DS Daily - 13th May 2013 |
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Home Office tour to study drug policies in 10 countries
Review to include Portugal's limited decriminalisation, Denmark's 'fixing rooms' and Sweden's zero-tolerance approach | Guardian, UK
Amazon halts sale of deadly legal highs after pressure from drugs campaigners
Amazon has pulled from sale two dangerous legal highs after pressure from drugs campaigners. On Saturday, the Mail revealed that salvia – described as more potent than LSD – and amyl nitrate were on sale on Amazon [DrugScope quoted]| Mail Online, UK
Drugs 2.0: The Web Revolution That's Changing How the World Gets High by Mike Power – review
The web has transformed drug use in profound and unsettling ways | Observer, UK
Giving to beggars 'fuels addiction' warns campaign in Manchester
People in Manchester should not to give money to beggars - charities, police and the city council have said | BBC, UK
Britain's marijuana mafia: Two million users, £6bn worth of trade and 30,000 deaths. A leading author meets the men (and women) feeding the UK's terrifying addiction
A total of 750,000 cannabis plants were recovered by the police in 2009-10. Independent Drug Monitoring Unit says UK consumes 1,000 tons each YEAR. Three joints a day causes similar damage to 20 cigarettes in the same period | Mail Online, UK
Get PbR right and we could be on to something - get it wrong and any attempt to bring about change will be an unmitigated disaster
The Justice Secretary, Chris Grayling, is right when he says the UK’s reoffending rates are far too high... and that a Payment By Results model of working can help us achieve this. But none of this will work if we get the PbR model wrong | Addaction blog, UK
Death of Skegness drug user sparks bad batch heroin warning
A batch of heroin linked to a number of fatalities in Lincolnshire is believed to have claimed the life of a known drug user in Skegness | Skegness Standard, UK
Misleading UK alcohol industry criticism of Canadian research on minimum pricing
We would like to respond to criticism of our research by the UK Wine and Spirit Trade Association, a UK alcohol industry trade magazine and the Scotch Whisky Association. Our study, published recently in Addiction, reported a significant negative association between minimum alcohol prices and rates of wholly alcohol-caused deaths | Addiction [letters], UK
Report of RCP European Parliament seminar on alcohol pricing policies
RCP held a joint seminar with the European Public Health Alliance and Eurocare on 'Calling time on Europe's alcohol problem - Using pricing policies to protect public health in Europe' on 24 April in the European Parliament | RCP London, UK
Give minimum pricing a chance
The EU Health Commissioner Tonio Borg has said he used to hope education would reduce alcohol misuse, but learning and reflection had shown economics were more important, hence his support for a minimum unit price | Scottish Herald, UK
Football fan poll calls for pilot alcohol scheme
Scottish ootball fans have backed a pilot scheme that would test the possibility of ending the nationwide ban on alcohol in football stadiums, but stopped short of supporting a full-scale return to alcohol in stadiums | Scotsman, UK
As someone who uses alcohol as a prop myself, I can see there's a problem
A new health report focuses on the problems alcohol is causing, rather than the problems that make people drink. Still, either way: there's a problem | Guardian, UK
UK launch for Lundbeck's alcohol dependency drug Selincro
Lundbeck has launched Selincro in the UK, giving patients access to the first new drug for alcohol dependence in more than a decade | PharmaTimes, UK
Biotie puts cocaine dependence drug into Phase II
Following in the footsteps of Selincro, its recently-launched drug to cut alcoholic urges, Biotie Therapies Corp has started a mid-stage study of nepicastat for cocaine dependence | PharmaTimes, UK
Life after rehab: my husband, the alcoholic
With her husband out of an addiction clinic and sober for three months, our new columnist hoped their lives were back on track. But it's harder than she expected. The writer is anonymous | Guardian, UK
David Simon: 'I don't want anybody in jail for using drugs'
The creator of TV's The Wire will take part in an Observer debate on the war on drugs later this month | Guardian, UK
MI6 'Ghost Money' Helping Afghan Drug Trade?
