Designated Drivers—You Are Not Alone
A new survey from Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and Nationwide Insurance found that 3 out of 4 people use designated drivers (DD). The DD is the person who does not drink, use drugs, or even take medication that might impair their driving. By the way, the DD is NOT the least drunk person in the group---they are the ones who don’t use any drug or alcohol at all at a party or event, even a little bit.
Why do they choose DD’s?
Because they want to get home in one piece.
The MADD survey reveals that 75% of the people who volunteer to be the DD do so because they want to get home safely, and 85% ride with a sober...
Source: NIDA Drugs and Health Blog - January 8, 2015 Category: Addiction Authors: The NIDA Blog Team Source Type: blogs
Check This Out! Learn.Genetics: Addiction Science Learning Tools
Making learning fun has become a bit of a cliché.
If you are seriously interested, or even just a teeny time bit interested, in learning about the brain and addiction, then it’s time for you to discover the Genetic Science Learning Center (GSLC) at the University of Utah and its website Learn.Genetics.
First of all, Learn.Genetics is fun and very interactive. Of course, we are partial to the section NIDA funded, The Science of Addiction: Genetics and the Brain. But the whole site is awesome.
Students, Teacher, Parents….You—should just explore and find out how these cool animations break down the complicated scie...
Source: NIDA Drugs and Health Blog - January 5, 2015 Category: Addiction Authors: The NIDA Blog Team Source Type: blogs
In Memoriam: Lost to Addiction and Mental Illness
As 2014 comes to a close, we’d like to remember the following actors and musicians whom we lost to drug addiction or related mental illness this past year.
Philip Seymour Hoffman—Widely considered one of the best dramatic actors of all time, Hoffman was found dead in his New York apartment on February 2 from a heroin overdose. The 46-year-old Academy Award-winning actor was in recovery from substance abuse for 23 years before relapsing. He was known for his roles in The Hunger Games, Almost Famous, Moneyball, The Big Lebowski, and Twister. He is survived by a son and two daughters.
Peaches Geldof—Geldof was a Briti...
Source: NIDA Drugs and Health Blog - December 20, 2014 Category: Addiction Authors: The NIDA Blog Team Source Type: blogs
Keep Up the Good Work: Teens are Drinking Less, Smoking Less, and Using Fewer Drugs
If you were in 8th, 10th, or 12th grade in January, you might have filled out a long survey asking (anonymously) whether you had used different drugs—including alcohol, cigarettes, and illicit drugs—and what your attitudes about drugs were. Every year NIDA asks more than 40,000 students in about 400 schools around the country to take part in our big survey, called Monitoring the Future, which helps us know what students think about drugs and how many people take them.
Well, the 2014 results are in … and it’s mostly good news!
For several years straight, teens have been drinking less alcohol, smoking fewer cigarette...
Source: NIDA Drugs and Health Blog - December 16, 2014 Category: Addiction Authors: The NIDA Blog Team Source Type: blogs
Teens—Keep Up the Good Work!
If you were in 8th, 10th, or 12th grade in January, you might have filled out a long survey asking (anonymously) whether you had used different drugs—including alcohol, cigarettes, and illicit drugs—and what your attitudes about drugs were. Every year NIDA asks more than 40,000 students in about 400 schools around the country to take part in our big survey, called Monitoring the Future, which helps us know what students think about drugs and how many people take them.
Well, the 2014 results are in … and it’s mostly good news!
For several years straight, teens have been drinking less alcohol, smoking fewer cigarette...
Source: NIDA Drugs and Health Blog - December 16, 2014 Category: Addiction Authors: The NIDA Blog Team Source Type: blogs
Crossing the Line: Athletes Risk Their Health When Using Performance-Enhancing Drugs
Athletes want to win—sometimes taking extreme measures to push through the pain and perform at their best. But when has an athlete gone too far?
When it gives the athlete an unfair advantage—and threatens his or her health.
Painless Play
Abusing drugs to overcome pain or inflate athletic abilities is definitely an unfair advantage. This doesn’t include the appropriate use of doctor-prescribed treatments, such as cortisone injections or prescription opioid pain medications. However, using prescription pain medication in a way other than prescribed is not only unfair, it’s dangerous.
Besides causing confusion, nausea...
Source: NIDA Drugs and Health Blog - December 11, 2014 Category: Addiction Authors: The NIDA Blog Team Source Type: blogs
NIDA’s on VINE!
We’re kicking off our new VINE videos with our much anticipated results of our Monitoring the Future (MTF) annual survey of 8th, 10th and 12th graders.
Every year in mid-December NIDA announces the new MTF information—-this is our survey of more than 50,000 8th, 10th and 12th graders. Scientists go to more than 400 schools and ask teens to fill out an anonymous survey in their classrooms. The VINE video shows an interesting statistic from our 2013 MTF survey on marijuana use by teens within the past year.
In addition to marijuana, MTF looks at alcohol and tobacco use, prescription drug abuse, illicit drug abuse, at...
Source: NIDA Drugs and Health Blog - December 6, 2014 Category: Addiction Authors: The NIDA Blog Team Source Type: blogs
The Art of Meditation: Focusing Your Brain
I’ve always been a huge Star Trek fan. When I was a teenager, my hero was Mister Spock—cool, analytical, even-tempered, and smarter than everyone around him. Being raised in his ancient society of the planet Vulcan made him a force to be reckoned with. He was kind and compassionate, but his mind was unswayed by human passions and fears, and he was always in control. When he was alone, he often sat, eyes closed, deep in meditation.
