| Breaking the cycle of drug addiction
If a community were a pond, then drug addiction would be a pebble big enough to cause ripples throughout, said Jim Gouveia, Benton County Drug Treatment Court program coordinator.According to the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, Oregon ranks No. 2 in the country for illegal drug use, and mid-valley communities are no exception."I can't say the drug problem in Benton County has increased necessarily," Gouveia said. "But we're up there."Drug use isn't an individual problem or even a family problem. It's a community problem, said Jennifer Hogansen, a behavioral health specialist with the Corvallis Clinic."The effects on children and families, in particular, can be devastating," Hogansen said.The drug problem is a top priority for the criminal justice and social services systems, as well as educators, mental health experts and taxpayers.Locally, a consistent approach of modifying drug users' behavior to achieve lasting, life-changing results is being applied to public and private treatment programs.
A Drug to End Drug Addiction
What if science made a pill to protect us from addiction keeping us from smoking cigarettes, getting fat or abusing drugs and alcohol? According to encouraging results from several lines of study, it seems that day may be closer than we thought. Researchers in labs around the world are now developing vaccines (not a pill, but an injection) to inoculate people against dangerously addictive substances such as cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. Within "one to 10 years, and closer to one year," says Dr. Frank Vocci, director of treatment research and development at the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), scientists may produce a vaccine against cocaine one of the more promising areas of research that can potentially help millions of addicts, two million in the U.S. alone. .
New clinic in Toccoa serves those who abuse drugs
TOCCOA, Ga. To help those who are addicted to drugs, a doctor just has opened the first clinic of this type in Toccoa. Don Pittard said narcotic addiction is a chronic, relapsing, incurable medical disease of the brain. His goal is for the clinic is to help those who are addicted return to a normal lifestyle. "These people can't quit," Dr. Pittard said. If they could, there would not be a need for clinics to treat those addicted to narcotics, he said. History has shown that drug abuse has always been a problem in our country, he said, and it has become more prominent in today's society. "The incidents of drug abuse is progressing, and we have to do something about it," he said. Which is why he opened the Pittard Clinic at 1654 Falls Road. It's the first treatment center of its kind in northeast Georgia.
Building begins soon on 'treatment campus' in Northeast Roanoke
Construction will soon begin on a 40-bed residential facility to treat the growing number of Roanoke Valley residents who suffer from alcoholism, drug addiction and mental illness. The facility, planned for a wooded slope off Hollins Road in Northeast Roanoke, will be the first of three buildings in a "treatment campus" on the 9-acre site, mental health officials said this week. Blue Ridge Behavioral Healthcare, an agency that offers public assistance in the areas of mental health, mental retardation and substance abuse, will operate the facility. The project's first phase, at 3003 Hollins Road, will replace the Shenandoah Recovery Center, which for 34 years has offered short-term inpatient care for up to 30 people with mental health or substance abuse needs.
Methadone-Linked Deaths Shoot Up
Deaths from methadone, a drug used in the treatment of heroin addiction, have risen at an alarming rate in recent years, according to a Justice Department assessment. As part of treatment, methadone has been used successfully since the 1950s. While it is safe to use when closely monitored under a physician's care, methadone can be deadly when abused by addicts who often take the drug with other drugs and alcohol. .
Senators urge action to reduce 'bupe' abuse
Two U.S. senators from New England are calling for action to reduce misuse of buprenorphine, a narcotic that federal officials are promoting for treatment of tens of thousands addicted to heroin and pain pills.
In Maryland, two key lawmakers said yesterday that they will question health officials about abuse of the drug and state spending on it when the General Assembly convenes next month in Annapolis.
The responses follow a series of articles this week in The Sun, which showed that while many experts champion buprenorphine as a highly effective addiction medicine, the drug is starting to cause some of the kinds of problems that it was created to solve.
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