ScreenSafe UK wish all our customers, suppliers, stakeholders and partners a very happy and prosperous New Year. We are looking forward to working together with you in 2009.

Drug driving: can 'drugalysers' stamp it out?
Drugs, even the medicinal kind, are a growing hazard for drivers. The facts are sobering, finds Jimmy Lee Shreeve. The Euston underpass had never looked so beautiful. The mix of rain and oil spillage – and the influence of copious amounts of marijuana and hashish – had turned the tarmac into a hypnotic rainbow. > Read more.

Drug danger fears for dance revellers
PARAMEDICS will be on standby at Docklands stadium tonight amid fears that there will be drug casualties at one of Melbourne's biggest New Year's parties. Up to 40,000 revellers are expected to attend the Sensation dance party just over a week after 12 people were taken to hospital after overdosing on a suspected "bad batch" of the illicit drug GHB at a rave party at Festival Hall. > Read more.

Police vow to step up drugs campaign
More than 510 homes have been searched by police battling to stamp out drugs in Stoke-on-Trent and officers have pledged the war against dealers will continue in 2009. Crime reporter Aimi Moores looks at what has been achieved so far. DRUG dealers have been warned that police will continue to hunt them down in 2009. Operation Nemesis – Staffordshire Police's campaign against the drug trade in Stoke-on-Trent and surrounding areas – is still going strong, and police chiefs say there are no plans to end it. > Read more.

Alcoholic liver disease soars among the young as hospital admissions more than double
The number of young people suffering from liver disease caused by alcohol has more than doubled since Labour came to power. Damning figures show 6,495 Britons aged 18 to 40 were admitted to hospital suffering from alcoholic liver disease in 2006/07, compared to 2,967 a decade ago. > Read more.

Drug deaths on database
PERSONAL details of every drugs-death victim in Scotland are to be collected in an attempt to prevent future fatalities, it will be announced today. > Read more.

Drug Education; An Entitlement for All
A report by the Advisory Group on Drug and Alcohol Education. PDF Document. > Read more.

Seizures of Drugs in England and Wales, 2006/07
These statistics cover seizures made during the year by
police , together with information from HM Revenue and
Customs. PDF document. > Read more.

Motoring Offences and Breath Test Statistics
This bulletin contains statistics on motoring offences and breath tests dealt with by the police in England and Wales in 2006 and earlier years. 53-page PDF document. > Read more.

Adverts warn of cocaine dangers
A hard-hitting £1m television and internet advertising campaign to warn teenagers of the dangers of cocaine use is being launched by the government. The adverts feature a fictional dog called Pablo, who is used as a "mule" to carry cocaine by drug dealers. The dog seeks out coke users to find out what happens to them and in one advert, watches a young woman have a heart attack. The UK has recorded the highest number of cocaine users in the EU. > Read more.

Pubs and clubs told to bring an end to happy hours
Pubs and clubs will face strict orders to tackle Britain’s booze culture when bans on happy hours and discount drinks are announced next week. The Government is considering the introduction of cigarette-style health warnings on bottles and cans containing alcoholic drinks. Ministers also want television adverts for alcohol to carry. > Read more.

Research that shows Ecstasy is less dangerous than alcohol is 'awful from start to finish' says drug expert
Dance drug: Calls to downgrade ecstasy is 'awful from start to finish' says expert
Ecstasy is too dangerous to be downgraded from Class A to Class B, a drugs expert said yesterday. > Read more.

UK drug users 'damaging Colombia'
Drug users in the UK are causing an environmental catastrophe in Colombia, the country's vice-president has told a meeting of police chiefs. Speaking in Belfast, Francisco Santos Calderon said that 200,000 hectares of forest were being destroyed each year to produce the cocaine crop, coca. > Read more.

Women and drug addiction
The most shocking thing about the modern drug user? That she could be someone like you. Anna Moore talks to three 'ordinary' women about their struggles with addiction. > Read more.

