Slanging to blaze up and juice up - Drug consumption in Samoan Bloods youth gangs in New Zealand

This presentation is based on the findings from a 2015 PhD study entitled ‘Hard-Hard-Solid! Life Histories of Samoans in Bloods youth gangs in New Zealand’, and in particular the effects of smoking marijuana (blaze) combined with hard alcohol (juice) on Samoan young people aged 16 years and over. It desensitises them so when they are slanging (selling) or preparing for a fight with a rival gang they feel invincible, fearless, and incredibly strong. According to the 25 life histories that was collected over an 18 month period from ethnic minority gang members there was consistency with socialization and delinquency theoretical literature where structural -functionalism, strain, control and learning perspectives accounted for their involvement in this subculture and its drug activities. As a result serious physical (hospitalization and surgery), mental (attitudinal and behavioural changes), social (family dysfunction and lack of trust in school and social services), cultural (rejection of Samoan cultural identity) and spiritual (disillusionment and mistrust with church and its members) issues emerged. So what is recommended according to the gang members was to reduce or eliminate the attractiveness of gang culture and establish a multi-faceted approach that develop initiatives such as substituting slanging with alternatives like apprenticeships or a cadetship with the military or better access to meaningful employment or tertiary qualifications. Hence this presentation would benefit social workers, health professionals, policymakers, and researchers committed to advancing ethnic minority youth development.

Slanging to blaze up and juice up - Drug consumption in Samoan Bloods youth gangs in New Zealand

This presentation is based on the findings from a 2015 PhD study entitled ‘Hard-Hard-Solid! Life Histories of Samoans in Bloods youth gangs in New Zealand’, and in particular the effects of smoking marijuana (blaze) combined with hard alcohol (juice) on Samoan young people aged 16 years and over. It desensitises them so when they are slanging (selling) or preparing for a fight with a rival gang they feel invincible, fearless, and incredibly strong. According to the 25 life histories that was collected over an 18 month period from ethnic minority gang members there was consistency with socialization and delinquency theoretical literature where structural -functionalism, strain, control and learning perspectives accounted for their involvement in this subculture and its drug activities. As a result serious physical (hospitalization and surgery), mental (attitudinal and behavioural changes), social (family dysfunction and lack of trust in school and social services), cultural (rejection of Samoan cultural identity) and spiritual (disillusionment and mistrust with church and its members) issues emerged. So what is recommended according to the gang members was to reduce or eliminate the attractiveness of gang culture and establish a multi-faceted approach that develop initiatives such as substituting slanging with alternatives like apprenticeships or a cadetship with the military or better access to meaningful employment or tertiary qualifications. Hence this presentation would benefit social workers, health professionals, policymakers, and researchers committed to advancing ethnic minority youth development.

Self-assembled 5-fluorouracil-cinnamaldehyde nanodrugs for greatly improved chemotherapy in vivo

The preferred cancer treatment is to achieve a high therapeutic effect as well as reduce side effects. In this study, we developed carrier-free nano drugs based on 5-fluorouracil (5FU) and cinnamaldehyde (CA) to meet the above goals. Two model drugs were spliced by acetal linkage and ester bond, which could self-assemble into nano drug particles (5FU–CA NPs) with a size of ∼170 nm. In vitro cell experiments showed 5FU–CA NPs were efficiently internalized by HepG2 cells. They then quickly exerted dual drug activities by the cleavage of acetal and ester bond, resulting in enhanced cell-killing efficacy and apoptosis. Synergistic mechanisms were achieved via the anti-metabolic effects mediated by 5FU–COOH and the oxidative damage induced by CA. In vivo anti-tumor evaluation further indicated that 5FU–CA NPs had higher tumor growth inhibition than 5FU–COOH/CA mixture (5FU–COOH + CA) and exhibited lower systemic toxicity under the same reducing dose of each drug. Overall, this is a successful synergistic anti-tumor attempt through rational self-assembly of drugs with different mechanisms and it can be extrapolated to other agents.

