Our roundup of the news headlines on Monday 29 March.
The age of ‘stoicism is dead' as we turn to drugs to cure our every ill, bemoans the Daily Mail this morning.
Yes, we are a ‘nation of pill poppers' consuming £22 million per day on NHS prescriptions drugs, a 60% rise in real terms compared with ten years ago. RCGP chair Professor Steve Field manfully rides to the rescue by saying the many more people taking statins and other drugs might be a good thing, but the newspaper chooses to still go with the line that family doctors are dishing out pills like sweets. Go figure.
The Daily Mirror covers changes to the rules over organ transplants, with donors able to name a relative or a friend they want to have one of their organs if they die.
‘Pigging out' (the Mirrors phrase not mine) on junk food is as addictive as smoking heroin and cocaine, according to newspaper reports this morning. Rats fed a diet of chips and burgers became out of control and even endured electric shocks to ‘scoff' them, say scientists.
A key government adviser has resigned just before Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, was expected to announce a proposed ban on the drug mephedrone, also known as miaow miaow.
Dr Polly Taylor is the sixth member of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to resign since the sacking of the chairman, Professor David Nutt, last year. She said she resigned because drugs policy was becoming too dictated by the ‘mood of today's press'. Catty.
Women with early breast cancer could soon be receiving a single half-hour ‘shot' of radiotherapy, rather than the current six-week course. British doctors say the treatment – after patients have undergone surgery on the tumour - is ‘showing success' in early trials, claims the Times.
Spotted a story we've missed? Let us know and we'll update the digest throughout the day...
Daily Digest
