Drugs and Alcohol

The Effects of Alcohol

About 10.8 million adolescents ages 12-20 are underage alcohol drinkers.1 The above statement is not just an alarming statistic. It represents a real problem facing families, c..

How Can I Protect My Teen from Underage Drinking?

Teens say that parents are the number one influence in their lives, and you have everything you need—right now—to help protect your teen from underage drinking. Don’t wait for a better time; this ..

Alcopops: Not Your Grandma's Lemonade

Lemonade on Grandma's front porch during hot summer months is a lost tradition for a growing number of teens downing new alcoholic forms of the summertime treat. Lemonade joins a host of othe..

Weighing the Options - Planning a Defense

You've done all the right things as a parent—you've talked to your child about the risks of alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drug use. You've discussed the media messages. You're involved in you..

Fact Sheet: Teens and Alcohol

Drinking among teenagers is a serious problem in the United States. Alcohol is the most commonly used drug among teens. A recent survey of students found that: 52%..

Youth Drug Use Continues to Decline

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt announced a 9 percent decline in illicit drug use among American youth between the ages of 12 and 17 from 2002 to 2004. Marijuana use also declined ..

The Latest Craze-Marijuana-Flavored Candy?

A new product on the market may make parents double check the candy bowl. It's marijuana-flavored candy, and it already could be in stores near you. It may look like a normal lollipop or candy bar..

How Do Kids Get Prescription Drugs?

When popping pills becomes a top priority, people often find new ways to get the drugs they want. Most Americans get their prescriptions filled at local or legitimate online pharmacies, but people ..

Parent Smoking Outdoors Still Harms Children

Now that spring is in full swing, you and your family might head outside for some fresh air. But if you’re smoking outside, your children still are being exposed to the nicotine in your cigarette..

Safe Riding, Safe Driving

Motor vehicle crashes are the number one killer of youth ages 15 to 20.1 If you’re the parent of a teen, it’s likely that drunk and drugged driving is at the top of your list of ..

Teen Popularity Tied to Alcohol, Tobacco, and Illegal Drug Use

From cigarette-smoking James Dean in the 1950s to the current generation of rave goers, images of popularity among teenagers often have included alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drug use. In a study a..

Marijuana Potency Has Increased Over Time

Even though you or your friends might have smoked pot when you were younger, your teen should steer clear of marijuana. It's much stronger today than it was decades ago. Some reports estimate th..

The K That Kills

Ketamine is a substance that veterinarians use to medicate animals. But did you know that more and more young people have been using this drug illegally to get high? Ketamine, often referred to as ..

Have a Safe and Sober Holiday

What comes to mind when you think of the holidays? Sitting in front of a warm glowing fire? Spending time with loved ones? Eating too much? Where does substance use fit into this picture? ..

Legal but Lethal: The Danger of Abusing Over-the-Counter Drugs

Parents worry about their child being offered drugs from a stranger on a street corner or a friend at a party. But a child can get deadly drugs from a person you might never suspect-you. The over-t..

Summer Friendships and Increased Risk of Drug Use

You may be doing a great job teaching your kids not to use alcohol or drugs, but what about the messages they're getting from some of their friends? Kids seem to get caught in a tug of war between ..

Flavored Cigarettes May Lure Teens

Fewer teens are smoking cigarettes, but new tobacco products are clouding the picture. Tobacco companies say fruit- and mint-flavored cigarettes are aimed at getting adult smokers to switch brands...

Meth: America's Homegrown Drug Epidemic

Created in neighborhoods across the country, methamphetamine (meth) is American's homegrown drug epidemic. It's sweeping the Nation from the California coast to the eastern seaboard. Meth is leavin..

Inhalant Use and Delinquent Behaviors among Young Adolescents

Early onset of substance use has been linked to substance use disorders, delinquent behaviors, and other problems later in life.1,2,3 Data from the 2003 National Survey on Drug Use and..

Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome

The alcohol withdrawal syndrome is a cluster of symptoms observed in persons who stop drinking alcohol following continuous and heavy consumption. Milder forms of the syndrome include tremulous..

Marijuana: Facts Parents Need

A Letter to Parents Marijuana is the illegal drug most often used in this country. Since 1991, lifetime marijuana use has almost doubled among 8th- and 10th-grade students, and increase..

Tips Every Parent Should Know (Teen Drivers and Marijuana)

Teens get their drivers' licenses at a risky time in their lives. Teens already have the highest crash risk of any age group, making collisions the leading cause of death for young people ag..

Facts about Crack and Cocaine

Cocaine affects your brain. The word "cocaine" refers to the drug in both a powder (cocaine) and crystal (crack) form. It is made from the coca plant and causes a short-lived high ..

Alcohol and Minorities

Do blacks, Hispanics, American Indians, and Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States drink more or less than whites drink? Do they have more alcohol-related medical problems? Do they r..

Affects of Methamphetamines

Methamphetamine affects your brain. In the short term, meth causes mind and mood changes such as anxiety, euphoria, and depression. Long-term effects can include chronic fatigue, p..

Back-to-School Homework Assignment for Parents

Going back to school signifies a time of new beginnings - new schools, classes, and friends. It can also be a time of new challenges for many young people when it comes to drugs. As a parent, doing..

Youth and Tobacco Use: Current Estimates

Fact Sheet Cigarette Smoking 22.9% of high school students in the United States are current cigarette smokers.1 Estimates are slig..

Quit Smoking Fact Sheet

Fact Sheet Nicotine is the psychoactive drug in tobacco products that produces dependence.1-3 Most smokers are dependent on nicotine,2 and smokeles..

