Why are club drugs so dangerous? Ecstasy, for example, is supposed to consist of an active ingredient called MDMA (3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine). MDMA is bad enough in itself, but at least if you know what you’re taking you have some control over it and know what to expect – although different people react to it differently.

But, in fact, a lot of Ecstasy has next to no MDMA content. Instead, you have ingredients like PMMA (para-methoxymethamphetamine) or PMA (para-methoxyamphetamine) – both of which have been around since the early ‘70s, both of which are addictive, and both of which have some disastrous side effects, including:

• severe hyperthermia, which is an increase in body temperature, even at low doses
• increase in blood pressure and in heart rate
• heightened visual stimulation
• rapid and irregular eye movement
• motion sickness
• muscle spasms
• difficulty breathing
• death, at high dosages

When combined with other drugs, alcohol, or caffeine – not an unusual scenario – the effects are more intense.

One of the worst things about these chemicals is that little is know about the toxicity of either of these chemicals, the interaction of them with other substances, how they are metabolized, and so on.

In other words, you never really know how an individual is going to react to them.

PMA is nicknamed ‘Death’, and for good reason. Doses of more than 50 milligrams, PMA are potentially deadly. It can cause heart failure, kidney failure, brain seizures, sudden collapse, and an rise in body temperature up to 115 degrees! Temperatures that high can cause convulsions, coma, and a complete shutdown of the organs of the body – at which point, of course, the person dies. This rise in body temperature can happen within 30 to 40 minutes of taking the drug.

Ecstasy and other club drugs are common at ‘raves,’ in clubs, and at other parties. Teenagers and young adults are exposed to them all the time.

Make sure your kids are educated about Ecstasy. And make sure they know that, no matter what someone who offers it to them tells them, only the people who made the drug really know what’s in it. If they are still tempted, a good drug rehab program will sort them out.

What is Cloud 9? It’s a chemical similar to ‘bath salts.” It’s a hallucinogen and stimulant. It’s sometimes marketed as plant food, insect repellent or fertilizer. It is, in fact, none of those, but if you hang those labels on it and make it look legitimate you can get it into a headshop or convenience store.

Here’s what someone taking it can expect:

• erratic behavior
• serious injuries
• addiction
• agitation
• abnormal heart beat
• delusions
• hallucinations

It is being touted as a replacement for Ecstasy. But according to Dr. David Withers, associate medical director of the Marworth Alcohol and Chemical Dependency Center in Waverly, “”When you buy this bath salt you are getting many hundreds more. For a very few dollars, $50 or less, you can get a tremendous amount of MDPV (a similar chemical in ‘bath salts’). But MDPV is many times more potent than Ecstasy. When (users) lay out a line, they can be taking 20 to 25 hits of Ecstasy.”

He also said that people take it compulsively: “They may be awake for days and may exhibit symptoms of psychosis. Like seeing things and hearing things.”

Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center sees about two or three cases of Cloud Nine intoxication a day.

The law is constantly trying to keep up with these ‘desinger drugs’ as they hit the street, but Cloud 9, which contains the illegal Mephedrone, is sold on the Internet.

This stuff is serious poison – as are most drugs.

If you hear anyone around you talking about being on Cloud 9, or you hear C-9, be aware that they may well be talking about this drug. And get them into drug rehab right away.

One way to deter them is to show them what the drug scene is really like – and to show them how easy it is to get that involved. In fact, anyone who is worried about their kids taking drugs should see these movies as part of their own education, and make sure their kids see them – although you don’t want to do that when they’re very young because these are hard-hitting movies. But some teens will need something this drastic to have an impact on them.

Of course, they’re also good for adults – if you have an older child, spouse, brother, sister, friend that’s involved with drugs or drinking, the movies may help you get them into drug rehab.

The movies are:

28 Days. Sandra Bullock, who plays a role of someone who is taking drugs but still living a life that looks somewhat normal, crashes a car and is given the choice of jail time or rehab. She chooses rehab and, while she’s in there, meets some people who really have serious problems – and it could happen to her.

Trainspotting. The gruesome life of heroin addicts – including one who has a horrible time trying to get off the drug, and another who dies.

Act of Worship. A heroin and cocaine addict is thrown out of her apartment by her boyfriend, becomes homeless, and gets into even more trouble.

Basketball Diaries. What happens to a promising athlete and his family when he starts taking drugs and then becomes addicted.

Traffic. A film involving with a large cast of characters in the drug world – from the big picture of a drug ‘kingpin’ to what happens to the life of a teenage girl.

Clean & Sober. A successful businessman loses everything, and wakes up one morning with a dead girl in his bed who overdosed on cocaine. He goes into rehab, not so much to handle his problem as to hide from police, and realizes he really does have a problem. Again, there’s plenty of interaction with others in his situation.

Thanks to Screen Junkies for putting this list together. Use it – you may save the life of someone you care about.

