That’s one in five. That means that if you’re in a room with four other people, there’s a good chance one of you is taking prescription drugs – painkillers, stimulants, or sedatives, all of which are addictive – for no medical reason. And that person needs to get prescription drug rehab.

According to Medline, ‘experts’ don’t understand why so many people take these drugs. They assume that the fact that they’re so available has something to do with it.

But it takes a lot more than ‘being available’ for someone to take drugs. Bridges and tall buildings are available too, but that doesn’t mean people are going to jump off them.

So, why do they take them?

The reasons are actually pretty obvious, despite the fact that people who take them might say they’re just doing it for ‘kicks’ or because they ‘like it.’

The real reasons center around the fact that the individual taking them is unhappy, frustrated, confused, overwhelmed – and all those other conditions that indicate the person has something going on in their lives that they don’t feel they can do anything about.

And when you consider the world we live in right now, feeling that way about life should come as no surprise.

Also, because tens of millions are taking these same drugs as prescribed by their doctor, they think that the drugs are safe and see no reason why they should take them, too.

But they are deadly addictive. It doesn’t take long to get addicted to them, but what it takes to get off them is, guaranteed, far worse than whatever the person was experiencing that made them take the drugs in the first place.

They are likely to become ill with a variety of side effects, and sometimes life-threatening conditions. They are also going to have problems in their family, their job, their finances, their friends and other relationships. And they’re going to have to do a drug rehab program, which can take several months, will cost them a lot of money and their lives will be disrupted even more.

After all that’s done, you would have a hard time finding someone who says it was worth taking the drug. The only way that might be true is that a good drug rehab program will help them figure out solutions to the problems they were having in life that drove them to drugs in the first place.

Isn’t it a lot easier to just do that – face our problems and find solutions – than to take drugs, go through hell, put our families through hell, only to end up having to do the same thing?

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I read an unbelievable news story today about the burn victims of methamphetamine. According to the news story, the associated press conducted a survey of key hospitals in the nation’s most active meth states. The survey showed that up to a third of the patients in some burn units were hurt while making meth. This added up to thousands of people. Thousands of people whose burns – serious enough to send them to hospital burn units – could have been prevented if they’d gone to drug rehab.

The story was actually about the fact that most of these people are insured, which is creating a huge burden on healthcare costs for the rest of us, and is actually causing some burn units to close.

What about people who are burned when being caught in house fires, or even fighting them. Can you imagine living in an area which no longer had a burn unit to help people who were burned while doing something legal?

The burns from methamphetamine are usually caused by explosions while making it. The method is called “shake-and-bake.” The raw ingredients are put into a 2 liter soda bottle and shaken. But the mixture is very unstable and if not done absolutely correctly can explode.

The explosions can cause permanent disfigurement, blindness, and death.

The damage is also reflected in the cost for each burn patient – an average of $130,000 each, 60 percent higher than other burn patients. Burn experts estimate the cost to the taxpayer at 10s to 100s of millions of dollars. They can’t get a closer estimate because someone burned by meth often lies about what happened.

Another problem with this method of making meth is that, unlike big labs, someone making it is hard to find. Big labs required quite a bit of equipment and the chemicals could be smelled all over the neighborhood.

But they are making their presence known in hospitals. From 1999 to 2009, there were 83 meth related injuries in Indiana. Thanks to shake-and-bake ‘labs’, there have been 70 injuries in the last two years. A big change.

One of the doctors in a burn center in Iowa said that many of the meth lab burn patients won’t be able to return to a normal life. They’ll need rehab and occupational therapy to cope with their disfigured body.

There are a lot of people who have a pretty casual attitude towards drugs – especially when it comes to something apparently not too dangerous, like smoking marijuana. But drugs lead to more drugs, and when they lead to something like meth, you’re really taking your life in your hands in a number of ways.

If someone you care about is into drugs of any kind, the only way to really keep them safe is to get them through a good drug rehab program so they will get off drugs, and not want to take them again.

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Years ago I had a friend who grew up in ‘the projects.’ Drugs, guns, crime, gangs – they were everywhere. And there wasn’t much else to do. Until some bright person started dance classes in a school yard. I don’t know how many kids were saved from a life of drugs, guns, crime, gangs, prison and drug rehab, or how many didn’t die when they would have otherwise, but my friend was one of them. In fact, he became a professional dancer and, after that, a very successful businessman with a great family.

