Hope for Alcoholism Treatment
Many families have learned the frustration of trying to help an alcoholic family member when they did… [more]
Crack Cocaine Recovery
The devastation that crack cocaine wreaked on America in the late 1980s was about as destructive of families… [more]
Teen Alcohol and Prescription Drug Use May Create Need for Rehab
It may come as no surprise to parents of teenagers that there is often a hidden world among teens that… [more]
Should Parents Use Drug Tests if More than Half of All High School Students are Abusing Drugs?
In light of recent study results that show that more than fifty percent of schoolchildren have abused… [more]
How Pain Killers Can Lead to Addiction
How Pain Killers Can Lead to Addiction It can often happen that one inadvertently gets hooked on pain… [more]
The Benefits to Your Community of Effective Drug Rehab
If one looks at the costs of drug treatment, law enforcement, the judicial system and welfare costs due… [more]
Narconon Program Repairs Damage to Achieve Effective Alcohol Abuse Rehab
In many cases, alcohol rehab and recovery doesn’t have the desired outcome of sobriety for alcoholics. Unfortunately, often a person goes to rehab to recover from alcohol addiction only to finish the program and return home, later relapsing and starting to drink again. Another result is one may go to meetings of alcoholic support groups for months or even years, receiving support, but never really addressing the reasons for the addiction in the first place, so relapse is bound to occur at some point.
There are not many programs where a full, lasting return to sobriety is expected from an alcoholic or other drug addict. One hears that people are “hooked” and one cannot expect them to thoroughly kick the habit.
However, at Narconon drug and alcohol rehab centers around the world, seventy percent of its graduates remain sober at least two years after completing the program and returning home. The attitude and expectation of Narconon staff in more than fifty locations around the world is that one will recover from addiction, and lasting sobriety can be achieved. This is due to a comprehensive program which really works.
Narconon has been delivering effective rehab to people for more than forty-five years, on six continents of the world. The program has been improved and standardized over the years, so that one receives the same holistic regimen of eight highly effective program steps in each location around the world.
These include:
A tolerable withdrawal, which is made more comfortable through plenty of nutritional supplements and physical assistance which is similar to gentle body massages thatease the aches and pains and sickness sometimes associated with drug or alcohol withdrawal.
Thorough drug detoxification on the unique Narconon New Life Detoxification Program. This part of the program consists of moderate exercise, more nutritional supplementation along with good food, plus daily time spent in a low, dry-heat sauna. This closely-supervised regimen allows the body to eliminate drug residues that are stored in its fatty tissues, which have been shown capable of causing drug cravings many years after the person stops taking drugs. Reports from completions of this part of the program indicate that they have far fewer or no drug cravings, and that they gain the ability to think more quickly and clearly, unhampered by the lingering effects of drugs or alcohol.
One-on-one counseling to bring a person’s awareness of his environment higher, and get him out of the funawareness caused by drug and alcohol abuse, resulting in a brighter outlook on life.
Learning a variety of life skills which will ensure one can maintain a drug-free life following the program. One of these teaches how to choose associates wisely who will support a drug-free lifestyle. There are courses designed to relieve the suffering andguilt one experiences as a result of inflicting damage on loved ones have caused while addicted. There are other courses which address one’s ability to communicate effectively with others, and one which includes a modern, common-sense moral code, to help guide future actions for a better, more productive life.
The entire purpose of the Narconon program is to allow one to learn the skills which are essential to maintaining sobriety after the program is completed. It also addresses the reasons for starting the addiction cycle and allows one to relieve the guilt and depression which often accompany any addiction that if left unresolved could lead to future problems.
Most people going through the entire Narconon program spend from three to five months to achieve lasting recovery. Alcohol abuse rehab doesn’t take forever, and whatever damage that has occurred can be repaired. There is hope that you can find real sobriety for you or your family member, as well as the tools needed to maintain it, at Narconon.
Call to find out all the program specifics and to locate a Narconon centers near you.
Will Canada’s Supposed Solution to OxyContin Abuse Work with OxyNeo?
Recently a new drug gained approval of the Canadian government. It is supposed to be the answer to an epidemic of OxyContin abuse, but will this drug really be the solution it is intended to be?
OxyContin is a very strong, frequently-abused drug which acts as an opioid pain killer and is supposed to be formulated so that it is time-released. However, abusers have found ways around its time-release features to abuse the drug in several different ways. They can smoke it, crush and snort it, or dissolve it and then inject it into their veins, bypassing the time-release features so that they get a full heroin-like dose of the opioid in the body at one time. It is estimated that abuse and addiction to this drug plagues 200,000 people just in Canada.
When abusers find that they can not obtain their Oxy for some reason, many turn to heroin, which is surprisingly cheaper and more accessible than the prescription drug. Heroin is readily available from drug dealers on the street, and may be easier to find than to weave through the complex medical systems of Canada or the United States.
The government of the United States approved the Purdue Pharma drug company’s less abusable form of the drug in 2011, but it had to then meet the requirements of the Canadian authorities. This new drug, called OxyNeo was released for Canadian patients in the beginning of March, 2012. It is supposedly formulated to resist dissolving, smoking or crushing, thus circumventing the avenues abusers had used to release the full potency of the drug quickly.
According to reports, this new OxyNeo pill is supposedly too hard to crush but when it is swallowed, will still release the correct amount of medication to the body. Those who find that a whole, intact pill is excreted through their body’s waste channels are informed that they are still receiving the correct amount of medicine as is intended.
