A recent study examined the prevalence of drug use among aviation employees (Li et al, 2011). The federal government requires drug testing of certain employees in "safety-sensitive" occupations, including airline pilots. The study assessed whether use of illicit drugs is associated with a heightened risk of airline accidents.

About the Study

The researchers used aviation employer records to analyze results of drug tests for substances, including marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, opiates and phencyclidine. The analysis involved employees at all major airlines, commuter air carriers and air taxis, and non-FAA air traffic controllers. It included flight crewmembers, flight attendants, flight instructors and aircraft dispatchers. The analysis covered a 10-year period from 1995 to 2005.

The researchers looked at both random drug testing and post-accident testing. The random testing comprised about 96 percent of the data, representing urine testing for a random selection of at least 25 percent of employees. Post-accident testing was conducted within 32 hours of an accident for employees who may have had an impact on the accident through job performance.

Drug Use Rare but Serious

The results of the analysis revealed that the occurrence of drug use was very low in random drug testing. However, it also showed that when an employee tested positive for drugs, they were nearly three times as likely to be associated with an accident when compared with an employee who tested negative for drugs.

Across all drug violations, marijuana accounted for 67.3 percent of all violations, while cocaine accounted for 23.9 percent and amphetamines accounted for 6.1 percent.

There were some limitations to the results that may affect their generalizability to other segments of aviation. For instance, the analysis did not include non-commercial aviation accidents, which account for 90 percent of all aviation accidents.

The results of the analysis reveal that drug use among aviation employees is rare, but the risk of accident goes up significantly if an employee does use drugs. Because of the limitation of the study to commercial air, the research on the topic is limited.

One recent study compared amounts of tar emitted from a traditional packaged cigarette to amounts emitted from a rolled cigarette, assembled at home, and found that cigarettes rolled by the user had significantly higher levels of chemicals known to be addictive.

The study, conducted at Victoria University, also showed that ingredients in cigarette smoke cause higher levels of a protein to be produced in the body, and this protein aids in boosting the addictive properties of nicotine.

It is estimated that about 50 percent of people who smoke for long periods of their life will die from smoking-related illnesses. Chemicals found in cigarettes that are linked to cancer include arsenic, formaldehyde, chromium and acrolein. Nitrogen oxides, ammonia and forms of cyanide are also present in cigarettes. Cigarettes rolled at home, say researchers, have much larger amounts of tar than retail cigarettes – contributing to even stronger addictive properties.

This may explain why, say researchers, smokers who try nicotine replacements – which don’t include smoke – have a harder time quitting and sticking to their resolve. Some statistics show people may attempt to quit as many as 14 times before becoming successful.

The appeal of rolling-your-own cigarettes may come in price. Smokers purchase a package of rolling papers, which can come in a variety of flavors, and a can of loose smoking tobacco for less cost than traditional cigarettes. However, though perhaps lower in price, smokers are still exposed to the same list of cancer-causing chemicals no matter which type they use, says another study published in Addiction Biology.

The study compared the urine from people who smoked retail cigarettes with samples from people who rolled their own cigarettes to determine levels of two types of carcinogens. Results showed that levels of toxic chemicals in both smokers’ urine were essentially the same, even when participants’ variances in weight, smoking behaviors and ages, along with other considerations, were factored in.

Females, say the researchers, showed more levels of carcinogens than men, no matter which variety of cigarettes they used. Researchers hope the study, conducted at the Health Behavior Research Centre, part of Cancer Research UK, may help dispel the false belief of smokers that rolling-their-own presents a more nature-based and less destructive cigarette.

The conclusion researchers arrived at brings a straightforward message to smokers, says Elspeth Lee of Cancer Research UK. When it comes to smoking, Lee says, no type of cigarette should ever be considered safe. She adds that while rolling-your-own cigarettes may be more appealing to people in lower-income areas, the practice is just as deadly as smoking retail cigarettes.

Lee, along with other members of large-scale anti-smoking initiatives, is calling for new legislation to keep smoking away from young persons and to reduce marketing campaigns for tobacco. Across the globe, experts believe making the deadly habit less appealing and less accessible may help prevent millions of new addictions.

According to a recent Science Daily release, this drug addiction treatment and subsequent withdrawal can be more comfortable if the mother receives a new treatment option while she is still pregnant. This treatment application has also proven to be less expensive and requires a shorter hospital stay.

Peter Martin, M.D., director of Vanderbilt’s Division of Addiction Psychiatry, conducted research that determined newer buprenorphine is at a minimum as good for both the mother and the baby as the standard approach with methadone if both treatment options were combined with a treatment of comprehensive care for the opioid addiction in the pregnant mother.

