Is Your Teen Using Drugs or Drinking?

Action for Parents

Despite all of your efforts to keep your kids drug-free, one day you might suspect that your son or daughter is using drugs or alcohol. Perhaps you have found an odd-looking pipe in his room, cans and bottles in the car or rolling papers in her laundry. Or you overheard a conversation not meant for you. Whatever the signal, your gut instinct has been activated. How do you know if you need to do anything? What do you do now? Where do you turn for help?

Every day, approximately 4,700 American youth under age 18 try marijuana for the first time. That is about equal to the enrollment of six average-sized U.S. high schools. In 2003, nearly nine out of 10 twelfth graders reported marijuana as being accessible.

By the time they finish the eighth grade, approximately 50 percent of adolescents have had at least one drink, and more than 20 percent report having been “drunk.”

Drug and alcohol use by teens increases the risk of addiction and can change the developing brain for life.

Despite these statistics, one thing remains true:

Parents are the most important influence in a teen’s decisions about drug use. You can and do make a difference. If you suspect or know that your child is using drugs, take action now, because the longer you wait, the harder it will be to deal with your child’s drug use.

Especially for Parents

• www.TheAntiDrug.com is an online service of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign that offers resources, information and facts for parents.
• www.laantidroga.com is the Spanish online service of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign and offers resources, information and facts for parents.
• www.drugfreeamerica.org/Parents_Caregivers is an online service of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America that offers tips and information for parents and caregivers.

Possible Canadian Policy on Alcohol Abuse

Canadian Plan to Reduce Costs of Alcohol Abuse

Canada’s Center for Addiction and Mental Health has released a six-point plan to reduce the fiscal impact of alcohol abuse, which the report says costs every Canadian $463 annually, the CBC News reported June 11.

The Avoidable Cost of Alcohol Abuse in Canada 2002 report said that six public policy steps could save 800 lives and $1 billion annually.

These include;

• increasing taxes on alcohol (the study proposed a 25-percent increase);
• lowering the blood-alcohol concentration standard from .08 percent to .05 percent;
• implementing a zero-tolerance policy on BAC levels for drivers under the age of 21;
• increasing the minimum legal drinking age from 19 to 21;
• increasing enforcement aimed at public intoxication and underage drinking; and
• boosting counseling with at-risk drinkers in doctors’ offices.

Projected cost savings include $561 million in lower productivity losses, $230 million in reduced healthcare costs, and $187 million in crime-related costs.

“It’s clear that the largest impact would come from interventions affecting the level of drinking in general such as brief interventions and increasing alcohol taxation,” said CAMH senior scientist Dr. Jürgen Rehm. “However, the greatest overall cost avoidance would be achieved when multiple rather than single … alcohol interventions are implemented as part of a comprehensive alcohol policy.” 

See also;

• Alcohol is a drug – TOO!
• Alcohol Most Common Date Rape Drug
• Twelve Step Facilitation
• Subscribe by e-Mail to Alcohol Self-help News

Alcohol Addiction

Where does one draw the line between being a social drinker and having an alcohol addiction?

For many people, the lines aren’t always so clear, especially when everyone around them seems to be binge drinking, drinking on a daily basis or glamorizing alcohol use.

Social drinking can easily progress into a psychological, or even physical, dependence over time, as it becomes habitually ingrained in our behavioral patterns.

Suddenly, we drink to be more interesting, drink to make others more interesting, drink for courage in social settings, drink to give ourselves a boost of energy, or drink to cover up negative feelings like pain, depression or anxiety.

Prior to an addiction to alcohol, there is generally a prolonged time period when the social drinker finds that he or she is drinking more frequently, experiencing more adverse effects and is slightly losing control.

Alcohol abusers start showing signs like drinking and driving, participating in dangerous activities while under the influence, continuing to drink even when problems with friends or family happen as a result of alcohol consumption and getting into physical fights. Drinking alcohol begins to interfere with not only social relations, but also obligations at work and school, and in some cases, drinking may even land an individual in legal trouble. These are early warning signs that alcohol use is crossing over into alcohol abuse.

The next stage is alcohol addiction, or as it is sometimes called, alcoholism or alcohol dependency.

Now the drinker loses all control and the physiological/psychological effects of alcohol surface. Drinkers find that they’re consuming more than they originally intended to, find that they can’t stop or cut back drinking, and find that they need to drink more to get drunk. They may have trouble sleeping, have shaky hands, sweating, nauseousness, nervousness or the feeling of bugs crawling all over them. They likely drink or take medication to avoid hangovers and continue drinking alcohol to cover up sadness, anger or anxiety. The binge drinking bouts become progressively longer and the individual often loses interest in all other hobbies in favor of drinking.

Full story at Cool Kids Stuff

See also;

• What is alcoholism?
• Alcohol & Medication Interactions
• Alcohol intervention may help.
• Subscribe by e-Mail to Alcohol Self-help News

Legal Drugs Kill Far More Than Illegal

Legal Drugs Kill Far More Than Illegal, Florida Says

From “Scarface” to “Miami Vice,” Florida’s drug problem has been portrayed as the story of a single narcotic: cocaine. But for Floridians, prescription drugs are increasingly a far more lethal habit.

An analysis of autopsies in 2007 released this week by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission found that the rate of deaths caused by prescription drugs was three times the rate of deaths caused by all illicit drugs combined.

Law enforcement officials said that the shift toward prescription-drug abuse, which began here about eight years ago, showed no sign of letting up and that the state must do more to control it.

“You have health care providers involved, you have doctor shoppers, and then there are crimes like robbing drug shipments,” said Jeff Beasley, a drug intelligence inspector for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which co-sponsored the study. “There is a multitude of ways to get these drugs, and that’s what makes things complicated.”

Full story at the New York Times

See also;

• Abstinence from Heroin Addiction Works
• Alcohol & Medication Interactions
• Alcohol is a drug – TOO!
• Subscribe by e-Mail to Alcohol Self-help News

Alcohol and pregnancy

Alcohol and pregnancy; New draft alcohol guidelines for Australia state that, for pregnant women and women planning pregnancy,

‘no drinking is the safest option’.

One of the best known adverse effects of alcohol exposure on the fetus is the fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS).

Others include

• alcohol-related birth defects,
• alcohol-related brain development disorders and
• increased risks of miscarriage,
• stillbirth,
• intrauterine growth restriction,
• preterm birth and
• low birthweight.

Over half of Australian women consume alcohol during pregnancy. Obstetricians have a pivotal role in advising women of the effects of alcohol on the fetus and reducing fetal exposure.

Volume 48 Issue 3 Page 236-239, June 2008, Elizabeth J. ELLIOTT, Carol BOWER (200 Alcohol and pregnancy: The pivotal role of the obstetrician
The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 48 (3) , 236–239.

See also;

• 24 Ways to get the Rest You Need
• Drugs and Addiction Information for Parents and Teachers
• WHAT IS DRINK SPIKING?
• Physical effects of alcohol on women
• Subscribe by e-Mail to Alcohol Self-help News