At our drug and alcoholism treatment center, we believe in our patients’ ability to succeed. With the help of our outstanding staff, we support our patients’ growth and recovery. We can help. (866) 930-4673
Every year countless babies are born with defects or disorders as a result of the mothers actions during pregnancy. The substances a mother consumes, just like the food she eats, eventually finds its way to the fetus greatly increasing the chances of the baby having health problems. Extensive research has been done in the way of studies and experiments that prove that the effects of drugs and alcohol are monumental.
HealthDay News reported that a study done by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that babies exposed to methamphetamine and alcohol before birth have smaller caudate nucleus regions in the brain than non-exposed children or children exposed to alcohol only in the womb. What are caudate nucleus regions?
The caudate nucleus helps with:
learning
memory
motor control
motivation
Researchers who worked on the study compared and contrasted brain scans of 13 children exposed to alcohol in the womb, 21 children exposed to both methamphetamine and alcohol, and 27 children whose mothers did not use anything. "We know that alcohol exposure is toxic to the developing fetus and can result in lifelong brain, cognitive and behavioral problems," said researcher Elizabeth Sowell of the University of California at Los Angeles. "In this study, we show that the effects of prenatal meth exposure, or the combination of meth and alcohol exposure, may actually be worse. Our findings stress the importance of drug abuse treatment for pregnant women."
This information is not all that surprising, if alcohol is bad for a baby, then alcohol and meth would be terrible. Drugs and alcohol rob a child of their chances for success, babies need pollutant free environments to develop in; otherwise Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and, or, a sleuth of other health problems will result. There are many drug and alcohol treatment facilities that specialize in the recovery of pregnant addicts; any pregnant women that wants assistance getting clean, have the opportunity to give their baby a chance at life.
Police in Tennessee had an interesting New Year's Day when they found a man passed out in his car at a gas station in Murfreesboro. Not a big deal, unless, you have a batch of methamphetamine cooking in your vehicle's back seat. According to the AP, "Thirty-one-year-old Nathan Beasley is being held on a $15,000 bond on charges of driving under the influence, driving on a suspended license, reckless endangerment and manufacturing meth". What is more interesting is the reports that pretty much all meth is produced in Mexico now, but this case shows that not only are meth labs still in America - they are mobile. Methamphetamine is a powerful stimulant and is produced in some of the worst locations often in neighborhoods where children are nearby. The chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamine are very explosive and many severe injuries and deaths occur every year from explosions. Thinking about a meth lab at a gas station is unbelievable, to think what kind of catastrophe could have occurred if something went wrong.
The gas station was located 30 miles outside of Nashville, the attendant notified the Police Department because Beasley's car was sitting at the pump for almost an hour on New Year's Day. The police stated that the process of making meth was in progress. Due to the explosive nature of meth making ingredients, the Murfreesboro Assistant Fire Chief Allen Swader told The Daily News Journal that gas pumps were shut off as a precaution. Fortunately, everything went smoothly and nothing bad happened to anyone and that one more methamphetamine cook is going to be back in jail.
The United States has worked very hard to limit the availability of the chemicals needed to produce meth. Unfortunately, they are still many countries without the same restrictions that we have, allowing American drug chemists access to what they need. Major ingredients required for meth production are simple household medicines and chemicals, like Sudafed and Ether (starting fluid); the fact that these substances are easy to come across makes the drug hard to combat. It would be nice to think that meth labs are not all over the country, but, sadly that is not the case.
Teen methamphetamine use is on the decline while marijuana use holds its position and prescription drug abuse remains high reports the National Institute on Drug Abuse in their 2009 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey. The NIDA, using researchers from the University of Michigan who were given a grant, covered eighth, 10th, and 12th graders in the Monitoring the Future survey. Only 1.2 percent of high school seniors report having had used meth in the last year, methamphetamine was added to the survey in 1999 when it was at 4.7 percent. There has been a 5 percent drop amongst 10th graders, 14 percent of 10th graders used meth in 2009; the drop in percentages can only be attributed to better education about the dangers of meth, it confirms that campaigns against the drug are working. National Institute of Health Director Francis S. Collins M.D., Ph.D said, "we are encouraged by the reduction of methamphetamine use, but we know that each new generation of teens brings unique prevention and education challenges. What makes the Monitoring the Future survey such a valuable public health tool is that it not only helps us identify where our prevention efforts have been successful, it also helps us identify new trends in drug use and attitudes that need more attention".
