A selection of DC's favourite reads from Daily Dose
during July 2004. These articles do not necessarily reflect his
views or opinions.
|
Addiction
and recovery |
| For me, addiction is primarily about loss. Loss of control
is the obvious one, but closely followed by loss of self worth,
loss of values, and loss of health [British Medical Journal
Careers, UK] |
| |
|
Alcohol
Strategy Toolkit Launched |
| This local alcohol strategy toolkit has been designed to help
local policy makers and strategists in developing local responses
to alcohol problems. It sets out a process for the work, and
gives guidance on each step of the way [London Drug and Alcohol
Network and Alcohol Concern, UK] |
| |
|
An
end to marijuana prohibition |
| Never before have so many Americans supported decriminalizing
and even legalizing marijuana - article by Ethan Nadelmann of
Drug Policy Alliance [National Review, USA] |
| |
|
Annual
tobacco deaths in poor countries to reach 7 million by 2030 |
| The rapid rise in smoking in many developing countries will
have devastating consequences, a new report says [British Medical
Journal, UK] |
| |
|
Attitudes
to cannabis use are more tolerant - but there are still clear
limits on drug-taking |
| Views about cannabis have shifted considerably over the past
two decades, with 41 per cent of Britons now supporting its
legalisation - up from just 12 per cent in 1983. However, very
few (eight per cent) endorse the view that adults should be
free to take any drugs they wish, says the report into a study
led by Nina Stratford of the National Centre for Social Research
[Economic & Social Research Council, UK] |
| |
|
Britain's
war on drugs is naive, says US |
| The US has blamed Britain's 'lack of urgency' for its failure
to arrest the booming opium trade in Afghanistan, exposing a
schism between the allies as the country trembles on the brink
of anarchy [Observer, UK] |
| |
|
Crack
crisis |
| Once restricted to a black and working-class urban base, crack
cocaine is now smoked by people of all backgrounds - and with
45,000 users in London alone, it has become an epidemic, leaving
violent crime and shattered lives in its wake [Observer, UK]
|
| |
|
Genetically
modified athletes in Athens? Bring them on |
| What once seemed like science fiction has now turned into
the worst possible nightmare for the World Anti-Doping Agency
(Wada). The genetically modified athlete, it seems, is upon
us - they might even be at this year's Olympics [Observer, UK]
|
| |
|
High
price to pay for jailing women |
| Last week's Comprehensive Spending Review contains the promise
that the government will 'pilot radical new approaches to meet
the specific needs of women offenders, to tackle the causes
of crime and re-offending among this group and reduce the need
for custody' [Observer, UK] |
| |
|
The
Home Office Strategic Plan - Confident Communities in a Secure
Britain |
| Includes a chapter (pp. 83) on "Reducing the harm caused
by illegal drugs" [Home Office, UK] |
| |
|
The
loneliness of an alcoholic doctor |
| I knew I had a problem, but self disclosure could result in
suspension. Besides, as a doctor, with my "insight"
and knowledge, I assumed immunity to addiction. The loss of
work could end with me living on the streets, so I attempted
to scramble through. But as any alcoholic knows, it always gets
worse [British Medical Journal Careers, UK] |
| |
|
A
Must Buy: Special value CD of UK/European Symposium on Addictive
Disorders |
| The UK/European Symposium on Addictive Disorders was widely
recognised as the most innovative and wide-ranging therapy-led
conference to ever be held in the UK. To enable more people
to experience this amazing event, the Addiction Recovery Foundation
teamed up with Claripoint, specialists in webconferencing, to
produce a CD-ROM containing around thirty hours of the most
popular presentations at the event. Some presentations are in
video format and some in audio format and all are accompanied
by synchronised slide shows, as they were on the day [Addiction
Today, UK] |
| |
|
Opiate
Replacement Therapy Rarely Available to Inmates |
| Recognizing a huge opiate-addiction problem among inmates,
New Mexico is breaking new ground by extending methadone maintenance
treatment (MMT) to local prisons. Across the country, however,
few prisons provide MMT to patients [Join Together, USA] |
| |
|
Pharmacotherapy
and the future of the drug war |
| Compulsory use of pharmacotherapy would represent a striking
expansion of the state's policing mechanisms on at least two
new fronts [Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics, USA]
|
| |
|
Presentations
from the "Coping with Parental Drinking" Symposium,
Cologne 14th & 15th May 2004 |
| The abstracts are in MS Word format, the presentations are
in pdf. On ENCARE site, a European project, founded to help
professionals tackle the problems faced by children who live
in risky family environments [ENCARE] |
| |
|
Response
to: Choosing Health? A consultation on improving people’s
health |
| The Royal College of Physicians welcomes the opportunity to
respond to the ‘Choosing Health?’ consultation.
Our response focuses on four key public health issues: smoking,
alcohol, obesity and sexual health [Royal College of Physicians,
UK] |
| |
|
The
social and health consequences of cocaine use |
| Conference talk by Peter Cohen [CEDRO, The Netherlands] |
| |
|
Stronger
sanctions needed against companies that suppress data |
| "Suppression of science is not an anomaly but is typical
of, and produced by, the current economic, political, and social
situation, and that is—money talks. It is the system;
it is not just a few bad apples," Dr David Egilman, a professor
of medicine at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, told
a conference this week [British Medical Journal, UK] |
| |
|
Trapped
in a teenage wasteland |
| They're wild, unwanted and utterly without fear... Mark Townsend
meets the lost children who still have dreams of a better future
[Observer, UK] |
| |
|
The
wrong gear |
| He was known as the 'Boy Dave', a prodigious cycling talent
who last year became world champion and had his sights set on
two golds in Athens next month. But now David Millar is in disgrace,
facing a ban from the sport for using the illegal performance-enhancing
drug EPO. Why did he do it? He tells about the pressure to win,
the shame of his exposure - and how, deep down, he wanted to
get caught [Guardian, UK] |
| |
| |
