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Revealed! Awesome Images of How Druggies See Food
These amazing pictures capture what food looks like to those on Class A drugs!
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Fentanyl Kills Over 1,000 in 2 years
The "illegal" version of fentanyl was purchased from a pharmacy and then crushed up into heroin and other opioid narcotics to enhance their effects. They're using a clever word play to make it sound like it wasn't their drug that killed these people, but an "illegal" version.
More than 1,000 people died over two years from an illegal version of the painkiller fentanyl, the government reported Thursday in its first national tally of those deaths.
The wave of fentanyl overdoses first came to light in Chicago in 2005, and by 2006 more clusters were identified in Philadelphia, Detroit and other cities.
Hundreds of deaths from the drug were gradually reported, often episodically in local newspapers. Thursday's report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts the toll at 1,013 deaths from early April 2005 through late March 2007.
"This was really an epidemic," said Dr. Steven Marcus, the executive director of New Jersey's poison control center and a co-author of the new report.
Some deaths from illegal fentanyl still occur, but the worst of the outbreak seems to have ended after authorities shut down a fentanyl-making operation in Toluca, Mexico, in May 2006, said Dr. T. Stephen Jones, the study's lead author.
"It almost disappeared entirely. The shutting down of the Toluca facility was probably a major factor," said Jones, a consultant retired from the CDC.
The new report is being published this week in a CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Fentanyl is a prescription painkiller, often prescribed for cancer patients and administered through a patch. But it also is a powerful, euphoria-inducing narcotic, 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin.
Illegally made versions of the drug are sold as a powder, often mixed with cocaine or heroin, and sometimes used as a heroin replacement. It's possible some heroin addicts are unaware fentanyl is part of their injection, some experts say.
Smaller outbreaks of fentanyl-associated deaths in addicts have been reported before, including the "China White" outbreak of the 1980s, famed for being so deadly that drug users dropped dead with needles still in their arms.
The latest outbreak was first noted in Chicago. Patients who recovered from overdoses said they had been given free heroin in orange and pink plastic bags by new drug dealers trying to attract more customers.
The Chicago cases are summarized in the July issue of Clinical Toxicology.
It wasn't until a cluster of overdoses seen in Camden, N.J., emergency rooms in April 2006 that federal officials were notified of the problem, by Marcus.
The resulting investigation was unusual, because some health officials have been reluctant to spend time and energy investigating deaths related to illicit drugs, Marcus said.
"The response when I deal with public health officials is; 'Drug abuse is a dangerous habit, and drug abusers know it's a dangerous habit, so why are we making a big deal out of it?'" he said.
The report distinguished deaths due to illegally made fentanyl from those due to illicit use of the pharmaceutical product. Medical examiners cannot tell the difference from what's seen in an autopsy, so investigators relied on drugs found at the scene and other information to separate the two.
Also, the investigators did not count cases in every city. The tally covers only two states — New Jersey and Delaware — and the cities of Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia and St. Louis.
National health statistics show the death rate from unintentional drug poisonings — most of them illicit drug overdoses — roughly doubled from 1999 to 2005.
You can do further research by clicking these links:
http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr&...
http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.tandf.co.uk/jour...
The "illegal" version of fentanyl was purchased from a pharmacy and then crushed up into heroin and other opioid narcotics to enhance ... more -
Mushrooms lead to arrests
I posted a couple of these stories.
There have been hundreds of these stories recently so I felt the need to post a few. Chock one up for the local police departments for taking advantage of unjust laws and ruining the lives of countless free and law abiding Americans for the political purpose of making a headline. These do good police departments take photos of the loot they've pillaged from young and old alike. They pose smiling next to the Ziploc baggies of "contraband." We as a public at large praise them for their deeds, not thinking of the many years those people the police have just robbed will spend in jail, or the ruined lives they'll lead once they get out of jail, forever tattooed as a felon. We cheer when the local DA goes on the evening news to show us how they've just arrested someone's grand parents in a supposed marijuana ring. When it's time to allocate funds we pay millions upon millions of dollars to help organized criminals like the DEA and the local and state authorities to investigate, rob, and then put in jail our family, friends, neighbors, doctors, lawyers, priests, mailmen, professors and so on. These people they arrest are people like you and I. They are users and entrepreneurs alike. All fallen victim to the American Drug War and Narcotics Prohibition at large.