All from one guy who cared enough to give the kids something to do that was fun and challenging enough to get and hold their interest.

Many parents get their kids involved in one thing after another – partly to teach them different skills, partly to enable them to achieve something, and partly to keep them out of trouble.

But these are ‘minivan’ parents – families with cars, money and the time and flexibility to ferry their kids around from one activity to another.

This is not the case in inner cities. A higher percentage of parents don’t have jobs or, because they work for a relatively low wage, need two incomes to make a go of it. But, as they will tell you, they can’t afford the daycare, transportation, eating out of the house, appropriate workclothes and so on that are needed for both parents to work. In fact, those expenses can cost more than their pay. So, mom is at home. And usually without a car, without a support group that can help her, and so on.

That doesn’t leave extra money they can pump into helping their kids achieve their goals.

If you’re in that position, or know someone who is, you could make a big difference by finding people who would volunteer their services for community programs that the kids will attend. You could do a little survey of the local kids, speak to them individually, and see what they would like. Then pick the things that the majority of kids say they would like and get something going.

Community activities like this can change an entire neighborhood. If you have the opportunity to do it, you could save lives, and help many kids achieve something that they’re proud of and can carry them forward to create a good future, free of crime, guns, gangs, prison, drugs and drug rehab programs.

And the personal satisfaction for you will be out the roof.

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Can you imagine living in a State where poverty is rampant and employers can’t find enough people to hire who pass a drug test? That’s the situation in West Virginia, and this year officials plan to figure out what they can do to get these people into drug rehab and work out an overall handling to reduce the number of people who are drugged.

West Virginia is a good example of what happens on a smaller scale – in families – when drugs and alcohol enter the picture. Sometimes it’s the parents with the drug or alcohol problem, and sometimes it’s the kids. In either case, the result is the same.

How did West Virginia become, basically, an entire State with the same problems drugs create in a family. West Virginia was one of the hardest hit States when the OxyContin addiction problem surfaced in the U.S. Purdue Pharma. Purdue promoted OxyContin as less addictive than previously used painkillers like Vicodin and Percocet – and was later fined $634 million for intentionally lying to the public and doctors.

Not only were people getting addicted to the drug left, right and center, OxyContin pills were also labeled as ‘killers’ because of the rapidly escalating toll of overdose deaths connected to the drug.

People in West Virginia tended to be older and suffer from many chronic illnesses and debilitating diseases caused by years of working in the mines, so they jumped all over OxyContin.

And, now, many years later, the State is still caught up in prescription drug addiction. And many of them can’t afford to get off the drugs – since they’re almost impossible to stop taking without a drug addiction treatment program offered by professionals. There just aren’t enough of them – not good ones, anyone – offered free of charge by the State.

Back to families – this is, of course, is tearing families apart. Not only are parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts and kids suffering from addiction, the kids who want to make something of their lives are likely to move to another State to do it. They want opportunity, and there’s not much of it in West Virginia. So, they leave, and the families are left behind.

Anyone who has a family member abusing alcohol or drugs needs to get help immediately. It really will tear the family apart, and someone may even die.

We have enough to regret in our lives without also having the fact that we could have helped someone, and saved their lives, but didn’t do it. A successful drug rehab program is the answer.

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It’s the new year, and it’s time to start taking drug rehab, for yourself or someone you care about, into consideration. Do you really want to go through another year of hell living with drugs?

If you are looking at drug rehab options, there’s one specific method of so-called drug treatment that you really don’t want – and that’s methadone treatment.

Methadone treatment is used for people addicted to heroin or other opiates – like prescription painkillers.

Sometimes methadone is recommended as a ‘stop gap’ – a drug to take that will prevent withdrawal symptoms but does not get you high. You should know that people who are put on methadone for this reason almost never get into drug rehab. They are given methadone for years. Sometimes for life.

Other people, usually those who have gone back to taking drugs after drug rehab, are told that their body is no longer capable of producing the natural endorphins that make us ‘happy’, and that their only choice is to take methadone.

What has usually happened there is that the person hasn’t done a good drug addiction treatment program – and there are plenty out there that usually don’t work.

People who are on methadone, and have been on it for some time, say that the drug has no negative affect. In fact, there is plenty of evidence that it does.

A recent study in Norway, for example, found that people who are on methadone are twice as likely to have car accidents as those who are not on it. For the study, they spent two years following 2,500 people who were on methadone.

