News and Notes
2014; Wiley; Volume: 109; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1111/add.12518
ISSN1360-0443
Autores Tópico(s)HIV, Drug Use, Sexual Risk
ResumoThe Guardian reports that two e-cigarette manufacturers have started the process of obtaining licences for their products from the United Kingdom (UK) medicines regulator, Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority (MHRA). The UK company Nicolites said its application was ‘well-advanced’ while British American Tobacco's Nicoventures has also started the process. The status of ‘medicines’ will give the companies commercial advantage and allow them to market their product internationally, including in sponsorship deals, a move that will be banned for competitors not in the same bracket. The decisions on whether their products are prescribed on the National Health Service will be made by local commissioning groups. The MHRA wants to persuade manufacturers and importers to apply voluntarily for a licence and meet specific rules including rules on the amount of nicotine provided. The Advertising Standards Agency is also about to launch a consultation on new rules to cover e-cigarettes and the framework is likely to be in place by autumn. Source: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/02/e-cigarettes-medicines-nhs The Guardian reports that a bipartisan group of senators has passed legislation proposing substantial reductions in federal prison terms for non-violent drug offenders, and an end to the disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentencing. This follows a call by Attorney General Eric Holder last August for a new approach to the drug issue. Senate Democratic whip Dick Durbin, a co-sponsor of the bill, known as the Smarter Sentencing Act, said it would help tackle a 500% increase in the federal prison population since the early 1980s, half of whom are drug offenders. ‘It has been 30 years since we reviewed some of these laws,’ he said. ‘There has also been a 1,100% increase in spending on incarceration.’ The bill cuts some mandatory minimum sentences by more than half, gives judges greater discretion to exempt individual cases, and will allow parole hearings to redress a gulf between crack and powder cocaine punishments. The vote came as the Justice Department asked defence lawyers to recommend clients serving long drug sentences for future presidential pardons. President Obama recently commuted sentences of eight non-violent crack cocaine offenders and more presidential action may be pending. Source: http://www.theguardian.com/law/2014/jan/30/drug-sentence-reform-senate-justice-department Bhutan's Upper House has resolved that the ban on the sale and import of tobacco products into the country must end in order to control the black market. Bhutan was the first country to completely ban the manufacturing, import and sale of any tobacco products but the government was criticised for harsh prison sentences for those found carrying small amounts of tobacco products (see News and Notes December 2011). Many who were imprisoned for selling tobacco were subsequently released on the king's order. The resolution needs to pass through the National Assembly before it becomes law. Source: http://www.bhutannewsnetwork.com/2014/02/bhutans-u-turn-on-tobacco-ban New laws passed by the New South Wales (NSW) parliament in January include a mandatory minimum eight year jail sentence for so-called ‘one punch’ assaults. Other measures include an increase in the maximum penalty for serious assault by two years; new state-wide 10pm closing time for all bottle shops and liquor stores; new police powers to conduct drug and alcohol testing where they suspect an offender has committed an alcohol- or drug-fuelled violent assault; an extension of the existing liquor licence freezes to the new Sydney Central Business District Entertainment Precinct; and removing voluntary intoxication as a mitigating factor in sentencing. The NSW government introduced the measures in response to pressure over the death of Daniel Christie from a single punch at Kings Cross in Sydney. NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell said ‘The NSW government has today sent the strongest possible message on behalf of the community—drug and alcohol-fuelled violence won't be tolerated anywhere in NSW.’ The Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) alcohol spokesperson Professor Mike Daube said, ‘This may be a turning point in changing the binge-drinking culture. Premier O'Farrell is to be congratulated on a strong, comprehensive approach that will do much to reduce alcohol harms in both the short and long term.’ The president of the Newcastle Bar Association in NSW, Peter Cummings SC, said that mandatory sentencing for alcohol and drug-fuelled violence would erode the independence of the justice system, create unjust sentences, cause delays in the court system and be of great cost to taxpayers. Sources: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/30/nsw-introduces-mandatory-minimum-sentencing-bill http://www.theherald.com.au/story/2069868/poll-lawyers-question-one-punch-policy/ In a letter, published on the E-cigarette Research Advocates Group website, a group of 15 leading scientists has warned the European Union (EU) Health Commissioner that several of the recitals and provisions of Article 18 of the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) concerning e-cigarettes lack or misrepresent the scientific understanding of the relevant issues. These issues include the comparison of nicotine delivery from tobacco and electronic cigarettes, the assumption about nicotine toxicity and the assumption that electronic cigarettes are a gateway to smoking. The scientists' letter concludes, ‘If wisely regulated, electronic cigarettes have the potential to obsolete cigarettes and to save millions of lives worldwide. Excessive regulation, on the contrary, will contribute to maintain the existing levels of smoking-related disease, death and health care costs.’ Source: http://www.ecigarette-research.com/web/index.php/2013-04-07-09-50-07/149-tpd-errors In an interview with the New Yorker, President Barack Obama said smoking cannabis is no more dangerous than alcohol, but still called it a ‘bad idea’. Obama said cannabis is less dangerous than alcohol ‘in terms of its impact on the individual consumer. It's not something I encourage, and I've told my daughters I think it's a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy.’ He also said that poor people, many of them African Americans and Latinos, were disproportionately punished for cannabis use, whereas middle-class users mostly escaped harsh penalties. Referring to the legalisation of cannabis in the states of Washington and Colorado, Obama said ‘Having said all that, those who argue that legalizing marijuana is a panacea and it solves all these social problems I think are probably overstating the case. There is a lot of hair on that policy. And the experiment that's going to be taking place in Colorado and Washington is going to be, I think, a challenge.’ Sources: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/01/27/140127fa_fact_remnick?currentPage=9 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25805206 In the report The Health Consequences of Smoking—50 Years of Progress published in January, the US Acting Surgeon General, Dr. Boris D. Lushniak, has expanded the list of illnesses caused by cigarette smoking. The report concludes after reviewing the evidence that there is a causal link between cigarette smoking and diabetes, colorectal and liver cancers, erectile dysfunction and ectopic pregnancy. The report also concludes that there is a causal relationship between cigarette smoking and neovascular and atrophic forms of age-related macular degeneration, tuberculosis, rheumatoid arthritis, impaired immune function and cleft palates in children of women who smoke. The report is intended to inform the public as well as doctors and other medical professionals about the newest proven risks of smoking. While smoking has declined sharply since the 1964 Surgeon General report that concluded smoking caused lung cancer, that decline has slowed in recent years, and the new report calls for stronger action in tackling smoking. Sources: http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/reports/50-years-of-progress/full-report.pdf http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/17/science/list-of-smoking-related-illnesses-grows-significantly-in-us-report.html?smid=tw-nytimeshealth&seid=auto&_r=0 The Washington Post reports that the four major US tobacco companies and the Justice Department have reached an agreement on publishing corrective statements that say the companies lied about the dangers of smoking. The agreement, filed in January in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., follows a 2012 ruling ordering the industry to pay for corrective statements in various advertisements. The corrective statements are part of a case the government brought in 1999 under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Act Organizations. The statements will acknowledge that the advertising is being done under court order and that companies had misled the public on the health effects of smoking, the addictiveness of smoking and nicotine and the health effects of secondhand smoke. The companies will also admit that they falsely sold and advertised low-tar and light cigarettes as less harmful than regular cigarettes and designed cigarettes to enhance the delivery of nicotine. The tobacco companies will spend more than $30 million advertising with the three major television networks and run full-page ads in 35 newspapers as well as purchasing space on their respective websites. Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/deal-reached-on-tobacco-firm-corrective-statements/2014/01/10/bc960eca-7a47-11e3-8963-b4b654bcc9b2_story.html Yang Jie, deputy director of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention's Office of Tobacco Control, said China's cabinet is considering a regulation that would ban smoking in public places across the country. ‘Optimistically,’ he said, it could be implemented within a year. ‘If you look at the general development of legislation, I don't think there are a lot of problems,’ he said at a briefing about the health costs of tobacco use in China. ‘What is most troubling is how to enforce the law effectively.’ The Guardian reports that since China signed the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control the country's tobacco production has risen dramatically, from 1.75tn cigarettes a year a decade ago to about 2.58tn in 2012. China's health ministry has banned smoking in a variety of public places, but lacks the power to enforce its laws. A major obstacle to tobacco control is political. The Chinese government owns the country's tobacco industry and 7–10% of its annual revenue comes from tobacco sales. China's premier is in charge of the country's public health policy while his younger brother runs the country's state-owned tobacco monopoly. ‘The most important thing is to take tobacco control away from the tobacco industry,’ Judith Mackay, a senior advisor to the World Lung Foundation, said, adding: ‘That's a really important structural change that will have to happen before, quite honestly, anything happens in China.’ Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/11/china-considers-nationwide-ban-smoking-public The UK crime prevention minister, Norman Baker, has announced that the United Kingdom will opt out of an EU regime for regulating new psychoactive substances. The issue could lead to a dispute between the UK and the EU as the proposed EU drugs directive does not include provision for a UK opt-out. The European Commission proposes a new procedure that is designed to improve a 2005 system for regulating the use of illicit drugs under which it can take up to two years to ban a substance. The new system of regulation would allow a substance to be banned within 10 months of being detected. It includes an urgent temporary procedure under which it would be possible to order a particularly harmful substance to be withdrawn immediately for a period of 12 months while a full risk assessment is carried out. Norman Baker said the EU's proposals would hinder rather than help because they would slow down action to ban harmful substances when they were identified. ‘We have already banned hundreds of these drugs and our forensic early warning system allows us to closely monitor their availability so we can disrupt their supply,’ said Baker. Baker added ‘I have commissioned an expert-led review into how our current arrangements can be better tailored to help protect public health and tighten further the supply of such substances.’ The review panel has been asked to report back in the spring 2014. Sources: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/13/legal-highs-uk-opt-out-eu-regulation-regime?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25336087#?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter The Daily Telegraph reports that the price of cannabis in Colorado, USA has doubled since the legalisation of cannabis in the state. One estimate suggests that customers buying cannabis in licensed shops are paying an average of $400 an ounce, compared to the $200 an ounce previously charged when the drug was only available to people with medical complaints. The price has been driven up by the state's 25% recreational sales tax and also because there has not been enough supply to keep up with demand. According to The National Cannabis Industry Association, recreational cannabis businesses in Colorado made ‘well over $5 million’ in sales in the first five days. A week after legalisation Denver City Council voted to ask the US federal government to allow banks to take on cannabis businesses as customers. Banks are currently banned from working with cannabis businesses, including offering loans or credit cards, and the shops operate entirely on cash transactions, which one councillor described as ‘absurd and ridiculous.’ Local politicians are confident that prices will fall once more cannabis shops have opened. Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10557084/Price-of-cannabis-doubles-in-Colorado-in-days-following-legalisation.html BBC News reports that the UK parliament has approved a proposal to give the government powers to introduce a new offence of exposing children to smoke in vehicles, with breaches of the law likely to incur a small fine. The government initially opposed the proposal with the Department of Health saying it did not think legislation was the most effective way of stopping adults smoking in front of children in cars. A government health minister said it would be complex to police and the government preferred ‘behaviour change’. The opposition Labour shadow public health minister, Luciana Berger, said it was a ‘great victory for child health which will benefit hundreds of thousands of young people.’ She added: ‘It is a matter of child protection, not adult choice. The will of parliament has been clearly expressed today and this must be respected. Ministers now have a duty to bring forward regulations so that we can make this measure a reality and put protections for children in place as soon as possible. A time-limited consultation may be necessary on the practical details of implementation, but we will be watching closely to ensure the government does not try to kick this into the long grass.’ Sources: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26133374 http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/10/mps-smoking-ban-cars-children InsightCrime reports that the Honduras Congress has passed the ‘Law of Aerial Exclusion’ which authorizes progressive use of force to make unidentified aircraft land, but only the country's defence minister can order a plane shot down. The law also establishes an ‘exclusive aerial zone’ in certain Caribbean provinces of Honduras that are common entry points for drug consignments and limits night flights throughout the country. Most of the cocaine destined for the United States moves though Honduras. The Honduran military shot down two small planes in 2012 that were suspected of carrying drugs. The shoot-down policy is one of several recent crime fighting measures taken by Honduras' outgoing administration, which also includes buying $30 million of radar from Israel. The recently elected president Juan Hernandez promised a tough militarized response to drug gang violence in Honduras, where the murder rate is the highest in the world. Sources: http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/honduras-approves-drug-plane-shoot-down-law-bolivia-set-to-follow http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/18/honduras-drugs-idUSL2N0KS06E20140118 36th Annual SALIS Conference (Substance Abuse Librarians & Information Specialists), 29 April-2 May 2014, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA. Website: http://www.salis.org/conference/conference.html American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) 45th Annual Medical-Scientific Conference, 10–13 April 2014, Orlando, Florida, USA. Website: http://www.asam.org/education/annual-medical-scientific-conference 35th Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, 23–26 April 2014, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Website: http://www.sbm.org/meetings/2014 3rd Congress