DS Daily - 17th January 2013 |
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Home Office to consider drug khat ban
The government will decide next week whether to outlaw the drug Khat which is popular with London's Somali community | BBC, UK
RCGP warns GPs over painkiller addiction
GPs should refrain from long-term prescribing of drugs with a risk of addiction,
including strong painkillers, to avoid the 'devastating' impact on patients and their
families, according to medical royal colleges | GP Online, UK
Doctors should limit sleeping pill prescriptions, health professionals warn
Doctors have been told they should only issue prescriptions of sleeping pills and tranquillisers in exceptional circumstances after they acknowledged the drugs can be highly addictive | Telegraph, UK
Public health and alcohol licensing in England
This briefing aims to place health bodies’ new role in alcohol licensing in a strategic context, and to provide guidance to those who will be delivering the responsible authority role | LGA, UK
Neil McKeganey: Staying tough on drugs
National policies need to be about reducing the impact of illegal drugs on Scotland, not initiatives that could result in their wider use, writes Neil McKeganey | Scotsman, UK
Drug policy must change, urges police chief - video
The government's drugs strategy in England and Wales is not working because it focuses too much on criminal prosecutions, a police chief has told the BBC | BBC, UK
The 1971 Misuse of Drugs act was the stupidest and most ineffective ever passed - but has the PM got the guts to change it?
Yet another parliamentary group has pronounced in favour of drugs decriminalisation. It still won’t happen writes Simon Jenkins | London Evening Standard, UK
Big Lottery Fund Scotland awards £5.5m to charities
Charities across Scotland are to claim a share of more than £5.5m from the Big Lottery Fund Scotland | BBC, UK
PSHE education receives support across Parliament
Barbara Keeley MP led an Adjournment Debate on PSHE education in Westminster Hall which was attended by over 20 members of Parliament from across the political spectrum. Speakers were overwhelmingly supportive of high-quality PSHE, reinforcing the subject’s critical importance alongside purely academic learning | PSHE, UK
Alcohol advertising clearly linked with under-age drinking
This study is based on Health Behaviours in School aged Children (HBSC) with data from over 40,000 15 year olds and 38 countries | Mentor, UK
Alcohol link in half domestic violence incidents in Cumbria
Half of domestic violence cases reported over Christmas involved alcohol, Cumbria Police have revealed | BBC, UK
Birmingham and Black Country alcohol restrictions 'cut crime'
Alcohol-free zones across Birmingham and the Black Country are working, according to West Midlands Police | BBC, UK
Highpoint Prison praised for 'proactive' drug action
A Suffolk prison has been praised for "proactively" dealing with the threat posed by illegal drugs | BBC, UK
Hospital worker, 25, who 'lived for the weekend' died from cocktail of drugs and alcohol
Kelly Moore was a dedicated support worker at hospitals in East Lancs but at weekends she often took recreational drugs ... She died after taking a lethal combination of cocaine and mephedrone | Mail Online, UK
British women held in Brazil 'for cocaine smuggling'
Two British women are being held by police in Brazil after allegedly trying to smuggle almost 8lbs of cocaine through customs | Telegraph, UK
Single question identifies most problem drinkers
Can you get away with asking just a single question to identify risky drinkers and even dependent drinkers? | Drug and Alcohol Findings, UK
Half-hour of advice may cut drinking in repeat drink-driving offenders
Can repeat drink-driving offenders be swayed by just 30 minutes with a therapist, and would those minutes best be spent in motivational interviewing or providing information on alcohol? This Canadian study hints that 'Yes' is the answer to both questions - but only hints | Drug and Alcohol Findings, UK
Cannabis 'helped Tourette's sufferer calm himself down'
A tourette's syndrome sufferer who was smoking cannabis to “calm himself down” has been told to pay £150 | Cambridge News, UK
Legal Highs – Conference brings experts to the table (PDF)
Press release from Open Road regarding their inaugural conference: ‘What’s the Story? Legal Highs’, | Open Road, UK
Gangster Brian Rattigan accused of being behind €1m heroin deal from his cell
Gang boss Brian Rattigan was the "directing force" behind a €1m heroin deal from his cell in Portlaoise Prison, the Special Criminal Court has heard | Irish Independent, Ireland
Are major reductions in new HIV infections possible with people who inject drugs? The case for low dead-space syringes in highly affected countries
Circumstantial evidence from laboratory studies, mathematical models, ecological studies and bio behavioural surveys, suggests that injection-related HIV epidemics may be averted or reversed if people who inject drugs switch from using high dead-space to using low dead-space syringes | INEF, Ireland
NYPD to hide GPS chips in pill bottles to find thieves
Police in New York City plan to combat the theft of painkillers and other highly addictive prescription medicines by asking pharmacies to hide fake pill bottles fitted with GPS devices amid the legitimate supplies on their shelves | CBS News, USA
Testing For Dollars - video
States across the country want to require random drug tests for the unemployed. Is this fair to job seekers, or discriminatory to people who aren't working? | Huff Post, USA
More and more Americans want pot legal
This week marks three years since I first wrote that marijuana should be legal. I'm amazed at how the debate has changed in just a few years [writes David Nathan] | CNN, USA
Clinician Suspicion of an Alcohol Problem: An Observational Study From the AAFP National Research Network
In clinical practice, detection of alcohol problems often relies on clinician suspicion instead of using a screening instrument. We assessed the sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values of clinician suspicion compared with screening-detected alcohol problems in patients | Ann Fam Med, USA