The Scottish psychologist R.D. Laing once said: True guilt is guilt at the obligation one owes to oneself to be oneself. False guilt is guilt felt at not being what other people feel one ought to be or assume that one is. Moderate feelings of guilt are beneficial because they encourage the individual to do the right thing. If nobody felt guilty about anything it would likely lead to a fearful world and it could even threaten the survival of the human species. There is also a more negative form of guilt which is excessive and harmful. This refers to a situation where the individual carries a sense of guilt around with them most of the time. The reasons for why the individual may become a victim of excessive guilt include: They have a poor self image. It can be a sign of mental health difficulties. Some people fall into negative thinking and this tends to include guilt. The individual has been a victim of physical or sexual abuse. Unhealthy relationships can leave people with feelings of guilt. Excessive stress. Alcohol or drug abuse.

Nadine Stewart was convinced she was going to die. Just ten minutes after setting off for a pop concert with her sister, she felt a tingling sensation in her arms and pain in her chest.

‘I knew I was having a heart attack,’ says Nadine, 41, a customer services adviser from Morecambe, Lancashire. ‘I begged my sister to take me to A&E: I ran in and screamed that I was having a heart attack.

‘They put me on a monitor and my heart was fine — what I had suffered was a panic attack. I have no idea to this day what caused it, but it terrified the life out of me.’ 

Nadine Stewart has to do everything nine times or fears her husband will die

But worse was to come. ‘Afterwards, I developed a fear that if I didn’t do something nine times, something terrible would happen to me, my husband Paul or a member of my family.’ says Nadine. 

‘If I made a drink I had to stir it nine times. If I locked the door I had to check it nine times and if I used a cloth to wipe a surface I’d have to wipe it nine times. I don’t know why it was nine. I realised I was being utterly irrational. But every time I tried to curb it — such as only stirring my drink three times — I’d begin to panic.'

Nadine had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), recognised by the World Health Organisation as one of the top ten most disabling disorders in terms of its effect on quality of life. 

Last month both the British actress Emily Blunt and the MP Charles Walker revealed they suffered from it, with Walker admitting he had to do everything in multiples of four — and felt the need to wash his hands hundreds of times a day. 

They are not alone. Around a million people in the UK are thought to be undergoing treatment for OCD, the majority of them women. Women are twice as likely as men to develop anxiety disorders such as OCD — and high-achieving perfectionists are particularly at risk. 

‘There are two parts to OCD, the obsession and the compulsion,’ explains Joel Rose, of charity OCD Action. ‘The obsession is a thought that pops into your head, about harm coming to someone you love or you causing harm to someone.'

‘Everyone has these thoughts but most of us ignore them and get on with our lives. Someone with OCD will develop a compulsive ritual as a reaction to them. It can be continually washing their hands or something invisible like repeating the same phrase over and over in their heads.'

‘The time spent on these compulsions lengthens with time. A severe OCD sufferer might spend six or seven hours a day washing their hands in the hope nothing terrible happens to their children.’

The cause of the condition is not known, though a stressful event in someone’s life may trigger an underlying problem. 

Nadine has never pinpointed the root of her troubles — though they began in the year she started a new job, moved house and got engaged. ‘I had no reason to feel anxious,’ she said, ‘though I suppose there was a lot of change.

‘I became scared of choking to death so I stopped eating and lost three stone in less than three months. I couldn’t leave the house without Paul, and even then it would take me three hours to pluck up the courage.’

Someone who can empathise with Nadine is Jeni Scott, 31, who’s had OCD for three years. 
It began when her father had a heart attack and her mother was diagnosed with cancer, soon after Jeni left university. 

‘I became obsessed with doing things in order,’ says Jeni, a tutor from Newport, Wales. ‘I started making lists but it had everything on it such as “get up, have shower, make a cup of tea” and if I didn’t stick to it I would punish myself by denying myself a treat.

Actress Emily Blunt, star of Five Year Engagement, has revealed she suffers from OCD

‘I developed a phobia of being in the rain in the wrong clothes and had to take a backpack with spare bra, pants, coat, shoes and umbrella everywhere with me. I’d carry antibacterial gel in my bag and use it every ten minutes. I’ve still no idea why I did it, I just found it helped me.’ 

Aisha Faisal, from Reading, Berkshire, also suffers from OCD — and it’s getting worse. ‘I developed it in my teens when my mother fell ill and I had to clean the house,’ the 26-year-old says. ‘Now I’m obsessed with everything being super-clean. I wash my hands 14 or 15 times a day, I shower for an hour at a time and wash the shower head and bath thoroughly before I step in. 

‘If someone touches me, I cringe. My neighbour touched my scarf to tell me it was pretty and I had to have a shower and put all my clothes in the wash.’ Aisha, who has three children under four, admits her obsession extended to giving birth. 

‘Each time I had Caesarean sections — the thought of having a natural birth makes me feel physically sick.’ She made the surgeons assure her everything had been scrubbed thoroughly before each operation. Understandably, her OCD worries the rest of her family. ‘My husband Ali finds it very hard to see me like this. I won’t let him touch me when he comes in from work: he has to shower and put on clean clothes before he can hug me.'

‘With three young children, being clean is impossible and I bathe them twice a day in the winter and sometimes four times a day in the summer if they’re hot and sticky.’

As a result of her obsession her own hands are red raw and she suffers from eczema. ‘I have been to the GP but it’s very difficult to treat. I know I must do something soon, because my eldest daughter, who is four, is picking up on my behaviour and I feel very guilty about that.'

