drplatypus
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2003
- Messages
- 260
Australian Science Media Centre - 13 April 2007
Rapid Roundup: New trauma and drugs report - experts comment
New findings that suggest legal and illegal drug use is almost as dangerous as alcohol on the road will be released today. The study, called The impact of drugs on road crashes, assaults and other trauma - a prospective trauma toxicology study is the largest of its kind ever carried out. It has significant national and international implications for motor vehicle crash prevention strategies, the law and the management of trauma.
A full copy of the study is available on the AusSMC website at www.aussmc.org/documents/NDLERF.pdf
Note for Adelaide based journalists. The study will be launched at Ayers House, North Terrace (The Ballroom) at 11am on Friday 13 April by SA Police Commissioner Mal Hyde. The Authors of the report will be available for interviews.
Feel free to use these quotes in your stories or if you would like to contact an author or an expert in this area, call the Australian Science Media Centre on (08) 8207 7415 or email us. Any further quotes will also be released on our website at www.aussmc.org/impact_of_drugs.php
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Dr David Caldicott is the Emergency Research Fellow at Royal Adelaide Hospital's Emergency Department and project manager of the study.
"This is the largest study of its kind and it's unique in that we measured everyone that came through the emergency department with a trauma injury rather than a select group. We also tested blood not urine which is more accurate and measured the quantity of the drug in the system.
The findings showed that some drugs, both illegal and legal, can be almost as dangerous on the road as alcohol and also raised issues with elderly people and indigenous groups that we hadn’t appreciated before. The study has implications for all walks of life. We look forward to seeing it being used by legislators and life-savers alike.
It is written by doctors, all of whom were determined to ensure that the primary message was for harm minimization, and we believe that there are real lessons for consumers, particularly in the area of drug driving. We think that because of the medical emphasis, illicit drug users might treat the report with a credibility not often afforded to more politicised reports. It provides real science to support drugs policy in Australia, a country that increasingly has allowed research to be tempered and tampered with by political and moral ideologies.”
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Dr Richard Midford is Associate Professor at the National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University.
"This is good basic research on the extent of alcohol and other drug use by people who present for hospital treatment because of injury. The large number of patients and testing for a range of drugs permitted identification of a number of important associations between type of drug use and nature of injury. The evidence as to the extent of drug driving and associated injury is particularly compelling. This information is likely to be useful in developing policy responses across a range of areas from law enforcement to the workplace.”
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Dr Alex Wodak is Director of the Alcohol and Drug Service at St. Vincent's Hospital in Sydney.
"The use of blood rather than urine specimens is a great advance on other studies but the problem is that we have very much more limited understanding of the correct interpretation of blood levels for most drugs apart from alcohol. Another problem is trying to decide whether the relationship between the toxicology results and the trauma outcomes was causal or just an association and that question is the very crux of the issue.
For me the biggest problem of studies like this is the policy implications. The authors' first recommendation is that the drugs referred to are dealt with 'more effectively'. But what exactly does that mean?
Personally, I find it hard to understand why, if cannabis actually causes so many road crashes, we prefer to see such a dangerous drug distributed by criminals and corrupt police. After all, the drug that kills 19,000 Australians a year is taxed and regulated and political parties still accept generous donations from the tobacco industry. So if I had my way, cannabis would be taxed and regulated and packets would sport a sign saying 'cannabis may cause road crash deaths'."
Australian Science Media Centre (AusSMC)
Ph: (08) 8207 7415
Fax: (08) 8207 7413
[email protected]
www.aussmc.org
PO Box 237
RUNDLE MALL SA 5000
Rapid Roundup: New trauma and drugs report - experts comment
New findings that suggest legal and illegal drug use is almost as dangerous as alcohol on the road will be released today. The study, called The impact of drugs on road crashes, assaults and other trauma - a prospective trauma toxicology study is the largest of its kind ever carried out. It has significant national and international implications for motor vehicle crash prevention strategies, the law and the management of trauma.
A full copy of the study is available on the AusSMC website at www.aussmc.org/documents/NDLERF.pdf
Note for Adelaide based journalists. The study will be launched at Ayers House, North Terrace (The Ballroom) at 11am on Friday 13 April by SA Police Commissioner Mal Hyde. The Authors of the report will be available for interviews.
Feel free to use these quotes in your stories or if you would like to contact an author or an expert in this area, call the Australian Science Media Centre on (08) 8207 7415 or email us. Any further quotes will also be released on our website at www.aussmc.org/impact_of_drugs.php
----------
Dr David Caldicott is the Emergency Research Fellow at Royal Adelaide Hospital's Emergency Department and project manager of the study.
"This is the largest study of its kind and it's unique in that we measured everyone that came through the emergency department with a trauma injury rather than a select group. We also tested blood not urine which is more accurate and measured the quantity of the drug in the system.
The findings showed that some drugs, both illegal and legal, can be almost as dangerous on the road as alcohol and also raised issues with elderly people and indigenous groups that we hadn’t appreciated before. The study has implications for all walks of life. We look forward to seeing it being used by legislators and life-savers alike.
It is written by doctors, all of whom were determined to ensure that the primary message was for harm minimization, and we believe that there are real lessons for consumers, particularly in the area of drug driving. We think that because of the medical emphasis, illicit drug users might treat the report with a credibility not often afforded to more politicised reports. It provides real science to support drugs policy in Australia, a country that increasingly has allowed research to be tempered and tampered with by political and moral ideologies.”
-----------
Dr Richard Midford is Associate Professor at the National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University.
"This is good basic research on the extent of alcohol and other drug use by people who present for hospital treatment because of injury. The large number of patients and testing for a range of drugs permitted identification of a number of important associations between type of drug use and nature of injury. The evidence as to the extent of drug driving and associated injury is particularly compelling. This information is likely to be useful in developing policy responses across a range of areas from law enforcement to the workplace.”
----------
Dr Alex Wodak is Director of the Alcohol and Drug Service at St. Vincent's Hospital in Sydney.
"The use of blood rather than urine specimens is a great advance on other studies but the problem is that we have very much more limited understanding of the correct interpretation of blood levels for most drugs apart from alcohol. Another problem is trying to decide whether the relationship between the toxicology results and the trauma outcomes was causal or just an association and that question is the very crux of the issue.
For me the biggest problem of studies like this is the policy implications. The authors' first recommendation is that the drugs referred to are dealt with 'more effectively'. But what exactly does that mean?
Personally, I find it hard to understand why, if cannabis actually causes so many road crashes, we prefer to see such a dangerous drug distributed by criminals and corrupt police. After all, the drug that kills 19,000 Australians a year is taxed and regulated and political parties still accept generous donations from the tobacco industry. So if I had my way, cannabis would be taxed and regulated and packets would sport a sign saying 'cannabis may cause road crash deaths'."
Australian Science Media Centre (AusSMC)
Ph: (08) 8207 7415
Fax: (08) 8207 7413
[email protected]
www.aussmc.org
PO Box 237
RUNDLE MALL SA 5000
Last edited:
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
I'd assume that would accumulate if someone was taking enough of it regularly.
I'm just going from what I've read.