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TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TO
STEP UP ‘WAR ON DRUGS’ smoking as they are no longer seduced by
glitzy, brightly coloured packs.’
Tobacco packaging design for reducing tobacco
use at www.cochranelibrary.com
THE US ADMINISTRATION under President Donald Trump
has signalled that it intends to intensify the ‘war on drugs’,
with a return to 1980s-style prevention campaigns and
the use of marijuana possession as a means to deport
immigrants who don’t have proper documentation.
The direction is in contrast to that of the Obama
administration, which steered prosecutors away from
pursuing low-level drugs offenders, while one of President
Obama’s final acts in office was to commute the
sentences of 330 prisoners. The ‘vast majority’ of these
were serving ‘unduly long sentences for drug crimes’, the
White House said (DDN, February, page 4).
‘Let me be clear about marijuana,’ said homeland
security secretary, John Kelly. ‘It is a potentially dangerous
gateway drug that frequently leads to the use of harder
drugs.’ The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
department (ICE) would ‘continue to use marijuana
possession, distribution and convictions as essential
elements as they build their deportation/removal
apprehension packages for targeted operations against
illegal aliens,’ he stated.
While marijuana remains illegal under US federal law,
eight states have now legalised the drug for adult use –
including five which did so at the time of last year’s
presidential elections (DDN, December 2016, page 4) –
and almost 30 states have medical marijuana laws. ‘It’s
outrageous to think that anyone following medical advice
under state law would be subject to deportation,’ said
policy manager at the Drug Policy Alliance’s Washington-
based office of national affairs, Jerónimo Saldaña.
The announcement follows a recent speech by US
attorney general Jeff Sessions in which he praised the
drug prevention campaigns of the 1980s and ’90s and
stressed the need to prevent ‘people from ever taking
drugs in the first place’. Treatment often came ‘too late to
save people from addiction or death’, he said.
‘Too many lives are at stake to worry about being The Scottish Government should establish a
target to reduce overall alcohol consumption
by 10 per cent over the next decade, says a
report from Alcohol Focus Scotland. The cut in
drinking levels could potentially ‘deliver a 20
per cent reduction in deaths and hospital
admissions’ after 20 years’, states Changing
Scotland’s relationship with alcohol:
recommendations for further action. ‘Scotland
is awash with alcohol,’ said Alcohol Focus
Scotland chief executive Alison Douglas.
‘Widespread availability, low prices and heavy
marketing are having a devastating effect, not
only on drinkers but on their children and
families too.’ Document at www.alcohol-focus-
scotland.org.uk
PLAIN SPEAKING
IT IS ‘LIKELY’ that plain tobacco packaging
reduces smoking rates ‘despite limited
available research and only one country with
the policy fully in place’, according to a
Cochrane review of international evidence.
Full UK implementation of standardised
packaging legislation will be complete later
this month, following a 12-month period
that allowed retailers to sell their existing
stock. ‘Standard packs are a landmark public
health policy the tobacco industry fought
tooth and nail to prevent,’ said ASH chief
executive Deborah Arnott. ‘As evidence
grows it is easy to see why. Smokers are
already saying they feel differently about
their pack of cigarettes and in years to come
we expect to see fewer young people
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
fashionable,’ he
stated. ‘I reject the
idea that America
will be a better place
if marijuana is sold in
every corner store.
And I am astonished
to hear people
suggest that we can
solve our heroin crisis
by legalising
marijuana – so
people can trade one
life-wrecking
dependency for
another that’s only
slightly less awful.
Our nation needs to
say clearly once again
that using drugs will
destroy your life.’
President Trump is
John Kelly
also expected to
appoint a hardline
drug war advocate, Tom Marino, as the next head of the
Office of National Drug Control Policy – the country’s ‘drug
czar’. Marino strongly supports a ‘punitive, 1980s
approach to drugs’, says the Drug Policy Alliance, which
called him a ‘disastrous’ choice. ‘Our nation needs a drug
czar that wants to treat drug use as a health issue, not
someone who wants to double down on mass
incarceration,’ said its director of national affairs, Bill Piper.
‘The American people are moving in one direction and the
Trump administration is moving in another. There are few
hardcore supporters of the failed war on drugs left, but
those that are left seem to all be getting jobs in the
administration.’ Jeff Sessions speech at www.justice.gov
‘marijuana is a
potentially
dangerous
gateway drug.’
FOCUSED APPROACH
ADMISSIONS UP
There were an estimated 339,000 alcohol-
related hospital admissions in England in
2015-16, a 3 per cent increase on the previous
year but 22 per cent higher than a decade ago,
according to the latest figures from ONS and
NHS Digital. Using a ‘broad measure’ of
admissions related to alcohol consumption,
however, the number rises to 1.1m – up 4 per
cent on the previous year. In both measures,
Blackpool had the highest rate of admissions,
says Statistics on alcohol England, 2017, which
draws together new and previously released
data from ONS, PHE, NHS Digital and other
sources. Just over 25m adults reported
drinking in the previous week, which equates
to 57 per cent of the population – down from
64 per cent the previous year.
Report at www.content.digital.nhs.uk
SOCIAL CALL
THE ALL PARTY PARLIAMENTARY GROUP (APPG) for Dual Diagnosis and
Complex Needs has launched a call for evidence around how social action
can ‘drive better services’, for example by reducing stigma and improving
joint working. The evidence will be presented at a roundtable event for
health and social care leaders, followed by a report at the end of the
summer. ‘As the APPG has continually found, people with complex needs
can remain at the sharp end of the inverse care law – requiring the most
support, but receiving the least,’ said APPG co-chair Lord Victor Adebowale.
‘We hope this call for evidence will bring to
light ways in which social action – whether
that be formal volunteering, peer support,
mutual aid or cooperatively managed
services – can break down those barriers.’
Anyone with experience of the issues can
contact sarah.cameron2@turning-
point.co.uk until 20 May.
‘People with complex needs can remain
at the sharp end of the inverse care law
– requiring the most support, but
receiving the least.’ lord VICtor adebowale
May 2017 | drinkanddrugsnews | 5