Drug News

DRUG REHAB – USA
Treatment, Not Jail, For Low Level Drug Crimes – NPR

A pilot program in Seattle, Wash., and surrounding King County allows some low-level drug offenders to go to rehabilitation programs instead of prison. Guest host Tony Cox speaks with King County’s sheriff, a public defender and a member of the Seattle police department about the bi-partisan plan.

ALCOHOL ABUSE – USA
Black and Asian Teens Have Lowest Rates of Drug and Alcohol Use – Business Week

‎Black and Asian teenagers in the US are less likely to use alcohol or drugs than adolescents of other races, a study found.

DRUG ADDICTION – INDIA
Average age of drug addicts in Bangalore: 13 years! – NDTV

Bangalore: Drug rehabilitation centres in the city have recorded some shocking changes with regard to the number of narcotic users this year.

METHAMPHETAMINE – USA
Alabama legislators eye prescriptions to thwart meth making – AL.COM

The drug is highly addictive, and long-term users can suffer from rotting teeth sometimes called “meth mouth,” mood disturbances, violent behavior, hallucinations and extreme weight loss.
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DRUG REHAB – USA
Narconon East US Director Urges Alcohol and Drug Rehab Admission Before the Holidays – PR WEB

Narconon East US, Executive Director urges alcohol and drug users to enroll in rehab centers before the Holidays when addiction intensifies with more pressure to drink and party.

ALCOHOL ABUSE – USA/CANADA
Women and Alcohol: Solutions – Toronto Star
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“The new reality is that binge drinking has been increasing, especially among young adults, in modern high-economy countries — and women are largely responsible for this trend. Alcohol use contributes causally to 7 per cent of all cancers, 4 per cent of coronary disease, 23 per cent of all injuries and 26 per cent of neuropsychiatric conditions in North America.

COCAINE ADDICTION – USA
From med school to crack addict, an ex-con works his way back to sobriety

Moore, 54, is an ex-con who has spent much of his adult life in and out of prison, paying society’s price for his cocaine addiction. He missed his mother’s funeral and nearly lost his brothers and sister. Still, while Moore’s is a cautionary tale, it is also one that — so far — is shaping up to have a happy ending. And his life may yet turn into something to be celebrated.

ECSTASY – USA
Clinic a supermarket for Oxycontin and ecstasy – Seattle Post
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“It’s a supermarket for Oxycontin and ecstasy,” he said. “And there’s a lot of money changing hands.”

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Prescription drug abuse kills more than heroin and cocaine – WAFF
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The Centers for Disease Control reports prescription drug overdoses account for more deaths than heroin and cocaine combined.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Special grand jury to probe doctor shopping – Newsday
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A special grand jury will be empaneled in Suffolk County to investigate doctor shopping and the possible criminal conduct of physicians in the prescribing of painkiller pills. DA Thomas Spota said his office has seen a surge in fatal car accidents and criminal activity related to prescription drug abuse.

ECSTASY – USA
Feds nab police captain in coke, Ecstasy ring – Tallahassee Democrat
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A captain with the Opa-Locka Police Department and seven others were indicted Thursday after a two-year federal investigation into a cocaine, Ecstasy and Oxycodone ring operating in South Florida.

HEROIN – USA
Geneva woman has been to 100 funerals for heroin victims – Daily Herald

In the past 10 years, Lea Minalga estimates she’s been to more than 100 funerals in the West and Northwest suburbs — all for young people who overdosed on drugs, mostly heroin. Many of them were teenagers. “Sadly, I know most of them.”

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS/HEROIN – USA
Deadly resurgence – Denton Record Chronicle
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Heroin: That was the drug of the old days when junkies nodded on street corners, and it killed entertainers like Billie Holiday, Janis Joplin and John Belushi. Heroin: That’s the drug of today, when prescription medication abusers buy is as a cheaper alternative for the same euphoria they get from OxyContin, Vicodin and Dilaudid. It’s the drug of choice for half the abusers in Denton and the North Texas area.

ALCOHOL – USA
Sunday alcohol sales start in some Georgia cities – Anderson Independent Mail
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Retailers in several Georgia cities began ringing up beer, wine and liquor Sunday for the first time since voters in many communities statewide ended more than a century of banning alcohol sales on what many consider a day of worship. Keidra Dobbs of Duluth said she was “definitely excited” to be able to pick up some beer Sunday from a package store near her house before settling down to watch sports. “It’s been kind of an inconvenience,” Dobbs said. “Like last week, when I had to rush to get to the store by 11:45 Saturday night before they stop selling.”

ALCOHOL – AUSTRALIA
Alcohol causes ‘one in five’ deaths by injury – The West Australian
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Alcohol contributes to one in five of all deaths from injury in WA, including almost one-quarter of all road accident fatalities, new figures show.

CLUB DRUGS – UK
Third of clubbers who take mephedrone may be addicted, survey finds – The Guardian
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Three in 10 clubbers who take the drug mephedrone exhibit symptoms associated with addiction, a study has found. Many users of the banned substance, sometimes called “meow meow”, had several signs of dependence, including withdrawal effects, failed attempts to give up, and taking larger and larger doses.

