Concerning the high-rise residents at Warwick Mount (The Argus, February 7).

Has Warwick Mount no lost and found box? A box could be placed discreetly with a sharps disposal box in a corner with no cameras.

Think health, people. Of course people are using drugs. Don't make it more dangerous for all, make it safer.

Jay Bergstrom, Forest Ranch, California

[end]

Fearful residents at a council-owned block of flats found a used crack pipe at the bottom of their stairwell.

The homemade pipe was found at Warwick Mount in Montague Street, Brighton, last week.

The discovery is one of a number of incidents at the building that has left locals feeling concerned for their safety.

They include the death of a man who was stabbed in the heart on Christmas morning.

Last month a man jumped from the eleventh floor of the block to his death.

[continues 293 words]

Experts have raised concerns about a thriving Twitter cannabis culture.

During a single month, researchers identified more than seven million tweets referring to marijuana, with "pro-pot" messages outnumbering those opposed to the drug by 15 to one.

Most of those sending and receiving "pot tweets" were under the age of 25, and many in their teens, said the team.

US psychiatrist and lead author Dr Patricia Cavazos-Rehg, from the Washington University Institute for Public Health, said: "It's a concern because frequent marijuana use can affect brain structures and interfere with cognitive function, emotional development and academic performance.

[continues 352 words]

On-The-Spot Saliva Test for Cannabis and Cocaine Use Approved for Use by Police

Police will be able to test drivers for drugs on the roadside after the first mobile checking device was approved.

The "Drugwipe" can trace cocaine and cannabis in a saliva sample within three minutes. Drivers will be tested on the spot, rather than at a police station, meaning convictions are likely to soar as the device is increasingly adopted by forces. Mike Penning, the police minister, said chief constables would now be able to roll out the Securetec DrugWipe 3S after the technology was rubber-stamped by Home Office scientists. "Drug drivers are a deadly menace and must be stopped," said Mr Penning. "Those who get behind the wheel while under the influence of drugs not only put their own lives at risk, but also those of innocent pedestrians, motorists and their passengers." The test can detect cocaine and cannabis, the substances most commonly used by drug drivers. The manufacturers also produce a test for other drugs including heroin, amphetamine and Ecstasy, but this version has not yet won Home Office backing. A positive test will show red lines, similar to a pregnancy test.

In March a new drug driving law comes into force with penalties of up to six months' jail and UKP5000 fines.

[end]

Almost 30,000 prisoners addicted to drugs were given a heroin substitute last year to feed their dependence, figures show.

The drugs were paid for by the taxpayer and given to inmates in a bid to help them kick the habit.

However inmates who are in prison for less than three months do not have time to complete the drug treatment programme, but are supplied with methadone or buprenorphine.

The figures were revealed in a request by Andrew Griffiths MP to the Secretary of State.

[continues 201 words]

While Federal Law Says Possession and Sale Is Still Illegal, You Can Now Buy Recreational Marijuana in Four US States

Last year, on New Year's Day, I spent two hours queuing in the bone- chilling cold of a Denver January to be one of the first few people in the world legally to buy recreational cannabis over the counter. The drug has traditionally been tolerated in the Netherlands, but never truly legal. Portugal decriminalised it more than a decade ago. California legalised medical marijuana in 1996, and has since been followed by 22 other US states and Washington, DC.

[continues 847 words]

Drugs the Common Denominator

THE NHS is not the only organisation facing difficult decisions on funding. The same applies to the police with Sheffield-born Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Metropolitan Police's commissioner, warning that public safety will be at risk unless radical measures are taken to deal with cuts.

Yet the challenges facing the NHS and the police are linked by one common denominator drugs. Misuse remains one of the biggest drains on the public purse and this scourge on society diverts vital resources away from treating the elderly, or making sure that vulnerable senior citizens remain safe in their home.

[continues 121 words]

Could Cannabis Oil Reverse the Effects of Cancer? As a Film Following Six Patients Receiving the Controversial Treatment Is Released, Kate Hilpern Uncovers a Very Slippery Issue

In the summer of 2012, George Wilkins, a documentary filmmaker,was in his friend's health food shop when a customer walked in, looking exceptionally ill. "He walked up to the counter and asked for hemp oil to help treat his lung cancer," explains the 29-year-old from Hull.

"When I quizzed him, it turned out he was muddling hemp oil with cannabis oil. Still, I thought, why would he want that? So when I got home, I started researching it and found some quite compelling scientific evidence about the huge benefits of cannabis oil for cancer patients. Meanwhile, the health of the guy who came into the shop improved significantly within just a month of taking it."

[continues 1101 words]

CHILDREN with severe epilepsy could be helped by a new treatment derived from the cannabis plant which is to be trialled in Scotland.

Doctors in the UK have been given the go-ahead to test the medicine, which does not contain the ingredient that produces the high associated with recreational cannabis use.

The treatment, called Epidiolex, is based on one of the nonpsychoactive components of the cannabis plant, called CBD.

Early studies in the US have shown treatment may reduce the frequency and severity of seizures in children with severe forms of epilepsy.

