Toronto Man Charged In Massive Drug Bust IROQUOIS FALLS, Ont. -- Police in northern Ontario have charged a Toronto man after they found marijuana fields stretching "three football fields in length" in what is considered to be one of Canada's largest pot busts. Investigators found more than 21,000 marijuana plants behind a home nestled in the woods of Iroquois Falls, east of Timmins. Officers with the Ontario Provincial Police, North Bay police and a K-9 unit carried out a search warrant Sunday. [continues 315 words]
Dubbed an "armed career criminal," a Greene County man charged with growing marijuana in Shenandoah National Park has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for possessing drugs and a firearm. Lawyers for Edison P. Crawford are appealing the sentence, arguing in a motion filed Monday that the penalty is a violation of their client's Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment. The Bacon Hollow resident remains free on bond pending the outcome of his appeal. After a yearlong investigation, federal authorities charged Crawford in November 2002 with harvesting $66,400 worth of marijuana in Shenandoah National Park. He pleaded guilty to possessing marijuana and possessing a firearm as a convicted felon in a June 2003 plea bargain with federal prosecutors. [continues 335 words]
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration's war on drugs is retreating in its battle against methamphetamine, an epidemic confronting law enforcement agencies from California to New York. President Bush has proposed gutting funding for some programs and slashing spending for others, including programs that anti-meth forces deem vital to their efforts. "If it passes the way it is, it would put us completely out of business," said Billy Cook, director of the 14th Judicial District Drug Task Force in Tennessee. The state seized 1,259 illegal methamphetamine labs last year, the third highest number of seizures in the country behind Iowa with 1,300 and Missouri with 2,707. [continues 558 words]
Eric Stoker still grinds his teeth. After 10 years of heavy crystal meth use, the 28-year-old North Louisiana native has V-shaped teeth from the constant grinding. It is just one of the many lingering effects Stoker said he feels as he recovers from his addiction at Teen Challenge in New Orleans. Like most people who become addicted to crystal meth, Stoker started the drug innocently enough. His first time was at age 18. After a night of hard drinking, Stoker knew he wouldn't be able to get to work in the morning, so he did some meth to help him stay awake. [continues 725 words]
Since its inception a little less than one month ago, Chilton County's new Drug/Violent Crime Task Force has already taken a substantial chunk out of the county's drug traffickers and users. With manpower dedicated only to handling drug and violent crime cases, the county stands a better chance than ever to combat the United States' ever-growing drug problem. The project is a joint venture with the Sheriff's Office and Clanton Police Department with Jemison and Maplesville expected to sign on soon. [continues 186 words]
Afghan farmers could from next year be able to grow opium for legal medicinal purposes, under an innovative plan designed to curb illegal production being drawn up by a drug policy think-tank. The Senlis Council, a group that studies narcotics, is in preliminary talks with international organisations and Afghan regional administrations to garner their support for pilot programmes designed to tackle the country's problem with opium by using it to produce the legal painkillers codeine and morphine. The council, due to present in September a feasibility study funded by a dozen European social policy foundations, calculates that Afghan farmers and intermediaries could receive revenues from the scheme that almost match their current earnings from unauthorised opium production for smuggling abroad. [continues 268 words]
Osama bin Laden tried to buy a massive amount of cocaine, spike it with poison and sell it in the United States, hoping to kill thousands of Americans one year after the 9/11 attacks, The Post has learned. The evil plot failed when the Colombian drug lords bin Laden approached decided it would be bad for their business - and, possibly, for their own health, according to law-enforcement sources familiar with the Drug Enforcement Administration's probe of the aborted transaction. The feds were told of the scheme earlier this year, but its existence had never been made public. The Post has reviewed a document detailing the DEA's findings in the matter, in addition to interviewing sources familiar with the case. [continues 330 words]
Oregon lawmakers should stop slapping the hands of meth makers and give them harsher punishments. I think it's wrong to make it so people have to get a prescription for cold medications. The people who make the meth need to be locked up and the key thrown away. All this law will do is punish people who don't make meth. So what will happen is people are going to have to pay more health-care co-pays just to get a prescription to help take care of a cold. [continues 89 words]
