Headlines

1. 1in 4 children believe beer drinkers normally consume 4 pints or 6 bottles an evening

3.5 pints or 6 330ml bottles of 4% beer is classified as binge drinking for a man (see Appendix)

2. 1 in 3 children think adults who drink wine, drink 5 or more glasses of wine in one night.

Link to survey

New Drug Strategy for Scotland added 30th May 2008

The Scottish Government's new national drugs strategy: The Road to Recovery A New Approach to Tackling Scotland's Drug Problem, focuses on recovery but also looks at prevention, treatment and rehabilitation, education, enforcement and protection of children.

Link

http://www.drugmisuse.isdscotland.org/publications/abstracts/Drug_Strategy08.htm

Young People's Specialist Substance Misuse Treatment: Exploring the Evidence: Consultation added 30th May 2008

The National Treatment Agency (NTA) is inviting comments on their guidance: Young People’s Specialist Substance Misuse Treatment: Exploring the Evidence. Please click on the following link for further information: Young People’s Specialist Substance Misuse Treatment: Exploring the Evidence

EMCDDA launches Best practice portal added 29th May 2008

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) has launched a Best practice portal for professionals, policy makers and researchers in the areas of  drug-related prevention, treatment, harm reduction and social reintegration. The portal gives information on illicit drug use and polydrug use and has a European focus.  The section on  evaluated practices lists a number of prevention projects which have been evaluated and rated from 1-3 with 3 being the most effective. Many of these projects are aimed at young people and families.

Link

Government launches cocaine crackdown added 21st May 2008

Drugs Minister Vernon Coaker announced today that the Government is launching a new crackdown on cocaine. In order to enhance the drive against cocaine use the Government will launch a £1 million pound FRANK campaign  targeted at 15-18 year olds; a commitment to the Colombian Government's Shared Responsibility campaign and a new leaflet illustrating the dangers of the drug.

Mr Coaker will lead a summit on Tuesday, with representatives of the Colombian Government, the Association of Chief Police officers, the National Treatment Agency and the London Drug Policy Forum. The purpose of the summit will be to look at ways to enhance the efforts to cut cocaine use.

Mr Coaker, the Colombian Vice President and former Blur bassist Alex james will attend an exhibition in Trafalgar Square that will according to the COI press release, demonstrate the environmental and social destruction caused by cocaine use.

For press release and cocaine leaflet go to: http://drugs.homeoffice.gov.uk/

Successful school-based smoking prevention trial added 13th May 2008

The Lancet has published a study by by Prof R Campbell and colleagues: An informal school-based peer-led intervention for smoking prevention in adolescence (ASSIST): a cluster randomised trial.  The ASSIST (A Stop Smoking In Schools Trial) training programme, undertaken in several phases can be used to train influential students within secondary schools to promote anti-smoking messages among their peers and friends.   

For a summary of the Lancet article please click here. This will take you to the "other" reports section on the website. Please scroll down to "Prevention".

Reactions to cannabis reclassification added 12th May 2008

Since the Government’s announcement that in 2009 cannabis will be reclassified from Class C to Class B there has been a varied response by the media, drugs charities and members of parliament.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith stated “I make no apology for erring on the side of caution and upgrading its (cannabis) classification. There is a compelling case to act now rather than risk the health of future generations”. (http://www.labour.org.uk/labour_crackdown_on_cannabis,2008-05-07)

This was an opinion shared by the Association of Chief Police Officers. Tim Hollis, chief constable of Humberside Police and ACPO lead on drugs welcomed the Government’s announcement on reclassification and confirmed that the police service will actively seek to ensure more robust enforcement of offences involving cannabis. (http://www.acpo.police.uk/pressrelease.asp?PR_GUID=%7BF089BC48-84DD-474F-835F-4BBCE1EAD525%7D  The Daily Mail was also in favour of upgrading cannabis. In an article on 8^th May 2008, “Gordon Brown made a brave and justified decision on cannabis”, the Daily Mail states “Gordon Brown’s decision to reclassify cannabis as a dangerous Class B drug is both brave and right”. The article goes on to congratulate Mr Brown on overruling the “so-called experts on the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs” and asks “How can it make sense, either moral or intellectual, for the ACMD to recommend cracking down only on drug suppliers, while going easy on users – as if selling something is wrong but buying it is ok”. (“Daily Mail, 8^th May 2008)