For those who would smoke the pills these new ones will not burn, at least not enough to get intoxicated from them. There is also a feature that will turn the pill into jelly when someone tries to dissolve it so it cannot be injected. These features are designed to protect those people who cannot control their extreme craving for this drug.
But, when one is addicted to opiates it is almost inconceivable to not obtain more of the drug. So, what will the users of OxyContin, when unable to obtain more of their favorite drug do to solve this dilemma? If addiction rehab is not a viable alternative, then the opiate addict will undoubtedly try to obtain his drugs from another source.
His choices would be to find other prescription opiates like hydrocodone or fentanyl or hydromorphone, and to find a doctor who would prescribe these for him. Another option would be to try to get the OxyContin from the Internet, and purchase from some other country’s suppliers, such as India or China. Unfortunately these countries may supply false products, which are not the drug at all; or some version which is contaminated with other toxins; or at best, he will get the drug but of some unknown potency. And, finally, and most likely, these users would turn to heroin. Heroin is readily available in Canada and the U.S., and its usage is already on the rise in Canada. According to the site for Canadian news, Canada.com, there have been large increases in the number of students abusing heroin, with that number doubling in just the year 2007-2008 among Toronto students. And, according to the same site, the ages of Canadian heroin addicts is falling, from about age 19 just 20 years ago to as young as 14 years of age now.
This trend does not have to continue.
There is actually hope for heroin or OxyContin and other drug abusers. The very best thing that could happen is that one would not transition off one drug to another, and another after that and so on. It would be far better to find an effective drug rehab program that really can address this issue and handle the addiction for good. There are many drug rehabs in the U.S. and Canada who claim success rates between 16 and 20 percent.
There is one that has been far more effective however and that is Narconon.
At Narconon drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers, 70% of their graduates regularly stay clean and sober for at least two years after completing the program. In Quebec, at Trois-Rivieres, there is a Narconon long-term residential rehab program for those who are ready to kick the habit for good. There is also another rehab center offering real help for addicts in Alberta, the province which in 2010 had the highest rate of opiate abuse in the country. And, in Vancouver, there is a drug education program offering Narconon’s extremely effective drug prevention curriculum so that young people never even start to go down the road to OxyContin, OxyNeo, heroin or any other drug abuse.
There is help available to those who have been abusing any drugs, marijuana, prescription drugs, or even alcohol. It is the purpose of Narconon to help addicts to find lasting sobriety and become productive, drug-free members of society. This occurs at Narconon centers all over the world on a daily basis.
Find out more details about the Narconon drug rehab program by calling one of our drug counselors.
Parents can Prevent Prescription Drug Abuse
Although many parents may not know it, they can set the example for their teenagers that will lead them to abusing or not abusing prescription drugs.
In the latest Monitoring the Future study published by the University of Michigan, some trends are noted that may have come about due to the lack of understanding young people have on what drugs can do. In this study, researchers noted that more than half of American schoolchildren have abused an illicit or prescription drug by the time they have finished high school. Additionally, sixty percent reported they had drunk alcohol and 41 percent had engaged in binge drinking (consuming five or more drinks in one sitting) just in the two weeks prior to the study.
Trends noted in this December 2011 report included the news that heroin and cocaine use are somewhat down, but marijuana use was up and exceeded cigarette smoking in teens. Prescription drug abuse is steady at a very high level.
In 2010, the number of high school seniors who were abusing prescription opioids such as hydrocodone or oxycodone was nearly twice the number that had abused those drugs in 1991, hitting more than 13%.
It is easy to see how one can become complacent about prescription drug use, and how easily that can lead one to abuse prescription drugs. In schools, too many children are given prescription drugs to help them focus, or settle down (for problems that are labeled as “attention deficit disorders” of various types); and children and teens keenly observe what their parents do. If parents take prescription medicines for anxiety, pain or trouble sleeping, it is easy to see how kids can think these drugs are harmless. Prescription drugs, however, are not harmless, but addictive, and most are extremely dangerous and easy to overdose on, particularly when mixed with alcohol or other drugs.
However, it is reassuring to know though that as parents we can have a positive effect on our children, simply by talking openly about drugs and their potentially harmful effects. Ideally, one should set an example of abstaining from drug use, as well as openly talking about issues and sharing communication honestly about how one feels about taking drugs or alcohol.
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Colombia University (CASA) discovered that it is important for both parents to agree on their anti-drug and anti-alcohol positions, so that they will present a consistent message when talking to their kids. In fact, CASA found that the decision a child ultimately makes on whether or not to take drugs or alcohol depends strongly on this one factor.
Lower substance abuse rates also corresponded in CASA’s research with having family dinners together five or more times weekly, with higher rates of substance abuse found in families who ate dinner together three or less times per week.
When it comes to those entering drug rehab, almost eight percent of those who enter are in the age group from 12 to 17 years old. If you added all those under 21 who are going into rehab, it amounts to about 15 percent of those two million people entering treatment, or a whopping 300,000 youth. These young people are dealing primarily with marijuana abuse, but alcohol abuse was the problem for 67,000 of them.
When prevention has not worked, and children or teens are addicted to drugs, fortunately, there is Narconon.
Narconon centers exist in fifty locations around the world and offer an effective, holistic, drugless program for rehabilitation that really works. Seven of ten Narconon graduates go on to lead drug-free and productive lives. When a person is caught in the morass of addiction, it is often too hard to pull oneself up alone.
