2. Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) - Drug court a success: research. “Addicts who commit a drug-related crime are less likely to reoffend if they are dealt with by the NSW Drug Court than if they are are sentenced through the traditional judicial system, research reveals. A study by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research and the Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation found that the Drug Court is more cost effective than sending offenders with a drug addiction to prison”.

3. Globe and Mail (Canada) - Safe injection may save system $14-million. “Vancouver’s safe-injection site will save the health-care system at least $14-million and prevent more than 1,000 HIV infections over a 10-year period, according to a new study about the controversial program. The study, published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, is the latest piece of research to suggest the potential social benefit of Insite in helping curb substance abuse, and reducing the spread of hepatitis C, HIV and other infectious diseases.”

4. Medical News Today (USA) - In Cocaine Addiction, Drug-Related Preference Extends To Images. “When given a choice between viewing pictures of cocaine and a variety of other images, cocaine addicted individuals, as compared to healthy, non-addicted research subjects, show a clear preference for the drug-related images. Findings from this study, which was conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, were presented at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington D.C. by Scott Moeller, a psychology graduate student at the University of Michigan who worked with the Brookhaven Lab Neuropsychoimaging group.”

5. JAMA (USA) - Methadone Maintenance 4 Decades Later. “The effects of the article by Dole and Nyswander1 are best understood by knowing what preceded it. The current scientific consensus is that opioid dependence is a chronic and severe medical disorder, and withdrawal alone is usually followed by rapid relapse.2 A century ago, however, withdrawal was often considered adequate to treat narcotic addiction, with methods used often more dangerous than withdrawal. Individuals who relapsed were viewed as doing so out of choice rather than necessity. The frequency of relapse, however, led to the establishment of narcotic clinics to legally provide heroin or morphine to individuals with addiction.”

6. CounterPunch (USA) - When Mooning is a Sex Crime. “In 1993 JM turned around, dropped his trousers and told his sister-in-law to “kiss my black ass!” The younger sisters laughed, compounding the indignity. To make JM pay for this rude affront, the sister-in-law called the cops. He did three days in the county jail and pled out to misdemeanor indecent exposure and credit for time served. Sounds pretty harsh, doesn’t it? Three day and nights for mooning your sister in law? Fast forward to 1998 when the voters of California passed “Megan’s Law” (PC 290) requiring those convicted of certain sex offences to register with the local police for the rest of their lives. Indecent Exposure (PC 314) is listed under PC 290 and is applied retroactively. Required to register under penalty of felony, combined with a taste for illicit substances, JM picked up a new state prison term.”

1. Journal of Psychopharmacology, Vol. 22, No. 6, 603-620 (2008)
Human hallucinogen research: guidelines for safety
MW Johnson
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

WA Richards
Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore, MD, USA

RR Griffiths
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA, Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA,

There has recently been a renewal of human research with classical hallucinogens (psychedelics). This paper first briefly discusses the unique history of human hallucinogen research, and then reviews the risks of hallucinogen administration and safeguards for minimizing these risks. Although hallucinogens are relatively safe physiologically and are not considered drugs of dependence, their administration involves unique psychological risks. The most likely risk is overwhelming distress during drug action (’bad trip’), which could lead to potentially dangerous behaviour such as leaving the study site. Less common are prolonged psychoses triggered by hallucinogens. Safeguards against these risks include the exclusion of volunteers with personal or family history of psychotic disorders or other severe psychiatric disorders, establishing trust and rapport between session monitors and volunteer before the session, careful volunteer preparation, a safe physical session environment
and interpersonal support from at least two study monitors during the session. Investigators should probe for the relatively rare hallucinogen persisting perception disorder in follow-up contact. Persisting adverse reactions are rare when research is conducted along these guidelines. Incautious research may jeopardize participant safety and future research. However, carefully conducted research may inform the treatment of psychiatric disorders, and may lead to advances in basic science.

