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."

CONVICTED drug smuggler Schapelle Corby last night said she was "too scared to get my hopes up" after Indonesia's Justice and Human Rights Ministry recommended her jail sentence be slashed by 10 years - meaning she could be back in Australia within weeks. Her family is now anxiously awaiting a decision by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who will have the final say on whether Corby is released. From her cell at Bali's Kerobokan prison, Corby last night said she was waiting for more information about the ministry's recommendation. Her sister Mercedes, who was visiting Schapelle when the news broke, said that if Dr Yudhoyono did agree to cut 10 years from Corby's sentence, she would be eligible to go home immediately. "She will have done eight years in October, plus she's had two years reduced in good behaviour, so that's 10 years," she said. "So if another 10 years is cut, she should be pretty much eligible for release immediately." Mercedes said, if released, her sister planned to head straight back to Australia to live with her mother Rosleigh in Queensland. Corby was jailed for 20 years in 2004 for attempting to smuggle 4.1kg of marijuana into Bali in a body board bag. The announcement of the major breakthrough in the former Gold Coast beautician's drug saga came as a "pleasant shock" to Corby and her family yesterday when The Daily Telegraph told them of the ministry's recommendation. Mercedes was at the prison having a small birthday celebration with Schapelle for their younger sister Mele, who had just turned 22. "Oh wow, have they recommended clemency? I hope this is true. I better make some calls," she said. A few hours later Mercedes said the family was "too nervous" to get their hopes up and would await the President's ruling before they celebrated. Corby first launched her bid for clemency two years ago, appealing for an early release on the grounds she was suffering from mental illness which could endanger her life. "She's on anti-psychotics to keep her stable, but she goes up and down," Mercedes said. A Justice Ministry official yesterday revealed the recommendation to slash Corby's sentence was based on humanitarian grounds: "Our office agreed with her clemency. We recommended granting it." Corby's lawyer Iskander Nawing described it as a "huge development" and a breakthrough. The recommendation also includes an approval for clemency from the director-general of prisons. Dr Yudhoyono's decision will be based on the recommendation from the Justice Ministry, as well as advice from the Attorney-General's Department, Foreign Ministry and National Narcotics Board. Print

Drug paraphernalia and a white powdery substance were discovered in Whitney Houston's hotel room on the day she died, according to a coroner. The full report says the 48-year-old was found on 11 February lying face down in an overflowing hotel bathtub. Investigators said they recovered a rolled-up piece of paper, a small spoon and a portable mirror in the bathroom. The autopsy concluded that the singer had drowned due to the effects of cocaine use and heart disease. The report also indicated the singer had a perforated nose, a sign of long-term substance abuse. The 42-page document gave more details than an initial report released last month. Houston was found dead hours before she was due to attend a pre-Grammy party. One of the world's best known singers in the 1980s and 1990s, Houston had a long battle with drug addiction. Friends and family have said she appeared committed to a comeback, including a new film, during the time before her death.