Instead of letting your loved one struggle, call Narconon and get help. Find out how Narconon drug and alcohol rehab services can aid you and your family and work with you as parents to save your family.
Resources:
http://monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/monographs/mtf-vol1_2010.pdf
http://www.casacolumbia.org/templates/publications_reports.aspx: National Survey on American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XVI.
http://oas.samhsa.gov/NSDUH/2k9NSDUH/tabs/Sect2peTabs1to42.htm#Tab2.4B
http://monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/monographs/mtf-overview2011.pdf
Alcohol Poisoning Prevention through Alcohol Rehab
While it may seem improbable that one could drink so much alcohol to actually kill oneself, it certainly can and does happen. This is not from some collateral damage of drinking such as a car accident; it is that the person can actually drink themselves to death.
This was demonstrated recently by the unfortunate deaths of both Amy Winehouse and Jani Lane (lead singer of the band Warrant), who died of alcohol poisoning the month following Amy’s death. Amy died in July of 2011 of alcohol poisoning according to a London coroner’s inquest report. They found that her blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was over five times the legal limit for driving.
What occurs when one drinks a large quantity of alcohol in a short amount of time is this causes the body to suppress its respiratory functions. The BAC rises in the body so much that the person may pass out (lose consciousness). He may be breathing very slowly and the body may feel cold to the touch; his heart may start to beat irregularly as well. If one hasn’t arrived at a hospital emergency room at this stage to get sobered up quickly, there is another stage that can occur which is potentially deadly.
This second phase of alcohol poisoning is what occurs when the person has actually stopped drinking. He may be passed out and yet there is so much alcohol in his body that the bloodstream continues to absorb the alcohol that is in his stomach or intestinal tract. This can cause his BAC to rise even further than what it was when he was awake, and can make him vomit while he’s unconscious, thus making him choke on the vomit. Or if the BAC is too high he can simply cease breathing. Then he’s dead.
Fortunately, there is effective help available in the form of Narconon alcohol and drug rehabilitation. When one cannot control their drinking they do not have control over when and how much to drink. They certainly are not able to judge when to quit consuming alcohol, and since alcohol also impairs good judgment, an alcoholic or one who is drinking excessively could actually cause their own demise.
Treatment programs abound but most claim success rates at about 16 – 20 percent. The Narconon program is a comprehensive, holistic and drugless long-term residential rehab (over 90 days on average), which actually results in lasting sobriety for seven out of ten graduates. This is without having to attend Narconon meetings. There are Narconon treatment centers on six continents in 50 locations around the world which have been helping alcoholics and drug addicts to get sober and clean and stay that way for the past 45 years.
The Narconon program provides a thorough detox of the body first, and follows that up with a full training program in life skills that are needed to regain a drug-free lifestyle.
In the first phase, a person entering Narconon goes through a closely supervised withdrawal period, made more bearable by good nutrition and gentle massage-like assists to ease the pains of the body’s withdrawal.
Then one enters the Narconon New Life Detoxification Program. This unique program offers the correct combination of vitamins and minerals, moderate exercise and daily time spent in a dry-heat sauna. All of these are closely supervised and personally tailored so that one can actually rid the body of harmful residues (toxins) left from the drugs or alcohol he had been taking. These toxins lodge in the fatty tissue of the body, and without this unique regimen, will remain there for years where they can cause one to feel cravings from time to time for more drugs or alcohol. When they are eliminated from the body, the result is a more awake, brighter person with either far fewer or no more cravings at all.
When the physical detox is complete, one enters the second part of the Narconon program. In this part, one learns essential life skills and makes a plan for a drug-free and alcohol-free future. When one is certain he can maintain his sobriety despite the hurdles that life puts in one’s path, he graduates the program.
Drinking while you are pregnant is unsafe for you and your baby. Please call and find out how Narconon drug and alcohol rehab can help.
If you know someone who needs help with alcohol abuse, please call a Narconon qualified drug rehab intake counselor today.
Resources:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/gossip/2011/10/jani-lane-warrant-cause-of-death-alcohol-poisoning.html
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2011/10/26/coroner-rules-amy-winehouse-died-from-alcohol-poisoning/
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/14-year-dies-alcohol-poisoning-slumber-party/story?id=14065038#.Tx9gZJhA9SU
Celebrities Affected by Prescription Drug Abuse
Another one of many celebrities struggling with prescription drug abuse is Matthew Perry, former star of “Friends” TV show and current star of ABC’s “Mr. Sunshine.” He has had a history of substance abuse and has gone twice to rehab for treatment of prescription pill addiction.
Celebrities aren’t the only ones fighting the battle with prescription drugs. In the state of Florida, prescription drug abuse is an epidemic. In fact pills are involved in 75% of all the drug-related deaths and on average, 11 people die daily in Florida from prescription drug overdoses.
In the United States, more people are now abusing prescription drugs than heroin, cocaine and ecstasy combined. The drug of choice for a growing number of users is oxycodone, a synthetic opioid sold under the brand name OxyContin. OxyContin is essentially synthetic heroin made in a lab by pharmaceutical companies. Oxycodone has become the most-abused prescription drug in the United States, with hydrocodone coming in second, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s annual count of drug seizures sent to police drug labs for analysis.
