Drug Facts

Karen

September 26, 2024

Is Methamphetamine More Destructive Than Previously Realized?

Methamphetamine, though less lethal than fentanyl, is wreaking havoc across the U.S. Highly potent P2P meth triggers fast, intense addiction while creating mental illness and homelessness, as evidenced in locations like Los Angeles and Oregon. While overdose deaths are lower, meth’s broader impact on families, health, and communities is severe.

Ren

April 18, 2024

What is the Scope of Inhalant Use Today?

While inhalant substances do not make the news in the same way that opioids or meth do, millions of teens huff the fumes of various chemicals, thinners, gases, lacquers, paint sprays, and aerosols each year. Some reports suggest that 335,000 Americans are addicted to such substances.

Ren

April 4, 2024

Oxycodone: A Common, Addictive, and Dangerous Opioid

Oxycodone is one of the most common yet one of the least understood prescription opioids. What is oxycodone? How is it different from OxyContin and other opioids? What is the scope of its use? And perhaps most importantly, what can be done for those who are addicted to oxycodone, including those who have legitimate prescriptions for the drug?

Ren

March 28, 2024

Gas Station Heroin: A Drug to Watch Out For

Tianeptine, an antidepressant that can have similar effects on the body as opioids, is sold as a dietary supplement at gas stations and convenience stores across the country. It’s often marketed as an “alternative medicine” that can relieve pain, reduce depression symptoms, and address anxiety. While not approved for medical use in the United States, it is approved in some European, Asian, and Latin American countries.

Ren

March 21, 2024

What Is the Scope of Alcohol Addiction Today?

Alcohol addiction is one of America’s worst health problems, yet it receives a fraction of the national attention that drug addiction gets. Because alcohol consumption is normalized as acceptable social behavior, the dire complications of consuming alcohol to excess often go unaddressed or are considered a marginal concern. The result? All levels and forms of drinking have worsened across America in recent years, placing alcohol consumption in line to be the nation’s next major public health crisis.

Karen

March 14, 2024

These Illicit Drugs Can Destroy Your Lungs as Well as Your Life

Illicit drugs may pose far greater risks to your lung health than you realize, triggering conditions like pneumonia, emphysema, and even asphyxia. From alcohol to heroin, the ten substances discussed in this article impair breathing, set the stage for infection and dysfunction, and can easily turn deadly. Seeking help is crucial for those affected by addiction.

Karen

March 7, 2024

What Is “Delta 8,” What Does It Do, and Who Is Using It?

This article explores the sudden emergence of an industry devoted to the manufacture and sales of Delta-8, a psychoactive substance derived from hemp. It’s sold even in states where marijuana is not legal, due to a legal loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill. The article examines the effects of this new drug and why its regulation has fallen between the cracks in state after state. Even more cannabis products are on the verge of release, without research or legislation that could keep consumers safe.

Ren

February 29, 2024

Prescription Stimulants: What Are They, and Are They Addictive?

Sometimes, people adopt the concept that if a drug is a legal prescription medication, that means it can’t be harmful. Sadly, this is far from the truth. Some of the most commonly used prescription stimulants like Ritalin, Adderall, and others come with many risk factors, addiction included. People need to understand what these drugs are, the risks they pose, and what effects people can expect from using them, even if they use them as prescribed.

Ren

February 8, 2024

Drug Use and Cardiac Complications Go Hand-in-Hand

A paper published by the European Society of Cardiology found a connection between drug use and serious heart complications requiring intensive cardiac care unit treatment. Further, the research indicated addicts might experience long-term health complications even after ceasing drug use.

Ren

February 8, 2024

Why You’re Not Yourself When You Drink, Part 3

Alcohol is a mind-altering substance that affects those who consume it in myriad ways. Because alcohol’s effects differ from person to person, it can be challenging to predict or isolate how alcohol will impact those who consume it. However, researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia have found a direct relationship between alcohol and self-control.

Ren

February 1, 2024

Why You’re Not Yourself When You Drink, Part 2

The idea that “you’re not yourself when you drink” has been around for decades. Alcohol is a mind-altering substance; when people drink it, it changes them mentally, emotionally, and physically. Alcohol affects everyone differently, and its effects become dramatically worse the more someone drinks and the more often they drink.

Ren

January 25, 2024

Why You’re Not Yourself When You Drink, Part 1

There are many aspects connected to alcohol consumption that may cause people to behave poorly. Alcohol is a mind-altering substance, and it affects people in different ways. However, new data shows alcohol consumption may affect all drinkers in at least one way that is the same for everyone, i.e., by significantly inhibiting areas of the brain responsible for maintaining attention.

Ren

November 2, 2023

New Science: No Amount of Alcohol Is Healthy

A new set of research data sheds doubt on the old narrative that moderate alcohol consumption may help some people guard themselves against experiencing diabetes or obesity. According to growing evidence, no amount of alcohol consumption provides drinkers with any health benefit or a net health gain.

Ren

August 24, 2023

Ten Ways Cannabis Negatively Affects Users’ Health Outcomes

Cannabis is often labeled by its supporters as a health solution. However, the negative physical and mental effects of cannabis are not often discussed by advocates pushing for its legalization. It’s important to consider the many well-documented negative short-term and long-term health effects of using cannabis products.

Ren

August 21, 2023

Alcohol and Your Immune System

Most people understand that alcohol consumption harms critical organs in the human body. People understand that excessive drinking can damage the liver, kidneys, and heart. However, very few people know what alcohol does to the body’s immune system.

