Alcohol is more dangerous than such illegal drugs as crack cocaine and heroin, a British study has found. Researchers compared several drugs -- including alcohol, ecstasy, marijuana, cocaine and heroin -- against each other and measured the effects on both the individual and society. In terms of the effects on the individual, the British experts analyzed how addictive each drug is, and how much damage it causes to the body. In terms of a drug's effect on society, the researchers analyzed such factors as how much it costs the health care and prison systems. [continues 269 words]
Sacked Government Drugs Adviser David Nutt Publishes Investigation In Lancet Reopening Debate On Classification Alcohol is the most dangerous drug in the UK by a considerable margin, beating heroin and crack cocaine into second and third place, according to an authoritative study published today which will reopen calls for the drugs classification system to be scrapped and a concerted campaign launched against drink. Led by the sacked government drugs adviser David Nutt with colleagues from the breakaway Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs, the study says that if drugs were classified on the basis of the harm they do, alcohol would be class A, alongside heroin and crack cocaine. [continues 1068 words]
44 POUNDS OF HEROIN SEIZED IN CLEVELAND 24 Indicted; Bust Called Ohio's Biggest CLEVELAND - Federal prosecutors Tuesday announced what they called the largest-ever heroin bust in Ohio. The two-year investigation culminated Tuesday morning with the indictment of 24 people, including a Nigerian man nicknamed Shaka Zulu who lived in upscale Shaker Heights and a ringleader who lived in a $1 million home in Solon. Police believe he used drug proceeds to buy the house. Attorneys for two alleged ringleaders declined to comment. [continues 543 words]
SALEM - Heroin distribution charges against two Lynn men were dropped Wednesday after a judge determined the stop and search of a vehicle was illegal. [name1 redacted], 19, of [address redacted], and [name2 redacted], 23, of [address redacted], both of Lynn, were charged with trafficking over 14 grams of heroin in connection with their arrest on Dec. 14, 2009. Defense lawyers Raymond D. Buso and David Grimaldi challenged the search and seizure of the heroin found in a vehicle during the preliminary trial motion. [continues 119 words]
It sounds absurd to make the statement that there is currently some "bad heroin" in our community because we all know that heroin is one of the most addicting and deadliest drugs around. While all drug addiction becomes deadly over a period of time, heroin use increases the probability of death with each use. A heroin dependent state is achieved after only a short period of time. The brief euphoria of heroin use is rapidly replaced with physical suffering and emotional pain. [continues 249 words]
Value Of Drug Bust Greater Than Thought CAMBRIDGE - Last week, Illinois State Police said they made the largest heroin bust in District 7 history when they found two New Jersey residents with 16 kilos - or 35 pounds - of the drug in Henry County. The only problem is it wasn't heroin. This week, police said the drug was actually ecstasy. The charges against the two men will remain the same, but the value of the seizure skyrocketed from $1.5 million to $4 to $8 million, said Trooper Jason Wilson, safety education officer for the state police. [continues 191 words]
A drug user died after taking heroin contaminated with anthrax, health officials revealed this morning. Thomas Forbes, 29, of Loughborough is the fourth heroin user in England to die after taking a dose of the drug which had somehow become contaminated with anthrax. Mr Forbes, who is also known as Tom, died in hospital last Thursday. Tests later detected the presence of anthrax in his system. The first case in England was reported in London in February this year. However anthrax-contaminated heroin has been blamed for 13 deaths in Scotland since last December. [continues 179 words]
Hundreds of Addicts Will Receive High-Grade Government Heroin or Dilaudid Heroin treatment in Vancouver is a joke. The majority of addicts participate, to varying degrees, in the so-called methadone maintenance program, which received unwanted media attention in 2008 due to alleged corruption and kickback schemes involving methadone pharmacies in the Downtown Eastside. The program includes no mandatory counselling or supplementary drug treatment and many addicts remain on methadone for decades. Living addicted lives. Robbed of their destiny. From this destitute population, organizers of SALOME (also known as the Study to Assess Longer-term Opioid Medication Effectiveness) plan to enlist 322 participants for an unprecedented Canadian experiment. [continues 628 words]
EAST PIKELAND - A Phoenixville man was arrested on drug charges Monday after he allegedly dropped two bags of heroin inside Citadel Federal Credit Union. [name redacted], 25, of the first block of East Walnut Street, is charged with possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia and disorderly conduct. According to court documents, officer Ken Smith responded to the Citadel Federal Credit Union, 558 Kimberton Road, for a report of possible drugs found in the bank around 1:52 p.m. Aug. 16. Smith said upon arrival, he spoke with bank management, who advised him that one of the bank tellers found two bags of a white powder in a blue wrapper lying on the floor of the bank in front of the bank counter. [continues 319 words]
Priest Claims: City Is In 'Total Denial' Campaign: Fr Joe Young Says Limerick Is In Denial TEN-year-old children are among a city's heroin addicts, a priest has claimed. Criminal gangs are threatening the childrens' families over drug debts, Fr Joe Young said. Fr Young, formerly a parish priest of Southill in Limerick, said many devastated parents across the city and county have contacted him about heroin-addicted children. A chaplain with the Brothers of Charity in Bawnmore, Fr Young said children were being introduced to heroin by "drug barons, the guys in the Costa del Sol who are using these children as drug mules". [continues 341 words]
After years of having no heroin arrests or deaths in Shelby County, 2010 has shown a rising number of both, according to the Shelby County Sheriff's office. Lt. Chris George, commander of the Shelby County Drug Enforcement Task Force, said in the last nine months, the task force has had several heroin arrests. "In the past we haven't had any sort of contact with heroin," George said. "It's just strange to go years with no contact at all and over the last few months see an increase." [continues 257 words]
