Drug rehab in the USA, compared to drug rehab in some other countries, can be a breeze. Here you are often given help to get through withdrawal, are fed well, coached through difficulties, helped with the problems in your life that led to drug addiction or alcohol abuse and given counseling and a program that will help you stay clean when you leave the program.

In Russia, it’s quite a different story. There are not many alcohol or drug addiction treatment facilities in the first place – far more are needed to handle their huge heroin problem – and I doubt there are any centers at all that offer the type of drug rehab program you would find in the U.S. – except perhaps a few to deal with celebrities or officials.

One of the programs they have for the general public, called City Without Drugs, is making the news lately and growing increasingly more popular.

Their primary drug problem is heroin addiction. So, for most of the addicts who come to City Without Drugs, heroin withdrawal is the first step.

The withdrawing heroin addicts are locked in a room with about 30 bunk beds, each one occupied by a person who is going through withdrawal. While on withdrawal, they are fed very little – bread, water and gruel. They say that it sometimes takes a month just to get through the withdrawal process.

After they’ve withdrawn, they don’t get any counseling – instead, you work. The jobs are sometimes menial and sometimes a little more creative. One news report talked about a recovering addict who is refurbishing the art on the walls of a damaged church.

How well you do, how cooperative you are, and so on, determines when you will get out. It could take as much as a year.

Russia has a real problem and the authorities say that other types of drug rehab just don’t work. What they are doing at City Without Drugs – locking people up – is actually illegal, except for the fact that they have the addict’s parents’ permission. Those parents think, not incorrectly, that their son or daughter is going to wind up dead if they don’t do something – they’d rather see them they go through that system, and live.

Not surprisingly, some human rights advocate groups are furious about City Without Drugs. But others actually think the country is doing the right thing considering the extent of the heroin problem. Russia’s heroin addiction situation is desperate – they get it directly from the poppy fields of Afghanistan, it’s ruining their country and their youth. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

There are obviously arguments on both sides. Perhaps eating only bread and water, and a little gruel, is tortuous. On the other hand, considering that the addicts aren’t likely to hold anything down when they’re withdrawing under those circumstances, it might not be the worst thing in the world.

Also, I can’t personally say that working for the next year alongside other recovering addicts and being a contributing member of society – which they have probably not been for quite a while – is the worst idea in the world. Could that not bring about positive change and a willingness and desire to live a normal, productive, drug-free life?

Some advocates have said that City Without Drugs should give their ‘clients’ methadone. Russia doesn’t believe in methadone, they call it an ‘American fad’. It certainly is well past ‘fad’ status, but giving someone methadone in the U.S. and Europe hasn’t led to fewer addicts – they’re just addicted to methadone now instead of heroin. Methadone is very difficult to stop taking. It was also recently announced that more accidental drug-related deaths are caused by methadone than any other drug. In other words, if they gave addicts methadone, they might wind up with an even  more serious problem.

What do you think of the City Without Drugs approach?

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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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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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I’ve seen a couple of articles within the past several months about the possibility of drug testing welfare recipients. My first thought when I read the information was, why hasn’t this already begun? Why are we even wasting our time “considering” this idea?

With a nation that has a drug problem of epidemic proportion, we have got to be proactive in coming up with some solutions to this problem. I’m not saying that all people who are on welfare are drug users, or even that everyone should be tested. What I am saying though, is that welfare recipients should be randomly tested, and there should certainly be consequences for those who do not pass.

As a working taxpayer, who helps to pay for the welfare system, I must say that I am not into the idea of anyone using that aid to buy drugs. There are people out there who use the welfare system to help them get on their feet through rough economic times, and that is appropriate. And, there are people who take advantage of the system. The latter group are the ones that need to be weeded out so they’re not taking benefits away from those who genuinely deserve them.

Ideally, the people who test positively for drug use should get help in a good drug rehab program. It would actually be great to offer some sort of services to get them in drug rehab programs so they can get through their addictions and back into the world living drug free.

I guess it’s a touchy and tricky subject. I felt strongly enough about it though to comment. What are your thoughts?

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Did you know that doctors receive about four hours of education on drug treatments during their entire education? With all of the drugs that wind up being prescribed, it seems as if there should be a little more emphasis on this part of their education. And, it leads me to believe that this contributes directly to drug addiction and abuse.

Since the doctors don’t have time to their own research, and the drug companies seem to go out of their way to hide any information that makes their drugs look bad, people are being prescribed medications based on almost no training. They rely on the “education” that they get from the drug manufacturers’ representatives, which often amounts to little more than propaganda.

With this being said, we MUST take it upon ourselves to get educated. It’s the only immediate solution to changing what’s happening in our current drug culture. We have to take some responsibility for ourselves and what we’re consuming and the risks that are involved. It’s obvious that our doctors aren’t going to do this for us.

With the little education the doctors receive about drug therapies, the lies and conveniently hidden information on behalf of the drug makers and the weak FDA regulations on research, beware of the risks involved with the drugs you’re prescribed. Drug dependence and addiction are all too common, even with people who take their medications as prescribed by the doctors they trust.

