Pampa, TX

Next month is drug addiction awareness month and Texas is getting ready for the challenge of educating individuals about the impact of drug abuse. I commend the Mayor of Pampa Lonny Robbins for getting his county ready for this huge challenge.

Pampa, TX - Today Lifetime Recovery Centers of America and the Mayor of Pampa Lonny Robbins declared September as Drug Addiction Recovery Month. National Alcohol and Drug Addiction recovery month is observed every September to highlight the reality of recovery experienced by millions of Americans and the treatment and recovery support providers who have helped them on their road to recovery

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Lady Gaga

Good for Boy George!  Lady Gaga has too much influence in the world to get away with a statement like she just made to Vanity Fair about her cocaine use.

OK – she is an occasional cocaine sniffer.  Maybe it’s true, maybe it’s not.  However, occasional always turns into frequent which turns into drug addiction.  If the cocaine is smoked there is no occasional because a person is addicted the first time they use it.

Overall Lady Gaga gives the impression that she wants to be a positive influence.  However, her media power combined with the power of cocaine is likely to send a few people to drug treatment.

Unfortunately these days her audience is larger than Boy George’s so she better get it right.

“If Lady Gaga were about to be exposed as a drug user I would understand her recent confession to Vanity Fair that she is an ‘occasional’ coke sniffer,’ George wrote. ‘But why offer up this information on a whim? Could it be that her coke use is not ‘occasional?’

Boy George, who himself has struggled with an addiction to heroin, said that he believes the word ‘occasional’ can be more generous than one would think when you’re taking about drugs.”

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Sean Sutton

Coach Sutton finally woke up, it seems, and accepted the fact that there is always an end to drug addiction.  It ends with effective drug treatment, death or jail.  Fortunately for him, he got caught trying to get Oxycodone, Adderal and clonazepam – drugs that he could have killed himself with.  He went to jail and then to drug rehab, hopefully for the last time.

While the spotlight is on him, Sutton has the opportunity to demonstrate to the world that it is possible to get clean and stay clean.  The fact that he made his recent drug hook-ups at drug treatment is bad PR for drug rehab.

He seems to enjoy the limelight.  We hope for an improved performance this time.

“STILLWATER, Okla. — Former Oklahoma State coach Sean Sutton said he will plead guilty Friday to felony charges accusing him of illegally obtaining prescription drugs.

Before headed into a courthouse here for a hearing and a judge’s decision on his fate, Sutton said he made a mistake and hopes to atone for it by educating others about the dangers of addiction.

“I did it. I made a mistake,” Sutton said. “I’ve apologized for that and I’ll accept the consequences of whatever he decides.”

Sutton was arrested Feb. 12 after agents from the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs said he picked up a shipment of painkillers under another person’s name.

Authorities said the package contained about 40 pills, which included the anti-anxiety drug clonazepam and two forms of the stimulant Adderall. An affidavit from a bureau agent said Sutton admitted obtaining the drugs from people he had met while in an inpatient rehabilitation program.

Prosecutors charged Sutton with four felonies — obtaining a controlled dangerous substance (oxycodone) by fraud, unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance (oxycodone) without a prescription, attempted possession of controlled dangerous substances (clonazepam and Adderall) and use of a communications device to facilitate a felony.”

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Xanax addiction

Part of getting sober is getting things in perspective.  At the Narconon addiction treatment program, there are various steps that help a person take a look at their life from a new perspective.  Here is a success story of a person who spent years on Xanax and other prescription medications.   Now that he found a drug treatment he  is off the drugs, there are things in his life to sort out.

“This exercise really put so much into perspective.  All the years I was doing drugs, there were so many things I thought belonged to me and only me.  I thought hit world was mine and only mine.  But this exercise has shown me the real things that I can truly have.  These are the things I can keep through remaining sober.  The drugs and the habits that go along with them I am dispensing with.

I can control my environment, I can keep my true friends and I can get rid of the bad ones.

