AUTHOR: Romie DATE: 4/17/2007 10:41:00 AM ----- BODY:
A recent report by a non-profit children’s advocacy group has found that there is a lack of good information to determine the effects of methamphetamine on Arkansas’s child welfare system. Methamphetamine “is seen as the leading cause of all the problems that plague the child welfare system and is considered a significant factor and something that has to be addressed, but you can’t prove that,” said Paul Kelly, senior policy analyst with Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. “With all the public attention on it, is that warranted, and, should we be focusing on methamphetamine or should we be focused on substance abuse?” he said. The report by the AACF did find that meth was one of the drugs abused by adults that harm children. According to the study, pregnant mothers are more likely to test positive for cocaine and amphetamines. The study, “Poison, Problem and Perspective: the Impact of Methamphetamine on Arkansas Child Welfare System,” also found that in 2004, parental substance abuse surpassed parents going to jail as the most prevalent factor for placing children in foster care. Kelly said this is troubling because there is a shortage in Arkansas of substance abuse treatment for women and children. Arkansas is widely believed to have a statewide problem with methamphetamine abuse and with the lack of good treatment available this will continue to be an issue. What do you think? Should the focus in Arkansas be on methamphetamine or substance abuse in general? Article by Eric Digg It | Reddit | Newsvine Seed Add to your bookmarks in: del.icio.us | Yahoo! | Google | Furl | ma.gnolia | Spurl

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-------- AUTHOR: Romie DATE: 4/12/2007 10:19:00 AM ----- BODY:
According to a recent study done by the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, the use of methamphetamine and amphetamines increase the risk of stroke in young adults. This includes the use and abuse of the illegal drug methamphetamine, which is a dangerous stimulant that is widely abused in the United States, as well cocaine and other amphetamines. Currently there are many legally prescribed amphetamines for “diseases” such as ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) that produce the same effect as a drug like methamphetamine and/or cocaine that have been widely abused over the last few years. The abuse of prescription drugs like Adderall and Ritalin is a national problem. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, visits to U.S. emergency rooms rose 21% from 2004 to 2005 because of the misuse of prescription drugs. Visits to the ER because of abuse of illegal drugs stayed the same. Many people who were prescribed drugs such as Adderall or Ritalin as children later end up abusing illegal stimulants such as methamphetamine or even cocaine as adults. According to many drug treatment centers and those using both methamphetamine and/or legally prescribed amphetamines are at a higher risk for stroke and other health issues as young adults and later in life. The most alarming thing about this is that many school age children are put on these drugs on a daily basis. But, do we really understand the side effects and long standing damage we are doing by putting kids on drugs? Are we setting them up for major medical problems and even addiction later in life? And is there a better way to handle learning disabilities and problems in school that does not involve drugging children? Article by Eric Digg It | Reddit | Newsvine Seed Add to your bookmarks in: del.icio.us | Yahoo! | Google | Furl | ma.gnolia | Spurl

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-------- AUTHOR: Romie DATE: 3/29/2007 10:28:00 AM ----- BODY:
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 Digg It | Reddit | Newsvine Seed Add to your bookmarks in: del.icio.us | Yahoo! | Google | Furl | ma.gnolia | Spurl

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    -------- AUTHOR: Romie DATE: 3/15/2007 03:46:00 PM ----- BODY:
    Prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) drug abuse continues to spread throughout America. According to some recent surveys though, most parents aren’t aware that ten percent of kids (2.4 million) have tried abusing cough medicines that contain dextromethorphan (DXM). Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) recently launched a new campaign designed to educate communities about how to prevent cough medicine abuse among teenagers. The alliance produced a website called Dose of Prevention and released a toolkit that is designed to arm parents, educators, retailers, healthcare providers, law enforcement officials, and other community leaders with critical information to address the problem of cough medicine abuse. According to the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), an estimated 12,584 emergency department visits in 2004 involved pharmaceuticals containing DXM. Nearly half of these visits involved young people between the ages of 12 and 20. A 6-year retrospective study from 1999 to 2004 of the California Poison Control System showed a 10-fold increase in the rate of DXM abuse cases in all ages and a 15-fold increase in the rate of cases in adolescents, accounting for about 75% of all of the cases. The Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA) has members who make the cough medicines containing DXM. Do you think their recent efforts after such a huge increase are enough, or should some other regulatory agency step in? Article by Eric Digg It | Reddit | Newsvine Seed Add to your bookmarks in: del.icio.us | Yahoo! | Google | Furl | ma.gnolia | Spurl

