AHS Views

Merrill High School in Lincoln County, Wisconsin has a prescription drug abuse problem. Last Monday, the Merrill school board expelled six students for prescription drug-related charges. That could mean possession, selling them, and/or passing them out to their friends. Most likely the six students were high. You can be sure that two or three of those kids will end up needing addiction help at some point in the future.

The City of Merrill has a population of about 10,000 people and Merrill High School has about 1,100 students. This wasn’t the first such incident for that school: Earlier in the year 10 other students were expelled for prescription drug abuse - sixteen students out of 1,100 suspended for prescription drug abuse in the first three and half months of the year doesn’t sound like much but that’s actually the highest number of students expelled that I’ve seen recently. For such a small community it shows the problems prescription drugs are causing and the need for addiction help.

Wisconsin already has an alcohol problem among high school and college students, and adults. The school district superintendent, Sally Sarnstrom, says “It’s extremely frustrating not only for the students and their families but for the school district and the community. There are issues.” This is another example of how far the prescription drug epidemic has spread. Addiction help services are needed in even a small city like Merrill, Wisconsin.

Abilify, a drug usually used to treat psychosis, is being touted as a possible solution to alcohol addiction. Alcohol is dangerous, it’s true. But check out the side effects of Abilify before you make any decisions about whether you’re going to choose to be drugged rather than finding some addiction help that will really get you alcohol - and drug - free.

Just what we need, more people taking prescription drugs. Take one epidemic, alcoholism, and switch it for another. To make matters worse, you have to put up with possible suicide risk,  convulsions, seizures, cognitive and motor impairment, nausea, vomiting, constipation, headaches, dizziness, anxiety, insomnia, restlessness, hypertension. Why is that appealing? Wouldn’t getting addiction help be better than that?

And it doesn’t get down to the bottom of why the person is drinking - which is how you handle addiction.

Don’t go for another drug - there’s a good chance you’ll just eventually end up in rehab anyway, for the drug instead of the alcohol, so why not just do it right in the first place. Get the addiction help services you need.

The European Union has called on the alcohol industry to stop targeting liquor sales to the youth of those nations. Over 100 colleges have written to the NCAA to have them stop taking TV ads for beer commercials during college events. While this isn’t going to end college drinking or the need for addiction help, it can’t hurt.

We know that Purdue Pharma was less then honest about the addictive nature of OxyContin. We also know that Merck wasn’t honest about the dangers of Vioxx. So can we trust Anheuser Bush, Bacardi, or Heineken to do something to curb college drinking like they have publicly pledged? Probably not is the true answer. Really, those companies are dancing every time they read statistics that 40% or more of our college kids binge drink. Do they cringe when they read the stats about the 15 million people in the U.S. who need addiction help?
 
There are at least two things they could do. One would be to withdraw from advertising in college newspapers. The other would be to withdraw from advertising during college sporting events.

One of these giants of industry could lead the way and perhaps the rest would follow suit. I am sure that the TV stations, newspapers and magazines could sell the ad space without a problem.

We shouldn’t have to tell Mr. Busch, Mr. Bacardi, Mr. Coors, or Mr. van Boxmeer (from Heineken) that they should be proactive in helping to stop alcohol abuse in college students. Neither a congressional hearing nor laws should be needed; Young kids getting addiction help services because of alcohol abuse is not a pretty picture. Maybe these gentlemen could look past their profits and do something to help.

Parents of drug addicted kids in Ontario, Canada, are complaining about the lack of publicly funded facilities that can give their kids drug addiction help. Ontario has only 86 public treatment beds.

However, the people of Ontario have a great advantage over those in the U.S. when it comes to addiction help - Ontario will pay for addiction help in a private U.S. facility as long as it is prescribed by a doctor.  There are probably millions of U.S. citizens that don’t have the same benefit. Despite this, parents complain that the province will not pay for travel or other expenses.

I do want these kids to get help but I really don’t see anything wrong with the parents contributing to it somehow - even if it’s just plane fare.  Geez, it’s your kid. And your responsibility. Do you really want your children to be the responsibility of the government?

If you don’t want to end up trying to find money to get addiction help for your kids, your best option is to work on prevention. Here’s what you can do.

• 50% of the kids whose parents educate them on the subject of drugs don’t get involved in them. Parents also have to really educate themselves on the drug scene so they can talk to their kids about them realistically. They’re not going to pay an awful lot of attention when you obviously know less about it than they do.
• Kids whose parents don’t take drugs or drink also are less inclined to do the same.
• Kids whose parents don’t take prescription drugs for every little thing don’t get the message from parents that drugs are a solution to life’s problems. 
• Parents whose prescription drugs are locked up, inaccessible to their kids, are less likely to have a problem with their kids getting hold of them and taking them for recreational purposes.  
• Kids who have dinner with their kids several times a week are less likely to become involved in drugs.
• Kids whose parents are involved in their lives and really give their kids some quality time are less likely to get involved with drugs.

