People do desperate things when they are living with an active drug addiction, and one mother in Florida did the unthinkable in order to get $2000, potentially to feed her prescription drug addiction: sell the parental rights to her 5-year-old son.

According to reports, Pinellas County sheriff’s deputies arrested Jessica Marie Beers for allegedly attempting to sell her 5 year old child for $2000 to a couple who had been helping her with childcare and giving her money. It was the couple who tipped off police, telling them that the woman had offered them the money in return for parental rights of her child. The couple said that they had been helping Beers with childcare and money for months and had noticed that she had a prescription drug addiction. Over time, they said they watched her child more and more often. When Beers made them the offer, they were concerned that she would spend the money on drugs and contacted police.

The arrest happened when Beers met with the couple in order to make the exchange: the boy for the money. Beers was arrested and charged with sale of parental rights and violation of probation for grand theft, and her son was taken into custody by child protection services.

Desperation and Drug Addiction

It’s a story that flew across the country when it first broke and while many were shocked by the nature of the crime, others see it as more proof of how desperate an addiction to drugs can make anyone. Children are often the first victims when a parent is living with drug abuse. Though the incidence is more often neglect, it’s not uncommon for kids to be hurt when their parents are addicted to drugs. The only benefit of this story is the fact that it brought to light the addiction that the boy’s mother was living with and provided him with an exit to safer home while also putting her in a position to recognize the need for and to accept treatment. Many mothers live for years covering up their drug addiction to the detriment of their child. In this case, at least there is hope for the future.

Drug Addiction Treatment for Mothers

Many mothers avoid enrolling in drug rehab because their children need their care. The fact is that childcare provided from someone under the influence of drugs is not acceptable. The child will always be much better off staying with a relative until the mother is well again, then coming home to a place that is truly home where the child can feel safe and learn to respect their parents because their parents are behaving in a manner worthy of that respect.

If you would like to learn more about our drug addiction treatment program here at The Orchid, contact us today. We can help you determine the best place for your child while you get the help you need to be the mother you want to be.

Actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers of Tudors fame was recently rushed to the hospital for a drug overdose. Though initial reports said that the overdose was a suicide attempt, it was later determined that Rhys Meyers’ overdose was inadvertent and was related to an ongoing prescription drug addiction that has had the star in drug rehab multiple times over. He’s been to rehab five times in the past few years and was famously banned from an airline for drunken misbehavior.

When he was found in his London home after overdosing, he initially refused treatment but an ambulance was called to help him anyway. He was soon released.

The Risk of Drug Overdose is Still a Risk With Long-Term Prescription Drug Addiction

Many active prescription drug addicts believe that if they have been abusing painkillers or anti-anxiety medications for a long time, they have little to no risk of overdosing. They believe they know their bodies well enough to risk inadvertently taking too much. Unfortunately, those living with a chronic prescription drug addiction are just as likely to experience an overdose as users who are new to the drug, for a number of reasons. Here are a few:

• Mixing prescription drugs with alcohol. Many think that it’s not a big deal to take a drink or two with their medication, but this is one of the most common causes of overdose. Even just a couple of drinks can overwhelm a body’s chemistry made delicate by years of addiction.
• Taking a break. Even the shortest break due to travel, spending a few days in jail, or simply running out of your medication with no resource for getting more can reset your body’s chemistry. Another common time for overdose occurs when tolerance is lowered through to non-use or less use of the drug of choice. An accidental overdose very often occurs just through taking the “normal” dose.
• Taking doses too close together. The longer you live with an active prescription drug addiction, the more difficult it is to work through the haze. Keeping up with days, times, conversations – it can be difficult. Many overdose when they take another dose of their medication too soon after the last dose.

Avoid Prescription Drug Overdose at Rehab

It’s not always possible to get treatment in time to survive a prescription drug overdose. The risk is simply not worth taking. If you are living with a prescription drug addiction, seek treatment immediately. Contact us today at Orchid Recovery Center.

In our last post, we talked about how one group of doctor’s is working to encourage Congress to make prescription drug training mandatory for all prescribing physicians. Dr. David Kloth is a spokesman for the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians. He says that this new certification and training should be mandatory because “physicians are busy and they don’t volunteer to do extra certification.”

What Should Prescription Drug Addiction and Overdose Training Include?

Doctors who don’t know how to identify prescription drug addiction or implement preventative measures to help patients to avoid developing a pill dependence would benefit from a mandatory training certification. Dr. Kloth says: “They would be educated primarily on medications - how they interact with other medications, on the metabolism, safe dosing, how to transition from one medication to another, how to monitor and look for signs of abuse, how to use your state’s prescription monitoring program.”

Why Aren’t Prescription Drug Databases Enough to Fight Addiction?

Of the 50 states, 38 of them have prescription drug databases that require pharmacies and doctors to input information about all addictive medications that are prescribed and filled in the state. The goal is to identify the problem when patients attempt to change prescriptions for higher dosages or amounts or ask multiple doctors for similar medications in order to augment their addiction. More states have passed legislation to implement prescription drug databases but don’t have the money to make it happen.

