Coordinated Training Services

Public Smoking in Nacogdoches Ends Tuesday

noemail@statewidetraining.org — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:00:00 GMT

Public smoking in Nacogdoches ends Tuesday

By MATTHEW STOFF
The Daily Sentinel
Sunday, June 29, 2008

Effective Tuesday, July 1, smoking in all of Nacogdoches' public buildings, workplaces, offices, bars and restaurants will be prohibited, punishable by a fine up to $2,000 in municipal court. With the new law in place, Nacogdoches joins other East Texas communities like Marshall and Tyler and at least 20 states that have banned public smoking in the name of health.

Private homes, fraternal organizations, tobacco retail stores and a percentage of hotel and nursing home rooms are excepted from the law, but all other businesses, including their outdoor patios and areas 20 feet from public entrances, must comply with the ordinance.

Nacogdoches joins other East Texas communities like Marshall and Tyler and at least 20 states that have banned public smoking in the name of health.

For more than two months, city staff has been working with business owners to iron out details of enforcing the new law aimed at protecting workers and patrons at nearly all establishments in the city. Individual businesses will be primarily responsible for posting "no smoking" signs at their entrances and for ensuring their employees and patrons do not smoke on the premise.

Both Nacogdoches police and the city code enforcement office will address violations of the ordinance.

"We believe the ordinance has received wide approval from the community and are expecting few, if any, problems," Police Chief Jim Sevey said last week. "We will of course assist any business owner who requests assistance."

The ordinance prohibiting public smoking passed in April after city commissioners heard input from citizens. Many spoke in favor of the ordinance, citing medical studies that document the carcinogenic effects of second-hand smoke as well as anecdotes about the unpleasantness of dining in smoking establishments. Few opposed the ban entirely, though some business owners sought relief from the requirements that will have patrons standing at least 20 feet away from the building to light up.

The Healthy Nacogdoches Coalition, a group of local businesses, health organizations and others concerned about public wellness, conducted much of the initial research for the ordinance as part of its goal of becoming a recognized heart and stroke healthy community, a designation bestowed by the state department of health.

Citizens wishing to report violations of the ordinance may contact the city inspections department at 559-2558 or the police department's non-emergency line at 559-2607. Questions may be directed to the inspections department.

Matthew Stoff's e-mail address

is mstoff@coxnews.com.

29-Jul-08 3:00 PM

Cigarette Use Among High School Students: 1991-1997

noemail@statewidetraining.org — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:00:00 GMT

Cigarette Use Among High School Students --- United States, 1991--2007

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5725a3.htm?s_cid=mm5725a3_e

Cigarette use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States (1). A national health objective for 2010 is to reduce the prevalence of current cigarette use among high school students to 16% or less (27-2b) (1). To examine changes in cigarette use among high school students in the United States during 1991--2007, CDC analyzed data from the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). This report summarizes the results of that analysis, which indicated that the prevalence of lifetime cigarette use was stable during 1991--1999 and then declined from 70.4% in 1999 to 50.3% in 2007. The prevalence of current cigarette use increased from 27.5% in 1991 to 36.4% in 1997, declined to 21.9% in 2003, and remained stable from 2003 to 2007. The prevalence of current frequent cigarette use increased from 12.7% in 1991 to 16.8% in 1999 and then declined to 8.1% in 2007. To resume the declines observed in current cigarette use during 1997--2003 and achieve the 2010 objective, communitywide comprehensive tobacco-control programs that use coordinated evidence-based strategies should be implemented and revitalized.

The biennial national YRBS, a component of CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, used independent, three-stage cluster samples for the 1991--2007 surveys to obtain cross-sectional data representative of public and private school students in grades 9--12 in all 50 states and the District of Columbia (2). Sample sizes ranged from 10,904 to 16,296. For each cross-sectional national survey, students completed anonymous, self-administered questionnaires that included identically worded questions about cigarette use. School response rates ranged from 70% to 81%, and student response rates ranged from 83% to 90%; therefore, overall response rates for the surveys ranged from 60% to 70%.

