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Alcohol and Other Drug Use Prevention

Supporting Harm Reduction Outreach Resources and Education Center
988 Suicide and Prevention Lifeline- The 911 for mental health emergencies Call, text or chat
 
New Warning About Mass. Street Drugs Being Cut With Animal Sedative
 
Xylazine is not an opioid, but it can cause problems that can compound the effects of opioids and lead to overdose, skin ulcers or death, according to the Massachusetts Drug Supply Stream
By Asher Klein • Published July 15, 2022 • Updated on July 15, 2022 at 12:01 pm
 
Fentanyl and heroin sold on the streets in Massachusetts continue to be cut with a sedative for animals, presenting an added danger to users, state drug monitors warned this month.
Xylazine increases the risk of overdose, skin ulcers or death for people taking opioids cut with it, according to the Massachusetts Drug Supply Stream, a collaboration between the state Department of Public Health and Brandeis University that checks drugs circulating in the community.
MADDS found that 28% of opioid samples, including in counterfeit pain pills, tested in 2022 had xylazine in them, nearly as many as in 2021, when 31% of samples tested positive. The year before that, 17% of samples had xylazine.
This year, the organization found, when xylazine is being found in drug samples, it’s an increasingly large part of it.
The sedative is not an opioid, but it can cause unresponsiveness, slowed heart rate, reduced breathing and other problems. Those can compound the effects of opioids, MADDS said, and they shared users’ experiences of taking drugs cut with xylazine.
Opioid-Related Overdose Deaths Rise in Mass.
The increase is “problematic for Massachusetts and for our country,” said Commissioner Margret Cooke.
One said it left their “skin on fire, teeth felt like they were going to fall out.” Another said it “made me pass out and I woke with vomit on me,” MADDS said in its July bulletin.
Xylazine is more often found cutting drugs in Western Massachusetts than the Boston area, and one local prosecutor issued an advisory about it on Thursday.
“Sharing and raising awareness about what is in the local drug supply is a proven harm reduction measure to prevent tragedy,” Berkshire County District Attorney Andrea Harrington said in a statement.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse notes that xylazine, known in some places as “tranq,” has increasingly been found in people who died of drug overdoses, especially in the Northeast.
“We’ve seen an exponential increase during the pandemic,” MADDS Principal Investigator Traci Green told WBUR Friday. “Now the sad thing is we’re really seeing it all over the state. It’s definitely hazardous.”

 

Resources:

 

Drunk Driving

https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/drunk-driving

National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month:

https://www.inspiremalibu.com/blog/alcohol-addiction/avoid-dui-during-national-impaired-driving-prevention-month/

 

 

  • Binge Drinking- when men consumes 5 or more drinks or women consumes 4 or more drinks in about 2 hours.

https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/binge-drinking.htm

https://www.alcohol.org/teens/binge-drinking-facts/

  • Blood Alcohol Levels- The metric used to measure the amount of alcohol in a person’s bloodstream is called blood alcohol concentration, or BAC. A person’s lover can process about one standard drink an hour. 

https://www.bloodalcohol.info/myths-and-facts-about-alcohol.php

https://medlineplus.gov/lab-tests/blood-alcohol-level/

https://www.alcohol.org/effects/blood-alcohol-concentration/

https://alcohol.stanford.edu/alcohol-drug-info/buzz-buzz/what-bac

  • Alcohol Facts- 90% of Americans with a substance abuse problem started smoking, drinking, or using other drugs before age 18

https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-health/overview-alcohol-consumption/alcohol-facts-and-statistics

https://abovetheinfluence.com/drugs/alcohol/

  • Marijuana- directly affects the brain- specifically the parts of the brain responsible for memory, learning, attention, decision making, coordination, emotions, and reaction time. 

https://www.cdc.gov/marijuana/

  • Ecstasy- a synthetic drug that alters mood and perception (awareness of surrounding objects and conditions)

https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/mdma-ecstasymolly

https://www.getsmartaboutdrugs.gov/sites/getsmartaboutdrugs.com/files/files/Ecstasy-MDMAR.pdf_

  • LSD- (D-lysergic acid diethylamide) is the most common hallucinogen, a group of drugs that alter awareness of perception, thoughts, and feelings.

https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/hallucinogens

https://drugfree.org/drug/lsd

  • K2 Spice- Synthetic cannabinoids are human-made mind altering chemicals that are either sprayed on, dried, shredded plant material so they can be smoked or sold as liquids to be vaporized and inhaled in e-cigarettes and other devices

https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/synthetic-cannabinoids-k2spice

  • Methamphetamine- a powerful, highly addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system

https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/methamphetamine/what-methamphetamine

  • PCP- Phencyclidine, A “dissociative” anesthetic.

https://drugfree.org/drug/pcp/

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/305328.php

  • Bath Salts- Synthetic cathinone products

https://drugfree.org/drug/bath-salts

  • Prescription Drugs- Opioids are medications that are chemically similar to endorphins- opioids that our body makes naturally to relieve pain.

https://teens.drugabuse.gov/drug-facts/prescription-pain-medications-opioids

  • Talking to your children/youth about drugs- Parents who are educated about the effects of drug use and learn the facts can give their kids correct information and clear up any misconceptions.

https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/talk-about-drugs.html

https://drugfree.org/article/how-to-talk-with-your-teen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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