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Links between sexual violence incidence rates and alcohol consumption or the use of drugs, are highlighted in new research on first year college students.
- One in three (35pc) women who experienced sexual violence said incapacitation by alcohol or drugs was the tactic used by the perpetrator.
- [Substance assisted] Coercion (34pc) and force or threat of force experienced by 20pc of women.
- Men experienced sexual violence at lower rate of 18pc saying incapacitation due to alcohol/drugs was a tactic, with by 16pc citing coercion and 8pc, force or threat of force.
- Two in three (65pc) of females in the survey and 72pc of males had what was regarded as a “hazardous pattern of alcohol consumption”.
- Among females, the experience of completed non-consensual penetration was above 35pc for those who used alcohol at a hazardous level and those who had used cannabis in the past 12 months.
- It rose to 44pc among females who had used ecstasy and 48pc among those who had used cocaine or ketamine.
- For male students, the experience of non-consensual penetration was particularly associated with having used drugs in the past 12 months
(Source: Links between sexual violence and alcohol or drug use highlighted in new student study )
Also see The ‘Unleashing’ Of Domestic, Familial & Intimate Partner Violence – The Drug Factor.
Nicotine Vaping and Co-occurring Substance Use Among Adolescents in the United States from 2017–2019
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Vaping is not an isolated substance use behavior, and combined use with other products may potentiate harms by complicating intervention efforts, strengthening other substances’ effects, and increasing the physiological toll on adolescents. Adding to the negative effects of vaping, vaping nicotine is associated with use of cannabis, alcohol, and several other substances …Given the strong associations between nicotine use and both cannabis use and binge drinking, there is a need for sustained interventions, advertising and promotion restrictions, and national public education efforts to reduce adolescent nicotine vaping, efforts that acknowledge co-occurring use.
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Quality standards to be introduced to tackle youth vaping, including restricting flavours, colours and other ingredients
The Australian government will ban the importation of nonprescription vaping products – including those that do not contain nicotine – in the most significant tobacco and vaping control measures in the country in a decade.
To tackle youth vaping, minimum quality standards for vapes will be introduced including restricting flavours, colours and other ingredients. Vape products will require pharmaceutical-like packaging, and the allowed nicotine concentrations and volumes will be reduced. All single-use, disposable vapes will be banned.
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Adding menthol flavoring to electronic cigarettes may damage your lungs more than regular e-cigarettes do, a new study reveals.
A number of studies have suggested that e-cigarette vapor can cause lung inflammation, oxidative stress, DNA damage and airway hyper-responsiveness that can trigger asthma, Benam said. Vaping these substances can cause lung damage that impairs lung function. Menthol, he added, is such a toxic substance.
The common mint flavoring helps deliver lots more toxic microparticles, compared with e-cigarette pods that don't contain menthol. It's those microparticles that damage lung function, researchers say.
"Beware of additives in the e-cigarettes, if you vape, they can make you inhale more particles into your lungs. Don‘t assume that since menthol is a substance naturally found in mint plants and added to some food and beverages, it would be fine to inhale…Menthol flavoring leads to a significantly higher number of particle counts that one would take into their lungs by vaping them…E-cigarette aerosols are known to contain many harmful substances, such as nicotine and formaldehyde.”
Associate Professor Kambez Benam, Senior Researcher in the division of pulmonary, allergy and critical care medicine at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Medicine
(Source: Menthol Vapes Could Be Even More Toxic to Lungs (webmd.com))
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A drug known as ketamine induces a mental state similar to psychosis in healthy individuals by inhibiting NMDA receptors in the brain. This creates an imbalance of excitatory and inhibitory signals in the central nervous system, which affects sensory perception. Experts believe that similar changes in NMDA receptors could be linked to perception changes in schizophrenia.
They found that ketamine increased “background noise” in the brain, making sensory signals less defined or pronounced. This, they noted, may explain the distorted perception of reality among people with schizophrenia or psychosis.
The researchers suggested that their findings mean that the distorted reality experienced in psychosis and schizophrenia may be triggered by more background noise, which in itself may be caused by malfunctioning NMDA receptors causing an imbalance of inhibition and excitation in the brain.
Their findings appeared in the European Journal of Neuroscience (Trusted Source).
(Source: Psychosis after ketamine: What happens in the brain? (medicalnewstoday.com)
Further reading Ketamine and Staying Away From the ‘K-Hole’ and Problematic Psychedelics – Prescribing Harm?
- Problematic Psychedelics – Prescribing Harm? Researchers Warn of Major Threats to the Validity of Psychedelic Research
- Lobbying For Medicine – Around We Go Again (This Time It’s Psychedelics)
- Australia has a vaping problem, but no easy health or political solution – Or is there?
- Big Tobacco and Vaping Science – Who’s Researching What & Why?