Dr. Kloth thinks these statewide databases should be implemented nationally: “We live in a highly mobile world. It’s too easy for a patient to go to other places and get medication. And these programs need to be interconnected, so a doctor can look at information from all states.”

Dr. Kloth points out that money shouldn’t be an obstacle. The amount of money saved in Medicaid costs for prescription drugs that shouldn’t be prescribed would more than cover the cost of administration of a database. Dr. Kloth describes the results of the prescription drug database in his state: “We have one of these monitoring programs in Connecticut. It costs under $300,000 for the year to administrate. We saved $600,000 on medications last year.”

Fighting Prescription Drug Addiction with Prescription Drug Rehab

If you or someone you care about has developed an addiction to prescription painkillers, anti-anxiety medications, or stimulant pills, take matters into your own hands and find a prescription drug rehab that can help. Contact us today to find out more about how we can help you here at Orchid Recovery Center.

The restrictions have been coming down around the country: prescription drug addiction is a huge problem and authorities are cracking down by implementing statewide prescription drug databases and putting the screws to prescribing physicians. Countless lawsuits have been filed by families and states against doctors who prescribe medications in situations where the patient ends up dying of a pill overdose – and doctors are getting cautious. Many are even cutting back on their practice or avoidant of patients claiming chronic pain issues. And now, a group of 125 doctors have gone straight to Capitol Hill to ask Congress to take measures that are actually helpful and put in place to protect the patient against the development of prescription drug addiction rather than running off the doctors who are genuinely attempting to prioritize patient care.

How Do Doctors Think Congress Should Fight Prescription Drug Addiction?

More than 30,000 people in the United States died of a drug overdose last year, and about 15,000 of those deaths were caused by prescription drug overdose.  Doctors are suggesting that what is needed is not necessarily stricter legal repercussions when an overdose occurs but more training for doctors to better prevent overdoses from happening in the first place.

Dr. David Kloth is a spokesman for the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians. He says: “In most cases, doctors contribute innocently because they haven’t been trained properly on how to prescribe in a responsible way, how to identify a drug addict and help them.”

According to Kloth, between 80 percent and 90 percent of American doctors have not training that can help them identify drug addiction or help patients prevent it from happening. A simple certification class that is routine in other circumstances would be appropriate in the case of pain management and the dispensation of prescription drugs.

What are the Benefits of Mandatory Prescription Drug Addiction Training for Doctors

Says Dr. Kloth: “Physicians won’t do this voluntarily. If we don’t have this in some way required, we won’t be able to solve this problem fully. This is now the No. 1 cause of accidental death in 20 out of 50 states, surpassing motor vehicle accidents for the first time. This is a very widespread problem and it needs to be addressed.”

Though currently able to legally prescribe drugs, many doctors don’t take into account the dangers that come with prescriptions that are too large or last too long. For example, many doctors will write a prescription for the standard 30 pills to treat acute pain after an injury or surgery when 7-days’ worth will be more than sufficient.

Check in for Part II and get more details about what proper training would entail and how it would help patients avoid prescription drug addiction.

Nice, polite, unassuming – Dwight Gooden is nothing like most of the “celebs” that show up on Dr. Drew’s Celebrity Rehab reality TV show on VH1. Once one of the best pitchers in baseball, Gooden has spent the last 20 years not playing for the NY Mets but fighting his way through five stints in drug rehab and almost no time – outside of rehab – spent completely sober.

Gooden lists cocaine, Ambien, and alcohol as his drugs of choice, but cocaine was definitely what has plagued him the most. It was a problem with that drug in 1985 that first caused him to be suspended, first for a couple of months and then for an entire season. It was also the drug that he tested positive for when he first arrived at the Pasadena Recovery Center on the show.

Alongside a number of actors, the father of an actor, a drummer, and an ex-con-slash-porn-star, Gooden spent three weeks in rehab in front of the cameras. When it was all over, he talked to ESPN about his experiences. Unlike others in the program, he didn’t try to leave or have any dramatic episodes. At one point, a friend of his visits and says something about breaking him out, but that’s about it. Climbing on the roof, participating in screaming fights, sobbing hysterically, or threatening to/ actually breaking out – all that he leaves to others in the programs.

Says Gooden: “I’m very happy now. At 46, I’m still learning about myself, but I am getting more comfortable in my skin. Fans have always been supportive of me, and it brings back memories each time I go out to the ballparks to think about all those great accomplishments.

“I’m just blessed to be here these days. It’s a good feeling. I have two boys in high school who are playing sports and I get to give back to them. That’s a good feeling.”

As far as his plans for the future, Gooden hopes to open a baseball academy in Newark, New Jersey, and teach kids how to play the sport.

Although he’s gone to rehab six times now, spent time in prison, lost his career, and endangered his child due to his continued cocaine addiction and prescription drug addiction, Gooden’s spirits are high and he remains hopeful. It’s a good lesson to learn from: no matter how much you feel like you’ve lost due to drug addiction or how long you’ve spent fighting to be drug-free, tomorrow is a new day and it could bring with it another great opportunity in recovery.