Harmony Foundation Blog: July 2012

Friday, July 27, 2012

Are Bath Salts Addictive?

Over the past few months there have been numerous questions around the issue of bath salts. A new study published by the Behavioral Brain Research Journal answers some of those questions - particularly, are bath salts addictive?

The study revealed that bath salts can be as addictive as cocaine. Scientists tested the drug’s impact on the behavior of mice through a method called "intracranial self-stimulation" (ICSS). This method has been used frequently to test the behaviors surrounding reward in the brain known as reward circuitry or the reward system. When the reward circuit is activated it triggers the release of dopamine, the neurotransmitter that gives one a pleasurable feeling. Addictive drugs stimulate this same response, but to a much greater degree. The reward is much stronger and therefore the behavior to get that reward becomes more pronounced. This is linked to addiction because over time the brain craves the reward associated with an activity, even if the activity - such as drug abuse - makes one’s life unmanageable.

The ICSS is used on mice by training them to run on a wheel in order to be rewarded by stimulating electrodes implanted in their brains. According to Dr. C.J. Malanga of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, “If you let them, an animal will work to deliver self-stimulation to the exclusion of everything else—it won't eat, it won't sleep.”

Scientists have found this is particularly true when the reward is cocaine, because it increases mice’s sensitivity to reward stimulation. The study in the Behavioral Brain Research Journal revealed that the mice’s sensitivity to reward stimulation was just as strong with bath salts as it was with cocaine. This suggests that bath salts can be very addictive and serves to explain why thousands of young adults and teens continue to abuse bath salts despite the gruesome accounts of suicides, violent attacks, murders and arrests.

The good news is that massive efforts to crackdown on bath salts are already underway. A nation-wide ban on bath salts was put into effect on July 9th and just this week 91 arrests were made across 90 cities resulting in the confiscation of 167,000 packets of bath salts and material to make 392,000 more.

If you or a loved one is struggling with synthetic drug abuse, Harmony Foundation's addiction treatment programs in Colorado can help.

New York's I-STOP Plan Curbs Prescription Abuse

New York leads the way with policies that benefit people’s health - such as the public smoking bans enacted over a decade ago and the recent proposals to ban sodas larger than 16 ounces to curb obesity. The state is now shaping policies on prescriptions. New York is one of the few states that doesn’t allow the transfer of prescriptions, especially controlled substances, across state lines. Recently it has gone a step further by creating a policy to help curb the pandemic of prescription pill abuse through its I-STOP (Internet System for Tracking Over Prescribing) Plan.

The central tracking system will allow pharmacies to oversee all of it's customer's prescriptions from all pharmacies within the state in order to prevent prescription drug abuse. This monitoring mechanism will make it difficult for those who engage in “doctor shopping” to get multiple scripts for one medication that they either abuse or sell for others to abuse. The concept of doctor shopping is a popular phenomenon in states like Florida, where one patient can see multiple pain management doctors and get upwards of a thousand of prescription pain pills in a month.

According to the Center for Disease Control, prescription pill abuse kills one person in the US every 19 minutes, which illustrates the need for such tracking systems - especially in New York where the sale of prescription pills like oxycodone have increased ten fold between 2000 and 2010. The I-STOP Plan has already been passed by the New York State Legislature and is just awaiting Governor Cuomo's signature before going into effect in 2013.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman praised the I-STOP Plan asserting that it will “save lives.” Whether those saved lives will be just in New York or across the US writ-large depends on if other states follow suit. While other states have enacted laws to curb doctor shopping, the tracking systems either aren't as comprehensive or have limited mechanisms for enforcement. Schneiderman warns that addicts may continue to get their prescriptions filled in other states and says, “That's why it's paramount that other states consider emulating New York.” While a state or even federal tracking system will help curb some prescription pill abuse, it will be most effective in tandem with drug treatment options. If you or a loved one is struggling with prescription pill abuse, there is hope and help.

Friday, July 13, 2012

Opana is Being Reformulated, but Will it Reformulate Addicts?

A recent study has shown that since the new non-crushable form of OxyContin hit the streets two years ago, the number of addicts who have switched to Opana has increased.

