Soaring rates of drug addiction in Afghanistan have led one province to adopt an extreme policy: Kick the habit or get kicked out of the region.

Leaders of the area, which is located in the remote eastern region of Ghazni, are taking desperate action to battle the overwhelming increase in young addicts over the past several years. Heroin addicts are being given quitting deadlines after tribal elders decided that the only way to fight the tide of addiction was to begin threatening, punishing and ultimately evicting drug users.

Users receive a warning, followed by a fine. If they ignore these measures, they may have their houses burned down, and they will eventually be evicted from their communities. The measures will also be used against drug dealers and suppliers.

Elder Mohammad Razaq commented: "Heroin addiction among our young people was destroying us. This destruction was getting worse and worse every day and we felt that we had no choice but to deal with it in this way.

"Since the elders made the decision, we have evicted more than 200 addicts from villages in this district. They have all been told that until they give up their addiction, they are not welcome back."

Opium exports currently represent about 25 percent of Afghanistan's annual gross domestic product, or $2.8 billion. Opium is a widely grown crop, which contributes to its easy availability.

In addition, according to a United Nations report, "Conflict, displacement, economic hardship and overflowing opium production have generated widespread drug abuse in Afghanistan."

(Source: www.google.com/hostednews)

Labels: addiction, drugs, heroin, opium

Experts fear that addiction in Russia is reaching such epidemic proportions that it may threaten the country's social and economic future. Russia has a long history of dealing with alcohol abuse, but now intravenous drug use has also hit frightening levels.

Heroin is one of the primary drugs taken intravenously in Russia. Heroin use is relatively new to Russia compared to the United States, exploding into popular culture there as recently as the 1990s. The drug caught on amid post-Soviet Union uncertainty, and the already unbalanced social structure was ill-equipped to handle to new problem.

In recent years, heroin from nearby Afghanistan has saturated the country. Russia's top drug enforcement official, Viktor Ivanov, blames the United States. Ivanov believes that the U.S. should institute aerial drug crop eradication programs in Afghanistan, similar to those currently funded by the U.S. in South America. Ivanov says that the U.S. is indifferent to the situation because drug production in Afghanistan is not an immediate geographical threat to the U.S. Meanwhile, Russia is suffering under the influx of heroin.

Ivanov commented, "Given the damage by Afghan heroin, we have to call it a weapon of mass destruction, selectively attacking the young, the future of our country."

Currently, Russia has one of the world's highest rates of drug-related deaths at approximately 80 deaths per day. Alcohol-related deaths comprise more than half of these, most often from alcohol-related accidents, violence or poisoning. In addition, Russia's population has been steadily declining since the 1990s, the result of depressed birth rates and growing death rates.

The Russian government does administer drug treatment programs, but Russian citizens are skeptical about their effectiveness. Methadone is illegal in Russia, and government programs seem to rely heavily on medication and appear to offer little in the way of counseling.

Denis Prokin, 32, went through several government-run addiction treatment programs only to start using again. Like many Russian addicts, he has abandoned government treatment to try a 12-step program run privately by a recovered heroin addict.

He feels that his treatment in the private program will give him the skills to stay clean: "The government programs I went through just isolate you and pump you full of pills. I didn't learn anything about myself. I got out and immediately started shooting up again. I know a lot more now, and when I finish here, I know where to find support groups."

(Source: www.scpr.org)

Labels: addiction, heroin, treatment

According to data from the United Kingdom's National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse, 1,645 women entered treatment for cocaine dependence for the first time in 2008, and three-quarters of these women were under the age of 35.

Women ages 18 to 25 who were dependent on cocaine were the fastest-growing group being treated, according to the agency's figures, and the average age of first use of cocaine was 21. Although heroin and crack addiction is declining overall in the United Kingdom, the number of women under 35 entering treatment for cocaine addiction has increased by 60 percent in the past four years.

Martin Barnes, chief executive of the charity DrugScope, commented on the data: "These figures are a reminder that cocaine use and cocaine problems cut across genders. Recent evidence shows a marked increase in the number of women and men using the drug, meaning that the number of people seeking help for cocaine-related problems is likely to continue."

Last year in the United Kingdom, women represented approximately 25 percent of adults receiving substance abuse treatment (about 55,600 women). About 15,440 of these women entered treatment for heroin and crack dependence.

(Source: timesonline.co.uk)

Labels: cocaine, heroin, treatment

Law enforcement authorities in Bristol, Conn., have seen an increase in local heroin use. They attribute the rise to painkiller addicts who turn to heroin when their prescriptions run out.

Bristol Police Detective Sergeant Chris Lennon of the narcotics division says that heroin is the second most prevalent drug in the area, after marijuana. Lennon believes that heroin use has also seen a resurgence because the drug is highly addictive, and -- in recent months -- has become easily accessible and cheap. Lennon reports that a dose of heroin can cost between $5 and $10, and has begun coming into the area via nearby cities such as Hartford and Waterbury.

