Drug News

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Children increasingly bear brunt of drug-abuse crisis – Daytona Beach News-Journal
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Every hour, a baby is born in the United States addicted to prescription painkillers. Once born, the babies have to be weaned off the drugs. The Associated Press recently documented the case of a newborn less than one month old, named Savannah, who had regular does of methadone dripped onto her tongue.

DRUG ADDICTION – USA
‘She’d Stockpile Drugs So She Wouldn’t Run Out’: New Details of Whitney Houston’s Drug Habit, Spent Thousands of Dollars a Week – Fox News

So, why didn’t her friends and family step in? “The family was afraid of the embarrassment on some level and wouldn’t confront her early on. Her mother would always say, ‘I don’t understand this drug thing.’ And she didn’t. They let it get too bad before they understood she needed serious help, and then it was too late.”

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Changes could save drug addicts’ lives – Orange County Register

At 12:49 a.m. on Feb. 4, 2010, Matt Koegel, a buddy of San Clemente resident Joey Kennedy, called 9-1-1 to report that his pal had overdosed. Afraid of getting arrested, Matt didn’t mention that he had partied with Joey for two days and left him, snoring, on the lonely road in the dark. The dispatchers puzzled over the call. Was it just another prank? But the confusing report was true. The son of a San Clemente couple, James and Teri Kennedy, was indeed dying from a lethal mix of Xanex and methadone, an opiod.

DRUG REHAB – USA
Sox pitcher Price suspended 50 games – WEEI.com
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Red Sox minor leaguer Mathew Price was suspended for 50 games due to a violation of the minor league drug prevention and treatment program by twice testing positive for a drug of abuse. Major League Baseball announced the suspension today.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Drug-addicted babies another casualty in prescription drug abuse – Chillicothe Gazette.
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While some expectant mothers with addicted babies say they didn’t realize their legal prescription drug use could harm the baby, many others are addicted and unable to quit for various reasons.

ALCOHOL – USA
Are my Detroit Tigers serious about alcohol abuse or not? – Times Union

I’m a Detroit Tigers fan so this is difficult to ask, but is my favorite team soft on booze and bad behavior? I’m starting to wonder, and I’ll bet others are, too. My concern stems most recently – but not exclusively – from left fielder Delmon Young’s arrest last weekend.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Prescription drug abuse abetted by family, friends: study – Reuters
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More than 70 percent of people who abuse prescription pain relievers obtain the drugs from friends or relatives, usually with permission and for free, according to a government study released on Wednesday.

ALCOHOL ABUSE – USA
Alcohol education efforts hurt by insurers’ denials – Times Union

Up to half of the people treated at hospital emergency departments and trauma centers are under the influence of alcohol, experts say. That might be a sobering statistic, but a recent study found that emergency departments can help capitalize on this “teachable moment” to discourage problem drinking.

DRUG REHAB – USA
Suncoast Rehabilitation Center Takes Narconon Drug Rehab Program To RX Drug Abuse Summit – PRWeb

Suncoast Rehabilitation Center took the Narconon Drug Rehab Program information to the National RX Drug Abuse Summit in Orlando where over 700 participants from around the country meet to address the prescription drug abuse epidemic.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Drug use, abuse or addiction? – Wicked Local

My parents own pharmacies (my father’s is in Attleboro and mother’s is in Plainville). Both have had their share of robberies from persons suffering from drug addiction.

DRUG ADDICTION – USA
Son of addicts, Malone grad turned life around – Canton Rep

At 13, Rodney Long Jr. had priorities. He made sure his younger sister, 4, and brother, 8, had cereal to eat. He often ushered drug dealers and partiers out of his house. And, when a visit from Summit County Children’s Services was pending, he cleaned.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Maine’s Drug Abuse Epidemic Poses Dilemma for Pharmacists – MPBN News
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Escalating diversion and abuse of prescription drugs has put the state’s pharmacists in a tough position. Customers with legitimate chronic pain problems depend on them for timely, reliable access to their medications. But these days, keeping powerful narcotics in stock puts pharmacists at risk of being robbed or duped by fraudulent prescriptions.

