A guest post from Chris P. I had my first cigarette and drink at around aged 15. What I didn’t know at the time, was that I was a drug addict and alcoholic in the making. I would abuse anything I could get my hands on,...
Photo: Heart before and after prolonged use of cocaine, causing endocartis. The combination of alcohol and cocaine has more side effects than either substance alone. Cocaine produces a high while alcohol pulls down as a depressant, one substance can intensify and amplify the high of the...
To The Moms: I stood in the doctor’s office. His office was part of the treatment facility I had been working for at the time. I wanted him to come with me immediately however he said he had to finish some paperwork. "Did you even look at...
Answer as many questions as you can. If your answer is yes, take a moment to reflect on the question and write out a thoughtful answer or a specific time this has happened. These questions help with Step One of any drug or alcohol fellowship...
While it isn’t getting the spotlight of the opiate epidemic, alcoholism is on the rise. On average, alcohol resulted in deaths in 12,460 car crashes, 7,541 falls, 8,404 poisonings (not alcohol poisonings) and 1,089 fires. This is just to name a few of more than...
The Independent Coalition of Treatment Providers (ICOTP) is an organization dedicated to making a difference in the behavioral health field. Our goal is to show insurance payers and more importantly the public that we are transparent and working in the best interests of our patients. Our...
South Carolina sued the maker of OxyContin, Purdue Pharma LP, this month for fraud and deceptive marketing (1). This is the latest lawsuit Purdue faces amongst others from Ohio, Oklahoma, Missouri, Mississippi and New Hampshire as well as smaller counties and cities (2). News headlines...
An analysis of millions of Americans’ medical claims showed diagnoses of opioid addiction has surged nearly 500% over the past seven years, according to a review by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (1). Exacerbating the opioid and overdose crisis, cut batches of heroin containing...
Looking at the sale of illicit drugs on the internet. The dark net is a part of the Internet hidden by security and cryptography. It is partitioned off, so you can’t access it from a simple Google search. From a technology point of view, it is...
A look at over-prescription of opiates in the United States Last week's post seemed a bit implausible: we saw that while overdose deaths have plateaued or fallen in the West, they are rising east of the Mississippi. We wrote that this difference may be explained by drug trafficking, the price and availability of black tar versus powdered heroin. To shed some light on last week's data and understand the opiate...