While there is no doubt that professional wrestling is entertainment and the blows taken are softened greatly, but it also is a fact that pro wrestlers still take a beating.  Pain is as much a part of their lives as of football players in the NFL.

Scott Hall was a wrestling superstar in the early 1990s, his immensely popular character the "Scarface"- like Razor Ramon. Later, he was one of the faces of the faction dubbed the New World Order.

Now, at age 52, Hall has a pacemaker and takes about a dozen pills daily to deal with anxiety and pain. He's been arrested several times since his final stint with WWE in 2002 and has publically discussed his struggles with drugs and alcohol.

"There's got to be some reason that I'm still here," Hall said. "I should have been dead 100 times. I should have been dead 100 times."

Smart Man, Sad Story

Hall said many of the older wrestlers of his generation are "all dinosaurs now and we're all retired and dead. The young guys coming up now aren't drinking and drugging and stuff I hope as bad as we did. …

"I tell my kids this, 'I can't tell you not to drink and do drugs, they are fun. It's fun. They work,'" Hall said. "But what sucks is when you want to quit and you can't, and pretty soon you alienate or you hurt everyone around you. It's a family disease and then you can't keep a promise to anybody. What sucks the most is when you can't even keep a promise to yourself."

Stephanie McMahon, World Wrestling Entertainment's executive vice president of creative development and operations, said WWE has sent Hall to rehab multiple times and spent "in the six figures" on efforts to help him get sober.

"It's the most amount of money we've spent on anyone," she said. "I just want Scott to get help and to decide for himself that he needs help. It makes me sad. I don't want anybody to pass away prematurely or otherwise really. Scott was an incredibly talented performer, larger than life, charismatic. He's a father, he's a friend. I'm sure he means a lot to a lot of people and it would be a shame for him to pass away."

Hall's story of drugs and stints in rehab highlights the substance-abuse problems some former wrestlers have faced, and the efforts WWE has undertaken to try to help its ex-stars. It's a problem professional wrestling has faced off and on since it hit the big time 26 years ago. On pay-per-view TV, the world was introduced to a combination of entertainment and celebrity dubbed "Wrestlemania." The main event was Hulk Hogan and Mr. T battling Rowdy Roddy Piper and Paul "Mr. Wonderful" Orndorff. That day, March 31, 1985, professional wrestling went mainstream. Liberace attended, Cyndi Lauper was a manager and Muhammad Ali was a referee. After all the glitz and glamour, professional wrestling became big over the next decade -- and behind the scenes it was, at times, debauchery.

Let’s hope he can stay straight and use the rest of his life to educate kids on why never to start using drugs.Despite the “highs” it will always end low!

Are our borders safe from the violence of Mexican drug cartels?  I sure hope so, because the war on drugs may be crossing our borders.

The Texas Department of Public Safety issued a warning to state residents that didn't sound at all alarming; it just mentioned that "the Mexican Cartels are Recruiting Texas High School Students."

What the Heck Does That Mean?

Seriously, the cartels are recruiting American teenagers and we should not be too alarmed?

Mexican Cartels have corrupted nearly an entire generation of youth living in Northern Mexico and they seek to corrupt our youth as well to further their smuggling operations. The Mexican Cartels value Texas teenagers for their ability to serve as expendable labor in many different roles and they have unlimited resources to recruit our children.

The problem is especially acute, of course, on the border.

In one Texas border county, more than 25 juveniles have been arrested for drug trafficking within the past year. Last month, two Texas teenagers were lured to Mexico where they were kidnapped, beaten, ransomed and released in a remote area along the Rio Grande River. Last week, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) apprehended a 12-year-old boy in a border county driving a stolen pickup truck containing more than 800 pounds of marijuana.

Yes, you read that correctly – 12-year-old – driving – stolen pickup – 800 pounds of weed!!!

DPS did have some advice: Parents should talk to their children and explain how the Cartels seek to exploit Texas teenagers and the risks in dealing with these ruthless organizations, especially those parents who live along the Texas/Mexico border.

This is serious business that extends far beyond the concerns of terrified Texas parents.  While I do not doubt the firepower and ruthlessness of these Mexican cartels, my guess is they may be biting off more than they can handle if the US decides to use its military might to go after them!

