UN raises alarm on spread of 'designer drugs'

[Savonarola]

UN raises alarm on spread of 'designer drugs'

Psychoactive drugs providing "legal high" are biggest new threat to public health, UN report says.

Ecstasy and methamphetamine use has been growing, especially in east and southeast Asia [EPA]


So-called new psychoactive substances being sold under harmless names such as "spice" or "incense" are causing the international drug control system to flounder, a new report from the United Nations has warned.

The substances pose a serious health risk although most of them are legal, the UN Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) has said in its annual World Drug Report’, which was released on Wednesday.

"Sold openly, including via the internet, [new psychoactive substances (NPS)], which have not been tested for safety, can be far more dangerous than traditional drugs," it said.

From 166 known NPS's in 2009, the number has risen to 251 in 2012, according to the UN body. Levels of global drug use, however, appear to be generally stable, the report said.

These new drugs, which could be synthetic or plant-based and can easily be altered to create different varieties, are now developing at a rate that outpaces efforts to control or ban them, it said, adding that the long-term effects were unknown.

In the United States, NPS's were the most used drugs among students. In Europe, NPS use was also on the rise. NPS's were also present in Asia and Africa.

Worldwide, cannabis remains the most commonly used illegal drug, with 3.9 percent of the global population aged 15-64 using it, the report said.

In other findings, the agency reported that heroin and opium use remains steady at about 16.4 million people, or 0.4 percent of the world's adult population.

Prescription drugs misused

In 60 percent of countries, however, prescription drugs such as sedatives and tranquilisers were among the top three most misused substances, which was "of particular concern", the report added.

The market for amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS), which include ecstasy and methamphetamine, was also growing, especially in east and southeast Asia, the UNODC found. Ecstasy use was reported to be on the rise in Europe.

Meanwhile, eastern and western Africa are becoming increasingly important areas for drug traffickers.

A new maritime route seemed to have developed from Afghanistan through Iran and Pakistan leading south towards Africa, "a worrying trend" given the lack of trafficking information on that continent, the UNODC said.

"Africa is increasingly becoming vulnerable to the drug trade and organised crime," UNODC chief Yuri Fedotov said.

War-torn Afghanistan produced 74 percent of the world's opium in 2012, according to the UNODC.

Beeb, have you seen these designer drugs in your line of work?

In Detroit there's a trial right now about a young man who took a baseball bat to his family in order to steal money to buy spice (Cipriano murder trial for the curious.)  I had seen it for sale at the gas station and had no idea you were supposed to smoke it until the story broke.

[Barrister]

Heard of it, never seen it.

But now that I'm back with the province I don't see drug files - those are the domain of Federal prosecutors.  So I only see drugs when they are incidental to some other criminal activity.

[Siege]

Castle design is more interesting.

http://earthbagplans.wordpress.com/2011/09/09/earthbag-castle/

[The Brain]

Castle design is more interesting.

http://earthbagplans.wordpress.com/2011/09/09/earthbag-castle/

It is not designed to withstand a direct missile or tank attack by governments, or total nuclear Armageddon.

Pass.

[Iormlund]

Ecstasy spreading in Europe? What is this, the 90s again?

PS. I loved going clubbing with people high on that. No fights, no shit. Everyone loved you. 

[Drakken]

You know, the UN should spend more time on getting its shit together to gain back some of its former influence, and less time on worrying on what we rich First World citizens put in our lungs, blood streams, and nostrils.

[Ed Anger]

Oontz Oontz Oontz Oontz

[Capetan Mihali]

Bath salts scare was in large part a bunch of hype and moral panic-mongering.  The main problem was the lack of standardized dosages (less clear than street drugs, even with their varying purity levels) and, somewhat ironically, the fact that the people buying them were by and large square nerds who wanted a "legal high," lacking the useful hard drug experience of the baddies.

A lot of the Spice shit, at least as of couple of years ago, has been fake cannabinoids, so not much more dangerous than real cannabis.  Same with "JWH-118" and those types.  But they don't pop for marijuana on urinalysis tests, as a probation officer complained to me.

And kratom has been in the news a little, but it is an indigenous SE Asian plant with a long history of human psychoactive use, mainly chewing and brewed in tea.  No overdose and slight habituation potential, with a lot of positive effects that haven't been explored much in medicine.  But it has mild opiate properties, so it gets that scare factor associated with it.  It's very effective at alleviating opiate withdrawal symptoms, and seems to work for a variety of pain patients and people with depression, so it has a bit of a grassroots lobby fighting to get it separated from bath salts and the like in restrictive legislation.

Some of the legal highs, however, like mephedrone, methoxetamine, MDPV, etc. are serious hard drugs, usually a combination of a stimulant and a psychedelic or disassociative.  Lots of ketamine analogues in the mix.  Needless to say, more popular in the UK than North America.

Then there was some really crazy shit that should never have been out there.  Like 100% pure powdered phenazepam, a Soviet benzo-style tranquilizer that had like a microgram's difference between getting high and blacking out for 4 days or dying.

[Ideologue]

Mihali, I enjoyed that post.  I'm not being ironic or anything, it was informative and neat, even though it made me feel square based upon the fact that if someone else were posting I'd be sure they were just making names up.

[Capetan Mihali]

Mihali, I enjoyed that post.  I'm not being ironic or anything, it was informative and neat, even though it made me feel square based upon the fact that if someone else were posting I'd be sure they were just making names up.

  I live to serve. 

[Capetan Mihali]

Heard of it, never seen it.

