Wall Street fights for Pfizer and other drug cartel profits. USDA fights for poor nutrition and the Food Mafia's power. U.S. Military fights to keep the poppy fields going and the heroin flowing. Congress fights to keep the insurance industry beyond profitable.
Lots of fighting
Lots of fighting
16
Rick Scott may qualify as one of the most corrupt and fraudulent lawmakers in the country. He should be personally ashamed of himself. What a farce.
17
This is a travesty perpetrated on some of the most vulnerable people in our country. Addicts are ill, not evil.
I ran a 34 bed halfway house in New Haven as well as treatment programs before and after that. We strictly checked on an irregular basis every person's belongings to keep drugs and alcohol out of the house. If someone had contraband, they were removed from the house the same day so as to not expose others to that person's use of drugs and alcohol. Not perfect, but most had family to go to if they had to. Most wanted to be clean and sober.
We offered counseling, job placement and other social services. Good food helped to undo the damage people who ignore nutrition had done to their bodies. A weekly AA meeting in-house, which many former residents also attended, helped our men find a sober model. AA offer sober friendships and a link to a sober network for when people left us.
At the time, most of the staff had experienced addiction in themselves or family members. I was one of the few who had not.
Our program was required to be licensed, both for the physical facility and the counseling program. Counselors were expected to be certified. This is a much better model than the "sober homes" described in this article.
A true sober home must have the same programs I described above, with an understanding of multi-drug use. Delray must get its law on the books now.
I ran a 34 bed halfway house in New Haven as well as treatment programs before and after that. We strictly checked on an irregular basis every person's belongings to keep drugs and alcohol out of the house. If someone had contraband, they were removed from the house the same day so as to not expose others to that person's use of drugs and alcohol. Not perfect, but most had family to go to if they had to. Most wanted to be clean and sober.
We offered counseling, job placement and other social services. Good food helped to undo the damage people who ignore nutrition had done to their bodies. A weekly AA meeting in-house, which many former residents also attended, helped our men find a sober model. AA offer sober friendships and a link to a sober network for when people left us.
At the time, most of the staff had experienced addiction in themselves or family members. I was one of the few who had not.
Our program was required to be licensed, both for the physical facility and the counseling program. Counselors were expected to be certified. This is a much better model than the "sober homes" described in this article.
A true sober home must have the same programs I described above, with an understanding of multi-drug use. Delray must get its law on the books now.
14
What an opening. If you want to write literature, you are in the wrong job.
3
The Florida scams have been well known by addiction treatment professionals for decades. They lure addicts with free airfare and a trip to Florida. After forty years running a non profit, licensed, accredited treatment program for indigent addicts, I witnessed the appalling lack of government financial support for legitimate, clinically sound programs resulting in the demise of what once was a model multi modality treatment drug treatment delivery system in NJ. The government "cubicle clowns" set about to dictate program changes to short cut effective methods for treating addicts replacing them with no treatment instead sending them from jail to sober homes to save money . Many addicts can recover if given the time, structured and consistent daily living experiences with full accountability for behaviors and attitudes in a residential environment. Opiate addiction cannot be treated effectively on an outpatient basis from well meaning mental health professionals who view addicts as victims or unscrupulous program operators who will do anything for a dollar sacrificing addicts opportunity for sobriety. Addicts are very clever and manipulative, they know how to play both games.
Medicaid funding will only fuel the fire for fraudulent billing abuses and revolving door admissions. Grant funding to programs with a full partnership of state and program professionals is the only way to treat addiction effectively, efficiently and save lives. There is no short cut.
Medicaid funding will only fuel the fire for fraudulent billing abuses and revolving door admissions. Grant funding to programs with a full partnership of state and program professionals is the only way to treat addiction effectively, efficiently and save lives. There is no short cut.
5
you bet Scott freed up 27 million so these drug farms can contribute to his reelection. typical republican greed. shut the damn things down. they will move to another state and destroy a new community.
2
There is nothing "new" here. That the NYT or, more accurately, this one likely young writer, perceives this exploitation as 'new' is itself an old story. To many in the community of long term abstinence (20 years clean AND sober), the term used for such is 'Spin Dry'. There are tons of 'em. Still always comes down to desire, willingness, and honesty.
2
This shows how slerotic well-intentioned federal programs are. Nothing can be done about the crooked sober homes because of federal laws that in effect shield them. That is insane.
3
Florida: a state in which millions have been made and lost and remade as generations build dreams upon the sinking foundation of swampland. If there's a hustle or scam or plot, it has been or will be attempted. Around my area, it's been a trifecta of hucksters: sober house operators, halfway house operators, and low-income/homeless housing "providers," a term I use loosely since what they've provided has been substandard at best. Think crime-ridden neighborhoods, cockroach and rat infestations, leaky roofs, filthy water, conditions not fit for a dog, let alone a child. Meanwhile, the operators continue to move from one scam to the next, starting up under another name if they are, miraculously, shut down by authorities - not an easy thing to do; usually the shutdown happens when press coverage and local awareness grows too noisy for the city or state to ignore.
There will always be scammers, cheaters, and opportunists among us. But Florida has always provided a uniquely fertile landscape for them, and the state's allergy to regulation of any kind means that there's always another opportunity for the weak, vulnerable, needy, ill, or naive to be preyed upon by someone determined enough to do so.
There will always be scammers, cheaters, and opportunists among us. But Florida has always provided a uniquely fertile landscape for them, and the state's allergy to regulation of any kind means that there's always another opportunity for the weak, vulnerable, needy, ill, or naive to be preyed upon by someone determined enough to do so.
5
The relentless scolding here of those of us who look at reality by those who don't is pretty much why Trump won and Republicans just took three special elections.
Salvation comes from within. That doesn't mean people don't need help and shouldn't be offered it. But the addict must want to get clean. That desire can*t be poured in by desperate parents or the criminal justice system or a legion of therapists--many of whom aren't all that tightly wrapped themselves.
Meanwhile, addicts are birthing or fathering the next generation at a terrifying rate, and the parents who did fairly poorly at raising their own kids are now grandparents to the even more damaged.
How*s that working out for everyone?
I have learned, in another context but also in the realm of providing services to the needy, that the needy must convincingly demonstrate their desire for help and their ability to use it productively, or you*re throwing your heart and your money down the drain.
Too many of us have seen the lives ravaged by those who care only for the next fix or the next drink. Compassion shouldn*t be wasted on those who can*t take advantage of the gift.
Salvation comes from within. That doesn't mean people don't need help and shouldn't be offered it. But the addict must want to get clean. That desire can*t be poured in by desperate parents or the criminal justice system or a legion of therapists--many of whom aren't all that tightly wrapped themselves.
Meanwhile, addicts are birthing or fathering the next generation at a terrifying rate, and the parents who did fairly poorly at raising their own kids are now grandparents to the even more damaged.
How*s that working out for everyone?
I have learned, in another context but also in the realm of providing services to the needy, that the needy must convincingly demonstrate their desire for help and their ability to use it productively, or you*re throwing your heart and your money down the drain.
Too many of us have seen the lives ravaged by those who care only for the next fix or the next drink. Compassion shouldn*t be wasted on those who can*t take advantage of the gift.
10
The profit motive is high for these facilities so what is their incentive to cure when relapses mean return business and higher profits? California beach cities are overrun with these facilities who advertise their locations and amenities as if they were luxury vacations. Cities are not allowed to regulate them and they get around the size restrictions by clustering multiple homes together, literally taking over some neighborhoods. If they were really having an impact on the problem I would not object, but they have such high relapse rates that they are successful only in enriching the owners. We have get serious about addressing this problem - these need to be not for profit facilities with strict oversight on treatment protocols.
6
Lots of earnest compassion expressed here for the addicts but little genuine understanding of the swath of destruction they leave in their wake.
It is of course true that far too many of them are the products of failed parents who may themselves have been the products of failed parents. Grandpa/grandma was an alcoholic, dad/mom drink a bit--and especially pre-conception and in the early weeks, and the kids are on heroin.
And then the parents--now grandparents themselves--are raising a new generation doomed to a lifetime of failure--poor attention spans, no impulse control, special ed till they drop out/get arrested etc. etc.
Knowing where it all comes from doesn't lessen the devastation--especially to innocent bystanders run over by drunks, hurt in muggings, killed in robberies gone worse than intended.
Medics on the battlefield and doctors in the ER know you've got to perform triage or you lose the ones you might have actually saved.
It is of course true that far too many of them are the products of failed parents who may themselves have been the products of failed parents. Grandpa/grandma was an alcoholic, dad/mom drink a bit--and especially pre-conception and in the early weeks, and the kids are on heroin.
And then the parents--now grandparents themselves--are raising a new generation doomed to a lifetime of failure--poor attention spans, no impulse control, special ed till they drop out/get arrested etc. etc.
Knowing where it all comes from doesn't lessen the devastation--especially to innocent bystanders run over by drunks, hurt in muggings, killed in robberies gone worse than intended.
Medics on the battlefield and doctors in the ER know you've got to perform triage or you lose the ones you might have actually saved.
7
typical of Florida..a state that never wants to regulate anything out of fear of making people unhappy. still legal to ride a motorcycle without a helmet, talk on a cellphone while driving and have ridiculous loopholes for residents' taxes.
8
Sorry, but as the article shows, it is federal law that is the biggest obstacle to cracking down on the sober homes.
4
I guess this is one of the reasons my health insurance premiums are through the roof. This is, once again, an example of providers in a cozy relationship with insurance companies doing their best to extract resources for profit. Happily, those resources are no longer people suffering from the expected maladies but addicts as well (created by providers and pharmaceuticals, BTW). A country eating itself. Vile beyond words.
6
Drug dependence is recognized as a health issue but unlike in hospitals and long term care facilities, the owners and staff in sober houses don't seem to need any skills, experience, or credentials to operate a sober house. The owners and staff of these places don't know what they are doing but even worse the state and federal governments don't hold these places accountable.
4
We do a terrible job with institutional care. The track record is awful and families are also unsuccessful in keeping addicts at home
I don't know what the answers are other than don't start because it is really hard to stop and there are no good solutions
I don't know what the answers are other than don't start because it is really hard to stop and there are no good solutions
2
This article is misleading.."Loaded" descriptions pass as explanations.They are not.Consider:Treatment can be defined as a planned, goal directed, multi-dimensional change process, over time, of necessary appropriateness, quality, conditions and inner/outer resources, .It is associated in the drug use area with ideological- stakeholders;professional,tradition,mutual-help( AA,NA, etc.) and self-help models.There are no unique models or techniques (words, medicines, etc.) used with the diverse substance users-of whatever types-which aren't also used with non-substance users.Whether a technique is indicated, contraindicated,relevant or even harmful, and what are its selection underpinnings (theory,tradition,facts, etc.) is a key treatment issue.Drug use, recently "diseased,"wasn't for millennia.In addition to an abstinence goal there are new ideologies;"harm reduction,Quality of Life and well being models.Each "belief" has its own goals and criteria for success and failure.Treatment is occurs in many environments;in pt./out pt.,residential and in controlled environments ( jails, prisons,army bases). "Sober house"is a site to be assessed like any other place."Change agents" include a diversity of professionals, non professionals as well as unprofessionals who differ in relevant treatment levels/qualities of knowledge, and experiences.Both are rarely noted.The use, misuse, non-use of drugs are part of our history. As is “relapse:” returning to previous problematic behaviors.
Glendale, Az is also ground zero for sober homes. No trained personnel, no support, no accountability. This has become a money making machine on the backs of dead and sick Americans. It is a national shame and needs to stop. Regulation must be put in place. For once, will Congress put people over profits?
6
Trump directly addressed the opioid and other drug problems in his campaign. Hillary ignored them completely. Why?
Trump addressed young people in some of his rallies, told them to raise their hands and recite: "I will not use drugs and take it easy on the alcohol". A little corny? Maybe. I think it added a few more electoral votes for Trump.
On the other hand, almost all of us know of families where this a a problem. It resonated with people that finally someone is addressing this head on.
Build a wall to help keep out drugs-the Left twists this into a "hate Mexicans" tirade. Get tough on criminals and drug dealers-the Left says that's "heartless" and we're better off being cop-haters.
Trump is addressing the opioid problem, but the media loves to hammer these efforts.
Hollywood does not help by glamorizing drugs. How many times have we heard celebrities on talk shows discuss their drug use in "humorous" terms? Any given time it seems about 1/3 of Hollywood is in rehab, but they try to convince us they're political experts and somehow they're about "values".
If Scott Pelley can blame (and he did) Rep Scalise's shooting on Scalise himself, then Hollywood must take much blame for our nation's drug epidemic.
Trump addressed young people in some of his rallies, told them to raise their hands and recite: "I will not use drugs and take it easy on the alcohol". A little corny? Maybe. I think it added a few more electoral votes for Trump.
On the other hand, almost all of us know of families where this a a problem. It resonated with people that finally someone is addressing this head on.
Build a wall to help keep out drugs-the Left twists this into a "hate Mexicans" tirade. Get tough on criminals and drug dealers-the Left says that's "heartless" and we're better off being cop-haters.
Trump is addressing the opioid problem, but the media loves to hammer these efforts.
Hollywood does not help by glamorizing drugs. How many times have we heard celebrities on talk shows discuss their drug use in "humorous" terms? Any given time it seems about 1/3 of Hollywood is in rehab, but they try to convince us they're political experts and somehow they're about "values".
If Scott Pelley can blame (and he did) Rep Scalise's shooting on Scalise himself, then Hollywood must take much blame for our nation's drug epidemic.