For this analysis, temporal changes for three behaviors were assessed: lifetime cigarette use (i.e., ever tried cigarette smoking, even one or two puffs), current cigarette use (i.e., smoked cigarettes on at least 1 day during the 30 days before the survey), and current frequent cigarette use (i.e., smoked cigarettes on 20 or more days during the 30 days before the survey). Race/ethnicity data are presented only for non-Hispanic black, non-Hispanic white, and Hispanic students (who might be of any race); the numbers of students from other racial/ethnic groups were too small for meaningful analysis.

Data were weighted to provide national estimates, and statistical software used for all data analyses accounted for the complex sample design. Temporal changes were analyzed using logistic regression analyses, which controlled for sex, race/ethnicity, and grade and simultaneously assessed linear, quadratic, and cubic time effects (p<0.05).*

Significant linear and quadratic trends were detected for lifetime and current frequent cigarette use (Table 1). The prevalence of lifetime cigarette use was stable during 1991--1999 and then declined from 70.4% in 1999 to 50.3% in 2007. The prevalence of current frequent cigarette use increased from 12.7% in 1991 to 16.8% in 1999 and then declined to 8.1% in 2007.

Significant linear, quadratic, and cubic trends were detected for current cigarette use. The prevalence of current cigarette use increased from 27.5% in 1991 to 36.4% in 1997, declined to 21.9% in 2003, and remained stable from 2003 to 2007. For current cigarette use, similar patterns were detected among the sex subgroups overall, all grade subgroups, and white and Hispanic students (Table 2).

Among black students overall and black male students, significant quadratic and cubic trends were detected. The prevalence of current cigarette use among black students overall increased from 12.6% in 1991 to 22.7% in 1997, declined to 14.7% in 2001, and then declined more gradually to 11.6% in 2007. Among black male students, the prevalence of current cigarette use increased from 14.1% in 1991 to 28.2% in 1997, declined to 16.3% in 2001, and then remained stable from 2001 to 2007. Among black female students, a significant linear and quadratic trend was detected. The prevalence of current cigarette use increased from 11.3% in 1991 to 17.7% in 1999 and then declined to 8.4% in 2007.

Reported by: Office on Smoking and Health, Div of Adolescent and School Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC.

Editorial Note:

The findings in this report show that current cigarette use among high school students declined from 1997 to 2003, but rates remained stable from 2003 to 2007. This trend is consistent with 30-day cigarette use trends reported from the Monitoring the Future survey (an ongoing national study of the behaviors, attitudes, and values of 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students), which also show declines starting in the late 1990s and stable rates more recently (3).

The sharp increase in cigarette use during the early to mid-1990s observed in this and other surveys might have resulted from expanded tobacco company promotional efforts, including discounted prices on cigarette brands most often smoked by adolescents, product placement in movies, development of nontobacco product lines with company symbols (e.g., hats and t-shirts), and sponsorship of music concerts and other youth-focused events (4). Evidence suggests that exposure to pro-tobacco marketing and depictions of tobacco use in films and videos and on television more than doubles the odds of adolescents initiating tobacco use (5). Communitywide programs to counteract pro-tobacco marketing and resume the declines in youth tobacco use observed during 1997--2003 should include combinations of counter-advertising mass media campaigns; comprehensive school-based tobacco-use prevention policies and programs; community interventions that reduce tobacco advertising, promotions, and commercial availability of tobacco products; and higher prices for tobacco products through increases in unit prices and excise taxes (5--7).

The differences in current cigarette use among racial/ethnic subgroups suggest that lower rates of current cigarette use among high school students are achievable. The data in this analysis show that current cigarette use remained stable among white and Hispanic students overall from 2003 to 2007, but among black students overall, current cigarette use continued to decline. This decline can be attributed largely to declines among black female students. Whereas rates among black male students remained stable from 2001 to 2007, black female students showed a continued decline in current cigarette use from 1999 to 2007. In 2007, black female students had the lowest rate of current cigarette use among all sex and racial/ethnic subgroups.

The findings in this report are subject to at least two limitations. First, these data apply only to youths who attend school and, therefore, are not representative of all persons in this age group. Nationwide, in 2005, of persons aged 16--17 years, approximately 3% were not enrolled in a high school program and had not completed high school (8). Second, the extent of underreporting or overreporting of cigarette use cannot be determined, although the survey questions demonstrate good test-retest reliability (9), and high school students do not tend to underreport cigarette use (10).

