New research by scientists at the University of Cambridge suggests that chronic cocaine abuse accelerates the process of brain aging. The study, published today in Molecular Psychiatry, found that age-related loss of grey matter in the brain is greater in people who are dependent on cocaine than in the healthy population.

For the study, the researchers scanned the brains of 120 people with similar age, gender and verbal IQ. Half of the individuals had a dependence on cocaine while the other 60 had no history of substance abuse disorders.

The researchers found that the rate of age-related grey matter volume loss in cocaine-dependent individuals was significantly greater than in healthy volunteers. The cocaine users lost about 3.08 ml brain volume per year, which is almost twice the rate of healthy volunteers (who only lost about 1.69 ml per year). The accelerated age-related decline in brain volume was most prominent in the prefrontal and temporal cortex, important regions of the brain which are associated with attention, decision-making, and self-regulation as well as memory.

Previous studies have shown that psychological and physiological changes typically associated with old age such as cognitive decline, brain atrophy and immunodeficiency are also seen in middle-aged cocaine-dependent individuals. However, this is the first time that premature ageing of the brain has been associated with chronic cocaine abuse.

Dr Karen Ersche, of the Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute (BCNI) at the University of Cambridge, said: “As we age, we all lose grey matter. However, what we have seen is that chronic cocaine users lose grey matter at a significantly faster rate, which could be a sign of premature aging. Our findings therefore provide new insight into why the cognitive deficits typically seen in old age have frequently been observed in middle aged chronic users of cocaine.”

The scientists also highlight concerns that premature aging in chronic cocaine users is an emerging public health concern. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that cocaine is used by up to 21 million individuals worldwide, with approximately 1 per cent of these individuals becoming dependent.

Dr Ersche said: “Our findings clearly highlight the need for preventative strategies to address the risk of premature aging associated with cocaine abuse. Young people taking cocaine today need to be educated about the long-term risk of aging prematurely.”

The concern of accelerated aging is not limited to young people but also affects older adults who have been abusing drugs such as cocaine since early adulthood.

Dr Ersche added: “Our findings shed light on the largely neglected problem of the growing number of older drug users, whose needs are not so well catered for in drug treatment services. It is timely for heath care providers to understand and recognize the needs of older drug users in order to design and administer age-appropriate treatments.”

Source: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/chronic-cocaine-use-may-speed-up-ageing-of-brain/

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Evidently the child walked to the school while she was arrested.

The mothers drivers license had been suspended for over a year as a habitual felony offender. When the officer noticed the end of a syringe sticking out of her purse, and with consent, he searched the purse finding cocaine, crack, oxycodone, and morphine along with a couple more syringes. Upon later investigation, deputies also found a dollar bill with cocaine on it.

She was charged with Possession of Crack Cocaine, Possession of Cocaine, Possession of Oxycodone, Possession of Morphine, and Possession of Narcotics Paraphernalia, Driving as a Habitual Traffic Offender, and Introduction of Contraband into a Correctional Facility. She remains in jail on $16,000 bond.

Read the story for yourself here at: http://www.facebook.com/notes/charlotte-county-sheriffs-office/ccso-arrests-mom-for-speeding-in-school-zone-that-led-to-6-drug-charges/333561626701082

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Just one more case for out dumb cocaine stories showing how an addiction can take you farther into it than you realize. As least she has the child in school. I’m sure that the child is now in foster care. It hopefully wakes us all up to the realization of what can happen when an addiction goes unchecked.

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The special needs teacher was then arrested on drug charges and possession of drug equipment.

The teacher from H.L. Watkins Middle School, employed since 2004, was released on bond and has been temporarily reassigned and has no contact with students at the school.

Read the story here; http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime/h-l-watkins-teacher-arrested-on-cocaine-charge-2312535.html
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This story qualifies for our dumb cocaine stories because it details the depth of which you can ruin your life when you become addicted to cocaine. This woman has probably ruined her career as a teacher from the cocaine addiction.

Jacksonville police responding to complaints of of prostitution and narcotics activity at a Belfort Road hotel room find a 4 year old boy in the hotel room. The police knocked and they could hear a childs voice coming from inside the room but no adults. Smelling marajuana the officers then investigated further. They had the hotel manager unlock the door, but the inside latch kept the door from opening fully.

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Results Show Potential for Life-Saving Injection

LA JOLLA, CA – April 18, 2012 ­– Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have shown that an injectable solution can protect mice from an otherwise lethal overdose of cocaine. The findings could lead to human clinical trials of a treatment designed to reverse the effects of cocaine in case of emergency. Cocaine is involved in more than 400,000 emergency-room visits and about 5,000 overdose deaths each year in the United States.

The findings, reported recently in the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics, demonstrate the therapeutic potential of a human antibody against cocaine.

