Meth is back and it’s cheaper and purer than ever before. With national attention focused on the country’s epidemic of heroin and prescription painkiller abuse, law enforcement and health care professionals are seeing a massive resurgence of methamphetamines on the street. To complicate matters, a staggering number of people dependent on opioids appear to also […]
Category: Drug Addiction
International Overdose Awareness Day – August 31
August 31st is International Overdose Awareness Day, a time for people to share the story of someone they’ve lost to drugs and support others who are struggling because of a recent loss. The day of awareness is entering its 20th consecutive year, having gotten its start in Melbourne, Australia, in 2001. What is the Goal […]
Apple Watches and Fitbits to Monitor Drug Use Heart Rate. Really?
Technological advances have revolutionized the healthcare industry. From the stethoscope early on to pacemakers, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), laparoscopic surgery that’s less invasive and, well, the list goes on and on. Some experts even suggest that 3D printers will be able to replicate human organs for transplant patients in the not-so-distant future. So, it’s not […]
Will Blue-181 Be An Effective, Non-Addictive Opioid Alternative For Pain?
Researchers are racing to develop an alternative to prescription opioid painkillers that are just as effective at managing pain, though don’t come with dangerous side effects, including addiction. As the opioid crisis continues to ravage whole communities and kill an estimated 115 people a day, the stakes are incredibly high. Now, three scientists believe they’re […]
Xanax High: Is it a Benzo Buzz or a Bummer?
The reason benzodiazepines, such as Xanax, are popular is because they work. The sedative effect suppresses neurotransmitters in the brain responsible for fear, worry and a sense of danger, even if the effect is accompanied by a slight xanax high for some people. The medication also boosts confidence. So, for patients that suffer from panic […]
Getting High on Xanax: A Benzo Buzz or Bummer?
The reason benzodiazepines, such as Xanax, are popular is because they work. The sedative effect suppresses neurotransmitters in the brain responsible for fear, worry, and a sense of danger. The medication also boosts confidence. So, for patients that suffer from panic attacks or other anxiety disorders – around 40 million adults in the U.S. – […]
Cocaine Laced With Fentanyl. It’s Not Just a Heroin Problem Any More.
A report put out by the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found more than half of all opioid-related fatalities, in just a five month period of 2016, involved fentanyl. Heroin mixed with Fentanyl is responsible for the spike in overdose deaths since 2013 and now, much to the alarm of healthcare experts, law […]
Polypharmacy and Senior Citizens: Why are Physicians Prescribing Too Many Drugs to an Aging Population?
Some medical experts are worried that along with the epidemic of opioid addiction, America is facing another, less publicized healthcare crisis in the nation’s aging baby-boomer population – Polypharmacy. Most common among senior citizens, polypharmacy is the practice of a person taking more than two – sometimes in excess of 15 or 20 – medications […]
Opioid Deaths Decrease Life Expectancy Rates (2nd Year in a Row)
With so much chaos in world politics – scandal piled on an accidental ballistic missile warning – it’s all too easy to overlook the fact that 2016 made history as the nation’s deadliest year ever for drug overdose deaths in the United States. according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than a […]
Portugal’s Decriminalization Success for Addiction and Drug Abuse
It’s easy to forget that not every country in the world approaches issues of drug abuse and addiction as if it were a war. In fact, federal and state laws on illegal drug use in the United States seem uncompassionate at best and barbaric at worst, when compared to some other developed nations. In the […]