The national health objective for 2010 of reducing current cigarette use among high school students to less than 16% can be achieved if the declines in current cigarette observed during 1997--2003 resume. Communitywide, comprehensive tobacco-control programs that use coordinated evidence-based strategies should be implemented and revitalized to further limit cigarette use by high school students. A better understanding of the factors responsible for the continued decline and low rate of current cigarette use among black female students can help guide and strengthen comprehensive tobacco-control efforts in the future for all use.

References

US Department of Health and Human Services. Tobacco use; 27-2: reduce tobacco use by adolescents. In: Healthy people 2010: understanding and improving health. 2nd ed. Washington, DC: US Department of Health and Human Services; 2000. Available at http://www.healthypeople.gov/document/pdf/volume2/27tobacco.pdf.
CDC. Methodology of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System. MMWR 2004;53(No. RR-12).
Johnston LD, O'Malley PM, Bachman JG, Schulenberg JE. Trends on cigarette smoking and smokeless tobacco, table 1. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan; 2007. Available at http://monitoringthefuture.org/data/07data/pr07cig1.pdf.
Nelson DE, Mowery P, Asman K, et al. Long-term trends in adolescent and young adult smoking in the United States: metapatterns and implications. Am J Public Health 2008;98:905--15.
Wellman RJ, Sugarman DB, DiFranza JR, Winickoff JP. The extent to which tobacco marketing and tobacco use in films contribute to children's use of tobacco. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2006;160:1285--96.
Zaza S, Briss PA, Harris KW, eds. Tobacco. In: The guide to community preventive services: what works to promote health? New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2005. Available at http://www.thecommunityguide.org/tobacco/default.htm.
CDC. Best practices for comprehensive tobacco control programs---2007. Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services, CDC; 2007. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/tobacco_control_programs/stateandcommunity/best_practices.
Laird J, Kienzl G, DeBell M, Chapman C. Dropout rates in the United States: 2005. Washington, DC: US Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2007. NCES publication no. 2007--059.
Brener ND, Kann L, McManus T, Kinchen SA, Sundberg EC, Ross JG. Reliability of the 1999 Youth Risk Behavior Survey questionnaire. J Adolesc Health 2002;31:336--42.
Messeri PA, Allen JA, Mowery PD, et al. Do tobacco countermarketing campaigns increase adolescent under-reporting of smoking? Addict Beh 2007;32:1532--6.
* Quadratic and cubic trends indicate a significant but nonlinear trend in the data over time (e.g., whereas a linear trend is depicted with a straight line, a quadratic trend is depicted with a curve with one bend and a cubic trend with a curve with two bends). Trends that include significant cubic or quadratic and linear components demonstrate nonlinear variation in addition to an overall increase or decrease over time.

26-Jun-08 3:00 PM

CASA Releases Marijuana Report

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:00:00 GMT

NEW YORK, NY, June 18, 2008 From 1992 to 2006, as the potency of
seized marijuana almost tripled (3.2 to 8.8 percent THC
concentration), medical diagnoses of marijuana abuse and dependence
for teen admissions to treatment increased 492 percent according to
Non-Medical Marijuana III: Rite of Passage or Russian Roulette?, a new
report by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA)
at Columbia University.

The report reveals that while such medical diagnoses of marijuana
abuse and dependence soared, the number of medical diagnoses for abuse
and dependence involving alcohol and all other drugs declined 37
percent.

For more of the press release follow this link:

http://www.casacolumbia.org/absolutenm/templates/PressReleases.aspx?arti
cleid=527&zoneid=66

To download the report directly please follow
this link:

http://www.casacolumbia.org/ViewProduct.aspx?PRODUCTID=7962e2a3-b250-4ac
b-ad2e-6157d44b7657

where you will see a button that says 'Download for Free'.

18-Jun-08 9:00 AM

US state smoking restrictions in bars, worksites, etc. (MMWR brief report)

noemail@statewidetraining.org — Thu, 22 May 2008 21:00:00 GMT

"State Smoking Restrictions for Private-Sector Worksites, Restaurants,
and Bars --- United States, 2004 and 2007

MMWR Weekly Report, Volume 57, Number 20

This report summarizes the changes in state smoking restrictions for
private-sector worksites, restaurants, and bars that occurred from 2004
to 2007. The findings indicated a substantial increase in the number and
restrictiveness of state laws regulating smoking in these three
settings, providing nonsmokers with increased protection from the health
risks posed by SHS. If current trends continue, achieving the national
health objective by 2010 might be possible.

