Our Views

A recent news item tells the story of a wrongful death suit filed by the family of a man who died while undergoing rapid detox. He started taking painkillers when prescribed them by his doctor after surgery and then became addicted. To handle his addiction he chose a procedure known as rapid detox rather than one of the safer drug detox  alternatives.

The family filed a wrongful death suit on the doctor who performed the procedure and they were awarded $35.4 million. In this case, the doctor was negligent – the patient had a history of allergies to anesthetics which the doctor did not investigate. The man died when he failed to get enough oxygen while under general anesthetic, suffered brain damage, and died.

However, the rapid detox procedure can be dangerous under any circumstances. If you or someone you care about is considering alcohol or drug detox, make sure you’re fully educated on all methods of drug detox before you make your choice.

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I read an article today in the New York Times about a proposed smoking ban in New York outpatient alcohol and drug treatment centers. That’s a story in itself of course, but other things about the article also caught my attention. First, the article said there are 1100 treatment centers in New York, two thirds of which are outpatient facilities. The outpatient treatment model does not have a high success rate – the best rehab facilities are long-term inpatient models. Yet the state’s Department of Health is going to spend $8 million on getting alcoholics and drug addicts to quit smoking instead of investing it creating more successful drug detox and rehab programs.

Don’t get me wrong, I know smoking is dangerous and I agree that people should quit. But to dilute the already strained financial and personnel resources, personnel who are trained in handling alcoholics and drug addicts, is not going to improve the addiction epidemic.
 
Here’s another problem with the smoking ban - $4 million of that $8 million is going to be spent on nicotine replacement devices – including drugs. That means that drug and alcohol detox and rehab centers that already use ‘drug replacement therapy’ as a way of handling addiction – in other words, put the person on methadone instead of heroin, and usually park them there for years – may now be sending someone off to start their new ‘drug-free’ life on two replacement drugs, one for the alcohol or drug addiction they came into treatment to handle, and the other for smoking.

Resolving the problem of alcohol and drug addiction is already an overwhelming problem in the U.S. – there aren’t enough treatment centers, and most of them have pretty low success rates. Why not put those resources into creating more successful alcohol and drug detox and rehab programs so we can get better handle on that problem?

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The new British study published in Lancet, also covered in various articles, regarding marijuana greatly increasing the risk of psychosis is bound to throw some people into panic – especially those who are taking it legally. I’m not necessarily a proponent of prescribing marijuana as medication, but I must say I feel badly for cancer patients who trusted their doctors and are now going to be heading for drug detox and rehab, and trying to find other solutions for their pain.

Honestly, I don’t think this news will have much impact on abusers - maybe on those who are just beginning to experiment with it, but not hardcore users. After all, whatever the effects of marijuana, hardcore users are probably already suffering from them and their judgment may not be the best. Also, I don’t know how many pot smokers continue to just smoke pot without moving onto other drugs. When I first started taking drugs I probably smoked pot exclusively for less than a year, did hash at that time too, but then got into LSD, a variety of other drugs, then heroin, then methamphetamine. I think it’s fairly unusual to stay on marijuana and not get into other drugs. Which is one of the reasons why marijuana is so dangerous.

When I first started using marijuana, I wouldn’t have considered doing other drugs. But with frequent use over a period of several months my judgment obviously became clouded, and I went from there. That was quite a while ago and I don’t think I’d even heard of drug detox or drug rehab. Certainly no one in my circle talked about it.

Regardless of the public’s reaction, this study is bound to make people more aware of the problem. Perhaps those who know people who smoke marijuana will be more diligent about getting their friends and loved ones into a drug detox program, and possibly drug rehab, even if the drug users themselves don’t get the point.

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Young people in Lee County, Florida, are twice as likely to abuse prescription drugs as their peers in other parts of the state, according to a recent report on Florida drug abuse statistics. That’s saying quite a lot when you’re talking about a state that has a prescription drug addiction problem that is of real concern to the DEA.
 
In an effort to get the problem until control, several groups involved in the war on drugs in Florida - Southwest Florida Addiction Services, Lee Memorial Health System, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, the Consumers Healthcare Products Association and the Lee County Coalition for a Drug-Free Southwest Florida – put together a TV special to raise pubic awareness of the dangers of abusing medication.

The special will air in August on government cable stations and, really, everyone should watch it. And make sure your friends watch it too. If you know anyone who already has a problem with prescription drug addiction, get them into drug detox and rehab so they can get help.

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Although the Purdue OxyContin addiction and abuse hearings took place in the U.S., we’re not the only country with the problem. A recent news story regarding an investigation being conducted by Ontario’s Methadone Task Force reported that narcotic painkillers are being over-prescribed in Canada as well, and it’s leading to prescription drug addiction.

The task force was told that OxyContin and Percocet are the drugs of choice for addicts and that huge prescriptions are being written for OxyContin, especially in walk-in clinics that they said generally seem to over-prescribe.

The task force also investigated over-testing of addicts which is apparently also turning into a real income source for some doctors. “This is a business. I got out of family practice because it wasn’t lucrative. Visits and urine tests are the money,” one unnamed doctor told the task force panel.

If you or someone you care about is having a problem with drugs, don’t just go to the nearest doctor or treatment clinic for help – you may wind up with a prescription drug addiction problem you didn’t count on. Get help from a drug detox and rehab center that is actually able to send you home free of any drugs that aren’t medically necessary.

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Officials in Scotland are rethinking methadone as replacement therapy for heroin addiction. The original intention of the methadone program was not to simply “park” addicts on methadone. It was supposed to be used in conjunction with other drug addiction treatment that would actually end their addiction. Instead, 21,000 people in Scotland are being prescribed methadone by their doctors – an increase of over 10 percent in the last three years – without receiving the drug detox and drug rehab treatment they need.

