Ireland’s relationship with alcohol is explored in nine short films and three multimedia projects which have been shortlisted in a competition for third-level students.

The dare2bedrinkaware.ie event is organised by the drinks industry-sponsored body drinkaware.ie with the support of the Digital Hub. The theme for this year’s competition – now in its fifth year – was drinking in a home environment.

The shortlisted projects include a film in which the characters try to piece together a night on the tiles the morning after. Another entry depicting how alcohol consumption has come to be viewed as ‘the norm’ in the home, shows a young child adding alcohol to the family’s shopping trolley at the supermarket.

Via www.irishtimes.com

Anti-smoking advocates have picketed a large international tobacco fair in the Philippines that has emerged as a battleground for the industry.

The World Health Organization also has criticized the gathering that opened Thursday. It says the event provides a platform for cigarette makers to promote “a deadly product in the Philippines and throughout Asia.”

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III sent a welcome message with hopes the meeting would benefit the country’s economy. Organizers said city authorities waived an indoor smoking ban for delegates.

But the government has also supported a new tax bill aiming to discourage smoking that has tobacco manufacturers worried.

Via www.businessweek.com

Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults, the new report released today by U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, sends a powerful message: the failure of states to invest in proven policies and programs has resulted in 3 million new youth and young adult smokers, a third of whom will ultimately die from their addiction. The report also concludes that if states begin to invest in comprehensive programs today, youth tobacco use can be cut in half in just six years.

“This report underscores the critical importance of preventing tobacco use among youth and young adults,” said Harold Wimmer, President and CEO of the American Lung Association of the Upper Midwest. “This is a wakeup call to all policymakers and community leaders that tobacco addiction is a vicious and deadly cycle that can and must come to an end.”

Via www.lung.org

A new study in mice has found that activating a receptor affected by marijuana can dramatically reduce cocaine consumption. The research suggests that new anti-addiction drugs might be developed using synthetic versions of cannabidiol (CBD), the marijuana component that activates the receptor—or even by using the purified natural compound itself.Researchers formerly believed that the receptor, known as CB2, was not found in the brain and that therefore CBD had no psychoactive effects. But a growing body of research suggests otherwise. After THC, CBD is the second most prevalent active compound in marijuana.
Via healthland.time.com

In January, the National March of Dimes sponsored the Prematurity Prevention Symposium, in Washington.The symposium raised awareness regarding premature births, risks associated with preterm births and interventions to help reduce the risk of premature births. The two-day event provided an opportunity to meet key opinion leaders, showcase successful prevention programs, share best practices, engage in problem solving and launch the Prematurity Prevention Network, a coalition of individuals and organizations dedicated to promoting premature births. The March of Dimes’ mission is to help mothers have full-term pregnancies and research the problems that threaten the health of babies.
Via post-journal.com

When the NHS started in 1948, 82% of men smoked.Fourteen years later, in 1962, there was the RCP’s ‘Smoking and Health’ report. It set out an agenda for controlling tobacco that doctors and governments followed for decades to come.So in 1965, after calls from the RCP, all TV adverts for cigarettes were banned.In 1984, smoking was banned on tube trains, and banned on stations a year later.In 1995, Virgin and United Airlines banned smoking on transatlantic flights.Then of course, there was the smoke free legislation of 2007.Against the instincts of the Labour government, I worked hard to make that a free vote for MPs. By making sure it was a free vote in our Party, we pushed Labour to give a free vote to their MPs too – knowing that this would mean a full ban, not the partial one the Government had sought.
Via mediacentre.dh.gov.uk

The Navy and Marines said Monday they plan to introduce random breath tests of personnel on duty as part of a broader health-and-safety push, a move officials concede will be a tough sell with weary troops after a decade of war.The U.S. military already randomly tests members of all branches for illegal drug use. But resorting to breath tests—which detect blood alcohol levels from a breath sample—represents a first for military personnel.
Via online.wsj.com

A bill waiting to be passed in the Jamaican Parliament would introduce a ban on smoking in public places and prohibit the sale of tobacco to minors. Alexis Goffe, 26, offers his take on the justification for the strict legislation.On February 16, I attended the Jamaica Cancer Society’s Anti-Tobacco Forum, which was attended by over two hundred high school students. While much information was presented, three main facts stood out for me:1) Tobacco is a serial killer – In the 20th century, tobacco killed 100 million people worldwide. If the current trend continues, by the end of the 21st century, tobacco will kill 1 billion people worldwide.
Via www.yourcommonwealth.org

“CRACK is wack.”
Remember that phrase? I heard many people repeat it last week as they appraised the waste of Whitney Houston’s later years and flashed back to her 2002 interview with Diane Sawyer, when she uttered those immortal words. She was bristling not at rumors that she abused drugs but at insinuations that she turned to cheap ones. With album sales like hers, you didn’t have to suck on a pipe.Sawyer wanted to know what Houston was on. Everyone wanted to know what Houston was on, and news reports after her death took unconfirmed inventory of the pills in her hotel suite, wondering if they represented the extent of her indulgences.No. By many accounts, Houston also drank. More than a little. In fact one early, leading theory about the cause of her death, which won’t be known until toxicology tests are finished, was that a mix of prescription drugs and alcohol did her in.
Via www.nytimes.com

Consuming substantial amounts of alcohol shrinks critical brain regions in genetically vulnerable rodents, Brookhaven scientists have found in efforts to further map the biology of addiction in peop…
Via www.newsday.com