I had always thought it was just me that drug and alcohol abuse are much worse today than for previous generations. I know previous generations had issues as well. But the abundance, accessibility and affordability of a plethora of drugs has made society a much more drug-induced state.

Need Drug Classes Now

Drug education classes now will save billions later in drug treatment costs. It is estimated that the need for substance abuse treatment services for older Americans is expected to double by 2020.

Especially disturbing is that this prediction comes on the heels of a recent study sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) showing that the rate of illicit drug use among 50 to 59 year-olds has increased 3.1 percent in the past eight years.

Substance abuse among Baby Boomers poses many challenges for individuals, families and society.

As Baby Boomers enter a transitional stage in their lives, new stressors, such as financial strain, grieving the loss of a parent or age-related health issues, make them more prone to depression and anxiety As a generation that grew up in a time when recreational drug use was commonly accepted, Boomers are reverting to substance abuse as a way to cope with stress and change.

As a member of this illustrious group I can attest that my generation has serious issues with addiction. I refuse to blame a society that has made drugs so easy to get and use. I blame decay in morals and ethics. I blame a society that is not doing what it can to make the world better for our children and their children.

source: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/substance-abuse-on-the-rise-among-baby-boomers-131132528.html

With prescription pain medication seeming to get strong and more addictive by the day, it amazes me that companies now are producing pain killers 10 times more powerful than Vicodin. The new meds will be pure hydrocodone – never before legal in the United States.

Do You Think this is a Good Idea?

I am troubled because of the dark side that has accompanied the boom in sales of narcotic painkillers: Murders, pharmacy robberies and millions of dollars lost by hospitals that must treat overdose victims.

Thousands of legitimate pain patients are becoming addicted to powerful prescription painkillers in addition to the thousands more who abuse the drugs.

Prescription painkillers led to the deaths of almost 15,000 people in 2008, more than triple the 4,000 deaths in 1999, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last month.

Emergency room visits related to hydrocodone abuse have shot from 19,221 in 2000 to 86,258 in 2009, according to data compiled by the Drug Enforcement Administration. In Florida alone, hydrocodone caused 910 deaths and contributed to 1,803 others between 2003 and 2007.

What is Hydrocodone?

Hydrocodone belongs to family of drugs known as opiates or opioids because they are chemically similar to opium. They include morphine, heroin, oxycodone, codeine, methadone and hydromorphone.

Opiates block pain but also unleash intense feelings of well-being and can create physical dependence. The withdrawal symptoms are also intense, with users complaining of cramps, diarrhea, muddled thinking, nausea and vomiting.

After a while, opiates stop working, forcing users to take stronger doses or to try slightly different chemicals.

You’ve got a person on your product for life, and a doctor’s got a patient who’s never going to miss an appointment, because if they did and they didn’t get their prescription, they would feel very sick. It’s a terrific business model, and that’s what these companies want to get in on.

How to Stop the Abuse

Under pressure from the government, Purdue Pharma last year debuted a new OxyContin pill formula that “squishes” instead of crumbling when someone tries to crush it.

But Zogenix, whose drug is time-released but crushable, says there is not enough evidence to show that such tamper-resistant reformulations thwart abuse.

Ponder This

Do you think we need more potent painkillers? Any of my readers out there need something stronger than what is on the market? How do painkillers make you feel? I bet one side effect you experience is extreme irritability. Watch for this – painkillers taken in increasing doses increases irritability in a high percentage of users. Let me know what you think!

Trying to control the rampant abuse of prescription drugs is a prescient problem. So far no strong remedy has been discovered. Do you have any thoughts on how to curb this problem?

How would you feel about a national prescription drug database?

The state of California had established just such a database to help control its raging problem. For some reason California officials are preparing to shut down the database used to track abusive pill seekers and doctor shoppers.

