WV Voluntary Ban on Alcoholic Energy Drinks

The Associated Press

Associated Press - West Virginia is asking retailers to voluntarily stop selling caffeinated energy drinks that contain alcohol.

The state Alcohol Beverage Control Administration said it has the support of the West Virginia Beer Wholesalers' Association, West Virginia Retailers Association and the West Virginia Oil Marketers and Grocers Association.

The action Thursday came a day after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that caffeine-infused alcohol drinks are illegal and should be removed from shelves nationwide.

Washington, Michigan, Utah and Oklahoma have all banned the products in their states. The West Virginia action is voluntary.

"We are looking at this very closely and very seriously to make a determination of what our next steps will be," said spokesman Gary Robinson. "At this moment we're waiting on what the federal government will do."

On Wednesday, the federal agency gave manufacturers 15 days to either remove added caffeine from their drinks or advise the agency in writing of how they plan to change their formulas. The drinks are particularly popular with college students - they're called "blackout in a can" by many - and contain a volatile mix of caffeine and alcohol.

"To be sold, manufacturers are responsible for meeting a legal standard that the ingredient added to the product is generally recognized as safe under its conditions of use," FDA Spokesman Michael Herdon said. "It is FDA's view that that standard has not been met."

This is not the first time the federal agency has taken action on such beverages. In 2008, it asked Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors to remove their Bud Extra, Tilt and Sparks products, which also had caffeine additives, from the market.

Proposal for New Institute to Focus on Substance Abuse

This week, the Scientific Management Review Board recommended the creation of a new institute focusing on substance use, abuse, and addiction research and related public health initiatives. The proposed institute would integrate the relevant research portfolios from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), and other National Institutes of Health institutes and centers.

In response to the recommendation, a task force was created to determine where substance use, abuse, and addiction research programs currently exist at NIH and make recommendations about what programs should be moved into the proposed new Institute. In addition, the task force will survey NIDA and NIAAA for programs that are not related to substance use, abuse, and addiction research and make recommendations about where such programs will go.

All existing substance use, abuse, and addiction research programs at NIH will continue unchanged. It is anticipated that the task force will produce a detailed reorganization plan for consideration this summer.

Minority Teens Using Drugs at Higher Rates

This week, R. Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, highlighted recent data showing troubling increases in drug use among certain groups of minority teens, and urged parents and community leaders to act immediately to prevent drug use.

According to recently released data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency's 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, there were significant increases in drug use among young African American teen girls and Hispanic teen boys between 2008 and 2009.

Specifically, drug use among Black/Non-Hispanic females ages 12 to 17 years old increased from 7.3 percent in 2008 to 10.4 percent in 2009, and drug use by Hispanic males of the same age group rose from 9.2 percent in 2008 to 12.8 percent in 2009, increases of 43 percent and 39 percent, respectively. According to NSDUH data released in September, overall teen drug use increased between 2008 and 2009, with 1 in 10 youth ages 12-17 and 1 in 5 young adults between 18-25 reporting drug use in the last month.

"These data confirm that in addition to overall increases in youth drug use nationwide, certain minority populations are suffering from illegal drug use at even higher rates," Kerlikowske said in the agency’s news release. "As we continue to aggressively reach out to underserved populations with vital drug prevention and treatment resources, we ask parents, teachers, coaches, religious leaders, and community leaders do their part by taking action today to protect these at-risk youth groups from a lifetime of drug-related consequences."

Coalitions take action every day to help prevent and reduce youth drug use with environmental policy changes, media advocacy, and education. To view the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign ads geared towards youth, visit AboveTheIinfluence.com.

American Medicine Chest Challenge

Join the American Medicine Chest Challenge! On Saturday, November 13th, from 10am-2pm, bring your expired or unused medicine to 1500 Chapline St. in Wheeling (Wheeling Police Dept). You will be safely and anonymously disposing of medications that are commonly abused.

The American Medicine Chest Challenge was created to help American families see their medicine cabinets through new eyes -- as an access point for potential misuse and abuse of over-the-counter and prescription medicine by young people. It provides an opportunity to properly dispose of unused, unwanted, and expired medicines and encourages families to take part in the American Medicine Chest 5-Step Challenge.

Step 1) Take inventory of your medicine.
Step 2) Secure your medicine chest.
Step 3) Take medicine only as prescribed by your doctor.
Step 4) Dispose of unused, unwanted, and expired medicine.
Step 5) Talk to your children about the dangers of prescription drugs.

For more information on the American Medicine Chest Challenge, please visit www.americanmedicinechest.com.

RX Abuse Heaviest in Rural Teens

Teens living in rural areas were more likely than their urban peers to abuse prescription drugs, data from a large national survey suggested.

In the 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which included nearly 18,000 adolescents, 13.0% of rural teens reported non-medical use of prescription drugs at some point in their lives, compared with 11.5% of respondents living in suburban or small metropolitan-area counties and 10.3% of those in urban areas, according to Jennifer Havens, PhD, MPH, of the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Ky., and colleagues.

Relative to urban youths, teens from rural areas were especially more likely to report non-medical use of tranquilizers such as diazepam and opioid painkillers, the researchers reported online in Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

"While we were able to identify potential targets for intervention such as increased access to health, mental health, and substance abuse treatment, this may be difficult for rural areas where such resources are in short supply or nonexistent," Havens and colleagues observed.

"Research into the causal mechanisms surrounding initiation of non-medical prescription drug use in rural adolescents is necessary to develop tailored interventions for this population," they added.

For more information on this study, please visit www.medpagetoday.com/psychiatry/addictions/23101

New Study: Alcohol More Lethal than Heroine, Cocaine

Alcohol is more dangerous than illegal drugs like heroin and crack cocaine, according to a new study.

British experts evaluated substances including alcohol, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and marijuana, ranking them based on how destructive they are to the individual who takes them and to society as a whole.

Researchers analyzed how addictive a drug is and how it harms the human body, in addition to other criteria like environmental damage caused by the drug, its role in breaking up families and its economic costs, such as health care, social services, and prison.

Heroin, crack cocaine and methamphetamine, or crystal meth, were the most lethal to individuals. When considering their wider social effects, alcohol, heroin and crack cocaine were the deadliest. But overall, alcohol outranked all other substances, followed by heroin and crack cocaine. Marijuana, ecstasy and LSD scored far lower.

Experts said alcohol scored so high because it is so widely used and has devastating consequences not only for drinkers but for those around them.

When drunk in excess, alcohol damages nearly all organ systems. It is also connected to higher death rates and is involved in a greater percentage of crime than most other drugs, including heroin.

Experts said countries should target problem drinkers, not the vast majority of people who indulge in a drink or two. Furthermore, governments should consider more education programs and raising the price of alcohol so it isn't as widely available.

The study concludes that drugs that are legal cause at least as much damage, if not more, than drugs that are illicit.

For more information or to view the entire article, go to www.lancet.com or http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/01/AR2010110101765.html.