8/27/2008
Web Delivers New Worries For Parents: Digital Drugs
We all know that music can alter your mood. Sad songs can make you cry. Upbeat songs may give you an energy boost. But can music create the same effects as illegal drugs? This seems like a ridiculous question. But websites are targeting your children with so-called digital drugs. These are audio files designed to induce drug-like effects. All your child needs is a music player and headphones. USA Today, August 7, 2008.
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8/27/2008
Drug Smugglers Bribing U.S. Agents On Mexico Border
U.S. Border Patrol agent Reynaldo Zuniga was arrested last month lugging a bag of cocaine up from the Rio Grande, one of a growing number of law enforcement officers accused of taking bribes from drug gangs. Former colleagues say Zuniga used to wait until agents in the south Texas town of Harlingen were distracted with paperwork, then slip down to the river and help smuggle in drugs from Mexico. The increasing use of bribes by Mexican drug cartels to corrupt U.S. agents comes as Washington is sending $400 million to help Mexico's army-led war on the trafficking gangs, whose brutal murders have surged to unprecedented levels. Reuters, July 15, 2008.
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8/27/2008
Research Finds Causal Link Between Ending Drinking, Depression
Giving up your few drinks a day may lead to health issues, including depression, a new study says. "Our research in an animal model establishes a causal link between abstinence from alcohol drinking and depression," study senior author Clyde W. Hodge, a
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8/27/2008
NYC Gang Used Torture To Rob Rival Drug Dealers
They bound their victims with duct tape, beat them and held guns to their heads. When that didn't work, the bandits applied pliers to their genitals and pressed hot irons to the soles of their feet. Sometimes they held victims' heads under water in a bathtub. Prosecutors say the torture was inflicted by a brazen New York gang that impersonated police officers and preyed on rival drug dealers along the East Coast, stealing their money and cocaine. The crime spree netted more than 1,650 pounds of cocaine worth $20 million and $4 million in cash. At least 100 people were injured. Associated Press, July 18, 2008.
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8/27/2008
Substance Abuse Fight Goes to Work
When your dad, maybe your granddad, was a working man, people didn't talk much about their drinking. Oh, there might have been a reference to somebody who "couldn't hold his liquor," but, by and large, work was work and a person's own time was his own. Privacy was part of stoicism. So much so that it spawned the phrase "elephant in the living room" to describe a drinking problem everybody saw but didn't talk about. But that was at least a couple of decades ago. In 2006, in Bernalillo County, 2,386 people were victims of alcohol-related car crashes. Thirty-eight of them died -- on public roads that you pay for and your kids drive on. Alcoholism can still be an elephant in the living room, but often it's charging around making a lot of noise. And people at work have stopped pretending not to notice. Red Orbit, July 21, 2008.
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8/27/2008
Survey Shows Misconception About Meth
Some Wyoming teens and young adults believe that methamphetamine is low-risk and easily accessible, according to a new statewide survey by the Wyoming Meth Project. The study of meth use and attitudes toward the drug in Wyoming indicates that 23 percent of people between the ages of 12 and 24 see little or no risk in trying meth, and more than half of teens said the drug is easily obtainable from within the community. "My guess would be that this is what they hear from other people and what they've known other people to experience," said Jean Davies, executive director of the Wyoming Meth Project. Star Tribune, July 23, 2008.
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8/27/2008
Family Meals Can Help Teen Girls Avoid Drugs, Alcohol
Eating meals together as a family can reduce a teen girl's risk of turning to alcohol or drugs, a new study suggests. In families who ate at least five meals a week together, the teen girls were much less likely to drink alcohol, or smoke marijuana or cigarettes five years later, said study author Marla Eisenberg, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Minnesota Medical School. The same effect wasn't seen for boys in this study, although Eisenberg can't say why. "One of the key findings we have here is for girls," she said. "We found girls who had regular family meals had half the odds of initiating cigarettes, alcohol or marijuana use in the five-year time period." Health Day News, July 23, 2008.
