Researchers at Columbia University say that drivers who smoke marijuana and drive within three hours of using it are two times more likely than other drivers to become involved in an automobile accident, according to a recent post on USA Today. They also said that users face higher risks of crashes if they smoke it more often or have larger concentrations of marijuana compounds in their blood.

The researchers’ findings are shown in a recent journal review showing that in eight of nine studies done drivers were at twice the risk for vehicle crashes. These are significant findings since national debate is heating up over the issue of legalizing marijuana. A recent Gallup poll shows that half of adult Americans favor the legalization of marijuana and that number is up from just 36 percent in 2006.

Statistics show that marijuana was the most commonly found substance those drivers in vehicle accidents tested positive for when testing for non-alcoholic drugs. Analysis showed that of the 28 percent killed in vehicular accidents, over 11 percent of the general population of drivers tested positive for drugs other than alcohol and marijuana was most common.

Professor Guohua Li at Columbia University says that if these facts are further confirmed by more research, this will have major impact on driving safety and the public policy that surrounds it. Furthermore, it would play a key role when it comes to policy making and the use of medical marijuana, says Li.

This is quite a large problem and if more states like California allow the medical use of marijuana, it could grow even bigger. In 2009 the National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimated that over 10 million people ages 12 and up have driven while under the influence of illegal drugs.

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For the 15 million who struggle with out of control spending in the U.S., the holiday season can be extremely challenging, says the American Psychological Association. Just checking emails can be a constant struggle to control urges to spend money. Experts say also that with all the so-called "online deals" and "free upgrades" controlling these impulses reaches an all-time high during the holidays.

A recent online article refers to the latest triggers for compulsive spending, coupon sites that offer easy accessibility such as Groupon. These sites offer deals at a discount that draw shoppers in. The anonymity online shopping gives shoppers leads to increased spending as well.

The cause of compulsive spending can vary but experts say shopping is one way to mask bad feelings and memories. This then can turn a normal, enjoyable activity into a preoccupation and lead to damaging consequences.

Compulsive spending and buying may soon be considered as definite disorders of their own. Usually, like gambling, it’s treated as a disorder of impulse control and is considered to cause the same euphoria and heart-pounding feelings. One expert in Illinois, said in the past year, Proctor’s 800 numbers have increased by up to 50 percent relating to spending and shopping.

Compulsive spending is difficult to break free from without outside assistance. The normal protocol for treatment of compulsive spending has been outpatient therapy and 12-step programs but sometimes may even include hospitalization.

Society has yet to recognize this problem as an addiction but it is a real and increasingly common struggle.

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According to a recent report from New Delhi, many teenagers are spending such excessive amounts of time involved with some form of technology that they are developing resulting health problems. Devices such as cell phones, computers and video games are causing teenagers to lose healthy sleep patterns resulting in depression and obesity, highlighted a recent news article.

Children are spending more than eight hours daily playing with these types of gadgets or they are watching TV because both parents are typically working. Over 2,500 children were surveyed in 10 major Indian cities such as Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai. The majority of children interviewed said they got less than 8 hours of sleep and were aged 10 to 18 years old. Researchers found that because the children lacked supervision by their parents, they tended to become technology-addicted in their free time.

New technologies that provide these types of social networking sites are keeping children engaged with their friends 24/7. Single-parent households were better off in terms of healthier technology habits. Households where both parents worked certainly had the disadvantage because the lack of supervision led to increased addictions with technological gadgets. The trend was highest in the metropolitan cities where both parents worked outside the home. With smart phones offering all the social networking sites available, the teenagers are excessively using them to constantly engage in conversations and chats with their friends making them more fatigued and restless.

This is a growing and disturbing trend among our teenagers and parents need to be more aware of how much time their children are using such devices and find a way to monitor it for the sake of their health.

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A recent study points to pornography, alcohol, drugs and peer pressure as having connections to teen girls engaging in sex with multiple partners at the same time, or group sex.

A study conducted by Boston University School of Public Health found that of nearly 330 girls ages 14 to 20, more than seven percent had participated in a group sex activity. The girls who had viewed pornographic material in the last 30 days had a five times higher likelihood of saying they had participated in group sex, and noted a strong connection between teen viewing of pornography and being pressured to perform acts their partner had seen in the materials.

