Addiction/Substance abuse News

Heroin anthrax alert issued in UK

British health authorities issued an alert to drug users after a drug injecting heroin user in London tested positive for anthrax infection.

Booze kills more Brits

Alcohol-related deaths in Britain have more than doubled over the past 16 years, with those in managerial and professional jobs regularly drinking more than manual workers.

Stress hormone key to alcoholism?

Researchers are linking a stress hormone to alcoholism in animals, and they report that blocking it could become a strategy to help stop the addiction in people.

Should dagga be unbanned?

Laws against cannabis have failed to cut its use around the world and have led to policies that are intrusive, socially divisive and expensive.

UK bans drinking games

Bar-going Britons may soon be bidding goodbye to their country's all-you-can-drink deals - as well as some of their more outlandish drinking games.

Novice poker players likely to lose

Play more online poker and you'll get better and win, right? Wrong, says a new study of gambling behaviour that suggests players win less money the more hands they play.

Putin vs Russias drinking problem

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, alarmed by Russians' love affair with alcohol, gave the go-ahead for a campaign to cut consumption by more than half in the next 10 years.

No such thing as safe cocaine

More than 3% of sudden deaths in Europe are related to cocaine use and many of them are brought on by a "lethal cocktail" of the drug, alcohol and cigarettes.

Price hikes to fight alcohol abuse

Binge drinking and other growing forms of harmful use of alcohol should be tackled through higher taxes on alcoholic drinks and tighter marketing regulations, the WHO says.

Old Baby Boomers still use drugs

Almost 5% of ageing Baby Boomers in the United States are abusing drugs, a new government report shows.