SOBERLINK's Alcohol
Monitoring Technology Is Giving Parents of College-Aged Students Peace of Mind
Remote alcohol monitoring helps parents feel more secure
about their investment in their child's college education
SOBERLINK, Inc., a technology company based in Southern
California, has developed a discreet, wireless breathalyzer for secure remote
alcohol monitoring that is currently being sought after by parents of
college-aged students. According to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, binge drinking is the most common form of excessive alcohol
consumption in the United States. Binge drinking, defined by the National
Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism as drinking four or more alcoholic
drinks for women and five for men within the span of two hours, brings a
person's blood alcoholic concentration to 0.08 or above. Rest
of this story is here.
New Jersey Drug Overdose
Law Experiencing Growing Pains
There are some bumps along the road to implementing New
Jersey’s new Good Samaritan Emergency Response Act, which is expected to save
lives. For the first time, the law allows someone who calls in a drug overdose
emergency to 911 to not face charges for possession of a small amount of drugs.
The idea, of course, is that the threat of arrest may have gotten in the way of
the urge to help, and cost lives.
Continue reading here.
Shopping for drugs online
carries risks
When Steven Kovacs was in college, a doctor prescribed for
him increasingly larger doses of the attention-deficit drug Adderall and the
anti-anxiety medication Xanax. When he returned home before starting graduate
school, his family doctor insisted on weaning him off the drugs, says his
mother Joni Kovacs. So Steven Kovacs did what many others do: He turned to
online pharmacies, which often don't require a prescription from a personal
physician. Kovacs says that's how her son bought the drugs on which he overdosed
and died in 2009 at age 22. More
of this story here.
Advertising of
Prescription Drugs – Keeping it Honest and Balanced
It is well known that the pharmaceutical industry spends
billions each year on promoting their products, especially to healthcare
professionals. In the US, a significant amount is also spent on direct
advertising to consumers. In a report by the FDA on Keeping Drug Advertising
Honest and Balanced, Thomas Abrams, director of the Office of Prescription Drug
Promotion (OPDP), shares on how the agency “protects consumers from false and
misleading ads for prescription drugs that appear on TV, radio, online and in
print publications.” In the US and New Zealand, direct-to-consumer advertising
is allowed because of the First Amendment, which provides for freedom of
speech, including commercial speech by pharmaceutical companies. Abrams however
points out that the FDA has been charged by law to ensure accurate and balanced
advertising so that consumers are provided with helpful information about the
medical conditions and the drugs to treat them. Continue reading here.
Designated Drivers Often
Drink
A new study suggests that many designated drivers do not
themselves refrain from drinking, creating an obvious barrier to the campaign’s
effectiveness. Researchers interviewed and did breath tests on more than 1,000
people — including 165 who identified themselves as designated drivers — as they
left bars in a Florida city. The tests were conducted six times over a
three-month period, and the results were not encouraging. Only 65 percent of
the designated drivers showed no blood alcohol content, 17 percent registered
0.02 percent to 0.049 percent, and 18 percent measured 0.05 percent or higher. Rest
of this story is here.
Underage Drinking Laws on
Campus
It is no secret that alcohol use is prevalent on college
campuses. According to the National Institute On Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism,
80 percent of college kids drink alcohol, and over 50 percent of them have
partaken in binge drinking in the last two weeks alone. Because less than half
of the collegiate student body is over 21 (the legal drinking age in the
United States), most schools are left with a choice; they can either enforce
underage drinking laws on and around their campuses, or they can ignore the
underage drinking that takes place in their vicinity. Continue
reading this blog here.
