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Archived Daily News - February 1st 2002

	HIV infections expected to rise 50% in five years
	The number of people in Britain diagnosed with the Aids virus will rise by nearly 50% over five years, according to health officials who revealed a 17% increase last year alone. [Guardian]
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	Monkey junkies
	Cocaine use by macaques may explain why some people are drawn to hard drugs [The Times]
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	Barry: 'My brain closed down'
	BARRY HASLAM, from Oldham, Lancashire, heads a group that campaigns against benzodiazepine drugs. [The Times]
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	Valerie: 'I'm a mental wreck'
	VALERIE BELL, 58, wishes that she had never laid eyes on Valium. She used to run her own florist shop in Southend, had an active social life and a happy marriage, but she believes that tranquillisers robbed her of her business, her home and her personality. She now refers bitterly to herself as a "dead head". {The Times]
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	Bad press for a drug with good uses
	VALIUM is the trade name for diazepam, which will still be available. A member of the benzodiazepine group of drugs, Valium has had a wide variety of medical uses... Some of the opposition to it has been because it has been misprescribed [The Times]
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	Jeb Bush Urged To Reconsider Drug Law View
	Advocates of reforming Florida's drug laws say it is understandable that Gov. Jeb Bush (R) is asking for compassion and privacy for his daughter, arrested this week on prescription fraud charges. But they also think he should reconsider his tough "drug warrior" approach to the state's other nonviolent drug offenders. [Washington Post]
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	US Athletes Fear False Drug Testing
	Some 40 percent of U.S. Olympic athletes fear flunking drug tests even if they don't use banned substances and are concerned about the ability to catch real drug cheaters. [New York Times]
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	Academics face court clash with tobacco giants
	Nine major US universities are preparing to go to court to contest a demand by US tobacco manufacturers that they turn over documents going back over 50 years relating to research on smoking by faculty members. The institutions describe the demands as a "fishing expedition." [British Medical Journal]
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	Withdrawal from paroxetine can be severe, warns FDA
	GlaxoSmithKline, a leading drugs manufacturer, was last week forced to admit that paroxetine, a widely prescribed antidepressant and the company's best selling drug, can cause severe withdrawal symptoms when stopped. [British Medical Journal]
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	Pro-tobacco writer admits he should have declared an interest
	Writer and philosopher Roger Scruton, who was discovered last week to be on the payroll of a large tobacco company, has admitted that he should have "declared an interest" when he wrote a pamphlet attacking the World Health Organization for its campaign against tobacco. [British Medical Journal]
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	Alcohol abuse: prevalence and detection in a general hospital
	Despite a high prevalence of alcohol-related disabilities and the availability of cost-effective interventions, alcohol abuse and dependence commonly go undetected in hospital inpatients. In a university teaching hospital we compared three well validated screening methods for sensitivity and specificity [Journal Royal Society Medicine]
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	Drug War Heresies: Learning from other Vices, Times and Places
	The trouble is, as this book shows, aiming to reduce usage prevalence may not be the best option when the welfare of all of the people is considered, while some approaches to drug control may cause more ills than they cure. [Journal Royal Society Medicine]
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	Drug Misuse Statistics Scotland 2001
	This publication presents the latest available information on drug misuse drawing from a wide range of national data sources: national surveys; the Home Office; the Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health; the Crime and Criminal Justice Unit at the Scottish Executive and ISD Scotland [Scottish Executive]
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	National Evaluation of Pump Priming Drug Prevention Projects and Initiatives for Vulnerable Young People in Health Action Zones
	The Department of Health's Drug Prevention Projects Programme has commissioned a research team at the University of Glasgow to conduct a national evaluation of pump-priming drug prevention projects in Health Action Zones. The evaluation began in January 2002 and is funded until June 2003 [DoH]
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	Social Trends 32 - a portrait of British society
	The 32nd edition of Social Trends, which draws together a wide range of statistics to paint a broad picture of British society, is published today [National Statistics]
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	Social Trends 32 feature
	5 special articles [National Statistics]
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	Roche Stops Selling Valium in UK
	Swiss healthcare group Roche said on Wednesday it has stopped marketing Valium (diazepam) in Britain because it is no longer commercially viable. A spokeswoman for the UK arm of company stressed that this was a local decision and that other subsidiaries may continue selling the famous sedative [Reuters]
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	Moderate Alcohol Intake Linked to Higher IgE in Allergy Patients
	Among patients seen in an allergy clinic, alcohol consumption even in moderate amounts is linked to an increase in total and specific IgE concentrations [Reuters]
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	Xanax Called 'Highly Addicting'
	The rate of prescription drug abuse is higher than heroin usage, experts say [abcNews]
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	Schools Refuse to Give Research to Tobacco Cos
	Of 10 universities subpoenaed by tobacco companies to supply information regarding research conducted on the health effects of smoking, only one has agreed to comply with the request [TFK]
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	Amazon rainforest being lost to illegal drug production
	About 2.3 million hectares of rainforest have been destroyed over the last 20 years in the Amazon basin due to the cultivation of coca, the crop used to make cocaine [HNN]
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	Blue-Collar Smokers Feel Less Pressure to Quit
	Machine operators, manual laborers and other blue-collar workers who smoke feel less pressure to quit than do their white-collar peers, according to the results of a recent US study [Yahoo - Reuters]
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	Drug Policy Alliance Supports Bush Family Appeal for Respect, Privacy in Coping with Daughter's Substance Abuse
	Calls for Same Opportunity for Families of Florida's Thousands of Incarcerated Non-Violent Drug Offenders [Drug Policy Alliance]
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	Inter-American drug abuse control commission reports on progress of Canada anti-drug efforts
	Solicitor General Lawrence MacAulay, Health Minister Anne McLellan and Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham welcomed a report issued today by the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) on Canada's progress in addressing illicit drug activities [Government of Canada]
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	100 arrested in Valleys drugs busts
	More than 100 people have been arrested and drugs worth more than £100,000 seized in two major police operations, it emerged today [ic Wales]
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	PM admits city has drugs crisis
	Tony Blair has admitted there are "serious problems" in Bristol caused by a flood of hard drugs from Jamaica [Bristol Evening Post]
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	New Drug Program to Be Overseen by Police
	Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov has signed off on a three-year plan to tackle the nation's growing drug problem. But critics fear the new program, to be overseen by the Interior Ministry, will perpetuate repressive measures against addicts without duly promoting prevention and treatment programs [The Moscow Times]
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