Did you know that drug overdose is the leading cause of death in the United States? Did you know that one in 10 Americans have abused an illicit drug in the last thirty days, or that one in four teenagers have misused a prescription drug in their lifetime? With over 21 million people battling addiction […]

Some people call it the devil’s drug. Others have named it the zombie drug. Some, plain and simply, refer to the drug as “five-dollar insanity.” For most, the drug is Flakka. Popularly known as Flakka, formally known as alpha-pyrrolidinopentiophenone (alpha-PVP), the chemical cousin of bath salts has made its way into the hands of drug […]

The disease of substance addiction currently ails over 21 million individuals in the United States. That means that one out of 12 individuals needed addiction treatment in 2014. That same year, one in every 20 adolescents suffered from a substance use disorder. These are not just people you see on the streets. These are not […]

2015 saw a record number of calls to poison control regarding the abuse of unpredictable, synthetic drugs like Spice/K2 and bath salts. What were once sold in convenience stores and marketed to young adults as “harmless alternatives to marijuana,” are now causing seizures, strokes, and deaths in drug users nationwide. A recent PBS report revealed […]

Adolescence can be a time of making irrational, impulsive decisions. It can be a time of living in the now, without consideration for the consequences that may follow. As a result, it is a time in which many teens try drugs and alcohol for the first-time. The average age of substance use initiation is between […]

College is a time of transition, as young adults are shifting into a more independent lifestyle and adapting to changes in their day to day responsibilities. It is those first years of college that students truly begin to experience “living on their own,” away from direct adult supervision. As a result, college becomes a time […]

The stigmas engulfing drug and alcohol abuse are dissipating. There’s arguably never been more discussion, more community action, more political attention, or more media reporting on substance abuse than there is today. I applaud that. But while the stigmas are retreating, opinions are deluging in and quickly filling the cracks and voids left behind.  Cue […]

You’ve had enough of your drug use. Maybe you have hit your end line, your rock bottom, or realized the consequences are not worth the high. Perhaps you’ve come to see that your drug problem is hurting your family, or that the drugs are destroying yourself. Whatever your reason is, you have come to the […]

It is true that anyone—no matter their age, size, gender, or background—can become addicted to drugs. Unfortunately, this reality is most present among teens and young adults who begin drug use at an early age. Our youth are constantly facing the risk of drug addiction. So much, in fact, that over one million youth are […]