Recovery homes – places where people who are trying to stay clean and sober can live during a transition period – are all across the country. Unfortunately, people in some areas are frightened to have this kind of home set up in their neighborhood. They think they will soil the atmosphere and expose their kids to drug addicts. In some cases, that may be true. But the recovery homes known as the Oxford house may offer something entirely different.

First – everyone who’s there has to have a job. If they can’t hold down a job, they can’t live there. They also have to participate in the management of the house - they cook together, clean together, and so on. And if they have even one drink or take one drug, they have to pack their bags and be out of there in 15 minutes.

Only people who are really serious about staying clean and turning their lives around are going to go for something like that.

Some people getting out of drug rehab really have nowhere to go. Not that they were homeless when they started the program, but they may have lived alone or with a dysfunctional family that would drive them right back to drinking or drugs.

They also may have surrounded themselves with people who drank and took drugs and, back with the old crowd, they might not be able to resist temptation – especially when going out with a bunch of guys who are drunk or high when you’re not will put you in a position where you really aren’t in sync with them. They’re stoned, you’re straight. It can be almost impossible to just have a conversation. A stranger in a strange land.

A recovery house gives you a place to live, with a group of people who are also changing their lives. As follow up on a drug rehab program in an addiction treatment center, it may be just what’s needed.

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Occassionally we see news items saying that kids are using fewer drugs. Like the recent local TV news story from Palm Beach, Florida, that said alcohol use is down 3% (from 33% to 30%) and marijuana has gone from 13.5% to 11%. That’s over a period of 8 years – since 2000.

I hope this type of news item doesn’t lull parents into a sense of complacency – thinking that drugs are no longer a problem and they can stop worrying about their kids. What the story neglects to say is that Florida is the pill-popping capital of the U.S., and the prescription drug abuse in and around Miami is among the worst.

The story also doesn’t mention that many kids have switched from marijuana to prescription drugs. Prescription drugs are also more likely to be the first drug kids try – it used to be marijuana.

The situation with prescription drug addiction and abuse is frightening. Many kids get the pills from their parents’ medicine cabinets and share them with other kids. There are also tons of Internet sites where anyone, of any age, can order prescription drugs. If they can pay for them, they can get them. And they’re cheaper online.

The prescription drug epidemic is also, in many ways, more dangerous than street drugs ever were. Even when they’re prescribed by a doctor and taken as directed, they’re addictive and they have absolutely horrible side effect like slowing your heart and respiratory rate down to nothing and motivating thoughts of suicide.

Don’t let your guard down. Keep your own drugs locked up, and get help for any kids you know who might be taking them. Check out addiction treatment centers where they can get prescription drug rehab.

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I just read a story about Adderall being used for weight loss. Adderall is generally used for so-called ADD and ADHD. It’s a problem especially by teens. Sometimes they get it from their doctor, but sometimes it comes from a friend. Doctors are worried about it because the drug is highly addictive. Many people have had to go to an addiction treatment center to get off them.

Adderall has a lot of dangerous side effects, but also acts as an appetite suppressant so, often, the person will lose weight. But because they’re not eating much they’re not getting the nutrition they need. Being malnourished will only encourage addiction and it enable to drug to do even more damage to the body.

A while ago a friend told me she was on a ‘medical’ weight loss diet. Which meant she was on drugs, I assume they were given to her by a doctor. She said nothing else worked for her – which I personally knew was not true. She took the pills, got nice and slim, then  stopped taking them and within a few months, was getting pudgy around the middle again.

So what’s she going to do? She either has to find the reason she’s fat – and there is always a reason – and do something about it, or she’s going to take the pills again. That will increase her chances of addiction and if her doctor eventually refuses to give her any more prescriptions, she’ll have to either live with being fat or, at last, find a real solution. She’ll be right back where she started.

Why risk ending up with a prescription drug addiction when you’re going to eventually wind up with the same problem you had to begin with? Better to find the real problem in the first place.

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When someone is facing losing their home, it is possible that they’ll also drink more and take more drugs. Not that either will do anything to handle the problem, but when you’ve worked hard to get somewhere, it’s hard to see it going down the drain through no fault of your own. 

