AHS Views

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.

Formerly contracted performers of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) have apparently received letters from WWE offering alcohol and drug rehab completely financed by WWE.

The letter says that too many WWE performers have died from drugs and alcohol, and the organization wants to prevent further tragedy.

WWE is also offering to provide intervention for those who have a problem, but think they don’t. Families and friends of formerly contracted performers need only contact WWE to take advantage of this offer. It doesn’t matter how long the performer was contracted, or what the circumstances were when the contracted ended.

I’m impressed. The interventionists and treatment centers are chosen by WWE. I’m sure they’ll avoid the overly-expensive luxury centers that are churning out celebs who go out one door and in the other. Let’s hope they choose a successful drug rehab program that will help our sports figures turn their lives around.

I read an article today about the residents of Washington Heights, an area in upper Manhattan, protesting a drug rehab opening right behind a school. “Why would you put a drug facility right on a street where there are drugs, constantly drugs?” comments one of the residents. That’s like asking why would you want to bring a policeman into an area where there’s crime. Washington Heights is notorious for its drug abuse problems, and has been for nearly 30 years. The place would probably do better if there was a drug rehab behind every school, not just one.

Residents are afraid that the facility will expose more kids to drugs – no, it will expose more kids to people who want to get off drugs. That’s a different story. It might even inspire some of the local addicts to get help, and it might run off some of the dealers.

There are different types of drug rehabs: there’s the kind that just pay lip service to rehabilitiation – methadone clinics are a good example – and there are those that help people get down to the bottom of why someone is taking drugs and actually enables them to begin a new life. The latter is a successful drug rehab program. If the new facility in Washington Heights follows that model, residents should count their blessings.

A new recommendation from the Australian Parliament regarding how to handle drug addicts is causing considerable controversy: According to a recent article, they want to pull funding from harm minimization programs and put the funds into drug rehab programs that offer drug free approaches.

The committee also announced that young people addicted to drugs should be mandated into drug treatment programs, and that children of addicts should be adopted.

The CEO of an Australian drug rehab center strongly disagrees with the recommendation. He said it will alienate users, and that it ignores families.

Honestly, as a professional in the addiction field and a former addict I think part of this program could work. It will, at the very least, get young people the help they need at an early age so they won’t struggle with substance abuse for years. They also won’t be such a drain on the economy.

The other issues may be controversial, but getting someone through a successful drug rehab program that actually gets them off drugs instead of getting them on a substitute drug is definitely a step in the right direction.

When a person is abusing a drug while in treatment, you know that things are really out of control. I just read an article about a man who was on his way home from a meeting for drug rehab, when he was arrested for possession of methamphetamine and suspicion of dealing the drug.

The man was served with a warrant to have his home searched after just completing his meeting for drug treatment. The police found almost 30 grams of meth, a scale and packing materials and a pipe. The man was also using his drug rehab ID card to weigh and scrape the drug.

This incident happened in Napa, California where methamphetamine is a major drug of choice. In fact, government statistics indicate that meth is the biggest threat to California currently: in 2005 almost 500 people were arrested and sent to jail for offenses related to methamphetamine.

If the man who was recently arrested is lucky, he may be given another opportunity for drug treatment through the California drug courts. If he can manage to get into a long-term residential successful drug rehab program, there may be hope.