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There is no wealth but life. ~John Ruskin

Patrick Kennedy missed an awards gala in Washington, D.C. this week honoring his late father, Senator Ted Kennedy. The reason for his absence was his reported indulgence in vodka shots with a friend at the Capitol Lounge.

The Rhode Island congressman spoke about his own experience with substance abuse hours before the incident at a fundraiser for a local D.C. charity. The charity helps low-income women conquer homelessness and drug addiction.

Kennedy, 42, spoke to those at that dinner about the night in 2006 when he crashed his car into a barricade on Capitol Hill and then went to treatment for an addiction to prescription pain medications. Kennedy announced in February that he will not seek re-election for Congress. Since his father’s death in August of 2009, Kennedy has been exhibiting erratic behavior, prompting speculation that he is once again struggling with substance abuse.

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Passion is universal humanity. Without it religion, history, romance and art would be useless. ~Honoré de Balzac

Middle-school children whose parents restrict access to R-rated movies are substantially less likely to start drinking than their friends who are permitted to see R-rated movies.

In a study of almost 3,600 middle school students in New England, researchers discovered that among children who said their parents never allowed them to watch R-rated movies, few children started drinking over the next couple of years.

Of that group, 3 percent said they had started drinking when asked 13 to 26 months after the first survey. That number is compared with 19 percent of their friends who said their parents “sometimes” let them watch R-rated movies, and one-quarter of students who had said their parents allowed them to watch R-rated movies “all the time.”

The researchers believe that the study results underscore the importance of parents monitoring their children’s exposure to film and other media.

“We think this is a very important aspect of parenting, and one that is often overlooked,” said Dr. James D. Sargent, a professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, New Hampshire.

“The research to date suggests that keeping kids from R-rated movies can help keep them from drinking, smoking and doing a lot of other things that parents don’t want them to do,” Sargent said.

Ninety percent of R-rated movies have portrayals of drinking, and that may be one reason middle-school students who watch these films are more vulnerable to early driniking.

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Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future.
Robert H. Schuller, Author and Minister

The bad behavior of sports stars has little or no effect on young people’s drinking habits, according to new research.

Researchers at the Universities of Manchester and Western Sydney (Australia) say that their information debunks the idea that sports stars act as role models.

“The perceived drinking habits of sports stars and its relationship to the drinking levels of young people has never been examined empirically, despite these sporting heroes often being touted as influential role models for young people,” said lead researcher Dr. Kerry O’Brien, a professor at Manchester’s School of Psychological Services.

“Our research shows that young people, both sporting participants and non-sporting participants, don’t appear to be influenced by the drinking habits of high profile sportspeople as depicted in the mass media.”

The research suggests that sports and its stars are much more likely to influence the drinking behavior of fans when used as marketing tools by the alcoholic beverage industry, such as through sponsorship deals.

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Bad excuses are worse than none.  ~Thomas Fuller

California Attorney General Jerry Brown said that actor Corey Haim was “doctor shopping” and as a result, received 553 prescription pills before he died. Haim, 38, received Valium, Vicodin, Xanax and Soma, among other prescription medications through seven physicians and seven pharmacies. According to Brown, Haim used a fake name at least once.

 Brown, who is running for governor, said that it did not seem as if the physicians knew Haim was doctor shopping. Haim filled the prescriptions this year, but it was evident that Haim obtained thousands of pills before that time.

 Brown called Haim a “poster child” for prescription drug abuse. “We think it illustrates a problem that is more widespread,” Brown said. His office has pursued more than 200 cases in California involving prescription abuse by physicians and patients.

 Haim died March 10 and his official cause of death has not yet been released.

Investigators were able to discover this information about Haim through CURES, a statewide database which monitors prescription activity. It is a voluntary system available to physicians and pharmacists.

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Alcohol-use disorders affect almost 8.5 percent of the people in this country. The scourge of alcohol abuse is connected with many medical, psychiatric, family, legal and work-related problems. In 1998, these problems resulted in a $185 billion price tag. A new study has found that oral naltrexone can reduce associated healthcare costs for patients struggling with alcohol addiction.

“Oral naltrexone was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1994,” said Henry R. Kranzler, a professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Connecticut Health Center and author of the study.

“it was the first medication approved to treat alcohol dependence since disulfiram was approved in 1949, and its approval was based on a demonstration of efficacy using a randomized, controlled trial design. The FDA has since approved acamprosate and long-acting naltrexone.”

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If we had no faults of our own, we would not take so much pleasure in noticing those of others.  ~Francois duc de la Rochefoucauld

According to a new study, endorphins are released in the brain only after low to moderate doses of alcohol. Christina Gianoulakis, a professor in the department of psychiatry and physiology at McGill University in Montreal has found that large amounts of alchol stimulate areas of the brain associated with anxiety and depression.

 Gianoulakis focused on the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) of the brain which is associated with addiction, and discovered that alcohol triggers the release of endorphins in that region.

 ”If they don’t feel relaxed, if they don’t feel good after one or two drinks they they should not continue drinking,” said Gianoulakis.

