On August 5, 2012, in Prescription Drug Abuse, by Jerry Mitchell
Heath Ledger. Brittany Murphy. Anna Nicole Smith. Michael Jackson.
Garrett Reid, left, next to his father, Andy Reid.
All were celebrities, and all died ofprescription drug overdoses.
And now Garrett Reid, the son of Philadelphia Eagles football coach Andy Reid, who had been addicted to prescription drugs and was found dead Sunday, could be added to their list.
According to his probation report, he used prescription opioid painkillers, Percocet and OxyContin, before graduating to cocaine and heroin. By age 20, he was in rehab.
“For every Heath Ledger that dies, there are many more that never make the headlines,” said Marshall Fisher, executive director of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics. “Almost everybody knows somebody who has been touched by this.”
Each day a 100 Americans die of a drug overdose — most of them from prescription painkillers. In Florida alone, six people die a day from these overdoses.
“If six dolphins washed up in a single day on the Florida coast, it would make national headlines,” Fisher said. “What about for people?”
Read The Clarion-Ledger‘s stories on the problems of prescription drug abuse in both Mississippi and the U.S.
Andy Reid statement implies son's death linked to drugs
By Les Bowen
Daily News Staff Writer
BETHLEHEM – Andy Reid and his family tacitly confirmed the worst in a statement released Monday evening: Garrett Reid "lost the battle that has been ongoing for the last eight years" – his battle with drugs, which led to Garrett's incarceration several times from 2007 to 2009.
An Eagles spokesman said the family was aware of the inference that would be made from its characterization of the death of the eldest son, who passed away in a Lehigh dorm room Sunday morning
Monday morning, Eagles tackle Todd Herremans said he would be surprised if it turned out Garrett Reid's previous problems factored into his death. Herremans said there was no sign of that sort of situation, as Garrett Reid, 29, worked with the Eagles' strength and conditioning staff.
"It just seemed like everything was going the right way. That would be surprising," Herremans said.
Lehigh police chief Edward Shoop released a statement Monday saying there would be no statements until an investigation is complete. No official determination has been made.
But the Reid family statement thanked the Eagles family for its support, then continued into this: "We loved Garrett so much. He was a wonderful son and brother. He made us laugh, he was a pleasure to be around, he always had a smile on his face, and we will miss him dearly. We will never forget him, and we will remember him with love.
“Garrett's road through life was not always an easy one. He faced tremendous personal challenges with bravery and spirit. As a family, we stood by him and were inspired as he worked to overcome those challenges. Even though he lost the battle that has been ongoing for the last eight years, we will always remember him as a fighter who had a huge, loving heart."
Tuesday morning, the Eagles were to bus down from Lehigh to the Church of Jesus Christ ofLatter Day Saints in Broomall for Garrett Reid's funeral.
"I don't want to get into his past," center Jason Kelce said, when asked about people assuming drugs played a role in Garrett's death. Kelce and other players all spoke before the family statement was released. Later, Kelce declined further comment. "I think that's been gone into enough. All I can speak on is Garrett as an individual and a person I knew. There wasn't a single guy who was a better person, day in and day out toward everybody on the team, wanted to see everybody succeed, genuinely wanted to see the team win. He was awesome, every single day for us."
Second-year linebacker Casey Matthews said he didn't even know Garrett was Andy's son when they first met, in the weight room.
"It wasn't ‘til later you realized who he was and that he had a past," Matthews said. "The way I knew him, it was hard to see that he'd had a past."
Matthews said Garrett Reid would sometimes refer to having been imprisoned. "We would never bring it up. He would," Matthews said. "It definitely seemed like he was past all that. The way he carried himself, it seemed like he was."
Kelce talked about how hard this must be for the Reid family. He said Tammy Reid, Garrett's mother and Andy's wife, was on the West Coast – the Reids have a home in Dana Point, Calif. – and had to fly across the country after hearing the news.
Kelce told of a brief interaction with Andy Reid on Sunday: "He just told me to keep this thing rolling, keep everybody on track. We can't use this as a setback right now."
Reid addressed the team as a whole around noon Sunday, players said.
"He was just saying you don't know what God's plan is, and this is a time when we have to lean on each other," Herremans said. "We let him know he can lean on us and we'll be here for him, to do whatever he needs us to."
Players said they knew something was wrong early Sunday, when emergency vehicles huddled around the C Building at the Sayre Park dorm complex, where the team stays at Lehigh. Kelce said that since the coaches stay in that building, he thought perhaps something had happened to one of them. Word soon filtered out that the situation had to do with Garrett Reid, though many players didn't know Reid was dead until they gathered on the field Sunday, about an hour after the 7:20 a.m. 911 call to Lehigh police.
Wideout Jason Avant confirmed what had happened and led an onfield prayer.
Said safety Kurt Coleman: "It was just a prayer to just kind of help us, because everything was new to us, we had just heard about it – for God to watch over [Andy Reid] at this difficult time, and to give us strength to push on."
