August 2012 Archives

By Jason Kandel and Craig Fiegener

Rodney King's death was ruled accidental in an autopsy report released Thursday by the San Bernardino County Coroner's Office, which also noted he had marijuana, cocaine and alcohol in his system.

The report summarized the events leading to his June 17 death at age 47 in his backyard pool in Rialto, Calif.

King "was in a state of drug and alcohol induced delirium," according to the coroner's report.

He "either fell or jumped into the swimming pool," the report said. "The effects of the drugs and alcohol, combined with the subject's heart condition, thus incapacitated, was unable to save himself and drowned."

King's fiancée, Cynthia Kelley, found him in the deep end of the pool at 5:25 a.m. and called 911. She made several attempts to pull him out of the pool but was unable to save him. He was taken to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center where he died.

Rialto police said the preliminary investigation suggested the drowning was accidental and that there were no signs of trauma or foul play.

Kelley told police that King he had been out all weekend with a male friend, but police said at the time they did not know if King and his friend had been partying all night.

During a press conference announcing the death, police technicians could be seen bringing out a marijuana plant from inside King's home.

Continue Reading: msnbc.com

Author: Brad Girtz

Parents often think that letting their children have a sip of alcohol at home is a safe way to promote responsible drinking but this could put their child at future risk.

A new study from Yale University shows that the earlier a child is introduced to alcohol, the greater their chances of developing a drinking problem later in life.

The study, which was published in the journal, Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, interviewed 1,160 college freshmen. Those that participated in the study answered questions on the age they started drinking, how often they drank, how much they drank and if they had any problems with alcohol.

The results of the study showed that the earlier a child sampled alcohol, the greater their chances of alcohol abuse in college.

Study author Meghan Morean said, "As expected, beginning to use alcohol at an earlier age was associated with heavier drinking and the experience of more negative consequences during senior year of college."

"Quickly progressing from first alcohol use to drinking to intoxication was also an important predictor of heavy drinking and the experience of alcohol related problems during senior year of college," she added.

The research shows that people who had their first drink at age 15 are at a greater risk of alcohol problems than people who waited until they were 17. That is a big problem, as most American children have their first drink between 14 and 15 years of age.

Morean said, "Quickly progressing from first alcohol use to drinking to intoxication was also an important predictor of heavy drinking and the experience of alcohol related problems during senior year of college."

Continue Reading: technorati.com

Tops with 'I Drink You're Cute,' aren't considered cute by Jan Withers, national president of MADD. But the Federal Trade Commission says there is no legal way to force the alcohol-related merchandise off retailers' shelves.

By Rheana Murray

 Urban Outfitters is catching heat once again over a line of trendy tops that some say glorify drinking for teenagers.

With slogans like, "I Drink You're Cute," (printed in a blurry font) and "I Vote for Vodka," the shirts are on sale just in time for back-to-school fall shopping -- and the boozy messages are enough to make parents cringe.

URBAN OUTFITTERS' 'NAVAJO' LINE SPARKS CONTROVERSY

"As a mother, these shirts are not acceptable for children under the age of 21," Jan Withers, national president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) told the Daily News.

Withers, whose own daughter was killed by a drunk driver, says the shirts could give young shoppers the wrong idea about alcohol.

"If they're targeting that audience, then they're sending the message that it's cool to drink," she said. "We know of the dangers of underage drinking and the fact that it's just downright illegal."

Urban Outfitters' main demographic is between 18 and 24, according to the analytics company Quantcast, meaning a good chunk of shoppers at the trendy retailer aren't legally old enough to drink.

But Withers says the shirts also provide a "golden opportunity" for parents to sit down and talk about drinking with their children.

Continue Reading: nydailynews.com

Let's face it: drugs are a part of our lives. People use them to prolong their health, to combat severe illnesses, and to have a good time on the weekends. Prescription medication, while intended for the greater good, has also created a world of illicit use that has taken the collegiate world by storm. Specifically, the performance-enhancing medication Adderall has seen widespread abuse on college campuses. Two students in every elementary classroom have a prescription for ADHD, and this trails long into adulthood: 40% of college students abuse their ADHD prescriptions, and 9 out of 10 students who misuse ADHD drugs also binge drink. While Adderall provides quietude for people who have problems focusing, it is also a gateway to abuse. This graphic was created to explore and learn stuff about the statistics surrounding the abuse of Adderall in educational environments.

To view the full graphic, please visit the website.

Continue Reading: learnstuff.org

NEWARK, N.J. -  A New Jersey mail carrier regularly received and distributed cocaine shipments in falsely addressed packages along her route on behalf of a drug trafficking organization based in Puerto Rico, federal authorities said Tuesday.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey said Christina Nuñez has admitted intercepting packages of cocaine from Puerto Rico and passing them to a co-conspirator in Camden.

Prosecutors say Nuñez, who was assigned to a post office in Secaucus, was responsible for moving more than 18 kilograms of cocaine from October 2010 until her arrest Aug. 24, 2012.

The 30-year-old from Lyndhurst is charged with conspiracy with intent to distribute cocaine and mail theft.

Her boyfriend has also been arrested and charged.

The approximate street value of the drugs wasn't immediately available.

Federal authorities were alerted to the scheme after postal inspectors seized an express mail package in February 2011 containing 1,569 grams of cocaine that had been addressed to a location along Nuñez's route, according to a criminal complaint.

