You are currently browsing the monthly archive for November 2009.
Web browsing through the myriad of information on addiction, education and prevention efforts lead to four more blogs definitely worth your visit
G.O.A.L , Global Outreach For Addiction Leadership • Pill Talk, an Entertaining Pharmacy Blog • Why Do I do What I Don’t Want to Do?, Relapse Coaching and Prevention • Swallow, The Blog of Record on The Painkiller Epidimic
Richard Farrell posts a searing piece warning of growing heroin use by young people all around us; a modern day Trojan horse, threatening our very sanity as a nation. Read this post here.
Mexico’s Drug War? or America’s drug war? Earlier this year, Anderson Cooper did this CBS 60 Minutes piece that is worth re-visiting. It hammers on just how critical this issue has become. Tucson, Arizona’s Charles Bowden spoke in a video production back in September called Mexico’s Dirty War Against Drugs, in which he claims that from the drug cartel’s point of view, drugs are the largest industry in Mexico. The point is that this. The drug war for all the rhetoric it produces from both side of the prohibition and anti-prohibition debate; is a real issue with real consequences that keep America from standing up to drug addiction. Americans are the deer in the headlights of Mexico’s drug war. As the old saying goes. You can’t fix anything unless you know what’s broken. Addiction is ugly and so is market that satisfies its craving, not the least the low level lust Americans have for alcohol and drugs in general from prescription pain killers to pot. Links provided by B. Ford and M. Slivinski.
Veterans: Drug Addiction and Treatment. The Veterans Administration for many of its faults is the best model we have for public health care and taking care of millions of soldiers, yet their policy for drug and alcohol treatment is under scrutiny in this recent 11/04/09 research brief called: Healing a Broken System: Veterans Battling Addiction and Incarceration. The focus is on opiate addiction and point is that adequate and effective opiate recovery is elusive for veterans. The outcome for these addicts is too often; still jail. The National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP) also supports many of the points made in this paper. Heroin was a scourge for veterans coming back from Vietnam. See Eddie Grijalva’s story. Today, Opiates have made a big comeback, largely encouraged by the rampant mis-use of opiate based prescription drugs.
Prescription Addiction Radio is a website that hammers on what high percentage of opiate addiction really stems from. That is prescription pain medication grossly over-marketed and abused in America, impacting people in all walks of life. I won’t describe the reasons for saying this, because this website does it very well. I am, however, amazed after listening to the audio files that it contains. It is a real ear opener and well worth anyone’s time who is interested in understanding why America is impacted so heavily by addiction. You can also view a nationwide online petition to ban oxycontin in this link.
For those who weren’t able to attend the International Drug Policy Reform Conference or were interested in it what was happening there; you can click here to view Ethan Nadelmann’s opening speech link by Mary Slivinski
Actually this blog is called: Highs Lows Crack. A UK mother fed up to her eyeballs about the scourge of addiction, writes a poignant pissed off piece called: Baby to Bastard in 32 Years. Surely many parents will relate to this and many other truth-isms in this blog; coming to terms to the reality of tough love and saving the hair follicles. Have a story or an interesting blog you want to share; send it to DadonFire Submissions
OOPS: HOW CASUAL DRUG USE LEADS TO ADDICTION, By Alan I. Leshner, Ph.D., Director, National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Institutes of Health
“This unexpected consequence of drug use is what I have come to call the oops phenomenon. Why oops? Because the harmful outcome is in no way intentional. Just as no one starts out to have lung cancer when they smoke, or no one starts out to have clogged arteries when they eat fried foods which in turn usually cause heart attacks, no one starts out to become a drug addict when they use drugs. But in each case, though no one meant to behave in a way that would lead to tragic health consequences, that is what happened just the same, because of the inexorable, and undetected, destructive biochemical processes at work” Read the rest of the article here….and what to do when your hooked? Check out this excellent PDF file of a document produced by NIDA called. The Principals of Drug Addiction Treatment. Links by Mary Slivinski.
Anyone that knows a junkie or parent(s) of a junkie; know the insanity of dealing with chronic irrationality. Smack Time by Matt Harvey gets into the trenches. The Drug war has failed and beckons a restructuring of drug laws in “Face the Facts; End the Drug War” by Johann Hari. In this last piece entitled : Will the US step up on drug treatment. David Crary of the Assoc. Press examines unmet needs, destroying people in ways you can’t image unless you’re there. This should be a national priorty. Links by Mary Slivinski.
Andre Agassi reveals Meth Use This just goes to show that drug use is widespread. As part of an autobiography, Agassi talks about using methamphetamine in the mid to late 90’s after earning over 30 million dollars. A French Newspaper article – Agence France-Presse 11/10/09 – calls for returning his winnings. An ESPN video segment, First Take Update, features a sharp discussion of Agassi’s drug use. Lets see if Agassi follows up with some groundbreaking crusade to reduce meth use. Links by Mary Slivinski.
As any addict or an addict’s family member knows, treating a difficult methamphetamine addiction is a tough undertaking. A reader asked about treatment and this article is one to look over: Methamphetamine Addiction. You can also down load an in depth guide to treatment of meth addiction in: Meth Treatment Guide. Dadonfire has also published some educational links such as this piece in Frontline called the Meth Epidemic and a powerful video series called Meth Inside Out, which covers every angle of meth including treatment. Closer to home, we all know how hard it is to find affordable treatment. This website – usenodrugs.com – is the most useful site we found for finding out whats available in major US cities listing treatment locations in every range of cost.
Setting direction for the rest of the country, The Drug Policy Alliance supports a move to reform New York’s drug laws. You can read a summary of the New York’s reform in the document New York’s Rockefeller Drug Laws: Explaining the Reforms of 2009. These actions parallel even larger efforts that can positively impactAmerica such as Senator Jim Webb’s push to examine and reform prison policy. Drug law reform, more readily available treatment in and out of jail, education, and health care reform all serve all can serve to end a losing drug war and guide thousands, even millions of lost addicts to recovery.
Very creative and proactive blog. Check out Sober Bones right here.
Its the $64,000 question. The Answer lies in the human brain and perhaps in Joe Herzanek’s Blog: Why don’t they just Quit? All families of addicts have asked this question. Considering the eight million drug addicts in America, it’s probably been asked eight billion times. Joe’s website; Changing Lives Foundation is a great resource and obviously part of the solution. Well worth viewing; Joe’s websites fuel for the fire needed to battle the scourge of addiction.
Heroin – The Next Generation is an important documentary education video about 90 minutes long created in 2005, centering around Massachusetts and Arizona. A story every family should see. To view this, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbfKzDYzDJw
DadOnFire 
YOUR COMMENTS