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8/27/2008
Prescription Drug Addictions Rise
When Sarah Roisman was 11 years old, her doctors prescribed Klonopin, a muscle relaxant, for a psychiatric disorder that caused her to have seizures. She liked how the drug made her feel. Her seizures went away. But that's where her trouble with addiction
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8/27/2008
Americans Drinking Less Alcohol
Americans are drinking less alcohol, with middle-aged people consuming about one-third less than 50 years ago, researchers report. Overall, Americans are drinking less beer, but more wine, while consumption of hard liquor has remained fairly constant. Also, more people say they don't drink, and those born later in the 20th century are more moderate drinkers than their parents. "It looks like moderate drinking has been increasing, heavy drinking is down a little bit, and total alcohol consumption is down a little bit," said lead researcher Dr. R. Curtis Ellison, a professor of medicine and public health at Boston University School of Medicine. "It is encouraging news that more people are drinking moderately, and the average intake is coming down rather than shooting up," he said.
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8/27/2008
Homegrown Marijuana Cases Surge In Japan
Police investigations of marijuana use have surged this year in Japan, the result in part of the easy availability of seeds on the Internet for home cultivation, authorities said Thursday, raising concerns in a country long considered immune from the drug abuse problems of Europe and the United States. The number of marijuana cases handled by police in the first half of the year rose 12 percent from the same period last year to 1,202,the National Police Agency said in a report. At that rate, the number of cases will reach an all-time high this year, passing the 2,288 recorded in 2006. Associated Press, August 7, 2008.
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8/27/2008
Mexican Cartels Running Pot Farms In U.S. National Forest
Beyond the towering trees that have stood here for thousands of years, an intense drug war is being waged. Illegal immigrants connected to Mexico's drug cartels are growing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of marijuana in the heart of one of America's national treasures, authorities say. It's a booming business that, federal officials say, feeds
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8/27/2008
Hollywood Pushes Higher Grade Of Film, TV Stoners
Marijuana is not just for dopes anymore, at least not in Hollywood. Thirty years after comedians Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong popularized the myth of stoners as amiable goofballs in "Up In Smoke," film and television producers are instead portraying pot smokers as regular folks from all walks of life. On TV, there is "Weeds," which became a hit on cable network Showtime following its 2005 debut. It revolves around a widowed mom who deals dope to make ends meet. Among movies, the "Harold & Kumar" movies center on a stoner investment banker and medical school candidate. In the art-house film "The Wackness," Sir Ben Kingsley plays a pot-smoking psychiatrist and, in the upcoming comedy "Pineapple Express," Seth Rogen portrays a sky-high legal process server. Reuters, August 1, 2008.
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8/27/2008
Where Do Teens Get Drugs Now? From the Home Medicine Cabinet
Are we winning the war on drugs? John P. Walters, the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, who was in the San Joaquin Valley last week, says the answer is yes and no. Youth illicit drug use is down, and workplace drug testing results show adult drug use is down. So illegal drug use has decreased, and Walters is optimistic that trend may continue with a new era of cooperation between the United States and Mexico's president, Felipe Calderón. The Modesto Bee, August 12, 2008.
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8/27/2008
Teenagers and marijuana
If you're a baby boomer, don't lull yourself into thinking that marijuana is a fading fad that represents a modest threat to today's youth. You'd be wrong. Nearly half of today's teenagers try marijuana before graduating from high school, and by their senior year more than 20 percent are regular users, Science Daily reported in May. More teens use marijuana than all other illegal drugs combined, and they are at greater risk than teens who smoked pot a couple of decades ago. Why? Because a federal report issued last month said marijuana sold in the United States is at least twice as potent as it was in 1983 and has reached the highest level of potency since scientific analysis of street samples began in the late 1970s. The Courier Journal, July 10, 2008
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8/27/2008
Ruling: No religious right to marijuana
There is no religious right in Arizona to possess marijuana, the state Court of Appeals ruled Thursday, saying freedom of religion is not the same as freedom of action. The judges rejected arguments that the First Amendment protections of free exercise of religion entitle an Arizona resident, Daniel Hardesty, to use marijuana as a "sacrament" of his church. They said the state has the power to totally ban possession of the drug
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8/27/2008
Teens Say Stress is Why They Take Drugs
The top reason U.S. teens give for using drugs is to deal with the pressures and stress of school, officials at the Partnership for a Drug-Free America said. The Partnership Attitude Tracking Study of 6,511 teens said 73 percent of teens reported that school stress is the primary reason for drug use. However, just 7 percent of parents believe teens might use drugs to deal with stress. Over the past decade, studies have indicated a changing trend in what teens perceive as the motivations for using drugs. UPI, August 11, 2008.
