Lady Gaga Says She's Addicted To Marijuana: Is It Possible?
While research has shown that the percentage of people who try marijuana and become addicted to it is small, it is possible to get hooked on the drug. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, about 9 percent of marijuana users become …
Read more on Huffington Post

by tlupic

Letter: On marijuana, time for common sense
Tricia Lucas argues that marijuana causes addiction. Sorry, but there is no such thing as marijuana addiction, unlike alcohol, tobacco or an opiate such as morphine or heroin. Addiction is characterized by a physical dependence, complete with a set of …
Read more on Concord Monitor

I have marijuana addiction: Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga has admitted that she is addicted to marijuana. The 27-year-old singer, who is back in the spotlight after a hip injury, said she turns to marijuana to deal with the challenges in her music career, reported People magazine. "I have been …
Read more on Indian Express

Question by Heidi 4: Why are cigarettes taxed & alcoholics & drug abusers receiving S.S. Disability?
I know several of these people who receive S.S.I. and yet are working side jobs & getting paid under the table. More money for alcohol & drugs which we all pay for. These same people receive food stamps and turn around and sell the food stamps for more drugs & booze.

Best answer:

Answer by Lkn4trouble
It completes the entitlement circle! If there is a way to screw the system…entitlement abusers are the ones who find it!

And you and I get to foot the BILL!

Answer by Victory !
I guess if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the Problem.

South Africa: Stock-Outs Rock World's Biggest HIV Treatment Programme
ARV stock-outs lasted for a month on average, with the longest in Free State and Limpopo provinces. More than 400,000 patients are served by the clinics experiencing stock-outs, escalating their risk of treatment interruption, poor adherence, and drug …
Read more on AllAfrica.com

Chief Keef Is Headed To Drug Rehab
The bad news is the Chicago rapper is heading to drug rehab—for weed. Reports TMZ: Chief Keef's a free man again … sorta … TMZ has learned he's been released from jail in Chicago and is supposed to check into rehab in California for his weed problems.
Read more on Hip-Hop Wired

Lucky plaza patrons get VIP treatment
Lucky plaza patrons get VIP treatment. But outside the holiday lounge, visitors begin to jockey for position as the shopping season kicks off. print. Molly Downing, right, checks the work of MAC cosmetics makeup artist Estella Gutierrez on Fabulous …
Read more on Daily Pilot

From Drugs To Independence: The Men Of The L.A. Mission
“The men here are open, kind and really enthused about changing their lives,: said drug counselor Tony Monaco. “They're willing to do things they didn't think they could ever do. It's a real privilege working with them.” “You can't just think that …
Read more on Neon Tommy

by nogger

.5M awarded to help inmates with mental health, addiction problems
Inmates are less likely to re-offend if they are receiving proper treatment, but that doesn't mean the average taxpayer wants to shell out money for drug abuse counseling in addition to medical care already paid by county residents, said Kathy Coate …
Read more on Marion Star

Adderall, the new party drug?
Licensed professional counselor Rhonda Schroeder says abuse of the drug adderall is a on the rise and it's a dangerous trend. Schroeder said, "With people who do not have a diagnosis of ADHD and who are abusing it. They get high off it." Amphetamine …
Read more on KXII-TV

Question by Galatians; 5-1: Why Would a Religious Organization, Professing Having the “Truth” also have, a “Drug Rehabilitation Center”?
This group has denied they have a “drug problem” within their “Organization” How did this happen with all the promises of happiness, and real LOVE?

They are not being persecuted for righteousness sake, so why are so many members seeking rehab for major drug abuse?
God said He would not allow His people to be tested “beyond what they could endure”…so why the heavy drug use?

http://www.bestdrugrehabilitation.com/faith-based-recovery/jehovahs-witness-drug-rehab/?apcid=3877&keyword=jehovah%20s%20witnesses%20recovery

Why did they hide this here when asked if their was a drug problem? They said we were lying about this…
They are addicted, yes many are, that is why this company is offering them assistance.

