Institute On Drug

The National Institute on Drug Abuse is expanding its drug treatment program at the Johns Hopkins University's Bayview Research Campus by offering addicts a place to get treatment and take part in drug trials.Focusing on the physical effects of cocaine, the outpatient treatment will provide 80 addicts with free drug counseling if they take part in clinical trials for new drugs, said Brian Butters, associate director of the Addiction Research Center, which is part of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

It wrecks neighborhoods, families and lives, and might be the most important public health problem faced by Western societies. Yet since chemists first isolated cocaine, morphine and heroin in the 19th century, physicians and scientists have struggled to explain the nature of addiction. There is still much to learn, but with advances in genetics, medical imaging technology and neuroscience, scientists say they are closer than ever to understanding why some people who try drugs become addicted, and some do not. "I think we made more progress in the last 10 years than in the previous history of mankind," said Frank Vocci, director of treatment and research at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which spends $1 billion annually on drug research.

WASHINGTON -- The rising popularity of methamphetamine in the eastern United States indicates a growth in nationwide use of the drug beyond its former domain in California, federal officials said yesterday.Barry R. McCaffrey, the Clinton administration's national drug policy director, said methamphetamine was "probably the worst drug to hit America in 20 years."McCaffrey released a semi-annual report on illicit drug trends that includes information collected from drug researchers, law enforcement officials and substance-abuse treatment workers.

What is happiness in America? Is it a matter of culture, or chemistry? How do we create it - and make it last? To consider such questions, Baltimore filmmaker and educator Lee Boot has created Euphoria, an ingenious documentary with "chapters" illustrated by fantastical visual metaphors. Imagine bargain hunters transplanted to the beach at Assateague Island, flexing, stretching, then racing their shopping carts toward the ocean, scooping up random objects in a frenzy of consumerism. Or think of children playing in an abandoned industrial park: As they try to shove inflated beach balls into briefcases that won't close, they embody the American quest to combine work with play.

What is happiness in America? Is it a matter of culture, or chemistry? How do we create it - and make it last? To consider such questions, Baltimore filmmaker and educator Lee Boot has created Euphoria, an ingenious documentary with "chapters" illustrated by fantastical visual metaphors. Imagine bargain hunters transplanted to the beach at Assateague Island, flexing, stretching, then racing their shopping carts toward the ocean, scooping up random objects in a frenzy of consumerism. Or think of children playing in an abandoned industrial park: As they try to shove inflated beach balls into briefcases that won't close, they embody the American quest to combine work with play.

This week, mega-superstar Michael Jackson admitted an addiction to painkillers.Last week, actor River Phoenix's autopsy revealed an overdose of cocaine and heroin caused his death.When celebrities are arrested, confess or worse -- die -- because of drugs, does all the media attention help the struggle to control the drug epidemic?"What it does is focus the general public's attention on the use of drugs by celebrities or middle-class people," says Richard Lane, director of Man Alive Research Inc., a Baltimore methadone treatment center.

Colombia's new policy of shielding drug traffickers from extradition in exchange for confessions and promises to quit the trade raises troubling questions. Five traffickers have turned themselves in so far, under a decree issued by President Cesar Gavira. That includes Fabio Ochoa Vasquez, one of the alleged leaders of the Medellin cocaine cartel, who is charged with helping to kill a federal informant.Fabio Ochoa, 33, had not been charged with a crime under Colombian law but has been indicted in the United States of murder and smuggling in $1 billion worth of illicit drugs.

WESTMINSTER HIGH School's Thomas William McDonald was a good kid -- friendly, cooperative, a respectable student with a knack for computers. Not the kind of youngster a teacher or a parent would suspect of using drugs. Yet he is dead, a few weeks shy of 17, after inhaling propellents from two cans of potpourri-scented air freshener. It is hard to imagine a more senseless way to die.The dialogue about how to save America's youth from drugs centers on the illegal stuff: cocaine, marijuana, heroin, PCP. So do in-school and community-based drug education efforts.

No one expected Dr. Joycelyn Elders' tenure as surgeon general to be marked by quiet discretion. She is outspoken and forthright, as her fellow Arkansan, President Clinton, knew when he appointed her. Even so, he may have been caught off guard by her remarks at the National Press Club this week. In reply to a question, she said she believed it would be worthwhile to examine whether legalization of drugs would cut the crime rate. The White House lost no time in saying that the issue would remain unstudied.

WASHINGTON -- Drug-use among eighth-graders increased unexpectedly last year -- a development that may be a warning to the nation of the human cost of shifting attention from the war on drugs, according to a respected University of Michigan study released yesterday.The annual survey of nearly 50,000 eighth-, 10th- and 12th-grade students nationwide found that 13- and 14-year-olds reported "modest but statistically significant" increases from 1991 and 1992 in the use of marijuana, cocaine, crack, LSD, other hallucinogens, stimulants and inhalants.

