A new survey from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America shows fathers don't spend as much time talking to kids about the dangers of drug abuse as mothers do. That needs to change, says Rhonda Ramsey Molina, president of Coalition for a Drug-Free Greater Cincinnati. Survey results showed that only 37 percent of fathers had talked to their children four or more times in the past year about drugs, compared to 45 percent of mothers. Numerous studies show that drug use is lower among teens who report learning about the dangers of drugs at home. [continues 316 words]
Is Hollywood going one toke over the line? Marijuana use is cropping up on some critically acclaimed shows, and anti-drug forces fear the glamorization of pot could boost its use among youths. Who's lighting up: * Pot is an ongoing theme on HBO's Entourage (Sundays, 10 ET/PT), which centers on a rising young movie star and his New York buddies who have gone Hollywood. Sunday's episode features two teens getting high at a bat mitzvah. * Streetwise Maurice "Smoke" Williams (Kirk Jones) lit up on last week's premiere of Over There (Wednesdays, 10 ET/PT), FX's gritty Iraq war drama. [continues 364 words]
In a July 19 letter to The Herald-Dispatch titled "With Drug Trade, Too Many Look Other Way," the writer ironically touches on the absurdity of laws that have resulted in thousands of deaths and millions of incarcerations, yet calls the comparison of the drug war to the Holocaust absurd. For the record, many millions of Americans die each decade from the use of legal alternatives to marijuana. At any given time, more than 2 million are behind bars for drugs, their lives destroyed, businesses ruined and possessions confiscated, all because our "leaders" look the other way. [continues 93 words]
Abuse Of Prescription Painkiller Especially Rampant Among Teens Right after he graduated from high school, a friend introduced Mark Smith to OxyContin as a way to get high. Three years later, Smith is still a prisoner to the nation's most popular prescription painkiller. More than once, his attempts to break his addiction alone have drawn him to psychiatric wards in the chilling throes of withdrawal. "It's a slow suicide," said Smith, 21, of Savage, who goes to a Minneapolis methadone clinic daily in hopes of one day piecing his life back together. "It's been a living hell on it, and coming off of it. Like riding on the tail of a dragon." [continues 2282 words]
CHICAGO - Already known as a rural scourge, methamphetamine is becoming a problem in a number of U.S. cities. Meetings of the 12-step group Crystal Meth Anonymous have increased in Chicago from one night a week a few years ago to five a week. In the Atlanta area, methamphetamine users account for the fastest-growing segment of addicts seeking treatment. Rehabilitation centers there are seeing an uptick in the number of women meth addicts, while officials in Minneapolis-St. Paul say they're treating an alarming number of meth users younger than 18. [continues 764 words]
IT'S TIME for dads to step up and spend more time talking to their children about the dangers of drugs. According to a new survey, it's moms who do most of the talking. The director of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America says that's simply not enough. "The ever-changing drug landscape facing our kids today presents new drug threats, like teens' abuse of prescription and over-the-counter medicines," said Tom Hedrick in releasing the new survey earlier this week, on Father's Day. "Not enough young people are getting a clear message about substance abuse, and research shows parents talking with kids early and often can make all the difference. We simply can't rely on mothers to do all of the heavy lifting." [continues 196 words]
Doctors diagnosed Sean Cass with attention deficit disorder in first grade. By middle school, he said, he was selling his Ritalin for $4 a pill to friends who wanted to get high and, by 17, he was mourning a friend who branched out to other prescription drugs and overdosed on OxyContin and Xanax. "Kids take prescription drugs because they are easy to get," said Cass, 19, of Boca Raton, who no longer uses or sells pills and works at the Galleria mall in Fort Lauderdale. "The way the kids see [overdoses], they say, `Oh, he just didn't know what he was doing.' But it only takes one time when you're not thinking clearly." [continues 705 words]