Perhaps the worst thing about methadone is that it’s almost impossible to quit. It’s harder to get off it than heroin and the prescription painkillers the person was taking before. In fact, many drug rehab centers won’t even accept someone on methadone because getting off the drug is so very difficult – even when being treated by professionals who’ve gotten hundreds of people off heroin and prescription opiates.

The real solution to opiate addiction is a good drug rehab program. One that has a very high success rate. At Drug Rehab Referral, we’ve helped thousands of people get off those drugs.

If you’re looking into drug rehab, check with us first. We can help you find the addiction treatment program that’s most likely to guarantee success. Of course, there are no real guarantees, but you might as well start off with a program that has a better chance of success than with one that has a low success rate.

The alternative is having an addict go through treatment and fail – in which case they lose their faith that they can actually get off drugs and are more likely to fall for the idea that they need to be drugged forever – on methadone.

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The holiday season is here again. As much as we try to put the drug problems of our family members aside for the holidays, they always seem to surface at family gatherings. Either the person doesn’t show up, or shows up stoned, or leaves early, or slips outside for some drugs during the get-together – and it’s usually painfully obvious that they have a problem. If you want things to be different next year, you need to get them into a good drug rehab program now.

But how do you know it will work? How do you know which one to choose?

Kentucky recently passed a bill allowing prisoners guilty of non-violent drug offenses to leave prison early and, instead, check into drug rehab. The first 1,000 will arrive in drug rehab facilities early January. One of the people who runs a rehab center spoke to the press and said that, realistically, only one in ten of those people will actually make it through drug rehab and stay off drugs. Is that really true?

Absolutely not – IF you choose the right drug rehab program. Unfortunately, not enough people do. They do not do thorough research.

It’s understandable that in that situation, parents, spouses and other family members are pretty desperate. Sometimes they don’t even ask about success rates when they’re contacting a drug rehab for help. They don’t ask about the specific procedures that are used to rehabilitate the person, they don’t personally evaluate whether or not those procedures could actually work. They just want to get their son, daughter, husband or wife to get help. And they think that, no matter what the program is, if it’s called ‘drug rehab,’ it will be helpful.

But it is essential that parents know the difference between a successful drug rehab and one that has miserable results – like one in ten.

What parents don’t understand is the degree to which a drug addict is messed up. They think that their son or daughter got into trouble because they started hanging out with the wrong people, that those people introduced them to drugs, or alcohol for that matter, and that the drugs actually caused the problem.

While it’s true that those things did have an influence, the real question is why was that person drawn to hang out with those people in the first place. And why they were willing to experiment with drugs.

Some stories are about kids who were high producers – they were stars on the football team, or they got straight As, and so on. Then things ‘changed.’ The parents may or may not have noticed the changed, but they usually have no idea that their kid is on drugs until the trouble starts.

But when things start to change, there’s a reason. And it’s usually pretty deep-seated. They already had the problems, however hidden they were from loved ones, and it’s those problems that led them to start with drugs, the ‘wrong people’, and so on.

The reason why many drug rehab programs don’t have high success rates is that they don’t actually find out what those problems were, get down to the bottom of them, and help the individual solve the problems so they no longer need or want the drugs.

That’s what successful drug rehab is all about. After the addict has gone through withdrawal, after they’ve started restoring their physical health, they need to work with someone who can help them figure out what led them to drugs and help them resolve those issues.

Every time someone fails at drug rehab and gets back on drugs, their confidence in being able to stay off drugs is shattered. They think THEY are the problem. And with every failure, they’re closer to really giving up.

Would you go to a doctor for surgery when only one in ten of his patients survived? No, you would choose a doctor with better success. The same goes for drug rehab.

Drug Rehab Referral had helped thousands of people find the best drug rehab program for their situation. Rather than trying to figure it out yourself, seek help from experts. People who are familiar with every type of program going, which methods work, and which don’t. For the best chance possible, contact Drug Rehab Referral. Do you want next year to be different? Call now.

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According to a new report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMSHA), the number of people going into drug rehab for prescription drug addiction has increased by 430 percent over the last ten years.

That’s pretty amazing when you think about it. Where one person out of ten may have gone into treatment for prescription drugs 10 years ago, there is now 4.3 out of ten.

And that’s only the people who go to drug rehab, not the people who are addicted to or dependent on prescription drugs but don’t get help for it.