Investigators then found that packages with similar weights and sequential tracking numbers -- but bearing false or inaccurate addresses -- had been sent along Nuñez's route dating back to October 2010, according to court papers.

Prosecutors said Nuñez switched to receiving packages at her Lyndhurst residence while out on medical leave, or to her boyfriend's former addresses.

Continue Reading: foxnews.com

By Bill Hathaway

(Medical Xpress)--By administering a simple behavioral test, Yale researchers were able to predict which mice would later exhibit alcoholism-related behaviors such as the inability to stop seeking alcohol and a tendency to relapse, the scientists report in the Aug. 26 issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience.

The findings suggest that a similar test for people might be able to identify individuals who are at high risk of developing alcohol problems before they begin drinking.

"We are trying to understand the neurobiology underlying familial risk for alcoholism," said Jane Taylor, the Charles B.G. Murphy Professor of Psychiatry and professor of psychology at the Yale School of Medicine and senior author of the study. "What is encouraging about this study is that we have identified both a behavioral indicator and a molecule that explains that risk."

Many high school- and college-aged students abuse alcohol during their school years, but only a minority end up dependent upon alcohol later in life. While there is a clear genetic risk for alcoholism, not all children of alcoholics become dependent. Scientists have been busy trying to find ways to predict which adolescents are at greatest risk before drinking begins.


Continue Reading: medicalxpress.com

McLellan sees addiction becoming true part of healthcare. Will providers respond sensibly?

Members of the addiction treatment community generally have not been the most vocal commentators in healthcare about the implications of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and related initiatives, and that should be surprising given this comment from one of the country's foremost authorities on addiction research and treatment:

"I don't think there's another medical condition that's as affected by what will happen with the enactment of the ACA as addiction," says A. Thomas McLellan, PhD, co-founder and CEO of the Philadelphia-based Treatment Research Institute (TRI).

McLellan, back at the nationally prominent nonprofit research organization as of early 2012 after serving as deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), adds, "I think where we're going to come out in five years is that this will be a wonderful act for patients, their families, and particularly for healthcare."

What's less certain to McLellan as part of that equation is how health reform will affect the facilities that currently make up the specialty addiction provider network. Their fate, he says, largely depends on how they respond to changes in a system that will uncover new opportunities that could erase traditional notions of what their core patient population should look like.

To McLellan, the winners will be "the swift, the smart and the flexible" who can meet the needs of new treatment populations who will be identified in an increasingly primary care-driven system. Those who will be in danger, he believes, are providers who fold their arms in anticipation of the old ways of a segregated care system becoming new again.

"I don't think the 'good ol' days' are coming back," McLellan says.

Impact of integration

Addiction is by no means the first medical condition to have been segregated from the rest of medical care. In fact, addiction treatment centers at one time in their history became a new destination for patients with another illness after its own segregated specialty care programs began to fall out of favor: that being tuberculosis.

Addiction remains a subject largely unaddressed in medical school curricula, an illness paid for largely outside of traditional medical insurance, and a societal crisis in which only about 1 in 10 of those who need some form of care receive any services, McLellan points out.

The ACA's implementation will open up avenues of reimbursement for a continuum of substance use services that includes prevention, early intervention, office-based treatment and pharmacological treatment, much as has been the case for chronic illnesses such as diabetes, he says. New markets will be created for decision support tools and medications, he says, and for providers accustomed to receiving referrals only from the justice system, new referral sources might include hospital emergency departments, specialty care medical facilities, and primary care doctors.

Continue Reading: addictionpro.com

By: Melanie Haiken

Would it surprise you to learn that prescription drug overdoses now kill more people than car accidents? Somehow that message doesn't seem to be getting out, says the CDC, which now calls prescription drug abuse an epidemic.

Over the past 20 years, the death rate from drug overdoses has tripled, CDC data show, with prescription painkillers the reason for much of that rise. In 2008 there were 36,000 overdose deaths, almost all of which were from prescription painkillers.

The growth rate is pretty shocking; in 2010 (the last year the CDC has data for), 2 million people reported that they had begun to use prescription drugs for non-medical purposes within the past year. That, says the CDC, comes out to 5,500 a day. The number of people seeking treatment for prescription painkillers rose 400 percent between 2004 and 2008.

Because they can so handily be "borrowed" from friends and family, and because -- being technically legal - they seem innocent, prescription drugs are becoming frighteningly popular with teens, experts say. According to the FDA, one in seven teenagers admits to abusing prescription drugs to get high in the past year, and prescription painkillers are now teenagers' top choice after alcohol and pot.  The problem is, teenagers are unlikely to understand how highly addictive these drugs are. After all, if mom takes them for her knee injury, they can't be that big a deal, right?

Continue Reading: forbes.com

Photo: This is a photo of federal agents returning to Oceanside, Calif., harbor on Aug. 22, 2012, after seizing a Mexican fishing boat and four of the seven men apprehended in a maritime drug smuggling attempt off Catalina Island.

Drug smugglers are changing their tactics to avoid detection by using second team of smugglers on sailboats, officials say

By Jason Kandel

Federal agents this week seized marijuana estimated to be worth $1 million and arrested seven men in what authorities say is the latest trend off the California coast - using sailboats as cover for smuggling operations.

U.S. customs agents discovered the suspected smuggling attempt after boarding a sailboat they had seen flashing its lights in the waters south of Catalina Island on Wednesday.

