New Directions Conference

The war on drugs is starting to take a turn. Any turn is probably better than the current way things are being handled. The chemical dependency counselor community has been waiting for a conference of change on the war on drugs. The "New Directions Conference" will be held to " examine the decades-old ramifications of President Nixons's war on drugs". We will see the outcome of this conference shortly and may be expecting a new addiction cure. 

"On Saturday, March 19th, an unprecedented collection of community advocates, service providers, public safety personnel and public health professionals will come together at a day-long conference to chart a new course in drug policy that could serve as a model for the nation. The New Directions conference will examine the decades-old ramifications of President Nixon’s declaration of the “war on drugs” in urban communities like Newark and African American communities in particular.

One of the unique themes of the conference will be how the war on drugs has increased prohibition-related violence, leading to declines in property values, the evaporation of local businesses, and an array of social ills in urban areas. Convened at Bethany Baptist Church, one of the oldest and largest African American churches in Newark, the conference will speak to the unique concerns and viewpoints of communities of color as they look for new ways to reduce the harms of drug use and drug prohibition. The conference will serve as a model for cities across the nation looking for new directions and strategies for ending the war on drugs.

Drug policy experts from across the country and around the globe will discuss topics including: reducing crime and incarceration, effectively addressing addiction, treating drug use as a health issue, communities of color and the war on drugs, and drug policy lessons and models from abroad. The keynote address will be given by Michelle Alexander, whose book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, has sparked a national discussion about the drug war’s disparate impact on communities of color. 

When asked about the war on drugs on the campaign trail, President Barack Obama said, “I believe in shifting the paradigm, shifting the model, so that we focus more on a public health approach [to drugs].” Polls show the American people agree. President Obama’s drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, told the Wall Street Journal last year that he doesn’t like the term “war on drugs” because “[w]e’re not at war with people in this country.” Yet for the tens of millions of Americans who have been arrested and incarcerated for a drug offense, U.S. drug policy is a war on them—and their families. What exactly is a public health approach to drugs? What might truly ending the war on drugs look like? 

“We see the impact of the ‘drug war’ first hand, where so many people are incarcerated for being economically disadvantaged by the disappearance of work,” says Bethany Baptist Church pastor, Reverend William Howard. “Afterwards, they are virtually permanently barred from the legal workforce for the rest of their lives. We must take our stand against the destructive scourge of drug abuse and trafficking by developing new, sensible strategies that solve more problems than they create.”

The conference will be guided by four principles:

The war on drugs has failed and it is time for a new approach to drug policy.
Effective drug policy balances prevention, harm reduction, treatment and public safety.
Alcohol and other drug use is fundamentally a health issue and must be addressed as such.
Drug policies must be based on science, compassion, health and human rights.

Panel members and conference speakers include:

· Rev. Dr. M. William Howard, Jr., pastor, Bethany Baptist Church
· Ethan Nadelmann, executive director, Drug Policy Alliance
· Paula T. Dow, New Jersey Attorney General
· Garry F. McCarthy, police director, City of Newark
· Michelle Alexander, Esq., associate professor, Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law and the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity; Author, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
· Beny Primm, MD, executive director, Addiction, Research and Treatment Corporation, Brooklyn, New York
· Todd Clear, dean, School of Criminal Justice, Rutgers University
· Donald MacPherson, former drug policy coordinator, City of Vancouver
· Alex Stevens, professor of Criminal Justice, School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, University of Kent, Chatham, UK
· Stephanie Bush-Baskette, Esq., Author and Director of the Joseph C. Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies at Rutgers University
· Deborah Peterson Small, Founder and Executive Director, Break the Chains: Communities of Color & the War on Drugs

For a full list of panel members, go to: http://www.drugpolicy.org/docUploads..._REFERENCE.pdf

The Drug Policy Alliance is co-hosting the 2011 New Directions conference with the Bethany Baptist Church. For more information on the conference visit:
http://www.bethany-newark.org/"

Anthony Papa, 
AlterNet

Source:http://www.alternet.org/story/150289/

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Announcements and Events!

