Prison for Addicts
Cameron Douglas, son of actor Michael Douglas, is serving an extended sentence for drug distribution and heroin possession. He is 33 years old and began injecting heroin daily in his mid 20s. He has not received treatment in prison, and according to this NY Times Article on 5/21/12, "is a textbook example of someone suffering from untreated opioid dependence [for whom] more prison time would do nothing to solve his underlying problems."
Treating any illness or disease with punishment is not the answer. Sure there are plenty of examples where drug dealers should be in prison. Especially when violence is involved. Still if someone turns to violence or drug dealing or prostitution to feed an addiction there should be medical treatment as part of their reform.
The State of California spent a lot of time and money to change their name from "The California Department of Corrections" to add the words "and Rehabilitation" to the end. It appears that all they did was change the name. What changed behind the walls?
Read more here, on my blog.
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Be responsible about your pain management.
Lock up your meds!
 Don't let the neighborhood get their illegal prescription drugs from you unwittingly. If you have a house cleaner, a baby sitter, a teenager, dinner parties, anyone at all in your house and you take prescription meds, lock them up!
RxDrugAddict.com friends get a special deal with RxDrugSafe. Check it out on my website!
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Greetings!
There is a lot going on in my life: work and family, revising the second draft of my follow-up book to Defining Moments, keeping up with everything that is going on in the world of prescription drug abuse activism. Most of it is exciting and inspiring. Behind the Orange Curtain has been accepted into the New York and LA film festivals after its first place win. The officer who busted Brandon and then subsequently assisted me in my undercover operation to bust the bigger fish was promoted, and my son and I attended the ceremony. And I made a connection with Jodi Barber, a woman whose son's OD death drove her to make a short documentary for schools called "Overtaken." In her upscale ocean-side county, there has been a 146% increase of fatal overdoses in the last 3 years, and overdose is the number one cause of death for children between the ages of 15 and 24. I am constantly inspired by the people I am meeting on this journey at the same time that I am overwhelmed by the immensity and the tragedy of it all. Thanks for joining me on this journey into this cultural phenomenon, this epidemic of prescription drug abuse, as I continually try to figure out where to go from here.
Best regards,
Bradley V. DeHaven
brad@rxdrugaddict.com
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| Not My Kid? Don't be so certain...
When he was 15, my child broke his arm on a trampoline and was prescribed Vicodin. Three years later, he was a junkie. Perhaps the doctor should have asked about my family history, or maybe I should have said loud and clear: "My brother is an Opiate addict and my father an alcoholic!" But I simply didn't know that this was relevant, because I believed that my brother and father couldn't control themselves and were addicts by their own doing. I believed that they had some character flaw, some hole in their emotional lives, some gap their parents left unfilled, and it was because of this that they became addicts. I believed that they didn't stop using because they were weak. My son, however, had had me not only for a devoted dad, but for a soccer coach, etc. and he wanted for nothing. I was so wrong to believe it couldn't be my kid.
Honor students, class presidents, leaders of the debate team, cheerleaders and sports stars are not exempt from addiction. Oh, you're wealthy and live in a nice neighborhood? Your kids go to the best schools? So you are exempt from having a child who becomes a heroin addict instead of a CEO? Nope.
In the end, an addict will go from their million dollar home in suburbia (or their average apartment in the 'hood) and crawl into the deep dark pockets of our cities and they will find their opiate, they will find their heroin, because their body will not allow them to deny it. My son went from a community with a median income higher than Beverly Hills to the slums of Tijuana to score heroin because his body could not survive without "putting in."
Perhaps your child has done the same thing. Perhaps you'd like to see something done about this epidemic at the education or even the legislation level. Join me in my journey into the prescription drug abuse epidemic.
I hope that my new book can help parents open dialogue with their children. Be the first to know about its release, by
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| Brandon Update
Brandon approaches 2 years clean in August and he is doing and looking great. He's had the same job for over almost a year in a half (which is huge for a recovering addict) and is still working out daily. Again-huge that he's put his addictive personality onto a positive activity: exercise.
He mentored a 20-year old man who was just a few weeks clean from heroin & Oxy last week. The young man's father appreciated that his son could see first hand that there is a great life to be had beyond drugs.
Brandon sees life so brightly through drug free eyes. He still sees people smoking pot and using other drugs, but he has the tools to say no and the desire to keep improving his life.
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And please, forward this to your friends and others who you think would get something from it. Thanks! |
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