While none of these things can offer you a guarantee, they will significantly reduce the chances of your kids getting involved in drugs, and of you having to find and pay for addiction help services.

If your kid is already in trouble and Ontario health insurance will pay for help in the U.S. there are plenty of good drug rehab facilities available. Contact Addiction Help Services to find a good facility as close to you as possible. They’ll also help you figure out how to get them there.

In Portland, Oregon, prescription drugs and heroin are the drugs of choice. At Reed College in Portland, one student died from a heroin overdose and two others came close to it in the last few months. If Reed is like any other school, 7% of the students are addicted to alcohol and 20% need some type of addiction help for drugs, alcohol, or both.

Teachers and students alike will also be using prescription stimulants (Ritalin and Adderall) like they are coffee - except those drugs are more similar to cocaine than coffee. In a recent survey it was found that 20% of scientists use Ritalin and other stimulants, and 30% of college students use Ritalin or Adderall.

In Portland, heroin is and has been a drug problem for a long time. Not cracking down on this problem in the city may be the reason Reed is now having a problem.

In most areas of the country at least 89% of students know heroin is dangerous, and 11% think it is safe once or twice a week. That doesn’t mean 11% will try it, but enough of them will, and you will definitely end up with heroin addicts and some deaths.

School administrators have their work cut out for them. Obviously martial law won’t work.  In a school like Reed, where students have a mind of their own, drug education may help.  Students from a college like this can also do more to protect their classmates with intervention and safety measures. If your friends or fellow students are taking drugs or drinking, get them the drug addiction help they need.

Ronnell Brandon, a student athlete at Harrisonburg High School, was recently accused of selling drugs to his teammates. Brandon supposedly sold drugs “to take away the pain of hits.”  Since it happened in Virginia and the pills were to take away pain, I’ll make a wild guess and say he was selling OxyContin.  It is alleged that 10 of his teammates used the drugs. If the law of averages holds true, at least two or three of the ten will need drug addiction help.

Authorities have confirmed that coaches had knowledge of the transactions. “It is also apparent that this information and knowledge was known by not only the players themselves but also several coaches of the Harrisonburg High School football (team),” said Harrison Police Sgt. Chris Rush of the Charge Gang Task Force in his affidavit.

The head coach, Tim Sarver, was tipped off on at least two occasions and apparently asked the player about it. Coach Sarver says he hears rumors every year. He also said he checked it out and the player denied it. Another coach, David Long, talked to Brandon and he again denied it. Let me think … hmmmm, a potential drug dealer lying to an authority figure about drug dealing. Shocking. Hopefully, the coaching staff wasn’t more concerned about winning than finding out if student athletes were on drugs. How many kids on that team actually need addiction help and their problem is being ignored to win games?

If you think this is an isolated incident of painkiller abuse in high school sports, well please wake up. Not only are many high school athletes taking drugs – in this school, the 10 players probably represent 20% of the team - a good percentage of them probably even need addiction help.

What does this mean for college and professional sports?  I promise it isn’t going to be a pretty picture. Parents of student athletes should be alert to the possibility of drug use, especially if your son or daughter is injured. This holds true for cheerleaders as well. You don’t want to be looking for addiction help services for your teenager.

Here’s the million dollar question for today: Why does the University of Pennsylvania want more people on drugs? 

On one side we have sites like Addiction Help Services trying to help people stop using drugs and alcohol, surveys such as the Monitoring the Future Survey, the DEA and local law enforcement trying to end drug trafficking - we even have President Bush and the National Institute of Drug Abuse trying to end prescription drug abuse in this country.  All of these activties are trying to stop drug abuse and prevent the need for addiction help.

On the other side we have schools like the University of Pennsylvania and their Center for Cognitive Neuroscience promoting more drug use.

The idea that Ritalin might make you more focused is not really in question; it will, it is speed, similar to cocaine, crack and methamphetamine.

But there are broader issues about prescription drug abuse that come into play. I certainly can’t say I’m smarter than a neuroscientist or even a rocket scientist, but if any of the psychologists or psychiatrists from the University of Pennsylvania read the news , they would see that controlling prescription drug use among the young has become a huge problem. Perhaps they think it will go away if everyone is on drugs with a prescription from their doctor.

From Harvard to Stanford to the University of California at Santa Barbara, Ritalin abuse is rampant. It is clear their advertising campaign is working. Some surveys say that 30% or more of college students use prescription stimulants. One in five high school students are using them and, in one Florida high school, Ritalin and Adderall are the drugs most used by the student body.