‘The other day she came in from the garden and said she was dirty so needed to get out of her clothes and I washed her and cleaned her thoroughly. My husband can’t believe our electricity bill because the washing machine is on constantly.’

While Aisha is still in the grip of OCD, Jeni and Nadine have overcome the condition. According to the NHS, the two recognised forms of treatment are Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), which helped Jeni, and anti-depressants. 

But Nadine used another therapy called The Linden Method — a two-day workshop costs £995 — when she reached her lowest point early last year.

‘I was unable to work, leave the house or answer the phone,’ she says. ‘My vision became blurry, my hands would spasm and I’d get pains like rheumatism. I began to think: “What’s the point in living?” yet I was too scared to kill myself.’

The Linden Method — which has also helped OCD sufferers Jemma and Jodie Kidd — works by convincing the sufferer’s sub-conscious that they are safe. 

‘I’m a different person,’ says Nadine. ‘I can leave the house, I’m applying for jobs, taking up hobbies and it’s transformed my relationship with Paul. 

‘He says it’s like having a wife in a wheelchair who can walk again. Except I feel I can not only walk, I can fly.’

Melanie Griffith said that it was her daughters who convinced her to go to rehab in 2009 for an addiction to painkillers. Related News Photos: Salma Hayek in leather Gucci dress at Cannes Stories: Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas open up about relationship troubles and addiction Don Johnson said he watched porn to prepare for 'Bucky Larson' Salma Hayek dons leather Gucci dress at Cannes - like her look? (Photos) "My daughters really sat me down and said, look, Mom, this is what it is. Dakota and Stella, both," Griffith told the Los Angeles Times. "I don't want to say what really happened, but they were the ones who said, "You really need to get help," and I heard them and knew what they meant. And I saw it and I did it." "I couldn't have done it without them. I really couldn't have. And I'm so grateful," Griffith continued. "I see now I just didn't get it before. It doesn't mean that I'm stupid. It's just that that's what the disease is." The 54-year-old actress currently appears opposite Scott Caan in the play "No Way Around but Through," which will run at the Falcon Theatre in Burbank, Calif. through July 8. She also joined the cast of the upcoming Lifetime pilot "This American Housewife," which will begin filming in December in Vancouver, B.C. and also stars her husband, Antonio Banderas. Griffith has struggled with drugs and alcohol through much of her life and went to rehab several times. "I started on pain pills when I hurt my knee skiing and just kept taking them," Griffith told AARP in September 2011. "The kids knew; Dakota and Stella called me on it. Antonio was in London at the time. I went away to rehab for three months; it took 10 days just to detox. We had two family weeks there, but we didn't follow through." Griffith said that Banderas was "totally by her side," but admitted that her addiction isn't something that her husband could necessarily understand. "Antonio was supportive to the extent that he can be, but if you're not an alcoholic or drug addict, and you find out that your wife is a bad one, it's hard to deal with," Griffith continued. "As long as I'm okay, he's okay. I wish he would go to a meeting with me or to Al-Anon, but it's very foreign to him. Addiction runs in my family but not in his." Griffith and Banderas met on the set of their 1995 movie, "Two Much," when they were both married to other people. They got married on May 14, 1996 and are parents to 16-year-old Stella Banderas. Griffith also has two children from her previous marriages to "Scarface" actor Steven Bauer and Don Johnson - Alexander Bauer, 26, and Dakota Johnson, 22.

The toxicology report has come in on Rudy Eugene, the perpetrator of a brutal face-eating attack on a Miami causeway that left a homeless man permanently disfigured. After weeks of breathless speculation about the drugs that could have caused this case of zombie cannibalism — namely so-called bath salts — the Miami-Dade medical examiner found no such drug in Eugene’s system.

The sole substance detected? Marijuana.

The Miami Herald reports:

The [medical examiner’s] office said it sought the help of an outside forensic toxicology lab, “which has confirmed the absence of ‘bath salts,’ synthetic marijuana and LSD.” The ME’s office said that “within the limits of current technology by both laboratories,” marijuana was the only drug found in Eugene’s system.

Eugene was shot dead by police on May 26, when he would not cease his gory assault. Widespread media reports afterward suggested that he could have been taking the synthetic stimulant drugs sold as bath salts, which have been previously associated with other cases of psychotic behavior.

Despite the fact that Eugene had no synthetic drugs in his system, it’s likely that his case will still be used for years as an example of what bath salts can make people do. If our history of wrong-headed beliefs about drugs is any indication, the association between bath salts and dangerous behavior will stick simply because it surfaced early. Since bath salts just arrived on the illegal market and remain untested and mysterious to many people, they will cling in ignorance to the horror stories about them.

In contrast, the same hysteria no longer applies to marijuana because American’s widespread personal experience with the drug — nearly 70% of people in some age groups have tried it — means they know it doesn’t trigger psychotic behavior in otherwise sane people.

That wasn’t the case in the early 2oth century, however. In the 1930s, after the release of the hyperbolic anti-marijuana film Reefer Madness, people took its claims — that smoking weed leads to  killing, suicide, rape and general insanity — seriously, because most had no idea what marijuana was. They didn’t have the frame of reference necessary to reject the idea that it could cause irrational violence or moral deviance.

PCP was another drug that was demonized early on, with many suggesting that it caused uniquely bizarre violent behavior and superstrength. The “classic” cases mainly turned out not to be related to the drug. Nonetheless, these very myths were used by the police to justify their excessive use of force in the 1991 beating of L.A. motorist Rodney King. He, too, turned out not to have been on the drug when he was assaulted. (Indeed, PCP actually weakens muscle strength, at least in studies of mice.)

