Report: Tobacco Use Kills 6M People a Year

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(CBS) Tobacco use causes 6 million deaths a year, a third of those deaths from cancer, according to a report released by the American Cancer Society and World Lung Foundation.

The tobacco industry is targeting countries with fewer tobacco controls and less effective public health campaigns, according to the American Cancer Society, which predicts that 72 percent of tobacco-related deaths will be in low- and middle-income countries by 2010. The report predicts that 2 million people will die each year from tobacco-related cancer by 2015.

Click here to read the full report

"The Tobacco Atlas presents compelling evidence that the health burden is shifting from richer countries to their lower-resource counterparts," said Peter Baldini, chief executive officer of the World Lung Foundation. "This evidence clearly articulates the breathtaking scope and dimensions of the problem. It calls out to be used actively in strengthening the case for policy change."

The American Cancer Society estimates that the tobacco industry has caused a $500 billion loss in the global economy, citing premature deaths of smokers in their most productive years and tobacco fields taking the place of agricultural fields on nearly 4 million hectares of land. Since 1960, tobacco production has increased by three times in low- and middle-income countries. But in richer countries, production has been cut in half.

The Tobacco Atlas is published by the two organizations to help develop public health strategies to reduce tobacco use worldwide.

Source:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/08/26/health/main5266774.shtml

New drug controls working well

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Drug controls introduced after the case of killer doctor Harold Shipman came to light are working well, an independent regulator says.

The Shipman inquiry found ineffective monitoring allowed the doctor, who ran a one-man practice in Hyde, Greater Manchester, to obtain large quantities of drugs which he used to kill at least 15 and possibly up to 200 patients.

Shipman, who took his own life aged 57 in prison in January 2004, stockpiled vast amounts of diamorphine - the clinical name for heroin - which he had either falsely prescribed or taken from cancer patients after their deaths.

The inquiry concluded there were serious shortcomings in the way controlled drugs were regulated and new rules were introduced in 2007.

The Care Quality Commission's (CQC) report into those regulations found healthcare workers were now better trained to deal with controlled drugs and to identify problems sooner.

Cynthia Bower, CQC's chief executive, said: "This is an example of how the healthcare system can learn from past events and make necessary changes to minimise risks to patients. There is no doubt that England's healthcare system is better equipped than ever to spot irregularities in the handling of controlled drugs early and to take action where problems arise.

"The important thing about these new systems is that they keep everyone talking to each other. Healthcare staff are better trained and more aware of issues relating to controlled drugs. We also have access to more information about prescribing patterns. Organisations should keep building on this good work and continue to reduce risks to patients as much as they possibly can."

Among recommendations made by CQC, which regulates healthcare in England, are that health organisations should make sure they have enough people qualified as "authorised witnesses" to be present when obsolete drugs are destroyed.

Source:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5hYewj8hm8goxiZnDElqjfTTURADA

Cobb gets 25 years in sex for drugs trial

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August 27, 2009 10:57 am

— By Carl Keith Greene/Staff Writer
Roy Lacy Cobb, 56, of Keavy, was sentenced to 25 years in prison after being tried on charges that he exchanged oxycontin for sexual favors.
U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove imposed the sentence in federal court in London Wednesday.
The sentencing came following a February trial in which he was found guilty on 10 counts.
Eight of the counts involved providing drugs for persons over 21 years of age and the other two involved providing drugs to persons under 21 years old.
Van Tatenhove ordered incarceration of 20 years on the counts involving those over 21 and 25 years on the counts involving those under 21. The two sentences will run concurrently. Cobb will be required to be under supervised release for six years when his sentence is served.
The sentencing process lasted more than two hours with several objections to points in the pre-sentencing report.
It all began with Cobb asking for a new attorney, rather than the one provided by the court.
After a discussion at the bench among Van Tatenhove, Cobb and his lawyer, lasting about 15 minutes, Cobb agreed to keep his lawyer Derek Gordon.
Van Tatenhove told Cobb that he has the right to a lawyer appointed by the court, “but not the lawyer of your choice.”
He told Cobb that sentencing is not the time to bring up issues seeking a new lawyer. “You have full appeal rights as to the work of your lawyer,” he added.
As Cobb spoke again to the judge, he said the jury wasn’t properly informed as to the number of oxycontin tablets he had for the women to whom he distributed them.
Van Tatenhove stopped Cobb and told him it was the judge’s job to “determine appropriate application of the law. That’s what I do! You may appeal after I decide and impose sentence.”
Prior to imposing the sentence, Van Tatenhove allowed Cobb’s daughter, Christina, to speak to the court.
Under oath, she said she had been threatened if she testified for her father. She admitted that she had been addicted to drugs and was on her 67th day of being clean. Christina said that “all the girls,” to whom her father distributed oxycodone were friends of hers.
“I beg you to give him some leniency. He’s why I’m clean today. He is my rock. I feel that I let my father down.”
Another daughter, Mary, had testified against Cobb at trial but was not present at the sentencing.
“This is one of the heartbreaking moments, when your daughter testifies against you,” Cobb said just before his sentence was imposed.
Mary, who was charged in the armed robbery with another person of the Rite-Aid pharmacy in Carnaby Square, admitted in a June 13, 2008 interview about her role in the robbery, that she had been using oxycodone for about nine months.
She said she had gotten the drugs from her father.
She added that her father got his oxycodone from a physician in Tennessee and gave the tablets to women in Laurel County in return for sexual favors.
A week after that, two women interviewed by Laurel sheriff’s deputies revealed that he had exchanged oxycodone for sexual activity with them.

Source: http://www.thetimestribune.com/local/local_story_239105829.html

Mexican Drug Informants Import Violence to US

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(Newser Summary) – The Obama administration and state governments are spending billions to keep Mexico's escalating drug war from spilling over the border. But the feds fighting trafficking have also relied on Mexican cartel members for intelligence—and that, says the Washington Post, has unleashed gangland-style violence in American cities. Drug kingpins living in the US, often with connections to American law enforcement, are both victims of violence and killers themselves.

In one case, a trafficker from the deadly Juarez cartel was set up with a US visa and lived in a $365,000 house in El Paso with his wife and children before he was killed execution-style on his front lawn. Texas police spoke to a possible informer recommended by the feds—but he turned out to have ordered the killing, which was carried out by American teens. "So this is how these people end up in our country," says a detective. "We bring them here."

—Jason Farago
The source: http://www.newser.com/story/67891/mexican-drug-informants-import-violence-to-us.html