Adderall, a stimulant drug used to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in children, is becoming a problem on college campuses.

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that 6.4 percent of students use Adderall for non-medical reasons, with the most common being to get through finals week on very little sleep. Some graduate students and professors are also taking the drug to enhance their academic performance.

Many university health centers are aware of the Adderall problem, and are taking measures to combat it. Doctors are familiar with students who fake ADHD symptoms in order to obtain prescriptions for the drug.

The most common way to get the drug, many students report, is from other students who already have a prescription. These stockpile their supplies and sell their excess medication.

Some students who abuse Adderall report having withdrawal symptoms, such as headaches and lethargy, once they stop using the drug.

Labels: abuse, adderall, prescription drugs

Necessary budgetary reductions in Knox County, Ohio, have forced suspension of the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program that has been operating there for more than a decade, the Mount Vernon News has reported:

For more than 15 years, DARE deputies have provided substance abuse and violence resistance training to elementary, middle and high school students throughout Knox County ...

[Knox County Sheriff David] Barber told the News on Tuesday that although the deputies interact with and provide positive role models to thousands of youths each year, the budget reductions mandated by county commissioners forced him to make operational changes ...

DARE deputies Scott Baker and Chuck Statler will be reassigned to the Patrol Division in an effort to help eliminate overtime and control budgetary spending.

Labels: drug_abuse, ohio, prevention

A mother whose 17-year-old daughter died of an OxyContin overdose will be a featured speaker at Arizona's largest addiction recovery and mental health awareness event.

Cindy Sierzchula, whose daughter, Courtney, died in 2007, will share her story Sept. 19 during the Art of Recovery Expo in the Phoenix Convention Center. Also appearing at the event will be Christopher Lawford, the son of actor Peter Lawford and the author of the addiction memoir Symptoms of Withdrawal.

Founded by Bill Brown and Barbara Nicholson-Brown, the Art of Recovery Expo is a free event that is designed to help individuals and families who have been affected by addiction. The expo will include representatives from treatment programs, government organizations, recovery support groups and others who can help bridge the gap between addiction and recovery.

Labels: conference, recovery

Michael Jackson's death is a wake-up call to the country about the dangers of prescription drugs, according to the Director of the National Drug Control Policy.

"If we can save lives, and if we can bring to the attention of the people the dangers of prescription drug abuse, I think there will be some benefit to this country," ONDCP director Gil Kerlikowske said.

The pop singer may have died from an overdose of prescription drugs, a cause of death that also claimed celebrities Heath Ledger and Anna Nicole Smith. According to a CNN report, Jackson’s employees told police that he asked them to obtain prescription drugs under different names. His bodyguards told police that he took 30 to 40 Xanax every night.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, medical correspondent for CNN, said, "This is an extremely high dose of Xanax. It is a huge red flag. This dosage is exceedingly high for any human being." Xanax is used to treat panic attacks.

Jackson may have also abused Demerol, a prescription painkiller.

In 2005, over 8500 people died from non-medical use of painkillers. People 18 to 25 years old are in the age group most likely to abuse these drugs, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Dr. Marvin Seppala, a medical officer with a drug treatment center, said, "I think people of all ages do not take medication as seriously as street drugs. There is a naïve belief that they are safer. The truth is pain medications are in the exact same class as heroin and morphine. They’re very addictive."

Labels: prescription_drugs

In the past eight years, hospitals in New South Wales, Australia has seen a 50 percent increase in people needing treatment for alcohol-related issues.

"The surge in extremely drunk and ill or injured patients is made up mostly of the young, and research also shows how this rise mirrors the trend in consumption of ready-to-drink alcoholic beverages known as alcopops," Australian news website News.com.au reported.

The biggest rise occurred between 2005 and 2008, when acute alcohol problems rose from 110 to nearly 150 per 100,000 people, the site reported, and the sharpest increase was among 18-24 year olds.

Experts worry that the surge of problems related to alcohol abuse by teens and young adults will lead to higher rates of long-term issues involving alcohol abuse and addiction.

Labels: alcohol_abuse, teenage_drinking, young_adults

In 1990, Lisa Molina tried to overdose on heroin. She was pregnant at the time. When her suicide attempt didn't work, she entered a YWCA-sponsored program called Born-Free, for women who are pregnant and want to be drug and alcohol free -- and five months later, her daughter, Jessica, was born.

Lisa and Jessica (who is now 18 years old) recently spoke at a ceremony to celebrate the opening of the program's two new homes in Riverside County, California.

"I get to go to college. I got to graduate high school," Jessica said, enumerating the opportunities she's had because of the program.

"Sometimes I don't realize how important it is until they ask me to do things and I see people and their reactions," Jessica said. "They come up to me and tell me that they're proud of me. They tell me 'Thank you' for talking to them and I really feel blessed."

She paused.

"Without a doubt, it is because of Born-Free. ... Thank you for mine and my mom's life," Jessica said. (Source: The Press-Enterprise)

Women who enter the Born Free program live in two homes that have separate entrances but share a wall. "The homes, connected by a wall but with separate entrances, were designed specifically to house the women, including larger bathrooms with multiple sinks and intercom systems to screen visitors," the Press-Enterprise reported.

Labels: heroin, pregnancy, recovery

Canadian researchers have revealed the degree to which sharing prescription medications is contributing the the teen substance abuse problem in the United States. A survey of 529 U.S. youth (ages 12 to 17) found that about twenty percent of them have either lent or borrowed prescription medication.

