A member of the Puerto Rican House of Representatives has resigned his seat after a drug test found he had used cocaine.
Representative Ronaldo Crespo, 35, resigned as the House Marjority Whip after the drug test results were made public. The Speaker of the House of Representatives had ordered drug tests for all of the members of the House. The governor of Puerto Rico was supportive of Crespo’s decision.
“He should seek the help he needs to take back his life,” said Governor Luis Fortuno.
A new study finds that depression continues to increase with women prone to addiction who are in their 30s and 40s. Researchers from the University of Michigan Health System examined the women’s histories, family life and neighborhood instability on their symptoms of alcoholism, antisocial behavior and depression. The study encompassed a 12 year period including the earlier years of marriage and motherhood.
“Our findings demonstrate the complexity of the factors affecting changes in alcohol problems, antisocial behavior and depression for these women,” said Robert Zucker, Ph. D., a professor of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Michigan Medical School and the director of the University of Michigan Addiction Research Center.
Three physicians are warning that up to 250,000 people could die from alcohol addiction in Britain in the next 20 years. It is feared that alcoholic beverage manufacturers and retailers are “reliant on people risking their health to provide profits.”
It is believed that if the government adopts a minimum price per unit of alcohol, then the projected death rate would drop.
“How many more people have to die from alcohol-related conditions, and how many more families devastated by the consequences before the government takes the situation as seriously as it took the dangers of tobacco,” said Sir Richard Thompson, president of the Royal College of Physicians.
Three physicians are warning that up to 250,000 people could die from alcohol addiction in Britain in the next 20 years. It is feared that alcoholic beverage manufacturers and retailers are “reliant on people risking their health to provide profits.”
It is believed that if the government adopts a minimum price per unit of alcohol, then the projected death rate would drop.
“How many more people have to die from alcohol-related conditions, and how many more families devastated by the consequences before the government takes the situation as seriously as it took the dangers of tobacco,” said Sir Richard Thompson, president of the Royal College of Physicians.
Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown wants the United States Drug Enforcement Administration to increase their fight against “pill mills” in the state.
“The cost of allowing these illegal operations to continue is simply too high, it perpetuates addiction, fosters drug dealing, and most tragically, leads to overdose deaths,” Brown said.
Senator Brown and Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, along with two other state legislators, recently announced plans to fight the rising tide of prescription drug abuse in Ohio. Between 1999 and 2006, deaths from prescription drug overdoses tripled in Ohio. The number of deaths from prescription drug overdoses in the United States doubled. Seven of the ten counties with the highest rates of prescription drug overdoses are in southern Ohio.
It is believed that more than 300,000 service men and women have returned home from Iraq or Afghanistan suffering from depression, post traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury. Unfortunately, this fact has resulted in an increase of prescription drug abuse among the military and veterans.
A new survey from the Department of Defense finds that the illegal use of prescription drugs has tripled in recent years. In the past ten years, $280 million dollars have been spent by the military on psychiatric drugs, hoping to help active duty personnel and veterans conquer their problems.
According to the Agency for Health Care Administration, the prescription drug epidemic in Florida is now affecting the tiniest of victims.
In 2009, almost 1,000 babies born in hospitals in Florida were treated for drug withdrawal. Between 2006 and 2009, there was a 173 percent increase of babies treated at Florida hospitals for withdrawal from drugs. In the first six months of 2010, 635 cases were reported in Florida. Most of these babies are suffering from prescription drug withdrawal.
“We see them here almost daily,” said Dr. Matthew Seibel, a pediatrician at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies.
Janet Colbert had enough of the situation and started STOPP NOW (Stop the Organized Pill Pushers). Colbert works as a registered nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit in a Broward County hospital.
“I kept seeing the torture these babies are going through,” Colbert said. “This one baby, he couldn’t even feed. He was screaming – his face was just quivering so badly he couldn’t even get his face around the nipple to feed – and I just said, ‘I have to do something.’”
Keith Pope is trying to put his life back together. The lawyer from Knoxville, Tennessee is struggling with the consequences of his alcoholism and cocaine addiction.
“Recovery’s the road I’m on,” said Pope. “The only person I have to be angry at is myself, because I made a poor choice. Now I’m on the right side of the fence and headed in the right direction.”
The 52-year-old lawyer had his license to practice law suspended by the Tennessee Supreme Court. The court said that Pope violated the conditions of a drug monitoring agreement.
Pope just wants to get back to helping other people.
“I’m about recovery. I’ve taken responsibility for my addiction. As long as you’re clean and sober, you win. I’m in this business to help people.”
Scientists have discovered a definite connection between drug abuse and a recognition of basic emotions. The research study found that people who abuse drugs have a difficulty identifying negative emotion by their facial expression.
Abuse of alcohol, marijuana and cocaine affects fluency and making decisions. Marijuana and cocaine abuse negatively affects work memory and reasoning. Abusing cocaine is associated with changes in inhibition.
Alkermes Inc. recently announced promising results from an early stage clinical trial testing the efficacy of ALKS 33 in treating addiction to cocaine. The company has now been awarded a grant worth up to $2.4 million dollars from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to help in the development of the drug.
The Phase I clinical trial tested ALKS 33 together with an existing medication for opiate addiction, buprenorphine, for the treatment of cocaine addiction. Information from the study showed that the drug was effective and well-tolerated. The company hopes to begin a Phase 2a study of the combination therapy in early 2011 using the grant money. There are, to date, no medications approved yet to treat addiction to cocaine.
Earlier this month, the company received approval for Vivitrol, an injectable medication used to treat opioid addiction.