6
The problem of advertising drugs is, I think, one which more profoundly is generated by the drug industry, and television advertisements. Some day, when you have the time, leave your TV on during the day, and count the number of ads for drugs. Do they not all, cumulatively, advertise that one can have a pain free/problem free/stress free life by taking a pill? Is it really possible to live such a life? I don't think so. And I think it is patently obvious that the drug industry goes to great lengths to convince us all that we can and should attempt to lead such lives. And when it becomes "stressful" (to use a PC term) to deal with a life that requires effort and self development, is not the drug industry there, "reaching out" (to use another useless PC term!) to tell us that there are pills available for virtually every human difficulty?
3
Please show us where Trump is addressing addiction issues. If that's the case, why are so many who have been affected by opioid abuse - personally or in their profession - disillusioned by his failure to act and by the GOP healthcare legislation that will devastate efforts to treat addiction? No wall-building will eradicate this. It's the *need* that has to be solved...because the market is doing what markets do: meeting a need.
And Clinton did address addiction issues. As usual, the attention was on whatever crazy thing Trump said next at his rallies. She'd be standing there giving a substantive speech, and the camera, if it was even there, would cut away to an airplane hangar full of people waiting for the Trump jet to appear.
By the way, if you'd like to know a better place to which one can trace the prevalence of opioid addiction, don't bother looking to Hollywood, that convenient bogeyman. Look instead of the nationwide overprescription of opioids and reliance upon them by physicians both well-intentioned and not. Look instead to how America consumes more opioid painkillers than anyone else. Look instead to "pill mills" and resistance to prescription monitoring databases. Look instead to our overall cultural attitude of seeking a pill to fix something that might be better treated with non-drug care.
Or just blame Clinton, liberals, and Hollywood.
And Clinton did address addiction issues. As usual, the attention was on whatever crazy thing Trump said next at his rallies. She'd be standing there giving a substantive speech, and the camera, if it was even there, would cut away to an airplane hangar full of people waiting for the Trump jet to appear.
By the way, if you'd like to know a better place to which one can trace the prevalence of opioid addiction, don't bother looking to Hollywood, that convenient bogeyman. Look instead of the nationwide overprescription of opioids and reliance upon them by physicians both well-intentioned and not. Look instead to how America consumes more opioid painkillers than anyone else. Look instead to "pill mills" and resistance to prescription monitoring databases. Look instead to our overall cultural attitude of seeking a pill to fix something that might be better treated with non-drug care.
Or just blame Clinton, liberals, and Hollywood.
16
Actions speak louder than words.
Not nearly enough credit in this article for Dave Aronberg and the task force cracking down on the "sober houses". Dave has made progress by taking on this enormous problem. Junkies love South Florida because of the weather and relative freedom of a beach environment so there are tons of rehabs. Hopefully the sober homes will be stopped so these people will go home after rehab and not stay to start the cycle all over again.
10
I second that, Dave has made more progress with his task force (PBSO, etc.) than almost any other elected official (including Gov. Scott). There have been more arrests and more federal convictions in the last year than the last prior 5 years. I'm hoping it will send a message to the new operators that this cash cow has sailed but who knows.
3
Our nation is sinking in its own morass of moral bankruptcy. From our corrupt president to the corrupt Republican Congress, to our so-called entrepreneurs, the only issue that matters is lining one's own pocket, no matter the cost to others.
Republicans and the president want to gut health care so that addicts like these are on the streets instead of in treatment, and they won't take any action to prevent the kind of abuse addicts often suffer. Instead, they want to provide outrageous tax cuts to those who don't need them.
The only kinds of people who can do this are those who are morally bankrupt and corrupt. They claim to be "Christians," but they do not follow Christian teachings; they even have the backing of several large evangelical movements, who are also not Christian.
If you were a legislator, could you look yourself in the mirror every morning without shame? I think not.
Republicans and the president want to gut health care so that addicts like these are on the streets instead of in treatment, and they won't take any action to prevent the kind of abuse addicts often suffer. Instead, they want to provide outrageous tax cuts to those who don't need them.
The only kinds of people who can do this are those who are morally bankrupt and corrupt. They claim to be "Christians," but they do not follow Christian teachings; they even have the backing of several large evangelical movements, who are also not Christian.
If you were a legislator, could you look yourself in the mirror every morning without shame? I think not.
9
I'm a recovering addict; over 30 years. I've been so very fortunate; overdosing and ending up in an ER so many times, I cannot remember.
Over 30 years ago I took a drug named "Numorphan" (oxymorphone hydrochloride). They were blue tablets, easily injectible, and came in strong dosages. The tablets were FDA approved in 1959 and banned in 1979. The liquid injectible was not banned, as they were not close to the strength of the tablets. 1 pill taken intravenously would kill you. Hard core junkies were afraid to inject 1/2 a tablet. I did this about 3 times. I thought a freight train hit me. You could never get the needle out of your arm before it hit you.
A few years ago, the same drug is now being marketed by Endo Pharmaceuticals under the trade name "Opana". They are time released. Endo donates millions of $$ to Superpacs and lobbyists in Washington, DC. It's "Pay to Play".
I know Fentanyl is getting many headlines (and the rightly); however, this drug is the strongest I have ever taken; I should be dead.
I moved to NYC (after I got clean) in 1988, and moved back home (Louisiana) last year. Almost every single person I knew back then is now dead and most died before they hit 40. I am 63 years old. When I moved to NYC I left behind hundreds of friends; several I loved dearly.
All are dead, with the exception of 4.
This is not a war story; I am simply stating how powerful the drug is, and why Opana should either be banned again, or we should legalize all drugs; period.
Over 30 years ago I took a drug named "Numorphan" (oxymorphone hydrochloride). They were blue tablets, easily injectible, and came in strong dosages. The tablets were FDA approved in 1959 and banned in 1979. The liquid injectible was not banned, as they were not close to the strength of the tablets. 1 pill taken intravenously would kill you. Hard core junkies were afraid to inject 1/2 a tablet. I did this about 3 times. I thought a freight train hit me. You could never get the needle out of your arm before it hit you.
A few years ago, the same drug is now being marketed by Endo Pharmaceuticals under the trade name "Opana". They are time released. Endo donates millions of $$ to Superpacs and lobbyists in Washington, DC. It's "Pay to Play".
I know Fentanyl is getting many headlines (and the rightly); however, this drug is the strongest I have ever taken; I should be dead.
I moved to NYC (after I got clean) in 1988, and moved back home (Louisiana) last year. Almost every single person I knew back then is now dead and most died before they hit 40. I am 63 years old. When I moved to NYC I left behind hundreds of friends; several I loved dearly.
All are dead, with the exception of 4.
This is not a war story; I am simply stating how powerful the drug is, and why Opana should either be banned again, or we should legalize all drugs; period.
11
thank you and good luck !
Single-payer, instead of the travesty being cooked up in the Senate right now.
5
These people don't have the mental strength to get through a day on their own without drugs, weak and useless, I have no sympathy for people like this.
Addiction isn't a mental illness, or any other kind, it's simply people that want to escape responsibility and the life and put very little to no effort in.
Let them go.
Addiction isn't a mental illness, or any other kind, it's simply people that want to escape responsibility and the life and put very little to no effort in.
Let them go.
3
What a horrible response. Addiction is a *disease.* Drinking and/or drug use can and does change a person's brain. Have you ever watched someone you love or care for descend into addiction? Do you have any idea how different they can become? People who were previously quite average - working full-time, paying their bills, providing for a family they love - can be utterly destroyed. Sometimes all it takes is an injury - perhaps on the job, perhaps in a car accident - that leaves them in need of physical rehabilitation and suffering from terrible pain. Doctors, with perfectly good intentions, prescribe medication to assist the patient as he or she deals with the acute and chronic pain. For some people, especially those whose brain chemistry just seems to be more responsive to the "high" and the rapid increase in physical need for it, physical dependence can happen so quickly it's like whiplash. It can warp their brains and bodies to such a degree that they behave in unthinkable ways in order to satisfy an eternally unfulfilled craving. If you wake up and need coffee to start the day right, take that "need" and magnify it by a million to have an inkling of addiction.
An attitude like yours is destructive and has helped lead to the problems we have in treating addiction as a moral failure rather than a disease requiring treatment. It's not "mental strength." Addiction is a physical and mental problem - and BOTH must be treated.
An attitude like yours is destructive and has helped lead to the problems we have in treating addiction as a moral failure rather than a disease requiring treatment. It's not "mental strength." Addiction is a physical and mental problem - and BOTH must be treated.
8
thank you for being so frank about the GOP health care plan. need care ? just die !
6
Insurance fraud is rampant in the US, especially in Florida. Medicare and Medicaid fraud is abysmal. But this is the saddest story I've read in a while. To take advantage of a group of people so vulnerable and so in need of help and trust is beyond criminal. The greed of humans knows no bounds.
5
i wish we could identify who is comitting the fraud. the medical establishment (yes, including MDs) has a lot to answer for.
1
Perhaps if the successses from the obsession to regulate and shut down clinics where so many women receive healthcare was directed toward our national opioids epidemic we would have a chance to solve this national nightmare and the ever increasing body count would stand a chance to slow.
4
I couldn't agree more. If Florida alone redirected its efforts and money dedicated to ending Planned Parenthood and women's reproductive rights in general, and instead applied some of those "TRAP" law standards to treatment facilities and sober houses, addicts would receive far better care and we could begin to see major improvement in a whole range of satellite issues like crime, homelessness, etc.
3
Treat 'em and street 'em is not working.
1
A not insignificant factor in chronic drug addiction is the fear of extended withdrawal (days, weeks, not hours). If that misery was eliminated, far more addicts would be able to stop. At least for a time long enough to address whatever issues lead to their addiction.
There is an existing FDA approved addiction treatment drug, Naltrexone, when taken concurrently with an opioid, avoids the misery of withdrawal. (In daily doses of less than 1 mg, NOT the standard FDA approved 50 mg dose). As Ntx is cheaply available as a generic, there's little incentive in the professional treatment community to promote it.
For more info on how Ntx works see Simo's Experience here: http://forumdiaspora.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=10
There is an existing FDA approved addiction treatment drug, Naltrexone, when taken concurrently with an opioid, avoids the misery of withdrawal. (In daily doses of less than 1 mg, NOT the standard FDA approved 50 mg dose). As Ntx is cheaply available as a generic, there's little incentive in the professional treatment community to promote it.
For more info on how Ntx works see Simo's Experience here: http://forumdiaspora.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=10
4
GHL: Even cheaper, and already validated by actual real scientific studies, is high-dose vitamin C administered orally every hour, and then intravenously so the patient can receive continuous 24-hour treatment during sleep periods. Successful withdrawal without misery has been achieved this way within 48 hours of beginning the vitamin C therapy.
But there*s no profit in this mode of treatment. Financial, I mean. The value to real human beings and their families and loved ones would be, of course, incalculable...
But there*s no profit in this mode of treatment. Financial, I mean. The value to real human beings and their families and loved ones would be, of course, incalculable...
4
Actually very Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) is, or can be, lower than 10 cents a day. Hard to see any treatment cheaper than that. Of course, Vit C may be a better option faster if one is quitting "cold turkey".
Ntx works more like a "tapering off" model.
Ntx works more like a "tapering off" model.
1
I spent a decade there. Delray is a spill over from affluent Boca Raton, just to the south. They would put up discriminatory requirements to keep their problem out of site. Delray should not be using that excuse, but real estate needs commissions.
This is the failure of "The War on Drugs". This is the product of the Mexican cartels, just across the border who have replaced the marijuana fields with poppy fields to satisfy the appetites of the young white middle class in America. The same cartels who have murdered countless journalists in Mexico, and who the USA largely ignores.
3
Moral corruption in America is pervasive, so this situation is no surprise. In that country, if you can't monetize something, it has no value. Addicts are simply a business opportunity.
14
As I write this, a few select Republican senators and staffers are meeting in secret to determine the fate of Americans' health care. I have worried over little else since the House, by the narrowest of margins, passed one of the most onerous and cruel of health care laws that anyone could possibly have imagined.
I've read statistics that indicate nearly two-thirds of our 330 million citizens may suffer from diabetes, cancer, heart disease, stroke, arthritis, back and spine problems, and dozens of other illnesses at any given point in their lifetimes.
I had genuinely thought the Obama Affordable Care Act was a major first step in ensuring that we, as citizens, would not go broke in the process of tackling those illnesses.
My insurance plan, under ACA, covers alcohol and drug addiction and treatment. But when I read the addiction statistics from opiates and heroin in this country I get very mad. And while I'm not unsympathetic to those afflicted, the pragmatic side of me is furious that I may end up paying far more in insurance coverage for future illnesses that are part of my DNA, such as cancer, in large part because of the proliferation of a drug epidemic in this country.
So forgive me if I don't cry a river for those who are addicted. Instead, I am furious at all the profiteers (including Governor Scott), insurance companies, and heartless Republicans who are so willing to pull the plug on millions of Americans suffering from illnesses not of their choosing.
I've read statistics that indicate nearly two-thirds of our 330 million citizens may suffer from diabetes, cancer, heart disease, stroke, arthritis, back and spine problems, and dozens of other illnesses at any given point in their lifetimes.
I had genuinely thought the Obama Affordable Care Act was a major first step in ensuring that we, as citizens, would not go broke in the process of tackling those illnesses.
