www.alkoholpolitik.ch

The majority of U.S. emergency-room (ER) visits for underage drinking involve males, according to a new report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
HealthDay reported Aug. 11 that researchers in SAMHSA’s public health surveillance system analyzed 2008 data and found that one-third of drug-related ER visits among patients aged 12-20 involved alcohol. Of these, males accounted for 53 percent of patients aged 12-17 and 62 percent of patients aged 18-20. (Source: Join Together, 8/19/10)

Twenty-seven percent of public school students ages 12 to 17 say that their school is both gang- and drug-infected (drugs are used, kept or sold on school grounds), according to the National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XV: Teens and Parents, the 15th annual back-to-school survey conducted by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA*) at Columbia University. This means that 5.7 million public school students attend schools which are both gang- and drug-infected. (Source: casacolumbia.org, 8/19/10)

If actress/starlet/addict Lindsay Lohan accomplishes nothing else in this life — and this seems increasingly probable — we’ll at least be able to say that she has sparked a conversation about the relative merits of drug treatment versus incarceration.
As you may know, Lohan used up even the long rope afforded repeat offenders in Hollywood and was sent to jail in July for violating the terms of her probation stemming from a drunk-driving conviction. Lohan’s teary courtroom appearances have elicited some sympathy. …(Source: Join Together, 8/16/10)

According to a Lancet Comment, “alcohol remains conspicuously absent from the larger field of research and programming in HIV and substance use. … Patterns of hazardous alcohol consumption prevail in countries with the most severe HIV epidemics, notably eastern and southern Africa.” In addition, “hazardous drinking patterns also dominate in the concentrated epidemics of eastern Europe and Asia, where alcohol use by injecting drug users and other marginalised groups might be an additional barrier to effective efforts to prevent HIV infection.” The comment notes that both men and women are harmed by excessive alcohol use and calls for more research “focused on reducing alcohol-related sexual-risk behaviour, [which] might offer valuable lessons for the wider field of HIV and substance-use research” (Fritz et. al, 8/7). (Source: Medical News Today, 8/09/10) our Online-Comment: “Conspicuously” is the correct wording in this connection. Alcohol is
“tabu” regarding HIV, poverty, developing aid and sexual-risk behaviour. Public health authorities and politicians are afraid they would have to fight for less alcohol consumption.

The greatest and most costly failure of the medical profession and public health community is their failure to explain to the American people that addiction to alcohol and other drugs is a disease.
Against the scientific knowledge we now have, physicians’ refusal to give alcohol- and other drug-addicted patients the same medical care and attention they provide individuals with other chronic illnesses like hypertension and diabetes is inconsistent with their Hippocratic oath to “prescribe regimen for the good of my patients…and never to do harm to anyone.” The harm due to this long term failure of the medical profession and public health community is measured in untold lives lost and ruined and the incalculable human misery of families, friends and colleagues of alcoholics and drug addicts. (Source: National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, 7/19/10)

The Australian Drug Foundation is astonished to see not one mention of alcohol and other drugs in all thirteen recommendations from the House of Representatives inquiry into the impact of violence on young Australians. The report, Avoid the Harm – Stay Calm, is due to be released today.
“The report states that the links between alcohol and violent behaviour have been well established, so we can’t understand why there’s no mention of alcohol and other drugs in any of the recommendations,” said John Rogerson. (Source: Medical News Today, 7/16/10) with our online-comment: In Switzerland it took years, till the political authorities accepted officially that alcohol is one of the main reasons of violence. Even public health professionals were afraid to speak about it. Now the wind has changed. Fortunately.

A new report providing state-by-state analyses of substance abuse and mental illness patterns reveals that despite wide variations among the states in the types and levels of behavioral health problems they experience — every state suffers from these problems. For example, among those aged 12 and older, Iowa had less than one third the current illicit drug use rate of Rhode Island (4.1 percent vs. 13.3 percent) – yet Iowa’s population aged 12 and older was among the group of states with the nation’s highest levels of people participating in binge drinking in the past month (27.2 percent). (Source: Medical News Today, 6/12/10)

Form the blog by Joseph A. Califano, Jr.
Can you imagine how many children and families–and how many tax dollars–would be saved if the President, the governors and the media paid as much attention to our addiction to drugs as they are giving to our addiction to oil!
Like most Americans, I’m appalled at the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that is bringing such suffering to thousands of individuals and families in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and the ripple effect that threatens the environment and businesses and employees across the nation.

But at the same time, I can’t help thinking of what it would mean to our nation if the President went after the consequences of our drug addiction the way he is going after BP and the oil spill. The President is “furious” at the entire situation.
In pressing for his energy bill, President Obama has noted that we Americans are five percent of the world’s population, but we consume 25 percent of the world’s oil.
What about this one, Mr. President: We Americans are five percent of the world’s population and we consume 66 percent of the world’s illegal drugs. This other American addiction ruins millions of individuals and families each year. These drugs pour across our borders–they come across many of the same beaches now polluted by BP’s oil–and our government is just as inept at keeping them out of our country. (Source: CASA, THE CHAIRMANS CORNER, 6/7/10)

..and Other Drug Use. In general, alcohol and other drug use is lower among Asians than most other ethnic groups in the U.S. But there are some strong differences in drinking and drug use among various Asian-American communities, a new report finds. (…) Overall, however, the rates of past-month alcohol use, binge drinking, illicit drug use, and need for addiction treatment is far lower for Asians than the national average. The Substance Use Among Asian Adults report is available on the SAMHSA website. (Source: Join Together, 5/26/10)

When people are under chronic stress, they tend to smoke, drink, use drugs and overeat to help cope with stress. These behaviors trigger a biological cascade that helps prevent depression, but they also contribute to a host of physical problems that eventually contribute to early death. (Source: Medical News Today, 5/19/10)