The scene at the 420 Cafe on a recent Friday was typical of what many travelers have come to associate with Amsterdam. Behind the bar, Janne Svensson, 34, a self-described “cannabis refugee” from Norway, weighed out small quantities of marijuana and hashish for her customers, many from foreign countries. They sat quietly, smoking and sipping coffee, as familiar strains of Jimi Hendrix drifted softly from the stereo and giant manta rays cavorted in a nature video on a big-screen television. Related Times Topic: Netherlands Connect With Us on Twitter Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines. Twitter List: Reporters and Editors Enlarge This Image Michel de Groot for the International Herald Tribune A proprietor displayed cannabis at a coffee shop in Amsterdam. While there are many attractions that draw visitors to the Netherlands — including the friendly and straightforward people, world-class museums, charming architecture and elegant canal scenes — nearly a quarter of this city’s more than four million foreign tourists a year will visit its coffee shops, where the sale of small quantities of cannabis is tolerated. But Amsterdam’s days as a destination for hazy holidays may be numbered. Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s right-wing coalition government is pushing to sharply restrict the operations of the coffee shops and to prohibit the sale of the drugs to nonresidents. If the measures survive a court challenge and the opposition of local officials, the first phase would begin May 1. “I think that by the end of next year, there will be no drug tourism in the Netherlands,” Ard van der Steur, a Parliament member and a spokesman for Mr. Rutte’s People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, said in an interview in The Hague. “We have created an incredible criminal industry that we need to get rid of.” Strictly speaking, the sale of marijuana and hashish (a resin extracted from the cannabis plant) is not legal. But a longstanding policy of tolerance — essentially a set of instructions from the Justice Ministry to the police — means that licensed coffee shop operators are not prosecuted as long as they deal in limited quantities and keep hard drugs and minors out. The Dutch are also allowed to cultivate up to five marijuana plants each for their personal use. In some respects, tolerance appears to have been successful: despite the easy availability, the Dutch are far less likely than Americans or many other Europeans to use marijuana. About 14 percent of Americans use marijuana, versus about 5 percent of the Dutch, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Alex Stevens, a drug policy expert at the University of Kent, argues that the tolerance policy has reduced the harm caused by prohibition, in part by separating the markets for hard drugs like heroin from the market for marijuana, and by getting cannabis dealers off the street and into a regulated environment. The impetus for changing the policy originated with, of all things, a parking shortage. In the southern city of Maastricht, sandwiched between the German and Belgian borders, hundreds of drug tourists drive in daily from elsewhere in Europe to purchase marijuana, creating an infuriating traffic nuisance. Spotting an opportunity, clandestine dealers have begun offering foreign drivers the option of buying their cannabis without ever leaving their cars. Even local residents who support the coffee shops are unhappy that drugs are back on the streets. Mr. Rutte’s justice minister, Ivo Opstelten, has said that, as of May 1, coffee shops in three southern provinces are to be turned into members-only clubs, limited to 2,000 Dutch clients each. They are to maintain a registry and check IDs. Coffee shop owners who break the law will face criminal prosecution. The rest of the country’s coffee shops are to follow suit on Jan. 1, 2013. Mr. van der Steur said that the main problem with the current policy was that marijuana production had led to the creation of an expansive black market. No one knows the exact value of Dutch cannabis exports, he said, but they are thought to be greater than the country’s annual flower exports, which are worth $6.6 billion. “We now function as a supplier of drugs for the rest of Europe,” he said. “We never intended to become one of the major exporters of cannabis to the world.” Additionally, almost all of the hashish sold in the coffee shops is imported, illegally, from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon and Morocco, which, he said, badly rankles the right-wing government. Mr. van der Steur said the government would begin treating high-potency marijuana as a hard drug, like heroin and cocaine, prohibiting its sale in coffee shops. Growers now breed marijuana that is almost three times stronger than it was a few decades ago, he said. “The product changed totally, but the policy didn’t,” he said. In theory, Mr. Rutte’s party, along with its junior partner, the Christian Democrats, and parliamentary ally, the far-right Freedom Party of Geert Wilders, have the votes to push through the changes: 83 of the 150 seats in the lower house. But the change is not assured. Coffee shop owners have so far failed in court to overturn the ban on sales to foreigners, but another lawsuit is being brought by the Cannabis Retailers Association, which represents the country’s 680 coffee shops. It should be heard in the next few weeks.

