If you know someone who is on heroin, methadone, other opiates – even prescription painkillers – you need to know this.

A recent article regarding heroin addicts in the UK says the government – i.e. the taxpayers – is spending 3.6 billion pounds (that’s nearly $6 billion dollars) to keep heroin addicts addicted to methadone. At the same time, the number of those addicts actually being referred to a drug rehab program where they can become totally free of drugs has dropped dramatically.

There is somewhere between 150,000 and 320,000 heroin/methadone/opiate addicts on the UK’s drug addiction sponsorship programs: here’s an example of what the British taxpayers are financing:

$1.2 million a year on methadone.

$2.8 billion a year on welfare payments

$1.9 billion a year on looking after the children of drug addicts

Wow.

The original intention of the methadone program – except for a very few addicts – was to use the drug to help wean them off heroin; to prevent them from having to go through the horrible withdrawal side effects that so often stops heroin addicts from kicking the habit.

Methadone is not a solution. It’s much, much more difficult to get someone off methadone than heroin. Many facilities in the U.S. won’t even accept methadone addicts in their drug rehab program. So methadone doesn’t free the person of anything – it imprisons them.

So, what about real drug rehab for these addicts? Of these 150,000 or 320,000 people (whatever the real number is) only 3,914 per year are referred for actual drug rehab. In fact, there are only 1,872 ‘affordable’ – which is being defined at about $1000 a week – beds in drug rehab facilities in the entire country.

A real lose/lose situation. Everybody loses – the addicts, the government, the families of addicts, the British taxpayer. Everyone in the country is paying to keep addicts addicted.

The very disturbing thing about this is that there is a similar trend in the U.S. Britain was one of the first countries to offer methadone as a solution. Now, decades later, it’s glaringly obvious that the great methadone experiment has failed. Let’s hope the U.S. is paying attention and learns from Britain’s mistakes.

If you know of someone who is addicted to heroin – or other opiates, which methadone is also used for – methadone is not the answer;  methadone is not drug rehab, it is continued drug addiction.

When someone you care about is addicted to heroin or other opiates, it’s tempting to do something to ‘quiet’ things down. Methadone addicts who are getting their drugs inexpensively, or, sometimes, free, often stop causing trouble. Like ‘psychiatric’ patients who are given drugs to calm them down – often to the point where they’re just sitting in a chair staring at whatever’s in front of them. Sure, with the right drug, no one causes trouble.

But is that really all you want? Wouldn’t you prefer to get them help so they can end their dependency on drugs and get back to leading a normal, productive life?

Only a good drug rehab program can do that. And by ‘good’, I don’t mean one of those 30-day things that get the person off drugs temporarily but, because they don’t thoroughly deal with why they got on drugs in the first place or how they’re going to stay off them when they get back into their regular environment, rarely gets permanent results. A good drug rehab program includes those steps. And, for the vast majority of addicts, it’s the only thing that works.

Don’t settle for less. Get your life back.

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If you have a son or daughter who is a musician, or aspires to be one, you might also have heard from them that drugs and alcohol get their creative juices flowing. The MusiCares MAP Fund, which has save the lives and careers of many musicians by getting them through drug rehab, dispels that idea.

Parents, family members and friends sometimes struggle for years to get the musicians in their lives into drug rehab. As long as a musician thinks their creativity depends on it, the pleas are likely to fall on deaf ears. But if they hear it from another musician – especially musicians who are undeniably successful – it might get through.

The 7th Annual MusiCares MAP Fund Benefit Concert welcomed many of those musicians, and honored Depeche Mode singer Dave Gahan. Gahan, who after years of drug abuse survived a suicide attempt and a heroin overdose, lived to pick up his career and has now been sober for years.

“To be honest,” said Gahan, “If you go down that route, drugs are going to take command over everything you’re doing anyway, and that’s been my experience anyway,” said the U.K. born vocalist. “I went through a period before I got clean where I don’t think I played a record for like two years. I just didn’t care.”

In the end, that’s what drugs can do to you. All you care about are the drugs.

Take it from the many artists who have fought their addictions and won: Steven Tyler, frontman for Aerosmith, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, Grace Slick – the list goes on and on.

And, you will notice, many still have illustrious careers.

But hundreds have been lost. Here’s a short list:

• Elvis Presley
• Janis Joplin
• Jimi Hendrix
• Tim Buckley
• Tim Hardin
• Alan Wilson (from Canned Heat)
• Brent Mydland and Ron McKernan (from Grateful Dead)
• Dee Dee Ramone (from The Ramones)
• Gram Parsons (from The Byrds)
• Gregory Herbert (from Blood, Sweat & Tears)
• Hillel Slovak (from Red Hot Chili Peppers)
• John Belushi (from Blues Brothers)]
• John Bonham (from Led Zeppelin)
• John Kahn (from Jerry Garcia Band)
• Jonathan Melvoin (from Smashing Pumpkins)
• Keith Moon (from The Who)
• Mike Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield (from Butterfield Blues Band)

and many, many more. If you check out the full list, just of well-known musicians, their average age when they died was 31.