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    -------- AUTHOR: Romie DATE: 3/14/2007 10:42:00 AM ----- BODY:
    The American Medical Association (AMA) has been placing targeted ads in college publications asking them to "Stop the Madness" with regards to taking money from the alcohol beverage industry for ads during college athletics. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) responded to the ad by saying that reports show the age of people watching events such as the NCAA basketball tournament are largely adults, and they are limited to only one commercial per hour. Is this a true enough statement to ignore the issue, or is it simply a justification for the money these schools get in return, which can range from the thousands to the millions, for alcohol-related sponsors? The AMA maintains that alcohol ads undermine efforts to prevent campus binge drinking and alcohol-related deaths, accidents and sexual assaults. "Universities have finally gotten past the `bad apple' theory -- that it's just a few students," said Laurie Leiber, spokeswoman for the Marin Institute, an alcohol industry watchdog group in California. "They're trying to get away from an alcohol-saturated environment." The new mood comes as public awareness of binge drinking on campuses has heightened in recent years. Colleges have come under fire for largely turning a blind eye to abusive drinking on their campuses, often by underage students. Statistics from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health report that over 7 million young people under the age of 21 are current binge drinkers, which is defined as having five or more drinks on the same occasion in the past month. In addition, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) concluded that 30 percent of Americans aged 18-20 were binge drinkers in the past month. Frequent binge drinkers were eight times more likely than non-binge drinkers to miss a class, fall behind in schoolwork, get hurt or injured, and damage property. College campuses have been notorious for heavy alcohol consumption, and in recent years several schools made national headlines because of deaths on campus due to alcohol poisoning. Does it really have to come to a point where kids are dying before colleges take a stand? Article by Eric Digg It | Reddit | Newsvine Seed Add to your bookmarks in: del.icio.us | Yahoo! | Google | Furl | ma.gnolia | Spurl

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    -------- AUTHOR: Romie DATE: 2/27/2007 01:26:00 PM ----- BODY:
    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 ToolbarStumble It | Digg It | Furl It | Reddit | Rojo It Bookmark in del.icio.us | Add to technorati faves Bookmark in Yahoo! | Seed in Newsvine Add to Google Bookmarks | Add to Bloglines

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    -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR:Anonymous COMMENT-DATE:Feb 27, 2007 7:36:00 PM COMMENT-BODY:The simple fact of human economics is that people have needs and will fulfill those needs any way they can: moral or legal threats be damned. These threats are artifices of recent society and its mores rather than biological imperatives. The latter will always win.

    This is why you have black markets of drugs, mp3, etc. Any attempt to restrict fulfillment of a need drives substitute seeking. Any attempt to limit substitutes will create black markets. Black markets have structural advantages over licit markets that perpetuate their existence.

    If people divert these drugs, passing laws won't change a thing other than to add more cruelty and capriciousness to our society. Did it ever occur to anyone that people who take Ritalin, or take Meth, may simply be "self medicating" to survive that society throws at them. There happens to be a group that use "legal" avenues to achieve the same thing: they're labeled medically as people with ADHD or ADD. Methamphetamine is a legally prescribable treatment for ADHD/ADD along with its cousins Ritalin and Adderall.

    Am concerned about diversion of ADHD/ADD drugs to abuse? Sure, up to a point. It's not an absolute concern - that is, I'm willing to tolerate it based on the benefits of those drugs to society overall. I tolerate a 9-11 of traffic deaths every month for the benefits of private car ownership. It comes back to needs and what people will do for them. People have always used/abused drugs and 1000 years from now still will be doing do - it's a biological imperative as primal as sex.

    As someone who struggled with 40 years of undiagnosed ADD and who now takes Adderall I have a certain vested interest but also a certain knowledge a moralizer can't possibly have.

    So do I think ADHD/ADD are really diseases? Not really unless you also say that being black or female are diseases also. However, society as a whole is exceptionally intolerant of us so the question becomes which do you pick 1) force society to accept us, our inability to fight our biology to adapt to a cultural habit of industrial conformity that has only a century and half of previous existence and then shut off the drugs, or 2) realize there are things you can't change things larger than you and take "performance enhancing" drugs to survive in society.

    Well, that's an adult question to decide. Do parents, doctors, and especially the state (as teachers or social workers) have enough moral clarity and lack of moral hazard to really make the decision for children. I definitely don't think any state or corporate agent does and there's lots of evidence that these drugs are used primarily for state expediency as much as for corporate profit.

    The militaristic Prussian design of our public schools selects and rewards only for anyone without ADHD/ADD-like genetics. What can one do to survive if you don't have the lucky genes? Again: do you pick pointless self-annihilation or coopted survival through pharmacy?

