Master of Irony, Craig Farris, was arrested last Thursday afternoon when he attempted to sell meth and ecstasy to an undercover police officer. Farris, founder and CEO of the Over the Wall Foundation, made his initial fortune helping young people face and recover from addiction. Apparently he’s making a second fortune by re-establishing himself as their primary drug dealer in their Foundation Sponsored Relapse.

In an interesting twist, the drugs intercepted by police turned out not to be illicit drugs at all. Sly Craig Farris not only has got the best racket in town (dealing drugs to addicts inside their own treatment center), he’s pawning off Tylenol and oregano to do it. At least he’s consistent: he lacks scruples as a drug counselor and a drug dealer at the same time.

Over the last few months, stories of the debilitating drug violence in Mexico have become commonplace in the US media. While the murders of civilians and law enforcement officers continue to climb, other casualties of this escalation are going unnoticed. As reported in the Christian Science Monitor, the government’s assault on Mexican cartels has vastly increased the availability of drugs in the country.

As major cartels are targeted by Mexican law enforcement, they have begun to fragment, causing more competition among a greater pool of lower-level dealers. When the cartel hierarchies break down, the additional competition for sales not only increases the purity of the product (be it cocaine, heroin, or methamphetamines), but also considerably decreases the price. At current rates, a gram of cocaine can be had for as little as $11, a price that is one-third that of a few decades ago.

This flooding of the market has created an entire new generation of addicts. Over the last six years, Mexico has suffered a 50% rise in addiction, towards a number approaching half a million.

Short of creating a completely facist, totalitatiran state (something well beyond the abilities of Mexican authorities) there seems to be absolutely no violence-based solution to the drug problem. In the meantime, Mexico is being laid to waste by its denial of the immutable, uncompromising laws of the drug trade.

In a breathtaking and completely novel discovery, ’scientists’ at McGill University have found cocaine use to be both pleasurable and addictive. While they could have reached this conclusion after a few nights of clubbing at Toronto’s Big Easy nightclub, they instead opted for more of scientific method-y approach.

In the study, ten straight-laced Canucks were given cocaine to snort, while ten unluckier blokes were handed placebo powder. In the shocker of all shockers, the cocaine users tended to enjoy their experience a great deal more. So much for the potential of illicit placebo trafficking.

One interesting tidbit did manage to surface in this study, however. It seems that the amount of dopamine (pleasurable endorphin) that the brain secretes when taking cocaine is dependent on how much cocaine the person has used in the past. In other words, cocaine pros might actually receive a greater high than cocaine newbies. This phenomenon also immediately explains why the drug can become so addictive.

Meanwhile, McGill scientists are setting their sights on solving more mysteries of the universe, such as whether water actually quenches thirst, and whether drinking it is in any way related to the process of urination. Good luck, intrepid discoverers.

It’s tragic, but it happens on a daily bassis anywhere around the world — someone dies of a heroin overdose. With the family from Massapequa, New York the mother had a chance to get her daughter the help she needed after her first overdose, but she dropped the ball by allowing her daughter tell her that she didn’t need rehab. Another overdose later and she died.

Her mother was oblivious to her drug activity yet all the typical tell-tale signs were seemingly there; she lost weight, began seeing less of her friends, stayed in her room writing lyrics and poetry, met a new boyfriend, began breaking curfews and began arguing with her parents. I say typical because these could easily be signs of a changing teenager meeting a boyfriend who began influencing her staying out and being rebelous towards her parents.

If her mother had been properly educated on the drug heroin then she would have seen the tell tale physical signs that not even the best heroin user could hide. Things like drowsiness, constricted pupils, lethargy amongst others. Depending on how it was used may have left physical marks as well. The fact that they couldn’t recognize their daughter’s drug abuse is lost on me, there are plenty of families and friends out there that recognize drug abuse, try to put an end to it, then just pray they can curtail it and get the abuser to rebab — and yet they still die.

