The Drug Abuse Resistance Program or DARE with its slogan "Dare to keep kids off drugs" remains widely popular with parents, even though it is gradually disappearing from many schools. Developed in 1983 when First Lady Nancy Reagan was telling children to "just say no to drugs," DARE was offered in schools all over the United States, and drug education grew into a $2 billion business.

Today, however, the program is being discontinued, partly because of a 2009 study by Dr. Dennis Rosenbaum, a professor of criminal justice and psychology at the University of Illinois in Chicago. He found that children in Illinois who took part in the DARE program actually had higher rates of drug abuse than students who did not.

Organizations that are working toward the legalization of marijuana and other drug reforms have criticized schools for giving children too much misinformation. For example, an educator may equate heroin abuse with cigarette abuse. There is also some evidence that DARE programs do not work for teenagers who are already substance abusers.

During difficult economic times, police departments do not have the money to spare for a DARE officer, or to pay for its supplies and T-shirts, and that is having an impact on the DARE programs.

"I wish I could wave a magic wand to end the funding mess and bring the DARE program back," said Susan Mochen, a Palm County school district education director for the DARE Officers’ Association of Florida. "It is really concerning because in certain communities there is really a high use of drugs and alcohol."

In south Florida, 6,318 students participated in DARE in 2008, but today, that number is down to 2,430. Similar declines in participation may be seen all over the United States.

While research focused on the genetic factors involved in addiction points to connections between the ways addiction can travel through families, experts also remind people that this isn’t an affirmation that they’ll have a substance abuse problem, nor anyone else in their family.

A recent article in Addiction Treatment Magazine addresses this issue, stating that there’s still much to be learned about the ways genetics impacts a person’s likelihood or vulnerability related to substance abuse. While some people may have a genetic likelihood of carrying specific traits related to a higher addiction risk, many live a completely addiction free life even when exposed to addiction triggers.

Research continues to explore the ways genetics are related to a person developing an addiction to alcohol or drugs. Although some studies suggest a person’s genetic makeup may include genes that are connected to cravings and abuse for alcohol or drugs, and that they may be able to pass these genes forward to their children, experts note that a person’s environment, attitudes and the presence of any co-occurring illnesses, like depression or anxiety disorders, all have a role to play.

The reality of genetics and addiction can be stated in these terms: While research indicates genetic tendencies that may influence some people’s risk for addiction, these genetic combinations don’t mean addiction is imminent. By identifying and addressing the stressors and triggers ahead of time that may make them more susceptible to addiction, many people lead a life without addiction, despite their genetic wiring.

There are many suspected side effects to an all work and no play lifestyle. The stereotypical workaholic has tattered family relationships, a nonexistent exercise regimen and lives on fast-food meals. While this lifestyle is often portrayed in the media, researchers are exploring whether there are connections between work hours and health issues.

A new study published in the January 2012 issue of the journal Addiction explores the connection between work hours and alcohol related problems during the early years of adulthood. The study was conducted by Sheree J. Gibb, David M. Fergusson and Jon Horwood at the University of Otago in New Zealand.

To examine the association between work hours and alcohol use, the researchers conducted a longitudinal analysis of a birth cohort from Christchurch, New Zealand. The participants were all born in 1977 and were followed to the age of 30.

The sample included a total of 1,919 participants. The data included information about working hours and alcohol-related problems collected at the age of 25 or 30.

The researchers measured data relating to frequent alcohol use, the number of symptoms identified as criteria for alcohol abuse or dependence, a diagnosis of alcohol abuse or dependence and the number of weekly hours spent working in paid employment.

The team also adjusted associations identified between alcohol-related problems and work hours using measures of personality and behavior, academic achievement and IQ, mental health problems, recent life events, parental and family background, and current partner and family situations.

The researchers discovered that longer work hours showed a significant association with more frequent alcohol use. Longer work hours were also associated with higher rates of alcohol abuse and dependence and a greater number of symptoms of alcohol abuse or dependence.

