Drug companies are working to develop a pure, more powerful version of the nation’s second most-abused medicine, which has addiction experts worried that it could spur a new wave of abuse.

13:38 Drug companies are working to develop a pure , more powerful version of the nation’s second most-abused medicine , which has addiction experts worried that it could spur a new wave of abuse. 0 Comments

The new pills contain the highly addictive painkiller hydrocodone, packing up to 10 times the amount of the drug as existing medications such as Vicodin. Four companies have begun patient testing, and one of them — Zogenix of San Diego — plans to apply early next year to begin marketing its product, Zohydro.

If approved, it would mark the first time patients could legally buy pure hydrocodone. Existing products combine the drug with nonaddictive painkillers such as acetaminophen.

Critics say they are especially worried about Zohydro, a timed-release drug meant for managing moderate to severe pain, because abusers could crush it to release an intense, immediate high.

“I have a big concern that this could be the next OxyContin,” said April Rovero, president of the National Coalition Against Prescription Drug Abuse. “We just don’t need this on the market.”

LIST: The Prescription Drug Overdose Epidemic, Plus 7 Other Health Stories to Watch in 2012

OxyContin, introduced in 1995 by Purdue Pharma of Stamford, Conn., was designed to manage pain with a formula that dribbled one dose of oxycodone over many hours.

Abusers quickly discovered they could defeat the timed-release feature by crushing the pills. Purdue Pharma changed the formula to make OxyContin more tamper-resistant, but addicts have moved onto generic oxycodone and other drugs that do not have a timed-release feature.

Oxycodone is now the most-abused medicine in the United States, with hydrocodone second, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s annual count of drug seizures sent to police drug labs for analysis.

The latest drug tests come as more pharmaceutical companies are getting into the $10 billion-a-year legal market for powerful — and addictive — opiate narcotics.

“It’s like the wild west,” said Peter Jackson, co-founder of Advocates for the Reform of Prescription Opioids. “The whole supply-side system is set up to perpetuate this massive unloading of opioid narcotics on the American public.”

The pharmaceutical firms say the new hydrocodone drugs give doctors another tool to try on patients in legitimate pain, part of a constant search for better painkillers to treat the aging U.S. population.

“Sometimes you circulate a patient between various opioids, and some may have a better effect than others,” said Karsten Lindhardt, chief executive of Denmark-based Egalet, which is testing its own pure hydrocodone product.

The companies say a pure hydrocodone pill would avoid liver problems linked to high doses of acetaminophen, an ingredient in products like Vicodin. They also say patients will be more closely supervised because, by law, they will have to return to their doctors each time they need more pills. Prescriptions for the weaker, hydrocodone-acetaminophen products now on the market can be refilled up to five times.

MORE: Could Medical Marijuana Reduce Patients’ Need for Painkillers?

Zogenix has completed three rounds of patient testing, and last week it announced it had held a final meeting with Food and Drug Administration officials to talk about its upcoming drug application. It plans to file the application in early 2012 and have Zohydro on the market by early 2013.

Purdue Pharma and Cephalon, a Frazer, Pa.-based unit of Israel-based Teva Pharmaceuticals, are conducting late-stage trials of their own hydrocodone drugs, according to documents filed with federal regulators. In May, Purdue Pharma received a patent applying extended-release technology to hydrocodone. Neither company would comment on its plans.

Meanwhile, Egalet has finished the most preliminary stages of testing aimed at determining the basic safety of a drug. The firm could have a product on the market as early as 2015 but wants to see how the other companies fare with the FDA before deciding whether to move forward, Lindhardt said.

Critics say they are troubled because of the dark side that has accompanied the boom in sales of narcotic painkillers: Murders, pharmacy robberies and millions of dollars lost by hospitals that must treat overdose victims.

Thousands of legitimate pain patients are becoming addicted to powerful prescription painkillers, they say, in addition to the thousands more who abuse the drugs.

Prescription painkillers led to the deaths of almost 15,000 people in 2008, more than triple the 4,000 deaths in 1999, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last month.

Emergency room visits related to hydrocodone abuse have shot from 19,221 in 2000 to 86,258 in 2009, according to data compiled by the Drug Enforcement Administration. In Florida alone, hydrocodone caused 910 deaths and contributed to 1,803 others between 2003 and 2007.

MORE: Are Doctors Really to Blame for the Overdose Epidemic?

Hydrocodone belongs to family of drugs known as opiates or opioids because they are chemically similar to opium. They include morphine, heroin, oxycodone, codeine, methadone and hydromorphone.

Opiates block pain but also unleash intense feelings of well-being and can create physical dependence. The withdrawal symptoms are also intense, with users complaining of cramps, diarrhea, muddled thinking, nausea and vomiting.

After a while, opiates stop working, forcing users to take stronger doses or to try slightly different chemicals.

“You’ve got a person on your product for life, and a doctor’s got a patient who’s never going to miss an appointment, because if they did and they didn’t get their prescription, they would feel very sick,” said Andrew Kolodny, president of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing. “It’s a terrific business model, and that’s what these companies want to get in on.”

Under pressure from the government, Purdue Pharma last year debuted a new OxyContin pill formula that “squishes” instead of crumbling when someone tries to crush it.

But Zogenix, whose drug is time-released but crushable, says there is not enough evidence to show that such tamper-resistant reformulations thwart abuse.

