From CNN:

Unlike television crime shows in which machines can instantly spit out results, toxicology testing to determine what drugs are in a person's body can be a long and painstaking process.

The Los Angeles County coroner's office estimates that toxicology tests on the body of Michael Jackson could take six to eight weeks. The results are needed to determine the singer's cause of death, a spokesman for the coroner said. The singer's autopsy last week was inconclusive, although officials said there were no indications of external trauma or foul play.

Identifying drugs in the human body requires a lengthy sequence of tests and confirmations that can take weeks and even months, forensic experts said.

The medical examiner determines whether a toxicology test is required. The testing becomes more exhaustive in cases of a suspected drug death or one in which the cause of death is unclear.

"What is routinely done? In the case of celebrity deaths, probably a lot," said William Anderson, chief toxicologist for the Washoe County Sheriff's Office, in Reno, Nevada.

In standard screening, blood samples are drawn from various areas of the body, including the leg and heart, because drugs and poisons can circulate, toxicologists say. The initial screening test using blood and urine samples indicates what type of drugs -- for example opiates, cocaine or amphetamines -- might be present.

In order to confirm that a person had a specific type of drug in his or her system, the drug must be extracted from the specimen. More complicated cases could require samples of the liquid in the eye, bile, or tissue from the liver, kidney, stomach or lungs.

"The drugs must be physically separated from the biological matrix," Caplan said. "If it's liver or blood, you have to do preparations for the extraction procedure, which is often multistep." This can also take several days, he added.

The specimen is mixed with an oil solvent, which attracts the drugs away from blood or tissue sample. Then the solvent is evaporated, leaving the various chemicals.

"You have to purify the drugs out of this mix of things, which has lots of other chemicals in it that may interfere," Anderson said. This preparation has to be done for every specimen undergoing analysis.

An instrument called a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer separates the compounds and provides information to enable toxicologists to identify them as specific types of drugs. One positive finding can lead to more tests of different samples, triggering a sequence.

"You have to make a series of tests," Anderson said. It "can take a long time to complete the whole battery of tests. If you find something, you go back and quantify it. And you do have a lot of other investigations you're going through at the same time."

If a lab worked on only one case, the work could be completed in about a week, Caplan said, but that is not a reality for public labs.

While simpler cases are likely to be completed in about two weeks, "it usually takes four to six weeks if they run into unusual things. If unusual drugs are involved, they may have to be referred to a private lab or FBI lab," Caplan said.

After receiving the results, toxicologists must analyze the data and verify all the facts and findings "to cover all their bases," said Dr. Roy Altman, a retired forensic toxicologist.

"He wants to run another analysis that will confirm the first positive [finding]," Altman said. "He will do other analyses to make sure everything holds up in court, if it turns into a legal case and he has to testify in court his findings."

In sensitive or high-profile cases, the samples probably will be sent to other labs for confirmation, scientists said. "That's really what takes the time," Caplan said.

After the lab determines what drugs and poisons were present in a person's body, the medical examiner determines the cause of death, and a death certificate can be issued.

From the Associated Press:

Government experts say the maximum dose listed for Tylenol and dozens of other painkillers should be reduced to help curb deadly overdoses. In a series of votes Tuesday, a Food and Drug Administration panel endorsed lowering the maximum dose of over-the-counter acetaminophen — the key ingredient in Tylenol, Excedrin and other medications.

But panelists rejected a proposal to pull NyQuil, and other cold and cough medicines that combine acetaminophen with other drugs, off the market because of their role in overdosing.

Acetaminophen is one of the most widely used drugs in the U.S. Many patients find it easier on the stomach than other painkillers like ibuprofen and aspirin, which can cause ulcers.

But despite years of educational campaigns and other federal actions, acetaminophen remains the leading cause of liver failure in the U.S., sending 56,000 people to the emergency room annually, according to the FDA.

FDA's experts voted 21-16 to lower the current maximum daily dose of nonprescription acetaminophen, which is 4 grams, or eight pills of a medication like Extra Strength Tylenol.

