Muskegon man using his addiction story to help others

It takes so much to solve the problem with drugs. This is the kind of problem that will be over with just one solution. Also, it is a must to find out the root and put an end to it. Although there are a lot of drug addiction treatment centers available today, this seems to be not enough as the number of people getting addicted to drugs keeps going one. But if there is one thing that can greatly help with the problem and hopefully lessen the number of drug addicts, it would be hearing stories from those who have experienced it.

A Muskegon man who spent years dealing with an addiction to prescription medication is hoping sharing his story will inspire other people who need help. Ken Start got addicted to prescription medications after he broke his back in a bad car crash. He was prescribed opiates, and from there, things got worse — and worse, and worse again. “The day was totally using the whole day. I lived to use,” Start said. He tried rehabs in West Michigan, and none of them had a program that stuck.

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“It got to where I would go to doctors and manipulate doctors to giving me things I didn’t need,” Start said.

In a last attempt to save his life, he drove to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, who he credits with saving his life.

They got him through his pain, and his addiction.

Then he got hurt again. He needed another surgery, and he relapsed. He went back to Mayo, went through rehab again, and has been sober for nearly 12 years.

It’s all chronicled in his book “A Prescription for Addiction.”

Start says sharing his story is important, so he can hopefully help other addicts looking to recover. He is already starting to see results, as one of his readers ended up being someone he sponsored as part of a 12-step program.

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Five babies who died in 2018 born to mothers affected by substance misuse

The cases of mother’s or pregnant women who are using drugs are greatly increasing. What is worse is the fact that many of these cases led to the death of the babies and this is all because of drug abuse. This is why supporting women who are struggling with alcohol and drug addiction is very important. They need to receive all the help that they could get just to save their lives and those of their babies.

All but one of the babies known to child protection services and whose deaths were independently investigated last year had mothers affected by substance misuse, the chair of a review team has said. Chairwoman of the National Review Panel (NRP) Helen Buckley was speaking to The Irish Times on the publication of the 2018 NRP annual report. The NRP is independent of Tusla and consists of professionals from a range of disciplines. It investigates serious incidents including the deaths of children in care and known to the child protection system.

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Ms. Buckley reiterated her call for a national drugs liaison midwife service to support pregnant women and mothers struggling with drug or alcohol addiction.

In all, 13 deaths of children in care or known to Tusla, were referred to the NRP last year – a decrease of nine on 2017. More than half the deaths were of children five years or younger. In all, six were babies under 12 months’ old and one was under five. Ten were girls and three were boys.

Of the six babies, four had been born to mothers who were using drugs during and/or after pregnancy and one mother was affected by alcohol abuse, Ms Buckley said. One baby died as a result of a fatal foetal abnormality. Five of the babies were girls.

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Winnipeg woman wants to raise awareness after finding mother’s grave 55 years after her death

So many lives have been lost because of addiction. This does not only refer to the use and abuse of drugs but even of alcohol and other forms of addiction. It is so sad that those lives could have been saved if their addiction was attended to immediately or if they had asked for help. When it comes to addiction, awareness plays an important role.

Here is a woman from Winnipeg who is raising awareness after finding the grave of her mom. In 2018, Virginia Cook discovered where her mother was buried, 55 years after she passed away. Now, she wants to spread awareness on what she went through to help others going through a similar situation. “When I found my mom’s grave I wanted to do something because there was no grave, nothing. Just a marker to ID her,” says Cook. Cook’s family is originally from Shoal Lake #39.

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She explains both of her parents were residential school survivors, an experience she felt they never fully recovered from.

“They had alcohol addiction. We did have a house in Shoal Lake, Ontario, but we didn’t stay there because they wanted to be close to alcohol, which is in Kenora, Ontario.”

Cook says she was 11 years old when her and her two younger sisters were first taken by children’s aide – which is known today as CFS.

She remembers returning home twice, but ended up in children’s aide for good by age 13, in 1961.

This was the last year she saw or spoke to her mother.

“I was heartbroken and grieving because I’m not with my parents, you know. I want to be with my parents, but I can’t.”

