Worldwide News

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has launched “Bad AD”, a campaign to recruit physicians and health care professionals to report potentially illegal advertisements and promotions by drug companies.

The "Bad Ad" Program is administered by the agency’s Division of Drug Marketing, Advertising, and Communications in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. It will help healthcare providers recognize misleading prescription drug promotion and provide them with an easy way to report this activity to the agency.

Europol and the European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) have published a joint report on 4-methylmethcathinone (mephedrone).

In January 2010, Europol and the EMCDDA examined the available information on mephedrone, through a joint assessment based upon the following criteria:

1. the amount of the material seized;

2. evidence of organised crime involvement;

3. evidence of international trafficking;

4. analogy with better-studied compounds;

5. evidence of the potential for further (rapid) spread; and

6. evidence of cases of serious intoxication or fatalities.

The EMCDDA and Europol agreed that the information collected on mephedrone satisfied all the above criteria. The two organisations therefore concluded that sufficient information had been accumulated to merit the production of a joint report on mephedrone.

Europol–EMCDDA Joint Report on 4-methylmethcathinone (mephedrone)

The European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) now hosts a dedicated thematic area on drug-related research, containing information on:

EU research funding programmes

Lists of recent and ongoing research projects

Related EMCDDA publications and online resources

Publications released at national level

A “Latest News” section and links to scientific journals, newsletters and research institutions

Drug-related research

Europe is where almost all the cannabis resin is consumed. We cannot continue there with the logic of decriminalising this so-called soft drug. A drug is a drug, Khalid Zerouali, the Interior Ministry's official in charge of migration and border surveillance in Morocco, told Reuters.

The threat posed by the diversion and abuse of Controlled Prescription Drugs( CPDs) is increasing in the United States, largely aided by rapidly increasing distribution of the most addictive CPDs, prescription opioids.

According to DEA, the amount of prescription opioids distributed to retail registrants increased 52 percent from 2003 through 2007.

Prescription opioid overdose deaths are increasing, primarily because the decedents took the drugs non medically, other than as prescribed, or in combination with other drugs and/or alcohol.

Full story

A report released today by UNODC shows how organized crime has globalized and turned into one of the world's foremost economic and armed powers.

The Globalization of Crime: A Transnational Organized Crime Threat Assessment looks at major trafficking flows of drugs (cocaine and heroin), firearms, counterfeit products, stolen natural resources and people (for sex and forced labour), as well as  smuggled migrants. It also covers maritime piracy and cybercrime.

Among the findings in the new report, which features a number of high-impact maps and charts that illustrate illicit flows and their markets are: Europe is the highest-value regional heroin market (US$ 20 billion), while the Russian Federation is now the single largest national heroin consumer in the world (70 tons).

Countries that grow most of the world's illicit drugs, like Afghanistan (opium) and Colombia (coca), receive the most attention and criticism. Yet, most drug-related profits are made in the destination (rich) countries. For example, out of a global market of perhaps US$ 55 billion for Afghan heroin, only about 5 per cent (US$ 2.3 billion) goes to Afghan farmers, traders and insurgents.

The report shows that the North American cocaine market is shrinking because of lower demand and greater law enforcement, which in turn has generated a turf war among trafficking gangs, particularly in Mexico, and new drug routes.

Executive summary

Full report

According to AP, Mexican drug smugglers are increasingly peddling a form of ultra-potent heroin that sells for as little as $10 a bag and is so pure it can kill unsuspecting users instantly, sometimes before they even remove the syringe from their veins.

A new report, The Importance of Place in Policing, was published earlier this week.

In the report Professor David Weisburd, who was awarded the Stockholm Prize in Criminology 2010 on Monday, and his colleagues summarise the results from a relatively new field of research with great potential to improve the effectiveness of the police's crime prevention work.

You can download the report here.

At the 9^th annual conference on addictive disorders held in Florida recently, a panel of experts described the dangers of “medical” marijuana in Florida.

Read more