Category: Australia

What do you have when your product is easy to make, perfectly legal to sell and distribute, highly addictive and very appealing to wide range of demographics? A goldmine. One that has been shut close since, but just a few years ago the reign of synthetic drugs were felt across the globe. The result of it can still be seen and felt by millions who got hooked because of them. But why would people jump at the chance to get some of these drugs, if they are so obviously bad for you? Clever marketing.

Secrets of the trade.

All that is needed for a new type of product to succeed in the volatile drug market is for everyone to buy it at least once. If a new flavor soda comes out, and everyone buys at least one of them to try it, it already made its money back, if not more. The people who enjoy it and continue to purchase the product is just a good bonus, but usually not the main focus. The designer drug world was cannibalizing conventional marketing techniques to further their goals. So now, drug industry had professional chemists, savvy lawyers and genius marketing specialists to boot! That is a scary thought, is it not?

Peak rise.

Over time, people started getting wise, though. The promises that “this new stuff is the bomb man, and it’s perfectly safe too” just did not cut anymore. There were plenty of high-profile overdoses of this presumably safe party drug and media descended on the synthetic drug industry like vultures, picking it apart and finally educating people about the dangers of their use. It took a fair amount of overdosing and aggravated assaults for people to start coming to their senses.

One such case stood out above them all, though – the infamous “Miami zombie”. The dramatic name was given by media to a troubled young man who was shot dead by police while under presumed influence of bath salts. Later research revealed that he had noted mental illnesses as well, which sure did not help during the delirium that this drug can bring to the surface. The man was spotted seemingly cannibalizing another man – a homeless person. The assailant was identified as Rudy Eugene and has been confirmed to be chewing on the unconscious homeless man’s face when police arrived at the scene. The victim, Ronald Poppo was later confirmed to have lost almost 80% of his facial skin, evidently chewed and ripped off by the assailant. When police arrived and shot Rudy dead when he refused to comply, the homeless man was hospitalized and lived, even though he was left permanently disfigured and lost sight in both eyes.

Turncoats and imitators.

It did not take long for the synthetic drug dealers to realize, that this kind of publicity is not good for business, so during their continuous re-marketing and re-branding process, they made sure to label their new products as safe to consume and non-addictive. This drove already hooked and apprehensive people to them in large quantities. Returning to our early comparison with a new flavor of your favorite soda, everyone was eager to try the new stuff out.

At this time, a new and untapped market emerged. For those who were too smart to snort unknown chemical powders by the handful a new type of product was brought forward to appeal to this kind of demographic – the now infamous “Spice”, implied to be legal marijuana. Officially it was sold as incense but it did not take long for everyone to catch on, why suddenly head-shops had started selling incense. It was a dangerous mixture of various types of plants, usually soaked in dangerous chemicals that are the actual drug. The plant matter is just a disguise and a method of delivery. There are plenty of marijuana advocates out there, but they still don’t wish to break the law. Medical marijuana is becoming decriminalized in more and more countries around the globe and in many states in the US, but that was not the case just a few years ago. For the aspiring pothead to get their “weed”, they still had to break the law and thus synthetic marijuana or “spice” was a no-brainer choice. This decision often lead to brain damage, respiratory arrest, stroke and heart failures.

Three things all these synthetic “legal” drugs had in common.

1. They are marketed as safe because they are “legal”.
2. They had short shelf life and were made to be sold as many as possible before that particular product was banned.
3. They are highly addictive despite openly being marketed as non-toxic and extremely detrimental to human organism and its functions.

Aftershock.

These chemicals, be it in spice or bath salts – they are all dangerous. Studies revealed that a bath salts user of only two months had the same amount of damage to his mental capacity and bodily functions as 6 months of methamphetamine abuse. The neverending stream of overdoses and particularly violent and grotesque assaults later, a federal law was passed by president Barack Obama in mid-July of 2012, that effectively banned all “legal” highs, bath salts and spice included. This law banned more than 30 already identified synthetic drug compounds and pre-emptively included their variations and analogs – substances that are different in composition but affect the end user in very similar ways.

 

So what happened to those metric tons of pre-manufactured spice and bath salts? Most were seized and destroyed, but a large amount of it is still available on the table, just like cocaine, meth, heroin and all other illegal drugs. There are still countless addicts out there struggling to keep their life together after they were convinced that this new high will not get them hooked. People are gullible and hear what they want to hear, but they are still people with dreams and future plans. Most of these plans are shattered to splinters, but with professional help it is possible to salvage their lives and put them together even better, having learned the bitter lesson. Do not hesitate to seek help today, if you suffer from addiction and its side-effects.