The group was not asked to recommend an alternative maximum daily dose.

The panel also voted 24-13 to limit the maximum single dose of the drug to 650 milligrams. The current single dose of Johnson & Johnson's Extra Strength Tylenol is 1,000 milligrams, or two tablets.

In a third vote, a majority of panelists said the 1,000-milligram dose should only be available by prescription.

The experts rejected a proposal to pull certain cold and cough medicines off the market. The FDA says patients often pair combination drugs, like Procter & Gamble's NyQuil or Novartis' Theraflu, with pure acetaminophen treatments, like Tylenol, exposing themselves to unsafe levels of the drug.

But panelists cited FDA data that said the medications play a minor role in acetaminophen overdoses, with only 10 percent of acetaminophen-related deaths involving a cold and cough product.

And from msnbc.com:

Government experts say prescription drugs like Vicodin and Percocet that combine a popular painkiller with stronger narcotics should be eliminated because of their role in deadly overdoses.

A Food and Drug Administration panel on Tuesday voted 20-17 that prescription drugs that combine acetaminophen with other painkilling ingredients should be pulled off the market.

But many panelists opposed a sweeping withdraw of products that are so widely used to control severe, chronic pain.

In a separate vote, the panel voted overwhelmingly, 36-1, that if the drugs stay on the market they should carry a black box warning, the most serious safety label available.

Prescription acetaminophen combination drugs were prescribed 200 million times last year, according to FDA data. Vicodin is marketed by Abbott Laboratories, while Percocet is marketed by Endo Pharmaceuticals. Both painkillers also are available in cheaper generic versions.

From ScienceBlogs:

Judging from the press inquiries, expect focus on the Michael Jackson case to be on the anesthetic drug, propofol (Diprivan®).

California nutritionist and registered nurse Ms Cherilyn Lee gave an interview to Campbell Brown on CNN (and this AP exclusive report) describing Michael Jackson's repeated requests of her for the intravenous sedative drug for his insomnia. She wisely rejected his requests, instead providing him with a vitamin and mineral "energy" injection.

However, four days before Jackson's death she reported a frantic phone call from a Jackson staffer to her that led her to believe he had somehow procured the drug or something like it.

Diprivan is the trade name for propofol (PROPE-uh-fawl), a product of AstraZeneca whose healthcare professionals website on the drug is currently closed. Estimated US annual sales of Diprivan are $375-400 million USD. Propofol has a deceptively simple chemical structure and is known chemically as 2,6-diisopropylphenol.

It is a widely-used intravenous anesthetic used primarily for outpatient surgical procedures owing to its very rapid onset of action, sometimes as fast as 30 sec, and rapid recovery.

Propofol has a remarkably good safety record given its widespread use. The average human intravenous dose is 2 to 2.5 mg per kg body weight while the intravenous LD50 (dose that is lethal to 50% of a population) in mice is 50 mg/kg. When used alone, or in combinations with the opioid analgesic fentanyl, it produces a "dissociative analgesia" that is very rarely fatal. Hence, its safety is one of the reasons it is used for outpatient surgery, together with its rapid onset and quick recovery.

While it is a sedative, it has been reported to produce euphoria in some people (the pleasant feelings of well-being most often associated with morphine and other opioids).

The potential risk is from "propofol-related infusion syndrome" - it can produce an elevation in body temperature that is usually not fatal (not "true" malignant hyperthermia as with the rare but fatal side effect of some inhaled anesthetics) but can trigger muscle breakdown called rhabdomyolysis, a rare but devastating side effect that can also occur with statin cholesterol-lowering drugs.

An excellent and timely review of propofol-related infusion syndrome was published in the May issue of Pharmacotherapy by authors from the University of Houston College of Pharmacy and is reprinted at Medscape. Most notable in this review is that while the syndrome is rare, it is fatal in 64% of cases when it does occur.

However, most relevant to the Jackson case is that propofol can cause cardiac tachyarrhythmias (rhythmic disturbances at high heart rate), especially in people predisposed to cardiac problems.

