The struggles and triumphs of an addict

                                  America: Addiction by the numbers 1. 21.5 million: The amount of people aged 12 or older in 2014 had a substance use disorder in the past year. 2. 1 in 5: The amount of young adults in 2014 who were users of illicit drugs. 3. 7,800:The daily number of people 12 and over who tried an illicit drug for the first time. 4. Marijuana: The drug most new illicit drug users begin with. Followed by prescription pain relievers and then inhalants. 5. 700 Billion: The amount the abuse of tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs costs to our Nation annually in costs related to crime, lost work productivity and health care. 6. 3x: The amount the business of recovery has increased in the last 25 years. 7. 14,000: The amount of addiction treatment facilities. 8. 35 billion: The an...

Her fiancé gave her heroin. She overdosed. Does that make him a murderer? When Jarret McCasland and his fiancee decided to celebrate her 19th birthday with heroin, it meant the end of her life and the end of his freedom. Flavia Cardenas, who worked in a nightclub, died of an overdose the next morning in Baton Rouge. After a prosecutor convinced a jury that McCasland administered the fatal dose, the 27-year-old pipe fabrication shop worker was found guilty of second-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison in February with no chance for parole. With deaths from heroin and opioids at their highest level in U.S. history, prosecutors have begun charging those who supplied the final dose with murder, even when that person is the deceased’s friend, lover, sibling or spouse. The new initiative is sometimes in direct conflict with good Samaritan laws, which protect addicts from being charged if they call 911 when a fellow user is overdosing. The tougher approach also is in m...

People Are Getting High on This Drug For Diarrhea, Study Suggests To stop jonesing, they stop up something else. What lengths will addicts go to in order to get a fix? Desperate ones, according to a report in the Annals of Emergency Medicine. The report claims that opioid addicts have been increasingly turning to oral loperamide – the main ingredient in Imodium A-D, a common, over-the-counter anti-diarrhea medication – to get high. The surge in popularity is attributable to the drug's low cost and ease of procurement, the study says. Dr. Scott Krakower, a physician who specializes in addiction disorders at Northwell Health, told CBS that an addict would have to take a huge amount of medication to get high – addicts reportedly pop 50 to 300 pills a day – but it gets the job done Original story at http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-05-05/opioid-addicts-using-anti-diarrhea-medication-to-get-high-study-suggests

So, life is actually good for the first time in my life. I'm still dealing with chronic pain and a chemical dependence on a very powerful narcotic, methadone, but my life is in order. A wonderful job at Citibank and my family life, although, chaotic at times was good because I had what I truly wanted and that was living with my son. I was making the most money I had ever made and it was a easy job sitting at a desk reviewing our customers credit reports. I think back now and it's hard to believe I could even function on 140 mgs of methadone a day. That's like going to work high on heroin every day. There really is not much difference between the two. As a matter of fact I think the Methadone was worse. At least that is what the detox center told me when they flat out refused me admission because of it. During the 15 years of dependence to methadone I tried to get into detox three times and was told by the admitting nurses all three times I would have been better off shooti...

                                                           Opioid Addiction Opioids are a class of drugs that include the illicit drug heroin as well as the licit prescription pain relievers oxycodone, hydrocodone, codeine, morphine, fentanyl and others. Opioids are chemically related and interact with opioid receptors on nerve cells in the brain and nervous system to produce pleasurable effects and relieve pain. Addiction is a primary, chronic and relapsing brain disease characterized by an individual pathologically pursuing reward and/or relief by substance use and other behaviors. Of the 21.5 million Americans 12 or older that had a substance use disorder in 2014, 1.9 million had a substance use di...

 Iran executed all adult men in one village for drug offences, official reveals The entire adult male population of a village in southern Iran  has been executed for drug offences, according to Iran’s vice-president for women and family affairs. The matter came to light earlier this week after Shahindokht Molaverdi revealed it during an interview with the semi-official Mehr news agency in rare comments from a senior government official highlighting of drug traffickers. “We have a village in Sistan and Baluchestan province where every single man has been executed,” she said, without naming the place or clarifying whether the executions took place at the same time or over a longer period. “Their children are potential drug traffickers as they would want to seek revenge and provide money for their families. There is no support for these people.” Molaverdi said the administration of President Hassan Rouhani has brought back previously axed family suppor...

The absolute most important step in recovery is changing your surroundings and associations. Notice I didn't say friends. When you're in the midst of your addiction the people that you usually surround yourself with are not friends. If you've already started down the road to recovery you're beginning to see your so called friends are nowhere to be found. I came to realize I had not one true friend because l had pushed them all away. We always damage the relationships we have with the ones that truly care about us when we are using drugs. We push them away out of shame and because they are constantly nagging us about our drug use. We use them and lie to them because we are manipulators. We MUST completely change our surroundings. It's why rehab facilities recommend a sober living house when leaving. I honestly don't know if putting a bunch of freshly clean addicts in one house is a good idea or not. The concept seems good because of the rules and structure but I ...

What is flakka? Florida's dangerous new drug trend                      Police in south Florida have seen a growing number of cases of bizarre and uncontrollable behavior linked to a street drug called flakka, one of the newer chemicals in the booming category of synthetic or designer drugs. In Fort Lauderdale last month, a man tried to break down the front door of a local precinct and told police officers he was high on flakka . A few weeks later, another man who said he had just smoked flakka impaled himself while trying to scale a fence around the police station. In Lake Worth, a city in Palm Beach County, a man armed with a gun -- and naked -- stood on a rooftop and announced, "I feel delusional, and I'm hallucinating!" He told authorities he had vaped flakka with an e-cigarette. Flakka is a designer drug that can be snorted, smoked, injected or swallowed. It may also be...