Current TV’s series Vanguard aired a disturbing documentary, The Oxycontin Express, in which South Florida was labeled “the Colombia of prescription drugs” and exposed the difficulties facing law enforcement in dealing with prescription drug abuse in what is truly a national epidemic.
Florida’s Gov. Rick Scott finally signed a bill into law in June of 2011 penalizing doctors who overprescribe painkillers, and authorizing a database that monitors prescription drugs in an attempt to control the state’s widespread “pill mills.”
How to Overcome Drug Addiction
But what if you, a loved one or a family member is faced with this highly-addictive drug problem? What would you do? How do you tell if a rehab program is effective? What will work to get one off of drugs for good? Is there a drug-free solution?
Fortunately there is help available. One can rid oneself of the addiction and live a productive, drug-free life again. Narconon is a very effective program, founded more than 45 years ago, which helps the prescription pill addict find his way back to health and sobriety. Narconon drug rehabilitation centers exist worldwide, on six continents and specialize in drug-free detoxification and treatment methods.
The Narconon program consists of two phases. In Phase one, the recovering addict will experience a physical rehabilitation. During the first part the person entering a Narconon will have one-on-one counseling and assistance and plenty of nutritional supplements to replace those destroyed during drug use. This makes for a more tolerable withdrawal. This is followed by the unique Narconon New Life Detoxification Program composed of daily exercise, time in a dry-heat sauna, and more nutritional support. Upon completion of this part of the program, many recovering addicts report fewer cravings for drugs.
However Narconon rehabilitation does not stop here, as this is just the first phase. The issues which led the person to abuse drugs have to be handled in order for him to return to a drug-free life. In Phase two, the student at Narconon studies several life skills courses helping him to rebuild his self-esteem, ability to communicate and control of self and his environment. In doing this, he handles the underlying reasons the person used drugs in the first place.
The Narconon program differs from many others in that it does not substitute one drug for another, and it offers the life skills necessary to live a drug-free life. Once a person graduates the program, there are no Narconon meetings to attend. The person is able to apply the life skills attained to live drug-free.
If you or a family member has a prescription drug abuse problem, call a Narconon rehab center for assistance.
Is There an Effective Alcohol Rehab Program?
The latest World Health Organization’s statistics show that over 2.5 million deaths each year can be related to the harmful use of alcohol.
This includes disease and injuries to the drinker himself, and through his dangerous actions such as drinking and driving or violence, those injuries he causes to others. Alcohol is a direct cause factor in more than 60 types of diseases and injuries and a component cause in 200 others.
Alcohol is indeed the most popular drug on the planet and kills far more people worldwide than any other drug. It is the cause of death in nearly 4% of all deaths worldwide, greater than those caused by HIV/AIDS, violence or tuberculosis. While not everyone who drinks alcohol is abusing it, so many are that it is a public health problem of global proportion.
Taking into account how many people are thus affected by alcohol abuse, it would be wonderful if there were an effective alcohol rehab program that really works!
An Effective Alcohol Rehab Worldwide
Fortunately, there is an effective alcohol rehabilitation program worldwide. It is called Narconon, and has been in existence for over 45 years. It was started by a man named William Benitez in an Arizona State Prison, as he needed help to recover from his own heroin addiction that kept landing him in jail and saw that other prisoners needed similar help. It is based on the research and work of humanitarian and author L. Ron Hubbard.
A Narconon alcohol treatment center is not a typical drug and alcohol rehab center. At Narconon each person entering the program is treated as a student, not as a patient. During the entire Narconon program each student is learning more and more things about himself and about ways of dealing with life without the need for alcohol or drugs. One learns to take control over his previous alcohol or drug solutions to problems he would not confront directly. In the course of the Narconon program, one goes through eight individual courses, each of which gradually gives back more of the person’s own personality and his desire to live a drug and alcohol-free life.
In the first step, he is withdrawing from the alcohol while being given plenty of one-on-one assistance and nutritional support and supplementation with vitamins and minerals. In this environment, it is possible for the person to begin to see that life can be lived without the crutch of alcohol.
In the next step, he will go through the Narconon New Life Detoxification Program, which gets the residues of drugs and alcohol out of the fatty tissue of the body, where it has been stored. Without the residual toxins in the body, it is far less likely that the person will crave the drugs or alcohol he once was addicted to.
Outside Influences Can Help Create More Alcoholics
One problem which alcoholics who are not able to control their drinking often engage in is called “binge drinking.” This involves consumption of five or more drinks in one sitting. This trend has been increasing recently among young people. It has even taken its place in the social media networks. For example, on Facebook, alcohol abusers are bragging about how much they can drink in one sitting, a factor that some researchers say adds to the increasing alcohol consumption and binge drinking among youth.
Alcohol abuse is a societal problem and one that we need to take much more seriously. Although pervasive, it rarely ranks as a top concern until it affects you, your family, or your loved ones. When that happens, there is a solution. Narconon drug and alcohol rehab centers exist on six continents in more than 50 locations worldwide.
It is possible to find an effective alcohol rehab program at Narconon. Call today!
Resources:
Global status report on alcohol and health.
World Health Organization. ISBN 978 92 4 156415 1 (NLM classification: WM 274)
© World Health Organization 2011.
Freshman Women at Greater Risk of Sexual Assault When Binge Drinking
According to a new article in the January issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, based on a study led by the University of Buffalo, many young women who steer clear of alcohol while they’re in high school may change their ways once they go off to college. And those who take up binge drinking may be at relatively high risk of sexual assault. The college years are notably associated with drinking. But little was known before this study about how young women change their high school drinking habits once they start college.
