Posted by azdrugrehabctr on September 24, 2014 under AZ Drug Rehab News | 
In August, $1.6 million worth of drugs were seized within just a week at the Arizona-Mexico border. Law enforcement recently stepped up their drug-searching methods, a move which has been paying off handsomely. Once the drugs were seized, the suspects were turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations for further questioning. Drug-sniffing dogs were paramount to the cause.
In one seizure of many this week, officers working with drug dogs searched a woman’s car shortly after attempting to cross over from Mexico. They found 20 packages of marijuana under her floor weighing nearly 139 pounds. The drugs had a street value of $69,000.
During another incident, officers arrested an elderly man attempting to smuggle in 14 pounds of methamphetamine. After officers took a closer look at the vehicle where drug dogs had indicated, they found the meth, which had been hidden in a secret compartment between the two front seats. Later that day at the same checkpoint, officers found 22 pounds of cocaine hidden behind another vehicle’s airbag.
During a single week, seizures at the border added up to around $1.6 million. For border control, the battle against drug smuggling is a constant game of cat and mouse. Drug traffickers are always looking for different ways to smuggle the drugs into the country and border control is challenged to stay one step ahead if they want to succeed in controlling the border.
At the end of the week, officers had confiscated drugs hidden in several different places: above a vehicle’s front fender, hidden compartments between seats and behind airbags, inside car seats, inside a vehicle’s doors, under the floor of a vehicle, in suitcases, under a truck bed, and in the crotch area of a woman’s pants.
With the high demand for drugs in our country, it is unlikely that drug smugglers will stop trying to get drugs into our country anytime soon. If we, as a nation, can get to the root of the problem and lower the demand for drugs, perhaps we can make more headway in the fight for the border.
Posted by azdrugrehabctr on September 20, 2014 under Prescription Drugs |
Robin Thicke has had a roller coaster of a year. His song “Blurred Lines” was a huge success. The fan and media attention that he received from the hit single was enough to jump-start a lackluster career, however there have been some serious problems along the way.
Several months ago Thicke’s wife, Paula Patton, left the singer after almost twenty years of marriage. He has recently come out to say that the separation was because of his behavior and that he has also been under the influence of drugs and alcohol. In addition to his substance abuse problems, Robin Thicke is also being sued by the family of Marvin Gaye, claiming that “Blurred Lines” is a copy of “Got to Give It Up”.
During his recent deposition, Thicke admitted that he was so heavily under the influence of drugs and alcohol throughout the making of the song and the press afterwards that he doesn’t remember much. He admits to abusing prescription painkillers like Vicodin and Norco. In fact, Thicke is on the record during several interviews claiming that he helped write “Blurred Lines”, however he now says that it was mostly Pharrell Williams and that he just wanted to share in the credit of having written such a hit song.
Prescription drug abuse is a problem that is being felt throughout the country. Shockingly, children are the most affected by the prescription drug abuse trend. More and more high school children are coming into contact with prescription drugs and the peer pressure to try pills like Vicodin and Norcos is continuing to mount. When singers like Robin Thicke also abuse prescription painkillers what message does it send to our children?
Even with the concentrated efforts of law enforcement, policy makers, health care providers, educators and parents, fighting prescription drug abuse among teens is a losing battle when Hollywood openly admits to abusing the same drugs.
Posted by azdrugrehabctr on September 17, 2014 under Opiate Abuse, Prescription Drugs |
An alarming trend has started to develop where children are being poisoned by buprenorphine, which a drug commonly prescribed to treat opiate addiction. Suboxone is a form of buprenorphine and is usually prescribed to heroin or opiate addicts to help them get over the painful withdrawal symptoms associated with the drug use. Suboxone comes in the form of a dissolvable strip that is placed under the tongue. Since the medication contains a synthetic opiate, it can be very dangerous for children.
The study shows that Suboxone was the most common drug stated during emergency room visits for children aged six and younger. This means that not only are these children gaining access to this harmful drug, but it also means that they are surrounded by someone or a group of people who are or have been abusing opiates. In its pure state, buprenorphine is actually much more powerful than morphine.
The study showed that for every 100,000 people who are prescribed buprenorphine, 200 children will be hospitalized from the medication. Almost 800 children were hospitalized last year for buprenorphine poisoning, with some of them not making it out alive.
Some people wonder if the reason why these children are gaining access to the drug is because the parents or guardians are irresponsible. In order to be in a situation where one needs Suboxone, the person has to be dependent on heroin or prescription painkillers in the first place. There can be a carelessness associated with the behavior.
Thankfully, the Federal Government wasted no time in ordering that new childproof packaging be developed for medicine like Suboxone. It is believed that this new packaging will help reduce the number of children from ingesting the drug. Other buprenorphine makers are also marketing individually wrapped tablets. It is thought that these individually wrapped tablets can reduce the harm associated with accidental overdoses by children. However, regardless of how the Suboxone is packaged, it is vital that it is kept far out of reach of children.
Posted by azdrugrehabctr on September 10, 2014 under AZ Drug Rehab News |
Despite the mounting efforts exhibited by Arizona border control, there is still an alarming amount of heroin getting through from Mexico. Once the heroin crosses over into the United States, it is then shipped throughout the country.
Unfortunately, as the heroin spreads through to different cities and states, suburban youth are the most targeted clients of drug dealers. The work that Arizona border control is doing to police the thousands of people who attempt to come into Arizona on a daily basis is helping somewhat, but there is more work to be done to put a significant dent into the heroin trafficking into the United States.
Heroin can be hidden in just about anything. Arizona border control has learned that heroin can be strapped to a baby, hidden in any part of a car, even inside tires. Another scary trend that is being noticed throughout Arizona is that some people are simply walking across the state line carrying the heroin themselves. Agents have picked up grandmothers and children carrying heroin for drug cartels. Had the heroin not been intercepted it would have gone on to safe houses where it would have been distributed to waiting transporters for further distribution.
Once the heroin leaves Arizona it usually travels to major cities throughout the United States, and the usual destination is often into teenagers’ hands. The alarming number of youth who are abusing heroin is growing at a rate that is shocking law enforcement and families throughout the country. “We’ve seen a number of deaths and overdoses among young people – people who are naïve about heroin,” says Gil Kerlikowske the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
In the past, young adults have had to travel to the inner city to obtain the heroin they are seeking. Now, because there is such a demand for the potent drug, most teenagers can get their hands on heroin without ever having to leave their town. As the drug makes it way from the Arizona border into the homes of many American families, it may be time to look at alternative ways to combat the growing heroin problem in the country.
