DS Daily - 24th June 2010

World Drug Report 2010 - Contents

World Drug Report 2010 - Press release

Drug use is shifting towards new drugs and new markets [UNODC]

Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency Annual Report for 2009 - 2010

More serious organised criminals arrested than ever before and the targeting of high-purity drug seizures overseas are highlighted - Full report [Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, UK]

World Drug Day - 26 June 2010

Calls for change around the world [SMMGP, UK]

Scots top global cocaine use poll

Scotland has among the highest levels of cocaine use in the world, according to a United Nations report [BBC, UK]

Precaution or perversion: eight harms of the precautionary principle

At face value, the precautionary principle seems reasonable but, as I argued in the Eve Saville lecture at the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies last year, it is fraught with hidden harms and injustices especially if applied in an unthinking and arbitrary manner [David Nutt's Blog]

Psychological therapies offered across the NHS

Psychological therapies will continue to be rolled out across the NHS in the coming year Health Secretary Andrew Lansley announced [DoH, UK]

Good parenting 'stops children growing up with a drink problem'

Parents can't stop their children from experimenting with alcohol - but they can prevent them from becoming heavy drinkers, say scientists [Daily Mail, UK]

Drink drivers 'to have cars seized and crushed for first offence'

Officers believe the "outstanding success" of the six-month-old scheme could see it extended to first-time drink-drive offenders caught several times over the limit or who refuse to provide a breath test or drive while banned [The Scotsman, UK]

Expectant mothers to be given smoking breath tests

Health watchdog tells midwives to challenge all pregnant women [Daily Mail, UK]

Head shop products to require medicinal licence, says Harney

Ms Harney told the Dáil that the only way of dealing with psychoactive substances was through “the introduction of catch-all legislation”, being brought forward by the Minister for Justice [Irish Times]

Ethan Nadelmann Debates O'Reilly About Failed Drug War

[YouTube]

Orrin Hatch: Drug Test The Unemployed

Utah voters have reacted enthusiastically to Sen. Orrin Hatch's legislation to drug test the unemployed and those receiving other forms of government cash assistance [Huffington Post, USA]

Legalising v decriminalising pot

There are clear harms entailed in the practice of putting lots of unenforceable or unenforced laws on the books and consigning a significant swathe of your population to the category of lawbreakers [The Economist]

Push for needle exchange in jail

Health reform advocates say it is very unlikely that there has been only one hepatitis C transmission in Canberra's jail [ABC News, Australia]

Links between executions and foreign funding of counter-drug operation

IHRA's Senior Human Rights Analyst Damon Barrett appeared on Radio Australia to discuss the organisation’s latest report, ‘Complicity or Abolition? – The Death Penalty and International Support for Drug Enforcement’ [IHRA]