Similarly, in the early 1980s, with rising popularity of crack cocaine, Americans believed the drug was capable of driving women into prostitution and turning men into casual killers. The data later showed that the effects of the drug were no different from those of powder cocaine, which could also be injected to cause a high of equal intensity. The only thing different about crack was that it could be smoked.

The wave of “crack-caused” crime in the ’80s and ’90s was almost completely due to turf battles over the market for the new stuff. That is, it wasn’t crack use itself, but the violence related to drug dealing that resulted in crime. Media attention and crack-related crime has since fallen off, but the rate of daily crack use by high school seniors has stayed the same since it was first measured in 1987. That rate is 0.1%, although the proportion of high-school seniors who reported using crack at least once in the last year fell from 4% to 1%.

We don’t yet know all the ways in which bath salts affect users, but the history of drug scare stories and their negative effects on policy should give us pause. Misconceptions about crack resulted in harsh laws with racist effects: 1 in 3 young African American males enters the criminal justice system, a statistic largely driven by drug charges — a rate far higher than for whites, despite the fact that whites and blacks use drugs at similar rates.

The Miami case represents the tragedy of untreated mental illness, not drug use alone. While mental illness can be exacerbated by marijuana and other drugs, such cases shouldn’t lead to criminal crackdowns. That’s not to say that people should be allowed to take drugs that haven’t been thoroughly tested on humans — but current policies didn’t keep marijuana away from a seriously mentally ill man either.

If we want to prevent such violence, we need to focus on its genuine causes, not sensational claims about what drugs “make” people do.

A New York woman, allegedly high on “bath salts”, was killed after police tasered her. Onlookers photographed Pamela McCarthy, who was attacking her three-year-old son.

The 35-year-old went into cardiac arrest after a run in with state troopers outside her apartment in Munnsville on Tuesday. The police were called to the scene at 7.45pm with reports that McCarthy was punching and choking her toddler and trying to strangle her pit-bull. A neighbor then photographed her running towards her terrified son, who sought refuge with his father, Jason Williams.

McCarthy’s attack is just one in a spate of violent incidents reported across the United States involving the drugs “bath salts”, a synthetic drug, known as “the new LSD”.

Last month, Rudy Eugene, who was believed to be on “bath salts” chewed off homeless man, Ronald Poppo’s face, in Miami. In Louisiana, Carl Jacquneaux also bit off a piece of his neighbor’s cheek. Earlier this week a North Miami man stripped naked and exposed himself to a three-year-old girl while on the drug.

In fact these attacks, thought to be the blame of this legal drug, are becoming so prevalent that the media is now labeling them under the term “Zombie Apocalypse”.

A neighbor who witnessed McCarthy’s attack told NewsChannel 9 WSYR “She was... just running back and forth around the street and she got a hold of one of her dogs and she was rolling around on the ground with her legs wrapped around it - she was strangling the dog.”

Another said: 'She was definitely on something. Who does that?'

When the police arrived McCarthy was described as “violently combative” and growled at the police, and even tried to bite one of the officers.

State trooper Christopher Budlong tried to subdue her using pepper spray, but it had no effect. He then used a taser on the woman but was unable to handcuff her. She was then taken into custody and later went into cardiac arrest.

Her boyfriend Williams said she had a history of drug abuse but he was shocked by her behavior. Their son luckily escaped the attack with minor injuries and is now in the custody of William’s mother.

He said, “I told her mom, "She needs help'," Williams told WSYR. 'Everyone says to get rid of her because I tell all mean stories. I got nothing good to say. I love her…love her to death…then I seen that.”

Here’s the ABC News report:

Here’s the CNYCentralNews eyewitness report:

Narcotic Cloud Nine was blamed for the attack when Rudy Eugene ate 75% of homeless man Ronald Poppo’s face in Miami last month.

Horrific images surfaced of the attack that only ended once police shot and killed 31-year-old Eugene.

Mr Poppo is still recovering from his injuries in hospital.

Police are now warning people to stay away from Cloud Nine – also known as ‘bath salts’ - after two similar attacks were reported.

The most recent prompted an internal memo to police warning officers the case “bears resemblance to an incident that occurred in the city of Miami last week, when a male ate another man’s face”.

The memo called the synthetic drug “addictive and dangerous” and said it was part of a “disturbing trend in which new drugs are sold in the guise of household products”.

It added: “Please be careful when dealing with the homeless population during your patrols.”

Rudy Eugene, 31: Ate 75% of a man's face in Miami before being shot dead

Brandon De Leon, 21: Tried to bite two police officers after he was arrested in North Miami BeachCarl Jacquneaux, 43: Bit a man's face in Scott, Louisiania. Wasp spray was used to end the attackAlex Kinyua, 21: Accused of eating the heart and brain of friend in Maryland

Horror: Film cannibal Hannibal Lecter

During the latest attack homeless Brendon De Leon threatened to eat two Miami police officers and had to be fitted with a Hannibal Lecter-style mask to prevent him carrying his threats out.

He had been arrested for disturbing the peace in North Miami Beach while high on drugs and put in a police cruiser when he slammed his head against the plexiglass divider and shouted: “I’m going to eat you” to officers before growling and baring his teeth.

Miami police said they believe he was on a cocktail of drugs including Cloud Nine.

In another case, Carl Jacquneaux, 43, was accused of attacking Todd Credeur in his front garden in Scott, Louisiana, over the weekend after being upset over a domestic issue while under the influence of what is said to be bath salts.

