Wow. Wisconsin, one of the top ten states for drug use and infamously famous for its alcohol culture, has just passed a law making alcohol even more accessible. Is this going to lead to more people needing alcohol rehab? It’s very likely, since availability of drugs and alcohol is definitely a factor in whether or not someone uses them.

Statistics from other states show that if you reduce the availability of alcohol, you get fewer alcohol law violations like driving under the influence, as well a few incidents of risky sexual behavior and violence.

What does the new law (AB 63) change? Previously, gas stations, liquor stores and other establishments that offer alcohol for sale, were allowed to sell beer from 8 in the morning until midnight, and liquor from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. The new law allows these places to start selling all alcohol at 6 in the morning.

Apparently, the individuals in the government of Wisconsin are also caught up in the alcohol culture – although I doubt they’d be likely to hang out with the people who would show up at a gas station to buy booze at 6 a.m. Maybe it would be a good idea to force them to hang out with those people for a while. Then they can make a decision based on the effect their laws are actually going to have. Maybe they should spend a little time with the mothers, fathers, children, husbands and wives of these people. See what their lives are like. And then they can decide whether they want to facilitate that.

In an article in hrtnews.com, the writer said “It tells our youth the earlier in life you can begin consuming alcohol, the better.” Hey, it’s not just earlier in life, it’s also earlier in the day. Start drinking early, in every way.

What does this mean for parents and others who are concerned about drinking? That you have an even more uphill battle than you had before.

But no matter how many laws are passed, the best way to curb alcohol addiction and abuse is to educate your children about the dangers of alcohol and help them create a life that they want to live without getting drunk. In the end, it’s always up to the parents and the kids. But back up from schools, the government and other outside influences certainly help.

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University of Wisconsin Madison has such a bad reputation for alcohol I’m surprised parents are still sending their kids there. They are on the top ten party schools list year after year and probably graduate hundreds of budding or full-fledged alcoholics every year. I’m sure many of the students will eventually need alcohol rehab – whether they admit it or not. But administrators at the school are seriously trying to change the school’s image, and that means stricter rules about drinking.

In fact, the problem isn’t only with Wisconsin universities – the entire state is known as a drinking culture. A few years ago Wisconsin was # 1 in the U.S. for binge drinking, percentage of drinkers in the population, and driving under the influence.

Here’s a quote from an article written a few years ago.

“We lag a few states in beer consumption, but we’re near the top. With brandy, it’s no contest. We put away more brandy per person than any other state. We have a strong claim on the vodka title, too. And often we have no clue how drunk we are. Consider, for example, 75 drinkers who took a breath test for the Journal Sentinel. About half underestimated their blood-alcohol level, and when they did, they missed by a lot – falling short of their actual results by an average of 35%. Many who were over the legal limit for driving expressed full confidence in their ability to get behind the wheel. Person for person, we have three times more taverns here than the rest of the country.”

It isn’t surprising that schools would also be a big problem.

At University of Wisconsin Madison, students receive citations for underage drinking, requiring a trip to detox, alcohol-related disorderly conduct, or other alcohol violation. They may be referred to counseling and they may be kicked out of dorms; but the penalties and the way the issue was addressed were inconsistent.

Now, a first offense for underage drinking carries a fine of $263.50 – quite a lot for many students – and they are required to do a course on alcohol abuse. The course costs $78 for two group sessions or $200 for private sessions.

A course on alcohol abuse can be effective, although one study found that students who did a similar course when they first entered university as freshman didn’t drink a lot in the first semester but the resolve didn’t last.

Not surprising – considering the environment.

The best option would be a real alcohol and drug rehab program. Finding out about alcohol abuse is helpful, but it doesn’t necessarily help the student get to the bottom of why he’s drinking in the first place, help curb the urge, or enable him to confidently say no in the future – all of which would happen in a really good alcohol addiction treatment program.

Administrators will be watching over things to monitor the success of their new program. But parents are still primarily responsible for making sure their kids are educated on the subject and, if needed, getting them into an alcohol rehab program to get sorted out.

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Finally, the problem of alcohol abuse, drug abuse and addiction in colleges has become the focus of White House Drug Control strategy. I don’t know if it will work – the War on Drugs hasn’t been any big success – but at least it will probably make parents and college kids aware of the problem. And it will lead to more college kids getting into and alcohol or drug rehab program.

Did you know, for example, that …

• More than one in five kids who drop out of college do so because of something related to alcohol?