The new drugs minister, Fergus Ewing, told Scotland on Sunday that if he withdraws the methadone program, addicts will simply go back to heroin. So, although he will not abandon the program, he does recognize the need to provide an “exit strategy” to addicts so they are able to shake their habit. He pledged to increase drug rehab services.

Many people on methadone have been led to believe that they need to stay on it for years, or for life. But, in almost all cases, it is possible to beat heroin addiction with a successful drug detox and drug rehab program.

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The OxyContin hearings made it pretty clear that OxyContin addiction and abuse is a major problem but, if you still have doubts, check out the stories from the public who appeared before the judge in the Purdue case. One such story is from June Saber, who said she has a list on her computer of 100 of her son’s friends who became addicted to OxyContin and then to heroin. That’s 100 people who might well be headed for drug detox and possibly drug rehab, all within the relatively small circle of one middle-class family in Massachusetts.

People from all over the U.S. traveled to Virginia to tell their story to the judge. One woman from Florida had spent 17 months compiling information. Florida has been hit especially hard with prescription drug addiction and abuse. State medical examiners said that five people die every day from illegally obtained prescription drugs, and that OxyContin and oxycodone products are major sources of overdoses and deaths. These lives could be saved with successful drug detox, and, for those who are addicted, drug rehab.
 
The Purdue hearings have made the public more aware of the problem with OxyContin addiction and abuse, and with other prescription drugs. I would hope that more people will now head for drug detox so they can get off these dangerous drugs.

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OxyContin addiction suits will be flying, but don’t wait for drug detox or rehab 

Yesterday’s hearing of Purdue Pharma and its executives marked the end of the national case. Purdue will pay $600 million and the executives who pled guilty to misleading the public about OxyContin’s potential for addiction and abuse will pay $34.5 million. Where is the money going? Unfortunately, most of it will not go to the victims. I don’t know how many people are now struggling with OxyContin addiction, but I do know that many of them will need drug detox and possibly drug rehab to overcome the addiction and resume a normal life.

The money will be distributed to state and federal law enforcement agencies, the federal government, federal and state Medicare programs, a Virginia prescription monitoring program and individuals who have sued the company. About $5 million will be spent on a 6-year program that monitors compliance with the agreement.

The U.S. District Judge who levied the fine and accepted the distribution of the money said he would prefer the money be spent on education of those at risk of drug abuse and treatment of those who are addicted to OxyContin, but he accepted the agreement nevertheless.

“Many young people mistakenly believe today that prescription drugs are safer than other drugs,” Jones said. Indeed. That’s why hospital emergency rooms, drug detox and drug rehab centers are being inundated with victims of prescription drug addiction and abuse. And the morgues have also seen their fair share – from 2003 through 2005 there were 119 oxycodone-related deaths just in the small area of southwest Virginia where the sentencing took place.  And it’s not just young people.

Obviously, the lawsuits will be flying and there’s a good chance that anyone addicted to OxyContin will see some money. But it could take a while. If you or someone you care about is addicted to OxyContin, don’t wait to get into a drug detox. OxyContin addiction is dangerous. Get off it before you become one of the statistics.

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But how much is going to drug detox and rehab programs that would solve the real problem?  

I read a news story this morning about the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which provides health insurance for families whose jobs don’t offer it as a benefit. Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, an organization that includes Salt Lake City’s police chief, sheriff and district attorney, has asked congress to renew SCHIP and expand the funding by $50 billion. The new money would be ear-marked for mental health treatment of children whose parents are methamphetamine abusers. As the story says, ‘those who are abused become abusers.’ True enough. But wouldn’t drug detox and rehab for the parents address the problem more directly?

$50 billion is a lot of money. In fact, if that money were spent on getting parents through successful drug detox and drug rehab programs, more than 1.5 million parents would be saved. And their kids wouldn’t need mental health treatment, and they wouldn’t be sent to foster homes or raised in one-parent households because the other parent was in jail. And the risk of them abusing drugs when they grow up would be lowered. And the U.S. would have far fewer drug addicts. And fewer people turning to a life of crime. Really, the benefits would be very widespread.
 
Everyone wins when you use successful drug detox and rehab to address the cause, instead of the symptom.

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Expsensive alcohol abuse warning ads are ignored. How about putting the money into alcohol detox? 

The effect of alcohol advertising has been the focus of many recent news headlines, especially the ‘drink responsibly’ part of the ads. Researchers found that these warnings are barely perceived by teenagers and, based on the alarming statistics regarding alcohol abuse by adults, the parents aren’t paying attention either. This is proof positive that you get what you pay for - $4.9 billion is spent on making alcohol look good and $104 million is focused on the downside. Alcohol manufacturers allegedly spend that $104 million to curb alcohol abuse, but you might as well hire Castro to defend your civil rights. Anyone really sincere about ending alcohol abuse would put the money into alcohol detox and rehab.

The National Alcohol Beverages Association of Kenya (Nabak) and the Kenyan government have also come up with a good idea. According to a story in The Standard, they’ve agreed that alcohol cannot be advertised until 8:30 p.m. on TV, and only after 1:00 a.m. on the radio. The ads also cannot contain cartoon or fairy tale characters that would appeal to kids, and alcohol manufacturers can’t sponsor children’s events.

A similar program in the U.S. would definitely reduce the exposure for the kids. Now we just have to work on the adults. I wonder how many people could get through a successful alcohol detox and rehab with $104 million. It could go a long way.

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