The father of ecstasy victim Leah speaks out after the death of Perth 18-year-old Julia Dawes WHENEVER another young person dies through drug misuse or abuse, especially ecstasy, I am normally contacted for my comments and am usually told: "Your drug awareness isn't working, is it?" My reply to that is generally along the lines of: "It is in Scotland." Let me introduce myself. I'm Paul Betts and I live in Essex. Some of you may remember my daughter, Leah, who died in November 1995 after taking an ecstasy tablet at her 18th birthday party in our house. [continues 885 words]
SPRINGFIELD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-A New York City lawyer was found guilty by a jury late yesterday in connection with the largest and longest running indoor marijuana growing operation ever in New England. Donald K. Stern, United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, George Festa, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in New England, and Michael Lahey, Acting Chief of the Criminal Investigative Division of the Internal Revenue Service, announced that HERBERT B. DERMAN, age 67, a lawyer from New York City, and North Egremont, Massachusetts, was found guilty after a three week jury trial of conspiracy to cultivate more than 1,000 marijuana plants. The jury also found that DERMAN'S residence and 200 acres of real property in North Egremont, MA, isho be forfeited to the United States. [continues 255 words]
Drug Watch by Jason Gay For some reason, New England has never gotten seriously hooked on meth. Other areas of the country, from Southern California to the back nines of the Midwest, have been knee-deep for the better part of a decade in methamphetamine, an injectable, snortable, or smokable stimulant that is known, depending on its form, as "crystal meth," "speed," "crank," "glass," or "ice." Yet New England has been largely unscathed, a six-state refuge from a drug that has ravaged the inner city, farm country, and middle-class suburbia with equal abandon. [continues 1556 words]
THE world's love affair with the antidepressant drug Prozac could end in tears, according to a report written independently by a member of the WHO's Advisory Panel on Drug Policies and Management. Charles Medawar says that the side effects of Prozac and its relatives have been underestimated, the drugs may be addictive and they are not as effective as was first hoped. Prozac is the best known of several drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, which treat depression by boosting levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin in nerve synapses. SSRIs have been on sale in Britain for 10 years. In that time they have racked up 17,845 official reports of adverse effects from GPs. [continues 326 words]
A BRITISH drugs trafficker living in Co Cork has been served with a tax bill for over £100,000 by the Criminal Assets Bureau as part of its ongoing clampdown on criminals. The man who is in his late 30s was served with the tax bill some months ago under the Revenue Acts but he has yet to respond to the demand. The drugs trafficker moved to West Cork three years ago buying a £200,000 plus home in a coastal town where he lives with his wife and two children. [continues 425 words]
LONDON (Reuters) The British Medical Association said Wednesday it might follow the lead taken by the United States and explore possible compensation from tobacco firms to cover treatment of smokingrelated diseases. ``We are looking today at whether we should be taking more risks in the area of antitobacco litigation,'' John Chisolm of the BMA, the main professional body for Britain's doctors, told a news conference. The BMA is seeking to widen debate about whether Britain should follow the example of U.S. states and individuals who have spearheaded antitobacco legal battles in the last three years. [continues 195 words]
FEARS that Britain is in the grip of an escalating drug crisis could be based on a myth, the Government said last night. The largest survey of drug misuse yet conducted showed that drug taking was not part of normal behaviour for the vast majority of young people. The survey also suggested that the number of people aged 16 to 29 using drugs had stabilised, with no significant increase between 1994 and 1996. Drug taking also appeared to be dramatically on the wane in London especially among teenagers using so called "dance drugs" such as ecstasy but was still increasing in the North and the Midlands. [continues 628 words]
Drug youth is cured in Gulf holiday trap by Nicholas Hellen The parents of a teenager with a ú1,000aweek drug habit saved him from a spiral of addiction by tricking him into visiting the Gulf and then confiscating his passport. He was forced to spend a year in a country where narcotics dealers are beheaded. The teenager, who had been taking drugs including cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana, had no money to buy an air ticket home. He was cowed by local newspaper reports about the punishment meted out to addicts and was cured by the time he returned to Britain. His mother, who took matters into her own hands after despairing of obtaining help from police and health professionals, said this weekend that the family's experience had shown the authorities' "nonjudgmental" approach to drug abuse had failed and should be replaced with harsh new policies. [continues 531 words]
BANGKOK, Sept. 2 (Kyodo) Myanmar's ruling junta said Tuesday a statement by British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook that the junta is conniving with drug traffickers was hypocritical coming from the country which introduced poppy cultivation into Myanmar 150 years ago. ''The British foreign secretary's statement criticizing Myanmar of involvement in narcotics drugs is regarded here as the century's greatest hypocritical statement,'' said a statement issued in Bangkok. It said Myanmar's current drug problem is the direct result of Britain's colonial strategy of 150 years ago, when it introduced poppy cultivation into Myanmar and sanctioned trade in opium to provide a source of revenue for the colonial government. [continues 144 words]
