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.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Great – now we’ve got drugs that cause addictive behavior. And I’m not talking about an inherently addictive drug like OxyContin or Xanax. The specific drug in question here is Mirapex, used to treat Parkinson’s Disease, and it can cause addictive behaviors like gambling and compulsive eating.

It’s true, a lot of drugs save lives. But there are so many successful methods, other than drugs, for dealing with many of our problems. Pain can be addressed with certain nutrients and natural analgesics (and if you have to get into drugs you can certainly find some a lot less dangerous than things like OxyContin – OxyContin abuse has probably put more people into a drug treatment center than heroin (of course, OxyContin IS heroin, so what can we expect?)

And you can also get physical therapy, chiropractic, or acupuncture – which I understand does wonders for pain. My father got over debilitating hip pain in just two acupunture sessions. And it’s never come back!

There are also nutrients and natural remedies to address depression, anxiety, sleeplessness, and any number of things. These three can often even be addressed by just doing some exercise. But, instead, we put up with drugs, their outrageous side effects, and the possibility of drug overdoses, interactions, reactions, and so on.

What a mess.

A large percentage of people going into a drug treatment center program these days have a problem with prescription drugs – and they often started out by being prescribed the drugs by their doctors.

In some European countries, where people are much healthier than Americans, there is far more emphasis on natural remedies and prevention. Hopefully, Obama’s new health care plan will address some of these issues.

In the meantime … if you’re having trouble coming off a drug like painkillers, anti-anxiety or depression meds and would like to see if you can resolve your problems without them, contact us to find out if there’s a drug treatment center that can help you.

Popularity: 34% [?]

Officials are concerned about Utah’s non-medical use of prescription painkillers. As of the DEA’s last report (in 2007) the problem was worse in Utah than anywhere in the country. In the same year, far more people in Utah died from prescription drugs than from street drugs. A new task force is being formed to fight the problem.  But what can a person in Utah with a prescription drug addiction or abuse problem do about it now?

The Utah Attorney General, Mark Shurtleff, said the problem is partly due to the Mormon church’s attitude towards drugs. He says that while the church discourages the use of street drugs (as well as alcohol and tobacco), it is more liberal about prescription drugs.

I’ve heard others say that the Mormon culture is also part of the problem – several people have portrayed Mormon culture as one that discourages people from discussing their personal problems.

I’m not a Mormon and I don’t know whether or not that’s true. And I’m certainly not about to criticize Mormonism or any other religion for that matter.

But being able to discuss your problems is vital to preventing drug addiction. If someone is unhappy in life, with their job or their marriage, if they’re confused, are fearful or doubtful, and they don’t get the chance to talk about it and work out solutions to their problems, those things are just going to gnaw away at them.

That makes them susceptible to addiction. They may even be introduced to a drug through their doctor because of an accident or injury. Then, when they find out that it also provides some temporary (although dangerous) relief to that gnawing, they want to keep on taking it.

They may also have friends that are taking painkillers, sedatives, tranquilizers, sleeping pills and so on and may be offered some. They’re going to jump at the chance.

Prescription drug addiction – or addiction to any drug, alcohol, etc. – is a sign that something’s going on in a person’s life that needs to be addressed. Yes, they can develop a physical dependency – one that can be extremely painful when you stop taking them – but to become psychologically addicted, there has to be problems.

A good addiction treatment center can help a person work through those problems. And if there are no facilities available in the community in which someone lives, they can go elsewhere. Drug Rehab Referral helps people find a facility that works for their situation.

Popularity: 30% [?]

It’s amazing how many people fall into prescription drug addiction because of a medical situation.

Here’s the story of Mykel Hunter, 19-year-old girl who started using painkillers when she was 10 because she had kidney stones. She was in and out of medical treatment for 7 years, but at age 13 she started taking more painkillers than were prescribed. She’s 19 now, trying to quit, but still taking things one day at a time.

Where were her doctors!? They were there to get her on the drugs but seem to have disappeared when it came to getting off them. Getting off opiates by yourself is just about impossible – especially when you’re taking as many as she was.

And why weren’t her doctors monitoring things closely enough to know she was taking more than prescribed?

A lot of people are in this situation – it is so easy to get addicted to prescription painkillers. Doctors need to be more responsible when prescribing these drugs. And patients need to know all their options and the potential dangers so they can really make informed decisions about taking addictive drugs or not.

There are ways to get off these drugs – contact Drug Rehab Referral to find an addiction treatment center that’s right for your situation.

Popularity: 26% [?]

Tens of millions of parents, wives, husbands, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, are in a state of frustrated despair about the drug taking or drinking habits of a family member. And most of them think the person will never change. That may be true if you leave it up to them. But, for the most part, if they could do it on their own they would have quit already. Isn’t it time to take the bull by the horns and get them into an alcohol and drug addiction treatment center, no matter what it takes?

