News Summary

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Mike Leavitt has informed a House leader that the Bush administration opposes a bill under consideration to allow federal health authorities to regulate tobacco products, the Associated Press reported July 22.

A July 21 letter from Leavitt to U.S. Rep. Joe Barton (R.-Texas), senior Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, offers a strong indication that the Bush administration will actively seek to block the legislation. The Energy and Commerce Committee in April approved the bill on a vote of 38-12, with 11 Republican members voting yes.

The legislation would not allow for a ban on nicotine, but would give the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the authority to regulate cigarettes and other tobacco products. The bill language resulted from a compromise between anti-tobacco activists and Philip Morris USA, the nation's leading tobacco company.

Leavitt's letter suggests that FDA regulation of tobacco would create the public misconception that tobacco products have some health benefit, as do the other products the agency regulates. "Adding tobacco to FDA's regulatory responsibilities could also leave the public with the misperception that tobacco products are safe, or at least safer, with the FDA regulating them," the secretary wrote.

(from JoinTogether.com)

_________________________________________________

Cigarette smoking is the single most preventable cause of premature death in the United States. Each year, more than 400,000 Americans die from cigarette smoking. In fact, one in every five deaths in the United States is smoking related. Every year, smoking kills more than 276,000 men and 142,000 women.1

* Between 1960 and 1990, deaths from lung cancer among women have increased by more than 400%—exceeding breast cancer deaths in the mid-1980s.2 The American Cancer Society estimated that in 1994, 64,300 women died from lung cancer and 44,300 died from breast cancer.3
* Men who smoke increase their risk of death from lung cancer by more than 22 times and from bronchitis and emphysema by nearly 10 times. Women who smoke increase their risk of dying from lung cancer by nearly 12 times and the risk of dying from bronchitis and emphysema by more than 10 times. Smoking triples the risk of dying from heart disease among middle-aged men and women.1
* Every year in the United States, premature deaths from smoking rob more than five million years from the potential lifespan of those who have died.1
* Annually, exposure to secondhand smoke (or environmental tobacco smoke) causes an estimated 3,000 deaths from lung cancer among American adults.4 Scientific studies also link secondhand smoke with heart disease.

(from Centers for Disease Control)

(from JoinTogether.org)

Sign the Whole Health Campaign Petition

Health care reform is one of the most important issues in this year's presidential election. But the presidential candidates and their political parties are not saying much about alcohol and drug problems or mental illness.

They seem to be unaware that:

* Most Americans (more than 59 million) with mental illnesses or addiction disorders never receive the treatment they need.

* Millions more never benefit from proven prevention approaches.

* People recovering from mental illness and addiction are discriminated against as they seek employment, insurance, housing, and other necessities of life.

It is time for America to adopt health care reform that will save tens of thousands of lives and billions of dollars, while strengthening families and communities across the country.

Join Together is one of 40 national organizations that have formed the Whole Health Campaign, calling on the presidential candidates and their parties to make addiction and mental illness part of any national health care reform.

Now we are inviting you to stand with us. Please take one minute to sign the Whole Health Campaign petition, joining with many thousands of Americans asking the candidates and political parties to put addiction and mental illness squarely on the national health care agenda.

Sign the Whole Health Campaign petition now

The Campaign will deliver the petitions to both major presidential candidates and political party platform committees. Your signature will help demonstrate strong grassroots support for this critical priority.

After you sign, please tell 5 friends about the petition so that your voice is multiplied. Together we can shine a spotlight on prevention, treatment, and recovery.

Thanks for all that you do,

Join Together

Sen. Webb Calls for New Drug-Policy Approach, Focus on Treatment
June 23, 2008

News Summary

Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), whose name has cropped up as a possible vice-presidential candidate for Barack Obama, last week called for a major overhaul of U.S. national drug-control policy, the Newport News Daily Press reported June 20.

"Despite the number of people we have arrested, the illegal drug industry and the flow of drugs to our citizens remain undiminished," Webb said during a hearing of the Joint Economic Committee. The hearing featured testimony from a number of witnesses who said that the current enforcement- and incarceration-oriented approach to drug policy has been expensive and ineffective.

Webb said that more treatment alternatives to prison should be considered. Members of the House and Senate attended the hearing, but no Republicans took part.

