I have been concerned for quite some time about the presence of pharmaceutical drugs in my drinking water. Here are some statistics on this important subject.
In the year 2000, the US Geological Survey surveyed 139 streams in 30 different states in the US. What was found was an alarming 95% of these sources were contaminated with traceable amounts of pharmaceuticals. It was also reported that the amount of drug contamination in the water and groundwater in the US is equivalent to the amount of pesticide contamination.
Since pesticides have been in use for approximately the same number of years as psych meds have been, I suppose that is not an unexpected comparative statitistic. What is most alarming about these statistics is that they are accumulating on a daily basis ! Not only do drugs get dumped (excreted/peed) into the waste water system, they are disposed of in haphazard ways by private consumers dumping pills into the toilet, etc. Considering that more than 100 million people are taking these types of medications daily, and that farming as an industry is a huge user of meds to tranquilize and medicate livestock and poultry before sending to market, it is a scary thought indeed how much has and will continue to accumulate in our ground water and soil. These statistics were compiled in the year 2000. It is now ten years later. Frankly I’m a little scared to research and find the current amounts of contaminants in the groundwater. But logic tells me its certainly not going to be less, and I would not be surprised if the levels have even doubled those of this decade ago study.
This is a problem of such a magnitude, that I do not know if we will actually be able to solve it in time.
For now, I will continue to drink my purified water never letting a drop from the tap touch my lips. As much as possible i will continue to eat agricultral products that are produced on clean farms, and those that do not use meds on their animals or crops. And as much as possible I will continue to spread the word to raise awareness of this ongoing problem.
The most prevalent street drugs in Arizona (meth, crack and marijuana) are coming across the Mexico/Arizona border. This billion dollar illegal drug industry is alive and well, to the detriment of the people of Arizona.
Since illegal drugs are not advertised on radio, tv or in the newpapers, how can it be possible to have such a successful marketing and sales campaign? Imagine trying to market something without any advertising media to carry your promotional materials to a wide audience of potential buyers? Even with the use of these media outlets, companies often enough go broke from lack of sales. So how is it that the drug business is doing so well?
These drugs are being produced and distributed by the drug banditos, who have arms and are quite willing to use them to intimidate and control their territory and the shipping routes commonly used to get them across the border into the USA.
Currently one of the largest cartels in Mexico called “la famillia” has more or less successfully cornered the illegal drug trade in and out of Mexico. Where are their recruits garnered from? Youth who have no other jobs, no other possibilities, seemingly no other way to make a living. These youth get recruited into gangs, and are quickly indoctrinated into the belief systems of the cartel. The leader of the cartel has even written his own bible, and the cartel personnel consider themselves devout Christians. They even have patron saints to protect their shipments as they cross the border, and who can be prayed to, to prevent getting killed by a police officer’s bullet.
Politicians are fighting two opponents in the drug trafficking trade. One is the strong militia arm of the trafficking trade, the other is fear of retribution. Gangland style killings are common. Intimidation of those in power who themselves want to stay alive, are willing to turn a blind eye to avoid direct confrontation. Live and let live seems to be the adopted philosophy.
So the problem must be solved deeper to the source. A country whose youngest generation has very little hope of building a decent life through honest means, must realize that the youngest generation is the ONLY hope for a better future. Putting education and cultural development at the highest levels of importance would put some hope there for a better and drug free future.
Since most of Arizona street drugs come from Mexico, a wise approach to this problem might include some cross border meetings by heads of state of both countries to find a peaceful ways to open doors to a brighter future through supporting education and cultural development. In this way both Mexico and it’s border neighbors can both regain footing on the very slippery slope of fighting these militia style drug cartels, and the youth of both countries can be diverted from the cartels’ negative influences upon them.
Since Janet Napolitano enacted the House Bill regarding prescription drug monitoring programs in Arizona, certainly much money has been allocated to this program.
In all, from 2003 to 2007 more than $$ 50 Million Dollars have been spent on various PDMP’s across 33 states in the USA, including Arizona. The program is designed to inhibit a person who is addicted to prescription drugs from being able to “doctor shop” and get multiple prescriptions filled in various pharmacies.
At the end of the day, while this program is designed to curb prescription drug addiction, can anyone say that 50 Million dollars toward MONITORING abuse was a wise investment? Perhaps it was a step in the right direction. But monitoring addiction has the end product of knowing how much doctor shopping has been going on. It doesn’t do a thing, sadly, to help persons who are addicted to the point where they would have to stoop to such tactics to satisfy their addiction.
Would not a better program be to allow for voluntary disclosure of prescription drug addiction and a discreet and fully or partially funded recovery program for persons so addicted? Why does criminality enter in to addiction when addiction is regarded as a disease in the mainstream of treatment protocols in use? I don’t happen to believe that addiction is a disease, but neither do i think it is a crime - rather I would say addiction is a result of ingesting addictive substances. These are legal substances. They are made and promoted and marketed by trillion dollar industry pharma companies.
Maybe instead of personal or class action lawsuits against the drug makers, I would prefer to see a program where hefty amounts like $50 million are procured through mandatory “drug makers tax “ not taxing the citizens who aren’t causing the problem. This tax money could be used to provide tapering and healing recovery programs for the addicted victims of these substances.
