AHS Views

In the UK, there have been several ‘legal high’ types of drugs on the market recently. Kids and young adults have access to them either online or in head shops where drug paraphernalia is sold. Most of the drugs come in powder form which is snorted by the user to get high. Unfortunately for some unlucky snorters, the outcome has been deadly.

Ok, so what’s wrong with this picture? Kids are buying powder online and snorting it up their noses to get high, and… this is legal? There was one drug that hit the party scene over a year ago, called Mephedrone (sold as “plant food”), which did get banned because of deaths related to using it. The problem is though, that drug makers and sellers just package the drugs in different forms, like bath salts for instance, and begin selling them.

Speaking of bath salts, the newest drug to hit the party circuit is Ivory Wave, sold as bath salts, but says right on the package “single dose pack”. There’s even a pretty picture of two feet and some flowers on the label, like it really is a soothing addition to bath time. But, don’t let it fool you, it’s going right up the noses of young kids in the UK.

Apparently 20 kids went to the hospital in the past week alone from Ivory Wave in Scotland. It’s being marketed as “the strongest party powder there is” online, and seems like it’s living up to its word. Kids went to the hospital with symptoms including hallucinations, anxiety, severe sickness, heart palpitations and even for turning blue. Hello? This is serious stuff!

Kids are often looking for thrills, which can include wanting to experiment with drugs and/or alcohol. They must know the dangers involved so that they can make the right decision to thrill seek elsewhere. And, the UK had better get busy banning more of those party powders, before tragedy strikes and more lives are lost. Sounds like they are already in need of some real addiction help.

We hear about issues stemming from substance abuse frequently in the US. From drunk driving and drug-related traffic stops to prescription and illegal drug abuse. These problems affect every state in this country and all walks of life.

I came across an interesting read recently, which was about a study done by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services on how substance abuse is affecting the workplace. A lot of people equate substance abuse with lower economic areas, homelessness, you name it. But, that’s actually not the majority. Did you know that 77% of illegal drug users are employed full or part-time here in the US?

That means that more than three quarters of the illegal drug using population are mixed in with the working population. What’s more is that substance abuse costs American businesses upwards of 81 billion dollars a year in lost production, work absences as well as accidents. Speaking of absences, about 500 million workdays per year are lost due to substance abuse by employees.

This is a no win situation for either side of the coin. Both the employee and the employer suffer as a result of substance abuse. Employers experience productivity downtrends, suffer because of absenteeism, accident claims and quite possibly the difficulties of dealing with employees who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Then there are the issues that come into play for an addict, i.e. their health, relationships with family and friends, job loss and income reduction and possibly overdose and/or death.

Have you ever known of or worked with someone who was under the influence of an illegal drug or alcohol on while on the job? Apparently, according to the study, more than 60% of adults do currently or have in the past. Why is the statistic for substance abuse in the workplace so high then? Are the abusers not being reported? Probably not. The reasons for this could be fear of retribution by the addict, not wanting to get their co-worker in trouble or that they don’t want to get involved.

Substance abuse is an epidemic in our country. Not just by the homeless man on the corner asking for money to buy who-knows-what, but possibly by your coworker. If we are ever going to get a handle on this debilitating, expensive, pervasive crisis, we’re going to have to actually speak up and do something about it. Get those people into drug rehab or alcohol treatment. Each one of us can do our part to get them addiction help!

I came across a headline today that I thought must have been a joke. When I read further into the article, I realized that it’s not, and am absolutely shocked! Russia is experiencing a heatwave and vodka-swigging, drunken people are trying to swim to cool off, and drowning.

I actually was in such disbelief that I Googled the story to find out if anyone else had written about the terrible events that have taken place. Sure enough, there were several other articles written, that I was able to easily find online. The death toll so far has surpassed 1200 people since June. And, in one day, there were 49 drowning deaths in Russia from drunken swimming.

The most heartbreaking part of this news story was to find out that children are also drowning because their parents are too drunk to notice them. If you can believe this, last week there were five children who drowned at camp because their counselors were too drunk to pay attention!

A lot of people like to take some drinks with them to the beach. It’s certainly quite common in many parts of the world. But this has proven that it can be quite dangerous, if people are being reckless and irresponsible with the amounts that they’re consuming. This would fall into the category of binge drinking, basically drinking large amounts of alcohol quickly to get drunk. Swigging massive quantities of vodka before taking a swim is not the best idea and you’d think that people would have caught onto this by now!

A state of emergency has been declared in Russia because of the death toll. Unfortunately, this is a long standing issue there, alcohol abuse needs addiction treatment. It’s time to really take a look at this crisis and help Russians with their blatantly obvious problems with alcohol addiction. Alcohol rehab programs are desperately needed and fast! It may be a good idea to restrict alcohol from the public beaches too. I’m sure it would help save many lives.

There’s a situation in the US that a lot of people may not be aware of. It’s called Robo tripping. Do you have any idea what that is? I surely didn’t! It’s the practice of drinking large amounts of cough syrup to get high. It’s also called Robo, Skittles, Dex and Tussin. When it’s consumed in large quantities, the user will experience a hallucinogenic type of high. And, it’s legal, cheap and available at drug and grocery stores everywhere. It’s easy to get.

