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| Cannabis smoker complained to police |
A cannabis smoker has been arrested after complaining to police that he was sold bad weed.
Hans-Juergen Bendt, 52, from Darmstadt, lodged a complaint about his dealer with police after he sold him seven ounces
of "completely un-enjoyable" hash.
Bendt complained the dealer refused to refund him the £270 he had paid for the drugs.
But despite the official complaint, in which Bendt described himself as a victim of "fraud" involving drugs of "absolutely
mediocre quality", the officers failed to act upon the allegations and booked the complainant instead.
He is now being charged for the illegal purchase and possession of narcotic substances.
A drunk driver was arrested in Germany after he accidentally rang the police instead of a breakdown
service when he had a flat tyre.
Before he realised who he was speaking to, the 31-year-old let it slip that he had no licence and was
driving under the influence.
The civil servant, who lost his licence eight years ago, had a blow out in the western town of Monheim
while driving a car borrowed from a friend.
He had a blood alcohol level that was seven times the legal limit, and when he tried to call the German
equivalent of the AA he became confused and dialled the emergency number for the police.
The drunken man phoned and said: "My car is broken and I need you to come and fix it. You better be
quick because I'm really pretty drunk and I don't have a licence so it wouldn't be good if the cops drove past."
A Monheim police spokesman said: "He wanted us to come quickly, so we did."
| Hangover remedies 'don't work' |
Researchers who examined eight trials of traditional hangover remedies found there was no clear proof
any worked.
Researchers said: "No compelling evidence exists to suggest that any conventional or complementary
intervention is effective for preventing or treating alcohol hangover.
"The most effective way to avoid the symptoms of alcohol-induced hangover is to practise abstinence
or moderation."
Dr Max Pittler, from Exeter's Peninsular Medical School, led the research and said hangovers accounted
for about £2bn in lost wages each year in the UK, mostly due to sickness absence.
Hangover symptoms included impaired memory and visual-spatial skills, light-headedness, nausea, and
lack of concentration.
Even consuming less than the recommended alcohol limits substantially increased the risk of dying,
said the researchers.
At Christmas, higher alcohol consumption led to a 0.4% increase in fatal poisonings for every 1% increase
in sales of spirits.
Hangover symptoms seemed to be caused by the main breakdown product of ethanol and acetaldehyde, hormonal
and immune system disturbances, dehydration and sleep disruption.
Remedies listed on the internet included aspirin, paracetamol, bananas, cabbage, charcoal tablets,
eggs, exercise, green tea, milkshakes, Vegemite on toast, pizzas, and 'hair of the dog' alcoholic drinks.
| Nurse arrested for beer festival porn movie |
A nurse and two cameramen were arrested at the Munich beer festival for filming a porn movie on the
city's famous big wheel.
The 21-year-old registered nurse, unnamed due to German privacy laws, and her two acquaintances were
spotted 'filming sexual acts' by three Italian tourists in another carriage of the ride.
The Oktoberfest tourists alerted authorities, who detained the nurse and the filmmakers - a 25-year-old
student and a 30-year-old teacher.
Munich police released a statement saying: "The trio were spotted in the carriage with filming equipment.
"The 21-year-old suddenly disrobed and produced a sex toy that she began to use while the other two
filmed her."
The three have been charged with public indecency.
Tarzan he isn't
A Romanian man ended up in hospital after he tried to swing from tree to tree to escape his wife
and go drinking.
Stefan Trisca, 66, had been locked in the bedroom by his wife who was fed up with him going drinking
with his friends.
His Tarzan style escape plan backfired when he slipped from a vine and fell 15ft to the ground, breaking
his arm, an ankle and a leg.
Mr Trisca, of Bacau, said: "I didn't think it would be such a big deal to go from tree to tree and
get down to the ground.
"Unfortunately it was more difficult than it looked in the Tarzan movies. And I suppose I forgot to
take into account that Tarzan was a lot younger."
