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New research from the University of Valencia (UV) indicates that exposure to ecstasy (MDMA) or cocaine during adolescence may increase vulnerability to addiction in adulthood.

José Miñarro, lead author of the study and coordinator of the Psychobiology of Drug Addiction group at UV, commented: "Although MDMA and cocaine are psychoactive substances frequently used by teenagers, very few studies have been done to analyse the short and long-term consequences of joint exposure to these drugs."

Miñarro and colleagues studied the joint consumption of different drugs in order to examine any interactive effects. Over an eight-day period, the researchers administered MDMA, cocaine and saline solution to adolescent mice.

According to Miñarro, "The animals exhibited an increase in vulnerability to re-establishing behaviour (relapse), showing a preference for certain environments previously associated with the pleasant effects of the drug."

The results of the study emphasize that "reinforcing effects" are more prominent in mice exposed to cocaine and MDMA in adolescence than in mice not exposed to these drugs during adolescence.

As Miñarro explained, "Adolescence is a critical stage in development, during which time drug consumption affects plastic cerebral processes in ways that cause changes that persist right through to adulthood."

(Source: sciencedaily.com)

Labels: cocaine, ecstasy, drug addiction

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El Paso County, Texas, is seeing a rise in young addicts and violence among youth. Experts believe that the twin trends are no coincidence.

Chilo Madrid, director of an El Paso drug treatment center, comments on the trends: "We are seeing younger and more violent addicts. It's not unusual to see an 18-year-old who has been addicted for three or four years, who's had two or three sexually transmitted diseases, who's belonged to two gangs and who's been shot at more than once."

Madrid estimates that approximately 20 percent of El Paso County's population is addicts, or approximately 150,000 of the 742,000 residents. A Mexican drug cartel just across the United States border, in Juarez, Mexico, makes drugs cheap and easy to obtain in El Paso.

According to Madrid, heroin addiction is especially prevalent in the area: "We do a lot of street research, and we know for a fact that we have 30,000 hard-core heroin users in El Paso, and a lot more people who use cocaine on the weekends.

When we started out in this field, a hit of heroin (a quarter gram) cost $25," Madrid said. "Now, people can get the same quantity for $2.50 a hit. The same is true for cocaine. A hit of cocaine is about two lines.

"They don't go to Juarez or to shooting galleries anymore. People get the drugs by texting on their cell phones. Whereas before, your heroin users were older, we're now seeing kids as young as 16 who are trying heroin and cocaine for the first time."

(Source: behaviorhealthcentral.com)

Labels: cocaine, heroin, violence, addiction

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A Wisconsin woman has been charged with intentionally contributing to the delinquency of a child causing death and faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted. Patricia Strosina, 46, of Waterford, was observed buying drugs for herself and her 16-year-old son, Raymond, on at least one occasion.

On a September morning, Raymond's father found him slumped over in the computer room, a syringe nearby. Raymond's father contacted law enforcement authorities, saying he believed his son had overdosed.

An autopsy showed that Raymond overdosed on heroin and cocaine and stopped breathing. When the Racine County Sheriff's Department began investigating the death, people began pointing to Raymond's mother.

Witnesses reported that Raymond started smoking marijuana around age 14, but by age 15 his mother was giving him heroin to snort. Other witnesses reported that they saw Strosina inject heroin into her son's arm and that mother and son smoked marijuana and crack together several times a week. When Strosina was brought in for questioning, she admitted giving him heroin. Her preliminary hearing was set for Oct. 29, 2009.

(Source: www.journaltimes.com)

Labels: drug overdose, cocaine, heroin

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Drug abuse treatment centers are busy developing new methods for treating individuals who struggle with addiction to cocaine. According to recent data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), cocaine is the second most commonly abused drug in America (after marijuana) and approximately 15,000 deaths each year are related to stimulant abuse. Cocaine addiction is powerful, both physically and psychologically. Abusers of cocaine often experience depression and other serious mental health problems when not actually using the drug. This is largely due to the fact that prolonged cocaine use can cause significant changes in brain chemistry.

Cocaine use is also highly correlated with drug-related emergency room visits. According to one NIDA study, 28 percent of drug-related emergency room visits directly involved cocaine. Also according to NIDA, over half a million people in the United States regularly use cocaine (use it 51 or more days per year), and most of these are young, single people.

(Source: www.prweb.com)

Labels: cocaine, teen drug abuse, rehab

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A new study of laboratory animals found that exercise decreased cocaine-seeking behaviors among adolescents.

• Researchers at the Brookhaven Laboratory and National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Laboratory of Neuroimaging exposed a group of "teenage" rats to cocaine that they could administer themselves.
• Then they allowed some control animals to be sedentary while others ran on treadmills.
• The adolescent rats who exercised also decreased the amounts of cocaine they used.
• Female rats tended to use more cocaine than males and preferred not to exercise more often than males.

"This is a first step in trying to understand the connection between exercise and substance abuse," said lead author Peter Thanos.

The study was published in the journal Behavioral Brain Research.

Labels: research, cocaine, treatment

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 0 Comments