Drug News

DRUG REHAB – USA
Kentucky Doctors Must Join Pill Abuse Fight – Kentucky.com

There has been a 900 percent increase in people seeking treatment for substance addiction in Kentucky in the past decade. More than 25,428 Kentuckians were admitted to drug and alcohol rehab programs in 2010.

DRUG ADDICTION – USA
Drugs, Rehab and Bar Mitzvahs: An Afternoon Chat with Author Moshe Kasher – Laist.com

When I got to middle school I felt even more different, but then I found the fuck-ups at the school and started doing drugs and I forgot that I felt different. That was part of the great seductiveness of drugs at that age – it was not recreational, it was therapeutic.

HEROIN – USA
Heroin ring smuggled drugs from Africa to Maryland, feds say – Washington Examiner
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Four men have been arrested in connection with a heroin-distribution ring that allegedly smuggled the drug from Africa and sold it in Maryland.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Painkillers alter how addicts relate to themselves, others – Seattle Times
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Calling them painkillers is almost a misnomer. They don’t actually relieve the pain so much as they affect the way the brain perceives pain, and their extended use can result in the distortion of the brain’s pain/pleasure responses.

HEROIN – USA
As heroin death toll rises, antidote is available — but hard to find – Seattle Times
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Heroin-overdose deaths are rising in the Northwest, and a prescription opiate antidote was made legal in 2010. Unfortunately, authorities say, almost no pharmacies stock it.

ALCOHOL ABUSE – GLOBAL
Alcohol Abuse Screenings at the Dentist – World Dental

Health experts have warned that people who consume alcohol excessively are exposed to an extremely high risk of developing dental disease and mouth cancer.

HEROIN – USA
New, Deadly Heroin Mix Kills Dozen-Plus in NW – KTVZ
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A new, deadly mix of heroin has been sweeping through the Northwest in the past month, causing numerous deaths in Washington state, while Central Oregon police and fire medics said Friday they also have been grappling with a rising number of heroin overdoses.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
System to Curb Abuse of Prescription Painkillers Goes Unused – The Bay Citizen
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Byung Sik Yuh, the owner of Nichols Hill pharmacy in Oakland, filled more than 5,000 online prescriptions for addictive painkillers before the California State Board of Pharmacy moved last year to revoke his license. The patients who picked up the prescriptions at Yuh’s pharmacy had never met their doctors, nor had physical examinations. They filled out a brief online survey and paid an anonymous doctor to write prescriptions over the Internet.

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.”

DRUG ADDICTION – USA
Mother recounts son’s synthetic drug addiction – The Daily News Journal

Wyant’s son, 20-year-old Dylan Evans, is currently recovering in a drug rehab facility from a year-long addiction to Molly’s Plant Food that ended with Evans overdosing on prescription medication.

DRUG REHAB – THAILAND
Drug rehab programme attracts 500 applicants on first day – The Nation

As many as 500 drug addicts applied for the drug-rehabilitation programme when it was launched yesterday.

DRUG ADDICTION – USA
Columbia Students Accused of Drug Dealing – New York Daily News

Lawyers for an alleged cartel of Columbia students busted for campus drug dealing complained Tuesday a judge was picking on their clients because they are Ivy Leaguers.

DRUG ADDICTION/REHAB – USA
Giving welfare to drug users just enables abuse – Des Moines Register

Drug abusers instead need to be in programs that treat their addiction. Unfortunately, many people need to hit rock bottom before they enter rehab. Is paying them money to prolong their habit really helping them?

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS/ALCOHOL ABUSE – USA
Pharmaceuticals outpace alcohol as drug of choice in Bay County – The Bay City Times

Bay County has long had a reputation as a home of heavy drinkers, but another demon has edged out alcohol as the most abused substance. In 2010, for the first time ever, more Bay County residents sought treatment for prescription drug abuse than for alcohol addiction.

ALCOHOL ABUSE – USA
Binge Drinking Costs U.S. Billions – Ashland Current

The cost of excessive alcohol consumption in the United States in 2006 reached $223.5 billion or about $1.90 per drink. Researchers found the costs largely resulted from losses in workplace productivity (72 percent of the total cost), health care expenses for problems caused by excessive drinking (11 percent of the total cost), law enforcement and other criminal justice expenses related to excessive alcohol consumption (nine percent of the total cost), and motor vehicle crash costs from impaired driving (six percent of the total cost).

