A recent study conducted at the University of Santiago de Compostela provides new information about how students make these decisions while in college. The study reveals that students who use cannabis, alcohol or tobacco are more likely to engage in non-prescribed drug abuse. The Spanish researchers call the results evidence of multi-drug consumption.

Lead author Francisco Caamaño and researchers recruited 1,400 freshmen and asked them to complete an anonymous questionnaire, with a follow-up occurring two years later. The study’s results are published in the Journal of Public Health.

The questionnaire was divided into a measurement of alcohol use to determine whether any possible alcohol use disorder was evident, and another section that asked questions about socioeconomic aspects, in addition to gathering information about the individual’s expectations regarding alcohol and drug use. The team also utilized Spain’s National Health Survey to get information about prescribed and non-prescribed drug use.

The researchers found that there was a significant level of consumption of all types of medication, with particularly high levels of fever and pain treatment use in addition to stimulants, anti-anxiety drugs and sedatives. However, the results were in agreement with findings for that age range for the National Health Survey.

The findings also showed a connection between drug abuse and the abuse of cannabis, tobacco and alcohol, especially when the researchers examined the use of non-prescribed drugs. The authors note that students who use these substances have the highest rate of use for non-prescribed drugs. At the two-year follow-up, the trend is the same for those who continue to abuse cannabis.

The researchers also found that the student’s living conditions made a difference in their approach to drug use. The results showed that students who studied away from home, rather than attending a local college, consumed 35 percent more drugs than those who live with their parents.

The study provides important information about students’ drug and alcohol use at school. The findings reveal that students have a 37 percent chance of abusing alcohol, 30 percent chance of abusing tobacco and 20 percent chance of abusing cannabis. At the two-year follow-up, alcohol consumption increased to 53.4 percent.

The study’s findings are significant for parents who are considering whether their child is prepared to pursue a degree away from home. The results may lead to increased awareness and education for students who make plans to leave for college.

During the period from 1998 to 2008, more teens began to use ecstasy and experiment with marijuana, as compared to alcohol consumption. From 2008 to 2010, the use of marijuana by teens rose seven percent, with about 25 percent of teens saying they had tried it. Teen use of ecstasy also rose, moving from six percent to 10 percent, according to a news report on the study from the U.K. Daily Mail.

The study report, published by the Partnership at Drugfree.org, included data from 2,500 students in high school and revealed trends of national concern. Teens are trying alcohol at young ages, with the average initial consumption at age 14. Close to half of the teens in the study didn’t think that drinking every day was a highly risky behavior, and less than one-third of the teens expressed dissatisfaction if their friends drank to the point of intoxication.

Stress seemed to be a motivating factor for teens’ use of alcohol. Nearly 25 percent reported that drinking alcohol was an effort to help them cope with homelife challenges, and around 20 percent said alcohol helped them handle school-related stress.

Experts are encouraging school officials and parents to be very observant of teens’ behavior changes that could indicate a drug or alcohol problem – but the study results showed that many parents felt ill-prepared toward responding to their children’s attitudes toward alcohol.  

In a press release, the DEA explained that the five chemicals are now registered as Schedule I substances under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), the most severe categorization under the CSA reserved for substances considered to have a high potential for abuse, no known medical use, and lack of safety for use. The new scheduling authority makes the possession, sale, or distribution of the chemicals or products containing these chemicals illegal in the U.S. The DEA’s ban will remain in place for at least one year, with the possibility of a 6-month extension as it continues to examine the chemicals’ hazardous potential to the public, and whether they should become permanently controlled.

The new ban is the DEA’s latest response to a growing number of safety reports involving the “legal” faux marijuana chemicals from numerous poison control centers, hospitals, and law enforcement agencies across the country in recent years. Prior to today’s federal issue, 16 states had already issued state bans on the chemicals and products containing the chemicals due to the rise in medical emergencies related to the consumption of these chemicals.

Most of the emergencies have involved teens and young adults who mistakenly believed the “fake pot” products to be safe since they have been legal and readily available at such locations as head shops, convenient stores, and Internet retail sites. Products like “K2” and “Spice,”—sold under the guise of “herbal incense” and widely accepted as synthetic alternatives to marijuana—have become increasingly popular among young people in the past few years.

Intended to mimic the effects of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, these synthetic cannabinoids (which have never been tested by the FDA or any federal agency) are combined with plant materials and then marketed as smokeable herbal products. According to the DEA, reports of medical emergencies involving the synthetic chemicals have caused such side effects as anxiety attacks, extremely elevated heart rates, increased blood pressure, convulsions, vomiting, and disorientation.

