adicção notas e conferencias

8/16/2019 Adicção Notas e Conferencias

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THE BOOKSHELF FACTOR

You have in your hand the first issue of a new volumeproduced by the journal’s new publishers, BlackwellPublishing. We hope that you like the smart moderndesign. Staff in the Addiction editorial office have recentlypurchased a pair of bookshelves in a pleasing shade of light oak. The reason? To house our reference copies of the journal in suitable glass-fronted splendour. We liketo have the back volumes readily to hand of a journal that

has been in continuous production since 1884. Why apair? The shelves needed to be in different sizes, for ournew and old formats. Despite the new look, Addictionremains the same journal, and its staff are waiting andeager to serve you, whether readers or authors, in anyway that we can.

DUTCH CANNABIS POLICY EVALUATED

Paul Lemmens writes

The alcohol temperance movement in the second part of the 19th century promoted coffeehouses as alternatives tobars and taverns in Dutch cities. Although these establish-ments have long since ceased to be associated with alcoholtemperance, one can still witness the remains of this sub-stitution policy when driving through Amsterdam. Theold-style coffeehouses should not, however, be confusedwith cafés, which also sell alcoholic drinks, or coffeeshops,which do not sell alcoholic drinks but cannabis products.Coffeeshops in Amsterdam have become an interestingtourist attraction. In order to be tolerated as such, theyhave to stick to certain rules, which are controlled by the

local authorities. A research report commissioned by the Justice Department to evaluate Dutch cannabis policysince 1995 said the city was believed to have 288 coffee-shops officially known to the authorities (Bieleman &Goeree 2000). The report also noted a decrease in thenationwide total to 796 (down 22%) since 1997. Thisdecrease was interpreted by the government as proof of a successful cannabis policy. However, their optimisticconclusion was not generally shared: the statement thatAmsterdam had only two non-official, uncontrolled sitesfrom which cannabis was sold to the public led to thereport’s validity being openly questioned.

Recently, another report from the Justice Departmentmore or less underwrites the results of the previousone (Korf et al. 2001). It evaluates the effects of slightchanges in Dutch cannabis policy during 1995, particu-larly the maximum 5g coffeeshop retail norm (formerly30 g), and the increase in the age limit from 16 to18 years. As regards the effects of the latter, little changecould be detected. Surveys indicate that the use of cannabis among teenagers has stabilised since 1996, andthat sales in coffeeshops to minors and hard-drug use

among minors have decreased somewhat. However,teenagers report buying cannabis outside coffeeshopsmore frequently and more easily than in 1996.Furthermore, results from three observational studiesrevealed that adolescents were still able to obtaincannabis products from coffeeshops because of theabsence of proper age checks—personal identification isnot obligatory in Holland. The report also found thatlocal authorities give the highest priority to deterringsales of hard drugs, with maintaining public order andthe control of underage sales running second and third,respectively. The authors conclude that the 5 g norm has

received little attention, either from the customers orfrom local law enforcers. Although the practice is to sellcannabis in standard quantities of 5 g or less, it is possi-ble for individuals to obtain several 5g portions during asingle day, even during a single visit.

The Dutch policy has attracted controversy. It hasbeen accused of stimulating drug tourism, and of frus-trating enforcement efforts in countries such as France(Lemmens & Garretsen 1998). The report investigatedthe cannabis tourist market in four border towns, wheresales have quadrupled since 1993. Maastricht topsthe league with about 2000 drug tourists spending

C= 87 000 per day on an average weekend (individualspend on cannabis is calculated at C= 32 a day). This makesdrug tourism in Maastricht a lucrative business. On thebasis of a scientific inquiry initiated by themselves (OudeWansink 2001), the local association of coffeeshopsclaimed that revenue from cannabis tourism outstrippedconventional tourism in 2001. They counted an averageof 3100 customers daily, which, using the estimateddaily sum of C= 32, adds up to an annual turnover of C= 36000000.

With their research report and claims of economicadvantage, the cannabis traders try to convince local

© 2002 Society for the Study of Addiction to Alcohol and Other Drugs Addiction, 97, 119–123

News and Notes

Compiled by Susan Savva


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politicians of the respectability of their activities.However, due to its illegal character, the drug traderemains of concern to officials. Issues of public orderand safety, organised crime (often violent), control andenforcement of rules and moral sentiments have far fromdisappeared. Right-wing parties oppose any further nor-malisation of the trade. But the ‘Dutch approach’ cannotbe denied. In the border town of Venlo, for example, theauthorities plan to relocate coffeeshops from the centre of town to the German border in offices formerly occupiedby the Dutch customs. With this unconventional inter-pretation of the ‘Schengen’ treaty, they expect to reduceinner-city nuisance and uncontrollable trade in cannabisand other drugs. In Maastricht, an impact on drugtourism can be expected after the recent change inBelgian cannabis policy. There, too, possession of upto 5 g for personal use will no longer be prosecuted.Whether the Belgians will go as far as the Dutch

‘customs-turned-traffickers’ in locating cannabis cafés inobsolete customs buildings near the French borderremains to be seen.