ALCOHOL REHAB – USA
Saint Jude Announces The Number One Reason People Fear Alcohol Rehab – PRWeb

“Fear of Failure–This is probably one of the greatest fears regarding rehab.” One of the first steps of the commonly known 12 step program, that are taught at majority of alcohol and drug rehabs in the United States is, “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol–that our lives had become unmanageable.” In addition, these individuals entering treatment are taught that relapse is part of recovery. This negative message gives substance users the expectation they will fail.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS/HEROIN – USA
Prescription drug, heroin abuse growing in Montgomery County – Washington Examiner
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Heroin and prescription drug abuse is soaring in Montgomery County, particularly among school-age kids, according to county police. The most popular party pills are painkillers, such as OxyContin and Vicodin, which many kids are swiping from their parents’ medicine cabinets.

METHAMPHETAMINE – USA
Portable Methamphetamine Lab Blows Up In Suspect’s Pants – The Inquisitr

An Oklahoma state trooper stopped an SUV for speeding in Okmulgee County. When the trooper gave the driver a ticket, he caught a whiff of a chemical smell. When the trooper attempted to question the passenger about the smell, he bailed, apparently with meth leaking down his leg. After a brief struggle it was determined there was an active meth lab in his pants that burst during the struggle and got all over his body.

COCAINE – USA
TSA screeners charged in LA drug trafficking probe – Times Union

Two former and current Transportation Security Administration employees have been arrested and indicted on drug conspiracy charges for allegedly allowing large amounts of cocaine and other drugs to pass through security screening at Los Angeles International Airport. Seven people face drug-related charges in a 22-count indictment.

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
Drug rehab better option than prison – Vineland Daily Journal‎

Drug addicts who go to prison and don’t get treatment to break their habit come out still addicted and inevitably fall back into crime.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Oklahoma tops in prescription painkiller abuse – New England Cable News

Sherri Carwithin was lying on the hardwood floor of her south Oklahoma City home when police found her body, clad in pajama bottoms and a T-shirt. Perched on her chest was her small dog, Patches, who growled at the arriving officers. The 51-year-old woman, who had a history of chronic back pain and prescription drug abuse, last was seen alive four days earlier, when she asked a neighbor to give her a ride to the pharmacy.

DRUG ADDICTION – MEXICO
Children Hired to Work as ‘Mules’ by Mexican Drug Gangs – Fox News

Mexican drug gangs have found a new way to transport drugs across the border. Children are being used as “mules” to ferry drugs across the border into the United States or sell them in a nearby Mexican town. Luis Alberto is only 14 but has the wizened gaze of a grown-up hardened by life. He never met his father, worked as a child, was hired by a gang to sell drugs and then got addicted to them.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Prescription drug abuse efforts under way in county schools – Mount Airy News

The national statistics are alarming: One in four teens will abuse some form of prescription drugs before graduating high school. Nationwide, 100,000 Americans will die this year from prescription drug abuse. That number translates to 270 per day, or twice the number who will be killed in a car accident. With statistics like these, it’s easy to see why the Surry County Schools has become involved in a county-wide task force to raise awareness of prescription drug abuse.

DRUG ADDICTION – USA
Workshop aims to disable those enabling drug use – Naperville Sun
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Why won’t Johnny quit using drugs? Don’t ask his family. … factors can keep loved ones from stepping in to start the process of treatment and recovery.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Prescription drug dependence an epidemic in East Central Indiana – Muncie Star Press
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Since 2009, drug overdoses have caused or contributed to 62 deaths in Delaware County. Add Henry County to the mix, and the two counties have seen a combined total of 77 overdose-related deaths in the past three years. “That’s a significant number, and I think there’s probably a bigger problem than we’re seeing. We’re just seeing the tip of it.”