College students with past drug convictions could receive financial aid, under a change proposed in Congress. But students who have a drug conviction while in college would no longer be eligible, according to a statement from Students for a Sensible Drug Policy. The bill, the College Access and Opportunity Act of 2005, next goes to the full House for a vote before it can move to the U.S. Senate. In January, the congressionally-created Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance recommended that drug convictions were not relevant to aid eligibility. [continues 68 words]
Re: the July 1 opinion "How is keeping pot illegal worth $14B?" Jim Kiser endorses Harvard economist Jeffrey A. Miron's study, which suggests it would cost America $14 billion a year to keep people from smoking marijuana. Kiser also agrees with David Reiley, associate professor at the University of Arizona, who asks, "Who would be harmed if another individual consumes marijuana?" How about the drugged drivers on the road; aren't they harmful? The ruling dealt a blow to such drug legalization groups as the Marijuana Policy Project. These groups have used the sick and dying to advance their political agenda. They have failed and in desperation would now like to dupe the taxpayers into fighting their immoral battle. Brenda Israel Oro Valley [end]
As a non-smoker, I'm all for taxing other people's vices, so I have absolutely no sympathy for Terry Burnett (July 20 letter, "Yet another tax increase awaits Texas smokers"). Speaking of taxes, why isn't marijuana taxed? If marijuana were regulated, taxed and sold in licensed business establishments like tobacco products are, countless millions if not billions of dollars would flow into our tax coffers. Marijuana would no longer be sold by criminals - criminals who often offer free samples of other, much more dangerous drugs like meth to their marijuana customers. [continues 70 words]
IN A TEXTBOOK case of Washington being out of touch with what's happening in the country, the federal government has declared marijuana the nation's biggest drug problem, ignoring an epidemic of methamphetamine addiction in the West, the South, and the Midwest. Local law enforcement officials are howling because the Bush administration is actually planning to drop an $804 million grant program that has helped them deal with the proliferation of makeshift laboratories producing meth, a drug whose danger is heightened by its low cost. [continues 367 words]
The crack cocaine trade is violent. The White House has labeled marijuana as the nation's most substantial drug problem. County sheriffs throughout the United States, however, see the methamphetamine trade as a bigger problem. For some lucky reason, the meth trade hasn't hit Cabell County as hard as it has neighboring counties. Part of that could be the flourishing crack trade here. Or the meth is here, and we just don't know about it, yet. But we can't expect meth to avoid us forever. [continues 257 words]
An Oregon Bill Requiring Prescriptions For Some Cold Pills Is Expected To Sail Through The Senate And Be Signed Into Law SALEM -- The Oregon Legislature took a major step Wednesday toward passage of a first-in-the-nation bill requiring prescriptions for cold and allergy medicines containing an ingredient used to make methamphetamine. The House voted 55-4 to send the bill to the Senate even as legislators said they knew that many of their constituents would resent the inconvenience and expense of having to get a prescription for common drugs such as Sudafed and Claritin D. [continues 657 words]
The State Department Says It's Working On Its Own Plan Despite Legislation That Has Passed The House, Which Says A Nation Fights Drugs Or Loses U.S. Aid The U.S. State Department is resisting a plan in Congress to cut foreign aid to Mexico and other countries if they fail to keep pseudoephedrine out of the hands of methamphetamine producers. The reason: The Bush administration is developing a similar plan of its own. At issue is a proposal by U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy, R-Minn. It would expand on existing law that says the president must either certify countries are doing enough to fight drugs or withdraw U.S. dollars. Under the Kennedy amendment, top importers and exporters of pseudoephedrine would receive special scrutiny. [continues 543 words]
SALEM -- At times, this week's debate on the House floor over a big methamphetamine bill sounded like a self-help seminar for underachieving legislators. Rep. Bill Garrard, R-Klamath Falls, said lawmakers for once had a chance to rise above the daily Capitol news clippings that report "how ineffective we are." Rep. Bob Jenson, R-Pendleton, told an uplifting story from President Kennedy's famous book, "Profiles in Courage." Rep. Deborah Boone, D-Cannon Beach, exulted to a reporter, "We're actually doing something!" [continues 559 words]
