Karen’s Free Health and Fitness Tips

There are about 10,000 drug rehabilitation and treatment centers in the country today. And each one may use varying programs to deal with addiction. But generally, drug addiction treatments are grouped into three categories.

Kinds of Treatments

Addicts of certain substances can be treated in outpatient settings. Patients are subjected to methadone, a medication taken orally. Methadone suppresses cravings and prevents withdrawal symptoms from surfacing. With sustained dosage, a person can be stabilized and can function normally.

This is the first step taken to prepare a patient for counseling and further treatments. With the medication, a patient can be more receptive to interventions such as physiotherapies and group counseling.

The second kind of treatment involves a medication called naltrexone. The medication is administered after detoxification of the patient in a residential setting. This is to prevent withdrawal syndrome in the patient. A patient takes this drug orally daily or thrice a week, depending on the prescription of his physician. The drug inhibits cravings for addictive drugs. But in order for this medication to work, sustained counseling is needed.

Drug abuse has often been linked to ill health, mental retardation and untimely deaths. If you are to steer clear of drug abuse, you need to ensure that you take good care of your health and continue to make an effort to steer clear of trouble. There are various ways to reduce drug abuse. Over here what is more important is to avoid it’s over dose. Well, let us discuss some of the consequences of a drug overdose.

You Can Spoil Your Mental Balance

In case you happen to be habitual to drug overdose, you can be rest assured that you would never be able to maintain good health. Drug overdose is said to affect your mental balance the most. This is so as the chemical which is secreted through the means of these drugs comes into a direct contact with the chemicals in our brains. This is when we tend to spoil our existing chemical balance.

You Can Adversely Affect Your Health

Drug abuse or drug addiction produces significant and identifiable physical signs. Recognition of these is often the first step towards helping this person towards recovery.

The sooner these signs are recognized, brought to the forefront and addressed, the more likely catastrophic consequences can be avoided. It is not a realistic option to ignore a drug problem and simply hope it goes away. Drug abuse and drug addiction is progressive it will always get worse.

The following is a list of the physical symptoms for the most commonly abused substances:

Marijuana

Marijuana works on the parts of the brain affecting emotion regulation and memory. Symptoms will include being spaced out, glazed eyes, sleepiness. Often there is loud talking or inappropriate silliness and laughter. There may be fatigue, reduced concentration and coordination. Not uncommon is a loss if interest in formerly pleasurable hobbies or activities. There may be a general loss of motivation along with weight gain or loss, and altered perceptions.

Central nervous system depressants (includes barbiturates and tranquilizers):

Symptoms often include a slowed down breathing rate, slow response time to conversation or activities, and difficulty concentrating along with confusion. There may be clumsiness and lack of coordination, sleepiness, memory loss, and depression.

In this country the term “drug abuse” is a very often misused term. When you hear or read the term “drug abuse”, what pops into your mind? Things like cocaine, heroine methamphetamines, marijuana, and crack, right? And you think of completely out of touch ‘junkies’ living on the streets, selling whatever they can for money, right? Or, at least the types of drugs listed here to be the ‘real’ drugs, right? These are the drugs that people abuse, right?

Drug abuse in the form of alcohol, nicotine, and prescription drugs is actually much more prevalent in our culture, but no one wants to talk about that. If you have a six pack in the comfort of your own home, you don’t abuse drugs, right? If you smoke cigarettes, while disgusting, you’re not thought of as a drug abuser are you? If you take a pill everyday, that a doctor told you that you could take, and that pill alters your ‘reality’ somehow, is that drug abuse?

Drug abuse by teenagers is very common, which can lead to disastrous consequences in the future. A large proportion of deaths in people between 15 and 24 are reportedly connected in some way or the other to drug or alcohol abuse. Such abuse also leads to violent criminal acts, such as assault, murder or rape. Some young people also take drugs to overcome depression and anxiety.

If a young member of your family suddenly starts behaving in a aberrant manner or tries to keep aloof from other family members, you have some reasons to be suspicious. Physical signs like red eyes, nagging cough, and changes in eating and sleeping habits should also serve as warning signals.

A teenager with a family history of drug abuse and a lack of social skills can move rapidly from the level of experimentation to grave abuse or dependency. Some other teenagers, who have no family history of such abuse, may also reach the level of utter dependency. Although any prediction is almost impossible, teenagers with a family history of alcohol or drug abuse should especially abstain and refrain from experimenting.

