Cocaine use on the rise in Australia
September 8, 2010
By Dr Ananya Mandal, MD
The number of cocaine abuse related arrests has risen in Sydney's CBD and an increasing number of users of the drug are being treated in hospitals. According to the latest NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research figures arrests for possession and use of the drug have risen by 76.6 per cent in the past two years. In the first six months of this year 412 people were caught with cocaine in NSW - one more arrest than was made in all of 2008. Almost 100 people were caught with the drug in January alone. Five years ago police made 223 arrests in an entire year. Arrests for narcotics use and possession increased by 11.9 per cent over the same period.
This rise is attributed to increased law enforcement, but the bureau director, Don Weatherburn, said figures from hospital emergency departments also indicated an increase in the number of patients being treated for overdoses. Dr Weatherburn said, "The reason we know that it's not just a case of increased police activity is that overdoses on cocaine and overdoses on narcotics are going up and they have nothing to do with police activity… It's simply disingenuous to say this is nothing more than an increase in police activity." He said while the number of arrests for narcotics remained well down from the peak of 350 in one month in the late 1990s, the figure had been "creeping up" over the past two years.
According to the NSW Police Commissioner, Andrew Scipione the rise in drug crime means there is increasing interception on venues where drug use was suspected such as concerts, parties and hotels.
NSW Police Minister Michael Daley said the sharp rise in drug use, particularly cocaine, was a reflection of stronger law enforcement. He said, "Whilst we can speculate about the use of cocaine ... what we do know is that increased incidents of police vigilance and police work are having a marked effect on the amounts of cocaine and the incidents of cocaine apprehension." Mr Daley welcomed the positive outcomes in the report, saying some major crime had fallen as a result of a bigger police force and increased productivity.
According to Premier Kristina Keneally, "We have built up in this state with laws, equipment and conditions, the best-equipped the most professional police force in the country and one of the best police forces in the world." However, opposition police spokesman Mike Gallacher believes that this report reflects rise in drug abuse and sexual assaults that needed to be addressed.
Overall fall in crime rates
According to the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research figures there is a significant reduction in incidents of domestic violence related assault, break and enter and retail premises, and malicious damage to property. The instances of domestic violence related assaults fell by 29.7 per cent (from 172 to 121). Break and enter offences on retail premises dropped by 32.4 per cent (from 309 to 171), more than double the state wide reduction of 15.3 per cent. The incidents of people maliciously damaging property in the area fell from 806 to 647 over the 24-month period, a reduction of 19.7 per cent - more than double the NSW average of 9.7 per cent.
Inspector Murray Gillett said Clarence police were working hard to achieve a continual reduction of all crimes across the Valley. He said, "These statistics are a result of a collaborative approach between the community and the police. This is the result of some sustained, prolonged direct targeting of offenders using specific strategies that have been tried and proven successful."
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Texas Rangers' Josh Hamilton finds strength after misstep in recovery from drug, alcohol addiction
10:38 AM CDT on Sunday, October 3, 2010
By S.C. GWYNNE / The Dallas Morning News
sgwynne@dallasnews.com
On the chilly morning of Jan. 22, 2009, when everything else in her life seemed to be working out perfectly, Katie Hamilton received a phone call at her home outside Raleigh, N.C.
Josh Hamilton It was her husband, Josh, calling from Tempe, Ariz., where he had gone to a boot camp for athletes. Hamilton had become famous the year before for leading the American League in runs batted in and making the All-Star team in his first full season as a major leaguer.
Also Online Link: Triple Play Ministries
Cowlishaw: Impact on winning makes Hamilton the clear MVP pick
Full coverage: Josh Hamilton
SportsDayDFW.com: More Rangers
But he was equally famous for beating a harrowing addiction to drugs and liquor, one that had kept a player often compared to Mickey Mantle out of Major League Baseball until he was 26 years old.
