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Pharmaceutical drug addiction causing massive increase in crime
Monday, September 27, 2010 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer


(NaturalNews) It used to be that thieves targeted wealthy homes filled with expensive things like jewelry to rob, but according to officials, a new kind of thief is on the loose: the pharmaceutical drug addict. They say prescription drugs like opiate painkillers are responsible for causing a widespread increase in crime against sick and elderly people whose medicine cabinets are loaded with legal narcotics.

The problem has gotten so out of control that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) recently held a nationwide drug take-back day in which citizens were encouraged to take their old and unused pharmaceutical drugs to one of 4,000 drop-off points to be properly disposed of.

"We're seeing people desperately and aggressively trying to get their hands on these pills," Janet T. Mills, the attorney general in Maine, is cited as saying in a recent New York Timespiece. "Home invasions, robberies, assaults, homicides, thefts -- all kinds of crimes are being linked to prescription drugs."

According to recent reports, a masked man forcibly entered the home of a 77-year-old Maine woman and proceeded to knock her to the ground, stealing her Oxycontin pills at knifepoint. And in Massachusetts, a similar event took place when three armed men broke into a home, tied up the owner's hands and feet with duct tape, and ravaged the home in search of Oxycontin.

Desperate addicts have even gone so far as to pose as potential home buyers at open houses, where they proceed to the nearest medicine cabinet to snatch whatever they can find.

"One will distract the realtor while the other goes and trifles through the medicine cabinet looking for pain medication," explained Matthew Murphy, assistant special agent in charge of the DEA's New England field division in Boston.

Officials are urging members of the public to properly dispose of any expired, unused or unneeded medicines as soon as possible to avoid becoming victims of pharmaceutical crimes.


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McDonalds to open outlet in Zimbabwe
  1. The world's biggest fast-food chain, McDonalds, has reportedly targeted Zimbabwe as a new market for its outlets as the country continues to recover from the economic chaos experienced over the last decade.McDonalds tried to get into the country in 1999 but was put off by the simmering political and economic instability.

    Over the last several years some international companies pulled out of Zimbabwe, frustrated by the inclement operating environment which was characterised by hyperinflation and chronic foreign currency shortages.

    The foreign currency crunch meant companies could not take out their profits.

    However the establishment of a coalition government between President Robert Mugabe and his political rivals helped ease tensions while positive policy interventions such as ditching the Zimbabwe dollar have put the economy on a recovery path.

    And, attracted by the turnaround, McDonalds is reportedly now ready to move into the country, according to a South African marketing website which quoted the company’s international franchising agency.

    McDonalds did not deny the report.

    Observers see the company’s plans to move into Zimbabwe as a sign of confidence in its economic prospects.

    The African continent represents a new frontier for McDonalds which reportedly serves up to 47 million customers across the world but has faced criticism over the healthiness of its products.

    The company presently operates in just a handful of African countries led by South Africa, where it has 132 restaurants.



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Lethal Danger of CT Scans 
By William FaloonWilliam FaloonWe tried everything… from pleading with arrogant physicians to providing irrefutable documentation to support our position. The response was always the same: we were “out of our minds” for suggesting that medical X-rays increase future cancer risks.

Our opposition could never substantiate that exposing healthy cells to ionizing radiation was safe. They did at one point rely on theAtomic Energy Commission, who claimed there were no dangers to low-level radiation exposure.

The Atomic Energy Commission was created to “manage the development, use, and control of atomic (nuclear) energy for military and civilian applications.” Like so many federal agencies, the priority was not to protect the public’s health. Instead this tax-funded bureaucracy (like the FDA) functioned to guarantee the economic success of the industries it regulated.1

By ridiculing those who warned about the carcinogenic effects of X-rays, the federal government and medical establishment enabled companies making CT scanners (and other radiation devices) to earn tens of billions of dollars in profit, with Medicare and private health insurance picking up most of the costs.

