International Program in Addiction Studies Program and IPAS scholarships
Applications for the International Program in Addiction Studies will close in a few weeks. The exciting online master of science program that is taught by The University of Adelaide, VCU and King’s College London will commence in August 2009.
For the first time, the program can also be taken as part-time over two years. Also six special IPAS scholarships will be available that pay 50% if the tuition. Apply now and make sure all your reference letters and original transcripts are received in Adelaide by July 15th. Let us know if you are preparing an application so we can help you. More information on: www.adelaide.edu.au/addiction.
Research Fellow – Addictions, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Research Fellow – Addictions
Clinical Trials Research Unit, University of Auckland, New Zealand
The Clinical Trials Research Unit is located within the School of Population Health at The University of Auckland Tamaki campus, Auckland, New Zealand. The Unit is focussed on innovative research aiming to reduce the major risks to health.
An opportunity is available for a Research Fellow to work in the Addictions Research Programme at the Clinical Trials Research Unit. The Addictions Programme is an energetic group of six staff working on research in the fields of tobacco, alcohol and other drug dependency.
The successful candidate will need to have a Masters degree or higher in public health, psychology, medicine or a related field. Ideally you will have a developing track record of initiating and delivering addiction-related research as evidenced by funding awards and publications.
The role involves working closely with the Programme Leader to develop and design new ideas, obtain funding, assist with research currently underway as well as set up and work on new research. You will need to be creative, innovative and a high achiever who is enthusiastic, an excellent communicator and someone who likes to work in a team environment.
The position is full time for two years. Depending on qualifications there is also an opportunity to study for a higher degree. The applicant must be personally committed to smoke-free and to a healthy lifestyle.
Please apply by sending your CV and covering letter to:
jobs@ctru.auckland.ac.nz by 17th June 2009.
For further information or a copy of the Job Description, please see www.ctru.auckland.ac.nz or contact the Operations Manager on the above email address.
New UK-based daily news service
The Daily Dose email news service for ATOD professionals has been around a lot of years, and it now has a competitor: DS Daily. It’s part of the independent, UK-based DrugScope:
We are launching the service both as part of our core commitment to the provision and dissemination of up to date information and in support of our role as a membership organisation for the sector.
We are also very pleased to announce that Jim Young, formerly Editor of Daily Dose, has joined our DS Daily team.
We are very keen to receive your comments about the new service which you can send to Jim at jimy@drugscope.org.uk
Drug Action Week 2009
It’s that time of year again:
Register now for Drug Action Week
28 May 2009Final registrations are now being taken for Drug Action Week 2009 which runs from June 21-27 focussing on the theme Alcohol is a drug – TOO!
Drug Action Week is coordinated by the Alcohol and other Drugs Council of Australia (ADCA) and aims to highlight issues related to the harm caused by the misuse of alcohol and other drug issues, and to recognise those who work in frontline support services in the alcohol and other drugs sector.
Hundreds of activities have already been registered on the Drug Action Week website www.drugactionweek.org.au and promotional packs are being sent out across the nation to support events in local areas.
“We’ve had an enthusiastic response to this year’s Drug Action Week, and are pleased to see many creative activities organised to foster community debate about the harms that come from the misuse of alcohol and other drugs, “said ADCA Chief Executive Officer David Templeman.
Activity organisers are encouraged to register now, in order to take advantage of the free promotional packs. The website www.drugactionweek.org.au also has ideas for events, tips on organisation and community involvement, fact sheets and downloads which are all available free of charge.
Each day during Drug Action Week 09 will have a particular focus;
• Alcohol and Other Drugs in the Community (Monday June 22)
• Prevention and Treatment (Tuesday June 23)
• Indigenous People/Rural Australia (Wednesday June 24)
• Binge Drinking (Thursday June 25)
• Comorbidity (Friday June 26)Drug Action Week 2009 begins Sunday, 21 June and concludes on Saturday, 27 June – incorporating the National Drug and Alcohol Awards (NDAA) at Parliament House in Canberra on Friday 26 June.
www.drugactionweek.org.au
Australian Drug Blog does the Twitter thing
I’ve got some friends who have been raving about Twitter for nearly a year now, so I’ve taken the plunge.
mach zehnder modulatorHere’s my Twitter profile
I’m hoping to use it as a means of following up stories with more interactive discussion as well as tweeting any new posts on this site. Of course, if your government funded workplace has blocked your access to Twitter or you don’t have web access at all, this may be an after-hours thing. I’d still love to follow you on Twitter if you have an account.
Poll Results: Drug Free Australia’s role in ATOD professional discussion
Back in February, we started a poll on the role of Drug Free Australia in regard to professional email lists such as the ADCA Update list.
The final results in and show that there’s some mixed views on the role of non-government lobby groups promoting their objectives in professional forums. Specifically, three quarters of those surveys prefer no such mixing of messages. Let’s start a discussion on this: do scientific and moral approaches work, and if so, when?
The Rudd Government throws the switch to illicit drugs
After a little over a year of running a public campaign around binge drinking, and with the ‘Alco Pops’ legislation still bogged down in the Senate, Health Minister Nicola Roxon has announced the upcoming illicits campaign:
THE HON NICOLA ROXON MP – MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING
MEDIA RELEASE – 19 APRIL 2009NATIONAL CAMPAIGN TARGETS ILLICIT DRUGS
Hard-hitting ads targeting ice, ecstasy and marijuana will be rolled out from today, as part of an $18 million national campaign.
