Drug Rehab Referral | Our Views

Imagine a drug so addictive and dangerous that an entire town is on it. That is the situation with Oceana, West Virginia. And the drug is OxyContin. What does it take to overcome OxyContin addiction?

Unless you’re someone who suffers from extreme pain and really needs this drug, you gotta hate OxyContin. Check out this info:

• It was originally approved for cancer patients who were suffering extreme pain. It is now given out for minor pain and even things like diarrhea.
• It is basically legal heroin – same effect, same dangers.
• One in twenty high school seniors has already tried it out – just for fun.
• It’s a bigger killer than street drugs.
• Purdue Pharma put it on the market in 1996. The revenue kept climbing and by 2001 the company was making $1 billion a year off it. And it was now the biggest-selling brand name painkiller in the country. As of 2010, OxyContin addiction and abuse costs the U.S. $400 billion a year.

In Oceana, aka Oxyana, Virginia, more than half of the population needs OxyContin addiction treatment. And it’s become a very dangerous place.

According to a recent article about a documentary on the town, when a dentist moved into Oceana and was asked for a prescription for OxyContin by a patient, which he refused to give him, the patient said “What time do you finish work? I’ll be waiting outside.” The doctor, brave soul, said “Why wait? Let’s go outside and settle the right now.” The patient backed down.

Another 23-year-old resident told the filmmakers ““Half of my graduating class is dead ’cause of pills. You’ll see grandparents raising the kids because the parents are too messed up to take care of ’em. That’s my generation.”

OxyContin addiction is prettier than heroin addiction – unless you’re crushing and liquefying the pills so you can inject them – but it’s the same thing. And the situation gets continually worse because you need to take more and more of it to get the same effect.

• Anyone using it is risking their lives every day.
• Anyone using it will, without question, have their lives ruined eventually.
• Anyone using it could wind up in jail.
• Anyone using it could overdose, and many do.
• Anyone using it legitimately is in the same position. It is what it is, and it doesn’t matter how you get it.

OxyContin is not the only painkiller that can create these problems. Any drug containing oxycodone or hydrocodone is also dangerous. Oxycodone addiction, roxicodone addiction, opana addiction – it’s all the same thing.

If anyone you care about is having a problem with OxyContin addiction, or you think they might be abusing it or dependant on it, give us a call at 877-211-7428. We can help.

After more than a decade of people getting addicted to OxyContin and filling hospital ERs and morgues, the FDA is finally saying OxyContin’s risks aren’t worth the benefits. They’re not saying that about all OxyContin; just the crushable kind. But most of the people with OxyContin addiction or abuse problems are using crushable pills anyway. Plus, the crushable pills haven’t even been available for a year!

People who crush OxyContin pills and liquefy them or snort them are far from the only people endangered by OxyContin. Here are some meaningful statistics that every parent – and anyone who has to take painkillers or who knows someone who has to take them – should know:

• 16 million people in the U.S. over the age of 12 have used prescription drugs – most of which are painkillers – for non-medical reasons (i.e. to get high) over the last year.
• Those 16 million people include 2.1 percent of 8^th graders – barely into their teens and already experimenting with highly addictive highly dangerous drugs.
• The percentage increases as the kids get older – 4.6 percent of 10^th graders and 5.1 percent of 12th graders have also taken it without medical reason.
• Prescription drugs – with OxyContin being high on the list – are linked to half of all major crimes in the U.S.
• Most murderers and others who commit violent crimes are on drugs at the time of the crime.
• One in twenty people who need help for substance abuse took OxyContin within the 30 days prior to looking for help.
• 86 percent of OxyContin abusers said they have no prescription for the drug and they bought it illegally to get high. Which, when you add it up, also means that 14 percent of
• OxyContin abusers have a prescription for the drugs and started by using it for medical reasons.
• OxyContin is easier to get than illegal drugs like heroin and cocaine.

That info should give you an idea of how careful you have to be about this drug. If you’re a parent, checked with your kids and if they are experimenting with prescription drugs, make sure they get help to stop them right now. If you need advice on any part of it, call us at 877-211-7428.

