Dominique Strauss-Kahn has demanded to be questioned by judges investigating an alleged prostitution ring, after media reports linked him to the case.

<p><div id="main-content-picture" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; background-color: #ffffff; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;"><img alt="Dominique Strauss-Kahn " height="276" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2011/11/11/1321026858821/Dominique-Strauss-Kahn--007.jpg" style="border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" width="460" /><div class="caption" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #666666; font-size: 12px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> Photograph: Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images</div></div><div id="article-body-blocks" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; background-color: #ffffff; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">He is keeping a low profile in Paris, has grown a white beard, and polls show he is the least popular politician in France.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #005689;"><span style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">Dominique Strauss-Kahn</span></span>, forced to quit as head of the IMF and shelve aspirations to become the next French president, had hoped to find solace in France after criminal charges were dropped against him in New York over the alleged attempted rape of a hotel cleaner. But he is dominating the front pages again after his name was linked to a high-profile investigation into an alleged <span style="color: #005689;"><span style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">prostitution</span></span> ring at a luxury hotel in Lille.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">The Hotel Carlton affair centres on allegations of pimping at top hotels in the northern French city, where women from France and massage parlours in Belgium were allegedly supplied for hotel customers and local officials. Eight people are under formal investigation, including a senior police officer, a local barrister and businessmen. Five have been imprisoned as the inquiry continues.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">The investigation raises questions about the links between police and business figures and the underworld of sex work in France and Belgium. Prostitution involving people over the age of 18 is not illegal in France but pimping and living off the benefits of it is.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">The affair took a new turn after Strauss-Kahn's name came up in statements made to investigators, according to a series of leaked transcripts published in the French media in recent weeks.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">Businessmen were alleged to have paid women to travel to Paris and the US to take part in "soirées" with Strauss-Kahn at his own request, including when he was head of the IMF and tipped to become the next French president. Le Monde reported that one senior French police officer had travelled twice to Washington DC last year with businessmen, including the head of a Lille-based construction firm, to accompany a group of women who worked in massage parlours in Belgium to see Strauss-Kahn. The former head of the IMF was said to have received three visits from the group in Washington. The last visit ended on 13 May, the day before he was arrested over the attempted rape of a hotel maid in New York.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">The senior Lille police officer and two businessmen deny involvement in prostitution.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">The first evening organised for Strauss-Kahn was said to have taken place at a luxury Paris hotel in 2009. One sex worker, whose testimony was published by the weekly Le Point, described being accompanied by businessmen on the train from Lille to Paris to meet Strauss-Kahn, who was wearing a bathrobe, and others in a duplex hotel apartment with a pool. She said she was paid €900 (£770) by a businessman on the way back to Lille that night. Other alleged encounters took place in 2010.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">A Belgian sex worker in her 30s, known as Jade, told the French newspaper, Nord Eclair, she was taken to Washington for an encounter with Strauss-Kahn in a hotel in January 2010 and paid by businessmen on her return to France. She said Strauss-Kahn showed her around the IMF building and posed for a photograph with her in his office the next day.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">But the saga took another twist this week when French media, including Liberation and Le Point, published text messages allegedly sent by Strauss-Kahn to a businessman in the case, which are being investigated by police. In one message, Strauss-Kahn, then head of the IMF, asked if the man wanted to accompany him to a "magnificent" swingers club in Madrid, suggesting he bring "material" – thought to mean women. In another, he said he was taking a girl, "<em style="border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">une petite</em>", to clubs in Vienna and would the man like to come with a "<em style="border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">demoiselle</em>", or "Miss". A few days later he asked if the "suite with pool" had been booked. The text messages do not explicitly refer to prostitution.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">Strauss-Kahn issued a statement through his lawyers on Friday demanding to be interviewed by investigative judges in the case as soon as possible, and denouncing a "media lynching". The statement said Strauss-Kahn was ready to "explain himself" not before the tribunal of public opinion but "in front of those running the judicial inquiry". Last month, his lawyers urged judges to interview him so he could answer what he deemed "hasty and malevolent" accusations.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">Strauss-Kahn's lawyer, Henri Leclerc, told the Guardian he had no comment to make on the case. He said his client had not yet been interviewed by investigators.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">If Strauss-Kahn had consenting, paid-for encounters with sex workers aged over 18, it would not be a crime in France. But the publication this week of text messages to one businessman mentioning meetings with other top Socialists, raised questions about whether the men could expect political access or favours in exchange for providing what one had termed "girlfriends, meaning prostitutes" for him.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">One businessman in the case said he paid for flights and costs. He is believed to have spent thousands of euros of company money on organising soirées for Strauss-Kahn, putting receipts marked with the initials DSK through his expense accounts. He told investigators Strauss-Kahn had not paid for anything.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">The French media questioned Strauss-Kahn's behaviour during a period in which he was tipped to become the next president of France. "The net is tightening around DSK," said the daily Le Parisien on Friday.</p></div></p>

Dominique Strauss-Kahn has demanded to be questioned by judges investigating an alleged prostitution ring, after media reports linked him to the case.