Radiation OverloadCompared to regular medical X-rays, CT scans yield much higher-resolution images. Unfortunately, CT scans also expose the patient to hundreds and sometimes thousands of times more radiation.2-4

The routine use of CT scans and other dangerous X-ray imaging procedures has skyrocketed over the past three decades. In 1980, there were 3 million CT scans done. By the year 2007, the number increased to about 70 million.5,6

We at Life Extension® long ago warned members to avoid CT scans and any kind of X-ray unless absolutely necessary. Up against us was an armada of for-profit companies who promoted CT scans to healthy people to measure coronary artery calcification, virtual colonoscopy in place of the more effective standard colonoscopy (flexible tube procedures), and even whole-body CT scans to identify abnormalities anywhere in one’s anatomy.

The irony is that health-conscious people, who often paid for whole-body CT scans out of their own pockets, unwittingly exposed their whole body to huge levels of DNA gene-mutating radiation!

Absolutely Shocking DataThe uninformed public is in for a shocker. A study released at the end of last year reveals that CT scans deliver up to four times more radiation than what was previously believed, which was already dangerously high.7

At the same time, another study led by the National Cancer Institute showed that CT scans administered in the year 2007 alone may contribute to 29,000 new cancer cases and nearly 15,000 cancer deaths.8

The problem is that the explosion in unnecessary CT scans has been going on every year. If we carry this back just ten years, this means that 150,000 Americans are facing horrific deaths from CT scan-induced cancers.



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Great... now every time I pass by KFC I will be aroused and want to go inside to get some... 
Why is this in the health section you ask. I have no idea. Click on an ass for the meaningless story and inadvertant KFC ad.  
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Study warns of green light bulb electrosmog

Swiss health officials are recommending that people stay at least 30 centimetres away from energy-saving light bulbs, over electrosmog concerns.A study has measured the electric fields emitted from these lamps and concluded that a certain distance is needed to keep well under international limits.


Low- and medium-frequency magnetic and electric fields can induce electric currents in the body which, above a certain frequency, can stimulate the nerves and muscles.

The Swiss study, undertaken for the federal offices of health and energy, found that medium-frequency electric fields were primarily responsible for these currents. Depending on the lamp, current field densities in the immediate vicinity reach 10-55 per cent of the exposure limit.

As this weakens with distance, health officials have recommended as a personal precaution to maintain a gap of at least 30 centimetres, for example from a desk lamp that is being used for a long time.

Switzerland started to phase out the least efficient categories of light bulbs at the beginning of last year and will officially follow the European Union's line on 100W lamps from September 1, 2010. 

From 2012, only bulbs meeting or exceeding mid-category D requirements will be on sale - the equivalent to banning conventional light bulbs.


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New Drug Kills Pain by Boosting Body's Naturally Occurring Marijuana-Like Compound

In a boon for pain research, American and Italian scientists say they have found a new drug that allows a marijuana-like substance to control pain at a specific site in the body. Their study suggests cannabinoid compounds could be used in new pain medications that are non-addictive and non-sedative, unlike opiates.

The drug works by blocking an enzyme that degrades a compound called anandamide, whose name comes from the Sanskrit word for “bliss.” Anandamide exists naturally in humans and is chemically similar to THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. It was thought to work only in the brain, but with the new drug, URB937, anandamide works in peripheral tissues, too.

Led by Daniele Piomelli, director of the Center for Drug Discovery at the University of California-Irvine, teams from the Italian universities of Urbino and Parma gave the URB937 drug to rats and mice. It suppresses an enzyme called FAAH, which boosts the amount of anandamide. It doesn’t cross the blood-brain barrier, but it stilldoes lessen pain at the site of an injury, the researchers say.

Anandamide is part of the endocannabinoid system, which is involved in modulating appetite, pain, mood and memory. (The name is derived from the system’s involvement in responding to THC.) Blocking FAAH can have the same pain-mitigation effects without generating a marijuana high, according to a UC-Irvine news release.


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