According to a recent headline, Colorado drug rehab centers are treating more teens for marijuana addiction since the state legalized marijuana for medicinal use. In fact, at one center the number of marijuana addicts referred for drug rehab has tripled. Where are they getting the drugs? 83% said they got it from someone who was prescribed marijuana for medical reasons.

Many surveys about the perception of prescription drugs have found invariably that people expect prescription drugs to be safe. After all, they’re prescribed by doctors, who are supposed to be taking care of our health. However, it is obvious from the statistics on abuse, addiction and death from prescription drug overdose that nothing could be further from the truth.

Now, with 14 states having approved marijuana for medical use, the perception of marijuana is also changing. Surveys show that teens’ perception of marijuana as safe has increased.

Many people who use marijuana say it’s not addictive. Well, it may not be as prone to physical dependence as other drugs but, although physical dependence can lead to addiction, addiction and physical dependence are different things.

Also, some marijuana users deny that it’s a gateway drug. They say they’ve been using marijuana for years and have never used other drugs and have no desire to do so. That may well be true for them, but there are also many, many people who do go from marijuana to other, more dangerous, drugs.

Marijuana, innocent though it may seem, is a dangerous drug and is a problem. Having it available by prescription apparently isn’t helping.

Watch out for your kids and make sure they understand that marijuana is dangerous and addictive, and that doctors prescribing it does not make it safe. Other prescription drugs are sending people to drug rehab, so is marijuana.

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Did you know that soldiers and other military personnel are given a 9 to 180-day supply of dangerous and addictive prescription drugs prior to deploying to combat? Not only does this military policy set our soldiers up for becoming addicts, it also endangers their lives and those of others when they’re medicated on the front lines rather than being at their most alert.

The types of drugs they’re given include Valium and Xanax, among others. Seroquel is also given. Seroquel used to be limited to people diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, mania and depression. Now the soldiers are being given Seroquel as a sleep aid.

Last year, two Marines died in their sleep from taking too much of it.

According to nextgov.com, 1.1 million active-duty troops were surveyed about their psychotropic prescription drug use. Antidepressants, antipsychotics, sedative hypnotics, and other controlled substances. The internal Defense Department reporting the results of the survey showed that 20 percent of these 1.1 million troops were taking some form of psychotropic drug.

This practice has been going on for quite a while. A former Navy psychiatrist, Dr. Grace Jackson, resigned in 2002 “out of conscience, because I did not want to be a pill pusher.” She believes that the drug policy is destroying the force.

Another doctor who runs a clinic that treats chronic pain and prescription drug addiction said he would be afraid of what the troops would do because they were taking these drugs.

Many of these drugs also have an increased risk of suicide. In fact, the military drug policy may have something to do with increased suicide rate among our troops. The incidence of military suicides in 2010 was the worst since they started keeping records in 1980. And for every death by suicide in 2010, at least five troops were hospitalized for attempted suicide.

Very bad scene.

Parents, be aware that if your kids are planning on joining the military, you should educate them thoroughly on the dangers of prescription drugs so they don’t get caught in this trap. Also, when your kids come home from their service, check into their drug use and, if needed, get them into drug rehab as soon as possible.

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People who have never taken drugs, or have never been addicted, often think that addicts should just be able to quit with will power alone. This week I read the story of an addict who eventually got sorted out through drug rehab, and now counsels others, but it took him 11 years to get off drugs.

He was taking heroin, primarily, although he started with marijuana. He said he could never get “high enough” with any drug, so he kept trying one drug after another, each one stronger than the last, until he finally settled on heroin, which he used for years.

He tried to quit a few times. But even when he was in rehab he snuck out to get heroin. The rehab programs he chose were definitely not right for him – he was still in the same environment, with the same people right outside the door, same peer pressure. Quitting was all but impossible.

He even had several friends die of overdoses or contract HIV and AIDS – but even watching his friends die was not enough to enable him to quit.

If someone you care about is an addict, don’t expect will power to do it. The person needs to be in a completely different environment, where he is not surrounded by the same friends, the same lifestyle, the same problems and the same temptations he’s trying to resist.

Addicts want to quit. But they need help. They can get it in a good residential treatment center. After they’ve completed the program they may even have to move to a different area entirely to begin their new life. A good treatment program will help determine whether that is necessary, along with other steps the person needs to take to stay clean.

Often addicts go through several rehab programs before they are totally free of drugs. This not only wastes time and money, every time an addict goes through a program that doesn’t work for him, he also loses confidence that he will ever be able to quit.

Better to do your research and look for one that works in the first place. A long-term residential drug rehab, away from home, is usually the best option.

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So many people are coming to Florida for prescription painkillers it has inspired the coining of a new phrase – “Pill Tourism.”  Why are they coming to Florida? Florida has 900 pain management clinics. The vast majority of these pain clinics dole out prescriptions with little to no examination of patients, have their own on-site dispensary so ‘patients’ don’t have to go to the drug store, don’t have a board-certified pain management doctor on staff, and are generally not even run by a practicing doctor!

People come here because the drugs are so very easy to get.

Some interesting Florida statistics regarding painkillers:

• Among the 50 top painkiller prescribers in the U.S., 49 are in Florida.

• In the first six months of 2008, the nation’s top 25 oxycodone-dispensing doctors were all located in Florida.

A just-completed three-month investigation that focused on making undercover purchases of painkillers (mostly Oxycodone) in Florida arrested 135 people, seized 17,000 pills and $3.6 million.

Are all the people getting these pills in pain? Absolutely not. But even those who are in pain generally get a lot more pills than they need. They sell the remainder to pay for their trip to Florida.

Geez. Big Pharma must be thrilled with all the ill-gotten profits. Has anyone out there ever figured out how much profit the manufacturer of Oxycodone is making on actual abuse of the drug? Whatever the number, I would bet it’s not something any company would be thrilled to give up.

Somehow, prescription drugs are going to have to get under control. In some areas, like Florida, they’re a far worse problem than illegal drugs. And that’s just for the people who aren’t really in pain and don’t need them. There’s also a serious addiction problem for those who are actually in pain.

I think a major solution might be more, and more accessible, insurance coverage of things like chiropractic, acupuncture, natural, herbal and alternative medicines, massage therapy, physical therapy, and so on – things that are known to help people with pain. That won’t get rid of the problem of people taking painkillers when they’re not in pain; but it will help people stay off painkillers in the first place (or only use them for a very short time), get people off painkillers (although they might also need drug rehab if they’re addicted), and stop people who need painkillers from turning into pushers so they can get the drugs they need.

What do you think?

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