BIXBY, Okla. (AP) - Felony complaints have been filed against six people accused of possession of hallucinogenic mushrooms.
Bixby Police Officer Erik Smoot says the psilocybin mushrooms, nicknamed "shrooms," are hallucinogens that create the same effect as LSD but on a lesser scale.
Officials say 19-year-old Ryan Patrick Jackson of Broken Arrow and 22-year-old Christopher Kyle Brown of Bixby were arrested on July 16. Police reportedly found the two bagging up about 8 pounds of the illegal mushrooms behind a business.
Eighteen-year-old Jimmy Grammer of Bixby and three juveniles were taken into custody on Friday in rural Bixby with a small amount of the mushrooms and a small amount of marijuana.
The six were booked with possession of a controlled dangerous substance. No charges have been filed. I posted a couple of these stories. ... more -
Busted:14,000 hits of LSD
Man busted for large amout of LSD
SCHENECTADY - An Oregon man is sitting in a Schenectady County jail cell after being arrested over the weekend at the Camp Bisco Music Festival.
There were thousands of music lovers on hand for the three-day festival in Mariahville and police say Jonathan Taylor had more than enough LSD to go around -- about 14,000 hits of acid. The Portland man is charged with three counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance, two of which are felonies.
"We're not sure how he got it over the check points, but he did. That's why security is here to ride around and the attendees too. They come here to have a good time. They don't need that kind of stuff," Bill Potter said.
Potter's family runs Indian Lookout Country Club. This is the second year they've hosted the Camp Bisco Music Festival. He says on Saturday night, the last night, some alert concert goers and some quick action by his security staff helped nab Taylor.
"We went down. When we found him he had these little things, what looked like papers, looked like art work. Come to find out they were acid," Potter said.
Potter says security escorted Taylor off the grounds and handed him over to state police.
After checking his car, police say they found 14,000 hits of LSD along with $17,000 in cash.
The allegations of trying to get others tripping on acid earned this Oregon man a trip to the county jail.
"Don't like it, that's what we try to stop it. Someday my kids might be up here and that guy could be trying to sell that stuff to my kids," Potter said.
Taylor is being held at the Schenectady County Jail without bail.
There have been hundreds of these stories recently so I felt the need to post a few. Chock one up for the local police departments for taking advantage of unjust laws and ruining the lives of countless free and law abiding Americans for the political purpose of making a headline. These do good police departments take photos of the loot they've pillaged from young and old alike. They pose smiling next to the Ziploc baggies of "contraband." We as a public at large praise them for their deeds, not thinking of the many years those people the police have just robbed will spend in jail, or the ruined lives they'll lead once they get out of jail, forever tattooed as a felon. We cheer when the local DA goes on the evening news to show us how they've just arrested someone's grand parents in a supposed marijuana ring. When it's time to allocate funds we pay millions upon millions of dollars to help organized criminals like the DEA and the local and state authorities to investigate, rob, and then put in jail our family, friends, neighbors, doctors, lawyers, priests, mailmen, professors and so on. These people they arrest are people like you and I. They are users and entrepreneurs alike. All fallen victim to the American Drug War and Narcotics Prohibition at large.
Have an opinion? Please join the conversation by commenting below. Man busted for large amout of LSD ... more -
Public hearing planned on medical marijuana
New Mexicans will be able to have their say on proposed rules for the state's medical marijuana program.