Although temporary, the DEA asserts that the new ban is the result of rising concerns among parents, law enforcement, and medical professionals, which the administration intends to take seriously. After its year-long investigation, the DEA will announce its decision regarding the safety of the chemicals and their potential for accessibility.

Source: Medical News Today, DEA Ban: Faux Marijuana "Imminent Threat To Public Safety," March 1, 2011

From 1998 to 2008, the overall rate of substance abuse admissions in the United States remained stable at about 770 admissions per 100,000 people. Admissions for alcohol abuse dropped by 15 percent nationally, but remained stable in Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska.

Admission rates for marijuana use increased by 30 percent across the nation, and were highest in the afore-mentioned states and New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

A previous SAMHSA report found that admission rates for opiate abuse other than heroin (including painkillers such as OxyContin) increased by 345 percent over the ten-year period. The latest report found that admission rates for opiate abuse (besides heroin) increased nationally and were highest in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

For methamphetamine abuse, the treatment rate increased by 53 percent since 1998, although it’s lower than it was in 2005. Admissions for cocaine abuse decreased by 23 percent across the United States.

Pamela S. Hyde, SAMSHA administrator, said that the study highlights the shifting trends in the reasons for treatment admissions, providing insight into the regional nature of substance abuse.

Source: HealthDay News, Drug Abuse Treatment Rates on the Rise: U.S. Report, December 29, 2010

A common misconception about adolescent drug use is that since teenagers are still undergoing growth, they are more resilient to the emotional and mental harms caused by drugs. However, the latest studies on teenage neurocognition are showing quite the opposite: the presence of illicit substances in a young person’s still-maturing brain can lead to permanent, irreversible mental deficits.

At this year’s Neuroscience Annual Meeting—the world’s largest gathering of physicians and clinicians from the Society of Neuroscience—researchers presented data based on several studies on teenage substance use and its consequences. According to one study led by Staci Ann Gruber, PhD of Harvard Medical School, individuals who start using cannabis at a young age create chronic mental deficits for themselves, such as lower levels of cognitive flexibility, attention, and focus. A similar study conducted by an expert in brain developmental stages and brain injury, Dr. Frances Jensen of the Children’s Hospital, Boston, explains that because adolescents’ brains are still in the stage of development, adding an illicit substance to their mental environment will cause normal brain growth to take different turns, sometimes ending in permanent brain damage. In comparison to adult cannabis use, cannabis will remain in an adolescent’s system for much longer periods of time, possibly due to the fact that younger brains harbor more receptors for an illicit substance to bind to. For teenagers, this effect leads to the improper development of such vital cognitive skills as learning and memory. After subjecting their young brains to regular cannabis use, Jensen found, teenagers’ IQs can permanently decline. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data indicated that adolescent cannabis users had experienced damage to the frontal and prefrontal inhibitory areas in their brains.

Like cannabis, alcohol use by younger persons can lead to permanent damage in brain development due to the presence of more receptors in adolescent brains, according to an animal-based study led by Toni Pak at Loyola University. Binge drinking in particular significantly changes an adolescents’ stress response in comparison to excessive adult alcohol use since adolescent drinking disrupts normal stress hormone production and impedes on a teenager’s ability to manage stress. This imbalance was also linked to greater risk of future anxiety, depression, or other behavioral and mood disorders in adulthood.

Another study demonstrates how adolescents are willing to work harder to obtain cocaine, indicating that their drug-seeking behavior may be more powerful than that experienced by adults. As a result of this stronger impulse for a cocaine ‘fix,’ adolescents are susceptible to an increase in stress levels. Based on the findings of her animal model, researcher Dr. Michela Marinelli found that adolescent rats exposed to cocaine use are also more vulnerable to lower doses of cocaine than their adult counterparts, making them at higher risk of addiction. Because the young brain—which is only 80% developed during adolescent years—is likely to learn behaviors and conditions quicker than adults, adolescents will also learn how to become addicted faster, more intensely, and for longer extents.

A different study, led by Joshua Gulley, PhD, found that amphetamine use during adolescence is linked with irreversible damage to the brain regions that control decision-making and memory—damages that extend long into adulthood. Based on his animal model, brain deficits discovered in adult subjects were possibly the result of damages created by drug use during adolescent years when the brain was still undergoing development.

Understanding the effects of teenage drug and alcohol use not only will help at-risk teenagers today, but will also save them from future mental disability and substance abuse disorders that can carry into adulthood. The impact of addiction and poor mental health is not only felt by individual drug users, but their family members, friends, associates, and their communities in general. By implementing successful prevention, intervention, and educational programs, the heavy emotional and fiscal costs of substance abuse and its related consequences can be reduced, giving way to healthier, more productive communities.