Afghan president Hamid Karzai, has recently been criticised for taking 'ghost money' from the CIA and MI6 | Huffington Post, UK
Regulating Global Drug Problems
The problems associated with the global drug trade are amongst the most challenging and intractable of all those facing policy-makers. The global drug prohibition system is widely acknowledged as a costly and counterproductive failure... | Social Science Research Network, UK
Independent Commission on Mental Health and Policing Report
The Independent Commission on Mental Health and Policing is chaired by Lord Victor Adebowale. It is reviewing the work of the London Metropolitan Police Service in relation to how the police interact with people with mental health problems. The Commission’s report has now been published and is available for download | Wazoku, UK
Psychiatrists under fire in mental health battle
British Psychological Society to launch attack on rival profession, casting doubt on biomedical model of mental illness | Guardian, UK
Woodland drugs dens destroyed by homeowners armed with axes and sledgehammers amid fears children were visiting to smoke cannabis
Enraged villagers armed themselves with axes and sledgehammers to tear down makeshift drug dens hidden in the woods near their homes | Mail Online, UK
A reminder to schools to be cautious about external visitors
You may have been contacted, perhaps through your local authority, about proposed local events under the banner of the “Marathon for a Drug Free UK”, travelling from Brighton to Edinburgh from 26 April to 22 May | Mentor, UK
Philip Morris & IBM IMPROVER project: downplaying links between smoking & disease
I wonder if Philip Morris International (PMI) researchers have studied the ‘length of public memory.’ If so, the resulting answer seems to be ‘about 15 years.’ That’s how long it has been since the Tobacco Institute closed its doors, after 40 years of obfuscating the science on tobacco addiction, disease and death | BMJ Blogs, UK
A bag of white powder, a mother nearly killed by heroin and the fears that must haunt Cara Delevinge's family
Most 20-year-old girls caught in possession of a clear plastic bag of white powder would pray that their employers wouldn’t find out, keep a low profile and at least make a decent fist at showing contrition | Mail Online, UK
How drinking diet drinks as mixers with alcohol could make you drunker
Diet drinks have soared in popularity. But a new study suggests drinking them as mixers could get you drunker and affect breath tests | Wales Online, UK
Parents’ Addictions Tied to Adult Children’s Depression
Parents who are addicted to drugs or alcohol are more than twice as likely to have children who develop depression in adulthood, according to a report published online in the journal Psychiatry Research | PsychCentral, USA
Colorado poised to be first state to tax recreational marijuana sales
Colorado is on its way to becoming the first state to regulate and tax the sale of recreational marijuana, as a bill passed by lawmakers earlier this week is on the governor’s desk, awaiting signature | Washington Times, USA
No More Addict "Abuse"
The new DSM-5 is the object of an ongoing smackdown by critics for everything from its minor changes to its very existence. But there is one major change that addiction treatment providers can applaud | Fix, USA
The NIMH Declares Independence From the DSM-5
For a long time now there has been a debate about what the release of the American Psychiatric Association's new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual -- the DSM-5 -- will do to the field of mental health care | Huffington Post, USA
Legal Marijuana, Coming to a Vending Machine Near You
It plans to dominate the legalized marijuana industry and become a star of Wall Street in the process: Medbox MDBX +16.84% says it is set to be a core part of the infrastructure of a drug business that, judging by current trends, will get a lot bigger in the coming decade | Wall Street Journal, USA
Is after-work drinking a sign of substance abuse?
After a gruelling day at the office, do you like to amp things up and view the day’s events through the bottom of a glass? | Ottawa Sun, Canada
Attitudes of injecting drug users toward the legal status of the major illicit drugs
Injecting drug users (IDU) are frequently interviewed regarding drug use, risk behaviours and criminality, but far less frequently about their attitudes towards drug-related issues. This study aimed to determine IDU attitudes ... towards continued prohibition, decriminalisation or legalisation of the major illicit drugs | NDARC, Australia
Smoke signals but there simply isn't any good news
Good news will be scarce on budget night, but there will be something - for smokers, at least | Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
Brain damage 'crisis' looms from illicit drug use
A high rate of illegal stimulant use in Australia has prompted fears of a looming health crisis. Researchers in Adelaide are investigating links between stimulant use and an increased risk of people developing Parkinson's disease | Yahoo News, Australia
Synthetic drugs boom - video
A new report shows the manufacturing of legal synthetic drugs is booming | ABC.net.au, Australia