The associations were adjusted with several different confounding factors. Even with accounting for these factors there was a significant connection between working hours and alcohol-related problems. Those who worked more than 50 hours a week were 1.8 to 3.3 times more likely to have an alcohol-related problem than those who did not work. The results did not differ when gender was considered.

While the study does not seek to establish a causal relationship between working hours and increased alcohol use, the results call for further study. Additional research may provide evidence that there is a connection that indicates that increasing work hours is a risk factor for the development of alcohol-related problems. Additional research may also help to identify whether certain types of employment are connected with increased alcohol use when compared with others.

Prescription drug abuse, regardless of the brand, has reached epidemic heights. There are an estimated 1.5 billion people who suffer the effects of chronic pain worldwide. For individuals in this predicament, care is required 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This need requires a longer-lasting prescription. Opioids answer that demand with its extended-release formula. The number will continue to climb as shifts in the population age and become afflicted with osteoarthritis and other conditions.

Pharmaceutical companies are then faced with the continual increase of prescription pain medication demands. In an effort to improve safety and the efficiency of pain medication, drug companies have focused on the reformulation of current therapy. There are many different modes of delivering the drugs including opioids and NSAIDs.

Patent protection for these drugs will also soon be gone and big name drug manufacturers will see a larger market in competition from generic drugs. This will ultimately create a decline in price for prescription drugs. The lower cost of these meds could see many different reactions. Drug addicts will now have the means to afford their habit or the violent crime associated with obtaining the once expensive drugs will decrease. Only time will tell the effect this will have on the abuse of opiods.

Dr. Bonnie Nagel, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience, led the research in which 31 young people ages 13 to 15 years old were hooked up to brain scanning technology (magnetic resonance imaging) while they played "Wheel of Fortune." None of the participants drank alcohol themselves, but 18 were from families with histories of alcoholism. The game they played involved either taking risks or playing it safe to win money. While both the children with family histories of alcoholism, and those with no such histories played the game about the same way, there were differences in their brain scans.

"While our study found that adolescents (with family histories of alcoholism) did not perform significantly different on the Wheel of Fortune task compared to the other adolescents, we found two areas of their brains that responded differently, "said Dr. Nagel. "These areas were in the prefrontal cortex and cerebellum, both of which are important for higher-order day-to-day functioning, such as decision-making. In these brain regions, adolescents (with family histories of alcoholism) showed weaker brain responses during risky decision-making compared to their peers."

Previous studies involved young adults who had already started drinking. This study involved participants who did not drink alcohol, and yet it indicated that certain genetic factors could already be at work and causing differences in the way adolescents with family histories of alcoholism make decisions.

"Taken together with other studies on youth (with family histories of alcoholism), these results suggest that atypical brain structure and function exist prior to any substance use, and may contribute to an increased vulnerability for alcoholism in these individuals," Dr. Nagel said.

"While having a family history of alcoholism may put one at greater risk for alcohol abuse, personality and behavioral risk factors are also important to consider. A combination of genetic and environmental factors is very different for everyone, so some individuals may be at higher risk than others, and certainly there are genetic and environmental factors that can also protect against alcohol abuse. Future research will need to determine the relative influence of these traits on alcohol abuse risk to be able to define specific prevention strategies for different high risk populations."

The study appears in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

The Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission is initiating early warning campaigns in hopes to alert the public about the issues of drinking and substance abuse with this population. Jena Burkhart, a geriatric clinical pharmacist at UNC believes there will be a rapidly increasing problem and that those in the health care field need to stay alert and aware of how to handle these growing concerns.

So far, research into these types of substance abuse issues among this group of baby boomers yields several dismal statistics. Baby boomers are categorized as the generation born after WWII and typically were born between the years 1946 to 1964. These statistics have sparked initiatives by those in the medical community to give better information regarding this subject. Keith Kimbro, a 60 year old recovering addict of alcohol and drugs, says he sees an abundance of evidence of this trend at his job in Durham, NC with the Alcohol and Drug Council. Kimbro says usually these folks have dealt with some serious issues such as death of a spouse, a car accident or a disability of some kind. Until now, they typically have not had issues with their addiction and suddenly at 55-60 their tolerance decreases.

