AHS Views

The only funeral director in Pineville, West Virgina, recently commented on the number of deaths caused by prescription drug overdoses - painkillers like OxyContin being the major problem. “If these people had died of the swine flu, we’d probably be making national headlines,” he said.

Well, it does make national headlines - every day you can find at least one news story about someone dying because of prescription drugs. And sometimes there’s one story in the news for days - like when Purdue Pharma, makers of OxyContin, was sued and paid $634 million as fines for falsely marketing the drug as less addictive and dangerous than other painkillers.

But resolution of the prescription drug addiction, abuse, and overdose problem is going to take far more than a few headlines. We’ve actually got to stop prescribing the drugs unless they’re absolutely necessary.

OxyContin, for example, was initially intended for terminally ill cancer patients - they need relief - and unbearable pain that hasn’t responded to any other remedies. Instead, it’s being given to people who have headaches, had a tooth pulled, had very minor surgery, have back pain - yes, I realize people have to function, but how many people with back pain have ever been through a full reatment program with a chiropractor, physical therapists or acupuncturist - not many you can be sure.

It’s not just up to the FDA - big pharm’s big business and needs big changes. But they’ve got so much money, and so many people dependant on it one way or another - that a big pharma crash is going to effect the economy.

Even worse is the fact big pharma’s got people convinced that drugs are needed - and a certain percentage of them are, no doubt about that. But that percentage is small - and it doesn’t include some of the biggest money makers.

Is the FDA going to address that successsfully? Not likely. We need a real paradigm shift. It’s going to have to come from the top. C’mon Obama, move it. It should be in the health care plan.  

I don’t usually watch reality shows, but I have to say that some of the legal/police type shows that take on social issues can be very insightful. Recently, when discussing the problem of drug addiction, someone on TV asked ‘Why don’t they just burn all the poppy fields?” The response - “Because there has to be a war on something or the people in Washington wouldn’t get elected.” That was probably an old show because the war on drugs certainly isn’t the only war in town right now, but it does make you wonder about the true intentions of the powers that be when there are, really, some pretty simple solutions to the war on drugs available. At least from the standpoint of getting people through drug treatment successfully.

The country spends millions, or billions, on various drug treatment methods and facilities -but a large portion of them don’t even work! They’re out-patient facilities, week or month-long residential programs that are barely enough to dry the person out, halfway houses (may be fine AFTER a real drug rehab program to help the person get their lives in order), and so on.

But, there are tons of facilities and drug treatment programs that have high success rates. Why not drop the programs that only rehabilitate 30% of their clients and throw more support behind those that see success for 70%?

A short-term or out-patient drug rehab program may work for some, but don’t make the mistake of trying one of those first - chances are they’ll be a waste of time and money.

More importantly, you and the person you’re trying to help can get very discouraged by attempting something that fails and it might be very difficult, if not impossible, to get the addict to try again.

Check with Addiction Help Services counselors to find out what’s best for your situation before you make any decisions. They know all the programs, all the treatment methods, and can assess your situation to find out what’s best.  
 

I read an article this morning about meth lab busts in ‘Miami County.’ When I first saw the headline I read ‘Miami,’ but didn’t really notice the ‘County.’ I then discovered they were talking about Miami County, Indiana! Big surprise. An even bigger surprise was the number of meth lab busts in Indiana - 1,059 in 2008.  That’s nearly three a day!!

Meth is nasty. Check out the photos on the Faces of Meth site and you’ll see what I mean. Severe deterioration - some of it irreversible - within just months of using it. And the damage isn’t just external, the brain and other organs get really messed up.

You can imagine how many meth addicts there are in Indiana, and how many faces will soon look like those, if they don’t already. A thousand meth labs can support a lot of drug habits!! Who would have thought you’d find that kind of drug abuse in Indiana of all places?!

If you know someone on meth, getting them into a meth rehab center as quickly as possible will help make sure that their face doesn’t turn into what you see on the Faces of Meth site.

I’m reading an autobiography that takes place largely in Mumbai, known at the time as Bombay, India. It strikes me as similar to recent descriptions of Broward County, Florida, the new painkiller capitol of the U.S., where thousands of pills are handed out to local residents every day and thousands more are sold to people travelling to Florida specifically to get pills they can then take home to other states to sell in their part of the country. So-called pain clinics protected by armed guards openly and legally dealing narcotics like OxyContin have probably already killed thousands of people and ruined the lives of millions. Only the lucky ones make it to a drug rehab program where they can get help.

Fortunately, Florida has finally approved the electronic prescription drug monitoring system to track these prescriptions and one day soon we hope that many of these guys - they’re actually M.D.s - will be out of business.

