AHS Views

It’s amazing to hear stories of recovery, even more amazing to hear about a former addict’s background. It’s often nothing like you would expect. Fortunately, addiction help can really turn lives around.

One recent story is about a woman who came from an even better than normal childhood. She was a member of the student council, and getting ready for college when she started using alcohol and marijuana. That was in her early teens.

By the time she was further on in high school, she started with cocaine and prescription drugs. Then, while in college, ended up on heroin.

It’s not unusual for people who have taken prescription drugs – especially painkillers – to wind up on heroin. An OxyContin addiction, for example, can be extremely expensive. The pills can cost up to $60 each, and it’s common to take a few every day. Obviously, most college kids can’t afford that. Heroin, on the other hand, can be purchased for $5 a hit. Most heroin addicts have two or three hits a day, sometimes more.

So .. it’s a lot less expensive, but even $30 or $45 a day is still more than most people can afford to spend on drugs. Thank heaven for small blessings.

For this girl, who called herself Jamie, not her real name, it was too expensive. She was caught stealing at work – she supported her habit with theft – lost her job, and wound up going before a judge in drug court. Fortunately, she was given the opportunity to go to drug rehab rather than going to prison.

Jamie is now drug free, has a new job, is reunited with her family, and life is back to normal.

Do you have a son, daughter, spouse or good friend with a drug problem?

Don’t wait for them to wind up in court, get them into an addiction help program now.

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.

This week in Michigan, an 18 year old woman drug dealer sold heroin to a 24 year old man, who later died from what was determined to be a drug overdose. The man was an addict, not a first-time user, who apparently was stuck in a pretty serious drug addiction.

The young woman was arrested shortly after his death and is now being charged on two counts, “delivering a drug causing death and delivery of heroin”. The maximum punishment for these two counts is life in prison. Could you imagine? You’re a drug dealer (and quite possibly an addict as well) one day, and the next, you’re in jail for the rest of your life. And, to top it off, you’re only 18 years old! Just a kid…

I absolutely think that there should be consequences for dealing heroin. It’s against the law, it kills people left and right and it’s an inhumane choice of profession. With that said, who should be held accountable for the addict’s death? I’d have to say it was ultimately the addict who took his own life through the use of illegal drugs.

There are so many people out there who experiment with and use heroin (or other harmful illegal drugs) and ruin their lives and those of their families every day. It’s a poor choice that they make that leads them down a very bad path. There isn’t a single good reason to choose that life. But, they choose it for themselves and it’s their responsibility.

So, should the young woman spend the rest of her life in prison for killing the addict? Or should she spend time in jail for dealing illegal drugs? It’s a tough choice for law enforcement officials who obviously don’t want people to die of drug overdoses and they don’t want to send messages to other drug dealers to lessen the severity of this type of crime. I’d say that she should be punished, of course, but she didn’t kill the young man. He did that on his own, and now his family is left without him and mourning their loss. My condolences go out to them.

Methadone is commonly given to heroin addicts (as well as morphine and other opioid users) to “treat” their dependence and withdrawal symptoms. It is prescribed to addicts every day, all over the US. It’s considered a way of helping people to get past their addiction and dependence to illegal street drugs.

The unfortunate thing about methadone is that it’s just as addicting, if not more so, than the heroin that they were shooting up, snorting or smoking. Once patients are given methadone, they just keep getting prescribed. This can go on for years and years – it’s called methadone maintenance.

What’s really fascinating to me is that it takes about a week to get through heroin detox. And, it can be done with other means, like vitamins, healthy diet, other alternative drugs that are less addicting and much easier to wean off of (in some cases), and the patient can fully rid their body of the powerful drug.

My question is, why on earth would you want to move to a different addictive drug, to become a slave to and dependent on, instead of a week of heroin detox? It has also been proven that methadone detox can be worse for patients than that of heroin. Would you really want to go stand in line for your methadone every day for years and years?

If I really take a look at this problem, it would appear that most people make the switch from the illegal drugs to methadone because it’s offered as “help” to addicts from the government. And, while I believe that the intentions are not horrible, the solution that has been put in place certainly is.

