COPS in Scotland's largest force have dealt with more than 2400 crimes linked to the Old Firm in the last two years.

‘popular misconception’ has taken root that cocaine is safe to be snorted at ‘middle-class dinner parties’, the chief drugs adviser says.

Professor Les Iversen, who heads the Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs, announced a year-long investigation into the harm caused by the Class-A substance.

Prof Iversen said he hoped this would convince the public of the damage cocaine was doing to their health.


Party drug: But Government advisers are keen to dispel the idea that cocaine is safe

It follows concerns over a three-fold rise in the number of cocaine users over the past ten years.

Experts have voiced concerns that the drug is seen as more socially acceptable and glamorous thanks to the likes of Kate Moss, Jodie Kidd, Katherine Jenkins and Amy Winehouse being exposed as users.

 
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Prof Iversen said there was a ‘popular misconception, at least as far as powder cocaine is concerned at middle-class dinner parties, that it’s a safe drug’.

He added: ‘We want to examine whether powdered cocaine really is safe. I do not believe it.’


Socially acceptable? There are concerns that use of the class A drug is tolerable thanks to celebrity use

Last month, the United Nations warned that the UK was becoming an increasingly important hub for the importation of cocaine into the rest of Europe.

Belgium, Holland, Portugal and Spain are the traditional routes for the drug’s entry to the EU, but the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) said there had been a recent surge in cases of the UK being used as point of entry.

Powder cocaine was the second most popular drug in Britain after cannabis, British Crime Survey figures for 2009/10 showed.

An estimated 2.4 per cent of adults, about 800,000 people, reported using powder cocaine in the last year.

The ACMD stressed there are no plans to even consider changing the classification of cocaine.

The review will investigate some of the substances being ‘cut’ with cocaine by dealers - which now include dental anaesthetic.

In a separate move, the ACMD controversially suggested giving freed prisoners a ‘magic medicine’ to protect them against heroin overdose.

Advisors say a single injection of naloxone would bring an addict back to life if they fell into a coma.

They want to target newly released convicts in case they fall back into a life of taking hard drugs.

It would cost the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds to equip criminals with the £15 injections.

But the ACMD, which has repeatedly called for the relaxation of drug laws, said the move could save hundreds of lives.

Prof Iversen said the most vulnerable period in a heroin addict’s life is in the week or two weeks after they leave prison.

One in eight succumb to an overdose and - among those who inject heroin,- one in 200 die, research showed.

Prof Iversen said: ‘A heroin overdose person could keel over and go into a coma and a single injection of naloxone can bring them back to life again. It is really a magic medicine.

‘The issue here is whether or not naloxone could or should be made available more widely so that we can rescue more people from heroin overdose.


Concerns: The United Nations warned the UK was becoming an increasingly important hub for the importation of cocaine into the rest of Europe

‘Issuing naloxone kits to heroin addicts as they leave prison as a way of trying to save some of their lives.’

‘Getting it as widely available as possible is the name of the game.’

The medicine, which would be funded by the NHS, is already made available to freed prisoners in Scotland, under a £500,000 pilot. Small trials are also taking place in England.

Addicts have to be trained how to inject the drug. It must be prescribed to a particular individual.

The scheme has proved controversial north of the border.

Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser said: ‘This sends out completely the wrong message and won’t do anything to move a prisoner towards abstinence, which must be the long-term goal of any drugs strategy.

‘We need to be prioritising drug-free wings in prison and this is the complete opposite of that aim.’

The ACMD has yet to make a formal recommendation to the government, which would then decide whether to fund the scheme in England.

13,000 cancers in the UK every year are the result of people's drinking habits

13,000 cancers in the UK every year are the result of people's drinking habits, according to one of the largest studies ever carried out into diet and cancer.

The research, carried out across eight European countries including the UK, has found that thousands of cancers could be prevented if men had the equivalent of no more than two drinks a day and women had no more than one.

Nearly half of the alcohol-related cancers in the UK – nearly 6,000 – were related to the mouth and throat. Alcohol is a key cause of cancer of the mouth, oesophagus, voicebox and pharynx.

But alcohol also causes more than 3,000 colorectal cancers and about 2,500 breast cancers every year, according to Cancer Research UK, which cofunded the study.

The full extent of the damage is revealed by the Epic study (European prospective investigation into cancer and nutrition), which is monitoring the links between diet and cancer in the UK, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Greece, Germany and Denmark. It finds that 10% of men's cancers and 3% of women's cancers in western Europe are caused by drinking.

