moonbuggy

‘Until recently, I had never heard of cluster headaches, and neither had my friend Bob, which isn’t his name for reasons that will soon be evident.

Bob was in his late 40s with no medical problems.

Out of nowhere he began having headaches. These were not the two-aspirin kind, or even migraines. They were monsters. I realized this one night at his house. For an hour he lay on the floor, screaming. We’re not talking moaning and grousing. Screaming.

Clueless, he went to the Web and discovered cluster headaches. They are hideous. His symptoms were par for the course. [..]

From Neurology, the magazine of the American Academy of Neurology: “The authors interviewed 53 cluster headache patients who had used psilocybin or lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) to treat their condition.

“Twenty-two of 26 psilocybin users reported that psilocybin aborted attacks; 25 of 48 psilocybin users and seven of eight LSD users reported cluster period termination …”‘

There’s a video of what a cluster headache does to a person here. Doesn’t look fun at all.

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‘A Mexican physician helped drug dealers avoid detection by replacing their fingerprints with skin from the bottom of their feet, a federal prosecutor said Friday.

The doctor, Jose L. Covarrubias, was arrested Wednesday in Arizona as he attempted to cross the U.S.-Mexico border a few hours after a grand jury in Harrisburg indicted him in connection with a marijuana dealing ring.

The indictment says Covarrubias, 49, of Nogales, Ariz., and Nogales, Mexico, surgically removed the fingerprints of co-defendant Marc George, 42, of Jamaica.

“We heard those stories, but we didn’t believe them when we heard them during the course of the investigation,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney William Behe in Harrisburg. “We caught Marc George and we all became believers.”’

‘The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced results today of the investigation into the illegal promotion of OxyContin by The Purdue Frederick Company, makers of the widely abused, highly addictive pain pill.

“An investigation by OCI uncovered an extensive, long-term conspiracy by The Purdue Frederick Company, Inc. to generate the maximum amount of revenues possible from the sale of OxyContin through various illegal schemes,” according to an FDA statement.

FDA today informed healthcare professionals of criminal charges and civil liabilities brought against Purdue Frederick in connection with several illegal schemes to promote, market and sell OxyContin, the company’s powerful prescription pain reliever that has caused addiction problems of epidemic-promotions in cities and rural areas across the United States.’

‘Queensland health authorities have told parents to use their common sense and not use pet products to treat head lice on their children.

The warning from Chief health officer Jeannette Young came after a child became sick from a pet flea and tick product used to kill head lice.

Queensland Health would not release more information about the child but said the poisons in pet treatments had serious side-effects on humans.

“Animal products are poisons and are not safe for human use,” Dr Young said.’

‘Groups of elderly Australians are reportedly setting up backyard laboratories to manufacture an illegal euthanasia drug so they can kill themselves when they have had enough of life.

One group has already succeeded in producing the drug nembutal, which is used by vets to put down animals, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported on Monday night.

At least four other backyard factories were planned for major cities across the country, with a total of some 800 elderly people prepared to become involved in producing the drug.

Dozens of older Australians were also engaged in illegally importing nembutal from the Mexican border town of Tijuana, close to the US city of San Diego, according to the report.’

‘A 17-year-old boy was growing marijuana on vacant property owned by Ocala’s deputy police chief, authorities said. Deputy Chief Greg Graham said he was told about the plants by neighbors on Saturday. He had bought the lot two months ago as an investment, the Ocala Star-Banner reported. Deputies with the Martin County Sheriff’s Office confiscated nine potted marijuana plants on the lot.

Graham said he has known the teen, who was not identified because of his age, for several years.

“I have no idea why he picked my property,” Graham said.’

‘A woman forced an 83-year-old housemate to smoke crack cocaine so she could steal personal information to get a credit card and run up more than $3,000 in charges, authorities said.

Pasco County sheriff’s investigators accused Theresa M. Stanley-Morgan, 41, of getting the older woman to smoke the drug at least twice to make it easier to exploit her financially.’

‘Setting wheelie bins on fire and inhaling fumes to get high is the new ‘drug of choice’ for teenagers, police say.

The craze is behind more than 50 bin fires in Barnsley, they add.

Anti-solvent abuse charities warn that inhaling bin fumes could be more dangerous than sniffing glue or petrol.

Wheelie bins are made from high density polyethylene – composed of double-bonded carbon and hydrogen molecules.

