Why There’s No Better Time than Now to Quit Vaping

Written By: Wen Soon, Clinical Intern at ACS, Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment Program EVERY YEAR, people wait until January 1st to make important resolutions and commitments to change their bad habits. People erroneously believe the new year will somehow give them the motivation to finally change. However, U.S. News and World Report (2015) shared that […]

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Why Do Our Teens Use Cannabis (and What Can We Do About It)?

Written By: Ingrid Ammondson, PhD, Program Director, ACS’ Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment Program Any of you who have attended parent education seminars at your school or at Adolescent Counseling Services already know that adolescence is an exciting (and sometimes dangerous) time of physiological, psychological, and spiritual growth. So much so that we might imagine placing […]

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Marijuana use and abuse rates decline among US teens

By: Sam Levin, The Guardian  Rates  of adolescent marijuana use and abuse have declined across the US, according to an unprecedented study that casts doubts on one of the central arguments against legalizing weed. Researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis surveyed 216,852 teenagers from all 50 states and found that […]

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Teens’ overall substance use declining, but marijuana use rising

Image: Torbin Hansen, Marijuana Joint Reported by: EurekAlert!, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)   Marijuana use in teenagers is on the rise, while cigarette and alcohol use are stable or declining, according to health statistics researchers. In particular, black teens are using more marijuana than in recent decades. “Our analysis shows […]

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Co-Occurring Disorders: Treatment

By: JoAnn Kukulus, M.S. Clinical Psychology BBS Registered Intern at Adolescent Counseling Services Part II of blog series on Co-Occurring Disorders Read Part I: Co-Occurring Disorders: Diagnosis Regardless of which issue presented first, mental health or alcohol/substance abuse, recovery depends on acknowledging and treating both the alcohol/substance abuse and the mental health issue. The most […]

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2012 Monitoring the Future Results on Marijuana Use

According to the Monitoring the Future 2012 survey daily and regular use of marijuana remains consistently strong across all grades surveyed (8th, 10th, 12th).  Even more alarming is that fewer students believe there is a risk in using marijuana; among 12th graders only 20.6% view occasional marijuana use as risky, and only 44.1% view daily […]

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Medical Marijuana Sharing Amongst Adolescents

As medicinal marijuana is more available in some states, via legal marijuana dispensaries, a new study from the University of Colorado School of Medicine found that it is very common for adolescents in substance abuse treatment programs to use medical marijuana recommended to someone else (also known as “diverted” medical marijuana). The study, “Medical Marijuana […]

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Marijuana is Most Popular With Teens, How to Notice the Signs of Use

Since marijuana use among teens is thought to be more widespread than alcohol, About.com has posted some very informative statistics about marijuana use amongst teens. These statistics come from trusted government studies and prevention organizations and they tell a powerful story about when our children begin using substances like marijuana. Here are just a few: […]

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Everything You Wanted To Say To Your Middle Schooler, But Didn’t Know How-Part IV

By Philippe Rey, Psy. D. Executive Director of Adolescent Counseling Services So now that we have a good idea about what is really going on with drugs and alcohol, let’s look at more ways we can help our teens. As I mentioned last week, as parents your task is to encourage choice. That means that […]

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