Good OldTimers: Roxies sell on the street for as much as $30 per pill and offer a high that tops crack, heroin or meth

Sunday, 30 October 2011

Roxies sell on the street for as much as $30 per pill and offer a high that tops crack, heroin or meth

Michael Patrick/news sentinel The two most wanted prescription pills on the streets of East Tennessee. The small pills are Roxie 30 and the large green pill is an Oxycontin 80. The second-generation Oxys, made by Purdue Pharma, are now wrapped in a sticky gelcap coating that will burn nostrils and resists needles.

PHOTO BY SOURCE: U.S. DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION, NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE

Effects of oxycodone: The high caused by oxycodone and other opiates affects nearly every major organ in the human body. So does withdrawal. This chart illustrates some of those effects.

Oxy's out. Roxies rule.A tiny blue pill, no bigger than a baby aspirin, overshadows nearly every other illegal drug on the market in East Tennessee. Men and women beg, haggle, threaten, lie, steal and kill — all for a handful of pills.

"It's the new crack," Knox County Sheriff's Office Lt. John Hopkins said. "Most of the addicts we see don't even shop for Oxys now. They've all switched to Roxies, and it's worse than crack ever was."

Doctors, police and emergency workers see the fallout every day. Sometimes it's a pill-sick addict who steals today to buy tonight's fix. Sometimes it's a baby born shaking with seizures from withdrawal.

Commonly abused prescription drugs

Oxycontin: A time-release form of oxycodone, an opioid painkiller, produced by Purdue Pharma and used to treat chronic pain. Strengths range up to 80 mg per pill. Nicknames include Oxys, O's and hillbilly heroin.

Roxicodone: Instant-release form of oxycodone produced by Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals and used to treat breakthrough pain. Strengths range up to 30 mg per pill. Nicknames include Roxies, blues and stars.

Opana: Time-release form of oxymorphone, a synthetic opioid, produced by Endo Pharmaceuticals. Nicknames include stop signs, biscuits, octagons and Mrs. O.

Methadone: Synthetic opioid, typically prescribed in pill or wafer form, used to treat pain and to ease withdrawal symptoms for opiate addicts.

Percocet, Endocet, Roxicet: Mixtures of oxycodone and acetaminophen.Percodan, Endodan, RoxiprinMixtures of oxycodone and aspirin.

Vicodin, Lortab, Lorcet: Mixtures of hydrocodone and acetaminophen. Nicknames include Vikes and hydros.

Fentanyl: Synthetic opioid, stronger than morphine, typically prescribed in patch or lollipop form. Nicknames include china white and perc-a-pop.

Xanax: Brand name of alprazolam, a benzodiazepine produced by Pfizer and used to treat panic, anxiety and insomnia. Strengths range up to 2 mg. Nicknames include footballs and totem poles.

Valium: Brand name of diazepam, a benzodiazepine produced by Roche and used to treat panic, anxiety and insomnia. Strengths range up to 10 mg.

Klonopin: Brand name of clonazepam, a benzodiazepine produced by Roche and used to treat panic, anxiety and insomnia. Strengths range up to 2 mg.

Ambien: Brand name of zolpidem tartrate, a sedative produced by Sanofi-Aventis. Strengths range up to 10 mg.

Suboxone: Combination of buprenorphine and naloxone, used to treat opiate withdrawal.

Pill Sick: The series

Sunday

Tennessee drug task force waging lonely war on Rx diversion

Law enforcement battling to cut off pain drug pipeline

Drug war's new front makes for unlikely targets

Living for the needle: Addict's life a daily, desperate struggle

Prescription pills are East Tennessee's 'new crack'

A year of pills: Drugs leave trail of damage, crime

Summary findings from the News Sentinel investigation into the pill trade

Sometimes it's a corpse — a dealer killed for pills or an addict who chased the last high off the edge of oblivion.

