http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20380094/wid/11915773?gt1=10316
‘Researchers have figured out how to give an entire community a drug test using just a teaspoon of wastewater from a city’s sewer plant.
The test wouldn’t be used to finger any single person as a drug user. But it would help federal law enforcement and other agencies track the spread of dangerous drugs, like methamphetamines, across the country.
Oregon State University scientists tested 10 unnamed American cities for remnants of drugs, both legal and illegal, from wastewater streams. They were able to show that they could get a good snapshot of what people are taking. [..]
She said that one fairly affluent community scored low for illicit drugs except for cocaine. Cocaine and ecstasy tended to peak on weekends and drop on weekdays, she said, while methamphetamine and prescription drugs were steady throughout the week.’
http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/washin...st=orwashington
‘This bong threat was legitimate.
The FBI has confirmed that a suspicious package that idled one of the largest ferries in the Washington state fleet for about an hour Wednesday morning was actually a water-pipe typically used for smoking marijuana.
“Someone found a bong,” said David Gomez, FBI assistant special agent in charge. [..]
State Patrol Sgt. Craig H. Johnson would only say the device was a “nonhazardous, nonexplosive item,” adding investigators carried it off the ferry for further examination.
No arrests were made and no identified individuals were being sought, but “we’d like to find the person who left it there,” Johnson said.’
http://www.biopsychiatry.com/scopolamine/borrachero.html
‘The last thing Andrea Fernandez recalls before being drugged is holding her newborn baby on a Bogota city bus.
Police found her three days later, muttering to herself and wandering topless along the median strip of a busy highway. Her face was badly beaten and her son was gone.
Fernandez is just one of hundreds of victims every month who, according to Colombian hospitals, are temporarily turned into zombies by a home-grown drug called scopolamine which has been embraced by thieves and rapists. [..]
The use of scopolamine by criminals appears to be confined to Colombia, at least for now, and it’s not clear why the drug is such a rampant problem in Colombia. [..]’
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/08/...b.ap/index.html
‘A submarine-like vessel filled with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cocaine was seized off the Guatemalan coast, U.S. officials said.
Four suspected smugglers were operating the self-propelled, semisubmersible vessel when it was located and seized on Sunday evening by officials from the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, U.S. Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard, the Border Patrol said in a news release Wednesday.
When the suspects realized they had been spotted by drug-surveillance aircraft patrolling the eastern Pacific, they scuttled the vessel but were unable to escape.’
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/...70901113342.htm
'Environmental activists have long criticized pharmaceutical use by hog farmers and veterinarians in treating swine disease, saying pharmaceuticals are being overused and errantly contaminating the environment. But new research from the University of Guelph has shown that environmental contamination from antibiotics does not pose appreciable risks to soil and aquatic organisms.
Prof. Paul Sibley of the Department of Environmental Biology and Prof. Keith Solomon of the Centre for Toxicology have wrapped up six years of research examining the use of pharmaceuticals in the Canadian hog and cattle industry. They’ve determined that the pharmaceuticals represent negligible environmental risk if used as instructed.
“It’s good news for producers, veterinarians and pharmaceutical companies,” says Sibley. “We’ve found evidence that suggests there’s little risk to soil and aquatic biota from using pharmaceutical products, so there’s little need to be concerned.”
Pharmaceuticals first raised concerns when they were detected in the environment more than a decade ago. It was thought they could cause contamination through simple routine practices such as manure spreading. Animals administered antibiotics excreted them through feces or urine, which was then applied to land and could cause damage to soil systems or migrate into nearby waterways.'
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article...ster/article.do
‘Tied to a lamppost, he stands with his head and upper body covered in tar and feathers. A makeshift placard hung around his neck with a piece of string announces the reason for his treatment.
It is a very public humiliation, and a medieval one. Almost ten years since Northern Ireland’s Troubles officially ended, this remains the crude face of justice on the streets of south Belfast. [..]
Locals had accused the victim, who is in his thirties, of being a drug dealer. And when police allegedly did not act, they took the law into their own hands.
Two masked men tied up the accused victim, poured tar over his head and then covered him in white feathers, apparently from a pillow case.’
http://www.wmur.com/news/13949387/detail.html
‘It didn’t take the sleuthing skills of a Miss Marple or Sherlock Holmes to figure out who was peddling marijuana to teenagers in Market Square.
Police said 28-year-old Eric Hardcastle’s tattooed eyebrows, head and cheeks made him easy to identify.
Late Monday night, a teenager reported being approached by a man with a heavily tattooed face with three baggies of marijuana for sale. Officers said they found Hardcastle — who has a row of arrows over each brow, a tattoo on his forehead and scalp and matching markings on each cheek — soon afterward at a convenience store. [..]