METHAMPHETAMINE – USA
Methamphetamine tied to schizophrenia: What explains link? – CBS News

Can crystal meth cause madness? Maybe so. Heavy use of methamphetamine is associated with an increased risk for schizophrenia, Canadian researchers say.

HEROIN – USA
Heroin takes heavy toll on users – Seattle Today

Ann Seebeck of Kirkwood visits a tree planted in memory of her son, Chris Seebeck, on Monday Oct. 17, 2011, in Kirkwood Park. Chris Seebeck overdosed in the basement of his parents’ Kirkwood home in 2010 at the age of 27. St. Louis is in the third year of a heroin epidemic that is killing at unprecedented rates.

ALCOHOL ABUSE – USA
November is Alcohol Awareness Month – The Daily Reporter

Alcoholism is a term with multiple and sometimes conflicting definitions. In common and historic usage, alcoholism is any condition that results in the continued consumption of alcoholic beverage, despite health problems and negative social consequences.

HEROIN – USA
Heart attack was really a heroin overdose – WDEL
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Once she was revived, it was discovered the Pennsylvania woman drove her car into the CVS on Delaware Avenue as the result of a heroin overdose.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS/HEROIN – USA
Connecting problems: Heroin and abuse of prescription drugs – Twin Cities Pioneer Press

Before 2000, heroin was a “non-issue” in the state, she says. That’s changed over the last decade, spurred by a “perfect storm” that includes availability here of purer, cheaper heroin and the increased use of prescription painkillers.

PRESCRIPTION DRUG ADDICTION – USA
My Teenager Is A Drug Addict – A Father’s Story – The Patch

“These are not street drugs that have stolen the last two years of my son’s life and put him near death – they are drugs in everyday, ordinary people’s homes that they are leaving exposed and available to our youth in town.”

ALCOHOL ABUSE – UK
Alarm at growing addiction problems among professionals – The Guardian

Experts are calling for urgent action to tackle the “significant challenge” of rising levels of alcoholism and substance abuse among professionals including doctors, dentists and lawyers. Doctors are three times more likely to develop cirrhosis of the liver than the general population.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Prescription meds are becoming stimulants of choice on college campuses – Memphis Commercial Appeal
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Drug abuse on college campuses is no longer limited to binge drinking and illegal drugs. Across the nation, prescription drugs are now the second most-abused drug after marijuana, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Prescription Drug Abuse: The New Killer on the Block – Huffington Post

Every 14 minutes a person dies of a drug overdose in the United States. This means more than 35,000 deaths every year, exceeding motor vehicle crashes, homicides and suicides! What once dominated the world of overdoses in the U.S., namely heroin, has been eclipsed by the prescription painkillers.

DRUG ADDICTION – USA
Teens Getting High on Sonic Drugs – First Coast News

It may sound far-fetched, but websites are selling sonic drugs. The websites claim that by listening to specific frequencies, you can get the same effect as if you actually took recreational, prescription and hallucinogenic drugs.

DRUG REHAB – USA
Suncoast Rehab Center Saves Alcoholic Mother’s Life with Narconon Program – PRWeb

Upon completing the Narconon long term residential program delivered at Suncoast Rehab, Julie M. returned home to her son who now has restored his faith in her.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
CDC: Prescription drug epidemic worsens, Hoosiers impacted – Fox 59

A recent report from the CDC shows prescription drugs, specifically painkillers, are responsible for more deaths annually than some street drugs combined. Overdoses from prescription painkillers are skyrocketing across the U.S., according to the CDC, and Hoosiers have not escaped what health officials are calling a public health epidemic.

ALCOHOL ABUSE – USA
We don’t need more access to alcohol – Herald Times Reporter
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In Wisconsin, where problems associated with the abuse of alcohol already soar above national levels, the last thing the Legislature should be considering is increasing the availability of alcohol.

DRUG ABUSE – USA
Wall Street turns a blind eye to drugs – The USD Vista

Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck both called Occupy Wall Street protesters “crackheads,” but behind the actual firms of Wall Street lies a widely undocumented and hidden drug culture. After an undercover drug operation on Wall Street, DEA agents once said that “cocaine was either used or accepted by 90 percent of the people they met in the financial community.”

METHAMPHETAMINE – USA
Crystal fear: Drop in meth prices concerns law enforcement – The Daily Sentinel

Methamphetamine — public enemy No. 1 for Grand Valley law enforcement and the focus of aggressive enforcement and attention by government entities — is available at prices not seen in three to five years. The cost of a dealer-quantity ounce of meth has hit lows some say were last known when law enforcement struck a major first blow in March 2006 with the arrests of a 30-plus-member drug ring.

MEPHEDRONE/MEOW MEOW – NEW ZEALAND
Party drug’s brain tricks explained for first time – New Zealand Doctor

A researcher at the University of Sydney has for the first time explained how the increasingly common street drug mephedrone affects the brain, helping to explain why it is potentially such an addictive substance.

ALCOHOL – USA
Moderate alcohol consumption can increase breast cancer risk – WRAL
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Can a glass of wine at lunch or a couple of drinks after work increase the risk for breast cancer over the course of a woman’s lifetime? Alcohol abuse has been linked to an increased risk of breast cancer for some time, but what doctors didn’t know is how lower or moderate patterns of drinking over the course of a woman’s lifetime impact the risk.