Indiana Poison Center Reports Dramatic Drop in Synthetic Drug Overdoses

By Join Together Staff | July 24, 2013 | Leave a comment | Filed in Community Related & Drugs

The Indiana Poison Center reports major decreases in the number of reported overdoses from synthetic drugs such as bath salts and Spice, according to the Associated Press.
The state passed its first synthetic drug ban in 2011. Since then, there has been an 86 percent decrease in reported overdoses of bath salts, and a 61 percent drop in overdoses of Spice, or synthetic marijuana.
State Senator Jim Merritt, who sponsored the synthetic drug ban, said in a news release, “Synthetic drug use quickly became an epidemic in Indiana, with these products cropping up in convenience stores and gas stations across the state. These drugs provide absolutely no value to society, have dangerous and destructive side effects, and fuel a culture of casual drug use. I am energized to see Indiana’s rates dropping and I pledge to continue this fight.”
People using bath salts have experienced side effects including paranoia and violent behavior; hallucinations; delusions; suicidal thoughts; seizures; panic attacks; increased blood pressure and heart rate; chest pain; and nausea and vomiting.
According to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, health effects from synthetic marijuana can be life-threatening and can include severe agitation and anxiety; fast, racing heartbeat and higher blood pressure; nausea and vomiting; muscle spasms, seizures, and tremors; intense hallucinations and psychotic episodes; and suicidal and other harmful thoughts and/or actions.

Massachusetts City Reports 95% Success Rate With Opioid Overdose Antidote Narcan

By Join Together Staff | July 23, 2013 | Leave a comment | Filed in Community Related, Drugs, Government, Prescription Drugs & Treatment

The police department of Quincy, Massachusetts, the first in the nation to require every officer on patrol to carry the opioid overdose antidote Narcan, reports a 95 percent success rate with the treatment. Quincy police have used Narcan 179 times, and reversed overdoses 170 times since 2010, CBS News reports
In the nine remaining cases, five people were already dead when police arrived, and four people had consumed other substances. Narcan, also known as naloxone, only reverses opioid overdoses. It costs $22 a dose.
Quincy police officer Ryan Donnelly, who has used Narcan to reverse eight overdoses before paramedics arrived, said, “They’re somebody’s daughter or son or father or brother or mother. That’s what clicks in your head.”
Quincy narcotics detective Patrick Glynn, who oversees the Narcan program, says the police have two doses in every cruiser. About 200 officers are trained to use Narcan. “We changed our philosophy,” Glynn said. “It’s just a simple change where we decided that we cannot arrest our way out of this epidemic.”
Narcan has been used for many years by paramedics and doctors in emergency rooms. It is administered by nasal spray. The medication blocks the ability of heroin or opioid painkillers to attach to brain cells. The U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy told CBS News it is encouraging other police departments to carry Narcan.
In the past few years, Narcan has been distributed free to opioid users and their loved ones, in a growing number of sites around the country.

Brewers’ Ryan Braun Suspended for Rest of Baseball Season for Drug Violations

By Join Together Staff | July 23, 2013 | Leave a comment | Filed in Prescription Drugs

Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun has been suspended for the rest of the season by Major League Baseball (MLB), for violating the league’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program, MLB.com reports.
Braun will miss 65 regular-season games, and any potential post-season games. His suspension is without pay. He is the first in a potential group of baseball players to be banned because of their connection with a South Florida clinic accused of supplying performance-enhancing drugs to players, according to Bloomberg.
“We’ve scratched the tip of the iceberg,” MLB Network analyst Mitch Williams told Bloomberg. “There’s going to be a whole lot more suspensions after this.” Other players who might face suspensions include the New York Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez and the Texas Rangers’ Nelson Cruz, the article notes. About 20 players could eventually face suspension.
The players are connected with a Miami-area clinic, Biogenesis of America, which is now closed. In January, a Florida newspaper reported Rodriguez and Braun obtained performance-enhancing drugs from Biogenesis. MLB filed a suit against Biogenesis for allegedly providing performance-enhancing drugs to players, and advising them on how to pass drug tests. The clinic’s owner, Tony Bosch, reached an agreement to cooperate with a MLB investigation.
In January, MLB and its players union announced they reached an agreement to conduct in-season blood testing of players for human growth hormone. Players also will be tested for synthetic testosterone, which is increasingly popular because it washes out of the body fairly quickly after being used.
Major League Baseball was the first major sport in the United States to agree to human growth hormone testing. It reached an agreement with its union in November 2011 to test for the substance, but only in spring training and the off-season. The new agreement expands the testing into the baseball season.

