Changes in Heroin Abuse Tracked

Posted by azdrugrehabctr on December 18, 2015 under Addiction Trends, Opiate Abuse, Prescription Drugs | Comments are off for this article

In order to effectively change the heroin abuse problem in the United States, researchers, health officials and law enforcement need to understand how the problem has changed throughout the years. Several decades ago it was more common to see heroin abuse in the inner city and among young people. Heroin addicts were usually minorities of the lower class. It was rare to see a heroin addict in their forties or fifties. However, this has all changed over time. Now, most heroin addicts are white, from middle to upper class families and more and more of them are in their fifties and sixties. Why such a big difference from the trends of the past? Most people are pointing to prescription painkillers as the catalyst for such a severe change.

And the change is severe. “According to reports in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the new generation of heroin users is older, predominantly white and living outside of inner-city urban neighborhoods. And the average age of first heroin use has increased from age 16 to over 23 and from equal numbers of white and nonwhite users to about 90% white,” explained Jeannie Diclementi, a psychologist who treats heroin abusers.

Older generations have a higher rate of being prescribed painkillers to manage chronic and acute pain. As people’s body’s age they are more likely to experience problems that prescription painkillers like OxyContin and Vicodin are designed to help. Many physicians prescribe these types of medicines because of the lack of understanding on how addictive these pills actually are. In fact, one of the biggest topics when it comes to prescription painkiller reform is educating doctors on addiction and the signs to watch out for. However, many people wonder if it is too late.

By the time a doctor notices that their patients are exhibiting signs of addiction, the problem has already occurred. This means that even when the painkillers are no longer prescribed, patients are seeking the therapeutic and euphoric effects of the drug. It becomes a quest to acquire the same feeling, a feeling that heroin easily supplies.

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Scott Weiland’s Ex-Wife Shared Different Take on His Death

Posted by azdrugrehabctr on December 14, 2015 under Addiction Trends, AZ Drug Rehab News | Comments are off for this article

When it was announced recently that Scott Weiland had passed away from a heart attack, the world began to mourn a lost artist. People flocked to social media to sing their praises for the man who had been an integral founding member and lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots. While his wife reassured the public that Weiland’s death was not caused by drugs, his ex-wife poignantly explains that drugs had everything to do with the star’s early passing. Mary Forsberg Weiland and the two children that she shared with Scott sat down to write an open letter about the dangers of addiction and how it very much destroyed their family.

The letter begins by explaining that Weiland’s struggles with addiction had changed him to the point where he was no longer a father, friend or even a star. Mary describes Scott’s life as an addict as only someone who was intimately involved can do. She points out that while the public has just learned about the death, she and her children basically had to say goodbye to Scott a long time ago. The picture of a rock star is quickly erased and replaced by a person who let paranoia, drugs and bad decisions take over his life. It is not the singer that the reader feels for, but instead his children. This is one of the many heart wrenching effects of addiction – the toll it takes on the family – one that echoes throughout the country.

Noah and Lucy are Scott and Mary’s two teenage children. They watched as their father faded out of their lives and chose drugs and people who negatively influenced him over them. While they did not expect their father to ever completely change, they always hoped that he would try a bit harder to be a part of their lives. Now that he has passed, so too has their hope for a father who is present.

Children of addicts are often the ones who suffer the most when a parent struggles with such a disorder. They are made watch over and over again how drugs can ruin lives. Mary explains that she wrote the letter to hopefully illustrate how focusing on the children and the countless times they are overlooked is much more important than mourning a lost star.

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