The Canyon

One of the most stunning things about recovery is the similarities between your story of addiction and that of the next addict. Heroin addiction, especially, seems to provide its captives with a gut wrenching path from which few escape. Though the details—location, names, amounts, dates—change with each story, one thread remains the same: heroin addiction is deadly. The only hope is heroin rehab.

• Dead Heroin Addict’s Video Diaries to be Aired in Sky1 Documentary - This one is at The Guardian (United Kingdom) and it’s a bit exploitative, I think, and it’s a heartbreaker so be forewarned.
• Snellville Woman’s Tale of Heroin Addiction - Here, a woman from Snellville tells the story of a local woman struggling with heroin addiction on her blog, My Snellville Blog.
• Heroin Tightens Its Grip – From Creative Loafing Atlanta out of Atlanta, GA, this is a broader article that talks more about Sarah, the woman profiled at My Snellville Blog.
• I Kicked My Habit After Heroin Addiction Killed My Twin…Now I’m Going to Be a Dad - Exactly what it sounds like, this is a personal story of recovery out of the UK after loss due to heroin addiction.
• Heroin Took Life of Bright Teen From Mukilteo - A sad story, this one is about the loss of Everett, Washington teen, Sean Gahagan, to heroin abuse.
• Speaker Tells Students About Daughter’s Drug Related Death - Out of Greencastle, Indiana, a story of teenage death caused by drug abuse. Her father speaks out to help educate students in hopes of keeping them form the same fate.
• How HIV Changed Ex-Addict’s Life - A story of recovery in the Middle East, this one highlights what it was that helped one heroin addict take the leap and break his addiction to heroin for good.
• The Teenage Face of Heroin Abuse: Sean O’Conner, 19 - U.S. News and World Report tells the story of one teen who stopped in time.

Heroin Rehab Works

In the words of Sean O’Conner, heroin rehab can help treat heroin addiction:

When I was stealing from my aunt and uncle and stealing from my neighbors, I was in a really bad place. Anything lying around and worth money—I took it. The night I overdosed, I was at my friend’s birthday party, and I got really drunk because I was waiting to get heroin and it wasn’t there yet. When my neighbor got some, I got a ride from the party to his house. I don’t really remember this, but from what people told me, after I shot up, I started freaking out [having seizures], and my neighbor propped me up against a tree, went back inside, and just left me there. Thankfully, another neighbor saw me outside and called the cops. The next thing I remember is waking up in the ambulance after they gave me the Narcan shot. They told me I had been having seizures and that I almost choked on my tongue.

After I relapsed, my mom said, “Go and get better or you’re done, no more family.” My first few days here I said, “F— this place, I’m leaving. I would rather sit in county [jail] for six to eight months.” Then one night I realized all the positive things about this place. I can get my high school diploma. I can get my family back. By the time I’m out, my probation will be over, I’ll have a large amount of clean time, and I’ll have more tools and coping skills to use when I’m back out in the world.

I’ve only been here 14 days today, but I’ve realized this is the place where I have to be, and it helps. Seeing people actually be here for seven, eight months helps. If they can do it, I can do it too.

Have you heard of Adderall? If you guessed it’s a prescription medication, you’re right. If you guessed it was a prescription painkiller, you’re wrong. It’s a medication that’s commonly prescribed for those fighting attention deficit hyperactivity disorder… or narcolepsy. And according to Andrew Nash at The Morning Sun, it’s the new drug of choice for busy high school students who need assistance to keep up with the ever increasing demands of college entrance boards. In fact, it’s the new Ritalin, a drug commonly used and abused for the same purposes, respectively.

Adderall Abuse Versus Adderall Addiction

It’s a discussion that is being debated right now: is Adderall use with the sole purpose of making it through a full day of school followed by sports practices and after school activities and then make it through a night’s worth of homework. Is faltering energy a medical need that requires medication? Some say no; others say yes.

The Argument for Adderall Use

Says one student who takes Adderall:  “If you take it in the morning, it will last all day. When school is in session, I’ll take Adderall about every week to help me study and get through the week. Some weeks, I’ll take it two to three times a week just to focus in class and get through tests. It makes you more awake and more focused. When you’re taking tests, it helps you remember things better.”

The Argument for Adderall Abuse and Addiction

Those who are against it generally point to the fact that many kids who take it don’t have a prescription for it. They don’t have ADHD but buy the pills from students who do. If you don’t have a prescription for Adderall but are taking it, then they consider it Adderall abuse. If you do this often and depend on it to get through the day, then it’s Adderall addiction.

Steve Erwin is an associate vice president for a campus where Adderall use/ abuse is rampant. He says:

“Our policy on the use of Adderall is that is a prescribed drug that many would use legitimately because of legitimate health conditions. As far as those using it illicitly, and there are those that do so, that would be a violation of student policy. Use of any prescribed drug outside a prescription specifically for the drug is illegal.”

What Do You Think: Adderall Use or Adderall Abuse/ Addiction?

It’s inarguable that using a prescription medication that isn’t prescribed to you is abuse, and few doctors are going to prescribe Adderall simply because you need help sitting through a study group. And the risks of Adderall addiction—like Ritalin addiction, speed addiction, crystal meth addiction, and other addiction to other uppers—are serious. What do you think?

There are so many crimes connected to illegal prescription drugs but it takes a teenager to get really creative with it. As prescription drug abuse rises, so does crime.

Prescription Drug Addiction and Crime

Here’s a short list of the kinds of crime associated with the diversion of prescription drugs from their intended recipient and purpose:

* Stealing prescription pads
* Changing the number of pills on a valid prescription
* Robbing drug stores
* Stealing pills from family member’s or friend’s medicine cabinets
* Purchasing pills on the street or from others with valid prescriptions
* Fraudulently procuring double and triple prescriptions through “doctor shopping”

Prescription Drug Addiction and Teenagers

John Beyer is the deputy police chief of Duluth. About teens and their prescription drug related crime, he says:

“They’re predominately stealing it for themselves because they need it, and they are desperate. Over the last couple of years we’ve had several pharmacy robberies where criminals enter and take pharmaceutical drugs and not ask for any money. They don’t need the money to buy drugs because they get the drugs in the robbery.’’

Prescription Drug Addiction, Violence and Teens

As for violent crimes associated with prescription drug addiction and teens, it’s not as significant as it is with other drugs. Dan Chicos is a lieutenant with the Duluth police department and the commander of the Lake Superior Drug and Gang Task Force. He says:

“There’s not violence associated with pharmaceuticals with the frequency you see in the cocaine industry and the methamphetamine trade, but whenever you have people who need drugs, or are trading them or bartering them and there’s some profitability, there’s always the potential for violence.’’

Prescription Drug Addiction, Teens and Pharm Parties

Perhaps the most scary crime that teens commit around prescription drug abuse are the “pharm parties.” These are parties where each invitee brings some pills that they have scavenged from their parents’ or grandparents’ medicine cabinets and… well, let me allow Lt. Chicos to tell you:

“A pharm party is basically a bunch of young people that get together and everyone will bring some type of pharmaceutical or prescription narcotic to the party. Someone will say, ‘My grandma takes Lortabs, I’ll bring the Lortabs.’ Someone else brings Ritalin. Someone brings OxyContin. Basically, it creates a smorgasbord of prescription narcotics at the party.’’

Because the kids mix and match without even knowing what they’re taking as well as adding alcohol into the mix, this is often a deadly practice.

Have you noticed a rise in prescription drug abuse in your area? Or crime related to prescription drug addiction among teens or adults? What do you see as a solution?