• Former Miami Dolphin and free agent Jason Ferguson has been suspended by the NFL for the first eight games of 2010. The veteran nose tackle was prhttp://alcoholism.about.com/cs/news/a/drugnews.htmeviously suspended in 1999 after a urine test revealed anabolic steroids in his system. (March 2010)

• One of three quarterbacks in the running to become the starter at the University of Georgia next season has been arrested on charges related to underage drinking in a south Georgia bar. Zach Mettenberger, 18, was charged with underage consumption, possession of alcohol, disorderly conduct, obstruction and two counts of having fake identification. (3/2010)

• Mark Newman, a senior vice president of operations for the New York Yankees, has been charged with driving under the influence in Tampa. Police said Newman refused to take a breath test. He was later released on $500 bail. (3/2010)

• Rap artist DMX, whose real name is Earl Simmons, has been arrested in Phoenix for violating his probation by using drugs. The rapper was in the middle of an 18-month supervised probation term when he was busted. (3/2010)

• Minnesota Timberwolves center Al Jefferson was suspended for two games after he was arrested for driving while intoxicated after Minnesota lost to Portland. “I want to apologize to the entire Timberwolves organization, owner Glen Taylor, my teammates, coaches and Wolves fans everywhere for my actions last night,” Jefferson said in a statement. “I made a very poor decision and I am truly sorry for that.” (2/2010)

Find out more at: http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/news/a/drugnews.htm

On Jan. 9, 2011, the trainer of the Green Bay Packers went through the locker room after the playoff game and announced to some of the players, like center Scott Wells, that he was going to have a drug test the next day. Scott argued that he just passed one and was it really necessary.

No to worry Scott, because he has ample time, 15 hours, to do whatever is necessary to tamper with his sample so that it will be a worthless test… it will come out clean, but the protocol of announcing before hand, even an hour, is highly irregular.

The Olympic Committee tests its athletes immediately, which is the accepted method. Travis Tygart, the head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said: “The world knows you can’t give advanced notice for testing for it to be effective.”

The Center for Drug Free Sport is the contractor that the NFL uses to implement their drug testing policy. They took input from the Player’s Association and the Packers refused comment when question about this dubious procedure.

The Vice President of the NFL, Adolfo Birch, said that this was only done on game days because the players are many times give the next day off and they wanted to be sure that they showed up for the test. He said that he didn’t agree with the advance notice because it compromises the accuracy of the test. He said that at other times the players are given test without notice and that their labs screen for “masking agents” that could be part of the collected samples. Mr. Birch said that this only happens on game day.

This is part of the problem since a player would take a Performance endurance-boosting EPO the morning of the game and know that he isn’t going to be tested until Monday morning, which is ample time for the drug to have be metabolized. (thanks to the Wall Street Journal for this data) 

Being young involves quite a bit of exciting change. There’s the end of high-school, the start of college and some measure of independence, and a whole slew of new experiences.

A recent study conducted by Judith Brooks at NYU School of Medicine has revealed that one of those experiences, smoking marijuana (weed) may be associated with more relationship conflict later in life. What’s amazing about this study is that the drug use here occurred earlier in life for most of the 534 participants, while the relationship trouble was assessed around their mid- to late-twenties.

Could other factors explain this finding?!
Now you may be thinking to yourself that there are a whole lot of other aspects of a person’s life that can affect their relationship quality and their probability of smoking weed in adolescence. You’d be right, but here’s what the researchers in this study ruled out as possible confounds (the scientific name for variables that obscure findings):

• Relationship with parents
• Aggressive tendencies
• adjustment difficulty
• gender
• education

Even after controlling for all of these things, smoking marijuana as a teen still predicted having less harmonious relationships later on in life.

Limitations:
All humor aside, this research is not saying that if you smoke weed you will definitely have a lower quality relationship later. What it does point out is that, on average, given a person with similar social skills, aggressive personality, and education, the one who smoked marijuana around their mid-teens is likely to have a less satisfying relationship.

Citation:

Brook, J. S., Pahl, K., and Cohen, P. (2008). Associations between marijuana use during emerging adulthood and aspects of significant other relationship in young adulthood. Journal of Child and Family Studies, Vol 17, pg. 1-12.

http://www.allaboutaddiction.com/

A report on the troubling trend of prescription and Over-the-counter drugs abuse among the Nation’s Teens:

http://www.theantidrug.com/pdfs/prescription_report.pdf

It has been found in San Diego that drug pushers are being forced to be more creative in the way they package their products. Investigators found that drugs are being disguised in candy wrappers and inside of chocolate bars and other confections.