Similarly, the study also found that the teen girls who had experience with group sex had a higher occurrence of being a victim of sexual abuse as a child, in comparison to other teens who hadn’t participated in group sex. During the study, researchers acquired 328 surveys from teen girls who visited a health clinic, either at their school or in the community. Questions pertained to their sexual activity as a group, including consensual group sex or gang rape situations. The term researchers use, multi-person sex, also includes activities like teen parties based on having sex with multiple people.

Of the participants, the initial group sex activity occurred on average at 15.5 years old. Researchers also point out that more than half who had engaged in multiple-partner sex said they had experienced pressure to do so. Nearly half (45 percent) said the male partner had not used a condom.

Researchers also found a connection between multiple-partner sex and alcohol or drugs. Nearly 33 percent of the participants who had engaged in group sex said they had also used alcohol or drugs before the interaction. Fifty percent believed their alcohol or drug consumption was promoted and encouraged by a partner to the point of being involuntary.

In addition to questions about group sex, researchers asked the participants about other risky behaviors, including smoking, being victimized on a date or occurrence of an STD. They found that the girls who were involved in multiple-partner sex were also involved in these behaviors or reported these experiences more often.

Researchers continue to stress, as published in the study article in Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, that more than half of the sexual encounters in a group situation took place without a condom. It also highlighted that most of the girls said they felt threatened, forced or pressured to take part in multiple-partner sex. They hope more education and information about group sex will help teens avoid the behavior and its lifelong physical and emotional consequences. These include reproductive problems later in life and a higher risk for other dangerous behaviors.

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It’s hard to understand why a million dollar athlete would risk his career selling drugs on the streets of Chicago. This is a perfect example of how our choices have consequences. Sam Hurd’s choice may very well cause himself and the NFL some disturbing consequences.

The charges surrounding Hurd are for intended distribution of cocaine to almost two dozen NFL players that apparently are being investigated by local Chicago police. This story could pose a major scandal for NFL owners and their top officials as the league assesses how to prevent these types of issues from affecting the game.

According to a recent article, Hurd was arrested last week on an alleged attempt to buy cocaine from an undercover agent. He was reported to have purchased around $700K in marijuana and cocaine.

Chicago authorities portray Hurd as one of the most prominent drug dealers in the Chicago area and say he was involved in roughly $2 million of drug business each month and aspired to do more. If the allegations pan out to be true, it would appear his primary occupation was as drug dealer and football was secondary.

Hurd will likely face a trial scheduled for next year and if convicted he will face somewhere between five and 40 years of prison time. His career is definitely in danger as he was waived just last Friday by the Chicago Bears. The NFL has had several scandals in recent years with Michael Vick and Plaxico Burress and now will be facing some troubling questions about their players who choose to engage in illegal activity.

This incident raises concerns as to how the Bears organization could not have known about this if Hurd was such a prominent drug dealer in the Chicago area.

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The dangers of video game use have long been debated in the media. Parents have been cautioned about the risks of allowing their children to play violent video games, with statistics being cited about how many violent deaths children witness in a year. The fear of exposure to violence is now being augmented by reports of a connection between screen time and obesity levels among children.

While no one study has shown conclusive evidence that video games are dangerous for children, there have been multiple studies over the years that have been given attention in the media. Another such study was recently conducted by the Radiological Society of North America. The study showed the impact of video games on certain functions of the brain.

The study focused on a short period of intense video game play, followed by an examination of the brain for changes that might represent long-term differences in brain functioning.

The researchers recruited 22 young adult men between the ages of 18 and 29. Half of the participants were asked to play 10 hours of video games for the first week and then abstain from any video game play the next week. The video games were considered violent in nature. The other half of the participants were instructed not to participate in any video game playing at all during the course of the two-week period.

The participants were each given tests using MRI to examine their brain functions during the exercises. The MRIs were conducted before the video game playing began, during the two-week period and after the course of video game play was complete.

The analysis showed evidence that during the week following the violent video game play, the left inferior lobe exhibited less activity during an emotional test and a reduced level of activity in the anterior cingulated cortex while the participants were completing a counting test. The authors of the study believe that the results indicate a long-term change in the brain following video game play.

In addition to the publication of the study, there has been increasing interest in the inclusion of video game addiction to the DSM for the fifth edition. While the experts involved with the DSM consider the evidence for video game addiction, some hope that it will be included in order to bring more attention to the problem and funding for research.

