Sober Living by the Sea Blog

From our humble beginnings 23 years ago as a California drug rehab to our current status as one of the premier networks of drug and alcohol treatment centers, we have seen the evolution of the youth drug culture.

In the eighties, alcohol and cocaine were the primary drugs of choice for our clientele and we have seen years and periods where heroin was en vogue, and of course the rise of the crystal meth addiction epidemic. However, recent years have been very notable because of the rise of prescription drugs.

IN a recent government report that reflects drug use in 2007, about 5% of Americans aged 50 to 59 told researchers they had taken illicit drugs in the last month. This number is the highest it's ever been for this elderly age group. Of course prescription drugs like oxycontin, vicodin, valium, xanax, ambien, and ativan figure prominently into this statistic considering that the substances are all prescribed by doctors in certain instances and therefore widely available in pharmacies.

However, for younger people (young adults 12 to 25), one-third of those who use illicit drugs say they recently have abused prescription drugs - including narcotic painkillers, downers, and amphetamines. For kids age 12 through 17, 3.3% had abused prescription psychotherapeutic drugs in the last month and that number almost doubles to 6% for young people aged 17 to 25.

It is becoming clear that prescription medications have begun moving front and center as the nation's drug of choice. This is a disturbing trend considering that these drugs are insidious in their ability to build tolerance in the user and they are also particularly adept at making the user unwittingly mentally and physically dependent on them.

Another reason to be concerned about the rise in prescription drug abuse is the fact that accidental prescription drug deaths are on the rise . Particularly if mixed with alcohol narcotic painkillers and tranquilizers like vicodin, oxycontin, percodan, percocet, xanax, ativan, valium and other oxycodone, hydrocodone, and morphine derivatives can be fatal if ingested in in high enough concentration.

Here at our drug and alcohol treatment center in Newport Beach, California, Sober Living by the Sea has been treating adults for twenty three years and have identified the special needs of our clientele who are addicted to prescription drugs. We have a special track for the mature adult (age forty and higher) called the Reflections Program, and our primary care, and long term rehab programs have all adjusted to address unique issues of the prescription drug addict, such as the painful detoxification , and the propensity for denial that there is a problem that requires residential treatment (this denial partially fueled by the fact that the abused substances being legal for some users).

Sober Living by the Sea ensures that every client receives caring, supportive, and effective drug and alcohol treatment. Please do not hesitate to contact us so that we can help get you or your loved one on the road to recovery.

In the last 20 years, prescription medication abuse has become the silent epidemic in the addiction world.

When Sober Living by the Sea started treating drug addiction and alcoholism in 1986, the main substances that we found our clients needed treatment for were alcohol and cocaine. Throughout the nineties, we witnessed the sinister rise of amphetamine abuse and became experts in meth addiction treatment by adjusting our treatment facilities and programs to cope with the special needs that meth addicts bring to our treatment facility. Now, in recent years we have seen an overwhelming spike in the abuse of prescription drugs including narcotic painkillers, sedatives, tranquilizers, and stimulants.

The death of actor Heath Ledger has brought to the forefront of the public's consciousness the dangers of prescription drugs being abused and leading to accidental deaths. This is most common with downer type medications including vicodin, oxycontin, oxycodone, percodan, percocet, ambien, zolpidem, xanax, alprazolam, ativan, lorazepam, valium, and morphine/hydromorphine derivatives. The danger is escalated when the person who is addicted to or abusing prescription medications combines their medication intake with alcoholic beverages.

A recent study of death certificates published in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine have shown that home deaths from drug errors are up dramatically in the last 20 years.
Deaths from medication mistakes at home increased from 1,132 deaths in 1983 to 12,426 in 2004. Adjusted for population growth, that amounts to an increase of more than 700 percent during that time.

The lead author of the study David P. Phillips of the University of California, San Diego stated that "The amount of medical supervision is going down and the amount of responsibility put on the patient's shoulders is going up."

The treatment programs at Sober Living by the Sea are equipped to handle the treatment of addiction to prescription painkillers like vicodin and oxycontin. Also, Sober Living by the Sea has created a program specifically for the treatment of addiction in mature adults called the Reflections Program.