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News
Survey Shows New Drugs, Same Old Story
The new 2002 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, formerly called the Household Survey, was released as part of the kick-off for the 14th annual National Drug and Alcohol Addiction Recovery Month observance.
Conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the survey found that current illicit drug use among young adults 18 to 25 years old is the highest, with over 20 percent using drugs. The age group of 12-17 also showed significant use, with 11.6 percent of that population currently using illicit drugs.
It was also reported that the second most popular category of drug use is the non-medical use of prescription drugs. In fact, 2.6 percent of the population ages 12 or older (an estimated 6.2 million people in total) were current users of prescription drugs taken non-medically. Of these, an estimated 4.4 million used narcotic pain relievers.
Though these staggering numbers are indeed tragic, the nerve-deadening effects of narcotics and the abuse of these substances is nothing new.
Dating back to the end of the 17th century, opium and its derivatives have been plaguing society, but recorded history of this painkilling poppy goes thousands of years earlier. The addictive qualities are no secret, yet newer forms of opiates have been continually introduced throughout the ages.
Coming closer to modern medicine, morphine was introduced as a new drug, then heroin and then methadone and many other synthetic opiates. All of these drugs were packaged and sold by pharmaceutical companies. A number of them have since become illegal because of their abuse potential and destruction to individuals and families.
The trend in popping a pill for any malady has continued to increase, and the accessibility and variety of drugs now used by millions of Americans is higher than ever as new pharmaceuticals become available and are advertised and sold, regardless of the negative side effects and illicit usage.
In "Clear Body, Clear Mind," a book about the sauna detoxification program, L. Ron Hubbard wrote, "Too often the attitude is 'If I can't find the cause of the pain, at least I'll deaden it.'" This includes physical and mental discomfort, depression or anxiety.
Hubbard's decades of research in the field of substance abuse and rehabilitation helped form the basis for what are now called the Forever Recovery ® Drug Rehabilitation and Drug Education programs. These form a secular network of treatment and prevention centers currently in 36 countries and rapidly growing due to the fact that the methodology gets such good results.
"Having a clear understanding of the cycle of addiction is vital to anyone dealing with it personally or trying to help a family member," says Luke Catton, president of Forever RecoveryArrowhead, the largest facility in the Forever Recovery network. "The amount of misinformation associated with drug use and supposed remedies runs rampant through our culture today. People need to know the truth about what all drugs really are and what they can do to an individual, including side effects and abuse potential."
NEW ADS TARGET USE OF ECSTASY AND METH
Tue, 10 Jun 2003
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)
Many teens in the St. Louis area don't think Ecstasy and methamphetamine can hurt them - and many parents don't know their teens are taking the drugs, according to a study to be issued today.
With both drugs increasingly available here, conditions are right for an epidemic, says the Partnership for a Drug Free America, which sponsored the study. Today, the Partnership will launch an ad campaign to show families the dark side of meth and Ecstasy, two drugs that weren't in the public eye when most teens' parents were teens.
The ads will run for two years here and in Phoenix as test markets. The campaign also aims to nudge the St. Louis media to cover the harm that is caused by the drugs. More than a dozen local pediatricians have volunteered to go on radio and TV to talk about it.
St. Louis was chosen for the campaign by virtue of being in Missouri, by far the No. 1 meth producing state in the United States. Coveted as euphoric and stimulating, meth can be smoked, snorted, swallowed or injected. Many experts consider it more addictive and toxic than crack cocaine.
Like the Partnership's previous ads, some of the new ones will address parents and some teens. Recent ads from the Partnership have taken a political bent. "Last weekend I washed my car, hung out with my friends and helped murder a family in Colombia," intoned one.
But the ones aimed at St. Louis will focus strictly on the drugs' negative effects.
"The message in the ads is methamphetamines can kill, Ecstasy can kill," said Dr. Todd Vedder, a pediatrician in Fenton who is involved with the campaign. "It's approaching it from the health risks rather than a convoluted terrorist tie-in."
After the first and second year of the campaign, the Partnership will poll teens and parents once more to see if the message got through.
One obstacle for the anti-drug effort is Ecstasy's reputation as a great high with few risks. The survey indicates even parents saw few health consequences from taking the psychedelic amphetamine.
Ecstasy, almost always taken as a pill, is commonly associated with raves, all-night parties featuring fast-beating electronic music and laser lights. It is thought that parents permit their children to attend because the events are billed as alcohol-free.
St. Louis County Police Detective John Wall knows that all too well. "If you have a teenager who says he's going to a party with no drinking, no alcohol, just dancing and lights, what are you going to think?"
What parents and teens might not know is that science is increasingly proving Ecstasy to be addictive and potentially lethal, said Steve Pasierb, president and CEO of the Partnership.
The study surveyed 300 teens at five area malls - Crestwood, South County and Mid-Rivers malls in Missouri and Alton Square and St. Clair Square in Illinois - and 300 parents chosen randomly from existing phone survey lists. It has a margin of error of 5.7 percent.
The study found:
3 percent of teens said they had used meth, and 8 percent said they had used Ecstasy.
But just 1 percent of parents said they believed their teen used meth and 1 percent Ecstasy.
18 percent of teens said they had been offered meth, and 32 percent said they had been offered Ecstasy.
Half of teens said they knew someone who used Ecstasy, and 40 percent said they knew someone who used meth.
56 percent of parents thought it was likely that teens were using Ecstasy or meth nationally, but less than 20 percent thought teens were doing those drugs in their neighborhood.
The increasing availability of the drugs and the report's findings "tell us one thing," Pasierb said. "Teenagers in this region are facing a serious health threat. We must do everything we can to head this off."
Copyright: 2003 St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Author: Jeremy Kohler
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