AHS Views

You would think that schools would be a relatively safe place when it comes to drugs and alcohol. At the very least, you would expect that if you can educate and protect your kids from other kids who drink and take drugs, and sell them, you wouldn’t have much to worry about. And if you can stop them from drinking and taking drugs early in life, there’s a far less chance you’ll have to find alcohol or drug addiction help for them when they get older.

But, unfortunately, protecting your kids from other kids who drink and take drugs is not the only problem – even teachers sometimes give student alcohol and drugs.

Almost every week in the news you see teachers involved with selling drugs to students.

This week it was a special education teacher (of all things) who was also a softball coach. A woman.

According to the report: “This was all after hours, off school property. It was with the presence of this teacher on a couple of occasions and then also at another third location where the teacher was actually given the money and brought alcohol and then also was there while alcohol was being consumed by these minor students,” said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill.

One of the parents found text messages between their daughter and the teacher and reported it to the authorities. After investigation, the teacher was charged with five different offenses. She has now resigned and is awaiting trial – out on $5,000 bail.

Another report was about a teacher addicted to heroin. Another woman, and only 25 years old. She and a partner stole 22 computers from Pittsburgh’s Creative and Performing Arts high school to buy drugs.

She wasn’t caught until she and the same partner, an ex-boyfriend, tried to rob a bank. She then confessed to the computer thefts as well as some thefts of personal items from neighbor’s homes.

We used to be able to look up to teachers. They were the go-to people when there was any trouble. And they could be depended upon to set a good example to our kids. Now we know that they might need drug rehab as badly as some of their students – or worse.

Some teachers in universities and colleges even condone the use of prescription drugs – so called ‘study drugs’ like Adderall and Ritalin.

So when you’re educating your kids about drugs, don’t just paint the picture of drug dealers and drug users being unsavory characters that hang out in dark alleys.

Drug abusers come in all shapes and sizes, and from every walk of life.

Officials in Tennessee are predicting a surge in heroin addiction. Why? Is there a bumper crop of poppies in Afghanistan? Have the Mexican drug cartels pumped up their marketing efforts or lowered their heroin prices? No. It’s because there are so many people suffering from OxyContin addiction and addiction to other painkillers and prescription drugs, and those drugs are SO expensive, that the addicts are switching to heroin.

Why aren’t they just getting addiction help to overcome their problem? Well, that’s the nature of addiction; people don’t just walk into a drug addiction treatment center because they can no longer afford to support their addiction. They find ways to get the money – usually illegal and dangerous – or they find cheaper drugs.

Are we talking about druggies shooting up in alleys? No. We’re talking about the middle class – white collar workers and high school and college students coming from nice homes.

They tend to snort or smoke heroin instead of injecting it – that makes it more socially acceptable AND they have the false idea that if you don’t inject it, it’s less addictive – and dealers will even deliver to their homes, offices and dorm rooms.

It’s a regular gourmet take-out and delivery.

And instead of paying $30 to $80 per pill for OxyContin, hydrocodone or other prescription drugs, they only pay $10.

Prescription drug addiction is more common than you might think. It’s epidemic all over the U.S., and there’s a good chance that someone you are close to has a prescription drug addiction or abuse problem – your kids, some of their friends, your nieces or nephews, even your spouse.

If you need addiction help for prescription drugs – for yourself or anyone else – contact Addiction Help Services. Don’t let your family and friends turn into heroin addicts. Now is the time to help them change their lives.

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.

One of the MPs (Members of Parliament) in England is suggesting that the war on heroin and cocaine – on drug dealers – be won by making heroin and cocaine available by prescription from doctors. It is hoped that the dealers won’t be able to stay in business and, consequently, the drug scene will cool off.

Okay, that may help part of the problem. But it’s a very ‘if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em’ solution. It’s like discovering that certain chemicals babies come into frequent contact with are harming them and, instead of tackling industry with it’s powerful lobbyists, vested interests and unlimited funding, you change the law to make poisoning babies legal.

So what would the consequences be of making heroin and cocaine available by prescription? Would England be free of drug dealers? I don’t think so. Why? To name just a couple of things that make it impractical:

1. A lot of people wouldn’t want to admit they’re using heroin or cocaine – don’t want the family to know, might endanger their job, reputation, and so on – so they would go to a dealer, not a doctor.

2. There are a lot of drugs out there other than cocaine and heroin. Do we also make club drugs and methamphetamine available by prescription? If not, the dealers stay in business.

