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Treatment

Europe, Treatment
Deadly sea snail venom is lifesaver for chronic pain patients
07.10.06 | Permalink | Comment?

In a very cool development, Prialt, a non-opiate, non-addictive painkiller aimed at those suffering from chronic pain, including cancer patients, which is 1,000 times more potent than morphine and based on the venom of a deadly sea snail, has just been launched in Britain. The venom of the Magician’s Cone Snail (Conus magus) is usually shot at nearby fish, paralysing them so that they can be eaten whole. The snail is found in coral reefs in the Pacific Ocean.
Europe, Treatment
DrugLine Lancashire Charity to Celebrate 20 Years
07.09.06 | Permalink | Comment?

Drugline Lancashire is a charity from the UK that is celebrating 20 years in existence.

At the moment they are trying to track down people who have volunteered over the last two decades in helping them out so they can all celebrate on August 4.

While I may be a cynic when it comes to federal or international organisations like the UNDOC, outfits like Drugline are the ones that are going to have real impact on a local level. These types of charities and the people who operate them are at the coalface of the drug problem and deserve far more credit and funding than any politician or bureaucrat does.
Europe, North America, People, Treatment
Free to Choose?
06.29.06 | Permalink | 1 Comment

There was a story recently in The Indianapolis Star about the murder of 54-year-old James Reese, a homeless man with a long history of drug & alcohol abuse and arrests, after he was attacked in his wheelchair by a cellmate in a county jail.

His death saddened those who knew him. Byron Davenport, a resident of Indianapolis who first met Reese playing baseball and basketball before both went on to attend the same high school in the late 60s, remembered him back then as having an affable outgoing person with great athletic abilities. It was when he got involved with a gang at school, and started consuming drugs and alcohol, that he reportedly went off the rails.

For the next thirty years after leaving high school he was constantly arrested for disorderly conduct and public intoxication, living and begging off the streets when he wasn’t in jail. During this time he was offered various opportunities by people and organisations that dealt with the homeless and drug & alcohol addictions, but spurned many of them.
Oceania, The Media, Treatment
Marijuana Criminals Learning Horticulture in Jail
06.25.06 | Permalink | Comment?

In Australia, a newspaper investigation has revealed that drug criminals are being taught the finer points of horticulture while serving time for drug crimes.

As part of the rehabilitation program to help drug criminal reintegrate into society, prisoners are often offered tertiary education courses from the country’s Tertiary and Further Education (TAFE) facilities.

One of the TAFE training modules on offer is a certificate in horticulture, which the paper alleges allows the prisoners to recommence their life of drug crime once released, but with additional skills allowing them to hone their methods.
North America, People, Treatment
Deborah Petree crashes through
06.16.06 | Permalink | 2 Comments

Perhaps if Deborah Petree had been delayed in her car for a few minutes on that day in 1996 when she had a car crash that made her a quadriplegic and slightly paralysed down her left side, she might not have become addicted to prescription narcotics and ended up in a jail cell three years ago, the lowest point of her life as well as its tipping point.

Or maybe if she had gotten into her car a few minutes earlier a few years ago when another former addict, Wayne Musselman, backed into her car, she wouldn’t have become friends, fallen in love and become his fiancée.

Then she might not have found in his house, which had been on the market for a year with no takers in sight, the venue for the realisation of her newly found purpose in life to set up a place where women could go to recover from their addictions away from old temptations and out of a desire to truly change their lives for themselves, just like she had managed to do.

W.A.D.E Freedom House in Jacksonville, Alabama might never have been born.
Europe, Treatment
Legitimising Drugs for the Terminally-ill
06.16.06 | Permalink | Comment?

A terminally-ill man in Cambridge in the UK has been let off by a magistrate after admitting to being in posession of cannabis resin and amphetamines.

The man, who was diagnosed with a terminal illness in 2003, was caught in a police raid with £10 worth of amphetamines and £85 worth of cannabis resin - an amount that could only be interpretted as being for personal use.
North America, People, Treatment
Deferred Sentencing Project gets its first graduate
06.12.06 | Permalink | Comment?

Jim Everly has just become the first graduate of a diversion program for convicted drug users that began in January 2005 in Hancock County, Maine. After being caught buying heroin he faced an 18-month jail sentence. But then his attorney heard about the newly launched Deferred Sentencing Project that provided an extended treatment program as an alternative to jail. He applied and was deemed to be eligible. After first going through a detox, he started the program in April 2005, along with 15 others.
Europe, Treatment
Rehab for Gamers
06.11.06 | Permalink | Comment?

A rehabilitation clinic for those adicted to computer games has opened in Amersterdam.

According to the director of the company, computer games can be just as addictive as gambling or drugs.

Now, I undertand that it could be as addictive as gambling. But drugs?
Studies, Treatment
Beyond will power and the patch!
06.09.06 | Permalink | Comment?

Science always seems to outdo itself. Time and time again it surprises and amazes me. Then again time and time again the question always begs to be asked “Is it getting too big for it’s own britches?” Or maybe science is “Generating more questions than answers”. A Florida pharmaceutical company has just gotten the go ahead to start “Proof of concept” trial for a vaccine to help smokers quit that nasty tobacco habit.
Europe, Treatment
Nalaxone Distribution for Glasgow Drug Users
06.07.06 | Permalink | Comment?

The Glasgow city council is considering Nalaxone distribution as part of its efforts to combat a growing drug problem.

Since January of this year, drug deaths in the Scottish city have increased by nearly a third.

In a desperate bid to halt the death rate, the council has decided to test the practicalities of distributing Nalaxone to drug users, carers and families in the category that they class as “vulnerable.”