NARCONON BLOG

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Synthetic Drug Use Outweighs Meth and Heroin In Some Towns

Heroin and methamphetamine have long been scourges on our communities, taking lives, creating moral deterioration and stealing away loved ones. Now there’s a new set of drugs that may be even more dangerous. These are the new synthetics.

DRUG INFORMATION

Conversion From Prescription Drugs To Street Opiates

Heroin Abuse Increases with First Time Users Starting at Younger Age As amazing as it might seem, there are some heroin users who maintain their addictions over decades.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Painkiller Sales Soar and Fuel Addiction

The problem has been brewing for years. Sales of painkillers began to make an unusual climb in 2000 and by 2010, had reached levels far beyond anything reasonable. Certainly, painkillers like Oxycontin and Vicodin help people after serious injuries.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Narconon Warns that Teen Deaths Related to Prescription Drug Abuse Skyrocket

In April 2012, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released some startling statistics on the number of teens being lost to prescription drug abuse. Between the years 2000 and 2009, the number of children losing their lives to poisoning went...

DRUG INFORMATION

Parents Would Never Guess that Prescription Drug Abuse Can Be Abetted by Family and Friends

Parents may spend plenty of time talking to their children about the dangers of drinking and driving and some may warn their kids against smoking marijuana. But few take the time to advise their children to stay away from prescription drugs.

DRUG INFORMATION

Skittles Party By Teens Is Not What It Seems

A Skittles party could take the form of a home filled with teenagers where everyone brings all the prescription medications they have on hand and pool them. Then anyone at the party who wants to abuse a pill just dips in and grabs whatever they want.

ADDICTION

Saving Our Youth: Study Finds Most Alcohol, Drug Abuse Starts in Teen Years

Recent surveys of teens and young adults have turned up a startling new fact. More than one study finds most alcohol and drug abuse starts in teen years.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Marijuana Use Higher than Tobacco Among Teens While Alcohol Use Goes Down

Marijuana use among teens is more common than cigarette smoking according to the most recent survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And far more teens are drinking than smoking cigarettes.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

It’s No Surprise that Drug Use Goes Up as Jobs Go Away

Reports from Florida show that when economic stresses mount related to unemployment, more people may be reaching for a pill. Particularly, in this region, OxyContin is often obtained illicitly, as from a drug dealer or by theft. Or it could be obtained...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Why it’s Not Surprising that Heroin Use Soars for Suburban Teens

Recent news reports are describing the increases in heroin abuse among American teenagers. These are not urban teens but suburban ones. Heroin rates in large Northeastern cities have always been higher than in suburbs or rural areas but that trend has...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Across US Unregulated Prescribing Means Abuse Of Opioid Drugs Hit All-Time High

One after another, media are waking up to what drug enforcement and police have known for some time. When you lose a large number of people to painkiller overdoses, you have to admit that abuse of opioid drugs hit an all-time high.

DRUG INFORMATION

Study Finds Quarter of Suicide Victims are Intoxicated at Time of Death

After reviewing 58,000 suicide cases from across the US, researchers concluded that alcohol played a definite – and tragic – role in these deaths . While numbers varied by gender and ethnic background, on average, nearly a quarter of those who killed...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Teenage Drug Abuse Reveals the Inadequacy of Drug Education Outreach

There are some signs of improvement in recent surveys of teenage drug abuse, but those improvements are offset by areas in which the situation is worse. When the situation is viewed as a whole, what is obvious is that our young people are not getting the...

DRUG INFORMATION

Will Canada’s New Oxycodone Formulation—OxyNeo—Solve the Prescription Pain Reliever Problem?

After years of negotiating, Purdue Pharmaceutical and the Canadian Government finally settled on a way to improve the abuse and addiction problem that exists with OxyContin. On March 1, 2012, the new formulation called OxyNeo hit the shelves of pharmacies...

DRUG REHABILITATION

Recovery From Addiction Does Not Have to Be Infinite

Everyone around an addicted person sees that he loses more life skills the longer he is addicted. He stops being able to communicate openly, he has secrets – things he does not want anyone to know. He has done things he would never have done were he...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

In Some Regions of US, Heroin Abuse Worse and First Time Users Younger

It was bad enough that millions of US teens were abusing prescription drugs in increasing numbers over the last decade. Now, many of them are switching to heroin at a very young age, younger than ever seen before.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

The Litany of Heroin Deaths in Alabama Illustrates Fatal Dangers of Addiction

The shift from OxyContin to heroin and people trying to get high after getting clean are some of the reasons for the upsurge in deaths in Alabama. In May 2012, the Birmingham News provided some grim insight into the fatal results of addiction.

DRUG INFORMATION

Fake Marijuana May Be Endangering Young People Who Think it is Safe and Natural

A new drug commonly called Spice or K2 poses particular threats to those who might want to abuse marijuana but don’t want to have that drug show up on a drug test administered by an employer or parent.

DRUG INFORMATION

Adolescent Drug Abuse Grows into Addiction Requiring Treatment

America’s young people continue to experiment with drugs in increasing numbers and at increased risk. The annual survey on adolescent drug abuse, the Monitoring the Future survey, shows that while alcohol consumption is declining slightly, more youth...

DRUG INFORMATION

While Crack Cocaine Initiates Have Dropped, this Drug is Still Ruining Lives

Between the mid-1980s and 2002, hundreds of thousands of Americans started using crack cocaine each year. This number finally began to decline and by 2010, fewer than 100,000 people were starting to use crack cocaine each year.