AHS Views

Drug dealers and methamphetamine users have now found a new way to make meth – one that evades detection by authorities and reduces the cost of meth, making it even more available. Another good reason to get anyone who is already using meth, or is using drugs at all (which makes them more prone to using meth), into an addiction help program as soon as possible.

Meth is one of the worst drugs around. It is highly addictive, causes rapid deterioration of the body and mind, and is associated with a lot of crime. People on meth are a mess, they are definitely not themselves. Physically, the toll meth takes is so dramatic that a parent would be hard-pressed to recognize their son or daughter after only a year of use. Mentally, they are scattered, anxious and, as they use more and more, focused on one thing – the drug.

Some of the damage can be irreversible. Again, drug rehab is the answer. And it can’t be one of those programs that basically just helps you dry out and then sends you to meetings. The chances of that working with a meth addict are virtually nil. They need the real thing – residential treatment that helps get the meth out of the body, focuses on restoring the person’s health, finds and addresses the reasons they’re doing drugs and ensures they have a good handle on the environment they’ll be going into when they leave the program.

Busting meth labs is one of the ways authorities try to control meth. In fact, the number of meth labs located and closed down is an important statistic. The labs in themselves are extremely dangerous places, they exude poisonous fumes and can quite easily blow up..

The fumes have a very distinct and unpleasant smell, making them fairly easy to locate – as long as someone nearby notices and reports it.

Now the makers of meth have found a way to get around the smelly lab problem. They have a new process known as “Shake and Bake.” This method allows the drug to be made in smaller doses and without ‘cooking’ it. All you need is a soda bottle, some household chemicals and cold pills from the drug store, and it requires fewer cold pills than the cook method.

Not that it can’t still blow up. In fact, there’s an even greater chance of explosion and that explosion would be even more damaging since, as one journalist put it, “they’re holding the bomb in their hand.”

It can be made virtually anywhere, at any time.

Some areas of the country are seeing a rise in meth addicts because of it, and that rise is being anticipated across the country as more and more people start using this method.

If you hear someone in your household talking about Shake and Bake – one of your kids, or their friends – they might not be talking about chicken. Take heed, and get them addiction help right away. If they didn’t need it, they wouldn’t even be talking about it.

I can’t help feeling angry when our troops – the guys and girls who are willing to give their lives for our country’s ideals – are treated with the worst kind of medicine there is: throwing dangerous prescription drugs at them to control their symptoms instead of finding real solutions to their problems. About 1/3 of the suicides by the troops in 2009 involved medication, and an additional 100 deaths involved prescription drugs. Also, more than 1/3 of our troops are on at least one prescription drug, and many are suffering from drug addiction. Not only are they not getting the best medical treatment available, they’re not even getting addiction help.

What kind of shoddy treatment is that?

“I’m not a doctor, said General Peter W. Chiarelli, vice chief of staff of the Army, who has led efforts on suicide prevention, “but there is something inside that tells me the fewer of these things we prescribe, the better off we’ll be.’’

A New York Times investigation into the 100 drug-related deaths other than the suicides found the following:

“All the men had been deployed multiple times and eventually received diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder. All had five or more medications in their systems when they died, including opiate painkillers and mood-altering psychiatric drugs, but not alcohol. All had switched drugs repeatedly, hoping for better results that never arrived. All died in their sleep.”

These are guys who lived through the war, only to get killed by neglect – there’s really no other words for limiting someone’s treatment options to drugs. Dangerous drugs.

When is the military going to wise-up? If they’re not going to give them the medical help they really need, the very least they could do it get these guys into a good drug rehab program.

Really, it’s shameful. What parent is going to want their kids to go to war, to defend the country and our ideals, when they know that if they manage to come home alive, their lives are still likely to be ruined?

One of the MPs (Members of Parliament) in England is suggesting that the war on heroin and cocaine – on drug dealers – be won by making heroin and cocaine available by prescription from doctors. It is hoped that the dealers won’t be able to stay in business and, consequently, the drug scene will cool off.

Okay, that may help part of the problem. But it’s a very ‘if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em’ solution. It’s like discovering that certain chemicals babies come into frequent contact with are harming them and, instead of tackling industry with it’s powerful lobbyists, vested interests and unlimited funding, you change the law to make poisoning babies legal.

So what would the consequences be of making heroin and cocaine available by prescription? Would England be free of drug dealers? I don’t think so. Why? To name just a couple of things that make it impractical:

1. A lot of people wouldn’t want to admit they’re using heroin or cocaine – don’t want the family to know, might endanger their job, reputation, and so on – so they would go to a dealer, not a doctor.