Oxycodone hydrochloride tablets sell at the pharmacy counter under the brand name Roxicodone and offer quick relief from chronic pain for the old, the aching, the crippled and the dying.

Roxies sell on the street for as much as $30 per pill and offer a high that tops crack, heroin or meth — all without the pesky time-release formula that coats Oxycontin, the drug's sister medication.

"It's the epidemic of the day," Knoxville Police Chief David Rausch said. "Everything is attached to it now. Our investigators will tell you that 90 percent of the folks we see who've committed a crime say it's to get their medicine. That's what they call it — medicine.

"The days of the crack dealer on the corner are slowly waning. It's become the medicine dealer on the street."

Drugs of choice

Three people died last year in South Knox County when two men broke into a former police officer's house to steal legally prescribed painkillers. Police say a North Knoxville man's stepson beat him and his wife to death in August to steal pain pills, then burned down the house to cover up the crime.

A rash of drugstore robberies last fall and winter set a local record. Semiannual drug roundups keep rural jails packed and court dockets clogged.

Officers on the beat report dealing with addicts desperate to avoid jail and the agonies of withdrawal. Sometimes they run. Sometimes they fight.

"We're out here beating the bushes today, and in a few months we'll be out here again doing the same thing," said Capt. David Honeycutt, chief investigator for the Claiborne County Sheriff's Office, as he headed out with a stack of indictments in another drug roundup. "Pills have changed the face of law enforcement. It used to be pot, maybe Valium. Now it's pain pills, and they're crazy as hell on them. You'd be hard-pressed to find a family that's not been hurt by these drugs."

Tennessee topped the nation last year in busts of methamphetamine labs, where addicts churn out toxic waste breaking down cold and sinus pills to produce a homemade stimulant. Meth hasn't gone away, but police say they spend more time and money now fighting to keep the cap on the prescription bottle.

"People are afraid of meth, because everybody doesn't do meth," Newport Police Chief Maurice Shults said. "Everybody doesn't do crack. But everybody's on pills of some kind. Pills come from a doctor. People see that as safe. A doctor gives them out, so they've got to be good."

From Oxy to Roxies

Purdue Pharma's Oxycontin tablets once stood as the gold standard for opiate abusers, with concentrated doses of up to 80 mg of oxycodone locked inside a time-release formula easy to crack. Addicts crushed the pills to powder, then snorted or injected them to turn 12 hours of pain relief into an instant high.

That golden egg gained an extra shell when Purdue introduced a new formula last year meant to cut down on abuse. The second-generation Oxys come wrapped in a sticky gelcap coating that burns nostrils and resists the needle.

Some addicts claim to have found ways to beat the coating. Most don't bother.

Roxicodone and its generic equivalents deliver smaller doses of the same drug to treat the short, sharp bursts of breakthrough pain that plague cancer patients and others between round-the-clock doses of painkillers like Oxy. The pills come in 15 mg and 30 mg strength with no gelcap and no time-release coating, ready to deliver instant relief — or an instant high.

"There's no preparation," said Officer Phil Jinks of the Knoxville Police Department's Repeat Offender Squad. "It's straight out of the bottle."

The easy access and potential for profit have caught on among young and old.

"We're dealing with kids in high school, and we've got people retirement age selling," KCSO Sgt. Chris Bryant said. "Pills are easy to get for kids. We've given several drug education classes to teachers, and the first question is always, 'What are those little blue pills we keep seeing?' Those are Roxies."

Some officials expect the problem will only get worse. Opana, a time-release form of oxymorphone introduced five years ago, and fentanyl, a painkiller 100 times more powerful than morphine, offer a stronger high than the old Oxycontin with an even greater potential for overdosing.

Meanwhile, addicts keep working on ways to crack the new Oxys.

"Any time there's a chemical change, there's somebody out there who can alter the effects of that change," Hamblen County Sheriff Esco Jarnagin said. "I don't think you can stop these people from doing what they're doing. The only thing you can do is try to slow them down."

