Decreased dopamine activity predicts relapse in methamphetamine abusers.

Studies in methamphetamine (METH) abusers showed that the decreases in brain dopamine (DA) function might recover with protracted detoxification. However, the extent to which striatal DA function in METH predicts recovery has not been evaluated. Here we assessed whether striatal DA activity in METH abusers is associated with clinical outcomes. Brain DA D2 receptor (D2R) availability was measured with positron emission tomography and [(11)C]raclopride in 16 METH abusers, both after placebo and after challenge with 60 mg oral methylphenidate (MPH) (to measure DA release) to assess whether it predicted clinical outcomes. For this purpose, METH abusers were tested within 6 months of last METH use and then followed up for 9 months of abstinence. In parallel, 15 healthy controls were tested. METH abusers had lower D2R availability in caudate than in controls. Both METH abusers and controls showed decreased striatal D2R availability after MPH and these decreases were smaller in METH than in controls in left putamen. The six METH abusers who relapsed during the follow-up period had lower D2R availability in dorsal striatum than in controls, and had no D2R changes after MPH challenge. The 10 METH abusers who completed detoxification did not differ from controls neither in striatal D2R availability nor in MPH-induced striatal DA changes. These results provide preliminary evidence that low striatal DA function in METH abusers is associated with a greater likelihood of relapse during treatment. Detection of the extent of DA dysfunction may be helpful in predicting therapeutic outcomes

Flogging a dead horse: Attempts by van der Berg et al to measure changes in poverty and inequality

This paper seeks an explanation for the large differences in the extent and severity of poverty published respectively in van der Berg et al (2005: 2007a) and Meth (2006b). Headcounts in 2004 suggested by van der Berg et al (2007a) exceed by five million, those reported by (Meth, 2006b). Household survey respondents often under-report income (and expenditure). To address this, it is common (if not necessarily wise) to scale household survey income means until the grossed-up survey income totals are approximately the same as those yielded by the national accounts. The apparent reason for the differences between our respective poverty estimates lies in the poor quality of the income estimates in the surveys used by van der Berg et al as primary data source for estimating income distributions (by race). Scaling these survey estimates to make them consistent with the national accounts, it is argued, causes them to under-estimate the extent and severity of the poverty problem. As part of their analysis of changes in the welfare of Africans in South Africa since the advent of democracy (and in support of their claim that poverty has fallen), van der Berg et al attempt to measure changes in the racial shares of remuneration. The present paper ends with a brief examination of some of the problems of doing so using Statistics South Africa household surveys (the Labour Force Surveys) as primary data source. Welcomed by government because of the apparent progress they report in the fight against poverty, the possible consequences for anti-poverty policy (and for the poor) of the van der Berg et al figures being wrong are non-trivial.

Employer of Last Resort? South Africa’s Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP)

South Africa’s largest active labour market intervention (ALMP) is the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP). Its first five-year phase has been completed and a second phase, more ambitious by far than its predecessor, has commenced. Critical analysis suggests that contrary to the hype, the programme has thus far made little lasting impact on the poverty and unemployment it is supposed to address. The analysis is in four parts: the first is an exploration of the background to the EPWP, in its role as South Africa’s largest active labour market policy; the second presents an examination of aspects of the performance of EPWP Phase 1, looking in particular at target vs. actual numbers of job opportunities and training days. This section also looks briefly at the EPWP’s proposed monitoring and evaluation (M&E) programme, before undertaking a more detailed consideration of the published information available on the training/employment nexus. The section ends with a glance at weaknesses in one of the surveys (the Labour Force Surveys, LFSs) put forward as data sources for evaluating the EPWP during Phase1; the third considers aspects of the vast increases in the scope of EPWP from Phase 1 to Phase 2, of the way in which these have been communicated, and of the way in which they are to be funded, while fourth the looks at the possible contribution that this second phase could/may make to the goal of halving unemployment by 2014. This part of the paper reproduces a set of scenarios produced by the National Treasury and published in the Budget Review 2010. These point to the extreme unlikelihood of the unemployment halving goal being attained. The paper ends with a set of recommendations, many relating to the production and distribution of knowledge about the EPWP.

Meth in Allegan County -- Spreading to West Michigan?

According to the Office of National Drug Policy, White House, about 1.3 million people used meth in the year 2002. Moreover, in 2001, 607,000 people used methamphetamine. The University of Arkansas reports that businesses in Benton County were losing an estimated $21 million annually because of meth, mainly due to absenteeism and lost productivity. Methamphetamine is a profoundly addictive drug that seriously affects health, families, businesses, social services, and the environment. Why is meth use on the increase

