Wood County Prevention Coalition
Uniting For A Drug-Free Community Since 2004
Study of Bristol youths shows smoking cannabis in your teens – even occasionally – can lead to hard drugs later on
BY MARK WAGHORN
9 JUN 2017 Bristol POST
Scientists from Bristol University say teenage marijuana smokers are more likely to go on to harder drugs like cocaine and heroin - even if they only do it occasionally.
Smoking cannabis less than once a week was linked to a greater risk of substance abuse in early adulthood - just like in those who smoke it more than once a week. A study of more than 5,000 adolescents in England found one-in-five fitted this profile.
And the pattern was also associated with harmful drinking and smoking, said scientists.
The findings published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health add to the debate about whether marijuana acts as a 'gateway' to other drug use.
Evidence has been inconsistent so researchers looked at data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) - an ongoing project tracking the health of children born in South West England in 1991 and 1992.
Dr Michelle Taylor, of Bristol University, said: "One fifth of the adolescents in our sample followed a pattern of occasional or regular cannabis use, and these young people were more likely to progress to harmful substance use behaviours in early adulthood."
She said the study supports government strategies to "reduce cannabis exposure in young people".
Dr Taylor said: "We were able to look at cannabis use at six timepoints across adolescence and found 80 percent were non-users.
"Of the other 20 per cent only a small proportion were regular, heavy users but they were 37 times more likely to be tobacco dependent at 21, 26 times more likely to be using other illicit drugs and three times more likely to have harmful levels of alcohol consumption."
Every Ohio overdose death leads to increased demand, DeWine says
The Columbus Dispatch June 8, 2017
WASHINGTON — Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine ticked off the costs of the state’s opiate epidemic: Babies born addicted. A foster care system “bursting at the seams.” Jails overflowing. Employers unable to find qualified applicants who can pass a drug test.
Then there was this: Every time someone dies of an opiate overdose, demand for opiates goes up in that community, as addicts are lured by the possibility of a higher high.
“Nothing makes sense about this,” DeWine told the congressional Joint Economic Committee, chaired by Rep. Pat Tiberi.
The Genoa Township Republican convened the hearing to explore the opioid crises’ effect on the economy.
And the findings were striking: While mortality rates among middle-aged white non-Hispanics had declined for decades, that ended abruptly in recent years. The rate for that group was higher in 2015 than 1998.
Many of those deaths, he said, are “deaths of despair,” including suicides, deaths from liver disease and accidental overdoses of legal and illegal drugs. In 2015, among white non-Hispanic men and women aged 50 to 54 without a college degree, deaths of despair are around 110 per 100,000. Fifty of those deaths are from overdoses.
Rep. John Delaney, D-Maryland, said the opioid epidemic has served as a “match to the fire” for people who are already struggling in society.
Richard Frank, a professor of health economics at Harvard Medical School, offered a thinly veiled criticism of the health-care bill that passed the House earlier this year, it would reduce access to Medicaid for those who are addicted. Medicaid covers 34 percent of those who have opioid use disorder, he said, and in the state of Ohio, Medicaid pays for nearly 30 percent of the Buprenorphine prescriptions in 2016.
FDA seeks removal of opioid painkiller from the market
By Laurie McGinley and Lenny Bernstein June 8
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday asked a drug company to remove its opioid pain medication from the market, the first time the agency has made such a request because of the public health consequences of abuse.
The agency concluded after an extensive review of Endo Pharmaceuticals’ Opana ER that the “benefits of the drug may no longer outweigh its risks.” The company reformulated the drug in 2012 to make it more difficult to snort, but the FDA said that move actually led to more injections — and a major HIV outbreak.
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, who has pledged to take “more forceful” steps to curb the nation’s opioid epidemic, said the agency’s action reflects its increased focus on the risks posed by the illicit use of opioids. The FDA “is looking broadly at the whole policy framework” used for the painkillers, he said Thursday.
The medication was approved in 2006 for moderate to severe pain when a round-the-clock painkiller is needed.
During the drug’s reformulation, Endo introduced a coating designed to deter people from crushing and snorting the medication.
Respondents who took part in The Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation survey on long-term, opioid painkiller use share their experiences of living with pain.
But the FDA declined to give it an “abuse deterrent” label, saying the data didn’t support such a designation.
The FDA said Thursday that subsequent data showed a “significant shift” in the route of abuse “from nasal to injection” after the reformulation.
Increased needle-sharing of the drug has since been linked to serious blood disorder cases in Tennessee in 2012 and a 2015 outbreak of HIV and hepatitis C in Indiana, officials said.
RSVP to the next WCPC Community Meeting!
Wood County Prevention Coalition Meeting
Friday, Sep 29, 2017, 08:30 AM
Wood County Educational Service Center, 1867 N Research Drive, Bowling Green, OH
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About Us
Our Vision: Helping youth be drug-free, productive and responsible citizens.
Our Mission: We are a coalition of compassionate community members working together to coordinate high quality programs for the prevention of youth substance abuse in Wood County.
Email: mkarna@wcesc.org
Website: wcprevention.org
Location: 1867 Research Drive, Bowling Green, OH, United States
Phone: (419)-354-9010
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WCPCoalition
Twitter: @woodpccoalition