An Hour Of Legal Shopping By Four Legislators Yields Enough Cold Pills To Make $900 Of Meth SALEM -- Four Oregon legislators pretending to be "smurfers" working for methamphetamine cooks say it took them only an hour to buy enough cold pills to produce 180 hits of the illegal drug. The lawmakers on Tuesday displayed the results of their afternoon shopping trip, which they said demonstrated why the Legislature needs to pass even tougher restrictions on the sale of cold and allergy medicines containing pseudoephedrine. [continues 735 words]
Congressional Questioners Will Ask National Officials How They Plan To Combat The Spread Of The Drug And Its Social Side Effects WASHINGTON -- When officials at the White House drug czar's office downplayed a recent survey showing that methamphetamine had exploded into a national epidemic, the reaction in Congress was swift and harsh. "I think this administration is fundamentally out of touch," said Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., a leader on the meth issue. "The whole country is screaming," about meth, added Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., a critic of the drug czar's office. [continues 1201 words]
A Portland Man's Experience With A Popular, More-potent Form Of The Drug Ruins His Career While Leaving Him With Hepatitis, Hiv And A Conviction Before he met Tina, John Motter had a closet full of $3,000 suits. He was a superstar tax consultant, entrusted with some of Arthur Andersen's biggest clients. But when Motter started using crystal methamphetamine, known as Tina in the gay community, the drug became more important than success. The long hours at the office stopped. In the clutches of the powerful stimulant, Motter spent many of his nights at gay bathhouses and sex parties in Portland and Seattle. [continues 1779 words]
Remove Penalties For Prior Drug Use Congress is reviewing a controversial provision of the Higher Education Act that denies federal financial assistance for the college bound for past drug use. Students can be denied aid for one year for a first-time offence with increasing penalties for other violations. Sale of a controlled substance could make a student ineligible for aid indefinitely. Since the restriction was enacted five years ago, more than 160,000 students have been turned down for federal aid. [continues 170 words]
Medical marijuana cardholders would be allowed to possess up to 1 1/2 pounds of dried marijuana and six mature plants under a bill that won unanimous support Wednesday in the Oregon Senate. The legislation, Senate Bill 1085, makes a series of changes intended to clarify ambiguous sections of Oregon's voter-approved medical marijuana law that took effect in 1998. The bill "provides the clear, bright lines that law enforcement needs to enforce the law fairly, without infringement on the rights of those who legitimately use the product," said Sen. Bill Morrisette, D- Springfield, the bill's chief sponsor. [continues 674 words]
Kanawha Sheriff Says Calls To Hotline And Arrests Are Down A new law that limits the amount of medicine containing pseudoephedrine a consumer can buy apparently is having a chilling effect on the state's burgeoning methamphetamine problem. Kanawha County Sheriff Mike Rutherford said he's seen less meth activity in the county. "We've gone from busting three or four labs a day to busting two or three labs a week," said Rutherford, who vowed to address the county's meth problem when he took office earlier this year. [continues 483 words]
Marijuana can get you in a heap of trouble in West Virginia. Simple possession is a misdemeanor, but it can net an offender a jail term of 90 days to six months, along with a $1,000 fine. Drug paraphernalia constitutes a separate offense, but the punishment is a bit steeper -- jail time of six months to a full year and a maximum fine of $5,000. >From there on, the crimes are considered worse, and, hence, the punishment grows tougher. [continues 314 words]
A Federal Grant That Provides 75 Percent Of Drug Task-Force Funding Is In Danger Of Being Cut. A Bush administration plan to cut millions in federal money for state drug task forces would be devastating to mid-Missouri drug prevention efforts, law enforcement officials say. The president has announced plans to cut $634 million in federal funding provided for drug task forces through the Byrne Grant program in fiscal 2006, which begins Sept. 1. The Mid-Missouri Unified Strike Team and Narcotics Group, known as MUSTANG, a drug task force made up of eight mid-Missouri law enforcement agencies including the Columbia Police Department and Boone County Sheriff's Department, received $271,000 from the Byrne Grant program in 2004 and 2005, according to the Missouri Department of Public Safety. [continues 558 words]
Zephyrhills, Fla. -- When I visited Richard Paey here, it quickly became clear that he posed no menace to society in his new home, a high-security Florida state prison near Tampa, where he was serving a 25- year sentence. The fences, topped with razor wire, were more than enough to keep him from escaping because Mr. Paey relies on a wheelchair to get around. Mr. Paey, who is 46, suffers from multiple sclerosis and chronic pain from an automobile accident two decades ago. It damaged his spinal cord and left him with sharp pains in his legs that got worse after a botched operation. One night he woke up convinced that the room was on fire. [continues 659 words]