HEROIN – USA
Neighborhood flyers advertise heroin for sale – WNEM

Oregon police say a group of suspected drug dealers handed out flyers advertising “heroin for sale.” Police moved in to the well known “heroin house” and arrested six people. Inside, cops found a small meth lab, drugs, guns and cash.

ECSTASY – UK
Academic attempted suicide over drugs death – The Independent
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A university lecturer has admitted possessing drugs after a teenage girl died when she took ecstasy from his hidden stash during a party thrown by his daughter in his home. Brian Dodgeon, 61, tried to kill himself a week later in remorse.

ALCOHOL ABUSE – USA
Parents’ View of Teen Drug Use: Your Kid, Not Mine – Web MD

One in 10 parents surveyed believed their own teenage child had used alcohol during the previous year. And just one in 20 believed their teen had smoked marijuana.
Teens themselves reported a much higher rate of substance use in a separate poll released late last year. About half of 10th-graders said they had used alcohol over the previous 12 months; about one in 4 (28%) reported marijuana use.

DRUG ADDICTION – USA
Drug deaths now outnumber traffic fatalities in U.S., data show – LA Times

Fueling the surge are prescription pain and anxiety drugs that are potent, highly addictive and especially dangerous when combined with one another or with other drugs or alcohol.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Oxycodone bust tied to Westchester airport highlights US explosion – The Journal News

Ten years ago, if a federal Drug Enforcement Administration agent were told he would be chasing traffickers in illicit prescription drugs like pain relievers and sedatives, he likely would have laughed. Not anymore. “Now, those same guys that would have laughed at it, they’re chasing this stuff all the time,”

HEROIN – USA
Dope-sick: Youths migrate to heroin as deaths spike – Belleville News Democrat

The suburban youth drug culture is graduating. Marijuana, alcohol and the occasional acid trip are being replaced by powerful painkillers and the drug blamed for more local overdose deaths: heroin. “It’s in your backyard. You just don’t know it.”

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Abuse of Xanax Leads a Clinic to Halt Supply – New York Times

Gayle Mink, a nurse practitioner at a community mental health center here, had tired of the constant stream of patients seeking Xanax. Because of the clamor for the drug, and concern over the striking number of overdoses involving Xanax here and across the country, Seven Counties doctors stopped writing new prescriptions for Xanax and its generic version, alprazolam, in April and plan to wean patients off it completely by year’s end.

DRUG ADDICTION – USA
Synthetic drugs bring new rush hour to downtown Duluth – Duluth News Tribune

On many mornings, it looks like it’s the hottest business in downtown Duluth. Dozens of customers line up in front of the Last Place on Earth head shop on Superior Street to buy designer drugs.

ALCOHOL – USA
12 Health Risks of Chronic Heavy Drinking – Web MD

It’s no secret that alcohol consumption can cause major health problems, including cirrhosis of the liver and injuries sustained in automobile accidents. But if you think liver disease and car crashes are the only health risks posed by drinking, think again: Researchers have linked alcohol consumption to more than 60 diseases.

METHAMPHETAMINE – NEW ZEALAND
Addiction Brought Woman’s Downfall – Wanganui Chronicle

A Wanganui woman’s downfall from a good upbringing and acclaim as a top student to being jailed on drugs charges was “a classic methamphetamine story”.

DRUG REHAB – VIETNAM
Vietnam’s Drug Rehab Centers Under Fire – Voice of America

Rights advocates in Vietnam are criticizing a form of treatment used by the government to rehabilitate illegal drug users. The government says the work keeps addicts away from the temptations of the outside world while giving them useful jobs. Human Rights Watch says the centers are “little more than forced labor camps,” designed as profit-making machines for businesses.

METHAMPHETAMINE – USA
Meth investigation nets unlikely dealers – Richmond Times Dispatch

Its street names include “bikers’ coffee” and “poor man’s cocaine,” but an ongoing investigation into a loosely confederated group of area meth dealers shows the drug cuts across all social lines, hooking some unlikely players. Many of the 16 defendants sentenced thus far had little or no prior criminal records and led lives far removed from the dangerous, makeshift rural meth labs and renegade biker gangs popularly associated with the drug.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
For seniors, addiction often begins with prescription drugs – Miami Herald

According to the latest report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the phenomenon of elderly addicts has grown exponentially in the last decade and it requires doubling the number of centers of specialized treatment before 2020.

