Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Cocaine Vaccine a Bust

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

Wouldn’t it be great to just take a pill or a shot and rid your worst problems, like drug addiction?  Our Federal Government seems to think it’s still possible.  The ongoing incestual relationship between the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and pharmaceutical companies has turned up yet another failure to produce anything substantial or groundbreaking except more tax dollars wasted.  With at least $3 million in grants given by NIDA to study the TA-CD vaccine for cocaine addiction treatment, the best that the researchers were able to come up with was that about a third of the recipients reduced their drug use by about half.  In other words, none of them stopped using cocaine, but some of them used it less often. 

Wow.  That money could have gone to helping get 100 or more people through a successfu long-term drug rehab and had a much more significant outcome, with many of them being off drugs permanently!

Instead we have more wasted tax dollars that are given to, ultimately, private enterprises (pharmaceutically-driven) looking to strike it rich on the next wonder drug or vaccine (of which the vast majority wind up cuasing so much harm in side effects that they face billions of dollars in law suits).

Marijuana Abuse Rises Among Teens

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

Marijuana use among American adolescents has been increasing gradually over
the past two years (three years among 12th graders) following years of declining use, according to the
latest Monitoring the Future study, which has been tracking drug use among U.S. teens since 1975.

The proportion of young people using any illicit drug is also up slightly over the past two years. This
measure is driven largely by marijuana use, because marijuana is the most widely used of all illicit drugs.
In 2009, marijuana use in the prior 12 months (annual prevalence) was reported by about 12 percent of
the nation’s 8th graders, 27 percent of 10th graders, and a third of 12th graders. The proportions saying they
used any illicit drug in the past year were 15 percent, 29 percent, and 37 percent.

It has been a known fact over the last 20 years that the THC content in marijuana has increased, and this combination has lead to more people, young and old alike, seeking a drug rehab center for marijuana addiction.

College Dorms a Breeding Ground for Substance Abuse?

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

A recent article that appeared in the Reuters News Agency regarding a study published in the Journal of American College Health showed a 2.5 times increase in weekly binge drinking at co-ed college dorms (41 percent of the total students surveyed).  Given that that binge drinking creates a higher incidence of risky behavior, the report also showed an increase of promiscuity, with twice the amount of students in co-ed dorms claiming to have had 3 or more sexual partners within the last year.

To a student, this may at first appear like a haven, but American universities have consistently proven to be less of acedemic institutions and more of a harborer of substance abuse and other dangerous behavior.  Of course it’s not up to colleges to raise our children, but we do pay them to educate them and help them become adults.  Instead, many colleges not only ignore underage drinking and other substance abuse but often even promote it.

When I was in college and when I visited friends at their schools, the buzz on campus was always about the parties, the alcohol and the drugs – it was not about grades and careers.  There have been other studies that show that binge drinking and other substance abuse is higher among college students (and subsequently needing to go to a drug rehab or addiction treatment center) than other young adults not attending college.  Perhaps this is one reason why trade schools that teach real-world skills and immediate job training are becoming more popular among employers.  Who cares if your parents paid 100K for you to get drunk for four years?  Can you do the job or not?  Are you a responsible adult or not?

Drug Rehabs Instead of Needle Exchanges

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

Join Together Online recently reported on an article about lifting the ban on federally-funded needle exchanges. It reads:

“Federal money could be used to pay for needle-exchange programs under budget legislation approved this week by the U.S. House of Representatives, the Associated Press reported July 25.

The measure would lift a 21-year-old ban on funding needle exchanges, which research has shown to reduce the rate of HIV/AIDS and other diseases among injection-drug users. During the debate on the measure, the House voted 218-211 against an amendment by Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) that would have kept the prohibition intact.

Souder claimed that needle exchanges do not have a proven track record and that “providing needles acts as a way for drug users to sustain and support their intravenous drug use and does not address the primary illness of the drug addiction.’”

Yes, there is evidence to support that providing clean needles to IV drug users reduces the spread of HIV and other diseases, however, it’s kind of like putting extra padding around the cars of drunk drivers – they’re still going to crash sooner or later.  We could even have “drunk driving lanes”, just like “safe injection houses” where we help them slowly kill themselves instead of rapidly doing it.  Doesn’t that sound insane!?

Much of the harm reduction plan is centered around a defeatist approach, claiming addiction is a disease that can’t be stopped or prevented so we must try to limit the harm caused to society.  While there may be a time and a place for some harm reduction tactics, taking a number of bullets out of the gun will only delay the inevitable if you keep pulling the trigger.  The way to prevent the death and destruction is to rehabilitate the individual and empower former addicts to make the decision not to put the bullets in the gun in the first place.  Addiction recovery programs need to adopt higher standards and drug rehab centers must be held more accountable for producing results before ever receiving government funding.

Texas Drug Raid Nets 73 Arrests

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009

From the DEA – (Fort Bend County, Texas) Milton Wright, Fort Bend County Sheriff, Zoran B. Yankovich, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Houston Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration, John Healey, Fort Bend County District Attorney, Tim Johnson, United States Attorney, Southern District of Texas, Rodney E. Clarke, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division of the Houston Field Office and Tommy Hennesy, Resident Agent-in-Charge, F.D.A. Austin announce the arrest of 73 defendants targeted in an investigation dubbed Operation “Farmacia de Juicy Phruit”.

In August 2006, The Fort Bend County Narcotics Task Force, which is a Houston High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Enforcement Team and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Houston Field Division, initiated Operation“Farmacia de Juicy Phruit”. Those individuals identified during this investigation were part of an international drug trafficking organization involved in the distribution of hundreds of thousands of dosage units of anabolic steroids, human growth hormones, MDMA (ecstasy) and controlled pharmaceutical substances to include; Anabolic steroids, Human Growth Hormones, Hydrocodone, Xanax and Viagra.

Not that we’re advocating the traditional “drug war”, but there has to be consequences for people trafficking these drugs and selling them illegally.  Most Texas drug rehab centers are far behind in their effectiveness and are having a tough time getting addicts off these drugs.  We don’t need more.

Contact us for more information on successful Texas drug rehabs today.