Young People Surprised By Risky Synthetic Drugs They Considered Safe

Shots, Health News from NPR, January 25, 2016

My 14-year-old patient grabbed my hand and told me that he was going to die.

Just seconds before, the nurse had wheeled him into the resuscitation room. His blood pressure and heart rate were more than twice the normal levels. He was pale, clammy and gasping for breath.

The nurses and doctors with me in the ER worked to stabilize him. We put an oxygen mask on his face. We inserted two IVs and began pumping fluids into his body. When his oxygen level dropped, we inserted a breathing tube. Read more

For more resources to speak with youth on the dangers of synthetic substances, click here

“Unprecedented” Number of Heroin Overdoses in New London Highlights Growing Problem

Governor's Prevention Partnership, February 1, 2016
by Kristen Granatek, Sr. Program Manager, Prevention Programs

"New London has had a rash of heroin overdoses last week. On Thursday, there were 9 overdoses, including one fatality, more than in any other 24 hour period. Three additional overdose patients were treated at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital on Wednesday.

All of the patients were frequent heroin users who reported using a brown form of heroin sold in similar packaging. It is suspected that this batch of heroin is tainted or laced with something dangerous, though with what remains unknown.

This incident highlights an increasingly common problem in cities and towns across Connecticut and around the country – a spike in heroin use by people of all ages and from a variety of backgrounds. In an article posted on wfsb.com, Mayor Michael Passero called it a growing health crisis that crosses all social and economic boundaries. "Our communities must face it and not leave the families who are touched by it to suffer alone and in shame," Passero said in a statement. In 2013, Connecticut saw 257 deaths in which heroin was involved, compared with 325 in 2014. While the 2015 total has not yet been reported, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner projected it to reach 381.

According to the most recent Connecticut School Health Survey, Youth Risk Behavior Component, 3.4% of youth report to have ever used heroin in their life. This is higher than the national rate of 2.2%. However, 11.1% of youth report using prescription drugs without a doctor’s prescription. Recent research points to a strong correlation between prescription drug abuse and heroin use, indicating that people become addicted to prescription pain medications such as OxyContin, Vicodin and Percocet, then move on to heroin to get the same high when their supply of pain medication runs out. Heroin is increasingly available, low cost and provides the same high (Partnership for Drug Free Kids, October 2015). Unfortunately, incidents like the one in New London this week have become increasingly common as heroin use reaches epidemic levels.

To read more about the overdoses in New London

If you are concerned about prescription drug or heroin use by your child or someone you know, please visit the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids or The Partnership’s website.

Study Suggests E-Cigarette Use in Teens May Lead Them to Try Regular Cigarettes

Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, January 27, 2016

"A new study suggests teens who try e-cigarettes are much more likely than their peers who don’t use the devices to try regular cigarettes.

Among teens who did not use regular cigarettes but had tried e-cigarettes at the start of the study, 20 percent said they smoked their first regular cigarette one year later. In contrast, only 6 percent of nonsmoking teens who had not used e-cigarettes at the beginning of the study had tried regular cigarettes a year later.

'E-cigarettes had a risk-promoting effect for onset of smoking,' the University of Hawaii researchers wrote in the journal Tobacco Control." Read more

For resources to speak with youth about the dangers of tobacco use, click here.

Home / Join Together / College Marijuana Use Linked With Skipped Classes, Lower Grades, Late Graduation College Marijuana Use Linked With Skipped Classes, Lower Grades, Late Graduation

Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, January 27, 2016

"A new study finds marijuana use in the first year of college can lead to students missing classes. The more frequently a student uses marijuana, the more they tend to skip class, earn lower grades, and graduate later.

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Public Health followed 1,117 college students for eight years to test the direct and indirect effects on marijuana use on GPA and time to graduation. The findings are part of a larger study, called the College Life Study, which began in 2003.

'Alcohol and other drug use are also related to skipping class, but when we adjusted for other substance use we still found a relationship between marijuana and skipping class,' said lead researcher Amelia Arria, Associate Professor of Behavioral and Community Health at the University of Maryland School of Public Health. Read more

For more resources to speak with youth about the dangers of underage alcohol and substance abuse, click here.

Teens Likely to Use Alcohol Before Trying Marijuana or Tobacco: Study

Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, January 12, 2016

"Teens are likely to try alcohol before they try either tobacco or marijuana, a new study concludes. The findings come from a study of 2,835 U.S. high school seniors, The Washington Post reports.

The researchers from Texas A&M University and the University of Florida examined data from the Monitoring the Future study, an annual survey of teen substance use. The researchers found that teens were less likely to start using marijuana first, compared with alcohol and tobacco.

'Alcohol was the most widely used substance among respondents, initiated earliest, and also the first substance most commonly used in the progression of substance use,' the researchers wrote in the Journal of School Health." Read more

For resources to speak with youth about the dangers of underage drinking and substance abuse, click here.

Underage youth widely exposed to online alcohol marketing

Fox News, January 7, 2016

"More than half of underage people say they've seen alcohol marketing on the Internet, though few admit to engaging with brands or being a fan online, according to a new U.S. study.

Based on surveys about a year apart, researchers also found that teens who were more receptive to the marketing were more likely than others to later develop problem drinking.

The study team led by Dr. Auden McClure of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, used data from a 2011 survey of about 2,000 youth, ages 15 to 20 years. The participants answered questions about their recollections of having seen alcohol ads online, visiting alcohol websites, recognizing images from brand home pages and being an online fan of brands like Bacardi or Jack Daniels." Read more

For resources to speak with youth about the dangers of underage drinking, click here.

Opioid Dependence Peaks among Younger Age Group, Study Finds

"A Michigan State University study found that 14- and 15-year-olds are at a higher risk of becoming dependent on prescription drugs within a 12-month period after using them extra-medically, or beyond the prescribed amount.

The study, led by Maria A. Parker, a doctoral student, along with professor James C. Anthony, both in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, is based on a nationally representative sample of 12- to 21-year-olds taken each year between 2002 and 2013. The survey sample focuses on what happens when young people start to use these drugs for other reasons.

Out of about 42,000 respondents, they found that 14- and 15-year-olds were two to three times more likely to become opioid dependent within a year after first extra-medical use compared to 20- and 21-year-old users. The research also reconfirmed from earlier studies that peak risk for starting to use prescription painkillers above the prescribed intent is seen at 16 and 17 years old." Read more

For resources to speak with youth about the dangers of substance abuse, click here