Jacquneaux bit Mr Credeur before being sprayed in the face with wasp spray.

Scott Assistant Police Chief Kert Thomas said: “During the attack, the suspect bit a chunk of the victim’s face off.”

Jacquneaux was then said to have left the property and gone to another man’s home where he held him at knife-point and stole a handgun before being apprehended by police.

The drug, which is also known as Ivory Wave, was blamed for several deaths in Britain during 2010 before being banned. It is also illegal in Australia.

The potentially addictive drug stimulates the central nervous system and symptoms include heart palpitations, nausea, hallucinations, paranoia and erratic behaviour and is often sold in plain packaging with the contents purporting to be harmless.

Julian Ponder, 43, and Rachel Dougall, 38, are among four UK citizens held by Indonesian police accused of trying to smuggle 11lb of the drug onto Bali from Bangkok as part of an international trafficking gang. Family members in Britain have been desperately trying to check that the couple’s young daughter is safe. She is currently being looked after by Miss Dougall and Mr Ponder’s maid and gardener, who say they have not told her the truth about what has happened to her parents. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said officials from the British Consulate in Bali have visited the girl and will continue to provide assistance. But the FCO refused to confirm whether it is planning to fly her back to relatives in the UK.

Fourteen people who were previously convicted of drug trafficking have been hanged in the Iranian capital of Tehran, prosecutors said on Tuesday. Mass executions of mostly drug traffickers are regularly carried out in the country, which has been criticized for its high death penalty rate. Tehran prosecutor's office said fourteen people were executed in the capital city at dawn on Monday after they were previously convicted of trafficking and possessing hundreds of kilograms (pounds) of heroin, morphine, opium, and cannabis. Their identities or specific details about their case were not released. Iran's state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) said their applications to be pardoned were rejected by a court, which described those executed as 'major' drug traffickers. Some of those convicted had allegedly conspired to smuggle the drugs through airports and deliver them to European countries. Murder, rape and drug trafficking are among the crimes which are punishable by death in Iran. Dozens of people were executed across the country in September 2011 alone, including 22 convicted drug traffickers who were all hanged on the same day in the Tehran suburb of Karaj. According to Amnesty International, more than 600 people are believed to have been executed in Iran in 2011. At least 488 of them were executed for alleged drug offenses, a nearly threefold increase from the 2009 figures, when at least 166 executions took place for similar offenses. Iran has the fourth highest rate of drug-related deaths in the world, at 91 per 1 million people aged 15-64, and is a major international transit route for drug smuggling. In recent years, Iran has received international assistance, including from several European countries and the United Nations, to help stem the flow of drugs across its borders. The Iranian government claims more than 4,000 security personnel have been killed fighting drug traffickers since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. But while the UN has praised Iran's counter-narcotics work, it has failed to mention the increasing application of the death penalty for drugs offenses. The London-based rights group Amnesty International has said that members of marginalized groups, particularly Afghan citizens, are most at risk of execution for drugs offenses. There are as many as 4,000 Afghan nationals on death row for drugs offenses, the organization estimates. According to human rights groups, including Amnesty International, trials in Iran often fail to meet international standards of fairness. Proceedings, particularly those held outside of the Iranian capital of Tehran, are often summary, lasting only a few minutes. Mass trials also take place on some occasions. In October 2010, Iran's Interior Minister stated that the campaign against drug trafficking was being intensified and the Prosecutor General stated in the same month that new measures had been taken to speed up the judicial processing of drug trafficking cases, including by referring all such cases to his office, thereby denying them a right to appeal to a higher tribunal as is required under international law. Two months later, the amended Anti-Narcotics Law came into force, apparently making it easier to sentence to death those convicted of drug trafficking, according to Amnesty International. The law also extended the scope of the death penalty to include additional categories of illegal drugs such as crystal meth, possession of which became punishable by death. Family members of executed persons also face persecution and are often not given the bodies of their relatives for burial, according to human rights groups. Other family members have said that they had to pay officials in order to receive their relatives' bodies as payment for the rope used to hang them.

Five people have died this week in Lorain County from overdosing on what is believed to be heroin, according to Chief Deputy Dennis Cavanaugh, of the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office Drug Task Force. “There is always going to be overdose deaths,” Cavanaugh said. “ (But) that (five in one week) is kind of a high spike.” The deaths, which he stated have been spread out over the county, are showing indications of heroin being the cause. The drug task force is still looking for answers as to where the heroin is coming from and why it is killing people. Heroin overdose deaths were usually tied to a higher purity of heroin or whatever the person was using to cut the heroin with, he said. The rise of overdose deaths has Cavanaugh reaching out to other law enforcement agencies, including the Lorain Narcotics Unit, to help figure out what they are dealing with. “We’re trying to determine the origin (of the heroin),” Cavanaugh said. Several years ago the county saw a rise in heroin caused deaths, according to Cavanaugh. They learned that it was coming from the Detroit area, which also stated they were having a high overdose rate. Cavanaugh is assuming the deaths are from heroin, because all indicators point toward it.

A man has been charged after police discovered cocaine with a street value of more than £5,000 in the Isle of Man. The 29-year-old was arrested at an address in Peel on Tuesday. He is due to appear at Douglas courthouse charged with possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply, and possessing a class C drug. Insp Will Campbell said: "Five thousand three hundred pounds of controlled drugs, in a local context, is a significant amount". He added: "I am delighted that we have prevented it from reaching its intended market and I hope this gives a clear message to those who deal drugs in the west of the island that we are actively targeting them."