Source: Medical News Today, Drug Exposure During Adolescence Has Long-Lasting Consequences, November 17, 2010

For the casual – or even habitual – marijuana user, the thought of a marijuana cafe may be like music to the ears, or opium to the addict. While maybe not as potent as opium, the idea is still the same – provide a never-ending flow of a substance and the addicts will flock.

Such a place exists in the Netherlands. The place is the Easy Going Coffee Shop and lines to buy marijuana and hashish stretch nearly beyond capacity. Yet, these customers were not Dutch and most were young.

Known as drug tourists, these individuals find their way to the coffee shop every day to stock up on their substance of choice. City officials claim as many as two million a year visit the city for the sole purpose of visiting this or 12 other coffee shops where a full variety of marijuana is available. The biggest draw: these individuals do not have to fear prosecution.

While citizens of Maastricht and other border cities enjoy the freedom to indulge in their choice of marijuana varieties, it seems they are getting fed up with drug tourists. These cities are battling traffic jams and high crime rates as a result and now cities want to change the legal status to legal only for the Dutch. It is still unclear as to whether or not the European Union’s free trade laws will allow such a change.

The drug tolerance policy was enacted in an effort to keep kids safe. Instead, border cities are now becoming drug supply hubs and crime rates are accelerating out of control. The case to make the change is weaving its way through the courts and only time will tell whether the Dutch will have legal recourse or will have to try and tackle the drug problem through other means.

The question for California becomes this: if they are the first state to legalize marijuana when the Proposition 19 vote comes up this fall, will it create the issues along its borders that The Netherlands has seen?
 

Tom Randall of Bloomberg writes that the compulsive tanners met psychological criteria for addiction gauged by two different measurers, according to the study published today by the medical journal, Archives of Dermatology. About 42 percent of tanning addicts reported using more than one drug in the previous month, twice the rate of casual tanners.

Indoor tanning can cause skin cancer, premature skin aging and eye damage, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The health overhaul signed by President Barack Obama last month will charge customers a 10 percent tax effective in July. But curbing the habits of these undergraduates may prove more difficult than previously thought, researchers wrote in the study.

“Results suggest that treating an underlying mood disorder may be a necessary step in reducing cancer risk among those who frequently tan indoors,” wrote the researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and the State University of New York, Albany. “Individuals who use drugs may be more likely to develop dependence on indoor tanning because of a similar addictive process.”

The study evaluated 421 college students in 2006. The students answered surveys designed to evaluate drug addiction. The surveys were modified to measure tanning addiction.

Questions included: “Do you ever feel guilty that you are using tanning beds or booths too much?” and “Do you try other non-tanning-related activities but find you really still like spending time in tanning beds or booths best of all?”

Reuters reports that the findings add weight to previous research which linked psychosis with the drug (particularly in its most potent form as "skunk") and will feed the debate about the level of controls over its use.

Despite laws against it, up to 190 million people around the world use cannabis, according to United Nations estimates, equating to about 4 percent of the adult population.

John McGrath of the Queensland Brain Institute in Australia studied more than 3,801 men and women born between 1981 and 1984 and followed up with them after 21 years to ask about their cannabis use and assess them for psychotic episodes. Around 18 percent reported using cannabis for three or fewer years, 16 percent for four to five years, and 14 percent for six or more years.

"Compared with those who had never used cannabis, young adults who had six or more years since first use of cannabis were twice as likely to develop a non-affective psychosis (such as schizophrenia)," McGrath wrote in a study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry journal.

They were also four times as likely to have high scores in clinical tests of delusion, he wrote, and a so-called "dose-response" relationship showed that the longer the duration since first cannabis use, the higher the risk of psychosis-related symptoms.

A study by British scientists last year suggested that people who smoke “skunk,” a potent form of cannabis, are almost seven times more likely to develop psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia than those who smoke "hash" or cannabis resin.

Previous studies had also suggested smoking cannabis can double the risk of psychosis, but the British study was the first to look specifically at skunk. Skunk has higher amounts of the psychoactive ingredient THC which can produce psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions and paranoia.

McGrath said, however, that "the nature of the relationship between psychosis and cannabis use is by no means simple," and that more research was needed to examine the mechanisms at work.

As part of his study, McGrath and his team looked at links between cannabis use and psychotic symptoms among a group of 228 sibling pairs and found the association still held. This suggests that other influences like genes or the environment were less likely to be responsible for the psychosis, they said.

An international group of drug policy experts published a book earlier this year arguing that laws against cannabis have failed to cut its use but instead led to vast numbers of arrests for drug possession in countries like Britain, Switzerland, and the United States, which cause social division and pointless government expense.