“Provided sufficient effort, all formulations currently available can be overcome,” Zogenix said in a written response to questions by The Associated Press.

MORE: A Brief History of OD’ing in America

At a conference for investors New York on Nov. 29, Zogenix chief executive Roger Hawley said the FDA was not pressuring Zogenix to put an abuse deterrent in Zohydro.

“We would certainly consider later launching an abuse-deterrent form, but right now we believe the priority of safer hydrocodone — that is, without acetaminophen — is a key priority for the FDA,” Hawley said.

FDA spokeswoman Erica Jefferson said the agency would not comment on its discussions with drug companies, citing the need to protect trade secrets.

Drug control advocates say they’re worried the U.S. government is too lax about controlling addictive pain medications. The United States consumes 99 percent of the world’s hydrocodone and 83 percent of its oxycodone, according to a 2008 study by the International Narcotics Control Board.

One 41-year-old loophole in particular has fed the current problem with hydrocodone abuse, critics say. The federal Controlled Substances Act, passed in 1970, puts fewer controls on combination pills containing hydrocodone and another painkiller than it does on the equivalent oxycodone products.

A Vicodin prescription can be refilled five times, for example, while a Percocet prescription can only be filled once.

The Drug Enforcement Administration and Food and Drug Administration have been studying whether to close this loophole since 1999 but have made no decision. Congress is now considering a bill that would force the agencies to tighten the controls.

“This is a problem that is fundamentally an oversupply problem,” said Jackson, the drug-control advocate. “The FDA has kind of opened the floodgates, and they refuse to recognize the mistakes made in the past.”

MORE: Taking Just a Little Too Much Tylenol Each Time Can Be Deadly

Pure hydrocodone falls into the stricter drug-control category than hydrocodone-acetaminophen medications, meaning patients would have to go to their doctors for a new prescription each time they needed more pills. But Jackson said that’s no guarantee against abuse, noting that dozens of unscrupulous doctors have been caught churning out prescriptions in so-called “pill mills.”

The Drug Enforcement Administration, which enforces controls on medicines along with the FDA, said it could not comment on drugs that have not yet been approved for sale.

However, Zogenix has acknowledged the abuse issue could become a liability.

“Illicit use and abuse of hydrocodone is well documented,” it said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in September. “Thus, the regulatory approval process and the marketing of Zohydro may generate public controversy that may adversely affect regulatory approval and market acceptance of Zohydro.”

14-year-old Alaska girl was in critical condition days after a 26-year-old man injected her with heroin at his Anchorage home

13:34 14-year-old Alaska girl was in critical condition days after a 26-year-old man injected her with heroin at his Anchorage home 0 Comments

14-year-old Alaska girl was in critical condition days after a 26-year-old man injected her with heroin at his Anchorage home, authorities said Tuesday.

Sean Warner is charged with a drug-related felony and other counts. Court documents say he tried to revive the girl himself and didn’t immediately call police.

“Her condition is dire,” Assistant District Attorney Regan Williams said Tuesday, adding the girl was on an artificial respirator. “The real sadness is that there’s not that much brain activity.”

The girl was taken to an Anchorage hospital Friday with a drug overdose, police said. Charging documents say the girl, identified only as J.D., was found to have heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine in her system. Medics told authorities she had sustained damage to her brain and heart.

Charging documents say the type of heroin used is known on the street at “China White.”

Police said the drug tends to be more potent than the more common tar heroin. It is sold in powder form and can be cut with varying ingredients in varying amounts, said Sgt. Kathy Lacey, who heads the Anchorage Police Department’s vice unit.

“The problem is you don’t know what it’s cut with,” Lacey said. “You have no idea what you’re getting.”

When asked where the girl’s parents were that night, Williams indicated she was not living at home and doesn’t come from a “typical family environment.” He declined to elaborate.

Warner’s bail was set at $90,000. A booking official said Warner remained in custody.

Warner is being represented by the Public Defender Agency, but it was unclear if he has been assigned to a specific attorney yet.

KTUU reported that Warner’s father and a friend dispute the allegations and they say Warner is a Navy veteran who saved lives as a medic in Afghanistan. The two said Warner had struggled since returning from the war.

According to the court papers, two others went with Warner to pick the girl up Thursday night and take her back to Warner’s home to hang out. Williams said both of the witnesses are men.

Warner was sharing a gram of heroin with the men, and the girl said she was willing to try something “new” but didn’t want to inject herself, according to the documents. Warner tried to inject the girl, but failed, so he had her lie down on his bed and hold out an arm, then used his belt as a tourniquet and shot 25 to 30 units of heroin, taking several times to find a vein, the papers say.

The two witnesses told authorities they left the girl on the bed and found her the next morning, face down in her vomit, according to the papers.

“They felt for her pulse, sat her up, and grew concerned at her condition and upset at Warner’s ambivalence,” the documents state.

Warner did not want to call 911 because he didn’t want authorities to find drugs, so instead he placed a tablet of Suboxone — a prescription drug that’s used to treat opiate addiction — under the unconscious girl’s tongue, according to the court papers. A couple hours later, the girl began convulsing and Warner called 911, the papers say.

The girl was rushed to Providence Alaska Medical Center.

Responding officers did not find drugs because Warner had locked his bedroom door and told police it belonged to a roommate, the court documents state. After police left, Warner and one of the witnesses put needles and other “related evidence” into a box then dumped it behind a trash bin at a nearby business, according to the papers, which say police later recovered paraphernalia including syringes.