2. Journal of Psychopharmacology, Vol. 22, No. 6, 621-632 (2008)

Mystical-type experiences occasioned by psilocybin mediate the attribution of personal meaning and spiritual significance 14 months later
RR Griffiths
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA,

WA Richards
Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore, MD, USA

MW Johnson
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

UD McCann
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

R. Jesse
Council on Spiritual Practices, San Francisco, CA, USA

Psilocybin has been used for centuries for religious purposes; however, little is known scientifically about its long-term effects. We previously reported the effects of a double-blind study evaluating the psychological effects of a high psilocybin dose. This report presents the 14-month follow-up and examines the relationship of the follow-up results to data obtained at screening and on drug session days. Participants were 36 hallucinogen-naïve adults reporting regular participation in religious/ spiritual activities. Oral psilocybin (30 mg/70 kg) was administered on one of two or three sessions, with methylphenidate (40 mg/70 kg) administered on the other session(s). During sessions, volunteers were encouraged to close their eyes and direct their attention inward. At the 14-month follow-up, 58% and 67%, respectively, of volunteers rated the psilocybin-occasioned experience as being among the five most personally meaningful and among the five most spiritually significant experiences of their lives; 64% indicated that the experience increased well-being or life satisfaction; 58% met criteria for having had a ‘complete’ mystical experience. Correlation and regression analyses indicated a central role of the mystical experience assessed on the session day in the high ratings of personal meaning and spiritual significance at follow-up. Of the measures of personality, affect, quality of life and spirituality assessed across the study, only a scale measuring mystical experience showed a difference from screening. When administered under supportive conditions, psilocybin occasioned experiences similar to spontaneously occurring mystical experiences that, at 14-month follow-up, were considered by volunteers to be among the most personally meaningful and spiritually significant of their lives. ”

Is anyone aware of hallucinogen research going on in an Australian context?

2. Jamaica Observer (Jamaica) - Getting help for drug addiction. “THE Association of Friends and Families of Substance Abusers (AFAFOSA), a not-for-profit body which was formed in 2003 and was re-launched earlier this year, is working to improve the lives of addicts like Roland Green, Fitzroy Brown, Kevin, Bruce, Max and ‘Munchie’.”

3. The Telegraph (UK) - Women and drug addiction. “The most shocking thing about the modern drug user? That she could be someone like you. Anna Moore talks to three ‘ordinary’ women about their struggles with addiction. Andrea Mackenzie 57, a divorced mother of three from Newquay, was first prescribed valium for back pain as a trainee teacher in 1969. She became addicted and continued to take it for almost 40 years.”

4. The National (United Arab Emirates) - Bestseller lays bare drug abuse in Egypt. “The bestselling book Quarter Gram, which is now in its eleventh print run and is being made into a film about the lives of six drug addicts from Cairo’s upper class, touches upon an epidemic in Egyptian society. Based on a true story, narrator Salah recounts his story and that of his five friends – Mido, Zoni, Rico, Bono and Lol – growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, as their experimentation with drugs descends into full-blown addiction.”

5. London Free Press (Canada) - Help now available for gaming addicts. “Canada’s first support group for addicted online gamers will launch tomorrow in London. Non-existent a decade ago, online gaming has more than 16 million people worldwide submerging themselves in a virtual world — sometimes for as long as 10 hours straight, said Brad Dorrance, founder of the London chapter of On-Line Gamers Anonymous, which started in the U.S.”

6. The Daily Breeze (USA) - PROP. 5 would help addicts recover. “Old arguments over treatment vs. punishment for drug addicts willing to try tough, rigorous recovery work have been shot down by reason, common sense and demonstrated successes, but in some minds, a judgmental hangover lingers. Still, a mind-set persists that it’s a moral failing and sin - not the sickness of spirit and body the medical profession long ago recognized - and needs to be punished. This hampers humane approaches to problem-solving.”

2. ScienceDaily (USA) - Could Brain Abnormality Predict Drug Addiction? “Scientists at The University of Nottingham are to use MRI technology to discover whether abnormalities in the decision-making part of the brain could make some people more likely to become addicted to drugs. In a three-year study, funded with £360,000 from the Medical Research Council, Dr Lee Hogarth in the University’s School of Psychology will study the impact that an abnormal frontal cortex can have in people’s risk of becoming dependant upon drugs such as tobacco, alcohol, cannabis or heroin.”

3. The Guardian (UK) - Drug policies just make addiction worse. “To most people looking at my life from the outside, I seemed to have a pretty perfect existence. Two beautiful daughters, now aged 18 and 21, my husband a finance director on a good salary and for me an interesting career designing interiors for historical buildings. We lived in a beautiful Georgian property in Brighton overlooking the sea – picture perfect! Yet when I sat next to people at dinner parties and was asked what my children did, my answer shattered that picture.”