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5720a3.htm

22-May-08 4:00 PM

21st Birthday Binge Drinking

noemail@statewidetraining.org — Tue, 20 May 2008 21:45:00 GMT

Fun at 21? Drinking to excess on one's 21st birthday has become a tradition
Tragically, some don't live to regret their binge.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008 4:34 AM

By Kathy Lynn Gray
The Columbus Dispatch

According to a 2006 study of 164 students, 34% blacked out on their 21st birthday.
The Hot Issue

Did you overindulge on your 21st birthday?
When a young woman enters a bar wearing a glittery crown and a beauty-queen sash, bartenders know what to do: Pour a free shot; someone's turning 21.
"They're very eager," said bartender John Cordas of the Ugly Tuna Saloona near the Ohio State University campus. "You can always tell, because they come in with a group of friends (who) sit at the bar and take turns buying shots for that person."

Those turning 21 arrive at the Saloona nightly at midnight, but few try to drink their age in shots, a fad glorified in drunken videos on YouTube and MySpace.

"I've only seen one kid try it, and he didn't get very far before he got pretty sick," Cordas said. "After eight or nine shots, you're pretty drunk."

Twenty-one shots, at 1.5 ounces a glass, would be more than a fifth of liquor.

Every year, 21-year-olds drink themselves to death.

"It's probably the most dangerous drinking occasion for students," said Steven W. Clarke, director of the Campus Alcohol Abuse Prevention Center at Virginia Tech.

Clarke has studied 21st-birthday celebrations to determine why they encourage excessive drinking and how to make them less dangerous.

Free drinks are a major contributor to the problem, he found. Bars often give a free shot or drink to the newly legal, and then friends start buying the booze.

"College students don't typically buy drinks for each other, so they feel it would be rude not to consume them," Clarke said.

New drinkers also drain their glasses quickly, he said. They often start at midnight and try to down as many drinks as they can before the bar closes at 1 or 2 a.m.

Two states have found the practice so alarming that they outlawed it. Bars in Minnesota and North Dakota can't serve 21-year-olds until 8 a.m. on their birthday.

Ohio State junior Jeffy Mai said he doesn't know anyone who drank "21 at 21," but he said drinking on your 21st birthday is "a big thing" on campus. When he turned 21 in December, his friends bought all the drinks, he said. He drank enough to do a "weird chicken dance" at Hooters.

Toben Nelson, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota, said about 1,700 college students die each year of alcohol-related causes. About 300 of those deaths are from falls or alcohol poisoning, he said.

At least two 21-year-olds have died in Franklin County from drinking too much on their birthdays, according to the coroner's office.

OSU student Adam Boncela had a blood-alcohol content of 0.37 percent when he died on July 25, 2005; that's the equivalent of drinking about 18 shots in two hours. Blackouts and nausea are common with a blood-alcohol content of 0.16 percent to 0.19 percent; death can occur at a level of 0.30 percent.

Ohio University junior Nathan A. Roberts of Findlay died of acute intoxication in a house near Ohio State after drinking heavily on his 21st birthday in 2001. His blood-alcohol content was 0.36 percent.

One way to reduce deaths is for bars and servers to be more accountable, said Nelson, who has written extensively about student drinking.

"There are laws about not serving someone who's obviously intoxicated, but they're rarely enforced," he said. "We've done studies by having people go into bars and act intoxicated, and three-fourths of the time they're served alcohol."

Ohio State sends an e-mail to students about to turn 21. The message is from the sister of OSU student Joey Upshaw, who died after ingesting drugs and alcohol in 2000. Erica Upshaw urges students: "Be careful on your 21st birthday" and "do not feel like you have to take 21 shots."

But Virginia Tech's Clarke said such warnings have "no significant effect" on how much students drink.

"We also tried weekly e-mails for four weeks before their birthdays, and that had no significant effect, either," he said.

Parents should encourage their children to take charge of their birthday celebration, Clarke said.

