Drug News

ALCOHOL – AUSTRALIA
Too many parents giving children alcohol: report – ABC.net
Parents are being asked to try harder when it comes to controlling their teenagers’ drinking habits. The latest report on the problem reveals Australian high school students are getting most of their alcohol from their parents.

ALCOHOL – USA
School Adds Alcohol Urine Test to Curriculum – ABC News
Students at Pequannock Township High School in New Jersey will soon be subjected to a new sort of pop quiz, one that alerts their parents if they have been drinking.

PRESCRIPTION – USA
Analysis: Prescription drug ads leave out risks, alternatives – USA Today
An analysis of television commercials for prescription drugs found that few mentioned risk factors or non-drug treatments for the conditions they target, scientists reported Monday.

ALCOHOL – USA
High school to expand alcohol testing – Houston Chronicle
Some teenagers who drink over the weekend could be in big trouble come Monday morning: A New Jersey school district plans to institute random urine tests capable of detecting whether alcohol was consumed up to 80 hours earlier.

ALCOHOL – UK
Excessive Drinking, Not Alcoholism, May Lead To Most Alcohol-Related Problems – Medical News Today
Many people assume that most people who drink to excess are probably alcoholics. A recent survey of 4,761 New Mexico adults found that while 16.5 percent drank alcohol in excess of national guidelines, only 1.8 percent met criteria for alcohol dependence.

ALCOHOL – UK
Awash with alcohol – The Herald
There was no way of putting a decent gloss on yesterday’s figures on the death and destruction being wrought by alcohol in Scotland.

ALCOHOL – NEW ZEALAND
Vitamin D may prevent alcohol-related bone loss – Stuff.co.nz
New research conducted now suggests that vitamin D or the anti-osteoporosis drug Boniva (ibandronate) can prevent alcohol-related bone loss caused by regular binge drinking.

PRESCRIPTION – USA
Doctors Criticize TV Prescription Drug Ads – Broadcast Newsroom
A new study claims TV drug ads are education-lite, a claim challenged by the ad industry.

PRESCRIPTION – USA
Marketers Blast Drug-Ad Study – AD Week
Advertisers’ lobbying groups reacted with anger today at a study published in the Annals of Family Medicine that criticized direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising.

METH – CANADA
Shaw TV to Air ‘Black Ice -The Truth About Crystal Meth’ – CNN Mathews
Shaw Communications today announced plans to produce and air a 90 minute eye-opening special about Crystal Meth and its social and economic impact within the province of Alberta.

METH – USA
Strawberry meth removes any doubt about the scope of Carson City’s drug problem – Nevada Appeal
The Carson City Sheriff’s Department seized “strawberry meth” during a search of a Como Street apartment on Saturday. It was the first time the pink, flavored meth, designed to be more attractive to young people, was found there.

ALCOHOL – UK
Alcohol abuse and crime – The Herald
Problem drinking fuels many crimes: 40% of those in Scotland’s jails committed their crime while under the influence of alcohol.

DRUGS – USA
Report: Drug firm distorted Paxil test results – MSNBC
GlaxoSmithKline Plc was accused on Monday of distorting clinical trial results of its antidepressant Seroxat, or Paxil, and covering up a link with suicide in teenagers.

HEROIN – USA
Bucking U.S., Afghanistan won’t spray heroin – MSNBC
Rebuffing months of U.S. pressure, President Hamid Karzai has decided Afghanistan will not implement a Colombia-style program to spray the country’s heroin-producing poppies, bowing to pressure from top Cabinet members who feared a popular backlash, officials said Thursday.

OPIUM – JAPAN
Despite Colombian government claim, opium crops persist – Mainichi Daily News
It was touted as a landmark in the U.S.-backed war on drugs: Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos took a two-foot-long machete and cut down what he said was the “last plant of opium poppy in the country.”

OPIUM – AUSTRALIA
Afghanistan won’t spray opium poppies – The Australian
Intense American pressure has failed to persuade President Karzai to start chemically spraying Afghanistan’s opium poppy crop in an attempt to cripple the heroin trade.