Suddenly, as this group reaches their senior years, they are having issues handling their tolerance of drinking and become visibly disabled by it or are noticeably drunk.

Although public awareness of alcoholism and other alcohol-related problems has improved, the Committee wants the UK Health Departments to clarify the alcohol guidelines to help the public better understand what is considered sensible drinking in a more up-to-date context, such as realizing the number of units in today’s alcoholic beverages like a glass of wine, pint of beer, or shot of liquor. While the MPs do not believe that the existing standards for alcohol units need revision, their studies’ evidence suggests a need to increase the public’s confidence and usage of the UK "sensible drinking" guidelines. The Committee hopes that, if made more prominent to the public, the updated guidelines will help deter the country’s level of excessive and problematic drinking.

The UK Health Departments first introduced to the public the concept of "sensible drinking" in 1981, then the idea of "sensible limits" in 1987. Also backed by the medical Royal Colleges, the Health Departments’ definition of sensible limits became 14 units of alcohol for women, and 21 units for men per week. By the mid-1990s when scientific evidence surfaced suggesting that alcohol consumption may be linked to a reduction in risk for coronary heart disease, the UK Health Department again reevaluated the guidelines, updating the "sensible limits" within a daily rather than weekly format. In its report "Sensible Drinking" released in 1995, the then-revised guidelines suggested that women should consume no more than two to three units per day, and men no more than three to four units on a regular basis.

However, the MPs were concerned that the message for safe drinking was not being communicated effectively to the public due to the existing guideline’s language, particularly the seemingly encouraging message that alcohol can be consumed daily by any adult. Furthermore, the Committee did not find a consensus among health experts regarding the health benefits of alcohol, and that the daily guidelines which are intended for the whole adult population is misleading since the preventive quality of alcohol consumption is only relevant to men over the age of 40 and post-menopausal women.

In addition to clarifying the language, the Committee believes that the guidelines should include a recommendation to refrain from drinking some days of the week in order to prevent the risks involved with various drinking patterns and to avoid hazardous situations from operating machinery while intoxicated. For example, the Committee proposes that the guidelines should emphasize the immediate risks associated with heavy drinking sessions along with the chronic risks associated with long-term drinking habits. The Committee hopes the reformed guidelines will help the general public, the government, the alcoholic beverage industries, and anti-alcohol groups to become accustomed to following these ‘sensible’ guidelines.

The MPs have suggested that the Health Departments should evaluate the same evidence used for its study to conclude whether the proposed revisions to the guidelines should be made, such as updating the guideline’s language, the inclusion of evidence regarding the risks and benefits of alcohol to health, and drinking’s impact on various drinking behaviors. To ensure a consensus regarding the guidelines, the Committee recommends the Health Departments to create a newly formed "expert group" containing independent scientific and medical experts of various fields and civil servants to conduct such a review.

Currently, the UK government is negotiating with the alcohol industry to guarantee that at least 80% of all alcoholic products for sale will contain labels with the product’s alcoholic unit content alongside the Health Departments’ guidelines. The new label initiative is set to be reached by December 2013, but the Committee is encouraging the government to finalize the initiative by the end of 2012.

The report shows that binge drinking is more common than previous studies have indicated and the adults most often participating are over the age of 65. Approximately 17 percent of the national population engaged in binge drinking, which equates to one in six people.

The report gives a definition for binge drinking as the consumption of at least five alcoholic drinks in a single sitting for males and at least four drinks in a single sitting for women.

The CDC’s Vital Signs report includes information for 2010, and the results of the study show that there is an increased level of binge drinking, up from 15 percent of American adults. The rate had held constant for over 15 years.

