Drug News

COCAINE – INDIA
Cocaine Use on the Rise, but Heroin Down – Med India

Official figures provided by the National Treatment Agency show that while use of heroin or crack has come down in young people, use of cocaine is on the rise.

ALCOHOL – USA
ADF Tackles Binge Drinking Head On, Australia – Medical News Today

The Australian Drug Foundation is responding to the binge drinking problem in Cairns by rolling out its Good Sports program across North Queensland - a program committed to reducing alcohol related problems in sporting clubs.

DRUGS – UK
Revealed: Drug users in Scotland spend £1.4bn every year to feed their habits – Daily Record

Scotland’s drug users are spending an astonishing £1.4BILLION a year to feed their habits. And the drugs scourge leaves the nation with a £3.5billion annual bill. The harrowing scale of the illegal drugs industry was revealed yesterday in a new Government report.

ADDICTION – USA
Seeking Addiction Treatment Makes All The Difference – Trans World News

Affluent addiction victims typically seek the services of luxurious private treatment facilities. Unfortunately, that search is often impeded by a lack of information from and about exclusive rehab centers.

PRESCRIPTION – USA
Risks of Opioids for Arthritis Outweigh Benefits – ABC News

Older folks looking to find relief from painful arthritis should steer clear of codeine, OxyContin and other powerful prescription “opioid” painkillers, even if their pain is severe, doctors advise in a report published this week.

PRESCRIPTION – USA
Time To Trash Your Old Prescription Drugs – KETV News

Sarpy County officials plan to collect old prescription drugs from residents this weekend with no questions asked.

ALCOHOL – USA
Truck Crashes Way Down Since Alcohol Testing Began – Join Together

There have been 23-percent fewer alcohol-related truck crashes per mile in the U.S. since commercial truck drivers were required to submit to alcohol testing beginning in 1995.

ADDICTION – UK
Fewer young addicts seek treatment – The Press Association

The number of young adults seeking treatment for heroin and crack addiction has fallen significantly. But cocaine use appears to be on the increase, data from the NHS’s National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTA) shows.

ALCOHOL – USA
Teens Look to Parent Openness for Drugs, Alcohol Advice – ABC News

Teens say hearing about their parents’ experiences with drugs and alcohol would make them less likely to use the substances themselves, according to a new study.

PRESCRIPTION – USA
Operation Medicine Cabinet: Old prescription drugs can get tossed – safely – The Morning Journal

The Lorain County Sheriff’s Office is hosting its first prescription turn-in program on Oct. 24 in an effort to get drugs off the streets and out of the water supply. Fourteen drop-off locations for the Operation Medicine Cabinet program will be available from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

COCAINE – UK
Addiction to cocaine among young doubles in four years – Times Online

The number of young people addicted to cocaine has nearly doubled in four years as dependence on heroin or crack declines, NHS figures suggest.

PRESCRIPTION – USA
Are Prescription Drugs America’s New Addiction? – Black Voices

Most of us think that drugs which come out of a legal manufacturer are going to be safer than those being sold by a dealer on the corner. That was once the case. But with the deaths of Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger and Anna Nicole Smith, it has become clearer by the day that prescription drugs are fast becoming America’s new obsession.

ADDICTION – UK
Treatments helping addicts, says drug study – Guardian

Two-thirds of heroin and crack cocaine addicts on drug treatment programmes either abstain or substantially reduce their use of street drugs during the first six months, according to the biggest study of outcomes ever attempted.

COCAINE – UK
Cocaine drug of choice for under-25s, NHS figures suggest – Guardian

Fewer young adults with a drug problem are using heroin and crack – the two substances most likely to cause addiction, increase crime and pose serious health risks – but the number of under-25s seeking treatment for dependency on cocaine is rising significantly, official figures show.

PRESCRIPTION – USA
Gazette opinion: Let’s put a lid on the pills that kill – Billings Gazette

“Abuse of legal drugs killing people.” That front-page headline over a national story in last Thursday’s Billings Gazette explains why Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock recently created a prescription drug advisory council and why his office has obtained a $1.2 million federal grant to reduce abuse of prescription drugs.