The amount of $50 million dollars could finance 2500 to 5000 individual drug rehab programs for people who want to end their prescription addiction. As it is now, these funds are scooped from the pockets of tax payers, and spent on a MONITORING program that is designed to “catch criminal activities” - this is about as ineffective a solution as you could possibly find.
Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs have possibly done some good in shining the spotlight on a problem that needs to be made more well known. But simply monitoring a problem (especially at the high cost mentioned) doesn’t go anywhere near solving the problem. To pretend that prescription drugs are not addictive is probly THE MOST criminal intent in the scenario, and that promotional line is coming straight from the manufacturers of these toxic drugs.
So it seems plain enough that the problem is not “doctor shopping” per se. That is a SYMPTOM. When it comes to drugs versus disease and symptoms, there seems to be quite a lot of confusion regarding which is which. Clearly, doctor shopping is a symptom of addiction, and the solution is TREATMENT rather than JAIL TIME. Perhaps the idea of taxing the drug makers would cause them to take responsibility for the number of ruined lives they have created. That is the blood on the hands of those who make the huge profits off the addictions they are creating.
This is the second part in a series of articles on how to stay well after drug or alcohol rehab. This article concerns the miraculous benefits of moderate excercise as a tool to stay well and strong after a rehab program.
It is well known that excercise has many benefits to general health and well-being. Toning up the muscles by jogging, stretching, bouncing on a rebounder, swimming, hiking, walking, is a great way to start the day. It strengthens the whole body, and leaves you with an increased capacity for doing work. It also can help provide you with an increased tolerance for normal ordinary stress, which is sort of like having extra insurance for staying well as opposed to getting too rattled by the little things that can open the door to relapse.
When should you exercise? Apart from the morning jog or walk, why not try taking an exercise break during the day, or even after work to help shake off the stress that may have accumulated during your day to day activities.
There are hormone-like chemicals that a body produces during exercise, called “ENDORPHINS”. Endorphins act like natural pain killers/mood lifters when released. So during exercise, one will sometimes feel a natural high. That is a sign that the body is healthy and responding to the increased oxygen intake, and increased circulation through the blood vessels as a result of the exercise. If you have ever experienced a “runners high”, you will already know what this feels like. It is a great way to naturally promote very positive feelings, and even a mild euphoria can result. But it is a natural feeling, and will not cause negative side effects like artificial substances do.
One slight word of caution: because endorphins do act as natural pain killers, be sure not to overdo the exercise. If you have ever had the experience of having injured a shoulder or knee joint for instance, and then you continued to exercise, did you ever have the pain disappear as you continued to exercise? That is because the Endorphin levels in your body rose as you continued to exercise, and numbed the pain. You will want to be aware of this phenomenon so that you can properly gauge how long or how hard to exercise. You don’t want to overdo it to the point where you have aggravated an injury that should have been allowed to heal before any very strenuous exercise.
For more helpful information on how to stay well after drug rehab, or how you can help yourself or a loved one to stay well after rehab, call any of our helpful counselors at the addicted.org website.
In selecting the most appropriate drug rehab facility many different factors come into play. One very important factor is the location and proximity to one’s usual dwelling.
Are there advantages to selecting a facility that is close to home? Yes, in part. It may seem like a convenience to choose a drug rehab facility that is a short drive from home. In some cases, this would be a benefit perhaps where transportation is limited, or resources are limited. However looking at the broad picture, one should note that if it is easy to “get to” the facility, it is equally easy to “return home” at a critical point before the program is complete.
Very important points to remember: the person entering rehab is doing so to make a change. This is not a little change. This is a life changing experience. The program must be allowed to run its course. One very common phenomenon is a person enters a rehab program usually in a bit of a dazed or possibly fearful state. It takes a bit of time for the person to settle in, meet and become familiar with the staff handling their case, and other clients as well. Coming off drugs or alcohol leaves a person feeling somewhat vulnerable, irritable and cranky, and generally anxious. This is to be expected. If it were all that easy to come off and stay off their substance anyone could just take a couple weeks off work, stay home, and that would be enough.
However, that is not the reality. The reality is any person will generally hit a point in their program when suddenly it seems like an unsurmountable goal to finish. At that very critical point, the phone calls home can get quite disturbing, complaints are a dime a dozen, and pleas to be taken back home are very very common. It is clear that if the facility is very close to home, a short taxi ride or worse yet, a family member coming to rescue the person ( part of the prior pattern obviously that still needs to be broken) is going to sabotage any chance the person may have had for recovery.
For this reason, our experience has proven time and time again that the best scenario for drug or alcohol rehab is to have the facility chosen at least a plane ride away, and in so doing there is that much more of a guarantee that the program can run its course. The idea is not to be cruel and force a person through a program, but to be kind and give every chance to support the process and continue a program even through the rougher weather. Our many success stories bear this out as a successful rule of thumb in deciding on whether to do a local program, or get the person out of their “comfort zone” and give it every chance possible of a successful outcome.
For more helpful advice you can contact any of our counselors at addicted.org who can help you in making the final decisions in choosing a drug or alcohol rehab facility.