Annual report 2008 from the EU drugs agency
The latest facts, figures and trends on drugs in Europe will be addressed in the upcoming Annual report 2008: the state of the drugs problem in Europe,from the Lisbon-based EU drugs agency, the EMCDDA. The report offers an overview of the drug situation across the 27EU Member States, Croatia, Turkey and Norway, and details the current legal, political, social and health responses. > Read more.

Drug Free Work Week
Drug-Free Work Week is a dedicated time each year to highlight the benefits that drug-free workplace programs bring to employers, workers and communities. And, it’s a time to work toward making every week a drug-free work week!

It spreads the word that working drug free works to…

* Prevent accidents and make workplaces safer
* Improve productivity and reduce costs
* Encourage people with alcohol and drug problems to seek help

According to recent research, it’s a message that many workers need to hear.

* 75 percent of the nation’s current illegal drug users are employed—and 3.1 percent say they have actually used illegal drugs before or during work hours.
* 79 percent of the nation’s heavy alcohol users are employed—and 7.1 percent say they have actually consumed alcohol during the workday. > Read more.

Study finds one in 20 has taken cocaine
ONE IN 20 Irish people and almost one in 10 young people have taken cocaine, a major all-Ireland study of the drug has found.
Men are twice as likely to use cocaine as women - 7 per cent prevalence as against 3 per cent. Regular and even daily use of the drug is increasing, according to the drug prevalence study carried out for the National Advisory Committee on Drugs (NACD).
More than 150,000 people have used cocaine, including 111,000 young people and 21,500 regular users, the figures show. > Read more.

Drug use in Ireland and Northern Ireland - Latest report
The National Advisory Committee on Drugs (NACD) was established in response to the drug problem to assist in our continued need to improve our knowledge and understanding of problem drug use. The goal of the NACD is to advise the Government on problem drug use in Ireland in relation to prevalence, prevention consequences and treatment based on our analysis and interpretation of research findings. > Read more.

Yob fines for women soar
Scores of heavy-drinking yobettes are having to be stopped by police for antisocial behaviour on Sussex’s streets, force statistics have revealed.
Figures obtained using the Freedom of Information Act show police are handing out more and more on the spot fines to deal with drunken women. > Read more.

Cocaine traffickers switch from boats to submarines as they swamp US with drugs
Colombia's drug barons used to favour high-speed powerboats to export their deadly cargos, leading law enforcers on high-speed chases as they swamped America with narcotics.
Now, in an attempt to evade American surveillance, they are diverting their smuggling trade beneath the waves. Coast Guard and military patrols have reported a dramatic increase in do-it-yourself "semi-submersible" vessels that evade radar and sonar, barely breaking the ocean surface as they creep through the Pacific or the Caribbean. > Read more.

Cannabis nets Dutch growers 2bln euros a year
Clandestine cannabis growers in the Netherlands net two billion euros (2.7 billion US dollars) a year -- worth almost half the country's horticultural sector -- a Dutch newspaper reported on Saturday.
By comparison, according to NRC Handelsblad, country's horticultural sector generates about 5.5 billion euros in annual income.
"There is major demand from England, Belgium, Germany, France, the Scandinavian countries and at the moment the Baltic countries," Max Daniel, the senior police officer who heads the Dutch agency charged with combatting cannabis-growing, told the newspaper. > Read more.

Drivers to be given random breath tests
Drivers face random breath testing regardless of how they are driving, under government plans to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries caused by drink driving.
Any motorist could be stopped by police under the proposals, which ministers believed would provide a more powerful deterrent.
Research has shown that many drivers exceed the alcohol limit because they believe they can still drive safely and that there is little chance of being caught. > Read more.

Drugs crackdown sees 61 arrests
A crackdown on drugs offences in Brighton has seen 61 people arrested and 42 people charged.
Sussex Police said a further six people were arrested for related matters in the crackdown across the city. Det Ch Insp Ian Pollard said the action made "a real difference" by targeting both dealers and users. > Read more.