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7/29/2008
Teenagers and Marijuana
If you're a baby boomer, don't lull yourself into thinking that marijuana is a fading fad that represents a modest threat to today's youth. You'd be wrong. Nearly half of today's teenagers try marijuana before graduating from high school, and by their senior year more than 20 percent are regular users, Science Daily reported in May. More teens use marijuana than all other illegal drugs combined, and they are at greater risk than teens who smoked pot a couple of decades ago. Courier-Journal, July 10, 2008.
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7/29/2008
Anti-Pot Activist Angles for ‘No’ Vote
It's official: Massachusetts residents will vote in November on whether to decriminalize minor possession of marijuana, and William T. Breault of Worcester is out to see that they vote "no." Breault, an activist who heads up the Main South Alliance for Public Safety, said citizens have an obligation to get educated about the issue. He accuses the decriminalization advocates of using "deceptive tactics" to gain voter support. The Boston-based group behind the referendum vote, the Committee for a Sensible Marijuana Policy, has received certification of its 13,481 signatures gathered to bring the issue to voters, and is now awaiting its ballot number designation from the Secretary of State's office, said spokeswoman Whitney Taylor. The Berkshire Eagle, July 10, 2008.
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7/29/2008
CASA Study: No Prescription Needed For Most Prescription Drug Web Sites
Despite a decline in the number of Web sites advertising or selling controlled prescription drugs, like OxyContin and Valium, Xanax and Vicodin, and Ritalin and Adderall, in the past year, 85 percent of Web sites selling such drugs do not require a prescription, according to "'You've Got Drugs!' V: Prescription Drug Pushers on the Internet," the fifth annual White Paper on this subject released by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University. The new White Paper reports that CASA researchers found a total of 365 Web sites advertising or selling controlled prescription drugs during
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7/29/2008
Dutch Smoking Ban Leaves Toking Option
A tobacco smoking ban came into force Tuesday in cafes, bars and restaurants throughout the Netherlands, with a uniquely Dutch exemption for marijuana smokers. While patrons are no longer allowed to light up cigarettes, they can still smoke marijuana in the country's specially licensed "coffee" shops as long as their joints contain no tobacco. Many regular marijuana users prefer their weed rolled with tobacco and, as joint content is hardly the easiest regulation to police, some coffee shops have opted to switch their business to over-the-counter sales only, or to erect specially designated smoking areas. Agence France Presse, July 1, 2008.
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7/29/2008
Hawaii Legislature Won’t Overturn Medical Marijuana Veto
A bill aimed at improving Hawaii's medical-marijuana law was vetoed by Gov. Linda Lingle, and the state House failed to bring an override vote to the floor, the Hawaii Tribune Herald reported July 11. The state Senate had voted 20-1 in favor of a veto override. The measure would have established a task force to determine the amount of marijuana that should constitute a patient's supply, legal ways to grow the drug on Hawaii for medical use, and other issues. Lingle, however, called the bill "an exercise aimed at finding ways to circumvent federal law." Join Together, July 14, 2008.
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7/29/2008
Increase in Alcohol-Poisoning Deaths Among College-Age People
After three college-age people in Minnesota died from alcohol-poisoning after nights of drinking, The Associated Press began looking into these types of deaths. An AP analysis of federal records found that 157 college-age people, ages 18 to 23, drank themselves to death from 1999 through 2005. That's the most recent year for which figures are available. The number of alcohol-poisoning deaths among that age group per year rose from 18 in 1999 to 35 in 2005. Over the 7-year span, 83 of the college-age victims were under the drinking age of 21. Associated Press, July 7, 2008.
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7/29/2008
Marijuana Initiative Would Allow Pot Sales at Oregon Liquor Stores
Relax it and tax it. That's the motto behind a new cannabis initiative that would allow Oregon's state-controlled liquor stores to legally sell marijuana to adults. Initiative backers said their plan would send 90 percent of the proceeds from the state's sale of marijuana to Oregon's General Fund, which could lower Oregonians' state tax burden. Smaller percentages would go to funding drug abuse education and treatment programs. KATU, Portland, July 7, 2008.