What if, and this is a big what if, the government used the resources that pay for methadone, to actually provide detox and addiction help facilities for addicts instead of drugging them? If you want to stop taking heroin, you go to treatment and properly go through the steps of drug detox and then drug rehab. What a concept, right? To actually get people fully off of drugs…

If you’ve ever found yourself looking for detox or rehab services, especially state funded programs, I’m sure you’ve experienced trouble locating an open bed. I personally hear the heartbreaking stories of families who don’t have enough money for private pay rehab, who have no options, on a daily basis. What’s available to the opioid addicts? Currently the answer is more drugs.

I don’t know how many people think about going to prison as one of the consequences of taking drugs, but they should. And, when they really think about it, it’s one very good reason for getting addiction help to get someone off drugs and away from the drug culture asap.

About 1/2 of the people in prison have drug problems - that’s about 1.5 million people – and only 5% get any form of drug treatment or addiction help. What happens with the rest of them? Often they keep taking drugs.

I am amazed that drugs in prisons are so common - how can it be possible that they can’t control the flow of drugs into that kind of environment? I can’t help but think there are guards and other staff involved.

How easy is it to wind up in prison because of drugs? It’s not hard. Cops can get wind of what’s going on and show up on your doorstep. Or you’re around people who are involved in criminal activity (other than the drugs, thefts, and so on, to support their habits or get enough drugs to sell to others). So there’s double the risk. Or you’re around people who carry guns, and don’t think twice about using them.

When I was on drugs I had several close calls with the police. One time I was on my way to a friend’s house and happened to call first – from just a block or two away. It was late and I wanted to make sure they were home and awake before I knocked on their door. They answered the phone but told me the police were there. Had I not called, I would have walked in (with drugs on me) and wound up in prison.

Another time I lived in an apartment on a hill – it seemed safe, but the hill actually put the windows right at street level. I wasn’t even aware that you could literally just walk in through the windows of that apartment.  Tall windows, nearly floor to ceiling, swung open like a door, no screens. It seemed like you were well above the ground – you walked up the long flight of steps in the front – but, because of the hill, the windows were just a foot above the ground.

You don’t exactly have your wits about when you’re high – which I was all the time; heroin addiction - so things like that can happen.

Friends who lived across the street pointed out the window problem to me and told me the police were watching the place. I moved out the next day, and later the same day the police arrived – through the window.

On the other side of things – being in the criminal element – I once had to hide out in a hotel until I could get a flight out of town. Someone I’d upset was after me with a gun. Fortunately, someone else warned me about it and I was able to get out of my apartment immediately, into an obscure motel by the airport, and on a flight out of town the next day. Had I not found out about it on time I could be dead now. Or I could have wound up in the emergency room, in which case I’d probably also wind up in prison since I was always high and had heroin on me.

Another time I overdosed. The people I was with were at the point of taking me to the hospital when I came to. Another close brush with death, and the possibility of prison. 

Just a few little incidents. But that’s what living in the drug culture can be like. So – ending up in prison can’t be ruled out.

Some people think that going to prison will straighten somebody out. Not true. Not only can they still get drugs, hepatitis and HIV are also quite common in prison. People share needles, and have unprotected sex. If you’re a guy, especially, you’re likely to become someone’s boy toy. 

If you know someone taking drugs – your kids for example – be aware that prison could well be in the cards. Get them addiction help services before it gets to that point.

Every once in a while I get a comment from someone who tells me drug rehab doesn’t work. I don’t know what kind of addiction help they’re actually getting in the facilities they’ve been to, but there are studies galore showing otherwise.

The latest was published in the Scientific American. It’s a review of several studies on drug rehab - and they were done on people who’d been in prison; pretty hard core heroin addicts who you would think would be the most difficult to help.

What did the studies find? Addicts who don’t get treatment in prison are seven times more likely to become addicted to heroin after they leave prison, and three times more likely to commit another crime and go back to prison.

Fortunately, not all people who use drugs are in prison. But if you’ve ever been told, even by someone who’s been through rehab, that it doesn’t work – this should give you hope.

However, it is important to find the right program for your situation. Addiction Help Services can help you do that.

You have to wonder how many people there are who have a family member in need of addiction help services who just can’t get it. Like Jared’s family – Jared died of an overdose the night before he had agreed to turn himself in for violating parole. His father convinced him to do turn himself in, thinking that at least his son would live for another year because he’d be in jail.

