Demi Lovato Opens Up About Cocaine, Alcohol Abuse

Lovato hit bottom at 19 years old.
Photo via Shutterstock

Demi Lovato, once a child actress who appeared on Barney & Friends, has offered the first detailed look at her past with substance abuse in an exclusive interview with Access Hollywood. “I had all the help in the world, but I didn't want it," she said.

Lovato admitted for the first time her problems with alcohol and cocaine abuse in the interview, stating that drugs were “no longer fun” and became so problematic that she even hid her use from her sober living companion. "Something I've never talked about before, but with my drug use I could hide it to where I would sneak drugs,” she said. “I couldn't go without 30 minutes to an hour without cocaine and I would bring it on airplanes.”

The star also admitted to drinking Sprite bottles filled with vodka at 9 a.m. and throwing up on her way back to her sober living house in Los Angeles, one of several moments she hit on her slide to rock bottom. "I think at 19 years old, I had a moment where I was like, ‘Oh my God…that is alcoholic behavior,'” Lovato said. “[I]t was, wow, I'm one of those people…I gotta get my shit together.”

Lovato has stated in the past that she suffered from bipolar disorder, which she learned about in treatment, and admitted to cutting as a means of coping with her problems. But since completing treatment in January 2011, she has been opening up more in interviews about her past issues with mental health, eating disorders, and substance abuse, and in November she published her memoir, Staying Strong: 365 Days a Year, that alludes to her struggles.

POWER IN THE PROVERB

December 11 v 2 POWER IN THE PROVERB

Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.

STEP 1 :We admitted we were powerless over our dependencies

And our lives had become unmanageable.

Pride can do a lot more than bring disgrace. Pride can put you into an early grave. My pride left me homeless blaming everyone in the world for my messed up life. Step one will save your life but pride does not want that. There were so many people in my life who wanted to help me, but I knew all things so they were just trying to control me. Pride blinded me to the fact that my life was out of control. Alone and desperate is where it left me.There is a saying that is true.Pride comes before the fall. Pride can kill you or save you and in my case during the fall is where I found the Step (1) that saved me.

For more Power in the Proverb and all the latest recovery news.

VIsit :www.joseph-recoveryconnections.blogspot.com

Trapped on Suboxone

Suboxone, touted as a miracle drug to help ease addiction to heroin, does not need to become your next addiction





Out of the frying pan... Photo via


By Jennifer Matesa


12/02/13


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Addicted to Suboxone
Meet the "Robin Hood" of Suboxone
Reckitt Pulls Its Suboxone Tablets From the US Market
Video: Kristen Johnston's Gutsy Suboxone Admission
The Truth About Suboxone


You got a problem with Vikes, Oxys or heroin? Go ahead, find a doctor to script you Suboxone. Or look on Craigslist for somebody selling their surplus.


But watch out, you might never get off.


The recent New York Times investigation into the “miracle-drug” that’s “saving” addicts finally began to expose something that many of us who have taken Suboxone have known for years: its manufacturer, Reckitt Benckiser, has employed aggressive tactics to find physicians interested in making loads of cash by turning the growing pool of painkiller addicts into Suboxone Lifers. And Reckitt also tries like hell to manipulate the FDA approval process, just so they can hoard the painkiller-addict market for themselves.


Reckitt can get away with convincing doctors that addicts need to be maintained on Suboxone because—as the Times story notes—common belief holds that painkiller addicts can never be drug-free. We’re told we’ve permanently screwed up our neurology. Popular thinking goes: Once you junkies take drugs, you might as well stay on drugs for life.


Today I’d rather have a good orgasm with someone I care about than all the Oxy or Sub in my local Rite Aid.


To support this belief, Reckitt and its growing army of reps offer twisted interpretations of research studies and anecdotal evidence about addiction and Suboxone. They claim studies “prove” that replacing painkillers with buprenorphine (the opioid drug in Suboxone) helps us stay “clean.” Ditch the old drug for the new drug and we stop shooting, snorting, stealing, doctor-shopping, tricking.


