Websites Provide Key Drug Addiction Treatment Resource

Drug rehab facilities don't typically come up in everyday conversation, but the subject of drug abuse and what to do about it deserves more attention than it gets. We often hear that drug and alcohol abuse destroys lives and tears families part, but when it comes time to do something about the abuse, to take control and help a loved one to confront the problem and overcome it, the process can be overwhelming. Unfortunately, ignoring substance abuse, hoping that it will go away on its own or that the government will somehow take care of it doesn't work. The US has been battling addiction problems from its earliest days and government measures such as Prohibition have done little to combat the issue. For decades, the country has been waging a "war on drugs" in an attempt to combat the widespread availability of narcotics.

This war on drugs has been extraordinarily costly to the United States. There have been massive financial consequences, not to mention the impact to society. For those who doubt that addiction and drug abuse are really that big of a problem, consider these statistics:

A 2008 Harvard study pegged the cost to law enforcement agencies to police illegal drugs and prosecute offenders at roughly $44 billion yearly.

A 2007 study by the Department of Justice calculated that in that year, the annual economic impact of drug abuse on the United States was nearly $193 billion.

The Centers For Disease Control reported 25,000 drug related deaths in the US in 2003 alone.

According to a firm that administers drug tests for employers, nearly 6 percent of all accidents on the job in 2004 involved employees who tested positive for banned substances.

In 2004 the DEA was involved in the cleanup of over 10,000 illegal drug labs or facilities, while US law enforcement agencies seized over 9,000 methamphetamine labs.

The CDC reports that of adults infected with AIDS in the US in 2003, over 123,000 of these people contracted the disease from drug injection.

To put some of these numbers in perspective, drug abuse is costing the country more in terms of health costs than diseases such as diabetes or even smoking.

Why should you care? Consider one more statistic. A 2004 national survey found that 65 percent of American families have been affected by drug or alcohol addiction. That means that the problem of drug or alcohol abuse isn't "someone else's problem" and those stats about the cost to society and the economy aren't just a bunch of dry numbers. If you live in the US, the chances are good that someone you know and love is suffering from a substance abuse problem. With no effective national policy for combating drug abuse, drug rehabilitation is the best chance American families have for helping their loved ones beat addiction. In the past, the entire rehab process (whether for alcoholism or drug treatment) was very difficult for families. Before the Internet, information about rehab clinics, methods and the options available was hard to come by. Tracking down info required considerable time and effort —time that counted against the addict. Even finding information about the symptoms of drug abuse, what to look for and how to approach the issue was hard to come by. The entire process of identifying a problem, seeking advice and arranging for treatment that was effective, affordable and accessible could take so long that it was too late.

Today, while the war on drugs may still be raging and alcoholism continues to be a widespread problem, the families of substance abusers have a key advantage that simply wasn't available in the past.

The Internet and convenient web access has had a huge impact on the situation. Where people used to have to search through clinics for pamphlets, scour libraries for medical information and spend days leafing through phone books and calling different facilities to discuss options, there are a number of websites available that provide offer comprehensive drug addiction resources. In minutes, you can learn about specific drugs, effective treatment methods and even which drug rehabs have the best record for treatment. Advice, guidance, signs of substance abuse and even financial assistance options are all available on a single website. While a resource like this doesn't make dealing with the knowledge that a loved one is an addict any easier, it does provide support and treatment options that make it possible to beat that addiction before it becomes a statistic.

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Becky Winslow is a counselor who has worked with many families who have had to face the addiction of a loved one. According to Becky, websites such as http://www.4rehabilitation.com provide an excellent starting point for these people.

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