First on the list of upcoming events we have the 3-Day Equine Training course with Mickey Troxell! This will be a coloboration between Newport Academy and Pegasus( Centaur's Partner Company ). Level one is held from April 28-30! This is a great way to continue education or get into horse therapy and chemical dependency counseling!! More details in the picture below and this link.

 

We also have an upcoming C.E.U ( Continuing Education Unit) course coming up on May 22 a Sunday from 9-5 for a total of 8 C.E.U's. The cost will be $175 and it will be taught by Jerry Brown!

 

Address: 301 E 17th St STE 206, Costa Mesa, CA, 92627

 

Phone: 949-646-8018

 

This event will be hosted by Centaur University with C.E.U's given by Pegasus. So, basically, this course is through Pegasus. It is called...

 

"Group Therapy With Dual Diagnosis Patients- A Novel Approach"

It will cover the following...

 

• MENTAL  DISORDERS EXPLORED
• Addiction Disorders Explored

Participants must attend to receive credit.

Remember you can always call Centaur University for any questions! Use the number listed above. Thank you!!

 

If you are interested in getting your counselor degree extremely fast to become a chemical dependency counselor, then feel FREE to visit CentaurUniversity.com!

 

Utrecht, a Marijuana Cooperative

The city of Utrecht, a very liberal soft drug city, is having a small war of sides on whether or not they will allow a cooperative to grow marijuana in your backyard. The chemical dependency counselor and addiction physiology community over there will probably have this overturned, but it is still frightening that people are pushing so hard to pass these laws!

"AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Dutch city of Utrecht wants cannabis smokers to grow their own marijuana in a cooperative, a move which would go against the Netherlands’ drive to discourage soft drug use.

It also would be illegal, the government said.

The Netherlands has one of the most liberal soft drugs policies in Europe and the use of marijuana is legal but the mass cultivation of cannabis plants is illegal and controlled by criminal groups.

“We want to tackle this in the experiment. If you have some users grow the cannabis you remove it from the criminal and illegal scene,” Utrecht’s alderman Victor Everhardt told Dutch public broadcaster NOS on Thursday.

Utrecht is the Netherlands’ fourth-largest city, about 50 km (30 miles) southwest of Amsterdam.

By controlled cultivation, the quality also would be guaranteed and reduce health hazards, Everhardt said.

A Dutch citizen can grow a maximum of five cannabis plants at home for personal use, and the city wants weed users to unite in a cooperative.

The Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice said, however, the plan was illegal and would face prosecution if implemented.

“The soft drugs policy does not allow for the collection of plants and to grow, for instance, 500 plants,” the ministry spokesman said.

For the past several years, the Netherlands has been cracking down on the use and sale of cannabis and hashish by closing down shops and limiting the sale to foreigners because of health effects and criminal activities linked to production."

Gilbert Kreijger Reuters
March 11, 2011

 

Source:http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=156626

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12 Step Statistics are Avaliable

Here are some of the stats from the 12 step program. It was conducted in 2007 and now they are avaliable for the public to see! In chemical dependency its nice to be able to see the long term healing that has taken place in so many people's lives! If you want to get you counselor degree head over to CentaurUniversity.com

Source: http://www.bettyfordcenter.org/recovery/recovery/12-step-survey-results-avail...

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America's Longest War

Drugs are not used by just hippies, bums, and tweakers alone! According to chemical dependency counseling and addiction physiology, drugs are used by average people. We shouldnt be shunning drug users away, but rather loving them and helping them reach a recovery! Drugs are becoming just another thing people use to get through the day. Some people can't even function properly, they say, without the drugs. 

"America's longest running war is not in Afghanistan or Iraq. It's the 40-year war on drugs -- and the war on drugs is a war on us.

Last year more than 1,600,000 people were arrested in the United States on a drug charge. Almost half of them -- 750,000 -- were arrested for marijuana possession alone. Our government spends more than $40 billion a year trying to make us a "drug-free society," yet drugs are as readily available as ever before.

