The former Skid Row drummer has teamed up with adult film company Vivid to show off his sex skills and talk about his 3,000-plus female partners in the two-disc set Phil Varone's Secret Sex Stash.

Varone recruited five women he had never slept with for the film, admitting, "I still feel a charge each time with each new girl."

He adds, "It's a very personal, very explicit experience and never gets old. This was the first time for me with the incredible five girls in the movie and I loved every minute I had with each of them."

And he refuses to apologize to anyone who thinks rock stars shouldn't appear in porn films, stating, "I believe everyone should have sex with as many partners as possible, in as many ways as possible."

Varone has been branded a sex addict and has appeared on reality TV show Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew, but he insists, "I never considered myself a sex addict because sex never screwed up the rest of my life or my ability to function at a high level."

According to Mexico’s El Universal, at around 5:30 p.m. on June 7, five vehicles pulled up outside the Victory Center for Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation in Torreon, Coahuila, in northern Mexico. A gang of heavily-armed men emerged from the cars, and burst into the clinic. Methodically moving from room to room, they opened fire on everyone in sight, killing 13 patients and workers.

Then, as quickly as they had arrived, the assailants climbed back into their cars and fled the scene.


Although such extreme violence at a treatment center may seem incomprehensible, attacks on these institutions are becoming a fairly common phenomenon in Mexico. To date, the bloodiest of these shootings was in June 2010, when a gunman killed 19 people in a drug rehabilitation center in the city of Chihuahua, which borders Coahuila.

Mass shootings of this sort, with a defenseless group of people indiscriminately gunned down, have become common in Torreon, though typically the incidents have occurred in bars.

Prior to the June 7 murders, there had been at least five such incidents, resulting in more than 50 deaths, since the beginning of 2010. In most of the cases, official reports blamed the killings on local representatives of the Sinaloa Cartel, who are based in neighboring Gomez Palacio and have been engaged in a year-long battle with Torreon-based Zetas for control of the area.

Killed to minimize the risk

Gangs frequently target private, unlicensed rehabilitation centers, because they are more likely to take in active gang members seeking to free themselves from an addiction to their own product. In contrast to government-licensed rehabilitation centers in Mexico, private clinics are not associated with the penal system and often have very little security, leaving their patients vulnerable to attacks by gangs seeking to avenge the death of a friend or eliminate a potential police informant. Some unlicensed clinics may also serve as fronts for drug dealing, or even as safe houses for gangsters seeking to lay low.

After a 2009 attack on a center in Juarez, the Chihuahua state Secretary of Public Security, Victor Valencia, said the rehab clinics had become a hotbed of criminal activity, adding that “cartels are using them to recruit young people from 17 to 23 years old.”

According to him, it is difficult for these youths to escape from a life of crime, as they are seen as a “disposable” liability by the leaders of criminal organizations.

Drug cartels cannot afford to have a former member come clean, either about himself or, worse, his bosses. Because these young people can be quickly replaced, they are often killed in order to minimize this risk.

Cartels run their own rehab centers

In some cases, organized criminal groups even run their own rehabilitation centers.

New Jersey motorcyclist who had been stopped along Route 22 because he was operating his vehicle with a suspended license, fled from police when he was offered a ride because he didn't want his backpack searched, The Morning Call reported today.

Instead, Shawn J. Lombardo, 33, of Philipsburg, is a guest of Lehigh County Prison in lieu of $200,000 bail and faces multiple criminal charges, including possession with intent to deliver cocaine.

Lombardo, who was stopped near the Schoenersville Road exit of Route 22, ran away from troopers and across the highway when he was told they would have to search his backpack before allowing him into the cruiser, according to the news report.

When he reached the other side of the highway, troopers observed him trying to discard a bag that contained 29 grams of the white powder, the news report says.

The 37-year-old mother left her baby girl locked in the parked car outside the MiHi Tavern, at Brassall, west of Brisbane, on February 5 for at least half an hour.

A witness found the sweaty, screaming and crying girl in the car, which had the front windows open only three centimetres, about 9.20pm.

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The tavern's manager forcibly pushed the windows down so he could unlock the car and open the doors.

He then called on the tavern's PA system for the mother to attend the bar but no one came. A short time later, the mum was seen rushing outside to her car.