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7/29/2008
Special Court For Vets Addresses More Than Crime
"A lot of veterans, when they come home, find the transition difficult and we all turn to different things to get through those times," said Campbell, who served in Iraq in 2004-05. "If we're not lucky enough to have a strong family social network to hold us together in those difficult times, people turn to drugs, turn to alcohol." "All of a sudden they find themselves in a position where, instead of being the outstanding patriot who's always been the person everyone looks to, they find themselves on the other end of the law," Campbell said. "This is going to get service members back to serving their country again." Buffalo has other courts that take a treatment approach, and they have saved taxpayers money by producing lower rates of repeat offending than other courts, said Hank Pirowski, the vets court's project director. Associated Press, July 6, 2008.
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7/29/2008
Wash. Health Dept. Issues New Medical Marijuana
Medical-marijuana patients would be allowed to possess up to 24 ounces of harvested marijuana, six mature plants and 18 immature plants under draft rules announced by the Washington Department of Health, the Seattle Times reported July 2. Law-enforcement officials had called for a limit of three ounces of harvested marijuana, three mature plants, and six immature plants; medical-marijuana advocates called for limits of 70 ounces of harvested marijuana and allowing users to grow marijuana plants on up to 100 square feet of space. Join Together, July 3, 2008.
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7/29/2008
S. African Addicts Turn To AIDS Medication To Get High
South African AIDS patients in Durban are under siege from drug addicts who rob them of their antiretroviral treatment to get high, the provincial health department said Wednesday. The life prolonging drug Stocrin, one of the antiretroviral drugs used to fight AIDS, is reportedly crushed and mixed with marijuana and sold in the townships around the coastal city. The health department has warned that the trend could spark shortages in the city's hospitals and health centres, in one of the provinces worst afflicted by the AIDS pandemic. "This practice is disturbing, a large number of HIV patients depend on the state sponsored treatment to stay healthy," spokesman Leon Mbangwa told AFP. Agence France Presse, July 2, 2008.
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7/29/2008
Drug Use Increasingly Common In All Countries
The United States has one of the highest lifetime rates of tobacco and alcohol use and the highest percentage of people who reported using marijuana or cocaine at least once in their lives, a new survey shows. Researchers from the World Health Organization analyzed alcohol, tobacco and illegal drug use in 17 countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Oceania. HealthDay News, July 1, 2008..
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7/29/2008
Arizona Towns Hurt As Gangs See Smuggling Profit
Walls get tagged with graffiti. Cars get shot up in drive-by shootings. Youngsters flash gang signs and battle with bricks, sticks, bats and pipes in the local park over turf. Once a sleepy smelter town on the Mexico border, Douglas is one of several cities in southern Arizona that are being transformed into urban battlefields as warring street gangs muscle in from southern California, police say. A sun-baked backwater of broad streets and bungalows set in vast, high desert ranchland, Douglas is now a patchwork of territories held by the East Side Torrance and the South Side Harbor City, both Los Angeles-area street gangs, as well as lesser home-grown gang. A few miles up the road in nearby Sierra Vista, a boomtown in the shadow of the looming Huachuca Mountains, police say various factions of the Crips, also from Los Angeles, are warring for control of new streets, malls and subdivisions with the Bloodlines, a local gang. Reuters, July 8, 2008.
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7/1/2008
Amsterdam Coffee Shops Say Tobacco Ban Is Blow To Business
The Netherlands' famous coffee shops, where marijuana is available over the counter, face the threat of extinction when the country goes smoke-free on 1 July. Smoking dope is the raison d'être of the cafes which are scattered across the country, with the greatest and most famous concentration in Amsterdam. But when the tobacco ban comes in, the coffee shops will not be exempt. This will lead to the paradoxical situation that only pure grass or cannabis resin, which are not covered by the ban, can be legally smoked in the shops. Anybody rolling a tobacco-based joint will be breaking the law – but only because of the tobacco. "The new rule is nonsense," said Willem Panders, of the Dutch tobacco traders' union. "It will be almost impossible to enforce because how are you going to check if someone is smoking cannabis mixed with tobacco, or pure cannabis?" The Independent, June 17, 2008.