Of course, drug and alcohol abuse only makes the problem worse. You can’t figure out how to solve problems when you can’t think clearly.

While it’s not likely that someone who doesn’t normally drink or take drugs, and who is determined not to, will start because of the economy, people who already depend on drugs and alcohol to handle their emotional state are likely to do so even more.

Families in trouble financially are going to suffer even more if someone starts drinking more or taking more drugs.

If someone you know needs help, call Drug Rehab Referral to find an addiction treatment center. Times may be hard, but they’ll get even worse with a drug or alcohol problem.

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According to a recent news item about Bossier Parish in Louisiana, about one person is dying every week from combining drugs like crack, cocaine, and methamphetamine with prescription drugs.  The street drugs keep them awake, and the prescription drugs are used to enable them to sleep.

Both the police chief and the medical examiner think they’re not going to be able to stop people from combining these drugs and agree that education is their only hope.

For a county with less than 100,000 people, that’s a pretty severe drug problem. Especially when you consider that the deaths are only those the police know about and were autopsied. The estimate is probably low.

Once again, prescription drugs are killing people. Probably more than illegal drugs ever did. It’s amazing how dangerous these drugs are.

Maybe the news item and whatever education officials have planned will motivate more people to get into an addiction treatment center, or get those they know have drug problems to get help.

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I wrote a post not too long ago about the dangers of marijuana and received a few comments about how ignorant I am and calling me names you wouldn’t really want to publish.

One of the things I talked about was marijuana being laced with other drugs. That, too, was considered ignorant.

Since I’ve been around for a while and have endeniable proof that’s the case, the comments didn’t really bother me.

In the news today is a warning from police about marijuana laced with crack cocaine.  In England, the mixture is known as Mach5 and, according to the police who’ve been busting people with the stuff, this combination is used so the marijuana is more addictive and dangerous.

That’s the kind of people most drug dealers are, actually. They make their living from people coming back for more on a regular basis, not from the occasional user, and they’ll go to great lengths to accomplish that. If they can get the user to come back every day or start buying larger amounts, they make more money.

It’s the same with many industries. They depend on repeat business to keep going. Big Pharma’s a good example. They lie, cheat, steal and would probably kill their grandmother to turn more people onto prescription drug addiction.

Drug dealers also get referrals from repeat customers. Another important avenue to business growth. People who get a more dramatic high from one guy’s marijuana than another’s are going to tell their friends about it, and their friends wil switch suppliers.

Not everyone who sells marijuana is some laid back guy who just happens to sell some to an occasional friend who comes to the house to kick back.  They’re business people. They’re in it for the money.

Some don’t even take drugs themselves – they’re just looking for a way to make money and don’t really care who they hurt doing it, whose lives are ruined, or who ends up in an addiction treatment center.

Again, don’t take smoking marijuana lightly. Remember, when someone buys marijuana, they’re not doing business with a pillar of the community. They’re doing business with a criminal. They’ve chosen a path in life that is anti-social. Is that really someone you want to trust?

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Isn’t it time somebody did something about the University of Wisconsin? The place has been in the top ten party schools list for years, and the drinking problem is so bad the police don’t even have the resources to take care of anything other than some of the binge-drinking students who might die from alcohol poisoning if the cops weren’t personally carting them off to detox. And how many of them get into an addiction treatment center so they can really get down to the bottom of the problem? Not many.

Now UW has a drug problem – in 2008, so far, 35% of the students have taken some form of illicit drugs – which includes prescription drugs obtained illegally.

Police budgets have been cut, as have other law enforcement agencies, whose resources are so stretched that cases are just being dismissed because they can’t get to them, and the drug problem is getting even less attention than alcohol.

If I were a parent, I wouldn’t care if I lived next door to UW, which, thank God, I don’t, I wouldn’t let my kid go there.

Parents need to demand that something be done about it before their kids end up with a cocaine, heroin, meth or prescription drug addiction problem.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Start squeaking.

