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2500 Canadian soldiers are currently serving in Afghanistan with the combat mission that started in 2002 and is scheduled to end in 2009. Oddly enough, 2500 is also the number of soldiers who’ve received treatment for drug addiction in the past two years. According to a recent article, most of them only have access to out-patient facilities – which are notoriously unsuccessful. They need a good drug detox and drug rehab program.

Budget cuts in the ‘90s closed down all in-patient military treatment centers and the military has contracted with 20 private drug detox and rehab centers to service the soldiers. I don’t have any figures for the U.S., but there is no reason to believe it’s any different.

The article doesn’t suggest the reason behind these incredible statistics – I would guess that living in an environment where an elderly woman returning home from the market suddenly blows up and kills your two buddies beside you and a couple of three-year-olds playing in the sand could be pretty stressful.

And now those soldiers are coming home and having to fight drug addiction. Two wars – if the first doesn’t kill you, maybe the second one will. If you know a friend or family member coming home with drug addiction, help them find a drug detox program, followed by an inpatient drug rehab if they need it. God knows they’ve been through enough.

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If you think you’re safe taking OxyContin, read this story about a woman who stole tens of thousands of dollars to feed her OxyContin addiction. I’m not surprised to see a story like this coming out of Florida where prescription drug addiction and abuse is rampant. Florida drug detox centers are soon going to be overrun with people trying to get off them.

When you first start taking OxyContin it will probably be cheap, or even free if you have insurance. But once your prescription runs out, you could wind up buying it on the street. And you’ll need money – lots of it. It’s not unlike heroin and other drugs in that way – and in other ways – you often start taking a drug when someone offers you a ‘taste’ or when you get a prescription from your doctor to help with an injury or illness. But you can’t get off it.

Next thing you know, you’d sell just about everything you own to get some or, as in the story mentioned above, put tens of thousands of dollars on a friend’s credit card without permission and have to add jail time to your resume. You’ll also be in desperate need of drug detox.

If you or someone you know is using OxyContin prescription painkillers, be aware that OxyContin addiction, and addiction to drugs containing the same active ingredient, is sending tens of thousands of people to emergency wards. Get them into and through drug detox as soon as possible.

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If there’s one guy you’d never expect to see on a golf course, it’s Alice Cooper. But Cooper not only golfs - he has a six handicap. Even Tiger Woods says he’s good. The other thing you’d probably never suspect is that Cooper credits golf for helping him through his recovery from alcohol addiction.

Golf is a demanding game. If you want to win, or even be good, you have to be in shape. Tiger is all the proof you need. He’s not the first golfer to view the sport as an athletic challenge, but he’s certainly taken it to new heights.

Alcohol and drug addiction drain the body. You lose strength, stamina, and control – everything a good athlete needs.

Cooper’s nearly 60 – but he’s still a star. His new book, Alice Cooper, Golf Monster: A Rock and Roller’s 12 Steps to Becoming a Golf Addict, is now on the stands. I’d advise you to get it for any kid you know who’s using drugs or alcohol. With any luck, Cooper will become a role model and we can stop worrying about our kids turning into Britney Spears or Amy Winehouse. A fan attending a recent Cooper concert commented, “I used to be a heavy drinker, but Alice Cooper was one of the people who inspired me to quit.” he said. “It’s a very unusual thing for me to come to a rock concert sober.”

Get the young adults in your life to read the book, get them to alcohol detox, and buy them some golf clubs when they complete it.

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I’ve been reading news items for weeks about communities objecting to drug detox and rehab facilities in their area. However, over the last week or so the tides seem to have changed – why, I don’t know. One of the most recent stories is from Hemet, California. Even though city employees recommended that the City Council ‘aggressively oppose’ permits for two drug detox and rehab centers, the council members seem to have nothing but praise for the facilities.

Both centers have operated for years without permits, and are now due to appear at a hearing to remedy that situation. The mayor said she’s lived in the area for 59 years and has never heard of the group – which she considers to be a good thing. In fact, she said she thinks they’ve been pretty good neighbors.

If more people welcomed drug detox programs and rehab facilities into their communities, they might have a better chance of winning their local war on drugs.

