Drug Deaths

Posted by Land Bike Wednesday 19 December 2007

The majority of deaths were of males (72 per cent)
73 per cent of all deaths were under the age of 45 years.
56 per cent of cases died from accidental poisoning. This is a five percent increase compared with the previous year. However, the proportion of intentional self-poisoning cases remained stable at 35 percent.
Opiates/opioids (i.e. heroin/morphine; methadone; other opiate/opioid analgesics), alone or in combination with other drugs, accounted for the majority of fatalities (68 per cent) in 2004. Even though the total number of deaths had fallen between 2003 and 2004, the number of deaths involving heroin/morphine was virtually unchanged and so there has been an increase in the proportion of deaths involving heroin/morphine by 6% (to 46%). The proportions of deaths involving other illicit drugs remained stable.

Ireland as a society entering a 10-year cocaine epidemic. Dr Luke predicted there would be 'dozens and dozens' of further deaths such as Katy's over the next decade.
'There is a spiralling interest in drug-taking among children and teenagers, which also perfectly fits the same curve of the distribution of leaflets and drug talks. I do worry that all you are doing is exposing them to a menu that they might dabble in,' he said
Philomena Lynott, who will mark the 21st anniversary this January of her son's death from a cocktail of alcohol and drugs, condemned the widespread use of drugs such as cocaine in Ireland.
Stephen Rowen, clinical director of the Dublin-based Rutland Centre, said: 'Cocaine is quite available, it's in most pubs and virtually every city, town and village in Ireland. We have no way of knowing before people use it how it will affect them - if they could have a stroke, heart attack, some severe medical reaction, or get addicted, which is a very expensive and horrific way to live.'
Katy, 24, died in hospital after collapsing and falling into a coma at a friend's house in Ashbourne, Co Meath, last weekend. Preliminary tests indicate she had cocaine in her bloodstream. The star of the Celebrities Go Wild series had been drinking champagne at her friend's home but, contrary to earlier reports, there was no party taking place.
A gramme of cocaine in Dublin costs around €40 (£29), making the Republic one of the cheapest places to buy the drug in the industrial world. Its widespread availability is due, in part, to geography: the Irish coastline provides an ideal 'dumping point' for drug cartels and gangsters smuggling cocaine by sea from South America via the West African coast to Europe.

Deaths in England and Wales caused by alcohol related disease have doubled in the last 20 years, and the year to 2001 showed the highest percentage increase in alcohol-related deaths for any year since 1979.

The age at which these deaths occur is increasingly younger and younger. The death rate for those aged between 25 and 44 has tripled since 1979. There are even more deaths where alcohol has been involved, such as accidents and suicides.

As the liver is the principal organ responsible for breaking down alcohol it bears the brunt of excessive drinking. The first stage of alcohol-related liver disease is "fatty liver". This is a side effect of the liver's attempts to break down alcohol, and is the accumulation of excess fat in the liver. It is often symptom-free, but is picked up during routine medical examinations. Although very common in heavy drinkers, it is also commonly found in those drinking just above the recommended limits. Fatty liver is often the precursor to a number of severe liver diseases such as alcoholic hepatitis and cirrhosis.

In cases of alcoholic hepatitis, giving up alcohol combined with a good diet can lead to a complete recovery, although death rates in alcoholic hepatitis are high. In the case of cirrhosis however, the illness affects the liver's ability to regenerate itself and there is no cure. If the sufferer continues to drink it will bring about complete liver failure. 10% of those suffering from cirrhosis go on to develop liver cancer, which is fatal within 6 months. It is unclear why some individuals go on to develop these severe diseases whilst others consuming similar quantities of alcohol do not.

some of whom died from an overdose

Posted by Land Bike Monday 10 December 2007

Three per cent of the organs transplanted into patients in the past five years came from donors with a history of drug abuse - some of whom died from an overdose - figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act have revealed.

One transplant surgeon said doctors were "desperate" for organs and had to use some they would otherwise have rejected.

Designer drugs are powerful synthetic psychedelics from the same chemical families as LSD, magic mushrooms and mescaline. They are too new to have enticing street names; instead their lengthy chemical names are shortened to abbreviations such as 2C-I, 4-HO-DiPT, and 5-Meo-DMT. Unlike ecstasy, methamphetamine or other synthetic recreational drugs, the new compounds are not made in illicit factories or backroom kitchen laboratories. Instead, "research chemicals", as they are euphemistically known, are synthesised by commercial labs, often based in the US, which openly sell their products on the internet.

