Thanks to Dan Riding for sending us this article:A very "sobering" story was printed in the Salt Lake Tribune yesterday. Conner Watson, (13), died after returning home from a party with friends where he consumed some prescription narcotics that he found on the counter (belonging to a friends grandmother). After coming home he watched a movie with his mother before going to bed. The next morning she found him in bed, dead as a result of overdose. It's a very sad story and one that stresses the importance of treating these drugs with greater caution, locking them up, and getting rid of them once they are no longer needed. It's very topical given that our coalition is sponsoring a take-back day this week to address this very concern. Please spread the word about this event and encourage, friends, family and neighbors to clean out their medicine cabinets!
A new report published in "Psychology & Sociology" and the journal of "Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research" shows that human adolescence marks a critical period for brain development. "This is when the growth of the cortex, our gray matter, reaches a peak and is coupled with major rearrangements of neurons. Dr. Fulton Crews, PhD, professor of pharmacology and director of the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies at the University of N.C. Chapell Hill School of Medicine, said: "It's also a time when the brain's developing neural circuits are more sensitive to disruption. And we and others have shown that the growing adolescent frontal cortex is much more sensitive to damage than the adult frontal cortex, given the same amount of alcohol. The question is, what impact does alcohol [consumption] in the teen years have on the brain and how might that affect our lives as adults?" 