Monday, February 25, 2008

Indian Leader Targets Meth

Tribes call drug a new evil, seek help to fight it

From: Albuquerque Tribune
James W. BrosnanScripps Howard News
WASHINGTON - National Congress of Indians

President Joe Garcia is calling for a partnership between the tribes and federal, state and local governments to combat methamphetamine, which some Indian leaders say is replacing alcohol as the scourge of reservations. "It exists in all of the country, but it exists worse in Indian Country," Garcia said Monday during the legislative summit of the Congress. "Methamphetamine is killing our children, affecting our culture and ravaging our communities."


It was the second set of tough-on-crime remarks since Garcia, the governor of Ohkay Owingeh, formerly San Juan Pueblo, was chosen as president of the Congress in November. Several other tribal leaders and representatives praised Garcia for his focus on the drug issue. Kathleen Kitcheyan, chairwoman of the San Carlos Apache in Arizona, said methamphetamine has surpassed alcohol and marijuana among the most abused drugs on her reservation. She said there have been 84 suicides in her tribe since 2002, some directly related to methamphetamine abuse.

Last year, 63 babies were born addicted
to methamphetamine because of use
by their mothers, Kitcheyan said.

(To continue reading story, click here.)


Monday, December 24, 2007

12 Step Programs - Pro's And Con's


There are plenty of arguments in favor of 12-step programs, and probably just as many opposed to them. I personally have attended NA meetings with my daughter who is in Narcotics Anonymous and seen many many lives turned around. It is a process, one is committed to improving oneself in innumerable ways and there is much support. It is often said of NA, it works if you work it.

Here are some thoughts about NA, quotes and/or paraphrases offering pros and cons of 12 Step Programs from Jerry Dorsman's book, How to Quit Drugs for Good: A Complete Self-Help Guide.

The good things about N.A. (or A.A. or C.M.A.):

~ NA offers you total involvement in a community of non-users.
~ As an NA, , you get an important sense of belonging.
~ Groups lend mutual support for not using drugs.
~ It's easy to make new friends because you'll have something in common with everyone.
~ NA destigmatizes drug addiction.
~ NA helps you gain responsibility.
~ NA helps you accept your problem with drugs.
~ You can count on it. (Meetings are held many times a week and many times day.)
~ Its free, or a small donation.

Drawbacks to NA :

~ NA neglects the physical. No medical advice or info on healing.
~ NA requires social involvement, difficult for people who get nervous or uncomfortable in groups.
~ N.A. requires a specific religious belief. A higher power (of some kind) must be acknowledged. Six of the twelve steps refer to God or Higher Power.
~ NA insists that you call, yourself an addict. You are not allowed to speak unless you first say, "Hello, my name is ______ and I'm an addict."
~ Many people have difficulty with the "public confessional" approach. After awhile it gets tedious hearing the "War Stories" "The worst thing I did on drugs." "How bad an addict I was." "How much I wanted to use today." "How terrible I felt." "Let me tell you about my years in the penitentiary."
~ NA fosters too much dependency among its members, as in trading one drug for another. You no longer depend on drugs, but on NA.
~ For NA's, drugs remain the central focus in their lives.
~ NA's believe that you're powerless over your addiction.
~ NA takes a great deal of time. Meetings are usually from one to two hours long. Consider travel and prep time. A meeting could consume three hours easily. Many members are prompted to attend ninety meetings in ninety days.


Patricia, Editor
For more information on Jerry Dorsman's Book, click here:
How to Quit Drugs for Good: A Complete Self-Help Guide.

Monday, December 10, 2007

'Meth Fog' Discussion

From KCI Meth Abuse Discussion Forum - Click To Read Original Post

This post is from the above meth forum and regards a recovering addict and her continuing experiences with the what she calls 'meth fog.' She also happens to not have shared her drug use with her parents, so my reply to her post includes that concern, perspective of a parent of a recovering addict.

