Our Views

When doing a little research this morning I ran across an organization called The National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS). They’re motto is “Creating a Healthier Future.” They may be creating a healthier future for the drug detox and drug rehab programs that will never have a shortage of people who need their services, but unless you’re looking at the vitamin shelves, they don’t have much to offer someone who wants to get healthy.

Let me see …there are toxic cosmetics and skin care products, coke and all the other sodas, chocolate and candy galore, some now carry packaged processed food completely free of any nutrients, bathroom tissue – okay, I’ll give you that one on the health side - over the counter painkillers that kill 40,000 people every year and, oh yes, almost forgot the pharmacy.

The NACDS site doesn’t contain much info on cosmetics, coke, candy, food, or even over-the counter medicines, but it does proudly detail the prescription drug sales in the pharmacy.

In 2005, they filled 3.28 billion prescriptions at a cost to the consumer of $232 billion. And they did even better in 2006 – the number of prescriptions went up to 3.42 billion and the income went up to $249.8 billion. Growth statistics anyone would be proud of.

At this rate, no drug detox program or drug rehab center will ever go out of business! They may even have trouble keeping up with the demand. Anyone choosing a career in drug detox or drug rehab is assured of a job forever! Looking for work?

Popularity: 8% [?]

I read an article today in which the author compared drug company CEOs to the terrorists who flew the planes on 9/11 – with the noteworthy difference that drug company CEOs kill enough Americans every year to do the damage of 25 9/11s. I don’t know how many of those deaths and injuries could have been prevented by drug detox, but I do know that if I were taking prescription drugs, I’d certainly want to find out if I could live without them.

The article, entitled, If prescription drugs are so good, where are all the healthy drug takers?, was written in 2004, at which time the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) released statistics saying that 100,000 people were killed by prescription drugs each year and another two million plus were injured.

The death and injury toll was actually much higher as it did not include death and injury caused by errors, which some estimates say would double the number of deaths from the medication errors in hospitals alone. Nor did it include much of the prescription drug abuse, dependency and addiction that now account for a major percentage of people going into drug detox and drug rehab programs.

Are things getting any better? In 1992, 2.03 billion prescriptions were dispensed in retail pharmacies alone. That figure reached 2.78 billion in 1998, 3.28 billion in 2005, and 3.42 billion in 2006.  So, no, things aren’t getting any better. If over two million people are injured by those drugs (and that was back in 2004, the situation is worse now), that means that over half of those prescriptions put the drug taker at risk.

The fact is, there are usually other solutions. And they don’t kill you, you don’t become dependent on or addicted to them, and they actually make you healthy.

Unfortunately, many prescription drugs are as dangerous to stop taking as they are to take. If you would like to get off some of your prescription drugs so you can live life drug free, contact a medically supervised drug detox program to help determine whether you need drug detox to get a new start.

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I read an article today about a woman who started drinking and experimenting with drugs when she was thirteen years old. She took drugs for years – marijuana, cocaine, crystal meth and a variety of pills – until she got married and had children. After the birth of her third child, she started again. She went to one drug detox after another, but she did them to keep social services from taking her kids away, not because she really wanted to get off drugs.

Then she was introduced to OxyContin and even her efforts to keep her kids came to a dead stop. She spent six years on OxyContin – nothing was more important to her than getting that drug. After all she’d been through all those years, nothing compared to the addictive powers of OxyContin. She eventually was sentenced to five years in prison.

Fortunately, within a few months she was given the opportunity, through drug court, to do another drug detox and drug rehab. This time, she was serious. She knew she’d hit rock bottom and really wanted to change. And she did. Today she’s been clean for over 1 ½ years.

OxyContin is not a drug you should mess around with. Purdue Pharma was fined $634.5 million for lying to the public about the addictive potential of OxyContin. This woman’s story is just one of many and, frankly, as bad as her story is, she’s one of the lucky ones. Thanks to her hard work and her determination to get off the drug, she finally made it. For others, their journey ended in the morgue.

