Drug and alcohol review
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Drug and alcohol review · Jan 2008
How effective is the revised regulatory code for alcohol advertising in Australia?
Australia, like several other countries, has a self-regulatory approach to advertising. However, in recent years the effectiveness of the regulatory system has been questioned, and there have been increasing public calls for an overhaul of the system. Following a formal review in 2003, the Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy proposed a revised Alcoholic Beverages Advertising Code (ABAC), which came into operation in 2004. ⋯ The results of this study suggest that the decisions made by the ASB in relation to complaints against alcohol advertisements are not in harmony with the judgement of independent experts, and that the ASB may not be performing an adequate job of representing community standards or protecting the community from offensive or inappropriate advertisements. Further, it appears that the revisions to the ABAC code, and associated processes, have not reduced the problems associated with alcohol advertising in Australia.
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Drug and alcohol review · Jan 2008
The influence of alcohol and tobacco use in orthopaedic inpatients on complications of surgery.
Tobacco use and heavy alcohol consumption are associated with increased morbidity and mortality. There is limited research on the correlation between tobacco and risky levels of alcohol use and the possible complications associated with a hospital admission. The underestimation of problem drinking, in particular, has obvious repercussions for the management of patients in hospital. If alcohol-related problems go undetected or unrecorded, treatment may be inadequate or inappropriate. The aims of the project were to assess the prevalence of high-risk alcohol and tobacco use in orthopaedic in-patients and to examine any relationship between alcohol and tobacco use and the number and type of complications, management and length of stay. ⋯ Orthopaedic patients who smoke and/or drink heavily prior to surgery may have more non-medical complications than non-smokers and light or non-drinkers. All surgery patients should thus be screened for alcohol and tobacco use and alcohol withdrawal, which may cause other symptoms such as behavioural problems, non-compliance and verbal abuse post-surgery.
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This paper reports on the public health intervention of harm reduction to address drug use issues in the Asia-Pacific region. ⋯ Harm reduction programmes in the Asia--Pacific region are either small in scale or do not exist. Most programmes lack the technical capacity, human resources and a limited scope of operations to respond effectively to the needs of drug users. Governments in this region should be encouraged to endorse evidence-based harm reduction programmes.