This video is sure to get a few people on either side of the fence a little riled up.

This is a video recently posted on Youtube of a police operation to entrap people and send them to jail for.. wait for it.. a bag of pot.

Enjoy.

Over the past 18 months there has been a murmuring of the press that the war in Afghanistan is not going well and Iraq is taking the focus off Afghanistan. If the rapidly increasing exported poppy crop is anything to go by, then the drug war in Afghanistan is certainly on the back foot.

Unfortunately that side of the coin doesn’t really get a lot of main stream press when there are more newsworthy items about terrorism to be told of.

The inherent link between drugs and terrorism is mentioned only in passing most often.

As Rob recently noted, it’s been a while since we’ve written material for the site. While the break has been a good opportunity to catch my breath and get on with some other things, it’s about time I got off my all-too-skinny posterior and back into the swing of all things rehabology.com. And I thought that before I got into some more in-depth stories - or rambling ones depending on your point of view - it would be good to do a little update on a few stories I’ve blogged about in the past.

It’s been quite a few month’s since we encountered the case that was making headlines in India, that of drug charges against Rahul Mahajan, the son of a former top BJP official. You may recall that in August of last year a charge sheet had just been filed against him, this after that fateful early morning in June when he and his father’s ex-aide, Vivek Maitra, were rushed to hospital after apparent overdoses of illegal drugs, with the latter dead on arrival. Well, a trial date has finally been set for the 21st of February, when Mahajan, who has pleaded not guilty, will face charges of illegal possession of drugs, along with abetment and criminal conspiracy. His co-accused, Sahil Zaroo, and Mahajan’s assistant, Harish Sharma, also face various drugs charges; two Nigerians who are said to have supplied the drugs in question also face charges.

Well it’s been a fairly wild ride since we started this site and to be honest, the response to it has been fantastic.

We’ve seen some great posts from new bloggers and started more than our fair share of debates, arguments and rants. The traffic has grown steadily and the site seems to be on the radar of a few prominent people in the debate.

But to be honest, Luke and I burnt ourselves out with our hectic schedule of writing in the first few months of the site. So much so that for the last month or two we have selfishly relied on Steve Strommer to update a lot of the content (for which we are eternally grateful).

*sigh* I have been addicted to painkillers for over 25 years. I’m also a pot smoker (luv the stuff) & raving alcoholic. None of these admitted to until 8 months ago. After many times of trying to detox and stay clean and sober, treatment saved me, then a recovery house. I am just going into
addiction housing this week, and scared sh*tless. I want to drink, I want to smoke. I want to have good mind blowing sex. I am bi polar, and guess what? I am a 52 yr old female who hates living alone and being lonely. What to do?

It was with some dismay yet no surprise that I started to stumble across more and more news articles (Just Google and see) that yet another immigrant culture was starting to clash with good old American principals yet again. This time it wasn’t what has become the steady daily news making issue of Islamic immigrants assimilating into mainstream America, but this time it was about a cultural habit. An ancient habit common to East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Qat chewing. Not unlike the good old boys of rural America chewing tobacco (and for lots of the same reasons) this activity has all manner of social and physiologic roles it plays in it’s respective societies. While embraced by some and reviled by others its use has been anchored by more than one culture. My own theory about the recent Ethiopian invasion of Somalia is that it had more to do with the Islamists banning qat usage thereby interrupting the plants flow than it did about personal freedoms and the threat of fundamental Islam. Call me crazy, it’s ok, I can take it.

Sometimes I wonder if there isn’t more validity to concepts such as karmic retribution and reincarnation than some of us may believe. The whole reward and punishment dogma pertaining to personal behavior good and bad is the basis for more than one belief system around the world. How much value an individual gives to this cycle is often supposedly a determiner of how you’ll spend your next existence and unless you come to terms with this, and start getting with the existential program you’re doomed to repeat the same futile cycle over and over.

The real questions are “Where are you?” “Where have you been?” and “Where are you going?” Far be it for me to know about anyone else, least of all myself, but there are moments where I feel like I get a small but fleeting glimpse that gives me small but undoubtedly valuable insight to these answers, enough anyway to allow me to connect some of the dots to this mortal coil.

That’s just the way it goes. Life isn’t fair, so suck it up and admit it. It isn’t anyone else’s fault that you drink or dope too much, and the holidays are the time of year when everyone else does too. They (or at least they think they can) handle it and you couldn’t/wouldn’t/didn’t want to and now here the holidays are again, for another year, just like the next, and the year after that about to foist all your social weaknesses, foibles and shortcomings out there for all to see, or ignore or to talk about behind your back, or whatever the case may be.

The bottom line is this, whatever the substance of choice is for anyone with an addiction, whether sober or still waist deep in the pudding, the holiday season can present a nightmarish dilemma for many. Temptations abound, rationalizing can be manifest and old habits can die hard. For some it can be a time of happiness and joy. For others it can be a downward spiral of despair, and for others it can be an orgy of unbridled indulgence, usually followed by some magnitude of regret.

The question of “Do you drink or smoke while you’re alone?” is one of the traits that merit the response of “Then you may have a problem or habit” if you happen to answer that question with a “Yes”. It’s a guarantee that almost any self assessment will, if you respond with a “Yes” to this question, indicate your behavior is more than likely not only unhealthy but problematic.

Rationalizing this behavior will get you nowhere. Sitting having a smoke while driving alone in traffic, or drinking by yourself in a crowded bar will not exempt you from your addiction, given those standards. Nor should you be. A significant study recently drew the conclusion that at very early stages of experimenting with substances such as alcohol and tobacco teenagers who engage in substance abuse alone, as opposed to socially (at parties or with a group) run a much greater risk of experiencing significant consequences legally and scholastically in the long term scheme of life. Strangely enough, these solo users were not social outcasts trying to fit in with their usage, they were in fact not only social, but also far more focused on their usage unlike the other kids where usage is more like a by product of socializing.

One of the best things of living in this day and age is the almost daily advancement in medical treatment.

For the sake of brevity and to stick with the subject matter of the website I’ll only address some of the new medications and the approaches being used in conjunction with these drugs to help individuals who face substance abuse, and the inherent addiction that results.

If you are an adherent to the “12 step process” which to be sure is a tried and true methodology that has worked for thousands upon thousands of people for decades these drugs are not a replacement, but an adjunct and a new option for addicts. I may be somewhat remiss in that there is a part of me that feels I should write up a more comprehensive article on the history and the mechanisms on the use of drug therapy in addiction. Drugs such as Antabuse andNaltrexone have been around for years and have proven effective for many physicians treating addiction but they do have some significant drawbacks. It may seem simplistic to say it, but the one that seems to prove the most difficult (alas it’s the case with most medical treatment) is the patient simply stops taking the medication. Antabuse is a perfect example of this. Why take medication that makes you sick or gives no buzz when the booze/opiate makes you feel so much better? More often than not an addicted individual has to hit a very low point for this approach to have even a remote chance of working.