MARIJUANA – USA
New wrinkle in pot debate: stoned driving – The Seattle Times
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Authorities envision a legal threshold for pot that would be comparable to the blood-alcohol standard used to determine drunken driving. But unlike alcohol, marijuana stays in the blood long after the high wears off a few hours after use, and there is no quick test to determine someone’s level of impairment.

ALCOHOL ABUSE – USA
Liquor Law Changes Encourage Alcohol Abuse – Hartford Courant‎

Liquor law reform advocates say liquor stores in Connecticut’s border towns would better be able to compete with stores from neighboring states that are not restricted by our laws. They say expanding store hours, lifting the ban on Sunday sales and repealing minimum price barriers would help Connecticut stores. But the reforms also run counter to countless health initiatives aimed at lowering alcohol consumption. Expanding alcohol availability is a step in the wrong direction when it comes to combating alcoholism and drunken driving.

DRUG REHAB – USA
From drug user, dealer to mentor – NewsLeader

Hillcrest student Jacquline Lane, 17, with the support of her great-aunt and legal guardian Lulu Washington, has worked hard to turn her life around. After getting in trouble with drugs and alcohol and realizing she wanted to take a different path, she now volunteers at Boys and Girls Clubs and strives to be a positive role model.

OXYCONTIN / HEROIN – USA
Bill aimed at making opiates tougher to alter, abuse – Wicked Local‎

Ever since OxyContin hit the market more than 15 years ago, drug abusers have found ways to beat the time-release nature of the prescription painkiller to get a fast, powerful high. So many followed the recipe that OxyContin abuse created a new wave of addicts, and fueled an epidemic that led to a resurgence of heroin use. The result – thousands of overdose deaths.

ALCOHOL – USA
Alcohol problems not uncommon among surgeons: study – Reuters
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About 15 percent of surgeons have alcohol abuse or dependency problems, a rate that is somewhat higher than the general population.

HEROIN – USA
‘There is hope’: Local woman tells tale of her heroin addiction – BND.com

She is blonde, pretty and dresses as normal as an elementary school secretary. But just a couple of years ago she was living on the streets with one thing on her mind — heroin. “I can honestly say I loved it from the very beginning,” said Jamie, of Alton.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
How prescription drug abuse costs you money – Money.CNN.Com

More than 36,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2008, the most recent year for which data has been analyzed, according to the CDC, only a few thousand shy of the total killed by car crashes. Of those drug overdoses, prescription drugs were involved in over 20,000 cases.

ALCOHOL – USA
George Huguely trial highlights alcohol abuse among college students – Washington Post
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There’s little question that George Huguely V, the former University of Virginia student on trial for murder, had a problem with alcohol. The alcohol abuse starts in high school, with kids imbibing on the weekends, and frequently grows out of control once they’re out from under their parents’ supervision.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Teens may be boozing less but now they’re abusing the prescription drugs found in home medicine cabinets – CultureMap Austin
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Hey parents, I have some good news and bad news. First, the good news. Your teenagers are boozing less and using fewer street drugs like cocaine and Ecstasy than previous generations. Now the bad news, they’re getting high on prescription painkillers like Oxy and Vicodin.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS / ALCOHOL – USA
Deadly Duo: Mixing Alcohol and Prescription Drugs Can Result in Addiction or Accidental Death – Scientific American
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Prescription drugs and alcohol can be a dangerous combination. Painkillers and booze are perhaps the worst to mix, because both slow breathing by different mechanisms and inhibit the coughing reflex, creating “a double-whammy effect” that can stop breathing altogether. Alcohol also interacts with anti-anxiety drugs (including Xanax), antipsychotics, antidepressants, sleep medications and muscle relaxants—intensifying the drugs’ sedative effects, causing drowsiness and dizziness, and making falls and accidents more likely.

HEROIN – UK
More heroin for heroin addicts – is the Department of Health quite off its head? – Daily Mail

Free heroin dispensing on the NHS is getting closer. For seven years now the Department of Health has pumped our money into its ‘injectable opiate treatment trials’ to prove that it ‘works’. Now it plans to pour good money after bad.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Oxycodone: A good drug gone bad steals lives – Florida Today

Family torn apart by prescription drug abuse: Casey Keenan talks about prescription drug addiction from jail, while her mother suffers through the fact that all three of her children are hooked on the strong medications.

