Drug Addiction Info
What Is a Wet Drug?
The term ‘wet drugs’ or ‘dip drugs’ refers to tobacco or marijuana cigarettes dipped in the hallucinogenic anesthetic PCP (phencyclidine or “angel dust”) or formaldehyde-based embalming fluid. The precise ingredients involved in this process […]
How Substance Abuse Can Lead to Dissociation
When Alan was small, his alcoholic father verbally and physically abused him. He never knew when the belt would come down. He lived in fear of those nights when his dad would come home […]
What CRISPR Gene Editing Means for Addiction
By Sara Schapmann There’s no “cure” for drug addiction because it’s a chronic disease and recovery is a lifelong process. But recent research suggests CRISPR gene editing (i.e. clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) […]
The Dangerous Dozen: The 12 Most Addictive Substances Around the Globe
An estimated 23 million Americans and nearly 30 million people worldwide are addicted to a substance—from alcohol to prescription medications to illicit drugs. Addiction is the unintended outcome of misusing or overusing an addictive […]
Drug Assessment: What to Expect
A drug assessment is usually one of the first steps in treatment when entering a drug or alcohol rehab. These evaluations help clinicians develop an appropriate detox and treatment plan based on the types […]
How Is Suboxone Different From Methadone?
Suboxone, which combines the medications buprenorphine and naloxone, is a drug used in medication assisted treatment (MAT) for drug addiction to opiates (like heroin) or opioids (like prescription painkillers). Like suboxone, methadone helps diminish […]
7 Factors That Contribute to Addiction in College Students
Every day newspapers carry heartbreaking stories about young adults lost to drug addiction and drug overdose. Families are making their private tragedies public as a way of educating others about the prevalence of substance […]
As Drug Overdose Deaths in U.S. Reach All-Time High, Addiction Treatment Becomes Essential
Americans have made headlines for having the highest number of drug overdose deaths in U.S. history in a single year. In 2016, it is estimated that more than 60,000 people in the U.S. died […]
Could ‘Amnesty Boxes’ Help Curb Music Festival Drug Overdoses?
Much ado was made about nothing this summer when a video surfaced online of Malia Obama *maybe* smoking a joint at the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago. While there are legal and health consequences […]
10 TV Characters Who Need Rehab
See which 10 television characters would likely be diagnosed with a serious substance use disorder if they really walked among us.
Dating Under the Influence
Most of us know “DUI” stands for “driving under the influence.” But the acronym has another meaning, one with consequences that rival the damage done when one gets behind the wheel impaired. Although dating […]
Addiction May Be as Simple as ‘One-Shot Learning’ Gone Terribly Awry
Groundbreaking research by California Institute of Technology (Caltech) scientists regarding how the brain learns quickly—a process called “one-shot learning”—has turned up insights that may help further explain addiction and dual diagnoses and how treatment […]
The Blame and Shame of Addiction
Addiction touches most lives at some point. Whether you’ve personally faced it or have watched a family member or friend struggle with it, it’s on your radar. Only you know the true impact that […]
Addiction as a Problem of Disordered Intimacy
Two young men who were sexually exploited as children need to own the consequences of their self-destructive behavior.
Why Recreational Drug Use is Never Safe
It is always important to keep an informed perspective on drugs of abuse. The most important is that these are mind-altering substances. Whether the drug is heroin, a prescription narcotic, cocaine, marijuana or ecstasy, […]