Warner is charged with delivering a controlled substance to a minor who is at least three years younger than the accused, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and evidence tampering. He also is charged with theft, accused of stealing a $900 surveillance system from Costco on the same day he took the girl to his home, according to the documents

Infants become addicted to salt at an early age

13:48 Infants become addicted to salt at an early age 0 Comments

Babies as young as six months develop a taste for salty food, say researchers.

A new study shows infants who have been introduced to foods such as bread and breakfast cereals have a greater preference for salty tastimeals than those not yet eating them. 

Babies who were used to salt in their food consumed 55 per cent more during a preference test than those who were not.


Infants become addicted to salt at an early age, research has revealed

By the age of four, the same youngsters were more likely to eat plain salt, says a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Lead author Leslie Stein, a physiological psychologist at the Monell Centre in the United States, said 'More and more evidence is showing us that the first months of life constitute a sensitive period for shaping flavour preferences.

In the study, the salt preference of 61 babies was tested at both two and six months of age. At each age, the infant was allowed to drink from three bottles for two minutes each. 

One bottle contained water, another contained a moderate concentration of salt (one per cent, about the saltiness of commercial chicken noodle soup) and the third bottle had a higher concentration of salt of around two per cent, which tastes extremely salty to adults.

Preference for salty taste was calculated at each age by comparing the amount the baby drank of a given salt solution to the amount of water it consumed.

If the infant drank more of the one per cent salt solution than water, it was considered to have a preference for the one per cent solution and at two months infants were either indifferent to or rejected the salt solutions.


Research has shown by the age of four children who were given salt at six months were more likely to want more on their meals

But by the age of six months, there was a link between the preference of babies for salty food and their previous exposure to starchy meals containing salt, including processed foods.

Altogether 26 infants already eating starchy foods preferred both salt solutions to water, while 35 babies who had not yet been introduced to these foods remained indifferent to or continued to reject the salt solutions.

The researchers focused on starchy table foods because they include processed foods, such as breakfast cereals, bread and crackers, frequently are used to wean children.

Dr Stein said 'Our findings suggest that early dietary experience influences the preference for salty taste.'

The same children were checked at pre-school age when mothers completed questionnaires about the children's dietary behaviour.

These showed that 12 children who were introduced to starchy table foods before six months of age were more likely to lick salt from foods and also were likely to eat plain salt.

Infants become addicted to salt at an early age

13:46 Infants become addicted to salt at an early age 0 Comments

Babies as young as six months develop a taste for salty food, say researchers.

A new study shows infants who have been introduced to foods such as bread and breakfast cereals have a greater preference for salty tasting meals than those not yet eating them.

Babies who were used to salt in their food consumed 55 per cent more during a preference test than those who were not.


Infants become addicted to salt at an early age, research has revealed

By the age of four, the same youngsters were more likely to eat plain salt, says a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Lead author Leslie Stein, a physiological psychologist at the Monell Centre in the United States, said 'More and more evidence is showing us that the first months of life constitute a sensitive period for shaping flavour preferences.

In the study, the salt preference of 61 babies was tested at both two and six months of age. At each age, the infant was allowed to drink from three bottles for two minutes each.


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One bottle contained water, another contained a moderate concentration of salt (one per cent, about the saltiness of commercial chicken noodle soup) and the third bottle had a higher concentration of salt of around two per cent, which tastes extremely salty to adults.

Preference for salty taste was calculated at each age by comparing the amount the baby drank of a given salt solution to the amount of water it consumed.

If the infant drank more of the one per cent salt solution than water, it was considered to have a preference for the one per cent solution and at two months infants were either indifferent to or rejected the salt solutions.


Research has shown by the age of four children who were given salt at six months were more likely to want more on their meals

But by the age of six months, there was a link between the preference of babies for salty food and their previous exposure to starchy meals containing salt, including processed foods.

Altogether 26 infants already eating starchy foods preferred both salt solutions to water, while 35 babies who had not yet been introduced to these foods remained indifferent to or continued to reject the salt solutions.

The researchers focused on starchy table foods because they include processed foods, such as breakfast cereals, bread and crackers, frequently are used to wean children.

Dr Stein said 'Our findings suggest that early dietary experience influences the preference for salty taste.'

The same children were checked at pre-school age when mothers completed questionnaires about the children's dietary behaviour.

These showed that 12 children who were introduced to starchy table foods before six months of age were more likely to lick salt from foods and also were likely to eat plain salt.

Estell "Hump" Hobbs ran a Houston record label with up-and-coming hip-hop artist, Lil' Flip, and had a deal with Sony potentially worth millions of dollars.

13:27 Dirty South 0 Comments

Estell "Hump" Hobbs ran a Houston record label with up-and-coming hip-hop artist, Lil' Flip, and had a deal with Sony potentially worth millions of dollars.

The agreement quickly crumbled under the weight of legal disputes and the two parted ways.

Hobbs has since worked in remodeling and construction as he seeks to resurrect the label, and now keep his freedom.

The 52-year-old father of four with no criminal record was recently charged with being part of a cocaine-distribution network that over 15 years reached from Mexico, through Houston and on to Chicago, Mississippi and elsewhere.

"It is stressful, it is painful to see my family worried for me after so many years of hard work and dedication to the label, the city and the family," Hobbs told the Houston Chronicle Friday. "It is crazy. They are trying to take my house."