The state Department of Health announced Thursday that it will hold a public hearing Sept. 8 in Santa Fe to take comments on regulations that would set up rules for patient identification cards and a regulated system for licensing, distributing and manufacturing medical marijuana.
The state law that took effect in July 2007 allows marijuana for pain or other symptoms of specified debilitating illnesses. The department has approved 169 people for medical marijuana, including 40 with spinal cord damage, 39 with HIV-AIDS, 36 with cancer, 28 with multiple sclerosis, 14 with epilepsy and 12 with glaucoma.
New Mexico has been careful in drafting its regulations because no other state has developed rules for a distribution and production system, Health Secretary Dr. Alfredo Vigil said.
The state proposes two types of licensed producers: a qualified patient who can produce a defined supply for personal use only and a nonprofit private entity operating a facility limited to 95 mature plants and seedlings at any time.
The health secretary will consider the needs of qualified patients and public safety in determining the number and location of licenses.
The regulations include measures to prevent unauthorized marijuana use by requiring criminal background checks for applicants, security measures for facilities and a warning that unauthorized use will be referred to state law enforcement.
The hearing also will take public comments on the proposed rules for the identification card program, the third hearing on that part of the program.
That plan would let patients possess six ounces of medical marijuana as a supply for three months. Patients with a license to produce could have four mature plants and 12 seedlings.
The department has made several changes in the draft proposal based on previous comments, including adding definitions for usable marijuana, adding an appeal and revising a monitoring system to be more respectful to patients. New Mexicans will be able to have their say on proposed rules for the state's medical marijuana program. ... more -
Drug legalization debate, 6/26/08, aired across Europe and the Middle East
Click here to view the full one-hour program on presstv.com. David Borden did not appear in the first half due to technical problems. PressTV is an English-language network based in Teheran, which airs across Europe and the Middle East.
References for statements made by David Borden:
* Past-year prevalence of marijuana use among young people in the tolerant Netherlands about half as in nearby France:
The State of the Drugs Problem in Europe, 2007 report EMCDDA (page 41)
* States with marijuana decriminalization have not seen resulting rises in use:
various studies including Institute of Medicine, Monitoring the Future, Connecticut Law Review Commission, others
* Teen marijuana use declines in states with medical marijuana laws:
Marijuana Use by Young People: The Impact of State Medical Marijuana Laws
* Substitution effect between marijuana use and alcohol use:
Substitution of Marijuana for Alcohol: The Role of Perceived Access and Harm, Journal of Drug Education, 2006
* Average Age of Netherlands heroin addicts has been increasing (e.g. few young heroin addicts):
Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction
* Opiates and cocaine were banned almost a century ago (1914) by the Harrison Narcotics Act:
Consumers Union Report on Licit and Illicit Drugs
* Taliban earns $100 million in opium profits in 2007:
Drug War Chronicle citing UN Office on Drugs and Crime Chief Antonio Costa on BBC
* Drug prohibition sends hundreds of billions of dollars per year in illicit revenues to the global underground:
UN World Drug Report, via Drug War Chronicle
* The US homicide rate increased under alcohol prohibition and decreased following it's repeal:
Schaffer Library alcohol prohibition section
* Street price of cocaine (adjusted for purity and inflation) drops by 80% since 1980:
Rand Corporation, via Joint Economic Committee, US Senate Click here to view the full one-hour program on presstv.com. David Borden did not appear in the first half due to technical problems. ... more -
In New Orleans, you can get 5 years in prison for a joint of marijuana
Drug war defenders are indeed fond of pointing out how hard it is to actually get jail time for using drugs. So they should probably stop New Orleans District Attorney Keva Landrum-Johnson before she finishes filling Louisiana's prisons with the pettiest marijuana users she can find:
The flood of new felony charges didn’t target murderers, rapists or armed robbers — they targeted small-time marijuana users, sometimes caught with less than a gram of pot, and threatened them with lengthy prison sentences.
