While many of these drugs are technically legal, they are designed to closely imitate the effects of illegal drugs that are highly addictive and carry serious side effects.

A new study has been commissioned by Deakin University, the University of Tasmania and the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of South Wales to better understand the role of these legal substances that imitate the effects of illegal drugs. The use of such drugs seems to be increasing in Australia, but little is understood about the impact of the substances on users.

The study focuses on the experiences of Australians with the drugs, called emerging psychoactive substances. Public health expert Matthew Dunn of Deakin University explained that while many European countries and the United Kingdom have explored the role of these substances and their potential harm, there is little understanding of their role among Australians.

Through the research study, says Dunn, the universities hope to broaden their knowledge about the legal substances. The researchers will seek to determine whether the drugs are sought out mainly by those who already use illegal drugs, or are the users more likely to be someone who has never used a drug before?

The information gained will be useful in determining how to respond to the increasing use of such substances, in addition to how educational materials and interventions are involved in strategies to reduce the use of both illegal drugs and the illegal imitations of them.

The study will seek out individuals willing to share details about their experiences both negative and positive. The method used will be an anonymous online survey with a confidential questionnaire about substance use and effects.

The survey will touch on a wide range of mimicking substances. Respondents may be asked to provide information about substances that imitate cocaine, methamphetamine, ecstasy and LSD. While many of the imitators of these drugs are sold online as legal alternatives, Dunn explains that many are actually illegal.

Research conducted in the UK has not found a link between the reduction of use through efforts to make the street imitators illegal. The researchers, however, will determine what factors are in play when Australians use the substances.

According to the report it is something of a good news/ bad news scenario. The good news is that use of illegal drugs has been dropping in America’s major metropolitan areas. The bad news is that even while illegal drug use has declined, abuse of prescription drugs has been on the rise. The report was based on analysis of data gathered between 2007 and 2009 from visits to hospital emergency rooms.

Records of emergency room visits give us a peek behind the curtain on the otherwise hidden world of drug abuse. Those who sifted through hospital data created two separate categories for drug abuse: street drug use and prescription drug abuse. The shift in abuse can be seen by comparing emergency room visits related to these two categories. In 2007, 36 percent of ER visits were connected to use of street drugs such as cocaine or heroin. At that time, abuse of prescription drugs accounted for only 20 percent of emergency room visits.

Over the course of the three year period examined, ER visits related to street drugs dropped steadily by a total of eight percent. In 2008 street drug admissions accounted for 32 percent and in 2009 they accounted for 28 percent of visits. By contrast, visits for prescription drug use rose from 20 percent in 2007, to 21 percent in 2008 and 22 percent in 2009. Altogether, visits for both categories of drug abuse totaled 301,000 in 07, 352,000 in 08 and 280,000 in 09.

These figures tell more, precisely what the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) and CDC (National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) have already been saying, namely that prescription drug abuse is a growing problem across the country. Stories of pharmacy robberies, reports from medical examiners, the preponderance of doctor shopping as well as reports from rehab providers have all been sounding the same alarm.

Those responsible for this report say that they are anxious for Americans to become better educated about the proper handling of prescription drugs. Families need to store, monitor and dispose of prescription medications with greater care than ever before. Not doing so could too easily lead to an unwelcome emergency room visit for a loved one

Given Herman’s underwhelming performance of late, some experts wonder if the fighter will make a comeback once his disciplinary requirements have been satisfied.

After Herman completes drug rehab and fulfills his six months’ fighting prohibition, the fighter will still need to pass a drug test before he is allowed to re-enter the fight ring.

Though Herman is hardly the only MMA fighter to fail drug testing, he clearly will benefit from the help that drug rehab offers. The fiasco in Brazil represents Herman’s second failed drug test in many years.

In 2011 the fighter tested positive for marijuana in a before-the-match drug screen. At that time Herman steadfastly denied he had used the drug. This time industry-insider reporting describes a man ready to confess his sin and accept his consequences.

Drug abuse is hallmarked by a person’s continued use of a substance in the face of negative consequences. The fact that Herman is willing to admit to using a banned substance and will sign himself into drug rehab is hopeful.