The Times took a similar stance on the Government’s decision to ignore recommendations by the ACMD, saying in an article by Matthew Parris, (“Cannabis: a good (but wrong) move”) “But what I cheer is this: that the Cabinet has taken its own decision after hearing, but refusing to rubber stamp, the recommendations of an unelected body” However, he disagreed with the decision to reclassify cannabis to Class B status. (Times, 8^th May 2008). The Shadow Home Secretary, David Davis said he supported the decision to “belatedly” reclassify cannabis as a class B drug but criticised Labour, saying Gordon Brown had “wasted a year” by passing the matter to an advisory committee whose advice he ignored. (www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=news.story.page&obj_id=144057 )

According to an article in the Guardian on 8^th May 2008, (“Scientists warn Smith over cannabis reclassification”.) the Liberal Democrats’ Home Affairs spokesman, Chris Huhne, disagreed with Gordon Brown’s decision to ignore the government’s scientific advisors and spoke against raising the maximum prison sentence for cannabis possession to 5 years. He called for public education about cannabis use rather than tougher sentencing The Guardian’s home affairs editor, Alan Travis reported on the ACMD’s warning to Jacqui Smith in the same article (The Guardian, 8^th May 2008)  He reports the ACMD advised that her decision to upgrade the legal status of cannabis would not work in curbing widespread abuse. The article goes on to say that the Home Secretary confirmed that the police approach to those under 18 found in possession of small amounts of cannabis would remain unchanged. .(The Guardian, 8^th May 2008) A press release from Addaction, a charity for drug and alcohol treatment, stated “The Government’s reclassification of cannabis as “class B” today (Wednesday 7^th May) will have little impact on the use of a drug which is firmly rooted in the lifestyles of many people”. Addaction, commented that it believed that the Government could only show it was serious about the widespread use of cannabis among young people by reforming the way drug education was delivered in schools and taking “desperate parents seriously when they ask for help”. The press release argued that while the Government upgrades cannabis, cannabis users are being squeezed out of the drug treatment system and says that many drug treatment services are coming under pressure not to treat cannabis users because of a new funding system for drug treatment. (www.addaction.org.uk/Pressrel070508.html) Transform’s Head of Research Steve Rolles responded to the news about reclassification in a satirical blog on 7^th May titled “Millions quit cannabis following reclassification”. Transform Drug Policy Foundation believes that the Government should have listened to advice from the ACMD, and that money should be used to educate young people about cannabis and other drugs rather than for policing. The blog also suggested that upgrading cannabis to class B will do little to curb supply. (http://transform-drugs.blogspot.com/2008/05millions-quit-cannabis-following.html)  In an interview for BBC Radio 4 just before the announcement about upgrading cannabis, Martin Barnes, chief executive of DrugScope described media headlines about the drug as “hysterical” and said “The Government should listen to the ACMD. More research is needed on potency and harms associated with higher forms of the drug”. He also said there was no evidence that reclassifying cannabis would reduce availability. (http://www.drugscope.org.uk/newsandevents/whatsnew.html) Jackie Buckle of DrugScope echoed this in Druglink (May 8^th) and also wrote “There was no new clinical evidence linking cannabis with severe mental health problems”. She said “despite claims that young people were confused about the classification of cannabis to the point of thinking it was legal; there was no evidence of rising use”. (http://druglink.blogspot.com/2008/05/cannabis-real-message.html)

The Sun, (7^th May 2008) the Daily Express , (Wednesday, 7^th May 2008) and the Telegraph (8^th May 2008) all reported on the issue with comments from Jacqui Smith, the ACMD and/or findings from the report.

References: 

• www.addaction.org.uk/Pressrel070508.html

• http://transform-drugs.blogspot.com/2008/05millions-quit-cannabis-following.html

• http://www.drugscope.org.uk/newsandevents/whatsnew.html

• http://druglink.blogspot.com/2008/05/cannabis-real-message.html

• The Sun, 7th May 2008

• Daily Express, 7th May 2008: “No need to reclassify cannabis”

• Telegraph, 8th May 2008: “Cannabis to be upgraded to class B drug

15 local areas to lead pathfinder projects supporting vulnerable families added 06/05/08
 
Beverley Hughes, the Minister for Children and Familes has announced the details of a £16m 'Family Pathfinder' programme that will offer intensive help and support to disadvantaged families in 15 local areas.
 
