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Background: England, Australia and the United States have approached the regulation of e‐cigarettes in very different ways, yet all three countries have appealed to the concept of evidence as underpinning policy responses. We compared these policy responses using a combination of the methodologies of historians and policy scientists in order to elucidate the factors that had influenced policy in each country. Argument/Analysis: Each country's evidence and values intersected in different ways, producing very different responses within specific national contexts and histories. Our analysis accordingly emphasized the historical precursors of the policy issues raised by e‐cigarettes and placed the policy debate within the context of regulatory bodies and the networks of researchers and advocates who influenced policy. Issues also of importance were the nature of the state; political context; the pre‐history of nicotine for smoking cessation; the role of activism and its links with government; the influence of harm reduction ideas from drugs and HIV; and finally, whom policy was perceived to benefit. In the United Kingdom, based on this pre‐history of the smoking issue, it was the existing smoker, while in the United States and Australia, protecting children and adolescents has played a central role. Conclusions: Structural and historical factors appear to underpin differences in e‐cigarette policy development in England, Australia and the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2013, illegal drug use was responsible for 1.8% of years of life lost in the European Union, alcohol was responsible for 8.2% and tobacco for 18.2%, imposing economic burdens in excess of 2.5% of GDP. No single European country has optimal governance structures for reducing the harm done by nicotine, illegal drugs and alcohol, and existing ones are poorly designed, fragmented, and sometimes cause harm. Reporting the main science and policy conclusions of a transdisciplinary five-year analysis of the place of addictions in Europe, researchers from 67 scientific institutions addressed these problems by reframing an understanding of addictions.  A new paradigm needs to account for evolutionary evidence which suggests that humans are biologically predisposed to seek out drugs, and that, today, individuals face availability of high drug doses, consequently increasing the risk of harm.  New definitions need to acknowledge that the defining element of addictive drugs is 'heavy use over time', a concept that could replace the diagnostic artefact captured by the clinical term 'substance use disorder', thus opening the door for new substances to be considered such as sugar. Tools of quantitative risk assessment that recognize drugs as toxins could be further deployed to assess regulatory approaches to reducing harm. Re-designed governance of drugs requires embedding policy within a comprehensive societal well-being frame that encompasses a range of domains of well-being, including quality of life, material living conditions and sustainability over time; such a frame adds arguments to the inappropriateness of policies that criminalize individuals for using drugs and that continue to categorize certain drugs as illegal. A health footprint, modelled on the carbon footprint, and using quantitative measures such as years of life lost due to death or disability, could serve as the accountability tool that apportions responsibility for who and what causes drug-related harm.

The authors offer a response to commentaries made on their study about e-cigarette policies. They talk about the support of the commentaries to their conclusion that pre-history is important, the reason that Japan is an interesting case, and the importance of policy attending to the high rates of e-cigarette and tobacco use by Maori youth and adults in New Zealand highlighted by A. Waa.

Binge drinking is a matter of current social, media and political concern. Within the current debates binge drinking is sometimes portrayed as a recent phenomenon, but in fact it has a history and concern about binge drinking is not new. This paper sets the phenomenon in its historical context by examining how the nature and definition of binge drinking has changed over time. Aims: The overall aim is to draw lessons for policy through the interaction of social science and historical perspectives. Methods: A literature review was conducted and a workshop brought together researchers, policy makers and practitioners to consider current perceptions of binge drinking, current responses and possible future approaches. Findings: From this study, it is evident that that the meaning ascribed to the term "binge drinking" has changed over time but further research is required to establish quite how and why this shift came about. Parallels can be drawn between the current concerns about "binge drinking" and those about the "gin craze" of the eighteenth century: they are both focused on public drunkenness, urban locations and women's drinking and the media has played a pivotal role in shaping the response to the "crisis". (Contains 1 footnote and 2 notes.)

This article describes the origin of the Centre for History in Public Health and the significance of its location in a leading school of public health. It is in three parts: (1) A brief history of how the AIDS programme became the History Centre; (2) The distinctive approach of the Centre's staff as historians: their contribution and its difference from that of other related disciplines; and (3) A survey of the Centre's research on substance policy history, a subset of the main research thrust.