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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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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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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There are a plethora of drug rehab choices out there to help combat the world of drug and alcohol addiction. But, which are the most successful and help people to actually get rehabilitated? And, what about relapse, does it really have to be a part of recovery?

Unfortunately, with all of the choices out there, programs that offer short-term and out-patient based treatment don’t have great success rates. With the vast majority of drug rehab programs offering these types of treatment models, many people go through them and do wind up relapsing and just being told that it’s a “part of recovery”. Well folks, it doesn’t have to be that way!

The most successful drug rehab programs out there are at long-term, residential treatment centers. And no, relapse does not have to be associated with recovery. If someone goes through drug rehab, and it’s done thoroughly, there is no reason that he or she can’t continue on to live a totally drug free and productive life.

If you are looking for a drug rehab program that you don’t have to go back to over and over again, call Drug Rehab Referral to get help.

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Some women and fathers-to-be have no clue what the effects of drugs and alcohol are on an unborn baby. Let’s get educated, shall we? If you or your significant other is pregnant, or are planning a pregnancy, or you know someone who is, here are plenty of good reasons to get into a drug rehab program first:

Alcohol can cause: impaired muscle and joint use, impaired speech, behavioral problems, unusual facial characteristics, heart and limb defects and miscarriage. And, just so you’re aware, alcohol use by dad can also produce the same problems.

• Marijuana can cause: hyperactivity or an inability to pay attention, impulsivity, impaired decision making skills and memory problems.
• Cocaine can cause: sudden infant death syndrome, mental deficiencies, lowered IQ and miscarriage.
• Amphetamines can cause: problems with the circulatory system – the heart, arteries, veins and capillaries
• PCP can cause: abnormal development
• Barbiturates can cause: seizures, poor feeding, withdrawal symptoms for the baby and birth defects.
• Opioids can cause: preeclampsia (high blood pressure, swelling, headaches, changes in vision), growth retardation while in the mother, premature labor, complications during pregnancy and abnormalities – all of these problems can effect both mother and baby and can be fatal for both)
• Prescription Drugs can cause: many prescription drugs can have similar effects as described above. The best policy one can have is NO DRUGS WHATSOEVER during pregnancy.

But, what if you’re already pregnant? I’d highly recommend that you consult a medical doctor who specializes in drug detox and drug rehab. If you’re planning on getting pregnant or it’s a possibility, a successful drug rehab program that will get you off of drugs and/or alcohol and help prevent relapse should be done without delay.

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A friend of mine’s son was born with a heart defect. It was a life threatening situation that required an operation on his heart but the doctors said they couldn’t do it until the boy’s body was close to maturity. He would have to endure about 15 years of touch and go; had he experienced the stresses that are part of many childhoods, he could have died. When you look at what my friend had to do to keep his son happy and relatively stress free, you get an idea of what kids go through in life, why they might be tempted to start drinking or taking drugs, and what situations might eventually lead to the need for substance abuse treatment. Here’s a brief summary:

1. He kept in constant, daily communication with his son to find out exactly how school was going. He reviewed what he studied every day, made sure he understood it, could use it in a practical sense, and wasn’t getting hung up on things he didn’t quite get. Many kids don’t understand everything they learn in school and often don’t even realize it. But they become unable to do the work as well as they are inherently capable of, start to dislike school, and every day can become a grind where they feel they’re accomplishing nothing and don’t have much of a future ahead of them. This lowers self-esteem and can lead to substance abuse.
2. He also made sure he knew who his son was meeting, what they were like, and so on – and this included everyone; teachers, students, other connections. Like it or not, there are people out there who don’t have your best interests at heart. Sometimes they can be very misleading – you think they’re your best friend but your life has changed for the worse since you met them – and sometimes they are just out and out bullies. Either way, it can be stressful. My friend made sure his son understood how to recognize these types of people, why they were dangerous, and how to deal with them. When necessary, my friend stepped in. My friend didn’t want to fight his son’s battles for him – but their bigger life and death battle took priority.
3. The boy was brilliant – and very interested in just about everything. At eight years old, he explained to me how rockets work. His dad made sure he went to schools that had the personnel and facilities to teach his son what he was interested in and keep him challenged, but without pressure. Doing this, and the first two steps, also meant that my friend was very involved in his son’s school, with his teachers, and so on.
4. He made sure family life was happy. He and his wife were united in their efforts with their son, and they made sure their own relationship was clean and loving and they were all in good communication. They didn’t impose their problems on their son, and they discussed things rationally and calmly.

When I personally look at what my friend did for his son, it occurs to me that this should be normal – this should be the life of every child. Happy, healthy, not worried about things, able to pursue things he’s interested in, and know he’s progressing towards a satisfying future in which he can accomplish something.So few kids have that, it’s not surprising that many of them wind up experimenting with alcohol and drugs at a young age and, later in life, need substance abuse treatment.Along with teaching your kids about the dangers of drugs and alcohol, do what you can to help your kids create a happy and fulfilling life. If they’ve already crossed the substance abuse line, get them into drug treatment and, after that, do what you can to help them create the life they didn’t have before.And, by the way, my friend’s son did live to have the operation. He is now doing exceptionally well in life. He’s even able to run marathons and pursue the physical activities he never could do when he was younger.

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A recent article discussed the rise in the number of alcohol-related deaths in college-age kids. They increased by about 25% over a 7 year period. About 30 percent were actually in college. When we were our kids’ age, our parents didn’t have to worry so much about these things when we were going off to college. They didn’t think needing alcohol rehab would be an outcome of higher education.

Sure, they worried – about our grades, about the pressure, about how we’d do our first time away from home, and so on – but not about whether we were going to die from binge drinking, driving while drunk or being in a car with someone who was drunk, or having some other kind of accident that would never have happened had we not been drunk.

Personally, if my kid was already drinking before going to college, I’d send them to a good alcohol treatment center before college. I’d also pull them out of college temporarily to make sure they got treatment before they continued school. They’d not only be safer, they’d get a better education.

Did you know that binge drinking – which is how a lot of drinking in college is done, not in some moderate fashion, and it only consists of 4 or 5 drinks at a time – affects the brain? Numerous studies have been done.  Some show impaired memory and more than usual concentration necessary to perform simple tasks (even for people who drink like that only once a week), and some show that critical thinking is impaired for an entire month after one night of binge drinking.

Does that sound like the state they should be in to get a college education? Does that sound like an environment you want to send your kid into? I’d go out of my way to keep my kid OUT of college if those were the consequences.

Yes, most kids survive it all. But many continue on to become heavy drinkers throughout their lives. Not to mention that the vast majority of people graduating college don’t get a job doing what they studied for. Could it be they were too out of it to even know that they weren’t really interested in what they were studying?

It’s time to start taking college a little more seriously. And it’s up to the parents to make sure that’s how their kids feel about it, too. Shore them up against the college environment with alcohol and drug education, even if that means getting them through an alcohol and drug treatment program before they go, and make sure they have a real purpose for the college education they’ll be getting; that will also help keep them focused.

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