31 August 2007

110333
Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people in England in 2006.
Bates B., Blenkinsop S., Clemens S., Deverill C., Hills A., Li N., Mackenzie H., Wilson S. Fuller E. (ed.) UK. National Health Service. Information Centre, UK. Office for National Statistics.
London: NHS, Spiral bound 210p.
ISBN 9781846361517
This is the latest in a series of surveys of secondary school children which provides the national estimates of the proportion of young people aged 11-15 who smoke, drink alcohol or take illegal drugs.

DESK 110335
Drug related deaths in Scotland in 2006.
UK. Scotland. General Register Office for Scotland.
Edinburgh: General Register Office for Scotland, 2007. 13p.
This paper describes the system by which the Registrar General for Scotland collects information on drug-related deaths in Scotland and presents selected statistical information covering the period 1996 to 2006.

30 August 2007

Guidance on the destruction of controlled drugs: new role for accountable officers.
Dimond E., UK. Department of Health.
London: Department of Health, 2007. 5p.
This guidance is to inform relevant health and social care professionals and organisations about changes to the role of Accountable Officer for controlled drugs which now enable them to authorise people, or groups of people to witness the destruction of controlled drugs.

22 August 2007

The relationship between parenting and poverty
Katz I., Corlyon J., La Placa V., Hunter S.
Policy Research Bureau, Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
York: JRF, 2007. 56p. ISBN 9781859355954
This major report includes references to alcohol- and drug-using parents, particularly in the chapter entitled “Which parents are poor?”

19 August 2007

Population in custody monthly tables, June 2007. England and Wales.
UK. Ministry of Justice. National Offender Management Service.
London: NOMS, 2007. 24p.
Includes statistics for drug- and drug-related offences.

FRANK advertising tracker wave 6. Findings on the ‘Brain Warehouse’ cannabis campaign: a summary.
UK. Home Office. FRANK.
London: Home Office, 2007. 3p.
Summarises the impact of the awareness campaign.

New perspectives on marijuana and youth: abstainers are not maladjusted but lone users face difficulties.
RAND Health.
(RAND Research highlights).
US: Santa Monica, Calif., 2007. 4p.
Key findings include: (1) Although some consider experimenting with marijuana normal behaviour for adolescents, those adolescents who abstain are not maladjusted as others have reported. (2) Young abstainers do better than experimenters into young adulthood. Even strict abstainers — youth who avoid all drugs — fare well in life. (3) Solitary substance use is not uncommon among youth. (4) Young solitary users are an overlooked at-risk group who face a wide range of psychosocial and behavioral difficulties as teens and young adults.

Census of drug and alcohol treatment services in Northern Ireland, 1st March 2007.
UK. Northern Ireland. Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, UK. Northern Ireland. Statistics and Research Agency.
Belfast: DHSSPS, 2007.
This bulletin summarises information collected in the second Census of statutory and nonstatutory drug and alcohol treatment services in Northern Ireland to establish the number of persons in treatment for drug and/or alcohol misuse.

Indications of public health in the English regions. 8. Alcohol.
Deacon L, Hughes S., Tocque K., Bellis M.A. (eds.)
Association of Public Health Observatories, Liverpool John Moores University. Centre for Public Health. North West Public Health Observatory.
Liverpool: NWPHO, 2007. 154p.
Includes information on life lost and mortality, hospital admission, treatment and care delivery, crime and violence, ASBOs, incapacity, road traffic accidents, teenage conceptions, school absence and exclusions, nighlife behaviours, and statistics on alcohol consumption.

Sticking points: barriers to access to needle and syringe programs in Canada.
Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network.
Canada: Toronto: Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, 2007. 47p. ISBN 9781896735849
Although there is limited data on the number of people who use injection drugs in Canada, studies have estimated that needle and syringe programmes (NSPs) currently distribute only about 5% of the number of syringes needed to ensure sterile equipment at every injection. This report provides a brief overview of NSPs in Canada and examines barriers to NSP access identified through literature review and personal communications with key informants.

Dependent on rights: assessing treatment of drug dependence from a Human Rights perspective.
Cseste J, Pearshouse R.
Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network.
Canada: Toronto: Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, 2007. 46p. ISBN 9781896735887
This paper seeks to apply human rights law and principles to an assessment of practices and guidelines in the treatment of drug dependence.

Health and Human Rights: a resource guide for the Open Society Institute and Soros Foundations Network.
Open Society Institute, Soros Foundations Network.
US: New York: Open Society Institute, 2007. 475p. ISBN 292133772X
This six-chapter resource guide provides a practical tool for advocates working at the intersection of health and human rights. It includes fact sheets, programme descriptions, jurisprudence, case studies, bibliographies and glossary definitions on six areas of health and human rights – including harm reduction.