This week, let’s tackle a very controversial subject in the field of addiction treatment – does recovery from addiction or alcoholism involve finding a cure?

Some medical professionals, as well as treatment models, believe a cure lies in the form of a pill.  Antabuse and Methadone are probably the most familiar replacement drugs used to treat alcohol or opiate addiction. The idea of replacement therapy is that by creating a medication that safely fulfill the needs of the addiction, the addicted person will be able to live a productive life.

Looking at this solution from a rational perspective, it would appear that the medication acts as a crutch for the addict to rely on.  In other words, it simply creates a new addiction to the medication meant to cure the ailment.  An example can be seen at local methadone clinics, where hundreds line up to get their daily allotment of the medication.  It is apparent that this is the lesser of two evils, but the reality is that it doesn’t support the theory of the cure to addiction coming in the form of a pill.

The polar opposite school of thought comes from the 12 Step perspective.  The core thought being, “We are not cured of alcoholism. What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition.” This idea can be compared to a person suffering from cancer.

Once someone is diagnosed with cancer and receives successful treatment – it is never considered ‘cured.’  It may go into remission, but the chance always remains that it can return without reason or notice.  According to the 12 Steps, addiction works just the same way – the disease is never cured, rather it is arrested for a period of time and can return if the work is not done to keep it at bay.

In the final analysis, it is up to each individual to decide for themselves how they view addiction. What do you think?

According to an article from British website http://www.guardian.co.uk, the British government wants to give compulsory treatment of benefit claimants addicted to drugs.

Problem is that everyone else seems to think that’s pretty much impossible. British Liberal Democrats think the plan is completely absurd citing the fact that Britain does not have enough addiction treatment centers to get the job done.

Also according to the article:
“As many as 350,000 heroin and crack cocaine users of working age are receiving state payments, it has emerged. The government’s welfare reform bill will require all of them to undergo medical assessment and treatment or lose financial support.”

The number however may be as many as 400,000 drug addicts receiving these types of benefits with at least 8,000 more waiting for them.

However, treating these people without proper facilities remains to be seen. There is simply nowhere to put all of these drug addicts to ensure that they get proper care. Some may require dual diagnosis treatment as well.

Others say that you cannot force an addict into treatment and just expect them to completely change their lives; they have to do it willingly.
The article states:
“The welfare reform bill also contains provisions enabling a secretary of state to introduce similar mandatory treatment regulations to those who misuse alcohol.”

So the plan is not just meant for those using hard drugs, it’s also a plan to help UK citizens break free from all types of addiction.

This article in The Guardian is just another example of how drug addiction really is a wide spread epidemic in the world today. It shows that no government has found a way to deal with it yet effectively. But can people be forced by the government into treatment? Or will that just make relapse that much more expensive for governments.

If a person is not ready to get off drugs, the government surely cannot force them.

If you or a loved one need help with addiction treatment call us and we can help.

A&E is a cable network that focuses on some hard realities and subjects, and that includes drug addiction. They have one Emmy winning show called Intervention. The show takes you through the life of a drug addict who does not know they will soon be facing an intervention during the show.
Now A&E has come up with “The Cleaner” starring Benjamin Bratt . The show focuses on a real life extreme interventionist played by Bratt. In the series Bratt plays the character William “The Cleaner” Banks. Banks himself is in recovery and changes his life after the birth of his daughter. He and his team go around performing extreme interventions. The interventions that are performed are very unconventional. The show is the first scripted series for A&E channel.
The show is going into its second season on June 23, 2009. The show has had mixed reviews for its first season but A&E decided to give it a boot into sophomore year to see what the scripted drama could come up with.
Their reality show Intervention is a gripping one and it seems like the network is trying to recreate the same type of drama in a scripted series. Although, it is really hard to recreate the real life drug addiction seen on Intervention. It is truly heartbreaking.
Now it is worth noting that the interventions you see on “The Cleaner” are very extreme and no the traditional intervention. Those interventions seen on the reality program “Intervention” are using the more traditional approach to get addicts into addiction treatment centers.
Both shows are equally entertaining and it’s nice to have new stuff to watch during the summer. But beware that the shows both deal with very heavy issues. Whether you go the reality route or not it shows what drug addiction can do to a person. And it’s very heart wrenching to watch at times.