Ending this database would be dangerously shortsighted and costly, reversing years of proactive prevention work aimed at thwarting prescription drug abuse in this state. Doctors would no longer be able to check an important and lifesaving database to see if a patient is doctor shopping or using multiple narcotics at the same time. Law enforcement efforts would be severely hampered.

Oldest Monitoring System About to Close

California’s prescription drug monitoring program, founded in 1939, is the oldest in the nation. Its database, known as the Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES), contains more than 100 million entries of controlled-substance drugs.

In addition to its widespread use by law enforcement, CURES responds to more than 60,000 requests from medical practitioners and pharmacists each year. The database provides information critical in the fight against prescription drug diversion and abuse.

Thirty-six states have followed California’s lead, implementing prescription drug monitoring systems. Of those, California is the only state in jeopardy of not having an active database.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, prescription drugs, including opioids and antidepressants, are now responsible for more overdose deaths than all illegal street drugs.

Frightening Statistics

In San Diego County alone, prescription drugs were the leading cause of accidental deaths in 2010, according to the county medical examiner. That’s more than the total number of deaths attributable to motor vehicle crashes.

While the most tragic cost is human life, there are many other costs tied to prescription drug abuse – many of which are paid by taxpayers. It doesn’t take much imagination to see law enforcement, judicial and societal problems associated with criminals who have turned to prescription drugs to satisfy their need to get high.

According to a 2010 San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) report, two in five arrestees, or 40 percent, say they have used prescription drugs illegally. OxyContin tops the list of most recently abused. The report also found that arrestees who previously abused prescription drugs were significantly more likely to use other illicit drugs.

Those numbers are sure to creep higher if the state pulls the plug on the program. They may even catapult. We cannot allow this to happen.

Questions That Need To Be Addressed

Do you really want California to become a state that attracts drug abusers and dealers because their home states see the value of funding prescription drug monitoring programs? Do we really want “Pill Mills” to become synonymous with California? Is this really worth the risk? I don’t think so!

The DEA’s prescription drug unit in San Diego uses CURES on every case it investigates. It’s an invaluable tool. If gone, it will slow law enforcement investigations. With that comes a hefty price tag – from higher crime rates to more deaths to more babies being born hooked on the drugs their mothers are using.

State officials estimate that it costs less than $1 million to run the CURES database annually.

It seems well worth it to me.

Let’s face it, we all want to keep our children safe and addiction free. But with the prevalence of drugs in society and peer pressure just how do we do that? I might like to recommend taking an alcohol drug class with your teen.

Forming a close relationship with your teenager might have its ups and downs, but research suggests open communication promotes individual decision-making, even if the talk is not all that agreeable.

Available through the journal Child Development, a new study states that teens who express their viewpoints with their mothers tend to resist the peer pressure to drink, smoke, and participate in drugs.

“The healthy autonomy [teens] established at home seemed to carry over into their relationships with peers,” explains Joseph Allen, lead author of the study and professor at the University of Virginia. Allen’s study also showed that teens with a good relationship with their parents typically avoided substance abuse as well.

Researchers talked with the parents and friends of over one-hundred-and-fifty teens ages 13, 15, and 16 as well as the adolescents individually in order to understand their interactions with substances, parents, friends, and peers. The study additionally analyzed their observed social etiquette while interacting.

Many who chose to abstain most from alcohol, tobacco, and other substances learned to “argue” with their mothers about everyday life topics like money, grades, house rules, and friends. In this case, arguing is defined as an educated debate hoping to persuade with reason and not whining, crying, or using explicit language.

Overall, the study found teens that held a voice in family discussions felt more confident to make their own decision and reject peer influences towards alcohol and drugs.

A recent study by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) illustrated that although adolescent drinking and smoking have gone down in the past few years, sixty-five percent of high school seniors admit to consuming alcohol while nineteen percent of seniors smoke cigarettes. Moreover, marijuana and prescription drug use remain prevalent and steady.

Work to maintain an open relationship with children in order to facilitate freedom of speech. By helping teens understand a different reality than what fellow teenagers present, they’ll be more capable of saying “no” to peer-pressure and making independent decisions.

