AHS Views

Natalie Ciappa, an 18-year-old high school student who overdosed and nearly died on Memorial Day weekend, promised her parents (and probably herself) she was going to stop using heroin. But less than a month later, she was dead. The drug problem had been going on for over a year but she had refused addiction help.

It’s hard to know how long it would have taken for someone to figure out she was dead - when her mother awoke the next morning and Natalie wasn’t home, she went to the location of the party Natalie was attending and found her there dead on a sofa. Still with other people there. They hadn’t even noticed she was dead.

Natalie’s mother and father had been coping with her drug problem for over a year. They had tried everything, but hadn’t gotten her to rehab. She’d overdosed and wound up in the hospital less than a month before she died and her parents had thought she’d stopped.

The chances of stopping heroin because of an overdose are slim without drug addiction help. The drug has such a hold on you - and the same is true of many other drugs - that it really doesn’t matter that your life, or anyone else’s, is threatened.

Natalie was a top student and an excellent singer - with an excellent future. The last person you would expect to be a drug addict. The same as your kids. Don’t mess with it - get them addiction help services, no matter what you have to do. It’s really the only way to overcome drug addiction.

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. 

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.

Crack cocaine is becoming a bigger problem in Maine according to York’s Chief of Police Douglas Bracy. You can be sure that addiction help will be necessary as more kids become addicted.

Chief Bracy is warning parents to keep track of their kids because of the influx of cocaine. He strongly suggests that you know where they are and where they are going so they don’t end up needing addiction help. Kids who want to try drugs will migrate toward something like crack because it’s cheap, but it’s also very addictive. One high school student has already been arrested, Jared Turner, a 17-year-old who had been suspended from the football team. Maine had an influx of heroin five years ago and Chief Bracy is comparing the cocaine influx to that. I am wondering if the crack may be replacing methamphetamines - meth prices have gone up and, with all the restrictions on the ingredients for meth, maybe clever drug dealers have decided to supply something else.

Crack, like heroin, is coming down in price – and both are easy to get. Most kids think trying crack or using it occasionally isn’t dangerous. Unfortunately, those kids will be the first to need addiction help services.

Thanks for your comments on the recent blogs on methadone. One thing I want to clarify is that it is not our intention to suggest that someone who’s been through drug rehab 17 times, has had migraines most of their life, or has degenerative physical problems or injuries that make it impossible to live a normal life should not take methadone. That’s not the point. Those are extreme circumstances and, as such, they call for extreme measures.

We’re concerned about the people who don’t have extreme situations and still wind up on methadone, or other potentially dangerous drugs and with the irresponsible prescribing of methadone and keeping people parked on it for years without ever really putting in the effort to get them through a drug rehab, without ever attempting to get them properly detox’d so they can get through withdrawal safely and without excruciating pain, without ever attempting to get their bodies back to, or maybe for the first time, functioning properly, without ever attempting to get to the bottom of why they started taking drugs in the first place and helping them resolve those issues.

This is a labor of love. We don’t see people on drugs as contemptible – although people who keep others on drugs unnecessarily or lead them to think that they can’t do otherwise are a different story. But we do see that, at times, drugs are necessary.

I would really appreciate the names of those 17 drug treatment or other programs that people have been to that did not work for them. We help people find addiction help services that have a comparatively good success rate and are suited to their situation. We would really like to know which ones you went to so we can be sure not to recommend them to others.

I would also appreciate knowing more about why you started taking drugs in the first place. Thanks again for responding.

Some people don’t want addiction help, and some people do. Yesterday I wrote a blog about methadone. I received numerous comments from people who are on methadone for pain, or because they were addicted to heroin and wanted to overcome that addiction, but when drug rehab and other addiction help treatment didn’t work for them, they turned to methadone.

I don’t see that anyone would have a problem with someone in chronic pain using methadone because they just can’t function without it. I certainly don’t.

However, there are a few things I would like to say to those who are using it to overcome heroin addiction, or addiction to other opiates.

