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Are you in your ‘60s or ‘70s and having a problem with prescription drug addiction or abuse? A recent pilot project conducted in Sarasota, Pinellas, Broward and Orange counties, Florida, found that 23% of the 3,497 people screened needed some form of treatment for prescription drugs. Although some of the people referred only required a little education on things like combining prescription drugs with alcohol, I’m sure some of those people actually need drug detox to get them safely off the drugs they’re taking. And they might even need drug rehab to help them overcome addiction.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), about 17 percent of adults over the age of 60 (that’s about 2.5 million people) have substance abuse problems. Some have problems with alcohol, some with prescription painkillers, but since seniors often drink or take drugs alone – it’s not a social event as it is for some young people - no one even knows they have a problem. Consequently, they don’t get into drug detox or rehab so the problem can be addressed.

Fortunately, the Florida pilot project is going to be extended to 18 Florida counties overall so seniors in other parts of the state will have more help available to them. Lee County’s treatment program, for example, will receive a grant to help find seniors who are abusing alcohol or drugs and get them the help they need.

If you or someone you know needs help with alcohol or drug abuse, contact Novus Medical Detox to find out about drug detox in Florida. Although many people use drugs and alcohol to help them cope with life’s problems, they really just make the situation worse. Get help now through a medical drug detox program.

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If you are one of the millions of people in the U.S. who have considered putting your children on antidepressants, there’s something you have to see before you make a decision: youtube’s compilation of video clips on the relationship between suicides, homicides, and antidepressants. If you know of anyone taking these drugs, I would get them into a medical drug detox center as soon as possible so they can get off them safely.

While the warnings put out by drug companies say that suicide and homicide are risks largely for children and adolescents, at least one website, ironically called healthyplace.com, points out that “individuals mature at different rates. Young adults are more likely to commit suicide than older adults, so a young adult should be particularly closely monitored if he or she takes an SSRI antidepressant.”

Closely monitored? I’ll say. Unless they’re watched 24 hours a day you could be in the next youtube video talking about your son saying “I don’t like the way this drug makes me feel” four days before he kills himself. What happens if your kid is off to college or no longer living at home when he feels that way? Are you even going to hear him say that? Not likely.

And what is the significance of people maturing at different rates? How mature do you have to be to take these drugs? Mature enough to resist the urge to kill yourself? Lots of adults have killed themselves. Weren’t they ‘mature’?

The only safe thing to do is get people off these drugs through medical drug detox – no matter how old they are, and no matter where they live. Unfortunately, getting off antidepressants can be just as dangerous as taking them. In fact, some people kill themselves when they try to stop taking them - which is one reason why you need to get off them through medically supervised drug detox.

Do everything you can to stop people from taking these drugs, and get off them yourself, but do it through medical drug detox program so they, or you, are guaranteed safe passage.

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One sure fire way to avoid prescription drug addiction and abuse is to avoid taking the drugs. However, many people who become addicted to or dependent on prescription painkillers started the drugs when they were prescribed them by their doctor after surgery. Obviously, many surgeries are unavoidable but new research shows that some types of knee problems respond as well to exercise as they do to surgery. A little research into your options might reveal a non-surgical solution that may help avoid painkillers, and the potential for addiction or dependency that require drug detox to resolve.

The new study, conducted by the ORTON Research Institute in Helsinki, Finland on 56 patients with knee problems found that patients who received knee surgery and eight weeks of therapeutic exercise were no better off in the end that those who just did the exercise.

They also found that the patients who didn’t receive the knee surgery spent about $1300 less than those who did. The study was conducted in Europe, where health costs are generally less than in the U.S. and as this specific surgical procedure costs about $4500 in the U.S., the cost savings is even more significant.

If you or someone you care about is already taking prescription painkillers, look into a medical drug detox program to help them get off the drugs safely, but those who are looking at knee surgery should explore other options before proceeding.

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When you’re in a lot of pain it’s hard to resist getting a prescription for OxyContin or methadone from your doctor. I believe part of the problem is that too many people are uneducated in the various disciplines and alternative therapies that could help them handle the pain without drugs. Unfortunately, they pay for it in the end because they can end up dependant on the drugs or addicted to them and need to get through a medical drug detox program, and sometimes rehab, to get off them.

What are these alternative therapies? There are hundreds of them. Everything from chiropractic, acupuncture (which can work wonders for pain) and physical therapy to herbal and homeopathic remedies. It’s amazing how well some of these things work.

A friend of mine recently had neck and shoulder pain so severe he could barely move. And even when he wasn’t moving, it was killing him. His doctor gave him a prescription for OxyContin but knowing what he might have to go through to get off them, maybe even drug detox, he took one and threw the rest out.

Then he tried Arnica – a natural remedy made from the Arnica flower that has been used to treat inflammations, promote circulation and soothe sore muscles and joints. It’s usually taken in homeopathic dosages – very small amounts that could not cause toxicity. It took a while but, within a few days, the pain was virtually gone.