The resulting impact has clogged the courts with non-violent, petty offenses, drained the resources of the criminal justice system and damaged low-income African-American communities, [Orleans Public Defenders Office Chief of Trials Steve] Singer said.
…
A first-time marijuana possession charge in Louisiana is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in prison but typically results in a small fine. A second offense is a felony that can carry up to five years in jail and a third offense up to 20 years.
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Some say Landrum-Johnson’s decision to buck history and charge marijuana users with felonies is a political decision meant to assist in her run for Orleans Criminal District Court Section E judgeship. By prosecuting thousands of marijuana possession cases as felonies, Landrum-Johnson can then go to the voters of New Orleans and claim she is “tough on crime,” [Tulane University criminologist Peter] Scharf said. She can point to the massive increase in felony prosecutions under her tenure without explaining that those prosecutions were for people holding joints and not guns, he said. [New Orleans CityBusiness]
Only Landrum-Johnson knows what her motivations are, so I won't belabor that point. She is presiding over a deliberate effort to place large numbers of small-time marijuana users in prison for 5-20 years and there exists no noble motive for doing that. Whether she believes this can help her become a judge, or she possesses a virulent and vindictive animosity towards people who smoke marijuana, or she is merely detached utterly from the consequences of the authority she wields, the result is disastrous and the justification is a fraud.
This, I'm afraid to say, is the reality of America's war on drugs. Everyday our drug policies produce outcomes none of us intended and almost none of us support. The idea of imprisoning nonviolent drug users is so obviously unpopular that the DEA has a whole page arguing that it almost never happens. But will anyone in Washington, D.C. approach the New Orleans DA's office and tell them to stop? Of course not. The very people who so vigorously argue the scarcity of such injustices are the same ones who work tirelessly to conceal them and enable their continuation. Drug war defenders are indeed fond of pointing out how hard it is to actually get jail time for using drugs. So they should probably s... more -
Dominican drug czar slams Washington’s “persistent obstruction” in narcotics war
Dominican Republic’s equivalent to drugs czar yesterday slammed Washington for its “persistent obstruction” that limits his country’s initiatives and efforts “to resist and defeat” drug trafficking’s aggression by sea and air.
Marino Vinicio Castillo (Vincho), Cabinet minister and the Presidency’s narcotics adviser, said the United States authorities know the number of flights with drugs that occur every week in the Dominican Republic.
He said the current problem destroys the collective calm, affecting entire families and noted that since his previous term in office president Leonel Fernandez has fought against drugs with determination.
Castillo spoke in the launching of the National Strategic Drug Plan, where its objectives and measures stressing the damages narcotics cause were detailed, and the integration of Government agencies and private institutions with that purpose.
The official also criticized the alleged permissibility of ex president Hipólito Mejía’s administration (2000-2004) with drug trafficking and Washington’s supposed indifference against that behavior, for the presence of Dominican troops in Iraq. He said that participation “produced more deaths for us from the addiction of our youth than the U.S. casualties in the war.
He warned that the amount of drugs now entering can lead the country to the condition of a Failed State, since it’s not in “mere transit,” as much of it is consumed in this nation. Dominican Republic’s equivalent to drugs czar yesterday slammed Washington for its “persistent obstruction” that limits his country’s ... more -
Dutch customs seize 19 tons of marijuana
Dutch customs officers have seized 19 tons of marijuana with a street value of 60 million euros ($98 million) on a vessel in the port of Amsterdam.
The ANP news agency quoted authorities as saying the seizure was the biggest of the century.
Police arrested four people on suspicion of drug trafficking.
The unidentified ship was carrying a cargo of walnuts in containers. The drugs were hidden in jute bags in one of the containers. Dutch customs officers have seized 19 tons of marijuana with a street value of 60 million euros ($98 million) on a vessel in the port ... more -
Amy Winehouse in wax
A wax figure of singer Amy Winehouse was unveiled at Madame Tussauds in London on Wednesday, July 23, 2008. Check out the photos.
