1. Associated Press – NY prohibits smoking in addiction recovery centers. “Many drug addicts, problem gamblers and alcoholics may find it harder to kick their habits in New York now that the state has become the first in the country to ban smoking at all recovery centers. Some addicts say losing the tobacco crutch could keep them from getting clean and sober, or from trying at all.”

2. The Globe and Mail (Canada) – Substance abuse analyst takes questions. “The use of illegal drugs is a serious health and social problem in Canada,” Rebecca Jesseman, a research and policy analyst with the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, writes today in her Comment Page article Beyond harm reduction Ms. Jesseman argues that Globe columnist Margaret Wente’s recent four-column series “demonstrated that ‘harm reduction’ has become a polarizing term that divides those with a common interest — the reduction of harm associated with drug use.”

3. The Washington Post (USA) – Family Meals Can Help Teen Girls Avoid Drugs, Alcohol. “Eating meals together as a family can reduce a teen girl’s risk of turning to alcohol or drugs, a new study suggests. In families who ate at least five meals a week together, the teen girls were much less likely to drink alcohol, or smoke marijuana or cigarettes five years later, said study author Marla Eisenberg, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Minnesota Medical School.”

4. Sydney Morning Herald – Heath was probably an addict, expert says. “Heath Ledger’s drug intake before his death indicated it was likely he was an addict, America’s best known addiction expert says. Dr Drew Pinsky also says disgraced AFL star Ben Cousins should not play football at any level until he completes substance abuse treatment. The Los Angeles-based Dr Pinsky said Ledger’s drug consumption was not a secret in Hollywood.”

5. The Mercury (Tasmania) – New study rejects economic benefits. “GAMBLING in Tasmania is not a substantial contributor to economic or jobs growth, a major study has found. And it said there was a link between serious crime and substance abuse and problem gambling. The long-awaited Social and Economic Impact Study into Gambling in Tasmania was made public yesterday.”

6. The Scotsman (UK) – Drug abuse linked to Scotland’s higher rate of deaths. “DRUG abuse is to blame for much of Scotland’s higher death rate compared with the rest of the UK, researchers said yesterday. Mortality rates in Scotland have long been the highest is the UK, with the gap between the nations growing. In 1981, mortality was 12 per cent higher in Scotland than in England and Wales. By 2001, the figure was 15 per cent higher.”

7. USA Today – Drug addiction soars in Mexico. “Carlos Antonio López started using crack at age 11 to kill the pain of his mother’s death. “I started with marijuana, but after a while it didn’t fill me up anymore,” he says. “Then I started on crack. You get obsessed, you can’t think about anything else.” Now 18, López is in his sixth stint in rehab.”

8. Yemen Observer (Yemen) – Drugs threaten Yemen First drug addicts’ sanatorium in Yemen. “Life Makers Organization, a non government organization (NGO), has revealed a project to establishing the first sanatorium to treat drug addicts in Yemen. “During the last months, we worked to prepare a study for establishing such sanatorium for drug addicts. We also aimed to train a group of specialists in Egypt to be well skilled in dealing with addicts. Another team of young people will be also trained to educate others of hazards resulting from abusing with drugs or being addicts,” said Nabil al-Sadi, Head of the Life Makers Organization.”

9. New York Times (USA) – Russia Scorns Methadone for Heroin Addiction. “The conference seemed innocuous enough: a Moscow hotel, slide shows and several dozen doctors and specialists gathered to discuss how to treat heroin addiction. But then members of a Kremlin youth group called the Young Guard arrived, crowding the hotel’s entrance and denouncing the participants as criminals and paid agents of the West. The focus of their outrage was methadone, a drug prescribed by doctors around the world to wean addicts from heroin. A synthetic form of opium, methadone is central to a therapy endorsed by the United Nations and 55 countries, including the United States.”

10. The Guardian (UK) – Drug users risk benefit cuts. “The unemployed will be forced to declare drug or heavy drinking habits when they apply for benefits and will have payments cut if they give misleading answers, under government proposals which were announced yesterday. Probation officers, prison staff and the police will also be asked to share with Jobcentres any information they have about individuals’ habits so that those deemed to have problem habits can be identified and compelled to seek treatment if necessary. Those who conceal drug use, or refuse to co-operate with treatment, face benefit cuts.”

