more snuggeting

sunday is heroin day in the nytimes

apparently Russia has not been paying attention.

Russia, Plagued by Heroin Use, to Press U.S. on Destroying Afghan Poppy Crops
By Ellen Barry
MOSCOW — During talks this week with his American counterpart, Russia’s top drug enforcement official, Viktor P. Ivanov, will press the United States to step up efforts to destroy Afghan poppy cultivation, which he said was feeding a devastating drug problem in Russia. ....
“I would call on the United States to use defoliation from the air,” Mr. Ivanov said. ....

The main source of heroin to Boston is Colombia, where we have spent billions on poppy and coca eradication. >>
Low Price, High Power Raise Heroin Deaths
BOSTON -- A lethal combination of rock bottom prices combined with a spike in the potency and availability of heroin on Massachusetts streets has led to an increase in the number of heroin-related deaths in recent years. ....
read the article here and look at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Death report here

Wales OD prevention program = headline tease

I responded to this headline with curiosity and enthusiasm. Upon reading the article, not so much. I was imagining texting codes that triggered situation-specific advice or the steps to follow for rescue breathing .... something of substance, anyway. Certainly not already ubiquitous, unproductive catch phrases:
Addicts get text overdose advice
Drug users in Swansea are being asked to sign up to be sent mobile texts on what to do if they overdose and how to reduce their addiction risks.
Messages such as "Overdose: Don't panic. Put them in the recovery position, dial 999" will be sent out.....

TEXT EXAMPLES
•OVERDOSE: Don't panic. Put them in the recovery position, dial 999, ask for an ambulance and stay with them until the ambulance arrives
•OVERDOSE:If someone is going to inject it is safer NOT to use on their own. Don't mix drugs
•DUMPING WORKS ( gizmos, spokes, spoons or fliters in public spaces is NOT OK. Keep everybody safe and dispose of them properly
•NEVER SHARE cookers, spikes, spoons or filters. Identify your own works to avoid any mix ups.

oh boy

Van Jones resignation

I thought I must be reading an Onion article; a community organizer from San Francisco signed a petition about the Iraq war and supports Mumia? uh, news at 11.

White House Official Resigns After G.O.P. Criticism
By John M. Broder
WASHINGTON — White House officials on Sunday tersely accepted the resignation of the administration’s special adviser for environmental jobs after a number of his past statements became fodder for conservative critics and Republican officials.
The adviser, Van Jones, a controversial and charismatic community organizer and “green jobs” advocate from the San Francisco Bay Area, signed a petition in 2004 questioning whether the Bush administration had allowed the terrorist attacks of September 2001 to provide a pretext for war in the Middle East.
He also used a vulgarity to refer to Republicans just before being appointed to his White House post early this year, and he has publicly supported Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is on death row for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer. ....

definitely do not tax oil revenues....

remember when California was forward thinking?
Billy DeFrank Center cutting all paid staff, suspending HIV testing
By Sandra Gonzales
Billy DeFrank Center announced Tuesday that it would cut all its paid staff and temporarily suspend HIV testing as it deals with the realities of a shrinking budget. ....
Since about 20% of people with HIV in the US do not know they are positive, this is really great news.... no, not so much.

and, as long as we are busy conflating health insurance with state mandated euthanasia, let's definitely conflate rapist-kidnappers with the thousands of people in prison for drug possession....
Schwarzenegger to take prison fight to U.S. Supreme Court