And now he was calling his wife to tell her, through choking sobs, that after three years of sobriety, he had relapsed. He had gone out late the previous evening, alone, to a pizza restaurant, which happened to have a bar. He had a vodka and cranberry juice, then another, then went to a bar and had many more. He told her he didn't remember everything that happened, but that there might be "pictures." Katie told him to come home, and then she prayed.
Seven months later, photos appeared on the Internet that revealed a drunken Josh cavorting with three young women in the bar. Whipped cream was involved. The pictures caused a sensation. Hamilton, who had already told the Texas Rangers and Major League Baseball what happened, now confessed to the rest of the world.
Though his relapse only lasted one night, it held critical lessons for Hamilton, his family, and his team. The first was, now that he had become a star, any sins he committed would be instant headline news. Second, and far more important, was the notion that Hamilton had not beaten his addiction at all. While he had made enormous strides in his recovery, he was in some ways still the hair-trigger addict he had been since he started using cocaine and whiskey in 2001.
The result was a change in how Hamilton, 29, handles his own life and how he is handled by others, even as he helps lead the Rangers into the playoffs for the first time in 11 years.
Since he stopped using drugs and liquor in late 2005, he has worked to build a system of checks and balances around him, to fill his idle time and to avoid the "triggers" of his addiction.
Support system
But the relapse caused him to redouble those efforts, and he is now assisted by a complex, multilayered support system of his own design that is probably without precedent at this level of professional sports. It is rooted in his Christian beliefs and his rigorous daily devotions. Its primary components are his wife, his parents, and a host of "accountability partners" that include a Texas Rangers coach, pastors from three churches, his Christian sports agent and his father-in-law. A set of strict rules dictates what he can and can't do.
The system also addresses the way he spends his time away from the game. He increasingly sees virtually everything he does outside of baseball as a ministry, and as such a more permanent way of dealing with his addiction.
He and Katie founded Triple Play Ministries several years ago, and it has become the conduit for the dozens of off-season public appearances they make. He has his own Christian baseball camps, and even a project to build an orphanage in Uganda. It is the success of this intricately balanced life – he has been clean since that night in Tempe – that has allowed him to have an electrifying, MVP-caliber season.
"I don't want to call the relapse in Tempe a blessing in disguise, but you have to look at the positives," says Rangers general manager Jon Daniels. "It was a reminder to Josh that he can't sneak off, that this can't happen privately. It made his system for dealing with it that much stronger."
The foundation of Hamilton's recovery is his religion, which dominates his life and his conversation.
"The biggest thing we want to do is to share Jesus Christ with people," says Hamilton, sitting in the corner of the Rangers dugout, resplendent in yellowish-green mirrored sunglasses, on his second day in the lineup after being out with a rib injury. His trademark blue flame tattoos adorn his massive biceps. "The whole objective of the ministry is to do that, whether by speaking in public or by doing hospital visits to kids during the holidays, or baseball camps."
Josh and Katie are very much a team, and have come a long way since the darkest days of his addiction in 2005, when she went to court to get a restraining order against him. The two of them, with help from their pastor Jimmy Carroll in Raleigh, designed the system that is now in place to keep Josh sober.
The system's core is a network of people – Josh and Katie use the Christian term "accountability partners" when discussing them – with whom Josh keeps in close contact. Carroll is one. Another is Katie's father, Michael "Big Daddy" Chadwick, a former drug user and seller who became a successful homebuilder in Raleigh and who now runs his own Christian youth ministry. There is also James Robison, the televangelist and founder and president of the Christian relief organization Life Outreach International. And there is Hamilton's agent, Mike Moye, who runs a Christ-centered sports agency.
"They are all Josh's good friends," says Katie. "He seeks advice from them, and godly counsel. Pastor Jimmy has been in our lives for many years and is extremely influential. James Robison is someone Josh calls, if not daily, then close to daily."
Says Josh: "It is very important to my recovery and my walk with Christ that I have people like that around me. They always call or text at the right time."
By S.C. GWYNNE / The Dallas Morning News
sgwynne@dallasnews.com
On the chilly morning of Jan. 22, 2009, when everything else in her life seemed to be working out perfectly, Katie Hamilton received a phone call at her home outside Raleigh, N.C.