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Bill “Bill W.” Wilson was born November 26th, 1895 in Vermont, the scion of a long line of granite quarry workers and mine bosses. He was educated at the prestigious Burton and Burr academy before joining the Army at the onset of US involvement in W.W. I. It was in the military (where Wilson had a desk job and never saw combat) that he took his very first drink and discovered that he didn’t just like it, he loved it. He quickly graduated to a full-bore drunkard, and a violent one at that. Which wasn’t too much of a problem at first. Wilson possessed a fine mind, he was logical and scientific, one of those guys who can fix a broken machine by taking it apart and studying how it works. When he got out of the military, he turned his natural genius toward the world of high finance, where it meshed nicely with his almost pathological need to make money and to be esteemed as a Great Man. It wasn’t long before the ambitious and talented Wilson was a force to be reckoned with on the Wall Street of the rollicking 1920s. He would learn all he could about the inner workings of a publicly-traded company then make recommendations to buyers based on his unique understanding. Today Wilson would be considered a common, albeit gifted, stock analyst, but back then he was one of the few people doing that sort of thing. Savvy investors soon flocked to Wilson and it didn’t take long before he realized he could use his influence and advice to artificially inflate the price of a company’s stock, including those in which he had a financial stake. These days that sort of behavior is a crime called insider trading, but in the ‘20s it was called playing the game and no one cared that much. Wilson certainly didn’t. He raked in the cash with both hands. He spent that money, too. The best of everything was never quite good enough for Bill. He had to have more, he had to have better. While he justified his lavish lifestyle to acquaintances by explaining that he had grown up poor, this was hardly the case. Only he and his wife, Lois, knew otherwise, and he perpetuated the myth for decades. Apart from occasionally drinking himself catatonic, Wilson’s life rolled along swimmingly, right up until October 24th, 1929. On the day that will be forever be known as Black Thursday, the stock market crashed (due in large part to just the sort of insider shenanigans that had made Wilson fabulously wealthy) and he lost everything. Overnight, he went, like so many other Americans, from white spats and hot jazz to starved for button thread or a decent meal. The only part of his life that remained the same was his obsession with getting loaded. Wilson used his keen intellect to discover inventive new ways to get a hold of drinking money, such as not paying the rent. Then, on December 11th, 1934, after five years on the bum, something happened. No one, and especially not Wilson himself, was ever able to adequately articulate what occurred, but according to the standard tale it went something like this: After repeatedly failing to get his drinking under control, Wilson, trembling on the brink of insanity, called up into the sky, “If there be a God, let Him show Himself now!” Suddenly, a warm bright light filled the room and Wilson found himself standing atop a mighty mountain. A wind came to him, surrounding his body and moving through it. With its departure, Wilson fell back into himself and never touched another drop of alcohol. A life-long agnostic who sometimes espoused atheism, Wilson took pains to avoid terming the event supernatural. He likened it instead to a “heat flash,” as if he’d been visited by premature and off-gendered menopause. Refusing to call what had happened an other-worldly event began Wilson’s (and AA’s) weird and oftentimes contradictory relationship with faith and the occult, denying that AA was a Christian organization while simultaneously rooting their entire philosophy firmly in the Christian sphere. (Wilson would, later in life, come to embrace all manner of occult beliefs, but more on that later.) No matter what name he chose to call his conversion event, it contained the birth of Alcoholics Anonymous. Bill Wilson set about creating AA with his usual laser-like focus. He understood immediately that the fledgling organization needed money, and he’d always been good at convincing rich men to give him theirs. He beseeched America’s surviving moneyed elite, those who’d escaped largely unscathed from the Crash, to lend financial support to his cause. Eventually, he landed the biggest fish in the pond: Nelson Rockefeller. With Rockefeller’s help, the Alcoholics Foundation sprang into being and would fund AA for the better part of the next decade. AA swiftly grew from a simple idea in Bill Wilson’s mind to a nationwide organization with membership rolls in the thousands. Though AA was doing well, the Wilsons continued to live rather destitute lives. It’s strange that Wilson lived worse sober than he did as a hopeless lush. AA folklore casts his situation in a romantic light, using it to demonstrate that Wilson gave up everything for the cause, but this doesn’t fly. As a drunk, Wilson lived like his patron, Nelson Rockefeller, but when sober he and Lois used fruit boxes as furniture, and he continually bemoaned his tough financial situation. Wilson was no martyr, so his inability to earn a livable wage while sober is decidedly strange, especially from a man with such a finely-tuned financial mind. Wilson’s poverty was a boon to him, however, when the Cleveland chapter of AA accused him of embezzling funds from the Foundation and from royalties earned from the publication of the Big Book. The accusations were neither proved nor disproved, and most AA members seemed willing to cut