Britain: Shopping for a drugs policy Britain's Labour government wants to do a better job of tackling the problem of illegal drugs. How about legalising them? COPYING other countries' successes can be a good idea. Copying their failures is daft. But that seems to be the British government's intention when it comes to the problem of illegal drug use. Two weeks ago, Tony Blair, not for the first time going where America has gone before, invited applications for a new post of drugs "tsar", to take charge of cleaning things up. [continues 1414 words]
Editorial Why Britain's drug czar mustn't wage war on drugs Aim for pragmatism, not dogma The British government has advertised the first ever post of drug supremo, or 'drug czar' to borrow the term used in the United States. It is good news that the new Labour government is evidently serious about the growing national and international drug problem and intends to strengthen further the pandepartmental approach taken by the central drugs coordinating unit and its strategic document for England, Tackling Drugs Together.(1) [continues 1124 words]
Britain cracks down on underage drinking By Gerrard Raven LONDON (Reuter) Just as Britain moves to clamp down on underage drinking, youngsters are getting hooked on ``alcopops'' alcoholic fruit drinks and lemonades which are blamed for worsening the problem. Critics say the sweet, garishlylabelled drinks are cynically targeted at the young, and some retailers and pub chains have reacted by banning them. But campaigners against alcohol abuse and industry analysts say action taken so far won't solve the problem. The Labor government, which swept to power in May, has moved fast to tackle what it says is a growing problem of drunken rowdiness which is making life miserable for ordinary people in many towns and cities. Laws which came into force on August 1 allow the police to seize alcohol from under18s drinking in public places. The government also plans to make it a crime for an adult to buy drink for youngsters and to allow local authorities to employ ``alcocops'' young people who would go into pubs and liquor stores to test whether proprietors were willing to serve them with alcohol illegally. ``We have all seen drunken youngsters creating mayhem and causing alarm and distress to the community,'' junior interior minister Alun Michael said in a statement introducing the new measures. ``We are determined to tackle disorder and antisocial behavior.'' [continues 487 words]
The report by the independent drug advice group Release underscored the links between Britain's thriving dance scene and drugs and showed that night clubbers were up to three times more likely to have taken drugs than other people of the same age. Research was carried out at dance clubs around London and southeast England and found that 87 percent of the young people most of them teenagers or in their early 20s were using drugs that evening. Ecstasy was named as the most popular drug with cannabis being used to wind down at the end of the evening. [continues 75 words]
July 3, 1997 LONDON, Reuters [WS] via Individual Inc. : British doctors voted almost unanimously on Wednesday in favour of calling for the use of cannabis to be legalised to help in the treatment of serious conditions like multiple sclerosis and cancer. More than 400 doctors at a British Medical Association (BMA) conference in Edinburgh heard colleagues describe how some desperate patients ended up in prison for buying illegal cannabis, a BMA spokeswoman said by telephone. The motion was proposed by Dr Upendra Pati from Merseyside in northwest England, who told the conference that certain cannabinoids offered valuable help for sufferers of many painful conditions. [continues 347 words]
By Mure Dickie BEIJING (Reuter) China and Britain refought their 19th century Opium War on celluloid Monday as Beijing premiered a statebacked movie aimed at educating a new generation in British villany and Chinese humiliation. In a ceremony more akin to a Communist Party conference than a first night in Hollywood, officials and selected school children joined to watch Britain triumph over a decaying Qing dynasty (16441911) and steal sovereignty over Hong Kong. Officials hailed the ``The Opium War'' as a major event in China's film history and a contribution to national efforts to mark the return of Hong Kong to Beijing rule after 156 years of colonial control from London. [continues 469 words]
TO YOUR HEALTH. British newspaper and magazine readers may be startled: A new advertising campaign notes that the U.K.'s doctors can prescribe heroin as a painkiller but can't prescribe "a safe naturally occurring herb for the pain of MS," multiple sclerosis. The four ads, created gratis by London advertising executives for the Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics (ACT), are the first ever in Britain encouraging the legalization of marijuana for medical use. The publications that plan to run the ads, including the Daily Telegraph, Britain's bestselling broadsheet, are likewise doing it as a freebie. That may not always happen, so George Soros, the billionaire who helped bankroll successful medical marijuana initiatives in California and Arizona, has been approached for a $500,000 donation. But unlike the American campaigns, this one is not tied to a referendum; the ads seek to influence policy makers. [continues 97 words]
[continues 97 words]
From Mr Tim Rathbone, MP for Lewes (Conservative) Sir, You are so right to question Tony Blair's plans for a " drugs czar" to lead the " war on drugs" (leading article, March 26). The idea and the phrases used are inappropriate to the solution of this considerable problem. In the US the job of czar is almost entirely dedicated to squeezing funds out of Congress and gathering the necessary persuasive information to do so. In Britain that is being done by the Central Drugs Coordination Unit, established by John Major in May 1992, reporting to a Cabinet subcommittee chaired by the Lord President of the Council. [continues 205 words]
[continues 205 words]
Inside England