Also, if you know someone who needs to take OxyContin as painkillers, help monitor how much they’re taking and for how long – you may help them stay out of trouble with it. If they keep taking them beyond a few weeks, or need to increase their dose to get the same painkiller effect, they might also need help.

The FDA may be warning only about the crushable pills, but it’s clear that the crushable pills aren’t the only problem – the drug is dangerous. Period.

What will it take to make sure your kid comes out of drug rehab clean and stays that way? Lindsay has made several trips to drug rehab, all without results. Now she’s heading back in.  Your son or daughter may not be Lindsay Lohan, but what it will take for her to make it is the same thing it takes for everyone.

What is the magic ingredient? One thing I can say about Lindsay – she’s showing promise this time. Just a few days before she was due to go back to drug rehab she went to a bar with friends. She was there for several hours, and didn’t drink a drop of anything other than soda. At the very least, that shows her head is in the right place. That she intends to quit.

Is Intending to Quit Enough to Make Drug Rehabilitation Effective? (more…)

A recent news story tells about a young man who got addicted to ADHD drugs and committed suicide. Is this usual? No. But, it is typical of what can go wrong, according to doctors.

The young man was Richard Fee. He was an “athletic, personable college class president and aspiring medical student.” He had no ADHD symptoms throughout grade school, high school or college.

When he was studying for exams into medical school, he had trouble focusing. He saw a doctor, and was diagnosed with ADHD. But if you read the notes from the doctor, you can easily see that her diagnosis for ADHD was not correct. (more…)

Parents don’t have a problem ‘butting in’ when their kids are young, but once the kids have reached young adulthood, parents have a tendency to back off. Is that the right thing to do?

How many kids have died or had their lives ruined because of drugs? How many adults have died before their time? And how many parents, children, relatives and friends of those who have died wish they’d been more aggressive in their approach to what’s going on in the lives of someone they care about?

It’s a sign of society today. People tend to stay out people’s business.

I can understand not approaching a scene where there are gunshots or someone screaming for help – in that case, it might be best to call the police and get them as soon as possible rather than putting your own life in danger.

But insisting that someone go to rehab or get addiction help of some sort doesn’t risk your life. Sure, they may be upset with you, but how important is that compared to the fact that they are risking their life?

Little kids can easily get into trouble. They play with balls and run into the road to get them. They antagonize an animal that might bite them. They choose glass objects as toys. They run with scissors.

Are you going to help them? Of course. You wouldn’t think of not doing something about it.

They are not in control of things yet. They are not equipped, one way or another, to deal with their environment.

In truth, even adults who are doing themselves in with drugs or alcohol are in the same position. They are not equipped to deal with their life and whatever is going on with them.

So who cares if they get upset.

Eventually, they will thank you.

Go for it!

And if you need help, call us at Drug Rehab Referral. We’ve helped thousands find the help they need.

When you give your children medication to handle problems in life, school and so on, you are setting them up for a lifetime of using drugs as a solution to life’s problems.

Yesterday I read a news article about a woman who got her child started on drugs when he had just started school. ADHD drugs – medication for a so-called disease that doesn’t even have a test to diagnose it. It is simply a set of symptoms that has been given a name. The doctor you get the ADHD drugs from has no idea what is causing the symptoms. None whatsoever. But he prescribes a dangerous, addictive drug to suppress them.

And you and your doctor have just taught your child a lesson – that life’s problems are addressed with a pill that seems to make the problems go away.

Not only are they subjected to the many potential side effects of the drugs, anything that may have been physically wrong with them, that was causing the symptoms, is still going on, and is possibly getting worse. And possibly causing even worse conditions.

Also, as he goes through life and experiences other problems – many of them part of the normal process of growing up, or getting through life as an adult – he then tends to turn to other drugs as a solution.

And what could be wrong with that? The authorities in his life – his parents, his doctor, his teachers – showed him the way.

The article I read yesterday, about the child who was started on ADHD drugs early in life, was written by his mother. The boy was dead. He died at 21. After 15 years of using drugs as a solution. After 15 years of never finding out what was really wrong and having the opportunity to address it.

