AHS Views

Recent stories about the State of Alabama putting pregnant drug users behind bars instead of getting them help for their drug problem has left some people wondering what should be done. There have been other stories about prostitutes being picked up and held for 72 hours and getting them drug addiction help.

If judges in Alabama or New York can send pregnant women or prostitutes to jail or rehab why can’t lawmakers do something about doctors we are dependent on to take care of our health? There are 8,000 doctors getting confidential drug addiction help in the U.S. I’m glad they’re getting help, but shouldn’t someone tell their patients? The number of doctors who need addiction help and aren’t getting is probably a lot higher than 8,000 – but that’s another matter all together.

If you know of a doctor, teacher, policeman, fireman, or anyone who is supposed to be there protecting us or teaching our kids etc., you should make them get drug addiction help.

A drug cocktail designed by party goers rather than scientists is being abused in Australia. If you think this isn’t a precursor to needing drug addiction help, think again. First you take a sleeping pill - Ambien (Stilnox in Australia) - and you mix it with alcohol and caffeinated drinks to produce hallucinations. Quite a mixture, and not what the doctor ordered. Dr. Fulde from St. Vincent’s Hospital in Australia says he sees five cases a week. “When you combine them you are really playing Russian roulette.” he said. “The brain loses control and you lose control.”  One woman mentioned in an online news article said Stilnox (Ambien) has become a popular party drug among her friends. However, the most disastrous part of the story could be a report that players from the National Ruby League (NRL) are also abusing these drugs. They are using the mix as prescribed by other party goers, caffeine drinks followed by prescription drugs handed out by the team doctors. Perhaps it leads to a no holds barred rugby match with a few psychotic NRL players. If this is true, the Commissioner of the league or the President should read a speech by Mr. Andrew Demetriou of the Australian Football League in December of 2007. Mr. Demetriou understands the problems of prescription drug addiction, it sounds like the team doctors of the National Rugby League don’t. Drug addiction help services are necessary for people who are addicted to or dependent on prescription drugs - even if they are athletes.

Amy Winehouse is apparently going back into rehab. She was admitted to a facility in January where she stayed for only two weeks, and she now admits that she may need more help. She’s right - and this move was predictable. The number of people who could be helped with a drug or alcohol problem in two weeks could probably be counted on one hand - especially in the kind of severe situation Amy was in. It’s simply not enough time to get the drug addiction help you need. Staying off drugs for two weeks may help the person dry out, but the chances of them staying that way are virtually nil.

When a person stops drinking or taking drugs for a couple of weeks it’s a big change for them, they might feel invincible or like that’s all they need. But that’s not the case. They’re going to leave the facility and go right back into the problems that caused their alcohol or drug abuse in the first place.

With everything that’s known about drug rehab and what it really takes to get addiction help these days, it surprises me that anyone - doctor, rehab counselor, or drug addict - could possibly think two weeks is going to be enough.

If you know someone with an alcohol or drug addiction problem, do them, and yourself, a favor: don’t even bother with short-term rehab like that. Get them the alcohol or addiction help services they really need in the first place.  

Addiction help for a 9 or 10-year-old sounds strange but that is what is happening in Dallas. Some of the people needing addiction help are that young and are ending up in the hospital or a drug detox. Over the past 2 ½ years Detective Jeremy Liebbe of the Dallas Independent School District Police Department has arrested or interviewed more than 300 users of cheese heroin - Mexican black tar heroin mixed with Tylenol P.M. that is snorted, usually through a straw. It only cost $1 or $2 dollars, so anyone can afford it.

It is very dangerous and addictive: One report says there have been 21 deaths caused by cheese heroin since 2005. Like any drug, death can come on the very first try. Heroin withdrawal symptoms can come after the first hit as well.

The Hispanic community has been the most affected by the drug and is the main target of the drug dealers. One young lady, Lizbeth, is already in treatment for her second time and she is just turning 18. Lizbeth got tired of the aching bones, headaches, and cold sweats associated with heroin withdrawal.  She didn’t think using cheese would be that bad because she wasn’t using a needle. Clever drug dealers are marketing it that way and they are marketing it to young Hispanics who probably trust them.

Forutnately, there is a special Cheese Heroin Task Force in Dallas monitoring the use of this drug. Addiction help services for a 9-year-old is new territory for sure.

Crack cocaine is becoming a bigger problem in Maine according to York’s Chief of Police Douglas Bracy. You can be sure that addiction help will be necessary as more kids become addicted.

Chief Bracy is warning parents to keep track of their kids because of the influx of cocaine. He strongly suggests that you know where they are and where they are going so they don’t end up needing addiction help. Kids who want to try drugs will migrate toward something like crack because it’s cheap, but it’s also very addictive. One high school student has already been arrested, Jared Turner, a 17-year-old who had been suspended from the football team. Maine had an influx of heroin five years ago and Chief Bracy is comparing the cocaine influx to that. I am wondering if the crack may be replacing methamphetamines - meth prices have gone up and, with all the restrictions on the ingredients for meth, maybe clever drug dealers have decided to supply something else.

Crack, like heroin, is coming down in price – and both are easy to get. Most kids think trying crack or using it occasionally isn’t dangerous. Unfortunately, those kids will be the first to need addiction help services.

The trend of using Adderall or Ritalin in high schools, colleges - and with adults - is growing. While OxyContin and Vicodin get most of the press, the need for addiction help for prescription stimulants will grow along with the increased use.

Adderall is abused by one in five high school students and, in some colleges, as many as one in three use Adderall. It is commonly used as a study aid but many people use it for weight loss. In fact, it is currently being popularized by some female celebrities who use Adderall to keep their weight down. When the general population hears and sees things like this they flock to it. It’s no different than Michael Jordan made Nike and Air Jordans famous or Jane Fonda popularizing aerobics.

