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Irresponsible Drug Use the Common Theme

By On · Add Comment · In alcohol, cancer, chiropractic, drug abuse, drug overdose, drug use, Fentanyl, HIV, medical marijuana, narcotics, pain pills, pain relief, schedule 1 drugs

I was asked to say a few words about drug use, but not in the positive. Well darn-it, how could I resist? I’m guessing the request comes on the heels of my most recent posts on medical marijuana, of which I make no secret that I am in favor. But I wish to be very clear that my views on medical marijuana are not a condonation of recreational or irresponsible drug use. On the contrary, it’s precisely because I am so against the irresponsible and dangerous use of drugs that I advocate medical marijuana. When compared to the heavy-duty narcotics and other pain pills that are doled-out indiscriminately by doctors, believe me, medical marijuana is a blessing.

First and foremost, I am a former drug abuser, so I full well know what it means to be addicted. And I also know the down-side to heavy and/or long-term drug use. I have done it all, you name it, but alcohol and cocaine were my main weaknesses. I was also addicted to nicotine. For twenty years I smoked a pack a day.

My experience with drugs and alcohol were not all bad, though–I certainly learned a lot. If nothing else I came to understand how drugs can consume your life, how they can distort your view of the world, and how they could damage relationships. I got to experience how they could kill your motivation and prevent you from achieving your full potential. I was also exposed to a dangerous, seedy side of life that was full of mistrust, deceit, theft and violence, not to mention legal ramifications that could end a life of freedom by landing you behind bars for a long time. Yeah, lots of disadvantages to drugs; but for me it was a valuable education that will probably serve me, and hopefully others, for the rest of my life.

Despite medical marijuana being classified a schedule 1 controlled substance—high potential for abuse, lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision, and no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States (not entirely true, but that’s the definition)—it does have definite benefits. In my lifetime, I have seen it help HIV+ men keep from wasting away by giving them an appetite when they had none. I have seen it help cancer patients. One elderly couple, who are in their 90s, and whom I treat chiropractically, have shared their stories with me about the unrelenting pain they feel on a daily basis due to the cancer they each have; and how not even the Fentanyl* patches their doctors put them on would bring relief. Only medical marijuana did that. That’s right—these people in their 90s could only find relief from the intense pain they felt 24/7 by smoking a joint. They were not hippies; they had never had marijuana in their lives until they were sick with cancer. And it helped them. Duh!

Listen, drugs in and of themselves are not bad. They are helpful, even necessary, in many instances. I’ve needed the help of pain killers. An attack of acute appendicitis in 2006 showed me just how useful morphine could be (although not 100% effective and highly addictive). Whether antibiotics, sedatives, pain meds or steroids, each has a short-term use; but too many doctors give them to people long-term, as an easy yet temporary fix, instead of looking for real, long-term and self-directed solutions.  And it’s this that leads to serious problems.

Let me ask you a question. What do the following people have in common:

  • Jimi Hendrix, John Belushi, Sid Vicious, River Phoenix and DJ AM?
They all overdosed on recreational drugs.
And how about these people:
  • Elvis Presley, Keith Moon, Anna Nicole Smith, Heath Ledger and Michael Jackson?
In both groups the common theme was an irresponsible use of the drugs. So regardless of whether a drug is illicit or legal, using it carelessly is foolish, and it can lead to illness or death.
That doesn’t mean drugs are bad by any means. Worshiping and relying on drugs, however, is unwise. And that goes for medical marijuana too. But if a substance can help cancer patients, people with HIV and people that suffer from chronic pain find relief, and maybe even help them survive (by increasing appetite), and that substance has low-risk side effects when compared to harder drugs like narcotics, then shouldn’t we use it? Shouldn’t we at least study it to see what medicinal benefits it might contain, and do our best to understand it?
That’s not me condoning drug use. I have lived both a life of drugs and a drug-free one—and I can say without a doubt that I prefer being straight, sharp and clear of mind. But I don’t knock recreational drug use, either, if the user can do so responsibly. However, rehab centers and city morgues are filled with people who couldn’t, and frankly, that could be you one day.  So if you value your life, it’s better to stay clean.
That, however, is the farthest I will go with wagging a finger at society, because I know we can’t both live in a culture where taking prescription drugs is considered ‘normal’, and expect others to not do so recreationally. That would be a fantasy.
*Fentanyl is a schedule 2 controlled substance–high potential for abuse, currently accepted medical use in treatment in U.S., and currently accepted medical use with severe restrictions. Abuse of the drug or other substances may lead to severe psychological or physical dependence (not true of marijuana).  Medical cannabis (currently a schedule 1–see above) would be more appropriately placed in this category, and probably most appropriately as a schedule 3.

