Drug-Free Alliance Blog

What does a successful drug rehab program do to help people permanently recover from addiction? One of them is use a drug-free approach, meaning no substitute drugs or medications, such as methadone for opiate addicts.

Unfortunately, methadone lobbyists have convinced lawmakers to allow yours and my tax dollars to be spent on methadone programs for people on Medicaid and Medicare. If it actually worked, then it wouldn’t be a big deal, but many of these people are kept on methadone for many months and some even many years. While the initial intention by well-meaning people would be for these addicts to wean down off the drug, it is highly addictive and tolerance builds rather quickly so the length of time and amount taken both usually increase.

A study published by the Hawthorn Press reported that between 1998 and 2003 the amount of Medicaid money spent on opioid prescriptions nearly tripled. Today there are approximately 90,000 addicts per year treated with methadone (5% of the total 1.8 million treatment admissions) according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Not only is replacing one drug with another not an effective way to help people live drug-free, but information posted on http://www.harmd.org claims that “In 2004 close to 4000 people died from methadone. In 2005 Methadone was implicated in over 4700 deaths. That does not include auto accidents caused by those driving under the influence of methadone.”

This drug is so addictive that it is very commonly found on the streets, where addicts sell their doses to other addicts or exchange it for other drugs.

The point is that a lot of our hard-earned money is going down the methadone drain and not only is it extremely frustrating for those of us who know better, but that means that you and I are letting our government continue to kill people with this drug.  If you don’t care how your tax dollars are spent, at least care that people are unnecissarily dying from this drug that was given to them that they were told would help them.

Even if you have tried to steer away from mainstream media lately, it has been nearly impossible in the last week to not hear about the latest public shooting resulting in deaths of innocent people.  Once again this young man in Illinois was on or withdrawing from a psychiatric drug, just like the Virginia Tech tragedy, Red Lake, Columbine, and so many others.  In each case the formula was a young male who had been given some type of psychiatric drug (antidepressant, anti-psychotic, anti-anxiety, etc.) that apparently caused the “disconnected” feeling that led them to the shootings. 

You don’t have to take our word for it though, there is plenty of evidence.  A good place to start is to watch this documentary by Dr. Gary Null on the drugging of our nation’s children. There are also several other related videos that can be seen through Google.

Another place is by checking out the side effects of these drugs that are so readily handed out to millions of Americans.  There are now very strict black box warning labels on many of these damaging prescriptions that talk about increased suicidal or homicidal thoughts as well as the numbing or disconnected feeling.  Additional evidence was documented and reported on by the Drug-Free Alliance regarding psych drugs being at the top of the list in Emergency Department visits for suicide attempts.

A quick search in Google on side effects of psychiatric drugs tells so much more in just the first two pages of results. 

So why are we writing to you about this instead of other drugs?  Because these medications are still drugs.  All drugs are basically toxins to a person’s body and can have long-lasting adverse effects, despite any supposed benefits.  Our goal to help people live drug-free lives includes this realm of prescriptions, not just the commonly-abused painkillers and sedatives. 

Whether someone you know has been addicted to street drugs or is dependent on prescription medications, we can help find a workable solution to becoming drug-free.  Get help today by visiting www.drug-addiction-rehab.net or call 1-877-421-9659.

Our nation is under a serious suppressive element right now regarding the subject of drugs and addiction that has ties directly into the heads of government.  This ‘authority’ has been forcing people to believe their false theory that addiction is an incurable brain disease that should be treated with more drugs. 

When you’re able to take one person and show him the trail of how it started, what the motivation is ($) and what some real solutions are, they can snap out of it.  The problem is that this ‘authority’ has billions of dollars to spend and reach the masses, who of course believe their propaganda, because it is coming to them from other ‘authority’ figures such as doctors - but the truth is they don’t really know either in the vast majority of cases.

The way out of this is for people to learn to question when something doesn’t sound right - like giving more drugs to addicts, or putting little children on drugs, or trying to create the next ‘happy drug’ - and find out for yourself what the truth is.  When you do find it, the truth will stand out. 

 We can help - if you ask.  If we can’t then we’ll find someone for you who can.  Our country is continuing to detoriorate and drugs are the major cause, whether they are by prescription, over the counter, or off the street.

Apparently, the drug company Reckitt Benckiser is launching a new Addiction411 Myspace page.  That’s actually pretty rediculous, and to me is like a certain slithering snake inviting two people we all know to eat the forbidden fruit - It will bring much pain and misery in the future - because they are the ones who make Suboxone and Subutex, which are the only forms fo buprenorphine available for sale in the U.S.

If they truly wanted to help people addicted to opiates, then would have just stopped at promoting their drug for a quick, one-week dose to lessen the severity of withdrawal symptoms - but it didn’t stop there.  Now doctors are being urged to place people on long-term opioid replacement therapy using Suboxone, which is causing a new dependence of its own and people still need detox and treatment later on to get off the buprenorphine.  When this new drug was hailed as a savior several years ago, people should have known what direction it was going in.  Can you believe they’re actually trying to ‘educate’ people about addiction, when they’re prolonging it with their own products?

