William Fisher

NEW YORK, May 24 2006 (IPS) – Two weeks from now, a South Carolina pain management physician will surrender at the Talladega, Alabama prison to begin serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence for drug trafficking, racketeering and money laundering.
Dr. Michael Jackson is one of hundreds of pain management specialists arrested, charged and jailed by federal and state authorities for violating the Controlled Substances Act, designed to limit the dispensing of illegal prescription drugs by doctors and their use by patients.

Meanwhile, the high profile right-wing radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, charged with doctor shopping for prescription medication for chronic back pain, reached a settlement with the Florida state attorney, under which the charges will b…

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Jun 27 2006 (IPS) – Global opium production, particularly in Southeast Asia, fell during 2005, while cocaine production was broadly unchanged compared to 2004, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which released its 2006 World Drug Report here Monday.
The two-volume report, which singled out efforts by Laos to stamp out opium production for special praise, warned that cocaine consumption in Western Europe has reached alarming levels . It also featured a special section suggesting that the world s most popular illicit drug, cannibis, may be more dangerous than previously believed.

What progress in drug control has been made could be easily reversed, particularly if farmers in major opium- or coca-growing areas are not provided d…

Stephen Leahy

BROOKLIN, Canada, Aug 9 2006 (IPS) – The world s largest gathering of HIV/AIDS experts and activists will meet in Toronto starting on Sunday with renewed hopes of halting the spread of this devastating disease, which an estimated 40 million people are currently living with.
Their hope arises from better treatment and prevention programmes, huge increases in funding, and data released earlier this year that the global proportion of people infected with HIV is thought to have peaked in the late 1990s and to have stabilised today, according to UNAIDS.

And so the mood of the more than 24,000 delegates to the six-day International AIDS Conference, which starts Aug. 13, may well be one of cautious optimism.

This is one of the conferences that is going…

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Sep 12 2006 (IPS) – It is called the poor man s drug and its use soared during Argentina s economic crisis of 2002. But while cocaine sulfate, a cheap drug known here as pasta base, is literally destroying young people in the slums of this South American country, it also has its middle-class and adult users.
Victoria Rangugni, a social worker with the Intercambios Civil Association for the Study of and Attention to Drug-Related Problems, told IPS that middle-class youngsters and adults tend to use pasta base in a less visible manner and with greater self-control, reducing the health damages.

Her conclusions were based on a study she coordinated on the consumption of pasta base among middle-income users in Argentina, presented late last mo…

Fulgence Zamblé

ABIDJAN, Oct 8 2006 (IPS) – Increasing sexual violence in Côte d Ivoire has prompted rights organisations to call for an end to a culture of impunity which they claim has encouraged this trend particularly as concerns the military.
Since September 2002, Côte d Ivoire has been divided into a rebel-controlled north and government-dominated south. Many rights violations, especially against women, have been reported by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and victims themselves in the past four years with soldiers amongst those most frequently accused of rape.

While Ivorian legislation provides for jail terms of up to 20 years for rape, the political crisis in this West African country has undermined its judicial system, creating the climate of impunit…

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 13 2006 (IPS) – Brazil s minister of health, Agenor Álvares, has admitted that the public health system is imbued with racism, stirring up more controversy over policies for specific treatment plans targeting Brazilians of African descent.
There are clear signs of discriminatory practices, one possible factor in the higher incidence among Afro-descendants of a number of illnesses, the minister said at a seminar on the special policies two weeks ago in Rio de Janeiro.

There have been similar critical responses to other programmes designed to correct social inequalities in Brazil. Some say that poverty, not ethnic origin, is the reason that health indicators are worse among blacks, while others argue that Brazil s racial mix has eliminat…