DRUG ADDICTION – THAILAND
Yingluck’s drive to ‘reduce drugs scourge by 80%’ – The Nation

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra yesterday launched a comprehensive campaign against the drug scourge called the Force of the Land, aiming to reduce the problem by 80 per cent within a year by getting state agencies to work together systematically. Yingluck said statistics showed that the country had 490,000 illegal drug users in 2007 and their population had tripled within four years. Drug abuse has spread to 60,000 of the country’s 80,000 villages.

ALCOHOL ABUSE – USA
Rowan seeks to head off alcohol abuse among students – Today’s Sunbeam

All first-year students must also take the school’s Alcohol-Wise online course before attending classes. “What we really try to do is debunk the whole Animal House image of the college experience,” said Rowan Dean of Students Richard Jones. The effort begins with orientation for incoming freshmen, Jones explained. The newbies and their parents learn about Rowan’s policy on drinking and drug use. parents’ participation in a big key, as they’re supposed to be “allies,” he said, of the university in making sure students intend to follow the straight and narrow.

ALCOHOL ABUSE – USA
UW-Madison changes policy on alcohol citations – Chicago Tribune

University of Wisconsin-Madison is now requiring most students who get an alcohol-related citation to take a course on the risks of alcohol abuse. Now, if a student gets an underage drinking ticket, a trip to detox, or an alcohol-fueled disorderly conduct citation he or she is required to enroll in the program. Students will be flagged by UW police or referred by Madison police officers.

ECSTASY – USA
LA Coliseum, Insomniac sued by parents of dead teenager – Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission and the event company Insomniac were sued Thursday by the parents of a teenage girl who died of an Ecstasy overdose after attending a Coliseum rave.

HEROIN – USA
Heroin a deadly draw in ‘Bluff’ – Atlanta Journal Constitution

He has seen a steady stream of suburban heroin users slip in and out of the neighborhood. More young Caucasians are traveling from suburban counties into the city to buy heroin. They buy a gram for about $160 and return home to abuse the drug and sell the leftovers.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
‘Pill-mill’ doctors responsible for much prescription-drug abuse – TC Palm
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How about a “zero tolerance” policy for the pill-mill doctors? Let’s levy a fine closer to $100,000 than $10,000, permanently revoke their medical license, and deliver a mandatory prison term for homicide. In the “war against drugs,” these doctors are the worst kind of war criminal.

BATH SALTS – USA
Bath salts: America’s newest drug addiction – Examiner.com

Synthetic drugs, being sold under the facade of “bath salts,” have quickly become a cause for alarm with the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) and federal authorities.

COCAINE – BRAZIL
Outrage: Rio Drug Dealers Sell Amy Winehouse Brand Cocaine‎ – Student Operated Press

Drug dealers in the Brazilian capital of Rio de Janeiro are packaging their product with pictures of Amy Winehouse in a bid to make the drug more attractive to younger users.

ALCOHOL ABUSE – USA
Campus Life 101: Staying Sober – Fox News

As a high school senior, Aaron Weir decided to attend Texas Tech University in Lubbock, not for any particular academic program but for the hospitality that school extends toward students in recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction. “I was 16 years old when I got clean and sober and I want to stay that way in college.”

HEROIN – USA
Heroin ‘lamp shades’ lead to arrest – Washington Post

Upon closer inspection, the officers noticed that the frames contained a “brown powdery substance” that tested positive for heroin. A lot of it.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Arrests won’t solve prescription drug problem, leaders say‎ – Charleston Gazette

“Law enforcement cannot arrest our way out of this problem,” Smithers said. “It’s way beyond that.” West Virginia has the nation’s highest rate of drug overdose deaths. More than 90 percent involve prescription drugs.

ALCOHOL AND DRUG ADDICTION – USA
Teens take road to addiction early in life – Times Free Press

The road to teen addiction often begins when children are still young enough to climb into their parents’ laps. The majority of alcohol and drug abuse begins right before adulthood, Columbia researchers said, but small children who see their parents smoking, drinking or pill-popping are more likely to give it a whirl during their teenage years.

