There were enough resources to do a study that points out the obvious – binge drinking amongst teens is damaging and could affect school performance. How much did this study cost?
On the other hand according to Join Together –“, In a move that has stunned members of the addiction community, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) announced earlier this month that it has cut all of its Alcohol Policies Project staff except longtime director George Hacker, effectively ending the only full-time advocacy effort on alcohol policy issues on Capitol Hill.”
WHERE ARE OUR PRIORITIES?
It is up to families to educate their teens and where there is a drug or alcohol problem, get them effective drug treatment. “A new MRI study finds that adolescents damage the white matter in their brain -- which helps relay information between brain cells -- when they binge on alcohol, HealthDay News reported April 21.
Researchers said that the study of 28 teens indicates that binge drinking could impair thinking and memory among teens, perhaps even affecting performance in school. Past studies have revealed white-matter damage in adult alcoholics.
"It could be that episodes of binge drinking during the teenage years, when their brain is still developing, could have adversely influenced the brain's white matter development," said lead researcher Susan F. Tapert of the University of California at San Diego and director of Substance Abuse/Mental Illness at the VA San Diego Healthcare System.
Given the current rate of adolescent binge drinking in the U.S., Tapert said that one in four teens could be at risk of white-matter damage due to heavy alcohol use.”
The report was published online in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
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Newsflash
This is the story of a girl we will call Brandy. Brandy is not her real name but one used to protect her identity. Brandy grew up in is well-to-do family with parents that doted on her and provided her with everything that money could buy. Unfortunately, when Brandy was 13 years old she developed cancer in her ovaries as well as her uterus. She had to have a hysterectomy and she completely recovered. However, she lost the ability to naturally have children. She was also forced to go on hormone replacement therapy for the rest of her life. This devastated her. Brandy, as a little girl, had always imagined herself growing up and having two or three children and a loving husband. She says that she feels like she was born to be a mother but fate intervened and rendered her unable to do so. Because of this, Brandy says that she suffered from depression. A cousin of hers, who is her same age, started using drugs when the girls were 15 years old. They had always been very close and Brandy said it was not long before she was using drugs as well. Brandy said initially she did not get addicted to them but would only use them recreationally. Brandy was also very intelligent and excelled at school. When she graduated high school she went to college and majored in radio broadcasting and advertisement. She would continue to party on the weekends but devoted most of her attention to her studies. When she graduated college got a very good job at a local radio station where she made a lot of money. |
