KIDS AND GLUE

Narconon staff finally made it safely to the Honduras orphanage, despite having to circumvent a bridge taken by opposition forces, during the recent coup. They had arrived to address a more critical problem. – the fate of the future of Honduras- the children.  While demonstrators marched outside on the streets, Narconon staff worked inside the orphanage with young people who earlier had been living on the streets, addicted to glue.

There are a large number of orphaned street children in the country.  Some are orphaned through the death of their parents, while others have simply been put on the street by parents unable to care for them.  Unloved and hungry, children often turn to violence and drugs to survive.  If they can’t steal food, sniffing glue or “flying” will ease the pangs of hunger.

The addiction to glue has been so great, that in some cases the young addicts have given up the safety and support of the orphanage, scaled a barb wire fence and walked two miles to town to get their glue.  This was the situation that Narconon of Georgia staff came to help with – how to address the cravings for glue, so the children would stay in the orphanage and get the education that would give them a future.

The orphanage, with the help of missionaries and churches from around the world, has been providing food, shelter, love and an education for a number of these orphans for the last eight years.

With the help of a doctor from Honduras, Narconon of Georgia staff has provided a sauna exercise program for these children.  The transition from drug addicted to drug free is eased with the help of exercise, nutrients and a sauna.  During the last three years, many children have successfully completed the program and have gone on with their schooling and learned a trade.

According to the director of the orphanage; “The staples of the program continue to be the love, support and structure of the center.”

Don Delgado, a Narconon staff member at Honduras writes, “I will continue to help these children, no matter the political strife in the country.  They are the only real hope that Honduras has for a sane and stable future.”

Since William Benetiz founded Narconon in 1967, it has been a Narconon tradition, not only to care for the individual, but to bring safety and stability to the communities.

Drug addiction is a worldwide problem and Narconon staff members are up to the task.

Anyone who would like to help can call Narconon of Georgia at 877-413-3073

Methadone Clinics Cause of Drug Addiction

Early one morning in Asheville, NC there was one building bustling with activity.  There were hundreds of cars in the parking lot and people seemed to be wrapped around the building in a long line.   It was like a scene from the great depression, except they were not waiting for soup.

They were waiting for methadone and knew they had to be there because the consequences of methadone withdrawal were too painful to face.

On this particular morning, as hundreds of people were arriving to get their fix, several fights broke out because someone broke in line

On the way to the clinic, a traffic accident blocked the street because a young woman who had just left the clinic had fallen asleep at the wheel.  The cars involved were totaled and the traffic began to back up in front of the Methadone clinic.

The woman was charged with driving under the influence of methadone – she had just received her dose at the clinic.  Later at the hospital she failed for a number of drugs including Xanax, a drug known to cause extreme drowsiness when taken with methadone.

This is not the first drug test she had failed.  The methadone clinic had required that she come in every morning to get her daily dose of methadone.  This was the result of her failing for Xanax several days earlier.

The methadone clinic claimed no responsibility for the fact she was driving at all.  It is not part of the protocol to suggest that patients not drive to the clinic.

Earlier, when this young woman had asked to be taken off her daily dose of methadone, the counselor’s at the center advised her against it.  They told her that the risk of relapse on heroin was too great a chance to take and that she should accept she would be on it for the rest of her life.  The ball and chain was never to be removed.

When interviewing her friends, it was discovered that this woman was known for coming home from the methadone clinic and nodding out from the effects of the drugs.  The hundreds of cigarette burns on the couch were testament to this fact.

They also reported that when she was awake she would call her friends down the street to supply her with Xanax and klonopin, (both popular choices for the people in line back at the clinic.)  It is as though she did not want to be awake for as she lived life.

Methadone clinics are supposed to relieve crime and suffering.

Perhaps the people in the line at the clinic in Ashville every morning should be asked if it is really so.

Narconon Drug Treatment – treating those with heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, pot, Xanax and other drugs of abuse.

877-413-3073

Michael Jackson’s Death Calling Attention to Prescription Drug Abuse

Close friend to Jackson, Deepak Chopra, reported that Jackson had asked him for prescriptions to pain killers in the past. Chopra said that he then realized that Michael must have been asking many people for prescriptions to the powerful drugs.

In an article in the Huffington Press, Chopra in part blames Jackson’s dependence on these drugs on medical colleagues who failed to realize Jackson’s growing drug addiction could lead to his death.

Jackson is known to have taken prescriptions ranging from Xanax to Demerol.

Oxycodone and hydrocodone are both synthetic opiate pain relievers similar to Demerol which Jackson is reported to have been injected with shortly before his cardiac arrest.

It is unfortunate that prescription drug abuse becomes alive as a topic for media discussion after a celebrity death.   Anna Nicole’s and Heath Ledger’s deaths took center stage earlier, but the problem with prescription medication abuse continued to increase and emergency rooms are still seeing too many accidental overdoses.

In a recent press conference Joseph A. Califano Jr., the National Center on Drug Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University’s director and president said:

“Aggressive marketing of controlled drugs to physicians . . . is designed to increase profits with little regard for abuse potential, Our nation is in the throes of an epidemic of controlled prescription drug abuse and addiction.”
The ease by which many Americans can get a prescription for powerful pain medications and psychiatric drugs is alarming.

More than 15 million Americans abuse controlled substances—double the amount from a decade ago, according to a report issued by CASA.  This represents a clear problem for America because there is virtually no increase in drug treatment available and no controls on marketing.

Narconon of Georgia provides drug treatment and education for the entire southeast region. Narconon Drug Rehab of Georgia is a non-traditional drug abuse treatment program.

NARCONON 877-413-3073

THE ECONOMICS OF DRUGS

At least 467 billion dollars was spent in 2005 on drug addiction, by federal, state and local governments, according to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA).

The report, the first to report all costs to local, state and federal governments, found that out of this only 1.9% went to prevention and treatment.

Joseph A. Califano, Jr., the former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare responded to a new report by CASA about the state of drug addiction treatment:

“Under any circumstances, spending more than 95 percent of taxpayer dollars on the crime, health care costs, child abuse, domestic violence, homelessness and other consequences of tobacco, alcohol and illegal and prescription drug abuse and addiction, and only two percent to relieve individuals and taxpayers of these burdens, is a reckless misallocation of public funds. In these economic times, such upside-down-cake public policy is unconscionable it’s past time for this fiscal and human waste to end.”

CASA’s Vice President and Director of Policy Research and Analysis stated:

“Despite a significant and growing body of knowledge documenting that addiction is a preventable, treatable and manageable disease, and despite the proven efficacy of prevention and treatment techniques, our nation still looks the other way while substance abuse and addiction cause illness, injury, death and crime, savage our children, overwhelm social service systems, impede education–and slap a heavy and growing tax on our citizens,”

Key findings from the report include.

• Of the $3.3 trillion total federal and state government spending, $373.9 billion – 11.2 percent, more than one of every ten dollars– was spent on tobacco, alcohol and illegal and prescription drug abuse and addiction and its consequences.
• The federal government spent $238.2 billion (9.6 percent of its budget) on substance abuse and addiction. If substance abuse and addiction were its own budget category at the federal level, it would rank sixth, behind social security, national defense, income security, Medicare and other health programs including the federal share of Medicaid.

This is just the cost to government; the cost to families can be as much as a million dollars in the lifetime of one addict.

The effectiveness of drug treatment is proven in dollars and lives saved.

The information and quotations contained in this press release was taken from a study by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University.  The study can be found online at their web site (www.CasaColumbia.org).

Narconon of Georgia provides drug treatment to those who are addicted to pot, heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and other drugs of abuse.

877-413-3073