Wilson some slack. In any event, Cleveland eventually got over their problem, and AA continued to flourish, even in the face of further controversy. From the time he was a young man, Wilson and the ladies were never far separated. He was an attractive fellow and women were drawn to his smarts and passion. His womanizing continued after his marriage to Lois and for the majority of his life. Though he had “cured” his addiction to alcohol, Wilson never lost his addiction to women. Late in her life, Lois claimed that, despite abundant evidence, she was never aware of any impropriety on the part of her husband. But she must’ve known. The AA hierarchy in those days was rife with tattletales. There is even some evidence to suggest that Wilson’s womanizing accelerated after his conversion to sobriety, which begs the question: Did Bill Wilson prey upon vulnerable and needy women who came to him for help with their drinking? We will probably never know the answer, but the fact remains that on at least one occasion Wilson hired one of his mistresses to an administrative position in AA, only to have the Foundation board fire her to avoid a public scandal. Wilson was also quite the publicity hound. For the first twenty years of AA’s existence, his name and face were synonymous with the group. Even as he denied that AA was his own personal fiefdom, he continued to front the group, sitting for every reporter or photographer and glad-handing every wealthy potential benefactor who came his way. The outlying memberships eventually rebelled. They stridently reminded Wilson that one of the two words in the group’s name is anonymous, and Wilson’s behavior was anything but. Wilson proposed that AA needed a public face, someone to whom donors and members could relate, but by the mid 1950s he relented. From that point forward, all public photographs of Wilson showed him in silhouette or with his back turned to the camera. This seems to have placated the membership, but did nothing to quell Wilson’s need to be seen as a Great Man. By all appearances, Wilson felt terribly guilty for both his philandering and his obsession with being viewed as a step above the common run. He lapsed into a series of depressions that lasted, off and on, for the better part of his adult life. At their height he was known to pace his AA office muttering about how he’d done all this work to help alcoholics get well but nobody cared about him. He felt friendless and lonely, bereft of direction, to the point he eventually sought out psychoanalytic therapy. When word got out to the members that Wilson was seeing a shrink, they seethed with fear and rancor. If the founder of AA himself, the man who’d developed the sacred 12 Steps, was seeing a therapist, didn’t that mean the Steps were suspect? An honest, logical question, to be sure. Wilson scrambled to reassure frightened members that the Steps were solid and effective, though he would continue receiving personal therapy for many years to come. One of his therapeutic journeys lead him to Trabuco College in California, and the friendship of the college’s founder, Aldous Huxley. The author of Brave New World and The Doors of Perception introduced Wilson to LSD-25. The drug rocked Wilson’s world. He thought of it as something of a miracle substance and continued taking it well into the ‘60s. As he approached his 70th birthday, he developed a plan to have LSD distributed at all AA meetings nationwide. The plan was eventually quashed by more rational voices, and a few years later the Federal government made the point moot by making the drug illegal. (That Wilson’s plan was shot down is probably fortunate. LSD is a beautiful thing, but nothing sounds more horrifying to me than a roomful of chain-smoking, frightened, needy drunks tripping their heads off in the basement of the local Y.) In his never-ending quest to find a substitute for his drinking, Wilson, the self-declared agnostic, delved heavily in the occult. He and Lois set aside a special room at their home, called Stepping Stones (“stepping,” get it?) for their outré games. Seances were a regular feature at the Wilson’s. Lois would later tell skeptical friends that she and her husband, with the help of their invisible spirit friends, levitated the table on several occasions and performed numerous other feats that would make Agent Mulder’s heart get all fluttery. Wilson’s primary substitute for drinking, however, was much less exotic: smoking. Though he smoked several packs a day, he was never very good at it. He burned holes in his clothes (even, strangely, his hat) and was continually smudged with ash. His fingers became yellowed by nicotine and even after being diagnosed with emphysema in the early 1960s, Wilson continued to smoke. He told friends he quit, but squirreled cigarettes away in his car. For as long as his health permitted him to drive, Wilson would escape in his car and smoke one cigarette after another. As his health worsened, he would intersperse hits off his oxygen tank with cigarettes. Late in the 1960s Wilson’s emphysema lead to repeated bouts of bronchitis, then to cases of pneumonia that confined him to his bed for long stretches of time. As his various illnesses deepened, so did his hallucinations. Though none were as singular as his “heat flash,” they ran the gamut from pleasurable scenes of youth and happiness, to demented and hostile visions of unseen things stalking him in the dark. His ravings drove the Wilson’s maid from the house in fear for her safety. The possibility exists that Wilson was suffering from Alzheimer’s, but that disease was largely unknown in those days. Rumor has it that at the very end of his life, Wilson angrily begged for a drink. Begged and was denied. Bill Wilson died of pneumonia on January 24th, 1971.