"Set a specific limit on drinks or the amount of time you're drinking," Clarke said. "Friends will be saying, 'We're going to take you out and get drunk.' It's your birthday. You'd think you could take control."

For more information, visit www.alcohol.vt.edu or www.swc.osu.edu/alcohol.asp.

20-May-08 4:45 PM

Test Article for Tendenci Training

noemail@statewidetraining.org — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 16:00:00 GMT

TestTestTestTestTestTestTest

14-Jan-05 10:00 AM

Brief Encounters can Provide Motivation to Reduce or Stop Drug Use

noemail@statewidetraining.org — Thu, 06 Jan 2005 17:00:00 GMT

Brief Encounters can Provide Motivation to Reduce or Stop Drug Use 1/5/2005 Press Release National Institute on Drug Abuse National Institutes of Health 6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 5213 Bethesda, MD 20892 www.drugabuse.gov New research supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Institutes of Health, shows that meeting with an addiction peer counselor just once at the time of a routine doctor visit with a followup booster phone call can motivate abusers of cocaine and heroin to reduce their drug use. The study, by husband and wife research team Dr. Judith Bernstein and Dr. Edward Bernstein and their colleagues at Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health, is published in the January 2005 issue of "Drug and Alcohol Dependence". "Brief interventions have proven effective in initiating positive behavior changes in people who are dependent on alcohol," notes NIDA Director Dr. Nora D. Volkow. "Preliminary assessments of this process in drug abusers have been encouraging enough to investigate it more thoroughly as a therapeutic tool to enhance treatment." The motivational interview used in this study was designed to establish rapport with the participant and covered such areas as asking permission to discuss drugs, exploring the pros and cons of drug use, eliciting the gap between real and desired quality of life, and assessing readiness to change. This 20-minute intervention also included development of an action plan. The study was conducted among 1,175 men and women who had tested positive for cocaine or heroin abuse. Participants were randomly assigned to an intervention group or a control group. Intervention consisted of a motivational interview with a substance abuse outreach worker who also was a recovering addict, referrals to active drug abuse treatment programs, a written list of treatment options, and a followup telephone call 10 days later. Members of the control group received only the written list. Six months following enrollment, the researchers found that among those who abused cocaine, 22.3 percent of the intervention group were abstinent from the drug, compared with 16.9 percent of the control group; among those who abused heroin, 40.2 percent of the intervention group were abstinent from the drug, compared with 30.6 percent of the control group. As for people who used both drugs, 17.4 percent of the intervention group were drug free, compared with 12.8 percent of the control group. "This study not only shows that this type of intervention provides true benefits in reducing cocaine and heroin abuse, it also suggests that peer interventionists can play an important role in busy clinical environments," says Dr. Volkow.

6-Jan-05 11:00 AM

ER Patients with Addictions Cost More

noemail@statewidetraining.org — Thu, 06 Jan 2005 17:00:00 GMT

ER Patients with Addictions Cost More 1/5/2005 A new study examining emergency department patients finds that those with unmet addiction treatment needs incur higher hospital and emergency department charges than other patients, Medical News Today reported Dec. 21. According to the study, "Unmet Substance Abuse Treatment Need, Health Services Utilization, and Cost: A Population-Based Emergency Department Study," ER patients with unmet treatment needs are 81 percent more likely to be admitted during their emergency visit, and 46 percent more likely to have reported making at least one emergency department visit in the previous 12 months. The study, led by Ian Rockett, Ph.D., from the West Virginia University Department of Community Medicine and Center for Rural Emergency Medicine, focused on emergency-room patients in Tennessee, where less than 10 percent of patients needing addiction treatment were currently receiving it. According to the research, Tennessee patients with unmet treatment needs who received emergency medical services accounted for $777.2 million in extra hospital charges for the state in 2000, which translates to an additional $1,568 for each emergency patient with an addiction problem that wasn't addressed. "We predict that systematically addressing substance-abuse problems in emergency departments would produce major savings in time, resources, and costs," Rockett said. "In exacerbating the workloads of very busy hospital staff, emergency patients with unmet substance-abuse treatment need add many millions of dollars to annual healthcare costs. Our research findings speak to the importance of identifying them as substance abusers -- either for a brief intervention or to refer them to substance-abuse treatment as appropriate. The emergency department visit itself can represent a teachable moment for a patient." The study's findings are published in the online edition of Annals of Emergency Medicine.

