Alcohol use has often been linked to criminal activity on the part of both perpetrators as well as victims. While this relationship has been well documented among adults, fewer studies have explored this relationship among adolescents. A new study has found a strong relationship between drinking during adolescence and the commission of crimes, and criminal victimization, for both genders.Results will be published in the March 2012 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.
Via www.medicalnewstoday.com

During the Vietnam War, around 20% of U.S. servicemen were addicted to heroin. It was an epidemic.
To figure out what was going on, the U.S. government started checking every soldier for addiction before sending them home — and those on drugs had to stay in the country until they were clean. Once they returned to the U.S., psychiatric researcher Lee Robins tracked their progress, reports Alix Spiegel at NPR.
Amazingly, only 5% relapsed on heroin use, according to Lee’s research. When addicts were treated in the U.S., 90% relapsed.

Via www.businessinsider.com

Mustafa Jum’a, who runs a coffee shop in Ramallah in the West Bank, began to worry about his business as the prices for hookah smoke rise due to an extra tariff imposed on tobacco.Israeli authorities suddenly raised import tariffs on tobacco, a move the Palestinians have to follow because of the Paris Economic Protocol signed with Israel in 1994, which states the two must have bond import tariffs in the light with the unified customs framework.The rise has caused a reduction of customers, said Jum’a, adding most of his customers are public employees that used to come to the coffee shop twice or three times a day. “(They) now come here only once, if not every other day,” he said.The hookah price in Jum’a’s coffee shop has risen from seven shekels (around 1.8 U.S. dollars) to 12 shekels (3.4 dollars). He made money when hookah smokers order tea, coffee or other drink, so now he makes less profit due to the reduction of customers.
Via english.cri.cn

A drunken driving test may not seem the likeliest place to come up with a mobile phone app, but that’s when inspiration struck Nashville resident Clay Bradley.He told The Nashville Ledger that he was following a policeman’s pen with his eyes when he thought a smartphone could be used for the same purpose.He mentioned his idea to a couple of friends, and they came up with BreathalEyes.The 99-cent app launched in November and can be used to measure involuntary eye movements when people are intoxicated, which is one method police use in field sobriety tests.
Via www.tennessean.com

Young people should be given advice on the dangers of alcohol when they access sexual health services, a group of health experts has recommended.The Alcohol and Sexual Health Working Party says the NHS is missing “key opportunities” to tackle the problem.It suggests alcohol and sexual risk-taking go hand-in-hand.Meanwhile, government advisers say everyone should be asked about their diet, smoking and drinking habits every time they see a health professional.
Via www.bbc.co.uk

Air pollution has long been a fact of life in Spanish cities, but scientists now say that it is not just smog that chokes people as they walk to work or stroll through the park.
A new study has found the air in Madrid and Barcelona is also laced with at least five drugs – most prominently cocaine.
The Superior Council of Scientific Investigations, a government institute, said on its website that in addition to cocaine, it found trace amounts of amphetamines, opiates, cannabinoids and lysergic acid -a relative of LSD – in air-quality control stations in the cities.
Via www.telegraph.co.uk

The news about narcotic painkillers is increasingly dire: Overdoses now kill nearly 15,000 people a year — more than heroin and cocaine combined. In some states, the painkiller death toll exceeds that of car crashes.
We compiled tens of thousands of records from all the companies that have disclosed their payments to doctors so far. Search for your physician.
The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has declared the overdoses from opioid drugs like OxyContin an “epidemic.” And a growing group of experts doubts that they work for long-term pain.
But the pills continue to have an influential champion in the American Pain Foundation, which describes itself as the nation’s largest advocacy group for pain patients. Its message: The risk of addiction is overblown, and the drugs are underused. What the nonprofit doesn’t highlight is the money behind that message.The foundation collected nearly 90 percent of its $5 million funding last year from the drug and medical-device industry — and closely mirrors its positions, an examination by ProPublica found.Although the foundation maintains it is sticking up for the needs of millions of suffering patients, records and interviews show that it favors those who want to preserve access to the drugs over those who worry about their risks.
Via www.propublica.org

Levels of secondhand smoke exposure among nonsmoking English adults declined significantly after smoke-free laws went into effect, according to a new U.K. study.Exposure to secondhand smoke, as measured by the percentage of the population with undetectable salivary cotinine, declined from 1998 to 2008. The percentage of the population who had undetectable cotinine was 2.9 times higher and the geometric mean cotinine declined by 80% over the term, Michelle Sims, PhD, from the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies at the University of Bath, and colleagues found.After the implementation of the legislation, there was also a significant fall in exposure, they reported in Environmental Health Perspectives.The odds of having undetectable cotinine were 1.5 times higher (95% CI 1.3 to 1.8) and the geometric mean cotinine declined by 27% (95% CI 17% to 36%) after adjusting for pre-legislation trend and potential confounders.
Via www.medpagetoday.com

IMAGINE a Briton’s new year resolutions: he vows to stop smoking 20 cigarettes a day, forgo his daily bottle of claret and nightly whisky, and stop betting on football. Confronting his enlarging gut, he promises to make his ten-mile round-trip commute by bike, not car. He may even go walking at weekends.What admirable goals. And since this gentleman’s annual vice bill comes to around £7,500 ($11,750) he will be well-rewarded for his virtue even before considering the effect on his health. But the Treasury might rejoice a little less. More than half of that vice bill flows directly into government coffers. In the fiscal year 2010-11 nearly 10% of all taxes collected came from duty on alcohol, tobacco, gambling and fuel as well as from vehicle excise duty, a tax that falls most heavily on the least efficient cars.
Via www.economist.com

Secretary of State Robin Carnahan today announced that seven initiative petitions relating to local taxes on cigarettes or tobacco products have met state standards for circulation.The ballot title for the first two approved petitions reads:Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to:allow voters in cities and counties to set and control local taxes on cigarettes or tobacco products within their city or county; and
use the proceeds of such taxes for local job creation, health care, public education, reduction and prevention of tobacco use, or other uses specifically approved by local voters?This proposal has no fiscal impact (change in costs, savings, or revenues) for state and local governmental entities as it will only enact enabling legislation allowing the establishment of local tobacco taxes that may or may not be submitted to and approved by voters.
Via www.koamtv.com