Texts

Meetings for the week beginning Sept. 18-28

.La CrescentPrince of Peace Church Council: Thurs, Sept. 18, 7 pm, at the church.La Crescent Lions Club Board: Thurs, Sept. 18, Prince of Peace Church.Tri-State Two-Cylinder Club: Thurs, Sept. 18, 7:30 pm, La Crescent Community Bldg.La Crescent Cub Scout Pack #98: Thurs, Sept. 18, 6:30 pm, American Legion clubroom.La Crescent Healthy Community Partnership Board: Thurs, Sept. 18, 8:30-11 am, Kistler Memorial Park.La Crescent City Council: Mon, Sept. 22, 5:30 pm, city hall.La Crescent City Council Public Hearing: Mon, Sept. 22, 6 pm, Council Chambers, City Hall. Re: Vacating segments of Sycamore & Lancaster streets.Gopher State Sportsman’s Club: Thurs, Sept. 25, 7 pm, clubroom, Sportsman Valley Rd.Alcoholics Anonymous: every Thursday, 7 pm at Fitzgerald Center, 1380 Lancer Blvd., 895-6666.La Crescent Rotary Club: every Friday, 7 am at American Legion.FFF Dancing: every Monday, 10-10:30 am at Kistler Park, Healthy Community Partnership building. For all adults, 895-5150.Chapter Club with Mr. Petersilie: every Wednesday, 4-5 pm, Public Library.Faithfully Fit Forever: every Wednesday, 10-11 am at Kistler Park, Healthy Community Partnership building. For all adults, exercise group. 895-5150.BrownsvilleBrownsville Fire Dept. & First Responders: Mon, Sept. 22, 7 pm, fire station.Brownsville Senior Citizens: every Tuesday, 12:30-3 pm cards, Community Center.HokahLazy Lopers 4-H Club: Mon, Sept. 22, 6:30 pm, Hokah City Hall.Senior Citizens: 1st and 3rd Wednesdays, 1 pm, Fire Station meeting room.Alcoholics Anonymous: every Sunday, 7 pm, St. Peter Church, upstairs library.NodineNo meetings reported.Dresbach/DakotaDakota Area Community School: Sun, Sept. 21, 6 pm, at the school.Dakota Senior Citizens: Wed, Sept. 24, noon potluck, Community Center.HoustonHouston Chamber of Commerce: Thurs, Sept. 18, 6 pm, Houston Nature Center.Friends of Houston Public Library: Tues, Sept. 23, 7 pm, library.Friends of the Houston Nature Center: Wed, Sept. 24, 7 pm, Nature Center.Houston Public Library Board: Thurs, Sept. 25, 5:30 pm, library.Houston CountyHouston County Board of Adjustment: Thurs, Sept. 25, 7 pm, Commissioner’s Room, Courthouse, Caledonia.Houston County Planning Commission: Thurs, Sept. 25, 7:30 pm, Commissioner’s Room, Courthouse, Caledonia.Houston County Board of Commissioners: the first four Tuesdays of the month, 9 am. Standing committees meet at 8:30 am. Commissioner’s Room, Courthouse, Caledonia.Winona CountyWinona County Board of Adjustment: Thurs, Sept. 18, 1 pm, Government Center, 177 Main St., Winona.Winona County Planning Commission: Thurs, Sept. 18, 7 pm, Government Center, 177 Main St., Winona.Winona County Board of Commissioners: 1st and 2nd Tuesdays of month, 9 am; 4th Tuesday 7 pm, Winona County Government Center, 177 Main St., Winona.OtherSE MN Historic Bluff Country Board: Thurs, Sept. 18, 5:30 pm, Harmony Visitor Center.SE MN Area Agency on Aging (SEMAAA): Wed, Sept. 24, 9:30 am, Rochester Public Utilities, 4000 NE East River Rd., Rochester.Depressed Anonymous: every Monday, 5:30-6:30 pm at Franciscan Spirituality Center, La Crosse. 608-791-5295.