This study’s research team followed 437 young women from high school graduation through freshman year of college. They found that of the women who reported that they had never drank heavily in high school (if at all), nearly half admitted to heavy episodic drinking — commonly called binge drinking — at least once by the end of their first college semester. Young women who were already engaging in binge drinking in high school continued that pattern when in college.
More importantly, binge drinking was linked to students’ risk of sexual victimization — regardless of what their drinking habits had been in high school.
Of all young women whose biggest binge had included four to six drinks, 25 percent said they’d been sexually victimized in the fall semester. That included anything from unwanted sexual contact to rape.
And the more drinks those binges involved, the greater the likelihood of sexual assault. Of those women who’d consumed 10 or more drinks in a sitting since starting college, nearly sixty percent were sexually victimized by the end of their first semester. Though young women are not at fault for being victimized – the blame lies squarely with the perpetrator — if colleges can make more progress in reducing heavy drinking, they may be able to prevent more sexual assaults in the process.
The study also underscores the fact that even kids who don’t drink in high school are yet at risk of heavy drinking once they head off to college, Maria Testa, lead researcher of the study, from the University of Buffalo’s Research Institute on Addictions, said.
For parents, the bottom line is to talk with your kids about drinking before they go to college — whatever you think their drinking habits have been in high school, according to Testa. And after they’ve left for college, keep talking. “Parents still do have an impact on their kids after they go to college,” Testa said. “Parenting is not over.”
But what if your child, or other family member of any age has already walked down the road to heavy or binge drinking? How to get them turned around and get them out of alcohol addiction is a dilemma faced by many parents and other members of the family. Once someone has gone into heavy drinking you may wonder if you are dealing with an alcoholic.
The characteristics one may use to identify alcoholism include:
- Alcohol consumption has become so strong that the person has cravings, or a strong urge or need to drink
- Person losing control; unable to impose discipline on his or her drinking
- A physical dependence and symptoms of withdrawal if the person quits consuming alcohol
Developing a tolerance and thus needing to drink greater amounts to get the same effect as lower amounts gave before.
If these characteristics describe someone you know or love, Narconon may be the answer you’ve been looking for. Narconon has successfully been helping alcoholics and drug addicts to get and stay clean and sober since 1966. There are no Narconon meetings to attend but, there are Narconon drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers on six continents of the world that can help with alcohol abuse.
If you or someone you needs help with alcohol abuse, contact a Narconon drug rehab center today..
Resources:
NIH, NIAAA Alcoholism References
Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health, World Health Organization, 2011.
The US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration definition of alcoholism.
The World Health Organization also adds that when the drinker tries to cut down on use, he or she is unable to, even when the habit is having a destructive effect on their life.
Prescription Drug Addiction & Treatment
Narconon Addiction Treatment Admissions for Prescription Drugs Reflect Rising Abuse and Overdose Problems in America Across the country, the number of people entering the Narconon program shows increases in prescription drug addiction, matching the national pattern of growth in this category of abuse, treatment and overdose deaths.
According to recent reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), overprescribing and abuse of prescription drugs have been climbing. Following right behind those statistics are addiction and overdose death statistics. While a decade or so ago, the main drugs killing people through overdoses were drugs like heroin and cocaine, these days far more people are being killed by prescription drugs – drugs that were intended to make life bearable for people with chronic pain or other serious conditions.
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6043a4.htm?s_cid=mm6043a4_w
Mirroring this shift is the pattern of admissions to addiction treatment at Narconon drug recovery centers across the country. In the thirteen rehabs in the US that use the standardized Narconon addiction treatment protocol, the common pattern is an increase in the number of prescription drug addicts, as many as half of all admissions at some centers.
“The number of people needing to recover from prescription drug addiction – especially painkillers – has reached epidemic levels,” warned Bobby Wiggins, drug education specialist for the international headquarters of Narconon, located in Los Angeles. “More young people are abusing these drugs as well, so much so that abuse of prescription drugs threatens to overtake the use of marijuana by teens.” Mr. Wiggins cited the National Survey on Drug Use and Health by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which reported in that in 2009, nearly a million 14 and 15 year olds had abused a prescription drug at some point in their young lives. This is nearly eleven percent of all children of this age.
http://oas.samhsa.gov/NSDUH/2k10NSDUH/tabs/Sect1peTabs1to46.htm#Tab1.1A
“Young people see their parents using these medications and then may see the drugs being abused in television shows and movies. Young people who feel they are stressed or anxious or are just curious or bored may take a few pills for their own use,” Mr. Wiggins explained. “But as the young people get older and have more means and freedom, this occasional use can become abuse and addiction very easily.”
The CDC report reviewed the number of drug overdose deaths in the US between 1999 and 2008 that were related to prescription drugs and then noted that opiate pain reliever use contributed to the largest number of drug deaths. Out of 36,450 drug overdose deaths in 2008, a specific drug or drugs were named in 27,153 deaths. Opiate pain relievers were responsible for nearly 74% of these deaths. Non-Hispanic whites and American Indian/Alaska Natives were the hardest hit, with three times the deaths of Hispanic whites or African Americans.