Josh Hamilton It was her husband, Josh, calling from Tempe, Ariz., where he had gone to a boot camp for athletes. Hamilton had become famous the year before for leading the American League in runs batted in and making the All-Star team in his first full season as a major leaguer.
Also Online Link: Triple Play Ministries
Cowlishaw: Impact on winning makes Hamilton the clear MVP pick
Full coverage: Josh Hamilton
SportsDayDFW.com: More Rangers
But he was equally famous for beating a harrowing addiction to drugs and liquor, one that had kept a player often compared to Mickey Mantle out of Major League Baseball until he was 26 years old.
And now he was calling his wife to tell her, through choking sobs, that after three years of sobriety, he had relapsed. He had gone out late the previous evening, alone, to a pizza restaurant, which happened to have a bar. He had a vodka and cranberry juice, then another, then went to a bar and had many more. He told her he didn't remember everything that happened, but that there might be "pictures." Katie told him to come home, and then she prayed.
Seven months later, photos appeared on the Internet that revealed a drunken Josh cavorting with three young women in the bar. Whipped cream was involved. The pictures caused a sensation. Hamilton, who had already told the Texas Rangers and Major League Baseball what happened, now confessed to the rest of the world.
Though his relapse only lasted one night, it held critical lessons for Hamilton, his family, and his team. The first was, now that he had become a star, any sins he committed would be instant headline news. Second, and far more important, was the notion that Hamilton had not beaten his addiction at all. While he had made enormous strides in his recovery, he was in some ways still the hair-trigger addict he had been since he started using cocaine and whiskey in 2001.
The result was a change in how Hamilton, 29, handles his own life and how he is handled by others, even as he helps lead the Rangers into the playoffs for the first time in 11 years.
Since he stopped using drugs and liquor in late 2005, he has worked to build a system of checks and balances around him, to fill his idle time and to avoid the "triggers" of his addiction.
Support system
But the relapse caused him to redouble those efforts, and he is now assisted by a complex, multilayered support system of his own design that is probably without precedent at this level of professional sports. It is rooted in his Christian beliefs and his rigorous daily devotions. Its primary components are his wife, his parents, and a host of "accountability partners" that include a Texas Rangers coach, pastors from three churches, his Christian sports agent and his father-in-law. A set of strict rules dictates what he can and can't do.
The system also addresses the way he spends his time away from the game. He increasingly sees virtually everything he does outside of baseball as a ministry, and as such a more permanent way of dealing with his addiction.
He and Katie founded Triple Play Ministries several years ago, and it has become the conduit for the dozens of off-season public appearances they make. He has his own Christian baseball camps, and even a project to build an orphanage in Uganda. It is the success of this intricately balanced life – he has been clean since that night in Tempe – that has allowed him to have an electrifying, MVP-caliber season.
"I don't want to call the relapse in Tempe a blessing in disguise, but you have to look at the positives," says Rangers general manager Jon Daniels. "It was a reminder to Josh that he can't sneak off, that this can't happen privately. It made his system for dealing with it that much stronger."
The foundation of Hamilton's recovery is his religion, which dominates his life and his conversation.
"The biggest thing we want to do is to share Jesus Christ with people," says Hamilton, sitting in the corner of the Rangers dugout, resplendent in yellowish-green mirrored sunglasses, on his second day in the lineup after being out with a rib injury. His trademark blue flame tattoos adorn his massive biceps. "The whole objective of the ministry is to do that, whether by speaking in public or by doing hospital visits to kids during the holidays, or baseball camps."
Josh and Katie are very much a team, and have come a long way since the darkest days of his addiction in 2005, when she went to court to get a restraining order against him. The two of them, with help from their pastor Jimmy Carroll in Raleigh, designed the system that is now in place to keep Josh sober.
