Christian Drug Treatment and Rehab Blog

Recovery Includes Giving Back

2012-05-25T05:43:00.000-07:00

Living (Judy Collins album) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of the really beautiful parts of recovery is being of service to the community, giving back so that others can learn about recovery from addiction. Giving back might include volunteering with veterans' organization, or working with families who are struggling to get back on their feet. It might mean taking on a weekly or daily task at one's Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting. It could mean writing a book about your own recovery - sharing your story. It could mean performing at a benefit concert. In recovery it is often referred to as sharing your experience, faith and hope.

So it was, this past week when singer/songstress Judy Collins was the keynote speaker at an event at the Father Martin Ashley Center honoring Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack. Judy told her story of recovery, according to the Baltimore Sun article,

"Collins hasn't had a drink since that spring 24 years ago [1988], and now the woman with the voice like a crystal bell uses that voice to talk about her recovery and to urge others to seek treatment...Alcoholism is a family disease, of course. Collins inherited it from her father and passed it on to her son, who took his life in 1992 at the age of 33 when he relapsed after seven years of sobriety. Collins is now an advocate for suicide prevention as well. She had tried to take her own life as a teen, and the booze made her suicidal, too. But she was always too drunk to form a plan."

Here is an ABC News Video featuring Father Beck interviewing Judy Collins. She talks about alcoholism, depression, her spirituality. Judy continues to be of service in the recovery community, her most recent memoir is "Sweet Judy Blue Eyes: My Life in Music"

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Drug Treatment Can Impact Crime Rates

2012-05-18T08:15:00.001-07:00

Seal of the United States Office of National Drug Control Policy, a part of the Executive Office of the President. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Each year the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy issues its drug monitoring report. Three keys items were highlighted in this year's report:

Illegal drugs play a central role in criminal acts reinforcing the view that drugs are a public health issue and if treated as so, the crime rate could be reduced
Cocaine use has declined since 2003, which may have resulted from public education campaigns
Since 1979 the rate of overall drug use in the U.S. has declined by about 30%

While this is all positive news, still there are other startling statistics. For example, according to the Reuters article: "on average 71 percent of men arrested in 10 U.S. metropolitan areas last year tested positive for an illegal substance at the time they were taken into custody."

Government officials are now working on a strategy to break the cycle of drugs and crime by promoting substance abuse treatment as opposed to jail for nonviolent offenders. Promoting this strategy would dovetail with the 2600+ drug courts that currently operate in the United States.

Dr. Redonna Chandler of the National Institute on Drug Abuse reminds us "5 million of an estimated 7 million American who line under criminal justice supervision would benefit from drug treatment intervention. But only 7.6 percent actually receive treatment."

Recovery and Relapse - Don't Give Up

2012-05-11T06:22:00.000-07:00

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)If you are a regular reader of our blog, you might remember almost two years ago we featured Josh Hamilton. It was 2010 and Josh had just been named the American League's Most Valuable Player. It was an exciting time for Josh. He was in recovery, he was sober and he was happy to talk about his relationship with God. His story was inspirational for many.

But as many people in recovery know, relapse can happen. And it did for Josh. Twice since 2010 Josh has relapsed, but as he says today: "My recovery is an everyday process." This past week, Josh made baseball news again by being the 16th person in major league baseball history to hit four home runs in one game! Simply amazing...

Here's Josh being interviewed on ABC's Good Morning America.

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Breaking the Cycle

2012-05-04T12:34:00.001-07:00

Teenagers and young adults across the country are at the greatest risk of being influenced by drugs and alcohol and are even more susceptible to addiction. Those who enter treatment these days are younger and younger than in the past which is indicative of the fact that we need to monitor our children’s influences more than we have in the past.

Please take the time to read the thoughts of Susan Richardson, the National Executive Director for Reclaiming Futures:

”Almost two million American youth need treatment for alcohol and other drug use or abuse. But only 1 in 20 will receive treatment.

Research shows that teens with substance abuse problems are more likely to break the law, behave violently or drop out of school. In fact, 4 out of 5 young people in the juvenile justice system commit crimes while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Young people need to be held accountable when they break the law. Unless they receive treatment for a substance abuse problem that helped them get in trouble in the first place, they will often find themselves back in juvenile court again and again.

