“If marijuana is the gateway drug, a prescription is an all access pass” said Oscar Raymundo in The Daily Northwestern. And that pass is sending plenty of people to drug rehab, ER’s and the morgue. 

Oscar went to the dentist and received a Vicodin prescription after having his wisdom teeth removed. He finished taking them, had a few left, and several friends inquired about purchasing them. They also suggested he go back to the dentist, fake some symptoms and get more. They told Oscar he could make a profit by selling them.

Oscar obviously doesn’t have much of an interest in drugs. He is aware of the problems that prescription dugs have caused. For instance, a friend of his was caught smoking marijuana by the police and switched to prescriptions from a doctor to get high. Oscar’s friend will most likely end up needing drug rehab. A recent Florida survey has suggested that marijuana use is declining in the State - I wonder if kids are just switching from marijuana to stronger prescription drugs. Oscar’s friend is probably part of an ongoing trend. In colleges, 20% of the students need drug detox and drug rehab program.

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I really don’t care how many methadone supporters comment on this blog - have at it. Here’s the story of the eigth methadone-related death in the town of Laconia, New Hampshire - population 17,000. This is a 20-year-old boy who came home apparently somewhat inebriated, was told by his mother to sleep it off, and never woke up. His mom knew he had a problem but, obviously, she didn’t know it would kill him. She is not alone. I would bet that the majority of tragedies like that come as a complete suprise. Parents, take heed - get your kids into drug rehab if they have an alcohol or drug problem. You never know what the next day will bring.

Methadone-related deaths increased by six times from 1999 to 2006. Cocaine-related deaths rose by 63% in the same time period.

If you know someone with a drug problem, don’t take it lightly. It’s true that some drugs are more dangerous than others, but it’s also true that the judgement of a person on drugs is impaired. It’s also true that many people, even those very familiar with a variety of drugs, often don’t understand what the drug can do to them and how they will react.

You can’t be too careful. Get them into a drug rehab program now. 

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For someone who’s a heavy drinker or binge drinker, going to a drug detox before drug rehab doesn’t have to be unpleasant. Really, the fact that you have to go at all may be the worst part of it.

At Santa Barbara State College they have drug rehab or similar programs for college students who have become addicted to alcohol. The Alcohol and Substance Abuse Prevention office sees four or five cases a week.

]n Texas binge drinking is such a problem that the East Texas Review wrote an article entitled: “What Every Parent Should Know about College Binge Drinking.” Included in the article are some good things you should know if you’re a parent:

Students who live in a fraternity or sorority are the heaviest drinkers.  In fraternities, 86% of the residents report binge drinking, in a sorority it’s 80%. Nearly 50% of all college students report binge drinking nationally.

The article suggests noticing if alcohol is cheaper near the campuses or if nearby outlets run specials for students. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for example, February is bar month. I wouldn’t send my kids to college anywhere near there.

In colleges over the U.S., there are hundreds of thousands of accidents, physical assaults and sexual assaults every year. 25% of students report missing class, falling behind and getting poor grades because of alcohol abuse.

If you assume your kids are in the half that is not drinking too much, and you just let it go at that, there’s a good chance yours will be the ones in a drug detox or drug rehab program, in jail for drunk driving, or worse.

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Maryland has been sending more people to drug rehab since the year 2000. Drug rehab admissions are up by 28% while prison terms for drug offenses are down by 7%. And drug rehab expense is running 75% less than prison costs. Maryland could be doing more, but this is a step in the right direction.

The House of Delegates recently rejected a proposal to let non-violent drug offenders out of jail early. It costs nearly $26,000 a year to keep people in jail. For $6,500 you can get someone through a drug rehab program. The benefits of drug rehab rather than prison are obvious, especially in light of the fact that so many offenses are drug related. If you can get a person off drugs, you can eliminate the reason behind the crime.

At the same time, Florida - where prescription drug abuse is so rampant the state has been called ‘the pill state’ - is going to expand their prisons and cut out drug rehab programs.

Putting money into rehab makes more sense - when the prisoner finished rehab they’ll be able to get a job and become a productive citizen.