From Forensic Magazine:

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling last Thursday will require crime lab analysts to appear in court and submit to cross-examination if their reports are entered into evidence. This ruling could have tremendous impacts on how crime labs operate and exacerbate the backlog problems that plague crime labs nationwide.

The contentious 5-4 ruling in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts asserts that forensic analysts must testify under the Sixth Amendment Confrontation Clause granting defendants the right to confront witnesses against them. Previously analysts could be subpoenaed to court to explain their reports or methodology, but it was a rare practice.

In his decision, Justice Antonin Scalia called into question the reliability of forensic science as a whole, citing the recent National Academy of Science report. Refuting the argument that forensic reports, as scientific findings, are neutral facts rather than accusatory testimony, Justice Scalia wrote, “Forensic evidence is not uniquely immune from the risk of manipulation. According to a recent study conducted under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences. … Confrontation is designed to weed out not only the fraudulent analyst, but the incompetent one as well. Serious deficiencies have been found in the forensic evidence used in criminal trials.”

“Like expert witnesses generally, an analyst’s lack of proper training or deficiency in judgment may be disclosed in cross-examination,” Scalia adds.

In his dissenting opinion, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy strongly opposes this interpretation of the Confrontation Clause claiming that the Court is haphazardly sweeping away a century of precedent for dealing with scientific evidence.

The Court leaves it to individual states to establish a procedure for contesting lab reports and calling analysts to court, so it is difficult to tell what the full consequences of this decision will be and how it will be interpreted.

“The Court dictates to the States, as a matter of constitutional law, an as-yet-undefined set of rules governing what kinds of evidence may be admitted without in-court testimony. Indeed, under today’s opinion the States bear an even more onerous burden than they did before,” Justice Kennedy protests.

“There is no accepted definition of analyst, and there is no established precedent to define that term,” Justice Kennedy adds. “Consider how many people play a role in a routine test for the presence of illegal drugs. It is not at all evident which of these persons is the analyst to be confronted under the rule the Court announces today.”

Dean Gialamas, ASCLD President, says that though it is hard to know how Thursday’s ruling will be interpreted, “It will have an impact on crime labs, and it will be felt.”

Justice Kennedy fears that, “By requiring analysts also to appear in the far greater number of cases where defendants do not dispute the analyst’s result, the Court imposes enormous costs on the administration of justice.”

In the current fiscal climate with budget and personnel cuts, this decision could not have come at a worse time.

“[This ruling] will have a doubly detrimental effect,” Gialamas says. “Crime labs are losing positions and those existing will have an increased work load.” You can’t just hire people, Gialamas adds. “It would take 12 to 24 months to hire and train a new analyst, even if money were available.”

Justice Kennedy cites the sheer number of cases that an analyst works on each year. Even considering that 95% of cases end in plea bargain, he estimates that Philadelphia’s 18 drug analysts will be required to testify in more than 69 trials next year and Cleveland’s 6 drug analysts (two of whom work only part time) must testify in 117. Not to mention the 500 analysts at the FBI’s lab in Quantico who conduct over a million tests a year.

“The Court’s decision means that before any of those million tests reaches a jury, at least one of the laboratory’s analysts must board a plane, find his or her way to an unfamiliar courthouse, and sit there waiting to read aloud notes made months ago,” Justice Kennedy writes.

Justice Scalia dismisses these financial and logistical concerns in his ruling. “The Confrontation Clause may make the prosecution of criminals more burdensome, but that is equally true of the right to trial by jury and the privilege against self-incrimination. The Confrontation Clause—like those other constitutional provisions—is binding, and we may not disregard it at our convenience.”

From the Kansas City Star:

Drugs shaped like Snoopy, Transformers and President Barack Obama’s head recently showed up on Kansas City area streets, adding to a trend that worries police and health experts.

Colorful Ecstasy pills started showing up last year shaped as Homer and Bart Simpson, Ninja Turtles and other characters. As more of the pills that look like vitamins or candy go out locally and nationwide, they put children at great risk, police and experts said.