Meth use is no laughing matter. But there is a very funny show called Breaking Bad that makes a good try at meth related humor. See the following infographic for more information

Via: Nursing Schools Site

Americans drink coffee by the potful.  I remember my grandmother keeping a pot brewing all day long, probably downing a pot or two a day.  How all that liquid fit into her tiny 4-foot-120 frame is anyone’s guess.  But does coffee consumption lead to drug use?

"Scientific" studies are getting more irresponsible every day. A recent study will be picked up by many media though, because the headlines are so sensational. “Coffee and Energy Drink Lovers More Likely To Become Drug Addicts” one article says. Others broadcast “A Love of Coffee Could Hook You on Drugs”, and “Caffeine Response Predicts Addiction”. Parents are being warned that their kids may become druggies if they like coffee or soda.

Crazy Study

The University of Vermont should be embarrassed by the hype over the study of 22 subjects. These subjects were given choices of caffeine or placebos and then given d-amphetamine. Those reporting a positive response to one were more likely to like both.

The researchers stated that people responding favorably to caffeine’s effects might be more vulnerable to other stimulants’ effects. They were quick to point out that everyone who enjoys caffeinated drinks won’t take up cocaine, however.

In fact, without spending a dime on a study, it can probably be stated that the percentage of University of Vermont students who abuse drugs is higher than the percentage of soda and coffee drinkers who abuse drugs.

There is a world of difference between participating in a study which offers a person chemicals and that person’s experience in the real world. Most Americans grow up seeing people drinking coffee and soda and take up one or both of those beverages themselves. Unfortunately, there are a lot of cola and sugar “addicts”, but that’s still a long way from taking amphetamines.

While there likely are people who drink coffee just for the jolt, who soon want something stronger and move to drugs, there is more to it than just the sensation.  What parents should really be concerned with, rather than how much coffee or cola their teen likes, is how to help build self-esteem and self-control in their children.

It takes much more than a liking of caffeine’s effects to predict drug abuse. Coffee is much more than caffeine, and enjoyed in moderation has many proven health benefits. Brew on in good health. Coffee drinkers look safe for now.

Modern medicine is making miraculous strides almost daily. There are vaccines to inoculate the population from tuberculosis, polio, chicken pox and many others. But can you be inoculated from drug abuse? Maybe so.

Vaccination against an illegal drug works the same way as vaccination against something like the flu virus.

Dr. Thomas Kosten conducts the research at the Michael E. Debakey Medical Center Hospital and at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.

“So we attach the drugs of abuse to large proteins. The large protein that we’ve typically been using is an inactivated cholera toxin. And when you inject this into people they make antibodies to cholera, not surprisingly, but they also make antibodies to the cocaine, or nicotine or morphine or whatever else we’ve attached to the outside of this proteins.”

In clinical trials, cocaine addicts got five shots over three months, building up their levels of antibodies to cocaine.

Even if they use cocaine, the antibodies grab onto the drug and keep it trapped in the bloodstream. The cocaine can’t migrate into the brain tissue and create a high.

“And so the drugs of abuse have no effect on you, you don’t feel anything.”

Kosten says 80 percent of the patients had a good antibody response.

Roy Young is a Navy veteran and a former crack cocaine addict. He now works as a counselor at Career and Recovery Resources in Houston.

“That’s good in a sense. But the other side has to be treated too. And that’s the behavior. Can they change their thinking pattern, can they change their behavior.”

While the antibodies may block the high, they don’t reduce the craving for the drug. Kosten says that could prompt some addicts to use excessive amounts of cocaine to try to overcome the blockage.

That strategy will work for some addicts but not for others, depending on their immune response to the vaccine. Young says that’s why the vaccine would only help people who really want to stop using.

Kosten’s grant from the National Institute for Drug Abuse will allow him to develop a methamphetamine vaccine along similar lines. He got $2.5 million dollars over the next five years. It will be interesting to see where this leads.

It is bad enough that medical marijuana dispensaries sell THC-laden candy and food products.  It is even worse that their products mimic popular name brands.  Examples include “Reefers Peanut Butter Cups” (Reese’s) for candy and “Smoker’s” for THC-laden jelly. They have more marijuana-infused food and beauty products than I care to name.

That was bad enough – but now they have candy, marketed for children and sold in stores where kids can purchase these items called “Ring Pots”, “Potheads” a sour apple flavored candy with a photo of a marijuana leaf and some loser on the package with the work “legalize.”  And get this – the candies are shaped in the form of a marijuana leaf.