What should you do instead? In the case of ADHD, see a doctor who looks for the actual cause of the problems. It could be anything from allergies to nutritional deficiencies or imbalances to toxicity – a reaction to toxins in the environment, food, and so on.

If you don’t want to teach your child that drugs are a solution to problems, insist on a full investigation into your son or daughter’s physical health. And if your regular doctor won’t do that, find someone else. Find a naturopath or some other type of health practitioner – even a chiropractor or acupuncturist – who is oriented towards finding the cause and helping to address it, instead of masking the symptoms with drugs.

If you have a son or daughter already on drugs and would like to help them get off them, get them the addiction help they need. Contact us at Drug Rehab Referral, 877-211-7428.

Pain meds are among the most dangerous drugs available. But they’re prescribed like candy. And they’re at the top of the list of drugs that are abused. What makes this drug so dangerous?

First, the very high potential of addiction. And second, the very high potential of overdose.

Why Is Overdosing on Painkillers Such a Problem?

The body is designed to alert you to the fact that something is wrong. One of the ways it does that is through pain. When an area of the body is injured, the brain sends a signal through the nervous system letting you know that something in the body needs attention. That signal is pain. It’s a warning sign. A sign that you should do something to fix that part of the body.

When you take OxyContin or some other painkiller, the drug makes the brain and nervous system unable to do that job. There IS something wrong, but the body can’t let you know.

Drugs that do this – reduce the function of the brain and the main part of the nervous system – are called central nervous system depressants.

The drugs don’t ‘fix’ anything – the problem is still there, and it could be getting worse, but you don’t know about it because you can’t feel the pain.

What’s Wrong with Not Feeling Pain without Also Getting Medical Help?

• The pain could be getting worse and you might actually need medical attention.
• Depressing the brain and central nervous system function also causes other problems – it can make you confused and dizzy, impair your judgment, memory, and coordination, and make you a little stupid.
• Since the body is controlled by the brain via the central nervous system, everything else in the body slows down too, including your breathing, heart rate and so on.
• Once the brain and nervous system are already not functioning as well as it should be, it’s easy to send things over the edge. For example, you have one drink of alcohol (also a central nervous system depressant) and things could slow down so much that they actually stop! You stop breathing, your heart stops beating.
• If you take a little more of the pain med than you should – which is easy to do since you need more and more of them to get the same effect – can also send things over the edge.
• Taking another drug – like a sleeping pill, sedative, anti-anxiety drug, allergy medication, even some herbs. All of these are also central nervous system depressants and they can slow things down so much that the body just stops. That’s an overdose. And probably death.

In 2008, there were more than 14,000 pain med overdose deaths in the U.S. That’s the ones that were verified as such by autopsy – there could be plenty more. That’s more than double what it was 10 years before that, and the numbers keep going up.

In fact, death from verified prescription drug overdoses has gone up every year for the last 11 years. And most of those killer drugs are prescription painkillers.

What can you do instead?

If you’re not already addicted to OxyContin or some other pain med, stop taking them and find another solution to your pain – see a doctor, chiro, acupuncturist, naturopath, massage therapist, anyone who can help you actually get rid of the pain by finding out what’s causing it and doing something about it.

If you’re already dealing with painkiller addiction, give us a call at Drug Rehab Referral – 877-211-7428. Tell us exactly what your situation is and we can help you find the right drug rehab, drug detox, or whatever else is right for your situation.

If a teen stays in and completes high school, their chances of using drugs are significantly reduced.

Here what a recent study found:

• One in three (31 percent) seniors who don’t get their diploma use drugs; compared with 18 percent of graduates.
• 27 percent of high school dropouts smoke marijuana and one in 10 abuse prescription drugs. For those who completed high school, those numbers drop to 15 and 5 percent.
• 42 percent of seniors who didn’t graduate also said they drink and about one-third binge drink. Among graduates, only 35 percent drink and one-quarter binge drink.

So why the difference? There are several possibilities:

The kids who don’t graduate might have been having trouble in life – which could include personal or family problems or problems in school – that led them to taking drugs, and to leaving school.

It could be that they left school early and it had nothing to do with drugs. But, having left school, they found themselves at a loss and, later, started drugs.