The ads confront young people with the dangers posed by these harmful drugs, and will include print, television, cinema, outdoor advertising and internet ads.
The risks associated with these drugs include:
• Ice users are at risk of drug-induced psychosis which may lead to aggressive and violent behaviour. They also suffer physical problems including damaged teeth, gums and skin lesions, and are at greater risk of stroke, panic attacks, anxiety, and severe depression.
• Ecstasy users are at risk of chronic sleep problems, cracked teeth through grinding, high blood pressure, dehydration, anxiety, nervousness, hallucinations, severe depression, thermal meltdown and death from heart failure.
• Marijuana users are at risk of psychosis (particularly the earlier marijuana use is initiated), increased risk of depression, risky sexual behaviours and chronic respiratory conditions.
The rates of drug use in society are still too high. In 2007, of Australians aged over 14 years, 38.1 per cent had used an illicit drug and one in three had used marijuana. Of Australians aged 20-29 years, 23.9 per cent reported using ecstasy and 16 per cent had used methamphetamines such as ice at least once in their lifetime.
This campaign particularly targets young methamphetamine users by portraying in stark and confronting terms the real harms and risks associated with drugs like ice and ecstasy.
The ads use slightly revised versions of earlier ads, in order to reinforce the message that these drugs are dangerous.
The television commercial Don’t Let Ice Destroy You, was produced under the guidance of expert clinicians, and law enforcement officers were also consulted.
The campaign also directs drug users to important points of support, counselling and treatment services that are available in communities throughout the country.
This campaign is one part of more than $800 million the Government is investing over five years in tackling the scourge of drug abuse.
Further information about the Government’s National Drugs Campaign is available from www.australia.gov.au/drugs or by calling the free national hotline 1800 250 015
Comprehensive strategies can be worthy, but am I alone in worrying whether a broad, mainstream campaign is the best way to target illicit drug users?
UNODC Parody: guerilla warfare or legitimate debate?
An Australian ATOD professional pointed me to a fake UNODC site, which looks nearly identical to the real one. The main difference is that the lead story on the fake site states:
If the ‘read more’ or any other link is clicked on the fake site, it leads to a page with the following text:
JOBS AND POLITICS BEFORE HEALTH?
In fact Costa has not made a statement supporting these life-saving measures and it is likely that the Political Declaration, which will shape global drug policy for the next ten years will have no reference to harm reduction.
This website is part of a campaign to expose the damage caused by misguided United Nations drugs policy. It is in no way endorsed by the United Nations.
Ten years after the UN based their strategy on the slogan “A drug free world: we can do it!” cocaine production has increased by 20% and opium production by 120%. Despite restrictive drug laws and extraordinary levels of incarceration, drugs remain completely out of control. Efforts to reduce the harm caused by drugs are repeatedly undermined by the UN’s refusal to pursue harm-reduction policies.Cheap public health measures are easy to deliver and extremely effective in reducing the spread of blood born viruses – particularly HIV – among injecting drug users. What can possibly be wrong with taking practical measures to reduce the harms associated with drug use? The results of denying access to these proven public health measures can no longer be termed ‘unintended consequences’.
During the second week of March 2009 the UN will hold a meeting in Vienna for high-ranking government officials to review the past ten years of global drug control efforts and to adopt a new Political Declaration for the next ten years. We think it is time for:
No more stupid slogans
Replacing dogma with science
A UNODC commitment to save lives through harm reduction
A real improvement in the control of drugs
Dear Mr Costa
It would be nothing less than criminal if all proven public health measures to reduce HIV among injecting drug users were not featured uppermost in the Political Declaration that will arise out of the forthcoming High Level Meeting on drugs to be held in Vienna in March.If you agree with the above please click here to email Antonio Maria Costa, the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and copy in his boss Secretary General of the UN Ban Ki Moon.
This is a protest that has had a lot of thought put into it and I imagine technically its been a feat in itself. What are your thoughts – is this a legitimate form of protest?
I tend to believe it is, if no laws are being breached. I imagine some are in this case, as far as use of the UN’s intellectual property. That said, I tend toward supporting actions like this as it’s a way of putting an opposing viewpoint to behemoths like the UN.
Substance Snippet
The Economist (UK) – How to stop the drug wars. “A HUNDRED years ago a group of foreign diplomats gathered in Shanghai for the first-ever international effort to ban trade in a narcotic drug. On February 26th 1909 they agreed to set up the International Opium Commission—just a few decades after Britain had fought a war with China to assert its right to peddle the stuff. Many other bans of mood-altering drugs have followed. In 1998 the UN General Assembly committed member countries to achieving a “drug-free world” and to “eliminating or significantly reducing” the production of opium, cocaine and cannabis by 2008.”
- an incisive analysis of political interference in a health issue
Smoking ‘Smarties’
I’ve run across a rather interesting video that shows a young person demonstrating how to ’smoke’ what he calls ‘Smarties’. They’re not the chocolate variety Australians know, but this type known as a ‘candy wafer roll’.
The video:
Although it seems a fairly harmless thing, the mimicking of smoking behaviours can’t be desirable. Or could it be a great harm minimisation technique? 