“Someone leaves this around … kids pick them up and boom,” said H. Westley Clark, director of the federal Center for Substance Abuse Treatment.

The result could be seizures, a spiked blood pressure and heart rate and even death, he said.

Last month, Drug Enforcement Administration officials in Nevada sent out warnings that the cartoon pills were in Las Vegas. Dealers there call Ecstasy “Thizz” and market it to minors, the DEA warned. They also said they had found pills shaped like Ninja Turtles, Transformers and other Simpsons characters.

Police in Utah last month busted a drug ring and found 500 Ecstasy pills stamped in the shape of Obama and Snoopy.

The cartoon character marketing is a ploy by predators to promote a dangerous drug as light fun in order to sell to more teens and young adults, Clark said. The irresponsible marketers also use false advertising, police said, because the tablets often contain no Ecstasy at all but instead a powerful mix of other drugs.

For more than a year, about half the so-called Ecstasy pills tested at labs in Kansas City and Johnson County have turned out not to be Ecstasy. They were a combination of other drugs once used to treat stomach parasites that have effects and dangers similar to Ecstasy.

The shaped tablets are more likely to be fake than flat tablets sold as Ecstasy, drug experts said.

Ecstasy tends to crumble and does not press as easily as the piperazine family of drugs once used to kill stomach worms, said Zachary Skinner, a forensic chemist at the Kansas City Police Department crime lab.

It takes a combination of two variations of piperazine to get the Ecstasy effects, he said. This combination surfaced in New Zealand in the 1990s as “legalX,” but many countries have since criminalized BZP, one of the variations.

In the United States, BZP is illegal under federal law and Missouri law, but it is legal in Kansas.

Balerie Kamb, a supervisor at the Johnson County crime lab, said that should be changed. Her lab started occasionally finding BZP two years ago, but it skyrocketed, she said. “We’re surprised now when we get (Ecstasy) instead of BZP.”

Other state crime labs are starting to report the same. In Ohio, labs first found the worm-killer drugs in January 2008 and within a year they were in more than half the pills tested, according to an Ohio report.

The report also said some users call Ecstasy “a surprise high,” because they never know what they’re getting or how strong it will be. Drugs like caffeine, methamphetamine and even heroin also sometimes get into the pills.

Forget exact dosages and quality control, Clark said, and sloppy manufacturing also can make people sick from bacteria or chemical contamination.

In Australia, more than 60 people have died in the past eight years from Ecstasy or another drug substituted for it, according to media reports.

In the United States, there are no comprehensive numbers on deaths, but reports from cities in eight states found it was involved in 50 deaths in 2005, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

From United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime:

At 10 a.m. Washington D.C. local time (EDT) today, UNODC will release the 2009 edition of its flagship publication, the World Drug Report.  A webcast of the press conference and all relevant materials can be found at http://live.unodc.org.

This year, for the first time, the World Drug Report includes special sections on the quality of drug data available to UNODC, trends in drug use among young people and drug-related offences recorded by police. It also addresses the black market for drugs, one of the most formidable unintended consequences of drug control, and ways in which the international community can best tackle it.

Every year, the World Drug Report provides one of the most complete assessments of the international drug problem, with comprehensive information on the illicit drug situation. It provides detailed estimates and information on trends in the production, trafficking and use of opium/heroin, coca/cocaine, cannabis and amphetamine-type stimulants. The Report, based on data and estimates collected or prepared by Governments, UNODC and other international institutions, attempts to identify trends in the evolution of global illicit drug markets.

Through the World Drug Report, UNODC aims to enhance Member States' understanding of global illicit drug trends and increase their awareness of the need for the more systematic collection and reporting of data relating to illicit drugs.

The Report is being launched as run-up to World Drug Day on 26 June, and will be available on unodc.org.

Canada now a major exporter of methamphetamine, UN report says
From the National Post (Canada):

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime has released its 2009 World Drug Report, and among the surprisingly complete picture of the global drugs trade, it appears that in recent years Canada's traffickers have come to play an alarmingly prominent role.

