Author: Christy Weeks

Spaces Left for Harmony’s Spiritual Renewal Retreat in May

Posted on by Christy Weeks

Weekend Spiritual Renewal Retreat, Estes Park, Colorado 

As a leader in the field of addiction treatment, Harmony Foundation recognizes the importance of consistently nurturing one’s spiritual practice. That is why we are offering a weekend Spiritual Renewal Retreat at the beginning of May. 
The retreat will be facilitated by Harmony Foundation’s spiritual advisors Marty Faraguna and Debra Avezzano who describe the retreat as a “weekend for participants will be a time to relax and step away from the day to day routine of life and refocus on and revitalize their spiritual journey. In a serene, intimate environment the spirit will be nurtured in relationship with others through meditation, laughter, discussion, and other activities.” 
Through several workshops, classes and opportunities for prayer and meditation, participants will have ample opportunity to rekindle, reflect and reprioritize their personal spiritual beliefs. The goal for the retreat is to offer each participant the ability to integrate their spiritual realizations into their daily lives after the retreat. Here are more details: 
Friday through Sunday, May 2-4 For Harmony Alumni and Friends 

Join us at the luxurious Fall River Lodge in Estes Park 
$225.00 per person $375.00 per couple 
*Retreat price includes: Meals, Lodging, Activities and more . . . 
Facilitated by Spiritual Advisors Marty Faraguna and Debra Avezzano 
For Information and Registration Call Debra (970) 577-3160or e-mail her at davezzano@harmonyfoundationinc.com 

Spiritual Renewal Retreat Agenda – May 2014 

Friday, May 2 
3:30 Participants Arrival & Room Assignments 
4:15 Meet and Greet 
4:45 Dot Dorman, Harmony CEO 
5:30 DINNER 
7:00 Music Therapy 
Saturday, May 3 

6:30 Yoga 
7:45 BREAKFAST 
8:45 Spirituality: A Larger Perspective 
10:00 Healing Touch Mini-Presentation/Chair Massages 
10:30 Guided Meditation 
12:00 LUNCH 
1:15 Labyrinth History & Meditation Walk 
4:00 Quiet time by the River 
5:30 DINNER 
6:30 Centering Prayer 
7:15 Buddhist Meditation 
Sunday, May 4 
6:30 Yoga 
7:45 Breakfast 
9:00 Participants Share their Journey 
10:15 Closing Prayer

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Meth Addicts Going to Great Lengths Poaching Redwoods

Posted on by Christy Weeks

People in active addiction to powerful drugs like heroin or meth often lose their moral compass in pursuit of their next high. They often do things they wouldn’t normally do, going against their own morals and deeply rooted belief systems. This is when addiction is real and all encompassing and drug addiction help is needed.

According to forest rangers in Northern California, methamphetamine addicts are losing their moral compass by engaging in theft and contributing to environmental degradation through poaching burl from redwood trees. Burl is the wood that grows in knobs on redwood trees and used for household items from coffee tables to decorative clocks. Addicts are reportedly poaching this rare material and selling it to craftsmen at cheaper prices. The considerable markdown of $2-$3 a pound is tempting for the craftsmen who are struggling in the current economy and used to paying much higher prices. According to the rangers patrolling Redwood National and State Parks they have known of burl poachers for awhile, but recently it has become such a growing problem that they have shut down the main parkway running through the 133,000 acre forest at night.

Burl from a redwood, used to clone another redwood 

According to Jeff Denny a Park Supervisor, “Originally there were 2 million acres of old growth forest that spanned the coast of Northern California…95 percent of that original forest has been cut. The only remaining old growth forest in existence now is almost entirely within the Redwood national park and the state parks.” The burl on redwoods are essential to growing more redwoods, as they part of the tree that sprouts a clone before dying. Poaching therefore threatens what is left of the redwoods.

