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Friday, January 9, 2015

NCADD's Weekly Addiction News & Policy Update - Week ending January 9, 2015



Booze apps slammed for targeting young people

JCU's professor Lynn Eagle and her team of researchers conducted a study involving alcohol use and discovered almost 80% promote heavy drinking.
She explained many of the apps are aimed at young people and likely to work well. In addition, she noted there are no age restrictions on any of the apps.
  


Pot Pie, Redefined? Chefs Start to Experiment With Cannabis

Recreational marijuana is both illegal and controversial in most of the country, and its relationship to food does not rise much above a joke about brownies or a stoner chef's late-night pork belly poutine.But cooking with cannabis is emerging as a legitimate and very lucrative culinary pursuit.


Resolutions can harm mental health

During the next few weeks, prepare to be barraged by admonitions to make New Year's resolutions. These messages connect with us because we aspire to be better people. Research indicates that the most popular resolutions in 2014 focused on losing weight, getting organized, spending less/saving more, enjoying life to the fullest and staying fit and healthy.
About 50 percent of us make such resolutions every year. What a great opportunity to reflect upon our lives and make a commitment to change the way we think, act and feel. Who wouldn't want to be healthier, happier and more engaged with our work, family and friends?
However, be warned. New Year's resolutions can be dangerous to your mental health. Please click here to continue reading.   

Scientists show that drunk birds 'slur' their songs

Sometimes science means getting a bunch of finches sloshed. Or at least giving them blood alcohol levels of around .08 percent, which is pretty crazy by bird standards. In a study published last week in PLOS ONE, researchers from the Oregon Health and Science University tempted zebra finches with spiked juice -- but not because they wanted to help the lab animals ring in the new year in style.




Facilities targeting specialized needs of opioid-dependent and pain patients

Some addiction treatment facilities treating opioid addiction, sometimes complicated by concurrent severe pain, are finding that service quality can be improved in small-group treatment settings with a narrower focus on the opioid patient alone. Click here to read more.


Lawsuit seeks to make drugmaker pay for OxyContin abuse

Prescription drug abuse has killed more than 20,000 Americans a year, filled jails and treatment centers and spawned a resurgence in heroin use. And nowhere is the pill problem more prevalent than in Kentucky's Appalachians, where officials trace its roots to the aggressive marketing of one potent drug: OxyContin. Click here to read more.


'Cannabis is a mental health issue': the ex-offenders using rap as therapy

When researchers from University College London met ex-offenders from the charity MAC-UK, they produced an award-winning film and drugs education tool Click here to read the rest of this story.


Myanmar Returns to What Sells: Heroin

A decade ago, Myanmar seemed on course to wipe out the opium fields and heroin jungle labs along its eastern border, the notorious Golden Triangle. A decade ago, Myanmar seemed on course to wipe out the opium fields and heroin jungle labs along its eastern border, the notorious Golden Triangle.Today, valley after valley in these mist-shrouded mountains is covered with resplendent opium poppies, tended by farmers who perch on steep hillsides to harvest the plant's sticky, intoxicating sap. Please click here to read more.


The real cost of hangovers

Considering how much hangovers cost countries and companies, not to mention the pain people suffer, you would think someone would have come up with a cure by now. But so far, no luck, though it's not for want of trying. Numerous age-old remedies and commercial products are available - everything from herbal potions to IV drips - and they are all put to good use during the holiday season. But, do they work? And what is the cost to employers of all that recovery downtime?


4 Things To Understand About Youth, Mental Health & Juvenile Justice In The US

Almost 2 million youth - those under the age of 18 - are arrested each year in the US, which is more than 5,000 delinquency cases per day. Of those, approximately 95% are not accused of violent crimes (murder, rape or aggravated assault). Yet, these youth are often incarcerated in the juvenile justice system, causing more harm than good to the academic, social and personal growth of our youth, despite best efforts from experts to reduce incarceration. According to University of Chicago professor and Co-Director of the University's Crime Lab Harold Pollack, PhD, rightly notes, "There is good reason to believe that economical, evidence-based interventions are helpful. We need to develop and deploy-at-scale-good interventions outside the criminal justice system that prevent youth violence."
 Please click here to read the rest of this story.


What Heroin Addiction Tells Us About Changing Bad Habits

It's a tradition as old as New Year's: making resolutions. We will not smoke, or sojourn with the bucket of mint chocolate chip. In fact, we will resist sweets generally, including the bowl of M&M's that our co-worker has helpfully positioned on the aisle corner of his desk. There will be exercise, and the learning of a new language.  Click here to continue reading.


Top Five Drug Stories of 2014

Look at any list of the top news stories of 2014, and you'll be left wondering how we made it through. From ebola outbreaks to Ferguson protests, the ice bucket challenge and tragic celebrity deaths, it's been quite a year in news and pop culture. It's also been an eventful year for those of us who care about our nation's drug policy-and the millions of men, women, teens, and families who are affected by it every day. That's why we've created our own list. A lot has happened on the drug front in the past 12 months; here are the highlights.


How to Curb Binge Drinking: Raise Taxes on Booze

As the government learned during Prohibition, an outright ban on alcohol isn't an effective way to stop Americans from boozing. But a new study suggests that more subtle changes to the law could help curb binge drinking.



Study finds conditions of retirement can lead to substance abuse disorders among older adults

 Close to three million Americans aged 55 and older suffer from alcohol abuse-and this figure is expected to reach nearly 6 million by 2020. While alcohol abuse remains prevalent among them, the rate of illicit drug abuse in adults over 50 more than doubled between 2002 and 2013. Many of the older Americans suffering from substance abuse are retired. But according to Tel Aviv University research, it is not retirement alone that leads to drug and alcohol abuse, but rather a host of circumstances surrounding leaving the work force, which often coincides with painful later-life events such as the death of spouses and friends.Click here to continue reading.


A Dangerous Trend: The Move Away from Abstinence Based Addiction Treatment


The face of addiction treatment is changing, and not for the better.
Betty Ford and Hazelden have long been beacons of hope in the addiction treatment community, two well-known and respected centers that used 12-step treatment and abstinence based recovery to help thousands of people recover from addiction for decades. Please click here to continue reading. 



Overdose Deaths due to Prescription Painkillers May Peak Soon: Study

 Will the number of overdose deaths attributed to prescription drugs peak in a few years? A new analysis suggests this may be possible when viewing the problem as an epidemic. After applying a theory known as Farr's Law, a group of Columbia University professors calculate that the number of prescription drug overdoses each year in the U.S. will peak in 2017 at 16.1 deaths per 100,000 people, and by 2034 will fall back to much lower rates last seen in the early 1980's. Please click here to continue reading.


Should treatment centers consider retiring the graduation ceremony?

 As the addiction field's perspective on treatment shifts away from episodic care and becomes more about ongoing recovery management, does this make the traditional "graduation ceremony" for patients an outdated concept? Please click here to continue reading. 

The content of this email does not represent the official views or policies of NCADD of Middlesex County, Inc. The content has been collected from a variety of sources and is provided for informational purposes only. The appearance of external hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by NCADD of the linked web sites, or the information, products or services contained therein.


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