Although the President’s FY 2014 Budget Request contained a $6.3 million cut to the Drug Free Communities (DFC) program, due to the collective advocacy of CADCA and the substance abuse prevention field, both the House and the Senate Appropriations Committees have recommended funding levels above the President’s Budget Request. 

Today, the full Senate Appropriations Committee marked up its version of the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Bill, which contains funding for the DFC program. This bill funds the DFC program at a level of $92 million, which is level funding when compared to the FY 2013 level before sequestration. The full House Appropriations Committee has also marked up its version of this bill, and funded the program at a level of $88 million. 

While this is great news, the appropriations process is not yet complete, as the bill still has to go to conference. Typically, the House and Senate split the difference between their two bills. Therefore, in order to ensure that the DFC program receives the highest possible funding level in the final bill, it is imperative that the field responds en masse when CADCA issues the next Legislative Alert.

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Targeting Impulsive Adolescents May Reduce Problem Drinking

A study reported by Medical News Today showed that young people with impulsive tendencies are more prone to drinking heavily at an early age. The study was conducted by scientists at the University of Liverpool.

The research suggests that targeting personality traits, such as impulsivity, could potentially be a successful intervention in preventing adolescent drinking from developing into problems with alcohol in later life. 

"Our results show that more impulsive individuals are more likely to start drinking heavily in the future compared to less impulsive individuals. The next steps are to take these results and apply them to prevention interventions that are tailored to individual characteristics, such as impulsivity,” said Professor Matt Field, from the University of Liverpool's Institute of Psychology Health and Society.

Previous research has suggested that impulsive behavior is linked with adolescent drinking, but it is unclear whether young people who are impulsive tend to drink more, or whether drinking while the brain is still developing is particularly harmful and can lead to the progression of impulsive behaviors. 

The team used computer tests that measured inhibitory control, the ability to delay gratification, and risk-taking. More than 280 young people who were aged 12 or 13 at the beginning of the study took part in the study. The participants repeated the computer tests every six months over the two years of the study. 

Results showed that those participants who were more impulsive in the tests went on to drink more heavily or have problems with alcohol at a later time. The study did not, however, show that alcohol consumption led to increased impulsive behavior on the computer tests. This suggests that there is a link between impulsivity and adolescent drinking, but that alcohol may not necessarily lead to increased impulsive behavior in the short-term.

Opiate overdose deaths 'skyrocketed' in women, CDC finds

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are urging health care professionals to cut back on the amount of painkillers they prescribe, particularly to women, as new research has found women are becoming addicted at alarming rates. NBC’s Tom Costello reports and Dr. Nancy Snyderman comments on the dangers of prescription drugs.

More men still die after overdosing on prescription painkillers in the U.S. each year, but women are catching up fast, according to a grim new report from government health researchers.

Opiate pain reliever deaths among women spiked five-fold in the decade from 1999 to 2010, climbing to 6,631, up from 1,287, according to an analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During that same period, prescription painkiller deaths among men jumped 3.6 times, to 10,020.

That means 17,000 people die each year from opiate overdoses, more than quadruple the number of a decade ago.

"Prescription painkiller deaths have skyrocketed in women," said CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden. "Stopping this epidemic in women -- and in men -- is everyone's business. Doctors need to be cautious about prescribing and patients about using these drugs."

About 42 women die each day in the U.S. from drug overdose, including 18 a day who die from prescription painkillers, the CDC found.

It’s part of a worsening problem that saw some 943,365 women head to U.S. emergency departments in 2010 because of drug misuse or abuse, according to the study that analyzed data from the National Vital Statistics System and the Drug Abuse Warning Network, or DAWN. Top causes included heroin and cocaine, the psychoactive drugs called benzodiazepines – and opiate pain relievers.

Men used to be twice as likely as women to die from drug overdoses, most of which are unintended, researchers said. Now, the ratio is about 1.55 times. Overall, drug overdose deaths now claim more than 38,000 people in the U.S. each year.

Women are joining the boys’ club of opiate overdoses for several reasons, experts say. Unlike illicit drugs like heroin and cocaine, prescription painkillers such as hydrocodone, oxycodone and fentanyl have a patina of legitimacy, said Dr. David Sack, an addiction psychiatrist with Promises Treatment Center in Malibu, Calif.

“People assume that because it’s prescribed by a doctor, it’s safe,” Sack said.

There’s less stigma surrounding prescription pills than drugs such as heroin or cocaine, said Daniel Raymond, public policy director for the Harm Reduction Coalition, an advocacy group.

“There doesn’t seem to be the same level of punitive social attitudes,” he said.

Lucas Jackson / Reuters

More women are dying after overdosing on prescription painkillers, a new study finds. Deaths spiked among women in the decade from 1999 to 2010.

In addition, women are more likely than men to be prescribed prescription painkillers, to get higher doses of the drugs and to use them chronically. Some research has suggested that the most common forms of pain -- including back pain, abdominal pain, migraines and pain from cancer -- may be more prevalent in women, and that women may be more sensitive to pain.

Women also weigh less than men, so they may be more susceptible to the effects of prescription painkillers.

At the same time, women are more likely to have multiple prescriptions from different providers, including drugs to combat anxiety and depression.

“Most of the fatalities aren’t on a single medicine. It’s a mix of medicines,” Sack noted. “And why you mix alcohol and opiate drugs, it’s a deadly combination.”

The unique stresses that women face may factor into the spike in prescription opiate use, said Dr. Leigh Vinocur, an emergency medical physician in Baltimore and Shreveport, La., and a spokeswoman for the American College of Emergency Physicians.

Many women who become addicted to prescription opiates have histories of sexual abuse or other trauma, experts said.

The bulk of the deaths from prescription opioids was in middle-aged women, with 1,515 deaths in 2010 in women aged 35 to 44 and 2,239 deaths in women from 45 to 54, the new study showed.

“Think of all the pressures on women to look good and to be perfect,” Vinocur said. “I think that’s why we’re seeing it.”

Opiate abuse is a special problem for pregnant women, who commonly give birth to children who are addicted to the same substances, said David Craig, a clinical pharmacist at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, Fla.

Incidences of neonatal abstinence syndrome, or NAS, tripled between 2000 and 2009, according to a study last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Solving the problem may be difficult, despite efforts to crack down on so-called “pill mills” and to make doctors more aware of appropriate prescribing, said Raymond, of the Harm Reduction Coalition. It can be difficult for women to find treatment or to seek treatment, often because they worry about the effect on their children.

“I think it’s a good wake-up call that we need to make sure we take gender-sensitive approaches, whether that’s tailoring treatment access or recognizing some of the underlying causes of the histories of abuse,” Raymond said. “Nobody’s immune from this.”