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6043a4.htm?s_cid=mm6043a4_w
According to SAMHSA, there were 142,000 people admitted to addiction treatment facilities for problems with pain reliever addiction in 2009. But of all those who need treatment for addiction, fewer than 10% actually get treatment. Of those who did not receive treatment, only about one in twenty felt that they needed help with addiction. The remainder did not see the problem even though they fit the criteria for dependence or addiction. This means that there are probably around a million and a half Americans struggling with addiction to OxyContin, Roxicodone, hydrocodone (sold as Lortab, Lorcet or Vicodin), morphine, methadone, or the many other drugs on this list.
http://oas.samhsa.gov/nsduh/2k8nsduh/2k8Results.cfm#7.3
“The solution to this problem is multi-faceted,” reported Mr. Wiggins. “The CDC encourages the states to implement greater controls over opiate prescribing. The public must be better educated on the dangers of prescription drug abuse and there must be effective drug rehabilitation available.”
SAMSHA data gathering also found that in 2008, nearly four times as many of those people entering treatment for the second, third or more times reported pain reliever abuse as repeat admissions did in 1999. This follows the trend of broader prescribing and abuse followed by higher numbers of those addicted.
http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/2k10/230/230PainRelvr2k10.htm
Mr. Wiggins concluded, “The cycle of addiction is broken when treatment eliminates the key factors that have been discovered at Narconon: guilt, cravings and depression.” At Narconon rehab centers around the world, seven out of ten graduates remain drug-free after they go home, whether they are getting help for alcohol, heroin, cocaine or prescription pain relievers.
Mexican Drug Cartels Responsible for Deaths of More than 40,000 Since 2006
According to a recent New York Times1 article, Mexico is deeply engrossed in a battle with well-financed drug cartels.
The Mexican government says more than 40,000 people have been killed since President Felipe Calder took office in 2006 and threw the might of his federal police and military at the cartels. However, the death toll for 2010 was 15,237, the heaviest yet. The violence has been fueled by a splintering of drug organizations under siege, which leads to escalating rounds of bloody infighting over territory and criminal control. Some of the battles have spanned the border with the US, and now many heroin addicts in the Midwest of the US can trace their heroin usage to drugs supplied by the Mexican cartels.
In October 2010, the Mexican government announced that it was preparing a plan to radically alter the nation’s police force, hoping to instill a trust the public has never had in them and to choke off a critical source of manpower for organized crime.
In October, a New York Times article described how American law enforcement agencies have significantly built up networks of Mexican informants that have allowed them to secretly infiltrate some of that country’s most powerful and dangerous criminal organizations.
This is probably only the tip of the iceberg, however, as the problem of drugs from Mexico infiltrating the US is growing at an alarming rate. More and more American families are affected by this influx of illegal drugs, and despite the best efforts of Mexican and American authorities, it seems the supply of the drugs is endless.
How does one really stop this ever-burgeoning crime and drug wave? The answer is to cut down the demand for illegal drugs. This is a daunting challenge which will need to be approached by everyone, not only those directly affected by drug abuse. A concerted effort by churches, community groups, government, police and others will need to sincerely attack the drug dealers and ultimately the drug abusers so that they don’t have such a large demand for drugs.
But, if you or your family member has been directly affected by drug abuse, you know that it is a very difficult pattern to break. In fact, only with an extremely effective rehab program do drug abusers stand a chance of changing their destructive patterns and turning around their lives.
Narconon drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs are making a significant dent in the problem. The Narconon program has been helping all kinds of drug and alcohol abusers for over forty years. It boasts a success rate of seventy percent of its graduates who stay clean and sober for at least two years after they complete the program.
There are even simple programs which allow a friend or family member to help the addict to safely and comfortably withdraw from the drug. This “First Step” program has already been successfully introduced in many parts of Mexico, and its acceptance is rapidly growing.
Call one of our representatives if you need help finding a Narconon drug rehab center.
Resources:
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/mexico/drug_trafficking/index.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/us/31border.html
Deaths by Prescription Drug Overdoses Triple in Last Decade
According to a 2011 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report, the number of people dying from overdoses of powerful opioid pain relievers tripled in just the past decade.
Opioids are pain relief drugs that are chemically similar to opium.
These opioid deaths are just part of a larger epidemic of drug overdose deaths. In 2008, more than 36,000 people lost their lives from prescription drug overdoses. Close to 15,000 of these involved one of these opioid pain reliever (OPR) such as OxyContin, Vicodin, Lortab or methadone. That’s more than three times the number who died in 1999.
Every year, there are more of these drugs in distribution as doctors write more and more prescriptions for these addictive pills.
The CDC report also revealed that in 2009, 1.2 million emergency department (ED) visits were related to misuse or abuse of pharmaceuticals, compared with 1.0 million ED visits related to use of illicit drugs such as heroin and cocaine.
OPRs now account for more overdose deaths than heroin and cocaine combined. OPRs frequently are diverted for non-medical use by patients or their friends or sold on the street. According to national surveys, an estimated 4.8% of the U.S. population aged 12 or older used an OPR non-medically in 2010.
If you wonder why the cost of health insurance is skyrocketing, another study estimated that non-medical use of OPR costs insurance companies up to $72.5 billion annually in health-care costs.
Such painkillers “are meant to help people who have severe pain,” said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC. “They are, however, highly addictive.”
Abuse figures vary greatly on a state by state basis, with the highest rate of abuse in Oklahoma and the lowest in Nebraska and Iowa. Across the country, an estimated 418,000 twelve and thirteen-year-old children abused one of the OPRs. That statistic took a ten percent jump in just one year.
