heroin addiction in Scotland

The number of people treated for heroin addiction in Scotland has reached record levels, according to figures.
About 21,000 people are now said to use heroin substitute methadone - 10% more than previously thought - with a third of them caring for children under 16.

The statistics are contained in a series of reports published by the Scottish government.

A review was ordered after the death of toddler Derek Doran. Ministers have backed the continued use of the drug.

Mass drugs raid hits dealers 2003

Police targeted 30 premises in the dawn raids
A police force in the north-east of England has taken part in one of its most important drug-enforcement operations.
Cleveland Police arrested 17 people in Stockton in a series of early-morning raids on Thursday.

More than 200 officers took part in Operation Warrior and detectives hope to have arrested some of the key players in the area's drugs supply chain.

The operation was the culmination of two years of intelligence gathering into individuals thought to be dealing Class A drugs.

It is hoped the police action will be a major blow to the supply of heroin, crack cocaine, and ecstasy.

More than 30 properties were targeted - including houses, industrial premises, hotels and lock-ups.

Middlesbrough the cheapest place in the country to buy Heroin

Drugscope have released figures naming Middlesbrough the cheapest place in the country to buy Heroin. Prices have been as low as £5 for a 0.2g. This may be because the town acts a transit point for drugs throughout the north east.

Joint commissioning manager for Safer Middlesbrough Partnership, Dave Jackson, appeared on BBC Radio Cleveland last year about Middlesbrough having the cheapest Cocaine. With the new figures claiming Middlesbrough now has the cheapest Heroin instead, Dave explained if anything has changed:

"Things have changed, the Safer Middlesbrough Partnership works closely with all its partner organisations, and when police are involved we go out and work with them in the community.

All Party Parliamentary Group on Drug Misuse launches inquiry into misuse of prescription and over-the-counter drugs

The All Party Parliamentary Group on Drug Misuse (APPGDM), a cross-party group of MPs and Peers, is today launching a new inquiry into the scale and nature of prescription-only and over-the-counter drug misuse.

The inquiry, facilitated by DrugScope, will provide an in depth study of an area of drug misuse that is often unrecognised despite, it is believed, affecting thousands of people in the UK. The inquiry is inviting evidence from across the drug treatment, pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors, as well as from the general public, in an effort to ascertain the current scale and nature of the problem, including trends and patterns of misuse. APPGDM members are particularly keen to hear from members of the public who have been affected by prescription-only and over-the-counter drug misuse.

consultation on tackling drugs

The government has launched what it says is the country's biggest public consultation on tackling drugs.
Jacqui Smith, who last week admitted having taken cannabis at university, has outlined plans such as more drug education for children aged under 11.

The home secretary will also announce an extra £5m for the Talk to Frank awareness campaign for young people.

And, as Prime Minister Gordon Brown has already said, there will be a review of the reclassification of cannabis.

Ms Smith launched the consultation less than a week after she admitted smoking cannabis while she was at Oxford University in the 1980s.

Her admission prompted a string of fellow Cabinet ministers to reveal their own drug-taking experiences.

Methadone helps but it doesn't cure

All 63 people at the Gorbals scheme are fighting to stay clean with the help of counsellors and their own specially-devised rehab plan which can include sport and music.

Service manager Sophia Young said: "Methadone is a vital landing place for people who have led chaotic lives for a long time. For them, methadone treatment is a real option, a way of bringing stability back into their lives.

"Methadone helps but it doesn't cure.

"As a society we are now having to look at how we get people completely drug-free.

"The people who come here are not at the crisis stage. They are people who have stabilised and they have come to address their addictions."

US drug enforcement agent killed in Colombia

An official of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration has been shot dead in Colombia.
Police say the man, Frank Moreno, was killed after an argument outside a nightclub in an up-market area of the capital, Bogota, late on Saturday.
A police spokesman said the killing did not appear to be planned and it was not immediately clear if Mr Moreno was on duty at the time.

