Utah’s new drunken driving law is paying off
By Gregory Wallace, CNN – February 12, 2022 Deaths and crashes linked to drunken driving dropped almost 20% in Utah, the only state with a lower legal limit of .05, according to a new study. The conclusions are a piece of encouraging news for highway safety, where the number of deaths rose at the highest rate ever recorded during the pandemic, despite fewer cars on the road, shorter distances driven, and more safety features in new cars. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration study looked at collisions in Utah, where in late 2018, the blood alcohol content legal limit lowered to .05 from .08. To read more about this encouraging update, follow the link to the original article included below. https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/12/us/utah-dui-drunken-driving-law/index.html
If you think that glass of wine is good for you, it’s time to reconsider
CNN Opinion by Jonathan Reiner www.cnn.com Updated 9:16 PM ET, Sun January 23, 2022 For many years it was thought moderate doses of alcohol were associated with a reduced risk of death, whereas higher amounts of drinking were associated with increased risk. And while there has been research to suggest a glass of wine a day can promote longevity or heart health, the consensus on alcohol’s salutary effects has started to change. Click on the following link to read the full article. https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/22/opinions/alcohol-heart-health-reiner/index.html
Alcohol and Marijuana Use and Motivations Among Young Adults During the Pandemic
NIAAA SpectrumVolume 13, Issue 3 | Fall 2021 Stay-at-home and physical distancing orders during the COVID-19 pandemic have led to increased stress, anxiety, depression, and boredom, and reports suggest that some people may be consuming more alcohol as a coping mechanism. A recent study supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism now reveals changes in patterns of alcohol and marijuana use during the pandemic, as well as changes in motives for use among young adults. Click here to read the rest of the article.
Infrastructure Bill Requires New Technology to Prevent Drunk Driving
Partnership to End AddictionNovember 2021 The $1 trillion infrastructure package expected to be signed soon by President Biden includes a provision requiring automakers to include new technology to prevent drunk driving, the Associated Press reports. The legislation requires automakers to include monitoring systems to stop intoxicated drivers in all new vehicles as early as 2026. The Transportation Department must first determine the best type of technology to install in vehicles, the article notes. The legislation mandates that the technology must “passively monitor the performance of a driver of a motor vehicle to accurately identify whether that driver may be impaired.” More than 10,000 people died in drunk-driving crashes in the United States in 2019, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The new legislation “will virtually eliminate the No. 1 killer on America’s roads,” Mothers Against Drunk Driving National President Alex Otte said in a news release. “We need
“Learn the Law: How Does Your State Prevent Underage Drinking?” Series
SAMHSA / Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services AdministrationNew Publication: July 27, 2021 / https://store.samhsa.gov Alcohol remains the number one substance used by young people. These 24 legal policy summaries allow you to track how your state regulates underage drinking as compared to other states in order to help inform your prevention work. Click here to download a copy of the document.
New WHO Study Links Moderate Alcohol Use With Higher Cancer Risk
14-Jul-2021 4:35 PM EDT, by Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) Newswise — July 14, 2021 (Toronto) A new study from the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), published in the journal Lancet Oncology, has found an association between alcohol and a substantially higher risk of several forms of cancer, including breast, colon, and oral cancers. Increased risk was evident even among light to moderate drinkers (up to two drinks a day), who represented 1 in 7 of all new cancers in 2020 and more than 100,000 cases worldwide. In Canada, alcohol use was linked to 7,000 new cases of cancer in 2020, including 24 per cent of breast cancer cases, 20 per cent of colon cancers, 15 per cent of rectal cancers, and 13 per cent of oral and liver cancers. “All drinking involves risk,” said study co-author Dr. Jürgen Rehm, Senior Scientist,
Rethinking Your Post-COVID Relationship With Booze
By Lambeth Hochwald / June 28, 2021 / https://www.webmd.com The pandemic was more than unnerving, lonely, and isolating. It ended up being a drinker’s dream, with margarita Mondays and wine Wednesdays becoming a regular occurrence on top of nightly happy hours. In fact, nearly 1 in 4 adults said they managed pandemic stress by drinking more, according to an American Psychological Association survey released in February. “Drinking particularly increased among people who don’t consider themselves to have an alcohol problem,” says Joseph Volpicelli, MD, executive director of the Institute of Addiction Medicine in Plymouth Meeting, PA. “It creeped up on people.” On the other end of the spectrum, COVID-19 prompted many Americans to start taking steps to eliminate alcohol entirely. If you’re among this group, science is definitely on your side, with recent studies increasingly showing that no amount of alcohol is healthy and that alcohol can be cancer-causing. Click
Fetal alcohol exposure data underscore need for public health interventions
By Michael Greenwood / June 28, 2021 / https://news.yale.edu/ While alcohol consumption during pregnancy may result in harm to developing embryos and fetuses, a new study led by the Yale School of Public health finds that a significant number of pregnancies that result in live birth still involve alcohol exposure. Click here to read the rest of the article.