It is unclear if Herman decided to undergo drug treatment in an effort to avoid a longer suspension (other fighters have been handed down year-long suspensions for second offenses), but regardless, this represents Herman’s best chance to get his life and career turned around in a more winning direction.

Recent articles exploring fatalities related to prescription drug use among soldiers returning from war in the Middle East indicates that at least 40 percent may have been living with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These soldiers are then treating the symptoms associated with the illness with prescribed medications that have a high potential for addiction, like opioids.

Also capturing national interest is information that soldiers returning from war who have PTSD had a significantly higher likelihood to receive a prescription for an opioid than those who didn’t have the mental illness. Furthermore, the nature of PTSD may intensely complicate the likelihood of misuse or overdose of prescription pain medications, says a recent Statesman article.

PTSD can affect anyone who has experienced trauma or intense danger, ranging from childhood abuse to natural disasters or experiences in combat. Symptoms of PTSD may also overlap with symptoms of other mental illnesses, which can complicate diagnosis.

This can include anxiety, chronic depression, lack of hope, strong feelings of shame and problems with family relationships or maintaining a job. Feelings of physical pain may also be present, and many veterans returning from war may receive opiate prescriptions for injuries that can even mask underlying symptoms of PTSD.

Additional research shows they may also have a higher tendency to abuse alcohol or other substances, which can be fatal when combined with prescription medications.

Some experts have called soldiers returning from combat a "vulnerable" group who may have a higher risk for addiction or dependency on prescription medications. As many as 25 percent of soldiers returning from recent wars are believed to have symptoms related to PTSD.

When opiate medications are prescribed for pain, the effects can overlap between physical symptoms and emotional-based symptoms, further complicating the identification and treatment for PTSD.

The Swedish study was conducted under the auspices of the Karolinska Institute. Researchers there looked over 40 years of data gleaned from the health records of more than one million Swedes. The upshot of their analysis was that creative people are either themselves more susceptible to mental illness or tend to have family members with mental health problems.

People in creative or scientific professions were more likely to have a family history which included bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Creativity was also linked to such conditions as autism, anorexia and suicidal ideation.

Writers seem to suffer the worst of the linkage. Not only do writers exhibit more depression, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia and substance abuse, they are also 50 percent more apt to kill themselves. Famous examples of the link between creative writing and these disorders abound. Hans Christian Andersen, Virginia Woolf and Ernest Hemingway are all renowned authors who each struggled with depression. Woolf and Hemingway are also remembered for the tragic taking of their own lives.

According to the Swedish research, professional dancers and photographers are particularly vulnerable to suffering from bipolar disorder.

Those associated with the study insist that the results could help mental health professionals develop a better approach when treating patients. Creative patients with one of these conditions might be directed to view at least some of their symptoms in a positive rather than a negative light. Treatment could become more selective.

Autism, for example, is characterized by strong but narrow interests. That could be seen as a driver of scientific ingenuity or creative insight. Manic periods which help define bipolar disorder, could be the spark behind dogged pursuit of a new idea or an out of the box approach to problems. In the same way, schizophrenia is a condition marked by scattered thought. It may well be that such unregulated thinking is the best way to reach originality.

The link between creative work and mental illness is interesting, but it remains a ‘which comes first the chicken or the egg’? sort of conundrum. Is it that the illness benefits the profession or that people with the illness are drawn to professions where their symptoms work? Do creative professions in any way promote the illnesses or merely attract people who already have them? Experts tell us that one out of four of us will learn that we have some form of mental illness this year. Finding how to heal what is broken yet maximize where we are might not be such a bad idea. Some might call it creative.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 350 million people all over the planet are suffering from depression. Within one year, nearly five percent of the earth’s inhabitants have symptoms of depression.

WHO defines depression as feelings of sadness that last a minimum of two weeks and render a person nearly incapacitated-often unable to get out of bed in the morning, secluding themselves from friends and social functions, and weighted by a veil of overwhelming sadness.

Through better worldwide awareness, WHO hopes to get proper treatment for depression sufferers in all regions.