This year, 19.4% of high school seniors said they had smoked marijuana at some point in the prior 30 days, as did 13.8% of 10th-graders and 5.8% of eighth-graders. Melissa Healy of the Los Angeles Times reports that this downward trend has stalled in the last two years, and kids’ attitudes suggest a reversal may be ahead.

In 1991, 58% of eighth graders said they thought occasional marijuana use was harmful. By last year, that number had fallen to 48%, and this year, to 45%.

In a Washington, D.C., news conference Monday, drug czar Gil Kerlikowske called such numbers "a warning sign."

"When beliefs soften, drug use worsens," said Kerlikowske, whose office is expected to release its first policy initiatives to combat and treat drug abuse in February.

University of Michigan researcher Lloyd Johnston, who oversees the annual survey, said there was "serious softening" in the perceived risks of LSD, inhalants and the party drug Ecstasy—a sign that "a new generation of kids are interested…in rediscovering these drugs, because they don’t understand why they shouldn’t be using them."

Johnston also flagged a phenomenon the survey has recently begun to track—“extreme binge drinking," or the consumption of more than 10 drinks on a single occasion. They survey’s findings suggest that such high-risk drinking is not unusual among older teens.

Binge drinking, defined as consumption of five drinks or more in a row, has declined since peaking in 1983. But Johnston said there has been "not much decline" in numbers of extreme binge drinkers.

Among high school seniors, 11% said they had drunk 10 drinks or more in a row in the two weeks prior to the survey; 6% said they’d had 15 or more.

Healy writes that the survey also showed that U.S. adolescents continue to raid their parents’ and friends’ medicine chests. Use of prescription painkillers is at an all-time high: 10% of high-school seniors reported taking Vicodin for nonmedical reasons in the last year, and 5% reported taking OxyContin.

Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which has commissioned the survey for 35 years, said at the news conference that teen use of prescription stimulant drugs is holding steady, with just over 7% of 10th- and 12th-graders reporting they had taken amphetamines for nonmedical reasons. Volkow said that in many cases, teens take these drugs before tests or study sessions as "cognitive enhancers." Although fewer kids reported taking Ritalin, much of that decline was because kids had merely shifted to Adderall, a newer ADHD drug.

The officials said that youths report some confidence that prescription drugs are less harmful than street drugs.

In the survey’s first accounting of where kids get drugs, it found that 66% who reported illicit drug use said they got the drugs from a friend or relative. Almost 19% said they got drugs with a doctor’s prescription.

Other research has supported the idea that there is actually at times a reverse gateway effect, in which social or individual circumstances are the factors responsible for initiating illicit drug use (Lessem et al., 2006).

A study by Tarter, Vanyukov, Kirisci, Reynolds and Clark published in 2006 reviewed the gateway hypothesis and studied whether it exposed a pattern for the transition from licit to illicit drugs.

The study used 224 male participants aged between 10 and 12 years of age, and assessed them at the ages of 12 to 14, 16, 19 and at age 22. Each participant was the son of men who were participating in another study, which included subjects who had a history of illicit drug use.

During each administration of the questioning, researchers used the Structural Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R to assess whether the participants met criteria for substance abuse disorders. The participants also self-administered the Drug Use Screening Inventory and took drug tests (both urine tests and alcohol breath tests) to obtain evidence of recent activity. In addition to these drug-use related screenings, the researchers also questioned the participants about social, family, psychological and educational characteristics and measured them using 35 variables.

The participants were grouped according to three different sequences of drug and alcohol use. The first group was comprised of participants who used alcohol and/or tobacco at the baseline, but had not moved on to using marijuana by age 22. The second group used alcohol and/or tobacco and then used marijuana by the age of 22. The third group used marijuana and then later used alcohol and/or tobacco by the age of 22.

The researchers found that the participants did not necessarily follow the pattern proposed by the gateway hypothesis. Participants whose behavior supported the gateway hypothesis were also associated with other social and family circumstances such as deviant behavior, a deviant social network, were less involved at school, and more likely to discontinue substance abuse than their counterparts who used only licit drugs up to age 22.

The study has limitations, including that much of the information was obtained using self-report, which is subject to bias. Some participants may exaggerate use to dramatize their situation and others will under-report use because of fear of legal sanctions.

The study is helpful, however, in looking at the gateway hypothesis more clearly. The gateway hypothesis is not applicable in all circumstances, nor are drug behaviors consistent across users of a specific drug. This study suggests that instead the patterns of drug use are influenced by a group of general social risk factors, such as parental influence and involvement in school.