Denver voters this November may be asked whether to make the use of marijuana legal in some instances. The Committee for Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER) said it has submitted the necessary 5,383 signatures from at least 5 percent of Denver city and county registered voters to get its proposal placed on the ballot. SAFER said the Denver Election Commission has determined that it appears to have sufficient valid signatures. The petition now goes to the City Council for approval and placement on the ballot. The council may act on the matter as early as next week. [continues 61 words]
As Hawaii's top federal prosecutor, Ed Kubo engages in some tough talk. Recall the "medical marijuana is dead" quote recently? When it comes to things like drugs or terrorism, Kubo is all business. But under that suit and tie is the relaxed aloha of a local boy who's as ready to talk about Jasmine Trias as he is about constitutional rights vs. the Patriot Act. Tough talk may be the prosecutors' M.O., but Kubo's "got a big heart," says friend and colleague Larry Butrick. [continues 1381 words]
After reading the July 18 article by reporter Tim Christie, "New marijuana group shuns potheads," I have to respond to Tom and Terry Thornhill's bigoted perspective concerning medical cannabis and "potheads." In 1998, when Oregon voters overwhelmingly beat back the recriminalization of cannabis and passed an initiative allowing for the legal use of medical cannabis by this state's patients, it was because of those potheads. In a little over a month, more than 100,000 signatures were gathered at the last minute to get an initiative on the ballot opposing recriminalization in time for that November's election. A lot of those signatures were gathered by potheads. [continues 111 words]
New York Times columnist John Tierney deserves credit for drawing attention to the ever-increasing problem of patients becoming targets in the war on drugs ("Punishing the sufferers," July 22). What if it was your mother or father, your daughter or son, serving 25 years in jail for taking medicine prescribed by the family doctor? More troublesome than that is while the government is intent on harassing and punishing doctors who prescribe narcotic pain relievers to their patients, they are simultaneously campaigning against the far safer and virtually nonaddictive alternative of medical marijuana. [continues 179 words]
'There is a crisis of unprecedented magnitude in the black community, one that goes to the very heart of its survival. The black family is failing." Quibble if you will about the "unprecedented magnitude" -- slavery wasn't exactly a high point of African-American well-being. But there's no quarreling with the essence of the alarm sounded last week by a gathering of Pentecostal clergy and the Seymour Institute for Advanced Christian Studies. What is happening to the black family in America is the sociological equivalent of global warming: easier to document than to reverse, inconsistent in its near-term effect -- and disastrous in the long run. [continues 580 words]
Lawmakers Vent Their Frustration With The White House's Slow Response To The Drug's Spread And Get Assurances Of Greater Efforts WASHINGTON -- A predominantly Republican congressional committee thrashed the White House drug czar's office Tuesday, saying it should scrap its failed national drug control strategy and craft an emergency plan to halt the epidemic spread of methamphetamine. "This committee is trying desperately to say, 'Lead! You're the executive branch," said Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., who led the hearing on the spread of meth across the nation's heartland. [continues 751 words]
IN THE three years since its activation in 2002, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) has seized 39.86 billion pesos worth of illegal drugs, equipment and paraphernalia, its director said Wednesday. During the period from July 30,2002 to June 30, 2005, the PDEA also dismantled 30 clandestine drug laboratories and 21 warehouses, arrested 76,455 suspects and filed 51,213 cases before the courts, undersecretary Anselmo Avenido said. Methamphetamine hydrochloride or "shabu" accounted for the bulk of the seized drugs, worth 15,405,161,080 pesos, followed by marijuana and its derivatives with a haul worth 2,754,563,797 pesos, Avenido said in a report released during the PDEA's third anniversary. [continues 163 words]
The head of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Western Visayas yesterday filed criminal and administrative complaints before the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas against three Bacolod City prosecutors for "willfully and deliberately bungling" the prosecution of three drug cases. The prosecutors failed to subject the dismissed cases against five persons, nabbed for violation of New Dangerous Drugs Law, to automatic review by the Regional State Prosecutor, Supt. Rolen Balquin, PDEA regional director, also said. Named in the complaints are Bacolod City Prosecutor Augustus Rallos, and Assistant Prosecutors Jesus Ocdinaria and Ronald Yngson. [continues 885 words]