His family struggled for a long time, coping with their son’s heroin addiction all by themselves. No one they turned to could help them, and there were no support services available in their community who could give him them proper guidance.

Jared’s heroin overdose was something his father had been afraid of for a year and a half. Every time the phone rang he thought it might be someone telling him his son was dead.

If you know someone with a drug problem, call Addiction Help Services to find out what can be done. You never know when that overdose will come.

The City Council in Brewer, Maine, was supposed to make a decision on opening more methadone clinics. There are already nine of them, three of them in Bangor, just a mile from Brewer. They’ve put the decision off until January, largely because they’re concerned with social issues. They say the residents don’t want more drug addicts around and they think it promotes crime.

What they don’t seem to be really confronting is the number of people in the area who are addicted to heroin or other opiates and are consequently looking for methadone. Nor do they seem to be aware that getting people off heroin is much easier than getting them off methadone. They acknowledge that people need help, but this is the wrong way to go about it. Get them off heroin, not onto methadone.

There are some addiction help facilities that won’t even accept someone on methadone because getting off it is so difficult and takes so long.

If they want to curb the drug problem, they should be putting their efforts, and their money, into getting people off heroin – not getting them onto an alternative drug that’s even more of a problem.

And, by the way, if you or someone you care about is taking methadone and wants to get off it, there are some facilities that will take you and are successful. Contact Addiction Help Services for more info.

Other countries often follow what happens in the U.S. I was raised in Canada, I was always told that we were 10 years behind the U.S. In some ways, that’s a blessing. As the people in the Czech Republic are soon to find out – they’re going to get methadone to “treat” heroin addicts.

We’re going to export yet another unsuccessful ‘treatment – one that gets heroin addicts addicted to another drug instead of helping them get off drugs altogether.

There are plenty of addiction help programs that actually get people off drugs successfully. Why aren’t we exporting them?

But that’s really the way America works these days. Big Pharma makes sure of it. Got a problem, take a drug. Got a drug problem, take another drug.

The worst thing about this is that it actually looks like a solution. And when you have a solution to a problem, you stop looking for one. Which means that, just like in America, people all over the Czech Republic will be addicted to methadone and actually think they don’t have a drug problem. And many of the officials, doctors, and other professionals will think the same.

If treatment options aren’t working, find out what’s wrong with them and fix it.  Don’t just give up and park the person on another drug.

Oh, I know this post will bring a lot of methadone addicts out of the woodwork to tell me what an ignorant idiot I am.  And some people who will write in really do need to be on methadone – they’ve tried everything else, or their living in chronic pain.

But, the vast majority do not need it.

If you suspect you may be one of them, and would like to live your life without having to make a trip to the methadone clinic every day, contact addiction help services to find out more about your options.

Suboxone is all over the news these days. It’s possible that many people looking for help with drug addiction – specifically opiates like OxyContin and heroin – will be advised to take suboxone for several months. Dr. George Woody of the University of Pennsylvania did a study that found that if kids (the study was on 15 to 21 year olds) are taking suboxone, their opiate use is ”much less.” Dr. Nora Valkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, says we should be encouraged by this.

Yeah, right, it’s good to know that your kid isn’t doing ‘as much’ heroin or OxyContin as they were before. So, what does that mean? That if they’re only doing 50% as much heroin as before they’re 50% less likely to overdose? Yeah, that’s really encouraging.  You only have to worry about your kids half as much.

Get real. What kind of addiction help is that? The fact that they’re taking any drug at all is a sign of failure. If they’re taking drugs, the program is a failure. It’s really that black and white.

There is a use for suboxone in drug detox. But a good medical drug detox facility doesn’t give it to you for months! You need it for days, maybe a week, maybe a touch longer. It’s only needed to help the person get through what can be a very painful withdrawal. Then they should be getting drug rehab in a residential facility.

The suboxone program they’re talking about in this news article offers counseling once a week. The chances of someone getting off drugs with a program like that are slim. And you can virtually guarantee failure if they’re a heavy drug user.

Don’t settle for that. If you want your kids to get off drugs, get addiction help services that actually work.