Two years ago my genes were profiled. Results ranged from useful (high risk for blood clots) to mildly unsettling (I do have curly blonde hair and blue eyes). But among the laundry list of drug response and trait data was something that peaked my interest — sandwiched between ‘Floxacillin Toxicity’ and ‘Lumirazcoxib Side Effects’ was [...]

Every so often I’m briefly and viscerally aware of environmental “triggers,” cues to use a substance, and how difficult evading them must be for addicts. Alcohol, on billboards and shopping bags, commercials and taxi cabs, is everywhere, and avoiding it teems with impossibility. For the rest of us, it may be moderately comparable to running [...]

Love is maddening and inconvenient and exhilarating and wonderful. We often feel overwhelmed by it, heart pounding, “head over heels,” “crazy in love.” But how much is too much? And what’s the difference between feelings of normal love and desire, and love addiction? Where, exactly, is the line? For years I’ve known a woman we’ll [...]

1. Drunk walking contains a bigger risk factor than you might think. The journal of Injury Prevention cites January 1 with the high incident rates of pedestrian-motor vehicle crashes (PDF). Give the feet a rest — take a cab. 2. Champagne bubbles follow a science! Listen to the SciAm podcast and check out an explainer [...]

March 1 — Chemicals used in K2 and Spice, smokeable herbal products that elicit a marijuana-like high, are regulated as Schedule 1 drugs by the DEA April 19 — Over 5,300 sites join the DEA’s second “Take-Back Prescription Drugs” mission, a community effort to collect unwanted, unused or expired prescription medication June 30 — Operation [...]

Call me foolish, but I accept and believe addicts’ tales of their drug use and abuse. In retelling their experiences, most offer an outpouring of descriptive language on how their drug of choice feels, and how their drug of choice has ruined them. I trust these accounts, while accepting that some details could be misfiled [...]

Yesterday, I asked a 12-year-old the biggest lessons he learned from a recent middle school drug assembly. The answers I received contained the terms “White Lightning,” “Hurricane Charlie” and “Trail Mix.” While valuable for kids to have drug education programs in schools, it becomes a pressing concern when lesser known drugs and/or street names are [...]

To offer different insight, here’s a guest post written by a 12-year-old, illuminating the scarcity of drug knowledge kids have. Tomorrow, I’ll look into the drugs he discusses. Today, here are his thoughts on drugs and responses to questions posed by me. This is his unedited, typed draft: So I’m sitting in this school assembly [...]

I’m so rarely sick, but every so often, usually after vaulting over the plagues of my nearest and dearest, I succumb to one germ or another. For me sickness involves a careful assembly line of water, orange juice and herbal tea, as I’m a stalwart avoider of over-the-counter medication when possible (I eat almonds or [...]

This weekend, I saw Shame in theatres, a film based on a 30-something sex addict in NYC, a man who, on the surface, seems to have the looks, talent, career and drive to be a knock-down success. But above and beyond the wayward sex, it was as subtly about addiction’s toll on relationships, friendly, familial [...]