Drug Rehabilitation that works

This person needs treatment against alcoholism and I would like to know if he can take the treatment without loose his security clearance and/or his job.

I have a client that contends he mixed a laxative, a multivitamin and some acetone together and sold it to an informant as methamphetamine. The SBI lab report shows the presence of meth. Either my client is lying, or the informant or police switched substances or the lab got a false positive. We are taking the case to trial. HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the second in a series of twelve articles written by Orthus for the non-technical managers at small to medium sized companies who operate smaller networks and may lack a sophisticated in-house information technology department. 

Step 2 Look Out for E-Mail Attachments and Internet Download Modules

Cost: Minimal – No additional investment

Technology skill level: Low to medium

Participants: Everyone using the electronic facilities

WHY?

One of the most common methods of transferring computer viruses is by embedding them in attachments that accompany e-mails or materials downloaded from attractive websites. Recently, attackers have become adept at capturing address books and embedding viruses in attachments that appear to come from people you know. Companies should have strict policies about what can and cannot be downloaded or opened on their systems.

You share important information via e-mail and attachments allow us to send reports, copies of files, spreadsheets, photos, cartoons, music, etc. You update and expand the software on computers using sources on the Internet and vendors encourage this Step by passing on some of their delivery savings if we use this mechanism.

Website designers take advantage of built-in capabilities to check your machine to make sure you have the needed software tools to access their content, and if anything is missing they automatically arrange for the installation for you.

All of this is quick, easy, and saves you from dealing with a lot of technology mumbo-jumbo.  Anyone who writes a software program can distribute it on the Internet through the Web or by sending you a copy attached to e-mail. You are at the mercy of the program author when running it on your computer.  Any task that you can do on your computer, this program can also do. If you delete a file, send e-mail, or add or remove a program, your newly installed program can do this too.  And an intruder can do these tasks, unbeknownst to you, through the program you have just installed and run.

WHAT HAPPENS IF I’M NOT CAREFUL?

E-mail text, e-mail attachments, and download modules are excellent conduits for malicious code. By opening an e-mail attachment or accepting a downloading install option, the code is copied into your technology environment (sometimes in temporary files that you cannot easily see) and can attack your system through vulnerabilities (see Step 8).

Malicious code that lodges in your computer will usually attempt to spread itself to other computers using e-mail attachments.  If your computer is compromised, everyone in your electronic address book will receive e-mail from you with an attachment that can attack his or her system.  The volume of e-mail alone can strangle a network to a halt. In addition, the malicious code can corrupt and delete files and software running on your system.

If you do not take steps to prevent it, software to spy on your Internet usage will be loaded on your computer to track the websites you use and report on web-accessed accounts.  Key tracking software to intercept, store, and transmit the sequences of key types for accounts and passwords can also be installed on your machines.

GETTING STARTED

Educate all e-mail users to do the following:

1. Do not use the “preview” function for e-mail contents.

2. Do not open an attachment that the anti-virus software has indicated is malicious 3)

3. Do not open e-mails (delete them instead) from someone you do not know, especially if the subject line:

- Is blank or contains strings of letters and numbers that are nonsense

- Tells you of winning a contest you never entered or money you should claim

- Describes the details of a product that you might like

- Notifies you of a problem with instructions to install software on your machine

- Notifies you of a billing or account error for a service you do not use.

4. If you know the sender or decide to open the e-mail, check to make sure the contents along with the names of attachments and the subject line make sense.

ADDITIONAL STEPS

Set up your browser to alert you to Internet module downloading and do not accept them from sites you do not know, especially if e-mail from an unknown recipient has sent you to the site.

Delete and do not forward chain e-mails (similar to chain letters) and do not use the unsubscribe function for services to which you did not subscribe initially since this only alerts an attacker that a active address has been located and makes you a more valuable target.

Deactivate the use of java scripting and Active-X in your browser and only activate them temporarily for specific web pages.

When you are considering buying a software program, look for a clear description of the program and its features and make sure the source of this information is reputable.

NEXT…

In our next article in this series we’ll discuss the importance of anti-virus protection. 