Alcohol Facts

Metabolism of Alcohol Women become more intoxicated than men on the same amount of alcohol, even when they weigh the same. This is because women have less muscle tissue which contains..

Alcohol and Cancer

Cancer kills an estimated 526,000 Americans yearly, second only to heart disease (1). Cancers of the lung, large bowel, and breast are the most common in the United States. Considerable evidenc..

Alcohol Research and Public Health Policy

Public health policy refers to laws, regulations, and other mechanisms by which government seeks to influence individual health-related behavior. The role of science in public health policy dev..

Alcohol and the Liver

Alcoholic liver disease is one of the most serious medical consequences of chronic alcohol use. Moreover, chronic excessive alcohol use is the single most important cause of illness and ..

The Genetics of Alcoholism

The idea that alcoholism runs in families is an ancient one. In recent decades, science has advanced this idea from the status of folk-observation to systematic investigation (1-3). In the 1970..

Treatment Outcome Research

Treatment outcome research is designed to answer six basic questions: Is treatment better than no treatment? Is treatment worse than no treatment? Is one treatment better than another? If a tre..

Alcohol and AIDS

There are two reasons to investigate connections between alcohol, HIV infection, and AIDS: alcohol may adversely affect the immune system, and alcohol may influence high-risk sexual behavior. ..

Alcoholism and Co-occurring Disorders

The term "comorbidity" refers to the presence of any two or more illnesses in the same person. These illnesses can be medical or psychiatric conditions, as well as drug use disorders,..

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

In 1973, Jones and Smith (1) coined the term "fetal alcohol syndrome" (FAS) to describe a pattern of abnormalities observed in children born to alcoholic mothers. It was originally po..

Assessing Alcoholism

The goal of assessment is to determine personal characteristics that can influence the treatment of a patient's alcohol problem. Once a person has been referred for alcohol treatment, clinician..

Estimating the Economic Cost of Alcohol Abuse

Alcohol abuse and its related problems cost society many billions of dollars each year (1,2,3,4). Estimates of the economic costs of alcohol abuse attempt to assess in monetary terms the damage..

Alcohol and Women

Much of our knowledge of alcoholism has been gathered from studies conducted with a predominance of male subjects. Recent studies involving more female subjects reveal that drinking differs bet..

Children of Alcoholics: Are They Different?

An estimated 6.6 million children under the age of 18 years live in households with at least one alcoholic parent (1). Current research findings suggest that these children are at risk for a ra..

Screening for Alcoholism

It is estimated that at least 20 percent of adults who visit a physician have had an alcohol problem at one time (1). In a survey of patients admitted to an inpatient service, 12 to 30 percent ..

Alcohol Use and Abuse: Where Do the Numbers Come From?

Newspapers and magazines regularly publish stories that report estimates of the number of people who are problem drinkers, the number of traffic deaths that involve alcohol, or the amount of al..

Relapse and Craving

There is evidence that approximately 90 percent of alcoholics are likely to experience at least one relapse over the 4-year period following treatment (1). Despite some promising leads, no cont..

Alcohol and Cognition

Research shows that alcohol adversely affects the brain. When health professionals encounter patients who are having cognitive difficulties, such as impaired memory or reasoning ability, alcoho..

Alcohol and Trauma

Trauma is a major cause of mortality and morbidity in the United States. Each year, more than 140,000 Americans die from injuries, and almost one person in three suffers a nonfatal injury serio..

Methadone Maintenance and Patients in Alcoholism Treatment

Alcoholic ex-heroin addicts who are in methadone-maintenance treatment can be treated for their alcoholism without first withdrawing them from methadone, according to the results of clinical re..

Alcohol and Aging

Problems of alcohol abuse among the elderly (persons aged 65 years and older) are receiving increased attention. Data suggest that untreated alcohol abuse among older persons is a more serious ..

Facts on Youth Smoking, Health, and Performance

Among young people, the short-term health effects of smoking include damage to the respiratory system, addiction to nicotine, and the associated risk of other drug use. Long-term heal..

Bidis and Kreteks

Fact sheet Bidis (pronounced “bee-dees”) are small, thin hand-rolled cigarettes imported to the United States primarily..

Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking

Fact sheet Overall Mortality Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States.1 Cigarette smoking causes an estimated 440,000 d..

Tobacco-Related Mortality

Fact sheet Overall Mortality Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States.1 Cigarette smoking causes a..

New Ads Help Parents Address Teen Drug Use

(Washington)—The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) this week launched new advertising in its ongoing effort to help parents take action against teen drug use. The new spots, titled "H..

Drug Treatment

Drug Treatment For youth ages 12 to 17, an estimated 1.1 million persons (4.9% of this population) needed treatment for an illicit drug abuse problem in 2001. Of this ..

Juveniles and Drug-Related Crime

Juveniles and Drug-Related Crime During 2001, State and local law enforcement agencies reported 139,238 drug abuse arrests of juveniles under 18 (see ..

Consequences of Drug Use

Consequences of Use Substance abuse by young people can result in healthrelated problems (including mental health) or death, academic difficulties, risky behaviors, poor..

Drugs and School

Drugs and School Results from the 2000 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse indicate that increased rates of past month use of cigarettes, alcohol, or any illicit drug ..

Drug Prevalence

Prevalence Estimates Results from the 2001 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse indicate that 10.8% of youth ages 12 to 17 are current drug users, having used an illi..

Effects of Ecstasy

Across the country, teens and young adults enjoy all-night dance parties known as "raves" and increasingly encounter more than just music. Dangerous substances known collectively as club drugs, inclu..