News 2008 may 12


MOMENTUM IN THE ELECTRO-CHEMICAL AGE
2008 may 12 monday
Lawmakers Debate Early Release of Non-Violent Drug Lawbreakers	Drug Research
	Scientists Increase Brain Power through Psychoactive Drugs	Psychoactive Stimulants Found to Increase Brain Matter
Lawmakers across the country are debating plans to reverse decades of tough-on-crime policies by granting early release to criminals as a way for cash-strapped states to try to close budget gaps. From California to Kentucky, officials are considering releasing tens of thousands of convicts, particularly those convicted of minor drug offenses, who would be better served by treatment, parole or early release for good behavior. Officials acknowledge that the idea carries risks, but say they have no choice because of huge budget gaps brought on by the slumping economy. "If we don't find a way to better manage the population at the state prison, we will be forced to spend money to expand the state's prison system - money we don't have," said Jeff Neal, a spokesman for Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri. At least eight states are considering freeing inmates or sending some to rehabilitation programs instead of prison. If adopted, the early release programs could save an estimated $450 million in California and Kentucky alone. Kentucky spends more than $18,600 to house one inmate for a year, or roughly $51 a day. In California, each inmate costs an average of $46,104 to incarcerate. "It's the fiscal stuff that's driving it," said Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based group that advocates for more lenient sentencing. "Do you want to build prisons or do you want to build colleges? If you're a governor, it's kind of come to that choice right now." A Rhode Island proposal would allow inmates to deduct up to 12 days from their sentence for every month they follow rules and work in prison. A plan in Mississippi would offer early parole for people convicted of selling marijuana or prescription drugs. New Jersey, South Carolina and Vermont are considering funneling drug-addicted offenders into treatment, which is cheaper than prison. In California, where lawmakers have taken steps to cut a $16 billion budget deficit in half by summer, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed saving $400 million by releasing more than 22,000 inmates who had less than 20 months remaining on their sentences. Violent and sex offenders would not be eligible Proposals to free prisoners are still met with opposition, particularly from law enforcement officials who fear that a flood of released felons could return to their communities, and from victims groups that worry that justice is being sacrificed for budgetary concerns. But prisons "are one of the most expensive parts of the criminal-justice system," said Alison Lawrence, who studies corrections policy for the National Conference of State Legislatures. "That's where they look to first to cut down some of those costs." © 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.	Shocking research by Nature has revealed that many of the world's top engineers and scientists are routinely taking psychoactive drugs to boost their brain power. An informal search by the leading research publication has uncovered an epidemic of drug use in scientific circles. One in five respondents to the survey reported they had used cognition-enhancing prescription drugs for non-medical reasons. Specifically, ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) drug Ritalin, sleep medication Provigil, and beta blocking heart drugs are all resportedly guzzled to improve focus, concentration, and memeory. More than one third had obtained their fix from an internet pharmacy., All but one of the 14 British scientists who responded ordered online. The enhanced eggheads reported side effects including sleeplessness, jitteriness, anxiety, and headaches But the poll also revealed that most boffins have no problem with their competitors obtaining a competitive advantage. Four in five said healthy adults should be allowed to turbo charge their own brain if they want to. Affectionately, dubbed "cosmetic neurology", this type of enhancement is nothing new. What is very recent is the phenomenal acceptance this now has across Europe and throughout Asia-PAC. The trend for the next decade is likely to show a much more permissive attitude towards drugs. This is something that the US is unprepared to handle.	In 2005, Terry Jernigan, UCSD, led a study, *Effects of Methamphetamine Dependence and HIV Infection on Cerebral Morphology*, in which MRI studies of HIV subjects who use methamphetamine were explored. This was one of the first studies that was allowed under a government program to reveal the truth about how methamphetamine effects the brain. Independent of the effect of age, HIV infection was associated with reduced volumes of cortical, limbic, and striatal structures. There was also some evidence of an interaction between age and HIV infection such that older HIV-positive participants suffered disproportionate loss. Methamphetamine dependence was surprisingly associated with basal ganglia and parietal cortex volume increases, and in one of these structures—the nucleus accumbens— there appeared to be a larger effect in younger methamphetamine abusers. Neurocognitive impairment was associated with decreased cortical volumes in HIV-positive participants but with increased cortical volumes in methamphetamine- dependent participants. Since the Jernigan study, there have been similar research studies which show that low-dose administration of methamphetamine had a positive impact on the brain. At excessively high doses, there was evidence of change to the frontal cortex region of the brain. The studies suggests that low doses of methamphetamine have a pronounced positive effect on the brain, while at higher doses, there were signs of frontal lobe deterioration. It has not been specified whether this deterioration might be due to chemical impurities found in street meth (crystal methamphetamine). It is obvious that more research is needed.