They will also need money to pay for this rehab…see;

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Al1AnxAr5BWVgTHwgI3ogl_ty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20111102171129AAEd9wi
http://drugaddiction2.com/qa-jehovahs-witnesses-and-drug-addiction.html
No Hannah…I exposed it, why don;t you explain it?
This rehabilitation center is not legally able to use the name “Jehovah’s Witnesses” unless they have a legal license to do so. The WTBTS would have to give their permission, based on rehab instructions that are tailored to the Church of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

I hope you are not uncomfortable if you ever have to go there.

Best answer:

Answer by Khakidoodle
Christians are human, as are all faiths, and we live in the world, and drug abuse may not be common in mature Christians, but it does and will happen, and many are defensive about it.

Answer by no1home2day
These drug rehab centers are to reach out to help those who are NOT part of the church – I mean, like DUH!

Do you also think that doctors are sick because they have clinics where the sick can come and get medical help? (And to think atheist mockers CLAIM to be able to think logically and rationally! You really showed THEM a thing or two!)

Question by Meghan W.: General addiction support?
I have what I believe to be an addiction, but it does not fall into the regular “groups” (Drugs, Alcohol, Sex/Porn, etc). Are there any general addiction support groups where I could seek peer aid?

Best answer:

Answer by kim s
It’s kinda hard to help if we don’t know what the addiction is. But there might be a support group for it. Maybe try googling it instead.

Answer by orchidmg
www.NAMI.org

National Alliance of Mental Illness

They have support groups in many cities. See if your city has a group. They meet 1-3 a month for an hour and a half. Talking helps. You will be surprised that you aren’t alone.

I use to be addicted to beer and cigarettes and sex. After my divorce and having a child I stopped all that. But I’m now addicted to spending money on crap. Purses, pens, lighthouses, books, food. I’m also addicted to food. Big time! My health isn’t good because of it. I’m also addicted to Yahoo Answers 🙂

Good luck

Local stories tell deadly dangers of drug abuse
Since Schmaus' passing in May, many classmates have joined with area parents and other adults in a group for St. Francis Community Drug Awareness, to combat an issue that has grown in Anoka County and beyond its borders. Concerned residents filled …
Read more on Coon Rapids Herald

Girl Talk: Why I'm Thankful For My Weekly 12-Step Meeting
But even in the many years before he discovered and became addicted to the drug that destroyed many of his relationships and eventually lead to his death, he was an addict through and through. Addicted to alcohol early on, he eventually stopped …
Read more on The Frisky

Question by ॐ Plea for Peace!: why do a lot of schizophrenics like to smoke cigarettes and drink coffee?
i’ve read that something like 90% of schizophrenics smoke cigarettes, and i’ve also heard that a large percentage drink a lot more coffee than those considered normal.

does anyone have any ideas? the smoking i can understand if it’s an obsessive behavior, but i wonder if the nicotine in cigs or the caffeine in coffee has anything to do with it?

Best answer:

Answer by gardensallday
I think I read recently that they have an inability to experience pleasure normally, and cigarettes fill that need. I don’t know about the coffee. I will say that I drink a hell of a lot of coffee & I have bipolar. Oh wait, found this on schizohprenia.com:

Scientists find link for smoking, schizophrenia – Schizophrenia Update, January 2004

A team of Toronto researchers has made a startling discovery about why people with schizophrenia are so much more likely than other people to be smokers.

Medications that block dopamine – commonly used by people with this debilitating condition – make smoking a more rewarding experience, they reported in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

The findings, which challenge long-held views about the role of dopamine in nicotine addiction, may provide science with clues on how to help schizophrenics and others give up cigarettes and kick other habit-forming drugs.

“It’s a first step in identifying systems in the brain that can mediate vulnerability to addiction,” said lead author Steve Laviolette, who is currently doing post-doctoral research at the University of Pittsburgh.

He admitted, however, that the findings are likely to spark controversy.