My insurance plan, under ACA, covers alcohol and drug addiction and treatment. But when I read the addiction statistics from opiates and heroin in this country I get very mad. And while I'm not unsympathetic to those afflicted, the pragmatic side of me is furious that I may end up paying far more in insurance coverage for future illnesses that are part of my DNA, such as cancer, in large part because of the proliferation of a drug epidemic in this country.
So forgive me if I don't cry a river for those who are addicted. Instead, I am furious at all the profiteers (including Governor Scott), insurance companies, and heartless Republicans who are so willing to pull the plug on millions of Americans suffering from illnesses not of their choosing.
12
Addiction is an illness just like the other terrible afflictions you mention. More love and understanding is what we need, less pure greed, pitting the average people against one another.
4
Oh? While I knew people CHOOSE self-destructive behaviors that lead to addiction and often to death, I was not aware that anyone CHOSE to get prostate/kidney/brain cancer, or Polio, or malaria, or spinal rheumatoid arthritis..... Thank you for pointing out that drug addition is an illness like all others.
2
Spending more money on the 'epidemic' will only make it worse. You can't treat it because it's not a disease, and you can't prosecute it because the crime is minor. Instead - need to take money out. Let people do drugs - the ironic thing is that outcomes improve with *less* intervention despite what the industry tells you.
4
Addiction is a mental illness and needs to be viewed and treated as such. But once again, profit needs to be removed from the equation. I am not an expert in addiction but I know when people no longer feel a sense of hope or opportunity for their future. When education and hardwork no longer offer a path to a better life, what's left ? The issue with our healthcare system is blatantly obvious, greed and exploitation rule every decision. Lack of oversight and regulation fuel the fire. A health care public trust is the only solution. I live in Palm Beach County. It's a microcosm of everything that's wrong with America - grotesque income inequality, lack of opportunity and growth for the average person, an out of touch common criminal as govenor. It's just not surprising to me that the addiction/recovery industry landed on our doorstep. As a community, a state and a nation, we need to chose the solutions that are morally correct. We are not doing that.... It's hard not to extrapolate that the increase in drug addiction is a response to this phenomena. Yet our citizens continue to vote against their best interests. I just don't get it
11
The great question is why are so many people using and seeking the most powerful euphoric drugs to the degree never seen before? [Hint: this would be a rhetorical question.]
2
If people use heroin they take the risk that they will overdose and die. I don't know why the state invests resources in reviving people who have a death wish. Sounds harsh, but let them die.
11
Not surprised that this happened where it did. Florida's Republican governor Rick Scott is notorious for having taken part in a notorious medical scam. Years ago, the company he headed - Columbia/HCA - defrauded state and local governments and had to pay a fine of over $1.7 billion.
16
Yes, I would normally be thrilled that Scott's current term as governor will be his last. Except then I remember that he's virtually certain to go after Bill Nelson's Senate seat. If I'm stuck with him beyond 2018 I may lose my mind.
2
If we eliminate/cure/or able to effectively treat influenza, AIDS, polio, develop surgeries to repair/replace defective hearts, kidneys, such things as proton radiation to cure/treat cancers, etc. -- the idea of natural population control evaporates, and the planet quickly becomes terribly overcrowded, and unlivable for a great many people. Perhaps such man-made disasters as famine, overpopulation, disease, etc., are coming - as a form of logical evolution - to be replaced by drug overdoses. The increase in such overdoses effectively becomes a developing method of population control.
5
Well, here is my solution. Vote Democratic, accept progressive steps to curb drug usage and save your life. Vote Republican and let them deregulate every process for protecting and saving lives so that producers can make and sell drugs profitably without government interference.
43
I don't buy it. The opioid problem increased dramatically under President Obama and the Democratic congress. The article even cites Obamacare as one of the factors fueling the poorly run shelters. Don't blame the Republicans. Opioid addiction is an equal opportunity problem.
8
Yet another consequence of our closing of state sanitariums in the 70's. We have to get mental health out of the private sector, profit or non-profit. These individuals need care and relief. Submitting that need to any kind of commercial incentive will result in this. Just open rehab farming communities on public lands in each state. Free of cost, you do farm chores everyday, and plenty of therapy and care, and you can stay until you are free of the demon.
21
That's not the answer. Publicly-funded mental institutions were shuttered due to evidence of widespread neglect and abuse of patients, including forced labor. Any time you segregate people in isolated facilities subject to meager public funding you produce human rights violations, not bucolic havens. See the documentaries "Titicut Follies" about MA's Bridgewater facility or "I Go Home" about the Pennhurst institution in PA. We don't want to go back to that.
6
In his 1953 book, Man's Search For Himself, wrote Rollo May, an existential psychologist: The human being cannot live in a condition of emptiness for long: if he is not growing toward something, he does not merely stagnate; the pent-up potentialities turn into morbidity and despair, and eventually into destructive activities.
Human have used substances (alcohol, tobacco,and drugs) for millennia to alleviate their pain of life. What is different in today's affluent societies is not the pain of suffering as much as the pain of not knowing what for this life. For this we need a paradigm shift in our thinking to help us make sense of the life we still have to live even though we do not have to get up and work to earn money for food or shelter. With increasing inequality and experiments with free minimum income, such problems will only multiply.
Human have used substances (alcohol, tobacco,and drugs) for millennia to alleviate their pain of life. What is different in today's affluent societies is not the pain of suffering as much as the pain of not knowing what for this life. For this we need a paradigm shift in our thinking to help us make sense of the life we still have to live even though we do not have to get up and work to earn money for food or shelter. With increasing inequality and experiments with free minimum income, such problems will only multiply.
15
I haven't seen anyone comment on it yet, but this is probably one reason why Obamacare is imploding: the young, that desirable demographic all insurers should want in their pool of insured, aren't as healthy as they used to be. In fact, many have health problems, such as substance abuse, that cost insurers more, over a long period of time, than older unhealthy people.
How do you put together a reasonably priced health insurance plan when virtually no one in the pool is very healthy?!
How do you put together a reasonably priced health insurance plan when virtually no one in the pool is very healthy?!
9
Don't blame Obamacare—Blame capitalism & a business that is completely unregulated and full of unethical, unscrupulous operators.
We've seen this movie before—in the 80s & 90s when cocaine was the drug of choice for white Type-A Americans who were covered by employer health insurance plans with extremely generous benefits for in-patient substance-abuse rehab.
Then in the late 80s & 90s, when HMO policies become the norm, coverage for mental healthcare shrunk to almost nothing and drug treatment programs were no longer profitable enterprises. Follow the money—Always.
We've seen this movie before—in the 80s & 90s when cocaine was the drug of choice for white Type-A Americans who were covered by employer health insurance plans with extremely generous benefits for in-patient substance-abuse rehab.
Then in the late 80s & 90s, when HMO policies become the norm, coverage for mental healthcare shrunk to almost nothing and drug treatment programs were no longer profitable enterprises. Follow the money—Always.
13
And the government is paying for it! I live nearby, and even local tv stations are cashing in, playing sleazy, poorly produced ads promoting "drug treatment programs" with fake doctors saying things like "you know you can't go it alone". So many greedy people in this world without an ounce of humanity, waiting to take advantage of other people's misery.
47
Treatment for drug addiction and coverage by insurance should have limited days of inpatient coverage. Young adults need to go home and their parents need to be actively involved in their recovery.
The combination of HIPPA laws and the requirement that insurance provide unlimited coverage for drug addiction was always predicted to create vendors who would treat the rules as a money machine.
people should have the option of purchasing health insurance that does not include treatment for substance abuse. There is zero moral justification for forcing the cost to be socialized. Very little of the treatment has any evidence of effectiveness. It's not science and its not medicine.
The combination of HIPPA laws and the requirement that insurance provide unlimited coverage for drug addiction was always predicted to create vendors who would treat the rules as a money machine.
people should have the option of purchasing health insurance that does not include treatment for substance abuse. There is zero moral justification for forcing the cost to be socialized. Very little of the treatment has any evidence of effectiveness. It's not science and its not medicine.
11
Here's another option: License & regulate these operations in the same way ALL other medical facilities ARE regulated!
12
I wish it were as simple as let the parents take care of it. It's not. After a child turns 18, they are an adult, whether they are mentally impaired or addicted to heroin. Somehow, magically, through the fog of mental illness and addiction (yes they are closely connected), these young adults are supposed to be able to make the right decision. They don't. They make the wrong decision over and over again because their brains don't work. Then they die. And we wonder why. I'll tell you why. It's because in this country we cling to our ideology of personal freedom over proper medical care and regulation of that care. Here's a reminder of what happened when Reagan deinstitutionalized mental care in CA in the 60s: the result was a booming business of for-profit halfway homes. This is what's happening today with the addiction treatment. The treatment should be regulated and involuntary if the patient is deemed mentally incompetent. But today local and state politicians are too afraid to upset the libertarians and the conservative votes. A Florida town can't regulate the treatment industry because they will be sued by the same industry for violating their right to make money. Absurd. Floridian's have a knee jerk reaction to any regulation, which is effectively saying they think the right to make a buck is more important than saving lives. Taxpayers also pay for this failure of government by footing the bill for incarceration. Americans are getting dumber and dumber.
13
If you've ever watched people you love go through inpatient care for addiction, or if you've worked in the field, you'll know that there is no one-size-fits all for treatment. Some do very well under the typical 28 days inpatient followed by months - typically years - of some combination of therapy, meetings, support groups, and medication like suboxone, depending on the type of addiction. Others, however, require 90 days or more of inpatient treatment, followed by a group home/sober house environment and an intensive, perhaps lifelong commitment to frequent meetings and therapy. Often there are underlying dynamics that can determine the level of care required - is mental illness a factor? Physical pain that started the person taking opioid prescription meds in the first place? And sometimes people simply do not have a supportive family or circle of friends. Sometimes they have no one at all except, perhaps, an AA/NA sponsor. And face it: once someone is a legal adult, the best that can be hoped for is for the addict to be Baker Acted, and even then that's just 72 hrs to try and get them into inpatient care.
By the way, there is no "unlimited coverage for drug addiction." Far from it. What there is now vastly improves upon past ins. benefits, but not for a moment is it "unlimited." They can and do refuse to cover a stay if their standard of need isn't met, and they can severely limit the length/amount of benefits as well.
By the way, there is no "unlimited coverage for drug addiction." Far from it. What there is now vastly improves upon past ins. benefits, but not for a moment is it "unlimited." They can and do refuse to cover a stay if their standard of need isn't met, and they can severely limit the length/amount of benefits as well.
2
Florida is (again) in the news for the wrong reasons
19
There will always be profit in other people's misery.
9
I predict that the Republican plan for treating opioid addicts will be to give them posters of Nancy Reagan and her catchphrase.
11
If Jeff Sessions has his way, that's exactly the sort of plan one can expect. That and ramping up already draconian mandatory minimums. I'm anticipating seeing the "This is your brain on drugs" posters and TV ads as well.
1
I'm completely shocked that the guy is blaming addicts for his friends Jail time.
2
Oof. Reading this story makes me so sad.
I was in one of these sober homes is the Delray Beach area in 1999. I stayed for 8 months until I felt stable enough to move back to NY and finish school, and I never looked back. Drugs found there way into the home from time to time, but nothing like what is described here.
I hope the extrapolation from this story is not that the ACA is a problem. Addicts often relapse and hopefully find their way back to treatment. Sometimes it takes a few tries. Some never "get it". Some go on to live full lives. I was in Florida way before the ACA (in the Clinton administration) and had to pay out-of-pocket for everything when my fancy private insurance denied coverage. It was the best investment I ever made, but most do not have that luxury.
I was in one of these sober homes is the Delray Beach area in 1999. I stayed for 8 months until I felt stable enough to move back to NY and finish school, and I never looked back. Drugs found there way into the home from time to time, but nothing like what is described here.
I hope the extrapolation from this story is not that the ACA is a problem. Addicts often relapse and hopefully find their way back to treatment. Sometimes it takes a few tries. Some never "get it". Some go on to live full lives. I was in Florida way before the ACA (in the Clinton administration) and had to pay out-of-pocket for everything when my fancy private insurance denied coverage. It was the best investment I ever made, but most do not have that luxury.
27
Addiction and its impact is complex, yet it can be reduced when the various stakeholders become willing to work cooperatively and educate each other to create a comprehensive plan.
There are a multi faceted plans evolving and being implemented - Kentucky's innovative jail program; drug courts and robust growth in above board, nationally accredited facilities.
The knowledge gap about addiction, treatment, pharmaceutical interventions, prevention and recovery remains profound.
Mandate- yes, specific regulations in the age of erasing them, licensing and national accreditation in order to receive insurance payments and many third payers have instituted that.
The combined effort of educated (not opinionated) legislators who should be clean and sober themselves listening to law enforcement, criminal justice staff, independent healthcare experts, patient families and patients in addition to dissecting how fraud occurs and efficient strategies on how to bust the schemsters (Gov Scott could help with that). Obviously this must occur on the state level as Congress is burdened with many other issues; ironically some proposals to decrease funds for addiction care.
This can be done. As a compliance expert in substance abuse compliance, this is not an insurmountable problem. It is chronic, there will always be addicts but we can stem the tide if only there was true willingness from all stakeholders and legislators.
There are a multi faceted plans evolving and being implemented - Kentucky's innovative jail program; drug courts and robust growth in above board, nationally accredited facilities.
The knowledge gap about addiction, treatment, pharmaceutical interventions, prevention and recovery remains profound.
Mandate- yes, specific regulations in the age of erasing them, licensing and national accreditation in order to receive insurance payments and many third payers have instituted that.