Ten percent of US teens and tweens (kids ranging in ages from 9 to 17) have admitted to partaking in this activity. Like the name of this activity, I had no idea how big of an epidemic it was. That’s a lot of kids!

There are a number of alarming side effects that can occur, that these young people probably have no idea about. Not only in the short term, but long-term as well. Loss of motor control, and even death, have been attributed to this dangerous method of getting high.

Now that summer is upon us, and kids are not in school every day, it’s incredibly important for parents to be aware of the dangers involved. Any type of over-the-counter medications that contain the active ingredient dextromethorphan (DXM) will create the desired high that kids are trying to achieve. There are more than 125 medications that contain DXM.
Like any other prescription medication kept in the house, it is wise to keep this out of their reach. Parents should watch for the following signs in their kids, if Robo tripping is suspected:

•    Empty or missing bottles of cough syrup
•    An unusual medicinal smell on your child
•    Changes in your child’s appearance, attitude, eating and sleeping habits
•    Drug website visits by your child

As with any type of drug or alcohol abuse, it’s better to be open with your child about the dangers involved. If you talk to them about what you know, you’ll be passing that information along, and hopefully, that knowledge will help to deter them. If they know they could actually die from participating, they will most likely think twice and perhaps help to educate their friends.
Help lower this staggering statistic and get them some help before they get addicted, it’s dangerous and abusive behavior that could not only lead them down a path as a gateway to other harmful drugs, but it could take their life. If you already need addiction help call now.

At very early ages, kids are experimenting with drugs and alcohol. Kids from all walks, white, black, Hispanic, coming from homes with or without money, literally any scenario you can think of. It’s a problem all across the US.

A recent study has uncovered some interesting information with regard to children experimenting with and using drugs as well as drinking alcohol. What it found was that girls are more likely to experiment with drugs and alcohol to help them with their problems and emotions, while boys do it more to relax socially.

This is a pretty scary thought; girls thinking that they’ll benefit emotionally from taking drugs and/or drinking. They’re basically self-medicating, which is a very dangerous thing to do. If prescription drugs are truly needed for a condition, they should be prescribed by a doctor, and patients, as well as their parents, should know exactly what they’re taking and why.

Boys and girls alike should know the dangers of these powerful substances and the toll that they can take on them, their families, their education, their friends, every aspect of their lives. Parents should sit down and talk with their kids, not once, but frequently about what’s going on in their lives, who they’re hanging out with and how they are doing emotionally.

Watch for signs that kids may be doing drugs or drinking. Look for things like negative attitude and mood changes, drop in grades at school, new friends or a change in peers, withdrawal and lack of interest, carelessness about grooming and extreme tiredness. And, most of all, follow your instinct. If your gut says something is wrong, chances are that something is indeed wrong.

If you do find that your child is doing drugs, don’t wait for them to get through whatever “phase” they’re going through. Get them addiction help immediately!

Now that the summer is upon us, it’s time for parties and vacations. Often times, at the bbq or family reunion, there will be alcoholic beverages present. And frequently there will be that family member who drinks a few too many of those beverages. Or, perhaps you are the one who’s tipping the bottle a bit too much and maybe your kids are around, hearing you slur your words and get pretty silly.

When it comes to alcohol, and drugs for that matter, children are experimenting with these substances at alarmingly young ages. In a recent study that looked at adolescent drug and alcohol use, there were some interesting correlations between substance abuse and family upbringing.

The study showed that kids who have ‘indulgent’ parents were much more likely to drink heavily. Not shocking… But, what was interesting was that parents who aren’t openly heavy drinkers, but aren’t warm and involved in their kids’ lives, or are strict and a bit cold, also still had higher chances of getting involved in the drinking scene.

The best scenario in a family unit, are parents who are warm, involved in their children’s lives and openly communicative as well as not being big on drinking.

So, as the summer progresses, and the plans for partying with the family are made, let’s all keep this in mind. Let’s lead by example and be warm and loving parents to our kids. It will make a big difference in the long run for the health and well being of our children. And, perhaps help to avoid alcohol addiction treatment in their futures!

This week, a woman who was flying into Ohio from California got nabbed for drug trafficking. This type of arrest is fairly common these days, you can read all over the news, stories about people involved in traffic stops or other means of travel, winding up with drug charges.

What caught my eye in this story was the fact that the woman, and an entourage of 3 other individuals, had flown into an Ohio airport on a charter plane with 13 suitcases. Some of which were too heavy for one man to carry alone. Hello?… Could she possibly be any more obvious?  Did she actually think she wouldn’t get caught?

She was caught and it turns out she was trafficking bricks of pot, cocaine, drug paraphernalia and suspected drug ledgers that showed drug transactions equaling about $300,000. So, this was no small operation.

The woman is now in jail and facing up to forty years in prison, as well as up to $2 million in fines. Considering the fact that she said she was paid $60,000 by a friend to transport the suitcases, I’m sure she’s now thinking it wasn’t really that good of a deal for her.

