An archive of recent news articles on the topic of alcohol and drugs.
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Young drinkers clog hospitals
26th August 2009
Emergency department (ED) doctors are calling for the alcohol-purchase age to be raised as hospitals become increasingly clogged with young drunks. One ED has reported a doubling in patient numbers on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights as young people flood the department grossly intoxicated or bearing wounds from drunken fights. Wellington ED specialist Paul Quigley said most of the extra patients were suffering from alcohol-related injuries.
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Quick-and-easy recipe adds to meth crisis
26th August 2009
This is the new formula for methamphetamine- a two-litre soft-drink bottle, a few handfuls of cold pills and some noxious chemicals. Shake the bottle and the volatile reaction produces one of the world's most addictive drugs. Only a few years ago, making meth required an elaborate lab - with filthy containers simmering over open flames, cans of flammable liquids and hundreds of pills.
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Half of male students induce vomiting after booze sessions
25th August 2009
Over half of male university students make themselves vomit after bingeing on alcohol. New research by Canterbury University psychologist Natalie Blackmore found 57.58 per cent of men and 42.26 per cent of women students reported self-induced vomiting after drinking alcohol. The findings, in Blackmore's master of science thesis, also showed many who self-induced vomiting believed it was acceptable, especially among men.
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Paul Holmes: Time to declare outright war on P
25th August 2009
To the New Zealand Prime Minister, John Key. Dear Prime Minister: The recommendation to you from your science adviser, Sir Peter Gluckman, that the Government could ban over-the-counter, non-prescription sales of cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine, one of the precursors to the manufacture of pure methamphetamine or P, is a good one.
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Majority of women think it's ok to drink when pregnant
20th August 2009
Over 50 percent of women do not know that drinking alcohol when pregnant could harm their unborn child, politicians were told today. Speaking to Parliament's health select committee Law Commission president Sir Geoffrey Palmer said 55 percent of women thought it was okay to drink during pregnancy. "That figure is concerning."
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Being drunk in public should be an offence …again: Sir Geoffrey
20th August 2009
Being drunk in a public place should be made illegal and fines should be given to those caught, Law Commission president Sir Geoffrey Palmer told politicians today. It was previously an offence and was removed because politicians believed they could introduce a "European sophisticated drinking culture", but that did not happen, Sir Geoffrey told Parliament's health select committee.
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Police seize 141,000 cannabis plants
19th August 2009
Police seized 141,000 cannabis plants nationwide this year – the highest number in 10 years - and arrested 1125 people over a five-month anti-cannabis operation. National Cannabis and Crime Operation Detective Senior Sergeant Scott McGill said the raids, carried out over five months and dubbed Operation Kirsty, had saved the tax payer $379,024,920 in costs associated with social harm.
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Change to energy drink labels considered
19th August 2009
A company behind some high-powered energy drinks is considering upgrading warnings on its bottles after a 15-year-old girl collapsed at school and needed to be treated by paramedics. The Heretaunga College pupil collapsed last week after drinking several high-powered shots on an empty stomach before going to school. Paramedics wanted to take the girl to hospital, but her mother refused and instead took her to a GP.
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PM's adviser recommends P precursor drug ban
18th August 2009
Over-the-counter sales of cold tablets that use pseudoephedrine will be banned if the Government takes up a recommendation by Prime Minister John Key's chief science adviser. Mr Key confirmed yesterday that Professor Sir Peter Gluckman had delivered a report on precursors, the chemicals that are used to make the drug methamphetamine, known as P.
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Nasty shock for jail smugglers
17th August 2009
After one prison visitor helped another to jump-start her car, police discovered one car was unlicensed and the other was stolen. The women were two of 199 people searched at a combined Department of Corrections and police checkpoint at Auckland Prison at Paremoremo on Saturday.
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