The initiative called "Think Family" has been developed by the Cabinet Office's Social Exclusion Task Force and it aims to ensure that adults' and childrens' services join up to respond to the needs of whole families. Six of the Family Pathfinders will receive extra funding for services for families with young carers. The aim of this is to make sure that children in these families do not have to take on inappropriate caring roles.
 
The 15 areas are Blackpool, Bolton, Brighton and Hove, Durham, Gateshead, Islington, Leeds, Salford, Somerset, Walsall, Warrington, Southampton, Southend, Sunderland and Westminster.
 
The six areas who will receive additional funds for young carers' services are Islington, Gateshead, Sunderland, Bolton, Somerset and Leeds.
 
Click here for the press release.

New report on teenage drinking attitudes and behaviours in Northern Ireland added 24/04/08

A new report , Teenage Thinking...on Teenage Drinking, published by the YMCA Lisburn provides a "snap shot" of young people's attitudes and behaviours concerning alcohol consumption. It gives teenagers in Northern Ireland a chance to have their say on their own and/or their friends' drinking attitudes and behaviours. Click here and scroll down to "research" for a summary of the report and contact details for the lead author.

Coastal and Ex- Mining Areas Project Evaluation added 16/04/08

Mentor's Coastal and Ex-mining Areas (CEMA) project for young people has been evaluated by the Research and Service Development Centre. A copy of the evaluation report can be found in the "Other" reports section of this website. Click here and scroll down to "Evaluation".

How do drug policy makers access research evidence? added 16/04/08

A new research paper has been published by the International Journal of Drug Policy. "How do drug policy makers access research evidence?" by Alison Ritter, describes how research evidence is  used to inform decision-making but must compete with  other inputs such as perceived public opinion and funding. She says that understanding how policy makers access research evidence may assist in encouraging greater use of this evidence. This study examined the sources of research evidence that Australian government drug policy makers accessed when faced with their most recent decision-making opportunity.

The paper is available online

Annual report from UNODC added 11th March 2008

The United Nations office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has launched their Annual Report 2008: covering activities in 2007. The main topics covered in the report are: containing the world drug problem; opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan; human trafficking; West Africa and cocaine trafficking from South America; violent crime in Central America and the Caribbean; fighting corruption; strengthening the legal regime against terrorism; the UNODC strategy for 2008-2011; and resource mobilisation and partnership development.

Link to full report

Invitation to ESSD summer school added 6th March 2008

The European Society for Social Drug Research (ESSD) is organising an intensive training course on qualitative drugs research in close collaboration with the Pompidou Group of the Council of Europe. The aim of the course is to enable young researchers to expand their knowledge and abilities concerning qualitative drugs research and provide them with some proficiency in communicating research findings to agencies and policy makers. The course is funded mainly by the Pompidou Group.

The summer school will be open to twelve post-graduate students and will be held from 8th-24th August in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Students will be expected to dedicate all of their time to the course during this period. The language of communication will be English.

The course will cover the following subjects: State of the art: existing knowledge in qualitative research; theory and methodology: tools, research in different settings, ethics; research proposal and design; qualitative data coding and analysis; reporting to agencies and policy makers. A substantial part of the course will be dedicated to practical fieldwork and exercises.

Link to Invitation       Link to registration form

New drug BZP to be placed under control across the EU added 3rd March 2008

The stimulant drug BZP has been subjected to ‘control measures and criminal provisions’ across the EU Member States. The decision of the Council of the EU was adopted today in the final stage of a three-step procedure designed to respond to potentially threatening new psychoactive drugs in the EU and is based on a formal risk assessment report on BZP, which was produced in 2007 by the Scientific Committee of the EMCDDA (European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction) with additional contributions from by experts from the European Commission, Europol and the European Medicines Agency (EMEA).EU member states have one year to comply with the Council's ruling.

