Irresponsible Drug Use the Common Theme

I was asked to say a few words about drug use, but not in the positive. Well darn-it, how could I resist? I'm guessing the request comes on the heels of my most recent posts on medical marijuana, of which I make no secret that I am in favor. But I wish to be very clear that my views on medical marijuana are not a condonation of recreational or irresponsible drug use. On the contrary, it's precisely because I am so against the irresponsible and dangerous use of drugs that I advocate medical marijuana. When compared to the heavy-duty narcotics and other pain pills that are doled-out indiscriminately by doctors, believe me, medical marijuana is a blessing.

First and foremost, I am a former drug abuser, so I full well know what it means to be addicted. And I also know the down-side to heavy and/or long-term drug use. I have done it all, you name it, but alcohol and narcotics were my main weakness. I was also addicted to nicotine. For twenty years I smoked a pack a day.

My experience with drugs and alcohol were not all bad, though--I certainly learned a lot. If nothing else I came to understand how drugs can consume your life, how they can distort your view of the world, and how they could damage relationships. I got to experience how they could kill your motivation and prevent you from achieving your full potential. I was also exposed to a dangerous, seedy side of life that was full of mistrust, deceit, theft and violence, not to mention legal ramifications that could end a life of freedom by landing you behind bars for a long time. Yeah, lots of disadvantages to drugs; but for me it was a valuable education that will probably serve me, and hopefully others, for the rest of my life.

Despite medical marijuana being classified a schedule 1 controlled substance--high potential for abuse, lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision, and no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States (not entirely true, but that's the definition)--it does have definite benefits. In my lifetime, I have seen it help HIV+ men keep from wasting away by giving them an appetite when they had none. I have seen it help cancer patients. One elderly couple, who are in their 90s, and whom I treat chiropractically, have shared their stories with me about the unrelenting pain they feel on a daily basis due to the cancer they each have; and how not even the Fentanyl* patches their doctors put them on would not bring relief. Only medical marijuana did that. That's right--these people, in their 90s, could only find relief from the intense pain they felt 24/7 by smoking a joint. They were not hippies; they had never had marijuana in their lives until they were sick with cancer. And it helped them. Duh!

Listen, drugs in and of themselves are not bad. They are helpful, even necessary, in many instances. I've needed the help of pain killers. An attack of acute appendicitis in 2006 showed me just how useful morphine could be (although not 100% effective, and highly addictive). Whether antibiotics, sedatives, pain meds or steroids, each have a short-term use; but too many doctors give them to people long-term, as an easy yet temporary fix, instead of looking for real, long-term and self-directed solutions.  And it's this that leads to serious problems.


Let me ask you a question. What do the following people have in common:

• Jimi Hendrix, John Belushi, Sid Vicious, River Phoenix and DJ AM?

They all overdosed on recreational drugs.

And how about these people:

• Elvis Presley, Keith Moon, Anna Nicole Smith, Heath Ledger and Michael Jackson?

They all overdosed on doctor prescribed drugs.

In both groups the common theme was an irresponsible use of the drugs. So regardless of whether a drug is illicit or legal, using it carelessly is foolish, and it can lead to illness or death.

That doesn't mean drugs are bad by any means. Worshiping and relying on drugs, however, is unwise. And that goes for medical marijuana too. But if a substance can help cancer patients, people with HIV and people that suffer from chronic pain, find relief, and maybe even help them survive (by increasing appetite), and that substance has low-risk side effects when compared to harder drugs like narcotics, then shouldn't we use them? Shouldn't we at least study them to see what medicinal benefits they might contain and do our best to understand them?

That's not me condoning drug use. I have lived both a life of drugs and a drug-free one--and I can say without a doubt that I prefer being straight, sharp and of clear mind. But I don't knock recreational drug use, either, if the user can do so responsibly. However, rehab centers and city morgues are filled with people who couldn't, and frankly, that could be you one day.  So if you value your life, it's better to stay clean.

That, however, is the farthest I will go with wagging a finger at society, because I know we can't both live in a culture where taking prescription drugs is considered 'normal', and expect others to not do so recreationally. That would be a fantasy.