 Photograph: Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images He is keeping a low profile in Paris, has grown a white beard, and polls show he is the least po...

Read more »

Sarah Harding has completed her 2-month stint in rehab

<p><div id="article_leadin" style="display: inline-block; float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; font-size: small; width: 220px;"><img alt="Sarah Harding | Pictures | Photos | Celebrity News" src="http://nowmagazine.media.ipcdigital.co.uk/11140%7C000017094%7Cd567_orh100000w220_Sarah-Harding-42.jpg" style="display: block; border: 0px none initial;" title="Sarah Harding" /><div id="article_image_caption_text" class="invert" style="background-color: #000000; color: #ffffff; padding-top: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 10px; float: none !important; margin: 0px !important;">Sarah Harding's ex Calum Best is glad she got the help she needed</div></div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.35em; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; font-size: small;"> </p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.35em; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; font-size: small;"> </p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.35em; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; font-size: small;">The <strong style="color: #e8007a; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; text-decoration: none;">Girls Aloud</strong><span style="color: #e8007a;"><span style="outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial;"> </span></span>star, 29, was treated for alcohol abuse and depression after calling off her engagement to DJ Tom Crane, 31.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.35em; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; font-size: small;"><strong>Sarah </strong>and <strong>Tom</strong> were due to marry next summer after getting engaged this New Year.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.35em; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; font-size: small;">'They've been in regular contact throughout her time away but only on the phone. They've spoken most days and it seems like they could have a chance of giving it another shot,' a source tells the Sunday Mirror.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.35em; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; font-size: small;"><strong>Sarah</strong>'s ex <strong style="color: #e8007a; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; text-decoration: none;">Calum Best</strong><span style="color: #e8007a;"><span style="outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial;">, 30, is glad that Sarah got professional help.</span></span><br /><br />'Everyone has their dark times, but <strong>Sarah</strong>'s strong and will come out of this period even stronger, he told us last month</p></p>

Sarah Harding has completed her 2-month stint in rehab

Sarah Harding's ex Calum Best is glad she got the help she needed     The  Girls Aloud   star, 29, was treated for alcohol abuse and dep...

Read more »

Michael Jackson sisters happy with justice

<p> </p><p>Michael Jackson's sisters La Toya and Rebbie are relieved and happy after a court jury found the late pop superstar's personal physician Conrad Murray guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the singer's anaesthetic-induced death. After the verdict was announced Monday, his sisters let fans know they were happy with the climax of the trial. "Victory was served," said La Toya, while her sister added: "I'm just happy it's over with. Nothing will bring him back, but I'm just happy he (Murray) was found guilty." La Toya confirmed she was the courtroom guest who said "Yes!" as the verdict was read. The Jackson family has been a constant presence in court throughout the trial and Janet Jackson cut short her Australian tour to be at Monday's climax. She was joined by brothers Randy and Jermaine and her parents Joe and Katherine, contactmusic.com reported. A statement from Katherine and Joe Jackson read: "We have been waiting for this moment for a very long time and we couldn't hold back tears of joy in the courtroom. Even though nothing can bring back our son, justice has finally been served!" The two added: "We can't wait to go home and share this day with Michael's children." The 50-year-old Jackson died June 25, 2009 at his Holmby Hills estate in Los Angeles when he was preparing for his comeback series of 50 sold-out London concerts. The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office ruled Jackson died of "acute propofol intoxication". Prosecutors accused 58-year-old Murray of failing to properly monitor Jackson after giving him a lethal dose of propofol. They contended that the cardiologist repeatedly acted with gross negligence, repeatedly denied appropriate care to his patient, and that it was Murray's repeated incompetence and unskilled acts that led to Jackson's death. Murray was a little bit shocked by Monday's decision, Xinhua reported. He was handcuffed after the verdict was read and was immediately remanded to custody in county jail without bail pending his sentencing Nov 29. At the conclusion of the six-week trial, the seven-men, five-women jury read the long-expected verdict. Murray, who faces up to four years in prison, remained stone-faced as the verdict was announced, showing no visible reaction. The jury deliberated for about eight-and-a-half-hour before reaching a verdict. When the verdict was announced, some cries of "yes" could be heard from the courtroom audience. Jackson fans were seen celebrating when the news spread outside the courthouse. Droves of fans gathering outside the courthouse were elated by the news. One man, who asked not be named, said this was a victory for Jackson and his family. "Murray is guilty because he failed to call 911, this is negligence for a doctor", he said.</p>

Michael Jackson sisters happy with justice

  Michael Jackson's sisters La Toya and Rebbie are relieved and happy after a court jury found the late pop superstar's personal phy...