HEROIN – USA
Buffalo Grove forum to address rise in heroin use – Daily Herald

In the last few years, there’s been a spike in heroin use across the Northwest suburbs. Area treatment facilities have waiting lists, and the village of Buffalo Grove, for example, now averages one heroin overdose death per year, with victims ranging in age from 18 to mid-40s.

PAINKILLER – USA
Painkillers in sports series: Counselor says use of drugs ‘rampant’ among athletes – Myrtle Beach Sun News

The National Survey of Alcohol and Drug Use by College Athletes said 75 percent of college athletes used some kind of painkiller medicine for sports-related injuries. And that was in 1991, before illicit online acquisition of drugs was a major problem.

ALCOHOL – AFRICA
Government Must Treat This Alcohol Crisis Seriously – All Africa

The numbers of people dying of acute alcohol poisoning, especially from improperly distilled local gin is increasing by day. According to media reports, 26 people from Kampala and Wakiso districts reportedly died in a space of just one week!

ALCOHOL – USA
KU asking students for input on alcohol policy – Kansas City Star

The University of Kansas is asking students for help on how to address alcohol abuse on campus. The school says any student may join a committee to help form an alcohol abuse policy. The committee’s next meeting scheduled for Oct. 22.

PAINKILLER – USA
Painkiller overdose deaths gaining on traffic fatalities – Examiner

During a decade when doctors wrote more prescriptions for drugs like OxyContin and fentanyl and the diversion of those medications to the illegal market increased, the number of overdoses from opioid analgesics also spiked.

ADDICTION – USA
Take Rehab Seriously Or Run The Risk Of Never Beating Addiction – Trans World News

Sunset Malibu, an exclusive treatment center on the California coast, has long been a transformational force in the field of rehabilitation and recovery. Now, Sunset is announcing its redoubled efforts in the pursuit of sustainable holistic recovery.

PRESCRIPTION – USA
Officials Say Prescription Drugs Are a Top Killer in Montana – KECI News

Montana’s top attorney says prescription drug abuse is such a serious problem, he’s set up a task force to combat it. Attorney General Steve Bullock says nearly 42 percent of drug cases prosecuted this year involved prescription drugs. That’s up from only seven percent in 2003.

HEROIN – USA
Smithtown grapples with rise in teenage heroin use – Newsday

Teens like DiBartolo have been snorting or shooting heroin in alarming numbers across Long Island in the last few years, its use hidden behind the suburban veil of afternoon ball games and bike riding.

DRUGS – USA
Alcohol & Drug Addiction Recovery Month Celebrated by Narconon Trois-Rivières – PR Web

Narconon Trois-Rivieres celebrated Recovery Month 2009 to raise awareness on the misery of drug and alcohol addiction which serves to educate the public on the benefits of the treatment options available throughout recovery centers.

DRUGS – USA
Lifelines: Red Ribbon Week — what it means – Argus Observer

They have seen the ads on television that show the junkie robbing people, the girl in the shower whose skin is rotting, the frying pan and the egg. We’ve all seen the ads so much the shock value seems to be wearing off. They are shocking and scary.

PRESCRIPTION – USA
Report finds prescription drug use increased in nearly all Kentucky counties – WHAS News

The rate of prescriptions dispensed for controlled substances increased in 118 of Kentucky’s 120 counties between 2005 and 2007, according to a recent report of the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, and five Kentucky counties – Clinton, Magoffin, Whitley, Bell and Owsley – averaged more than four controlled substance prescriptions dispensed per resident.

HEROIN – CANADA
“Hillbilly heroin” a growing problem in B.C.’s small communities – The Canadian Press

Small communities in British Columbia largely untouched by the scourge of hard drugs are discovering a similar danger that some consider even tougher to tackle because it’s handed out with a doctor’s blessing.

PAINKILLER – USA
CDC Report Spells Out Dangers of Opioid Painkillers – Finding Dulcinea

A CDC report found that deaths caused by opioid analgesics such as methadone and OxyContin more than tripled between 1999 and 2006. The federal government is trying to cut down on the prescribed use of opioids, which began to be used widely as painkillers in the 1990s.

PRESCRIPTION – USA
Program to Dispose of Expired Prescription Drugs – WYTV News

Expired prescription drugs can pose a danger to both people and the environment. Here’s your chance to clean out the medicine chest and get rid of old prescriptions safely.