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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?

November 21, 2007

Methadone Addiction and Heroin Addiction are One and the Same – They Just Come in Different Packages

Filed under: drug detox, heroin addiction, methadone addiction — Rod Malcolm @ 9:54 am

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.

November 11, 2007

Methadone Addiction Can Be Overcome – Try Methadone Detox

Filed under: drug detox, heroin addiction, methadone addiction, methadone detox — Rod Malcolm @ 9:31 pm

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.

November 3, 2007

Is Methadone Addiction What You Wanted When You Decided to Quit Drugs?

Filed under: drug addiction, drug detox, drug rehab, methadone addiction, methadone detox — Rod Malcolm @ 3:16 pm

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.

October 19, 2007

Drug Detox Now a Reward for Addicts’ Good Behavior, Unless You’d Prefer Extra Drugs

Filed under: drug detox, heroin addiction, heroin detox, methadone addiction, methadone detox — Rod Malcolm @ 2:45 pm

I just read a remarkable news item about heroin addicts in England receiving rewards when they test clean for crack and cocaine. The addict, who now has a methadone addiction instead of a heroin addiction, turns up at the methadone clinic for a drug test and if he passes his urine test for cocaine and crack, can get one of several rewards – extra methadone, shopping coupons, anti-depressants and, if they’re lucky, access to a drug detox program.

I don’t know what outrages me about this more: the fact that they went to a methadone treatment clinic to get off heroin and were given another addictive drug, methadone, instead; the fact that getting extra methadone as a reward digs them further into the hole they’re already in; the fact that their given other dangerous drugs – antidepressants – as a reward for good behavior; or the fact that drug detox is withheld from them in the first place.

What kind of game is this? Here’s how I see it – heroin addict goes to clinic to get off heroin, instead of being given the chance to do that through drug detox and rehab his addiction is intentionally prolonged by being given a different additive drug, then he’s told that if he can stop himself from taking drugs other than the new addictive drug he’s been given, he may be allowed to get off drugs. Or, he may be put on another dangerous drug – an antidepressant.

Seems like the best these methadone clinics have to offer someone who comes to them to get off heroin is addiction to methadone and discount coupons for some new clothes. What a deal.

I’ve heard some pretty crazy ideas in my time, but I think this one takes the cake. What’s the icing? England spends $1 billion on methadone clinics when the money could be invested in drug detox and rehab centers that could actually get heroin addicts off drugs.

October 4, 2007

Drug Detox and Rehab Should Be Demanded; Don’t Settle For Methadone

Filed under: drug detox, heroin addiction, methadone addiction — Rod Malcolm @ 7:20 pm

I’ve wondered, many times, how people who work in methadone clinics sleep at night. People come to them addicted to heroin, wanting to get off drugs and, instead, they are offered addiction to methadone as an alternative. What are they thinking? Why don’t they get heroin addicts into drug detox and rehab?

There are all kinds of reasons – most of which amount to choosing what is perceived as the lesser of two evils. But that’s like killing someone ‘humanely’ – they’re still dead.

Really, we’re just trading one problem for another. Why don’t people at methadone clinics simply get the addicts coming to them for help into drug detox and rehab? It isn’t as if they’re not available. There are thousands of rehab centers all over the country.

Many heroin addicts – I would say ‘most’, but I don’t have the stats on it – never get to the point of willingly going to a drug treatment facility of any sort and asking for help. It’s rare. So, here’s the addict, he’s finally gotten up to the point of wanting help, and instead of getting him the drug detox and rehab he needs, he’s given another drug to which he then becomes addicted. If I did that, I’d have trouble living with myself.

Time to take off the rose-colored glasses. The lesser of two evils is not enough. Heroin addicts and the loved ones who usually get them into treatment should demand a drug detox program and rehab so they can get off drugs, and treatment facilities should demand their right to deliver it.

October 2, 2007

Methadone Detox is Possible: You Don’t Have to Stay on it Forever

Filed under: methadone addiction, methadone detox — Rod Malcolm @ 7:47 am

I received a comment on a methadone blog several days ago (which I just read tonight – sorry) from someone on methadone asking for help finding a methadone detox –Fortunately, I do know of some very good drug detox programs, and am going to refer her to them.

She said in her comment that she’s sure others are out there in the same boat. If so, I’d like to hear from you. There are more methadone-related deaths than deaths related to heroin – which is why there is a methadone victims support forum: a place for people whose friends or family members have died from methadone. Fortunately, if you’re reading this, methadone detox and drug rehab is still an option for you.