Wasting Away From the Inside-Out

By On · Add Comment · In addiction, drug abuse, Duff McKagan, Guns and Roses, It's So Easy: and other lies, party drugs, recreational drugs, vitamin deficiency
Although prescription drugs are getting most of the press these days, recreational drugs aren’t off the hook.  Lots of people are still addicted to these bad-boys, so discussing ramifications here is worthwhile.  It’s not that knowing the physiological effects of party drugs will stop anybody from partying, particularly not an addict, but plenty of people struggle with the decision to quit everyday.  Sometimes getting scared straight is just the habit-kicking potentiator needed.

Take former Guns and Roses bassist, Duff McKagen: In his upcoming book, It’s So Easy: and other lies, he discusses what his body turned into from years of chronic, high-volume drug use:

“My hair began falling out in clumps, and my kidneys ached when I pissed.  The skin on my hands and feet cracked, and I had boils on my face and neck.  I had to wear bandages under my gloves to be able to play my bass.”

Rock stars are the perfect subjects for health research, because the years of heavy drug abuse by some creates a sort of rapid-progression case study, a walking laboratory of sorts.  Although it might be tempting to believe that rock-star drug loads are simply outside the realm of your average, everyday user, many people abuse drugs even longer than McKagan had, so what happened to him can definitely happen to any drug abuser that manages to stay alive long enough to witness the self-destruction.

McKagan goes on about his deterioration:

“I felt as sick as I ever had.  My hands and feet were bleeding.  I had constant nosebleeds.  I was shitting blood.  Sores on my skin oozed.  The house was awash in the fetid effluvia of my derelict body.”

He does a good job of describing what happens to a body from repeated and long-term drug use.  It essentially wastes away from the inside-out.  Vitamin deficiencies, liver overload and breakdown of the kidneys (McKagan today is on permanent dialysis) is what we risk when we take drugs.

Lots of people think it won’t happen to them, or they try not to think about it at all.  Ignoring the occasional worry about the damage drugs must be doing is a temporary solace to the realities every drug user understands.  But if you are thinking about quitting, or you’ve just recently quit, then perhaps McKagan’s words will serve as a deterrent to a relapse.  Or maybe you can use the information to strategize your comeback, or plan your healing regimen.

Good luck to those of you still carrying the monkey–I feel fer ya.  But understand that even if you don’t overdose, you’ll die a slow death from the inside-out…unless you make a decision, now, to kill your appetite for destruction, and start living instead.

Spirituality and Health

By On · Add Comment · In anxiety, belief, depression, drug abuse, faith, health, heart disease, meditation, religion, spirituality, suicide, universe, violence

Today I would like to discuss an oft-overlooked aspect of health: Our connection to something bigger than ourselves.  Yes, I am a spiritualist–I believe in God.  Maybe not in the way of some organized religions, but I am convinced that the universe is a part of a grand order, of which we are bound in our physiology, and thus our health.

I’m not going to necessarily discuss the universal order as it pertains to physiology and health here.  Instead I am going to touch on a few points on spirituality and health, as well as encourage you to watch the beautiful video above to witness the magnificence of the universe from our earthly perspective, and hope you realize it is all much bigger than even this.

Health is directly related to our connections to a greater source.  Whether real or psychological is irrelevant to our discussions here–all I wish to point out is the improvement to physical health when spirituality is believed/practiced/observed.

If we can put aside for one minute our politics, our illusions, our human drives, and our emotional oscillations to just witness the beauty of the all, if only for just this one needle-point view of the grandness offered by the accompanying video, then I am certain we can all catch a glimpse of what we truly are.  THIS is the source of health, and it’s a confirmation that we can all have optimal health if we are in touch with the source.  That’s my belief anyway.