Read more »

GUILTY! Michael Jackson's doctor found guilty of manslaughter in King of Pop's death

<p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>To many of his devoted patients, Conrad Murray was a caring doctor who would offer treatment for free to the poor.</span><span><br /></span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>But his secret double life as a deadbeat dad and a compulsive womaniser led him to take a lucrative job as Michael Jackson's personal drug doctor.</span><span><br /></span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Desperate for cash to pay his mounting debts, Murray took the lucrative post injecting Jackson - no questions asked - with nightly doses of the knock-out sleep drug that ultimately killed the world's biggest star. <br /></span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Murray's $1.2m Las Vegas mansion was about to be repossessed after he fell $96,000 behind with the mortgage in 2009 when Jackson asked him to travel to London with him as his full-time physician, official documents reveal.</span><span><br /></span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>His two medical practices in Nevada and Texas faced $631,000 in court judgments and he was late paying a $64,000 personal loan and thousands of pounds in child support.</span><span><br /></span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>The Grenada-born doctor's spiraling debts were the reason Murray demanded $4.8m from Jackson when he was first offered the job, said friends. He later settled for $160,000-a-month.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Hours after being convicted of causing the death of the King of Pop, Murray was revealed as the King of the Cads.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Murray, who is married, has fathered at least seven children with six women, most of them out of wedlock.</span><span><br /></span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>According to court records, he has also been sued more than a dozen times for claims including breach of contract and unpaid child support.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> </p><div class="relatedItemsTopBorder" style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> </div><div class="relatedItems" style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><h4 style="min-height: 1px; font-size: 1em; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"></h4></div><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> </p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>In April, 2009, Murray was sentenced to 10 days in jail for non-payment of child support and was ordered to spend 25 days behind bars for the same reason in 2007. On both occasions, he eventually paid up to avoid going to prison.</span></p><div class="artSplitter" style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><img alt="Prosecution witness Nicole Alvarez testifies in Dr. Conrad Murray's trial in the death of pop star Michael Jackson" class="blkBorder" height="474" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/10/04/article-2045280-0E3AB2C800000578-101_634x474.jpg" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 1px solid black;" width="634" /><p class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Partner: Nicole Alvarez, 29, told the jury she had been living with Murray for the last three to four years and had a son with him. She said he called her while her was in the ambulance with Jackson en route to hospital</p><div class="artSplitter" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><img alt="Call interrupted: Prosecution witness Sade Anding said Dr Conrad Murray was on the phone to her just before 12pm on the day Michael Jackson died" class="blkBorder" height="407" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/10/04/article-2045280-0E3A885B00000578-205_634x407.jpg" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 1px solid black;" width="634" /><p class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Prosecution witness: Sade Anding was a cocktail waitress who met Murray in Houston was on the phone to him when Michael Jackson's heart stopped</p></div></div><div class="artSplitter" style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><div class="splitLeft" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><img alt="Prosecution witness Michelle Bella testifies during Dr. Conrad Murray's trial in the death of pop star Michael Jackson in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2011" class="blkBorder" height="423" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/10/04/article-2045280-0E3A84B400000578-453_306x423.jpg" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 1px solid black;" width="306" /></div><div class="splitRight" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><img alt="No answer: Jurors heard from another ex-girlfriend, Bridget Morgan, who testified she called Murray earlier on the morning of the day Jackson died, but she said that he didn't pick up" class="blkBorder" height="423" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/10/04/article-2045280-0E36470800000578-84_306x423.jpg" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 1px solid black;" width="306" /> </div><p class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">More women: The court heard from Michelle Bella (L) an exotic dancer Murray met in Las Vegas, and Bridget Morgan (R) a former girlfriend who testified she called Murray earlierthe morning Jackson died</p></div><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>He was also arrested twice on charges brought by former girlfriends, once for fraudulent breach of trust and once for domestic violence, although he was never convicted.</span><span><br /></span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>While still living with his doctor wife, Blanche, and their two children in Las Vegas, Murray was also paying the $2,564-a-month rent on a flat in Santa Monica, California, for his 29-year-old actress lover Nicole Alvarez.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff;"><br /><br /><br /></span></p>

GUILTY! Michael Jackson's doctor found guilty of manslaughter in King of Pop's death

To many of his devoted patients, Conrad Murray was a caring doctor who would offer treatment for free to the poor. But his secret double lif...