Really, you don’t have to live like that. An alcohol and drug addiction treatment center gets them off the drugs or alcohol, works with them to find the reasons they’re drinking or taking drugs, helps them resolve whatever those issues are, and works out the changes they need to make in their lives so they can stay sober. And it actually works! It’s not a hopeless situation.

The state of New York is currently running a new campaign to get people to quit drinking and taking drugs. They have a website with alcohol and drug recovery stories – stories of parents who got their kids back, or long-term addicts who’ve served jail time and, after getting help through an addiction treatment center are now, and have been for years, up-standing members of their community. Read the stories – you’ll see that it is possible.

There are some things in life we have little control over – but alcohol and drug abuse in the family is not one of them. Get your family member through alcohol rehab or a drug addiction program and it will change their lives, and yours.

Popularity: 25% [?]

If you’ve ever been to a college football game, a frat party, prom party, or anything similar, you won’t notice too many beer cans or bottles around. Why? They buy it in kegs – a keg holds 15.5 gallons – the equivalent of 165 12-oz. cans of beer. And if they buy domestic beer, it will only cost them about $40, plus a not-too-expensive refundable deposit on the keg itself. Is it any wonder why we have so many young alcoholics checking into alcohol rehab and alcohol detox, so many more getting injured and ill from binge drinking, and so many car accidents and even alcohol-related deaths?

In New York, where one in three college-age kids drinks and one in 10 adults actually has an alcohol problem, they’re putting new restrictions on beer kegs to try to help the problem. A registration tag will be put on the kegs identifying the buyer and seller (and there’s a fine of $250 to $450 for damaging or removing the tag), and the deposit on kegs is being raised from $50 (that’s the NY deposit cost) to $75.

Studies have shown that raising taxes on alcohol may have acted as a mild deterrent, but in a college environment I don’t know how much it will help. With 20 people splitting the cost each person only has to come up with $7.00 and they’re going to get half of that back when they return the keg. Even 5 people would only have to come up with $28 - and there aren’t too many college kids that don’t have $28, especially when they’re going to get half of that returned.

However, many of them would probably have trouble coming up with that amount 2 or 3 times a week, though. So I guess that’s where the deterrent effect comes in.

Obviously, the best deterrent is the person not wanting to drink that much (or at all.) If that’s not the case, though, they may need alcohol rehab – which you can get through an alcohol and drug addiction treatment center. Don’t go for just a detox – that dries them out but does nothing to handle the urge to drink or the person’s ability to quit drinking.

Did you know that one night of binge drinking (that’s five drinks for a guy, four for a girl) impairs critical thinking for a month? Not only is the college kid in danger of becoming an alcoholic, he’s also pretty much wasting his education. Check out alcohol rehab.

Popularity: 24% [?]

Last week I wrote a blog about people being unaware of why they drink – like the young man who’s only explanation was “I like a few beers when I get home from a day at work.” They know, really, that they shouldn’t drink as much as they do but they never look at why they’re drinking so much. They’ll look at that, and discover the reasons why, if they go to alcohol rehab. But it’s not likely without it.

I recently ran across a disturbing statistic about this unawareness from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI at cspinet.org) – 48% of college drinkers report that “drinking to get drunk” is an important reason for drinking.

Tha certainly explains why you don’t get anywhere when you ask them why they don’t just have one or two drinks and leave it at that – an experience I’m sure 99% of those who have a heavy drinker in the family have had.

What purpose does getting drunk serve? It’s way beyond ’social drinking’ at that point. They want to reach oblivion – reach the point where they are semi-conscious (or unconscious.) Only then do whatever demons they’re fighting move into the shadows.

That’s why the expertise of an experienced drug counselor who can get an answer to the obvious next question – why do you want to get drunk? – is so vital. Until the drinker knows the answer to that question, he’s not going to be able to resolve the drinking problem.

And that’s why you need to address the problem in an addiction treatment center. Give us a call to find out more today.

Popularity: 21% [?]

If you’re living in Florida and have a friend or family member with a prescription drug addiction or abuse problem – even if they got the pills from a doctor – it’s no surprise to us. It would be difficult to find an addiction treatment center that is not currently helping a fairly large number of people who are trying to get off them.

Florida has been called ‘the pill state’ for a few years now. Recently it was reported that Broward County, home to Fort Lauderdale, has so many pain clinics popping up that it’s now being called the painkiller capital of the United States. The population is about 1.8 million and the pain clinics alone prescribed about 6.5 million painkillers in the last half of 2008.

Florida doesn’t have a prescription drug monitoring program so no one is really watching over what’s happening to these patients other than the doctors at the pain clinics and, since their specialty is managing pain – i.e. controlling the symptoms with drugs instead of offering treatment that could get rid of the underlying problem - depending on them to make sure the patient isn’t in trouble is a little like having Cinderella made a ward of her wicked stepmother.