References

Bieleman, B. & Goeree, P. (2000) Coffeeshops Geteld. AantallenVerkooppunten van Cannabis in Nederland [Coffeeshops Counted.The Number of Cannabis Retail Outlets]. Groningen: Intraval.

Korf, D. J., van der Woude, M., Besnchop, A. & Nabben, T.(2001) Coffeeshops, Jeugd and Toerisme [Coffeeshops, Youth,and Tourism]. Amsterdam: Rozenberg Publications (withEnglish summary).

Lemmens, P. H. H. M. & Garretsen, H. F. L. (1998) Unstable prag-

matism: Dutch drug policy under national and internationalpressure. Addiction, 93, 157–162.

Oude Wansink, M. J. (2001) De Economische Effecten Van Coffee-shops Voor Maastricht [the Economic Effects of Coffeeshops forMaastricht]. Maastricht: Wetenschapswinkel UniversiteitMaastricht.

ALCOHOL PROBLEMS IN ECUADOR:

PREVENTION ACTIVITIES

Saúl Pacurucu-Castillo writes

In May 2000, the Alcoholic Rehabilitation Centre of Cuenca (CRA) launched a mental health programme infour rural areas, covering a population of approximately40 000 inhabitants. The initiative, supported by theHealth Council of Cuenca, comprised two levels: the first,mental health promotion activities focused on preventionof the more frequent psychiatric disorders; the second,devoted to offering psychiatric assistance, both inpatientand ambulatory.

At the start of the programme, the main problems of the rural communities were identified. They includedalcohol misuse, domestic violence, ‘nervousness’, poverty

and lack of information about sexuality. Children andwomen complained that fathers and husbands presentedalcohol abuse, wasted money, beat them and were fre-quently absent from their jobs. They agreed that mostproblems were closely related to alcohol consumption.

The programme designed to tackle those problems had

a threefold aim: to promote mental health, to develop pre-ventive measures and to offer treatment. The target popu-lations – school children, adolescents, adults and womenof fertile age – received training through chats, lecturesand workshops. A wide range of subjects was addressed,including healthy habits, sexual and reproductive educa-tion, mental health risks for women of fertile age, preven-tion of alcohol problems, anxiety and depression,promotion of self-esteem, misuse of tobacco and otherdrugs, and learning disorders. In all, 140 activities eachtrimester were developed by the multidisciplinary teamsfrom the CRA, and were taken to teachers, parents and

adolescent groups with behavioural problems. Educa-tional material was also produced. The messages pro-moted were not just about the negative aspects of drinking, but also about the positive advantages of eithernot drinking or of not drinking to excess. These messagesmerited special emphasis: ‘Say no to drunkenness’; ‘Donot drive after drinking’; ‘Don’t drink if you are pregnant’.

At the end of the year, a ‘Mental Health Festival’ wasorganised in each of the four locations, with the activeparticipation of students, teachers, parents, communitymembers and local authorities, including the Mayor of the city. A competition for the best mental health message

was launched. The options for the participants were:‘graffitis’, wall newspapers, posters, wall charts, wall pic-tures, mural paintings, puppets and small theatre repre-sentations. The best expressions were awarded prizes atthe end of the festival.

An evaluation of the results of the campaign is cur-rently in progress. Preliminary findings show that thenumber of mental health problems in rural communitiesis considerable. Both students and the general populationagree that the most important problems are alcoholmisuse, violence and physical abuse. There was a disap-pointing take-up of treatment facilities (level two of the

programme), with a lack of referrals from the primarycare level. There is a general belief among the populationthat alcoholism is a vice, rather than a disease.

E-mail: [email protected]

ABEAD CONFERENCE 2001

Raul Caetano writes

The XIV Congresso Brazileiro sobre Álcoolismo,Tabagismo e outras Dependências (Brazilian Congress on


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Alcoholism, Smoking and other Dependences) took placefrom September 19 to 23, 2001, in the city of Gramado,Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Gramado is a beautiful moun-tain resort city, about 100 km from Porto Alegre, thecapital of the southernmost state of Brazil, Rio Grandedo Sul.