In the past, heroin users became addicted through experimenting with heroin. Now, Lennon states, many of the heroin addicts his unit encounters are painkiller addicts who lost access to their drugs of choice. The link between the two is not surprising considering that OxyContin, one of the most potent and popular painkillers used for nonmedical purposes, is a chemical cousin of heroin.

(Source: www.bristolpress.com)

Labels: heroin, painkillers, prescription-drug-abuse

Approximately 250,000 heroin-addicted individuals are incarcerated in the United States each year, yet many prison systems across the country still lack adequate medical treatment for heroin and opiate addiction.

Despite the fact that existing programs and research have demonstrated the social, medical and economic benefits of opiate replacement therapy (ORT), only half of all federal and state prison systems offer ORT with the medications methadone and buprenorphine, and only in very limited circumstances.

In addition, only 23 states provide treatment referrals for some inmates upon release from prison. Guidelines issued by both the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say prisoners should be offered ORT for treatment of opiate dependence.

"Pharmacological treatment of opiate dependence is a proven intervention, is cost-effective and reduces drug-related disease and reincarceration rates, yet it remains underutilized in U.S. prison systems," said Amy Nunn, ScD, the study's lead author and an assistant professor of medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. "Improving correctional policies for addiction treatment could dramatically improve prisoner and community health as well as reduce both taxpayer burden and reincarceration rates."

Josiah Rich, MD, MPH, co-director of the Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights at The Miriam Hospital and Alpert Medical School, believes that addiction treatment is as crucial as treatment of other long-term chronic diseases.

"Opiate addiction, like all forms of addiction, causes long-term changes to the structure and functioning of the brain, which is why it is classified as a disease," he said. "Addiction requires treatment just as other chronic diseases, like diabetes and cancer, do. Unfortunately, there is a large gap between the number of prisoners who require addiction treatment and those who actually receive it."

(Source: www.eurekalert.com)

Labels: addiction, heroin, opiates, substance abuse, treatment

According to a story appearing this week in The New York Times, addiction experts are testing the use of heroin to treat heroin addicts who are unresponsive to other treatment methods. The study is the first rigorous test of the new approach performed in North America. The results are appearing in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

In the study, researchers in Canada recruited 225 long-term heroin addicts who had failed to improve using other treatment methods, including methadone maintenance therapy. The researchers randomly assigned about half of the addicts to methadone treatment and the other half to receive daily injections of diacetylmorphine (the active ingredient in heroin).

After one year, 88 percent of those who received injections were still in the study and two-thirds of those had significantly reduced their heroin use and use of other illicit drugs. Of those in the methadone group, however, only 54 percent were still in the study and 48 percent had curbed their drug use.

Methadone has long been considered the best chemical treatment for heroin addiction because it is a chemical cousin of heroin that prevents withdrawal but does not produce the same high. Dr. Joshua Boverman, a psychiatrist at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, comments on the results of the study and the reason why methadone does not appear to work as well as heroin in the treatment of heroin addiction: "It showed that heroin works better than methadone in this population of users, and patients will be more willing to take it ... [perhaps the biggest weakness of methadone treatment is that] many patients don't want to take it; they just don't like it."

(Source: www.nytimes.com)

Labels: addiction, heroin, methadone, treatment

According to addiction experts, many people overuse or abuse prescription pain relievers because they mistakenly believe that prescription drugs are safer than street drugs like heroin, crack, or methamphetamines.

According to data from the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), non-medical use of painkillers resulted in approximately 8,500 deaths in 2005, and overdose deaths involving prescription pain medications jumped by about 114 percent between 2001 and 2005.

According to the ONDCP, prescription drug abuse is most common among young adults between the ages of 18 and 25. However, experts warn, people of all ages have the misconception that prescription drugs are not that dangerous.

Dr. Marvin Seppala, the chief medical officer at Hazelden, a drug and alcohol treatment center, comments: "I think people of all ages don't take medication as seriously as street drugs. There's sort of a naive belief they're safer. The truth is pain medications are in the same exact class as heroin, morphine -- they're very addictive."

In a 2007 study conducted by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, 15.5 percent of teenagers reported abusing prescription drugs and a significant number reported obtaining prescription drugs from a friend or family member, from a household medicine cabinet, or at a party.

Experts also warn that older adults are vulnerable to prescription drug addiction. Dr. Steven Juergens, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Washington and a private addiction specialist in Bellevue, Wash., comments, "Often what happens is someone experiences discomfort, anxiety, or pain. They start being treated with medicine, and need more. They're caught in this hell of using the drugs illicitly, not seeing it as a problem. It takes a while to unravel that."

(Source: cnn.com)

Labels: heroin, methamphetamines, painkillers, prescription-drug-abuse

Far from the big city, in the rolling farm county of rural Pennsylvania, residents are struggling with heroin addiction. This week, several community organizations hosted an informational session on the dangers of heroin, including a discussion of how accessible heroin has become in rural areas of the United States.