• Each year there are nearly 2,000 college students die from alcohol-related incidents?

• Over 600,000 college students are unintentionally injured due to alcohol?

• One in four people aged 18 through 34 binge drink – five drinks or more in one sitting?

• Alcohol is involved in 90% of college rapes?

• 70% of college kids say they had unplanned sex because of alcohol and that 20% did not use protection?

• 22.9% of college students meet the medical definition for alcohol or drug abuse or dependence. The rest of the population averages 8.5%.

• That the number of kids using prescription painkillers like OxyContin and Percocet non-medically is rising dramatically?

• That more than 20% of college kids use Adderall as a study drug or to party?

• That 90% of the students who use Adderall also binge drink and are heavy drinkers?

• That full-time college students who use Adderall are 3 times more likely to use marijuana, 8 times more likely to use cocaine, 8 times more likely to use tranquilizers, and 5 times more likely to use pain relievers?

This is pretty serious stuff – and not at all what parents had in mind when they sent their kids off to college with the money the family had been saving for years.

These kids aren’t just having a good time – they are doing things that are very dangerous.

If you have a son or daughter that’s drinking or taking drugs, don’t take it lightly. It’s easy to think that something bad won’t happen to your kid, or that your kid’s drinking or drug taking won’t get worse – some parents even think that going to college will straighten them out. But, statistically, that’s just not true. Get them through a drug rehab program – they also address alcohol – before they go to college. A good program will help them resist the temptation when college comes around.

And, remember, 25% of college students say that drinking alcohol has adversely affected their performance as a student. Don’t be afraid to take your college kid out of college for a while to sort them out. They have far more chance of getting the education and having the future both they and you envisioned.

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If you have a son or daughter who is a musician, or aspires to be one, you might also have heard from them that drugs and alcohol get their creative juices flowing. The MusiCares MAP Fund, which has save the lives and careers of many musicians by getting them through drug rehab, dispels that idea.

Parents, family members and friends sometimes struggle for years to get the musicians in their lives into drug rehab. As long as a musician thinks their creativity depends on it, the pleas are likely to fall on deaf ears. But if they hear it from another musician – especially musicians who are undeniably successful – it might get through.

The 7th Annual MusiCares MAP Fund Benefit Concert welcomed many of those musicians, and honored Depeche Mode singer Dave Gahan. Gahan, who after years of drug abuse survived a suicide attempt and a heroin overdose, lived to pick up his career and has now been sober for years.

“To be honest,” said Gahan, “If you go down that route, drugs are going to take command over everything you’re doing anyway, and that’s been my experience anyway,” said the U.K. born vocalist. “I went through a period before I got clean where I don’t think I played a record for like two years. I just didn’t care.”

In the end, that’s what drugs can do to you. All you care about are the drugs.

Take it from the many artists who have fought their addictions and won: Steven Tyler, frontman for Aerosmith, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, Grace Slick – the list goes on and on.

And, you will notice, many still have illustrious careers.

But hundreds have been lost. Here’s a short list:

• Elvis Presley
• Janis Joplin
• Jimi Hendrix
• Tim Buckley
• Tim Hardin
• Alan Wilson (from Canned Heat)
• Brent Mydland and Ron McKernan (from Grateful Dead)
• Dee Dee Ramone (from The Ramones)
• Gram Parsons (from The Byrds)
• Gregory Herbert (from Blood, Sweat & Tears)
• Hillel Slovak (from Red Hot Chili Peppers)
• John Belushi (from Blues Brothers)]
• John Bonham (from Led Zeppelin)
• John Kahn (from Jerry Garcia Band)
• Jonathan Melvoin (from Smashing Pumpkins)
• Keith Moon (from The Who)
• Mike Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield (from Butterfield Blues Band)

and many, many more. If you check out the full list, just of well-known musicians, their average age when they died was 31.

Ask your musician friends if they want to risk ending their careers at the ripe old age of 31. Or would they rather still be playing to sold-out venues in their 60’s, like Steven Tyler and Eric Clapton?

Use this type of information to get your musician friends or relatives into drug or alcohol rehab. You may save their lives and careers. And, as many of the most successful musicians in the world will attest, it will also make them better musicians.