Same logic pharma used in the late 1800s when heroin was promoted as a “safe” replacement for alcohol and morphine.


Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying drugs are inherently bad, and buprenorphine has a place in the ever-expanding American drug arsenal. That place is primarily as a detox tool—the purpose for which the FDA originally approved the drug in 2002. Suboxone saved my life when I used it this way. In 2008 a family physician licensed to prescribe Suboxone managed my detox from the fentanyl I’d been given for more than three years for migraine and fibromyalgia, despite studies showing opioid painkillers aren’t the best treatment for these disorders. Given my genetic history and psychological profile—which were not documented as part of my medical history: in other words, the pain specialists didn’t screen me properly for risk of addiction—repeated exposure to these drugs flipped the addiction ON-switch. By the end I was changing dates on scripts (a felony each time) and being picked up for petty crimes like compulsive shoplifting.


After watching my 68-year-old father die of cirrhosis and cancer, my desperation to live drug-free increased even as my addiction flushed me further down the sewer. I knew that if I were going to try to detox, I’d have to hire yet another doctor; my pain specialist was awesome at getting me on drugs, but she hadn’t the first clue how to get me off.


If my “Sub doc” had believed—as so many doctors do—that somebody like me could never be drug-free, I’d without a doubt still be on drugs today. Hell, which of us inside active addiction believes we can do without drugs? I’d also be experiencing nasty side-effects for which people who read my addiction-and-recovery blog write in asking for help. Long-term Suboxone “therapy” can shut down the endocrine system and cause thyroid dysfunction, low testosterone, and premature menopause, leading to a cascade of other health problems including infertility and osteoporosis.


Oh yeah, and say sayonara to sex! I feel for the folks who tell me they can no longer get it on or get it up. I was on Suboxone for just two months and it killed off my sex-drive the way all the other opioid drugs did. And quite frankly that’s saying a lot, because I have a strong sex-drive. But in order to feel that part of my life, I have to be off drugs. Today I’d rather have a good orgasm with someone I care about than all the Oxy or Sub in my local Rite Aid. I cannot have that connection while I’m on drugs.


Read the comments section of the Times story and you’ll see people believe you can’t use Suboxone to get high. This is bullshit: you can. I have in my files emails from people who are in prison and abusing Suboxone; people who started using Suboxone while in rehab and discovered they could get sky-high; suburban American college kids who chip Suboxone because it numbs out their self-doubt; ordinary folks who have asked their doctors for help with a 50 or 60 mg Vicodin or Percocet habit and were kicked into Suboxone programs, where their little baby drug-habits and relatively unscathed nervous systems were bombed out with 16 to 24 mg of Suboxone—the equivalent, in binding power (not analgesic power), to upwards of 800 mg of morphine. These are the stories that piss me off, and they are not being represented in the press.


It’s damn hard to get off Suboxone. It dissolves in body-fat and sticks to the body’s painkiller receptors like Liquid Nails. For many people it’s hell to scrape off without professional management and a social support system. After quitting, it can take months for the drug and its metabolites to leave the body. I’ve spoken to heroin addicts who would feel better within two weeks of kicking smack who, after doing time on Suboxone, have never felt normal again. I know some doctors who, based upon vast anecdotal evidence, think this drug—an opioid partial-agonist, a substance that does not occur in nature—does special kinds of harm to the body that researchers haven’t yet discovered.


Just like doctors who can’t detox their patients off painkillers, most doctors who prescribe Suboxone don’t know how to help their patients quit. So the patients wind up asking me to be their doctor. One woman recently begged me to manage her detox in exchange for payment. I declined, but I was left shocked at the desperation of some folks out there to live a drug-free life, so much so that they will contact a total stranger and offer cash for an amateur detox. This speaks to the sorry state of treatment (not to mention the general health-care system) in this country.


These folks read my blog, they know I got off drugs including Suboxone, and they can see I’m living a productive drug-free life. I write them back, but I can’t be their doctor. The best I can do is keep writing stories like these, and letting policymakers, researchers, and practitioners know that they need to open their minds about how well most addicts can live, how much we can heal.


