DS Daily 5th April 2010

Mephedrone: the anatomy of a media drug scare

Hysteria and inaccuracies have been the main ingredients of the media coverage of mephedrone [Guardian, UK]

Eric Carlin's ACMD resignation letter to the Home Secretary

[Eric Carlin, UK]

My resignation from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs

I resigned from the ACMD yesterday as a result of my grave concerns and misgivings about the processes we went through at our meeting this week and more generally about the lack of logic and sometimes morality in what we’re required to do [Eric Carlin's blog, UK]

Mephedrone row grows as seventh member of drugs panel quits

Eric Carlin resigns from advisory council citing 'media and political pressure' over decision to impose Class B drug status [Observer, UK]

Drug adviser Dr Polly Taylor's full resignation letter

Saying she did not trust the government's use of its advice [BBC, UK]

The government's determination to control its drugs advisors left me no choice but to resign

Comment by Polly Taylor [Observer, UK]

Buprenorphine is most effective detoxification medication

A new methodology to combine the results of relevant studies suggests buprenorphine probably has the edge over methadone among the main medications used to help dependent patients complete withdrawal from heroin and allied drugs [Drug and Alcohol Findings, UK]

Largest analysis to date offers practice insights in to motivational interviewing

Better than treatment as usual but not than other specific therapies are the headlines from the most comprehensive synthesis of motivational interviewing studies to date. Along the way are insights in to the equivocal value of manuals and of feeding back assessment results [Drug and Alcohol Findings, UK]

Drugs Tsar's links to aristocrats group lobbying to liberate laws on mind-bending drugs

The Government’s new drugs tsar is listed as an adviser to a shadowy foundation run by an aristocrat lobbying to liberalise laws on mind-altering drugs [Daily Mail, UK]

Government drug adviser linked to foundation that promotes LSD

Ann Widdecombe, the Tory MP and former Home Office minister, called on Professor Iversen to resign as head of the ACMD [Telegraph, UK]

Purcell could face criminal investigation

The Crown Office has confirmed it is in talks with police about launching a criminal investigation into former Glasgow City Council leader Steven Purcell after he admitted using cocaine [The Herald, Scotland, UK]

David Yelland: My life as an alcoholic

He was the editor of the Sun and one of the most influential people in Britain. He was also drunk – every night for 24 years [Observer, UK]

Cleverest women are the heaviest drinkers

Women who went to university consume more alcohol than their less-highly-educated counterparts, a major study has found [Telegraph, UK]

Video: My Name is Bill

Two powerful performance pieces from the Outside Edge Theatre Company. These monologues, based around the intervention of the 12 Step Programme, are two sides of a relationship from two different perspectives [Inexcess TV, UK]

Fury over methadone clinic:Dublin

Northside residents are up in arms over plans to open a methadone clinic in Dublin 15 - right next to a day-centre for people with intellectual disabilities and Down Syndrome [INEF, Ireland]

The heroin epidemic advancing on Russia

Since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, opium production in Afghanistan has risen dramatically. Russia's geographic proximity to the region has made it a huge consumer [BBC, UK]

CAMH breaks ground and makes history: welcome to a new kind of hospital

The CAMH redevelopment enables a unique, integrated model of care and client recovery based on the most advanced knowledge in addiction and mental health [Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Canada]

Lowering the Threshold

Models of Accessible Methadone and Buprenorphine Treatment - PDF [Open Society Institute, USA]

The Future of AA, NA and Other Recovery Mutual Aid Organizations

The purpose of this article is to discuss five current contextual influences that will influence the future of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA), and other addiction recovery mutual aid groups - By William L. White [Counselor Magazine]

Hundreds of Drug Cases Are at Risk in San Francisco

Hundreds of drug cases have been dismissed and hundreds more are being examined here by prosecutors who are scrambling to deal with the fallout from accusations that a technician in the Police Department’s crime laboratory was stealing cocaine for personal use [New York Times, USA]