With the wild success of the new box-office smash film Dark Knight, people have been asking me again about the untimely death of Heath Ledger.  While I’d rather talk about his greatness as an Oscar-nominated (and potential Oscar-winning) actor, I know as the “drug prevention guy” these are the questions I’ll receive.  This amazingly talented and accomplished man was taken from us in a tragedy that has unfortunately occurred too many times and in too many families. 

Here’s what we know.  In February of this year, the New York City Chief Medical Examiner issued a report that says, “Mr. Heath Ledger died as a result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam, and doxylamine.  We have concluded that the manner of death is accident, resulting from the abuse of prescription medications.” 

That day, I wanted to know more about these individual medications and especially their effects when abused. What I learned about those effects and the combination of effects, will speak volumes to you too:

• Oxycodone…  Intended Use:  long-acting narcotic pain reliever use to treat moderate to severe chronic pain.  Effects if Abused:  Slowed breathing and heartbeat, dizziness and fainting, tremors, muscle weakness, drowsiness or loss of consciousness.
• Hydrocodone…  Intended Use:  narcotic pain reliever used to treat moderate pain, also acts as a cough suppressant.  Effects if Abused:  vomiting, slow breathing, slow heartbeat, unusual sweating, chills, loss of consciousness.
• Diazepam… Intended Use:  treat anxiety and seizures, relieve muscle spasms and as a sedative during certain medical procedures.  Effects if Abused:  severe drowsiness, slow reflexes, slow and shallow breathing, fainting.
• Temazepam… Intended Use:short-term treatment of insomnia.  Effects if Abused:  slow breathing, slurred speech, a deep sleep from which one cannot readily be awakened.
• Alprazolam… Intended Use:  treat anxiety and panic attacks.  Effects if Abused:  severe drowsiness, loss of consciousness.
• Doxylamine… Intended use:  over-the-counter antihistamine used to treat insomnia and relieve cough and cold symptoms.  Effects if Abused:  extreme drowsiness, loss of coordination, seizures, hallucinations. 

Health Ledger’s death was indeed an enormous tragedy.  This unfortunate combination of medications in anyone’s system could result in the same outcome.  We all have medications in our lives and in our homes.  That’s one of the reasons we at the Partnership have been advocating Education, Communication and Safeguarding.

Society needs to understand that these products, when abused, can lead to extraordinary damage.  We must communicate to our teens that this is not a safe way to get high or manage life’s pressures.  And, there are some medicines in our homes that simply don’t belong in the family medicine cabinet, rather under lock and key.

Have you taken inventory of the medicines in your home?  What are your thoughts on all of this?

• 	Posted by: Steve Pasierb | 7 Comment(s)
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“They grow up so fast!” No matter how old the cliché, ask any parent and they’re sure to agree that it has more than one degree of truth. But how fast is too fast?

On July 12, The New York Times ran an op-ed by Roger Cohen who expresses his concern that his 9-year-old daughter is growing up too quickly – in large part because of marketing efforts toward tweens. For me, it was not such a foreign experience. I myself (or my daughters rather) have been through the tween years and lived to tell about it.

Though my girls are now 16 and 14, the tween years aren’t so far behind me that I don’t remember wondering to myself, “Man, was I this worldly when I was their age?” And to be honest, the answer is undoubtedly “no.”

For one thing, rather obviously, I was never a tween girl. I didn’t care if my shirt matched the grass stains on my knees or if I used the right hair product on my bowl cut – I just didn’t want to be picked last in gym class. But for them it was so different. They always worried about things like “Is this shade of lip gloss still in?” and “Has the Limited sold out of that lemonade peace studs tee I want?”

After reading Cohen’s column I realized just how much of my daughters’ time and energy had (and really still is) devoted to what they would call “fashion” but what others may label “consumerism.” I don’t really know what to make of it – are the tween years just a marketing ploy to get girls who don’t even have allowances yet to spend lots of money? Should parents be keeping a closer eye on what influences their tweens to make decisions – and do their best to shield them from the million-dollar marketing campaigns? Or is it all a part of growing up in a different time and we should just accept it? And how do the decisions tweens make today translate into their susceptibility to peer pressure in the future??