Drug abuse a 'cause not effect' of social problems
Drug or alcohol abuse among children under the age of 15 is a cause and not an effect of a host of health and social problems, research has suggested.
Early drinking and drug-taking raise the future risk of addiction, teenage pregnancy, failure at school, sexually-transmitted infections (STIs) and crime, independently of other factors that might predispose to these outcomes, scientists have determined. > Read more

Drunken admissions to hospitals triple
Alcohol-related admissions to two inner London hospitals have tripled in four years.
Psychiatrists say the number of patients treated at University College Hospital and the Whittington hospital rose from 998 in 2004-05 to 2,690 in 2007-08. There was also a 34 per cent increase in A&E attendances for excessive drinking. > Read more

Going soft on cannabis is the worst thing I've seen in 28 years' policing, says stab horror officer
A senior police officer delivered a fierce attack on the reclassification of cannabis yesterday after a long-term user who ignored medical pleas to kick the habit was jailed for murdering his girlfriend.
Detective Superintendent Andy West said the decision to downgrade the drug from Class B to C was the 'worst thing' he had seen in 28 years of policing.
He spoke out after a judge jailed Marc Middlebrook for the murder of Stephanie Barton, a 32-year-old trainee accountant. > Read more.

The Big Question: Why is opium production rising in Afghanistan, and can it be stopped?
Why are we asking this now?
Nato and the US are ramping up the war on drugs in Afghanistan. American ground forces are set to help guard poppy eradication teams for the first time later this year, while Nato's defence ministers agreed to let their 50,000-strong force target heroin laboratories and smuggling networks. > Read more

Next steps for tougher action on cannabis
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith today confirmed that repeat cannabis offenders will face tougher penalties. People caught carrying cannabis for a second time could now face an on-the-spot fine of £80 instead of a warning. This was announced alongside a Parliamentary Order laid to reclassify the drug to Class B from 26 January 2009. > Read more

Teenage timebomb: The devastating legacy of modern youngsters' addiction to alcohol
Dressed in a shimmering top, tiny denim hot-pants and a pair of towering red high heels, the teenage girl had clearly been planning a big night out. So much so that she had even secreted a fake ID in her handbag, transcribing the fictitious date of birth in ballpoint pen on the inside of her wrist as an aide memoire. > Read more

Were we wrong to go continental on booze?
Britain's attempt to embrace a European-style approach to drinking may have brought it new dangers. In recent years, Britain has sought to shed its image as the home of the lager lout by adopting a more relaxed, European approach to alcohol, but could it be that our continental cousins have led us astray? > Read more.

Cannabis co-ordinator spearheads the drive to cut cannabis cultivation.
Detecting and disrupting organised criminals who supply cannabis are the aims of the new Cannabis Co-ordinator, former Chief Superintendent Mark Matthews, the Home Office and Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) announced today. > Read more.

Drugs misuse is on the increase.
ALCOHOL and drug abuse is destroying more and more lives in Swansea, a leading expert has warned. An increasing number of families were being caught up, said Swansea Drugs Project director Ifor Glyn, and the threat was greater than ever. Mr Glyn said efforts to tackle the problem must be stepped up. He was speaking at the project's annual general meeting on Thursday. > Read more.

Addiction to opiate-based painkillers: the facts.
White-collar employees working long hours and prone to tension headaches are those most likely to become addicted to painkillers.
Medicines containing opiates can include cough/cold treatments, painkillers, analgesic tablets and capsules, and some diarrhoea medication, according to the Over-Count Drugs Information and Advice Agency. > Read more

Confessions of an opiate-eater.
Step into any chemist and you'll find a huge array of powerful painkillers – all available without a prescription. Legal they may be, but they're far from harmless. This is the story of one man's battle with a crippling secret addiction to over-the-counter drugs that nearly cost him his health – and his medical career. > Read more

Revealed: the nine types of heavy drinker.
The Department of Health will today identify the nine personality types of heavy drinkers at risk of liver damage and other alcohol-related illnesses that are costing the NHS in England about £2.7bn a year. > Read more.

