More U.S. Teens, Kids Seeking Mental Health Care in ERs In a hearing peppered with statistics and stories of the nation's opioid crisis, a government official told a congressional panel Thursday that the Trump administration’s plan for addressing the country’s drug crisis lacks U.S. emergency departments are seeing a surge in the number of kids and teens seeking help for mental health problems, new research warns.Learn More   The Fentanyl Failure In May 2016, a group of national health experts issued an urgent plea in a private letter to high-level officials in the Obama administration. Thousands of people were dying from overdoses of fentanyl — the deadliest drug to ever hit U.S..Learn More   Opioids and unemployment: stopping the cycle 60 Minutes producer Katy Textor talks about an investment fund resurrecting jobs in hard-hit areas. One company's solution? Hire recovering addictsLearn More   To help fight vaping, schools look to their...

Higher Rate of ED Visits in Mental Illness Patients Explained Individuals with mental health diagnoses make 25% more visits to the emergency department (ED) than those without mental illness; increases in frequency correspond to illness severity, new research shows.Learn More   Battling addiction in Orthodox Jewish community means breaking through silence "The Orthodox attitude about drug problems is to stay quiet on the issue," said one rabbi working as an advocate for those fighting addiction.Learn More   Battling Anxiety, Depression and Tech Addiction In The Workplace It’s time to talk about mental health in the workplace. Not only are many employees suffering from severe burnout, but they are experiencing a host of other problems, as well.Learn More   ‘Tech addiction’ solutions are a billion-dollar market opportunity Stroll into a restaurant, ride the elevator, or visit the mall, and you’ll notice people just can’t stop checking their phones. For some, it’s a...

Sessions targets 10 areas in U.S. for crackdown on the sale of fentanyl Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday ordered federal prosecutors in 10 areas that have been especially hard-hit by overdose deaths from fentanyl to bring drug charges against anyone suspected of dealing the synthetic opioid, regardless of quantity.Learn More   Integrating Treatment at the Intersection of Opioid Use Disorder and Infectious Disease Epidemics in Medical Settings As a result of the opioid use disorder (OUD) epidemic, new epidemics of hepatitis C virus (HCV) and HIV infection have arisen and hospitalizations for bacteremia, endocarditis, skin and soft tissue infections, and osteomyelitis have increased.Learn More   The shameful way race affects treatment of pain and drug addiction “I have had little or no sleep, owing to the tooth ache or rather stump ache,” Elizabeth Drinker wrote in her diary one night in 1796. “One of my Eye teeth very sore, my...

How does resolving cannabis problems differ from resolving problems with alcohol or other drugs? Those resolving cannabis problems do so at younger ages, with less assistance than those resolving other substance-use problems.Learn More   The Opioid Diaries The opioid crisis is the worst addiction epidemic in American history. Drug overdoses kill more than 64,000 people per year, and the nation’s life expectancy has fallen for two years in a row.Learn More   More Imprisonment Does Not Reduce State Drug Problems Data show no relationship between prison terms and drug misuse. Learn More   Death maps show where despair is killing Americans Alcohol deaths are down, but drug overdoses are way, way up.Learn More   During binges, U.S. adults have 17 billion drinks a year U.S. adults consumed more than 17 billion binge drinks in 2015, or about 470 binge drinks per binge drinker, according to a first-of-its-kind study released by the...

Please note: Our weekly Addiction News & Policy Update will not publish on Friday, December 22nd and Friday, December 29th. On behalf of the staff and Board of Trustees of Wellspring, we wish all of you Happy Holidays. A Comeback for the Gateway Drug Theory? If you grew up as part of the D.A.R.E. generation — kids of the 1980s and ’90s who learned about drugs from alarmist public service announcements — you know all too well the dangers of so-called gateway drugs.Learn More   Is there a link between alcohol and skin cancer? Patients are always elated when you can recommend an enjoyable, health-improving, recreational activity.Learn More Reaching the Cannabis Tipping Point That moment when water heating on a stove gets hot enough to transform from still into roiling is called the tipping point Learn More   Rehab that puts alcoholic pilots back in the cockpit Many alcoholics can tell...

Marijuana, Secondhand Smoke, and Social Acceptability On April 20, 2017, at 4:20 in the afternoon, 15 000 people in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park lit marijuana joints during the annual “420 Day.” In cannabis culture, April 20 has become an international countercultural holiday; people gather to celebrate and consume cannabis, typically around 4:20 pm.Learn More   Opioid treatment drugs have similar outcomes once patients initiate treatment NIDA study compares buprenorphine/naloxone combination to extended release naltrexone.Learn More Separating side effects could hold key for safer opioids NIH-funded scientists may have revealed brain functions in pre-clinical research that widen the safety margin for opioid pain relief without overdose Learn More   Communities in Crisis America’s growing opioid epidemic and untreated serious mental illness is having a devastating impact on communities nationwide.Learn More     Is a new drug crisis looming? The opioid crisis clearly has outpaced all other topics as the story of the...

The Terrifying New Trend in Heroin Addiction Just like they did in the 80s, Americans are increasingly going straight to heroin, skipping prescription opioids. Too bad US policy doesn't reflect that.Learn More   Steps the U.S. government should take right now against the opioid epidemic The Food and Drug Administration should consider banning “ultra-high-dosage” painkillers from the market, and law enforcement must step up efforts to curb the flow of heroin and fentanyl into the United States if the nation hopes to come to grips with the opioid epidemic, two authorities on the crisis said Thursday.Learn More Opioid Addiction Is a Mental Health Crisis, Not a Crime Wave Every opioid death is preventable, because addiction is treatable. But we need to shift from a culture of shame to one of treatment. Learn More   Long-acting medications for opioid addiction help patients control their future, unreliable selves When my patient, Marcus, wakes...

Our Weekly Addiction News & Policy Update is a compilation of news items provided to Wellspring by a variety of sources. Wellspring staff assembles this information and is pleased to provide it to you. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The content of this email does not represent the official views or policies of Wellspring Center for Prevention. The content has been collected from a variety of sources and is provided for informational purposes only. The appearance of external hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by Wellspring of the linked web sites, or the information, products or services contained therein. If you do not wish to receive this email in the future, simply email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and ask to be unsubscribed. 'I loved and hated her in equal measure' – life with an alcoholic mother When Mum died, I vowed to talk...

Booze apps slammed for targeting young people JCU's professor Lynn Eagle and her team of researchers conducted a study involving alcohol use and discovered almost 80% promote heavy drinking.She explained many of the apps are aimed at young people and likely to work well. In addition, she noted there are no age restrictions on any of the apps.Please click here to continue reading.   Pot Pie, Redefined? Chefs Start to Experiment With Cannabis Recreational marijuana is both illegal and controversial in most of the country, and its relationship to food does not rise much above a joke about brownies or a stoner chef's late-night pork belly poutine.But cooking with cannabis is emerging as a legitimate and very lucrative culinary pursuit.Please click here to continue reading.   Resolutions can harm mental health During the next few weeks, prepare to be barraged by admonitions to make New Year's resolutions. These messages connect with us because...

v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;} Scientists reveal the ancient origins of drinking alcohol There's an emerging branch of research called Paleogenetics that tries to answer the questions of the present by scrutinizing the genetic material of the past. And when it comes to figuring out when drinking alcohol began - igniting both merriment and alcoholism - you need to go pretty far back: 10 million years. That was when some curious primate stumbled across a rotting piece of fruit and thought, "Why not?" And boom, drinking was born. Please click here to continue reading. v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;...