*Fentanyl is a schedule 2 controlled substance--high potential for abuse, currently accepted medical use in treatment in U.S., and currently accepted medical use with severe restrictions. Abuse of the drug or other substances may lead to severe psychological or physical dependence (not true of marijuana).  Medical cannabis (currently a schedule 1--see above) would be more appropriately placed in this category, and probably most appropriately as a schedule 3.

Teen Girls Dumbed Down by Binge Drinking

Teens and binge drinking ain't nothing new--but understanding the ways in which heavy drinking affects teenage females is.  So says a recent study looking into the effects of alcohol on the teen brain.  Researcher at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and Stanford University found that binge drinking--four or more drinks for women, and five or more for men--hits the brains of teenage girls harder than it does teen boys.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies were conducted on 95 teen volunteers in the San Diego area, including 40 binge drinkers and 55 controls.  The volunteers self-reported how much and how often they had tied one on in their lifetime, and how much alcohol they'd consumed in the three months prior to the study.

The teens performed a spatial working memory task while the researchers observed brain activation using fMRI. Spatial working memory is the ability to perceive the space around you and then remember and work with that information, which could affect such tasks as driving, sports, and using a map.  Previous studies have shown spatial working memory to be impaired by heavy drinking.

The results showed eight different regions of the brain in teenage girls that were affected by the heavy drinking...but here's the kicker: The detrimental cognitive effects lasted well beyond the study period.

"Long after a young person--middle school to college--enjoys recovery from a hang-over, this study shows that risk to cognitive and brain functions endures," said Edith Sullivan, a professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. 

Comparatively, teen boys had only four regions of the brain related to spatial activity affected by binge drinking.  These results showed that developing girls are more susceptible to neurological effects of alcohol. Some potential reasons are that girls' brains develop two years ahead boys, hormonal differences, and the lowered amount of alcohol needed to affect women due to slower rates of metabolism, higher body fat ratios, and lower body weight.

These are frightening results since 3 in 10 American teens in the final year of high school reported binge drinking in the past month.  Especially scary for teen girls and their parents.  As peer pressure increases, so do the risks young ladies take by hitting the bottle hard.  And because of the lingering effects, the detriments may affect their studies, their safety and their health.

No easy answer to this problem as we were all young once.  My personal feeling is that I feel immense gratitude for the numerous stories on the nightly news of teen accidents, celebrity overdoses and drunken car crashes, teen sexting screw-ups, and other SNAFUs.  It's what I'll use, hopefully, to deter my own daughters from taking up teen binge drinking.  But the truth is you never know what they're going to do.  I'll mention these results to my girls when the time comes, and just hope they have other ways of expressing their youthful energy.

Blackout in a Can

Oh yeaaahhhh...Four Lokos, beatches.  Ya heard?  Four Lokos is the stuff: alcohol and caffeine--a goofy combination.  And goofy is what you'll be when you drink the Four Lokos.  23 ½-ounces of fruity malt liquor, 12% alcohol, liquid speed and sugar--woo-boy, boing!  Can't say it better than the official Facebook page:

"you will remember absolutely nothing in the morning, probably acted like a slut, and possibly tried to fight someone. It's a four loko thing..."

This is no joke...it's Four Lokos, mang.  It's like drinking four beers at a time.  Double fist it, brah!  Yeh boyeee....

Nine Central Washington University freshmen were hospitalized after an Oct. 8th party, where when cops arrived they found "three girls sprawled on a bed, a barely conscious young man was being dragged out of the backyard, a girl was prostrate on the bathroom floor and three young people were splayed senseless in a car outside."

Many CWU students couldn't believe it either; they thought that, perhaps, roofies were involved.  They just couldn't believe that this motley scene might be tied to the Four Lokos, which is also known as, the "blackout in a can."  The students hospitalized had blood alcohol levels ranging from .123 to .35.  Doh!  Anything over .30 can lead to alcohol poisoning and death.  That's right, G...don't be a sissy, pound that twit.

For $2.50 a can???  Man, you can't get that drunk since Night Train.  Yeh boyeee....