Cannabis linked to earlier psychosis onset.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Researchers from Spain have found a strong and independent link between cannabis use and the onset of psychosis at a younger age. The association, they say, cannot be explained by chance, and is not related to gender or the use of other drugs. It is, however, related to the amount of cannabis used. "The clinical importance of this finding is potentially high," Dr. Ana Gonzalez-Pinto from Santiago Apostol Hospital in Vitoria, and colleagues write in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, given that cannabis use is extremely prevalent among young people." The researchers also report that "estimates of the attributable risk suggest that the use of cannabis accounts for about 10 percent of cases of psychosis." > Read more

New Study: Pot Linked to Earlier Psychosis Onset.
As we've reported before, millions of American teens report feeling hopeless and losing interest in everyday activities for weeks at a time. And many of those teens are making a bad situation worse by turning to marijuana and other illicit drugs. > Read more

Bristol faces alcohol timebomb, say experts.
Bristol is sitting on an alcohol timebomb which will destroy lives and break up families.
That is the stark warning from health professionals who claim that there are 10,000 alcoholics and a further 50,000 men and women who either binge drink or consume more than their recommended daily amount. > Read more

Britain set to be flooded with cocaine, warns George W Bush's drugs tsar.
Britain is likely to be flooded by cocaine from South America as demand for the drug declines in the US, George W Bush's drugs tsar has warned. > Read more

Legal chemicals sold to fuel heroin profits.
Organised criminal gangs are developing a lucrative trade in importing mass quantities of legal chemicals and selling them on to drug dealers to be used as cutting agents for heroin and cocaine. The so-called 'smash' or 'bash' industry is now generating such large profits that some criminal gangs have stopped selling illegal drugs to focus on buying and selling legal chemicals, according to Drugscope, the charity that monitors the price of drugs on Britain's streets.> Read more

Rise in Scots suffering alcohol-related brain damage.
INCREASING numbers of Scots are literally drinking themselves senseless, according to new figures released yesterday. A total of 540 Scots were discharged from hospitals with alcohol-related brain damage in 2006-7 – a rise of 16 per cent on the last figure, taken in 2003-4, of 463. > Read more

Action against steroid abuse and GHB type drugs
People who take drugs to enhance their physical appearance, including those who aspire to take part in the 2012 London Olympics, are being warned against using anabolic steroids as the government has announced its intention to add a further 24 anabolic steroids and two growth promoters to the list of those already classed as Class C drugs. > Read more

Statistics on Drug Misuse: England, 2008 (full report).
This annual statistical report presents information on drug misuse among both adults and children. It includes a focus on young adults. The topics covered include:

• prevalence of drug misuse, including the types of drugs used
• trends in drug misuse over recent years
• patterns of drug misuse among different groups of the population
• health outcomes related to drug misuse including hospital admissions, drug treatment and deaths related to drug misuse

> Read more

Cannabis and alcohol selectively, temporally tied to manic and depressive episodes.
MedWire News: Manic or hypomanic episodes in patients with bipolar I disorder are associated with use of cannabis in the same or previous quarter, while depressive episodes show similar associations with alcohol abuse, report researchers. > Read more

2007 National Survey on Drug Use & Health: National Results
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Office of Applied Studies (2008). Results from the 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: National Findings (NSDUH Series H-34, DHHS Publication No. SMA 08-4343). Rockville, MD. > Read more.

No quick fix
They bring grief, violence and addiction to their communities - so why should we help them? Because many of them want out. Steven Morris on a new deal for drug dealers.
He has lots of cash, the lifestyle that goes with it and a sense of power. But Jeff, a drug dealer from Bristol, does not have what he craves: security, happiness and the option of just going to the pub without worrying about getting waylaid by the police, or an armed rival. > Read more

Street drinkers hit hospital gel bottles.
The battle against hospital superbugs has encountered an unexpected enemy - street drinkers and homeless people are stealing the 70%-proof alcohol hand sanitiser from hospital wards in London to make potentially lethal cocktails. The gel, which retails at over £10 a litre, is mixed with orange juice, Lucozade or cola to create a new version of the street drinkers' favourite "red biddy" - meths and red wine. > Read more

