Consumer Healthcare Assoc.

Hello Joseph,

I wanted to thank you for calling attention to the issue of medicine abuse in your recent blog post on the Mitch Winehouse “Meet the Parents Hour.” In addition to prescription medicine abuse, more and more young people are now using cough medicine to get high – approximately 5% of teens reported abusing OTC medicines in 2011.

You can visit www.stopmedicineabuse.org to learn more about these issues, read parent and child testimonials, and find ways to prevent abuse or steps to take if you believe your child is abusing cough medicine. It would be great if you could share this information with your readers on the blog. If you or your readers have any questions about cough medicine abuse, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Best,

Jenni Terry

Manager, Communications

Consumer Healthcare Products Association

900 19th Street, NW

Suite 700

Washington, DC 20006

Telephone  (202) 429-3534

Fax (866)332-0490

E-mail: Jterry@chpa-info.org

http://www.CHPA-info.org

http://www.OTCsafety.org

http://www.stopmedicineabuse.org

Drug Abuse Kills 200,000 People Each Year: UN Report

By Join Together Staff | June 27, 2012 | 4 Comments | Filed in Drugs


Drug abuse kills about 200,000 people worldwide each year, according to a new United Nations (UN) report. Global treatment for drug abuse would cost $250 billion per year if everyone who needed help received proper care, according to the UN.

Fewer than one in five people who need treatment actually receive it, according to the Associated Press. Crimes committed by people who need money to finance their drug habit, as well as loss of productivity, add tremendous costs for many countries, the report notes.

The UN estimates that about 230 million people, or 5 percent of the world’s population, used illegal drugs at least once in 2010. In the United States, female drug use was two-thirds the male rate, while in India and Indonesia, females constituted only one-tenth of those using illegal drugs.

The 2012 World Drug Report cited an increase in synthetic drug production worldwide, “including significant increases in the production and consumptions of psychoactive substances that are not under international control.” Overall, use of illegal drugs remained stable during the past five years, at between 3.4 and 6.6 percent of the world’s adult population. Marijuana was the most widely used drug.

Coca bush cultivation has decreased 33 percent over the past 12 years. Seizures of methamphetamine more than doubled in 2010 compared with 2008. In Europe, seizures of Ecstasy pills more than doubled.

“Heroin, cocaine and other drugs continue to kill around 200,000 people a year, shattering families and bringing misery to thousands of other people, insecurity and the spread of HIV,” the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Yury Fedotov, said in a news release. He added that as developing countries emulate industrialized nations’ lifestyles, it is likely that drug consumption will increase.

CA Doctor Ordered to Stand Trial for Prescription Drug Overdose Deaths

By Join Together Staff | June 27, 2012 | Leave a comment | Filed inCommunity Related, Legal & Prescription Drugs

A physician accused of prescribing drugs to three young men who died of overdoses was ordered to stand trial for second-degree murder, the Associated Press reports.

Dr. Hsui-Ying “Lisa” Tseng is one of only a few physicians nationwide to be charged with murder related to prescription drugs, the article notes.

The decision to order Tseng to stand trial came after a three-week preliminary hearing. Young men testified they saw Tseng after using up prescriptions written by other doctors. While there was testimony about 12 of her patients who died of drug overdoses, prosecutors charged her with three of the deaths, which they said were caused solely by her prescriptions.

Some patients who testified said they used illegal drugs, such as heroin, that they did not obtain from Tseng. She was accused of prescribing drugs including oxycodone, methadone, Xanax and Soma, according to the AP.

Tseng and her husband operated a storefront medical clinic in suburban Los Angeles. Authorities allege she wrote more than 27,000 prescriptions in a three-year period. Tseng pleaded not guilty to 24 felony counts. She could face 45 years to life in prison if she is convicted on all charges. Her bail was set at $3 million. The judge denied a defense request to have bail lowered to $1 million.

Prescription Drug Monitoring Pilot Program Launched in Two States

By Join Together Staff | June 22, 2012 | Leave a comment | Filed inCommunity Related, Government, Prescription Drugs & Prevention


A pilot program to expand and improve access to prescription drug records for physicians, pharmacists and emergency departments is being launched in Ohio and Indiana, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced. The program aims to reduce prescription drug abuse.