How is this a good idea?

This is about as outrageous as anything I have seen marketed commercially.  Who would actually sell these candies knowing that young kids could be purchasing them? 

Would you want your child to be sucking on a “Pot Pop”, a marijuana leaf-shaped lollipop?  I don’t think so.

The marijuana-shaped candy that’s showing up on store shelves around the country won’t get kids high, but aghast city leaders and anti-drug activists say the product and grocers carrying it represent a new low.

The makers and vendors of this garbage really need a drug class.

Over the course of this blog series on addictive drugs we have examined nine of the top 10 chemical substances with respect to use and addictive nature. Now we have come to the king of all addictive drugs – heroin. This is a drug that is so highly-addictive that a user can become addicted with just one use!

What is Heroin?

Heroin, also known as diamorphine or, especially in older literature, as morphine diacetate, is an opioid drug synthesized from morphine (is a legal pain reliever used in hospitals every day-very strong and also very addictive), which is a derivative of the opium poppy. The white crystalline form considered "pure heroin" is usually the hydrochloride salt.

Heroin is used as a recreational drug for the transcendent relaxation and intense euphoria it induces. Tolerance quickly develops, and users need more of the drug to achieve the same effects. Its popularity with recreational drug users, compared to morphine, reportedly stems from its perceived different effects. In particular, users report an intense rush, an acute transcendent state of euphoria.

It is Extremely Addictive!

Short-term addiction studies by the same researchers demonstrated that tolerance developed at a similar rate to both heroin and morphine. When compared to the opioids hydromorphone, fentanyl, oxycodone, and pethidine/meperidine, former addicts showed a strong preference for heroin and morphine, suggesting that heroin and morphine are particularly susceptible to abuse and addiction.

Morphine and heroin were also much more likely to produce euphoria and other positive subjective effects when compared to these other opioids.

An article in The Lancet compared the harm and addiction of 20 drugs, using a scale from 0 to 3 for physical addiction, psychological addiction, and pleasure to create a mean score for addiction. In this article, heroin was the #1 drug for addictive nature. It scored a 3.0 for both physical and psychological dependency, meaning it hits you from all angles. Again this drug is so addictive that just one use can cause addiction!

If there is a “poster-child” for addictive drugs to steer clear of – heroin is it!

Heroin should be avoided at all costs. There should never be any experimentation with this danger and highly-addictive chemical substance.

We have looked at number 10 through 3 on the top 10 most abused chemical substances and their addictive nature. Now we are down to #2 – cocaine. Do you know anyone who uses cocaine? If so, more than likely you know someone addicted to cocaine.

What is cocaine?

Cocaine is a drug derived from the leaves of the coca plant. Believe it or not, just a little more than 100 years ago it was used for medicinal purposes and was one of the ingredients used in the original formula for Coca-Cola!

Cocaine is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic. Specifically, it is a serotonin–norepinephrine–dopamine reuptake inhibitor, which mediates functionality of these neurotransmitters as an exogenous catecholamine transporter ligand.

Cocaine is a powerful nervous system stimulant. Its effects can last from 15–30 minutes to an hour, depending upon the method of ingestion.

Cocaine increases alertness, feelings of well-being and euphoria, energy and motor activity, feelings of competence and sexuality. Athletic performance may be enhanced in sports where sustained attention and endurance is required. Anxiety, paranoia and restlessness are also frequent. With excessive dosage, tremors, convulsions and increased body temperature are observed

How Addictive is Cocaine?

Let’s just say it is very addictive. Basically, cocaine does things to the brain and central nervous system that make it more enjoyable, and more is needed all the time, making it highly addictive. Because of the way it affects the mesolimbic reward pathway, cocaine is addictive.

Unlike most molecules, cocaine possesses both high hydrophilic and lipophilic efficiency, violating the rule of hydrophilic-lipophilic balance. This causes it to cross the blood-brain barrier with vastly superior reinforcement than to other psychoactive chemicals.

An article in The Lancet compared the harm and addiction of 20 drugs, using a scale from 0 to 3 (with 3 being the most addictive chemical substance) for physical addiction, psychological addiction, and pleasure to create a mean score for addiction.

