Bringing research to the teen world: National Drug Facts Week

January 22, 2015

Maureen Fitzgerald
Communications Coordinator, ATTC Network
Editor, NIATx
The latest Monitoring the Future study released in December 2014 reported that both teen alcohol and cigarette use are at their lowest points since the study began in 1975. Use of a number of other illicit drugs has also declined.

University of Michigan researchers who led the study, Drs. Lloyd Johnson and Richard Miech, comment on the results in this two-minute You Tube video:  E-cigarettes Surpass Regular Cigarettes Among Teens.

Tales of Bath Salts and Zombie Cannibalism

January 14, 2015
Maureen Fitzgerald
Communications Coordinator, ATTC Network Coordinating Office
Editor, NIATx

The ATTC Network’s November iTraining, “Will they Turn You into a Zombie? An Overview of Synthetic Drugs” was packed with information on synthetics, including the major classes of synthetic drugs, the acute and chronic effects of using them, and the extent of use in the United States.

Beth Rutkowski, Associate Director of Training for the Pacific Southwest ATTC  and UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs presented the webinar, which is based on the Synthetic Drug Training Package-2nd Edition that the PSATTC developed in partnership with the South Southwest ATTC.

You can watch “Will they Turn You into a Zombie?” on the ATTC Network’s Vimeo site. The presentation included time for audience questions, but we ran out of time to answer them all.

Here, we provide Beth’s in-depth replies to the remaining questions. 

Three wishes for 2015

January 5, 2015
Kim Johnson, PhD
Co-director, ATTC Network Coordinating Office
Deputy Director, NIATx

Instead of giving you my resolutions, I am going to tell you what I hope for and what in my own way I intend to work for in 2015. It’s a mishmash of things that I  wish I could wave my magic wand and make happen right now—instead of waiting for the evolution that will someday lead us to fixing these problems.