2. There are a lot of drugs out there other than cocaine and heroin. Do we also make club drugs and methamphetamine available by prescription? If not, the dealers stay in business.

3. Addicts would have to be prepared to get a lecture on getting into drug rehab every time they went to re-fill their prescription. But not every addict will put up with that. At least, I would HOPE they’d get someone continually trying to get them off drugs. Maybe they’ll just do the same as they’ve done with methadone – just park them on heroin and leave them there.

Overall, not the best scenario.

And let’s not even discuss the fact that heroin and cocaine would probably then be manufactured and supplied by Big Pharma – even further solidifying the drug industry’s hold on the world. Wouldn’t they love to get their hands on that market? They’re already probably doubling he profits made on things like Oxycontin just because of having to re-supply hospitals and pharmacies that get their goods stolen. And then there are the God-knows-how-many people who are getting their Oxy from several docs so they can resell them on the street – those supplies have to be restocked too. Really, Big Pharma’s got to be raking in as much on the illegal use of Oxy as on the legal.

No doubt there would also be considerable oppression on the addiction help industry if Big Pharma supplied the drugs. Nothing is quite as important to Big Pharma as profits.

If it came down to making drugs legal or making them available by prescription, I think I would opt for making them legal. How about you?

In the UK, there have been several ‘legal high’ types of drugs on the market recently. Kids and young adults have access to them either online or in head shops where drug paraphernalia is sold. Most of the drugs come in powder form which is snorted by the user to get high. Unfortunately for some unlucky snorters, the outcome has been deadly.

Ok, so what’s wrong with this picture? Kids are buying powder online and snorting it up their noses to get high, and… this is legal? There was one drug that hit the party scene over a year ago, called Mephedrone (sold as “plant food”), which did get banned because of deaths related to using it. The problem is though, that drug makers and sellers just package the drugs in different forms, like bath salts for instance, and begin selling them.

Speaking of bath salts, the newest drug to hit the party circuit is Ivory Wave, sold as bath salts, but says right on the package “single dose pack”. There’s even a pretty picture of two feet and some flowers on the label, like it really is a soothing addition to bath time. But, don’t let it fool you, it’s going right up the noses of young kids in the UK.

Apparently 20 kids went to the hospital in the past week alone from Ivory Wave in Scotland. It’s being marketed as “the strongest party powder there is” online, and seems like it’s living up to its word. Kids went to the hospital with symptoms including hallucinations, anxiety, severe sickness, heart palpitations and even for turning blue. Hello? This is serious stuff!

Kids are often looking for thrills, which can include wanting to experiment with drugs and/or alcohol. They must know the dangers involved so that they can make the right decision to thrill seek elsewhere. And, the UK had better get busy banning more of those party powders, before tragedy strikes and more lives are lost. Sounds like they are already in need of some real addiction help.

According to a report by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, the states with the highest percentage of its citizens addicted to prescription drugs are Tennessee and West Virginia. West Virginia just took over the number one spot, and drug rehab centers will probably be inundated with people needing addiction help. 

We’ve talked about “West Virginia and OxyContin” in this blog in the past, as well as “Tennessee and OxyContin.” You could also talk about “Florida and OxyContin.” in fact, you could pretty much relate OxyContin to any state in the country.

You can also say “Kids and OxyContin.”

One young lady named Jenninfer, from yet another state, Ohio, landed in drug detox at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in January 2007. Neither Jennifer’s parents nor teachers knew she needed any addiction help. Jennifer’s parents were lucky; Jennifer came forward and told them she was addicted to OxyContin.

Jennifer’s not the only kid in trouble in Ohio – 50 other children also received drug detox in Children’s Hospital in 2007. “Ohio and OxyContin.”

Fifty kids from Columbus going through drug detox should be an eye opener for parents. Keep your prescription drugs out of the reach of your kids. And get them the addiction help services they need if they’ve already discovered them.

The state of North Carolina is currently investigating 16 methadone-related deaths that occurred in a handful of clinics across the state. According to the Charlotte Observer, the victims went to the clinics for drug addiction help and, instead, lost their lives.

Unfortunately, the 16 deaths being investigated are just the tip of the iceberg: 245 people in North Carolina died from methadone poisoning last year.

If you or someone you care about is looking for addiction help, treatment that gets you addicted to another drug shouldn’t be an option. Personally, I’ve never met anyone who needs to become addicted to methadone or any other replacement drug to handle their heroin addiction. Don’t fall for it. If someone you know isn’t getting the drug addiction help they need, it’s not because they need another drug to replace it, it’s because they haven’t gotten the drug detox and drug rehab that’s right for their situation.

