A NEW DISEASE OF THE HOP-VINE CAUSED BY PERONOPLASMOPARA HUMULI N. SP.

© 2019 The Authors Background: Over the past two decades, the use of image and performance enhancing drugs (IPEDs) has increased significantly. Once largely confined to professional athletes, IPED use has transcended the elite sporting arena and is now predominantly found among non-elite, recreational gym users. This paper presents research findings from a qualitative study of IPED use and supply in a ‘hardcore’ bodybuilding gym in the north of England. This article makes an original contribution to the field by providing an in-depth account of the use and supply of IPEDs among this population, demonstrating the intersectionality that exists across IPEDs, diverted medication and both licit and illicit substance use and supply. Methods: The findings are based on the research team's privileged access to an independent, ‘hardcore’ body building gym in the north of England. Four fieldworkers undertook overt systematic observations, supplemented by 20 semi-structured interviews. Results: Amongst this sample of bodybuilders, substance use transcended IPEDs to encompass a much broader cocktail of substances all who used IPEDs concomitantly used diverted medication as a means of negating anticipated side-effects, and over half used illegal psychoactive drugs. Furthermore, virtually all of these substances were available to buy via the gym, through fellow gym members and, at times, staff. Conclusion: This article draws three main conclusions. (1) We are witnessing a convergence of IPED use and supply with diverted medication and ‘traditional’ recreational substances. (2) The extensive poly-substance use reported by interviewees in this sample necessitates a review of existing harm reduction advice for IPED users that takes into consideration the full range of substances currently being used. (3) Punitive drug policy reform that aims to reduce IPED markets needs to consider the potential to displace social supply towards more commercially-driven dealing. Harsher drug laws may also risk criminalising and stigmatising IPED users

Studies in the Actinomycetaceae. The nutrition of the Streptomycetes

Thirty six cultures of streptomycetes taken from a collection gathered from various sources were used in this study, and an attempt made to identify them using well known bacteriological techniques. A. description of each organism is given in Appendix I and details of the media used in Appendix II. The nutrition of the organisms was examined under conditions designed to eliminate unwanted utilisable substances. All glassware was acid washed; chemicals were the finest quality available. The ability of each organism to assimilate (1) each of 30 carbon substances using ammonium sulphate as nitrogen source, and (2) each of 25 nitrogen substances using sodium pyruvate as carbon source, was investigated. The requirements of 10 of the organisms for 8 growth factors was also studied. All the nutritional experiments were aerated by shaking. The production of acid from carbohydrates was explored using several techniques. From these experiments it was concluded that:- 1). Twenty-seven of the cultures were strains of Streptomyces albus species-group; the remaining organisms each belonged to a different species. 2). Simple sugars and some organic acids were well utilised. Alcohols, with the exceptions of glycerol and mannitol, were not well assimilated, nor were simple fatty acids except acetate. 3). Ammonium and nitrate were good inorganic nitrogen sources. Nitrite supported the growth of many strains providing that the optimum concentration was used, together with a carbon source which was available under those conditions. Amino acids, except cystine, methionine, valine and tryptophane supported excellent growth. Urea, uric acid and xanthine were also excellent nitrogen sources for these organisms. 4). None of the organisms examined required any of the growth factors investigated. 5). The carbon assimilation of the Streptomyces albus strains fell into 3 patterns, suggesting that this species-group contains at least 3 nutritional types. The nitrogen assimilation pattern could not be used to differentiate between organisms. 6). No satisfactory method of investigating acid production by streptomycetes was found, and the results obtained were equivocal. A survey of the relevant literature and a bibliography are included

Drug policy constellations: A Habermasian approach for understanding English drug policy

Background: It is increasingly accepted that a view of policy as a rational process of fitting evidence-based means to rationally justified ends is inadequate for understanding the actual processes of drug policy making. We aim to provide a better description and explanation of recent English drug policy decisions. Method: We develop the policy constellation concept from the work of Habermas, in dialogue with data from two contemporary debates in English policy; on decriminalisation of drug possession and on recovery in drug treatment. We collect data on these debates through long-term participant observation, stakeholder interviews (n=15) and documentary analysis. Results: We show the importance of social asymmetries in power in enabling structurally advantaged groups to achieve the institutionalisation of their moral preferences as well as the reproduction of their social and economic power through the deployment of policies that reflect their material interests and normative beliefs. The most influential actors in English drug policy come together in a ‘medico-penal constellation’, in which the aims and practices of public health and social control overlap. Formal decriminalisation of possession has not occurred, despite the efforts of members of a challenging constellation which supports it. Recovery was put forward as the aim of drug treatment by members of a more powerfully connected constellation. It has been absorbed into the practice of ‘recovery-oriented’ drug treatment in a way that maintains the power of public health professionals to determine the form of treatment. Conclusion: Actors who share interests and norms come together in policy constellations. Strategic action within and between constellations creates policies that may not take the form that was intended by any individual actor. These policies do not result from purely rational deliberation, but are produced through ‘systematically distorted communication’. They enable the most structurally favoured actors to institutionalise their own normative preferences and structural positions