“This would be the first specific antidote for cocaine toxicity,” said Scripps Research Kim Janda, PhD, senior author of the report. A pioneer in the field of vaccines against drugs of abuse, Janda is the Ely R. Callaway, Jr. Chair in Chemistry, a professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbial Science, and director of The Worm Institute for Research and Medicine, all at Scripps Research. “It’s a human antibody so it should be relatively safe, it has a superior affinity for cocaine, and we examined it in a cocaine overdose model that mirrors a real-life scenario,” he said.

Candidate Vaccines

Janda and his laboratory colleagues have been developing candidate vaccines against cocaine, heroin, nicotine, and even Rohypnol, the “date-rape” drug. But most of these have been active vaccines—solutions of drug-mimicking molecules that provoke a long-term antibody response against a drug, greatly reducing its ability to reach the brain. These are potentially useful against addiction and relapse, but take weeks to stimulate an effective antibody response and thus are of limited value in drug overdose emergencies, which require a fast-acting antidote. Cocaine is a leading cause of illegal-drug overdoses in developed countries; it can cause hyperthermia, irregular heartbeats, seizures and death.

One possibility for an antidote is a “passive” cocaine vaccine, a ready-made solution of antibodies much like those used to treat snakebite. As Janda and his colleagues have shown in previous research, injected drug-specific antibodies can swiftly remove drug molecules from the bloodstream. This immediately reduces a drug’s direct effects on the heart and nearby organs, but it also pulls the drug from the organ where it does the most damage—the brain. If the drug molecules are small enough to cross the blood-brain barrier, the sudden lowering of their bloodstream concentration causes them to diffuse rapidly out of brain tissue.

Cocaine molecules are small enough to diffuse this way, and in 2005 Janda and his lab reported that injections of a mouse-derived anti-cocaine antibody, GNC92H2, could keep mice alive despite cocaine doses that killed unprotected mice. Mouse antibodies are not ideal for use in humans, though; they are “foreign” enough that human immune systems eventually develop a reaction against them.

Promising New Results

In the new study, Janda and Jennifer B. Treweek, PhD, a research associate in Janda’s laboratory, used a genetically engineered mouse that can produce fully human antibodies against cocaine molecules. The best of these antibodies, GNCgzk, showed ten times the cocaine-binding affinity of GNC92H2, the molecule in the 2005 study.

In a preliminary test, the scientists showed an injection of GNCgzk antibodies 30 minutes before an injection of a lethal cocaine dose greatly reduced the signs of overdose—such as awkward movements and seizures—and kept all treated mice alive. By contrast, about half of untreated mice and 15 percent of GNC92H2-treated mice died.

In a test that better simulated a real-life emergency situation, mice were first given a cocaine overdose, and three minutes later were infused with GNCgzk. About half of untreated mice were killed by such a dose. While GNC92H2 reduced that rate to about 28 percent, the new GNCgzk antibodies reduced the mortality rate further, to 20 percent.

More strikingly, a stripped-down version of GNCgzk—F(ab’)₂-gzk, which contains only the antibody’s cocaine-binding segments—reduced the mortality to zero, as well as significantly reducing overdose signs such as seizures. It also did so at a much smaller, clinically feasible dose than GNC92H2’s. “There was a reversal of the signs of cocaine toxicity within seconds of the injection,” said Treweek.

Janda and Treweek are now trying to find ways to produce their F(ab’)₂-gzk antidote economically and in large quantities. “If we can do that, then there would be no reason not to push it into clinical trials,” Janda said.

He notes that such a treatment could be useful not only in reducing the immediate effects of an overdose, but also in preventing near-term relapses. “A lot of people that overdose end up going back to the drug rather quickly,” Janda said, “but this antibody would stay in their circulation for a few weeks at least, and during that time the drug wouldn’t have an effect on them.” Likewise, this antibody could be administered to patients in addiction recovery or detox programs as a prophylactic treatment to supplement other medications, such as antidepressants, and counseling.  An acute relapse during this recovery period would be immediately nullified by the antibody dose that is already in circulation.

The research in the paper “An Antidote for Acute Cocaine Toxicity” was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health and Scripps Research’s Skaggs Institute of Chemical Biology. For more information on the paper, see http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/mp200588v

About The Scripps Research Institute

The Scripps Research Institute is one of the world’s largest independent, non-profit biomedical research organizations. Scripps Research is internationally recognized for its discoveries in immunology, molecular and cellular biology, chemistry, neuroscience, and vaccine development, as well as for its insights into autoimmune, cardiovascular, and infectious disease. Headquartered in La Jolla, California, the institute also includes a campus in Jupiter, Florida, where scientists focus on drug discovery and technology development in addition to basic biomedical science. Scripps Research currently employs about 3,000 scientists, staff, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students on its two campuses. The institute’s graduate program, which awards Ph.D. degrees in biology and chemistry, is ranked among the top ten such programs in the nation. For more information, see www.scripps.edu.