Toronto's Pearson International Airport. drug ring

TORONTO -- Eleven people have been charged in connection to what police say is an international drug ring, after a major bust occurred earlier this week at Toronto's Pearson International Airport.
On Thursday (July 19) the Toronto Airport Drug Enforcement Unit arrested and charged eight people with drug related offences in relation to the importation, exportation and trafficking of approximately 39 kilograms of ecstasy tablets, three kilograms of cocaine, eight pounds of marijuana and $106,000 cash, said a press release.
Since then, police have executed seven search warrants in connection with the dismantling of this "criminal ring operating between Canada and the United States," the release said.

Call to weed out drug factories

More than 120 cannabis factories have been found in one London borough since April, police say.
Officers in Newham want the public to alert them to anything suspicious because their resources are stretched after the terror attacks.

Each factory houses high-grade plants, known as skunk, capable of producing about £500,000 of the drug every year.

They are often run by criminal gangs and police think the area has been targeted due to cheap property prices.

The gangs usually tap into power supplies for other properties to run the special lights needed for the plants to grow.

Cannabis farms being 'priced out'

About half the cannabis consumed in Britain is grown in London
London's housing market is slowing the growth of new cannabis factories in the city, according to a new report.
The city's escalating house prices are hitting the profit margins of gangs who operate such premises, the report from the Metropolitan Police Authority says.

Between 700 or 800 properties in London are equipped with hydroponic systems and lighting to cultivate large amounts of the Class C drug, it claims.

They are often run by Vietnamese gangs who rent or buy houses, police suspect.

The practice has become increasingly common across the country in recent years, and more than half the cannabis consumed in Britain is now believed to be grown in London.

Cannabis factories 'found weekly'

Cannabis factories 'found weekly'

The home-grown drug is much stronger than imported cannabis
At least one cannabis factory is being shut down by police in Scotland every week, one of the country's most senior officers has warned.
Graeme Pearson, head of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, said more than 60 industrial-level cannabis farms had been raided in the last year.

Mr Pearson revealed there had been virtually no major cannabis production in Scotland until 12 months ago.

Friday, 6 October 2006, Royal Navy

The Royal Navy has helped seize a haul of cocaine, with an estimated value of £60m on Britain's streets, from a ship off the coast of West Africa.
Nearly two tonnes of the drug was found stashed below deck on the 100-feet long Panamanian-registered freighter.
Acting on British intelligence, the Royal Navy frigate HMS Argyll was diverted from exercises to take Spanish customs officials to stop Ster II.
The six West African crew members put up no resistance, the Royal Navy said.
The Spanish customs team were flown out to join Argyll in Navy helicopters before boarding the target freighter in the Atlantic, 1,600 miles south of the Canary Islands.
Among its crew were five Senegalese and one person from Guinea Bissau.
British officers had worked with the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) and law enforcement authorities from Spain, France and the US to trace the cocaine.
On Friday, the Argyll and the captured freighter were heading for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands where they are expected to arrive next weekend.

UK agency seizes £3bn of cocaine

The UK's new nationwide law enforcement agency says it seized one fifth of Europe's cocaine supply in its first year of operation.
The Serious Organised Crime Agency said 73 tonnes of cocaine with a street value of £3bn were uncovered.
In its annual report, Soca reveals it has prevented 35 potential murders and drawn up a list of 1,600 crime chiefs.
But critics have called for more transparency - saying it is difficult to genuinely judge its progress.
The agency began operation in April 2006 following the merger of the National Criminal Intelligence Service, the National Crime Squad and other law enforcement agencies.
In its first annual report, Soca said it had:
Seized cocaine worth £125m to producers - a major hit to traffickers
Arrested 749 people in the UK and 1,096 overseas
Achieved a 95% success rate in the courts, including with inherited cases.

UK's answer to FBI accused of spin in drug seizures claims

Headline-grabbing claims of record drugs seizures by Britain's answer to the FBI - the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) - have prompted calls for a parliamentary investigation amid suspicions that the organisation is "spinning" its success.
Soca's recent boast that it has seized a record 73 tons of cocaine in its first year was widely reported across the media. But the agency is refusing to provide any evidence to back up its dramatic claims.
According to Soca's chairman, Sir Stephen Lander, a former MI5 chief, the huge haul of cocaine had a street value of £3bn and equalled one-fifth of the annual supply to Europe. But when The Independent on Sunday asked the agency to provide a breakdown of its cocaine seizures it stalled for 11 days before saying it was "unwilling" to provide any details.

