West Virginia is a good example of what happens on a smaller scale – in families – when drugs and alcohol enter the picture. Sometimes it’s the parents with the drug or alcohol problem, and sometimes it’s the kids. In either case, the result is the same.

How did West Virginia become, basically, an entire State with the same problems drugs create in a family. West Virginia was one of the hardest hit States when the OxyContin addiction problem surfaced in the U.S. Purdue Pharma. Purdue promoted OxyContin as less addictive than previously used painkillers like Vicodin and Percocet – and was later fined $634 million for intentionally lying to the public and doctors.

Not only were people getting addicted to the drug left, right and center, OxyContin pills were also labeled as ‘killers’ because of the rapidly escalating toll of overdose deaths connected to the drug.

People in West Virginia tended to be older and suffer from many chronic illnesses and debilitating diseases caused by years of working in the mines, so they jumped all over OxyContin.

And, now, many years later, the State is still caught up in prescription drug addiction. And many of them can’t afford to get off the drugs – since they’re almost impossible to stop taking without a drug addiction treatment program offered by professionals. There just aren’t enough of them – not good ones, anyone – offered free of charge by the State.

Back to families – this is, of course, is tearing families apart. Not only are parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts and kids suffering from addiction, the kids who want to make something of their lives are likely to move to another State to do it. They want opportunity, and there’s not much of it in West Virginia. So, they leave, and the families are left behind.

Anyone who has a family member abusing alcohol or drugs needs to get help immediately. It really will tear the family apart, and someone may even die.

We have enough to regret in our lives without also having the fact that we could have helped someone, and saved their lives, but didn’t do it. A successful drug rehab program is the answer.

If you are looking at drug rehab options, there’s one specific method of so-called drug treatment that you really don’t want – and that’s methadone treatment.

Methadone treatment is used for people addicted to heroin or other opiates – like prescription painkillers.

Sometimes methadone is recommended as a ‘stop gap’ – a drug to take that will prevent withdrawal symptoms but does not get you high. You should know that people who are put on methadone for this reason almost never get into drug rehab. They are given methadone for years. Sometimes for life.

Other people, usually those who have gone back to taking drugs after drug rehab, are told that their body is no longer capable of producing the natural endorphins that make us ‘happy’, and that their only choice is to take methadone.

What has usually happened there is that the person hasn’t done a good drug addiction treatment program – and there are plenty out there that usually don’t work.

People who are on methadone, and have been on it for some time, say that the drug has no negative affect. In fact, there is plenty of evidence that it does.

A recent study in Norway, for example, found that people who are on methadone are twice as likely to have car accidents as those who are not on it. For the study, they spent two years following 2,500 people who were on methadone.

Perhaps the worst thing about methadone is that it’s almost impossible to quit. It’s harder to get off it than heroin and the prescription painkillers the person was taking before. In fact, many drug rehab centers won’t even accept someone on methadone because getting off the drug is so very difficult – even when being treated by professionals who’ve gotten hundreds of people off heroin and prescription opiates.

The real solution to opiate addiction is a good drug rehab program. One that has a very high success rate. At Drug Rehab Referral, we’ve helped thousands of people get off those drugs.

If you’re looking into drug rehab, check with us first. We can help you find the addiction treatment program that’s most likely to guarantee success. Of course, there are no real guarantees, but you might as well start off with a program that has a better chance of success than with one that has a low success rate.

The alternative is having an addict go through treatment and fail – in which case they lose their faith that they can actually get off drugs and are more likely to fall for the idea that they need to be drugged forever – on methadone.

That’s pretty amazing when you think about it. Where one person out of ten may have gone into treatment for prescription drugs 10 years ago, there is now 4.3 out of ten.

And that’s only the people who go to drug rehab, not the people who are addicted to or dependent on prescription drugs but don’t get help for it.

SAMHSA says the prescription drug addiction problem is largely due to ‘pill mills.’

