Overdose deaths involving methamphetamine have more than quadrupled from 2011 to 2017 and authorities are struggling to keep up with the increases in addiction and erratic behavior caused by the drug.
However, these alarming statistics have been overshadowed by the opioid epidemic and funding to address the problem has been sorely lacking.
Drug trends tend to go back and forth from stimulants to depressants, and the public’s focus and efforts to combat addiction and overdose shift with time.
As signs that the opioid epidemic may be leveling out have appeared and information campaigns have successfully warned people away from dangerous amounts of these depressants, meth use has become almost socially acceptable in some areas.
According to “Kim,” a woman interviewed by NPR who has struggled with meth addiction for many years, the taboo against taking this intense stimulant has lessened over the years.
“Now what I see, in any neighborhood, you can find it,” she said. “It’s not the same as it used to be where it was kind of taboo. It’s more socially accepted now.”
Part of the reason the growing meth problem across the Midwest and West Coast has been overshadowed is likely because meth overdose is significantly less likely to end in death compared to opioid overdose.
Opioids depress the central nervous system, and too much physical depression can cause an individual to stop breathing. With stimulants like meth, death is usually caused by a heart attack or brain hemorrhage or as a result of mixing the drug with depressants, including opioids.
Reports of deaths from batches of meth contaminated with fentanyl have been increasing over the past year. Authorities believe that illicit drug manufacturers are handling meth on the same surfaces touched by the highly potent opioid, as tiny amounts of fentanyl can be enough to cause an overdose. Stimulants can also hide the signs of opioid overdose, so mixing the two can be especially dangerous.
“Folks that are doing hardcore illicit drugs can be pretty fussy, too,” says University of California’s Dr. Daniel Ciccarone. “And most meth users really, really, really, really don’t want an unbeknownst fentanyl put into their methamphetamine.”
At the same time, a higher number of older adults appear to be experimenting with meth. According to the program manager of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s Positive Reinforcement Opportunity Project, Rick Andrews, this may be due to the fact that older gay men were too nervous about HIV to engage in much drug use in their youth and are looking to make up for it.
Older tissue can’t stand up to the high blood pressure and heart rates associated with stimulants in the way that young tissue can, resulting in more strokes and heart attacks.
“They feel like they’ve missed out and they want to have a little fun and make up for lost time maybe,” Andrews said.
This is the first-ever successful prosecution of a drug company exec tied to the opioid crisis.
Five former executives of the opioid maker Insys Therapeutics were found guilty of federal racketeering charges last week.
The criminal charges were brought by federal prosecutors in the state of Massachusetts and stem from allegations that the company bribed doctors to prescribe Subsys, a fentanyl nasal spray.
“Just as we would street-level drug dealers, we will hold pharmaceutical executives responsible for fueling the opioid epidemic by recklessly and illegally distributing these drugs, especially while conspiring to commit racketeering along the way,” Andrew E. Lelling, the U.S. attorney who tried the case, told The New York Times.
The verdict came after a lengthy legal battle: the trial lasted 10 weeks, and the jury deliberated for 15 days. During that time, sometimes shocking allegations came to light, including that one Insys sales executive who had previously worked as an erotic dancer gave a lap dance to a doctor who was selling Subsys.
On other occasions the company paid for doctors to go to shooting ranges and visit VIP rooms of strip clubs, according to Vice. Insys also paid high “speaking fees” to the doctors who prescribed the most Subsys, and invited them to lavish dinners.
“They were a farce really,” Gavin Awerbuch, a doctor convicted of distributing Subsys illegally.
Yale law professor Abbe Gluck said that the case highlights the extreme lengths that companies would go to to sell opioids.
“The case paints a picture of the kind of troubling industry practices that helped fuel the opioid epidemic,” Gluck said, adding that the verdict “shows that a jury is willing to punish for them.”
In addition to unscrupulous sales practices, the company also misled insurance agents in order to get prescriptions covered, even though Subsys was only officially supposed to be used for cancer patients.
“Insurers were told about medical things that never happened. They told deception after deception after deception on recorded lines,” prosecutor K. Nathaniel Yeager said during the trial.
The company even produced a rap video that was used to promote Subsys. In it, a rapper mentions titrations, the process of putting patients on a higher and higher dose of a medication.