Deprive a coffee addict of their morning fix and you will soon hear about it. But give them too much caffeine, and it turns out that they are the one that will start hearing things.
In the latest addition to the saga of research papers published on the bitter, brown elixir, scientists have found that drinking five or more coffees a day is enough to increase an individual's tendency to hallucinate. Caffeine lovers with high-stress lifestyles were most at risk.

The study, published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, measured the effect of stress and caffeine on 92 people.

The participants were grouped according to self-reported stress levels and caffeine consumption, with those drinking five or more standard caffeinated drinks a day classed as high caffeine users. Participants were then asked to listen to white noise and to report when they also heard part of Bing Crosby's White Christmas coming through the white noise. The song was never played, and researchers measured the number of false alarms reported. Those in the high-stress, high-caffeine group reported hearing the song three times as often as those in the low-stress, low caffeine group.

Those with a low stress, but high caffeine lifestyle reported the song 40 per cent more often than the low-stress, low caffeine group. ''The combination of caffeine and stress affect the likelihood of an individual experiencing a psychosis-like symptom,'' said the study's lead author, Simon Crowe, a neuroscientist at La Trobe University in Victoria.

Professor Crowe said the mental health risks associated with excessive caffeine use need to be addressed. ''We have a safe drinking guideline for alcohol but we don't have a safe caffeine guideline even though caffeine is a stimulant drug,'' he said.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand does not set limits for naturally occurring caffeine in food, but it does restrict the addition of caffeine to soft drinks, said a spokeswoman.

Waterloo Regional Police have charged three local men in connection with a four month investigation into an alleged marihuana production and distribution operation. 

The investigation by members of the Strategic and Tactical Services Division Drug Branch, with assistance from the Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy Team and Emergency Response Unit, resulted in search warrants being conducted on June 2, 2011 in Kitchener , Cambridge and North Dumfries Township .  A subsequent warrant was executed on June 3, 2011 in Blandford-Blenheim Township with the assistance of the Ontario Provincial Police Drug Enforcement Unit.

George Gobran, 40 years of Kitchener , Kenneth Michael Meaney, 49 years of Cambridge and Martin Kenneth Hackborn, 48 years of North Dumfries Township were arrested without incident on June 2, 2011.  The three were charged with Production of a Controlled Substance and Possession for the Purpose of Trafficking. They were held for an appearance in the Ontario Court of Justice in Kitchener and are remanded in custody. 

In connection with this investigation, Police seized 6,114 marihuana plants; 277 pounds of packaged marihuana and 480 grams of cannabis resin which investigators estimate have a street value of approximately $6,676,950.  Also seized was, approximately $50,000 in equipment, 10 long guns and ammunition, $31,227 cash, seven vehicles and a paraglider.

The Kitchener warrants were executed at a commercial building on Shoemaker Street and at a residence on Knox Crescent in Kitchener .  In Cambridge , police searched two storage lockers on Industrial Road and a residence on Pineview Crescent .  Items were also seized during a warrant at a barn and a residence on Sprague’s Road in North Dumfries Township as well as a barn and residence in Blandford-Blenheim Township .

Drugs. Let’s face it, who can live without their high? Not you, that’s for sure. Which is why it might delight you to know that there is now a new website where you can buy your drugs of choice without ever having to rely on a scatterbrained drug dealer (don’t you hate it when they say 30 minutes and 3 hours later they have yet to appear?), having to rustle the courage to go some dodgy part of town to get the good sh*t, and of course there’s always that price gouging, which makes life miserable too.

Which brings us to the little gem of a write-up from Gawker.

gawker: Making small talk with your pot dealer sucks. Buying cocaine can get you shot. What if you could buy and sell drugs online like books or light bulbs? Now you can: Welcome to Silk Road.

About three weeks ago, the U.S. Postal Service delivered an ordinary envelope to Mark’s door. Inside was a tiny plastic bag containing 10 tabs of LSD. “If you had opened it, unless you were looking for it, you wouldn’t have even noticed,” Mark told us in a phone interview.

Well, trust Gawker to come up with all this. But who can complain? You’ll take your high any way you can get it. Right? So, now let’s get down to the dirty - how does all this new-age getting high stuff work? Just in case you were interested of course…

Mark, a software developer, had ordered the 100 micrograms of acid through a listing on the online marketplace Silk Road. He found a seller with lots of good feedback who seemed to know what they were talking about, added the acid to his digital shopping cart and hit “check out.” He entered his address and paid the seller 50 Bitcoins—untraceable digital currency—worth around $150. Four days later the drugs, sent from Canada, arrived at his house.

