Seven psychoactive drugs detected in Australian wastewater for the first time

Posted on April 29, 2023 by Admin

Drugs have previously been detected in other research but wastewater results suggest increasing consumption

Seven psychoactive drugs have been detected in Australian wastewater for the first time, a three-year surveillance program has found.

Wastewater testing has revealed the presence of synthetic drugs including mephedrone (commonly referred to as meow meow), ethylone and eutylone, which have stimulant effects akin to MDMA.

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Overdose deaths in San Francisco hit 200 in three months: ‘A crying shame’

Posted on April 28, 2023 by Admin

The 41% spike comes as the city closed an outreach center that stocked Narcan and allowed supervised drug use

Drug-related deaths surged by 41% in San Francisco in the first quarter of this year – with one person dying of an accidental overdose every 10 hours, as the fentanyl crisis continues to ravage the US west coast.

San Francisco saw 200 people die of overdoses in the past three months compared to 142 in the same months a year ago, according to reports by the city’s medical examiner.

Indian study reveals about 3% of drugs ‘substandard’ amid official crackdown

Posted on April 27, 2023 by Admin

In wake of children’s cough syrup scandal, an expert says regulatory system is ‘grossly understaffed and underfunctional’

About 3% of drugs routinely taken by Indians for ailments such as hypertension, bacterial infections and allergies are “substandard”, according to a study of samples taken from factories by government inspectors.

Officials have been carrying out random checks on factories after a scandal over Indian-made cough syrups linked to the deaths of children, mostly in countries in Africa.

Singapore executes man over plot to smuggle 1kg of cannabis

Posted on April 25, 2023 by Admin

Tangaraju Suppiah was hanged despite international pleas to reconsider capital punishment for drugs offences

Singapore has hanged a prisoner for conspiracy to smuggle one kilogram of cannabis, authorities said, ignoring international protests and concerns that he lacked full access to a lawyer or interpreter.

The United Nations Human Rights Office had called for Singapore to “urgently reconsider” the hanging and British tycoon Richard Branson had urged the city state halt it.

Mexican navy seizes tequila bottles containing nearly 10 tons of liquid meth

Posted on April 24, 2023 by Admin

Intercepted over the weekend, the 11,520 bottles were bound for export before sniffer dogs alerted the authorities to the liquid

Mexican navy inspectors have intercepted 11,520 tequila bottles bound for export that actually contained nearly 10 tons of concentrated liquid meth.

In total, the bottles – intercepted over the weekend at the Pacific coast seaport of Manzanillo, contained approximately 8,640kgs (about 19,000lbs) of meth.

Three strikes: NSW falls behind rest of nation as Queensland reforms drug possession laws

Posted on April 20, 2023 by Admin

Queensland health minister says progressive changes will open up pathways for people to receive treatment

New South Wales will become the only state that doesn’t allow cautions for people possessing drugs after Queensland moved to mandate a three-strike system.

Doctors, police and drug reform advocates are welcoming reforms, passed on Thursday night, that will see Queensland take a more progressive approach to policing the personal consumption of illegal drugs.

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Experts urge Victoria to provide promised CBD safe injecting room or risk further harm to vulnerable people

Posted on April 17, 2023 by Admin

Andrews government bought a Flinders Street site for $40.3m in 2021, but it has sat empty since

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Victoria risks falling behind the rest of the world if it fails to expand on the success of its safe injecting room in Richmond, according to the head of an international harm minimisation group.

The executive director of London-based Harm Reduction International, Naomi Burke-Shyne, is in Melbourne for the organisation’s annual conference and has called on the Andrews government to provide a promised second safe injecting facility in the CBD.

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Company advertising and selling bubblegum-flavoured cannabis vape products in Australia under investigation

Posted on April 16, 2023 by Admin

Exclusive: Ethically Enhanced website sold Hubba Bubba-flavoured vapes containing cannabidiol, as owner of bubblegum brand considers legal action

A company advertising brightly packaged Hubba Bubba-flavoured cannabis vape products to Australians through sponsored TikTok posts and selling them without checking for ID or requiring a prescription is being investigated by the country’s drug regulator.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration confirmed it was investigating the content and owners of the Ethically Enhanced website, which sells vapes containing cannabidiol under the name Temple CBD Australia. A TGA spokesperson said the regulator would now “determine the most appropriate regulatory action”.

