Heroin

Prescription drug abuse is rampant with pain killing medications like Oxycontin and Vicodin (opioids) primarily being responsible for a surge in addictions. Most states have realized the problem with these medications and have implemented opioid regulations and increased scrutiny of pain management prescriptions. These actions have made a definite impact on the supply of diverted medicine on the market yet the number of addicts continues to grow. So what is an addict supposed to do?

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Aaron Fike vanished on July 7, 2007.

All in all, a good night at the track—especially for someone who'd shot up heroin that day. ~ ESPN

It's an all too familiar story storyboard.

1. Bright kid- 2. Brash young professional- 3. Drug use- 4. Mug shot.

Aaron Fike had been racing since boyhood. With a top finish in a NASCAR series race his name was being bounced around as a young gun potentially worthy of the big time. But just as he had advanced rapidly through the ranks to reach the NASCAR scene, Fike’s graduation from a prescription pill addiction to shooting up intravenously accelerated his inevitable fall from grace. In July 2007, Fike and his fiancée were arrested in the parking lot of an amusement park shooting up black tar heroin.

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Back in 69’ Donald Kurth wasn’t worried about being homeless being much more focused on where he would score the heroin he needed to support his addiction. The days of his substance abuse are now long gone and not only does he have a home in Rancho Cucamonga, he is also the mayor. While many in this growing city of 200,000 refer to Mr. Kurth as “His Honor” the mayor, you will also hear him referred to as doctor. Mr. Kurth also just happens to be the Chief of Addiction Medicine at Loma Linda University's Behavioral Medical Center.

Things were much different almost forty years ago.

Donald Kurth stood in a New Jersey courtroom in 1969 at the mercy of the judge. A heroin addict, Kurth had been arrested for petty larceny and drug possession. His oversized jeans sagged at the waist. His belt had been stolen that week by a corner drug-seller in Harlem. Perhaps seeing a speck of promise in the 20-year-old, the judge offered him drug rehab instead of jail. Kurth balked. If he did the time, he'd be back on the street sooner. Consider it a gift and take it, his attorney told him.~Faces and Voices of Recovery

Here’s another TDA salute, going out to a man who not only leads by example in the recovery community but continues to give back in his role as a recovery professional.

Kudos to His Honor the Mayor, Dr. Donald Kurth.

My good friend screedler sent me a link to what I assume is a Russian site that has an all too familiar photo essay. The top of the page has the following description and nothing more.

????????? ??? ????? ??????? ??????????? ??????? ?????????????? ? ????? ?????. ? ???? ?? ?? ??? ? ????? ?? ?????????? (????????? ??????? ???????????? ??????). ????????, ?? ???????????

The pictures are so poignant and well done that even this brief explanation is really unnecessary, but I used the Google translator anyway and came up with this:

Last dying man infected with human immunodeficiency virus in the family. In addition, he also sits on the drug (probable reason for acquiring the virus). Sadly, but instructive

Healthy marriage-beautiful kids-heroin-AIDs and then an untimely death with his loved ones left behind wondering why. It’s tough looking at the progressive deterioration of this guy’s health, but what is truly “sad and instructive” are the pictures of his family. The wife’s haunted eyes and the son staring as his father’s casket is closed are brutal reminders that the affects of an addiction can last far beyond death.

A drug addicted elephant has given the park authorities at Hainan a plus sized problem. Apparently the elephant had been captured by illegal traders who then kept the animal drugged up on heroin so they could make him lead the herd where they wished. The traders were eventually caught by Chinese authorities, but not before the elephant named “Big Brother” had developed a heroin addiction that was proving both dangerous to him and the humans who were trying to help.

“Dangerous to himself and those around him” why does that sound oddly familiar?

”By that time Big Brother had developed a raging heroin addiction and posed a danger to people if denied his fix, the paper said. A drooling Big Brother was taken to a park on the island of Hainan for treatment, after cold turkey was so unbearable even his chain could not hold him. Park authorities spent a year treating him with methadone, regular bathing and massage”~The Scotsman

Too bad the park authorities didn't have access to a plus-sized church!

”For my wife and me, our son's journey has been like the movie "The Sixth Sense." We look back on all the signs we ignored or couldn't believe and now say, "Remember when he did this? Remember when he did that?"

I thought this addiction to Freep.com’s Fatal Euphoria series was worth a mention, it’s called A Father’s Harrowing Tale. It is a story told by a man about whose son is addicted to heroin. The good news is this tale ends with the son in his sixth shot at rehab, not dead and buried. The lesson learned by him and his wife is the reason I wanted to highlight this story, because he states it rather harsh and plainly.

” Oh, did I tell you my son is a liar. All addicts are. They have to be to maintain their addiction. My son would lie about everything, even when it wasn't necessary. He also became a thief. All addicts are. Take a check out of the checkbook and write it to yourself. Three hundred dollars? Good amount for a couple of days. Can't find the checkbook? Better sell the new video game mom and dad bought me. My brother's $900 guitar? As Tigers announcer Dan Dickerson would say, gone! Two hundred bucks out of my uncle's wallet? Gone!”

It is easy to say this about a stranger. But it is so very, very hard to believe this about a loved one, because for your own sake and emotional well-being you want to believe them so badly. In the movie The Sixth Sense a young boy had a special ability to see dead people, a sixth sense. He would help the dead with their unresolved issues so they could pass peacefully from this existence. Those of us with loved ones who are active addicts and alcoholics also need a special ability, and that is to be able to see the disease instead of the person. In real life, we have to help them before they are dead.

” Lauren Jolly was a popular girl from a wealthy suburb, but she ended up dead in a dilapidated drug house. The Free Press tracked the path of an illicit drug that authorities say moved from Mexico to Detroit and beyond, killing hundreds of addicts in its wake.”

I have never been a fan of Freep.com powered by the Detroit Free Press for various reasons, but I will give credit where it is due. Freep’s Fatal Euphoria documents the recent wave of over 1000 heroin addicts killed by fentanyl in what I reluctantly must describe as a truly admirable journalistic piece. The feature has fifteen chapters that covers almost all topics including the victims, the criminals, and those left to pick up the pieces. Kudos Freep.com for a thorough look at the very deadly path of another illegal and abused drug. This is required reading.

”In their quest to lure new, younger clientele, drug dealers are mixing their wares with over-the-counter pain remedies and other familiar products — even candy — and peddling them under non-threatening names." ~Story from Associated Press

Try as I might I can not see how people will stoop so far to make a buck that they will sell drugs to children. Now when they develop a sophisticated marketing program to maximize the distribution to this school age demographic, well that’s just downright evil.

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