AHS Views

It’s the day after Christmas. I’ll bet there are millions of people in the U.S. – and around the world – who wish they’d made sure that someone in their family had gotten addiction help before the holidays. Well, it’s not too late, and it’s never too early, to make it happen.

I remember many Christmases from my young years. Although the mornings were great – basically a happy family having breakfast, opening presents and so on – as the day wore on and the drinking started, the spirit was kind of ruined for some of us. Either someone in the household or someone who was visiting got nasty or way too melancholy – sometimes to the point of crying over everything they regret or how nice people were being to them and they didn’t deserve it – or there were fights, upsets, and so on.

This wasn’t just my family – it was also the families of many of my friends in our middle class neighborhood.

And then there was me when I was older. Showing up at my parent’s place stoned on one drug or another, or leaving early because I couldn’t stand going without drugs any longer.

Sometimes there were no drugs on Christmas day but, since my mother didn’t see me that often in those bad times, she wanted to talk about it. She was so happy to see me straight – but, at the same time, you could see the sadness behind her smile, she knew things were ‘normal’ just for the day.

It broke her heart. And worried her to no end.

Fortunately, I got off drugs shortly thereafter and that was followed by decades of a very good relationship. I never got into trouble after that, never gave her anything to worry about. It was my mother who first took the initiative to get me into drug rehab for the addiction help I needed. And once I got off drugs, I never went back. The treatment program was excellent, very successful, and deserves a lot of the credit for my never relapsing. And that’s why it’s important to choose the right drug rehab program.

But several years were wasted. Frankly, I was lucky to have lived through those drugs days. Many of my friends and acquaintances didn’t. And many of those who did were never able to re-establish their family and other relationship – they’d burned their bridges.

Do you want to save your kids? Your spouse? Your family? Your marriage? Your relationships?

Call Addiction Help Services – our experienced counselors have helped thousands of people from all walks of life and with all different types of alcohol and drug problems. They will help you find the right alcohol and drug addiction treatment program for your situation. And do it now, don’t delay as you probably have so many times in the past. Things aren’t going to change, except to get worse, unless something is done.

Do it now, and next year’s holidays will be what you really want them to be.

Until now, the new designer drug, Meow Meow (mephedrone) was not considered addictive. It was just one of the many club drugs that people take when they’re out ‘having fun’. But according to a new study, that’s definitely not the case. In fact, more than one third of the people who use Meow Meow should be seeking addiction help.

According to the study, which was conducted by doing a survey on 100 people to use Meow Meow, more than one third of every ten people who take the drug have the symptoms of addiction. What are those symptoms?

• they can’t cut back or stop using it
• they withdrawal symptoms when they try
• they take more of the drug than they intended to
• spend a lot of time taking the drug or recovering from it
• they give up other activities and neglect parts of their life because of it
• they keep taking the drug despite any related health problems they may experience or are likely to experience
• they need to take larger and larger doses to get the same high

On top of being addictive, nearly one in four people said they have a strong urge to take Meow Meow and the urge doesn’t really go away. Many also said that their family or friends said they were worried about them taking the drug, but they still continued to take it.

That’s a lot different than having fun.

Meow Meow is just one of the many ‘designer drugs’ out there. It’s important for friends, parents and other family members to watch out for new drugs. There are some pretty nasty people out there – they figure out how to get around the law by manufacturing or dealing really dangerous chemicals. People find out the drug is not illegal and get the impression that they must be okay. But, they’re not. They’re just new, and the law hasn’t caught up with them yet.

Getting into a drug rehab program can help those taking Meow Meow, and the sooner the better.

Worried that your son or daughter is taking drugs and you don’t know about it? You should be. On the average, kids use drugs for two years before their parents find out. Some parents and schools depend on random, and mandatory, drug testing to detect drug use early so they can get addiction help before there are any disasters. But mandatory drug testing is often frowned upon as a violation of privacy. A new drug testing program has been initiated by the Board of Education in Boardman, Ohio that might just fit the bill.

The new testing system does testing only with parental approval, and the results go directly to the parents. That way, the parents have control over the information and over what is to be done about it. The parents pay $22 a year to participate in the program.

In some cases, they might want the school to know about it so whatever the school system is for disciplining and reporting the information can be applied. But parents can, instead, choose to keep the information to themselves, deal with their children privately and possibly even get them into a drug rehab program.

Parents usually find out their kids are on drugs because the signs have become unmistakable: grades go down (and not just from A+ to A), the kids get moody, they’re more disassociated from the family and, often, friends – they’ve ditched their old friends and now have new ones (with whom they are taking drugs). Sometimes the parents don’t even find out until a really dangerous incident occurs – like a traffic accident or even a trip to the emergency room.