Jennifer Matesa is a Voice Award Fellow at the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and is the author of the blog Guinevere Gets Sober. Her forthcoming nonfiction book about physical and spiritual fitness for living clean and sober is due out Fall 2014.

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December 10 v 24 POWER IN THE PROVERB
 

What the wicked dread will overtake them;
what the righteous desire will be granted.
STEP 2:Came to believe that God, a Power greater than ourselves,
could restore us to sanity and stability.

The Proverb makes it simple and clear !A relationship with GOD is a two way street .He wants us to change our wicked ways and in return our desire for sobriety will be granted.Start small instead of stealing to feed your addiction try earning your money.Show him your sincere in your relationship. Somewhere deep down inside of me was a tiny desire too stop living the way I was living .That tiny desire was a seed of faith we have inside all of us. I started with telling the truth The Proverb brings it home for me ,there are a lot of brothers and sisters of mine who have been consumed by the wickedness of addiction , too many. Realizing you cant do it on your own is not weakness it is STRENGTH and COURAGE . Please make it to step 2 and put an end to the wickedness. Change your behavior show GOD your willing to put and end too the wickedness and your desire for sobriety will be granted.

For more POWER IN THE PROVERB ,all the latest recovery news and other resources.
VISIT: www.joseph-recoveryconnections.blogspot.com

New Silk Road Operator: Illegal Drug Website Has Backup Locations Worldwide
 

By Join Together Staff | December 9, 2013 | Leave a comment | Filed in Drugs & Marketing And Media

The operator of the new Silk Road website, which sells illegal drugs, says he has distributed encrypted portions of the site’s source code to 500 locations in 17 countries. He claims this will allow the site to be relaunched immediately if law enforcement shuts it down again.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation shut down Silk Road in October, and arrested the operator in San Francisco on narcotics and money-laundering charges. Silk Road could only be accessed by using encryption software called Tor, which shields computers’ IP addresses, allowing people to make purchases anonymously. Silk Road facilitated more than $30 million in sales annually. It had been online since February 2011.

In November, a new online marketplace that sells illegal drugs opened. It also calls itself Silk Road. The new website looks the same as the shuttered Silk Road. It lists hundreds of ads for drugs including marijuana, cocaine and Ecstasy, and uses bitcoins, the anonymous digital currency used by the old site.

The new site says it includes measures to keep users from losing bitcoins if the site shuts down. Like the old site, the new Silk Road can only be accessed by using Tor encryption software.

Last week, the new Silk Road operator said the new backup scheme also includes distributing portions of the site’s cryptographic keys, to decrypt pieces of the site’s source code, to locations around the globe. According to Forbes, “the backup system may be a first step towards a decentralized system without a single point of failure for law enforcement to attack.”

Senators Tell FDA They Disagree with Decision to Approve Pure Hydrocodone Drug
 
By Join Together Staff | December 9, 2013 | 2 Comments | Filed in Government & Prescription Drugs

Four U.S. senators told the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) they disagree with the agency’s decision to approve a pure version of the painkiller hydrocodone, Newsday reports.

Senators Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Dianne Feinstein of California, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, wrote to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg that the decision “will only contribute to the rising toll of addiction and death” caused by the prescription drug epidemic.

In October, the FDA approved the first pure hydrocodone drug in the United States. The drug, Zohydro ER (extended release), was approved for patients with pain that requires daily, around-the-clock, long-term treatment that cannot be treated with other drugs. Drugs such as Vicodin contain a combination of hydrocodone and other painkillers such as acetaminophen.

In December, a panel of experts assembled by the FDA voted against recommending approval of Zohydro ER. The panel cited concerns over the potential for addiction. In the 11-2 vote against approval, the panel said that while the drug’s maker, Zogenix, had met narrow targets for safety and efficacy, the painkiller could be used by people addicted to other opioids, including oxycodone.

The agency will require postmarketing studies of Zohydro ER to evaluate the known serious risks of misuse, abuse, increased sensitivity to pain, addiction, overdose, and death associated with long-term use beyond 12 weeks.

