One of the political science professors, Carole Kennedy, commented “Now it’s drugs,” she said. “Maybe next time it’s about political dissent. . . . What happens when you have students talking about federal income tax policy, saying they’re not going to pay their taxes? Are they going to bring in IRS agents?”

She’s got a point. As of just 10 years ago or so, and it may still be going on, China’s universities were loaded with informants who reported any sign of dissent to the police. Every Friday police made made their rounds of the campus to pick up kids who were reported on, threw them into a black paddy wagon and took them away. The dissenters didn’t have to do much: questioning the ideas disseminated in propaganda class - e.g. is it really true that Westerners charge their elderly parents to come to their home for a meal? - was enough. They had a similar situation in Russia where one in every four people in any room was a government informant. You can see why a political science professor would see SDSU’s move as a move towards the thought police.

Of course, we’re not talking about ‘thoughts’, we’re talking about drugs that could lead to the need for addiction help and, possibly, kill you. As a student not involved in drugs it would be good to know that someone is getting rid of drug dealers, and as a parent it would be good to know that drug dealers are not offering drugs to your college student kid.

But, as a human being, student or otherwise, it would be nice to know that your friend really is your friend and not just pretending to be so they can spy on you.

The intention of the FDA is to catch the big fish - the drug dealers who are encouraging addiction and risking the lives of other students. It could make college campuses much safer, and parents would have far less to worry about when they send their kids off to college. It might also help ensure those who already have drug problems get the addiction help services they need.

What kind of budgeting decision is that? Okay - we’re short $1.9 million, let’s cut the things that are least expensive and in favor of those that cost more. And, in the process, let’s up the crime rate and keep more people addicted to drugs so we can increase the state expenses even further. Backward thinking.

And how does the governor propose to solve the never-ending drug/crime cycle? Drug court has not only saved many lives by offering addiction help, it’s gotten families back together, reduced crime and drug addiction.

Now it’s even more important than ever to get your friends and family the addiction help services they need - there’s a good chance they won’t get it through drug court.

Even more signficant are those who profit from it.  The article states that “In recent years, the Afghan government has rolled out plans to help wean addicts off opium and eradicate poppy fields,” and that the country “is under pressure from the international community to stop poppy cultivation.”

Let’s get real: We’re dealing with a country that supplies most of the world’s heroin. With that amount of money involved, there’s not much chance that pressure will be taken too seriously. The only thing likely to make a difference is to dry up the demand - getting everyone in the country the addiction help they need. But that’s also not likely to happen. Again, I’m sure those who are making big bucks off it will see to that.

Afghanistan, especially the southern part, has long had a casual attitude towards opium. Nearly a million people are addicted to heroin - including babies getting their thrice daily dose. The situation is so bad that many people in the country can’t really work. And the Taliban gets 10% of the take. The people are surrounded by enemies.

Isn’t that likely the future of any country with such a problem? Is the U.S. headed there with the prescription drug epidemic? Look at the lives of most heroin addicts - not a pretty site. Is there any reason to believe that OxyContin and other prescription painkillers won’t create the same lives? A country can’t be any more than the sum of it’s parts. There are a lot of reasons to ensure anyone you know with a drug problem gets addiction help services. Saving the country might be one of them.

Karla Ramirez, the aunt of the girl who is in recovery, explained, ”When the effects didn’t hit right away, they just kept taking more pills. They had no idea what they were dealing with.”

And that pretty much sums up the methadone problem - people just don’t know what they’re dealing with. It’s a tricky drug. You don’t feel the usual effects you would expect from an opiate, other than having it kill pain, and, consequently, either take more methadone or take another drug on top of it. This results in overdose and, sometimes, death. They go to sleep and never wake up.

Another unfortunate result of this incident is that the home where this occured will no longer have people who need addiction help services referred there by officials in New Jersey or Pennsylvania, and another group home was also cut off. How many people won’t be able to get the addiction help they need due to the criminal neglect of one employee?

The facility is no longer  

T, but rather than getting the help they need

In fact, if we had adequate addiction help services available, we could do away with some of the prisons - every crime has a motive, and drugs provide some of the strongest motivation around. One that motive is removed, a crime-free life usually follows.

How does drug addiction cause crime? First of all, someone on drugs really isn’t themselves. Otherwise wonderful people can get very nasty and irrational, and sometimes violent, when they’re drinking - and the same is true of drugs. However, drugs add some other elements that are often not present with alcohol: Alcohol is cheap, there aren’t too many people trying to figure out how to get $600 a day to support an alcohol problem. Also, unless you’re a died in the wool alcoholic craving another drink with every fiber of your being, you also don’t feel like you’re going to snap unless you get more. Drug addicts get desperate, very desperate and, as is well known, many drug addicts will do anything they have to to get their next hit.

That is not to say that alcohol isn’t dangerous - it is. And there’s a lot of alcohol-related crime as well.

Whatever the addiction, drugs or alcohol, and no matter how serious the crime, if the guy’s going back out onto the street, you’d better make sure he’s also gotten the addiction help services he needs.  Otherwise, there’s a good chance he’ll be right back into drugs and right back into a life of crime to support his habit. And, yes, then we’ll need more prisons.

Excuse me - we’ve been involved in the field of drug rehab for a long time. We’ve helped thousands of people get off drugs - including heroin. Some of the people writing these comments are former heroin addicts who couldn’t stop taking it and turned to methadone instead. Exactly what qualifies that person as an expert in drug rehab?

