The number of alcohol-related admissions to A&E in England topped one million for the first time on Thursday.

Figures for 2009 to 2010 show a 12 per cent year on year increase.

Admissions include patients with liver disease, mental disorders caused by too much drinking, some cancers as well as accidents and injuries.

Are binge drinkers out in town over the weekend to blame or are we in denial about how much we drink?

Radio 5 live's Stephen Nolan hears from two listeners who have been battling with their alcohol addictions.

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TV'S The Scheme is set to shock viewers with graphic images of a heroin addict injecting the deadly drug.


The first of three new episodes of the BBC's hit fly-on-the-wall documentary is being screened on Monday.
And many will be appalled to watch one of the "stars", James McMurray, visiting a dealer then returning to his kitchen to shoot up.
As he pushes a syringe full of heroin into his arm, his mum Libby weeps uncontrollably just feet away.
James boasts of having already taken 30 diazepam tablets and is seen falling into a stupor.
The BBC Scotland show had to be suspended last June after two episodes, when some of the featured addicts, hard drinkers and petty criminals were involved in court cases.
But these have now been resolved, allowing the show, set in Kilmarnock's Onthank estate, to return.
Repeats of the two previously seen episodes were shown last week and attracted over half a million viewers.
The series was originally to have four episodes, but another has been added after it proved a ratings success.
The third episode continues the stories of some characters from the first two instalments.
While some families have been torn apart by addiction and poverty, others battle to save their community. Despite suffering a bereavement, the Cree family are featured fighting to reopen a local community centre.
And green-fingered Harry also features in his quest to win an Ayrshire gardening competition.
But community leaders on the estate are furious that the show is back.
They say the BBC are wrongly portraying their home as crimeridden and hopeless.
The Sceme has been slammed as "poverty porn" and a cheap way of winning high viewing figures by exploiting vulnerable people.
Others argue it is an important social documentary that could open the eyes of decision-makers out of touch with the scale of social depravation in hundreds of Scottish towns.
A bbc Scotland spokesman said: "The Scheme is meant to reflect the lives of the people in the programme and their hopes and challenges."
The show has turned Marvin Baird and Dayna McLaughlin and their dog Bullet into household names.
The final two episodes will be aired on BBC1 on May 23 and 24 at 10.35pm.
An update show looking at what the residents have been doing since filming ended will be shown on May 30.

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A man who killed his friend when he injected him with heroin has been jailed for a total of five years.



Dungannon Crown Court, sitting in Belfast, heard Conor McVeigh, 30, had smuggled cannabis into a drug addiction unit for Gareth Dallas a week earlier.

McVeigh, from Knockmoyle, Cookstown, admitted manslaughter supplying cannabis and heroin in December 2009.

Mr Dallas was found dead the morning after he had allowed McVeigh to inject him with a heroin solution.

During an earlier hearing the trial judge heard that Mr Dallas, who was himself a heavy drug user, had been in Holywell Hospital receiving treatment when he contacted McVeigh asking him to being him some cannabis.

Mr Dallas, the court was told, shared the "grass" with Jade Harrison, a girl who was also receiving treatment in November 2009 and who had began a relationship with Mr Dallas.

A week later, on 2 December, the pair left the hospital and Mr Dallas went back to Cookstown where he shared a house with McVeigh who went to buy heroin after he came home from work.

The three, McVeigh, Mr Dallas and Ms Harrison smoked the heroin together but afterwards, Mr Dallas said he wanted more so he and his girlfriend went to buy some.

Heroin solution
Mr Justice Hart recounted that from then "occurred the tragic events culminating in Dallas' death".

He said while there was some confusion, it was clear that McVeigh prepared a heroin solution and that two syringes were filled before "Dallas then held out his arm to McVeigh, thereby inviting McVeigh to inject the liquid heroin into Dallas' arm".

Ms Harrison was also injected by McVeigh and they went to the living room, lay down on the sofas where Mr Dallas was found dead the next morning.