The combined effort of educated (not opinionated) legislators who should be clean and sober themselves listening to law enforcement, criminal justice staff, independent healthcare experts, patient families and patients in addition to dissecting how fraud occurs and efficient strategies on how to bust the schemsters (Gov Scott could help with that). Obviously this must occur on the state level as Congress is burdened with many other issues; ironically some proposals to decrease funds for addiction care.
This can be done. As a compliance expert in substance abuse compliance, this is not an insurmountable problem. It is chronic, there will always be addicts but we can stem the tide if only there was true willingness from all stakeholders and legislators.
3
Any treatment center who gets TAX dollars needs to be watched closely, since scam operations only see dollar $igns and could care less if a client relapses as long as the person lives and they can get their hooks into the person again.
Loop holes in the ACA need to be closed so young adults on their parents insurance with NO limits due to a preexisting conditions, will need to realize that getting off ALL drugs means staying off all drugs because insurance companies and government (taxpayers) cannot afford to pay for preventable problems that the individual doesn't really care about.
It just seems the more these folks get bailed out the more they develop a entitlement mentality which consists of trying to put a guilt trip on public officials if they say no more money, or on citizens who believe in Tough Love and setting boundaries.
Loop holes in the ACA need to be closed so young adults on their parents insurance with NO limits due to a preexisting conditions, will need to realize that getting off ALL drugs means staying off all drugs because insurance companies and government (taxpayers) cannot afford to pay for preventable problems that the individual doesn't really care about.
It just seems the more these folks get bailed out the more they develop a entitlement mentality which consists of trying to put a guilt trip on public officials if they say no more money, or on citizens who believe in Tough Love and setting boundaries.
3
Substance use disorder is a real psychological disorder. "Entitlement mentality" is not. It usually takes more than one shot at treatment for success. Many cancer patients need more than one shot at treatment, too. Do they have an "entitlement mentality" as well?
19
In the movie "Do the Right Thing", I believe, there is a scene in which a White dude sells life insurance to Black families, especially ones with young boys, in a ghetto where life expectancy for young men of color is low due to violence (including police violence). In that scene a mother at the door says to the insurance salesman, "Aren't you ashamed of yourself...makin money off of our pain and misery?"
In a book on food addiction in the US the author wrote about how advertising in the US sells you ice cream to feel good and happy. And when you get fat with ice cream they sell you "pills or weight loss programs" to lose weight. When you lose weight and feel good they sell you cars to "celebrate". And when you go into debt with your cars and cruises they sell you "financial consultants or debt counseling services". When the truth about your life and life in the US makes you depressed they sell you "anti depressants". It is a vicious cycle.
Our Capitalism today does not solve problems (which is strange for a pragmatic or a practical society). We study problems, a thousand different ways, and then try to find the best way to exploit problems for profits.
We don't prevent or cure diseases anymore...not even in medicine. We like sick people to "manage" with a huge pharmacy and other "management techniques or technologies"
America creates problems, pain and misery...and then tries to make a buck, or even profits, from them.
In a book on food addiction in the US the author wrote about how advertising in the US sells you ice cream to feel good and happy. And when you get fat with ice cream they sell you "pills or weight loss programs" to lose weight. When you lose weight and feel good they sell you cars to "celebrate". And when you go into debt with your cars and cruises they sell you "financial consultants or debt counseling services". When the truth about your life and life in the US makes you depressed they sell you "anti depressants". It is a vicious cycle.
Our Capitalism today does not solve problems (which is strange for a pragmatic or a practical society). We study problems, a thousand different ways, and then try to find the best way to exploit problems for profits.
We don't prevent or cure diseases anymore...not even in medicine. We like sick people to "manage" with a huge pharmacy and other "management techniques or technologies"
America creates problems, pain and misery...and then tries to make a buck, or even profits, from them.
89
I believe the movie you refer to is "Grand Canyon."
2
Businesses profiting from the relapses of the very addicts they purport to help: the very definition of 'perverse incentive.'
6
They license hair cutters because that's one of the few trades men, mostly black, have the chance to learn in jail.
And, it's another way to keep the poor down.
And, it's another way to keep the poor down.
6
The motive of these Sober Houses is to make money off of the misery of addicts. The motive of pharmaceutical companies producing Oxy is to make money off addicts. What will they do when the ACA is replaced?
5
People sober up only if they actually want to. Every addict/alcoholic I know who got clean did it by choosing to quit. No maintenance meds. Just going through the misery of withdrawal because the misery of addiction was worse.
The answer, unfortunately, lies back in pre-conception care and good parenting, regardless of income level or education. A genetic susceptibility to addiction still must be triggered by environmental factors.
And stop blaming everything on opioid prescriptions though they are indeed written far too liberally. The doctors aren't shoving them down your throats; only into your hands.
Intoxicants exist everywhere, in every culture. The individual must learn to navigate life, or die.
The answer, unfortunately, lies back in pre-conception care and good parenting, regardless of income level or education. A genetic susceptibility to addiction still must be triggered by environmental factors.
And stop blaming everything on opioid prescriptions though they are indeed written far too liberally. The doctors aren't shoving them down your throats; only into your hands.
Intoxicants exist everywhere, in every culture. The individual must learn to navigate life, or die.
23
SCA: Attitudes such as yours are some of the reasons we have such a lethal problem today. Blaming the parents is just another manifestation of your tough-mindedness and lack of the mental architecture required for empathy. You may think that's not a bad thing, but I assure you, it is very bad for the well-being of your fellow humans and the ability of our society to solve this problem.
It's easy to dictate from your self-elevated perch, assigning guilt and scolding addicts with the old (and useless) bromide of "learn or die." You may think this is tough truth, but this smug and simplistic banality illuminates nothing, and most importantly, solves nothing. Unfortunately, your attitude is held by many of your ilk, and ensures that the suffering of addicts will be maximized and prolonged, ending all too often in death. Believe it or not, these addicts are extremely precious and valuable to others, and setting your bar of survival to a level obviously at odds with human nature is no help whatsoever in discovering the knotty truth behind addiction and a way for the addict to live.
It's easy to dictate from your self-elevated perch, assigning guilt and scolding addicts with the old (and useless) bromide of "learn or die." You may think this is tough truth, but this smug and simplistic banality illuminates nothing, and most importantly, solves nothing. Unfortunately, your attitude is held by many of your ilk, and ensures that the suffering of addicts will be maximized and prolonged, ending all too often in death. Believe it or not, these addicts are extremely precious and valuable to others, and setting your bar of survival to a level obviously at odds with human nature is no help whatsoever in discovering the knotty truth behind addiction and a way for the addict to live.
6
Thank you for your comment and understanding that the problem is NOT all on Florida.
Trista uses a lot of big words to say a lot of nothing. SCA is right, addicts fundamentally have two choices: kick the habit and get better and live, or wallow in their self-created misery and relapse and die. No blanket empathy needed here. No taxpayer dollars further wasted here. No call to bleeding heart morality here. All you need is a cold, hard, look at the facts: liberal laws, with good intentions and terrible execution, are now being exploited. So the choice now is to admit reality and close the loopholes or throw more guilt and hope at a problem that instead needs action. I'm for letting their dates serve as a deterrent to future users. But it sounds like others still cling frivolously to the idea that cupcakes and compassion will rid the world of hard drugs and its ills.
1
There are plenty of legitimate sober homes in Miami. Next Step Recovery Residences in Miami (305) 588-3032 New facility near the beaches, AA and NA rooms.
1
To stop the epidemic..we have to asked "why". Has American society deteriorated so much that addicts..many from middles class America die in the streets . This scourge affects all levels of society and there must be an answer.
Aside from stopping the importation ...the victims needs to speak out or encouraged to do so to tell their individual stories of life on the street as addicts of heroin or other addictive drugs.
Aside from stopping the importation ...the victims needs to speak out or encouraged to do so to tell their individual stories of life on the street as addicts of heroin or other addictive drugs.
8
"Why ?"Because the government decided to crack down on prescription opiates, only to start a heroin epidemic.
5
DJS,
The government didn't crack down on prescription drugs, they've turned a blind eye to every shady trick the pharmacons use to push drugs on to our citizens. You know, "Ask your Doctor to prescribe our drug to you!" Did we go to medical school to learn which drugs we should be prescribed? Shouldn't medical professionals be making those decisions?
And once they get addicted and can no longer afford the "good" drugs they end up on cheap heroin, or whatever else they can find on the street.
The government didn't crack down on prescription drugs, they've turned a blind eye to every shady trick the pharmacons use to push drugs on to our citizens. You know, "Ask your Doctor to prescribe our drug to you!" Did we go to medical school to learn which drugs we should be prescribed? Shouldn't medical professionals be making those decisions?
And once they get addicted and can no longer afford the "good" drugs they end up on cheap heroin, or whatever else they can find on the street.
3
PTB, actually, the crackdown on "pill mills" in Florida and other high-addiction states did directly feed into the current heroin epidemic. It used to be relatively easy to get "roxies" and the like, because doctors wrote prescriptions liberally and the state wasn't tracking patients who doctor shopped. The state also didn't often crack down on doctors who were clearly just handing out scripts like candy in exchange for cash. It wasn't all that long ago that I could drive past "pain management care" facilities in my area and see cars with out of state license plates and multiple passengers within, usually armed with x-rays or MRI films so it looked more legitimate. Take a road trip to Florida, get your drugs. For far too long the state barely intervened, even as overdose deaths from little blue pills (not named viagra) or an interaction of them with benzodiazepines skyrocketed. Finally they cracked down and clinics were closed, doctors lost their licenses, some went to jail. But the addicts were still there...and the supply of opioid pills dried up or became fantastically expensive - $90 for a single pill. (The pendulum has swung so far in the opposite direction that it's now very difficult for even non-addicts suffering from chronic pain to access care, and many doctors are wary of the state getting suspicious.)
Heroin, however, is dirt cheap by comparison...and an existing population was ripe for the plucking.
Heroin, however, is dirt cheap by comparison...and an existing population was ripe for the plucking.
"Even the white vans, called “druggie buggies,” that take people to therapy are not off limits."
And by 'therapy' you mean AA/NA meetings?
And by 'therapy' you mean AA/NA meetings?
3
They should be living in their parents homes, rather than warehoused in a distant state
3
Yes, I was wondering about that. Any evidence-based therapy like CBT or DBT or just the free "therapy" doled out by faith-based 12 step groups? How much do these sober houses charge for transportation to "therapy", or for the "therapy" sessions? Wouldn't it be more cost efficient to pay one therapist to go to the sober house to facilitate a group session rather than have all of the residents be transported to the therapist?
7
In the past 30 years I've watched way too many people struggle with addiction, seen way too much money spent on rehab, and I've seen only two methods work: (1) Extremely expensive ($150k+) and very long-term (18 months+) residential facility. (2) AA when sincere desire for recovery exists. Parents, don't waste your money (as I did) on anything in between.
14
PTSD.
Depression.
Anxiety.
Schizophrenia.
Bipolar Disorder.
OCD.
Individuals who have a substance use disorder (SUD) often, perhaps almost always, are dealing with any number of other problems. Without providing treatment for their comorbid mental illness, without offering them a path to participate in productive activity, we cannot expect them to thrive. Without a better set of options, they will turn to what gives them relief. The problem is not that we don't really have better ideas for how to treat SUDs, it is that what we know works requires providing people with a huge level of support in an open ended fashion.
Detox is followed by residential treatment for up to three months where individuals with an SUD may start medication assisted therapy. They will also start treatment for any and all other cognitive/emotional and biomedical ailments. This is then followed by intensive outpatient treatment with supportive housing and vocational/educational support. This is then followed by medium and low intensity treatment, maybe for the rest of their lives.
It is not cheap, it is not fast, and people will still relapse. Not every individual with a SUD needs all of this treatment, but this is the general framework.
Success cannot be measured after thirty days, nor in terms of abstinence.
What is happening in FL is an exploitation of vulnerable individuals and should stand as a reminder as to why states like Minnesota have such strict regulation in this field.
Depression.
Anxiety.
Schizophrenia.
Bipolar Disorder.
OCD.
Individuals who have a substance use disorder (SUD) often, perhaps almost always, are dealing with any number of other problems. Without providing treatment for their comorbid mental illness, without offering them a path to participate in productive activity, we cannot expect them to thrive. Without a better set of options, they will turn to what gives them relief. The problem is not that we don't really have better ideas for how to treat SUDs, it is that what we know works requires providing people with a huge level of support in an open ended fashion.
Detox is followed by residential treatment for up to three months where individuals with an SUD may start medication assisted therapy. They will also start treatment for any and all other cognitive/emotional and biomedical ailments. This is then followed by intensive outpatient treatment with supportive housing and vocational/educational support. This is then followed by medium and low intensity treatment, maybe for the rest of their lives.
It is not cheap, it is not fast, and people will still relapse. Not every individual with a SUD needs all of this treatment, but this is the general framework.
Success cannot be measured after thirty days, nor in terms of abstinence.
What is happening in FL is an exploitation of vulnerable individuals and should stand as a reminder as to why states like Minnesota have such strict regulation in this field.
18
You leave out one vital component of dealing with addiction: putting addicts on work farms where they earn their keep and pay off their debts and have no access, none whatsoever, to drugs. I highly recommend contracting with Mennonite communities to provide this. Mennonites do not tolerate alcohol consumption nor drug abuse, and their members work from sunup to sundown at farming, construction, etc, so there is no time nor energy for destructive behavior.
2
The more things change the more they stay the same.
