http://www.cnsproductions.com/drugeducationblog Addiction and Drug Education Blogs and Podcasts, looking at drug use trends and treatment, and how addiction is tied to the brain as well as the body Tue, 07 Sep 2010 22:29:50 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 2007-2008 service@cnsproductions.com (CNS Productions) service@cnsproductions.com (CNS Productions) Addiction education 1440 http://www.cnsproductions.com/144logo.jpg http://www.cnsproductions.com/drugeducationblog 144 144 A leader in the creation of drug education books and videos for educators, health care professionals and the public --- used by treatment facilities, counselor-training programs, law enforcement, and businesses and industries concerned about drugs in t... Addiction and Drug Education Blogs and Podcasts, looking at drug use trends and treatment, and how addiction is tied to the brain as well as the body addiction, drugs, education, recovery, substance abuse education, prevention, chemical dependency, AOD CNS Productions CNS Productions service@cnsproductions.com no no http://www.cnsproductions.com/drugeducationblog/podcasts/783/ http://www.cnsproductions.com/drugeducationblog/podcasts/783/#comments Tue, 01 Jun 2010 21:49:24 +0000 CNS http://www.cnsproductions.com/drugeducationblog/?p=783 http://www.cnsproductions.com/drugeducationblog/podcasts/783/feed/ 0 00:01:01 Purer, high potency heroin coming from Mexico is causing significant increases in overdose deaths, also doctor shopping and ways for Rx management, and the continuing ... Purer, high potency heroin coming from Mexico is causing significant increases in overdose deaths, also doctor shopping and ways for Rx management, and the continuing issues of addictions by health care professionals Listen to podcast Transcript (edited): CNS:   Heroin and opium are in the news this week.  There is a report about the purity of the current black tar or brown tar heroin coming in mostly from Mexico and how that’s creating a rash of overdoses increasing by many percentages or hundreds of percent the number of deaths occurring from heroin overdose.  In 2000 about 2000 deaths were reported across the U.S. and in 2008 the number is up to 3000, that’s still a significant rise.  And there is another story about pill pushing physicians and more about doctor shopping by drug abusers and the ongoing issue of abuse of prescription drugs by hospital personnel.  So Darryl, how do you view these things and their interactivity? DARRYL:      It’s fascinating…I’m not sure they have a lot of interactivity, but they’re all timely and they’re all expected.  First of all, the heroin story – we’re kind of overdue for another downer epidemic.  We’ve been on this cocaine and methamphetamine thing for awhile, about 30 years, and that’s the limit of how long an upper or downer fad goes.  So, we’re now ready to turn the corner and go to downers.  We see here in Oregon as well as all over the country a rising abuse of heroin – increased heroin overdoses and also an increase of prescription opiates.  So maybe there is a tie-in with prescription drugs and the health care professionals and general public starting to use more prescription drugs, or abusing more prescription drugs.  But the heroin story is an old one.  In terms of overdoses, they are much more linked to the variations in purity of heroin than it is to anything else.  And when we see…we see rashes of them, you don’t see, you know, a steady number of heroin overdoses every year…when we see rashes of them, especially occurring in any municipality or any state or something, it’s usually linked to a pure form of heroin that’s come in.  The latest story…I think was in Montana or something, it could have very well have been California or Oregon or any place else…actually talks about tar heroin.  Tar heroin has always been a more pure form of heroin in terms of actual milligrams of drugs, but less pure in terms of separating all the adulterants and ingredients and things leftover from the processing of opium from the opium poppy into morphine and then morphine into heroin.  It was a Mexican cartel, a third one, out of 1980’s that learned how to much more easily process the morphine that’s in opium to concentrate it without eliminating all the other adulterants and all the plant materials and everything else in opium and then easily converting the morphine that was in that resultant product into heroin by adding acetic acid to it or concentrated vinegar.  And that really is a simplified process, but it also resulted in a much more potent form of heroin because it was hard to cut.  You know, when it’s a finished product, it looks like tar.  It’s tacky, sometimes has a great sheen, black sheen to it and it’s, you know, it’s very hard, so…. CNS:   What do you mix that with? DARRYL:      Yeah, maybe tar or something else.  