Feds weed out drug paraphernalia sites

The US Justice Department on Monday said it indicted 11 Web site operators for allegedly selling illegal devices including bongs and holders for marijuana cigarettes.
Attorney General John Ashcroft told reporters that the government would ask a US district court in Pittsburgh to point the sites to a Web page at the Drug Enforcement Administration explaining why they were taken offline, a new twist in crime-fighting.

Nato dumps Afghan opium adverts

BBC News - Nato forces in Afghanistan say that they have withdrawn paid adverts on a radio station which implied it was acceptable to grow opium poppies.
A Nato spokesman told the BBC that the advert was "ambiguously worded".
The decision followed complaints from the Afghan government and the UN that the alliance was appearing to condone the illicit crop.
The advert was paid for by the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) and aired in Helmand province.
The province in the south is one of the largest opium-producing area in the world and the centre of a large Nato-led anti-Taleban offensive.

US under fire over Afghan poppy plan

The US is proceeding with plans for a big crop-spraying programme to destroy opium poppies in Afghanistan, in spite of resistance from the government of President Hamid Karzai and objections from some senior US military officers who fear it will fuel the Taliban insurgency.
A US delegation will soon leave for Kabul to persuade Mr Karzai that glycophate, a herbicide that is widely applied by US farmers, is safe to use and that trial ground-spraying should begin for the first time since the US ousted the Taliban regime in 2001.

Afghanistan's heroin-producing poppy crop

Afghanistan's heroin-producing poppy crop set another record this season, despite intensified eradication efforts, the American ambassador said Tuesday.
Ambassador William Wood said preliminary data show that Afghan farmers harvested 457,135 acres of opium poppies this year, compared to 407,715 acres last year. The growing industry fuels the Taliban, crime, addiction and government corruption.
Government-led eradication efforts destroyed about 49,420 acres of poppies this year, a "disappointing" outcome, Wood told reporters at his private residence overlooking Kabul.
Wood said he strongly supports forced eradication, alluding to U.S.-led poppy-spraying in Colombia. But he said there is "not yet an international consensus" on the practice.

What is Sexual Addiction?

Sex Addiction can involve a wide variety of practices. Sometimes an addict has trouble with just one unwanted behavior, sometimes with many. A large number of sex addicts say their unhealthy use of sex has been a progressive process. It may have started with an addiction to masturbation, pornography (either printed or electronic), or a relationship, but over the years progressed to increasingly dangerous behaviors.

The essence of all addiction is the addicts' experience of powerlessness over a compulsive behavior, resulting in their lives becoming unmanageable. The addict is out of control and experiences tremendous shame, pain and self-loathing. The addict may wish to stop --- yet repeatedly fails to do so. The unmanageability of addicts' lives can be seen in the consequences they suffer: losing relationships, difficulties with work, arrests, financial troubles, a loss of interest in things not sexual, low self-esteem and despair.

Sexual preoccupation takes up tremendous amounts of energy. As this increases for the sex addict, a pattern of behavior (or rituals) follows, which usually leads to acting out (for some it is flirting, searching the net for pornography, or driving to the park.) When the acting out happens, there is a denial of feelings usually followed by despair and shame or a feeling of hopelessness and confusion.

Royal College of Physicians Comment On Alcohol-Related Hospital Admissions, UK

Professor Ian Gilmore , RCP President and a liver expert, responded to the latest compendium of figures released recently by The Information Centre:

"The doubling in alcohol-related hospital admissions over a decade is both stark and frightening, but it chimes with physicians' everyday clinical experience. While statistics on heart disease and cancer improve, health damage from alcohol misuse stands out uniquely in getting worse.

"NHS alcohol services remain woefully inadequate across the whole spectrum, from early detection of hazardous drinkers to treatment of severe dependence, but the solution of funding them is in our grasp.

"Increased taxation on drink could be used to inject badly-needed resources into these services while at the same time making an important contribution, through reducing the nations consumption, to reducing the future burdon of ill-health."

