Heroin Addiction: San Jose Drug Abuse and Rehab
San Jose California is no stranger to problems with drug and alcohol addiction. Being the third largest city in California and the ten largest metropolitan area in the United States, San Jose has seen its fair share of drug addiction and alcohol abuse issues. Located at the southern tip of the San Francisco Bay area San Jose and surrounding region is populated with 7 million people. While exact drug abuse and treatment center admissions are not provided here, percentage of the population abusing in California are approximately ten percent. That equates to nearly 700,000 people with a drug or alcohol problem in the San Jose California region.
Marijuana is the most abused drug in California and San Jose is no different. As reported by the Alcohol and Drug Data System, marijuana substance abuse treatment admissions increased from 20,143 in 2000 to 23,531 in 2003, with treatment admissions skyrocketing up nearly 1/3 in 2010. People seeking help for marijuana addiction has increased over 30% in those states with relaxed and medical marijuana policies.
Methamphetamine is in abundant supply in San Jose thanks to drug cartels and heavy population of Mexican immigrants, which is then distributed by various drug gangs. Methamphetamine is without doubt a drug of major concern in San Jose and surrounding areas. Declining throughout the 1990’s meth abuse has been steadily increasing with alarming number of women testing positive at time of arrest. 35% of women arrested in the San Jose area tested positive for the drug.
Black tar heroin is also a tremendous problem and also supplied by Mexican cartels. Many heroin addicts unable to obtain heroin hold off withdrawal symptoms by using a drug called clonazepam. Due to painful withdrawal symptoms heroin addiction is one of the hardest drugs to overcome. The National Drug Intelligence Center reports report cocaine addiction and treatment admissions follow methamphetamine and heroin. Both powder and crack cocaine is steadily abused in this region, but little cocaine in either form is sold in San Jose
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration list 384 treatment facilities within 100 miles San Jose. Most of these drug rehab treatment programs are outpatient drug rehab programs, methadone maintenance or short term drug rehabilitation centers.
Northern California does have other drug rehab options available. There are non-denominational Christian drug centers or Bio-Physical/Cognitive/Educational drug rehab programs. The faith-based programs vary between 12-18 month inpatient rehab programs while the Bio-physical programs averages a 4-6 month residential stay in treatment.
Robert Otis is an addiction counselor experienced in the field of drug and alcohol addiction treatment and works to help educate people about the danger of substance abuse. He writes articles for the drug problems in areas around the country that include San Jose drug rehab programs.
Heroin Addiction: Ron’s Twenty Year Battle with Heroin Addiction
Ron’s story of recovery is through his journey of finding the lord. He started drugs at 17 with cocaine and heroin. During his almost 20 years as a heroin addict he was in and out of jail, smuggled drugs in the 70’s and then made meth in the 80’s. 7 months after his girlfriend moved out and found God, she let him move back in as long as he went to church with her. He also found God through the church and went through detox and maintained his sobriety for 17 years. He stayed with the church, married his girlfriend, went to school and got a job. However, at the end of those 17 years he and his wife divorced and he slowly fell back into drugs. He took time off from his job and was getting addicted again. Due to the shame, he felt he couldn’t go back to church, and even the few people he tried to reach out to with the church couldn’t help him. Then a friend recommended Restoration Ranch. The first week there he attended a church service and confessed. From that point on it was like he was delivered back into sobriety. During his first 17 years of being clean he had avoided people who did drugs and had associated with mainly the church and his wife so this kept him away from it. However, the Ranch is quite different as now he is surrounded with drug addicts. He has found that a lot of people fight alcohol and drugs their whole life, and there are not many who are willing or able to help them. Drugs are a trap and your mindset is 100% different when on drugs. In his 2 years at …
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