Arnica may not work for your situation but there’s a very good chance that something will.

If you’re not taking any prescription drugs, it would be a very good idea to educate yourself in drug-free alternatives so if you ever are in a position where you are tempted to take prescription painkillers, you’re already familiar with other methods that may help you out. If you can avoid drugs, you can also avoid dependency, addiction, and the need for drug detox.

If you’re already taking OxyContin or some other type of painkiller, look into a medical drug detox program that can help you get off the drug safely and start your research into alternatives. Living without drugs is healthy, and could save your life.

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Sometimes I wonder why people seem to take prescription drugs so lightly. Millions of people are getting prescriptions for dangerous drugs from their doctors, millions are becoming dependent or addicted, and millions more are abusing them. And even though more people are showing up in drug detox and drug rehab centers to get off them, for every person who does get treatment, there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, who don’t.

Although the drugs themselves cause physical addiction and dependency, there’s another, underlying, reason why people continue to take them. Put simply, they make you feel better.

Years ago I had to take steroids for a while because of a severe allergic reaction. Honestly, the steroids made me feel great. It was completely clear to me why someone would want to take them.

I knew they were dangerous and knew I couldn’t stay on them for long, but I wanted to feel that way forever.

So, I spent the week I was taking them researching how they worked so I could figure out how I could feel that way without drugs. Fortunately, I had a family doctor who didn’t like to prescribe drugs and was also interested in how I could feel good without them.

Together, we discovered that I had a thyroid condition called Wilson’s Syndrome. It was dragging me down until I had absolutely no energy and was also causing both mental and emotional symptoms. My doctor put me through a program and, within less than three months, I felt better than I had in years. And I didn’t have to take any dangerous prescription drugs to do it.

The moral of the story? Find a doctor who is oriented towards ‘wellness’ rather than ‘illness’, who believes you can feel better without drugs, and enlist his help to find the physical causes of the problem you’re trying to solve. You could feel better, naturally, and avoid having to ultimately do drug detox to get off whatever drugs you’re taking. And if you’re already taking drugs that you may not need do a drug detox program to get off them, then search for a real solution to the real problem.

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Yesterday I read a blog about a new ruling from the DEA regarding prescriptions for Legal narcotics and stimulants that have a high potential for dependence and abuse – i.e. Schedule II drugs. Many groups and individuals are speaking out against this ruling and a petition to rescind it is circulating on the Internet. The ruling allows doctors to give out 90-day prescriptions rather than just 30 days. Will this ruling increase the already alarming need for drug detox and drug rehab for prescription drugs? Yes, I think so.

The list of Schedule II drugs includes many of the drugs we read horror stories about daily: methadone, morphine, OxyContin – which, along with other prescription drugs of their type cause more drug overdose deaths than cocaine and heroin combined - and Ritalin, normally prescribed for kids and identified by the DEA as one of the foremost contributing factors to later cocaine dependence and addiction.

So if a person is taking these drugs already what’s wrong with them being able to go to the pharmacy and renew their prescription a couple of times? Well, it means that no one is monitoring how they’re doing on the drug. And it means that anyone taking these drugs has an even greater chance of addiction and dependency than they had when their prescription lasted for only a month.

According to the DEA, this shouldn’t be much of a problem because doctors will only give the 90-day prescriptions to patients they know are going to need repeat prescriptions anyway.

However, judging by the number of people who’ve already died or gone into treatment at drug detox and drug rehab facilities – and the fact that many of those people start taking the drug when they were given a prescription by their doctor – I don’t see that doctors are any more able to predict prescription drug addiction, abuse or dependency than their patients.

Your safest bet, really, is to just not take these drugs at all or, if you absolutely have to, take them in the lowest dosage possible and for the shortest time possible. And get yourself into a drug detox program at the first sign of not being able to get off them.

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When Brad Culpepper was nose tackle for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and willing to do whatever he had to to stay in the game, he took prescription painkillers. Lots of them. After several injuries, he was taking Vicodin every day, just to get through the day, and he really loaded up for a game. When it came time to stop, he was able to do it without drug detox. But he was one of the lucky ones – many athletes become addicted to painkillers. In fact, it’s becoming a problem of almost epidemic proportions in sports.

Most of the articles you read about drugs in sports focus on steroids. However, a California doctor who treats athletes with addictions says that prescription painkillers are 10 times more common in sports than steroids.

Steve Hayes, director of Novus Medical Detox in Florida, concurs. “Sometimes athletes have been taking painkillers for years before they finally get help. It is generally only a matter of time before a person decides they have to stop using them or their life will be ruined.“

Unfortunately, it’s not easy to stop taking opiates of any kind – whether it’s heroin or prescription painkillers such as Vicodin and OxyContin. If you or someone you care about has a problem with prescription painkiller addiction or dependency, contact Novus to find out if you could benefit from a medical drug detox program.

