Cocaine - world drug market in recession

It appears that the current Global crisis is affecting everything.

Even drugs.

The reality for all drug markets, is that governments all around the world are constantly combating illegal substances.

In America, President Obama has recently stated that Mexico has the United States full support on the war on drugs and the guns utilised to protect the traffic routes. America remains the hungriest market in the world for illegal drugs, and over 6,000 people had been killed in the last year in the war on drugs in their neighbouring country.

When a highly exposed head of state says such remarks, that means huge amounts of resources being directed towards fighting the drug trade.

And as rich as the cartels may be, the stark fact is that governments - even in recession - are richer.

In Australia, similar themes are occurring.

Recently, a huge ad campaign against major drugs, including ice, marijuana and other readily available products was released, and can be seen everywhere via TV, radio and public posters.

Equally, recent high level violence by biker gangs has seen huge amounts of law enforcement resources directed toward the gangs, but also toughening the laws regarding such groups.

The penalty for recruiting for bike gangs now comes with a 5 year jail sentence. As a consequence, the drug market in Australia is noticeably dwindling.

Forcing supplies down and prices up.

In the UK, the Serious Organised Crime Agency claims that the key drug market there, Cocaine, is in serious trouble.

Work by undercover units there are driving the product and it's market into a "recession".

Prices per kilo have risen from close to 40,000 pounds to nearly 50,000 pounds in the last year.

It is estimated over 10 tonnes were directly caught close to Christmas last year, and hundred of millions of dollars worth of Cocaine was burnt last year.

Street prices however remain stable, but this is due a massive fall in quality.

Recent police figures released by the BBC indicate that most seizures now are less than 9% pure, the lowest ever recorded level.

This is due to the increasing release and circulation of drug cutting agents, including the cancer-causing drug phenacetin, cockroach insecticide and pet worming powder.

Ironically, this will cause the efforts by law enforcement to increase, because while the product is less pure and it's classification as a drug is diminishing, the introduction of such chemicals is making the products far more dangerous.

Some argue that trying to cut the drug off at their source is unsustainable, and that no matter how successful the war on drugs is, there will always be abundant product in the market, irrespective of its quality.

But, SOCA have clearly decided that, like in America and Australia, that such wars are waged with far more success when there is high public awareness.

Unlike the clandestine operations previously so popular with drug busting rings.

Dengue fever - the hidden australian virus

If we talk about incoming virus and diseases, the word dengue is not one that springs to mind.

The illness, nicknamed the bone breaker or bone crusher disease, can in worst cases kill, but often causes a severe overall body fever.

It is a dangerous illness, in the fact that it can be misdiagnosed as influenza in milder cases. Often symptoms do not instantly develop and are unrecognised at first, which can lead to a dangerous period of incubation. However, it can only be passed through blood, or mosquitos - the prime carrier.

Often travellers that pick it up will carry it for up to a week before symptoms develop.

It can develop as headaches and overall body pains. It often develops into a rash, which is bright red and can appear on lower limbs or the chest, but if untreated can spread to the entire body.

In these cases it can then develop to intestinal pain, which can lead to cases of vomiting or diarrhea, of which blood can be passed.

Here, the demon of the virus can surface, given that dengue is loosely related to Hepatitis C. This can lead to health complications later in life.

Why then, must I be doing my best to create such scare and panic?

Queensland Health has stated in the last week that dengue has officially become an outbreak in Northern Queensland - the worst in 50 years.

Close to 1000 cases have been confirmed in the region.

It is the largest outbreak in half a century.

It is transmitted through mosquito's, with the key issues being the flood affected area's that are a major attraction for the insects.

This follows a major outbreak that was seen in the 1950's in Townsville, where over 15,000 people were infected.

According to the World Health Organisation, nearly half of the worlds population is at risk of dengue, and there is risk of over 50 million confirmed cases each year.

Officially, it is a epidemic in over 100 countries world wide.

