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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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It appears officials in England have finally admitted defeat when it comes to methadone treatment for heroin addiction. According to a recent news story, about 20 percent of the people who traded heroin addiction for methadone addiction - instead of going through a proper drug detox and rehab programs that will actually get them off drugs - are topping up their methadone with heroin. How are British officials addressing the problem? They’re going to give them heroin instead of methadone, and it’s free.

Having personally endured the horrors of methadone treatment, I can certainly understand why someone would feel the need to also take heroin. The effects I experienced from methadone were something anyone would want to escape.

But to put someone back on heroin because the methadone isn’t working is nothing short of crazy.

Are these really the only two options the government has to offer heroin addicts?

According to the article, the government is doing this to alleviate the crime associated with heroin addiction. What about the addicts? What about their families? What about the ruined lives? What about the vast sums of public money spent on drug treatment programs that don’t work, supporting drug addicts who can’t hold a job, arresting them and keeping them in jail? What about the lost productivity?

The methadone treatment program has been stringing people along – keeping people addicted, courting death, killing many – for decades. Is anyone concerned with that? Apparently not: They’re concerned with the fact that the guys on methadone who still use heroin are still committing criminal acts to get it.

First you treat someone with an addiction by giving them something else to get addicted to. Then, when that doesn’t work, you give them what they were addicted to in the first place. Still no drug detox, still no rehab, still no treatment.

I’m not the only one who recognizes this as insanity. There are stories about it all over the net. When will governments finally wake up - find out what kind of drug detox programs and rehab programs really work, and start funding that instead of putting public money into yet another failure?

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I read an article this morning about the Terrills, a family that lost everything to their son’s heroin addiction. It was a model family. Parents who were really involved with their kids – four boys, all of whom were promising baseball players, kids who were devoted to their parents, a new ‘dream house.’ They had it all. Then, having been introduced to OxyContin in school, one of the sons became a heroin addict. From there, everything was lost. But it could have been avoided through a good drug detox program followed by drug rehab.

The major mistake made by this family was not getting their son into drug detox and drug rehab when they first realized he had a problem. His drug use went on for years before they did something about it. In fact, they weren’t the ones to finally take action: the boy was arrested when trying to rob a convenience store.

After his arrest, he went to a 30-day drug treatment center. In my experience, a 30-day treatment program is not enough to handle heroin addiction. First they have to get through withdrawal – which, for many addicts, causes such severe symptoms they can’t stop taking the drug. Some may require a separate medical drug detox before they’re even ready for rehab. Then, in rehab, you have to address the reasons for their addiction, give them the tools to live life drug free, and build them up physically to handle the deterioration that occurs with addiction.

That can take a while. Addiction doesn’t happen overnight, neither does rehabilitation.

Don’t fool yourself into thinking that a heroin addict, or someone addicted to any opiate, will get through it on their own steam. 95% of those who try aren’t successful. Drug detox and a long-term residential drug rehab program is the only chance they have. Waiting too long has devastated many families, and lost many lives. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you can always do something about it tomorrow.

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One of our blog readers commented on one of our posts today – he said he thought drug addicts were scum, until he read something written by his brother, an addict. He included a link so others could read it. It describes the day to day life of an addict. His brother disappeared one day, and I don’t think our reader has seen him since. He talked about methadone treatment, and the promise of life being how it used to be. Well, if you don’t mind methadone addiction.

What people don’t seem to realize is that methadone treatment isn’t treatment – it’s addiction. It’s methadone addiction. Treatment is getting a person off drugs. Methadone treatment is getting the person addicted to methadone.

When you read this description of the hell an addict goes through every day just to get drugs, unable to do anything other than get drugs, you can see why methadone treatment would be appealing.

But the simple fact is this: this guy’s habit cost him $500 a day. If he can get $500 a day for drugs, he can get the money for drug detox and rehab. After he completed the right drug detox and rehab, he would think more clearly, be prouder of himself and be drug free. Instead he longs for a life of methadone addiction – one that seems relatively normal compared to life on street drugs. But don’t be fooled by it – an addict is an addict and no matter how different one drug seems from another, these drugs are dangerous. He could just as easily, if not more easily, die from methadone as he could from heroin or any of the other drugs the methadone is replacing.

If someone you care about is suffering with heroin addiction or addiction to any other drug, don’t let them go the methadone route. Methadone addiction and heroin addiction are one and the same – it’s only the packaging that makes them look different.

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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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Many people who started taking methadone as ‘treatment’ for heroin addiction have been on methadone for years. They came for treatment so they could end their addiction and, instead, they were given methadone – and now they’re suffering from methadone addiction. What a trade off! But, you can do something about it.

Methadone detox is now getting people the help they need. Here’s what one Novus Medical Detox Center client had to say:

“I gained 10+ pounds here. The place is very clean and nice. The rooms are comfortable. I’ve stayed all over the world and the rooms here are just as nice.