Burning an empty one releases carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.

These deadly gases starve the brain of oxygen, giving a headacheheavy short high.’

What the fuck is wrong with children these days?

‘Brazilian and US scientists are looking into using spider venom as a possible treatment for male impotence.

Their investigation follows reports that men bitten by the Phoneutria nigriventer experienced priapism – long and painful erections.

A two-year study has found that the venom contains a toxin, called Tx2-6, that causes erections.

Further tests are being carried out in the US before the substance can be approved for human use.’

‘In praise of the opaque green liqueur beloved by his creative contemporaries, Oscar Wilde once posed the rhetorical question, “What difference is there between a glass of absinthe and a sunset?”

The prosaic answer, at least for Americans, has long been one of legality: sunsets can be freely enjoyed, but absinthe was forbidden because it contained thujone, a potentially toxic compound.

Intrepid drinkers have worked around the ban by ordering imported bottles off the Internet or smuggling them back from Eastern Europe. Now they have a third, less dodgy option: Lucid, which is being marketed as the first legal, genuine American absinthe in nearly a century.’

‘One compound, cannabidiol, or CBD, made people more relaxed. But even small doses of another component, tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, produced temporary psychotic symptoms in people, including hallucinations and paranoid delusions, doctors said.

The results, to be presented at an international mental health conference in London on Tuesday and Wednesday, provides physical evidence of the drug’s damaging influence on the human brain.

“We’ve long suspected that cannabis is linked to psychoses, but we have never before had scans to show how the mechanism works,” said Dr. Philip McGuire, a professor of psychiatry at King’s College, London.

In analyzing MRI scans of the study’s subjects, McGuire and his colleagues found that THC interfered with activity in the inferior frontal cortex, a region of the brain associated with paranoia.

“THC is switching off that regulator,” McGuire said, effectively unleashing the paranoia usually kept under control by the frontal cortex.’

‘Olga Sanchez thought her 15-year-old son had stopped using “cheese,” a heroin mixture making its way across the Dallas area.

But this spring, Oscar Gutierrez’s brother found him dead in bed.

“He was very purple. He was very cold, cold,” said Sanchez, who had been attending drug counseling with her son since discovering his cheese habit last fall.

The deaths of at least 18 teenagers, ranging from ages 15 to 18, have been linked to the mixture of black tar heroin — a less refined form of the drug — and Tylenol PM tablets ground into a powder. [..]

Several factors appear to be driving the popularity of cheese. Kids often buy the drug from other kids. It’s affordable, selling for about $2 a dosage. And it is usually snorted rather than injected.’

‘The marijuana being sold across the United States is stronger than ever, which could explain a growing number of medical emergencies that involve the drug, government drug experts on Wednesday.

Analysis of seized samples of marijuana and hashish showed that more of the cannabis on the market is of the strongest grade, the White House and National Institute for Drug Abuse said.

They cited data from the University of Mississippi’s Marijuana Potency Project showing the average levels of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, in the products rose from 7 percent in 2003 to 8.5 percent in 2006.

The level had risen steadily from 3.5 percent in 1988.’

‘Controversial US rapper Snoop Dogg is being denied entry to Australia after failing a character test.

The cancellation of the rapper, record producer and actor’s visa means he will not be able to appear at the MTV Australian Video Music Awards this weekend, as planned.

Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said Snoop Dogg was being issued with a notice of intention to cancel his visa after he failed to pass the requisite character test.

Snoop Dogg, 35, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, pleaded no contest to felony gun and drug charges in the US earlier this month.’

‘A father says he wasn’t trying to shame his 14-year-old son when he made the boy wear a large sandwich-board sign saying, “I abused and sold drugs.” [..]

“I’m doing this because I love him,” he said. “We do have an extreme drug problem in America, and maybe it’s time for extreme measures that parents need to take to monitor this problem that we have.” [..]

The father said he recently learned after reading the boy’s MySpace page that his son was involved with marijuana and OxyContin. That’s when he decided to act, and the boy agreed to the punishment. [..]

By then the boy said he’d learned his lesson. “This is embarrassing. I ain’t going to be doing it again,” the boy said. “Drugs are for losers. That’s all I can say.”‘

see it here »

‘More and more media reports are mentioning the potential merits of marijuana. The most recent headlines say the active ingredient in the drug cuts tumor growth in common lung cancers in half and greatly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread.

