Drug News

DRUG REHAB – UK
Amy Winehouse’s death prompts review of drug rehab waiting times – ‎Telegraph.co.uk

It claims that in 2009/10, 94 per cent of patients waited less than three weeks for drug rehabilitation. During that period, the NTA dealt with nearly 207,000 addicts.

DRUG ADDICTION – USA
With Drug Use on Rise, How Do You Protect Your Kids? – Patch.com

Experts offer tips on how parents can help their children avoid drug use, as reports of prescription drug and heroin use are on the rise.

COCAINE/CRACK – CANADA
Vancouver health authority to hand out free crack pipes – ‎News1130

Clean crack pipes will be distributed to drug addicts this fall as a means to help stop the spread of infectious diseases and guide them toward treatment.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Officials fear for infants born to prescription drug addicts – CNN

South Florida doctors and intensive care nurses report an dramatic uptick in babies born hooked on pills that their mothers abused while pregnant.

COCAINE – USA
Why cocaine addiction is ‘still going strong’ in Hollywood – Daily News & Analysis

Though the number of young adults abusing cocaine has dropped significantly, according to the 2008 National Survey of Drug Use and Health, but it’s use in Hollywood is still going strong.

DRUG ADDICTION – USA
We have lost drug battle because we have not read history – ‎Zanesville Times Recorder

Memory loss and addiction were typified by Timothy O’Leary, the guru, … We have lost the battle against illegal drug use because we have not read history.

DRUG/ALCOHOL ABUSE – USA
DC tops nation in drug, alcohol abuse – Washington Examiner

Drug and alcohol abuse rates are higher in the District than anywhere else in the country, and experts say the wide availability of drugs, high stress levels and difficulties getting abusers into treatment fuel the city’s persistently stratospheric rates.

ALCOHOL ABUSE – UK
Drinks industry grip on alcohol panel criticized – The Guardian

Anti-alcohol abuse groups say push to cut excessive drinking risks being compromised by industry’s heavy presence on panel.

DRUG ADDICTION – UK
The Life of Amy Winehouse: A Timeline (Sept. 14, 1983-July 23, 2011) – E! Online

June 17, 2009: Winehouse’s parents, Janis and Mitch, make a public plea to try to get their daughter the help she needs, saying that she was still drinking while in a drug treatment program.

HEROIN – USA
Heroin’s siren song: Son achieves stability after years of addiction – Pittsburgh Post Gazette

We didn’t find it in the same route; we both ended up drug addicts by our own means, but we used together. I snorted it a couple of times. I went intravenous pretty quickly. We’re all good at hiding it for an extended period of time.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Robbery case, toddler’s death highlight Florida’s prescription drug problem – Tampabay.com

Prescription drug abuse remains rampant in Florida, even as local and state officials continue their crackdowns. So-called pill mills, the unscrupulous pain management clinics with on-site pharmacies accepting cash payments, have been the main supply line for oxycodone and other prescription painkillers flooding the streets in a state where an average of seven people die each day from prescription drug overdoses.

METHAMPHETAMINE – USA
Northern California woman to stand trial in meth breast milk death – San Jose Mercury News

A Humboldt County judge has ordered a woman to stand trial in the death of her newborn son after he drank her methamphetamine-laced breast milk.

ECSTASY – USA
Some say ecstasy may be to blame for psychotic behavior – ABC Action News

Now, one of Hadley’s best friends says he admitted to taking three ecstasy pills around the time of the murders. Ecstasy is a drug typically used at raves or concerts.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Prescription drug abuse in Vermont ‘a problem of epidemic proportions’ – BurlingtonFreePress.com

The overview: Vermont’s prescription drug abuse problem is getting worse. Monday: The medical angle: Doctors have become a source of opiates for the state’s addicts.

ALCOHOL – USA
Adults who allow underage alcohol consumption face stiff consequences – Livingston Daily

Teens often take their cues about acceptance of alcohol consumption from their parents, who may adopt the attitude that they drank alcohol as teens and survived.

