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Young adults who were prescribed stimulant medications for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were significantly more likely to develop cardiomyopathy (weakened heart muscle) compared with those who were not prescribed stimulants, in a study presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session. The study found that people prescribed stimulants such as Adderall and Ritalin were 17% more likely to have cardiomyopathy at one year and 57% more likely to have cardiomyopathy at eight years compared with those who were not taking these medications. Cardiomyopathy involves structural changes in the heart muscle that weaken its pumping ability. It can cause a...

Hamas fighters have reportedly been using an illicit substance, nicknamed 'the poor man's cocaine', to 'feel invincible' and numb themselves while murdering Israelis. Israeli news site, Channel 12, reported that Captagon pills had been seized from Hamas prisoners and found with the bodies of dead fighters. They claim that some of the terrorists had taken the drug to 'commit the inhuman murders' during the October 7 attack on Israel. ... Captagon is a highly addictive amphetamine-like drug that has plagued the Middle East in recent years - it has been taken by fighters who say it gives them a feeling...

French customs officials said Tuesday that they had intercepted 135 kilograms (300 pounds) of Captagon, dubbed the “jihadists’ drug”, at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport this year, a first for France. Captagon, a type of amphetamine, is one of the most commonly used drugs among fighters in the Syrian war. “It is the first time that this drug has been seized in France,” the customs agency said in a statement. Customs officials at Charles de Gaulle discovered 350,000 Captagon pills weighing 70 kilograms on January 4 hidden among industrial molds exported from Lebanon and apparently heading for the Czech Republic....

BOGOTA, Colombia - Mexico has passed a sweeping bill legalizing the possession of small quantities of almost all illegal drugs, including heroin and cocaine. The regime, likely to be one of the most liberal in the world, is designed to avoid clogging prisons with drug addicts, allowing police to go after big-time dealers. Under the bill, it would be legal to possess 25 milligrams of heroin, five grams of marijuana, half a gram of cocaine, as well as small amounts of LSD, hallucinogenic mushrooms, amphetamines, and a hallucinogenic cactus, peyote. All that remains is for President Fox to sign the...

The NY Times reported in January that Roseanne Boyland was “killed in a crush of fellow rioters” at the Capitol, but the Washington, D.C. medical examiner says she died of “acute amphetamine intoxication.”Almost three months to the day since the January 6th Capitol riots, the medical examiner released the causes of death for the four people who died at some point during the melee.According to Washington, D.C. Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Francisco J. Diaz, Kevin Greeson, 55, and Benjamin Phillips, 50, died from natural causes (a heart attack). Ashli Babbitt, 35, died from a gunshot wound to her left shoulder....

Joe Biden’s decline has change into so painful to see and so embarrassing to observe that it feels merciless to say it. But it’s much more merciless that Biden’s crew act as if it’s not taking place, and most of America’s media look the opposite manner. On Thursday night time, Biden marked the primary anniversary of the Covid-19 shutdowns and his fiftieth day within the White House by giving the primary televised tackle of his presidency. He hadn’t been seen in public for 3 days, which is what he appears to require if he’s to not unravel before the cameras....

**SNIP** Now the Trump campaign and top advisers want to avoid the same misstep this fall when the president first faces off against former Vice President Joe Biden on Sept. 29. The Trump team has been studying Biden’s idiosyncrasies in debates and other venues and preparing tactics for Trump, according to interviews with a dozen campaign aides, White House officials and outside advisers. Some have noticed the way he says, “C’mon, man,” whenever he feels frustrated, and they’re trying to identify words or phrases that trigger him to “reboot,” as one person familiar with the planning described it. Essentially, Trump...

Italy's financial police Guardia do Finanza, said in a statement Wednesday that authorities seized a 15.4 ton shipment of amphetamines reportedly produced by ISIS in Syria. The police tracked three containers at the port of Salerno in southwest Italy and found around 84 million pills stored inside industrial paper cylinders, CNN reported. The estimated value of the drugs was around $1.12 billion, the largest amphetamine bust in the world by quantity and value, the statement said.