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Drug addiction soars in Mexico
The number of new patients at Mexican treatment centers has more than quadrupled since 2000. The health ministry has announced plans to build 300 new rehab centers, triple the current total, to deal with the overflow.
"We used to be mainly a country of transit for drugs. Now we've become a consumer," says Ricardo Sánchez, director of research for the health ministry's rehab centers.
The number of new patients at Mexican treatment centers has more than quadrupled since 2000. The health ministry has announced plans t... more -
First Amendment lite
If you’re a perfume manufacturer and you’d like to name your latest fragrance Opium, no government agent will stop you. The world’s flagship soda is called Coke. A company called Chronic Candy has been selling lollipops flavored with cannabis flower essential oil for eight years. Energy drink connoisseurs routinely enjoy products with names like Fixx, Bong Water, Buzzed, and Speed Freak. Even the controversial energy drink Cocaine is for sale again, after revising its label to comply with Food and Drug Administration guidelines.
If you produce alcoholic beverages, however, puns, drug slang, and ghoulishly percussive monkeys may land you in trouble. Take, for example, the case of the Mt. Shasta Brewing Company. Located in tiny Weed, California, the microbrewery sells bottled versions of its five ales and lagers in retail stores in California, Oregon, and Washington. Since 2004 the bottle caps on all five Mt. Shasta beers have been emblazoned with a slogan that plays on the town’s name: “Try legal Weed.”
Anytime a producer or importer of alcoholic beverages wants to market a new product, it must submit a proposed label to the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) for approval. Earlier this year, when Mt. Shasta proprietor Vaune Dillman turned in his application for a new beer he planned to start bottling, he included the design of the bottle caps. Shortly thereafter, the TTB advised him by fax that the slogan “Try legal Weed” was an impermissible “drug reference,” adding, “We do not believe that responsible industry members should want or would want to portray their products in any socially unacceptable manner.”
To put it another way, the TTB believed the 61-year-old businessman and civic booster was guilty of a thought crime. Although no law on the books explicitly prohibits “drug references” on alcoholic beverage product labels, the bureau told him he had to stop using his socially unacceptable bottle caps. If you’re a perfume manufacturer and you’d like to name your latest fragrance Opium, no government agent will stop you. The world’s fl... more -
Peaches Geldof 'treated by paramedics after suspected overdose'
Peaches Geldof is reported to have been treated by paramedics after a suspected drugs overdose at her home.
The 19-year-old daughter of Sir Bob Geldof is believed to have been revived by a friend who reportedly gave her the kiss of life as they waited for the emergency services.
Her mother, TV presenter Paula Yates, died of an overdose in 2000. The paramedics arrived at Miss Geldof's home in Islington, North London, on Sunday afternoon.
Peaches Geldof is reported to have been treated by paramedics after a suspected drugs overdose at her home. ... more -
Tobacco style health warnings for alcohol
Drinks manufacturers in the UK will be given until the end of the year to put the required warnings and advice on bottles and cans. If the target is not met, the Government will move to put a mandatory scheme in place. This would require health and unit information on all drinks containers.
The consultation, which is launched today (July 22), would see the industry's self-regulation code on retailing become mandatory. It would also mean restrictions on the way alcohol is sold in pubs, bars and nightclubs, including banning large glasses or measures, restricting promotions and mandatory point of sale information. Shop checkouts will also not be allowed to display alcohol-related promotions.
Figures will show that six per cent of all NHS admissions are in some way caused by drink, and the rate of visits to hospital over alcohol-related problems is rising by 10 per cent every year. The figures indicate the true impact alcohol has on the NHS from accidents, violence and disease. They include for the first time estimates of the number of cancers caused by alcohol consumption as well as heart disease and strokes.
Alcohol is thought to cause about 17,000 cases of cancer a year and £2billion of NHS money is spent every year treating patients with alcohol-related diseases. Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, believes “lifestyle” illnesses will put an increasing strain on the NHS unless people behave more responsibly.
