Drug Abuse, a Not So New Epidemic

More stats on drug abuse were released recently, but if you're in the chemical dependency counseling field then you will know that the stats don't include the 100,000 deaths yearly from prescription drugs. 

"The Associated Press

VIENNA — 

Drug abuse worldwide is stagnant but still kills about 200,000 people a year, the U.N.'s drug-fighting agency said in a report released Tuesday.

Based on 2010 figures, the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime also said global treatment for drug abusers would cost to $250 billion a year if everyone needing help received the proper care.

But the report noted that far less than that is being spent, meaning fewer than 1 in 5 people needing help actually get it. Also, it said, loss of productivity and crimes committed by those needing to finance their habit result in additional huge costs for many countries.

In its annual report, the U.N. body said that about 230 million people — or 5 percent of the world's population — used illegal drugs at least once in 2010. But the agency noted significant gender gaps among them depending on where users came from, with female consumption in the United States about two-thirds that of males and as low as one tenth in India and Indonesia.

The report said the estimate of $200 billion-$250 billion — about 160 billion to 200 billion euros — needed for treatment of all requiring it is equivalent to between 0.3 and 0.4 percent of the world's GDP. In some countries, it said, per capita productivity losses are even more costly. For example, in the United States, such losses last year equaled 0.9 percent of GDP.

Last year, the report said, global opium production was 7,000 tons, a fall of more than a fifth compared to the peak year of 2007. Still that was up from 2010, when disease destroyed almost half of the harvest in the No. 1 opium producer, Afghanistan.

While the area under coca bush cultivation has fallen globally by 33 percent over the past 12 years, that gain has "been offset by rising levels of synthetic drug production, including significant increases in the production and consumptions of psychoactive substances that are not under international control," said the Vienna-based agency.

Overall, illicit drug use "remained stable in the five years up to and including 2010, at between 3.4 and 6.6 percent of the adult population," the report said. Cannabis was the most widely used drug worldwide."

Source: http://www.newstalkradiowhio.com/ap/ap/social-issues/un-costs-of-global-drug-...

Today you can be the seeds of change by taking a look into the chemical dependency counseling field. Centaur University offers one of the fastest certification programs to help you become a chemical dependency counselor and start making a difference! 

26 Synthetic Drug Bans

Finally some great news for chemical dependency counselors and the chemical dependency counseling community

"The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) today commended House and Senate negotiators for agreeing on legislation to control 26 synthetic drugs under the Controlled Substances Act. These drugs include those commonly found in products marketed as “K2” and “Spice.”


The addition of these chemicals to Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act will be included as part of S. 3187, the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act. Schedule I substances are those with a high potential for abuse; have no medical use in treatment in the United States; and lack an accepted safety for use of the drug. 


In addition to scheduling the 26 drugs, the new law would double the length of time a substance may be temporarily placed in schedule I (from 18 to 36 months). In addition to explicitly naming 26 substances, the legislation creates a new definition for “cannabamimetic agents,” creating criteria by which similar chemical compounds are controlled. 


In recent years, a growing number of dangerous products have been introduced into the U.S. marketplace. Products labeled as “herbal incense” have become especially popular, especially among teens and young adults. These products consist of plant material laced with synthetic cannabinoids which, when smoked, mimic the delirious effects of THC, the psychoactive ingredient of marijuana. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, more than 100 such substances have been synthesized and identified to date. DEA has used its emergency scheduling authority to place in schedule I several of these harmful chemicals.


Newly developed drugs, particularly from the “2C family” (dimethoxyphenethylamines), are generally referred to as synthetic psychedelic/hallucinogens. 2C-E caused the recent death of a 19 year-old in Minnesota. 


The substances added to Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act also include 9 different 2C chemicals, and 15 different synthetic cannabanoids.

The American Association of Poison Control Centers reported that they received 6,959 calls related to synthetic marijuana in 2011, up from 2,906 in 2010."

Source: http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=187847#ixzz1z2XSY46N

Today you can be the seeds of change by taking a look into the chemical dependency counseling field. Centaur University offers one of the fastest certification programs to help you become a chemical dependency counselor and start making a difference! 

Another Terrible Bath Salt Story

We have seen many of these stories in the chemical dependency counseling community for the past few weeks, but here is another one to add to the aweful list for Bath Salts. 

"Pamela McCarthy, 35, was allegedly beating her son when police arrived

Bath salts may be behind the deadly meltdown of an upstate New York woman suspected of beating her 3-year-old son before cops used a stun gun to subdue her, according to reports.

Following the Tuesday night incident, Munnsville mom Pamela McCarthy later died at a hospital after going into cardiac arrest from the effects of the Tasing, reported ABC affiliate WSYR-TV in Syracuse.

Officials said they encountered a “violently combative” suspect and were initially unable to handcuff her.

