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Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself. ~Harvey Fierstein

Crystal methamphetamine is a highly addictive drug that hooks people by increasing self-esteem and sexual pleasure, and inducing euphoria. Once someone is hooked on the drug, it is a tough addiction to break.

Barbara Sorg from Washington State University says that amphetamines enhance memory.

“In addiction we talk about the ‘drug memroy’ as a pathological memory. It is so potent as to not be easily forgotten.”
Sorg wondered if it might by possible to learn more about the effects of methamphetamine on memory by examining the effect it has on Lymnaea stagnalis – the pond snail. Lymnaea hold memories about when to breathe through their breathing tubes (pneumostomes) in a three neuron network, which is much simpler than the large circuits that hold our memories. Researcher Ken Lukowiak from the University of Calgary has been working on the mechanisms of memory formation in these snails for years. He and Sorg decided to learn whether a dose of methamphetamine could improve the snails’ memories in the way it does human memories. The fact that memories formed by snails under the influence of methamphetamine are harder to forget, which could help scientists understand human addiction.

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To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.
Henri Louis Bergeson

The federal government has set itself a lofty goal – reducing diseases and deaths caused by drug addiction, as well as the amount of people who use illegal substances. The surgeon general will produce a report to try to focus attention on the increasing abuse of prescription drugs. The government is encouraging general practitioners and public clinics to help detect addictions early by paying closer attention to whether their patients use illegal drugs.

The Obama administration released its National Drug Control Strategy two weeks ago. The 117 page document hopes to help increase spending next year by 3.5 percent on a variety of drug-control activities. That increase is less than 4.1 percent increase sought in 2002 by President George W. Bush.

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The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing. ~John Powell

Eight months after his fiancée died in Baltimore after injecting bogus drugs, former University of Maryland pharmacologist Clinton B. McCracken is talking. He is calling his substance abuse “a cautionary tale regarding the extreme dangers of intellectualizing drug use.”
McCracken writes in the Journal of the American Medical Association. He believed he was intelligent enough to control his drug use – for example, by limiting his opioid use to no more than two consecutive days every few months.

McCracken writes that “the perception of control is really nothing more than illusion,” and such misdirected confidence “produces blindness to the devastating consequences of drug abuse and addiction.”

McCracken, 33, remains in Baltimore after his guilty plea in March to growing marijuana, a felony. Under a plea deal, he was given a suspended five-year sentence that spared him jail time but meant that he would likely be deported to his native Canada.

The 1,700 word essay was the result of a suggestion from a mental health counselor who spoke with McCracken after the September 2009 death of his fiancée, Carrie E. John. An autopsy found that John’s death was caused by an allergic reaction and that John had no drugs in her system at the time. That suggests that McCracken had been fooled by the Phillipine online “pharmacy” that sold him the supposed buprenorphine.

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The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes. ~Benjamin Disraeli

A better understanding of how addiction is connected to other brain diseases is triggering a hunt to find out if a treatment for one might also help another. The goal is to change the underlying brain circuitry that has substance abusers vulnerable to relapse. It is “a different way of looking at mental illnesses, including substance abuse disorders,” says National Institute on Drug Abuse Director Dr. Nora Volkow. This week Volkow urged researchers at the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting to be more creative in the hunt for brain-changing therapies for addiction.

More and more, scientists believe that psychiatric diseases are a result of dysfunctioning circuits spread over multiple regions, leaving them incapable of properly communicating and working together. That disrupts the balance between impulsivity and self-control that plays an important role in addiction.

These networks of circuits overlap, explaining why so many mental disorders share common symptoms, like mood problems. It is also a reason that addictions occur at the same time with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, schizophrenia or other mental illnesses.

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On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time. ~George Orwell

Some patterns of substance use treatment admissions have changed substantially in a period of ten years. This is according to a study published in April by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. SAMHSA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Leigh Henderson, Ph.D., examined data from the years 1998 through 2008 and found that the proportion of admissions involving abuse of both alcohol and drugs declined from 44 to 38 percent. Admissions involving just alcohol abuse decreased from 27 to 23 percent. Cocaine admissions decreased from 15 to 11 percent. Henderson did, however, discover that the proportions of admissions involving drug abuse alone increased from 26 to 37 percent. There were noticeable increases in opiate, marijuana and stimulant admissions, and an increase in the proportion of admission of people age 16 and over who were unemployed.

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Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping him up. ~Jesse Jackson

Michael Douglas believes that prison will be beneficial to his son. Cameron Douglas was sentenced to five years in prison last month after pleading guilty to possession and dealing methamphetamine and cocaine.