Read more »

‘Slob’ Simmons had sex sickness says Ace

<p> </p><p>Former Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley says Gene Simmons is an “epic slob” sex addict – and his sleeping around meant he was contantly suffering attacks of lice. The claims appear in Frehley’s autobiography, No Regrets, in which he discusses his own addiction issues along with memories of his two stints with the glam icons. The guitarist writes: “I believe Gene is a sex addict in much the same way I am an alcoholic. “If you’ve been with only one or two women (and had to beg for whatever you got off them) it must be intoxicating to suddenly have groupies falling all over you. “You go from getting laid once or twice a year to getting laid a hundred times by a hundred different women. “Gene would fuck almost anything. Short, tall, plump, svelte, attractive, merely tolerable. Gene seemed to live in a state of perpetual infestation.” It wasn’t just Simmons’ private parts which were a mess, Frehley continues, calling his former colleague “a fastidious businessman – but an utter mess in his personal life.” The pair recently had lunch together, prompting Simmons to warn fans not to expect a reunion, but saying they were on good terms. Asked what he makes of the comments in Frehley’s book, the bassist tells the New York Post: “Fact: Ace has been a drug addict and an alcoholic for 35 years. Fact: We love Ace and wish him all the best.”</p>

‘Slob’ Simmons had sex sickness says Ace

  Former Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley says Gene Simmons is an “epic slob” sex addict – and his sleeping around meant he was contantly sufferin...

Read more »

Brain scans may show addiction to soda, sugar, and certain processed fatty foods

<p> </p><p>What changes in your brain may be caused by soda, fatty foods, processed foods, and sugar? You can check out the Bloomberg News article by Robert Langreth and Duane D. Stanford, which appeared today in the November 6, Sacramento Bee, "Soda, fatty foods may spur addiction." In that article, studies are reported that show changes in the human brain. But sometimes the average consumer may not know which foods are addictive and which foods are healthier for the individual. Cupcakes may be addictive just like cocaine, according to the article, "Soda, fatty foods may spur addiction." Basically the medical studies at leading universities mentioned in the article show that processed foods and sugary drinks hijack the brain "in ways that resemble addictions to cocaine, nicotine, and other drugs." You have to examine the data, which the article reports is overwhelming. And the point of the article explains that scientists are finding evidence of overlap between drugs in the brain and food. Why does food, well, certain types of food, hit the brain like a bomb or rather like a drug and change the brain in much the same way as addiction to drugs change the brain? Food is medicine, say some scientists. And other researchers say food is addictive. The Lab tests so far have found that sugary drinks and fatty foods may produce addictive behavior in animals. Then human brain scans were done by the scientists. But the scans looked compulsive eaters and obese participants. What the scientists found were disturbances in brain-reward circuits similar to those experienced by drug addicts or drug abusers. In 2011, there are already 28 published studies on food addiction. You can look up these articles in the National Library of Medicine database. See the site, National Library of Medicine - National Institutes of Health. You have on one hand scientists looking at processed, commercial foods that they are calling addictive. But will industry put it's foot in the door so to speak when the food and beverage businesses generate one trillion dollars, according to the article? The news article doesn't state whether the one trillion dollar food industry figure is annual or not. What both the scientists and the industry are watching for is any real proof that fatty foods and snacks sweetened with sugar or corn syrup are addictive. So far, there's no proof in writing with a definitive statement saying certain foods are addictive drugs or behave like addictive drugs in the human brain. On the other hand, for shoppers, the consumer battle depends on what scientists can find that can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Now it's a legal problem. You can check out the website of Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. See, Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity — Home. The site contains numerous articles. See, On Preventing Nutrition Negligence. There also are the results of seminars you can peruse. See, Excess Intake and Taxes on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages: Potential Implications on Healthcare Costs and Selling Public Health Policy in Derivative Markets: Lessons from the 2009-2010 New York State Sugary Beverage Excise Tax Campaigns. For example in the 2011 newsletter of the Rudd Center, you can read a brief article about why the Rudd Center objects to recent criticism of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, whose suitability as a potential presidential candidate has been challenged because of his body weight. Another focus is the language that health care providers use when discussing a child's weight with parents can reinforce weight-based stigma and jeopardize discussions about health, according to a study recently published by the Rudd Center. The study appeared in the journal Pediatrics. President Obama Urged to Protect Children from Junk-Food Marketing Food advocates across the country are asking the President to act now to protect children from junk-food marketing. The country’s leading researchers and advocates for healthy eating, coordinated by the Prevention Institute, unveiled “We’re Not Buying It,” a video highlighting deceptive marketing to children and launched a campaign urging the President to stand up for children’s health, according to an article posted at the Rudd Center. The Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children (IWG) proposed reasonable, science-based nutrition guidelines to help provide a model for companies that market to kids. However, the food industry and media companies are working to get Congress and the Administration to stop the IWG from finalizing these sensible recommendations. The campaign calls on the President to join parents, doctors, and public health practitioners in standing up for children’s health by supporting the voluntary guidelines, according to the Rudd Center's October 2011 newsletter. Check out the many nutrition-related articles and reports in their current and archived newsletters. Also see the site, EWG Takes a Stand on Food Marketed for Children. Anti-smoking Foods: What foods help motivate people to stop smoking or never start? What area the best foods to motivate you to quit smoking or to never start the habit? First, you avoid some of the most addictive foods, sugar, milk shakes, ice cream, cheese, chocolate, and processed or BBQ'd meats. Instead you eat sweet fruits when you crave sweets, such as an apple or banana. Next, you eat vegetables other than fries. Try a salad of shrimp or salmon, raw spinach, celery, carrots, red bell peppers, yellow squash or zucchini, raw mung bean sprouts, and chopped green onions. What happens to your body when you detox from smoking is a 10-day period of imbalance. The more green and red vegetables and fruits you eat, the quicker you'll get the nicotine toxins out of your body. Also try a little vitamin C, if your health condition permits taking vitamins. Drink lots of filtered, purified water. If milk and cheese causes you to crave suites, avoid dairy products and drink almond milk, hemp milk, or hazelnut milk. Or try a bowl of black rice and raw, organic sauerkraut and a dish of chili beans without meat. By avoiding the four most addictive foods which are sugar, chocolate, cheese, and red meat, especially cheese burgers, you will not stir up cravings for highly addictive foods that most people eat daily without realizing how 'hooked' on sugar, red or cold-cut meat, and cheese they really are. Also, don't load up on bread. Try crackers. Instead eat apples and cinnamon. Spices reduce cravings as do apples. You might cook a pot of boiled brown rice with a handful of raisins or other sweet, dried fruit such as goji berries, blue berries, or cherries and a dash of cinnamon and cloves. When the rice is cooked and fragrant, add a can of coconut milk, and let the cooked rice absorb the coconut milk. Thin the coconut milk with almond milk. Serve chilled. The fragrance of the dried fruit, such as dehydrated nectarines in the brown rice is filling and sweet without addicting you to dairy and table sugar or white rice. If you can't tolerate whole grains, try an egg drop soup made from boiled diced onions, celery and carrots into which you drop by the tablespoonful two beaten eggs. Flavor with cilantro and any spices or seasonings you enjoy. For more bulk, add a cup of cooked chick peas, pinto beans, or black beans to the soup and slices of avocado. Spices cut down on cravings for sweets as well as for other food items familiar to you such as the food that creates cravings which are sugar, cheese, chocolate, and meat. What helps most in food items to help you quit smoking? Apples, ginger, and cinnamon. And adding garlic to any foods also helps you cut the cravings. Think spices and herbs--ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and garlic added to foods. Save the garlic for the savory foods like fish, beans, and grains. Also a dash of curry and turmeric help. The spicier the food as long as you can stand the spices and herbs, the lower the cravings for smoking or for sweets. Sometimes coconut milk because it's medium chain saturated fats also helps you cut the cravings. But go easy on the fats. Olive oil on salads also helps as long as you don't crave lots of cheese with the olive oil. Be aware of your cravings for dairy unless you're lactose intolerant and don't enjoy dairy items such as cheese. Instead, you may prefer organic raw sauerkraut and fermented foods such as tempeh which you could use instead of cheese. For example, try sauerkraut over tempeh, which is fermented soy. Sauerkraut is fermented cabbage. Numerous fermented foods are made more digestible by the fermentation process with cultures, molds, or bacteria that is said to help digestion.</p>