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I hate to say anything bad about football – it’s an American institution, and a good percentage of our population would give up food before football.  And it’s true that if you wanted your kids to stay away from drugs and alcohol and lead a productive life,  you would get them involved in sports as an extra-curricular activity – all in all, a good thing.  But more and more, football is turning into a drinking sport instead of a healthy team activity. And many guys involved in football wind up in drug or alcohol rehab. Just read the news, you’ll see it every day.

Drinking after the game, and between games, going to parties, being a football star, getting into a college that’s better known for its football team and tail-gating parties than for its education seems to be as much as part of the game of football as the physical activity.

And many of the young football players in high school and college no longer look like the fit Adonises of yesteryear who take pride in their physical condition – they’re overweight and blubbery. I don’t know how some of them make it through a game without having a heart attack.

If your kid is going to play football, make sure you educate him about the sport – what it used to be – the pride of being a fit athlete and good team member – and encourage him to be that kind of football player, someone who takes the game and their physical condition seriously.

And let him know he can still get the chicks if he doesn’t drink. In fact, most girls would prefer a guy who isn’t binge drinking and then falling down drunk , who doesn’t smell like alcohol, who doesn’t feel he has to drink to prove himself or be one of the guys, and who doesn’t associate celebrating with booze. That’s admirable. Pouring pitchers of beer over someone’s head, vomiting, passing out, driving while drunk and risking your life, and that of your friends and innocent other drivers and pedestrians, or having to get someone else to drive you somewhere, is not. What kind of man is that?

Ask any girl – she’ll tell you that kind of stuff is not very attractive. Even if the guy is a ‘football star’.

In fact, if you want to keep your football player son away from alcohol, that argument may meet with more acceptance than any other.

If you can prevent your kids from drinking and they play the game well and take pride in themselves as an athlete, you’ve may have a winning combination. And your kid could have a much longer, more productive career that is not interrupted, or ended, by having to go to rehab.

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In the last little while there have been several articles and news items about how kids who start drinking when they’re young have a good chance of eventually winding up with an alcohol problem and needing alcohol rehab as an adult.

But a new study now also shows that, not only are those kids more likely to need help when they grow older, they’re also having their brains damaged.

Alcohol is not easy on the body – and that includes the brain. From 12 to 20 years old is a very important period for brain development. If someone that age is binge drinking, for example, they’re damaging themselves for life.

According to the researchers in an animal study, MRIs revealed a smaller forebrain in those who have had a lot of alcohol.

Interestingly enough, the specific parts of the brain that show damage are exactly what anyone associated with an alcoholic would expect – those parts of the brain are related to being able to make correct decisions, allowing us to “predict consequences of our actions, control our impulses, refine our reasoning, and evaluate long- and short-term rewards.”

Amazing because, really, those are usually the exact problems parents of drinkers observe. And the same is obviously true for some adult drinkers.

The researchers also said “While these subtle brain changes are not making you a monster, they’re making you a less talented person or a person more prone to do stupid things whether you’re drinking or not.”

Just what we need.

Kids drinking in their teens, at college, and so on, not only seems to be accepted by the majority of Americans, it’s a right of passage. But what is it doing to our kids, and the future of the country?

If your kid is drinking and won’t stop, realize that it’s not just a kid thing. You’re dealing with alcohol addiction. Get help for them now by contacting a drug and alcohol rehab facility. It means a better future to them, for you, and for everyone. In fact, it could save their lives.

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A recent study found that whether or not a person turns to alcohol to relieve stress depends on how early they started drinking. Parents who instill good habits in their kids may avoid the horror of their kids becoming drug addicts or alcoholics who need drug rehab to be able to live a normal, productive life.

The results of this study are completely logical. If kids are raised to put things away when they’re finished using them, eat a good diet, save money, and so on, they tend to carry the things they’ve learned into adulthood.

Also, if kids are taught to work out solutions to problems rather than taking drugs or alcohol to ‘forget’ them, they will grow up with that life skill. It will not only help them confront life instead of escaping from it, it will also help them create the life they want.

Kids who turn to drugs or alcohol when under stress will never really learn those skills and their lives could be miserable. They may not do street drugs but, eventually, they could wind up with a prescription drug addiction – which may be even worse.

It’s also important that parents set a good example. In fact, the ‘do as I say not as I do’ approach doesn’t work very well at all. If parents are solving their problems with drugs – sleeping pills, antidepressants, painkillers, tranquilizers and so on – that teaches the kids that that’s how adults cope.

If you want your kids to face up to life and use their head to make it better, teach them the basic skills they need to do that, and set a good example.

