Blog

While heroin has long been thought of as a “big city drug” – a substance that only those living in large, urban areas have access to – that’s actually not the truth at all. Heroin can be found anywhere and everywhere; addicts live all over the globe and, somehow, they always seem to know where to go to find their drug of choice.

For those who still think heroin usage is a problem that happens only in places like Chicago or New York City, consider this fact: Heroin is now quite commonly used in quaint, seemingly peaceful New England, including in its smallest towns and cities. In Maine, 21 people died from heroin overdoses in 2012, according to the Maine Office of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services. New Hampshire reports 40 deaths from the same year, and Vermont reports that a whopping 914 people were treated for heroin abuse in 2012. Those figures are alarming, and they prove that heroin can be a problem no matter where you live.

What’s the Risk?

While absolutely any person can fall victim to heroin abuse and addiction, there are some risk factors that make heroin abuse – or abuse of any drug, for that matter – more likely. Factors that increase the risk for drug abuse and addiction include:

• Having a family history of addiction
• Being male
• Having a mental illness
• Pressure to try the drug or friends who use the drug
• Troubled family life
• Loneliness
• Great amounts of life stress

While no single one of these factors guarantees that a person will develop a heroin addiction, having one or more of these factors does make it more likely that an addiction of some kind will develop. Therefore, if someone you know and love falls into one or more of the above categories, it is important to be especially vigilant over that person and to do whatever you can to keep them from straying into drug abuse.

Heroin Use Is Serious Business

Heroin is one of the world’s most addictive drugs. As such, there is no such thing as recreational use of heroin. Most people who try heroin will become addicted to it, so it is not something to play around with. Potential effects of heroin, aside from fatal overdose, include:

• Heart infection/heart valve infection
• Liver disease
• Kidney disease
• Skin infections
• Increased risk of hepatitis
• Increased risk of HIV/AIDS
• Difficult, sometimes fatal, withdrawal symptoms

You can save your loved one from experiencing any of these harrowing symptoms by getting help as soon as you are aware that a problem exists. Call us at Alta Mira today and learn more about our opiate rehab programs.

It’s no secret that men and women are different, and in the area of addiction and its treatment, this is also the case. The gender gap is closing when it comes to the number of women who are in need of addiction treatment as compared to men, but the rate of women seeking treatment is not progressing at the same rate.

Why aren’t women getting the help they need in the same numbers as seen among the male population? What is stopping them from reaching out for help? A number of theories have been posed, including:

• Financial constraints. Throughout the US, women make less money than men, and women are more likely to be single parents and/or responsible for the financial support of dependent family members. Finding the money to cover the cost of treatment can seem like a daunting task, but drug rehab is accessible to just about anyone through a combination of health insurance coverage and financing options.
• The needs of others. Those same responsibilities that weigh down their pocketbooks are likely also weighing on their conscience. If they have no one else to help them take care of their children or dependent family members, women may feel that it simply isn’t an option to enroll in a drug rehab program. The fact is, however, that dependents will fare better when their caregiver is well. Avoiding treatment is not an option in these cases.
• Stigma. Many women feel the pain of societal views of a woman who struggles with drugs and alcohol in a way that stops them short of even admitting they have a problem, much less asking for help. The fact is, however, that few addicts are as adept at covering their drug and alcohol issues as they believe themselves to be, so the best thing they can do for their reputation is to get the help they need to heal.

Though women often prioritize the needs of others and downplay their own problems, it is clear that ignoring an addiction does not make it go away. A medical disorder that requires medical and psychotherapeutic intervention, an addiction to drugs or alcohol will only continue to escalate until it results in a complete breakdown of everything that has meaning in the addict’s life. Loss of custody, loss of employment, financial devastation, loss of freedom, loss of health – all these issues and more are common results for women who struggle with addiction.

If someone you love is in need of treatment for an alcohol or drug use disorder, don’t wait to get her the help she needs. Contact us at Alta Mira today.

In 2010, a group of 10 experts led by Professor T.F. Nelson of the University of Minnesota considered the issue of identifying the basic US Alcohol Control Policies and the depth and breadth of their efficacy. They identified a total of 47 national and state policies, many of them having to do with young and underage drinkers.