Reflecting on his life and passion, he said he's been influential in helping performers from hip hop's "Dirty South" to beat the streets, and notes that his label, Suckafree Records, is looking for its next gospel singer.

On the advice of his lawyer, he said he would not discuss the charges or the criminals making accusations against him.

"It is always when you do the work of God that the devil tries to stay busy," he said.

Hobbs is described by those who have known him as hard-working and active in his community as well as religious rap.

"I hate to see him in that type of trouble," Lil' Flip's father, Wesley Weston Sr. said. "The person I know him to be is a very good person," said Weston, who is no longer in touch with Hobbs.

Alleged trafficking ties

The alleged conspiracy cuts a unique path as it connects what prosecutors said was a predominantly African-American distribution group directly with Mexican traffickers.

Defense lawyer Robert Pelton notes Hobbs has never before been prosecuted for a crime.

He points to back to when Suckafree donated 150 bicycles to children for Christmas, and when Hobbs was recognized by the Hip Hop Summit, which has mobilized thousands of youth to vote.

"Mr. Hobbs has done a lot to help his family and people not only in the music industry, but the entirety of Harris County community," Pelton said.

The man, who also goes by Duane and got the nickname "Humpty Hump" as a child, has not been known to flash cash, and has lived in the same modest house for years.

He is charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine and launder money, and if convicted faces 10 years to life in federal prison without parole.

His supposed role is unclear, but nobody contends he was a kingpin or a killer.

Authorities announced they intend to seize his house, a Hummer and other property on the grounds they are tied to illegal activity.

A judicial buzz saw has already convicted 38 people in the investigation, including one who allegedly told the Drug Enforcement Administration he delivered more than 100 kilograms of cocaine on multiple occasions to Hobbs.

All pleaded guilty as part of agreements to cooperate with authorities for leniency.

Hobbs, who is free on bail, is scheduled to be back in court at the end of January for a hearing that may reveal whether he and nine remaining defendants are taking deals rather than risking trial.

A hidden past?

Prosecutors contend that Hobbs has a past hidden in a conspiracy that lasted from 1995 to 2010.

Eric Davis, a Harris County sheriff's deputy assigned to a DEA task force testified that informants have said Hobbs was at the scene of numerous deals.

David also said Hobbs was recorded in "several" phone conversations talking to an associate, Abraham Woods, who shortly after being released from custody following a drug bust in 2009 was found dead in a Houston apartment.

Woods, who was the group's primary link to Mexican traffickers, was tied up and shot execution style, with two bullets to the back of the head. A pillow case had been pulled over his eyes.

The attack remains unsolved.

The drug investigation has also drawn links to Jaime Zamora, who is serving life in prison after being convicted earlier this year for ordering a Houston drug hit that killed an innocent man in a case of mistaken identity. That bloodshed was part of a back-and-forth feud between Zamora and a rival that claimed lives in Houston and Mexico.

Ron Wilson, a former state representative who served for 29 years, and has been Suckafree's lawyer, said he was "very close" to the Hobbs family. Hobbs said he considers him a big brother.

Wilson testified he knows Hobbs, his wife and his children, and he's never known him to carry wads of cash or keep company with drug dealers or other criminals.

"No, I have not seen that," Wilson said.

Pelton said Hobbs is being framed by desperate criminals willing to lie: "A bunch of guys in the drug business, not any normal citizens, but a bunch of dope fiends."

Hobbs said he's taking things day by day and staying close to his family.

It is not easy. I am human. I worry about it, but I know God will not let anything come to me that I couldn't deal with," he said. "I am surrounded by praying warriors."

People who haven’t experienced living with an addict just don’t have any idea what it’s like

00:08 People who haven’t experienced living with an addict just don’t have any idea what it’s like 0 Comments

His son was supposed to meet him and his wife for dinner but never showed up. Joe Klein got a call from police the next night instead.

Most parents would be surprised to receive a phone call regarding their son’s death, but as parents of a heroin addict, Klein and his wife knew it could come at any time.

“Obviously I was sad, but it wasn’t something that was entirely unexpected.” Klein, whose son died of a heroin overdose after eight years of battling addiction, said. “He was always kind of a risk-taker, he was always the kind of kid who would stand on his tiptoes to get on a roller coaster.”

Timothy Klein, 31, died at a friend’s apartment on the corner of Wilson and Broom Street in June of 2008. His was one of 21 overdoses in Dane County in 2008 that have contributed to the rising trend in heroin use and overdoses in Madison and throughout Dane County in recent years.

According to the Madison Police Department, the number of heroin overdoses in Dane County so far in 2011 is 131, over six times higher than in 2008.

“As much as I hated to see it happen, I can tell you one thing: Since that day [he died], my life’s been a lot better,” Klein said. “It really has because it was a constant, constant either aggravation or worry.”

Madison’s heroin problem has increased substantially over the last 10 years, with a spike around five years ago, according to Skye Tikkanen, a counselor at Connections Counseling in Madison and a former heroin addict.

Mayor Paul Soglin has called the city’s heroin problem “an epidemic,” because of “the loss of life of productive people … the costs related to the expense of the drug” and major traffic problems.

Police have reported 12 traffic accidents in 2011 in the Madison area in which drivers operated vehicles under the influence of heroin.

Lt. Brian Ackeret of the Dane County Narcotics and Gang Task Force said although he is unsure whether many of these users attend college, he said police would be “naïve to think that there are not heroin users on the UW campus.”