Rather than seeing an overall reduction in the number of overdose deaths associated with opioids, recent death tolls have merely been associated with Opana rather than OxyContin. In Kentucky Opana was present in the toxicology reports of 23% of overdose victims in 2011, just when OxyContin was reformulated. Sgt. John McGuire, Director of the Prescription Drug Diversion Unit at the Louisville, KY Metro Police Department has seen the quick switch to Opana first hand. He explains that addicts tried to find ways to still snort or inject the new OxyContin by pounding it with hammers or soaking it in acid. "At first, people tried to defeat it," he said. "Then, Opana started to pop up like crazy."

Despite the evidence that changing OxyContin had negative spill over effects, the same is being done with Opana as the crush-resistant version of it was approved late last year, and is close to being out into circulation. Tantamount to the game whack-a-mole, where as soon as one mole is whacked another pops up, chasing after each popular opioid seems an impossible feat. With crushable OxyContin and Opana now absent, evidence suggests that addicts will switch to what is left: fentanyl, dilauded and heroin. As DEA Special Agent Gary Boggs asserts “They will adapt the same way drug traffickers or criminals will adapt to a new law. They are going to find a way to satisfy their addiction…When they either can't get those particular pharmaceuticals or can't afford them, they now gravitate to heroin."

Just as Agent Boggs stated, recent studies show that although abuse of other oxycodone products rose slightly after OxyContin was reformulated, it wasn’t anywhere near as steeply as the abuse of more powerful opioids.This suggests that with the reformulated version of Opana, drug users won’t revert back to something weaker, but stronger - which serves a reminder that addiction is a progressive disease often curtailed by alcohol and drug addiction treatment centers that help remove addicts from all drugs, crushable or not.

If you seek help for an opioid addiction, click here for more information on Harmony Foundation's residential treatment programs.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Learning From Bath Salt Tragedies

The nation has been buzzing about bath salts - a synthetic drug with extremely adverse effects - since the news story broke about Rudy Eugene, the “Miami Zombie” that chewed the face of a homeless man, Ronald Poppo, in Miami last May.

It was suspected that Eugene was under the influence of bath salts because of paraphernalia found in his clothing and his violently psychotic behavior. However, a toxicology report released last week deemed otherwise - claiming only marijuana was found in his system. Some experts assert that there are thousands of drugs out there that cannot yet be tested which could explain his behavior. Because the main compounds associated with bath salts have been banned, chemists are creating new compounds with similar effects to stay ahead of the law.

Regardless of what sparked the “Miami zombie” attack, there have been countless horror stories across the nation associated with bath salts - one in particular occurred close to home, in western Colorado. Last April 19 year old Daniel Richards from Grand Junction Colorado had a violent outbreak at a party while high on bath salts. He had a large knife and was threatening people with it when a friend attempted to restrain him. Upon his second attempt, Richards fell unconscious and was pronounced dead from strangulation after being on life support for a few days.

Just yesterday, Mesa County District Attorney Pete Hautzinger announced that there would be no indictment for the friend that tried to restrain Richards. Hautzinger stated, "It was not a criminal act. I will not file criminal charges," explaining "If I had a situation where someone was putting a choke hold on someone else who wasn't being violent or tweaked out on drugs ... or out of his gourd, as it were, then yes, we'd certainly be looking at manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide."

Investigators on the case said Richards purchased hundreds of dollars worth of bath salts before the party where he was restrained. According to the coroner, one of the main chemicals found in bath salts, Alpha-PVP, was found in his system.

Colorado Legislature passed a law banning possession and sale of "bath salts" products on June 7, 2012 - just two months after Richard’s death. The ban came after nearly 50 bath salts related reports to Poison Control Centers in Colorado. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said it wasn't able to deem bath salts as the culprit for other deaths in the state, but they believe Richards' death is the first bath salts related death in western Colorado. As District Attorney Hautzinger said, the Richard’s case “was absolutely a tragedy. This was a death that did not need to happen.”

These tragedies can hopefully serve as an eye opener to those at risk for using bath salts and other drugs. If you or a loved one is struggling with an addiction to bath salts or any other substance, Harmony's addiction treatment center in Colorado can help.