




Facts
Know the risks. Mixing alcohol with medications or illicit drugs is extremely dangerous and can lead to accidental death. For example, alcohol-medication interactions may be a factor in at least 25 percent of emergency room admissions. Keep your edge. Alcohol can make you gain weight and give you bad breath. Look around you. Most teens aren't drinking alcohol. Research shows that 70 percent of people 12-20 haven't had a drink in the past month. Lifetime nonmedical pain reliever prevalence among youths aged 12 to 17 increased from 2001 (9.6 percent) to 2002 (11.2 percent), continuing an increasing trend from 1989 (1.2 percent). Among young adults aged 18 to 25, the rate increased from 19.4 percent in 2001 to 22.1 percent in 2002. The young adult rate had been 6.8 percent in 1992. When charged with driving under the influence, or any crime related to it, impairment due to alcohol or other drugs is never accepted as a defense. Sometimes, it can be used as a partial defense, as is the case when there are murder or voluntary manslaughter charges. In this event, if the driver's impairment level is so severe that his or her intent to kill is affected, then alcohol impairment can be used as a way to lessen the crime to involuntary manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide. However, this defense is rarely successful. When prenatal alcohol exposure already has occurred (i.e., if a woman drinks before she realizes that she is pregnant), or if alcohol exposure is ongoing (i.e., a woman continues to drink during pregnancy), pharmacological intervention may be helpful in countering some of the harmful effects of alcohol. Although these interventions have not yet been studied in humans, animal studies have shown intriguing results. Antioxidants, anti-inflammatory agents (such as prostaglandin inhibitors), and the nutritional co-factor choline are some of the agents that may prove useful in reducing alcohol-induced fetal injury. For example, when young rats with prenatal exposure to alcohol were given supplements of choline, they became less hyperactive and showed decreased memory loss. |
Drug Side Effects
Drug addiction and abuse comes with a heavy price. There are drastic drug side effects associated with drug misuse and abuse. Drug side effects from legal and illegal drugs can range from mild itching to comas and death. In addition to the physical drug side effects mentioned, there are many psychological drug side effects of drug abuse; the most serious being drug addiction and overdose.
Intervention
An intervention is when a group of loved ones and/or a trained intervention counselor meets with the person in need of help for the purpose of breaking down their denial and motivating them to immediately seek drug addiction treatment. Often, individuals in the midst of drug addiction engage in a variety of self destructive behaviors. Although baffling to friends and family members such people generally either aren't aware on a conscious level that they have a drug addiction problem, or even when they know they have a problem they may cling to the false belief that the problem will somehow go away without any outside help. When an intervention is held a moment of clarity is created
for the addict. Most people struggling with the problem of drug or alcohol
addiction will accept help the very day of the intervention.
Drug Overdose
A drug overdose occurs when you consume more drugs than your body can tolerate. Drug users are constantly flirting with the risk of a drug overdose. There is a
fine line between the high they're seeking and serious injury or death. While many victims of drug overdose recover without long term effects, there
can be serious consequences. Some drug overdoses cause the failure of major
organs like the kidneys or liver, or failure of whole systems like the
respiratory or circulatory systems. Patients who survive drug overdose may need
kidney dialysis, kidney or liver transplant, or ongoing care as a result of
heart failure, stroke, or coma. Death can occur in almost any drug overdose
situation, particularly if treatment is not started immediately.
Drug Abuse
Drug abuse is defined as the chronic or habitual use of any chemical substance to alter states of body or mind for other than medically warranted purposes. Drug abuse is a problem which has an effect on people of all income levels,
ages, and stations in life. Quite often the last person to see that there is a
problem is the drug abuser them self. Every year, more and more people become
drug addicts in their pursuit to get "high".
Dependence
Dependence is the compulsive use of a substance despite negative consequences which can be severe; drug dependence is simply excessive use of a drug or use of a drug for purposes for which it was not medically intended. Physical dependence on a substance (needing a drug to function) is not necessary or sufficient to define addiction. There are some substances that don't cause addiction but do cause physical dependence (for example, some blood pressure medications) and substances that cause addiction but not classic physical dependence (cocaine withdrawal, for example, it does not have symptoms like vomiting and chills; it is mainly characterized by depression).
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