But not everybody's laughing.  A Washington, D.C.-based consumer advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest sued Anheuser-Busch and Miller Brewing Co., who eventually agreed to take their own "energy beverages" off the market.

As pointed out by the L.A. Times:

"That lawsuit cited a study by the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, which found that young drinkers of so-called alcospeed beverages were more likely to binge drink, become injured, ride with an intoxicated driver or be taken advantage of sexually than drinkers of conventional alcoholic drinks."

Although their aren't any studies yet showing the effects of alcosopeed on the body, some believe the combination of alcohol and caffeine gives young drinkers a false sense of alertness, enticing them to drink more and more, leading to potentially dangerous blood alcohol levels.  The FDA will push for studies before setting out regulations on the alcospeed.

But don't think for a second that Phusion Projects LLC of Chicago--manufacturers of Four Lokos--are not abhorred by the "irresponsible use" of their energy beverages.  Company officials said,

"The events in central Washington this month were inexcusable. And most would expect our company to disagree with recent decisions to ban our products from college campuses… We do not. We agree with the goals that underlie those sentiments," 

Aw mang, don't pull my Four Lokos...pleeease!!!  How am I gonna git "F"ed up for two-fifty, mang?  Guess I'll have to go back to robotripping.

Too Strict, Too Indulgent Parenting Breeds Heavy Drinkers

When it comes to influencing your kids away from heavy drinking, is indulgent parenting better than being strict?  According to a new study, neither parenting style will keep kids from experimenting with booze; but as it turns out, one approach can prevent your children from becoming heavy drinkers, and that's warm parenting.

Based on a survey of almost 5,000 teens aged 12 to 19, researchers at BYU found that parents that were both warm with their children and rigorous about wanting to know where their teen was spending time and with whom were less likely to have teens that engaged in heavy drinking (defined as more than five drinks in a row).  The findings are being published in the July issue of Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

Indulgent parents, those that were warm but lacked holding their children accountable had teens that were three times more likely to engage in heavy drinking, while strict parents had twice the chance.

"While parents didn't have much of an effect on whether their teens tried alcohol, they can have a significant impact on the more dangerous type of drinking," said one of the study's authors, Stephen Bahr, a professor in BYU's College of Family, Home and Social Sciences.

Another of the study's authors, John Hoffmann advises parents to, "realize you need to have both accountability and support in your relationship with your adolescent. Make sure that it's not just about controlling their behavior--you need to combine knowing how they spend their time away from home with a warm, loving relationship."

Word, Professor Hoffmann--a healthy counterbalance of disciplinarian and pussy cat--purrrrrrrr--that's the way to influence best.  Too soft leads to mollycoddled cretins who don't take their parents seriously, while too strict leads to rebels without a cause.  Either one of these parenting styles makes children more likely to get wasted.  And why not?  They know they are either going to get their butts kicked regardless, or be let off the hook as usual, so why not push the limits?

No doubt heavy drinking among teens, which can easily lead to problem drinking as adults, is something that every parent would be wise to be on top of.  As always, good sense is in the center, and knowing what your kid is doing, when and with whom is the best approach to showing how much you care.  And a good ol' arse-whoopin' (with a loving smile and hug) goes a long way.  Really, they'll thank you for it one day.

You Control Your Health

Time to get serious, people. Forty percent of all cancers are preventable. Listen up: 4.8 million cancer cases do not have to happen. Get it? You are in charge of your health. Health is NOT random. If you are living by that philosophy, you're sunk.

Is there a health care crisis? You bet. The crisis lies in the idea that you are not responsible for your own health, or your health care. Forty percent of all cancers are preventable. This from a report by the Geneva-based International Union Against Cancer (UICC). As UICC president David Hill says, "If there was an announcement that somebody had discovered a cure for 40 percent of the world's cancers, there would quite justifiably be huge jubilation." No kidding.

OK, so what can you do? First, let's look at the top three cancers:

• Breast (women)/Prostate (men)
  
• Lung
  
• Colon and rectum

What can you do today that can help prevent these cancers tomorrow?

