It’s a horrible thought that you might have had something to do with your kid’s drug problems and their need for drug rehab. But, in the case of prescription drug addiction or abuse, there’s a good chance that it’s true.

How could you have been responsible? According to a recent study of over 70,000 people aged 12 and up, more than 70 percent of people who abuse prescription painkillers get the drugs from friends or relatives. They usually have permission to take them and, of course, the drugs are free.

Here are more alarming statistics:

• 7 million Americans abuse pharmaceutical drugs
• The home medicine cabinet is a primary place where people get their drugs
• 55 percent of prescription painkiller abusers get drugs from a family or friends for free
• 11 percent buy them from friends or family
• 5 percent steal them from friends and family

And then there are the prescription drug overdose deaths:

• Prescription drugs cause more overdose deaths than heroin and cocaine combined.
• Prescription drugs are involved in 75 percent of all overdose deaths in the U.S.
• Three out of every four deaths from pills involve opioid painkillers like oxycodone. OxyContin addiction is widespread, but people also die from hydrocodone and methadone.

And other problems brought on by prescription drug abuse:

• Prescription drugs are often the reason for gang violence and for people starting a life of crime
• People who abuse prescription drugs become addicted then turn into drug dealers so they can make money to support their habit
• Doctors and pharmacists are also turning into drug dealers to make more money
• 25 percent of people who abuse painkillers chronically get their drugs from doctors

I think the statistics speak for themselves. Prescription drug abuse is not something to mess around with. They kill people – and that’s not something you want to be responsible for.

If you or someone else in the family is already abusing prescription drugs – or even addicted to them simply by taking them as your doctor prescribed them – it might be time to look for another solution. But, first, find a good drug rehab program that is experienced in helping people get off prescription drugs.

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A recent story said that the number of teens dying from poisoning increased by 90 percent over a period of nine years. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the huge jump in these deaths is because of an increasing number of teens taking more and more prescription drugs. In fact, every day another 2,500 teens try prescription drugs. Why is this happening? How can you prevent it? And do they need prescription drug rehab?

A lot of kids experiment with prescription drugs – even those who wouldn’t think of trying the drugs on the street. Why?

• doctors prescribe them, so they must be safe, and it’s not actually like taking drugs
• their parents take the same drugs for their various conditions: including just wanting to feel better, less upset, more relaxed, and so on – things that kids feel a need for, too
• the drugs are readily available – right in the medicine cabinet in their own house or a family member or friend’s house
• they’re being offered these drugs at parties/raves and just for everyday use by other kids
• other kids are taking them and fitting in or being cool is desirable at that age

Okay – so, as parents, which of the above can you eliminate?

The most obvious are taking the drugs yourself, and having them available in the house. True, you’re not going to quit taking drugs that control your outrageously high blood pressure or do something else that may be potentially life-saving.

However, if you’re suffering from back pain, perhaps you could go to a chiropractor instead of popping pain pills. There are also natural remedies for other types of pain –arthritis, for example, has been practically cured with certain nutrients.

And if you’re having trouble sleeping, maybe you could go to a naturopathic doctor who will give you a remedy other than drugs, or maybe even find out what’s causing the problem and cure it.

If you’re upset in life in general, maybe you could look over your life and see what’s upsetting you – then, do something to change that part of your life rather than taking pills that make you less aware of the problem.

By finding non-drug remedies for life’s problems, you are not only getting the drugs out of your medicine cabinet, you’re also doing something even more valuable – you’re teaching your kids that drugs are not a solution to life’s problems and that if you want to feel better about life, you should do something to change your life, not take drugs to make your life look better.

As for whether or not they need prescription drug rehab, that depends on how many of those drugs they’ve done and how often, whether they do other drugs as well, which ones and how often – there are a lot of questions.

Your best bet is to speak with an experienced drug rehab counselor to get all your questions answered.

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In Louisville, Kentucky, a community mental health clinic that services 30,000 patients in the area is no longer going to prescribe the sedative Xanax or its generic version, alprazolam. They’re hoping this move will prevent prescription drug addiction, overdoses, deaths, and the need for drug rehab. They are also hoping to reduce the ‘constant stream of patients seeking Xanax” and the drain on resources caused by “pacifying, educating, bumping heads with people over Xanax.”

They started weaning people off the drugs in April, and plan to have all patients weaned off them completely by the end of 2011.

Xanax and alprazolam aren’t the only addictive prescription drugs causing problem in Kentucky. OxyContin addiction has been a major problem, as have other prescription painkillers like hydrocodone and methadone.

In fact, they been so busy trying to address the painkiller addiction problem that benzodiazepines like Xanax have kind of slipped through the cracks. But abuse and addiction to benzos is also widespread.

Alprazolam, for example, was the eighth most prescribed drug in the country in 2010. And there was an increase of 89% in emergency room visits.

The medical examiner in Kentucky said a combination of opiate painkillers, like OxyContin, and benzodiazepines, especially Xanax, is common in fatal overdoses.

Unfortunately, the clinic is going to replace Xanax and alprazolam with other drugs that don’t give you the ‘high’ that keep people clamoring for Xanax and alprazolam. Also, the body builds up a tolerance to Xanax and alprazolam so people have to take more and more of the drugs to get the same effect. This makes them even more prone to overdose.

Who knows where the other drugs will lead?

But, the clinic is also committed to spending more time with patients and actually working with them to relieve the anxiety they’re experiencing in life so they don’t need drugs at all.

Doctors get paid more for seeing a patient for 10 minutes and prescribing a drug than they do for actually sitting down with the patient and helping them work out the problems in their lives that are causing their emotional state. So it’s possible that their new protocol will affect their bottom line.

It’s good to see a clinic willing to take the hit in order to reduce the damage done by these dangerous and highly addictive drugs. Now, if we could just get them to stop prescribing dangerous drugs altogether …

If you or someone you know has a problem with prescription drug addiction, dependency or abuse, contact Drug Rehab Referral for help in sorting out how to get them into a drug rehab program that will enable them to live drug-free.

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There are a lot of problems connected with using drugs – the dangers of the drugs themselves are just the beginning. Here’s one young man’s story. It may have had a far different ending had he done a good drug rehab program earlier.

He’s 21 years old. Doesn’t have a great history – his probation ended just a week ago for a felony drug possession case. He then finds a drug on the Internet called 2C-E, a synthetic hallucinogen.

He takes the drug to a party and offers it to whoever wants some. I don’t know how many people took the offer, but one person died, and ten others were hospitalized. They were between 16 and 21 years old.

The guy who died was 19 years old, a college student and a new father. After he snorted the drug, he got violent – punching walls, breaking things, and yelling – was staring with dilated pupils, and then stopped breathing. He went to the hospital, where he was on life support, and died of cardiac arrest, attributed to the drug.

Of the ten who went to the hospital, two remained there for several days in critical condition.

The young man who provided the 2C-E has now been charged with murder, and, no doubt, there will be other charges as well, and facing many years in prison.

A lot of lives were ruined here. The guy who provided the drugs, the guy who died, and I’m sure the experience will have a long term effect on the others who were hospitalized as well. Although, we hope, they would have learned a lesson from this and maybe will stop doing drugs.

Would your kid have tried that drug in that situation? Perhaps. And they may not have been one of the lucky ones – those who lived.

This is the kind of thing that can happen. And it’s one more reason why you need to get your kid, if they’re using drugs, into a good drug rehab program immediately. These things happen without warning.

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