Most drivers and passengers are aware of the risks of drunk driving. But are you aware of the risks of drugged driving?  From cold medicine to prescription medication to illegal substances, drugs can affect the way you drive and may significantly impair your ability to drive safely.

Consider the Facts

• According to the DEA, 3.6% of the U.S. population reported driving under the influence of illegal drugs in 2001.
• The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported that illegal drugs are used by approximately 10-22 percent of drivers involved in all motor vehicle crashes.
• According to the White House report on drugged driving, even drugs prescribed by a physician, can impair perception, judgment, motor skills, and memory

The Risks
Not every drug affects people the same way. One illegal drug might slow a driver down, causing delayed reaction times and additional risks as a result. Another might impair judgment, causing erratic or reckless driving. Another drug might cause changes in behavior that lead to aggressive driving. Some painkillers make drivers sleepy and sluggish, and thus dangerous behind the wheel. Because drivers may have both alcohol and drugs in their system, it isn’t always easy to pinpoint exactly what caused the impairment. It’s difficult to characterize the specific impairments of driving drugged because of the broad spectrum of effects of being on various drugs. Despite this, it’s important to focus on the fact that any drug that affects things like mood, judgment and motor skills has the ability to significantly impair driving.

The Bottom Line
Drugged drivers shouldn’t get behind the wheel. Passengers should not get in the car with someone who is on drugs. Teens may not understand that smoking a joint and driving is as serious as having several beers and driving. Unfortunately, this kind of casual attitude toward drugged driving can lead to motor vehicle accidents and death. Consider that according to the CDC, motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death among young people aged 16 to 19. Set an example by never getting behind the wheel when taking drugs that can cause impairment. Talk to your teen about drugged driving and the risks. Make sure that your teen understands that drugged driving and drunk driving are equally risky and illegal.

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As your child navigates the teen years, you may find yourself questioning your ability to trust her. She may be hanging out with new friends or exhibiting troubling behaviors. If you find yourself leaning toward testing your teen for drugs, consider the topic carefully.

Ask Yourself Why
What is prompting you to consider drug testing your teen? Could your child’s negative behaviors be attributed to issues other than drugs or alcohol? If you haven’t sat down and had a serious talk with your teen about drug use, don’t spring a drug test out as the first defense. Establish a conversation and open yourself up as a sounding board for troubles—especially if your teen is acting withdrawn or depressed. You may end up learning that his behavior is due to other issues.

Consider Your Options
The most common type of drug test is a urine test. You’ve probably experienced one at some point or another as an employee. They’re cheap and easy, but they’re also relatively unreliable. Many common street drugs won’t show up, while others like marijuana may show up weeks after your child quit smoking it. Certain medications can affect the results as well. Alcohol will not show up in a drug test. Urine tests can be administered by your pediatrician or at home, but both types may influence your teen’s trust and may not actually deter drug use.

Consider Your Goals
What do you hope to achieve from a drug test? If you discover that your child is abusing drugs, do you have a game plan? If your child is opposed to the idea, you may be better off approaching the situation the same way, without resorting to drug testing. However, if your child wants to go ahead with a test to prove himself, that may be a more positive situation for your family. Regardless of what you hope to discover, you should plan ahead for any outcomes and should be working closely with your pediatrician to fight drug abuse.

Don’t Force It
The American Academy of Pediatrics opposes forced drug tests for teens. In the context of your family’s dynamic, involuntary drug testing can foster mistrust and resentful behavior in the future. Your teen may be more likely to hide things from you if she already thinks you don’t trust her or that you’ll invade her privacy against her will.

The LiveFree! Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition is a coalition of members of the community who strive to address alcohol and drug use in Pinellas County. Visit us online today to see how you can get involved in this cause that is so important to our community.

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Just when Florida residents thought something was finally being done about the pill mill problem, another legislature takes office and efforts are halted. With all of the media coverage about prescription drug use and pill mills in Florida, it’s hard to sift through the anger and opinions to see what is really going on in Tallahassee to stop pain clinics from prescribing irresponsible amounts of pain medication.

One thing is for sure—the state of Florida has a problem with prescription drugs. At its worst point, pill mills were popping up everywhere in Florida, mostly in Broward County, advertising on-site dispensing and cash-only transactions.

According to Time magazine, in 2008 the nation’s top 25 oxycodone-dispensing doctors were all in Florida. Of those, 18 of them were in Broward County. Because of this, Florida has developed the reputation of being a one-stop shop for pain medication needs. Tourists now flock to Florida to feed their pain med addiction from states with stricter regulations.

That was until advocates for stronger regulations finally got their wish and new rules and restrictions were passed in September of last year.

“Pill Mill Bill” Restrictions and Regulations

• All privately owned clinics advertising pain-management services must register with the Department of Health (with some exceptions).
• All clinics must be fully owned by a physician or be a licensed "health care clinic."
• A doctor must examine a patient on the same day that he dispenses or prescribes pain medication and cannot dispense more than a 72-hour dose for patients paying by cash, check, or credit card (not insurance). When prescribing for longer periods, the doctor must note the reason in the patient’s records.
• The Department of Health will inspect clinics and review patient records annually.
• Clinics can get fined up to $5,000 per violation.