Royal College of Physicians

A national survey of human resources professionals

A national survey of human resources professionals conducted by the nonprofit Hazelden Foundation shows that while substance abuse and addiction are recognized as among the most serious problems faced in the workplace, employer policies and practices are not fully addressing the problem. The survey also found that although most companies offer employee assistance programs, many do not openly and proactively deal with employee substance abuse issues, do not refer employees to treatment programs and face barriers that prevent them from helping employees seek and receive addiction treatment.

The survey of more than 1,000 senior human resource professionals provides an in-depth look at HR professionals' knowledge of substance abuse and addiction in the workplace and the roles they play in helping both employers and employees identify and address this serious public health issue.

counselors must be aware of their own attitudes and behaviors with respect to both addiction and sexual orientation.

counselors must be aware of their own attitudes and behaviors with respect to both addiction and sexual orientation. Isrealstam (1988) surveyed counselors regarding alcoholism and homosexuality. Sixty percent of those surveyed stated that both homosexuality and alcoholism were "learned" behaviors!

gays and lesbians seeking treatment for alcoholism face the stigma not only of being alcoholic, but also of being gay.

gays and lesbians seeking treatment for alcoholism face the stigma not only of being alcoholic, but also of being gay. Counselor homophobia has the ability to create a long term negative impact on the client. There is a time to focus on sexual orientation and a time to focus on alcoholism, and it is always important to understand the interplay of each upon the other.

gays and lesbians would prefer a counselor with the same sexual orientation.

A study by Raytek (1996) revealed that both gays and lesbians would prefer a counselor with the same sexual orientation. However, a survey of 36 New York treatment agencies found few or no gay staff members. Affirmative action policies do not cover gay men and lesbians. Therefore, few gay and lesbians clients were able to work with gay or lesbian counselors.

Shame and fear of rejection by counselors also causes reluctance among gays and lesbians to seek treatment. (Finnegan & Cook, 1984) Lesbians deal with not only fears of rejection due to their homosexuality, but also with other gender-biased negative attitudes. Finally, a lack of understanding and acceptance of the gay alcoholic's chosen family leads to a reluctance to seek treatment. Gay men and lesbians are likely to have primary relationships which do not conform to the societal definition of a nuclear family system. As gays and lesbians may be rejected by their families of origin due to their sexuality, friendship networks and other alternative support systems are of prime importance. Failure to disclose one's sexual orientation due to fear of rejection may result in this important social support being hidden or ignored. Family week, a key component of most drug and alcohol treatment programs, may serve only to increase feelings of isolation and alienation.

Alcohol 24 hour drinking

The introduction of 24-hour drinking laws may have trebled alcohol-related admissions to A&E departments in inner city areas at night, researchers say.
A study at London's St Thomas' Hospital compared overnight visits before and after the 2005 law change.

There were 80 alcohol-related visits in March 2005. This hit 250 in 2006, the Emergency Medicine Journal said.

Critics say data from one hospital cannot be applied to the whole of England and Wales.

However, the authors, who examined the emergency department at St Thomas' Hospital, said their study was representative of the problems in inner city areas across the country.

"If reproduced over longer time periods and across the UK as a whole, the additional numbers of patients presenting to emergency care could be very substantial," they said.

The figures, the authors suggest, "indicate that the legislation has had the opposite effect to that intended".

Cannabis penalty

The penalty for possession of cannabis could be made more severe as the Government considers a U-turn on the controversial issue.

Cannabis may be reclassifiedThe drug was downgraded from class B to class C in January 2004 - making its possession a largely non-arrestable offence.

But Gordon Brown told MPs today that Home Secretary Jacqui Smith would consider moving the drug back to class B.

Any such move would be part of a wider review of the Government's drug strategy.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) will be asked to look at reports that cannabis is becoming more dangerous because stronger strains of the drug are more widely available.

A.A

Of all the treatments for alcohol misuse, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is probably the most well known. In AA, a form of "self-help" treatment, participants take part in a series of mental, written and verbal activities that can lead to recovery and abstinence. In one study, alcoholic patients who received inpatient and outpatient psychotherapy, as well as AA, had better outcomes than those patients who attended only one kind of treatment.

It is thought that AA helps people because it provides a new social network that replaces the alcohol abuser's usual group of friends who drink with him or her, and provides a fellowship that inspires motivation and lends support toward the goal of reaching and maintaining abstinence. AA also teaches a set of coping skills so that, when stressed, the alcohol abuser has more constructive ways of coping, and does not need to turn to alcohol to escape his or her problems.