Why people choose this route despite the fact that it doesn’t get people off drugs is beyond me. I know some have been led to believe that heroin addiction, for example, is difficult to overcome but, in reality, it’s not if you have the help you need. I know, I’ve done it.

There are many different options in drug treatment. Your best bet is to contact an experienced drug rehab counselor who can help you find the right addiction help treatment right for your situation.

One of the problems with drug addiction and abuse is that the person often has to resort to criminal activity to support the habit. This can be a disaster for addicts as it’s almost as easy to get drugs in jail as it is in the streets – yet another reason to get addicts into drug rehab fast.

I read an article today about a teen who’d become addicted to prescription painkillers after being prescribed them by his doctor. He’d been on them quite a while – he’d had three surgeries – but, unfortunately, it doesn’t have to take long to get addicted to things like OxyContin. Some people get addicted in a week or two.

He got involved in dealing the drugs – working under bigger dealers – just to support his own habit, not to make money, and then couldn’t quit. The dealers told him that if he quit dealing, they’d hurt his mother.

That’s the kind of thing you’re up against if you let someone who’s addicted to drugs stay that way. If someone you care about is addicted to drugs, get in touch with a drug rehab program counselor who can help you find treatment.

Amy Winehouse wouldn’t have had her recent problems with drugs and alcohol if she’d been in a band, according to a recent article. Sounds pretty lame to me. How about this for an idea: Amy Winehouse wouldn’t have had her recent problems with drugs and alcohol if she had gone to drug rehab.

The front man for The Hives says “It must be hard going through what she’s going through all by herself.” True enough. But what she’s going through is because of drugs and alcohol – and whatever’s behind her need to take them – not because she doesn’t currently have a band.

The fact is this: drugs and alcohol breed more drugs and alcohol. The only way to stop the cycle is to stop the drugs. And the only way to do that is through a drug rehab program that gets down to the bottom of why you’re taking drugs and helps you turn things around. Until she recognizes that and does something about it, there’s not much chance of her life changing – at least, not for the better.

Another heated debate about whether or not drugs should be legalized: this one between a retired police captain and a district attorney. The police captain says drug laws are causing crime and violence that we wouldn’t have if we made drugs legal. Sounds to me like he’s just given up. Can’t blame him really – with about 10 million people in America needing drug rehab to straighten out, it must seem pretty hopeless.

However, I don’t think legalization would handle the problem. While it’s true that the crimes of possession and trafficking wouldn’t exist, we’d still have a country overrun with people trying to get drugs. Drug habits are expensive – how will addicts support their habits? Not by holding down a 9 to 5 job.

And what happens when we want to curb the crime and violence connected to just getting the drugs, legal or not? Will we then raise our health insurance rates even higher so addicts can go to the doctor and get a prescription for heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, or marijuana?

And what happens to drug cartels and local dealers who want to control the turf and make more money? That’s not going to go away with legalization. The only difference is that the police won’t have to do anything about it because they won’t be doing anything illegal. Until they kill each other, or an innocent bystander, because someone stepped on someone else’s toes.

And what about the violence created by the drugs themselves. Do parents on drugs abuse their kids because drugs are illegal? No, it’s because that’s the effect drugs have on them.

Making drugs legal is suicide. God knows drugs have already caused enough damage – continue the crack-down, and continue getting more people into a drug rehab program.

Chicago’s St. Viator High School is taking hair samples to test kids for drug use. So far, they’ve tested about 500 kids – half the student body – and only two tested positive. In the face of national statistics, this sounds pretty impossible. 10 percent of high school seniors have taken Vicodin according to a 2006 National Institute on Drug Abuse survey, and more than 36 percent of ninth graders reported drinking in the month prior to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevent (CDC) study. Obviously, there’s a ton of kids out there who need drug rehab, or are going to sometime in the future, but St. Viator’s testing isn’t catching it.

The problem that the testing does not include alcohol, prescription drug abuse, inhalants or steroids. The school says “We can’t be taking urine samples every day to find out if they’ve been drinking.” But what’s the point of testing if they’re not going to find the major problems?

They’re spending $75,000 on this program and so far have two positive tests. One of the teachers in the school did an informal survey on the students’ reaction to the testing: the consensus was that it might get them to switch from the drug they’re currently using to a drug not included in the test, or to alcohol.

The teacher said he wonders if the money would be better spent on drug education. Good idea. It might save 300 or 400 kids from having to find a successful drug rehab program in the future.