Avant said reaction to the tragedy taught him something about how his coach is viewed.
"You can tell how great a man is when the cafeteria workers are asking about him, when the security staff up here at Lehigh are going out of their way to sign cards and different things like that," Avant said. "For him not to be out here [Sunday] was definitely hard, but once we got out to do football, it kind of loosened up the whole day a little bit, because we know that's what he wanted."
Avant called Garrett Reid "a very, very good person … [who] helped me as a player."
"He was always in the weight room with us, always on the field with us. He was just a happy-go-lucky guy," left guard Evan Mathis said. "Always a joy to be around. Always telling jokes, having fun. Really just brightened your day when you were around him."
Defensive tackle Cullen Jenkins said one of Garrett Reid's duties was curfew bed checks.
"[Sunday] night, you're like, ‘Wow, he won't be coming through to check us in anymore,' " Jenkins said. "Everything you do, you do it heavy-hearted."
Herremans said he'd known Garrett well since Herremans arrived as a fourth-round draft pick in 2005.
"We talked about [Garrett's drug troubles] on a personal level, just man-to-man about what he'd been through … he'd been through a lot," Herremans said. "Health became a huge part of his life. He had everything going in the right direction. He'd found something he was passionate about, strength training."
Eagles chairman Jeffrey Lurie said on Sunday that he thought Andy Reid would be back coaching by the end of the week, though nothing has been announced. The Eagles open their preseason Thursday, at home against the Steelers.
Read more:http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/20120807_Andy_Reid_statement_implies_son_s_death_linked_to_drugs.html?cmpid=137039688#ixzz22qjkL2lt
With seven deaths since 2005, Scientology's Narconon flagship may finally face criminal charges. The bigger scandal is that faith-based addiction programs are embraced as primary treatment. Where does that leave AA?
By Maia Szalavitz The fix
Narconon, the Scientology-affiliated rehab is under investigation by the state of Oklahoma, following three patient deaths within the last nine months. Last Wednesday, the inquiry into the July 19 death of 20-year-old Stacy Murphy was expanded to include the April death of 21-year-old Hillary Holten and the October death of 32-year-old Gabriel Graves. The state district attorney has asked the sheriff’s department to deepen its investigation.
The involvement of law-enforcement agencies—not simply regulatory authorities—suggests the possibility of criminal charges against those involved with the deaths. The facility, Narconon Arrowhead, is located near Canadian, Oklahoma. It is not only licensed by the state and listed on the federal addiction program locator, but also accredited by CARF, an organization that claims on its website to “focus on quality, results” in certifying treatment programs.
The 2009 death of 28-year-old Kaysie Dianne Wernick, who was transferred from Narconon Arrowhead to a nearby hospital while suffering a respiratory infection, resulted in an out-of-court settlement of a civil negligence lawsuit, the terms of which have not been disclosed. There have been three other deaths at that Narconon facility alone since 2005. Over the years, as The Fix has reported, numerous deaths and many lawsuits have been linked to the international Narconon program.
There have been seven deaths of patients at Narconon Arrowhead since 2005.
Oklahoma assistant district attorney Richard Hull told the Tulsa Worldthat, “After looking at the [earlier] report and additional witness statements, the District Attorney’s Office has requested the Sheriff’s Office to further investigate,” and that full autopsy and toxicology reports have not yet been received. A spokesperson for Narconon Arrowhead told Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly that program staff found the deaths “deeply saddening” and their loss “has taken an extreme emotional toll on us as well.” Narconon representatives have also told the media that they are cooperating fully with the investigation.
As The Fix reported earlier, the Narconon program is based on Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s “Purification Rundown,” which was originally devised as part of the process required for conversion into Scientology. It involves taking high doses of vitamins and spending four to five hours a day in 150-degree saunas. This is believed to “detoxify” the body and remove drug “residue” that Hubbard claimed was responsible for craving.
There is no scientific evidence, however, that drug “residue” causes craving or that mega-doses of vitamins and marathon super-hot saunas are effective elements in addiction treatment. Indeed, for people who are medically fragile or who have recently taken certain classes of drugs including alcohol, amphetamines and cocaine, intense heat without breaks for relief could potentially lead to hyperthermia, which can be deadly. One study found that 25% of deaths in saunas were associated with alcohol or stimulant use.
Narconon also shares Scientology’s fierce opposition to psychiatry and the use of psychiatric medications, meaning that even if the rest of its methods were evidence-based, it would not be able to effectively treat half of all people with addictions who suffer from co-existing conditions like depression, nor would it utilize the state-of-the-art treatments that include medication. The belief that all psychiatric conditions can be treated via Hubbard’s techniques would not seem to support effective screening and referral for care for these disorders.
In fact, when Narconon was originally fishing for official and popular support to build Narconon Arrowhead rehab in the late 1980s, the Oklahoma State Board of Mental Health flatly denied approval, pointing out that there was no credible evidence that the program (which also included indoctrination in the teachings of Hubbard) was effective for chemical dependency and that evidence-based effective addiction treatment suggests that, on the contrary, Narconon is very unlikely to work. Nonetheless, Narconon purchased tribal land, without disclosing its ties to Scientology (its typical MO), and got the rehab up and running. Eventually, despite a flurry of negative publicity, it was able to win state-board approval.
