 Heroin Use In Suburbs On The Rise
Suburban Teens Are Getting Addicted, Overdosing And Dying
(ABC World News)
She says she first tried heroin for fun and instantly became addicted. It's not surprising. Today's heroin isn't just cheaper, it's stronger. In the 70s, most heroin was about 3 percent pure. Today, it's upwards of 60 percent. And the more potent it is, the more deadly.
"Every day you shoot up, you could overdose," said Dr. Constantine Ioannou, vice chairman ofpsychiatry at Nassau University in East Meadow, N.Y.
We spoke to DEA agents across the country. view article
Drug Use Rising Among Seniors; Baby Boomers Continue Using, SAMHSA Says
January 11, 2010
A new report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) finds that 4.7 percent of Americans age 50 and older used illicit drugs during the past year, a figure that's on the rise and reflective of lifelong drug use by aging Baby Boomers, experts said.
 SAMHSA said the report, Illicit Drug Use Among Older Adults, presages a possible doubling in need for treatment services among older Americans in the next decade. "This new data has profound implications for the health and well-being of older adults who continue to abuse substances," said SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde. "These findings highlight the need for prevention programs for all ages as well as to establish improved screening and appropriate referral to treatment as part of routine health care services."
The report found that 8.5 percent of men ages 50-54 used marijuana during the past month, compared to 3.9 percent of women in the same age group. Marijuana use among older Americans was more prevalent than nonmedical use of prescription drugs, SAMHSA noted. Older Adults Drug Use Rising.pdf
September 16, 2009, 12:01 am
 Drug Abuse affects the brain. It can “slow down” some of its cognitive functions, like “thinking”, or “reacting”. The complete detox provided by the Kaye Method of Ultra Rapid Detox helps to restore normal brain function, because it removes all traces of opiates, and their effects on brain function. What else can you do to help improve the way your brain works? The article below says running might be the answer. I know that when I ran the military’s most successful alcohol and drug abuse treatment program in the 70’s, physical exercise was a key component of our treatment protocol. It improved fitness, helped create a positive attitude, and enhanced self-esteem. Now, a recent study says it might actually make you smarter, too.
– Ed Runci, Co-Founder, The Kaye Clinic for Ultra Rapid Detox
Phys Ed: What Sort of Exercise Can Make You Smarter?
Allow a laboratory mouse to run as much as it likes, and its brainpower improves. Force it to run harder than it otherwise might, and its thinking improves even more. This is the finding of an experiment led by researchers at National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan and placed online in May.
In the study, scientists had two groups of mice swim a water maze and in a separate trial had them endure an unpleasant stimulus to see how quickly they would learn to move away from it. For the next four weeks they allowed one group of mice to run inside their rodent wheels, an activity most mice enjoy, while requiring the other group to push harder on minitreadmills at a speed and duration controlled by the scientists. They then tested both groups again to track their learning skills and memory. Both groups of mice performed admirably in the water maze, bettering their performances from the earlier trial. But only the treadmill runners were better in the avoidance task, a skill that, according to brain scientists, demands a more complicated cognitive response.
The mice who raced on the treadmills showed evidence of molecular changes in several portions of their brains when viewed under a microscope, while the voluntary wheel-runners had changes in only one area. “Our results support the notion that different forms of exercise induce neuroplasticity changes in different brain regions,” Chauying J. Jen, a professor of physiology and an author of the study, says.
For some time, researchers have known that exercise changes the structure of the brain and affects thinking. Ten years ago scientists at the Salk Institute in California published the groundbreaking finding that exercise stimulates the creation of new brain cells. But fundamental questions remain, like whether exercise must be strenuous to be beneficial. Should it be aerobic? What about weight lifting? And are the cognitive improvements permanent or fleeting?
Other recent studies provide some preliminary answers. In an experiment published in the journal of the American College of Sports Medicine, 21 students at the University of Illinois were asked to memorize a string of letters and then pick them out from a list flashed at them. Then they were asked to do one of three things for 30 minutes — sit quietly, run on a treadmill or lift weights — before performing the letter test again. After an additional 30-minute cool down, they were tested once more. On subsequent days, the students returned to try the other two options. The students were noticeably quicker and more accurate on the retest after they ran compared with the other two options, and they continued to perform better when tested after the cool down. “There seems to be something different about aerobic exercise,” Charles Hillman, an associate professor in the department of kinesiology at the University of Illinois and an author of the study, says.
Similarly, in other work by scientists at the University of Illinois, elderly people were assigned a six-month program of either stretching exercises or brisk walking. The stretchers increased their flexibility but did not improve on tests of cognition. The brisk walkers did.
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Why should exercise need to be aerobic to affect the brain? “It appears that various growth factors must be carried from the periphery of the body into the brain to start a molecular cascade there,” creating new neurons and brain connections, says Henriette van Praag, an investigator in the Laboratory of Neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging. For that to happen, “you need a fairly dramatic change in blood flow,” like the one that occurs when you run or cycle or swim. Weight lifting, on the other hand, stimulates the production of “growth factors in the muscles that stay in the muscles and aren’t transported to the brain,” van Praag says.