“I love titrations, yeah, that’s not a problem, and I got new patients, yeah, I got a lot of ‘em,” the rapper says in a parody of A$AP Rocky’s 2012 single “F—in Problems.”
Some of the biggest names in country music share their reasons for getting sober.
Country crooners love to sing about beer and whiskey, but it’s becoming more and more common for the genre’s biggest stars to talk openly about their sobriety.
One of country’s biggest names, Tim McGraw, has been sober since 2008.
“I got to a point in my career, where it was either time to give up, not try to be the best you can be moving forward or try to be the best that you can be,” he told The Boot. His wife, fellow country star Faith Hill, told him it was time to put the alcohol aside and stop drinking before shows.
“I was at a crossroads in my life on all fronts: I wanted to be healthy, I wanted to be around for my kids, I wanted to be a better husband and a better father, I wanted to take care of myself mentally and physically, and I wanted to get the most out of my career that I could get out of my career,” McGraw said.
Keith Urban also got sober at the prompting of his famous wife, Nicole Kidman, who staged an intervention. He has now been sober for 13 years and wishes he had stopped drinking sooner.
“It’s something I needed because I’m alcoholically wired,” Urban said. “I wish I’d gotten sober many years earlier than I did, but it is what it is.”
“I remember him telling me, ‘Hey man, it’s gonna be scary, it’s gonna freak you out, but it’s gonna be beautiful,’” Gilbert said.
Even the artists who sing about drinking the most are no longer imbibing. Brad Paisley is behind the hit song “Alcohol,” but he is sober, and Chris Janson sings the hit song “Fix A Drink,” but he stays away from alcohol too. However, in the past, Janson did rely on alcohol to fix his troubles.
“I can relate because not so long ago I was that guy, I totally get it… I’ve drank a lot of beer in my life, and whatever problems I had walking in, they were gone by 10,” he said.
Although he didn’t have a full-blown drinking problem, he said that alcohol kept him from feeling his best.
“I just choose not to because it always made me feel bloated and fat—I’m 135 pounds, so 10 beers makes me feel like a balloon, man,” he said.
Powerhouse vocalist Shania Twain also stays away from alcohol for health reasons, she wrote in her biography.
“I like a clean band. I don’t like drugs. I don’t like alcohol,” she said. “I like to have clean-living people around me.”
“I thought it was very natural to be in this low, low point and I just assumed that was motherhood and there was no other way around it.”
May is Women’s Health Month, and model and TV personality Chrissy Teigen used her platform to speak to The Today Show about her past struggle with postpartum depression.
Now the mother of two, Teigen experienced an intense change in personality and mood after the birth of her baby girl, Luna.
“Since it happened with Luna, it happened with my first one, I just didn’t know that there was any other way to feel,” Teigen saidaccording to USA Today. “I thought it was very natural to be in this low, low point and I just assumed that was motherhood and there was no other way around it.”
Though she was feeling exhausted, it was her low self-esteem, negative thoughts and general feeling of sadness that concerned her husband, musician John Legend, and her doctor. It was only when they pointed out those behavioral changes that Teigen realized something was wrong.
Women can start having hormonal-based blues as early as during a pregnancy, and some women even turn to self-medicating while pregnant to relieve the depression or anxiety they experience.
The American Psychiatric Association says that while “baby blues” are normal (up to 70% of new mothers experience this temporary change in mood) and include irritability, crying, and exhaustion for a few weeks, postpartum depression requires treatment and support.
Symptoms of postpartum depression include extreme fatigue, enduring hopeless or helpless emotions, difficulty concentrating and confusion, crying without reason, lack of bonding or interest in the baby, or severe anxiety around the baby, lack of emotion, feelings of worthlessness around mothering, or fear of harming self or baby.
Women experiencing these ongoing symptoms can report them to the baby’s pediatrician or their own doctor and ask for assistance. Options for recovery include certain medications, group or individual therapy, and a secure support network.
“I didn’t really realize it until I’d written an article with Glamour Magazine and spoken out about it how many women are going through this,” Teigen said. “I think more than anything I’ve ever done, more women on the street come up to me and talk about that article than anything else.”
Is the sober curious movement strong enough to change America’s relationship with alcohol?
Beyond the sober-friendly bars and fresh mocktails popping up on menus, there’s a whole world of workshops, online and real-life communities, alcohol-free parties and social media-based “programs” to help people cut down on drinking.