Vulcan is a fictional planet, but I later came to learn that there are real people on Earth kind of like Mister Spock, who possess many of his qualities and abilities because they have trai...
Source: NIDA Drugs and Health Blog - December 4, 2014 Category: Addiction Authors: Eric Wargo, Ph.D. Source Type: blogs
Marijuana Use Can Lower Your Grades
Studies show that marijuana interferes with attention, motivation, memory, and learning. Students who use marijuana regularly tend to get lower grades and are more likely to drop out of high school than those who don’t use. Those who use it regularly may be functioning at a reduced intellectual level most or all of the time.
Check out NIDA's new infographic that explains what that means in the classroom, and how that can affect your life.
[Click here to view larger version of this infographic or the text-only version]
(Source: NIDA Drugs and Health Blog)
Source: NIDA Drugs and Health Blog - November 27, 2014 Category: Addiction Authors: The NIDA Blog Team Source Type: blogs
Secondhand Marijuana Smoke?
In concerts, at house parties, even in the hallway of apartment buildings, you may have come into contact and been exposed to secondhand marijuana smoke.
In situations like these, people often worry how breathing someone else’s marijuana smoke affects them. A couple of common questions and the answers may help you see through the fog of this smoky situation.
Can you get high from inhaling secondhand marijuana smoke?
Probably not.
You may have heard the phrase “contact high,” about someone breathing secondhand marijuana smoke and feeling a buzz. There have been studies that show in extreme conditions, with l...
Source: NIDA Drugs and Health Blog - November 21, 2014 Category: Addiction Authors: The NIDA Blog Team Source Type: blogs
Cigarettes: More Dangerous Than Before
Is there anyone that doesn’t know how dangerous smoking cigarettes can be? It’s hard to imagine with so much public education from The Truth Campaign, The Real Cost, and Tips From Former Smokers.
But what a lot of people don’t know is that cigarettes have actually become more dangerous.
A recent report from the U.S. Surgeon General—the Nation’s “top doctor”—relates that cigarettes are more toxic now than in the 1950s because tobacco companies have changed the design and ingredients of cigarettes. As a result, both men and women have a much higher risk for lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseas...
Source: NIDA Drugs and Health Blog - November 20, 2014 Category: Addiction Authors: The NIDA Blog Team Source Type: blogs
‘Marijuana: Breaking Down the Buzz’ Helps Clear Up the Confusion
Do you know how long it took for tobacco smoking rates to significantly drop after researchers first linked smoking cigarettes to cancer? 40 years.
In the 1920s, when the link to cancer was discovered, smoking was normal---in fact, ads for cigarettes even featured doctors saying it relieved stress! For years, people smoked in their homes and offices, in restaurants and stores, on planes and on trains. Wherever they went…they smoked. In 1957, the nation’s top doctor—the U.S. Surgeon General—warned that cigarette smoking could cause lung cancer. Other government doctors began to speak out. Still, people continu...
Source: NIDA Drugs and Health Blog - November 17, 2014 Category: Addiction Authors: The NIDA Blog Team Source Type: blogs
Marijuana “Edibles” Make Candy Complicated
Pop Quiz!
Question: If you look at the candy in the check-out aisle in your local store, an average chocolate bar is 1 serving, and an average bag of candy-covered chocolates (which has about 30 candies) is also 1 serving.
What is the average serving of a marijuana edible chocolate bar or bag of a candy that has been infused with THC—the active ingredient in marijuana?
Answer: There is no average serving.
Yes, it was a trick question. But that’s kind of what marijuana edibles are…tricky. At least for a person who doesn’t use marijuana regularly.
For example, in Colorado, a single serving of an edible marijuan...
Source: NIDA Drugs and Health Blog - November 7, 2014 Category: Addiction Authors: The NIDA Blog Team Source Type: blogs
Dirty Money: How Cocaine and Germs Contaminate Our Cash
Q: What do cocaine and bacteria have in common?
A: They both contaminate our cash.
While most of the dollar bills you come into contact with would test positive for cocaine, that doesn’t mean that they were used to snort cocaine. In fact, less than 1 percent of people age 12 or older even use the drug.
It happens because cocaine is a very fine powder that easily transfers from bill to bill. One bill with cocaine on it can contaminate an entire cash drawer or ATM. It’s a little like someone with a cold—if he or she sneezes on you, the chances are good that you’ll catch what the individual has.
But don’t worry...
Source: NIDA Drugs and Health Blog - November 6, 2014 Category: Addiction Authors: The NIDA Blog Team Source Type: blogs
Does Marijuana Make You More Creative?
Not many people would say with a straight face that drugs like heroin or methamphetamine are good for you, let alone they could help you be more successful in life. But there are lots of people who think marijuana is different from other drugs. For example, we’ve already talked in this blog about the idea that it may have medical uses. The jury is still out.
Some users even say marijuana’s mind-altering effect—the “high”—is also beneficial. They claim using the drug chills them out, expands their mind, and makes them more creative. Since the 1960s, marijuana has had a mystique as an aid to the artistic life.
Wh...
Source: NIDA Drugs and Health Blog - November 1, 2014 Category: Addiction Authors: The NIDA Blog Team Source Type: blogs
