Time to take the gloves off in the fight against drugs.
Exile all convicted drug dealers after the third strike to a desert
island and let them look after themselves.
excerpts
Olokun, who had been addicted to drugs since the age of 16, lived off
crime, selling drugs and mugging people after threatening them with
his knife.

He told a friend he smoked crack cocaine before "going hunting". He
had killed Mr Hegarty because "the prick wouldn't give me his phone or
his wallet".

Olokun, who dossed down with friends in Hackney, east London, was
found guilty of murder at the Old Bailey.

He was ordered to serve a minimum term of 25 years

guardian.co.uk

Health timebomb as rising cocaine use threatens heart problems in
young

· Up to 10% of patients with chest pains took drug
· Greater acceptability and lower prices fuel growth

Ian Sample, science correspondent
Monday October 24, 2005
The Guardian

A surge in cocaine use is pushing Britain towards a "healthcare
disaster" that will see a dramatic rise in heart attacks, strokes and
neurological problems among young people, says a leading specialist.
The warning follows a three-year investigation into cocaine use
carried out at a London hospital emergency unit which indicates that
the medical complications of the drug will become a significant burden
on hospital resources.
The study looked at levels of cocaine in people who arrived at the
accident and emergency unit of St Mary's hospital, Paddington, London,
who were complaining of chest pains, a common side-effect of the drug.
It found that on Friday or Saturday nights up to half the young people
tested had cocaine in their system.

While fewer tested positive for the drug during the week, the numbers
were still surprisingly high, said John Henry, a leading toxicologist
and professor of accident and emergency medicine, who led the study.
"Cocaine usage has peaked in the US but here it is still on the rise,
which means the worst is yet to come. We're going to see more severe
addiction, more strokes and heart attacks in young people, and more of
the other complications linked to its usage," said Professor Henry,
who is regarded as the UK's leading expert on illicit drug use. "It's
a healthcare disaster and it's coming here."

Records taken during the study, to be published in an academic
journal, show that between 7% and 10% of all those complaining of
chest pains were found to have traces of cocaine in their urine. With
the under-40s cocaine usage was markedly higher; a third of this group
tested positive for the drug on weekdays, rising to 50% over the
weekend. Tests on a control group admitted to A&E without chest pains
showed only 3% had taken cocaine.

The study confirms the fears of other healthcare professionals that
cocaine use in Britain has reached an unprecedented level. In an audit
of drug tests carried out by the City Hospital NHS teaching trust in
Birmingham cocaine use was found to be increasing by about 50% every
three years, a trend showing no sign of slowing. "The arrival of the
cocaine epidemic has now started to become a reality in the UK," said
Stephen George, the doctor who did the survey.

The rise of cocaine has been boosted by greater acceptability of the
drug and better supply, bringing more drugs to UK streets and lower
prices. A gram wrap of cocaine now costs as little as £45. Experts
fear cocaine use will continue to soar until it reaches a peak, as it
did in the 1990s in the US where there are now 25 million users and
two million addicts.

The increased availability of the drug has been picked up by coroners'
offices which have found that most heroin addicts dying of an overdose
now have cocaine in their systems. "Even 10 years ago we didn't see
cocaine in those cases," said Susan Paterson, a toxicologist at
Imperial College, London, who works with coroners on more than half of
the capital's heroin deaths.

Cocaine tightens up blood vessels, making the heart work harder and
raising blood pressure. While long-term heart problems can build up in
cocaine users, as little as two 100mg lines (a fraction of an ounce)
is enough to cause chest pains. US studies found that 5% of cocaine
users attending A&E departments with chest pains had heart attacks
because of their drug usage. Hospitals are already reporting patients
in their early 30s suffering strokes and severe coronary heart disease
brought on by cocaine use. Many do not smoke, are not overweight and
do not have naturally high blood pressure.

In the US a condition called aortic dissection has become common among
cocaine users. Caused by blood being forced into the lining of big
vessels, it essentially creates a new channel for blood to flow down.
The rupture itself causes crushing chest pains but also reduces blood
flow to vital organs, leading to brain and kidney damage in many
cases. A third of the cases of aortic dissection in the US are
attributed to cocaine use.