Joint Study Shows Dangerous Heroin Use Trends in Colombia and U.S.

Posted by azdrugrehabctr on March 22, 2016 under Addiction Trends, Opiate Abuse | Comments are off for this article

In order to help reduce the opioid epidemic in the United States and elsewhere, many officials believe that the supply must be addressed. This means that our nation must work with other countries that are the highest producers of heroin. Collaboration between the United States and countries like Colombia are intended to prevent the creation of heroin and simultaneously stifle the demand for the dangerous drug.

Addicts in the United States have increased the overall demand for heroin, and manufacturers in South America have continued to answer with millions of dollars of the drug being smuggled into the country daily. Researchers in the U.S. and Columbia were recently commissioned from the Colombian Ministry of Health and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to analyze information on addicts in both countries. The researchers discovered that an ongoing dangerous trend is the sharing of dirty needles.

Pedro Mateo-Gelabert was the lead researcher on the study that revealed that a high percentage of addicts in both countries were participating in needle-sharing, cross contamination of heroin cookers, sharing filters and water used to mix with the drug. These behaviors likely answer the question that both countries had regarding the increase of patients showing signs of HIV and hepatitis, since both diseases are easily spread through shared needles.

The researchers not only discovered that these types of behaviors were occurring, but they also were able to find out why many users feel that it is ok to share needles. In fact, 43% of those that were polled admitted to sharing needles because they could not obtain enough clean ones and had to resort to using someone else’s. However, a whopping 33% of users believed that it was safe to share needles, as long as they were selective with who they were sharing with.

One reason why needle-sharing may be gaining in popularity is the fact that many heroin users are young, and have not been educated enough on the dangers of sharing needles. “Both countries deal with a new generation of young injectors, in Colombia, driven by heroin production, in the US, driven by the recent epidemic of prescription opioid misuse in you which has evolved into widespread injection drug use,” explained Pedro Mateu-Gelabert.

One of the goals of reducing the harm associated with heroin addiction is to provide clean needles to stop or slow the spread of such diseases while also diverting more people into treatment programs to help them recover from addiction.

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Doctors Who are Warned Against Over Prescription May Not Be Listening

Posted by azdrugrehabctr on March 8, 2016 under Addiction Trends, AZ Drug Rehab News, Prescription Drugs | Comments are off for this article

The over prescription of drugs like Oxycontin, Percocet or Xanax have led to countless painkiller and benzodiazepine addictions. The prescription abuse problem in the United States has skyrocketed over the last few years with overdose deaths having quadrupled in the last fifteen years.

However, despite the overwhelming data that prescription abuse is a serious problem in this country, many doctors are still prescribing large amounts of the drugs. Some are not changing their prescribing practices even if the patient experiences an overdose and are also not responding to warnings by the U.S government or the public.

As a way to determine what an effective warning to doctors would be, a research team led by Adam Sacarny of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York City decided to track doctors who received letters warning them that they were prescribing too much of a certain painkiller or benzodiazepine.

In order to conduct the study, the research team looked to locate doctors who were prescribing more than their neighboring peers. Once these doctors were located, the team monitored their prescription practices after they were sent a letter from Medicare stating the problem of their over prescription. Despite receiving the letter, the prescribing practices did not cease. This was interesting to the researchers because in the past, letters from Medicare comparing local vaccinations had helped to bring up the amount of vaccinations patients were receiving from a doctor that was falling behind to his peers.

A total of 1,525 doctors were sent the letters warning them that they were prescribing more narcotic painkillers or benzodiazepines than other doctors. The doctors that were singled out to receive a letter because they were prescribing over 400% more painkillers and benzodiazepines than other nearby physicians. Unfortunately, the letters from Medicare did not seem very effective. In fact, the research team witnessed no significant change at all.

While the letters may have worked in the past for other issues, it is clear that a clearer message will be needed in order to safely bring down the amount of narcotics that are being prescribed to patients throughout the country.

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