I’ve been through the methadone experience myself – not pleasant. I wanted to get off heroin and, instead, the methadone drove me straight back to drugs. Eventually, I did get off drugs – everything. That was a long time ago, and I did it cold turkey. There weren’t too many drug detox programs around. But, afterwards I did a very successful drug rehab program and I’ll tell you, it worked. Everything that could possibly cause relapse has happened to me over the years, but I’ve never relapsed, not once. And I didn’t get into any prescription drugs, alcohol, or other substitutes.

I’ve got a great, drug-free life now. There were times when no one would have believed it possible. Fortunately, there are now safe methadone detox programs that are considerably more comfortable than cold turkey. Let me know if you need help and I’ll hook you up with someone who can get you through it.

September 14, 2007

Methadone Addiction Isn’t Drug Detox or Rehab for Heroin

Filed under: drug detox, drug rehab, methadone addiction, methadone detox — Rod Malcolm @ 12:38 am

Heroin addicts around the world have traded their heroin habit for methadone. Now, instead of needing drug rehab, they need methadone detox for their methadone addiction. And, after that, they’ll probably need the drug rehab they never got when they originally asked for help with heroin.

Unfortunately, a lot of people think substituting methadone for heroin is acceptable. Obviously, they haven’t seen the statistics – many more people die from methadone than heroin. But, from some viewpoints, methadone has reduced heroin addiction. You could probably even find statistics ‘proving’ that heroin addiction is on the decline. But, really, it’s just swept under the rug. Like taking aspirin for a headache, methadone masks the problem. The headache’s still there, but the nerves are anesthetized so you don’t feel the pain. Similar to not feeling the pain of addiction when you don’t see addicts with needles in their arms in alleyways. But, they’re still there. And they’ll need methadone detox, and probably drug rehab, to really go away.

Trials have just been completed for another drug, Atomoxetine. This one was for cocaine addicts. Fortunately, it didn’t work. So, it’s currently being tested on marijuana. One test is on children, two others are on adults. If it works, we’ll probably need Atomoxetine detox.

Could it be that we’re losing the war on drugs because we haven’t really identified the enemy? If someone you care about is substituting methadone for heroin, get them into methadone detox and then into drug rehab. Don’t play into the enemy’s hands.

September 12, 2007

Methadone Detox Is The Right Move for Addicts Who Want Off Drugs

Filed under: drug rehab, methadone addiction, methadone detox — Rod Malcolm @ 1:43 pm

A flurry of articles appeared in the news today about a clinic in Indiana’s practice of giving addicts ‘take-home’ methadone doses. Apparently, lawmakers in Indiana have complained because the clinic draws heroin, morphine, OxyContin and other opiate addicts from other states – Kentucky and Ohio, for example – into Indiana. An Indiana county coroner also protested the practice: he’s already seen nine methadone overdose deaths in his county this year, and five of them involved methadone from clinics. The coroner also says that long-term doses give addicts and clinics little incentive to wean off the drugs – something that may require methadone detox and drug rehab.

The vp of operations for the company that owns the clinic says addicts aren’t drawn to the clinic from other states because of the long-term doses, rather it’s because other states have a two to three year waiting list to get into a methadone treatment. That certainly gives you an idea of the severity of the drug addiction problem. He also says the average patient stays on methadone for ‘only 18 months’. That may not seem like a long time him but for the addicts who came to his clinic for help, it means they now have a methadone addiction.

These clinics obviously have lines miles long of addicts needing drug detox and drug rehab. Instead of ensuring that more treatment centers are opened to get them off drugs, we start an entirely new industry – methadone clinics. The original idea with methadone was to ease the pain of withdrawal and then, in short order, wean the addicts off the methadone so they can be drug free. “Drug free’ should be the goal of methadone clinics, not ‘ever-increasing numbers of addicts who’ve switched to methadone instead of the drug they came in on’. As it is, owners/operators/employees of methadone clinics get rewarded for keeping people addicted. In fact, they’d lose their jobs and their livelihood if they actually accomplished their purpose. How’s that for a catch 22?”

Don’t fall for methadone treatment. If you or someone you care about wants to get off drugs, go to a drug detox or drug rehab center that doesn’t have a vested interest in keeping you hooked. And if you or someone you care about already has a methadone addiction, get them into methadone detox and on the road to recovery.

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