The increase in overdoses has most affected the 18 to 24-year-old age bracket, Ackeret said.

Heroin users often finance their addictions through burglarizing and reselling valuable items to pawn shops for quick money, which places students in a highly vulnerable position, Soglin said.

“Students are trusting with roommates and dozens of people coming and going every day,” he said. “And students have what’s marketable: electronics.”

Klein was forced to put a lock on his bedroom door after Timothy repeatedly stole his debit card and his wife’s expensive guitar. He sold them at pawn shops for easy money to fuel his addiction.

“It just turns a good person into a monster,” Klein said. “He got caught stealing copper and embezzling from his job, writing bad checks, just a litany of things, one after another.”

The drug, which is circulating through Madison from bigger cities like Chicago and Milwaukee, “puts everyone at risk,” Soglin said.

“It puts anybody who is active who might have say a sports-related injury,” he said. “That would tend to be younger people, students.”

But the heroin problem in Madison, Dane County and throughout the U.S. did not spring up out of nowhere. Rather, it surfaced from increased addictions to painkillers prescribed by doctors nationwide.

“The first place [painkiller addicts] look is to get the same medicine on the street,” Soglin said. “That’s very expensive. So then, as the addiction [and] the dependency increases, heroin becomes a cheaper substitute.”

Soglin said the U.S. Conference of Mayors has pushed the medical community to reformulate painkiller drugs to be less addictive or to find alternative therapies for pain.

Breaking a heroin addiction can be nearly impossible, and an addict can suffer multiple relapses before a full recovery is possible, according to Tikkanen.

Klein sent his son to rehab three or four times. With the money he spent hoping he would recover, Klein said he probably could have sent Timothy to Harvard.

“When someone has a relapse, our stance at Connections is that it’s not a failure of them, it’s not a failure of treatment; it’s just part of the process of recovering,” Tikkanen said. “So we really try to take the relapse as a learning opportunity.”

But addicts often fall victim to an overdose before the recovery process is complete.

Klein’s son would often be clean for a year or more after rehab until old friends would reappear in his life and expose him to the drug once again.

“[Timothy] told me, ‘Dad you just can’t … never having taken heroin, you can’t imagine what it feels like, it is the most amazing feeling there is in the world,” Klein said.

Reality hit Klein and his wife when they noticed teaspoons missing from their kitchen cupboard and discovered needle syringes among their youngest son’s belongings.

Shallow breathing and “slowed down” behavior are also major indicators someone may be using heroin, Tikkanen said.

When he was addicted, Timothy’s parents often considered throwing him out of their house and turned him in to police more than once to limit his access to the drug.

“People who haven’t experienced living with an addict just don’t have any idea what it’s like,” Klein said.

The epidemic in Madison has gotten to the point that Soglin and Dane County Executive Joe Parisi put forth an initiative to combat the issue.

They announced the plan Oct. 19.

The plan will cost $60,000, money that will be split between city and county budgets. The initiative outlines six steps to hinder the use and spread of heroin in Madison and Dane County.

But Soglin said it is too early to tell its progress.

Life will “never be a bed of roses” for addicts’ families once an addiction begins, Klein said.

“The best I can [tell anyone to do] is pray,” he said. “Because the light’s got to go on in the addict’s head.”

Sydney police boss Mark Standen jailed for drug plot

00:02 Sydney police boss Mark Standen jailed for drug plot 0 Comments

former senior police officer has been jailed for 22 years for his part in an international drug-smuggling ring. Mark Standen, a former assistant director of New South Wales Crime Commission, was convicted of trying to import 300kg of psuedoephedrine. The drug is mixed with other substances to make crystal methamphetamine. He conspired with an informant to import the drug from Pakistan. Judges said he was given the maximum term because he had shown no remorse. Justice Bruce James said he had used his inside information on law enforcement built up over 30 years to commit his crimes. "A matter seriously aggravating the prisoner's criminality was his misuse of knowledge and contacts he had acquired in his career as a law enforcement officer, and the abuse of his position with the NSW Crime Commission," said the judge at the New South Wales Supreme Court. Before his role with the crime commission 54-year-old Standen had worked for the police and customs. Standen, who has been in jail since 2008, will be eligible for parole after 16 years of his sentence.

Students warned of drug-smuggling recruiters, drugs, drug, students

00:00 drug , drugs , students , Students warned of drug-smuggling recruiters 0 Comments