Some criticize the law for having loop holes, or not requiring pain clinics to actually enter patient prescriptions into a shared database. Regardless of flaws, according to a study done by the St. Petersburg Times, about three dozen pain clinics have had their licenses revoked or have closed since officials started enforcing the law that took effect in October.

So What Happened?

Last year, the Republican Legislature proposed a bill (House Bill 1565), which would require legislative approval of rules that are forecast to cost at least $1 million over a five-year period. Once the bill made it to the governor’s desk, Governor Charlie Christ vetoed it in fear of halting all new and positive government reform. Christ’s veto on House Bill 1565 was what kept the regulation flowing and the enforcement of pain clinic regulations to occur.

Then Governor Scott took office. His first order of business was to freeze all new rules and state contracts worth more than $1 million until his newly created Office of Fiscal Accountability and Regulatory Reform could review them. Scott’s vision of “getting government out of the way” and prohibiting imposing governmental regulations on the private sector ultimately halted the efforts to shut down the very pain clinics that help to feed the illegal pill pipeline.

"This state can’t afford the luxury of waiting for another layer of bureaucrats to sift through contracts already examined by other bureaucrats and given the green light to keep Florida moving," said Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich.

The Florida Board of Medicine Steps In

After further review of the laws that have been passed, revoked and halted, the Florida Board of Medicine took a deep look into the law books and decided to take matters into their own hands.

Despite the ban on rulemaking, they unanimously passed rules for medical doctors who work in pain clinics.

Although these regulations will impose an estimated $65 million in costs (which are almost entirely from a requirement for periodic urine screenings) on the private sector, the Florida Board of Medicine is encouraging their staff to send letters to the legislature urging immediate implementation due to the public threat pill mills have created in Florida.

Pain medication overdose kills seven Floridians a day and affects the lives of friends and loved ones everywhere. These highly addictive drugs are making their way not only into addicts’ hands, but into our children’s hands. According to pharmacist Larry Golbon, “The cost of leaving the pain-clinic industry unregulated is high in both dollars and emotional turmoil for the families of those who die.”

If you would like to find out more information on addiction, or keeping your children from experimenting with drugs, visit our website here: Pinellas Coalition or our weekly blog here: Livefree!

Sources:

TIME Magazine

Broward/Palm Beach New Times

The Huffington Post

St. Petersburg Times

Palm Beach Post

The TBO Online

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We all agree that drug addiction is a problem. The problem is present right here in Pinellas County and affects people from all neighborhoods and walks of life. One of the issues that we have as a community with drug addiction, is that many people do not truly understand the nature of drug addiction. They feel that drugs are a behavioral problem at worst and that if people just devoted some will power to not doing drugs, then they would beat addiction. This misconception hurts us as a community in two ways:

1. It leads non-users to think that addiction is not a real problem, and so they don’t take it seriously, nor do they put proper support behind prevention and treatment initiatives.
2. It causes some people to begin to use drugs because they do not understand the consequences of addiction. Ironically enough, this misconception about addiction can actually help create addicts.

Drug use starts off as a behavioral issue. People use drugs to fit in or because they think that they will help alleviate stress. The fact is that once you introduce drugs to your body, the chemicals in the drugs immediately begin to interact with you physiologically. This interaction between the chemicals in drugs and your body is what causes both the “high” associated with drug use and addiction.

The Biology of Addiction

Your brain has receptors in it that interact with chemicals in the body. Ideally these receptors would only interact with chemicals that your body creates naturally. Drugs introduce chemicals to the body that can directly interact with these receptors or that cause the body to overproduce otherwise natural chemicals. One of the chemicals generally involved with drug use is called dopamine. Dopamine is naturally created in the brain. It is present in parts of the brain that control:

• Movement
• Emotions
• Motivation
• Pleasure

Many drugs cause the brain to create extra dopamine. This extra dopamine causes the “high” that users enjoy. The problem is that your brain gets used to these elevated levels of dopamine. It begins to require them on a regular basis, making it difficult to even be happy without elevated levels. Due to the fact that drug use is what creates the elevated levels of dopamine, your brain begins to associate drug use with happiness and even normalcy. In addition to this, the brain begins to develop a tolerance to dopamine. As the tolerance builds, the brain requires more dopamine to achieve a “high” for the user. This means that drugs must be taken either more frequently, in larger quantities or both. This is how addiction begins. Keep in mind that this whole process happens inside the brain; users are not cognizant of the process and by the time they realize what has happened (if they do at all) they are addicted.

Due to the physical changes that take place within the body, it is impossible to view drug addiction as anything but a disease. It is easy to catch any disease if you are exposed to the causes, and without proper treatment it is next to impossible to overcome a disease. This is just as true with drug addiction as it is with diseases such as breast cancer or HIV.

What Can We Do

Now that we have established that drug addiction is a disease that changes the body, the key is to educate others.

• Draw comparisons between drug addiction and other common diseases that people are more apt to identify with.
• Reinforce that addiction is an epidemic that needs to be addressed both before and after it happens (i.e., we need both prevention programs to stop it from starting and treatment programs to help those who are addicted).
• Have open and honest communication with your children about drugs. Be realistic with them instead of preachy. It isn’t difficult to point out the negative aspects of addiction.

Sources:

BBC

National Institute on Drug Abuse

The Addiction Resource Center

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