Addictions

It was, back then, a joke Luis Pinto shared with his Army buddies in Iraq. As they were all eating food out of tin cans, living out of rucksacks, moving constantly from place to place, Pinto cracked, "If I become homeless, I'm ready." But five years later he didn't actually expect to find himself sleeping in alleys in Whittier or in friends' cars, too busy getting high to hold down a regular job. A suicide attempt on March 16 was the shock he needed to start putting his life back together.

Here's a recipe for academic controversy: First, find dozens of hard-core teenage smokers as young as 14 and study their brains with high-tech scans. Second, feed vervet monkeys liquid nicotine and then kill at least six of them to examine their brains. Third, accept $6 million from tobacco giant Philip Morris to pay for it all. Fourth, cloak the project in unusual secrecy.

Nothing GETS in the way of a lucrative rock reunion quite like a jail stint -- even an extremely short one. Just ask the members of Stone Temple Pilots, the multi-platinum-selling, stadium-rocking, alterna-grunge band that recently reunited after more than half a decade's "separation" (don't call it a breakup) to mount a 65-date tour of North America's top-tier summer music festivals and amphitheaters (with a stop at the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday).

DRUG AND alcohol abuse sets people on a path toward heart disease, cancer and other chronic illnesses. A study in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment reports that hospital costs for this medical fallout can be substantial -- and could be avoided with more drug and alcohol treatment. Lead author Patricia Santora of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and colleagues found that 14% of people admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1994 to 2002 were alcohol or drug abusers.

Cocaine repels most insects -- which is why the coca plant makes the chemical in the first place. But in a surprising new finding, U.S. and Australian researchers reported Friday that honeybees are susceptible to the drug's insidious lure. They become addicted, and even suffer withdrawal symptoms when they no longer have access.

Would-be dieters and exercisers aren't the only ones hoping to start and stick to programs this month. The greatest surge in admissions to alcohol and drug rehabilitation centers also comes at the start of the new year. Requests for treatment and admissions to rehab centers increase after the holidays, say experts at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and treatment centers around the country.

Samantha McCandless began smoking when she was 9 after her teenage baby sitter hooked her on cigarettes. More than a quarter-century later, despite being a nursing supervisor at a busy trauma center, McCandless has no plans to stop. Three or four times during a 12-hour shift, McCandless takes a break and smokes in the hospital's designated area. She knows the health risks. "But I like smoking," McCandless, 36, said during a break at Louisville's University Hospital emergency room.

Smokers with injuries in a specific part of their brains kick their habits instantly -- without the intense cravings that can make it so hard to quit, a new study reports today. The researchers from USC and the University of Iowa linked a brain area called the insula to the powerful urges that cause people to continue smoking. Smokers with damaged insulas were 136 times more likely to have their addictions erased than smokers with damage in other parts of their brains, researchers said.

A man who was fired by IBM Corp. for visiting an adult chat room at work is suing the company for $5 million, claiming that he is an Internet addict who deserves treatment and sympathy rather than dismissal. James Pacenza, 58, of Montgomery, N.Y., said he visited chat rooms to treat traumatic stress incurred in 1969 when he saw his best friend killed during an Army patrol in Vietnam.

An intensive stop-smoking program with at least three months of counseling and free drugs can help smokers kick the habit, researchers report. Researchers at the Cardiac Center of Creighton University in Omaha divided 209 smokers into two groups. All should have been highly motivated -- they were patients in the coronary-care unit suffering from heart attacks, severe coronary heart disease or a type of chest pain known as unstable angina.