Chantix may also help curb
alcohol addiction
The popular stop-smoking drug Chantix may also help treat
alcohol addiction, a new study suggests. The study involved 200 people who
reported drinking at least four to five drinks per day. Half of the
participants were given Chantix to take every day for 13 weeks, while the other
half were given a placebo. Those who took Chantix had reduced alcohol cravings
and drank an average of 22 percent less each week compared to those who were
given a placebo, the study found. Chantix was approved by the US Food and Drug
Administration in 2006 to help people stop smoking. The drug works by
suppressing the release of hormone receptors that are involved in both smoking
and alcohol addiction. Click
here to read more.
Study Suggests College
Marijuana Use Linked With Academic Problems
A new study links marijuana use in college with an increase
in academic problems, including skipping classes, spending less time studying,
receiving lower grades, dropping out and being unemployed after graduating.
Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Public Health studied 1,200
college freshmen over 10 years. They found early chronic marijuana use can
lower a person’s IQ by as much as eight points, USA Today reports. “It’s really
the first time that such an intense look at the health-risk behaviors of
college students has been linked to the post-college functioning,” lead
researcher Amelia Arria told the newspaper. The study found students who smoked
marijuana more than 15 times a month were twice as likely to drop out of
school, compared with those who smoked only a few times. Students who smoked
marijuana about twice a month were 66 percent more likely than those who were
minimal users to drop out. The study also found on average, 40 percent of
college students drink alcohol excessively, and 16 percent meet criteria for an
alcohol use disorder. In addition, 22 percent used a drug during the past
month, with marijuana being the most common.
Health law could overwhelm
addiction services
It has been six decades since doctors concluded that
addiction was a disease that could be treated, but today the condition still
dwells on the fringes of the medical community. Only 1 cent of every health
care dollar in the United States goes toward addiction, and few alcoholics and
drug addicts receive treatment. One huge barrier, according to many experts,
has been a lack of health insurance. But that barrier crumbles in less than a
year. In a major break with the past, 3 million to 5 million people with drug
and alcohol problems -- from homeless drug addicts to working moms who drink
too much -- suddenly will become eligible for insurance coverage under the new
health care overhaul. The number of people seeking treatment could double over
current levels, depending on how many states decide to expand their Medicaid
programs and how many addicts choose to take advantage of the new opportunity,
according to an Associated Press analysis of government data. The analysis
compared federal data on the addiction rates in the 50 states, the capacity of
treatment programs and the provisions of the new health law. Click
here for more.
Preventing Substance Use
Disorders in People With Mental Illness
A researcher at Harvard Medical School is studying which
substance use disorders are more common among people with different types of
mental illness, and when they tend to develop. He hopes his research will one
day be used to prevent drug and alcohol disorders among people with mental
illness through early counseling, detection and treatment. Ronald C. Kessler,
PhD, the McNeil Family Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical
School, is investigating at what age people tend to develop mental health
problems and substance use disorders. “I am looking at when these problems
develop, and at interventions to try to prevent a pileup of problems,” he says.
“Often, when a person comes in for mental illness treatment, they already have
several problems. For instance a young person with social phobias, depression
or anxiety may start using alcohol to self-medicate, so by the time we see
them, they have mental health issues and a drinking problem.” At the recent
American Psychiatric Association annual meeting, Dr. Kessler discussed his goal
of reaching people with mental health issues before they develop alcohol or
drug disorders, known as secondary prevention. “If a person comes in for
treatment of depression, social phobia or anxiety, we need clinicians to warn
them they may also be at high risk of substance use disorders because of
self-medication. We need to look at children, adolescents and young adults
being treated for mental illness, and examine their risk for substance use.
Find out if they are using drugs or alcohol as a crutch, and if they aren’t,
give them the tools to prevent them from starting. Clinicians don’t normally
think this way.” Dr. Kessler analyzed data from the World Mental Health Survey
Initiative, which includes several hundred thousand people from 28 countries.
He analyzed patterns of when mental health disorders and substance use
disorders unfold over the course of a person’s life, to try to find why some
people abuse substances and are able to stop, while others become dependent.