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Gambling is often introduced into communities with promises of new jobs and funding for local education. While mammoth casinos can generate a large number of jobs for the surrounding population, there have been questions raised in many states about whether the income from casinos ever reaches schools in the ways promised.

In addition, with the increase of online gambling, pathological gambling is suspected to have increased significantly in recent years. While the research on that topic is in initial stages, there are high costs associated with pathological gambling behaviors. Like other pathological behavior patterns, problematic gambling can result in loss of employment and financial difficulties.

A report from the Illinois Family Institute highlights the cost to the public. The toll on the public from pathological gambling for treatment and other support for those with a problem may outweigh any economic benefit to the community. The report is issued at a time when Illinois lawmakers are considering a bill that would approve a large increase in gambling in that state.

The report cites a National Gambling Impact Study Commission analysis that indicates that approximately 15 million Americans struggle with a gambling problem or have been diagnosed with a pathological gambling addiction. In addition, the analysis shows that proximity to a casino is a significant predictor of gambling problems. Addiction rates are twice as high within a 50-mile radius of a casino.

There are certain symptoms that help clinicians identify a case of pathological gambling, provided by the American Psychiatric Association. For some, gambling is a problem, but for pathological gamblers, life begins to fall apart. Pathological gamblers are identified by their need to borrow money to cover their losses, participating in illegal activities in order to obtain money for continued gambling, lying about the extent of their gambling activities, and gambling ever-larger amounts to try to cover losses.

Just as in other types of pathological addictions, such as alcoholism, the effects of the condition reach beyond the individual. Divorce rates are higher for those with a pathological gambling problem when compared with non-gambling individuals. In addition, there are more cases of neglect and abuse. There are even instances reported in which young children have died in a hot car because their parent was gambling. Suicide rates are also higher for pathological gamblers.

The report cites a book by an economist, Earl Grinols, who makes a case for the excessive cost of pathological gambling. Grinols’ book, "Gambling in America: Costs and Benefits," states that the costs of gambling in a community outweigh the benefits by a three-to-one ratio.

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Though gaining more attention, women whose spouse is involved in sexual addiction – or men whose wives are involved in the addiction – are still keeping their emotions toward the addiction quiet.

Recent posts are addressing the reality of sexual addiction within marriage. This includes strong feelings of shame, anger, guilt and depression. Most spouses say finding out their partner has a sexual addiction is similar to finding out their partner has had an affair, even if physical sex hasn’t happened outside of the marriage.

For many others, learning about the sexual addiction brings to light a series of sexual relationships with multiple partners and causes the spouse to question the nature of the addiction and whether or not they may have had a role in its development.

Sexual addiction, like addictions to drugs or alcohol, is believed to involve biological factors as well as psychological factors. Brain-imaging studies are increasingly pointing to the similarities between sexual addiction and cocaine addiction, as well as the changes that take place at the brain level during the addiction.

Emotionally, sexual addiction brings both partners strong feelings of shame and guilt, and professional help is needed to work through these successfully. Some experts believe people undergo a reaction of trauma when a partner’s addiction is learned; others believe the grief-based reaction may be strongest. Still other professionals in sexual addiction focus on helping the spouse repair deep wounds to their sense of self-worth that a partner’s sexual addiction brings.

Research indicates marriages are more successful at sexual addiction recovery when both partners participate in professionally guided counseling or therapy, and as the disease becomes more known worldwide, new treatment centers are becoming more available.

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Please come and support us during the Leominster Summer Stroll by stopping by our bake Sale to support the Montachusett Addiction Council (MAC Center)

When: Saturday June 25th from 1-5pm (raindate Sunday 6/26)

Where: Walgreens Pharmacy, 25 Central Street, Leominster, MA

(Same day as summer stroll, please come by and support us!)

Donated home baked goods from “Manna from Heaven”, Jack and Judy LaFave’s fledgling bakery business.

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The MAC Center is proud to announce the opening of four new Narcotics Anonymous meetings at our new hall on 54 Main Street. They are:

Sunday Mornings – 8:00 AM to 9:30 AM
Leominster Mens Group
A Topic Discussion NA Meeting for Men

Monday Nights: 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Discover and Recover
A Closed NA Step Meeting for Addicts Only

Wednesday Mornings: 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM
AM Throwdown
A Mid-Week Just for Today Meeting

Saturday Mornings: 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM
Saturday Just for Today

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