As Martin stated, the baby is born with an addiction to what the mother consumes during pregnancy. When the babies are born, they are very uncomfortable and incessantly restless. While the outcomes of both treatments appear to be effective and the mothers and babies both did well, the standard of care is significantly higher with the buprenorphine treatment applied during the time of pregnancy.

Buprenorphine is widely used to treat opioid addictions, although it has not been thoroughly studied in the treatment of addicted babies. The results of this study suggest that babies of mothers receiving this drug needed significantly less morphine to treat their neonatal abstinence syndrome and required a shorter treatment period.

Courtney Love, widow of Kurt Cobain, former lead singer for alternative rock band Nirvana, began garnering public attention for problems with drugs and alcohol in the early 1990s. During this time, while her relationship with Cobain captured public interest, Love’s music career with the band Hole was taking off – but both Love and Cobain were reported to abuse drugs.

In 1994, Cobain committed suicide, which Love said pushed her further into substance abuse and also began a period of financial troubles. For a time, the celebrity’s custody of she and Cobain’s daughter, Frances Bean, was removed. Sentencing for other offenses during the late 1990s included six months of substance abuse treatment.

A 2003 charge was given to Love for possessing medications without having a prescription, and she is reported to have overdosed on the prescription painkiller Oxycontin. She is also reported to have attempted drug rehabilitation on several occasions.

Substance abuse professionals and people in drug or alcohol recovery have often cited the benefits of peer support for fighting addiction – a situation Love says is also part of her past experience with drugs. The star says actor Mel Gibson and professional counselor Warren Boyd intervened while she and others were taking drugs in a hotel, encouraging Love to begin rehabilitation.

Love reflected on this, and other periods of her life, in a 2006 interview with ABC News, where she discussed the release of her memoir. During the interview, Love spoke of a three-year span where most of her life was spent under the influence of drugs – from 2001 to 2004 – causing her to say she would have left those pages of the memoir all black, demonstrating the chaotic state of those years.

Keith Richards, Rolling Stones guitarist, is also a name among celebrity resources Love has been linked with in her battle against drug addiction. A 2010 news article says Love has sought help from Richards’ son, Marlon Richards. She is reported to have asked Richards for help in locating a professional who specializes in addiction treatment.
Love has said part of her encouragement to seek sobriety comes from her daughter, Frances Bean, now 18 years old. She also returned to music, with a new album with Hole in 2010, “Nobody’s Daughter.”

Love has also admitted to self-hazardous behavior, even reported to have admitted thoughts of suicide. It is believed that self-destructive behaviors are part of a method of escape from emotions including depression, high levels of stress and anxiety – behaviors also linked to people with higher rates of substance abuse.

Called one of the most watched female celebrity musicians, Courtney Love’s ongoing battle with substance abuse will likely remain in the public eye. Love’s struggle highlights the difficulty of working through relapse for many people with substance abuse problems.
 

A recent End Prohibition report focused on the issue of such cycles as one third of the 265 patients at Bluewater Health’s Addiction Services reported the use of narcotic analgesics. More than two thirds reported they used alcohol and cannabis.

Law enforcement in the region points to the surge in painkiller use – both legal and illegal – as the primary driver of the recent rise in home break-ins and vehicle thefts. The person with the addiction will turn to crime to fuel their need to get high. Crime is the easiest way to get the cash needed to feed the drug habit.

In some situations, the one dealing with the drug addiction is someone who was once normal and never sought a life of crime. Personalities change when drugs play a part and desperation makes the drug addict do unusual things.

For many, they will be caught by police and some will serve time. When proper treatment is not applied, they will return to their habits once they are free. These individuals will steal anything they believe can produce fast cash, which makes everyone and everything a possible target.

Throughout England, law enforcement and citizen groups are working together to try and turn the tide, educating citizens on what they need to do to protect themselves and their belongings. Until proper treatment is provided to the addictive criminal, however, the cycle will only continue.
 

Now, according to a recent Massachusetts news release, the state has passed a law requiring all pharmacies that dispense schedule II, III, IV or V prescription medications to make lock boxes available for sale at each location.

The new law, which adds Safeguards to the Prescription Monitoring Program and furthering Substance Abuse Education and Prevention, is expected to set precedence for other states in the nation.

The law suggests making available the Rx Locker, designed by Dr. Drew Pinsky, known as an addiction expert. This lock box is a storage device that is designed to hold as many as four prescription bottles, while still fitting inside the standard medicine cabinet. The box offers a metal combination lock to provide the necessary storage and security.

Part of the motivation for the lock box was the reality of the growing problem of prescription drug abuse among teenagers in the U.S. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, one in five teens have abused some sort of prescription medication, such as stimulants, pain killers, sedatives or tranquilizers. Of those who have abused, 70 percent claim they accessed the drugs from family and friends.
 

The Post Gazette reported that a third man, Amir Ferguson, has been charged in the incident. This defendant told detectives that during the crime he was high on Ecstasy and cocaine. Ferguson was arrested at the hospital where he had been taken when he was shot in the arm during the gunfight.