In his new book, "A Time to Fight," Webb wrote that, "The time has come to stop locking up people for mere possession and use of marijuana ... Drug addiction is not in and of itself a criminal act. It is a medical condition, indeed a disease, just as alcoholism is, and we don't lock people up for being alcoholics."

(from www.jointogether.org)

Research Summary

Teens who attended Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous after leaving addiction treatment had better outcomes even if they eventually stopped going to self-help meetings, HealthDay News reported June 4.

Researchers tracked 160 teens enrolled in treatment in California. "We found that patients who attended more AA and/or NA meetings in the first six months post-treatment had better longer term outcomes, but this early participation effect did not last forever -- it weakened over time," said study author John F. Kelly of the MGH-Harvard Center for Addiction Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.

"The best outcomes achieved into young adulthood were for those patients who continued to go to AA and/or NA," Kelly said. "In terms of a real-world recovery metric, we found that for each AA/NA meeting that a youth attended, they gained a subsequent two days of abstinence, independent of all other factors that were also associated with a better outcome."

Kelly said that the 12-step programs appealed most to patients with the most severe addictions and those who believed that they could not use alcohol or other drugs in moderation.

"During the first six months post-treatment, even small amounts of AA/NA participation -- such as once per week -- was associated with improved outcome, and three meetings per week was associated with complete abstinence," added Kelly. "This suggests youth may not need to attend as frequently as every day, sometimes recommended clinically, to achieve very good outcomes."

The study was published online in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

from JointTogether.org

When I first started using drugs, it started off with alcohol and weed. Then I was introduced to XTC and coke.
I always thought that nothing bad would happen to me and I wouldn't get addicted. Little did I know that in 2007 I would be driven to the hospital by my ex-boyfriend.
I was told I took 5 XTC, 2 methadone, 8 beers, and a hit of pot. As I was arriving at the hospital I had actually died twice. The moment I arrived I had a seizure and my heart stopped beating. I already had not been breathing for an unknown amount of time due to the amount of vomit in my lungs blocking the air to my brain.
They quickly revived me, but shortly after that my heart stopped again. This time it took over an hour to get me back. I was placed on life support and put into ICU with constant attempts at draining my lungs (which took nearly a month to finish).
My whole family drove here because they told them I was going to die that night, that I had less than a 5% chance of living. My brain had very minimal activity to the point they told my family I would probably be a vegetable even if I lived.
With the help of all the doctors I slowly recovered and finally woke up from my coma. My family says I could not talk or respond to pain for many weeks as my brain slowly healed.
A month later I got to the point I could leave ICU and they put me in a home where I had constant care since I could not even move a finger, let alone use the restroom or hold my own head up.
Currently after some physical rehab I can talk, stand up with help, am getting close to walking and I can even pull myself into my dad's truck.
I want to share with everyone the dangers that no one thinks of and the struggle that I am dealing with over one night of what I thought would be fun.

(Note: Jenni keeps making progress one step at a time.

(from JoinTogether.com)

May 28, 2008

Research Summary

Recent research suggests that teens and young adults who consume energy drinks may be at greater risk of a number of high-risk behaviors, such as unprotected sex, alcohol and other drug problems, and violence, the New York Times reported May 26.

While some young energy-drink users have become physically ill after consuming the products, experts are also worried about the relationship between use of the high-caffeine products and risk-taking. A March 2008 study in the Journal of American College Health, for example, linked energy-drink use among athletes to a variety of high-risk behaviors.

"It appears the kids who are heavily into drinking energy drinks are more likely to be the ones who are inclined toward taking risks," said study author Kathleen Miller of the University of Buffalo.

The beverage industry contends that most energy drinks contain caffeine levels comparable to a cup of coffee, but experts note that because they are served cold, energy drinks can be consumed more quickly than hot coffee drinks. Mixing energy drinks with alcohol also is a growing concern because the stimulants in energy drinks can mask the intoxicating effects of alcohol and allow drinkers to stay awake longer and consume more alcohol.