OPIUM – USA
Afghanistan refuses to spray opium poppies – States Man
Despite U.S. pressure, Afghan government says it won’t spray herbicide to kill heroin-producing poppies.

METH – USA
Strawberry meth seized in search – Nevada Appeal
A new kind of methamphetamine that has a strawberry flavor and bright pink coloring was seized for the first time in Carson City during a search of a Como Street apartment on Saturday, an official said.

METH – USA
Placer High video to show dangers of meth – Auburn Journal
Placer High students were caught on film smoking meth on campus Friday afternoon. Funny thing is, their teacher was the one encouraging them to do it.

METH – USA
Learning the reponsibilites of Meth Task Force responders – WWMT
Even though we’ve seen the number of meth labs decline over the last year, the problem has not been wiped out.

HEROIN – USA
Heroin drug of choice in Shelby – Bucyrus Telegraph Forum
Shelby police Capt. Lance Combs has seen too much of heroin in his town. “A lot of use, a lot of abuse, lots of overdoses and a lot of trafficking,” he said. “It runs the gamut.”

METH – USA
Professor discusses meth addiction – Nevada Appeal
About 100 residents turned out at Carson Valley United Methodist Church on Thursday to find the answer to the question, “Why can’t they just stop?”

PRESCRIPTION – USA
LISD raising awareness on teen drug use – Courier Gazette
According to school officials, 31 percent of students in fourth through sixth grades, and 71 percent in seventh through 12th grades reported using some type of substance in their lifetime.

ADDICTION – USA
Addiction speaker to focus on kids, drugs – GJ Sentinel
Drug abuse among athletes is “more relevant today than it’s ever been,” said John Underwood, director of the American Athletic Institute. And one problem that perpetuates this type of abusive behavior in young athletes is in the way adults deal with it, he said.

DRUGS – AUSTRALIA
Drug abuse fight must go beyond government initiatives – The Australian News, Health
Depending on whom you talk to, amphetamine usage is a full-blown crisis in Australia, a disaster just waiting to explode, or no bigger a problem than the use of any other illicit drug.

ALCOHOL – NETHERLANDS
Excessive drinking, not alcoholism, may lead to most alcohol-related problems – Press Zoom
Excessive drinking, not alcoholism, may lead to most alcohol-related problems.

METH – USA
A Portrait of the Typical School-Age Meth User – Pride Surveys
The typical student user of methamphetamines is a 17-year old white male who lives with both parents, first tried meth at age 12.6 years, under performs in the classroom, and does not view the drug as harmful to the health.

ALCOHOL – USA
Binge Drinking May Be Biggest Alcohol Threat: Survey – Food Consumer
A statewide New Mexico survey suggests that most Americans who drink too much may not, in fact, be full-blown alcoholics but rather binge drinkers.

METH – USA
Meth Use Among Females On The Rise – KCPW
Women of child bearing age are a growing demographic among meth users. According to experts from the Salt Lake County Division of Substance Abuse, most women addicted to meth began using due to relationship pressures.

METH – USA
Methadone clinics eyed as part of drug abuse focus – Herald Dispatch
A spate of fatal overdoses has prompted lawmakers to examine drug abuse in West Virginia, starting with methadone.

METH – USA
Clarksburg City Council Targets Methadone Clinic – Wboy.com
Clarksburg city council is urging state legislators to review regulations for methadone clinics. Methadone is supposed to help addicts stay off illegal drugs. Some Clarksburg officials say the clinics that distribute it are doing more harm than good.

HYDROCODONE – USA
For Pain or for Party
Partying with a cocktail of alcohol and prescription painkillers or sedatives seems to be a growing trend.

METH – USA
Police issue warning on spread of crystal meth – Guardian Unlimited
Methamphetamine, or crystal meth, the highly addictive drug prevalent across the US and Australia, is present in almost every town and city in England and Wales, according to an internal police report.