of Asia-Pacific Society for Alcohol and Addiction Research (APSAAR), 24–27 April 2014, Shanghai, China. Website: http://www.cadapt2014.com/ American Psychiatric Association (APA) 167th Annual Meeting, 3–7 May 2014, New York, New York, USA. Website: http://annualmeeting.psychiatry.org National Council for Behavioral Health Conference, 5–7 May 2014, Washington, DC, USA. Website: http://www.thenationalcouncil.org/events-and-training/conference 2cd European Harm Reduction Conference, 7–9 May 2014, Basel Switzerland. Website: http://www.harmreduction.ch/en/ National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers (NAATP) 2014 Annual Conference, 17–20 May 2014, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. Website: https://www.naatp.org/events/2013-annual-conference Society for Clinical Trials (SCT) 35th Annual Meeting, 18–21 May 2014, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Website: http://www.sctweb.org/public/meetings/2014/home.cfm 8th Annual Conference of the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy, 21–23 May 2014, Rome, Italy. Website: http://www.cibb.uniroma2.it/index.php/ct-menu-item-28?id=32 National Indigenous Drug and Alcohol Conference 2014 (NIDAC 2014), 4–6 June 2014, Melbourne, Australia. Website: http://www.nidaconference.com.au/ International Conference on Opioids, 8–10 June 2014, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Website: http://www.opioidconference.org/Home_Page.html Kettil Bruun Society 40th Annual Meeting, 9–13 June 2014, Torino, Italy. Website: http://www.kettilbruun.org/kbs-40th-annual-meeting-torino 2014 UK National Smoking Cessation Conference, 12–13 June 2014, London, UK. Website: http://www.uknscc.org College on Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD) Annual Meeting, 14–19 June 2014, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Website: http://www.cpdd.vcu.edu/Pages/Meetings/FutureMeet.html Joint ISBRA/RSA (International Society for Biomedical Research in Alcoholism/Research Society on Alcoholism) Congress, 21–25 June 2014, Seattle, Washington, USA. Website: http://www.isbra.com/conferences/index.shtml 37th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism, 21–25 June 2014, Bellevue, Washington USA. Website: http://www.rsoa.org Collegium Internationale, Neuro-Psychopharmacologicum (CINP) World Congress 2014, 22–26 June 2014, Vancouver, Canada. Website: http://www.cinp2014.com/ Global Addiction 2014 Roma: Policy, Society, Alcohol and Novelty in Addiction, 24–26 June 2014, Rome, Italy. Website: http://www.globaladdiction.org/introduction.php International Narcotics Research Conference (INRC), 14–19 July 2014, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Website: http://www.inrcworld.org/2014/2014mtg.htm 3rd International Conference and Exhibition on Addiction Research and Therapy, 4–6 August 2014, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Website: http://addictiontherapy2014.conferenceseries.net/ 12th Biennial International Conference on Drugs, Alcohol, and Society in Africa, 21–22 August 2014, Lagos, Nigeria. Website: http://crisanet.org/ National Conference on Addiction Disorders, 22–26 August 2014, St. Louis, Missouri, USA. Website: http://www.addictionpro.com/ncad-conference/national-conference-addiction-disorders KBS Thematic meeting: Alcohol Policy Research, 8–11 September 2014, Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia. Website: http://www.kettilbruun.org/kbs-thematic-meeting-alcohol-policy-research/ Canada Psychiatric Association 64th Annual Conference, 11–13 September 2014, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Website: http://www.cpa-apc.org/browse/documents/92 16th World Congress of Psychiatry, 14–18 September 2014, Madrid, Spain. Website: http://www.wpamadrid2014.com NAADAC (Association for Addiction Professionals) 2014 National Conference, 27 September–1 October 2014, Seattle, Washington, USA. Website: http://naadac.org/conferences International Society of Addiction Medicine (ISAM) Annual Meeting, 2–6 October 2014, Yokahama, Japan. Website: http://www.isamweb.org CSAM (Canadian Society of Addiction Medicine) Annual Meeting & Scientific Conference, 16–18 October 2014, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Website: http://www.csam-smca.org/ 27th European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) Conference, 18–21 October 2014, Berlin, Germany. Website: http://www.ecnp-congress.eu/sitecore/content/Congress2014/ECNP%20Congress AMERSA (Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse) 38th Annual National Conference, 6–8 November 2014, San Francisco, California, USA. Website: http://www.amersa.org/ Global Addiction 2014 Rio, 10–12 November 2014, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Website: http://www.globaladdiction.org/rio-introduction.php APHA (American Public Health Association) 2014 Annual Meeting and Exposition, 15–19 November 2014, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Website: http://www.apha.org/meetings/AnnualMeeting/ American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence (AATOD) Conference, 28 March–1 April 2015, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Website: http://www.aatod.org/national-conference/2015-aatod-conference-atlanta/ News and Notes welcomes contributions from its readers. Send your material to John Witton, News and Notes Editor, Addiction, National Addiction Centre PO48, 4 Windsor Walk, London SE5 8AF. Fax +44 (0)20 7848 5966; e-mail john.witton@kcl.ac.uk Conference entries should be sent to Jean O'Reilly at jean@addictionjournal.org. Subject to editorial review, we will be glad to print, free of charge, details of your conference or event, up to 75 words and one entry only. Please send your notification three months before you wish the entry to appear.
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