Alabama NIL Tracker: Three More Players Join the Action
We are grateful the University of Alabama Athletics Department placed restrictions on student athlete sponsorships. Student athletes may not accept sponsorships from the following: a tobacco company or brand, including alternative nicotine products; any alcoholic beverage company or brand; any seller or distributor of a controlled substance, including but not limited to, marijuana; any adult entertainment business; and any casino or entities that sponsor or promote gambling activities. We also hope these restrictions will stand. Please click on the link to read the full article. By: TYLER MARTIN AND JOEY BLACKWELL JUL 2, 2021 A new era of college athletics arrived at midnight on July 1. For the first time ever, all NCAA athletes can begin to make money off of their name, image and likeness. Click here to read the full article.
Do you have a beer or wine most nights? Maybe two? The big C is more of a risk than you might think.
By Paige Cockburn ABC Health & Wellbeing / https://www.abc.net.au/news/health What would be a good enough reason for you to actually cut back on booze? If you were gaining weight? If you were tired all the time? Having relationship difficulties? What about cancer? Chances are, this one didn’t make your list. But five in every 100 Australians who exceed 14 drinks a week will develop cancer by age 85, according to Dr Peter Sarich, who led a landmark study published in the British Journal of Cancer. Dr Sarich found by age 85, the absolute risk of alcohol-related cancer was 17.3 per cent for men and 25 per cent for women who were drinking less than 14 drinks a week. Click here to read the rest of the article.
Brain Research: A Focus on Childhood Trauma and Alcohol Misuse
NIAAA Spectrum / Volume 13, Issue 2 News reports of college drinking tragedies, and concerns about increased access to alcohol in the home during the pandemic, make clear that COVID-19 has provided no reprieve from the problems of underage drinking. A perennial public health priority, alcohol misuse by young people increases the likelihood of myriad serious consequences, including altered brain development, academic problems, unsafe sexual behavior, physical and sexual assault, traffic crashes, injuries, overdoses, and alcohol use disorder (AUD). To be sure, efforts to reduce underage drinking have seen success in recent decades. Epidemiological data from the annual Monitoring the Future survey, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, show that by 2020, proportional declines in the prevalence of binge drinking, following recent peaks reached in the 1990s, were 66 percent, 60 percent, and 47 percent for grades 8, 10, and 12, respectively. George. F. Koob, Ph.D., Director of
Alcohol Misuse Prevention: A Conversation for Everyone – SAMHSA
May 7, 2021 / SAMHSAhttps://blog.samhsa.gov The global coronavirus pandemic has forced us to learn new ways of doing many things. Employees in some job sectors learned to work from home, while others had to find entirely new sources of income. Parents learned to be teachers for their kids, while teachers themselves learned to do their jobs in less-than-ideal remote environments. We figured out how to use technology to celebrate birthday parties, host award shows, and even conduct a presidential inauguration. One thing we can do to benefit ourselves as a nation is talking with friends, family, and neighbors about underage drinking and adult problem drinking prevention. According to the 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 54.3 percent (or 18.3 million) people ages 18 to 25 and 55 percent (or 119.1 million) people ages 26 or older drank alcohol in the past month. Alcohol misuse stays under the radar
What are the risks of underage drinking?
Partnership to End Addiciton / www.drugfree.org A young person’s brain is not fully developed until they reach their mid- to late 20s, and any drinking while the brain is still developing can be problematic. Regardless of age, alcohol lowers inhibitions and impairs judgment and coordination. It can also increase the incidence of aggressive or violent acts. Consuming large quantities in a short period of time — or binge drinking, which is defined as having 4-5 drinks on one occasion and is common among young people — can cause alcohol poisoning and even death. More than 16 million Americans misuse or are addicted to alcohol, which is a substance that is legal, widely available and normalized in our society. Prolonged, heavy use of alcohol can lead to addiction (known as alcohol use disorder, or alcoholism), liver and heart disease, and other health consequences such as a weakened immune system and increased risk
Does drinking alcohol increase your risk for COVID-19? Two doctors explain
Alcohol weakens your immune system and can put you at a greater risk for COVID-19. How much is too much? Mercey Livingston https://www.cnet.com Alcohol, especially frequent and excessive drinking, can present some serious risks to your health, especially when it comes to COVID-19, your immune system and overall risk for developing serious complications from the virus. Click here for the full article.
