Monthly Archive for: ‘January, 2014’
Attorney General Holder: All Drugs, Including Alcohol, Are “Potentially Harmful”
Attorney General Eric Holder told a Senate committee Wednesday that all drugs, including alcohol, are “potentially harmful.” He was responding to a question about whether he agreed with President Obama’s recent comment that smoking marijuana was less dangerous than alcohol “in terms of its impact on the individual consumer.”
Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, in a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said, “It’s difficult for me to conceive how the President of the United States could make such a statement.” President Obama made his comment about marijuana in an interview with The New Yorker. He told the magazine he does not think marijuana is more dangerous than alcohol. He added smoking marijuana is “not something I encourage.”
One Thing Obamacare Can’t Fix: Bad Addiction Treatment
By David Sheff Nov. 13, 2013
After weeks spent offering up increasingly desperate excuses for the glitchy rollout of Obamacare’s insurance exchanges, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius seemed elated to change the subject, at least for a moment, when last week she announced regulations that will mean that almost all Americans with health insurance will be fully covered for the treatment of mental illness, including addiction, at least as well as they’re covered for physical diseases. The regulations were trumpeted as part of the President’s plans for curbing gun violence, but they have enormous implications for untreated addiction, which alone costs the nation $420 billion a year, mostly in health care, criminal justice and lost productivity.
(MORE: Viewpoint: We Need to Rethink Rehab)
The new rules are comprehensive, but it’s impossible to know how they’ll be interpreted, monitored and policed. Treating mental illness isn’t easy or cheap, and treating addiction can be even more complex. Research has shown that addicts who drop out of treatment before 90 days have relapse rates similar to those who stay in treatment only a day or two. After 90 days, however, relapse rates drop steadily the longer they stay in treatment. Few physical illnesses require three-plus months in the hospital. Even after a long stint in an inpatient or outpatient program, most addicts require aftercare that may continue for one to many years. Will insurance now pay for those who need long-term stays in sober-living houses or outpatient programs? What if they relapse, which is common for sufferers of this chronic illness? Will insurance pay for another three-month stint? And another? Will they cover addiction medications like methadone or buprenorphine, even though some patients must stay on them for years or even a lifetime (just as some must stay on blood-pressure medication or insulin throughout their
Read more: David Sheff: Obamacare Needs to Overhaul Addiction Treatment | TIME.com http://ideas.time.com/2013/11/13/one-thing-obamacare-cant-fix-bad-addiction-treatment/#ixzz2rjs1C15H
Read more: One Thing Obamacare Can’t Fix: Bad Addiction Treatment
Problem Behaviors Can Signal Risk in Prescribing Opioids to Teens
In the years 2007 to 2009, more than 1 in 5 high school seniors nationwide had used an opioid painkiller (e.g., Vicodin, OxyContin, Percodan, Percocet, Demerol, Dilaudid, morphine, or codeine) at least once in their lives. Roughly 1 in 8 had used these medications without a doctor instructing them to do so. Any history of such nonmedical opioid use should raise a red flag for a person’s potential engagement in multiple problematic substance-related behaviors.
The findings, by Drs. Sean Esteban McCabe, Carol Boyd, and Brady West at the University of Michigan and Dr. Christian Teter of the University of New England, highlight the need for physicians to exercise caution in prescribing opioid analgesics to teens. The research also identified several problem behaviors whose presence can alert physicians that a teen requires particularly close monitoring when treated with these medications. The behaviors include using an opioid for motives other than pain relief, co-ingesting an opioid with other drugs, and using non-oral routes of opioid administration.
Tobacco alcohol illicit drugs cost the US
Tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drug use cost the U.S. more than $600 billion a year.
Costs of Substance Abuse
Abuse of tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs is costly to our Nation, exacting over $600 billion annually in costs related to crime, lost work productivity and healthcare.**
| Health Care | Overall | |
|---|---|---|
| Tobacco | $96 billion | $193 billion |
| Alcohol | $30 billion | $235 billion |
| Illicit Drugs | $11 billion | $193 billion |
There are a variety of sources of information NIDA uses to monitor the prevalence and trends regarding drug abuse in the United States. The resources here cover a variety of drug related issues, including information on drug usage, emergency room data, prevention and treatment programs, and other research findings.
Obama: Pot no more dangerous than alcohol, ponders legalization
President Obama believes the legalization of marijuana in Washington and Colorado ultimately may open a Pandora’s Box and could lead to calls for cocaine, methamphetamine and other drugs to be sold freely and openly.
But more broadly, the president downplayed the dangers of pot, comparing it to cigarettes and arguing it is no more dangerous than booze.
“As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life,” Mr. Obama said in a lengthy interview with The New Yorker. “I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol.”
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jan/19/obama-pot-not-very-different-cigarettes-no-more-da/#ixzz2r3kGxM8W
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