Drug trafficking is and has been a very serious problem all over the world for decades. It’s what feeds drug addiction, which is at epidemic levels everywhere you turn.  In Russia alone, eighty people die every day due to drug abuse, just to mention one statistic.

I think it would be wise to give the drug trafficking woman a pretty hefty jail sentence, and anyone else who gets caught, for that matter. In other countries, drug trafficking is punishable by death. Forty years in prison seems pretty reasonable when you think about it from that perspective. It’s not a small crime and it contributes to so many deaths everywhere.

This week in Michigan, an 18 year old woman drug dealer sold heroin to a 24 year old man, who later died from what was determined to be a drug overdose. The man was an addict, not a first-time user, who apparently was stuck in a pretty serious drug addiction.

The young woman was arrested shortly after his death and is now being charged on two counts, “delivering a drug causing death and delivery of heroin”. The maximum punishment for these two counts is life in prison. Could you imagine? You’re a drug dealer (and quite possibly an addict as well) one day, and the next, you’re in jail for the rest of your life. And, to top it off, you’re only 18 years old! Just a kid…

I absolutely think that there should be consequences for dealing heroin. It’s against the law, it kills people left and right and it’s an inhumane choice of profession. With that said, who should be held accountable for the addict’s death? I’d have to say it was ultimately the addict who took his own life through the use of illegal drugs.

There are so many people out there who experiment with and use heroin (or other harmful illegal drugs) and ruin their lives and those of their families every day. It’s a poor choice that they make that leads them down a very bad path. There isn’t a single good reason to choose that life. But, they choose it for themselves and it’s their responsibility.

So, should the young woman spend the rest of her life in prison for killing the addict? Or should she spend time in jail for dealing illegal drugs? It’s a tough choice for law enforcement officials who obviously don’t want people to die of drug overdoses and they don’t want to send messages to other drug dealers to lessen the severity of this type of crime. I’d say that she should be punished, of course, but she didn’t kill the young man. He did that on his own, and now his family is left without him and mourning their loss. My condolences go out to them.

Did you know that half of all Americans take at least one prescription drug? And that one in six Americans take three or more prescriptions? That seems extreme, but would explain why prescription drug abuse has become such an epidemic in the US right now.

So what happens if you take one or a couple of prescriptions on a daily basis and you accidentally take the wrong pill? Believe it or not, this is pretty common amongst us busy-bodied Americans who are usually on the go for most of our daily routines.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, since the year 2000, they’ve received over 95,000 reports of medication errors. Some of which were by medical professionals like pharmacists and the doctors who write the prescriptions, but mostly by the consumers.

With all of the different types of medications being prescribed out there, and families loading up their medicine cabinets with pill bottles, tubes of prescription creams and perhaps some liquid medications, how hard do you think it would be to accidentally take the wrong pill?

It’s very important to keep your medications in order and not to get them mixed up. The consequences could range from annoying symptoms due to taking the wrong medication, to more serious effects like allergic reactions or overdose. It’s also important to properly dispose of medications that are no longer being used. Sometimes people think it’s handy to hang onto prescriptions “just in case” they’re needed. But, what they’re really doing is opening the door to misuse by minors or self medicating, possibly with the wrong medications.

While we as a nation are dealing with the issue of prescription drug addiction, let’s keep in mind that we need to be responsible with the drugs that are medically necessary to live our lives. And, if you do know of someone who is misusing those types of drugs, get them some help. You could absolutely be saving their life!

Methadone is commonly given to heroin addicts (as well as morphine and other opioid users) to “treat” their dependence and withdrawal symptoms. It is prescribed to addicts every day, all over the US. It’s considered a way of helping people to get past their addiction and dependence to illegal street drugs.

The unfortunate thing about methadone is that it’s just as addicting, if not more so, than the heroin that they were shooting up, snorting or smoking. Once patients are given methadone, they just keep getting prescribed. This can go on for years and years – it’s called methadone maintenance.

What’s really fascinating to me is that it takes about a week to get through heroin detox. And, it can be done with other means, like vitamins, healthy diet, other alternative drugs that are less addicting and much easier to wean off of (in some cases), and the patient can fully rid their body of the powerful drug.

My question is, why on earth would you want to move to a different addictive drug, to become a slave to and dependent on, instead of a week of heroin detox? It has also been proven that methadone detox can be worse for patients than that of heroin. Would you really want to go stand in line for your methadone every day for years and years?

If I really take a look at this problem, it would appear that most people make the switch from the illegal drugs to methadone because it’s offered as “help” to addicts from the government. And, while I believe that the intentions are not horrible, the solution that has been put in place certainly is.

What if, and this is a big what if, the government used the resources that pay for methadone, to actually provide detox and addiction help facilities for addicts instead of drugging them? If you want to stop taking heroin, you go to treatment and properly go through the steps of drug detox and then drug rehab. What a concept, right? To actually get people fully off of drugs…

If you’ve ever found yourself looking for detox or rehab services, especially state funded programs, I’m sure you’ve experienced trouble locating an open bed. I personally hear the heartbreaking stories of families who don’t have enough money for private pay rehab, who have no options, on a daily basis. What’s available to the opioid addicts? Currently the answer is more drugs.