Almost 70 deaths. No witnesses. No arrests. Those vigilante killers must be from a "Constantine" movie. Clearly, no significant or substantial police action has truly been taken to solve the vigilante killings in Cebu City--and no follow-ups from other government agencies. If so, let's take this vigilantism to the next level. Don't arrest robbers or pushers; just shoot them down. You'll shoot them anyway when they come out of jail. Soon Cebu City will be clean, orderly, quiet, and boring. And there'll be only one set of murderers left roaming the streets. Then you and I must hide. John Pala [end]
The Regional Trial Court yesterday meted a maximum 14-year sentence to a 19-year-old boy from Murcia for violating the Comprehensive Drugs Act of 2002. Judge Edgar Garvilles also found Gilbert Pagado guilty beyond reasonable doubt and ordered him to pay a fine of P300,000 for violating the law. Court records show that Pagado was caught possessing five sticks of marijuana cigarettes, all weighing .65 grams, in April 16, 2004 when he visited Cyril Somodovilla and Joemarie Cetera, both inmates at the Murcia Police Station jail. [continues 170 words]
Am I the only one who views this tunnel linking the U.S. and Canada with national pride rather than righteous outrage? One just has to look at the pictures to realize this is an extraordinary feat of engineering. Not only is the tunnel as straight as an arrow, but it is well-supported and dry. All of this in an area of flood-plain lowland. I am in awe of its creators, rascals though they be. These guys built a serviceable tunnel in a year from locally-supplied equipment. Let's compare this to the inevitable cost and time overruns that are sure to plague the 2010 Olympics. [continues 124 words]
Chasing A High First Step On Road To Addiction, Experts Say Drug addiction begins in many ways: a one-time pursuit of pleasure, the desire for a pick-me-up or maybe just to fit in socially. But the quest to regain the high can turn a user's life upside down, says the man in charge of combating addiction in metro Halifax. "You're always trying to chase the dragon," said Tom Payette, director of addiction prevention and treatment services for Capital Health. [continues 650 words]
"Betty" shudders every time the phone rings, fearing the call she feels certain she'll get some day, telling her that her cocaine-addicted daughter is dead. And in her line of work, sales, the phone rings a lot. "I live with the fact that one day the police will call," said Betty (not her real name). "I know this story is not going to have a happy ending unless something drastically changes." Her 30-year-old daughter lives on the streets of Halifax, begging, stealing and sometimes prostituting herself to earn money for her next fix. She's one of hundreds, maybe thousands of people caught in up metro's drug wars. [continues 987 words]
Crack User From Age 13 Reflects On Life Ruined By Addiction This is Mary's story. It's the sad tale of drug use and a fractured family, of the slow transformation of an attractive 13-year-old girl with a bright smile and shiny, shoulder-length hair into another statistic in metro's drug wars. A photograph of Mary at age 13 and the image of her now couldn't be more different. The smile and childhood innocence are gone and her hardened face betrays years of torment as a junkie on the city's meanest streets. [continues 928 words]
$2.4-Million Suit For Assault. Six Colleagues In Squad Charged With 40-Corruption Related Offences A Toronto officer charged with assaulting a suspect in custody last year is a defendant in a $2.4-million lawsuit which accuses him of "abuse of power." Detective Christopher Higgins is also named in two other lawsuits, one of which was settled out of court in 2002, which allege officers in a drug squad beat and robbed suspects during raids. Higgins, a 14-year veteran, is also scheduled to stand trial in September on charges of assault causing bodily harm in connection with a March 2004 incident. He remains on active duty in the drug squad. [continues 321 words]
Local Problems Cut Across Class, Social Lines Det. Const. Perry Astephen can tell by looking at the faces in a jury how little its members know about metro's illicit drug scene. "They think they are hearing about a movie or another city," the veteran Halifax Regional Police narcotics officer said in an interview. "They look at you like there is no way this is happening in Halifax," he said. "But it does. Every day. You're naive to think that it doesn't. We are a smaller city with big-city crime." [continues 752 words]
TORONTO -- A single dose of the drug speed during pregnancy could be enough to cause long-term problems in babies, according to University of Toronto researchers. Pregnant mice exposed only once to methamphetamine had offspring with reduced motor co-ordination and other neurodevelopmental effects. "We've known for a while that meth abuse during pregnancy is associated with low birth weight, cleft palates and other malformations, but this is the first research demonstrating that even a single exposure can cause long-term damage," Peter Wells, a University of Toronto pharmacy and pharmacology professor, said yesterday in a news release. "It's pretty remarkable that a single low dose can have such an effect." [continues 126 words]
