We Restore Hope -

If you don’t like how things are, change it! You’re not a tree. ~Jim Rohn

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime warned this week that developing countries could face a “health disaster” if wealthy countries do not control the flow of drugs. At a meeting in Vienna, Austria, UNODC chief Antonio Maria Costas said that “the developing world lacks the treatment facilities and law enforcement to control drugs. This seems to have been forgotten by people in rich countries calling for loosening of drug controls.

Costas talked about the increasing heroin use in East Africa, cocaine use in West Africa and synthetic drugs in the Middle East and Southeast Asia as warning signs. Costas believes that drug addiction is a treatable condition, though inequality “within and between states marginalizes poor people who lack access to treatment.”

The UNODC is working with the World Health Organization to achieve universal access to drug treatment programs and work with UNAIDS to stem the spread of HIV worldwide.

www.thetreatmentcenter.com

Kindness, like a boomerang, always returns. ~Author Unknown

Portugal has the first alcohol-free resort in Europe. The vacation spot is targeted at recovering addicts. The project is called Sober Holidays and has a goal to give visitors a safe and supportive environment that is fun. The resort is a restored 19th century villa in the Algarve region in southern Portugal. The Algarve is a popular vacation region with beautiful beaches and amazing seafood. The resort is set to open in April. It will offer varied activities for guests like biking, mountain hiking, golf, tennis and bird watching.

Guests will be offered access to three weekly Alcoholics Anonymous meetings if they choose to attend. The guests will also have the choice to attend weekly Gamblers Anonymous meetings and twice weekly Narcotics Anonymous meetings. This resort is being greeting with anxious anticipation. It is tough to find an environment where people are surrounded by others who are experiencing the same thing while not being bombarded by temptation. The resort is owned by a recovering alcoholic.

www.thetreatmentcenter.com

There is no telling how many miles you will have to run while chasing a dream. ~Author Unknown

One county in Ohio has the dubious distinction of having the most prescription drug overdose deaths in the state. According to the Ohio Department of Health, residents of Montgomery County are more likely to die of a prescription overdose. This cause of death surpassed car accidents as the top cause of injury death in Ohio in 2006.

In Montgomery County the average yearly death rate was more than twice the state average between 2000 and 2007. During that time, 785 county residents died of prescription drug overdoses.

It is not yet understood why the county’s numbers are so high. Rural counties in Ohio may be underreporting their statistics of prescription drug deaths. Dayton, which is the largest city in Montgomery County, has a reputation for cheaper drugs. According to Joseph Szoke, executive director of the Alcohol Drug Addicttion and Mental Health Services Board, believes that the number of car industry retirees in the county living on a fixed income may have contributed to the “epidemic” of overdose deaths.

“You have people who in a down economy are looking for ways to supplement whatever income they have” and may be selling extra prescription drugs. This in turn increases the supply of these drugs in the county.

www.thetreatmentcenter.com

Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success. ~Henry Ford

The Maryland chapter of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence released the results of an opinion poll that found 72 percent of residents support a ten cent increase in the state’s alcohol tax if the money supports social services. The services would target people with drug and alcohol addiction, developmental disabilities, mental illnesses and health care for people without insurance.

Budget cuts in the state have reduced funding for addiction treatment and prevention by $4.7 million across the state.

“it’s clear that the citizens of Maryland support additional funding for addiction services and favor the alcohol tax as a mechanism to pay for it,” said Dr. Nancy Rosen-Cohen, executive director at the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence of Maryland. “The budget is such a critical issue that a majority of those polled think that the government leaders who are against raising taxes should make an exception and increase the alcohol tax.”

www.thetreatmentcenter.com

My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground upon which I stand. ~Thich Nhat Hanh

A new study found that alcohol and marijuana use among teenagers is on the rise. The Partnership for a Drug-Free American released their annual study. It found that there was an 11 percent increase in alcohol use among kids in grades 9 through 12. There were about 6.5 million teens – 39 percent – reporting alcohol use. That is an increase from 35 percent or 5.8 million teenagers in 2008.

Twenty five percent of teens reported smoking marijuana in the last month. This was an increase from 19 percent in the 2008 survey. Until last year, marijuana and alcohol use had been steadily dropping since 1998, when about 50 percent of teenagers reported using alcohol and 27 percent said they used marijuana.

The use of ecstasy among teenagers is also on the upswing. Six percent of surveyed teens reported ecstasy use in the past month. In 2008, that use of ecstasy was only 4 percent. Teen abuse of prescription drugs and cold medicine remained constant in the past year.

www.thetreatmentcenter.com

An apology is a good way to have the last word. ~Author Unknown

In the United Kingdom, cocaine use is rising at a disturbing rate. The number of people under the age of 18 treated for cocaine addiction is up 65 percent. The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) said that the use of cocaine has increased five times among 16 to 59-year-olds in the last twelve years.

