Dr. Larissa Mooney is a board certified addiction psychiatrist with expertise in the treatment of substance use disorders and psychiatric comorbidity. After obtaining residency training at New York University, she completed a fellowship in addiction psychiatry at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Dr. Mooney is an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA and Director of the UCLA Addiction Medicine Clinic, where she teaches psychiatrists in training in the clinical management of dual diagnoses. Dr. Mooney serves on the Executive Board of Directors for the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP). She has conducted research on treatment interventions for addictive disorders, including methamphetamine, cocaine and opioid use disorder and has received funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to study clinical outcomes in individuals with cannabis use disorder.
"One's reaction time may be slowed; coordination, the ability to respond in an emergency may be impaired."
There is a window of opportunity of usually several hours between when someone who has overdosed might just be looking sleepy and when he or she may die. In some of these situations, the person may never make it to the emergency room.
"Smoking is inherently unhealthy, and by sending the message that we're smoking something to take the edge off or to cope with pain, that sends a message to our children.”