TORONTO -- The discovery of a Northern Ontario marijuana grow operation spanning an area the size of three football fields is a sign that Canada's booming pot-growing business is expanding both in size and location, experts said. Many grow-ops, which have been multiplying in the suburbs around Toronto in recent years, are moving from urban locations to the country to take advantage of bigger growing areas and to escape police detection, said the acting head of the Ontario Provincial Police's drug-enforcement squad. [continues 394 words]
As the Citizen reported yesterday, University of Ottawa professor Lynne Leonard has received $135,000 in research funds to study the viability of establishing a safe-injection site for drug users in Ottawa, which would augment the city's existing needle-exchange program. Like the recent debate over whether public-health officials should distribute clean crack-pipe paraphernalia in Ottawa, the debate about a safe-injection site will be intense. Meanwhile, other Canadian communities are struggling with their own drug problems, as Vancouver Province columnist Joey Thompson found recently when she examined the effect of a needle-exchange program in Chilliwack, B.C. [continues 520 words]
To the Editor: I'm writing about David Duley's letter: "Protect our children" July 8, 2005. Perhaps in addition to drug testing students, the school board should install hidden cameras in all hallways, locker rooms and rest rooms. In addition, perhaps all students, teachers, school board members and parents should be subject to full body searches, including, of course, body cavity searches. That's what they do at all our high-security prisons. And we all know how completely drug-free all our prisons and jails are. Obviously, only those guilty of using or selling illegal drugs will object. Kirk Muse Mesa, Ariz. [end]
TORONTO -- The discovery of a northern Ontario marijuana grow operation the size of three football fields is a sign that Canada's pot-growing business is expanding both in size and location, experts say. Many grow ops, which have been multiplying in the suburbs around Toronto in recent years, are moving to rural locations to take advantage of bigger growing areas and to escape police detection, says the acting head of the OPP's drug enforcement squad. "We're seeing a trend where we see grow operators across the province move further north, and increase in size," said Det.-Insp. Frank Elbers. [continues 387 words]
Good may come out of the Great Barrington drug trials in the form of increased awareness of the dangers of drug dealing and also, if state Representative William "Smitty" Pignatelli can gain enough backing, the end of the mandatory two-year jail term for first-time offenders under the state's school-zone law. The 1989 law is a hammer used to fix a complex issue, and its worst feature is the mandatory two-year minimum, which ties the hands of judges. A teen-ager caught selling marijuana deserves punishment, but a judge should be allowed to determine if that punishment should be probation, community service, drug rehabilitation or a combination. We hope the rest of the Berkshire delegation will join the Lenox Democrat in this effort. [end]
Regarding Rob Kampia's July 10 op-ed, "Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat," if health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms marijuana would be legal. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Marijuana can be harmful if abused, but jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents. The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican migration during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the American Medical Association. [continues 92 words]
Grant Of $20,000 Set Aside For Study Into Abuse Of Drug A unique partnership of agencies dealing with OxyContin abuse in Cape Breton, which received a grant from the Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation on Tuesday, hopes to find out why the problem seems to have taken hold in the region. But members of the Community Partnership on Prescription Drug Abuse say the team they've created is a success in itself. The partnership, led by Jane Lewis, Cape Breton University dean of education, health and wellness, received a $20,000 grant from a total of $4 million the foundation awarded to dozens of research projects. [continues 401 words]
An epidemic of HIV infections is sweeping along the infamous heroin-trafficking highways from Afghanistan to Eastern Europe, says a US researcher. The surge in cases among intravenous drug users is fuelled by inadequate access to drug-addiction treatment, needle-sharing and users proximity to the routes. This HIV/AIDS epidemic is just beginning and the virus is, again, ahead of our responses, says Chris Beyrer at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Drug treatment and HIV prevention must be implemented now, everywhere the heroin is flowing. [continues 293 words]