The growing “sober curious”—or “elective sobriety”—trend is attracting not just people forcing away a drinking problem, but the full spectrum of non-drinkers.
“Sobriety is getting rebranded,” as author Virginia Sole-Smith declared on the website Medium in April. Sole-Smith, the author of The Eating Instinct, examines this budding lifestyle movement. Is it a trend, or something more? In the writer’s own words, “Is this just wellness culture in overdrive? Or is the U.S. starting to change its relationship with booze?”
As Sole-Smith notes, while 64% of people keep their drinking at moderate, “low-risk” levels and do not qualify as having alcohol use disorder, that doesn’t mean their drinking habits are problem-free.
“We’re finding a lot of unhealthy patterning buried within that ‘moderate-drinking’ group,” said Timothy Naimi, MD, a professor at the Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health. “I think many of us now recognize that alcohol consumption exists on a continuum and a lot of us are consuming alcohol to excess on a regular basis.”
Joy Manning, who nurtures real-life and online sober communities with her friend Annie Baum-Stein, told Sole-Smith that their sober happy hours attract “the full spectrum” of people who choose not to drink.
“We definitely have people who strongly identify as alcoholics in recovery and are doing the whole 12-step lifestyle. But there are also people who just want to embrace an alcohol-free life and see that as a positive upgrade,” she said. “And then there are people who do drink, but are just sick of every event revolving around alcohol.”
“Sober experiments” like Dry January and Sober October challenge drinkers to lay off the booze for a month at a time. Even for people who don’t identify as alcoholics, it’s a chance to cut back and reflect on drinking habits.
“I think there are more and more people who are saying, ‘Hold on, I’m concerned about my drinking and I would love a way to work on that where I don’t have to explain it all to people.’ That’s what these sobriety experiments can be,” said Jessica Lahey, author of The Gift of Failure.
Lahey said that before she was ready to fully embrace meetings and around-the-clock sobriety, she would stop drinking here and there for months at a time. “I don’t see those as failed attempts at sobriety, I see those as times when I was starting to really look at my relationship with alcohol.”
As Erin Shaw Street of the Tell Better Stories movement told Sole-Smith, “The dominant cultural message is that alcohol is a lifestyle accessory.” But not for long, it seems. “Elective sobriety” is catching up to our attitudes toward drinking. Being sober is no longer lame—it’s a lifestyle choice. And there are a growing number of venues and supportive communities that now cater to this lifestyle.
This budding movement encourages us to be conscious of our drinking, no matter how disciplined we are. It offers a chance to step back and reflect. And that’s a good thing.
Valium is the brand name for an anti-anxiety medication which contains diazepam, a Schedule IV controlled substance. Because people can abuse diazepam to get high, Valium is only available by prescription and can be used in tablet, gel and injectable form. More here on Valium costs, prescription doses and signs of Valium abuse. Plus, a section at the end for your questions about Valium prescriptions.
What do doctors prescribe Valium for?
Valium is a very versatile drug. Doctors may prescribe Valium to treat the symptoms of anxiety, muscle spasms, seizures, and even alcohol withdrawal. So, Valium works how? The main ingredient in Valium, diazepam, is part of a class of medications called a benzodiazepine that causes sedation and relaxes the muscles. Valium is also knowns as a tranquilizer, sedative, or central nervous system depressant.
Valium prescription dosage
How long Valium lasts does not vary (about 4-6 hours). But the dosage of Valium depends on the symptoms your doctor is hoping to treat. For example, someone suffering from anxiety may take between 2-10 mg of Valium several times a day. For alcohol withdrawal, 3-4 doses of 10 mg over the first 24 hours is the starting dose, but after that Valium prescription dosage will be reduced to 5 mg as needed. For muscle spasms and convulsive disorders, doctors recommend 2-10 mg of Valium between 2 and 4 times a day. In elderly people, the dose will be much lower, usually no more than 2.5 mg until the ability to tolerate Valium has been established.
Valium prescription cost
The cost of Valium will vary depending on your dosage and insurance coverage. Without insurance, the name brand version of Valium can cost upwards of $100 a month. However, the generic version of diazepam is usually less than $10. Unless there’s some reason why you can’t take the generic formula, it’s probably going to be much more affordable to buy generic Valium.