“Dealers are targeting kids with things like chocolate bars and gumballs filled with marijuana. A so-called strawberry quick is really crystal methamphetamine disguised as a pink, strawberry-flavored powder” According to Channel 10 News in San Diego.

“They take these dangerous drugs and they mask them, they hide them, in something that does not seem dangerous,” said Steve Robertson with the Drug Enforcement Administration.

“It’s more palatable it seems. When it looks like a Snickers bar, a kid’s more likely to eat it because they’re used to eating Snickers bars,” said Tony Bylsma with Narconon.

“They need to find new customers, and they’re trying to drum up business,” said Bylsma. And dealers know they’ve got to hook customers while they’re young.

“If they reach the age of 21 and they haven’t begun to use, then their chances of them using are very, very small,” said Bylsma.

“The fact that they’re targeting younger kids really makes me sick to my stomach,” said recovering drug user Gina Attaguile.

Attaguile said she knows about the dangers all too well. She got hooked on meth when she was just 16, including popcorn-flavored meth. “You actually had like a sensation of melting butter in your mouth,” said Attaguile.

03/15/2008

Also in Southern California, young students are taking over-the-counter cold remedies to alter their consciousness. MyDesert.com reported the following:

The Coricidin HBP Cough and Cold pills look harmless – a pack of 16 could fit in a teenager’s palm – but when abused, they can be deadly.

Students call them “Triple Cs” and say they are offered for sale in local schools. In California, calls to the Poison Control hotline for help with teen overdoses increased 15-fold. And a bill has been introduced in the U.S. Congress to help curtail abuse.

“Because it slowly dissolves – it’s a longer effectiveness for cold symptoms – what kids do is they either take several of them or smash them, and all of it is released at one time,” said Cathy Dunn, California regional manager for the Partnership for a Drug-Free America.

“That could make it deadly.”

The La Quinta High student and two others who were taken to the hospital Tuesday afternoon are serving five days suspension for the incident, said Principal Donna Salazar.

The others took more than 10 pills but less than 25, she said.

“The kids were quite sick,” Salazar said, but added Wednesday that they are “recovering well.”

Salazar said she and other administrators will visit every class this week to educate students about the dangers of abusing over-the-counter medications and the school policies that ban them without a doctor’s note.

Jane Mills, director of child welfare and attendance in Palm Springs Unified School District, said she’s seen more of these incidents in the past five years.

“We’d be foolish to say we don’t know about it. We can’t put our heads in the sand,” Mills said.

Palm Springs Unified students found with over-the-counter medications get on-site counseling and resources, just as students who are caught with illicit drugs, Mills said.

Officials at Coachella Valley Unified School District did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Each Coricidin HBP Cough and Cold pill contains 30 milligrams of dextromethorpan, a cough suppressant found in many household cold medications such as Robitussin and NyQuil.

The Robitussin brand has given rise to the term “robotripping” for its use to a point of altered consciousness.

Commentary:

Even though this site is dedicated to drug rehab and treatment, the only way that this country is going to get close to handling the drug and alcohol problem is to invest in prevention efforts. These efforts should not be the school’s responsibility, but all efforts should be directed and helping parents to talk to their children comfortably and intelligently, without fear tactics. The truth helps all of us by giving us the data we need to make decisions on how we can survive at the highest levels. Children today need to feel comfortable in confronting the reality of what they are being exposed to outside the home and they need to feel that if they make a mistake by buying some pot-infested chocolate bars, that their parents will see their behaviors in light of the age and the pressures to take risk and not to over-react.

We get calls from parents that are becoming hysterical because they drug-tested their teenager and found traces of marijuana use and they are wanting to commit them to long-term treatment immediately.

If you find that your teenager has been using drugs and is lying to you about his/her use, call 1-888-781-7060 and talk to one of our counselors who can help you see how this behavior fits into the bigger picture of his/her life. Sometime, a person as described would need treatment, but more often, it is an opportunity to become an ally of your child and work though the truth about these drugs and their consequences. Our counselors will be able to help you discern whether or not professional intervention is necessary.

Come back to this site regularly for bits from the news and commentary from rehab-drug.net.