Pill mills are basically so-called pain management clinics that don’t do anything to address the problem; they just give out drugs. Since there are few questions asked, it becomes known that getting drugs from these doctors is a piece of cake. That attracts people who are already addicts.

However, the worst thing about pill mills is probably that they don’t offer any other solutions to the pain people are suffering. There’s no attempt to get them the treatment they need to get rid of the pain so, of course, they become addicts. There’s really no way to avoid it.

It’s hard to say how many people get addicted to prescription painkillers (OxyContin addiction, for example is really widespread) by first being given the pills by their doctor, but it’s considerable. Many of the people getting prescription drug rehab are in that situation.

That’s really criminal medicine.

What can you do? The solution is to first find a drug treatment program that will help get the person off the drugs, and then find alternative solutions to the pain. Chiropractic, acupuncture, natural medicine – they all offer possible solutions.

If these types of treatment were used, prescription drug addiction would be far less a problem.

This information comes from Dr. Ted Parran, an affiliate of the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

Dr. Parran commented: ““It was not motor vehicle accidents,” Parran said. “Cars come with airbags, Oxycotin doesn’t.”

He also said that doctors have to get better at differentiating between people who need a prescription because have a drug problem and those who have a legitimate medical use for them.

He also said it’s important that people who do actually need them get better at hiding them so they are not readily available to kids or someone else who might want them just to get high or for experimentation.

You also need to avoid sharing your drugs with anyone. For example, if you have a friend with a bad headache, don’t just say ‘Here, take one of my OxyContin. That’ll help.” If you do, you’re setting that friend up for possible OxyContin addiction.

I know that sounds extreme – but, really, it’s true. That person could take one OxyContin, have their headache go away, go to their doctor to get their own prescription and, next thing you know, they’re hooked. It’s that easy.

In fact, it’s not only that easy, it’s one of the primary ways people get addicted to prescription drugs. They start off actually needing them because of an accident, illness, surgery, dental work, etc. and then, when the time comes to stop taking them, they can’t.
One reason for this is that the withdrawal symptoms – the things that happen to the body just when you try to stop taking the drugs, which includes pain – make you think that you still need the drug. So, you keep taking them.

In fact, the pain you experience under those circumstances doesn’t have anything to do with the reason you needed the drug in the first place – it’s because that’s what happens when you try to stop taking them.

Also, the more you take the more you need to get the original effect. So, while 1 pill may have reduced your symptoms for a while, it might take 2 pills later on. That’s one of the reasons for overdoses.

It’s amazing that prescription drugs have become this country’s number one villain. Who would have thought?

And how many parents would have thought that when they take a prescription drug to feel better their kids get the message that these drugs make you feel better so they want to try them, too?

How many parents have lost their kids to these drugs? I don’t know, but if you check the news you see stories like that all the time.

Drugs aren’t fun. Drugs aren’t for experimentation. Drugs should be used to only to help with real, life-threatening situations. After all, the drugs themselves threaten your life. Why use them for something that isn’t also life threatening?

Parents really have to educate themselves on this subject, and they have to get back to thinking of drugs as the last option. And teach their kids the same thing.

That’s the only way to really protect yourself and your family. Heaven knows, you can’t depend on anyone else to do that. And if you or someone you care about has a problem, get into a drug rehab asap.

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.

It is amazing what has happened with prescription drugs. When first developed they saved lives – and that was their purpose. Now they’ve turned into a multi-billion dollar industry – one of, if not the most profitable industry on the planet and one of the most dangerous. They’ve turned into public enemy #1.

They are ruining people’s lives. People are dying from them, going to jail because of them, having their lives and families torn apart, filling up drug rehab facilities.

Prescription drugs are not just for saving lives anymore; they are now taken for everything from pain – much of which could be addressed with drug-free therapies like chiropractic, acupuncture, naturopathy, lifestyle changes, and so on – to ‘treating’ anxiety, depression, fidgeting in class and just about every other problem. All problems that used to be considered part of every day life and are now labeled as mental illness – needing treatment with drugs.