Can you get Valium over the counter?
No. You cannot get Valium over the counter. Valium is only available with a doctor’s prescription due the addictive potential of the drug. If you are suffering from anxiety or another disorder treated with Valium, your best option is to talk to your doctor and get his or her recommendation on the best medication to treat your symptoms. Valium isn’t the best option for everyone.
Taking more Valium than prescribed, or taking Valium in a way other than directed usually indicated Valium abuse. If you’re using Valium to get “high”rather than to treat your symptoms, you’re abusing the medication. Regular abuse of Valium does have risks -including addiction and increased adverse effects. But, no need to worry because help is available! In fact, there are many rehab options and treatment programs for tranquilizer addiction available to help you get sober.
Abusing Valium in conjunction with alcohol or other drugs can potentially cause illness or death.
Valium prescription questions
Do you still have questions about Valium prescriptions? Please leave your questions about Valium here. We are happy to help answer your questions personally and promptly. If we do not know the answer to your particular question, we will refer you to someone who does.
How does methadone affect sexual health? We review here. Then, we invite your questions about long term use of methadone as an opiate/opioid substitute at the end.
Methadone affects libido and fertility
Don’t have the urge to have sex? While you’re on methadone, this is normal.
Long-term use of methadone can cause a loss of libido and significantly lower the desire for intercourse in both, men and women. In medical studies, menstrual cycle irregularities, erectile dysfunction and sperm damage have been noted. So, methadone abuse can not only lower your interest in sexual activities, but can also harm your fertility.
Pregnancy complications with methadone use
At the beginning of the pregnancy, women should be given solid medical advice by their prescribing doctor and gynecologist. Basically, your dosing is best when it stays in the same. Most pregnancy complications are observed when methadone users try to reduce doses during pregnancy. In fact, medical professionals advise that methadone use throughout pregnancy should be continued (unless the risk is greater than the benefit and a doctor recommends).
Still, methadone is listed in the Pregnancy Category C and prolonged use of the medication can result in side-effects, including:
physical dependence in the neonate
neonatal abstinence syndrome
decreased fetal growth in infants
deficit in performance on psychometric and behavioral tests
In the mother’s body, peak methadone levels will occur within 4-5 hours after taking an oral dose. If a baby is breastfed during this time it will receive 2%-3% of the oral maternal dose through the milk. As a result of ingesting methadone through mother’s breast milk, effects such as sedation and respiratory depression in babies have been observed.
Mothers should be informed and instructed by doctors on how to identify side effects in their baby that have occurred as a result of having too large dose of methadone in the milk. More importantly, mothers should be informed about the choice not to breast feed their babies, but to use a formula instead, or about when is the safest period of time for breastfeeding.
Methadone’s effects on sexuality and fertility questions
It is a fact that methadone helps addicts stay clean and live a drug-free life. But, when it comes to libido, fertility, conception, pregnancy and breastfeeding, it’s best to listen to the doctor’s guidelines, thus risks will be minimized. If you have any further questions or concerns feel free to ask us by posting your questions in the comments section below.
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ARTICLE OVERVIEW:Newborns are not systematically drug tested in Texas. However, consequences for substance abuse during pregnancy are described Texas Penal Code 22.041. More here on how you can lose parental rights for substance use in TX.
During pregnancy, consumption of certain prescription medications and illegal drugs are not safe for both the mother and unborn baby. So, if you are planning to get pregnant or already expecting, it’s important to check with your doctor regarding prescription drugs and put an end to recreational drug use.
It’s important to understand how drugs can impact the health of a newborn before starting or continuing the use of any potentially dangerous substance. There are many short and long term risks that come with any kind of drug use during pregnancy, including:
Marijuana: By smoking marijuana, the levels of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide are increased, which can reduce the oxygen supply to the baby. This can result in premature births, low birth weights, delays in development, and learning and behavioral problems.
Heroin: This highly addictive drug can not only severely harm the baby while in the womb but cause them to be dependent on the drug after it is born. A newborn can go into withdrawal after birth and experience symptoms such as irritability, convulsions, and sleep abnormalities.
Cocaine: After a fetus is exposed to cocaine, it can take much longer for the drug to be eliminated from their system than it would from an adult. Using cocaine during pregnancy can lead to premature labor, restricted growth, defects and learning difficulties.
