DS Daily - 14th May 2012 |
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Launch of a new website for the London Drug and Alcohol Network (LDAN)
As a London-wide membership network representing the interests of treatment providers and service users, LDAN is uniquely placed to influence policy and practice across the capital. The website includes information about LDAN: its newsletter, briefings and reports, projects and forums (e.g., domestic violence, employment and homelessness), and how to join as a member | LDAN, UK
Public asked to be Prison Watchers in stop drug smuggling into jails
A scheme aimed at preventing drugs and other contraband being smuggled into prisons, by encouraging members of the public to act as watchdogs, is to be rolled-out nationwide | Scotsman, UK
Police promise zero tolerance on cannabis
Cheshire police has vowed to take a zero tolerance approach to cannabis | Crewe Guardian, UK
Crime and Courts Bill
Section 27 Drugs and driving | Parliament, UK
Alcohol pricing is here
Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon will tomorrow signal another expense for hard pressed Scots when she sets a legal minimum alcohol price per unit | Daily Express, UK
Scotland to get 50p-per-unit alcohol price
Minimum price for alcohol is to be set at 50p per unit after a Scottish Cabinet split on the controversial policy | Sunday Herald, UK
Booze price hike will hit shoppers
Struggling Scots shoppers will see their bills rise by £125million a year under moves to outlaw cheap alcohol | Daily Express, UK
SNP’s minimum pricing plans of 50p ‘hands big stores £155m’
Controversial proposals for a sharp increase in plans to raise the minimum price for alcohol from 45p to 50p will hand supermarkets an extra 11 per cent multi-million pound boost in revenue from drink sales, the leader of CBI Scotland has warned | The Scotsman, UK
Alcohol interventions ‘should be included in QOF’
GPs should be incentivised through QOF to ask all patients about their alcohol intake and have a ‘stepped programme' of interventions for problem drinkers, MPs have been told | Pulse, UK
The 'stay sober' drug that could stop alcohol making you feel drunk
The researchers believe iomazenil, taken before drinking, might negate some of alcohol’s effects on the brain | Daily Mail, UK
Tests begin on new drink-busting drug
The potential value of a pill to battle the effects of intoxication is huge, both in health and in social terms | Independent, UK
Child smoking: Ash Wales given Lottery funding to help young quit
Young people in Wales are to be targeted in a major new drive to encourage them to stop smoking | BBC, UK
Public service cuts will create 'forgotten Britain', says charity boss
Sir Stephen Bubb says charities report a hardening public attitude to poorer people, resulting in an increasing divide between 'haves' and 'have nots' | Guardian, UK
Work scheme fails homeless
The government’s flagship work programme has been accused of failing homeless people as another homelessness charity pulled out | Inside Housing, UK
Health and Criminal Justice Liaison and Diversion Programme
Consortia of leading organisations appointed to support the Government’s Health and Criminal Justice Liaison and Diversion Programme | Department of Health, UK
Local care 'close to break point'
Health services in the community are reaching breaking point in the UK, the Royal College of Nursing is claiming | BBC, UK
Sinister new drugs trend hits town says councillor
A new trend within the drugs trade of users availing of a ‘buy now, pay later scheme’ has been branded “sinister” by Sinn Féin Councillor Paul Duffy | Portadown Times, Ireland
Mexican authorities find 49 mutilated bodies dumped on northern highway
Zetas drug cartel takes responsibility for massacre, the latest in an escalating tally of mass killings near US border | Guardian, UK
Drug Surge Clouds Myanmar Reform Effort
The news coming out of Myanmar these days is of hope and reconciliation as the country moves from military dictatorship to fledgling democracy. But what is actually coming across Myanmar’s border here is a surge of illicit drugs | New York Times, USA
Drug, alcohol programs hit hard by $5m funding cuts
Waitinglists for drug and alcohol treatment are expected to blow out dramatically this year after 19 Victorian services lost nearly $5 million in Commonwealth funding | The Age, Australia
Pain expert calls for GP opiates ban
Australian GPs should be banned from prescribing opioid drugs such as oxycodone because of the risks of addiction and overdose, a visiting US pain medicine specialist says | Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
Children pay cost of family alcohol abuse
Children are the victims of alcohol-related harm in more than one-fifth of Australian households, a new study shows | Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
Alcohol a big factor in child harm, says study
Children are the victims of alcohol-related harm in more than a fifth of Australian households, a study has found, adding weight to calls for the price of alcohol sold in bottle shops to be increased to discourage high quantities being consumed in homes | Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
Police probing club's free alcohol offer to students
A prominent St Kilda nightclub is under police investigation over claims its promoter used social media to induce under-age students to attend a party with offers of free alcohol | The Age, Australia
Foetuses abused in the womb - study
New Zealand women are more than four times more likely to drink alcohol during pregnancy than mothers in the US, and twice as likely to drink heavily, a soon to be released study will show | Stuff.co, New Zealand