"You're every bit as drunk, you're just an awake drunk," said researcher Mary Claire O'Brien of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C.

by Portia Nelson

(Google the book There's a Hole in My Sidewalk: The Romance of Self-Discovery by Portia Nelson)

- Seng-T'san

"Can you tell me, boss," he said, and his voice sounded deep and earnest in the warm night, "what all these things mean? Who made them all? And why? And, above all" -- here Zorba's voice trembled with anger and fear -- "why do people die?"

"I don't know, Zorba," I replied, ashamed, as if I had been asked the simplest thing, the most essential thing, and was unable to explain it.

"You don't know!" said Zorba in round-eyed astonishment, just like his expression the night I had confessed that I could not dance.... "Well, all those damned books you read -- what good are they? Why do you read them? If they don't tell you that, what do they tell you?"

"They tell me about the perplexity of mankind, who can give no answer to the question you've just put to me, Zorba."

from Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis

(Note: Fourteen-year-old Kyle Williams, son of Jeff and Kathy Williams of Painesville Township, Ohio, died on March 2, 2005 from the effects of inhaling the contents of a can of Dust-Off compressed-air cleaning spray.

Below is the second half of a message written by Kyle's father, police officer Jeff Williams, who first posted it on a support Web site for grieving parents, where it inspired readers to copy the text and forward it to others. Mr. Williams also shared his story in a March 10, 2005 column by Connie Schultz of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.)

I am a police officer and I had never heard of this. My wife is a nurse and she had never heard of this. We later found out from the coroner, after the autopsy, that only the propellant from the can of Dust off was in his system. No other drugs. Kyle had died between midnight and 1 Am.

I found out that using Dust Off is being done mostly by kids ages 9 through 15. They even have a name for it. It's called dusting. A take off from the Dust Off name. It gives them a slight high for about 10 seconds. It makes them dizzy. A boy who lives down the street from us showed Kyle how to do this about a month before. Kyle showed his best friend. Told him it was cool and it couldn't hurt you. Its just compressed air. It cant hurt you. His best friend said no.

Kyle's death
Kyle was wrong. It's not just compresses air. It also contains a propellant. I think its R2. Its a refrigerant like what is used in your refrigerator. It is a heavy gas. Heavier than air. When you inhale it, it fills your lungs and keeps the good air, with oxygen, out. That's why you feel dizzy, buzzed. It decreases the oxygen to your brain, to your heart. Kyle was right. It cant hurt you. IT KILLS YOU. The horrible part about this is there is no warning. There is no level that kills you. It's not cumulative or an overdose; it can just go randomly, terribly wrong. Roll the dice and if your number comes up you die. ITS NOT AN OVERDOSE. Its Russian roulette. You don't die later. Or not feel good and say I've had too much. You usually die as your breathing it in. If not you die within 2 seconds of finishing "the hit." That's why the straw was still in Kyle's mouth when he died. Why his eye's were still open.

The experts want to call this huffing. The kids don't believe its huffing. As adults we tend to lump many things together. But it doesn't fit here. And that's why its more accepted. There is no chemical reaction. no strong odor. It doesn't follow the huffing signals. Kyle complained a few days before he died of his tongue hurting. It probably did. The propellant causes frostbite. If I had only known.

Its easy to say hay, its my life and I'll do what I want. But it isn't. Others are always effected. This has forever changed our family's life. I have a hole in my heart and soul that can never be fixed. The pain is so immense I cant describe it. There's nowhere to run from it. I cry all the time and I don't ever cry. I do what I'm supposed to do but I don't really care. My kids are messed up. One wont talk about it. The other will only sleep in our room at night. And my wife, I cant even describe how bad she is taking this. I thought we were safe because of Thor. I thought we were safe because we knew about drugs and talked to our kids about them.

After Kyle died another story came out. A Probation Officer went to the school system next to ours to speak with a student. While there he found a student using Dust Off in the bathroom. This student told him about another student who also had some in his locker. This is a rather affluent school system. They will tell you they don't have a drug problem there. They don't even have a dare or plus program there. So rather than tell everyone about this "new" way of getting high they found, they hid it. The probation officer told the media after Kyle's death and they, the school, then admitted to it. I know that if they would have told the media and I had heard, it wouldn't have been in my house. We need to get this out of our homes and school computer labs.

Using Dust Off isn't new and some "professionals" do know about. It just isn't talked about much, except by the kids. They know about it.