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US charges 28 members of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel including El Chapo’s sons

Posted on April 14, 2023 by Admin

Charges filed against cartel leaders, alleged chemical suppliers, lab managers, traffickers and others in fentanyl investigation

The US justice department has charged 28 members of Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa cartel, including sons of notorious drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, in a sprawling fentanyl-trafficking investigation.

The attorney general, Merrick Garland, announced the charges on Friday alongside the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) chief, Anne Milgram, and other top federal prosecutors. The charges were filed against cartel leaders, as well alleged chemical suppliers, lab managers, fentanyl traffickers, security leaders, financiers and weapons traffickers.

Melbourne’s new combined addiction and mental health treatment centre ‘a no-brainer’

Posted on April 13, 2023 by Admin

The creation of a facility such as the Hamilton centre was a key finding of Victoria’s mental health royal commission

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When Benn Veenker first confided in his GP about his struggle with depression and alcohol, he was holding back the full extent of his addictions.

“I was so scared of being able to say to somebody, ‘I can’t get through a day without drinking’,” he remembers.

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Pat Dodson takes leave from Senate – as it happened

Posted on April 5, 2023 by Admin

This blog is now closed.

Former Tasmanian Liberal premier condemns party’s opposition to voice

Tasmania is the last Liberal state government left in the country and its former premier has taken to social media this morning to speak out against the federal party’s decision to oppose the voice to parliament.

Should the Liberal party maintain its opposition to the voice it will simply accelerate its increasing irrelevance.

I have asked for Cyber Security NSW to issue advice to NSW government employees, to implement this change as soon as possible.

I will no longer be using TikTok.

Mexican president bemoans ‘rude’ US fentanyl pressure in plea to Xi Jinping

Posted on April 4, 2023 by Admin

Andrés Manuel López Obrador asks China to curb exports of opioid after lengthy denunciation of similar calls from US

Mexico’s president has written to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, urging him to help control shipments of fentanyl, while also complaining of “rude” US pressure to curb the drug trade.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has previously said that fentanyl is the US’s problem and is caused by “a lack of hugs” in US families. On Tuesday he read out the letter to Xi dated 22 March in which he defended efforts to curb supply of the deadly drug, while rounding on US critics.

FDA approves overdose-reversing Narcan for sale without prescription

Posted on March 29, 2023 by Admin

Move seen as a key strategy to control the US overdose crisis, which has been linked to more than 100,000 deaths a year

The US Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved selling naloxone without a prescription, setting the overdose-reversing drug on course to become the first opioid treatment drug to be sold over counters in the US.

It is a move some advocates have long sought as a way to improve access to a life-saving drug, though the exact impact will not be clear immediately.

Amsterdam tells young British men who want a ‘messy’ weekend to stay away

Posted on March 28, 2023 by Admin

In bid to reduce nuisance behaviour ads will be triggered if people search online for terms such as ‘stag party Amsterdam’

The city of Amsterdam is geo-targeting a campaign to tell young British men wanting a “messy” weekend to stay away.

Research has suggested these Britons aged 18-35, and Dutch men of a similar age, tend to cause most nuisance in the red light district, with stag parties, pub crawls and all-night drink and drug benders making life unbearable for residents.

Rishi Sunak to ignore independent advice and ban laughing gas in UK

Posted on March 26, 2023 by Admin

Police will also have greater drug testing powers as part of crackdown on antisocial behaviour

The sale of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, to the public will be banned and the police will be given enhanced drug-testing powers as part of Rishi Sunak’s attempt to crack down on antisocial behaviour “with urgency”.

The levelling up secretary, Michael Gove, said the proposals would stop parks being turned into drug-taking arenas, and would help ministers stamp out antisocial behaviour.

Mysterious death of New York fashion designer ruled as homicide

Posted on March 25, 2023 by Admin

Kathryn Marie Gallagher’s July 2022 death linked to ‘drug-facilitated theft’ after medical examiner’s findings of intoxication

The death of a rising New York fashion designer last year could be linked to a spate of “drug-facilitated theft” crimes in the city, authorities have revealed.