The child's father, Jason Williams, talks to reporters in front of the home of Pamela McCarthy, an upstate New York woman who stripped all of her clothes off and was allegedly assaulting her child in front of her home.

“She really was not coherent to what was occurring around her,” New York State Police Capt. Rodney Campbell told reporters Wednesday. “She was not speaking clearly.”

McCarthy, 35, appeared to be high on the synthetic drug linked to a spate of horrific crimes in recent weeks, cops said.

This was not the first time troopers had to respond to calls at the house. They allegedly caught McCarthy under the influence of bath salts multiple times, Campbell said.

On Tuesday, officers first tried using pepper spray to no effect and were forced to Taser the woman, Campbell said. It took two men, a trooper and a fire fighter to finally cuff her, he added.

Neighbors described chaos in the moments preceding McCarthy’s confrontation with the police.

“We heard growling … and a kid crying so we went outside and opened up the door,” neighbor Heather Ames told YNN-TV. “There (McCarthy) was, lying on the ground holding her 3-year-old kid in her arms and just beating him.”

Jason Williams, the boy’s father, rescued him while McCarthy took off after Ames, she added.

“She grabbed me. She was swinging her arms. I thought she was going to hit me," Ames told YNN. “She scratched me in the face, then she grabbed my hair.”

David Bridge, another neighbor, told The Syracuse Post-Standard that he saw McCarthy “hit concrete after falling down a flight of stairs and got up like nothing happened.”

Once the boy was taken from McCarthy, she began stripping off her clothes and threatening passersby, reported WSTM-TV in Syracuse.

She then ran inside her home, grabbed her pet pit bull and fell down the stairs again, injuring the dog as troopers arrived on scene, according to reports."

“She needs help,” Williams told YNN.

Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati...icle-1.1095423

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Working for More than Money

I found an interesting article for those in chemical dependency counseling, this article goes over the psychology behind work and pay.  

"I was thrilled to find discussion of some research that I’d thought about often, but had never been able to find again; I didn’t take notes on it and couldn’t remember where I’d seen it.

Eureka! There it was.

It’s very interesting research about how people value money and pay.

 

Now, it’s clear that when people don’t have enough money to meet their basic needs, or when they’re worried that they’re going to lose a job, they’re very focused on how much money they’re paid. Money is like health: we tend to think about it most when we don’t have it.

And it’s also clear that people are very concerned with being paid fairly. For instance, if someone else is getting paid more to do the same job, that breeds unhappiness.

However — and this is the interesting part — once those conditions are met, money starts to be less important than other things at work. And here’s the really interesting part — although people recognize that forthemselves, other values count more than money (though money remains important), they assume that other people find money the most significant aspect of work.

In other words: after a certain point, we don’t think money is all-important, but we assume that other people think that money is all-important.

Kohn observes:

“…it doesn’t follow that most of us think about our work chiefly in terms of the extrinsic rewards [i.e. money] it brings. Several studies over the last few decades have found that when people are asked to guess what matters to their coworkers—or in the case of managers, to their subordinates—they assume money is at the top of the list. But put the question directly—“What do you care about?”—and the results look very different.”

For example, in a survey of utility company applicants over the course of thirty years, “pay” was sixth out of ten job factors (such as “type of work”). But when people were asked what they thought other people would find important, most people listed “pay.”

This observation seems important to me, because if everyone believes that everyone else is most motivated by money, they’ll make many assumptions about work, motivation, and human nature that just may not be true.

Gertrude Stein wrote, “Everyone has to make up their mind if money is money or money isn’t money and sooner or later they always do decide that money is money.”

Money is money, but what does that mean? The relationship between money and happiness is one of the most complicated and emotionally fraught subjects within the broad issue of happiness."

Source: http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/06/18/do-you-work-only-for-pay/

Today you can be the seeds of change by taking a look into the chemical dependency counseling field. Centaur University offers one of the fastest certification programs to help you become a chemical dependency counselor and start making a difference! 

New Laser Drug Tests

I love writing about new technological advances in the world and today the chemical dependency counseling community is seeing something great. 

"QUINCY, Mass.—The small box that Detective Lt. Patrick Glynn holds in his hand looks like a game console, but within seconds, it's clear he's using the device for more serious business.

The device uses a low-power laser to scan small bags of drugs and gives police near-instant identification. Quincy police who have been testing the new device say it saves them time and money and could eventually help them more quickly dispose of the hundreds of drug cases they handle each year.

The device, developed by Waltham-based Thermo Fisher Scientific, is being rolled out Wednesday for sale to police departments. The company has been testing the Thermo Scientific TruNarc with police departments around the country, including Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles.

In Quincy, where police have been using the device for about six months, drug detectives say it makes identifying drugs easier, less dangerous and less expensive.

