30. April 2011 by stationmanager.

The criminal justice system is single largest source of referral to substance abuse treatment

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23. April 2011 by stationmanager.

When it comes to controlling the harmful effects of drugs, governments worldwide have a long “to-do” list, according to a watchdog group at the United Nations.The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) has issued its annual report with a number of key recommendations for governments and manufacturers related to licit and illicit drugs.One of the items on the list is ”designer drugs,” which the INCB said are “escalating out of control,” as Reuters reported March 2. Manufacturers of these drugs make small modifications to the molecular structure of contraband drugs. The new formula creates a legal drug with similar effects on users as the illegal drug. The drug-makers then post the new recipes on the internet.To combat the problem, the INCB recommended that governments act to control the use of entire classes (PDF) of “structurally related synthetic compounds.”“Given the health risks posed by the abuse of designer drugs, we urge governments to adopt national control measures to prevent the manufacture, trafficking in and abuse of these substances,” said the INCB’s president, Hamid Ghodse.For example, mephedrone (otherwise known as 4-methyl-methcathinone) is the active ingredient in drugs that are then sold as “bath salt, plant food or research chemical[s] to avoid detection and legal proceedings,” the INCB said.Mephedrone is now a “problem drug of abuse in Europe, North America, Southeast Asia and in Australia and New Zealand.” When consumed, its effects are similar to cocaine, amphetamines, and ecstasy, and it has been linked to deaths in Europe.The INCB said mephedrone was only one of many designer drugs, however. The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction is monitoring 15 other drugs in the same class as mephedrone, and 51 drugs were “recently placed under control” in Japan.The INCB made other recommendations in its Report of the International Control Board for 2010 as well (links in list are PDFs):

• Governments need to act to address drug-related corruption – for example, by rotating personnel and creating greater transparency for hiring and review.
• Pain medication and psychotropic drugs are unavailable to most of the world, but should be available to all who need them. “Ninety per cent of the licit drugs are consumed by ten per cent of the world’s population in the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and some European countries,” said INCB president Hamid Ghodse.
• Governments and pharmaceutical makers need to do more to limit the use of legal drugs to commit sexual assault, robbery, and ownership-fraud.
• The INCB said governments needed to remain vigilant and act to control precursor chemicals used by makers of illegal drugs.
• While not a “to-do,” exactly, the INCB also issued a very brief summary of the regional highlights with regard to drug use, abuse, and trafficking worldwide.

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17. April 2011 by stationmanager.

A study of 74 countries by Canadian researchers found that as women acquire improved status, they’re more likely to take up smoking and risk smoking-related health problems, Reuters reported Mar. 1. Sarah Hitchman and Geoffrey Fong of the University of Waterloo found that in countries where women are less empowered, such as China, Indonesia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Uganda, men were five times as likely to smoke as women were. In China, an estimated 61 percent of men smoke, versus 4.2 percent of women.  By contrast, in countries where women were more empowered, such as Australia, Canada, Norway, Sweden and the United States, Hitchman and Fong found little difference in male and female smoking rates. (They measured empowerment with data such as “representation in parliament, voting rights, and comparisons of male and female income.”)Douglas Bettcher, the director of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) tobacco initiative, said that public health campaigns were needed to reverse the rising trend of female smoking in developing countries.  “The tobacco epidemic is still in its early stages in many countries but is expected to worsen,” he wrote in a statement. “Strong tobacco control measures such as bans on tobacco advertising are needed to prevent the tobacco industry from targeting women.”According to Reuters, “[t]obacco kills up to half its users and is described by the WHO [as] ‘one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced.’” It kills over five million people every year – a total that is expected to exceed eight million by 2030 if smoking rates go unchecked. Fong said that gender-specific anti-tobacco activities were needed. Hitchman added that a close look should be taken at “the ways in which the tobacco industry is capitalizing on societal changes to target women, such as marketing cigarettes to women as a symbol of emancipation.” She said that more research into why women started smoking was needed.Vikram Pathanaia of the London School of Economics agreed, in an editorial commenting on the study. “Ironically,” he wrote, “it may be cigarette marketers who currently have the best understanding of what induces women to experiment with and eventually adopt smoking!”The study, “Gender empowerment and female-to-male smoking prevalence ratios,” was published in the March 2011 issue of the Bulletin of the World Health Organization

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9. April 2011 by stationmanager.

Pressure is mounting on Florida to do something about the state’s pill mill problem. The US Drug Czar along with law enforcement officers from other states are growing frustrated because people are flocking to Florida, loading up on painkillers and overdosing. A new prescription drug database would stop the doctor shopping, but Florida’s rogue governor isn’t having it. Florida is ridden with pill mills. During a six months period, nine million painkillers were prescribed in just two south Florida counties. Seven deaths a day are attributed to people in Florida illegally using legal drugs. Lawmakers created a prescription drug database to curb the problem. The database set to go online this spring would track people who go from doctor to doctor collecting meds. Governor Rick Scott is taking a defiant stance against the database even though it’s heavily supported by members of his own party. “I don’t support the database. I believe it’s an invasion of privacy.”The database would help Republican Attorney General Pam Bondi in her fight to stop the South Florida pill mills, but she’s reluctant to chastise the governor’s decision. “It’s my goal to use every tool possible to shut them down. That includes implementing the rules that have been previously frozen.”The tension is building at the capitol as officials line up against the governor or keep quiet. Scott’s not only catching heat from lawmakers here in Tallahassee but the Feds and law enforcement officers in other state’s are fed up with him because they say the pill mill problem in Florida is also killing resident’s in their states.Senator Mike Fasano, whose legislation created the database says Scott can’t stop it. “It’s in law and he can’t just, all of a sudden, wipe a law out. As much of what Governor Scott would like to do with some of our laws–he can’t just wipe it out.”Legislative efforts are underway in the House to find a replacement for the database that satisfies the governor.

For at least the first year the database would be paid for with 1.3 million dollars of federal grants and private donations.

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