Study: Meth Use Down, Pot Up WASHINGTON - Fewer people abused prescription drugs last year than in 2007, reversing an upward trend in abuse of potent painkillers such as OxyContin, a federal drug survey found. People who once saw little risk in abusing prescription drugs are responding to health reports underscoring dangers of misuse, says Eric Broderick, acting administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which conducts the annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health made public Thursday. [continues 277 words]
Obama Reverses Previous Support; Administration Calls Them Ineffective WASHINGTON -- President Obama's first budget proposes to end state grants for school drug programs that he and Vice President Biden fought for as senators. Last year, when President Bush asked Congress to stop funding the grants under the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities program, Obama, Biden and 35 other senators protested. They signed a letter calling it "the backbone of youth drug prevention" that was "making a difference" for 37 million children. They signed similar letters in 2006 and 2007. [continues 384 words]
10-City Study Shows Need to Offer Treatment Half of the men arrested in 10 U.S. cities test positive for some type of illegal drug, a federal study found. Not only do the findings show "a clear link between drugs and crime," they also highlight the need to provide drug treatment, says Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, which will make the data public today. Assessing offenders for drug and mental health problems and providing treatment is "important if you want to stop recidivism and recycling people through the system," says Kerlikowske, who supports drug courts that offer court-ordered drug treatment. [continues 321 words]
Putting Focus on Abuse of Prescriptions NASHVILLE -- Drug czar Gil Kerlikowske says one of his top priorities is curtailing abuse of prescription drugs -- such as the addictive painkiller OxyContin -- which are readily available in the U.S. "We get overly concerned about drugs coming in, but the pharmaceuticals are here already," he said in an interview Wednesday with USA TODAY. He says he'll push for more states to adopt prescription-monitoring programs, databases in which doctors and pharmacists log prescriptions for addictive drugs so law enforcement can track them. [continues 421 words]
Some states are moving to legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes in response to the Obama administration's decision to limit prosecutions of sick people or caregivers who use or dispense the drug. Attorney General Eric Holder said last week that his agents will seek criminal charges only when both state and U.S. laws are violated. That signaled a shift from the Bush administration, whose agents raided several centers that dispense marijuana in California, where state law permits its medical use. Twelve other states also allow medical marijuana, but U.S. law prohibits its use for any reason. [continues 317 words]
The economic stimulus bill under consideration this week in the Senate would be a windfall for law enforcement, sending nearly $4 billion to state justice systems, police and prevention programs. Much of the money would preserve jobs and create new ones, says Dave Steingraber, president of the National Criminal Justice Association and executive director of Wisconsin's Office of Justice Assistance. "The justice system is very people-intensive," he says. "Whenever you push funding into the justice system, you're talking about jobs and hiring." [continues 371 words]
Teen drug use continues its overall decline, but that progress does not extend to powerful prescription painkillers, such as OxyContin and Vicodin, a new national study shows. The report, which President Bush will make public today, found the highly addictive narcotic painkillers that imitate morphine remain as popular as ever among the nearly 50,000 teens surveyed. Painkiller abuse is second only to marijuana use, according to the survey by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. [continues 303 words]
Nearly 20,000 people in federal prisons for crack cocaine offenses can apply for early release under new sentencing guidelines, the U.S. Sentencing Commission said Tuesday. One day after the U.S. Supreme Court gave judges more leeway to impose shorter sentences for crack cocaine offenses, the seven-member commission voted unanimously to make new sentencing guidelines retroactive beginning March 3. The guidelines that took effect Nov. 1 reduced, but did not eliminate, a disparity in mandatory sentences between crack and powder cocaine offenses. Previous guidelines directed judges to impose much stiffer sentences on people convicted for crimes involving crack cocaine. Crack is a rock form of cocaine that can be smoked. [continues 399 words]
Drug Used As Pain Reliever and to Help Addicts Off Heroin A record number of people are dying from methadone overdoses as doctors dispense more of the powerful painkiller, according to a report released Wednesday by the National Drug Intelligence Center. The Justice Department's NDIC said it produced the first comprehensive federal analysis in response to "the alarming trend in the number of methadone-related deaths." Methadone has been used in the USA since the 1940s as a pain reliever. It also is used widely to alleviate withdrawal symptoms and block cravings in people with heroin addictions. Methadone costs less than other opioid pain medicines, such as OxyContin, that derive from or imitate opium. [continues 340 words]
But Officials Note Other Disruptions Were Short-Lived When the price for a kilo of cocaine in Nashville jumped by nearly a third five months ago, police knew something was up. For nearly a decade, the Drug Enforcement Administration says cocaine prices have been rock-bottom at about $95 for a gram of pure cocaine. So when agents at the DEA heard of the sudden price spikes in Nashville, Cleveland, New York, Los Angeles and elsewhere, they began investigating. A tenet of U.S. efforts in the "war on drugs" is keeping drug prices high by limiting the supply. [continues 844 words]