METH – CANADA
‘Meth-mouth’ turning up in the Yukon – CBC News
Yukon dentists who are dealing with what they suspect is damage from crystal meth use say they are seeing more cases all the time.

HEROIN – IRLAND
Heroin use increasing in city – Limerick Post
The use and abuse of heroin in Limerick is growing at a rate comparable to Dublin, city councillor, Diarmuid Scully has warned.

PRESCRIPTION – USA
Don’t give away prescription drugs; you will be responsible – Daily Dispatch
People who give their prescription drugs to someone else are responsible if whoever else ultimately ends up with them winds up injured - or dead - the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Monday.

DRUGS – CANADA
Flying in the face of facts, governments cling to futile drug strategies – Vancouver Sun
With all the controversy about Vancouver’s supervised injection facility, one could easily be lulled into thinking that we’ve all but abandoned enforcing Canada’s drug laws, that we’ve chosen to emphasize harm reduction at the expense of prevention, treatment and enforcement.

OPIUM – AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Girls and women traded for opium debts – IRIN News
HELMAND PROVINCE, 23 Jan 2007 (IRIN) - On 4 November 2006, Nasima, 25, a member of a local women’s council, grabbed the AK-47 from the policeman guarding the council meeting in the Grishk district of southern Helmand province and killed herself.

METHAMPHETAMINE – USA
DPA to Develop State Methamphetamine Education Program – Drug Policy Alliance
Drug Policy Alliance New Mexico will create a statewide education program to address methamphetamine abuse among high school students, using a nearly $500,000 grant obtained by U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-New Mexico) through a Department of Justice appropriations bill.

ALCOHOL – UK
Protecting fetuses from mothers who drink – New Scientist
Taking cholesterol supplements during pregnancy may prevent at-risk mothers from conferring alcohol-related damage to their growing fetus, according to a preliminary study in zebrafish.

COCAINE – USA
Cocaine Cowboys – DVD Talk
In the typically highbrow world of documentaries, Cocaine Cowboys is a decidedly different breed of cat. A machinegun-paced exploration of South Florida’s cocaine trade in the late Seventies and early Eighties, it is violent, exploitive and lurid.

METH – USA
Public awareness is fighting crystal meth – Abbotsford News
Last week’s crystal meth forum at Matsqui Centennial Auditorium drew a full house of concerned residents.

METH – USA
Meth Watch Inanity
Most citizens of North Dakota, and a lot of other states, are familiar with so-called “meth watch” laws which regulate the sale of products that are commonly used in the production of methamphetamine.

ADDERALL – USA
A tough dose of the truth: Prescription drugs becoming more popular among youths - ZWire.com
Awareness about over the counter medication and prescription drug use among teenagers appears to be sweeping the nation.

COCAINE – USA
Peru official says cocaine output is growing – MSNBC
Peru has reduced and stabilized illegal coca leaf planting areas over the past few years, but yields from some farms have doubled and cocaine output soared due to a lack of funds to fight the lucrative business.

ALCOHOL – AUSTRALIA
Alcohol mixed with other drugs proves popular with students – Melbourne Indymedia
Old research has already found many high school children are increasing the risks of drug use by mixing different substances.

PESCRIPTION – USA
Report: Drug deaths on the rise – The Derrick and News Herald
In addition, reports show that more people are using more potent and addictive drugs than in years past.

DRUGS – USA
LETTER: Honest communication – Lufkin Daily News
It’s smart business to educate our kids about the risks of using drugs. But that message is best delivered by qualified health care professionals and counselors, not by uniformed police officers and DARE.

CANNABIS – AUSTRALIA
Cannabis, alcohol ‘most popular mix’ – The Age
Cannabis and alcohol are the most popular combination of drugs for Australian students, and the general population, research shows.

ADDICTION – USA
Professor to discuss meth issues – Record Courier
Bolstered by community interest, the Partnership of Community Resources is hosting a University of Nevada, Reno, professor Thursday who is to discuss the medical aspects of methamphetamine.

