Drug Categories:

• What are drugs?
• The three main categories of drugs are stimulants, depressants, and hallucinogens. 
  • What do these categories mean?
  • What are some examples of drugs in these categories?
• What happens when you mix different drugs together?
  • Mixing drugs, whether legal or illegal, can create synergy, which occurs when drugs interact resulting in a more severe effect than when the drugs are taken individually. This can result in a wide range of sometimes unpredictable effects.
• Why are some drugs legal and others illegal?
  • What are some dangers of illegal drugs?
  • What are some dangers of legal drugs?

Effects on the Body:

• What does alcohol do to you?
  • If I plan on drinking, how much should I have?
  • How do I know how much I’m drinking?
  • How do I keep myself and my friends safe?
    • In Connecticut, if you call 911 when someone underage has been drinking and needs medical attention, neither you nor they will not get in trouble for underage drinking. 
• What do cigarettes or vapes do to you?
• How does weed affect the body?
• How do other drugs affect your body?
• What does tolerance mean?
• How does someone get addicted to a drug?
  • What does addiction treatment look like?
• What is withdrawal?
• What is an overdose?

Youtube Videos on Drugs & Alcohol:

Check out this video to learn more about what happens to your body when you drink alcohol!
Watch another ASAPScience Video about your brain on marijuana.
One last video about what it’s like for your brain to have both alcohol AND other drugs in your system at the same time!

Drug Safety Resources:

Call 911 if someone is unconscious due to alcohol or drug use or for any other health emergency. In Connecticut, if you call 911 when someone underage has been drinking and needs medical attention, neither you nor they will not get in trouble for underage drinking. 

For emergencies:

• Poison Help Line: 1-800-222-1222
  • For alcohol poisoning or any other poisoning. Call this number 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to talk to a poison specialist. Call right away if you have an alcohol poisoning or other poison emergency.
• Alcohol poisoning can be fatal. Emergency treatment is urgently needed. CALL 911 ALWAYS NO MATTER WHAT!
• Alcohol Poisoning Resources:
  • Detailed information on symptoms, management, treatment, and prevention of alcohol poisoning.

For addiction treatment:

• Addiction is defined as a chronic, relapsing brain disease, characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use despite harmful consequences. People who are addicted to a substance will do things involuntarily to satisfy their craving, and quitting is extremely difficult. Their body is physically dependent on the substance to function normally.
• 1-800-QUIT-NOW (784-8669)
  • Connecticut Tobacco Quitline for help quitting smoking
• Alcohol Treatment Referral: 1-800-ALCOHOL
  • Free and anonymous national help line
• Alcoholics Anonymous: http://www.aa.org, 203-684-0090
• Narcotics Anonymous Connecticut Region: http://ctna.org/gnha.cfm, 1-800-627-3543 
• Al-Anon: http://www.ctalanon.org/
  • 1-888-8AL-ANON (1-888-825-2666) 
  • Families of addicts and recovering addicts often need help too because of the effects addiction can have on people’s personal and social lives. Al-Anon meetings are available to support those who are helping people suffering from addiction.

For more information:

• The decision to drink is a personal one, and everyone has the freedom and power to make an informed choice for themselves. 
• Rethinking Drinking: 
  • 888-696-4222
  • Online toolkit to evaluate personal drinking habits and proactively work toward change or rehabilitation
• SMART Recovery:
  • Resource for teens struggling with addiction. Online meetings and discussion groups to build community and mutual support.
• Safe Drinking Habits for Students:
  • How to build healthy habits and when to get help.
• Needle Exchanges in New Haven
  • Get safe access to clean needles to reduce the risks of injecting drugs

Residential/Rehabilitation Services for Substance Abuse Disorders:

• AllTreatment Rehabilitation and Treatment Centers:
  • (866) 513-9828
• APT Foundation Inc: 
  • 203-781-4600
  • New Haven-based center with multiple clinics. Provides outpatient and residential substance use disorder treatment, primary health care, outpatient mental health treatment services, medication assisted treatment, family counseling services, and adult education & vocational services to all, including women with children and those living with HIV/AIDS. Accepts some private insurance and Medicaid, otherwise rates are on a sliding scale according to income. 
• The Connection, Inc:
  • 48 Howe St, New Haven. 203-752-9343
  • Offers various residential and day programs, counseling/behavioral health services, and other services.
• The Consultation Center: 
  • 389 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, 203-789-7643
  • Hosts pregnancy/parenting support programs, peer advocacy, school and community based substance abuse and dropout prevention programs, parent-child groups.
• Yale New Haven Psychiatric Hospital:
  • 184 Liberty Street, New Haven
  • 203-688-9907
  • Offers inpatient, partial hospitalization, detoxification and outpatient substance abuse and mental health treatment programs for children, adolescents and adults.
• Youth Continuum:
  • 746 Chapel St. New Haven, 203-562-3396
  • Offers residential programs including group homes, and educational/training/transitional programs for youth aged 13 to 23.
• Children’s Center of Hamden, Inc:
  • 1400 Whitney Ave, Hamden, 203-248-2116 
  • Offers residential substance abuse treatment, outpatient treatment, alternative education programs, and a transitional ‘safe home’ for children removed from their homes due to domestic violence. 
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration: 
  • Treatment referral for substance disorders 
  • (800) 622-4357
• National Institute on Alcohol & Drug Abuse: 
  • Call 1-800-662-HELP for referrals to treatment programs for drug or alcohol abuse​