If someone you know is taking OxyContin, get them into a good drug detox program fast. Don’t let them risk ruining their lives – they may not be so lucky.

Popularity: 19% [?]

President Bush announced in his state of the union address that $600 million will be spent on treatment for alcohol and drug abusers over the next three years. He said this will get treatment for 300,000 of the 22 million people who, according to the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration, currently need it. Not only does this not make a significant dent in the problem, it only allows about $2,000 per person – enough to get them through the least expensive treatment available instead of an effective drug detox and drug rehab program.

Let’s have a look at one alternative.

America invaded Iraq in March of 2003 and, in May of the same year, began post-invasion occupation. The invasion was motivated by Hussein’s alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction and alleged ties to al-Qaeda. Neither allegation turned out to be true, but American taxpayers have spent nearly $500 billion on Iraq so far – enough money to get every single person in the U.S. who abuses drugs and alcohol though medical drug detox and a long-term residential drug rehab program with a high success rate.

In addition to the huge boost in recovery, the estimated $276 billion per year in lost productivity, health care expenditures, crime, motor vehicle crashes and other conditions caused by drug and alcohol abuse would be returned to America’s coffers and, in about two years we would recover the money spent on treatment.

Can the benefits of overthrowing the Iraqi government possibly be compared to the benefits of getting every alcoholic and drug addict in America through a drug detox program and a successful drug rehab program? I don’t think so.

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Thousands of families at the dinner table today will be facing an empty chair – the chair of someone they wish they had been able to help. These are often family members who delayed getting their loved ones into drug detox or rehab. Many of them thought, or hoped, that the situation would somehow take care of itself – perhaps by the grace of God.

George W. Bush said in his official Thanksgiving address, “We give thanks to the Author of Life who granted our forefathers safe passage to this land, who gives every man, woman, and child on the face of the Earth the gift of freedom, and who watches over our nation every day.”

The “Author of Life” means different things to different people, but one thing is certain: no matter what your religious views, the Author of Life helps those who help themselves. For a drug addict, that help comes in the form of drug detox and drug rehab.

Family members who took action, who helped themselves, have that loved one at their table today because they took matters into their own hands to ensure the person they love got into drug detox and rehab so they could live a normal, drug-free life.

If you or someone  you care about is addicted to drugs, don’t wait for God to do something about it – He may have given us life, but making the most of it is up to us. Help your loved one get the help he needs through a drug detox program so he, too, can live a full and happy life rich with reasons to give thanks.

Popularity: 9% [?]

I read an article today about a new scheme going on in England that is somehow supposed to end heroin addiction. It’s the U.K.’s equivalent of safe injection sites, heroin addicts come to the sites to shoot up, but the government supplies the drugs. The article describes it as ‘part of a government backed experiment to help them get clean’, but no mention is made of heroin detox, drug rehab, or any other treatment that will end addiction.

The readers’ comments after the article are interesting – most people are all for it.  However, a few take exception to the program stating that cancer (or other illness) sufferers are unable to receive life saving treatment from the government because of an alleged lack of funds, that older people receiving social security are not being adequately taken care of, and that people who’ve been contributing members of society all their lives are being ignored while the government spends money to supply drug addicts with heroin.

Good point.

The most ridiculous thing about it is that it does nothing to end heroin addiction. Why isn’t the money being spent on drug detox centers and drug rehab programs that can get people through a heroin detox and then rehabilitated so they can end their heroin addiction?

One more weird solution to a problem that’s relatively simple to handle. The most difficult thing about getting a heroin addict off drugs is overcoming their unwillingness to do something about their problem. Obviously, the addicts enrolling in this program are ready for a change - why not make it a change that really counts? End their heroin addiction through heroin detox and drug rehab. Give them back their lives.

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I read an article earlier today about Pastor Gloria Kieler, a 65-year-old woman who has dedicated all her time and resources to helping people get off drugs. She’s been waiting for seven years for the promised government funding, and says that the money is going to a safe-injection site for heroin addicts instead of to heroin detox and other drug detox and rehab facilities that can actually end addiction.

