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26 Years Helping Addicts to Get Clean, Find Recovery, and Remain Clean
Help Today is a Call Away - (202) 299.4919
An Addict is one who has good reason to stop, but hasn't.
$2,500 for an intervention, $150 an hour homebased psychotherapy services,
Consultation and Free Professional Advice.






  • Heroin (H., Smack, Brown)




    • Photographic Memories


    Collage DaDa
    Art


    In the treatment of alcohol abuse, which afflicts about 14 million Americans --
    one in every 13 adults. Alcohol abusers are defined as men who have five or more drinks per day
    and women who have four or more drinks each day.

    Alcoholism is not a homogenous disease, so there is no magic bullet out there to treat it.
    There is a biological component and a psychological component and a cultural component and a social component,
    and they vary from individual to individual.



  • Drink Drive


    • five early symptoms that indicate a drinker already is an alcohol abuser or is at risk:

    1. Repeatedly drinking more than self-set limits.

    2. Having a persistent desire to quit or cut down.

    3. Drinking and driving.

    4. Spending too much time drinking.

    5. Having hangovers or a sleep disorder.

  • Drive Drink


    • Knowing the Signs

    several characteristics that can help people recognize themselves as high-functioning alcoholics:

    They have trouble controlling their intake even after deciding that they will drink no more alcohol than a given amount.

    They find themselves thinking obsessively about drinking . when and where and with whom they will drink next.

    When they drink, they behave in ways that are uncharacteristic of their sober self.

    They experience blackouts, unable to remember what took place during a drinking bout.

    It's not the number of drinks that defines an alcoholic,. It's what happens to you when you're drinking.


  • The Disease of Addiction


    • They also tend to hide their excessive consumption by drinking alone or sneaking alcohol before or after a social event, and disguising or excusing the odor of alcohol on their breath.

    High-functioning alcoholics are highly skilled at leading double lives

    high-functioning alcoholics are able to maintain respectable, even high-profile lives, usually with a home, family, job and friends. That balancing act continues until something dreadful happens that reveals the truth — to themselves or to others — and forces the person to enter a treatment program or lose everything that means anything.

    estimates that as many as half of all alcoholics are high-functioning types. The abuse can go on for decades until and unless some alcohol-related crisis occurs, like being arrested for drunken driving, exposed for having made unwanted sexual advances or being asked for a divorce when their spouses can no longer tolerate the abusive drinking.


  • Addiction and the Brain's Pleasure Pathway: Beyond Willpower. Eventually, the drive to seek and use the drug is all that matters, despite devastating consequences.




  • Wellconal was my drug of choice


    Rest in Loving Peace our children

    • Hillbrow with its corruption and violence, slum landlords, crooked police, strip-joints and night clubs, drug-lords, pimps, brothels and massage parlours, prostitution, sex buyers, and overall decadence have become the burial grounds for our children.
    Some of our children died of Wellconal (pinks) OD, others from Heroin or more violently from crack cocaine rocks OD's.


    Many deaths were as the result of continued physical and drug abuse - the girls died of septicemia, thrombosis, heart failure, pneumonia, malnutrition, AIDS. As the victims of sexual perversions many girls were raped, mutilated and murdered. With their miserable lives becoming unbearable -
    some of our heartbroken children chose the only way out left for them, they would cop out by committing suicide.

    There is always a need for intoxication:
    China has opium, Islam has hashish, the West has woman.
    Andre Malraux
    (1901-1976)
    MAN'S FATE




  • The development of new antipsychotics, and the relative efficacy of different ones, is an important ongoing field of research. Antipsychotic medication is not generally regarded as a good treatment, just the best available. The most appropriate drug for an individual patient requires careful consideration.

    As Nancy Reagan would say . Just say No.

    I believe help can be found through application of spiritual principles such as hope, faith, honesty, courage, living in the here and now, openmindedness, kindness, identification with others who are completely abstinent from all drugs.


    • Addict Out of the Dark and into the Light

  • Addict Out of the Dark and into the Light
    Hardback ISBN:
    1-4257-7889-5
    Hardback ISBN 13:
    978-1-4257-7889-7






  • Order the Book : Addict Out of the Dark and into the Light


  • Book page:




  • Author page:




    • http://www2.xlibris.com/bookstore/bookdisplay.asp?bookid=39928

    Hardback ISBN: 1-4257-7889-5

    Hardback ISBN 13: 978-1-4257-7889-7

    Picture Book - Softcover $48.99



    Picture Book - Hardcover $58.99


    Addict Out of the Dark and into the Light.


