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National surveys and monitoring systems have recently begun to document widespread abuse of a variety of prescription medications, particularly among adolescent and young adult populations. Recent data collected by the authors of this paper indicate that there has been a significant incursion of prescription drugs into the club culture, and that young club drug users have been significantly impacted by health consequences associated with prescription drug abuse. Structured interviews with 186 ecstasy users in Miami found that over 80% reported lifetime non-prescribed use of sedatives, opioids or stimulants without a prescription, and more than half (56.7%) had misused a sedative or opioid medication in the past year. In the past 12 months, 23% of respondents had misused OxyContin, 33% other oxycodone products, 40% hydrocodone, and 8% morphine. Polydrug use was common in that 29% of the sample reported using one or more prescription medications together with ecstasy. Compared to non-users, prescription drug abusers used more different types of drugs on average (mean of 8 compared to 4, p=.000); exhibited higher depression scores (mean 15.5 vs. 11 on the CES-D, p=.068); and were more likely to have sought treatment for drug or alcohol problems (p=.008). Forty-three percent of prescription opioid abusers reported withdrawal symptoms from those drugs, including depression, nausea, anxiety and craving. To further investigate the unexpected findings of widespread prescription drug abuse among this population, a new 5-year research study was initiated to assess the extent of prescription drug abuse among a large sample of club drug users, to examine changes in users' drug and drug combination preferences, and the health and social consequences of prescription drug abuse over time. This study will recruit 750 club and prescription drug abusers over a 3 year period through respondent-driven sampling techniques, and conduct baseline and follow-up interviews at 6, 12 and 18 months. This paper will report on the patterns of prescription and other drug use in the club culture, the settings and mechanisms through which users purchase or otherwise gain access to club drugs and prescription drugs, and the nature and prevalence of related health and other consequences using baseline data collected between April and September 2006. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While many experts believe the use of "club drugs", i.e. 3-4, methlendioxymethamphetamine (MDMA / "Ecstasy"), gamma hydoxybutyrate, (GHB), ketamine (Special K), methamphetamine (Meth or Crank), cocaine, lysergic acid diethylamide, (LSD), and marijuana, is limited according to social setting and population demographics, non-traditional drug surveillance mechanisms indicate otherwise. In the last five years "club drug" markets and corresponding economic structure have evolved beyond everyone's imagination. Although despite this awareness, contemporary social drug epidemiological efforts remain limited in scope and unable to assess the nature and impact, if any, such market changes have had on "local" drug using populations. Specifically, how such changes have impacted women of color has been largely ignored until now. In an effort to enhance our understanding and contextualize such critical changes 30 in-depth multi-stage life history interviews were conducted with a targeted community sample of multi-ethnic/racial women in Florida. Key dimensions analyzed include childhood, adolescent and adult experiences, deviant and criminal (offender) experiences, victimization, risk-management techniques, and the role of club culture in their lives. In addition, a basic demographic profile for each woman will be provided. Implications of findings for both "club drug" markets and "club drug" economy are discussed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Truant youths represent an important target group for addressing drug use and related problems, and lowering risk for moving into the juvenile justice system. We are implementing and evaluating a brief intervention (BI) for truant youths brought to a Tampa, FL Truancy Center by law enforcement. We plan to enroll 300 officially non-delinquent and minor delinquent truants and their parents in this NIDA funded, Stage 2 clinical trial. The BI is grounded in Rational-Emotive Therapy and Behavior Problem Solving Therapy. Three groups will be compared: (1) a 2-session youth only condition (BI-Y), (2) a 2-session youth and 1-session parent condition (BI-YP), and (3) a standard truancy care (STS) condition enhanced by referral services. The impact of these service conditions on drug use and related behaviors (e.g., delinquent behavior) will be assessed up to 18 months, involving five data collection points. We hypothesize that both the BI-Y and BI-YP conditions will reveal significant intervention effects compared to the STS group, and that BI-YP participants will reveal greater treatment effects compared to BI-Y, based on the expectation that enhanced parenting will favorably impact intervention effects. We report on the design, implementation and some preliminary descriptive information on truant youths currently in this study. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Truant youths represent an important target group for addressing drug use and related problems, and lowering risk for moving into the juvenile justice system. We are implementing and evaluating a brief intervention (BI) for truant youths brought to a Tampa, FL Truancy Center by law enforcement. We plan to enroll 300 official non-delinquent and minor delinquent truants and their parents in this NIDA funded, Stage 2 clinical trial. The BI is grounded in Rational-Emotive Therapy and Behavior Problem Solving Therapy. Three groups will be compared: (1) a 2-session youth only condition (BI-Y), (2) a 2-session youth and 1-session parent condition (BI-YP), and (3) a standard truancy services (STS) condition. The impact of these service conditions on drug use and related behaviors (e.g., delinquent behavior) will be assessed up to 18 months, involving five data collection points. We hypothesize that both the BI-Y and BI-YP conditions will reveal significant intervention effects compared to the STS group, and that BI-YP participants will reveal greater treatment effects compared to BI-Y, based on the expectation that enhanced parenting will favorably impact intervention effects. We report on the design, implementation and some preliminary results from this study. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]