An interview with Dr. Stanton Peele. Produced and directed by Patrick and Andrea Bergin. Copyright First Vision Productions 2003. … Peele Drugs Alcohol Abstinence Temperance

I have a famiy member who got in trouble for using crystal meth. He has seemed to stay clean but now he is saving pickle juice. He was saying that it was for headaches that the sun was giving him from working outside in the heat, but now it is cooler and he is still saving it. Plus, the day he drank the entire jar was the day he went to see his probation officer. So I was wondering if pickle juice can erase traces of meth to allow someone to pass a urine test or if he might be doing something like marijuana or if we can believe him about the headaches.
Thanks for your help.

The North Carolina senate recently passed a bill outlawing the herbal drug Salvia, due to its potential for abuse.  While any psychoactive drug brings cause for concern, there is a far more important issue that is not being addressed by current legislation.  The numbers of North Carolina citizens seeking but not receiving treatment for drug addiction is rising sharply.

In data obtained from United States Department of Health and Human services the number of North Carolina citizens seeking but not receiving drug treatment nearly tripled between 2006 and 2007.  This trend continues for those seeking alcohol treatment.

The report said that 192,000 people in North Carolina sought but did not receive drug  treatment in 2006, and 895,000 people sought but did not receive treatment for alcohol abuse.

In 2007 the numbers had jumped to 537,000 people seeking and not receiving drug treatment and 1,329,000 seeking but not receiving alcohol treatment.

Most legislation across the country has been focused at fighting a “War on Drugs”.  These numbers show there is a void to fill in drug and alcohol treatment.  Money being diverted to law enforcement would be much better spent providing drug and alcohol treatment to those already affected and drug education to those in danger of becoming involved in illicit drug use.

Narconon of Georgia Drug Rehabilitation Founded in 2001, Narconon of Georgia is a non-traditional drug treatment program. We offer non 12 step long term drug treatment for alcoholism, drug addiction, substance abuse and chemical dependency for women and men Narconon specializes in addressing cravings through a Sauna and Exercise Detoxification Program. Sauna detoxification is followed by Life Skills Training to prevent relapse with resultant 76% success rate. Narconon of Georgia is a non-profit company.

Heroin has always been considered to be one of the strongest forms of drug addiction in Alabama. The very elaborate program on heroin addiction treatment in Alabama is proof enough of that. Heroin is an opioid, a derivative of morphine, and much more addictive than its parent substance. A person who is once hooked to heroin will find it very difficult to come out of that dependency. It will take all the effort the treatment providers can make in order to pull them out of the addiction. Let us answer some questions here on this substance with special regard to heroin addiction treatment in Alabama.

Why is heroin such an addictive substance?

The addiction treatment program in Alabama has studied in detail how heroin addiction works. When a person takes heroin, it triggers the brain to secrete the chemical dopamine, which is responsible for the pleasure sensation in the body. This is why the person enjoys consuming heroin; it marks the release of the pleasure-producing dopamine. But as the person continues with the heroin habit, the brain becomes more and more immunized to the substance, and the secretion of dopamine decreases. This effectively causes a decline in the high produced due to heroin. In order to supplement this decline, the person starts taking more of the substance.

Thus, a progressive increase of the amount of the substance begins. The person starts taking more and more of heroin just in order to experience the same high that was experienced previously. In the process, the person gets drawn deeper and deeper into the addiction. This can lead to an eventuality such as heroin overdose, which is anyway a significant contributor of addiction related deaths within the state.

Where is heroin available in Alabama?

Basically speaking, heroin is available throughout the length and breadth of the state of Alabama. It is actually found much more commonly now that it was found until a few years earlier. Some of the prime areas that have a prevalence of heroin availability in Alabama are Auburn, Birmingham, Mobile and Montgomery. The indication that these areas have higher heroin availability is seen from the higher number of people of these areas that are checking into addiction treatment. Within the last five years, the percentage of people who are checking in for heroin addiction treatment in Alabama has gone up by more than 200%.

Though heroin addiction comprises only a small part of the overall extent of drug addiction in Alabama (a 2004 statistic by the Treatment Episode Data Set of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration shows that people checking in for heroin addiction treatment in Alabama are only 4% of the total people checking in for addiction treatment in the state), it is certainly a very concentrated form of addiction and needs great attention.

