Addiction does not discriminate and our drug and alcohol programs here at Harmony reflect this fact well - with programs for young adults, men and women in all stages of life.
The need for more addiction rehabs to focus on professionals in their programs has been highlighted in the news recently with professionals under fire for drug abuse.
Last week, a high school IT teacher in England was sentenced to over 3 years in jail and permanently banned from teaching after being caught with more than 100 grams of cocaine in a narcotics lab in his home.
His sentencing came after an investigation found that he was involved in high-level supply of cocaine leading to his arrest in 2012. At first the teacher denied being a distributor and said he was holding drugs as a favor but then later revealed that financial distress lead to his self-compromising actions. Steve Powell, the chairman of the General Teaching Council for Wales (GTCW) said "The wellbeing of pupils must be protected and the reputation of the profession maintained" and permanently ban the teacher from teaching in the future.
In a similar story, a New York City music teacher was arrested last week for selling instruments to support her heroin addiction. The 30 year old elementary school music teacher began stealing the instruments last June and selling them at pawn shops.
Police caught wind of this last October and have been investigating her since. When she was pulled over last week a police officer found a tuba she said she was using for work - a story that wasn’t backed by her school district. In addition to the tuba, police found 12 of the instruments stolen from the school at local pawn shops. The teacher and her boyfriend, who helped her steal and pawn the instruments, are being charged with possession of stolen property and possession of a controlled substance.
Although both cases pertain to teachers, other unsuspecting professionals battle addiction that place them in compromising situations that inflict severe legal and professional ramifications upon them. From airline pilots to anesthesiologists, professionals are losing their licenses and reputations because of addiction. Fortunately, some professions have system in place that allow staff to seek addiction treatment and return to their professions while others, like the teacher in England, lose their professions all together.
Addiction treatment programs are available to give all walks of life a second chance at life. This is because people are not themselves when in active addiction - they do things they would have never dreamt of doing before their addictions took them to a place of desperation. The case of the teachers is one example among many that exist. That is why Harmony Foundation has established drug rehab programs that help clients out of desperation and back to their true selves - the selves they knew before addiction took hold.
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
The Dangerous Zohydro Hits the Market This Week
A few months ago, we wrote about Zohydro - the controversial painkiller approved by the FDA last October. Despite its controversy and attempts to block its release, the opiate hits the market this week. Health care and addiction recovery advocates are still pushing for an appeal, as they fear widespread abuse of the painkiller while opiate abuse has reached epidemic levels in the US.
The controversy over Zohydro lies in the fact that it is a pure hydrocodone drug, without acetaminophen or other drugs added to it, making it 5 times stronger than other popularly abused opiates. In addition, it is crushable when most crushable painkillers were taken off the market a few years ago. Large scale efforts were made to remanufacture opiates like Percocet and OxyContin to make them unable to be crushed, snorted or injected. Zohydro undoes these efforts and puts health care advocates on edge thinking about the eminent widespread abuse and overdose potential of Zohydro.
Zogenix, the manufacturers behind Zohydro said they plan on releasing a non-crushable version of the opiate but that it would take 3 years before hitting the shelves. Considering prescription opioid deaths have quadrupled since 1999, 3 years is not soon enough.
Given that Zohydro is 5 times stronger than other opiates, “It will kill people as soon as it’s released,” said Dr. Andrew Kolodny who serves as president of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing. Kolodny adds, “It’s a whopping dose of hydrocodone packed in an easy-to-crush capsule.”
Adding to its controversy, many question how such a dangerous drug got approved in the first place when an advisory committee voted against it by 11-2. Questioning this, U.S. senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and David Vitter (R-LA) have actually started a bribery investigation aimed at an FDA official who they claim accepted money from pharmaceutical companies in exchange for a seat on an FDA advisory panel meeting for Zohydro.
Although necessary, bribery investigations and a 3-year release plan of a non-crushable version of Zohydro will do little to prevent abuse and overdose. That is why Harmony Foundation is unwavering in its efforts in providing the best addiction treatment and relapse prevention services for opiate abusers. We aim to put a dent in the soaring number of overdose deaths from opiates and help clients seeking opiate addition treatment live opiate free.
The controversy over Zohydro lies in the fact that it is a pure hydrocodone drug, without acetaminophen or other drugs added to it, making it 5 times stronger than other popularly abused opiates. In addition, it is crushable when most crushable painkillers were taken off the market a few years ago. Large scale efforts were made to remanufacture opiates like Percocet and OxyContin to make them unable to be crushed, snorted or injected. Zohydro undoes these efforts and puts health care advocates on edge thinking about the eminent widespread abuse and overdose potential of Zohydro.
Zogenix, the manufacturers behind Zohydro said they plan on releasing a non-crushable version of the opiate but that it would take 3 years before hitting the shelves. Considering prescription opioid deaths have quadrupled since 1999, 3 years is not soon enough.
