News

STAP is organazing the conference on youth drinking and law enforcement in October (27 and 28) in Rotterdam.

This is the first European initiative to develop a network of professionals around youth drinking and law enforcement. Different speakers from all over Europe have been invited to present best practices in this field of expertise.

The city of Rotterdam hosts the meeting and the local police is willing to show some of their work in the city centre.

For more information on the program see: http://www.stap.nl/content/bestanden/alcohol_law_enforcement.pdf

Website: www.stap.nl/conference

The Swedish Society of Medicine will host in Stockholm a joint meeting with AMPHORA researchers and the Berzelius Symposium participants devoted to alcohol consumption during October 18-19, 2012.

Preliminary programme is available on the Events section.

The kick-off of ALICE RAP took place in the Cosmo Caixa Science Museum, Barcelona, 23^rd-27^th May 2011 [visit website].

ALICE-RAP (Addictions and Lifestyles in Contemporary Europe - Reframing Addictions Project) is a five-year project funded under the 7th Framework Programme which aims to help policy makers "rethink and re-shape" current and future approaches to the huge human and economic costs of addictions and lifestyles in Europe.

The project is organized in seven different areas of work and twenty-one work packages, involving more than 100 researchers and 67 institutions of 25 countries. The ALICE RAP research programme includes a wide range of different quantitative and qualitative scientific disciplines stretching across the humanities and social sciences and the biological and medical sciences, in order to strengthen scientific evidence to inform the public and political dialogue and to stimulate a broad and productive debate on current and alternative approaches to addictions.   

It\'s published the Addiction Supplement devoted to the AMPHORA project:

Introducing the AMPHORA Project: Joining Forces to Support Alcohol Policy

See list of articles in Documents and Publications section. 

Available the provisional programme and the joining instructions of the 2011 WHO meeting of National Counterparts for Alcohol Policy in the WHO European Region and the AMPHORA Expert meeting (3-5 May 2011, Zurich, Switzerland).

A recent Lancet publication (Nutt et al., 2010) reported the conclusions of multi-criteria decision analysis on drug harms, conducted in the UK. During a meeting in June 2010, members of the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs (ISCD) and two invited specialists scored a list of twenty drugs (0 to 100; where 0 is no harm and 100 is the maximum harm). Criteria analyzed were both personal and social, and there was a total number of sixteen, such as drug-specific and related mortality, drug-specific and related damage, dependence, drug-specific and related impairment of mental function, and loss of tangibles and relationships (related with personal factors); crime, environmental and international damage, family adversities, economic cost and community (related with social factors).

Analyzing harm to the users, the most harmful drugs were crack cocaine (37), heroine (34) and metamphetamines (32); analyzing harm to others, the highest scores were for alcohol (46), heroine (21) and crack cocaine (17).

When both scores were combined, alcohol lead the ranking with 72 points, way ahead of the second and third positions (heroine with 55 points and crack cocaine with 54 points), and almost three times more than tobacco (26).

The correlations between the overall scores and the present classification of drugs in the UK was 0·04, showing that there is effectively no relation.

Reference:

Nutt DJ, King LA, Phillips LD; Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs. (2010) Drug harms in the UK: a multicriteria decision analysis. Lancet. Nov 6;376(9752):1558-65. [Pubmed; Lancet]

The 13th WHO meeting of National Counterparts for Alcohol Policy in the WHO European Region and the AMPHORA Expert meeting will take place on 3-5 May, in Zurich, Switzerland.

The meeting will be hosted by the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH).

 See announcement and contact details.

The International Network of Brief Interventions for Alcohol Problems (INEBRIA) is a group of researchers interested in promoting alcohol screening and brief interventions in a variety of settings for hazardous and harmful alcohol consumption.

INEBRIA annual conference will take place on 9th-10th September, in Gothenburg, Sweden. More details about registration and conference programme here.

The International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism (ISBRA) is a nonprofit corporation devoted to promoting excellence in biomedical research on alcoholism.

2010 ISBRA World Congress welcomes ISBRA members, as well scientific and clinical colleagues and alcohol policy makers to around the world.

More details about Scientific Program and Registration here.

See the provisional programme of the WHO meeting of National Counterparts for Alcohol Policy  in the WOH European Region and the AMPHORA Expert meeting, Madrid 14-16 June 2010.

provisional programme

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) recently released a monograph on harm reduction. The 10th chapter gives a general view of effective measures for reduction of alcohol-related harm in the European context, including both evaluated and non-evaluated actions.

You may want to read the full information on www.emcdda.europa.eu

The authors of this chapter include Franca Beccaria and Jaceck Moskalewick, scientific partners of the AMPHORA project.

The Eurobarometer Special Report on attitudes towards alcohol was released the 21st of April. This report is requested by the Directorate General Health and Consumers of the European Commission (DG SANCO) and will porvide with valuable information for measuring the success of the EU Alcohol Strategy.

You may want to find this and other Eurobarometers on alcohol at ec.europa.eu

Concerned about the cost of the alcohol-related crime and disorder, the British government has outlined five measures (comparable to good practices) to be followed by all alcohol retailers.

These five measures include the ban of promotions that encourage binge drinking and the introduction of an age verification policy in place. Also, free tap water and small measures for drinks containing alcohol must be available. 