Brain scans may show addiction to soda, sugar, and certain processed fatty foods

  What changes in your brain may be caused by soda, fatty foods, processed foods, and sugar? You can check out the Bloomberg News article by...

Read more »

Newfoundlanders arrested in RCMP drug bust

<p> </p><p>Two people from Newfoundland and Labrador have been arrested in an interprovincial drug bust against the Hells Angels motorcycle club. The accused are 41-year-old Scott Hutchings from Bell Island and Jocelyn Dunn, 26, from St. John's. The pair have been charged with conspiracy to traffic cocaine. They were both arrested on Friday afternoon in St. John’s. They were taken in a bust dubbed "Operation Longridge," which was led by the Ontario Provincial Police. According to a press release issued by the RCMP on Saturday the operation was “targeting members and associates of (an) outlaw motorcycle gang, specifically the Hells Angels Kitchener, Ontario chapter.” The release went on to state that Hutchings and Dunn were arrested in an undercover operation by the RCMP St. John’s Drug Section in cooperation with the Ontario Biker Enforcement Unit. In addition to arresting the two suspects police also seized $50,000 and an unreleased quantity of anabolic steroids. There were more arrests connected to this case made in Ontario but it is unclear at this time how many there were in total. Hutchings and Dunn will appear again in court on Monday.</p>

Newfoundlanders arrested in RCMP drug bust

  Two people from Newfoundland and Labrador have been arrested in an interprovincial drug bust against the Hells Angels motorcycle club. The...

