Have you been a victim of drug addiction?

Do you know anybody who has? Are drugs too easily available and accepted these days?

Comments

[cocaine detox]

Drug addiction is widely considered a pathological state. The disorder of addiction involves the progression of acute drug use to the development of drug-seeking behavior, the vulnerability to relapse, and the decreased, slowed ability to respond to naturally rewarding stimuli.

-jomie-

[Lynn Bennett]

I notic you have spoke about the cost Diamorphine and the cost of cleaning up the streets due to drug addicts, it is not only drug users that polute our streets, also not all addicts go out robbing and stealing for their fix. The other thing i wish to mension is methadone, this is not a wonder drug, it is one of the cheapest substitutes on the market, thats why the NHS perscribe it. But also what they do not inform you of when your perscribed methadone, is that it is more addictive that heroin, and twice as hard to withdraw off this crap.

[Lynn Bennett]

Reading this story i cant say that i dont feel saddened, because i do. I have had twenty years of supporting and loving the most precious things to me 'my son and daughter. My son was a loving boy until he reached the age of 32 years old when sadly he took his own life after been clean of heroin for five years. How he was ridiculed and tormented for what he was doing by everyone who knew him, sad isnt it, or ignorance by society. The problem was not comming off heroin, it was staying off, the pin fixation, the whole ritual of life on heroin. He could not cope with any type of pressure or arguments, didnt know how, not now heroin was no longer, part of his life. Might i say there was no help out there for him, i went everywhere to get help with him, nothing was available, oh yes, he tried methadone as well as using heroin, because what they fail to tell you, methadone it is more addictive than heroin its self. Subutex was the one drug that helped him to abstain, with no after care what so ever, which is crusial when your that vunerable.

My daughter age 27 years, also took her own life, again no help, no support no treatment available. She too, struggled with addiction, a beautiful young girl who had her whole life ahead of her. Two days before she took her own life, she pored her heart out to me her mother. It was heart breaking to hear what she had to say. She was sick of living her life the way she way living, she felt, she did not belong anywhere or to anyone, this young girl along with many others are crying out for help.

However, after twenty years of trying to fight addiction with my kids, you hit a dead end. I know there will be some people out there who will say, i have got no sympathy with 'smack heads'.
Might i add, these people are human beings with a right to respect and help like any other person on this damn planet.

[drug rehabs]

Drug treatments centers offer different kinds of treatment programs and therapies to treat drug and alcohol addicts. There are so many counselors and physicians working in the centers to provide complete recovery to their patients. They have vast experience of treating the drug and alcohol addicts.

http://www.drugrehabscenters.com/

[Naomi C]

Drugs are easily available and always have been. You get your socially acceptable ones and then the others which make you a social pariah. Cocaine is acceptable to many in moderation; if it was not I am sure it would not be so common for surfaces in city toilets to test positive for them when a journalist decides to investigate our countries ever-increasing drug problem. Then there are drugs like Heroin which by most, is branded the lowest of the low and perhaps quite rightly, in terms of the dispair one reaches if they are unlucky enough to get caught up in an addiction to it. I unfortunately have been a heroin addict for 5 years and have just turned 21. I cannot put down here just how terrible my life was, and still is, plus the knock-on effect it had on the people around me. My mother, a dedicated Nurse working for the NHS had a nervous breakdown after I overdosed and had respitory & heart failure, and has been off work for 5 months. It is not just an emotional knock-on effect, its economical. Although I did not turn to burglary, street robbery etc. I know many who do and their lives are just a constant circle of committing a crime to get drugs to get arrested and put in prison to come out clean to start up again straight away. The money this is costing our society is rediculous especially since a few number of lucky addicts get prescribed Diamorphine Hydrachloride which injected, eliminates the need for street heroin. Thus, knocking out the dealers, the risk of contracting diseases through risky activities such as needle sharing and eliminating the drug-motivated crimes that effect YOU. If you have ever been burgled or mugged you will know how distressing it is, and it will probably be even more so when you find out our state prescribes Diamorphine, but just not to the person who burgled you. Chances are they were not on a prescription or were on methadone. If methadone is the wonderdrug it is supposed to be, why are people still taking heroin on top of it?
It is very simple, make it more available. The heroin trade funds terrorism that the public want to see eliminated. As long as its illegal they will keep on reaping the collosal benefits.
I was put on methadone at 17 and it was not until after this that I turned to prostitution to fund my habit. Why would I need to when I was on methadone? I could of been prescribed heroin to save myself from having to go through all the things I did, in the process wrecking relationships between my friends and family. The system in place at the moment is you only get prescribed diamorphine when you have PROVED you cannot be treated, which is very ironic. You have to go through the system for 20, 30 years showing you are untreatable, costing the taxpayer thousands in keeping you incarcerated over the years, keeping you on benefits... then you get what could save you and help you become a valuble member of society.

Drugs are always going to be around in society. What we have to do is prevent (its a cliche, I know, but its better than a cure) and treat properly those that have a problem. Louise was very lucky to get into the In-Volve centre, resources are stretched to the limit and the only way usually you can get into rehab is if you have unlimited funds.