3. Addicts would have to be prepared to get a lecture on getting into drug rehab every time they went to re-fill their prescription. But not every addict will put up with that. At least, I would HOPE they’d get someone continually trying to get them off drugs. Maybe they’ll just do the same as they’ve done with methadone – just park them on heroin and leave them there.

Overall, not the best scenario.

And let’s not even discuss the fact that heroin and cocaine would probably then be manufactured and supplied by Big Pharma – even further solidifying the drug industry’s hold on the world. Wouldn’t they love to get their hands on that market? They’re already probably doubling he profits made on things like Oxycontin just because of having to re-supply hospitals and pharmacies that get their goods stolen. And then there are the God-knows-how-many people who are getting their Oxy from several docs so they can resell them on the street – those supplies have to be restocked too. Really, Big Pharma’s got to be raking in as much on the illegal use of Oxy as on the legal.

No doubt there would also be considerable oppression on the addiction help industry if Big Pharma supplied the drugs. Nothing is quite as important to Big Pharma as profits.

If it came down to making drugs legal or making them available by prescription, I think I would opt for making them legal. How about you?

Lady Gaga, an American pop-star, has topped music charts and created controversy over some of her fairly risqué song topics and videos. She’s definitely got quite a following of fans, some of whom are younger girls who hear her music on radio stations around the US or buy her cds.
She recently did a photo shoot and feature article for Vanity Fair Magazine, which she’ll grace the cover of, for the September issue. In the article, she talked about her life and the drug abuse that went on, before becoming a household name. She also mentioned that she’s an “occasional” cocaine user.

She stressed the word occasional and clarified by saying it was only “a couple of times a year”.  She’s terrified of heroin, but occasionally using cocaine as if it’s no big deal.

In the article, after mentioning the cocaine, she went on to say that she didn’t condone drug abuse and would want her fans not to follow a path to disaster (drug addiction). Ok, what planet is this girl from? She knows she’s got a huge following of young, impressionable girls who tend to mimic super-star behavior. Stating that you do a little cocaine here and there is not anywhere close to being role model material. And perhaps she’s not trying to be a role model, but still, she must know that this isn’t good.

There are so many stars out there who think they’re above the law. Who think that they can do anything they want and there won’t be any major consequences because of wealth and fame. Look at Lindsay Lohan for goodness sake!

These celebrities are real people like you and me. Some of them have drug issues like any regular person can have. It appears that Lady Gaga could use some addiction help services. How often can someone “occasionally” use cocaine and not ever have any negative consequences? It could wind up being tragic!

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.

Every day I see articles telling parents to discuss drugs with their children if they want them to stay drug-free. Statistics show that kids whose parents talk to them about drugs are 50% less like to take them. But often parents don’t know what to say and, because of that, don’t talk to them about the subject at all.

Really, all that’s really necessary is to educate your kids. Do a little research and find out about drugs yourself – that’s the first step. Do an Internet search for information on methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, MDMA, and marijuana to start with, and then find out about prescription drugs. There are many prescription drugs to watch out for – any tranquilizers, sedatives, sleeping pills, antidepressants, painkillers, ADD and ADHD drugs like Ritalin and Adderall (they’re similar to methamphetamine and cocaine) are very common.

Find out how they work and their side effects. You can also read stories and articles about drug addicts, or former drug addicts, and find out how drugs have affected their lives.

Once you know a little about it yourself, talk to your kids.

If you start when they’re really young – they may be offered drugs in the schoolyard or by a friend by the time they’re 8 or 10 – they’ll know that drugs are very dangerous and they’ll refuse to take them. Or, at least, there’s a 50% chance they’ll refuse. Not a guarantee – but better than the chances if they don’t know what they’re getting into.

Start by bringing it up in conversations when the opportunity presents itself – during a TV show, a commercial about drugs, when seeing someone on the street who is homeless and might be on drugs, and so on. Or take the time to teach them about their body and how it works, and fit it in there. 

If your kids are a little older, it would be a good idea to have a sitdown for the express purpose of teaching them about drugs.

Some parents think their kids will never get on drugs so they don’t take the time to do this education. But kids from all walks of life, even great kids who seem close to perfect, try them all the time. No one is immune.

Many parents don’t find out their kids are taking drugs until they’re already at the point of needing addiction help. Opening up the subject through education early on will help prevent that and, if they do experiment, they’re also more likely to be willing to talk about it so you can nip it in the bud.

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.