DS Daily - 19th April 2013

Consumption rooms for legal drug-taking around the world

A recent study commissioned by Brighton and Hove city council recommended the opening of drug consumption rooms, places where people could inject drugs under medical supervision without fear of prosecution | BBC, UK

Free heroin 'promotes recovery'

Brighton is considering whether to introduce drug consumption rooms, where users can take drugs in safe and hygienic conditions | BBC, UK

Drug-use rooms need 'careful design' Audio

Brighton could become the first city in the UK to provide rooms where people would be able to use illegal drugs safely without the fear of prosecution | BBC, UK

Drug rooms a 'back door' to legalisation, says think-tank

Kathy Gyngell, who founded the campaign group Full Time Mothers, criticised a new report suggesting the use of official drug consumption rooms - known as "shooting galleries" | Telegraph, UK

The 'safe houses' represent a step forward in drug policy, but who’s brave enough to back Brighton?

Despite the overwhelming international evidence, successive governments have done more, not less, to compound the suffering of addicts and their communities | Independent, UK

The drug zealot I exposed a decade ago and how the BBC's promoting his plan for heroin 'shooting galleries'

Yesterday's BBC Radio 4 Today programme informed us that Brighton's local public health agency may introduce what is euphemistically called a drug 'safe consumption room', otherwise known as a 'shooting gallery' | Mail Online, UK

Internet drug dealing on the rise, survey finds

Global Drug Survey suggests Silk Road is just the most visible aspect of a much larger online drug-dealing phenomenon | Guardian, UK

One in five recreational drug users 'taken advantage of sexually'

One in five recreational drug users in the UK has been taken advantage of sexually while vulnerable after alcohol or drug use | Guardian, UK

The real driver behind most drug use is pleasure, not dependence

Drugs discourse almost always fails to discuss drug-related harms in the context of drug-related pleasure | Guardian, UK

UK clubbers more likely to have taken MDMA than energy drinks

This year's Mixmag Global Drugs Survey has revealed that regular UK clubbers were more likely to have taken MDMA than than energy drinks in the past year | MixMag, UK

International Drinking Guidelines audio

How do we know how much alcohol is safe to drink? The answer depends on where you live. Because excessive alcohol can be harmful to health many governments issue guidelines on how much is safe to drink | BBC, UK

Alcohol ban move attacked

The Scottish Government is facing more criticism from the body representing the legal profession, this time over proposals that would give police blanket powers over alcohol sales | Scottish Herald, UK

Exploring the promise of mandatory random student drug testing by comparing it to other school drug prevention strategies

DuPont et al have done researchers and practitioners a favour by examining the key issues involved in mandatory random student drug testing (MRSDT), a controversial drug prevention strategy implemented widely in the United States | IDPC, UK

Misleading ads and public distrust – wising up to the tobacco industry

As we revealed last week, almost two thirds (65 per cent) of the public don’t trust the tobacco industry to make believable and independent arguments about how to reduce smoking rates | Science Update Blog, UK

Drinkaware welcomes Independent Audit report

The Drinkaware Independent Review Panel has published the results of an independent audit of the effectiveness of Drinkaware since its inception in 2007 | Drinkaware, UK

British cannabis policy: an enduring and uneasy compromise - book review

Review of Cannabis Nation: Control and Consumption in Britain 1928—2008 | Lancet, UK

High-risk drug practices in men who have sex with men

In their report on the consequences of high-risk drug practices on the London gay scene, Tony Kirby and Michelle Thornber-Dunwel quote UK Health Protection Agency (HPA) data for incidence of HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) co-infection in men who have sex with men (MSM) | Lancet, UK

Sporting bodies are ‘in alcohol industry’s pocket’

‘We facilitate the drinks industry to groom our children,’ psychiatrist tells committee I Irish Times, Ireland

Prevention services for minority ethnic groups explored

Today we are launching our latest publication in the field of prevention. ‘Drug prevention interventions targeting minority ethnic populations’ is a Thematic paper that comes as part of the agency’s monitoring of action 20 of the European Union drugs action plan 2009–12 on developing services for minority groups, including migrants | EMCDDA, Portugal

OxyContin generic drugs banned; FDA says drug too easy to abuse

In an effort to curb prescription painkiller abuse, the Food and Drug Administration is banning generic versions of the original OxyContin formula | WPTV, USA

Electronic cigarettes should be part of the harm reduction debate

Wikipedia changed the way we look up ideas. GPS revolutionized how we get from point A to point B. Digital cameras transformed photography. What if new technology could do the same for tobacco? It could, if industry and government regulators were willing to reexamine their long held beliefs about tobacco harm reduction | The Hill's Congress Blog, USA