Once aboard, the agents discovered three people and a loaded shotgun, a .40 caliber pistol, and night vision equipment, officials said.

"We are beginning to see this as a more common tactic: smugglers attempting to move contraband from open hull panga boats to recreational vessels, such as this sailboat," said Keley Hill, director of Marine Operations for Customs and Border Patrol in San Diego.

"The smugglers think that when the recreational vessel moves in to shore, it will blend in with legitimate boating traffic off of the Southern California coastline and make it much more difficult for us to detect illegal activity."

Suspecting the people aboard were about to rendezvous with another boat to attempt a drug swap, agents called in a helicopter to scan the water for other boats nearby.

Helicopter pilots spotted a Mexican fishing boat about five miles away. During a chase, someone on board the boat could be seen dumping bales overboard, officials said.

After a brief chase, the boat was intercepted.

Agents recovered 130 packages of marijuana, weighing about 2,357 pounds, with an estimated street value of more than $1 million.

Authorities arrested three U.S. citizens who were found on the sailboat and four Mexican nationals from the fishing boat.

It's one in a string of cases in recent years -- a nearly daily occurrence -- in which boats are being found further north along the California coast ferrying both drugs and human cargo to evade a beefed-up law enforcement presence along the U.S.-Mexico border, officials said.


Continue Reading: nbcsandiego.com

By Rick Maese

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency announced Friday it was banning cyclist Lance Armstrong for life and stripping him of his record seven Tour de France titles.

In a news release, USADA said Armstrong's decision not to take the charges against him to arbitration triggers the lifetime ban and forfeiture of his Tour victories from 1999 to 2005.

The International Cycling Union, which has been fighting with USADA over jurisdiction in the Armstrong case, said Friday it would withhold comment until it receives an explanation from USADA on its decision. The cycling body said it wants USADA to "submit to the parties concerned a reasoned decision explaining the actions taken." It said the World Anti-Doping Code requires USADA to do this in cases where no hearing occurs.

"Nobody wins when an athlete decides to cheat with dangerous performance enhancing drugs, but clean athletes at every level expect those of us here on their behalf, to pursue the truth to ensure the win-at-all-cost culture does not permanently overtake fair, honest competition" Travis T. Tygart, USADA's chief executive, said Friday in a statement. "Any time we have overwhelming proof of doping, our mandate is to initiate the case through the process and see it to conclusion as was done in this case."

Tygart and USADA charge that Armstrong's wins, which made him a global sports icon following his battle against cancer, were aided by banned substances, including steroids and blood doping.

In deciding to give up his fight, Armstrong still maintained his innocence, saying the wins were legitimate and within the rules.

"There comes a point in every man's life when he has to say, 'Enough is enough.' For me, that time is now," Armstrong said in a statement Thursday night.

Armstrong called the USADA investigation an "unconstitutional witch hunt" and said he saw no reason to participate in any further proceedings that might clear his name.

"If I thought for one moment that by participating in USADA's process, I could confront these allegations in a fair setting and -- once and for all -- put these charges to rest, I would jump at the chance," Armstrong said. "But I refuse to participate in a process that is so one-sided and unfair."

Continue Reading: washingtonpost.com

By Mary MacVean

If one of parents' biggest worries is that their teenagers are exposed to drugs and alcohol at school, their fears are justified: Eighty-six percent of high school students say their classmates are smoking, drinking or using drugs during the school day, according to a national survey.

The 17thannual back-to-school survey by the National Center of Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University shows that "tobacco, alcohol and drug use are pervasive and relentless fixtures in the teen world," Joseph A. Califano, founder and chairman of the center, writes in a statement accompanying the survey results.

He called the results "profoundly disturbing." Some of the reasons:

--Students estimate that 17% of their classmates are drinking, using drugs or smoking during the school day. And about half say there's a place on or near campus where this happens.

--Teens estimated that 47% of classmates drink alcohol; 40% use drugs; 30% smoke cigarettes.

--Sixty percent of high school students and 32% of middle school students say students keep or sell drugs on campus. (In private high schools, 54% said this happens.) The high school figure has been at least 60% in seven of the last eight years.

--Forty-four percent say they know someone who sells drugs at school. And 91% say they know someone who sells marijuana.

--Forty-five percent of teenagers say they've seen pictures on Facebook or other social media of kids getting drunk, passed out or using drugs. Nearly half of those kids say it seems like the kids pictured are having a good time. And while 6% of the teens who say they've never seen such pictures have used marijuana, 25% of those who have seen them have used marijuana. The numbers for alcohol are 13% versus 43%.

--About half of high school students say they have at least one friend who uses illegal drugs like acid, ecstasy, meth, cocaine or heroin. About a third say a friend abuses prescription orover-the-counter drugs.

On the other hand, nearly 90% of teens said they would never or not likely try drugs in the future.

For kids who get caught, nearly all teens said their school would mete out serious punishment, and 81% said the school would offer counseling or other help for a student with a problem.

Continue Reading: latimes.com

By Jennifer Abbasi

(LiveScience) Marriage may drive a woman to drink, not because she's unhappy but because she's influenced by her husband's alcohol consumption, new research suggests. And men, on average, drink more than women.

Men, on the other hand, spend less time with their drinking buddies and more with their wives after tying the knot. The result? Married men down fewer beers than their single counterparts.

The study, being presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in Denver, Colo., also reveals divorced men are at particularly high risk of alcohol abuse.