1. New Kerala (India) – Sex counselling during drug addiction program may help cut HIV transmission. “A study conducted by experts from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Boston Medical Center (BMC) suggests that sexual behaviour counselling during drug addiction treatment may help cut risky sexual behaviour among people who are at risk of being infected by HIV.”

2. Kentucky.com (USA) – End counties’ addiction to jails. “Kentucky’s local governments have a drug problem. They’re addicted to the money they get for keeping inmates for the state. But the cost of operating county jails that also overflow with local prisoners is breaking them. The futility of locking up addicts and drug abusers is evident in the financial crisis besieging many Kentucky counties, where a drug or alcohol problem is a big reason most prisoners are behind bars. In some counties, half of the general fund goes into operating the jail, diverting money from road repairs, public safety and other county services. It’s so bad that county officials are considering suing the state for more money for jails.”

3. The Aurora (Canada) – Not recommended for children. “Monster, Rock Star, Red Bull. Energy drinks, no matter what the brand, are all the rage these days, but one local mom wants storeowners to stop selling the drinks to kids. Corinne Young, a mother of two boys – one nine year old and one 19 year old, said she knows stores are within their right to sell the caffeinated drinks, but she feels they have a moral obligation to keep the beverages away from children.”

4. Press Information Bureau (India) – Government sets up National Consultative Committee on De-Addiction and Rehabilitation. “The Government has decided to set up a consultative mechanism at the national level by constituting a National Consultative Committee on De-addiction and Rehabilitation (NCCDR). It would advise Central and State Governments on issues connected with drug demand reduction, especially education/awareness building, de-addiction and rehabilitation.”

5. The Bradenton Herald (USA) – Substance abuse isn’t just for addicts. “Whether we like it or not, the reality of today is that alcohol and drugs are everywhere. Whether you or someone you know has a problem with alcohol/drugs, it is safe to say that drugs and alcohol at one time or another have affected us all. Often, in cases of addiction, the pursuit to obtain the substance(s), legal or not, is undeniable and controls an individual’s very existence.”

6. The Huffington Post (USA) – The Failure of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. “As an insider in the nation’s war against drugs, I spent almost fifteen years in the executive office of the President. Eleven of these years were in the Office of National Drug Control Policy where I served four of the nation’s so-called drug czars preparing the federal drug control budget, writing many of the national drug control strategies, and conducting performance measurement and analysis of the efficacy of those strategies.”

7. AlterNet (USA) – Jim Hightower on Pot — Sharing His Thoughts on Pot, That Is. “Myth: There is no scientific evidence proving marijuana’s therapeutic qualities. Reality: In a White House-commissioned 1999 report, the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine declared that “nausea, appetite loss, pain, and anxiety are all afflictions of wasting and all can be mitigated by marijuana.”

8. Chicago Daily Herald (USA) – Genes may play role in nicotine addiction in teens. “Genes may determine which teen smokers get hooked for life, according to a study that could shed new light on treating and preventing tobacco addiction. Young, white smokers with certain gene mutations who pick up the habit before age 17 are up to five times more likely to struggle with a lifelong nicotine addiction than their peers who don’t have the DNA variants, researchers said. The study, by University of Utah and University of Wisconsin scientists, appeared in the journal Public Library of Science.”

9. The Press Democrat (USA) – Meditation as therapy. “The patient sat with his eyes closed, submerged in the rhythm of his own breathing, and after a while noticed that he was thinking about his troubled relationship with his father. “I was able to be there, present for the pain,” he said when the meditation session ended. “To just let it be what it was, without thinking it through.”

1. WebMD (USA) – Narcotics Sold Online, No Rx Needed. “Scores of web sites do not require a prescription to buy narcotics, stimulants, and other controlled substances — and none of those sites has controls to prevent children from making such purchases, a study shows. A report released today by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University reveals that 85% of web sites selling potent prescription drugs such as OxyContin, Valium, and Ritalin do not ask Internet users for a proper prescription from a doctor. Many explicitly state that no prescription is needed.”