The program, launched by the HHS Health IT Division, is designed to make it easier for physicians to use prescription drug monitoring databases, Reuters reports. While 49 states have authorized theprograms, many doctors avoid using them because they are difficult to navigate, the article notes. Doctors also say the data is often old by the time it becomes available in the system, making it less useful when they are deciding whether to write a prescription. The new system will provide real-time information.

Government data will be merged with the electronic health recordssystems used in doctors’ offices and pharmacies, according to Marty Allain, a senior director at the Indiana Board of Pharmacy, who worked with HHS to design the pilot program.

In Indiana, emergency department staff will be encouraged to access patients’ prescription histories through a database already used in hospitals in the state. The Ohio project will test a new drug risk indicator in the electronic health record, and will determine how that affects doctors’ decisionmaking.

“Technology plays a critical role in our comprehensive efforts to address our nation’s prescription drug abuse epidemic,” Gil Kerlikowske, Director of National Drug Control Policy, said in a news release. “Together with education, proper disposal practices, and enforcement, improving existing prescription monitoring programs is a priority for this administration.”

Chronic Cocaine Use May Hasten Aging of the Brain

By Join Together Staff | April 25, 2012 | Leave a comment | Filed in Drugs &Research

Chronic cocaine use may accelerate aging of the brain, a new studysuggests. The study found people with cocaine dependence have greater levels of age-related loss of nerve tissue in the brain called gray matter.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge compared brain scans of 60 people with cocaine dependence with those of 60 people with no history of substance abuse. People who used cocaine lost about 3.08 milliliters of brain volume a year, nearly double the rate of healthy people, HealthDay reports.

The decline in brain volume in cocaine users was most pronounced in the areas of the brain associated with attention, decision-making, memory and self-regulation, the researchers noted.

“As we age, we all lose gray matter. However, what we have seen is that chronic cocaine users lose gray matter at a significantly faster rate, which could be a sign of premature aging. Our findings therefore provide new insight into why the [mental] deficits typically seen in old age have frequently been observed in middle-aged chronic users of cocaine,” researcher Dr. Karen Ersche said in anews release.

She noted the findings highlight the importance of educating young people, who take cocaine, about the long-term risk of aging prematurely. She added the study also shows that accelerated aging from cocaine use also affects older adults. “Our findings shed light on the largely neglected problem of the growing number of older drug users, whose needs are not so well catered for in drug treatment services. It is timely for health care providers to understand and recognize the needs of older drug users in order to design and administer age-appropriate treatments,” she said.

The study appears in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

Simonsen Road Farm Recovery Center Oregon!

Holistic, Alternative Addiction Recovery


"Simonsen Road Farm Recovery Center was a life saver for me. After literally being locked away in detox for 5 days to come to a beautiful home in a pastoral setting where I felt welcome and able to relax with absolutely no triggers to make me want to use again was exactly what I needed." Debbie (April 2012)

Simonsen Road Farm Recovery Center is a 25 acre private country sanctuary for persons overcoming the crippling effects of alcohol and or drug addiction. Located 20 minutes S.W. of Eugene, Oregon in the beautiful Lorane Valley of the Pacific Northwest, Simonsen Road Farm offers the safety and sanity of a drug and alcohol free environment and the structure of a holistic 12 Step - based program of recovery.

Our program is 30 days residential treatment. We attend daily AA/NA meetings in town and residents are encouraged to share. Additional meetings with certified treatment specialists and persons in recovery take place throughout the week at the farm.

We have our own Equine Based Therapy Program in which residents are encouraged to bond with our horses. In our small private facility residents are able to discover for themselves that a fulfilling life without the use of drugs/alcohol is possible and attainable on a daily basis.

Personal growth is promoted through a self-help whole recovery approach with emphasis on healing of the body, mind and spirit. This is a non-judgemental environment. Everyone is equally important here. At Simonsen Road Farm we speak the language of Recovery.

Special Thanks to Caleb Garvin at: www.naturalimagesphoto.net


Address: 82912 Simonsen Road, Eugene, Oregon
Phone: 541 344 1735 or 323 404 6981

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