Drug Facts: High School and Youth Trends

Attached a link to an article posted onthe NIDA web site titled "DrugFacts: High School and Youth Trends" It contains a mixed bag of good and bad news including: Illicit drug use among teenagers has continued at high rates, largely due to the popularity of marijuana. Marijuana use by adolescents declined from the late 1990s until the mid-to-late 2000s, but has been on the increase since then. In 2012, 6.5 percent of 8th graders, 17.0 percent of 10th graders, and 22.9 percent of 12th graders used marijuana in the past month—an increase among 10th and 12th graders from 14.2 percent, and 18.8 percent in 2007. Daily use has also increased; 6.5 percent of 12th graders now use marijuana every day, compared to 5.1 percent in the 2007. Comment: The marijuana legalization efforts will further contribute to the acceptance of this drug as a "harmless" mood altering substance with "no" addictive potential. Synthetic marijuana is a new and major concern. Also known as Spice or K2, synthetic marijuana refers to herbal mixtures laced with synthetic cannabinoids, chemicals that act in the brain similarly to THC, the main active ingredient in marijuana. These mixtures could be obtained legally until recently and are still wrongly perceived as a safe alternative to marijuana. Synthetic marijuana was added to the MTF survey in 2011. In that year, 11.4 percent of 12th graders—one in nine—reported using it in the past year. This year 4.4 percent of 8th graders, 8.8 percent of 10th graders, and 11.3 percent of 12th graders reported past-year use. Nonmedical use of prescription and over-the-counter medicines remains a significant part of the teen drug problem. In 2012, 14.8 percent of high-school seniors used a prescription drug nonmedically in the past year. Data for specific drugs show that the most commonly abused prescription drugs by teens are the stimulant Adderall and the pain reliever Vicodin. Positive trends in the past several years include reduced use of inhalants and less use of cocaine. Inhalant use is at its lowest levels in the history of the survey. Past-year inhalant use by younger teens dropped significantly between 2007 and 2012, from 8.3 percent of 8th graders and 6.6 percent of 10th graders to 6.2 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively. Past-year use of cocaine by 12th graders dropped from 5.2 percent to 2.7 percent from 2007 to 2012. Other drugs, such as heroin, methamphetamine, and hallucinogens, are holding fairly steady. Ecstasy (MDMA) is seeing a significant drop among teens. Past-year use of ecstasy by 12th graders decreased from 5.3 percent in 2011 to 3.8 percent in 2012. Among 10th and 8th graders it dropped from 4.5 to 3.0 percent and from 1.7 to 1.1 percent, respectively. Yours Bernd

Opioid Treatment in the News

The content of the WSJ article titled "Painkiller Advocate Thinks Twice" neither shocks nor surprises me. Its a fact that in the US opioids are being prescribed by medical practitioners with little or no training in their clinical indication, application, dosing and length of treatment. As an international medical graduate from Germany and Israel I can attest to the fact that the use of prescription narcotics is far more restricted and controlled in other countries than in the US. It appears that in the US doctors are practicing on another planet, where the laws and rules of medicine do not apply: no tolerance to drugs, no drug induced hyperalgesia , no addiction. In South Florida ( another planet by itself) I routinely see patients for opiod dependence treatment who are being prescribed ungodly amounts of Oxycontin,Percocet or Lorcet for unspecified chronic pain syndromes related to "old" injuries, migraine or back pain with no, or little, documentation. Most of them I safely took off opioids and they are doing much better. The article clearly points out that the proponents of long-term opioid treatment provided little evidence for their efficacy or safety. Furthermore, the article also highlights how pharmaceutical companies such as Purdue Pharma, influenced and manipulated key decision makers and regulators including the Federation of State Medical Boards. Regarding Dr. Portenoy: after years of opioid treatment "education" and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of paychecks by the pharmaceutical industry he still seems to struggle with the reality that opioid dependence can be induced by prescription narcotics and can be treated successfully. This article serves as an attempt by Dr. Portenoy to emulate Pilate in Matthew 27:24 in which he washes his hands in public to proclaim his own innocence. I definitely do not believe him and neither should any of the readers of this article. Happy Holidays. Yours

A Common Sense Approach

Attached a link to an article titled "UM offers community service program for students facing minor pot charges" describing a University Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion Program (U-LEAD), a first in Florida, which offers young first-time offenders facing misdemeanor marijuana possession charges an opportunity to avoid criminal charges. Personally, I fully support the decriminalization of marijuana possession which differs from legalization of marijuana as a drug. Its about time that we start focusing on addiction treatment and stop warehousing non-violent offenders in already overcrowded jails. Yours Bernd