That’s where Reclaiming Futures comes in. By connecting juvenile courts with treatment providers and community members, we help teens overcome drugs, alcohol and crime.
We accomplish this by creating teams of juvenile court judges, probation officers, substance abuse treatment professionals and community members. Using an evidence-based six-step model, the team works together to ensure that teens get the treatment and services they need, while tracking their progress and identifying service gaps.

So how does the model work?

Step 1: Initial Screening: As soon as possible after being referred to the juvenile justice system, youth are screened for possible substance abuse problems.

Step 2: Initial Assessment: Teens with possible substance abuse problems are assessed using a reputable tool to measure their use of alcohol and other drugs, individual and family risks, needs and strengths. This allows the team to measure the severity of the problem, which informs the treatment plan.

Step 3: Service Coordination: The team designs and coordinates an intervention plan that is family driven, spans agency boundaries and draws upon community-based resources.
Step 4: Initiation: Treatment begins.

Step 5: Engagement: The team engages both the teens and their families and follows up with them during treatment.

Step 6: Transition: Teens transition out of agency-based treatment services. The team makes sure that kids and their families have community resources and support in place, in order to lower the risk of relapse and recidivism.

It’s essential for the family and community to be involved throughout the process because almost every young person who appears in juvenile court eventually returns home. In order to stay drug and crime free, teens need positive mentors and caring adults in their lives. They also need help with completing school and finding a job, which is why Step 6 is so important – troubled young people need help transitioning from the juvenile system to a happy and productive adult life.

We’re not the only ones who understand the importance of connecting teens with quality treatment and care. The Obama Administration’s 2012 National Drug Control Strategy prioritizes treatment and coordinated care to people struggling with addiction. As part of the Strategy, we are working with the Administration to spread our model throughout the United States to improve treatment for youth involved with the juvenile justice system. We believe we are a solution for the entire nation.”

National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day

2012-04-27T19:57:00.001-07:00

We are approaching the National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day which is ever so crucial in the fight against prescription drug abuse. More people start using prescription drugs from friends or family, rather than going to a doctor for a prescription. Please take the time to read Michele Leonhart’s, the Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, thoughts:

“Prescription drug abuse is perhaps our nation’s most significant drug problem, and trends over the past decade indicate this problem will only worsen, particularly among young adults and teens. While the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and law enforcement represent an important dimension in this fight, we are not the only ones. It will take our combined efforts to combat this problem, and the more we can do together to both educate our children early and make drugs more difficult to get, the more successful we will be.

Far too often legitimately prescribed drugs sit in our medicine cabinets and junk drawers, unused and forgotten. But to our children and young adults who don’t understand the dangers of these legal, yet powerful prescription drugs, experimentation and abuse have grave consequences.

So how do you rid your home of these medicines? In the past, we’ve simply flushed them down the toilet or thrown them in the trash. However, we’ve learned more about the negative effects these drugs can have on our environment, as well as their potential for theft and abuse.

Recognizing these problems, DEA has taken action. On September 25, 2010, we held our first National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day. The turnout for this event demonstrated that we had identified a pressing need, with an astounding 121 tons of unwanted, unused or expired medication brought in for proper disposal. Since then, we have held a Take-Back event every six months, and so far, we’ve taken nearly 500 tons of pills out of America’s medicine cabinets.

We are also working toward a permanent solution to this problem. DEA continues to prepare the final rules and procedures for the rollout of the Safe and Secure Drug Disposal Act. This will allow people to dispose of their drugs in a safe manner every day, not only during our Take-Back events, and we hope to have these regulations in place by the end of the year. But until then, we remain committed to giving parents, grandparents, caregivers—everyone—a safe way to discard potentially harmful drugs, and will sponsor these events until the final disposal procedures are in place.

Our next Take-Back Day event is April 28th and with your continued assistance, I’m sure it will be another success. Information about the event and drop-off locations are available on www.DEA.gov -simply click on the Got Drugs banner and enter your zip code, and the locations nearest to you will come up.”

University of Colorado Four-Twenty Battle

2012-04-20T12:35:00.002-07:00

April 20th has unofficially become the holiday of marijuana use across the country: A day where pot users join together in solidarity to celebrate the use of the drug. Students from the University of Colorado-Boulder have held a 4/20 celebration for many years now on campus, but this year may be a little bit harder for those in favor of celebrating.

