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Study Shows Opiate Addiction More Prevalent Than Alcoholism

Opiate and Alcoholism
We talk to a lot of people here. The line for people who need help is endless. It can be overwhelming.Time and time again we get reports of people who need help from heroin and painkiller addiction. It is by far the most common problem we come across. We are not publishing this article to undermine the destructive power of alcoholism, but rather open a conversation about where people are getting these addictive drugs, and how we can help.It is for that reason we wanted to publish this article we found written by Treatment Magazine. You can find the original article here.

Study from Ohio State Claims Shows Opiate Addiction is More Prevalent Than Alcoholism

In a major development, data out of Ohio is showing for the first time in many decades that statistically addiction to opiates is near to outstripping addiction to alcohol. This is probably the first time this has happened since the late 1800s when it was estimated that as many as a quarter of all U.S. workers, who worked for slave wages 12 hrs a day in sweatshops similar to the ones that exist today in Bangladesh and elsewhere, were addicted to opium – usually a liquid called Laudanum that was available in the Sears Catalogue and any “chemist” shop before drug prohibition.

Drugs like Laudanum probably gave the U.S. workers the energy they needed to work 80 to 100 hours a week, sometimes more, before laws were passed decades later limiting the amount of hours for U.S. workers and guaranteeing them some time off.

It used to be when Treatment Magazine was founded over ten years ago that alcoholism far outstripped all illegal drugs combined statistically, but now published reports out of Ohio, based on data gathered by Ohio agencies’ publicly funded treatment, shows that addiction to opiates is running neck-and neck with alcohol now in the state in terms of who is receiving publicly funded care.

The Ohio Data

According an article by the Associated Press, AP, almost 90,000 people in Ohio were treated at publicly funded centers in that state’s fiscal 2013 year and of those 33 percent received treatment for alcoholism while 32 percent received treatment for opiate addiction services.

The 2013 figures on Ohio publicly funded treatment services shows that opiate addiction services are up nearly 30 percent since fiscal 2012 and up more than 100 percent, or double, the opiate addiction services provided in fiscal 2008.

It is likely that statistics in other states, especially in the Northeast and along the East Coast are beginning to mirror those in Ohio and on the private side of the addiction treatment business there are many entrepreneurs that are investing in opiate oriented, medication assisted treatment operations.

Original Article re-printed here with permission from SoberNation.com

Red Rock Recovery Center is a Colorado state licensed substance abuse extended care treatment program designed to help you or your loved one recover from the struggles associated with alcoholism and drug addiction. Located in Denver, Colorado we offer a safe haven for those afflicted by the ravages of untreated addiction. Our program is based on a compassionate 12-step model that applies behavioral as well as life skill therapies, which will enable our clients to heal and recover.

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