What is it, that makes illegal drugs so hard to get? The answer is in the question and quite obvious – because they are illegal. The drug industry has grown and moved on from the old days of smuggling trucks filled with cocaine “a la Pablo Escobar”. Most self-respecting governments have cracked down on drug abuse and its illegal production and distribution rings. Long gone are the days when a drug manufacturer had dirt under his nails from farming and a small collection of household chemicals to refine the crop in the slopes of Colombia. Law has been becoming increasingly strict towards illegal production and sale of drugs, and with it, the drugs have risen in price because it is now more dangerous than ever to produce “organic” drugs. The farmers got an education, swapped their sunhats for face masks and goggles while working in labs most research facilities could only dream of. Drug dealers have become lawyers looking for loopholes in drug laws. It is the age of designer drugs and none of them have become more infamous in the recent years as the “Bath Salts”.

What are Bath Salts?

To put it simply, it’s a term used to broadly describe designer drugs that mimic amphetamines and cocaine effects on the human brain. Drug distributors got smart. Why make and sell an illegal drug, that has been classified, researched and placed “in a frame”, if you can pay an aspiring chemist a modest sum of money to put together a chemical, that is completely different in its build from the “real deal” but effects are the same, if not stronger?

The term “bath salts” came from the practice of selling these highly dangerous substances as actual bath salts or in some cases plant feeder mix. The dealers and chemists realized that branding your product with the label “DRUGS” is a social suicide as the majority of sane people realize that drug use is detrimental and physically dangerous. So they started selling these seemingly innocent products under disguise and those who were in the know understood what they are for. When you bought a gram of bath salts, they often provided you with a glass straw for crying out loud, so the general society caught on pretty fast and the governments got busy raiding these laboratories and distribution centers only to be met by a brick wall. A wall with letters THE LAW on it. They took the law that condemned their business practices and turned it around to work for them instead. You see, even though these chemicals affect the human brain in almost identical ways to illegal drugs, their composition is different and therefore they are not the same substance and cannot be classified as illegal. Well, not right away at least. So all the seized chemicals, lab equipment and people working with them had to be released because the law had no grounds to detain them.

The law caught up with them rather quick after this, new laws were passed and the new designer drug was outlawed. For a while. Once again the drug world was ahead of the law and made some minor changes to the formula of the drug and the resulting substance was once again completely legal because its composition was yet again different from that of the previous version of the drug. This tango continued for years, a new law was made to outlaw the latest version of the drug, a month later a new version of this drug would appear on store shelves. Beauracracy and the lengthy time required to pass new laws meant that the creators of designer drugs simply bought extra time to sell their drugs as much as possible before a new type of drug had to be synthesized.

What are designer drugs?

I have mentioned this term a few times already. Most drugs that we all know come from some kind of plant or a combination of existing chemical cocktails. Cocaine is produced from the coca plant leaves, heroin is made from poppy plants. These drugs were discovered rather than invented. The active substances in these plants developed in nature and humans simply discovered them and abused them for recreational use. Designer drugs are different. They are usually made from various chemicals and put together with a specific effect in mind. Much like pharmaceutical companies make a new pill for that headache, designer drug chemists make a new drug to mimic the effects of cocaine, for example.

 

Designer drugs are a menace. A very smart and adaptive menace at that, because it is so hard to nail it to the wall, so to speak. Every time a type of designer drug is classified and outlawed, it is altered until it is no longer illegal.

Join us in our next article, where we will examine the differences of long term abuse between conventional and designer drugs, as well as confirm if traditional rehab practices cater for such addictions.

There comes a day in any addicts life when there is just nowhere left to go but up. Rock bottom, they call it. Most addicts realize things need to change only when they reach this stage. Some come to their senses sooner, but that is a very rare. Either way, a reason to become sober has to be found. No addict will ever become sober “just because”, there are always a few reasons that trigger the will to change and provide the drive to persevere through the difficulties of the path to recovery. Here are a few good reasons that any addict should contemplate and consider kicking their bad habits.

Change

The broadest of all good reasons to become sober. Seems only fitting, to begin with it. When you take a step back and look at your life from the outside, what do you see? Most of the time it is not a pleasant view. Looking back, the road you took is often littered with people you hurt and cheated, wasted potential and broken promises. Getting sober to turn this around and simply being better is a great reason.