As The Post's Liz Sly recently noted, the war in Syria has become a tangled web of conflict dominated by "al Qaeda veterans, hardened Iraqi insurgents, Arab jihadist ideologues and Western volunteers." On the surface, those competing actors are fueled by an overlapping mixture of ideologies and political agendas. Just below it, experts suspect, they're powered by something else: Captagon. A tiny, highly addictive pill produced in Syria and widely available across the Middle East, its illegal sale funnels hundreds of millions of dollars back into the war torn country's black market economy each year, likely giving militias access to...

ISIS fighters are taking cheap, easy-to-make amphetamine pills that help keep them awake for days, which is fuelling the civil war in Syria. The small tablets of the highly addictive substance Captagon are produced in Syria and is widely available across the Middle East. It is thought that the trade of the drugs brings in millions of dollars in revenue to Syria, providing funding for weapons and ammunition. .......A drug control officer in the central city of Homs said he had observed the effects of Captagon on protesters and fighters held for questioning. He told Reuters news agency: 'We would...

A new study funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation found that while alcohol abuse decreased 7.6 percent globally since 1990, it increased 5.5 percent in the United States during that same time period. The research, published in The Lancet on June 8, found that 76.8 million people in the world were diagnosed with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) in 2013—a figure greater than the population of more than 200 countries, including the United Kingdom. Of those, 5.1 million individuals—or a little under 10 percent—were in the United States. In addition to the 5.5 percent increase in alcohol abuse, the...

Iran is breaking bad. Officials say methamphetamine production and abuse of hard drugs are skyrocketing in the country despite potentially lethal criminal penalties for users if they are caught. The increase is partly because of Iran’s status as the gateway for the region’s top drug exporter, Afghanistan—and partly because Iranian dealers are profiting so handsomely from sales to overstressed students and exhausted double-jobbers. Ghazal Tolouian, a psychologist who treats dozens of meth addicts at a therapy camp in a mountain village northwest of Tehran, says most of her clients fall into two categories: students “who want to pass university entrance...

Federal health regulators have approved an attention deficit disorder drug for a new use: A first-of-its kind treatment for binge-eating disorder. […] The Food and Drug Administration originally approved Vyvanse in 2007 as a once-a-day pill for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. On Friday, the agency cleared the drug for adults who compulsively overeat. Vyvanse, known chemically as lisdexamfetamine dimesylate, is part of a family of drugs that stimulate the central nervous system. The drug’s prescribing label warns that Vyvanse has a “high potential for abuse and dependence,” and doctors should monitor patients for signs of dependence. …

A spike in the trafficking of the illegal drug Captagon, popular in the Middle East, is connected to Syria's brutal civil war ... In one month, Lebanese authorities confiscated more than $200 million worth of a potent amphetamine that is almost entirely unheard of in the West. But in the Persian Gulf, Captagon, as the amphetamine is known, is the most sought-after drug on the street, and the conflict in Syria, with its attendant lawlessness, is making it even easier to obtain. As the war drags on, it is all the more likely that Captagon will take on a significant...

LOS ANGELES - The 24-year-old son of O.J. Simpson defense attorney Robert Shapiro died at a hospital after being found unconscious, and the coroner's office said he had tested positive for amphetamines. Brent Shapiro, a University of Southern California graduate who had just enrolled in law school, died Monday. He had been found unconscious the morning before. Officials at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Hospital told the coroner's office that Shapiro had tested positive for the drug, said Lt. David Smith, a coroner's office spokesman. "It's being considered an accidental death," he said. An official ruling on cause of death will be...

HAMISH ROBERTSON: Melbourne's 23rd underworld murder has shocked the Police Force in Victoria, with the state's top commanders saying that the two murders in the past 8-days have taken the criminal turf war to a surreal and unprecedented level. Police have revealed that they're now reviewing the way organised crime is investigated, and they fear that the current spate of killings, over the lucrative amphetamine trade, may produce a long running feud. As Rafael Epstein reports from Melbourne, police suggest the gang war may be continued by the children of the men executed over the last six years. RAFAEL EPSTEIN:...