The website of the Alcohol Epidemiology Program of the University of Minnesota School of Public health has identified the following broad categories of public alcohol control policies:

• Policies to reduce youth access to alcohol
• Policies to restrict alcohol advertising
• Policies to reduce sales to intoxicated patrons

Policies to Reduce Youth Access to Alcohol

These policies include the following:

• Social access to alcohol. Underage drinkers can obtain alcohol in a number of ways socially. Policies involved in preventing this form of access focus on beer keg registration, monitoring of beer consumption at public events, and the enforcement of social host liability.
• Commercial access to alcohol. These policies include underage drinking laws, compliance enforcement of bars and restaurants, server training of bar and restaurant staff, ID verification, banning of home delivery of alcohol products, age enforcement of seller as well as buyer, and placement of alcohol warning posters in establishments that dispense alcohol.

Policies to Restrict Alcohol Advertising

Alcohol advertising often encourages teenagers to consume alcohol. Policies have been enacted to restrict advertising, particularly in venues that might be directed at those who are underage. These policies fall into two broad categories:

• Alcohol advertising restrictions. Restrictive policies are in place widely to reduce or prohibit alcohol advertising in virtually any area where youths might reasonably be expected to be exposed, including buses, shopping carts, billboards, television, radio, the Internet, and newspapers.
• Alcohol sponsorship restrictions. Community events, such as festivals, races, athletic events, and so forth, are often sponsored by beer companies especially. This category of restrictive policies is aimed at reducing the exposure to teens.

Policies to Reduce Sales to the Already Intoxicated

These policies are aimed at seller education combined with appropriate administrative penalties, to prevent drinkers who are already intoxicated from continuing to drink and thus becoming more of a danger to themselves and the public. This category represents policies that reinforce the rules covered in “Commercial Access to Alcohol” above.

What the Study Found

The panel rated the efficacy of these policies and others. They found that policies relating to the pricing of alcoholic beverages were the most effective, in both restricting access in the underage and in the general population. Further, they also rated highly policies aimed at curbing binge drinking, particularly among younger drinkers.

Alcohol Rehab Is a Phone Call Away

Drinking continues to be a problem in America. Most state and local governments are doing their part to manage the issue, but they cannot do it alone. If your loved one has a problem with alcohol, please contact us at Alta Mira today.

US National Drug Control Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske has told an international meeting that simply legalizing drugs will not make organized crime vanish. At a meeting of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime held in Vienna, Austria, Kerlikowske called that suggestion a “distraction” from US efforts to address the combined drug and crime problem throughout the world.

Long an article of faith for some who base their conclusions on the experience the US had with its attempt to enforce alcohol prohibition in the 1920s and some Latin American countries’ experience more recently, the idea of eliminating crime by legalizing drugs is fallacious, Kerlikowske said. He also remarked, on the other hand, that building more prisons and arresting more drug offenders in a “war on drugs” had not worked either.

A Third Way

Instead, he said, the United States has embarked upon a “third way,” neither the draconian “war” nor the “surrender” that legalization would represent. The new way will not legalize hitherto illegal drugs but will instead treat their use as a medical problem and addiction as a disease of the brain. They will emphasize treatment, not punishment, for users. As for illegal manufacturers and distributors, the US plans to continue its efforts to oppose them energetically, at home and throughout the world.

Legalization Advocates

Other governments, both in America or elsewhere, are beginning to look more favorably on legalization. No fewer than 20 states have made legal the use of marijuana in at least some amounts for at least some purposes:

• Alaska
• Arizona
• California
• Colorado
• Connecticut
• DC
• Delaware
• Hawaii
• Maine
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• Montana
• Nevada
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• New Mexico
• Oregon
• Rhode Island
• Vermont
• Washington

The central US government, as noted above, has remained firm in its opposition to legalization. Berit Hallberg, a spokesman for the US Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDPC), recently told Fox News Latino: “The US continues to oppose drug legalization because evidence shows our shared drug problem is a major public health and safety threat, and drug addiction is a disease that can be successfully prevented and treated.”

Other nations represented at the UN conference, many of them from Latin America, have also toyed with the idea of legalizing marijuana, among them:

• Uruguay
• Mexico
• Costa Rica
• Honduras
• Belize
• Guatemala

Guatemala president Perez Molina has been especially supportive of a move toward legalization. He was quoted recently as saying, “Something about what we are doing is not working. I find that drug trafficking has increased; that crime has increased; that violence has increased.”

Help Your Loved One Begin the Healing Process Today

Whether legal or not, as long as drug abuse and its resulting addiction are with us, there will be individual and social problems that must be addressed. If drug dependency has struck your family member, reach out to us at Alta Mira today and learn more about our intensive addiction treatment programs and how they can help.

