DEA

SAN DIEGO -- Elected officials are demanding answers after Daniel Chong, a 23-year-old UC San Diego student, was left unattended for five days in a Drug Enforcement Administration detention cell.

SAN DIEGO -- The Drug Enforcement Administration has apologized to a San Diego college student who said he drank his own urine to survive after being left in a holding cell for five days without food, water or access to a toilet.

SALT LAKE CITY -- Federal agents say they've seized about half a million dollars in methamphetamine from a Mexican drug cartel over the weekend in Salt Lake County.

SALT LAKE CITY -- A judge chided prosecutors Wednesday for their zeal in pursuing the assets of a 64-year-old convicted Brigham City doctor, wondering if they had crossed a line.

Federal authorities moved this week to outlaw three chemicals found in so-called bath salts, a group of synthetic drugs that emerged as a significant public health threat over the past year and have been linked to several deaths and thousands of calls to poison control centers.

Meanwhile, in another sign that the abuse of such drugs is a growing national issue, White House "drug czar" Gil Kerlikowske on Wednesday convened what his office described as a "significant" meeting of high-level representatives of 10 federal agencies to address what can be done to "disrupt the production, importation, sale and use of synthetic drugs."

FARMINGTON -- A spring cleaning of home medicine cabinets by properly disposing of unused or outdated prescriptions will protect not only the environment but potentially those people prone to abuse the medications.

National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at seven different Davis County locations and in Weber and Morgan counties.

The purpose of the activity is to prevent outdated medicine from being flushed down the toilet or made accessible for abuse, said Debi Todd, prevention coordinator for Davis Behavioral Health Inc., one of four local agencies sponsoring the event.