In fact, so many of our emotions and mental states are now categorized as mental illness that you’d be hard-pressed to not find yourself, your family members or friends falling into at least one of the current mental illness categories.

Pharmaceutical companies pay out billions of dollars in fines for false and illegal advertising and marketing, for injuries and deaths – but, for them, it’s all just part of doing business. They are a powerful industry. Any other industry with business practices that unethical and products or services that created that much damage would have been stopped long ago.

Despite these disasters, the industry is looking for even more customers – pushing for legislation for ‘screening’ to make sure that those with a ‘potential’ for ‘mental illness’ are drugged as a preventative measure. It has even been suggested that children be screened before they are born!

Many of the most commonly taken drugs are highly addictive.  OxyContin addiction, addiction to oxycodone, hydrocodone, Fentanyl, Vicodin, Percocet, Xanax, Valium, and others – are highly addictive. And we now have a prescription drug-addicted society. A problem far worse than street drugs ever were.

These are now the drugs that you “just say NO” to.

Has someone in your family fallen prey to prescription drugs? Are they taking prescription drugs for something other than life-saving purposes and getting addicted to them? Find a good drug rehab program to get help. You may not be able to stop the nationwide epidemic, but you can stop prescription drugs from ruining your life and the lives of your family and friends.

In 2010, there were over 9,000 drug-related deaths, which is up nearly 10% from 2009.

The worst drug is Oxycodone, which goes under the trade names Tylox, Percodan and OxyContin. OxyContin addiction has been taking the country by storm for years – ever since it gained popularity as a prescription painkiller when the manufacturer (Purdue Pharma) lied to doctors and the public by saying it was less addictive than other painkillers. Purdue was taken to court and fined $634 million for lying about the drug, but that did not stop the firestorm of addiction.

Florida has been one of the hardest hit. In fact, of the 9000+ drug deaths in 2010, 1516 were related to OxyContin addiction and abuse. Also, even though 2010 drug-related deaths were up about 10% from 2009, OxyCodone (mostly OxyContin) went up 28%.

The second type of drug involved in the deaths was benzodiazepines (sedatives) at 1,304. And methamphetamine was third at 694. Other drugs, obviously, were all less than methamphetamine. Alcohol is also on the list – it isn’t often that you see a drug overshadowing the damage done by alcohol.

It’s obvious that prescription drug addiction is leading the way with drug-related deaths in Florida: they are responsible for nearly 1/3 of the deaths.

Many people believe that prescription drugs are safer than others since they are given out by doctors. Nothing could be further from the truth – the statistics speak for themselves.

If you know or suspect that you or someone you care about is suffering from OxyContin addiction, or benzodiazepine addiction, or is involved in other types of prescription drug abuse, you can get help. Not all drug rehab facilities are experienced with prescription drugs but many do an excellent job. At Drug Rehab Referral, we can help you find the best programs for your situation. Call us at 877-211-7428 for help.

This week in the news was the story of prescription drug addict Freddie McMahan, a 57-year-old electrician, retired from a major company.

McMahan suffered from scoliosis – a side-to-side curvature of the spine – and he was in constant pain.

For help, he went to a pain clinic – since pain was his complaint, he thought he would be going to experts. Instead of something to relieve the pain, he was given drugs.

Here’s an excerpt from the news item:

“Every month for two years, Freddie McMahan would get in his Lincoln LS and drive to a nearby pain clinic, where a doctor would prescribe him a cocktail of narcotic drugs. Initial prescriptions for codeine and Demerol to treat McMahan’s scoliosis eventually led to large amounts of OxyContin, Xanax and morphine. By the third week of his month’s supply, McMahan would run out, leaving him scrambling to get his fix somewhere else or go into withdrawal. A new month, however, meant another visit back to the pain clinic, joined by what McMahan observed to be an ever-increasing number of expectant patients. “I don’t know why they were there,” he said, “but I went to them to get the pain pills I was addicted to.”

