Making my Wish for the 14th Year in Recovery

14 Years in Recovery on New Year's Eve (Video)

MADD Tips: How to Prevent Someone from Driving Drunk

 The best way to prevent someone from driving drunk is to make a plan for a sober designated driver, and make sure everyone agrees to it ahead of time. If you are faced with a situation where someone who’s impaired is trying to drive, here are some tips on how to stop them:

• Be as non-confrontational as possible.
• Suggest alternate ways of getting to their destination — a cab, a sober driver, public transportation.
• Remember that the person you are talking to is impaired — talk a bit more slowly and explain things more fully than if you were speaking to a sober person.
• Explain that you don’t want them to drive because you care and you don’t want them to hurt themselves or others.
• Suggest that they sleep over.
• Enlist a friend to help you or to act as moral support — it’s more difficult to say “no” to two (or three or four) people than one.
• If possible, get the person’s keys. It is far easier to persuade the potential driver when you hold this leverage.
• If all else fails, call law enforcement. It’s better to have a friend arrested than injured or killed.

Source: www.madd.org

Think You Got Financial Problems? Watch "Queen of Versailles" - This Story has it ALL

On cable now. Search your local pay-per-view listings.

Before watching this movie, please read about the ongoing lawsuit against the filmmaker.  Mr. Siegel sued because he believes the film placed him in a false light regarding his financial solvency and portrayed him as an unloving husband, when in fact he was annoyed with having a film crew around his house 2/4/7.

New York Times Article

Fort Worth Girl Pens Letter to Drunk Driver Who Left Her Paralyzed

Hidden Cameras Show that Securing the U.S./Mexico Border MUST be Addressed

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Something’s Fishy with President Obama’s Avoidance of the Marijuana Issue

Does President Obama want legalized drugs or is he going to stick to his own policies?  (At this point all the potheads are laughing)  These days that is becoming a rhetorical question more than ever before.  So, which one is it?  After the November presidential elections, there was no official statement made by the White House on how enforcement would be addressed with the new Colorado and Washington State measures that legalized marijuana for recreational use under state law.  As a matter of fact, all those who enforce President Obama’s policies have still, to this day, not received any official word from the White House regarding what should be done.

How does the President expect parents to talk to their children when he is MIA on this issue?  The only thing we can go by is a commentary from the President to Barbara Walters, where “kissing off the issue” was excused with having “bigger fish to fry.”  Oh yeah?  And we’re supposed to believe that drug legalization, which endangers the future of our kids, is not a priority?  That no one should be asking any questions about how pot got legalized in Colorado and Washington State in an election year, where drug policy was an issue carefully avoided by candidates?  Why? 

And still, no official statement from the White House?  We’re just supposed to believe that making a casual comment during an interview with a talk show host should be sufficient?  In the mean time it's is business as usual (all the potheads are laughing) and the lack of leadership from the President keeps legalizers motivated and those expecting responsible leadership frustrated.  Who is going to protect our kids from drugs if it is not the President of the United States?

Mr. President, if you keep up with this ridiculous charade, no one is going to believe anything you have to say regarding the legalization of marijuana.

Even Santa Can Get in Trouble for DUI

Songs that tried to Inspire my Generation: "White Lines" ???

The Entertainment Industry should apologize to my generation for this.

Treatment and Recovery Reform would Explain a Lot

Fox News Link:  Calls for Mental Health Reform Grow after Newtown Massacre

Sober Holiday Message from Alex at Five Years From Now

Automobile Club: Roadwise Rx Explains Specifics on How Medications Affect Driving

AAA's Senior Driving webpage is a tool to keep yourself and others safe on our roads and highways.  It is useful for anyone who is not sure how a drug may impact driving ability.  Click on this link and learn how to drive safely this holiday season and into the New Year.

Here's some info, directly from AAA's site:

Eight out of ten drivers age 65 and older take medications on a regular basis. And despite high prescription and over-the-counter medication use, almost half of seniors using medications have never talked with their health care providers about how the drugs might affect their safe driving abilities.

Roadwise Rx is a free, confidential tool developed by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety that adults can use to explore how medications may affect safety behind the wheel.

