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Substance abuse harms developing brains

6/9/2019

By Christiana Lincowski

The idea of riding out mental illnesses by using substances isn’t new, and concern is growing for youth who might be abusing drugs and other substances instead of getting the mental health care they need.

According to the Pima County Health Department’s 2019 health needs assessment report, “Most illicit drug use starts between ages 14-20 and peaks around 12th grade.” They found that students are at high risk for substance abuse when transitioning from middle school to high school.

If a teenager makes a choice to get involved with harmful substances they don’t just affect themselves. Teenagers under the influence affect people close to them and can tear apart a family. Teenagers with substance abuse problems can become out of control and physically harm peers, siblings and other family members, teachers and others.

Kaye Godbey, project coordinator at the University of Arizona’s Health Promotion and Prevention Services, said once a teenager becomes dependent or addicted they don’t have free choice in their actions and they will need others to help them pull them back.

“Someone taking control over their health, that’s a good thing, but sometimes your brain gets so mixed up that you don’t have that option,” Godbey said.

Hope lies in recovery for UA students

6/9/2019

By Odalys Martinez

Drug and alcohol misuse is a serious issue on a national scale in the United States, and the reasons young adults get hooked is a central area of concern.

University of Arizona employee Joe Casillas and two friends shared that their substance abuse disorders started at a young age. Now the three help others who seek sobriety.

Casillas, who works with a campus recovery group, began drinking at age 14, and years of tough experiences with alcohol and drugs followed until he got into recovery.

His grandmother had an addiction as well as serious depression, and she ultimately committed suicide when he was 2 years old. He initially abstained from the using alcohol and drugs because of his grandmother’s story, but curiosity about a new experience led him into addiction, revealed the 32-year-old.

Teenagers turn to using alcohol, drugs and substances for many reasons, whether out of peer pressure, to cope with a traumatic event, in response to media’s influence, or, simply, for fun.

UA and TUSD team up so students can ‘Talk it Out’

6/9/2019

By Mireya Borgen

Counseling students in a master’s program at the University of Arizona learn from Assistant Professor Lia D. Falco in early June 2019 in the College of Education.

Victoria Grijalva

Students enrolled in the Tucson Unified School District and their families can now access free mental health counseling available via a partnership between the district and the University of Arizona in a new program called Talk it Out.

“Mental health is really important so that students can thrive in their lives in school,” said Lia D. Falco, a faculty member in the UA College of Education’s counselor education program.

At nearly no cost to either the school district or the university, Talk it Out will make mental health counseling available to the 47,255 students enrolled in TUSD, as well as to their families, extended families and caregivers, by using the expertise of master’s students in the UA’s counseling program.

Falco, who had a large role in creating Talk it Out, said the goal

was to be able to provide accessible mental health counseling to students and families.

“There’s such high need,” Falco said.

The consequences of mental health issues are beginning to be addressed throughout the nation, and Talk it Out is one resource to help students cope with anxiety, depression, anger or other concerns.

Sex education launches healthy lives

6/9/2019

Campus health services, at the University of Arizona, offers free condoms every Friday, from noon to 2 p.m.

Chritiana Lincowski

By Isari Martinez

Sex education — the teaching of all things related to sexual health — has always been controversial for schools, and the subject continues to be debated, especially over what should be taught and when.

"What we discuss with our high school students is different from what we talk about with our elementary students,” said Kristel Ann Foster, a school board member in the Tucson Unified School District. “We want to make sure it’s comprehensive and inclusive and also age appropriate.”

Ideally in elementary school, students learn about body development. In middle school, students study health and sexuality, and healthy relationships are studied in high school.

Daniel Laney, a student from Cholla High School, said his experience learning sex education from elementary to high school left much to be desired.

“We were mainly doing bookwork,” Laney said.

Liza Puig, a former student at Tucson High Magnet School and Laney’s mother, said when she was in elementary they had a “Brown Bag Class,” which referred to a bag that had feminine products in it.

Her high school sex ed classes only taught about the reproductive system, contraceptive choices and STDs. “It was just plain, pretty basic,” Puig said. “I think it was pushed more in high school, because

the sexuality was becoming more open then.”

TUSD has appointed a family life curriculum committee to update the content and materials, and the school board is expected to vote on their recommendations this month.