Officials at the University of Colorado-Boulder are trying to prevent thousands from gathering today for the annual 4/20 marijuana celebration. One deterrent they came up with was to spread smelly fish-based fertilizer on campus as a deterrent.

“We don’t consider this a protest. We consider this people smoking pot in the sunshine,” university spokesman Bronson Hilliard told the Associated Press. “This is a gathering of people engaging in an illegal activity.”

The holiday is not just about sitting in circles and getting high with one’s peers, those who attend such events are rallying to legalize marijuana across the world which is no easy task considering that in our country alone the drug has been stigmatized for over 70 years.

Last year, more than 10,000 people, both students and non-students, attended a 4/20 celebration on the University of Colorado-Boulder campus, the AP reports. This year is going to be different because officials are closing the campus to all unauthorized visitors which will most likely stir up a protest. Another, surprising countermeasure to the movement was to hold a free campus concert by Wyclef Jean, a respected hip-hop artist to coincide with the most important time 4:20 pm.

Colorado was named the nation’s top party school in 2011 by Playboy magazine.

Drinking During Pregnancy

2012-04-13T15:35:00.001-07:00

Drinking alcohol while pregnant continues to be a major problem across the globe. Many women fail to realize how serious consuming alcohol during the pregnancy can be with regard to their fetus. A new study that was just conducted found that there are a good number of women that continue to drink during pregnancy, but at modest levels.

Erika Comasco, Ph.D., from Uppsala University in Sweden, and colleagues collected data on alcohol consumption before and during pregnancy among 2,264 women from a Swedish antenatal clinic, using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT).

89 percent of the women reported regularly consuming alcohol and 49 percent reported occasional or frequent binge drinking before pregnancy. Twelve percent of women continued using alcohol and 5 percent admitted binge drinking during pregnancy. Fifteen percent of women reported using nicotine before pregnancy, while 5 percent admitted using nicotine during pregnancy.

"While the AUDIT results suggested that a significant number of women continued using alcohol during pregnancy, implying a risk for fetal disorders, the biomarkers showed negative test values thus indicating only modest drinking levels," the authors write. "The continuation of this study will investigate the development of children exposed to alcohol during fetal life, together with other pre- and postnatal factors, genetic factors, and behavioral characteristics."

More Prescription Painkiller Prescriptions Than Ever

2012-04-06T17:49:00.001-07:00

Sadly, the number of painkillers being prescribed across the country is on the rise due to an aging population with pain problems as well as the rise of people addicted to prescription opiates, according to an analysis by the Associated Press. Rural areas are some of the hardest hit which is the result of a lack of street drugs like heroin being available.

There has been a large increase in the distribution of oxycodone between 2000 and 2010 in many areas. Hydrocodone use is rising in Appalachia and in the Midwest, the AP found, after analyzing data from the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The increase in prescription painkiller has resulted in more overdoses and pharmacy robberies, the article notes. In the past ten years, prescription opiate overdoses more than tripled, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

An estimated 14,800 people died in the United States from painkiller overdoses in 2008, more than a threefold jump from the 4,000 deaths recorded in 1999, the CDC said in a report released last November. The need for a national prescription drug monitoring system is great, 48 states have prescription drug monitoring programs, but few are linked together; according to the AP.

More people now die from painkillers than from heroin and cocaine combined.

National Prescription Drug Database

2012-03-30T15:40:00.001-07:00

Most states have a prescription drug database in one form or another which helps doctors monitor people who doctor shop and abuse pharmaceuticals. Such programs have proven to be effective, but do very little if someone decides to travel out of the state and into another. There is a need for a national prescription drug database that would link all of the preexisting databases together.

Fortunately, a federal bill introduced Thursday would do just that by combining all of the monitoring systems. The bill was introduced by a bipartisan group of House and Senate legislators and is being called the Interstate Drug Monitoring Efficiency and Data Sharing Act, The Hill reports.

“While my region of Southern and Eastern Kentucky became ground zero for the abuse of prescription drugs a decade ago, it is now wreaking havoc on communities small and large and cutting across socioeconomic and gender lines,” Rogers said in a news release.