How it works

Roadwise Rx offers a way for you to record all of your medications in one central location. It also provides customized feedback on how your prescription and over-the-counter drugs, herbal supplements and foods, as well as their interactions with each other, can affect safety behind the wheel. 

PS: 

For some reason marijuana does not come up in the search criteria, but methamphedamine does.  I have sent an email to AAA asking them to add marijuana's side effects so that people are aware that marijuana does impair motor skills.

For more visit:  www.seniordriving.aaa.com

Hey Madonna: It's Okay to Say "I'm an Idiot for having Promoted Smoking Cigarettes!" So, PLEASE DON'T SMOKE!!!

Madonna Threatens Fans Over Cigarettes -- If You Smoke, I'll CANCEL My Concert!!! - Watch More Celebrity Videos or Subscribe

Photo Source:  dailymail.co.uk

New Monitoring the Future Survey Indicates Marijuana Use Is Increasing Among Teens

FOR RELEASE
CONTACT: media@drugfreecalifornia.org  909.457.4229

Rancho Cucamonga, CA - December 20th, 2012: New Monitoring the Future Survey Indicates Marijuana Use Is Increasing Among Teens

"Coalition for a Drug Free California is alarmed at youth marijuana use not only in California, but around the nation. We have reached an epidemic and there is no end in sight. Elected leaders are failing our children and our communities. States that allow for so-called 'medical-pot' are seeing explosive numbers. The pro-drug legalization lobby poured millions of dollars into pro-marijuana campaigns in Colorado and Washington that now outright permit marijuana use, sale and cultivation. The impact of such reckless campaigns endangers America's most vulnerable; our children. Forget the fiscal cliff -- the bigger problem is the cliff today's children are walking towards," said Dr. Paul Chabot, President of the Coalition for a Drug Free California www.drugfreecalifornia.org

By the numbers: 

• Youth perception of the dangers of marijuana has fallen to the lowest level on record, a new study says. Researchers warn that already high use of pot will increase as states move to legalize.

• The annual survey found that only 41.7 percent of eighth graders believe that occasional use of marijuana is harmful, while 66.9 percent regard it as dangerous when used regularly. Both rates are the lowest since 1991, when the government first began tracking this age group.

• Youth perception of marijuana risks diminished even more as they got older. 20.6 percent of 12th graders believe occasional use of marijuana is harmful while 44.1 percent believed that its regular use was detrimental, the lowest rate since 1979.

• The government-sponsored study said teens' dwindling concerns about the dangers of marijuana, despite the risks, "can signal future increases in use."

• Those who used cannabis heavily in their teens and into their adulthood showed a significant drop in IQ between the ages of 13 and 38, according to the studies.

• Marijuana use among teenagers remained stuck at high levels in 2012.  6.5 percent of 12th graders smoked marijuana daily, up from 5.1 percent in 2007. 23 percent of the high-school seniors said they smoked the drug in the month prior to the survey. 36.4 percent used it in the past year and 45.2 percent said they had tried marijuana at least once in their lifetime.

• Daily marijuana use by 10th graders rose dramatically from 2.8 percent to 3.5 percent, and for eighth-grade students it edged up from 0.8 percent to 1.1 percent.

According to a release from Drug Free America Foundation, “This report shows that marijuana use has increased among youth and that the attitudes about marijuana’s harmfulness has significantly decreased, which clearly demonstrates what we have known for years - when the perception of the harms of drugs decreases, use rises,” said Calvina Fay, Executive Director of Drug Free America Foundation and Save Our Society From Drugs. “Over the years, the ruse that marijuana is a medicine has created a false sense that this addictive, dangerous drug is not harmful, but in fact helpful. Now, this year, two states have legalized marijuana use for any purpose. Unless we aggressively push-back against all marijuana legalization efforts, I am very concerned this negative trend of increased marijuana use will continue!  Perhaps it’s time to withhold federal funds from states that fail to uphold our nation’s drug laws,” Fay added.

Download the government's report here:

http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/

Teen Drug Abuse: National Survey Results, September 2012

By Janel Spencer -  The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASAColumbia) released their findings this month from the 17th annual 2012 National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse (XVII: Teens). According to the findings, 2012 is the sixth year in a row that 60 percent or more of high school teens reported that their schools are drug-infected.

