Drug Abuse

Drug abuse: An article on prescription medication abuse by teens and young adults in Monday's Health section referred to Executive Director James Califano of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. His name is Joseph A. Califano Jr., and he is the chairman and president.

Legislators excoriated top Interior Department officials Thursday at a hearing on the sex, drugs and gifts scandal in the oil royalties program, saying the scandal could have dire ramifications for the anticipated expansion of offshore drilling along U.S. coasts. The hearing before the House Committee on Natural Resources came a week after the department's inspector general, Earl E.

Drug abuse: A Sept. 15 article on prescription medication abuse by teens and young adults referred to Executive Director James Califano of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. His name is Joseph A. Califano Jr., and he is the chairman and president.

Abuse of prescription drugs continues to be a major problem among teenagers, although fewer are smoking cigarettes, the 2008 Monitoring the Future survey reported last week. The survey, conducted for 33 years, found that nearly 10% of high school seniors reported nonmedical use of Vicodin and 4.7% reported abusing OxyContin. Both are strong opioid pain pills. Seven of the top 10 drugs abused by high school seniors were prescription or over-the-counter medications.

During their first two weeks out of prison, ex-convicts face nearly 13 times greater risk of death than the general population, according to a study of more than 30,000 former inmates published today. The leading cause was overdose of illegal narcotics, the researchers found.

Take a drug said to have fueled the taut aggression of Hitler's fighter pilots and tank crews, scatter it liberally among the children and teens in the slum areas of Cape Town -- and you have a social problem of mammoth proportions. In the United States, it is known as crystal meth, a highly addictive and toxic drug that makes users feel active, powerful and alert, with no need to eat or sleep.

Some UC Berkeley students who are denied federal financial aid because of a drug conviction will be eligible for a new scholarship funded by the student government, the organization decided this week. Though the stipends are only $400, supporters say they are a symbolic protest against a law they call unjust.

A benefit performance of a play about substance abuse, scheduled for Monday night at Culver City's Kirk Douglas Theatre, was abruptly canceled when the playwright discovered the presentation was being underwritten by Smirnoff Vodka, the New York Post reported Tuesday. According to the Post story, the performance of "Addictions," by Tricia Walsh-Smith -- wife of Shubert Organization President Phil Smith -- was to benefit the Actors' Fund of America's Chemical Dependency Program.

Defense attorneys are protesting a drug crackdown on skid row, saying petty narcotics users are increasingly being sent to prison instead of receiving treatment that could cure their addictions. Since September, police and prosecutors have targeted drug dealing in the 5th Street corridor -- an area bordered by 4th and 6th streets, Broadway and Central Avenue -- which police said was a hotspot of drug crimes.

Hers was a hard-won success: a chronically homeless drug addict on city streets for decades finally steered -- in baby steps -- into housing and the promise of a future. But the death of Leslie "Jill" May has now become one of the most dismaying tragedies of San Francisco's pervasive homeless culture. Known as "Jilly," the 49-year-old was beaten and stripped as warning to repay a $150 drug debt -- possibly her boyfriend's, authorities say.