The Drug Update

Portugal, following the lead of Switzerland, Germany, The Netherlands, and Vancouver, announced last week that it would begin setting up supervised sites for heroin addicts to inject. The new legislation also increases the availability of methadone treatment for opiate addicts and for prisons to start needle-exchange programs to prevent the spread of disease. This is an expansion of Portugal's liberal drug policies, which included decriminalizing drug use in 2000.

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Adolescent use of marijuana primes the brain for increased heroin sensitivity according to a new study done on rats. One group of the rats was given THC during adolescence and the control group given the vehicle. After the THC exposure ended, rats were allowed to seld administer heroin. The rats that had been pretreated with THC responded more to lower doses and had a higher maintainence level than the rats that hadn't been exposed to THC.

Posted by Matt Nazareth at 05:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

Research for America tested out the drug PROMETA, which has already been approved as a drug to aid with alcohol or cocaine dependence treatment, on methamphetamine dependent patients. Of the 50 patients who started the treatment, 31 remained until the very last check up and 30 of those 31 reported decreased cravings and use (verified by urine tests). The study also lacked behavioral support, which most treatment programs include. It should be noted that the study lacked a control group (although I can't verify this since I can't find the actual study).

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A study looking at remission and relapse rates of former alcoholics who had never received any treatment may offer some helpful advice. After a 3-year follow up, those had gotten help after the baseline survey were 19% more likely to remain in remission than those who had not gotten any help (62% vs. 43%).

Posted by Matt Nazareth at 09:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

THe ONDCP has announced a new ad campaign that aims at Hispanic methamphetamine users. Teens in this minority group are twice as likely to have tried the drug than whites or blacks of the same age group, and a meager 49% of Hispanics see meth experimentation as a "great risk." The advertisements can be seen here.

Posted by Daniel Walter at 09:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A new study stresses the importance of the first cigarette tried by adolescents. The study states that 11 year olds who had at least one cigarette "were twice as likely to start smoking regularly by age 14 than their peers who reported never smoking cigarettes at age 11." The sleeper effect is the explanation provided by the study for how there could be a significant passage of time between first time use and regular use. The study recognizes that this could be on account of any of three reasons: "One cigarette may set the stage, biologically, for vulnerability to smoking. Smoking a first cigarette may break down social barriers to smoking. Personality traits, in certain situations, may nudge one-time smokers towards regular smoking."

Posted by Eric Gorin-Regan at 08:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Closing the door on domestic methamphetamine production has led to the import of purer foreign meth, thereby addicting more users and drastically increasing treatment admissions while actual use has been mostly constant over the period between 1993 and 2004. During that same time period, methamphetamine treatment admissions increased from 28,000 to 150,000. Foreign produced meth has typically come in the smokable "ice" version which is purer, more addictive and more damaging than traditionally injected or inhaled forms of the drug.

Posted by Daniel Walter at 12:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A study done indicates that blood tests for cotinine, a product of nicotine metabolism, may be a helpful way to predict the effectiveness of a nicotine patch. Using the blood test, the patient's nicotine metabolization rate can be determined, which is an indicator of craving intensity. This can be used to predict an effective dose or therapy to aid a patient in kicking a nicotine addiction.

Posted by Matt Nazareth at 11:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Extrapolation from a new government survey predicts that there will be a doubling of drug addicts over the age of 50. The most common drug of abuse is alcohol, followed by prescription drugs. A 1999 survey revealed about 2.5 million adults over 50 who have substance addictions, and the study predicts that the number will rise to roughly 5 million by 2020.

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A report issued by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) indicates that of adults aged 50 or over that entered substance treatment in 2003, 48 percent were admitted for alcohol only. Drawing on Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS), they further concluded that a staggering 80 percent of those were male. Additionally, alcohol admissions constituted more first-time admissions (45 percent) than other substances (33 percent). This information comes as the population of older adults with substance abuse is anticipated to double from 1999 figures by 2020.