I was so shocked and upset by a call that came in the other day it literally brought me to tears, especially when thinking of my own infant child.  A young mother told me how she became pregnant while undergoing methadone treatment.  She asked to be weaned down and the clinic told her no and actually wound up increasing her dose.  When her baby was born she had to watch the infant go through painfully horrible withdrawals.  It was enough to get the mother to stop taking the drug as well because she saw how evil it really was.  It’s bad enough that a methadone clinic lies to people and tells them the drug is a suitable treatment for heroin addiction, but to keep a pregnant mother on the drug and increase the dose so that she gave birth to an addicted child is downright inhumane torture.

Glaxo Smith Kline, makers of the diabetes drug Avandia, narrowly escaped having their drug pulled from the market by FDA officials, if it weren’t for the greased palms.  While one scientist appeared to be honest and try and tell the country that the drug is dangerous and that there are major heart risks, his voice was silenced by the droning hum of the Big Pharma money-making scheme engine once again (GSK’s reported net income was close to $15 billion in 2006).

Last week the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Director met with reporters and addiction-related professionals to hold a roundtable discussion on how to reduce the number of deaths associated with methadone.

It’s great that they’re publicly acknowledging that methadone kills, but they’re simply trying to save face here, not necessarily save lives.  After all, the Federal Gov’t agencies still approve of pushing methadone on opiate addicts and handing it out happily to chronic pain patients, and over 200,000 Americans are still led to believe it’s safe.  However, the more than 3,000 deaths per year now attributed to methadone, either by itself or in a drug combination, cannot be overlooked and should have sent up a huge red flag years ago when these numbers were doubling and tripling.

Honestly, what is it going to take for someone to have a bit of common sense?  How about helping people recover from drug addiction instead of putting them on another deadly drug?

SB-1011 (Senate Bill) is called “The Recognizing Addiction as a Disease Act of 2007″. The purpose of the bill is to change NIDA’s name from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to the National Institute on Diseases of Addiction and NIAAA’s name from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to the National Institute on Alcohol Disorders and Health (NIADH). The measure was approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on June 28 according to JoinTogether and the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA).

That is the most rediculous thing I have ever heard of.  Talk about fooling everyone.  Just so that nobody will try and think for themselves and doubt the disease theory or question its motives, the “powers that be” are trying to ingrain it into the federal government so that future generations won’t think twice about it.  The disease-mongering is absolutely out of control.  Drug addiction and alcoholism are no more a chronic brain disease than obsessive nose-picking is - there is no proof of the theory now and there never will be.

The Public Citizen is reporting that $48 million has been set aside by the makers of the antidepressant/ anti-anxiety drug Paxil.  They have even gone as far as promoting it on You Tube.  The short of it is that parents can get reimbursements for the money they spent on buying the drug for their child under 18.  It’s part of a class-action lawsuit because the drug was fraudulently promoted to doctors to give to children, despite its heavy and dangerous side effects.  For more info check out the Paxil Payback website.

Despite loving the fact that these guys have to admit wrongdoing and pay for it, I am still upset that criminal charges aren’t brought against these companies for their deliberite deception that has resulted in trauma and death too many times to be excusable (as in the Oxycontin verdict).  They either need to pay so much they go out of business or go to prison for millions of accounts of assualt.

I spent half an hour on the phone with a mother last night talking about finding drug-free treatment for her 19 yr old daughter who was on heroin.  She seemingly agreed with everything I was talking about until she told me her daughter needed to stay on her anti-psychotic medication, Seroquel, for some “BS” bipolar diagnosis.  I asked her if she knew how bad of a drug that it was, and that there were currently lawsuits being filed against its makers and those of similar drugs.  I asked her if she knew that these drugs can cause diabetes.  She didn’t seem to care. “I can’t deal with her when she stops taking her meds,” the mother explained.  I told her about the withdrawal effects and the other side effects, and she agreed that they were dangerous, but couldn’t personally handle her daughter when she stopped taking it.  I told her about the trained professionals and doctors that can help her daughter get off that drug safely, and she was still hesitant.  However, knowing that it was damaging, she then shifted the blame to her daughter, saying, “I tried to get her to stop, but she wants to keep taking it.” 

She asked me if I had any proof to back up what I was saying, and I said of course.  All she had to do was read the packaging of the drug itslef.  The psychiatrists and other doctors who prescribe these drugs pass off theory as being truth and blindly believe what the drug makers tell them, with little evidence from the fictitious studies they’re shown.  Instead they’ll listen to a drug company-paid “expert” doctor, even though right there on the packaging the company has to plainly (but in small print) write that they don’t know what causes the disorder, that they don’t know if the drug works, but that they believe it could help and a study showed that not too many people were hurt by it. 

 The underlying element here is that too many parents have given up on finding out for themselves.  They listen to their doctor, who is really no more educated on how damaging these drugs are than you or me, and would rather find a pill that keeps them managable for a short period of time than find a permanent solution to the problem.