Northern Ireland Health Minister Edwin Poots has released a new strategy aimed at dealing with Northern Ireland’s alcohol and drug misuse issues.  The five year plan named the New Strategic Direction for Alcohol and Drugs - Phase 2 (NSD - Phase 2) was launched by Mr Poots during the  first ever formal North/South Conference on alcohol misuse.

There are five main areas in the new strategy.  These are prevention and early intervention, harm reduction, treatment and support, law and criminal justice and finally, monitoring, evaluation and research.

It is estimated that alcohol costs Northern Ireland £900 million every year.

The Scottish Government has published details of an updated report by researchers at the University of Sheffield on the impact minimum pricing will have on the country’s alcohol misuse problem.

Together with the existing ban on alcohol promotions the researchers determined a 45p minimum price would reduce weekly consumption by 6%.  Looking at the long-term they also predicted that alcohol related deaths would fall by about 60 in the first year and over 300 by year ten of the policy.

These figures, along with others published within the report will assist Scottish MP’s to confirm the level of the minimum price which will be confirmed in Spring 2012.

The Home Office has officially responded to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs advice regarding diphenylprolinol (D2PM) and diphenylmethylpyrrolidine.  The substances can produce similar effects to methamphetamine or cocaine.

On November 15th a ban on the importation on the  drugs was announced.  In an open letter to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) Lord Henley, Minister of State for Crime Prevention and Antisocial Behaviour Reduction, thanked the ACMD for their recommendations and confirmed that a draft order was in place to seek approval from Parliament to ban the substances under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.

A full ban is expected on March 28th 2012.

According to official figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) the number of alcohol related deaths in the UK has increased from 8,664 in 2009 to 8,790 in 2010. Alcohol related liver disease was responsible for for nearly two thirds of all alcohol-related deaths in 2010.

Men accounted for 67% of the figures. The number of deaths among men went from 5,690 in 2009 to 5,865 in 2010.

The Department of Health estimated in 2008 that alcohol abuse costs the NHS £2.7bn a year.

The Home Office has confirmed the launch of a consultation period to discuss changes to be made within the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011. The plan is for the Government to introduce a secondary bill for late night levy and early morning restriction orders (”EMROs”) with the aim to be dealing with the problems of late night drinking.

A consultation period has been launched which encourages from all interested parties including charities, licensees and landlords aswell as the general public to have their say on the proposals. The consultation is open until 10 April 2012. Comments should be submitted either online or via email.