an intense feeling of pleasure known as a "high." Cocaine physical side effects that accompany that high, combined with the powerful psychological dependence it creates, makes it an extremely dangerous drug to take. As a very powerful stimulant, cocaine not only gives users more energy, it makes them feel confident and even euphoric, meaning they are extremely elated or happy, usually for no reason. This feeling of elation and power makes users believe they can do anything, yet when this high wears off, they usually feel upset, depressed, tired, and even paranoid. Cocaine has a very interesting history: It has gone from being considered a mild stimulant and then a wonder drug, to a harmless "recreational" drug, and finally to a powerfully addictive and very dangerous illegal drug. Although cocaine has, in fact, been all of these things at one time or another, we know it today to be an addictive drug that can wreck a person physically, mentally, and socially. It can also easily kill people.
Cocaine is extracted from the leaves of the coca shrub (Erythroxylum coca), which grows in the tropical forests on the slopes of the Andes Mountains of Peru. A second species, Erythroxylum novagranatense, grows naturally in the drier mountainous regions of Columbia. For thousands of years, the native populations of those areas chewed the leaves of these plants to help them cope with the difficulty of living at such a high altitude. Chewing raw coca leaves (usually combined with ashes or lime) reduced their fatigue and suppressed their hunger, making them better able to handle the hard work they had to do to live so high up in the mountains. The coca leaves were also used during religious ceremonies and for rituals such as burials. The feelings that the leaves gave to their chewers made them consider the coca plant to be a gift from the gods.
Once European explorers started coming to the Americas in the late fifteenth century, it was only a matter of time until invaders, such as the Spanish, came to the New World seeking riches. By the time the Spanish arrived in what is now Peru, the people of that land, known as the Incas, were already a civilization in decline, and they were easily subdued and conquered. The Spaniards eventually learned that giving coca leaves to native workers enabled them to force the workers to do enormous amounts of work in the gold and silver mines that were located in high altitudes. For the next two hundred years, although some coca plants were taken back to Europe, they were not popular or well-known since they did not travel well and were useless if dried out. Further, the Europeans did not like all the chewing and spitting required to get at the plant's active ingredient, and until this part of the plant could be isolated, coca leaves were not very much in demand.
All of this changed by the middle of the nineteenth century when German physician Albert Niemann perfected the process of isolating the active part of the drug and improved the process of making it. Niemann extracted a purified form of cocaine from the coca leaves, and wrote about the anesthetic or numbing feeling obtained when he put it on his tongue. Cocaine then began its inevitable introduction into medicine, drink, and finally drug abuse. First it was considered by many doctors to be a wonder drug, and they began prescribing it for all sorts of physical and mental problems. By the 1880s, cocaine was even added to a very popular "medicinal" wine called Vin Mariani. The famous Austrian physician Sigmund Freud, who would become the founder of psychoanalysis, published a paper in 1884 that made many wrong medical claims for cocaine. Although he would later withdraw his claims, Freud did write at the time, "The use of coca in moderation is more likely to promote health than to impair it."