Patricia,
Editor

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Meth - He Will Either End Up In Prison Or Die


SUBMITTED BY ANONYMOUS

Hello. My son is a meth user. He called me last night from jail. He had been arrested again. This time it was for burglary and possession. He has been in jail over ten times that I know of. He is twenty-two years old and can see no future for himself. He lost his drivers license and totaled his car. He is so far in debt to the various police depts. for fines upon fines that he may never get a license again.. He has at least three felonies now so I don't know if anyone would ever give him a job even if he did have a way to get there.
Josh has been through many tramatic events in his life including the death of his father at 10. There was one death after another and I don't think he ever got past any of them. I tried counseling but he refused to talk and then refused to go at all. He was diagnosed two years a go as being bi-polar and refused treatment. He still refuses it. I cannot understand that he refuses medication but will use illegal drugs.
I don't know how long he has used meth because he moved out of our house and never came by when he was high or else he came while I was at work. I don't know how to help him. I cannot afford to put him into rehab and I think that he would fight that anyway.
I'm hoping that the judge will decide to send him to rehab and there would be no other way out for him.
If he continues like this he will either end up in prison or die.
I know that I could not bear to lose him. I love him more than life. He is still that sweet, sensitve boy that I know but I know that eventually the drug will change him forever. Thank you for letting me vent. I feel so alone right now and this helps.
Submitted By Anonymous

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Clinic


On some Saturday mornings, I drive my neighbor, Tomas, to the methadone clinic. He always gives me five bucks for gas, but I usually spend the money on Camel straights, since S. smokes American Spirits and by the weekend, I have tired of their taste.At seven o'clock, my cell phone rings. It's the kind that flips open, just like the communicators on Star Trek. I've programmed it, though, to sound like a 1950s British telephone when it rings. It's Tomas. He says his wife, Martine, is visiting relatives in Chama and can I give him a ride. Sure, I say. S. is still asleep and I will make her breakfast when I return.Tomas lives in one of the biggest houses in Ridgecrest. I met him one night while walking my dogs at Laurel Circle Park. He was sitting at one benches at the park, watching the cars go by. There are all sorts of trees surrounding his house, and a large lawn, too. Tomas pays to have the yard kept up. He is too old to do it himself. There's also a swimming pool. As I arrive, a carload of middle-aged women are driving up. Their car has a placard on it, advertising the maid service that sent them over to the big house. I smile and say hello. Tomas comes to out of the front door, dressed like he is going to the country club.After a short drive, we pass through the gates of the clinic. The gates and surrounding fence are topped by razor wire. I pull into a parking spot and tell the old man that I will wait. He looks at me bemusedly. He thanks me for my patience and, climbing out of the passenger side gingerly, ambles toward the clinic doors.The parking lot is filled to capacity. At one car, a child of about ten years old swings from the rear door of a gray sedan, playing and singing to himself. At another, three men smoke, speaking in hushed tones and listening to rancheras on the radio. After about ten minutes, a tired looking youth with dreadlocks and dirty blue jeans walks up to my window. I am reading a Joseph Conrad novel and try to ignore him. He is persistent though, and when I finally look up, he holds his hands out to me. He says, "hey, open the window". I shake my head and return to my reading. When I look up again, he has joined the group that is listening to music and smoking.The clinic has a guard. He looks more like a soldier. He has a utility belt with two guns strapped to it. One is a revolver, the other a semi-automatic. He is wearing a black uniform and also carries handcuffs, mace, a two-way radio and some sort of collapsible truncheon. I notice that that when drivers try to leave the clinic using the front entrance, he takes out the truncheon and expands it by shaking it swiftly. Then, he waves it menacingly at the wrong way drivers. I remind myself to use the proper exit.After about fifteen minutes, Tomas returns to the car. As we drive off, I ask him why he doesn't go to a regular doctor for the treatment he receives at the clinic. He seems a lot different than the others who I have seen come and go, I tell him.He says it's better for him, like this. He needs to be reminded of what got him to this point in his life. He relishes the humility. He says that it is more interesting to talk to the other people in line than it is to have any sort of conversation with the folks over at the country club.As we head back towards Ridgecrest, he opens his wallet and hands me a five dollar bill. "That's OK", I say, "today, Tomas, you gave me something better than money".
Written by Rudolfo Carrillo And Re-Posted Here with permission
By Rudolfo Carrillo, Posted Originally in the Duke City Fix

