cannabisnews.com: 22 Million Americans are Addicts





22 Million Americans are Addicts
Posted by CN Staff on September 05, 2003 at 21:57:46 PT
By Cheryl Wetzstein, The Washington Times
Source: Washington Times 
Around 22 million Americans were addicted to alcohol or drugs last year, according to a federal survey designed to capture more accurate data about substance abuse.   More than 9 percent of the population aged 12 and older has a serious substance-abuse problem, Charles G. Curie, administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), said at a press conference yesterday.
The most common addiction — with 14.9 million people — was alcohol. Another 3.9 million people were addicted to illegal drugs and the remainder were addicted to both drugs and alcohol, SAMHSA said in its new National Survey on Drug Use and Health.   The survey collected data from 68,126 persons in their homes and some who live in homeless shelters. The new findings are more accurate than the old "household survey" on drugs owing to better collection techniques, quality control and incentive payments to respondents, Mr. Curie said.   In most categories, he said, the new survey sets a baseline and cannot be compared to data from previous surveys. However, in two areas — first-time use and lifetime use — trends can be identified.   For instance, around 2.6 million people tried marijuana for the first time in 2001, which is comparable to the number of new users each year since 1996. First-time cocaine users numbered 1.5 million in 2001, which is about the same since 1999.   As of 2002, around 21 percent of teens and 54 percent of young people aged 18 to 25 said they had used marijuana at least once. This is also about the same as 2000 and 2001 data.   Marijuana remains the most commonly used illegal drug, with 14.6 million users, the survey found. There were also 2 million people who used cocaine and 1.2 million who used hallucinogens, including the club drug Ecstasy.   Of those people with a certifiable drug or alcohol addiction, around 3.5 million received treatment between 2001 and 2002.   However, many addicts didn't receive treatment, either because they didn't believe they needed treatment or because treatment was unavailable. Neither of these scenarios is acceptable, federal officials said.   Americans need a better understanding of the addictive nature of drugs and alcohol, and family and friends shouldn't always presume their loved ones are "all right," said John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Getting people into treatment can save lives, he said.   He and other officials urged Congress to allocate $600 million to the administration's "Access to Recovery Initiative," which would open treatment slots to 300,000 people.   "There is no other medical condition for which we would tolerate such huge numbers unable to obtain the treatment they need," Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson said.   Earlier this week, another survey of teens showed that drug use has persisted at a rate of around 24 percent for the last five years.   "The question is how much teen-age drug use is acceptable to the nation," said Thomas J. Gleaton, author of the Pride Survey, which collected data on 14,182 students in grades 6 to 12. "If one in four teens using drugs is acceptable, we have done well in controlling drugs over the past decade," he said. If not, "we need stronger action to truly dent teen problems."   Source: Washington Times (DC)Author: Cheryl Wetzstein, The Washington TimesPublished: September 6, 2003Copyright: 2003 News World Communications, Inc. Website: http://www.washtimes.com/Contact: letters washingtontimes.comRelated Articles:ER Mentions of Marijuana and Narcotic Painkillers http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17156.shtmlTeenager Recalls Spell Marijuana Cast Over Herhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17016.shtmlEarly Marijuana Use Linked to Adult Dependence http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13914.shtml 
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Comment #17 posted by FoM on September 10, 2003 at 14:33:08 PT
Related News Brief from NBC 17
Studies: Kids Abuse Prescription Drugs In Their Own HomesKids Use 'Pharming' To Steal, Distribute Medications To Get HighSeptember 10, 2003Prescription drug abuse accounts for one-third of all substance abuse in the United States -- and an increasing number of the abusers are kids. New studies are finding that "pharming" -- the abuse of prescription drugs usually taken from a child's parents -- is a growing concern. It's even an alarming teenage trend highlighted in the new movie "Thirteen." Pharming involves kids who steal drugs from their parents' medicine cabinet and officials say it's a cause for concern. Pat Connors, who is the head of the Substance Abuse Council of Connecticut, said kids will collect and combine the drugs and "pass it [the drugs] around, take a handful, wash it down with whatever they're washing it down with and then sit back to see what happens to them." Connors said no drug is off limits. "The Vicodan, the Percodan [and] the Tylenol number 3s are the things most common and those are the things most people have in their house laying around, long after they need them," Connors said. Even over-the-counter medications are being abused. Liquid cold or cough medicines often have alcohol and dextromethorphan, which can produce a temporary high. Cold relief tablets, crushed and snorted, can produce a similar dreamlike state. A recent Drug Abuse Warning Network study found emergency room visits due to narcotic pain medications rose 45 percent from 2000 to 2002. Purdue Pharma, makers of the prescription painkiller OxyContin, is trying to raise awareness about this growing problem through a public service advertisement campaign. It's estimated more than 4 million Americans abuse or misuse prescription drugs each month. And according to Connors, once you become addicted to prescriptions, heroin is often the next step. "When you start messing around with these narcotic opiate painkillers, you're putting yourself in that same neighborhood as heroin. The withdrawal effects are very similar. The abuse, the addiction potential can happen very rapidly," Connors said. Experts say if you have any medicines leftover in home, don't hang on to them, get rid of them and clean out the medicine cabinet. As for drugs you are using, monitor your supply by counting pills. For total security, keep medications locked away.Copyright 2003 by NBC17.com
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Comment #16 posted by Max Flowers on September 07, 2003 at 11:49:32 PT
Lying scheming "scientists"
~Dr. Ricaurte said he realized his mistake when he could not reproduce his own results by giving the drug to monkeys orally. He then realized that two vials his laboratory bought the same day must have been mislabeled: one contained Ecstasy, the other d-methamphetamine.~You know, this is pure bullshit... the vials of compounds that research labs acquire come from respected chemical suppliers like Lancaster and Alfa Aesar, and are clearly labeled and identified. When being used in the purported Ricaurte "research", they would have been taken straight out of these stock ampules. Can these doctors read?? I thought so. The only "mislabeling" that occurred was intentional and done to deceive.
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Comment #15 posted by Lehder on September 07, 2003 at 07:25:58 PT
posted on the wrong article!
oh well! things are pretty loose at Johns Hopkins too. outta here!
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Comment #14 posted by Lehder on September 07, 2003 at 07:23:39 PT
hey, i got some good shit, man, lemme use your rig
>>Dr. Ricaurte said he realized his mistake when he could not
   reproduce his own results by giving the drug to monkeys orally. He then realized that two
   vials his laboratory bought the same day must have been mislabeled: one contained Ecstasy,
   the other d-methamphetamine.mislabeled? this sounds like the lame bullshit of the journalist's beloved stereotypical potheat. musta mislabeled my shit, man. as if the freaks at Johns Hopkins bother to label anything before tieing off anyway. the laboratory bought crank and x on "the same day"? for what? and the vials went to the same lab and were set on the same shelf? do they have vials of
smack and coke and pony packs of crack in there too?
what the fuck are they doing in there? you know i'm no drug warrior, but maybe the DEA should pay a visit to Johns Hopkins.
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Comment #13 posted by freedom fighter on September 07, 2003 at 00:20:19 PT
Thou shalt not tax me 10 cents more!
http://www.msnbc.com/news/962708.asp?vts=090620032330I never did really understand why there's too many coffeshops in Holland.!;0/paceff
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Comment #12 posted by mayan on September 06, 2003 at 17:01:43 PT
Title Should Read...
        The War on Drugs Has Failed
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Comment #11 posted by SoberStoner on September 06, 2003 at 08:23:15 PT
Another version of the same junk
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030905/us_nm/health_drugs_dc_2
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Comment #10 posted by The GCW on September 06, 2003 at 07:07:11 PT
The Dutch police union:
Netherlands: Amsterdam's Key Stoned Cops Face Drug Cafe Banhttp://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n1336/a10.html?397The Dutch police union, the NPB, believes Mr Remkes is going too far. "Visits to coffee shops are not forbidden, so it is strange that police officers would be barred from going in their free time," said a spokesman. 
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Comment #9 posted by OverwhelmSam on September 06, 2003 at 06:47:18 PT:
Addiction Is Such A Dirty Word!
Some people are addicted to love, chocolate, cigarettes, family life, marijuana, hatred, ideas, and anxiety, just to name a few. So why is addiction such a dirty word? We're all addicted psycologically or physically to something. Bid Deal?
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Comment #8 posted by The GCW on September 06, 2003 at 06:21:50 PT
And while were at it,
make the firemen, cops.When there is a fire though, there will be no firemen, because they will be out looking for the superplant."The Tallapoosa County Narcotics Task Force, Marijuana Eradication Team and members of the New Site Police Department and Alexander City Fire Department found the plants in helicopter fly-overs Tuesday and Wednesday for the second time this year."http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n1336/a02.html?397POLICE FIND MARIJUANA (SHOULD BE TITLED: POLICE AND FIREMEN FIND MARIJUANA) I do not wish for fires, but it would make a nice point to have a fire, but no firemen because they are hunting for the superplant.
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Comment #7 posted by The GCW on September 06, 2003 at 06:07:44 PT
The Gov's next move,.,.,...
Perhaps it is time to eliminate doctors. Just make the police the doctors.When You go to the doctor's office there will no longer be a doctor, but rather an enforcement officer. Uh, Sargent Ignoid, I have chronic pain, I need a pain killer...You have come to the right place, step on over here to the gas operated pain booth and I'll get that pain taken care of... it has been perfected by Hitler Himself. Guaranteed to end YOur pain.Better, go to the police stations to talk to the doctor.America needs doctors in uniform. 
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Comment #6 posted by Jose Melendez on September 06, 2003 at 05:38:39 PT
modus operandi
from nytimes.comA leading scientific journal yesterday retracted a paper it published last year saying that one night's typical dose of the drug Ecstasy might cause permanent brain damage. The monkeys and baboons in the study were not injected with Ecstasy but with a powerful amphetamine, said the journal, Science magazine. The retraction was submitted by the team at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine that did the study. A medical school spokesman called the mistake "unfortunate" but said that Dr. George A. Ricaurte, the researcher who made it, was "still a faculty member in good standing whose research is solid and respected." The study, released last Sept. 27, concluded that a dose of Ecstasy a partygoer would take in a single night could lead to symptoms resembling Parkinson's disease. The study was ridiculed at the time by other scientists working with the drug, who said the primates must have been injected with huge overdoses. Two of the 10 primates died of heat stroke, they pointed out, and another two were in such distress that they were not given all the doses. If a typical Ecstasy dose killed 20 percent of those who took it, the critics said, no one would use it recreationally. In an interview yesterday, Dr. Ricaurte said he realized his mistake when he could not reproduce his own results by giving the drug to monkeys orally. He then realized that two vials his laboratory bought the same day must have been mislabeled: one contained Ecstasy, the other d-methamphetamine. Dr. Ricaurte's laboratory has received millions of dollars from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and has produced several studies concluding that Ecstasy is dangerous. Other scientists accuse him of ignoring their studies showing that typical doses do no permanent damage. At the time Dr. Ricaurte's study was published, it was strongly defended against those critics by Dr. Alan I. Leshner, the former head of the drug abuse institute, who had just become the chief executive officer of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, which publishes Science. Dr. Leshner had testified before Congress that Ecstasy was dangerous, and Dr. Ricaurte's critics accused him of rushing his results into print because a bill known as the Anti-Rave Act was before Congress. The act would punish club owners who knew that drugs like Ecstasy were being used at their dance gatherings.(snipped)Note: Leshner and NIDA have well earned reputations for overstating the dangers of some drugs, using synthetic analogues to support their positions AND ignoring far more deleterious effects of legal substances.
