Two-year MaineCare cutoff for opiate addiction drugs kicks in Tuesday
Both of those funding decreases, which are part of overall state budget cuts, come at a time when Maine reports the highest per capita rate of people seeking treatment for opiate addiction in the country. Roy Miller, a physician who practices at …
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Heroin deaths creep up statewide as other opiates become too expensive
Following a statewide war against prescription drug abuse, there are early signs of growing heroin use as an alternative to opiate pills, which are becoming harder and more expensive to get. In an analysis of drug-related deaths for 2011, the Florida …
Read more on MiamiHerald.com (registration)

High Today, Gone Tomorrow: Why Opiate Addicts Die
Opiate addicts die from overdose, suicide, disease, violence and from various aspects of withdrawal and drug treatment – most notably opioid replacement therapies and rapid detox. But while this might seem like a modern problem, the only the only thing …
Read more on Hive Health Media (blog)

Children Services to tackle parental substance abuse
Summit County Children Services soon will launch a major, multiyear research project focused on parents addicted to drugs and alcohol — one of the big reasons kids end up in the child welfare system. The agency nabbed a $ 2.5 million grant from the U.S …
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Addiction: Recovering addicts reach out to others
Addictions can run the gamut from gambling, shopping and overeating, to alcohol and drug abuse. Three recovering addicts share their stories of addiction and recovery here in their own words, in the hopes of inspiring others to start anew in the coming …
Read more on OregonLive.com

Anonymity Of Addiction Hurts More Than It Helps
"When people hear that a person is in 'recovery,' they think someone is struggling with addiction, or still using," when such is not the case, said Patricia A. Taylor, executive director of the grass-roots nonprofit Faces and Voices of Recovery. Her …
Read more on Hartford Courant

Watching out for one another saves us all
… brothers, cousins, and family friends. We tell sad stories, happy stories, stories about being lost, stories about being found. A few weeks ago Kelli, the mother of a teenager who spent two months in treatment for opiate addiction, told a “pay it …
Read more on Walla Walla Union-Bulletin

Tampa Bay Opiate Withdrawal 'Best of the Best' Awarded to The Coleman …
If you, a friend or a loved one, needs help detoxing and beginning a recovery from an opiate addiction, there is hope, help and healing. Contact The Coleman Institute today at 877-773-3869, or visit them on the web at http://www.thecolemaninstitute.com.
Read more on Melodika.net (press release)

High Today, Gone Tomorrow: Why Opiate Addicts Die
Opiate addicts die from overdose, suicide, disease, violence and from various aspects of withdrawal and drug treatment – most notably opioid replacement therapies and rapid detox. But while this might seem like a modern problem, the only the only thing …
Read more on Hive Health Media (blog)

Opiate addiction is a terrible and rising tragedy. More and more people are choosing to take heroin, morphine, codeine, and other prescription painkillers in an attempt to get a cheap high. There is no way to say why this is happening, but the consequences to both society and the individual are quite clear.

There are a number of different ways that a person can start as an opiate addict. Typically, people suspect, a person who becomes an addict was genetically inclined to do so. They just had to get a little push for the addiction to start. Had they never been introduced to opiates, there likely would have been no problem, but once introduced, there genetically is no way for a person to get out of the trap. For example, this may start due to a simple injury. Perhaps a doctor prescribes some codeine to help a person kill the pain of a broken leg. Whatever it is, once a person takes the first drug, an addict will want more and more, and stuff that is stronger and stronger, until they are actively searching for other drugs, including heroin.

Once a person is an addict, it is not hard to identify them as such. The most common symptom is a constant preoccupation with getting the drug, especially in an illegal fashion. Withdrawal symptoms, for somebody who is already addicted, can include being irritability when not on the drug, lying to get a prescription (for prescription drugs), and a general obsession with the drug. And, therefore, the only way to combat an addiction is to withhold the drugs. This can create horrible withdrawal symptoms, but once a person is over the drug, if they never, ever, touch the drugs again, there may be some potential for long-term recovery.