Amy Winehouse had reportedly squandered £10 million during her lifetime, which included £1 million on drugs in three years, a £500,000-hotel bill and £1,000-a-month on her kittens. The tragic singer who was 27 when she died, left an estate worth £4,257,580, which was reduced to £2,944,554 after debts and taxes were paid. Since the Rehab hitmaker did not leave a will, that money will, by default, be divided between her divorced parents Mitch and Janis. According to the Sunday Times Rich List, she was worth £10 million but a friend of her manager claimed that the singer may have been worth closer to £15 million. A friend connected to her management company said that she spent it all on drugs, on men, and on “friends” who said they needed her. “Before Amy died, money was being leeched off her left, right and centre,” the Daily Mail quoted the friend as saying. “It was like taking money off a baby when it came to Amy — she couldn’t stop giving it away. Mitch knew that most of it had probably been spent already,” the friend added. If Winehouse wanted to give £2,000 to a friend who had a hernia, for example, as she once did, she’d just ask her father to turn up with an envelope of cash. When she wanted to keep kittens, she would simply ask Mitch to take out some money from her trust to pay the enormous bills she ran up: according to him, she managed to spend more than £1,000-a-month on them. She would blow £20,000 in an afternoon at Selfridges on dresses, for instance, but in Winehouse’s world this counted as fairly small change. And her lifestyle, with a permanent retinue of bodyguards, was very expensive. The bodyguards cost £250-a-day each and she had up to half a dozen of them. An extraordinary ‘working’ holiday in St Lucia three years ago — which stretched to about a year and a half — cost her £2,000 a night during the five months of it she stayed in the luxury resort of Le Sport. The bill for spa treatments alone was £6,000. A record company source said he thought that hotel stay cost her at least £500,000, and she didn’t just spend money on herself. Her former husband Blake Fielder-Civil was apparently adept at milking her for money, asking for £150 “for a cab” whenever she called and said she wanted to see him. It is widely assumed she funded both their drug habits for years, too. Within three weeks of their marriage in 2007 she had a near-fatal overdose. Her heroin and cocaine habit in the days when she was using drugs, which she stopped around 2008, was in the nature of £1,000-a-day. It is assumed she might have spent £1 million or more on drugs alone between 2006 and 2008. Fielder-Civil, meanwhile, was given a £250,000 pay-off in their 2009 divorce.

Two weeks after Robbie Della Penna had his acquittal in a cocaine conspiracy overturned by the B.C. Court of Appeal, the former boxer was arrested in Australia on drug-importation charges, The Vancouver Sun has learned. Della Penna, 41, remains in police custody Down Under. He appeared in court in Sydney earlier this week and will be back before a judge April 13, according to the Australian Federal Police. AFP media officer Stephanie Thomas confirmed that Della Penna was arrested in Sydney on Jan. 25, 2012. On Jan. 10, three B.C. appeal court justices ordered a new trial for Della Penna and three co-accused, saying B.C. Supreme Court Justice Peter Leask made legal errors in ruling against the validity of a wiretap authorization. Thomas said Della Penna is charged with smuggling “commercial quantities” of MDMA, or ecstasy, into Australia. The charge carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment and an $825,000 fine. “As this matter is before the court it is not appropriate for the AFP to comment further,” she said. In B.C., Leask acquitted Della Penna, Casey Wells, Robert Muoio and James Micklewright in 2009 after ruling that police had lied to get the wiretaps against the accused — a finding the Court of Appeal said was wrong. At the original Vancouver trial, the federal Crown alleged Della Penna was part of an international drug trafficking ring that exported B.C. marijuana and ecstasy to the U.S. and imported cocaine to Canada. The Crown’s theory was that Wells managed sophisticated marijuana-growing operations for Della Penna and that Muoio was Della Penna’s assistant. The Crown also said Micklewright was the intended recipient of shipments of eight, 10 and 20 kilograms of cocaine to Toronto that were intercepted by police. Della Penna was arrested in 2004 during a reverse-sting operation at a Richmond hotel where Della Penna brought along $575,920 cash to buy 50 kilograms of cocaine. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration tipped Canadian authorities. Despite winning their appeal, federal prosecutors decided not to retry Della Penna and his associates. Justice John Hall said the proceedings had gone on for an extraordinary length of time. “While it is of course ultimately a decision for the prosecutorial authorities, I venture to respectfully suggest that it would be appropriate for them to review the course of proceedings to date to determine whether the interests of justice would be well served by a continuation of the process,” Hall said. Based on the police investigation, a Burnaby house owned Della Penna’s relatives was seized by the B.C. director of Civil Forfeiture, who alleged it was purchased with his drug profits. Della Penna, who boxed between 1993 and 2001, once testified at the trial of two Hells Angels that he had been a drug trafficker since 1995. Before his Australian arrest, he had been working in Metro Vancouver as a trainer.