Ren

August 3, 2023

Alcohol Consumption and Chronic Pain

A recently published scientific paper highlighted how alcohol contributes to chronic pain. Contrary to the commonly held view that alcohol numbs or dulls pain, researchers found that chronic alcohol consumption makes people more susceptible to pain sensitivity.

Ren

June 29, 2023

What Are the Effects of Using Meth?

As the opioid epidemic continues to spread across the U.S., Americans face a new threat, the risk of the potent synthetic opioid fentanyl being mixed into non-opioid drugs like meth. Given the changing drug landscape, becoming educated about opioids and avoiding them is no longer enough to keep one safe.

Ren

June 22, 2023

What are the Effects of Using Cocaine?

Cocaine addiction is on the rise, as are cocaine-related deaths. Cocaine has also made headlines recently, given that fentanyl is increasingly mixed into cocaine batches and sold to addicts without them knowing. The result? Across the nation, people are being exposed to readily available fentanyl-tainted cocaine...

Ren

April 26, 2023

Alcohol May Speed Alzheimer’s Progress in the Brain

A new study shows that, for people already at risk for Alzheimer’s disease or who are in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, alcohol consumption may worsen symptoms and speed up the onset of the disease. These findings are another clear indicator of why people should not consume alcohol.

Ren

April 9, 2023

One Drink Is One Drink Too Many

A research paper published in September 2022 showed that even one alcoholic drink has the effect of “priming the brain” for addiction. While the biological side of alcohol dependence is just one contributing factor to addiction, it’s worth noting the effect that one alcoholic beverage has on brain chemistry.

Karen

March 10, 2023

Are Date Rape Drugs Still a Threat?

Reports of drug-facilitated sexual assaults are being received by law enforcement all over the country. To keep themselves safe, women and men should know what drugs are being used and how they are administered, both on college campuses and in cities.

Ren

December 22, 2022

As the Holidays Approach, Learning the Signs of Addiction Could Save a Life

With the holidays around the corner, people should familiarize themselves with the signs of substance abuse. Most Americans will spend quality time with family members in the coming weeks, potentially with loved ones they don’t see often. Given those unique circumstances, the holidays present an opportune moment to intervene with loved ones if they misuse drugs and alcohol. But first, people must be educated on the signs and symptoms of substance abuse.

Ren

November 3, 2022

Addiction Treatment Should Focus on Individuals, Not Drugs of Choice

A recent study found that 75% of people who come forward and seek addiction treatment are hooked on more than one drug at the time of entry into a treatment facility. Given that most addicts use more than one drug, an effective public health response may be to shift away from focusing on the types of drugs being used and instead focus on the people using them.

Ren

July 21, 2022

The Dangerous Effects of Speedballing

Speedballing is not a new trend, but it is a trend that is changing and becoming more dangerous. Unfortunately, as more people seek to mix stimulant drugs with opioids or “speedball,” more people will die from overdoses caused by such lethal cocktails. And with the ever-expanding addition of fentanyl into the drug supply, addicts are at even greater risk.

Ren

June 23, 2022

What Are Poppers?

It’s important to monitor new drug trends as they arise, as every trend brings new risks to addicts. While the usage of “poppers” is not new, this drug trend is making a bold comeback, posing risks to a new generation of drug users.

Ren

May 24, 2022

Marijuana Use Linked to Consequences in Young Users

A common narrative heard circulating amongst the proponents of cannabis legalization is that cannabis is not dangerous and therefore should be legal. This narrative is not just misleading; it’s largely untrue. As cannabis research continues, scientists and researchers are finding many dangerous health complications intimately connected to cannabis.

Ren

May 11, 2022

No Amount of Alcohol Consumption Is Good For You

A recent study seems to dispel the age-old belief that just a little bit of alcohol has heart health benefits. Contrary to that belief, rather than being beneficial, any alleged “benefits” once observed in people who drank alcohol in moderation were likely caused by other factors, like an active lifestyle. Alcohol consumption, even when done in moderation, poses a severe risk of harming one’s health, not benefiting it.

Karen

May 10, 2022

Alcohol’s Assault on the Body

The consumption of alcohol is so ingrained in many cultures that it is accepted without question. What may go unnoticed is the millions of deaths it causes every year around the world. The deadly character of alcohol should be understood by everyone.

Matt Hawk BS, CADC-II, ICADC

April 21, 2022

What Are Hallucinogens and Psychedelics?

Depicted in movies and popular music and pop culture as a way to “Expand Your Mind”, hallucinogens have been circulating in modern society for over fifty years and doing a lot of damage along the way. Some of the names are, shrooms, angel dust, hell’s bells, and acid. Acid, also known as LSD, is the granddaddy of these drugs in terms of strength and unpredictability.

Ren

April 21, 2022

Emerging Opioid Threat From New Synthetic Drug

Nitazenes are a new type of opioid drug said to be 800 times more potent than morphine and 40 times more potent than fentanyl. This drug has not yet been approved for human consumption in the U.S., and it is not FDA approved. But could nitazenes become the next “super opioid” to hit the streets?

Ren

April 13, 2022

Tianeptine: a New Illicit Drug Poses Serious Addiction Risk

Tianeptine is a relatively new pharmaceutical drug that is being misused for its mind-altering properties, leading to overdoses and harsh consequences. Given the harmful nature of drug abuse and the growing addiction crisis across America, it’s important to stay on top of emerging drug trends like tianeptine abuse and addiction.

Ren

March 16, 2022

What Exactly Is Khat?

The drug is not too common in the U.S. (although that is difficult to determine because the U.S. does not record statistics on khat usage). However, about 20 million people worldwide use khat for its stimulant-like and mind-altering properties.