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Barack Obama’s frank admissions about use of marijuana and cocaine in his youth could hurt his chances of winning the presidency in a general election against a Republican contender, according to an advisor for rival Hillary Clinton.

CNN reported Dec. 13 that Bill Shaheen, who co-chairs Clinton’s campaign in New Hampshire, said that Republicans will “jump on” Obama’s admissions should he defeat Clinton in the Democratic primary and become the party’s nominee for president.

“The Republicans are not going to give up without a fight … and one of the things they’re certainly going to jump on is his drug use,” Shaheen said. “It’ll be, ‘When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?’ … There are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks. It’s hard to overcome.”

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The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced this week that U.S. pharmaceutical companies have voluntarily agreed to restrict access to larger-dose methadone tablets beginning on Jan. 1, 2008.

The 40-mg methadone hydrochloride tablets will only be distributed to hospitals and authorized opiate addiction and detoxification facilities, the DEA announced. The move was intended to curb the rising number of methadone overdoses and illegal diversion of the drug.

“The 5 mg and 10 mg formulations indicated for the treatment of pain will continue to be available to all authorized registrants, including retail pharmacies,” according to the agency. “The 40 mg strength is not FDA approved for use in the management of pain. Thus, the distribution and availability of the 40 mg formulation will be limited to registrants in only those settings using the 40 mg formulation for the appropriate indication” – namely methadone maintenance for opiate addicts.

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Years after acknowledging a past battle with alcohol abuse, President Bush this week provided details about his personal recovery, ABC News reported Dec. 11.

“I doubt I’d be standing here if I hadn’t quit drinking whiskey, and beer and wine and all that,” Bush said in an interview.

Bush, 61, quit drinking cold-turkey after getting drunk during a 40th birthday celebration. “I had too much to drink one night, and the next day I didn’t have any,” Bush said. “The next day I decided to quit and I haven’t had a drink since 1986.”

“I’m a better man for it,” Bush added. “I wasn’t a knee-walking drunk .. It’s a difficult thing to do, which is to kick an addiction.”

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As Of November 2007 J&J Faces 2400 Lawsuits Involving Strokes, Heart Attacks, And Blood Clots Allegedly Caused By Ortho Evra, With Most Cases Pending Before MDL Judge Katz

(Posted by Tom Lamb at DrugInjuryWatch.com)

In legal motions filed November 20, 2007 by lawyers representing women claiming to have been injured by their use of the Ortho Evra birth control patch, it is asserted that the drug company Johnson & Johnson (J&J) misled the FDA and doctors in the years leading up to the time that “the Patch” was approved for use by women in the U.S.

According to a November 29, 2007 Bloomberg article, “J&J Altered Birth-Control Patch Data to Hide Risks”, these contentions of misconduct by J&J were presented to U.S. District Judge David Katz, of the U.S. District Court, North District of Ohio, in Toledo, who is the presiding judge for In re Ortho Evra Products Liability Litigation, Multi-district Litigation (MDL) 1742, where currently approximately 1500 federal court lawsuits from around the country have been centralized.

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People who take opioid-based drugs to treat chronic pain can drive about as well as others on the road, according to researchers from Rush University in Chicago.

The New York Times reported Dec. 4 that researchers used a driving simulator to compare the reaction times, weaving and accident rates of subjects taking oral morphine for pain to a control group that was not taking pain medication.

Lead researcher Asokumar Buvanendran said that, unlike occasional users, long-term pain patients develop tolerance to opiates that tends to limit their intoxicating effects. “If I suddenly took 30 milligrams of morphine, I’d probably sleep for 10 hours, whereas someone who took it for the last two years is probably as alert as I am now,” he said.

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People who take opioid-based drugs to treat chronic pain can drive about as well as others on the road, according to researchers from Rush University in Chicago.

The New York Times reported Dec. 4 that researchers used a driving simulator to compare the reaction times, weaving and accident rates of subjects taking oral morphine for pain to a control group that was not taking pain medication.

Lead researcher Asokumar Buvanendran said that, unlike occasional users, long-term pain patients develop tolerance to opiates that tends to limit their intoxicating effects. “If I suddenly took 30 milligrams of morphine, I’d probably sleep for 10 hours, whereas someone who took it for the last two years is probably as alert as I am now,” he said.

(more…)

People who take opioid-based drugs to treat chronic pain can drive about as well as others on the road, according to researchers from Rush University in Chicago.

The New York Times reported Dec. 4 that researchers used a driving simulator to compare the reaction times, weaving and accident rates of subjects taking oral morphine for pain to a control group that was not taking pain medication.

Lead researcher Asokumar Buvanendran said that, unlike occasional users, long-term pain patients develop tolerance to opiates that tends to limit their intoxicating effects. “If I suddenly took 30 milligrams of morphine, I’d probably sleep for 10 hours, whereas someone who took it for the last two years is probably as alert as I am now,” he said.

(more…)

People who take opioid-based drugs to treat chronic pain can drive about as well as others on the road, according to researchers from Rush University in Chicago.

The New York Times reported Dec. 4 that researchers used a driving simulator to compare the reaction times, weaving and accident rates of subjects taking oral morphine for pain to a control group that was not taking pain medication.

Lead researcher Asokumar Buvanendran said that, unlike occasional users, long-term pain patients develop tolerance to opiates that tends to limit their intoxicating effects. “If I suddenly took 30 milligrams of morphine, I’d probably sleep for 10 hours, whereas someone who took it for the last two years is probably as alert as I am now,” he said.

(more…)

The annual Monitoring the Future survey finds declining use of cigarettes and illicit drugs among 8th-graders that signifies “an ongoing cultural shift among teens and their attitudes about smoking and substance abuse,” according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

NIDA said that the 2007 survey found considerable declines in lifetime, past-month, and daily smoking among 8th-graders. Daily smoking rates fell to 3 percent, down from a peak of 10.4 percent in 1996.

A similar percentage of 8th-graders reported past-year marijuana use, down from 18.3 percent in 1996. However, the report found no declines in annual marijuana use among 10th- and 12th-graders.

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The New Mexico Department of Men’s health would issue licenses to individuals and organizations to legally provide medical marijuana under draft rules unveiled last week, the Associated Press reported Dec. 4.

The license would allow patients, caregivers, state-run programs or private entities to legally manufacture and distribute marijuana for medical use. The draft rules will be open for public comment starting in late December, and a public hearing will be held in January.

New Mexico passed a medical-marijuana law that took effect on July 1, and 74 patients have been certified to use the drug for medical purposes. However, they have been left to their own devices to obtain marijuana — a situation the state government hopes to remedy with the new rules.

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