It could also be that those who graduated actually learned more and felt more in control of their lives.

One way or another – if your son or daughter is losing interest in school, there’s something wrong. And you should look into it. It could be that they aren’t happy there for a number of reasons. And it could be that they’ve gotten involved in drugs. If so, it’s time for a talk – find out exactly what they’re doing, how often, and so on. And what problems they’re having that led to it. Then contact a drug rehab referral expert to find help.

There’s a big surge in heroin addiction. Why? People who became addicted to their meds can’t afford them anymore.

Can you believe that 86 million people in the U.S. live in chronic pain? When you consider that, it is not surprising that so many people are taking prescription painkillers and that so many people get addicted to them.

It doesn’t take much to get addicted to painkillers. How long it takes is different for everyone, but it can happen in weeks. And some people take them month after month, year after year. They feel  they have to.  How else can they get though the day?

The problem is – they are now not only suffering from chronic pain (and whatever is causing that), they’re also addicted to a dangerous drug that could be very, very difficult to stop taking. And, eventually, their doctor is going to stop giving them prescriptions. Doctors know how dangerous these drugs are. OxyContin addiction, for example, took the country by storm some years ago, and it hasn’t let up.

So what happens when people can no longer get prescription painkillers from their doctor? They look for other places to get it – doctors who don’t care whether you addicted or not, drug pushers who sell one pill for upwards of $40 (who can afford that?), and, finally, they go for cheaper drugs. Specifically – heroin.

Heroin – at $5 a dose – costs a fraction of the price of OxyContin and similar painkillers. And there’s an unlimited supply.

I know that just about anyone reading this would think that would never, ever, ever in a million years happen to them.

But it has happened to so many people that police in some areas of the country are at their wit’s end trying to figure out how to keep people off prescription painkillers because of the number of heroin addicts they’re creating.

If you have a son, daughter, husband, wife, mother, father or friend who is in chronic pain, help them get real help. Get them to a chiropractor or some other natural healthcare practitioner who will actually investigate the source of the pain and treat it. ‘Pain management’ – which means taking painkillers, not figuring out why the person is in pain and helping them get over that condition – just doesn’t cut it.

If someone you care about is already on painkillers and has been for a while, it’s time to make a change. Get them the help they need to get off the drug, and get them the healthcare help they need to get rid of their pain.

If you need help, contact Drug Rehab Referral at 877-211-7428. We’ve helped thousands of people find help getting off drugs, we can help you too.

I read a blog today in which the writer said that most drug addicts don’t want to quit. Don’t believe it. Every one of them wants to get their life back.

It’s easy to get the idea that an alcoholic or drug addict doesn’t want to quit. They basically tell you that in a hundred different ways. They resist every attempt you make to help them.

• They don’t need help – they don’t have a problem
• They can quit whenever they want
• They tell you they’ll get help, but, but they’re not ‘ready yet.’ The problem is, they never seem to be ready.
• They say nothing can be done.
• They tell you that everyone is taking those drugs or that they’re perfectly safe – e.g. that’s a common misconception with prescription drugs, they think they’re safe because doctors tell people to take them.
• They simply say they don’t want help.

But all that stems from fear. Which may not make a lot of sense to someone who hasn’t experienced drugs or alcohol. Why are they afraid to get better?

First – they’ve already gone for periods of time not drinking and not taking drugs and their body starts to go through withdrawal. They start getting sick. And they’re a mental and emotional wreck. It’s very uncomfortable and even painful.

Second – they had reasons for becoming an alcoholic or drug addict in the first place and those reasons have not been addressed. So when they look at life without drugs or alcohol, they think it will be the same as it used to be.

So, sure, they’re reluctant. Just like someone who needs an operation isn’t looking forward to the surgery, or someone with cancer isn’t looking forward to the hell of chemo. But they do it, because they think their life depends on it.

Addicts don’t always know that – they’re stoned. Their judgment is impaired.

But no one, no matter what they say or how they act, wants to live like that – losing everything in their life, everything that matters to them.

So … don’t give up. And if you need help getting them to get the help they need, give us a call – 877-211-7428. We’ll help you find the alcohol or drug rehab program that is the best solution for your situation.