Among the findings in the 306-page report is that Canada and Mexico have picked up the slack in the production of methamphetamine as efforts to close meth labs in the United States since their peak in 2004 have borne fruit.

The report says "there is evidence that Canada-based Asian organized crime groups and outlaw motorcycle gangs have significantly increased the amount of methamphetamine they manufacture and export since 2003, for the US market, but also for Oceania and East and South-East Asia.

AFP reports that the production of heroin, cocaine and cannabis decreased or stabilized in 2008, but synthetic drugs like ecstasy went up.

It also found that "Canada has grown to be the most important producer of MDMA for North America, and since 2006, all ecstasy laboratories reported have been large capacity facilities operated principally by Asian organized crime groups.

The report also says that eradication efforts in the U.S. and Canada have had the perverse effect of making the marijuana crop many times as potent as it was 20 years ago, while still being the most widely available illicit drug. Serious health and psychology side effects are now as likely among marijuana users as those who use other 'harder' drugs.

Worldwide production of heroin and cocaine falling, says UN drug chief
From the Guardian:

Drug use should be treated more as an illness than a crime, the head of the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime said today as the body's annual report announced a worldwide decline in the production of cocaine and heroin.

The report for 2009 called for traffickers to be targeted rather than users and announced that there was a worldwide growth in synthetic drugs.

It also said the UK now had the largest number of cocaine users in western Europe, although the per capita rates were higher in Spain. The purity of the cocaine on sale in the UK has declined substantially, with less than 5% purity.

Britain had the highest number of "problem" drug users – as opposed to those who use drugs occasionally – in western Europe. The UK was also seizing more amphetamines than any other country in Europe.

Antonio Maria Costa, director of the UNODC, called for universal access to drug treatment and said: "People who take drugs need medical help, not criminal retribution."

He said that was one of the best ways of shrinking the market as people with serious drug problems provide the bulk of demand. He added that legalisation of drugs was not the answer.

According to the report, opium cultivation in Afghanistan, where 93% of the world's opium is grown, declined by 19% in 2008. Colombia, which produces half of the world's cocaine, saw an 18% decline in cultivation and a 28% decline in production compared with 2007.

Global coca production, at 845 tonnes, was said to be at a five-year low, despite some increases in cultivation in Peru and Bolivia.

Seismic shifts were taking place in the $50bn (£30bn) global cocaine market, the report suggested. "Purity levels and seizures [in main consumer countries] are down, prices are up, and consumption patterns are in flux. In Central America, cartels are fighting for a shrinking market."

Cannabis remains the most widely cultivated and used drug around the world. Data also shows that it is more harmful than commonly believed, said the report. The average THC content (the harmful component) of hydroponic marijuana in North America almost doubled in the past decade, which led to a big rise in the number of people seeking treatment.

The world's biggest markets for cannabis were North America, Oceania and western Europe. For cocaine, North America and some parts of western Europe remain the main markets.

While the use of amphetamines, methamphetamine and ecstasy has levelled off in developed countries, production and consumption may be growing elsewhere in the world. Industrial-sized laboratories in south-east Asia, it added, were producing massive quantities of methamphetamine tablets, crystal meth and other substances such as Ketamine.

The report concluded that illegal drug seizures were up in 2007 and all drug seizure totals were close to all-time highs; about 18 to 28 million people are heavy drug users who are likely to be "physically or psychologically dependent"; opiates and cocaine have about 16 to 21 million users each; between 11 and 21 million people inject drugs; between 16 and 51 million were amphetamine-group users in the past year; and between 12 and 23 million took ecstasy.

From MedPage Today:

Chronic opioid therapy significantly increases the risk of multiple hormonal deficiencies that warrant evaluation, according to data from small retrospective study.

Hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism topped the list, occurring in 16 of 25 patients, Murray Gordon, MD, of Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, reported at the Endocrine Society meeting.

Ten patients each had growth hormone deficiency and adrenal insufficiency. On average, the 25 patients had 1.68 disorders associated with hypopituitarism.

About half of the patients had combined deficiencies.