McVeigh initially pleaded not guilty to his friend's manslaughter but a week before his trial was due to start, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and to supplying cannabis and heroin.

Mr Justice Hart said that McVeigh's criminal record was also an aggravating factor in the case as it contained six convictions for drug possession, indicating that he "has been a dedicated drug user and offender over an extended period of time".

However in mitigation, the judge said it was clear from the evidence that Mr Dallas himself was a heavy drug user and that it was his own drugs which killed him.

From reports compiled on McVeigh, he said there was evidence of genuine remorse but that McVeigh "claims he is not fully responsible for what happened as he was asked to do it by the deceased".

"It may be," said Mr Justice Hart, "that death was neither foreseen nor inevitable but nevertheless, McVeigh bears a heavy share of responsibility for the tragic events that night, even though it is clear that he was not solely responsible because he gave Dallas these drugs at Dallas' request."

Mr Justice Hart imposed a four-year term for the manslaughter and one year for supplying the cannabis to Mr Dallas while he was in hospital, the sentences to run consecutively.

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Heroin is not only responsible for a spike in overdose deaths

Heroin is not only responsible for a spike in overdose deaths, but also for other tragedies and crimes in the St. Louis region. As Mexican drug cartels continue flooding the area with cheap and potent heroin, police and prosecutors are trying new tactics to get it off the streets.
Plus other experts say part of the war on this drug needs to be fought by word-of-mouth — telling schools, children and parents what’s out there.

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Australia's binge-drinking culture has been starkly highlighted with 1,600 "boozed-up idiots" arrested

Australia's binge-drinking culture has been starkly highlighted with 1,600 "boozed-up idiots" arrested by police in a hardline weekend crackdown on alcohol-fuelled violence and crime.
The trans-Tasman "Operation Unite", a two-day blitz on public alcohol abuse and related crime that ended Sunday, was the latest attempt to hammer home the message that drunken thugs will not be tolerated.
Almost two-thirds of the arrests were made in New South Wales state, followed by Western Australia, and included numerous assaults on police officers.
Other offences included drink-driving, urinating in public, failing to quit a licensed premises when asked and resisting arrest.
The Police Association of NSW slammed the "chaos and mayhem" that it says prevails in Australian cities every weekend and called for new strategies to attack the root causes of alcohol-related violence.
"Operation Unite has proved that our culture of alcohol and violence is out of control, with boozed-up idiots running wild all over the country," the association's acting president Pat Gooley said in a statement.
"We need a comprehensive strategy for tackling alcohol-fuelled violence -- one that addresses the causes of the problem, not just the symptoms."
Operation Unite's commander, Assistant Commissioner Denis Clifford, said that despite the cold weather there were still many people out drinking to excess.
"Until people start getting the message, we'll continue to target licensed premises, we'll continue to target excessive alcohol consumption and we'll continue to put people before the courts," he said.
In New Zealand, where Operation Unite was also conducted, 338 alcohol-related arrests were made and 467 motorists returned positive breath tests.
New Zealand police spokesman, acting Detective Superintendent Ross Grantham, said it would take more than a weekend of action to change the drinking culture.
"Shifting away from the drink-to-get-drunk culture needs parents, retailers, community and other interested groups to be actively involved," he said.
"All we're asking is that people, no matter what their age, make safe and sensible choices when and where they decide to have a drink."

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Booze blitz sees 251 arrests in NSW

The first night of a trans-Tasman crackdown on alcohol-fuelled crime has seen 251 people arrested in NSW.

An extra 1200 police officers were deployed across the state for the first leg of Operation Unite - the latest hardline blitz on boozy bust-ups and other alcohol-related crime.

The operation is being run over the weekend in Australia and New Zealand.


From the 251 arrests made overnight in NSW there were more than 400 charges laid for offences including robbery, drink-driving, and drug supply and possession.

Two police officers were assaulted while arresting a man and a woman at a licensed premises on the far south coast, with a senior constable suffering a broken nose.

"The purpose of this operation is to ram home the message that police and the wider community have had enough of alcohol-related violence," operation commander Assistant Commissioner Denis Clifford said in a statement on Saturday.