Most importantly, I can live a meaningful and productive life.”

Drug Addiction success

When a person is using drugs like heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine, they do things that they would not ordinarily do, in order to feed their habit.  Once they are off the drugs they have to face the fact that they have destroyed many things.  At the Narconon drug treatment center we help them through this process.

Here is a success story from one of the students who is going through that process.

“It all starts out with a small step.  Just a realization that your life isn’t going the way that you think that is should.  It may take just a thought or action to come to that I had to hit rock bottom.  It took that for me.  I was in a downward spiral for a long time before I took that first step to get help.  My dad told me before I came here that it does matter what I do from this point on.  Before I felt that it didn’t matter.  I’ve held onto that while I have been here and I am moving forward every day.

I look back on my past and some of it makes me smile and some makes me cry.  I know I hurt a lot of the people who care about me – but they are still there.  And I am here because of them, but really mostly for myself.

Going through these exercises made me really think how I need to hold what I have now and be true to myself.  I don’t want to fall back to that person I was before.   I know it will not be easy all the time but if I use what I am learning and I am honest with myself, I can get through it.

I will have some setbacks but if I can use what I am learning here it won’t be as hard as it was in the past.”

Prescription Drug Addiction

Prescription Drugs are one of the most common and the fastest growing drug addiction right now.  Due to the ease of access to the prescription drugs either through a Doctor, family member, friend or even off the street this is a growing trend that has to be stopped.  Hydrocodone addiction is rising faster than any other prescription drug and it is prescribed for pain.  Misuse of the drug can lead to drug addiction, dependence and death.

Doctor shopping is one of the most unsafe ways to get these prescription drugs.  Drug addicts go from Dr to Dr to get a prescription drug prescribe to them.  Since there is no database in most states the user is able to get the prescriptions filled at the pharmacy without any problems.  Also, many people get there prescriptions filled only to turn around the sale them for more than they paid.  This seems to be very easy for some because of the amount of money that can be made.

Drug Treatment facilities are seeing a rise in abusers who are addicted to prescription drugs and they get started at home.

Oxycontin Addiction

At Narconon we frequently meet individuals who are addicted to Oxycontin.  This drug can affect anyone from any strata of life.  There are stories of people who took Oxycontin for a simple sports injury or after a surgery and became hopelessly addicted.   Some got it from a friend just for fun, but were addicted after that first pill.

Oxycontin can take a person from the path of a normal life to another path – one that is ruthlessly led by addiction.

It is unfortunate that this drug was ever created – but it was and many good people are addicted.  The recent criminal conviction of key executives of Purdue pharmaceutical does not seem to have stopped or slowed down the number of persons that we speak to that are addicted to Oxycontin.

It is going to take the friends and families and effective drug treatment to do something effective about Oxycontin.  We have to roll our sleeves up and one by one, get these people some help.

Drug Addiction

There are many times an addict thinks there is no where to turn.  Make sure that you don’t turn your back on your loved one, give them a hand at combating his/her addiction.   Drug Addiction is not easy to overcome and for many is almost impossible without support of people that are not associated with the lifestyle of drugs.

Most drug addicts feel as though no one loves them because they are ashamed of what they have become.  They never wanted to get addicted it “just happened”.  Give them a fresh start.

Our drug rehab has a 76% success rate of our graduating students. Call for information today on how to help someone you love.

Methadone has also been given to people that have never taken drugs and has been prescribed just for pain.  When given just for pain it can lead to the addiction of it as well.

If you or someone you know is addicted to methadone please call a drug treatment. We are here to help. We have a 76% success rate among our graduating students.

Many times the youth take it right out of their parents medicine cabinet.  Many parents don’t  think to count the amount of medication that they have.  They just quit taking it and never look back.  Teenagers take advantage of this.

If you are a parent make sure you know what type of drugs you have in your medicine cabinet and keep count.  If you have to lock it up.  If you need any advice please contact a drug rehab near you to help you follow the correct steps in dealing with prescription drug addiction.