Zohydro is designed to be released over time, and can be crushed and snorted by people seeking a strong, quick high. The opioid drug OxyContin has been reformulated to make it harder to crush or dissolve, but Zohydro does not include similar tamper-resistant features, the newspaper notes. The senators said it was irresponsible of the FDA to approve Zohydro without similar safeguards.

In an email to the newspaper, FDA spokesman Morgan Liscinsky said “abuse-deterrent formulations” are not available for some extended-release painkillers.

POWER IN THE PROVERB

December 9v6 POWER IN THE PROVERB
 

Leave your simple ways behind, and begin to live ; learn to use good judgment.
STEP 3 : We made a decision to turn our wills and our lives over to the care of God.
How long is gona take to realize life was not meant to be lived this way.Looking back I was a rebel without a clue wreckless and senseless.Hopefully those of you who are still struggling listen to the Proverb and take that step before its too late.There are way too many who leave this world way too soon.
For more Power in the Proverb and other great recovery resources Visit www.joseph
-recoveryconnections.blogspot.com

Ken Seeley
Founder at Intervention911
Calling All Treatment Professionals ,

Intervention 911 is excited to announce two upcoming events:
Our next Intervention Training will be held in
Delray Beach Florida January 30-Febuary 1st 2014

We are proud to announce that this training has been approved by the Pennsylvania Certification Board and attendees will receive 28 CE hours specific to intervention that will qualify for the 80 CE hours required for the new Certified Intervention Professional (CIP).

Don’t miss the opportunity to be grandfathered in (NO TEST REQUIRED) and secure your CIP prior to April 1, 2014.
For more information please see the link below
http://thetreatmentcommunity.com/training/interventionist/
________________________________________________________________________

Our Next Treatment Center Seminar
will be held at The Hardrock Hotel Palm Springs California
February 7- 8 Working With Difficult Clients
Sponsored by: Alere & Sovereign Health

This two-day seminar gives you the opportunity to reach out and explain to your colleagues what you do and what your facility is about – to meet, dine and socialize with like-minded professionals to learn from each other and – to grow our outreach together to reach more of those in need then just doing it alone.
For more information please see the link below
http://thetreatmentcommunity.com/training/treatment-centers/
For further information on attending any of our events please email Chelsea@intervention911.com

Just a sneak peek at what we have going on in 2014:

Treatment Center Seminar 2014
Feb 7-8: Working With Difficult Clients
May 2-3: Dissecting The Family Systems
Aug 1-2: Aftercare: How Long & Best Practices
Nov 7-8: Marketing Strategies For A Changing Landscape

Intervention Training 2014
March 25-28: Atlanta
June 20-22: San Francisco
July 30- Aug 1: (TBD) Nashville- Memphis- DC
October 17-19: Palm Springs

Reply to Ken


TIP You can respond to this message by replying to this email

December 7 v 2 v 3 POWER IN THE PROVERB

Obey my commands and live!

Guard my instructions as you guard your own eyes.[a]

Tie them on your fingers as a reminder.

Write them deep within your heart.

STEP 11 :Sought through prayer and meditation on God's word to increase our Fellowship with Him, praying continually for the knowledge of His will for us and the power of His might to 

accomplish it.

Living sober and sane is His will for us.We were created with the ability to choose.What GOD seeks is a personal relationship with us HIS children.My choices kept me far from HIM because my choices were wrong and sinful. Some people rebel against their heavenly father like they do with their earthly father.That does not make us bad kids , it makes us human .GOD wants a real relationship with us and step eleven helps us develop that. GOD has dreams for your future and wants you to reach your maximum potential. That's why the Proverb is so important .GOD is not telling you what to do ,but showing what to do in order to reach your maximum potential. Next time you walk pass a cemetery take a moment to think that each one of those stones is a story . How many never made it to step eleven and are forever separated from HIM. GOD loves us so much not only did HE give us HIS only SON to die for us ,HE wrote us a one thousand page plus instruction manual ,now that's love.

For more of POWER IN THE PROVERB and other great recovery news ,events and free resources.