Monday, November 5, 2007

Anonymity Aspect May Not Be Helping Addicts

IMPORTANT: To See Letters In Response
To This Posting, Click Here: KCI Meth Forum

While both Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous stress the ’anonymous’ aspect, I am starting to question the emphasis on anonymity benefits. Of late I am developing strong opinions about taking the anonymous out of the disease. I intend to write more over time, am developing my thoughts, would love input .... but following are my issues:

* Why addiction is so hidden, especially in this day and age
* Why addiction is embarrassing
* Why addicts are not considered sick
* Why treatment isn’t available to those in need
* When those with addictions will not be labeled and not be so shamed by society
* Are addicted women more shamed by society
* And finally, I wanna know when society will get it that addiction is not about self control.

There are laws passed to support resolution of these issues and there are organizations both private and public whose agenda includes these issues. I want to scream. If each and every addict were to stand up, knowing he is safe, and insist on help for his disease, would that not help? Is it anonymity that is defeating our own recovery? These questions are still valid and we are losing loved ones everyday. We are losing family members we love, people who are brilliant who have alot to contribute to society.

I need comments, support, feedback.

Patricia

(You can also post more responses here.)

Click To See Answers To This Posting

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Faces Of Meth A Good Thing


In his position as a jail deputy, Bret King of Multnomah County, Oregon was familiar with the chilling, psychotic behavior of meth users. It was in reviewing a particular inmate's past behaviors through file documentation that King discovered what meth can do to a user's face.
To his horror, he observed the ravaging and unflattering effects to the face from meth use over years, months and sometimes, even weeks. Jail Deputy King saw 20 year olds where youth had vanished, leaving skeletal faces, and he started a collection of what he calls the 'Faces Of Meth'. The collection of mug shots became a vivid and shocking graphic presentation of self-destruction ... the hell of meth, in all its grit.
The Faces of Meth Collection is sometimes included in antidrug campaigns, such as in the controversial Montana Meth Project. There is some concern among communities that are following the results of the Montana Meth Project that a campaign that shows meth in all its grit is too graphic. Being the mother of a recovering addict (Sarahjoy is now over two years clean), I believe that there isn’t a photo that can be shown or story that can be told that too graphically reveals this drug’s horror upon our children. In all its grit isn’t enough when it is your child.
The goal of the creators of the Montana Meth Project was:

to show what meth does to families,
the violence, the stealing, and the tendency
for younger siblings to follow older siblings into addiction.
The project consists of a graphic ad campaign that shocks teens away from drugs. The project is unselling meth and it seems to be working. They report the program in Montana demonstrated significant results in changing attitudes and behaviors toward meth since its inception in 2005 where 93 percent of teens now see great risk in trying the drug. Meth deteriorates the user’s body and the user’s family. Further, meth addiction deteriorates our communities, as the addict's escalating meth use evolves to include ever increasing crime activities to pay for his drug use. I think our communities have found an extremely effective tool in the Faces Of Meth as part of a successful antidrug campaign. I believe this Multnomah County, Oregon Jail Deputy's efforts help my friends and neighbors so their children might avoid the hell of meth. Click For Faces Of Meth .
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Addict Boyfriend, How Meth Destroyed My Relationship (& Is Wrecking Havoc On Middle Class America)