What do you think?

• 	Posted by: Joe Keenan | 6 Comment(s)
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According to the pile of paper on my desk, the latest research news confirms, ”at home” and “early” spell trouble for our kids.

I get to see a lot of data that help us understand the health risks of youth substance abuse.  Sometimes it’s tough to make sense of all of the numbers and conclusions these studies put forth.  However, a few came across my desk in recent weeks that have a consistent theme for parents…

First, findings from right here at the Partnership that confirm both the fact prescription drug abuse is a serious problem among our teens today – one in five report having done it — and also that teens say the number one source of the products they are abusing is their own home medicine cabinet, the medicine cabinet of a family member, or a friends home.  

Second, an analysis of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health reporting that 45 percent of childhood drinkers ages 12 to 14 report getting their alcohol free from adult family members (30 percent) or take the alcohol from their own home (15 percent). Remember, we’re talking about 12-14 year-olds here! 

Then, another study that reports, “the earlier a person begins drinking alcohol, the more likely they are to have ever used other drugs illicitly.”  It’s called the National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiological Survey.  Now while that name’s a mouthful, the finding that half of those who began drinking at age 14 or younger had also used illicit drugs in their lifetime, compared to just around one-tenth of those who began drinking at age 20 or older should make all us sit up in our seats and think about the kids in our lives!  All of the analysis done by the study authors boils down to the single fact that starting alcohol use at a younger age was the strongest independent predictor of ever using drugs illicitly. 

So you may see where am I going with this.  It comes back to my favorite theme, that parents have real power.  We have the unique ability to control access to these products in our own homes and to educate kids about the risks they pose to their health.  While we certainly can’t ourselves control drug trafficking over national borders, we sure as heck can control what’s accessible in the family medicine cabinet, the kitchen refrigerator or in the family room.  What’s more, parents have real power as once again we see helping your child avoid childhood drinking and drug use has benefits that last them throughout their lives.

Even the most dramatic of study findings defining a problem are not reasons for hopelessness, rather they offer hope and further emphasis that talking with our kids about drugs and alcohol, preventing their use and intervening when early use occurs can and does make a profound, positive impact.  It’s not always easy, but it makes a big difference. 

• 	Posted by: Steve Pasierb | 4 Comment(s)
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My colleague Jim Siegel attended last night’s Home Run Derby and has the following to share with us:

Last night at Yankee Stadium, before the Home Run Derby began, the crowd cheered when hometown stars Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, and Alex Rodriguez and Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson were interviewed live from the field over the Public Address system.

But those cheers were low volume compared to the chant that engulfed the stadium later in the evening. That’s when Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers was smashing one homer after another on his way to hitting 28 in Round One of the Home Run Derby.

No one’s ever done what Hamilton did last night.

Fifty-seven thousand plus voices — me included — roared, “Hamil-TON! Hamil-TON! Hamil-TON!”

From my seat amidst the noise, I watched Hamilton down at home plate.

It seemed as if he was the one calm person in the whole place.

He did all the normal ballplayer things – take a pitch, take a practice swing, check his batting gloves, knock dirt off his spikes with his bat.

But you could sense from his manner, from his stance, and from his swing that he was filled with some sort of calm.

Later he told the press that he was “in the zone.”

What’s the source of that inner calm?

Hamilton says his calm comes from “a higher power” that helps him stay drug-free after years of terrible drug addiction that came this close to ruining his life.

Drug addiction is a complicated disease. To overcome it requires tremendous self-discipline every single day. To overcome it requires help from others.

The story of Josh Hamilton’s comeback this year and his accomplishment last night is – and I choose this term carefully – heroic.

But no less heroic are the stories of many people we know personally – teenagers, young adults, older adults. These are people who have struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, people who are in recovery today – some for days, some for months, some for years. I bet if you asked Josh Hamilton, the calm guy amidst the roars that filled Yankee Stadium last night, he would agree that they’re heroes as well. And that we should applaud each of them, too.

P.S. If you don’t know Josh Hamilton’s story, check out this Sports Illustrated cover story from June 2, 2008.