The mosquito can carry dengue and chikungunya viruses

A mosquito that spreads tropical diseases including dengue fever may be poised to invade the UK because of climate change.

The Asian tiger mosquito has already been reported in France and Belgium and could be migrating north as winters become warmer and wetter.

Scientists have urged "wide surveillance" for the biting insect across countries of central and northern Europe, including the UK.

The mosquito can carry dengue and chikungunya viruses, both of which cause high fevers. The infections usually occur in tropical regions of Africa, Asia and South America.

Scientists led by Dr Samantha Martin, from the University of Liverpool, used climate models to predict how changing conditions might affect Asian tiger mosquito distribution.

They wrote in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface: "Mosquito climate suitability has significantly increased over the southern UK, northern France, the Benelux, parts of Germany, Italy, Sicily and the Balkan countries."

The research shows that parts of the UK could become hot-spots of Asian tiger mosquito activity between 2030 and 2050.

The mosquito has been introduced into Europe from Asia via goods shipments, mainly used tyres and bamboo.

Climate change is now shifting conditions suitable for the insect from southern Europe to central north-western areas.

The mosquito could survive in water butts and vases, and may find winter protection in greenhouses, said the researchers.

Police and federal agents pulled the car over in a suburb north of Denver. An FBI agent showed his badge. The driver appeared not startled at all. "My friend," he said, "I have been waiting for you." And with that, Jesus Audel Miramontes-Varela stepped out into the arms of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Over the next several days at his ranch in Colorado and an FBI "safe house" in Albuquerque, the Mexican cartel chieftain was transformed into one of the FBI's top informants on the Southwest border. Around a dining room table in August 2010, an FBI camera humming above, the 34-year-old Miramontes-Varela confessed his leadership in the Juarez cartel, according to 75 pages of confidential FBI interview reports obtained by The Times/Tribune Washington Bureau. He told about marijuana and cocaine routes to California, New York and the Great Lakes. He described the shooting deaths of 30 people at a horse track in Mexico and a hidden mass grave with 20 bodies, including two U.S. residents. He told them he had seen plenty of "violence and suffering." He told agents he was desperate to trade his knowledge for government protection. He wanted a new life for himself and for his wife and three daughters. A week later, Miramontes-Varela pleaded guilty in federal court in New Mexico to a minor felony as an undocumented illegal immigrant in possession of a firearm. Then he disappeared, almost certainly into the federal witness protection program.

The number of teenagers and adults in their early 20s who are using and becoming addicted to heroin remains disturbingly high, according to Wendy Kent, the director of program development for Project Cope.

“People are starting much, much younger,” Kent said during a recent interview. “There are a lot of kids in their late teens and early 20s who are already addicted to heroin and have a very serious addiction.”

Kent said many of these teenagers and young adults first started abusing opiates by stealing prescription medication from their parents.

From there, it’s often a short journey to shooting heroin, Kent said, because of how cheap the drug is, how easy it is to get and how powerful it is.

“It’s been kind of a shocking trend; the number of younger people who are using heroin,” Kent said.

Project Cope is a Lynn non-profit that offers a variety of services, including drug and alcohol treatment.

Mary Wheeler, executive director of Northeast Behavioral Health’s Healthy Streets Outreach Program in Lynn, which works with active injection-drug users, says the demand for services is rising.

“For us, in February we had 515 contacts come through this office, which is about 115 more than we average a month and our median age (of injection-drug users) has dropped to about 23-25 years of age,” she said during a recent interview at her Union Street office.

She confirmed the number of young people turning to heroin is also on the rise.

“The problem is growing faster than anyone can really address it … There’s whole pockets of folks who are getting introduced to heroin,” Wheeler said. “Sometimes people who have never even smoked pot will shoot heroin. That’s the state of mind.”

The people coming to the Healthy Streets Outreach Program for help n which does not provide needles to users, but does collect used needles n took different roads in their journey that ended with them shooting heroin.

“We see folks whose first injection was given to them by a parent, all the way up to they go to school, they take some Percs (Percocets) because that’s what’s available and they end up shooting heroin before they graduate high school, and every story in between,” Wheeler said.

The path to heroin 

Police and drug treatment advocates say many high school students who end up hooked on heroin first started abusing prescription drugs n particularly the increasingly popular Perc 30s, which are a 30 milligram tablet of quick release Oxycodone, a pain-killing opiate.

Kevin Norton, president and CEO of Northeast Behavioral Health, said “an increasing amount of youths are using prescription drugs and then turning to heroin.

“Part of it is because … they raid their parents’ medicine cabinets and then they have access to an incredible array of narcotics, which is leading them to some of the street drugs,” Norton said during an interview this week.

Ultimately, when the teenagers can’t afford the $40 price tag for Oxycontin, which is getting harder to buy on the streets, or even Perc 30s n which can costs users $30 per pill n they turn to shooting heroin, he said.

“I don’t care how much disposable income you have as a teenager, when you have a choice of paying $30 to $40 for a pill and a bag of heroin goes for as low as $6, less than a pack of cigarettes, you’ll end up going for the heroin,” Norton said. “I know it’s a cliché, but it’s almost a perfect storm.”

And it doesn’t surprise him anymore how quickly some teenagers and young adults get past the fear of using a needle to shoot drugs.

“I think if you asked any one of them at the beginning, I think you can be sure that all of them would say, ‘I never dreamed that I’d pick up a needle,’” Norton said. “But the drive to recapture the first high, combined with the lack of understanding of long-term consequences and the drive of addiction itself, gets people past that.”

Teenagers are particularly susceptible to the allure of trying new drugs because as Norton noted, “We’re talking about kids who are prone to impulsivity.”

