Use of Smokeless Tobacco
Holds Steady as Cigarette Smoking Declines
The use of smokeless tobacco among American workers has held
steady since 2005, as cigarette smoking has declined, according to the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Construction and mining workers are
especially likely to use smokeless tobacco, which is a known cause of oral,
esophageal and pancreatic cancer, the CDC reported last week. Between 2005 and
2010, cigarette smoking declined from 22 percent to 19 percent among working
adults. During the same period, use of smokeless tobacco products, including
chewing tobacco and snuff, increased from 2.7 percent to 3 percent, HealthDay
reports. The findings come from the National Health Interview Survey, which
found 19 percent of mining workers and 11 percent of workers involved in oil
and gas extraction said they used smokeless tobacco. About 4 percent of
cigarette smokers also use smokeless tobacco, a rate that remained unchanged
during the study period. The CDC recommends that employers increase efforts to
curb use of smokeless tobacco. They advised employers to make workplaces tobacco-free,
offer information on the health risks of tobacco and the benefits of quitting,
and promote work-based tobacco cessation services, including offering health
insurance that covers proven treatments for tobacco use and dependence.
DEA targets doctors linked
to medical marijuana
US Drug Enforcement Administration investigators have
visited the homes and offices of Massachusetts physicians involved with medical
marijuana dispensaries and delivered an ultimatum: sever all ties to marijuana
companies, or relinquish federal licenses to prescribe certain medications,
according to several physicians and their attorneys. Please
click here to continue reading.
Did Colorado Go Too Far
With Pot?
Five months after the legalization of recreational marijuana
in Colorado, some are highlighting public health problems as cautionary lessons
while others say the fears are exaggerated. Has the state moved too quickly in
legalizing marijuana? Do changes need to be made to its approach? Please
click here to continue reading.
Tech startup to help bars
prevent underage drinking during summer’s '100 Deadliest Days'
Bar & Club Stats will offer its ID-checking app for free
until Labor Day
Cheers to this: A local tech startup will be giving its
potentially life-saving app away for free to bars this summer. Bar & Club
Stats, whose app verifies IDs, has launched a promo that piggybacks on New York
State's proposed "Hard Card" legislation, Bar & Club Stats CEO
Ben Silbert told the Daily News.
The law, if passed, could provide a boost to the fledgling
tech company. Among other things, bars and other establishments caught selling
liquor to minors would have to purchase an ID scanner or be hit by a $2,000
fine. Please
click here to continue reading.
Here’s proof that
Alcoholics Anonymous is just as effective as professional psychotherapies
A physician named Robert Holbrook Smith had his last
alcoholic drink 79 years ago this week. He and Bill Wilson, the
friend with whom he had sobered up, thus anointed June 10 as the official
founding date of the organization they created together: Alcoholics
Anonymous. AA is the most commonly-sought source of help for problem
drinking in the United States and many millions of people have participated in
it and the other 12-step organizations it inspired around the world. But does
AA really work? Please
click here to continue reading.
MDMA can be fatal in warm
environments
A moderate dose of MDMA, commonly known as Ecstasy or Molly,
that is typically nonfatal in cool, quiet environments can be lethal in rats
exposed to conditions that mimic the hot, crowded, social settings where the
drug is often used by people, a study finds. Scientists have identified
the therapeutically-relevant cooling mechanism to enable effective
interventions when faced with MDMA-induced hyperthermia. The study,
publishing tomorrow in the Journal of Neuroscience, was conducted by
researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s Intramural Research
Program (NIDA IRP). NIDA is a part of the National Institutes of Health. Please
click here to continue reading.
Teens with Addiction Have
Few Recovery Programs -
Substance abuse is traumatic for parents, who have trouble accessing treatment
for their children. Deborah Scott’s 13-year-old daughter had been receiving
hospital treatment for heroin addiction for 20 days when a representative from
her insurance company called to say they would no longer cover the treatment.
Scott’s daughter had eight more days to go, and she was nowhere near ready to
return home, her doctors said. Scott gathered medical practitioners on the
phone and tried to dispute the claim. It was no use. Her daughter needed to be
picked up from the hospital right away. Please
click here to continue reading.
Colleges Focus on Alcohol
and Drugs as Serious Crime Dips
Colleges have become more aggressive about punishing alcohol
and drug offenses, even as the rate of serious crime on campuses has dropped,
according to a government report released Tuesday. Please
click here to continue reading.
Like Alcohol? BACtrack's
National Intoxication Report Tells You Which Cities (And States) Drink The Most
Want to know which state ranked as the drunkest last Fourth
of July? You can easily pinpoint this information with a single glance at a new
national intoxication report, incorporating data culled from BACtrack Mobile,
the first-ever smartphone breathalyzer application. All the information found
in the report, released on Wednesday, was collected anonymously from users of
BACtrack Mobile and represents more than 100,000 unique blood alcohol content
(BAC) tests. Specifically, the makers of BACtrack Mobile traced levels of
intoxication across times of day, dates, cities/states, and seasons. Please
click here to continue reading.
Naloxone: Necessary, but
Not Nearly Enough
Naloxone_resizePolice officers across New York City will
soon be equipped with the opioid overdose antidote, naloxone (also known as
Narcan), thanks in large part to Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman. In the
attorney general’s words, this effort will “literally save lives.” He’s right.
Making an opioid overdose antidote more available when record numbers of
Americans are dying of overdoses is a no-brainer. Regrettably, only 19 states
currently implement naloxone access laws, according to the Public Health Law
Research program. Naloxone should be more available than it is, especially in
communities hit hardest by the opioid addiction epidemic. Police, first
responders, addiction treatment centers like Phoenix House and families and
peers of individuals struggling with opioid addiction should all be equipped
with naloxone. A good resource for information about naloxone and how to access
it is StopOverdose.org. Please
click here to continue reading.
Rum Deal - Counting up all
the ways America’s booze laws are terrible.
Last week in Slate, Alison Griswold highlighted a costly hurdle
for would-be bar owners in Boston. The liquor licensing system in Massachusetts
places population-based caps on the number of licenses available in a
municipality, forcing restaurant and bar owners to look for liquor licenses on
the secondary market, where they cost as much as $450,000. Please
click here to continue reading.
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