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century ago when scientific proof of a
connection between smoking tobacco
and cancer became so strong that no
serious doctor or scientist could deny it.
Patrick Cockburn,
Independent
, 6 January
IT MAKES LITTLE SENSE
to deal with
new substances in isolation. If there is
a solution to the difficult problem of
seeking alternatives to the war on
drugs, it very likely lies not only in
looking forward, as New Zealand
attempted, but also looking back and
reflecting on the laws we already have.
Ross Bell,
New Scientist
, 12 January
IF YOU WERE BORN
after the 1960s,
then policy-wise, drug prohibition is
likely all you know. From the day we’re
born we’re taught that drug use is bad
and perhaps immoral. Whether or not
they are very successful, I personally,
believe drug laws are generally at least
driven by good intentions. As it is
unlikely that drug policy will change
anytime soon, it is important to
consider how our attitudes are shaped
under such policy.
Joseph Palamar,
Independent
, 13 January
IF STANDARDISED PACKAGING
– there is
nothing plain about a cigarette pack
emblazoned with graphic health
warnings and holograms – does not
deter some people from smoking, then
it is hard to understand why the
tobacco industry fought tooth and nail
to prevent its introduction in Australia.
The industry knew that if these
unbranded, anti-smoking packs became
the norm in one large and affluent
country, there would be a domino
effect. Sure enough, the UK, Ireland and
France are all in the process of
toppling…Will standardised packaging
deter children in the UK from smoking?
If it works, even modestly, in Australia,
there is no reason to suppose it will not
have the same sort of effect here.
Sarah Boseley,
Guardian
, 22 January
order to engage honestly, sensitively and
effectively with them.
Cohen explores the functionality of
drug use, including dependent use, in
people’s lives, as a means of putting the
focus on understanding people, their
circumstances and their motivations to
use as they do.
Audit tool for the
implementation of NICE
public health guidance 52
Exchange Supplies, £16.80
THIS AUDIT TOOL
was developed to
enable services to measure themselves
against the NICE public health guidance
52 recommendations for needle and
syringe programmes to provide a high
quality of care. Written originally for
commissioners, the toolkit makes use of
an easy-to-use checklist to efficiently and
objectively identify compliance.
It offers effective guidance by turning
recommendations – such as consultation
with service users, analysis of data and
developing services for young people –
into action points. The clear and concise
format makes it easier to identify actions
that achieve compliance across more than
one recommendation.
In encouraging services to engage
with the guidance, Exchange Supplies
enables collation of evidence that good
work is being done in the field, while
also helping to map the existing gaps.
About the author: Exchange Supplies
is a social enterprise that develops
products and publications for the drug
sector, with the aim of improving the
harm reduction response to drug use.
February 2015 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 13
Reviews
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
All About Drugs and Young
People: Essential
Information and Advice for
Parents and Professionals
Julian Cohen, Jessica Kingsley Publishers,
£16.99
DRAWING ON COHEN’S LENGTHY
CAREER IN THE SECTOR
, the book – and
in particular the practical advice – is
based on what he has learned from
fellow workers, parents and from
working directly with young people.
The book is based on several key
principles. The first is the notion of
equating ‘drugs’ with a broad range of
legal and illegal substances – that nearly
everyone ‘self-medicates’ and has a
lifetime career of using mood-altering
substances. Cohen looks at our
increasing use of caffeine and medicines,
alongside the increasing consumption of
alcohol and the vast range of illegal and
other socially taboo drugs.
Rather than just examining ‘what
drugs do to people’, the book looks at
the importance of taking full account of
‘what people do with drugs’, as well as
the role of other factors and life
experiences in influencing the ways we
use drugs. It emphasises the importance
of understanding young people’s drug
use, and the need to focus on harm
reduction and the promotion of health
and safety rather than attempting to
simply prevent all drug use. It raises the
importance of understanding the
context of young people’s drug use in
Bookshelf
Recommended reading – from the drug and alcohol sector…
About the author:
Julian Cohen has worked in
the drug and alcohol field
for 30 years, specialising in
young people’s drug use.
He has written several
books and training packs,
and runs training courses
throughout the UK.
LEGALISATION
would no doubt suit
places such as Vancouver, New York or
Liverpool. But how would it work in
wretched barrios around the cities of
central and South America, townships
of Africa and eventually dormitory
towns of China and Bangladesh?...
Because if hard drugs are legal, who is
going to make them? Presumably the
experts who already do, working not
for narco syndicates but Big Pharma,
another kind of cartel. And do we really
trust Big Pharma to manufacture
methamphetamine and process crack
or heroin in order to sell as little as
possible in the developing world?
That’s not how Big Pharma works;
that’s not how capitalism works.
Ed Vulliamy,
Observer
, 18 January
THE EMERGENCE
of the more toxic PMA
following the so-called ‘success’ in
reducing MDMA production is just one of
many examples of how prohibition of
one drug leads to greater harm from an
alternative that is developed to overcome
the block…let’s stop pretending that
these PMA deaths are unexpected effects
of rogue ‘ecstasy’ and tell the truth: they
are a consequence of our current illogical
and punitive drug policy.
David Nutt,
Guardian
, 5 January
FOR CANNABIS
it is the ‘tobacco
moment’. The long-suspected link
between consuming cannabis and
developing schizophrenia has been
repeatedly confirmed by recent studies.
Observers say that for cannabis the
present moment is similar to that half a
The news, and the skews, in the national media
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