Can you imagine living in a State where poverty is rampant and employers can’t find enough people to hire who pass a drug test? That’s the situation in West Virginia, and this year officials plan to figure out what they can do to get these people into drug rehab and work out an overall handling to reduce the number of people who are drugged.

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.

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It’s the new year, and it’s time to start taking drug rehab, for yourself or someone you care about, into consideration. Do you really want to go through another year of hell living with drugs?

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.

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About 10 years ago the number of people who die from heroin and prescription painkillers were about 2,000 – 3,000 a year. Cocaine was slightly higher. But over the last decade, deaths from prescription painkillers have increased by leaps and bounds over heroin and cocaine each year. Anyone taking these pills should be made aware of the dangers and gotten into OxyContin rehab at the first sign of trouble. Any OxyContin rehab program can also help with other prescription painkillers.

In 1999, there were about 2000 deaths from heroin, a little more than 2,500 from prescription painkillers, and nearly 3000 from cocaine.

In 2000, they all remained about the same but in 2001 prescription painkiller deaths went up to more than 4,000. Over the next several years, heroin deaths didn’t really increase at all, cocaine gradually increased to about 6,000, and deaths from prescription painkillers climbed to a whopping 12,000 in 2007! The situation is even worse now. In 2008, the numbers had already climbed to nearly 15,000.

Some other startling facts:

• More than 70 percent of those who have abused prescription painkillers got them from a friend or relative who had a prescription.

• One in three young people aged 12 and older started abusing drugs by taking prescription drugs for non-medical purposes.

• A survey of teens said it’s easier to get prescription drugs than beer.

Lipitor, a drug used to lower cholesterol, used to be the most prescribed drug in the world. Sales in the U.S. reached $12.4 billion in 2008. Now, prescriptions for just one prescription painkiller – Vicodin and others containing hydrocodone – are twice that. And that doesn’t include OxyContin and several other prescription painkillers.

Why is this happening? Are more and more people in chronic pain? Not likely – since 70 percent of people who take these drugs get them from friends or family, and since even kids experimenting with drugs now start with prescription drugs.

No one is really escaping this problem, and until something is done to curtail the sales of the drugs, more and more people will die.

Do you know someone who is taking prescription painkillers? Do you know someone who is taking other drugs and could possibly experiment with prescription painkillers?

Get them into a drug rehab program as soon as possible.

These drugs are killing people because they’re dangerous. Don’t let someone you care about become one of the statistics.

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A study was recently evaluated regarding drug deaths across the country. As of 2009, they surpassed deaths from traffic accidents. In 2009, 37,485 people lost their lives to drugs – one every 14 minutes. Prescription drugs are blamed for the rising death toll – and not necessarily just from people who abuse them. Prescription drug addiction and dependency is also a big problem with people who you would never suspect would even take ‘drugs.’ They got them from their doctor.

The drugs causing the most deaths are painkillers and anti-anxiety drugs like OxyContin, Vicodin, Xanax and Soma. Fentanyl, which is similar to morphine – although 100 times more powerful than morphine – is also becoming more widely used. It’s a painkiller, available in patches, but also marketed as lollipops.

The report also said that these drugs cause more deaths than heroin and cocaine combined.

According to a report in the LA Times, deaths from traffic accidents, unlike drug-related deaths, have been dropping for decades. Why? Because there have been huge investments in auto safety.

Obviously, the same cannot be said for prescription drugs.

When it comes to auto safety, the manufacturers are held responsible. It doesn’t take very many deaths, or even accidents, for the cars to be recalled. Notices are sent out, it’s written about in the newspapers, dealers issue recalls to those who have purchased the ‘dangerous’ cars, and so on.

No one says “Only 10 people died from accidents caused by or worsed by these cars; think of the hundreds of thousands of people who got where they were going without mishap. The benefits outweigh the risks.”

But that’s exactly what happens with prescription drugs. Thousands of people – not just 10 – die from some of these painkillers and it’s justified by the fact that hundreds of thousands of people took them and got rid of their pain. So, the benefits outweigh the risks.”

The worst that happens to the drug manufacturers is that they are told to put a warning on the drug containers and in their advertising. You hear the warnings, some of them, on television ads and you see them in magazines. Drug ads usually take up two pages – one for a picture of a happy person who is taking the drugs and the other, in very, very fine print, for all the side effects, warning, contra-indications and so on.