HEROIN – USA
Richland man charged in 3rd heroin-related death – The News Tribune

A 35-year-old alleged drug dealer now is charged with the deaths of three Tri-Citians who overdosed after using his heroin. In the newest case filed against Brian Haney Burt, the Richland man reportedly found the victim in a poor condition but panicked and left without getting help.

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 ADDICTION – USA
A Real Debate About Drug Policy – ‎Wall Street Journal

Drug use in the US is no lower than in countries with different approaches. We believe that drug addiction is harmful to individuals, impairs health and has adverse societal effects. So we want an effective program to deal with this problem.

SYNTHETIC DRUGS – USA
Police, counselors, hold breath for July 1 law effect – Winona Post

A local 16-year-old boy suffered a seizure after combining his medications with synthetic marijuana often called “K2.” A woman in Kentucky high on “Plant Food” hallucinated that her two-year-old son was a demon, knocked him unconscious with a folding chair and then threw him onto the passing lane of a major highway. In Louisiana, a man seeing visions when using Plant Food opened a skinning knife and repeatedly slit his face and stomach, but he survived.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Former Psychiatrist Gets Probation In ‘Pill Mill’ Case – The Beverly Hills Courier

A former West Hollywood psychiatrist who wrote prescriptions without a legitimate medical purpose to make money to pay for his methamphetamine addiction was sentenced today to three years probation.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Prescription pills blamed for ‘Pharmageddon’ in Kentucky – BBC News

In Kentucky 978 people died from prescription drug overdoses in 2009. It’s hard to meet a family in the state which hasn’t been affected in one way or another. Across the state, a number of treatment and rehabilitation centres are trying to deal with the huge numbers of addicts.

HEROIN/PRESCRIPTION PAINKILLERS – USA
Heroin all too easy to get, DEA agent tells Colchester forum – Norwich Bulletin

But there’s something else in town not so easily seen, and not celebrated: a supply of heroin and prescription painkillers like oxycontin and vicodin. “It’s not that they get these drugs on the street. They get them from grandma’s house,” Hoffman said.

DRUG ADDICTION – USA
‘Silk Road’ website called the Amazon, eBay of heroin, cocaine, drug trafficking – ABC Action News

You can get anything on the internet nowadays — cars, homes, and now, black tar heroin. It’s a website boasting thousands of members that was created in February, according to its administrators. On the main page, they proudly and openly sell LSD, marijuana, ecstasy, and most any other drug you can name.

ECSTASY – CANADA
Strathmore teen charged with trafficking after 15-year-old overdoses on ecstasy, dies – Calgary Herald

Herrmann went into “medical distress” and died in hospital last Friday after taking the yellow pills, each bearing a Mickey Mouse design. His friend, 19-year-old Richard Mulvihill, was also taken to hospital after taking up to four pills.

ALCOHOL – USA
Duncan Sheik Postpones Concert Tour to Deal With Alcohol Abuse – Wall Street Journal

Facing an alcohol problem, Duncan Sheik postponed the first week of a concert tour that was scheduled to start on June 8 in New York.

DRUG ADDICTION – USA
Parents have role in kids’ drug decisions – Knoxville News Sentinel

The point of this column is to make clear that we, as parents, have something to say, and something to do, about whether our children are ensnared by drug abuse and addiction. By being proactive and taking simple, commonsense measures, we can go a long way towards protecting our kids.

METHAMPHETAMINE – USA
Children Eat Meth, Thinking It was Candy; Mother Arrested – KTBS

LONGVIEW, Texas — A woman has been arrested after her children told police they tried methamphetamine drugs because they thought it was candy. Amanda Gail Walker, 30, of Hallsville was arrested.

DRUG ADDICTION – USA
Old habits die hard: Rise in number of alcohol and drug addicts over 50 in the US – Daily Mail

They are not your average alcoholics or drug addicts, and in fact if you looked around the room you would never guess that this is what binds them together. But for the group of over 60s, they know that addictions know no age.

HEROIN – USA
Heroin needles found near kid’s toys – Iowa City Press Citizen

Many of the drug-related items were found in the room belonging to Hinshaw’s child. Inside the room, officers found razor blades with drug residue, packaged marijuana and a “large pile of several hundred used syringes” near piles of the daughter’s toys … the worst case of a child being exposed to drugs the officers had ever seen.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Prescription drug abuse growing problem in Indiana – Chicago Tribune

Prescription drugs are playing an increasing role in the drug-related crimes that are filling up Indiana’s prisons. “I would say 75 to 80 percent of all cases I handle, whether it be meth or cocaine, also had some sort of prescription drug.

