AHS Views

Any woman who could possibly get pregnant should get addiction help before they’re pregnant so they don’t endanger their child. What can happen?

We’ve all heard about children who are born addicted to one drug or another, and the horror they go through as the doctors try to get the infants through withdrawal.

You may or may not know that children of methamphetamine addicts, for example, have trouble growing as a fetus and, as infants, have problems with the nervous system and motor function.

But the problems don’t end there. According to a recent study published in Pediatrics magazine, 3- and 5-year-old children of mothers who used methamphetamine suffer from anxiety and depression, and when they’re 5 they can also develop the symptoms of attention deficit disorder and other learning and behavioral problems.

The researchers took alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana into account and isolated methamphetamine as the problem.

Anyone who cares about children – and is sober or straight enough to actually perceive the problems – couldn’t possibly put children through that kind of hell.

Unfortunately, people who are on drugs are often too out of it to do anything about it. In fact, one of the symptoms of addiction is that the person continues to use drugs (or alcohol) despite the fact that it’s harming themselves and others – their unborn children included.

If you know a woman who is taking drugs, explain to her what can happen to her children if she has drugs in her system while pregnant. Then get them into a drug rehab program so they can straighten out. If she ever wants to be a mother – and wants to be a good one – it’s not going to happen on drugs.

Drug dealers and methamphetamine users have now found a new way to make meth – one that evades detection by authorities and reduces the cost of meth, making it even more available. Another good reason to get anyone who is already using meth, or is using drugs at all (which makes them more prone to using meth), into an addiction help program as soon as possible.

Meth is one of the worst drugs around. It is highly addictive, causes rapid deterioration of the body and mind, and is associated with a lot of crime. People on meth are a mess, they are definitely not themselves. Physically, the toll meth takes is so dramatic that a parent would be hard-pressed to recognize their son or daughter after only a year of use. Mentally, they are scattered, anxious and, as they use more and more, focused on one thing – the drug.

Some of the damage can be irreversible. Again, drug rehab is the answer. And it can’t be one of those programs that basically just helps you dry out and then sends you to meetings. The chances of that working with a meth addict are virtually nil. They need the real thing – residential treatment that helps get the meth out of the body, focuses on restoring the person’s health, finds and addresses the reasons they’re doing drugs and ensures they have a good handle on the environment they’ll be going into when they leave the program.

Busting meth labs is one of the ways authorities try to control meth. In fact, the number of meth labs located and closed down is an important statistic. The labs in themselves are extremely dangerous places, they exude poisonous fumes and can quite easily blow up..

The fumes have a very distinct and unpleasant smell, making them fairly easy to locate – as long as someone nearby notices and reports it.

Now the makers of meth have found a way to get around the smelly lab problem. They have a new process known as “Shake and Bake.” This method allows the drug to be made in smaller doses and without ‘cooking’ it. All you need is a soda bottle, some household chemicals and cold pills from the drug store, and it requires fewer cold pills than the cook method.

Not that it can’t still blow up. In fact, there’s an even greater chance of explosion and that explosion would be even more damaging since, as one journalist put it, “they’re holding the bomb in their hand.”

It can be made virtually anywhere, at any time.

Some areas of the country are seeing a rise in meth addicts because of it, and that rise is being anticipated across the country as more and more people start using this method.

If you hear someone in your household talking about Shake and Bake – one of your kids, or their friends – they might not be talking about chicken. Take heed, and get them addiction help right away. If they didn’t need it, they wouldn’t even be talking about it.

In case you’ve been wondering about the new drug called ‘bath salts’, here’s some additional information. By the way, if you have kids or friends who use drugs, you have to warn them about bath salts. A guy who’s been using the drug since December just murdered his girlfriend. Bath salts can cause very strange, erratic and dangerous behavior – get anyone you know who you think might take it, or has, into an addiction help program asap.

Bath salts is a drug that resembles bath salts, rock crystals, hence, its name. The real name of the chemical is Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV). It’s a stimulant drug – like speed, methamphetamine, cocaine, and so on – and has an erratic and intense effect.

MDPV has been used in Europe for several years and is banned in the United Kingdom.

The American Association of Poison Control Centers has recorded 1,403 overdoses in the U.S. since late 2010 – just a few months. That’s definitely above the norm.

A single dose of MDPV ranges from 50 mg to 100 mg. You can buy a 500 mg pack in little convenience stores for about $30. A very cheap high that practically anyone can afford.