They’re not taken off the market. Even when Purdue Pharma had to pay out $634 million in fines because of fraudulently marketing OxyContin – which resulted in thousands of cases of people needing OxyContin rehab and who knows how many deaths – they were still allowed to make and sell the product.

And no one went to jail – no one was really held responsible for the damage caused to the individuals who took the drugs. The only people who saw any real money out of it were government agencies that paid for people on Medicare to receive them.

And the company didn’t even need to do anything to make the product safe. And they couldn’t have anyway – because the drugs aren’t safe. Period. There’s no way to change that.

If you or someone in your family is suffering from prescription drug addiction, abuse or dependency, there is something you can do about it:

First, realize that these drugs are not safe. That’s why one person is dying every 14 minutes. Don’t be fooled by the fact that they’re still on the market. It’s not because they’re safe, it’s because the pharmaceutical companies pull more weight than the government.

Second, get them into a drug rehab program that has specific experience with prescription drug rehab.

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Recent research into the drug scene in New York City shows that prescription drugs are the #2 drugs of abuse and addiction. Second only to marijuana. And that’s only the people who are taking them without a prescription.

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.

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Many people still think of ‘drug addicts’ as people who live in rooms with mattresses on the floor, skulk around in alleys, and hang around with the ‘wrong people.’ But drug addiction, especially OxyContin addiction and addiction to other prescription painkillers has a new face – doctors, lawyers, accountants, business execs, even politicians – all thought of as ‘professionals,’ not the kind of people who even take drugs, let alone become addicted. And, yet, they are the majority of people who are getting OxyContin rehab.

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.

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A new drug has hit the streets. In fact, it’s not really new but, for some reason, it had not made it to the streets until recently. It’s called Opana, also known as Numorpha, Numorphone and oxymorphone, and is very similar to OxyContin. But it’s twice as strong, has the same potential for addiction and, in one county in Virginia, has been the cause of six overdose deaths in recent months. Another good reason to get anyone you care about into drug rehab as fast as possible – you never really know what an addict will do next, and it could be Opana.

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.

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A recent news item says that the heroin industry in Mexico is coming into high gear and, consequently, the Midwest and Atlantic states are going to turn into heroin hubs. Until now, that role has been played primarily by California and Texas. What does that mean for us – the general public? There will be a lot more heroin around, and a lot of people are going to be doing into drug rehab to help get off the drug. This is especially true for kids who experiment with drugs, and for people fighting prescription drug addiction.

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.

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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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So many people are coming to Florida for prescription painkillers it has inspired the coining of a new phrase – “Pill Tourism.”  Why are they coming to Florida? Florida has 900 pain management clinics. The vast majority of these pain clinics dole out prescriptions with little to no examination of patients, have their own on-site dispensary so ‘patients’ don’t have to go to the drug store, don’t have a board-certified pain management doctor on staff, and are generally not even run by a practicing doctor!

People come here because the drugs are so very easy to get.

Some interesting Florida statistics regarding painkillers:

• Among the 50 top painkiller prescribers in the U.S., 49 are in Florida.

• In the first six months of 2008, the nation’s top 25 oxycodone-dispensing doctors were all located in Florida.

A just-completed three-month investigation that focused on making undercover purchases of painkillers (mostly Oxycodone) in Florida arrested 135 people, seized 17,000 pills and $3.6 million.

Are all the people getting these pills in pain? Absolutely not. But even those who are in pain generally get a lot more pills than they need. They sell the remainder to pay for their trip to Florida.

Geez. Big Pharma must be thrilled with all the ill-gotten profits. Has anyone out there ever figured out how much profit the manufacturer of Oxycodone is making on actual abuse of the drug? Whatever the number, I would bet it’s not something any company would be thrilled to give up.

Somehow, prescription drugs are going to have to get under control. In some areas, like Florida, they’re a far worse problem than illegal drugs. And that’s just for the people who aren’t really in pain and don’t need them. There’s also a serious addiction problem for those who are actually in pain.

I think a major solution might be more, and more accessible, insurance coverage of things like chiropractic, acupuncture, natural, herbal and alternative medicines, massage therapy, physical therapy, and so on – things that are known to help people with pain. That won’t get rid of the problem of people taking painkillers when they’re not in pain; but it will help people stay off painkillers in the first place (or only use them for a very short time), get people off painkillers (although they might also need drug rehab if they’re addicted), and stop people who need painkillers from turning into pushers so they can get the drugs they need.

What do you think?

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