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Teen marijuana use no longer declining (posted 1/6/2009): Recent declines in marijuana use by U.S. teens appear to have stalled this year and their abuse of prescription drugs remains at worrisome levels, researchers said on Thursday. The annual survey of U.S. teen drug use, conducted by University of Michigan researchers for the U.S. government, also found continuing declines in cigarette smoking and alcohol use. Marijuana is the most commonly used of the illicit drugs and its use had been in a slow but steady decrease this decade, but that appeared to halt this year, researchers said.
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Youth Use of Legal Drugs Eclipses Illicit-Drug Use, Annual Survey Reports (posted 1/6/2009): The War on Drugs has long been cast as a battle against illegal narcotics, but the latest federal data shows that seven of the top 10 drugs being misused by high-school seniors are legal prescription or over-the-counter medications. Factor in the high rates of use of legal alcohol and tobacco by teens, and the incoming Obama administration will face a very different battle than that waged by the current president and his predecessors since the early 1970s. The 2008 Monitoring the Future report released this week shows that 15.4 percent of 12th-grade students reported nonmedical use of legal prescription or over-the-counter medications, including 11 percent who misused Vicodin and 4.7 percent who misused Oxycontin. The annual report is based on surveys of about 50,000 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-graders nationally.
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SAMHSA Data Shows 1.7 Million Visits to Emergency Departments are Drug Related (posted 1/6/2009): The latest Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) report—drawn from a sample of hospital emergency departments across the Nation—indicates that more than 1.7 million visits to emergency departments (ED) were associated with some form of substance misuse or abuse. The 2006 DAWN report, developed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), provides the latest estimates on how substance use affects this critical part of the Nation´s healthcare system. Of the of 113 million ED visits in the United States, DAWN estimates that 1,742,887 were associated with drug misuse or abuse, with illicit drugs responsible for 31 percent of the cases and prescription drugs for 28 percent of the cases.
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1 in 5 young Americans has personality disorder (posted 1/6/2009): Almost one in five young American adults has a personality disorder that interferes with everyday life, and even more abuse alcohol or drugs, researchers reported Monday in the most extensive study of its kind. The disorders include problems such as obsessive or compulsive tendencies and anti-social behavior that can sometimes lead to violence. The study also found that fewer than 25 percent of college-aged Americans with mental problems get treatment.
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Parents Can Stop Drug Abuse (posted 11/24/2008): A recent survey showed that while many parents were concerned about the level of education their children might receive, only half were aware of a drug problem in their child’s school. Interestingly enough, the number one reason for stress among children surveyed was not who was going to the prom, or what grade they would get on the next test. It was stress related to drugs, in school, in friends, in peer pressure to use or try drugs.
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Methamphetamine or Cocaine: Which Addiction Is Worse? (posted 11/4/2008): As scientists study the effects of illegal drugs on the human body, one fact is becoming clear: Methamphetamine is more physically dangerous than cocaine. A new research study, soon to be published in the Nov. 1, 2008 issue of the journal NeuroImage, suggests that methamphetamine enters the brain just as quickly as cocaine but spreads further and stays in the brain longer.
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Who Uses And Abuses Drugs And Alcohol? (posted 10/1/2008): (WebMD) Are fewer Americans using illicit drugs ? How many people are binge or heavy drinkers? To answer those questions and more, a new federal government study takes a look at trends in drug, alcohol, and tobacco use across the nation. The 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: National Findings is being released by the Department of Health and Human Services.
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Pain Killers And Stimulants Less Risky Than Cocaine, More Risky Than Marijuana, According To College Freshmen (posted 10/1/2008): First year college students believe that occasional nonmedical use of prescription pain killers and stimulants is less risky than cocaine, but more risky than marijuana or consuming five or more alcoholic beverages every weekend, according to a new study published in the September issue of Prevention Science, the peer-reviewed journal of the Society for Prevention Research.