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Today I read the heartwarming story of Lindsay Kersh, a Utah girl who overcame her heroin addiction. She went through hell during the detox: “I didn’t sleep for five days because I had these huge goosebumps all over my body. I couldn’t stand my skin to touch anything and I couldn’t even lie down. I was sick to my stomach and felt like I had the worst flu ever. The movies don’t come close to showing what kicking is really like, ” she said. You can see why many people choose to stay addicted rather than go through withdrawal. Unless you go to a medically supervised heroin detox that gives you mild drugs to help you through the worst of it, it’s not easy.

I kicked heroin cold turkey myself – it’s a little like having a baby, an intensely painful process, but soon forgotten. The incredible feeling of being clean overshadows everything you had to do to get there.

For those who have a low pain threshold, I would recommend a heroin detox that helps you through the worst of it with mild drugs and also focuses on nutrition. Heroin itself is extremely debilitating physically, but added to that is also the fact that heroin addicts aren’t usually eating healthy, well-balanced meals or taking vitamins. In fact, it’s not uncommon for a heroin addict to eat almost nothing.

If the detox program you do includes nutritional help, you can come out of the detox feeling better than you’ve felt in years.

Lindsay is now Utah’s recovery poster child. She looks great, and is looking forward to her new drug-free life. If someone you care about needs help with heroin addiction, read them Lindsay’s story, and then get them into heroin detox fast.

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What’s in a name? Apparently, quite a lot: drug companies pay $200,000 to $500,000 to have a drug name ‘designed’ so the drug will sell, will communicate something about what the drug is used for, and will not be easily confused for another drug at the pharmacy. Frankly, reading the article that detailed this process - drug company marketing execs and consultants sitting in an office having a powwow about how they can get a few more million people taking drugs – turned my stomach. Strong words, I know, but we already have 22 million Americans who need alcohol or drug detox and rehab. Do we really need more?

Some of the drugs are for cancer, some are for infections – legitimate medical conditions. But others are addictive drugs as dangerous and addictive as heroin and cocaine. What problems do they solve? None, really. They simply hide them from view.

Nevertheless, the marketing continues: “A lot of it is more art than science,” said William Trombetta, professor of pharmaceutical marketing at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. “There are certain letters that express power and control, like Z, M or P. Other letters, like S, are more passive. Depending on what the drug does, you want to give the name certain features.”

The article continues: “Want to sound high-tech? Go for lots of Z’s and X’s, such as Xanax, Xalatan, Zyban and Zostrix. Want to sound poetic? Try Lyrica, Truvada and Femara.”

Prescription drug addiction is almost as big a problem as addiction to street drugs. I guess as long as there are occupations like “professor of pharmaceutical marketing’, we can’t expect anything less.

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Six students were taken to alcohol detox with lethal levels of alcohol in their system at the University of Wisconsin’s Badger game last weekend. Consequently, the Dean of Students Office is setting up a breathalyzer test at the gate – any student previously ticketed for excessive drinking either passes the test, or doesn’t get into the game. No doubt some of those students could use a full alcohol detox, rather than the overnighters that just get you sober.

The students for whom the test is mandatory know who they are and are responsible for taking the test instead of finding a way to sneak into the game without it. If they attend the game without the test, they could be expelled from school.

Expulsion aside, some students think that even not being able to attend the game is too tough. “They’ve paid so much for their tickets and now they can’t have fun with everyone else,” complained one student.

But the idea that alcohol abuse and having fun go hand in hand is the exact problem the University is trying to handle.

If the kids who are drinking excessively could get through a complete alcohol detox and rehab, they would not only be able to attend the games, they’d probably do better in school and have a better life. Alcohol abuse ruins millions of lives and the younger you start, the better the chance you’ll have a lifelong problem. Why not stop it now, before too much is lost?

Popularity: 17% [?]

John O’Leary, Jr. was arrested at his home last Monday evening. Police found 36 small bags of heroin. O’Leary was looking at charges of possession with intent to deliver, unlawful delivery of heroin (don’t ask me what ‘lawful’ delivery of heroin is), unlawful possession of heroin (what’s the lawful kind again?), and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia. Bail was $50,000. He couldn’t afford it, so went to jail. According to his daughter, he started withdrawing from heroin while in prison and, because he wasn’t taken to a medically supervised heroin detox, the withdrawal killed him.