Link to press release

Link to report:

New 10 Year Drug Strategy added 27th February 2008

The new 10 year drug strategy, "Drugs: protecting families and communities" 2008-2018 has been published. There are four strands of work within the strategy. The points of most interest to those working in drug prevention and young people are listed below:

CUT the risk of drug use among young people  

We will do this by:  

* Working closely with parents through a new coalition of family charities (Alcohol Concern, DrugScope, Rethink, The Children's Society, Adfam, Addaction, Family Welfare Association);  

* Improving the information and guidance available to all parents to help them prevent young people's use of drugs, alcohol and volatile substances;  

* Continuing to offer credible and well-used drug advice and information to young people - including through FRANK;  

* Improving universal education and information for children and young people about drugs, alcohol and volatile substance misuse;  

* Examining what more schools and colleges can do to identify and support pupils at risk of substance misuse, those already misusing substances  and those affected by parental substance misuse;  

* Involve families where appropriate in the treatment of young people misusing drugs;  

* Reducing the availability of alcohol, cigarettes and volatile substances through tougher action on illegal and underage sales;

*Better tailoring of the drug treatment system to meet young people's needs, for example through parental involvement in treatment planning and at the important transition stage to adulthood; and  

* Increasing access to sporting and positive activities.  

CUT the number of families devastated by parental drug use  

We will do this by:  

* Providing family-based treatment services to protect more young people and families. Drug-using parents will continue to have quick access to treatment;  

* Helping families at risk to improve parenting skills and help parents to educate their children about the risks of drugs, support families to stay together and break the cycle of problems being transferred between generations, drawing on learning from innovative programmes and providing intensive support where needed;  

* Supporting extended family members, such as grandparents, who take on caring responsibilities for the children of drug using parents by looking at the circumstances in which local authorities can make payments to those caring for children classified as 'in need', backed up by improved information for carers and guidance for local authorities; and  

* Supporting parents with drug problems so that children do not fall into excessive or inappropriate caring roles. 

Link to Government reports page

Random school drug tests scrapped  added 22nd february 2008

In 2005, the Abbey school in Faversham pioneered random drug testing of pupils using mouth swabs. The pilot scheme was believed to be the first in a UK state school. Peter Walker, former head teacher of the school, hailed the scheme a success, saying it contributed to an all-time high in GCSE pass rates. The government supported a Kent County Council (KCC) plan to roll out the scheme across its other schools but none of them have agreed to take part. The main barrier to recruitment was the cost of the testing according to KCC, as schools would have had to move funding from other areas of their budget," said a spokesman. He said that in order for the pilot to go ahead there needed to be at least 35 schools recruited to make a national evaluation valid and cost effective.

link

Ministers have missed 122 of the 346 Whitehall Performance targets added 25^th January 2008

Drug Education News reports on the Autumn Performance Report from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) which states that 122 of the 346 Government targets were not met, including the target to reduce class A drug use among young people. The DCSF reports “slippage” on this target. For the full report see:

http://www.dfes.gov.uk/aboutus/reports/pdfs/7300-DCSF-AutumnAnnReport.pdf 

Discussion Paper from UNODC added 23rd January 2008

In a new discussion paper: "Reducing adverse health and social consequences of drug abuse: A comprehensive approach", The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) says that prevention and treatment and harm reduction are complimentary rather than contradictory approaches. The paper is inspired by the international drug control treaties. It was prepared in close consultation with the International Narcotics Control Board and calls for a comprehensive approach to drug abuse in which prevention and treatment of substance use disorders constitute the initial stages. Provision of facilities to reduce the harmful consequences of drug abuse complete the approach.

Link to discussion paper

Mentor UK CHAMP Awards 2008 added 14th January 2008

Mentor UK is calling on the public, professionals and young people to nominate projects for the CHAMP Awards 2008 (CHAMP - Promoting Children's Health through Alcohol Misuse Prevention). Projects working to help children and young people aged 14 years or under avoid alcohol misuse can be nominated. They can be as diverse as young people putting together a website on a home computer, classroom work in schools, sports schemes or mentoring projects in the community. 

In 2008, awards will be made in three categories: For work in schools, for work in the community and for projects led by young people.

The 2008 winners will each receive £10,000 cash and a further £10,000 worth of consultancy support to help them improve, expand and share their activities. The winners will be chosen by young people aged 14 years or under.

For further information and to download an application form please click here.

The closing date for applications is 20th April 2008.

Reclassifying cannabis "would make no difference to the young" added 8th January 2008

The Drug Education Forum has summarised a new report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF): Cannabis supply and young people. Click here for summary. As discussed by the Drug Education Forum, the report states that  this is a snapshot of  “how young people in a large city and rural villages obtain cannabis”.  It is based on interviews with 182 cannabis users aged 11 to 19.