In 1888, a soft drink named "Coca-Cola" was developed in America that contained cocaine and advertised itself as "the drink that relieves exhaustion." By 1908, however, the makers of Coca-Cola realized their mistake and removed all the cocaine from it, using only caffeine as a stimulant. By then, the initial enthusiasm for cocaine was seen to be undeserved, and many cases of overuse and dependence eventually forced lawmakers to take action against it. Consequently, in 1914 the United States introduced the Harrison Narcotic Act, which made cocaine illegal. After that, cocaine use was popular only with a fairly small number of artists, musicians, and the very rich, until the 1970s. In that decade, cocaine use skyrocketed as many young people who had earlier smoked marijuana took to cocaine as a drug they believed had no side effects, was safe, and was not addictive.
All of these beliefs were eventually seen to be terribly untrue, as a cocaine epidemic in the 1980s claimed many lives, such as that of comedian John Belushi, and wrecked numerous other lives, such as that of the comedian Richard Pryor. Once it is understood what happens to a person's nervous system when he or she ingests or takes in cocaine, it is not surprising that the results are often bad and sometimes tragic. The cocaine sold on the streets is usually a white crystalline powder or an off-white chunky material. It is usually diluted with other substances, like sugar, and is introduced into a person's body by sniffing, swallowing, or injecting it. Most people "snort" the powder or inhale it through their nose, since any of the body's mucous membranes will absorb it into the bloodstream. Injecting the drug means that it must first be turned into a liquid. Both ways create an immediate effect. Smoking "crack" cocaine delivers a more potent high, since crack is distilled cocaine. In its "rock" form it cannot be snorted, but is smoked in pipes. The name "crack" comes from the crackling sound these rock crystals make when heated and burned.
However the active part of the drug gets into the body, it delivers the same effect to the person's central nervous system, depending on the amount taken and the user's past drug experience. Usually within seconds, it travels to the brain and produces a sort of overall anesthetic effect because it interferes with the transmission of information from one nerve cell to another. Since this interference is going on within the reward centers of the brain, the user experiences a fairly short-term high that is extremely pleasurable. Physically, the user's heart is racing, and his blood pressure, respiration, and body temperature also increase. The user feels temporarily more alert and energetic. The problem is that these feelings do not last very long, and the user must do more cocaine to recapture them.
In tests with experimental animals, cocaine is the only drug that the animals will repeatedly and continuously demand on their own to the point of killing themselves. Although cocaine is not physically addictive the way heroin is (meaning that the user physically craves the drug and suffers withdrawal when off it), it nonetheless creates a profound psychological dependence in which the mind craves the ecstasy that comes with the drug. Further, since the user experiences fatigue and depression when he or she stops, there is little reason to want to quit. Over time, these cravings get stronger and stronger, and the user can only think of how to get another "hit." This obviously makes them unable to live a normal life without the drug, which has by now taken over their lives.
Severe and heavy overuse can make the abuser suffer dizziness, headache, anxiety, insomnia, depression, hallucinations, and have problems moving about. The increase in blood pressure can cause bleeding in the brain as well as breathing problems, both of which have killed many a user. Often, even physically fit people like Len Bias, the All-American basketball star from the University of Maryland, can suddenly die from ingesting cocaine. The medical risks associated with this drug are great, especially since there is no antidote for an overdose. Taking cocaine also has legal consequences, and besides the disorder and dysfunction it brings to a person's life, it can also land them in jail. Many American schools also have a zero-tolerance policy, as do many companies and other organizations. Overall, despite the glamour that some people see in the drug, the disadvantages far outweigh the temporary advantages, and rather than improving a person's life, it can only do the opposite.