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the federal government retains the right to prosecute marijuana users as criminals even if they live in one of the 10 states where medical marijuana has been recently permitted and they are patients whose doctors prescribe it. This is, of course, great news for the pharmaceutical industry's continuing war on this unpatentable and therefore unprofitable substance. California chemotherapy patients who control their nausea with about $2 worth of pot per day can now look forward to spending $100 or more for pills that do an inferior job. [continues 577 words]
They're meant to be taken as prescribed pills and absorbed by the body gradually. But OxyContin, Vicodin and similar prescription painkillers are increasingly being abused in the Lawrence area, police and substance-abuse counselors say - often by young people. "One of the things they're doing now is taking these pills, crushing them and snorting them," said Lawrence Police Sgt. Tarik Khatib, head of the joint city-county drug unit. "You basically bypass the time release, and it's a much quicker onset. My personal view is that It's just coming, and it's been underreported so far." [continues 403 words]
Cold Medications Have Become A Headache For The Drug Industry. Drug makers lost the battle with states that wanted to move "behind the counter" all cold medications containing pseudoephedrine, which can be used to make the illegal stimulant methamphetamine. Now, in a different tactic, the drug industry is supporting states' efforts to prevent minors from buying cold remedies that contain another drug that sometimes is abused, dextromethorphan, but to allow the medicines to remain in the store aisles. Dextromethorphan, familiarly called DXM, is an ingredient in dozens of over-the-counter medications, including Wyeth's Robitussin, Johnson & Johnson's Tylenol Cold & Flu and Schering-Plough Corp.'s Coricidin HBP. Some teens have been consuming large quantities of DXM products to get high and hallucinate - -- often called "robotripping" (derived from Robitussin) or "skittling." While the practice isn't new, it has gained attention in the past year from a growing number of reports of teens overdosing. Last month, the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning about DXM abuse. It said the warning was prompted by "5 recently reported deaths of teenagers that may be associated with the consumption of powdered DXM sold in capsules." An FDA spokesman said the agency is investigating the illegal sale of the powdered form of DXM; the spokesman wouldn't provide more details. Last year, DXM products brought in $858.8 million in sales, according to market-data researcher ACNielsen, and the drug industry doesn't want to see that chunk of business move behind the counter with PSE. The industry "suffered through these PSE issues for so many years," says Mary Ann Wagner, vice president of pharmacy regulatory affairs for the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. "When they saw DXM, they said, 'Never again' and are trying to get in front of it." [continues 740 words]
Wakefield police and lawmakers are fighting a new enemy in the war on drugs: OxyContin. OxyContin hit the market in 1996 as a painkiller prescribed to people suffering from extreme pain. The pills can be abused by removing the time release coating. Abusers chew the pill or crush it up and snort it, getting a "high" that isn't present when the drug is used as directed. The drug, known as OCs or Oxys on the street, was seized during numerous drug busts in Wakefield over the last few years. Thieves ransacked Walgreen's last week and stole prescription narcotics including OxyContin and the painkillers Percocet and morphine. [continues 1235 words]
Some might say the Boulder County chapter of the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws is taking an unusual step by inviting a former officer of the law to its next meeting. But Howard Wooldridge, a former police officer who worked near Lansing, Mich., is among a group of officers NORML would like to hear more from. According to Wooldridge, the current War on Drugs is a waste of legal resources that could be better spent battling drunk driving, child molestation or a host of other crimes capable of greater negative impacts than the "personal bad choice" of drug abuse. [continues 823 words]
To those who have worked on federal narcotics legislation for decades, the notion of state referenda allowing "medical" marijuana, as an exception to federal drug trafficking laws, has always been an oxymoron. There was nothing "medical" about smoking marijuana; the two words were mutually exclusive. The idea made no more sense than "medical glue sniffing, or free-lance "medical heroin injection." It was dangerous, indulgent nonsense at best, a cynical hoax at worst. Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court's lucid ruling this week, the hoax is over. [continues 715 words]