Methamphetamine: Related to amphetamines, methamphetamine can raise the heart rate of both the mother and the baby. Newborns exposed to methamphetamine can suffer withdrawal symptoms, such as sleeplessness and muscle spasms.
PCP & LSD: As both of these drugs are hallucinogens, PCP & LSD can cause users to behave violently and self-harm, in addition to potential birth defects. PCP can lead to low birth weights, brain damage and poor muscle control, while frequent use of LSD can cause birth defects.
Neonatal Abstinence Defined
In 2014, an estimated 32,000 newborns were born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, NAS, as a result of drug and opioid use during pregnancy. NAS causes a range of symptoms, including tremors and breathing problems, as the newborn withdraws from the substances they were exposed to while in the womb.
But how can a baby ingest drugs while in utero?
When a woman takes drugs during pregnancy, the chemicals are passed through the placenta and umbilical cord to the developing fetus. Chemical dependency then forms in the child if the mother takes a psychoactive substance over and over again during her pregnancy. And dependency ends after the baby goes through withdrawal…with associated risks and dangers.
With all of the risk that can come with drug use and pregnancy, monitoring the health of the mother and baby is a critical part of the pre and post-natal process. And part of monitoring can include drug testing.
Can You Test Newborns for Drugs in Texas?
No, Texas state law does not require drug testing in newborns. While there are no specific state laws to prosecute women who have used drugs during pregnancy, a prosecutor may be able to find ways to criminally charge the mother under other laws.
Currently, drug testing is not mandatory in every state for pregnant women and newborns. In other states, mandatory reporters must report suspected drug use in mothers, as it’s consider a form of child abuse. And in some other states, drug testing as a part of the process. For example, states such as North Dakota and Minnesota do require drug tests but only if there are drug-related complications at birth.
“A person commits an offense if he intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or with criminal negligence, by act or omission, engages in conduct that places a child younger than 15 years in imminent danger of death, bodily injury, or physical or mental impairment.”
Even though prenatal substance abuse is considered to be child abuse in 23 states, testing the mother and newborn is not a requirement in most states. There are many reasons testing would be provided, such as suspected prenatal drug exposure or evidence for child welfare proceedings.
What Are the Consequences for Prenatal Substance Abuse?
Drug use during pregnancy can cause many problems for the mother and child in addition to issues related to their health. Proven prenatal substance abuse and testing positive can lead to a range of legal issues as well. According to Houston drug crime lawyer, David Breston, the criminal penalties for a drug-related crime in Texas can range from a “a class “C” paraphernalia case to life in prison.
In other states, a positive drug test or if the newborn is exhibiting withdrawal symptoms can lead to revocation of custody rights. Loss of custody not only hurts the mother, but the child as well.
While infants and toddlers may be too young to process or remember the experience, it can have lasting and damaging effects, such as influencing their ability to love and trust others. The loss of custody is not only devastating but it can also take years to recover parental rights fully.
States that Require Drug Testing for Newborns
In recent years, testing newborns for drugs has become a highly debated topic. But laws vary from state to state. Here’s a snapshot of the laws as they currently are in states throughout the U.S.
Require to test: Indiana
Required to test AND report for prenatal drug exposure: Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, North Dakota and Rhode Island
Required to report prenatal drug exposure: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin.
Required for grounds to terminating parental rights: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin
Your Questions
Every day, the number of newborns born with NAS continues to increase. While it is not required to drug test a newborn in Texas, it’s important to know that it can still lead to severe consequences, including the loss of parental rights.
We understand that you probably have more questions about this topic. Please leave your questions in the comments section below. We do our best to respond to all real life questions personally.
On Election Night 2016, Crisis Text Line received four times their average volume. The biggest surge came from people concerned about issues including LGBTQ+, sexual assault, and immigration.
Crisis Text Line, which is like the Suicide Hotline but with texting, recently processed its 100 millionth text. All the data they’ve recorded from the texting sessions since launching in 2013 has now been compiled into what they’re calling the biggest mental health data set ever collected. There are different ways of accessing the data including a visualization tool that allows users to see which issues are the biggest in which state (plus Puerto Rico), which issues co-occur with others, and when they occur (day of week and time of day). Plus, they made word clouds for each key issue such as anxiety, eating disorders, and self-harm, and paired them with example texts.