What then of the Taiwanese mice, all of which ran? According to the investigators, mice on a running wheel “usually show little improvements in the conventionally defined” measurements of fitness, like elevated muscle strength and improved aerobic capacity. They enjoy themselves; they don’t strain. Those on the treadmill, meanwhile, are forced to pant and puff. Jen says researchers suspect that treadmill running is more intense and leads to improvements in “muscle aerobic capacity,” and this increased aerobic capacity, in turn, affects the brain more than the wheel jogging.
Does this mean we should relinquish control of our workouts to a demanding coach? Jen cautions against assuming human bodies work exactly like those of rats. But there are lessons from his work. “It would be fair to say that any form of regular exercise,” he says, if it is aerobic, “should be able to maintain or even increase our brain functions.”
 The 2009 National Council on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) National Survey on American Attitudes Substance Abuse XIV.
Teens and Parents has some information you need to know. Below is a summary of the 2009 CASA Report. Some of this might shock you. Some of it may be discouraging. Alcohol, Marijauna, and Prescription Drug abuse are Big Problems among Teens. But know this. YOU, a PARENT can make a huge positive difference. You can help keep your Teen Clean. You’ll see how when you read this summary. A link to the entire CASA report is at the end. view report
National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XIV: Teens and Parents view report
Prescription Drugs Misused by 12.3 Percent of H.S. Seniors
August 6, 2009
A survey of more than 12,000 U.S. high-school seniors found that 12.3 percent said they had used opioid-based prescription drugs for non-medical purposes, with 8 percent saying they had done so within the past year, HealthDay News reported Aug. 3.
Students said they used drugs like hydrocodone, oxycodone, hydromorphone, meperidine, morphine and codeine to relax, relieve tension, get high, experiment, relieve pain, or have a good time with their friends.
Those who used the drugs for reasons other than pain relief were more likely to use other addictive drugs and have signs of addictive disorders, researchers said.
"The results of this study provide compelling evidence that adolescents have a wide range of motives for using prescription opioids non-medically, and these motives should be carefully considered in efforts to reduce this behavior," said study author Sean Esteban McCabe of the Substance Abuse Research Center of the University of Michigan. "These results suggest that appropriate pain management and careful therapeutic monitoring could contribute to reductions in the non-medical use of prescription opioids among adolescents."
The study was published in the August 2009 issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine .
Prescription drug abuse growing at an alarming rate in the U.S.
July 28, 12:46 PM
.jpg) Death due to prescription drug abuse is in the headlines now because of the death of Michael Jackson. The media also harkens back to the death of Elvis Presley and other celebrities who have died from drug overdoses.
But the abuse of prescription drugs is different. Unlike the addiction to heroin and cocaine, which may be declining, abuse of prescription drugs is on the increase. Perhaps the most alarming fact is who is getting addicted.
Data from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse found that almost 3 million adolescents and about 7 million young adults from ages 18 to 25 had used prescription drugs for non-medical purposes at least once in their lives. That number has been steadily increasing. Abuse is most prominent for pain relievers.
Prescription drug abuse and prescription drug addiction are not new. . However, several factors have made it more widespread. While doctors ultimately have to sign off on three refills, doing so can become routine and thus the prescription drug abuse is facilitated. Doctors will often confirm the refill of a prescription with just a phone call.
Frances M. Harding, Director at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Center for Substance Abuse Prevention said recently that very few people actually finish their medications as instructed, Quite innocently they leave dangerous pills in the home. This provides easy access for children and visitors to your home. A quick trip to your bathroom and a look in your medicine cabinet can score a left over bottle of OxyContin. One pill is said to have a current street value of $30.
But another and more dangerous avenue exists today: the INTERNET. One has merely to go on line and search for an overseas pharmacy, pay with a credit card and within a few days your order is delivered.
Opioids which are prescribed for pain relief are among the most common drugs that lead to prescription drug abuse. These include OxyContin, Vicodin and Darvon. In fact, according to Dr. Michael Lowenstein, Co-Director of the Waismann Institute in Los Angeles, Vicodin has the second highest abuse rate of any current drug.
Covering Addiction in Health Reform Will Save Money, Group Says
July 20, 12:46 PM
News Summary
Including addiction treatment in national healthcare reform will save the nation billions of dollars in emergency care and other health costs, according to a new white paper from the Open Society Institute's Closing the Addiction Treatment Gap initiative.
The "Unforeseen Benefits: Addiction Treatment Reduces Health Care Costs" white paper said that in addition to fewer costly visits to emergency rooms, making addiction treatment more available and affordable will reduce hospital stays and other healthcare costs.
"When addictions go untreated, a person's medical care is fragmented, inefficient and ultimately, more costly," said Victor Capoccia, Ph.D., director of the Closing the Addiction Treatment Gap program. "There is tremendous momentum now to reform the nation's healthcare system, and including addiction treatment is a win-win for the nation. Access to effective treatment will help Americans live longer and healthier lives, and it will save billions of dollars over a decade's time compared with the cost of not treating persons at all."
Currently, only about one in 10 Americans who need addiction treatment receive care, while one of 14 hospital stays are related to addictions, the white paper noted. Past research also has shown that patients who received addiction treatment reduced their other medical costs by 26 percent.
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