Another study, indicated that those alcoholic patients who underwent either cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) or a 12-step program in combination with CBT did better, over the long run, than those who participated in the 12-step program alone. (CBT entails learning coping skills, new ways of interpreting and reacting to stressful situations, and changing one's destructive or maladaptive behavior patterns.) The patients who received the combination treatment stayed sober longer and were able to hold down a job for longer periods than those patients who received only CBT.

Crime Up

Violent crime has risen by 5 per cent according to new government figures published today. The British Crime Survey also reveals a sharp rise in the number of robberies recorded by police.

24 Hour Drinking

The introduction of 24-hour drinking laws may have trebled alcohol-related admissions to A&E departments in inner city areas at night, researchers say.
A study at London's St Thomas' Hospital compared overnight visits before and after the 2005 law change.

There were 80 alcohol-related visits in March 2005. This hit 250 in 2006, the Emergency Medicine Journal said.

Critics say data from one hospital cannot be applied to the whole of England and Wales.

Cannabis

The PM has announced plans to consult with the public on the Government's strategy for tackling drugs.

Speaking during today's PMQs, he said that the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith would publish a consultation document next week, which will outline the Government's plans for providing drugs education, treating those with drug problems, and supporting communities troubled by drug dealers.

The public will also be consulted on whether cannabis should be reclassified from being a class C drug to the more serious class B.

Cannabis was downgraded to class C, which includes drugs such as anabolic steroids, from class B, which includes amphetamines, in 2004.

County Durham and Tees Valley

In County Durham and the Tees Valley the figure rose by 650 between April 2005 and March 2006, and by 509 across Northumberland and Tyne & Wear.

Evidence, some might say, that the authorities are fighting a losing battle against such killers as heroin and crack cocaine

Overeating Addiction?

Overeating 'like drug addiction'

The urge to binge can be powerful for some
For obese people overeating is akin to drug addiction, research suggests.
Scans on seven overweight people revealed the regions of the brain that controlled satiety were the same as those in drug addicts craving drugs.

The US team who carried out the research said the findings could potentially help to uncover new treatments for obesity.

The work, led by a New York scientist, is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

It gives us another channel to understand how to treat or prevent obesity

Alcohol

The social effects of alcohol are numerous and wide-ranging depending on the type of alcohol use: be it social drinking, alcohol abuse or alcoholism. The use of alcohol at social events, although common, may lead to alcohol abuse or binge drinking. The social effects that may be experienced during these types of events include unprotected sex, possible pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and date rape. These social effects are particularly high among college-age students where alcohol consumption is fairly common.

In Britain, nearly one in ten men and one in 20 women drinkers have an alcohol problem

Information

Did you know...?
More than 1,000 children under 15 in England and Wales are taken into casualty with alcohol poisoning every year in England and Wales.

Social Implications

Home Secretary's Cannabis Confession
Updated: 10:13, Thursday July 19, 2007

The Home Secretary has admitted smoking cannabis when she was at university, telling Sky News: "I smoked a few times, I think it was wrong."

Home Secretary Jacqui SmithIn an interview this morning, Jacqui Smith said she had not smoked the drug for 25 years but that did not excuse her behaviour.

"I am not preaching to anyone, I did break the law," she said.

She said Gordon Brown did not ask her if she had taken the drug when he offered her her postition.

The Home Secretary's admission follows the Prime Minister's announcement yesterday that he is considering toughening the law on cannabis.

Addiction Research respects anonymity and all backlinks are turned off please feel free to post anonymously to this blog.

Addiction Research examines the effects of the use and misuse of substances, and on the nature of intoxications of all kinds. It aims to provide an outlet for the growing body of theory and related research which sees the nature of "addicted" behaviour of all types as arising from the social context within which it takes place, rather than as an inevitable manifestation of biological mechanisms or pharmacology. It publishes research which is primarily psychological and social in origin, though these terms are used in a very broad sense. The behaviours described as "addicted". will include the substance-based addictions, but will also cover problems not involving psychoactive agents, such as gambling, sexual behaviour and eating disorders.