Prescription and illicit drug use | Doctor waiting lists

Prescription and illicit drug use | Doctor waiting lists.

Thousands of West Australians have become addicted to dangerous prescription drugs while waiting to see a doctor, but a lag in illicit drug use statistics has left the escalating problem largely undetected, a scathing parliamentary inquiry has found.

General practitioners are concerned that about 22,000 West Australians are now addicted to opioids such as morphine and oxycodone, prescribed to them to manage chronic pain while they waited up to 12 months to see a specialist, the Education and Health Standing Committee said in an interim report tabled in parliament yesterday.

“The misuse of prescription opioids has become a significant problem within Western Australia and the number of people misusing them is now at a similar level to the number consuming heroin,” the report says.

Read more: http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/prescription-drug-scourge-reporting-flaws-allow-rampant-addiction-to-go-undetected-20110526-1f67s.html#ixzz1NrvhIt9p

Alcohol and Cancer

Alcohol and cancer: a position statement from Cancer Council Australia – 2011

The Cancer Council Australia (CCA) Alcohol Working Group has prepared a position statement on alcohol use and cancer. The statement has been reviewed by external experts and endorsed by the CCA Board.

• Alcohol use is a cause of cancer. Any level of alcohol consumption increases the risk of developing an alcohol-related cancer; the level of risk increases in line with the level of consumption.
• It is estimated that 5070 cases of cancer (or 5% of all cancers) are attributable to long-term chronic use of alcohol each year in Australia.
• Together, smoking and alcohol have a synergistic effect on cancer risk, meaning the combined effects of use are significantly greater than the sum of individual risks.
• Alcohol use may contribute to weight (fat) gain, and greater body fatness is a convincing cause of cancers of the oesophagus, pancreas, bowel, endometrium, kidney and breast (in postmenopausal women).
• The existing evidence does not justify the promotion of alcohol use to prevent coronary heart disease, as the previously reported role of alcohol in reducing heart disease risk in light-to-moderate drinkers appears to have been overestimated.
• CCA recommends that to reduce their risk of cancer, people limit their consumption of alcohol, or better still avoid alcohol altogether.

For individuals who choose to drink alcohol, CCA recommends that they drink only within the National Health and Medical Research Council guidelines for alcohol consumption.

Full story at; Alcohol and Cancer

Alcohol and cancer: a position statement from Cancer Council Australia. Margaret H Winstanley, Iain S Pratt, Kathryn Chapman, Hayley J Griffin, Emma J Croager, Ian N Olver, Craig Sinclair and Terry J Slevin. Medical Journal of Australia 2011; 194 (9): 479-482

• Help An Alcoholic

Intervene Early To Prevent Smoking

Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of premature, preventable death in the United States. Each year smoking causes an average of 438,000 deaths from cancer, heart disease, stroke, and lung disease, according to the National Cancer Institute.

For years the conventional wisdom in smoking research was that smokers don’t show signs of daily cigarette addiction until adulthood. But at the School of Nursing, Professor Carla Storr, ScD, RN, is shedding light on the fact that nicotine addiction can start well before smokers are old enough to legally buy cigarettes.

Intervene Early To Prevent Smoking.

Zero Tolerance Better For Kids Future Than Drinking With Them At Home

You may think that allowing your teenager to consume alcohol under your supervision at home is better for them, but a new study suggests the risk of subsequent alcohol-related problems is greater, compared to the zero tolerance approach. The authors wrote in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs that many of us believe that alcohol consumption is a normal part of teenage development, and as such we should therefore drink with our teenagers so that they can learn how to drink responsibly, rather than with strangers – this approach is known as a harm-minimization approach.

In a Zero-tolerance approach, all consumption of alcohol is prohibited if the child is underage.

Zero Tolerance Better For Kids Future Than Drinking With Them At Home