Archive for December, 2009
The surprising truth about heroin and addiction.
No CommentsIn 1992 The New York Times carried a front-page story about a successful businessman who happened to be a regular heroin user. It began: “He is an executive in a company in New York, lives in a condo on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, drives an expensive car, plays tennis in the Hamptons and vacations with his wife in Europe and the Caribbean. But unknown to office colleagues, friends, and most of his family, the man is also a longtime heroin user. He says he finds heroin relaxing and pleasurable and has seen no reason to stop using it until the woman he recently married insisted that he do so. ‘The drug is an enhancement of my life,’ he said. ‘I see it as similar to a guy coming home and having a drink of alcohol. Only alcohol has never done it for me.’”
Perceptions of Risk from Substance Use among Adolescents
No CommentsAdolescence is a period of significant developmental change when health patterns are being established. Decisions that youths make about tobacco, alcohol, and drug use can have both immediate and long-term health consequences for themselves, their families, and their communities. Adolescents’ attitudes about the risks associated with substance use are often closely related to their substance use, with an inverse association between drug use and risk perceptions (i.e., as the prevalence of risk perceptions decreases, the prevalence of drug use increases). As such, providing adolescents with credible, accurate, and age-appropriate information about the harm associated with substance use is a key component in prevention programming.
Charge drunks for detox, say Tory advisers
No CommentsPeople should be forced to pay up to £532 to cover the cost of short-term treatment in hospital for alcoholic excess, according to a think-tank with strong links to David Cameron.
The call on Thursday by Policy Exchange for radical measures to tackle the “epidemic” of alcohol misuse may embarrass the Conservative leader, who has gone to great lengths to try to reassure voters that a Tory government would not undermine public services.
Teenage drug and alcohol use in England
No CommentsThe NHS has released new figures on teenagers receiving treatment for drug abuse. See which drugs affect which age groups and how the numbers being treated have changed over recent years.
Last week the NHS’s National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse released figures showing how many teenagers are being treated for drug and alcohol problems in England. Used in tandem with the regional statistics we covered in March, they build a picture of how widespread the drugs problem is for today’s young people.
While the number of children seeking treatment for heroin and crack has fallen in the past few years, from 1,081 teenagers in 2005/06 (6% of the total being treated) to 657 last year (2%), treatment for cannabis misuse has remained steady; at 55% in 2005/06 and 53% now, it is the most common primary drug. Those primarily being treated for alcohol addiction has risen almost twofold, from 4,886 in 2005/06 (30% of the total) to 8,779 now (37%).