Like a gaunt prospector, belt drawn in over the last ounce of food, our pick struck gold. Joy at our release from a lifetime of frustration knew no bounds. Father feels he has struck something better than gold. For a time he may try to hug the new treasure to himself. He may not see at once that he has barely scratched a limitless lode which will pay dividends only if he mines it for the rest of his life and insist on giving away the entire product. Alcoholics Anonymous Pages 128 & 129ÂWhen I talk with a newcomer to A.A., my past looks me straight in the face. I see the pain in those hopeful eyes, I extend my hand, and then the miracle happens: I become healed. My problems vanish as I reach out to this trembling soul.

Ten—Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.

10.—No A.A. group or member should ever, in such a way as to implicate A.A., express any opinion on outside controversial issues—particularly those of politics, alcohol reform, or sectarian religion. The Alcoholics Anonymous groups oppose no one. Concerning such matters they can express no views whatever.

Nowhere in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous are the words “outside issues” further mentioned together in the same context other than in our tenth tradition; yet, this remains one of the largest arguments or separations of empathy among many a recovering alcoholic, cross-addicted or otherwise. The *article below and its implications of, or to, our churches separation from state and the suggested treatments rendered to an alcoholic in the court system today should be our foremost personal battle of concern. Confusion arises at the religious or spiritual definition of a power greater than ourselves again. Condemners of AA have either call it a cult, or a religious program and cannot understand a spiritual program in the sense we have found. Continued pressures from the “non-believing” clinical sector are trying to take the soul from recovery into their own hands by administering “alternative” recourse to addiction. I would be willing to bet that a very low percentage, if any, of these clinics are comprised of recovering alcoholics as administers. Where do they get there internship/experience from? I personally never experienced any recovery from alcoholism through any of the doctors or psychologist trying to teach me this. Additional guidance of this variety I can see of great value, but taking AA completely out of the remedy is just plain scary. I suppose this goes back to “AA should never be organized” and this is case in point. AA will survive and “be there” just as the people wanting and needing its help will always be there, they will just have to seek it as we all have to seek our recovery on a daily basis leaving outside issues as just that, outside.
Thanks for being there I say.
BonesXXX

Privacy Policy (site specific)

Privacy Policy (site specific)
Privacy Policy :This blog may from time to time collect names and/or details of website visitors. This may include the mailing list, blog comments sections and in various sections of the Connected Internet site.These details will not be passed onto any other third party or other organisation unless we are required to by government or other law enforcement authority.If you contribute content, such as discussion comments, to the site, your contribution may be publicly displayed including personally identifiable information.Subscribers to the mailing list can unsubscribe at any time by writing to info (at) copsandbloggers@googlemail.com. This site links to independently run web sites outside of this domain. We take no responsibility for the privacy practices or content of such web sites.This site uses cookies to save login details and to collect statistical information about the numbers of visitors to the site.We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and would like to know your options in relation to·not having this information used by these companies, click hereThis site is suitable for all ages, but not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 years old.This policy will be updated from time to time. If we make significant changes to this policy after that time a notice will be posted on the main pages of the website.

Sunday, 30 October 2011

Roxies sell on the street for as much as $30 per pill and offer a high that tops crack, heroin or meth

Commonly abused prescription drugs

Pill Sick: The series

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Privacy Policy (site specific)