AHS Views

I was reading an article today on the number of used needles dropped on the streets by drug addicts in Edinburgh – it’s 800, every day. I can’t find these statistics for American cities but you can be sure they’re comparable. Edinburgh has a population of less than 1/2 million. In the U.S. we have 34 cities that size, and many much larger. And people who use needles represent only a fraction of the people needing addiction help.

Comparable U.S. statistics, taking into account the populations of cities of 500,000 or above, would add up to roughly 32,000 needles dropped on the street every day – about 11 million a year. That’s 11 million needles that could well be picked up and used by other addicts, 11 million outlets for HIV, AIDS or hepatitis.

When you consider that’s only a fraction of the damage caused by alcohol and drug addiction in the U.S., you start to get a feel for the magnitude of the problem.

You also start to get a feel for the lifestyle your kids, spouse, other family members and friends are being exposed to when they drink and take drugs if they don’t get addiction help services early in the game.

Ironically, the newspaper that reported this story offers a free glass of wine to everyone who reads the newspaper. Check out the banner ad above the story. How inappropriate can you get?

Drug rehab is more successful when other drugs aren’t substituted

I was recently doing research on alcohol abuse and came across some startling information – the current trend in alcohol and drug rehab programs is to get the person off drugs or alcohol by putting them on another drug. In other words, they simply substitute one drug for another and send the ‘former’ alcoholic or addict on their way – allegedly cured. This is called ‘medication therapy’ and, believe it or not, is actually considered valid ‘treatment’. However, successful drug rehab programs offer a drug-free approach.

Let me clarify the role of drugs in stopping addiction: When an alcoholic or drug addict wants to quit the habit, they first have to go through withdrawal. How painful an experience that will be depends on how much they’ve been drinking for how long, or what drugs they’ve been taking, and how much, for how long. Withdrawal can be severely painful and sometimes dangerous, even life-threatening. In fact, fear of withdrawal symptoms is often enough to deter any efforts to get clean.

To get through withdrawal safely and relatively comfortably, many people choose to do a medically-supervised drug or alcohol detox. This process often involves the use of drugs to lessen the withdrawal symptoms. However, the drugs are given for a very short time – sometimes just a few days – not enough to cause addiction. By the time the person has completed the detox and goes back out into the world, they are no longer taking drugs – not the drug they walked in on, and not the drug that helped them through withdrawal. Having come through withdrawal safely and relatively comfortably, the person can now get into full drug rehab, as needed, to address the reasons they turned to drugs or alcohol in the first place so they can fully handle their addiction. This bears no resemblance to ‘medication therapy’, and you should not confuse the two.

I’ve worked with many families and friends of addicts over the years and most are looking for programs that don’t require a person to be drugged up on pharmaceuticals when they leave treatment. The fact that so many places are now promoting the use of these substitutes for any type of addiction was shocking to me, especially in light of the fact that none of the drug rehabs using this type of treatment have a decent success rate. How could they? They’re not addressing the problem in any way, shape or form.

To the average person looking for help this may seem like the way to go. Personally, I would much rather not have to wake up every morning and take a pill just to get through the day. There are plenty of successful drug rehabs out there that don’t use ‘medication therapy, it’s just a matter of finding one that is the right fit for the user. If you’re looking for help for yourself or someone you love, my advice would be to ask for a drug-free drug rehab program.