Painkiller Misuse Numbs
NFL Players
Retired NFL players misuse opioid pain medications at a rate
more than four times that of the general population, and new evidence suggests
that is occurring because players misused the painkillers during their NFL
careers, according to a study published online in Drug and Alcohol Dependence,
a peer-reviewed, scientific journal. The study, conducted by researchers at
Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, is the first of
painkiller use and misuse by former NFL players. Directed by Linda Cottler, a
professor of epidemiology in Washington University's Department of Psychiatry,
the study was commissioned by ESPN, with additional funding provided by the
National Institute on Drug Abuse, a division of the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services. Please click here to continue reading. Please
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Digital Bar: Newest Way
Technology Helps Monitor Underage Drinking?
Smart home products are all the rage. We can monitor our
home’s security by pulling up a video feed on an app, adjust the temperature
from afar, and now, receive text alerts from our digital bar when we’re running
low. Called the Gutenberg Project by Pernod Ricard and The Breakthrough
Innovation Group (BIG), this prototype’s goal is to “redefine cocktail culture”
by reinventing the at home experience for adults (as shown in this video). The
newest smart home tool may also be the newest way technology helps monitor
underage drinking. Sleek and attractive like any connected home product should
be, Project Gutenberg also comes with a companion app that shows spirit levels.
Users receive a text alert when they’re running low on a certain kind of
liquor, and an automated delivery system sends refills directly to their
mailbox. It also gives tech savvy parents a new way to monitor their liquor
cabinet by showing spirit levels in real time. Gone are the days of drawing
lines on the bottles to monitor consumption when you’re not home. Pull up the
Project Gutenberg app and you can view what is being consumed. Parents of
underage kids who warn them to not have parties when they’re away can watch in
real time as their liquor library is depleted. But is this really how we want
to talk to our kids about drinking?
Please click here to continue reading.
Ready access, low cost,
pill-like high: Heroin's rise and fatal draw
At 33 years old, Jamie is trying to get clean. The native
Bostonian started at a young age: drinking, then smoking pot, then taking pain
pills and eventually heroin. "I never thought in my wildest dreams I would
stick a needle in my arm," said Jamie, who didn't want his last name
revealed. "Not in a million years." But the low cost, the readily
availability and the prescription pill-like high makes heroin a draw that's
hard to resist. "It's a monkey on your back that you can't shake," he
says. If autopsy results bear out what officials suspect, actor Philip Seymour
Hoffman will be the latest in a growing list of substance abusers who paid a
deadly price for using heroin. Please
click here to continue reading.
Blazing Trails in Brain
Science
The police arrived at the house just after breakfast,
dressed in full riot gear, and set up a perimeter at the front and back. Not
long after, animal rights marchers began filling the street: scores of people,
young and old, yelling accusations of murder and abuse, invoking Hitler, as
neighbors stepped out onto their porches and stared. It was 1997, in Decatur,
Ga. The demonstrators had clashed with the police that week, at the Yerkes National
Primate Research Center at nearby Emory University, but this time, they were
paying a personal call — on the house of the center’s director, inside with his
wife and two teenage children. Please
click here to continue reading.
Yaba, the Madness Drug
When it comes to yaba, Tarique started young. Though he's
only 24, it's been a long road, visible in his pallid complexion and scrawny
frame. It all began at his brother's wedding: Amid the glitz and uproar of a
Bangladeshi celebration, Tarique, then just 14, got his first taste of the
vanilla-scented fumes of yaba, a small pink pill that is rapidly sweeping Asia,
its rise powered not just by its saccharine aroma, but also by its primary
active ingredient -- methamphetamine. Please
click here to continue reading.
Alcohol-linked deaths a
problem for the Americas
Liver disease and brain disorders due to alcohol abuse are
important causes of premature death in the Americas, a new study concludes. The
toll of too much drinking is especially high among men and among middle-aged
people, according to the report, whose authors say it's the first to tabulate
deaths resulting solely from alcohol. Please
click here to continue reading.