“Prescription drug monitoring programs are one of the most efficient and cost-effective tools in our arsenal to cut back on this abuse, bridging the gap between legitimate medical need and potential misuse.”

Currently, 48 states have prescription drug monitoring programs.

Cocaine Contributed to Whitney Houston Death

2012-03-23T16:56:00.002-07:00

It was no secret that over the years Whitney Houston struggled with drugs - especially cocaine. The initial autopsy conducted by the Los Angeles County Coroner showed that cocaine use and heart disease both played a part in Whitney Houston’s death when she accidentally drowned in a hotel bathtub.

Chief Coroner Craig Harvey said the singer had appeared to have used cocaine “in the time period just immediately prior to her collapse in the bathtub at the hotel” on February 11. Coupled with a 60 percent narrowing of her arteries, suggesting that “a cardiac event complicated by the cocaine use” led to Houston’s slipping underwater.

The toxicology tests showed that other substances were also present, but did not contribute to her death, according to the report.

Those drugs included:

marijuana
Xanax
Flexeril
Benadryl

The final coroner report is scheduled to be made public within the next two weeks.

Smoking and Drinking Major Concern With Children

2012-03-16T07:02:00.001-07:00

There is no question, the early years of our life are the most important. At no other time in our life are we more Susceptible to outside influences. What we see, what we hear can dramatically affect the course of our lives.

A new study just released found that children ages 10 to 12 feel ambivalent about smoking and drinking! The most important time to guide people on the right course is in their youth, naturally it is the most delicate time. It is fair to say that lead researcher Dr. Roisin O’Connor of Concordia University in Canada believes the same.

She says the recent results indicate the “tween” years are an important time to prevent substance abuse. “We need to be concerned when kids are ambivalent because this is when they may be more easily swayed by social influences,” she said in a news release.

400 children participated in a computer-based test that required them to place pictures of cigarettes and alcohol with positive or negative words. The children initially thought cigarettes and alcohol were bad, however, they able to start thinking of them as good with ease, when they were asked to place them with positive words.

“From this we saw how well the participants were able to categorize the pictures in the way that was asked. Using a mathematical formula of probabilities, we were able to identify how often responses were answered with impulsive and thoughtful processes as they related to drinking and smoking,” she said.

You can view the study in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

Alcohol In The Movies

2012-03-09T14:04:00.001-08:00

It is no secret that in today’s age our children’s most influential medium is film. What children and young adults see in movies can greatly influence one’s behavior - including drug and alcohol use. A new study conducted in six European nations has found that when children see drinking in movies it will influence their own drinking habits.

More than 16,000 students, ages 10 to 19, in: Germany, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Scotland were given surveys. They were asked to check off which of 50 movies that were popular in their country they had seen. Researchers then counted how many times characters were shown drinking alcohol, according to Reuters. At least 86 percent of the movies had at least one drinking scene.

The amount of exposure to alcohol in the movies was compared with how many teens reported having had taken part in binge drinking (having five or more drinks on a single occasion). Twenty-seven percent of the students reported binge drinking at least once. Between 10 to 20 percent of students who viewed the least on-screen drinking had binged themselves, compared with 40 percent who had seen the most on-screen drinking.

Study author Reiner Hanewinkel, PhD, told Reuters that teenagers “have seen at least thousands of impressions of smoking and drinking, so it shapes their attitude that these kinds of behavior are adult-like behavior. It makes the alcohol drinking look cool and sexy and so-on.”

Interstate Sharing of PMP’s

2012-03-02T09:41:00.001-08:00

There are an estimated seven million Americans abusing prescription drugs, and there were 1.2 million emergency department visits related to misuse or abuse of prescription drugs in 2009 alone. There is no longer any question as to whether or not prescription drug abuse is an epidemic that costs people their lives and costs this nation billions of dollars every year.

Every state is dealing with this problem in its own way, but, there are some standard practices being used to cut down on the problem. Prescription drug databases, known as prescription monitoring programs (PMPs), is one way states have been fighting prescription drug abuse. These programs have proven to be quite effective as long as the right people have access to them. There are number of people who will cross state lines in order to doctor shop in a state where they have no record in the states PMP, then they will travel back to their home state with their drugs to sell or abuse.