"Patients treated with chronic opioid therapy should be thoroughly evaluated for hypothalamic-pituitary dysfunction," said Dr. Gordon. "Larger prospective studies are required to confirm these findings. The effects of treatments need to be assessed in patients with hypopituitarism associated with chronic use of opioids."

Though infrequently documented in medical literature, isolated reports of adverse endocrine effects from chronic opioid use date back more than a century, said Dr. Gordon.

Opioids' known effects on endocrine pathways include suppression of gonadotropin-releasing hormone, suppression of adrenocorticotropic hormone, and suppression of growth hormone.

However, little information has accumulated regarding the effects of chronic opioid use on hypothalamic-pituitary function.

To examine the issue, Dr. Gordon and colleagues retrospectively reviewed medical records of chronic opioid users referred for assessment of hypothalamic-pituitary function.

The study population comprised 14 men and 11 women, all of whom had received opioids for more than six months.

The forms of chronic opioid therapy consisted of fentanyl patch for seven patients, hydrocodone for five, oxycodone (Oxycontin) for four, sustained-release morphine and methadone for three patients each, an intrathecal morphine pump for two, and hydromorphone for one.

All the patients underwent dynamic pituitary testing and measurement of baseline pituitary function.

Hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism was defined as low testosterone or estradiol with inappropriately nonelevated gonadotropins.

Ten men and six women met the criteria for the condition. All of the men had low testosterone levels and low gonadotropin levels.

All of the women had low estradiol levels and either low or low-normal gonadotropins. Three of the six were premenopausal, and all six were amenorrheic.

The investigators defined adrenal insufficiency as low levels of cortisol and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) or a low stimulated peak cortisol level.

The 10 patients with adrenal insufficiency had lower cortisol levels (P<0.007), basal ACTH levels (P<0.001), and stimulated peak cortisol levels (P<0.03) compared with patients who had normal adrenal function.

Growth hormone deficiency was defined as a low insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) or a low stimulated peak growth hormone level.

Patients with the deficiency had significantly lower IGF-1 levels (P<0.007) and a significantly lower peak stimulated growth hormone level (P<0.001).

All of the patients had either a peak hormone level <3 ng/mL or a peak stimulated hormone level <5 ng/mL in association with low IGF-1 and multiple pituitary deficiencies.

The investigators found no evidence of hypothyroidism in any patient.

MRI scans of 24 of the 25 patients revealed a normal pituitary in 15, six with heterogenous pituitaries, and three with partial empty sella.

There were 9 patients with single deficiencies, and 16 with combined deficiencies. 64% had hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism, 60% had adrenal insufficiency, and 64% had growth hormone deficiency.

From USA Today:

Saturnino Allende crouches beside a mountain path and gently puts his fingers around the stem of a plant with rough, tongue-shaped leaves.

"This is it," he says about the powerful hallucinogen Salvia divinorum, known as "magic mint." In just a few years, it has emerged from Mexico's Indian villages into one of the hottest drugs in the USA and a crucial cash crop for poor farmers here.

The good times may be coming to an end, as 11 states have rushed to pass laws that restrict the use of salvia, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is studying whether it should be banned nationwide.

"There was no legitimate purpose for that herb, and the things it was being used for were potentially harmful," says Thom Collier, a former state representative who wrote the Ohio law that outlawed salvia in April. "We thought it would be better to deter this sooner than later."

A ban in Nebraska takes effect in September. California and Maine prohibit selling salvia to minors, and Louisiana and Tennessee limit it to animal consumption, as in scientific research. Ten countries ban salvia, and six others have restrictions on selling it, according to the Salvia divinorum Research and Information Center, a website about salvia.

Wholesalers are already making fewer trips to Mexico's Sierra Mazateca as the legal markets dry up. Carlos Campos, president of Aztecas Plants, says his company has a warehouse full of salvia in the Mexican city of Orizaba. He told farmers who grow the crop to cut production.

"This is an important part of their economy," Campos says. "These legal issues really hurt."