    Even without thinking, the answer is pretty obvious. -------- AUTHOR: Romie DATE: 2/26/2007 01:47:00 PM ----- BODY:
    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 ToolbarStumble It | Digg It | Furl It | Reddit | Rojo It Bookmark in del.icio.us | Add to technorati faves Bookmark in Yahoo! | Seed in Newsvine Add to Google Bookmarks | Add to Bloglines

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    -------- AUTHOR: Romie DATE: 2/23/2007 02:31:00 PM ----- BODY:
    Recent reports have surfaced of a pink-colored, strawberry-flavored methamphetamine that was seized in Nevada. The idea of a candy-like substance, which some officials fear is targeting youth, has created quite a buzz. News outlets have covered the story from at least nine states, yet it appears there is still only one confirmed seizure of the substance. This leaves some people wondering whether it was an isolated incident that got a lot of attention or if there are legitimate fears of some meth manufacturers trying to target new users by making the drug more appealing to young people. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health showed that more than 10 million Americans over the age of 12 have tried methamphetamine at some point in their lives. According to results from the 2005 Monitoring the Future Study, current meth use among high school seniors decreased from 1.7 percent in 2003 to 0.9 percent in 2005. Methamphetamine found on the streets is often made in home-based labs that use an array of toxins to create the chemical transformation. Some ingredients may include lithium battery acid, red phosphorus, anhydrous ammonia, and its base of pseudo-ephedrine. Taking even small amounts of methamphetamine can result in increased wakefulness, increased physical activity, decreased appetite, increased respiration, rapid heart rate, irregular heartbeat, increased blood pressure, and hyperthermia. Other effects of methamphetamine abuse may include irritability, anxiety, insomnia, confusion, tremors, convulsions, and cardiovascular collapse and death. Long-term effects may include paranoia, aggressiveness, extreme anorexia, memory loss, visual and auditory hallucinations, delusions, and severe dental problems. Article by Eric Mitchell

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    -------- AUTHOR: Romie DATE: 2/20/2007 01:09:00 PM ----- BODY:
    Approximately 5,000 young people under 21 die each year due to underage drinking. Recent occurrences in several states have lawmakers working to figure out something they can do to help save lives and prevent teenagers and young adults from causing more damage to themselves and others. Some areas have resorted to local ordinances that include heavy fines for adults whose houses are used for underage drinking parties – whether they’re home or not. Other laws include keg registration, where the purchaser of the alcohol is the one punished if it is found to be consumed by people underage. Part of the problem is that some parents adopt the attitude of "at least it’s at my house where I know they’re safe," which may have its merits, but also fosters the idea that consuming alcohol to the point of getting buzzed or drunk is okay. According to a recent national survey, about 10.8 million people ages 12-20 (28.2 percent) reported past month alcohol use in 2005. Nearly 7.2 million of these underage drinkers (18.8 percent) were binge drinkers and 2.3 million (6.0) were heavy drinkers. These figures have remained essentially the same since 2002. Along with the immediate problems caused by underage drinking, there are residual effects on society as well. For example, those who begin drinking in their early teens are at greater risk of developing alcohol dependence at some point in their lives. This means additional costs for rehabilitation programs, increased risk of future DUI/DWI, increased risk of accidents caused at work, etc. However, with about half of the adult population being current drinkers, other people feel that if someone is old enough to die for our country in the military, then they’re old enough for have a drink. That may be true, but if consuming alcoholic beverages at a young age is going to continue to be prevalent in this society, then someone has to teach young people how to be responsible with such a dangerous substance, if that is at all possible. It’s actually a shame that we have to develop laws with fines and penalties to try and correct a situation when more focus should be placed on effective education and prevention. Article by Eric

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    -------- AUTHOR: Romie DATE: 2/16/2007 12:34:00 PM ----- BODY:
    Here's a heated topic for you – school-based student drug testing. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the home of the Nation’s Drug Czar, continues to push for random testing in schools for illicit substances. There are some schools that have implemented drug testing for extra-curricular activities, but some civil liberties activists and some parents are fighting a school-wide approach vigorously. Why would people not want to check if their kids are on drugs? One argument is that it is an infringement on their rights. Another argument is that drug testing is not an effective deterrent from drug use. Neither topic has a definitive position, but the leading office against drug use in America is advocating for it and providing more funds for schools that want to implement drug testing. ONDCP Director John Walters was quoted in a press release as saying “Since 2001, there has been a 23 percent decline in youth substance use, with over 840,000 fewer students using drugs. Random student drug testing can play an important role in continuing that progress”. How much the increase in student drug testing played a role in that decrease is questionable. Also questionable is how that 23 percent was calculated – especially against annual population increases. Are there really 840,000 less students using drugs? We sure hope so. It could be looked at this way – substance abuse has a huge negative impact on our society, almost immeasurable. Any effective measure to lessen that impact is a good thing for now and for our future. Article by Eric

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