“It kind of felt like I was in the future,” Mark said.

The future? Can you imagine it- in the future when you wake up there will be a big old casket of the good sh*t waiting for you in your mailbox and your mailman wont be the one the wiser. Nor will your neighbors, who have been wondering who that strange dude is who keeps knocking on your door at strange hours of the day. Yes- being  a druggie can be bad news- but since it’s what gets you not through the day- why not make it as unpleasant as possible?

Silk Road, a digital black market that sits just below most internet users’ purview, does resemble something from a cyberpunk novel. Through a combination of anonymity technology and a sophisticated user-feedback system, Silk Road makes buying and selling illegal drugs as easy as buying used electronics—and seemingly as safe. It’s Amazon—if Amazon sold mind-altering chemicals.

Used electronics? Faux Amazon? If you say so Gawker. Now let’s get to the gravy bitches.

Here is just a small selection of the 340 items available for purchase on Silk Road by anyone, right now: a gram of Afghani hash; 1/8th ounce of “sour 13″ weed; 14 grams of ecstasy; .1 grams tar heroin. A listing for “Avatar” LSD includes a picture of blotter paper with big blue faces from the James Cameron movie on it. The sellers are located all over the world, a large portion from the U.S. and Canada.

The snakes come at night, darting out of the shadows and into Marcelo's subconscious. "You start thinking, 'There are people coming! The police are coming! A snake is coming! Everything is coming!' You panic. But there is no snake. No police. There's nobody there. There's nothing. You're just tripping out."

Marcelo is an illiterate 24-year-old drug addict whose home is a sliver of cardboard on the streets of Rio Branco, a riverside city in the Brazilian Amazon. His drug of choice is oxi, a highly addictive and hallucinogenic blend of cocaine paste, gasoline, kerosene and quicklime (calcium oxide) that is wreaking havoc across the Amazon region.

Oxi, or oxidado – "rust" – is the latest drug to surface in the Amazon. It is reputedly twice as powerful as crack cocaine and just a fifth of the price.

"It is terrifying," said Alvaro Mendes, an outreach worker in Rio Branco from the state of Acre's Harm Reduction Association, the NGO that first detected the drug. "The majority of first-time users become addicted on their first contact with the drug. Most of them go seven to 10 days without sleeping, without eating. They start to go into a process of degeneration. After months of use … they go into a state where they look like zombies, wandering … in search of pleasure."

Described as a cheaper and deadlier successor to crack, oxi sells for about R$2 (75p) a rock and is smoked in pipes improvised from cans, pieces of piping and metal taps. According to Mendes, whose support group works with slum-dwellers, prostitutes, transvestites and homeless people who are hooked on the drug, oxi can kill within a year.

"The difference between cocaine and oxi is like the difference between drinking beer and pure alcohol," said a federal police operative on the Peru-Brazil border, who refused to be named.

Oxi surfaced in the Amazonian border region between Brazil, Bolivia and Peru in the 1980s, and is said to have been originally used by a small number of hippies who came to the region to experiment with ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic plant native to the Amazon rainforest.

In the past five years, however, its use has exploded, particularly in the slums and rural communities of Acre state in the western Amazon, where it is peddled in street-corner drug dens known as bocadas. Mendes estimates there are at least 8,000 oxi users in Acre's capital, Rio Branco, a city of 320,000 inhabitants.

But oxi is no longer just an Amazonian drug. A series of recent suspected seizures in cities such as Sao Paulo, Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro have propelled it into the national headlines. Health workers and politicians warn of a catastrophe if its spread is confirmed.

"The Brazilian state is unprepared to face this threat and to help its victims," José Serra, a leading opposition politician and former governor of Sao Paulo, wrote in a recent column in the national daily Estado de Sao Paulo, describing oxi on his Twitter account as a "weapon of mass destruction".

Despite growing concern, authorities admit the exact nature of oxi is a mystery. "Oxi's existence has only come to our attention very recently," said Elenice Frez, the police chief in Assis Brasil, a tiny town on the border between Brazil and Peru that is a notorious route for traffickers. "It is a new thing and we don't yet have all the technical details of what oxi really is and the damage it can cause to someone who becomes addicted and uses it constantly."

Mendes says users often suffer from paranoia, vomiting and uncontrollable bouts of diarrhoea. Tooth loss can happen within months. "I've never seen such violent scenes of drug use," he said. "It is very depressing."