Tough action by Mexico is driving down the cocaine supply in 26 U.S. cities, a recently declassified Drug Enforcement Administration analysis shows, an encouraging drop in narcotics crossing the border that law enforcement officials hope will continue. As evidence of the short supply, prices have spiked sharply and purity has decreased since September 2006, says the analysis, which previously had not been made public. A gram of pure cocaine sold for about $118.70 in the spring, a 29% increase from last fall. Purity decreases when dealers add other ingredients, such as baby formula and sugar, to stretch the supply. [continues 460 words]
Small, toxic methamphetamine labs that overwhelmed rural and suburban communities in the past several years are disappearing as ingredients to make the drug become more difficult to find, federal law enforcement agents say. New statistics released by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) show a 58% drop in meth labs and abandoned sites seized last year by police and U.S. agents, to 7,347. That indicator peaked nationwide in 2003, with 17,356 sites seized. [continues 920 words]
Teens Use Internet to Share Stories, Get How-to Advice Ashley Duffy, 18, knew her parents wouldn't tap into her online journal so she wrote freely about her drug use. She says she used the Internet to contact her dealer and connect at parties with people who had drugs. "Kids are really open about it. I see posts from other people describing a night on acid or whatever," says Duffy of West Chester, Pa., who underwent treatment and says she has been drug-free for 16 months. "I think they think their parents are clueless. And I guess they are." [continues 963 words]
Feds Argue That 'Hemp Is Marijuana' Two North Dakota farmers who want to grow hemp are filing a federal lawsuit today to challenge the Drug Enforcement Administration's ban on the plant that is the same species that produces marijuana. Hemp can be imported from Canada, Europe and China, but growing hemp in the USA is illegal, the DEA says. "Hemp is marijuana," DEA spokesman Garrison Courtney says. "There's no distinguishing feature between marijuana and hemp." Lawyers for the farmers say the Controlled Substances Act, which governs illegal drugs, makes a specific exception for hemp, a non-drug version of the marijuana plant. They are seeking a court ruling that says the federal authorities cannot arrest the North Dakota farmers for growing hemp. [continues 580 words]
Trend May Be Effort to Lure Young Market Reports of candy-flavored methamphetamine are emerging around the nation, stirring concern among police and abuse-prevention experts that drug dealers are marketing the drug to younger people. The flavored crystals are available in California, Nevada, Washington, Idaho, Texas, New Mexico, Missouri and Minnesota, according to intelligence gathered by Drug Enforcement Administration agents from informants, users, local police and drug counselors, DEA spokesman Steve Robertson said. "Drug traffickers are trying to lure in new customers, no matter what their age, by making the meth seem less dangerous," he said. [continues 466 words]
Getting high by inhaling toxic substances is becoming more popular among girls than boys, a new federal study says. Nearly 1 in 20 girls ages 12-17 reported using inhalants to get high in 2005, an increase from 1 in 25 in 2002, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health Report, released Thursday by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Boys' use of inhalants, also known as "huffing," stayed at about 1 in 25 from 2002 to2005. [continues 267 words]
Federal Guidelines Require Heavier Sentences Than For Powder Cocaine Momentum is building in Congress to ease crack cocaine sentencing guidelines, which the American Civil Liberties Union and other critics say have filled prisons with low-level drug dealers and addicts whose punishments were much worse than their crimes. Federal prison sentences for possessing or selling crack have far exceeded those for powder cocaine for two decades. House crime subcommittee Chairman Robert Scott, D-Va., a longtime critic of such sentencing policies, plans to hold hearings on crack sentences this year. In the Senate, Republican Jeff Sessions of Alabama is drawing bipartisan support for his proposal to ease crack sentences. [continues 682 words]
Only Cocaine Kills More By Overdose Methadone, a painkiller that has been used to treat heroin addicts for decades, has emerged as an increasingly popular and deadly street drug, joining narcotics such as Vicodin and OxyContin as frequently abused prescription drugs. Fatal overdoses of methadone rose at a higher rate than those involving any other narcotic from 1999 through 2004, according to a recent study by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The number of deaths from methadone in 2004 (3,849) represented a 390% rise from 1999, the study said. [continues 438 words]
A suspected Mexican drug lord whose cartel allegedly smuggled more than 4 tons of cocaine a month over the U.S. border will stand trial in Texas. Osiel Cardenas-Guillen, the alleged kingpin of the Gulf Cartel, and three other alleged drug lords appeared in a Houston court Monday. Mexican authorities delivered Cardenas-Guillen and 14 other alleged Mexican drug dealers and criminals to Houston late Friday and early Saturday, the Drug Enforcement Administration said. "These extraditions are unprecedented in the history of Mexico," DEA Administrator Karen Tandy said Monday. "Did we get all of Mexico's major drug dealers? Not yet. But this past weekend, the U.S. and Mexico took an enormous leap forward." [continues 202 words]
Houston and D.C. Among the Lowest The San Francisco metropolitan area has a higher percentage of people who are regular drug users than any other major metropolitan area in the USA, a study from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found. Nearly 13% of San Francisco residents reported using some type of illicit drug, such as marijuana, cocaine or heroin, in the previous month, according to data from the National Surveys on Drug Use and Health 2002-05. The national average is 8.1%. [continues 403 words]