6-Jan-05 11:00 AM

Study: Only Moderate Drinking Prevents Stroke

noemail@statewidetraining.org — Thu, 06 Jan 2005 17:00:00 GMT

Study: Only Moderate Drinking Prevents Stroke 1/5/2005 A new study says that one drink every other day of red wine is the best way to lower the risk of stroke, Health Day News reported Jan. 3. According to researchers at Harvard Medical School, men who consumed no more than one alcoholic drink every other day had a 32 percent lower risk of stroke compared with nondrinkers. Furthermore, red wine offers the most benefits. The 14-year study was based on data collected on 38,156 men who participated in the Harvard School of Public Health's Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Every four years from 1986 to 2000, participants completed questionnaires about their diet and how much they drank. Those who drank more, the study showed, had an increased risk for cardiovascular problems. For instance, men who drank three or more glasses of alcohol a day increased their risk of stroke by nearly 45 percent, compared with nondrinkers. "There has been an assumption that moderate drinking prevents heart attacks and prevents strokes," said study author Dr. Kenneth Mukamal, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. "In the last few years, it has become increasingly clear that that might not be the case for stroke. As men drink more, the risk for stroke becomes particularly clear." Mukamal said the findings would likely hold true for women, as well. The study's findings are published in the Jan. 4 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

6-Jan-05 11:00 AM

Tucson City Buses Help Youngsters Find Safe Haven

noemail@statewidetraining.org — Thu, 06 Jan 2005 17:00:00 GMT

Tucson City Buses Help Youngsters Find Safe Haven 1/5/2005 The city bus authority in Tucson, Ariz., has partnered with Project Safe Place's Open Inn initiative, which helps young people in an effort to prevent homelessness, drug use, and other problems, the Tucson Citizen reported Jan. 5. Under the program, drivers of the city's 189 buses will provide young people in distress with a free ride while they radio their dispatcher to contact Open Inn, which provides social services to youths and families in crisis. Once contacted, an Open Inn outreach worker will meet the youth at a bus stop along the driver's route. "We're trying to catch folks before they run away," said Jason Thorpe, Open Inn's community education and outreach coordinator. "If they stay on the streets for 48 hours, they stay there longer. There's so much substance abuse and so many predatory adults who victimize young people on the streets. The culture so quickly grabs them in." Open Inn assigns a counselor and provides referrals for shelter and other services. According to Thorpe, Project Safe Place is aimed at young people up to age 18 who have been sexually, physically, or verbally abused, who are at risk for alcohol or other drug addiction, and may be a runaway or facing homelessness.

6-Jan-05 11:00 AM

Holidays Challenging for Recovering Addicts

noemail@statewidetraining.org — Thu, 06 Jan 2005 17:00:00 GMT

Holidays Challenging for Recovering Addicts 1/4/2005 For individuals recovering from alcohol and other drug addiction, the holidays present a challenging time. As a result, Jan. 2 is historically a peak day to enter rehabilitation, the Christian Science Monitor reported Dec. 29. "The holidays have always been somewhat sad for me, the loneliness and challenges of staying sober," said David Sykes of New York. "But this year is going to be a good year." Sykes spent Christmas Day helping out at a party at Odyssey House, a residential treatment center. He said it was part of his strategy to prevent relapsing. Like Sykes, million of recovering addicts have been using prayer, support groups, and other methods to cope with holiday emotions that could trigger a relapse. The problem has become so widespread that for the first time this year, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) has launched a national awareness campaign to help recovering addicts and their family and friends understand and recognize triggering factors behind addiction so that they can be averted. "Substance abuse touches all people, all areas of our society, all families have had personal experience with it," said John Walters, head of the ONDCP. "We have to help the larger community understand that some celebration practices can trigger the pain that is at the root of substance abuse." While alcohol and other drug treatment centers see a decline in admissions from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day, admissions generally increase significantly on Jan. 2. "It's literally the busiest day for our admissions office," said Dr. Peter Provet, president of Odyssey House.

6-Jan-05 11:00 AM