He believes it’s important for anyone who prescribes prescription drugs n particularly painkillers and opiates n to consider who they’re giving the prescription to and the size of the prescription.

“People will write out the script for 30 pills when someone might need only five,” Norton said. “Then you have some serious drugs sitting up in someone’s medicine cabinet.”

A gateway drug 

Many people who spoke to The Daily Item said the decision to decriminalize marijuana has lead to more teenagers ultimately turning to more serious drugs after they try marijuana.

State Police Lt. Alan Zani, who heads up the Essex County District Attorney’s Drug Task Force, said there’s no doubt more teenagers are now trying marijuana and some end up addicted to hard drugs.

“I don’t think it, it’s a fact,” Zani said during a recent interview at the DA’s Office in Salem. “There are plenty of people who started by using marijuana who are now addicted to heroin.”

Sean Lebroda, assistant superintendent of programs at the Essex County Sheriff’s Department Correctional Alternative Center in Lawrence, agrees. He runs the re-entry program at what is called the County Farm in Lawrence, which is the last facility for inmates before they come out from “behind the wall,” and re-enter society.

“Most of the guys who are using heroin and cocaine started out using marijuana. So when I ask the participants (inmates at the County Farm) do they think marijuana is a gateway drug, 90 percent of participants believe it is,” Lebroda said. “It’s rare to hear a guy just pick up heroin and say this is the first drug I tried. Usually there’s a progression, which is usually marijuana and then cocaine, then they usually jump up from there.”

That was the case for a 16-year-old from Danvers who is receiving drug treatment through Project Cope in Lynn.

He told The Daily Item this week he tried marijuana for the first time when he was 14.

“I was sitting at my friend’s house and none of his parents were home the first time I tried it,” the teenager, who agreed to speak to The Daily Item if his identity wasn’t revealed, said.

He was a freshman in high school the first time he tried it, but the teenager says he now sees younger kids using marijuana.

“Now I look around and there are seventh- and eighth-graders doing it,” he said. “It just keeps getting younger and younger.”

Perc 30s 

He eventually moved up from marijuana to prescription drugs, including Perc 30s, which he got from a friend who had a family member with a prescription.

He too believes the number of teens using Perc 30s on the North Shore is on the rise.

He snorted a Perc 30 the first time he used it, and said it was relatively easy to get once he started looking for one.

“It gives me sort of a tingly feeling,” he said of the drug’s effect. “You get really high and you get sober in 10 minutes, and then you get really high again and it lasts for hours and hours.”

Police later arrested the teen for stealing a purse to get money to buy drugs, and he went to court and pleaded guilty so he could enter a diversion program to get drug treatment, he said.

“I work with my counselor now talking about how to stay sober and to stay away from people who I used drugs with before,” he said. “That’s one of my main focuses. I mean it’s pretty tough. Most of my friends I’ve hung with them for so long and they’re all smoking weed.”

He said marijuana is the most popular drug for teenagers, followed by prescription drugs like Perc 30s.

He says parents need to keep an eye on their children for some of the telltale signs of someone who’s using.

“I would say it’s roller-coaster behavior,” he said when asked what parents should look out for. “You get really angry, really easily. That happens when you get high. Then you’re coming home with red eyes and dropping the things you used to be interested in.”

Wheeler said some of the typical signs of drug use are dilated pupils, moodiness, wearing long sleeve shirts in hot weather, a falloff in their schoolwork and a lack of interest in things they once liked to do.

The teenager has dropped out of school and is now looking for work.

Asked if his drug use led to him dropping out of school, the teen said, “I don’t think it was the drug use. There was just no drive. I can see how the drugs could cause that though.”

Norton said the decriminalization of marijuana has led to a “decrease in people’s concern about it and an increasing number of people using it.”

But he suggested the “gateway issue may be overstated.”

“I think it’s more likely that in their search for marijuana they may also encounter people who have other products for sale,” he said. “Drug dealers rarely sell just one drug, and ultimately it's all about the next high and the latest buzz.”

Teenage knowledge 

Kent, the director of program development for Project Cope, finds it “amazing” so many teenagers and young adults have so much knowledge about illegal drug use.

“It’s so easy to get,” Kent said about heroin. “Everybody knows who’s dealing, who’s selling, who has the good stuff, who has the cheap stuff. It’s scary you have 16- and 17-year-olds who know this stuff even if they don’t act on it.”

Kent said the demand for methadone services has gone “through the roof,” which she attributes to prescription drug abuse and heroin addiction.

“It starts with prescription drugs and it quickly leads to heroin addiction,” Kent said. “It’s probably increasing because of that.”

Mark Kennard, executive director of Project Cope, said heroin is the drug of choice on the streets in Lynn.

“Heroin is cheap, it’s potent, it’s easy to get,” he said. “And Oxycontin is very difficult to get, because it’s very controlled now. It’s very expensive so that conversion from Oxycontin to heroin is much quicker.”

He noted it’s surprising how quickly addicts get used to the idea of shooting heroin.

“It’s funny the number of people who will say I will never use heroin. I will never stick a needle in me,” Kennard said. “Then they do.”

Drug treatment 

Treating teenagers can also be more difficult than treating adults for drug addiction, according to Norton, who said, “They’re not just small adults. They think differently. We have to engage them differently.”

It’s especially important to change who they hang out with, Norton said.

“We have to get them out of the environment,” he said. “We have to work with them to change their circle of influence.”

Essex County Sheriff Frank Cousins said typically it’s “a four- to five-year struggle to get someone heading in the right direction,” once they become addicted to drugs.

