Advice is the worst Vice

Not just another day.This one won't get off my mind.It hasn't left me and it's been eleven hours since it began.Lately I haven't gotten the chance to do relief work at the detox center.There was a new staff from where I left off and I wondered about all the new faces. My tech.brought me up to date and I wondered if some of the nurses had lifted patient's medications which can easily happen.

Oh I shared  stories about what has happened since my latest book Fatal Addiction  developed at times maybe a little fear, an element of doubt, many deep seated feelings and my desire to help the needy.I told her how I was getting calls at night from addicts, how at book signings I was told that my book had saved some lives and how many doctors had been exposed to the facts they too were addicted to drugs.

The other night one addict asked me how and what to do as he knew he would lose his family if they found he was hooked on Lortabs.I sent him to a doctor who today my tech.told me had gotten hooked on morphine. He had been playing with some of the social drugs and one thing led to another and he began to dose up on morphine.Here I was directing another addict to a professional man who himself is hooked on drugs.

But that's not the first time for that to happen as I have come in contact with maybe a fist full of doctoring addicts during my profession.

What I must remind folks that everyone is not shooting up on heroin, morphine, meth and cocaine, most folks are patients that became addicted to the drugs the physician had prescribed.

The doctor in charge where I worked today has opened his eyes to the fact that so many detoxed patients can get away from their addiction there in the center but can do an about face and become addicted to the drugs used to detox these folks.Let's say they were taking prozac and at bedtime an ambien.

Sounds harmless but this same doctor a few months ago heard me talking to several nurses telling them that in every state is a detox center especially to detox patients from prozac. He laughed and let me know I was wrong. Curiosity got the best of him and he looked it up on the computer.

After apologies he said I had taught him something he did not know. He also had let me know that Senior citizens in their eighties he did not hesitate in giving them Lortabs or OxyContin as that gave them a different outlook on life.No pains, just happy.

I wasn't too respectful after that and let him know that Senior citizens are the number two pushers in the nation.That gave him something to think about and when his cohort was discovered he completely changed his attitude.From now on no pharmacy can refill his Rx for prozac or ambien.Today I noticed that there was an abundance of class medication under lock and key that had built up since I was around.The tech said, " He doesn't use much of those drugs any more since you had your discussion with him."

What really hurts is how we are all guilty of not taking a second look at everyday folks that most of us don't want to entertain the idea that they might just be an addict. Oh yeah, they can be well educated, rich and big time and beautiful but by damn, they got us fooled and there they are taking a hundred milligram OxyContin at breakfast and dinner with their husband and children giving it to them since it was prescribed. And unless they admit it to us we will never know?

Please gang, lets all not hide our heads in the sand and try to sit up and take notice that every day is increasing the numbers of addiction all over our nation. I know everyone in the medical field is running like a chicken with his head cut off but today I am seeing more clinics than ever before slowing the process down, giving the patient a little more time and respect and opening their offices with more time to be available.

I want to take credit for a little bit of the changes I am seeing especially in my town since Fatal Addiction arrived.Many members of the team are reading what I have written and are making changes.I did wait three hours in an office last year and when my time came, I was given ten minutes.I let the doctor know I was not too happy, that my time was worth more than that. He told me he was having more and more patients and what should he do? I said,"Learn one word and use it, NO!"

Please folks, open your eyes to addiction, it is every where we go and not slowing down.I described what terrorists could do in my book to folks hooked on drugs.They could destroy thousands of cons, junkies and addicts who would not know the difference between a generic drug and one they were hooked on.  Our schools aren't drug free like some of the signs say, take my word for it.Students have given me the word.

Let's all get on the stick and open our eyes to addiction.Please help me to be aware of what is happening in our nation.

Sincerely,                                                                        Everett Beal Rph.