Marijuana May Increase Psychosis Risk

Using marijuana seems to increase the chance of becoming psychotic, researchers report in an analysis of past research that reignites the issue of whether pot is dangerous.
The new review suggests that even infrequent use could raise the small but real risk of this serious mental illness by 40 percent.

More...

Ohio Bill Would Let Some Felons Hide Their Records From Employers

A controversial bill working its way through the Ohio Legislature would help state residents with multiple felony convictions hide their criminal records from prospective employers.
Opponents said the initiative is unfair to employers, who fear they would not have all necessary information when making hiring decisions. But supporters of the proposed "second chances'' bill said it would stem recidivism rates and help those who have shown they can live law-abiding lives find work beyond minimum wage jobs. Prospective applicants must go five years without being arrested before they are eligible to have their records sealed.

More...

Trail Brings Akron's AA History Alive

Families can explore the varied history of Akron — from the Portage Path Indian Trail to the city’s industrial presence to the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous — through the city’s second History Trails project.

More...

Star Trek's Synthehol Now Possible

Synthehol is a science-fictional substitute for alcohol that appears on the Star Trek:The Next Generation television series. It allows drinkers to experience all of the enjoyable, intoxicating effects of alcohol without unpleasant side-effects like hangovers.
Professor David Nutt, a psychopharmacologist at the University of Bristol in the UK, believes that there is no scientific reason why it cannot be created now.

More...

Hey Big Spender, $210,000 Drinks Bill

A Middle Eastern businessman spent over $210,000 in a five-hour, champagne- and vodka-fuelled spending spree in a London nightclub at the weekend.
Fraser Donaldson, a representative of Crystal, a club favored by Prince Harry, said in 20 years working in the industry it was the biggest bill he'd seen from one customer.

More...

Smoking Ban Is Proposed in Drug Centers

New York would become the first state requiring all addiction treatment programs to help their clients quit smoking under a proposed rule to be announced today.
Pointing to the high number of tobacco-related deaths among former addicts, the state’s Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Service said that by July 24 of next year, all facilities treating drug or alcohol addiction would have to have programs in place to encourage clients to stop smoking. Under the plan, all treatment centers would have to be smoke-free, and staff members would also have to abide by the ban.

More...

Distinguishing a Budding Pedophile From Kids With Real Boundary Problems?

In the early 1980s, a therapist named Robert Longo was treating adolescent boys who had committed sex offenses. Their offenses ranged from fondling girls a few years younger than they were to outright rape of young children. As part of their treatment, the boys had to keep journals — which Longo read — in which they detailed their sexual fantasies and logged how frequently they masturbated to those fantasies. They created “relapse-prevention plans,” based on the idea that sex-offending is like an addiction and that teenagers need to be watchful of any “triggers” (pornography, anger) that might initiate their “cycle” of reoffending. And at the beginning of each group session, the boys introduced themselves much as an alcoholic begins an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting: “I’m Brian, and I’m a sex offender. I sexually offended against a 10-year-old boy; I made him lick my penis three times.”

More...

Overweight Kids face stigma Comparable to Cancer

Overweight children are stigmatized by their peers as early as age 3 and even face bias from their parents and teachers, giving them a quality of life comparable to people with cancer, a new analysis concludes.
Youngsters who report teasing, rejection, bullying and other types of abuse because of their weight are two to three times more likely to report suicidal thoughts as well as to suffer from other health issues such as high blood pressure and eating disorders, researchers said.
"The stigmatization directed at obese children by their peers, parents, educators and others is pervasive and often unrelenting," researchers with Yale University and the University of Hawaii at Manatoa wrote in the July issue of Psychological Bulletin.

More...

Police Find Cocaine in Off-key Piano

When a grand piano played an off-key note, drug police in this Caribbean port opened it up and found some 560 pounds of cocaine stuffed inside.
The piano was part of a shipment of household items originating in the capital of Bogota and destined for Panama, police said in a statement Monday.
Authorities were investigating, but had made no arrests. The drugs' value was estimated at $5 million.

More...

Need a Cigarette and a Cocktail? Just Pop a Pill Instead

Smoking and drinking are two vices that often go hand in hand (one hand clutching a drink while the other holds a smoke). A decade ago, a study in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol indicated that as many as 85 percent of heavy drinkers also light up. Smokers have various aids to help them quit the deadly habit, including varenicline, a drug manufactured by Pfizer that blocks nicotine from releasing the pleasure-associated neurotransmitter dopamine. Now new studies in rats show that it also blocks a craving for alcohol.

More...