The system's core is a network of people – Josh and Katie use the Christian term "accountability partners" when discussing them – with whom Josh keeps in close contact. Carroll is one. Another is Katie's father, Michael "Big Daddy" Chadwick, a former drug user and seller who became a successful homebuilder in Raleigh and who now runs his own Christian youth ministry. There is also James Robison, the televangelist and founder and president of the Christian relief organization Life Outreach International. And there is Hamilton's agent, Mike Moye, who runs a Christ-centered sports agency.
"They are all Josh's good friends," says Katie. "He seeks advice from them, and godly counsel. Pastor Jimmy has been in our lives for many years and is extremely influential. James Robison is someone Josh calls, if not daily, then close to daily."
Says Josh: "It is very important to my recovery and my walk with Christ that I have people like that around me. They always call or text at the right time."
Monday, September 27, 2010
Gender Gap in Prescription Pain Drug Abuse
Gender Gap in Prescription Pain Drug Abuse
Study Shows Men and Women Have Different Risk Factors for Abuse of Prescription Painkillers
By Bill Hendrick
WebMD Health News
Reviewed By Laura J. Martin, MD
April 29, 2010 -- Gender appears to play a role in the risk of abuse of prescription pain drugs, a study shows.
Predictors of such abuse are different in men and women, researchers say, and knowing this could help doctors adopt treatment plans that are less likely to cause misuse of opioid medications.
The finding comes from a study involving 662 chronic noncancer patients taking opioid drugs for pain relief.
Researchers say misuse by women seems to be closely related to psychological distress. Prescription pain drugs are more likely to be misused by men who have social and behavioral problems.
"Since little has been published about gender differences and misuse of prescription pain medication, it is valuable to document whether risk factors for abuse are gender specific to some degree," says study researcher Robert N. Jamison, PhD, a clinical psychologist at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital.
The study shows that men and women have similar frequencies of aberrant drug behavior but different risk factors for abuse of opioids.
Women who misuse pain drugs are more likely "to admit to being sexually or physically abused or have a history of psychiatric or psychological problems," Jamison says.
Women who are being treated for pain not caused by cancer and who exhibit signs of significant stress should be treated for mood disorders and counseled on dangers of relying on pain pills to help them sleep or reduce stress, the researchers say.
Men taking pain pills should be closely monitored for suspected behavioral problems, Jamison says. In addition, their pills should be counted to check adherence, and frequent urine screens also should be done.
Abuse of Opioids Is Growing
Jamison and colleagues write in the study that the use of opioids for chronic pain has been growing, and that between 3% and 16% of the population has a substance use disorder.
Indeed, some pain centers that dispense opioids "are overwhelmed with patients who are known or suspected to be abusing" their medications, the researchers write.
The study involved patients who had been prescribed opioids for chronic noncancer pain; about half the participants were men, half were women.
Five months into the study they were interviewed and had to submit a urine sample. Physicians also completed a substance misuse behavior checklist.
The researchers write that women in the study tended to display signs of emotional issues and affective distress, compared with men.
Men tended to show signs of worrisome behaviors, such as association with other people who abused drugs and alcohol and engaging in criminal behavior.
For women, a history of sexual abuse was an issue in later misuse of prescription drugs. "These results are in agreement with past research that highlighted the importance of sexual and physical abuse history in predicting opioid misuse," the researchers write. "These same studies also showed that women with a significant history of anxiety and depression tend to do less well in properly managing opioids prescribed for pain, possibly because of the tendency to self-medicate a mood disorder using opioids."
The researchers also say that past research has suggested that women may be more open and truthful about behaviors and to seek psychological help than men.
"Given the prominence of sex differences in a variety of pain-related processes, we may eventually arrive at a method for tailoring risk assessment and risk-reducing interventions in part as a function of gender," the researchers say, adding that more research is called for by their study.
The study is published in the April issue of The Journal of Pain.
SOURCES: News release, American Pain Society.
Jamison, R. The Journal of Pain, April 2010; vol 11: pp 312-320.
©2010 WebMD, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Study Shows Men and Women Have Different Risk Factors for Abuse of Prescription Painkillers
By Bill Hendrick
WebMD Health News
Reviewed By Laura J. Martin, MD
April 29, 2010 -- Gender appears to play a role in the risk of abuse of prescription pain drugs, a study shows.