Posted by Victor Rodionoff at 09:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A new study funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) found in a cost effectiveness analysis that for every dollar invested into substance abuse treatment, there is a $7 benefit to society. "The study considered the effects of treatment on medical care, mental health services, criminal activity, employment earnings, and government transfer payments (e.g., welfare payments)." The main finding is concluded by "On average, treatment costs $1,600 and is associated with $11,500 in benefits during a nine-month follow-up period to treatment initiation. The net benefits are primarily due to reduced costs of crime and increased employment earnings. The total costs related to crime and incarceration decreased by $7,500 per person treated, while employment earnings increased by $3,400." It should be noted that the RWJF is a health care advocacy group.

Posted by Matt Nazareth at 02:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The US National Institutes of Health is funding a study on the effect of a narcolepsy drug, modafinil, on helping kick a cocaine addiction. Modafinil is thought to help cocaine addicts by both decreasing cravings and also by restoring dopamine levels to normal without having to use cocaine (though the latter might be the mechanism for the former).

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In a 4-3 ruling, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled favorably for two men who had been denied disability benefits as a result of afflictions such as alcoholism and drug addiction. The men had waited two years only to face a denial of benefits, and when they appealed, it was turned down on the basis that the men suffered from alcoholism alone. The ruling overrides Canadian federal appeals code, which states that those suffering from drug addiction are not eligible for disability benefits.

Posted by Daniel Walter at 08:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A plan to build a ten million dollar meth treatment facility was defeated today in the Tennessee House. The proponents of the plan claimed the state would save money by avoiding the heavy costs of incarceration. The opponents of the plan "such as Representative Johnny Shaw of Bolivar said it was unfair to target one type of addiction without treating others."

Posted by Eric Gorin-Regan at 09:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Meth has found its way onto American Indian reservations, including a Navajo reservation in Arizona. Statistics are difficult to come by on the reservations, but it has become generally accepted that the meth problem is growing. Furthermore, law enforcement has had great difficulty in curbing the growth due to the vastness of the reservations, and "FBI agents cannot blend in on the reservation the way they do in the big city."

Posted by Eric Gorin-Regan at 09:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A study conducted by Florida State University researchers found a link between low self-esteem at age 11 and drug dependence at age 20. The children who the researchers categorized as having very low self-esteem were 1.6 times as likely as the rest of the group to be dependent on one or more drugs by age 20. Researchers are hopeful that by finding indicators of later drug dependence, it may be easier to prevent.

Posted by Matt Nazareth at 04:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

London University doctors released a report about a man who had an estimated 40,000 pills of ecstacy in a nine year period, averaging 25 pills per day during his 4-year peak period. The man suffered from "extreme [short-term] memory problems, paranoia, hallucinations and depression." He also seemed to not be aware of his memory problems. The man was also a heavy marijuana smoker, and when the doctors convinced him to quit, his paranoia and hallucinations stopped. They reported that evaluating him at all was difficult because he lacked the short-term memory and concentration necessary to complete the small tasks.

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A study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institutes of Health indicates that marijuana treatment may be most effective when both incentives and behavioral therapy are used. A follow-up a year after the treatments were given found that the incentive only group had a 17% abstinence rate, the therapy group 23%, and the group that had both was 37% abstinent. The researchers pointed out that the study involved mostly white males, which may undermine the universality of the test.

Posted by Matt Nazareth at 09:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center found a link between rats' level of cocaine addiction and their responses to different stimuli. Rats were allowed to give themselves cocaine with the pull of a lever. Once addicted, and then put through withdrawal, the rats were then given different drugs. One drug was given that reduces cravings along with a small amount of cocaine. In another trial, the rats were given a drug that increases cravings. The more addicted rats were much more likely to give themselves more cocaine in both trials, showing differing brain responses to the same stimuli, based on level of addiction.

Posted by Matt Nazareth at 04:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Researchers funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism found that a genetic disposition towards nicotine and alcohol may be linked. By breeding two strains of rats, one that liked to drink a lot and one that didn't, researchers studied their nicotine habits. By training the rats to push a lever to give themselves nicotine, they found that the rats predisposed to like alchol gave themselves about twice as much nicotine as the other rats. Because the rats had not been given alcohol, it isn't that actually drinking affected the rats' affection for nicotine, only the genes that coded for alcohol affinity. The two groups didn't show a difference in preference to cocaine, showing that the two groups didn't differ in a more general reward dispostion.