Safe injection sites aren’t there to end heroin addiction, only a good heroin detox and rehab can do that. Gloria Kieler said it best, “”Do we keep alcoholics on booze? Smokers on tobacco? Of course not, so why do they think supplying free drugs to addicts is the answer?”

Good question, Gloria.

If you are suffering from heroin addiction or know someone who is, don’t be taken in by the idea of making it a little bit better – there’s really no such thing. You’re either addicted, or you’re not. Don’t think the problems will end with anything less than a heroin detox and drug rehab. They are the only real solutions to heroin addiction.

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Several new sites are opening in Vermont to dispense methadone to people who are addicted to or dependent on opiate and opioid drugs such as heroin and OxyContin. The sites are called ‘medicine dispensing sites’: people who want to get off drugs come to the sites and, instead of being put through detox and rehab, they’re given a ‘medicine’ and they are just transferring from one addiction to another. In the end, they’ll need methadone detox.

Methadone addiction is possibly the most difficult drug from which to detox. Why go through that when you can just do a medical drug detox to get off the heroin or OxyContin in the first place?

If you or someone you care about wants to get off drugs, don’t just go to a methadone clinic – go to a medical drug detox center that can help you through withdrawal and then go to a drug rehab center that can help you address the issues behind your drug addiction so you can be drug free.

There is almost twice the number of deaths from methadone than from heroin every year.  If you’re on methadone now, get help with a medical methadone detox. And if you’re considering methadone treatment, think twice. Don’t just trade one addiction for another.

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Hard to imagine your kid as a drug dealer? Here’s the story of one teen who developed an OxyContin addiction after a car accident caused injuries requiring three surgeries. The pills were prescribed for the pain but, according to his mother, he got to the point where he couldn’t get out of bed without them. His mom had no idea he had a problem. After he went into rehab, his mother saw the many messages – one every 20 minutes – on his phone. Instructions from people, many of them adults, who were going to deliver OxyContin and other drugs to him – he was to distribute them, and keep some for himself. That’s how he fed his own OxyContin addiction.

How this could be happening right under his mother’s nose without her even having a clue it was going on is hard to say, but had she figured it out earlier, had she been aware of how easily the need for OxyContin can turn into OxyContin addiction, there’s a possibility that she could have gotten him through an OxyContin detox early in the game, and drug rehab if needed, and he never would have resorted to criminality.

The young man was also being threatened by drug dealers – he was told that if he quit dealing, they’d hurt his mother. Apparently his mom wasn’t worried about herself, but she did move her son to another city to keep him safe. He went to drug rehab and managed to survive OxyContin, and is now in a safer environment, but the family is split up.

If you have a friend or family member who is prescribed OxyContin or other prescription painkillers for a legitimate reason, make sure you are aware of how much they’re taking, how long they’re taking them, and so on. They may need an OxyContin detox to stop taking the drug, and they might even need drug rehab, but they will have their life back.

Popularity: 22% [?]

It may not be popular, but Israel’s new law may handle the country’s drug addiction and abuse problems. The law, not yet enacted, proposes mandatory drug detox and rehab for those who need it, and possible prosecution if they refuse. Why not? We are talking about illegal substances, and drug detox and rehab have proven to be the only way to handle the problem.

Right now, the population of Israel is just over seven million, 20,000 of whom are known to be drug addicts – just below .3 percent. Perhaps if they take this zero tolerance approach to drug addiction now, in the early stages, the problem won’t reach the epidemic proportions of the U.S. (almost 10 percent of the population). Forcing addicts into treatment will also cut the supply lines for distributors.

Some people say that drug addiction is a disease – although the jury’s still out on that. Be that as it may, it certainly spreads like a disease, and one of the worst. Forcing addicts into a drug detox program and following that up with drug rehab that prevents relapse could prevent the downfall of the country and the culture that so many have fought so hard to attain.

Popularity: 9% [?]