Oxi's route into Brazil begins in small border towns such as Epitaciolândia, next to the dust-clogged settlement of Cobija, in Bolivia, a country that is one of the world's biggest cocaine producers.

On condition of anonymity, an addict agreed to escort the Guardian to his oxi den, hidden in the jungle that encircles the town.

Crouching, he picked his way through a mesh of thorns that cut into his legs. After a five-minute trek he arrived at a clearing. A carpet of torn aluminium cans littered the forest floor and empty cigarette lighters had been tossed under the trees.

Scraping the remains of his last hit from the inside of a drinks can, the addict painted a bleak picture of the drug's powers.

"I cry," he said. "I cry because I want to give this shit up. My family say: 'Get out of it son.' I tell her: 'Mum, in the name of Jesus I will.'"

A short drive away, Epitaciolândia's police chief, Sergio Lopes de Souza, pulled two R$70 rocks of oxi, seized the previous day, from an evidence bag.

"The effects of oxi are so devastating," he said. "When a person starts using oxi they spend days just using, without eating properly. They start to become very thin, almost skeletons, and they want to use more and more. If you do not stop you are a candidate to either die of an overdose or of other consequences of the oxi."

In a shantytown on the outskirts of Rio Branco, dirt-caked fingernails fumbled with a red pipe as another of the city's users prepared yet another hit. Sitting next to a dirty metal spoon and a packet of Paraguayan cigarettes, the 21-year-old user reflected on his lot.

"This is a dog's life. This is the kind of drug that makes you sell your own clothes," he muttered. "My whole family ignores me. I used to be a worker. I liked to have my things. Today they look at me and call me a punk.

"I have lost it all," he concluded as cars raced past on a nearby highway. "I had it all, and in the same moment I lost it. All because of oxi."

Dame Judi Dench, Sting and Sir Richard Branson are among those who have signed an open letter to David Cameron urging that possession of drugs be decriminalised. Photograph: Jockmans/Rex Features
Dame Judi Dench, Sir Richard Branson, and Sting have joined an ex-drugs minister and three former chief constables in calling for the decriminalisation of the possession of all drugs.

The high-profile celebrities together with leading lawyers, academics, artists and politicians have signed an open letter to David Cameron to mark this week's 40th anniversary of the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act. The letter, published in a full-page advertisement in Thursday's Guardian, calls for a "swift and transparent" review of the effectiveness of current drugs policies.

Its signatories say that all the past 40 years has produced is a rapid growth in illicit drug use in Britain, and significant harm caused by the application of the criminal law to the personal use and possession of all drugs.

"This policy is costly for taxpayers and damaging for communities," they claim. "Criminalising people who use drugs leads to greater social exclusion and stigmatisation making it much more difficult for them to gain employment and to play a productive role in society. It creates a society full of wasted resources."

The letter launching the campaign, Drugs – It's Time for Better Laws, has been organised by the national drugs charity Release. Other signatories include the film director Mike Leigh, actors Julie Christie and Kathy Burke and leading lawyer Sir Geoffrey Bindman QC. The former Labour drugs minister Bob Ainsworth and three former chief constables, Paul Whitehouse, Francis Wilkinson and Tom Lloyd, have all put their names to the letter.

It points out that nearly 80,000 people were found guilty or cautioned for the possession of illegal drugs – most of whom were young, black or poor – in 2010. Over the past decade, more than a million people have ended up with a criminal record as a result of the drug laws.

The letter coincides with Thursday's New York launch of the report of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which counts three former South American presidents, the former secretary-general of the United Nations Kofi Annan and Sir Richard Branson among its membership.

"The war on drugs has failed to cut drug usage, but has filled our jails, cost millions in tax payer dollars, fuelled organised crime and caused thousands of deaths. We need a new approach, one that takes the power out of the hands of organised crime and treats people with addiction problems like patients, not criminals," said Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, who is to appear at the launch.

"The good news is new approaches focused on regulation and decriminalisation have worked. We need our leaders, including business people, looking at alternative, fact-based approaches.

"We need more humane and effective ways to reduce the harm caused by drugs. The one thing we cannot afford to do is to go on pretending the 'war on drugs' is working."

Sting, who also signed the letter to Cameron, said: "Giving young people criminal records for minor drug possession serves little purpose – it is time to think of more imaginative ways of addressing drug use in our society."