Researchers at Harvard University tested marijuana’s main ingredient, delta-tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, in both lab and mouse studies and say their experiments are the first to show THC inhibits the growth of cancer.’

‘ That’s what new tests of liquid soap carried by drummer Don Bolles of the punk band the Germs have determined. The peppermint soap, made by Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps of Escondido, had tested positive for GHB, a rave-scene drug, in a police field test.

Yesterday, however, all charges against the Los Angeles-based musician were dropped by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office after more detailed crime lab tests came back negative for GHB. [..]

“What kind of justice system allows police to use field drug tests that deprive citizens of their God-given liberty, that test positive for something as common as soap?” Bronner said in a news release.’

‘A plan to sedate more than 300 horses stabled at Belgrade’s racecourse to keep them calm during a Rolling Stones concert there has enraged Serb animal lovers who are lobbying to have the gig moved to another venue.

The concert is expected to draw more than 100,000 people to the Hippodrome, Belgrade’s largest fenced space. The horses will be only a few metres from the stage.

“Horses differ, the same as people. Some are more nervous, more skittish,” said hostler Jovanka Prelic. “If they get too nervous or start to panic during the concert, they’ll get sedatives.” [..]

The sedative would be diazepam. In Serbia it trades under the name Bensedin, a very popular drug during the 78 days of NATO air strikes in 1999, when much of Belgrade’s adult population was on tranquillisers.’

‘Australians would take more sick days if the government banned cold and flu tablets in a bid to stop the medicine being used to manufacture the drug ice, doctors say.

The government has asked health and law enforcement officials to examine the implications of a blanket ban on the sale of products that contain pseudoephedrine, which includes cold and flu tablets.

Pseudoephedrine can be used to make methamphetamines such as ice and crystal meth.

But Australian Medical Association president Dr Mukesh Haikerwal said he doubted the ban would stop the ice epidemic as drug makers would source pseudoephedrine from elsewhere.’

‘The federal government charges patients 15 times more for certified medical marijuana than it pays to buy the weed in bulk from its official supplier, newly released documents show.

Critics say it’s unconscionable to charge that high a markup to some of the country’s sickest citizens, who have little income and are often cut off from their medical marijuana supply when they can’t pay their government dope bills. [..]

Adds Scott McCluskey, 48, in Westbank, B.C., who suffers spinal-cord pain that is eased by marijuana: “They’re selling it for criminal street prices. . . . I don’t think anybody, especially seriously ill people . . . should have to pay this type of money for medicine.”‘

‘Cannabis users who started smoking as teenagers are more likely to suffer long-term harm, including poor mental health, than drinkers who started using alcohol as adolescents, a major study has found.

Heavy users of marijuana are also more likely to graduate to other drugs such as amphetamines and ecstasy than are teenage binge drinkers.

Involving nearly 2000 Victorian high school students aged 14 or 15, the landmark study has traced their progress since 1992, and provides the first comparison of the consequences of the two substances commonly used in teenage social situations.

Researcher George Patton, who conducted the study for Melbourne University’s Centre for Adolescent Heath, said that while both alcohol and cannabis carried health risks, the overwhelming evidence was that cannabis was “the drug for life’s future losers”.’

‘Gonorrhea in the United States is now resistant to all but one class of antibiotic drugs, threatening doctors’ ability to treat the common sexually transmitted disease, officials said on Thursday. [..]

Gonorrhea is an example of the rise of “superbugs” that have evolved to beat antibiotics that once vanquished them. Many experts decry the overuse of antibiotics, which can fuel the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria.

Douglas said gonorrhea previously became resistant to other antibiotics, penicillin and tetracycline, before starting to conquer the fluoroquinolones.

“Gonorrhea has now joined the list of other superbugs for which treatment options have become dangerously few,” Dr. Henry Masur, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America advocacy group, said in a statement.’

‘A St. Louis legislator wants to require that baking soda be sold behind the pharmacy counter, as part of an effort aimed at a base ingredient in crack cocaine.

The proposal by Democratic Representative Talibdin El-Amin is modeled after a state law that requires some cold medicines to be placed behind the pharmacy counter because they contain ingredients used to make meth.

The anti-meth law requires customers to show a photo I-D and sign a book specifying their name, address and how much they purchased.