LSD – CANADA
Teens and LSD – Patch.com

It is this lack of inoculation of the current generation with regard to the risks of LSD that makes them vulnerable if the drug returns to popularity. The controversial psychedelic drug LSD may soon leave the underground world of illegal self-discovery.

DRUG REHAB – USA
Rethinking addiction: Expanding treatment isn’t enough – Baltimore Sun

Each additional life saved from addiction is a tremendous victory, both for the individual and the community. But it is not enough. Recent medical advances and greater access to care have helped many addicts reclaim their lives, but the underlying environmental and social causes of substance abuse remain largely unchanged

DRUG ADDICTION – CANADA
Drug prohibition fuels crime, hurts society – Victoria Times Colonist

Drug prohibition is the true cause of much of the social and personal damage that has historically been attributed to drug use. It is prohibition that makes illegal drugs expensive, while giving criminals a monopoly over their supply.

HEROIN – USA
Grieving family seeks to prevent heroin deaths – Hometownlife.com

They contacted the Livonia Observer to tell the story of their son’s drug use and eventual heroin addiction, which they said led to his taking his own life May 24 at age 22. “He was a good kid, but the drugs made him a totally different. He couldn’t even think straight.”

ALCOHOL AND DRUG ADDICTION – USA
White House Drug-Control Strategy Focuses on College Students – The Chronicle of Higher Education

The Obama administration’s 2011 National Drug Control Strategy, a report released today, for the first time includes a focus on college students for substance-abuse prevention efforts. “Drug addiction is a disease that too often begins—and can be prevented—on campus.”

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
A 3-point plan to battle prescription drug abuse – Albany Times Union

Chuck Schumer has proposed a three-pronged attack on the rising abuse of prescription drugs: doctor training, law enforcement and information exchange. “I remember back in the ’80s and ’90s when crack began to rear its head and we didn’t do enough.”

HEROIN – USA
Addiction experts defend drug for heroin addicts – KOB.com

KOB Eyewitness news 4 reported about a spike in abuse of a drug used to treat heroin addiction. Bernalillo County Sheriff’s detectives said it is a new trend, but many viewers responded with skepticism. KOB decided to take a closer look at this drug.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Prescription-Drug Abuse Is Focus of U.S. Drug-Control Strategy – Bloomberg

According to a fact sheet accompanying the report, cocaine abuse has fallen 46 percent over the last five years among young adults aged 18 to 25. Prescription drug abuse hasn’t seen the same decline. “We’re seeing more initiation for drug use by young people through the medicine cabinet than through marijuana.”

ALCOHOL – AUSTRALIA
Alcopops tax cuts youth grog abuse, ‘but community-wide reform needed’ – Cowra Community News

The alcopops tax has worked to reduce drinking by young people but broader changes and a comprehensive approach, including taxation reform, are needed to tackle alcohol abuse across the wider community.

DRUG ADDICTION – USA
Opana spikes overdose deaths – Bluefield Daily Telegraph

During the press conference, Bluefield, Va., Police Chief Harry Cundiff said that the drug trade often to leads to crimes such as breaking and entry, metal thefts and passing bad checks. “If you take away drug addiction, it would put us out of a job.”

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Woman finds hope in recovery from prescription pill abuse – Sacramento Bee

A 2009 study found that 16 million Americans ages 12 and older took prescription drugs for nonmedical purposes at least once in the prior year, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health by the Substance Abuse Mental Health Administration.

DRUG ADDICTION – USA/PORTUGAL
Portugal takes proper approach to ‘drug war’ – The Detroit News

Despite more than $40 billion spent every year on the US drug war and 500000 people behind bars on drug related offenses, drugs are as available as ever. But what is the alternative? What would happen if a society decided to treat drug use as a health issue instead of a criminal justice issue? What if we stopped the futile effort of using force to decrease drug consumption? What if we decriminalized drugs, not just marijuana, but all drugs like heroin, cocaine and meth?