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I read an article today about a young Russian immigrant who was introduced to heroin when she was 12. She was addicted for several years and didn’t stop using heroin until a friend overdosed and died. I guess that was the degree of impact she needed to finally decide enough is enough – obviously, what happened to her friend could just as easily have happened to her. Although the article didn’t mention whether or not she had done drug detox, it did say she had gone through rehab several times.

One of the reasons she never got through drug rehab successfully is that the people in the rehab programs she did didn’t speak her language – literally: she spoke Russian, they spoke English. The language barrier would have made it all but impossible.

Communication is a basic in drug detox and drug rehab. If you can’t talk to someone, it’s difficult for them to help you through the drug detox process and, when drug rehab starts, you can’t get down to the reasons the person is taking drugs in the first place. You also can’t give them the tools they need to handle their problems. In fact, you can’t even find out what their problems are.

The other barrier she would have experienced stems from the fact that she came from an environment, the former Soviet Union, where you just don’t say what’s on your mind – especially if you want to say something negative. It just wasn’t safe. So, even if she did speak English, the drug detox and rehab counselor would have had to have pretty sophisticated communication skills to make her feel safe enough to talk about her problems.

A successful drug treatment program is based in large part on communication. If you want to ensure you or someone you care about gets through a drug detox program and drug rehab successfully, make sure that the counselors have the communication skills necessary to get the addict to open up and to make them feel safe enough to discuss their problems.

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I ran across a website today for a lawyer who handles, among other things, criminal cases that involve drugs. On his site he talks about people who use drugs recreationally ‘suddenly’ being arrested, jailed and treated like criminals ‘solely because of their recreational drug of choice.’ The truth is: people who use illegal drugs recreationally are not only breaking the law, they are ruining their own lives and taking millions of people down with them. What they need is drug detox and drug rehab, not a lawyer to get them off.

Nevertheless, he doesn’t mention the ruined lives connected with taking drugs. Instead he does go on to say how much pain, suffering and financial hardship is caused by the fact that these recreational drug users are arrested and jailed, and that “responsible Americans” who merely use drugs are not the source of America’s drug problem.

Sounds like he’s talking about people who smoke the occasional joint, don’t you think? Not heavy users who are desperately in need of drug detox or drug rehab.

He then goes on to give some details about three of his cases – it doesn’t specifically state they were his cases but, since he’s talking about himself, I would assume that to be true.

The charges in the cases were ‘conspiracy to distribute’, ‘possession with intent to deliver’ and ‘possession with intent to distribute.’ In each case, the drug was cocaine.

The amount of the drugs the defendants were allegedly in possession of was 4 pounds, 88 pounds, and 621 pounds – approximately.

How someone who has 621 pounds of cocaine can possibly be thought of as a ‘responsible American’ who could have been arrested, jailed and treated like a criminal ‘solely because of their recreational drug of choice’ is beyond me.

In all three cases, the defendants were found not guilty. Let’s hope they at least got into drug detox.

Drugs and criminality go hand in hand. Recreational drug use can easily turn into dependency and addiction, and the need to find ways to support the habit. If you’ve got a drug problem, do something about it now. Get into a drug detox program that can help you get off drugs. Don’t wait until you need a lawyer.

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Cocaine and crack dealers in Florida have added something new to their menu: prescription painkillers. What brought about this turn of events? As with any market – dealers are responding to demand. But what created the demand? For many people with a prescription drug problem, it started when they received a painkiller from their doctor. And although more of them are getting help in drug detox and rehab, many more are still risking their lives.

Bradley Johnson is one of the many casualties. Bradley started taking OxyContin when he received a prescription from a doctor. In fact, that doctor, a podiatrist in Broward County, refilled the prescription for about a year.
 
All Bradley had to do was say his foot hurt, said his mother, Susan. He told her it was easy.

It didn’t stop at OxyContin addiction for Bradley. When he died – he fell asleep at a friend’s house and never woke up – it was from a combination of oxycodone and Xanax, an equally dangerous anti-anxiety medication.

I’m sure a number of things contributed to Bradley’s condition but the most obvious, and the most criminal, is the doctor who refilled OxyContin prescriptions for a year. Unbelievable. I’m surprised that Bradley’s mother is not suing the doctor.

The proposed Florida bill that will give doctors access to the prescription drug database will help some doctors – but it’s not going to do anything for a doctor who refills OxyContin for a year.

The patient’s records are right there – surely the doctor was aware of the fact that the kid had a drug problem. There’s no way someone could take OxyContin for a year and not be at least physically dependent, and the chances of him not being an addict by that point are also pretty slim.

Bradley’s mother is now out there campaigning, educating others on the dangers of prescription drugs. But it’s too late to save her son. Don’t wait until it’s too late to save yours, or yourself. Contact a Florida drug detox program, find out if you’re in trouble, and do something about it.

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