And the residents of the county – as well as thousands of people who come from out of state to get painkillers, some even camping outside the doors of the county’s 85 pain clinics waiting for them to open – are paying for it. The coroner says deaths from prescription drug overdose have increased by 107% in the last two years and called the situation an epidemic of drug abuse. God only knows how many people are addicted – it’s hard to escape addiction with painkillers so the numbers have got to be big.

The brisk business of painkillers in Broward County is also servicing other states. The total number of oxycodone pills handed out by just 45 doctors – who the DEA says they ‘hate’ to call doctors because they’re just after the money – handed out 9 million oxycodone pills (they could be OxyContin, vicodin, percocet, and so on) in the last six months of 2008.

If you have a friend or family member who is in pain, do yourself and them a favor and find an alternative treatment. Prescription painkillers are highly addictive and getting them off the pills once they’ve started is tough. If they’re already using them, find an addiction treatment center that can help them. And remember one thing – if they say they can’t stop because they’re still in pain it’s possible that the painkillers themselves are causing it. Extended use of painkillers can do that.

Popularity: 29% [?]

Anyone interested in non-drug, natural or alternative health care is very aware of the medical establishment’s resistance to these methods. But, nevertheless, many of them work and, unlike drugs, don’t make you sick in the process. One such example is the use of acupuncture in dealing with drug addiction.

One addiction treatment center, in a prison, treats 700 inmates every year – many of them hard core drug addicts who have tried other treatments without success.

Not only are the prisoners behind acupuncture, one decades-long heroin addict says nothing has worked as well. It’s also enthusiastically supported by a local judge who has sent many people “kicking and screaming” for acupunture treatment only to be thanked later. 

No one follows up on the addicts after their release, although it is known that some people stay drug-free.

One of the major hurdles for continued sobriety is probably that many of them don’t have health insurance to continue their treatment, or their coverage doesn’t include acupunture.

That’s where the medical establishment’s resistance comes in. If acupunture was accepted and its benefits acknowledged the insurance companies would follow.

Acupuncture has been a successful treatment method in Asia for centuries. The health care system in Japan, for example, which has its own style of acupuncture, is ranked (by the World Health Organization) as the 10th best in the world. The U.S. comes in at # 37. 

Acupunture is also very effective in the treatment of pain – instead, we favor painkillers, one of the biggest causes of prescription drug addiction.

There’s a lot more to handling a real drug addiction than acupuncture, and a good addiction treatment center offers all the other services necessary. Nevertheless, there’s no doubt that getting rid of medical prejudice against non-drug therapies like acupunture could help alleviate our drug problems.

Popularity: 19% [?]

I hope the news articles on the recent death of 19-year-old Jason Wren, a student at the University of Kansas who died after a night of binge drinking, alerted parents to the discrepancies in the application of the law regarding students’ privacy and the practice of informing parents, or not, when students have a problem with drug or alcohol addiction or abuse.

According to Jason’s father, he knew his son had an alcohol problem before he sent him off to university and, had he known it was still a problem – he did send him to a ‘dry’ school so he did have reason to believe it would not be a problem – he would have brought him home where he could keep an eye on him.

Instead, he didn’t find out about the problems Jason was having until attending his son’s memorial service at the school, where he was allowed to see his son’s records for the first time. His son was on probation in his residence hall for alcohol violations, hadn’t shown up for the personal counseling session he was supposed to get because of it, and hadn’t done the required alcohol abuse course.

The school provost – a high ranking official, this one responsible for student success (!) - had the nerve to say that “there is no national evidence that parental notification makes a difference.”

I beieve that’s the lamest, most irresponsible, insensitive excuse I’ve ever heard. Someone’s son just died and she’s being a politician – covering her ass.

The law states that parents should be informed in an emergency. Until 2007, ‘emergency’ was defined as an ‘extreme situation’. After a student at Virginia Tech shot and killed himself and 32 others in April of that year, the definiton changed to a ‘significant threat to the health or safety of the student or other individuals.’

Well – that’s obviously open to interpretation. Ask 10 people on the street what they would consider a ‘significant threat to the health or safety of the student or other individuals’ and you’ll get 10 different answers. And it’s been proven that even the so-experts – psychiatrists – can’t predict whether someone’s dangerous or not. How is some administrator at a school, or a school council, going to do it?

What should you do? Jason’s father sent him to a ‘dry’ school; obviously, that wasn’t enough.

Where college-aged sons  and daughters with alcohol problems should go is to alcohol rehab. Not university. And if they’re taking drugs, do the same. Get them into an addiction treatment center - a long-term residential treatment program that will take however many months are needed to get down to the bottom of the problem so your kid CAN and WILL say no when the time comes.

Popularity: 21% [?]