Internet abuse

That effort succeeded. However, the U.N. in February of 2001 warned that not all countries had laws that could be used to stop Internet drug trafficking. The U.N. s International Narcotics Control Board called on countries to adopt laws to halt Internet abuse such as the sale of illegal drugs by online pharmacies and drug stores. 

Internet fraud has been widely identified across the global as one of the fastest growing and most pervasive forms of white collar crime. The multicultural and multinational nature of e-business has resulted in diverse views on how the cyberspace should be regulated and how cyber ethics should be enforced. For example, encryption of data transmission over the internet is an effective means of curbing e-business abuses. But many third world countries are still not in favor of this practice. On die other hand, investigation and prosecution of internet abuses usually require cooperation of law enforcement authorities from two or more nations. The lack of cooperation from any one of these nations will make it impossible to prosecute the cyber criminals who will in turn continue to pose threats in the e-business arena. Till the world reaches an agreement on how the cyber space should be regulated, companies with e-business activities from all industries have to contend with cyber ethic issues for many years to come. 

If you are interested in learning more about assessment tools for drug problems, there are several great resources to find them. I recommend several books at the end of this chapter that may help. In addition, many assessment tools can be found on the Internet. The best places to look include Web sites for the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA http //www.drugabuse.gov) and... 

Adapted from National Institute on Drug Abuse. Information on Drugs of Abuse— Prescription Drug Abuse Chart. Available on the Internet http //www.drugabuse.gov/DrugPages/PrescripDrugsChart.html. ... 

Drug use by teenagers in 2004 appears to have declined, though use of inhalants and oxycodone (OxyContin ), a prescription opioid pain reliever, are on the rise. Recent reports indicate that a ready source of drugs of abuse for adolescents is prescription drugs found in the home medicine cabinet, as well as prescription drugs available on the Internet. ... 

Rinaldo, Denise. The Internet Drug Trade. Scholastic Choices 23, no. 2 (October 2007) 12-15. Relating stories about how two teenage girls became addicted to prescription drugs, this article focuses on access through the Internet. It criticizes sales of prescription drugs via the Internet because such sales foster problems of abuse. 

This chapter presents a representative selection of hooks, articles, and Web (Internet) documents relating to drug abuse and addiction, treatment, the war on drugs, drug policy, and related issues. Materials have been selected where possible to be accessible, substantial, and diverse in viewpoint. The bibliography is divided into four broad categories that are further divided into subtopics as follows ... 

Boston University Library. Research Guides Drug Abuse. Boston University Library. Available online. URL htqi //www.bu.edu/library/guides/ drugabuse.html. Updated December 9, 2003. Provides a useful list of subject headings, indexes, databases, statistics, and Internet resources on topics relating to drug abuse. 

As mentioned above, outbreaks of DXM abuse seem to have increased with the rise of the Internet. Literature reviews and newspaper articles on DXM have frequently included pejorative or alarmist comments about the abundance and inaccuracy of DXM-related information found on the Internet. Yet the seminal Internet document about DXM, William White s DXM FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)115— first posted to Usenet newsgroups in 1994, and made available on the Web in November of that year — was exhaustive (with scholarly interpretations of hundreds of studies from peer-reviewed journals) and balanced (with the risks of DXM abuse emphasized throughout). If the mid-to-late-1990s upswing in DXM abuse is to be attributed partly to the Internet s ability to spread information widely, perhaps it should also be attributed to the tendency of some readers not to absorb information thoroughly. 

Blum, A., Cough syrup abuse on rise Internet sites exacerbate problem, Capital-Gazette, Annapolis, MD, p. Cl, January 6, 2000. 

Regulatory. Aspartame is permitted across the world in all major markets. It has an ADI of 40 mg/kg bw, which is significantly higher than other sweeteners. It is ironic that, historically, this sweetener has been the subject of allegations about adverse health effects. Evidence put forward has been largely anecdotal and picked up and promoted via the internet or the lay press. Scientifically controlled peer-reviewed studies have consistently failed to link aspartame consumption, even of abuse levels, to adverse health effects. The most recent review, of over 500 studies and reports about aspartame conducted by the Scientific Committee on Food (SCF), concluded that... 

Dextromethorphan is sold alone or, when mixed with other drugs such as phenylpropanolamine or ephedrine, is marketed as ecstasy, after the widely abused street drag. Of course, this formulation is not the same compound as ecstasy. It has also been used to deceive persons who are seeking to buy narcotics such as heroin. The greatest amount of dextromethorphan abuse so far has occurred with the over-the-counter cough formulas. Reportedly, dextromethorphan is also being sold on the Internet in pill and capsule forms as well as the powder. 

Some fear exists regarding the abuse of Xyrem, and about how to control distribution in the age of the Internet and on-line pharmacies. Orphan Medical is working with the government to develop a distribution scheme to control prescriptions of Xyrem and limit its use to treat narcolepsy. 

Two factors that may contribute to the increased abuse of medications are "doctor shopping" to get multiple prescriptions to treat a single physical or psychological ailment and the advertisement of prescription drugs over the Internet. Sales of drugs over the Internet are difficult for officials to track. 

The Internet makes many drugs more easily accessible—and even offers instructions on how to abuse them. 

DXM abuse can also lead to more serious dangers. The body temperature can rise, the heart starts to beat irregularly or at a faster rate (called tachycardia), blood pressure rises, and the user may lose consciousness. Death is also a very real possibility. While deaths related purely to DXM itself are rare, they do occur. A well-covered story in 2005 documented the deaths of five men who abused DXM, leading to the arrest of two other men who sold them the drug over the Internet. More common are deaths that happen when DXM is being used along with alcohol or another drug. 

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