But now that I'm back with the province I don't see drug files - those are the domain of Federal prosecutors.  So I only see drugs when they are incidental to some other criminal activity.

*All* drug cases are handled federally in Canada?  That's interesting.

[Savonarola]

This concerns the trial I referenced in my initial post:

Convicted murderer Mitchell Young has shown 'personal growth' in jail, lawyer says

By L.L. Brasier and Gina Damron

Detroit Free Press Staff Writers


Fourteen months ago, Mitchell Young was sobbing and hysterical, pleading his innocence as he was arraigned on charges in a baseball bat attack on a Farmington Hills family, one of the most vicious crimes in recent metro-Detroit history.

"I'm not guilty," he sobbed, nearly incoherent. "I didn't do any of this."

On Friday, Young stood stoic and appeared dazed, but didn't shed tears, as an Oakland County jury convicted him of all five counts: first-degree premeditated murder, first-degree felony murder, one count of felony murder, two counts of attempted murder and one count of armed robbery.

The conviction brings to a close the legal cases against Young and Tucker Cipriano, 20, who both soon will be sentenced to life in prison without parole. But Friday's verdict and Cipriano's no contest plea to a felony murder charge still don't explain why two young men with a penchant for synthetic marijuana suddenly went on a killing rampage against one of their own families.

The verdict also doesn't bring back Robert Cipriano, 52, killed in his own kitchen, or help to heal Rose, 51, and Salvatore, 18, who were nearly beaten to death.

The end of the legal process brings relief, Robert's brother, Ron Cipriano said, but it doesn't bring closure.

"Our family has been through a horrible tragedy that we will live with for the rest of our lives," he said in a statement issued shortly after the verdict. "At the end of the day, Bob — our brother, father, neighbor, colleague, coach and friend — is still gone from our lives forever. His absence can never be replaced, and no trial will ever change that."

Personal growth

It took jurors just 90 minutes to find Young guilty on all charges.

The baby-faced 21-year-old, dressed in a sedate black suit, only appeared near tears when he mouthed the words "I love you too, Grandma," to his grandmother as he was led from the courtroom in shackles. She was the only one in his family to attend the two-week trial.

The months in jail have changed him, said his attorney, Michael McCarthy. He's gone from a hysterical defendant to a young adult contemplating his serious convictions and the life ahead of him.

"I have seen some personal growth, in a positive way," he said. "Nobody stays the same. My view is that he has moved in a positive direction."

McCarthy, a veteran defense attorney who has tried dozens of murder trials, said he visited his client in the Oakland County Jail more than a dozen times while preparing for trial. In the earlier visits, Young was distraught. But over time, he became more engaged.

"He was a decent guy to sit down and talk with. Very polite, very cooperative," McCarthy said. "And I don't always see that with my clients. They get combative, want to blame the police or prosecutors. It's a big conspiracy. That kind of thing. I didn't find that with Mitchell Young."

'A different person'

Young was homeless after being tossed out of the house by his parents and was working as a part-time waiter in a Farmington Hills restaurant when he started hanging out with Tucker Cipriano, who also was homeless in the weeks leading up to the April 2012 attacks.

Prosecutors contend the two young men, high on synthetic marijuana and in need of money for more, hatched a plan to murder Cipriano's family so they to could take cash and items to sell for drugs.

Early in the morning of April 16, 2012, they entered the Cipriano home on Rose Hill Drive through the garage, grabbed bats and started swinging. Only Tanner Cipriano, 18, and Isabella, 9, escaped injury.

Young was arrested in the house, and police found Cipriano a short time later at a house in Keego Harbor.

McCarthy argued Young was merely along for the ride and only planned to burglarize the home. He said Cipriano was the one swinging the bat.

Kristen Spaw, Young's ex-girlfriend, said she believes Tucker Cipriano forced Young's participation.

"He cracks to peer pressure very easily," she said of Young, while outside of the courtroom Thursday.

She and a friend attended to support Young during his trial. Spaw said Young took drugs, including Spice, a synthetic marijuana, after a bad breakup.

"It turned him into a different person," she said.

Spaw said Young was a good student who cared about people. She said doesn't see him having the capability to commit such a brutal crime.

"I will always love him no matter what happens, prison or not," Spaw said. "I'll write to him, I'll talk to him, I won't stop caring about him."

Life in prison

Young and Cipriano will be sentenced July 24 to life in prison.

McCarthy said Young's family members, aside from his grandmother, stayed away from the trial because of the relentless news media attention. His family will be there in spirit, if not in person, on the day of his sentencing, he said.

"He has a lot of strong support," McCarthy said. "People who care about him."

Rose, Tanner and Isabella Cipriano all were on the prosecutor's witness list for the trial, but none were called to testify. They were not seen in the courthouse during the trial, and it's not known whether they'll be at the sentencing.

"We are glad the trial is over and that our family did not have to relive the horrible experience by having to testify in it," Ron Cipriano's statement said. "We believe the legal process worked the way it should have with the facts of the case presented. The privacy and dignity of my brother's family was respected and honored."

Maybe that's the sort of things defense attorneys are expected to say; but it's hard to imagine how he could have moved in a negative direction after taking a baseball bat to his immediate family in order to buy synthetic marijuana from the gas station.

[Siege]

Castle design is more interesting.

http://earthbagplans.wordpress.com/2011/09/09/earthbag-castle/

It is not designed to withstand a direct missile or tank attack by governments, or total nuclear Armageddon.

Pass.

Cheap bastard.