“I don’t think the curriculum is very up to date, and I don’t think there is a consistency across the district because we (have not had) professional development regarding this curriculum in a long time,” Foster said.

Hydrate! Or suffer consequences!

6/9/2019

By Emma Schneider

Summer has rolled around in Southern Arizona once again and the temperatures are rising — along with the dangers of dehydration.

Many Tucsonans have probably experienced going about their business on a warm summer day and finding they have either run out of water or are just not drinking enough to stay hydrated.

The first signs of dehydration are a dry mouth, increased thirst, decreased urine output, dizziness, a headache and fatigue, according to eMedicineHealth. Severe dehydration can lead to reduced sweating, sunken eyes, shriveled skin, low blood pressure, an increased heart rate, fever, delirium and unconsciousness.

The worst cases can end in a coma or even death.

CBD a treatment for chronic pain

6/9/2019

By Kristen Bia

Cannabidiol, or CBD, is a drug extracted from marijuana that has gained the attention of the public recently, with some people singing its praises for reducing pain.

Since passage of the 2014 Farm Bill, the growth of cannabis plants for research purposes and the production of CBD products have risen. The bill allowed hemp and cannabis plants to be grown in states where medical and recreational marijuana is legal, such as, Oregon, Nevada, California and Colorado.

CBD is a naturally occuring chemical compound, one of 113 cannabinoids in cannabis plants. CBD is legal in all 50 states, though with strict regulations. CBD can’t have a THC percentage over 0.3 percent, or it is considered marijuana.

According to Dr. Lynn Parodneck, a certified medical marijuana doctor in New York, cannabinoids are natural antiinflammatory drugs that are able to prevent psychoactive diseases.

Cannabidol, or CBD, is an extract from cannabis plants that is gaining in popularity as a medicinal treatment and may be purchased as supplements, gummy candy and in its purest form at Your CBD Store.

Christiana Lincowski

While CBD is found in both hemp and marijuana plants, it is only extracted from hemp plants because of its high production of CBD, where as marijuana has a higher production of THC.

“THC is the psychoactive drug that allows you to get high, whereas CBD allows your body to fall into homeostasis, a parasympathetic state of healing,” said Steven Parks, an employee at Your CBD Store, on North Campbell Avenue in Tucson.

Hemp farms use both types of cannabis plants, sativa and indica, to help reach homeostasis. CBD oils are a supplement that is used to balance the natural cannabinoids your body produces, CBD, CBG, and CBN, that work with the cb1 and cb2 receptors in your body, which have an effect on appetite, pain sensation, mood and memory.

“When used with a good diet and physical activity CBD can produce amazing results. If not our body just builds a tolerance for the drug,” Parks said.

Marijuana distributors value education

6/9/2019

By Savannah Peña

Since medical marijuana was approved by Arizona voters in 2010, many of Tucson’s dozen dispensaries have turned to educating users about medicinal benefits rather than simply distributing their product.

“The focus was education in the beginning, and it still is even though we’ve gotten so much busier,” said Thomas Hunt, operations manager at the Downtown Dispensary on East Sixth Street. Education was owner Moe Asnani’s main purpose when he opened the dispensary in 2013, Hunt said.

The more educated people are about the use of medical marijuana the more aware they become of not only the effects but also the medicinal value, Hunt said.

“The good thing about marijuana is that it creates this homeostasis between a person and nature because sometimes we just pass through life without feeling what’s going on, and marijuana helps you have more of a central feeling with nature and with life, ” Hunt said.

Marijuana has been found to help reduce pain and inflammation in joints because of the CB2 cannabinoids, which have an affect on a person’s physical being.

Medical marijuana may replace harsh “Western medicine” or synthetic drugs because it is a natural alternative, Hunt said.

Vaping among youth is sounding alarms

6/9/2019

By Victoria Grijalva

Vaping products were created to help adult smokers quit tobacco, but studies now show adults aren’t the only ones using e-cigarettes, and concerns are escalating about widespread vaping among young people and the dangers that follow.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report in 2018 on tobacco use and vaping among middle and high school students, which showed that 19 percent of girls and 23 percent of boys are actively vaping.

Pima County officials recently said vaping among youth has reached an “alarming” level. The 2018 Arizona Youth Survey reported that 48 percent of Pima County youth have tried an e-cigarette or a vape at least once in their lives.

