Prevention Health Communications News, from Colorado DBH

Source: In The News, 10/15/09

Please see the attached PDF for the latest edition of “In the News”.

In the News is a weekly collection of Mental Health, Alcohol and Substance Abuse prevention articles, announcements, press releases, and publications that you can look forward to receiving every Thursday.

The formatting consist of hyper linked titles (plus date and source) placed in easy to skim categories.

Categories in this issue:

• General Community
• Alcohol
• Tobacco
• Substances (Other Drugs)
• Violence
• Cultural/Linguistic Competence
• Briefs, Reports, and Publications
• Recommendations/Strategies/Tools
• Health Communication/Promotion/Marketing
• Funding
• Events

Click here to Read: In the News, 10/15/09

Latest edition of NIDA NewScan, 9/11/2009

Online at: http://www.nih.gov/news/health/sep2009/NS-63.pdf

Articles in this issue:

• Disparities, Variability Found in Methadone Maintenance Dosing Patterns
• Marijuana Prevention Campaigns May Have Undesired Effects on Marijuana Use
• Crack Cocaine Use Hastens Progression of HIV Infection to AIDS
• Few U.S. High Schools Use Evidence-Based Drug Prevention Curricula
• Gene Changes Linked to Nicotine Dependence and Success With Smoking Cessation
• Electronic Diary Captures Moods and Cues Leading to Heroin and Cocaine Use
• Aging Population of Steroid Abusers May Face Underrecognized Health Problems

Many small increases, no decreases in adolescent alcohol, tobacco, drug use

The 2009 Pride Survey National Summary of adolescent alcohol and drug use shows small, but significant increases in 30-day prevalence for a number of drug categories, and no significant decreases in 30-day use of any drug category measured in grades 6 through 12. These results are based on surveys completed during the 2008-2009 school year.

Most of the increases witnessed were small (less than 1 percent). However, they suggest that decreases in adolescent drug use over the last several years may have come to a halt.

Last week the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration released results of the 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The 2009 Pride Survey data reflect several of the trends seen in the NSDUH survey, for example increases in ecstasy use and little change in marijuana use among adolescents. However, the Pride Survey data was more recently collected (by at least six months) than the NSDUH data.

Here are some of the key findings of the 2009 Pride Survey National Summary:

Grades 6-8 (ages 11 to 14)

• Increases in 30-prevalence of cigarettes, cigars, any tobacco, beer, marijuana and lifetime prescription drug abuse.
• No significant decreases in 30-day use.

Grades 9-12 (ages 14-18)

• Increases in 30-day prevalence of cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, cigars, any tobacco, beer, wine coolers, liquor, any alcohol, marijuana, inhalants, heroin, ecstasy, OxyContin, meth and any illicit drug.
• No significant decreases in 30-day use.

Grades 6-12 (ages 11 to 18)

• Increases in 30-prevalence of cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, cigars, any tobacco, marijuana, ecstasy, OxyContin and lifetime prescription drug abuse.
• No significant decreases in 30-day use.

The 2009 Pride Survey National Summary is based on the responses of 122,243 students selected from 447,532 students who completed the Pride Survey for Grades 6 to 12 during the school year from August 2008 until June 2009. These students, while not drawn through a formal probability sampling process, do represent a broad cross-section of American youth. Results from previous years national summaries have tracked closely with nationwide surveys such as Monitoring the Future.

Full Report

Multimedia presentation

Special issue of JDI: Smoking and Substance Abuse

The Spring 2009 v.39(2) issue of Journal of Drug Issues has a focus on “Smoking and Substance Abuse.”  Articles focus on the public health and clinical intervention initiatives related to smoking as well as issues of tobacco dependence in the substance abuse population.

PIC cardholders can access the fulltext contents of the issue online by clicking here:
http://rmchpe.rpa.dynixasp.com/rparmchp/webauth.exe?rs=ebscoaspjid&op=jdi

Contents:

