Opiate Addiction Reaches Epidemic Proportions in Afghanistan

At least 2.7 percent of Afghanistan’s adult population is addicted to heroin or opium, according to a study by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Reuters Health reported June 21.  The world’s largest exporter of raw opium…

Researchers: Secondhand Smoke Threatens Millions in Public Housing

Americans who live in public housing are exposed to secondhand smoke from their neighbors, according to researchers who demonstrated how smoke from one apartment unit can infiltrate into others. UPI reported June 19 that researchers Jonathan Winickoff of MassGeneral Hospital…

Experts Struggle to Determine Overdose Deaths

Overdoses from prescription drugs have sometimes led to civil or criminal charges against prescribing physicians, but even toxicologists have problems distinguishing between overdose deaths and fatalities from other causes, Time reported June 16. The result is that the courts, not…

Indian Reservations Become Drug Pipeline to U.S.

Indian reservations at the Mexican and Canadian borders with the U.S. are becoming vital pipelines for funneling marijuana, ecstasy, and other drugs into the country, the Montreal Gazette reported June 18.  According to the National Drug Intelligence Center’s 2010 drug…

N.C. Rejects Bud Light as Arena Sponsor

A proposal to name Raleigh, N.C.’s new outdoor performance venue the Bud Light Amphitheater has been shot down by the state’s liquor-control agency, the News Observer reported June 17. Awarding the naming rights to Anheuser-Busch would have netted the city…

E-Joints? Company Marketing Marijuana e-Cigarettes

This month’s “Cannabis Cup” in San Francisco featured the unveiling of a product sure to take the debate over e-cigarettes to a new level. Vapor Rush delivers a dose of THC from vaporized marijuana “kief,” or powdered resin. Three varieties are offered by the company, based in southern California. “Smoke your green without a lighter, smell, even weed!” the Vapor Rush website boasts.

Treatment Admissions Way Up for Older Americans

The excesses of the Baby Boomer generation are starting to show up at the door of U.S. treatment programs, which saw admissions of patients ages 50 and older almost double between 1992 and 2008. Patients over age 50 comprised 12.2…

ER Docs Object to Prescription Drug Monitoring Requirements

Pain doctors have long clashed with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) over opiate-based pain medications, and now Angela Gardner, the head of the American College of Emergency Physicians is warning against making doctors “pain police.”

Gardner objected to proposals that would require physicans — including ER docs — to search a database for patients’ drug-use history before prescribing drugs. Requiring that prescription information be recorded to the database also could discourage some patients from getting proper care, Gardner said.

“As an emergency physician, I can assure you that the drug abusers who use the emergency room simply to get a prescription-drug fix represent a micropopulation of the 120-million patients who seek emergency care every year in the USA” …

Mexican President Defends Anti-Drug Efforts, Indicts U.S.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon this week compared the United States to a drug addict as he sought to shore up support for his antidrug efforts at home. “It is as though we have a neighbor next door who is the…