Drug Rehab and Alcohol Rehab

Increasingly there are more and more websites advising you about ‘how to pass a drugs test’. Phrases like ‘drink this detox drink and keep your job’ and ‘worried about a drug test – buy this now’ are common. But what are the facts? What are your experiences of shipping in expensive ‘miracle detoxes’ – did they really work? How dangerous are they? Do people who need a proper supervised medical detox put themselves in danger of serious physical consequences by believing website adverts?

It is worth asking yourself - “if there was a miracle detox drink why isn’t it well known?”, “if detox drinks worked why would the dangers of detoxing alone be so widely publicised?”, “would it be better to get some professional advice than risk my job and health on an unknown quick fix?”, “if I need a detox is this really going to help me in the long term?”

What are your thoughts?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/8653498.stm

This link above refers to a news article published on the BBC website about the first mephedrone related arrest in Wales.

Is this the kind of news story you expected to see two weeks after mephedrone was banned?  Do you think that the ban will reduce the number of people using mephedrone in the UK?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8625840.stm

The link above refers to a BBC news story about ‘Tanorexia’ - people who are addicted to sun beds and sun lamps.  The story comes from a study conducted by researchers in the US that have found that ‘around a third of people who use sunbeds may become addicted to the tanning effects’.

Valid piece of research or lacking in scientific merit?… you decide…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/suffolk/hi/people_and_places/newsid_8611000/8611987.stm

Chris Hibble is a 37 year old man in recovery from alcohol and drug addiction, after receiving professional support on a rehabilitation programme Chris is now gearing up to run the London Marathon.

“It was a lot harder to battle with drugs than it is to run a marathon,” said Chris, who’s training for the big event in the capital on 25 April.

“Chris’s addiction story started when he was 11 years old and had his first drink. By the age of 16 he’d tried his first drugs.   He took them socially as part of the rave scene and tried everything, including ecstasy and heroin, although he says alcohol was the drug that eventually got him.

“It spiralled out of control. I enjoyed drinking and taking drugs when I first started and before long I didn’t have the ability to stop by myself.   I was forever losing jobs, being in A&E and in trouble with the police.  It caused devastation and misery and pain to everyone that I was really close to - my family and friends.”

He’s now self-employed as a painter and decorator and has a wife and two children.

“It came to a point where I could no longer function with or without them, contemplated taking my life and decided to get some help.”

In 2006 Chris did just that and turned his life around to live free from the constraints of his addiction and choose the direction he wants his life to go in….

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8599878.stm

The above link is to a BBC news story written in regard to hospital staff providing sensible drinking advice to patients coming back for follow up appointments after treatment for an alcohol related injury.  The Royal College of Surgeons of England suggest that outpatient clinic visits offer an opportunity for nurses to motivate people to drink sensibly and to offer advice about alcohol services should their patients require additional support.

“Janet Davies, from the Royal College of Nursing, said that it had recently accredited a training course to help nurses intervene at the right moment.   She said: “The time nurses spend with patients during follow-up appointments provides a valuable window of opportunity to encourage people to think about whether they might be drinking too much and to signpost them to further information and advice.”

Do you think that this step will help reduce the number of alcohol related A&E hospital admissions?

http://www.hse.gov.uk/alcoholdrugs/drugs.htm
Above is a link to the Directgov website, specifically the ‘Health and Safety Executive’. Below is an extract from the site discussing employment substance misuse policies and drug testing:

“Drug and other substance (e.g. solvent) misuse is everyone’s concern. In the context of work, not only does it damage the misuser’s health, but it can cost employers through absenteeism and reduced productivity. It may also increase the risk of accidents. Employers should adopt a substance misuse policy, in consultation with their staff. This policy should aim to support affected employees rather than punish them, though your policy must say that possession or dealing in drugs at work will be reported immediately to the Police. If an employee admits to being a drug user, your policy should seek to help them rather than lead simply to dismissing them.

The advice clearly states that any drugs policy or screening programme should be implemented with the intention of helping employees that are experiencing drug problems. In reality is this how substance misuse policies are interpreted by employees and do they feel that a positive drug test result will mean they get help or get the sack?

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2010/03/29/calzaghe-says-sorry-after-publication-of-cocaine-stories-91466-26129706/

The above link refers to the news story that sees Joe Calzaghe, a world renowned boxing champion, publicly apologise for his occasional use of cocaine.

The former super middleweight and light-heavyweight world champion said in yesterday’s statement:

 “I very much regret my occasional use of cocaine in what have sometimes been the long days since my retirement from the ring….I am fully aware of the bad example it sets to other people and particularly to youngsters and I apologise to my family, friends and fans….It is not a major problem in my life but it is something which I am actively addressing.”

Last night publicist and PR guru Max Clifford said Calzaghe’s “golden boy” image would be hit hard by the revelations.

“I think this will upset a lot of people,” he said….It’s the first real blemish on his career and has tarnished him….The golden boy of British boxing is not as golden as we thought he was. It just diminishes his career.”

Do you think that recent stories about Calzaghe ruin his untarnished boxing record or is this story just another inidication of the reality of recreational drug use in the UK?

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http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7018190670?Researchers%20In%20Spain%20Validate%20Scale%20To%20Judge%20Work%20Addiction

The above link takes you to a news article about the development of the DUWAS (Dutch Work Addiction Scale) created by researchers in Spain.  It is estimated that work addiction currently effects up to 12% of the population of Spain.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/7499937/Liverpool-John-Moores-University-students-in-mephedrone-experiment.html

As the debate about mephedrone rages on, 50 students attending Liverpool John Moores University have taken part in an experiment - the idea is to hold structured interviews with the subjects to record how they feel after taking the drug.

Dr Cathy Montgomery, the psychology lecturer behind the research said: “During these tests, the university makes it clear they do not condone drug use.

“Until now, most evidence comes from people anecdotally. We will be holding structured interviews with users, asking them how they feel at different time points.

Whilst Liberal Democrat MP John Pugh, who represents Southport, Merseyside has branded the study “highly irresponsible”, the question remains, should we be taking more steps to understand more about mephedrone as oppose to simply banning it?  Would banning it alone prevent any more people using it?  Should we concentrate our resources on researching effects of legal highs so at least people are informed?

What do you think of the university experiment??

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/mar/17/mephedrone-explained-plant-food-miaow

The above link is in reference to an article published by The Guardian this morning. Yesterday two teenagers died after using mephedrone and there has been a public outcry for the reclassification of the drug. Currently legal in the UK, mephedrone, not to be confused with methadone, has been deemed as the possible drug of the next decade. In the 90’s there was ecstasy, in the 00’s there was cocaine and ketamine and now it would seem the party drug of choice is rapidly becoming mephedrone (or m-Cat as it is commonly known).

The major concern about this drug is not dissimilar to that of other drugs that have come up the club rankings since the 70’s – what are the long terms effects, what are the chances of overdosing etc. However, perhaps the most controversial element of this debate is the fact that mephedrone is legal to buy, which may be a significant indicator of why children as young as 11 have been turning up at school high on mephedrone. This touches on the wider debate of legal highs. Are legal highs any safer than illicit drugs (or could it even be a case where some illicit highs are dubbed safer by the recreational drug taking community than legal highs?). Despite the actual chemical make up of these drugs and whether they are deemed to be safe or not by experts, surely the legal status of such drugs gives an illusion of safety if they are legal?