The meeting is the biennial meeting of theAssociaçaõ Brazileira de Estudos de Álcool e outrasDrogas (ABEAD; Brazilian Association for the Studyof Alcohol and other Drugs). ABEAD congregatesprofessionals from a variety of disciplines who areinterested in the study of alcohol and other drugs inBrazil.

The meeting was very well attended, with about 700registrants. Four international guests were also present:Brian Rush, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health,Canada; Jonathan Chick, Consultant Psychiatrist, RoyalEdinburgh Hospital, Scotland; Daniel Seijas, Unidad de

Adicciones de Departamento de Psiquiatría de la Escuelade Medicina de la Pontificia, Universidad Católica deChile; and Raul Caetano, University of Texas School of Public Health, USA.

A series of pre-congress meetings took place onWednesday, September 19, including a national meetingof nurses working in substance abuse, a meeting of edu-cators interested in alcohol prevention, a meeting of professionals interested in chemical dependencies in theworkplace, and a workgroup to set up a standardisedsystem of data collection and data sharing across anumber of drug and alcohol treatment programs in

Brazil.The scientific program began on Thursday morning

(September 20) and ended at noon on September 23.Four different types of scientific activities were organised.There were daily plenary conferences given by eitherthe international guests or Brazilian scientists; didacticcourses in a number of clinical and research-relatedareas; and daily round-tables of interest to professionalsinvolved in treatment delivery, prevention and research.Posters and a variety of papers were also presented.Around 102 papers were presented during the four daysof the meeting.

Finally, the meeting also had an engaging socialagenda, which provided a number of opportunities forregistrants to interact in a social and informal way. Theseinteractions were always extremely friendly, and werecharacterised by the phenomenally warm hospitalitythat Brazilians show towards one another and theirguests. The next meeting is scheduled to take place in2003 in the state of Saõ Paulo, Brazil.

Ronaldo Laranjeira, a friend of this journal andoccasional contributor to this column, has beenelected President of ABEAD. We send him our warmcongratulations.

SUM U P YOUR SUBSTANCE USE

When browsing through the SAMHSA website recently,my eye was caught by the Drug Use Calculator, a handytool that allows you to tot up the monthly and yearlycosts of your substance use (licit and illicit) and give your-self a scare. The Substance Abuse and Mental HealthServices Administration is a US federal governmentagency, charged with improving the quality and avail-ability of prevention and treatment services to reduce thecost to society and to individuals resulting from sub-stance abuse and mental illness. Its information service,the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and DrugInformation (NCADI) is a rich resource for materialsaimed at a variety of audiences from journalists to treat-ment professionals and parents and children. It has aneasy-to-use, attractive website and offers a 24 hourinformation service with English and Spanish speakers

(Tel. 1 800 729 6686, for US only). It also boasts a visitorcentre and library containing 80000 items, whichmembers of the public may visit.

11426–28 Rockville Pike, Suite 200

Rockville, MD 20852 USA

http://www.health.org

THE IGUANA COLUMN

Our widely syndicated columnist has recently been foundin her office in what she tells us is the first ever achieve-ment of the lotus position by an iguana.

Iggy writes:

I’ve long been devoted to the Italian journal Alcologia,partly on account of its lettuce-coloured cover, and partly

for its quixotic habit of publishing articles on beverageproduction along with all the usual fare on alcohol-related mayhem. But now I have a third reason to rec-ommend this journal to Addiction readers.

Whoops! Let’s leave the lotus position alone for thetime being – too much of it might be bad for an iguana’shealth. What has so pleasingly caught my notice is aninvited review in a recent issue of Alcologia entitled ‘Yogain addictive diseases – practical experience’ (Nespor2001). It has elements within it of a handy self-helpmanual. Let me give you its advice on ‘how to smile withyour legs’.


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‘We lie flat on the back, raise both legs and makecycling movements with them. Similar movementswe make with the hands. In the same time we repeatthe syllables “ha, ha, ha-ho, ho, ho-he, he, he-hi, hi,hi-ha, ha, ha-ho, ho, ho, ho-he, he, he-hi, hi, hi-ha,ha, ha, ha-ho, ho, ho-he, he, he-hi, hi, hi, hi, etc.”This practice is rather physically demanding andhas similar contraindications to Pawanmuktasana,part 2.’

I will be glad to hear from readers of Addiction howthey get on with their attempts at this exercise, togetherwith any responses they have provoked from colleagueswho may have inadvertently disturbed a practice session.He, hi, ha, etc. to all my dear readers and a hi-ha of a NewYear.

Reference

Nespor, K. (2001) Yoga in addictive diseases – practical experi-ence. Alcologia, 13, 21–25.