• Introduction to the Theme Issue
  Joseph Guydish & Douglas Ziedonis
• Smoking Cessation Services in Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment: Opportunities Missed?
  Hannah K. Knudsen
• Exploring Factors Related to Readiness to Change Tobacco Use for Clients in Substance Abuse Treatment
  Danielle W. Toussaint, Nancy R. VanDeMark, Meredith Silverstein, Erik Stone
• Medical and Mental Health Status Among Drug Dependent Patients Participating in a Smoking Cessation Treatment Study
  Jennifer E. Lima, Malcolm S. Reid, Jennifer L. Smith, Yulei Zhang, Huiping Jiang, John Rotrosen, Edward Nunes
• Effects of Smoking Cessation on Illicit Drug Use among Opioid Maintenance Patients: A Pilot Study
  Kelly E. Dunn, Stacey C. Sigmon, Edward Reimann, Sarah H. Heil, Stephen T. Higgins
• Gender Differences in Quit Support by Partners of Health-Compromised Smokers
  Michael J. Rohrbaugh, Varda Shoham, Catherine L. Dempsey
• Development of the Smoking Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices (S-KAP) Instument
  Kevin L. Delucchi, Barbara Tajima, Joseph Guydish
• Staff Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Regarding Nicotine Dependence Differ by Setting
  Barbara Tajima, Joseph Guydish, Kevin Delucchi, Emma Passalacqua, Mable Chan, Matt Moore
• Does the Presence of a Smoking Cessation Clinical Trial Affect Staff Practices Related to Smoking?
  JongSerl Chun, Joseph R. Guydish, Kevin Delucchi
• Bar Patronage after a Smoking Ban
  J. Michael Menke
• The Neurobiology of Nicotine Addiction: Clinical and Public Policy Implications
  Paul D. Gardner, Andrew R. Tapper, Jean A. King, Joseph R. DiFranza, Douglas M. Ziedonis

12 Year Nationwide Drop in Tobacco Sales to Minors Continues

Source: SAMHSA News Release 8/11/09

12 Year Nationwide Drop in Tobacco Sales to Minors Continues Under State/Federal Partnership Program

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) today announced that sales of tobacco to underage youth (those younger than age 18) have continued to decline, and have in fact reached historic lows under the Synar Amendment program – a federal and state partnership program aimed at ending illegal tobacco sales to minors.

The Synar Amendment (introduced by the late Representative Mike Synar of Oklahoma) requires states to have laws and enforcement programs for prohibiting the sale and distribution of tobacco to persons under age 18.

All 50 states and the District of Columbia have for the third year in a row achieved a major Synar program goal – a less than 20 percent non-compliance rate among tobacco product retailers.  This stands in sharp contrast with the situation 12 years ago at the Synar program’s inception when the highest reported non-compliance rate was 75 percent.

“This report along with other published studies indicates that real progress is being made in preventing illegal tobacco sales to minors,” said SAMHSA Acting Administrator Eric Broderick, DDS, MPH. “Continued state vigilance will build on our track record of success in protecting children from the public health menace of tobacco.”

SAMHSA’s FFY 2008 Annual Synar Reports: State Compliance shows that the average national tobacco retailer violation rate dropped to 9.9 percent for federal fiscal year 2008, down from 40.1 percent in 1997. The national average is at its lowest point in Synar’s 12-year history.

The SAMHSA report also highlights many of the innovative ways that States have successfully implemented the Synar Amendment program.  The approaches involve comprehensive strategies combining vigorous enforcement, supportive public policies and development of social climates discouraging youth tobacco use.

Under the regulations implementing the Synar Amendment, States and other jurisdictions must report annually to SAMHSA on their retailer violation rates, which represent the percentage of inspected retail outlets that sold tobacco products to a customer under the age of 18. The amendment requires that retailer violation rates not exceed 20 percent. States and jurisdictions measure their progress through random, unannounced inspections of tobacco retailers, and SAMHSA provides technical assistance to help states comply.

Reducing the illegal sales rate of tobacco to minors through enforcement of laws prohibiting the sale of tobacco products to minors is one of the specific tobacco objectives (objective 27-14) in Healthy People 2010, the nation’s disease prevention and health promotion goals and objectives for the decade.

FFY 2008 Annual Synar Reports: State Compliance, which includes compliance rates for each of the States and the District of Columbia, is available at http://prevention.samhsa.gov/tobacco/synarreportfy2008.pdf.  For related publications and information, visit http://www.samhsa.gov/.