JRF's first finding was: Nearly all the young people reported cannabis to be ‘very easy’ or ‘fairly easy’ to get; 79 per cent stated that they could obtain it in under an hour. They also report that most young people are buying from people they consider to be “good friends”, and where they are involved in selling the drug they don’t consider themselves to be dealers.

Concerning cannabis use in schools, JRF finds that half the young people had taken cannabis into school or college; 43 per cent said they used cannabis while at school or college, but only a minority did so regularly. JRF also reports that schools did not appear to be consistent in how they dealt with drug incidents.

The Drug Education summary says "It isn’t clear from the paper whether the inconsistency is within schools or between them, but they say that “nearly all the young people who had been caught reported that the incident had not impacted on them” The summary goes on to say "This seems to be slightly at odds with their earlier report on heavy cannabis users".

Click here for the JRF report

New effectiveness bank bulletin added 8th January 2008

Drug and Alcohol Findings has launched a new free update service that alerts subscribers to recent evaluation studies. The bulletin also offers a topic search, an option to search back issues of the magazine, an option to link to Drug and Alcohol Findings libraries and an option to sign up for alerts of new bulletins.

To link to the bulletin: click here

A Drug Prevention Strategy for Canada's Youth added 7th January 2008

The Government of Canada introduced its new $64-million National Anti-Drug Strategy on October 4th 2007. It is a five-year plan for mobilizing youth-focused media and youth service organizations in Canada, setting national prevention standards, and building broad-based sustainable partnerships.

It is described as a balanced approach that will rely as heavily on enhanced prevention and treatment for users as it will on increased enforcement and stricter penalties for illicit drug producers and distributors. The Strategy includes a Prevention Action Plan, which focuses on youth as well as parents, educators, law enforcement and communities. This Plan comprises a number of initiatives including the following two complementary components:

• $10-million in new funding over two years to launch a national youth drug prevention mass media campaign to be mounted by Health Canada
• A $10-million Drug Prevention Strategy for Canada’s Youth led by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA) and a host of partners over five years (funded through Health Canada under the National Anti-Drug Strategy).

The the prevention strategy aims to reduce illicit drug use by Canadian youth between the ages of 10 and 24. This means reducing the number of young people who use illicit drugs, deterring or delaying the onset of use, reducing the frequency of use, and reducing the use of multiple illicit drugs by those who use.

It is intended to work on risk and protective factors in youth before illicit drug use begins. Since the average age of first substance use is now about 14 or 15, messages aimed at deterring or delaying the onset of use need to start as early as 10 or younger.

Download the full document here

Results of the evaluation of a school-based program for the prevention of substance use among adolescents added 19th December 2007

The EU-Dap (European drug addiction prevention trial) final technical report on the "Unplugged" programme has been published. A comprehensive summary and link to the full document can be found by clicking here and scrolling down to "Evaluation".

New Focal Point Report added January 2008

The 2007 UK Focal Point's Annual Report has just been published. It provides information on the drug situation in the UK, a discussion of the main trends and a description of the responses to the situation.  Click here. This will take you to "Other reports" - scroll down the page to "research".

Data for the breakdown of callers to the FRANK Helpline added 11th December 2007

The Secretary of State for the Home Department has been asked to supply data for the breakdown of callers to the FRANK Helpline by category of relevant drug in the latest period for which figures are available. Data has been supplied from call dates during the period 1st April to 1st November 2007. 26,059 calls were taken in total, with cannabis accounting for 25.39% of calls to the helpline (6,617calls), followed by cocaine which accounted for 21.98% of calls (5,728). Information on drugs in general (not specific) was requested by 3,696 callers. A table has been produced outlining data for all calls taken by the FRANK helpline during this period. To see this, click here.

Strategy needs to see the child, not the drugs added 6th December 2007

Children and Young People Now includes a comment piece by Jo Butcher about the conclusion to the  Children’s Charities Working Together Drug Prevention project, which she has been working on:

Every Child Matters provides a clear framework to develop a holistic and outcomes driven strategy within the context of a rapidly developing wellbeing policy agenda. In an ideal world we wouldn’t need a separate drugs strategy as drugs would be seen as the core business of all those working with and for children and young people.