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Internet drug trafficking skyrockets, experts warn (posted 10/1/2008): STOCKHOLM (AFP) — Drug trafficking on the web has soared as Internet use has become commonplace, presenting far more challenges and dangers than traditional trafficking, experts warned at a conference in Stockholm that wrapped up Wednesday
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Cannabis linked to earlier psychosis onset (posted 9/11/2008): NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Researchers from Spain have found a strong and independent link between cannabis use and the onset of psychosis at a younger age. The association, they say, cannot be explained by chance, and is not related to gender or the use of other drugs. It is, however, related to the amount of cannabis used. "The clinical importance of this finding is potentially high," Dr. Ana Gonzalez-Pinto from Santiago Apostol Hospital in Vitoria, and colleagues write in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, given that cannabis use is extremely prevalent among young people."
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Teens say stress is why they take drugs (posted 8/28/2008): NEW YORK, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- The top reason U.S. teens give for using drugs is to deal with the pressures and stress of school, officials at the Partnership for a Drug-Free America said. The Partnership Attitude Tracking Study of 6,511 teens said 73 percent of teens reported that school stress is the primary reason for drug use. However, just 7 percent of parents believe teens might use drugs to deal with stress.
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Where do teens get drugs now? From the home medicine cabinet (posted 8/28/2008): Are we winning the war on drugs? John P. Walters, the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, who was in the San Joaquin Valley last week, says the answer is yes and no. Youth illicit drug use is down, and workplace drug testing results show adult drug use is down. So illegal drug use has decreased, and Walters is optimistic that trend may continue with a new era of cooperation between the United States and Mexico's president, Felipe Calderón.
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Web delivers new worry for parents: Digital drugs (posted 8/28/2008): We all know that music can alter your mood. Sad songs can make you cry. Upbeat songs may give you an energy boost. But can music create the same effects as illegal drugs? This seems like a ridiculous question. But websites are targeting your children with so-called digital drugs. These are audio files designed to induce drug-like effects. All your child needs is a music player and headphones.
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New CASA* Report Finds: Most Web Sites Selling Prescription Opioids, Stimulants and Depressants Require No Prescription (posted 7/30/2008): NEW YORK, NY--(MARKET WIRE)--Jul 9, 2008 -- Despite a decline in the number of Web sites advertising or selling controlled prescription drugs, like OxyContin and Valium, Xanax and Vicodin, and Ritalin and Adderall, in the past year, 85 percent of Web sites selling such drugs do not require a prescription, according to "'You've Got Drugs!' V: Prescription Drug Pushers on the Internet," the fifth annual White Paper on this subject released by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University.
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Heavy drinking damages heart and arteries - Too much alcohol especially harmful for women, researchers find (posted 7/29/2008): CHICAGO - Heavy drinking causes high blood pressure, stiff arteries and rigid heart muscles in men and enlarged hearts in women, boosting their risk of having heart attacks and strokes, researchers said. They defined heavy drinking as more than 21 drinks a week for men and more than 14 per week for women. "We definitely see quite a deleterious effect," said Dr. Azra Mahmud of St. James Hospital in Dublin, who presented her findings Wednesday at a meeting of the American Society of Hypertension in New Orleans.
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Non-Medical Marijuana III: Rite of Passage or Russian Roulette? (posted 7/29/2008): NEW CASA* REPORT FINDS: MARIJUANA POTENCY UP 175 PERCENT, MEDICAL DIAGNOSES, TREATMENT ADMISSIONS, ER FINDINGS FOR TEEN MARIJUANA USE UP SHARPLY NEW YORK, NY, June 18, 2008 – Despite reported declines in teen marijuana use, in 2007 almost 11 million teens report having used marijuana. For those using the drug, four alarming trends are of grave concern for parents and teens, according to Non-Medical Marijuana III: Rite of Passage or Russian Roulette?, a new report by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University.