Reduction in marijuana use amongst teens was dropping steady over the years, but, this year's survey shows that the decline has come to a stop. Not very surprising considering the buzz surrounding the drug/medicine, it is hard to imagine marijuana use dropping among teens when it can be prescribed to them now in certain states. What was surprising is that marijuana abuse by teens is significantly less than it was in the 1990's from its peak in the mid-late 1990's. The amount of teens using marijuana is exactly the same as it was five years ago; at least medical marijuana is not causing a surge in abuse of the drug, a major concern for those against medical marijuana programs. However, the survey did show that the amount of teens who think that marijuana can be harmful is down. The marijuana use numbers for 2009 are, "32.8 percent of 12th graders, 26.7 percent of 10th graders, and 11.8 percent of eighth graders", reports the National Institute of Health (NIH). Use of cocaine decreased to 3.4 percent from 4.4 percent in 2008 among 12th graders, and past year use of hallucinogens also fell among high school seniors to 4.7 percent, down from last year’s 5.9 percent rate and significantly lower than its 2001 peak of 9.1 percent.
The NIH reports that, "perceived harmfulness of LSD, amphetamines, sedatives/barbiturates, heroin and cocaine have all increased among 12th graders, and the perceived availability of many illicit drugs has dropped considerably. For example, 33.9 percent of 12th graders reported this year that it is easy to get powder cocaine, down from 38.9 percent just a year ago. Similarly, 35.1 percent of 12th graders said ecstasy is easy to obtain, compared to 41.9 percent last year". These numbers are, overall, pretty good and there are definitely less teens using certain drugs and they perceive them as harmful. What is concerning is prescription drug use and abuse, such drugs as amphetamines and opiates very easily find their way into the hands of high school students. "Nearly 1 in 10 high school seniors reported past year non-medical use of Vicodin, and 1 in 20 reported abusing Oxycontin, also a powerful opioid painkiller. Non-medical use of these painkillers has increased among 10th graders in the past five years. For the first time this year the survey measured the non-medical use of Adderall, a stimulant commonly prescribed to treat ADHD. The survey reported that more than 5 percent of 10th and 12th graders reported non-medical use of the drug in the past year", according to the NIH.
The numbers for 2009 are certainly interesting and we have to be concerned about certain trends for sure. It does appear that there are reductions in certain drug use that shows that increased drug education is paying off in certain areas. The battle wages on and we only hope to see fewer people's lives adversely affected by drugs. Let us know what you think of the Monitoring the Future survey and this year's findings, we are interested to hear what you have to say about it.
New drugs that are harmful to your health are being created everyday. Drugs that are new and have not yet been tested by the government are falling into the hands of people who abuse them; this has caused many people a lot of concern, just because they are legal doesn't make them safe. The ease in which these drugs can be acquired is nothing short than alarming - just a few mouse clicks away. Gamma Butyrolactone or GBL , 'coma in a bottle', is one of the drugs in question that has authorities concerned. GBL is a paint stripper and rust remover and is harmless if used for those tasks, GBL is odorless and has no taste when it is diluted; people who have used the drug have reported that the effects are similar to ecstasy. Drugs like GBL leave very little room for error, if the dosage is not accurately measured then an overdose causing a comma or death will ensue. "'It's as if every muscle in the body is trying to work against each other,' said a young woman who has experienced and witnessed the side-effects of GBL", the Daily Mail reports.