A mystery has surrounded the death of Kathryn Marie Gallagher, 35, since she was found dead in her apartment on Manhattan’s Lower East Side on 24 July last year.

Rise of slimming jabs could lead to overseas trips to remove excess skin, UK surgeons warn

Posted on March 25, 2023 by Admin

Exclusive: Surgeons raise concerns that people using jabs are unaware of risks of redundant skin

From unbearable side-effects to cravings curbed: readers on weight-loss jabs

A surge in the number of people using slimming jabs to lose weight could lead to a rise in patients travelling abroad for tummy tucks or other surgery to remove excess skin, surgeons have said.

Drugs such as liraglutide and semaglutide, which could help people reduce their weight by more than 10%, have been approved for use on the NHS for certain groups of people with obesity, although supplies of the latter under the brand name Wegovy have yet to arrive in the UK.

Five NSW men charged after methamphetamine worth $15m allegedly found on ‘black flight’ from PNG

Posted on March 22, 2023 by Admin

Plane intercepted at airstrip in rural Queensland after police allege aircraft was flown under the radar with 52kg of meth on board

A “black flight” allegedly carrying more than $15m worth of methamphetamine from Papua New Guinea has been halted by Australian federal police in rural Queensland allegedly on its way to New South Wales.

The light aircraft landed at an airstrip in the central Queensland town of Monto to refuel on Tuesday when officers swooped and made five arrests.

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Fake eyelash remover used as party drug delisted from Amazon after Sydney WorldPride ban

Posted on March 19, 2023 by Admin

Police confiscated bottles of drug known as GBL, which can be sold under a loophole for industrial purposes

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A fake eyelash remover has been removed from sale on Amazon and was banned from parties during Sydney WorldPride due to people using it as a party drug.

Warnings were placed outside the entrances to events such as the Bondi Beach party, which was host to 12,000 revellers during recent WorldPride celebrations, telling revellers not to bring in the cosmetic product, with an image of the product with a red cross next to it.

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Australia spends billions ‘failing to police’ cannabis that earns black market $25bn a year, Greens say

Posted on March 17, 2023 by Admin

David Shoebridge says legalising the drug would bring in $28bn in tax revenue in first decade

Australia’s cannabis industry could be earning the black market $25bn a year and, rather than policing it, we could be gaining revenue from it by legalising it, Greens senator David Shoebridge has said.

“Law enforcement is spending billions of public dollars failing to police cannabis, and the opportunity here is to turn that all on its head by legalising it,” he said.

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Roundup Newswires

Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network

Category Archives: Drugs

Seven psychoactive drugs detected in Australian wastewater for the first time

Overdose deaths in San Francisco hit 200 in three months: ‘A crying shame’

Indian study reveals about 3% of drugs ‘substandard’ amid official crackdown

Singapore executes man over plot to smuggle 1kg of cannabis

Mexican navy seizes tequila bottles containing nearly 10 tons of liquid meth

Three strikes: NSW falls behind rest of nation as Queensland reforms drug possession laws

Experts urge Victoria to provide promised CBD safe injecting room or risk further harm to vulnerable people

Company advertising and selling bubblegum-flavoured cannabis vape products in Australia under investigation

US charges 28 members of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel including El Chapo’s sons

Melbourne’s new combined addiction and mental health treatment centre ‘a no-brainer’

Mexican president bemoans ‘rude’ US fentanyl pressure in plea to Xi Jinping

FDA approves overdose-reversing Narcan for sale without prescription

Amsterdam tells young British men who want a ‘messy’ weekend to stay away

Rishi Sunak to ignore independent advice and ban laughing gas in UK

Mysterious death of New York fashion designer ruled as homicide

Rise of slimming jabs could lead to overseas trips to remove excess skin, UK surgeons warn

Five NSW men charged after methamphetamine worth $15m allegedly found on ‘black flight’ from PNG

Fake eyelash remover used as party drug delisted from Amazon after Sydney WorldPride ban

Australia spends billions ‘failing to police’ cannabis that earns black market $25bn a year, Greens say