A single dose can keep a user awake for up to 36 hours and, in addition to the usual euphoria that goes along with most drugs, has side effects that include hypertension, insomnia, nausea and dizziness.

Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood), who introduced legislation to ban the drug, said “It has a Russian roulette range. Someone may get a raging heart while someone else has psychotic events.” She also said MDPV is associated with self-mutilation and participating in assault.

Steven Marcus, medical director of the New Jersey Poison Control Center, said “We have people run down the street screaming.”

Other Assemblymen and Senators have also proposed bills, or are about to, to get this drug banned quickly.

MDPV is a real nightmare. When you consider that anyone can get this drug just about anywhere – sometimes even labeled and disguised as real bath salts, the ban can’t be soon enough.

If someone you know takes drugs, warn them about bath salts/Methylenedioxypyrovalerone/MDPV. Better still, get them into drug rehab. One of the unfortunate facts about people on drugs is that they can’t make the right decisions – so they might take bath salts despite warnings. Just get them some help.

There was a local news item last week about a woman who was using meth while breast-feeding her baby. The baby died due to methamphetamine toxicity. She had another child as well – a 19-month old baby. After authorities tested the baby for meth and found the baby tested positive, the child was taken from the mother. This is a classic example of why someone who is pregnant, or even could become pregnant, should get addiction help asap.

Methamphetamine isn’t the only thing that is passed onto a baby from mom’s body. In fact, studies have been done on umbilical cord blood – these were newborns, the baby hasn’t even had a chance to get any mother’s milk – and found nearly 300 chemicals in the cord blood.

All of those chemicals were absorbed from mom’s body. And some of them are very dangerous. They can cause all kinds of problems – everything from neurological disorders to early puberty (some girls are growing breasts and pubic hair by the time they’re 9 years old), boys growing smaller sexual organs, and so on.

Some chemicals can also cause autism and so-called learning disorders.

Of course, when it comes to drugs you are also risking having an infant with full-blown drug addiction. Getting off drugs is hard for anyone: imagine what it’s like for a baby who has no understanding of what’s going on. Horrible.

A mother’s body is a baby’s first home. If you want a healthy baby, and a healthy child as they grow up, mom’s body has to be as clean as possible. Free of chemicals and free of drugs.

If this mother is convicted, she will spend nine years in prison. I would think that knowing you killed your baby, and poisoned your other child and had that child also taken from you, would be very hard to live with. Especially when she finally gets off drugs and is in a position where she can see what she’s done with a clear head.

I read an article this morning about meth lab busts in ‘Miami County.’ When I first saw the headline I read ‘Miami,’ but didn’t really notice the ‘County.’ I then discovered they were talking about Miami County, Indiana! Big surprise. An even bigger surprise was the number of meth lab busts in Indiana - 1,059 in 2008.  That’s nearly three a day!!

Meth is nasty. Check out the photos on the Faces of Meth site and you’ll see what I mean. Severe deterioration – some of it irreversible – within just months of using it. And the damage isn’t just external, the brain and other organs get really messed up.

You can imagine how many meth addicts there are in Indiana, and how many faces will soon look like those, if they don’t already. A thousand meth labs can support a lot of drug habits!! Who would have thought you’d find that kind of drug abuse in Indiana of all places?!

If you know someone on meth, getting them into a meth rehab center as quickly as possible will help make sure that their face doesn’t turn into what you see on the Faces of Meth site.

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.

I recently had occasion to meet one of the major marketing people for perhaps the best-known energy drink. More caffeine than about 10 cups of coffee in one little can. She confessed to having been wired on this stuff – but said she’s now down to about 6 cans a day. I don’t know the stats on her drink specifically but, for some of them, that’s the equivalent of about 64 cans of coke. A day. What are the possibilities of this leading to taking drugs?

Caffeine is addictive, although it doesn’t produce anywhere near the serious side effects of drugs when you try to get off it, but I wonder how many people who drink energy drinks in these amounts wind up getting into drugs. When you’ve had that much false energy pumped into your body, you’ve got to feel drained and lifeless when you stop drinking it – which opens the door to saying yes to a little ’pick-me-up’ offered by a friend. A pick-me-up that might include methamphetamine, cocaine, or one of the many meth-type prescription drugs that help keep you awake.

