In the world of teen substance abuse and addiction, success stories can be hard to find. But Karen McLaughlin is one such story.

A press release on the website of Britain's Prince's Trust organization provided the following details about McLaughlin's efforts to overcome addiction and earn a "Young Achiever" award from the Prince of Wales:

Award winners included reformed addict Karen McLaughlin, 26, who started on a downward spiral of drugs at age 11, beginning with cannabis, escalating to amphetamines and eventually heroin.

A 12-week development course with The Prince’s Trust helped Karen get her life back on track. She has now written a paper on substance misuse for Sunderland City Council and is a Prince’s Trust Young Ambassador, reaching out to other young people.

Today she was presented with the Capgemini Young Achiever Award by HRH The Prince of Wales and Sir Michael Caine.

Sir Michael Caine said: "Karen's experiences have moved and humbled me. She has faced a difficult life, but she has not only overcome her own issues - she is also committed to helping other young people avoid a similar fate."

Labels: awareness

Teenagers in Missouri who wish to experiment with substance abuse believe they’ve found a safe, and legal, alternative to marijuana: incense. Many have resorted to smoking a specific brand and fragrance of incense, claiming it produces the same effect as marijuana.

But, as KY3-News reported, at least one Missouri teen got more than he bargained for.

[It's] something 14-year-old Tyler Hartman heard about from his friends. "They'd all tried it; it didn’t kill them, so I just decided to try it," Tyler said. "I sat there, and the room spun a little, and that’s really all that I remember,' said Tyler."

Hartman passed out at his friend’s house, suffered seizures, and quit breathing. Paramedics were called, and rush him to the hospital where he remained unconscious for five hours. Tyler warns other kids not to make the same mistake he did, telling KY3-News that "it's not really a very intelligent choice."

Labels: dangers-of-drug-use, incense, marijuana

A new study has revealed that teenagers who sleep less than seven hours a night are more likely to abuse marijuana.

• Researchers from Harvard University and University of California in San Diego studied the sleep patterns and drug use of 8,000 teenagers.
  
• Teens who have friends who sleep less than seven hours a night are also more likely to sleep fewer than seven hours.
  
• Teens with friends who use marijuana were more than twice as likely to use it themselves.
  
• Teens with friends who both sleep less than seven hours and use marijuana are 20 times more likely to use marijuana themselves.

The researchers believe that increasing the number of hours teens sleep each night might help reduce the prevalence of teen abuse of alcohol and other drugs.

This study was presented at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Labels: marijuana, sleep

The New Mexico legislature has resurrected a previously-failed measure aimed at offering something other than jail time to people facing drug possession charges.

Susan Montoya Bryan of the Associated Press provided the following details in her Feb. 17 article:

The proposed Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act would give judges the ability to determine after a hearing if a treatment program would be a viable option for an interested defendant. The defendant would have to pay for the treatment, and the state could pursue the charges if the treatment wasn't completed.

Supporters of the measure, which passed on a 34-31 vote, said the option of treatment could help break the cycle of drug addiction and save the state millions of dollars in incarceration costs.

"We here in New Mexico have found that incarceration isn't the only answer, but it's certainly the most expensive one," said House Majority Leader W. Ken Martinez, D-Grants. "If we just incarcerate people at that rate, at that huge expense, we end up having to figure out a way to pay for it."

Labels: jail, treatment

Teenagers tend to abuse marijuana more often if they live in a state where it is legal for medical use. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), ten of the 15 states with the highest percentage of teenagers who admit to smoking marijuana within the last 30 days are states where marijuana is legal.

• Marijuana is the most widely abused illicit drug.
• A national survey by the Department of Health and Human Resources found that 60 percent of the seven million Americans who use illegal drugs abuse marijuana.
• The use of marijuana keeps increasing among teenagers, even as their cigarette use decreases, according to a 2009 NIDA study.

Many experts believe that more teenagers are abusing prescription drugs because they think these drugs are safer than street drugs. If marijuana is legalized as a prescription drug, teenagers may believe it is safe to use, too.

Some studies have shown that the human brain does not completely develop until after age 21, and that the abuse of alcohol and other drugs in adolescence may cause permanent brain damage.

Labels: legal drugs, marijuana, medical marijuana

When a loved one enters a recovery program for an alcohol or drug addiction, you want to be supportive. Though it will be difficult, you also need to keep your own expectations in check.

Writer Carole Bennett addressed the necessity of managing one's expectations in a Feb. 3 article on the Huffington Post:

You need to be bold enough and strong enough to let the alcoholic/addict's recovery unfold as it is meant to, not as you want it to. This is an important start in reining in your expectations, and in doing so you will be ahead of the curve.

Your expectations should not be part of the alcoholic/addicts life as they have nothing to do with you and whether you are doing the "right thing or not." Even if you believe you have found the best rehabilitation program in the world, remember that it is not your program and your expectations should not be pinned on the alcoholic/addicts performance or success. ...

If your expectations are not met, it may be difficult to cover up your disappointment. It's possible that the alcoholic/addict will sense this and realize that they are the reason for this sorrow. If they start to lose faith in themselves as well, this may create added pressure and possibly fuel a downward spiral.

Labels: recovery, support

After British researchers surveyed 23,000 people age 11 to 15 years old about their drinking habits, they became uncertain if their results were valid.

In some parts of Britain, the level of alcohol abuse among young people was stunning -- with one in four children telling researchers that they drank an average of nine pints of beer or one and a half bottles of wine every week. That was an average, with many children claiming to drink even more.

It is possible that many who responded to the survey exaggerated the amounts of alcohol consumed.

Despite the large numbers who reported getting drunk on a regular basis , the study actually showed a decline in binge drinking from 55 to 52 percent in two years. Girls drank just as often as boys, but the boys tended to consume greater amounts. The most drinking tended to occur in rural areas.

"Regular consumption at these levels puts boys and girls at considerable risk that extends beyond the usual considerations around accidents and injury through violence," according to the report from NHS Information Center. "At this stage, the adolescent mind is still developing, and for an unlucky minority, heavy drinking at so early an age will have profound and long-lasting implications for their learning and problem solving skills."

Labels: adolescence, alcohol_abuse, great britain, teenage_drinking