Mexican trafficking organizations are the ones that are responsible for the heavy influx of most varieties of drugs in the state of Colorado. While the distribution of marijuana, methamphetamine, heroin, and cocaine is under their control, club drugs are mostly distributed by independent traffickers who depend of suppliers both within and outside the United States. As such, street gangs that are a part of criminal organizations operating in Texas, Mexico, and California provide the drugs to users. Easy availability of drugs in Colorado is a contributing factor in the increase in the number of drug users and the number of meth users has more than doubled from 2000 to 2005.

Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) declared that the number of DUI arrests for New Year’s Eve holiday went up to 449, which was much higher than the previous year’s record of 407. These arrests were done during the enforcement period of The Heat Is On Campaign and speak volumes about the popularity of drugs in parties and clubs. More than eighty percent of convicts in Colorado prisons are believed to have substance-abuse problems and many of them have landed up in jail due to drug related crime.

There are so many negative results of drug abuse that it is a wonder that the problem persists in society. Drug abuse can refer to any type of substance abuse. Some substances are legally obtainable, others are available only on prescription and many are completely illegal.

You may be worried that a friend or family member may be abusing drugs but you are not sure what to look for. Do not ignore your hunch. If you perceive changes in the person’s health or behavior that the person themselves is reluctant to explain then you have good enough reason to suspect drug abuse.

One of the first results of drug abuse is the appearance of drug paraphernalia in or around the person’s possession. Look out for needles, glasses and mirrors used for snorting, cigarette papers, blackened spoons used for heating substances, empty solvent canisters etc. These items can often be found in the trash.

Does the person you suspect suddenly need a lot of money? Drug abuse is often a costly behavior and the person is often desperate for money to feed their addiction. You may notice that even if the person needs a lot of money there is no apparent evidence of their spending. Indeed, you may notice that they are looking more and more impoverished rather than the other way round.

Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or D.A.R.E., as it is more popularly known, is an international education program for drug abuse awareness and targets students from kindergarten through 12th grade. It aims at discouraging youngsters from using illegal drugs, or getting involved in gangs and other criminal activities.

D.A.R.E. was founded in 1983 to wage a war against the growing evils of drug abuse. It has expanded all over the world since that time. Students who decide to join the program sign a pledge to never use drugs or join gangs. The local law enforcement agency delivers a series of lectures over a period of seventeen weeks to make students aware of the dangers of drug abuse. According to the D.A.R.E. website, 36 million children around the world, (26 million children are in the US,) are part of the program. 80% of the nation’s school districts implement this program. It also actively runs in 55 countries around the world.

Drug Abuse Resistance Education is a combined effort by D.A.R.E. certified law enforcement officers, educators, students, parents and communities. The basic aim of D.A.R.E is to help students identify the various threats and harms of drug abuse. They also provide support to students so that they can resist any peer pressure, which may entice them to experiment with alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, inhalants or other drugs.

In this article I will discuss about the drug abuse facts that you need to know. First and foremost, the definitions: drug habituation refers to the psychological dependence on certain drugs. In other words, it is a state of an individual who is physically dependent on the drugs yet not addicted to it. Drug addiction is the habitual use of a particular drug, getting hold of it and making it on one’s top priority over other things. Drug abuse means the use of illegal drugs or the abuse of prescription or over-the-counter drugs in quantities or amounts other than indicated therein and for reasons or manner other than those for which they’re directed.

If we have drug abuse problems pervading in our midst, what could be the root cause of this? Actually, the root cause/s of the problem are too diverse, ranging from teens belonging in a single parent family, some persons with dysfunctional families, teens with a record of drug abuse running in their families, even youngsters of Latin origin, and especially those economically deprived kids. Furthermore, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), they run a survey which is researching and analyzing the trends since several years and it demonstrates that there’s actually a considerable diminished use of all kinds or types of drugs excluding those inhalants.

Drug abuse and crime in Florida are closely related. The crime rate in Florida or in the entire country could be significantly reduced if repeat offenders were required to submit to addiction treatment. It is widely accepted that the use of drugs in penal institutes is as prevalent as the use on the streets. If an offender enters a penitentiary with a drug abuse problem they can continue to nurse their problem while incarcerated. In the rare case that someone enters prison without a drug problem they can become addicted during their sentence.

The Office of Drug Control estimates that 150-200 metric tons of cocaine and three metric tons of heroin arrive in Florida every year. To date, there is no reliable estimate of the amounts of marijuana or designer drugs being transported through our State, but law enforcement testimony leads us to believe that the volume is very high. Based on the testimony we received, we believe billions of narco-dollars are laundered through Florida’s commercial and banking establishments every year.

When an offender re-enters the streets of Florida with a drug addiction and no immediate means to support themselves or their habit they become recidivists. Returning to crime is the option taken most often by these individuals. The criminal justice system is riddled with this recurring problem which negatively impacts Florida residents.