All 50 states need to work together by sharing access to their databases to target doctor shopping and pill mills. The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy® (NABP®) PMP InterConnectSM enhances the ability of prescription monitoring programs (PMPs) to prevent the diversion of controlled substance drugs by facilitating the transfer of PMP data across state lines to authorized PMP users in participating states. If every state worked together using the same PMP it would make it much harder for people to get their hands on prescription narcotics.

The implementation of state PMPs, will better identify doctor shoppers and pill mills and surely help curb this terrible epidemic.

Surgeons With Alcohol Problems

2012-02-23T11:34:00.001-08:00

Working in the field of medicine can be a high stress job especially if one is a doctor performing surgery. A number of surgeons choose to use alcohol as a coping mechanism, which in a number of cases has led to addiction according to a new study. Researchers found that about 15 percent have alcohol abuse or dependency problems, a rate above the general population’s nine percent.

What’s frightening about these statistics is that surgeons who showed signs of alcoholism were 45 percent more likely to admit that they had a major medical error in the past three months, according to Reuters.

Michael Oreskovich at the University of Washington headed up the new study. A survey was sent to more than 25,000 surgeons and 7,200 of them reported alcohol abuse or dependency.

Oreskovich said, “The nature of the beast is that the percent of emergencies, the percent of after-hours work and actual scheduled work itself all require an energy and concentration that is really different than a lot of other specialties.”

The study was published in the Archives of Surgery

National Guard At Risk Of Alcohol Abuse

2012-02-17T18:29:00.000-08:00

Serving in the military can be extremely hard on people, mentally and physically, due to nature of the job. Post traumatic stress affects countless soldiers in every branch of the military and it is often the case that drugs and alcohol become veterans’ coping mechanism. A new study has found that National Guard soldiers who do not have a history of alcohol abuse have a huge potential of developing alcohol-related problems while they are deployed and afterwards.

963 soldiers in the Ohio Army National Guard who said they had not abused alcohol prior to their active duty took part in the study conducted by researchers at Columbia University. The study found 113 soldiers, or 11.7 percent, reported an alcohol abuse disorder first occurring while they were deployed or afterwards. Among these soldiers, 31 percent also reported depression, 20 percent reported PTSD, and 13 percent reported both, the researchers write in Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

Among soldiers who developed alcohol abuse problems:

97 percent were male
74 percent were younger than 35 years old
45 percent were single

“A novel finding of our study is that developing depression or PTSD during or after deployment were strong risk factors for having alcohol problems during the same time period,” researcher Brandon Marshall, PhD said in a news release. He noted that because new cases of alcohol abuse were most common among soldiers who experienced depression and PTSD, it is possible that these soldiers self-medicate with alcohol to cope with negative feelings and the stress of deployment.

“The high prevalence of alcohol abuse during and after deployment observed here suggests that policies that promote improved access to care and confidentiality merit strong consideration,” he added.

Source:
Medicalxpress

The Life of Mark David Allen

2012-02-10T15:27:00.000-08:00

Many of us in the addiction and recovery community of Southern California and across the country are familiar with the sad story of the life of Mark David Allen. Mark was a diehard alcoholic who resided in Newport Beach for years and left a mind boggling trail of arrests in his wake before passing away face down in the street at age 50 on Wednesday, February 1, 2012. 520 arrests in Newport Beach, at least 277 cases filed against him by prosecutors in Orange County, and an unknown number in Hawaii or any other place he may have lived over his life time.

Over the years alcohol dramatically affected Allen’s life and the transformation he endured was documented by Newport Beach Police Custody Officer David J. Sperling. For more than a decade, Sperling recorded Allen's frequent visits into the city jail, recording Allen's 500th arrest last summer. No matter how hard people tried to help Allen find his way into a life of recovery, it never worked as he would always find his way back into a bottle.

While Allen’s story may be a sad one, to many outsiders it might sound like the same old story, alcoholic can’t stop drinking - alcoholic dies. However, when Allen allowed Officer Sperling to create a documentary with the footage he had collected over the years he did a great service. The documentary titled “Drunk in Public” shows firsthand what alcohol can do to someone, where it can take you, and how it can kill you if something doesn’t change.

Sperling said Allen's life is a cautionary tale.