In our residential addiction treatment programs we encourage those in recovery to go to great lengths for their sobriety. We remind them the lengths they went to in active addiction to attain their next high. Driving out into the redwoods on ATVs with chainsaws and contributing to degradation of redwoods for just $2-$3 a pounds is certainly an example of a great length that we hope some of these addicts will learn to channel toward their recovery from addiction.

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Drug Abuse Among Unsuspecting Professionals

Posted on by Christy Weeks

Addiction does not discriminate and our drug and alcohol programs here at Harmony reflect this fact well – with programs for young adults, men and women in all stages of life.

The need for more addiction rehabs to focus on professionals in their programs has been highlighted in the news recently with professionals under fire for drug abuse. Last week, a high school IT teacher in England was sentenced to over 3 years in jail and permanently banned from teaching after being caught with more than 100 grams of cocaine in a narcotics lab in his home.

His sentencing came after an investigation found that he was involved in high-level supply of cocaine leading to his arrest in 2012. At first the teacher denied being a distributor and said he was holding drugs as a favor but then later revealed that financial distress lead to his self-compromising actions. Steve Powell,  the chairman of the General Teaching Council for Wales (GTCW) said “The wellbeing of pupils must be protected and the reputation of the profession maintained” and permanently ban the teacher from teaching in the future.

In a similar story, a New York City music teacher was arrested last week for selling instruments to support her heroin addiction. The 30 year old elementary school music teacher began stealing the instruments last June and selling them at pawn shops.

Police caught wind of this last October and have been investigating her since. When she was pulled over last week a police officer found a tuba she said she was using for work – a story that wasn’t backed by her school district. In addition to the tuba, police found 12 of the instruments stolen from the school at local pawn shops. The teacher and her boyfriend, who helped her steal and pawn the instruments, are being charged with possession of stolen property and possession of a controlled substance.

Although both cases pertain to teachers, other unsuspecting professionals battle addiction that place them in compromising situations that inflict severe legal and professional ramifications upon them. From airline pilots to anesthesiologists, professionals are losing their licenses and reputations because of addiction. Fortunately, some professions have system in place that allow staff to seek addiction treatment and return to their professions while others, like the teacher in England, lose their professions all together.

Addiction treatment programs are available to give all walks of life a second chance at life. This is because people are not themselves when in active addiction – they do things they would have never dreamt of doing before their addictions took them to a place of desperation. The case of the teachers is one example among many that exist. That is why Harmony Foundation has established drug rehab programs that help clients out of desperation and back to their true selves – the selves they knew before addiction took hold.

 

The Dangerous Zohydro Hits the Market This Week

Posted on by Christy Weeks

A few months ago, we wrote about Zohydro – the controversial painkiller approved by the FDA last October. Despite its controversy and attempts to block its release, the opiate hits the market this week. Health care and addiction recovery advocates are still pushing for an appeal, as they fear widespread abuse of the painkiller while opiate abuse has reached epidemic levels in the US.

The controversy over Zohydro lies in the fact that it is a pure hydrocodone drug, without acetaminophen or other drugs added to it, making it 5 times stronger than other popularly abused opiates. In addition, it is crushable when most crushable painkillers were taken off the market a few years ago. Large scale efforts were made to remanufacture opiates like Percocet and OxyContin to make them unable to be crushed, snorted or injected. Zohydro undoes these efforts and puts health care advocates on edge thinking about the eminent widespread abuse and overdose potential of Zohydro. 

Zogenix, the manufacturers behind Zohydro said they plan on releasing a non-crushable version of the opiate but that it would take 3 years before hitting the shelves. Considering prescription opioid deaths have quadrupled since 1999, 3 years is not soon enough.

Given that Zohydro is 5 times stronger than other opiates, “It will kill people as soon as it’s released,” said Dr. Andrew Kolodny who serves as president of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing. Kolodny adds, “It’s a whopping dose of hydrocodone packed in an easy-to-crush capsule.”