• 	Posted by: Joe Keenan | 5 Comment(s)
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This is an interesting teen trend and a little scary.  I don’t think this is a ‘new’ trend, but it has recently become popular again.  Basically, teens are injecting fruits (strawberries, bananas, and oranges are especially popular) and then taking them to school, clubs, concerts, or in lunches and eating the fruit and feeling like they are so smart for sneaking alcohol into a place it is not allowed.

I believe this has become popular because:
1) Teens who do not like the taste of alcohol can put it in fruit and get drunk without tasting the alcohol.
2) It is ‘creative’ and makes the user feel like they are being sneaky.
3) It is easy to sneak alcohol into clubs, parties, or the lunchroom inside an orange.
4) “It is more fun” according to a teen friend who reminded me of this trend when I asked her how she was able to get drunk at a recent concert. 

I am not telling parents to check every banana their kid is carrying around, but I would be aware that some kids snuck ‘fruit’ right into prom this year and were able to Tropicana their way to being trashed…oy.

• 	Posted by: Vanessa Van Petten | 3 Comment(s)
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One complaint I often hear from parents is how their tween or teen lacks responsibility with such things as picking up after themselves; managing their homework; or taking care of other household or personal responsibilities.  I have to admit, this is a challenge I face with my husband, let alone my kids. So how can we encourage our children to develop self-direction — which ultimately impacts the choices they’ll make when it comes to drugs, alcohol, and sex?

To begin with, parents need to set boundaries — not as their kids approach their teen years, but when they are young.  Define parameters for your child that he or she can feel comfortable with but which also allows room to grow. Explain these boundaries so your child understands the reason for them.  Children have a very strong need to express themselves in independent and creative ways and, like adults, don’t like to feel restricted from natural growth and expression.  Oftentimes parents set stringent boundaries out of their own personal fear.  One example of this I see often with clients and friends is the fear of allowing a toddler to climb the stairs.  News flash: kids need to learn how to do it and if you stand back and give them room to figure out how to manage such a feat, not only are you building their confidence, but you are giving them the space they need to grow.

(More…)

• 	Posted by: Tara Paterson | 1 Comment(s)
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Harry is standing in my bedroom doorway, wearing a look of distress and a pink dress shirt that, thanks to his growth spurt, no longer fits. “I have nothing to wear,” he announces. This is a problem because the eighth-grade graduation dance is in less than two hours, and Harry has a date he needs to look good for and the popular kids’ picture-taking party to attend. So even though I have stuff to do and even though I’ve been advising Harry all week to plan his outfit and even though I have absolutely no gas ‘cause it costs six million and two dollars a gallon, I somehow find the two of us in my Camry, heading in the direction of Menlo Park Mall. Within the hour, I have friends who have made plans without me, and Harry has a crisp blue button-down from Abercrombie with “those cool sleeves that roll.” Welcome to caring for—and caring about—a teenager.        

Living with a teen can be difficult. Harry—like every other teenage boy on the planet—communicates mostly by a series of grunts and monopolizes the family computer with IM conversations that are mind-numbingly dull. But adults, for some reason, never seem to tire of complaining about teens. Parents are bizarrely preoccupied with punishments and worst-case scenarios and calling their kids spoiled, distant, and irresponsible. Many of you forget that having a teenager close at hand is also ridiculously fun. No show on MTV has relationship drama half as juicy as the kind that plagues middle schoolers, and there’s nothing quite like the rush of adrenaline you feel when desperately trying to locate an A&F sales girl who isn’t too busy flirting to unlock a dressing room. Living with a teenager is part scavenger hunt (to find: materials for the roller coaster project, Rock Band for Wii), part choose-your-own-adventure (when the teen in your household remarks that your new haircut makes you resemble an “old grandma,” do you a) punt him or b) just walk away?). Living with a teenager is, if nothing else, something that should never be taken for granted, or worse: wished away.

