AHS Views

Mar 2, 2007

Celebrity Rehab Update

A couple of weeks ago we wrote about celebrities going into rehab. It’s been a hot topic lately, which has only been fueled by the bizarre behavior of the once-labeled “pop princess” Britney Spears.

You’d think that the tanked careers and ruined lives of former stars caught up in the “lifestyle” would serve as an example, but I guess that’s not the case. “Party like a rock star” doesn’t seem very appealing any more, but is very cliché.

Privacy and comfort seems to be a big issue when celebrities do decide to get help, whether they really mean it or it’s just a public relations handling. However, high prices ranging close to 100K for 3 months and a nice place close to the beach doesn’t necessarily mean they will get the best type of treatment. Accommodations and setting doesn’t equal results.

Since celebrity rehab stays have been in the news lately and the reporting has been slammed in your face everywhere you turn, we’d like to turn the tables a bit and see what you have to say about the subject. If you have something to say about it, then this is the place to do it. Tell us your thoughts on the matter and what you would do, for example, if Britney were your relative...?

Article by Eric

StumbleUpon Toolbar

Labels: celebrity

Mar 1, 2007

What should you do with your prescription drugs, old and current?

In case you haven’t heard, prescription drugs are considered the fastest rising drug abuse threat in our society. This is true from teenagers and young adults all the way through the baby boomer generation.

So where are all of these prescriptions coming from and how are young people getting them?

According to the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, more than three in five teens say prescription pain relievers are easy to get from parents’ medicine cabinets; half of teens say they’re easy to get through other people’s prescriptions; and more than half of teens say pain relievers are “available everywhere;” 43 percent of teens believe pain relievers are cheap and 35 percent believe they are safer to use than illegal drugs.

In addition to that, a street market has developed for many prescriptions, especially painkillers like Vicodin, Oxycontin, Lortab, Methadone, etc… as well as amphetamines like Ritalin, Adderall, and Dexedrine. There have even been incidences where people have robbed pharmacies just for drugs and left all the cash.

Due to the outbreak in prescription drug abuse across the country in recent years, more states have been implementing prescription drug monitoring programs, where pharmacies and doctors share information on who is prescribed what and when, which would cut down on the “doctor shopping” that some addicts do. This is where someone will go to several doctors with the same problem, real or imagined, and get multiple prescriptions for an addictive substance. They then travel around to different pharmacies to have them filled.

Despite the legal drugs becoming illicit, the most common ways for people to start abusing them is by getting them from friends and family members who have been prescribed these drugs.

So, for those of you at home, a good idea is to throw away your old medications and lock up or hide any current ones. People of all ages, but especially teenagers and young adults, are taking these drugs to get high. You could also try an alternative substitute than a narcotic or amphetamine if at all possible, and not run the risk in the first place.

Article by Eric

StumbleUpon Toolbar

Labels: prescription

Feb 28, 2007

What is the worst illegal drug to take?

A question often asked by many students is, “What is the worst drug?” Of course the answer is relative to viewpoint and what kind of damage is caused, whether it is physical damage, emotional pain and suffering, damage to the family, cost involved, or some kind of combination.

It has been suggested that, while drugs like crack, heroin and meth are extremely deadly, hallucinogens like LSD (acid) are the ones with the worst lingering effects. The reason is because they alter the mind and its perceptions, and people can have “acid flashbacks” for many years after they stopped taking the drug.

LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) is one of the major drugs making up the hallucinogen class of drugs. Hallucinogens cause hallucinations—profound distortions in a person’s perception of reality. Under the influence of hallucinogens, people see images, hear sounds, and feel sensations that seem real but do not exist. Some hallucinogens also produce rapid, intense emotional swings.

The effects of LSD are unpredictable. They depend on the amount taken; the user's personality, mood, and expectations; and the surroundings in which the drug is used. Usually, the user feels the first effects of the drug about 30 minutes after taking it. The physical effects include dilated pupils, higher body temperature, increased heart rate and blood pressure, sweating, loss of appetite, sleeplessness, dry mouth, and tremors.

Users refer to their experience with LSD as a "trip" and when it is a frightening experience it is called a "bad trip." These experiences are long; typically they begin to clear after about 12 hours. Some LSD users experience severe, terrifying thoughts and feelings, fear of losing control, fear of insanity, death and despair while using LSD. Some fatal accidents have occurred during states of LSD intoxication and people have been known to get stuck in a bad trip and display extreme paranoia or psychosis.