It is a common misconception that people under the age of 18 will be tried as minors if they are caught smuggling drugs into the United States, especially in Yuma County, said U.S. Border Patrol officials. From Jan. 1 through the end of September, 74 percent of juveniles arrested for drug smuggling were tried as adults, said Yuma Sector Agent Spencer Tippets. “It's not just going to be a slap on the wrist, it will stay with you for the rest of your life,” he warned, noting that drug smuggling is a felony that can ruin job opportunities. “The more good choices you make, the more choices you will have in the future. If you make a lot of poor choices, it limits the options you have.” Tippets and fellow agents Robert Lowry and Kyle Estes have been traveling to high schools in Yuma to speak with freshmen about the dangers and consequences associated with drug trafficking through a presentation called “Operation Detour.” During a presentation at Harvest Preparatory Academy on Tuesday, the agents asked students whether they think these types of situations happen in Yuma. Most teens in the audience were not convinced. He then shared a story of a Yuma-area high school student found on the other side of the border fence who had barbed wire wrapped around her neck and had been shot. “This happens,” he said. Tippets said drug-trafficking organizations have recently stepped up their efforts to recruit juveniles to smuggle drugs into the U.S. To further verify that statement, when students were asked how many of them had been approached to take drugs across the border, some raised their hands. Tippets explained that once someone gets involved with drug cartels, there are only two ways to get out: jail or the grave. There is a detour, though, he said: talking with parents, teachers, school counselors, principals, law enforcement officers or an adult they trust about the situation. Students asked, “What if you're just walking down the street and they threaten to kill you if you don't do it?” Tippets responded, “It's not very common for someone you don't know to approach you to try and get you to smuggle drugs. If that did happen, there are officers all around you when you cross the border. Let someone know what's going on and ask for help.” Most of the time, Lowry interjected, students are approached by people they know. Good decision-making is key, he added, and if someone you know approaches you at a party to smuggle drugs, you probably shouldn't be at that party or hanging around with those people in the first place. “If you're in a place where there's drugs and there's alcohol and gangsters — why would you be there? Avoid those types of situations.” Smuggling drugs won't just impact the person involved, but also their friends and family, said Lowry. Chances are, he said, if you're working with a cartel, they know where you live and where you work. “If somebody is that interested to have you drive something through the checkpoint, tell them to do it themselves. You have to think about why they're wanting you to do it. It's because they don't want to be the fall guy. Cartels are willing to do whatever they need to do to make sure they're not the ones that end up in jail.”

Confessions of a Big Book Sponsor | Big BookStudies,The Steps in 4 hours

23:57 Confessions of a Big Book Sponsor | Big BookStudies , The Steps in 4 hours 0 Comments

