True Addiction Recovery for Washington, D.C.
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Drugs and crime may nowhere be more closely linked than in our nation’s capital.
The biggest drug threats to the city are from crack and powder cocaine. Crack cocaine, in particular, is associated with violence plus property and personal crime. Crack dealers in the city operate mostly from open-air markets set up along commuting corridors or in public housing projects. These markets not only serve addicts in the city but also customers from the Maryland and Virginia suburbs. As a result, the city is peppered with crime incidents.
In the U.S., only four other cities have higher rates of robberies. In the first six months of 2008, D.C. saw 1400 assaults with deadly weapons, 2000 burglaries and more than 10,000 thefts, including thefts from persons, thefts from autos and car thefts.
Drug Use and Addiction Lead to High Death Rates
The District of Columbia has two to eighteen times the death rate from drugs as its suburbs. In 2007, the rate of drug-related deaths per thousand people was 36.4. For comparison, the rate in Fairfax County, Virginia was 2; the rate in Frederick County, Maryland was 12.5.
The primary killer was the opioid class of drugs that includes heroin and morphine along with prescription drugs such as OxyContin (oxycodone), Vicodin and Lortab (hydrocodone), methadone, and even Suboxone, the recently-developed drug that is supposed to help addicts recover from their opiate addictions. There is some trafficking in heroin in the District, but not nearly the quantity seen in neighboring Baltimore where heroin has been a life-destroying curse for many years. Most of the deaths in D.C. are from other opiates than heroin or methadone.
In second place in the race to kill is cocaine (crack and powder). In third place is alcohol followed by more prescription drugs of the antidepressant and anti-anxiety (benzodiazepines) classes.
The Drug Problem Spills Over into the Suburbs
It common for drug dealers in suburban Maryland or Virginia to travel either to the open-air markets in D.C. or to Baltimore to buy supplies and then return to their apparently safe suburbs to distribute their supplies. In December of 2009, 38 people in Northern Virginia were arrested for running just this type of operation dealing heroin, oxycodone, and methadone to suburban youth.
When two of these youth died earlier in 2009, law enforcement set up sting operations and began buying drugs from suburban dealers in gyms, grocery stores, homes, and pharmacies. As happens in many areas, suburban youth may find it acceptable to abuse prescription drugs because they are “legitimate” drugs, but once they are addicted to one of these opioids, they may switch to heroin because it is cheaper.
Virginia has seen a 91 percent increase in deaths from prescription drugs and heroin in the last few years, and Maryland has seen a 20 percent increase.
Addiction Often Goes Untreated in the District
Approximately 590,000 people live in the District of Columbia. According to federal surveys, more than 60,000 of these people state that they are dependent on or abuse alcohol or illicit drugs - slightly more than one in ten. The national average is about one in thirteen.
The vast majority of these people do not find substance abuse treatment centers. In 2007, only 2300 people received treatment, with the top drugs sending these people to drug rehab being alcohol, crack cocaine and heroin. Seventeen thousand said they didn’t get the addiction treatment they needed for illicit drug use and 49,000 people needed alcohol rehab and didn’t get it.
Unfortunately, many substance abuse treatment centers only see 10 to 20 percent of those completing treatment stay free from drug abuse in the future. There are three outcomes to addiction: sobriety, jail or death. Those not succeeding in staying free from further narcotic, alcohol or other drug abuse run a serious risk of death or incarceration.
The Narconon program not only addresses the debilitating effects of drug abuse on the mind and body but also resolves why a person turned to drugs in the first place. As a result, a person can graduate from the program into a new life free from drug use.
To those who wish to break the pattern of drug use or drinking that is destroying their lives, Narconon provides a unique and effective drug recovery program.
The District of Columbia is one of a handful of regions that has legalized the recreational use of marijuana. But because of last minute changes in the proposed law, the city ended up with a strange mishmash of regulations.
First, Washington, D.C. voters approved a law that made it legal to possess and grow marijuana. Before the law took effect, Congress took action to prohibit any system by which marijuana could be lawfully bought, sold or taxed. So if a person wants to smoke pot, they have three choices:
- Someone can give them marijuana for free.
- They can grow as many as three plants at a time.
- They can go back to the medical system and get a card authorizing them to purchase from a medical dispensary. It is said that there are few cards to go around.
If a product many people desire is made legal but then can’t legally be obtained, it’s basically pushing most of the business to the black market. It’s an odd situation in our nation’s capital.
