Ashel Kruetzkamp, MSN, RN

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Ashel Kruetzkamp, MSN, RN

• Drugs Impact Your Health

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Objectives

• Drug trends and data
• Impacts on your health
• Test your knowledge

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High School and Youth Trends

• 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.

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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.

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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.
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12th Grade National Drug Trends 2011
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Heroin Trends in Northern KY
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Heroin Trends

• 33 of 200 patients were between the ages of 16
  and 25
• 44 Female and 54 Male
• 96 of the patients were white

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Heroin

• 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.

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Heroin
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Heroin
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Roulette
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Impacts your health
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Impacts of your Liver

• 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 Kentuckys high
  infection rate to the regions 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

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15,000 people die every year from Hepatitis C

• 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

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Brain

• Your brain stops developing at what age?
• 25

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Impacts your brain

• 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.

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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.

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Impacts the 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
  importantpay attention and remember it.
• Drugs highjack this system causing large
  amounts of dopamine to flood the system causing a
  high or euphoric feeling.

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Impacts your brain
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Addiction
Initial decision to take drugs is a choice, a
physical need replaces that choice... ADDICTION
compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming
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
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How do I know if I have a drug problem?

• 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?

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Other Drugs Facts

• 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

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2014 National Drug IQ Challenge

• 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

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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

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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

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2014 National Drug IQ Challenge

• Some young people who abuse opioid painkillers
  like Oxycontin switch to Heroin.
• True
• False

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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
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Resources
NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse) Drug
Free NKY St. Elizabeth Healthcare Northern
Kentucky Health Department