Word: heroinism
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...June 3 in Laos' capital, Vientiane, Samantha Orobator, 20, was handed a life sentence on a heroin-trafficking conviction, the final twist in a case that has drawn attention to a country that, despite its growing tourist appeal, is repressively ruled by one of the world's last socialist cliques. Although Orobator was arrested last August, she was for months denied any legal representation. Her trial was conducted behind closed doors, and Amnesty International said the British woman's case "highlights a justice system shrouded in secrecy." (See pictures of Mexico's drug tunnels...
Orobator has denied the charges of attempted transport of 680 grams of heroin through Vientiane's international airport last year. She maintains that she has no idea how the drugs found their way into her possession. The backpacker trail in Southeast Asia is rife with rumors of regional airport officials sneaking drugs into unsuspecting travelers' bags in exchange for bribes, but the veracity of such tales is hard to prove. (Read "Burma's Opium Production Back on Rise...
LITTLE OLD LADIES caught selling heroin. Profiling doesn't work...
That was the precisely the situation that Bigg walked into about two years ago, when he found a clammy, unconscious 25-year-old man sprawled out on a La-Z-Boy in a chic Chicago townhouse. He had overdosed on heroin and GHB (a party drug that is also used as a date-rape drug), according to his two panicked friends. The friends were high too, and afraid to call 911, so they called Bigg instead, whom they knew from Chicago Recovery Alliance's needle-exchange program...
While dramatic tales are many, it's still not clear how effective naloxone programs are overall. Research on their impact has only just begun. One study, published in the Journal of Addictive Diseases in 2006, found that after increasing for years, heroin-overdose deaths in Chicago dropped 20% in 2001, the year Bigg's program began, and fell an additional 10% the following year. So far, addiction researchers say no significant problems have been reported with naloxone use, but they concede that much more studying needs to be done...