United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
Yaba, the 'crazy medicine' of East Asia
19 May 2008 - Yaba, or 'crazy medicine' in Thai, is a tablet form of methamphetamine, and a very powerful stimulant. Introduced to East Asia during World War II to enhance soldiers' performance, methamphetamine has become increasingly popular in East Asia, particularly among young people. Yaba is now the main form of methamphetamine abused in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia as well as Viet Nam and Myanmar, where it is typically manufactured.
Mixed with caffeine and usually 30 per cent methamphetamine, the drug is a central nervous system stimulant. Although it comes in a pill form, yaba is usually crushed and smoked. Users get an intense 'burst' of energy, followed by increased activity, decreased appetite and a general sense of well-being. Once the effects wear off, the user 'crashes' and experiences prolonged periods of sleep and depression.
Like other forms of methamphetamine, long-term abuse of yaba can produce strong dependence. Users develop tolerance and require increasing amounts of the drug to feel the same effects. Excessive doses can result in convulsions, seizures and death from respiratory failure, stroke or heart failure. The drug can trigger aggressive and violent behaviour, and psychiatric disorders have also been associated with its use.
Traditionally used by occupational workers such as truck drivers, the use of yaba in East Asia shifted into youth culture about 10 years ago. Starting in Thailand and spreading into Laos, Cambodia and Viet Nam, yaba consumers in the region are now estimated in the millions. Recently, the drug has been spreading toward the Indian subcontinent; in 2007, a record 1,200,000 yaba tablets were confiscated in Bangladesh where there is a potentially very large market.
The development and spread of yaba in the region has been opportunistic. As UNODC expert Jeremy Douglas explains, "it is a drug that is cheap to manufacture and cheap to purchase. You introduce it somewhere and develop a market fairly quickly because it is cheap and highly addictive." With one tablet costing as little as US$ 1 in Cambodia to US$ 5 in Bangkok, the drug is very easy to produce if in possession of the necessary precursor materials. "You can have labs producing 10,000 tablets per hour hidden anywhere", he adds.
Unlike geographically confined, crop-based drugs, such as opium in Afghanistan, synthetic drugs like yaba can be produced anywhere in the world where there are weaknesses in law enforcement and in precursor chemical regulations. The portable and clandestine nature of production also makes it difficult to monitor and assess the situation systematically. "At the moment the information base is quite fractured", says Douglas. "In some parts of the world, we know it is there - we just don't know the extent to which it is."
To help address the issue, UNODC is launching the Global Synthetics Monitoring: Analysis, Reporting and Trends (SMART) Programme. Set up in hotspots and key priority regions of the world, SMART teams will assess data and information, thus enabling countries to strategically plan prevention and law enforcement responses.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Drug users preventing overdose deaths
A new Yale Univ. study provides more evidence to support providing drug users with a cheap, safe product (naloxone) that helps them prevent deaths of their peers from overdose.
Story below.
Rob
Drug Addicts Can Learn How to Save Lives, Yale Researchers Find
New Haven, Conn. — Drug users can be taught to identify and quickly respond to overdoses of heroin or other opioids as effectively as medical experts, a Yale University study suggests.
The study supports efforts of some drug counselors, physicians and public health experts who have started community-based programs to train addicts and supply them with the opioid antagonist drug naloxone in order to respond to potentially fatal drug overdoses.
Naxolone, a medication lacking in abuse potential and routinely used by emergency medical personnel to treat heroin and other opioid overdoses, can be administered by a simple muscular injection. The drug temporarily combats effects of an overdose until medical help can arrive. Critics of such a harm-reduction strategy, however, have questioned whether drug users have the ability to recognize an overdose and can properly administer the drug. This study, recently published in the early online edition of the journal Addiction, suggests this concern is unwarranted.
“You have to keep people alive long enough to get access to drug treatment for their addiction,’’ said Traci Craig Green, a doctoral candidate in the Yale School of Public Health and lead author of the research “You can’t treat a dead person.”
Ten individuals who were regular users of heroin or other opioid drugs such as oxycodone or hydromorphone were enrolled in the study at each of six sites across the United States. They were divided into two groups, one with members who had previously received training in overdose response and one with members who had not. Individuals were interviewed to determine if they could recognize signs of opioid overdose and when it was appropriate to administer naloxone. Their responses were then compared to those given by a group of medical experts.
The training, conducted well before the interviews were done, included recognizing differences between overdoses caused by opioids and those caused by other substances such as cocaine, for which use of the drug naloxone is not indicated.
“The study shows opioid users with training can spot an opioid overdose, are less likely to miss true opioid overdoses, and can determine whether naloxone should be administered and when it should not be administered," Green said.
The study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. Other authors included Robert Heimer and Lauretta E. Grau from the school of public health.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 1, 2008
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About OPA | Contact Us
Copyright © 2007, Yale University
Story below.
Rob
Drug Addicts Can Learn How to Save Lives, Yale Researchers Find
New Haven, Conn. — Drug users can be taught to identify and quickly respond to overdoses of heroin or other opioids as effectively as medical experts, a Yale University study suggests.
The study supports efforts of some drug counselors, physicians and public health experts who have started community-based programs to train addicts and supply them with the opioid antagonist drug naloxone in order to respond to potentially fatal drug overdoses.
Naxolone, a medication lacking in abuse potential and routinely used by emergency medical personnel to treat heroin and other opioid overdoses, can be administered by a simple muscular injection. The drug temporarily combats effects of an overdose until medical help can arrive. Critics of such a harm-reduction strategy, however, have questioned whether drug users have the ability to recognize an overdose and can properly administer the drug. This study, recently published in the early online edition of the journal Addiction, suggests this concern is unwarranted.
“You have to keep people alive long enough to get access to drug treatment for their addiction,’’ said Traci Craig Green, a doctoral candidate in the Yale School of Public Health and lead author of the research “You can’t treat a dead person.”
Ten individuals who were regular users of heroin or other opioid drugs such as oxycodone or hydromorphone were enrolled in the study at each of six sites across the United States. They were divided into two groups, one with members who had previously received training in overdose response and one with members who had not. Individuals were interviewed to determine if they could recognize signs of opioid overdose and when it was appropriate to administer naloxone. Their responses were then compared to those given by a group of medical experts.
The training, conducted well before the interviews were done, included recognizing differences between overdoses caused by opioids and those caused by other substances such as cocaine, for which use of the drug naloxone is not indicated.
“The study shows opioid users with training can spot an opioid overdose, are less likely to miss true opioid overdoses, and can determine whether naloxone should be administered and when it should not be administered," Green said.
The study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. Other authors included Robert Heimer and Lauretta E. Grau from the school of public health.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 1, 2008
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About OPA | Contact Us
Copyright © 2007, Yale University
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