“New Police Chief George Gascón’s focus on undercover drug stings in the Tenderloin has had an interesting side-effect: far fewer sales of heroin and crack cocaine, and more sales of OxyContin and other pills.” http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/cityinsider/detail?entry_id=49774&tsp=1

By BRAD DICKERSON, Highlands Today “SEBRING – What is Highlands County drug abusers’ poison of choice? According to Capt. Randy LaBelle, with the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU), it’s prescription medications. “I see a whole lot of oxycodone, hydrocodone and Xanax,” he said.” http://www2.highlandstoday.com/content/2009/oct/21/la-what-drugs-are-on-highlands-county-streets/#

 

“(CNN) — Afghan opium kills 100,000 people every year worldwide — more than any other drug — and the opiate heroin kills five times as many people in NATO countries each year than the eight-year total of NATO troops killed in Afghan combat, the United Nations said Wednesday.” http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/10/21/un.heroin.trade/

By Mike McPhee and Victoria Barbatelli, The Denver Post “Demand for medical marijuana in Colorado has grown so fast in the past few months that it has outstripped the production of legal “grow” operations and is now probably being supplied by international drug cartels, say some local sheriffs and agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement…

Julie Rose “Charlotte-Mecklenburg police have seized five times as much heroin so far this year as they did in all of 2008. And so far this year, five times as many people have died from heroin overdoses in Charlotte. Those figures led Mayor Pat McCrory to sound the alarm at a press conference yesterday. WFAE’s…

“The murder rate in Ciudad Juarez on the Mexico-US border has reached an all-time high amid battles between rival drug cartels, Mexican officials say. Up to mid-October, there were 1,986 killings in Juarez on the US-Mexico border – 815 more than last year. The drug cartels are fighting to control smuggling routes into the US…

Pedestrians pass by corpse dumped after brutal weekend October 21, 2009 “The grisly sight of a murdered man dumped in a shopping trolley is the latest evidence of Rio’s brutal drug wars – even though passers-by seem to walk on, unconcerned or unsurprised.” http://www.metro.co.uk/news/world/article.html?Shopping_trolley_body_pushes_up_Rios_drug_war_death_toll&in_article_id=755560&in_page_id=64

“Federal and local authorities early Wednesday arrested 90 people in Dallas as part of a nationwide methamphetamine drug distribution bust tied to the notorious “La Familia” drug cartel. “ http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/DN-drugbust_22met.ART.Central.Edition1.4bdebf8.html

“LOS ANGELES — “E.R.” actor Sam Jones III is under arrest on charges of possessing with the intent to sell more than 10,000 tablets of oxycodone.” http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-sam-jones,0,693323.story