Nancy Reagan told us to "Just Say No," but in reality we are a society swimming in drugs. Coffee, cigarettes, Prozac, weed, steroids, Ritalin, alcohol -- that's just a sample of the drugs that people take to get through the day.

How does our government get away breaking down our doors, pointing guns at our heads, and locking us in cages over the substances we choose to put in our own body? They do it through fear and racism, and by dividing us. We need to break down the false divisions between people who use illicit and legal drugs. The people divided will always be defeated.

Too often, when people think of a "drug user," they envision someone panhandling on the street, or some other person who's life is in disarray -- someone "not me." But the reality is that most Americans are drug users in one way or another. People who use certain drugs think of themselves as superior or feel no connection to people who use other drugs. Most alcohol and cigarettes users don't even consider themselves drugs users or addicts because their drug of choice is legal. Marijuana smokers often think of themselves above the "hardcore" people who use cocaine or methamphetamine because they tell themselves that their drug of choice is a safe medicine. And people who get their sleeping pills or antidepressants from doctors look down at those who use drugs that are almost identical but just so happen to come from the streets.

Ironically, cigarette smokers are becoming increasingly marginalized. While they may have been glamorous in the past, these days they are looked down upon and made to feel both stupid and dirty. "Keep that stinking, deadly smoke away from me." No more smoking at beaches and parks. Hospitals announcing that they won't hire people who smoke because of health care costs. People asking out loud why anyone would be choose to kill themselves with the "cancer sticks." For many years cigarette smokers looked down their noses at marijuana smokers and were silent as the hundreds of thousands of people were arrested a year -- and now they're experiencing similar stigma and discrimination, and can see criminalization just over the horizon.

It's time for us to break down our divisions. Marijuana smokers and cigarettes smokers, people who use legal or illegal, those who take "soft" and "hard" drugs -- we are all on the same team.

I'm reminded of Pastor Martin Niemoller's famous quote describing the rise of the Nazis: "First they came for the communists and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me."

We have to learn how to live with drugs, because drugs have been around for thousands of years and will be here for thousands more. We need to educate people about the possible harms of drug use, offer compassion and treatment to people who have problems, and leave in peace the people who are not causing harm to others. And we need to take action against the incarceration of so many of our brothers and sisters who are suffering behind bars because of the substance that they choose to use."

-Tony Newman, 

Tony Newman is communications director for the Drug Policy Alliance.

Source:http://www.alternet.org/story/150136/
 

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Drug Use at Work

I recently posted this article on our partner's blogging network, but I thought it would be relevant and worth sharing here too! After all statistics like these need to be spread around the chemical dependency counseling community. Hopefully these stats wont shock you and you can help make a difference with addiction physiology! :)

"First, the good news, such as it is: The number of Americans using cocaine while at work has declined sharply in the past couple of years, falling 29% between 2008 and 2009 alone, to about .29% of the population.

Now, the more disquieting news: Since the federal government tightened testing requirements last October, drug testing of employees like pilots, airplane mechanics, and train operators has revealed that twice as many employees as previously believed are using heroin and the use of prescription painkillers on the job is soaring.

To be sure, the percentage of heroin users is tiny -- .04% from January to June 2010 -- but that is nonetheless a 20% jump from the .0008% positive rate revealed by the old testing methods, which used urine samples. The new technique relies instead on oral fluid, a much more efficient means of finding the heroin marker, known as 6-acetylmorphine.
"It's still a low incidence rate," says Dr. Barry Sample, who runs the employer drug testing business at Quest Diagnostics, which based its findings on the results of more than 350,000 random drug tests. "Even so, you don't want to see anyone in a public safety role test positive.

"We're also seeing dramatic increases in on-the-job use of prescription opiates like oxycodone and oxymorphone," sold under the brand names Vicodin and Oxycontin, among others, he says. Results from more than 5.5 million tests showed an 18% jump in opiate positives between 2008 and 2009, and a rise of over 40% since 2005.
Post-accident employee drug tests are four times as likely to show employee use of opiates than pre-employment drug screening (3.7% post-accident versus .78% pre-employment, in the case of hydrocodone), suggesting that the substances have played a role in workplace accidents.
What's causing workers to come to work impaired?