"It's a much simpler process," Glynn said. "It eliminates the need for multiple tests."

Traditionally, police do field testing to identify drugs using chemical test kits. The substance is put into a plastic pouch containing vials of chemicals. Then, the officer breaks the vials inside the pouch, shakes the pouch and the substance turns a certain color. For example, cocaine comes back blue.

Each substance has a specific testing kit, so officers sometimes have to use three or four kits before they get a positive reading on the substance they are testing. That kind of testing also requires officers to handle the drugs and leaves room for accidental spills and exposure to the substances.

The kits are used for presumptive testing only, in the initial stages of an arrest. Samples are then sent to a state laboratory for confirmatory tests, which can take weeks or months, causing long delays in prosecuting the cases in court, Glynn said.

The new device uses the same scientific technique used in the laboratory but allows officers to use it in the field at the time of arrest, said Maura Fitzpatrick, senior director of safety and security for Thermo Scientific portable optical analyzers. The technique, called Raman spectroscopy, captures the difference in each chemical compound's vibrational frequencies to differentiate between compounds.

Handheld Raman instruments, called spectrometers, have been used for field identification of explosives and hazardous chemicals. The TruNarc uses the same technique to identify numerous narcotics with a single test, Fitzpatrick said. To use the device, the officer presses the sample bag against the nose cone, then presses a scan button. A low-power laser shines on the sample, and the light reflects back into the device. The light spectrum is collected and compared to a library within the instrument, which then produces a match.

"It's really a simple point and shoot. You hold it up to the sample, it does a quick analysis and then it gives you a result," Fitzpatrick said.

Police departments who have tested the device say it is simple, easy to use and offers a single test on substances that may take multiple tests with chemical kits.

"Especially now, with the amount of prescription drugs out there, there's always new stuff coming up and as soon as you put the TruNarc on it, it tells you what it is," said Lt. Detective Robert Merner, commander of the Boston Police Department's drug control unit.

Police say it could be used effectively as an initial test, but a second test in a laboratory will continue to be needed as the case is prosecuted in court.

"I foresee using it as a quick screening device. In the streets, the officers can use it to see what substance they have," said Jose Gonzalez, a criminalist in the narcotics unit of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Chicago police say the device is particularly useful at the beginning stages of an investigation, for example, when police are conducting a search and come across unknown substances. But they say the device has limitations, including an inability to test for marijuana. The company said Raman spectroscopy is not suitable to analyze plant-based materials such as marijuana or hashishbecause they tend to fluoresce.

Commander James O'Grady of Chicago's narcotics unit said the department is unlikely to purchase many of the devices, which will sell for just under $20,000 each.

"We like the device. For a preliminary investigation on the street, it's a great resource. Are we going to go out and buy 20 of them? Probably not. That's expensive," O'Grady said.

Some defense attorneys are skeptical.

Boston attorney Michael Bourbeau said he would strongly oppose the admission in court of any evidence gathered by using the device.

"There is no substitute for careful testing in a laboratory," Bourbeau said. "When you've got someone's liberty at stake, you certainly have to utilize all your resources to make sure your decisions are the correct ones."

Quincy police, however, say the device is extremely accurate. The state laboratory has confirmed the results of the testing done by TruNarc in 29 out of 30 samples. Only one test done by the device was inconclusive, but that was because of operator error, Glynn said.

Glynn said he believes the device will save the department money in the long run because offices will no longer have to use multiple chemical tests to determine what an unknown substance is. The pouches cost $6 to $10 each.

"It is the same technology being used in the lab," Glynn said. "The ultimate goal is that the court will accept this.""

February 1, 2012 

Denise Lavoie 
Source: http://www.boston.com/news/local/mas...ugs/?page=full

Today you can be the seeds of change by taking a look into the chemical dependency counseling field. Centaur University offers one of the fastest certification programs to help you become a chemical dependency counselor and start making a difference! 

Bath Salt Bust/Bans

Another interesting story and good news for those involved in the chemical dependency counseling community and want Bath Salts banned. 

"MUNCIE, Ind. — Authorities investigating the sale of synthetic drugs known commonly as bath salts raided five gasoline stations and a convenience store in eastern Indiana on Monday as well as three apartments in Muncie and a home in Indianapolis.

 

The investigation leading to the raids began after police received numerous calls from people concerned about stores selling the synthetic drugs, in some cases to adolescents, according to a probable cause affidavit.

The drugs, sold in small plastic cosmetic containers, are laced with stimulants and have been compared to synthetic cocaine. The drugs can cause paranoia and hallucinations and have been linked with deaths and hundreds of calls to poison centers nationwide.

The Indiana Legislature passed a law earlier this year banning bath salts.