For me personally, the hardest part of being at college is the unshakable feeling that I’m missing out on watching my baby brother grow up. I used to know everything that happened in Harry’s life, while it was happening—who Katie was kissing, that Ben threw a Cheeto at Kenny at lunch and then had to sit up front. The only news I now receive is a recap of whatever’s occurred on the days I can squeeze in a phone call between Intro to Poetry and English 313. I miss the surprisingly insightful—and honest—life commentary and the dramatic monologues on the unfairness of revoked iPhones and the feeling I get whenever it hits me that the same kid who was once a helpless, fussy, spit-up-y baby is developing into a real live person, with ideas and feelings as complex as my own. Simply put, I miss the wild ride that is living with a teenager, and you will too, when the ride is over.    
 

• 	Posted by: Jessica Hoffman | 3 Comment(s)
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There is an almost universal lament amongst liberal minded folks throughout the country that if only the United States didn’t have such ridiculous attitudes and laws towards alcohol, that if only we’d take away the forbidden element and teach our children to drink responsibly at the table from an early age like they do in Europe, we wouldn’t have the problems with adolescent alcohol abuse that we do. Eric Asimov, the influential New York Times wine critic wrote about this issue in his column when he pondered whether or not he should allow his adolescent sons to drink wine at the dinner table.

Frankly, I think the whole “If only we could be more like the Europeans” argument is completely useless when it comes to alcohol and adolescents. Here are some reasons why:

1.We are not European. The enjoyment of wine with family meals is a deeply embedded part of the fabric of certain European cultures. To adapt the practice of giving small amounts of alcohol to children at the dinner table without looking at the larger cultural framework would be sort of like saying “Let’s start pouring small amounts of rich sauces on all our American food” without actually changing anything about the food itself. What works within the context of one culture will not necessarily work when extrapolated to another.

2. Much to our collective dismay, once our children reach adolescence, we are no longer their biggest influences. We may teach them to drink responsibly at home but the fact is that most kids want to do what their friends are doing. Of course it’s always within the realm of possibility that at the next keg party, they’ll say something like “Oh no thanks, I had half a glass of wine with my parents at dinner so I’ll just sit here and watch you get drunk!” They might say that but they probably won’t.

3. According to the experts Asimov spoke to for his column, if you have an alcohol problem in your family, it’s not a good idea to give your kids wine at dinner. Also if you regularly drink cocktails to relax in your family, it’s not a good idea either. Oh, and I almost forgot - Asimov lives in Manhattan so his kids don’t drive. So basically, only those families who don’t have any history of alcoholism and who only drink wine at the table with food are permitted to pour for their (non-driving) kids. Why that’s probably 50 families nationwide- enough to start a new cultural revolution!

4. Lastly, although there are certainly European teenagers who drink responsibly, the fact is that there are many others who are just as irresponsible with alcohol as American teens are. I have lived in Switzerland, France, and (currently) Spain. In all three countries is it common for small amounts of alcohol to be given to kids at meals and in all three countries, binge drinking amongst teenagers is rampant. I got my first taste of this when I was a 16-year-old exchange student in France. True to form, we sipped wine with her parents at dinner. There was good conversation and Tarte Tatin for dessert. Afterwards we went up to her room where she pulled out a bottle of Malibu rum which we proceeded to drink in less than 2 hours. I don’t think her parents set that particular example for her.

In Asimov’s article he points out that every family must make their own decisions and I agree. Just remember, it’s not as simple as saying “If only we did things like they do in Europe.”

• 	Posted by: Johanna Bailey | 3 Comment(s)
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Finally, something good from the internet!  The New York City health department has launched a MySpace campaign to help teenagers deal with depression, drugs and violence.  It’s called NYC Teen Mindspace and it’s basically a page on MySpace with blogs, music, and interactive quizzes that teens and kids will like.  And, most importantly, resources they can turn to if they need emotional support.  There are profiles of 3 kids on the page that personify dealing with depression, dating violence, and stress and anxiety.  Kids who go on the site might relate to these profiles.

The NYC health department says 20% of NYC teens say they do not talk to anyone when they feel sad.  This is probably true around the country and of course, because it’s on the web, this resource is available to teens around the country.  Maybe this page will pique their interest enough to talk to someone and get the help they need. 

To me, it seems like someone in NY is using their head.  Kudos.

(Getty Images)

The link is: http://www.myspace.com/nycteen_mindspace

• 	Posted by: Sarit Catz | 2 Comment(s)
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