But he warned that police cannot simply arrest their way out of the problem and urged people to drink responsibly.

Operation Unite continues on Saturday.

It has been held three times over the past two years and police expect another will be conducted in December.

During the most recent Operation Unite, held over two days in December 2010, NSW police arrested 723 people and laid more than 1300 charges.

Across Australia and New Zealand, there were about 2617 arrests during the December 2010 operation.

 

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Last year the UK became the European centre for mephedrone, also known as miaow miaow

record 41 new unregulated drugs were found in Europe last year and 16 were first spotted in the UK, the agency report said.
It is another sign of the popularity of legal highs in Britain, which has long been seen as a strong market for the substances.
The Daily Telegraph disclosed last year that the UK had become the European centre for mephedrone, amid fears it could be fatal. The drug, also known as miaow miaow, has since been banned but concerns emerged that dealers may have stockpiled it while it was still legal.
Yesterday’s report, by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) and Europol, warned that the introduction of Europe-wide controls on mephedrone brought “both positive and negative consequences”.
While it may be harder to find and use, the control measures could also create an illegal market “with the associated risk of criminal activity”, the report said.

 

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Tiger Woods says he was one. Lindsay Lohan was accused of being one. Charlie Sheen may be one.

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Tiger Woods says he was one. Lindsay Lohan was accused of being one. Charlie Sheen may be one.
We're talking about sex addicts. It's a term that's received a lot of attention lately. Some say it's real; others say it's a real good excuse.
These days, Brent McNamara works on the computer a lot. But, he always has to keep himself in check. Brent is a recovering porn addict. For 10 years, he spent almost every waking moment looking at Internet porn.

"My nickname was very well-known in porn circles. This addiction completely took over my life, and I'm not kidding when I say 24/7," McNamara said.
The addiction started shortly after McNamara enrolled in school to be a pastor. First, it was the occasional magazine or movie, but when the Internet became popular, McNamara got hooked.
"Before those days, you had considerable risk if you wanted to go into an adult bookstore. You had considerable risk of being seen by somebody you didn't want to see," he said.
It became more than just looking at porn. McNamara took part in live strip shows and even hired prostitutes. It tore his family apart. After 24 years of marriage, his wife divorced him.
"I wasted a lot of years…really threw them away, messed up my life and hurt a lot of people," McNamara said.
Bill Larson knows that feeling. He's a recovering sex addict.
"I couldn’t control it worth a damn, and I absolutely wanted to," Larson said.
Sex consumed his life. At one point, Larson had more than 10 partners at the same time. His breaking point came when they all found out about each other.
"If you can imagine just a pyramid being taken out at the bottom and the whole thing coming crashing down, and it did," Larson said.
He says the toughest part is convincing people it's a real addiction.
"I think people want to make a joke out of it, but it's no joke. It truly is a crippling disease," Larson said.
Expert Mary Ann Layden agrees. She believes sex can be an addiction -- similar to drug addiction.
"It's not the putting it in your body through the mouth or through a vein that produces the addiction. It's the getting hooked on, the brain reaction, knowing it hurts you and doing it anyway," said Layden, director of the Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology Program at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
Two new studies are offering evidence suggesting that sex may indeed be an addiction.
The first found differences in DNA were linked to sexual behavior in young adults. Those with a variant of the DRD4 gene were more likely to have one-night stands and affairs.
The second study found that non-addicted people who looked at porn images had similar brain responses to cocaine addicts who looked at images of people taking the drug.
"We know that the sex drive is probably one of the most powerful things we have on the face of the earth," Layden said.
Previous editions of the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual haven't recognized sex addiction as a mental disorder. The next edition -- which comes out in 2013 -- will classify both porn and sex addiction as "hypersexual disorder."
Some wonder if this official label will justify cheating among so-called "addicts."
"It's not an excuse that says you get a pass on it," Layden said.
So how would researchers define sex addiction?
Some of the proposed wording states that patients are "repetitively engaging" in sexual behaviors when they are anxious, depressed or stressed.
Signs of a porn addict? They've tried to quit but can't, they go through a denial process, they hide their behavior, and they experience anxiety if they can't see the material.
"I don't know any other area where we have such damaging material readily available to every level of society," Layden said.
Then, there's the dilemma of treating sex addiction. Should doctors tell addicts to say no to all sex like they do with drugs?
When treating porn addiction, Layden recommends patients set up an Internet server that blocks porn at the server level and install accountability software that generates a list of all web sites visited. This information should then be forwarded to an accountability coach.
McNamara is now an assistant pastor at his church. He leads an addiction recovery group and even wrote a book about his experience.
"Addiction is not who we are. It's what we did," McNamara said.
Larson is in the recovery process. He attends group therapy and says starting over feels good.
"For the first real time, I'm just open and honest about my life," Larson said.
Whether it's bad behavior or a true addiction, these men are happy they were able to end it and move on with their lives.
Dr. Layden's research shows the earlier a boy is exposed to porn, the more likely he is to engage in non-consensual sex.
On the flip side, the more pornography young women use, the more likely they are to be victims of non-consensual sex. She says it's very difficult to get approval to conduct studies showing pornography to subjects because of the known damaging effects on the viewers.