So, as it got to the street and it was sold in smaller quantities.  It’s in gram quantities instead of a bag of heroin, which is like 300, 400 mg of powder.  But powder you can do anything to, so everybody who touched it wanted some profit on it, or wanted to support their own habit, would step on it.  They would add all kinds of things - instant coffee – if you want brown heroin, they add any kind of white powder to it – quinine, lactose or anything to step on it or dilute it.  Well tar was hard to cut, so it comes in anywhere from 60 to 80% pure or 60 to 80% o Addiction Education / Prevention, Downers, Dr. Darryl Inaba, Heroin & opiates, History and cycles of drug use, In the News, Podcasts, Prescription/OTC drugs CNS Productions no no http://www.cnsproductions.com/drugeducationblog/podcasts/738/ http://www.cnsproductions.com/drugeducationblog/podcasts/738/#comments Fri, 16 Apr 2010 18:20:29 +0000 CNS http://www.cnsproductions.com/drugeducationblog/?p=738 http://www.cnsproductions.com/drugeducationblog/podcasts/738/feed/ 0 00:01:01 Several states are reporting a record number of deaths from opiod overdoses as well as related increase health issues from the misuse of prescription drugs. ... Several states are reporting a record number of deaths from opiod overdoses as well as related increase health issues from the misuse of prescription drugs. People who might start by experimenting with vicodin or oxycodone (OxyContin) can find themselves rapidly becoming addicted, and discover they cannot afford to continue on the pills due to the cost on the streets.  So we are seeing a shift to opiods, especially heroin, fueled by the low prices and increased purity of what is coming in from Mexico and  Afghanistan. We  continue our discussion with a look at the cycle of drug use and what appears to be the beginning of a new period of downer popularity. Listen to podcast Transcript (edited): CNS:    Welcome to the CNS Podcast featuring Dr. Darryl Inaba, research director for CNS Productions. CNS:    Hi and welcome to the CNS Addiction Podcast.  I am Howard LaMere here with Dr. Darryl Inaba as we look at the news this week. A story from the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drug Controls reports that last year they saw the highest number of deaths from drug related incidents ever,  and another news item covers the fact that the governor of Ohio commissioned a new task force aimed at curbing that state’s growing prescription drug abuse problem.  We’ve recently talked about the apparent decline in traditional illicit drugs – cocaine, marijuana and heroin – and the upswing in prescription drugs even though heroin is less expensive than it was back into the 60’s. How does the cycle of use go? DARRYL:    Well, Howard, it’s not just heroin it’s actually all the opiate and opioid drugs that are increasingly being prescribed. Oregon has seen that for the last 5 years or so.   Ohio and Oklahoma are now seeing a massive increase in the diversion of OxyContin, and Vicodin.  I think Oklahoma is the first state to computerize and monitor their entire schedule 2 and maybe even schedule 3 drugs – controlled substances that are prescribed in the state – to see where they go and how they are being handled.   But this all hearkens back to our prediction years ago - we noticed this strange phenomena of 10 to 30 year cycles in which the prominent drugs of abuse and/or those catching the general public’s attention through the media move back and forth between uppers and downers. CNS:    It seems like meth has at least stabilized for the time being. DARRYL:    Right.  We’ve been in an “upper” cycle since the 1980’s when crack cocaine exploded and that was followed by Ice and crystal meth through into the 2000’s and if we’re right on track with past cycles, we’re due to go into a heavy “downer” cycle where the major drug abuse will involve sedating drugs, drugs that depress the brain, numb the senses and induce sleep.  Prescription drugs are sort of leading the way with the comeback of opiate abuse - Vicodin, OxyContin, codeine and the other opiates - and what we’re going to now see, is a growing increase of use of heroin.  The last time I looked, OxyContin was selling for 50 dollars for an 8 mg pill and Vicodin was selling for 25. Because of the influx of heroin from various sources and our inability to stop drugs from entering our borders, the price is down to 5 dollars - a nickel bag, you know, which was unheard since back in the 1960’s and 50’s. We had “nickel bags” but then they were 10 dollars and then 25 dollars, but now because it is readily availability and the new growing populations of opiate abusers, heroin is back on the radar. Heroin and other opiates are tremendously addictive – causing a very rapid onset of addiction.  