Alcohol and Drugs

Within the membership of the European Alcohol and Health Forum, EPHA will attend an NGO coordination meeting on Monday 10 March 2008 at EUROCARE office.
Alcohol Open Forum - 17 April 2008 The Commission has published the first announcement on the ’Open Forum’ to be held on Thursday 17 April 2008. The Open Forum is open to the press as well as non participating organisations. Deadline to register is 21 March 2008 at SANCO-C4-HEALTH-DETERMINANTS@ec.europa.eu. For more information, please (...)

On 22 November 2007 the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) published the 2007 Annual Report on the use of drugs in Europe. The report presents a two-faced Europe with encouraging trends but some persistent problems.
The EMCDDA Annual Report 2007 sheds light on the situation of drug use and drug-related problems across 25 EU Member States and Norway and, when data were available, from Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey. The outcomes reveal positive and negative (...)

On 13 November 2007, a new UK Alcohol Health Alliance was launched to prevent the rise of alcohol-related diseases.
The Royal College of Physicians, together with 23 members, launched a new UK Alcohol Alliance. The mission of the alliance is to reduce the damage to health caused by alcohol misuse. The aim of the UK Alcohol Alliance is to:
highlight the rising levels of alcohol related harm
propose evidence based solutions to reduce this harm
influence decision makers to take positive (...)

A recent study reports that teen binge drinkers are more likely to use drugs, to become alcoholics and to be convicted of a criminal offense.
The Institute of Child Health released a study of 11,000 children who were born in 1970 and monitored at the age of 16 and 30. At the age of 30, participants were asked to describe their levels of heavy drinking based specific criteria:
Weekly consumption
Illicit drug use
Mental health problems
Educational achievement and employment
Personal history (...)

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) signed a cooperation agreement on joint projects to prevent and control drug-related infectious diseases on 29 June 2007 in Lisbon, Portugal.
The ECDC and EMCDDA cooperation agreement starts with the purpose of being a formal framework for both agencies in order to tackle infections related with communicable diseases and to contribute to the EU effort in (...)

The European Commission has published a report on the implementation of a cornerstone Council recommendation on the prevention and reduction of harm associated with drug dependence. Although Member States have improved, much more can be done, concludes the report, especially in prisons.
On 18 June 2003, the Council adopted a Recommendation on “the prevention and reduction of health-related harm associated with drug dependence”. The aim is to reduce the number of drug-related (...)

*UPDATED with the adoption of the European Parliament report*. The European Commission unveils its proposal for a reform of the wine sector, ahead of the 2008 reform of the Common Agriculture Policy.
The European Commission’s objectives are to simplify existing rules, making labelling clearer and encourage better quality production.
Annually, the EU produces a surplus of wine which is likely to increase since European producers have lost market to ’new world’ competitors (eg the USA, (...)

*UPDATED* The EU drugs agency, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), has adopted a new mission statement.
2006 annual report on the state of the drugs problem in Europe
The EMCDDA has launched its 2006 Annual Report on the state of the drugs problem in Europe.
The report offers an overview of the European drugs phenomenon in 29 countries. Drug facts, figures and analyses from across Europe and by country. The report also covers latest trends and social, (...)

On 13 December 2006, the European Parliament voted in plenary session on the Audiovisual Directive. The law covers advertising, product placement and sponsorship. A new website ’Not before 9 had been created to encourage on MEPs to support Amendment 169 which would prevent alcohol advertising on TV before 9.00 p.m. The website contains examples of print and TV advertising for alcohol which show why the time restrictions are needed. Unfortunately, only 185 MEPs voted to block alcohol adverts (...)

**UPDATED with the opinion of the European Parliament.** The European Commission has proposed to increase the minimum rate of duty payable on alcoholic beverages by 31% because of concerns that the present rate of duty payable on alcohol does not match current levels of inflation.
Duty rates were last set in 1992 and have not been increased since then.
Although minimum rates are set by the EU, national governments have the right to increase duty rates. In fact, many governments do so on (...)