AHS Views

If you don’t think addiction help is a growing industry, read on. Inhalants are used by more 12-year-olds than marijuana or prescription drugs. This is not surprising  - for a 12-year-old, inhalants are easier to get than either one. Kids that are using inhalants at age 12 may well graduate to prescription drugs and marijuana within a few years. In fact, if you follow the surveys like I do, you can see it. For the most part, kids start to move on to other drugs as soon as they get into high school where alcohol, marijuana and prescription drugs are plentiful. Parents should be well warned about the dangers of inhalants and prescription drugs, which are now epidemic. A recent study from the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health services Administration presented more evidence that addiction help services will be necessary in the not too distant future. Over 20% of kids aged 12 to 17 are using drugs to get high. This will result in huge numbers of kids needing addiction help services. A parent needing to watch for 12-year-old kids using drugs is a reality and so will the addiction help more than half of them will need.

Would you want your 10 year old to drink four cups of coffee before he went off to school? Don’t dismiss the idea that either Monster Energy or Red Bull could end up being gateway drugs to either prescription stimulant abuse or cocaine and the need for addiction help.

Most kids say they take drugs to help elevate feelings they have - stress, drowsiness and being nervous are just a few.  They generally use Xanax, OxyContin Ritalin and Adderall: They take Xanax to feel relaxed, OxyContin to feel numb and Ritalin or Adderall to feel more alert. A recent survey showed that 20% of 12 to 17 year old kids take prescription drugs illegally.

You can read about investment mangers, doctors, lawyers or moms who do the same thing.

Young kids can’t always get their hands on drugs so they use inhalants and other things. So, if you can’t get your hands on Ritalin to perk up, how about a Monster Energy drink or two?

Four kids from Florida ended up in the hospital this week from drinking to much Redline, another energy drink. Monster and Red Bull are marketed to 10 to 20 year old kids. There are no regulations on these drinks, and there probably won’t be, but these drinks just aren’t healthy. Will your child need addiction help because he drinks to much Monster Energy at age 11? Probably not, I mean it isn’t heroin. But if he wants speed at age 10 he might start looking for something stronger at age 13 and that won’t be a triple espresso. It will be his friend’s Ritalin and then more Ritalin or Adderall.

Crazy maybe, but don’t kid yourself , 30% of college students use stimulants to study or to get high so use doesn’t decrease, it goes up.

An earlier blog this week talked about a UC Santa Barbara college student who described stimulant abuse as out of control at that school.  Just this week Australia banned various over the counter stimulants that have been banned in the U.S.  for years (more on that later this week) but Australia is the origin of Red Bull.

Parents can’t control what there kids’ do 24/7 but maybe its time the FDA does get involved and try and control the amount of speed type substances that go into these drinks. Addiction help for Monster isn’t really likely but there’s a good chance addiction help services will be needed later on.

An interview with Joseph Califano, Chairman of the Board and President of the national Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, is to be aired Sunday on the Prescription Drug Radio Show on WGUL 860 AM and on the Internet at www.860wgul.com. According to Califano, “the medicine cabinet has become more dangerous than the drug dealer. We couldn’t agree more. There are at least as many people in need of addiction help for prescription drugs as there are for street drugs.

If you want to find out more about the dangers of prescription drug addiction, dependency and abuse, or you have any doubt that it’s a serious problem, listen to this show.

Califano is trying to raise public awareness of the problem. After listening, or before, if you feel you or someone you care about needs help with prescription drugs, call Addiction Help Services. There are thousands of drug detox and drug rehab facilities available. We can help you find the right one for your situation so you can come off the drugs safely. 

Senator Biden is looking into the problems caused by prescription drug addiction, dependency and abuse. He heard testimonies about the most commonly abused drugs - Vicodin, OxyContin, Valium and Xanax – and, according to The Talk Radio News Service, “experts’ testimonies at the hearing were appalling.” The whole situation is appalling and President Bush and others have known about it for years. The amount of addiction help necessary for the American public is staggering.

People are dependent on all of the above drugs and more. And some are switching from things like Vicodin to heroin because they can no longer afford Vicodin or can’t get any more prescriptions.

Biden should look into the manufacturers of these drugs and see if he can figure out why so many drug companies are making so much money. Don’t just point the finger at doctors: Find out why so many prescriptions are being written in Alabama for instance.
Kentucky, West Virginia and Florida have all been hit by this epidemic and more and more people need addiction help because of it.

If you need addiction help services, get them before it’s too late. Deaths from prescription drug overdoses are on the rise.

Shouldn’t the NFL be getting football players who are addicted to OxyContin or painkillers the addiction help they need?