The informational session included a screening of a video titled "Heroin: Lives Forever Changed." A local couple, Kathy and Denzel Morgan, are featured in the video. The Morgans know firsthand about the deadly grip of heroin addiction. They lost their son, Jeremy, to a heroin overdose.

Jeremy attended the University of Pittsburgh and earned a degree in finance. It wasn't until he was starting a successful career as a financial analyst that he began using drugs. Jeremy was introduced to heroin by friends, and his parents tried to help him recover, accompanying him to inpatient and outpatient drug treatment programs.

Jeremy died from a heroin overdose in 2007 at the age of 29. Jeremy's story counters cultural stereotypes about heroin users.

Armstrong County District Attorney, Scott Andreassi, comments on the new face of heroin addiction, saying, "The classic junkie stereotypes that we used to know are right out the window. There's nothing, no income section that drugs -- especially heroin -- hasn't affected."

(Source: www.pittsburghlive.com)

Labels: addiction, drug-abuse, heroin

According to new findings by Swiss researchers, cocaine and heroin in combination with methadone harm the placenta by increasing its permeability. This permeability increases the exposure of the unborn fetus to harmful chemicals, especially the drugs themselves.

Antoine Malek, lead researcher at Zurich University Hospital's Department of Obstetrics, commented on the findings: "As the consumption of illegal drugs, especially cocaine, is increasing in many countries, our results concerning cocaine and heroin causing an increased [chemical] transfer may improve the practical management in monitoring pregnant women."

Malek warns that "more toxic substances or bacteria and viruses may cross the placenta and harm the fetus. Previous studies have reported increased prevalence of infectious diagnoses in cocaine-exposed infants."

(Source: www.sciencedaily.com)

Labels: cocaine, heroin, methadone

Lawmakers in Massachusetts are calling the recent spike in heroin and OxyContin (a chemical cousin of heroin) abuse the worst epidemic to ever hit the state.

At a public hearing last week on drug abuse, state Sen. Steven Tolman commented on the frightening trend: "OxyContin and heroin abuse are destroying lives and tearing families apart throughout Massachusetts and the nation. It does not discriminate based on age, race, sex or geographic region."

Massachusetts has established a 13-member OxyContin and Heroin Commission, which is being led by Sen. Holman, during the 2007-2008 legislative session. The commission's mandate is to study and recommend solutions to increasing rates of opiate abuse. In 10 years, abuse of prescription OxyContin has increased by 1,000 percent. During the same time period, abuse of heroin has jumped by 52 percent.

Sen. Tolman emphasizes that the battle against opiate abuse is really a war, and that lives are at stake. At the hearing, he put the struggle in context: "Between 2002 and 2007, we lost 78 soldiers on the streets and battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, but buried 3,265 citizens during that same period [because of overdoses]. Folks, that's 42-1 to what we're losing in war. We need to change the way we address this problem and, most importantly, we need to find solutions rather than pretend it isn't going on."

(Source: www.iberkshires.com)

Labels: drug-abuse, heroin, OxyContin

On Dec. 16, 2007, 23-year-old Cyrus Moinzadeh overdosed on OxyContin and died. Moinzadeh was smart (spoke three languages) and well-liked, but spent time with a group of young people who frequently abused the drug.

Of Cyrus' five closest friends from high school, three have died from drug overdoses. OxyContin, a chemical relative of heroin, is frequently prescribed as painkiller for back pain, cancer pain, bone fractures, and other severe injuries. Many teenagers obtain the drug over the Internet from unscrupulous companies in Canada and Mexico.

OxyContin is produced as a time-release tablet, so non-medical users will often smash up the pills to snort them or melt them to smoke (they will place the pills on foil and apply heat from underneath). Scott Henderson of the San Diego Police Department narcotics division advises parents to be aware of their teenagers' activities.

Henderson recommends looking on teens' Facebook and MySpace pages, because that's commonly where they exchange information about getting drugs. Henderson also said to be on the lookout for the tinfoil used to smoke it since Oxy leaves black charred streaks. "If you're running out of tin foil and you don't make a lot of casseroles, I'm telling you right now something is amiss."

(Source: www.delmartimes.com)

Labels: heroin, OxyContin, prescription-drug-abuse

One year ago, Alicia Lannes, a 19-year-old from Fairfax Virginia, died of heroin overdose. Her death initiated a federal investigation into a heroin ring in Centreville, Virginia. Four young men, current and former students of a local high school, received sentences from four to 20 years for their involvement in the ring. Alicia's boyfriend was also charged with providing the heroin that killed her.

This week, Alicia's father, Greg Lannes, spoke out about heroin use in the suburban community, saying, "It's not some inner-city issue. ... We want the impact of our pain to be felt by the community."

Local police report that heroin use is a growing and unsettling trend among local high school students, many of them from privileged backgrounds. Fairfax County Police Commander Ron Lantz commented, "We're seeing kids on the honor roll, band students, kids in athletics and sports ... become involved in heroin." (Source: www.msnbc.msn.com)

Labels: addiction, heroin, teenagers