Sunday, February 24, 2013
Children More Likely to Accept Drug Use if Parents Admit Past Substance Use
Middle school students are less likely to think using drugs
is bad if their parents told them about their own past substance use, a
new study finds. Children whose parents warned them not to use drugs
were more likely to avoid them, ABC News reports.
The study by researchers at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign included 561 middle school students. They were less
likely to accept drug use if their parents set rules against drugs, and
told them about people who have gotten into trouble because of drugs.
“Parents should really hit on what are the bad things that can
happen, health-wise, from using drugs,” researcher Jennifer Kam told ABC
News. ”They should really clearly tell kids that they disapprove of
them using drugs. Also, give them strategies to avoid use or decline use
in a way that makes them look cool.”
She advised parents against lying. “I wouldn’t volunteer the
information, but if a child asks, and a parent lies, it could impact the
relationship later on,” she noted.
The study appears in the journal Human Communication Research.
Friday, February 22, 2013
Essential Health Benefits” Rule Covers Drug Addiction and Alcohol Abuse Treatment
The federal government on Wednesday issued a final rule on
“essential health benefits” that most health insurance plans must offer
next year, including treatment of drug addiction and alcohol abuse.
The New York Times
reports the Obama administration says 32 million people will gain
access to coverage of mental health care as a result of the new
benefits. An additional 30 million people who already have some mental
health coverage will see an improvement in their benefits, Secretary of
Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said. She noted the new
ruling will make it easier for consumers to compare health plans.
In the past, nearly 20 percent of individuals purchasing insurance
didn’t have access to mental health services, and nearly one-third had
no coverage for substance use disorder services, according to a
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) news release.
The new rule provides more Americans with access to quality health care
that includes coverage for mental health and substance use disorder
services, HHS states.
Each state will set its own benchmark insurance plan that reflects
coverage typically offered by employers, the article notes. More than 30
states are using a plan offered by Blue Cross and Blue Shield as their
benchmark.
Heroin Addiction on the Rise in New York State
A growing number of people are becoming addicted to heroin
in New York state, according to drug treatment counselors and police.
They say many people have switched to heroin from prescription
painkillers, such as oxycodone and hydrocodone, the Associated Press reports.
Police report the people they arrest for heroin often started on
painkillers prescribed by a doctor, then started purchasing them on the
street. They turned to heroin because it is less expensive.
Many areas around the country are seeing a surge in heroin addiction
that stems from prescription drug abuse. A study published in July 2012
in the New England Journal of Medicine
found OxyContin abuse has decreased now that the painkiller has been
reformulated to make it more difficult to misuse. Many people who abused
the drug have switched to heroin.
The study included more than 2,500 people who were dependent on
opioids, who were followed between July 2009 and March 2012. During that
time, there was a 17 percent decrease in OxyContin abuse. In 2010, the
company that makes OxyContin introduced a new version of the drug that
is more difficult to inhale or inject. During the same period, heroin
abuse doubled.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Drug-Sniffing Dog
The Supreme Court ruled police do not have to extensively
document a drug-sniffing dog’s expertise to justify relying on the
canine to search a vehicle, according to The Washington Post.
The unanimous ruling overturned a Florida Supreme Court decision
involving Aldo, a German shepherd. After the dog detected drugs in a
pickup truck, a police officer searched the truck and found 200
pseudoephedrine pills and 8,000 matches, which are used to make
methamphetamine. The Florida Supreme Court ruled police must compile
detailed evidence of the dog’s reliability before probable cause to
search the vehicle is established.
In Tuesday’s ruling, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan suggested
proper training and certification of a dog, instead of how it performs
in the field, could be enough. “The question — similar to every inquiry
into probable cause — is whether all the facts surrounding a dog’s
alert, viewed through the lens of common sense, would make a reasonably
prudent person think that a search would reveal contraband or evidence
of a crime,” she wrote. “A sniff is up to snuff when it meets that test.
. . . Aldo’s did.”
The Supreme Court is scheduled to rule on a second dog-sniffing case, involving a chocolate Lab named Franky.
Florida’s Supreme Court ruled the dog’s ability to detect marijuana
growing inside a home in Miami by sniffing outside the house was
unconstitutional. The state’s attorney general is asking the U.S.
Supreme Court to reverse the ruling.
Franky, who recently retired after seven years with the Miami-Dade
Police Department, is responsible for the seizure of more than 2.5 tons
of marijuana and $4.9 million in drug-contaminated money.
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