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February 3rd, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda FRIDAY, Feb. 3 (HealthDay News) — People who start using hard
drugs — such as cocaine, opiates and amphetamines — as young adults and
continue to use them into their 50s have a fivefold increased risk of
early death, researchers report.
The finding is from an analysis of hard drug use among 4,300 U.S.
adults who took part in a long-term study of cardiovascular disease and
risk factors. The participants, including blacks, whites, men and women,
were recruited when they were 18 to 30 years of age and followed from 1985
to 2006.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers compared those who
stopped drug use early in life to those who continued, and calculated
their risk of premature death.
“Fourteen percent of the people in the study reported recent hard-drug
use at least once, and of these, half continued using well into middle
age,” lead author Dr. Stefan Kertesz, an associate professor in the
preventive medicine division, said in a university news release.
Kertesz characterized most drug users as “dabblers” who used a few days
a month, but not daily.
The researchers found that older drug users were more likely to have
been raised in economically challenging circumstances in a family that was
unsupportive, abusive or neglectful.
Those who were heavy drug users when they were young adults and
continued into middle age were about five times more likely to die
prematurely than people who didn’t use drugs, according to the report
published online Jan. 27 in the Journal of General Internal
Medicine.
But, while the study uncovered an association between continued heavy
drug use and premature death, it did not prove a cause-and-effect
relationship, the study authors noted.
“We can’t assume that drugs caused death, as in an overdose,” Kertesz
said. “Rather what we found is that middle-age adults who continue to
dabble in hard drugs represent a group that is at risk of bad outcomes —
which could include death from trauma, heart disease or other causes that
are not a direct result of their drug use — at a higher rate than people
who stopped using drugs.”
About 9.4 percent of Americans aged 50 to 59 and 7 percent of those
aged 35 to 49 reported use of a drug other than marijuana sometime in the
past year, according to the U.S. National Survey on Drug Use and
Health.
More information
The U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has
more about illicit drug use among older adults.
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