Posted by Matt Nazareth at 04:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

March 13th's CESAR Fax reports on a trend in illicit use of pain medication where college-age students who were prescribed such medications earlier in life were more likely to later use those prescriptions in an illicit fashion. The likelihood of illicit use increased the earlier in user's life that the medications were prescribed; those who had received prescriptions in elementary school were the biggest abusers in adulthood.

Posted by Daniel Walter at 08:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Researchers have discovered a gene variation that increases susceptibility to cocaine addiction by 50%. A protein called DAT controls dopamine removal in the brain, and individuals with two copies of this gene variation will be at a significantly higher risk for addiction after cocaine usage. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and received funding from the Medical Research Council (UK).

Posted by Daniel Walter at 06:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A German research team released a study that shows the extent to which cigarette smokers have trouble quitting their addictions. Among people who were diagnosed with three or more conditions that are caused by, and aggravated by, smoking (high blood pressure, heart attacks, heart failure, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease) 28% continued to smoke.

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A report found that the number of methamphetamine users at treatment centers has sharply risen. The amount of abusers in treatment has increased by more than four-fold between 1993 and 2003. A major part of the government's strategy to fight meth's growth has been to limit the sale of its ingredients - cold pills - in drug stores and markets across the nation.

Posted by Daniel Walter at 09:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Idaho's state Senate passed a bill (it's awaiting a vote in the Idaho House) that would allow pregnant women to be incarcerated for using meth. The goal is to reduce the number of children born who are addicted to meth, or have even been exposed to it before birth. Opponents of the bill say that the legislation will only make meth addicts less likely to seek prenatal care for fear of being arrested. They cite the fact that when South Carolina passed a similar law, there was an 80% drop in pregnant women seeking drug treatment programs.

Posted by Matt Nazareth at 01:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

February 20th's CESAR Fax reports on a study of methamphetamine - prevalent areas, which found that 5% of pregnant women used the drug at least once during pregnancy. A quarter of the women surveyed also used tobacco during pregnancy, while 23% drank alcohol.

Posted by Daniel Walter at 06:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

February 13th's CESAR Fax calls to attention a Colorado survey that found a high number of adolescent patients in treatment report usage of club drugs at least once in their lifetime. Nearly 50% had used LSD, followed by MDMA and methamphetamine usage both pinned around 30%.

Posted by Daniel Walter at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A study has found that people who smoked heavily will be at higher risk for stroke even years after quitting when compared with those who never smoked in the first place. Researchers found, through MRIs, that smokers who had quit even 30 years prior still had thicker arteries than those who never started smoking.

Posted by Daniel Walter at 02:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

PBS has a documentary about meth abuse fully available online. There are many resources available on the PBS website, like an interview with Steve Suo about meth and a section about meth's effects on the body. Also available is an interview with filmmaker Carl Byker regarding the program.

Posted by Daniel Walter at 03:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The British newspaper The Guardian released a government report about illicit drugs whose aim was "to identify the mix of policies which will substantially reduce the harms caused by drugs to users and others." The report finds that of all the drugs, heroin and crack cocaine "by far the most addictive, expensive and harmful." Also among the interesting findings: it doesn't seem that supply-side intervention would reduce the amount of users who cause harm; "only 20% of high harm causing users are receiving treatment" that they don't tend to stay with; and almost 80% of acute deaths caused by illegal drugs come from heroin overdoses.

Posted by Matt Nazareth at 03:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The Guardian reports on a 11 year-old girl who "collapsed at school and was taken to the hospital with what was believed to be heroin withdrawal symptoms." The local sheriff has been criticized for not removing the child sooner from her addict parents' care.

Posted by Daniel Walter at 06:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Researchers at the University of Minnesota found that a drug called nalmefene, normally used to combat alcoholism, might be useful for stifling compulsive gambling as well. Gamblers on the drug reported that their habit failed to match its previous level of excitement. Nalmefene functions by disrupting opiate circuits in the brain and affecting the dopamine system, interfering with pleasure and feelings of reward, respectively.

Posted by Daniel Walter at 03:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)