In the 1980s, an analogy of a frying pan with a sizzling egg was used to convey the message of the harm brought about by illicit drugs. “This is your brain on drugs,” a man said, pointing at the frying pan, in what many considered a classic anti-drug public service announcement (PSA). In 2016, almost […]

For many years, people have fought to have advertisements for beer and hard liquor removed from anywhere children are likely to congregate – schools, playgrounds, libraries and residential neighborhoods. Since marijuana has become legal for recreational use in certain areas, that fight has now come to include banning the advertising of marijuana use on billboards […]

  On Jan. 23-29, National Drug and Alcohol Facts Week (NDAFW), a national health observance for teens, will seek to shatter myths about drugs and alcohol. The observance is promoted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), both of which are part of the […]

There are approximately 67,000 pharmacies located in the United States, and nearly 70 percent of all Americans take at least one prescription medication on a daily basis. Prescription drugs are a billion dollar industry and can cause serious side effects including addiction. The process of obtaining a prescription medication is not difficult; people can pick […]

In the year 2012, physicians wrote out over 259 million prescriptions for opioid pain killers. This staggering number is enough to provide one prescription to every adult in the country. At the same time that doctors are prescribing more and more opioids, opioid addiction and misuse has reached epidemic proportions. Deaths due to opioid overdose […]

The legalities, health benefits and behavioral and mental implications related to marijuana have attracted political attention from many different communities. In an important election year, marijuana has been a hot topic for debate and is still controversial. With a strict federal ban but very lenient regulations on the statewide level, the legalities of this natural […]

Pain is one of the most common reasons individuals seek medical attention. The pain pathway in the brain is complex, and as a result, pain can manifest in multiple ways — such as musculoskeletal pain, visceral pain (lining in the gut) and neuralgia (nerve pain). Treating pain is difficult, and many believe the publicized opioid […]

Mental health conditions do not occur in a vacuum. The same can also be said about substance abuse disorders (SUDs). The Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration notes nearly 8 million Americans had co-occurring disorders in 2014. As far back as 2001, researchers established the relationship between mental health disorders and SUDs. The existence of […]

Teenagers drink. In fact, underage drinkers tend to consume even more drinks per occasion than adult drinkers. According to the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), roughly 5.4 million people (or 14.2 percent) between the ages 12 and 20 not only drink alcohol, but engage in binge drinking behavior. Binge drinking is […]

For children who identify as transgender, going through puberty as their birth sex can be a traumatic, disorienting experience. They may fear their own bodies, question their identity and hide away from the world around them. “My son got his period at age 12 and a half, and we both cried,” writes Mary Moss in […]