“It takes money and it takes time,” he said. “They’re either going to progress or keep moving forward with their addiction, where they either end up dead or in some kind of institution with a serious breakdown.”

Wheeler says increasing the amount of drug treatment is an important part of addressing the drug issue, while also realizing most people go to treatment multiple times before they stay clean.

“Things like jail and probation and overdoses don’t generally deter someone from continuing to use, despite what the idea might be,” Wheeler said.

She also believes there must be a coordinated approach between everyone who deals with drug users, from law enforcement to behavioral health specialists.

“You have to get rid of the us-versus-you approach,” she said. “Everybody is going to have to come together and make an agreement to work together, stop accusing this or that program of making the problem worse.”

But she’s not hopeful the problem of illegal drug use will get better anytime soon.

“The problem is growing faster than the needs can be addressed. And the need for treatment is huge,” she said.

Eight American soldiers died of overdoses involving heroin, morphine or other opiates during deployments in Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011, according to U.S. Army investigative reports. The overdoses were revealed in documents detailing how the Army investigated a total of 56 soldiers, including the eight who fell victim to overdoses, on suspicion of possessing, using or distributing heroin and other opiates. At the same time, heroin use apparently is on the rise in the Army overall, as military statistics show that the number of soldiers testing positive for heroin has grown from 10 instances in fiscal year 2002 to 116 in fiscal year 2010. Army officials didn't respond to repeated requests for comment on Saturday. But records from the service's Criminal Investigation Command, obtained by the conservative legal group Judicial Watch, provided glimpses into how soldiers bought drugs from Afghan juveniles, an Afghan interpreter and in one case, an employee of a Defense Department contractor, who was eventually fired. The drug use is occurring in a country that is estimated to supply more than 90% of the world's opium, and the Taliban insurgency is believed to be stockpiling the drug to finance their activities, according to a 2009 U.N. study. While the records show some soldiers using heroin, much of the opiate abuse by U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan involves prescription drugs such Percocet, the Army documents show. Judicial Watch obtained the documents under the Freedom of Information of Act and provided them to CNN. Spokesman Col. Gary Kolb of the International Security Assistance Force, the NATO-led command in Afghanistan, verified the documents to CNN on Saturday. One fatal overdose occurred in June 2010 at Forward Operating Base Blessing, after a soldier asked another soldier to buy black tar opium from a local Afghan outside the base's entry control point. The first soldier died after consuming the opium like chewing tobacco and smoking pieces of it in a cigarette, the documents show. The reports even show soldier lingo for the drug -- calling it "Afghani dip" in one case where three soldiers were accused of using the opiate, the Army investigative reports show. The United States has 89,000 troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. death toll since the September 11, 2001, attacks that triggered the war has risen to more than 1,850, including 82 this year, according to the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Central Command. Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said his group was interested in soldiers' drug use partly because the risk was present during the Vietnam War. "You never want to see news of soldiers dying of drug use in Afghanistan," Fitton said. "Our concern is, will the military treat this as the problem that it is, and are the families of the soldiers aware of the added risk in this drug-infested country? "There is a dotted line between the uses. Prescription abuse can easily veer into heroin drug use," Fitton added. "Afghanistan is the capital of this opiate production and the temptation is great there and the opportunity for drug use all the more." The group is concerned that "there hasn't been enough public discussion, and we would encourage the leadership to discuss or talk about this issue more openly," Fitton said. In one case, a soldier bought heroin and the anti-anxiety drug Xanax from five "local national juveniles at multiple locations on Camp Phoenix, Afghanistan, and consumed them," one report states. Soldiers also distributed heroin, Percocet and other drugs among themselves, according to the reports. Another soldier fatally overdosed in December 2010 after taking several drugs, including morphine and codeine, though the drugs were not prescribed for him, the Army documents show. One female soldier broke into the Brigade Medical Supply Office at Forward Operating Base Shank and stole expired prescription narcotics including morphine, Percocet, Valium, fentanyl and lorazepam, the documents show. The investigative reports show soldiers using other drugs, including steroids and marijuana, and even hashish that was sold to U.S. servicemen by the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police personnel, the reports state.

SURF AIR, a Californian start-up, has a novel business model: for a monthly fee you can fly with the airline as much as you want. Is buffet-style air travel the wave of the future? JetBlue and Sun Country Airlines have both already tried offering all-you-can-fly passes, but so far no carrier has built its business model exclusively on a buffet plan. The idea isn't bad, but some scepticism is warranted. At $790 a month, Surf Air's flying plan will probably only appeal to business travellers who often go to the same places and rich Californians in long-distance relationships. Will that customer base allow Surf Air to make a profit? Maybe: 20m frequent flyers jetted between San Francisco and Los Angeles in 2011, according to the company's numbers. The airline plans to launch with service between Palo Alto, Monterey, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, but it still needs to secure regulatory approval, according to a company press release. Frequent flyers make up a huge portion of the business-traveller population, and almost every airline relies on business travellers to get (and stay) in the black. There is surely some group of private-jet-sharing business travellers who might be attracted to an all-you-can-jet airline as a cheaper alternative. A lot will depend on how many flights and how much convenience Surf Air can offer, and how quickly it can expand service. The company's promises certainly seem attractive: [Surf Air will offer] its members 30-second booking and cancellations, travel to and from uncongested regional airports, and an easy arrive-and-fly process with no hassle, no lines and no extra fees. It's easy to make promises, though. It's much harder to run a profitable airline. As Gulliver often notes, the American airline sector overall has never really made any money—in fact, total earnings over the entire history of the industry are minus $33 billion. That, of course, suggests that existing airlines might be doing it wrong. Maybe all-you-can-fly really is the way to go. It's at least worth a shot. I'll be eager to see what people think of the final product—assuming regulators give the go-ahead.

