A Weekly FAX from the Center of Substance Abuse Research. University of Maryland, Colege Park

Majority of High School Students Who Are Infrequent Marijuana Users Say They Would Not Use If Marijuana Were Legal; Frequent Users More Likely to Report They Would Use as Often or More Often

Author: Eleanor Winpenny, Sunil Patil, Marc Elliott, Lidia Villalba van Dijk, Saba Hinrichs, Theresa Marteau and Ellen Nolte (Rand Europe)

Evidence strongly suggests that alcohol advertising will increase the likelihood that adolescents will start to drink alcohol at a young age and may increase alcohol use among those who already consume alcohol.
It is against this background that the European Commission Health and Consumer Directorate-General (DG SANCO), by way of the EAHC, commissioned RAND Europe to carry out an assessment of young people’s exposure to alcohol marketing through television and online media. The overall aim of the work presented in this report was to use novel approaches to measure alcohol advertisement exposure among young people in Europe through audiovisual and online media.

Author: Alex Mold

Since 1971, when President Richard Nixon made illegal drugs public enemy number one, the USA has spent vast sums waging war on drugs. Over 45 million people have been arrested, and there are now more people in US prisons for non-violent drug offences than were imprisoned for all crimes in 1970. The USA incarcerates more of its citizens than any other country in the world, with a current prison population of some 2·3 million, and more than half of those in federal prison are there because of drug offences.

Edited by: Peter Anderson (Newcastle University and Maastricht University), Marc Suhrcke (University of East Anglia) and Chris Brookes (Health Action Partnership International)

This report by NHF/HAPI was commissioned by the European Commission to provide a European Union wide overview of the market and regulation regarding types of alcoholic beverages with potentially particular appeal to minors. This topic is important because minors are at disproportionately greater risk from the harmful effects of alcohol than their parents or adults in general, and harmful drinking patterns in early life can have lifelong consequences. Thus, if there are alcoholic beverages that particularly appeal to minors and contribute disproportionately to alcohol-related harm, it is important to know this. The report aims to provide better understanding of alcoholic beverages that appeal to minors and to inform those who have responsibility for advising on alcohol policy either at country or European levels.

Authors: Allyn L. Taylor and Ibadat S. Dhillon

The perceived success of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in influencing national and global public health policies has led to growing interest in promulgating new international legal instruments to address global health issues—including calls for a Framework Convention on Alcohol Control (FCAC).The authors propose a gradual international legal strategy for alcohol control, starting with a non-binding code of practice focusing on areas of critical concern with wide political consensus, leading over time to a comprehensive binding treaty.