Doctors and health groups are already concerned about the rise in liver disease. The British Liver Trust said the study should trigger a Europe-wide effort at preventing alcohol-related harm.

"Once again we are seeing the impact alcohol can have in all areas of health," said the trust's campaigns manager, Sarah Matthews. "While alcohol damage is often linked to the liver, this study highlights the impact alcohol has on the rest of the organs in the body.

"The results are not a surprise as we feel we haven't touched the tip of the iceberg in preventing alcohol health harms in the UK. Substantive measures, such as setting a minimum pricing at an effective level, have been ignored and we continue to employ a half-hearted attempt in protecting the health of society. This study should form the basis of EU action to tackle the four Ps of alcohol marketing – price, promotion, placement and product. Only then will we see a change in how alcohol is viewed and consumed."

The study looked at the past and present drinking habits of nearly 364,000 men and women, mostly aged between 35 and 70 at the time of recruitment in the mid-1990s. They completed a detailed questionnaire on diet and lifestyle when they joined the study. Alcohol consumption was measured by specific questions on the amount, frequency and type of drink.

The study, published by the British Medical Journal, found that thousands of cancers could have been avoided if people had consumed no more than one drink a day for women or two for men.

Limited spaces and restricted funding for drug treatment programmes is leading some addicts to crime to fund their habit.

One beneficiary and synthetic heroin addict, David Ratterhad had waited nine months to get on the methadone programme and Capital and Coast District Health Board said that on current tracking he had about another seven months before he could start the programme, the Dominion Post reported.

He said he was on the brink of committing armed robbery if he had to wait any longer.

Mr Ratter, 44, of Wainuiomata, who has a long list of convictions and has been jailed several times for theft and fraud, said the wait to kick his $200-a-day habit was ridiculous.

He had been shoplifting and said he might turn to robbery next.

"The Government can come up with money to put us through the court system and pay for the police and put us in jail. But they can't come up with a couple of grand a year for the medication we need to stop us."

Mr Ratter said going "cold turkey" had produced cold sweats, stomach cramps and insomnia. He said he wanted to change his life but there was no help.

More money was needed to be put into treatment programmes as 80 percent of all crime was alcohol or drug related, Wellington alcohol and drug assessment and counselling clinical manager Roger Brooking said.

Research from Massey University in 2009 showed that one in five methamphetamine and intravenous drug users used property crime to help finance their addiction.

The Health Ministry funds 429 spaces in Wellington, Hutt Valley, Porirua and Kapiti. The Ministry spent $14.1m on methadone programmes in New Zealand in the year ended June 30, 2010. It spent $118m on alcohol and drug treatment in the same period.

The number of people infected with HIV in the UK has almost doubled over the past decade, figures show.

New cases jumped from 1,950 in 2001 to 3,780 in 2010, according to data from the Health Protection Agency (HPA).
All the cases involve people who acquired HIV in the UK.
Most new cases were among gay men, with a 70% rise in the past 10 years, from 1,810 in 2001 to 3,080 in 2010.
But black Africans are also at high risk, prompting the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) to publish new guidance on increasing HIV testing among black African communities.
Professor Mike Kelly, director of the centre for public health excellence at NICE, said: "For many people of black African heritage there is a fear that being diagnosed HIV positive will result in social exclusion or racism and prejudice from both inside and outside their community.
"As such there is often a reluctance to be tested which can significantly delay diagnosis."
The new guidance aims to ensure testing is routinely offered to all people who live in an area where there is a high prevalence of HIV, when registering with a new GP, on admission to hospital, and when having a blood test.
Three out of five people who die from HIV each year received a late diagnosis.
Dr Valerie Delpech, head of HIV surveillance at the HPA, said: "HIV is an extremely serious infection. There are excellent treatment options available nowadays but these are only at their most effective if the infection is diagnosed early, before symptoms appear."

THOUSANDS of British women risk their lives using BANNED diet pills bought online and in salons.

THOUSANDS of British women risk their lives using BANNED diet pills bought online and in salons.

Many weight-loss drugs can cause strokes, panic attacks or worse and their sale is illegal in Britain. But our laws don't apply to overseas pharmacies selling to UK homes via the internet.

The coalition will announce restrictive regulatory changes to the £13.4bn British tobacco industry on National No Smoking Day

The coalition will announce restrictive regulatory changes to the £13.4bn British tobacco industry on National No Smoking Day on Wednesday, which shopkeepers believe could force closures.

The Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, has called several retail representative bodies, which are largely against the probable changes, to his office on Wednesday morning. They include the British Retail Consortium, the National Federation of Retail Newsagents and the Association of Convenience Stores, the last of which represents more than 33,500 local shops.