HEROIN – USA
Mesa police: Suspect said he stole for wife, heroin addiction – Tucson Citizen
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A man who was arrested on suspicion of stealing parts of an air conditioning unit told Mesa police Wednesday he did it to support his wife and his heroin addiction.

DRUG ABUSE – USA
Still Crazy: Some Dabble In Hard Drugs After 50, Researchers Find – WITN
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“There are probably more people using heroin sporadically then there are addicts.” Sporadic users having good jobs, nice homes, and families, but they are five times more likely to die earlier than those who don’t use drugs at all.

ALCOHOL ABUSE – USA
Alcohol can be toxic to your heart – Salem News
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Most of us have read or heard that moderate drinking of alcohol can protect the heart from disease. It raises the level of good cholesterol, reduces plaque in the arteries, and helps prevent blood clots from forming. But do you know alcohol can be toxic to your heart? Over the longer term, heavy drinking can lead to high blood pressure, enlarged and weakened heart, congestive heart failure and stroke.

DRUG ABUSE – USA
Chris Herren delivers life lessons to Rutgers basketball – New Jersey Newsroom

It was standing room only as people lined the wall around the couple hundred seats that had been set up. Their eyes were locked on the once upon a time star. Their ears perked as they intently listened to his life story, hooked on every word like he once was on drugs.

ALCOHOL ABUSE – UK
Two glasses of wine a day ‘triples mouth cancer risk’ – The Guardian

Television adverts will aim to show that drinking just over the recommended daily limit for alcohol increases the risk of serious health problems. For example, regularly drinking two large glasses of wine or two strong pints of beer a day triples the risk of developing mouth cancer.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Florida turns tide on prescription drug abuse – Bradenton Herald
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Florida can celebrate several major milestones in the struggle to contain the state’s prescription drug abuse and pill mill epidemic.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Focus turns to fighting drug abuse – Huntington Herald Dispatch

Prescription drug abuse in West Virginia: The symptoms range from prison overcrowding to a surge in copper thefts to employers who can’t find enough job applicants to pass a drug test.

DRUG REHAB – USA
Narconon Suncoast Rehabilitation Center Earns 100% On FL State License Inspection – PRWeb

Narconon Suncoast Rehabilitation Center received its annual onsite monitoring inspection by the State of Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) in accordance with Chapter 397 of the Florida Statues. The stringent inspection awarded the center a performance rating score of 100.00% for the second year.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Doctor arrested in probe of painkiller overdoses – LA Times

Dr. Julio Diaz has been under investigation for allegedly prescribing addictive painkillers and other commonly abused drugs to patients who had no legitimate need for the medications.

DRUG ADDICTION – INDIA
High on designer drugs, youngsters land up in rehabs – Times of India

Snorting coke (cocaine) and heroin could be the latest fad among the young and the rich in the city, a trend that is leading to a steep rise in the number of addicts walking through the doors of Hyderabad’s rehabilitation centres. Until recently, 80 of the 100 inmates in any de-addiction centre were victims of alcohol, now their numbers have dropped to just about 20. The rest are `dope-heads.’

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Prescription narcotic abuse is killing Americans – Greenville Online

The Centers for Disease Control reports that prescription pain medication abuse, and deaths, are at an all-time high in the United States. In the November issue of Vital Signs, a publication of the CDC, prescription pain medication deaths were reported to number 3,000 in 1999, but 15,000 in 2008.

ALCOHOL/DRUG ABUSE – USA
Use dinnertime to save your kids from drugs, booze – Sentinel and Enterprise

A disturbing trend has emerged since 2008: Parents find themselves powerless to respond to teens’ drug and alcohol use, as underage drinking becomes more of the norm among adolescents. Oh sure, we spend a lot of time talking “at” our children, in between grabbing a bite, getting them off to school, sports, and activities, and doing our own work, until the conversation just becomes a snippet of a roadblock and we don’t get anywhere. And still, no one is having dinner together.