I do not think addiction is as quick as nicotine, which is probably the fastest, but the path from experimentation to full scale addiction is rapid. Heroin lends itself to injection and very quickly we have people injecting opiates as a form of use, more so than with cocaine, methamphetamine or other drugs.  So Downers, Dr. Darryl Inaba, Heroin & opiates, History and cycles of drug use, In the News, Podcasts, Prescription/OTC drugs CNS Productions no no http://www.cnsproductions.com/drugeducationblog/uppers/731/ http://www.cnsproductions.com/drugeducationblog/uppers/731/#comments Fri, 09 Apr 2010 21:41:30 +0000 CNS http://www.cnsproductions.com/drugeducationblog/?p=731 http://www.cnsproductions.com/drugeducationblog/uppers/731/feed/ 0 00:01:01 A look at mephedrone or MCAT -  a  synthetic verson of the eastern African khat plant - is  a strong stimulant, with reports coming from ... A look at mephedrone or MCAT -  a  synthetic verson of the eastern African khat plant - is  a strong stimulant, with reports coming from UK, where it has become very popular, of  serious overdose issues.   Prescription drugs misuse and abuse continues as an escalating problem especially among young people - and the increased possibility of addiction to opiod pain medication leading to heroin use -- made more pronounced by the flooding of the market with high potency and low cost heroin coming in from Mexico and Afghanistan. Also more on the implications of legalizing marijuana. Listen to podcast Transcript (edited): CNS:   Hi and welcome once again to the CNS Addiction Podcast.  I am Howard LaMere with Dr. Darryl Inaba.  Looking at the recent news of addiction, drug use and dependency, I see a lot of stories about things we’ve talked about recently, like the addicting qualities of eating, especially high fat/high flavor items like bacon, chocolate, potato chips and desserts, a big story just came out in Scientific American (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=addicted-to-fat-eating) about that.  Also the continuing story on legalizing marijuana in California where the question will be on the ballot – what will that mean to the people using it medicinally, the people growing it and the government.  If it passes in California, it’s still going against federal law. We’ll have to wait to see what happens. Let’s talk more about prescription drugs and some of the substances that are being abused and causing serious illnesses.  There are some stories about a sharp upturn in the last few years especially among adolescences in the use of pharmaceuticals and what that leads to. Kids start on the OxyContin from their parent’s drug cabinet and because it is such an expensive drug, they end up substituting heroin. The other interesting item out of the UK is this new craze going on with something called MCAT. DARRYL:      It is mephedrome and it’s been around for awhile. It is related to khat which East Africans have chewed for generations, maybe up to 1000 years. The shrub produces leaves which must be picked fresh because the (drug substance) cathinone is destroyed by the environment within 24 hours.  So because it was found Africa and the leaves needed to be fresh – it has never been a big item here. But what happened in the United States in the early 90’s was the development of a synthetic version called “methcathinone” by putting a metho group on it, a CH3 group on the apparent compound cathinone, it became more stable in the environmental and it could be sold off as a pill or powder. CNS:   Is it just as strong? DARRYL:      Yes, they claim it was just as strong.  Pharmacologists say it wasn’t as strong, but what we’re seeing now in Europe is a number of deaths related to its (methcathione) use.  We don’t see many deaths associated with methamphetamine abuse, so it must be that the methcath is much stronger than even methamphetamine.  But it’s growing there (in Europe) and its potential for abuse here stems from the fact that there are no laws that prohibit methcathinone.  So, like many other new drugs, it’s finding its way on the internet and you can buy it. I’ve also heard of people in this country gaining access on the internet to fresh cut khat leaves, and have heard that the chemical properties really don’t get destroyed within 24 hours, so it can be cut and shipped and people can get high.  On a personal note - Amnesty International contacted me once and asked me to detoxify a person from Somalia who was trying to come into the United States to be with his family, but he was a known khat addict so the US wouldn’t let him in.  I said,” Sure we can detoxify him.”   We detoxify methamphetamine users so we had it all set up and I never heard from the guy.  