How does a policy that vilifies the illegal drug user translate into human cost? The drug news of featured dramatic predictions that from 375,000 to 650,000 "cocaine-exposed babies" each year would suffer low birth weight, neurological impairment, and fetal malformations. The annual care cost for these babies was projected as high as three billion dollars. Dire predictions were also made about the effect of maternal cocaine use on childhood development. More than fifty mothers were prosecuted, but not one was convicted on charges including drug possession with intent to deliver, child abuse, and murder.

Should physicians be permitted to prescribe marijuana to alleviate suffering? The Administration and Congress say no. For example, in such a setting is to be horrified by the senseless carnage. "Violence is as much a public health issue for me and my successors in this country as smallpox, tuberculosis, and syphilis were for my predecessors in the last two centuries," declared former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, M.D. in 1984.27. To design effective interventions we need to understand the precursors to violence both in children and adults, the genesis and effects of violence among family members, and the nature of street violence. Efforts such as a large prospective longitudinal study of several thousand children at risk for antisocial behavior are already underway.

Now the third-leading lifestyle-related cause of death in the United States, excessive drinking accounts for 75,000 deaths each year. Such high numbers have raised awareness about the ill effects of excessive drinking, even as treatment for alcohol dependence and abuse as part of the normal medical practice, have become more common. Going forward, the prevalence of alcohol dependence expects to decrease in the United States, but that of alcohol abuse looks as if it will increase.

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A) announced it has hosted the first of three leadership delegations from China's Anti-Doping Agency, as China prepares for the 2008 Olympic Games. The meetings include technical training on anti-doping instruments and methods developed by Agilent, a primary supplier of technology to China's Anti-Doping Agency since 1988.

The authors of a Reflection and Reaction comment in the March issue of TheLancet Infectious Diseases take a hard line on some healthpolicyresearch posted on the Internet, especially regarding evidence baseddrug harm reduction.

The governments 'new' drug strategy has caused a mixed reaction. Some mild some vehement; others have reacted with cautious enthusiasm, and a few with cynicism. The majority who have commented have their own agenda's. The pro-druggists are professing that the 'rights' of users are being ignored and that drug related crime will soar. The 'hang em' and 'flog em' brigade will be disappointed that there is no provision for users to be taken out and shot at dawn.

Until recently, there was very little evidence in animal models for marijuana tolerance and withdrawal, the classic determinants of addiction. For at least four decades, million of Americans have used marijuana without clear evidence of a withdrawal syndrome.

The fired both barrels last week, announcing that a variety of anti-seizure medications—as well as the anti-smoking pill, Chantix—may increase the risk of suicidal thoughts in patients who take them. The FDA will require new label warnings for a total of 11 drugs used for epilepsy.

In 1957, two scientists in the research department of CIBA Pharmaceutical Products in New Jersey reported on “an indole alkaloid with central-stimulant properties” used by native peoples in the Congo: “The crude extracts of Tabernanthe iboga caused a feeling of excitement, drunkenness, mental confusion, and, possibly, hallucinations.” The CIBA researchers were working from early reports by French and Belgian explorers in the 1800s, which had noted the use of this remarkable shrub in the Congo and surrounding regions.

Several years ago, molecular biologists identified the elusive brain receptor where THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, did its work. Shortly after that discovery, researchers at Hebrew University in Jerusalem identified the body’s own form of THC, which sticks to the same receptors, in pulverized pig brains. They christened the internally manufactured substance “anandamide,” after the Sanskrit ananda, or bliss.