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2012/04/13/3881332/officials-cocaine-use-by-pregnant.html#storylink=cpy

Mr. Mach evidently rear-ended an ambulance on the Chicago expressway injuring both the patient in the ambulance and himself. The patient suffered minor injuries and Mack suffered possible internal injuries and a dislocated hip.

The ambulance driver and para medics were unhurt and told police he was moving at an appropriate speed at the time. The ambulance was on the ramp to northbound Interstate 294 from westbound Interstate 90 when a 2007 silver Toyota Prius driven by Mach rear-ended it, Hasan said.

The police said that Mach was high on cocaine at the time.

Information from: Chicago Tribune, http://www.chicagotribune.com

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Editorial:

The thought that comes to mind is “Mach speed” a play on words and names. Cocaine and speed bearing the similarities for a high, would easily cause such of a happening.  Often when we are in these scenarios we do not realize how much our reaction time is impaired. Those of us who have been delivered or have gotten off of the habit often look back and wonder how we fared as well as we did.

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If one is doing cocaine on the casual basis, then they are probably buying it out of pocket. The money spent on the cocaine is probably not going back into the economy in a productive manner. Some of it the dealer will spend. but not much.

If one is doing cocaine lightly on a regular basis, then they could be buying it out of pocket (until the addiction gets out of control and they lose their source of income) for they will concentrate on buying cocaine and not on necessities. It is very probable that if they still have a job, they will start stealing to support their habit.

If one heavily is addicted they will not be working and will take up dealing or stealing to support their habit. If they are dealing, they will also steal to support their habit because they will use up more than their profit.

Now consider the consequences of the stealing for supporting the habit. When they fence the stolen goods, they will get 10% – 20% of the value. Pawn and fencing percentages have gone down with the economy because of the influx of goods and the volume of sales also going down. If the user has a habit that costs $100 a day, then he has to steal about $500 – $1000 worth of goods to support the habit.

With the rise in crime goes a rise in police force costs, insurance costs, etc. and the costs on the economy just snowball. Then take into effect the amount of money which is taken out of circulation which will not only stimulate the economy but would mostly be taxable at some point. Multiply this by the number of severe addicts you have in your area and determine the local effect.

Authorities said that a man from Round Lake Heights died after a baggie of cocaine he swallowed during a Super Bowl party ruptured inside his system.

Lake County Coroner Artis Yancey reported that Ponce died of cocaine intoxication, caused after a bag of cocaine ruptured in his system. Juan Ponce, 42, died at Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital at 8:06 a.m. on Feb. 6.

Ponce was bar hopping in Wauconda while watching the Super Bowl the evening of Feb. 5, then stayed overnight at a friend’s house in the 400 block of Woodland Avenue, according to Wauconda Police Chief Doug Larson.

Ponce woke up the next morning, but then collapsed only several moments later, Larson said. The unidentified friend then called paramedics and Ponce was rushed to the Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital, where he later died.

“At some point during the Super Bowl, he was at a location and felt like someone was watching him,” Larson said. “So, he voluntarily swallowed the baggie of cocaine.”

Yancey said  it was unclear how many grams of cocaine was in the baggie when it was swallowed and how much was left in the baggie that was recovered from his system. Yancey added that a portion of the drug had dissolved prior to Ponce falling ill in Wauconda. Police Chief Larson said there was no signs of foul play, and nothing suspicious found prior to the autopsy.

“Witnesses and friends told investigators that he was always anxious and concerned that people were following him,” Larson said. “As far as we know, no one from law enforcement was following him that night. So, why he swallowed the baggie is something we will never truly know.”

Source: http://dailyherald.com/article/20120217/news/702179707/

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Editorial Comment: The story even though it goes into the Dumb Cocaine Stories, because it is dumb to swallow cocaine, stresses the side effects of cocaine. The paranoia that goes with cocaine addiction causes us to do dumb and stupid things and take no thought of the outcome.  The addiction is so strong that the desire overrides all common sense.

This story reiterates the fact that sensible people become unsensible when the cocaine addiction overcomes their common sense.

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Evidently school staff called the police under the belief that she was high. The daughter is now released into her grandparents’ care.

Source: http://www.local12.com/news/local/story/Police-Say-Mom-Brought-Drugs-To-School-Valentine/PGQKzESRXE-ZZgBuPzjQdQ.cspx

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Editorial Comment On:

Mother Brought Drugs to Her Daughters School Party

Let us note, the accused is innocent until proven guilty. However being caught with drugs on school property is serious charges and also a plain sigh that she needs help. Anytime that any of us gets that out of control that we go to a kids school party high, it shows that we need help. This story goes into the Dumb Cocaine Stories, but most of us realize how the cocaine addict can easily get into this situation. We post it there realizing that we have also done stupid, but with the hope that it might wake someone who is addicted up by reading the story.

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