It’s Monday and you get another great summary of news and research about addiction that have been making noise this week. If you care about addiction and about recovery, you know you want to stay abreast of what’s important and A3 wants to give you just that! So read on..

Recovery High: A new kind of high school: Across the country, new kinds of high schools are popping up called “recovery high schools”. At these schools kids and teachers aren’t just focused on grades, they are helping the students recover from their drug addiction and alcohol addiction. For teens entering addiction treatment, 75 percent relapse within the first year, often due to the return to the environment that facilitated the use in the first place. While the long-term effectiveness of these schools is still being evaluated, they are showing promise; and with the recent passage of the Affordable Care Act allowing for increased options for recovery, don’t be surprised to see these kind of high schools becoming more and more common. To see the video check out this link.

Prescription Painkillers leading teens to Heroin: According to national data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of deaths from prescription drug overdose tripled between 2000 and 2008. Experts point to the ease of access teens have to prescription pills, such as Percocet’s and Vicodin, from emergency rooms, dentist offices, and especially unfinished prescriptions in household medicine cabinets as one of the main reasons for the increase. These drugs have been found to at times lead teens to heroin, which provides a more intense version of the same high for a fraction of the price. As a result, in the decade from 1999 through 2009, the yearly deaths of people aged 15 to 24 from heroin overdose shot up from 198 to 510.

Heroin abuse becoming a national epidemic: Heroin use and death is still on the rise, exploding in use over the last couple years, fueled by the Baby Boomers. The Boomers increased use of prescription drugs can quickly lead down a road to heroin; once the prescription runs out or the cost gets too high, the more available, cheaper heroin becomes an attractive option. While its use has been increasing nationwide, the statistics from Oregon this past year give an example of the entire nation’s problem. Last year alone, there were 143 heroin-related deaths in Oregon, a 59 percent increase from the year before and almost the entire nation’s total from a decade ago! Marion County, in particular, has already seen more deaths so far this year than in all of 2011. Heroin is on the rebound, no longer a “dormant drug”, and, with its drastic increases recently, should be addressed sooner rather than later.

Addiction: Disease or moral failing? One of the most common questions regarding addiction is the debate on whether it is a disease or a moral failing.  A recent article by Dr. Marc Lewis addresses the question from both sides. He starts by pointing out the common critiques that “you don’t ‘catch’ addiction”, “you don’t treat addiction with medications or expect a cure”, and “you don’t ‘have’ addiction” like you would “have” a cold or other disease, in order to show why addiction should not be considered a disease. However, he then counters with the comparison to type II diabetes, which fits the mold of the earlier critiques, yet is never questioned as being a disease. In fact, having type II diabetes is not seen as a “moral failing” and it seems addiction is following this path and becoming more frequently seen as a disease rather than a moral failing. Truth is, addiction is likely going to continue being seen as straddling these two domains.

A cautionary tale of Fentanyl addiction: Fentanyl, a new painkiller, is becoming the next in a line of destructive and deadly prescription drugs. According to Dr. Michelle Arnot, Fentanyl is 100 times stronger than morphine and 750 more potent than codeine. The article tells the tale of a man who lost his “perfect wife” to Fentanyl addiction. Prescribed as patches to be sucked on, addicts soon learn to smoke them in order to get a greater effect. Shortly after her abuse began, the “perfect wife” was going through a month’s supply in under a week. This led to pawning her children’s and family’s belongings, turning her into someone no one recognized. One day, her husband came home from work to find her dead. Now, her husband wants her story to serve as a warning to anyone else becoming entangled with Fentanyl.

Helping siblings of addicts: When addiction leads to a fatality, almost everyone who knew the victim is affected. However, they are affected and handle it in different ways. Most people know about the grief parents feel when losing a child, and they are given support and programs to help deal with it. Siblings, on the other hand, have often gone overlooked in the coping process, largely because they do not grieve in the same way as parents. The emotional needs, and even physical needs, of addicts’ siblings can often be neglected in favor of the addict while they’re still alive and in favor of the parents needs after an addict’s passing. Now, programs such as GRASP (Grief Recovery After a Substance Passing) are popping up with the goal of helping these siblings cope.