American Drug Terrorism

Worried about scanners and pat downs at airports?  It seems the international terrorists may have already won that battle of fear and intimidation. FoxNews (November 21, 2010) reports, "Fed up with body scans and intrusive pat-downs, some holiday travelers are sticking it to airport security with the fixings of any good protest: handmade fliers, eye-grabbing placards, slogan-bearing T-shirts — and Scottish kilts."

The most dangerous terrorists have been roaming the country for decades and continue to be successful in frightening, increasing numbers with their daily, deadly operations.We have met the enemy and he is us - rx drug abuse is reaching epidemic proportions.

In 2008, 15.2 million Americans age 12 and older had taken a prescription pain reliever, tranquilizer, stimulant, or sedative for nonmedical purposes at least once in the year prior to being surveyed. Source: National Survey on Drug Use and Health (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration Web Site). The NIDA-funded 2008 Monitoring the Future Study showed that 2.9% of 8th graders, 6.7% of 10th graders, and 9.7% of 12th graders had abused Vicodin and 2.1% of 8th graders, 3.6% of 10th graders, and 4.7% of 12th graders had abused OxyContin for nonmedical purposes at least once in the year prior to being surveyed. Source: Monitoring the Future (University of Michigan Web Site)

Commonly abused classes of prescription medications include opioids (for pain), central nervous system depressants (for anxiety and sleep disorders), and stimulants (for ADHD and narcolepsy). Opioids include hydrocodone (Vicodin®), oxycodone (OxyContin®), propoxyphene (Darvon®), hydromorphone (Dilaudid®), meperidine (Demerol®), and diphenoxylate (Lomotil®). Central nervous system depressants include barbiturates such as pentobarbital sodium (Nembutal®), and benzodiazepines such as diazepam (Valium®) and alprazolam (Xanax®). Stimulants include dextroamphetamine (Dexedrine®), methylphenidate (Ritalin® and Concerta®), and amphetamines (Adderall®).

The Popularity of Prescription Drugs


Carol Falkowski, director of research communications for the Hazelden Foundation, a treatment center based in Center City, Minn., says prescription pills have become popular among youths because they are easy to get and represent a more socially acceptable way of getting high than taking street drugs. (Donna Leinwand, Prescription Drugs Find Place in Teen Culture, USA Today, June 13 2006)

Some kids, she says, are self-medicating undiagnosed depression or anxiety, while others are using stimulants to try to get an edge on tests and studying.

Falkowski says prescription drugs are familiar mood-altering substances for a generation that grew up as prescriptions soared for Ritalin and other stimulants to treat maladies such as attention-deficit disorder. "Five million kids take prescription drugs every day for behavior disorders," she says.

"It's not unusual for kids to share pills with their friends. There have been incidents where kids bring a Ziploc baggie full of pills to school and share them with other kids."

She also said, "Young abusers of prescription drugs also have begun using the Internet to share 'recipes' for getting high. Some websites are so simplistic, she says, that they refer to pills by color, rather than their brand names, content or potency."

The 2005 Partnership for a Drug-Free America survey found that more than three in five teens can easily get prescription painkillers from their parents' medicine cabinets. And as Falkowski says, the rising number of youths being treated with stimulants has made it easier for kids to use such drugs illicitly. About 3% of children are treated with a stimulant such as Adderall or Ritalin, up from less than 1% in 1987.

To try to reduce the supply of prescription drugs on the black market, authorities have shut down several "pill mills" — where doctors prescribe inordinate amounts of narcotics — as well as Internet pharmacies that ship drugs with little medical consultation, says Catherine Harnett, chief of demand reduction for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

The constant terrorism of rx drug abuse exerted upon our children involving peer pressure, drug dealers, pill mills, public acceptance, and ease of attainment is much more dangerous than the threats of Al Qaeda or of the Taliban. In a drug culture, parents must take responsibility for their children's lack of recognition of severe danger. The first step to curbing abuse is identification of the problem and addressing troubling trends.

Troubling Trends

• Pharming - Kids “getting high” abusing Rx or OTC drugs;
  
  
• It has never been easier for teens to obtain intentional highs from  medications - Internet accessibility and loose e-commerce enforcement further enable easy acquisition;
  
  
• Parents do not understand the behavior of intentionally abusing medicines to get high;
  
  
• Parents are not discussing the risks of abuse of prescription and/or non-prescription cough medicine with their children;
  
  
• Three out of five parents report discussing marijuana “a lot” with their children, but only one third of parents report discussing the risks of using prescription medicines or non-prescription cold or cough medicine to get high.

Bottom line: a “Culture of Pharming” has taken root among America’s teens; only through education, prevention and the involvement of parents can it be rooted out. The Partnership for a Drug-free America's research has shown that kids who report learning a lot about the risks of abuse from their parents are up to 50 percent less likely to use drugs as those who don’t.  Unfortunately, most parents are either unaware or in denial about their kids’ vulnerability and exposure to the intentional abuse of Rx and OTC medicines.