O’Leary arrived at the prison 12:15 a.m. Tuesday – shortly after midnight. About 27 hours later O’Leary’s cellmate called for help and O’Leary was pronounced dead about ½ an hour after that.

Kind of strange – if the withdrawal symptoms were so severe, why didn’t the cellmate alert the staff earlier? Surely, O’Leary’s symptoms didn’t come on that suddenly. What was going on during the prior 27 hours?

In any case, the attending doctor said O’Leary died from cardiovascular disease –arteries so severely blocked that the flow of oxygen was cut off, and his heart stopped. But O’Leary’s daughter said she’s not aware of her father having heart disease and says he was basically neglected during withdrawal. O’Leary’s daughter not being aware of her father having a heart problem doesn’t surprise me: How many heroin addicts are going to their family doctor for regular checkups to make sure they’re in good health? He probably didn’t know he had a problem either - heroin addiction tends to obscure other physical conditions.

When I was on heroin I went to the ER and found out I had a kidney infection so severe they kept me in there for a week. But I had gone to the ER for a totally different reason - I didn’t have a clue I had a kidney infection.
 
Heroin detox – i.e., withdrawal - while it can be very painful, isn’t likely to kill someone unless they have a pre-existing condition which, according to the attending doctor, O’Leary had. With that kind of complication, yes, it’s possible someone could die during heroin detox – or any detox for that matter. In fact, he probably could have died with just mild exertion.

The fact is, a heroin addict isn’t likely to be aware of conditions that may make withdrawal dangerous. To be safe, it’s best to ensure that someone who wants to end their heroin addiction either gets a medical exam first to determine if they’re up to it, or goes to a medically supervised heroin detox program. Drug rehab is their next stop.

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I read an article today about a guy who overcame opiate addiction. Well, nearly - he’s on methadone. We’ve had several comments in response to our blogs about methadone treatment – many from people saying that it allows them to live a normal life. If you buy the argument that having to take opiates every day to function is normal, so be it. But drug detox followed by a good drug rehab program that actually addresses the reason the person got addicted in the first place would be far more ‘normal’.

The purpose of drug detox is to get the person off the drug safely and relatively comfortably, instead of having to go cold turkey. But, often, it’s not the be all and end all.

There’s no denying that this guy’s life is better now than it was when he was on OxyContin and a myriad of other drugs – living like an addict, having lost everything. But, it’s not true that his life is better than it would be had he followed up his drug detox program with a good drug rehab that got down to the bottom of his drug addiction problem and enabled him to live drug-free.

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I read an interesting statistic today – the money spent annually in the U.S. on weight loss products is about double what it would take to feed the world’s hungry for a year. You might think that has nothing to do with drugs – but, it does: much of that money is spent on diet pills. Basically, they’re speed. And some experts say they are highly addictive, a problem that may require drug detox and rehab.

Why do people choose drugs as a weight loss option? Usually, the answer is simple – they don’t want to change the way they eat and they don’t want to exercise. The pills speed up the central nervous system, brain and spine, so the body burns fat while suppressing the appetite.

However, they do have side effects: diarrhea, vomiting, tightness in the chest and urinary tract problems are the most common. But if you overdose you can expect convulsions, tremors, confusion, shallow breathing, hallucinations, kidney failure, heart attack and stroke.

You’re advised to stop taking them immediately if you get mood swings, hyperactivity, stomach cramps, insomnia, nightmares, severe irritability, fatigue, depression, nausea, vomiting or trembling.

That’s a big risk to take to lose a few pounds.

And then there’s dependency and, possibly, addiction. I can’t find any statistics on how many people are dependent on diet pills, but it is fairly common among people with eating disorders, and even Angelina Jolie and Nicole Richie have been said to be addicted.

As with any drug, getting off diet pills not be easy. Find a good medically supervised drug detox program, and then check out your other options for weight loss. Maybe some of the money you spent on diet pills can feed people who are starving.

Popularity: 12% [?]