Later that day, Mr Lansley is expected to confirm plans to stop businesses displaying tobacco in a move that critics believe will backfire and glamourise the industry for youngsters, as cigarettes will be seen as more illicit. The changes will not apply to Scotland, where the government is pursuing its own ban.

However, it is believed that Mr Lansley will delay introducing the display ban. Originally, large shops were to implement the ban in October with smaller outlets to follow next year. It is thought that Mr Lansley will give the different shop groupings an extra year to comply.

Government officials have told retail groups that there are likely to be some compromises in the Tobacco Control Plan. When customers ask for cigarettes, retailers were originally only going to be allowed to show them 1,500 sq cm of the display, about one shelf of a small gantry.

This has already been increased to 7,500 sq cm. It is expected that the coalition, which is thought to have discussed the measures in Cabinet last week, will double the size to 15,000 sq cm.

The changes to displays will prove costly, estimates suggest £70m for small retailers, while shopkeepers fear that not putting cigarettes out in the open could cost them one of their major sources of revenue.

An industry source said that the compromise would "alienate everybody in the debate", as there would be both a ban and a significant amount on display once the gantry is opened.

The Government is also considering whether to force cigarette manufacturers to sell their wares in plain packaging. There could be a consultation on this idea rather than a formal commitment as this is fraught with legal difficulties over intellectual property.

therapist recently compared playing video games to snorting lines and lines of cocaine

An obviously clueless therapist recently compared playing video games to snorting lines and lines of cocaine. Snowblind, what?

"Spending two hours on a game station is equivalent to taking a line of cocaine in the high it produces in the brain," UK-based therapist Steve Pope told BBC Radio.

"It's [become] the silent killer of our generation."

According to Pope, computer game addiction can also "spiral into violence" as players (somehow) turn their fantasies into reality.

"[This is my] personal quest to spread the message.

"[Parents need] to go upstairs to [their] kids bedroom and try and take the game station controller out of their hands."

He added that most kids will undoubtedly react "in the same way as alcoholics would" if you tried to take their booze.

"It is [definitely] the fastest growing addiction in the country and this is affecting young people mentally and physically," he claimed.

Department of Health (DH) researchers are using pharmacy data as part of an investigation into prescription drug addiction

Department of Health (DH) researchers are using pharmacy data as part of an investigation into prescription drug addiction, health minister Anne Milton has announced.

The DH has commissioned research into the prevalence of addiction to prescription drugs and the services available for its treatment, and will publish the findings “in the next couple of months”, Ms Milton said.

The report would include information from interviews with PCTs, local drug partnerships and specialist providers, and would be compiled by the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse, she said.

The DH would use this to help determine the future direction of policy and service planning, she added.

The National Addiction Centre will also be producing a report on the drugs’ health effects, as well as treatment and management interventions for addiction to them.

The DH will open a wider consultation once the reports are published.

Ms Milton told parliament: “Following publication, we will be engaging widely with interested parties to determine the future direction of policy and service planning.”

People suffering from drug addiction might have someone to blame

People suffering from drug addiction might have someone to blame as a recently conducted study by researchers in the US has revealed that addiction is a result of a person's genetic traits. Apart from the likelihood of being dependant on drugs, it was also reported that the duration of drug abuse was dependant on a person's lineage as well.

The study was carried out by a team of experts at the Brookhaven National Laboratory and it was found that the DNA of people with, lower gray matter density and hence, fewer neurons - were more likely to be addicted to drugs. Apparently, various things like decision-making, self-control, learning and memory were affected by the genetic makeup of people.

Talking about the study, one of the authors and a researchers at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, Nelly Alia-Klein, said: "The results suggest that addicted individuals with low MAOA [monoamine oxidase A] genotype may need a different kind of treatment than other addicted individuals who carry the high MAOA genotype".

However, she was quick to reiterate that furthermore studies will be required to ascertain the findings of this study. She further added that people involved with drug addicts should be informed about such factors to ensure that those facing legal action for drug possession or abuse are provided the correct treatment.

Troubled actor Charlie Sheen is suing the producers of the top-rating television show Two and a Half Men for $100 million

Troubled actor Charlie Sheen is suing the producers of the top-rating television show Two and a Half Men for $100 million over their decision to sack him and suspend the show for the rest of the season.

The off-the-rails star filed a lawsuit in a Los Angeles court today against Warner Brothers and the sitcom's co-creator Chuck Lorre, alleging they breached contracts with the cast and crew by suspending the show before the end of the season.