Dr. Frieden said that the overdose deaths reflect the increase in the number of narcotic painkillers that are being prescribed. Every year, enough pills are prescribed to keep every American dosed up around the clock for one full month.
In order to help prevent drug abuse, Narconon takes significant measures to form community coalitions and educate other community groups on how to help get drugs out of our communities. To find out more about what Narconon is doing to effectively educate our youth, form alliances that work, and more about Narconon objectives and its effective drug prevention and rehabilitation programs, please read the following article: http://www.narconon-news.org/narconon/taking-drugs-out-of-the-communities.html.
CDC. WONDER [Database]. Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services, CDC; 2010. Available at http://wonder.cdc.gov. Accessed September 27, 2011.
Warner M, Chen L, Makuc D. Increase in fatal poisonings involving opioid analgesics in the United States, 1999–2006. NCHS Data Brief. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics; 2009. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db22.htm. Accessed October 3, 2011.
Coalition Against Insurance Fraud. Prescription for peril: how insurance fraud finances theft and abuse of addictive prescription drugs. Washington, DC: Coalition Against Insurance Fraud; 2007. Available at http://www.insurancefraud.org/downloads/drugDiversion.pdf ??. Accessed September 26, 2011.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Results from the 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: volume 1: summary of national findings. Rockville, MD: US Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Office of Applied Studies; 2010. Available at http://oas.samhsa.gov/nsduh/2k9nsduh/2k9resultsp.pdf. Accessed October 3, 2011
Coalition Against Insurance Fraud. Prescription for peril: how insurance fraud finances theft and abuse of addictive prescription drugs. Washington, DC: Coalition Against Insurance Fraud; 2007. Available at http://www.insurancefraud.org/downloads/drugDiversion.pdf. Accessed September 26, 2011.
Narconon Spokesperson Issues Urgent Warning: New York City Becoming Inundated with Opioid Prescription Drugs
A new report paints a very grim picture of the escalation of prescription drug consumption in New York City. Narconon Spokesperson Bobby Wiggins of Narconon International warned that increases in New York City serve as a harbinger for effects that are rolling out across the rest of the country. Narconon is an international non-profit organization dedicated to the elimination of substance abuse and addiction through effective drug rehabilitation and education.
In March 2011, Bridget Brennan, New York’s special narcotics prosecutor, testified that prescriptions for oxycodone doubled in the city over the past three years. Ms. Brennan defined the problem with a frankness seldom seen: “The public flat out needs to be better informed about how widespread the problem is and how dangerously addictive these substances are. It’s pure opium. And that’s an addictive drug.”
In 2007, 500,000 prescriptions for OxyContin and its generic form oxycodone were filled in the five boroughs of New York City. By 2010, the number had jumped to more than one million. This means one prescription for one of every eight people, or 13 percent of the population.
But in Staten Island, there were enough prescriptions for this addictive painkiller issued to supply 28 percent of the borough’s population. Add hydrocodone, another popular opioid painkiller, and the supply increases to 33 percent.
In Brooklyn and the Bronx, oxycodone prescriptions increased 116 percent and 120 percent, respectively, between 2007 and 2010.
In a 2010 visit to a New York City drug rehabilitation center serving US military veterans, Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske noted that one in eight active duty military personnel are also current users of illicit drugs, primarily prescription drugs.
- http://www.vosizneias.com/78820/2011/03/16/new-york-ny-1-in-8-new-yorkers-is-on-oxy-pain-killers
- http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/news/press10/111010.html
High Drug Crime Numbers Follow High Prescription Numbers
How many of these prescriptions wind up in the illicit market? There is no way to know. But one index may be found in a similar increase in drug crime and emergency room visits.
Drug Crime: In these same three years, the special prosecutor’s caseload of prescription drug arrests constituted just 6 percent of her total workload. By 2010, the proportion of the caseload devoted to this type of arrest more than doubled, arriving at 15 percent. Ms. Brennan noted the high levels of violence that accompanies the black market sale of prescription drugs.
Every year, about 80,000 people with drug or alcohol problems leave New York City jails and return to the community or the streets. Few received any drug recovery treatment while they were in jail. Without any substantive help, they are likely to re-offend, return to drug or alcohol abuse and possibly return to jail.
Emergency Room visits: In New York City, for every 100,000 people, more than 150 of them will visit an emergency room for abuse or misuse of pharmaceutical drugs. Add to this another 62 who consumed alcohol along with their pharmaceutical drugs, another 39 who added an illicit drug and 32 who abused both prescription and illicit drugs together.
Of these ER visits, thirty were for opiates/opioids and of these, nearly 12 per 100,000 people in New York City visited an ER for abuse or misuse of oxycodone. With more than eight million people in the city, this brings the total number of visits to almost 1,000 per year for oxycodone alone .
- http://www.samhsa.gov/statesinbrief/CityReports/7401_MetroReports_NewYorkCity_NY.pdf
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16739041
“When you have a situation spiraling out of control like this,” stated Wiggins, “one component of the solution must be effective drug rehabilitation programs like the one administered at Narconon drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers around the world. In more than 120 Narconon drug rehab centers, the Narconon drug recovery program results in seven out of ten graduates returning home knowing how to stay clean and sober.”
Contact us immediately if you know someone who has a problem with drug addiction. Our drug rehabilitation counselors are always on standby to help.
