Narconon PSA  

A survey of 12-to-17-year-olds conducted by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University revealed that teens are finding it increasingly easy to obtain prescription drugs, and "problem parents" may be contributing to their teens' drug use, the Washington Post reported August 14.

When asked "Which is easiest for someone your age to buy: cigarettes, beer, marijuana, or prescription drugs such as OxyContin, Percocet, Vicodin or Ritalin, without a prescription?" 19 percent responded that it was easier to find prescription drugs, compared to 13 percent one year ago. Marijuana remains an easy-access drug for teens, with 43 percent of seventeen-year-olds claiming the drug could be purchased within an hour.

The study also found a correlation between the degree of parental awareness of their teenager's nighttime activity and an increase in illegal and prescription drug use. Of those teens out after 10 pm, one half claim to be with people smoking and taking drugs.

"Half of the teenagers were saying they were out on school nights, but only 14 percent of the parents knew that they were out," said Elizabeth Planet, CASA's director of special projects and the study's coordinator. "There are lots of factors at play here. Parents are not paying attention. There are parents who are out in the evening themselves. There are parents out at work."

Joseph Califano, chairman and president of the center, warns of the danger of parents becoming "passive pushers," as evidenced by the statistic showing that 34 percent of teenage prescription drug abusers obtain them in the home.

"This is a very different generation of children," said Stephen Pasierb, the president of Partnership for a Drug-Free America. "Prescription drugs are entrenched, and they have not moved for five years, and this generation of parents simply [does] not understand the problem."

Parents are less likely to be aware of a younger child’s cigarette and alcohol use than that of an older child, according to analysis of multiyear data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH).

Less than half of mothers knew that their 12- to 14-year-old child had used cigarettes (42%) or alcohol (33%) in the past year, compared to 57% and 61%, respectively, of mothers of 15- to 17-year-olds.

In contrast, age made no difference for the mother’s awareness of marijuana use -- less than half (41%) of parents of both younger and older children were aware of their child’s marijuana use. Similar results were found for fathers.

These findings illustrate the need for parent-oriented substance abuse prevention programs, with a particular need for alcohol and tobacco education for parents of middle school age youth.

A study has found that children who deal with hardships such as abuse, divorce or substance abuse in the home may be more likely to begin using alcohol at a young age, Reuters Health reported Aug. 11.

Researchers for the study of 3,600 Americans ages 18 to 39 were able to link earlier onset of drinking to five specific childhood experiences: physical abuse, sexual abuse, living with a family member with mental illness, substance abuse in the home, and parents' divorce or separation.

Adults who reported having any of these experiences were more likely to have used alcohol before the age of 15 and also were more likely to have used alcohol in order to cope with their problems. The researchers said their findings are important in identifying particularly problematic issues in childhood and in pointing to early activities that can shape drinking patterns well into adulthood.

Researchers led by Emily Rothman, Sc.D., of the Boston University School of Public Health, found in their analysis of adults who were current or former drinkers that childhood abuse had the strongest association with early drinking. The risk of starting drinking before age 15 was two to three times higher for children who had experienced abuse.

Having a family member with a mental illness or substance abuse problem was the factor causing the next highest level of risk for early drinking.

Rothman and colleagues emphasized that these factors do not increase the risk of early drinking as a coping mechanism for all young people, adding that a lack of adult supervision might be linked with children's early drinking experiences. This would be the case particularly for a parent with mental illness who might not be capable of monitoring a child's activities, they stated.

Study results were published in the August issue of Pediatrics. 

Federal, state and county law enforcers have eradicated more than $1 billion worth of marijuana plants from a rather unexpected location in California: the Sequoia National Forest, CNN reported Aug. 8.

U.S. anti-drug officials report that the growing operations are conducted by illegal immigrants with ties to Mexico's drug cartels, and they say these are not small-time operations. "This is about serious criminal organizations," said White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) director John Walters. "They're willing to kill anybody who gets in their way."

Government officials reported that under an eradication campaign called Operation LOCCUST, they were able to destroy 420,000 marijuana plants in eight days. Most of the growing locations in the national forest are several hours from the nearest road and nowhere near the giant sequoias that are the park's signature attraction.

With border enforcement activity making it increasingly difficult to smuggle drugs from Mexico to the U.S., Mexican cartels are turning to U.S. growing operations in which family members or trusted friends are hired to maintain production across the border, government officials in the U.S. said.

The enforcement operations in California include removing complex irrigation systems for the plants, eradicating the plants themselves, and then going after the workers. Thirty-eight arrests have occurred under Operation LOCCUST, along with 29 weapons seizures. 

Offenses ranging from excessive intoxication to violent behavior are on the rise in nearly every police jurisdiction in England and Wales since new laws allowed pubs and clubs to maintain long hours, the Sunday Telegraph reported Aug. 10.

Public order offenses, half of which police attribute to excessive drinking, are up 136 percent from four years ago, when the laws permitting longer serving hours went into effect. Basing its report on data collected from over 80 percent of all police forces in England and Wales, the newspaper said that through April of this year 161,431 "Penalty Notices for Disorder" were handed out. In 2004-2005, the last year before public establishments became eligible for 24-hour licenses, only 68,342 such notices were given.

"What 24-hour licensing has done is to give us more problems at three, four and five in the morning," said Mike Craik, Chief Constable of the Northumbria Police. He added, "It is drinking that is driving the levels of penalty notices up."

The government has also noted a 25 percent rise in serious violent crimes between 3am and 6am, in addition to the spike in public order offenses such as damaging property, urinating in the street, or yelling abusive remarks to passers-by.

The deputy chief constable of the British Transport Police, Andy Trotter, said "The new laws may have brought an end to the 11pm rush but the downside is that police forces now have to deploy large numbers of officers through the night - sometimes to deal with extremely violent incidents - which means fewer resources are available for normal policing during the day."

Controversy has erupted over the Hawaii State Teachers Association's (HSTA's) apparent reluctance to subject its members to random drug testing from school districts, the Honolulu Advertiser reported Aug. 6.

A teachers' contract ratified in June 2007 had called for random drug testing of teachers, who also received pay raises as part of the agreement. But according to State Deputy Attorney General Jim Halvorson, the union is now saying that only teachers with commercial driver's licenses should be required to be tested.

"I think that you can see that this brand new position by the HSTA … does not pass the laugh test," Halvorson said at an Aug. 5 news conference. "Why would we have given significant pay raises to the teachers in order to obtain testing that we've been doing all along?"

Union officials have said they learned after the 2007 contract had been signed that the random testing requirements are unconstitutional. But state officials believe union leaders never intended to allow random testing of their members to be implemented.

Halvorson emphasized that in a recent issue of the union newsletter Teacher Advocate, in which the union seems to back the idea of testing based on reasonable suspicion, the organization likens a more widespread testing policy to internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

The state last month filed a complaint against the union with the Hawaii Labor Relations Board, and is seeking a declaratory ruling from the panel on the legality of a random testing program for teachers.