You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘DRUGS & ADDICTION’ category.
Inspired by the death of Heath Ledger, OxyContin Blues is a raw unflinching drama about prescription pill addiction in Hollywood.
“…Ibogaine, 
a brown powder derived from the African Tabernathe iboga plant, has intrigued researchers since 1962, when Howard Lotsof, a student at New York University and an opiate addict, found that a single dose erased his drug cravings without causing any withdrawal symptoms…” That is the claim and as evidence shows; it works; just not in the U.S. yet, at least legally. A drug addict can get legal Ibogaine treatment in Mexico. The Villa Serena Medical Center and the Ensenada Ibogaine Program both offer treatment in Mexico. Here’s some links to learn more. Fighting Drugs With Drugs…explores resistance in the U.S. to Ibogaine . Ibogaine.co.uk is an informative link base in the UK. Lastly, the Brooklyn based website; The Ibogaine Dossier is one other cyber site to look at. links by Jon R.
Experts Struggle to Determine Overdose Deaths. “Overdoses from prescription drugs have sometimes led to civil or criminal charges against prescribing physicians, but even toxicologists have problems distinguishing between overdose deaths from other causes, Time Magazine reported June 16. The result is that the courts, not heath officials, are often left to determine drug users’ cause of death. Complicating factors include use of alcohol or other drugs in combination of prescription medications and underlying health conditions…” Read on in Time Magazine. links and quotes by Gretchen
methadoneman.com wants to stop the spread of HIV by reducing street based heroin use. Click on the image above to view a PDF comic book fact sheet.
Sheryl Letzgu
s McGinnis is not just another parent who lost a child to drugs
She collected accounts of 39 other parents who experienced similar loss and published, I am Your Disease: The Many Faces of Addiction. Two years later Sheryl published, Slaying the Addiction Monster which illustrates her own all-inclusive look at the world of drugs and addiction and its personal impact. Knowing how insidious the disease of addiction is; often luring our children, she wrote the book, The Addiction Monster and the Square Cat, geared to tweens from age 10 and up. Drug addiction touches many people. It is a bigger problem that most care to admit. People like Sheryl are waking up America.
Barbara Sinor asks America to wake up to the reality of addiction. She lost a son to this disease and is talking and writing about it in her newest book; Tales of Addiction. She talks about you…about us. Dr. Sinor also has written a piece in a Southern California newspaper called California Together. Download the PDF file and check it out. She is asking America to “wake up” What can we do to make an impact. Links by Dr. Barbara Sinor, PhD
“…Stephen King has written 63 books, and is estimated to be worth over $150 million. But in his recently re-released memoir, “On Writing: 10th Anniversary Addition: A Memoir of the Craft,” King tells us that for years, his drug and alcohol addictions were so bad, he can barely remember working on some of his best-known best-sellers…” “…most psychological theorists credit our inner fears, anxieties and primitive urges as the fuel that drives intellectual growth. The ordinary citizen seeks to avoid them. The artist dives right in…” These quotes are from an piece called Why Do So Many Writers Struggle With Drug and Alcohol Addiction. Millions of alcoholics and addicts all across America may not have celebrity status, but certainly share a commonality with addiction. A commonality with famous people we have always admired. I don’t need to re-create a massive historical archive of celebrity personalities that share this commonality to make this point. Most of us know this. Addiction simply is not an isolated issue and America needs to accept that. Pretending that addiction is isolated to just bad people and treating it like leprosy; not only denies a stark reality, but avoids taking care of a problem that is undermining our chances at greatness. Links by Mary S.
Gwendolyn Noles…The Straight Story. Gwen was interviewed on Prescription Addiction Radio. Check out the last hour of the show. Gwen talks about her Season in Hell as she battled through an addiction on benzodiazepines Benzos, as they are sometimes known can have a cruel withdrawal. Gwen went on to write a short memoir about her experience called A Season in Hell.
TAMPA – Dozens stood in protest on Thursday to push for a ban on OxyContin, a powerful prescription drug. Though the cause is common, each protester has their own individual reasons. Gail Graves says she lost her son Justin to addiction on Halloween of 2007. “I know he struggled. I know that’s not how he wanted to be,” offered Graves. Read “Protesters Say Oxycontin is Too Strong” Link by Larry Golbom of Prescription Addiction Radio.
Social media is a growing phenomena and more than 10 million online messages written by teens in 2007 shows they regularly chat about alcohol, drugs according to Nielson analysts. This problem was first written about in USA Today in a article called Teens Use Internet to Share Drug Stories. The website: Parents, The Anti Drug talks about what parents can do. Link by Mary S.
Baby Boomers Still Doing Drugs as Seniors link by Mary
R.I.P. Corey Haim
I respect his attempts to get clean. Corey died March 10th. There is a long list of celebrities who have been beaten by addiction and it’s mostly opiate based prescription drugs and heroin that are doing the killing. An issue relating more to the disease of addiction than Corey, is generating a lot of hot questions about a big problem. Celebrity addicts underscore the deadly threat “legal prescription opiates” have on young people. Attention is fa
lling on the plague of doctor shopping, the prescription drug black market and a massive prescription drug ring. So Corey’s death, brings attention to a problem that in part is the 4th largest cause of death now. links by Mary S. and dadonfire.