He is seeking $100 million plus punitive damages on behalf of the cast and crew.

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He then tweeted: "#Fastball; Torpedo away ... You corporate Trolls were warned. And now you've been served!"

In the suit, Sheen alleges that Mr Lorre only fired him because he had recently criticised Lorre both on radio and television.

Sheen alleges Lorre had decided to sack him before his public outbursts because Lorre wanted to work on other television shows.

This week, Warner Brothers - which produces the CBS series - terminated Sheen's contract, alleging he had committed a serious crime involving "moral turpitude".

“The kids are so ruined,” the man said. “Everyone, from students aged around 18 to even farmers, are addicted to heroin. They were only trying it out at the beginning but now are addicted.”

young people are becoming addicted to heroin in Burma’s northernmost Kachin state as authorities fail to clamp down on dealers, sources in several towns have warned.

Males between the ages of 17 and 40 were among the most affected, said a resident of Mogaung town, which lies just west of the Kachin capital, Myitkyina. Other towns suffering rising rates of addiction were Mohnyin, Myitkyina and Hpakant, he added.

“The kids are so ruined,” the man said. “Everyone, from students aged around 18 to even farmers, are addicted to heroin. They were only trying it out at the beginning but now are addicted.”

He continued that most addicts were injecting the drug, a cheaper method despite the health risks. One intra-venous hit, he said, cost around 1000 kyat ($US1), while smoking through a pipe costs up to 4000 kyat ($US4.50).

A group of heroin dealers were reportedly arrested last month in Mohnyin by the government’s Anti-Drugs Task Force (ADTF) but later released on bail. The man said they had quickly got back to dealing.

Assertions by the Burmese government that it is stamping out the country’s lucrative drugs trade have been widely doubted: the US released a report last week saying that Burma had “demonstrably failed” to halt the trade of heroin and its derivative, opium, whilst statistics showed that in-country production of methamphetamine continues to rise.

The report was followed by an announcement in the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper that 15,021 acres of poppy fields were destroyed in 2010-2011, 411 of which were in Kachin state. Regardless, however, criticism continues to abound.

“The government is the main culprit for this,” said the Mogaung resident. “The government is the first to blame and the dealers the second. They are openly selling drugs on a tray.”

He claimed that dealers paid monthly bribes of up to 400,000 kyat ($US450) to government officials, including the ANTF.

Oxy addicts drive surge in demand for methadone | Winnipeg | News | Winnipeg Sun

Oxy addicts drive surge in demand for methadoneThe number of methadone patients in Winnipeg has taken a “tremendous leap” over the past two years, according the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba.

There are currently 335 patients in the Methadone Intervention and Needle Exchange (MINE) program, up from about 175 in 2006.

“If you look at the actual number that have been through the wait list ... there’s probably more like over 400 that we’ve dealt with in the past year and a half,” said Laurie Magee, MINE program manager.

Magee estimates another 460 patients are involved in the city’s two other private methadone programs — CARI and OATS — located on Main Street in North Point Douglas.

According to the CARI clinic they have approximately 200 methadone patients. The OATS program would not disclose the number of patients they serve.

Pharmacist Daren Jorgenson said once an individual starts methadone treatment, they rarely come off of it."

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Whitney Houston's Daughter Pictured Snorting White Powder

Whitney Houston's Daughter Pictured Snorting White Powder "Whitney Houston's daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown has been pictured snorting white powder which is purportedly cocaine.
The 18-year-old, who celebrated her birthday last week, has been accused of following in her parents' footsteps after both Whitney and then-husband Bobby Brown battled with drug addiction.
Bobbi Kristina, whose known to her friends as Krissi, has accused her ex-boyfriend of setting her up, but he claims that she is suffering from a serious addiction.
Talking to the National Enquirer, he said: 'I've tried to stop her. But all she said was, 'I'm just like my mother!'. Whitney needs to see what her daughter is doing to herself. If Krissi doesn't stop soon, this addiction with kill her.'"

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Singer George Michael has opened up about his recent jail stint, insisting he deserved to go behind bars

Singer George Michael has opened up about his recent jail stint, insisting he deserved to go behind bars for his "shameful" acts.

The former Wham! singer was jailed for eight weeks in September for possessing cannabis and driving under the influence of drugs.

Michael was previously banned from driving for two years following his 2007 conviction for driving while unfit and a year later he received an official police caution for possession of cannabis.

And now he has spoken about his time in prison, admitting he believes it's karma for repeatedly landing in trouble.