Some people have asked why the parents don’t just test the kids themselves. Good point. It might strain the relationship between parents and kids to do drug testing no matter who does it. And the school probably has easier, and less expensive, access to labs that evaluate the tests.

Obviously, this is something parents would have to discuss with their kids. They have to understand that many kids get involved with drugs due to peer pressure, and sometimes they just can’t resist. If they understand that, and the parents do a little research and are able to give their kids plenty of examples of good kids getting caught up in drugs and even getting addicted or overdosing, kids might understand that their parents are not doing it because they don’t trust them, but because they love them and do understand that doing the right thing isn’t always easy.

If you’re worried about your kids, discuss the possibility with them.

An investigation in New Jersey is evaluating what causes young people to move from one drug to another – specifically, the relationship between prescription drugs and heroin. The investigation was motivated in part by a rise in both heroin and prescription drug deaths in the area. They’re hoping their findings will prevent these deaths and also help motivate people to get addiction help before they really get into trouble.

What they found is that young people often get their start getting drugs from their parents – OxyContin, Percoset and Xanax are among the major problems. Parents have them in their medicine cabinets. One in five young people experiment with those drugs, and then they want more.

Most young people are not going to have easy access to those pills in the medicine cabinet forever. Their parents sometimes find out they’re using them, or they’ve been taking so many they’re afraid their parents will find out, or their parents may have been taking OxyContin or Percoset for an injury or after surgery, and don’t need them anymore so they’re no longer filling prescriptions.

For the kid, the source dries up. But he or she still wants them, or, by this time, may even be at the point of needing some form of addiction help services. In either case, they go looking elsewhere for the same effect they got from the drugs in the medicine cabinet.

They may go to a doctor themselves and fake symptoms to get their own prescription. They could go to one of the many so-called ‘pain management clinics’ that are basically unethical pill mills just out to make money Or they may turn to drug dealers on the street. Prescription painkillers like OxyContin are readily available – their abuse is now epidemic and the street pushers are really taking advantage of it.

But those prescription pills, when bought on the street rather than being covered by some medical plan, can also cost as much as $80 each – not particularly affordable for a young person. At this point, they often turn to heroin.

Heroin used to be expensive. It’s not anymore. You can get a hit for $5. They might start off using one hit every few days, then go to one a day, then to two or three a day. The more they take, the more they need to get the same effect as the first time they took it. But, even when things have escalated to two or three hits a day, they’re still only spending about as much in a week for heroin as it would have cost them for one pill if they’d stuck with OxyContin. It’s not a small amount of money, but it’s definitely more attainable than $80 per pill.

Some kids will also turn to drug dealing or other crimes to make the money they need for the drugs. Now they’re not just an addict, they’re also a criminal.

Almost always, they have little education on OxyContin or other prescription drugs, or heroin. They often think OxyContin is safe because doctors prescribe it – if only they knew how many people are suffering from OxyContin addiction, even those who have had it prescribed by their doctor – and chances are they’re not educated on heroin at all.

Even those who are knowledgeable about these drugs get addicted, and some overdose and die.

Obviously, one of the major actions that should be taken by parents to avoid this situation is to either not have any prescription medications in their home or to have them hidden and under lock and key so their kids won’t be tempted to take them.

After all – the pills are making you feel better. Kids want to feel better, too. Young people are not as problem-free as you might think or hope. Their problems are different than ours, but they are real nevertheless.

Remember – the above investigation was motivated by deaths, for both prescription drugs and heroin. If that’s not a chance you want to take, get your pills locked up. And if you think your kids are taking prescription drugs, it’s important to get them into drug rehab fast – before it becomes a disaster. They might not die, but they could definitely ruin their lives, and yours.

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?

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.

Difficult – is the only word I can think of to describe what it takes to get someone help to overcome a drug and/or alcohol addiction. About 95% of the time, addicts don’t think they even have a problem. However, they most certainly do, and it’s not just the problem of the addiction, but also whatever the problems are that made them get into the addiction mess in the first place. There’s only one way to handle addiction, and that’s by getting the addict through a successful drug or alcohol rehab program.

With that said, the next issue to overcome is convincing an addict, who most likely doesn’t think they have a problem, to go. But how do you do that? There are a number of reasons that could hinder your ability to be able to do the convincing… Perhaps the addict is scared about people finding out about their problem and what they will think of them. Or, it could be that they think that no one could possibly understand what they’re going through. There could also be strains on relationships that can play a factor as well.

