More substance abuse treatment centers are providing nicotine replacement therapy to help patients quit tobacco use Tobacco use remains the single most preventable cause of death -- causing about 440,000 deaths per year in the United States. Almost half of these deaths occur among people with mental and substance use disorders.

Dopamine receptor deficiency leads to significant brain changes in response to drinking “This study shows that the effects of chronic alcohol consumption on brain chemistry are critically influenced by an individual’s pre-existing genetic makeup,” said lead author Panayotis (Peter) Thanos, a neuroscientist with Brookhaven Lab and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) … Continue reading More Research

Legal, taxed, regulated and still an enormous illicit industry.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime World Drug Report was released yesterday. The section, "Confronting unintended consequences: Drug control and the criminal black market" is an interesting read. Section 2.1 "Why illicit drugs should remain illicit" squarely and intelligently takes on the pro-legalization argument. It paints a broader picture of the problem than … Continue reading U.N World Drug Report

N.Y.T. article on the relationship between alcohol and suicide. It is interesting to note the suicide rate in the military and the prevalence of alcohol abuse.

I found this article interesting. I am hesitant to compare addiction to a concentration camp or to the financial crisis, but there are some parallels with regard to loss of control. The article helps explain the often elusive and difficult task of accepting the loss of control of AOD use and the powerlessness identified in … Continue reading Control

In his Sunday op-ed piece in the NYT titled “Drugs Won the War” , Kristof joins the growing mass of voices calling for drastic rethinking of our current archaic and ineffective drug policy. He emphasizes three points; the enormous prison population, the empowering of the criminal enterprise and the huge financial cost associated with our … Continue reading Drugs Won