Ask your musician friends if they want to risk ending their careers at the ripe old age of 31. Or would they rather still be playing to sold-out venues in their 60’s, like Steven Tyler and Eric Clapton?

Use this type of information to get your musician friends or relatives into drug or alcohol rehab. You may save their lives and careers. And, as many of the most successful musicians in the world will attest, it will also make them better musicians.

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A recent study showed that 40% of high school kids have tried marijuana. Many are probably not using it enough to need drug rehab yet, but, still, nearly one out of two kids is a lot.

Who’s most likely to NOT use marijuana?

• Those getting A’s in school
• Those participating in sports or other extra-curricular activities
• Those who live in a two-parent household

When raising your kids, you might want to take the above into consideration.

Many people think of marijuana as completely harmless. But studies have linked marijuana use to several physical, mental and emotional problems;

• high levels of anxiety
• depression
• wanting to kill yourself
• aggression
• psychotic symptoms
• tobacco use
• nicotine dependence
• other substance abuse
• poor sleep
• respiratory problems
• cancer
• learning, memory, and intellectual functioning problems
• poor school performance
• school dropout

And things get worse if the usage continues beyond adolescence into young adulthood and beyond.

“There is considerable evidence that it’s not just an innocent sort of thing,” said the lead author of the study, Ty S. Schepis, a professor at Texas State University in San Marcos. “This is a period of strong change in the brain. We’re very concerned that marijuana alters the ways in which adolescent brains normally mature, particularly among heavy users.”

Parents who think of marijuana as a harmless right of passage and know or suspect that their kids are using it might want to familiarize themselves with more of the research and get addiction help for their kids before further damage is done.

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Charlie Sheen has gotten himself into quite a mess. He’s been living hard – lots of drugs, lots of alcohol, and partying for days on end. It’s hurting his career but, more importantly, it really seems to be taking its toll on his mental and emotional state. He’s on a home-based drug rehab program or, at least, he was. But is that really going to work for him? I doubt it.

A successful drug rehab program takes months, and you need a team of professionals to help you through it. Getting off the drugs or alcohol is the first step, which in itself can be painful, sometimes dangerous and definitely needs supervision, then there’s getting all the residual drugs out of the body and getting healthy, thoroughly identifying and addressing the reason the person needs drugs and alcohol in the first place, and then setting things up so when the person leaves the rehab facility they can go back into the environment knowing they’ll be able to stay on the path.

With Sheen’s condition right now, I’d say that’s the least he needs.

But there is another possibility that might work – joining Sean Penn in Haiti. Sean went there a year ago planning on staying for a few days or weeks and is basically still there. On a recent TV show, he was referred to as the mayor of a 55,000 strong tent city. According to recent news reports, Sean and Charlie are friends. And Sean would welcome Charlie’s help.

Joining his friend in Haiti might be just what Charlie needs. It can really change a person to leave their cushy environment and spend some time helping others – not just with money, but actually getting involved in the physicality of it all. And, in Haiti, there’s no end to the physicality needed.

An experience like that can really change a person’s values and priorities. They come out of it seeing life differently. Whatever is bothering them and causing their drug addiction often pales in the light of what others have to live with every day. And it might bring Charlie back to earth.

Let’s hope, for Charlie’s sake, and his family’s, that he takes Sean up on his offer.

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Many people get addicted to prescription painkillers after being prescribed them by their doctor for the pain of surgery, an accident or injury. Some of the conditions they take the painkillers for are fairly mild – the person may have gotten away with something much lighter than OxyContin, hydrocodone or fentanyl or other drugs that can cause prescription drug addiction. In fact, two recent studies have shown that their pain may have been relieved with a placebo.

The first study gave placebos to people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). They told them the pills were placebos, but also told them that IBS has been helped by placebos. Not only did the placebos work, they actually had better results than recent studies done on the drugs doctors would normally prescribe for the condition.

The second study hooked people up to an intravenous drip and applied heat to their legs to the point of causing pain. The researchers then told the participants that they were putting a powerful painkiller into their IV. The pain abated. The participants were then told that the painkiller going through their IV had been stopped, at which point the pain returned to the pre-painkiller levels. But, the drug had not actually been stopped – they were still getting it.

The researchers, of course, concluded that placebos are often just as effective as dangerous drugs. And it doesn’t even matter if you tell the patient that it’s a placebo! Amazing.

If someone does get addicted, they can go to drug rehab – although it’s important to get rehab asap because the risk of serious injury or death is very real. But if you can avoid taking addictive painkillers in the first place, then there’s virtually no risk of addiction or any of the other problems.

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Charlie Sheen, having just started his drug rehab program, gave a speech the other day about the evils of alcohol and drugs to the UCLA baseball team.  Wild Thing urged the team to stick to chocolate milk.

He was very well received, but I don’t know how much impact it’s going to have when he’s in such deep trouble himself.

On one hand, it might make more sense to get himself straightened out before he starts giving advice to others.