What are the options available for heroin addiction treatment in Alabama?

Heroin addiction treatment in Alabama is done on an inpatient basis with a detox treatment if the addiction is quite severe in nature, i.e. if the person has been using heroin for a significantly long period of time and if the person has tried other modes of treatment but has not met with success in them. In these centers the preferred medication used for the treatment is methadone. Methadone has been in use for heroin treatment in Alabama since three decades now. This is an opioid itself, and the primary intention of a methadone treatment is to reduce the craving that the person has for heroin.

However, extreme caution is advised with methadone treatment because it is a habit-forming substance itself and it can produce its own withdrawal symptoms if stopped or reduced abruptly. For that reason, this treatment can go on for quite a long time. As the temptation for heroin reduces, the treatment providers will also reduce the amount of methadone to be taken by the patient. A maintenance treatment will always be kept on because it is not possible to stop methadone completely in the short term. Also, methadone can seriously interact with some other prescription drugs. That is the reason this mode of treatment is always administered in an inpatient treatment setting.

There is another opioid that has been recently approved by the FDA for heroin treatment in Alabama. This is buprenorphine, another habit-forming drug, but to a much lesser extent than methadone. Buprenorphine can be prescribed even on an outpatient treatment basis. The introduction of buprenorphine in heroin addiction treatment in Alabama has made it possible for some people who are in mild to moderate stages of heroin addiction to get an outpatient treatment program to cure their condition.

The Saint Jude Retreat House offers the Jude Thaddeus Program, the only true alternative to conventional 12 Step Programs … “Drug Rehab” “Alcohol Rehab” “Drug Treatment” “Alcohol Treatment” “Non 12 Step Program”

The addiction to any drug should be treated by understanding the nature of illness and the response of the patient. We should not treat the addiction like a disease by following a fixed protocol but by having an individual approach. The cocaine drug has such a strong hold on the addict that it requires powerful tools for its annihilation. The cocaine addiction can be curbed easily if the person comes in the initial stage. In such cases treatment can be initiated at home with the help of medical personnel.

Since the drug affects the physical, emotional and mental faculty of the body, the task of curing the patient requires a systematic approach. The following steps are to be taken to treat the addict.

-The physical symptoms produced during the course of addiction make the person dependent on drugs. The cocaine detoxification process with the help of the licensed medical personnel must be conducted at the earliest. This procedure requires medication to counter the physical illness produced by the drug abuse. Initially there is exhibition of withdrawal symptoms, but to tide over the problem the addict should be strong willed.

Sudden withdrawal from caffeinated drinks is usually not advisable for people who are addicted for a considerable length of time. Such individuals should resort to gradual tapering from addiction under the supervision of both physician and psychiatrist. The role of psychiatrist is important because a person who is neck deep into addiction finds it difficult to tolerate the withdrawal symptoms and prefers to go back to addiction.

-The next aim is to strengthen the mental and emotional disturbances. This can be achieved by combined effort of relatives, physician, psychiatrist and colleagues. Some people respond well to group counseling and discussions as they feel relieved to vent their frustration and gain solace by sharing experiences. This method is followed at rehabilitation centre where patients are confined to prevent them from reverting to old habit of addiction.

-The help of psychiatrist is sought when the addict has undergone lot of psychologically inflicted injuries like sexual abuse, bereavement from loved one etc. In such people one to one counseling is done on a regular basis. The thought process is primarily affected in case of drug addiction. Hence our prime goal is to change the pattern of thinking of addicted person. The counseling of family simultaneously should be undertaken to prevent the aggravation of problem once the addict returns home.

-Hospitalization may be required for some addicts who have developed the complication of cocaine addiction like HIV or are suffering from grave symptoms of addiction like cardiac and respiratory failure.

-The adjuvant methods like exercise, meditation, music therapy and diet charting help a lot of addicts to keep the addiction at bay after the treatment has been completed.

I am thinking of trying laser therapy for drug addiction. How well does it work and is it worth it?