Women Share a Worldwide Bond

Women worldwide share the bond of childbirth. With that enormous task of bringing a new life into the world sometimes comes the mental illness of post-partum depression. One in five mothers exhibit symptoms of post-partum depression. In developing countries that statistic is a bit lower, at one in 10, but still significant enough to call attention for the need for mental illness awareness and treatment.

Health Problems Across the Globe

Individuals who are suffering from chronic illnesses are more likely to also suffer from depression. The daily anxieties and medical routines of diabetes can leave one drained and feeling hopeless. The threats of cardiovascular disease and trauma of cancer can pull an individual into depression. Worldwide, these illnesses are being experienced within multiple cultures and are affecting the mental and physical health of millions.

Erasing Stigma to Improve Care

Oftentimes, those with depression aren’t treated because they either don’t realize they have it or they are too embarrassed to admit it to someone. Dr. Shekhar Saxena, head of WHO’s mental health and substance abuse department, states that more than half of people who suffer from depression do not receive proper care for their illness. The World Health Organization hopes to erase the stigma of depression and secure better treatment access for patients throughout the world. They first suggest that governments offer depression treatment through basic health care packages.

The WHO hopes to remedy this balance of awareness and treatment throughout the world by offering their Mental Health Gap Action Program (mhGAP). Through mhGAP, individuals in developing nations can receive better care for depression. Healthcare workers are trained to identify mental illnesses that may be currently ignored in some of these countries. Individuals with depression are then treated properly with psychotherapy and/or medications.

Though language, culture, and skin color may differentiate the world’s individuals, the human body still functions in similar ways. Depression is not purely a mental illness in developed countries. All people throughout the world deserve a chance to live a mentally healthy life.

Nitrogen is all around us. In gas form, nitrogen accounts for close to 80 percent of earth’s atmosphere. It is odorless, colorless and tasteless. But cool it down to -321 degrees Fahrenheit and it boils. Put that boiling substance in an adult beverage and you get a fizzy, smoking drink that is definitely unusual. There are no government regulations against using liquid nitrogen in cocktails, but that is not because the substance is perfectly harmless and safe.

In fact, liquid nitrogen must be handled very carefully, because at -321 degrees F. it is able to freeze and destroy human tissue on contact. Not only that, but as it converts from liquid form to gas, the nitrogen balloons to a volume 600 times greater than its liquid state. Imagine that sort of conversion and expansion occurring inside a person’s stomach and intestines.

Recently, an online medical article reported on a young British woman who was forced to undergo a gastrectomy (removal of the stomach) after drinking a liquid nitrogen cocktail caused a perforation. The danger is very real. Food, drinks, fashion – part of the excitement is seeing and trying something that is just a little bit ‘out there’. The question is whether drinking liquid nitrogen is going to lead to serious complications.

In 2010, more people over the age of 12 reported the nonmedical usage of prescription meds than cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine combined. Due to the scale of this epidemic, the University of Kentucky has investigated the possible addictive properties of the popular painkiller Tramadol. Many of the findings of the drugs’ habit forming problems are found in the academic journal Psychopharmacology.

Lead author of the recent study, Dr. William W. Stoops says in Kentucky, prescription painkiller abuse is a true problem and they see a high number of overdoses. Stoops added that a summit was held in the state last February and focused specifically on partnerships with law enforcement officials and medical professionals regarding the problem. The study found that patients who had taken naltrexone or tramadol reported feeling a so-called high. Patients who’d taken hydromorphone or tramadol with a placebo reported the same effects. Tramadol was the common denominator in the study. It is important to note that participants reported the bad side effects of tramadol like nausea, which distinguished the drug from hydromorphone.

The findings of the study showed that tramadol must work differently than other opioids. Overall results found that participants measured tramadol highly because of its street value and likeability suggesting its increased possibility for abuse.

History of the Gateway Theory

The gateway theory was first proposed in the 1930s and was initially known as the stepping-stone theory. The theory proposed that the use of drugs like marijuana put individuals one step closer to using more dangerous illicit drugs like heroin or cocaine, and that individuals were less likely to experiment with “hard” drugs unless they first tried marijuana.