Drinks manufacturers in the UK will be given until the end of the year to put the required warnings and advice on bottles and cans. If... more -
Group urges total drug legalization
OMAHA, Neb. -- A group visiting Omaha has called for the legalization of drugs, saying the government’s current efforts to control the problem has failed.
“While we definitely have a problem with drugs in this country, we definitely have to have a change in the policy,” said Tony Ryan. The retired Denver police officer is a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a national group, made up mostly of current and former police, which favors repealing laws that make drugs against the law.
“The only way to have control is to legalize it, regulate it and perhaps, tax it,” Ryan said. He spoke in Omaha Thursday night. OMAHA, Neb. -- A group visiting Omaha has called for the legalization of drugs, saying the government’s current efforts to control the... more -
N.C. funeral director arrested with S.C. coroner denies drug charge
A Gastonia funeral director arrested Thursday with York County, S.C., coroner Doug McKown said he took a drug test Monday to prove that he wasn't smoking crack.
According to the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office, an officer stopped McKown's York County government sport utility vehicle after he saw Howell in the passenger seat smoking something on an aluminum drink can.
Howell allegedly confessed to the officer that he was smoking crack cocaine. But Howell denied using drugs during an interview Monday.
A Gastonia funeral director arrested Thursday with York County, S.C., coroner Doug McKown said he took a drug test Monday to prove tha... more -
26th Parallel: Video: Miami in the Early 80s
I received this interesting and very disturbing video below via e-mail several days. The 6+ minute video looks back at the crime wave which hit Miami in the late 70s and early 80s, right around the time of the infamous Time Magazine article "Paradise Lost". A central theme of the video is the supposed role played by Colombian drug traffickers and people who came to Miami via the Mariel boatlift of 1980 in the sharp increase in homicides during that era.
A little context: the video was posted by a group called Immigration Control Florida (ICF), whose opening paragraph on their website states:
ImmigrationControlFlorida.com / ICF requests that Americans join our group to support our stated goals to save America. Our group worked to stop the 125,000 Mariel Cuban refugees that illegally invaded Miami-Dade County that destroyed Miami with 50,000 murderers, psychopaths, criminals, criminally insane, hitmen, drug pushers, and enforcers making "Miami the murder capital of the world" with 615 murders in only 1 year with so many bodies that the Miami Medical Examiner had to rent a refrigerated truck to store the excess bodies at a cost of $150 million in 1 year making "Miami a 3rd World Country" ! (U.S.News & World Report -Jan.16, 1984 - page 29).
Let me make something totally clear: I am against illegal immigration, but ICF doesn't even try to conceal their disdain for any immigrant group, in particular Cubans from Mariel. Yes, there were criminals mixed in with regular folks who came over via Mariel. Yes, there was a strain on the services the Miami community could provide, but I don't know where and how ICF got the "50,000" number they use to slime an entire community. As we know, the collective group from Mariel has turned out to be yet another in the long tradition of Cuban-American success stories, despite the initial shock of Miami having to absorb 125,000 new arrivals in Miami in only a few short months.
In short, ICF sounds like nothing more than a bunch of bigots and racists who give reasonable folks' objections to illegal immigration a bad name (as well as provide unnecessary fodder to those who feel naturally inclined to bash anything resembling securing borders).
Some of the quotes in the video are quite over-the-top and no doubt representative of the ethnic conflict which gripped Miami during that time. Riots in Liberty City in 1980, Mariel a few months later, passing of "English Only" ordinances in Miami, huge law enforcement scandals. It was a pretty turbulent time. For those of you who weren't here during that time, it's worth your time to view the video below. For those of you who feel that Miami and South Florida are currently living through bad times never seen before, the video offers some much needed perspective.
H/T Rubio for the video.