You may want to read the news on www.thelegraph.co.uk and www.netnewspublisher.com

A report to the city council of Brighton and Hoove, in the United Kingdom, has shown an abrupt increase of alcohol-related hospital admissions. This report also revealed the widespread pattern of alcohol consumption among all ages and the increased alcohol-related mortality.

You can find further information at news.bbc.co.uk

The European Parliament rejected an obligation to tell consumers what ingredients or the amount of calories or carbohydrates are present in alcoholic beverages.

Eurocare expressed its disappointment and hopes the needs of European Citizens will be taken into account when the European Parliament plenary votes in May.

For further information click www.eurocare.org.

The European Parliament hosted a lunch seminar on alcohol marketing and the lifestyle of young people on the 7th of April 2010.

Avalon de Brujin, will report the trends in alcohol marketing and the reasons why self-regulation of alcohol industry does not protect young people. Tamsin Rose will describe how the alcohol marketing targets lifestyles of young people. A discussion on the Fake Free project will also take place.

For further information please www.eurocare.org.

Avalon deBrujin is member of The Alcohol Marketing in Europe team in The National Foundation for Alcohol Prevention (STAP), a research partner of  AMPHORA.

A research group from Sheffield University has investigated the effect of alcohol pricing policies on health and health-economic outcomes in England. The Sheffield team estimated that establishing a minimum price, as well as restricting promotions, would be the most effective way to reduce the harm caused by alcohol. More specifically, setting the minimum cost at 50p per unit of alcohol would save up to 50,000 people from illness in ten years, mainly on people aged 45 and older.

These recommendations have presumably influenced the UK government by Chancellor Alistair Darling in his decision on raising alcohol duties.

You may want to see the related articles at  www.eurocare.org and  news.bbc.co.uk, as well as the abstract of the scientific paper at www.thelancet.com.

Within the framework of the European Alcohol and Health Forum, the 3rd Open Forum is an opportunity for an exchange of information and for discussion with a broader range of interested parties, including Member States. It also provides networking possibilities between and among the different stakeholders who wish to contribute to the reduction of alcohol-related harm.

This year\'s Open Forum provides a particular opportunity to present the European Alcohol and Health Forum\'s work and actions, and to provide an update of policy developments at EU, Member State and international level.

For further information you can visit ec.europa.eu. 

As the fourth conference in a series of alcohol policy conferences, the main purpose of the meeting is to stimulate action in alcohol policy. This event is organized by Eurocare (European Alcohol Policy Alliance), co-financed by the European Commission, and co-sponsored by the WHO (World Health Organization).

For further information visit www.eurocare.org

On the 1st of March 2010, a consortium of Scottish charities for children called for attention on alcohol-related harm caused to other people than the drinker and urged the Government to focus on the interests of children. The ChildLine service, among other entities, backed the Scottish Government plans for minimum alcohol pricing.

Further information is available at www.heraldscotland.com

The Department for Children Schools and Parents (United Kingdom) commissioned a report on  attitudes and behaviour of children towards alcohol and alcohol consumption, and the possible parental influence. The report was published on the 16th of Feburary 2010 in the framework of the Young Alcohol Action Plan.

Further information is available at www.dcfs.co.uk

AMPHORA has been widely disseminated in relevant conferences, workshops and networks during the first year of operation, including:

The Third Meeting of Alcohol Policy Network, 10-12 June 2009, in the framework of The Building Capacity Project, in Stockholm.

The three-day programme included presentations on three key topics of AMPHORA. Peter Anderson discussed the importance of translating science into policy. After, Esa Österberg highlighted the relevance of an evidence base on the economic and physical availability of alcohol. Also, Dirk Lachenmeier described the contribution of AMPHORA on the analysis of illegal and surrogate alcohol. The presentations are available here (PAnderson, EÖsterberg, DLachenmeier).

The  Expert Conference on Alcohol and Health organized by The Swedish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, in cooperation with  Directorate General for Health and Consumers of the European Commission, 21-22 September 2009, in Stockholm.

The programme of the second day included the workshop "From science into policy - what the AMPHORA project tells us". Antoni Gual, coordinator of AMPHORA, discussed the importance of an evidence base to inform policy- and decision-makers at European, national and local levels for the implementation effective interventions to reduce the harm caused by alcohol. You may want to check a full presentation of the project and the webcast.

The Annual Symposium of The Society for the Study of Addiction,12-13 November 2009, in York.

Treatment policy was the main topic for discussion and the programme of the second day included a lecture of Antoni Gual, coordinator of AMPHORA, on European Alcohol Policy.

The Public Health Research Conference: A project for the Future organized by The Health Department of The Generalitat de Catalunya, 3 February 2010, in Barcelona.

The main purposes were the internal dissemination on ongoing research projects as well as definition of research priorities and promotion of cross-sectional studies in areas of public health. The programme included a large number of poster presentations and lectures on drug-dependence and mental health, nutrition and health, environment and health and transmissible diseases.

The 18th European Congress of Psychiatry of The European Psychiatric Association, 27 February to 2 March 2010, in Munich.

The scientific program included plenary lectures, symposia, workshops, a three-day program for young psychiatrists and CME courses. The poster “Creation of the Alcohol Public Health Research Alliance (AMPHORA)" was selected for presentation and is available here.