Inhalants Specialize in Taking Young Lives
Inhalants Specialize in Taking Young Lives
It’s a completely legal drug, found in thousands of stores across the country. It can be used almost under a parent’s nose without their being suspicious in the least. After all, there’s no needles, bent spoons, tiny baggies or roaches left behind. One police officer with a canine partner trained to detect drugs told the story of how his son died from inhalant abuse shortly before his fifteenth birthday, abusing the one drug his dog could never detect.
All a young person needs is a can of the electronic device cleaner known as Dust-Off or a can of spray paint that may even be found on garage shelves. Or any one of hundreds of other common items, from correction fluid to rubber cement, markers, solvents, whipped cream dispensers or hair spray. Substances may be sprayed into a bag and then the gases are inhaled, or they may be sprayed on clothes or rags for inhaling. Dust-Off and similar products may be sprayed directly into the mouth or nose.
The dizzy high from inhalants usually lasts just a few minutes. But any inhalant use, any time, can have unpredictable and fatal effects.
Inhalants Take a Serious Toll on an Abuser’s Health
An inhalant abuser can expect to do serious harm not only to his brain, but also his heart, kidneys and liver, all sensitive to toxins. Some inhalants cause a form of anemia and others can cause permanent damage to peripheral nerves.
Sniffing some gases can cause a sudden and severe irregular heartbeat that can cause death within minutes. This type of death is particularly connected with butane, propane and aerosol inhalation.
Suffocation can also cause death. Some inhalant vapors, like Dust-Off, are heavier than air and replace air in the lungs, suffocating the abuser. When an abuser inhales gases from a paper or plastic bag, this also increases the probability of suffocation. If abusers vomit while they are high on inhalants, some have been known to choke on their own vomit, causing death.
There may be no warning signs that death is just around the corner. There are no signs of who will tolerate the day’s inhalant abuse and who will not. Repeated inhalant abuse greatly increases the likelihood of organ and brain damage.
Statistics on inhalant deaths are hard to determine as the cause of death when inhalants are involved is very hard to determine. Coroners may not be trained to look for the right signs, leading to what some experts claim is severe underreporting of the damage being done. The death may be reported as suffocation or heart problems.
Young People Without Education of Dangers are at Risk
Possibly because of their easy availability compared to drugs like marijuana, cocaine and others, young people are the primary abusers of this substance. Those children in seventh to ninth grade are most likely to abuse inhalants of all ages. It’s a very bad sign that in 2009, a national survey showed that 42 percent of eighth graders did not consider regular use of inhalants to be harmful, and 66 percent didn’t think that trying inhalants once or twice was risky. The wrong way to learn about the dangers is by watching a friend die or risking death oneself just for the sake of a few minutes of “buzz.”
Resources
- http://www.justice.gov/ndic/pubs4/4770/index.htm
- http://teens.drugabuse.gov/facts/facts_inhale2.php
- http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/d/dustoff.htm
- http://teens.drugabuse.gov/facts/facts_inhale1.php
- http://www.enotes.com/drugs-alcohol-encyclopedia/inhalants-extent-use-complications
“Million Dollar Doctor” in Missouri Serves to Warn Public that Prescription Drug Abuse is Still Thriving
It just seems that some people don’t learn very fast. The Drug Enforcement Agency website lists seventy doctors who have gotten themselves arrested for prescription fraud, sometimes resulting in injury and even death for their patients. Newspapers across the country carry stories – Louisville, Kentucky; McLean and Manassas, Virginia; Seattle, Washington; Cleveland, Ohio; Norwalk, Connecticut; Orlando, Florida – of doctors who lose everything after they are arrested for illegally distributing prescription painkillers, sedatives, sleep aids and anti-anxiety medications. But these doctors are amateurs compared to Dr. Bruce Baker of Independence, Missouri.
Working with two accomplices, Dr. Baker distributed more than a million dollars worth of OxyContin and Oxycodone between 2006 and 2010 when he was arrested. Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of pills were reimbursed by medical insurance and Medicare, meaning that Dr. Baker racked up insurance fraud charges as well.
One “patient” all by herself received prescriptions for nearly 2,400 pills over a three-month period.
Dr. Baker gave up the fight and pleaded guilty in February 2011.
“Without criminal doctors like Dr. Baker, the seven million people who abuse prescription drugs each year would not have such plentiful access to these drugs to abuse,” stated Bobby Wiggins, a spokesperson for Narconon. Narconon is an international non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating substance abuse and addiction through effective rehabilitation and education. “In 2007, three-quarters of a million people wound up in emergency rooms due to their prescription drug abuse, and more of these visits involved oxycodone or OxyContin more often than any other prescription drug.”
As far back as 2005, a media report showed that OxyContin was one of the drugs most often associated with fatalities, both among legitimate users and abusers.
“But putting Dr. Baker into jail does nothing for those who became addicted to these opioid painkillers,” said Wiggins. “The only thing that helps those people is getting them into a drug rehabilitation that will not give them more opioid drugs and call it treatment. This is what is happening in thousands of drug rehabs across the country. The opioid drug many addicts are getting at these rehabs is called buprenorphine. At Narconon, we help every addict recover their own self-esteem and integrity without giving them drugs of any kind. Instead of drugs, we use nutrition, a sauna detoxification program and one-on-one care. It works.” In seven out of ten cases, Narconon graduates go on to live clean and sober lives after graduation from the drug and alcohol rehabilitation program.
For more information about the Narconon drug rehab program, visit www.narconon-news.org
