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Few substance abuse programs in the U.S. offer high-quality treatment designed specifically for adolescents, a new study finds. Of the more than 700 treatment programs the study surveyed, less than one-third had specialized services for teenagers — with some excluding underage patients altogether and others integrating them with adult patients. |
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| Seattle Police Chief to be New US Drug Czar |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration plans Wednesday to nominate Seattle, Washington, police chief Gil Kerlikowske as the nation's drug czar. Vice President Joe Biden was expected to name Kerlikowske as chief of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, a job that requires Senate confirmation, at a midday ceremony, an administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made. |
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| What is Recovery? |
An essay on the subject of “What is Recovery” raises, for me, the question of what is Addiction. Since everyone of us has an idea, our own idea, of what Addiction is, we'll also have our own answer to “What is Recovery?” Since we don’t have agreement in our field on what Addiction is, I doubt that we can come up with an easy agreement on what recovery is. I could just tell you my definition of both but my goal is not for us to have a debate over which we can come to a resolution. My goal is that we all look at ourselves and how we got to this question. It may be, that after examining ourselves, we may choose to change the question we ask. |
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| What Really Killed Anna Nicole Smith? |
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| Written by Maxim W. Furek, MA, CAC, ICADC | ||||||||
| Tuesday, 31 March 2009 17:00 | ||||||||
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On Feb. 8, 2007, the front desk staff at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel
and Casino in Hollywood, Fla., made a desperate 911 call: “We need
assistance to room 607 at the Hard Rock. It’s in reference to a white
female. She’s not breathing and not responsive ... actually, it’s Anna
Nicole Smith.” Anna Nicole Smith was found lifeless in room 607 after bodyguard Maurice “Big Moe” Brighthaupt called the hotel front desk from Smith’s sixth floor room. Brighthaupt, a trained paramedic, administered CPR before Smith was rushed to Memorial Regional Hospital at 2:10 p.m. The TV reality star and former Playboy Playmate of the Year was pronounced dead at 2:49 p.m. (CNN.com, 2007). After a seven-week investigation, the official death report and autopsy were publicly released. The March 26, 2007, report acknowledged that Smith’s death was not due to homicide, suicide or natural causes, but was caused by an accidental drug overdose. During his press conference, Dr. Joshua Perper, Broward County Medical Examiner and Forensic Pathologist, stated that Smith died of “combined drug intoxication,” with the sleeping medication chloral hydrate being the “major component” in her death. No illegal drugs were identified but there were a total of seven prescription drugs, usually prescribed for anxiety, depression and insomnia, found in her bloodstream. Smith, it was also revealed, had injected herself with shots of Vitamin B-12 (cyanocobalamin) and human growth hormone, as an anti-aging strategy. That brought the total number of substances in her bloodstream to nine. Anna Nicole Smith had developed an increased tolerance to the sedative chloral hydrate and took more than the average prescribed dosage, according to Perper. Smith ingested about three tablespoons, whereas the normal dosage is between one and two teaspoons. In his report Perper noted, “She may have taken the dosages she was accustomed to, but succumbed because she was already weakened. Miss Smith has a long history of prescription drug abuse and has self-medicated in the past.” Chloral Hydrate Synthesized in 1832, chloral hydrate was the first depressant developed for the specific purpose of inducing sleep. The infamous “Mickey Finn” or “knockout drops” consisted of a solution of alcohol and chloral hydrate that was popular in Victorian England and in that era’s literature. When used properly, and without the introduction of alcohol or other depressants, chloral hydrate is effective in easing sleeplessness due to pain or insomnia. Unfortunately the effective dose and lethal dose of chloral hydrate are so close that the sedative should be considered dangerous (Avis,1990). Today, the use of chloral hydrate has declined as other agents, including barbiturates and benzodiazepines, have largely replaced them. In the death of Anna Nicole Smith, chloral hydrate became increasingly lethal when mixed with four prescription benzodiazepines: Klonopin (Clonazepam), Ativan (Lorazepam), Serax (Oxazepam) and Valium (Diazepam). In addition, Smith had taken Benadryl (Diphenhydramine) and Topamax (Toprimate), an anticonvulsant GABA agonist, which likely contributed to the tranquilizer effects of the chloral hydrate-benzodiazepine combination. Although the individual levels of any of the benzodiazepines