Most commonly participating in binge drinking are young adults aged 18 to 34 years. Adults who reported the most frequent binge drinking, however, were over the age of 65. Older adults indicated that they engaged in binge drinking 5.5 times in each month. By contrast, other adults who reported binge drinking did so about four times per month.

Young adults aged 18 to 24 years had the largest percentage of binge drinkers at 28.2 percent and reported consuming the most alcoholic beverages in a binge drinking session at 9.3 drinks.

CDC substance abuse and mental health services administrator Pamela Hyde explained in the report that not only does the behavior of adults have a significant effect on public health, but it also provides an example to youth under the legal drinking age about what they should expect alcohol-related choices to look like.

Hyde says that in order to prevent long-term problems for future generations of legal-age drinkers, there needs to be a change in the adults who are currently binge drinking.

The information for the report was collected by conducting a phone survey in 48 states. One important change to the survey this year was the inclusion of cell phone surveys, which may have increased participation by younger adults.

The report also included information about the consequences related to binge drinking. For instance, binge drinking results in over half of the 80,000 deaths connected to excessive drinking. The economic impact of binge drinking is significant as well, with the majority of the $223.5 billion related to excessive drinking tied to binge drinking.

Lead author of the study, Dr. Nancy C. Goler with The Permanente Medical Group in California, says they have proven their program reduces stillbirths and deaths among mothers and their infants. Goler adds that not only can they show everyone the program is a smart plan, but it will also save enormous amounts of money while serving as a possible means of intervention.

Researchers at Kaiser Permanente studied over 49,000 women by conducting tests in urine toxicology and also surveying them regarding their substance abuse history. They found the study yielded $5 million annually as a net cost benefit. If implemented nationwide, the program could save almost $2 billion for every 4 million babies born each year.

A major part of the programs’ success is because of its accessibility to patients. Early Start is located at the clinics where the pregnant women obtain their normal prenatal care. Goler says this way the appointments can be coordinated with the Early Start specialist and the women’s health care provider. She hopes this will eventually happen with all clinicians moving prevention programs to their prenatal health care sites.

Originally launched over 20 years ago, the Early Start program combines obstetric care alongside treatment for substance abuse with at-risk women where all patients and providers are informed about the dangerous effects of substance abuse during pregnancy.

A new study provides evidence that living with a loved one may be especially important for those who struggle with alcohol dependence. The research, published in PLoS Medicine, suggests that living alone is associated with a higher risk of death related to alcohol consumption.

In the past, the idea that living alone might provide an additional risk to those who are alcohol dependent has not been accepted by the general population of healthcare professionals, those who impact policy related to alcohol-related treatment, or the general public.

However, researchers from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in Helsinki, led by Kimmo Herttua, found that there was a significantly higher number of alcohol-related deaths among those by themselves when compared to those living with others following a 2004 reduction in alcohol prices. The price reduction’s impact on the death rates of those living alone suggests that those living with others were less vulnerable to the impact of alcohol being more available.

The researchers examined data on deaths in Finland recorded between 2000 and 2007, obtaining information on approximately 80 percent of all deaths. They determined that about 18,200 deaths were impacted by alcohol. The causes were, specifically, liver disease, alcohol poisoning, and other alcohol-related situations such as vehicular accidents, injury and cardiovascular complications due to alcohol consumption. About two-thirds of the deaths related to alcohol occurred in individuals who lived alone.

The researchers also found that for those living alone, especially older adults aged 50 to 69 years, the alcohol price reduction was linked to a significant jump in alcohol-related deaths. For the years 2000 to 2003, males living alone were 3.7 times more likely to die as a result of liver disease than their married or cohabitating counterparts. After the price reduction, however, the rate increased to 4.7 times as likely to die of liver disease as their married or cohabitating counterparts. There were similar patterns exhibited among women, though their death rates were lower than those for men.

The authors explain that the results show that living alone is a risk for increased likelihood of death from alcohol-related complications, when the individual has a history of alcohol disorders. These results were consistent despite differences in gender, socioeconomic status and specific cause of death.