But, on the other hand, maybe the best poster boy for drug rehab is actually someone who’s really messed up.

Looking at the mess someone else’s life is in is a pretty effective deterrent. I recently read an article about an addict who had gone to jail 18 times for drugs. Each time he was in prison, the only thing he could think about was getting out so he could get high again.

During his last prison stint, his sister visited him and told him what was going on with his closest friends who also had problems with drug addiction – two had died, from drugs, one went to prison for life, and others also had horrible stories.

He was sober at the time, so these things meant something to him. And he decided to turn his life around.

Maybe Charlie Sheen’s story will have a similar effect. Here’s a guy who seems to have everything who can’t stop wanting to destroy himself. And there’s no doubt that the drugs and alcohol, along with his other addictions, have had a hand in that.

What do you think is the best motivation for getting off drugs?

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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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I’m still having trouble getting my head around how California can cut drug court/treatment programs to save money. California’s drug problems are serious enough to warrant putting more money into treatment, not less. It could actually make them money.

One study (Urban Institute and Caliber Associates) showed that, nationwide, 75% of drug court graduates have not been arrested again in the two years following graduation. Bearing in mind that most drug court rehab programs are still following up with the person at that time, you can pretty much bet that these people are not back on drugs either.

That might not sound like a big deal until you consider what usually happens for drug -related offenses: 95% return to drug abuse after release from prison, and 60 – 80% commit a new crime after release.

So, 75% doing well after two years is a significant change.

You can also see the results in other ways. New York state, for example, was able to close down four prisons because of offering drug rehab through drug courts, and has saved $250 million.

So, why is shutting down such a successful program considered a way of saving money for California?

This simply seems like bad money management to me. What is going on with California? Has it reached the stage of running so close to the wire that they actually lose money every week, despite the fact that there’s money coming in? Like a person who has a paycheck coming on Friday, but by Tuesday they’re already broke. So, they borrow $200 on Tuesday, then on Friday pay back the $200 plus $40 interest. At the end of the year have taken home about $2000 less. Never get ahead, never able to invest in what they would need to do to change their situation.

Drug abuse costs the U.S. billions of dollars every year – one way or another. If we want to have billions more to spend, we need to put more pressure on public officials to spend money on things like drug rehab that will, in the end, not only save billions, but save lives, lower the crime rate and turn current drug addicts and criminals into contributing members of society.

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A lot of people blame the drug problem on the fact that drugs are illegal. They compare it to the time of prohibition, from 1920 to 1933, when it was illegal to make, sell and transport alcohol. But it didn’t stop people from wanting to drink and being willing to pay for it. What followed was a vast, criminal, violent underground (and some of it not so underground) of manufacturers and suppliers. It tied up law enforcement resources, and many law enforcement officials were corrupted by the criminal element.

Another viewpoint presented about legalization of drugs – as with alcohol in prohibition – is that individuals have the right to put whatever they want into their body. It is not the government’s right to tell someone what they can and cannot drink. The same is being said of drugs.

Last, but not least, is the fact that drugs being illegal makes them attractive. Like a kid who gets a thrill out of doing something simply because he’s told he can’t.

Supporters think ending the War on Drugs, and making them legal, would eventually, if not immediately reduce crime, the number of people in prison, the number of addicts, and the number of people in need of drug rehab.

In the many, many articles and forums about legalization of drugs, the comments usually come from people supporting legalization. Among the commenters on this article, John Stossel: War on drugs worse than drugs, for example, you’ll find only one person who disagrees that drugs should be legalized.

I’d like to hear from people who disagree – who think drugs should remain illegal – and their arguments in support of it. Check out the arguments made by the commenters on the above article, and voice your opinion.

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This week, I came across a headline about a young man who died from a drug overdose. Since I read mostly drug-related news headlines and the stories that are related, I see quite a few articles like this during any given week or month. But, why did this one jump out at me? Because the young man’s mother taught him how to use drugs starting at the age of 14 or 15!

It was reported that the Wisconsin mother smoked marijuana and crack-cocaine as well as used heroin with her child. How sickening is that? And, to top it off, she’s now left without a child and facing a jail sentence. She attributes her behavior to substance abuse and mental health issues.

Many people in the world are faced with substance abuse problems. The effects of these problems are reflected in the news stories that are about drug violence, trafficking and tragic overdoses. But when parents are involving their children into the mix, it brings it to a whole new level.

Apparently there were witnesses who told the investigators of the overdose death about the drugs she was doing with her son. Why on earth didn’t anyone get them help? Were they scared? Were they fellow drug users? Did they feel like it wasn’t their place to intervene? A plethora of questions fill my mind. But, what I do know, is that if they would have spoken up, it’s possible that the boy would still be alive today. And both the mother and son could have received help to live healthy drug-free lives.

If you know anyone who is either abusing drugs or alcohol, or if, god forbid, they’re giving drugs to their children, it’s important that you speak up. Get them some help by contacting a drug rehab center or addiction specialist, before it’s too late.

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