Just because an addicted woman has a baby does not mean her cravings go away. In fact, the stress of trying to care for an infant may cause her to seek the relief that drugs might seem to offer her. But while her body may be able to tolerate the drugs, if she is nursing, she could be causing harm to her newborn and even risking killing him or her.

Most illicit drugs wind up in breast milk in varying quantities. Cocaine in particular presents a risk to infants because it stays in their bodies much longer than it does in the mother’s body. If a mother uses cocaine repetitively, then the baby may die of an overdose as the dosage accumulates in the small body. In a Michigan case, a woman used cocaine two or three times one day and then breastfed her five-month-old baby. The medical examiner said that the baby died of cocaine intoxication.

“It could be said that the time that a woman is pregnant or nursing are the most important times in her life to live a clean and sober lifestyle,” commented Bobby Wiggins, spokesperson for Narconon drug rehab and education. Narconon is an international organization dedicated to the elimination of drug addiction through drug rehabilitation and drug education. “During this time, a woman harms someone other than herself with her drug use: her helpless newborn or the baby growing inside her. Family members around a pregnant or nursing woman who suffers from addiction must pull out all the stops to get her the help she needs to stop using drugs.”

Methamphetamine is another killer drug when administered via breast milk. In the last several years, one mother in Georgia and two mothers in California have been jailed for killing their babies with methamphetamine.

“A mother with a young child, addiction to illicit drugs – this is a dangerous combination,” added Wiggins. “We owe it to our youngest citizens to eliminate addiction by providing effective drug rehabilitation. At Narconon centers around the world, seven out of ten graduates stay sober after they go home, meaning there are more alert, capable mothers returned to their children after they have been to Narconon.”

Visit http://www.youtube.com/user/narconon?blend=1&ob=5 for more information about the program.

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It’s not like we don’t have enough trouble with the illicit drugs currently on the market: heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine, ecstasy and others are bad enough. A new substance has hit the market in the last year, promoted as “legal,” and “providing the same high as marijuana.”

A year ago, most law enforcement offices had never heard of “Spice,” as this marijuana substitute was called. But as time went on, more hospitals were seeing cases of seizures and hallucinations resulting from use of the substance. And more people were turning up dependent on the drug. Still, none of the ingredients were illegal so law enforcement had no action they could take.

On November 24, 2010, the DEA announced that it was using its emergency powers to ban the five chemicals that were key to its manufacture. For one year, anyone possessing these chemicals without specific authorization will be subject to arrest. This will give U.S. government agencies time to determine Spice’s addictiveness and hazards.

“People who develop these synthetic drugs care nothing about the individuals they may harm by doing so,” stated Bobby Wiggins, spokesperson for Narconon®, an international organization fighting substance abuse and addiction through drug and alcohol rehabilitation. “There’s no tests to determine potential harm to someone who uses the drug. If they can promise a high similar to something a drug user already knows about and they can also claim it’s legal, these manufacturers can really make a killing.”

It’s not hard to understand the forces that drove some industrious individuals to develop this alternative to marijuana. Since 1996, the number of Americans using illicit drugs increased from 13 million to nearly 22 million in 2009. The largest drug of abuse is marijuana, with more than 16 million people using the drug every month. Any manufacturer who can put a cheap chemical substitute on the market has millions of potential users.

Spice, also known as “K2,” “Blaze” and “Red X Dawn” has been sold online, in head shops and a variety of retail outlets. Sometimes the packaging identifies the contents as incense.

Unfortunately, one of the effects of this action by the DEA will be to drive this trade underground. When a family finds that one of their members, young or old, is using Spice and can’t quit on their own, they need to act immediately. By helping the drug abuser or addict find a drug recovery service right away, they could save their loved one from arrest, damage to their health or even death from a seizure or accident. At the very least, they will help their loved ones lead drug-free, productive lives again, if the rehabilitation service has been proven effective.

At Narconon centers across the U.S. and around the world, addicts find lasting recovery in seven out of ten cases. Get more information about the Narconon drug rehabilitation program by visiting http://www.youtube.com/user/narconon#p/u/0/AlkKeOO-nTo.

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It is officially acknowledged by health authorities in the US that overdoses on prescription drugs have passed up the traditional killers, heroin and cocaine. One of the drugs most responsible for this is an opiate derivative called, fentanyl. It is manufactured under many names, including Actiq, Duragesic, Durogesic, Fentora, Instanyl, and Sublimaze.

The synthetic opiate is prescribed for patients who are in constant pain, or who are suffering break-through pain (sudden flare ups of pain that occur despite pain medications already administered), for chronic conditions or the effects of chemotherapy. It comes in many forms: patches worn on the skin, lozenges or“lollipops” and injectable forms.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Heath, which monitors health worker-related drug abuse, warns that “Fentanyl depresses central nervous system and respiratory function. Exposure to fentanyl may be fatal. Fentanyl is estimated to be 100 times as potent as morphine and many of times more potent than heroin. It is a drug of abuse.”

One of the reasons the drug is extremely dangerous is because it has a short-term effect on the body, tolerance builds up rapidly causing the addicted person to up the dosage to dangerous levels after a short time using the drug. Once removed from the safeguards of a highly controlled medical environment, the abuser can easily overdose, and bring on respiratory failure and death.

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and other sources, supply of the drug on the streets is virtually unlimited, as evidenced by a recent arrest of a 19-year-old medical attendant and her boyfriend caught removing the gel from the patches administered to patients in a nursing home. The drug is also stolen from pharmacies, a problem for law enforcement that has been escalating throughout the US. Even used patches are collected for the remaining drug that is still on them.

Once procured by users, it is often “cooked” in foil and inhaled or injected. Patches are also sometimes frozen, cut into pieces and eaten or placed under the tongue or in the cheek for absorption. Websites frequented by young people give tips and information about procuring the drug and ways to get the most out of the drug in whatever form it is in. Discussions about the drug further popularize it, including information on how to make it. “In short, this drug is easily procured and it is deadly,” says Bobby Wiggins, Director of Drug Education at Narconon International.

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