Visit : www.joseph-recoveryconnections.blogspot.com

Medication-Assisted Treatment for Opoid Dependence

By John R. Knight MD and Melissa M. Weiksnar | December 6, 2013 | 9 Comments | Filed in Addiction, Healthcare & Prescription Drugs


Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) for opioid dependence is a science-based and proven-effective option for teens and young adults. It should be administered with age appropriate psychosocial therapy and drug testing. Unfortunately, it has been subject to controversy and stigma. Yet the neuroscience of addiction and cravings helps explain why MAT, when properly used and overseen, can be truly life saving for adolescents, young adults, and their families. I see it working all the time. When kids come into treatment, their lives are just chaotic. Parents are desperate — they don’t know what to do or where to turn. The most important thing is to bring stability into the situation, and the best way to do that is with medication.

The scientific evidence is incontrovertible: addiction is a brain disease – and can be especially severe when substance abuse starts early in life. Since the brain continues to grow and develop through the twenties, it’s very vulnerable to the effects of any exogenous substance. Early drug use makes almost permanent changes to both the structure and function of the brain, which has profound implications for the rest of a person’s life.

A parent bringing their child into treatment wants to maximize the chance that the child can abstain from the drug so the brain can heal and preclude the lifelong struggles of adult addiction. Scientific studies show that psychosocial treatments alone (i.e. without medication) show relatively poor results. Part of the reason has to do with cravings. Here’s why.

When a person takes a drug, the brain feels an enormous “high” in the reward system. It then implants a memory in the limbic system — the “lizard brain” — where memories of pleasures such as food and sex are stored. Anything having to do with procuring or using the drug becomes part of the memory and can produce a craving years later, even if a person hasn’t used the drug. The “trigger” could be a happy event, sadness, or seeing a syringe or some white powder or smelling an alcohol wipe. All of a sudden that memory flooding in generates an enormous craving to use the drug again.

One of the medications used in treatment, buprenorphine, is a partial agonist of the brain’s opiate receptors: when it “locks in”, it both eliminates cravings and blocks the “high” should someone inject heroin or take an opioid painkiller. As a partial agonist, buprenorphine has advantages over methadone, a full agonist, whose side-effects can include sleepiness, shallow breathing, or even death.

Studies suggest that over 60 percent of people on buprenorphine therapy have very positive outcomes. In our highly-structured program at Boston Children’s Hospital about a third of the children remain completely free from any alcohol and drug use. About another third remain free from opioid use but they might have an occasional slip on alcohol or marijuana. (We tend to not approve of that behavior and keep working with them). And the remaining third, particularly early on, will try opioids once or twice. But even after those early slips they show dramatic improvement over time.

In my 30-plus years as a pediatrician, I’ve always believed that the best treatment occurs in the least restrictive environment. Therefore our clinical program is outpatient-based. These children are living at home, and their parents are an integral part of the treatment team. We empower parents to supervise the prescription-taking, and both adolescents and parents participate in a 13-week education and support group.

As far as stigma, it breaks my heart when kids hear that “You’re not really clean and sober. Buprenorphine is just a substitute addiction.” I tell them, “Listen, you’re on replacement therapy. It does not make you high. It stabilizes your brain cells until they can recover. Please give it a year. Then we can talk about tapering off. OK?”

My advice to parents and teens is: check out medication in a reputable program. It could make the big difference in helping your child turn the corner and find sobriety. Over time medication can be tapered down. Does it always work? No. Are there accounts of abuse and unscrupulous practices? Unfortunately yes, and they must be investigated. But these negatives don’t negate MAT’s lifesaving value in helping treat the disease of addiction.

If someone says, “Well your child isn’t really clean,” walk away because those people just don’t know. The folks disseminating this misinformation are really doing a disservice because if we dissuade families from using this life-saving therapy we’re going to lose kids. We have to remember the tragedies: when kids are taken off or deprived of this medication they can die. And we don’t have any teens to spare. Not one. I’m not willing to see any more needless deaths.

