DS Daily - 2nd April 2012 |
 |
5,000 Tweets!
Another milestone for the DrugScope Twitter page
Substance misuse interventions within the young people’s secure estate
Guiding principles for transferring commissioning responsibility from the YJB to local partnership areas | NTA, UK
Ban on 'legal high' drugs doomed to fail as officers will focus on 'serious criminality', police chiefs warn
They say that declaring the substances illegal does not work and forces will treat anyone found with them leniently – cautioning them instead of sending them to court | Daily Mail, UK
Making drug courts more effective and more cost-effective
Latest in an impressive series of studies of how US courts specialising in supervision and treatment of drug-related offenders can do more to reduce drug use and crime and conserve resources. Triaging to more or less intensive programmes and adjusting on the basis of progress made significant differences | Drug and Alcohol Findings, UK
Truckers driving on Class A drugs to 'relieve boredom'
A culture of Class A drug taking is common among some drivers working in the UK road haulage business, say industry insiders | BBC, UK
'Legal highs'
This briefing paper is part of a series produced by the Drug Education Forum, for schools and others involved in drug education or informal drug prevention | Drug Education Forum, UK
Minimum price for alcohol
Public split over minimum price for alcohol, with 46% who support it and 46% opposed. Full survey and results | YouGov, UK
On the floor
First in Scotland, then elsewhere, the price of getting drunk will rise | The Economist
Removing barriers: Reducing exclusions from homelessness services
This guide is to support local authorities and providers understand the impact of ‘exclusion policies’, ‘blanket bans’ and other barriers to accessing accommodation and day services for homeless people | Homeless Link, UK
Children call for smokefree homes
A new hard-hitting campaign, highlighting the shocking truth behind secondhand smoke will hit our TV screens on Saturday, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley announced | Department of Health, UK
TV ad shows danger of 'invisible secondhand smoke'
Making houses and cars smokefree is the only way to protect children from second-hand smoke, according to a new government campaign in England | BBC, UK
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley
NHS will be stronger - video |BBC, UK
Virgin Care to run Surrey community health services
Community health services in two areas of Surrey are to be run by a private company in a £500m deal | BBC, UK
Troubled Families: Top 10 areas are on board as Government is ready to go
The 10 local authorities with the largest number of troubled families have agreed to sign up to the Government's ambitious scheme to turn around the lives of 120,000 problem households by 2015 | Communities and Local Government, UK
Cannabis returns to top of trade
Cannabis and herbal marijuana have re-emerged as the dominant product in the Irish drugs trade as an affordable 'high' replacing the cocaine-fuelled market of the economic 'boom' period, gardai say | Independent, Ireland
Call for Garda dog units to counter drug threat
There has been a call for specialised Garda dog units to be sanctioned for Kerry to counter the threat of drug dealers using the sprawling coastline and local airport to import illegal substances | Irish Examiner
Synthetic drug fentanyl causes overdose boom in Estonia
Everyone knows someone who has died. In the circles of Estonian friends who use "china white", death is a constant possibility | BBC, UK
Improving community health and safety in Canada through evidence-based policies on illegal drugs
This article reviews the impact of conventional drug policies employed internationally and describes evidence-based steps to reduce the health and social costs attributable to drug policies in Canada | Open Medicine, Canada
Former Supreme Court justice blasts minimum sentences for marijuana offenders
Canada’s new mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders are based on “very bad criminal law policy” and constitute a threat to public health as well as the concept of judicial proportionality, former Supreme Court of Canada Justice Louise Arbour says | CMAJ, Canada
New York police officers defy order to cut marijuana arrests
Nearly half of people charged with marijuana posession were reportedly not displaying the drug when they were stopped | Guardian, UK
Examining Marijuana Arrests
The state must do more to curb the arrests of tens of thousands of people each year in New York City for minor possession of marijuana, despite a 1977 state law that decriminalized it | New York Times, USA
Cigarette Ingredients Must Be Disclosed, FDA Says
U.S. health regulators said on Friday tobacco companies must report how much formaldehyde, nicotine or any of 18 other harmful chemicals are in their products, as part of a larger government effort to regulate the tobacco industry | Huffington Post, USA
3 Central American presidents oppose Guatemalan leader’s proposal to legalize drugs
The presidents of El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua say they oppose the legalization of drugs and will continue to support regional efforts to fight drug trafficking | Washington Post, USA
Connections: family violence and AOD
Extensive evidence highlights the associative relationship between family violence2 and alcohol and other drug (AOD) misuse | VAADA, Australia
Ban on fake pot fails to drag drug off shelf
Sold as Kronic, Northern Lights, Spice and Amsterdam High, the herbal-chemical blend was in effect outlawed in July when eight cannabis-like chemicals were banned by Australia's federal medicines regulator - But it is still being sold widely | The Age, Australia
Afghanistan: our modern opium war
Washington justified this occupation by the 'war on terror'. But it makes more sense as another theatre of the failed 'war on drugs' | Guardian, UK
Drug Policy Guide
The Guide is designed to assist national policy makers in the process of developing effective, humane and appropriate drug policies and programmes for their country. Each chapter of the Guide introduces a specific type of policy challenge, analyses existing evidence and experiences of different countries, and presents advice and recommendations for developing effective policy responses | International Drug Policy Consortium
WCO and INCB join forces to enhance international drug control efforts
The World Customs Organization (WCO) and the Vienna-based International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to formalize their long-standing cooperation with a view to enhancing international drug control efforts within their respective mandates, thus ensuring a better environment and a safer world for citizens across the globe | International Narcotics Control Board
The True Scale of Global Crime
In this exclusive interview, we speak to Yury Fedotov (Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UNODC) | Thought Economics, UK
Commission on Narcotic Drugs: So Much Agony, So Little Ecstasy
It is a lesson of history that at the end of established regimes, those left in power ratchet up the repression of dissent in their desperate bid to retain power. This phenomenon could be what we’re seeing at the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), which met this March in Vienna | Open Society Foundations, USA
Violence fuels debate on drugs legalisation
South American countries afflicted by drug-related violence are seeking to promote a global discussion on the legalisation of narcotics | The International Institute For Strategic Studies
Lifting the veil on Afghanistan's female addicts
With little funding and no access to substitution drugs such as methadone, treatment is rudimentary at Nejat for a problem that is growing in a dirt-poor country riven by conflicts for more than three decades | Trust Law, UK
Brewers too are fighting against alcohol misuse
A voluntary approach through informing consumers of health risks has yielded results and should be pursued further | Euractive
Alcohol and NCDs - need for response to WHO consultation
The Global Alcohol Policy Alliance has called for civil society and Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) to ask that reduced alcohol consumption be reinstated among the global priority targets for prevention and control of non-communicable diseases | Global Alcohol Policy Alliance