Vermont, South Carolina and New Jersey are all looking at spending more on drug rehab programs and reducing prison populations. Florida should do the same.

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In early March three men were arrested in central California for making and selling flavored cocaine. The flavors included strawberry, lemon, coconut and cinnamon. Move to Virginia and strawberry meth was seized recently. Sgt. Michael Conroy did say the meth was not seized from kids, but he is taking the time to warn parents whose kids might otherwise end up addicted and in drug rehab, or worse.

Like cheese heroin, flavored drugs might be just the thing to get children’s attention. Both West Virginia and Virginia have been hard pressed to defeat the problems OxyContin created. Let’s hope they don’t wind up with the same problem with cheese heroin - Oxycontin users sometimes turn to heroin when they can no longer afford OxyContin - and flavored meth.
Drug detox and drug rehab will have to be part of the environmental cleanup needed for this mess.

Because of the large amounts of drug abuse in these two states, clever dealers and brokers have figured out that something new and interesting might be just the thing for the citizens of that region. Cheese heroin is marketed to young Hispanics in Dallas and, according to Sgt. Conroy, there is a risk that marketing to kids could be the next move in Virginia.

As a parent you need to have your eyes wide open. Meth and cocaine are very addictive. Just because no kids have been caught yet doesn’t mean they won’t be targets. Lets skip the drug rehab program - just keep your kids drug free.

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There are a number of ways young kids find out about drugs. In the Hispanic communities of Dallas, Texas, a family friend may be selling cheese heroin - which is targeted for young children. In Florida, children may witness their parents taking prescription drugs or even doctor shopping. In West Virginia and Virginia there is the ongoing battle with OxyContin and kids can’t help but see drug use. They even see TV programs about drug addiction and drug rehab. The indoctrination begins at an early age and doesn’t ever stop.

The average age of first drug use is now around 12 years old – that’s right, at the ripe old age of 13, your kid could need drug rehab. Alcohol is even younger at age 11. Even major universities deliver a not so subtle message that life may be better on drugs. In college you can usually get whatever drugs you want from a dealer – or you might get them from a doctor. Which doesn’t mean you won’t end up in drug rehab.

There is also another message from a different kind of drug dealer - the TV drug ads directed at children and their parents. One current ad is from Shire Pharmaceutical and advertises their drug, Adderall. I was recently watching a cartoon with my son. I normally use a DVR, record shows and then fast forward through the commercials, but this commercial caught my eye.  I doubt many parents watch cartoons with their children, so I assume the message is directed to a child. I am not saying all drugs are bad, but I do wonder why a drug company would promote a drug during a show that primarily only children watch. Surely they know that kids are influenced by commercials - that’s why they advertise toys during the hours kids watch TV, right? And, like the toys, if they make the drugs attractive the kids will also want them. These ads fuel drug use, drug addiction and are driving more and more people to drug rehab.

If a drug company can put a child on drugs at age six and keep them on them for a lifetime, they stand to make a lot of money. According to one recent study, if kids start on drugs such as Ritalin or Adderall at age eight or older, 44% will develop drug problems and need drug detox and drug rehab. If they are taught what symptoms to present to a doctor, they can get drugs (watch the movie Charlie Bartlett). I wouldn’t want my kids to be indoctrinated for future drug use. And I certainly wouldn’t want them to have to interrupt their education and their life for a drug rehab program.

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Marc Katz, sports writer for the Dayton Daily News out of Ohio, has a good idea: He thinks the NCAA should ban beer commercials. Huge numbers of college students binge drink - over 40% of the student body in most schools - and more than 20% of the students need drug rehab or some sort of help. Over 90% of parents think that drinking is part of college life and many allow their high-school-aged kids to drink at home. What most parents don’t realize is that nearly half of underage drinkers become alcoholics and will need an alcohol or drug rehab program.

Most colleges, including Ohio State and Ohio University, have problems with students drinking too much. Mr. Katz had some interesting statistics in his article: 1700 college aged students die each year from alcohol related accidents including drunk driving, there are 600,000 injuries, 700,000 assaults and nearly 100,000 incidents of sexual abuse - all good reasons for not showing drug or alcohol commercials on TV..