  • Paradise Life





  • A Day in the life of an addict



    • White House Conference for a Drug free America - excluding Alcohol and Tobacco


  • Malawi Gold Cob




  • Drug addiction


    • According to federal government studies, 15 million Americans are addicted to alcohol, 12 million to other drugs.
    The marketplace presents an ever-changing array of chemicals people can abuse.
    Yet alcoholism is and always has been the No. 1 problem people seek treatment for.
    In the early 80's, Valium was the second most abused drug, then cocaine surpassed it. Now opiates such as Vicodin, Percoset and OxyContin, usually legally prescribed, are in second place.

  • Cocaine and Crack

    YoBoy




  • I know someone who is using drugs - what now?



  • gamma hydroxybutyrate, more commonly known as GHB


    • Recovery is also about the spirit, about dealing with that hole in the soul.

    was born with what I like to call a hole in my soul.. . .A pain that came from the reality that I just wasn't good enough.

    That I wasn't deserving enough. That you weren't paying attention to me all the time. That maybe you didn't like me enough.

    is true for those who are genetically predisposed. We know from twin and family studies that about 50 percent of a person's vulnerability to addiction is genetic.

    millions of addicts around the world have recovered without the help of medication.

    the fact is that today 12-step treatment is still the best treatment there is

  • Amphetamines (Speed, Whizz)



  • MDMA (Ecstasy)



    • Ecstasy, popular among teenagers and young adults who attend rave parties, leads to the destruction of neurons in the brain.
    Repeated users of the drug develop symptoms resembling those of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases

  • MDMA / ECSTASY . not for chemists - some drug slang


  • Concerning Behaviors to Look for in an Adolescent Who Might be Using Drugs


  • The illustrated guidebook offers information on HIV testing and the dangers of sharing needles



  • The Disease of Addiction


  • Psilocybin (Magic Mushrooms)


  • LSD Blotter Art Gallery -
    http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/lsd/lsd_images_gallery1.shtml



    • - art that gets printed on LSD tabs.
    This site showcases blotter art of everything from album covers to cartoon characters. Even Alice in Wonderland has her own tab.

  • wellconal


    • Addiction is one of the nation's biggest public health problems, costing $524 billion (including lost wages and costs to the public health care and criminal justice systems) each year.

    The majority of the estimated 20 million alcoholics and drug addicts in America (and millions more compulsive gamblers, overeaters and sex addicts,

    if you accept an expanded understanding of addiction) never get help.

    Those who do often relapse repeatedly, sometimes returning to treatment centers 5, 10 or 15 times (if they don't die first).

    And many of those who"recover simply trade one addiction for another addicts call this dance switching seats on the Titanic.

  • [INLINE:burntime]
    burntime



    • The brownish gum that bleeds out of a poppy plant is raw opium.



    Fire Barrel

    About 60,000 District residents, or 12 percent of the population, have a substance abuse problem, according to the D.C. Addiction Prevention and Recovery Administration. Partly as a result, police say, liquor stores, food carryouts and gas stations stock items used in the illegal drug trade, including tiny rose vases that double as crack pipes, rolling papers used to smoke marijuana and small plastic bags used to package drugs.

    And signs of progress are popping up. Next to the cooler of Wild Irish Rose and Thunderbird malt liquors at King's Mini Market in Anacostia, for instance, is a sign alerting patrons that the store no longer sells crack pipes and rolling papers.

  • Otherwise known as Pinks, Inxs or Inkiltins, Wellconal is a Schedule-7 prescription painkiller. It contains dipipanone, which is a derivative of methadone and a potent analgesic (pain relieving) drug.



    • dealers peddling heroin that they were calling "drop dead," "lethal injection," and "killer instinct" spread,


    Like the regulars at Harry Hope's saloon in The Iceman Cometh, she'd reached the late stage of alcoholism where no matter how much she drank, she couldn't get drunk anymore.

  • anti-smoking stamps


    • addiction whether to alcohol, to drugs or even to behaviors like gambling appears to be a complicated disorder affecting brain processes

    responsible for motivation, decision making, pleasure seeking,

    inhibitory control and the way we learn and consolidate information and experiences.


  • High Culture



    • the Fentanyl that has killed more than 60 heroin users in the Chicago area.