Drugs are a menace for all countries of the world as they cause great harm to the social, health and economic aspects. They pose a danger that threatens the present and future of a society. Despite the efforts being exerted to combat the menace and deal with the traffickers, drugs are still spreading across countries year after year. This issue has called on the authorities concerned to launch an awareness program on the ills of drug addiction through a program entitled “National Prevention Program” catering to some five million students. A study conducted by the Saudi Ministry of Interior during the International Conference for Combating Terrorism and Drug Smuggling, indicated the existence of 204,000 male and female drug addicts in the Kingdom representing 1.1 percent of Saudi nationals, of whom 20 percent are women, Asharq newspaper reported. Exploiting one’s body A Saudi young woman rehabilitated after drug addiction said that she started taking drugs through sniffing nail polish and glue. She developed the habit when she met a young man in a party who encouraged her to use syringes. She said that in order to obtain drugs, she was compelled to smuggle them from across the border. She began using her body parts such as stomach and sensitive parts to hide them. “I led a worthless life for three long years in which I lost the love and warmth of all my family, friends and everyone around me,” she said. “My only concern was to satisfy my craving for drugs until I came across a female friend who pulled me out of this menace. I’m suffering from some ailment and I guess it is due to my addiction to drugs.” Regret Another school-goer said she used to take drugs since she was in school. She used to hide the drugs in her body adding that she entered the world of addiction through one of her female friends. She was caught carrying drugs when her schoolteacher started frisking the girls in the classroom. “During the inspection, she seized my schoolbag which I tried to resist forcefully,” she said. “Seven teachers overpowered me and upon opening the bag they discovered the “powder”. They took a sample and it turned out to be some a kind of a drug. I was dismissed from school. I regret what I had been doing. I lost all bonds with my family, my education for I no longer go to school and all my female friends are keeping away from me,” she said. Trafficking and smuggling Abdulilah Al-Shareef, Assistant Director General of the Drug Combat Department for Preventive Affairs, said using one’s wife or daughter in drug trafficking and smuggling has been mentioned in the Ministry of Interior reports, but the percentages are very low. Al-Shareef said the Drug Combat Department has a big number of female researchers and trainers, who contribute in creating awareness. So far seven scientific programs have been carried out in several regions of the Kingdom in this regard. Inspection systems Hamad Bin Sulaiman Al-Qassoumi, Assistant Director General of Customs for Technical and Information Affairs, said Saudi Customs possess all the means of support to nab traffickers before their entry into the Kingdom. “We use various inspection systems such as X-rays, devices for measuring density and dimensions, catheters for closed areas and police dogs,” he said. Collective effort Al-Qassoumi said all efforts converge on combating the menace pointing out that with the vigilance system in place and a quick response of the Customs officers and personnel, prevent the entry of drugs into Saudi Arabia. Under their watchful eyes, whoever tries to breach the security, is nabbed well before time. “The Customs Department carries out an effective role in the field of combating drug smuggling,” he said. “It endeavors to intensify and coordinate efforts with the national security authorities. In the international arena, it coordinates and cooperates with the organizations and authorities concerned with combating drugs. They exchange information related to smuggling that always leads to the arrest of smugglers before their entering Saudi Arabia.” Police dogs Al-Qassoumi said besides other means, the Customs Department uses police dogs to inspect trucks, cars, and arriving consignments in order to tighten control over drug smuggling and facilitate inspection of luggage including bags. Social upbringing Faisal Aal Ijayyan, a psychotherapist who treats drug addicts, touched on a number of factors that assist drug abuse. “The social environment and upbringing have a big role in a girl taking to drugs,” he said. “A person is governed by a number of biological factors that influence his conduct, desire, orientation and inclination that shape his identity. A failure in the professional life or studies of a girl can prompt her to experiment with drugs. She becomes dissatisfied with her life and resorts to drug addiction.” Bad company Aal Ijayyan said: “There is no cure for drug abuse but a person can recover if he gives up taking to the narcotic substances for a specified period of time and keeps away from the factors leading to it, like bad companions. I was treating a drug- addict who had been using drugs for 20 years. Due to some circumstances, he returned to drugs and suffered a relapse again. He even sold his house which he had bought from his hard-earned money.” Drug abuse and trafficking The psychotherapist said drug abuse leads to crime and warned that the phenomenon is spreading. “The majority of murders and thefts are carried out by people who take drugs and a drug abuser turns into a drug trafficker so as to make money,” he said. In most cases, a woman resorts to “selling her honor” to get drugs.” De-addiction Aal Ijayyan said treatment in the hospital is carried out under total secrecy because it might be embarrassing for a girl. In most cases, she does not come to the hospital but with her guardian. He said the first five days are the most critical because they severe the link with drugs. The patient receives tranquilizers followed by awareness lectures. All this while, the patient is kept away from the society for a whole month. He said that when a person comes to the hospital voluntarily, he is treated as a patient and not a criminal. “The percentage of those who recover does not exceed 2 percent in the best cases,” he said. “It is linked with the type of drug and the period of time he has been using the drugs.” A drug addict ultimately ends up in the hospital, prison or grave, he said.