Despite these outragrous statistics, most of Mr. Katz’s readers were horrified at the concept of not seeing beer commercials. But the numbers speak for themselves.

Parents should insist on their kids not drinking and the NCAA should ban beer ads. Prescription drug and alcohol abuse are sending millions of people to drug detox and drug rehab, why make matters worse with ads promoting drinking? One last point, Ohio University is a top ten party school. Does your child go there?

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I wrote a blog on March 29th about the use of Ritalin, Inderal, and Provigil as ‘cognitive enhancers’. The phrase was coined several years ago by a psychiatrist from the University of Pennsylvania, and now other “neuroscience professors” from Cambridge are following the pied piper.  That same psychiatrist also coined the phrase “cosmetic neurology” and compared drug use to plastic surgery. Sadly, it seems to be catching on with scientists across the country. I must admit that as a writer for Drug Rehab Referral, I find this concept nothing short of gross.

Not only do we have college students using drugs as a study aid, we now have scientists doing the same. In fact, the odds are that your kid’s professors are promoting the use of drugs to them. According to one survey, one in five “scientists” are using Ritalin (the most popular), Inderal, and Provigil to enable them to be more focused during work. Some will end up in drug rehab and some will tell their friends and students what a great experience they are having.

Interestingly, several other scientists and psychiatrists are promoting that Ritalin may be good to use after a long trip or when you’re tired. One compared using Ritalin to having a double espresso. It makes me wonder whose payroll they’re on and who is funding their research projects.

In my experience, most people, including scientists, never see the effects drugs have on people - although they may read about it in the newspaper or see a news report. I wonder how dumb these “scientists” really are.

If you are a scientist or rofessor promoting drug use to college students, please stop. If you are addicted to Ritalin or any prescription drug, get yourself to a drug detox or a drug rehab program.

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I watched a TV program the other day about epigenetics. Scientists involved in the Genome Project, designed to identify all the genes in the human body, expected to find 100,000 plus genes. They were shocked when they found that humans have no more genes than fish, and fewer genes that some plants. This led to the discovery of epigenes - ’switches’ that turn the genes on and off and control many physical, mental and emotional characteristics. It occurred to me while watching the program that epigenetics, once the technology is a little more accessible, could actually be useful in the field of drug rehab.

The program demonstrated how epigenes can control a number of physical factors as well as emotional. One of the studies they did was on mice with an attentive mother who constantly groomed them vs. mice who had a mother who basically ignored them. The mice whose mom groomed them were calmer and friendlier. According to the researchers, the grooming caused epigenetic changes by calming brain chemicals.

If epigenetics can product calmer, friendlier mice, maybe it can eliminate some of the emotional trauma that drives people to alcohol and drugs.

In the meantime, a good drug rehab program can help those who are addicted. Being addicted to drugs or alcohol is too risky to wait for anything.  Find a good drug rehab program now, but hope that science will help make things a little easier in the future.

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After numerous attempts in rehab, Jason Emanuel died from a seizure after inhaling Dust-Off. He was 20 years old. Jason wasn’t a criminal: He didn’t steal things to feed his OxyContin or heroin habit. His father, Chris, said Jason switched from marijuana to inhalants because he didn’t like to deal with drug dealers. He had been kicked out of a halfway house for using inhalants not long before he died. It’s hard to know what you are supposed to do when rehab fails. Fortunately, there are drug rehab programs available that are also successful.

Usually the kids searching out and using inhalants are much younger - the average age is 12 or 13. The younger kids use them because they can’t get stronger drugs. There are lots of inhalants available in your house - you should keep track of everything from paint to glue to Dust-Off so your child doesn’t end up like Jason. That is my warning,. Jason was the poster child example of inhalant abuse in Boynton Beach, Florida.

I think the message is clear: If you are a parent, you can’t be too careful with prescription drugs, alcohol or common household items. Don’t let your kid end up in drug rehab, or the morgue.

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