An archive of recent news articles on the topic of alcohol and drugs.
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Little pity for sick smokers
9th September 2010
MEMO to Australian smokers: don't expect sympathy from your compatriots if you develop lung cancer. Research has found Australians are the world's least sympathetic when it comes to patients diagnosed with lung cancer. But the same study of 1000 adults across 16 countries, including Australia, found many were ignorant about lung cancer being the most common cause of cancer death.
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Call for clearer guidelines on alcohol intake during pregnancy
9th September 2010
AUSTRALIAN guidelines on alcohol intake during pregnancy are inconsistent and research is urgently needed to establish the effect of low to moderate drinking on the unborn child, researchers say. In an article published in the Medical Journal of Australia yesterday, researchers found about 80 per cent of women drink alcohol during pregnancy - a figure that has remained steady despite changes in government guidelines.
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Drug users' brain damage
8th September 2010
ABOUT 20 per cent of users of the drugs ecstasy, ice and speed in emergency showed tell-tale signs of brain damage, according to a study published in the Australian Medical Journal today. About two-thirds had concentration and mood problems, and half said they had general health problems.
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Ads could put finger on alcohol issue
8th September 2010
An advertising guru credited with changing one of the nation's most imbedded social behaviours says a similar campaign could help tackle alcohol-fuelled violence in Queensland. Chris Pearce wrote the award-winning "Pinkie" ad campaign, which dramatically changed the way young men view speeding in NSW. The NSW Government copped considerable criticism for the ads, which feature young drivers being embarrassed by their peers wiggling their pinkie finger, but independent surveys proved they were the most effective advertising to reduce speeding.
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One in 5 under-30s have been offered P
7th September 2010
About 20 per cent of young adults have been offered P and 5 per cent have tried it, according to a new survey on the drug. Campaigners say the results show the problem is far more widespread than previously thought. A UMR Research survey for the anti-P Stellar Trust found that 15 per cent of all adults polled knew someone who regularly used methamphetamine or P. Nine per cent said they had been offered it themselves and 2 per cent had tried it.
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$400,000 drug bust after police target woman
2nd September 2010
In an ordinary black suitcase holding a woman's clothes, toiletries and a hairbrush, police found what they describe as one of Wellington's biggest P seizures. Almost 400 grams of the drug, worth about $400,000, as well as $10,000 worth of LSD and ecstasy were allegedly found in the luggage of unemployed Johnsonville woman Susan Florence Horrobin at Wellington Airport as she returned from a trip to Auckland about 2.30pm on Tuesday. Police said $10,000 cash was also found in the suitcase of the 54-year-old, who is an approved CYFS caregiver.
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Brian Rudman: Booze needs to cost more to deter young
2nd September 2010
Agonising over whether the drinking age should revert to 20 or be split - allowing 18-year-olds to start buying booze in pubs but not in supermarkets - is all beside the point. If an 18-year-old hasn't already got easy access to alcohol, courtesy of their parents or mates, they must be living a very solitary life. As the Law Commission report on curbing the harm of alcohol pointed out in April, the big issues are binge drinking and a major contributing factor: liquor price discounting by supermarkets.
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Police busts push up price of P
1st September 2010
Police and customs seizures are driving up the price of P because criminals now face a greater risk of getting caught, says a drug expert. An annual drug survey made public today shows the price of a gram of methamphetamine, or P, rose from $610 in 2006 to $738 last year. The Illicit Drug Monitoring System report found the price - commonly regarded as the best measure of police success against the drug - had increased each year.
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Number of repeat drink-drivers on the up
1st September 2010
The number of repeat drink-drivers caught on New Zealand roads is showing a worrying upward spiral, and is a problem police are struggling to counter. The number of recidivist drink-drivers has risen steadily over the past three years, and more than 4000 have been prosecuted already this year. Many of them are involved in fatal crashes.
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Dramatic slump in cigarette sales
31st August 2010
Demand for tobacco has fallen 15 per cent at supermarkets since the tax rise in April - a far greater reduction than expected. "It's extraordinary," public health physician Dr Murray Laugesen said yesterday, commenting on supermarket sales figures supplied to him by research company ACNielsen. Based on earlier tax increases, a tobacco price rise of 10 per cent would have been expected to reduce sales by 5 per cent.
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