“This year teens in our focus groups talked freely about the extent of drinking and drug use among their high school classmates, not only after school, but during the school day, smoking marijuana in the school cafeteria and attending classes while high on alcohol and drugs,” Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Founder and Chairman Emeritus of CASAColumbia said in a statement.

Nearly nine out of 10 high school students answered that they knew classmates who were drugging, drinking or smoking during the school day. Fifty-two percent reported a known place on or near the school grounds where students go to use substances. 44 percent of the students knew of another student who sold drugs at their school, and of those who did:

• 91 percent knew someone who sold marijuana

• 24 percent knew someone who sold prescription drugs

• 9 percent knew someone who sold cocaine, and

• 7 percent knew someone who sold ecstasy.

More than a third of high school students said that it was easy or fairly easy for students to drink, use drugs or smoke during the school day without getting caught. Additionally, the survey results expose that every six in 10 high schools and one in three middle schools are drug-infected.

“What many parents fail to appreciate is that tobacco, alcohol and drug use are pervasive and relentless fixtures in the teen world,” Califano said. He explained that although much of teen exposure to drugs happens at school and with friends, parents need to be aware that it also occurs at home through television and the Internet.

With the boom of social media, last year the survey included for the first time questions about whether or not teens had seen pictures of other kids getting drunk, passed out or using drugs on social networking sites. The findings from last year showed a correlation between the teens who were seeing these kinds of pictures and their likelier use of alcohol and marijuana. The study calls this “Digital Peer Pressure.” Seventy-five percent of the teens this year said that seeing pictures of kids partying on social networking sites encourages others teens to want to party as well, and 45 percent had seen pictures like this. Survey results found that those who had seen the pictures were:

• Four times more likely to have used marijuana (25 percent vs. 6 percent)

• More than three times likelier to have used alcohol (43 percent vs. 13 percent), and

• Nearly three times likelier to have used tobacco (16 percent vs. 6 percent)

The report also found that the drug-infestation gap between private schools and public schools is closing. Sixty-one percent of students at public high schools compared to 54 percent of students at private high schools said that their school was drug-infected.

This year, more kids are using illegal drugs (marijuana, acid, ecstacy, cocaine, meth and heroin) than are abusing prescription drugs or over-the-counter medicines. Also, high school students are now more likely to use marijuana than to smoke cigarettes (24 percent have tried marijuana versus only 15 percent who have tried tobacco). Other studies have turned out similar results. According to a report published earlier this year by the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs, American teens are less likely than European teens to use cigarettes and alcohol, but are more likely to use illicit drugs.

"One of the reasons that smoking and drinking rates among adolescents are so much lower here [in America] than in Europe is that both behaviors have been declining and have reached historically low levels in the U.S. over the 37-year life of the Monitoring the Future study," reported the social psychologist Lloyd Johnston, who was involved with the European-American survey and is principal investigator for Monitoring the Future, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. "But even in the earlier years of the European surveys, drinking and smoking by American adolescents was quite low by comparison. Use of illicit drugs is quite a different matter."

U.S. students, in fact, tend to have among the highest rates of drug use out of all of the countries. According the study, the United Statesranks third out of the 37 countries surveyed on the proportion of students using marijuana in the last 30 days (18 percent). American students also reported the highest level of availability of marijuana of all the countries and they associated the least risk with use.

The risks, however, may be greater than most teens realize. According to findings from a new study by Duke University researcher reported this Monday at the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, teens dependent on marijuana risk a long-term drop in their IQ.

Young people "don't think it's risky," explained Staci Gruber, a researcher at the Harvard-affiliated MacLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass. told the Huffington Post in an interview. However, the idea that marijuana harms the adolescent brain, Gruber explained, is something they believe is very likely.

“We have often said that the most important finding of twenty years of intensive research is this: A child who gets through age 21 without smoking, abusing alcohol, or using drugs is virtually certain never to do so,” Califano urged in his statement about the CASAColumbia national survey results. “It is unconscionable that states, cities and counties-and their elected governors, mayors, and commissioners-that require parents to send their children to school, continue year after year to allow those schools to be drug infected."

Janel Spencer is a writer and content editor for 360 Education Solutions

Source:  http://www.360-edu.com/news/teen-drug-abuse-national-survey-results.htm

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