April 2nd was 1 month since Kyle died. April 5th would have been his 15th birthday. And every weekday I catch myself sitting on the living room couch at 2:30 in the afternoon and waiting to see him get off the bus. I know Kyle is in heaven but I cant help but wonder If I died and went to Hell.

Jeff

(Note: Fourteen-year-old Kyle Williams, son of Jeff and Kathy Williams of Painesville Township, Ohio, died on March 2, 2005 from the effects of inhaling the contents of a can of Dust-Off compressed-air cleaning spray.

The message below was written by Kyle's father, police officer Jeff Williams, who first posted it on a support Web site for grieving parents, where it inspired readers to copy the text and forward it to others. Mr. Williams also shared his story in a March 10, 2005 column by Connie Schultz of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.)

First I'M going to tell you a little about me and my family. My name is Jeff. I am a Police Officer for a city which is known nationwide for its crime rate. We have a lot of gangs and drugs. At one point we were # 2 in the nation in homicides per capita. I also have a police K-9 named Thor . He was certified in drugs and general duty. He retired at 3 years old because he was shot in the line of duty. He lives with us now and I still train with him because he likes it. I always liked the fact that there was no way to bring drugs into my house. Thor wouldn't allow it. He would tell on you. The reason I say this is so you understand that I know about drugs. I have taught in schools about drugs. My wife asks all our kids at least once a week if they used any drugs. Makes them promise they wont.

My wife Kathy is a nurse and we have 3 children. Kyle was the oldest at 14. The other two are 12 and 13 years of age. Kyle loved football and played for his school. I went to every one of his games. He didn't always play much since it was his first year but I didn't care. He also loved playing games on his computer or his playstation. Kyle had so much potential. He could do anything he wanted to.

I like building computers occasionally and started building a new one in February 2005. I also was working on some of my older computers. They were full of dust so on one of my trips to the computer store I bought a 3 pack of DUST OFF. Dust Off is a can of compressed air to blow dust off a computer. A few weeks later when I went to use them they were all used. I talked to my kids and my 2 sons both said they had used them on their computer and messing around with them. I yelled at them for wasting the 10 dollars I paid for them. On February 28 I went back to the computer store. They didn't have the 3 pack which I had bought on sale so I bought a single jumbo can of Dust Off. I went home and set it down beside my computer.

On March 1st I left for work at 10 PM. At 11 PM my wife went down and kissed Kyle goodnight. At 530 am the next morning Kathy went downstairs to wake Kyle up for school, before she left for work. He was sitting up in bed with his legs crossed and his head leaning over. She called to him a few times to get up. He didn't move. He would sometimes tease her like this and pretend he fell back asleep. He was never easy to get up. She went in and shook his arm. He fell over. He was pale white and had the straw from the Dust Off can coming out of his mouth. He had the new can of Dust Off in his hands. Kyle was dead.

~Lao-tzu

(from JoinTogether.org)

Front Cover of State Estimates of Persons Aged 18 or Older Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol or Illicit Drugs Data from the 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) indicate that 17.0 percent of youth aged 12 to 17 used cigarettes in the past year, 32.9 percent used alcohol, and 13.2 percent used marijuana. Parents are encouraged to communicate with their children about drugs and alcohol, and some research has examined the extent to which parents are aware of their children’s drug and alcohol use. Studies focusing on the general population have found high levels of parent awareness of adolescent cigarette use, but awareness of alcohol use is low; findings on parent awareness of adolescent marijuana use are mixed.

The following are brief findings in the report:

Youth substance use in the past year was generally higher within one-parent households than within two-parent households for both mother-child and father-child pairs and was generally highest among youth in father-child pairs within one-parent households.
Parent awareness of youth use of cigarettes and alcohol in the past year increased with the youth’s increasing age among both mother-child and father-child pairs.
Rates of parent awareness of youth substance use in the past year were generally higher among mothers in mother-child pairs than among fathers in father-child pairs and were generally highest among mothers in mother-child pairs within one-parent households.

Download NSDUH Report:
Parent Awareness of Youth Use of Cigarettes, Alcohol, and Marijuana PDF (313 KB)

Animal Study Hints at Greater Teen Susceptibility to Addiction
May 2, 2008

(Research Summary from JoinTogether.org)

Adolescent rats given cocaine were more likely to return to the place where they got the drug than adult rats, suggesting that younger drug users may be more likely to be motivated by drug-related cues than older users, Biology News reported April 21.