“It’s basically overturning 30 years of previous research. So you might come across people who are hostile to – if not shocked by – the results.”

Yavin Shaham, an addiction researcher at the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse in Baltimore, Md., agreed that the findings defy some of the dogma around nicotine addiction. But he said the science is sound and the findings will spark debate in the addiction research community.

“I think that it’s very interesting research that points in new directions to understanding nicotine reward,” said Shaham, who was not involved in the research.

“It’s not necessarily the way we thought about it in the past. And it’s certainly relevant for the understanding of why schizophrenics are smoking so much.”

Laviolette wrote the paper with co-author Derek van der Kooy while working on his doctorate in neuropharmacology at the University of Toronto. The pair was trying to identify areas in the brain that are involved in nicotine addiction.

“The schizophrenic angle came up almost accidentally, really,” Laviolette said from Pittsburgh.

The work, done on rats, involved injecting nicotine or a placebo – in this case saline – directly into a portion of the brain known as the ventral tegmental area, or VTA. The VTA is thought to be the pleasure centre of the brain and is known to be involved in nicotine, alcohol and drug addiction.

To the team’s surprise, they discovered the VTA also is involved in aversion. Low doses of nicotine administered to that area of the brain actually induced a negative reaction from the rats. It was only when the dosage crossed a certain threshold that the animals began to perceive it as pleasurable and to seek it out.

“That was surprising, that a single brain area was responsible for both the aversive and the rewarding effects,” Laviolette admitted.

More surprising still was what happened when they gave the rats drugs that blocked the dopamine receptors in the VTA.

For decades, research has shown that dopamine, a neurotransmitter, is responsible for the rewarding effects of nicotine. But researchers could never explain why people with schizophrenia on dopamine-blocking drugs tend to smoke like chimneys.

It didn’t seem to make sense: if dopamine allowed the brain to enjoy smoking and dopamine was blocked, smoking should no longer be a pleasurable experience.

“And what was the surprising thing was the rewarding effects were not blocked at all,” Laviolette said of the rat experiments.

In fact, the contrary was true, he said. Blocking dopamine blocked the adverse effects of nicotine, but ramped up the rewarding sensations induced by the drug. Dramatically.

The findings suggest that schizophrenia medications that block dopamine are fixing one problem but causing another, he said.

“What’s really happening is that you’re blocking dopamine in the schizophrenics, you’re increasing nicotine’s rewarding effects. And that’s why you see 95 per cent of schizophrenics are heavily addicted to nicotine.”

Further, the same effect is probably happening with alcohol and possibly other drugs, Laviolette said.

“It’s a two-edged sword. The drug is removing the psychosis but at the same time making them addicted to these extremely dangerous drugs.”

Not all medications used to treat schizophrenia work by blocking dopamine, however. The newer generation of medications, known as atypical anti-psychotic drugs, work by a different mechanism.

Laviolette said the research suggests that the reactions to a drug induced in the VTA fall on a spectrum from aversion to pleasure. Whether one finds a cigarette satisfying or disgusting may depend on one’s baseline dopamine levels, he said.

and another article with another explanation:
Scientists have found that smoking and schizophrenia are tightly linked, but are not sure why. Could nicotine actually be helping the disorder? If so, then it is a double-edged sword, because smoking is a life-threatening behavior.

Now, new research on the effects of nicotine in people with schizophrenia is beginning to answer these questions and uncover clues that may help to treat this serious disorder.

Schizophrenia is characterized by disordered thinking; hallucinations, such as hearing voices; and delusions, such as paranoid beliefs that people are conspiring against you. Schizophrenia affects about 1 percent of the population and places a substantial burden on those afflicted, their families, and society.

Many people with schizophrenia smoke, and their unique smoking behaviors have led scientists to believe that nicotine, the addicting substance in tobacco, may represent a form of self-medication, normalizing some central nervous system deficits involved in the disorder.