A Choice for Recovering Addicts:Relapse or Homelessness NYTimes MAY 30, 2015
In New York City "Mr. Bush signed up for a drug-treatment program and emerged nine months later determined to stay sober. But the man who ran the house, Yury Baumblit, a longtime hustler and two-time felon, had other ideas. Mr. Baumblit got kickbacks on the Medicaid fees paid to the outpatient treatment programs that he forced all his tenants to attend, residents and former employees said. So he gave Mr. Bush a choice: If he wanted to stay, he would have to relapse and enroll in another program. Otherwise, his bed would be given away. In the past two and a half years, Mr. Bush has gone through four programs, just to hold onto his upper bunk bed."
He had to relapse and then sign up for a new program/place so Mr. Baumblit could get a new payment from Medicaid/the federal government.
A Choice for Recovering Addicts:Relapse or Homelessness NYTimes MAY 30, 2015
In New York City "Mr. Bush signed up for a drug-treatment program and emerged nine months later determined to stay sober. But the man who ran the house, Yury Baumblit, a longtime hustler and two-time felon, had other ideas. Mr. Baumblit got kickbacks on the Medicaid fees paid to the outpatient treatment programs that he forced all his tenants to attend, residents and former employees said. So he gave Mr. Bush a choice: If he wanted to stay, he would have to relapse and enroll in another program. Otherwise, his bed would be given away. In the past two and a half years, Mr. Bush has gone through four programs, just to hold onto his upper bunk bed."
He had to relapse and then sign up for a new program/place so Mr. Baumblit could get a new payment from Medicaid/the federal government.
12
Wow. Despicable entrepreneurs. Can it get worse?
1
Remember BEFORE pharmaceutical companies were allowed to advertise their tantalizing products "straight" to the public on television?
3
There is a Silver Bullet/Easy Way Out for opiate addiction...It's called Suboxone...Give it away and let people get on with normal lives...
No need for debate...
No need for debate...
4
The problem with suboxone is that it is a powerful, addictive, mind and mood altering drug. While on suboxone one is not "clean" where their brain can begin the healing process. Instead drug taking behavior is constantly reinforced. I say, try true recovery, free from all drugs and see how much better it is than a life chained to another drug. It is, however, a good option when someone has tried time and again to get clean and just can't get it. It beats a body bag.
7
Abstinence from all substances is not the only way forward for many people, just like abstinence-only sex education is not the best way to prevent teen pregnancy. Medication-assisted treatment saves lives. Sanctimonious statements do not.
2
Bad news for human beings:
1. Governor Scott's company was fined $600M and admitted to have committed felonies with respect to medical billing. Largest fraud settlement in the short but happy history of the USofA.
2. Governor Scott spent about $75M of his own money on one (1) campaign.
These two facts are all a third party observer needs to see. Zero chance of the governor's office being motivated to fix this.
1. Governor Scott's company was fined $600M and admitted to have committed felonies with respect to medical billing. Largest fraud settlement in the short but happy history of the USofA.
2. Governor Scott spent about $75M of his own money on one (1) campaign.
These two facts are all a third party observer needs to see. Zero chance of the governor's office being motivated to fix this.
20
Last Saturday morning, a young woman came limping into a Delray Beach nail salon. I asked her if she'd sprained an ankle? No, she said, she was a paramedic with Delray Beach Fire, and in her previous shift of 24 hours she personally had used 41 vials of Narcan on people who were overdosing. She wasn't sure how much her colleagues had used. For context, when I worked as a medic in New Mexico (which used to lead the country in heroin deaths), I'd use maybe five vials in a month.
62
But why was she limping?
4
Purdue Pharma is the ultimate villain here. They lied about oxycontin efficacy to doctors and were able to addict a huge population of vulnerable patients. Now we finally crack down on opioid prescriptions and the unintended consequences is heroin addiction and overdose. Oh, now guess who is increasing the price of naloxone? Addiction clinics are just another part of the medical/pharma complex that is exploiting us and our congress and law enforcement is letting them get away with it. Deja vu - wall street and financial derivatives and the crash of 2008, no one responsible when to prison because they hide behind corporations. Where is the outrage?
21
Why Florida??? Lack of regulations, NO oversight. Millions of dollars, each and every WEEK, flowing into the state. Thanks, Rick Scott. Complicit in massive fraud, despair and Death.
31
Greedy, immoral Americans exploiting Americans in desperate need. As the world debates when to use the word `terrorism', I have no problem calling this `medical terrorism'. Americans sure know how to destroy other Americans.
24
I am so blessed that my son who was a heroin addict, has been clean for six years because of his will to be better, suboxone and the love and support of his parents (the treatment community not so much). He is now the proud owner of a successful business. I wish the same result for active addicts and their families. It can get better. It can.
66
Good for your son. Hope his recovery lasts. And hope he pays back in full all the costs of his addiction paid by other people, including his parents.
and alas, many people who turn to suboxone from heroin find it to also be horribly addictive, very tough to kick, and "socially acceptable" versus heroin.
1
And many of those people are able to return to "socially acceptable" lifestyles that include productive jobs and stable families. Yes, it's something they need to take every day, like a diabetic takes insulin or a person with major depressive disorder takes an antidepressant. I guess that's just more "socially acceptable", though.
3
Mixing capitalism and health care? What could possibly go wrong?
60
China fought an opium war with U.K. Trying to stop them from selling opium in China openly, now we know what they had to deal with.
10
Depressed people will seek relief. We have alot of hidden closet sad, unhappy people in this country. Disappointed, hopeless, annoyed, angry, you name it. Also, we live in a society inundated with drugs, and chemicals. Easy access to addictive drugs like heroin, alcohol etc. means easy addiction. Any person can get addicted. It's an internal bodily process. They call it a disease only because you have no control. The drug locks onto your neurons and you can't stop it. Meaning, you, your mother, your son and your neighbor having used, can become addicts. Some get addicted after one use, and some after several times. It's a huge problem that all manner of sincere social workers, counselors, PhDs and healthcare workers have wrestled for years to make a dent in. Devoted their lives to helping. If anyone wants to judge the whole rehab/insurance/post rehab system, then please, go try to put together one yourself. A system of successive successful programs. We'd love to see it work.
10
Americans, as no other nationality, love getting high. Why?
5
Not true. This (the "opioid epidemic") is another case, in part, of the manipulation of the data. The media and politicians take certain gross numbers and carve out, manipulating the numbers for certain results. Example: are these overdoses the result of "opioids" (a large category which includes fairly low opiate effect medicines such as codeine, sold OTC in every Central American country I've been to, tramadol, (see codeine); and until recently, Vicodin was a schedule 3 class controlled substance, until moved recently, for political reasons ("we have to do something") to schedule 2 with oxycodone (Percocet) and fentanyl), which is nowhere close in potency to fentanyl and heroin. So what are we really talking about- the parameds are not dosing with Narcan, Codeine OD's, but heroin.
As to Americans are the sole group "getting high" travel to other countries which each have their scourages, Qat in the Arabian Sea, a form of crack in Peru, MDMA & Cocaine in Europe, coca leaves in Bolivia, heroin in Iran and Afghanistan (read about in this paper), and on.
I do believe the numbers about the "sober homes"- a massive fraud with terrible "success rates" and a plague on their communities, which thanks to the ADA and FHA, handcuff agencies from keeping these nuisances out of your neighbor.
As to Americans are the sole group "getting high" travel to other countries which each have their scourages, Qat in the Arabian Sea, a form of crack in Peru, MDMA & Cocaine in Europe, coca leaves in Bolivia, heroin in Iran and Afghanistan (read about in this paper), and on.
I do believe the numbers about the "sober homes"- a massive fraud with terrible "success rates" and a plague on their communities, which thanks to the ADA and FHA, handcuff agencies from keeping these nuisances out of your neighbor.
1
A sad sad story about how awful humans can be to each other, in order to make money.
Chilling.
Chilling.
13
This is unfortunate, and obviously more regulation and oversight is needed. But it's pretty clear that the best way to break someone of an addiction is to remove all possibility of the addict getting access to their drug of choice.
So I don't think it's very likely to cure someone of addiction if they're allowed to head out onto a city street at any time. Any city has drugs available, any tiny town has alcohol. If treatment for addiction is going to really work, the person has to be kept fairly well isolated.
They also have to want to be cured, and a lot of addicts don't, and so even if people were kept away from drugs for a year, they might go right back to them given the chance.
In the end, I'm left with the feeling that this is evolution in action. Most of the people I know, including me, have tried alcohol and some drugs, and not gotten hooked. Addicts can't seem to shake their addictions, and this is not a survival trait, and according to evolution, self-destructive traits left to themselves would eliminate themselves from the species. Seems like the more we try to keep die-hard addicts alive, the more we sustain drug addiction.
So I don't think it's very likely to cure someone of addiction if they're allowed to head out onto a city street at any time. Any city has drugs available, any tiny town has alcohol. If treatment for addiction is going to really work, the person has to be kept fairly well isolated.
They also have to want to be cured, and a lot of addicts don't, and so even if people were kept away from drugs for a year, they might go right back to them given the chance.
In the end, I'm left with the feeling that this is evolution in action. Most of the people I know, including me, have tried alcohol and some drugs, and not gotten hooked. Addicts can't seem to shake their addictions, and this is not a survival trait, and according to evolution, self-destructive traits left to themselves would eliminate themselves from the species. Seems like the more we try to keep die-hard addicts alive, the more we sustain drug addiction.
12
As someone who fears for the life of my heroin-addicted sibling on a daily basis--a person who built a business from the ground up that not only earned millions of dollars a year but employed dozens of people--your suggestion that keeping "die-hard addicts alive ... sustain[s] drug addiction" is callous at best. At worst, the sentiment that this is "evolution in action" smacks of the faulty logic of eugenics, and recalls the argument that members of the LGBTQ community who died in the AIDS epidemic of the 80's were getting their just desserts.
12
Sounds like you might have some more evolving to do.
12
Sorry Mr. Stackhouse, the "Darwin Award" theory of evolution doesn't apply here. You need some education on how the real Theory of Evolution works. This situation is about people becoming crime victims; they are no more "selected out" by Darwinian evolution than a person who died in a car wreck, or who died being robbed or burgled. The simple alternative of making reliable, medical grade heroin procurable with a doctor's prescription, and the administration of it closely overseen by a doctor throughout a reasonable taper would stop the overdosing and dying; it would give people a chance to get clean without the horrors of cold turkey withdrawal, and it would remove the profit motive from the garbage that is flooding in from China and killing people. This is an example of narrow-minded laws that don't serve the people in the slightest. The counter-intuitive philosophy behind criminalization of the addict guarantees that people, mostly young, will die, and makes the market for these tainted drugs large and remunerative. It's not about Darwin.
1
Substance abusers must not be allowed to congregate. Those who are in rehab are still abusers, despite their good intentions. The idea of living in the same home with other abusers is itself problematic. Effective 12 step groups have a strong foundation of people with track record of sobriety--usually more than half. Such groups cannot be comprised entirely of active users. The idea of a city, region or area known for rehab centers means substance abusers will congregate. Drugs, crime and fraud will accompany this at-risk population.
Many find it reasonable that a rehab clinic might be in a relaxing setting away from the stresses and bad actors of the addicts home community. Yet if the rehab clinic is in an area where addicts congregate, the addict will more quickly substitute one set of bad actors for the other. Also, these patients must at some point return to society, and must face the same problems and issues back home.
The "change of scenery rehab clinic" paradigm of recovery is a failed one. The recovering addict needs coping skills and to be integrated with healthy people and situations in his own community as much as possible.
Many find it reasonable that a rehab clinic might be in a relaxing setting away from the stresses and bad actors of the addicts home community. Yet if the rehab clinic is in an area where addicts congregate, the addict will more quickly substitute one set of bad actors for the other. Also, these patients must at some point return to society, and must face the same problems and issues back home.
The "change of scenery rehab clinic" paradigm of recovery is a failed one. The recovering addict needs coping skills and to be integrated with healthy people and situations in his own community as much as possible.
66
I have a friend who became sober through AA several decades ago. He sublets rooms in his home to other alcholooics & addicts who are in recovery, for those who are in AA/NA/OA/GA , etc consider themselves to be "in recovery " rather than "recovered" until the day they die. Tbese men attend meetings together. They support each others' efforts to remain clean and sober. They DO NOT drink together. They DO NOT use drugs.
These men are not still abusers, and if one falls,the others will scoop him up and take him to a meeting,and another,and another and another.
These men are not still abusers, and if one falls,the others will scoop him up and take him to a meeting,and another,and another and another.
3
"Substance abusers must not be allowed to congregate"
So...every bar in the USA should close?
FYI prohibition doesn't work.
So...every bar in the USA should close?
FYI prohibition doesn't work.
2
Sober homes came about because NOTHING was being done by anyone other than those affected themselves.
This is not just about coping skills, substance abuse is a disease that needs to be treated as such, not by words but deeds. There's lots of "talk" and rhetoric about the crisis but, frankly, too little real change in government policies to meet the crisis head on. This remain a disease of shame and stigma and there are enough obstacles treating it as a disease.
Those who are successful in long term recovery are taught to be anonymous in 12 step programs and generally do not speak out as success stories. The "healthy people" in their own community demonize those suffering due to the shame and stigma associated with substance abuse. Our government's "solution" for many years was the War On Drugs and It has failed miserably.
Then I hear about "decriminalizing drugs". Look around- opioids are legal, being completely overprescribed and the FDA continues to fail the public by not recognizing the crisis and stop bowing to the drug companies appetite to provide more powerful addictive drugs. The Mexico drug cartels? How about our own government sponsored drug cartel - the FDA?
