Good morning and thank you for taking time to read my Christian Drug Rehab Substance Abuse Treatment Center blog.  I want to continue the holiday substance abuse topic and I want to start with a quote from SAMHSA, "Impairment begins with the first drink.  For safety's sake, never drive after drinking!" 

If you are going to have holiday parties this season, the following are tips provided by

Thank you for the continued support of reading my Christian Drug Rehab Substance Abuse Treatment Center blog.  As I mentioned, it is time to discuss the holidays and substance abuse.  One type of holiday event that always happens are holiday parties and events.  Someone has to host the event and as the host it is your responsibility to make sure your guests are safe and follows the laws of the

Across the U.S., some drug treatment facilities are beginning to use incentive-based programs to reward patients who's drug tests come back negative. A team of Yale scientists studied one of these programs to try and determine it's cost and effectiveness.

"If patients submitted drug-free urine samples, they earned chances to draw from a fishbowl with 500 chips... The longer the patients remained

An herb known as Salvia, which causes hallucinations similar to LSD, may soon be banned in the state of Maine. It is listed only as a 'drug of concern' by the Drug Enforcement Agency.

"Kimberly Johnson of the Maine Office of Substance Abuse said a state ban is a good idea, because there's no point in waiting for the feds to take action."

Salvia is a member of the mint family and is sometimes called

A concerned mom wrote to Dr. Michael Levy of the Eagle-Tribune (North Andover, Massachusetts), seeking advice regarding her son who has struggled with substance abuse for several years. Now that he's almost 18, and nothing has worked, mom is wondering what else she can do. Dr. Levy responds:

"First, you can petition the court to commit him to inpatient treatment for his alcohol and drug use... If

Information gathered from Florida's 24 state medical examiners reveals a disturbing trend - cocaine-related deaths have been steadily rising in the past several years. Law enforcement officials, substance abuse specialists, and others agree that the drug is gaining popularity among a new generation that's unaware of the drug's dangers.

"What's attracting new users? Low prices, for one. Between

The latest Monitoring the Future survey has found that prescription drug use among teenagers is still on the rise. Painkillers such as Vicodin and OxyContin were among the most popular.

"'For teenagers nowadays, prescription drugs are becoming more of a problem than illicit street drugs', said Russell Bush, Medical Director for the Lapeer County Health Department. 'We periodically have overdose

The National Quality Forum, whose purpose is setting national performance goals and priorities that will improve the quality of American health care, announced this week that is has released guidelines for evidence-based programs that treat substance abuse.

"'We cannot effectively address the disturbing effects of excessive drug and alcohol use without quality treatment for people with substance

In response to a request from Florida Governor Charlie Crist for proposed budget cuts, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement suggested eliminating the over $300,000 that is currently spent on the state's DARE program. FDLE officials cited studies which have found the program to be ineffective.

"The office cited a 2003 U.S. Government Accountability Office analysis of several DARE studies,

"Just Say No" was a popular anti-drug slogan for years. And there's certainly no shortage of anti-drug programs in the United States and other countries. But are they effective? A recent study in China has found that they may not be.

"A new study has found that using education and prevention programs alone to persuade teens to keep away from drinking, smoking or taking drugs are unlikely to be