Law Enforcement Has Failed to Keep Pace With Rogue Drug Websites. The illegal drug trade, one of the last free markets in the world, has taken to the Internet, where it is possible to buy prescription drugs without a prescription or consultation with a physician. All you need is a predilection to get high, and the drugs are virtually as easy to come by as candy. According to a recent study, conducted by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, there is a welcome decline in the use of Ecstasy by teens, with marijuana use holding steady. The alarming figures, however, concern the abuse of Vicodin, Oxycontin and other opiate-like painkillers that are offered online. [continues 580 words]
Prescription and over-the-counter medications are becoming the drugs of choice for many teens. Steve Bennett, the school resource officer for the Brisbane Police Department, has seen it firsthand. There was the 19-year-old who spent nights dumpster-diving behind senior care facilities and health care centers for prescription drugs. And the 17-year-old who stole and used his mother's antidepressants and his brother's medication for attention-deficient disorder; the boy was later sent to a live-in drug rehabilitation program. [continues 450 words]
A Recovering Multi-Drug Abuser, 17, Tells How Inhaling Common Household Items Led To Cocaine Use The sunburst face tattooed on Jessie Stotz's back serves as a rainbow-hued resume of her junior high and high school experience with drugs. A white snowflake under the nose signifies cocaine. The green refers to marijuana. The eyes are red, as were hers through much of her teens. And a mist suffuses the image, connoting inhalants. Jessie's drug use over the past four years -- alcohol, marijuana, pills or cocaine -- started with inhalants, common household substances like air fresheners, whipped cream or permanent markers that kids sniff for a quick, dangerous high. [continues 1412 words]
The drug culture of the 1970s, when marijuana use was common among hippies, bikers and college students, is far different today. Children are getting high at younger ages and have easier access to drugs, and parents lack up-to-date information that will help them stem the tide, state and national leaders said Wednesday during a drug abuse prevention conference in Wilson. Wilson Families in Action was co-host of a two-day statewide conference of the N.C. Parent Network this week where volunteer and professional leaders met to learn ways to increase their prevention efforts. About 50 people attended Wednesday's session. [continues 574 words]
Few prescription medications have generated as much controversy as OxyContin. The mere mention of the powerful pain-relieving medication evokes a spectrum of emotions and opinions. Television and print news reports have documented much of the OxyContin fallout. A rash of pharmacy robberies that have threatened public safety, deaths related to abuse of the drug and the devastating accounts of addiction have made OxyContin a public enemy in the minds of many. Despite its headline-grabbing gravitas, OxyContin is just one type of pain-relieving class of medications known as "opioids." Its potency makes it unique. Twice as powerful as morphine, it can replace crippling pain with crippling addiction when abused. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration classifies OxyContin as a Schedule II drug. Only Schedule I drugs, such as heroin, are considered more dangerous. Those drugs have no recognized medicinal value. [continues 760 words]
Adrift In A Sea Of Psychotropic Pharmacology, It's Easy For A Kid To Drown You couldn't miss him: a teenager dressed always in black, with Elvis sideburns and a hard-charging way of bounding up the stairs, as if life were moving too slowly for him. In the same class as my oldest son at the Science and Engineering Magnet at Townview, occasionally at our house for all-night LAN parties, Luke Stone was likable, smart and had an appetite for adventure, the guy willing to try anything once. He was a natural leader, a person who drew people from all walks of life into his orbit with his energy and enthusiasm. [continues 6637 words]
With respect to the editorial, "Biggest fights in drug war lie ahead" on May 5, why should there be any praise heaped on the multibillion-dollar drug prohibition industry? Are historically high rates of children removed from their homes and the latest surge in meth use or, say, huffing deaths not enough evidence that the drug war harms society? Why is it that, although 15 of the top donors listed on the Partnership for a Drug-Free America site are pharmaceutical interests, this fact consistently remains undisclosed in newspaper editorials and public service announcements? [continues 67 words]