Ainsworth, the former Home Office drugs minister and defence secretary, last December described the war on drugs as "nothing short of a disaster" and called for the legal regulation of their production and supply.

The campaign defines decriminalisation as a model that adopts civil rather than criminal sanctions such as confiscation and warnings and fixed penalty fines rather than arrest, prosecution and a criminal record.

The high-profile campaigners point to the Portuguese experience as evidence that decriminalisation does not lead to an increase in drug use. Portugal became the first European country in July 2001 to introduce "administrative" penalties – similar to parking fines – for the possession of all illicit drugs.

The immediate reaction from the Home Office last night was to rule out any such move: "We have no intention of liberalising our drugs laws. Drugs are illegal because they are harmful – they destroy lives and cause untold misery to families and communities.

"Those caught in the cycle of dependency must be supported to live drug-free lives, but giving people a green light to possess drugs through decriminalisation is clearly not the answer," said a spokesman.

"We are taking action through tough enforcement, both inland and abroad, alongside introducing temporary banning powers and robust treatment programmes that lead people into drug free recovery."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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."

California authorities say a man dubbed the “King of Heroin” who smuggled large quantities of the drug into the U.S. from Mexico has been sentenced to 22 years in prison.
The Ventura County Star says Jose Antonio Medina Arreguin was sentenced Wednesday in Ventura. He pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy to possess heroin for sale.
The 36-year-old Mexican resident, also known as Don Pepe, was dubbed the King of Heroin by the Mexican media. Authorities claimed he arranged for drugs to be moved across the border into California in vehicles with secret compartments, pocketing up to $260,000 a week.
He was extradited to the U.S. last October.
An attorney for Arreguin says he was a farmer who got involved in the heroin trade and is remorseful.

There is no arguing that singer Bobby Brown has led a high-profile life. From his early years with New Edition and his solo music career to his marriage and subsequent divorce from Whitney Houston, he's experienced a wealth of ups and downs that include arrests, drug abuse and reality TV stardom. But these days, however, Brown -- who is engaged to fiancée and manager Alicia Etheridge -- is showing a mellower side and admits to experiencing a happy time in his life.

"I'm definitely in a better place in my life," the singer tells the BoomBox. "Six years sober from drugs. I'm just really grateful that I can get off the heroin, the crack, the coke. I'm glad I just have a beautiful woman in my life who's always there for me. At times when it gets really hard, she's right there, you know, to hold me and let me know, you know, 'Look at where you come from and look at where you are right now.' I'm just grateful."

As far as how domestic life has been for him so far, Brown, who also has a son, Cassius, with Etheridge, says he loves being in love. "I'm definitely in love right now and I'm happy and my little boy is just, like, he's a little me," he explains. "Alicia is just a gem to be around. But we also do business together, so it's just like, you know, she's my lady, man, and when you're happy, you're happy."

As for his music career, the singer is reemerging with a new album, 'The Masterpiece,' which comes out in May. "I've been basically trying to live and grow with myself and find what I wanted to write about," says Brown. "Unfortunately my mom passed [away] and I had to do something quick, so 'The Masterpiece' is just 13 years of my ups and downs and everything that I've been through. I'm just grateful to be able to put this album out because I really feel it is a masterpiece."

Brown is also getting back in touch with his musical past as he and the other members of New Edition are in talks about a reunion to coincide with their 30th anniversary next year. "I'm just, I'm at awe with being able to come together as brothers," he continues. "Business can tear friends apart but we've been working with our friendship and talking every week. It's just a good thing that, you know, I still got five brothers."

The singer also says he and Etheridge are thinking about producing a new reality TV show that would involve themselves and their kids. "I just like being open," Brown says. "I like people to see exactly what I'm about and exactly what kind of person I am and not judge me for, you know, other people's words or what other people think about me."

On how he copes with the tabloid stories about him, Brown recalls what his mother once said -- that "if they're not talking about you, you're not successful." "I'm only human," he says. "I'm going to go through rough patches in my life but it's how I pick myself up from it. And thank God I've been able to pick myself up from everything that has hurt me in the past. You have to know yourself and you have to learn to love yourself and I love myself now. I know how my kids feel about me. I know how I feel about them. And we just try to stay strong for each other."

Brown's life continues to be in the spotlight. Most recently there were media reports about Bobbi Kristina -- his daughter with Whitney Houston -- allegedly using drugs. "I did talk to her," Brown says. "I have all faith in my daughter that she's going to stay strong for herself. My daughter is doing great. I love her dearly."