According to the National Drug Intelligence Center, it’s because the heroin of today is much stronger than the heroin of the past. The statistics of it being 10 percent pure back then and 70 percent pure now is what they want you to believe. In reality, it is the exact opposite. The truth as to why people are dying of overdoses is because when the drug comes off the street, it’s cut once or twice over thus losing it’s purity, depending on how many channels the drug goes through depends on the cut. Too many channels, too much cut and a greater chance for an overdose because they are doing larger quantities chasing that dragon.

The National Drug Intelligence Center knows that experiments like in Switzerland and the recent Portugal have been a success with curbing overdoses by distributing heroin in a pure form. What statistics do you believe? Their words and disinformation on a mainstream media outlet that puts a heroin story under an ironically named AM Fix, or statistics tracked from studies done in two separate countries?

Obviously there are many factors to consider on how drugs of this nature actually can be legalized, aside from just doing it. Politics have a tendency to wrap the issue in red tape, much as it has been done over the decades. When heroin can be cheaper than a six pack of beer, people can obtain it without IDs and organized crime profits immensely off of it; then it’s time to cut the tape and figure out another avenue of approach.

The Justice Department’s National Drug Threat Assessment reports that more than half the heroin arrests in the nation are in mid-Atlantic and Northeast states; Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia. In 2006 the Department of Health reported that more heroin users sought treatment in the Northeastern states than anywhere else. With many of these states now pushing bills for decriminilization of marijuana and bills seeking laws for medical marijuana, one wonders if heroin use will decrease in those states in the coming years.

Pharmacological researchers at UC Irvine may have discovered a new way to limit the cravings of cocaine by blocking a hormone that regulates hunger. High levels of MCH can intensify feelings of hunger.

Headed by Shinjae Chung and Olivier Civelli, the study concentrated on the effects of the melanin-concentrating hormone interacting with dopamine, a neurotransmitter essential to the normal functioning of the central nervous system. Dopamine is also associated with the pleasure center of the brain, when it’s released during eating, sex and drug use.

Civelli, the Eric L. and Lila D. Nelson Professor of Neuropharmacology said:

This discovery indicates that MCH is a key regulator of dopamine in a brain area associated with both pleasure and addiction. We believe that efforts to target MCH may lead to new treatments to break addiction to cocaine and, possibly, other drugs, like amphetamines and nicotine.

In the study, the researchers learned that mice conditioned to develop cocaine cravings, had large amounts of MCH and dopamine. When experimental compounds that block MCH were given to the mice, the cocaine cravings disappeared. They also discovered that the mice lacking MCH, showed significant reduction in cocaine cravings.

This is actually an awesome discovery. If drugs were legalized, the main problem would be those people that become addicted who tried them. If something existed that could fight the addiction even more, then those people who don’t want to do the drugs would stand half a chance of stopping.

My only concern is the response of the Alcohol & Tobacco industry. With something on the market that can fight cravings, people may just be able to stop drinking and smoking cigarettes easier. This means far less money for those big players in the market. I guarantee they will do everything in their power to bury this study and/or stop the efforts of creating a drug that will essentially assist in kicking addiction of another (more serious) drug to the curb.

No, not just because it makes you think you’re an amazing conversationalist while still having nothing to say. It turns out it’s more about genetics.

A study shows that there’s a genetic link found both in whites and blacks that leads to the paranoia associated with cocaine abuse and the addictive control it has over the user.

Published in General Psychiatry, the study points to prevalent genetic markers and a lot of other medical gobbledygook that basically means you have a 1 in 2 (or 3) chance of having the genes that say: “I love to do coke until the party stops!” Rather than, “I can do a line and walk away.”

Or as Rick James would say:

Cocaine is a helluva drug.

Following the logic of using methadone to treat heroin addiction, several studies are being conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse to use amphetamines to fight the urge of stimulation felt by cocaine addicts.

