Category Archives: Drugs

DENVER - Fake drugs are coming into Colorado from all over the world. Those are the findings of investigators with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). "We have a number of ongoing investigations," said Kumar Kibble, Special Agent in charge of ICE-HSI in Denver. ICE-HSI, in partnership with the Department of Justice, seized 686 websites that were illegally selling counterfeit medications. Project "Bitter Pill" is part of a global law enforcement operation known as "Pangea V." According to an ICE press release, "Pangea is an annual operation aimed at disrupting the organized crime networks behind the illicit online sale of fake drugs. Worldwide, preliminary results show Pangea has accounted for 79 arrests and the seizure of 3.7 million doses of potentially life-threatening counterfeit medicines worth an estimated value of $10.5 million. Additionally, approximately 18,000 websites engaged in illegal sale of counterfeit drugs were taken down." Kibble says those sites will sell counterfeit drugs to anyone, even people without a prescription. "Their money is going to fund an organized criminal network that is then using those proceeds to continue to push fake and potentially harmful drugs around the world," Kibble said. A quick Google search will pop up … Continue reading →

Editors Note: This is the first article in a three-part series on drug addiction in Dedham. Other articles in this series will tackle the personal stories and town response. In 2012 alone, Dedham Police responded to three fatal drug overdoses. Drug addiction is also responsible for countless robberies in town, according to Dedham Police detectives Robert Walsh and Kevin Mahoney. They deal with the lions share of the departments drug cases. Drug use is probably one of the bigger issues facing Dedham, Walsh said recently in his office on High Street. But Ill also say this: its no bigger a problem here than it is anywhere else. Police are working to control the problem, but Walsh and Mahoney said they are getting overwhelmed. The need for drugs and the money to buy them drives people to shoplift, steal from family members and break into cars and homes. Finding a way to reverse the trend toward addiction could go a long way toward improving life in town, they said. The primary cause of the widespread problem is the explosive growth of opiate pain medications pills like Percocet and OxyContin which contain habit-forming active ingredients, according to a recent statewide drug report. … Continue reading →

The world has watched the crescendoing pushback, coming mostly from Latin America, against the United States-dominated "war on drugs" for the past three years with incredulity as the drug policy debate continues to mark new firsts. First, in 2009, it was former presidents from Latin America who declared the war on drugs was an outright failure (they were later joined by officials and business leaders from around the globe communicating a similar message). Then, sitting presidents from across the region began to speak out, urging the US to rethink policies that they say have only contributed to more violence and mayhem in Latin America. This spring they pushed the topic onto the agenda for the summit of the Organization of American States (OAS), which for the first time agreed to study alternative drug policies. And then Uruguay proposed a state-regulated legal marijuana market that would be the first of its kind. But now, Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico hardly liberal bastions have taken the matter a step further. The Latin American countries, each threatened by drug violence, sent a clearly worded declaration to the United Nations, inviting member states to undertake a consultation process to come up with more effective drug … Continue reading →

Despite fallout from Americas war on drugs being the reason why he wanted to make his new documentary film, director Eugene Jarecki wasnt originally planning to include himself in The House I Live In. But in recounting the ongoing drug wars history of calamitous effects on all Americans, the acclaimed director of Why We Fight, a 2006 documentary that dissected Americas military-industrial complex, realized he couldnt exclude the drug wars impact on him. I was afraid of putting myself in the way, taking away screentime from incredibly sensitive and valuable lives, Jarecki tells TakePart. It is a movie about many, many people all across America, all walks of life who suffer and are victims of the drug war whether theyre in law enforcement or theyre locked upall the victims who have been touched by the drug war and its bankrupt morality. MORE: Guatemalas President: Stop the War on Drugs Urged on by his friend Harry Belafonte, who saw an early cut of The House I Live In, Jarecki began his film with the story of Nannie Jeter, his African-American caretaker. Caught in the trap of financially supporting her own children while not being able to stay at home with them, … Continue reading →

4 October 2012 Last updated at 08:13 ET Tens of thousands of illegally imported and unauthorised prescription drugs, destined for Northern Ireland addresses have been seized. They were seized as part of Operation Pangea V, an international initiative targeting the illegal internet trade in such products. Drugs recovered in NI included more than 55,000 benzodiazepines. Pain relief medicines and unidentified psychoactive substances were also confiscated. Health Minister Edwin Poots made the announcement on Thursday as he launched a publicity campaign to increase public awareness of the dangers of medicines available on the internet. He said the "risk to the public due to illegal or counterfeit medicines cannot be understated" and the issue could not be tackled by the Department of Health "in isolation". "This campaign shows the stark reality of buying medicines online," he added. "The message is clear, it could cost you your life." A total of 100 countries and 193 agencies participated in Operation Pangea V. It ran from 25 September to 2 October. More here: Thousands of illegal drugs seized … Continue reading →

