DS Daily - 10th April 2012 |
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Providing Drug and Alcohol treatment services through Payment by Results
Invitation for Drug and Alcohol treatment providers. Download draft agenda - download invitation The event will be held at Coin Street neighbourhood centre, 108 Stamford Street, South Bank, London | Department of Health, Home Office, via DrugScope, UK
Re: Drug policy debate is needed (Editorial BMJ)
Response from Paul Hayes, Chief Executive NTA | BMJ, UK
Clients of probation officers trained to tailor supervision less likely to reoffend
For the first time this Canadian randomised study has shown that training probation officers in the risk-need-responsivity model of offender supervision can not only improve their skills and sharpen their practice, but also reduce the recidivism of the offenders they supervise | Drug and Alcohol Findings, UK
Extensive review bemoans evidence quality but supports drug courts
Synthesising the results of 154 studies, the most thorough and extensive investigation of the crime-reduction credentials of drug courts finds the evidence bulky but lacking quality, yet sufficient to support courts for adult illegal drug users | Drug and Alcohol Findings, UK
Is the NHS Trying to Kill Rehab Clinics?
The British Government spends an estimated £800 million a year on what it calls "addiction treatment" but less than 2% of this is used to fund people to go into residential rehab. Most of the budget is spent on "revolving door" treatments such as home detoxes, community interventions and replacement drugs such as methadone | Huffington Post, UK
Policy Update
Policy Update March-April 2012 | SMMGP, UK
The High Street
Legal party drugs sold like sweets in a town near you | The Sun, UK
Ban on shops selling khat to children
Shops and cafés in the capital face a clampdown on the sale of khat, a chewable stimulant herb popular with Somali communities | London Evening Standard, UK
Drug rehab centre takes community by surprise
Residents have reacted angrily to plans to place a needle exchange and rehab centre on their doorstep | This is Sussex, UK
Citywide Film Launch
Filmed during 2010 & 2011, this project set out to show how drugs have impacted on communities, how those communities have responded, how national drugs strategies developed and how Citywide has worked locally and nationally to support community responses | Citywide, UK
Academy response to alcohol strategy
The Alcohol Academy has responded to the Government's Alcohol Strategy. Overall it welcomes the strategy, but calls for further reconition and support for local alcohol strategy as key to overall success | Alcohol Academy, UK
Drinks companies press Government for sunset clause on minimum pricing policy
Drinks manufacturers plan to persuade the Government into agreeing a “sunset clause” on minimum unit pricing, which would force ministers to scrap the controversial alcohol policy if it was proven not to work | Telegraph, UK
Putting smoke out of sight and out of mind
End of tobacco displays in shops | Department of Health, UK
Focus on victims to tackle anti-social behaviour
Focusing on victims and changing the attitudes of police and partners is the key to tackling anti-social behaviour, according to a report | Home Office, UK
Homelessness: 'We're entering a very nasty period'
The country is entering a “very nasty period” as homelessness soars to levels "unseen for 25 years", Big Issue founder John Bird has warned | 24dash
George Osborne faces revolt over 'tax on giving' as charity donations dry up
A powerful alliance of aid groups, charities and arts organisations is launching a full-frontal assault on Treasury plans to limit tax relief for philanthropists, warning that they will have a devastating impact on the culture of giving at the heart of David Cameron's "big society" | Guardian, UK
A child's experience of her mother going to prison
Every year, many thousands of children experience separation from a mother who is sent to prison, a trauma which in many cases can also mean losing their home | BBC, UK
Britain's working families at tipping point
The study looked at families struggling with multiple risk factors - things like worklessness, young parenthood, overcrowded housing and financial stress | Channel 4, UK
Almost 5,000 drug seizures in jails in past three years
There were nearly 5,000 drug seizures in the State’s prisons in the past three years, with Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, accounting for almost half of them | Irish Times
A war against people who use drugs
The costs | Eurasian Harm Reduction Network
Providing guidance to policy makers for developing coherent policies for licit and illicit drugs
This policy paper aims to provide decision makers and policy managers with an overview of the basic principles, instruments and tools that will support them in developing, reviewing and implementing drug policies, strategies and action plans | Pompidou Group, Europe
Cannabis cafe pass system: official proof of residency needed
People in the south of the Netherlands who wish to continue buying soft drugs in their local cannabis café have to request official council papers to prove they officially live in the Netherlands | Dutch News, Netherlands
Painkiller Sales Soar, Fuel Addiction
From New York's Staten Island to Santa Fe, N.M., Drug Enforcement Administration figures show dramatic rises between 2000 and 2010 in the distribution of oxycodone, the key ingredient in OxyContin, Percocet and Percodan. Some places saw sales increase sixteenfold | abc News, USA
Painkiller addiction: Is it really an epidemic?
Radley Balko, an investigative reporter for the Huffington Post, thinks a chill pill is in order | LA Times, USA
Tightening the Lid on Pain Prescriptions
Data suggests that hundreds of thousands of patients nationwide may be on potentially dangerous dosages. And while no one questions that the medicines help countless patients and that most doctors prescribe them responsibly, there is a growing resistance to their creeping overuse | New York Times, USA
Prescribed drugs 'to blame over spate of violence among US soldiers'
Psychologists have blamed a surge in random acts of violence among US soldiers on the heavy use of prescribed medicines by the American military | Telegraph, UK
'War on drugs' has failed, say Latin American leaders
Watershed summit will admit that prohibition has failed, and call for more nuanced and liberalised tactics | Guardian, UK
We have to find new solutions to Latin America's drugs nightmare
Narcotics should be legally available – in a highly regulated market, argues the president of Guatemala | Guardian, UK
Time for Obama to join the debate over the failed war on drugs
This week, at a summit in Colombia, the president has a chance to show he understands there has to be a political solution | Guardian, UK
Report of a high level Australia21 Roundtable
The Prohibition of Illicit Drugs is Killing and Criminalising Our Children and We Are All Letting It Happen | Australia21
Commentary on the Australia 21 report
Here are what some of NDARC's academic staff have had to say in the wake of the report's release | NDARC, Australia
Rethink urged on prosecuting minor drug offences
An expert on drug and alcohol abuse has called for a rethink about whether it is effective to throw legal and financial resources at prosecuting minor offences | The Australian
A policy in need of rehab
Australia 21's report on drug law reform restarts a public conversation that has been dormant for many long years while the problem has persisted | Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
Refusal to discuss drugs policy is dopey
For Gillard to imagine there is nothing left to talk about is dopey. There is everything to discuss on our way to a better, more nuanced drugs policy | Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
Converts and sceptics on the road to reform
The call to end hostilities in the war on drugs has revealed some unlikely allies | Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
Call for labels on bottles to warn of alcohol's danger to foetuses
Foster parents and public health groups have urged federal politicians to take urgent action to prevent more babies from suffering foetal alcohol spectrum disorder | The Age, Australia
Commanding General Confidence?
Human Rights, International Law and the INCB Annual Report for 2011 | Harm Reduction International