For the addict the bottom line is always the same, change the people, places and things that negatively influence them so they have a better chance for a successful, long term recovery.
This is not just about coping skills, substance abuse is a disease that needs to be treated as such, not by words but deeds. There's lots of "talk" and rhetoric about the crisis but, frankly, too little real change in government policies to meet the crisis head on. This remain a disease of shame and stigma and there are enough obstacles treating it as a disease.
Those who are successful in long term recovery are taught to be anonymous in 12 step programs and generally do not speak out as success stories. The "healthy people" in their own community demonize those suffering due to the shame and stigma associated with substance abuse. Our government's "solution" for many years was the War On Drugs and It has failed miserably.
Then I hear about "decriminalizing drugs". Look around- opioids are legal, being completely overprescribed and the FDA continues to fail the public by not recognizing the crisis and stop bowing to the drug companies appetite to provide more powerful addictive drugs. The Mexico drug cartels? How about our own government sponsored drug cartel - the FDA?
For the addict the bottom line is always the same, change the people, places and things that negatively influence them so they have a better chance for a successful, long term recovery.
1
The parents send their kids south out of the reaches of their drug friends. Don't they realize that the kids make friends easily? Most rehab is bogus. It is a money-making business where the cure rate is very small. They make their money out of treating the same addicts over and over.
The medical profession has made drug addiction a disease so the addict bears no responsibility for it. We cannot disparage the addict as the low-life he really is. If it wasn't for the parents paying for the bogus rehab, their kids would be on the street.
It is time for the insurance companies to do careful studies to see if anything actually works and refuse to pay for anything else. I bet they will be able to count on one hand the kinds of programs that make any difference. Unless a person is ready to make the difficult journey to clean and sober, no amount of rehab will work. Prescription drug addicts should not be so smug that they have legal drugs. They are just steps away from street drugs if their doctor decides to cut them off.
The medical profession has made drug addiction a disease so the addict bears no responsibility for it. We cannot disparage the addict as the low-life he really is. If it wasn't for the parents paying for the bogus rehab, their kids would be on the street.
It is time for the insurance companies to do careful studies to see if anything actually works and refuse to pay for anything else. I bet they will be able to count on one hand the kinds of programs that make any difference. Unless a person is ready to make the difficult journey to clean and sober, no amount of rehab will work. Prescription drug addicts should not be so smug that they have legal drugs. They are just steps away from street drugs if their doctor decides to cut them off.
30
This is yet another indictment of the profit motive embedded in our healthcare system in this country. This is a terrible thing, and we need to get rid of it before we are swamped by it.
23
First off, you cannot put the blame on the ACA. The benefits it provides to the addict who really WANTS to get clean are huge. Many of these people are very low income. The blame rests squarely on those sober houses and treatment centers who are simply out there to abuse the system and make an almighty buck off the backs of the addicts and the healthcare industry. The State MUST step in and fix this issue.
This story is not new, and the sadly ironic thing is this sounds SO much like a similar situation that happened over many years during the build-up to the current opiate crisis. Once opiates became the pain treatment of choice by doctors, hundreds of 'pill mills' started popping up across the country. Many of these places were run by crooked doctors and fake providers who wanted to do nothing but prescribe as many pills as they could to people who were addicted or to those who couldn't get any additional prescriptions filled from their doctors. They scammed insurance companies and the government out of millions and basically added more addicts to the street. Then the illicit/illegal drug trade got involved and dealers started hanging outside at the pill mills in order to entice potential 'customers' into something better than something like Oxy: heroin. And now here we are today with even more dangerous drugs on the street.
All those who abuse the system do nothing to help the addict and do everything to ultimately drive up insurance rates for everyone else.
This story is not new, and the sadly ironic thing is this sounds SO much like a similar situation that happened over many years during the build-up to the current opiate crisis. Once opiates became the pain treatment of choice by doctors, hundreds of 'pill mills' started popping up across the country. Many of these places were run by crooked doctors and fake providers who wanted to do nothing but prescribe as many pills as they could to people who were addicted or to those who couldn't get any additional prescriptions filled from their doctors. They scammed insurance companies and the government out of millions and basically added more addicts to the street. Then the illicit/illegal drug trade got involved and dealers started hanging outside at the pill mills in order to entice potential 'customers' into something better than something like Oxy: heroin. And now here we are today with even more dangerous drugs on the street.
All those who abuse the system do nothing to help the addict and do everything to ultimately drive up insurance rates for everyone else.
21
If twelve step programs worked we wouldn't be having a drug epidemic an so much alcoholism.
12
To be fair, 12-step programs do actually work, I've known many people to get completely, sustainably sober by that method. But, they only work when people really want to get sober, when they've really hit rock bottom. And most addicts do not want to get sober yet.
12 Step programs do work, but they're not magic, and they don't work in the absence of other treatments. In other words, they are an aid, but you need to work them and you need other help too.
7
This is not about 12 step programs. If YOU REALLY WANT TO SOBER UP U CAN WITH A 12 STEP PROGRAM AND ITS FREE.
12
Very very sad. I blame Rick Scott, as yet again, he proves his incompetence in handling ANYTHING that involves positive stewardship of, first and foremost, the dying Florida environment, and now vulnerable human beings who he allows criminals to use them up, and then let them die. Thanks NYT's for exposing this morass for all the world to see.
59
He doesn't care because (1) he is getting rich off it, his family owns a major lab company that profits from these scammers and (2) the problem is primarily located in South Florida and Tally and Scott have repeatedly demonstrated that they care not one bit about South Florida.
3
Scott, sad to have to say it, is really no better than North Korea's Kim-Jung Un. Cold, profit oriented, self-centered. Not one humane bone exists in him, far as I've seen from him.
1
It's very hard for me to feel any concern for these people. They are the least deserving of any compassion or concern as they do this to themselves.
Enabling. It's not the way forward. It never has been.
Enabling. It's not the way forward. It never has been.
22
I sincerely hope you're not expecting any concern or compassion if anything were to happen to you or your family.
11
Huh. I hope that when you get cancer, or heart disease, or COPD because you lived near an agricultural area (pesticides) or because you live in a city (smog) or because you live in a sunny area (sun) or because you live in a coal-mining rural area that your friends and family are equally as compassionate.
You could have moved, right?
You could have moved, right?
8
Obviously based on your comments you know knowing about the disease of drug addition. I suggest you become better informed on the subject instead casting addicts aside like rubbish. Just a thought.
4
Medical care in America: It's all about the profits.
20
I wrote about this in 2007 for the New York Times (link in this story) and feel responsible. Did widespread attention back then create this situation?
9
Dear Jane Gross,
I would think you are completely not responsible for this. The two groups of people responsible are the owners/operators of the corrupt 'sober homes', and the drug addicts. You're not pushing drugs on anyone, nor running a rehab facility without any ethics, you merely reported on what the situation was.
I would think you are completely not responsible for this. The two groups of people responsible are the owners/operators of the corrupt 'sober homes', and the drug addicts. You're not pushing drugs on anyone, nor running a rehab facility without any ethics, you merely reported on what the situation was.
13
Jane, please do not blame yourself. How could you have known that the system would be overcome by fraudulent providers?
With your experience with this issue, maybe you would be an ideal person to get involved in crafting policies or strategies to set the system back to right.
With your experience with this issue, maybe you would be an ideal person to get involved in crafting policies or strategies to set the system back to right.
5
I remember your piece. I was dealing with an alcoholic brother at the time, and I thought, wow, maybe that is the solution. He seems incurable, and at least he'd be in a nice climate with similar people, and out of our hair. Florida created the perfect storm to attract people. Families get overwhelmed with these horrific problems, and simply do not have the expertise and resources to deal with them. The state of New Hampshire spent tens of thousands of dollars trying to help my brother but nothing worked - he couldn't stop drinking. He died in a sober house here in New Hampshire with an empty gin bottle by his bed.
You were simply doing your job Jane. Alcohol and heroin addiction is a very severe problem with no easy answers. Through my brother, I learned more about it than I ever wanted to know. Florida created the environment to attract these people, not you, and our sick "for profit" health care communities have been gouging people ever since.
Lose no sleep Jane, you are simply a messenger, and very good one. Keep up the great work!
You were simply doing your job Jane. Alcohol and heroin addiction is a very severe problem with no easy answers. Through my brother, I learned more about it than I ever wanted to know. Florida created the environment to attract these people, not you, and our sick "for profit" health care communities have been gouging people ever since.
Lose no sleep Jane, you are simply a messenger, and very good one. Keep up the great work!
2
Once addicted it always ends in prison or death.
South Florida and the country was rescued from cocaine for a while when George H.W. Bush sent in the national guard. With the internet and glorification of drug culture, and under the spine less ,hubristic leadership Of Barack Obama , no chance......he just watched it happen,and our country is ruined.
8
This is not Obama's fault. He did try to provide assistance for those who needed it. The real problem in your state is greed and corruption. Obama has nothing to do with that. You have a governor who is the number one fraudster in the state.
7
Of course, a problem of staggering proportions that has been growing for at least two decades, and it's all Obama's fault.
2
As a recovering heroin addict (5 years clean this week), I find this incredibly sad. I saw an alternate reality of what could have happened to me if my parents had not beem able to pay 60K for an extended rehab not covered by insurance in Tucson (followed by 6 years of therapy).
You may have disgust for these folks as they waste their lives, looking for how to get the next fix while trying to get clean at the same time. But remember those dying are mostly young, who could have become productive citizens living happy lives. They can get clean. They have mothers, fathers, siblings and loved ones. Allowing a for-profit cabal to operate with incentives for the addicts to relapse is a morally repugnant situation that needs to be addressed.
You may have disgust for these folks as they waste their lives, looking for how to get the next fix while trying to get clean at the same time. But remember those dying are mostly young, who could have become productive citizens living happy lives. They can get clean. They have mothers, fathers, siblings and loved ones. Allowing a for-profit cabal to operate with incentives for the addicts to relapse is a morally repugnant situation that needs to be addressed.
61
60K!
The drug epidemic keeps getting worse and worse. I don't think it is just about drugs. I think is about despair. Something is really wrong at the heart of this country.
187
Despair. You nailed it Dwight. And you are so right, there is something really wrong at the heart of this country.
2
My daughter who was gang raped at 14, 12 years later is an addict. She does not choose to be an addict, she wants to escape the pain and humiliation of her abuse. This is true of many of the other young women she has met in the recovery community. Many have endured years of abuse, often incest.
We are a society that does not value or respect girls or young women.
We are a society that does not value or respect girls or young women.
6
I hope your daughter gets the treatment she needs - which may entail professional help, not just 12 step meetings. With her history, she should qualify for psychotherapy for PTSD - please find a community mental health care facility. She CAN recover from her trauma and stop self-destructive behaviors! And get some help for yourself!
I live in Palm Beach County in another town peppered with scammy "sober homes". I have two around the corner from me, the police are there all the time, sometimes an ambulance. After the resident's insurance runs out, they are kicked to the curb which means the homeless numbers and crime have gone way up. We've had items stolen from our yard and many others have had break ins. Our local officials say these homes are protected by the ADA and we must suffer in silence. I don't see how these short term hotels (which are not permitted in our town), commercial business operations (also not permitted in residential areas), filled with bunk beds of kids from up north (also in violation of zoning) are permitted. Our police, fire, and emergency services have skyrocketed. Even our librarians are now armed with Narcan and have to deal with overdoes in the library bathrooms. Go to Publix (our local grocery store) and get accosted by recent homeless addicts, all from up north and sent here by supposedly caring parents. Parks and beach are overrun with homeless such that residents can't use them.
Parents, please do not send your kids to Palm Beach County for treatment. I'd say 96% of the treatment facilities and related facilities are nothing but frauds where they are more interested in your kids' urine than anything else (charging the insurance company $10,000 a week for fancy urinalysis).
Parents, please do not send your kids to Palm Beach County for treatment. I'd say 96% of the treatment facilities and related facilities are nothing but frauds where they are more interested in your kids' urine than anything else (charging the insurance company $10,000 a week for fancy urinalysis).
103
The greed-based medical industrial complex got most of these people addicted by their indiscriminate prescriptions of opiates. Now it has figured out how to profit from their recovery efforts, even when it leads to death for the patients. For-profit medicine is immoral. It's only goal is the perpetual increase of dividends.
68
No mebster, this is a myth perpetrated by politicians who want to look like they are doing something about "big pharma" and doctor "overprescribing." Addicts have turned to heroin because it's cheap and readily available, to say nothing of the alcohol, cocaine, crystal meth and illegal pill form fentanyl from China (legal fentanyl is a patch applied to the skin) that is often combined in a toxic mix. It is legitimate persons with pain who take their medication as prescribed and do not not misuse who are suffering. They are treated with unjustified suspicion because of the misbehavior of others. Opioid medication prescribing has gone way down but the drug addiction problem has not.
11
I can only refer to the case I know best -- my own nephew. He was not sick and did not have any reason to be on heavy duty drugs. He got oxycontin from a "pill mill" doctor for a relatively minor condition, but he didn't TAKE oxycontin -- he sold all his pills, to make money for his preferred drug at that time (about 8 years ago) -- marijuana. He was a major dopehead, but at that point, he was not doing heroin.
His friends though, became other potheads and they introduced him to other drugs. And he moved on to harder stuff. It was a terrible shock to his family, because while we knew he was a slacker who lived off an SSI check....we had no idea until he died, that his obvious problems (extreme weight loss, being disoriented, etc.) reflected his use of hard drugs.
