DS Daily - 26th April 2010 |
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Record number of new drugs reported in 2009
A record number of new drugs was officially reported in 2009 to the EMCDDA and Europol via the EU early-warning system (EWS) on new psychoactive substances. This is according to the EMCDDA–Europol 2009 annual report [EMCDDA]
Prisoner or patient?
Tough talking on crime as the election draws near - and other magazine features [Drink and Drugs News, UK]
IHRA Liverpool
DDN team are producing daily magazines for the event, if you are not able to be here you can read all the highlights as they happened [Drink and Drugs News, UK]
Nick Clegg supported legalisation of drugs
Nick Clegg is facing questions about his stance on drugs after it emerged that he backed legalising them when he was a member of the European Parliament [Telegraph, UK]
Wales' Class A drugs shame
More young adults in Wales are using “fashionable” Class A drugs than ever before, according to official statistics [Wales Online, UK]
Contamination – Now we have some real evidence
Prohibition is harm maximisation of a sort not limited to the problems of gangland violence, it adds the sort of dangers only an unregulated and uncontrolled trade under the constant threat of disruption can produce; that of contamination [UKCIA]
The Chinese laboratories where scientists are already at work on the new 'meow meow'
In a filthy Shanghai laboratory, chemists make batches of mephedrone - and a new incarnation of the 'plant food' linked to the deaths of British teenagers [Daily Mail, UK]
Antidepressants work but add little to effective psychosocial therapies
A trio of reviews of trials of antidepressants in the treatment of depressed alcohol or drug dependent patients have clarified that they do help the severely depressed, but also that they add little to psychosocial approaches such as cognitive-behavioural therapy. Print publication 2006 [Drug and Alcohol Findings, UK]
NIDA’s Nora Volkow on addiction vaccines
Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), predicted in a telephone interview on Friday that a vaccine for cigarettes could be available in as little as three years, if two large ongoing Phase 3 trials—the last major FDA hurdle—prove as successful as earlier studies [Addiction Inbox, USA]
Don’t Call It ‘Pot’ in This Circle; It’s a Profession
As more and more states allow medical use of the drug, and California considers outright legalization, marijuana’s supporters are pushing hard to burnish the image of pot by franchising dispensaries and building brands [New York Times, USA]
US: Smokers gather for annual party as trend to legalise marijuana grows
Increasing attendance at 4.20 day events across America reflects public support for relaxing laws [Guardian, UK]
Mexico hobbled in drug war by arrests that lead nowhere
One by one, the government of President Felipe Calderón has quietly released the politicians as federal prosecutors dropped their cases and as judges ordered them set free for lack of evidence [Washington Post, USA]
"Harm reduction" needed to cut drug-user AIDS risk
Barely a twentieth of the estimated $3.2 billion needed is put into preventing drug users spreading the AIDS virus, experts said on Monday, and the shortfall is fuelling HIV epidemics in parts of Europe and Asia [Reuters]