Despite his run-in with the law, Hardcastle said he likes Portsmouth, where he landed two weeks ago after riding with a trucker.
“I want to make it here,” he said.’
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnough...oddlyEnoughNews
'An elite Mexican sniffer dog kidnapped five days ago was found abandoned in a Mexico City park on Monday and reunited with its police handlers.
Working on a tip, federal police found Rex IV -- a highly trained Belgian Malinois sheepdog with a string of drug hauls to its name -- tied to a tree in a park in the gritty Iztapalapa neighborhood, a Public Security Ministry spokesman said.
"When they realized the police were onto them, they abandoned him in a park," the spokesman told Reuters, adding that the dog's identity was confirmed by scanning an embedded electronic chip.
The dog, part of an elite drug squad, was snatched from Mexico City airport on August 22 while it was en route for an operation in the northern state of Sinaloa. The thieves left a black mongrel puppy in its travel cage.
Police only realized Rex IV was missing when the puppy turned up in Mazatlan airport, Sinaloa. They feared the stolen dog, which one official compared to an intelligence agent, could help smugglers find new ways to conceal drug stashes.'
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/...70815141449.htm
'Research underway at Rutgers University—Camden seeks to examine links between children’s mental health problems and alcohol, nicotine, and illegal drug use over time.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded the Career Development Award to Naomi Marmorstein, an associate professor of psychology at Rutgers-Camden, who will use the $649,503 grant to further her intensive research on how children’s anxiety and depression may be associated with substance abuse throughout adulthood. According to the NIH, Marmorstein’s award is part of an integrated program designed to foster the development of outstanding scientists and enable them to expand their potential to make important scientific contributions.
“Children can show symptoms of depression and anxiety at very young ages, and some youth smoke, drink, and use drugs as well. A better understanding of the associations between these problems will help us more effectively prevent and treat them. If we can get youth on a trajectory of healthy emotional and behavioral development, they are at reduced risk for psychiatric and substance abuse problems as adults,” says Marmorstein.'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wear/6944026.stm
‘A teenager was taken to hospital after overdosing on espresso coffee.
Jasmine Willis, 17, developed a fever and began hyperventilating after drinking seven double espressos while working at her family’s sandwich shop.
The student, of Stanley, County Durham, was taken to the University Hospital of North Durham, where doctors confirmed she had overdosed on caffeine.
She has since made a full recovery and is now warning others about the dangers of excessive coffee drinking.
Ms Willis, who had thought the coffees were single measures, said the effects were so severe that she began laughing and crying for no reason while serving customers at the shop.’
http://www.thelocal.se/8167/20070812/
‘When a little green plant cropped up suddenly in Helge and Helga Nilsson’s garden a couple of months ago, they thought nothing of it. In fact, thinking it was rather pretty, they nurtured it as it grew until it was one-and-a-half metres tall.
The couple, from Löddeköpinge, near Lund in southern Sweden, did not know the name of their plant until they saw a television report about drugs which showed footage of cannabis plants. Helga Nilsson reacted immediately.
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“Lord, Helge - we’ve got one of those in the garden,” were Mrs Nilsson’s words to her husband after seeing the report, according to Sydsvenskan.
The couple asked the Lund Botanical Gardens for advice, and now plan to remove the plant, although the couple say they will be sorry to see it go.
“It’s really quite decorative,” Mr. Nilsson said’
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=...line-news_rss20
'If you have major surgery, there is a good chance you'll be kept unconscious using nitrous oxide or laughing gas. This anaesthetic has been around for over a century, and despite some evidence that it can cause post-operative nausea and vomiting, it is generally considered to be one of the safest going.
Now that assumption has been challenged by one of the largest clinical trials ever conducted in anaesthesiology. Paul Myles of The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, and his colleagues found that there would be fewer potentially life-threatening complications such as wound infections and pneumonia following major surgery if nitrous oxide were replaced with oxygen in the mix of inhaled gases and alternative anaesthetics used instead (Anesthesiology, vol 107, p 221). Removing nitrous oxide may also lead to fewer heart attacks after surgery.'
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2...480-661,00.html
‘An alcoholic nine-year-old boy who waged a two-year crime spree, including car theft, has become Victoria’s youngest prisoner.
The pint-sized menace was locked up in a secure welfare unit this week as authorities attempt to cure him of alcoholism and stop him committing crimes.
The State Government will be asked to explain how the boy was able to carry out his crime spree and descend into a booze battle without welfare authorities stepping in.
The boy, who began offending at the age of seven, came to police notice 35 times in two years, but he could not be charged because of his age.’