4. The Nation (Pakistan) - Two million youth in Karachi drug addicts. “In Karachi some 2million youth and children are the risk of drug addiction, as prevalence of drug addiction in very high in this mega city, said a Karachi-based NGO working on the issues of street children and youth. Rana Asif Habib, President of Initiator Human Development Foundation, talking to PPI on Saturday, said the major portion of Pakistani population is consisted of youth and children and they are highly exposed to smoking and drugs. He feared some 100million people in Pakistan might be at the risk of smoking and other types of addiction.”

5. Reuters (International) - Fighting fire with fire. “It sounds counterintuitive, but a Canadian study released this week showed that giving heroin to addicts may help them stop using the drug in the future. The North American Opiate Medication Initiative (NAOMI) is the first trial of its kind in North America, and therefore the first on the continent to show that heroin-assisted therapy — providing chronic heroin addicts with controlled dosages of the drug in a medical setting — can help chronic addicts when other treatments like methadone therapy or abstinence programs haven’t.”

6. Al-Ahram Weekly (Egypt) - A question of habit. “For Isis, a recovering drug addict, reading 1/4 Gram was like reading her own story, even though she didn’t fit into the mould of any of the characters. She found reading the novel was a very intense and distinctive experience. It was familiar, evocative and at times painful and frustrating, just like the life of any addict. “It tackles the addiction problem from the addict’s point of view,” she says. 1/4 Gram is based on a true story from the heart of a recovered heroin addict written in colloquial, easy to read Arabic. Author Essam Youssef examines the way heroin abuse ripped through Egyptian society in the 1980s, and shows the effects a mere quarter of a gram had on the lives of a group of friends. It is a thrilling story of pleasure, adventure and good times and the pain and suffering that come as the price.”

7. Associated Press (International) - McCormick tells all about `Brady,’ drug addiction. “Fans of “The Brady Bunch” know Maureen McCormick as Marcia Brady, the wholesome older sister on the classic sitcom about a blended family. But in her new memoir, “Here’s the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice,” the actress writes of her romance with TV sibling Barry Williams, who played Greg Brady, dates with Michael Jackson and Steve Martin, and her many addictions. Things became hot and heavy while McCormick and Williams were filming episodes in Hawaii.”

8. The Economist (UK) - Treatment on a plate. “PEOPLE are programmed for addiction. Their brains are designed so that actions vital for propagating their genes—such as eating and having sex—are highly rewarding. Those reward pathways can, however, be subverted by external chemicals (in other words, drugs) and by certain sorts of behaviour such as gambling. In recent years, neuroscientists have begun to understand how these reward pathways work and, in particular, the role played by message-carrying molecules called neurotransmitters.”

9. Scientific American (USA) - Reaping a Sad Harvest: A “Narcotic Farm” That Tried to Grow Recovery. “From 1935 to 1975, just about everyone busted for drugs in the U.S. was sent to the United States Narcotic Farm outside Lexington, Ky. Equal parts federal prison, treatment center, research laboratory and farm, this controversial institution was designed not only to rehabilitate addicts, but to discover a cure for drug addiction.”

10. AlterNet (USA) - To Jail or Not Jail for Drug Relapse? “It may or may not surprise you that a majority of Americans support treatment instead of incarceration for people struggling with drug addiction. That’s the good news. What you may not know is that there is a raging battle within the treatment community and society at large about how much carrot vs. stick we should use to help people who need treatment. There are two major flashpoints that divide treatment advocates and the public: 1) the need to hold sanctions or the threat of jail over someone’s head in getting them to comply with treatment and 2) the need for total abstinence for people in treatment and recovery.”

The Stimulant Treatment Program (STP) commenced in New South Wales in 2006 with a trial of two standalone stimulant treatment clinics based in Darlinghurst, St Vincent*s Hospital and Newcastle, Hunter New England Area Health Service. The clinics provide treatment for stimulant users, primarily methamphetamine users including brief interventions, CBT and case management for people with mental health and substance use problems, using a stepped care approach to treatment.

NSW Health recently conducted a preliminary evaluation of the STP. The aim of the evaluation was to measure the effectiveness of the model of clinical intervention for stimulant users and identify key issues relating to service delivery, and to examine the feasibility of conducting the STP at the two clinics.

The preliminary evaluation was able to demonstrate that the STP has been successful in attracting and retaining people who need treatment but are often reluctant to present at mainstream drug and alcohol services.