Actor Cory Haim Dead at 38

By On · Add Comment · In actor, Cory Haim, drug abuse, drugs, Hollywood, Lost Boys, medications, overdose, sedatives, stimulants

Actor Corey Haim has died at 38. The Lost Boys actor woke up this morning feeling a little weak; as he got out of bed he dropped to his knees. Paramedics took him to St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank where he was pronounced dead.

Although the cause of death is, as of yet, unknown, I suspect drugs were a part of the equation. Haim, a self-reported life-long addict, was taking over-the-counter and prescription medications to battle “flu-like” symptoms. Whether or not drugs shut him down directly by overdose, or the long-term use just weakened him enough to make him succumb to an opportunistic disease, I don’t know; but somewhere drugs played a part–of that I am certain.

Haim discussed his drug abuse with a British tabloid in 2004. “I was working on ‘Lost Boys’ when I smoked my first joint,” he told The Sun. “I did cocaine for about a year and a half, then it led to crack.”

He said that he went into rehab where they put him on a see-saw regimen of stimulants and sedatives. Nice. That’s wisdom.

“I started on the downers, which were a hell of a lot better than the uppers because I was a nervous wreck,” he said.

Drug use, Haim admitted, ruined his acting career and it caused other problems, as well. In 1997, Haim filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, listing debts for medical expenses and more than $200,000 in state and federal taxes.

In a 2007 interview on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” Haim called himself “a chronic relapser for the rest of my life.”

Self-fulfilling prophesy? Mmmhmm. We’ll wait for the coroner’s report, but I think drugs–prescription along with recreational–have claimed another Hollywood life.

Prescription Party at College

By On · Add Comment · In college students, controlled substances, drug abuse, drugs, NSAID, opiods, prescription painkillers, Ritalin, sedatives, sleeping pills, stimulants, Vicodin
Guess which drugs twenty percent of all college students are taking with frightening regularity? Cocaine? Nope. Heroin? Nope. Marijuana? Uh…no. Give up? Prescription painkillers, stimulants, sedatives, and sleeping pills–booyah!

According to a recent study out of the University of Michigan, about one-fifth of U.S. college students are taking prescription pills to get high. And getting them is easy, much easier than getting other illicit “street drugs”. The research findings come from a survey that was conducted looking at over 3,600 college students with an average age of 20 or younger. Students were asked if they took any of the four types of prescription drugs: opioids; stimulants; sleeping pills; and sedative or anti-anxiety pills. 60% admitted to taking these drugs for medical reasons, while a whopping 20% admitted to taking the drugs non-medically.

The students were also asked whether they had done anything illegal to get drugs, whether they had blackouts due to drug use, felt guilty about drug use, or felt sick after stopping taking the drugs. A “yes” answer to three or more of these questions classified them as having a drug abuse problem. Apparently getting the drugs was as simple as going to the dentist for wisdom teeth extractions and getting thirty Vicodin along with one refill. Add a little alcohol and what have you got? A potential habit on your hands.

With the use of ADHD stimulant drug Ritalin on the rise among all teens and this becomes a very scary notion. The problem is that many people see these drugs as OK, since they come from a medical doctor. And if the MD prescribes it, it’s got to be OK, right? Well these drugs are all controlled substances–that is, you can’t buy them over the counter; you need a scrip to get ’em. They’re controlled substances for a reason: They have a high potential for abuse and they can be dangerous if taken improperly.

I think that the real warning here needs to go out to parents, and especially doctors. Parents can’t control everything their kids do, but a doctor can limit what goes out to these youngsters. The truth of the matter is that humans are incredibly resilient, so I’m not sure that 60 Vicodin are needed by many–if any–young tooth extraction patients. I had a cracked tooth and subsequent root canal myself back in January, and I survived on a weeks supply of Motrin (a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory [NSAID]). No chance to get high there, and the NSAID did the trick as far as getting me over the hump; so, 60 Vicodin?

I think it’s high time docs started discriminating a bit more before passing out scrips. There’s plenty of other stuff kids can get high on, so why add fuel to that fire. Prescription drugs are dangerous, just ask Heath Ledger and Anna Nicole Smith–oh wait, you can’t. Well, that’s just my humble opinion, anyway.

Copyright © 2013 Dr. Nick Campos - All Rights Reserved.