Two New Reports from SAMHSA Office of Applied Statistics (OAS)

Source: email from SAMHSA OAS Pubs, 3/5/2009

SAMHSA’s Office of Applied Studies (OAS) has just released: 

(1) The NSDUH Report: Smokeless Tobacco Use, Initiation, and Relationship to Cigarette Smoking: 2002 to 2007, a 3 page short report based on data from SAMHSA’s National Survey on Drug Use & Health (NSDUH) that provides trends from 2002 to 2007 of smokeless tobacco use by age and gender as well as the demographics for smokeless tobacco use in 2007. Interesting findings concern the relationship between cigarette and smokeless tobacco use. AT: http://oas.samhsa.gov/2k9/smokelessTobacco/smokelessTobacco.cfm

OAS reports on the use of other tobacco products may be found at: http://oas.samhsa.gov/tobacco.htm

(2) The TEDS Report: Predictors of Substance Abuse Treatment Completion or Transfer to Further Treatment by Service Type, a 3 page short report based on data provided by the States for their specialty substance abuse treatment facilities. This report provides the significant predictors of treatment completion or transfer for clients who were discharged from outpatient, intensive outpatient, long-term residential or short-term residential substance abuse treatment. This information may contribute to the understanding of what leads to successful substance abuse treatment and helpful for those wanting to improve treatment success by targeting programs for clients at risk for relapse or dropout from substance abuse. AT: http://oas.samhsa.gov/2k9/TXpredictors/TXpredictors.cfm

To find OAS data on a specific topic, go to SAMHSA’s Office of Applied Studies’ topics website at http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/topics.cfm

New NCI Report on the Role of Media in Tobacco Use

Source:  APHA ATOD Section Newsletter, 8/22/2008

The Role of Media in Promoting and Reducing Tobacco Use

Tobacco use is still the single largest cause of preventable death in the United States. About 20% of American adults still smoke and more than 4,000 adolescents smoke their first cigarette each day.

The National Cancer Institute’s Tobacco Control Monograph 19, “The Role of Media in Promoting and Reducing Tobacco Use” explores how mass media have affected our attitudes and behaviors toward tobacco use. Media channels have been successfully used to promote tobacco use and to reduce it. Now, when the use of mass media is expanding and the tobacco industry is finding new ways to encourage tobacco use, a full understanding of this issue is vital to public health.

The latest in the Tobacco Control Monograph series, Monograph 19 provides a critical, scientific review and synthesis of current evidence regarding the power of the media both to promote and reduce tobacco use. In addition, the monograph explores and recommends strategies to leverage the media to best serve the public health in this high-stakes arena.

To help us understand these issues, this monograph gives important facts about media and tobacco use, including:

• Youth are influenced to start smoking by tobacco advertising and promotions
• Depictions of tobacco in movies prompt adolescents to start smoking
• Televised media campaigns can reduce tobacco use
• The tobacco industry and its supporters have used various media strategies to counter tobacco control measures and messages
• Media, including new and nontraditional forms such as the Internet and video games, will continue to influence tobacco use in the future

Order a free monograph copy by going to http://www.cancercontrol.cancer.gov/tcrb/monographs/19/index.html or calling the NCI Cancer Information Service at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237).

Ask for NIH Publication No. 07-6242.

Smoking Early In Pregnancy Raises Risks Of Heart Defects In Newborns

Source: CDC Press Release, April 7, 2008:
Mothers who smoke early in pregnancy are more likely to give birth to infants with heart defects, according to a study funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Click here for the entire Press Release.
Click here for the Press Release in Spanish.

Alcohol and Tobacco

Source: NIAAA Alcohol Alerts, No.71, January 2007
Alcohol and tobacco are among the top causes of preventable deaths in the United States . Moreover, these substances often are used together: Studies have found that people who smoke are much more likely to drink, and people who drink are much more likely to smoke. Dependence on alcohol and tobacco also is correlated: People who are dependent on alcohol are three times more likely then those in the general population to be smokers, and people who are dependent on tobacco are four times more likely than the general population to be dependent on alcohol…The link between alcohol and tobacco has important implications for those in the alcohol treatment field.

• Source material for this Alcohol Alert originally appeared in Alcohol Research & Health, Volume 29, Number 3, 2006.

After Several Years of Decline, Smoking Rates Among High School Students May Have Stalled

Source: CESAR Fax, 15:45, 11/13/2006

While the prevalence of current cigarette use declined significantly from 36.4% in 1997 to 21.9% in 2003, there was no statistically significant difference in use from 2003 to 2005, which is consistent with trends observed in other national school-based surveys. According to the authors, factors that may have contributed to this lack of a continued decline include smaller annual increases in the prices of cigarettes, less youth exposure to and/or funding for smoking-prevention campaigns and proand substantial increases in spending by the tobacco industry onadvertising and promotion.

Read the complete Cesar Fax overview.

See Also:
Cigarette Use Among High School Students—United States, 1991-2005, Morbidity and Mortality Monthly Report 55(26)724-
726, 2006. Available online at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5526a2.htm.