Archive for August, 2009

Though once seem as just another activity associated with the college experience, alcohol abuse on college campuses are linked with more frequently now with violence and other sadistic and illegal acts, including rape.  As a result, many colleges have taken another stance on alcohol.  They have made it completely illegal to possess on school territory.  While a step in the right direction towards making campuses safer, some students claim violation to their rights.  Such a claim has in its own way increased violence in the form of riots.   Residential drug treatment centers and other facilities specializing in treating substance abuse addictions are among those recognizing the growing problem

A drink now and again is not what campuses want to outlaw.  Rather they want to decrease  binge drinking.  Addiction treatment facilities have seen a rise in binge drinking among college age student and even younger.  Often those who binge drink become extremely violent and unstable to the point that school police officers have extreme difficulty in calming down those under the influence of a binge.   Campuses contend that binge drinking is not a right that can be defended, which is what they want to make illegal through making all alcohol illegal.

Campuses are aware  of how big a problem the abuse is becoming.  In a single semester, five campuses endured alcohol related violence.  Though alcohol related events tend to start out small, these intensified to full-blown riots for each of the separate campuses.
Alcohol abuse intervention is a good way for those who are friends and family of college students abusing alcohol to help them.  It can often aid in getting them to recognize some of the factors involved in their decision to drink excessively, including the fearlessness most in their formative years feel.

While a riot on a college campus is not a new thing, those brought on by alcohol are and becoming increasingly worse.  Many specializing in the area of psychology and social behavior studies feel these riots often have roots in the sense of rebellion against authority that occurred and originated in the early nineties.   Most of these riots happen because students want to rebel against authority, not because of say, a political cause.  The physicality of these riots is also alarming, since violence is used as an almost exclusive means of expression that students use.   Intervention and treatments are becoming increasingly necessary to help students and the campuses.

More and more the medical community is discovering that the reason some drug treatment facilities do not work for minorities originates in the lacking understanding of the specific culture minorities bring with them to the facility.  Some of the modules used in rehabilitation centers are foreign and more than improper suggestions of how to deal with addiction.  The various twelve-step programs that all at their core urge addicts to say they are powerless to their addiction and must submit to a greater being are actually more harmful than helpful, especially to those in the African American Community.  Counseling with people who are strangers to them is also unhelpful.  Because these steps do not fit their culture, many African Americans often feel tentative and uncertain about approaching addiction treatment.

Solutions to this timidity come in the form of pretreatment interventions and other methods that aim to help in easing addicts into a treatment for drug addiction. Not only does it help addicts to enter the facility, but they also stay longer.  Of course, there still needs to be more research done on what methods work well and which don’t, and which work together the best as this research is still in its infancy stages.

In a study done in North Carolina using the idea of a pretreatment as the foundation for drug rehabilitation entry and maintenance.  Finding substance abusers took more of street approach, using peers to do a chain campaign and also allowing regular self-referrals.  People eligible for the program had be at least eighteen years old and the applicants had to say they considered the African American identity their identity.  They could not have participated in another rehab program for ninety days prior, and had to have abuse crack cocaine for at least thirteen days in the past three months.  With such criteria, the researchers were able to provide themselves with a good background for their study, which proved hopeful and showed that the way minorities are given drug and alcohol abuse intervention must change.

Since the prehistoric period, hallucinogens have been used in cultures everywhere throughout the world, from the mild effects of the pure but strong tobacco passed around in the Plains American Indians ceremonies to the psychedelic outcome cults in Ancient Greece produced from building temples near the fumes of volcanoes.  But in these instances, the rights were purely for a religious or spiritual reason and to produce visions and images to help the cultures they were made in.

Throughout most of history, the availability of the plants with hallucinogenic properties has been tempered by whatever soil and climate conditions were available.  The reason for their popularity is due to the way in which it affects the brain’s chemistry, interrupting how the serotonin system functions.  However, with the industrialization of many businesses, the drug business has also increased ever since.  Along with an increase in drugs, there has been an increase in the number of centers for the treatment of drug addiction.

During the sixties, LSD became the hallucinogen of choice because of the fact that it could be produced anywhere due to its synthetic nature.  In spite of the history of the hallucinogenic for ritual purposes often considered respectable by their respective countries, LSD continues to remain illegal in the USA, unlike marijuana, which has been used in medical cases, in particular cancer.

Drug and alcohol abuse intervention provide many facts about the qualities of the drug.   In its most popular form, LSD takes the shape of what is named blotter acid: tiny paper sheets drenched with LSD that come in whitish colors or just plain clear.  Those sheets show in those colors are LSD in its most pure and undiluted self.  Lower quality colors include black and tan.

Drug rehab that specializes in LSD treatment often requires the patient to take part of a program that lasts for six months with 24 hour care.  Because LSD users often have a history of heavy drug abuse, this long of a treatment plan usually works best for them.