People with schizophrenia smoke up to three times more than the general population and more than most psychiatric populations. Schizophrenia patients who smoke also have higher levels of nicotine in their bodies because they tend to extract more nicotine per cigarette than other smokers.

Nicotine and its brain receptors—proteins on the surface of cells that receive chemical messages—are keys to understanding the links between smoking and schizophrenia. Already, research has revealed that:

Nicotine and its receptors are involved in functions such as cognition or thinking ability, reward, movement, and pain relief.
Schizophrenia patients have fewer and more poorly functioning nicotinic receptors, especially in the hippocampus, cortex, and cells that wrap the thalamus—brain areas involved in several cognitive and sensory deficits of schizophrenia.
Increased nicotine intake—from smoking cigarettes or sometimes from a skin patch, gum, or nasal spray—may temporarily normalize sensory disruptions of schizophrenia. For example, nicotine may improve eye tracking abnormalities, mostly by altering activity in the hippocampus and brain areas involved in eye movement. Nicotine also has been reported to improve the brain’s ability to filter sounds and to respond and adapt to strong sensory inputs.

Cognitive ability in people with schizophrenia may get a boost from nicotine as well, including temporary enhancements in learning, memory, processing speed, and attention. Several studies have examined spatial working memory—the ability to hold information in the brain and recall it when prompted. Spatial working memory is involved in planning, judgment, and attention—tasks that people with schizophrenia find difficult. Schizophrenia patients who smoked or who received nasal spray nicotine temporarily enhanced their spatial working memory, and those who quit had further impairments.

Smoking also may help decrease medication side effects and other symptoms of schizophrenia. According to one study, receiving nicotine through a skin patch reversed the cognitive slowing associated with haloperidol, a common drug for schizophrenia. Nicotine may improve lack of motivation and indifference in this population, as well. However, it remains unclear if nicotine minimizes hallucinations and delusions, and some studies have reported that people with schizophrenia who quit smoking did not experience worsening of their symptoms.

Nicotine may help lessen some symptoms of schizophrenia by increasing deficient levels of the chemical dopamine—which is thought to regulate key emotional responses—in areas of the brain such as the nucleus accumbens and prefrontal cortex. The nucleus accumbens is involved in reward and pleasure, and the prefrontal cortex organizes complex cognitive and social behaviors.

Since evidence shows that nicotine positively affects schizophrenia, scientists are exploring drugs that act like nicotine in the brain but do not have adverse health consequences. Researchers now are working on safer and less toxic drugs that potentially could enhance cognition. These drugs may help treat schizophrenia.

One type of nicotinic receptor, known as the alpha-7 receptor, is proving to be a major target for schizophrenia drug development. These receptors are found in brain regions important for cognition, including the cortex and hippocampus. Already, scientists have completed preliminary tests of drugs for schizophrenic nonsmokers based on a toxin, called anabaseine, found in marine worms and ants. Subjects showed improved sensory processing and cognition, especially attention.

Scientists continue to research the biology and function of different nicotinic receptors. As knowledge advances, so will development of new and safer drugs to help treat s

Answer by nat
they probably lilke the effect the stimulants have on them.

Viagra DOESN'T improve relationships: Men who took the drug said their overall …
The research paper added that there is 'growing evidence that the negative effects of erectile dysfunction extend beyond the inability to have sex, and impact men's emotional and psychological well-being. 'Treatments that target both physical and …
Read more on Daily Mail

From T-shirts to the State House: Ohio support for medical marijuana is more …
He came away from that research apologizing for not looking at “papers from smaller labs in other countries doing some remarkable research,” and being “too dismissive of the loud chorus of legitimate patients whose symptoms improved on cannabis.” More …
Read more on WCPO

Pills of the future: Nanoparticles
In a paper appearing in the Nov. 27 online edition of Science Translational Medicine, the researchers used the particles to demonstrate oral delivery of insulin in mice, but they say the particles could be used to carry any kind of drug that can be …
Read more on Science Daily (press release)