 

Adding to its controversy, many question how such a dangerous drug got approved in the first place when an advisory committee voted against it by 11-2. Questioning this, U.S. senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and David Vitter (R-LA) have actually started a bribery investigation aimed at an FDA official who they claim accepted money from pharmaceutical companies in exchange for a seat on an FDA advisory panel meeting for Zohydro.

Although necessary, bribery investigations and a 3-year release plan of a non-crushable version of Zohydro will do little to prevent abuse and overdose. That is why Harmony Foundation is unwavering in its efforts in providing the best addiction treatment and relapse prevention services for opiate abusers. We aim to put a dent in the soaring number of overdose deaths from opiates and help clients seeking opiate addition treatment live opiate free.

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What Addiction is Like for Philip Seymour Hoffman & Many Others

Posted on by Christy Weeks

A few weeks ago we wrote about Philip Seymour Hoffman’s death and the media frenzy spawned ill informed comments about addiction and his death. Last week an article published in the New York Times entitled “Truth and Prize Emerge From Lies About Hoffman” interviewed Hoffman’s friend, David Bar Katz, who shed a more realistic light on Hoffman’s addiction and the disease in general.

Mr. Katz relayed some details about the night of Hoffman’s death, saying he had invited him over to watch the Knicks game, “The fact that he wanted me to come over for the Knick game meant that he did not want to be doing the drugs, because he never did them in my presence,” he said. Katz  is right – one of the most common traits of addicts in active addiction is isolation. At our addiction rehab, clients share their anecdotes about being alone and isolated at the end, doing their drugs alone and often not socializing because they wouldn’t be able to use substances how they wanted to. This is the case for most addicts – from food addicts who binge alone late at night to alcoholics who prefer their poison at home rather than with others at a bar. For many coming out of this isolation into rehab centers, it takes a while to get their social and communication skills back.

Shedding more light on the reality of Hoffman’s addiction, Mr. Katz also relayed, “Hoffman once said to me, ‘Addiction is when you do the thing you really, really most don’t want to be doing.’ He was rigorously sober and had an awful relapse.” Hoffman’s explanation of addiction here is one of the best portrayals of what addiction is like, and a good way to depict addiction to the non-addict.

Addicts do what they hate the most in active addiction but are often unable to stop. Non-addicts may not understand exactly why they are unable to stop but it still gives them a realistic glimpse into the painful life of an addict. In fact, aside from understanding the disease model of addiction addicts sometimes don’t even know themselves why they got started or why they were unable to stop. In addiction treatment, we try not to exert all our energy on the why – and we encourage clients that they don’t have to understand or know or understand everything in order to recover. If the focus is placed on the present, the recovery process and the therapeutic tools at their disposal, many have a good chance of long-term sobriety. Soon enough the isolation, the self defeating behavior and trying to understand the why subsides.

Still no Field Sobriety Test for Marijuana

Posted on by Christy Weeks

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How do police identify a stoned driver?

The standard field sobriety test involves having a driver walk heel to toe, turn on one foot and walk back heel to toe and stand on one leg for 30 seconds. This is said to catch almost 90% of drunk drivers – but does it do the same for stoned drivers?

According to an article published in the New York Times it does not. In fact, only 30% of stoned drivers with THC in their systems fail these motor skills and the rates are even lower for veteran stoners who are used to being high.

Crafting a standard field sobriety test that works for marijuana is becoming increasingly important as states legalize its recreational and medical use. Still little is known about how dangerous it is to drive under the influence of THC compared to alcohol or even how to test for marijuana impairment.

Marilyn Huestis with the National Institute on Drug Abuse said, “Our goal is to put out the science and have it used for evidence-based drug policy…but I think it’s a mishmash.” Trying to add strict guidelines for driving under the influence of marijuana to already the blurred lines between federal and state laws on marijuana use is bound to be challenging.