    Copyright Columbia Pictures, Easy Rider had an enromous influence on an
    juvenile delinquent addict dreaming of growing up becoming an outlaw.


  • the making of Easy Rider



  • dont use



    • you're told that addiction is a disease that wants you dead, and it will go after you unless you use the tools you learn in the program


  • a hallucination




  • Before Prohibition: Images from the preprohibition era




  • Illicit Drug Index



  • blotterbarn art in lsd



  • LSD My Problem Child



  • The plant Papaver Somniferum, aka the Opium Poppy.



  • Crystal Meth Anonymous of Washington DC



    • Virtually everyone who takes opioids will become physically dependent on them, which means that withdrawal symptoms like nausea and sweats can occur if usage ends abruptly. But tapering off gradually allows most people to avoid those symptoms, and physical dependence is not the same thing as addiction. Addiction — which is defined by cravings, loss of control and a psychological compulsion to take a drug even when it is harmful — occurs in patients with a predisposition (biological or otherwise) to become addicted. At the very least, these include just below 10 percent of Americans, the number estimated by the United States Department of Health and Human Services to have active substance-abuse problems. Even a predisposition to addiction, however, doesn’t mean a patient will become addicted to opioids.

  • Crsytal Meth Anonymous



  • Montana Meth Project




  • methamphetamine,

    • Popular slang for this drug of course includes crystal, but more commonly tina -- a corruption of the word sixteen, based on the concept of one sixteenth of an ounce. When you see Craigslist classified ads from people searching for a "party with Tina," you can rest assured they're willing to spend anywhere from three to five dollars.

  • How cocaine is made





    • Medical research is linking cannabis use to behavioral and cognitive changes reminiscent of psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression and anxiety disorder drugs.

    A child is smoking skunk, a strain of cannabis whose THC content is much more potent than garden-­variety pot . except that it has become garden variety, toxic 22 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content in some strains.

    Any parent who has had to confront a child's drug abuse is familiar with the drawn-out agony of despair, impotence, fear, grief and, while there is still a chance for recovery, hope. That last is perhaps the most ravaging of all. Hope means you aren't yet numb enough, not yet at peace with the chaos into which life has spilled, not yet so defeated and angry that you're unable to try to help.

    A psychiatrist can explain that the potency of THC in skunk can do untold and irreversible damage. They attend meetings of Families Anonymous. They withhold money from their son, who refuses rehab, but then they relent. The cycle plays itself out several times, with horrifying consequences.

  • Do It Now Organization



    • OxyContin gave them better relief than they ever had before. But Purdue misrepresented the drug’s potential for abuse. Last month, the company and three of its executives pleaded guilty to federal charges that they misled doctors and patients. The company agreed to pay $600 million in fines; and the executives, a total of $34.5 million. The pill’s time-release mechanism turned out to be easily circumvented by crushing the pill and snorting or injecting the resulting powder. By the late 1990s, OxyContin abuse was devastating small towns throughout Appalachia and rural New England. Pharmaceuticals, mainly opioids, are still widely abused — now more so than any illegal drug except marijuana. In 2005, according to the government’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 6.4 million Americans, many of them teenagers, had abused pharmaceuticals recently. Most got the drug from friends or family — often, in the case of teenagers, from their parents' medicine cabinets.

  • Stop Drugs methcrisis




  • Stories about Meth Users : Crystal Meth Effects : Methamphetamine Addiction Stories




  • no more sunsets




    • But treating addicts requires extra care.

  • FUTURE OPIOIDS


  • Ed 's Parents were bikers.



    • Ed says - my mother's on Methadone, my father is incarcerated in prison, I graduated from highschool and I grew up in a barn without electric and water.
    Ed's left index finger has Gangrene because he hit an artery while injecting Heroin into his arm.

    Dont Shoot Dope

  • Drug Guide ( Good Drug Guide ) Druggies Paradise



  • dreamtime



    • OxyContin is a synthetic, time-released pill similar to morphine, and its benefits have been widely praised by terminal cancer patients and others with severe and intractable pain.
    But the pills contain large amounts of the pure drug oxycodone, which abusers seek for its heroin-like high. They crush the pills and then snort or inject them.
    Abuse of OxyContin has sparked what some authorities call an epidemic in several Appalachian states over the past few years, and the associated addictions and crime have migrated to suburban and urban areas.

