OPINION: It came to me the other night, when I was watching an episode of that excellent TV show The Wire, that the particulars of the drug trade it focuses on are very similar to that of the online copyright infringement struggle.

According to new research involving drinking and driving in the United States by our young people, more fatal motorized vehicle crashes are involving young women drunk behind the wheel.

According to a report by SAMHSA, people over the age of 50 years (Baby Boomers) are abusing drugs at dramatic rates. The U.S. agency predicts that such use of illicit drugs will cause them to need substance abuse treatment at double current rates within the next ten years.

According to the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, tests have revealed that some children’s face paints used at Halloween contain the metals lead, nickel, cobalt, and chromium. What is equally scary is the fact that these metals are often not listed on the product labels.

For 2009, Playboy magazine ranks the best party school in the United States to be the University of Miami (Florida) while U.S. News and World Report ranks the best educational school to be Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts). Is this party atmosphere further hurting the educational system in the United States? Is this really good for the reputation of schools?

Although a lower percentage of U.S. teens are sniffing, or huffing, inhalants in 2007, the number of teenagers who have abused inhalants has remained about the same for the past five years (2002-2007), according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

According to New York researchers, the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medicine Ritalin increases the risk of addiction to people who take it for pleasure or for performance enhancement because it causes brain changes in its addiction centers.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned on Thursday, December 11, 2008, that the risks of the two prescription drugs Serevent and Foradil outweigh their benefits. However, the FDA considers the asthma drugs Advair and Symbicort safer to use.

According to a new Johns Hopkins study, researchers are recommending warning labels on energy drinks, such as the first energy drink Red Bull introduced in the United States, because the super-caffeinated drinks could cause overdose symptoms such as heart palpitations and insomnia.

A comprehensive study found that American children are much more likely to be given antidepressents, stimulants, and other psychoactive drugs (to alter the brain or mood) than children in the Netherlands or Germany.