in her system would not have been sufficient to cause death, their combination with a high dose of chloral hydrate led to her fatal overdose. The autopsy report indicated that chloral hydrate was the “toxic/lethal” drug, but it is difficult to know if chloral hydrate ingestion would have killed her alone. And in a bizarre footnote to this tragedy, Chloral hydrate also contributed to the mysterious 1962 death of actress Marilyn Monroe, Smith’s idol (San Francisco Chronicle, 2007). Despite rumors of methadone use (due to its involvement in her son’s death), Dr. Perper stated that it was not a contributing factor. Perper only found methadone in Smith’s bile, indicating that the drug could only have been ingested two to three days prior to her death. Smith’s autopsy report indicated that abscesses of buttocks (presumably from prior injections of vitamin B-12 and human growth hormone), and viral enteritis were contributory causes of death (Sedensky, 2007). On Oct. 12, 2007, the Drug Enforcement Agency and California authorities served eight search warrants in connection with Smith’s death. Detectives collected over 100,000 computer images, files, patient profiles and other important documents associated with Smith’s death probe according to Calif. State Attorney General Jerry Brown. The investigation revealed that Dr. Khristine Eroshevotz, Smith’s personal psychiatrist, had written all 11 prescriptions. FOX News anchor Greta Van Susteren acquired paperwork from Perper’s office that indicated eight of the 11 drugs in Smith’s system, including the chloral hydrate, were prescribed to Howard K. Stern, not Smith. Additionally, two of the medicines were written for “Alex Katz” and one was written for “Dr. Khristine Eroshevitz.” Los Angeles physician Sandeep Kapoor, wrote out a methadone prescription using the pseudonym “Michelle Chase.” Eroshevich used the same pseudonym when she requested a variety of drugs to be couriered to the Bahamas to an “M. Chase.” The assortment of painkillers included two milliliter bottles of Lorazepam (Ativan); four bottles of two mg Dilaudid; two bottles of 350 mg Soma, containing 180 tablets; one bottle each of 30 mg Dalmane and 400 mg of the British drug Prexige; and one bottle of methadone, 300 5mg tablets (Friedman, 2007).
In a sense, Anna Nicole Smith had been able to transform herself into a real-life version of the Barbie doll. According to reports, Smith had breast augmentation, and a face lift and other cosmetic procedures (Furek, 2008). Moreover, it had been speculated that her dramatic weight loss, attributed to Trimspa X32, may have actually been due to gastric bypass surgery or a similar process (CNN. It was impossible to have known the real Anna Nicole Smith. She said that she wanted to be “the next Marilyn Monroe” but went by several names during her life. Smith was only two-years old when her father, Donald Eugene Hogan, deserted the family — the first in a series of painful and tragic events. It was against almost impossible odds that the platinum-blonde reality star climbed her way to the top of the celebrity world, and even with her success there were many who considered her a garish, ignorant and crude individual. New York Magazine featured a degrading photograph of Smith eating potato chips in its 1994 issue that was titled “White Trash Nation.” That same year Smith appeared in Naked Gun 33 1/3 and The Hudsucker Proxy and then filmed 2006’s Illegal Aliens. Her appearances were met with little media acclaim. The Anna Nicole Show was another pathetic attempt at entertainment, with Smith often dazed, confused and possibly in a drug-induced condition. That show stayed on the air for almost two seasons perhaps due to the morbid curiosity of viewers in anticipation of the star’s expected self-destruction. Much like Britney Spears, Anna Nicole Smith was unable to deal with her success. Both were creations of the celebrity machine with each providing us brief glimpses of hope and despair. Three days after the birth of her daughter Dannielynn Marshall, Smith’s 20-year-old son, Daniel Wayne Smith, overdosed in his mother’s hospital room. Autopsy results revealed that he died from a drug combination of Zoloft, Lexapro and methadone. The tragedy of Anna Nicole Smith did not end there. On Feb. 7, 2007, a woman filed a lawsuit against Smith, a spokeswoman for the weight-loss supplement Trimspa X32, accusing her of making “false and misleading” statements about the product. That event may have been the final blow to Smith’s damaged and tortured psyche. The following afternoon, after ingesting a deadly combination of chloral hydrate and benzodiazepines, she drifted off into her final sleep. Smith was buried March 2, 2007, at Nassau’s Lakeview Memorial Gardens and Mausoleum in a plot adjacent to her son even as Virgie Arthur, Smith’s estranged mother, attempted to have her daughter’s remains exhumed and reburied in their home state of Texas. The merciless turmoil that defined much of Anna Nicole Smith’s life continued even after her unfortunate death. References:
Avis, H. (1990) Drugs & Life. Dubuque, IA: William C. Brown Publishers.
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| Last Updated on Wednesday, 08 April 2009 11:59 |