The report can be found at:
http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pubs/2008/stimulant_treatment.html “

“AN INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE CONSULTATIONS ON “AUSTRALIA: HEALTHIEST COUNTRY BY 2020″

EARLY NOTICE

The Preventative Health Taskforce appointed by Health Minister Nicola Roxon has just released a major discussion paper - Australia: the Healthiest Country by 2020 - with supporting technical reports, and is keen to consult with as many organisations, groups and individuals as possible on this and the National Preventative Health Strategy, which is the next stage in its work. This email is to provide the earliest possible notice of the dates and locations of the consultation meetings.

The Public Health Association of Australia has been asked to assist the Taskforce by working with as many partner organisations as possible to distribute this invitation and encourages the strongest participation in order to assist the Taskforce and to demonstrate to government a keen involvement in the issues.

The discussion paper was released on 10 October 2008 and is available at:

http://www.preventativehealth.org.au/internet/preventativehealth/publishing.nsf/Content/discussion-healthiest

Details of the consultation
1. may be found at http://www.preventativehealth.org.au (This will be updated)

2. are set out below

Please RSVP to pht.secretariat@health.gov.au and pencil the date in your diary.

The following locations have been confirmed:
Hobart 22 Oct Morning
Hobart Function and Convention Centre, 1 Elizabeth Street Pier, Hobart

Launceston 23 Oct Morning
Hotel Grand Chancellor, 29 Cameron Street, Launceston

The following locations for 2008 are yet to be confirmed:
Darwin 31 Oct Morning

Dubbo 7 Nov

Sydney 24 Nov and 25 Nov

Brisbane 24 Nov

Canberra 17 Nov and 19 Nov

Cairns 25 Nov

The following locations for 2009 are yet to be confirmed:

Adelaide 29 Jan

Mt Gambier 30 Jan

Perth 5 Feb

Kalgoorlie 6 Feb

Melbourne 10 Feb and 11 Feb

Wodonga 13 Feb

The myths

1. Banana skins have a hallucinogenic effect

The most details description of this myth I’ve come across involves boiling up banana peels until they have a consistency of paste, then spreading that paste onto cookie sheets for further cooking in the oven. This allegedly creates a fine black powder that can be smoked.

I’m yet to meet a person who has gotten any effect from this and even a cursory review of online discussion sites will show it up for the myth it is.

2. There’s flavoured versions of Crystal Meth

We’ve covered this one previously - there seems to be endless questions about crystal meth that tastes like strawberry pop rocks, chocolate, peanut butter, cola, cherry, grape and orange.

Essentially, any colourations are due to impurities and there’s been no documented cases to date of such substances being flavoured to increase desirability. And anyway, to use an analogy, strawberry flavoured dog excrement will still taste like dog excrement - flavouring never fully disguises what’s underneath.

3. I can get high from peanut shells

I’ve seen this one float around the internet a bit: shell some raw peanuts, grind up the shells and smoke them. Zero reports of this doing anything other than making an interesting smell.

4. Yeast extracts / spreads as hallucinogenic agent

I’ve had direct exposure to this myth as far back as the early 1990’s. Apparently ’some people’ were creating grazes or deeper lacerations and then rubbing an iconic Australian yeast extract into the area to get high. The result? A lovely infection and nothing else from everything I’ve seen.

2. Arkansas Matters (USA) - Bailout Plan Has Mental Illness Insurance Provisions. “A $700 billion financial bailout plan contains legislation that also benefits Americans with mental illnesses and addiction problems. Contained in the package is a measure that boosts insurance coverage for the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction as well as coverage for mental illness.”

3. BBC News (UK) - ‘People doing drugs is really bad’. “Eleven-year-old Ellie Stevens thinks drugs are disgusting and cannot understand why anyone would want to take them. She suffered a campaign of abuse and intimidation after her mother, Marie, took a stand and decided to keep her daughter away from those who might draw her into substance abuse.”

4. Tampa Bay Online (USA) - Breaking The Cycle Of Child Abuse. “Kids get hurt all the time”. Between the soccer matches, bicycle tumbles and wrestling mishaps, most children have an assortment of cuts and bruises. It’s part of growing up. What’s not natural are cigarette burns on the hands, welts across the backside, a child’s explicit understanding of sexuality. “Child abuse” is a broad tern applied to the physical and emotional mistreatment of children under the age of 18. But the root cause of abuse and the long-term effects on its victims make this crime unlike any other, experts say.”

