AHS Views

Heroin is more common than you think. That is, if you’re a parent. The kids definitely know about it. In fact, along with OxyContin and Vicodin - which are basically the same as heroin - it is becoming a widely used drug of choice. Where we used to think of heroin users as a the strung out, wasted guy in the alley, we’re now dealing with “honor-roll students, drama-club students, kids playing school sports,” says Pierrette Farber, a drug expert in Hudson Valley, NY who sees kids who need drug addiction help every day.

The scariest thing about it is the kids’ attitude - they don’t think trying heroin is that bad. And one user said that a popular anti-drug site is just government propaganda. Wouldn’t you like to find out who told him that?

One user featured in the article has now been free of heroin for 75 days. He started in his teens - crushing and snorting things like OxyContin and now, years later, he’s trying to get straight. He has tried many times and finally asked a friend for help. With his friend’s help, he got into drug detox. His description of detox is a pretty clear statement of why most people who try to get off heroin can’t do it: “Every single of part of your body aches for weeks,” he says. “It’s like the flu times 100.”

In fact, it doesn’t have to be that bad if you go to a medical drug detox center. A good one can actually help you detox in relative comfort and in a short period of time. After that you need to get addiction help through drug rehab to get to the bottom of why you became addicted so it won’t happen again.

Parents - you’ve really got to check out your kids. Don’t make the mistake of thinking your kid would never do anything like that. I can guarantee you that most of the parents who’s kids are now in need of addiction help services thought the same thing. Check them out very thoroughly, and get them sorted out fast.

An article on SouthCoastToday.com, originating in Massachusetts, discussed the $5 million being invested in two drug treatment facilities that will offer addiction help services for those addicted to heroin, OxyContin and other opiates who are headed for jail.

According to the article, the number of non-fatal opiate overdoses climbed from 8,000 in 1996 to 18,000 in 2005.  The treatment facilities in MA deal primarily with alcoholism. Officials are trying to do something about the opiate problem - which they call an epidemic.

The shocking thing is that the facilities will only be able to offer treatment to 120 people. And it’s long term treatment, so the turnover’s going to be slow. With 18,000 people overdosing in a year’s time, the number of people using the drugs has got to be at least 10 or 20 times higher. So, we’re going to have an additional 120 beds available for people seeking addiction help. That’s just not going to cut it.

Are we headed for a nation of zombies? Once again, it’s hard to make anyone other than drug companies responsible for this. If a company that made guns wanted to spend billions on advertising to popularize the idea that guns, and using them, would create a safer environment, it would never be allowed. And yet drug companies’ money is eagerly accepted despite the fact that these drugs are also klling people and ruining lives left, right and center. Everyone from parents to local governments, and even the federal government, is trying to come up with the means to get people the addiction help services they need - while the drug companies popularizing drugs as a way to change your personal environment are raking in the dough.

Shameful situation. They’re also employing hundreds of thousands of people, are part of the stock portfolios of probably at least as many Americans, and are significant contributors to political campaigns. Hard to shake them.

Yet, shake them we must. Many people see this for what it is but, obviously, it’s not enough people, and not enough of the right people. Until that situation is remedied - and even afterwards - each of us has to take whatever steps we have to to get people the addiction help services they need.

Heroin is on the rise in Northwestern Virigina. One of the areas hit hardest by the scandalous promotion of OxyContin as less addictive than other prescription painkillers, Virginia residents are now turing to heroin to satisfy their OxyContin addiction. Drug addiction help services previously dealing with OxyContin addiction will now be battling heroin addiction instead.

People turn to heroin because it’s more easily accessible and less expensive than OxyContin. Once you can no longer get a prescription from a doctor - whether obtained legitimately or by lying about symptoms - OxyContin has to be gotten on the streets. And it’s expensive - it can be as much as $50 a pill. Those who don’t recognize that they need addiction help and do something about it could wind up choosing heroin as a substitute or turning to a life of crime to get the drugs.

