Drugs & Alcohol

Why so violent?

Is it me, or are our youth getting more violent? I don’t mean all our youth – of course – but it does seem to me that the kind of assaults kids get involved in are more violent now than say ten or twenty years ago.  If you know anything about me, you’ll know I’m [...]

Police follow the Silk Road to online drug marketplace

POLICE and customs officials are turning their attention to the online marketplace of illegal drugs, Silk Road, which is achieving an estimated $22 million a year in sales. Silk Road - started by ''Dread Pirate Roberts'' in February last year - functions like a black market version of eBay, complete with vendor feedback, dispute resolution [...]

Are students popping pills to boost performance? 

RESEARCH is needed to determine whether significant numbers of Australian students are trying to improve their academic performance by taking diverted prescription stimulants, according to academics from three Australian universities and a Canadian research institute.  Dr Jayne Lucke, principal research fellow at the University of Queensland’s Centre for Clinical Research, said there were anecdotal reports [...]

10 minute activist: Message on a bottle

Despite the fact that nearly a year has passed since the Australian and New Zealand Food and Health Ministers recommended that the alcohol industry be given two years to voluntarily implement alcohol warning labels, less than 16%* of alcoholic products carry a consumer information message. Of those that do, 98% take up less than 5% [...]

Marijuana and memory: study shows it’s not good news

Australian scientists say they have proved that persistent heavy marijuana use damages the brain's memory and learning capacity. Their study showed for the first time the earlier people developed a cannabis habit, the worse the damage. Scientists from Melbourne's Murdoch Childrens Research Institute (MCRI), Melbourne University and Wollongong University used Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to [...]

Alcohol consumption causes cancer

Drinking alcohol is an important cause of cancer. The main ingredient in alcoholic drinks which causes cancer is ethanol. A summary of the evidence linking alcohol and cancer can be found at the link below. via Alcohol and cancer : Cancer Council Western Australia.

Dry July

Dry July is a non-profit organisation determined to improve the lives of adults living with cancer through an online social community giving up booze for the month of July. Dry July is also a chance to raise awareness of individual drinking habits, the value of a balanced healthy lifestyle, a personal challenge, encourage positive change [...]

the beginning of the end to alcohol sponsorship of sport?

TWELVE sports associations will become teetotal when it comes to alcohol sponsorship after a $25 million deal with the government.The groups have struck a deal to promote safe alcohol consumption by adults, alcohol-free sporting environments for minors and to reduce alcohol promotion in their codes.But the AFL and NRL were not part of the deal. [...]

Special K for depression?

"It's a completely different mechanism. And the focus is on really rapidly helping someone get out of a depressive episode." This new mechanism isn't the result of a recently discovered chemical compound but the reapplication of an existing drug – ketamine. Used in both human and veterinary science as an anaesthetic agent, it's also taken [...]

Party culture and the hangover of sexual assault

An Australian-first study based in Wollongong has a sobering message for young women who binge drink. The data is in - the more a young woman binge drinks on a night out, the more likely she is to be sexually assaulted, receive unwanted sexual attention and have unprotected sex. via Party culture and the hangover [...]

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