A&E is a cable network that focuses on some hard realities and subjects, and that includes drug addiction. They have one Emmy winning show called Intervention. The show takes you through the life of a drug addict who does not know they will soon be facing an intervention during the show.
Now A&E has come up with “The Cleaner” starring Benjamin Bratt . The show focuses on a real life extreme interventionist played by Bratt. In the series Bratt plays the character William “The Cleaner” Banks. Banks himself is in recovery and changes his life after the birth of his daughter. He and his team go around performing extreme interventions. The interventions that are performed are very unconventional. The show is the first scripted series for A&E channel.
The show is going into its second season on June 23, 2009. The show has had mixed reviews for its first season but A&E decided to give it a boot into sophomore year to see what the scripted drama could come up with.
Their reality show Intervention is a gripping one and it seems like the network is trying to recreate the same type of drama in a scripted series. Although, it is really hard to recreate the real life drug addiction seen on Intervention. It is truly heartbreaking.
Now it is worth noting that the interventions you see on “The Cleaner” are very extreme and no the traditional intervention. Those interventions seen on the reality program “Intervention” are using the more traditional approach to get addicts into addiction treatment centers.
Both shows are equally entertaining and it’s nice to have new stuff to watch during the summer. But beware that the shows both deal with very heavy issues. Whether you go the reality route or not it shows what drug addiction can do to a person. And it’s very heart wrenching to watch at times.

An article appeared in Time Magazine on May 29, 2009 entitled: “Do DIY Anti-overdose kits help?”
The article focused on one rehab center called Chicago Alliance that is giving kits to drug users in exchange for needles at trade in events.

The kits contain a drug called naloxone (Narcan) which is used in ambulances and hospitals to reduce opiate overdose. Overdoses kill about 22,000 Americans each year and most are completely by accident. Most of them come from mixing substances. That was the cause of death of actor Heath Ledger and Anna Nicole Smith.
17 states having in place what the Chicago Alliance is doing. And city health departments in New York City, Boston, Baltimore and San Francisco have similar programs. However, many do not see Anti-overdose kits and their distribution to be the answer to the drug overdose problem or even dual diagnosis treatment.
There is a very real possibility that the kits could be being misused because they are out of the hands of the professionals that were meant to be using them, like EMTs and doctors.

Here is a quote from the article regarding misuse issues: “A recent study published in the journal Addiction found that after naloxone training, addicts did just as well as medical professionals at addiction treatment centers at recognizing the symptoms of overdose and determining when to use the medication. And addiction experts say the experience of coming back from an overdose is frightening enough — not to mention often accompanied by severe withdrawal symptoms — that few addicts would consider using naloxone as an insurance policy to justify taking more drugs.”

Is the medication effective and fulfilling its purpose? Yes it absolutely is. But it makes one think if giving addicts an out if they overdose is the right answer. Does it make them feel as if they can continue using? What do you think about DIY anti-overdose kits?

According to an article from the New York Times from May 28, 2009, “Government spending related to smoking and the abuse of alcohol and illegal drugs reached $468 billion in 2005, accounting for more than one-tenth of combined federal, state and local expenditures for all purposes, according to a new study.”
The report was released by the National Center on Addiction and Drug Abuse which is a private group that operates at Columbia University. Most of the spending, according to the article, goes to health care costs that occur after abuse, such as lung cancer or overdoses. Only 2 percent of the spending goes toward prevention.
This study was the first of its kind to calculate abuse-related spending by all three levels of government, legislative, executive and judicial. The approach now leads to other social problems that require government spending such as homelessness or child abuse.
“Federal studies show that the best drug treatment programs pay for themselves 12 times over, the report said, because patients who succeed have quick improvements in health and behavior.”
A promising piece of the report cited the education that has been provided by the anti-smoking campaigns. With the combination of educating people about the effects of smoking and the taxes on cigarettes, smoking is down overall.
The center thinks that addiction treatment centers should be covered more widely by insurance companies because then more people will take advantage of it.
Insurance companies argue that record of drug treatment is not sufficient enough to implement any sort of changes. The report overall suggests that we need to invest more in prevention and less on the law enforcement aspect of drug abuse and addiction.
There is that old saying that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and this report is just an indication of how true that really is.

According to a new report from the Office of Applied Studies that provided state by state analysis found that there are a wide range of types of drug and alcohol use, but that of course, every state has its varying issues.

The report was developed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration ( SAMHSA ) based on the 2006 and 2007 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health ( NSDUH ).

Here are the report’s most notable findings:

• Vermont had the nation’s highest incidence rate of marijuana use among people aged 12 and older ( 2.5 percent ) while Utah had the lowest ( 1.6 ) percent.

• The District of Columbia had the nation’s highest rate of past year cocaine use among those aged 12 and older ( 5.1 percent ) while Mississippi had the lowest ( 1.6 percent ).

• Utah had the nation’s lowest rate of current underage drinking ( 17.3 percent ) while North Dakota had the highest ( 40 percent ).

• Tennessee had the nation’s highest rate of people aged 18 and older experiencing a major depressive episode in the past year ( 9.8 percent ) while Hawaii had the lowest ( 5.0 percent )

According to the press release for the study, here is another interesting finding:

“Among those aged 12 and older, Iowa had less than half the current illicit drug use rate of Rhode Island ( 5.2 percent vs. 12.5 percent ) – yet Iowa’s population aged 12 and older also had one of the nation’s highest levels of people experiencing alcohol dependence or abuse in the past year ( 9.2 percent).”

