In ACS’ Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment Program (ASAT) it is common to hear teens share about the different substances they use to get “high”. Top among these substances are items that can easily be found around the house- solvents/inhalants. Household solvents can be very dangerous if used to get high and the highest risk group […]
Two studies have recently come out showing a higher prevalence of substance abuse and cigarette use amongst adolescents with mental health disorders. The first study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry revealed a significantly higher prevalence of substance abuse and cigarette use by adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity […]
Adolescent Counseling Services (ACS) has long served the mental health needs of teens and their families on the Peninsula. In 1991, ACS launched the Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment (ASAT) Program to treat teens with substance abuse and dependency issues. In the past two years, the program has matured, encompassing multi-modal approaches to treatment for youth […]
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 […]
Monitoring the Future is an annual survey of 8th, 10th, and 12th-graders conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, under a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health. Since 1975, the survey has measured drug, alcohol, and cigarette use and related attitudes in 12th-graders […]
Prescription drug abuse in America is becoming increasingly alarming by the minute. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), there were approximately 7 million people in the U.S. who reported nonmedical use of psychotherapeutic drugs in 2010. Pain relievers remain as the most widely abused medications, followed by tranquilizers, stimulants, and sedatives. Among […]
California Governor Jerry Brown just signed assembly bill 1301 into law, which would require the state to suspend and revoke a store’s license if they are repeatedly convicted of selling tobacco products to minors. If a store is convicted three times in a five-year-window, its license would be suspended for 45 days. Five convictions in […]
As recent studies have shown that marijuana use is extremely popular with adolescents, more so than alcohol and tobacco, further research, just released in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds that habitually smoking marijuana before age 18 showed an eight-point drop in IQ between the ages of 13 and 38, a considerable […]
KQED, the public media station for Northern California recently did a series of stories on the increase of suburban California teenagers who are transitioning from using painkillers to black tar heroin. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhgdZHPxYds&w=560&h=315] California Watch, a reporting initiative started by the Center for Investigative Reporting, posted this story and video (shown above) on August 15th, […]