2. Washington City Paper (USA) – “I’m a Professional Informant”. “The informant arrives through a side door, and his handler, a cop with many years of experience, greets him warmly. The informant takes a seat, fishes out a pack of menthols, and slides them on the desktop. Last week, it was a couple of dealers selling crack in broad daylight. All the police had to do was show up, he said, and snatch them. He sneered in contempt. He insisted to the police—often loudly—that these cases were can’t-miss. The cop took his tips seriously.”

3. Reason Magazine – How Do You Keep the Magic? “I’m a little late in noting this, but last week the Journal of Psychopharmacology published a follow-up to the 2006 study in which Johns Hopkins researchers found that psilocybin triggered “mystical-type experiences” in experimental subjects who had never used psychedelics before. The first report described the 36 subjects’ impressions two months after the experiment, when a large majority reported meaningful, generally positive experiences of lasting significance.”

4. The Gulf Times (Qatar) – Book on laws against use of narcotics. “A BOOK explaining the laws that are in force in Qatar against the use of narcotics and drugs, has been published in Arabic by prominent Qatari lawyer Yusuf Ahmed al-Zaman, according to a report published in a local Arabic daily.”

5. The Tech Herald – Mothers’ reaction to own baby smile likened to drug addiction. “A mother watching her own baby smile has been found to experience the lighting up of reward centres, a natural high which mimics drug addiction, according to a U.S. team of researchers. Dr. Lane Strathearn, assistant professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and Texas Children’s Hospital and a research associate in BCM’s Human Neuroimaging Laboratory, said the relationship between mother and baby is crucial and the research gives an understanding of this and what goes wrong if that relationship is damaged.”

6. The Post (Pakistan) – Smugglers using Pak soil for narco-traffic. “There is not a single laboratory in Pakistan for synthesis of heroin, however, international smugglers are using Pakistani soil for narco-traffic from Afghanistan to the entire world, Anti-Narcotics Force, Rawalpindi, force commander Brig Muhammad Asif Alvi, said while talking to The Post Wednesday. He said fencing of Pakistan-Afghanistan border could help in controlling drug trafficking in the region and the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) had requested the federal government in written to consider that option.”

7. TwinCities.com (USA) – They’re young. They drink. Too many die. “On the morning after the house party on Johnson Street, Winona State University student Jenna Foellmi and several other twenty-somethings lay sprawled on beds and couches. When a friend reached over to wake her, Foellmi was cold to the touch. The friend’s screams woke the others in the house.”

8. The Punch (Nigeria) – Anxiety, shyness may be long-lasting traits. “The brains of people who suffer from anxiety and severe shyness may respond more strongly to stress and show signs of being anxious even in situations considered safe by others, say researchers at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. They studied brain activity, anxious behavior and stress hormones in adolescent rhesus monkeys.”

9. The Northern Territory News (Australia) – Exasperated cops blast young revellers. “OLICE have called on young revellers to “grow up and act your age”. The call comes as more and more police time is spent wrangling drunks in Darwin city. And the majority of them are partygoers under 25. This picture (right) shows a group of young women arguing with police about having to tip out their alcohol on a Darwin city street about 5.30am.”

1. New York Times – Iran Fights Scourge of Addiction in Plain View, Stressing Treatment. “Ali blew out a candle on a small round cake. More than 200 people cheered, celebrating the first anniversary of his becoming drug-free. “I was in an awful condition,” said Ali, describing 12 years of addiction to opium and alcohol. “I reached a state that I smashed our furniture and threw our television out of the window.” Ali, 31, who has a wife and child and identified himself by only his first name to avoid possible embarrassment to his family, is among more than 800 addicts struggling to overcome their habits at a free treatment center in central Tehran.”

2. The New Nation (Bangladesh) – Factors inducing drug addiction.”Drug abuse directly influences the economic and social aspects of a country. In Bangladesh it is a growing national concern. There are millions of drug-addicted people in Bangladesh and most of them are young, between the ages of 18 and 30. And they are from all strata of the society. In Bangladesh, sources of drug information quite limited and drug companies are the vital sources of information here. As with other countries in the world, Bangladesh is victimized for drug addiction in its young generation for mainly following reasons.”