It will really pay off for you in the end.

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This weekend, a lot of people in the US will be celebrating Independence Day (July 4th). There will picnics and barbeques and fireworks, you name it! There will also be drinking at those get-togethers, and not just for adults over the age of 21, but by minors who shouldn’t be partaking in alcoholic beverages.

There was a study done across hospital emergency rooms in the US and it showed that kids who wind up in the emergency room for underage drinking dramatically spikes during this holiday weekend. It was an 87 percent increase, to give you an idea of what I meant when I said “dramatic increase”.

In addition to kids visiting hospital ERs for alcohol, injuries, arrests and embarrassment can all be attributed to them making the choice to drink. And, to make matters worse, about 5000 people under the age of 21 die each year with alcohol related to their cause of death.

Do you know what your kids have planned for this weekend? It might not be such a bad idea to find out, or to make sure to include your children and their friends in your plans. If they’re going out with their friends, have a talk with them about the dangers of drinking alcohol. Most people chock it up to “kids being kids”, especially if they drank underage. It’s incorrect. It’s not a good example and kids should not be allowed to drink. Oh yeah, and it’s actually against the law.
Let’s vow to lower that dramatic spike in ER visits this weekend by helping our kids learn the facts and dangers about alcohol abuse. It could save their life!

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Did you know that a single alcoholic drink can triple your chances of dying in a car accident while you’re driving? A new study that was done in New Zealand has proven this startling information to be true. Most people are unaware of how little alcohol it takes to make it dangerous to get behind the wheel.

The legal Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) limit in all of the United States is .08%. Since everyone is different, reaching the legal limit will depend on the number of drinks, the amount of time in which they were consumed, your weight and your gender. And, apparently there is enough impairment after only one drink that it increases your chances of dying behind the wheel.

This information is really scary when you think of young people who are not only inexperienced drivers, but also inexperienced drinkers. They don’t know their limits when it comes to either activity. Binge drinking is very common amongst younger drinkers and they’re most likely going way beyond the legal limit.

But, you certainly don’t have to be young to make it dangerous. If one drink raises the level of danger by 30%, it’s better to play it safe and not get behind the wheel. Since you can’t plan on being in an accident, why not plan on having someone else drive who isn’t drinking? Draw straws, take turns being the designated driver or cab it for the night. It’s not safe to get behind the wheel with any amount of alcohol in your system.

Shedding new light on drinking and driving has caused other countries to look at decreasing their legal limit. I think this would be wise to do globally. Victims of drunk driving are not only the drinkers, but other people who get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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In the past, we would hear about the dangers of alcohol, marijuana, cocaine and other street drugs, but more and more, we’re hearing about illicit use of prescription drugs. And, this illicit use is happening in our schools and with our children everyday. In fact, it’s the fastest growing category of drug abuse, and when I say growing, I mean it’s becoming an epidemic! With this in mind, it’s extremely important that you understand what’s going on with prescription drugs and the dangers involved, if you don’t want to wind up in drug rehab in the future.

When I say prescription drugs, I’m referring to drugs like prescription painkillers (Oxycontin, Vicodin and Percocent), prescription stimulants (Ritalin and Adderall), anti-anxiety drugs (Valium and Xanax) and prescription sleep aids (Ambien). All of these drugs can have physical and mental affects on teens along with a high chance for addiction problems.

The drugs that I mentioned are all highly addictive and can cause physical dependence issues. Because this is possible, drug detox and drug rehab may be required in order to help a person stop taking them.

In teens, the use of these drugs can cause their brain to stop growing. And, with most teens being unaware of the dangers involved, they think it’s ok to experiment with them. It’s important to educate kids about what can happen to them. It’s also important for us, as parents, to be educated, especially if doctors want to put kids on drug therapies for attention disorders, anxiety or depression.

Kids get a hold of these drugs not only from their friends, but from their parents’ medicine cabinets. It’s important to stay alert to this and make sure that prescriptions don’t fall into the wrong hands.

Another factor that can perpetuate this, is kids seeing their parents taking prescription drugs. They think it’s not dangerous because, if their parents are taking them, it must not be bad. The same goes for alcohol abuse if you, if kids see their parents drinking, especially abusing alcohol, there’s a good chance that they will drink.

Have you had enough of a drug problem of your own or perhaps a drug problem that a loved one is going through? Call us at Drug Rehab Referral to find a successful alcohol or drug rehab program. We help people get through this every day!

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