• Everyone who commented felt strongly that methadone was not a replacement for heroin. Okay, so why is it called Methadone Replacement Therapy - MRT?  Because that’s exactly what it is. Methadone replaces the heroin. If you search “replacement for heroin” on the Internet, methadone is what you will find. So please tell me what would be a better description.
• One commenter said that methadone is used only for those who have not been successful with drug rehab or other addiction help. That may be the case for those who are on methadone more or less permanently, but it is not the case for people who are taking methadone as a step towards full recovery – i.e. no longer dependent on or addicted to any drug.
• After receiving the comments, I called several people connected to rehab and detox facilities to do an informal survey. What I learned from that survey was that between 40% and 60% of the people who want to get off methadone are also taking benzodiazepines. Xanax is the most commonly prescribed benzo. Whether they get it from a methadone clinic or not doesn’t seem relevant. Nor does the fact that most, not all, methadone deaths happen when methadone is combined with other drugs – or alcohol. Perhaps those people who are taking methadone think they’re not going to be taking any other drugs so there is no risk. Well, many of them may not take other street drugs but there’s obviously a good chance – about a 50% chance, according to my little survey -  that they have been, or will be, prescribed another drug by their doctor. What happens to the risk factor then?
• I have worked with many former heroin addicts. In fact, I employ and work with several currently. All of them have been completely drug free for over five years. I also have two kids who received addiction help and are now drug free. I have a son-in-law who was a heroin addict and is now drug free - he kicked cold turkey. And I have a friend who edits for me – she was a heroin addict and also kicked cold turkey, with no addiction help, two decades ago. It can and has been done by thousands of people. It is not an incurable disease.
• One commenter mentioned that methadone was not harder to get off of than heroin and said it just takes longer. I would say that if someone is experiencing pain and discomfort for a longer period of time that you could describe that as ‘harder’. The longer the withdrawal process, the less likely you will have success. Most people cannot withdraw by themselves; in fact I have seen failure rates in the 90% range - which is why some people do better when they also have medically assisted drug detox. You use some drugs for a brief period of time, but then you’re off them altogether.
• I have yet to see any scientific proof that former heroin addicts cannot produce enough endorphins and therefore need methadone. I have also not heard of anyone getting their endorphin levels tested prior to being put on methadone replacement therapy. So, where is the proof that endorphin deficiency is the source of the problem? Where is the proof that the right addiction help couldn’t work? If you have real data on this, I would appreciate receiving it.

I was never addicted to heroin so I cannot feel what you feel. But the fact is, with enough persistence, people can get off heroin and not need methadone. People can live drug free and none of you should have a problem with that. You may have chosen the methadone path, but addiction help is possible - which is why I do what I do.

If you don’t want addiction help, if you would prefer to stay on methadone, then you certainly don’t need anyone’s permission to do so. But if you think it would be a good idea to live drug free, by all means look for other alternatives. I don’t know how many thousands of people have been successful finding the addiction help they need to overcome heroin without having to replace it – yes, that’s what it is – with methadone, but I do know that, for most, it is possible. Call me if you would like to look into it. 877-554-7308. That’s Addiction Help Services.

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.

The cheese heroin deaths of two dozen children has prompted a $100 million federal grant for school districts in Dallas/Ft. Worth to educate children and parents on the dangers of the drug, according to a recent news article in the Carrollton Leader. While education certainly helps, the program unfortunately does not include drug rehab.

“There are not many treatment centers, and most of those that are on the voluntary basis are very expensive and out of the reach of some of our parents,” said Charles Cole, an assistant superintendent in a local school district. “That’s why we try to educate our parents on some things that they can do that would be helpful.”

Cheese heroin is heroin cut, or mixed with, less potent drugs such as Tylenol. The combination is perceived as less dangerous than heroin, but the number of overdose deaths in the area certainly doesn’t support that perception.

Education will help fight the drug, and fewer people will get hooked. But if some of that $100 million was spent on a successful drug rehab program, it would also help those who are currently addicted, and prevent deaths from overdose.

I came across a news item today in Yahoo News about a man who crashed his car into a drug rehab center. He was under the influence of drugs at the time of the accident.

The man, whose name was not released, crashed his car into the Clifton Heights Drug Treatment Center on Wednesday afternoon and was found in his car unconscious with a needle sticking out of his arm. Police say the man had overdosed. They suspect the drug was heroin.

An ambulance was called but the man regained consciousness when the paramedics were loading him in, and he tried to jump out and make a run for it. He was caught by the police and restrained.  

The article also said that the man was apparently a former patient at the treatment center,  but there was no word on whether he was trying to be readmitted or if he was just happened to be driving by.

In most cases an addict will not ask to be admitted into drug rehab but, in this situation, it seems like this guy knew exactly where he needed to be.