Specific articles on Addiction, drugs, alcohol and other topics as highlighted by our lecturers are available for download at the bottom of this page.

January 2012

• The Learning Curve Institute's call for a new approach has featured on many news stations and papers over the last 3 days including The Irish Examiner and The India Times: Irish Examiner & India Times
• Interim National Drugs Strategy - 2009 to 2016 - link
• Links to Drugs Taskforces, community groups and government departments dealing with drug issues. Includes EU. link
• Harm Reduction & Low Threshold Services - Excellent resource document developed by Depaul Ireland for staff and volunteers about harm deduction and low threshold practices. - link
• National Documentation Centre on Drug Use - excellent site with a ton of resources on issues of drug use including all questions asked in the Dail as well as current research. link
• Fact Sheets from the NDCDU on drug situation in Ireland - link
• Written answers on National Drugs Strategy. Dail Eireann Jan 17 2012 - link
• Supervised Drugs Injecting Centre in Dublin - Anna Liffey Drugs Project in Dublin has plans for a supervised drugs injecting centre - link
• Law Reform Commission published consultation paper on mandatory drugs sentences. One of its key recommendations is that current minimum sentence law for drugs offences be reviewed as it has led to a bulge in prison populations without any major impact on those at the top of the drugs industry. link
• Young People and Drugs Policy - Youth Rise [an international youth led organisation focusing on drugs policy and harm reduction] have just published 4 working papers on criminalisation & law enforcement; harm reduction & young people; participation of young people who use drugs; human rights, drug policy and young people who use drugs - link 
• Legal Status of Cannabis for Personal use in European Countries - link
• Report on the misuse of alcohol and other drugs. 2012.  Houses of the Oireachtas. Joint Committee on Health & Children. This report  sets the view of the stakeholders and the committee in the context of an examination of data and research relating to the prevalence of alcohol and drug misuse in Ireland. It provides statistics of substance misuse in the general population as well as in high risk groups. The report is divided into four parts:i. drug misuse and high risk groups;ii. misuse of alcohol;iii. alcohol related harm; social and economic consequences; and iv. interventions to tackle alcohol and drug misuse. link

Methodone addicts hit hard by dispute. The Irish Times, August 6th 2009. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0806/1224252081211.html All of Us Use Drugs, but Only Some of Us Go to Jail!. The Huffington Post, May 22nd 2010. http://dlvr.it/17CxK Over 400 "Legal Highs" still available after legislation to ban them. BBC News Wales, May24th 2010. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/wales/10144368.stm The 'war on drugs' has been lost – it's time to rise above the moral panic and decriminalise, regulate and tax. The Guardian, May 24th 2010. http://bit.ly/aCP5OK The US ends its "war on drugs". Irish Examiner, May 26th 2010 http://bit.ly/9zc5cz