To promote the use of Ritalin for everyday “cognitive use“ is outrageous and dangerous. The tests may work in a lab, but does the lab take into account all of the risks to our society? Is anyone in the lab aware of the casualties of prescription drugs and the number of people who now need addiction help services to get off them? Do they know how many people wind up in the hospital or the morgue?

Perhaps the school president, Amy Gutmann, should look into this to see if some “vested interest” is paying for this research. It is ridiculous to see scientists, professors and leaders promote this concept - and they promote it proudly as the wave of the future.  If anyone from the University needs addiction help services they should find them - now, before they become one of the casualties.

Activists Marianne Skolek and Barbara Van Rooyan have targeted Purdue Pharma executives for their role in causing an epidemic of drug addiction in this country by promoting OxyContin as safe. Both women lost a child to OxyContin. They are also accusing the FDA of not acting fast enough or at all to put an end to the problems caused by this dangerous drug. Connecticut Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal, has sued the FDA over their lack of action and irresponsibility. The amount of addiction help needed in several states could cost more than the total fine Purdue paid - $635 million. When you add the cost of investigations, prescription monitoring systems and prison time for OxyContin-related crime to OxyContin addiction, the numbers are just to high to calculate.

The fact that Purdue executives were allowed to get off without any jail time is just the clever work of high-priced lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

Look at it this way: In the last 15 days there have been about 50 crimes related to OxyContin reported by local newspapers across the country. In Sacramento, California, Special Agent In Charge, Gordon Taylor, says “we have seen a certain up tick in OxyContin investigations in pretty much the whole region. We typically go out with a whole squad, 10 investigators, more in some cases.” In Tazewell County, Virginia, the DEA estimates that 80 to 95% of the crime is OxyContin related.

But the crime is not isolated to those areas, it has to be happening all over the country all the time. The cost to local police, the FBI and the DEA has to be in the hundreds of millions a year. Yet Purdue pays nothing and receives money for every pill obtained legally or stolen. Why is congress spending time investigating steroid use by a hundred baseball players when the real problem is right under their nose? Drug addiction help services alone will cost the U.S. hundreds of millions of dollars, should Purdue be fined again and made to clean up their mess?

There was an article posted on several news sites today about researchers ‘defining’ the mechanism of addiction to methamphetamine. Not surprisingly, addiction was defined in physical terms. However, although a person does dry out from drugs while doing a drug rehab program or getting any kind of drug addiction help that doesn’t involve taking drugs, and although their brain chemistry will no doubt go through some changes, addressing the changes that happen in someone’s brain after long-term exposure to a drug doesn’t address the reasons why the person started drugs in the first place and why they took them long enough to get addicted - which, by the way, usually doesn’t take long.

There are literally thousands of reasons a person is driven to drugs - maybe they wanted to be accepted by peers, maybe they had an urge to do something others wouldn’t approve of, maybe they felt insecure about something and the drugs numbed or distracted them from that insecurity, maybe they were just bored with life, maybe they were confused, maybe they felt they didn’t have much of a future, maybe they felt pressured, maybe they felt bad because they were overweight - whatever. There is no end to what might be going on in a person’s mind. And what they’re thinking or feeling might not make the slightest bit of sense to someone else.

Many people wonder how some celeb with tons of money, work, admiration, success, friends, and so on, would want to get involved in drugs. I’m sure there are millions of people who read news stories about some celeb in need of addiction help services and think to themselves “They have everything. Why would they possibly want to do that to themselves?”

There’s something behind it, and the chances are pretty slim that that something is not brain chemistry.

If you know someone with a drug problem, make sure the addiction help services they get dig in, find the underlying problem, and help them overcome it. No matter how dried out they get, there’s an excellent chance the person will go back to drugs if they don’t handle the reason they started them in the first place.

“Addicts need guidance, not judgement” is the headline of an article about the TV show Intervention and the fact that it humanizes addicts - to think of them as people with a problem who need help, drug addiction help, instead of people of “poor morals” who refuse to improve their situation.

What many people don’t understand about drug addicts is that, these days, many of them became addicted when they were given drugs by their doctors - painkillers, tranquillizers, antidepressants - and when it came time to get off them, they couldn’t.

Others may have started very young, perhaps with Ritalin, Adderall or some other drug supposedly used to handle a ‘disorder.” Ritalin, for example, is similar to cocaine. Whe you’re eight years old and using cocaine, and continue to do so for years, it’s got to be pretty hard to get and stay drug free later in life.

Prescription drug addiction is the worst epidemic this country has ever seen. Think twice before allowing someone you care about to go on these kinds of drugs and if they’re already on them, consider getting them the drug addiction help services they need. Don’t judge, just help.