New Designer Drugs

Posted by Land Bike

DMT Dimethyltryptamine

Found in minute quantities in certain Amazonian plants and in the human brain. Smoked, the effects are nearly instantaneous and very strange. "The closest you'll get to experiencing death bar actually dying" as one user put it.

Dose 2-60mg
Duration Less than 10 minutes
Legal status Class A
Price £100 a gram on the street

***

5-Meo-DMT Methoxydimethyltryptamine

A more powerful sister compound of DMT, occurring naturally in the venom of the Bufo alvarius toad but generally smoked in synthesised form. Not uncommon for those who take large amounts to suffer psychological and emotional difficulties for weeks afterwards.

Dose 1-20mg (smaller than a grain of salt)
Duration 5-20 minutes
Legal status Class A but available to buy on the internet
Price $175 (about £90) a gram

***

2C-I (2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodophenethylamine)

Most likely candidate for the coveted title "the next ecstasy".

Powerful psychedelic stimulant described as a cross between MDMA and LSD but with much gentler side-effects. Already appearing in pill form on the UK dance scene.

Dose 10-25mg
Duration 5-8 hours
Legal status Class A but available to buy on the internet
Price $299 a gram web price; £10 a pill on the street

***

2C-T-2 (2,5-dimethyoxy-4-ethylthiophenethylamine)

Respected psychedelic, from the same phenethylamine family as MDMA and mescaline.

Noted for its warmth and "outrageous visuals".

Dose 10-25mg
Duration 5-8 hours
Legal status Class A but available to buy on the internet
Price $299 a gram web price; £10 a pill on the street

New drugs are powerful synthetic psychedelics from the same chemical families as LSD, magic mushrooms and mescaline. They are too new to have enticing street names; instead their lengthy chemical names are shortened to abbreviations such as 2C-I, 4-HO-DiPT, and 5-Meo-DMT. Unlike ecstasy, methamphetamine or other synthetic recreational drugs, the new compounds are not made in illicit factories or backroom kitchen laboratories. Instead, "research chemicals", as they are euphemistically known, are synthesised by commercial labs, often based in the US, which openly sell their products on the internet.

The rapid growth in the transatlantic online trade in such chemicals has been fuelled by international differences over legality. While Britain has outlawed all of these drugs - under an amendment to the Misuse Of Drugs Act in February 2002 - they remain legal in most other countries, including the majority of EU member states. Even in the US, despite some of the most draconian anti-drug laws in the world, the bulk of research chemicals are legal to manufacture, sell, possess and consume.

With ecstasy dropping in price and popularity, users and dealers in this country are looking further afield to obtain new highs. A recent Home Office survey found that ecstasy use had dropped 21% in the last year. The street price had also dropped to an all time low of £2-£3 a pill.

But while most research chemicals are too psychedelically powerful to make it as club drugs, one, 2C-I, is rapidly gaining popularity in this country as a dance drug, thanks to some similarities in effect to MDMA, the main ingredient of ecstasy. More than 125 pills of the drug were seized by police last year, including 65 at the Glastonbury festival, and some London dealers are offering it for £10 a tablet.

Methamphetamine can be cooked up using a handful of household chemicals, but byproducts can include toxic waste in the local water supply, fires and explosions.

Globally, users are said to outnumber those of heroin and cocaine combined, but its prevalence in the UK is still a matter of some debate.

The UK is further removed from the suspected "meth labs" of Mexico and south-east Asia, than Australia and the rural US, where methamphetamine use is said to have reached epidemic proportions.

Among the new flavors are strawberry, known as "Strawberry Quick," chocolate, cola and other sodas, Robertson said. One agent reported a red methamphetamine that had been marketed as a powdered form of an energy drink, he said.

A patrol officer who stopped a car on Feb. 13 in a rural area of Greene County, Mo., seized a bag of "strawberry meth" from a female passenger, says Capt. Randy Gibson of the Greene County Sheriff's Department. The seized drug had a slight strawberry smell to it, he said.

Greene County deputies have seized colored meth before, Gibson says. Several years ago, blue methamphetamine, known as "Smurf dope" circulated in the area, Gibson said.

"It was nothing more than one of the local meth cooks taking a great deal of pride in his purity," Gibson says. "He ground up blue chalk to color it so he could market it as his."

Carson City, Nev., Undersheriff Steve Albertson says dealers often try to make their meth distinctive with color or a catchy name as a way to brand it. "Then they'll spread the word that this meth, whatever color it is, is the best kind of meth there is," he said.

The appearance of "Strawberry Quick" in Greene County came less than two weeks after the Nevada

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