New Data Shows Average Age of First Use Dropping; White House Drug Policy Director Warns of Consequences of Rising Teen Marijuana Use Washington, DC—Gil Kerlikowske, Director of National Drug Policy (ONDCP), today alerted parents to the heightened dangers of marijuana use that has risen sharply, with kids starting to use the drug at a younger age. According to recently released data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), there were 2.4 million new past-year users of marijuana in 2009 and the average age of initiation – first-time use...

 A new study by researchers at Drexel University’s School of Public Health suggests that abuse of prescription painkillers may be an important gateway to the use of injected drugs such as heroin, among people with a history of using both types of drugs.  The study, published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, explores factors surrounding young injection drug users’ initiation into the misuse of opioid drugs. Common factors identified in this group included a family history of drug misuse and receiving prescriptions for opioid drugs in the past. The results support a need for efforts to prevent misuse of prescription...

In 2010, 5.1 million people ages 12 and older reported the nonmedical use of prescription pain relievers in the past month, according to data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). The majority of these users—60.1%—reported that they obtained the pain relievers free from a friend or relative. The other most commonly mentioned methods were obtaining them from a doctor (27.1% from one doctor and another 4.9% from more than one doctor) and buying them from a friend or relative (26.8%). Among those who used pain relievers nonmedically and indicated that they obtained the drugs from a friend or relative for free, 76.7%...

The number of overdose deaths from powerful painkillers more than tripled over a decade, the government reported Tuesday – a trend that a U.S. health official called an epidemic, but one that can be stopped.   Prescription painkillers such as OxyContin, Vicodin and methadone led to the deaths of almost 15,000 people in 2008, including actor Heath Ledger. That’s more than three times the 4,000 deaths from narcotics in 1999.   Such painkillers “are meant to help people who have severe pain,” said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, which issued the report....

NOTE: THIS WEEK I ATTENDED A PRESENTATION ON AN OPIATE ANTI-CRAVING MED HERE IN THE MIDWEST. TOWARD THE END OF THE TALK WAS A BRIEF PRESENTATION OF SIDE EFFECTS. MOST OF THE STANDARD SIDE EFFECTS WERE THERE. TOWARD THE END OF THE LIST WAS THE FOLLOWING WORD… “TOOTH ACHE”. IT TOOK ME A COUPLE OF SECONDS… ADMIN/MK In the cover article of this month’s Journal of the American Dental Association, a group of nine dentists, pharmacists, and addiction experts provides new research and recommendations to help dentists combat, rather than contribute to, abuse of addictive painkillers. The Obama administration turned a...

Chronic pain affects 116 million Americans and costs the U.S. as much as $635 billion each year, according to a new report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) that called for changes in how chronic pain is managed. Much of the chronic pain experienced by Americans isn’t treated correctly, in part because doctors are not taught in medical school how to help patients manage pain, according to the report, entitled “Relieving Pain in America: A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education, and Research,” which was mandated by the healthcare reform law. Chronic pain is so widespread and poorly understood that...

It’s easy to overdose or to patch over problems that require a doctor’s care. Research adds the list of risk factors, but it also sees possible new benefits.   When something hurts, most Americans open their medicine cabinets and pop a few capsules, tablets or gel-caps. Acetaminophen, aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen: More than 80% of us report using these four main over-the-counter analgesics, according to the market research firm Mintel. Two-thirds of us keep stashes on hand, not just at home but also at work, in our handbags or in the car. And about half of us have multiple bottles available, just in case. All that pill...

Action is needed to tackle the increasing number of deaths in the United States and Canada from prescription painkillers known as opioids, say experts in an article published online in the British Medical Journal.   Opioids are prescription painkillers that contain compounds derived from the opium poppy.   While they have long been used to control the symptoms of cancer and acute medical conditions, they are increasingly being used to control chronic pain, for example in patients suffering from osteoarthritis, say Dr Irfan Dhalla and colleagues at the University of Toronto.   They describe how in the US, deaths involving...