Smoking and Heavy Drinking May Hasten Decline in Brain Function: Study

By Join Together Staff | July 12, 2013 | Leave a comment | Filed in Alcohol, Mental Health, Research & Tobacco

People who are both smokers and heavy drinkers have a faster decline in brain function, compared with those who don’t smoke and who drink moderately, a new study suggests. Smoking and heavy drinking is associated with a 36 percent quicker decline in cognitive function.
The 10-year study of almost 6,500 adults ages 45 to 69 found mental decline accelerates the more alcohol a person consumes, according to HealthDay. The study considered heavy drinking to be more than 14 drinks a week for women, and 21 for men.
“Current advice is that smokers should stop or cut down, and people should avoid heavy alcohol drinking,” lead researcher Dr. Gareth Hagger-Johnson of University College London said in a news release. “Our study suggests that people should also be advised not to combine these two unhealthy behaviors — particularly from midlife onwards. Healthy behaviors in midlife may prevent cognitive [mental] decline into early old age.”
The researchers assessed participants’ mental function, including verbal and math reasoning, short-term verbal memory and verbal fluency, three times during the study.
“When we looked at people who were heavy-drinking smokers, we found that for every 10 years that they aged, their brains aged the equivalent of 12 years,” Hagger-Johnson said. “From a public health perspective, the increasing burden associated with cognitive [mental] aging could be reduced if lifestyle factors can be modified, and we believe that people should not drink alcohol more heavily in the belief that alcohol is a protective factor against cognitive decline.”
The findings appear in the British Journal of Psychiatry.

“Doctor Shoppers” Bought 4.3 Million Prescriptions for Opioids in 2008: Study

By Join Together Staff | July 18, 2013 | 1 Comment | Filed in Healthcare, Prescription Drugs & Research

People who “doctor shop” bought an estimated 4.3 million prescriptions for opioids such as Vicodin and OxyContin in 2008, a new study finds. Doctor shoppers, who visit multiple health care providers to obtain prescriptions, represented almost 1 percent of all buyers of addictive pain medications in the United States that year.
The study, conducted by the think tank Abt Associates, is the first national estimate of doctor shopping in the country, the researchers said.
“There’s a hole in our prescription control system in the United States,” study co-author Douglas McDonald told HealthDay. “Lacking a universal health record, doctors have to rely on what patients tell them about what they’ve been prescribed by other doctors.”  This means “doctor shoppers can get multiple prescriptions for the same drug if they lie to their physician,” he said.
The researchers analyzed a national sample of more than 146 prescriptions for opioids dispensed in 2008. They found one out of every 143 patients who purchased the drugs received an unusually large number of prescriptions from multiple health care providers. These patients obtained an average of 32 prescriptions from 10 different doctors.
The study is published in the journal PLOS ONE.
Although many states have prescription drug monitoring programs designed to detect doctor shopping, some people are able to get around the system, McDonald said. “There are patients who have doctored MRI results, they go from doctor to doctor and show this falsified MRI record that shows they have a bone spur in their neck and they are in intense pain.”
Steve Pasierb, President and CEO of The Partnership at Drugfree.org, said because the monitoring programs function at the state level, doctor shoppers can avoid detection by crossing state lines. “I could have gotten a prescription in Portland yesterday, and then come to Connecticut and get another prescription,” he said.

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Dear Joseph, We join so many others in our sadness about the tragic, sudden death of “Glee” star Cory Monteith due to an overdose of heroin and alcohol.  Something we admired in Cory over the years was his fearless approach to speaking openly and honestly about his substance use and attempts to change his life course through treatment. By sharing his story with the world, he hoped that his experience could be an example for other young people. In many ways, he did what you, our Hope Share community, do every day. He opened up and broke his silence so that others could find strength and comfort, knowing that they are not alone in their recovery. Cory’s struggle and death don’t make him a hypocrite. It makes him human. And his life and death can still be an example for families, even after his passing. Thank you for your continued commitment to empowering and comforting each other on The Hope Share. We know you join us in remembering Cory. We believe he changed lives, and we believe you are, too. Stephen J. Pasierb, President and CEOThe Partnership at Drugfree.org