Teenagers in Missouri who wish to experiment with substance abuse believe theyve 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 didnt kill them, so I just decided to try it," Tyler said. "I sat there, and the room spun a little, and thats really all that I remember,' said Tyler."

Hartman passed out at his friends 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: marijuana, incense, dangers-of-drug-use

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A new report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that 70 percent of teenagers believe smoking one or more packs of cigarettes a day poses a health risk.

"But when they were asked about binge drinking, defined as five or more drinks once or twice a week, only 40 percent thought there was a major risk," the report's authors wrote. "Only 32 percent of those asked believed smoking marijuana once a month posed a major risk."

The results were based on survey responses from nearly 50,000 adolescents and teenagers (ages 12 to 17).

Labels: tobacco use, dangers-of-drug-use

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The United States government is now focusing on getting teenagers to stop abusing prescription and over-the-counter drugs. It is no longer emphasizing marijuana abuse, and some people are criticizing that decision.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy has directed that its entire annual budget of some $14 million be used to combat prescription and over-the-counter drug abuse. The Partnership for a Drug-Free America has not produced a single anti-marijuana ad in the last four years.

Prescription drug abuse accounts for more than 10,000 accidental deaths a year and is a secondary cause of another 1680. Marijuana use, on the other hand, does not cause any deaths.

"The bottom line is that opiates and stimulants are much more addictive than marijuana," said Professor Mitch Earleywine of the State University of New York. "Maybe nine percent of marijuana users develop problems, compared to 14 to 20 percent of prescription drug abusers, who end up saying they cannot quit or report withdrawal symptoms when they want to stop."

However, the numbers of people who try either marijuana or over-the-counter prescription drugs is about the same -- around two million per year.

• One of the problems cited by anti-marijuana advocates is that the marijuana in use today is a much stronger variety than what was used in the past.
• Teen marijuana use is considered especially dangerous because the brains of people under the age of 25 are still developing, and marijuana is linked to brain damage.
• According to a 2004 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, todays marijuana is so strong that it is causing more people to get addicted.
• Now that people have access to very high potency marijuana, the game is different," warned Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Dr. Richard Rosenthal, chair of the psychiatry department at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital and a professor at Columbia University, said that people are underplaying the dangers of marijuana, especially those who want to legalize it.

"We need to be very mindful of what we are unleashing out of a Pandora's Box," he said. "The people who become chronic users do not have the same lives and the same achievements as people who do not use chronically."

People seeking treatment for marijuana abuse increased from 12 percent of all those in treatment in 1997 to 16 percent in 2007.

Some psychiatrists and psychologists want "Cannabis Withdrawal Syndrome" to be included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

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

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The latest survey from Partnership for a Drug-Free America offers a glimmer of hope in the effort to improve communication between parents and their children:

"The Drug-Free America survey says 37 percent of teens surveyed said they are 'learning a lot' from parents about the dangers of drug use. That might not be the high number parents want to see, but it's an increase from 32 percent the year before."

The survey doesn't indicate whether the increased is the result of an increased number of parents talking to their teens, or an increased number of teens listening. Either way, it indicates that kids will listen. Source: The Tennessean

Labels: parental_involvement, dangers-of-drug-use, communication

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"Wet brain" is not a delicate or positive phrase to describe one of the dangers of drinking. This term is a non-medical way to describe a condition that doctors call Korsakoff Amnesic Syndrome – a memory disorder caused by a lack of vitamin B1 (thiamine).

The main features of Korsakoff’s amnesic syndrome are the impairments in acquiring new information or establishing new memories … and in retrieving previous memories. …

A few experts now say that brain damage related to thiamine deficiency may be at least somewhat reversible, but most see little hope for complete recovery. [Source: Fresno Addiction Recovery Examiner]

Korsakoff’s syndrome is most common among alcoholics and people struggling with eating disorders because the brain is deprived of much-needed nutrients. Though improvements in memory can be made, some of the damage is permanent.

 

Labels: dangers-of-drug-use, alcoholism, memory

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