Fentanyl-Laced Heroin
Suspected in at Least 50 Recent Fatal Overdoses in Three States
Heroin laced with the synthetic opiate fentanyl is suspected
in at least 50 recent fatal overdoses in three states, according to law
enforcement officials. In Pennsylvania, the drug combination is suspected in at
least 17 deaths. Officials in Maryland and Michigan are also investigating
deaths linked to the drug mix. In Flint, Michigan, fentanyl-laced heroin is
suspected in four recent overdoses. Fentanyl is often used during surgery. Drug
dealers add it to heroin to create a stronger high, ABC News reports. People
who use the drug combination “don’t know that fentanyl is in it and shoot it up
and stop breathing, because they were unaware of the added punch in the
narcotic,” said Ray Isackila, counselor and team leader of addiction treatment
at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland. He noted fentanyl is
50 to 100 times more potent than heroin, and affects the central nervous system
and brain. “Heroin with illicit fentanyl laced into it makes it stronger,
cheaper and more desirable on the street,” he said. “People hear about this new
heroin or this super strong heroin that someone is selling,” and they want it.
“There’s an odd mindset in the drug addiction world if people have overdosed on
this, they think I’ve got to get some of it,” Isackila said. They say “they’ll
just use a little — a dangerous drug becomes more desirable to the addict on
the street.”
Three Mothers, Three
Stories of Overcoming Addiction
Three women. Three different stories of addiction. All three
made the decision to seek treatment when they became pregnant. All choose to
use only their first names publicly, because of the stigma they say is attached
to women who are pregnant and addicted. Please
click here to continue reading.
Colleges with the Most
Drug and Alcohol Arrests
The University of Wisconsin system has more drug and alcohol
arrests per capita than any other collection of related public universities,
according to a report on Rehabs.com. Please
click here to continue reading.
Energy Drinks Are A
Gateway Drug For Teens?
Almost one-third of US adolescents consume high-caffeine
energy drinks and the teens who do also report higher rates of alcohol,
cigarette, or drug use, according to a paper in the Journal of Addiction
Medicine. The same characteristics that attract young people to consume energy
drinks—such as being "sensation-seeking or risk-oriented" — may make
them more likely to use other substances as well, suggests the new paper by
Yvonne M. Terry-McElrath, MSA, and colleagues of the Institute for Social
Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Please
click here to continue reading.
Legalizing Medical
Marijuana May Lead To Fewer Suicides
A team of economists' newly published report in the American
Journal of Public Health suggests states that have legalized medical marijuana
may see a reduction in suicide rates in young men. The researchers took a close
look at state-level suicide data over a 17-year period, from 1990 to 2007, from
the National Vital Statistics System’s mortality detail files. They analyzed
data from the 12 states that had legalized medical marijuana during that time
and compared it with states that continued to criminalize the drug. In states
that had legalized marijuana for medical use, there was a 10.8 percent
reduction in the suicide rate of men in their 20s and a 9.4 percent reduction
in men in their 30s, the study found. Please
click here to continue reading.
The Recovery Capital May
Be No More: Sober Living Homes May Require Registration
Delray Beach, or South Florida in particular is a hub of
sober living homes, treatment centers, detox facilities, and 12 step meetings.
But that may not be the case anymore, especially for the sober living homes.
According to a new bill being written up by The Florida House of Representatives,
all sober living homes will have to undergo a registration annually. The bill
will prohibit a sober house transitional living home from operating in the
state of Florida without a valid certificate of registration from the
Department of Children and Families. It will require the operator or manager of
the sober house to apply for a certificate of registration with the department.
It also will require a background screening of any and all persons who are
running the sober living home. This will require the state to suspend and
reinstate certain certificates under certain circumstances. Please
click here to continue reading.
Studies claim medical
marijuana may reduce suicide rates, traffic fatalities
Contrary to the claims of outdated anti-marijuana PSA’s, a
new study published in the the American Public Journal of Health claims that
legalizing medical marijuana can reduce suicide rates by five percent among the
general population and by as much as 10 percent among young male population.
The study, co-written by professors from Montana State, San Diego State, and
the University of Colorado at Denver, analyzed 17 years worth of statistics in
search of shifts in suicide rates per 10,000 people in states where medical
marijuana was legal from 1990 to 2007. Using the statistics of states in which
marijuana is still illegal as the control group, the study’s authors concluded
that in states with legal medical marijuana, the suicide rate for males aged
20-29 decreased 10.9 percent, and for men aged 30-39 they saw a decrease of 9.4
percent. The study stated that estimates for females were less precise and thus
required further study. Please
click here to continue reading.
Making the transition to
college easier for students in recovery
Excelling in college has never been an easy task. Making new
friends, being away from family and familiarity, juggling classes and trying to
earn grades that will lead to a great job upon graduation are just a few of the
challenges that any student may encounter. Now imagine these with the added
pressure of maintaining one’s recent sobriety in a community filled with
partying – which many times means drinking and using drugs. Please
click here to continue reading.
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