No reason to put penny stock egghead review fear of God into google sniper iPhone-loving kid. We can’t comment on the brain rot, but a new study does show that children who use cell phones have no greater risk of getting brain cancer than kids who don’t use them, Reuters reports. Senior Obama administration officials, newly joined by state attorneys general, were on the brink Thursday of finalizing major elements of a possible settlement with large U.S. banks accused of flawed and fraudulent foreclosure practices, sources familiar with the discussions said.TIJUANA,
MEXICO – To embattled authorities here, where heavily armed soldiers patrol the streets and more than 500 people have been killed this year, marijuana is a poisonous weed that enriches death-dealing cartel bosses who earn huge profits smuggling the product north. National agency says number of users has dropped below 300,000, and drug treatment has prevented 5m crimesThe number of heroin and crack cocaine users in England has fallen below 300,000 for
the first time, according to the new figures published by the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTA).The decline in the use of the most harmful drugs comes as the NTA claims that its drug treatment programme, which reaches 63% of heroin and crack cocaine users, has prevented an estimated 5m drug-related crimes a year, such as burglary, shoplifting and robbery.The treatment agency, which is to be merged into the NHS’s Public Health England next month, has also warned that this progress could slip backwards as drug treatment will face heavy competition for health money from other pressing issues such as alcohol abuse.The new estimates show that the number of heroin and crack users in England has fallen from a peak of 332,090 in 2005-06 to 298,752 in 2010-11, with numbers injecting drugs also down from 129,977 to 93,401 over the same period.The
decline confirms that the status and popularity
of heroin is clearly waning and is echoed by sharp annual falls in estimates of users under 25, down 5,000 to 41,508, and those in the 25-to-35 age group, down 8,000 to 113,466.Drug
treatment in England grew rapidly after 2001, when only 100,000 were in treatment, to become the largest in western Europe with 210,000 in treatment by 2008-09 as the government expanded funding as a major anti-crime measure.The recent reduction in the number of heroin and crack cocaine users has been mirrored by a fall in the numbers entering a new treatment programme from 64,288 in 2006-06 to 47,210.
In all just under 165,000 people were in a treatment programme for heroin and/or crack in 2011-12 – about 63% of estimated users, which compares with 37% in the Netherlands.The
NTA says the
treatment system has “helped to shrink the pool of heroin and crack addicts” by getting increasing numbers into treatment and effectively taking them off the streets and breaking their habits of entrenched drug use. It acknowledges that the decline in heroin use has been faster in areas where the heroin epidemics first took hold, such London and the north-west, but slower
in north-east England.But
the agency also warns that one effect is that the average age of those in treatment is getting older, with over-40s now making up almost a third of the entire population of heroin and crack users in treatment.”It will become increasingly challenging to help these people get better, which in turn will make it more difficult to maintain the trend we have seen in recent years of rising numbers of people successfully leaving the treatment system,” said the NTA.
The figure for heroin users who have successfully completed their treatment and not since returned has gone up from 2,637 in 2005-06 to 13,589 in 2011-12.Paul
Hayes, the departing NTA chief executive, said the investment in drug treatment, which has continued under the coalition government, had paid off.But
he warned that funding had to be maintained if this progress was to be consolidated when local authorities take over responsibility for commissioning drug treatment services next month and the NTA is merged into Public Health England.Hayes said he feared drug treatment would find it more difficult to survive in competition for funding with the “big killers” of alcohol, tobacco and obesity: “In strict health terms you can’t justify spending three times more money on drugs as you do on alcohol,” said Hayes, adding that the wider impact on crime and unemployment would remain as important as ever.DrugsDrugs
policyAlan Travisguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies.
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| More Feeds THE LONGEST WAR The Enduring Conflict Between America and al-Qaeda By Peter L.
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