The younger rats also returned to the drug-administration site after a small dose of cocaine was administered after the drug-linked preference was discontinued. It took researchers 75 percent more trials to extinguish the conditioned place preference of the adolescent rats, and the young rats were 40 percent more likely to reinstate their place preference than adult rats when a low "priming" dose of cocaine was administered after a 24-hour delay.

"Adolescent vulnerability to addiction involves robust memories for drug-associated cues that are difficult to extinguish," the researchers from McLean Hospital in Massachusetts wrote.

The study was reported in the April 2008 issue of the journal Behavioral Neuroscience.
This article summarizes an external report or press release on research published in a scientific journal. When available, links to the sources are provided above.

It all started when I was about 5-6 years old and was the time I told my dad that I know that he smokes bud. At this time our family lived in a little town and there were about 100 people that live there. I started school at 5 years old. My mom was not around for most of my life. My sister took care of me for most of it until she moved out. Me and my brother did not have a bond. We would cause hell by riding dirtbikes around and that is all that I did with him. He moved out when he was about 15... the same age that I am now. My sister moved out when she was about 16 years old. I am the baby and I am proud of it and I started to smoke when I was about 8 and then I started to drink around the age of 10 or 11. My mom and dad got a divorce about 4 years ago and the first year I lived with my dad and then I moved in with my mom and gramma. That's when I started to get into trouble. I was 13 the first time I ever go into trouble with the law. It was an assault on fops and destruction of property. I went to juvie and then I got put on probation. But during that time I got into another problem with the law. I got a possession charge at school so I got put on probation for longer. Then I went to outpatient treatment and I passed that and then I got off of probation. I stayed clean for about one and a half years and then I got a domestic violence charge on my gramma and then I was getting urine tests and they were coming up with cocaine and bud in my system so I got put in to juvie again. Then I said I wanted to go into inpatient. So I stayed in juvie for a long time and then I came to Daybreak.

Click and >>Watch the Movie

Source: Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Departments of Health, Social and Health
Services, Community, Trade and Economic Development, and Family Policy Council, Healthy Youth Survey - 2006.

APRIL 21, 2008 NO. 008-022

Study shows that paying for chemical dependency treatment improves health outcomes and saves taxpayer dollars too

Olympia -- New research by the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) shows that providing more Medicaid and General Assistance (GA) funds for chemical dependency treatment is saving taxpayers between $149 and $287 per month in medical costs for every adult who receives treatment.

Approved by legislators in 2005 and funded by assumed cost savings in medical and long term care, medical savings per treated patient are exceeding the original budget assumptions:

· For adult Medicaid Disabled patients, medical savings are estimated to be $287 per treated patient per month, compared to $199 in the original appropriation.

· For adult Medicaid Disabled patients, nursing home savings are estimated to be $137 per treated patient per month, compared to $58 in the original appropriation.

· Actual medical savings for GA-Unemployable patients are estimated to be $149 per treated patient per month, compared to $117 in the original appropriation.

Other savings in criminal justice and child welfare costs have not yet been estimated. The full report is available at http://www.dshs.wa.gov/pdf/hrsa/dasa/TxExpUpdate.pdf

“State and local agencies have worked hard to provide quality treatment to more people with this disease,” said Doug Allen, Director of the DSHS Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse. “Now the research proves that investing in treatment not only creates healthier families and safer communities, it saves tax payers thousands of dollars in medical costs.”

Prior to 2005, 74 percent of Washington’s youth, and 69 percent of adults, were denied treatment because of limited state funding and long waiting lists that forced many potential patients to give up on treatment. With the new funding, the study calculated that 4,211 more people were able to receive prompt treatment in the first two years.

The state-funded treatment is available to Medicaid-eligible residents of the state, including the elderly, disabled, those who receive Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), and low-income teens.

"Now that more people can get the treatment they need, it’s crucial that their family members, friends, employers and health care providers are aware of the warning signs, and help them begin treatment”, added Allen.

The public can find help on how to intervene at www.intervenenow.org.