"Stress in the workplace, which can play a role in increased substance use, has amplified in recent years due to job insecurity and a trend toward working longer hours," says a report from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Heath Services Administration.

The agency says that, of the 20.3 million adults in the U.S. classified as having substance use disorders in 2008 -- the latest year for which figures are available --15.8 million were employed either full or part-time.
To combat the problem, most employers offer employee assistance programs (EAPs), including drug and alcohol counseling. There's just one problem: Even employees who want to get help "are often reluctant because of fears that the counseling is not really confidential," notes Ruth Donahue, a benefits specialist in the Chicago office of human resources consultants The Segal Company.

"That's a particular concern in safety-sensitive jobs, where people know that even an inkling of a substance-abuse problem is grounds for immediate dismissal," Donahue says.

The notion that seeking help from an EAP is risky is an unfortunate misperception: EAPs are designed to be truly confidential and are usually managed by outside providers who reveal nothing to employers.
"Even the billing, unlike medical-insurance claims, is completely anonymous," says Donahue. "Employers need to convince people of that. They're doing a better job of it recently, but we still have a long way to go.""

Source: http://management.fortune.cnn.com/20...an-we-thought/

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Mass Home Grown Opiate.

The industry for pain killers is rising in Australia and now its starting to become worth more than ever. In addiction physiology and chemical dependency counseling, pain killers are a huge problem for many people. Their addiction and dependency are so subtle and deadly and require a heavy addiction cure. More on the story...

Home-grown opiate of the masses

THE only Australian-owned poppy processor, TPI Enterprises, this year expects its biggest output since the company began production only three years ago - and by next year it will be one of the two biggest producers of opium derivatives in the world.

Founded in 2004, TPI reckons it will rank as one of the world's top two producers of morphine and thebaine (an opium derivative used in treatment of drug addiction), ''if not the largest in terms of production capacity,'' founder and chief executive Jarrod Ritchie confidently predicts.
Not bad for a company that was nearly sunk by a four-year legal battle started by multi-national drug giant GlaxoSmithKline. GSK had alleged that the TPI founder had taken advantage of knowledge he had gained in the seven years he worked at the company's poppy plant at Port Fairy. Mr Ritchie sold all his personal assets to fund his defence, and even represented himself for a while because of limited resources.

The Victorian Supreme Court ruled against GSK in what was described as a comprehensive rebuke of the multinational.

Now TPI, which is an unlisted public company, is thriving.
''Last year we spent $2 million on new capital expenditure, doubled our workforce, increased our scientific research and development capacities, and [we] plan to invest millions more as we grow and develop,'' Mr Ritchie said.

TPI competes with two of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, GlaxoSmithKline and Johnson & Johnson, which have processed Tasmanian poppies since the late 1960s.
Competitors are in Spain and France. Most morphine bought by the US comes from less well-controlled poppy-growing countries such as Turkey and India because of a US Drug Enforcement Administration program aimed at curbing illegal heroin production by buying the crop from local farmers.

Mr Ritchie says TPI's edge over the giants it faces is a revolutionary water-based extraction process he and associates developed over the past decade that he says produces higher quality and is more efficient, cheaper and more environmentally friendly than solvent-based processes used by competitors.

The economies and efficiencies achieved, as well as the growing international market, allowed TPI to increase prices paid to farmers and increase acreages under poppy production, Mr Ritchie said. ''A kilo of morphine, sitting in a store, is worth $150 to $200 a kilogram. That's what we pay our farmers, about 60 per cent of our cost. In Spain they pay $100 to $125.''

With the new process proven and development under way of a high-yield hybrid poppy based on a plant bred in Israel, TPI embarked on the long and difficult process of obtaining federal and Tasmanian state government permission to buy poppies from farmers and sell the product.