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Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers has reportedly checked into rehab for the fourth time.


According to The Mirror, the 33-year-old spent 10 days at a London hospital last month being treated for alcohol addiction.

The paper reports that he has since left to fulfil work commitments.

The hell-raising star of The Tudors has long had issues with alcohol - it is thought he first entered the Promises rehab facility in California back in 2005 and returned for further treatment in 2007.

But later that year, Rhys Meyers was arrested and charged at Dublin Airport for being drunk and disorderly.

Early in 2009 he was back in rehab again and just last year, it was rumoured that the actor had received a lifetime ban from United Airlines after "pounding drinks" and becoming increasingly "disruptive".

In the past, Jonathan has said of his issues with booze: "When I do drink I'm like Bambi. I'm all over the place like a 16-year-old kid."

Let's hope after a fourth stint in rehab he has finally beaten his addiction.

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Australian Michael Sacatides has reacted with shock after being hit with a heavier jail term than expected

Australian Michael Sacatides has reacted with shock after being hit with a heavier jail term than expected, with judges sentencing him to 18 years for smuggling almost two kilograms of methamphetamine into Bali.

The kickboxing trainer from Sydney's west, found carrying 1.7 kilograms of methamphetamine in a hidden compartment in his suitcase when he arrived on a flight from Thailand last year, was convicted of drug trafficking in the Denpasar District Court today.

However, before Monday's appearance, Sacatides had been expecting a sentence of no more than 16 years, as requested by prosecutors earlier this month after they decided not to ask for the death penalty.

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The 43-year-old, who has always maintained his innocence, claiming he borrowed the suitcase from an associate in Thailand, appeared stunned when the judges read out their decision and instead announced a sentence of 18 years.

Crucially, it appears it was his decision to not plead guilty that weighed heavily against him, and cost him another two years in Bali's Kerobokan Prison. Defendants who do not admit guilt are often treated more harshly by courts in Indonesia.

Chief judge Sigit Sutanto said it was a key factor in the sentence decision.

"The defendant did not admit his guilt and the defendant did not admit to possession of (drugs)," he said when announcing the sentence.

Sigit said Sacatides, who kept his head bowed as he was led away, had undermined efforts by the Indonesian government to combat drug use, but added that the sentence "is not revenge".

"This sentence is to help the defendant become a much better (person)," he said.

Sacatides' lawyer, Erwin Siregar, said it was likely his client would appeal the decision.

"I am shocked," Mr Sireger said outside the court.

"I was predicting that he could be free or at least get less than what the prosecutor has asked."

Sacatides was arrested at Bali's international airport on October 1 last year when customs officers found the methamphetamine, also known as ice, concealed in a hidden compartment in the suitcase he was carrying when he arrived on a flight from Bangkok.