If this is a scenario you’re familiar with because of your own experience, or you know someone who has gotten hooked on prescription drugs, get help. Call a drug addiction treatment center right away!

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I hear the FDA is looking at banning prescription drugs containing acetaminophen, as well as drugs containing acetaminophen that are sold over the counter - Tylenol, Excedrin, and so on.

I realize that acetaminophen can cause liver damage but I don’t understand why that would be motivation to ban the prescription drugs containing it, like Vicodin, when there are so many other side effects - like shallow breathing, slow heartbeat, ligh-headedness and dizziness, fainting, confusion, fear, unusual thoughts or behavior and seizures, to name just a few – that haven’t been reason enough to get rid of those drugs. Not to mention the fact that every drug rehab program in the country is servicing people who’ve become addicted to these drugs.

It makes me wonder what the drug companies are up to. If Vicodin and Percocet are banned, that will probably increase the sales of OxyContin – which I’m sure have suffered since Purdue was fined $634 million for lying about how addictive it was. They even said it was less addictive than Percocet and Vicodin.

Also, if we can’t buy Tylenol or Excedrin we’re also more likely to get OxyContin from our doctor. Next thing you know we’ll be taking OxyContin for mild headaches and things we would normally take Tylenol for, and the drug treatment centers will continue to fill up. This time for OxyContin rehab – and there are already plenty of people in treatment for OxyContin addiction right now.

I think it would be wise for anyone who takes Tylenol or Excedrin, or any other drugs that might be included in this ban, to start finding another solution to their problem. Getting onto OxyContin could be far worse than Tylenol ever was.

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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.

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I read a news article today about a woman who recovered from a crack cocaine abuse and addiction habit after 23 years. The thing I found most interesting was that the woman said she had been looking online for a drug treatment center while she was high. And she didn’t just do it once, she did it over and over again. She carried the phone number of one drug treatment center in her wallet for a year. When she finally reached her breaking point, she called. And they helped her get into the program. 

This is quite unusual – a good 80% of drug addicts wind up in a drug treatment center because a family member got them to go there.  She got there on her own steam.

Family members probably expect that to happen more often – which is why they don’t always take the initiative to make sure people get help.  But it’s really not a chance you want to take. This girl got there on her own, true, but it took her 23 years. Can you imagine the hell she, and her family and friends, went through during that 23 years?! She’s a mom, by the way, and had long since lost her kids. And her husband, and every successive boyfriend. She was living in her car when she finally called the rehab center.

Drug Rehab Referral helps people find a suitable drug treatment program. There are literally thousands of them, and choosing the right one is imperative. Drug Rehab Referral staff have the experience needed to advise you.

As a matter of fact, I know that one of the programs they refer to is the one this woman used. Call them at 1-877-211-7428 if you or a family member has a drug problem.

Popularity: 27% [?]

Merry Christmas!!

We at Drug Rehab Referral have helped a lot of people over the last year. Thanks to their hard work in an addiction treatment center, they’ll be enjoying a sober Christmas – for some, it’s their first in many years. No drugs, no alcohol, and with new family and personal relationships that truly make the holidays the warm, joyous and fun experience they should be!

If you are among the millions of people who still have loved ones with a drinking or drug problem, even a problem with prescription drug addiction, contact us soon. No matter what you’ve been through already, no matter what you’ve tried or how hard you’ve worked at it, it is not a hopeless situation. Contact us, and we will find a way to help you.

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The University of Georgia has the right idea about preventing and handling alcohol and drug addiction. They have a program called SAAF (pronounced ‘safe’ - stands for Strong African-American Families program), and its statistics show alcohol use reduced by 28% two years after starting, 25% six years after starting, and a decrease in sexual behavior problems, marijuana use, and caregiver depression. They also estimate that the likelihood of conduct problems was reduced by 74% – they checked that after two years.

They’re really changing lives. And that’s what it takes to get rid of or prevent problems with drugs and alcohol.

Unfortunately, the program is only for African-Americans. God knows there are just as many caucasians and other races that need the same thing.

How do they do it? With videos, games and activities, the parents learn how to monitor their kids and how to communicate with them and give them emotional support. The kids – both younger and older kids - learn to set goals, handle peer pressure, and build strong relationships with their parents and other adults.

The program also includes instilling pride in being African-American. Something I’m sure Obama’s election also strengthened.

Someone should Obama about this program so it can be used more widely.  And parents who are having trouble with their kids or want to form a better relationship should find out more about it. Even if they don’t live in Georgia, they may be able to get some helpful hints on how to do something like it on their own.

Parents whose kids are already involved in drug or alcohol abuse - or parents in the same position – should get into an addiction treatment center for help. A good alcohol or drug rehab program will actually address some of these issues.

But if your kids aren’t taking drugs or drinking, and you want it to stay that way, consider something similar to SAAF. It will do a lot more than curb alcohol and drug abuse.

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