Mephedrone is another drug that can be easily acquired that produces similar effects to methamphetamines and ecstasy. 4-methylmethcathinone (4-MMC), according to Darlington Drug and Alcohol Action Team it can cause: nose bleeds, nose burns, hallucinations, blood circulation problems, rashes, anxiety, paranoia fits, and delusions. BBC News reported that "one person who used the drug regularly for 18 months had to be admitted to a psychiatric unit after he started experiencing hallucinations, agitation, excitability and mania. Due to the short history of the use of Mephedrone nothing is known about long‐term effects".
New designer drugs like these are especially dangerous and already have caused numerous deaths. We can only assume that the longer drugs like these can be sold legally and attained easily more deaths will occur. Steps are being taken in several countries to make drugs like these illegal. We can only hope that this happens with haste in our country. Legal does not mean safe!
Parents in New York City and in other areas around the country have begun to drug test their kids. Home drug tests can be found at any pharmacy in the United States for a reasonable price. Discovering that there is a drug problem early can make a huge difference regarding how severe a drug problem gets. The quicker the problem is recognized the sooner it can be addressed; many drug addicts go undetected, by the time a problem is realized the addiction has gone completely out of control. It is for this reason that there are many adolescent drug treatment facilities available for parents to consider sending their children to for treatment.
Teenage years are the most critical years, the more drugs that are consumed in those years means the more developmental damage done. Parents suspecting their children of using drugs should test their kids; it could be that test that saves their life. In some places you can even get home drug tests for free from the police. ABC News reports, "Heroin is an epidemic here in Suffolk County [Long Island]," Sheriff Vincent DeMarco said. "I see the pain in parents' eyes. They're looking for something to combat their children's drug use". On Nov. 19, Suffolk County announced that it had purchased 16,000 drug testing kits, available for free for parents who want to test their children. The kits use litmus paper to test urine for six different drugs including methamphetamine, marijuana, heroin, Vicodin and Xanax. Since the program started parents have picked up nearly 450 of them".
It's never too early to intervene, but, sometimes it's too late. Your kids may think you're over parenting, that's simply not true; you are protecting your child's life. I encourage you to watch the Dr. Nancy Video dealing with this subject:
"Dec. 1: As drug testing for children gains in popularity nationwide, some parents in New York City are getting free at-home kits from the police. Are the testing kits really the best way to prevent drug use in kids?"
In the last decade prescription drug abuse has been on the rise, more people have become addicted to pills than any other substance. The flood of new drugs on the market in the way of sedatives, opiates, and stimulants is staggering. Fortunately, a federal drug survey found that less people abused prescription drugs last year than the year before that. This dip in the abuse of prescription drugs is being attributed to the education and information out there with respect to the dangers of pharmaceuticals. According to Eric Broderick, the acting administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, "People who once saw little risk in abusing prescription drugs are responding to health reports underscoring dangers of misuse".
It has also been reported that methamphetamine use also dropped in 2008 which is probably due to serious Meth education campaigns across the country, like the Montana Meth Project. The government has also made it very hard for Meth labs to operate in the states due to a crack down on the ease in which people can get ephedrine, the main ingredient in the cooking process. The Montana Meth Project reports that, "two years after launching the Meth Project in Montana, adult Meth use has declined by 72% and Meth-related crime has decreased 62%. Unfortunately, illicit drug use in the United States overall has not faltered and people still continue to take the risk. People used just as many drugs overall in 2007 as they did in 2008, "the drops in methamphetamine and prescription drug abuse were offset by increases among some age groups of marijuana and hallucinogen use, according to the survey of 67,500 people age 12 and older. Illegal drug use among people 50 to 59 increased from 2.7% in 2002 to 4.6% in 2008, a trend the report attributes to drug-using baby boomers who are getting older".
That survey concluded that 8% of the population, which equates to about 20.1 million Americans, used an illicit drug in the past month which was no different than 2007. Marijuana is still the number one abused drug in the United States due to it accessibility, being that it is heavily grown all over the U.S. It is also the drug that is considered to due the least amount of damage - which studies have proven that idea is not warranted. Many states are attempting to make Marijuana 100% legal and California is at the forefront of the campaign. It is great that the negative side-effects are being disclosed regarding prescription drugs, but we clearly still have an epidemic on our hands. The prescription drugs that adults consume trickles down to our children, people rarely lock their medicine cabinet which keeps the drugs within reach.