Published: Wednesday, October 3, 2012 at 5:28 p.m. Last Modified: Wednesday, October 3, 2012 at 5:28 p.m. Shop owners in the city of Ocala who sell synthetic drugs, such as those known as bath salts, spice or potpourri, may find themselves at odds with Ocala Police or the city's code enforcement officers. The Ocala City Council on Tuesday voted 4-0 to amend the drugs and prostitution ordinance by prohibiting the sale of synthetic drugs in the city limits. "Hopefully, it will be ground-breaking, if it works," City Attorney Patrick Gilligan said about the ordinance. "It's a difficult prosecution." Gilligan told council members that makers of the synthetic drugs change their formulas faster than federal officials can list them as illegal in the federal statutes' schedule of drugs, which the state adopts. Synthetic drugs often are sold in stores as household items and can have effects similar to and sometimes stronger than illegal drugs such as cocaine. Gilligan explained that when a drug arrest is made, the substance is sent to a laboratory to be tested for composition. The results confirm that a drug is, for example, cocaine. However, if the substance is made of a composition that is not listed … Continue reading →

A new study questions the long-standing practice of prescribing beta blocker pills to patients with heart disease. Analyzing an international registry of 44,708 patients with heart disease or at risk of developing it, a team of researchers compared patients who took the drugs with those who did not and found no difference in their rates of heart attack, stroke or death related to cardiovascular problems. This confirms my intrinsic suspicion, said Dr. P.K. Shah, director of cardiology at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, who was not involved in the study. Beta adrenergic blockers have long been among the bestselling drugs. They counteract the effects of adrenaline, slowing the heart and lowering blood pressure. The first beta blockers were approved more than four decades ago for heart-related chest pain, but the list of approved uses grew to include hypertension, arrhythmia, migraines and heart failure. Those uses are not questioned in the current study, published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. Some beta blockers are approved for treatment of patients after heart attacks, based on several studies suggesting that they prevent subsequent attacks. Extrapolating from that data, doctors also began prescribing the drugs for heart disease patients who had never … Continue reading →

irishtimes.com - Last Updated: Wednesday, October 3, 2012, 08:13 Generic drugs company Aspen is to expand its Dublin operation with the creation of 44 jobs. Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton announced plans for Aspen to set up a regulatory, quality assurance and supply projects centre of excellence in Citywest. Pharmaceuticals is a major sector of strength for Ireland, with nine out of the top 10 global companies located here, said Mr Bruton. However a key part of the Governments plan for jobs and growth is targeting the areas of growth within what is a changing sector in particular, generics. Aspen set up shop in Ireland in 2010, which has since become its European marketing and supply chain headquarters. The new jobs, supported by IDA Ireland, will bring the companys total workforce in Ireland to 58. The firm is the worlds largest producer of HIV drugs in South Africa. Aspen group chief executive Stephen Saad said Ireland has a workforce with the specialised skills the company requires. He said it also boasts a strong regulatory and business environment. I am delighted to see the continued growth of Aspen here in Ireland, he added. Meanwhile, IDA chief executive Barry … Continue reading →

The senseless Batman killings in Aurora, Colorado, as well as those that occurred years earlier in Columbine a few miles away, have something in common with the number one cause of overdose deaths in the United States and an important potential cause of teen suicide: prescription drugs approved as safe and effective by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). As an Austrian economist, I am not saying that FDA-approved drugs "caused" these problems. The people who took those drugs and did those things are the people who "caused" those bad outcomes. What I am saying is that the FDA is guilty of manipulating information and people's choices and thereby contributes to all these negative outcomes.[1] I am also not saying that all FDA-approved drugs are inherently harmful, ineffective, or should never be used. Most importantly, FDA-approved drugs and products help to make Americans fatter, weaker, dumber, sicker, poorer, and in general less healthy. We have been lulled into substituting prescription drugs for healthy lifestyles. "You don't need to correct unhealthy conditions in your life, just take this pill everyday for the rest of your life. The experts at the FDA have approved it and your doctor has advised you to … Continue reading →

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - Oct 3, 2012) - Methylation treatments that can re-activate stagnant "controller" genes might be a common cancer treatment in the near future, according to Kalorama Information. In a new report, the healthcare market research publisher said that of the rapidly-developing epigenetic approaches -- treatments based on new theories outside of what was previously the mainstream thinking of genomics (not involving DNA base pair alterations), these drugs are the more realistic bet. The report, "Epigenetics: Applications for Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics (Methylation, Histone Modification and miRNA expression)," suggests that most new epigenetic drugs will be methylation-based, while other epigenetic candidates such as miRNA treatments will take longer to see marketability. Methylation of genes is a mechanism that is associated with cancer but can be reversible with the right drugs. It is the process by which stretches of alternating "Cs" and "Gs" -- the cytosine and guanine acids that represent two of the four acids in human DNA -- are modified through the production of methane-derived alkyls and the addition to the "C" acids, the cytosines. When "controller" genes are methylized, they are shut off and in turn, shut down the structural genes that they control. This is not … Continue reading →