“When I came here I couldn’t imagine waking and not having my drugs. While I was here it finally opened my eyes and got me to realize that you don’t need drugs to live life and have fun.

“I feel better than I have ever felt in my life. It feels like there was a huge blinder lifted and I can see so clearly now. I just can’t believe how much this place has helped me. This place is amazing and I would recommend it to anybody that has a drug problem! I can’t wait to get my life back together. If I can get off drugs then anyone can!!”

If you or someone you care about has a problem with methadone addiction, contact Novus about doing a medical drug detox program. Once you get off methadone, you may feel better than you’ve ever felt, too.

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Low self-worth is often behind alcohol and drug addiction. Even someone who appears to be doing very well in life may not feel they’re accomplishing what they should be, or may not feel they’re living up to their own or another’s expectations. Alcohol and drugs provide some temporary relief – numb you, really – and nothing does it quite like heroin. Unfortunately, heroin makes you feel even worse about yourself so, in the end, you’ve gained nothing, and lost a lot. However, heroin addiction can be overcome and when you do, you’ll also experience a renewed sense of self worth.

Heroin addiction is often accompanied by a feeling of such deep apathy that it’s unusual to see an addict get into drug detox on their own—unless they have spiraled down and decide that it is either detox or death. If you know someone taking heroin, you’re going to have to put yourself in the driver’s seat – perhaps even literally – and take them to a drug detox center where they can get help.

With that done, and if you’ve chosen a medical drug detox center that understands heroin addiction, detox and rehab and creates an individual program for every person who walks in the door, I can tell you that far more than half the battle is won. And, amazingly enough, when that detox and rehab program are over, self-esteem will have been restored and the person has their life back.

When we say that drug detox and rehab changes someone’s life, we don’t just mean it ends their heroin addiction – we mean they’re now in a position where they no longer need it and they, not the drug, control their life. A truly rehabilitated life.

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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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Heroin and other opiates killed more than double the number of people killed by guns in Massachusetts in 2005. Consequently, the state government, while acknowledging its failure to resolve the problem of heroin addiction by getting addicts into heroin detox and drug rehab, is going to distribute doses of Narcan to help addicts stay alive until they’re ‘ready for treatment.” Who says they’re not ready for treatment now?

According to a recent article, some paramedics and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy question the idea of one addict administering treatment to another - Narcan is squirted up the nose of someone who has overdosed on opiates to reverse the effects. The person doing the squirting would be another addict.

Others feel that heroin addiction would be encouraged by making Narcan available to all.

“You give them the Narcan, where is their motivation to change? The addict is going to say, ‘I just overdosed and I got another lease on life — great,” said Michael Gimbel, a recovering heroin addict who was director of substance abuse in Maryland’s Baltimore County for 23 years. “Giving Narcan might give them that false sense that ‘I can live forever,’ which is not what we want.”

I’ve been around plenty of heroin addiction, and was an addict myself, and I don’t believe that the threat of death is the only motivation an addict has to get off drugs. Just because they don’t walk into a drug detox center on their own and ask for help doesn’t mean they don’t want it, and it doesn’t mean they’re not ready for it. Don’t be fooled by their protests. They want to end their heroin addiction, and they need your help to do so.

If someone you care about is a heroin addict and you feel they’re not ready for treatment, call an interventionist to help you out. Don’t depend on Narcan to just keep him alive until he’s ‘ready’. It may never happen in the way that you’re expecting. A good interventionist will help get him to agree to treatment, and get him into a drug detox center so he can get through heroin addiction once and for all.

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There are currently nearly one million heroin addicts in the U.S. and nearly another 100,000 were introduced to heroin in 2006. You may be one of them, or may know someone who is. If that’s the case, I hope you’re reading this to find a way to get that person, or yourself, into heroin detox so they can end their heroin addiction before it’s too late.

I used to be a heroin addict. Of all the drugs I’ve taken, it was the most debilitating. I was barely functional and didn’t work during the entire time I was using. Heroin detox or rehab never occurred to me. In fact, if others hadn’t prepared food I probably wouldn’t have eaten. I’ve gone to the hospital ER for things that were normal bodily functions, but I’d forgotten about them. I’ve overdosed with absolutely no awareness whatever of anything being wrong. Fortunately I was with several others who saved my life.

The same people were with me when the heroin I shot was cut with strychnine. Here are just a few of the symptoms of strychnine poisoning: painful muscle spasms that can cause a fever and kidney and liver injury, uncontrollable arching of the neck and back, rigid arms and legs, jaw tightness and difficulty breathing. Large doses bring about respiratory failure that can be fatal, and brain death.

I barely noticed those symptoms coming on. Fortunately someone else did, and I’m still alive. That gives you an idea of how dangerous heroin addiction can be.

If you, or someone you care about is using heroin, get them into heroin detox fast. Believe me, you never know what will happen next.

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