AHS Views

Jockey Patrick Valenzuela has had a conditional license for the past several years due to substance abuse problems. On Friday he had his conditional license revoked by the California Horse Racing Board after being stopped and arrested for a DUI in Upland, California. It’s time for him to get the addiction help he needs.

During his stellar career - 3968 wins, including the 1989 Kentucky Derby aboard Sunday Silence - Mr. Valenzuela has had 10 interruptions due to drug or alcohol problems. He’s only 45 years old, and he has not been able to get his drug or alcohol abuse under control. He does need to finally make a change and get himself into a successful drug rehab program.
 
Mr. Valenzuela is not alone when it comes to substance abuse problems - nearly 20% of Americans over the age of 26 binge drink at least monthly, and millions of Americans use prescription drugs for reasons other than a medical condition.

It is also not a surprise that Mr. Valenzuela has not received the addiction help he needs to over come his dependence on drugs or alcohol. The same can be said of the majority of those who need treatment.

Tom Knust, Mr. Valenzuela’s agent said he was shocked by the news. He also said he wouldn’t represent him any longer.

The help Mr. Valenzuela  needs is available to him. I hope he gets it so he can end his drug and alcohol addiction issues.

Addiction Help Services can find you, a family member or a friend the treatment that you need.

Pennsylvania has a small population of drug users that can use addiction help. We are not talking about prescription drugs such as OxyContin, Xanax or Vicodin. We’re not even talking about the common illegal drugs. We’re talking about toad licking. And anyone who would go to those extremes to get high needs addiction help.

That’s right - toad licking. And it’s back in the news. Bill Graff, the Drug Czar of York County, Pennsylvania thought it was a joke. So did Diane Weaver of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Commission’s External Affairs Department and Dan Tredinnick, the press secretary for the Pennsylvania State Fish and Boat Commission.

All three laughed out loud about the prospect of toad licking as a way to get high and knew nothing about the arrest of the 21-year-old Colorado man in November of this year.

Toad licking will probably not make the news that often and certainly there are easier ways to abuse drugs. The venom from the toad could kill a dog, cause paralysis and all the while you can hallucinate. If you have it as a pet I suppose you could keep it out of harm’s way but still it could be dangerous.

Some people might make the case that hallucinogens such as these are more natural and thus they are safe. It would seem that a toad that has a self defense mechanism such as this is not safe as either a pet or a way to get high.

At Addiction Help Services we don’t believe that getting high is safe. And whether a hallucinogenic substance comes from a lab, toads, or is grown in the ground, it should not be used..

If you, a family member or a friend are using drugs, or toads, to get high we would like to get you the help you need at a successful drug treatment center. While the use of toads may seem funny, the abuse of drugs in any form is not. Addiction help services are available and we can help you find them.

Here’s the latest stats from Florida – in the first six months of the year 470 people were killed by cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines, and 1,324 were killed by prescriptions painkillers and tranquilizers. This is one state that is in serious need of addiction help services.

Which prescription drugs are killing all these people? Methadone, 392; benzodiazepines, e.g. Valium and Xanax, 353; oxycodone, i.e. OxyContin, 323; hydrocodone, e.g. Vicodin and Lortab, 134; morphine, 122.

I would bet that every single person in Florida who reads these statistics knows at least one person who is on one of these prescription drugs.

The article in which this info was published quoted the clinical director of a Miami Hospital’s substance abuse program as attributing the rise in prescription drug addiction and abuse to advertising. He compared them to McDonald’s hamburgers.

I can see the marqui now - OVER TEN BILLION SOLD!!! – not funny, I know.  But, believe me, Big Pharma is laughing all the way to the bank.

Take a stand. Get some addiction help.

The Wardle Academy, a center in Cheyenne, Wyoming that provides both prison facilities and substance abuse treatment for young people, has recently had a rash of incidents where the kids in jail have beat up the kids in drug treatment. As a result, the state has removed about 2 dozen kids to other drug treatment facilities, and is possibly going to remove more by the end of September. The kids being relocated are between 12 and 17 years old – that’s the kids who are there for substance abuse treatment – and are being placed in drug rehab programs where they will be safe.

There’s a bunch of political stuff going on with this – the facility says the state hasn’t removed any kids, the state says they have, one report says the state is withdrawing the facility’s license for substance abuse treatment, another report says they might renew it, etc., etc. etc. The usual stuff.

But nevermind all that – they’ve got 12-year-olds kids in there for alcohol and drug abuse! And when they get there, they’re getting beaten up by the kids in jail. On top of that, there was a 26 year old guy arrested there within the last week or two on suspicion of selling and delivering cocaine. Officials won’t reveal his connection with the facility.

All in all, a messy scene. Not conducive to successful drug rehab – that’s for sure. If you’re looking at checking into rehab, or helping someone you care about get off drugs, make sure you find a drug rehab program that’s safe. It’s almost impossible for a person to get down to the bottom of their drug problem and be rehabilitated in a threatening environment.

Some drug rehab centers are concerned about a guidance document that is currently on the Food and Drug Administration’s Docket (FDA No. 2006D-0480) that reveals plans to reclassify all vegetable juices, herbs and vitamins as FDA regulated drugs. Even things like massage oils and massage rocks will be classified as “medical devices”.

According to the document, once these vitamins, minerals and other natural methods are regulated, the FDA can then ban anything that they feel is a drug and these supplements can be taken off the market. Currently, there are millions of people using natural supplements as they are much safer and cause no side effects in comparison to many of the drugs that are being approved and promoted by the FDA everyday.

This could be a blow to the drug rehab field. It’s been shown that drug free methods to handle addiction with the use of natural supplements statistically achieve the best success rates.

Many of the clients that undergo this type of drug rehab treatment end up being successfully rehabilitated from addiction and do not have periods
of relapse. Trying to regulate these natural methods would be disastrous in the substance abuse treatment arena as many non-traditional treatment methods are now being used.

To comment on this docket