    OxyContin is a long-lasting version of oxycodone, a narcotic considered important therapy for many patients suffering chronic, moderate to severe pain from illnesses such as cancer. The tablet, when swallowed whole, provides 12 hours of relief.



    No Job Heroin Nod
    But the drug can produce a quick and potentially lethal high if it is chewed, snorted or injected. It has been linked to more than 100 deaths and bears the government's strongest warning label, which says the drug may be as addictive as morphine.

  • Mandrax



    • PCP, the full name of which is phencyclidine, can produce hours of a frenzied high. The drug has unpredictable effects, and people under its influence have been known to behave erratically, from stripping off their clothing to killing with little or no provocation.


  • A Day in the life of an addict


  • Fry: "A Study of Adolescents Use of Embalming Fluid with Marijuana and Tobacco



    • The drug PCP was popular in the District in the 1970s and '80s, when it was known as Love Boat or Buck Naked,
    because many of its users shed their clothes while high. But the drug's popularity in Washington faded as crack cocaine took over.


  • Dagga




    • Signs and symptoms of drugging

    Is something wrong?

    Look out for the signs and symptoms of substance abuse:

    Disinterest in previously important activities

    Change in appetite and eating patterns

    Withdrawal from family

    Secretiveness about friends, lying

    Lack of motivation

    New friends

    Needing abnormal amounts of money, stealing

    Drug paraphernalia

    Lack of energy, drop in attention span

    Changes in values and beliefs

    Period of unexplained absence from home

    Deterioration in school marks

    Short term memory loss

  • Cannabis





    • Juvenile Delinquency
    Jay, Robbie and Chris rolling a Joint of Ugandian Bhangi
    1973 on the roof of the Narobi Hilton in Kenya.
    Chris got clean ten years later. Robbie and Jay are most likely dead or rotting in a jail somewhere.


    For their children, smoking marijuana is not a harmless rite of passage but rather a dangerous game of Russian roulette.

    the number of children and teenagers in treatment for marijuana dependence and abuse has jumped 142 percent since 1992,

    and the number of teen emergency room admissions in which marijuana is implicated is up almost 50 percent since 1999.

    Though alcohol remains by far the teen substance of choice, teens are three times likelier to be in treatment for marijuana than for alcohol

    (and six times likelier to be in treatment for marijuana than for all other illegal drugs combined).


  • Meth FaQ




    • As has been true of tobacco since the 1960s, we've learned a lot about the dangers of marijuana since the 1970s.

    The drug adversely affects short-term memory, the ability to concentrate and motor skills.

    Recent studies indicate that it increases the likelihood of depression, schizophrenia and other serious mental health problems.

    Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, has repeatedly expressed concern about the adverse impact of marijuana on the brain,

    a matter of particular moment for youngsters whose brains are still in the development stage.

    Volkow has stated: There is no question marijuana can be addictive; that argument is over.

    The most important thing right now is to understand the vulnerability of young, developing brains to these increased concentrations of cannabis.

  • Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD)




  • Blotter Barn | LSD Blotter Art Archive




  • the Lycaeum - Entheogenic Database & Community




    • Psilocybin, the active ingredient of "magic mushrooms," expands the mind. After a thousand years of use, that's now scientifically official.

    The chemical promoted a mystical experience in two-thirds of people who took it for the first time, according to a new study.

    One-third rated a session with psilocybin as the "single most spiritually significant" experience of their lives. Another third put it in the top five.

    It confirms what both shamans and hippies have long said -- taking psilocybin is a scary, reality-bending and occasionally life-changing experience.

    Of the 36 people, 22 had a "complete" mystical experience as judged by several question-based scales used for rating such experiences.

    Two-thirds judged it to be among their top five life experiences, equal to the birth of a first child or death of a parent.

    Two months after a session, the people who had taken psilocybin reported small but significant positive changes in behavior and attitudes compared with those who had taken Ritalin.


  • Laos - The Opium Addict





    • There is no single known cause of alcoholism, but the researchers wrote that about two-thirds of alcohol dependence could be attributed to genetic factors and one-third to environmental causes like stress or emotional problems. Men and women are equally affected, and age does not appear to affect prognosis.


  • The Montana Meth Project




    • Crack users and heroin users are so disorganized and get in these frantic binges, they're not going to sit still and do anything in an organized way for very long,

    Dr. Rawson said.

    Meth users, on the other hand, that's all they have, is time.