According to some research, energy drinks might well be gateway drugs. Roland Griffiths, one of the authors of a Johns Hopkins Medical Institution study on caffeine intoxication, said there is evidence that energy drinks are gateway drugs. He suggested that the drinks should have FDA warning labels – not about the gateway drug end of things, but about the possibility of caffeine intoxication.

One of the commenters laughed at this – said if the FDA was going to put warnings on energy drinks they should also put warnings on Coca Cola, pointing out that the name came from COKE – i.e. cocaine. But it hasn’t contained cocaine since 1929, so no need for the FDA to do that. I hope the commenter isn’t disappointed to find that out.

Personally, I would see a kid drinking a lot of energy drinks as a warning sign. Either there’s something physically wrong with the person – so they need energy desperately – or they’re wired. Or they’re just stupid. In which case, I’d definitely be worried since there’s a much better chance of them saying yes to an offer of a little pill that will create the same effect. Maybe someone will give them a Ritalin or Adderall. Especially if it’s a college kid trying to stay awake or using ‘study drugs’ (speed) to focus.

When a person does one thing that’s harmful to their body, they’re more likely to do another. And it could get them in a lot of trouble. Including the eventually need for addiction help.

My advice? Check into it. 

Although methamphetamine is in widespread use across the country, there are some areas where use is heavier than others. Some communities have formed groups to fight drug addiction and abuse in their area. One such group, the District Court’s Monitoring Assessment Program (MAP) in the Canon City area of Colorado, says that 80% of those involved in the program are meth users. They have a comprehensive program that includes treatment, education, and so on. And they say they’ve had an 82% success rate since they started 18 months ago. The program is really giving people the addiction help they need, and the meth use has been slashed.

One recent case they handled is featured in a news article in the Canon City Daily Record. This man’s story is typical of what happens with meth users, including getting arrested and hauled off to jail in front of his young daughter. Read the story to get an idea of why it’s so important to fight meth abuse.

It also illustrates a couple of other points. The man was a roofer. He had been using meth for 20 years in a somewhat controlled fashion - he said he was ‘self-medicating’ to handle his back pain.  No one knew about it.

Then a contractor he did some work for didn’t pay him. That put him in serious financial trouble and he started selling meth to survive.

Someone who wasn’t already addicted to a drug probably would have found another solution – like others do. But because he was already using drugs, that incident was enough to put him over the edge and turn him into a drug dealer.

The point is – it doesn’t take much to move from using drugs recreationally or as a pain medication, which was his situation, to a life of crime. And once someone’s addicted to drugs, it can happen easily. Their back is up against a wall – they need drugs now.

That’s one more reason to make sure anyone you care about who takes drug gets addiction help services as soon as possible. They may not even think they’re addicted, but when they no longer can get the drug, they find out pretty quickly. And you never really know what will happen that could push them over that edge.

The Arizona police department received an unusual donation last week - a meth scanner. Concerned about the meth problem, a subsidiary of BHP Hilton, the world’s largest mining company, gave the police a scanner that can detect trace amounts of meth on any surface. Hopefully, this will enable the police to find and get addiction help for more people – as well as locating the dealers who are creating the problem.

Addiction to methamphetamine is a very ugly thing. It cause physical deterioration faster than just about any other drug, not to mention extreme personality changes. Check out the Faces of Meth for very graphic before and after images.

Some of the images show progressions – what someone looks like after 6 months, a year, two years, etc. The changes are so obvious, and so common, that it’s a good gauge to use to determine if someone you care about could be taking meth.

If so, get them into addiction help services asap. As you can imagine from the photos, their lifespan is usually cut pretty short. And life is hell in the meantime.

I read an article today with an amazing, ‘unbelievable’ would be more correct, statistic – just a few years ago 30% of the residents of Coles County Illinois used meth. That’s an astounding statistic. Even more astounding is that Illinois is is cutting $43 million of the funding for addiction help services.

I’ve studied a lot of statistics and have never, ever seen one that bad. They’ve got a real problem and it’s amazing that the state would cut funding for addiction help programs. Not only will many people who need addiction help have nowhere to turn to get their lives sorted out, it doesn’t even make sense economically – the crime rate will go up (more money spent in courts, prisons, police), the number of emergency room visits will increase, the number of deaths from drugs will increase, and so will the number of people being introduced to the drug. 

If you’re looking for addiction help for someone on meth (or any other drug), your chances of getting it from state-funded programs are far less. Addiction help services can help you find the addiction help you need – and they’ll find better, more successful programs.