2015 saw a record number of calls to poison control regarding the abuse of unpredictable, synthetic drugs like Spice/K2 and bath salts. What were once sold in convenience stores and marketed to young adults as “harmless alternatives to marijuana,” are now causing seizures, strokes, and deaths in drug users nationwide. A recent PBS report revealed […]

Adolescence can be a time of making irrational, impulsive decisions. It can be a time of living in the now, without consideration for the consequences that may follow. As a result, it is a time in which many teens try drugs and alcohol for the first-time. The average age of substance use initiation is between […]

College is a time of transition, as young adults are shifting into a more independent lifestyle and adapting to changes in their day to day responsibilities. It is those first years of college that students truly begin to experience “living on their own,” away from direct adult supervision. As a result, college becomes a time […]

The stigmas engulfing drug and alcohol abuse are dissipating. There’s arguably never been more discussion, more community action, more political attention, or more media reporting on substance abuse than there is today. I applaud that. But while the stigmas are retreating, opinions are deluging in and quickly filling the cracks and voids left behind.  Cue […]

You’ve had enough of your drug use. Maybe you have hit your end line, your rock bottom, or realized the consequences are not worth the high. Perhaps you’ve come to see that your drug problem is hurting your family, or that the drugs are destroying yourself. Whatever your reason is, you have come to the […]

It is true that anyone—no matter their age, size, gender, or background—can become addicted to drugs. Unfortunately, this reality is most present among teens and young adults who begin drug use at an early age. Our youth are constantly facing the risk of drug addiction. So much, in fact, that over one million youth are […]

There were more fatal drug overdoses in 2014 than in any other year on record in the United States. That number, to be exact, was 47,055. 47,055 drug overdose deaths in one year alone; 1.5 times more drug-related deaths than fatal motor vehicle crashes. Published at the start of the New Year, the Centers for […]

For years, teen drug use has climbed the charts, with more and more high school students adopting drug using activities as part of their recreational pursuits each year. High-risk drugs like ecstasy, cocaine, and prescription painkillers have all taken seats as “drugs-of-choice” for teens over the last decade, and until now, it seemed as though […]

Approximately one third of high school seniors report using an illicit drug at some point in the past year. More than ten percent report nonmedical use of prescription painkillers, and 20 percent smoking marijuana within the last 30 days. Adolescence is the time in which teens are most likely to experiment with drugs. It is […]

One in ten Americans over the age of 12 is currently addicted to drugs or alcohol. That is 23.5 million people in the United States that have been clinically diagnosed with a substance use disorder in a single year. Yet even still, there are hundreds of binge drinkers, closet drug users, regular party-goers, and self-medicators […]