Alcohol Use Surprising in Czech Republic

In today’s day and age, beer is still considered the drink of choice for many Czechs. According to the UK-based Society for the Study of Addiction, in 2003, Czechs drank an average of 162 liters of beer per person.

This is more than any other nation on earth. That's one bottle of beer for every man, woman, and child in the Czech Republic every day.

In this nation, the pub has been and will remain a key place for many to gather after work. In fact the above trend is not recent and drinking beer has been apart of Czech history for at least 1,000 years. Beers like Budweis and Pilsner beers were born and remain popular, both in the Czech Republic and around the globe.

What’s even more odd is that scientists in the United Kingdom just did a study and reported that alcohol and tobacco are more dangerous than Ecstasy, marijuana and LSD as alcohol is involved in half of all emergency room visits in the country.

The study went on to say that tobacco causes 40 percent of all illnesses that require hospitalization. Scientists doing the study feel that alcohol and tobacco cause more economical and societal problems than the use of many of these illegal drugs.

Will these new findings cut down on the amount of alcohol use and abuse in the country? Will many who abuse alcohol now turn to abusing drugs because these drugs are reported as being less dangerous than alcohol?

Article by Eric

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Club Drugs and the Rave Scene

Over the last several years there have been emerging problems with the abuse of club drugs and the damaging effects caused as a result. In fact, incidents of the abuse and the fatal effects of these drugs are in the news increasingly.

These types of drugs include MDMA or Ecstasy, Rohypnol, and GHB. All these drugs are most commonly used in the club or rave scene.

While ecstasy is said to be similar to a stimulant and a hallucinogen, ecstasy is a synthetic drug that can have many different properties and effects. Some ecstasy is laced with heroin while other pills can be laced with everything from cocaine to any synthetic chemical that the person making it decides to put into it. So you don’t really know what you’re taking when you take ecstasy.

Drugs like Rohypnol, GHB and Ketamine are drugs that heavily sedate a person and are most commonly used by those committing sexual assaults. Surprisingly, there are people that voluntarily take these drugs. All are tasteless and odorless.

Many people who go to raves on a regular basis say that they go to for the music and to meet new people. Even they cannot deny that clubs and rave parties are very common locations that these drugs are used and sold.

Of an estimated 106 million emergency department (ED) visits in the U.S. during 2004, the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) estimates that:

1,997,993 were drug-related

MDMA was involved in 8,621 visits

GHB was involved in 2,340 visits

Rohypnol was involved in 473 visits

Ketamine was involved in 227 visits.

To some, club drugs seem harmless.

In reality, these substances can cause serious physical and psychological problems—even death. Often, the raves where these drugs are used are promoted as alcohol-free events, which gives parents a false sense of security that their children will be safe attending such parties. These parents are not aware that raves may actually be havens for the illicit sale and abuse of club drugs

Do you think that club drugs are over hyped or is not enough information known about them and we need to be more careful.

Article by Eric

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Do "Non-addictive" Drugs Really Exist?

There are many drugs in existence today, both legal and illegal, that are called “non-addictive.”

In fact, pharmaceutical companies have come out with “non-narcotic” forms of pain relief like Ultram and Ambien that are “safe if used as directed and non-addictive” yet the incidents of people becoming addicted to these drugs continues to increase.

This is not something new.

In the 1850’s when opium addiction first became an epidemic in the United States, morphine was used as a non-addictive substitute until it was later outlawed in the 1920’s because of its’ addictive properties.

There have even been statements that the illegal drugs marijuana is a “non-addictive” and “non-harmful” drug, yet it continues to be one of the most abused drug in the country.

Another drug said to be “non-addictive” is LSD which is in fact one of the most harmful drugs out there, causing long-term damage to users. Not only does LSD cause flashbacks, where certain aspects of their LSD experience reoccur, but it also can cause long-lasting psychoses, and drug tolerance - where the user needs more and more of the drug to achieve the desired effect. After experiencing their first high on LSD, many users take this drug over and over again, even with the negative effects associated with the drug.

The fact remains that drugs alter the senses and perceptions. Drugs produce a high in the user and the user continues taking the drugs to achieve the desired effect and in many cases takes more and more of the drug. This is true of everything from LSD to marijuana, to those legal prescription drugs and replacement drug therapies that are so heavily promoted on a day to day basis.

Calling these drugs “non-addictive” is not only a false statement but easily proven untrue, not only with illegal drugs like marijuana and LSD but also with “legal” drugs like prescription pain pills, anti-depressants and replacement drug therapies.

If these drugs are so non-addictive, why does the number of people becoming addicted to them continue to increase?

You do the math and you’ll see that “non-addictive” drugs really don’t exist.

Article by Eric

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Could Anna Nicole's death have been prevented?

Recently the Broward County Medical Examiner has ruled that Anna Nicole Smith’s death was the result of an accidental drug overdose. Since she was found unresponsive on Feb 8th in her hotel room in Hollywood, FL there has been a media storm surrounding questions of how she died as well as where to bury her and who gets custody of her infant daughter Dannielynn.

It was stated by the Medical Examiner that prescription drugs found in therapeutic levels were present when the body was examined.

Benzodiazepine medications such as Klonipin, Valium and Ativan were all found in her body as well as Chloral Hydrate, a sedative used in the short-term treatment of insomnia as well as to relieve anxiety and induce sleep before surgery. It is also used after surgery for pain and to treat alcohol withdrawl.

Additionally Topomax, a medication commonly used in the treatment of seizures, the muscle relaxant Soma as well as over the counter medications such as Benedryl and Tylenol were also found to be present in her toxicology report.

It is believed that the combination of these and other drugs found in her bloodstream are what resulted in her death.

Questions of whether this could have been prevented if the multiple doctors who prescribed these medications were aware of the interactions between them could not be answered.

More and more in the United States this is a trend for many drug users who seek out prescription medications from multiple doctors without letting one know about the other, called “doctor shopping” it is a practice many prescription drug abusers are all too familiar with. As we can now see the results of the interactions of these drugs taken together even at therapeutic levels can be deadly.

Did Anna Nicole intend to commit suicide or was she simply taking medications as directed?

At this point, at least as far as the medical examiner is concerned, the death was accidental; an eerie warning to those who use any combination of these drugs without the physicians who prescribe them being aware of the combinations the patient is taking.

Should doctors who prescribe benzodiazepines be held responsible if a person dies from the interaction of drugs they prescribe when taken at therapeutic levels? What do you think?

Article by Eric

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