Given that Zohydro is 5 times stronger than other opiates, “It will kill people as soon as it’s released,” said Dr. Andrew Kolodny who serves as president of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing. Kolodny adds, “It’s a whopping dose of hydrocodone packed in an easy-to-crush capsule.”
Adding to its controversy, many question how such a dangerous drug got approved in the first place when an advisory committee voted against it by 11-2. Questioning this, U.S. senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and David Vitter (R-LA) have actually started a bribery investigation aimed at an FDA official who they claim accepted money from pharmaceutical companies in exchange for a seat on an FDA advisory panel meeting for Zohydro.
Although necessary, bribery investigations and a 3-year release plan of a non-crushable version of Zohydro will do little to prevent abuse and overdose. That is why Harmony Foundation is unwavering in its efforts in providing the best addiction treatment and relapse prevention services for opiate abusers. We aim to put a dent in the soaring number of overdose deaths from opiates and help clients seeking opiate addition treatment live opiate free.
Saturday, March 1, 2014
What Addiction is Like for Philip Seymour Hoffman & Many Others
A few weeks ago we wrote about Philip Seymour Hoffman’s death and the media frenzy spawned ill informed comments about addiction and his death. Last week an article published in the New York Times entitled "Truth and Prize Emerge From Lies About Hoffman" interviewed Hoffman's friend, David Bar Katz, who shed a more realistic light on Hoffman’s addiction and the disease in general.
Mr. Katz relayed some details about the night of Hoffman’s death, saying he had invited him over to watch the Knicks game, “The fact that he wanted me to come over for the Knick game meant that he did not want to be doing the drugs, because he never did them in my presence,” he said. Katz is right - one of the most common traits of addicts in active addiction is isolation. At our addiction rehab, clients share their anecdotes about being alone and isolated at the end, doing their drugs alone and often not socializing because they wouldn’t be able to use substances how they wanted to. This is the case for most addicts - from food addicts who binge alone late at night to alcoholics who prefer their poison at home rather than with others at a bar. For many coming out of this isolation into rehab centers, it takes a while to get their social and communication skills back.
Shedding more light on the reality of Hoffman's addiction, Mr. Katz also relayed, “Hoffman once said to me, ‘Addiction is when you do the thing you really, really most don’t want to be doing.’ He was rigorously sober and had an awful relapse.” Hoffman’s explanation of addiction here is one of the best portrayals of what addiction is like, and a good way to depict addiction to the non-addict.
Addicts do what they hate the most in active addiction but are often unable to stop. Non-addicts may not understand exactly why they are unable to stop but it still gives them a realistic glimpse into the painful life of an addict. In fact, aside from understanding the disease model of addiction addicts sometimes don’t even know themselves why they got started or why they were unable to stop. In addiction treatment, we try not to exert all our energy on the why - and we encourage clients that they don’t have to understand or know or understand everything in order to recover. If the focus is placed on the present, the recovery process and the therapeutic tools at their disposal, many have a good chance of long-term sobriety. Soon enough the isolation, the self defeating behavior and trying to understand the why subsides.
Mr. Katz relayed some details about the night of Hoffman’s death, saying he had invited him over to watch the Knicks game, “The fact that he wanted me to come over for the Knick game meant that he did not want to be doing the drugs, because he never did them in my presence,” he said. Katz is right - one of the most common traits of addicts in active addiction is isolation. At our addiction rehab, clients share their anecdotes about being alone and isolated at the end, doing their drugs alone and often not socializing because they wouldn’t be able to use substances how they wanted to. This is the case for most addicts - from food addicts who binge alone late at night to alcoholics who prefer their poison at home rather than with others at a bar. For many coming out of this isolation into rehab centers, it takes a while to get their social and communication skills back.
Shedding more light on the reality of Hoffman's addiction, Mr. Katz also relayed, “Hoffman once said to me, ‘Addiction is when you do the thing you really, really most don’t want to be doing.’ He was rigorously sober and had an awful relapse.” Hoffman’s explanation of addiction here is one of the best portrayals of what addiction is like, and a good way to depict addiction to the non-addict.
Addicts do what they hate the most in active addiction but are often unable to stop. Non-addicts may not understand exactly why they are unable to stop but it still gives them a realistic glimpse into the painful life of an addict. In fact, aside from understanding the disease model of addiction addicts sometimes don’t even know themselves why they got started or why they were unable to stop. In addiction treatment, we try not to exert all our energy on the why - and we encourage clients that they don’t have to understand or know or understand everything in order to recover. If the focus is placed on the present, the recovery process and the therapeutic tools at their disposal, many have a good chance of long-term sobriety. Soon enough the isolation, the self defeating behavior and trying to understand the why subsides.
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