Ashel Kruetzkamp, MSN, RN

Drugs Impact
Your Health
Ashel Kruetzkamp, MSN, RN
●
Drug trends and data
●
Impacts on your health
●
Test your knowledge
Objectives
●
In 2013, 7% of 8th graders, 18% of 10th graders and
23% of 12th graders used___________ in the past
month?
●
●
MARIJUANA
Growing perception of marijuana as a safe drug, but
many dealers are lacing marijuana with Heroin and
Cocaine.
High School and Youth Trends
●
●
●
14.8% of high school seniors used a prescription drug for
non medical reasons or that was not prescribed for them in
the past year.
Every day in the US an average of 2,000 teenagers use
prescription drugs without a doctor's guidance.
Prescription and over-the-counter medications account for
most of the top drugs abused by 12th graders in the past
year, Adderall and Vicodin being the most commonly
abused.
High School and Youth Trends
The percentage of users who become
tolerant and then addicted to their
respective drug at some point :
Drug
Average User
Tobacco
31.9%
Heroin
23.1%
Cocaine
16.7%
Alcohol
15.4%
Cannabis
9.0%
“Dangerousness
of Drugs a Guide to the Risks and Harms Associated With
Substance Misuse -- National Addiction Center. Retrieved 6 May 2014.
12th Grade National Drug Trends 2011
Heroin Trends in Northern KY
●
33% of 200 patients were between the ages of 16
and 25
●
44% Female and 54% Male
●
96% of the patients were white
Heroin Trends
• Is a drug made from morphine, a “natural substance” in
the seedpod of the Asian poppy plant
• Usually appears as a white or brown powder
• It can be injected, smoked or snorted
• Although purer heroin is becoming more common, most
street heroin is "cut" with other drugs or with substances
such as sugar, starch, powdered milk, or quinine. Street
heroin also can be cut with fentanyl or other poisons.
Heroin
Heroin
Heroin
Roulette
Impacts your health
●
Hepatitis C
Rates of acute infections of Hepatitis C in Northern Kentucky
doubles the state rate and are 24 times the national rate. Public
health officials attribute Northern Kentucky’s high infection rate
to the region’s high levels of the intravenous (IV) use of heroin.
Hepatitis C is a serious disease that can result in long-term health
problems, including liver damage, liver failure, liver cancer, or
even death. It is the leading cause of cirrhosis and liver cancer
and the most common reason for liver transplant in the US
Impacts of your Liver
●
●
Hepatitis C is a contagious liver disease which
is spread through contact with blood of an
infected person
Hepatitis C is spread by
–
Sharing needles and syringes
–
Getting tattoo or body piercing where infection
control standards are not met
–
Needle stick
–
Being born to a mother who has Hepatitis C
15,000 people die every year from
Hepatitis C
●
Your brain stops developing at what age?
●
Brain
25
●
●
The brain is the command center of your body. It
controls everything you do, even when you are
sleeping.
When drugs enter the brain they can interrupt that
work and actually change how the brain performs.
These changes lead to compulsive drug use, the
hallmark of addiction.
Impacts your brain
●
●
●
Drugs are chemicals. They work the brain by
tapping into the communication system and
interfering with the way nerve cells normally send,
receive, and process information.
Marijuana and heroin, activate neurons - the
chemical structure of these drugs mimics that of the
natural neurotransmitter.
Drugs can fool receptors, lock onto them, and
activate sending abnormal messages through the
brain.
Impacts your brain
●
●
All drugs affect the brains “reward” circuit. The
reward circuit responds to the pleasure experiences
by releasing the neurotransmitter, dopamine, which
creates the feeling of pleasure, and tells the brain
that this is something important—pay attention and
remember it.
Drugs “highjack” this system causing large amounts
of dopamine to flood the system causing a high or
euphoric feeling.
Impacts the brain
Impacts your brain
Initial decision to take drugs is a choice, a physical need
replaces that choice...
ADDICTION
compulsive need for and use of a habitforming substance (as heroin, nicotine, or
alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by
well-defined physiological symptoms
upon withdrawal; broadly : persistent
compulsive use of a substance known by the
user to be harmful
Addiction
●
●
●
●
●
Have you ever ridden in a car driven by someone
(including yourself) who had been using drugs?
Do you ever use drugs to relax, to feel better about
yourself, or to fit in?
Do you ever use drugs when you are alone?
Do you ever forget things you did while using
drugs?
Do family and friends ever tell you to cut down on
your use of drugs?
How do I know if I have a drug
problem?
●
Spice
–Variety
of herbal mixtures that produce experience similar
to marijuana
Popular among young people; most used by high school seniors
●
Causes psychoactive (mind-altering) affects
●
●
Bath Salts
–Made
up of synthetic chemicals
Experience paranoia, agitation and hallucinations, some even
display psychotic, violent behavior and death
●
Other Drugs Facts
In 2009, what percentage of 16 or 17 year olds drove
under the influence of drugs or alcohol?
–
1.2%
–
3.6%
–
6.3%
–
10.7%
2014 National Drug IQ Challenge
Which of the following statements about the popular
ADHD drug Adderall is true?
–
It can make a person smarter
–
It can help a person focus, even if they don't have ADHD
–
It causes your body to need less sleep
–
None of the above
2014 National Drug IQ Challenge
A study that followed 1,000 people for more than 38
years showed that people who started smoking
marijuana regularly as teenagers actually lost IQ
points as they got older; they never got them back,
even if they quit as adults. On average, how many
points where lost?
–
2
–
4
–
8
–
12
2014 National Drug IQ Challenge
Some young people who abuse opioid painkillers like
Oxycontin switch to Heroin.
–
True
–
False
2014 National Drug IQ Challenge
Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of disease
and death in the U.S. It causes:
–
About 1 in every 5 early deaths
–
About 1 in every 20 early deaths
–
About 1 in every 100 early deaths
–
About 1 in every 200 early deaths
2014 National Drug IQ Challenge
Alcohol and marijuana are the drugs most abused by
teenagers. What comes next?
–
Ecstasy
–
Cocaine
–
Bath Salts
–
Prescription drugs and cough medicine
–
Tobacco
2014 National Drug IQ Challenge
What is the most common two-drug combination that
results in death?
–
Alcohol and cocaine
–
Marijuana and alcohol
–
Prescription painkillers and alcohol
–
Prescription painkillers and LSD
2014 National Drug IQ Challenge
About how many 8th graders have tried an inhalant to
get high?
–
1 in 5
–
1 in 10
–
1 in 25
–
1 in 200
2014 National Drug IQ Challenge
When all is said and done the truth is that:
53.3% never used any illegal drug.
58% never smoked marijuana.
90.5% never did inhalants.
90.7% never did tranquilizers.
91.8% never did barbiturates.
93.5% never did ecstasy.
94% never did cocaine.
96.1% never did LSD.
97.6% never did methamphetamine.
98.8% never did heroin.
National Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependency
Resources
NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse)
Drug Free NKY
St. Elizabeth Healthcare
Northern Kentucky Health Department