There were a lot of signs, but we were too naive (especially his mom) to really confront this. For one thing, he stole stuff -- you couldn't have him over the house for Christmas dinner without counting the silver after he left. He stole from his siblings, and his mother, and his elderly grandparents. He shoplifted. It just go worse and worse, and then suddenly he was dead.
But the scenario of "his awful pain drove him to hard drugs after his oxycontin supply ran out" really does not fit here. BTW: he was cross addicted, and had used alcohol and cocaine and other stuff that was in his system, though it was the heroin that killed him.
His friends though, became other potheads and they introduced him to other drugs. And he moved on to harder stuff. It was a terrible shock to his family, because while we knew he was a slacker who lived off an SSI check....we had no idea until he died, that his obvious problems (extreme weight loss, being disoriented, etc.) reflected his use of hard drugs.
There were a lot of signs, but we were too naive (especially his mom) to really confront this. For one thing, he stole stuff -- you couldn't have him over the house for Christmas dinner without counting the silver after he left. He stole from his siblings, and his mother, and his elderly grandparents. He shoplifted. It just go worse and worse, and then suddenly he was dead.
But the scenario of "his awful pain drove him to hard drugs after his oxycontin supply ran out" really does not fit here. BTW: he was cross addicted, and had used alcohol and cocaine and other stuff that was in his system, though it was the heroin that killed him.
1
This is tragic and inexcusable. Is this an example of a nationwide problem -fraudulent sober houses- or a special problem in Florida due to lack of regulation such as licensing and lack of oversight? Which states get this right: adequately regulate sober houses?
27
Both. The opioid problem is a national problem, sending your kids to fraudulent rehab facilities is a So. Fla. problem. Cites that have tried to regulate these homes have lost expensive legal battles in So. Fla. so the rest say nothing can be done. I say most of these sober homes are nothing but criminal drug dens and are not protected by the ADA and shouldn't be able to avoid local zoning laws that were on the books first. But our local elected officials seem toothless. Our local SA, Dave Aronberg, who I know has made some progress on the problem wince his election, but its slow.
4
I am an addict. I have been in recovery since July 1970. Clean for 17,141 days. My heart goes out to those who have not surrendered yet. As long as you are alive there is hope. Those who lost the struggle, rest in peace and I offer my love to your family & friends.
I am not qualified to tell any addict what to do, how to do it or anything else except offer hope.
I can only share what I have done and continue to do, one day at a time.
I entered a 12-step self help group meeting on July 26, 1970 at the YMCA on Northern Blvd., in Flushing, Queens. I immediately realized I was not unique and was with my peers. I did not know it at the time but I was hearing hope and I actually surrendered that first week after a 10 year compulsive addiction.
My 2 year marriage with my wife ,7 1/2 months pregnant was not the catalyst to keep me clean. I had been brought to my knees at 28 years old. The abyss was entered but, somehow, hands were reached out to me and I was fortunate to grab on. My M.O. was that I knew everything and I could stop my addiction any time I wanted to (ah, the denial, EGO and control issues) but, somehow, I became teachable.
I continue be be very active in program, have a sponsor (mentor) for over 40 years and currently mentor 8 other members, including one incarcerated for 25 to life for 2 murders to support his addiction.
Some of my dear friends have committed suicide, a non-solution to a problem. I believe in a loving higher power.
With Serenity.
I am not qualified to tell any addict what to do, how to do it or anything else except offer hope.
I can only share what I have done and continue to do, one day at a time.
I entered a 12-step self help group meeting on July 26, 1970 at the YMCA on Northern Blvd., in Flushing, Queens. I immediately realized I was not unique and was with my peers. I did not know it at the time but I was hearing hope and I actually surrendered that first week after a 10 year compulsive addiction.
My 2 year marriage with my wife ,7 1/2 months pregnant was not the catalyst to keep me clean. I had been brought to my knees at 28 years old. The abyss was entered but, somehow, hands were reached out to me and I was fortunate to grab on. My M.O. was that I knew everything and I could stop my addiction any time I wanted to (ah, the denial, EGO and control issues) but, somehow, I became teachable.
I continue be be very active in program, have a sponsor (mentor) for over 40 years and currently mentor 8 other members, including one incarcerated for 25 to life for 2 murders to support his addiction.
Some of my dear friends have committed suicide, a non-solution to a problem. I believe in a loving higher power.
With Serenity.
142
I've been clean and sober for over four years now after struggling with my addictions for decades. My surrender came 33 years after my first AA meeting, so deep was my distrust of people from having been raised by a violent alcoholic father who beat his wife and children into submission. I cried out loud when I read your comment, so grateful I am to have been given the gift of hope and recovery that you so eloquently described. Had it not been for caring people such as yourself I would have taken my own life, which had become unbearable when drinking and drugging quit easing the pain. The joy I feel today is from the heart, not a pill or bottle and it is because of people like yourself who pass on the message of hope that I can even put these words together, and for that I am very grateful.
4
Roll back the prescription pain med restrictions and allow substance users to use a safer drug so they do not have to resort to heroin use. It is much harder to control the dosages of heroin than it is to control the dosages of pain meds.
17
Exactly right. Hardcore junkies are very sick people, and not easily cured. Maintenance, controlled programs, are the safest answer at this point, and have dramatically reduced fatalities in the few places it is used. People can work at jobs under opiates, in fact they act as a stimulant. I had workers at my house on them(I found out afterwards) and they worked long hard hours painting, and did a great job..
4
I'm so glad this has finally come to light. Next up, please shine the light on Southern California as we have the same problems here. Los Angeles alone is filled with disreputable out patient facilities (google stories on chris bathum) and even more corrupt sober living facilities. They prey on the sick-and some places are taking people with severe mental illness staffed by young people with no real clinical experience in serious mental health. It's disgraceful. I should know as I work in the field of dual diagnosis.
40
My daughter was in a drug treatment facility in Arizona in 2010 -- one that to this day I consider "the Harvard of Rehabs." She spent 13 months there, and then transitioned to semi-independent, and then independent living in Prescott, the "Recovery Capital of the Country." When she first moved there, I noticed that there were a lot of residential programs and "transitional" programs, and I saw that AZ had very little regulation of them. But since then, at least in Prescott, there has been a movement to standardize the operations of these places and regulate them more closely. Substance abuse treatment is complex, and there are no guarantees, but what I see in AZ is a lot better than what is described in this article about Florida.
Let me qualify briefly by saying that I survived 16 years of active addiction.54 months of which were spent in one type of institution or another.Numerous stays in jails and rehabs in one form or another.Human warehouses for misfits of society.I am sure if Florida was an option 32 years ago I would have run there.I landed in Ossining,N.Y. because my insurance would not pay for Fair Oaks in N.J.From a very flawed institution I was able to hear a message of recovery.If an addict is sick and tired of the life,there is another way.Even though we all realized that we were as well as our coverage limits,30/60/90/days.I have been able to rejoin society and become a productive member of same.As long as insurance companies and humans control treatment this will continue.Addicts are very talented and resourcefull people who choose a self -centered need over life itself.Thankfully I was able to stop hurting the person most neccesary in my recovery...me.
36
Lots of otherwise healthy kids get themselves hooked on drugs and then use daddy's heath insurance to get off of what they should never been on in the first place, and this is called healthcare, why? I couldn't help but think what all those young paramedics were thinking as they're standing over looking at the idiot on the stretcher whose life they were wondering why they were saving after they took a drug they knew could kill them.
14
They save people because that's what they do regardless of why or how they became an emergency. By your rule, people who are obese or who do not take care of themselves shouldn't get help either. There are many forms of addiction and food is one of them. Next time a diabetic has a crisis, should we let that person die because he/she couldn't control their sugar intake? Your reasoning is cruel and uninformed.
18
Meanwhile, while the people running these scams get rich the EMTs get paid $11 an hour and then find themselves on the stretcher after ten years of back injuries and PTSD.
5
"Why did this happen?" Let's first point fingers at the business of distribution of opiates to patients for every little ache and pain, to the drug companies who have turned out doctors into pushers and patients into junkies. Opiates should be reserved for use in in-patient care only so that use can be monitored and tapered off when no longer needed. If you are in so much pain that you need that strong if a pain killer, you should probably be admitted. All others... take a non-opiate.
As a person who was given Rx for literally hundreds of pills after major back surgery, I recognized that I needed to taper off once my pain was under control. Withdrawal was terrible. I understood why so many end up addicted. My doctors were still willing to write scripts for the opiates (offering even when I told them my pain was bearable). By sheer will, I was able to walk away from them. Not everyone is able to. These drugs need to be better controlled.
As a person who was given Rx for literally hundreds of pills after major back surgery, I recognized that I needed to taper off once my pain was under control. Withdrawal was terrible. I understood why so many end up addicted. My doctors were still willing to write scripts for the opiates (offering even when I told them my pain was bearable). By sheer will, I was able to walk away from them. Not everyone is able to. These drugs need to be better controlled.
50
I really don't understand the lure of drugs. Why do all of these people even try them in the first place?
1
What a tragedy! This practice falls pretty close to murder for hire.
If there is little prospect of relief in terms of Florida's starting to regulate such facilities closely, insurance companies would seem a powerful ally for those who seek to minimize this sort of fraud.
Just as most HMOs will cover only approved network or out-of-network providers, these insurance companies, who after all seek to avoid unnecessary payouts, could take off their list for reimbursement treatment providers whose practices and records are suspect.
If there is little prospect of relief in terms of Florida's starting to regulate such facilities closely, insurance companies would seem a powerful ally for those who seek to minimize this sort of fraud.
Just as most HMOs will cover only approved network or out-of-network providers, these insurance companies, who after all seek to avoid unnecessary payouts, could take off their list for reimbursement treatment providers whose practices and records are suspect.
14
The insurance company and qui tam litigation has started but its slow and the sober home and rehab operators just change names.
The true beneficiaries of healthcare - big business, not the sick.
This country is becoming disgusting.
Or is it just the sleaze is becoming glaringly apparent? But then we started off with genocide, moved on to slavery and its brutality, then Jim Crow, then on to the industriall prison complex, then hate radio, so none of what's floated to the top, bloated stinking of rot is really a surprise.
We worship at the alter of mo' money, mo' money. Like addicts, I guess we'll have to hit rock bottom. Although bodies hanging from trees didn't seem do it.
This country is becoming disgusting.
Or is it just the sleaze is becoming glaringly apparent? But then we started off with genocide, moved on to slavery and its brutality, then Jim Crow, then on to the industriall prison complex, then hate radio, so none of what's floated to the top, bloated stinking of rot is really a surprise.
We worship at the alter of mo' money, mo' money. Like addicts, I guess we'll have to hit rock bottom. Although bodies hanging from trees didn't seem do it.
33
This article is so emblematic of the failed American medical industrial complex. Corrupt at its core, our system strives to bankrupt every living soul and provide worse than substandard care in the pursuit of profit. And is it really any surprise that this problem is at its worst in Florida? The Governor of the state, Rick Scott, was the worst fraudulent abuser of the Medicare system in the history of this country when he was in the private medical sector. Instead of just having to pay $1.7 billion in fines to the federal government for the fraud he perpetuated, Rick Scott should have gone to prison - instead he is the Governor of Florida.
70
Raise your hand if you are surprised that this would happen in Florida?
15
It pains me to say this, but i am almost certain if the race of the "zombies" were of a minority-class (ie black or brown), the city would have found a way to shut down the homes and charge/arrest the addicts!!
82
This cynicism is fashionable, but wholly wrong. If you think that poor, addicted whites are being coddled, take a trip through West Virginia.
7
But it's the American Way! Health "care" for profit, for-profit prisons, for-profit schools.
17
It appears opiates are closing in on alcohol as the most deadly and "social wreckage" causing drug - though I doubt it will happen. Alcohol, though not even considered a drug by many, has no peer. Even worse, though heroin addicts are dropping like flies, at least they are just killing themselves. Drunks kill and injure tens of thousands of innocent people a year in car accidents, fights, murders, etc. etc. - leaving a trail of disaster from coast to coast - but we accept this as "normal". This whole collage of nasty drug addiction could be immediately lessened with legal pot nationwide - giving people a far safer, non deadly, non addictive, alternative. The neo-puritans might not like it, but their philosophy died out 4 centuries ago - people love mind altering substances. Education and moderation is the key.
1
So I live with this issue everyday. Flop houses marketers "do you have insurance?" Closing sober homes means homeless junkies relapse and then a funeral. It happens everyday. the only thing that was left out of this article is the fact there are some of sober homes that try really hard to make a difference in people's lives. A positive difference, and the numbers and news story's don't reflect that for a second. As addicts we live to work a system and thrive in chaos...well most if not all of these places are run by people in recovery...so do the math...
11
Capitalizing on someone's misery? Why, isn't that as American as....well- Capitalism?
13
Well, this is "sobering".
The article is mistitled, however. DelRay Beach is obviously NOT profiting, but rather being destroyed by rampant relapses and the laws and lax policies that promote and enable them.
So as in almost everything, this too is "all about money". Lives lost, property values and city viability are collateral damage. Rehab profiteers, corrupt labs, insurance companies and lawyers are, as usual, the winners.
The article is mistitled, however. DelRay Beach is obviously NOT profiting, but rather being destroyed by rampant relapses and the laws and lax policies that promote and enable them.
So as in almost everything, this too is "all about money". Lives lost, property values and city viability are collateral damage. Rehab profiteers, corrupt labs, insurance companies and lawyers are, as usual, the winners.
