Surgeon General Reveals Upcoming Release of Substance Abuse Initiative

Posted by azdrugrehabctr on October 8, 2015 under Addiction Trends | Comments are off for this article

The United States Surgeon General is the top spokesperson regarding medical issues and concerns in the United States. Several decades ago the Surgeon General came out with a warning on tobacco. Until that time the majority of the population considered cigarettes and other tobacco products to be safe and ok for consumption. Experts credit the study for drastically reducing the amount of people that use tobacco products. This landmark study illustrates the power of the Surgeon General. The office is hoping to duplicate their success with tobacco when it comes to illegal and prescription drug abuse.

The Office of the Surgeon General announced that it would be releasing information from a comprehensive study in 2016 that encompasses all illegal and prescription narcotics. The goal of the study is to examine all the relevant medical research that has been conducted over the years and compile it into one package. This will allow medical professionals, behavioral health professionals and members of the general public to better understand the specific risks imposed by drug consumption.

“We’re going to look at the best science on everything, from heroin and marijuana, to alcohol and prescription opioids. And we’re going to launch a national campaign to tackle the prescription drug crisis because we know that someone dies from an opioid overdose every 24 minutes in this country,” explained Vivek Murthy, the U.S. Surgeon General.

In addition to delving into the effects of drug use on the user, the project will also investigate how families and children are affected by drug use. This is vital information because current studies show that children are more likely to abuse drugs if a close family member abuses drugs. In order to have as significant of an impact as they hope, the Surgeon General and his team will need to cover all aspects of addiction.

Once the study is completed, the idea is that the information could be used to streamline and improve treatment and prevention practices as well.