I’m so nervous it’s making me nauseous
The Crisis Text Line is a free 24-hour texting service powered by volunteers who are trained to help texters process and get through any personal psychological crisis. It’s about much more than suicide; people are encouraged to text when they feel at a loss about their relationships, school problems, substance use, LGBTQ+ issues, or “health concerns.” To access the service, you just send a text to 741741 from anywhere in the U.S.A.
It’s no secret that younger generations prefer texting to talking on the phone. Sending a text, as opposed to making a call and actually speaking to someone, can take a lot of pressure off of someone who is already upset, so it’s not surprising that Crisis Text Line has grown so rapidly, especially among young people who make up the majority of the texters (75 percent are under age 25). In addition to providing a much-needed service, the company is dedicated to collecting and reporting data from the texts in order to help communities across the country better understand mental health and hopefully aid in the prevention of future crises and suicides.
The Data
There’s a lot of data to pore through with the Crisis Trends tool alone, but there are some key trends that stand out. The most common issue people contact the Crisis Text Line about is depression/sadness, followed by relationships. The number one state for depression is Montana. Looking at the timeline, you can see that depression/sadness calls weren’t always the most common, but there was a big jump in December 2017. It was certainly a volatile month, but it’s unclear why this trend has continued — depression calls peaked at over 35 percent in February 2019.
I’ve got recurring feelings of worthlessness, despair, and overwhelming sense of I can’t stop was [sic] going on in my head… Why can’t I be happy?!
For most issues, texters are more likely to contact the line at night. Which day of the week people reach out depends on the issue. Not surprisingly, depression calls dip on Friday and Saturday, increase on Sunday, and peak on Monday.
Substance use-related texts most often come from North Dakota. States like New York and California, where you might expect more drug use due to having large metropolitan areas, are low on the list. However, this type of text is also one of the least common to Crisis Text Line, hovering between 1.5 and 2 percent.
Ashley Womble, Head of Communications at Crisis Text Line, was able to offer more insight into drug use-related texts:
People are more likely to text about substance use between 4-10 a.m. than texters with other issues.
Mondays are the most common days for conversations about substance misuse.
We see an increase in texters about substance misuse during the summer, from June to September.
For all ages, the most common additional issues mentioned in conversations about substance abuse are, in order: Depression/sadness, relationships, suicide, anxiety/stress, and isolation/loneliness.
For texters 24 and under, the most common issues mentioned in conversations about substance abuse are, in order: Depression/sadness, suicide, relationships, anxiety/stress, and school.
Within the last seven days, Xanax and Ativan are on our trending topics list, meaning that many more people are using that word in texts than on average.
The word clouds provide some interesting insights as well. One of the most commonly used words across the board is “people,” which makes sense since the most common topic that comes up in addition to any of the main conversation topics is “relationships.” Some words you would expect to come up in substance use-related conversations are in there, such as “drugs” and “need” and “take” and “hard.” The word “cut” is also present, suggesting possible overlap between substance abuse and self-harm, though “cut” could also refer to cutting the dose of a drug or mixing in other ingredients.
I feel like going to buy them…just need anyone to talk to.
“Mom” is also a very common word across the word clouds, but not “dad.”
Crisis Text Line also published their own list of “100 Things We Learned From Our First 100M Messages,” which is full of fascinating tidbits. The season with the most texts about suicidal ideation? Surprisingly, spring. Others are a bit more expected, such as the fact that texters over 65 are the most likely group to contact the line about bereavement.
What Have We Learned?
Looking at the data brings up more questions than answers. Why is bullying such a big problem in the Dakotas? Why is Hawaii at the top of the list for every type of abuse? Why is there so much self-harm in the northern states and not in the southern?
It’s important to keep in mind that the data only keeps track of how many people are contacting Crisis Text Line about each issue, not necessarily how many people are actually experiencing it. Therefore, each bit of data warrants the question: “Is this a big problem in this state, or are people just more willing to reach out for help about the problem here?” Looking at additional statistics from other sources, we can make some educated guesses.
For example, Crisis Trends shows that they get the most texts about suicide from Montana. In 2016, suicide rates were highest in the country in Montana. We can therefore conclude that an aggressive campaign addressing suicide in this state is a good idea.
