The annual violence study conducted by Cardiff University (UK) found that the frequency of hospital visits for violence-related attacks in Wales and England has risen by nearly 7% since last year. This marks the first overall rise of incidents in the data since 2001.

According to Professor Jonathan Shepherd, who is Cardiff University’s research director of Violence Research and Society Group, the 7% increase was the result of alcohol abuse, citing: “The big problem is alcohol-related violence in towns and city centers,” adding, “It’s not so much that you drink and become violent but that you become vulnerable. For both women and men, the best way to reduce the risk of being injured is monitoring how much you drink.”

Experts like Wynford Ellis Owen of the Welsh Council on Alcohol and Other Drugs agree with Shepard in that alcohol has a major part to play in the equation. However, Owen believes that the violence is a direct result of alcohol abuse that has been worsened by the recent economic downturn. In an interview, Owen said, “I think it’s inevitable that in order to ease the pain of what they are suffering now, people will turn to alcohol and drugs.” Owens added about the uprising trend in violence, “It’s a consequence of abusive drinking and it’s a reality that society has to come to terms with.”

Nonetheless, Shepard added, “We saw an encouraging and sharp fall in violence-related serious injuries in 2007, suggesting…that initiatives such as Crime Reduction Partnerships were delivering results. What the 2008 results show, however, is that crime prevention policies and delivery agencies still have a way to go before violence in the UK gets properly under control.”

From a column in UK’s Dailymail.com, former Marie Claire fashion editor, Liz Jones, described her experiences being a Shopaholic, and for anyone who knows about addiction recovery and the 12 step programs, economic failure goes hand in hand with any addiction.  Jones opens the article by saying that the “excess” started with a $140.00 sweater, when she was making $30.00 a week and ballooned to purchases that would eventually reach $4000.00 for a single dress.

In the article, Liz Jones outlines some her futile purchases over the years, noting: “I often do that terrible thing of buying something – a pair of Prada platforms, a pair of Seven For All Mankind jeans – and then later finding I already have the exact same thing at home.”  Still, Jones bravely shares the story of someone who suffers from a severe case compulsiveness, which also usually goes hand in hand with any addiction.

Amongst other stories, Jones mentions how she went to the Oscars and had decided to wear one of her many expensive dresses, rather than buying a new one, but upon arriving to LA, she was so “unhappy” with what she had brought that she went out to buy a new wardrobe.  While at Barneys she saw a pair of shoes that she thought were just OK, but because the clerk informed her there were none in her size, she felt “so thwarted” that she “couldn’t live without them” and had the store fly a pair to her hotel room from their New York branch for the following day.

Although most of the anecdotes in the article are quite comical, there is no laughing matter about Liz Jones’ addiction.  Jones sums it up like this: “Shopping for me is like a drug: I get a high from making the sales assistant smile…”  Nonetheless, Jones goes on to speak of her regrets for wasteful spending and notes that it was the recent downturn in the economy that finally brought her to her senses after she faced the serious credit crunch.

Recent reports from the UK have shown that since Marijuana was originally downgraded from its C class status in 2004 to the less serious B class, the number of new admittances to NHS treatment centers for cannabis addiction has doubled.  This conclusion can be accurately made in hindsight, because although Marijuana’s C class was reinstated earlier this year, the statistics of abuse and required treatment still reflect the doubling.

The recent figures showed that new cases for Marijuana addiction rose from a previous yearly average of 13,408 to 26,287 in the first three years of the downgrade.  The figures also reflected the new cases of Marijuana addiction for individuals under 18, which was first recorded in 2005 at 9,043 and rose to 12,021 in the first two years.  Marijuana was initially downgraded in the UK five years ago, by former Home Secretary David Blunkett, in an effort to curb arrests for possession, even though the penalties for dealing Marijuana were made more severe at the same time.

Some experts attribute the increase in addiction not to the class downgrade, but rather to the steady increase in THC potency that Marijuana has contained in recent years.  Still, most medics, anti-drug campaigners and law enforcement agree that the failure of the policy was due to a false illusion that Marijuana was somehow less harmful because it was legal.  One such person is Norman Wells of Family and Youth Concern, who said that the downgrade created, “confusing and dangerous messages about the drug’s supposed safety.”

The BBC recently reported that a quarter of all drug addicts in Scotland have waited more than a year for NHS assessment.  Additionally, hundreds who have already been approved by the NHS have already waited over a year to receive care.  The Scottish government said that more must be done to remedy the problem.

The actual figure breaks down as follows: 554 patients waited more than 52 weeks for an assessment appointment; 318 patients waited between six months and a year for an assessment date; and 210 addicts waited more than a year for treatment to begin, while 109 were more were left waiting between six months and a year.

An independent Scottish group dedicated to overseeing public spending, called Audit Scotland, noted that are more than 50,000 drug addicts in Scotland that has elevated the public spending of the National Health Service to the tune of almost $3.0 billion.

While a Scottish Government spokesman said that their figures indicated improvement from the previous quarter, with an 10% improvement in waiting times for assessment referrals and a 20% improvement on intervention waiting times, the fact still remains that the longer addicts have to wait for services the longer their addictions are fortified.

According to municipal data and statisticians, the rate of children left to foster care as a result of parental drug abuse doubled in the city of Edinburgh, U.K. last year.  To combat the wave of deserted children, the city of Edinburgh has launched a campaign to raise awareness for at-risk children via a PSA DVD.  It turns out that half the children were infants and the other half were still pre-natal when placed into the care of the state.  Apparently, of the 99 babies left to foster care, two thirds were afflicted with alcohol or drug addiction ailments that were passed on by mothers.

Still, the Edinburgh government has developed campaigns for adoption that are geared toward finding homes for these children who are greatly in need.  The reality is that many of these tots have a range of physical, cognitive and emotional problems and need extra care.  Currently, the abundance of new cases has left the Edinburgh social workers thinned out, so the city’s council has aggressively been seeking citizens of the community to take part in resolving the problem.