The report is an important indication that it really does not matter where you live because every state experiences its own set of problems and needs addiction treatment centers.

This report just goes to show how much of an impact addiction is having on our country as a whole and there may be more need for dual diagnosis treatment than we think.

According to an article from Army Times, the Army news source, the Army has started to take notice of the rampant use of drugs and alcohol in the ranks. The article attributes this largely to commanders who are failing to take control or the worsening situation to get people into addiction treatment centers.

The Army now hopes to get offenders into treatment. They are staring their crackdown slowly, but getting started is half the battle. “That could mean increased inspections of barracks rooms and more visits by leaders to soldiers’ off-post homes to make cursory evaluations of their living conditions.”

Soldiers who are having urine tests coming back positive can soon expect stricter penalties. The problem with substance abuse has come to light after the Army Vice Chief of Staff Peter Chiarelli made an internal method. This is being combined with a larger initiative launched in April to look into the suicide rates of soldiers.

The problem is, according to the article, is that soldiers who are testing positive in multiple urine tests are not being referred for treatment. Instead only about 70 percent of those tested go on and receive treatment for one addiction, or dual diagnosis treatment.

Positive urine test results are growing steadily. And alcohol continues to be a problem for soldiers. In a Department of Defense study from 2005, it found that nearly 25 percent of soldiers are heavy drinkers.

Alcohol is among the reasons why a soldier may commit suicide. Along with other factors such as relationship problems, financial hardship or pending legal action.

“The incidence of alcohol abuse is detected differently than that for drugs, usually by military police or local police outside post, for driving under the influence or in observations by peers.”

So soldiers could go without being found out that they indeed do have a problem for longer periods of time.

More than ever, young Americans are misusing over-the-counter cough and cold medicines. Once seen as just harmless drugs to get rid of the sniffles, young Americans are now using them to get high.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, about 3.1 million Americans age 12-25 used over-the-counter cough or cold medicines to get high. This is according to their 2007 National Survey on Drug Use And Health report.

More specifically, according to the study, “30.5 percent misused a NyQuil® product, 18.1 percent misused a Coricidin® product, and 17.8 percent misused a Robitussin® product in the past year.”

The chemical contained in product of this kind is called dextromethorphan (DXM),  and it is contained in nearly 140 over-the-counter drugs.  The cough suppressant is safe if taken in recommended doses, but can create a ‘high’ feeling if misused.

If DXM is taken in large amounts an “out-of-body” experience can occur.  This is much like the same experiences that can be had with the more illicit drug phencyclidine (PCP).

Just as with any street drug, overdosing on DXM can happen.  There can be life threatening reactions to the drug including: blurred vision, loss of physical coordination, intense abdominal pain, vomiting, uncontrolled violent muscle spasms, irregular heartbeat, delirium, and death. Because of this trend, there have been more reports of poisoning by DXM.

Today, most products containing DXM are now behind the pharmacy counter, but still available without a prescription.  Now most pharmacies require the person buying the substance to show identification.

The accessibility of this kind of ‘high’ is what is most frightening for parents. DXM is relatively easy to get and may already be in the young adult’s home for access. Keeping tabs on your medicine cabinet is never a bad idea when there are young adults and children in the home. It could to drug use that requires addiction treatment centers or as a gateway to other drugs resulting in the need for dual diagnosis treatment later.

read the full report here.

Although there has been a slight decline in illicit drug use according to the 2007 Substance Abuse and Mental Health services Administration study,  there is a troubling new trend among teens. More are abusing prescription medications because it is readily available in their medicine cabinet.

This kind of teen drug use is second in popularity only to marijuana.  Preventing this type of drug abuse is something that parents are missing the boat on, according to the study. Parents need to take control before their child need dual diagnosis treatment.

According to the 2006 SAMHA National Survey on Drug Use and Health more than 2.1 million teens abused prescription drugs.  Another alarming finding is that prescription drugs are the number one choice of teens 12- 13 years old.

The most common type of drug that teens are abusing is pain relievers like Vicodin and Oxycontin.

The scary part about abusing prescription drugs are that they can have fatal reactions when a teen decides to try other drugs or drink. According to the study, nearly half of teens who abused prescription pain killers also report using two or more other drugs,most commonly alcohol or marijuana. Addiction treatment centers may be needed to stop.

More alarming is that children and teens do not think that prescription drugs carry the same amount of danger because they are easily accessible to them in their own home, or from a friend.  The study states the 32 percent of teens do not think that prescription drugs, like painkillers are safer because they have fewer side effects than street drugs.

Because prescription drugs are so easy for children and teens to obtain, they are more likely to try them.  More than half of the teens in the study reported that they abuse prescription drugs and painkillers because they are not illegal. Also, they feel they are less shameful and that parents don’t care as much if they get caught using them.

If you have prescription painkillers in your home, make sure you know how many are in the bottle and never let your child or teen take them without a prescription of their own. The only cure for this type of drug abuse is parental supervision.