DS Daily - 4th May 2012 |
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The hidden cost of cannabis
Around £200m of electricity is being stolen every year to run illegal cannabis farms across the UK | Newcastle University, UK
The human touch: essential, dispensable, or sometimes one, sometimes the other?
The latest set of Effectiveness Bank hot topics squares up to a truly touchy issue - does helping the problem substance user require the human touch? Evidence that computerised responses can help further down the complexity and need scale is set alongside what for too long was an under-acknowledged reality - that the therapist often matters more than the therapy | Drug and Alcohol Findings, UK
'Drugs cartels used HSBC to launder cash'
HSBC is facing potentially explosive allegations that South American drug cartels have used it to launder money, and that the bank systematically and deliberately failed to install the systems needed to catch illegal transactions | Independent, UK
Alcohol: a guide for perplexed MPs
The House of Commons Library has published a good summary of the alcohol statistics. There will be few surprises there for regular readers of Straight Statistics who must be now be weary with my obsession with the habitual failure of politicians to take any notice of what these statistics actually tell them | Straight Statistics, UK
Grim tone at Crisis conference
Despite some glimmers of hope, cuts to homelessness services and the dire economic state of the country dominated Crisis' annual conference on Wednesday, with speakers and delegates voicing their fears that homelessness can only get worse in the UK | Crisis, UK
NCVO Special Interest Group for Work Programme subcontractors survey
All of your answers will be used to inform our ongoing welfare to work policy | NCVO, UK
Treatment of addictive disorders: (Not) an issue for medical education?
German medical students did learn how to treat hypertension and diabetes; however, treatment of alcohol use disorders and smoking was hardly covered during undergraduate study | Addiction Journal
Cannabis use on increase despite general decline in narcotics trade
Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan recently warned that while the sector had been dominated by Asian gangs in recent years, Irish criminals had begun to see how lucrative it was and were now moving in | Irish Times
Dealing with drugs: inside the treatment centers
Rural treatment facility provides hope, but back in the city, addict problem remains | Prague Post, Czech Republic
Jersey's alcohol problem highlighted in report
One in ten people in Jersey are drinking dangerous levels of alcohol, a report has found | BBC, UK
Jersey Customs duty free checks 'take focus off drugs'
Customs officers are spending time monitoring duty free rules when they should be stopping drugs getting into Jersey, the head of the service said | BBC, UK
Health authority releases new cannabis harm reduction resource
Last week, Vancouver Coastal Health and the University of Victoria’s Centre for Addictions Research of BC published a valuable resource for individuals who use cannabis recreationally - Take Care with Cannabis | Canadian Drug Policy Coalition
Caring for drug-addicted patients does not have negative impact on practice
Disturbing waiting room experiences due to patients with drug addiction was infrequently reported by patients in this study. Most patients did not know whether their personal provider cared for patients with drug addiction | Essential Evidence Plus, USA
Should addicts be sterilized?
Project Prevention has long paid poor, addicted women not to procreate. Now the far right is helping it go global | Salon, USA
Prescription Drug Take-Back Day
276 Tons of Rx Pills Collected at National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day | ONDCP, USA
Funding cut shock for award-winning rehab centre
Staff at a Hunter drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre say a Federal Government funding cut will leave a massive hole in crucial services around the region | ABC News, Australia
UNODC and European Drug Agency agree on work programme to strengthen action against illicit drugs
UNODC and the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) have agreed on a 2012 - 2014 joint work programme to strengthen their ongoing international efforts to address illicit drugs and crime | UNODC
Wada president raises prospect of cannabis being cut from banned list
The president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, John Fahey, has raised the prospect of a significant amendment to the international drug code that could mean cannabis would only be banned in sports where it is a proven performance enhancer | Guardian, UK