El-Amin’s bill would implement similar requirements for the purchase of sodium bicarbonate, otherwise known as baking soda. The measure was filed last month and has yet to receive a hearing.’

‘It’s 11:30 at night; the kids are on the floor of a yellow school bus that’s parked not in Manhattan but a desolate lot in Williamsburg; and everyone on the bus, including the storyteller, is in high school. Oh, one more thing: they’re all on 5-methoxy-N N-diisopropyltryptamine, better known as the club drug Foxy.

Every two weeks, in some forsaken corner of the city, New York’s privileged teenagers go to “Sindergarten,” a traveling party for 17-year olds who, for a few carefree hours, want to feel like they’re five again. Nursery school-style accessories—snacks, children’s music, storybooks, finger-paints—are supplemented with multiple doses of Foxy methoxy, a hallucinogen similar to Ecstasy said to facilitate a childlike sense of wonder with the world.’

Tryptamines rarely make the news.

‘Nine young adults face criminal charges Wednesday night after breaking into a group of buildings owned by video game mogul Richard Garriott.

The suspects were identified because of pictures on a digital camera that was left at the crime scene.’

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see it here »

‘Grapefruit juice has been shown to affect the metabolism of several drugs. Included in the list of potential target drugs are diazepam, cisapride, cyclosporine, felodipine and other dihydropyridine calcium channel blockers, midazolam, nisoldipine, triazolam, saquinavir, lovastatin, and atorvastatin. The mechanism of this interaction appears to primarily result from inhibition of enzymes in the intestinal wall.

Several constituents of grapefruit juice have been implicated including the flavonoids naringin and naringenin, along with the furanocoumarins, bergapten and 6,7-dihydroxybergamottin. Unfortunately, the content of these varies between different grapefruit juices and varieties of fruit, making it impossible to determine if one is safer than another.’

‘A woman with a history of drug abuse says she woke up from a nap to find her miniature dachshund had torn off her baby boy’s genitals. Authorities have doubts about her story, but exactly how the newborn was maimed is still a mystery.

Holden Gothia, now 7 weeks old, was found on a bed in his mother’s suburban Houston apartment March 13, covered in blood. His genitals were severed and there was a deep cut in his upper leg.

He has been in critical condition ever since. He may never regain the use of his leg and faces years of operations, according to the boy’s father, Camden Gothia.

Police, doctors and Child Protective Service officials told the baby’s father that the injuries were not consistent with dog bites — the lacerations were too neat.

But Holden’s mother, the only person who might have the answers, has checked into a treatment program and refuses to cooperate with police. No charges have been filed.’

Followup to: Mom: Dog Bites Off Infant’s Genitals

‘Scientists in Britain are proposing a complete revamping of drug classifications in the wake of findings that reveal some major discrepancies between a drug’s legality and its safeness. A study surveying health, crime and science professionals regarding the dangers of a set of 20 legal and illegal drugs, published in The Lancet in March 2007, found that alcohol and tobacco, which are legal in Britain and the United States, are considered by experts to be more dangerous than ecstasy and marijuana, which are illegal in both countries.’

‘Reports of candy-flavored methamphetamine are emerging around the nation, stirring concern among police and abuse prevention experts that drug dealers are marketing the drug to younger people.

The flavored crystals are available in California, Nevada, Washington, Idaho, Texas, New Mexico, Missouri and Minnesota, according to intelligence gathered by Drug Enforcement Administration agents from informants, users, local police and drug counselors, DEA spokesman Steve Robertson says. [..]

Among the new flavors are strawberry, known as “Strawberry Quick,” chocolate, cola and other sodas, Robertson said. One agent reported a red methamphetamine that had been marketed as a powdered form of an energy drink, he said.’

‘It was a device worthy of Rube Goldberg, or perhaps Wile E. Coyote. A remote-controlled mechanism with a dozen launching tubes was found buried in the turf at Hong Kong’s most famous horse racing track last week; it was rigged with compressed air to fire tiny, liquid-filled darts into the bellies of horses at the starting gate.

No horses were injured because the supervisor at the Happy Valley Racecourse, where horses have been racing since 1846, noticed something on the turf before racing started Wednesday. He discovered the mechanism concealed by grass-colored tape and called in a police bomb squad to remove it.

The discovery of the device, which was equipped with elaborate electronic controls, has raised concerns about security for the six Olympic equestrian events to be held in Hong Kong next year.’