Record heroin seizure in the Gulf
Police in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last week seized 202 kg of heroin and arrested 19 Afghan suspects in what is the biggest-ever heroin seizure in the Arab world. The police said the high-purity heroin, worth around US$11 million, was intercepted in the Emirate of Sharjah, where the suspects ran a fruit and vegetable business as a cover. > Read more

'Beer goggles' effect explained
Scientists believe they have worked out a formula to calculate how "beer goggles" affect a drinker's vision. The drink-fuelled phenomenon is said to transform supposedly "ugly" people into beauties - until the morning after. > Read more

The strange case of the man who took 40,000 ecstasy pills in nine years.
Doctors from London University have revealed details of what they believe is the largest amount of ecstasy ever consumed by a single person. Consultants from the addiction centre at St George's Medical School, London, have published a case report of a British man estimated to have taken around 40,000 pills of MDMA, the active ingredient in ecstasy, over nine years. The heaviest previous lifetime intake on record is 2,000 pills. > Read more.

Illegal drugs: NHS reports rapid rise in young users being hospitalised.
The number of under-25s admitted to hospital with mental and behavioural problems linked to illegal drug use has risen by 18% in a decade, figures showed today. In the decade from 1996, drugs-linked hospital admissions among children under 16 rose 48% from 272 to 402 and there was a 17% jump among those aged 16 to 24 from 5,964 to 6,983, according to the NHS information centre. > Read more

Olympics: Ohuruogu lucky to be competing, says rival Richards.
Sanya Richards believes her gold medal rival Christine Ohuruogu is lucky to be competing in Beijing after missing three drugs tests. The American is the overwhelming favourite to win the 400 metres in Beijing, a year after Ohuruogu returned from her doping suspension - imposed for missing those three tests in 2005 and 2006 - to triumph at the World Championships in Osaka. The British runner had been banned for 12 months and sparked mixed reaction when she triumphed in Japan. > Read More

Drug-linked mental illness rises by 100%.
The number of people admitted to hospital in England with mental illnesses linked to use of illegal drugs has doubled in the past decade, official figures revealed yesterday. The NHS Information Centre said 38,170 adults and children were admitted with drug-related mental and behavioural disorders in 2006-7, an increase of 101% since 1996-97. > Read more

Our Laboratory Director has now been elected as the President of the Society of Hair Testing - 11th August 2008
The Director of the hair testing laboratory has just been elected as the President of the Society of Hair Testing. A prestigious position within the scientific society, and a mark of his wealth of knowledge and experience in hair analysis.

1,100 Scots underage drinkers admitted to hospital
ALMOST 1,100 underage drinkers were admitted to hospital last year after abusing alcohol, figures showed yesterday. > Read More

Now cannabis dealers will escape jail despite government pledge for tougher punishments
Cannabis dealers will escape jail, despite Gordon Brown's decision to reclassify the drug, it emerged last night. > Read More

Binge drink scare tactics 'do not work'
Drinkers ignore government health campaigns because limits are seen as 'unrealistically' low. > Read More

Video: Drug Czar, Dr. Drew Pinsky and Other Experts Discuss Pot Use and Depression
C-Span covered the event live. > Read More

Half city's youth 'take cocaine'
More than 50% of young people in Liverpool admit to having taken cocaine, a new report claims. > Read More

Growing addiction a backlash of Afghan opium production
Living in Afghanistan, the world's unrivalled producer of heroin, Faqirullah has no problem finding drugs to feed his habit. What concerns him is getting the cash to buy them. > Read More

Cocaine 'biggest killer of all'
A Dublin coroner has said cocaine abuse is rife in the city, describing the drug as "the biggest killer" of all. > Read More

Prison drugs problem 'worsening'
Attempts to smuggle drugs into Maghaberry Prison are increasing, despite the use of measures including drug dogs, the governor has said. > Read More

Over-30s 'ignore alcohol advice'
People in their 30s and 40s are worse than those in their 20s at sticking to their drinking limits, a poll has suggested. > Read More