Further evidence has come to light that Queensland Health has previously passed recommendations to the government that a special investigation commitee be formed in Brisbane.

A $6 million proposal would have seen inspectors effectively begin operating in Brisbane. So far, dengue has been detected in the mid and upper north of Queensland. Detected, due to the operators in these area's that are not present in Brisbane and the South East population heavy areas.

This proposal was ignored and refused.

Essentially, the Queensland Government believes that according to their health departments, there is no impending problem.

A statement that contradicts that recommendation from the same departments.

This follows a summit barely a few weeks ago, where entomologists and public health experts from America and Singapore visited Cairns to find new methods to arrest the development of a major epidemic in Queensland.

This was called by Queensland Health.

Swine/H1N1 Flu – some cold hard facts

First of all, let us show some modicum of respect to the hundreds of thousands of pig farmers around the world and forget the word “swine”.

It is not swine flu, it is the H1N1 virus.

While it is a mutated virus, the reality is, if the hype and worst comes to fruition, where it came from will ultimately be a moot point. It is not so much the illness that is the threat, but what it may become if it transforms.

Yes, it originates from an altered version of influenza found in “swine”, but any attribution to the fundamental species is unfair.

Pig farmers in America, are currently losing over $2 million dollars a day.

It is essentially “Zoonosis” (or zoonose) which is where a virus shifts, and is then transmissible easily from animals to humans – or in theory, vice versa.

A huge amount of lethal diseases can be attributed to this. The most famous of these is the bubonic plague, essentially carried by rats, and transmitted through fleas. The most single noted incident in regard to this was the “Black death” a pandemic that occurred roughly in 1350, and reduced the world’s population by nearly 25% (some 100 million).

Other examples include Ebola, Ringworm and Typhus.

Even HIV has a very loose link to this.

HIV/AIDS is currently a pandemic, the world’s worst.

But we must remember that these diseases are at their worst when they become mutated, or in the case of H1N1, is easily transmitted from human to human.

H1N1 and the origins of incorrect names

Swine flu is like the formerly hyped Avian flu, named due to its original host. Essentially, H1N1 (or the avian coded H5N1), is a mutation of influenza – a cousin of the common cold.

Influenza C and Influenza A is an illness prevalent in many animals and humans. The H1N1 virus is essentially a subtype. People have developed swine flu far before the “current crisis” but in very isolated cases.

The Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918, which killed at least 50 million people, was a variant of the H1N1 virus.

To put the media hysteria that comes with disease “name calling” - Spanish Flu received its labelling because Spain at the time had no censorship as a neutral country, hence the most reliable news regarding the illness at the time came from Spain – not the illness itself.

So media, and later history, would refer to this as the Spanish Flu.

Epidemic

Is so named when a certain disease or illness takes effect in the human population, beyond what is expected. Currently, we go through many epidemics in a single year. Most of which we never hear about, or should I say, doesn’t become grave enough for it to reach common media.

It is not to be confused with an Endimec, which is almost like an expected disease that occurs around a consistent demographic of a population. Chicken pox in western cultures, or malaria in African cultures, is an example of this.

Some people would regard obesity as an epidemic, as it has gone beyond what was expected.

But most importantly, before something becomes a pandemic, it must be an epidemic. H1N1 is currently an epidemic. But, so are examples of a common cold.

Epidemics occur constantly, yet we hear nothing about them. According to the American Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, an average of 36,000 Americans die each year from the complications of flu.

It that not worth hearing about in the news?

Maybe not, but it does put into perspective the fact that barely 50 people have died from H1N1.

Pandemic

Essentially when an epidemic becomes highly contagious and spreads around the world. According to the World Health Organisation, it is the emergence of a new virus, a mutation of a virus that affects people severely (that is, the viral agents become human to human), and easy and rapid spread.

The announcing of a pandemic means that a new strain has become airborne or easily transmitted; and in effect means that many people will become infected and die.

But, in the three major pandemics of the 20th century, the “kill rate” was about 3%. They are pretty good odds.