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Category: Cocaine

  • Teens and drugs: Drug use statistics and treatment that works

    Here are some drug use statistics: Over 80% of teens engage in some form of deviant behavior (1). Over 50% of high-school seniors admit to having used drugs (2). Only 10%-15% of the population develop drug addiction problems related to their drug use (1). The question is: If the majority of teens experiment with drug…

  • Addiction stories: How I recovered from my addiction to crystal meth

    By the time I was done with my addiction to crystal meth, I had racked up 4 arrests, 9 felonies, a $750,000 bail, a year in jail, and an eight year suspended sentence to go along with my 5 year probation period. Though I think education is important to keep getting the message out about…

  • More money more problems? Rich teens and drugs

    Teens raised in affluent homes display the highest rates of depression, anxiety, and drug abuse according to a recent article in Monitor on Psychology, the APA‘s monthly magazine. One of our recent posts dealt with some of the issues unique to teens and drugs. In addition to the issues we’d already mentioned, the article named…

  • The brain after cocaine – White matter damage and addiction treatment

    The brain damage left behind after long-term cocaine use can apparently tell us quite a bit about how well a cocaine addict will do in addiction treatment – as long as we assess the right kind of damage. Different kinds of brain matter I’ve talked before about the fact that use of cocaine, and other…

  • Drug use cravings, obsessions, and trying to get clean…

    When I first got sober, everything I thought about had something to do with drugs. It wasn’t just that I always thought of getting high, but everything in my life was tied to drugs, especially crystal meth. My drug use centered life I used to make music in my studio, but I was always smoking…

  • Time to get high- Circadian rhythms and drug use

    Contributing Co-Author: Andrew Chen Like most living creatures, humans have internal biological clocks known as circadian rhythms. These internal cycles synchronize our bodies with the Earth’s 24-hour day/night cycle and prepare us for predictable daily events (1). Circadian rhythms regulate a number of bodily functions including temperature, hormone secretion, bowel movements, and sleep (2). Recent…

  • 80s style is back, cocaine use included!

    Everyone knows that trends come back around, and with the resurgent popularity of gigantic sunglasses, eye-bleeding neon, electronic music and metallic spandex (or so we at A3 are told), it seems that the 1980’s have firmly replanted their flag in the public consciousness, down to a sequel to that seminal testament to 80’s excess, Wall…

  • Triggers and relapse, a craving connection for addicts

    I’ve already written about one reason why cravings make quitting difficult (find it here). However, cravings and triggers are not just abstract concepts; they are well known, important players in addiction research and I think they deserve some more attention. What are triggers? A trigger can be thought of as anything that brings back thoughts,…

  • Ancestry, Addiction, and trauma – Addiction research into genetic differences based on race

    We all know that drug use and drug related crimes are a big problem within African American communities. It’s not a secret, but it can be interpreted very differently by different people. Do the differences between African Americans and Americans from European descent mean that Black people are simply meant to have more problems? A…

  • Smoking cigarettes just makes it better… The enhancement effect of nicotine

    A recent study by a Kansas state researcher (find it here) reports that part of the power of nicotine may be in its enhancement of other experiences that go hand in hand with it. While the online source I included suggests that nicotine’s effect may be only in this indirect enhancement, my reading of the…