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Highest Traces of Cocaine Found on U.S. Bills (posted 8/5/2008): Paper money contains high traces of cocaine, regardless of whether or not the paper money came into direct contact with the drug. And U.S. bills take the top spot, covered in the greatest amount of the illegal powder, while Spanish notes are the most highly contaminated in Europe, a new study finds.
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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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Teenagers and marijuana (posted 7/30/2008): If you're a baby boomer, don't lull yourself into thinking that marijuana is a fading fad that represents a modest threat to today's youth. You'd be wrong. Nearly half of today's teenagers try marijuana before graduating from high school, and by their senior year more than 20 percent are regular users, Science Daily reported in May. More teens use marijuana than all other illegal drugs combined, and they are at greater risk than teens who smoked pot a couple of decades ago.
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Drug Use Increasingly Common in All Countries (posted 7/30/2008): TUESDAY, July 1 (HealthDay News) -- The United States has one of the highest lifetime rates of tobacco and alcohol use and the highest percentage of people who reported using marijuana or cocaine at least once in their lives, a new survey shows. Researchers from the World Health Organization analyzed alcohol, tobacco and illegal drug use in 17 countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Oceania.
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Prescription Drug Addictions Rise (posted 7/30/2008): BOSTON (Reuters) - When Sarah Roisman was 11 years old, her doctors prescribed Klonopin, a muscle relaxant, for a psychiatric disorder that caused her to have seizures. She liked how the drug made her feel. Her seizures went away. But that's where her trouble with addiction began. By age 14, the teen from an upper middle-class Philadelphia suburb led a dangerous double life. Editor of her school paper, strong student and popular athlete, Roisman was also hooked on painkillers and other drugs in an addiction that illustrates the rapid expansion in prescription drug abuse in America.
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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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Dax Johnson is the 2008 Heroes Essay Contest Winner! (posted 6/16/2008): Chula Vista, California, 4th grader Dax Johnson is the 2008 Heroes Essay Contest Grand Prize winner. Click here to read his super submission.
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Parenting is Prevention (posted 6/9/2008): The Parenting is Prevention series is designed to help you and members in your community build greater parental leadership. This series will also help parents understand how children in the new millennium are affected by their surroundings, not only at home but in school and the community. This six-session series is based on Milton Creagh’s experiences not only as a father, but also as someone who has traveled extensively and seen the results of both good and bad parenting styles. Each session can stand alone, but using the entire series will produce the most benefit for all attendees.
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Medical marijuana users denied organs (posted 5/23/2008): A patient was denied an organ transplant because he smoked marijuana for medical purposes. Although medicinal marijuana use is legal in the state of Washington, he was unable to get an organ transplant because of federal law.
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Vincent Buccigrossi Scores Big with 2007 Essay Contest (posted 5/14/2008): Kids from around the country got in on the fun of the Elks Drug Awareness Program Heroes Essay Contest and told us about the exciting opportunities that lie ahead of them if they stay away from drugs and alcohol. The 2007 Grand Prize winner was Vincent Buccigrossi of East Brunswick, NJ. Vincent appeared in the December 2007 Marvel comic book featuring Spider Man. Here’s Vincent’s winning essay.
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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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Prescription drug abuse increasing, especially among youth (posted 3/24/2008): As of 2006, an estimated 48 million people over the age of 12, representing approximately 20 percent of the U.S. population, had used prescription drugs for non-medical reasons in their lifetime, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. This number has jumped drastically from the reported 15 million prescription drug abusers in 2003 and the 7.8 million in 1992.
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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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Experts say drug use likely involved in child abuse (posted 3/10/2008): The effects of drug abuse are easy to see on the user, but those who don't use are also affected. Experts say it's often kids with addicted parents who end up worst off.
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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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College Drinking - The dangers of over-consumption (posted 10/26/2007): Though it may not be legal for all students, drinking alcohol is a major part of American college life. Between September and May the majority of weekends on the average college campus are a time of keg stands and beer pong. While most students will not run into any major problems involving their alcohol consumption there is a growing number that will. This minority has been the subject of various drinking prevention programs across the country
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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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"Huffing" Linked With Suicidal Behavior In Incarcerated Teens (posted 10/23/2007): Inhaling, or "huffing," the vapors of common household solvents strongly correlates with suicidal thoughts and behavior among adolescents. That's what researchers found in a study of 723 incarcerated youth--the first work to categorize inhalant use into levels of severity and relate this to suicidal ideas and suicide attempts in incarcerated juveniles. It is also one of the few studies to examine gender differences involved.
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'Uppers' Keep Going Up (posted 10/23/2007): An editorial by Professor Hamid Ghodse, Director for the International Centre for Drug policy, in the October issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry warns that a co-ordinated global response is needed to the increasing illegal use of amphetamines ('uppers') sold on the internet
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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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Drugs save some lives, but put others at risk (posted 9/25/2007): The television ads are on day and night encouraging people that they need drugs in order to sleep, wake up, lose weight or have a healthy sex life. Drug companies spend billions of dollars each year trying to get Americans to buy their products. As prescribed by a doctor, prescription drugs save lives and help millions of people to cope with everyday life, but placed in the wrong hands, prescription drugs are just as dangerous as illegal drugs.
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Abuse Of Painkiller Takes New, Dangerous Form (posted 9/6/2007): Some doctors are calling it the new crack cocaine -- drug abusers are getting high by smoking the powerful painkiller OxyContin.
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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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PARENTS ARE NOT TALKING ENOUGH ABOUT THE DANGERS OF DRUGS (posted 8/15/2007): Parents are not spending enough time talking to their children about drug use, especially the abuse of prescription and over-the-counter medicines, according to a survey released Tuesday. The annual survey by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America found that 49 percent of parents of youngsters in grades 7 through 12 reported having frequent discussions with their children about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse in 2006, defined as four or more in the year. That was a decline from the 55 percent who reported having had such conversations in 2005
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Marijuana Worsens COPD Symptoms In Current Cigarette Smokers (posted 6/1/2007): Marijuana worsens breathing problems in current smokers with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to a study presented at the American Thoracic Society 2007 International Conference, on Tuesday, May 22
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Drug dealers target younger customers (posted 5/22/2007): In their quest to lure new, younger clientele, drug dealers are mixing their wares with over-the-counter pain remedies and other familiar products — even candy — and peddling them under non-threatening names.
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NNO - NATIONAL NIGHT OUT (posted 7/1/2004): NNO - "National Night Out" Against Crime is held in communities across the U.S. on the first Tuesday in August each year from 6:00 pm to Dusk. It is a gathering of neighbors in Unity against Crime in their neighborhoods.
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Marijuana and Kids: Steer Clear of Pot (posted 3/31/2004): An estimated three million teens will get their drivers' licenses this year. As they prepare to take on the responsibility of driving, parents and other influential adults (e.g., drivers' education teachers, insurance representatives, and DMV representatives) should be talking to them about the dangers of substance use and other risky behaviors. Unfortunately, many young drivers do not understand the risks associated with marijuana use, even though teens of driving age are at elevated risk for using marijuana. This milestone in teens' lives is a crucial opportunity for parents and other adults to give teens the information and tools they need to drive and live drug-free.
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