Most users of LSD voluntarily decrease or stop its use over time. LSD is not considered a physically addictive drug since it does not produce intense physical cravings like other drugs. However, a tolerance to the drug can still build, requiring more of the toxin to be ingested to experience another trip.

Use of hallucinogens, and especially LSD, has decreased in recent years. In fact, according to the Monitoring the Future Survey, 0.7 percent of high school seniors reported past-month use. The rate is still higher than the overall usage, where only 0.1 percent of people aged 12 or older used the drug in the last 30 days prior to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

It seems to be catching on that it is one of the worst drugs, as evidenced by the drop in usage. Why risk becoming a vegetable?

Article by Eric Mitchell

StumbleUpon Toolbar

Labels: LSD, school

Feb 27, 2007

Drugs for ADHD - blessing or curse?

The controversy over ADHD diagnosis and the drugs prescribed for it has not gone away, and rightfully so. In most cases, the drugs that are being given to children as well as adults are powerfully addictive stimulants.

A new study reported by USA Today says that parents of children taking ADHD medication are about nine times more likely to also use the drugs than parents of children who aren't on these drugs. The study of more than 100,000 privately insured children was done by Medco Health Solutions Inc., which manages pharmacy benefits.

Medco data shows that the growth in adult use of drugs for ADHD, such as Ritalin and Concerta, outpaced the increases in childhood prescriptions since 2000. About 2 million children and 1 million adults are prescribed medications for ADHD each month. According to the FDA, adult use of the drugs nearly doubled between March 2002 and June 2005.

The maker of one of the drugs financed the study, presumably to find out more about who to market to. In 2006, U.S. sales of ADHD drugs totaled about $3.5 billion, according to health care information company IMS Health.

Scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated problems with the stimulant drugs drive nearly 3,100 people to ERs each year. The FDA has ordered that drug makers of 15 ADHD-related chemicals must start providing warnings about the risks of cardiovascular problems with the drugs.

Because stimulant drugs such as Ritalin have such a high potential for abuse, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has placed tight, Schedule II controls on their manufacture, distribution, and prescription.

A study from the National Institute on Drug Abuse last year estimated that more than 1.6 million American teens and young adults misused these drugs during a 12-month period, and 75,000 became addicted. In response to this information, one pediatrician is noted as saying “that seventy-five thousand addicts is more alarming than a few hundred heart problems.”

We’d like to hear your concerns about these drugs. Are the billions of dollars in sales overshadowing the damage caused by the drugs? Do you find it alarming that pharmaceutical companies began targeting adult ADHD once the increase in prescriptions to kids slowed? Do you find it more troubling that there are heart attacks, strokes and deaths from the drugs, or that there hundreds of thousands of young people abusing these harmful substances and tens of thousands becoming addicted to them?

Article by Eric Mitchell

StumbleUpon Toolbar

Labels: children, prescription

Feb 26, 2007

Cheese heroin - yes I said "cheese"

The fight to keep people off drugs, especially kids, is a continual one. While there are many critics of the “drug war”, specifically the supply reduction and law enforcement side of things, the most effective way to do so has been through education and prevention programs. This also has to be an evolutionary process, as the kinds of drugs and varieties seem to change.

As one of the deadliest drugs known to man, heroin also has many forms. From “black tar” heroin, which is a dark, stickier substance than brown or white powder heroin, to a newer form called “cheese”.

The latter has been surfacing in parts of Texas and seems to be aimed directly at young people, both for its name and its reduced potency. Cheese is a mixture of heroin and over-the-counter cold medication like Tylenol PM, and another recent death of a 15 year-old Texas boy has been reported with this type of heroin as the cause.

The substance has even been turning up in elementary schools and has been called a “starter heroin”, which is relatively inexpensive for kids to be able to afford it. As many as 75 cases of the drug on school campuses have been reported in the last year.

What do you think the biggest drug threat in our kids schools are today? Marijuana and alcohol are still the frontrunners, but new drug mixtures like this continue to pop up and then of course there is the surge in prescription drug abuse. Where should be efforts be focused the most, and does the responsibility lay with the parents or the schools, or both?

Article by Eric Mitchell

StumbleUpon Toolbar

Labels: children, heroin