AHS Views

According to News-Medical.Net, there is a new drug out there that is being tested for cocaine addicts. Catalyst Pharmaceutical Partners, Inc. announced that it has initiated its first clinical trial of CPP-109 – a drug given to patients with cocaine dependence and addiction. Whatever happened to sending addicted persons to drug rehab to get help?

Unfortunately replacement drugs are not new news. They are the latest in the “new drugs” said to “help” with any and all ailments and illnesses, both physical and mental. The result of taking replacement drugs and pharmaceuticals, in my opinion, is that more and more people are not only continuing their drug use, but because they are taking more and more drugs, they are ending up in a worse condition than they were before ever getting addicted to drugs.

Unforuntately, “replacement drug therapy” seems to be taking the place of drug rehab. And some of the non-addicts getting prescribed these drugs are ending up addicted to the replacement drugs, and suffering from their many side effects.

Several years ago I watched my grandfather dying of kidney failure in the hospital in his early 70’s. This didn’t make sense to me until I fould out that he had taken Ativan for 15 years. I finally understood why he was struggling with so many health problems and died at such a young age. He was given a drug and told it would “help” him with a problem he was having. Instead, he ended up with a much more severe problem.

Sadly, this is happening to more and more people – both those who are addicted to drugs and those who are not. The only good solution is to stop giving non-addicted persons drugs to handle their problems, and to get those who are addicted through a successful drug rehab program.

When I saw the news items last week about Al Gore III, 24, son of former vice-president Al Gore, being stopped for driving over 100 miles per hour at 2 a.m. on a California freeway with marijuana and illicit prescription drugs in the car, I had an eerie sense of deja-vu. When young Gore opened the window, the Orange County Sheriff’s deputy smelled marijuana, searched the car and turned up some pot and the prescription drugs Xanax, Valium, Vicodin and Adderall. Gore did not have prescriptions for any of them. Later that day the family announced that they were just happy young Gore was safe, and that he was entering drug rehab.

Yes we’ve heard something like this before. In August 2000 in North Carolina, police charged Al Gore III with reckless driving and speeding for driving 94 mph in a 55-mph zone. More family lawyers and some time later, the reckless driving charges were dropped, he was fined $125 for speeding and his driving privileges in the state were suspended.

And there’s more. In September 2002, military police ticketed Gore for drunk driving near a military base in Virginia. He was not taken into custody at that time.

In 2003, police in Maryland pulled Gore over for not using his headlights. They smelled marijuana and Gore was busted again. The family’s lawyers worked out a plea bargain, and in 2004, Al Gore III was sentenced to enter a drug rehab program, which according to news reports, he did.

I consider it a very serious matter when someone uses or is addicted to substances that can possibly kill them. But it’s even more serious when the user indulges in behavior that risks the lives of others – such as speeding 105 mph down a highway while stoned on drugs.

Gore has been doing this sort of thing for at least seven years that I know of, in spite of several arrests and a 2004 drug rehab. Speaking of which, what happened between 2004 and 2007? In 2004, Gore completed a private, family-supported, drug rehab program. Did it work? His recent speeding-and-drugs bust in Orange County answers that question loud and clear: No way.

Gore junior’s recent arrest illustrates an “inconvenient truth” about drug rehab programs: they are not all the same. Some work, and some don’t.

You see the results of this all the time in the news when this or that celebrity is reported to be “entering drug rehab – again!” There are so many drug rehab methods, models, treatments and opinions, trying to choose the one that will work for you can be overwhelming. The drug rehab professionals at Addiction Help Services can provide you with answers and help direct you to a successful drug rehab program.

The world is awash in Afghan heroin, millions of people need drug rehab, and no one knows what to do about it.

The world-wide illicit drugs business is by far the most profitable illicit global trade, says the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), earning some $320 billion annually. Compared to this, human trafficking at $32 billion and illegal firearms at $1 billion are a drop in the bucket. Afghanistan, producing 92% of the world’s illegal opium from its miles and miles of poppy farms, is by far the world’s largest contributor to the production of illicit heroin and morphine. For millions of addicts around the world, the dark force from Afghanistan that rules their lives can only be overcome through drug rehab.

Not surprisingly, no one has come up with a workable idea on how to stop it. The problem is that the chain of “narcodollars” reaches from the poppy farms all the way to the highest levels of Afghanistan’s government, with the Taliban insurgents in the mix in a very big way. At $3.1 billion, the opium trade is the equivalent of a third of the country’s total economy. Last year’s 6,100 tons of opium was worth $60 billion at street prices, and this year an even larger crop is expected.
 
As well as keeping the drug barons rich, the drug trade has affected Afghanistan’s citizenry in an unexpected and very negative way. Historically, poppy farmers and citizens rarely used the drugs personally. Today, according to UN reports, thousands of Afghani’s are abusing the drugs and becoming addicted, and desperately need drug rehab. But the country doesn’t have the necessary infrastructure to support drug rehab facilities.

As for solutions, the U.S. is pushing for crop spraying and destruction. But thousands of farmers will be out of work and penniless. Replacing poppies with other crops won’t work because there’s no distribution system for exporting produce. Others are suggesting the opium trade be legitimized and production redirected for medicines. But the health industry won’t pay street prices to drug barons, so that probably won’t fly.

Meanwhile, here in America we continue to deal with street drug crime and lives being ruined through opiate addiction. Until a solution is found to stop the supplies of drugs from around the world, we can try to prevent addiction by our own example and through effective education. And we must care for those who suffer addiction with successful drug rehab programs that really work.