Brett Favre, who recently retired from professional football, had to deal with an addiction to Vicodin - and he managed to do it. The NFL estimates 10% of its players are addicted to painkillers. The reality of that estimate could be in question: I would guess it’s much higher - maybe as high as 15% or even 20%.  But the NFL doesn’t seem to care. If they did you’d be reading a lot more about celebrity football players receiving addiction help.

If you can’t play without them, prescription painkillers and prescription stimulants are performance enhancing, just like steroids.  I like to watch football but it is violent and the hits look very painful.  Prescription drugs are a formidable opponent in the battle against drug addiction: they are painful to withdraw from and unless you are supervised closely in a medical drug detox, you can be sick for days.

When their players don’t get the addiction help they need, the message from the NFL to high school and college kids is clear: play through pain, just use painkillers. It shouldn’t be like this for any sport. The message should be play without drugs, or don’t play at all.

Pro sports sending the message that drugs and sports don’t mix would take drug education up a notch - kids would understand that playing with the help of pills is no longer approved. It would also level the field - injuries or not. Addiction help is available for any athlete whether someone needs a drug detox or more intense addiction help services.

Thanks for your comments on the recent blogs on methadone. One thing I want to clarify is that it is not our intention to suggest that someone who’s been through drug rehab 17 times, has had migraines most of their life, or has degenerative physical problems or injuries that make it impossible to live a normal life should not take methadone. That’s not the point. Those are extreme circumstances and, as such, they call for extreme measures.

We’re concerned about the people who don’t have extreme situations and still wind up on methadone, or other potentially dangerous drugs and with the irresponsible prescribing of methadone and keeping people parked on it for years without ever really putting in the effort to get them through a drug rehab, without ever attempting to get them properly detox’d so they can get through withdrawal safely and without excruciating pain, without ever attempting to get their bodies back to, or maybe for the first time, functioning properly, without ever attempting to get to the bottom of why they started taking drugs in the first place and helping them resolve those issues.

This is a labor of love. We don’t see people on drugs as contemptible – although people who keep others on drugs unnecessarily or lead them to think that they can’t do otherwise are a different story. But we do see that, at times, drugs are necessary.

I would really appreciate the names of those 17 drug treatment or other programs that people have been to that did not work for them. We help people find addiction help services that have a comparatively good success rate and are suited to their situation. We would really like to know which ones you went to so we can be sure not to recommend them to others.

I would also appreciate knowing more about why you started taking drugs in the first place. Thanks again for responding.

Some people don’t want addiction help, and some people do. Yesterday I wrote a blog about methadone. I received numerous comments from people who are on methadone for pain, or because they were addicted to heroin and wanted to overcome that addiction, but when drug rehab and other addiction help treatment didn’t work for them, they turned to methadone.

I don’t see that anyone would have a problem with someone in chronic pain using methadone because they just can’t function without it. I certainly don’t.

However, there are a few things I would like to say to those who are using it to overcome heroin addiction, or addiction to other opiates.

• Everyone who commented felt strongly that methadone was not a replacement for heroin. Okay, so why is it called Methadone Replacement Therapy - MRT?  Because that’s exactly what it is. Methadone replaces the heroin. If you search “replacement for heroin” on the Internet, methadone is what you will find. So please tell me what would be a better description.
• One commenter said that methadone is used only for those who have not been successful with drug rehab or other addiction help. That may be the case for those who are on methadone more or less permanently, but it is not the case for people who are taking methadone as a step towards full recovery – i.e. no longer dependent on or addicted to any drug.
• After receiving the comments, I called several people connected to rehab and detox facilities to do an informal survey. What I learned from that survey was that between 40% and 60% of the people who want to get off methadone are also taking benzodiazepines. Xanax is the most commonly prescribed benzo. Whether they get it from a methadone clinic or not doesn’t seem relevant. Nor does the fact that most, not all, methadone deaths happen when methadone is combined with other drugs – or alcohol. Perhaps those people who are taking methadone think they’re not going to be taking any other drugs so there is no risk. Well, many of them may not take other street drugs but there’s obviously a good chance – about a 50% chance, according to my little survey -  that they have been, or will be, prescribed another drug by their doctor. What happens to the risk factor then?
• I have worked with many former heroin addicts. In fact, I employ and work with several currently. All of them have been completely drug free for over five years. I also have two kids who received addiction help and are now drug free. I have a son-in-law who was a heroin addict and is now drug free - he kicked cold turkey. And I have a friend who edits for me – she was a heroin addict and also kicked cold turkey, with no addiction help, two decades ago. It can and has been done by thousands of people. It is not an incurable disease.
• One commenter mentioned that methadone was not harder to get off of than heroin and said it just takes longer. I would say that if someone is experiencing pain and discomfort for a longer period of time that you could describe that as ‘harder’. The longer the withdrawal process, the less likely you will have success. Most people cannot withdraw by themselves; in fact I have seen failure rates in the 90% range - which is why some people do better when they also have medically assisted drug detox. You use some drugs for a brief period of time, but then you’re off them altogether.
• I have yet to see any scientific proof that former heroin addicts cannot produce enough endorphins and therefore need methadone. I have also not heard of anyone getting their endorphin levels tested prior to being put on methadone replacement therapy. So, where is the proof that endorphin deficiency is the source of the problem? Where is the proof that the right addiction help couldn’t work? If you have real data on this, I would appreciate receiving it.

