AHS Views

There are many people who don’t particularly worry about marijuana despite the fact that it has side effects that really change a person’s life - like being disassociated from reality - and despite the fact that it often leads to taking other drugs. However, the results of a new marijuana study released by the White House should serve as a wake-up call to make sure people using marijuana get the addiction help they need.

The study showed that the potency of marijuana is at its highest point in 30 years - much stronger than it was in the ’70s, and twice as strong as it was in 1983.

The director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy commented that one of the reasons baby-boomers may not worry about their kids using marijuana is that they expect it to be the same as it was in the ’70s. Not true. The report stated that young people who have used marijuana in the last year are twice as likely to be depressed as those who didn’t and that the risk of developing ‘mental problems’ is increased by 40%.

There’s also a higher risk of physical disease.

Good reasons to make sure anyone you know using marijuana gets the addiction help they need.

The director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse said she is worried that marijuana will become even stronger and cause addiction. That statement makes me wonder if she knows what addiction really is. While it’s true that, for the most part, quitting marijuana doesn’t cause extremely severe withdrawal symptoms like other drugs, that’s not all there is to addiction. Try to get someone who uses marijuana regularly to stop and you’ll see how difficult it actually is. There’s a reason why they want to feel that way - and those reasons are the ‘addiction’ elements that need to be handled so the person to stop.

Getting addiction help services for marijuana is more important now that ever. Taking marijuana use lightly could be a very big mistake.

So many college kids are drinking and using drugs that parents have to be careful when they send their kids off to any institute of higher learning. Highedcenter.org published a list of questions parents should ask school officials about their drug and alcohol policies.  Parents who want their kids to get the most out of their education and avoid having to look for addiction help for them later would be wise to ask these questions and check out the school thoroughly.

Most kids will have a preference for a certain college and they may resist going to a different one. But if they’re really educated on the dangers of drugs and alcohol - including just being around others who drink or take drugs, even if your kid doesn’t do it themselves, which could lead to the need for addiction help - you may get more cooperation.

For example: Over 60% of kids who are around other kids who drink or take drugs have had their sleep or study interrupred; nearly 54% have had to take care of a drunken student; nearly 14% suffer damage to their property; and one in ten have been pushed, hit or assaulted.

The statistics on that site state that 1.3% will be raped, but other sources say the incidence of rape is much higher: According to abacus.bates.edu, for example, one out of four women will be sexually assaulted on a college campus, and one in 8 will be raped. Most of the rapes involve drugs or alcohol.

Extensive drug and alcohol abuse that requires addiction help services is common in college, but that’s not the only consequence. Perhaps if your kids understand this, they, too, will choose a different school.

Kay Sanford of the North Carolina Depatment of Health said “methadone may be the most underrated problem in drug abuse in the country today.” And the need for addiction help services for methadone abuse is more prevalent then ever.

OxyContin is so dangerous that many doctors have started prescribing methadone as an alternative painkiller. But kids are getting it from their parents’ medicine cabinets, and its finding it’s way to the street.

Methadone used to be given to heroin addicts who couldn’t stop using heroin. Now it’s being given to people who can’t stop OxyContin. It’s unfortunate that these people aren’t getting the addiction help they need to get off drugs instead of being given methadone as a substitute.

Like all prescriptions drugs, Methadone is dangerous. If not taken correctly, it can kill you. Caleb Bevil from Raleigh, North Carolina, died from a methadone overdose last Saturday at only 12 years old. My heart goes out to his family. It’s a real tragedy for both them and the community.

In Cleveland County, North Carolina, Lt. Joel Shores lists methadone, along with Xanax and hydrocodone, as one of the many prescription drugs he’s seeing on the streets.

In New Hampshire, methadone abuse is being described as a “troubling trend”.

Deaths attributed to methadone and other prescription drugs have quadrupled since 2002. If you need addiction help for methadone, or any prescription drug, please find out how to get it.

The YMCA in Coppell, Texas is planning to offer drug education for recreational drug users and support for families whose lives have been adversely affected by drugs and alcohol. Ralph Strangis, a former drug addict and alcoholic who is now an upstanding member of the community, will be speaking at the first event. According to Strangis, members of the local community tend to not talk about drug and alcohol problems. He’s hoping this program will enable them to do so. It also may help ensure people who need addiction help get it.

