DS Daily - 4th October 2013

ACMD letter to Minister for Crime Prevention, Jeremy Browne MP, advising on the scheduling of khat

Advice on the scheduling of khat under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations | ACMD, UK

ACMD advice on the scheduling of GHB

Advice to Minister of State for Crime Prevention, Jeremy Browne MP, on the scheduling of GHB | ACMD, UK

Women, we've got to talk about our drinking

British girls are the west's biggest teenage drinkers. As we were with tobacco, we're in deep denial about the dangers of alcohol | Guardian, UK

Alcoholic content warning: Scientists say increasingly boozy lyrics could be encouraging young people to drink

Songs such as Katy Perry's 'Last Friday Night' have been cited as having the potential to influence underage drinkers in a way that is comparable to advertising alcohol to under-18s | Independent, UK

Part of the Picture Substance Dependency and Help-Seeking Behaviour (2012)

A report published at the end of the third year of the study showed four distinct findings in relation to higher likelihood of drug use and binge drinking, higher likelihood of substance dependency and barriers to help-seeking in relation to substance use among LGB people | LGF, UK

A lesson from the Silk Road – nothing dies online

As more details emerge of how the FBI snared their suspect in the Silk Road case, there are some chilling lessons to be learned in just how difficult it is to stay anonymous online | Channel 4 Blog, UK

Silk Road could have led the way to safer drug use

The drug-selling website could have offered a real alternative to violent cartels – but for the FBI it was an easier target | Guardian, UK

End of Silk Road: Dealers despair as FBI celebrates sting that caught the world’s biggest online drug dealer

Paul Peachey on the downfall of Ross William Ulbricht – a libertarian activist who was obsessed by money | Independent, UK

Flawed evidence for drug education’s preventive impacts

According to a commentator, this “trenchant critique” of the evidence for school-based alcohol and drug prevention curricula is “unfortunately, largely on target”. The focus is on methodological concerns which might undermine positive findings, and on whether these survive a programme’s transplantation to real-world conditions | Drug and Alcohol Findings, UK

An introduction to the Drug and Alcohol Matrices - presentation

Ever thought about effectiveness in drug and alcohol treatment - what really works? How about having access to the really important evidence on delivering UK evidence-based treatment interventions at your fingertips - in one place, mapped out, categorised, online and free? Here's an introducton into how they work | Drug & Alcohol Findings, Skills Consortium, UK

Gerry Stimson: A life or death moment for tobacco policy

European Union politics occasionally produces a humiliating own goal, but few are likely to be as deadly and unethical as a proposed new approach to tobacco policy | BMJ Blog, UK

Warehouse Project organisers ramp up safety measures

The organisers of a major dance night where a man collapsed and later died have insisted they have enough measures in place to protect clubbers | BBC, UK

Chelmsford chemical leak: Man held as drug equipment found

Police believe the discovery of suspected drug production equipment is related to a chemical incident at an addiction treatment centre | BBC, UK

'Legal high' death: Man dies after smoking Psyclone herbal incense at Bolton house

The 38-year-old passed away after inhaling the substance, known as Psyclone, at a friend's house in Bolton | Manchester Evening News, UK

Eight Cambridgeshire cannabis gang members are jailed

Eight men who made about £10m growing cannabis "on an industrial scale" in Cambridgeshire have been jailed | BBC, UK

Street drinking banned in Birkenhead by council

Street drinking has been banned across all of Birkenhead to prevent anti-social behaviour | BBC, UK

Weymouth adopts super-strong alcohol campaign

Off-licenses in Weymouth have begun signing up to a voluntary ban on selling super-strength beer and cider | BBC, UK

Drug traffickers throw $1million out of plane for fellow criminals but miss target and get arrested

Drug traffickers threw $1million (£615,000) meant for other gang members from a plane but the cash ended up in police hands after they missed their target | Mirror, UK

An Interview with the Inventor of the Electronic Cigarette, Herbert A Gilbert

Last year, when I was writing up the history of the electronic cigarette, I mentioned Herbet A. Gilbert, who is considered by many to be the inventor of the modern electronic cigarette | ecigarettedirect.co.uk, UK

Switzerland changes law to decriminalise marijuana possession

Anyone caught with up to 10 grams of the drug will be let off with a CHF
100 (£68) fine and it will not go on their criminal record | Independent, UK

'Tobacco-free' plan for Republic of Ireland

The Irish health minister has published a plan to make the state "tobacco-free" by 2025 | BBC, UK

Tobacco free Ireland (PDF)

The terms of reference of the review were as follows: 1. To examine Irish and international evidence and experience of effective measures and programmes to reduce smoking prevalence and 2. To make policy proposals to the Minister aimed at reducing smoking initiation and prevalence | DoH, Ireland

Study: One in three teens with bipolar disorder develop substance abuse

A study published in the October 2013 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry found that approximately one in three teens with bipolar disorder developed substance abuse, for the first time, during 4 years of follow-up | News Medical, USA