Heroin in the DC Metropolitan Area
While the marijuana laws create confusion and black market activity, heroin and synthetic opioids are doing the greatest damage. According to one news report, heroin is taking a savage toll on the people. The estimated death toll for Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. was 1,600 lives lost just from heroin or opioid overdoses (and the numbers had not been fully tallied through the end of the year). Cocaine, alcohol and other drugs steal more lives away.
In November 2016, the health commissioner for Virginia declared a public health emergency. This was warranted due to the fact that the death rate had increased 77% in just five years.
In D.C. alone, 233 people died from opioids in the first six months of 2016. The greatest burden was felt in Ward 8, the southernmost portion of Anacostia. But in 2014 and 2015, no ward was spared one of these deaths.
It’s synthetic opioids that are mostly creating this recent devastation. Heroin is bad enough and its potency is unpredictable but synthetic opioids coming from Asia are vastly more powerful. Some opioid users will “taste” just a little bit of the drug they are using in an effort to prevent an overdose. But one of the drugs found on the market is 10,000 times stronger than morphine. It’s obvious that the manufacturers and dealers bringing this drug to market don’t care who they kill.
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The Desperate Need for Recovery
In the District of Columbia, the top drugs sending people to rehab are heroin, these synthetic opioids, alcohol, and cocaine. Marijuana comes in fourth place but there are relatively few people asking for help with methamphetamine or painkillers.
There are many locations within the city that treatment can be obtained. One’s best choice depends on the result one really wants from a recovery program. The Narconon program has one goal only—to enable a person to build a productive and 100% sober life they can enjoy after they leave Narconon. There are no replacement drugs like buprenorphine or methadone ever used as part of this recovery program. In the case where a medically assisted wean down is required we work with medical detox services to ensure this is completed prior to the person beginning Narconon drug-free withdrawal. Where a person needs medication for a physical condition they would, of course, continue that medication on the advice of his physician.
So how does the Narconon program support a person through withdrawal? Generous nutritional supplementation including vitamins B, C and calcium and magnesium help calm a body’s response to the initial detoxification process. Gentle procedures further calm a person’s body and mind, assisting them in transitioning from the trauma of the past to a safe present environment. Some people say it’s the most tolerable withdrawal they have ever experienced.
Deep, Sauna-Based Detoxification
Most rehab programs stop their detoxification when the withdrawal step is complete. Not at Narconon. Once a person feels free from the effects of the drugs they were using and can eat and sleep normally, they start the New Life Detoxification. They exercise moderately each day, follow a strict regimen of nutritional supplements and spend carefully supervised time in a low-heat sauna, coming out to cool off at regular intervals.
This combination of sauna, supplements, and exercise has proven to activate the body’s ability to reach deep into fatty tissues to draw out old drug residues. All drug and alcohol use has the effect of leaving some residues in these cells where they may stay for years, even if drug use stops. As long as these traces are present, they can affect one's outlook on life, one’s mood, and one’s thinking. Those finishing this step talk about how they can think more clearly for the first time since drug use started. This benefit prepares them to learn how to live sober again.
Learning the Skills to Stay Sober
Most people who have spent years or even decades addicted have been driven by a single desire—the need for more drugs or alcohol. Everything else takes a backseat. They need to learn newly how to make decisions for the good of everyone involved—including themselves. It’s not about the drugs anymore—it’s about being healthy, responsible and productive.
They will first complete the objectives, a series of exercises to bring them back into excellent rapport with their current environments. Trauma tends to dull one’s perceptions and blunt one’s ability to really see life as it is. The objectives bring back the freshness of perceptions and improve one’s control over choices, actions, and even thoughts.
The final component of the Narconon drug rehab program is a three-part training module for day-to-day life skills. These are the skills that strengthen a person so he makes the right decisions when faced with challenges or triggers. Life won’t be fun every single day once he leaves rehab and he must know how to stay sober even when things get rough.
This strength requires:
- Knowing who your friends really are
- Identifying those whose companionship would be likely to send you back to drug use
- Understanding the components of integrity and how it is lost
- Knowing the procedure for restoring one’s own integrity and finding relief from guilt
- Being able to isolate those parts of one’s life that need repair and assessing the seriousness of each
- Having the formulas for repairing and enhancing any area of life.
With these skills, a person can construct a life he (or she) can enjoy, every day. He can look forward to the achievement of goals and real friendships that last. He can regain an honest position in his family and community.
A Fifty-Year History
Narconon has a fifty-year history of helping those in recovery build worthwhile lives for themselves.
For a person in Washington, D.C., they could choose a Narconon center in Florida or Louisiana. If a person wants to put more distance between themselves and old drug-using associates, they could choose Narconon centers in Colorado, California or Oklahoma.
Find out what the Narconon drug rehab program can do for you or someone you care about. We can help.
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