3. The Daily Star (Bangladesh) – Call for social movement to fight drug abuse, trafficking. “Home Adviser Maj Gen (retd) MA Matin yesterday said drug abuse and its illicit trafficking is a major problem which cannot be resolved only by enforcing laws and issuing threat of punishment. Side by side applying laws, the home adviser underscored the need for waging a massive social movement and creating awareness against drug abuse to root out the menace from the personal life, family and the society. “Awareness should be created in every individual, while the head of every family must have to be alert in order to fight the problem effectively,” he told a function organised by the Department of Narcotics Control at the Jatiya Natyashala auditorium in the city to mark the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. Drug abuse is not an internal problem of Bangladesh rather it is a transnational one where developed countries are unable to keep them above the problem, he added.”

4. The Daily Express – Sabah detects less drug addicts. “Sabah registered fewer drug addicts between January and April this year compared to between January and June last year. Community Development and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Azizah Mohd Dun said 86 addicts were detected during the said period this year, which comprised 71 new addicts and 15 repeat addicts, while last year there were 217 addicts, namely, 161 new addicts and 56 repeat addicts. She said this corresponded with the decreasing number of addicts throughout the country.”

5. The Calgary Sun (Canada) – Manhole victim battled drug addiction. “Mitchell David Forsyth’s family encouraged him to pursue his talent as a glass blower, a dream that will never be realized. Forsyth, 25, was found dead inside a manhole this week, a shocking end to the life of a man his mother described as “wonderful” but one who had been ravaged by a drug addiction. “He had his demons,” Nancy Creagh said yesterday of her son, who was without a permanent job or a residence and battled his addiction for several years.”

6. The Catholic News Agency – Don’t abandon drug addicts, says president of Chilean Bishops’ Conference. “The president of the Bishop’s Conference of Chile, Bishop Alejandro Goic, called on Catholics and society in general this week not to abandon drug addicts and to combat the plague of drugs. This plague, he said, affects not only those with low incomes “but also those who are well-off and are often burdened by the lack of meaning in their lives.”

7. The Guardian (UK) – We are enslaving heroin addicts in a state-run chemical gulag. “There is an important battle of ideas going on around Britain’s extensive use of methadone in the treatment of heroin addicts. Your interview with Paul Hayes, head of the National Treatment Agency, reports that he was recently “forced to defend his record against criticism that the current strategy of treatment management” – using, for example, methadone for heroin addicts rather than “curing” their addiction – “was failing and wrong-headed” (Keep taking the medicine, June 18). We are told that Hayes apparently dismisses his critics as “a few academics, politicians and ‘ideologues’ stoked up by the media”. He says: “Any notion that investment in treatment programmes has been a failure is wrong.”

8. USA Today – Understanding the Netherlands’ marijuana policy. “Cannabis is technically an illegal substance in the Netherlands, although you won’t get arrested for buying or smoking it in a coffee shop. The Dutch have adopted a policy of “gedogen,” or blind eye, to its sale and use since 1976. The government distinguished between so-called “soft” cannabis drugs and “hard” drugs such as heroin or cocaine. That’s when coffee houses sprang up to sell and let people smoke.”

9. Thaiindian.com (Thailand) – Tihar inmates paint stark images against drug abuse. “rugs as the mythological demon Ravan, alcohol as poisonous snakes, a funeral pyre made of cigarette butts…Such stark illustrations have come out of the minds of prisoners at Delhi’s Tihar Jail, especially drug addicts. Many of the prisoners revisited their hellish past to paint their thoughts on tobacco, drug and alcohol abuse – in a way succeeding where Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss failed to do on cigarette packs.”

10. news.com.au – Australia trafficking hub, UN World Drug Report shows. “AUSTRALIA is one of the world’s fastest growing international trafficking hubs for illegal drugs including cocaine, ice and speed, a key United Nations report has found. Trafficking in these drugs has tripled in Australia in the past 12 months, figures from the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) World Drug Report 2008 show.”