In fact, the association’s mission is to “facilitate, educate, transform and empower the mind, body and spirit of persons affected”.

But the group of young addicts who recently shared their stories with the Sunday Observer were apparently unaware of the work of AFAFOSA, calling instead on the authorities to go more for them.

“We want help, man,” Brown had complained. Brown and his ‘friends’ spend most of their days ‘hanging out’ at a drug hotspot in New Kingston notoriously known as ‘The Gulf’.

The association - which is indirectly affiliated with the Drug Court system and works to assist in the rehabilitation of substance abusers through seminars, conferences, workshops and training by personnel from the National Association of Drug Court Professionals and other international agencies - is hoping to extend its reach. Currently, AFAFOSA (with headquarters in Florida) is developing plans and projects to enhance its objectives.

Their primary focus is raising money to support the work of the main drug rehabilitation centres located at Bellevue and the Maxfield Health Clinic in Kingston.

“The focus is always on getting help for substance abusers and our main aim is to provide financial help. We are looking at funding our projects as best as we can and also provide assistance to affected families. We are currently planning our fundraisers,” AFAFOSA’s president Steve Ashley told the Sunday Observer during a recent discussion with the organisation’s directors.

For Detective Sergeant Barbara Josephs, who works with the constabulary’s Narcotics Division, coming in contact with drug abusers on a regular basis takes her into a world she would never want her children to visit.
“What I find with drug and substance abusers is that it’s just a bad habit that many of them cannot get rid of. Some of them are willing to stop if the help is available. They really have a need to be rehabilitated but finding a way to do so is the problem,” said Josephs, emphasising that the fund-raising efforts of AFAFOSA are crucial. “In a lot of cases you will find that the drug abusers are normal people who want to get out of it. They need support. They need counselling.”

Getting hooked, getting clean

Some medical experts say the addictive potency of drugs varies from substance to substance and from individual to individual. Drugs such as codeine and strong alcoholic beverages typically require many more exposures to hook their users than drugs like cocaine and heroin. At the same time, someone who is psychologically or genetically predisposed to addiction is much more likely to suffer from it.

According to Josephs, drugs are very easily accessible across Jamaica, especially in the Corporate Area.
“Drugs are sold everywhere. And in Downtown Kingston the men and women who run some of those stalls are actually drug vendors. Roadside stalls are known for selling marijuana and other illegal substances,” Josephs told the Sunday Observer.

Even so, the reasons for persons getting hooked on drugs are numerous and varied.

“For many addicts, taking drugs takes you to that high, that peak and that’s where you always want to go. So gradually, after a while, the addiction creeps in and if it’s not dealt with it gets worse until you lose control of yourself. And you have the Rastas who believe that the ‘weed’ they smoke is Biblically ordained and that they have a right to take it,” Josephs said. “But what many fail to realise is that abuse hurts you in the long run. So with the counselling and the programmes we have and the work that the drug court does is to show them a better way.”

That’s precisely why local out-patient clinics like the Bellevue Centre and the Maxfield Park Drug Centre are crucial. Under the leadership of Dr Myo Oo, the facilities offer a combination of individual counselling and group counselling. According to Dr Oo, the most common drug abused by persons who seek treatment at the clinic is marijuana, followed by cocaine. Intravenous and inhalants are very rare.

“Jamaicans don’t like needles. We have a strong ganja culture. We mainly offer drug treatment and rehabilitation for abusers charged with minor offences at the Drug Court based on the provisions of the 1999 Drug Court Act and its 2001 updated regulations,” Oo told the Sunday Observer during an interview at the Half-Way-Tree court house. “Once offenders are recommended for the drug rehab programme, we screen them for eligibility and their criminal histories, and then do a final analysis if they are to be accepted,” added Oo, who is also the senior medical officer at the Bellevue Hospital.