John R. Knight, MD with Melissa M. Weiksnar

John Knight, MD, is a leading pediatrician at Harvard Medical School, specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of adolescent substance abuse. He is the Director of the Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research at Children’s Hospital Boston, and a nationally recognized advocate for families’ involvement in adolescent addiction treatment.

Melissa Weiksnar is a Program Coordinator at the Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research (CeASAR) at Boston Children’s Hospital. She is a also a writer, speaker, and advocate for substance abuse prevention and treatment. She earned an S.B. in Economics from MIT and an MBA from Harvard.

PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Anders Brun and colleagues, Neuroimaging Research Center, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA. ©Copyright Anders Brun/McLean Hospital 2013. All rights reserved.

Celebrating a Sober Holiday Season Together

RSVP Today for Free Family Seminar

Free Family Seminar

Tuesday, December 10, 6-8 pm

This holiday season brings natural questions about staying sober and how loved ones can support sobriety.
Find help and ideas with us.
6-8 PM at Livengrin's Shanahan Hall
4833 Hulmeville Road, Bensalem, PA 19020
Free Parking
To view and print the Seminar flyer, click here
To register, call 215-638-5200, ext. 162
or email dcohen@livengrin.org

To learn about other upcoming Livengrin events, please visit ourcalendar page.

2014 Family Seminars will be Offered Monthly

**Seminars moved to Oxford Valley Counseling Center**

195 Bristol-Oxford Valley Road, Langhorne

Mon., Jan 13: Importance of Self-Care: Take Time for You

Mon., Feb 10: Stages of Dependency

Mon., Mar 10: Dealing with Grief and Loss

Learn More at:

Livengrin Website

Support the Foundation




During its 47 years of service, more than 120,000 people have come to Livengrin to learn how to be healthy, sober and a part of their families, work and communities again. You can play a role in a person's success story - make a contribution, volunteer, and tell someone about the help and hope to be found at Livengrin. There's information, guidance and much more to learn throughout our website.

Addiction News | Drug Abuse & Alcohol – The Fix

Addiction News | Drug Abuse & Alcohol – The Fix

Trapped on Suboxone | The Fix

Trapped on Suboxone | The Fix

December 6 v 23 POWER IN THE PROVERB

For the commandment is a lamp,

And the law a light;

Reproofs of instruction are the way of life

STEP 6 . We are entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

Well are you ! Some say they are but as soon as you start to talk about stuff they need to change the wall goes up. The Proverb is right on reproofs are a way of life . My philosophy has always been Instigate , agitate , educate and liberate. If you are ready this step could sting but it will bring Liberty. Use GODS word (Bible) as a lamp to lead you out of the darkness of addiction. God will reshape your life if you will let HIM.

For more of POWER IN THE PROVERB and other great recovery news ,events and free resources.

Visit : www.joseph-recoveryconnections.blogspot.com

Danish Drug Company Egalet Aims to Make Abuse-Deterrent Hydrocodone | The Fix

Danish Drug Company Egalet Aims to Make Abuse-Deterrent Hydrocodone | The Fix

About 1 Percent of Anesthesiology Residents Have Substance Use Disorder: Study

By Join Together Staff | December 5, 2013 | Leave a comment | Filed inPrescription Drugs

Slightly less than 1 percent of anesthesiology residents in the United States have a substance use disorder, according to a new study. The incidence of substance use has been increasing, and relapse rates are not improving, the researchers said.

The study followed 45,000 anesthesiology residents who began their training between 1975 and 2009, HealthDay reports. They found the overall rate of substance abuse was 0.86 percent. Rates were higher at the beginning of the study, and decreased between 1996 and 2002. They began rising again in 2003.

Twenty-eight anesthesiology residents died due to substance abuse during the study period. Among others who abused substances, 43 percent had at least one relapse over the following 30 years, and 11 percent died from a substance use disorder. The most commonly abused substances were intravenous opioids, alcohol, marijuana, cocaine and anesthetics/hypnotics.

The findings are published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

December 5 v 21 POWER IN THE PROVERB 

For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord,

And He ponders all his paths.

