"Don Fultz is a former meth addict whose editorial column appears in the Oroville Mercury Register on a regular basis. He is currently a substance abuse counselor in private practice."

***

Send Me The Bill

            The following data comes from a report titled “The Economic Costs of Drug Abuse in the United States.”  The data was compiled by the “Office of National Drug Control Policy” which is a component of the Executive Office of the President. The report was compiled for the years 1992-1998, and the following figures are from the median year of 1995. The figures are a breakdown of the negative economic impacts to society from the use of illegal drugs.

• Health care costs = 11.3 billion dollars
• Lost productivity costs = 88 billion dollars
• Department of justice and other costs = 27.1 billion dollars
• Total costs = 126.4 billion dollars

            This report only focused on illegal drugs, which means that it did not include data related to the negative economic impacts of tobacco, alcohol or the misuse of prescription drugs.

            Proposition 36 allows 1^st and 2^nd time, non-violent, simple drug possession offenders an opportunity to choose treatment over incarceration. When the public passed proposition 36 it was with the informed insight that it is cheaper to fund recovery than to pay for the consequences of addiction or incarceration.

            The savings from prop 36 are estimated to reach 1..5 billion by June of 2006, and this is only one way that savings are generated.  Studies routinely show an average 7 to1 cost savings ratio, which means that for every dollar spent on recovery seven dollars worth of cost savings are generated from a reduction in economic impacts in other areas. The Meth Strike Force understands the benefits of reminding the public of those costs.

            The Centers for Disease Control listed alcohol related deaths at ten times that of all illegal drugs combined for the year 1995. This does not indicate that illegal drugs are safer; it merely reflects that many more people drink than use illegal drugs. This data is a reminder to all that chasing a person from the use of an illegal drug to the use of a legal drug changes nothing.

            Where treatment is concerned there is no differentiation of need between alcohol and other drugs.. Chemically dependent is chemically dependent. Most addicted people have played the game of switching and found it to be an ineffective solution. Addiction cost the public no matter the substance, recovery addresses all substances, complete abstinence is the only reliable solution and we hope the public will remain aware that funding recovery is morally and fiscally wise.

***

 Cross To Bear  

‘Meth is not my problem, and it is difficult enough to muster the motivation to tackle problems I am connected to.’ Sound familiar? This is a common perception. Owning the problems we have a hand in causing is challenging enough without taking on the problems that are not ours. But methamphetamine presents problems that can reach us regardless of our perceived disconnection.

To prove a point, imagine living in a gated community that has no meth addicted people: immune to the problem right. But the property above the gated community has addicted people who dump toxic chemicals that wash down into the gardens of the gated community. The trip to the store may include an accident with an addicted person who has been awake for too many days to be driving safely. You may get a phone call inquiring about your interest in taking over the parental responsibilities of an addicted son or daughter who has had his or her children removed for neglect or worse. You may be aware of a relative’s drug use and the affect it is having on children who are inadvertently mired in a toxic environment. You may be pretending not to know about such a situation to allay guilt, which percolates to the surface anyway. You may be experiencing rising costs as agencies, public and private, compensate for the impact that methamphetamine has on all emergency, medical and social systems. The bottom line is that there is no separation from this problem.    

            Unfortunately most of us do not live in gated communities. We may have a neighbor who breaks out the power mower with flashlights attached to mow the lawn at three in the morning. We may have addicted people going through our garbage to get information for identity theft. We may be concerned by the appearance, behaviors or sheer volume of traffic that flows from our neighbor’s house on foot, bike and vehicle. We may voice concern about our observations and get told to mind our own business. The drug lab that blows up next door may take our house with it. We may get burglarized, assaulted or otherwise violated by an addicted person whose drug demented mind might rationalize anything. This is a complex problem that exists in our society and reaches across all social boundaries; therefore it cannot be realistically viewed as someone else’s cross to bear.

For more information on problems and solutions regarding methamphetamine please see our website at  2stopmeth.org. 

***

  Hey Addicts! 

           If you are an addicted person I have a proposition for you. No, not proposition 36, not yet anyway. It is actually a win-win challenge. Aside from getting worse, the world of addiction doesn’t change much. If you left it behind, just for a while, you might feel like you were missing out, but that same back stabbing, paranoid, moody rollercoaster would be just as you left it upon your return. Any particular 90 day period of your active addiction will typically be marked by – well, nothing new. There is the standard “damn I want,” “yeah I got,” “oh crap I ran out,” and “just shoot me I’m miserable.” Trust me, if you don’t already know this cycle you will. It won’t be marked by anything that resembles a life beyond survival because getting by on your way down hill is all that addiction is. My challenge is to experiment with a 90 day segment of your life, and the next part of the challenge involves what you would do with the 90 days.

If the addiction has been meth, and depending on the severity of the problem, you will probably need to eat and sleep for a few days. Next, go to a 12-step meeting. You know, where all those snitches and losers hang out. Actually if you’re used to hanging out with addicts you should feel right at home. They’re people just like you except that they are doing what you have been unable to do, build a life that makes sense. Some say that talking about dope triggers a craving, but if you’re going to get triggered it’s good to be around a system of support, and what they talk about is what dope did to them. You will hear the program is religious, but it really just suggest that you join forces to combat a powerful problem.

If recovery teaches anything it is that growing up isn’t as painful as you might have thought.  Fellowship is an opportunity to be a part of something that will make you feel better about yourself. You may go to meetings and tell yourself that you are not like those people, but you may also learn that “those” people are more courageous, honest and well meaning than the friends who still use. If you attend 90 or more meetings in 90 days you may find a sense of connection that has been missing, and people who are genuinely glad to see you..