Read more »

Montreal criminal lawyer Gilles Doré — who has represented alleged Hells Angels — is in hospital with serious injuries

<div id="leadmedia" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 11px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: url(http://www.cbc.ca/i/gfx/loading.gif); background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; float: right; clear: both; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; background-position: 50% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><div class="leadimage full" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; max-width: 620px; width: 620px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><img alt="Montreal criminal lawyer Gilles Doré. " src="http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/news/photos/2011/11/05/li-gilles-dore.jpg" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;" /><em class="caption" style="padding-top: 9px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; float: right; font-style: normal; font-size: 11px; color: #565656; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: #c4c4c4; width: 620px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 0px;">Montreal criminal lawyer Gilles Doré.</em></div></div><div id="storymiddle" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 10px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; width: 140px; float: right; clear: right; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><div id="sharecount" class="sclt-share" style="padding-top: 12px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 12px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 5px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: #000000; visibility: visible; margin: 0px;"><div class="gig-bar-container gig-share-bar-container" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><span style="color: #4d4d4d; font-family: arial; font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div></div><div id="storyextra" class="digdeeper" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><div id="intlinks" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 5px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0% 0%, 0% 100%, from(#000000), to(#ffffff)); background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px initial initial;"><h4 style="padding-top: 8px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 10px; border-top-width: initial; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: initial; border-left-width: 1px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #f7f8f9; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.2em; border-right-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-right-color: #e1e1e1; border-left-color: #e1e1e1; border-top-style: none; border-top-color: initial; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-color: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 0px;"></h4></div></div></div><div id="storybody" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 160px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; line-height: 1.35em; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Montreal criminal lawyer Gilles Doré — who has represented alleged Hells Angels — is in hospital with serious injuries after being assaulted outside his home.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">According to Radio-Canada, the 58-year-old lawyer was violently beaten outside his house in Montreal's tony Outremont neighbourhood Friday evening.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Without confirming his identity, police said the victim was found lying on the ground outside his house near Glendale and Pratt Avenues.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">The victim was in a coma but later regained consciousness and was able to speak with detectives.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Police have no suspects.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Doré rose to prominence a decade ago when he defended high-ranking Hells members involved in Quebec's notorious 2002 mega-trial.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">That mega-trial ended with the murder conviction of <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2010/10/25/mom-boucher-attacked.html" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: #115278; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;" target="_blank">Maurice "Mom" Boucher</a>, alleged biker kingpin.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Doré also represents several presumed Hells bikers arrested two years ago in a <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2009/04/16/operation-sharqc-hellsangels-0416.html" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: #115278; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;" target="_blank">massive dragnet</a> against organized crime.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">The bust, known as Operation SharkQC, netted more than 100 arrests, including dozens of full-patch members of the notorious biker network, according to police.</p></div>

Montreal criminal lawyer Gilles Doré — who has represented alleged Hells Angels — is in hospital with serious injuries

Montreal criminal lawyer Gilles Doré. Montreal criminal lawyer Gilles Doré — who has represented alleged Hells Angels — is in hospital with ...

Read more »

the Internet has many of us on a very short leash – an addictive one.