A farmer cannot plant poppies until he has a contract to sell to an approved extraction company, which can buy from the farmer only if it has a contract to sell the drugs extracted to approved buyers - all before a single gram of morphine can be produced.

Mr Ritchie says production of opium-derived painkilling drugs such as morphine and codeine, as well as of thebaine, is a fast-growing industry, driven by the needs of the world's ageing population and by burgeoning demand from prosperous middle classes in India and China.

Tasmania, the only Australian state permitted by federal law to grow poppies (''because it has a whacking great moat around it,'' Mr Ritchie quips) now produces about half the world's concentrated poppy straw (the opiates crystallised out of dried poppy heads) from which morphine, codeine and thebaine are extracted.

Tasmania's poppy production will be worth more than $30 million at the farm gate this year and several times more than that as pharmaceutical drugs.

''Our expertise is the extraction [of drugs] from plants and other natural sources,'' he said. ''That and meeting strict regulations governing the production and handling of the product.
''We are looking at other of these naturally occurring drugs. The anti-cancer chemotherapy drug Taxol, for example, which comes from the Pacific yew tree.''
Such drugs required a lot of water and Tasmania was ideally placed to develop such agri-based industries, he said.

''Agriculture is in a very interesting state of flux in Tasmania at the moment. Historically there has been a lot of broad-acre agriculture, but that doesn't suit a small area with a lot of water.

''For example, Tasmania competes in potatoes with the US, but one American grower on one farm produces more potatoes than the whole of Tasmania. So we can't compete. We're just holding on to a traditional industry, and not making much money from it.''
Tasmanian farmers should get into high water-demand crops with good value and short shelf life, he said.
Niche products were needed, not broad-acre crops - peas, potatoes and so on.
''The writing is already on the wall,'' Mr Ritchie said. ''We should be using our resources to ensure we tap into our natural assets.
''We have 60 per cent of the world's uranium, so energy is not a problem going forward, but we are not value-adding to the same degree as a lot of other countries.''

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/business/homeg...205-1ahq4.htm
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DEA Media Rountable

Well, the DEA got together and is discussing the ongoing attack of "bath salts". The bans they keep placing out soon get replaced by new drugs, even to chemical dependency counseling and addiction physiology. No addiction cure has been made because of how fast these new grugs are coming on the market. Like the article says...

It's frustrating people are willing to sell these products, knowing they're harmful

"The United States Drug Enforcement Administration hosted a media roundtable on synthetic drugs this morning. DEA Special Agent Gary Boggs discussed synthetic cannabanoids (commonly found in "herbal incense" like spice) and newer products being sold as "bath salts" that generally contain synthetic compounds said to produce effects similar to meth and cocaine.

Boggs discussed the DEA's ongoing efforts to emergency schedule five synthetic cannabanoids, and also talked about what recent lab tests found in so-called "bath salts." As we previously reported, the DEA announced its intention to place an emergency ban on the chemical compounds JWH-018, JWH-073, JWH-200, CP-47, 497, and cannabicyclohexanol (all commonly used in spice blends). Boggs discussed, among other things, why the ban has not taken effect yet.

When emergency scheduling a drug, Boggs says the DEA must look at three factors: the current and historical pattern of abuse, the scope and duration of abuse, and the public risk. (They must analyze eight factors for a full, permanent ban.) The Department of Health and Human Services must do medical and scientific evaluations of the substances under the proposed ban. One problem, Boggs says, is that some synthetic drugs are so new that the data the DEA's required to look at when considering a ban is limited.

Boggs couldn't say when the DEA emergency ban on synthetic cannabinoids would be in effect, but the DEA will post a final notice on the federal register when it is. Under the emergency scheduling guidelines, the DEA has one year to finish research and enforce the ban, with a possible six month extension. Boggs says permanent scheduling of drugs can take years. The fact that spice retailers in Minnesota have filed a lawsuit against the DEA may slow the process even more (the lawsuit is pending).

