Posted by azdrugrehabctr on June 24, 2014 under Addiction Trends, Synthetic Drugs | 
Festival promoters Mike Bindra and Laura DePalma have announced the introduction of new robust safety measures planned for this year’s Electric Zoo festival on Randall’s Island in New York.
After two drug-related deaths at the festival last year, the organizers are reportedly cracking down this year with drug-sniffing dogs, thorough pat-downs and undercover security officers with backgrounds in narcotics investigations.
Assuming that city officials from the Department of Parks and Recreation will grant a site permit and the five-year-old festival will go on as planned this Labor Day weekend. For the first time, festival goers will be required to watch an anti-drug public-service announcement online, delivered by electronic music stars, before their wristbands can be activated to gain admittance to the event.
Event organizers are also cutting the length of each of the three days by several hours to reduce attendee’s exposure to the sun, hopefully minimizing the risks of dehydration and overheating. Electric Zoo organizers are also considering offering “amnesty bins” at the entrance gates, where fans could anonymously discard illicit substances and avoid penalty. Amnesty bins have been used for years in Europe and were offered at last summer’s inaugural TomorrowWorld festival outside Atlanta, which attracted more than 50,000 attendees.
Promoters report that safety measures cost about $428,081 last year. The safety package included on-site emergency centers, free bottled water and announcements between DJ sets instructing fans to stay safe and hydrated and to seek medical attention if needed. This year, the cost of the safety efforts is set to cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars more than last year’s package.
Dutch DJ Armin van Buuren joined the organizer’s advisory board to lend his support after his Electric Zoo performance was canceled last year after the deaths. “If they prohibit Electric Zoo, you’ll have more underground raves,” which can be far more dangerous, he said.
Posted by azdrugrehabctr on June 20, 2014 under Addiction Trends |
In order to handle the drug trafficking problem in the United States you have to stay one step ahead of the drug dealers. Siddharth Chandra is an economist at Michigan State University and has been researching the drug trafficking patterns in the United States. He believes he has found connections and areas that are not being heavily policed that are responsible for supplying cocaine to addicts.
By using the information provided by the National Drug Intelligence Center and comparing prices of cocaine in different cities, Chandra started seeing some connections. He noticed that when the price for cocaine went up in one city, surrounding areas had an identical spike. Chandra realized that larger cities were connected to smaller cities and towns as the supplier city.
Chandra took the results a step further and noticed that some cities were “destination” cities – the cocaine was ultimately going to end up in these locations. Some cities were “source” cities – the cocaine originated in these cities and was then being trafficked to other places. Most cities in the north and northeast were destination cities, while cities in the south were source cities. Cities like Atlanta and Chicago proved to be both – a major hub for cocaine sales and abuse.
Chandra, who was working with other researchers on the project, published his study and hopes that it will help law enforcement. Ideally, his work would point out places that are not heavily policed and have the potential to put a dent in the amount of cocaine that is being consumed by addicts across the United States. Once Chandra had his results he sat down and mapped everything out. He then compared his map to that on the National Drug Intelligence Center’s website and found that his map had locations that were not noted on the government’s map. Chandra wonders if law enforcement agencies are really aware of the cocaine problem they have in some areas.
Unfortunately, the National Drug Intelligence Center has shut down since they published the data that Chandra used for his study. Updates to maps and trafficking patterns would need information supplied by an organization like the NDIC.
Posted by azdrugrehabctr on June 15, 2014 under Addiction Trends |
Since marijuana became legal in Colorado, shops all over the state began selling the drug in an edible form. Users can go into any marijuana shop and purchased pot brownies, cupcakes, candy and even salsa to experience a more powerful, long lasting high than when marijuana is smoked. This can be extremely dangerous because users are not able to control the amount of marijuana they are ingesting. The high is intense and lasts for a long time. Even those who have ingested marijuana for years are surprised by the intensity.
Because marijuana is now being dispensed legally, it is important to realize that the drug in an edible form is dangerous to people. They do not know how much they are getting, they have less of a chance of controlling themselves and the high can be scary, some people likening it a psychedelic.
The reason why marijuana is much more intense in food, rather than in a joint has to do with the way the body metabolized it. When someone smokes a joint it gets into the body faster, but also leaves the body faster. It gets deposited into the blood stream and produces a high. The high wears off faster than it would if you ate an item of food with marijuana in it. When you eat marijuana it goes right to the liver. Once it reaches the liver the THC gets altered and the person feels the effect of the drug. Due to the fact that the marijuana is now being metabolized by the liver, the person is feeling a much more intense high.
“In a nutshell, eaten cannabis gets metabolized by the liver, so delta-9 THC becomes 11-hydroxy-THC, which passes the blood-brain barrier more rapidly and has more of a psychedelic effect than standard THC. Smoked or vaporized cannabis bypasses the liver and doesn’t create the same 11-hydroxy-THC.” Understanding Marijuana author Mitch Earleywine, a professor of psychology at the State University of New York at Albany told The Daily Beast.
While some drug users may consider this a good thing, it actually makes the drug more dangerous for most people. Instead of feeling the desired effect of the drug, users are thrown into an intense experience that has been reported as very freighting. It is very difficult to predict the outcome when the marijuana is ingested in a food. Dealing with a marijuana addiction can be even harder when you are able to purchase items like food laced with the drug.