Not talking about alcohol and drug problems is not unusual. But for the 15 million or so people with alcohol problems in the U.S. who need treatment but don’t get it, talking about it - whether you’re the person with the problem or you are a friend or relative - could be the first step to getting the addiction help needed.

Unfortunately, too many people ignore problems with drugs or alcohol. Sometimes people see drugs, or alcohol, as just a phase that will blow over. Sometimes they think there’s nothing wrong with a little drugs or a few drinks. And sometimes the friends and family members don’t think they’d ever be able to convince the person to get help.

However, there is help available through an interventionist. If you need one, you should call Addiction Help Services - they’ll give you all the help you need.

Ignoring alcohol or drug problems is never a good solution. Eventually, it will ruin someone’s life. And some may even lose their lives altogether or be instrumental in someone else losing theirs. What’s better? Continuing to live with the problem or doing something about? Hopefully, other communities will follow in Coppell’s footsteps and make sure community members get the addiction help services they need.

Plano is not theonly

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.

Peer pressure has long been known to be a factor in drug and alcohol abuse and a lot of other undesirable behavior.  For many people, especially kids, it’s hard to stick to your guns when friends are urging you to do something you normally wouldn’t do. This kind of situation can lead to a lot of alcohol and drug abuse that wouldn’t have occured otherwise, and the need for addiction help services for someone who may have been the last person you suspected would ever have such a problem.

Parents talking to their kids about the dangers of drugs and alcohol, and really thoroughly educating them on it rather than just telling them they shouldn’t do it, gives them the understanding they need to help resist temptation. And the earlier the better - if you want to be finding a college for your kids instead of addiction help services, you can’t start educating them soon enough.

However, more than education about alcohol and drugs was obviously needed for 18-year-old Adam Beggs who recently died from alcohol poisoning after drinking an entire bottle of vodka. Why do I say that? Adam was given the vodka by a 24-year-old guy who was also drinking and dared Adam to guzzle it down. Did Adam just need to know about the dangers of alcohol? No. In this case, Adam needed education on the type of people who are likely to cause him trouble.

The guy who gave Adam the vodka was 24-year-old Larando Sweeting. He drank in violation of parole - no alcohol was a condition of his release from prison. He was in prison for gross sexual assault and sexual abuse of a minor after having sex with a girl under 14 years of age.

Perhaps when parents talk to their kids about drugs, they should also be educating them about people who have sex with minors, people who are charged with gross sexual assualt, people who violate their parole, and people who dare them to do things that could kill them.

Obviously, this person is not someone you would want your kids to hang out with.

I don’t know which came first for Adam, drinking or hanging out with people who can do serious damage to your life. Perhaps Adam had needed addiction help services for a long time and, because he didn’t get it, he became involved with criminals. 

What I do know is this: if you want to prevent serious injury or, as in Adam’s case, death, you should get them addiction help as soon as you know there is a problem. And if there is no problem, educate your kids well on drugs and alcohol and on the dangers of associating with people who have proven that they really don’t have the best interests of others at heart.

Parents in Morgan County, Indiana are invited to a drug education and training session on January 23, 2008. United for a Drug-free Morgan County Coalition is hosting the event and is presenting “Proven Strategies to Strengthen Drug Prevention Efforts in Morgan County.” With alcohol abuse running at a higher rate than both the state and national averages, getting parents involved before more addiction help is needed is a smart idea.

Indianapolis quarterback Jack Trudeau and his wife Lisa should be required to attend, they were recently fined $2500 dollars each for allowing Boone County high school students to drink alcohol at their daughter Danielle’s graduation party. Mr. and Mrs. Trudeau are probably unaware of the problems teenage alcohol abuse can cause later in life and the fact that teenagers who drink are more likely to need addiction help when they get older.

Another person who should be there is Fishers High School Principal Scott Syverson:  he was charged with drunk driving and may face up to a year in jail. Parents and leaders in the community should help send the message that alcohol and drug abuse are not cool. When teenagers stand around drinking in front of or near an NFL quarterback and he doesn’t stop them it sends the wrong message, even if it seems safer to be drinking at home - or whatever excuse is being used.

More the 85% of parents think they can’t stop their kids from drinking, so most probably don’t even try.