"Mark brought it all to life, the whole concept of: 'If you do this, this is what's going to happen,'" he said. "With Mark you got to see the despair acted out. He's living the rock bottom and showing people it's not all it's cracked up to be."

"Drunk in Public" has won awards at film festivals across the country and it is nothing short of a masterpiece. If you haven’t had an opportunity to watch the film we strongly suggest that you take the time.

We pray for Mark and invite you to watch a trailer from “Drunk in Public”.

A Hidden Crisis On The Roads

2012-02-03T15:22:00.000-08:00

Schumer Called Drugged-Driving “a hidden crisis on the roads”

As more and more people receive prescriptions for powerful pain narcotics like oxycodone, there are more drugged-drivers than ever which has become a major health concern. This is why a New York Senator is pushing for $140 million dollars for research into drugged-driving tests.

People arrested for driving on drugs has surged 35% statewide in the past decade, but the tests required to catch more of them are essential, Sen. Chuck Schumer said Sunday.

“If people next year knew that they’d be tested for drugged driving just like they are tested for drunk driving, it might deter them from doing it to begin with and save lives,” Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters in midtown.

Schumer is sponsoring legislation that would bring $140 million in National Highway Transportation Safety Administration funding for research to create tests that police can use when conducting traffic stops where they suspect the driver of being high. Schumer believes that there should be a push to create saliva swab tests and even a breath test.

Unfortunately, there is currently no way for a police officer to test for drugs on the scene, suspected offenders need to be brought downtown and tested either at the station or a medical facility which can be taxing for everyone.

Some of the money would go towards training the police in recognizing signs of drivers’ drug use.

Again, prescription drug abuse has been on the rise across the country in the past decade, statewide arrests in New York for drugged-driving have increased 35%.

Doctors At Risk In Emergency Rooms

2012-01-27T14:03:00.000-08:00

Doctor shopping is a major concern for officials trying to stop the prescription drug abuse epidemic crippling this country. Florida emergency rooms have become a frequent stop for addicts looking for pain killers. Doctor shopping typically involves a patient going to a number of different doctors to get prescriptions for the same drugs. Before the advent of databases such practices were considered easy, now it has become more difficult and patients have begun going to the emergency rooms looking for their “fix”. Some doctors are afraid to go to work due to a number of patients becoming violent.

Addicts go to hospital emergency rooms to get prescriptions for their habits, usually during off hours or on a Friday when it's more difficult to check with the patient's primary care physician. County leaders and doctors from Florida Hospital and Orlando Health announced a new plan last Wednesday to cut off people addicted to pain pills, WFTV learned. The announcement was made at the Orange County Administration building, where doctors claim the problem is so bad they're being threatened by the addicts.

Guidelines for doctors to consider before treating a patient have been formed for all Orlando Health and Florida Hospitals, officials said. Hospitals will start tapping into a regional health care database to keep track of repeat visitors, said officials.

"Have your doctors ever been threatened by people who they refuse to give the drugs to?" WFTV reporter Daralene Jones asked.

"Yes. At many different hospitals there have been threats to doctors, nursing staff, and we want to maintain the hospital as a safe place for people to come," said Josef Thundiyil of Orlando Health.

Doctors told WFTV they want lawmakers to stiffen penalties for people who assault the doctors who treat them.

"Addiction is best treated and pain is best treated if there is a single person treating it," said Thundiyil.

Officials with the Center for Drug Free Living said their centers are at capacity and the state wants to cut nearly $1 million next year, unfortunately, more money will be needed if this problem is to be combated.

"We have to turn people away every day," said Dr. Stacy Seikel of the Center for Drug Free Living.

Federal Medical Marijuana Crack Down

2012-01-20T13:26:00.000-08:00

In the past few months the federal government has begun cracking down on medical marijuana programs across the board. Dispensaries, people who lease office space to dispensary owners, and even patient growers are at risk of prosecution despite state law that gives such people permission to take part in the medical marijuana program. There are a number of individuals who have not taken the warnings from the federal government seriously who may find themselves in trouble if they do not heed the call.

In the last year, U.S. attorneys sent warning letters to several states regarding medical marijuana laws: Stating that people involved in the growing, dispensing, and regulating of medical marijuana have the potential to be prosecuted, despite following state laws. The letters were sent to officials in:

Colorado
Washington
California
Montana
Rhode Island

Colorado U.S. Attorney John Walsh, says that the 23 marijuana dispensaries located near schools in Colorado that received warning letters last week telling them they must shut down should take the warning seriously.

