“Sizzurp”- A Risky Drug Available at your Local Drugstore

By: Taryn Bogonovich Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment Program Intern Teens have been known to experiment with new ways to get a “high”.  You may have heard the news recently about a new craze referred to as “Sizzurp” or “Purple Drank”, which is a mix of  soda, candy and prescription cough syrup with codeine.  While rap musicians […]

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Solvent Abuse-What is It?

In ACS’ Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment Program (ASAT) it is common to hear teens share about the different substances they use to get “high”. Top among these substances are items that can easily be found around the house- solvents/inhalants. Household solvents can be very dangerous if used to get high and the highest risk group […]

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Studys Show Substance Abuse Use Higher in Teens with Mental Health Issues

Two studies have recently come out showing a higher prevalence of substance abuse and cigarette use amongst adolescents with mental health disorders. The first study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry revealed a significantly higher prevalence of substance abuse and cigarette use by adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity […]

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ACS Meets the Challenge: Treating Co-Occurring Disorders

Adolescent Counseling Services (ACS) has long served the mental health needs of teens and their families on the Peninsula.  In 1991, ACS launched the Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment (ASAT) Program to treat teens with substance abuse and dependency issues.  In the past two years, the program has matured, encompassing multi-modal approaches to treatment for youth […]

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2012 Monitoring the Future Results on Marijuana Use

According to the Monitoring the Future 2012 survey daily and regular use of marijuana remains consistently strong across all grades surveyed (8th, 10th, 12th).  Even more alarming is that fewer students believe there is a risk in using marijuana; among 12th graders only 20.6% view occasional marijuana use as risky, and only 44.1% view daily […]

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2012 Monitoring the Future Results on Alcohol Abuse

Monitoring the Future is an annual survey of 8th, 10th, and 12th-graders conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, under a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health. Since 1975, the survey has measured drug, alcohol, and cigarette use and related attitudes in 12th-graders […]

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“Medicine Abuse Project”-New Campaign to fight Prescription Drug Abuse

Prescription drug abuse in America is becoming increasingly alarming by the minute. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), there were approximately 7 million people in the U.S. who reported nonmedical use of psychotherapeutic drugs in 2010. Pain relievers remain as the most widely abused medications, followed by tranquilizers, stimulants, and sedatives. Among […]

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Local Teens Help Fight Sale of Tobacco to Minors

California Governor Jerry Brown just signed assembly bill 1301 into law, which would require the state to suspend and revoke a store’s license if they are repeatedly convicted of selling tobacco products to minors. If a store is convicted three times in a five-year-window, its license would be suspended for 45 days. Five convictions in […]

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Use of Pot in Teen Years Linked to IQ Decline by Age 30

As recent studies have shown that marijuana use is extremely popular with adolescents, more so than alcohol and tobacco, further research, just released in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds that habitually smoking marijuana before age 18 showed an eight-point drop in IQ between the ages of 13 and 38, a considerable […]

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