You may become a dopeless hopefiend on the way to a real life. This is a win-win challenge because even if you don’t take to having a life you will still save money during your abstinence... This money can fund a significant reentry into whatever illusion drugs provided for you. It is impossible to say what recovery might bring, but most assuredly it would be more happiness and less misery than a life of addiction.

***

 Helping Hand  

             Unfortunately all too many of us have had to watch a near and dear addicted person self-destruct.. From the outside looking in they appear crazy, immoral and ignorant.  Crazy characterizes their erratic behavior.  Immoral sums up the behaviors that are as out of control as the drug use, and the connection between drug use and other problems is so glaringly evident that an addicted person appears ignorant for not seeing it. But there are addicted people with PhDs who obviously aren’t ignorant; immorality like delusion is a symptom of the disease, as is erratic behavior.  We aren’t seeing the person; we are seeing what drugs have done to the person.

            Eventually some addicted people are blessed with an event or situation that is painful enough to help them overcome the fear of life without self-medication. These events are commonly referred to as “hitting bottom.”

            It is difficult to tell the addicted person you love that you will only support their recovery. It is difficult, but it may also be the stand that saves their life. Anything else is tantamount to throwing pillows down in front of them to cushion the fall, thus making the bottom a comfortable place to hang out, and an impossible place to bounce back from.  There are self-help groups that teach people stuck in co-dependent relationships how to break the pattern of supporting another person’s addiction. Al-Anon and Nar-Anon are two such groups.

            An addicted person will convince us that their problem is unique, too severe for recovery, and beyond our comprehension, but the reality is that recovery is an equal-opportunity miracle. No person is barred from the door of transformation. If your addicted loved one is saying he or she can’t afford a program, take note that 12-step groups are available several times a day and can help while a person waits for one of the free inpatient programs to have an opening. They may discover they don’t need an inpatient program while they are waiting.

 Recovery is hard work; it is almost as hard as the life of a person who is active in addiction. Saying no to an addicted loved one is also hard work, but is it harder than helping them die. Say yes to driving your addicted person to a meeting, or go in with them to learn about this disease. If they want money to buy a recovery book, buy it for them so you will know how the money really got spent; addicted people are honesty-challenged and money can be a trigger to use. Don’t feel guilty about not trusting your addicted loved one; remind him or her that they have earned your distrust.

Addicted people are masters of manipulation who will gladly hold you responsible for everything they do, say and feel. In some situations the only realistic option is to say “I love you but I don’t deserve the abuse.” Get a restraining order when other options have been exhausted.  Don’t stop loving your addicted person; but do stop loving them to death. More strength for the appropriate action or inaction can be found at www.2stopmeth.org

***

Qualifying Disease

“You are not immoral; you are not crazy; you have a disease.” It sounds like the grandest of cop-outs until you add “Now that you know that it is your responsibility to keep your disease in remission.” The disease concept of addiction is not an excuse for the continued act of self-medication. It means that the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association have identified a set of real symptoms qualifying addiction as a mental and physical disorder. The World Health Organization concurs.

We have an opinion about whether or not addiction qualifies as a disease before developing an understanding of what a disease is. Webster’s begins its definition with “any departure from health,” so to understand addiction we must first understand health. If it’s not painful, broken or dysfunctional it must be healthy. That definition may be suited to physical ailments, but a course in health reveals a list of interrelated health domains: physical, intellectual, psychological, social, environmental, spiritual and financial. Addiction has the capacity, and indeed the track record, for departing a person from each of these domains of health, so how can it not be considered a disease?

Maybe you are still thinking that addiction is a choice. It follows that if people don’t choose to have diseases then addiction must be a behavioral choice. If this reasoning is valid it should apply to other diseases as well. But then the cancer that was caused by smoking is no longer a disease because the person chose to smoke. In fact everything from diabetes to heart disease has lifestyle choices as precursors to the problem. As well, many disease causing pathogens could be fought off if our lifestyle was healthy enough to promote a strong immune system. Many people do choose to self-medicate. Can you name one who chose to lose control of this behavior? Loss of control is the primary symptom of addiction.

The biggest difference between addiction and other diseases is our attitude towards it. We don’t tell people with other diseases that a Higher Power is their only hope. We don’t tell a person who has strayed from a therapeutic diet that they just don’t want to get healthy, but the relapsing addicted person is often told that they “just don’t want to get clean.” We don’t refuse to treat people with high cholesterol for failing to comply with treatment recommendations, but addicted people are frequently booted from treatment for a lack of compliance. We don’t have derogatory labels for people with other diseases, but for an addicted person we have many. Today those who suffer from addiction are expected to attach the labels “addict” and “alcoholic” to their identity, as if not doing so would cause them to slip back into denial.

 It’s ok to have addiction without becoming a label. It’s a long road, but we will eventually get over our remaining denial about addiction being a disease, and in doing so change the attitude that keeps addicted people on the fringe of society. You may have noticed I no longer use the word addict; they are addicted people.

***

 The Good Doctor.  

            Green eggs and ham are not appetizing; at least not if you haven’t tried them. And there in lies the dilemma of substance abuse counselors. How do you get a person to try something that is scary and unfamiliar?  If Dr. Suess were a counselor he might have thus solved the problem.

GREEN EGGS AND RECOVERY

I have a job, and friends galore; and it’s not drugs, that make me soar. I’ve learned to work, and learned to play, and I came here, here to say; Suess was right, it’s now my plea, won’t you try recovery.?

Written by Don Fultz

Inspired by the pain of addiction,

the rewards of recovery,

and The Good Dr .