AHS Views

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.

When you are addicted to something like OxyContin the easiest path to take if you want to get off it is to switch to methadone or some other replacement drug. The hardest path is to get the addiction help you need to be drug free. You can, of course, go to a rehab facility where they’ll give you methadone for heroin or OxyContin and, more than likely, you’ll also get Xanax or Valium along with it. But is it really better than getting addiction help?

Taking these drugs is a relief to the drug companies that make them - they profit every time you go to the methadone clinic and every time you take a Xanax. Drug companies spend a lot of money trying to convince people that life is better on drugs.

But before you make a decision like that, there are few things you should know:

First, Xanax is one of the most addictive drugs around, and also extremely hard to stop.

Second, once you start on methadone it is very hard to stop - much worse than the heroin withdrawal you may have gone through or are so reluctant to go through.

In fact, even using methadone as a painkiller, which is becoming very common, is dangerous. Nancy Garvin of Mothers Against Medical.Org points out that methadone is the number one killer of all the prescription narcotics in the U.S. Thousands of people die from it every year – and you don’t have to abuse it for it to kill you.

Get the addiction help services you need – it may be harder than settling for a replacement drug but it doesn’t fill anyone’s pockets, and it definitely won’t kill you.

Denmark is going to try prescription heroin for their worse heroin addicts. This is not a new idea: other countries have tried it, or are considering it. Denmark is going to try methadone as well. I am wondering where the drugs will come from. Is there a pharmaceutical company poised to get into the heroin trade? Will there be generic drug companies in the U.S. and elsewhere getting involved as well? Did the poppy growers in Afghanistan see this coming, is that why heroin production is at or near an all time high? Do the heroin farmers know they will have a place for their crops with Big Pharma, or will the local dealers be selling it to the Danish government at a big profit? What ever happened to getting an addict the addiction help he needs so he can actually get off drugs?

Trying to get someone off drugs is the right choice here at Addiction Help Services. Denmark knows they have 500 addicts that are really having a difficult time. Is sending them to a drug detox and addiction treatment out of the question?

The onslaught of Oxycontin addiction and dependency is going to be the cause of more need for drug addiction help for heroin addicts. In 2007 a huge crop of opium from Afghanistan drove down the price of heroin. At Addiction Help Services we are starting to see or hear of people switching from OxyContin to heroin because of the cost and an inability to get prescriptions filled.

In 2008 you can expect to see more of the same because Afghanistan’s output is expected to be ’shockingly’ high  - although perhaps not quite as large as 2007 if government crackdowns are successful. Neverthless, the price of heroin should continue to stay low, and may come down even further. You can buy heroin for as little as $3 dollars a bag in Ohio and other places.

With prescription painkillers becoming the drug of choice among high school students from Kentucky to Ottawa you can expect heroin addiction will follow suit as those abusing painkillers discover that heroin is cheaper.

As long as prescription painkillers and other prescription drugs remain easy to get, their use will boost the demand for heroin and other street drugs, and addiction help will be needed by many more people.

Heroin users definitely need to get whatever addiction help they need to become drug free.

In a recent follow up study by the Drug Treatment Centre and Advisory Board in Dublin, Ireland, it was found that half the pregnant women treated for heroin addiction in 1985 are now dead. The women were in their late teens or early 20s in 1985 and the follow up study found 29 of them did not survive. HIV killed 17 of them, 28 died from medical illness such as pneumonia or heart failure and four died from suicide – two of which were drug overdoses.

Of the survivors, nine tested positive for heroin and 14 tested positive for heroin and at least one other drug.

The researchers also followed up on the children of the dead mothers and found that 37% had spent time in prison and 42% had a history of drug abuse.

It’s a sad outcome for so many women and their children. The ones who are still alive and still young might be able to get the drug addiction help they need. This is really something to think about if you know someone who is abusing prescription painkillers or heroin.

Addiction help services and treatment is available and you can lead a drug and alcohol free life. Heroin abuse and methamphetamines can lead to HIV and other illnesses that do kill you. Get the help you need. It is possible to end drug addiction, don’t end up dead.

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.

Massachusetts and the rest of the North East have prescription drug addiction problems, along with the heroin addiction, and some doctors are getting rich preying on these addicts instead of getting them the addiction help they need.

According to a recent article, doctors are charging up to $3000 for the first visit, and hundreds for subsequent visits, just to examine the addict and give them a prescription for Suboxone, a drug used to suppress withdrawal symptoms and reduce cravings.

Doctors are meeting patients in parking lots and telling them to come to the back door of their house to sell Suboxone prescriptions.

The cost of a safe medical drug detox and good addiction help at a rehab would be far less, and they would really get the addict off drugs.

If the addicts coming to these doctors knew they could go through a drug detox to help them get off drugs, and then get further addiction help at a drug rehab, they wouldn’t need to pay thousands of dollars to stay on Soboxone. They could go through a two-step process and become drug free.

It’s unfortunate that parents and friends don’t realize what they are doing by paying this sort of doctor instead of insisting the addict live drug free. Doctors who would prey on addicts certainly have confusions about the Hippocratic code. Parents should do whatever they can to get their kids the addiction help they need and turn the doctors who are extorting money from them over the DEA or the police.

All over the country there are unprincipled doctors using their licenses to get rich by prescribing drugs such as OxyContin or Soboxone to desperate addicts.

The important thing for families to remember is there is an option of a safe drug detox to get someone through withdrawal and physically fit. And they can then get further addiction help in drug rehab.

Not only is it the best thing to do, it would actually be cheaper than paying a doctor thousand of dollars for a visit and a prescription.

Dealing with addiction is hard –the first thing you have to do to get it out of your life is a little research, and then get help. If you need have a problem with addiction to prescription painkillers, or heroin, don’t go to an unethical doctor who will take advantage of your situation. Contact Addiction Help Services and they can help you find the real addiction help you need.