Why is having dinner together so effective? Because you are doing something as a family – hopefully, it’s something you all enjoy – and you can have fun, laugh, talk about your day, and so on.

Doing that opens the door to deeper conversations about the important things in life, and to real parenting. Unfortunately our hectic lives leave little time for parenting. Sure, there’s lots of talk and interaction in good homes, but it’s mostly rushed – on the way to one thing or another, trying to get your kids to get ready faster, dropping them off at school or social and extra-curricular activities, , and so on.

But there’s generally not much actual communication: Not much in the way of sit-down discussions where parents and kids are talking about things that matter. Where parents are finding out how their kids feel about certain things, what’s really going on in their lives, who they’re hanging out with, who and what they like and dislike and why, what their goals and aspirations are.

These talks should include discussions about things that can get kids into trouble – including alcohol and drugs – and what will help them succeed in life.

Talks about drugs should include their exposure to drugs – do they know kids who take drugs or drink, have they been offered drugs or alcohol, and so on – and how they feel about them and what they know about them.

Parents are responsible for learning about drugs and educating their kids – not lecturing them, but educating with facts. Facts about the perils of drugs and alcohol are easy to come by, and are dramatic enough to be pretty convincing and have an effect. Gradually teach them more and more, and occasionally, when you see news stories about something bad happening from alcohol or drugs – especially to someone the kids might admire like a sports figure or musician – let them know about it.

When do you start having these discussions? Really, it’s never too early. Kids are exposed to drugs and alcohol by the time they’re 9 or 10 years old. There are 13-year-old addicts. And don’t wait until there is trouble. Statistics show that kids are involved in drugs for about two years before parents find out about it.

The other important thing to remember is that the earlier kids get involved in drugs or alcohol, the greater the chances are that they’ll become addicts and eventually need a drug rehab program. So, as I said, it’s never really too soon to educate them. And the more they know, the more able they’ll be to make an informed decision about drugs when they’re exposed to them. And they will be – no matter what kind of home, school or environment they grow up in.

So, start with dinner. If you’re not already having dinner together, make it a household rule. And take it from there.

What do these sexual ‘encounters’ consist of?

• Having sex with someone that you never would have had sex with if you hadn’t been drinking
• Starting sex earlier in life than you would have otherwise
• Unprotected sex – which, of course, can lead to unwanted pregnancy and getting sexually transmitted diseases
• Sex with multiple partners
• Rape

Here are some actual statistics:

• Up to 70% of college students admit to having sex primarily because they were drinking or to having sex they wouldn’t have had were they not drinking.

• 90% of all campus rapes occur when one or the other party has been drinking

• At least 20% of college students abandons their normal safe sex practices when they drinking.

• One in twelve college males admit to having committed acts that meet the legal definition of rape.

• 55% of female students and 75% of male students involved in ‘acquaintance rape’ say they were drinking or on drugs at the time.

• 80% of college women with STDs, including genital herpes and AIDS, say they were drinking at the time they had sex with the infected person.

Drinking impairs judgment of any kind, so even those you think would not do anything ‘like that’, like your son or daughter, are more likely to do it while they’re drinking.

Of course, this information should be included in sex education, but if the person drinks, how much difference is it really going to make to know these statistics?

Not much, because they’re drinking, not thinking.

The best remedy is alcohol rehab. Then they’ll kill two birds with one stone.

I remember many Christmases from my young years. Although the mornings were great – basically a happy family having breakfast, opening presents and so on – as the day wore on and the drinking started, the spirit was kind of ruined for some of us. Either someone in the household or someone who was visiting got nasty or way too melancholy – sometimes to the point of crying over everything they regret or how nice people were being to them and they didn’t deserve it – or there were fights, upsets, and so on.

This wasn’t just my family – it was also the families of many of my friends in our middle class neighborhood.

And then there was me when I was older. Showing up at my parent’s place stoned on one drug or another, or leaving early because I couldn’t stand going without drugs any longer.

Sometimes there were no drugs on Christmas day but, since my mother didn’t see me that often in those bad times, she wanted to talk about it. She was so happy to see me straight – but, at the same time, you could see the sadness behind her smile, she knew things were ‘normal’ just for the day.

It broke her heart. And worried her to no end.

Fortunately, I got off drugs shortly thereafter and that was followed by decades of a very good relationship. I never got into trouble after that, never gave her anything to worry about. It was my mother who first took the initiative to get me into drug rehab for the addiction help I needed. And once I got off drugs, I never went back. The treatment program was excellent, very successful, and deserves a lot of the credit for my never relapsing. And that’s why it’s important to choose the right drug rehab program.

But several years were wasted. Frankly, I was lucky to have lived through those drugs days. Many of my friends and acquaintances didn’t. And many of those who did were never able to re-establish their family and other relationship – they’d burned their bridges.

Do you want to save your kids? Your spouse? Your family? Your marriage? Your relationships?