I don’t want to live anymore…
It’s also understandable that anxiety and stress texts went up across the nation shortly before November 2016 and have stayed up. Looking at data from Election Day, it’s pretty clear what happened there.
“During the November 2016 election night, we were swamped with 4X our average volume,” says Crisis Text Line. “The biggest surge we saw came from issues including LGBTQ+, sexual assault, and immigration.”
Turning Information Into Action
Through its Open Data Collaboration program, Crisis Text Line provided data to researchers at MIT, Purdue University, Yale, Columbia University, and elsewhere. Analyses have been published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, PubMed, and the MIT Media Lab.
After analysis comes action. The great thing about the map function of Crisis Trends is that it shows exactly where specific targeted mental health campaigns should be directed. We need anxiety/stress relief in the Northeast. We need addiction treatment programs all down the Rocky Mountain area, plus Vermont and New Hampshire. Send bullying intervention advocates to the Dakotas and West Virginia. Figure out what’s up with the abuse problem in Hawaii. People are lonely in Florida and Puerto Rico, send them friends.
Also, while texters access the service from every part of the country, statistics show that a significant number are poor and from rural areas. Nineteen percent of texters are from the ten percent lowest-income zip codes; Fourteen percent are Latinx. And though only 1.6 percent of the U.S. population is Native American, they make up six percent of texters to the crisis line. Mental health resources are usually concentrated in big cities and services are more available to people with money or good insurance. More than anything, we need more and easier access to mental health services in rural and low-income areas and marginalized communities.
Hopefully, the big number of 100 million texts in six years combined with the visualization of the data will help inspire both individuals and governments to take action. Mental health in the U.S. has been declining, with rates of suicide, addiction, and PTSD reaching new highs. Part of the blame lies in our society continuing to treat mental health conditions as less important than physical health. Having a comfortable way to talk to a trained person is a good start, but it’s up to our leaders to fund the additional resources that we need, and it’s up to the rest of us to motivate them to do so.
In 2017, one-third of drug overdose deaths involved cocaine, or psychostimulants like MDMA.
The number of overdose deaths involving cocaine has risen rapidly in recent years, increasing 52.4% between 2015 and 2016.
That’s according to recently-released data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) which tracked deaths involving cocaine and psychostimulants. The increase can be largely blamed on the presence of synthetic opioids in the drug supply, the CDC says, although that does not fully explain the increase.
“Death rates involving cocaine and psychostimulants, with and without opioids, have increased. Synthetic opioids appear to be the primary driver of cocaine-involved death rate increases, and recent data point to increasing synthetic opioid involvement in psychostimulant-involved deaths,” the authors wrote.
In 2017, one-third of drug overdose deaths involved cocaine, or psychostimulants like MDMA. Although most overdose prevention and intervention programs focus on opioids, this research shows that a more widespread effort is needed, according to the report.
“The rise in deaths involving cocaine and psychostimulants and the continuing evolution of the drug landscape indicate a need for a rapid, multifaceted, and broad approach that includes more timely and comprehensive surveillance efforts to inform tailored and effective prevention and response strategies,” the authors wrote.
They went on, “Continued collaborations among public health, public safety, and community partners are critical to understanding the local illicit drug supply and reducing risk as well as linking persons to medication-assisted treatment and risk-reduction services.”
According to NBC News, Hans Breiter, a psychiatry professor at Northwestern University, said that despite the fact that dangerous synthetic opioids are being found more commonly in the cocaine supply, many people still think cocaine is a safer drug to use.
“There’s been a lot of bad press about other drugs,” Brieter said, adding that today’s young people haven’t seen firsthand the dangers of cocaine like people saw during the 1970s, so they are more likely to believe it is safe.
“Absolutely, there is a generational piece to this,” Breiter said.
Daniel Raymond, deputy director of the Harm Reduction Coalition, said that drugs come in and out of style, and cocaine is becoming a popular choice on the party scene once again.
“Right now we’re seeing an uptick in cocaine use, and we’re hitting that point in the cycle where we’re starting to see more fatal overdoses,” he said.
Officials have also warned that more people are using cocaine in conjunction with heroin, known as a speedball, Breiter said.
“People will use heroin to blunt the severity of coming down from the high of cocaine. It can be quite severe.”