I was never addicted to heroin so I cannot feel what you feel. But the fact is, with enough persistence, people can get off heroin and not need methadone. People can live drug free and none of you should have a problem with that. You may have chosen the methadone path, but addiction help is possible - which is why I do what I do.

If you don’t want addiction help, if you would prefer to stay on methadone, then you certainly don’t need anyone’s permission to do so. But if you think it would be a good idea to live drug free, by all means look for other alternatives. I don’t know how many thousands of people have been successful finding the addiction help they need to overcome heroin without having to replace it – yes, that’s what it is – with methadone, but I do know that, for most, it is possible. Call me if you would like to look into it. 877-554-7308. That’s Addiction Help Services.

When you are addicted to something like OxyContin the easiest path to take if you want to get off it is to switch to methadone or some other replacement drug. The hardest path is to get the addiction help you need to be drug free. You can, of course, go to a rehab facility where they’ll give you methadone for heroin or OxyContin and, more than likely, you’ll also get Xanax or Valium along with it. But is it really better than getting addiction help?

Taking these drugs is a relief to the drug companies that make them - they profit every time you go to the methadone clinic and every time you take a Xanax. Drug companies spend a lot of money trying to convince people that life is better on drugs.

But before you make a decision like that, there are few things you should know:

First, Xanax is one of the most addictive drugs around, and also extremely hard to stop.

Second, once you start on methadone it is very hard to stop - much worse than the heroin withdrawal you may have gone through or are so reluctant to go through.

In fact, even using methadone as a painkiller, which is becoming very common, is dangerous. Nancy Garvin of Mothers Against Medical.Org points out that methadone is the number one killer of all the prescription narcotics in the U.S. Thousands of people die from it every year – and you don’t have to abuse it for it to kill you.

Get the addiction help services you need – it may be harder than settling for a replacement drug but it doesn’t fill anyone’s pockets, and it definitely won’t kill you.

Pledging to help “the millions of elderly Americans who can’t get through the day without popping pills or shooting up insulin,” President Bush announced his committment  to wiping out prescription-drug use among seniors around 2001. Last year 184,000 people went for addiction help for things like OxyContin, Vicodin, and Xanax.  Roughly 10% of them were over the age of 50. I don’t think the millions of Americans President Bush was talking about received any addiction help at all.

In 2001 there were an estimated 1.7 million elderly who needed addiction help according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. They are saying 4.4 million will need addiction help by 2010. While I don’t have any sophisticated systems to tell me the right number, I would bet there are four million people over the age of 50 who need addiction help now. They are on painkillers, sleeping pills and tranquilizers.

You could reread the first sentence of this blog: Bush said there were millions in 2001. The growth rate for prescription drug addiction and abuse is rising dramatically according to most reports. My guess is that 4.4 million in need of addiction help in 2020 will be low.

Get  addiction help services if you are on prescription drugs that you no longer need.

This is a follow up to yesterday’s blog about the four students from Ringgold High School in Catoosa County, Tennessee. Timothy Lebron Smith died from an overdose after taking four 80mg pills. Pharmacists have reminded me that OxyContin was originally marketed for terminally ill cancer patients in extreme pain. It seems that the purpose for the drug has been changed – now anyone in pain uses it. The pharmacists from Catoosa County want to take it off the shelves. Purdue Pharma should have some risk here if people don’t know how dangerous OxyContin is. Drug education will help, as will locking up the medication, but if people don’t realize they are holding a loaded gun then the fault lies with the pharmaceutical company. Doctors also need more education concerning the addictive nature of all prescription drugs; they especially need to warn their patients about the dangers of getting addicted to OxyContin or Oxyodone and what sort of addiction help services they will need if they do become addicted.