Workers Drinking Heavily to Relieve Job Stress

STRESSED workers are drinking harmful amounts of alcohol to get over the tension of the job, with hospitality workers at the top of the list.
Researchers at the National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction at Flinders University, say they are concerned about an Australian workplace culture of employees overindulging to deal with stress.

More...

Drinking Will No Longer be an Excuse for Crime

Criminals will no longer be able to blame alcohol for their offending under new laws being planned by ministers determined to tackle drunkenness and violence.
Kenny MacAskill, the Justice Secretary, will introduce legislation to state that being intoxicated cannot be used in mitigating pleas for the defence.

More...

Youths Beaten Up for Drinking and Driving

Three drunken youths, who were driving a car in a reckless manner on VIP Road in Karelibaug, were caught by the public and beaten up before being handed over to the police late on Saturday night. This is the third incident in recent times, where the public has taken law into their hands.

More...

NCSU Freshmen to Take Alcohol Quiz

N.C. State University will require incoming freshmen under 21 to take a three-hour alcohol awareness exam before starting classes this fall.

More...

Addiction Rewrites Brain Circuits

Cocaine addicts have trouble making judgments about rewarding and punishing behaviors, researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine found.
“There’s a misconception that addiction is just a problem with your personality or character or you just need to suck it up,” said Dr. Geoffrey Schoenbaum, assistant professor of anatomy and neurobiology and lead researcher on the study. “It’s clear to us now that in people who are addicted, the brain has really been altered in fundamental ways.”

More...

Alcohol Abuse, Addiction Hits 3 of 10 Americans

Three out of ten Americans suffer some form of alcohol abuse or alcohol addiction during their lives, according to a new study of drinking and dependency.
Some 12.5 percent of more than 43,000 people surveyed reported having succumbed to alcohol dependence during their lives, including 3.8 percent who had had the problem during the year prior to the 2001-2002 survey.

More...

Inroads Against Drug Trade Can be Reinforced by Addiction Treatment

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime presented a sobering perspective of global drug trafficking and addiction of all types this week. This annual report suggested that production and use aren't getting worse, while law enforcement and interception are making a dent in cocaine and heroin distribution.

More...

Jesuits Hold Three-day Conference on Drug Addiction

Another conference on Ireland's drug problems is due to get underway in Dublin today.
The Jesuits have organised the three-day meeting on drug addiction in response to bishops' calls earlier this year for a national debate on the issue.
The event is aimed at finding more effective ways of dealing with the problem.
Yesterday, a different conference discussed growing ways to tackle cocaine use in Ireland and the harm associated with the drug.

More...

Can Friday Classes Stop Drinking?

MAKE SURE your favorite college student signs up for an early Friday class and you might save him, or her, a few hangovers, say psychology researchers at the University of Missouri in Columbia
A light Friday class schedule may contribute to weekendlike drinking that begins on "thirsty Thursday," said Phillip Wood, professor of quantitative psychology in the College of Arts and Science's Department of Psychological Sciences.

More...

California Commits to Fixing Prison Addiction Programs

It would be difficult to imagine a more scathing indictment of a government program than the Inspector General's report earlier this year on California's services for prison inmates addicted to alcohol and drugs.
The programs, the report said, were almost a complete failure. There was no evidence that they were preventing inmates from committing new crimes after their release from prison. And remarkably, inmates who went through some of the programs were returning to prison at higher rates than criminals who got no treatment at all.

More...

Study: Pill Curbs Alcohol Addiction

Researchers in the US claim a pill designed to stop people from smoking may also curb alcohol addiction.

More...

Addiction Fuels Prostitution

Drug addiction has a tight grip, and there's no place where it is more evident than in Charlotte's prostitution industry.

More...

Yale Hosts Historic Conference of Food & Addiction

In what is believed to be the first meeting of its kind, Yale University is convening nearly 40 experts on nutrition, obesity, and addiction on July 9th and 10th to discuss the controversial topic of food and addiction.

More...

Does Food 'Addiction' Explain Explosion of Obesity?

Obesity has long been blamed on weak willpower, overeating, genetics and lack of exercise. Now scientists increasingly are seeing signs that suggest there may be an additional contributor: food addiction.

More...

AA Co-Founders House NY Landmard

BEDFORD HILLS, N.Y., July 3 — The house tour was nearing an end in this Westchester County hamlet, in a region known for its historic sites, from pre-Revolutionary grist mills to Gilded Age mansions. But as the visitors entered the austere pine-paneled office that once belonged to Bill Wilson, a co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, the tour suddenly became a pilgrimage.

More...