Prescription Painkiller Abuse Starting to Decline: Study

/BY JOIN TOGETHER STAFF

January 15th, 2015/

The diversion and abuse of prescription painkillers decreased slightly between 2011 and 2013, after increasing substantially from 2002 to 2010, according to a study in this week’sNew England Journal of Medicine. The findings suggest the U.S. may be making progress in controlling prescription opioid abuse, the researchers say.

The study also found heroin abuse and overdoses are increasing, HealthDay reports.

The findings come from data from five drug-monitoring programs. Four of them reported a pattern of declining prescription opioid abuse, the article notes. The programs tracked the diversion and abuse of six prescription opioid analgesics: oxycodone, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, fentanyl, morphine, and tramadol. The programs gather data from drug-diversion investigators, poison centers, substance-abuse treatment centers, and college students.

“The big ‘but’ is heroin abuse and overdose, which is increasing,” said lead author Richard Dart, Director of the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center in Denver. “It’s a good news/bad news story,” he said. Dart noted part of the decline in prescription opioids is due to some users switching to heroin.

The rate of heroin-related deaths increased from 0.014 per 100,000 in 2010 to more than 0.03 per 100,000 in 2013, the researchers found.

Dart said the decline in prescription opioid abuse is also partly due to legislation on the federal, state and local level. He noted states have implemented prescription drug monitoring programs to detect “doctor shoppers,” who visit multiple physicians in an attempt to obtain prescriptions. In addition, medical groups have issued guidelines on painkiller prescribing designed to limit inappropriate use.

Half of Young Drivers Who Die in Crashes Used Alcohol, Marijuana or Both

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January 15th, 2015/

A study of young drivers who died in crashes finds that half were under the influence of alcohol, marijuana or both at the time the accident occurred, HealthDay reports.

Researchers from Columbia University examined car-crash data from nine states between 1999 and 2011. The 7,200 drivers in the study were between the ages of 16 and 25. The states in the study routinely collect blood and urine tests of drivers in fatal accidents, the article notes.

The study found 36.8 percent tested positive for alcohol, 5.9 percent tested positive for marijuana, and 7.6 percent tested positive for both. Drivers older than 21 were 14 percent more likely to test positive for alcohol than those under the legal drinking age. They were also slightly more likely to test positive for both marijuana and alcohol.

The findings appear in Injury Epidemiology.

“Policies related to the use of substances in the United States remain in flux; the rapid changes in marijuana use policy are a good example of this,” study leader Katherine Keyes said in a news release. “It’s imperative to know whether there will be unintended consequences of changes in policies, including increases or decreases in harm related to other substances that are not the focus of the policy.”

Added study co-author Dr. Guohua Li, “Taken together, we found no significant substitution effect between alcohol and marijuana. Rather, an uptick in availability seems to increase the prevalence of concurrent use of alcohol and marijuana.”

January 15 CHAP 44 v 21 TWELVE STEPPING WITH STRENGTH FROM THE PSALM

God would surely have known it , for He knows the secrets of every heart . (GODS BIG BOOK )

STEP 5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

I find it important and interesting that the step five puts God first. After much thought and consideration about this ,I have come to the realization ," That we cant fool GOD. Not only that God will not be mocked  every man will reap what he sows . Another words get right with God before you attempt to fix any of your human relationships.When we are mentally spiritually and physically messed up we have no business trying to give our opinions in regards to relationships. I started using chemical substances for many reasons . Two of my main reasons were I did not like me and I did not like people. Chemical substances gave me the ability to be someone I was not and I built a life on that. Step five is discovering you and recreating you into the person God wants you to be. My relationships are not perfect but I love me now and its ok when things go wrong , I am a work in progress. I no longer need chemical substances to help me deal with myself or others .Hiding my past was only hurting me and those I hurt also only hurt me. This was the root of my addictions and trying too hide the real me deep down in my heart was robbing me God and the world . 

Psalm 39 13-16 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

(GODS BIG BOOK ) By Joseph Dickerson

Research on Vaccine to Treat Heroin Addiction Faces Funding Challenges

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January 14th, 2015/

A vaccine to treat heroin addiction has shown promise in rat studies, but faces challenges including a lack of funding, Time reports.

Researcher Kim Janda at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, says drug companies are not interested in addiction vaccines. He has been studying treatments for heroin and methamphetamine addiction, as well as cocaine overdoses.