Cameron, 31, was recently moved to a minimum security prison in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. He was moved from Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center, where he was held since his arrest in August 2009.

Michael Douglas has said that he believes prison will save his son’s life. He thinks the sentence will finally help Cameron overcome his drug addiction.

“My son has not been sober for this length of time since he was 13 years old. So he was going to be dead or somebody was going to kill him, and I think he has a chance to start a new life and he knows that.”

“My son was a drug dealer,” Douglas said, “and he tried to kill himself for a while, and I can’t condone his behavior. With all the mistakes and the disease that Cameron has, he is a great young man and I wouldn’t be supporting him if I didn’t feel that way.”
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When you have brought up kids, there are memories you store directly in your tear ducts.  ~Robert Brault,

Beverly Ewell of Charleston, South Carolina, has tried for 40 years to conquer his addiction to alcohol. Ewell, 51, said he was “just tired, tired of using drugs and alcohol, tired of losing jobs, tired of being homeless and just wanted a better life.”

A new video game may be the answer to Ewell’s problem.

“It is hands-on and gives you something you can see and do. For me, I learn by experience doing it over and over. It sticks after a while,” Ewell said.

The Guardian Angel Game is a collaboration between the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center in Charleston and the University of Central Florida. The game is still being studied, but works by guiding players through real-life scenarios facing addicts in recovery. It uses mini games that tackle issues like refusing drinks, keeping your home alcohol-free and teaches how to avoid relapse triggers.

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While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior. ~Henry Link

Robert Munsch is a popular children’s author. His books are favorites around the world with children and parents. His latest story is a shocking one. His admission to cocaine and alcohol addictions has shocked the literary world.

Munsch posted a “Note to Parents” on his website where he admitted he was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder and manic depression.

“Those challenges have led me to make some big mistakes,” Munsch wrote. In an interview on Canadian television, Munsch admitted his addiction to cocaine and alcohol. Munsch said that he has been sober for about four months.

Munsch, 64, wrote on the website that his struggles with his mental health and addiction are not a secret to his friends and family. Munsch wrote that he hopes “everyone will talk to their kids honestly, listen to them, and help them do their best with their own challenges.”

Munsch was born in Pittsburgh and studied to be a Jesuit priest before he started to work as a storyteller in preschools. Munsch moved to Canada in 1975 and in 1979 wrote his first book, Mud Puddle. He has written more than 50 books, including Love You Forever and The Paper Bag Princess.

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A bend in the road is not the end of the road… unless you fail to make the turn. ~Author Unknown

In Multnomah County, Oregon, some DUI offenders get help with their addiction from an ankle bracelet. The Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor, or SCRAM, is used as part of Multnomah County’s DUI Intensive Supervision Program as an alternative to time in jail.

The bracelet is lightweight and can detect alcohol use through a person’s sweat. The bracelet conducts transdermal testing of perspiration at least every 30 minutes but can operate continually. The bracelet reports results to a modem in the offender’s house, which then reports to a Web-based application monitored by each agency, according to Alcohol Monitoring Systems, the company in Colorado that manufactures the bracelet. The tests are done automically and the bracelet cannot be tampered with.

The SCRAM product was launched in 2003 and has been used in 46 states to monitor more than 87,000 offenders, according to the company. The average compliance rate of offenders with the bracelets is about 71 percent.

A 2007 study sponsored by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that SCRAM properly detected 57 percent of alcohol use in a trial.

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An estimated 7 million Americans abuse prescription drugs. That figure is higher than the number of people abusing cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines combined. This crisis is forcing law enforcement to change its strategies to keep the list of victims from increasing.

“We’re definitely seeing an increase in the problem in southeastern Wisconsin,” said Jim Bohn, the assistant special agent in charge of the Milwaukee office of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

“There’s a perception out there that pharmaceutical drugs are safer because you might’ve gotten them legally and they’re manufactured legally,” said Bohn. “So if they feel like they’re safe, they’re not addictive, which is certainly not true.”

One county in Wisconsin is taking a unique approach by creating the job of pharmaceutical investigator.

“We felt the position was important because the abuse of prescription drugs and the consequences we’re seeing from that abuse is getting pretty serious in Washington County,” said Sheriff Dale Schmidt.

Certain drugs demand more attention including morphine, methadone, hydrocodone and oxycodone. Bohn says oxycodone is the most abused prescription drug in Wisconsin. Law enforcement is hoping that Wisconsin will join 41 other states in establishing a prescription monitoring program. A bill to create the program passed the Wisconsin legislature and is awaiting Gov. Jim Doyle’s signature by the end of May.

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