Researchers have in the past investigated differences in drinking between single and married people, but the new study is the first to look at alcohol use among different types of unmarried people: the never-married, the divorced and the widowed. Sociologists from the University of Cincinnati, Pennsylvania State University, Rutgers University and the University of Texas at Austin looked at longitudinal data from 5,305 men and women from Wisconsin who answered questionnaires about alcohol use in 1993 and then again 2004. The participants reported how many drinks they consumed in a month and whether they had any history of drinking problems. The researchers combined this quantitative data with 120 qualitative in-depth interviews of never-married, married, divorced and widowed men and women conducted over the past decade. [6 Scientific Tips for a Happy Marriage]

Previous studies have consistently shown that married people drink less than single people, with the anti-drinking association stronger in married men than women. The new study confirmed this relationship in men, but it showed that married women actually drink more on average than women who were never married, divorced or widowed. "Stable marriage curbs men's drinking yet is associated with a slightly higher level of alcohol use among women," the authors wrote in their paper on the study, which is not yet published.

Men and women also responded differently to divorce in terms of their drinking. Recently divorced men drank significantly more than men in long-term marriages, while women's alcohol consumption fell sharply after the dissolution of a marriage. 

Continue Reading: cbsnews.com

Photo: Getty Images: Drug users at Canada's Insite injection room in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

Using punishment to try to rehabilitate people who have already suffered years of punishment doesn't work

By Maia Szalavitz

Dr. Gabor Mate is renowned in Canada for his work in treating people with the worst addictions, most notably at Vancouver's controversial Insite facility, which provides users with clean needles, medical support and a safe space to inject drugs.

Canada's Conservative government has tried to shut Insite down, but the country's Supreme Court ruled late last year that doing so would contravene human rights laws because the program has been shown to save lives.

In Mate's book In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction, which was a No. 1 bestseller in Canada, he advocates for the compassionate treatment of addiction, a position that is increasingly receiving international attention. Healthland recently spoke with Mate about the causes and consequences of addiction and what to do about the problem.

How do you define addiction?
Any behavior that is associated with craving and temporary relief, and with long-term negative consequences, that a person is not able to give up. Note that I said nothing about substances -- it's any behavior that has temporary relief and negative consequences and loss of control.

When you look at process or behavior -- sex, gambling, shopping or work or substances -- they engage the same brain circuitry, the same reward system, the same psychological dynamic and the same spiritual emptiness. People go from one to the other. The issue for me is not whether you're using something or not; it's, Are you craving, are you needing it for relief and does it have negative consequences?

Do you believe all addiction results from trauma?
I think childhood trauma or emotional loss is the universal template for addiction. It also depends on how you want to define trauma: if you want to define it as something bad happening, then it's true that not every addict [has experienced trauma], in the sense of a death of a parent or violence in the family or child abuse, or any of the usual markers of trauma.

But there's another [way to define it]. D.W. Winnicott [the late British child psychiatrist] said that there are two things that can go wrong in childhood: things that happen that shouldn't happen -- that's trauma -- and things that should happen that don't happen. Children are equally hurt by things that should happen and don't as they are by things that shouldn't happen but do. If the parents aren't emotionally available, [for example], no one will define that as trauma, but it will be for the child. If a mother has postpartum depression, that's not defined as trauma but it can lead to emotional neglect and that interferes with child brain development.

Continue Reading: time.com

By Marina Csomor

Editor's note: Pseudonyms are used for the names of young people.

(CNN) -- "Have you heard of molly?" the girl next to me asked. She was swaying from side to side, bobbing her head to the bass vibrating throughout the sold-out venue.

The room around us was buzzing with anticipation. Music was blasting. People were dancing and laughing and taking pictures. There was less than an hour until showtime, and I was about to see one of my favorite artists, so I was feeling pretty good. The girl next to me, Jessica, was obviously feeling better.

I turned to my fellow concertgoers, watching as they met Jessica's eyes, nodding their heads knowingly. Of course they had heard of molly.

Turns out, molly is a pretty popular lady these days.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, molly is the powder or crystal form of MDMA -- or 3, 4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine, a chemical drug most commonly known for its use in the pressed pill Ecstasy.

Unlike Ecstasy, which has a reputation for being laced with everything from caffeine to methamphetamine, molly -- a name shortened from "molecule" -- is thought of as "pure" MDMA.

The DEA labels it a Schedule 1 controlled substance, considered to have a high potential for abuse and no accepted use in medical treatment, which means it's illegal.

This year, molly was abundant at music festivals -- if you knew where to look. At Miami's Ultra Music Festival, fliers littered the landscape mentioning her name like missing child posters: "Have you seen molly?" And when Madonna took to the stage to introduce an artist, the pop star asked the audience: "How many people in this crowd have seen molly?" A slew of cheers answered, though Madonna later said she'd been referring to a song, not to an illegal drug.

Hip-hop artists claim they know her -- she's casually mentioned by 2 Chainz in the Nicki Minaj track "Beez In the Trap," by Childish Gambino in his song "Unnecessary," by Kanye West in "Mercy," by Danny Brown in "Die Like a Rockstar."

It seems the drug is on the minds of many. But questions about who -- or what -- molly really is remain.

