Further evidence has emerged that an ingredient of cannabis could help prevent epileptic seizures.

Some experts are now calling for fresh research into the potential of cannabis-like compounds to help alleviate the condition.

Researchers from Germany found that natural brain chemicals which resemble cannabis extracts can interrupt a process which can trigger a seizure.

There have been trials of cannabis compounds in MS and cancer patients.

There are reports dating from the 15th century talking about the use of cannabis to ease the symptoms of epilepsy.

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But Germany's "Drug-Consumption Rooms" Keep Addicts Safe Until They're Ready To Kick -- Or Not

In 2000 the German Parliament signed into law an amendment to the Narcotics Act legalizing "drug-consumption rooms," or Drogenkonsumräum (DKRs). These facilities, operated by nonprofits, provide space where hard users can take drugs in a safe environment under medical supervision. In the years since the amendment, drug-related deaths in Germany have decreased by 25 percent. Similar facilities have opened in Vancouver, B.C., and Australia, where they're called "safe injection rooms." But in Germany they are explicitly legal.

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Many ancient headache treatments, recorded by Persian physicians, have been proven in modern-day studies to be effective pain relievers according to a new German report.

Medieval Persian texts revealing that opium and cannabis were often used, as well as oil from willow trees - from which aspirin was derived centuries later - suggest that many other such remedies should be scientifically tested for therapeutic value as well, says Dr Ali Gorji, of the Institute for Physiology, Munster University, in Germany, in a report in the journal Trends in Pharmacological Sciences.

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BERLIN (Reuters) - Almost all euro banknotes circulating in Germany contain traces of cocaine, scientists said on Wednesday, as notes rolled up by users to snort the illegal drug contaminate the cash system.

"Nine out of 10 banknotes show clearly measurable amounts of cocaine," Fritz Soergel from the Institute for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Research in Nuremberg told Reuters on Wednesday. Some 600 euro notes were examined in the study.

The study could not provide conclusive evidence on levels of cocaine usage in Germany and the euro zone but Soergel said there was a clear correlation between the findings and levels of recorded cocaine abuse in European countries.

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BERLIN (Reuters Health) - A large German study shows that mental problems often exist before use of the club drug Ecstasy, and researchers suggest caution in interpreting the reported association between the drug and brain cell damage.

The study, conducted by the Max Plank Institute for Psychiatry and the Technical University in Dresden, suggests that psychological problems are more likely to predate drug use rather than necessarily being a consequence of it.

Professor Hans-Ulrich Wittchen and colleagues published their findings in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, based on information from nearly 2,500 people aged between 14 and 24.

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Nazi researchers used concentration camp inmates to test a cocaine-based "wonder drug" they hoped would enhance the performance of German troops, it was reported yesterday. Prisoners at Sachsenhausen who were given the drug, code-named D-IX, were forced to march in circles carrying 20kg packs. They were able to march 55 miles without resting.

The German news magazine Focus quoted an eye-witness report by a prisoner who wrote: "At first the members of the punishment battalion whistled and sang songs. [But] most of them had collapsed after the first 24 hours."

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BERLIN (Reuters Health) - Safe centers where addicts can take drugs under medical supervision are helping the war on addiction, according to a new report from the German Health Ministry.

Research shows the centers are helping to reduce the number of drug-related deaths and encouraging addicts to quit.

Presenting the survey, Marion Casper-Merk, secretary of state for drug addiction, said: "Only those who survive have a chance of coming off drugs."

Centers have been running in Frankfurt and Hamburg since 1995, but the scheme was given legal backing in April 2000 through a law created by the current health minister. It authorized the 16 German administrative regions, known as Lander, to open sites where addicts could take drugs under medical surveillance.

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FRANKFURT, Germany - The 1997 Tour de France champion, Jan Ullrich, was banned from cycling for six months Tuesday after testing positive for amphetamines.

Ullrich was given half the maximum suspension and was fined $1,400, the German cycling federation said.

Although officially six months, Ullrich's ban expires March 24 to take into account the winter offseason.

A three-person disciplinary panel decided to impose the minimum penalty because it determined that Ullrich did not take the amphetamines to enhance his performance.

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FRANKFURT, Germany - The 1997 Tour de France champion, Jan Ullrich, was banned from cycling for six months Tuesday after testing positive for amphetamines.

Ullrich was given half the maximum suspension and was fined $1,400, the German cycling federation said.

Although officially six months, Ullrich's ban expires March 24 to take into account the winter offseason.

A three-person disciplinary panel decided to impose the minimum penalty because it determined that Ullrich did not take the amphetamines to enhance his performance.

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FRANKFURT, Germany - German cycling star Jan Ullrich admitted Saturday taking pills in a disco the night before a doping test found him positive of amphetamines, insisting it was a "stupidity" and he was in no way seeking to improve his performance in sport.

Speaking to reporters for the first time since the results of the June 12 test became known, Ullrich said he declined to have a second, or B test, and admitted to taking what he described as "two little pills" an acquaintance had given him in a disco.

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The introduction of state-run rooms where addicts can use drugs helped cut the number of drug-related deaths in 2001 by 9.6 percent from the previous year, a Health Ministry report said. The decline, to 1,835 deaths, was the first in four years. There are about 20 drug consumption rooms in Germany, run by state authorities. In March, seven cities began "heroin-supported therapy" in which addicts get heroin under medical supervision.