The spice chemicals are different from any drugs the DEA has previously emergency scheduled in that they're the first such drugs being sold in retail outlets. That's not the only way the game has changed. Boggs, who's been an agent with DEA for more than 20 years, says synthetics have really taken off in the Digital Age. "Synthetics are not new, but right now, we're seeing a lot more synthetics on the market," Boggs says, explaining that the evolution and popularity of synthetic drugs has exploded at a fast pace because of the Internet. "There's an increase in the availability of information -- whether it's good information or bad information -- and these products can be ordered over the Internet."

To get around the law, spice manufacturers and retailers are changing the chemicals compounds used in herbal incense to avoid the five specifically targeted in the ban. But Boggs says as soon as a synthetic substance is found to be chemically and pharmacologically similar to a controlled substance, they have the authority to ban it under the Federal Analogue Act. The problem is that there are so many chemical compounds being created the DEA couldn't possibly ban all of them right away. "Creative chemists are intentionally trying to circumvent drugs that are already scheduled," Boggs says.

Regarding bath salts, Boggs says DEA lab tests on products have found not only a synthetic stimulant called MDPV, but something called CFT, which Boggs said is a cocaine substitute. Bath salts generally also contain another synthetic stimulant called mephedrone. These synthetics are not controlled under the Controlled Substances Act, and the DEA is not pursuing an emergency ban on bath salts chemicals at this time. But some states -- Florida, Louisiana, North Dakota, and Hawaii -- have already taken action to ban these substances.

But Boggs stresses that just because something's not illegal yet, that doesn't mean it's safe. "Because they're not scheduled, people may think 'legal' means safe -- nothing could be farther from the truth," Boggs says.

"I'm concerned [about synthetics] in a couple ways. I'm not only an agent, but I'm also a parent and a grandparent," Boggs added. "People are willing to ingest things in their bodies -- and these products don't have the ingredients listed. There's a lot of information that shows how harmful they are, but people continue to use them."

Reported side effects from ingesting synthetic cannabinoids include compulsive re-dosing and loss of vision. Side effects from ingesting bath salts are said to include seizures and paranoia. The fact that spice and bath salts are labeled "not for human consumption" means nothing. Boggs says retailers know people buy their products for the active synthetic ingredients, not to use them as "incense" or "bath salts."

"It's frustrating people are willing to sell these products, knowing they're harmful.""

By Niki D'Andrea, 
Wed., Feb. 16 2011

Source:http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/jac...able_on_sy.ph
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Centaur University

We have slowly been getting more recognition in the community of chemical dependency counseling. Centaur University has been providing the opportunity for people of any age to help others find an addiction cure. In addiction physiology, people come up with hundreds if not thousands of strategies to help someone reach recovery. Centaur University is the fastest way you can get certification to help others with an addiction cure and join the chemical dependency counseling community! 

Young Canadian Pill Poppers

Well, this isn't a huge suprise at all! The dependency teens have been creating with pain killers is somethign that has been rising over the past few years, especially in chemical dependency counseling and addiction physiology. Its a sad thing :(...

"Recreational use of painkiller OxyContin jumps in Eastern Ontario, even as it levels off in rest of province

One in five Eastern Ontario high-school students has taken highly addictive painkillers such as OxyContin, Percocet and Demerol. And the recreational use of OxyContin among this region's teens is rising sharply, even as it levels off in other parts of the province.

Only alcohol and marijuana are more popular, according to the Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey, the country's longest ongoing study of teen habits.

Among Eastern Ontario's 308,000 students between grades 7 and 12, nearly 65,000, or 21 per cent, admit-ted having taken a prescription painkiller at least once in 2009, the last time the survey was conducted.

Since 2005, when the survey began tracking OxyContin use in particular, the rate of Eastern Ontario students who reported taking the drug has jumped nearly threefold, from 0.6 to 1.6 per cent. That translates to more than 4,900 young people in a region stretching from Algonquin Park to the Quebec border.

"It was a big surprise for us to see how common these drugs are," said Robert Mann, a senior scientist at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and one of the survey's authors.