OxyContin addiction has a certain amount of respectability since it is prescribed by doctors and therefore more acceptable. Heroin addiction is another story. However, both drugs are equally dangerous, and both require addiction help services to stop taking.

If you know someone using OxyContin for anything other than a very short time, make sure you get them the addiction help services they need. Being an addict is bad enough, being addicted to street drugs like heroin and living outside the law is even worse. 

We’ve heard various rumors of how terrorists are financed. According to a recent news article, the Taliban takes a 10% cut on Afghanistan’s opium production - obviously a big source of income. So, who’s financing terrorists? Everyone who uses heroin - from the hard core addict desperately in need of addiction help to the kid who buys a $2 hit of cheese heroin in the schoolyard.

Even more signficant are those who profit from it.  The article states that “In recent years, the Afghan government has rolled out plans to help wean addicts off opium and eradicate poppy fields,” and that the country “is under pressure from the international community to stop poppy cultivation.”

Let’s get real: We’re dealing with a country that supplies most of the world’s heroin. With that amount of money involved, there’s not much chance that pressure will be taken too seriously. The only thing likely to make a difference is to dry up the demand - getting everyone in the country the addiction help they need. But that’s also not likely to happen. Again, I’m sure those who are making big bucks off it will see to that.

Afghanistan, especially the southern part, has long had a casual attitude towards opium. Nearly a million people are addicted to heroin - including babies getting their thrice daily dose. The situation is so bad that many people in the country can’t really work. And the Taliban gets 10% of the take. The people are surrounded by enemies.

Isn’t that likely the future of any country with such a problem? Is the U.S. headed there with the prescription drug epidemic? Look at the lives of most heroin addicts - not a pretty site. Is there any reason to believe that OxyContin and other prescription painkillers won’t create the same lives? A country can’t be any more than the sum of it’s parts. There are a lot of reasons to ensure anyone you know with a drug problem gets addiction help services. Saving the country might be one of them.

While we may think being dependant on a drug isn’t the best way to go through life, we’re not alone. Many people dependent on drugs, including people on MRT, agree with that. We do recognize that some people have simply run out of options and that without methadone or some other drug they wouldn’t be able to get through a day. We’ve discussed that in several blogs and made it clear that those are not the people we’re concerned about and that the blogs regarding methadone are not directed to them. We never get comments on those blogs, by the way. But if we relay any factual information about the number of methadone-related deaths, or about a specific person who died, or about someone needing addiction help to get off it, we’re immediately inundated with people defending it and telling us to get our facts straight.

Excuse me - we’ve been involved in the field of drug rehab for a long time. We’ve helped thousands of people get off drugs - including heroin. Some of the people writing these comments are former heroin addicts who couldn’t stop taking it and turned to methadone instead. Exactly what qualifies that person as an expert in drug rehab?

The fact is, methadone is being abused all over the U.S. - and in other countries. The fact is, there are more methadone-related deaths than there are deaths related to heroin. The fact is, some of the people who die are kids. And, some of them get the methadone from parents who are on MRT. I wrote a blog some time ago about a toddler who picked up a methadone pill from the floor, ate it, and died. The pill had gotten buried in the couch and shaken out when the cushions were straightened. It fell on the floor without the parents noticing. Now their kid is dead. One of his parents was on MRT. And that’s not an isolated incident.
 
What would you have us do? Ignore the fact that it’s a dangerous drug and never say anything about it just in case we offend someone? Do you want us to play down the dangers of methadone so you don’t feel bad - so you don’t feel ‘attacked’ because you’re taking it? Well, sorry, if that’s what you want, it’s not going to happen. Methadone might not be killing you, but it has killed a lot of other people. We’re going to keep telling people about it. And we hope that by doing so, we’ll save some lives.