SAMHSA says the prescription drug addiction problem is largely due to ‘pill mills.’

Pill mills are basically so-called pain management clinics that don’t do anything to address the problem; they just give out drugs. Since there are few questions asked, it becomes known that getting drugs from these doctors is a piece of cake. That attracts people who are already addicts.

However, the worst thing about pill mills is probably that they don’t offer any other solutions to the pain people are suffering. There’s no attempt to get them the treatment they need to get rid of the pain so, of course, they become addicts. There’s really no way to avoid it.

It’s hard to say how many people get addicted to prescription painkillers (OxyContin addiction, for example is really widespread) by first being given the pills by their doctor, but it’s considerable. Many of the people getting prescription drug rehab are in that situation.

That’s really criminal medicine.

What can you do? The solution is to first find a drug treatment program that will help get the person off the drugs, and then find alternative solutions to the pain. Chiropractic, acupuncture, natural medicine – they all offer possible solutions.

If these types of treatment were used, prescription drug addiction would be far less a problem.

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When I was much younger I thought that if something that got you high was legal then it must be safe. After all, if it wasn’t safe the government would ban it, right? Or restrict it in some way. But nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, some of the ‘legal’ drugs people are using are not only sending the users to drug rehab, they’re also making them go crazy.

A person using ‘bath salts’, for example, stabbed a priest. Another, also using bath salts, jumped from a third-story window.

I think a lot of people still think that the substances they’re using are safe if they’re legal. Same with prescription drugs. Most people think that if a doctor would prescribe a drug, then it, too, must be safe.

The truth of the matter is that people are inventing synthetic drugs all the time, and many people are getting hurt before anyone figures out what’s going on, and before the government catches up and actually makes the substance illegal, or illegal under certain circumstances.

What are these ‘legal’ drugs?

They have some pretty strange names – bath salts, K2, Spice, Meow Meow, Molly’s Plant Food, 2C-E – and there are plenty more.

They sound pretty innocent. But as you can see from the bath salts examples, that’s not the case.

It’s hard to believe there are people around who would do this – invent these substances that make people crazy, then pass them around, and sell them, with no concern about how much damage they’ll do.

One biochemist named Alexander Shulgin, a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley and former research chemist at the Dow Chemical Company, re-discovered the synthesis for MDMA (Ecstasy) in 1976 and is ‘credited’ with making it popular. He also published the syntheses for more than 170 designer drugs of his own invention. He was a school teacher, so was his wife.

Thanks, doc.  Perhaps your intentions were good, but it didn’t work out in the end. Did it?

Fortunately, the government has caught up with a few of these drugs. A few days ago the House voted to classify several synthetic drugs as Schedule 1. That’s so restrictive that even researchers will have a hard time getting them. Perhaps it’s better that way. Haven’t we proven that drugs are not the answer to life’s problems?

Watch out for these drugs.  And if someone you care about is into drugs at all, get them into a good drug rehab program that will put an end to any desire they have to continue taking them. Really, that’s the only guarantee that their lives will not be ruined.

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Are your college kids taking ‘study’ drugs? Have they told you that everyone in school is taking them and that it doesn’t get them high, it just helps them focus so they can get better grades? Have they told you that they don’t take them all year, just at exam time? Have you been worried about it and wondering if they need drug rehab?

Whatever your kids have told you about these drugs – which are primarily Adderall and Ritalin – here is what you as parents should know, and should look into further.

Here are the side effects for each drug – taken from drugs.com. The lists are long, and there may be things on them you don’t understand. You can look them up online. But, even if you didn’t look up anything, there’s enough there that you will understand to make you realize that these drugs are nothing to fool around with. And if your kids are taking them, it might be time to contact a drug rehab program and speak with a professional to see if there’s a problem.

Adderall

Cardiovascular: Palpitations, tachycardia, elevation of blood pressure, sudden death, myocardial infarction. There have been isolated reports of cardiomyopathy associated with chronic amphetamine use.

Central Nervous System: Psychotic episodes at recommended doses, overstimulation, restlessness, dizziness, insomnia, euphoria, dyskinesia, dysphoria, depression, tremor, headache, exacerbation of motor and phonic tics and Tourette’s syndrome, seizures, stroke.

Gastrointestinal: Dryness of the mouth, unpleasant taste, diarrhea, constipation, other gastrointestinal disturbances. Anorexia and weight loss may occur as undesirable effects.

