Walk into any average-sized middle school or high school classroom in America. You’ll probably be looking at about 25 teenagers. One of those young people has probably already misused cough medicine to get high without realizing the dangers.
A couple of intense news articles in a row raised a question in my mind—is there any good reason to drink alcohol? Is it is a defensible practice? A quick examination of the possible health risks and benefits was revealing.
The young woman was painfully thin, soaking in warm bathtub to relieve the aches of heroin withdrawal. She didn’t understand why her mother had dropped in to see her at college or how her mother knew she was using heroin.
948,000 people used heroin in 2016, a sharp increase from 404,000 in 2002. More than two million are addicted to the abuse of pain medication. For some people, there’s no difference between these two. If they can’t get one kind of drug, the get the...
Until a few years ago, few people had ever heard of the prescription drug fentanyl. But now, not only is fentanyl popular on the illicit market, but other dangerous drugs from this family are making their way into our supplies of street drugs.
One thing is for sure: There is plenty of confusing information circulating about marijuana. One faction claims it’s harmless and even medicinal. The other faction holds the opinion that this drug is dangerous in many ways. Caught in the middle are our...
A new study has reinforced earlier research that alcohol is associated with increased risk of cancer. While the alcohol-cancer connection has been made before, this study was the first one to associate melanoma (skin cancer) with alcohol intake.
Moon Rocks, which is also known as Spice, K2, Skunk or synthetic marijuana, is a laboratory-produced, dangerous, mind-altering drug substance that has exploded in popularity over the last ten years.
In less than two years, there were more than 4,000 calls to national Poison Control centers that involved K2 abuse. As K2 can cause severe anxiety, aggression, threatening behavior and an inability to speak, more and more young people are turning up in...
The small and beautiful State of Vermont has been struggling with one of the country’s worst heroin and opiate painkiller epidemics. In 2014, Governor Peter Shumlin dedicated his State of the State Address to the growing problem.
Anyone into Hop Hop music knows what Purple Drank is. It’s a mixture of prescription cough syrup and Mountain Dew or other soda, usually with some Jolly Rancher candies mixed in and dissolved to give it color and flavor.
Ten years ago, it would have been unthinkable: Pregnant women advising each other to smoke marijuana. But now, take a look at just about any pregnancy forum and you’ll find posts on this topic with strong opinions on each side.
Is marijuana really a gateway drug? That depends on who you ask. If you ask NORML, the pro-marijuana advocacy group, they’ll say no. Asking those who ended up going to rehab for intensely destructive drugs like heroin and cocaine might get you a different...
If there were some kind of competition for Worst Drug, krokodil would surely be in the running. If you have not heard of this drug, is a home-cooked drug that starts with codeine extracted from headache pills. In Russia, where this drug originated, you...
Individuals who are prescribed opioid painkillers by their medical doctor rarely understand how dangerous these substances actually are. In fact, some individuals will illegally share their opioid painkillers with others without realizing the potentially...
For some families, their first discovery that a loved one is using drugs is an all-out battle with someone who’d previously been calm and friendly. Without knowing that drugs are behind the aggressive tirade they’re witnessing, it’s a terrifying...
The past several years have seen an appalling trend, as massive numbers of Americans have become addicted to opiate painkillers.
Did you ever hear that saying “If something sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t”? That could apply to plans to use the party drug ketamine to treat depression.
Some people don’t think they exist Will marijuana cause withdrawal symptoms if a person quits using it like other drugs do? There are many people who claim that there are no withdrawal symptoms and that the drug isn’t addictive. You may have heard...
Over the course of the past few years, more and more people have become aware of a drug known as synthetic marijuana. Also referred to commonly by the brand names Spice and K2, or by the euphemistic “herbal incense.“