A good relationship with open lines of communications certainly cannot hurt.

The valedictorian of our high school class was a total stoner! Do you know people who seem to be very intelligent, often having very high IQs, who are prone to addiction? Looking back now, myself not being a textbook example, there were a number of very intelligent, high IQ comrades in high school and college who abused alcohol and drugs.

Logically, let me begin by saying smart people know that using and abusing drugs and alcohol is a bad thing to do. They are smart enough to know better. But are they more prone to addiction? A recent British survey thinks so.

Higher IQ – Higher Chance of Addiction?

A new British study finds children with high IQs are more likely to use drugs as adults than people who score low on IQ tests as children. The data come from the 1970 British Cohort Study, which has been following thousands of people over decades. The kids' IQs were tested at the ages of 5, 10 and 16.

The study also asked about drug use and looked at education and other socioeconomic factors. Then when participants turned 30, they were asked whether they had used drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and heroin in the past year.

Researchers discovered men with high childhood IQs were up to two times more likely to use illegal drugs than their lower-scoring counterparts. Girls with high IQs were up to three times more likely to use drugs as adults. A high IQ is defined as a score between 107 and 158. An average IQ is 100. The study appears in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

The lead researcher says he isn't surprised by the findings. "Previous research found for the most part people with high IQs lead a healthy life, but that they are more likely to drink to excess as adults," says James White a psychologist at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom.

It's not clear why people with high childhood IQs are more likely to use illegal drugs.

"We suspect they may be more open to new experiences and are more sensation seeking," says White. In the paper, White and his co-author also mention other studies that find high IQ kids may use drugs because they are bored or to cope with being different.

That seems to ring true for one of my childhood classmates.

One of the smartest kids in my middle school. But, by the time she was in her early 20's, she was a heroin addict. I found out while flipping channels one sleepless night and stumbled upon the documentary "Black Tar Heroin."

Just one more thing to think about. You have smart kids – watch them like a hawk.

The statistics show that marijuana consumption is on the rise. Logic dictates that legalizing the drug for “medicinal” purpose has made it that much easier for stoners to get high.

Some local anti-medical-marijuana officials believe an increase in marijuana use in California is the result of relaxed state laws toward medical marijuana.

In evaluating the statistics, it shows states that have a medical-marijuana program have a significant increase in use of those who are using marijuana.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration released its 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health last month. It details substance-use patterns and consequences for people ages 12 and older.

From the survey, the rate of marijuana use statewide and nationally increased significantly, driving up overall rates of illicit drug use.

The Statistics

The 2010 survey reported 17.4 million people who said they had used marijuana in the past month. That compares to 14.4 million in 2007.

Between 2007 and 2010, the percentage of people who used marijuana increased from 5.8 percent to 6.9 percent.

The percentage of youths ages 12 to 17 who used marijuana also increased, from 6.7 percent in 2007 to 7.4 percent in 2010.

Why Has Weed Become Acceptable?

It is disturbing to see an increase among kids. Society is getting to the point where marijuana is more and more acceptable. It's why we're so adamant not to allow it. We want to keep it out of the hands of kids.

In 2010, then-Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law Senate Bill 1449, which downgraded possession of an ounce or less of marijuana from a misdemeanor to an infraction, with a $100 fine but no jail time.

Lanny Swerdlow, a Riverside County marijuana activist and radio host, said the increase in usage "probably" is from states legalizing the drug for certain uses.

Swerdlow said in his quick read of the national survey he found there was an increase in marijuana use along with a decrease in alcohol use. Unlike alcohol, Swerdlow said, marijuana does not make someone mad, angry, fight, vomit or black out.

The Medical Argument

Jan Werner, vice president of The Clearview Lake Corp., which runs marijuana collectives in Bloomington and Corona, said marijuana usage was up because baby boomers have found medical marijuana to be an alternative to other drugs for their ailments.