5. Ironton Tribune (USA) - Wal-Mart should not support idea of alcohol sales. “The residents of Burlington will make a decision this fall to allow or not allow the local Wal-Mart to sell alcohol in its store. I know that Wal-Mart has been a great help in the local economic structure of the township. Wal-Mart has been very good at helping local agencies as well at the local churches and they do purchase products from the Burlington store. Wal-Mart has made many positive effects upon the local area. But all the good you do will not justify intentions of selling alcohol within the local store.”

6. BBC News (UK) - Parents ‘under drugs suspicion’. “One in five children thinks their parents have tried drugs and one in 10 believes they still take them, a survey in England and Scotland suggests. Some 90% of the 500 teenagers polled by charity Addaction said they were “against” drugs, but one in 10 thought celebrities made drugs seem “cool”.”

7. The News-Press (USA) - Dr. Morrow: You will never conquer addiction with pixie dust. “There are addictions to drugs, addictions to alcohol, and addictions to food and sex. The fallout from these illnesses, when they strike an individual or a family, is devastating. Health and happiness are at stake, not to mention the crazy consequences from someone like a drunk driver. Children to the third generation are affected emotionally when a family has been made dysfunctional by an addicted adult. Although it is hard to measure the emotional and financial cost, our community clearly suffers in quality, like a beautiful painting that has been defaced. Sometimes it’s in the news; sometimes it stays undercover, hidden but chewing away at the core, and waiting to blow up.”

8. The Mail on Sunday (UK) - ‘He has a disease, just like cancer’: David Hasselhoff’s wife reveals how his wild drinking wrecked their marriage. “Slumped in front of an empty minibar in an anonymous hotel room, David Hasselhoff somehow managed to concentrate for long enough to phone home. ‘I’m drunk and I think I’m dying,’ the veteran star of Baywatch and Knight Rider slurred to his wife. Then the line went dead.”

“Psychoactive drugs are everywhere. Any discussion of drug use needs to take this into account. The broad category of “psychoactive drugs” consists of natural and synthetic substances that alter a person’s thoughts or feelings. There exist hundreds of plants, which, if eaten, smoked, snorted, or injected, will affect the mind—whether acting as a stimulant, depressant, or psychedelic. Thousands of known chemicals will do the same. Used recreationally, medicinally, or for work, some are illegal and others not: They include coffee, wine, and tobacco; prescription pain medications, sleep aids, and antidepressants; as well as cannabis, LSD, and heroin. Psychoactives are in the kitchen, in the hardware store, in the greenhouse, in home medicine cabinets, and in fuel tanks across the country.

Everyone uses them. Would you believe that nearly 90% of 45-year-olds in the United States have tried an illegal drug in their lifetime?[1] As of 2006, more than 35 million Americans had taken an illicit drug in the previous year.[2] Monitoring the Future (MTF), the best current survey about illegal drug use in the United States,[3] reports that one in five college students used an illicit drug in the past month. Nearly all adults in the U.S. have tried alcohol, while over 80% use caffeine daily.[4] Last year there were over 180 million prescriptions written for opiates alone,[5] and a diverse assortment of psychoactives are increasingly used by older Americans from coast to coast.[6]

They are not going away. Humans have used psychoactive substances for as long as we have records[7] and some of the largest corporations in the world are actively developing new ones for the future. There is no magic bullet that will suddenly make these compounds disappear from our society. If there were, the past century of ever-increasing penalties for possession and sale of recreationally used drugs, along with massive anti-drug “education” campaigns, would have reduced use. But they have not.

The United States has implemented random drug testing of junior high and high school students who participate in chess club. No-knock warrants allow police to invade private homes with guns drawn in case a suspect might try to flush illegal drugs down the toilet. Taxpayers spend 8 billion dollars each year to incarcerate drug law offenders,[8,9] and pay for ideologically driven, abstinence-only education programs that are so factually misleading that they often fail to acknowledge the pleasurable or useful effects of the substances they teach about.

Despite these extreme measures, a majority of the population age 18-65 has chosen to try an illegal drug.[10] The mainstream reaction is to continue the calls for “getting tougher.” Instead of working towards unrealistic, naïve goals such as a “drug free century,” our response has been to step back and reassess, asking: How can society adapt to the realities of the communication age and develop more sophistication and balance regarding the use of psychoactive drugs?