He told investigators at the time of his arrest that he had borrowed the luggage from a man known as Akaleshi Tripathi, whom he knew from Bangkok, where he had been living and working for almost two years.

Tripathi, alias Peter, has never been found.

Sacatides will now join a host of other Australians serving time in Kerobokan Prison for drug smuggling, including the Bali Nine, three of whom are facing death penalties, as well as the Gold Coast's Schapelle Corby

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Nigerian gets death for drug trafficking

A court in Ho Chi Minh City Friday sentenced Nigerian Nnaji David Ete death for trafficking more than 11 kilograms of heroin from Vietnam to China.
 
The HCMC People’s Court also sentenced Ete’s Vietnamese wife, 31-year-old Phan Thi Thanh Le, and Doan Nguyen Minh Chau, 32, to life imprisonment on the same charges.
 
Three Nigerians and a Zimbabwean, all members of Ete’s ring, were sentenced to jail terms of between 15-20 years.
 
According to the indictment, Ete, 33, came to Vietnam in 2004 as a tourist and got married to Le.
 
He later asked Le and some of his compatriots to join him in smuggling heroin from Thailand to HCMC and then to China’s Guangzhou province.
 
The ring was busted in June, 2006 when Chau was found in the northern province of Lang Son, transporting heroin to China.
 
Ete said he had earned $7,350 from the trade, according to the hearing.

 

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Australian man was sentenced to 18 years in jail by an Indonesian court on Monday for smuggling drugs into the resort island of Bali.


Michael Sacatides, 43, was arrested in October as he passed through customs after landing on an AirAsia flight from Bangkok with 1.7 kilograms (3.7 pounds) of methamphetamine in his luggage at Bali International Airport.

"The defendant was proven guilty of drug smuggling and sentenced to 18 years," chief judge Sigit Sutanto told Denpasar district court.

"He never admitted that the drug belonged to him," the judge said referring to the reason why he was given two years higher than the prosecutors' recommendation of 16 years.

"He committed a crime which could harm our young generation and it's against the government's campaign to eliminate drug use," Sutanto added.




The boxing trainer from Sydney will join almost a dozen compatriots who are behind bars in Bali's Kerobokan jail on drug-related convictions.

Three Australians are currently on death row for a 2005 attempt to smuggle 8.3 kilogrammes of heroin into Australia from the tourist island.

Six other members of the so-called Bali Nine gang are serving long jail sentences.

Another Australian, Schapelle Corby, is serving a 20-year sentence in Bali for trafficking 4.1 kilograms of marijuana into Indonesia in 2005.

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TWO people in the Banff area died in suspected drugs-related incidents at the weekend.




A third person, also from the area, suffered a near fatal overdose.

Police investigating the cases believe all three were linked to the use of heroin.

The tragedies follow a warning, highlighted only days earlier in the 'Banffshire Journal', of the dangers of overdosing on a synthetic drug being passed off as heroin in the Aberdeen area and which claimed the life of a city drug user.

It remains uncertain whether the synthetic drug was involved in the latest deaths which happened between Friday and Saturday.

Inspector Andy Imray, Grampian Police substance misuse coordinator, said: "We would remind those in our communities who use heroin of the inherent dangers associated with taking any form of controlled drug. This has sadly become all too evident given the tragic loss of life in the Banff area over the past few days."

Anyone with information about the incidents or the misuse of drugs generally, has been urged to contact Grampian Police on 0845 600 5 700 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

In the warning to heroin users last week, it was revealed that a 40-year-old Torry man had died after taking the Class A drug Fentanyl, a white powder sometimes called 'White China'.

Inspector Imray said last week that he suspected users taking the drug believed they were taking heroin, of which there was currently a shortage. NHS Grampian also issued a warning.

Dr Maria Rossi, consultant in public health medicine, said: "Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid used in medical and surgical settings and by prescription only.

"It can act very quickly and in small doses. Heroin users run a serious risk of overdose and death in using it illicitly."

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