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I am told to just be myself, but as much as I have practiced the impression, I am still no good at it.  ~Robert Brault

Last week, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland establish the multijurisdictional Ohio Prescription Drug Abuse Task Force, hoping to tackle the abuse of prescription drugs in Ohio and across the country. The task force will be made up of state representatives from the public safety and health departments, doctors and pharmacists, and law enforcement officials at the local, state and federal levels.

“To all the pill mills out there making a profit by selling a poison, let me be clear,” Strickland said at the news conference on Friday that announced the formation of the Task Force.

“We’re coming for you. What you do is illegal and immoral, and we will fight you with everything we have,” said Strickland. “Pain medication, when abused, ceases to treat pain and instead causes it. Too many lives have been lost and too many people have become last chasing these pills.”

Using a $250,000 federal grant, the task force will help local law enforcement agencies deal with a seemingly insurmountable problem. From 1999 to 2007, Ohio deaths from unintentional drug overdoses rose more than 300 percent. In the state, drug overdoses are the leading cause of accidental death – more than car crashes.

U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, recently sent a letter to President Obama asking for federal assistance with the state’s drug problem.

Brown wrote that “in southern Ohio, there is a disturbing pattern of drug diversion wherein individuals obtain controlled substances using their Medicaid cards and then sell these substances. This is not only a matter crime; it is both a public health and fiscal issue.’

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Dreams are only thoughts you didn’t have time to think about during the day. ~Author Unknown

Teenagers with a history of crack or cocaine use are much more likely to have unprotected sex than teenagers who have never used these drugs. This risky behavior creates an increased risk for contracting HIV. Researchers from the Bradley Hasbro Children’s Research Center report that teenagers in psychiatric care who used crack and or cocaine at least once were six times more likely to inconsistently use condoms. The results suggest that crack cocaine appears to have more of an influence on risky teenager behaviors than other factors like use of alcohol or marijuana, which are usually combined into adolescent HIV prevention interventions.

“Unprotected sex is the most common way that HIV is transmitted among teens, so if we can develop a clearer picture of why some kids engage in high-risk sexual behaviors, we will be better prepared to educate them about safe sex,” said study lead author Marina Tolou-Shams, PhD, of the Bradley Hasbro Children’s Research Center. “Our findings suggest that future HIV prevention interventions should include content specific to crack and cocaine use, just as they do with drugs that are more commonly used by teens, like alcohol and marijuana.”

Tolou-Shams said it was important to examine the connection between crack and cocaine use and HIV risk behavior in teenagers with psychiatric disorders, since earlier research has shown that teenagers in treatment for mental health issues have high rates of risky sexual behavior and are more likely to experience substance use and abuse.

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Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life.  ~Rachel Carson

New research in Australia has shown a huge increase in the number of long-term marijuana users admitted to the hospital. The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre discovered that the number of Australians getting treatment for marijuana addiction has increased 30 percent since 2002. The increase of harmful marijuana use in Australia is seen primarily in people over the age of 30.

In Australia, however, the rate of marijuana use has been dropping. In the past year, about 9 percent of Australians used marijuana, down from 11 percent in 2004.

Researchers at the University of New South Wales in Sydney discovered that those using marijuana are using more of the substance and using it more frequently.

“We’re seeing an increase in cannabis-related harms, particularly hospital admissions, for things like cannabis dependence in particular,” said Amanda Roxburgh, senior researcher at the university’s National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre. “And we’re seeing particularly in 30 to 39-year-olds, the admissions have increased quite a bit, as have the 40 to 49-year-old age group. What we think that reflects is a longer-term use over a long period of time.”

David Templeman, the chief executive of the Alcohol and Other Drugs Council of Australia, believes the study suggests older marijuana users still do not understand the harmful health consequence s of long-term use.

“We’ve got to really do some more work in terms of getting people to understand the impact of cannabis on people, particularly people who might have a predilection to mental health illness,” Templeman said.

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The chains of habit are generally too small to be felt until they are too strong to be broken. ~Samuel Johnson

Mephedrone, a legal drug connected to several deaths last year in Britain, will be criminalized. The British government recommended restrictions on mephedrone, a synthetic drug also known as M-Cat and Meow-Meow. The drug can be purchased online and is popular in nightclubs.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs recommended classifying mephedrone as a Class B controlled substance. This class includes marijuana and amphetamines. According to the British Home Office, possession of a Class B substance carries a maximum sentence of five years in jail. Supplying a Class B substance can result in a 14 year prison term.

The drug often originates in labs in China. The European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction said that more than 30 websites promote the drug. It is cheap – about $4.50 for each dose. Mephedrone is a synthetic form of cathinone, the active ingredient in khat, a stimulant popular in Africa.

“As a result of the council’s advice, I’m introducing legislation to ban not just mephedrone and other cathinones but also to enshrine in law a generic definition…so that we can be in the forefront of dealing with this whole family of drugs,” said British Home Secretary Alan Johnson.

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