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ROAD TO RUIN
Around 28,000 people die annually and 1.34m
are injured on Europe’s roads as a result of
accidents caused by people driving under the
influence of a psychoactive substance –
primarily alcohol – according to a report from
EMCDDA. ‘As drug consumption patterns
change, particular concerns arise,’ said
EMCDDA director Wolfgang Götz. ‘These
include an ever-expanding range of
psychoactive substances and medicinal
products as well as context-specific risks such
as those posed by young people driving home
from nightlife venues after consuming a mix of
alcohol and drugs.’
Drug use, impaired driving
and traffic accidents at www.emcdda.europa.eu
STIGMA STRUGGLE
A series of October events is being planned by
Adfam to celebrate its 30th birthday, with a
focus on campaigning against ‘the stigma that
affects so many families’. A campaign pack is
available from the Adfam website, and the
organisation is encouraging local groups and
services to hold their own awareness-raising
events.
Resources at www.adfam.org.uk
BMA BAN CALL
The sale of cigarettes should be banned to
anyone born after the year 2000, the British
Medical Association (BMA) has stated, after
delegates at its annual conference voted to
support the motion. The move would ‘help
create the first tobacco-free generation’, it says.
‘The level of harm caused by smoking is uncon-
scionable,’ said research assistant in academic
public health, Tim Crocker-Buqué. The policy
would ‘not instantly prevent all people from
smoking’, he said, but rather ‘de-normalise’ it.
ROI REPORTS
An alcohol ‘return on investment tool’ to inform
local decision making has been developed by
NICE. The tool helps to model the economic re-
turns that can be expected for different
interventions, and comes with a range of
support materials. Users can mix and match
interventions to see which package provides
the best value for money.
Free download at
beta.nice.org.uk
PEOPLE POWER
Westminster Drug Project (WDP) has been
awarded the Investors in People Standard,
which demonstrates an organisation’s
commitment to staff development. ‘We strive
on a daily basis to make sure that each and
every one of our employees reaches their full
potential,’ said WDP chair Yasmin Batliwala.
SOUTHMEAD CELEBRATION
Bristol’s Southmead Project is holding its 20-
year celebration event on 20 September,
featuring presentations, discussions, drama
and music.
http://southmeadproject.org.uk
West Africa should consider decriminalising low-level and
non-violent drug offences, according to a report from the
West Africa Commission on Drugs. The drug trade in the
region is now not only a threat to public health but is
undermining institutions and damaging development
efforts, says
Not just in transit: drugs, the state and society
in West Africa
.
Although the region has been experiencing a period of
optimism, with growing economies, increased democracy
and fewer civil wars, this is at risk from the ‘destructive
new threat’ of the drug trade, the commission states.
‘With local collusion, international drug cartels are
undermining our countries and communities and
devastating lives.’
The area is no longer simply a transit zone for drugs
bound for Europe, it says, but a ‘significant zone of
consumption and production’ in its own right. At an
estimated $1.25bn, the scale of the cocaine trade alone
‘dwarfs the combined state budgets’ of many countries in
the region, it adds, and while the region has a long
history of cannabis production, mainly for local
consumption, it is now also becoming a producer and
exporter of synthetic drugs.
‘The drugs trade is currently valued at hundreds of
millions of dollars in West Africa, a region where the
majority of the countries are still among the poorest in the
world,’ the document states. ‘The growth in drug
trafficking comes as the region is emerging from years of
political conflict and, in some countries, prolonged
violence.’ The legacy of this instability is state institutions
and criminal justice systems that are vulnerable to
infiltration and corruption by organised crime, it says.
Drug use needs to be regarded ‘primarily as a public
health problem’, argues the report, which is the result of 18
months of collaboration with regional, national and
international organisations including the United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the African Union (AU)
and the Economic Community of West African States
(ECOWAS). Although traffickers and their accomplices
should face the ‘full force of the law’, drug users themselves
need help rather than punishment, it argues. ‘We believe
that the consumption and possession for personal use of
drugs should not be criminalised,’ it states. ‘The law should
not be applied disproportionately to the poor, the
uneducated and the vulnerable, while the powerful and
well-connected slip through the enforcement net.’
‘Most governments’ reaction to simply criminalise drug
use without thinking about prevention or access to
treatment has not just led to overcrowded jails, but also
worsened health and social problems,’ said ex UN secretary-
general Kofi Annan, who initiated the commission.
Full report at www.wacommissionondrugs.org
NEWS IN BRIEF
July 2014 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 5
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
News |
Round-up
England will see 1,650 annual cases
of hepatitis C-related end-stage liver
disease and cancer by 2035 if the
current low levels of treatment are
maintained, according to Public
Health England (PHE).
Although around 160,000 people
are infected with hepatitis C in
England, just 3 per cent access
treatment each year. However, the
burden of healthcare costs associated
with untreated hep C means that
increasing this coverage to 100 per
cent over the next 10-15 years would
only mean a 31 per cent increase in
spending, says PHE. The agency is
calling for services to be made more
easily accessible – including
expansion into drug treatment,
primary care and prison settings – as
well as better monitoring and
reporting of treatment outcomes.
‘While there would be a financial
cost to rapidly increasing treatment
rates, the increase is not as great as
you might think because the costs of
managing undiagnosed and untreated
hepatitis C are so high,’ said PHE
hepatitis expert Dr Helen Harris.
‘Currently, we are paying a very high
price in terms of lives lost and burden
placed on future healthcare resources.’
‘Hepatitis C is a curable disease and
to have so few people being offered
the chance to rid themselves of the
virus is simply not acceptable,’ added
Hepatitis C Trust chief executive
Charles Gore. ‘If more people are
diagnosed and treated, we could rid
ourselves of this virus within the next
15 years, a unique opportunity. The
alternative is ever more people dying
entirely preventable deaths.’
Meanwhile, new figures from the
Office for National Statistics (ONS)
show that the incidence of liver cancer
rose by 70 per cent for men and 60 per
cent for women between 2003 and
2012, making it the 18th most
common cancer in England.
PHE study at www.journal-of-
hepatology.eu
Cancer registration statistics,
England, 2012 at www.ons.gov.uk
PHE: Increase hep C treatment or
face liver cancer time bomb
West Africa ‘should decriminalise’
low-level drug offences
‘State institutions and
criminal justice systems...
are vulnerable to
infiltration and corruption
by organised crime.’
WEST AFRICA COMMISSION ON DRUGS