Most women long for the day they have a baby. Some, however, find themselves living in a world controlled by addiction and unexpectedly find that they are pregnant. Scared and unsure whom to trust, many new mothers unfortunately don’t seek help. But drugs like morphine, oxycodone, and tramadol are powerful opiates, and their use during pregnancy can cause serious effects to both mom and baby.

Mothers who are hooked on opioids and pregnant are 80 percent more likely to have a baby that is born addicted to the drugs as well, says Business Week. The good news? Researchers are working to better understand the issue and aid addicted mothers in protecting their unborn children and mitigating the harm done on all fronts as a result of active opiate drug addiction during pregnancy.

The Study

Babies with certain genetic variants, who were exposed to opioids in the womb, may be protected from the effects of these drugs which can lead to shorter hospital stays and less treatment, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Infants who had certain variants of the two genes had less severe symptoms of withdrawal from opiates compared with babies who did not have the variants.

All babies in this study had NAS, or neonatal abstinence syndrome, meaning they experienced drug withdrawal syndrome due to being exposed to opioids in the womb. The mothers of these infants had been taking methadone or buprenorphine to treat their addiction during their pregnancy.

Hope Begins with Healing Through Effective Treatment

Women with medical conditions, including pregnancy, can ensure that they receive the medical care they need while also beginning the process of addiction treatment. The sooner treatment begins, the more likely it is that their baby will not be addicted. Rehabilitation that emphasizes treatment from addiction for the mother as well as optimum medical health for both mother and child provides:

• Round-the–clock care and support
• Nutritionists who can aid with optimum nutrition
• A long-term treatment plan that addresses detox needs and ongoing treatment after the baby is born
• Spiritual guidance
• Peer support
• Aftercare assistance and support

Learn More About Alta Mira Today

At Alta Mira, we offer comprehensive care that addresses all the needs of our patients in order to help them become as strong as possible in recovery. Learn more about our evidence-based program when you contact us at the phone number above today.

A new study using mice suggests that, biologically, stress can make drug withdrawal in human subjects more difficult and can increase the likelihood of addiction relapse. The study, by a team of researchers led by Nayla N. Chaijale, exposed a test group of mice to systematic stress five times daily. A control group was shielded from stress during the research period.

The LC Discharge Rate

In mice and humans, secretions of norepinephrine in an area of the brain called the locus coeruleus (LC) indicate the level of stress generated. As more norepinephrine is produced, something that is the called the neuron “LC discharge” is reduced. (The locus coeruleus neurons are neurotransmitters.) The results of the study suggest that subjects (in this case, mice) that have been stressed might be less able afterwards to readjust to a normal kind of equilibrium.

Other Studies

Other studies have also been performed that give the stressed mice the option to self-administer drugs. An article entitled “The Role of Stress in Alcohol Use, Alcoholism, Treatment, and Relapse,” by Drs. Kathleen T. Brady and Susan C. Sonne, published in the journal Alcohol Research & Health in 1999, discusses an experiment in which mice under stress were allowed the option of self-administering alcohol, following a period of abstinence.

The researchers in that study found that in some cases, the administration of only a single stressor event (such as an electric shock) was sufficient to send a hitherto sober mouse back to the use of self-administered alcohol.

Other studies have shown that exposure to alcohol prior to any application of stress handicaps to a degree an animal’s ability to cope with stress when it does occur. In one experiment, a group of test mice were given alcohol in their water for a period of time. A control group received plain water. When stress was administered to both groups, both groups experienced diminished appetites. Within a short time, however, appetite and food intact had returned to normal in the control group, but remained depressed in the test group, suggesting they were less able to handle the stress.

What This Means for People

Extrapolating from lab experiments with mice to the real-life situations of people is always difficult and fraught with risk. Assume that relapsed addicts have a high correlation with stress. What does that mean? That stress has caused the relapse, or that the relapse caused the stress? Some surveys have been done to evaluate the effect of stress maintenance on recovery. They have in general shown that recovering addicts do better in recovery if they exhibit the following characteristics:

• High self-esteem
• Good quality of support
• High level of satisfaction from their social support

Not surprisingly, those with these qualities were more likely to relapse:

• Fewer problem-solving skills
• Poor coping strategies
• Less self-assurance

Are You Ready to Begin the Recovery Process?

An addict may find that their ability to cope with stress has been damaged by the addiction, but that ability can be restored. For more information about this important aspect of recovery, call us at Alta Mira at the number listed today.