Continue Reading: cnn.com

Combining treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse resulted in improved PTSD symptoms without worsening symptoms of substance abuse, according to a study released Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The findings, explain the Australian researchers, are contrary to conventional wisdom on how to treat PTSD and substance abuse, which commonly co-exist in patients. The common belief, they explain, has been that using the so-called "gold standard" of PTSD treatment might exacerbate substance abuse by resurfacing negative memories.

Therefore, people with substance abuse and PTSD have commonly been excluded from prolonged exposure therapy-based PTSD treatments and clinical trials using exposure therapy.

Prolonged exposure therapy is considered one of the most effective PTSD treatments. In fact, prolonged exposure therapy is the only "treatment for PTSD endorsed in a U.S. Institute of Medicine study as evidence based," according to corresponding study author Katherine L. Mills of the University of New South Wales.

During the therapy, patients work with therapists to go back to their traumatic event and describe it in present tense, allowing the person to relive the trauma. By repeating this process, the brain reacts less severely over time, making the memory seem less traumatic.

University of New South Wales researchers enrolled 103 participants in their trial. All participants met the diagnostic criteria for both PTSD and substance abuse. The subjects were randomly selected to either receive both prolonged exposure therapy and treatment for substance abuse, or to only receive treatment for substance abuse.

At the nine-month mark, while both groups experienced reductions in PTSD symptoms, the subjects in the combined treatment group also showed a reduction in the severity of their PTSD symptoms without any increase in the severity of their substance abuse.

Continue Reading: thechart.cnn.com

By Michael Smith

The effects on growth and body composition of heavy prenatal exposure to alcohol are largely determined at birth and persist at least until age 9, researchers reported.

The finding, from a longitudinal study in South Africa, suggests that prenatal alcohol exposure may causes epigenetic changes that result in permanent restrictions on growth, according to R. Colin Carter, MD, of Children's Hospital Boston, and colleagues.

Most such effects did not get worse over time, however, Carter and colleagues wrote online in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

One important exception, they found, was that from 5 to 9, heavily exposed children had significantly slower growth in head circumference than did controls with low prenatal alcohol exposure.

The implications of the difference for later cognitive function are unclear, Carter and colleagues noted, and it's not yet known if it will persist.

The findings come from a long-running study in a poor community in Cape Town, South Africa, which has been following children born to 85 women who were heavy drinkers and 63 who were light drinkers or abstained completely.

For this analysis, heavy drinking was defined as two or more drinks a day or four or more drinks on a single occasion, while light drinking or abstention were defined as less than one drink a day and no binge drinking.

The children had their length/height, weight, and head circumference measured at 6.5 and 12 months, and again at 5 and 9 years. The researchers also measured iron deficiency in a subset of the cohort.

Continue Reading: medpagetoday.com

Scientists have made an important step in helping people who are suffering from addiction to opioid drugs like heroin.

A team from Adelaide and Colorado universities has discovered a receptor in the body's immune system that increases addiction to drugs such as heroin and morphine.

Both the central nervous and the immune systems influence addiction, but the study has shown only the immune response in the brain needs to be blocked to prevent cravings for opioid drugs.

They have found that the immune-addiction response can be blocked by a drug known as plus-naloxone.

The study's lead author, University of Adelaide research fellow Mark Hutchinson, says the results could eventually lead to new drugs that help patients with severe pain, as well as helping heroin users kick the habit.

"We're really excited about the opportunities that this presents for us in understanding the basic science behind drug addiction but also from the clinical perspective, the opportunities that it presents for safer pain relief and potentially treatment of drug addiction," he said.

Dr Hutchinson says opioid addiction is created when the chemical dopamine is produced in the brain, which causes a sense of 'reward' in the user.

He says plux-naxolone prevents that reaction from occurring.

"It really changes what we understand is actually happening in the brain and based on what we understand is happening in the brain," he said.

"We'd previously thought that the addiction was created by the wiring of the brain and solely the wiring of the brain.

"But what our study shows is that the immune-receptor Toll-Like receptor 4 is crucial for drug-reward to opioids and our drug specifically blocks this and nullifies the rewarding properties of opioids."

Dr Hutchinson says the discovery has implications ranging far beyond treating drug addiction.

Continue Reading: abcnews.net

Fatboy Slim took center stage to the Closing Ceremonies to the 2012 London Olympics, rocking the crowd as he performed atop a giant glowing octopus. Playing before millions of viewers worldwide was a high point for the British DJ, but the moment was made even sweeter by the demons that Fatboy Slim put behind him in the last three years.

Just before the Closing Ceremonies, Fatboy Slim spoke about beating alcoholism and his experience checking into rehab in 2009, NZCity.com reported.

"I gave up drinking three years and I've run Brighton Marathon," said Fatboy Slim, whose real name is Norman Cook. "Everything you do is a lot easier to deal with when you go to bed after a show rather than party for two days."

For his Closing Ceremony performance, Fatboy Slim came out following comedian Russell Brand's entrance on a psychedelic tour bus. The bus transformed into an octopus, with Fatboy Slim rising from it to perform hits "Right Here, Right Now" and "The Rockafeller Skank."

Fatboy Slim had to keep the performance a secret for eight months, The Argus reported.

"It was an honour to represent my country, it was a fantastic atmosphere in the stadium and backstage and I thought the show went really well," he told The Argus.

Continue Reading: inquisitr.com

Drunkorexia is when young women, and sometimes men, limit their amount of food consumption in order to reserve calories for consuming large amounts of alcohol at a time.