Your comments, on the other hand, that justify and defend methadone, that make it look acceptable, that suggest taking methadone is no different than a diabetic taking insulin to prevent themselves from suddenly going into a coma they may never come out of, may well make the drug seem safer than it is. And that could kill someone. Maybe you should think about that instead of being riveted on defending yourself. You want to take methadone? Fine. You need to take methadone? That’s understood. But don’t make it look like it’s a good thing. It’s not. And anyone who thinks there might be a chance in hell of getting off it should look into getting the addiction help services that might allow them to live drug free. Obviously, this does not apply to those of you who’ve already gone to 17 addiction help facilities to no avail, unless you really want to give it another shot, or to those of you who are coping with severe chronic pain.

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.

In Glenn Falls, New York, heroin abuse is on the rise. According to Police Chief, Joe Bethal, the problem may be caused by people switching from OxyContin and other prescription painkillers to heroin when what they really need is addiction help.

“One of the reasons may be because of prescription drug abuse. The pharmaceutical companies have manufactured quite a large amount of prescription opiate-based painkillers and we know they’re out there in the homes and the medicine cabinets,” said Chief Bethal.

He hit the nail right on the head. Pharmaceutical companies (Purdue Pharma, when it comes to OxyContin) are producing endless amounts of pain killers, and they will sell as many as they can.

If you can sell OxyContin to 34 internet pharmacies - enough OxyContin to fill 100 million prescriptions - you know there isn’t any discrimination. Anyone can become addicted to prescription pain killers. Warren County Undersheriff Robert Swan said, “It’s not just seen in one area, one group or a specific gender. It covers everyone”. Switching from prescription painkillers to heroin is a bad choice. As the Chief says, getting addiction help services is not a crime.

Heroin addiction has arrived in Ohio and, according to one law enforcement official, it’s because of the prescription drug monitoring system. The official, who asked not to be identified, said he has noticed a marked increase in heroin transactions and in the number of people needing addiction help and going to treatment over the past eight months.

If those who are addicted to or dependent on OxyContin or Vicodin don’t get addiction help, they’ll be out searching for heroin dealers. And pretty soon there will be more heroin dealers. Not just in Ohio - all over the country.

People will be shocked when they hear of friends dying from heroin overdoses or being arrested for making heroin purchases. Without addiction help, people from all walks of life - mothers, fathers, lawyers and other professionals - could end up doing jail time.

“Heroin has definitely been on the rise,” said the official, also a member of the Major Crimes Task Force. “Not just in Athens County, but I think in all of Southeast Ohio.”

States other than Ohio are sure to follow suit. In fact, some probably already are. I know there are already problems in the Northeast, and possibly in Oregon. Getting off OxyContin is not easy; it ranks right up there with getting off heroin. The ramifications of people using needles to feed their addictions isn’t pretty. And we may eventually see more cases of AIDS because of it.

OxyContin’s impact on the U.S. is just beginning. It will eventually cost billions of dollars. Help your friends, your family members or yourself and look for the addiction help services you need.

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.

Addiction help for a 9 or 10-year-old sounds strange but that is what is happening in Dallas. Some of the people needing addiction help are that young and are ending up in the hospital or a drug detox. Over the past 2 ½ years Detective Jeremy Liebbe of the Dallas Independent School District Police Department has arrested or interviewed more than 300 users of cheese heroin - Mexican black tar heroin mixed with Tylenol P.M. that is snorted, usually through a straw. It only cost $1 or $2 dollars, so anyone can afford it.

It is very dangerous and addictive: One report says there have been 21 deaths caused by cheese heroin since 2005. Like any drug, death can come on the very first try. Heroin withdrawal symptoms can come after the first hit as well.

The Hispanic community has been the most affected by the drug and is the main target of the drug dealers. One young lady, Lizbeth, is already in treatment for her second time and she is just turning 18. Lizbeth got tired of the aching bones, headaches, and cold sweats associated with heroin withdrawal.  She didn’t think using cheese would be that bad because she wasn’t using a needle. Clever drug dealers are marketing it that way and they are marketing it to young Hispanics who probably trust them.

Forutnately, there is a special Cheese Heroin Task Force in Dallas monitoring the use of this drug. Addiction help services for a 9-year-old is new territory for sure.