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Working out may help prevent substance abuse - Clues show that physical activity might change brain chemistry (posted 7/29/2008): WASHINGTON - Sure, exercise is good for your waistline, your heart, your bones — but might it also help prevent addiction to drugs or alcohol? There are some tantalizing clues that physical activity might spur changes in the brain to do just that. Now the U.S. government is beginning a push for hard research to prove it. This is not about getting average people to achieve the so-called runner's high, a feat of pretty intense athletics
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Steroid Use Among American Youth Alarms Health Professionals (posted 3/25/2008): When the National Institute on Drug Abuse surveyed 48,025 students in a nationally representative sample of 403 public and private schools about lifetime, past year, past month, and daily use of drugs including steroids, the 2007 report stunned American adults: 2.2 percent of high school seniors reported using steroids at least once. The Foundation for Chiropractic Progress, a not-for-profit organization, joins healthcare professionals nationwide in alerting parents to the warning signs associated with steroid use.
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Alcohol, Tobacco Products Aimed At Teens (posted 3/10/2008): America's youth are inundated with visual appeals to drink and smoke, CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston reports. While the alcohol and tobacco industries insist their products are aimed at adults, critics charge beverages like Sparks and colored tobacco products are tailor-made for teens. There are fruit-flavored cigars and energy drinks that are high-caffeine - and now, a new twist, up to 9 percent alcohol.
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Ecstasy is back, and it's laced with meth (posted 3/10/2008): More than 55 percent of the ecstasy samples seized in the United States last year contained meth, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, compared with 44.5 percent the previous year. And the drugs are coming in at rapid pace from Canada.
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U.S. supply-side strategy is failing as production of the dangerous drugs soars and expansion of its trade widens (posted 2/19/2008): Recent reports issued by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in Washington D.C. have concluded that Mexico has become the United States’ primary source of the methamphetamines now flooding the country. In response, U.S. and Mexican authorities have initiated a major domestic operation to crack down on the production of the dangerous drug. The North American demand for methamphetamines has been growing at a precipitous pace since the early 90s. As a result, the focus of the Bush administration’s current war on the drug has been one of containment and reduction, with less attention being paid to drug prevention and treatment.
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Most Troops Have Positive View of Military, Eschew Drugs (posted 2/19/2008): Most active-duty service members have a positive view of their military service and aren’t turning to alcohol or illegal drugs to cope with wartime-related stressors, according to findings from a Defense Department-sanctioned survey conducted in 2005.
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Study links marijuana smoking to gum disease (posted 2/19/2008): Smoking marijuana, much like smoking tobacco, may increase a person's risk for gum disease that can lead to tooth loss, researchers said on Tuesday. A study of 903 New Zealanders found that people who smoked marijuana frequently had triple the risk for severe gum disease and a 60 percent higher risk for a milder form of it compared to people who did not smoke the drug, also called cannabis.
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Study finds popular music awash in booze, drugs (posted 2/19/2008): WASHINGTON (Reuters) - They have lyrics such as "Tequila makes her clothes fall off" and "Breakin down the good weed, rollin' the blunt/Ghetto pimp tight girls say I'm the man." U.S. popular music is awash with lyrics about drugs, alcohol and tobacco. Medical researchers have reviewed the words of the 279 top songs of 2005 to estimate just how common they are.
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Abuse Of Cold Medicines High Among Young (posted 1/17/2008): About 3.1 million people between the ages of 12-25 have used cough and cold medicine to get high, the government reported Wednesday. The number of young people who abused over-the-counter cold medicines is comparable to use of LSD and much greater than that for methamphetamine among the age group, according to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
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Drug to treat addiction now on the streets; Suboxone often used to buy time until addicts’ next score (posted 1/17/2008): It’s supposed to be in doctors’ offices and drug treatment programs. Instead, it’s on the streets. Suboxone, a drug approved by the FDA in 2002 to treat opioid abuse, is showing up in drug arrests throughout the region as addicts look for ways to stave off agonizing withdrawal symptoms, some until they can get into a program, others until they can get more heroin or OxyContin.
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Smoking in Movies Linked to Kids Lighting Up (posted 1/10/2008): Young people who start smoking may be influenced to do so by movies they saw in early childhood, new research suggests. What's more, the study found that almost 80 percent of the exposure to smoking scenes in movies came through films rated "G," "PG" and "PG-13."