While the studies, like those done with methadone, seem more aimed at fighting the symptoms rather than curing the disease of addiction, the results have been mixed. At a British clinic in Cornwall, doctors reported that while using dexamphetamine, eventually two-thirds of those who injected cocaine quit using. A similar trial in Australia yielded a 40 percent decrease in users reverting back to cocaine.

There are severe practical limitations to the study, namely that high doses of opioids are not nearly as toxic as a high dose of amphetamines, which can cause brain damage, psychosis, heart attack and stroke. This is especially a concern for scientists, who can’t afford to have a participant in the study try and “top” the prescription drug with a street version because of the lethal risks involved. Another risk, like methadone, is decreasing the dependency of one drug, at the expense of increasing it in another.

However, the benefits of safe, controlled use of needles and post-addiction behavior have justified continued study in several countries where cocaine injection is becoming a growing dilemma.

Aimed at parents, eHow has put together a list that might help them identify signs of potential drug abuse. Although parents are the main focus, this could also be used by anyone who is concerned about a friend or relative.

Communication will always be the number one way to find out. When approached directly, there are many techniques addicts will use to deflect the question; subject switching, instant combativeness or feigning ignorance. The trick is to not start the conversation off in an accusatory tone, as that instantly puts the person you’re worried about in a defensive position and will make them question your true intentions.

With that said, the article wisely cautions against jumping to any conclusions:

Don’t jump to conclusions. Virtually everything listed in this article are normal phases when growing up. You’re looking for combinations. Use sound judgement and trust your instincts.

In almost every scenario, except parenting, the hardest part for a friend or relative showing concern is whether or not it’s their job to become involved in the first place. You must always weigh the safety and concern factor versus trust and friendship, all of which may be jeopardized.

Obviously, lists like these are a start and possible help, but there is no simple way to approach someone you’re worried about. Try to be understanding and see where it goes from there.

An experiment, conducted by the Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, recently showed significant promise in treating methamphetamine addiction.

The treatment is a new drug called, vigabatrin (a.k.a. gamma vinyl-GABA, or GVG), which has shown effectiveness in blocking drug-seeking behavior in lab animals.

Stephen Dewey, a Brookhaven neuroanatomist who led the research team, said:

Reinstatement of drug-seeking behavior after an extended period of abstinence is the number-one cause of drug-addiction relapse.

There is currently no effective treatment for methamphetamine addiction, and vigabatrin may be the only known drug which has shown efficacy in stopping addictive behavior for amphetamines. Said tests were conducted on rats, and are currently being tested by Catalyst Pharmaceutical Partners for use against cocaine and methamphetamine addiction in humans in Phase II clinical trials.

President Felipe Calderon has decided to follow the strategies of a European counterpart in guiding Mexico’s new approach to combatting narcotics.

Calderon called drugs the “slavery of the century,” in what has to be a cute, creative and misguided use of scare tactics – I don’t remember slaves ever getting a choice.

But I digress, Mexico’s addiction and violence rates are through the roof. Since the 1990s, the demand for narcotics (not just the friendly green kind) has been staggering. In just 6 years, the number of drug addicts has doubled to 307,000 since 2002. Not good.

This effort is in response to the recent growth of violence all over Mexico as the world’s biggest drug market. Traffickers battle with Calderon’s administration, which has attempted repeatedly to clean up the country’s drug trade and resulting corruption, and Calderon isn’t necessarily winning.

Let’s hope this new approach is able to get the truly dangerous substances off the streets while keeping marijuana users out of harms way.

Assholes and scientists have long debated the tenets of marijuana addiction. With assholes representing the U.S. Government, who desperately rely on typical Bible Belt-based scare tactics. And the scientists who rely on actual science, conducting actual experiments, in actual laboratories.

Not surprisingly, the assholes have failed miserably thus far. Guys in the government can thank the cult-classic, propaganda gem “Reefer Madness” for the additional support.

Right here we have a decent argument from neither an asshole nor a scientist.