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December 31, 2007

Drug Detox Makes It Possible to Stop Taking Prescription Painkillers

Filed under: drug addiction, drug detox, prescription drug abuse, prescription drug addiction — Rod Malcolm @ 4:23 pm

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.

December 30, 2007

A Successful Drug Detox and Rehab Program Requires Highly Skilled Communicators

Filed under: drug addiction, drug detox, drug rehab, heroin addiction — Rod Malcolm @ 10:03 pm

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.

December 28, 2007

Get Into Drug Detox Before You Need a Lawyer

Filed under: drug detox, drug detox program, drug rehab — Rod Malcolm @ 8:39 am

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.

December 27, 2007

Florida Drug Detox and Rehab Centers See Rise in Prescription Drug Addiction

Filed under: OxyContin addiction, drug detox, drug detox program, prescription drug abuse, prescription drug addiction — Rod Malcolm @ 2:18 am

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.

December 26, 2007

Drug Detox Center Gives Advice on How to Pass a Drug Test

Filed under: drug addiction treatment, drug detox, drug detox program — Rod Malcolm @ 2:13 am

When you search the Internet for drug detox, many of the sites that come up are primarily there to help you beat the system. There are a number of ways you can do it – but, before you choose which method you’re going to use, you might want to consider a few things.

  • Many people who beat the system in the past are dead now. They’ve overdosed or taken deadly combinations of drugs or used drugs with alcohol, or they’ve have accidents that would not have happened had they not been drinking or on drugs.
  • Many people who beat the system have injured, permanently maimed or killed others.
  • Many people who beat the system influence others to drink or take drugs – often the people they influence are their kids.
  • The lives of many people who beat the system are ruined. They no longer have a driver’s license, they have trouble with their jobs, they’ve often lost a wife, or husband, and their children, and their homes. They’ve alienated other members of their family, and their friends. Or they’re in prison.

Is this really where you want to go? Don’t you think it would be better to just do an alcohol or drug detox program and get straight? Want to pass a drug test? Call Novus Medical Detox. They can help you.

December 25, 2007

Drug Detox and Rehab Efforts Thwarted by Big Pharma

Filed under: OxyContin addiction, drug addiction, drug detox, drug detox program, drug rehab, prescription drug addiction — Rod Malcolm @ 2:13 am

Are government efforts at curbing prescription drug addiction and abuse really pointed in the right direction? While it’s true that Cardinal Health, Purdue Pharma and a couple of other Big Pharma guys have had their wrists slapped, that’s only when they do something illegal. What about their legal activities? What about the millions who are taking prescription drugs who don’t really need them, who may wind up in drug detox and drug rehab to get off them, and who are taking them primarily because they saw them advertised and were led to believe they would be beneficial?

I just read an article about the prescription drug trafficking case against Bo Jeremy Storedahl – the case went awry when the informant, Tina Rivard, falsely claimed she bought 100 OxyContin pills from Storedahl with $4,000 given to her by the narcotics agents on the case.

God knows how many people are working on busting this little prescription drug ring while the biggest prescription drug ring in the world is sitting at their collective desk drinking Starbucks and figuring out how to get us to take more drugs. And they’re doing it with our blessing, and the blessing of our government.

War on Drugs money is primarily focused on manufacturers and suppliers, yet our number one criminals, the perps who are researching, manufacturing, advertising, marketing, distributing and selling prescription drugs continue to do business. Even when they do something illegal, the penalties don’t even put a dent in their resources.

If an avowed enemy did what Big Pharma is doing, we’d consider it an act of war. We’d be all out in our support of the victims, getting them into drug detox and rehab en masse, and we’d be using military resources to hunt down the perps. What will it take to remove the rose-colored glasses and recognize the enemy within?

Until that happens, we’re on our own. Educate yourself on the dangers of prescription drug addiction and abuse, teach your family and friends and, if you or anyone you know already has a problem, get them into a drug detox program fast.