Confessions of a Big Book Sponsor | Big BookStudies,The Steps in 4 hours

Related Categories: Big Book Sponsorship I remember asking someone in the fellowship a few years ago, "Are you working your program?" He replied, "Yes I went to a meeting today." I responded, "No, that's not what I'm talking about. Are you working with someone?" He said, "Yes, I have a sponsor." I replied, "No, that's not what I'm talking about. Are you working with a newcomer?" He said, "I'm just a few months sober. I'm only a newcomer. This is selfish program, I need to work on myself first." I never saw him again. Who Am I? I am a Big Book Sponsor. I practice the 12 Step Program as outlined in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, the original recipe for recovery as practiced by the original 100 who recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. By working the Twelve Step program as described in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, I have had a spiritual awakening. The obsession to drink and use has been removed. My progressive alcoholic/addiction illness has been arrested. My disease has been placed into remission. I have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. As a result, I am able to remain, almost effortlessly, abstinent from alcohol and all mind-altering substances. I have ceased fighting anything or anyone, even alcohol and drugs. My sanity has been returned. I am not fighting temptation, nor am I avoiding people, places and things on a trigger list. I feel as though I had been placed in a position of neutrality safe and protected. I have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for me. I am neither cocky nor am I afraid. This is how I react so long as I keep in fit spiritual condition. Furthermore, by living in the disciplines of Steps 10, 11 and 12 everyday, I have a daily program of action that really works in rough going. I have way of living without alcohol or drugs. You can recognize me at 12 Step meetings because I am the one who brings my own Big Book. To show other alcoholics/addicts precisely how I recovered is the main purpose of this book. I carry a common solution--a way out on which we can absolutely agree and upon which we can join together as brothers and sisters in harmonious action. My deportment shouts that I am a person with a real answer. I carry no attitude of Holier Than Thou. I do not talk down to the alcoholic/addict from any moral or spiritual hilltop. I ask for no payment. I have no axes to grind nor people to please. You can expect to endure no lectures from me. My only desire is to be helpful. I offer friendship and fellowship. What I do You will find me at 12 Step meetings armed with the facts about myself. As an ex-problem drinker/user, you will see me making an approach to the newcomer--looking for someone who needs and wants hear about our common solution--someone with an honest desire to stop drinking or using--someone who wants what I have and is willing to follow the instructions as outlined in the Big Book--someone who wants to be joyous and free of active alcoholism and or addiction. When I find someone who really wants to stop drinking or using, we go to a coffee shop and, together we read and study the first 164 pages of the Big Book. When we come to a Step instruction, we take the Step together as instructed in the Big Book. I practice co-sponsorship--two addicts, working one-on-one, seeking a Higher Power. Because lack of power is our dilemma, we meet three to four times a week, working quickly, all 12 Steps in 30 days or less. My purpose for sponsorship is to teach others how to teach others how to work the 12 Step program as outlined in the Big Book of A.A. Therefore, once the new person has learned and worked all 12 Steps and is living in the disciplines of Steps 10 and 11 on a daily basis, I help my sponsee find a qualified addict who wants to stop and get them working together on their 12 Step journey. Thus, I conclude my formal sponsorship with my sponsee, knowing that they have a dependence, not on me, but upon their Higher Power. Moreover, I rest easy, knowing that the fellowship has one more teacher amongst its members, freeing me to commence looking for another willing, honest and open-minded addict to instruct and repeat the process. Working with other alcoholics/addicts I have carried the message of the Big Book to many alcoholics and addicts and rarely have I seen a person fail who thoroughly follows our path. Untreated alcoholic/addicts are unlovely people. My struggles with them are strenuous, comic and tragic. Those who could not or would not see our way of life are often consumed by their temptations which leads them to the gates of insanity or death. Helping other addicts is the foundation stone of my recovery. A kindly act once in a while isn't enough for me. I have shared time, energy and money. My business and personal life has been interrupted by the telephone ringing at any time of the day or night. My spouse sometimes feels neglected. I have made innumerable trips to police courts, detox centers, hospitals, jails and asylums. I have counseled frantic spouses and relatives. Occasionally I have to meet such conditions. I have worked hard with many alcoholics/addicts on the idea that only an addict can help another addict. I have had many failures. I once asked another Big Book Sponsor about their success rates and she replied, "I am 100% successful". Astounded, I asked how is that possible? She replied, "I'm still sober". That to me is one of the best kept secrets in our fellowship today. I often hear that this is a "selfish program", but whenever I put my sobriety first I could never stay sober. When I started showing the newcomer how to stay sober, I have found no trouble staying sober. As Doctor Bob once remarked, "strenuous work one alcoholic with another was vital to permanent recovery". Love and tolerance of others is my code In the 12 Step rooms I have been accused of being a Step Nazi, Big Book Thumper, a Holy Roller, a Zealot, and most recently I was called a "Steptard". I have been thrown out of groups and asked not to come back. I have been asked not to bring my Big Book into some A.A. meetings. I have been physically and verbally threatened by members of the fellowship for teaching that our 12 Step Program can be learned in an afternoon. I have been blamed for killing people with the Big Book. When confronted with such animosity, my program tells me I have to look at my part. Have I been crusading, righteous, or critical? Have I been engaging in frothy debates or windy arguments? Have I been demonstrating an attitude of intolerance? Yes, there have been times when I have been all these things, but I claim spiritual progress not perfection and I am no saint. I confess that I am a Big Book fundamentalist. I work my Big Book like a recipe for recovery. When I follow the 12 Step instructions as outlined in the book, it awakens my mind and I make conscious contact with my Higher Power. I must remember that when I focus my mind on what is wrong with the fellowship and the meetings today, the more I become restless, irritable and discontented. I must remember that the meetings are filled with many suffering and untreated addicts. Therefore, I practice acceptance and focus on what is good about the meetings and the fellowship. I try to see what I can positively add to the meeting--my only desire is to be helpful. Sometimes I have charged the "meeting makers" of killing people with their, "Don't drink and go to meetings" mantra. In return, they, the "Meeting Makers Make It" sect, have accused me of killing people with my Big Book thumping attitude. What I have learned is this: it is not the "Meeting Makers" that are killing people nor is it the "Big Book thumpers", it's the 20 to 30 years of abusive drinking and using that kills the alcoholic/addict. I must remember that I have no monopoly on recovery, but I do know that the Big Book solution works. Why do I continue to work with other alcoholic/addicts? Having had a spiritual experience, I try to practice the 12 Step principles in all my affairs. First, I take care of family, for sobriety is not enough and I am a long way from making good to my spouse, parents and children whom for years I have so shockingly treated. Second, I take care of my business, for there can be no family if I am not self-supporting. And third, in my spare time, I carry this message to other alcoholic addicts. For me, this approach, in this order, is a balanced program. Over the years I have witnessed a fellowship grow up about me. I have watched the spirit grow in the eyes of a suffering individual and seen them recover from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. I have seen them make a 180 degree turn in life, only to help some other suffering addict do the same. This is the experience I would not miss. I know you will not want to miss it either. Frequent contact with newcomers and other Big Book sponsors is a bright spot in my day. My life has taken on a new meaning and I seem to be of benefit to others. I have found a new freedom and happiness. I know serenity and peace. I continue to lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in the people in my life. My attitude and outlook on life has changed. Fear and economic insecurity is down and I know how to intuitively handle situations which use to baffle me. I realize that my Higher Power does for me what I could not do for myself alone. A Vision For You Thus I grow spiritually and so can you with a Big Book in your hand. It contains all you will need to begin working with the addict who still suffers. I know what you are thinking, "I'm a newcomer myself and I do not have enough sobriety time to be of use to anyone. What could I possibly offer another newcomer? Maybe I should wait a year or two." Rubbish! By working the Big Book solution, you will tap a source of power greater than yourself. To duplicate, with such backing, what I have accomplished is only a matter of willingness, patience and labour. Remember your reliance is always upon your Higher Power. It will show you how to create the fellowship you crave. Ask in morning mediation what you can do for the addict who still suffers. The answers will come if you work your program. But if you are shaky you had better work with another alcoholic/addict instead. Remember you have recovered and have been given the power to help others. You will soon find out that when all other measures fail, work with another alcoholic/addict will save the day. Give freely of what you have been shown and join us on the Broad Highway of the Fellowship of the Spirit. You will surely meet some of us as you trudge the Road of Happy Destiny. Trust God, Clean House, Help Others. Cameron F. Toronto, ONDISCLAIMER:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder. Posted 1 week ago by Reporters Labels: Confessions of a Big Book Sponsor 0 Add a comment Big BookStudies,The Steps in 4 hours The book that introduced the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous to the world has never appeared on any best-seller list. It is not advertised or promoted. And its authors will never appear on talk shows. Yet this book, now in its fourth edition, has sold over 23 million copies in English and is published in 48 languages. That book is "Alcoholics Anonymous"--affectionately known to AA members as the "Big Book." Classic Flipcard Magazine Mosaic Sidebar Snapshot Timeslide DEC 7 DREAMWARRIOR IN RECOVERY The sea is merging with the sky and clouds obscuring the high mountains of the Morrocan coast.Gazing down the valley the bright sunlight flashes off the surface of the lake below me.The cry of a disgruntled chicken drifts up the valley from below me, making me aware of the gentle twitter of tiny bir Life is not impossible........Life is improving Life is not impossible........Life is improving.Each day,each hour thanks to the new found acceptability to a personal,loving higher power.Your will not have an insane,controlling self-will running your life.The exercise of unburdening myself of self will in my meditation makes me realize I no longe something quiet, calm and hidden is happening and certain people are being called by a higher light. On the surface of the Earth exactly now there is war and violence and everything looks horrible.  But, simultaneously, something quiet, calm and hidden is happening and certain people are being called by a higher light. A quiet revolution is settling from the inside out.  From bottom to top. Confessions of a Big Book Sponsor Posted At : April 24, 2010 2:21 PM | Posted By : Admin Related Categories: Big Book Sponsorship I remember asking someone in the fellowship a few years ago, "Are you working your program?" He replied, "Yes I went to a meeting today." I responded, "No, that's not what I'm talking about. Take 5 seconds just to be quiet. Take 5 seconds just to be quiet. If Life has no interest in the past, why should you? It doesn't matter what it is--an atom, a thought, a sound, a situation, a body, a mental state, a plant a storm, a mountain, or a galaxy--everything that we know of is changing What we think, we become DREAMWARRIOR teaches how to become fundamentally present and how to arise in mastery of your mind and ego The world we see merely reflects our own internal frame of reference As Bill Sees It-Selfish? - SoberRecovery : Alcoholism Drug Addiction Help and Information AA First and the “Selfish” Program « Don't Drink and Don't Die A Selfish Program? the Internet has many of us on a very short leash – an addictive one. Vision is, I think, the ability to make good estimates,