The United States and Mexico don't keep figures on salvia sales, but Campos said business was booming until just recently. In 2008, he exported 8 tons of salvia leaves to the U.S. and Europe, up from 550 pounds in 2002.

Videos on websites such as YouTube showing users laughing hysterically after a few puffs helped spur salvia's popularity. A 2008 report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said 1.8 million Americans have used the herb, and 756,000 had used it the previous year.

On a recent afternoon, Steve Pollard, owner of Arena Ethnobotanicals, an importer based in Britain and San Diego, and Campos handed out roasted chicken, tortillas and beer to about 50 Mazatecs who had hiked two hours through the mountains to sell their salvia leaves.

By mid-afternoon Campos' truck was filled with black garbage bags containing 1,185 pounds of dried salvia leaf.

Before salvia, this region about 170 miles southeast of Mexico City was better known for its psychedelic mushrooms. Albert Hoffman, the inventor of LSD, came here to try them with the Mazatec medicine men. So did the Beatles' George Harrison.

The magic mushrooms, salvia leaves and psychedelic seeds of morning glories make up the Mazatec medicine man's "tool kit" to help diagnose illnesses, says Jose Luis Díaz, an expert on traditional psychedelics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

The local healers grind the leaves into a drink and feed it to a patient. "It's done in silence, in a dark place, to avoid any outside stimulus that might interfere with the experience," Díaz says.

The hallucinations can be intensely emotional and include feelings of floating above the body or having visions, Díaz says. Most foreigners smoke the leaf, says John Boyd, CEO of Arena Ethnobotanicals. "Head shops" and Internet sites sell leaves fortified with salvia extract, making them five to 35 times stronger.

"It's not a party drug, and it's not a substitute for marijuana," Boyd says. "Most people try it once, put it in a drawer and never touch it again."

Many farmers here say they don't really understand the legal issues over salvia. Federico Basilio looks confused when a reporter refers to the leaves as an enervante, or drug.

"I don't really know how they use (salvia) up there," Basilio says of the USA. "But for us, it's been a good crop."

From PRWeb:

A recent report in the medical journal Neurology documented several patients in which zinc poisoning was a result of their denture cream. In the past, dental patients commonly reported disliking the smell, taste, and general messiness of denture creams.

The neurology article found that minor changes in the amount of electrical particles (ions) operating the body's nervous system can have disastrous results to one's overall health. Some of the symptoms in the studied patients wearing denture cream included: numbness and weakness in the arms and legs resulting in wheelchair dependence, urinary tract infection (bladder infection), mental cognitive decline, hand weakness and numbness, poor balance, progressive numbness, loss of sense of vibration, and poor muscular coordination. The patients documented were in their 40's and not long-time adhesive wearers.

Dr. James McAnally, Seattle's most recommended by fellow peers implant dentist and noted international dental authority, comments, "We've always seen patients seeking to rid themselves of dentures because of functional problems such as not being able to eat the foods they wish. The adhesives have also been a major motivational factor for these patients as well since adhesive were never all that effective at stabilizing or holding dentures in place. Now with this new information, there is a health risk we never knew about. Quite literally, form the health perspective, patients should be inquiring with their dentist on options where they would no longer have to use denture creams. If you've been putting off getting rid of dentures, this truly is one of the most profound reasons to seek care."

From United Press International:

A 17-state study found about one-quarter of those who died by suicide were above the legal limit for alcohol intoxication, U.S. health officials said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report, issued Thursday, said the study showed alcohol was linked to suicide across a variety of populations including sex, age and racial/ethnic groups.

The CDC analyzed data from the National Violent Death Reporting System for the two-year period 2005-2006 to examine the relationship between alcohol and suicide among racial/ethnic groups.

The results of the analysis showed that based upon blood alcohol concentration, the overall prevalence of alcohol intoxication -- blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 mg/dL -- was 23.6 percent among those who died by suicide. The highest percentage was among American Indian/Alaska Native at 37.1 percent, followed by Hispanics/Latinos at 28.7 percent and among those ages 20-49 at 28.2 percent, the study said.