USA Drug Epidemic: President Obama Takes Lead against Drug Abuse - killing more people than in car accidents

Heroin Applicator: Killing thousands of people yearly

President Obama sat down with those on the front lines of the U.S. heroin and opioid epidemic on Tuesday for a frank discussion about the country’s addiction crisis, calling the issue critical to his role in protecting the health of the American people.

“When you look at the staggering statistics in terms of lives lost, productivity impacted, cost to communities, but most importantly cost to families from this epidemic,” Obama said. “It has to be something that is right up there at the top of our radar screen.”

The President addressed U.S. opioid abuse, which has grown during his two terms in office, at the National Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit, a gathering of law enforcement, medical professionals, and treatment facilitators who’ve been impacted by addiction. Obama spoke on a panel for over an hour with two recovering addicts and two medical professionals, including moderator Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Since 2002, there has been a 286% increase in heroin-related overdose deaths, with a tremendous spike after 2010.

The term "responsible drug use" is a favorite saying of people who use drugs on a regular basis and want to proof they are not addicted. Unfortunately across the USA, more Americans die every year from drug overdoses than from motor vehicle crashes. 

In 2014, drug overdoses killed 47,055 people, the highest number on record, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The majority, around 28,000, involved opioids such as prescription painkillers and heroin. In fact, heroin-related overdose deaths have more than tripled since 2010, totaling 10,500 in 2014. Bottom line: say no to drugs and if you run into or see a drug dealer report him or her to the police !

EU - Digest

Drug abuse in Europe under mysterious assault

The European Union’s drug agency has warned that new substances may pose unknown dangers to public health. It also says austerity budget cuts and high youth unemployment are a growing challenge in the fight against drug abuse. The addiction monitoring centre informs governments about the relevant context, evolution and influences.

The observatory in Lisbon has just presented its annual report, mostly about problems but with some hopeful signs as well, our correspondent added: “… such as fewer heroin users and less being taken by injection. In some countries cocaine and cannabis use has also fallen.”

Consumption has either stabilised or dropped for more ‘traditional’ substances, and around half of Europe’s 1.4 million opiate users are getting treatment. That’s encouraging, but the centre said newly-developed and less-plant-based drugs had appeared, as Internet-selling continues to transform the market – including what people take and how they get it.

As part of the social cost, drug-users impose a heavy burden on health structures when they fall ill; as many as 80 percent of them, for example, are infected with hepatitis C, which attacks the liver.

The death rate among users is ten to twenty times higher than among people who don’t take illegal drugs.

Read more: Drug abuse in Europe under mysterious assault | euronews, world news

StoptheDrugWar: EU: Leading Dutch Bank Shuns Cannabis Coffee Shop Accounts

For the complete report from StoptheDrugWar.org click on this link

EU: Leading Dutch Bank Shuns Cannabis Coffee Shop Accounts

In yet another sign of the cross-currents buffeting the Netherlands' cannabis industry, a leading Dutch bank announced it was closing the accounts of people who owned coffee shops. The move comes as Dutch social conservatives, including members of the governing coalition, are making increasingly loud noises about criminality in the supply of cannabis to the coffee shops.Postbank announced the move last Friday. Part of the Dutch financial services giant ING Group, the Postbank has some 7.5 million private account holders and provides current and savings accounts, loans, mortgages, insurance, investments and pensions, making it one of the largest providers of financial services in the country. Postbank has no branches, but some services are available at post offices, and otherwise operates completely through land mail and telephone and electronic banking.

A bank spokesman said that facilitating the marijuana and hashish trade can no longer be considered responsible. In addition to closing existing accounts, the bank will now screen new customers to ensure they are not involved in the cannabis business.

News Target: Statistics prove prescription drugs are 16,400% more deadly than terrorists

For the complete report from News Target click on this link

Statistics prove prescription drugs are 16,400% more deadly than terrorists

Over 750,000 people actually do die in the United States every year, although not from plane crashes or terrorist attacks. They die from something far more common and rarely perceived by the public as dangerous: modern medicine.

The Daily Star - The White Powder That Kills - Europe finds a new passion: cocaine, a 'drug for winners'? - by Antonio Maria Costa

For the complete report in The Daily Star click on this link

The White Powder That Kills - Europe finds a new passion: cocaine, a 'drug for winners'? - by Antonio Maria Costa

European leaders need to get serious about Europe's cocaine problem. The "white lady" is seducing a steadily growing number of Europeans, and remaining in a state of denial will only worsen the consequences. Cocaine used to be America's problem, to the point that the United States started a major campaign against sellers and consumers of crack cocaine in the inner cities, drug traffickers, and suppliers in the Andes. But now demand for cocaine in most of the world is stable or dropping. Coca cultivation has been slashed by a quarter in the past five years, and seizures of cocaine have almost doubled. An impressive 42 percent of all of the world's cocaine was seized in 2005.

Only Europe is bucking the trend. Cocaine use is on the rise, especially in Spain, Great Britain, and Italy. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence indicating traces of cocaine found on bank notes and in water supplies.

The level of cocaine use in Spain - 3 percent of the population aged 15 to 64 - now exceeds that in the US. And the United Kingdom is not far behind. In 2005, 2.4 percent of the British population used cocaine at least once, up sharply from 0.6 percent a decade earlier. Ten years ago, 20 percent of all new clients entering treatment for drug abuse in the Netherlands were addicted to cocaine. Now it is 40 percent.Cocaine is fashionable because it is attractive: white, not dark; sniffed, not injected; consumed in a living room or a fashionable night-club, not in a dark alley. It is seen as a drug for winners, not losers. To many it is a symbol of success, until they end up in a hospital or treatment center.

Europeans need to be reminded that cocaine is highly addictive and harmful. That is why it is a controlled substance. Many European governments fail to invest political capital in preventing and treating drug abuse. While addicts may be in denial, thinking that they can control their recreational use, cocaine, to quote the famous song by J.J. Cale, "she don't lie."