Mythbusters - substance and substantiation

Mythbusters, a regular feature in our Matters of Substance quarterly magazine, unpicks the hype, hysteria and fictions often found around drug policy debates (especially those covered in the press).

  1. Alternative education - the root cause of drug use?

    “Many teenagers in the school system of last resort are smoking pot. The high rates of drug abuse are among concerns about the alternative education system that have prompted Education Minister Anne Tolley to review its funding.”

    “Drug use by at risk teens causes alarm”, The Press, 10 August 2009

    -----

    If you read the story from The Press quoted above, you could well get the impression that attendance at alternative education (AE) classes is in some way linked to drug use by its students.

  2. Busting alcohol policy myths

    This year is a particularly significant one for alcohol policy in New Zealand. Amendments to the 20-year-old Sale of Liquor Act are currently at select committee stage, and the Law Commission is conducting its comprehensive alcohol law review. Acceptance is high that alcohol-related harms are significant, and there’s a high level of media interest in proposals to mitigate those harms.

    So there’s a lot being said about alcohol policy right now, and Mythbusters are here to help with a special edition that separates the straight talking from the fast talking.

  3. Blown away: defeating the breathlyser

    Mythbusters have some bad news for drivers keeping breath mints in their glove box for that special occasion when they’re invited to speak into the machine. Drinking and driving is bad enough, but if you think you can beat a breath test, you’re even more of a bloody idiot.

    -----

  4. Ignorance isn't bliss - The harm reduction debate

    "Harm reduction increases the likelihood that drugs will be avaliable...It increases the drug harm that results from it. It decreases the efficacy of police and disempowers parents and the community." New Zealand 'war on drugs' zealot

    So-called harm reduction leads to liberalisation of the use of drugs." The Vatican

    -----

    Ignorance is all too common in drug policy discussions, but it’s something we could do without, especially when it comes to life saving health interventions such as needle exchange programmes and opioid substitution therapy.

  5. Ketamine: not just for horses, also for badgers

    Ketamine is a short-acting general anaesthetic used for both human medical and veterinary purposes. It is termed a ‘dissociative’, because it impedes the brain’s sensory connection to the body. On 26 February 2008, Associate Health Minister Jim Anderton announced Cabinet had approved the reclassification of ketamine to Class C under the Misuse of Drugs Act to take effect as soon as Parliament approves.

    In the meantime, however, media reports about the drug have left it ‘saddled’ with an inaccurate and unhelpful image.

    -----

  6. Drinking during hard times: Wheres the proof?

    "People are drinking more, because people tend to drink more during tough times." A US Beverage analyst, 2008

    "It is an article of folk wisdom that heavy drinking increases during economic downturns: when people lose their jobs, they turn to alcohol." Business Week, 2007 

    -----

    With the US economy leading the rest of the world into recession, Mythbusters thought it timely to check out the facts behind the widespread belief that hard times mean hard drinking.

  7. Coming clean on meth

    Mythbusters always enjoy a grain of salt or two while reading media stories about rampant methamphetamine epidemics. However, we do concede the drug is quickly addictive and incredibly difficult for addicts to give up.

    -----

    Is methamphetamine addiction untreatable, as many commonly believe? Mythbusters don’t think so. While treatment development is still in early stages, some standard therapies are beginning to provide very real and measurable results.

  8. How attractive is the Swedish model?

    With the Misuse of Drugs Act and UN drug control reviews, Mythbuster wondered how successful other countries have been with drug policies.

    -----

  9. Getting rat-faced

    "Glass of wine aids memory" Auckland University Press release, 26 September 2007

    "Don't forget: Drink a beer - or two - daily" Scientific American, 26 September 2007...

    -----

    Despite an awkwardly verbose title - Paradoxical Facilitatory Effect of Low-Dose Alcohol Consumption on Memory Mediated by NMDA Receptors - the September 2007 Journal of Neuroscience article received an awful lot of media attention.

    After all, it did appear to carry such good news.

  10. Hard time hard numbers

    Exactly how much do problems with alcohol and other drugs contribute to crime? And how do we know? We thought it was a good opportunity to bust a myth – or at least take a closer look at the numbers in our own recent story.

    -----