December 22, 2007

Prescription Drug Detox Centers in Florida Have Their Work Cut Out for Them

Filed under: OxyContin addiction, drug detox, drug rehab, methadone addiction, prescription drug abuse, prescription drug addiction — Rod Malcolm @ 5:52 pm

You may have heard Florida referred to as the prescription drug addiction and abuse capitol of the U.S., but now there are even more statistics to prove it: in the first six months of 2007, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines killed 470 people statewide, while the five most commonly prescribed painkillers and tranquilizers killed 1,324. With that number of mortalities, you can bet there are 100s of thousands of people hooked on these drugs who need drug detox and, possibly, drug rehab.

In fact, the statistics are probably worse than they look – these only include drug use identified during autopsies. Plenty of deaths occur that are never autopsied.
 
By the way, the prescription drugs that killed those 1,324 people were methadone, 392 people; benzodiazepines (including Valium and Xanax, 353 people; oxycodone, sold as OxyContin, 323 people; hydrocodone, often prescribed as Vicodin and Lortab, 134 people; and morphine, 122 people. Probably every one of them would be alive today if they’d done a drug detox and rehab.

“We’ve become a medicated society,” said Howard Lerner, clinical director of South Miami Hospital’s substance abuse treatment program. “Ten years ago, we never saw drugs marketed on TV. Now they’re selling them like McDonald’s hamburgers. The availability is a progression of the numbers. Many more people are attracted to it.”
 
Any many more people are dying, and many more people are in need of drug detox and rehab.

Lerner hit the nail on the head with the marketing end of things – Big Pharma’s spending billions on getting us to buy these drugs. And we’re playing right into their greedy little hands. I’d starve to death before I’d eat a piece of bread from one of those hands.
If you don’t want to end up in the morgue, or be called by the police to identify the body of a friend or family member, stop taking these drugs or stop your friends and family from taking them.
 
Contact a Florida drug detox center that can get you off the drugs safely and in relative comfort, and they can help you determine whether or not you need to follow it up with drug rehab.

December 18, 2007

Drug Detox and Rehab Get People Off Drugs. Why Do We Need One More Crazy Scheme that Just Keeps People Addicted?

Filed under: drug detox, drug detox program, drug rehab, heroin addiction, methadone addiction — Rod Malcolm @ 4:44 am

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?

December 17, 2007

Drug Detox and Drug Rehab Could Have Saved This Family from Ruin

Filed under: drug addiction, drug detox, drug detox program, drug rehab, heroin addiction — Rod Malcolm @ 11:37 am

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.

December 15, 2007

Will Fewer Drug Detox Programs Be Needed As Big Pharma Shrinks?

Filed under: drug addiction treatment, drug detox, drug detox program, prescription drug abuse, prescription drug addiction — Rod Malcolm @ 7:10 pm

Big Pharma is getting smaller, with 40,000 jobs lost already and more to come, reports Guardian Unlimited. But don’t get too excited about it – it’s unlikely that the shrinking of Big Pharma’s massively rich corporations will reduce prescription drug addiction and dependency, or the growing need to handle it with drug detox.

According to the Guardian article, Swiss drug maker Novartis AG has announced a layoff of 2,500 employees – and this is only the latest in a rash of desperate cost-cutting measures made by Big Pharma. Just a week ago, Bristol-Myers Squibb announced plans to dump 10 percent of its work force and close some plants, and French drug firm Sanofi-Aventis has announced spending cuts. All the other big players have already taken steps to meet shrinking profit margins, including Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Amgen, Schering-Plough, Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson.

The cut-backs reflect a slow-down in pharmaceuticals growth because research labs have failed to deliver new drugs on time, competition from generic drugs is increasing, patents are expiring on profitable brand-name drugs, and the pressure on prices continues to increase. Some Big Pharma players are divesting themselves of non-pharma business interests, while others are cutting less profitable operations.
 
In spite of the slowdown in the drug industry, the need for drug detox in America and abroad will continue to increase, not decrease, and perhaps increase even faster than before. Millions of people are already dependent on prescription drugs with no safety net other than a good drug detox program. The loss of valuable drug patents, for example, will just mean that addictive and debilitating drugs will be cheaper, and even more available, which of course can only lead to the need for more drug detox, not less.

If you have a friend or family member who needs a prescription drug detox program, call Novus Detox today. We are prescription drug detox experts.

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