WASHINGTON - Authorities and drug abuse counselors are witnessing a sudden and dangerous spike in the use of Ecstasy, a drug once confined to nightclubs that is creeping into suburban neighborhoods. From Maryland to California, officials are seizing increasing amounts of Ecstasy, a mix of stimulant and hallucinogen that is taken as a pill. Drug use surveys also show a rise in Ecstasy use by teens. "The increase has been tremendous," said Joe Keefe, the special agent in charge of the Special Operations Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

WASHINGTON -- The rising popularity of methamphetamine in the eastern United States indicates a growth in nationwide use of the drug beyond its former domain in California, federal officials said yesterday.Barry R. McCaffrey, the Clinton administration's national drug policy director, said methamphetamine was "probably the worst drug to hit America in 20 years."McCaffrey released a semi-annual report on illicit drug trends that includes information collected from drug researchers, law enforcement officials and substance-abuse treatment workers.

WESTMINSTER HIGH School's Thomas William McDonald was a good kid -- friendly, cooperative, a respectable student with a knack for computers. Not the kind of youngster a teacher or a parent would suspect of using drugs. Yet he is dead, a few weeks shy of 17, after inhaling propellents from two cans of potpourri-scented air freshener. It is hard to imagine a more senseless way to die.The dialogue about how to save America's youth from drugs centers on the illegal stuff: cocaine, marijuana, heroin, PCP. So do in-school and community-based drug education efforts.

Decades after their quiet entry as appetite suppressants, two drugs that adjust the brain's natural chemistry are attracting hundreds of patients who are lured by testimonials that daily doses can halt addictions and a multitide of ills.The drugs' chief proponent, Dr. Pietr Hitzig of Timonium, claims overwhelming success with more than 1,800 patients suffering from conditions as diverse as cocaine addiction, alcoholism, Tourette's syndrome, bulimia, chronic fatigue, chemical sensitivity, hay fever, hives, phobias and obesity.

Sidney M. KaplanEngineer, executiveSidney M. Kaplan, a retired electrical engineer and high-technology executive, died Feb. 26 of an aneurysm at Fair Oaks Hospital in Fairfax, Va., where he lived for many years.He was 72.Born and reared in Northwest Baltimore, he attended the Johns Hopkins University and in 1948 earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from University of Maryland. He earned a master's degree in history from George Mason University in Fairfax in 1988. At the time of his death, he was studying for a doctorate in the history and philosophy of science and had been an adjunct professor of history at York College in York, Pa., since 1992.

The news last week about a significant increase in illicit dru use by teen-agers caught a lot of us by surprise; surprise because such news represents a striking reversal of the downward trend seen over the last several years.But there it was, the bad news revealed in an annual nationwide survey of almost 50,000 students in the eighth, 10th and 12th grades: "Illicit drug use by teen-agers increased significantly between 1992 and 1993, driven by a dramatic rise in the use of marijuana and increases in the use of stimulants, LSD and inhalants."

WASHINGTON - Authorities and drug abuse counselors are witnessing a sudden and dangerous spike in the use of Ecstasy, a drug once confined to nightclubs that is creeping into suburban neighborhoods. From Maryland to California, officials are seizing increasing amounts of Ecstasy, a mix of stimulant and hallucinogen that is taken as a pill. Drug use surveys also show a rise in Ecstasy use by teens. "The increase has been tremendous," said Joe Keefe, the special agent in charge of the Special Operations Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

It wrecks neighborhoods, families and lives, and might be the most important public health problem faced by Western societies. Yet since chemists first isolated cocaine, morphine and heroin in the 19th century, physicians and scientists have struggled to explain the nature of addiction. There is still much to learn, but with advances in genetics, medical imaging technology and neuroscience, scientists say they are closer than ever to understanding why some people who try drugs become addicted, and some do not. "I think we made more progress in the last 10 years than in the previous history of mankind," said Frank Vocci, director of treatment and research at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which spends $1 billion annually on drug research.

No one expected Dr. Joycelyn Elders' tenure as surgeon general to be marked by quiet discretion. She is outspoken and forthright, as her fellow Arkansan, President Clinton, knew when he appointed her. Even so, he may have been caught off guard by her remarks at the National Press Club this week. In reply to a question, she said she believed it would be worthwhile to examine whether legalization of drugs would cut the crime rate. The White House lost no time in saying that the issue would remain unstudied.

This week, mega-superstar Michael Jackson admitted an addiction to painkillers.Last week, actor River Phoenix's autopsy revealed an overdose of cocaine and heroin caused his death.When celebrities are arrested, confess or worse -- die -- because of drugs, does all the media attention help the struggle to control the drug epidemic?"What it does is focus the general public's attention on the use of drugs by celebrities or middle-class people," says Richard Lane, director of Man Alive Research Inc., a Baltimore methadone treatment center.