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Have You Heard About Alcohol Vaping?
If you look online, you might come to the conclusion that people have given up drinking. Instead, everyone seems to be going crazy over vaping alcohol. Dr. Alfred Aleguas of the Florida Poison Information Center at Tampa General Hospital says smoking or vaping your booze is not great for you: “Absolutely as bad as drinking, maybe worse,” he says. That’s because the vapor or fumes go straight into your lungs—without taking a detour through your stomach, intestines, and liver. Avoiding those organs allows the alcohol to absorb more quickly without being metabolized. In other words, “You have really no clue…
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North Carolina Medical Board Calls Attention to Prescription Drug Overdoses
Across Mecklenburg, Cabarrus, Gaston, Cleveland, Union and Anson counties, 134 people died from opioid overdoses in 2015. The North Carolina Medical Board is trying to stop addiction and prevent overdoses by analyzing doctors’ prescribing records and the steps they take to prevent and identify patient misuse of painkillers. “It is critical that we look at it because even one overdose or narcotic opioid poisoning is too many,” said Dr. Mark Romanoff (the Charlotte physician on the committee that created the new investigative program). The medical board is investigating 12 doctors who are considered high-dose prescribers and 60 physicians who had…
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See You at PITA IX
We are excited to present PITA IX. This is an opportunity to: connect with prevention providers across the state get an updates from the field, and receive training. Here is the full agenda for the day: NCSAPPA PITA IX Agenda If you haven’t done some already, register today!
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The Safe Opioid Prescribing Initiative
Doctors who over-prescribe OxyContin, Percocet and other narcotic painkillers known as opioids are widely seen as partly responsible for a dramatic rise in drug overdose deaths over the last two decades. Fatal overdoses kill more than 1,000 people a year in North Carolina and nearly half involve prescriptions written within 60 days of the victim’s death. Regulators seeking to curb deaths are now using a statewide database to spot potentially reckless prescribing. Click HERE for more on this story
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Senate Passes Bill to Support Substance Abuse Treatment
Responding to a drug crisis that has contributed to more American deaths than car crashes, the Senate passed a broad drug treatment and prevention bill, the largest of its kind since a law in 2008 that mandated insurance coverage for addiction treatment. The measure authorizes money for various treatment and prevention programs. It also strengthens prescription drug monitoring programs to help states and expands the availability of the drug naloxone, which helps reverse overdoses, to law enforcement agencies. It also increases disposal sites for prescription medications that are often abused by teenagers and others. “This is a strong signal that…
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Have You Heard About Alcohol Vaping?
Jul 18, 2016
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North Carolina Medical Board Calls Attention to Prescription Drug Overdoses
Jul 14, 2016
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See You at PITA IX
Jun 8, 2016
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The Safe Opioid Prescribing Initiative
May 16, 2016
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Senate Passes Bill to Support Substance Abuse Treatment
May 12, 2016
News From The Field
PDMPs Linked to Reductions in Opioid Overdose Deaths
New research funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) found that state implementation of prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) was associated with a reduction in opioid-related overdose deaths. The study, published in Health Affairs, also found that PDMPs that monitored greater numbers of drugs with abuse potential and updated their data more frequently had greater declines in opioid-related overdose deaths than programs without those characteristics. Click HERE for more on this story
SAMHSA Announces a $30,000 Opioid Recovery App Challenge
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is announcing a new challenge to help to spur developers to create a mobile application (app) that provides additional recovery support to patients receiving treatment for opioid misuse. The app may be used as part of a patient’s comprehensive treatment plan that includes counseling and participation in social support programs. The goal of this challenge is to increase access to resources, educational materials, information and support for people in outpatient recovery from opioid misuse. Click here for more information
NIH Launches Landmark Study on Substance Use and Adolescent Brain Development
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded 13 grants to research institutions around the country as part of a landmark study about the effects of adolescent substance use on the developing brain. The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study will follow approximately 10,000 children beginning at ages 9 to10, before they initiate drug use, through the period of highest risk for substance use and other mental health disorders. Scientists will track exposure to substances (including nicotine, alcohol, and marijuana), academic achievement, cognitive skills, mental health, and brain structure and function using advanced research methods. Click HERE for more in this…
Professional Development
NCFADS 2014 Summer School Scholarship Available
Apr 3, 2014
Funding Opportunities
Data & Research
The North Carolina Institute of Medicine (NCIOM)
Mar 17, 2015
Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)
Feb 27, 2015
Parents & Community
NC Law: Underage Drinking and Private Parties
Jul 29, 2015
Resource on How to Talk to Teen About Marijuana
Jun 29, 2015
Parent Further: Search Institute for Families
Mar 18, 2015
Prescription Drug Abuse Resource
Jan 8, 2015