Word: addicts
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...urged a prison term for Smith. "We must let the drug pushers know that the courts will not look kindly upon them. Drug dealers are merchants of misery and death." Smith knows both sides of that coin. According to her attorney, Howard Weitzman, she has been battling her addiction for years. But for Belushi, said Weitzman, Smith might have remained "just another addict...
Treatment at best is a long, complex and frequently frustrating process. There are disputes about the best methods. For example, some programs use chemicals in the first stage to ease the crash of a cocaine addict coming down and stimulate the production of natural brain chemicals depleted by the drug. Managers of other programs insist the goal should be to get abusers off % dependence on any kind of chemical right away...
...range of activities to fill the void in a patient's life left by withdrawal. Phoenix House, one of the nation's largest community therapeutic programs, with facilities in New York and California, relies on rough-and-tumble group-encounter sessions that have proved effective in reshaping an addict's attitudes. Dr. Mitchell Rosenthal, president of Phoenix House, says lying and rationalizations are a big part of being a drug abuser, and "the encounter enables him to see himself as he really is." For the 20% who stay for the full two-year program, the success rate as measured five...
Whatever the type of treatment they receive, recovering addicts need follow-up care and counseling, sometimes for as long as five years, to make sure they stay clean. A major treatment problem is to convince an addict that one resumption of drug use does not mean he will never shake his habit. Many recovering addicts do not stay in touch with follow-up programs, so no one knows whether or how long they stay off drugs. Thus the success of treatment programs is hard to measure. Though some claim success rates as high as 80%, Dr. Sidney Cohen, professor...
...prescribing needles for anyone who may use them for illegal drugs. Because of the legal obstacles, the program would require approval from the state legislature. That does not seem likely right now, but Rutledge hopes attitudes will become more enlightened. As he notes, it is a sobering fact that addicts find it easier to get drugs than clean needles. That means the AIDS threat will grow every time an addict shoots up with a dirty needle supplied by a friend or a drug dealer...