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I’ve recently seen ads on TV, for an antidepressant, that gives us the startling fact that two out of three people who take antidepressants still feel depressed. The ad is for another drug, another type of antidepressant, that you take in addition to your original antidepressant, to help.

First of all, doesn’t this tell you something about antidepressants? They don’t work for heaven’s sake. Chances are a close inspection of all the trials done on the drug before it was released would have found the same thing – that the majority of people who take it still feel depressed, and many of those who don’t would have felt better even if they’d taken a placebo.

If your antidepressant isn’t working, consider more traditional methods of treatment. Exercise helps depression, nutrients, going to a doctor who can figure out if there’s something going on with you physically that may be causing the symptoms of depression. Or just taking a good, hard, honest look at your life and figuring out what’s got you down – stress at work, bad marriage (or even one that looks good but just doesn’t make you happy), not feeling like you’re accomplishing your goals in life, or maybe you’ve lost sight of your goals altogether – there are a lot of reasons to feel depressed about life – and then figuring out what you have to do about it.

Why don’t antidepressants work? Because your problem was not caused by an antidepressant deficiency. Get some help.  Get into an addiction treatment center if you can’t get off them. They’ll help you get off them safely, and help you figure out your life.

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Kids using prescription drugs is a big problem – many of us know that. Unfortunately, not too many schools are up on it. Even those that do drug tests usually only test for street drugs. But following the prescription drug-related arrests of students, some New York schools are taking a proactive approach to prescription drug addiction and abuse in the hope that they can nip it in the bud.

They’ve had grades 6 through 12 fill out surveys, the teachers have had some training, and they’re having a meeting with the student leaders to figure out what they can do to get the message across.

A local trooper, Rae Ann Hickock, said she’s had to arrest many kids for prescription drugs – even handing someone one pill is considered a sale. If that pill was OxyContin, hydrodone, Vicodin, Percocet or any other narcotic, the kid has just committed a felony. Hickock also said the kids have no idea that the pills are dangerous, or that what they’re doing is illegal.

Statistics show that kids whose parents talk to them about the dangers of prescription drugs (or any drug, including alcohol) are 50% less likely to take them. If the schools also jump on the bandwagon, a lot of kids might be able to avoid drug problems, and the possibility of prescription drug rehab.

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There’s only one good thing about taking drugs and driving – if the driver speeds, swerves, makes an illegal turn, or does anything suspicious, there’s a good chance they’ll be pulled over by police and get busted for drugs in the process. That’s what’s happened to Michelle, a 23-year-old women in Friendswood, Texas, who was recently busted with a car full of pills.

You wouldn’t think a town called Friendswood would have a drug problem, especially since it was officially named one of the 100 best places to live in the U.S. by Money Magazine in 2007, but there you go.

The car contained a bag of marijuana, some drug paraphernalia, and enough medication to get a few of Friendswood’s 34,000 citizens started on the road to prescription drug addiction – 84 hydrocodone pills, 111 Soma pills, 31 Xanex pills, 26 Adderall pills and 2 Ecstasy pills. 

Several pills were lying around the car in full view – another mistake that, thankfully, people on drugs are likely to make.

The good news – Michelle was stopped for a minor traffic violation, not a traffic accident that could have lowered Friendswood’s population. Although she and her driving companion may already have done so by pushing prescription drugs.

Texas has drug courts – which would give both Michelle and her companion the opportunity to get help at an addiction treatment center – but as they were charged with dealing the drugs, there’s a good chance they’ll wind up in jail instead. Two young lives ruined, but maybe hundreds saved.

One disturbing note – police say there may be further investigation.  May be? If I lived there I’d want every name out of their address books, cell phones, emails, and so on, contacted. They might not be caught with drugs, but I’m sure some of those people will be kids and young adults who have been getting prescription drugs from Michelle and whose parents, for example, can be alerted so they can dig in and find out if their kids have a problem and get them into a drug addiction treatment center. And it may save a few people from prescription drug addiction because they’ll be less likely to take drugs if they know they’re being watched.

Good job, Friendswood. But don’t stop there.

Fortunately, the girl was stopped for

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