How not to present poverty research results: The South African case

Because of their vital role in charting progress (or the lack thereof) in the pursuit of the povert y reduction, statistics are of obvious importance. In South Africa, these leave much to be desired.Disagreements among academics on the severity of poverty, the result of the failure of Statistics South Africa to conduct the appropriate surveys, are the inevitable result. Far from losing money (or sleep) as a result, some in the profession resort to further research, some of it quite highly paid, to squeeze new results out of old, often unreliable data. This could have serious consequences for the poor – policy failure caused by faulty monitoring can easily damage the vulnerable. Regardless of the reliability or otherwise of their findings, it is argued in the present paper that researchers would do well to offer them in a way that minimises the possibility of their being misinterpreted and/or misrepresented, and that maximises the likelihood that the non-specialist reader will be able to understand them. It is common practice to give poverty estimates in the form of the (FGT) ratios suggested by Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (1984), often without accompanying estimates of the absolute magnitudes involved. This, the present paper claims, allows overly optimistic conclusions to be drawn, making possible the concealment of rising misery behind a veil of aggregate improvement. Commencing with a glance in the abstract at the FGT ratios, the paper concludes that in order for poverty statistics not to convey a misleading impression of changes in the phenomenon they seek to represent, the ratios have to be augmented with sufficient information of concurrent changes in the income distribution. Most poverty studies look at changes in inequality. Often, however, the inequality results are not linked directly to the changes in poverty. As far as income poverty is concerned, the present piece of research suggests that doing so is the only appropriate way to present results. Having sketched a conceptual foundation, the paper looks at the regurgitation by government, without comment, of poverty statistics that directly contradict each other. After that, the strange case of an undeserved accolade government awards its anti-poverty policies, is found to be based upon a misinterpretation of their own findings by the authors of a recent poverty and inequality study (Bhorat and van der Westhuizen, 2008). A new set of poverty and inequality estimates (Leibbrandt et al, 2010), although it does not conform to the mode of presentation suggested above as necessary, points (as do the Bhorat and van der Westhuizen findings) to the strong likelihood that although the poverty headcount ratio may have fallen since the advent of democracy in the country, the poverty headcount is likely to have risen by several million between 1993 and 2008. An appendix at the end of the paper offers a little speculation on what poverty levels might have been had the AIDS epidemic not killed so many people.

Alaska Meth Education Project: Process and Outcome Evaluation, 2009

The Alaska Meth Education (AME) Project is a statewide effort to reduce meth use and availability in Alaska by educating Alaskans about, and preventing youth from trying, meth. The AME Project provides free community education presentations, an anti-meth media campaign. anti-meth summits, and a website and Facebook page which provide information, local resources, and links to their campaign ads. This report evaluates AME Project efforts and is the first to provide information regarding Alaskans’ perceptions of meth, including effects and risks associated with meth use and perceptions regarding the availability and use of meth by young adults in Alaska. Evaluation methods included a survey to evaluate community education presentations; a survey conducted with UAA Justice students exposed to the anti-meth radio advertisements generated by the AME Project; a survey of 10,000 randomly sampled Alaskans; and a process evaluation involving interviews conducted with AME Project statewide advisory committee members.Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Congressional Earmark Grant No. 1H79SP014832-01Index of Tables and Figures / Acknowledgements / Executive Summary / Alaska Meth Education Project: Process and Outcome Evaluation, 2009 / Brief Overview of the Alaska Meth Education Project / Brief Overview of the Meth Problem in Alaska / Methods / Community Education Presentations / Student Survey / Mail Survey / Process Evaluation / References / Appendix A – Community Education Evaluation Survey / Appendix B – Coding Framework for Community Education Presentation Evaluation Survey Openended Item / Appendix C – Student Survey / Appendix D – Mail Survey / Appendix E – Process Evaluation Interview Schedul

Findings from the DUMA program: methamphetamine drug market trends

Introduction Methamphetamine is a drug of national concern, with the Australian Crime Commission assessing it to be the illicit drug posing the greatest risk to the Australian community. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s (AIHW) 2013 National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS) reported that approximately 400,000 Australians had used meth/amphetamines in the previous 12 months. The NDSHS reported a stable rate of meth/amphetamine use in the general community from 2010 to 2013 of 2.1 percent. However, there was a shift in the type of meth/amphetamine used, from powder to purer forms like ice or crystal methamphetamine. Specifically, powder meth/amphetamine use among recent users decreased from 51 percent to 29 percent, while ice use more than doubled from 22 percent to 50 percent. In line with this, the frequency of methamphetamine use among injecting drug users in Melbourne remained consistent from 2008 to 2014, but users reported transitioning from powder to crystal forms of methamphetamine. Frequency of use of methamphetamine has also changed across the 2010 to 2013 period. In 2013, 15.5 percent of recent meth/amphetamine users reported daily or weekly use, compared with 9.3 percent in the 2010 survey. When examining use by form, approximately a quarter of users who mainly used ice reported using it at least weekly, compared with 2.2 percent of powder users who reported weekly use. Scott et al.’s study of injecting drug users in Melbourne found that those already using methamphetamine were starting to purchase the drug more frequently in 2013 compared with 2011

A novel colorimetric biosensor based on non-aggregated Au@Ag core–shell nanoparticles for methamphetamine and cocaine detection

We report a novel colorimetric biosensor based on non-aggregation Au@Ag core-shell nanoparticles to detect methamphetamine and cocaine. The biosensor consisted of a reporter probe (RP) that is a specific single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) sequence coated on Au@Ag nanoparticles, a capture probe (CP) conjugated with magnetic beads, and an illicit drug-binding DNA aptamer (Apt). Au@Ag nanoparticles were synthesized by seed growth and characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), and UV–vis spectra. Methamphetamine (METH) was used as an example to evaluate the feasibility of the biosensor and to optimize the detection conditions. We demonstrated that this sensing platform was able to detect as low as 0.1 nM (14.9 ng L−1) METH with a negligible interference from other common illicit drugs. Various concentrations of METH were spiked into urines, and the biosensor yielded recoveries more than 83.1%. In addition, the biosensor also showed a high sensitivity to detect cocaine. These results demonstrated that our colorimetric sensor holds promise to be implemented as a visual sensing platform to detect multiple illicit drugs in biological samples and environmental matrices