Perhaps because parents generally don’t think their teen could be vulnerable to Rx/OTC abuse, they don’t understand the idea of abusing such medications to get high, and, like far too many teens, they don’t think the abuse of these drugs can be as dangerous as the abuse of street drugs.

Real terror in America is the reality of horrible prescription drug addiction and its dark consequences -- pain, suffering, economic chaos, family destruction, crime, imprisonment, and death. Those who deal in this drug culture are people who use calculated violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear. Their ideology is based on the love of money and the indifference for addicts' lives. Intimidation and fear are weapons of their successful operation. The most vulnerable people we love are their major targets.   

Excellent information from the Partnership at DrugFree.org:

http://decoder.drugfree.org/2010/07/09/recovering-addict-shares-insights-into-prescription-painkiller-abuse/

Bad People In Town

Sometimes when you are at the bottom, you must stare up through the weighty mass that holds you down, access your dire situation, muster your strength, and use every resource at your disposal to push yourself upward. This, the 27th day of March, 2010, is where you, as a Scioto County resident, stands in respect to a threat at hand -- you and I are at the bottom together. Like it or not, your health, financial resources, job, possessions, family, and future is being manipulated by bad people.

These bad people are infiltrating your county and making tremendous amounts of money at your expense. They care not for your health, for your community, or for your life. They greedily feed on all their victims here and don't leave until they suck the lifeblood from the area. They deal in prescription drugs and turn their minions loose to spread poison. Instead of relieving legitimate pain, they sell their products at huge markups to dealers who inject  once-healthy buyers into a nightmare of misery.

They come from Florida, the Southwest, Mexico, and points closer such as Columbus to feed in the frenzy. The bad people are young, middle aged, and old. They blend into the areas of operation with relative ease. No law prevents them from allegedly "relieving your suffering." They plant their deadly opiates like landmines in the killing fields of Appalachia. Week after week, they reload their weapons and unleash havoc.

Too often, the youth, fearless and foolish, step into their traps to become maimed, injured, and killed. Young people so full of life and inquisitive about every popular fad find themselves playing deadly games with prescription drugs. They experiment and combine lethal cocktails of substances. Some pay the ultimate price. And, families grieve their losses forever. Their tranquil lives are essentially destroyed. Relatives never get an answer to the haunting question -- "Why?" You listen to their unbelievable stories of tragedy and well up in sorrow and in anger.

When these medical impostors move their operations, they leave a wake of weak, broken junkies in their rear-view mirrors and set up operations in other locales. Then, the real pain begins. The hooked "patients" turn to theft, prostitution, and other crimes to find money to support their habits. They steal from you, from me, and from their own families in desperation to stop the pain -- the pain that now has become real misery for them. Their criminal behavior has turned them into people with slim hopes of recovery.

Many patients go through endless rehab to kick the habit. They try so hard to get things back to normal, staying straight for periods of time, then suddenly relapsing and repeating the vicious cycle of buying, using, and selling the very poison that debilitates them. They can't work; they can't think; they can't function as normal human beings. What began for them as pleasurable use then becomes complete possession. Willpowerless, they flounder and become someone's burden -- your burden too.

I don't like the bad people in Scioto County who profit from misery and death. In fact, I hate these people with a deep passion that defies comprehension. You and I sit on the bottom in an area racked with poverty, pain, and hopelessness. Bottom-feeders relish Appalachia. They do not care for your heritage or your dignity -- they want your money. They love your lack of care and involvement because they know they can use your "sit-back and watch" attitude to their advantage. To the scum-suckers, you are nothing but an ignorant, gullible pill-billy.

To close, let me assure you, you and I are currently on the bottom and struggling with a terrible epidemic of outrageous prescription drug abuse. You need to become involved in this battle even if you have little faith in the politics or in the officials who represent your interests. You and I need to organize a massive response to the current problem and fight like hell. One more death, one more addict, one more broken family is too much.

What You Can Do

1. Write your representatives and beg them to pass new laws concerning Rx drug abuse.
2. Become vocal and pressure people to become a mass of 80,000 county residents who won't take any more.
3. Believe that you are involved in the suffering whether you live in a mansion or in a shack.
4. Find out how you can stop bad people from controlling your lives and respond - the movement is just starting to gain momentum.
5. Above all, be careful and be active in lawful, positive manners.

You and I are not afraid. We will not be intimidated into inaction, which contributes to the coffers of the ruthless criminals. You and I have a stake in this battle after we leave this earth. The solution is going to take a long time because you and I have to change, too. You and I have too much pride in our community to let others pluck our freedoms away. You and I are the community. You and I need each other NOW. Please respond.