For instance, he explained, some people start abusing marijuana in their teens
and stop by their early 20s, while for others, marijuana use becomes central to
their lifestyle. “We found that in people with anxiety problems, marijuana use
is less likely to disappear, while juvenile delinquents tend to grow out of
it.” People suffering from anxiety are also more likely to abuse alcohol
chronically than those who are not anxious, he added. The survey looked at
“internalizing” mental health disorders including depression, phobias,
obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, separation anxiety disorder, bipolar
disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. The researchers also evaluated
the prevalence of common “externalizing” disorders including drug and alcohol
abuse, conduct disorder, attention-deficit disorder and intermittent explosive
disorder.
Five myths about
legalizing marijuana
Doug Fine is the author of “Too High to Fail: Cannabis and
the New Green Economic Revolution,” in which he followed one legal medicinal
cannabis plant from farm to patient. With 16 states having decriminalized or
legalized cannabis for non-medical use and eight more heading toward some kind
of legalization, federal prohibition’s days seem numbered. You might wonder
what America will look like when marijuana is in the corner store and at the
farmers market. In three years spent researching that question, I found some
ideas about the plant that just don’t hold up. Continue
reading here.
The Relationship Between
Food and Alcohol
Food can be a perpetrator for alcoholism. Simply put,
food may be responsible for some people’s relationship to alcohol, or,
alcoholism can be caused by food. Food tastes better when you’re drunk, for
some people. It ties into guilt, and when you drink your diet or food
restrictions can get thrown to the wind. As a result, we experience food
on a new level that we can’t experience when we are sober. Guilt for
eating something “bad” like pizza doesn’t mean much when you’re drunk. This can
cause alcoholism, or an unhealthy relationship between food and alcohol, once
you find yourself making a connection to food based on booze. For example, you
hit the bars with your friends, and make a stop at a taco stand after a night
of drinking, and it tastes great, even though it’s the booze talking, we make a
correlation or connection to that feeling of satisfaction with something we
wouldn’t otherwise eat, or a connection to the feeling of food tastes better
when you’re drunk. So it carries over to your regular relationship to
food. Since you connect food to tasting better with alcohol, you find the
need to drink before or while you eat. Is it the lack of restrictions on your
food regime that you are trying to relive, or do you think that food will taste
better when you’re drunk, so try and relive that “this tastes amazing” reaction
to food? Alcoholisms roots are known to be in genetics, or one’s environment,
among other known triggers, but, it can also have its roots in food, and the
feeling you recall of food when you’re drunk, and you find yourself thinking
food is only good with alcohol. Or some other substance, like marijuana.
For whatever reason, it’s a double-edged sword.
BU Mandates
Online Alcohol Course for First-Year Students
More than a third (35 percent) of
first-year BU students don’t drink alcohol. But many students may not know
that, misled by urban myth about universal, Animal House imbibing on college
campuses. This year, the University is
requiring first-year students to take an online alcohol course to separate
truthful wheat from mythic chaff, starting before they even arrive on campus.
Those students will receive log-in instructions midsummer for AlcoholEdu for
College. The course includes two parts: the first, featuring educational
material and surveys before and after the material is studied, takes between
one and a half and two and a half hours to complete. (It needn’t all be
done in one sitting.) Part 2 is a third, 15-minute survey. In recent years, the
University has offered students another online survey, iHealth, to dispel
misconceptions, but has not required it. The hope is that through the mandatory
course, students will be more responsible about alcohol use. “It is used by
most of our peer institutions as a prevention-level intervention for first-year
college students” to curb dangerous drinking, says Elizabeth Douglas, manager
of wellness and prevention services at Student Health Services. “We are
using AlcoholEdu because it has the capacity to track student completion, in
addition to having evidence of its being an effective intervention.” That evidence comes from a three-year, 30-campus study that
found reduced frequency of drinking, including binge drinking, and related
problems among students who participated in AlcoholEdu, as compared with
students who did not. Part 1 must be completed before students arrive on campus
for the academic year. They will be required to finish Part 2 sometime in
October; the University will send them a reminder email. AlcoholEdu is designed
to be taken by both drinkers and nondrinking students. The surveys and
intersecting information touch on such topics as how many drinks are in a
bottle of wine or beer, factors influencing whether people drink, exaggerated
notions of heavy drinking on campuses, alcohol’s effects on the body and
mind, and tactics students can use to protect themselves and friends from harm
in a variety of drinking situations. The course also provides information for
parents about discussions they should have with their children: about alcohol,
about its possible effects on schoolwork, and about drinking laws. It asks
their views on college alcohol policies, issues they deem important to
discuss with their kids, and demographic information about their families.