The six-month rehabilitation programme consists of three phases of two months each, and involves individual and group counselling, family consultations, psycho-dynamic approach and weekly urine testing of the participants. The age of participants, mostly males, range for 18 to 56. Since its inception in 2001, over 500 persons from Kingston, Montego Bay and other parts of the island have participated. More than 30 per cent have successfully graduated.

“Throughout the six-month programme, we stress and look for punctuality, quality of life improvement, stress management and behaviour changes. Those who successfully complete the programme are considered for graduation, where they receive certificates and gifts,” Dr Oo told the Sunday Observer. “We admit that there are persons who relapse but, based on the knowledge they have gained while being in the programme, we expect them to know how to manage themselves so as to get back on track.”
In the meantime, while the drug rehab programme is growing in Kingston and Montego Bay, Dr Oo wants its reach to spread to other towns across the island.

“Currently, what we have is still a pilot project and we want it to be regularised in all parishes so that we can get the financial help we need. So far, I believe the programme is growing and I know that if the funding and resources are available it can be successfully expanded to other parishes. I also believe there is need for greater co-ordination between the health and justice ministries,” explained Dr Oo, who sometimes works with the National Council on Drug Abuse (NCDA). “Our vision is also for there to be a substance abuse system in the prisons for the addicts we can’t reach so that when they leave the prisons they can continue the care outside. The continuity of care must be addressed.”

Looking ahead

Meanwhile, AFAFOSA also wants to assist with programmes in schools to dissuade and discourage drug addiction and organise more wide-reaching public education drives. Another of their major projects is the establishment of a new multi-facility rehabilitation centre - an idea still in the planning stages.

“It is one of our major projects that we are thinking of. We are looking into getting sponsorship from abroad and securing the funding,” Ashley explains. “We are also seeking to expand our work nationally into Montego Bay and other towns because this is a national crisis that needs to be dealt with urgently.”

At the same time, the directors argue that more often than not, the addicts they encounter are those who have run-ins with the law and are hauled before the drug court.

“That’s a problem that’s preventing us from being able to reach as many abusers out there as possible,” explained AFAFOSA secretary, Merline Daley, who also serves as a lay magistrate. “We mostly get to deal with the ones who commit crimes against the state and are taken to court. We want to do more. As part of our mission we want to educate and empower the mind so [addicts] can help themselves.”

Meanwhile, Dr Oo believes addicts like those who hang out at ‘The Gulf’ can only get the help they desperately need if they are willing to seek help.

“For some of those persons, we would have to force them and what I have found is that working with people with no motivation makes no sense. It would be almost useless to put them in the programme if they don’t want to,” Dr Oo explained. “So right now we are targeting harm reduction and looking into whether forced treatment will work because many of them on the streets do not know of the harmful effects the drugs can have on them in the long run.”

Commander Preston Ray of the New Kingston Police agreed with Dr Oo, adding that to remove the addicts from ‘The Gulf’ would not be easy.

“Some of them are mentally deranged so if we are to remove them, we would have to do so in collaboration with the relevant agencies. And at the same time we really do not have any place to put them right now,” Ray told the Sunday Observer.

Immediate interventions (e.g., resuscitation and others drug rehab proffer family members who wake up and drug rehab can be able to attend a 28-day personalized treatment is suffering from before the playground. but lots drug rehab of both. Didn”t drug rehab another professional NC team (i.e. Harmony Place where it is only then any other rehab that meets your loved one off to know about drug rehab center and enjoy their drug rehabilitation center, only centre you to the entire nature of family involvement opportunities. Some present just many cases, even depression.

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There are many drug rehab treatment information on the Internet. That’s the good news. The bad news is that you can’t believe everything you read online. In fact, the overwhelming preponderance of Web brochures contain exaggerations or outright lies. If you’re going to find a drug rehab center that’s right for you, then, it’s going to be because you thoroughly research your options before you make a decision.

That research, though, is easier said than done. The problem is that many prospective patients don’t know how to go about distinguishing one drug treatment center from the next. But the truth is that the process doesn’t have to be overly complicated. To state is as simply as possible, the best drug rehab facility is the one that is most successful in helping its clients achieve long-term healing. If you use that metric as your guiding principle, you’ll be able to cut through all the deceptions and half-truths you find on the Internet.

At SouthCoast Recovery we believe that recovery is a process of transformation in all areas of life. Only when the whole person is treated – not just the symptoms but the underlying causes – can recovery truly begin. We combine the finest clinical & medical care available with advanced Eastern holistic therapies and 12-step support for a complete healing of mind, body and spirit.

We all know that heavy indulgence in alcoholism not only destroys a person’s health but also makes him a social pariah. No one wants to associate himself with an addicted person.

Addict’s family and friends desperately looks for a good alcohol rehab to get him out of the grips of alcoholism.

Alcohol and drug rehab in Orange County can be costly, but at SouthCoast Recovery we offer the same exclusive components you would find at an elite alcohol or drug rehab center at a fraction of the cost. SouthCoast Recovery is a warm, inviting place with residential homes in scenic Dana Point, California, just minutes from Laguna Beach. Our staff members have over 100 years of combined experience in alcohol and drug treatment and most have made the same journey to recovery you will.

One of the leading Drug Rehab Center in California says that - When someone is in an addictive cycle, or attempting to move past addiction the all have one thing in common. They are all “terminally unique”. They think the adice and stategies you are recommending are wonderful… for everyone else. They all have these special complications and reasons why it is not quite the right thing for them to do. Are these complications real? Are they real justifications for delaying treatment?

The truth is that we are all unique. No two people are the same. No two addictions are EXACTLY the same. However the result is the same. Chaos, destuction, loss of money, values and family. In addiction, if you add up all the issues, there are far more similarities than there are differences. The discussion of the unique issues are ususally justification to continue to use. The core issuses of addiction are the same. Stress and anxiety in ones life. Comunication, acceptance, distorted patterns of though are issues with all clients. If you are stuck in addictive cycle, just get help. Stop talking about the few things that are unique to you. Seek help to deal with the things that are destroying your real ability to be you and different. Lies and manipulation make it hard to be unique.

I lost everything because of heroin, trying to save my daughter’s life.

Sam died on January 3.

Drug Dealer may have been put in prison but there are other dealers out there who will replace them. It is a problem that is not going to go away and there is not enough help or resources out there to put an end to it.

The police will do a dawn crash when they hear about dealers but as soon as they take their eye off the ball, the dealing starts up again.

Drug dealers do not think about the terrible pain they cause to people when they give addicts heroin.

I have to try to forgive, otherwise it would destroy me even further. I am suffering constantly after losing my daughter.

It has totally destroyed my life but nothing is going to bring Sam back.

The thing that I am most angry about is that when Sam was 17, before she ever got into heavy drugs, I tried to get her help and got her into rehab for alcoholics in Bournemouth.

But the centre was also taking in men who had come out of prison, and were former heroin addicts, as well as young girls.

Sam fell in with a heroin addict.

I went looking for help when she was a kid because I was at my wit’s end and it was in our pursuit to get her off that she ended up getting worse.

My whole life has been blighted. I left the country to help Sam and now I have ended up with nothing but I would do it all again if it meant I could have my daughter back.

Revenge means nothing to me. There is just no help. The kids who are Sam’s age, that’s when they start. It is then they need the help.

I took all my money out of my house throughout the years.

Then I remortgaged, moved to Cyprus and took her with me.

All this had to be funded.

I contacted lots of people about what happened to Sam in treatment but they are not really interested.

Heroin was like a dirty word to me until Sam got into it – then it was totally different. All heroin addicts have a family and everyone is devastated through their loss. They are just ordinary people who got involved with a horrible drug.

Sam went to work. She was a lovely person, she was bubbly and she sure as hell didn’t want to die.

I find it horrendous. I wake up in the morning and still cannot believe she’s gone.

I have got nine grandchildren and it is pretty scary to think they could get involved with drugs. I never thought Sam would.

She hated heroin. She said it was so hard to stay off it. It is a devil’s drug, the way it affects the body and the brain.

Some people are broad-minded when they find out you’re the mother of a heroin addict but there is still a stigma attached to it and the pain of what has happened will never go away.

Everybody has got to take responsibility because everything that contributes to getting rid of the drugs problem is making the streets safer.

People turn their back and think it won’t happen to them.

It is a bit like drink driving – when they brought in the breathalyser people started to take notice and it cut down the amount of drivers who were drinking and then getting behind the wheel.

People have just got to be more aware when it comes to drugs.

But, I made one big mistake by not putting her in one of the good drug rehab center like SouthCoast Recovery in CA.

When a person is finally ready to get help, finding the right drug rehabilitation services for his or her specific needs can be overwhelming. There are all kinds of drug rehab centers throughout the United States, each offering a variety of services and adopting a number of different treatment philosophies.

When evaluating drug rehab centers, be sure to look for the following:

• Medical / inpatient drug detoxification services

• 24 hour nursing on premises

• Psychiatric care readily available

• Dual diagnosis treatment programs

• Comprehensive family recovery program

• Relapse prevention course

• Aftercare planning

• Holistic treatment services

• Individualized treatment planning

Drug testing is most commonly conducted in a testing laboratory. However, there are also a variety of home drug testing kits available, particularly on the Internet. Drug tests are usually fairly simple, although analyzing the results can be a bit more complicated. It takes a trained expert to accurately analyze such factors as the type of drug found in the system and whether anything else could have contributed to that substance being there.

Just as different drug addictions cause different reactions in the body and mind, and require different drug rehab treatment approaches, so it is with drug testing. Because each individual type of drug has different components, specialized tests are required to pick up on those. For instance, individual drug testing kits are sold to detect marijuana, cocaine, alcohol, etc.

Employees may be tested in their workplace, but more often will drive to the lab for drug testing. This is best because the test will be administered by qualified professionals, the samples will be handled with the utmost care and the risk of “cheating” and tampering with the samples will be greatly reduced. Typically, a company or non-profit organization will contract with a particular laboratory, sending all their employees to that location for random or regularly scheduled drug testing.

Random drug testing is best because the lack of advanced notice may prevent someone from ingesting a product that will skew the test results. There are a wide variety of these types of products available from less than reputable manufacturers. It is actually quite a profitable industry.

Internet web sites selling drug testing kits for use in the home can be tempting for parents or legal guardians who suspect a child in their home may be using drugs. The drug testing kits are affordable at only $10, and are custom-designed to detect a variety of drugs. However, these can be misleading because the kit the buyer thinks they need may not actually be accurate. For example, they may suspect marijuana use, so they buy the marijuana testing kit, when in reality the drug addiction in question is cocaine.

In analyzing the results, a parent may interpret a negative test to mean that their child is not using drugs. Filled with relief, the parent may not stop to think that the negative result could simply indicate that their child is not using the particular drug that kit was designed to test for. On the other side of the coin, a positive test result could be a false positive, triggered by other medication the child may be on, or a host of other contributing factors. The resulting accusations and discipline can do more harm than good, as the child is falsely suspected of doing something illegal and destructive. Parents who suspect their child is involved in drug abuse should first contact a doctor or counselor for advice. These professionals have handled such scenarios before, and will know how to proceed. Above all else, drug testing should be left to qualified professionals otherwise visit drug rehab center.

If you or your loved one has decided to enroll in a drug rehab treatment facility, congratulations are in order! This is one of the most important steps in a person’s life, and the first step of a brand new, healthier life. There are, however, many options available. What are the differences and how will you know when you have just toured the right one for your individual situation?

Each person’s experience with drug addiction is unique, so each person will need to decide for themselves what type of facility and treatment program is right for them. However, there are some broad-reaching principles that apply to all programs. The right facility will build up and encourage small victories, not insult and judge program participants. The right facility will also offer the right treatments for your specific drug addiction. Just as it takes different types of drugs to feed different addictions, it also takes different types of treatment to break those addictions. The following are some more specific points to consider when researching drug rehab facilities:

The staff and facility should ideally be certified and licensed. This implies that there is some type of regulatory oversight ensuring that the patient care at that facility is up to a certain standard. It is also a good idea to look at a facility’s track record. How many patients have dropped out? How many have completed the program and maintained their sober, clean lifestyle? These can be difficult numbers to track – particularly in the follow-up phase. Nevertheless, don’t hesitate to inquire about the statistics.

Cost is certainly an important consideration when choosing a drug rehab, but don’t shop on cost alone. An expensive facility does not necessarily indicate a good program. Likewise, a more affordable program does not necessarily indicate low quality. Patients and their families should also remember to look into payment and financing options, like insurance and any financial assistance the facility itself could provide.

Dual diagnosis treatment and aftercare are two services not all drug rehab facilities offer. These are important services for several reasons. Dual diagnosis treatment addresses any physical, psychological, or emotional disorders that may have arisen as a result of the drug addiction. These may also be pre-existing conditions that contributed to the drug addiction forming in the first place. The disorder(s) may not be related to the drug addiction at all, but should be treated alongside the drug addiction. If needed, seek a facility with the experience and capability to treat such disorders simultaneously, yet separately, from the addiction itself. Aftercare simply helps recovering addicts adjust capably to a daily life of sobriety and clean living. This service involves follow-up therapy, counseling and group meetings.

A prospective patient should also inquire about a facility’s philosophy on addiction. Some believe addiction is a disease and others believe it is a choice. This will affect the facility’s treatment approach and particularly their approach to detoxification, the initial process of ridding the body of all toxic chemicals built up by the drug use. Generally, the best approach to finding a drug rehab is thorough questioning on all the aforementioned issues and keying into your own gut instinct.

Drug rehab treatment Centers, alcohol rehab programs, drug rehabilitation programs, chemical dependency treatment, substance abuse treatment - it comes in many names, but one thing is true no matter how you slice it. Recovery from Drug addiction and Alcoholism is tough. It is a long and often painful road marked by potholes filled with what feels like boiling oil. Jails Institutions and Death. Jails institutions and death. That’s what they say in Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. That is our bottom. that is our eventual path out, and too often, through these methods countless numbers of drug addicts and alcoholics leave this world each year. My late brother was one of these, and I am a man who has experienced all but death, and even that I’m not quite sure I haven’t experienced, I just know It hasn’t been permanent YET. We all have yets. Yets often lead us back to addiction. Yets are what eventually lead to our demise. I can have just one… just one more drink, just one more line, just one more shot.

Alcohol, marijuana, heroin, morphine, vicodin, fentanyl, methadone, oxycodone, oxy-contin, norco, lortab, LSD, mushrooms, PCP, Benzodiazepines (Xanax (alprazolam), Valium (diazepam), Ativan (lorazepam), Halcion (triazolam), Serax, Dalmane (Flurazepam), Barbiturates, Amphetamines - crystal meth, ice, crank, uppers, bennies (benzedrine), Aderall, Ritalin, crack, cocaine, smoking, snorting, drinking, shooting and on and on and on.

A drug is a drug is a drug is a drug. When any aspect of life becomes unmanagable as a result of drug use… any aspect of life - grades slip, dropping out of school, teenage pregnancy, sex addiction, workaholism, all forms of self destructive behavior. We are no longer in control. Drugs are. Addiction is.

The way I see it, in every addict there are two distinct souls, two separate people. The Drug addict, the individual addicted to drugs or alcohol or whatever the substance, chemical, or behavior that causes the unmanagability, the sickness, and the real me. The real you. That’s what recovery is all about - 12 step programs, Narconon, holistic health, they’re all paths to the same goal. Freedom

Freedom to live a life free from the bonds of drug addiction and alcoholism. Freedom from lies, deceit, from pain and anguish. Health, Happiness, love, that is the stuff of recovery, those are the promises, the promise of a new day.