HOT TOPICS for July and August 2012

The more important an issue is, the more likely it is to be contested. These are the hot topics, 
some new, some perennial, plus some which ought to be hot but have been neglected. Our selection 
gives you one-click access to relevant Findings analyses. New entries are drafted or previous ones 
updated every two months. This latest set is now at:
http://findings.org.uk/hot_topics.php
Individual links below.

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WILL INTENSIVE TESTING AND SANCTIONS DISPLACE TREATMENT?
Influentially promoted in the USA and now White House policy, programmes which directly mandate 
abstinence for offenders rather than mandating treatment have in some studies an enviable record. 
Frequent testing and swift sanctions are the key. Leverage over the offenders, enforcement 
resources, and an appropriate legal framework, are needed to turn this in to an approach which would 
relegate treatment to a minor option only for the otherwise intractable.
http://findings.org.uk/count/downloads/download.php?file=test_and_sanction.hot

NO REASON FOR PESSIMISM OVER TREATING COCAINE PROBLEMS
Serial disappointment in the search for a medicine or specific psychosocial therapy has led some to 
conclude that nothing works in the treatment of cocaine addiction. Run this hot topic search and you 
will find that is far from the case. It may not be easy, but neither is controlling your cocaine use 
uniquely difficult, even when it comes in the form of crack.
http://findings.org.uk/count/downloads/download.php?file=hot_cocaine_treat.hot

CANNABIS IS WORTH BOTHERING WITH
Not so long ago services in Britain, overloaded with multiply problematic heroin addicts, dismissed 
excessive cannabis use as a problem not worth diverting resources too. Now as heroin recedes, 
cannabis is rising up the treatment agenda, introducing what for the drugs field are unfamiliar 
approaches like the brief interventions developed for risky drinking. How to treat and how 
intensively are some of the issues addressed by this hot topic search.
http://findings.org.uk/count/downloads/download.php?file=cannabis_treat.hot

MAGIC: PREVENT SUBSTANCE USE PROBLEMS WITHOUT MENTIONING DRUGS
At the moment the future for prevention seems more likely to be with child development and parenting 
programmes which do not mention substances at all than with drug-specific programmes. These generic 
approaches have recorded some of the most substantial preventive impacts ever seen - for example, 
the classroom management technique for the first years of primary schooling which it was estimated 
would later halve drug use disorders among the boys.
http://findings.org.uk/count/downloads/download.php?file=hot_no_drugs.hot

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interventions. Findings is managed by DrugScope, Alcohol Concern and the National Addiction Centre. 
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