Judge Peter Moss has given a hard criticism against the drug rehabilitation for criminal offenders. He is stating that less than half of the offenders complete the courses they are given, and can’t think of almost any drug rehab programs that have been successful for them.

Moss has a suggestion that he thinks would be the best for addicted criminals. That would be a abstinence-based rehabilitation. “The most appropriate way to deal with drug addicted criminals is to provide robust, abstinence-based rehabilitation which we know is most effective.”

Although he criticizes the current rehab system, he has been giving sentences considering this option. He tells this group of offenders is hard to work with, but the number of offenders who completes the rehab has risen from 28% to 43% in five years.

The number of internet users in China is the World’s largest. It is currently 290 millions and the number is increasing all the time. Seventy percent of them are people under 30 years old, and according to a recent study Chinese spend 44 percent of their free time in the internet.

In a military base outside Beijing there is an chinese internet addiction rehabilitation center. The treatment center was established by Tao Ran a progressive Chinese psychologist. The wake up call is on 6 a.m. sharp, military bearings and formation.

The problem is getting worse, internet addicts can’t adjust to school and society, so they try to escape their difficulties and avoid problems. They lack self-confidence and often don’t have the courage to continue their lives.”

Every year more than 170 000 women in U.S. is died due to smoking related diseases. According to recent studies nicotine addiction is more dangerous for women than for men. Women have a larger set of complications that smoking can affect.

Women for example posses a risk to have certain cancers and pregnancy and fertility problems, that men don’t have. Smoking also seems to make more damage for women’s heart. Statistics have shown that smoking women have heart attacks about fourteen years earlier than women who don’t smoke. For men this value is about six years.

17.4 percent of all adult women do smoke according to current statistics. Good ways to overcome the smoking habit include making a stop-smoking plan with a doctor, asking help from family and friends, and using anti-smoking medication.

In a recently released survey it is found out that teens are abusing prescription medication more than any other drug. The report states that even younger children are usign prescriptions drugs to “get high” or to “self-medicate.”

Rowan-Salisbury School System reports they are finding an increasing amount of students, misusing and selling prescription medication to their friends. This is told to be happening on a regular basis and in all social, economic, geographic and ethnic groups.

The reason why students are choosing prescription drugs is because they are more easily available, often stolen from home. Many times it is also thought prescripted drugs are safer than illegal drugs found from the streets. Some students use online pharmacies to buy the drugs.

Russia’s drug control authority reports that the amount of drug addictions is currently almost ten times greater than in 1990. The large amount of drug addictions have significant impact on the country’s economy.

“Drug addiction costs the Russian economy around 1.5 trillion rubles ($54 billion) each year, or 2.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, Victor Ivanov, head of Drug control Service said.”

Up to thirty thousand people die each year because of drug-related complications. This may be due to the fact, that Afghanistan’s drug production has increased 44 times since ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) was deployed in the country.

A study made in the United Kingdom reveals that women’s drinking habit has increased whereas men are drinking less than before. Men reach a peak in drinking when they are around the age of 29, women, however, drink more when they are approaching middle age.

The number of women aged 35 to 54 dying from alcohol-related problems doubled between 1991 and 2006, from 7.2 to 14.8 per 100,000 of the population - the largest increase of any group. Police fear they are also more vulnerable to assault.

Hospitals and alcohol rehabilitation centers have noticed a rise in the number of women in early middle age seeking treatment for alcohol addiction. Women are less able to metabolise alcohol and suffer greater damage to their health than men after drinking similar amounts.

According to a new research nicotine dependence severity has increased 12 percent between 1989 and 2006, while the proportion of people classified as highly nicotine dependent has increased 32 percent.

Previous studies suggest that individuals who have less severe nicotine
dependence have already been successful at quitting smoking, which leaves a
larger percentage of patients who are highly nicotine dependent among the
greater tobacco-using community.

Nicotine dependence has reached a 15-year high, with nearly 75 percent of people currently seeking tobacco-dependence treatment categorized as highly nicotine dependent. The results were presented at the 74th annual international scientific assembly of the American College of Chest Physicians.

A recent study suggests that hospital costs for alcohol or drug abusers can be substantial. Notable was that insurers spend very little on addiction treatment to prevent medical consequences of abuse.

It was found out that 14 percent of people admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1994 to 2002 were alcohol or drug abusers. Of these more than 43,000 patients, the researchers found, about half abused two or more drugs, resulting in hospital costs in 2002 of $28 million.

Twenty five percent abused only alcohol, which resulted in $20 million in hospital costs in year 2002. Treatment costs were risen each year of the study period. The stude was published in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment.

According to a US report, so called ’street drugs’ aren’t the number one reason to addiction anymore, instead, prescription drugs are related to many addiction cases these days.

Drug use among older adults in US has hit is highest point ever. After years of declining use of street drugs - cocaine, hallucinogens and marijuana - prescription medications have begun moving front and centre as the US’s drug of choice.

Recently a report “Overview of Drug Misuse” provides information on drug and alcohol abuse in Irish cities. The report shows that the amount of addicts entering drug rehabilitation is in huge rise. Last year about 2,621 people were either assessed or treated for drug and alcohol misuse, which is almost two times the amount recorded in year 2000.

Other points one can found in the report are a 2.2pc fall in the numbers asking for treatment for alcohol abuse, about 160 children under the age of 18 were treated for alcohol or drug misuse and one of these, a newborn, was treated for addiction at birth. Despite the falling numbers in alcoholics, it still remains the biggest problem, accounting for 1,453 of clients treated.