Professor Les Iversen, the director of the ACMD, has written to Britain’s Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, to say that immediate action is needed to “counteract the increasingly common misapprehension that cocaine is a relatively safe drug.”

“Cocaine is a very harmful drug to individuals and more broadly society and evidence of the continued increasing prevalence of cocaine use is deeply concerning,” Iversen said. Iversen also said that cocaine must remain a Class A drug in Britain.

The National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTASM) said one in ten drug users entering treatment in Britain are getting help for a cocaine addiction. This is a four percent increase over the past four years. More than a third of those people are between 18 and 24 and they are “much more likely to come from a broad range of social backgrounds than the typical heroin users who traditionally form the majority of those in treatment.”

www.thetreatmentcenter.com

A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle. ~Benjamin Franklin

The rate of alcohol use for blacks over the age of 18 is significantly lower than the national average. A new study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) also reveals that black adults have a lower rate of binge drinking than the rest of the country (21.7 percent versus 24.5 percent). Young black adults are less likely to be involved in binge drinking than young adults in the general population (25.3 percent versus 41.6 percent).

The rate of binge drinking among pregnant black women aged 18 to 44 is higher than the national average for pregnant women in that age group (8.1 percent versus 3.6 percent). The study shows that black adults have a higher rate of current illegal drug use than the national average (9.5 percent versus 7.9 percent). The difference is sharper among males over the age of 26.

“The study provides important insight into the difference affecting various populations across our country,” said SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde. “As a nation we must strive to reach out to every part of our population and provide services that are best tailored to effectively promote the benefits of prevention, treatment and good health.”

The study was part of a series examining substance use patterns among different ethnic, racial and demographic groups. The hope is that this information will help public health experts, treatment providers and communities understand and tackle the issues affecting different segments of the population.

www.thetreatmentcenter.com

Learn all you can from the mistakes of others. You won’t have time to make them all yourself. ~Alfred Sheinwold

A federal judge in New York denied bail last week to Cameron Douglas, the son of actor Michael Douglas. In January, Douglas pleaded guilty to dealing in large quantities of methamphetamine and cocaine. Douglas was arrested in July 2009 at the Hotel Gansevoort in downtown Manhattan. Douglas had then signed a plea aggrement with prosecutors. He faces a minimum 10 year prison sentience at his sentencing in April.

www.thetreatmentcenter.com

An optimist is the human personification of spring. ~Susan J. Bissonette

Forgetting to mail an important letter. Or forgetting an important appointment. A new study from British researchers suggests that for people who regularly use ecstasy or other illicit drugs, this simple memory lapse is common.

This research uncovered links between memory deficits and cocaine for the first time. It appears in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

The researchers wanted to explore the link between deficits in prospective memory and drug use. The research expands on previous studies, which have proved that ecstasy or multi-drug users are impaired in performing many cognitive tasks, including verbal and spatial exercises.

Prospective memory tasks can be either based in time or an event, which means that the external trigger to remember could be in response to an event, or because it is time to do something. This distinction is important because these memory jobs use somewhat different brain functions.

The researchers studied 42 users of ecstasy or other drugs (14 males, 28 females) and 31 non-users (5 males, 26 females) for the study. The results showed that recreational drugs, like ecstasy, or the regular use of several drugs, affect users’ memory functions, even when tests are controlled for marijuana or alcohol use.

The results of the study also suggested that users “possess some self-awareness of their memory lapses.” The researchers say that although this awareness exists, drug users may not know which drug is the culprit of the memory problems. “The present results suggest that these deficits are likely to be real rather than imagined and are evident in both time- and event-based prospective memory contexts,” said John Fisk, one of the researchers.

www.thetreatmentcenter.com

How do we know that the sky is not green and we are all colour-blind? ~Author Unknown
A new research study suggest that heart health benefits disappear when drinkers add the occasional binge to the mix. Researchers found that people who drank heavily at times were 45 percent more likely to develop heart disease.

About 8 percent of Americans have heart disease, according to the American Heart Association.

Occasional heavy drinking was defined as consuming five or more drinks in a day, at least twelve times a year. “Regular” heavy drinkers were excluded from the study. The findings suggest that bingeing, even at irregular times, may erase any heart benefits of lighter drinking.

Regular heavy drinking may raise blood pressure, promote blood clotting and cause disruptions in heart rhythms. The study reinforces the message that “not all alcohol consumption is good for health,” said lead researcher Michael Roerecke, of the Center for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.

www.thetreatmentcenter.com