By Nikki Tucker

Since the beginning of 2012, the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention reported nearly one in six adults participate in binge drinking four times a month. The largest groups of binge drinkers are between the ages of 18 and 34 years old. New research from Simon Fraser University found an increasingly new popular form of binge drinking in what scholars coined "drunkorexia."

The CDC reported in 2006 binge drinking cost the average person $746, which includes health care expenses, crime and lost of productivity and accounts for 54 different injuries and diseases including car-related accidents, violence and sexually transmitted diseases.

Drunkorexia is when young women, and sometimes men, limit their amount of food consumption in order to reserve calories for consuming large amounts of alcohol at a time.

According to Daniella Sieukaran, a graduate student at Simon Fraser University, who is currently pursuing a degree in a combined MA/PhD in clinical psychology, found this combination of alcohol abuse and dieting can lead to greater alcohol-related risky behaviors, such as engaging in unprotected sex after drinking and alcohol overdose.

The study comprised of 227 York University students between the ages of 17 and 21. Sieukaran surveyed diet and drinking habits at the beginning and end of a four-month period.

Her study demonstrated there are three types of disordered eating, which includes dieting, emotional eating and eating response to external stimuli instead of hunger. Out of all three, dieting was linked to an increase in alcohol-related risk behaviors.

Continue Reading: medicaldaily.com

By Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Eminem, who battled an addiction to prescription drugs, thanked his fans at a New York concert for helping him get through dark times.

The 39-year-old told hundreds Thursday night that he "wouldn't have gotten out of that dark place without y'all" before he performed the Grammy-winning song "Not Afraid." He said the performance was "dedicated to anybody tonight who's been through personal struggles."

Eminem's addiction and climb to sobriety is detailed in his 2010 album "Recovery." It was that year's best-selling album.

At the Hammerstein Ballroom the rapper performed more than a dozen songs at an event for the watch brand G-Shock, including the hits "Lose Yourself," "Love the Way You Lie" and "The Real Slim Shady."

Continue Reading: bostonherald.com

By Palash R. Ghosh

Of Pakistan's many social ills, perhaps one of the most intractable problems the country faces has to do with hard drugs -- not only is Pakistan the principal hub for heroin smuggled out of neighboring Afghanistan, the country is also a massive consumer of narcotics itself.

Last year, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) warned that Pakistanis consume heroin valued at $1.2 billion every year.

While Pakistanis abuse a vast cornucopia of drugs, including cannabis, cocaine and amphetamines, the U.N. estimated that there are at least 500,000 hard-core heroin addicts in the country -- a direct result of the fact that Afghanistan produces 90 percent of the global opium and heroin, almost half of which is trafficked through Pakistan.

"Pakistan is particularly vulnerable to the trafficking of Afghan opiates and this poses a burden on public health, criminal justice and security systems," said Jeremy Douglas, UNODC representative in Pakistan in a statement.

In fact, the three Afghan provinces which grow the most poppy (the source of opium and heroin) -- Helmand, Kandahar and Farah - all border Pakistan. The two countries share a porous border that is about 1,500 miles long and virtually impossible to monitor.

Sher Ali Arbab, the national research development program officer at UNODC, told China's Xinhua news agency: "The drug traffickers have ... succeeded in forming a mini-market of heroin in Pakistan due to lawlessness in the [northwestern] tribal area which provides them an easy opportunity to transport drugs due to less influence of law enforcement agencies in the semi- autonomous tribal area."

These drugs are designed for markets in Europe, Russia, Australia and the U.S. -- however, much of it is left behind and used by people in Pakistan, Afghanistan as well as Iran, thereby creating a huge social problem that none of these nations are prepared to deal with. *For example, NPR reported that one-twelfth of Afghanistan's population -- about 3 million people -- is estimated to abuse drugs).

Continue Reading: ibtimes.com

By: Marc DeRoberts

Talking with your children about drug and alcohol abuse isn't easy, but having a solid plan will deliver your message with more impact.

News 2 has compiled resources from experts on the best way to speak with children of any age about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse.

Timetotalk.org has a "Talk Kit" for parents. They provide scenarios for how to have the talk with kids in preschool, grade school, middle school, high school, and even young adults 18-25.

Talking with preschool and grade school age children. Take a lesson from parenting expert, Jen Singer, when your preschooler or grade school age child sees an adult smoking. Here's what to say, "Grown ups can make their own decisions and sometimes those decisions aren't the best for their bodies. Sometimes, when someone starts smoking, his or her body feels like it has to have cigarettes-even though it's not healthy. And that makes it harder for him or her to quit."

Talking with your high school teenager. If your teen is starting high school their chances of exposure to drugs and alcohol increases. Here's how you can help prepare them for risky situations, "You must be so excited about starting high school... it's going to be a ton of fun, and we want you to have a great time. But we also know there's going to be some pressure to start drinking, smoking pot or taking other drugs. A lot of people feel like this is just what high school kids do. But not all high school kids drink! Many don't, which means it won't make you weird to choose not to drink, either. You can still have a lot of fun if you don't drink.

You'll have a lot of decisions to make about what you want to do in high school and you might even make some mistakes. Just know that you can talk to us about anything - even if you DO make a mistake. We won't freak out. We want you to count on us to help you make smart decisions and stay safe, okay?"

