Drug News

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.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Arrests mark U.S. prescription drug abuse crackdown – Reuters

U.S. authorities arrested 22 people in Florida on Friday, including pharmacists and doctors, in a crackdown against prescription drug abuse that officials say is the nation’s fastest growing drug problem.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Tennessee drug task force waging lonely war on Rx diversion – KnoxNews
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Tennessee created a statewide task force on prescription-drug abuse four years ago and never set aside a penny to fund it. The state Drug Diversion Task Force subsists on volunteer efforts in its battle against Tennessee’s most widespread drug problem. “Everybody thinks we get money,” said Elizabeth Sherrod, the task force coordinator. “We get nothing. Speakers at our meetings travel at their own expense.”

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Expert on drug abuse tells local conference that fatal overdoses are rising – Herald
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For the first time in 2010, the leading cause of accidental death in the country was from accidental fatal overdose with prescription opiates as the primary drug involved.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Prescription drug abuse video contest launched for Ky. high school students – WPSD Local 6

Kentucky high school students are being asked to enter a video contest as part of efforts to educate the public about the dangers of prescription drug addiction.

ALCOHOL/DRUG ABUSE – USA
Talk to children about drugs, alcohol – Auburn Citizen
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Did you know that the average American has his or her first drink around age 14? According to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, almost 80 percent of high school students have tried alcohol. In an average month, about 9 million Americans teens drink alcohol. A study done recently by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center states that underage alcohol use happens between fifth and sixth grade!

ALCOHOL ABUSE – UGANDA
Excessive Alcohol Consumption is a key to chronic poverty in Uganda – New Vision
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Excessive Alcohol Consumption is a key ‘’driver and maintainer’’ of chronic poverty in Uganda. The reason why excessive consumption of alcohol has become a new frontier for chronic poverty in Uganda is that, the discussion on excessive alcohol consumption in the country has for long been in the back –seat of what is considered to be ‘’ personal choices.’’ This mentality has hindered attempts to bring the issue into the public domain and the frontline of public policy.

METHAMPHETAMINE – USA
Baby seller case: Not first time a child taken from Fousek because of meth exposure – Mercury News

A jury Tuesday convicted a Salinas man of endangering the baby girl he exposed to methamphetamine and offered to sell in a Walmart parking lot last year. What the jury did not know, and what Judge Pamela Butler will take into consideration when sentencing Patrick Fousek, is that it’s not the first time one of his children has been taken from him because of methamphetamine exposure.

PARTY DRUGS – UK
Party drug meow meow kills one young Briton a week – Daily Mail

Banned last year, mephedrone is blamed for causing a further 19 users to commit suicide. Children are also at risk from the increasing availability of so-called ‘legal highs’, a Home Office report found