An archive of recent news articles on the topic of alcohol and drugs.
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168
Suspicion of drug use in US Army
10th May 2012
The US Army has investigated 56 soldiers in Afghanistan on suspicion of using or distributing heroin, morphine or other opiates during 2010 and 2011, newly obtained data shows. Eight soldiers died of drug overdoses during that time. While the cases represent just a slice of possible drug use by US troops in Afghanistan, they provide a somber snapshot of the illicit trade in the war zone, including young Afghans peddling heroin, soldiers dying after mixing cocktails of opiates, troops stealing from medical bags and Afghan soldiers and police dealing drugs to their US comrades.
more...
New MPs dilute alcohol bill backing
9th May 2012
A proposal to lift the purchase age for alcohol in supermarkets and liquor stores has fallen out of favour due to the new makeup of Parliament, a poll of politicians suggests. The return of New Zealand First and the Green Party's greater number of MPs have pulled support away from the split purchase age proposed in the Alcohol Reform Bill. Justice Minister Judith Collins has announced that the bill will return to Parliament for its final stages next month.
more...
Prescribed medications fall into wrong hands
9th May 2012
New Zealand is flooded with taxpayer-funded drugs as doctors over-prescribe medication, an addiction expert says. Alcohol and Drug Assessment and Counselling clinical director Roger Brooking said the sale of prescribed pain medication was a "huge issue" and, with no alert system in place, the situation would only get worse. His comments come after a Waikato addictions psychiatrist claimed in a letter to MPs that methadone was being sold in Hamilton by recovering opiate addicts. Mr Brooking said there were about 10,000 opiate addicts needing methadone in New Zealand but very little actual heroin in the country, meaning it was not an "imported drug problem".
more...
Maori Party pushes hard for more tobacco tax
8th May 2012
The Maori Party is pushing hard for an increase on the tobacco excise tax, but the Government is remaining tight-lipped on its plans. Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia said today that her party would do whatever it took to make the country smoke-free. "We know that excise has been the best way, to date, at preventing the uptake. It's worked extremely well," she said. "I would like to be confident that there might be more, but I don't know whether there'll be a greater increase at all, that hasn't been told to us."
more...
Government moves to ban alcohol from dairies
8th May 2012
Booze at the dairy will be gone if the Government has its way. But will the move help change our heavy drinking culture or just make buying alcohol less convenient? Read what changes the Government plans to make to the drinking laws “There’s always a way to get alcohol if you want to get drunk,” says Rory Samson. But everyone 3 News spoke to said they usually buy their alcohol at supermarkets, not dairies or convenience stores, so the law change would have little effect.
more...
'Possum' drinking game worries garden staff
3rd May 2012
Staff at Dunedin's Botanic Garden are concerned about the growing popularity of a drinking game called "possum", in which participants sit in trees and drink large amounts of alcohol. According to the website Urban Dictionary, "possum" is a "drinking game in which players have to sit in a tree, like possums, and consume a pack of 24 beers ... until they fall out of the tree from drunkenness". Dunedin City Council gardens and cemeteries team leader Alan Matchett said staff first encountered people - believed to be mainly students - playing the game about four years ago.
more...
Candy cigarettes get Turia fired up
3rd May 2012
The sale of look-a-like lolly cigarettes, whose consumption by children is linked to becoming a smoker, has been condemned by Associate Health Minister Tariana Turia. Lucky Lights bubblegum, Victory candy and other American brands of mock cigarettes are on sale in New Zealand, alongside the local Spaceman candy sticks - all quite legally. The American brands are in packets that bear similarities to real cigarette packets and the bubblegum stick's wrapping makes it look like a cigarette with a filter. The candy sticks all look a bit like a hand-rolled cigarette. The products cost around $1.70 to $1.80.
more...
Lower drinking age blamed for high rate of youth deaths
2nd May 2012
New Zealand's high youth death rate among developed nations has been blamed in part on its alcohol-buying age of 18. A leading suicide researcher, Dr Annette Beautrais, of Auckland University, said this "relatively low minimum drinking age" was a more likely explanation than the better methods New Zealand has over some countries for recording and investigating deaths. A comparison published in Britain's Lancet medical journal last week showed that of 27 relatively wealthy countries, New Zealand had the second-highest death rate for people aged 10 to 24. Driving this are the high death rates among teenagers and young adults from suicide and vehicle crashes.
more...
Drinking age debate to hit Parliament
2nd May 2012
A decision over whether to raise the drinking age to 20 will be put to a conscience vote in Parliament next month. The Alcohol Reform Bill, which will introduce a raft of changes to tighten up alcohol laws, passed its first and second readings with wide support last year. Justice Minister Judith Collins said today that recommendations proposed by Parliament's justice and electoral committee had been addressed, and the legislation was ready to progress through its remaining stages.
more...
Black-market warnings seen as a smoke screen
26th April 2012
Australia plans to introduce plain packaging such as this for cigarettes in December. Cigarette companies are emphasising their claim that tighter controls are leading to an expanding black market in tobacco after the Government's moves on plain packaging. But tobacco control researchers and campaigners have dismissed the claims as a diversionary "nonsense" tactic by the companies to discredit an important policy which studies have shown is likely to cut smoking. Imperial Tobacco said yesterday "an alarming number of Kiwis are aware of illicit or illegal tobacco products, according to new research"
more...