Besides Bobbi Kristina, he's also the father of three other children: sons Landon and Bobby, Jr., and daughter LaPrincia. He offers these words of wisdom to his kids: "Don't do what I do. Period. Be yourself and always, always know that daddy is gonna be there no matter what."

The parents and brother of Sally Ordinario-Villanueva, one of three executed Filipino drug mules in China, came face to face for the first time with Sally’s alleged recruiter Tita Cacayan at the Department of Justice (DoJ).

During Monday’s preliminary investigation, Cacayan submitted her counter-affidavit in response to the complaint filed against her for large-scale illegal recruitment and violation of Trafficking in Persons Act of 2008.

In Sally’s affidavit, she alleged that Cacayan was the source of drugs she carried to China. She said it was Cacayan who recruited her for a job in Xiamen and provided her an empty suitcase she used for her travel. She said she was not aware that the suitcase contained more than 4,000 grams of illegal drugs.

Jason Ordinario read a handwritten letter which her sister Sally sent to the Philippine Consulate in China where she said Cacayan, whom she called “auntie” was the one who gave her the briefcase.

“I blame her for not telling me the truth. I trusted her so much then, the thing happened…I did everything as she said…my purpose is so [that] my family will get a better life by doing some work for a friend. I don’t have any choice…that was unfair to me,” Villanueva’s hand written letter stated which was read during the preliminary investigation.

Cacayan said the letter was fake.

“When did she write that? It was not even [a] registered [mail]. Do not pin the blame on me. We were all working in Macao,” Cacayan said in a slightly raised voice prompting Assistant Senior State Prosecutor Lilian Doris Alejo to interfere and said that it would be better if the letter could be attached to the reply that Villanueva’s family will submit on April 25 and will be asked to produce during the clarificatory hearing.

“We must not all be combative here. This should be better addressed during the clarificatory hearing,” Alejo said.

Glenview police arrested Ronald Allen, 39, of 47 W. Division St. in Chicago,for delivery of marijuana, in connection with the 497 grams of marijuana, with a street value of $5,300, that was uncovered. Also found were 0.9 grams of cocaine and five Adderal tablets, which is used to control symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, after pulling him over for an expired registration.


The vehicle was stopped on the 3700 block of East Lake Avenue in Glenview.

The vehicle, police learned, was one of three stolen in October 2009 from a dealership in Hiawatha, Iowa.

Allen was additionally charged with possession of a controlled substance, failure to transfer title and failure to surrender registration.

The passenger, Rosalia Cefalu, 24, of 4422 Lainie Circle in Glenview, was additionally charged with possession of a controlled substance and possession of marijuana.

Allen’s bond was set at $300,000, and Cefalu’s at $10,000. Both are scheduled to appear in court Friday.

Prof Peter Donkor, Pro-Vice Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), on Thursday expressed worry at the rate at which nurse anaesthetists are getting addicted to drugs.
           
He said it was alarming that most nurse anaesthetists are continually getting addicted to drugs, which is not only bad for their health but posed great danger to their patients whiles disturbing the work of the surgeons they work with at the hospital theater.
           
The situation has arisen partly due to their free access to anaesthesia drugs some of which can cause serious addiction.
           
Professor Donkor was speaking at the opening of the 11th annual update in anaesthesia conference in Kumasi on Thursday.
           
The conference, which is organized annually by the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in collaboration with the University of Utah in the US, aims at refreshing and updating the knowledge and skills of anaesthesia.
           
Professor Donkor, himself a Surgeon and Anaesthetist, said  the Nurses and Dental Council had initiated a programme to regulate anaesthesia practice.
   
He said drug addiction would be one of the issues which would be critically looked into before accreditation is conferred on practitioners.
           
He said anaesthesia is the "oxygen for the surgeon" and this puts a huge responsibility on practitioners to ensure that their skills and knowledge are updated regularly to enable them provide efficient service to their patients.
           
Dr Gabriel Boakye, Head of Directorate of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care at KATH, said feedback on the performance of participants in previous conferences have been very encouraging and appealed to health managers to continuously sponsor their anaesthesia practitioners to attend future conferences to improve their knowledge and skills.
           
Professor Gladys Amponsah, Head of Anaesthesia at the University of Cape Coast Medical School, advised the participants not to lose focus but use the knowledge and skills they will acquire to provide better services to their patients.
GNA