METH – USA
Rising meth use ripples through community – Amador Ledger Dispatch
When it comes to the toll the rise in methamphetamine use is taking on the nation and its cities, the health effects can get especially ugly.

DRUG – CANADA
Drug Endangered Children Act gives police tool to halt abuse
As a member of Edmonton’s green team, RCMP Cpl. Ian Gillan has seen too many heartbreaking cases of young children being neglected or abused because of their parents’ drug activity.

ALCOHOL – USA
Mirren refuses alcohol at awards – Rx PG News
Actress Dame Helen Mirren, who recently won the best actress trophy at the Golden Globes, does not resort to alcohol to fight her nervousness at awards functions because she is scared she will embarrass herself.

METH – CANADA
Play gives voice to Meth – Kamloops This Week
Witness the destructive power of meth through the words of those who have struggled with the ruthless addiction to which it can lead — and participate in the healing.

METH – USA
Daily HIV/AIDS Report – Kaiser Network
Some health officials are concerned that the ease with which people can use the Internet to find crystal methamphetamine and sex partners will lead to an increase in the number of new HIV cases among men who have sex with men, Reuters reports.

METH – USA
Meth is Death Week’ to draw attention to problem – The Daily World
A county-wide observance will be conducted next week to raise awareness about the continuing methamphetamine problem in Greene County.

PRECRIPTION – USA
Prescription Drugs: The One Thing You Should Never Share – FOX News
There are several reasons why you should never share a prescription with someone– even if you think it will help the person.

DRUGS – USA
Group fighting teen drug, alcohol use – Cannon Falls Beacon
According to a 2004 student survey, 7% of Cannon Falls sixth graders admitted they had drunk alcohol during the past year, and the percentage rose to 42.5% for the freshmen class. An astonishing 79.5% of the 2004 senior class acknowledged drinking one or more times.

ALCOHOL – USA
Increased TV Alcohol Ads Creating Young Drinkers – The HOYA
If you watch television tonight, you are much more likely to see an alcohol ad than you were six years ago. Largely as a result of a decision by liquor companies to end their voluntary ban on television advertising, in 2005 there were 34 percent more alcohol ads on television than in 2001.

DRUGS – USA
Jackson County Student Drug Testing – ABC News
In 2005, the school district received a grant to administer drug tests to students who participate in clubs, sports and band.

METHADONE – UK
There are more on methadone than ever – News Scotsman
City drugs tsar and former deputy chief constable Tom Wood is quite correct to hail a drop in the number of heroin addicts as an encouraging sign, especially when not so long ago he was predicting that the levels of heroin abuse in Edinburgh threatened to return to the levels of the dark days of Trainspotting. But although the most recent fall is to be welcomed, the success is somewhat overshadowed by a further increase in the numbers taking methadone.

NARCOTICS – USA
Long-term Narcotics Use For Back Pain May Be Ineffective And Lead To Abuse – Science Daily
Narcotic drugs (opioids) are commonly prescribed for short-term relief of chronic back pain, but their effectiveness long-term has been questioned in a review article by researchers at Yale School of Medicine, who also found that behaviors consistent with opioid abuse was reported in 24 percent of cases.

ADDICTION – PHILIPPINES
The path to drug addiction – ABS CBN Interactive
Once a person gets into drugs, a number of paths will be taken. If he is lucky, a bit of experimentation will be all that is needed to satisfy his curiosity. That is if he does not get hooked on the drugs he is playing with.

METH – USA
Community looks at devastation of meth addiction – Aldergrove Star
Methamphetamine, also known as crystal meth, is becoming the drug of choice for many young people, with devastating consequences.

HEROIN – USA
State warns heroin blend could become a problem – Morning Sentinel
Public health and public safety officials worry that a type of heroin blend that has led to hundreds of overdoses elsewhere in the country could become a serious problem in Maine.

ADDERALL – USA
Students give the straight dope about drug use in Weston – The Weston Forum
Nikki Phillips was a beautiful star athlete, bright and personable, who seemed to have everything going for her. Yet in a moment, she was gone.