(Parents wanting a demonstration of the program can find it here.) The new
program follows a drop in alcohol-related violations and hospital runs on
campus last year, which officials attribute to their recent alcohol enforcement
program, entering its third academic year this fall. That program
features increased police patrols of known party neighborhoods,
dispersing parties, issuing citations, and publishing fall’s enforcement
statistics on BU Today. Meanwhile, a city ordinance allows Boston police to
arrest landlords and tenants in so-called problem properties—rentals with four
documented complaints of loud parties or alcohol violations. Douglas says the University likely will use AlcoholEdu in
coming years, since BU chooses responsible drinking programs “based on research
and evidence of effectiveness.”
Five Errors
the Washington Post Should Have Caught About Marijuana
In recent years, the Washington
Post has managed to strike a balance between pro- and anti-legalization opinion
pieces (e.g. Rauch's "Let's Go Down the Aisle Toward Legalized Pot"
and Wehner's "Republicans should just say no."). Importantly, even
when the Post has published pieces that I disagree with, the basic facts
presented have been correct. Their history of consistent balance is why I
nearly fell off my chair when I read Doug Fine's Sunday Post piece, "Five
Myths About Legalized Marijuana." It's not just that I disagree with Fine
about marijuana policy (indeed, we debated once on CNBC). What I find
disturbing is that the Post published a piece containing numerous major factual
errors without, it seems, much thought. These were not close calls. The numbers
in Fine's article are easily challenged with a simple Google search. Click
here for more
The Many
Different Faces Of Marijuana In America
On Tuesday, Vermont moved to
decriminalize the possession of marijuana for quantities up to an ounce,
replacing potential prison time for arrests with fines. Peter Shumlin, the
state's governor, made a telling when he announced the move. "This
legislation allows our courts and law enforcement to focus their limited
resources more effectively to fight highly addictive opiates such as heroin and
prescription drugs that are tearing apart families and communities," he
said. The idea that weed isn't that big a deal and that governments need to
readjust their priorities is pretty common. There's little vocal anti-pot
government outcry, no temperance movement analog for cannabis. have found that
a majority of Americans think marijuana should be legalized. Click
here to read the rest of the story.
New, troubling heroin
addiction trend grips southeast Michigan
At the 99-bed St. John Providence Brighton Center for
Recovery, more clients are coming in these days addicted to opiates, including
heroin. “Our 18- to 25-year population has exploded” in recent years, said
outreach and referral specialist Scott Masi, 48. “The prescription medication
problem is pushing this heroin problem. Anybody who tells you anything
different doesn’t know what they’re talking about. I could poll every kid who
comes in our clinic, and it’s a broken record. It’s the Vicodin and OxyContin,
and then it goes to the heroin.” Authorities say a particularly toxic heroin
mix known by some on the street as “black shadow” appears to be circulating in
southeast Michigan communities, causing a rise in overdoses and at least one
death this month. Please
click here for more.
Meeting the needs of
mature women in treatment
An estimated two million older women in the U.S. could
benefit from treatment for issues related to alcohol misuse or dependence,
though less than one percent receive treatment. An even greater number
misuse prescription drugs.
Click here for the rest of this story.
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