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
CSI Star Charged With Hillbilly Heroin Possession – antiMUSIC.com

Former “CSI” star Gary Dourdan has been charged with drug possession — after officials determined he was carrying oxycontin when he smashed into several parked cars in Hollywood on June 13.

MARIJUANA/HEROIN – USA
Drug Enforcement Administration Says Marijuana Same As Heroin – ThirdAge

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) ruled on July 8, 2011 that marijuana has no accepted medical use and will remain classified as an addictive and dangerous drug, similar to heroin.

ALCOHOL – USA
New alcohol education program may avert binge drinking abuse – Oregon Daily Emerald

More than other schools, the University has its fair share of alcohol abuse. In fact, according to the American College Health Association, the number of University students who had used alcohol within the past month was 12 percent higher than students surveyed nationwide.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Abuse of Prescription Drugs by Young Teens on the Rise – Patch.com

There is good news coming from the 2010-2011 Pride Survey of young teen drug and alcohol use in Rockland County. But there is also disturbing information about the gradual increase in the abuse of prescription drugs by 10th graders and even 8th grade students.

ECSTASY – SCOTLAND
Fear over killer Ecstasy pills at music festival – Scotland on Sunday

POLICE have warned revellers at the T in the Park festival to beware of any drugs bought on the site after officers seized a shipment of Ecstasy with a street value of £80000. Police warned that Ecstasy tablets six times stronger than normal have been sold in the west of Scotland.

DRUG REHAB – CHINA
Teenage drug abusers fight addiction, seek rehab – China Daily

Eji Lhaze was 14 when he first took “ice”, thinking it was no different from cigarettes. “I was curious how it tasted, because my pals seemed to enjoy every bit of it and sleep like babies after a dose,” he said. “So I just tried a sip.”

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Florida laws get tougher to crack down on prescription drug abuse – Wink News

Today’s declaration that Florida’s prescription drug abuse crisis is a public health emergency is an aggressive launch of the strong criminal and administrative penalties that are now in effect and will crack down on pill mills in Florida. This ban along with the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program will strengthen the oversight of the prescribing of highly addictive drugs and save lives.

DRUG REHAB – USA
U.S. Supreme Court rules longer prison terms not allowed for drug rehab – Sacramento Bee

This was longer than it might have been, but the judge noted that it was long enough to make Tapia eligible for a drug treatment program at a federal prison.

ALCOHOL AND DRUG ABUSE – USA
Nearly Half of US Teens Smoke, Drink Alcohol, or Use Drugs – WebMD

Nearly half of all American high school students smoke, drink alcohol, or use illicit drugs, according to a new report.

METHAMPHETAMINE – USA
Hope and recovery – Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Thierry Wood said she was devastated when she called police in 2007 to arrest her 14-year-old daughter, Nina, whose behavior had become erratic and violent because of her methamphetamine addiction.

ECSTASY – SCOTLAND
Two men die after taking extra-strong ecstasy pills – Herald Scotland

Ecstasy tablets six times stronger than normal may have caused the death of two men in the west of Scotland.

HEROIN – MEXICO/USA
As poppy fields flourish in Mexico, heroin use surges in US – MiamiHerald

What was once a problem largely confined to hubs in California and Texas, Mexican traffickers have expanded into the Midwest and the Atlantic Seaboard. Using savvy marketing tactics, they’ve also repositioned heroin commercially, revamping its image from the inner-city drug of yore, with its junkies and needles, into a narcotic that can be snorted or smoked, appealing to suburban and even rural high school youth.

MARIJUANA – USA
Marijuana Driving Accidents On The Rise – Slate Magazine

Driving while under the influence isn’t just for drunks anymore. There’s a largely unrecognized group causing a growing number of accidents — minor and fatal — across the country: drugged drivers. And many of them may be causing accidents with their use of pot.