The World Drug Report presents comprehensive information on the illicit drug situation. It provides detailed estimates and trends on production, trafficking and consumption in the opium/heroin, coca/cocaine, cannabis and amphetamine-type stimulants markets. The drug problem is being contained but there are warning signs that the stabilisation which has occurred over the last few years could be in danger. Notable amongst these is the increase in both opium poppy and coca cultivation in 2007,some growth in consumption in developing countries and some development of new trafficking patterns. There have also been encouraging contractions in some of the main consumer markets. This year, almost one hundred years since the Shanghai Opium Commission in 1909, the Report presents an historical review of the development of the international drug control system.

The paper is presented in two parts. Part 1 is for non-scientists and explains what epidemiology is and how it can be used by practitioners, administrators, and policy makers. Part 1 also presents highlights from past epidemiological studies of co-occurring disorders and introduces three major national studies that are regularly used as sources for information on the nature and extent of co-occurring disorders in the United States. Part 2 presents detailed technical information on these three studies and is for audiences who are familiar with epidemiological methods.

Scotland faces an important choice with regard to how it uses imprisonment. Its rapidly growing and overcrowded prisons are making it more difficult to secure public safety and respond effectively to serious crime. Imprisonment can have harmful consequences for prisoners and the communities to which they return. The Scottish Prisons Commission was convened to take stock of the problems and develop solutions. The principles guiding its efforts were: punishment must be visible, swift and fair; communities should be at the heart of penal reform and action; prison populations must be controlled to achieve Scotland’s wider strategic objectives; Scotland can be an international model. The Commission’s view was that gaining control over prison numbers is the necessary first step to limit its damaging effects and to focus efforts on more effective punishments.

Recognizing the context created by existing research on these subjects, and following the focus and method of Jim Silver’s work on Aboriginal voting in Winnipeg, we conducted personal interviews and focus group sessions with a broad sampling of Indigenous youth from a variety of urban and community contexts. These interviews sought out youths’ perceptions of political identity, citizenship and political activism, while also exploring their relationship with the state and its electoral processes. The main questions posed to the youth were these:
• What is “politics”?
• What does citizenship mean?
• Which political activities are important and which do you participate in?

Four years is a long time in a child’s life. Much can happen that will touch the rest of their lives for good or for ill. Some children may live their lives in situations of peace and security. For countless others war continues to be all too real. Over this aspect of the adult world they have little say and no control. Four years is sufficient for substantial developments in the life of a global movement. The last Global Report was published by the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers (Coalition) in November 2004; since then the movement to end the use of child soldiers has seen continued progress towards a universal consensus against their use in hostilities, witnessed by the fact that over three-quarters of states have now signed, ratified or acceded to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict.