Substance Abuse

Your school has a fire alarm. Fire extinguisher on each floor. Earthquake drills, if you live in California. Active-shooter drills, because it’s the 21st century. AED unit, in case of heart complications. EpiPen, for allergies. But does your school have Narcan, in case of a drug overdose? What is Narcan? First, what is Narcan? When someone overdoses on opioids, whether it’s heroin, fentanyl, or prescription painkillers, they can stop breathing.

Daniel just had his wisdom teeth removed. His cheeks were as swollen as a chipmunk, and he could barely open his mouth because of the pain. As soon as he started taking the Vicodin that the dentist prescribed, things got better. It was a blessed relief that the pain went away. He felt like he was floating on clouds. A week later, the pain was completely gone, but he had

This article follows up on the information presented in our post National Drug and Alcohol Facts Week: The Latest Data on Adolescent Drug Use. In that article, we offered a string of useful statistics about teens and drug use. We asked you to think about how to use this latest round of data from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) to help your teen. We’re doing the same with

In Part One of “Does My Teen Need Drug Rehab?” we discussed the basic levels of care you might find if you decide to seek treatment for your teen. We also reviewed the new vocabulary around addiction treatment. The accepted term for what used to be called drug rehab is now treatment for substance use disorders. There are many reasons for the change in terminology, and none of them are

Drug rehab – known these days as treatment for substance use disorders – comes in many shapes and forms. If you’re worried your teen has a problem with drugs and needs treatment, don’t panic. Your first step should be to seek the help of a qualified mental health professional. You can find a reputable professional in your area with this psychiatrist finder provided by the American Academy of Child and

In 2010, a group of scientists at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) launched an initiative to teach teenagers the real facts about drug use and drug addiction. By real facts, we – and the scientists who began the initiative – mean those facts supported by research, backed by data, and published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Their goal was to enlist experts to engage with teenagers in order to