With no valid recommendation by the FDA or the AMA, making this drug legal has been a total fiasco. California is now in the process of shuttering their dispensaries. Colorado banks no longer accept deposits from dispensaries. It is only a matter of time before the pendulum swings the other way. You heard it here first – medical marijuana is on its way out.

When you think ofAfrica what comes to mind? Perhaps an African safari with elephants and giraffes. One aspect of African society which may come as a surprise to you is college partying and drug addiction.

After launching clubs to prevent drug abuse in institutions of higher learning, Kigali Institute of Education (KIE) has also extended the campaign to secondary schools.

Through its Anti-Drug Abuse Club (ADAC-KIE), in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Sports (MIJESPOC) and the police, the program will first be activated in 35 schools selected in 15 districts.

"We want to encourage preventive measures so that students take part in the fight, especially after sensitizing them on the effects of using drugs, not only to their academic performance, but also to their health," chairman of the ADAC-KIE, Joseph Mushikirano said.

He added that the pilot project will cover districts which are most affected by drug trafficking, singling out Gicumbi, Rubavu, Muhanga and Kayonza, among others.

Speaking to students, some admitted that cases of drug abuse have been identified in their schools, adding that the move is timely and will supplement schools' efforts in the fight.

"I joined the school this year, but I was told that last year, police arrested some students for using drugs which also forced the administration to come up with strict measures in ensuring such cases do not occur again," said Richard Muhinda, a student at Alliance High School.

Who knew African students suffered similar pressures for drugs and alcohol like American students? It just goes to show how evil and pervasive drugs are. The best remedy is to never start.

People selling drugs and people doing drugs are always looking for a way to legitimize and make their activity legal. I have written about bath salts that have been ground up and snorted, causing ridiculously harmful effects including in many cases, death.

Now comes ivory wave. Have you heard about it? If so, stay the heck away from it.

The substance has a similar euphoric effect to ecstasy and is sold widely online.

Earlier this year a coroner found that ivory wave may have been a "strong contributory factor" in the death of one user.

Michael Bishton, a 24-year-old chef, bought a £15 pack of ivory wave from a shop in Ryde on the Isle of Wight in August 2010.

His body was discovered after he had been seen running with outstretched arms along a cliff. Post-mortem tests showed he died of a brain injury and he had small amounts of alcohol and ivory wave in his blood.

The inquest heard he had become "bizarre and paranoid" in the days leading up to his death and doctors at a mental health unit had advised him not to take the substance.

Speaking after the coroner recorded an open verdict, Mr Bishton's mother said it was an "insult" to his memory that ivory wave had not been banned.

The ACMD said that it had now reviewed scientific evidence on the effects of ivory wave and its related compounds.

It said the National Poisons Information Service in Edinburgh had highlighted a number of cases in which users had experienced paranoia, hallucinations and "severe agitation" for up to a week after taking ivory wave.

Professor Les Iversen, chairman of the ACMD, said: "The health effects of desoxypipradrol (2-DPMP, sold as Ivory Wave) and its related compounds correspond with those related to other Class B drugs and have the potential to cause harm.

"That is why we are recommending that the government takes action to control the substance under the Misuse of Drugs Act".

The recommendation also covers structurally similar compounds as part of an effort to prevent alternatives being developed to circumvent the ban.

Ivory wave can look like a white crumbly powder and similar ingredients can be found in substances sold as ivory coast, purple wave and vanilla sky.

The drug is the sixth so-called legal high recommended for a ban by the ACMD. The government has already classified naphyrone, mephedrone (and related cathinones), Spice, GBL and BZP.

A Home Office spokesman said: "The ACMD's advice on ivory wave reinforces what we already know - that substances touted as legal highs contain dangerous and illegal substances.

"We have already taken action to ban the importation of 2-DPMP. We welcome this further comprehensive advice from the ACMD. We will consider the advice in full and respond very shortly."