Drug Abuse Warning Network: The Real World Health Effects of Illegal Drug Abuse

According to the Drug Abuse Warning Network, Cocaine was involved in over 380,000 emergency room visits in 2004 alone. Cocaine is extremely potent, whether taken in powder or the crack forms. Mild symptoms include increased heart rate, sleep disorders and convulsions. Snorting the drug can permanently damage nasal tissue. Cocaine interferes with brain processes, can cause heart attacks, seizures and strokes. Even first time use can cause fatal heart attacks. For those it doesn’t kill, the addiction can easily lead to habits that require thousands of dollars a week to support. Cocaine also has severe effects on the unborn. This can start at underweight babies or pre-term labor on up to miscarriage. Cocaine can cause placental wall tearing, losing the attachment to the uterus. This can kill mother and baby at birth if not detected in time. If the baby survives birth, cocaine can lead to strokes, heart attacks, urinary infections and heart defects. While it appears many babies exposed to cocaine use in the womb can eventually recover, it also appears that this doubles their chances of developmental delays.

According to the Drug Abuse Warning Network, Heroin was involved in over 160,000 emergency room visits in 2004 alone. Heroin suppresses the central nervous system, resulting in poor mental functioning, and can even suppress the autonomic functions to the point of respiratory failure. Chronic use damages the heart, liver and circulatory system and increases the risk of pulmonary issues such as pneumonia. Heroin abusers generally use injections, with associated infection risk including HIV. Additionally, the drug is often mixed with other chemicals to allow a given quantity to result in more sales, so strength is always unknown and poisons have been used to stretch the drug supply. Children who were exposed to heroin before birth will go through horrible withdrawal symptoms after birth, and have ten times the chance of dying of SIDS. Developmental slowdowns are also possible.

According to the Drug Abuse Warning Network, Methamphetamine was involved in over 70,000 emergency room visits in 2004 alone. Amphetamines, including the club drug Ecstasy, can cause psychotic behavior and brain damage. This includes hallucinations, delusions, and paranoia and can lead to homicidal or suicidal thoughts. Physical effects are similar to Alzheimer’s and strokes. Ecstasy in particular can lead to kidney damage and memory loss, though long term human studies are still inconclusive. For the unborn, risks include clubfoot, cleft palates, heart and limb defects, retarded development and maternal bleeding. Babies can go through withdrawal symptoms, but long term studies are still underway to identify long term prices.

What the White House says about Legalizing Marijuana – Full E-mail: “What they Have to Say About Legalizing Marijuana By Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy When the President took office, he directed all of his policymakers to develop policies based on science and research, not ideology or politics. So our concern about marijuana is based on what the science tells us about the drug’s effects. According to scientists at the National Institutes of Health- the world’s largest source of drug abuse research – marijuana use is associated with addiction, respiratory disease, and cognitive impairment. We know from an array of treatment admission information and Federal data that marijuana use is a significant source for voluntary drug treatment admissions and visits to emergency rooms. Studies also reveal that marijuana potency has almost tripled over the past 20 years, raising serious concerns about what this means for public health — especially among young people who use the drug because research shows their brains continue to develop well into their 20’s. Simply put, it is not a benign drug. Like many, we are interested in the potential marijuana may have in providing relief to individuals diagnosed with certain serious illnesses. That is why we ardently support ongoing research into determining what components of the marijuana plant can be used as medicine. To date, however, neither the FDA nor the Institute of Medicine have found smoked marijuana to meet the modern standard for safe or …

There's something (potentially dangerous) about molly

Filed under: drug abuse warning network

Less than 4% of emergency room visits in 2009 were because of MDMA, according to the Drug Abuse Warning Network, which is part of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. In fact, with its mood-enhancing properties, MDMA is …
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Sizing up the drug problem

Filed under: drug abuse warning network

National estimates on drug-related visits to hospital emergency departments are obtained from the Drug Abuse Warning Network, called DAWN. This is a public health surveillance system managed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services …
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Underage drinkers get relaxed law changes

Filed under: drug abuse warning network

Patients between 12 and 20 years old accounted for one-third of all drug-related emergency room visits in 2009, according to a Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) survey. Seventy percent of those visits involved alcohol only, while the remaining involved …
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From Twitter:

Highlights of the 2010 Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) Findings on Drug-Related Emergency… http://t.co/ArRlXFoe #Substanceabuse – by IntegratedTrtmt (IntegratedTrtmt)

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#Drug #abuse warning network data http://t.co/ss71mIVE – by toranfieldhouse (Toranfield House)

From Twitter:

Highlights of the 2010 Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) Findings on Drug-Related Emergency Department Visits: http://t.co/pVT7MQrh – by IntegratedTrtmt (IntegratedTrtmt)