The fact is, methadone is being abused all over the U.S. - and in other countries. The fact is, there are more methadone-related deaths than there are deaths related to heroin. The fact is, some of the people who die are kids. And, some of them get the methadone from parents who are on MRT. I wrote a blog some time ago about a toddler who picked up a methadone pill from the floor, ate it, and died. The pill had gotten buried in the couch and shaken out when the cushions were straightened. It fell on the floor without the parents noticing. Now their kid is dead. One of his parents was on MRT. And that’s not an isolated incident.
 
What would you have us do? Ignore the fact that it’s a dangerous drug and never say anything about it just in case we offend someone? Do you want us to play down the dangers of methadone so you don’t feel bad - so you don’t feel ‘attacked’ because you’re taking it? Well, sorry, if that’s what you want, it’s not going to happen. Methadone might not be killing you, but it has killed a lot of other people. We’re going to keep telling people about it. And we hope that by doing so, we’ll save some lives.

Your comments, on the other hand, that justify and defend methadone, that make it look acceptable, that suggest taking methadone is no different than a diabetic taking insulin to prevent themselves from suddenly going into a coma they may never come out of, may well make the drug seem safer than it is. And that could kill someone. Maybe you should think about that instead of being riveted on defending yourself. You want to take methadone? Fine. You need to take methadone? That’s understood. But don’t make it look like it’s a good thing. It’s not. And anyone who thinks there might be a chance in hell of getting off it should look into getting the addiction help services that might allow them to live drug free. Obviously, this does not apply to those of you who’ve already gone to 17 addiction help facilities to no avail, unless you really want to give it another shot, or to those of you who are coping with severe chronic pain.

OxyContin is so dangerous that many doctors have started prescribing methadone as an alternative painkiller. But kids are getting it from their parents’ medicine cabinets, and its finding it’s way to the street.

Methadone used to be given to heroin addicts who couldn’t stop using heroin. Now it’s being given to people who can’t stop OxyContin. It’s unfortunate that these people aren’t getting the addiction help they need to get off drugs instead of being given methadone as a substitute.

Like all prescriptions drugs, Methadone is dangerous. If not taken correctly, it can kill you. Caleb Bevil from Raleigh, North Carolina, died from a methadone overdose last Saturday at only 12 years old. My heart goes out to his family. It’s a real tragedy for both them and the community.

In Cleveland County, North Carolina, Lt. Joel Shores lists methadone, along with Xanax and hydrocodone, as one of the many prescription drugs he’s seeing on the streets.

In New Hampshire, methadone abuse is being described as a “troubling trend”.

Deaths attributed to methadone and other prescription drugs have quadrupled since 2002. If you need addiction help for methadone, or any prescription drug, please find out how to get it.

We’ve talked about “West Virginia and OxyContin” in this blog in the past, as well as “Tennessee and OxyContin.” You could also talk about “Florida and OxyContin.” in fact, you could pretty much relate OxyContin to any state in the country.

You can also say “Kids and OxyContin.”

One young lady named Jenninfer, from yet another state, Ohio, landed in drug detox at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in January 2007. Neither Jennifer’s parents nor teachers knew she needed any addiction help. Jennifer’s parents were lucky; Jennifer came forward and told them she was addicted to OxyContin.

Jennifer’s not the only kid in trouble in Ohio - 50 other children also received drug detox in Children’s Hospital in 2007. “Ohio and OxyContin.”

Fifty kids from Columbus going through drug detox should be an eye opener for parents. Keep your prescription drugs out of the reach of your kids. And get them the addiction help services they need if they’ve already discovered them.

She started with marijuana at 13, moved onto alcohol but didn’t like it, then tried Vicodin and Percocet. Before long she was crushing and snorting OxyContin before school, during school, after school, in the evening and at night.

Where did she get the drugs? Occasionally she had to pay for them - that’s expensive, up to $50 a pill - but usually she was given them by her boyfriend or other friends in school. They probably got them from their parents’ medicine cabinets. God knows how many of those kids need addiction help. And there’s a good chance some of the parents need help, too.

Jennifer parents and teachers knew nothing about it. Her teachers thought she was tired or just not paying attention. She finally confessed to her father who got her addiction help, and she’s now clean.

Don’t be too quick to buy ‘I’m just tired’ or any other excuse or explanation your kids might give you for behavior that doesn’t seem quite right. Check it out very thoroughly - if a 16-year-old is constantly tired, there’s something wrong. They might be sick - take them to a doctor and find out - or they might be taking drugs.

Jennifer is one of the lucky ones. Her next day could have been her last - it’s happened to many other kids. Don’t take it lightly, don’t brush it off, don’t buy excuses. Find out what’s going on, and get your kids the addiction help services they need.

One of the problems with people of that age being addicted is that they often hide it from those around them. And for some, there is no one around them to speak of. They are disassociated from friends and family and feel they have no one to turn to. Consequently, they rarely get the addiction help they need.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) predicts that the problems will continue: According to a recent report, SAMHSA foresees 4.4 million older substance abusers by 2020, compared with 1.7 million in 2001. A representaive said the numbers are “likely to swamp the current system.”

In fact, the current system seems to be swamped already. If the 22 million Americans needing addiction help stepped forward to get it, the vast majority would be out of luck.

If you know of an older adult, pay special attention to their alcohol and drug habits. And if they have a problem, help them get the addiction help services they need.

Older adults