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.

Drug court is now going to be offered in Jackson County, Wisconsin. Initial approval has gone through, and start up costs have been supplied. Four officials are now training in Portland, Oregon. Soon, non-violent drug offenders in Jackson County will have the opportunity to get the addiction help they need instead of going to prison.

Judge Gerald Laabs, currently training for Drug Court Coordinator, told the press, “I was a prosecutor back in the early 1970s and now being judge, I’ve seen a huge change in that era to this era,” he said. “Back then people stole because they wanted money. Now almost 100 percent of our cases that we face deal with alcohol and drugs. That’s why we think this is an alternative that will help the public and put people back into their jobs.”

This might be surprising to some of the county’s residents - it’s primarily a rural area, about as homey as you can get. Just goes to show you that alcohol and drug addiction, and the crime associated with it, isn’t limited to the big city.

If someone you know has a problem with drugs or alcohol, help them get them the addiction help services they need now. Don’t wait for it to go to court.

According to Police Chief Alan Watson of Talladega, Alabama, about 90% of the crimes in the area are drug-related. From thefts and burglaries to domestic violence or homicides, Chief Watson can pretty much count on some connection to drugs. He says it’s a nationwide problem - and the number of people in jail for drug related crimes can attest to that - and that we need more prisons and more addiction help.

In fact, if we had adequate addiction help services available, we could do away with some of the prisons - every crime has a motive, and drugs provide some of the strongest motivation around. One that motive is removed, a crime-free life usually follows.

How does drug addiction cause crime? First of all, someone on drugs really isn’t themselves. Otherwise wonderful people can get very nasty and irrational, and sometimes violent, when they’re drinking - and the same is true of drugs. However, drugs add some other elements that are often not present with alcohol: Alcohol is cheap, there aren’t too many people trying to figure out how to get $600 a day to support an alcohol problem. Also, unless you’re a died in the wool alcoholic craving another drink with every fiber of your being, you also don’t feel like you’re going to snap unless you get more. Drug addicts get desperate, very desperate and, as is well known, many drug addicts will do anything they have to to get their next hit.

That is not to say that alcohol isn’t dangerous - it is. And there’s a lot of alcohol-related crime as well.

Whatever the addiction, drugs or alcohol, and no matter how serious the crime, if the guy’s going back out onto the street, you’d better make sure he’s also gotten the addiction help services he needs.  Otherwise, there’s a good chance he’ll be right back into drugs and right back into a life of crime to support his habit. And, yes, then we’ll need more prisons.

Laconia, New Hampshire, where eight people died last year from methadone, is playing hardball. The man who sold the methadone to one of the victims has been sentenced to a minimum of 15 years - which could turn into 40. He will be able to get out after 10 years if he gets addiction help through a substance abuse program.

While it’s good to see someone being held responsible for this tragedy, I can’t help but think of the all the hundreds or thousands of people dying from OxyContin overdoses while the Purdue execs are snug in their beds. How come they aren’t also in prison? They not only sold the OxyContin to those people, they even lied about how dangerous the drug is.

The way I see it, this is a travesty of justice.  I’m still hoping they will be further prosecuted or made to do more to fix the problem they created. Helping get people the addiction help services they need would be a good start.

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

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.

According to a study conducted by Dr. Denise Herd of the University of California at Berkeley, rappers - whose music used to warn against drugs - are now contributing to drug addiction and the need for more drug addiction help.

As role models for many of America’s youth, shouldn’t rappers try to improve society and not glorify the use of drugs?

Dr. Herd studied 341 of the most popular rap songs from 1979 to 1997. She found that after 1993, 69% of rap songs contained positive references to drug use. Compare that to only 11% between 1979 and 1984.

I would have to say that is remarkable and disgusting. Do inner city and urban parents want their kids listening to someone who promotes drugs to them?

Sixty percent of prison populations are minorities and 70% of those in prison have an addiction problem. 12% of black males in their twenties are in prison and a large percentage also have drug problems.

I wonder why rappers as a group would want to make positive references to drug use and make an at-risk group even more at risk. Are there any famous rappers out there who would start a non profit or a coalition to warn young people about abusing drugs instead of making it the thing to do in a rap song? Getting drug addiction help services is not always easy - staying drug free is your best bet.

If you started taking OxyContin and ended up needing drug addiction help for any reason, here is what the FDA has to say: “The fact that the sponsor misrepresented OxyContin’s addictive potential does not negate the findings of safety and effectiveness of the drug when used properly.” That’s from Susan Cruzan, FDA spokeswoman.

In case you didn’t know, Purdue Pharma pled guilty in May 2007 to falsely advertising OxyContin as having a low potential for addiction. I’m not sure if the FDA has figured out that OxyContin is highly addictive and is harder to get off of than heroin.  OxyContin was originally approved for terminal cancer patients in extreme pain. Perhaps Purdue Pharma decided that it had little addictive potential because people who used it “properly” would die anyway.

While that may be harsh, one ongoing problem we have in this country because of misuse is a “national wave of pharmacy robberies.” Another problem is people who have become dependent on the drug. The FDA seems to hide behind the word addiction and, since people who are dependent are not addicted by their definition, no other action by the FDA is necessary.

The problems and costs of OxyContin addiction or dependency are ongoing for everyone except Purdue. Robberies won’t matter to Purdue because the drugs stolen from pharmacies are paid for, as are the drugs purchased to replace them – in other words, whether the drugs are legally or illegally obtained, Purdue Pharma cashes in. Of course legal costs, investigative costs, and prison costs are all paid for by us taxpayers. And we also foot the bill for the hundreds of publicly-funded drug detox and drug rehab centers. Drug addiction help for OxyContin keeps us busy here at Addiction Help Services.

In a Miami Herald article about a psychologist being investigated for drug abuse, Eulinda Jackson, a spokesperson for the Department of Health said “everything about this case is confidential”, including the psychologist’s name and whether or not he’s still practicing. Dr. Sidney Wolfe of the Washington-based consumer group Public Citizen commented that ‘doctors like to protect doctors,” and Raymond Pomm, head of the group that handles the impaired physicians’ program said ”If we don’t protect them, they won’t come knocking on the door.” A fine state of affairs - the medical professionals we depend on to take care of our health not only have drug problems themselves, their level of ethics is so low that if there’s a chance anyone will find out they have a problem, they won’t even get the addiction help services they need. What about their responsbility to their patients?

I realize that we’re not talking about all doctors by a long shot and I also realize that doctors are human like everyone else and have the same problems as anyone has who is driven to drugs or alcohol. But, they also hold a position of public trust that should not be violated or compromised. How can a doctor who’s stoned possibly guarantee that he will do no harm to his patients?

There are plenty of options out there for doctors.  A private, confidential Florida drug detox centers would be their first step.

The drug problem the psychologist written about in the article had is now being addressed - but only because his ex-wife saw drugs and drug paraphernalia at his house and wrote a letter to the authorities about it. If you know a doctor with a drug or alcohol problem, do them a favor and do the same thing. Write that letter. He will not only get the drug addiction help he needs, you could save his career, his life, and the lives of some of his patients.