"Exploding demand for clean needles pushes Alaska’s biggest syringe exchange to the edge"

Via Drudge:  All day long, the users of Alaska's biggest syringe exchange arrive carrying detergent jugs and Gatorade bottles stuffed with used needles.

Some come in shiny trucks, others in beat-up vehicles. Some cruise up to the quiet office building on bikes. Some walk, sweating and chilled from withdrawals. A few arrive in work clothes, as if they've stepped out from an office or a construction site. Others wear pajamas.*

Unless you're an injection drug user or you work or live nearby, you might never realize that more than 100 Alaskans come to this building on Fireweed Lane every weekday to pick up clean needles and other supplies for injection drug use.

Needle exchanges are controversial. Critics see them as enabling drug use and crime. But public health officials in Alaska and nationally agree that they are a powerful tool in preventing infectious diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C.

The syringe exchange, run by the Alaskan AIDS Assistance Association, is the biggest in the state. In the midst of what Alaska's governor earlier this year declared an opioid public health disaster, it is overwhelmed with an ever-growing demand for its services.

(Link to more, *Bonus link)

"Drug Overdoses Killed More Americans Than Car Crashes or Guns"

"In 2013, the most recent year for which data is available, 46,471 people in the United States died from drug overdoses, and more than half of those deaths were caused by prescription painkillers and heroin. That compares with the 35,369 who died in motor vehicle crashes and 33,636 who died from firearms, as tallied by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

Here is how Amsterdam deals with a drug use problem.

KLEMMY FM

Lemmy's PSA regarding drugs:

Lemmy's signature hit: "Ace Of Spades:"

I reviewed his biopic, "Lemmy" here

"Even if it is not very solid data...

"... we can say definitely that there are drug problems in most parts of the world," said Theo Vos, of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, the study's senior author."

LONDON (AP) — Marijuana is the most popular illegal drug used worldwide, but addictions to popular painkillers like Vicodin, Oxycontin and codeine kill the most people, according to the first-ever global survey of illicit drug abuse.

In addition to cannabis and opioid painkillers, scientists analyzed abuse of cocaine and amphetamines in 2010, largely based on previous studies. Ecstasy and hallucinogens weren't included, because there weren't enough data. The researchers found that for all the drugs studied, men in their 20s had the highest rates of abuse. The worst-hit countries were Australia, Britain, Russia and the U.S. The study was published online Thursday in the journal, Lancet.

But there were few concrete numbers to rely on and researchers used modeling techniques to come up with their estimates.

Global burden of disease attributable to illicit drug use and dependence: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010

Background:

No systematic attempts have been made to estimate the global and regional prevalence of amphetamine, cannabis, cocaine, and opioid dependence, and quantify their burden. We aimed to assess the prevalence and burden of drug dependence, as measured in years of life lived with disability (YLDs), years of life lost (YLLs), and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs).

Skipping all the way down...

Funding:

Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.