DS Daily - 16th April 2012 |
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'Putting Full Recovery First': Views of UK service users and providers
This survey has been developed by the UK Harm Reduction Association, the National Users Network and the UK Recovery Foundation. It is intended to provide a means for service users, providers and others in the field to confidentially share their views and understanding about the ‘Recovery Roadmap’. We want to ensure that the complexity and seriousness of the issues at hand are fully taken into account by the Government. In the absence of a consultation on this particular document, this is your chance to provide feedback | SurveyMonkey
EU law may spike Cameron's alcohol price strategy
High-ranking Treasury officials have admitted that there are questions over the legality of David Cameron's plans for a minimum alcohol unit pricing policy, according to drinks industry sources | Telegraph, UK
Middle-class children most likely to try alcohol by 12
Middle-class children are far more likely to have drunk alcohol by the age of 12 than those from lower social groups, research has found | Telegraph, UK
Cigarette branding ban ‘to hit sweets and alcohol’
Sweets and alcohol could follow cigarettes by being banned from using fancy packaging | Daily Express, UK
Cabinet rift throws cigarette censorship plan into chaos
Cigar-smoking Ken Clarke has mocked Cabinet colleague Andrew Lansley as a member of the ‘health police’ over his call for cigarettes to be sold in plain packaging only | Daily Mail, UK
Public backs plans to remove branding from cigarette packets
Campaigners say move to help reduce smoking in UK would confront Big Tobacco with 'endgame' | Guardian, UK
Herbal smoking products’ liability to tobacco products duty
Consultation document. Closing date for comments: 29 June 2012 | HM Revenue & Customs, UK
Lung cancer cases keep going up in women
Smoking rates for women in Great Britain were highest throughout the "Mad Men" era of the 1960s, with around 45 per cent of women smoking. This has since fallen to 20 per cent | Cancer Research UK
Drug dealers who created ‘no-go’ areas stripped of millions
Four key members of a drug trafficking network with hubs in Southern England and Wales have been told they must pay back a combined total of nearly £2.2m in criminal profits | SOCA, UK
Female offenders 2011
71% of female offenders reported that they had used drugs in the 12 months prior to coming into prison (compared to 61%of male offenders. 36% of female prisoners reported that they were being prescribed methadone and of these a majority (82%) reported that it controlled their craving | Scottish Prison Service, UK
Heroin treatment has itself become a problem
Methadone, once viewed as a way to wean a patient off opiates, has now become a fact of everyday life for many former heroin addicts | Independent, Ireland
Gardai claim 'Operation Stilts' is making streets safer
Drug dealers, addicts and beggars are being proactively dealt with in the north inner city | Independent, Ireland
Significant fall-off in gun and drug crime since 2008
An analysis of the most recent Central Statistics Office data shows that in some Garda divisions drug crime has halved since its peak four years ago | Irish Times
Homeless truths: experiences of homeless children in Ireland
The issues participating children were consulted on were identified through the OCO’s work on youth homelessness in the context of the Office’s complaint-handling function | Ombudsman for Children’s Office of Homelessness Services for Children, Ireland
Drinks body tried to alter damning report
A group representing the drinks industry sought to alter paragraphs and remove figures on alcohol-related rape and domestic violence from a special report shaping Government policy | Irish Examiner
Minister rounds on retailers over cheap booze promotions
Stormont ministers have hit out at the low-cost drink culture here after a charity discovered that two-litre bottles of cider were recently retailing for just £1 a time | Belfast Telegraph, UK
Generic Ban on Legal Highs Is Introduced in Hungary
The government declares a great victory in war on drugs, NGOs say criminalization is not the solution | Drug Reporter, Hungary
No Clean Needles for Russian Addicts – Drug Official
Russia’s chief specialist on tackling drug abuse reiterated on Friday the country’s reluctance to introduce a Western-style system of needle exchanges for heroin addicts, saying it would do nothing to combat high HIV infection rates | RIA Novosti, Russia
War on drugs 'not working,' Harper says
"What I think everybody believes," Harper said, "is that the current approach is not working. But it is not clear what we should do." | CBC News, Canada
Obama open to new approaches in drug war, but not legalization
Speaking Saturday at the Summit of the Americas, President Barack Obama said it is reasonable to debate alternatives in the war on drugs, but insisted legalizing drugs wasn't a valid option in the United States | CNN, USA
'Drugs war' debate 'very superficial'
President Obama is at the Summit of the Americas in Colombia today, where there will be talks behind closed doors on the violence driven by the drug trade | Today, Radio 4, UK
Buprenorphine
Buprenorphine Now More Likely than Methadone to Be Found in U.S. Law Enforcement Drug Seizures | Pain-Topics, USA
Addicts trained to administer overdose drug
The only two programs in Pennsylvania that train nonmedical people to reverse overdoses with naloxone are needle exchange clinics -- the one in Philadelphia and one in Pittsburgh. Exchanges in Atlantic City and Wilmington hope to start the first programs in those states soon | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, USA
Prescription Drug Monitoring, Synthetic Drug Laws Hot Topics in State Legislatures
Prescription drug monitoring programs and laws to ban synthetic drugs are hot topics in state legislatures around the country, according to the CEO of the National Alliance for Model State Drug Laws (NAMSDL) | Join Together, USA
Colombia calls for global drugs taskforce
Colombian leader uses Summit of the Americas to call for radical review of international policy on drugs | Observer, UK
Summit set to highlight changing US-Latin America ties
The colonial Colombian city of Cartagena has become, once again, a fortress as it prepares to host the Summit of the Americas | BBC, UK
Where Is Brazil in the Global Drug Debate?
Brazil faces a real and present danger from which it can not and must not hide. At the upcoming Summit of the Americas, President Dilma has an unprecedented opportunity to contribute to building a new architecture for global drug policy | Huffington Post, USA
Summit of the Americas ends without final declaration
President Santos welcomed the decision to give the Organization of American States (OAS) a mandate to analyse and discuss drug policies | BBC, UK
UNODC chief discusses responses to HIV/ AIDS among drug users and prisoners
At a time of declining international aid flows to low income countries home to a high number of people living with HIV, Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of UNODC, yesterday addressed the 36th Meeting of the UNAIDS Committee of Cosponsoring Organizations (CCO) in Geneva | UNODC