Memories

When most of your days are spent in a haze of drug-induced euphoria or simply erased from memory by drinking yourself into a stupor there is very little to show for it. The brain doesn’t register and store memories if it is overwhelmed by various chemicals that induce visions and dreams. Same goes for when you have used so much that you just pass out until the next day if you are lucky. Prolonged abuse even reaches back and slowly erodes dear and cherished memories of friends and family, from the time when you were happy. From the time when they were with you.

Parenthood

It is a truly harrowing feeling, that moment when you realize you have failed as a parent. If your years of drug abuse has not erased your childhood memories yet, you remember what it was like to have a mother, a father, and understand, that your own children will never have that kind of memories if you don’t stop. They have to be self-reliant because your addiction has made sure you miss school events, they have to pack their own lunch, their hygiene lacking because you didn’t even notice their dirty clothes or unkempt hair. All that mattered was the next hit. To better your children’s lives is any parents duty, the only duty, really. If an addiction has come between you and this most important of parental responsibilities, it is quite obvious what needs to be done.

Love

Do you remember what it was like to be looked at by your significant other with passion, love, and desire? Most likely these days they look at you with pity, sadness and perhaps even contempt. How could they not? They married a different person, one that could take care of themselves and did not act a fool in public and among friends. Perhaps abusive attitude drove a wedge between you and now they are just putting up with you, for whatever reason. Ever think they would be better off without you dragging them down? Wasting their years as much as you do your own. Being a better spouse is a great reason to become sober, no one should suffer due to your bad decisions, least of all people who love you.

Providing

Any addict will tell you, having a “hobby” like that is not cheap. In the case of drugs, most of them are highly illegal which allows for the dealers to set the price. In the case of alcohol, damage done to your health as well as personal and public property does not come cheap to fix or replace. Most addicts will sell their most prized possessions, often even those of friends and family, just to get that one more bump, just to stop the pain, judgment and self-loathing. This means that your spouse and children can not trust you to provide for them and their future. No education, no summer camps, no Christmas, no anniversaries, no vacations. The list goes on. Getting sober to provide and secure the future of your family is paramount. If when you look at your own family, can you honestly be proud and say that you have done well by them? Didn’t think so.

 

These and much more are great reasons to become sober. But it is important to understand, that these are just catalysts for this transformation. You need to want it for yourself as well, as a human being you must want to live, love and lead a normal life. None of which are possible when addiction gets in the way. Do not hesitate to seek help, from loved ones, from friends and specially trained professionals. Becoming sober is a long road, and every road begins with the first step. Take yours today.

We all use drugs at some point. Do you like herbal tea? Yep, you are a drug addict. Well, according to most people. People who don’t know any better, so don’t be one of those people and let us at Dara Rehab teach you something new.

Not everyone who uses a drug is a drug addict. Lesson over? Far from it, as we could argue about what is and isn’t “drug” until we are blue in the face, but we shan’t do that today. There are various medicines that are by definition drugs, that people use regularly and yet do not fall victim to addiction. There are many different drugs out there, most illegal and as a rule of thumb, if the drug is illegal it is also highly addictive and unhealthy. However, there is also a very long list of drugs that are perfectly legal, some even without prescription that could eventually lead you to the clutches of addiction. So let us have a look at various stages of drug use and what it takes to become addicted.

Drug experimentation

This is the first and most innocent stage of drug use. Be it a prescription drug like Oxycodone or perhaps something less legal like cocaine or methamphetamines. At this stage, it is nothing more than drug use, as the negative effects of these drugs have not set in. It could be a one-off or a perhaps a couple of times, to try it, experiment with it or just being pressured into doing it by friends or other peers.

Drug misuse

At this stage, the innocent “I just wanted to try it” excuse goes right out of the window. If you have tried an illegal drug more than just once or twice, you are already at this stage. If you have a prescription for some painkillers and you break the recommended dose or schedule of intake set by your physician or a doctor, you are also considered to be misusing the drug. If there are any negative effects of using a drug, it is considered a misuse. It could be anything from being pulled over while driving under influence or making a fool out of yourself while drunk at a party.

Drug abuse

This stage is already very easy to identify. Both in yourself and in others. If you could perhaps talk your way out of judgment from others in the drug misuse stage, drug abuse is as clear cut as it gets. In this stage, the drug is quite literally abused. Its use has become either a regular occurrence or moved to binge use. If you find yourself blacking out at parties and waking up hours later in some dirty public toilet, it is pretty clear you have been abusing your alcohol. People who are abusing drugs are missing appointments, neglect friends, and loved ones and start to exhibit health issues but continue to use regardless.

