Our muddled approach to teenage drinking is in marked contrast to the consistent tough stance we adopt when warning the young about the perils of 'hard' drugs. Lecturing teenagers on the evils of alcohol while peddling it to them for half nothing sends them the wrong signal.

In a...

The benefits of stopping smoking are well documented and even the most ardent smoker will be aware of the risks of getting lung cancer if he or she fails to quit. Why then does he keep it up?

Once you start, smoking is a difficult habit to break....

Smokers planning to quit should read the Million Women Study recently published in the prestigious medical journal, the Lancet. It will confirm their worst fears. They are likely to die a lot younger than non smokers. But it will also inspire them to redouble their efforts to...

One important question overshadows healthcare reform. Is privatisation good or bad for the NHS?

The white paper, with this question part of a wider debate on a reform package announced by the new coalition government in 2010, suggested the NHS as a healthcare model was broke.

A scheme to get claimants off long term disability back to work is turning into something of a PR nightmare for the government. The sight of disabled protesters and their growing number of supporters taking to the streets, after a widely acclaimed Paralympics, is one it might wish to avoid.

Russell Brand's take on the drugs debate is refreshing. In a documentary he did for BBC 3 he looked at how we dealt with heroin addiction in the UK and asked some awkward questions.

Although better known as a celebrity, his pragmatic and sympathetic scrutiny of the drug problem deserves...