New study shows drops in usage of nearly all substances.
fromCitizenLink

A new survey from the National Institute on Drug Abuse shows a significant decline in the use of cigarettes, alcohol, steroids, cocaine, heroin, LSD and methamphetamine. The only bad news in the five-year trend is an increase in the use of cough and cold medicines to get high.

Lloyd Johnston, lead researcher from the University of Michigan, said the drug-use increase of the 1990s is on the decline. Continue Reading…

Here are some proactive steps you can take to reduce your child’s chance of using drugs.

Drug abuse is so widespread in our culture that you cannot expect to isolate your child from exposure to it. You can, however, take specific steps to reduce the likelihood of contact with drugs and build your child’s immunity to using them. These measures should be ongoing, deliberate and proactive. Continue Reading…

How can you help the person you love who is struggling with alcoholism?
by Lisa Brock

Do you know an alcoholic? Studies show that nearly everyone in the United States has a friend or family member who struggles with alcohol addiction. About 10 percent of Americans are alcoholics and each of those 20 million people directly affects the lives of at least six others. So how can you help the person you love who is struggling with alcoholism? Continue Reading…

It Would Never Happen to Us

Teen drug addiction is always some other family’s tragedy, until it hits home.

It was June. Fresh faces sprouted throughout our community newspaper. High school graduates who excelled in academics, sports and community service were honored daily with photos and short articles recognizing their accomplishments. I read the accounts with joy — and a heavy heart. How wonderful to see hope sprinkled among the daily tragedies. Yet I grieved as the ideal portrait I’d painted of my own teen faded into reality.

“Bright, beautiful, full of energy. Can be a delightful teen.” I paused a moment to ponder. “Could have made it, but she stumbled and fell short of the finish line.” It began as a little rebellion. A desire to be hip.

She smoked her first cigarette behind the church. Drank her first beer in junior high. I thought, She must be someone else’s daughter. It couldn’t happen on my manicured cul-de-sac, in our church. But, it did. Continue Reading…

Stage One: Experimentation

• Use is occasional, sporadic, often unplanned — weekends, summer nights, someone’s unsupervised party.
• Use is precipitated by peer pressure, curiosity, thrill seeking, desire to look and feel grown-up.
• Gateway drugs are usually used — cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, possibly inhalant abuse.
• A drug high is easier to experience because tolerance has not been developed.

Parents may notice:

• Tobacco or alcohol on the breath or intoxicated behavior.
• Little change in normal behavior between episodes of drug use. Continue Reading…