In 2017, President Trump declared a national public health emergency in response to the growing opioid crisis in America. While addiction rates among all psychoactive substances have not increased much in the past ten years, opioid use and fatal overdoses have skyrocketed. Deaths from prescription opioids quadrupled between 2014 and 2017, demonstrating the severity of …
Often times substance addiction is not the only issue a person battles. At times there is a secondary issue at play, which is why it is so important to be properly diagnosed upon entering rehab. There are a number of mental disorders that can compound addiction. It may have led to the addiction or may …
What is the difference between opiate and opioid? The simple explanation for what the difference is that one is derived directly from opium, while the other is synthetic. The opioid epidemic has led to a record-breaking number of fatal overdoses and a heightened concentration on how to treat these addictions. Overall, 2.1 million Americans suffered …
The opiates’ definition is any naturally occurring or lab-produced medication made from opium. Opiates can include both prescription medications, like oxycodone and OxyContin, and illicit narcotics, like heroin. The opiate epidemic has led to fatal heroin overdoses quadrupling since 2010, with two-thirds of all fatal overdoses in 2016 alone involving opiates. In 2017, a record-setting …
Drug addiction treatment centers are asked many questions by people who are considering seeking treatment for themselves or a loved one. Many of these questions come from some myths about drugs and addiction. Often these drug myths stop a person from seeking help when they need it. Let’s take some time to explore the most …
‘Molly’ is a popular club drug. It’s the crystal or powder form of MDMA, the main ingredient in ecstasy. Ecstasy or ‘Es’ comes in pill form and may be cut with harmful chemicals or other drugs such as amphetamine (‘speed’). Molly, however, is meant to be pure MDMA. People selling and taking Molly may believe …
What are the presidential candidates revealing about how they’ll handle our nation’s drug policy issues? It’s a crucial question.
Delay discounting is a term psychologists and psychiatrists use to describe the human tendency to favor tangible short-term rewards over potentially greater long-term rewards. The same term applies to the human tendency to weigh obvious short-term losses against potential long-term losses. In a study slated for publication in 2014 in the journal Addictive Behaviors, researchers …
How Does Delay Discounting Affect the Behavior of Cocaine Addicts? Read More »
Carl Hart was starting his career as a neuroscientist and beginning a professorship at Columbia University when he first heard reports of the crack epidemic that was supposedly wreaking havoc across black America. Motivated by a desire to help the community he came from, Hart began researching drug addiction and ways to help people. But …
Neuroscientist Carl Hart Offers Radical Take on War on Drugs Read More »
When it comes to sentencing drug offenders, research indicates that addiction treatment is often a better option than jail time, both in effectiveness and cost. But is court-ordered treatment and forced rehab the answer?