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FDA proposes tighter opioid rules that would make new drugs less addictive

Opioid is a kind of drug that has been causing great problems across the world. So many people are getting addicted to it and this does not seem to end soon. Making this drug less addictive will definitely make a lot of difference to everyone. This is also why The Food and Drug Administration is proposing to tighten the rules for opioid manufacturers by requiring new drugs to be less addictive.

Acting FDA Commissioner Ned Sharpless withdrew the agency’s previous guidance Thursday, laying out a tougher new regulatory framework for evaluating applications for new opioids coming to the U.S. market. Under the proposal, drugmakers would have to say whether their drug has “any characteristics that would mitigate the risks of overdose, abuse or the development of addiction.”

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“Companies should also indicate whether their drugs have novel or greater risks compared to other opioids on the market and also note the public health implications of their products in terms of risks to non-patients, including members of the patient’s household, visiting relatives, friends and others,” the FDA said.

The opioid epidemic is a major issue for the Trump administration, which has vowed to crack down on illicit use. More than 130 people in the U.S. die every day from opioid overdoses, with about 47,000 people dying in 2017, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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UK ‘has secret cocaine addiction and drug is used everywhere’ – major study suggests

Drugs are everywhere. This means that they are across the world and every country has its own dilemma of it. There are countries where drugs are very rampant. Others have a high percentage of crimes resulting from drug use. Now, in the UK, major studies suggest that it has secret cocaine addiction and the drug is used everywhere. The largest study of its kind in the UK found almost 80% of drug users admitted using cannabis while 70% took cocaine or crack.

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Experts say cocaine use in the UK is much greater than previously thought after thousands of drug users admitted taking the Class A drug on a regular basis, Sky News can exclusively reveal. Researchers at substance abuse charity Addaction say the UK has a secret cocaine addiction and the drug is being used “everywhere” in the UK. In the largest study of its kind, the experts found cannabis is used by almost 80% of drug users, while cocaine or crack cocaine is taken by 70%.

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Cocaine is on the rise in Europe, EU drug agency says

Different types of drugs are becoming popular today. However, this popularity is not a good thing. Instead, this can be a threat to the lives of the people. This could mean that more lives will be put in danger and perhaps, the number of drug-addicted people will be on the rise once again. This would call for more addiction treatment centers to help these people.

The European Union agency that monitors illicit drug use says cocaine is becoming more widely available on the continent. The European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction said in a report on Thursday that social media, the darknet and encryption are helping small gangs and individuals to sell drugs undetected.

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The agency says authorities have identified “cocaine call centers” which use couriers providing quick and adaptable delivery networks.

The Lisbon-based agency says authorities are fighting back, with the amount of cocaine seized in Europe setting records. In 2017, the latest with full-year data available, authorities seized more than 140 metric tons of cocaine. That was almost double the quantity seized the previous year.

Despite the growth of cocaine, cannabis remains the most widely used illicit drug in Europe.

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Marietta police testing new opioid intervention program

Intervention is very important for drug-addicted people. The number of drug users keeps increasing each day, especially opioid users. This is becoming a serious problem that affects society. In order to save the users and others, seeking help and intervention is a must. In Metro Atlanta, a police department has announced a new opioid addiction intervention program as deaths from overdoses in Cobb County appear to be on the decline.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the new program by Marietta police will create an alert system where authorities are notified when someone is revived using medication, like naloxone, that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. Two plain clothes officers will then visit survivors and try to convince them to seek treatment. Officers will also receive training on how to best approach the sensitive conversations.

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Marietta Police Chief Dan Flynn said the program arose from the success the department has had in using naloxone to combat overdose deaths. Between police, fire and ambulance services, naloxone was given 100 times in Marietta last year.

Flynn wants to expand on that success by figuring out how to engage with people after overdoses and break the cycle of addiction.

“Do we think we’re going to get some doors slammed in our face by people saying ‘You don’t have a warrant, get lost?’ Yeah,” Flynn said. “But some people will say, ‘I want to hear more.'”

The program will be judged by how many people police can persuade to enter treatment and will be evaluated after six months and again after a year.

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