He told the Associated Press the letters informed the dispensaries owners and their landlords that they have until February 27 to shut down, move, or else face federal penalties. Owners of the dispensaries and the property on which they are located could lose their assets and property, and they may also be facing criminal prosecution.

“We haven’t been sitting by. We’ve been taking marijuana enforcement action,” disputing the claim that the federal government has backed Colorado’s marijuana industry by not increasing enforcement, Walsh told the AP.

Walsh claims that some surveys show that medical marijuana has increased drug use among teenagers.

What Drives People to Drink?

2012-01-13T15:21:00.000-08:00

Most people have a hard time understanding what drives people to drink or drug excessively. While we have a better understanding now than ever before in history, there are still many unanswered questions. New research is being conducted every day, shedding new light on this age old problem.

A new study provides clues about what is happening in the brain that drives people to abuse alcohol. The study found a link between how good people feel after they drink, and the amount of endorphins, proteins with opiate-like effects, released in their brain.

Findings like these have been seen in animal studies, but this is the first time they have been observed in humans, according to a news release by UCSF. The research was conducted at the University of California, San Francisco, one of the best medical schools in the country. “This is something that we’ve speculated about for 30 years, based on animal studies, but haven’t observed in humans until now,” said lead author Jennifer Mitchell, PhD. “It provides the first direct evidence of how alcohol makes people feel good.”

Researchers studied 25 volunteers; 13 were heavy social drinkers and 12 were not. Women were considered heavy social drinkers if they consumed 10 to 16 drinks a week, while men in that category had 14 to 20 drinks weekly, CNN reports. Women who were not heavy social drinkers had fewer than five drinks a week, while the men had fewer than seven drinks.

Brains were scanned using positron emission tomography (PET) to examine the distribution of chemicals produced in response to drinking. One drink led to the release of more endorphins in two brain regions that play a role in pleasure and reward for heavy drinkers. They perceived drinking as more pleasurable than the non-heavy drinkers. That feeling leads them to crave alcohol, the researchers said.

The findings appear in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

200 Million People World Wide Use Illegal Drugs

2012-01-06T15:21:00.000-08:00

Drug and alcohol abuse is a worldwide problem with far reaching effects on society. A new report conducted recently came back with some figures that are quite startling. The study found that there are an estimated 200 million people worldwide use illegal drugs, reports the LA Times.

Here are the numbers:

125 to 203 million people use marijuana
14 million to 56 million use amphetamines
12 million to 21 million use opioids
14 million to 21 million use cocaine

On top of that:

11 million to 21 million inject drugs
An estimated 15 million to 39 million are considered problem drug users

Researchers found that illegal drug use is the worst in developed countries, with a number of people using more than one substance.

The figures on loss of life are not to pleasing, according to the World Health Organization, in 2004:

Drugs caused 2.1 million years of life lost
Alcohol caused a loss of 1.5 million years

Overall, illegal drugs led to 250,000 deaths in 2004, compared with 5.1 million deaths due to tobacco, and 2.25 million due to alcohol.

Military Using Synthetic Marijuana

2011-12-30T19:34:00.000-08:00

In the last year we have seen a rise in synthetic drugs sending people to the emergency room. Synthetic marijuana like Spice and bath salts like Ivory Wave contain chemicals that mimic other illegal drugs causing hallucinations that can go on for several days. Typically you hear of teenagers and college students abusing these substances; however, since it is difficult to drug test for synthetic drugs there has been a rise in use with the military.

Just two years ago there were only 29 Marines and sailors who were suspected of using such drugs, but this year the number jumped to over 700. This exponential jump has officials alarmed and concerned due to the fact that jobs in the military require that individuals be on point because lives are often at risk. An investigation has been launched on more than 1,100 suspected users.

Synthetic drugs are relatively easy to come by; the Internet is perhaps the most popular place to purchase them. You can also find them in smoke-shops and in some places even gas stations.

"You can just imagine the work that we do in a military environment," said Mark Ridley, deputy director of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, adding, "You need to be in your right mind when you do a job. That's why the Navy has always taken a zero tolerance policy toward drugs."