Personal drug use should be legalised to cut crime and improve health, a top doctor has said. Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, the outgoing president of the Royal College of Physicians, suggested that relaxing the law on possessing substances such as heroin, cocaine and cannabis would not increase the number of addicts. This could save vast amounts of taxpayers' money, he suggests. Campaigners in favour of legalising drugs and making them available for free on the NHS claim it would cut crime as addicts would no longer steal to fund their habit. [continues 559 words]
Heroin use is on the rise in Burlington and authorities are concerned about its potential impact on the community. It's not that the drug is available on every street corner in the city. But it is creeping its way in and investigators in the Burlington Police Department's special operations division say the drug's potency is much higher than it was when it was popular among inner-city junkies injecting it in the 1970s. The typical user in this area is white, between 20 and 25 years old and from west Burlington, and pain killers that they find in mom and dad's medicine cabinet are often the gateway to their heroin addiction, said a Burlington police undercover drug officer who asked to remain anonymous because of ongoing investigations. [continues 754 words]
Three People Died, Two Were Hospitalized Between Friday, August 6, and Sunday, August 8, five people in Santa Barbara overdosed on what is presumed to be heroin. Three of them died and two were hospitalized. Based on evidence found at the scenes and statements taken from friends and family, the county coroner says it's highly likely heroin was the culprit, but toxicology reports are pending that will confirm or disprove speculation. While it's not atypical for there to be a few heroin-related deaths per year in Santa Barbara, said police spokesperson Lt. Paul McCaffrey, the fact that the three probable cases occurred in such a short period of time is not normal, and may indicate that an unusually strong batch of the drug is right now being doled out on the streets. "It was definitely unusual to have what looked like three heroin deaths in just a couple of days," McCaffrey said in an interview with The Independent. [continues 732 words]
Authorities Call Bust A Local Record Horry County police found an estimated $12 million worth of heroin and other drugs in the Myrtle Beach area in what the police department is calling its largest seizure of the drug to date. The drugs were found recently after an investigation led police to a home in the Arrowhead subdivision in the Myrtle Beach section of the county. Sgt. Robert Kegler, spokesman for the Horry County Police Department did not report that anyone was arrested at the time of the seizure. [continues 180 words]
Thursday morning started like any other typical day for a Canal Winchester nanny. Therese Ryan drove into Ross County to watch a local family's children. They went to the YMCA, where she dropped the older child off for camp about 8:15 a.m. Nothing was amiss until Ryan left with the younger child and looked down Yoctangee Parkway to spot a group of officers clad in protective gear, guns drawn surrounding a home. The Chillicothe Police's tactical team was serving a no-knock search warrant at 346 Yoctangee Parkway as a result of a drug investigation that morning. [continues 664 words]
EVERETT -- Detectives on Wednesday arrested a former Lynnwood attorney after he was caught allegedly trying to smuggle heroin to an inmate inside the Snohomish County Jail. Patrick J. Mullen, 63, reportedly told detectives that he became addicted to prescription pain killers after undergoing hip surgery several years ago. Mullen said that more recently he'd become hooked on heroin, according to a police affidavit filed Thursday in Everett District Court. Mullen said he agreed to smuggle heroin to inmates and, in return, he kept some of the drugs for his own use. [continues 689 words]
A Study Says The Chicago Region Leads The Country In Abuse Of The Drug. We Talk To An Addict, A Cop, A Grieving Mother, A Landlord And A Survivor Fighting To Stay Clean If you want to understand why Chicago has the nation's most severe heroin problem, drop by a small West Side office that's right at the epicenter. It's a clinic run by the University of Illinois at Chicago that offers clean syringes, HIV tests and other services to those buying $10 baggies of dope on the drug-soaked streets nearby. Some of its patrons are old-timers, weary and bedraggled, their forearms misshapen with the knots and abscesses from years of shooting up. When you imagine an addict, they're probably what comes to mind. [continues 220 words]
Kudos to the Chicago Tribune for "Suburbia's heroin addiction" (Page 1, Aug. 1). With this article the Tribune sheds light on the stark reality that is the growing heroin epidemic in Illinois. This is backed up by the recently released study from Roosevelt University that found that Chicago leads the nation in heroin use as well as the number of emergency room visits resulting from heroin overdose. Historically the perception of a heroin user is someone who is bedraggled and poor with track marks covering his arms. However, as the article points out, there is a growing number of young, middle- and upper-class suburbanites using heroin. Regardless of who is struggling with this disease, the only way we are going to address this crisis is by making funding for prevention and treatment services a priority. [continues 115 words]
HEROIN-related emergencies in Brimbank have skyrocketed over the past five years, new statistics show. Figures provided to Star show paramedics are attending heroin call-outs at an average of once every three days. Paramedics were called to 128 heroin-related incidents throughout the municipality during 2008-2009. An ongoing study being conducted by Ambulance Victoria and Melbourne's Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre showed ambulances also attended 117 heroin call-outs in Brimbank during 2007-2008. The latest figures contrast starkly with 2006, when there were 28 non-fatal heroin overdoses within Brimbank, 54 in the previous year and 68 in 2004. [continues 274 words]