Take 5 seconds just to be quiet. | Big BookStudies,The Steps in 4 hours

23:54 Take 5 seconds just to be quiet. | Big BookStudies , The Steps in 4 hours 0 Comments

Take 5 seconds just to be quiet. | Big BookStudies,The Steps in 4 hours

Take 5 seconds just to be quiet. Everything that disappeared in those 5 seconds for you, that’s what’s not real. So when you are not thinking, everything that disappears… that’s what’s not real. For most people, that’s about 99% of their whole experience of life… their whole world.

I can watch my serenity level rise when I discard my expectations.

23:07 I can watch my serenity level rise when I discard my expectations. 0 Comments

I can watch my serenity level rise when I discard my expectations. But then my “rights” try to move in, and they, too, can force my serenity level down. I have to discard my “rights,” as well as my expectations, by asking myself, “How important is it, really? How important is it com­pared to my serenity, my emotional sobriety?” And when I place more value on my serenity and sobriety than on anything else, I can maintain them at a higher level—at least for the time being.   -- Doctor, Alcoholic, Addict, Alcoholics Anonymous, page 452 (3rd Ed.) -- Acceptance Was The Answer, Alcoholics Anonymous, page 422 (4th Ed.)

US agents laundered drug money

21:23 US agents laundered drug money 0 Comments

Anti-narcotics agents working for the US government have laundered or smuggled millions of dollars in drug proceeds to see how the system works and use the information against Mexican drug cartels, The New York Times reported Sunday. Citing unnamed current and former federal law enforcement officials, the newspaper said the agents, primarily with the Drug Enforcement Administration, have handled shipments of hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal cash across borders. Some 45,000 people have been killed in Mexico since 2006, when its government launched a major military crackdown against the powerful drug cartels that have terrorized border communities as they battled over lucrative smuggling routes. According to these officials, the operations were aimed at identifying how criminal organizations move their money, where they keep their assets and, most important, who their leaders are, the report said. The agents had deposited the proceeds in accounts designated by traffickers, or in shell accounts set up by agents, the paper noted. While the DEA conducted such operations in other countries, it began doing so in Mexico only in the past few years, The Times said. As it launders drug money, the agency often allows cartels to continue their operations over months or even years before making seizures or arrests, the report said. According to The Times, agency officials declined to publicly discuss details of their work, citing concerns about compromising their investigations. But Michael Vigil, a former senior official who is currently working for a private contracting company called Mission Essential Personnel, is quoted by the paper as saying: "We tried to make sure there was always close supervision of these operations so that we were accomplishing our objectives, and agents weren?t laundering money for the sake of laundering money."

At one time the Buddha's attendant Ananda asked if spiritual friendship was not half of the holy life. In response, the Buddha declared, "Spiritual friendship, association with wise and noble firends, and wise and noble deeds are the whole of the holy life,"

17:24 Buddha declared 0 Comments

Understanding how our states of mind are easily prompted by others, we can also see the importance of spiritual friendships. Whether in meditation communities, churches, group psychotherapy, or AA, the help we provide for one another is critical. At one time the Buddha's attendant Ananda asked if spiritual friendship was not half of the holy life. In response, the Buddha declared, "Spiritual friendship, association with wise and noble firends, and wise and noble deeds are the whole of the holy life," No matter what our intentions, we all need help from others around us as mirrors. Sometimes we need prompting in the form of fierce critical support from our AA sponsor or the honest feedback of our friends when we go astray. We also need the prompting of those who can see our goodness and who can speak with wisdom and courage to our good heart.