    The drug stimulates the part of the brain that perseverates on things. So you get people perseverating on things, and if you sit down at a computer terminal you can go for hours and hours.




    For example, crack cocaine or heroin dealers usually set up in well-defined urban strips run by armed gangs,

    which stimulates gun traffic and crimes that are suited to densely populated neighborhoods,

    including mugging, prostitution, carjacking and robbery.

    Because cocaine creates a rapid craving for more, addicts commit crimes that pay off instantly, even at high risk.

    Methamphetamine, by contrast, can be manufactured in small laboratories that move about suburban or rural areas,

    where addicts are more likely to steal mail from unlocked boxes.

    Small manufacturers, in turn, use stolen identities to buy ingredients or pay rent without arousing suspicion.

    And because the drug has a long high, addicts have patience and energy for crimes that take several steps to pay off.


  • Solvents (Glue, Gas)



  • Nitrites (Poppers)





  • Japanese advertisements (1956-2003) for psychiatric drugs



  • The Methadone Perspective from 16 Recovering Addicts




    • The overdoses took place in Minnesota, Texas and Florida and were blamed on 1,4-butanediol, which turns to GHB in the body.

    Butanediol is used as an industrial solvent and is also included in supplements sold under names such as Thunder Nectar, InnerG and Zen.

    Butanediol can cause dizziness, seizures and coma, and can slow breathing to dangerous levels. It can intensify alcohol's effects and is also said to be more dangerous when taken with other depressant drugs.

    GHB, or gamma hydroxybutyrate, is sometimes used at all-night rave parties. It is known as a date rape drug for its ability to incapacitate people and leave them vulnerable to sexual assault.




  • The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
    • is pleased to provide this on-line resource for locating drug and alcohol abuse treatment programs. The Substance Abuse Treatment Facility Locator lists:
    1-800-662-HELP
    1-800-662-9832 (Espanol)
    1-800-228-0427 (TDD)





  • Welcome to D-2K
    The site that helps you wise up about drugs






    • Alcoholism is divided into 2 categories: dependence and abuse. People who are dependent on alcohol spend a great deal of time drinking alcohol, and getting it.



    Physical dependence involves:

    • A need for increasing amounts of alcohol to get drunk or achieve the desired effect (tolerance)
    • Alcohol-related illnesses
    • Memory lapses (blackouts) after drinking episodes
    • Withdrawal symptoms when alcohol use is stopped


    The most severe drinking behavior includes long drinking binges that lead to mental or physical problems. Some people are able to gain control over their dependence in earlier phases before they totally lose control. But no one knows which heavy drinkers will be able to regain control and which will not.

    There is no known common cause of alcoholism. However, several factors may play a role in its development. A person who has an alcoholic parent is more likely to become an alcoholic than a person without alcoholism in the immediate family.

    Research suggests that certain genes may increase the risk of alcoholism, but which genes or how they work is not known.

    Psychological factors may include:



    • A need for anxiety relief
    • Conflict in relationships
    • Depression
    • Low self-esteem


    Social factors include:

    • Ease of getting alcohol
    • Peer pressure
    • Social acceptance of alcohol use
    • Stressful lifestyle


    The incidence of alcohol intake and related problems is rising. Data indicate that about 15% of people in the United States are problem drinkers, and about 5% to 10% of male drinkers and 3% to 5% of female drinkers could be diagnosed as alcohol dependent.



    Alcohol affects the central nervous system as a depressant. This leads to a decrease in:

    • Activity
    • Anxiety
    • Inhibitions
    • Tension

    Even a few drinks can change behavior, slow motor skills, and decrease the ability to think clearly. Alcohol can impair concentration and judgment. Drinking a lot of alcohol can cause drunkenness (intoxication).

    Some of the symptoms of alcoholism include:

    • Abdominal pain
    • Confusion
    • Drinking alone
    • Episodes of violence with drinking
    • Hostility when confronted about drinking
    • Lack of control over drinking -- being unable to stop or reduce alcohol intake
    • Making excuses to drink
    • Nausea and vomiting
    • Need for daily or regular alcohol use to function
    • Neglecting to eat
    • Not caring for physical appearance
    • Numbness and tingling
    • Secretive behavior to hide alcohol use
    • Shaking in the morning





    develops because the brain adapts to the alcohol and cannot function well without the drug. Symptoms of withdrawal may include: