drug-freealliance.org Blog

The following is a clip from a news story that appeared on Bloomberg.com yesterday – Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) — AstraZeneca Plc “buried” unfavorable studies on its antipsychotic drug Seroquel, according to an internal e-mail unsealed as part of litigation over the medicine.

The drugmaker failed to publicize results of at least three clinical trials of Seroquel and engaged in “cherry picking” of data from one of those studies for use in a presentation, an AstraZeneca official said in a December 1999 e-mail unsealed yesterday under an agreement between the company and lawyers for patients. The London-based company faces about 9,000 lawsuits claiming it failed to properly warn users that Seroquel can cause diabetes and other health problems.

“The larger issue is how we face the outside world when they begin to criticize us for suppressing data,” John Tumas, an AstraZeneca publications manager, told colleagues in the e-mail.

More than 15,000 patients have sued AstraZeneca, claiming the company withheld information of a connection between diabetes and Seroquel use from doctors and patients. Many of the lawsuits also claim AstraZeneca promoted Seroquel, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, for unapproved uses.”

At the Drug-Free Alliance, we hear stories from families all the time who have been negatively affected by drugs like this and others in the same category.  Unfortunately, many of them were even given these drugs at an inpatient drug rehab center that told them it would help them in some way.  It is horrible to think about the millions of people who have problems in life that are misled to thinking one of these drugs can handle the situation when they often make their lives worse in the long run.

For more information on finding drug and alcohol rehabs and addiction treatment centers that work.

In these times it is very difficult to please everyone when it comes to political views – actually quite impossible.  Probably the only thing that can be agreed on is that the state of our nation isn’t great and a lot of people are trying to better its condition.

Along with a new Administration comes new heads of departments and other appointments.  The person leading the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy has been called the nation’s “Drug Czar”.  In previous years, the right side of the aisle has been more prone to support law enforcement, imprisonment and anti-trafficking programs while the left side has wanted to legalize and regulate some drugs and reduce harm through needle exchanges while continuing a lifetime of treatments with medication therapies that carry heavy side effects.

Truthfully, neither side of the aisle is correct and yet at the same time they’re both partially correct.  In my mind, a perfect drug policy would be one that:

1. Has an effective national drug prevention/ demand reduction agenda implemented in all grade levels through the public school system.

2. Encourages drug testing and monitoring programs in education and the workplace.

3. Does not legalize harmful drugs but doesn’t lock people up for years for getting high – but instead offers them a chance to get their lives turned around.

4. Imposes harsher penalties on drug companies and holds the FDA accountable for the massive drug-pushing that occurs through pharmaceuticals.

5. Requires any treatment program that receives tax dollars to comply with outcome study standards for rehabilitation results – meaning they have to show that they’re actually working – and then make more of those drug rehab centers available to more people in every state or region by diverting “drug war” money into a broader treatment initiative.

There are probably a few more points that I’m missing, but these would cover the main objectives.  The reality of the current situation is that all of the previous strategies have failed and billions of tax dollars are wasted every year on ineffective treatment programs, ineffective prevention programs, harsh criminal prosecution of drug charges and violent drug trafficking battles.  We could save more money and help more people by requiring people and programs to be accountable for their actions, including requiring people to pass drug tests in order to continue to receive any type of state or Federal assistance like Medicaid or Medicare.

What do you think?

What does a successful drug rehab program do to help people permanently recover from addiction? One of them is use a drug-free approach, meaning no substitute drugs or medications, such as methadone for opiate addicts.

Unfortunately, methadone lobbyists have convinced lawmakers to allow yours and my tax dollars to be spent on methadone programs for people on Medicaid and Medicare. If it actually worked, then it wouldn’t be a big deal, but many of these people are kept on methadone for many months and some even many years. While the initial intention by well-meaning people would be for these addicts to wean down off the drug, it is highly addictive and tolerance builds rather quickly so the length of time and amount taken both usually increase.  A methodone detox is usually still needed, costing even more money.
A study published by the Hawthorn Press reported that between 1998 and 2003 the amount of Medicaid money spent on opioid prescriptions nearly tripled. Today there are approximately 90,000 addicts per year treated with methadone (5% of the total 1.8 million treatment admissions) according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Not only is replacing one drug with another not an effective way to help people live drug-free, but information posted on http://www.harmd.org claims that “In 2004 close to 4000 people died from methadone. In 2005 Methadone was implicated in over 4700 deaths. That does not include auto accidents caused by those driving under the influence of methadone.”

This drug is so addictive that it is very commonly found on the streets, where addicts sell their doses to other addicts or exchange it for other drugs.

The point is that a lot of our hard-earned money is going down the methadone drain and not only is it extremely frustrating for those of us who know better, but that means that you and I are letting our government continue to kill people with this drug.  If you don’t care how your tax dollars are spent, at least care that people are unnecissarily dying from this drug that was given to them that they were told would help them.

Even if you have tried to steer away from mainstream media lately, it has been nearly impossible in the last week to not hear about the latest public shooting resulting in deaths of innocent people.  Once again this young man in Illinois was on or withdrawing from a psychiatric drug, just like the Virginia Tech tragedy, Red Lake, Columbine, and so many others.  In each case the formula was a young male who had been given some type of psychiatric drug (antidepressant, anti-psychotic, anti-anxiety, etc.) that apparently caused the “disconnected” feeling that led them to the shootings. 

You don’t have to take our word for it though, there is plenty of evidence.  A good place to start is to watch this documentary by Dr. Gary Null on the drugging of our nation’s children. There are also several other related videos that can be seen through Google.

Another place is by checking out the side effects of these drugs that are so readily handed out to millions of Americans.  There are now very strict black box warning labels on many of these damaging prescriptions that talk about increased suicidal or homicidal thoughts as well as the numbing or disconnected feeling.  Additional evidence was documented and reported on by the Drug-Free Alliance regarding psych drugs being at the top of the list in Emergency Department visits for suicide attempts.

A quick search in Google on side effects of psychiatric drugs tells so much more in just the first two pages of results. 

So why are we writing to you about this instead of other drugs?  Because these medications are still drugs.  All drugs are basically toxins to a person’s body and can have long-lasting adverse effects, despite any supposed benefits.  Our goal to help people live drug-free lives includes this realm of prescriptions, not just the commonly-abused painkillers and sedatives. 

Whether someone you know has been addicted to street drugs or is dependent on prescription medications, we can help find a workable solution to becoming drug-free.  Get help today by visiting www.drug-addiction-rehab.net or call 1-877-421-9659.

Our nation is under a serious suppressive element right now regarding the subject of drugs and addiction that has ties directly into the heads of government.  This ‘authority’ has been forcing people to believe their false theory that addiction is an incurable brain disease that should be treated with more drugs. 

When you’re able to take one person and show him the trail of how it started, what the motivation is ($) and what some real solutions are, they can snap out of it.  The problem is that this ‘authority’ has billions of dollars to spend and reach the masses, who of course believe their propaganda, because it is coming to them from other ‘authority’ figures such as doctors – but the truth is they don’t really know either in the vast majority of cases.

The way out of this is for people to learn to question when something doesn’t sound right – like giving more drugs to addicts, or putting little children on drugs, or trying to create the next ‘happy drug’ – and find out for yourself what the truth is.  When you do find it, the truth will stand out. 

 We can help – if you ask.  If we can’t then we’ll find someone for you who can.  Our country is continuing to detoriorate and drugs are the major cause, whether they are by prescription, over the counter, or off the street.

Apparently, the drug company Reckitt Benckiser is launching a new Addiction411 Myspace page.  That’s actually pretty rediculous, and to me is like a certain slithering snake inviting two people we all know to eat the forbidden fruit – It will bring much pain and misery in the future – because they are the ones who make Suboxone and Subutex, which are the only forms fo buprenorphine available for sale in the U.S.

If they truly wanted to help people addicted to opiates, then would have just stopped at promoting their drug for a quick, one-week dose to lessen the severity of withdrawal symptoms – but it didn’t stop there.  Now doctors are being urged to place people on long-term opioid replacement therapy using Suboxone, which is causing a new dependence of its own and people still need detox and treatment later on to get off the buprenorphine.  When this new drug was hailed as a savior several years ago, people should have known what direction it was going in.  Can you believe they’re actually trying to ‘educate’ people about addiction, when they’re prolonging it with their own products?

I was so shocked and upset by a call that came in the other day it literally brought me to tears, especially when thinking of my own infant child.  A young mother told me how she became pregnant while undergoing methadone treatment.  She asked to be weaned down and the clinic told her no and actually wound up increasing her dose.  When her baby was born she had to watch the infant go through painfully horrible withdrawals without the benefit of a methadone detox.  It was enough to get the mother to stop taking the drug as well because she saw how evil it really was.  It’s bad enough that a methadone clinic lies to people and tells them the drug is a suitable treatment for heroin addiction, but to keep a pregnant mother on the drug and increase the dose so that she gave birth to an addicted child is downright inhumane torture.

Glaxo Smith Kline, makers of the diabetes drug Avandia, narrowly escaped having their drug pulled from the market by FDA officials, if it weren’t for the greased palms.  While one scientist appeared to be honest and try and tell the country that the drug is dangerous and that there are major heart risks, his voice was silenced by the droning hum of the Big Pharma money-making scheme engine once again (GSK’s reported net income was close to $15 billion in 2006).

Last week the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Director met with reporters and addiction-related professionals to hold a roundtable discussion on how to reduce the number of deaths associated with methadone.

It’s great that they’re publicly acknowledging that methadone kills, but they’re simply trying to save face here, not necessarily save lives.  After all, the Federal Gov’t agencies still approve of pushing methadone on opiate addicts and handing it out happily to chronic pain patients, and over 200,000 Americans are still led to believe it’s safe.  However, the more than 3,000 deaths per year now attributed to methadone, either by itself or in a drug combination, cannot be overlooked and should have sent up a huge red flag years ago when these numbers were doubling and tripling.

Honestly, what is it going to take for someone to have a bit of common sense?  How about helping people recover from drug addiction instead of putting them on another deadly drug?

SB-1011 (Senate Bill) is called “The Recognizing Addiction as a Disease Act of 2007″. The purpose of the bill is to change NIDA’s name from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to the National Institute on Diseases of Addiction and NIAAA’s name from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to the National Institute on Alcohol Disorders and Health (NIADH). The measure was approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on June 28 according to JoinTogether and the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA).

That is the most rediculous thing I have ever heard of.  Talk about fooling everyone.  Just so that nobody will try and think for themselves and doubt the disease theory or question its motives, the “powers that be” are trying to ingrain it into the federal government so that future generations won’t think twice about it.  The disease-mongering is absolutely out of control.  Drug addiction and alcoholism are no more a chronic brain disease than obsessive nose-picking is – there is no proof of the theory now and there never will be.