A researcher into the benefits of resveratrol, the ingredient in red wine that is thought to have cardiovascular benefits, has been found to be falsifying his results. Dr. Dipak Das is alleged to have fabricated, falsified and manipulated data for several minor published studies of the substance. This is a little weird in itself because there [...]

A survivor of a hunting “accident” asks the question “Why are people still being shot?“. The MacDoctor can help with this one. He was an ED doctor for 9 years in Southland, literally the “Happy Hunting Ground” of New Zealand. Of the dozens of shooting incidents he has seen, he has yet to see one [...]

For a quick look at the future – after we have succumbed to the hysteria and reduced our blood alcohol driving to 0.05% (50mg/100ml) – we need look no further than today’s news: The Australian Transport Council this week released a discussion document calling for the national alcohol limit to be reduced to 20mg of [...]

The Herald has kicked off it’s “Two Drinks Max” campaign today. Just what we need – more emotional heat and less rationality. I don’t have any problem with the somewhat simplistic “Two Drinks Max”. If people want to pledge themselves to this; more power to them. However, I do object to the dishonest way the [...]

I see the Herald seeks to stoke the hysterical debate on the legal limit of blood alcohol. I have noticed that these OIA requests come in really handy for revisiting a story a couple of months after it is dead. Of course, it really is too much effort to find some actual news, instead of [...]

I blame the feral response to National’s announcement – that they will not be dropping the legal blood alcohol limit to 0.05 g% – squarely on the media. I am certain that it is the media’s propensity always to give the maximum amount of airtime and newsprint to the most hysterical over-reaction that encourages people [...]

David Farrar appears to have scooped the newspapers with a leaked version of The Law Commission proposals on alcohol. The Stuff version is here. David’s summary runs: A massive 50% increase in the excise tax on alcohol. This would result in an extra $500 million of revenue to the Crown at the expense of everyone who drinks. Banning [...]

Once more the media appear to be wading in to the campaign to lower the legal driving limit for blood alcohol to 0.05%. Strangely, they quote the recent spate of road traffic fatalities as if this somehow bolsters their argument. This is simply lazy journalism. There is plenty of evidence that lowering the legal Blood [...]

Looks like the government is set to reduce the legal blood alcohol limit from 0.08 to 0.05 for driving. I have blogged quite extensively about this already so I am not going to add much more. It is not a matter of great note, but the lawyers who are saying that it is the law-abiding [...]

There is a fair amount of news about drug addiction at the moment, with John Key announcing a (somewhat laughable) $7 million boost for P treatment. Garth George, in one of his best columns for some time, points out that the real killer in terms of drug addictions is, of course, alcohol. He laments the [...]