The incident occurred when police arrived at a home seeking another individual on an unrelated warrant. People in the home had scrambled to escape when the police arrived. Ferguson reportedly charged at a deputy who had tried to arrest him. In the scuffle, he was shot when he ignored orders from the deputy to stop.

Other men in the house were high on drugs and readily engaged in the gunfire after the first shot was heard. Roughly 40 rounds were fired in the gunfight, which took the life of a mother of two. Ms. Hainesworth was 24 years old and reportedly not an innocent bystander.

Instead, Hainesworth was known to allow a drug dealer to use her apartment as a safe house for drug use and distribution. Police officers found about $50,000 worth of heroin in her purse.

Detectives are still unclear as to who fired the shot that killed Hainesworth, although insist the bullet did not come from a police gun. Hainesworth’s home was being ransacked by the accused men who were searching for the heroin they were told was in Hainesworth’s home.
 

Under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), all substances are categorized according to whether or not they have a medical application, the potential for abuse, anticipated safety of the substance and how easily people can develop a dependency, whether the substance is taken by prescription or for recreational purposes.

Substances that fall under Schedule III of the CSA are considered to have less potential for abuse than those substances that are listed under Schedule I or II. These substances do have an accepted medical purpose in treatment methods in the United States and abuse of such substances is considered to be moderate or low, although psychological dependence could be high.

Drugs that fall under Schedule III of the CSA include substances such as Anabolic steroids, codeine and hydrocodone with aspirin or Tylenol. There are some barbiturates that also fall under this schedule, although not all are included due to their potential for abuse.

For those manufacturers and retail establishments who distribute Schedule III substances, careful records must be kept on all distributions. Records do not have to be kept separate from all other documentation, much like the practice required for Schedule II substances.

Prescriptions written for Schedule III substances can be called-in to the pharmacy and refills can be assigned to the prescription. In fact, patients have the option of refilling the prescription as many as five times within six months of the issue of the prescription.

An interesting fact about the CSA is that it is written to allow for substances to be easily added and removed, or moved to another schedule if necessary. Substances that become a highly demanded drug on the black market may need to be included in a higher classification than originally determined.

The U.S. government relies heavily on historical data associated with certain substances in order to determine the risk for abuse. The trend toward abusing prescription medications has everyone taking a closer look at these classifications and security methods put in place to identify weak links in a system that could be improved.
As it stands, Schedule III controlled substances do not pose as high a risk for abuse as other substances, which make them easier to obtain. This ease, unfortunately, exists both in legal and illegal methods, which could ultimately change the schedule outcome in the future.
 

According to a recent Delaware Online report, a mask wearing man grabbed a women in the rear parking lot of Manor Pharmacy in late April. The man put a gun to his victim’s head, planning to use her as a hostage to get the pills he was after.

The woman was a hostage for the man, Philip Maconi, as he demanded the pharmacist give him OxyContin. This was not the first attempt on a pharmacy by Maconi, but it was his first with a hostage. The same pharmacy came under siege by Maconi a month earlier as he sought the same reward.

In this latest attempt, the pharmacist gave Maconi what he wanted. Facing a gun put a whole new perspective on the crime – especially since it was so closely aimed at the head of another individual.

Officials claim the abuse of prescription drugs has soared so high over the last eight years that among young users, this habit now outpaces the use of crack and cocaine. In fact, prescription drug abuse is second only to marijuana.

Delaware Gov. Jack Markell was at a news conference in Washington recently and announced that prescription drug fraud arrests in his state have seen an increase of more than 600 from 2003. In that year, arrests were at 33; by 2009, arrests topped 220.
 

According to annual crime statistics from the Maine Department of Public Safety, a total of 33,411 of the crimes committed in 2009 are considered to be the 10 most serious crimes, ranging from murder to theft. This total is a 1.8 percent drop from the previous year and is 25.3 offenses per 1,000 residents, compared with the national rate of 45.4 offenses per 1,000 people.

Even with the decline in the number of assaults and aggravated assaults, thefts and auto thefts, robberies, where violence or the threat of violence was used to steal from someone, rose almost 20 percent from 332 to 398. Such crimes are worrisome as they are crimes of violence driven by a need of money or goods, which suggests a level of desperation or callousness.
"It’s driven by narcotics. We know that that’s what is driving the crime," said Portland Police Chief James Craig in Maine Today. Craig’s department’s statistics reflect similar trends, with increases in burglaries and robberies and an overall decline in violent and property crime.
Maine Drug Enforcement Agency director, Roy McKinney, noted the cost to victims of drug-related crime demands a broad response. He told Maine Today that viable prevention programs are needed, along with viable law enforcement and viable treatment programs to address the issue.