC, UK

Merge NHS and social care, says Labour

The NHS and social care budgets in England should be combined to create a super pot to meet the needs of the ageing population, Labour says | BBC, UK

Welfare Reform impact assessment

The Federation’s work to ensure that the voice of social housing is central to the debate surrounding Welfare Reform took another large step forward today with the publication of the first research report from Ipsos Mori and Cambridge University | National Housing Federation, UK

Suicide - alcohol abuse must be tackled

The high suicide level among young Irish men could be reduced if more was done to tackle the issue of alcohol abuse, Alcohol Action Ireland has said | Irish Health, Ireland

Photos: America's war on drugs in 1969

Life magazine revisits its drug coverage from 1969 in this photo gallery | LIFE, USA

Founder of Tacoma needle exchange – nation's first – and proud hippie David Purchase dies

A day after David Purchase died, friends remembered him Tuesday as a pioneer who fought HIV-AIDS on the streets of Tacoma and gave birth to what became an international health movement | News Tribune, USA

Its true medical cannabis provides dramatic relief for sufferers of chronic ailments

Though controversial, medical cannabis has been gaining ground as a valid therapy, offering relief to suffers of diseases such as cancer, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, ALS and more | Science Blog, USA

Classic Songs About Drug Use, Drug Selling and the Drug War

Musicians are some of the most open and honest people when it comes to drug use in society. While there is still stigma and fear for most of us when it comes to talking about personal drug use, musicians share their experiences, both good and bad through their songs | Huffington Post, USA

Medical Marijuana Gets Boost From Herbal Products Lobbying Alliance

Following two years of collaboration with the medical marijuana industry, the American Herbal Products Association said Thursday that it was providing recommendations to state officials looking to regulate medical pot | Huffington Post, USA

Reducing the alcohol and drug toll: Victoria's plan 2013 - 2017

This is Victoria’s first whole of government strategy to reduce the impact of alcohol and drug abuse on the Victorian community | Dept of Health, Victoria, Australia