AHS Views

I don’t watch an awful lot of television but I read the White House press release today about National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month - it’s September – and wondered in just what media the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign is being run. If it’s been on television, there certainly hasn’t been enough of it to stand out – I don’t remember seeing anything at all. Nothing about taking drugs, nothing about addiction help, and yet we’re supposedly hard at work in the war against drugs.

The press release talks about prescription drug abuse. But it seems to specifically relate to children, and prevention. Yes, kids have to be reached. But what about addiction help for those who already have a problem? There’s also a recovery program that gives vouchers to people to get the addiction help of their choice. I don’t know the details but I’d bet my bottom dollar those choices don’t include long-term residential drug rehab with is about the only really effective addiction help you can get. So, of the 200,000 people who’ve been helped through the program, how many actually made it?

The release also mentioned doing drug testing in schools. The problem is there’s far too little testing going on and they don’t actually test for prescription drugs – which is probably one of the reasons they’re becoming popular.

The press release goes on and on about all the work being done, but nothing’s the nail on the head. We could make some real headway, for example, if the drug companies were stopped from advertising directly to consumers. The government wouldn’t allow a drug dealer to sell heroin on TV – why is it okay for a drug company to advertise what is basically the same drug?

Really, I don’t know how regulatory bodies can be oblivious to the situation. And if they’re not, if the people involved know what’s going on, how do they sleep at night? Day after day people are dying from prescription drug addiction and abuse, it’s all over the news, you can’t miss it, and yet our legal pushers, the drug companies, continue to stay in business. Do we really need the drug companies to tell us what’s wrong with us and what drugs we need to fix it? I don’t think so. When will someone stop them?

When you consider the magnitude of addiction help needed – for the millions of people all over the country – getting 200,000 people through a mediocre program just doesn’t cut it. When are we going to get real about this? You can’t kill a herd of elephants with a water pistol.

In the meantime, it’s every man for himself. If someone you care about is in trouble with drugs, get them the addiction help services they need.