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Drugs put swerve on driving skills (posted 1/3/2008): MOTORISTS under the influence of ecstacy have excellent "weaving" driving skills but are no good at judging distances whereas methamphetamine users are careless and irritable drivers. Marijuana smokers are slow on the road.
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US Scientists Working On Cocaine Vaccine (posted 1/3/2008): A husband and wife team based at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in Houston, Texas, have developed a cocaine vaccine that is currently undergoing clinical trials. The vaccine, which is based on an inactivated form of the drug, teaches the immune system to fight real cocaine and stop it getting to the brain and delivering the expected "high".
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Little Blue Pills (posted 12/14/2007): As students across campus gear up for finals, many will be asking themselves one question: how can I manage to learn all this stuff in time for the exam? For some, the answer might simply be a series of trips to Starbucks. But a study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University suggests that students are increasingly turning to controlled stimulants such as Adderall and Ritalin to help them make it through exams.
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Candy Flavored Drug On The Rise (posted 12/10/2007): Police are investigating cases involving a new, candy flavored form of methamphetamine targeted at children.
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New Study Identifies 4 Major Motivators To Drink Alcohol - 1 Of Them Could Be A Sign Of Problem Drinking (posted 12/10/2007): Most high school seniors drink because they want to experiment with alcohol, some drink for the thrill of it, and others because it helps them relax. A new study finds that a fourth group of high school students share all those reasons for drinking, but they also drink to get away from problems and to deal with anger or frustration issues.
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Gender and friendship influences adolescent alcohol use (posted 11/30/2007): Adolescents who drink alcohol, smoke and/or use drugs tend to have peers who do the same. A new study that looked at other factors which may moderate the influence of peers has found that gender, and gender of friends, can also affect this association.
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Addiction proves to be lifelong fight (posted 11/30/2007): More than 10 percent of American men and six percent of American women are chronic drug abusers. Fifteen million are dependent on alcohol. In the space of a year, 1.3 million Americans are treated in hospital emergency rooms for drug abuse, one in four of them for a combination of drugs and alcohol
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Music promotes drug abuse, rap is the worst (posted 11/16/2007): Is your teen hooked on rap music? Chances are he or she is hearing a lot about drug abuse -- most of it positive. A new study that analyses the most popular US songs of 2005 says references to drug abuse cut across all genres, but rap was the worst offender -- a whopping 77 percent of the songs made some reference to it.
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Report Links Teen Smoking, Depression (posted 10/26/2007): Teenage Smokers May Also Be at Greater Risk for Alcohol and Drug Abuse By Salynn Boyles WebMD Medical News Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD Oct. 23, 2007 -- Smoking cigarettes may make teens more susceptible to depression, alcohol abuse, and illegal drug use, a new report states. Based on data from a government drug use survey, researchers concluded that teens who smoke are nine times more likely to abuse alcohol and 13 times more likely to abuse illegal drugs than teens who don't smoke
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ON ANY GIVEN DAY, HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF AMERICAN TEENS ABUSE DRUGS, REPORT FINDS (posted 10/23/2007): On any given day in America, more than a million teens smoke cigarettes, while hundreds of thousands abuse drugs and alcohol, according to a report released Thursday from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The report, "A Day in the Life of American Adolescents: Substance Use Facts," presents a stark picture of the daily toll substance abuse takes on America's young. The findings are based on a number of surveys, including the National Survey on Drug Use, which interviews more than 60,000 people annually.
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Teen Drug Slang: A Dictionary For Parents (posted 8/15/2007): Teen Drug Slang: A Dictionary For Parents Know What Your Kids Are Talking About With This Guide To Today's Drug Terms Is your teen robotripping on CCC? How would you know if you don't even know what that means? "It's very important that parents brush up on ... slang, because just like with text messaging, kids use all these abbreviations and parents don’t know what they mean. But the more they understand what these things mean, the more they will be able to monitor kids’ behavior," says Gregory Pollock, a psychotherapist specializing in addiction at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio.
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