He tells British radio host Chris Evans, "This was a hugely shameful thing to have done repeatedly. So karmically I felt like I had a bill to pay. I went to prison, I paid my bill.

"Remarkably enough, I know people must think it was a really horrific experience - it's so much easier to take any form of punishment if you believe you actually deserve it, and I did. It wasn't a weekend break, put it that way. I didn't feel sorry for myself. I thought, 'Oh my God, this place is absolutely filthy, because it was Pentonville'. I just thought, you get your head down."

And Michael saw his release from jail as a new start when he was asked to sign a guitar and write down the date: "The guy said it's the 10th of the 10th of the 10th. And I just thought 'that's so fitting'. It's like the clock rolling round to the end of something, tomorrow I start again."DISCLAIMER:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder.

video-game addiction

The growing issue of video-game addiction: "Many people have had a brush with video-game obsession, whether it was Super Mario 3 instead of homework in Grade 5, or Call of Duty: Black Ops – all of last weekend.

However, for a growing number video-game addiction is a serious problem.

Video game audiences have ballooned in recent years thanks to advances in computer technology, the advent of online gaming, and an adapting games industry whose games engage individuals in extended gameplay, said Bruce Alexander, an expert on addiction from Simon Fraser University.

Recent studies have shown that around nine per cent of school-aged children in several countries, including the United States., show unhealthy video-gaming behaviour."

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Charlie Sheen's out of the AA 'troll hole'

Charlie Sheen's out of the AA 'troll hole': "Mr. Sheen's bare-fanged fury notwithstanding, he has said nothing that Stanton Peele, a renowned addiction expert, has not said before him. The author of 'Diseasing of America: How We Allowed Recovery Zealots and the Treatment Industry to Convince Us We Are Out of Control' has strongly opposed the 'troll' treatment model, which relies on scare tactics and junk science to gain lifelong, unrivaled control over patients.

The object of Sheen's barbs on the 'Today' show shifted to the AA's '5 percent success rate.' Not even addiction agony aunt Dr. Drew Pinsky could dispute Sheen's irreverent but oh-so-right recitation of AA's record. 'He's got a point,' Pinsky admitted to TMZ.com. 'Their success rates aren't that great ... but it does work when people do it.'

Precisely: Addicts are 'cured' when they decide to give up the habit. 'Those who beat their addictions do so, in every case, by aligning themselves with their own values and purpose in life,' writes Peele."

Charlie Sheen's drink of choice?

 "Charlie Sheen's drink of choice? Chocolate milk. Or so he says on Twitter.

Sheen, who has blazed past 200,000 followers and counting in only a few hours after joining the social networking service, issued his first tweet on Tuesday night. It promoted winning, dairy products and juice.

'Winning..! Choose your Vice... #winning #chooseyourvice http://twitpic.com/455ly9,' Sheen tweeted, with the link sending followers to a picture of he and Rach, one of his two goddesses, holding up drinks. Fittingly, she was holding up Naked brand juice. Though the company that produces the juice may not think that."

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Psychosis linked to use of cannabis

The Press Association: Psychosis linked to use of cannabis: "Using cannabis as a teenager or into young adulthood increases the risk of psychosis, experts have warned.
There has long been a debate over whether the link between cannabis and psychosis is causal or whether early psychotic experiences lead people to 'self-medicate' with cannabis.
Researchers examined data for more than 1,900 people who were aged 14 to 24 at the start of the study.
They were followed up at three, and then eight years later, to assess the link between cannabis use and psychotic symptoms.
Those who were not cannabis users at the start of the study, but who went on to become so, had a higher risk of psychotic symptoms later on.
In those who were using cannabis at the start of the study and carried on, there was also an increased risk of psychotic experiences.
The experts, including from Germany, the Netherlands and the Institute of Psychiatry in London, published their findings in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).
They concluded: 'Cannabis use is a risk factor for the development of incident psychotic symptoms."

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Doctor suspended for alleged addiction

Doctor suspended for alleged addiction "The provincial health department confirmed yesterday that the doctor was suspended from the GJ Crookes Hospital in Scottburgh.

Department spokesman Chris Maxon refused to divulge the details, but hospital insiders claimed the doctor was allegedly caught stealing the drug for his own use.

'The doctor has been reported to the Health Professions Council of South Africa and the Special Investigating Unit,' Maxon said.

'The internal disciplinary inquiry is continuing.

'More information cannot be divulged at this stage as it will jeopardise the process,' Maxon said

Psychologist and director at Houghton House Rehab Centre Dan Wolf said that in the past few years he had counselled several doctors with serious pethidine addictions."

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