Predictors of such abuse are different in men and women, researchers say, and knowing this could help doctors adopt treatment plans that are less likely to cause misuse of opioid medications.
The finding comes from a study involving 662 chronic noncancer patients taking opioid drugs for pain relief.
Researchers say misuse by women seems to be closely related to psychological distress. Prescription pain drugs are more likely to be misused by men who have social and behavioral problems.
"Since little has been published about gender differences and misuse of prescription pain medication, it is valuable to document whether risk factors for abuse are gender specific to some degree," says study researcher Robert N. Jamison, PhD, a clinical psychologist at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital.
The study shows that men and women have similar frequencies of aberrant drug behavior but different risk factors for abuse of opioids.
Women who misuse pain drugs are more likely "to admit to being sexually or physically abused or have a history of psychiatric or psychological problems," Jamison says.
Women who are being treated for pain not caused by cancer and who exhibit signs of significant stress should be treated for mood disorders and counseled on dangers of relying on pain pills to help them sleep or reduce stress, the researchers say.
Men taking pain pills should be closely monitored for suspected behavioral problems, Jamison says. In addition, their pills should be counted to check adherence, and frequent urine screens also should be done.
Abuse of Opioids Is Growing
Jamison and colleagues write in the study that the use of opioids for chronic pain has been growing, and that between 3% and 16% of the population has a substance use disorder.
Indeed, some pain centers that dispense opioids "are overwhelmed with patients who are known or suspected to be abusing" their medications, the researchers write.
The study involved patients who had been prescribed opioids for chronic noncancer pain; about half the participants were men, half were women.
Five months into the study they were interviewed and had to submit a urine sample. Physicians also completed a substance misuse behavior checklist.
The researchers write that women in the study tended to display signs of emotional issues and affective distress, compared with men.
Men tended to show signs of worrisome behaviors, such as association with other people who abused drugs and alcohol and engaging in criminal behavior.
For women, a history of sexual abuse was an issue in later misuse of prescription drugs. "These results are in agreement with past research that highlighted the importance of sexual and physical abuse history in predicting opioid misuse," the researchers write. "These same studies also showed that women with a significant history of anxiety and depression tend to do less well in properly managing opioids prescribed for pain, possibly because of the tendency to self-medicate a mood disorder using opioids."
The researchers also say that past research has suggested that women may be more open and truthful about behaviors and to seek psychological help than men.
"Given the prominence of sex differences in a variety of pain-related processes, we may eventually arrive at a method for tailoring risk assessment and risk-reducing interventions in part as a function of gender," the researchers say, adding that more research is called for by their study.
The study is published in the April issue of The Journal of Pain.
SOURCES: News release, American Pain Society.
Jamison, R. The Journal of Pain, April 2010; vol 11: pp 312-320.
©2010 WebMD, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
12 Years Old Abusing Inhalants
Washington (CNN) -- When their kids turn 12, parents are concerned about peers pressuring them to smoke cigarettes, drink and use drugs, but it turns out 12-year-olds are doing something else: getting high on inhalants.
A new national survey from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration report finds that they're using inhalants more than marijuana, hallucinogens and cocaine combined.
Some young people are sniffing -- inhaling -- a wide variety of products to get high. Inhalants are legal, cheap and everywhere. They can easily be found in most homes: spray paint, shoe polish, glue, air fresheners, hair spray, nail polish, gasoline, aerosols, computer cleaners, even the refrigerant from air conditioners.
"We continue to face the challenge of increasing experimentation and intentional misuse of common household products among the youngest and most vulnerable segments of our population: 12-year-olds," said Harvey Weiss, executive director of the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition.
"The data are ominous, and their implications are frightening because of the toxic, chemical effects of these legal products on growing minds and bodies."
According to the survey, 6.9 percent of 12-year-olds have "huffed," while 1.4 percent have used pot, 0.7 percent hallucinogens and 0.1 percent cocaine. The report found 5.2 percent smoked cigarettes.