The first thing you want to do is observe your diet. Minimize processed foods, or better yet, get rid of them altogether. Whole and natural is best. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Take your vitamins. Drink lots of water (two liters per day, minimum).

Next, minimize or quit smoking. Minimize smoking? Exactly, most people that smoke can't do so moderately, so kick it altogether. Try breathing clean air, too. How about an air purifier? Don't minimize their usefulness. If you own a home in Los Angeles, contact me, I've got a guy that can set you up.

Minimize alcohol, recreational drug, and pharmaceutical drug consumption. These substances are toxins to the body. Stress the liver and kidneys and you'll be increasing your cancer risk (among other illnesses) exponentially. Alcohol can cause many different forms of cancer--2-4% of all cancers to be exact--including esophageal, stomach, liver, breast, colon and others. And don't underestimate the drugs your doctor gives you; they're poisons, too.

Maintain a healthy weight. I'm not one to lay on the guilt trips, so simply put, if you are overweight, just lower it by something. My dad dropped from 225 to 190. He's still about 25 pounds overweight, but that drop he made was significant to his health.

Exercise regularly. C'mon now, if you are not doing this you are missing out on so many health benefits that, well...you've got nobody to blame but...OK, no guilt trips. Just do it.

Get plenty of healthy sun, but don't overdo it. Listen, we all need the vitamin D, and we now know more than ever how much so. But sun worshiping, tanning beds, Jersey Shore...puleeze! Be smart, protect yourself--safe sunning is the only way to go.

There you have it: You are in control of your health. Health is not random. There is a health care crisis, and it's that far too many people neglect some very basic health enhancing behaviors. My book, The Six Keys to Optimal Health, has these and hundreds of other tips to prevent cancer and live a life of health and vitality. You can direct your health: you are responsible for the health you have and maintaining it. Nobody else.

Booze, Cancer Link in Women

A drink or two a day is thought in some circles to be good for the health. Not so for women, we now know. According to a recent study, even moderate alcohol consumption causes an increased risk for several cancers in women. Youch!

A study of nearly 1.3 million British women found that as the numbers of drinks increased, so did the cancer risks. Breast, liver and rectal cancers were the most likely to develop. Throw in a few Marlboro Lights and oral and esophageal cancers went up too. Whether the women drank beer, wine, or hard liquor mattered not--the more drinks, the higher the cancer risk.

It's true, studies have found some heart benefits to imbibing the hooch, but risk to benefit ratio must be weighed, especially in light of these findings. Healthy heart or breast cancer? Hmmm...might want to think twice about that one, especially since a good aerobic workout is better for the heart than a shot. The women with the lowest risk in the study drank fewer than two drinks per week. I know what you're thinking, but saving them all up for an end of the month binge is probably not good either.

Listen, I'm no prohibitionist but just a little food for thought. As cancer slowly becomes the leading cause of illness and death worldwide, this is info everyone should have. So have a Martinelli's tonight and sleep easy.

Weed is Benign

This is probably no surprise to you, but marijuana has been deemed less harmful than alcohol or tobacco. According to the Beckley Foundation, a research charity in Oxford, England, not only is marijuana relatively benign, but banning it has no impact on supply, and it turns users into criminals.

No surprise to me either, as I've been covering the marijuana debate for over a year now. The foundation reports that the number of deaths last year contributable to marijuana worldwide were two. Compared to the 150,000 deaths caused by alcohol and tobacco in Britain alone, the notion of keeping marijuana illegal seems absurd. But we still live in a Puritanical society. As pointed out by the foundation, it makes more sense to regulate the drug, as the ills society experiences are "the result of prohibition itself, particularly the social harms arising from arrest and imprisonment."

Keeping marijuana illegal is baseless, and as it's medicinal benefits continue to be uncovered, it seems foolish to keep up the prohibition. In the U.S. we manufacture and sell two of the most dangerous drugs on the planet--booze and tobacco--and they are subject to regulation. Even in the worst economic times, both products enjoy healthy sales. They are taxed heavily and generate millions of dollars in revenue. We should be doing the same with marijuana: Legalize it, regulate it, tax it, and stop wasting time and money prosecuting its use. Let's get smart and move forward.