It evolved in humans along with intelligence to make them more adept at avoiding danger. A study of 42 people found the worst sufferers of a common anxiety disorder had a higher IQ than those whose symptoms were less severe. Scientists say their findings published in Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience, suggest worrying has developed as a beneficial trait. Psychiatrist Professor Jeremy Coplan, of SUNY Downstate Medical Centre in New York, and colleagues found high intelligence and worry are linked with brain activity measured by the depletion of the nutrient choline in the white matter of the brain. He said: "While excessive worry is generally seen as a negative trait and high intelligence as a positive one, worry may cause our species to avoid dangerous situations, regardless of how remote a possibility they may be. "In essence, worry may make people 'take no chances,' and such people may have higher survival rates. Thus, like intelligence, worry may confer a benefit upon the species." The researchers made the discovery by monitoring activity in the brains of twenty six patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and eighteen healthy volunteers to assess the relationship between IQ, worry and the metabolism of choline. In the control group high IQ was associated with a lower degree of worry, but in those diagnosed with GAD it was linked with more. The correlation between IQ and worry was significant in both the GAD group and the healthy control group. But in the former it was positive and in the latter negative. Previous studies have indicated excessive worry tends to exist both in people with higher and lower intelligence, and less so in people of moderate intelligence. It has been suggested people with lower intelligence suffer more anxiety because they achieve less success in life. Worrying has also been shown to lessen the effect of depression by countering brain activity that heightens the condition.

Dieters often dismiss them because of their high fat content, but research suggests that snacking on nuts can help keep you slim. A study found that those who consumed varieties such as almonds, cashews and pistachios demonstrated a lower body weight, body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference compared to non-consumers. They were also at lower risk of developing heart disease, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Experts are now recommending a daily intake of 1.5 ounces, or three tablespoons of nuts as part of a healthy diet. Lead researcher Carol O'Neil, from Louisiana State University, said: 'One of the more interesting findings was the fact that tree nut consumers had lower body weight, as well as lower body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference compared to non-consumers. 'The mean weight, BMI, and waist circumference were 4.19 pounds, 0.9kg/m2 and 0.83 inches lower in consumers than non-consumers, respectively.' In the study, published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, researchers compared risk factors for heart disease, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome of nut consumers versus those who did not consume nuts.

Sales of the two most popular prescription painkillers in the United States have exploded in new parts of the country, an Associated Press analysis shows, worrying experts who say the push to relieve patients' suffering is spawning an addiction epidemic. Drug Enforcement Administration figures show dramatic rises between 2000 and 2010 in the distribution of oxycodone, the key ingredient in OxyContin, Percocet and Percodan. Some places saw sales increase sixteenfold. Meanwhile, the distribution of hydrocodone, the key ingredient in Vicodin, Norco and Lortab, is rising in Appalachia, the original epicenter of the U.S. painkiller epidemic, as well as in the Midwest. The increases have coincided with a wave of overdose deaths, pharmacy robberies and other problems in New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Florida and other states. Opioid pain relievers, the category that includes oxycodone and hydrocodone, caused 14,800 overdose deaths in 2008 alone, and the death toll is rising, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. Across the U.S., pharmacies received and ultimately dispensed the equivalent of 69 tons of pure oxycodone and 42 tons of pure hydrocodone in 2010, the last year for which statistics are available. That's enough to give 40 5-mg Percocets and 24 5-mg Vicodins to every person in the United States. The DEA data records shipments from distributors to pharmacies, hospitals, practitioners and teaching institutions. The drugs are eventually dispensed and sold to patients, but the DEA does not keep track of how much individual patients receive. The increase is partly due to the aging U.S. population with pain issues and a greater willingness by doctors to treat pain, said Gregory Bunt, medical director at New York's Daytop Village chain of drug treatment clinics. Sales are also being driven by addiction, as users become physically dependent on painkillers and begin "doctor shopping" to keep the prescriptions coming, he said. "Prescription medications can provide enormous health and quality-of-life benefits to patients," Gil Kerlikowske, the U.S. drug czar, told Congress in March. "However, we all now recognize that these drugs can be just as dangerous and deadly as illicit substances when misused or abused." Opioids like hydrocodone and oxycodone can release intense feelings of well-being. Some abusers swallow the pills; others crush them, then smoke, snort or inject the powder. Unlike most street drugs, the problem has its roots in two disparate parts of the country -- Appalachia and affluent suburbs, said Pete Jackson, president of Advocates for the Reform of Prescription Opioids. "Now it's spreading from those two poles," Jackson said. A few areas that include military bases or Veterans Affairs hospitals have seen large increases in painkiller use because of soldier patients injured in the Middle East, law enforcement officials say. Experts worry painkiller sales are spreading quickly in areas where there are few clinics to treat people who get hooked, Bunt said. In Utica, New York, Patricia Reynolds has struggled to find treatment after becoming dependent on hydrocodone pills originally prescribed for a broken tailbone. The nearest clinics offering Suboxone, an anti-addiction drug, are an hour's drive away in Cooperstown or Syracuse. And those programs are full and are not accepting new patients, she said. "You can't have one clinic like that in the whole area," Reynolds said. "It's a really sad epidemic. I want people to start talking about it instead of pretending it's not a problem and hiding."