After two years, McMahan decided he needed help. He went into a drug rehab program – it worked. He is now drug-free, and is helping others with the same problem.

Prescription drug addiction is so widespread right now that addiction treatment facilities often have more clients with prescription drug problems than with street drugs. And many of those clients are ‘respectable’ people – not someone you would think of as a ‘drug addict.’

OxyContin addiction – or addiction to any prescription drug – can be addressed with the right drug rehab program. Not every drug rehab facility is experienced with prescription drugs, and getting off them can be medically dangerous. So, it’s important to choose the right place.

At Drug Rehab Referral, we help you sift through the hundreds of options available to you to make sure you get the help you need.

Opana is made by Purdue Pharma, the same company that brought us OxyContin – which set off an epidemic of prescription drug addiction and drove huge numbers of people into drug rehab for OxyContin addiction. I don’t know why more people don’t know about Opana – it’s possibly because doctors are less willing to prescribe it since it’s stronger than OxyContin and gets circulated throughout the body faster.

Doctors were also less willing to prescribe OxyContin until Purdue came out with the time-release version which, according to Purdue’s marketing people, was less addictive. Of course, they lied about that, as we all now know, and for which they paid a $634 million in fines.

You can understand why docs are perhaps less willing to listen to drug reps.

But back to Opana – one guy on a forum about the drug said he switched from 80 mg OxyContin pills to 20 mg Opana pills – on the advice of his doctor – and the Opana did a much better job of controlling his pain, even at just ¼ of the dose. But the side effects were much greater.

This also explains the overdoses: OxyContin addicts – and those addicted to other painkillers like oxycodone, hydrocodone, and even methadone – who are used to taking 80 mg of OxyContin, for example, probably think they can also handle 80 mg of Opana. But the dose they take could be fatal, even though it’s less than they would have taken if it were some other similar drug.

I don’t know how much Opana costs on the street, or otherwise, but the fact that you can take 20 mg of it for the same effect as 80 mg of OxyContin would probably mean it’s cheaper in the long run – which is a very bad thing, except for those who really do have a legitimate painful situation that warrants taking drugs.

In any case, it’s something to watch out for. If you hear mention of Opana, Numorpha, Numorphone or oxymorphone, know that it’s a drug – first of all – and then realize that it’s a serious drug. Could well be more deadly than OxyContin. Anyone who is already taking drugs and could go near Opana should get into a drug addiction treatment program.

Of course, anyone taking any kind of drug should get into a drug rehab program anyway – whether they’re likely to use Opana or not. Really, you never know what’s going to happen with drugs. People die from them all the time.

Anyone with a legitimate reason to take prescription painkillers and is getting them from their doctor for an injury, surgery or other illness should be aware of the potential of Opana for addiction and side effects. And anyone who is educating their kids on what’s going on with the drug scene needs to add Opana, Numorpha, Numorphone and oxymorphone to the list.

The cost of heroin is already relatively low – $5 a hit, maybe as much as $10 – which is how students and young adults can afford it. For people with a prescription drug problem, like OxyContin addiction, heroin is also a cheap and readily available substitute. One OxyContin pill could cost as much as $80 on the street.

Prescription drug addiction has become a major problem in the U.S. Even the President’s talking about it. With prescription drug monitoring becoming more prevalent – which makes it harder for someone to go from one doctor to another faking symptoms to get OxyContin they can sell to others – and laws on pill mills getting tighter, more heroin will be welcome.

The article also said that the Mexican heroin dealers are changing the face of the typical heroin user. “Using savvy marketing tactics, they’ve also repositioned heroin commercially, revamping its image from the inner-city drug of yore, with its junkies and needles, into a narcotic that can be snorted or smoked, appealing to suburban and even rural high school youth.”
Pretty disgusting. Parents, especially, should make sure their kids are educated on drugs so they are not tempted. Also, anyone who has a friend or family member who tends to experiment with street drugs or pills and might be tempted to try something a little cheaper should put extra effort into getting them into a drug rehab program asap.