Forget friending. A new Facebook app allows users of the social network to identify and share people, places and things as “enemies” for all to see. The app, called EnemyGraph, lets you list anything with a Facebook presence — ranging from “friends,” to foods, to products, movies or books — as an enemy. Since the app launched March 15, it’s seemed to appeal especially to users with a liberal bent. Some of its most-selected nemeses so far include Rick Santorum, Westboro Baptist Church and Fox News. The app was developed by a professor and two students at the University of Texas at Dallas. Dean Terry, who directs the school’s emerging media program, helped conceptualize the project, while graduate student Bradley Griffith and undergraduate Harrison Massey built the app. Griffith said EnemyGraph has so far accumulated some 400 users. But more importantly, its creators say, press coverage has helped meet the team’s goal of sparking a larger conversation about the nature of social media and Facebook in particular. “One thing that has always struck me is the enforced niceness culture,” Terry told Mashable. “We wanted to give people a chance to express dissonance as well. We’re using the word enemy about as accurately as Facebook uses the word friend.” But the app has utility beyond simply sparking a philosophical debate, Terry adds. Researchers and marketers have long gathered information on social media users based on what they support, but at the expense of possibly overlooking another valuable data source. “You can actually learn a lot about people by what they’re upset about and what they don’t like,” Terry says. “And the second thing is that if you and I both don’t like something, that actually creates a social bond that hasn’t been explored in social media at all, except with Kony and some big examples like that.” Terry and Griffith teamed up last year to create Undetweetable, a service allowing Twitter users’ deleted tweets to be uncovered posthumously. That project gained some attention as well but Twitter quickly forced it to shut down. Terry wouldn’t be surprised if EnemyGraph meets a similar fate from Facebook. “My guess is it goes against their social philosophy and purpose,” he says. “It is a critique of their social philosophy for sure.” Do you like the EnemyGraph idea? Let us know in the comments.

A  study has discovered a direct link between the number of friends you have on Facebook and how much of a “socially disruptive narcissist” you are—giving us one more reason to tone down our Facebook addictions. Researchers at Western Illinois studied 294 college students and found that those with more friends on Facebook tended to score higher on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory questionnaire. They tended to respond more aggressively to comments, change their profile pictures more often, and updated their news feeds more regularly than others. This may not be all that surprising, but it does provide a bit of motivation to re-evaluate what Facebook does for you, if you fit into one of these categories (and if not, at least you can stop feeling bad about not having very many Facebook friends—it’s probably a good thing). None of this is to say Facebook is inherently bad, of course. It’s still a great way to keep in touch with family and friends, especially after you’ve fixed all of its annoyances—you might just want to dial back on all the photo tagging. While you’re at it, you can also move some of those friends to your Acquaintances list using Facebook’s new tool, which will hide them from your news feed more often.

HOLIDAYMAKERS can pay for the cost of a break in the sun by buying their prescription drugs while abroad. Legally they can purchase their prescribed drugs -- at a fraction of the cost here over the counter -- in Malaga, Marbella , Faro or Lisbon. Those on long term medication and covered by the Drug Payment Scheme, who cough up €132 a month, can particularly benefit. For example, a patient on holiday in Marbella recently bought the three main elements of her prescription. Prescribed for the treatment of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and to reduce risk of cardiovascular problems they cost her almost four times as much in Dublin as in Spain. The products -- Lipitor, Cozaar Comp and Tritace -- in their generic form came to €108.13 in Dublin for a month's supply. In Marbella the same medicines are sold under a different name for €63.72 for two months' supply. That is a saving of €152.54 for two months. On that basis a six month prescription for the three tablets would cost €648.78 in Dublin as against €191.16 in Spain -- a staggering saving of €457.62. The Irish Medicines Board and the Revenue Commissioners both confirmed that medication, prescription and non prescription, bought for personal use within the EU or outside may be brought back in to the State legally. imported They agreed that travellers are permitted to import on their person or in their baggage "a reasonable amount of such medicines for personal use". "Anyone entering the State may bring their personal medication with them and that personal medication should be no more than any amount that may be obtained on a prescription, for example up to a three months supply. "Any amount being imported above a level that would be considered to be normal personal use, could be considered to be a commercial quantity and for business purposes." This "personal use" exemption does not apply to products imported by other means, ie. in the post, by express couriers or in merchandise. Revenue said that the law of the country where you are visiting will dictate whether your Irish prescription will be accepted or whether you will require a doctor's prescription from that country. They advised it is always a good idea to have a copy of your prescription in your possession so that customs officers can verify it by contacting the dispensing pharmacy and the doctor who issued it.