See also: Report of Ecstasy Drug's Great Risks Is Retracted

 



 
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Comment #5 posted by Dan B on September 06, 2003 at 01:12:23 PT
Numbers and Hatred
"The most common addiction — with 14.9 million people — was alcohol. Another 3.9 million people were addicted to illegal drugs and the remainder were addicted to both drugs and alcohol, SAMHSA said in its new National Survey on Drug Use and Health."So, make that 18.1 million alcoholics 
[22-(14.9+3.9)= 22-18.8 = 3.2, 3.2+14.9 = 18.1]. And, make that 7.1 million "illegal drug addicts" (3.9+3.2=7.1). And, since what we are really talking about when we say "alcohol" is one of the most dangerous addictive substances known to humankind, let's not separate it from illegal drugs at all and say that we have 22 million drug addicts in this country, not to include the millions who are addicted to one type of prescription medication of another. See how effective our war on some drugs is, folks? After 30 years, we're down to about 8% of the population being addicted to harmful substances. Of course, this figure pales in comparison to the number of people who have actually used these substances. The vast majority of Americans (last time I checked it was upwards of 90%) have tried alcohol, yet only about 7% of those people are addicted. For illegal drugs, more than 50% have tried an illegal substance, and less than 5% of those people are addicted. Hmmmm . . . does anyone else find it odd that the percentage is higher for alcohol?"So, what's the point, Dan B?" you may ask. "Aren't you really just rehashing numbers?" Exactly, and that's what they are doing here. No mention is made of the fact that we are putting these people in prison. No mention is made of the fact that we are turning the vast majority of them away from clinics. No mention is made of the fact that we are turning them away from work, taking their professional and driver's licenses, turning them away from student financial aid, food stamps, welfare, etc. Yesterday, I went to Home Depot. Outside their door is a large sign that says, "We Test All Our Employees For Drugs. IF YOU USE DRUGS, DON'T BOTHER TO APPLY!" It reminded me of the old signs you used to see here in Texas and across the South: "No Coloreds." I am tempted to place a sign next to it that says, "We test all our employes for skin color. IF YOUR SKIN COLOR IS DARKER THAN THIS (insert pink square): DON"T BOTHER TO APPLY!" Then, I'd like to place another sign next to it that says, "Doesn't it all boil down to hatred?"Ultimately, that's what these numbers are for. They're intended to tell the American people exactly what percentage of the population they are required by law to treat with contempt. New slogan: "Justify Your Hatred: Support The Drug War."Dan B
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Comment #4 posted by E_Johnson on September 06, 2003 at 00:35:27 PT
If you count food abuse...
Star Jones on The View weighs about 400 pounds and brags about never having smoked marijuana. She's so addicted to food that she's having gastric bypass surgery to lose weight. That made me realize that a significant portion of the US economy depends upon the abuse of food.There is an epidemic of childhood obesity in America. But politicians don't cast it as a substance abuse issue. Even though it basically is.
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Comment #3 posted by Petard on September 05, 2003 at 23:08:43 PT
Additional 300,000 slots for addicts
Woohoo, John Pee would have an additional $600 million for 300,000 rehab slots. Now for that remaining 14,300,000 people smoking herb I guess he'll just have to settle for another TRILLION or 2 for police, prisons, and more fried egg commercials. Now for those redneck types that make the stupid "they oughta shoot 'em all" statements, anybody got the Stalin and PolPot social revolution purge #'s? Probably look something the same as the # of U.S. drug users don't ya think? How's that for a comparison, the USSA and Stalin and PolPot? What a grand place America has turned out to be.
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Comment #2 posted by BGreen on September 05, 2003 at 22:43:52 PT
MORE Alcohol ADDICTS than Cannabis USERS
The most common addiction — with 14.9 million people — was alcohol.Marijuana remains the most commonly used illegal drug, with 14.6 million users, the survey found.There's a war on WHICH substance, john PEE walters? Look at the numbers, john PEE walters. If the PEE in your name meant Pinocchio you'd be dead from the rotting stench of your lying breath.They can't sustain their wall of lies. It's collapsing around them.The Rev. Bud Green
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Comment #1 posted by Patrick on September 05, 2003 at 22:21:29 PT
Whoopty do
Government solution to this "problem" is still the same old story. Confiscate & Incarcerate. Now we just know how many people they plan to arrest!Americans need a better understanding of the addictive nature of drugs and alcohol, and family and friends shouldn't always presume their loved ones are "all right," said John WaltersIn Walters mind he knows what is RIGHT and "they/us" will never "be all right" until they have been subjected to humiliation, arrest, and had their dog shot.
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