“No pharmaceutical company is going to fund trials for heroin, no way,” Janda said. “For meth? No way. Forget about it.” Janda is most hopeful about the heroin vaccine. “The heroin one has been our best success in over 25 years of working—it’s the best data we’ve seen,” he noted.

A study published in 2013 found rats addicted to heroin who received the experimental vaccine did not relapse into addiction, despite the high amounts of heroin they were given. “It’s really dramatic,” said Dr. George Koob, Director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, who was involved in the research. “You can inject a rat with 10 times the dose of heroin that a normal rat [could handle] and they just look at you like nothing happened. It’s extraordinary.” The vaccine acts like a sponge to suck up the heroin and prevent it from reaching the brain.

Janda and Koob hope the Food and Drug Administration will grant investigational new drug status for the vaccine so they can test it in humans. The National Institute on Drug Abuse has allocated $27.1 million to addiction vaccine research last year, which is not enough to cover the costs of a human clinical trial.

“I am not sure Americans realize that if they treated alcoholism and drug addiction they would save quadrillions of dollars in health care costs,” says Koob. “Go into any emergency room on the weekend and you will see half are there for alcohol and drugs. If for no other reason, investing in research on addiction will reduce health care costs in the future. That’s something I believe in.”

As U.S. Turns to Home-Grown Marijuana, Drug Traffickers Sell More Heroin and Meth

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January 14th, 2015/

As U.S.-grown marijuana displaces Mexican cannabis in this country, drug traffickers are sending more cheap heroin and methamphetamine into the United States, according toThe Washington Post.

The amount of marijuana seized by U.S. officers along the Mexican border has decreased 37 percent since 2011. In the past few years, American marijuana users have been choosing more potent, higher-grade varieties grown in the United States.

As the popularity of Mexican marijuana decreases, Mexican drug farmers are planting more opium poppies. The heroin these plants produce is being channeled to the U.S. communities hardest hit by prescription drug abuse, offering a cheaper alternative.

“Legalization of marijuana for recreational use has given U.S. consumers access to high-quality marijuana, with genetically improved strains, grown in greenhouses,” said Raul Benitez-Manaut of Mexico’s National Autonomous University. “That’s why the Mexican cartels are switching to heroin and meth.”

Last year, U.S. law enforcement agents seized 2,181 kilograms of heroin coming from Mexico, almost triple the amount confiscated in 2009, the article notes.

Methamphetamine seizures by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents surged in 2014. A crackdown on meth ingredients in the United States has pushed the drug’s manufacture to Mexico. The agency said there has been a 300 percent increase in meth seizures at California entry points from 2009 to 2014.

“The days of the large-scale U.S. meth labs are pretty much gone, given how much the Mexicans have taken over production south of the border and distribution into the United States,” said Lawrence Payne, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration. “Their product is far superior, cheaper and more pure.”

Sidney Aki of U.S. Customs and Border Protection noted, “Criminal organizations are no longer going for bulk marijuana. Hard drugs are the growing trend, and they’re profitable in small amounts.”

Heroin Overdose Deaths Rose 39 Percent in 2013: Report

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January 13th, 2015/

Heroin overdose deaths increased 39 percent from 2012 to 2013, a new government reportfinds. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced 8,257 Americans died of a heroin overdose in 2013, according to The Huffington Post.

The CDC found a 6 percent overall increase in all drug poisoning deaths from 2012 to 2013, to 43,982 deaths. There was a 1 percent increase in prescription opioid deaths during the same year. Deaths involving cocaine increased 12 percent.

“These results demonstrate that while the Administration’s efforts to curb the epidemic of the nonmedical use of prescription drugs is working, much more work is needed to improve the way we prevent and treat substance use disorders,” the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) said in a statement.

Attorney General Eric Holder said, “These troubling statistics illustrate a grim reality: that drug, and particularly opioid abuse, represents a growing public health crisis.”

Opioid use disorders often begin with a prescription or taking pills from a home medicine cabinet, ONDCP noted. Almost 68 percent of people who begin using prescription drugs non-medically for the first time get the drugs from a family member or friend. Many people who initially abused prescription painkillers shifted to heroin, which is cheaper and easier to obtain, the article notes.

In November, the World Health Organization said that increasing the availability of theopioid-overdose antidote naloxone could prevent more than 20,000 deaths in the United States annually.