39,000 packs of co-codamol, which contains both paracetamol and codeine, contain higher dose tablets than is stated on the label, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said. Some of the 8mg/500mg packs actually contain 30mg/500mg tablets in the blister strips inside. The two can be told apart by markings on the side of the tablets. The 8mg/500mg tablet has the marking

on one side only. The 30mg/500mg tablet has CCD30 on one side and CP on the other. An overdose of co-codamol is serious and patients should not take more than one or two tablets every four to six hours and no more than four doses in 24-hours.

Brian Regan found fame playing loveable rogue Terry Sullivan in the Liverpool soap opera Brookside. In the show's 1980s heyday, his character's antics were regularly watched by up to seven million viewers a week. But when Regan left the soap in 1997, his acting career petered out and he plunged into a life of drug dealing and addiction. Now he is behind bars, serving a five-year jail sentence for lying to police over his role in the murder of Iranian doorman Bahman Faraji and selling drugs. Regan's jail sentence can now be reported following the conviction of Jason Gabbana, 29, for ordering Faraji's murder. Details emerged in court of the actor's descent into drugs and supplying members of Liverpool's criminal underworld. During the trial, Regan told Liverpool Crown Court how he started taking cocaine at weekends at the end of his Brookside career. It was through his use of cocaine he became involved with Edward Heffey, convicted of murdering Mr Faraji with a sawn-off shotgun in a quiet Liverpool street. Simon O'Brien, who played Damon Grant in Brookside, said Regan's involvement with drugs was a "slow burn". Snorting cocaine "It is a very difficult place when you're acting, particularly on something as high-profile as a soap, because fame and infamy attract each other," he said. "Actors and gangsters, for some reason, almost get off on each other. It's a really strange mutual attraction because I think the hard man gives the actor a kind of security out in public and the actor gives the gangster kudos. "The two worlds often get intertwined and when that happens, inevitably drugs become involved. So it was kind of a slow thing from what I remember, it was a slow burn." Regan was charged with Mr Faraji's murder and was cleared - but he was convicted of giving a false alibi to police about where he was on the night in February 2011. Actor and presenter Simon O'Brien said actors and gangsters get off on each other" During the trial, he told Liverpool Crown Court he supplied Heffey with cocaine "about three or four times a day". When Heffey asked him for a lift on the night of the killing, he said he thought he was taking him to collect a debt so he could pay for the drugs. In fact, once they arrived in Aigburth in Regan's Ford Escort, Heffey got out, walked round the corner and shot Mr Faraji in the face with a sawn-off shotgun. Regan told the court he knew nothing about the incident - because he was waiting in the car, snorting a line of cocaine. He said he then "drove away normally" from the scene and took Heffey home. Regan was cleared of murder at his trial which ended in January. 'Lose control' However, when he was first interviewed by police he lied about driving Heffey to the pub, but CCTV evidence put him at the scene and he was found guilty of perverting the course of justice. Mr O'Brien, 46, who was friends with Regan in their Brookside days, said getting involved in drugs was a tragedy that is "not uncommon" in the entertainment industry. "Brian is just one example of what happens when you're in the limelight and everything is flying and you lose control," he said. "You feel you're invincible when you're at the top of the game and you're not. "Sadly, if anyone wants to know what happens if you get involved in taking cocaine, this is an example of someone who was at the top of the tree and because of cocaine, he ends up behind bars."