Clear Messages Reduce Teen Drug Use

Students With Parents Who Set and Enforce Clear Rules are Less Likely to Report Illicit Drug Use

Youths whose parents set clear rules for them are less likely to report using illicit drugs, according to data from the 2008-09 PRIDE Survey. Middle and high school students* whose parents set clear rules for them “a lot” or “often” were less likely to report using illicit drugs in the past year (12% and 21%, respectively) than students whose parents never set clear rules (49%). Similar results were found for having parents who punish them for breaking these rules (data not shown). Previous studies have found that youths living in households where parents kept track of their whereabouts and set curfews were less likely to report heavy drinking.

 

 

SOURCE: Adapted by CESAR from PRIDE, Questionnaire Report for Grades 6 to 12, 2008-09 National Summary – Grades 6 thru 12, 2009. Available online at http://www.pridesurveys.com/customercenter/us08ns.pdf.

Drugs and Kids: How Parents Can Keep Them Apart by Gary L. Somdahl

Lethal Treatment for Alcoholics

Britain’s National Health Service offering alcoholics ‘potentially lethal’ treatment, say campaigners

UK Advocates threatens legal action against health authorities providing drug-based treatments over rehabilitation

Alcohol dependency affects 1.1 million people in Britain

National Health Service authorities that offer alcoholics controlled drinking treatments relying on medication rather than total abstinence could face legal action from a patients’ organisation.

UK Advocates, a pressure group campaigning for the wider availability of rehabilitation courses for addicts, is preparing to file claims against the Department of Health and local health services.

The charity maintains it has found evidence of thousands of patients with severe alcohol problems being given "psycho-active drugs" while they are still drinking.

The combination, it is alleged, can be "potentially lethal" and is at odds with the manufacturer’s prescription advice and guidelines. "In many cases," UK Advocates claims, "drugs and controlled drinking programmes are administered to sufferers without the doctor or clinicians involved having performed effective liver function tests to establish the extent of liver damage from excessive drinking.

"Treating alcoholics with drugs and on a basis of ‘moderation’ is similar to advising someone with lung cancer to cut down their smoking," says Bob Beckett, founder of UK Advocates.

"Controlled drinking programmes … hark back to the 1960s and 70s when we believed pharmaceuticals would cure everything, including addiction to alcohol. They simply have not worked.

Full story at; The Guardian, UK

See also;

• 12-Step Treatment More Effective than Alternative
• A Problem Shared is a Problem Halved
• Dysfunctional family
• Talking to Teens about Alcohol

Drugs from the Internet

Prescription Drugs Continue to Be Widely Available on the Internet Without a Prescription

The majority of websites selling controlled prescription drugs1still do not require a prescription, according to a recent study from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA).

The study identified 159 internet sites selling such drugs during a one-week period in 2008, down from 187 the previous year. Of these sites, 85% did not require a valid prescription, either by explicitly stating that no prescription was needed/making no mention of a prescription (47%) or by offering an “online consultation”in lieu of a prescription2 (38%).

Only 24 sites (15%) required that a prescription be faxed or mailed or that the patient’s doctor be contacted for the prescription.

The authors recommend clarifying federal law to prohibit the internet sale or purchase of a controlled prescription drug without a prescription, requiring internet sites that advertise or sell controlled prescription drugs to be certified, encouraging internet search engines to block advertisements and sites from search results, and creating public service announcements that would appear automatically when conducting internet searches for prescription drugs.

Adapted by CESAR from The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, “You’ve Got Drugs!”V: Prescription Drug Pushers on the Internet, July 2008.

See also;

• Alcohol & Medication Interactions
• Chantix warning
• 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

Pilots Barred from Taking Chantix

  The American Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says that pilots and air-traffic controllers may not use the antismoking drug Chantix, citing concerns about side-effects associated with the drug, the Associated Press reported May 21.

“We have immediate safety concerns about the use of varenicline (Chantix) among persons operating aircraft, trains, buses and other vehicles, or in other settings where a lapse in alertness or motor control could lead to massive, serious injury,” said a new report from the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, which found hundreds of cases where Chantix users experienced dizziness, loss of consciousness, seizures, and abnormal movements and spasms.

A spokesperson for the FAA said that the ban would go into effect immediately even though the agency has not received any reports of Chantix being involved in aviation accidents.

Pfizer, the maker of Chantix, said that the labels on the drug already warn against operating heavy machinery or driving, and the firm cast doubt on reports of incidents of serious side effects. “It is important to understand the limitations of spontaneous adverse event reporting,” the company said. “Often these reports lack sufficient medical information and/or have confounding factors that prevent a meaningful assessment of causality.”

See also;

• Chantix warning
• Craving reduction drug for alcohol AND smoking
• Alcohol is a drug – TOO!
• Subscribe by e-Mail to Alcohol Self-help News