Continue Reading: digtriad.com

By Michael Martinez and David Ariosto

(CNN) -- Country music star Randy Travis, who pleaded no contest to public intoxication following the Super Bowl in February, was arrested again Tuesday after being found naked, smelling apparently of alcohol and lying on a remote stretch of roadway in northern Texas just before midnight, authorities said.

He was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated and felony retaliation, after allegedly threatening to fatally shoot highway patrol troopers who responded to a concerned caller who notified authorities of "a man lying in the roadway" Tuesday. The DWI offense is a misdemeanor, authorities said.

While in custody, Travis allegedly threatened "to shoot and kill the troopers working the case," Sgt. Rickey Wheeler of the Grayson County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday.

Travis, 53, allegedly refused to take a blood and breath test, and was later forced to submit to a judge's order for a blood specimen taken at a nearby hospital, Wheeler said.

Travis was driving his black 1998 Pontiac Trans Am when the vehicle drove off the north side of a two-lane highway just west of Tioga, where he resides, and struck several barricades in a construction zone, said Texas Highway Patrol Trooper Mark Tackett.

Travis was the only occupant in the one-vehicle crash, authorities said.

Travis was found naked, Tackett said.


Continue Reading: cnn.com

By Partha Sarathi Biswas

Eight years since its formation in Pune, 'Women in sobriety' - the women's fellowship group of Alcoholic Anonymous (AA) - has seen a rise in the number of women seeking help with their alcohol addiction. However, as coordinator of the group Gita (name changed on request) says the challenge for them is to reach out to women in smaller towns, who are struggling with being alcoholics.

"Easy availability of alcohol is a major cause for the rise in the number of alcoholics. However, unlike Pune, cities such as Nagpur, Indore, Satara and others do not have proper fellowships projects for people recovering from alcoholism," she said. Such people are referred to centres in cities like New Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Pune and Mumbai, where women's groups are functional.

Another important issue that has lead to an increase in incidents of alcoholism is peer pressure and the change in social fabric, where those not consuming alcohol are looked upon as social misfits.

The group works on the principle of AA, where alcoholics are encouraged to tackle their addiction with therapy and sharing. Working on the 12-point principle of AA, the group meets every Sunday, where members who have been sober for long share their experience with new members and give them moral strength to fight their addiction.


Continue Reading: dnaindia.com

By Kregg Janke

Actress Kristen Johnston is best known for playing Sally Solomon on the hit series "3rd Rock from the Sun," a role for which she earned two Supporting Actress Emmys.

The show ran for six seasons in the late 1990s and launched not only her Hollywood career, but also that of co-star Joseph Gordon-Levitt ("The Dark Knight Rises").

She has a new series airing Wednesdays on TV Land called "The Exes," in which she plays a divorce attorney who convinces three recently divorced clients, played by Wayne Knight ("Seinfeld"), Donald Faison ("Scrubs") and David Alan Basche ("The Starter Wife"), to move into the apartment across from hers. The show is a well-written throwback to multi-camera sitcoms and a true "situation comedy."

In the time between these series, Johnston worked steadily in Hollywood while also continuing her theatre career in New York. She also worked hard to hide an addiction which nearly took her life while performing in London for a play. She details her near-death experience with brutal honesty and a good dose of humor in her recently released book "Guts: The Endless Follies and Tiny Triumphs of a Giant Disaster."

In the book, Johnston takes readers through her journey from being a childhood "freak" growing up in Middle America (where her father was a Republican State Senator), to overnight fame and success with "3rd Rock" and through her addiction, near death and recovery.

Non-addicts may be concerned that such a book would only appeal to other addicts, but it is such an interesting story, and so well written and funny, that even a non-addict like me couldn't put it down.

Continue Reading: breitbart.com

How to keep our roads safe from reckless decisions

By Allison Algoso

He was to be president of his organization for the upcoming school year. He loved performing spoken word. He had a heart of gold. He was only 21 years old.

And due to drunk driving, his promising life has been cut short.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, one person is killed every 51 minutes due to an alcohol-impaired driving fatality. In 2010, there were 10,228 fatalities alone due to drunk driving, which made up 31% of the total motor vehicle accidents in the U.S.

So what do these numbers mean to college students?

Alcohol is a popular staple in any college atmosphere. Whether it's used as a peer pressure tactic, to relax with friends or to just party, alcohol consumption is everywhere you look. But as long as we make smart choices to ensure the safety of ourselves and others, it shouldn't be an issue. Yet it is.

I have to admit in my four years of college, this issue seems to be taken way too lightly. I'll see people who deny drinks at a party or at a bar and their friends respond with, "Oh come on, you're not down!" Although this phrase has the intention of letting their friend loosen up to have fun, we shouldn't be promoting this mentality. There's a time and place for everything, and if that person is driving, they shouldn't be giving into the pressure to prove they're down to drink.

The same works vice versa. People shouldn't be afraid to turn down drinks at a party or bar. In fact, it's probably the most responsible and smartest choice you can make in your entire college career. We live in a society where participating far off from mainstream culture automatically makes you an outcast. We need to start celebrating people who make the right choice to be safe. The next time you're out drinking and you have a friend who volunteered to be DD, thank that person. Not only is that person looking out for you, but that friend is also looking out for the other people on the road. Think about all the lives you're saving in that one decision.

Continue Reading: daily49er.com

By Brian Bethel

A recent report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration indicates that youths between the ages of 12 and 17 are more likely to start using drugs, alcohol and cigarettes during the summer than other portions of the year.