18
Very often the judge will give the choice of prison or rehab for drug offenders.
Or it is an option widely used by wealthy families or individuals in plea bargaining.
Not at all fair to those who can't afford private rehab resort facilities or their insurance does not cover it. Orange jumpsuits for you!
Or a body bag for some.
Or it is an option widely used by wealthy families or individuals in plea bargaining.
Not at all fair to those who can't afford private rehab resort facilities or their insurance does not cover it. Orange jumpsuits for you!
Or a body bag for some.
7
Yes. My brother, an Ivy-educated physician, chose that for his son. Not available to others.
5
Perhaps the safest way to stay clean and sober is to go to AA meetings every day and stay away from these 'houses'.
Very sad.
Very sad.
24
How can this be a surprise to anyone? Watch daytime TV, numerous advertisements for this service. The margins must be high.
6
One cheer for slimy Ricky Scott, Trump's man in Florida who's only too familiar with health insurance fraud.
1
This is a hideous and cautionary tale for anyone who is trying to get sober in Florida. It would seem the Attorney General's office for the State of Florida would have a compelling responsibility to step in here and clean up the mess of what is nothing more than a scam for "addiction recovery."
People who have hit an addiction bottom are at their most vulnerable and to prey on them with "kick 'em when they're down" scamming behavior is utterly despicable.
The State of Florida- meaning the Governor and Attorney General -are culpable and ought to be ashamed for turning a blind eye by not establishing severe penalties for those who exploit this population. At a minimum, shut down these so called "sober houses" which seem to be anything but sober.
The best place to go with a very long, established track record of recovery is out in Minnesota - Hazelden is preeminent in addiction recovery. If they don't have room, ask them to suggest other facilities that are well established.
Utterly disgraceful!
People who have hit an addiction bottom are at their most vulnerable and to prey on them with "kick 'em when they're down" scamming behavior is utterly despicable.
The State of Florida- meaning the Governor and Attorney General -are culpable and ought to be ashamed for turning a blind eye by not establishing severe penalties for those who exploit this population. At a minimum, shut down these so called "sober houses" which seem to be anything but sober.
The best place to go with a very long, established track record of recovery is out in Minnesota - Hazelden is preeminent in addiction recovery. If they don't have room, ask them to suggest other facilities that are well established.
Utterly disgraceful!
13
A fish rots from the head down. Who is the governor of Florida?
14
Gov. Scott profits from this industry, his family and his trust own a major lab company. Its only when he started to get very bad press and the feds started locking up these sober home crooks that send urine tests to Scott's lab company (billing the insurance companies thousands a week per resident) that he started to pay any attention to it and his moves are still minimal. There is a reason Gov. Scott is also known as Voldemort.
Greed....again....like Stephen Hawking said: our greed and stupidity will be the demise of mankind.
11
This is just another example of how screwed up the American medical system is. Take out the profit motive and you wouldn't have this kind of abuse. As the article states, Florida is known for other kinds of insurance fraud. Substance addiction is difficult to treat, I know this is impossible to imagine, but maybe those centers that treat addictions should not be re-imbursed until their clients have a year of sobriety. I have watched as my friend's children cycle in and out of treatment, some survive, some thrive, but in the end many die. Since it's clear that the current model isn't working, perhaps we should re-examine current treatmet practices. It seems like a no brainer that concentrating treatment centers and sober houses in a beach town, in a state better known for out of control spring break parties and weird news stories, is a bad idea.
10
Many things to comment on, but what struck me once again is how common sense and solutions cannot be pursued for fear of a lawsuit. Our Justice system is completely screwed up. Well, at least for those of us not feeding on the beast.
Everything always boils down to money and greed in this country. That should be taught to kids in high school. Really drill into them how the world really works.
Everything always boils down to money and greed in this country. That should be taught to kids in high school. Really drill into them how the world really works.
1
This is a huge scandal which was reported by the Boston Globe a few weeks ago in an in-depth article that made your heart break.
"Drug rehab" escorts promised addicts warm weather and expenses-paid airfare and treatment for opioid addiction in sunny Florida, targeting the New Hampshire and Massachusetts area.
Story after story showed how a former heroin user, sober for five years, acted as an agent for Florida rehabs that wanted to get their hands on Northern New England insurance money. The agent would get a fee for signing the addicts for insurance under suspect circumstances, get them to Florida, where they would be assigned to substandard treatment centers in Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and yes Delray Beach.
Within a a few weeks the northerners would be found dead of overdose after their insurance benefits ran out, they were kicked out of the rehabs, and they ended up flophouse motels with an endless supply of drugs.
The amount of scamming that goes on with one of the most insidious and intractable problems in medical science – opioid addiction, made worse by the problems of synthetics--is a crime.
Rick Scott had better get his state's house in order fast because Florida currently is profiting off the misery of our nation's youth.
As a former hospital CEO, Rick Scott should be ashamed of himself.
"Drug rehab" escorts promised addicts warm weather and expenses-paid airfare and treatment for opioid addiction in sunny Florida, targeting the New Hampshire and Massachusetts area.
Story after story showed how a former heroin user, sober for five years, acted as an agent for Florida rehabs that wanted to get their hands on Northern New England insurance money. The agent would get a fee for signing the addicts for insurance under suspect circumstances, get them to Florida, where they would be assigned to substandard treatment centers in Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and yes Delray Beach.
Within a a few weeks the northerners would be found dead of overdose after their insurance benefits ran out, they were kicked out of the rehabs, and they ended up flophouse motels with an endless supply of drugs.
The amount of scamming that goes on with one of the most insidious and intractable problems in medical science – opioid addiction, made worse by the problems of synthetics--is a crime.
Rick Scott had better get his state's house in order fast because Florida currently is profiting off the misery of our nation's youth.
As a former hospital CEO, Rick Scott should be ashamed of himself.
162
Please many of these sober home operators picked up their homes for $20,000 - $50,000. We own rental property and are contacted by sober home operators all the time to let them set up an operation at our rental property. No way would I ever agree b/c (1) I'm not a slum lord and I live in the same town so I don't want to contribute to the problem and (2) liability risk property owners are getting sued by these families.
10
A former CEO whose company paid a giant fine for fraud. Scott is perfect for Florida.
4
Whoa!!! Stop right there. The Affordable Care Act only allowed for more coverage and wider availability. It's up to the insurance companies and state regulators to do their jobs.
Bashing Obama is passé ... focus on the real problems.
Bashing Obama is passé ... focus on the real problems.
1
This is very, very sad. Can't imagine trying to get sober hanging around a bunch of people who are perpetually high. I'd leave, cause it's nuts and impossible. FLA is a strange place in terms of laws.
30
I posted above about my 29 year old nephew. He died from a heroin overdose just this past February -- well, late January. He was in a rehab house just like one of these -- it was his third or fourth or fifth, I don't remember. It was a nice house in a good area. He had a private room and shared a bath.
Just as in this article, he was released from the hospital to this so-called "sober house" where everyone else was doing drugs. So he went straight back to shooing up heroin. At some point -- nobody knows! -- he died in his room. Now this is Ohio; it is freezing cold in January-February. The heat was on. He died and his body was not found for 5-6 days. Imagine the decomposition. They wouldn't let his mother even see the body.
Yet NONE OF HIS ROOMMATES were sober enough to notice a DEAD BODY rotting in the next room, with the heat up on high. They didn't smell it, because THEY were stoned out of their minds. Nobody supposed in charge noticed this odor -- which is simply awful -- and unmistakable. Finally, somebody did complain -- the police were called and my nephew was long, long dead. No Narcan to revive him.
These sober houses are a pathetic joke, stealing money from individuals insurance and the government. This is NOT HELPING ANYONE. This is making a horrific problem 10 times worse.
Just as in this article, he was released from the hospital to this so-called "sober house" where everyone else was doing drugs. So he went straight back to shooing up heroin. At some point -- nobody knows! -- he died in his room. Now this is Ohio; it is freezing cold in January-February. The heat was on. He died and his body was not found for 5-6 days. Imagine the decomposition. They wouldn't let his mother even see the body.
Yet NONE OF HIS ROOMMATES were sober enough to notice a DEAD BODY rotting in the next room, with the heat up on high. They didn't smell it, because THEY were stoned out of their minds. Nobody supposed in charge noticed this odor -- which is simply awful -- and unmistakable. Finally, somebody did complain -- the police were called and my nephew was long, long dead. No Narcan to revive him.
These sober houses are a pathetic joke, stealing money from individuals insurance and the government. This is NOT HELPING ANYONE. This is making a horrific problem 10 times worse.
41
For transparency's sake:I'm a 27 year sober alcoholic.Back then most treatment centers were attached to hospitals.You went to one near where you were living.It didn't matter if you were addicted to heroin, cocaine & crack, sniffing, huffing, or the drug that started it all back when man first invented distillation, alcohol.The first thing you heard, even before your detox was done was relapse is NOT required.For that you must be exceptionally stupid.I know a man who went into treatment 13 times & relapsed 12.The 13th time he got serious, finally, he says.Before they were just time to clean up, feed up, get a little rest, & get the family off his back. The rehabs were full when it was cold or very hot.They thought they were smart.Out of the weather, decent food, a smoking room (what smoking isn't an addiction?).There were lots of sober houses (up here not called homes), with hard & fast rules. Pick up, your out. Start a fight, your out, even at 2am. Stuff in a garbage bag. Of course there were & are sober houses that are really active houses. They are known, people seriously trying to get clean & sober don't even walk by them. It means that many, as their time in rehab is almost over have to look far away for a real sober house. Another part of the state, another state. These people don't have sober homes to go back to. Working on an opioid addiction? Can't go home to Mom & Dad who get drunk every night. Or a home full of siblings who are using. You have to want it. Every day.
47
So we have to pay for 13 rehabs, for it to stick for ONE person....how much per failed rehab? times TWELVE?
4
Just a note - I have 25 years sober but alcohol addiction and drug addiction are not the same. Drug addicts often relapse many times on the way to recovery. Chemical changes in the brain due to drug use are damaging and take many months to revert back to normal. Comparing apples to oranges is not helpful for anyone. We must understand how people can be treated medically for the best outcomes. Check out "Beyond Addiction" by Jeffrey Foote - 20 years of medical science behind this recovery program with a >60% recovery rate. The problem is that the industry does not want addicts to recover.
Twenty five years practicing criminal law in South Florida. This is for parents of substance dependent children.
1. DO NOT send them for rehab programs in South Florida. Less than 3% succeed after three years.
2. Substance dependence survival rates are poor for those predisposed genetically to substance dependence.
3. Recovery works only when drugs are hard to find.
4. It is all about people, places and choices
5. Tough love works
6. 70% of my clients, after two or more arrests or relapses end up in prison for two to five years
7. 30% of my clients over the past ten years who fail in recovery are dead.
1. DO NOT send them for rehab programs in South Florida. Less than 3% succeed after three years.
2. Substance dependence survival rates are poor for those predisposed genetically to substance dependence.
3. Recovery works only when drugs are hard to find.
4. It is all about people, places and choices
5. Tough love works
6. 70% of my clients, after two or more arrests or relapses end up in prison for two to five years
7. 30% of my clients over the past ten years who fail in recovery are dead.
181
Incredible honesty here. Thank you, Renaud.
6
I was a drunk. My mother was a drunk (who died from drinking.) My close friend was a junkie who died from being a junkie and I know this because when she died she had the dregs of whatever junk she could stir together to alleviate her craving, sickness and pain. I grew up and was educated in the college town that originated the term "political correctness," am one of the early folks to take umbrage unless someone used polite language to assuage my tender sensibilities of politeness and we can see where that type of folly brought us to today. There is no euphemism that can smooth over the horrors of addiction and there should not be. Soft selling addiction to the addicted aids in that thing called "denial," or is that "somewhat alternative facts"?
I wish the NY Times had quoted those numbers. I've seen the UM organ donor coordinators more in one moth than I have in 8 years... unbelievable
I am a physician working in the field of addiction. We do not use the term "substance abusers" in clinical practice because of its potential to stigmatize patients. "People with substance use disorder" is preferred. I agree that it's appropriate to use terms that interview subjects use when reporting, but the NYT should consider changing it's editorial guide to reflect how clinicians and public health experts are referring to this population.
56
I am sure we could come up with many euphemisms for them. Do you think people including the users, won't know they mean? Calling a horse a cow doesn't mean it will give milk
5
and terrorists are not terrorists, what is it we call them now, stalwarts?. In any event rather than quibble over they are called, maybe someone should bring a message to young people before hand that your drug dealer is not your friend. They are salesman who wantyou to buy something that can kill you. This is not a cool group you want to get in with. Don't be a mark for a con.
You know what? 'Substance abuse disorder' is just as bad! Addiction is a disease; a chemical dependence and a mental illness. In recovery, we use 'mental obsession', 'phenomenon of craving' (the brain chemistry that wants more and more and is not satiated) and the physical allergy - the body's reaction to the drug (alcohol, included) gets worse, over time. I am so sick of medical 'professionals' who just don't get this disease. Residential rehab, IOP, AA/NA over several months, not weeks, works. And obviously, not in Florida.
3
Treatment centers have been bilking the rich and taking advantage of insurance systems for decades. This is no surprise. The real issue at hand is the people who cannot afford to pay for legitimate treatment. They are defrauded, and the result is far too often death.
65
According to another post here -- which I believe -- even legitimate treatment has a 97% failure rate.
9
I only write this brief comment so that others might not dismiss out of hand the possibility that the lives so tragically being lost could be saved. We need to devote more of our resources to this national affliction.