A new law was passed on Thursday, August, 20, 2009, decriminalizing small amounts of drugs for personal use in Mexico. The drugs that fall under this new act include: marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and even LSD; the only requirement is that the amounts be under a certain weight that has been agreed upon by the Mexican government. According to the Associated Press "Mexican authorities said the change only recognized the longstanding practice here of not prosecuting people caught with small amounts of drugs". If a person is caught with drug amounts falling under the set limit they will be encouraged by authorities to seek treatment; however if caught a third time treatment will then be mandatory even though Mexico has not stated any penalties for noncompliance. Mexico legalizing drug possession raises some very serious questions considering that they are currently in the grips of a serious drug war as we speak. If the government is supposedly trying to stop the cartels from producing and distributing drugs, it seems counterproductive that they would legalize the cartels main source of income.
The new drug law went into effect on Friday, August 21, 2009, and will set "the maximum amount of marijuana considered to be for “personal use” under the new law at 5 grams — the equivalent of about four marijuana cigarettes. Other limits are half a gram of cocaine, 50 milligrams of heroin, 40 milligrams for methamphetamine and 0.015 milligrams of LSD". It took several months before before President Felipe Calderón would approve this new law. What kind of message is he trying to send to the world by doing this? A mixed message certainly, and one that can only have a devastating effect on Mexicans as well as Americans who travel to Mexico. If they could not enforce laws before they became legal how do they propose to do it after the fact? There is no way that this new law that sets limits on the amount one can be caught with will have any sway on the mind of a drug addict.
Methamphetamine production has crossed over borders and become industrialized with the advent of Super-Labs. With so much heat on the production of Meth in America as well as the ability to acquire mass amounts of Pseudoephedrine (the main ingredient in the manufacturing of the drug) being lessened, it is no surprise that other countries like Mexico have taken upon themselves to pick up where the U.S. manufacturers left off. Mexican Crystal Meth is America's problem considering U.S. citizens are Mexico's number one customer. "Mexico now has some massive and very sophisticated operations. We call them super labs," said the Drug Enforcement Agency’s Elizabeth Kempshall, special agent in charge of the Phoenix Division. Kempshall, whose jurisdiction is in Arizona, keeps a close watch on Meth production in Mexico due to her state being one of the major trafficking routes.
The Mexican Crystal Meth market has become a multi-billion dollar industry in what seems like over night. Drug production in Mexico looks a lot different from what we saw in America with trunk and trailer-park operations. Mexican cartels have honed their production skills and created labs that can produce unthinkable amounts of this 'death dealer'. In June police and military discovered the biggest laboratory yet in the municipality of Badiraguato, in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. According to the Global Post, "It is estimated to have produced 40 metric tons of Meth, worth some $1.4 billion on American streets, in just two months before it was shut down — making it the largest operation of its kind to be exposed in the continent." Numbers like that can't help but make you feel that an epidemic is taking place given the fact that the majority of those 40 tons without a doubt crossed our border.
The DEA states that Meth is now the most popular hard drug in America’s Midwest and West, ahead of cocaine and heroin. Consumption and addiction rates will undoubtedly continue to rise as long as factories like the ones above continue to thrive. The bust in Badiraguato had to have been a major blow for the cartels, but, when you take out one weed another will pop up somewhere else with the same devastating ability. How can we keep the onslaught of Methamphetamine away? If Americans keep buying the drug, someone will always be there to make a profit. Personally, America's history of being able to curb the flow of traffic from other countries has been less than satisfactory; it seems unlikely that their tract record will change with regard to the most dangerous drug ever invented. If we can't keep Meth out of America then the least we can do is better educate people on the matter. I, like so many others, am at a loss in terms of the best solution; please let me hear your thoughts on this subject.