[continues 98 words]

How 'Headshop' Dealers Make Millions and a Mockery of Drug Laws by Passing Off Hallucinogenic Skunk Starter Kits As 'Souvenirs'

FLASHING a smug grin as he poses proudly in a field of flourishing cannabis plants, this is the businessman responsible for allegedly flooding Britain with high-strength cannabis, fuelling a multi-millionpound market in home-grown illegal drugs.

Milo Yung, who calls himself 'the Big Buddha', claims to be the founder of Britain's 'number one' brand of cannabis, which is sold around the country in colourful packets boasting of the product's 'unique high' and 'old skool taste'.

[continues 1404 words]

YOUNG people are being treated in record numbers for mental health problems which have been caused by cannabis.

Official figures show more than 5,000 under-25s were treated for addiction and psychiatric problems with the drug over the past year.

Experts believe the rise has been caused by new strains of cannabis - known as skunk - which are more potent than those grown in the past.

And they say the alarming figures might have been even worse were it not for the overall numbers of cannabis users falling.

[continues 278 words]

BRITAIN is on the verge of a steep rise in young adults getting a severe form of lung disease due to regular cannabis and tobacco smoking, Welsh scientists have warned.

Lung specialists have given the warning at the winter meeting of the British Thoracic Society.

A study at Bangor analysed patients attending A&E with a severe and accelerated form of emphysema linked to their high use of cannabis and tobacco.

Some patients were in their 30s and the whole sample had smoked five joints a day - or more for at least a decade.

[continues 233 words]

When I stood as the Ukip Police and Crime Commissioner candidate in 2012 for Greater Manchester, I was a strong voice against the decriminalisation of drugs then and my view, driven by evidence, has not changed since.

The reality is that decriminalising drugs would result in drug houses becoming a familiar sight in our towns, in which users would be able to indulge in poisoning there bodies LEGALLY.

Drug addicts need deterrence, not encouragement from the state.

The most effective deterrent must come from our judicial system.

[continues 116 words]

Drug-use confessions by those in the public eye have a lot of power to shape perceptions, writes SHONA CRAVEN

While most of us are well aware of how addictions shatter families and blight communities, the addict - particularly the heroin addict - remains an unfathomable "other".

And while great efforts have been made in recent years to change public perceptions, that label retains an unmistakable moral, rather than medical, dimension.

Any pity for a drug user with a wretched life is paired with a confidence that such a life is the product of choices we ourselves would never make.

[continues 602 words]

"WE have hit their criminality hard by hitting them in their pockets as well."

Those were the words of Detective Inspector Paul Fisher after a series of raids over the course of four hours on Saturday morning saw drug networks in Swindon lose out on around ?70,000 in cash and product, with eight suspects given a new bed behind bars and a number of weapons taken off the streets.

Around 50 officers carried out eight warrants around the town from 9am as part of a countywide operation which saw similar raids executed in Melksham and Amesbury.

[continues 904 words]

Sir Peter Fahy said he was in favour of a 'more medical approach' to dealing with drug offenders.

The GMP chief constable added that 'everyone' involved in drugs policy had 'concerns' about the current approach.

A Home Office report revealed there was 'no obvious' link between tough laws and drug use.

It sparked a debate of decriminalisation of some or all drugs - with the report pointing to the example of Portugal, where there has been a 'considerable' improvement in the health of users since the country made possession a health issue rather than a criminal one in 2001.

[continues 114 words]

Chief Constable Says Force Has Policy of Not Criminalising Children With Small Amounts of Illegal Substances

ALMOST 100 pupils have been found with illegal drugs in Greater Manchester's schools over the last three years - but charges were only brought in six cases.

Dozens of pupils have been caught with cannabis

The vast majority of the pupils caught had cannabis, but some were discovered with class A drugs - including heroin and ecstasy.

Most of the incidents related to secondary schools, although police were called to two primary schools after pupils inadvertenly brought suspicous or illegal substances in from home. Figures, obtained by the M.E.N. using Freedom of Information laws, show that Greater Manchester Police dealt with 99 drug crimes involving students at schools between January 2012 and September this year.

[continues 318 words]

ILLEGAL drug use has become a social norm now.

You can walk through Manchester city centre any day of the week and within minutes you will smell cannabis. And that's in the city centre, never mind the estates, where people are smoking it like they would drink a cup of tea. I see kids walking to school at 8am smoking spliffs.

It's pretty clear that the war on drugs has been a failure. History teaches us that prohibition doesn't work.

[continues 223 words]

SIR - The United States has almost twice the rate of marijuana use as the Netherlands, where the drug has been legally available for decades. The criminalisation of people who prefer marijuana to martinis has no basis in science. The war on cannabis is a failed cultural inquisition, not an evidence-based public-health campaign. It is time to stop the pointless arrests and instead legalise cannabis and tax it.

Robert Sharpe Policy analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, DC

[end]

SIR - Like others you write about the legalisation of the growing cannabis "industry" ("Marijuana milestone", November 8th). But the last thing this industry needs is to become like Big Tobacco. Cannabis is not an easy plant to cultivate. It requires a lot of attention and this is reflected in the price. Because sales and investment between states in America is banned it remains a local industry that maintains a high quality. There are dozens of examples of mass-produced cannabis products that are bland, tasteless reflections of what was once crafted or cultivated with care.

Ewing, New Jersey

[end]