Narconon’s viability as a rehab comes down to the ongoing belief that faith-based addiction treatment is legitimate.
Although each Narconon is, at least on paper, independently owned and operated, the Church of Scientology holds the license. Many, if not most, of the staff at the several dozen Narconon rehabs worldwide are Scientologists, and according to many former patients, the implicit goal of the Narconon treatment program is to turn addicts, who may pay tens of thousands of dollars for their rehab stay, into Scientology converts.
All of which raises the question: how on earth has such a program managed to be licensed in numerous states, listed on federal registries of addiction treatment and even accredited by organizations that are supposed to ensure quality and high standards of care?
Narconon is, to some extent, a special case in the rehab industry. As a de-facto extension of Scientology, it can deploy all of that organization’s infamously sophisticated strategies against opponents, including extreme litigiousness and PR and, reportedly, even threats of violence against whistleblowers.
Yet in a larger sense, Narconon’s decades-long viability as a legitimate rehab comes down to the ongoing belief that faith-based treatments, while not permitted as primary care in the rest of the medical system, are acceptable for addictions. There is no other disease or disorder for which a Scientology-based treatment that has been thoroughly discredited by science could win such acceptance. There is no other medical condition for which faith-based programs from multiple religions that also “pray away the gay” are considered part of mainstream care. There is no other medical condition, in fact, for which prayer and meeting are seen as a main element of recovery.
About
MissionServices for Families
Company OverviewAlaska Family Services was established in 1979 to respond to the needs of women and children in the Mat-Su Borough. What began as a small core of basic services has grown into a broad network of programs designed to strengthen and support individuals and families.
DescriptionAFS is home to nearly two dozen critical social service programs, including the only nationally certified domestic violence and sexual assault shelter in Alaska.
General InformationAt Alaska Family Services you can access services such as substance abuse counseling, behavioral health treatment, Alcohol Safety Action Program (ASAP), Child Care Assistance Program, Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault Programs, Dorothy Saxton Youth Shelter, Family Support and Preservation, Family Violence Intervention, ROSA House, Tobacco Prevention and Control, and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).
Location 1825 S Chugach Street, Palmer, Alaska 99645
Contact Info
Phone 
(907)746-4080 or 1-866-746-4080
Website http://www.akafs.org
By Join Together Staff | August 2, 2012 | 2 Comments | Filed in Drugs,Research & Treatment
Community-based residential rehabilitation programs are only helpful in the short term for methamphetamine users, a new study suggests. Shorter detoxification programs are even less successful, Reutersreports.
While about half of the study participants were able to stop using meth after they joined a residential rehabilitation program, most had gone back to using the drug after three years, the study found.
Few addiction treatment programs are designed specifically for methamphetamine users, according to lead researcher Rebecca McKetin of the Australian National University. Instead, people often go through programs meant for people using heroin or alcohol.
She compared long-term methamphetamine use in 248 people in a rehab program, and 112 in a detox program, with 101 meth users who were not in treatment. People in residential rehab generally live for several months at a treatment center that offers counseling, as well as social and recreational activities. People enrolled in a detox program usually spend a few days at a hospital or other medical facility.
After three months, 48 percent of those who went through rehab remained abstinent, compared with 15 percent of those who went through detox or who did not receive any treatment.
At one year, 20 percent of meth users who went through rehab were still not using the drug, compared with 7 percent of people in the other two groups. By three years, only 12 percent of those who went through rehab still were not using meth, compared with 5 percent of the others.
The study is published in the journal Addiction.
About
Challenging the stigma associated with the word addiction - because every person who takes a step towards change is a hero.
Description
Foundations Recovery Network (FRN) has ignited a grassroots movement called “Heroes in Recovery” to celebrate the heroic efforts of individuals, families, healthcare professionals and institutions in fostering a society where people can seek the help they need without feeling ashamed or isolated. It intends to remove the social stigma associated with people who are “in recovery,” to recognize the
heroic effort it takes to overcome the obstacles in seeking help, and to celebrate the act of preventing the past from kidnapping the future. While the movement initially focuses on persons recovering from addictive behavior, it is meant also to recognize heroes recovering from many other types of disorders and trauma that can feed or manifest from an addiction.
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), 20 million people needed substance abuse treatment last year and did not receive it. 10 million Americans did not receive needed mental health care. The stigma associated with substance abuse and mental health disorders creates a significant barrier to individuals and families seeking help.
It’s important for the public to understand, embrace, and encourage people who are finding a way to thrive within their own circumstances and live the lives that they desire and deserve.
Contact Info
Email heroesinrecovery@gmail.com
Website http://www.heroesinrecovery.com
History by Year
2011
Heroes in Recovery Inaugural 6K Run/Walk