Allergic: Urticaria, rash, hypersensitivity reactions including angioedema and anaphylaxis. Serious skin rashes, including Stevens Johnson Syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis have been reported.

Endocrine: Impotence, changes in libido.

Ritalin

Nervousness, insomnia, hypersensitivity (including skin rash, urticaria, fever, arthralgia, exfoliative dermatitis, erythema multiforme with histopathological findings of necrotizing vasculitis, and thrombocytopenic purpura); anorexia; nausea; dizziness; palpitations; headache; dyskinesia; drowsiness; blood pressure and pulse changes, both up and down; tachycardia; angina; cardiac arrhythmia; abdominal pain; weight loss during prolonged therapy, Tourette’s syndrome, toxic psychosis has been reported, abnormal liver function, cerebral arteritis and/or occlusion; leukopenia and/or anemia; transient depressed mood; aggressive behavior; scalp hair loss, neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS).

So, now your kids are going to say they’ve already taken it and nothing like that has happened to them. But, that doesn’t mean it won’t. It’s probable that they won’t have some kind of severe physical allergic reaction to it if they’ve already taken it and nothing has happened – but it’s not true that none of the other things will happen. They could happen at any time.

Another really worrying thing is that kids often get their drugs from other kids – not from doctors. Their friends either sell them to them or give them to them free of charge. And your kid might do the same – give someone a few of their pills to ‘help them out’ during exams time.

But they never know how that person is going to reaction. What if they did have a severe reaction? What if they wound up in hospital or, heaven forbid, dead. Your child would feel horrible about that for the rest of their lives. It might even ruin their life.

Also, if your son or daughter knew about the possible effects of these drugs, continues to take them and also doesn’t tell others about how dangerous the drugs can be, and then someone they know is injured while taking these drugs – that’s another guilt trip.

Don’t take your son or daughter’s word for what is safe and what is not – no matter what their friends have told them and how many of them are doing it. Learn the information you as parents need to have to make certain that something is safe for yourself.

And don’t get fooled into thinking “Oh, that could never happen to my son!” I’m sure you could guess that that’s what most parents of kids who’ve gotten into trouble with drugs or alcohol told themselves.

If you’re not successful at getting your kids to stop taking drugs by reasoning with them and giving them the full and correct information – they need drug rehab.

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About 10 years ago the number of people who die from heroin and prescription painkillers were about 2,000 – 3,000 a year. Cocaine was slightly higher. But over the last decade, deaths from prescription painkillers have increased by leaps and bounds over heroin and cocaine each year. Anyone taking these pills should be made aware of the dangers and gotten into OxyContin rehab at the first sign of trouble. Any OxyContin rehab program can also help with other prescription painkillers.

In 1999, there were about 2000 deaths from heroin, a little more than 2,500 from prescription painkillers, and nearly 3000 from cocaine.

In 2000, they all remained about the same but in 2001 prescription painkiller deaths went up to more than 4,000. Over the next several years, heroin deaths didn’t really increase at all, cocaine gradually increased to about 6,000, and deaths from prescription painkillers climbed to a whopping 12,000 in 2007! The situation is even worse now. In 2008, the numbers had already climbed to nearly 15,000.

Some other startling facts:

• More than 70 percent of those who have abused prescription painkillers got them from a friend or relative who had a prescription.

• One in three young people aged 12 and older started abusing drugs by taking prescription drugs for non-medical purposes.

• A survey of teens said it’s easier to get prescription drugs than beer.

Lipitor, a drug used to lower cholesterol, used to be the most prescribed drug in the world. Sales in the U.S. reached $12.4 billion in 2008. Now, prescriptions for just one prescription painkiller – Vicodin and others containing hydrocodone – are twice that. And that doesn’t include OxyContin and several other prescription painkillers.

Why is this happening? Are more and more people in chronic pain? Not likely – since 70 percent of people who take these drugs get them from friends or family, and since even kids experimenting with drugs now start with prescription drugs.

No one is really escaping this problem, and until something is done to curtail the sales of the drugs, more and more people will die.

Do you know someone who is taking prescription painkillers? Do you know someone who is taking other drugs and could possibly experiment with prescription painkillers?

Get them into a drug rehab program as soon as possible.

These drugs are killing people because they’re dangerous. Don’t let someone you care about become one of the statistics.

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