24 Hour Bars Yeah Baby!
Round-the-clock drinking in England and Wales is now a reality after new licensing laws came in force.
More than 1,000 pubs, clubs and supermarkets have been granted 24-hour licences to sell alcohol, according to government
figures.
Around 40% of premises applied to vary their licences by either extending their opening by an hour or two or by offering
late food and entertainment.
It has led to fears disorder will put more pressure on police and hospitals.
But Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell told BBC Newsnight the new law was necessary "to make it possible for the vast majority
of people who drink but who never get into trouble to have more freedom as to when they drink".
"But also, to give the police the powers that they need to tackle the problem we have as a country of alcohol-related crime
and violence," she said.
Busch citation draws attention to Nascar liquor sponsorships
New
York Times
A longstanding ban on hard liquor advertising was lifted by Nascar late last year, opening a valuable
money stream for a sport that runs on sponsorship dollars. Already, the Jack Daniel's, Jim Beam and Crown Royal brands have
found a home in the Nextel Cup garage this year.. . .Nascar has faced the issue of drinking and driving before, more recently
with the arrest of Scott Wimmer before last year's Daytona 500. Wimmer, then a rookie, was placed on probation but not suspended.
The introduction of liquor sponsors this year has renewed focus on the issue. Critics of the sponsorships include the American
Medical Association and the racing icon Richard Petty. The last thing liquor sponsors could have wanted was a drinking-and-driving
controversy - not after all of the years it took to be welcomed into a sport that traces its history to moonshiners.
Beer, boorishness in stands spoil games for some fans
Washington
Post, DC,
Up in one of the nosebleed sections at FedEx Field yesterday, a man watched the game wearing a sweat shirt
reading: "[Expletive] the Refs." With him was a little boy, maybe 5. . . . It has become so bad that some (fans) are turning
to television as a safer, less harrowing way to watch the game. Many disgruntled fans blame what Laurie Lieber of the California-based
Marin Institute calls "an alcohol-saturated society" that seems synonymous with big-time sports these days. "People have come
to expect and accept the blanketing of alcohol promotion around sports," said Lieber, whose nonprofit public advocacy group
considers alcohol abuse a public-health issue. She cited the increased signage at NFL stadiums, the ubiquitous TV commercials
for beer and the bars and restaurants built into stadiums. Lieber also noted the increase in tailgating.
Beer sponsorships make NCAA uneasy during postseason
USA Today
No one is willing to say, or even guess precisely, how much value the NCAA adds to its $6.2-billion basketball television
contract with CBS by allowing the network to sell and air beer and other malt-beverage ads. . . . The alcohol industry's spending
on college sports-related TV advertising that year: $52.2 million, accounting for about 4.5% of all television advertising
tied to those sports. That figure climbed to $66.2 million in 2004. What individual schools do during the regular season is
up to them. In part because some schools play in city-owned facilities and thus can't dictate policy, and in part because
bans on local sales and advertising could constitute illegal restraint of trade, the NCAA hasn't imposed across-the-board
restrictions.
Death Penalty for Drunk Drivers?The North Carolina Supreme Court heard arguments this week in a landmark case that
could decide if drunken drivers who kill should be eligible for the death penalty.
The case stems from a 1997 trial in which a Winston-Salem jury convicted Thomas Richard Jones of first-degree murder for
killing two Wake Forest University students and injuring four others. Jurors rejected the death penalty, sentencing Jones
to life in prison instead.
Jones was drinking beer and taking painkillers, when his pickup truck crashed into a car filled with Wake Forest University
students on Sept. 4, 1996. Witnesses said he was driving erratically when he drifted into an oncoming lane of traffic while
rounding a curve.
Before the fatal crash, Jones rammed a car stopped at a red light. He screamed at the driver to get out of the way and
drove off at a high rate of speed, according to testimony at the trial.
