What you need to know about LIFE - Drugs
How to deal with a significant other with a drug problem. Some practical advice.
Dr Xxxxx : Governments throughout the Western world - support and fund opioid addiction management
programs. They do this because there is very strong evidence that these types of programs have
substantial benefits. People who undertake these programs are substantially better off than people
who fail to enroll.
Family members and acquaintances of drug users who do not support addiction management
programs are making a stand against all evidence. The evidence is very clear. Failing to support
people to enroll in addiction management programs will hurt people and will kill people.
Drugs and Judges : a natural pairing.
Erasmus : Addiction management programs for enrolled ex-users:
* Improve health (by reducing disease exposure, improving nutrition, reducing conflict injury
and crime consequences).
* Improve finances (by reducing money spent on drugs).
* Improve social aspects of people’s lives.
* Reduce crime and the negative consequences of crime on a person’s life.
(For example,
people do not need to steal, prostitute or trade to acquire money for drugs).
Kinkajou : Drugs damage people’s lives. They keep on doing so unless active steps are taken to reduce the
consequences of drug addiction. Opioid management programs are one of the main strategies
whereby the negative consequences of seeking and using narcotics on a person’s life, are controlled.
IV Drug Injecting
Dr Xxxxx : In my experience as a doctor, people who undertake opioid management programs of their own choice, do very well.
They do very well if they remain within a program. Users cannot stop using unless they change their
lives. People do not choose to stop drugs.
It is life circumstances and the people around a user that stops them using drugs.
People can successfully stop opioid management programs:
* If they have a partner and/or family who does not support drug use and actively seeks to
minimise the drug use of the user. (For example, I remember one patient who spent the
family budget on drugs. His wife appeared with the user in tow, to make sure he got back on
the program, to make sure his using stopped).
* They have a house, mortgage, bills, children and responsibilities which occupy the users’ time and money and which limit their resources for using and accessing drugs.
Too much spare time and too much spare money is a definite recipe for drifting into using. People who want to stop using need to have strategies in place to limit the time available and the money available to support a “using” habit.
Preparing IV Drugs for Injecting
Erasmus : If you are a user, and you want to do as well as many others who have accessed opioid programs,
you need to make an active choice to enroll in such a program. If you do not enroll in a program, you
are headed down and out and towards death and destitution. Other people who had made the
choice to get into a program are slowly rebuilding their lives, their happiness and are really enjoying
life all over, once again. Don’t be the one who didn’t make it.
Kinkajou : See ENKDRUGS.COM
Needle for Injecting
Erasmus : Developing addiction is a very fine threshold.
Taking large doses of painkillers (typically opioids) because they are needed, for example as in cancer pain treatment or post-surgical treatment is not necessarily a problem.
Deciding that you “like” a painkiller such as an opioid, even if the doses are relatively low, means that you now have a problem.
In short, taking these medications to feel good is a problem.
Taking these medications to feel normal is not.
How do you feel? An important issue for the drug user.
Dr Xxxxx : I think that there is likely to be a drug out there for everyone. Uppers or downers or feel gooders or sedatives or hallucinogenics / dreamers appeal to different people. You probably won’t like all of these different drugs. But it is very likely you may like at least one of them.
The main method of avoiding addiction and substance use – is not to try drugs in the first place. Substance use / addiction has serious consequences in many aspects of your life. No matter how much better the drug may make you feel – nothing in your life changes. Your capacity to cope with problems in your life decreases as new problems emerge. Don’t be tempted to try them for any reason.
Drugs affect anyone - even cool people.
Erasmus : One of the new waves of substance use is of middle-aged and older couples becoming addicted to amphetamines.
Just don’t go there.
Dr Xxxxx : You cannot successfully force someone to stop using drugs. In my practice, when family members bring drug addicted people to me for treatment, prognosis is dependent on the commitment of the drug addicted person. A substance user/ addict who has brought himself or herself to see me of their own volition and desires to stop using drugs, will have a 90% success rate in ceasing drug use on an ORT program. A substance user / addict who has been forced to see me by their family or significant others and told to stop using drugs (against their will), has a 90% failure rate in ceasing drug use.
Asking someone” You do want to stop using, don’t you?” begs a “Yes” answer. If the User is saying this to keep you on side, they will not be serious about stopping their drug usage.
BUT
Getting the substance user/ addict to say “I will stop using” can still be worthwhile doing, even if not said with commitment. There is a transition between saying it and committing to it. But in the long term, commitment is critical.
Erasmus : So let’s look at the strategies for each of these cases.
Committed Not Committed
Kinkajou : See ENKDRUGS.COM
for a
full briefing on Drug Addiction Management.
The result of a life of drugs- old destitute and alone.
And your health is gone too.
Erasmus met Dr Xxxxx and over a number of years grew to develop a belief in the problems of our world.
Dr AXxxxx. Simply best described as a cold inhuman bastard, Erasmus says we are indeed lucky to have this paranoid psychopath on our side. In spite of his antecedents, his perspective is valuable for us to use to understand our world. Dr AXxxxx’s past background is in taking charge and being master at the helm of the ship of destiny. Control is the ultimate goal. Nothing must stand in the way of control. Domination not cooperation. Suspect your enemies and kill them first, preferably after extracting all useful information. Your destiny is yours to make and to take. Vengeance is a heady mix to this paranoic murderer.
The Commandant: Head of our security detail, the Commandant believes in doing the right thing and always considering safe options. However, his view of what is right is coloured by association with Erasmus, Kinkajou and the doctors Xxxxx.
Frobisher & Beethoven: These guys are our bullywot "security mooks", Frobisher is the literate one while Beethoven provides just more raw muscle power. While Officious and Intolerant of transgressions, they none the less have a sensitive and fragile side to their natures, an aspect their personality totally at odds with their aggressive and fierce appearance.
Goo is a simple and humble mammal.(Actually a marsupial numbat really). His ability to change the world is limited by his meagre intellect and his short life span. Furthermore, as a member of an endangered species, he has to face the prospect of personal death as well as species extinction. He could one day be the last of his kind.