DRUG ADDICTION – USA
Listing the most abused drugs in U.S. – Salem News

“You need something for that shoulder pain? I can fix you right up.” The woman meant to help someone in pain, but she was doing something illegal: sharing drugs that had been prescribed for her. In this case, the drug was oxycodone (OxyContin), the most abused prescription medication in the United States. And a recent news headline has experts getting ready for what they expect to be an even bigger abuse problem, a pain medication 10 times stronger than Vicodin.

DRUG ABUSE – WORLDWIDE
Worldwide illegal drug use estimated at 200 million people a year – CBS News
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Between 149 million and 271 million people worldwide used an illicit drug at least once in 2009. That translates to 1 in 20 people aged 15 to 64 taking an illegal drug. In North America, nearly 11% of the population aged 15 to 64 used cannabis that year. Between 14 million and 56 million people aged 15 to 64 worldwide used amphetamine-type stimulants, such as speed and crystal meth.

ALCOHOL ABUSE – USA
Drinking Frequency Is Quick Test for Youth Alcohol Problems – Medscape

A 3-question survey probing alcohol consumption identifies youth with alcohol-related problems.

DRUG ADDICTION – USA
Drug-testing proposal for welfare recipients debated – New Philadelphia Times Reporter

A proposal to require welfare recipients to pass a drug test — an idea being pushed by GOP lawmakers in Ohio and other states — is being questioned as an inefficient use of taxpayer dollars.

DRUG REHAB – USA
Chris Rene says he’d use ‘The X Factor’ prize money to create a rehab center – OnTheRedCarpet.com

Chris Rene says if he wins “The X Factor” he’ll take the $5 million prize money and use it to create a rehab center for individuals like himself.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – USA
Long struggles with drugs ended in death – StarNewsOnline.com

Prescription drug abusers do not fit neatly into a profile or a stereotype, but range from the teenager stealing bottles from the medicine cabinet to the senior chewing pills to quell chronic pain.

DRUG REHAB – USA
Drug Tampering Cases Show Gaps in Nurse Regulation in Kansas – Insurance Journal

A nurse with a prior felony conviction for forging prescriptions dilutes morphine solutions for five Halstead, Kan., nursing home patients. Another nurse convicted of stealing drugs from patients at an Emporia home gets another job in Topeka, where she adds tap water to a painkiller prescribed for a 105-year-old patient. Still another nurse …

ALCOHOL ABUSE – USA
Adolescent drinking may be as important a risk factor for criminal activity as illicit drug use – Eureka Alert

Alcohol use has often been linked to criminal activity on the part of both perpetrators as well as victims. While this relationship has been well documented among adults, fewer studies have explored this relationship among adolescents. A new study has found a strong relationship between drinking during adolescence and the commission of crimes, and criminal victimization, for both genders.

DRUG REHAB – USA
A young woman struggles with oxy addiction and recovery – Tampabay.com

When her mom came to pick her up for drug court that morning, Stacy Nicholson was still high. She staggered to the door, fumbled with the bungee cord that kept it closed, blinked back the sunlight.

ECSTASY – SCOTLAND
Warning over ecstasy pills that raise overdose risk – BBC News

Police have issued a warning about an ingredient in some ecstasy tablets which could lead to overdosing. partygoers should be aware of the potentially fatal risks. Tablets which look like ecstasy have been found to contain a drug called PMMA. The substance has been blamed for several deaths across Europe.

DRUG REHAB – USA
Narconon East US Director Has Holiday Tips For Intervention And Drug Rehab Alternatives – PR Web

Narconon East US Executive Director, Yvonne Rodgers, has lifesaving holiday tips of an unusual nature. Her tips are for the loved ones and parents of those struggling with substance abuse and cover drug abuse intervention and drug rehab as an alternative to jail.

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.