Nevertheless something needs to be done as access to and use of marijuana continues to rise in states like Colorado. Glenn Davis, highway safety manager at the Department of Transportation in Colorado explained, “We’ve done phone surveys, and we’re hearing that a lot of people think D.U.I. laws don’t apply to marijuana. And there’s always somebody who says, ‘I drive better while high.’ ”

In our Colorado addiction treatment center, doing things better while high is a common belief among addicts and part of the denial component of active addiction. By convincing themselves that they clean, drive, socialize or perform better professionally or academically while high allows addicts to continue justifying their addiction. Over time they realize they actually do everything better while sober – as evidence suggests with driving. A widely accepted estimate based on several research reports have determined that any measurable amount of TCH in a driver gives them a twofold risk of an accident.

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Addiction Treatment After Naloxone

Posted on by Christy Weeks
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California is now following the footsteps of Colorado and other states that allows the use of naloxone or Narcan, an FDA approved, non-addictive drug that prevents heroin overdose.

California Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 635 into law, which took effect on January 1st of this year permitting the use of naloxone by non-medical professionals across the state. Just this week, Gil Kerlikowske the White House Director of National Drug Control Policy highlighted the effectiveness of naloxone as one of many attempts to limit the rise of heroin abuse and overdose in the US. Currently, more than 100 overdose deaths occur from heroin abuse in the US each day. The death of Philip Seymour Hoffman last week was one of an estimated 700 that occurred that week.

Naloxone works by preventing both heroin and addictive opiate pills like OxyContin and percocet from binding to receptors that are responsible for recessing breathing. Heroin overdose deaths occur when breathing has slowed down until it has stopped entirely. By injecting patients with naloxone, emergency rooms and emergency workers have reversed an estimated 10,000 overdoses.

Colorado, and now California, have permitted access to naloxone by those most likely to need it where it can prevent overdoses – such as drug users, addiction counselors and family members of addicts. They are allowed to administer the drug without any criminal or civil liability. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper signed Colorado’s version of the bill – Senate Bill 14 – into law in May 2013.

Naloxone essentially puts out the fire for those in active addiction on the brink of an overdose. Harmony Foundation’s drug detox and drug rehab program helps heroin and prescription pill addicts extinguish their active addiction in general, so that they no longer live in fear of overdose. If you or a loved one is at risk of an overdose, our Colorado addiction treatment program can help lay the foundation of recovery and abstinence – lowering the risk of overdose or the need for naloxone.

Philip Seymour Hoffman: The Disease of Addiction Doing Pushups

Posted on by Christy Weeks

For many recovering addicts, the tragedy of Philip Seymour Hoffman was a humbling reminder that no matter how many years someone has sober, the disease is still there – doing proverbial “pushups” and that relapse is never off the table.

The disease of addiction progresses even when addicts are not using, which is hard for addicts and others to wrap their minds around until they hear real life tales of how this happens. Hoffman’s story is a very real life example of this: police reported to several news agencies they found 5 empty bags and 65 additional bags full of heroin in his apartment the night he died. He got sober in his early 20s, remained sober for 23 years and just a few years later overdosed with heroin in extreme excess. This is a classic case of the disease doing push ups and progressing even after laying dormant for over 20 years.

Sentiments of sadness spread through sober communities across the US after his death along with those of frustration over the varying public opinions on what addiction is, many of which were expressed in a way that suggested addicts purposefully choose their demise. It makes those in recovery want to tell the world how it really is – but then they harness the principals of the program and let the opinions of others live and let live.

Aaron Sorkin who is in recovery from addiction wrote a poetic piece yesterday for Time that shed some light on addiction and relapse in response to varying opinions. He said Hoffman wasn’t acting on choice; “He didn’t die because he was partying too hard or because he was depressed — he died because he was an addict on a day of the week with a y in it” – suggesting that when the disease of addiction is active, it doesn’t matter what day of the week it is or what sentiments surround substance abuse, it just takes over everything, including lives, because it is real.

Because we understand the disease of addiction, its progression and the reality of relapse, Harmony Foundation specializes in relapse prevention and treatment. We help addicts identify the triggers that can lead to a relapse and welcome those who have relapsed back into our care. We try to intervene before tragedy strikes and lay our hearts heavy when it does. Our hearts, thoughts and prayers go out to Philip Seymour Hoffman and his friends and family and all others who have lost their lives to this terrible disease.