An Aug. 10 Yahoo! News article provided the following details:

• A third of the teens who took a borrowed prescription did not tell their doctor, the team said in this week's online issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health.
• About 32 per cent of the youths who took a borrowed medication said they eventually saw a doctor because the drugs did not resolve the problem.
• Earlier research suggests almost 40 per cent of U.S. adults have also lent or borrowed prescription drugs.

The study also found that two in five teens who borrowed medication experienced unexpected side effects. The study's authors concluded that increased efforts to address the prevalence and dangers of sharing medication are warranted.

Labels: prescription drugs, research, teen_drug_use

On Tuesday, August 25, East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma will host a discussion on alcohol and substance abuse. This discussion will feature Reggie Whitten, a father who lost a son to drug addiction.

His multimedia presentation will be open to the public at no charge and will be geared toward substance abuse counselors as well as educating students. ...

When Whitten's son, Brandon, died in a motorcycle accident in 2002, Whitten was devastated. He has said he was 'a walking dead man' who was just trying to find a reason to live. -- Source: Ada (OK) Evening News

Whitten's son, who had been addicted to prescription drugs, died at the age of 25. Out of that tragedy, the Whitten-Newman Foundation was formed and now works to educate young people on the dangers of abusing drugs and alcohol.

Whitten’s presentation at ECU will begin at 9:30 a.m. in the Estep Multimedia Center in the University Center.

Labels: addiction, death, fathers, parents

At a Monday work session, conversation among school and district administrators in Colorado Springs centered around drug testing at Cheyenne High School.

An Aug. 3 article by Sue McMillan of The Gazette provided the following details:

Amid some frank conversations about such things as Whizzinators, a device with many imitators to make fake urine to fool drug tests, and scary stories from drug court, the Cheyenne Mountain School District 12 board kept returning to these key points: Will random drug testing deter drug use and help the district find teens who need help to get clean?

"I think we need to digest all the information we got tonight and decide whether we want to move forward from the conceptual level, which is where we’ve been for several months," said Superintendent Walt Cooper. "Can we do this? Should we do this? I don’t know the outcome."

Board member Rich Young and drug court Magistrate Lisa Kirkman agreed that drug testing is a deterrent, The Gazette reported, but school officials are still working to develop an appropriate program.

Labels: drug testing, schools

A study from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology has documented a strong relationship between teen drinking and behavior problems:

• Researchers surveyed 9,000 people ages 13 to 19 years old.
• They found that 80 percent had tried drinking alcohol and 29 percent had been drunk more than 10 times in their lives.
• The boys who drank were more likely to have behavioral problems and the girls who drank reported both behavioral problems and depression.
• Forty-three percent of students who had behavioral problems also reported being drunk more than 10 times in their lives.

The authors emphasized that their findings do not mean that drinking causes behavioral problems, only that there is an increased likelihood that teens who drink also have behavioral problems.

Labels: behaviors, teenage_drinking

A new study from Virginia Commonwealth University found that teens who inherit genetic tendencies for alcoholism can avoid that problem if they grow up in certain environments.

Dr. Danielle Dick and her colleagues used data collected on about 5,000 twins born in Finland from 1983 to 1987. They were looking for how genetic and environmental factors influence the development of alcohol use among people aged 12 to 14 years old.

Children with certain behavioral problems, and who lived in certain neighborhoods, were more likely to develop alcohol problems.

"There is now converging evidence across a number of different studies that behavioral problems in kids are associated with both concurrent and future alcohol problems," Dr. Dick said. "A key finding is that we are not all equally predisposed to develop alcohol or behavioral problems, and the environment can be a key factor in whether or not an individual ever develops problems."

This study appeared in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

Labels: alcoholism, research

According to Sally Wong, Commissioner for Narcotics in Hong Kong, the use of ketamine among area teenagers has risen 57 percent in the last four years. The drug is cheap and easily accessible, and its abuse has become so wide-spread that Hong Kong has begun conducting random school drug tests.

CNN has reported the following about this troubling trend in teen substance abuse:

Beginning in September, some two dozen schools will conduct tests. Officials say the drug screening will most likely be in the form of urine tests, though they are still working out the details. Ketamine can be detected in urine for at least three days.

Evidence also seems to support the notion that teen drug users are decreasing in age as they are increasing in number. At Zheng Sheng School, Hong Kong’s only drug rehab center for youth, the number of clients under the age of 15 has skyrocketed from one to 40.

Labels: drug_abuse, ketamine, teen_drug_use

Students at Rodriguez High School in Vacaville, California, who are caught drinking have something more than detention to look forward to. Instructor Shanti Hendderson -- who has first-hand knowledge of the devastation that can result from teen alcohol abuse -- has started a program aimed at teaching teens the dangers of alcohol use.

The purpose, [Henderson] said, is to provide a comfortable environment where students can discuss and analyze their problem. ...

Hendderson doesn't just talk from a book. She knows from first hand-experience how alcohol hurts. "In my senior year of high school, I was in a car accident with my best friend and her boyfriend. I was the only survivor," she said. (Source: The Reporter)

Today, Henderson uses her experience as a means of educating students. They learn about the effects alcohol has on the body and mind, and about possible genetic predispositions to alcohol abuse and alcoholism.

Labels: alcohol_abuse, high school, teenage_drinking