CONFERENCES AND EVENTS

Human Rights, Human Wrongs – responding to the globalchallenge. 6th International Mainliners Hepatitis Cconference, Lisbon, Portugal, 7–8 February 2002.Contact: Conference Organiser, National Hepatitis CResource Centre, PO Box 31844, London SE11 4DT.

Tel.: + 44 (0)20 7 7357705; fax: + 44(0)2077356645or 7582 6999;e-mail: [email protected]

Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco Annual

Meeting. Hyatt Regency, Savannah, Georgia, USA, 20–24February 2002. Contact: SRNT, tel.: + 16088363787ext 144; e-mail: [email protected];website: http://www.srnt.org/events

13th International Conference on the Reduction of

Drug-Related Harm. Ljubljana, Slovenia, 3–7 March2002. Contact: Andrej Kastelic, Conference President,Centre for Treatment of Drug Addiction, Zaloska 29, SI1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. Tel.: + 8615421350; fax:+ 386 15421354;e-mail: [email protected];website: http://www.ihrc2002.net

Science Meets Practice: Self-change from Addiction –

Implications for Therapy, Social Action and Policy. Bern,Switzerland, 22 April 2002. A dialogue between scien-tists and practitioners sponsored by the Swiss FederalOffice for Public Health. Speakers include Judith Barker,Robert Granfield, Linda Sobell and Geoffrey Hunt.

Contact: Prof. Dr Harald Klingemann, Research Director,Institute for Social Planning and Social Management,University of Applied Sciences Berne – School of SocialWork, PO Box 6564, CH-3001 Berne, Switzerland.Tel.: + 41 31 3003551; fax: + 41 31 3003556; e-mail:[email protected]

European Psychiatry, Science and Humanity in Health Care .11th Congress of Association of European Psychiatrists,Stockholm, Sweden, 4–8 May 2002. Contact: AEPCongress Secretariat at Stockholm Convention Bureau,PO Box 6911, SE-10239 Stockholm, Sweden.Tel.: + 46 854651500; fax: + 46 854651599; e-mail:[email protected]; website: http://www.aep2002.org

Maintenance Therapy: Evidence-based Practice and Inte-

grated Treatment Approaches. 5th conference of the Euro-peanOpiateAddictionTreatmentAssociation(EUROPAD).Oslo, Norway, 14–16 May 2002. Contact: Egil Haga,

Conference Secretary, Kirkevn 166, N-0407 Oslo,Norway. Tel.: + 4723016050; fax: + 4723016051;e-mail: [email protected];website: http://www.med.uio.no/ipsy/skr/conf.htm

3rd European Conference on Tobacco or Health. Warsaw,Poland, 20–22 June 2002. Contact: Conference Secre-tariat, tel./fax: + 48 22 6445024 ext 2757;e-mail: [email protected];website: http://www.ecoth2002.org

2002 Winter School in the Sun. Brisbane, Australia,1–4 July 2002. Organised by the Alcohol and

Drug Foundation, Queensland. Contact: ADFQ, POBox 332, Spring Hill, QLD 4004, Australia. Tel.:+ 61 (0)738323798; fax: + 61(0)738322527; e-mail:[email protected]; website: http://www.winterschool.net

16th International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic

Safety. Montreal, Canada, 4–9 August 2002. Contact:ICADTS-T2002, Opus 3 Inc., 417 rue Saint-Pierre,Suite 203, Montreal, Quebec H2Y 2MA, Canada.Tel.: + 1 514395 1808; fax: + 15143951801; website:http://www.saaq.gouv.qc.ca/t2002/index_a.html

WATCH-2002. 2nd World Assembly on Tobacco

Counters Health. Taj Convention Centre, New Delhi,India, 29 September–3 October, 2002. Contact: Con-venor Watch-2002, 509-B, Sarita Vihar, New Delhi110 044, India. Tel.: + 91116944551 / 5447395;fax: + 9111 694 4472 / 694 9573;e-mail: [email protected];website: http://www.watch-2002.org

American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry 13th Annual

Meeting and Symposium. Hyatt Lake, Las Vegas, Nevada,USA, 12–15 December 2002. Contact:http://www.aaap.org


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CONTACT DETAILS

News and Notes welcomes contributions from itsreaders. Please send early notification – three monthsminimum – of conferences and events (which are printed

free of charge). Send your material to: Susan Savva,News and Notes Editor, Addiction, National Addic-tion Centre, 4 Windsor Walk, London SE5 8AF, UK.Fax: + 44 (0)20 7 703 5787;e-mail: [email protected]

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