Addiction Blog

In the Casey Anthony trial that is happening now, we were introduced to “Zanny the Nanny” which is what Ms. Anthony called her fictitious babysitter. Anthony also called her babysitter Zenaida and said Zanny was short for that.

But, anyone who has been around the drug and alcohol field for a while will recognize that Zanny is also a nickname for the prescription drug Xanax. There are also many street drugs that have been given common nicknames and even marijuana is sometimes called by a human name Mary Jane.

Many years ago the Rolling Stones performed a song called “Mother’s Little Helper” which is about a woman using prescription drugs to help her make it through the day.

The Casey Anthony case is a little different in that Zanny, the mother’s little helper was alleged to have been used on Anthony’s daughter instead of herself. The chemical chloroform has also been implicated as an anesthetic that may have been used in this case.

In the Casey Anthony case the drug and alcohol abuse or addiction issues have not been yet fully addressed. It will be interesting in the weeks to come how chemicals, prescription or otherwise, has played a role in this trial.

James Taylor addressed drug offenders as “my fellow addicts” in the Pinellas courtroom in Clearwater, Florida today. The five-time Grammy winner told the large crowd of rehab graduates that they have a friend as he spoke of his own heroin addiction and subsequent 30-year abstinence.

The program was started 10 year ago and has seen 3,000 people graduate rather than serve jail time. Taylor praised the drug court and Circuit Court Judge Dee Anna Farnell who manages the program. Taylor has had such hits as “You’ve Got a Friend,” “Fire and Rain” and “Something in the Way She Moves.”

One of Taylor’s methods to maintain sobriety is intense physical workouts. The first drug court graduate in the procession was one of Taylor’s backup singers Valerie Carter.

While James Taylor has come clean about his substance abuse problems with heroin it seems that legendary folk singer Bob Dylan has been outted as at one time having kicked a $25 per day heroin habit in the 1960’s. Whether you’ve gone public or not many heroin heroes help others in overcoming addiction and maintaining sobriety and you don’t have to be famous to be a heroin hero to someone.

Well, Sheryl Crowe may say some guy was her “favorite mistake” but when it comes to Dennis Quaid and cocaine he says it was his “biggest mistake.”

In a recent interview, Quaid told Newsweek, “My greatest mistake was being addicted to cocaine. I started after I left college and came to Los Angeles in 1974. It was very casual at first. That’s what people were doing when they were at parties. Cocaine was even in the budgets of movies, thinly disguised. It was petty cash, you know? It was supplied, basically, on movie sets because everyone was doing it. People would make deals. Instead of having a cocktail, you’d have a line.”

Quaid said that when he was doing the move The Big Easy in the 1980’s he was a regular user and his life was out of control. He said he was in a band called the Eclectics and was in Los Angeles doing a show and afterwards the band broke up and he had a revelation about the need to get into rehab and away from the blow. And he did.

In the 1990’s however his movie career failed even though he was clean. In 2002, after more than 10 years of sobriety, Quaid made the movie The Rookie in which he regained some of his previous credibility with the critics. Quaid is only one of many famous addicts to seek treatment in rehab and come out the other side. Now, if we can just give Charlie Sheen a shove in the right direction …

I received in interesting email about some video of drug addicts and alcoholics telling their personal testimonies. Some of the videos and stories are quite compelling.

I recommend if you start watching the videos that you start with:

“Recovering Heroin Addict – Episode 1: John’s Story”

Heroin has often been dubbed as one of the most destructive and painful drug addictions known to man. The difficulty in kicking the habit comes in the forms of severe relapse, grueling withdrawal symptoms, and even death. Meet John, a former addict that tells his side of the story and explains the lengths he went to get his next high.

If you have some feedback after watching the addiction videos, then please post it here.

Just when you thought that taking a nice, long hot bath was a relaxing experience, think again. According to U. S. White House appointed Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske the buying of some bath salts is being used for people to achieve an amphetamine-like high.

Two substances found in some bath salts called MDPV and mephedrone are being called ‘designer drugs’ by police since there are no laws governing their sale or use, yet they give similar effects to illicit drugs and have been linked to deaths across the U. S.

These two substances are unlicensed and unregulated in most states though some states such as Hawaii, Louisiana and Michigan have started to crack down on their usage. Europe and Australia have already seen these bath salt substances spread like wildfire with many deaths associated with ingestion.

Because the molecular structure of these “bath salts” is slightly different that illicit and banned substances, manufacturers have been getting away with selling these designer drugs under names like bath salts, plant food, or research chemicals.

Australia and New Zealand have banned many of these designer drugs based upon chemical structure, so that any substance that is substantially similar to an illicit drug on a molecular level is banned. The U. S. has yet to catch up on this kind of crackdown.

For one of the Mexican drug cartels, smuggling two pounds of cocaine and two pounds of methamphetamines inside a vacuum cleaner into the U. S. sucked – literally sucked – this Christmas season. You see a Green Bay, Wisconsin woman received a Christmas present from her two kids which was a vacuum cleaner than had been reconditioned in Juarez, Mexico.

