May 19, 2002 Heroin on the NHS for addicts
Thousands of addicts will be prescribed heroin at GPs' surgeries to tackle Britain's soaring drug addiction rate...The first country to experiment with safe injecting areas was Australia, followed by the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and Spain. -Kamal Ahmed and Martin Bright
State Will Pay for Harsh Drug Laws
"I particularly regret the disproportionate impact the enforcement of these laws has had on minority communities," Dunne wrote. "Despite the consistency of drug use among all races and at all socio-economic levels, over 94 percent of incarcerated drug offenders in New York prisons are African American and Latino. The majority of them, not surprisingly, come from New York's poorest and most underserved communities. Instead of investing in education and services that would improve people's lives, we have chosen to invest in prisons." Les Payne
Why a high society is a free society
Drugs should be legalised - their prohibition is an intolerable intrusion into private behaviour -A C Grayling
May 17, 2002
Swaziland: Focus on marijuana cultivation
With battery-powered radios, they listen to government officials encouraging them to become entrepreneurs, to form cooperatives and solicit capital from donor organisations. Yet, when South Africans come over the border and provide capital and technical assistance for cultivating marijuana, government disapproves. (IRIN)
Bill on shabu possession passes bicam scrutiny
Life imprisonment is also in store for these drug offenders: those who will yield 10 grams or more of opium; 10 grams or more of morphine; 10 grams or more of heroin; 10 grams or more of cocaine; and 10 grams or more of marijuana resin or resin oil. By Marian Trinidad
MAP drug news: Philippines
May 16, 2002
Chinese Junk
Drugs were the scourge of pre-communist China. Today the country is using again--and producing too. By Hannah Beech
New sex drug boosts choice for consumer
Apo-morphine, which is marketed as Uprima by Abbot Laboratories and Ixense by Takeda Co, has been on sale in Europe for a year. -Anjira Assavanonda
Abbot Takeda TAP Pentech
Painkiller's Sales Far Exceeded Levels Anticipated By Maker
Until December 1995 when OxyContin won FDA approval, Purdue was a little-known company with one main painkiller in its cabinet, MS Contin, a morphine-based drug that came with a social stigma and generated only $88.5 million in sales the year before. by Chris Adams
Anti-drug ad campaigns a flop
It is unclear exactly why the ads haven't lowered drug use by kids in any measurable way. Antismoking campaigns and campaigns touting seat belts have been shown to be effective in getting adults to change their habits. By Vanessa O'Connell
http://wsjclassroomedition.com/tj_051402_czar.htm
White House Drug Czar to Unveil American Indian Anti-Drug Advertising
May 14, 2002
First drug court helps to cut cost of crime
Scotland's first US-style drug court has potentially cut the cost of crime in Glasgow by about £500,000 in just six months, -Tom Gordon and Billy Briggs
Carter County saying 'No' to drugs, 'Yes' to drug court
Since 1989 when the first drug court began in Dade County, Fla., nearly 140,000 drug-dependent offenders have entered the program and more than 70 percent are either still enrolled or have graduated, according to "Looking at a Decade of Drug Courts," a report prepared by the Drug Court Clearinghouse and Technical Assistance Project. By Kathy Helms-Hughes
Giving addicts chance to change
If you're a drug addict committing crimes to feed your habit, where you get arrested could mean the difference between getting help or getting tossed into prison. By Madeleine Doubek
http://www.dailyherald.com/search/main_story.asp?intID=3738843
May 13, 2002
Tough on drugs approach doesn't work: US expert
Young people were cynical about anti-drug messages that used scare tactics and advocated abstinence only, a US drug abuse expert told a conference in Sydney today..."Knowing that we adults will say just about anything to them to abstain, we have dug ourselves into a huge credibility hole," -Natasha Skrivankova
Malaysian Leader Calls for Global War Against Drug Abuse
Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Monday called on the world to join forces and wage a global war against drug abuse as the war against terrorism...It is the vision of the Malaysian government to create a drug-free society by the year 2015 in line with the ASEAN vision of creating an drug-free region, he added. -Xinhuanet
IV Global Conference in Drug Abuse Prevention (funded by INL, Department of State, USA)
MAP drug news: Malaysia
A contract to beat drugs
A doctor is making his drug addict patients sign a contract promising to behave. In return they get help with their addiction, housing, mental health problems and other concerns. -BBC
Comment
May 11, 2002
U.S. Panel Finds Alcoholism Drug Effective
It's unclear how acamprosate works, but in the three European studies it helped patients who went through detoxification to stay abstinent for 62 percent of the year they took the drug. Those taking placebo abstained about half the time. -Reuters
Frequent Cocaine Use Tied to Heart Attacks - Study
"Instead of just the transient risk that goes away after a single usage, the regular dependent user had an inflammatory response in their system that persisted,..It means they are at a constant, ongoing risk of having a clotting event, and (levels of) the C-reactive protein that went up has shown to be associated with sudden cardiac death," By Christopher Doering
ONDCP: Cocaine Erowid: Cocaine & Crack
The Place for Trips of the Mind-Bending Kind
Back of beyond in the mountains of northern Oaxaca, Huautla has had a far bigger impact on Western civilization than vice versa. Its valleys are a cornucopia of rare flora and fungi with strange powers, and its "magic mushrooms" ignited the psychedelic culture of the 1960's. By Tim Weiner
Comment
Mom Is Best Defense Against Drugs
"These findings suggest that living with both parents may inhibit drug use, but only if availability through peer networks is not very high," By Jeanie Davis
Ecstasy Supporters Hope FDA-approved Study Will Vindicate Drug
Although Ecstasy is often referred to as a "new" drug, it's about as new as your great-grandmother. Back before it was called Ecstasy, it was just MDMA, a chemical concoction synthesized around 1912 (the same year the Titanic sank). -Seattle Post-Intelligencer