New TV show on addiction
Premieres March 17 @10/9c. Its called Addicted. link contribution by Mary S.
From CNN via VBS.TV: “…it was Thatcher who signed off on a program that meant heroin addicts would be given access to free, sterile needles …after she’d closed down the mines, docks, and factories. …unemployment and heroin addiction have always made fine bedfellows. See the rest of the video @ vbs.tv
In “Pain Clinic Legal Dope House?”, CNN’s Campbell Brown exposes a flourishing practice of licensed Florida “Pain” Doctors supplying drug addicts and drug pushers with legal prescriptions of dangerous narcotic drugs like oxycontin. Granted some are legit; but 50 million Americans (one in 5) have abused pain meds. New laws are expected to take up to 2 years to effect this practice.
Book Review: When Painkillers Become Dangerous. What Everone Needs to Know About Oxycontin and Other Prescription Drugs, Drew Pinkskey
“When Painkillers Become Dangerous” was written in 2004 and published by Hazelden. This book is worth a fresh look. It is an exceptional resource on drugs, addiction and recovery. Drew Pinskey (Doctor Drew), the lead author provides one of the clearest explanations of how addiction develops that I have read. He partners with five other very noteworthy authors. Marvin Seppala dissects treatment and recovery. Robert Meyers and John Gardin explain intervention, the prolific William White presents a historical overview of all drugs and their particular addictive characteristics while Stephanie Brown relates the insidiousness of addiction as a family problem. Anyone looking for a resource written by top experts in clear language will benefit from reading this.
Vancouver: ‘Drug Central’ of North America is notable take on drug presence at the site of the Winter Olympics. Check it out. Also check out Stephen Bamber’s site Art of Life Itself which featured this BBC piece.
Psych Central is the Internet’s largest and oldest independent mental health social network. It made Time Magazine’s top 50 websites. It is run by MH professionals, offering sound information and over 150 support groups to nearly 1 million people around the world every month. You can find information on dual diagnosis, addictions, depression and subjects like suicide which like a tragic drug overdose death can leave loved ones stunned and feeling blame ♦ e-How site offers info on addiction and related topics, including a video library. Links by Mary S.
Casey Johnson daughter of Billionaire “Woody” Johnson (Robert Wood Johnson IV) found days after her death from possible drug related causes @ age 30 in her apartment. Casey has a history of drug problems. Prescription Addiction Radio’s January 10th radio show talks about drugs as a possible cause of death and ironically, a major Johnson family charity, The Partnership for a Drug Free America who may not be doing enough. Woody is owner of the New York Jets. His father, Robert Wood Johnson III founded the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and was CEO of the family company Johnson and Johnson Drug Company who has marketed the recalled, opiate based duragesic patch. The Robert Wood Johnson’s Foundation is also known for working to find solutions to problems with drug use in America.
Replacement Drug Therapy attracts a debate between the medical and moral definition of addiction. Is this a question of medical necessity or one’s will. Medical research is breaking down why heroin in particular is so hard to lay down for some. Alcohol is a progressive disease. Peak opiate addiction happens fast and it is brutal. I spoke with Keith a 28 year old recovering addict. He sees two truths in the debate. Clean, after 5 years of opiate addiction he talks about his 3 year replacement drug therapy to date. “I am an addict and alcoholic. I work the AA program. I have service commitments in AA and some in NA. I also have been on Subutex for 3 years. It works good for me if I apply recovery principals and work AA. I am an alcoholic at heart but when I found opiates, I was off to the races” Keith say’s opiate addiction is far worst than people imagine and takes determination just to work the program he is on now. Addiction for him is very much a medical condition. He has explained that quitting opiates after long term use for many young addicts is near impossible and the leap to replacement drug therapy still takes iron clad determination, explaining further. “Suboxone or Subutex (subs) work for some and not for others. Subs make you feel normal. There is no post acute withdrawal (PAWS). You feel as you did before you started using; normal”…Here is the problem with many… “Most on subs do not fix what is really broken because they perceive that nothing is broken and don’t use the subs correctly”… “Some take sub “vacations” and use opiates off and on”. This explains why so many young opiate addicts do not recover and continually relapse, even when using subs or methadone. Keith holds on to the premise that he would would prefer the initial week of heavy physical withdrawal than the many months of the post acute phase. For him, subs built his bridge to sobriety.
DJ AM’s “Gone Too Far” Addiction Series to Air on MTV.
WOW! DJ AM knew all too well about the daily struggle of drug addiction. The late celebrity spinner (born Adam Goldstein), who died of an accidental drug overdose in August at age 36, spent his last few months filming an MTV series called “Gone Too Far,” in which he spoke candidly about his own addiction, his 11 years of sobriety, and his desire to help other young addicts overcome their demons. Also check out MTV’s drug resource link. Submitted by Mary Slivinski
Begging for Help on Crack Street, by Richie Farrell – “…America will never be safe from the gigantic ramifications of illegal drug use unless the Obama administration mounts a major campaign to rehabilitate drug addicts…” Read the rest of the article.
This website is a comprehensive data base on heroin really worth checking out for anyone who is impacted in any way by the use of heroin. As horrific as the impact is to the user, the toll it takes on families and communities is much greater than most people realize. Check out Heroin Addiction.
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