STEP : 3 I will make a decision to turn my will and my life over to the care of God.

God created you and designed you for a purpose .Step 3 is realizing life is too hard without God .The Proverb already tells us that the Lord has a plan for your life ,stop messing stuff up and get on board with Gods plan.

For more of POWER IN THE PROVERB and other great recovery news ,events and free resources.

Visit : www.joseph-recoveryconnections.blogspot.com

Molly ER Visits Rose 128 Percent in Six Years Among Those Under 21

By Join Together Staff | December 4, 2013 | 2 Comments | Filed in Drugs,Young Adults & Youth


Emergency room visits related to Molly, or Ecstasy, rose 128 percent among people younger than 21 between 2005 and 2011, according to a new government report.

The number of visits by young people to U.S. emergency rooms for complications from Molly increased from 4,460 to 10,176, CBS Newsreports. “I think people are looking for the ultimate and safe high they can achieve,” said Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency room physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. “There’s a mistaken belief that this is a safe drug with little toxicity.”

The drug, also known as MDMA, is usually taken in pill or powder form. It is sometimes mixed with substances such as cocaine, heroin or ketamine, the article notes. Glatter warned the drug can be even more dangerous if it is mixed with alcohol. “There’s a greater potential effect of toxicity,” he added. “Patients want to combine the two substances and have a greater effect that in and of itself is much more dangerous considerably.”

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which released the report, Molly can produce a variety of undesirable health effects such as anxiety and confusion, which can last one week or longer after using the drug. Other serious health risks associated include becoming dangerously overheated, high blood pressure, and kidney and heart failure.

“This should be a wake-up call to everyone, but the problem is much bigger than what the data show,” said Steve Pasierb, president and CEO of The Partnership at Drugfree.org. “These are only the cases that roll into the emergency rooms. It’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

Scientist Developing Test to Detect Contaminants in Marijuana

By Join Together Staff | December 3, 2013 | Leave a comment | Filed in Drugs

A scientist at the University of New Haven is developing a new test to detect contaminants such as mold and mildew in marijuana, CBS News reports.

Marijuana can also contain insect parts, salmonella and E. coli, according to Heather Miller Coyle, a forensic botanist and associate professor at the university. She is using DNA profiling and analysis to detect these contaminants in marijuana. She hopes to be able to make analysis easier and faster for labs, as the demand for marijuana quality control testing grows.

Currently, labs around the country are testing marijuana for contaminants using a variety of methods. Marijuana can develop mold if it is not dried adequately or stored properly after being harvested. It can become contaminated with E. coli and other substances by being near farm animals, the article notes.

A study published earlier this year in the Journal of Toxicology found pesticide residues on marijuana are transferred to inhaled marijuana smoke. This “may pose a significant toxicological threat in the absence of adequate regulatory frameworks,” the authors conclude.

December 4 v 23 v 24 POWER IN THE PROVERB

Keep your heart with all diligence,

For out of it spring the issues of life.

Put away from you a deceitful mouth,

And put perverse lips far from you.

STEP 10 : Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

Many people will disagree with me when I tell them addiction is a heart problem.The proverb makes it clear keep your heart with all diligence for out of it spring the issues of life. You can't get any clearer than that.This rings so true for me because when I was in my addiction my heart was broken I thought beyond repair.I had so much pain from anger , shame , guilt , rejection , fear , and the list can go on and on. Beginning the steps is so important and vital because it forces us to look at our broken hearts and address what is breaking them. Societies treatment realm pushes that addiction is a head problem and makes addiction worse by getting our focus on our thinking telling us it is a disease which in effect made it worse for me not only is my heart broken but now I am sick with a horrible disease. I have discovered in my Thirteen years of sobriety that the Christian Recovery approach has the most success because it gets t the heart of the matter and that is your heart. Step ten once reached will keep our hearts safe from fear ,shame, guilt ,rejection , anger and on and on. Fix the heart and the head will follow.

For more of POWER IN THE PROVERB and other great recovery news ,events and free resources.

Visit : www.joseph-recoveryconnections.blogspot.com