But it’s going to leave some people in desparate circumstances. There will still be doctors around they can get painkillers from if they legitimately need them, but those who don’t are going to be facing very serious withdrawal symptoms or they’re going to switch to street drugs - like heroin - to continue their addiction.

Thousands of people will need drug addiction help as they can no longer get their drugs. If you know someone in this position, call Addiction Help Services. We can help you find a suitable facility to get them off drugs safely and end their addiction.   

I don’t know how many people think about going to prison as one of the consequences of taking drugs, but they should. And, when they really think about it, it’s one very good reason for getting addiction help to get someone off drugs and away from the drug culture asap.

About 1/2 of the people in prison have drug problems - that’s about 1.5 million people - and only 5% get any form of drug treatment or addiction help. What happens with the rest of them? Often they keep taking drugs.

I am amazed that drugs in prisons are so common - how can it be possible that they can’t control the flow of drugs into that kind of environment? I can’t help but think there are guards and other staff involved.

How easy is it to wind up in prison because of drugs? It’s not hard. Cops can get wind of what’s going on and show up on your doorstep. Or you’re around people who are involved in criminal activity (other than the drugs, thefts, and so on, to support their habits or get enough drugs to sell to others). So there’s double the risk. Or you’re around people who carry guns, and don’t think twice about using them.

When I was on drugs I had several close calls with the police. One time I was on my way to a friend’s house and happened to call first - from just a block or two away. It was late and I wanted to make sure they were home and awake before I knocked on their door. They answered the phone but told me the police were there. Had I not called, I would have walked in (with drugs on me) and wound up in prison.

Another time I lived in an apartment on a hill - it seemed safe, but the hill actually put the windows right at street level. I wasn’t even aware that you could literally just walk in through the windows of that apartment.  Tall windows, nearly floor to ceiling, swung open like a door, no screens. It seemed like you were well above the ground - you walked up the long flight of steps in the front - but, because of the hill, the windows were just a foot above the ground.

You don’t exactly have your wits about when you’re high - which I was all the time; heroin addiction - so things like that can happen.

Friends who lived across the street pointed out the window problem to me and told me the police were watching the place. I moved out the next day, and later the same day the police arrived - through the window.

On the other side of things - being in the criminal element - I once had to hide out in a hotel until I could get a flight out of town. Someone I’d upset was after me with a gun. Fortunately, someone else warned me about it and I was able to get out of my apartment immediately, into an obscure motel by the airport, and on a flight out of town the next day. Had I not found out about it on time I could be dead now. Or I could have wound up in the emergency room, in which case I’d probably also wind up in prison since I was always high and had heroin on me.

Another time I overdosed. The people I was with were at the point of taking me to the hospital when I came to. Another close brush with death, and the possibility of prison. 

Just a few little incidents. But that’s what living in the drug culture can be like. So - ending up in prison can’t be ruled out.

Some people think that going to prison will straighten somebody out. Not true. Not only can they still get drugs, hepatitis and HIV are also quite common in prison. People share needles, and have unprotected sex. If you’re a guy, especially, you’re likely to become someone’s boy toy. 

If you know someone taking drugs - your kids for example - be aware that prison could well be in the cards. Get them addiction help services before it gets to that point.

Do your kids have something to do? I’ve spent a little time in Sweden - which has a relatively minor drug problem compared to the U.S. and European countries, thanks to its zero tolerance ‘drug-free society’ ideal and focus on addiction help treatment rather than punishment - but it also has something else a lot of countries don’t have: one of the most kid friendly environments around.

There are parks, playgrounds, tennis courts, pools, community centers and just about everything else to keep kids occupied with purposeful activity all over the place. Teens don’t have to hang out with nothing to do.

An editorial, written by a citizen, in a British Columbia newspaper bemoaned the loss of their community center, which burned down decades ago and has never been replaced. The only things available for kids to do in the town are expensive and can only be afforded by parents with money. And there’s not much in the way of extra-curricular activities in the schools.

This lack of something to do means, unfortunately, that kids are probably going to start drinking and taking drugs early in life and their chances of having long-term drug and alcohol problems will therefore increase. And the town doesn’t even have a detox center to help anyone out, let alone any long-term addiction help programs.

The author of the editorial describes the young people of the area as ‘flailing on the path of self destruction’ and says that if something isn’t done they’re ‘creating the possibility of yet another generation of wayward adults … future parents.’

If your kids are already into drugs, ensuring they have something constructive and purposeful to do is unlikely to solve the problem. Once they’re into drugs and have developed some form of addiction or dependency, they often need addiction help services to get them through it. But, once that’s done, helping them change their lives will go a long way to preventing relapse.

I know people who are haunted by how they treated their kids. This is especially true for alcoholics and drug addicts. Their guilt is despairingly deep - it all comes out when they finally get some addiction help.