Drug safety in modern conditions of a new type of war: problematic aspects

The study actualizes the issues of achieving drug safety for individuals and society in the context of the prevalence of methods of “hybrid” impact on their culture, consciousness and life, associated with new information technologies using social networks, the darknet, web markets, shadow types of communications. In reality, this cumulatively reinforces the antagonism of a deep conflict between state and existing international drug trafficking market. The manifestations of drug expansion, the dynamic introduction of the drug subculture, the moral disorientation of young people in the context of the global information and social processes taking place in the 21st century contribute to the strengthening of the dangerous trend of drug addic-tion in society. From the standpoint of the geopolitical approach and its prin-ciples, we indicate the urgency of the need for the formation of a national drug control strategy through the creation and functioning of the state anti-drug system with the implementation of a legal policy to counter the spread of drug addiction and illegal drug trafficking. This is fully answered by an in-tegrative approach with the definition of such important components in this system as: regulatory and legal, scientific and theoretical, organizational and managerial, information, control and analytical. The study presents the forms of anti-drug activities at the federal, regional and local levels to build a systemic counteraction to drug trafficking in Russia.

Novel 2D and 3D Assays to Determine the Activity of Anti-Leishmanial Drugs

The discovery of novel anti-leishmanial compounds remains essential as current treatments have known limitations and there are insufficient novel compounds in development. We have investigated three complex and physiologically relevant in vitro assays, including: (i) a media perfusion based cell culture model, (ii) two 3D cell culture models, and (iii) iPSC derived macrophages in place of primary macrophages or cell lines, to determine whether they offer improved approaches to anti-leishmanial drug discovery and development. Using a Leishmania major amastigote-macrophage assay the activities of standard drugs were investigated to show the effect of changing parameters in these assays. We determined that drug activity was reduced by media perfusion (EC50 values for amphotericin B shifted from 54 (51–57) nM in the static system to 70 (61–75) nM under media perfusion; EC50 values for miltefosine shifted from 12 (11–15) µM in the static system to 30 (26–34) µM under media perfusion) (mean and 95% confidence intervals), with corresponding reduced drug accumulation by macrophages. In the 3D cell culture model there was a significant difference in the EC50 values of amphotericin B but not miltefosine (EC50 values for amphotericin B were 34.9 (31.4–38.6) nM in the 2D and 52.3 (46.6–58.7) nM in 3D; EC50 values for miltefosine were 5.0 (4.9–5.2) µM in 2D and 5.9 (5.5–6.2) µM in 3D (mean and 95% confidence intervals). Finally, in experiments using iPSC derived macrophages infected with Leishmania, reported here for the first time, we observed a higher level of intracellular infection in iPSC derived macrophages compared to the other macrophage types for four different species of Leishmania studied. For L. major with an initial infection ratio of 0.5 parasites per host cell the percentage infection level of the macrophages after 72 h was 11.3% ± 1.5%, 46.0% ± 1.4%, 66.4% ± 3.5% and 75.1% ± 2.4% (average ± SD) for the four cells types, THP1 a human monocytic cell line, mouse bone marrow macrophages (MBMMs), human bone marrow macrophages (HBMMs) and iPSC derived macrophages respectively. Despite the higher infection levels, drug activity in iPSC derived macrophages was similar to that in other macrophage types, for example, amphotericin B EC50 values were 35.9 (33.4–38.5), 33.5 (31.5–36.5), 33.6 (30.5—not calculated (NC)) and 46.4 (45.8–47.2) nM in iPSC, MBMMs, HBMMs and THP1 cells respectively (mean and 95% confidence intervals). We conclude that increasing the complexity of cellular assays does impact upon anti-leishmanial drug activities but not sufficiently to replace the current model used in HTS/HCS assays in drug discovery programmes. The impact of media perfusion on drug activities and the use of iPSC macrophages do, however, deserve further investigation.

NARCOCORRUPTION AS A LATENT FORM OF THREATS OF ECONOMIC SAFETY

The article deals with the main consequences of drug trafficking and consumption. Statistical data reflecting the results of anti-drug activities in Russia are presented. Reflects the relationship of narcotization of the population and economic security.