According to Know the Risks: e-cigarettes and young people, an education program in the U.S. Surgeon General’s Office, the brain is still developing in teenagers and young adults, up until age 26.

E-cigarrettes and vaping affect the part of the brain that controls attention, learning, mood and impulse control, according to the CDC.

Victoria Grijalva

Using e-cigarettes and vaping increases “the possibility of addiction and long-term harm to the brain development and respiratory health,” according to the Know the Risks webpage.

The surgeon general’s program also reports, “Even breathing e-cigarette aerosol that someone else has exhaled poses potential risks.”

E-cigarettes and vapes affect the part of the brain that controls attention, learning, mood and impulse control, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Vapes often come in flavors that appeal to teens (mint, cherry), and teenagers are more likely to get addicted, making them four times more likely to smoke tobacco.

Often teens are caught up in the fad and do not pay attention to reports that tobacco, e-cigarettes and vaping expose users to chemicals and carcinogenic compounds and can cause lung damage. “Popcorn lung,” one such danger, is a condition that damages the most narrow passageways in the lungs and causes inflammation.

Teens also are unaware or uninterested that vaping can weaken a person’s immune system, damage blood vessels, and increase heart rate and blood pressure. In April the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced vaping can cause seizures.

Climate change prompts Tucson action

6/9/2019

By Jacquelyn Gutierrez

Arizona might be best known for the Grand Canyon, copper and saguaro cacti, but not its rainfall. Tucsonans might see even less rain in the future, according to Michael Crimmins, a professor of soil, water and environment at the University of Arizona.

Crimmins, an associate professor and climate science extension specialist, has worked with counties across Arizona to implement drought preparedness by targeting those who will be affected first.

After reviewing scientific research, Crimmins said that monsoon season might not reach Tucson this year due to El Niño, the warm phase of ocean water that occurs in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific.

Like Crimmins, many scientists, businesses and individuals in Tucson are working to spread awareness about the effects global warming has on the community and to educate others on steps to take to save the environment.

Despite the cool May this year, Tucson temperatures overall have been warmer than other years, much of which can be contributed to climate change, scientific research shows.

A 3.23-degree rise in annual average temperature made Arizona the nation’s third-fastest-warming state from 1970 to 2019, according to an analysis by Climate Central, a nonprofit organization comprised of scientists and journalists who study and report on changing climate trends.

“The warming temperatures in Tucson have had an impact on water use,” Crimmins said. “The warmer temperatures are bringing more of a demand on water use, so this causes impact on local resources.”

The Sustainability Program, a local program created by the City of Tucson, assists other city departments in looking for different ways to reduce the city’s footprint as well as Tucson’s energy, water and fuel costs by making greener purchases and identifying and utilizing best management practices internally, according to the city website.

Other city programs that seek to impact the environment positively include: resilience planning, sustainable food systems, water sustainability, urban landscape planning, green infrastructure development and maintenance.

Project Harvest is a local project that aims to inform community members through education and research about harvested rainwater, as well as soil and plants.

Monica Ramirez-Andreotta, an environmental scientist and director of Project Harvest at the University of Arizona, said, “I try to look at people trying to do the right thing, like harvest rainwater, but we don’t want that effort to be diminished by pollution.”

Kathy Harris, an active volunteer for Project Harvest, said she first found out about Project Harvest at her daughter’s school library.

"The greenest building" on the University of Arizona campus, the Environment and Natural Resources 2 building is home to much research on climate change. Water harvesting tanks catch rain in the courtyard and around the building.

Jacquelyn Gutierrez

Prevention skin cancer’s best treatment

6/9/2019

By Kevin Cazares

Hollywood celebrity Hugh Jackman, social media influencer Khloe Kardashian, and high-ranking CNN journalist Anderson Cooper all share a common experience.

All have had the spotlight in front of the cameras, sure. But they also all have gone through the process of recovering from skin cancer.

The three celebrities have openly shared their progress through their social media platforms, and each of them advocates for regular skin checkups by dermatologists. Skin cancer is rapidly increasing in numbers.

According to skincancer.org, more people are diagnosed with skin cancer every year than any other cancer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that in 2015, 80,442 cases of skin cancer were reported in the U.S. and 8,885 people died because of skin cancer.

In Arizona, 20 in every 100,000 people were diagnosed with skin cancer in 2015.