The survey confirms what police and public health officials already know is an epidemic that has pushed up rates of overdose deaths and drugstore robberies.

Addiction treatment experts consider the survey results a conservative estimate since the poll only tracks students who attend school, not those who have dropped out or been expelled.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg," said Glenn Barnes, chief executive of the Dave Smith Youth Treatment Centre, Eastern Ontario's residential drug treatment facility for teens.

"You're missing all of those troubled kids who get kicked out (of school). My hunch is they're the ones who would be into more drugs than all of the kids in school combined."

While heavy drug use among teens has generally declined over the past two decades, Eastern Ontario is the only region to have bucked the provincial trend, driven by OxyContin's popularity.

The brand-name drug is a potent painkiller containing the opioid oxycodone, which delivers an initial rush of euphoria, much like heroin. Doctors prescribe oxycodone to help patients recovering from surgery, back injury or chronic pain, but the drug can also be highly addictive.

The growing popularity of Oxy-Contin as a recreational drug, particularly in rural communities, is an unintended consequence of a dramatic rise in prescriptions nationwide for oxycodone.

Compared to a decade ago, Canadians now use more prescription opioids per capita than any country but the United States and Belgium.

Police say the black market demand for OxyContin has taken off in recent years, as have thefts of prescription painkillers, turning pharmacies into targets for OxyContin robbers.

Within Eastern Ontario, Cornwall has become an epicentre of Oxy-Contin abuse, fuelling a sharp rise in petty crime. In the past 18 months, nine adults and teens have died from OxyContin-related overdoses. The area's public health unit, working with police, has formed a task force to tackle the problem.

"You can see why we're worried about it because it's something that people get hooked on very easily," said Dr. Paul Roumeliotis, the chief of public health for the rural counties surrounding Cornwall. "And because of the addiction and withdrawal, they'll go to any lengths -prostitution, crime -to feed their habit."

Unlike other street drugs, Oxy-Contin is relatively easy for teens to get, particularly if their parents or grandparents have prescriptions for it, said Roumeliotis.

And when teens become addicted to OxyContin, they are far less likely than addicts of alcohol or other types of drugs to seek help.

In his previous job as director of the Cornwall area's youth addictions treatment program, Barnes noticed "a frightening number" of teens who showed up in hospital emergency rooms after overdosing on OxyContin.

"Before these kids died, they were not looking for treatment," said Barnes.

Provincewide, more than 180,200 students between grades 7 and 12, or 18 per cent of all teens, have taken an opioid-based painkiller at least once without a doctor's prescription. Of that group, 16,700, or two per cent, have taken OxyContin.

More than half of OxyContin users reported having taken the drug once or twice a year; another 15 per cent admitted using the drug more than 10 times.

Among Ontario's regions, the highest rate of OxyContin use continues to be in the north (3.2 per cent), followed by the west (1.7). Since 2005, Toronto's rate has jumped from 0.8 to 1.3 per cent with no reliable data for 2009."

Pauline Tam

Feb. 27, 2011
Source:http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/...718/story.htm
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weGrow

It's the first of its kind and it's a very passive way of geting marijuana legalized. This isn't very good for chemical depenency counseling or addiction physiology. This building will become the centerplace for people looking to get the nessesary tools for growing, making, and learning about marijuana. Read on...

"(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) -- First there was Home Depot, now there is the Walmart of weed. That's the term being used to describe a store set to open in Sacramento on Saturday.

The 10,000 square foot marihuana emporium is the first of its kind, and is being billed as the place where growers of medical marijuana can come for supplies and training, according to a report by the Sacramento Bee. The store goes by the name weGrow, and while it does not actually sell marijuana, it offers all the necessary manufacturing tools and information.
The weGrow operation was born out of a warehouse in Oakland, Calif., and its operators are hoping it becomes the first national franchise of its kind. The company also plans to open stores in New Jersey, Colorado, Oregon, and Arizona."

ABC News Radio
Feb 27, 2011

Source:http://www.wtma.com/rssItem.asp?feed...temid=2963781
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