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7/1/2008
Denver-Based Group Wants Marijuana Permitted in Airport Lounges
Members of the Denver-based Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER) will ask government officials Tuesday to allow the drug in airport smoking lounges, where cigarette use is currently permitted, MyFOXColorado.com reported. Proponents of the change claim marijuana is a better alternative to alcohol to calm travelers down before a flight. In 2005, Denver voters approved a measure that made possession of one ounce or less of marijuana legal within city limits, making it the first municipality in the nation to pass such a law. Possession of marijuana remains illegal under Colorado State law, as well as federal law. Attorneys in Denver can still use state and federal statutes to prosecute marijuana possession in the city. MyFox Colorado: Fox Television Stations, Inc., June 24, 2008.
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7/1/2008
Illinois Greenlights Ignition Breath Tests
Starting next year, Illinois motorists charged with first-time drunken driving offenses will have to do the same thing Cedric Benson will have to do -- blow into a Breathalyzer before starting their cars.The former Bears running back was ordered Monday by a Texas judge to install an ignition lock breath tester in his car. The device prevents a car from starting until the driver passes a breath test. Starting next January, Illinoisans charged with drunken driving who wish to stay on the road will have to place similar sobriety-testing devices on their vehicles under a new law pushed by Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White and Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Chicago Sun-Times, June 24, 2008.
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7/1/2008
Non-Medical Marijuana III: Rite Of Passage Or Russian Roulette?
Despite reported declines in teen marijuana use, in 2007 almost 11 million teens report having used marijuana. For those using the drug, four alarming trends are of grave concern for parents and teens, according to Non-Medical Marijuana III: Rite of Passage or Russian Roulette?, a new report by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University. “The message for teens is clear--today’s pernicious pot is not your parent’s pot,” said Joseph A. Califano, Jr., CASA’s Chairman and President and former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. “The THC potency in marijuana seized in the 1970’s, when marijuana use was most prevalent, was less than one percent; today such potency levels have climbed to 8.8 percent. This increased potency parallels the increases we see in teen medical diagnoses, treatment admissions and emergencies. Parents and teachers, coaches and clergy, all who work with teens, must understand that marijuana is a risky and addictive drug with serious health and social consequences.” CASAColumbia , June 18, 2008.
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7/1/2008
Legal Drugs Kill Far More Than Illegal, Florida Says
From “Scarface” to “Miami Vice,” Florida’s drug problem has been portrayed as the story of a single narcotic: cocaine. But for Floridians, prescription drugs are increasingly a far more lethal habit. An analysis of autopsies in 2007 released this week by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission found that the rate of deaths caused by prescription drugs was three times the rate of deaths caused by all illicit drugs combined. Law enforcement officials said that the shift toward prescription-drug abuse, which began here about eight years ago, showed no sign of letting up and that the state must do more to control it. The New York Times, June 14, 2008.
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7/1/2008
Study: Marijuana Potency Increases In 2007
Marijuana potency increased last year to the highest level in more than 30 years, posing greater health risks to people who may view the drug as harmless, according to a report released Thursday by the White House. The latest analysis from the University of Mississippi's Potency Monitoring Project tracked the average amount of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, in samples seized by law enforcement agencies from 1975 through 2007. It found that the average amount of THC reached 9.6 percent in 2007, compared with 8.75 percent the previous year. The 9.6 percent level represents more than a doubling of marijuana potency since 1983, when it averaged just under 4 percent. Associated Press, June 12, 2008.
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7/1/2008
China Announces Olympics Drugs Crackdown
China plans to crack down on illegal drugs in Beijing and other cities that will host Olympic events, a top police official said Wednesday. Authorities will target drug use at nightclubs and other entertainment venues, as well as smugglers supplying major cities, said Yang Fengrui, director of the Bureau of Narcotics Control under the Public Security Ministry. While most Olympic events are taking place in Beijing and its suburbs, the nearby cities of Tianjin and Qinghuangdao will host soccer matches, along with the business hub of Shanghai and northeastern industrial center of Shenyang. The coastal city of Qingdao will host sailing events. Yang told a news conference that the crackdown would be accompanied by a publicity campaign aimed at raising "public awareness of the hazards of drug use." Associated Press, June 25, 2008.