Paris Hilton has admitted to using Adderall, and I very much doubt she’s depending on an ADHD diagnosis to get it.

Using Ritaln or Adderral for weight loss is dangerous and you have the potential for some nasty side effects – one of which may be eventually needing addiction help. When teenagers or housewives see someone like Paris Hilton getting skinny and staying skinny, they want the same thing.

Some people may also use cocaine for weight control – although it can be expensive for some people and they might use methamphetamines instead. Teenage girls know meth is a weight loss tool, but they don’t realize how addictive or dangerous it is. Adderall and Ritalin are not the same as meth, but they are very similar and are still addictive and dangerous.

If you know someone who is using prescription stimulants get them the addiction help services they need. There are other ways to control weight, and there are other ways to succeed in school. You don’t have to turn into a drug addict in the process.

Several years ago a very smart guy I knew told me to always be polite to a police officer, especially if he has a thick neck and big shoulders, because he is probably on steroids and almost anything will set him off. I guess what he said was true because now Edward F. Davis, Boston’s police commissioner, wants to implement regular steroid testing for the entire Boston police force.  Will any wind up needing addiction help?

In 1989, the news show Sixty Minutes did a story about steroid abuse among police officers. In 1991, the FBI reported on steroid abuse among police in that year’s FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin. And now, in 2008, we’re finally looking at testing. Guess the situation hasn’t improved.

Although we would like to think otherwise, there is really no reason to believe that the percentage of police needing addiction help for drugs is any lower than the rest of the population. In fact, given the pressure a policeman is under in a major city, there’s a good chance the percentage is even higher. Dealing with gangs, crime, drug dealers, murders and everything else police have to contend with may well make a policeman feel the need to beef up – it would be nice to know that you’re stronger than the people you’re arresting or having to deal with..

It’s obvious that there is enough steroid abuse to worry about and testing might be just the thing to slow it down. If you are married to or know of someone in the police force who is abusing steroids, get them the addiction help services they need. Steroids can be pretty dangerous. Check it out.

St. Joseph’s Hospital’s recent shocking ER visit by nine girls aged 14 years old or younger after having downed a dangerous painkiller should be a wake up call for parents in St. Joseph, Missouri. Some people might see this as just another 10 (including the boy who gave it to them) kids taking drugs. It might not seem important in the overall scheme things, but this is not just an isolated incident – it’s a trend. More and more kids that age have access to those drugs – and they’re giving them to their friends, and some of those friends are ending up in need of addiction help services, or in the ER, or in the morgue..

The drug the kids took was methadone – very similar to heroin, just as addictive, and just as hard to stop. In fact, one in four people who try heroin end up addicted  That means that, crying in the hospital or not, two of those girls may have liked the drug enough to try it again.

The boy who was passing it out may like the drug, or maybe he was hoping to get one or more of the girls stoned enough to have either a pleasant experience together or possibly something more, like sex.

The girls are young so, hopefully, sex was not his primary goal. Perhaps he thought it would be funny to see these girls stumbling around. Maybe he didn’t know he was passing out methadone. Who knows? There are a lot of unanswered questions about this story.

Nevertheless, six percent of 12 and 13-year-olds have misused drugs. These drugs are far more dangerous than they used to be, and easier to get. If you or someone in your family need addiction help, it’s never too soon to get it.

Living in Missouri and wondering where your children are is no different than anywhere else: If you have a child in high school, there is a good chance they are out drinking. Half of those kids will need addiction help because of alcohol abuse during their lifetime.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration half of your children will have had alcohol by age 15 and 90% will be drinking by age 21.
Addiction help being required for a third of the population in the next 15 years is not out of the question.

And that doesn’t even take the drug problem into account – including those that are prescribed.

Its really amazing when you  think about the ages that kids are drinking or doing drugs - . fourteen or fifteen-year-olds binge drinking or a college student needing addiction help because he drinks at school three or four  times a week. It’s estimated that 20% of college students need addiction help.

It seems to me that parents are sometimes very naïve about where their kids go when they go out on a Friday night, or when they go off to college. They will drink and, possibly, they will drink a lot.

If you are a parent and you drink you should assume your kids will follow in your footsteps. If you need addiction help services because of alcohol you should get it for the sake of your kids and your family.

One amazing thing about addiction help is it comes in all shapes and sizes. New Zealand is finally getting around to banning party pills that can be bought anywhere – even at a gas station.

Party pills are banned in New Zealand as of March 14, 2008, but suppliers have until April 1st to “dispose” of their stocks. The pills - with names like Frenzy, Torque, and D-lite - are used as a recreational stimulant and are sometimes compared to MDMA. The manufacturers say they will be driven out of business after BZP (benzylpiperazine) becomes illegal to sell but, in the meantime, they don’t have to destroy their current stocks - they can still sell them.

The same pills were banned in the U.S. in 2002 and in Australia and Denmark in 2005. 

Benzylpiperazine  was originally used to treat cattle for bowel parasites so I am guessing they not only get you high - you can use them for a colon cleanse.

There haven’t been any recorded deaths from the use of these over-the-counter party pills but people that use them and drink have fallen into comas. Matt Bowden of the Social Tonics Association of New Zealand is afraid that people will now look for illegal drugs to replace the over-the-counter drugs. Maybe the same people can chug three or four energy drinks to get the same effect and they won’t graduate to street drugs.

New Zealand has been slow on banning these drugs, but at least no one has died and the need for addiction help services has not changed that much.