The National Council on Alcoholism & Drug Dependence—Orange County in Lake Forest, CA has, among its major goals, to provide information, education, prevention, and referral in eliminating alcohol, tobacco and other drug-related problems in its community. Studies have shown that teens who consistently learn about the risks of alcohol, marijuana and drugs from their parents are 50% less likely to use those substances. To help carry out this goal, the Council has developed a “Parent Toolkit” which is a resource guide to help raise kids free of alcohol/other drug use. It includes a variety of items drawn from several sources. One section is a list of Skill Sets that children need to guard against addiction which includes: • Coping Skills• Social Skills• Life Skills• Emotional Regulation Skills• Critical Thinking Skills• Distress Tolerance Skills Another is a chart of The Resiliency Wheel with elements for Building Resiliency in the Environment and others...

A new study shows that 11 of the 15 cancers responsible for premature death and loss of healthy life years in US residents are closely linked to smoking and alcohol. The report was published online October 18 in the Journal of Preventive Medicine. The loss of healthy years of life is measured as disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). One DALY is the equivalent to loss of 1 year of healthy life and is a combined measure of mortality, incidence, survival, and quality of life. In a story that appeared in Medscape Medical News, the report shows that men and women shared the cancer burden equally, with each group losing 4.9 DALYs of healthy life years. However, the cancer burden was 20% to 30% higher in African Americans than in all races/ethnicities combined. Populations with the next highest DALYs, in descending order, were non-Hispanic whites, Hispanics, and non-Hispanic Asians. The story goes on...

The rate of smoking and drinking is declining among American teens, a survey from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) finds. Last year 9.6 percent of teens ages 12 to 17 said they used alcohol in 2015, compared with 17.6 percent in 2002, The New York Times reports. About 20 percent of teens said they smoked last year, compared with 32 percent in 2002. The survey also found that last year, one out of five adults in American met criteria for a mental illness or substance use disorder, but only 3 percent of them received services. “These are potentially life-threatening, disabling conditions,” SAMHSA Principal Deputy Administrator Kana Enomoto said in a news release. “Our country must redouble its efforts to provide evidence-based prevention and treatment services in every community to ensure all Americans get the help and hope they need to lead healthy and productive lives.”

Stanford University recently announced a new school policy banning large containers of hard alcohol from undergraduate housing and events. Specifically, the new policy bans containers 750 mL and larger of distilled liquor, spirits and hard alcohol -- a standard-size bottle of vodka or whiskey -- for all undergraduates on campus, including students who are over 21. The new policy was announced in Inside Higher Ed . In a statement, Stanford noted that “policy is aimed at reducing the availability and accessibility of hard alcohol and the high-risk behaviors that can accompany heavy drinking, including those that might lead to sexual assault.” According to reports, victims’ advocates argue that the policy -- which comes after the university was the site of a high-profile rape case in which alcohol was consumed -- puts the onus on victims to avoid drinking rather than on would-be attackers to not assault. According to a 2001 survey...

Alcohol is now recognized as the leading preventable cause of birth defects and developmental disorders in the United States. Each year thousands of children are born with life-long disabilities because they were exposed to alcohol prenatally. On September 9th, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism recognizes International Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) Awareness Day as a reminder that there is no “safe” level of drinking while pregnant. First recognized in 1999, International FASD Awareness Day helps raise awareness about the range of conditions that can result from alcohol use during pregnancy.Based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 1 in 8 women drinks during her pregnancy, putting her child at risk for a variety of issues including low IQ, learning disabilities, speech and language delays, behavioral problems, vision and hearing problems, and problems with vital organs, among others. Alcohol can damage the developing fetal...

Teens who have easy access to drugs or alcohol may be at increased risk of substance use in adulthood, a new study suggests. The effects are stronger for white people and males, UPI reports. Researchers from Michigan State University analyzed data from 15,000 teens and young adults. The study found teens with easy access began using drugs and alcohol at a younger age, and were more likely to be using one or both substances later in life. The findings appear in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Substance Abuse. “These findings provide evidence that the availability of illegal drugs and alcohol in the home while growing up is a critical factor in the later use of substances,” lead researcher Cliff Broman said in a news release.

You’ve probably seen warnings on medicines about mixing them with alcohol. Doing so can cause nausea and vomiting, headaches, drowsiness, fainting, or loss of coordination. You can be at risk for internal bleeding, heart problems, and difficulty breathing. Alcohol can make a medication less effective or even useless, or it may make it harmful or toxic to your body. Stay Informed, Stay SafeKnowing what’s in your medications—and how they interact with alcohol—will help keep you safe and your medicines working effectively. Medications typically are safe and effective when used appropriately, and your pharmacist or other health care provider can help you determine which medications interact harmfully with alcohol. You should also read the label on the medication bottle to find out exactly what ingredients a medicine contains. Some medications, including many that can be purchased without a prescription, contain one or more ingredients that can react with alcohol. In particular, sedative-hypnotic...

According to a review that aimed to summarize data from a range of previous studies to evaluate the strength of evidence that alcohol causes cancer, even one glass of wine a day raises the risk of cancer. The research was posted in Mail Online. The main finding was that existing evidence supports the link between alcohol consumption and cancer at seven sites, including the throat, gullet, liver, colon, rectum and female breast. The links were said to be strongest for heavy drinking, but this study suggested that even low or moderate drinking may contribute to a significant proportion of cancer cases because of how common this level of drinking is. The study also suggests there's no evidence of a "safe" level of drinking with respect to cancer. However, it's important to be aware that this review doesn't state how the author identified and assessed the research they've drawn upon. We don't...

A new study suggests adults who were victims of sexual and/or physical abuse in childhood, or who witnessed chronic parental violence, are at greatly increased risk of substance use. Researchers from the University of Toronto found one in five drug-dependent adults and one in six alcohol-dependent adults had experienced childhood sexual abuse, compared with one in 19 in the general population of Canada, PsychCentral reports. One in seven adults who were dependent on drugs or alcohol had been exposed to chronic parental domestic violence, compared with one in 25 in the general population, the researchers report in Substance Use & Misuse. Parental violence was considered chronic if it occurred at least 11 times before the child turned 16, the article notes. “We were surprised that chronic parental domestic violence exposure remained significantly associated with both drug and alcohol dependence, even when we adjusted for childhood maltreatment, depression and most of the...

A survey of college students finds almost 8 percent say they have had drugs put into their drinks, known as “drink spiking.” About 80 percent of victims of drink spiking were female. Women were more likely than men to say sexual assault is a motive for drink spiking, HealthDay reports. Men were more likely to say the reason behind drink spiking was “to have fun.” Other motives students cited were to calm someone down or to make them go to sleep. The survey of more than 6,000 students at three universities found that 1.4 percent said either they had drugged someone, or they knew someone who had drugged another person. “These data indicate that drugging is more than simply an urban legend,” study leader Suzanne Swan of the University of South Carolina said in a news release.The study appears in the journal Psychology of Violence. “Even if a person is drugging...