In this study, cocaine was the second most addictive substance, with only heroin more addictive overall. With respect to physical dependency, cocaine scored only a 1.3, which actually makes it less physically addictive than tobacco (1.8) and alcohol (1.6).

However, cocaine is extremely addictive psychologically. Cocaine scored a 2.8 for psychological dependency, only behind heroin (3.0). No other chemical substance was even close to these two – except tobacco (2.6).

Cocaine dependence is psychological dependency on the regular use of cocaine. Cocaine dependency may result in physiological damage, lethargy, psychosis, depression and fatal overdose.

This is a drug that should be avoided at all costs. Do not experiment with it. If someone you know or care about suffers from cocaine addiction please have them seek help immediately. If they want total anonymity, there are online drug classes as well.

If you have been reading this blog series on addictive drugs, you know I always ask how many people you know are using the drug subject to the blog. Because it is both legal, and arguably, widely-accepted, tobacco is one of the “Big 2” with tobacco for most used and people addicted.

Alcohol is a psychoactive drug that has a depressant effect.  Many consider alcohol to be an “upper”; however by acting to slow the central nervous system alcohol most definitely is a “downer.”  Combined with clinically-diagnosed depression, alcohol can have very serious negative effects.

A high blood alcohol content is usually considered to be legal drunkenness because it reduces attention and slows reaction speed.

But How Addictive is Alcohol?  How about more physically addictive than cocaine!

How many kids would take their first drink knowing that alcohol ranks third, behind only heroin and cocaine, for the most addictive of used and abused chemical substances?  Those first two are pretty hard core and just the mention of alcohol sharing the top three with those two demonic substances might scare off a lot of would be drinkers.

An article in The Lancet compared the harm and addiction of 20 drugs, using a scale from 0 to 3 (with 3 being the most addictive – heroin) for physical addiction, psychological addiction, and pleasure to create a mean score for addiction.

With respect to physical dependency alcohol scored a 1.6, just slightly less addictive than tobacco, but more physically addictive than cocaine (1.3). How many would-be drinkers would that deter?  More physically addictive than cocaine.

Alcohol is also psychologically addictive scoring a 1.9, about even with amphetamines and more than cannabis.

Man, don’t start drinking. Alcohol is highly addictive and very hard to quit. Of course, thousands of people quit every day, so if you abuse alcohol, it is never too late to quit!

If you have been reading this blog series on addictive drugs, you know I always ask how many people you know are using the drug subject to the blog. Because it is both legal, and arguably, widely-accepted, tobacco is one of the “Big 2” with alcohol for most used and people addicted.

It is most commonly used as a recreational drug, and is a valuable cash crop for countries such as Cuba, China and the United States.

In consumption it most commonly appears in the forms of smoking, chewing, snuffing, or dipping tobacco. Upon the arrival of Europeans in North America, it quickly became popularized as a trade item and a recreational drug. This popularization led to the development of the southern economy of the United States until it gave way to cotton.

How Addictive is Tobacco?

Let’s put it this way, the odds are heavily in favor that if you know one smoker, you know one tobacco addict!

Because of the addictive properties of nicotine, tolerance and dependence develop. Absorption quantity, frequency, and speed of tobacco consumption are believed to be directly related to biological strength of nicotine dependence, addiction, and tolerance. The usage of tobacco is an activity that is practiced by some 1.1 billion people, and up to 1/3 of the adult population.  Over 1,000,000,000,000 addicts and growing!!

An article in The Lancet compared the harm and addiction of 20 drugs, using a scale from 0 to 3 (with a 3 being the most addictive substance like heroin) for physical addiction, psychological addiction, and pleasure to create a mean score for addiction.

On the list of top 10 most abused and addictive drugs tobacco finished fourth, right behind alcohol, cocaine and heroin which ranked 3 to 1. Tobacco scored a 1.8 for physical dependency, equal to benzodiazepines and more physically addictive than both alcohol and cocaine!

Tobacco is also highly psychologically dependent scoring a 2.6, which was significantly higher than alcohol (1.9) and benzodiazepines (2.1).

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports it to be the leading preventable cause of death worldwide and estimates that it currently causes 5.4 million deaths per year. Rates of smoking have leveled off or declined in developed countries, but continue to rise in developing countries.

Man, don’t start smoking or dipping or using tobacco products. They are highly addictive and very hard to quit. Of course, thousands of people quit every day, so if you use tobacco, it is never too late to quit!