Modern humans must learn how to relate to psychoactives responsibly, treating them with respect and awareness, working to minimize harms and maximize benefits, and integrating use into a healthy, enjoyable, and productive life. But above all else, in a world filled with materials and technologies that affect the mind, adults must have the robust education and accurate, pragmatic information necessary to help them take charge of their relationships with psychoactives and teach their children how to do so from an early age.

Rest at: http://www.cato-unbound.org/2008/09/08/earth-and-fire-erowid/towards-a-culture-of-responsible-drug-use/ ”

I couldn’t disagree with a lot there - psychoactives have only ever been on the perimeter of mainstream drug education, usually due to a somewhat legitimate fear of widening the use options for young people. WHat do you think - how would you mainstream education on psychoactives?

2. The Sun Daily (Malaysia) - Film competition on beating drug dependency. “THERE are some 250,000 registered drug addicts in Malaysia today. But Dr Steven Chow, president of Addiction Medicine Association of Malaysia, said this is only the tip of the iceberg. According to him, only one in four drug addicts are detected and the emergence of newer designer drugs in the social scene means the numbers could have increased.”

3. Straight.com (Canada) - Researcher condemns Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s war on drugs. ”
When retired SFU psychology professor Bruce Alexander starts thinking about Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s $63.8-million National Anti-Drug Strategy, he “goes ballistic”. The policy promotes cracking down on illicit drugs, mandatory minimum sentences, media messages to youth, increasing abstinence-based treatment capacity, and funding more police officers. In other words, a classic drug-prohibition stance—one the Conservatives are repeating heading into the October 14 election.”

4. Metro (Canada) - Tackling ’sex addiction’. “I wonder how David Duchovny’s doing in rehab. As you no doubt know by now, the former X Files star and husband of actress Téa Leoni checked himself into rehab for “sexual addiction” at the end of August. No word on how he’s doing but you have to wonder. When one goes into rehab for alcohol or drug addiction, they don’t generally let you bring in a flask or a joint or two for when the temptation gets to be too much. But, what do they do when a so-called sex addict feels the urge. Keep his hands tied behind his back? Frankly, the whole idea of “sex addiction” is problematic.”

5. New York Times (USA) - Addiction Doesn’t Discriminate? Wrong. “We’ve heard it before. “Drug abuse is an equal opportunity destroyer.” “Drug addiction is a bipartisan illness.” “Addiction does not discriminate; it doesn’t care if you are rich or poor, famous or unknown, a man or woman, or even a child.” The phrase “addiction doesn’t care” is not meant to remind us that addiction casts a long shadow — everyone knows that. Rather, it is supposed to suggest that any individual, no matter who, is vulnerable to the ravages of drugs and alcohol.”

6. The Daily Times (Pakistan) - Students highlight hazards of drug abuse. “In connection with International Day against Drug Abuse, the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) in collaboration with Iqra University organised a painting competition titled ‘Say no to drugs’ at university campus here on Thursday. Ambassador of Italy Vincenzo Prati was the chief guest on the occasion. Dr Jamil Ahmed, Dean Iqra University, and Anwar Hafeez, ANF director, were also present on the occasion.”

7. Newsday (USA) - Survey: Drug use among older adults hits all-time peak. “Drug use among older adults in the United States has hit its highest point ever, according to data from the federal government’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health. In the government’s latest report - reflecting drug use in 2007 - 1 in 20 Americans ages 50 to 59 told researchers they had used illicit drugs in the last month. More than one-half of these older users still like their street drugs, including marijuana and cocaine.”

8. Medical News Today (USA) - National Institute On Drug Abuse Unveils “Innovations” In Addiction Research. “The first annual NIDA Notes “Innovations” issue, released today, features examples of benchmark NIDA research advances that have profound implications for addiction science. Highlights include deep brain exploration made possible by new optical technologies; remote control of animal behavior in real time; and novel approaches to pain treatment. Articles in this issue shed light on mechanisms underlying Alzheimer’s, Lou Gehrig’s, and other neurodegenerative diseases and will explore the role of memory in addictive behavior. ”

9. AlterNet (USA) - It’s Time for the Federal Government to Abandon the Drug War. “As both a U.S. Attorney and Member of Congress, I defended drug prohibition. But it has become increasingly clear to me, after much study, that our current strategy has not worked and will not work. The other candidates for president prefer not to address this issue, but ignoring the failure of existing policy exhibits both a poverty of thought and an absence of political courage. The federal government must turn the decision on drug policy back to the states and the citizens themselves.”