Those found guilty of using Spice are kicked out, although the Navy does not track the overall number of dismissals. Fortunately, tests are being developed and chemicals used to make these drugs are fast becoming illegal to purchase.

The Midnight Mission

2011-12-23T11:51:00.000-08:00

“Giving support is just as therapeutic as getting it” - NBC’s Jane Pauley

Recovery finds addicts the same way addicts find recovery, as is the case for most people working a program of recovery. The process of getting back in touch with oneself is often a long hard road, there is no time limit on how long one will be in the grips of addiction, although, the longer one dances with fate the greater the chance that addiction will take one’s life or everything worth living for.

Recovery involves surrender, coming to terms with the fact that you cannot control everything, let alone addiction. Surrendering to oneself and to others is perhaps the most important aspect of recovery, which is something that Orlando Ward had to figure out the same way every other addict who has hit rock bottom did.

At the age of 51, after ten years at the Midnight Mission, a homeless center in Los Angeles, Ward has achieved the executive position. Alcohol took everything from Orlando, but, with the help of the Midnight Mission and a higher power Ward has managed to work a successful program of recovery for 12 years.

He is a sign of hope for all those who have are homeless and have hit rock bottom as a result of their battle with addiction. We encourage everyone to watch the short video clip below as we hope that everyone has happy holidays.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Smoking May Cause Skin Cancer

2011-12-16T16:52:00.000-08:00

Cigarettes are perhaps the hardest drug to quit and users have a high potential for relapse. While tobacco may not be the worst drug one could consume it still happens to be extremely harmful to one’s health and very addictive. Every year, thousands of people lose their life to health conditions that are a result of prolonged tobacco usage. Every case is different, but in most cases cancer is the cause of death, typically lung cancer or mouth and throat cancer.

A new study was conducted and the results may tie smoking with a particular type of skin cancer called squamous cell carcinoma in women. Women with squamous cell carcinoma were almost four times more likely than women without the cancer to have smoked for 20 or more years, according to a news release from Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, where the study was conducted.

The study included 383 patients with skin cancer and 315 people without the disease. They were asked:

How much they smoked
When they started
How many years in total they smoked

Smoking did not appear to significantly increase men’s risk of skin cancer. Lead author Dana Rollison said she did not know why they found a gender difference in smoking risk. The female hormone estrogen may affect the breakdown of nicotine in the body, and the body’s ability to repair damage to lung DNA that is caused by smoking.

The authors pointed out that while the study found a link between smoking and skin cancer risk, it did not prove smoking causes skin cancer.

The study appears in the journal Cancer Causes & Control.

Danae Miller Goes to Trial

2011-12-09T13:49:00.000-08:00

Amine Britel

Last February in the affluent coastal community of Newport Beach, California, a bicyclist lost his life when a drunk driver was texting while on the road and veered into the rider. Orange County Superior Court Judge Derek G. Johnson ruled Thursday, December 1, 2011, that 23 year old Danae Miller will stand trial. If convicted she faces up to 10 years in prison for gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. The felony charge is the result of an accident on San Joaquin Hills Road that killed Amine Britel, a Moroccan athlete who came to the United States and ran a local business.

Initially, Miller told authorities that she had not been drinking before she got behind the wheel on that fateful day. She also claimed that she had not been using her cell phone either; however, phone records indicated that she had been exchanging text messages with friends in the minutes leading up to the crash. A blood test after the crash showed Miller had a blood alcohol concentration of .10, above the legal limit.

Danae Miller had a history of bad driving, to the point where it’s a wonder how she still had a driver’s license. According to court records, Miller had been cited a total of 16 times for alleged traffic violations. The Daily Pilot reports that Miller received six tickets for speeding or driving too fast for conditions each year between 2005 and 2009, a ticket in 2006 for driving the wrong way on a street, a failure to stop at a stop sign in 2007, and tickets in 2009 and 2010 for talking on her cell phone while speeding.

As sad as it is, Miller’s record clearly showed she was a hazard to herself and to others, yet, for some reason the DMV didn’t pull her license and something tragic occurred. Miller is out on $100,000 bail and is scheduled back in court on December 12th.

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The Midnight Mission

Smoking May Cause Skin Cancer

Danae Miller Goes to Trial