He never showed up for treatment.  About 5 years later he gets busted for Decriminalization / Legalization, Dr. Darryl Inaba, Heroin & opiates, In the News, Marijuana, Podcasts, Prescription/OTC drugs, Uppers CNS Productions no no http://www.cnsproductions.com/drugeducationblog/podcasts/477/ http://www.cnsproductions.com/drugeducationblog/podcasts/477/#comments Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:21:58 +0000 CNS http://www.cnsproductions.com/drugeducationblog/?p=477 http://www.cnsproductions.com/drugeducationblog/podcasts/477/feed/ 0 00:01:01 Our addiction radio podcast this week looks at news of increased coca growing in Bolivia and its complications, the War on Drugs and reports of ... Our addiction radio podcast this week looks at news of increased coca growing in Bolivia and its complications, the War on Drugs and reports of more opium being grown in Afghanistan on less acres,  and differences in efforts at supply reduction vs. new ideas on demand reduction. Transcript of podcast (click to listen): CNS: Hello and once again welcome to the internet radio addiction pod cast from CNS. I’m Howard LaMere here with Dr Darryl Inaba and Darryl … a variety of interesting things in the news starting off, I was watching John Stewart show last night and there was a comment about cocaine - nine out of ten dollar bills or, US currency apparently have cocaine residue on them, which is really amazing. Darryl: That, that’s actually, that’s actually a very old story and one of my favorite stories that dates back to the peak of the cocaine epidemic and the starting of freebase and all that back in the mid to late 1980’s and it does lead to the questions about cocaine. Behind all this meth and ecstasy, and heroin increasing, prescription drugs, you know in a way people have forgotten a little bit about cocaine. But cocaine is also on the rise I believe in, in the United States and in the rest of the world. The DEA and the office of National Drug Control Policy made the war on drugs (into a) war on cocaine and that was under General Barry McCaffrey and may have put in a lot of money and put all their efforts not at all drugs, but they said lets really concentrate on cocaine and they went to Columbia, got the government to basically outlaw any cocaine. Cocaine became outlawed in Columbia the largest growing region and, and people forget that the South Americans from the Incas on down have a real cultural tradition of chewing coca leaves. CNS: Hundreds of thousands of years. Darryl: Yeah, and they, they pick the leaves and they don’t extract the cocaine from it they just chew the leaves with some sort of alkaloid. I really like it because in the old days with the Incas they used to mix it with a bird crap and strangely enough I think there’s a lot of evidence that show that, that was a lot healthier than, than what they evolve into and that’s mixing it with lime or soda-lime or mixing it with ashes, now they mix burnt palm leaves that they burn down to ashes and they mix with it, and that the guano, the bat crap was actually organic. It was actually balanced, it was an actual alkaline substrate that in, in your mucus membranes it didn’t have that much damage to your gums and to your teeth and things like that where as now days using much more hygienic, they say and sterile things they’re getting all kinds of denture problems and gum problems from chewing the coca leaves. But this is as you say, for thousands of years it’s been part of the culture.  And to think that we can just eradicate it overnight just by making it illegal in Columbia and that people won’t want to do it anymore and not that I’m saying it’s addicting it’s just like coffee or um, it’s, it’s a cultural… CNS: Norm. Darryl: People chew coca leaves and they don’t go crazy, they don’t rob other people for it, they don’t have paranoid dilutions, they don’t crave it when they’re taken into the armed services for six or eight years to serve as, as a citizen and they don’t go through withdrawal or anything. So it, it has been a culturally  accepted norm thing but eradicating it for Columbia, stimulated Bolivia and the Bolivian President Evo Morales came in, he avowed that this, this is such an important thing to my people we are going to be, I am going to be more liberal and allow coca growing especially targeted for commercial purposes for the chewing of the leaves. I think he chewed the leaves with Oliver Stone on TV just to show, you know, how he’s behind that and it’s not a major addiction issue. For shampoos some of the ingredients, are good in shampoo, and for even tooth paste and things l Decriminalization / Legalization, Demand reduction, Dr. Darryl Inaba, Heroin & opiates, In the News, Podcasts CNS Productions no no