The findings struck a chord with some. Rod Pruitt, Safe and Effective Schools Services consultant for the Region 14 Education Service Center, said that June is "purported to be the month that marijuana is used more than any other month in the year."

"That's anecdotal from when I did crisis counseling working with runaways, truants and first offenders," he said. "But I've heard that statistic given in several different sources."

But Sgt. Brian Cokonougher, youth division school resource officer supervisor, said via email that what Abilene generally sees is a "huge decrease in drug and alcohol-related arrests during the summer months."

"Generally, there is a marked increase in property crime -- graffiti and vandalism -- and at times, violent crime, which subsides when school is back in session," he said.

The SAMHSA report, "Monthly Variation in Substance Use Initiation among Adolescents," found that, on an average day in June and July, more than 11,000 U.S. adolescents ages 12 to 17 use alcohol for the first time, while an average of 5,000 smoked cigarettes for the first time and more than 4,500 first started using marijuana.

Throughout the rest of the year, the daily average for first-time alcohol use ranges from 5,000 to 8,000 adolescents, according to the report, while the daily average of adolescents first smoking a cigarette is about 3,000 to 4,000 during the rest of the year.

Marijuana use sees about 3,000 to 4,000 youths starting use per day during months other than June and July, the report said.

Acadia Abilene, which offers substance abuse programs for ages 13-17, sees a steady number of participants throughout the year, said Sam Scarborough, community liaison for the mental health provider, with no particular spikes in the summertime.

Continue Reading: reporternews.com

By Cristina Corbin

An entire Massachusetts community is rallying behind a beloved high school coach, whose reputation they say was unfairly "dragged through the mud" when he was accused by an anonymous parent of serving alcohol to players.

Dwayne Follette, a longtime baseball and football coach at North Plymouth High School in Plymouth, Mass., was under investigation by police after school officials received an anonymous letter in June claiming the coach served alcohol to players at an end-of-year party.

But police on Thursday reportedly suspended their probe due to lack of evidence, and supporters of the coach claim the allegation was made up by a disgruntled parent upset over their child's lack of playing time on Follette's team.

"This is a disgrace," said Plymouth resident, Katie Kearney, whose 17-year-old son played on the high school's junior varsity baseball team.

"I feel horrible for what he's going through," Kearney told FoxNews.com on Friday. "He's a real role model. He lives for these kids."

Kearney is not alone. A Facebook page devoted to Follette was flooded with hundreds of comments of praise and support on Friday.


Continue Reading: foxnews.com

By Tracy López

His name is Maxim Molokoedov and every week day the 24-year-old Russian can be found on a soccer pitch in Santiago, Chile. Molokoedov wasn't recruited as a player from Dinamo St. Petersburg FC, the Russian Second Division team he used to play on, but from the Santiago penitentiary, where he lives as a prisoner incarcerated on drug trafficking charges.

In 2010, on a stopover in Santiago from Ecuador, Molokoedov was caught smuggling six kilos of cocaine which he had tried to conceal inside children's books. Sentenced to 3 years in prison, no one would have guessed that he would be playing soccer again, but Molokoedov can be seen juggling the ball down the field, his teammates calling to him, "Ruso, Ruso!" which simply means "Russian" in Spanish.

Initially, Molokoedov, who has now learned to speak Spanish heavy with prison slang, was scouted to play for the prison's soccer team but soon his talent was spotted by a professional team called Santiago Morning.

"I saw in him many footballing and physical qualities," prison team coach Frank Lobos told the BBC. "Regardless of his situation we decided to reintegrate him into society...We got the relevant permissions so he could demonstrate through football all his qualities, and so that he could demonstrate to society that ... it is possible to reintegrate people that were deprived of their freedom through football."


Continue Reading: foxnews.com

By Maia Szalavitz

Childhood trauma has long been known to raise a child's odds of developing depression and addiction later on. Now, a small but intriguing new study links these risks to specific changes in the brain, finding that disruptions in certain neural networks are associated with increased chances of substance use disorders, depression or both in teens.

Researchers at the University of Texas studied 32 teens, 19 of whom had been maltreated in childhood but did not have a current psychiatric disorder. The researchers defined child trauma or maltreatment as any type of significant abuse or neglect lasting six months or longer, or a major traumatic experience like life-threatening illness, witnessing domestic violence or losing a parent before age 10. The other 13 participants in the study served as the control group, having no history of major child trauma or psychiatric problems.

All of the teens were followed up every six months for an average of three and a half years. During that time, the authors found that five of the maltreated children and one control had developed major depression and four of the maltreated children and one control had developed substance use disorders. (Two of the maltreated children had both a drug problem and depression.) This meant that nearly half the maltreated children had a either a diagnosable drug problem or depression or both, three times the rate seen in controls.

Using a brain-imaging technique that measures the integrity of the white matter that connects various brain regions, the researchers looked for any differences in the teens' brains when they were first enrolled in the study, before they had developed any psychiatric problems. The scans showed that kids who had been maltreated showed connectivity problems in several brain areas, including the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), which is involved in planning behavior and, usually on the left side of the brain, in language processing.

Another affected region was the right cingulum-hippocampus projection (CGH-R). This tract helps connect the brain's emotional processing regions with those involved in more abstract thought, ideally allowing the person to integrate both types of information and to regulate their response to emotional stress.

Continue Reading: time.com