Dec 12 Drug Headlines

GENERAL - MEXICO
Calderon vows war against notorious drug gangs - CNN
Soldiers stopped cars and frisked passengers Tuesday, searching for drugs or weapons. Helicopters swooped low over remote mountaintops, looking for signs of opium and marijuana fields. Ships patrolled Mexico's main Pacific port, a hub for drugs arriving from Central America and Colombia.

OPIUM - AFGHAN
Walters Says Poppies in Afghanistan Will Be Sprayed - Join Together
The director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) said at a news conference that Afghan poppies will be sprayed with herbicide to combat a steep rise in opium production in Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported Dec. 9.

GENERAL - MEXICO
Mexico launches drugs crackdown - BBC
Thousands of Mexican troops are patrolling the streets in Michoacan state in an anti-drug trafficking drive ordered by President Felipe Calderon.

GENERAL - UK
Christmas crackdown on city drugs - BBC
Anti-social behaviour and illegal drug use in Leicester city centre are to be targeted as part of a police operation to clean up the city. Plain-clothed and uniformed officers will work with the force's passive drugs dog to "disrupt and detect" people involved with illegal drugs.

ALCOHOL - UK
What's your poison? - The Guardian
Many of us would like to believe that different types of alcohol can produce very different effects. If only it were that simple, reports Emine Saner

ALCOHOL - US
B Vitamins Are Efficacious for Alcoholic Polyneuropathy - Join Together
Both the direct toxic effects of alcohol and alcoholism-associated vitamin deficiencies can cause mild to incapacitating sensorimotor polyneuropathy.

GENERAL - AUSTRALIA
Northern Rivers a haven for drugmakers: Police - Northern Star
The Northern Rivers is becoming a manufacturing centre for drugs aimed at the Brisbane and Gold Coast markets, police fear. And despite recent big busts, the problem is growing.

CANNABIS - US
Young cannabis users 'suffer from paranoia and blackouts' - 24 Dash
Anti-drug campaigners have called for urgent research into the effects of cannabis on teenagers' mental health after a survey found half of young users suffer paranoia and blackouts.

GENERAL - MEXICO
Thousands of Mexican troops ordered to arrest smugglers, burn marijuana and opium fields - Boston Herald
Soldiers stopped cars and frisked passengers Tuesday, searching for drugs or weapons. Helicopters swooped low over remote mountaintops, looking for signs of opium and marijuana fields. Ships patrolled Mexico’s main Pacific port, a hub for drugs arriving from Central America and Colombia.

HEROIN - CANADA
Addicts turn to hillbilly heroin - Edmonton Sun
Heroin use is fading out in Canada, but local addicts are increasingly turning to "hillbilly heroin" to bring them down from cocaine and meth highs, say cops and outreach workers.

HEROIN - US
City heroin's havoc in hinterlands - Philadephia Daily News
I've been teaching at a northeastern Pennsylvania community college for the last three years. The region has been a gold mine for heroin dealers from the "Badlands" area of North Philadelphia that serves as an open-air drug market. I've quickly learned to identify those students who are users and have come to realize that heroin isn't just an inner-city problem.

PRESCRIPTION - US
Waismann Method of Detoxification Successfully Treats Severe Morphine and Methadone Levels While Leaving Patients With Reduced Pain
The Waismann Method of Opiate Detoxification announced today the successful treatment of two patients taking dangerously high doses of prescription pain-relieving drugs. Both patients are now opiate-free and in less pain than they were prior to detoxification.

OPIUM - AFGHAN
The Drug Czar Has Another Brilliant Idea - Stop The Drug War
Afghanistan is in flames. The Taliban are resurgent. The opium economy provides livelihoods for millions of Afghans. And now, US drug czar John Walters announces over the weekend, that Afghanistan will begin spraying the poppy fields with glyphosate, the same stuff we've been using with such great success in Colombia against the coca crops.

METH - US
White House tabs coalition: Anti-drug efforts recognized - News Zap
With less than one year under its belt, the Northeast Valley Coalition Against Methamphetamine garnered recognition from the Bush Administration. Paul Skoczylas, staff member of the President’s Office of National Drug Policy, presented to the group Nov. 30 a certificate commending the coalition’s meth prevention and education efforts.