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070811/D8QUHEM00.html
‘A man confessed to breaking into a Porter County probation office and stealing two urine samples, including his own, police said.
Joseph Klinkman, 23, of Valparaiso faces a burglary charge for Tuesday night’s break-in. The theft was discovered Wednesday morning at the Porter County PACT office, which operates programs for prisoners, ex-offenders, victims and witnesses.
A judge had ordered Klinkman to undergo programs through PACT because of an earlier drug possession charge. [..]
“He’d been in a few hours before and gave a urine sample,” Balon said. “He saw they were testing for a drug he didn’t think they were testing for. He panicked.”‘
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/deaths...6530671374.html
‘A painkiller used by 60,000 Australians has been ordered off the shelves after the deaths of two people.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration yesterday announced the urgent recall of the drug Prexige, used to treat osteoarthritis and acute pain. Patients using the drug, also known by its chemical name lumiracoxib, are advised to stop taking it immediately and ask their doctor for an alternative prescription.
The TGA made the decision after receiving reports of eight people who suffered serious liver reactions, including two deaths and two liver transplants. Six of the reports occurred since the beginning of July.’
http://angryaussie.wordpress.com/2007/06/2...ny-side-effect/
‘There’s a “new” over-the-counter drug available in the US that’s apparently flying off the shelves. It’s called alli (note the way trendy lower case!) and I use the term “new” loosely because it’s apparently a lower strength version of a prescription-only drug (Xenical) that’s been around for a while.
So what does this incredibly popular wonder drug do? Well, not to go all Bill Clinton on you, but it depends on what your definition of “do” is. You see, there’s (1)what the drug company markets it as, (2)the medical description of what it does and (3)the biggest effect you’re actually going to notice.
The drug company markets it as a weight loss pill. They say it will give “safe, effective weight loss”. Because it’s FDA approved it must be good. What could possibly go wrong?’
Check out the translations of the drugs warning information , very amusing.
http://www.wisn.com/news/13814966/detail.html
‘A West Bend mother faces charges including child abuse after police said her 2-year-old daughter ate LSD-laced candy that her mother left out.
According to the criminal complaint, 23-year-old Donielle Maki bought 10 hits of LSD on Tuesday that came in the form of Sweet Tarts.
It says Maki took the LSD home with her, put her daughter to bed and passed out on the couch.
The complaint said when Maki woke up the next morning, her daughter was holding one of the LSD-laced Sweet Tarts in her hand and said, “I like these, Mommy.”
That’s when Maki grabbed them from the toddler’s hand, the complaint says, and saw that only eight of the 10 candies were left.’
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/31/1992736.htm
‘Researchers at the University of Sydney have found that adolescent rats are more vulnerable to adverse effects of cannabis than adult rats.
Professor Ian McGregor says rats’ brains basically respond to drugs the same way as humans but they are easier to work with because they are not polydrug users.
He says his team gave the rats cannabis then took them off the drug for two weeks before testing their long-term memory.
“We found that the adolescents that had been given cannabis had impaired memory, relative to adolescent rats that hadn’t had cannabis exposure,” he said.
“Then when we compared them to adults we found there was very little memory deficits in the adults rats that had been given cannabis.”‘
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070731/ts_nm/...n_cannabis_dc_3
‘Smoking one cannabis joint is as harmful to a person’s lungs as having up to five cigarettes, according to research published on Tuesday.
Those who smoked cannabis damaged both the lungs’ small fine airways, used for transporting oxygen, and the large airways, which blocked air flow, the researchers said.
It meant cannabis smokers complained of wheezing, coughing, and chest tightness, the study by experts at the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand found.’
eberries, which are renowned for their antioxidant properties.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22148...from=public_rss
‘Two men have been charged with attempting to smuggle 16kg of the illicit drug ice into Australia hidden in two marble tables. [..]
Customs officers at Sydney Air Cargo discovered the drugs on July 10 after selecting for examination two packages which had arrived from Vancouver, Canada.
An X-ray of the packages aroused suspicion of a possible concealment and prompted Customs officers to drill a hole in the marble slab.
They found white powder inside.’
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19833390/
‘The mail-order minister of a Hollywood church that burns marijuana during services and allegedly sells it to members says that’s protected under federal law because the drug is a religious sacrament.
But Judge Mary Strobel has ruled that the Reverend Craig X. Rubin can’t use federal law as a defense because he faces only state charges.
Rubin, who’s representing himself at his drug trial, says members of his Temple 420 believe that marijuana is the tree of life mentioned in the Bible. [..]
The 41-year-old Rubin has no legal experience, and says he spent last weekend praying and smoking marijuana with Indians in a sweat lodge at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.’