Drug Addiction

The last and final stage sets in and can be differentiated from the previous ones when the user has developed a distinct dependence of the drug and feels like he cannot live without it. Any idea of controlled use is abandoned and the user needs as much and as often as possible. Everything else either matters very little or not at all. This stage is where a lot of addicts realize that their hobby has gone out of hand and may attempt to reduce the frequency or amounts of use, but ultimately fail. They have developed a strong tolerance for the drug of their choice and as a result need ever-increasing amounts of it. Despite spending ridiculous amounts of money only to feel normal, they still do it. They know it costs them their future, life, relationships, and dignity, but they either don’t want to stop or simply cannot stop due to severe withdrawal symptoms. In some cases, stopping could mean death, as is the case with chronic alcoholics. If people who misuse drugs can be simply talked to and convinced of the error of their ways, a hardcore addict will just nod and dream of the next time he can shoot up or have another drink. Their brain has been rewritten and is no longer able to function without the substance. Professional help is paramount and needs to be sought out as soon as possible. Most addicts want to get clean but are unable to do it on their own. Their best bet at sober and happy life is to check in an inpatient rehabilitation center and finish a detox period and then a rehabilitation course. They need to be taught how to live like normal people and reintegrate in the society. Many of them have been addicts for so long, that even basic social skills and concepts have to be taught anew.

 

Being an addict is not the end of the world. At worst case scenario it is an end of the world that just never ends. Stop this downwards spiral today and seek help to get back on your feet and turn your life around. You have the right to be happy, sober and functioning human being, just like anyone else. Look at yourself and try to identify, at what stage are you? What stage seems familiar when you think of your friends or family? There is time to do something about it.

 

Welcome back to Dara. Today we will continue our previous article about the differences between an inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation centers. You can catch up with the previous article here.

Mind over matter

Let’s just begin with acknowledgment, that it’s impossible to simply “wish” your addiction away. It is a hard process. Becoming sober will mean long nights in cold sweat and self-doubt. Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s refresh what was the difference between an inpatient and outpatient rehabs.

Simply put an inpatient rehab is where the addict is admitted to the facility and is not allowed to leave the property of the rehab until checked out.

An outpatient rehab is a place the addict visits a few times a week, depending on their rehabilitation course. The biggest difference here is that the patient does not remain in the rehabilitation facilities and comes only for their therapy and counseling sessions.

Re-learning to live

Admitting yourself to a rehab is no easy decision. It is never the beginning of the fight, first, the battle of attrition with your own mind must be won. People rarely wish to make drastic changes in their life due to being scared of the unknown is a very strong pillar in human nature.

It is hard enough to tackle your fears and commit to becoming sober, then one must decide to go for an inpatient or outpatient rehab. Fundamentally they are very similar, but it is important to understand that an addict’s mind and reasoning has been impaired by years of substance abuse so one must ask themselves before making this decision – how much do you trust yourself? How easy will it be for you to avoid the temptation of your favorite drug? How long can you go without, until you MUST have some, no matter the cost, effort or ruined relationships?

An inpatient rehabilitation center has quite a lot better track record when it comes to successful cases of becoming sober. The reason being, that inpatient rehabs offer protection from the influence of outside world. It addresses the physical need for using by simply cutting off all supply and any chance of finding some. These first days or weeks, in some cases, can be very difficult to cope with. Many people break and demand to be discharged immediately. If the addict is able to withstand this tough period, the body no longer has physical need to use the drug, from there on out, it is all a mental battle.

Outpatient rehabs rely on you to keep yourself in check whenever you are not in their facilities. They expect you to stay strong despite being in the same environment that resulted in you becoming an addict in the first place. That is the main drawback with outpatient rehabilitation programs. They do work, but people are much weaker than they think they are. A large portion of inpatient rehab residents are people who tried to quit all by themselves at first, failed and then turned to outpatient rehab, but ultimately failed that as well.

Whichever treatment type you choose, they both provide you with support throughout your course. They provide much-needed structure to your life, discipline, and comfort of other like-minded individuals who are going through the same hardships that they are. A sort of camaraderie and mutual understanding is developed, usually reserved for those who experience high-stress environments or situations – people like soldiers, policemen or firefighters just to name a few. These people become your best chance at remaining sociable and engaged with people around you because for best chances at recovery the addict must avoid contact with people that affect him negatively. The dealer, the friends you used with and people that indirectly made you turn to substance use as a means of escape.

Whatever your choice, no better to make that choice than today. Seek help, because an addicts battle, is seldom won by themselves and without supportive people. We, as humans are social beings, being lonely and addicted is the worst kind of combination. You are never alone and there are professionals and other addicts who will do everything they can to make sure you become clean and complete your path to recovery.