Diana Roy, the Morgan County coordinator of Youth as Resources of Central Indiana said “It’s a mindset in changing the way people think; you can have fun without alcohol. The big thing we want to see is parents gaining awareness”.

If more drug education is required than less drug or alcohol addiction help services will be necessary.

I read an article not long ago about a family that was completely destroyed by their son’s drug addiction. His problem started with OxyContin, but soon moved on to heroin and other drugs. He was still in his teens when he started. His parents tried drug rehab, but the program they chose didn’t get down to the bottom of the problem so he relapsed. Fortunately, he’s now getting the addiction help he needs, but the family lost their house, car, and just about everything they owned before it finally happened.

If you think this sounds impossible, it appears that even Lindsey Lohan - who was worth about $7 million, not just a little house and a family car - has lost everything to alcohol and drug abuse. According to news reports, she’s broke and asking friends for money. She apparently blew it all.  It appears that her alcohol and drug abuse also destroyed her career cause the money just isn’t coming in.

The earlier family I read about, and Lindsay, are not alone. God knows how many families have been destroyed - everything they’ve worked for, gone down the drain - because one of the family members didn’t get the addiction help they need, or didn’t get it soon enough.

It is known that the earlier a drug problem is caught, and the earlier something is done about it, the better the chances of the person actually quitting alcohol or drugs and the better their chances of staying off them.

Don’t think you’re immune to this sort of problem - I’m sure not one family that has been ruined because of addiction expected it would happen to them.

If you or someone in your family has a drug problem, or you suspect they do, you can’t get them addiction help too soon. Addiction Help Services can help you find the right drug rehab program for your situation. Save your loved one, and your family, from devastation. 

Santa Cruz, California is essentially a beach town: if you had been there you would get the idea of a low key, low stress, health conscious community. Steroids, high school athletes and Santa Cruz would not seem like a natural fit. Neither does it seem likely that Santa Cruz would have many people who need addiction help.

However, two professional athletes who graduated from Santa Cruz High have been linked to steroids - major league baseball player Glenallen Hill was mentioned in the Mitchell report, and NFL player Obafemi Ayanbadejo was suspended for four games in September for steroid use.

The Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League does not have a steroid policy or any drug testing, according to Pat Lovell the League’s commissioner. Athletes are required to sign a form saying they won’t take any illegal substances.

If there is a steroid problem in Santa Cruz it would most likely come from competition issues. Jim Rear, a substance abuse counselor who does drug education in schools commented on what one boy said: “I play football here, and I want to play in college. But sometimes when I work out with guys in college I see what they’re doing, and I don’t want to do it. But I see guys who want to play the same position as me and they’re bigger and stronger and it puts a lot of pressure on me. What do I do?”

The competition issues are probably a bigger problem than people think. In fact, it probably needs to be addressed in every level of sports - and not just steroids, prescription painkillers, stimulants and even tranquilizers are probably even more widespread than steroids and need even more attention.

If you or someone you know needs addiction help and lives in Santa Cruz, give us a call. We can help find the addiction help services you need.

Jockey Patrick Valenzuela has had a conditional license for the past several years due to substance abuse problems. On Friday he had his conditional license revoked by the California Horse Racing Board after being stopped and arrested for a DUI in Upland, California. It’s time for him to get the addiction help he needs.

During his stellar career - 3968 wins, including the 1989 Kentucky Derby aboard Sunday Silence - Mr. Valenzuela has had 10 interruptions due to drug or alcohol problems. He’s only 45 years old, and he has not been able to get his drug or alcohol abuse under control. He does need to finally make a change and get himself into a successful drug rehab program.
 
Mr. Valenzuela is not alone when it comes to substance abuse problems - nearly 20% of Americans over the age of 26 binge drink at least monthly, and millions of Americans use prescription drugs for reasons other than a medical condition.

It is also not a surprise that Mr. Valenzuela has not received the addiction help he needs to over come his dependence on drugs or alcohol. The same can be said of the majority of those who need treatment.

Tom Knust, Mr. Valenzuela’s agent said he was shocked by the news. He also said he wouldn’t represent him any longer.

The help Mr. Valenzuela  needs is available to him. I hope he gets it so he can end his drug and alcohol addiction issues.

Addiction Help Services can find you, a family member or a friend the treatment that you need.