(Note: make sure to identify the journalists in the video. It's a who's-who of local and national personalities). I received this interesting and very disturbing video below via e-mail several days. The 6+ minute video looks back at the crime wave ... more -
The CIA Selling Drugs (Must Watch!!)
This may be long, but it details how the CIA has been selling drugs for decades. The man in the Video is a former LA Police Narcotics Officer. To better understand our Government you must see this video! This may be long, but it details how the CIA has been selling drugs for decades. The man in the Video is a former LA Police Narcotics ... more
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Tijuana - a market for death in a bottle
"Cocaine?" a hustler working Tijuana's seedy Avenida Revolución called out on a recent night, his voice not the least bit muted.
"How about girls?"
When neither offering elicited the desired response, he tried another: "Cuban cigars?"
He could have continued for quite a bit longer reciting from Tijuana's extensive menu of contraband. One product from this border town, though, trumps all others in terms of shock value: death in a bottle, a liquid more potent than even the strongest tequila.
The drug, pentobarbital, literally takes a person's breath away. It can kill by putting people to sleep, and it is tightly regulated in most countries. But aging and ailing people seeking a quick and painless way to end their lives say there is no easier place on earth than Mexico to obtain pentobarbital, a barbiturate commonly known as Nembutal.
Read more... "Cocaine?" a hustler working Tijuana's seedy Avenida Revolución called out on a recent night, his voice not the least bit muted. ... more -
Defeating Addiction
The world is full of addicts. They're everywhere. The old way of dealing with addiction was to throw the addict in jail and forget about them. In the modern world it's time we consider the more peaceful alternative which is treatment. 30-60-90 days can change a lifetime of bad behavior. At a cost that is far less then housing non-violent drug users in jails for years.
When he was just 10 years old, Don L. Sutton lived in a rundown house on 17th and Felix. At that age, his mother walked out on his family and he was being sexually molested frequently by another family member. He would have his first drink of alcohol five years later. It would be 22 years before he kicked his many addictions that all started with that first drink.
In Mr. Sutton’s new book, “Understanding Meth: The Epidemic,” he writes about his life as first an alcoholic, then a drug addict and drug dealer. He also describes his first use of meth and how it stemmed from that first drink he took at 15 years old.
“My whole life of alcoholism and drug addiction, all I continually did was try to get that higher high,” Mr. Sutton explains. “I went from alcohol to marijuana, from marijuana to cocaine, cocaine to heroin, heroin to LSD, LSD to meth.”
As his chase for the “higher high” continued, his life spiralled out of control. Soon, his addictions were a detriment to his family as both of his children suffered abuse and developed their own drug addictions.
In 1985, the Sutton family moved from St. Joseph to Portland, Ore. It was in Portland that he failed at attempting suicide in August 1987. After this experience, Mr. Sutton realized how insignificant his life was as an addict and the impact he had on those he loved. He decided he needed help right then and there.
“I was really sick and tired of being sick and tired,” Mr. Sutton says.
He checked into treatment for 33 days and now he has been clean and sober for 21 years.
His troubled life inspired him to write his book which has been featured on “The Late Show with David Letterman” and is part of Oprah’s Book Club. He plans on touring the country this year and giving every governor of every state a copy of his book. “Understanding Meth: The Epidemic” is his way of trying to spare people from the life he had.
“This book may not stop this epidemic, but if it saves on life it will be worth my time and effort. I’m not out to save the world. I’m out to save one person,” Mr. Sutton says.
He will be signing copies of his book tonight at 6:30 p.m. at Grace Evangelical Church in St. Joseph. For more information on the signing, call 279-2090. For more on Mr. Sutton’s book, visit www.understandingmeth.com. For more on meth prevention, visit www.saynotometh.com.
Do you have any experiences with addiction, or a friend or family member who has been successfully treated for addiction. Please comment below and let others know your point of view The world is full of addicts. They're everywhere. The old way of dealing with addiction was to throw the addict in jail and forget abo... more
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