With the rise of drug education programs like D.A.R.E., the idea of gateway drugs became widely used a means of dissuading young people from any form of drug experimentation. Drugs like marijuana were portrayed as a slippery slope that would inevitably lead to more dangerous substance use and addiction.

Marijuana: Culprit or Scapegoat?

Since the formation of the stepping-stone theory, marijuana has been the poster child for gateway drugs. Much of the resistance to the legalization of marijuana centers around the gateway idea on which many of us were raised, in which cannabis is portrayed as the key to further substance abuse and to substance-related criminal activity.

At first glance, the numbers connecting marijuana and the use of other drugs seem significant. For the vast majority of drug users and addicts, marijuana use preceded their use of other drugs. However, the numbers tell a different story when you look at them in reverse. Only around 25 percent of the approximately 2.3 million Americans who try marijuana have gone on to try other drugs, a number which falls well short of the standard for a reliable cause-and-effect relationship.

Understanding Statistics

It’s important to understand that a correlation between two sets of data is not enough to prove that a causational relationship exists. For example, let’s look at the relationship between taking gymnastics classes as a child and growing up to become an Olympic gymnast. On one hand, nearly every Olympic gymnast throughout history has started off taking gymnastics classes when they were very small. However, only a very tiny percentage of the millions of children who have taken such classes go on to become Olympic gymnasts. While children who show an early interest in gymnastics and start training young are more likely to become Olympians than those who don’t try the sport young, you need much more information before you can determine which of those millions of kids is going to make it to the top. In other words, simply having taken a gymnastics class is a very poor predictor of who is going to be an Olympic gymnast.

Now consider the numbers connecting marijuana and further drug use. On one hand, the population of individuals who try marijuana is likely to be the population from which further drug users come, just like your Olympic gymnasts are likely to come from the kids who take early gymnastics classes. However, marijuana use does not inevitably lead to the use of more dangerous drugs, and additional variables are needed before you can determine who will go on to use further drugs. Like the gymnasts once again, marijuana use may simply reveal an inclination towards further drug use rather than unlocking a new tendency.

Alcohol and Tobacco Raise Red Flags

Recently, more data has arisen that further absolves marijuana as the primary “gateway drug.” While cannabis use still reliably precedes further drug use, new studies are showing that alcohol or tobacco use almost always precede cannabis. Alcohol and tobacco are the first mind-altering substances with which most young people will experiment, giving them much stronger claims to gateway status.

However, you can raise the same objections to alcohol and tobacco as gateway drugs as you could to marijuana as a gateway drug. They are strong predictors and may even be useful as early warning signs of future problems. However, research has yet to prove an automatic cause-and-effect progression from the use of these substances to the use of illicit drugs.

The biggest unanswered question is whether a complete absence of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana would eliminate substance abuse or merely change it. Are these substances necessary first steps, without which the individuals who would otherwise go on to try other drugs will abstain from drug use entirely? Or are these simply the most easily accessible substances, without which these individuals would start with “hard” drugs right away?

As reported online, the New Zealand study assessed intelligence in the study group by comparing I.Q. scores at age 13 and before any marijuana use and then once more at age 38. The results showed a significant eight point decline in I.Q. scores if the person used the drug during the teen years. That finding makes sense since the brain is still developing extensively during that time. Brains poisoned during development would naturally be affected long-term.

Marijuana supporters have been quick to point out that those findings don’t exactly jive with long-term statistics which show I.Q. scores rising alongside rises in the number of high school kids using marijuana. One news source reported that today in the U.S., approximately seven percent of high school students smoke pot on a daily basis. A separate health insurance-sponsored study put the heavy rate of marijuana use at closer to 10 percent. These rates reflect an 80 percent increase in marijuana use over the past five years.

Parents who want their children to stay away from marijuana can talk openly with their kids about the national debate over whether marijuana should be legalized. They can explain opposing positions regarding the usefulness of marijuana as palliative care. At the end of the day, studies are very clear that parental disapproval concerning drug use is a much stronger deterrent than almost anything else.