The ironic thing about it is that their guilt over drinking or taking drugs is one of the reasons they keep doing it. The harm they do while they’re high, and the guilt they feel because of that harm, becomes one more thing they use alcohol to escape. It’s added to the list of whatever their reasons are for addiction in the first place.

You would think that guilt over the pain they’ve caused to others - like their kids - would be enough to make them stop. But, it’s not. It may increase their desire to stop, but it doesn’t make them actually able to do it. It’s an amazing phenomena that most people will actually do more of what they feel guilty about in order to pacify their guilt for doing it in the first place.

Fortunately, kids are pretty resiliant. Most are willing to forgive just about anything.  But that doesn’t necessarily reverse the damage done. Statistics show, for example, that kids who’s parent drink are four times more likely than the kids of sober parents to drink themselves.

Check out the review of The Sky Isn’t Visible from Here: Scenes from a Life - the gruesome memoir of Felicia C. Sullivan, the daughter of an addict.  It’s an extreme case, but even less extreme situations create a similar effect.

Felicia finally cut all ties with her mother - she couldn’t take it any more. But she turned into an addict despite everything she’d seen. Her first blackout from alcohol happened at 17, years later the same happened with cocaine.

There are millions of stories like hers out there. Kids with horrible childhoods, their vows to ‘never be like my parents’, but turning into mirror images nevertheless.

Addiction help services can change all that. Check it out.

I read an interesting interview with William C. Moyers, son of TV (and other venues) journalist Bill Moyers). William, who has long since recovered thanks to a lot of addiction help, had a serious problem with cocaine in the past.

His interviewer asked the question “If you think you might be drinking too much, does that mean you’re an alcoholic?” Moyers came up with one of the most interesting answers I’ve heard: “It doesn’t mean you’re an alcoholic, but it means you are pondering issues that most people don’t ponder.”

I’m not sure I agree with him 100%. Lots of people ponder those same issues - but they have chosen, for one reason or another, to not use alcohol (or drugs) as a solution to those issues. They’ve also chosen to continue to ponder them, rather than try to escape from them.

But, unfortunately, it’s not that cut and dried. There aren’t too many people out there that are self-aware. They don’t realize they have ‘issues’ and they might not be ‘pondering’ anything.

A friend of my son’s is a good example. He’s not a stupid guy by any stretch of the imagination but I certainly would not describe him as self-aware. He was staying with us for a while - he’s in his early twenties - and drank like a fish. Although he admitted it wasn’t good for him and he probably should be doing it.

But when I asked him what was going on, what was he thinking about, he had nothing to say other than “I just like to have a few beers when I get home from a day at work.” That was it. No amount of prodding could get him to look at what’s going on in his head.

There has to be something not optimum going on in someone’s head to want to be blotto half the time. There are a lot of good things about life. Why would someone choose to be oblivious to those things by being semi-conscious?

In truth, whether they know it or not, they’ve got a problem. Not a drinking problem (although they now have that, too), a problem that makes them want to be semi-conscious and not perceive themselves or what’s around them.

Addiction help services can help them get to the bottom of it. Even if someone says “I just like to have a few beers ….”

Are you looking for addiction help but can’t afford it? There are plenty of insurance companies that cover alcohol and drug rehab. You might even have one of these plans but are unaware that they could help you get treatment for yourself or a family member.

Here’s a list of possible plans: Aetna, Anheuser-Busch, APS Healthcare, Blue Cross, Cigna, Compsych, Corphealth (Lifesynch),  Connecticut General, Managed Health Network, Multiplan, Pacific Behavioral Health, United Behavioral Health, Value Options, Fedmed, Managed Care Systems, and American Mental Health Network.

This list is by no means complete but, if you do need addiction help services, and are on one of these plans, you’re in luck. If you have a different plan, check to see if you’re covered.

I read a news article today that attributed the slowing sales growth of drug companies to the fact that their patents are running out and they’re not coming up with any new drugs to fill the void. Geez, don’t you think it could have something to do with the fact that many of the drugs they make, and spend billions of dollars marketing - sometimes illegally, always aggressively - are killing people and sending them for addiction help?

While the information about patents is true, I can’t help but think that there’s an element of karma in there somewhere. Maybe if they focused on developing drugs that don’t cause more dangerous side effects than the condition they were intended to treat they’d have better luck getting drugs approved.

Maybe if some of their biggest sellers weren’t getting such a bad rap that doctors don’t even want to prescribe them anymore - OxyContin is a good example, more people are showing up for addiction help in treatment centers than for several street drugs combined - their sales wouldn’t be in trouble.

There’s more than one way to skin a cat. And the country would be a lot healthier if the drug companies re-oriented themselves to solving health problems rather than creating them.