Scarface isn't to blame for ease of obtaining drugs-medicine cabinets, friends, and relatives are

Scarface's of the world aren't responsible for ease of obtaining
prescription drugs. Friends, relatives, and medicine cabinets are

Scarface's of the world are not the one's turning your teens on to prescription drugs, or street drugs in general. It's the people they know, including family members, and that medicine cabinet full of pills that were probably prescribed sometime in the Middle Ages.

The scenario: You're traveling down 7 Mile Rd. near Outer Drive in Detroit, and you have to stop for a train going by. The window is slightly rolled down, and you hear someone saying: “Eh dude! Eh! Dude! Dude!” Looking out at the SUV next to you are 3 young males. One of the dudes is trying to get your attention. “Got that blow man,” he offers. What prompted him to reveal he was an up and coming Scarface, or perhaps a scam artist, carjacker, armed robber, or other predator is saliing through your mind. For all those dudes know, you're a DEA agent.

Apparently, the thought of Scarface’s millions motivated them far more than getting busted, and going to jail for what? Two or 3 days? Isn't that about how it is nowadays? In the front door of the county jail, and out the back within a matter of hours? But that isn't the issue here.

The ease in being able to obtain drugs is part of the problem here in the U.S.A. right now, coupled with the wide variety of prescription drugs available on the street due partly from the free-wielding doctors writing for the substances. Scarface isn't the problem with prescription drugs, it's the doctors, and pharmaceutical companies. However, the experience above happened to the author back in April of 2009, and is only offered as an exception to the rule of where teens are getting their drugs from, initially. That is, before they become full-blown addicts. Then the dopeman comes into play.

Teens are using prescription drugs at an unprecedented rate, and they are not getting these drugs from the typical drug dealer. Teens first acquire these drugs from friends, and relatives, including the medicine cabinet at home. So for a lot of these kids, the problems are starting at home with the drugs that sit around unsecured.

The prescribing of Methadone for pain relief is causing serious problems also, especially with young people. They are overdosing, and dying at high rates, and it is getting worse. Doctors have been prescribing Methadone because of the problems associated with OxyContin. Now Methadone is a problem. And that drug is very powerful, and stays in the body much longer than other narcotics. According to the National Drug Intelligence Center, Methadone overdose deaths rose 390 percent from 1999 to 2004, and it is getting worse. Please, don't mess with this drug if you are not opioid tolerant. This stuff will put you to sleep in a heartbeat, and you'll never wake up to tell the dream.

Preventing overdose on methadone

According to the 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), the latest data available for drug, and alcohol use rates in the U.S., 22.3 million Americans aged 12 and older had a drug abuse, or drug dependence problem in the past year prior to the study. About 18.6 million persons aged 12, or older were classified with a dependence, or abuse of alcohol problem. With respect to illicit drug use, these numbers have remained static since 2002. Apparently, the “war on drugs” is not affecting supply, and demand for the products, that’s for sure.

With prescription drugs the most popular method of getting high these days, especially with teens, the more knowledge you have about drug abuse, the better you will be at identifying a problem with a child, spouse or grandparent. Don’t wait until the day you discover some of your prescription pain killers and/or anxiety pills have disappeared faster than Houdini could get out of a pair of handcuffs. Those liquor bottles too, that seem to be going down faster than a caught felon, is another clue a problem might exist regarding a substance abuse problem within the family. If you’re not responsible for the disappearing act, or the case of the evaporating alcohol, who is?

Prescription drug abuse is totally out-of-control right now, and taking the lives of the young, and old as well. If you are one of the people having this type of problem, or you know someone who does, it’s time to get help.

Normally, a person addicted to drugs is unable to seek help for themselves. Often a family member, or the criminal justice system intervenes to get the treatment process started. That is why it’s so very important to help your loved ones in their struggle. And it is a struggle, a nightmare unlike anything you may have dreamt about. Don’t abandon these people. At the same time, do not enable them either. Enabling an addict is one of the prime faults assisting them on his or her path of destruction. Enabling behavior is when a person in the family, friends, or even work associates of a substance abuser contribute to that behavior. And it could be in the form of giving the addict money, driving them to the dope house, overlooking behaviors that are conducive with continuing drug usage, and a host of other things.

It is not the end of the world if you have a chemical dependency problem. There is help, and the author knows how hard it can be to get the ball rolling in recovery. There are people willing to help you. Many of them closer than you think they are. Make some phone calls. You can access help on any one of these pages, or articles. There are local as well as national links here you can access. The longer you wait, the closer you come to having an entity intervene in your life that you probably don't want in your sphere, like the criminal justice system. Many people have been saved from themselves by getting arrested because the ball can start rolling in the treatment process providing you didn't do anything too stupid. The author would have been dead had it not been for the frequent arrests that took place in his life.

Make that move. It may just be your last opportunity before you too suffer the ultimate consequence of drug addiction, an overdose, or drug reaction you don't recover from.

If you or a loved one needs help with any type of drug problem, contact these sites depending on where you live. SEMCA (Wayne County residents), CARE (Macomb County residents), PACE (Oakland County residents), Drug Free Detroit (City of Detroit residents).

In the flow...

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email me for online intervention at: crashtestaddict@gmail.com

*No information here is meant to diagnose or treat any medical or psychological condition. The information in these articles is based upon the author's personal experiences, and education which may not mimic your situation, event or circumstances.

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