Inside the bag of the vacuum cleaner bag was two pounds each of methamphetamines and cocaine with a street value of around $280,000. The smuggler apparently was sneaky enough to hide the drugs in the vacuum cleaner that was packaged in Juarez, according Brown County Drug Task Force detective Lt. David Poteat.

The vacuum cleaner was then shipped to a retail store in Wisconsin where the household item was purchased. The woman who found the drugs is not under suspicion and the retail store where the drugged vacuum cleaner was purchased is cooperating with authorities.

It has also not been released as to whether the culprit vacuum was a Hoover, Dyson or Dirt Devil. No doubt the drug filled vacuum will need to be detoxed and rehabbed before it is put into a good home or at least a halfway house to suck again.

In British Columbia, Canada there was a study conducted by University of Victoria that stated that the hiking of alcohol prices along with the controlled administration of alcohol for the homeless would actually reduce addiction and binge drinking.

The wisdom of the study sounds counterintuitive so let’s spend a minute discussing the reasoning behind this proclamation. The study says that in British Columbia (BC) that the price of alcohol is relatively cheap compared to other provinces. Raising the price of alcohol would discourage some drinkers while it would encourage low-income or no-income homeless people to get drunk or high off traditional alcoholic drinks.

For instance, the price of rubbing alcohol, hairspray, mouthwash or antifreeze may be a cheaper and more deadly solution which some homeless people are currently using and if the price of traditional alcohol were to go up, then most likely so would the use of these alternative methods of intoxication.

Giving free alcohol along with “harm-reduction programs” for homeless people are actually achieving positive results in pilot studies including one in Ontario. Admittedly this may not be the optimal solution, but if it lessens the death rate as has been reported, then it is worth expanding the pilot program and checking results on a broader scale.

According to a report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 18-percent of the drivers who died in 2009 had drugs in their systems. Of the approximate 22,000 drivers killed in car crashes last year, 63-percent were tested for drugs and approximately 4,000 turned up positive (There were also another 22,000 non-drivers killed in car crashes last year).

The represents a 5-percent increase from 2005. According to the NHTSA, the drugs recorded in the driver’s system, “…include narcotics, depressants, stimulants, hallucinogens, cannabinoids, phencyclidines (PCPs), anabolic steroids, and inhalants. The groups include both illicit drugs, as well as legally prescribed drugs and over-the-counter medicines.”

Also according to NHTSA Administrator David Strickland, “While it’s clear that science and state policies regarding drugs and driving are evolving, one fact is indisputable. If you are taking any drugs that might impair your ability to drive safely, then you need to put common sense and caution to the forefront, and give your keys to someone else. It doesn’t matter if its drugs or alcohol, if you’re impaired, don’t drive.”

The fact that the detection of drug use by car drivers has risen 1-percent per year for the past 5 years is more alarming than it sounds. And since many states don’t test for drugs in deceased drivers or test only a small group of drugs means the numbers could be higher.

Many people still view drug use and addiction as a personal issue where if the problem is serious enough, one goes into rehab. But, innocent people are also at risk when any impaired driver gets behind the wheel of a car.

Red Ribbon Week is typically held the last week of October every year. This year Red Ribbon Week is being held October 25 – 29, 2010 and there are many schools across the country acknowledging this.

The history of Red Ribbon Week starts with DEA Special Agent Kiki Camarena who was kidnapped in Mexico in 1985. He was tortured and murdered by one of the Mexican drug cartels.

Red Ribbon Week was first practiced at Camarena’s high school in his hometown of Calexico, California. Students and others pledged to live drug free lives and to help others do so as well. Many slogans against drugs have come from Red Ribbon Week.

This year part of the emphasis is on both education of kids and parents. Slogans like “Be aware, don’t share” and “Lock your meds” are being used to call awareness of how easy it is for children and teens to get and abuse adult medications or even prescription medications that each other is using for a specific purpose, such as ADHD.

One of the sad notes is that because of budget cuts Red Ribbon Week will not be part of some communities. This hits especially home for me, as in my hometown in Illinois last year 1,400 students participated and this year none will since Red Ribbon Week has been cancelled.

The good news is that most other schools that participated last year will continue to participate this year and Red Ribbon Week will continue to spread the anti-drugs message.

It may have well have been an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie saying “I’ll be back.” Instead of the California governor however is it actress Lindsay Lohan who is spending her 5th stint in rehab within the past 3 years.

Lohan is now out on $300,000 bail and in going back into drug and alcohol rehab until October 22, 2010. The Mean Girl actress violated her probation when she failed a drug test. This follows her ankle bracelet turning up positive for alcohol use earlier this summer.

Of course famous actresses and actors going to court and rehab is nothing new. Britney Spears has faded from the spotlight of the media for the time being and Lohan has picked up that mantle.

In fact it is so common for celebrities to go to rehab, there is a TV show based on this phenomenon called “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.” It is also so common that last night on the George Lopez show, the comedian said (paraphrasing here) that there are more stars on his show than there are in Malibu rehab.

Hopefully, the revolving door of rehab will soon come to an end for Lohan.