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7/1/2008
Heavy Marijuana Use Shrinks Brain Parts
Long-term heavy use of marijuana may cause two important brain structures to shrink, Australian researchers said on Monday. Brain scans showed the hippocampus and amygdala were smaller in men who were heavy marijuana users compared to nonusers, the researchers said. The men had smoked at least five marijuana cigarettes daily for on average 20 years. The hippocampus regulates memory and emotion, while the amygdala plays a critical role in fear and aggression. The study, published in the American Medical Association's journal Archives of General Psychiatry, also found the heavy cannabis users earned lower scores than the nonusers in a verbal learning task -- trying to recall a list of 15 words. The marijuana users were more likely to exhibit mild signs of psychotic disorders, but not enough to be formally diagnosed with any such Reuters, June 2, 2008.
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7/1/2008
U.S. Drug Czar Urges Funds For War On Mexico Cartels
White House drug czar John Walters urged the U.S. Congress on Tuesday not to "sabotage" relations with Mexico and pass a $1.4 billion anti-narcotics package to help crush drug cartels. Congress has scaled back the so-called Merida initiative that President George W. Bush proposed in October as a three-year plan to provide Mexico with aircraft, equipment and training to fight drug traffickers. The Senate version also includes amendments aimed at protecting human rights, but which Mexico says would require constitutionally unacceptable changes to its laws. "If we asked other nations what we are asking of Mexico, we would sabotage our relationship," Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said at a news conference. "These provisions are counterproductive and self-defeating ... We risk sabotaging this opportunity," he added. Reuters, June 3, 2008.
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7/1/2008
Hispanic Teens Try Drugs, Suicide At Higher Rates
Hispanic high school students use drugs and attempt suicide at higher rates than their black and white classmates, according to a new federal survey that shows a continuation of a disturbing trend. The study is the latest in a series of surveys of U.S. high school students every two years. The new report noted that black and white students are reporting less sexual activity than in years past, but there was no decline among Hispanics. In addition, Hispanic students were more likely than either blacks or whites to attempt suicide, ride with a driver who had been drinking alcohol, or use cocaine, heroin or ecstasy. Associated Press, June 4, 2008.
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7/1/2008
U.S. County Votes To Ban Marijuana Cultivation
Mendocino County's reputation as a marijuana haven of California may be going up in smoke. Voters on Tuesday leaned toward repealing a law allowing home marijuana growing, according to preliminary results of a ballot measure vote released on Wednesday. Critics say a cottage industry had grown out of control.
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7/1/2008
Will Columbia Rebels Heed Chavez's Call?
The bearded Marxist intellectual who has just taken command of Latin America's last major guerrilla army has been put on the spot by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is calling on him to abandon armed struggle. Alfonso Cano and his lieutenants, the subjects of an intense manhunt by Colombia's U.S.-supported military, are believed to be isolated in jungle and mountain hideaways. Their rebels are hunkered down as well, holding scores of hostages as human shields against increasingly successful attacks. There was no question of their allegiance to the legendary Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda, a septuagenarian who died of a heart attack in late March. But it is unclear how far other rebel commanders will follow Cano, a bespectacled former anthropology student and Communist Youth activist who took over last month. The Associated Press, June 9, 2008.
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7/1/2008
Working Out May Help Prevent Substance Abuse
Sure, exercise is good for your waistline, your heart, your bones — but might it also help prevent addiction to drugs or alcohol? There are some tantalizing clues that physical activity might spur changes in the brain to do just that. Now the U.S. government is beginning a push for hard research to prove it. This is not about getting average people to achieve the so-called runner's high, a feat of pretty intense athletics. Instead, the question is just how regular physical activity of varying intensity — dancing, bicycling, swimming, tae kwan do — might affect mood, academic performance, even the very reward systems in the brain that can get hijacked by substance abuse. Associated Press, June 9, 2008.
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7/1/2008
Children Of Britain Lead The World In Drinking And Drugs
Children in England drink more alcohol and take more drugs than their counterparts in most of the Western world. A report from the World Health Organisation shows that English schoolchildren are among the most likely to have drunk alcohol in the past week, to have taken cannabis and to have had sex. Eleven and 13 year olds are among the most likely to have smoked a cigarette. And they are more stressed at school than any country except Portugal, mirroring a Unicef study last year which found British children were the most unhappy in Europe. The report, the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children, paints a bleak picture of a childhood blighted by pressure to fit in with peer groups and perform well in tests. Mail Online: Associated Northcliffe Digital, June 18, 2008.
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