Prosecutors argued that Jones' used his pickup as a deadly weapon. They said by injuring four other students, Jones had
committed other felonies at the same time he killed Witzl and Hansen. They charged Jones with four counts of assault with
a deadly weapon with intent to kill, which boosted the two murder charges to first-degree.
At issue, is whether Vince Rabil, an assistant district attorney in Forsyth County, used a law called the felony murder
rule correctly in the Jones case.
Six girls surround one man, mouths gaping in enthusiasm.
The man’s attention is focused on one thing - the
breasts of the girl in front of him, whose single item of clothing seen is a red bra.. . .hard alcohol companies have learned
how to advertise their products as beer - or as “everybody’s drink” - and there has been an increase in
the number of ads directed toward women, Workman said.
"Making alcohol ads and marketing products appealing to women
is nothing new," said Laurie Leiber, media advocacy manager for Marin Institute, an alcohol industry watchdog.
“From
the marketing point of view … young men do the most drinking, and (beer companies) already have what they need from
them in buying beer,” she said.
Vermont Considers Lowering Drinking Age to 18
Last fall, Richard C. Marron, a Republican state representative,
was reading a newspaper column by the recently retired president of Middlebury College, John M. McCardell Jr.
One of
Mr. McCardell's targets was the drinking age, which in Vermont, and every other state, is 21.
"The 21-year-old drinking
age is bad social policy and terrible law," Mr. McCardell wrote, saying it had led to binge drinking by teenagers. "Our latter-day
prohibitionists have driven drinking behind closed doors and underground."
Mr. Marron, a four-term legislator who is
vice chairman of the appropriations committee, decided that the law needed changing, and he has introduced a bill to lower
the drinking age to 18, setting off a debate about public safety, age discrimination and the rights of young people as well
as whether it is possible to teach teenagers to drink responsibly.
You Must Be Over 21 to Drink in This Living Room: A crackdown on house parties stirs up a debate about privacy
Officials
in Stratford, Conn., convened a group of middle and high school students last year to quiz them on their attitudes toward
alcohol. The officials were dismayed, if not surprised, when the teens reported that they thought alcohol, unlike tobacco
and other drugs, was largely harmless, that binge drinking among their peers was habitual, and that drinking enough to pass
out was funny. But the officials were perhaps most displeased to hear that the place kids most often got drunk was their own
or their friends' homes and that some parents either provided alcohol or looked the other way if teens brought it to drink
in the backyard or basement.
Spurred in part by that information, the Stratford town council is considering an ordinance that would allow police to
enter a private residence if they suspect someone under 21 is consuming liquor, even if adults are present. Dubbed the house-party
ordinance, it has been adopted in 43 of the state's 169 municipalities, but in Stratford it has split neighbors between those
who see the measure as a way to curb underage drinking and those who argue that it undermines parental authority and violates
privacy rights.
More beer, less beer
For years, the beer that flows into the Martinsville Speedway has come from the coolers NASCAR fans are allowed to tote
inside. Soon it will also flow from speedway concession stands.
Selling beer to race fans, which will begin this weekend
for the Advance Auto Parts 500, is one of the changes implemented by the speedway's new owner, International Speedway Corp.
The change - which allows both carry-in and concession-sold beer - runs counter to a national trend aimed at cutting
back on drinking at sporting events.
"This is really swimming against the pattern that's been established by professional
sports and collegiate sports," said Jerry M. Lewis, a sociology professor at Kent State University who studies sports fan
behavior.
Marijuana to treat Alcoholism
Research published in a recent issue of the Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics describes marijuana's effectiveness
in treating people for alcohol addiction. A study by Dr Tod Mikuriya found that 92 Northern Californian patients who used
cannabis to treat their booze addiction reported "very effective" or "effective" results.
Nine patients totally abstained
from alcohol for at least a year and "attributed their success to cannabis," while others reported that they drank much less.
Patients who discontinued cannabis use reported that alcohol cravings and drinking increased toward previous levels.
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