Addiction epidemic
I would like to thank the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer for the Red Ribbon Week: Young Americans on Drug series. The drug and alcohol problem in Columbus and Phenix City is pretty big. About 90 percent of crimes are caused by drug users.
Illicit drugs, alcohol, and prescription medications are easy to get by young adolescents. There are 21 million illicit drug users in America, and every year 1,700 adolescents die because of alcohol-related incidents. Last year, 4 million young Americans ages 12 and older received treatment for alcohol or illicit drugs. Millions more didn’t seek help. Forty-one percent of 12th graders report alcohol consumption in the previous 30 days. The types of prescription medications most commonly abused by people are painkillers (such as Vicodin and OxyContin),
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When children grow up and start making friends, they listen to and talk with their friends more than their parents. Make sure your child becomes strongly connected to your church and gets involved in church activities. Church friends are better than school or club friends.
People who have suffered from prolonged and untreated alcohol and drug addiction may require medical treatment and/or rehab, which will help reduce the powerful effects of drugs and alcohol on the body and brain. Rehab could be traditional (30-day) or long-term (2 to 12 months).
Recently, the FDA approved the pain killer Zohydro made by Zogenix, Inc. This is a stronger version of hydrocodone, the widely abused prescription pain killer. A recovered addict admitted that he used to take thousands of milligrams a day of the pain killer Adderall that was prescribed to him for ADHD at 60 milligrams a day. Prescription drug manufacturers make huge profits when their products are used by drug addicts. These companies are becoming “legal” drug