So, the question remains – how do you get them to go? The best solution is to get outside help. And, there are people out there who specialize in getting addicts to go to rehab. They are called Interventionists. These are highly trained individuals who most likely have their own first-hand experience with addiction and recovery from their past. They understand what the addict is going through and have the ability to convince them to go to alcohol or drug rehab.

Do you have a loved one or a close friend who needs to get into rehab? Call a drug rehab program counselor. They can help you determine if an interventionist is needed, and will also help you find the right treatment program. It could save their life!

An amazing new study out of England showed that 1 in 5 people have either had a drug addiction problem themselves, within their family, or their circle of friends. That’s in the UK – not including Ireland – which has a population of about 70 million. So, 14 million people in the UK have had direct experience with drug addiction.

It would be nice to see a similar study done in the U.S. I’m sure we would come up with similar results.

Further breakdown showed that 1 in 50 people have been addicted to drugs, and 1 in 20 have had drug addiction in their direct family.  That boils down to about 3.5 million families who have had to cope everything drug addiction causes – break-ups, continuous upsets and frustration, worry about whether or not the addicted person is even going to be alive the next day, jobs lost, financial ruin, kids taken away by social services, and on and on and on.

It’s no wonder why more and more people are taking antidepressants and tranquilizers – and the drugs people take to cope with the stress are also going to cause addictions.

It’s a mess.

Does someone in your family have a drug problem? Do you need to find a drug rehab program that will work? Call us - we can help.

A girl who wrote to since you asked … on Salon.com just found out her boyfriend is a crackhead. She’s been going out with him for a year, thought a few things were odd along the way, and finally found out what the problem is. Now that she knows, she says she’s sticking by him and going to see him through whatever addiction help services he needs.  But she’s in a dilemma – she knows there’s a possibility that he’ll never stop taking drugs and, although they love each other, this was not the future she had in mind.

I have a few words of advice – don’t do a drug rehab program that doesn’t get to the bottom of why he’s taking drugs and resolve those issues. Don’t get involved in addiction help that makes God or any other entity responsible for keeping him clean.  And don’t get involved in a program that forwards the idea that ‘once an addict, always an addict.”

Thousands of people, perhaps hundreds of thousands, have been truly rehabilitated – by which I mean no longer takes drugs, no longer wants drugs, no longer needs drugs, is no longer tempted by drugs no matter what the situation, no longer even considers drugs to be solution.

If you settle for anything less – you’ll either wind up with someone who relapses over and over again, someone who believes they cannot stay off drugs unless they attend endless meetings for the rest of their life or, worst of all, believes the only hope they have is holding their addiction at bay – in other words, they cannot really change. They cannot really get better. They can only act better.

While it’s true that many people have gotten addiction help through programs like the above – some of them would no doubt be dead without it – it is the absolute bare minimum help you can get. There’s really no rehabilitation, there is simply control. And it lasts a lifetime, and requires endless support.

Real addiction help means you are no longer an addict. Period. And that’s what I would advise she ensure her boyfriend receives.

Addiction help is needed by tens of thousands of people who are addicted to or dependent on prescription drugs. Those drugs certainly include OxyContin, Vicodin, Percocet and Lortab, to name a few. But as prescriptions run out and Afghanistan produces more heroin, how many people with prescription drug addiction and dependency will turn to heroin instead of getting the addiction help they need.

In a recent article, Mohammad Reza Jahani, the deputy head of Iran’s Drug control Headquarters estimates that Afghanistan’s opium fields will produce 8,200 tons of narcotics in 2007 - up from 6,100 tons during 2006. His worry is that 2,500 hundred tons will end up in Iran. He says that 700 tons will stay in Iran for use by Iranians and that 1300 will be transported elsewhere.

Some 500 tons will be found and confiscated and the drug dealers will probably face some harsh penalties.

The concern that I have is that as heroin production increases, it has to be sold somewhere. And, more than likely, that is going to be in the U.S.

As the DEA becomes more aggressive in dealing with doctors and distributors of prescription drugs, addicts will be left out in the cold trying to support their addiction with expensive prescription drugs. They will either get the addiction help they need, or they will find alternatives. And some prescription drug addicts have already discovered that heroin is far less expensive and easier to get.

In other reports some experts have estimated Afghanistan’s heroin production at twice the amount necessary to supply the world’s heroin use. My question would be what do the opium farmers and producers see that would cause them to lower the price and produce twice as much?

It could be the weather, better farming or higher yield from their crops, or it could be that someone sees that more people are addicted to opiates then ever before and there’s no one else to supply this growing market.

As we move forward into 2008 and beyond, my hope is that people are addicted to prescription painkillers and anti-anxiety drugs get the addiction help they need.
Addiction Help Services can put you, your family or friends in touch with a successful drug rehab program.