[end]

BERLIN - Chemicals found in cannabis can significantly reduce the symptoms of Tourette's syndrome, study findings suggest.

Tourette's syndrome is a neurological condition characterized by uncontrollable facial grimaces, tics, and involuntary grunts, snorts and shouts.

Dr. Kirsten Mueller-Vahl of the Hanover Medical College in Germany led a team that investigated the effects of chemicals called cannabinols in 12 adult Tourette's patients.

In the study, each patient was given a single oral dose of d9-THC--the most psychoactive chemical in cannabis--calculated based on their body weight, sex, age and prior use of marijuana, or a dose of inactive placebo. Symptoms were measured after the first treatment, and compared to symptoms after the same patient was switched to the other pill. Neither the patient nor the investigator knew whether they were given a placebo or the active treatment first.

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FRANKFURT -- A new era is about to dawn for heroin addicts in Germany.

Instead of having to scrape together an average of around Euro 4,000 ($3,500) a month to buy the drug on the streets, some people addicted to heroin will soon able to receive the drug at no charge from the government.

Already, the city of Bonn has begun giving heroin to a select group of addicts at a special university clinic.

Hamburg, Hannover, Frankfurt, Cologne, Munich and Karlsruhe are to begin distributing the drug by July, but are still in the preparation phase.

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The country's highest court has ruled that a law allowing the state to take all of a criminal's assets as part of his punishment was unconstitutional. The law, passed in 1992, did not set an upper limit for punishment and thus was so vague that it did not meet the constitutional requirement to be clear, the court said. The ruling came in the case of a convicted drug trafficker who in 1994 was sentenced to three and a half years in prison and an additional $271,000 fine that came close to the value of all his assets.

[end]

Hamburg Journal

HAMBURG, Germany, Jan. 21 -- Ronald Schill, known in the press as "Judge Merciless," came into office in this elegant and seamy city state on a tide of disgust with crime and immigration, shaking political assumptions. Now he is thinking about going national.

Mr. Schill, who is locally notorious for his harsh judgments in court, came out of nowhere to win nearly 20 percent of the vote in Hamburg's state elections last September, helping to turn the flaccid Social Democrats out of office here after 44 years in power.

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BERLIN (F.A.Z.) -- Germany's drug abuse commissioner said on Tuesday that she would present to the federal government next year a new program to fight drug addiction, including alcohol abuse and smoking.

Marion Caspers-Merk said the intention was to put more emphasis on treating individuals' addictions. But success will require the use of all "four pillars of drug and addiction policy: prevention, treatment, social support and law enforcement," she said.

Ms. Caspers-Merk said she had high hopes for the "heroin on prescription" program under which doctors will prescribe the opiate to hard-core addicts out of centers in Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hannover, Munich, Bonn, Cologne and Karlsruhe starting in February.

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HAMBURG, Germany -- A 19-year-old alleged drug dealer from Cameroon died today, three days after being forced by German police to take an emetic to make him vomit narcotics he had swallowed.

A statement from the Hamburg justice department said the cause of death was not clear and that an autopsy had been ordered.

The youth had a heart attack Sunday after being given the herbal emetic ipecacuanha while in custody. Police later found 41 vials of narcotics in his stomach and intestine that he had swallowed in an effort to hide evidence against him.

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A suspected drugs dealer is fighting for his life in the north German city of Hamburg, after police forced him to take an emetic to make him vomit up narcotics he had swallowed. The case has stirred up a new row over the use of emetics, which are being used in several German cities to secure evidence against narcotics suspects.

Several opposition politicians and Hamburg's medical association are calling for a halt to the forced administration of the drugs.

The case is also putting pressure on Hamburg's controversial new interior minister, former judge Ronald Schill, whose new Law and Order Offensive Party won a surprise 19% of the vote in the city-state's elections three months ago.

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ROSTOCK, Germany, Nov 25 (Reuters) - The youth wing of the German Greens gave party leaders a bundle of marijuana cigarettes on Sunday and told them to relax.

The leaders were handed the hashish (marijuana resin) "joints" after a fractious congress, which ended after the pacifist party voted to back the Afghan deployment of German troops.

The junior members of Germany's ruling coalition have spent the last two weeks trying to avoid a party split over the deployment issue from bringing about a government collapse.

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TEL AVIV - German police on Tuesday arrested two Israelis unloading a truck that contained 1.5 million Ecstasy pills, capping a long drug investigation by German, Dutch, Australian, and Israeli police into international Ecstasy trafficking by Israelis.

Police said the infiltration of the drug ring represents the largest and most sweeping action in recent history against international Ecstasy trafficking, in which Israelis are known to be deeply involved.

German detectives encountered the suspects unloading a truck with Dutch license plates near Hamburg Port. A search turned up the pills hidden in containers of artificial flowers.

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Top Soccer Coach's Disclosure Rouses Germans From Complacency About Cocaine

Munich -- To many Germans, the United States is a place where sniffing cocaine is as commonplace as swigging beer. But the recent revelation that a prominent German soccer coach tested positive for the drug has spotlighted the grim fact that Germany, too, is swamped with cocaine, and that the number of users is soaring.

Authorities estimate that more than 1 million Germans of all ages and all walks of life have had recent experience with cocaine -- and more than a third of them are regular users. Some drug experts put that figure much higher.

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