A unique alliance of five leading national children’s charities - NCB, Barnardo’s, NCH, NSPCC and The Children’s Society - will soon launch the results of its two year programme on embedding drugs within the mainstream children’s agenda. The programme’s outcomes remind us that children who use drugs or are affected by other’s drug use are, first and foremost children and that alcohol, tobacco and volatile substances, as well as illegal drugs, impact significantly on their lives.

The full article can be found here: http://www.cypnow.co.uk/Archive/login/771131/

Interventions in schools to prevent and reduce alcohol use among children and young people added 29th November 2007

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has produced a new public health guidance document for use in primary and secondary schools on sensible alcohol consumption. For more information and a link to the full report click here and look under "policy and guidance"

New report from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction added 23rd November 2007

The EMCDDA has published the latest report on the state of the drug problem in Europe. The report is aimed at policy-makers, practitioners, specialists in the drugs field and anyone interested in the latest findings on drugs in Europe.

Three Selected issues in English accompany the main report. This year, these in-depth reviews cover drugs and driving; drug use and related problems among the under 15s; and the public health impact of cocaine and crack cocaine use.

For further information and links to the full report and selected issues, click here and scroll down to "research".

Early school success protects against teen and young adult drug use (US research) added 9th October 2007

A new book by researchers at the University of Michigan claims that adolescents who do well in school are less likely to smoke, drink or use drugs whereas those who are doing badly are more likely to do so. Patterns of educational success or failure are already established for most pupils by the time the opportunity for drug use begins (by the end of the eighth grade in the US) and when the opportunities for drug use do emerge, those who are successful in their studies are less likely to engage in such behaviours. The researchers tracked a national sample  of more than 3,000 young people over an eight year interval extending from mid-adolescence (average age 14) to young adulthood (average age 22). During this period some young people in the US  graduate and some go on to college while others drop out of high school. It is also a time when some begin to use alcohol, cigarettes and illicit drugs experimentally.and some young people become regular users . A number of other factors that could influence substance use were examined, for example: parents' level of education, parents' involvement in housework and the prescence of both parents in the home. The authors say that these factors all influence how well a young person does at school but also impacts on a young person's likelihood to use drugs. Background factors were also examined (race and ethnicity, and whether students came from rural or urban areas). The authors also looked at delinquency reported at average ages 14, 16 and 18 and found that it was part of "a syndrome of problem behavior or general deviance". They included the delinquency measures as part of their analysis of the education-drug use connection.

For more information click on the link below:

http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=6085

US Report Concludes Schools Should Not Be Primary Provider of Drug Prevention Education added 2nd October 2007

A recent report, Prevention Education in America's Schools comes to the conclusion that "Schools should not be relied on as the primary element in the country's efforts to prevent the early initiation and consequences of alcohol and drug use" (p.1). In April 2006 an online survey was conducted with more than 3,500 teachers, school administrators, and other educators from 48 states and the District of Columbia. The survey found that although 37 states require schools to provide school prevention education as part of the curriculum, "teachers don't have the time, training or other resources needed to do the job effectively, regardless of what the state-mandated standards say" (p.1) An education Advisory Committee drew up 5 recommendations on how to more effectively reduce and prevent drug and alcohol use among young people.The recommendations were based on the survey results and can be seen by clicking on the link below which will direct you to the CESAR FAX website (Volume 16, Issue 39):

Report received via CESAR FAX

To view the full report: click here

A change of age for tobacco: added 4th September 2007

From October 1st 2007 selling tobacco to under 18s will be illegal. New Government legislation will raise the age of sale for tobacco from 16 to 18 years of age in England and Wales. It is expected that the change in law will also come into effect in Scotland from the same date. Products affected will include cigarettes, cigars, loose rolling tobacco and rolling papers. Link

2007 World Drug Report added 3rd September 2007

The 2007 World Drug report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has been added to the "Other reports" section of the website under "Research" Link:

• www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=news.story.page&obj_id=144057 )

• Times, 8th May 2008: “Cannabis: a good (but wrong) move”

• Daily Mail, 8th May 2008: “Gordon Brown made a brave and justified decision on cannabis”

• (http://www.acpo.police.uk/pressrelease.asp?PR_GUID=%7BF089BC48-84DD-474F-835F-4BBCE1EAD525%7D

• http://www.labour.org.uk/labour_crackdown_on_cannabis,2008-05-07

• Guardian,  8th May 2008: “Scientists warn Smith over cannabis reclassification”