24/7 Addiction Helpline Available Now
CLICK HERE FOR A PRINTABLE COPY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF MENTAL HEALTH PRESS RELEASE.
Parents of teen fatally hit by vehicle files wrongful death lawsuit against Pelham Hooters
www.shelbycountyreporter.com By Briana Harris PELHAM – The family of a teenager who was hit and killed by a vehicle in front of a Hooters restaurant in Pelham has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the restaurant chain because of alleged liquor law violations that led to the teen’s death. Shortly after Ryan Rohr, 18, left Hooters with friends on May 25, a vehicle fatally hit him while crossing Cahaba Valley Road (Alabama 119), according to a lawsuit filed in Shelby County Circuit Court by Birmingham-based firm Cory Watson Attorneys on behalf of Rohr’s parents. According to the lawsuit, the impact propelled Rohr’s body about 30 feet down the road. The lawsuit seeks unspecified punitive damages from Hooters of Pelham LLC and Hooters of America LLC. A jury will determine the amount if Rohr’s family wins the lawsuit. The suit claims that waiters at Hooters served Rohr alcohol without asking him
Study Links Teens’ Exposure to Alcohol Ads and How Much of Those Brands They Drink
BY PARTNERSHIP NEWS SERVICE STAFF Home https://drugfree.org/ September 8th, 2016 A new study finds a link between teens’ exposure to alcohol ads and how much of those brands they drink. Researchers at Boston University studied more than 1,000 13- to 20-year-olds who said they had consumed alcohol in the past month. Underage drinkers who didn’t see any alcohol ads drank about 14 drinks per month, compared with 33 drinks for those who had seen an average amount of alcohol ads, CNN reports. The findings appear in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. “I think one of the implications for the broader society is that currently our controls on television advertising for alcohol are minimal and they’re self-regulatory, so I think we should definitely tighten up that seam,” said lead researcher Timothy Naimi, MD, MPH.
Alcohol consumption during adolescence adversely affects verbal learning and memory performance
www.news-medical.net Adolescence is both a time of rapid neurobiological changes and of the initiation of drinking – alcohol is the most commonly used substance among students in grades eight to 12. Binge-drinking effects are particularly concerning, although it is unclear whether and how much it affects neurocognitive performance. This study looked at two questions: first, whether moderate, binge, or extreme-binge drinking in adolescence had an impact on later performance in tests of verbal learning and memory (VLM); and second, whether the amount of alcohol consumed is associated with specific changes in learning and memory during six years of adolescence. Click here to read the rest of the article.
Alcohol Is Even Deadlier Than You Think, Scientist Reminds Us
IF YOU’VE RECENTLY HAD A DRINK, WE HAVE SOME TERRIBLE NEWS FOR YOU. http://www.huffingtonpost.com An opinion piece published in the scientific journal Addiction in July gathers evidence to argue that alcohol is a direct cause of cancer in several areas of the body. The article reviews 10 years’ worth of studies from several organizations, including the World Cancer Research Fund, the American Institute for Cancer Research and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. And its conclusions are dire. Nearly 6 percent of cancer deaths worldwide can be linked to alcohol, including in people who drink light to moderate amounts of alcohol, according to author Jennie Connor, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Otago in New Zealand. “From a public health perspective,” she writes, “alcohol is estimated to have caused approximately half a million deaths from cancer in 2012.” Click here to read the rest of the article.
Facing Addiction in America: The Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health
SAMHSA IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THE RELEASE OF FACING ADDICTION IN AMERICA: THE SURGEON GENERAL’S REPORT ON ALCOHOL, DRUGS, AND HEALTH. THIS LANDMARK REPORT WAS DEVELOPED AS A COLLABORATION BETWEEN SAMHSA AND THE OFFICE OF THE SURGEON GENERAL. Today, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy published a landmark report on a health crisis affecting every community in our country. Facing Addiction in America: The Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health is a comprehensive review of the science of substance use, misuse, and disorders. Nearly 21 million people in America have a substance use disorder involving alcohol or drugs, an astonishing figure that is comparable to the number of people in our country with diabetes and higher than the total number of Americans suffering from all cancers combined. But in spite of the massive scope of this problem, only 1 in 10 people with a substance use disorder receives