Prescription Drug Addiction Blog

A recent New York Times article discussed the announcement that British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline has set aside more than 2 billion dollars to pay legal costs and settlement issues related to side effects caused by diabetes drug Avandia and anti-anxiety/antidepressant drugs Paxil.

Here is another example of how screwed up the pharmaceutical industry is. The shares actually rose after the announcement because it "wasn't as bad as expected." Of course, when it posted a profit of more than $8 billion last year, spending a couple billion to pay off lives that have been ruined by their negligence is a drop in the bucket when they'll just continue the patterns all over again and pocket even more billions in profits.

Prescription drug problems are one of the primary factors involved with rising healthcare costs, not only the cost of the prescriptions themselves, but also the direct-to-consumer marketing practices, hidden evidence from clinical trials but also the major side effects that cause serious physical harm and even death.

This is just one reason why movements such as The New Face of Recovery continue to recommend long term drug treatment programs that are drug-free in nature, rather than giving more drugs to addicts such as Paxil and other similar prescriptions.

Multiple reports surfaced last week that actress Heather Locklear completed an inpatient rehab program recently for prescription drug addiction. It's not the first time her name has been associated with substance abuse, but her latest situation hasn't been blown out of proportion like most celebrity rehab entries.

Although none of the stories claimed which prescription drugs the star entered the drug rehab program for, it was noted that it was only a month-long program. Hopefully the center didn't try and treat her addiction with some replacement drugs, as 90 day rehabs that are drug-free are typically much more successful than the shorter-term programs.

In its third attempt to pass a prescription drug monitoring law, the state of New Hampshire's legislature failed again, according to a story in The Citizen of Laconia newspaper. The article states that the cost of implementing a program was prohibitive and that it may have been presented in the wrong committee for the language of the bill. Either way, NH is the only state in New England that doesn't have a prescription drug monitoring program law.

These programs are designed to share information between doctors, pharmacists and law enforcement to prevent doctor shopping and other types of prescription drug fraud that are used by people who have an addiction to prescription drugs.

What law makers fail to see is that by implementing a program like this they will actually save the state much more money in the long run through prevention of overdoses, deaths as well as other healthcare and law enforcement costs. The biggest savings of course or the lives, which is difficult to put a dollar figure on, as one source in the paper estimated that there are about 100 overdose deaths per year in New Hampshire.

By being able to catch some of these offenders earlier in the process they can be diverted to drug treatment programs and hopefully have a chance at making it. Experts recommend long-term drug treatment facilities to provide higher rates of success, which is another issue that New Hampshire has to face along with most states in the country.

The Associated Press (AP) released an article with transcripts from the 911 call regarding the apparent drug overdose death of Slipknot bassist Paul Gray. The hotel worker who found Gray and called 911 said "There's a hypodermic needle next to the bed here," and that there were "all kinds of pills everywhere."

Exactly what prescription drugs were present have not been released and autopsy results will likely reveal which ones were in the musician's body.

This is yet another in a string of celebrity drug overdose-related deaths in recent months and years. It is unfortunate that high-profile losses like this are needed to wake some people up to the realities of substance abuse, but for those who are addicted and ready for help, there are long-term drug rehab centers available.

Each and every month we get thousands of visitors to our websites from people looking for information about Adderall addiction and abuse. Millions of otherwise unsuspecting children and uninformed parents have been duped by the psychiatric and pharmaceutical industry into believing that it is safe and effective to give a highly addictive prescription stimulant for learning difficulties.

Drugging children is not a solution for behavioral or learning difficulties. Proper nutrition, better education, less television and better education are real solutions for these problems. Giving speed to kids should be a punishable crime, especially when you consider the number of them who wind up being fully addicted to that drug and others as result, or when the amphetamines cause other problems in their lives such as violent outbursts and serious aggression. Drug companies and doctors are convincing parents that it's okay when it is actually child abuse. Those individuals who become addicted to the drug and contact us for help finding a drug rehab program have a better chance to stop it now before it gets worse.