<p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Whether you’re mid-bite, mid-sentence or perhaps mid-sleep, do you react to that ‘bing’ from your smartphone? Or, is it the flashing red light that gets you?</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">You’ve programmed your phone to alert you to messages, or has it programmed you to respond?</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">From the constant smartphone companion to the laptop replacing the lapdog, the Internet has many of us on a very short leash – an addictive one.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">The consumer research firm Intersperience surveyed more than 1,000 people in Britain and found quitting the Internet is as hard for some as quitting drinking or smoking.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Without the Internet, 40% said they felt lonely. Ironically, it’s fathomable that 40% of those living with Internet addicts probably feel lonely too.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Laurie Tamblyn, an addictions counsellor in special programs at Toronto’s Bellwood Health Services, says there are many types of Internet addiction, including gambling, gaming, pornography and social networking.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">“We’re just beginning to treat this. It is a big problem and it is going to become bigger before people start recognizing that they need to do something about it,” Tamblyn says.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">“Some of us believe there is a tsunami coming because we haven’t fully recognized the problem yet.”</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Part of that problem is the generation gap. Children today are children of technology – dependent on the social web and its tools.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Addiction is a progressive illness that ends up in isolation, Tamblyn says, so Internet use can be a slippery slope, and can have devastating effects on relationships.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">“The amount of time people spend lost in their behaviours is comparable to a drinker spending time at the bar instead of with his family or friends,” Tamblyn says.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">“The addiction becomes the focus of the addict’s life. The focus is to interact with the addiction before anything else. If this doesn’t happen, it results in mood swings and irritability.”</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Internet addiction can be difficult to diagnose, says Dr. Greg Dubord, who teaches in the psychiatry department at the University of Toronto.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">“Drawing the line between normal Internet use and Internet addiction is often difficult, because no set criteria for diagnosing the disorder have been established by the American Psychiatric Association.”</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">What is easy to recognize, however, is the impact of web overuse on our relationships.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Though social networking allows us to communicate with people all over the world, at times it seems to segregate us more than ever. Real-life interaction is often interrupted by bings and beeps. Thoughts become tweets and e-mails. Our fingers do the walking and the talking now.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">From neglecting friends and family members to creating severe relationship problems, the Internet and our attachment to it can consume our lives.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">One study documents 396 negative effects of the web on social involvement, including significant family problems, Dubord says.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">“Reports have shown that excessive use of the Internet resulted in personal and family problems, with 53% of test-takers reporting severe relationship problems,” he says.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">“Personal and family concerns extended to marriages, dating relationships, parent-child relationships, and close friendships.”</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Dubord notes one case where a New York woman divorced her husband due to Internet overuse, and an extreme case involving a Korean couple so addicted to virtual games they let their three-month-old daughter starve to death.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">If you think you may have a problem, Tamblyn says the best thing to do is ask for help.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">“You can get an assessment at any treatment centre, or do it online and it’s anonymous. There are a lot of people struggling, and there’s a lot of help.”</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Too e-dependent? Greg Dubord points out some general warning signs:</strong></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">1.</strong> Lose track of time online.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">2.</strong> Failed attempts at moderating Internet behaviour.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">3. </strong>Neglecting work, sleep, friends and/or family to spend time online.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">4. </strong>Turning to the Internet in times of stress or sadness to feel better.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">How to cut down, according to Laurie Tamblyn:</strong></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">1.</strong> Give yourself short breaks throughout the day when you can’t check your messages. Try going for a walk without your smartphone.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">2. </strong>Put your iPad to bed. Set a bedtime for your Internet devices.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">3.</strong> Wi-Fi-free meals. Wash your hands of wireless devices before eating.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">4.</strong> Put your computer in a high-traffic area to stay accountable to those around you.</p></p>

the Internet has many of us on a very short leash – an addictive one.

Whether you’re mid-bite, mid-sentence or perhaps mid-sleep, do you react to that ‘bing’ from your smartphone? Or, is it the flashing red lig...

Read more »

COLOMBIAN lingerie model dubbed "Narco Queen" was handed six years in jail

<p> </p><p>COLOMBIAN lingerie model dubbed "Narco Queen" was handed six years in jail yesterday after trying to ship cocaine to Europe in her suitcases. Stunning Angie Sanclemente Valencia, 31, had denied helping her boyfriend recruit other beautiful young women to work for her international drug smuggling ring. The former beauty queen tried to take drugs from Argentina to Europe in late 2009 via Mexico. She was arrested in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in May 2010 after months on the run from police. Her attorney German Delgado said he would appeal the conviction. He insisted there was no proof, declaring that Sanclemente should be acquitted as she had no criminal record. Nicolas Gualco, her boyfriend, was also sentenced to six years and eight months for his role in the same plot. Sanclemente claimed during the trial in Argentina that she travelled to the country to marry Gualco and was not involved in the drug trade. She told the court: "I did not come here to commit crimes, I am not a narco-trafficker." She said all she had done for her boyfriend was "make a few calls", adding: "God knows I did it for love." Another man, Venezuelan Gustavo Paez Arneses, was sentenced to six years and two months for his role in the smuggling attempt.</p>

COLOMBIAN lingerie model dubbed "Narco Queen" was handed six years in jail

  COLOMBIAN lingerie model dubbed "Narco Queen" was handed six years in jail yesterday after trying to ship cocaine to Europe in h...

Read more »

