An Italian hospital director sent a memo to doctors and nurses asking them not to snort cocaine while on duty, the ANSA news agency reported.

Giuseppe Di Maria now faces possible disciplinary action following the memo sent to medical staff at the Santa Catarina Novella di Galatina Hospital near Lecce in southern Italy.

afp

The Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) has arrested eight people in separate incidences in Lusaka for trafficking in different quantities of cocaine including young musicians.

lusakatimes.com

The Turkish security forces and police seized large amount of drugs in several operations in Turkey on Monday, semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

The Turkish security forces confiscated 245 kg of heroin and seven kg of hashish in an operation conducted in northwestern province of Istanbul, the report said, adding 16 people were arrested suspected of in connection with the illicit drugs.

peopledaily.com.cn

Though the Sandinista-Escobar connection has been public knowledge in Nicaragua for years, this week’s leaked cables claim the Sandinistas’ connection to narco-financing continued well after the revolution ended in 1990. Ortega was eventually reelected president in 2006, after 16 years out of power. The leaked cables did cover the Sandinista government’s alleged corruption, blackmail of public figures and involvement with international drug traffickers to finance political campaigns.

americasnewsonline.com

In Burma ist die Rauschgiftproduktion im laufenden Jahr rasant gestiegen. Es wurden 76 Prozent mehr Opium hergestellt als ein Jahr zuvor, berichtete das UNO-Büro für Drogen und Kriminalität (UNODC) heute in Bangkok. Damit liefere die Militärdiktatur schon 16 Prozent des Weltmarktangebots der illegalen Droge. Vor einem Jahr waren es erst fünf Prozent.

orf.at

Poppy cultivation in Burma, Laos and Thailand has shot up for the fourth consecutive year, threatening to roll back steps taken to stem the drug trade in Southeast Asia's notorious Golden Triangle area.

Overall, cultivation in the region has almost doubled since 2006, according to latest U.N. assessment of the opium trade in Southeast Asia.

It warned that the increase had the potential to push up regional opium production in 2010 by a whopping 75 percent from last year, with military-ruled Burma expected to grab the lion's share.

rfa.org

The once squeaky-clean image of former teen Disney star Miley Cyrus took another hit – so to speak – this weekend, when a video emerged of her purportedly smoking a bong filled with salvia.

While her father Billy Ray Cyrus is said to be saddened by the video, which appears on the celebrity gossip website TMZ.com, plenty of others are asking: what is salvia and is it legal?

ctvbc.ctv.ca

TMZ has obtained cell phone footage of Miley Cyrus smoking a bong and giggling a lot. Sources claim she wasn’t smoking pot, but the legal herb salvia — a nice variation on the classic Clinton Defense (how I’ve missed the ‘Bill Clinton inhale’ jokes since Leno stopped doing them in 2008!) Even if nothing illegal is happening here, the obligatory backpedaling from Miley and her disappointed overlords should be entertaining.

bestweekever.tv
tmz.com
Salvia, the drug Miley Cyrus smokes on Youtube, is sold in Vancouver
baltimoresun.com
History
globalnews.ca
Miley Cyrus on Bong Controversy: Whatever!
Feds warn against legal hallucinogenic herb Salvia