Call Addiction Help Services – our experienced counselors have helped thousands of people from all walks of life and with all different types of alcohol and drug problems. They will help you find the right alcohol and drug addiction treatment program for your situation. And do it now, don’t delay as you probably have so many times in the past. Things aren’t going to change, except to get worse, unless something is done.

Do it now, and next year’s holidays will be what you really want them to be.

What happens to your body? There are alcohol-related cancers, liver diseases, alcohol poisoning, heart disease and a general weakening of every organ and system in the body.

For women who are or might get pregnant, you also have to add the danger to the baby. The worst of those is fetal alcohol syndrome – which affects the baby mentally and physically in a really disastrous way. The symptoms include several different kinds of physical deformities (including having a smaller brain), slow growth while in the womb and after birth, vision and hearing problems, poor coordination, mental retardation, heart defects and various types of abnormal behavior.
Kids with fetal alcohol syndrome often have to be cared for for their entire lives, and their lives tend to be short.

The instances of alcohol-related diseases are becoming more of a problem around the world. Last year in England, for example, the number of cancers, liver diseases and poisoning increased by 10 percent over the prior year and more than 7,000 kids (under 18) were admitted to hospitals.

You can be sure that each of the people who had the diseases and/or were admitted to hospital are going to have a much shorter life than they expected.

If you’re being ‘nice’ about somebody’s drinking habits – think again. There’s nothing nice about letting them kill themselves. Get them into alcohol rehab.

But, unfortunately, protecting your kids from other kids who drink and take drugs is not the only problem – even teachers sometimes give student alcohol and drugs.

Almost every week in the news you see teachers involved with selling drugs to students.

This week it was a special education teacher (of all things) who was also a softball coach. A woman.

According to the report: “This was all after hours, off school property. It was with the presence of this teacher on a couple of occasions and then also at another third location where the teacher was actually given the money and brought alcohol and then also was there while alcohol was being consumed by these minor students,” said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill.

One of the parents found text messages between their daughter and the teacher and reported it to the authorities. After investigation, the teacher was charged with five different offenses. She has now resigned and is awaiting trial – out on $5,000 bail.

Another report was about a teacher addicted to heroin. Another woman, and only 25 years old. She and a partner stole 22 computers from Pittsburgh’s Creative and Performing Arts high school to buy drugs.

She wasn’t caught until she and the same partner, an ex-boyfriend, tried to rob a bank. She then confessed to the computer thefts as well as some thefts of personal items from neighbor’s homes.

We used to be able to look up to teachers. They were the go-to people when there was any trouble. And they could be depended upon to set a good example to our kids. Now we know that they might need drug rehab as badly as some of their students – or worse.

Some teachers in universities and colleges even condone the use of prescription drugs – so called ‘study drugs’ like Adderall and Ritalin.

So when you’re educating your kids about drugs, don’t just paint the picture of drug dealers and drug users being unsavory characters that hang out in dark alleys.

Drug abusers come in all shapes and sizes, and from every walk of life.

But those reasons are not the only things you have to worry about.

A study in Australia (and there’s no reason to believe the situation in America isn’t either as bad or worse) showed that one in five deaths by injury involved alcohol.

Someone drowns – there’s a one in five chance alcohol was involved.
Someone gets poisoned – again, one in five chance alcohol was involved.

Have an accident with tools, a fall that causes an injury that either kills someone on the spot or later, caught in a fire – at least one in five of all of these involve alcohol. In some case, it’s more. For example, alcohol is involved in one in three burns or fires.

It’s quite amazing when you think about it that it’s legal to drink alcohol. It is so destructive.

If someone in your family needs alcohol rehab, get them help now before the situation gets worse.

According to the study, which was conducted by doing a survey on 100 people to use Meow Meow, more than one third of every ten people who take the drug have the symptoms of addiction. What are those symptoms?

• they can’t cut back or stop using it
• they withdrawal symptoms when they try
• they take more of the drug than they intended to
• spend a lot of time taking the drug or recovering from it
• they give up other activities and neglect parts of their life because of it
• they keep taking the drug despite any related health problems they may experience or are likely to experience
• they need to take larger and larger doses to get the same high

On top of being addictive, nearly one in four people said they have a strong urge to take Meow Meow and the urge doesn’t really go away. Many also said that their family or friends said they were worried about them taking the drug, but they still continued to take it.

That’s a lot different than having fun.

Meow Meow is just one of the many ‘designer drugs’ out there. It’s important for friends, parents and other family members to watch out for new drugs. There are some pretty nasty people out there – they figure out how to get around the law by manufacturing or dealing really dangerous chemicals. People find out the drug is not illegal and get the impression that they must be okay. But, they’re not. They’re just new, and the law hasn’t caught up with them yet.

Getting into a drug rehab program can help those taking Meow Meow, and the sooner the better.