Texas Addiction Recovery Blog
Canadian Alcohol and Drug Abuse
What do many U.S. residents think of when they hear the words Canada and Canadian? Polite people? Low crime rates? Nationally funded health care? Hockey? Beer? The truth is, Canada is a huge country with a diverse population. It’s impossible to reduce such a complex...
Misconceptions about Drugs and Drug Abuse
Different place, same sad story. The USA Today-affiliated Tennessean. site recently posted a number of stories about opioid abuse in the state of Tennessee. One story reports that Tennessee has more opioid prescriptions per person than any other state in the United...
Dual Diagnosis – Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorder – Often Co-Occur
Imagine you have a tumor in your shin that causes the bone to break. Now imagine the doctor only puts a splint or a cast on the leg and doesn’t address the tumor. Or bandaging an infected wound without cleaning it or disinfecting it. That’s kind of like substance use...
Cutting Substance Use Disorder Treatment May be (Unintended?) Result of Latest Health Care Proposal
There is a myth that one of the Sibyls (oracles) approached the last Roman king (before the creation of the Roman Republic), Lucius Tarquinnius Superbus, with several books of prophecies, asking an exorbitant price. He refused, so she burned some of the books, and...
The FDA vs. the Opioid/Opiate Epidemic
At least once a week, and that’s a conservative estimate, we hear stories about opioid/opiate abuse in the United States and around the world. In 2014, the World Health Organization reported that opioid overdoses kill about 69,000 people globally every year. Sadly,...
Opiate/Opioid Inhibitors Save Lives
Opioid abuse and addiction is so widespread, we’re seeing the repercussions of such problems in many parts of society. One of these parts is the education system. Schools in the state of Michigan and other U.S. states now have opioid/opiate inhibitors available. As...
Alcohol and Drugs on Campus
In August and September, many students start school. This is an exciting time of new beginnings, new experiences, and new hope. It can also be a dangerous time. Some students might engage in dangerous behavior such as binge drinking and experimentation with drugs and...
Legislators Undermine Substance Use Disorder Treatment, Will of the People with Medical Marijuana Restrictions
We are not a democracy, as we were often inaccurately taught in grade school civics classes, but a democratic republic. One consequence of that is that legislators can and do ignore the will of the voters and (as one blogger put it) “don’t even have to act like...
Report: Heroin, Opioid Substance Use Disorder is Still a Problem
Far right: Addict shooting up. (Pixabay) Every year the Substance Use Disorder and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) releases its National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). This year’s results suggests the opioid epidemic isn’t going away soon. In...
Can Marijuana Help Fight Opiate/Opioid Abuse?
It seems like every day, we hear or read something about the opiate/opioid epidemic in the United States. After hearing the statistics, it’s really not surprising. According to estimates, in 2015, around two million Americans were addicted to prescription pain...