Huffing can be fatal, leading to "sudden sniffing death."
Dr. Jennifer Caudle, director of the family medicine section of the Department of Internal Medicine at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, said it's critical to educate adolescents about the dangers of huffing.
"Young people do not always realize the consequences of their actions. However, it is possible to die from trying inhalants even once. 'Sudden sniffing death' causes the heart to beat rapidly, which can result in cardiac arrest."
Kevin Talley and his wife, Deborah, know that all too well. Their 17-year-old daughter, Amber Ann Suri, died after using inhalants in February 2009.
Talley said the teenager apparently had been inhaling for six months, but by the time they began to suspect something was wrong, it was too late.
"Parents must wake up to the reality that their child might try huffing and the consequences could be devastating," said Pamela S. Hyde, administrator for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. "That's why SAMHSA is leading the way to get information out to health care providers, kids, parents and everyone in the community so that our children hear a consistent message about the dangers of huffing."
It's a message 17-year old Ashley Upchurch said she now takes seriously. She said she started huffing when she was 11.
"Inhalants were cheap, legal and an intense high that would also enhance the feeling I would get from other drugs," she said. "These highs nearly destroyed my life." She's been in recovery for two years.
Many experts said 12 is considered a gateway age for inhalant use, but the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration would like to slam that gate shut.
It is kicking off National Inhalants and Poisons Awareness Week, which starts Sunday. The American Osteopathic Association also is joining the national effort.
Published CNN
By Saundra Young, CNN Medical Senior Producer
A new national survey from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration report finds that they're using inhalants more than marijuana, hallucinogens and cocaine combined.
Some young people are sniffing -- inhaling -- a wide variety of products to get high. Inhalants are legal, cheap and everywhere. They can easily be found in most homes: spray paint, shoe polish, glue, air fresheners, hair spray, nail polish, gasoline, aerosols, computer cleaners, even the refrigerant from air conditioners.
"We continue to face the challenge of increasing experimentation and intentional misuse of common household products among the youngest and most vulnerable segments of our population: 12-year-olds," said Harvey Weiss, executive director of the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition.
"The data are ominous, and their implications are frightening because of the toxic, chemical effects of these legal products on growing minds and bodies."
According to the survey, 6.9 percent of 12-year-olds have "huffed," while 1.4 percent have used pot, 0.7 percent hallucinogens and 0.1 percent cocaine. The report found 5.2 percent smoked cigarettes.
Huffing can be fatal, leading to "sudden sniffing death."
Dr. Jennifer Caudle, director of the family medicine section of the Department of Internal Medicine at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, said it's critical to educate adolescents about the dangers of huffing.
"Young people do not always realize the consequences of their actions. However, it is possible to die from trying inhalants even once. 'Sudden sniffing death' causes the heart to beat rapidly, which can result in cardiac arrest."
Kevin Talley and his wife, Deborah, know that all too well. Their 17-year-old daughter, Amber Ann Suri, died after using inhalants in February 2009.
Talley said the teenager apparently had been inhaling for six months, but by the time they began to suspect something was wrong, it was too late.
"Parents must wake up to the reality that their child might try huffing and the consequences could be devastating," said Pamela S. Hyde, administrator for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. "That's why SAMHSA is leading the way to get information out to health care providers, kids, parents and everyone in the community so that our children hear a consistent message about the dangers of huffing."
It's a message 17-year old Ashley Upchurch said she now takes seriously. She said she started huffing when she was 11.
"Inhalants were cheap, legal and an intense high that would also enhance the feeling I would get from other drugs," she said. "These highs nearly destroyed my life." She's been in recovery for two years.
Many experts said 12 is considered a gateway age for inhalant use, but the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration would like to slam that gate shut.
It is kicking off National Inhalants and Poisons Awareness Week, which starts Sunday. The American Osteopathic Association also is joining the national effort.
Published CNN
By Saundra Young, CNN Medical Senior Producer
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