It comes as no surprise to me that Dr. Nora Volkow, director of National Institute on Drug Abuse and one of my personal idols, stated there has been a “paradigm shift” in substance abuse commenting on a study this month that shows prescription drugs have passed marijuana as the gateway drug choice of our youth.
I have seen the writing on the wall for many years now and nowhere is it more apparent than the ever increasing stream of patients into the local methadone clinic where I volunteer. Over ninety percent of those I see come are not heroin addicts, but instead they are addicted to opioid prescription pain killers Loritab, Vicoden, Oxycontin, and Dilaudid. Go ahead and throw in the benzo's like Xanax and Valium into the mix of problems because that is what most addicts (and alcoholics) con their doctors out of by describing their depression while leaving out the fact they have a raging addiction.
Dr. Volkow mentioned this paradigm shift in abuse and treatment, but I feel there is one more important aspect of this situation she left out.
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