One of the bill's authors, state Sens. Ron Alting, R-Lafayette, said at the time that at least 30 deaths in Indiana have been linked to bath salts or marijuana-like drugs known as spice. He said the people died either because users harmed themselves when high or because the drugs caused brain injuries.

The raids were conducted at five Muncie gas stations and a convenient store in Yorktown, about six miles west of Muncie.

The probable cause affidavit says the investigation of the Yorktown Mart included an interview with a Yorktown High School student, who administrators said had behaved "erratically," and said he ingested bath salts he bought at the convenience store.

The Star Press reports (http://tspne.ws/LiyXGs) that police are investigating whether the ingestion of bath salts was a factor in two recent fatal traffic accidents.

Other recent incidents that police believe may have involved bath salts include a Muncie man who allegedly held a knife to a roommate's throat, a mother who was walking with her children and couldn't provide police accurate information about their names and dates of birth, and a naked man accused of stealing a pickup truck and crashing it into a home."

Source: http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/7b9add3ef728413ab638d99834452add/IN--Ba...

Today you can be the seeds of change by taking a look into the chemical dependency counseling field. Centaur University offers one of the fastest certification programs to help you become a chemical dependency counselor and start making a difference! 

Spice 101

This is a video everyone one should watch whether you're in the chemical dependency counseling community or not, this is some very valuable information on Spice or "K2".

Today you can be the seeds of change by taking a look into the chemical dependency counseling field. Centaur University offers one of the fastest certification programs to help you become a chemical dependency counselor and start making a difference! 

Major Speech to be Given

This is an important speech that I highly recommend everyone listens to. Whether you are a chemical dependency counselor or not this will be an interesting speech for everyone to hear. 

"Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) will deliver a major speech at theBetty Ford Center Monday, June 11, calling on Americans 

to understand drug addiction as a chronic disease of the brain instead of a moral failure. His talk will outline the importance of Federal, state, local, and community efforts to lift the stigma associated with substance use disorders. Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack will also be in attendance. The event will be live streamed at 9:30 am PST."

Source: http://www.bettyfordcenter.org/recovery/featured-home/major-speech-by-directo...

Today you can be the seeds of change by taking a look into the chemical dependency counseling field. Centaur University offers one of the fastest certification programs to help you become a chemical dependency counselor and start making a difference! 

Bath Salts Gone Viral

Chemical dependency counseling news has been consistently posting articles about Bath Salts and the dangers they bring for about 2 years now and it's nice to see it's getting the recognition it deserves. Here is more on the Bath Salt situation

"(NEW YORK) -- A Delaware senator has praised pending legislation proposing a nationwide ban on "bath salts," a dangerous synthetic drug that's on the rise in the United States and might have led to the recent attack in Miami where a man allegedly ate off 80 percent of a homeless man's face.

"Dangerous drugs like bath salts are terrorizing our communities and destroying lives," Democratic Sen. Chris Coons said in a statement Monday.  "Stricter measures must be taken to stem the growing prevalence of bath salts and other new designer drugs."

The number of calls to poison centers concerning "bath salts" rose to 6,138 in 2011 from 304 in 2010, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers.  More than 1,000 calls have been made so far this year.

These so-called bath salts, not to be confused with cleansing products, are an inexpensive, synthetic, super-charged form of speed.  The drug consists of a potpourri of constantly changing chemicals, three of which -- mephedrone, MDPV and methylone -- were banned last year by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

Bath salts are still easily available online, though, and come in brand names such as "Purple Wave," "Zoom" or "Cloud Nine."  A 50-milligram packet sells for $25 to $50.

The drugs create a condition police have come to call an "excited delirium" that makes users paranoid, violent and unpredictable.  Miami police last month shot and killed a man who was allegedly feasting on the face of a homeless man in a daylight attack on a busy highway.  Police are investigating whether the drugs found in bath salts were in the alleged attacker's system.

In most cases, the active ingredient found in bath salts is a chemical known as metheylenedioxypyrovalerone, or MDPV for short.  As far as the effects they have, bath salts are a central nervous system stimulant that acts something like a mix of methamphetamine and cocaine.

They dramatically increase the dopamine and norepinephrine levels in the human brain in two dangerous ways: by pouring more dopamine in as methamphetamine does, and at the same time, like cocaine, trapping both of these chemicals in the brain, so the user doesn't come down.

It's a dangerous situation, leading to a high that some drug abuse experts describe as up to 13 times more potent than cocaine.  The altered mental status it brings can lead to panic attacks, agitation, paranoia, hallucinations and violent behavior.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio"

Source: http://www.kvor.com/rssItem.asp?feedid=116&itemid=29858962

Today you can be the seeds of change by taking a look into the chemical dependency counseling field. Centaur University offers one of the fastest certification programs to help you become a chemical dependency counselor and start making a difference!