Illicit Behavior and Super Bowl Sunday

Posted on by Christy Weeks
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Today is Super Bowl Sunday when many parties abound that lead to overindulgence in eating, drinking and other self-defeating behaviors.

Many who are newly sober find this day difficult because beer and watching football are portrayed by the media to go perfectly hand in hand. In fact, beer manufacturers like Budweiser spend millions on their commercials leading up to and on Super Bowl Sunday.

Given that the game is in New York City this weekend, scandals and stories related to Super Bowl weekend partying were inevitable. On Thursday New York City police arrested 18 people for selling “party packs” and high end prostitutes to wealthy clients in town for the festivities.

The arrests came after a nearly year long investigation organized by DHS, NYPD and a state-wide Organized Crime Task Force coordinated by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office. The raids began on Wednesday night at the Brooklyn Marriott hotel where participants in an Internet prostitution ring were arrested. Some of the prostitutes who were solicited for $1000 an hour were brought all the way from Florida and Virginia.

On Thursday another ring was arrested who targeted wealthy clients in town for the Super Bowl. The arrested prostitutes had planned on delivering cocaine to clients who ordered “party packs.” To promote their services, the drug and prostitution ring send a text to customers 10 days ago saying “new sexy & beautiful girls R in town waiting for u.” And in the past, after getting clients high on drugs the ring would flood the room with additional prostitutes and repeatedly charge their credit cards, up to more than $10,000 for a night.

While the arrests were a success and may have cut down on some partying ahead of today’s events, Attorney Schneiderman said, “drug trafficking and prostitution are a scourge on communities across our state,” so the arrests may have just made a small dent.

While some people can use drugs or indulge in illicit behavior during what are ordained as “party weekends” like this weekend, many cannot. Many find themselves engaging in the behavior more often than they had planned and eventually need substance abuse treatment. That is because the deeper issues that lead them to be ok with indulging in the first place need some attention.

The Lure and Danger of Synthetic Marijuana in Colorado

Posted on by Christy Weeks

Marijuana news has been trending since storefronts legally selling marijuana opened on January 1st. Surprisingly the topic of “synthetic marijuana” has resurfaced as well with the New England Journal of Medicine reporting on the use of synthetic marijuana in Colorado yesterday.

During a one month period last year in Colorado, emergency room doctors saw a surge of patients that, according to Dr. Andrew Monte with the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver, “were coming in with a very severe clinical illness.” Many had severe delirium, seizures and trouble breathing.

Monte and others later discovered the illness was linked to synthetic marijuana otherwise known as K2, Spice, Black Mamba, and Crazy Clown. These products sent over 250 patients to the emergency room in Colorado during the month period between August and September last year.

The use of synthetic marijuana in Colorado begs the question of why people would use such a risky drug when they live in a state where marijuana was legalized. The answer is that it comes with a cheaper price tag and easier accessibility than marijuana and the demographic that uses it are often men in their 20s who need to pass drug tests.

While the surge of cases seems to have been isolated to the one-month period last year, Monte believes the cases are underreported and many don’t seek medical attention or they conceal their use of the drug if they do.

The demographic that uses synthetic marijuana to pass drug tests is likely the same demographic that need addiction treatment services as well – because whatever situation led them to have mandatory drug testing wasn’t enough to deter them from drug abuse. This is a main indicator of a substance abuse problem – the continued use of addictive substances despite negative consequences. Unfortunately this happens when the disease of addiction is in the driver’s seat and not the person’s best judgment.

At Harmony’s drug rehab center in Colorado, we help young adults and adults get back in the driver’s seat and beat their addictions. We find it especially important to treat those that are experimenting with dangerous synthetic drugs because the health and mental health consequences, as reported by the New England Journal of Medicine, are immediate and still largely unknown.