DRUG ADDICTION – USA
Keith McCants: ‘I don’t want anybody to feel sorry for me’ – National Football Post

Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Alabama linebacker Keith McCants’ downward spiral is a sad story of self-inflicted blows, a tale of drug addiction, depression, wasted potential, wasted money and wasted opportunities.

DRUG ADDICTION – USA
Former Celtics Player Discusses Drug Addiction in New Book – Patch.com

Chris Herren, a basketball legend from Fall River, and a Portsmouth resident, realized his dreams by playing for the Boston Celtics in the NBA, only to lose it all to drug addiction.

METHAMPHETAMINE – USA
FBI to probe Warren drug cases – Iowa City Press Citizen

FBI agents have agreed to investigate Warren County’s handling of drug-related criminal cases in light of a former prosecutor’s methamphetamine arrest.

HEROIN – USA
Seven-year-old ‘gave away heroin at school’ – Ninemsn

A seven-year-old schoolboy has been caught giving free bags of heroin to his classmates in Pittsburgh in the US. Police are investigating after a teacher caught the student with 18 bags of heroin in his backpack and locker at Quentin Roosevelt Elementary School.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Prescription drug abuse legislation nixes ‘pill mills’ – The Newark Advocate

John Kasich signed legislation Friday afternoon aimed at confronting the supply side of prescription drug abuse. Abuse of medication, especially prescription pain relievers in the opiate family, has been called an “epidemic.”

ALCOHOL – USA
How Marylanders beat the alcohol lobby – Washington Post

The case for the new alcohol tax — a 3-percentage-point addition to the state’s 6 percent sales tax — was strong. It will save lives, prevent crime and help to avert thousands of cases of alcohol abuse or dependence. It will also raise at least $85 million in revenue a year.

DRUG ADDICTION – UK
Drug laws: 40 years on, only a complete change of approach will do – The Guardian

It is 40 years since Parliament passed the Misuse of Drugs Act. It is remarkable how utterly the system has failed. Drugs are available to anyone who really wants them.

ALCOHOL AND DRUG REHAB – USA
Patrick Kennedy discusses decision to leave Congress – Providence Journal

His public career was “not conducive” to his recovery from alcohol and drug addiction, the former Rhode Island congressman said in a television interview to be aired nationwide on Sunday.

PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE – USA
Poor economy, drug abuse driving crime, police say – Enterprise News

Fueled by the downturn in the economy and a rise in illegal use of prescription drugs, crime has surged locally and across New England, law enforcement officials say. “It’s the pills, and they inevitably lead to heroin abuse,” said East Bridgewater Sgt. Scott Allen. “It’s the No. 1 problem we’re facing with right now.”

METHAMPHETAMINE – USA
California deputies find mom eating methamphetamine with 4-year old – Washington Post

Investigators say a Southern California mother with her 4-year-old daughter on her lap was eating methamphetamine when deputies arrived at her desert home.

METHAMPHETAMINE – USA
Overall drug-related deaths drop in Oregon – East Oregonian

Statewide, the total number of drug-related deaths dropped in 2010 compared to the year before, but methamphetamine-related deaths rose dramatically.

ECSTASY – USA
Ecstasy drug dulls the brain, study reveals – Empowered News

Ecstasy drug use inflicts long-term and possibly permanent changes to brain tissue, a new study appearing in this month’s issue of Neuropsychopharmacology reveals.

ALCOHOL – AUSTRALIA
Australia arrests 1600 ‘boozed-up idiots’ – AFP

The trans-Tasman “Operation Unite”, a two-day blitz on public alcohol abuse and related crime that ended Sunday, was the latest attempt to hammer home the …

ALCOHOL ABUSE – USA
University joins group fighting high-risk alcohol use – The Daily Princetonian

The new initiative aims to lower the rate of binge drinking and frequency of destructive behavior that results from binge drinking on college campuses by bringing together teams of students, faculty and administrators from schools across the nation. Princeton is one of 13 colleges to have signed onto the project, with seven more expected to join before June.