Photograph Is Part of
Montana Meth Project Ad
Campaign, For More
Info On That Campaign
Click Here
By Anonymous
In the dirty, grey hall of a 1920s building in Hollywood, I saw my dreams, sitting high in the glittering hills, crash --- landing in the muck of a nasty break up. His Hollywood redo and my plan for some kinda success became a lower middle class fight over drugs, gambling and staying out all night. In that splotchy, dimly lit top floor, hope soured into a blistering argument over his multiple addictions and me throwing him out. He dragged his belongings to the elevator as we fought. As he descended, my sweet dreams for romance and career vanished. I’ve been a news reporter, an advertising writer and I’ve saved sea turtles in Greece. I’m wise, smart and sophisticated. I thought knew it all. Then I moved to LA. Now, six months later, I’m back home in Texas, recovering from a traumatic experience with the deadly crystal meth. Crystal meth is a fiendish illegal drug on an unchecked rampage in America. The federal government is rapidly enacting strict laws against it, as middle class families struggle in its grip. Meth is invading small towns and major cities, cutting its way into all levels of society. Before moving to LA I had never heard of meth. Ice? Tweaking? What’s that? But the man I loved knew about it. My boyfriend was an addict of meth. Through his chronic and heavy use, the man I loved dragged me into a disturbed and chaotic world, a place I never wanted to be that wreaked havoc on my life. For years F. had worked in the “industry”. He had come home to our hometown in Texas on a mysterious hiatus. Through a mutual friend we started to date. After being regaled by his tales of working in network TV, I started to think of own opportunities there. I’d always wanted to live in LA. After a year together, he asked me to return there with him. I finally agreed and within a week I had transferred jobs and found an apartment. He picked me up from the airport, as sweet as ever. During dinner, I thought “Everything’s going to be all right.” We went to his hotel room where I would stay until my place became free. When he came to bed that night sniffing, an alarm bell rang in my head. The word that came to me was “cocaine”. Though he’d admitted he had indulged when he was young, I assumed those days were past. And it was mid-May, hardly cold season. I loved being with him again so I ignored the warning sign. At 11:30pm the next night, he abruptly left. He was off to play a gig. Finally, at three a.m. he came to bed. Suddenly in a half sleep he grabbed me, held me and moaned: “P. I am so sorry, I am so sorry.” Why? It wasn’t just about being out late; that wail was a symptom of some deeper guilt. The next night he left again but this time he didn’t come home at all. At 4 am, my alarm bells were sounding. I tried to stay calm but I was devastated. How could he just leave me like that? Where were you all night? I asked, worry in my voice. I was at Kinko’s online looking for an apartment! Was that possible? It was the first in a thicket of lies to come. Meth addicts lie often and a lot, covering up a crazy lifestyle meth foists on them. Some mornings he was locked in the bathroom, screaming in pain. He had horrific stomach cramps and it sounded like someone was grabbing his intestines and twisting them. I was petrified. Was it the fruit and nut cake I brought from home? It lasted almost ten minutes yet he told me only to leave him alone. Typically he would spend hours in the bathroom with the door closed. It would be quiet in there and I wondered: what the hell is he doing? After a week of nocturnal disappearances, aloof, secretive behavior and a growing distance between us, I had to know what was wrong. So I snooped. Looking around, digging inside of his razor kit, I found what explained all. There, next to his dual-headed electric razor and shaving cream was a clipped, orange plastic straw, five inches long, and a small, empty bag with white crystal remains. After more than a year of dating, I never saw him have more than one drink and he did not smoke. Over the phone, a friend said most likely it was crystal meth.
(To Finish This Blog Article, Click Here) http://sarahjoysspace.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!4163E875C8DB7EE!553.entry

Monday, December 25, 2006

Leaving Your Spouse, Al Anon Doesn't Help You Pack

Al Anon doesn’t come to your house and help you leave your spouse. No one comes and helps you pack. For a long time after I did leave, I felt like I’d gone through a ‘Hurricane Katrina’ experience, but by choice. It was as if I flipped the switch that allowed my personal hurricane to come to town. I got out safely with clothes, dog, car, computer (not in that order).
I’d read support material from Al-Anon. I understood alcoholism and its affects on family. Life with an alcoholic spouse can make the non-alcoholic feel like they are the ‘crazy one’. Add the safety concern and eventually you know you gotta’ go. Swirling ~ the aftermath ~ what you are left with, is swirling. A sense of calm is beyond your ability.
A twin size mattress (no bed frame) and blanket were placed on the floor in the corner; it seemed best located there. It wasn't pretty; but it was safe.
When reaching for a household item that no longer existed, scissors, a hand towel, items of daily life, I recalled, like a swack to the back of my head, "Oh, yes, those things are gone - I'd gone through my own personal hurricane!"
I aspired to put my shoulders back, chin up and move on assuredly, but it's so much easier said than done.
It helps to be able to acknowledge a crappy deal, for sure. Yeah, life ain't fair and I was sittin' in the middle of a big crappy deal.
Would I try to negotiate a better financial and practical situation? Probably no. For me, I had to go when I had to go. That was my ability at it's best and for me there just wasn‘t a good time to leave my spouse.