Addicts may have glitch in frontal brain

<p> </p><p>“The better we understand our decision-making brain circuitry, the better we can target treatment, whether it’s pharmaceutical, behavioral, or deep brain stimulation,” says Jonathan Wallis, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at University of California, Berkeley. Wallis says he was inspired to study the brain mechanism behind substance abuse after observing the lengths to which an addict will go to fulfill a craving, despite knowing the downside of a habit. He wanted to know what the drug did to the brain that made it so difficult to not make the right choice and what prevented the addict from making a healthier one. Straight from the Source Read the original study DOI: 10.1038/nn.2961 In the new study, published in Nature Neuroscience, Wallis targeted the orbitofrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex—two areas in the frontal brain—because previous research has shown that patients with damage to these areas of the brain are impaired in the choices they make. While these individuals may appear perfectly normal on the surface, they routinely make decisions that create chaos in their lives. A similar dynamic has been observed in chronic drug addicts, alcoholics, and people with obsessive-compulsive tendencies. “They get divorced, quit their jobs, lose their friends, and lose all their money,” Wallis says. “All the decisions they make are bad ones.” To test the hypothesis that these areas of the brain are the key players in impaired decision-making, researchers measured the neural activity of macaque monkeys as they played games in which they identified the pictures most likely to deliver juice through a spout into their mouths. The animals quickly learned which pictures would most frequently deliver the greatest amount of juice, allowing researchers to see what calculations they were making, and in which part of the brain. The brains of macaques function similarly to those of humans in basic decision making. The exercise was designed to see how the animals weigh costs, benefits, and risks. The results show that the orbitofrontal cortex regulates neural activity, depending on the value or “stakes” of a decision. This part of the brain enables you to switch easily between making important decisions, such as what school to attend or which job to take, and making trivial decisions such as coffee versus tea or burrito versus pizza. But in the case of addicts and people with damage to the orbitofrontal cortex, the neural activity does not change based on the gravity of the decision, presenting trouble when these individuals try to get their brains in gear to make sound choices, the findings suggest. As for the anterior cingulate cortex, the study found that when this part of the brain functions normally, we learn quickly whether a decision we made matched our expectations. If we eat food that makes us sick, we don’t eat it again. But in people with a malfunctioning anterior cingulate cortex, these signals are missing, and so they continue to make poor choices, Wallis says. “This is the first study to pin down the calculations made by these two specific parts of the brain that underlie healthy decision-making,”  Wallis says, who believes that a clearer understanding of how people with addictions make decisions may help remove some of the stigma of the condition. However, Wallis warned that the findings should not be used as a rationale for addicts to maintain unhealthy habits. Chronic drug and alcohol use changes the brain circuitry, and that can lead to unhealthy choices, he says. If anything, the findings offer hope that, through understanding the mechanism of addiction, treatment can be targeted at these risk-weighing, decision-making centers of the brain. “We know beyond doubt that addiction is a complex brain disease with significant behavioral characteristics,” says Susan E. Foster, vice president and director of policy research and analysis at the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. “This research is an important contribution to understanding how the disease works. The challenge going forward is to sharpen our understanding, translate this knowledge into effective medical treatments and new prevention strategies and ultimately find a cure for this disease.” Researchers from the University of London and the University of Oxford contributed to the study that was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.</p>

Addicts may have glitch in frontal brain

  “The better we understand our decision-making brain circuitry, the better we can target treatment, whether it’s pharmaceutical, behavioral...

Read more »

Chief Superintendent Mark Mathias from South Wales Police said: "Each addict can cost society not far off £850,000

<p><div id="storyEmbSlide" style="color: #282828; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 10px; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px;"><div class="slideshow ssMain" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: #cccccc; padding-bottom: 3px;"><div class="nextPrevLayer" style="height: 319px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: relative;"><div class="ssImg" style="padding: 0px;"><img alt="Heroin addicts cost society £850,000 each, police warn" height="287" src="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01852/h_1852940c.jpg" style="display: block; border: 0px initial initial;" width="460" /><div class="artImageExtras" style="font-family: arial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><div class="ingCaptionCredit" style="padding-top: 2px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px;"><span class="credit" style="color: #999999; font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.38em;">Photo: PA</span></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="byline" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-color: #cccccc; margin-bottom: 5px; color: #282828; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 10px; background-color: #ffffff;"><p class="publishedDate" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.48em; color: #3f3f3f; float: left; width: 390px; margin: 0px;"> </p></div><div id="mainBodyArea" style="color: #282828; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 10px; background-color: #ffffff;"><div class="firstPar"><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px;">Top officers warned of the increasing cost of drug-ravaged society with hundreds of millions is being spent on the increasing number of addicts.</p></div><div class="secondPar"><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px;">Chief Superintendent Mark Mathias from South Wales Police said: "Each addict can cost society not far off £850,000.</p></div><div class="thirdPar"><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px;">"You work through all the treatment, all the criminal justice issues that arise - then you see a significant costs involved."</p></div><div class="fourthPar"><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px;">Police in Swansea have launched a £500,00 clampdown in the city known as the "heroin capital of Wales" where officers have seized 1,000 "deals" in the last two weeks.</p></div><div class="fifthPar"><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px;">Superintendent Phil Davies said: "Some of these drug dealers have stated they are untouchable.</p></div><div class="body"><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px;">"My message to them is there is no hiding place, we will find you, we will catch you and we will put you behind bars."</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px;">Addict Amy Protheroe, 20, who has been an addict since she was 13 has just started her fifth treatment programme in Swansea.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px;">She said: "When you're a heroin addict you wake up and you think straight away: "Where am I going to get money from, where am I going to score from?'"</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px;">"You get up, you go out, you get the money for the heroin, you buy the heroin, you do the heroin and then it starts all over again.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.7em; padding-left: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px;">"To be honest, heroin has wrecked my life."</p></div></div></p>

Chief Superintendent Mark Mathias from South Wales Police said: "Each addict can cost society not far off £850,000

Photo: PA   Top officers warned of the increasing cost of drug-ravaged society with hundreds of millions is being spent on the increasing nu...

Read more »