Drug abuse has many dimensions.  There is the drug addict that was exposed gradually to prescription addictive drugs such as Oxycodone which was widely used for pain suppression prior to recognizing its highly addictive nature.  There are those addicts who were exposed to hard drugs as a “recreational” experience, or perhaps tried marijuana thinking it was recreational but it led a search for ever stronger drugs.  There are experiences of teens where a raid of parents’ open medicine cabinets gives rise to prescription drug experimentation singularly and at parties. And many other experiences dot the drug addiction landscape.
Forecasts are that the substantial drug abuse prior to the Covid pandemic has now increased greatly as a result of the loneliness and isolation during the outbreak, but no hard data has been found regarding quantifying the increase in drug use.
Regardless of how the addict was initially exposed or how they continue to use drugs, there is help. The important point regarding drug addiction is that, just as with alcoholism, it is a disease.  A disease that may grip the addict over the long term, or it may grip the addict the first time they try any drug.  Additionally, just as alcoholism affects the family and friends of the alcoholic, drug addiction permeates the family, friends and community as well, leaving an impact that, left untreated, will continue to spiral downward.
There are many rehabilitation facilities that address drug addiction that can be found using the search tool presented on the CAAM main page.  There are also meetings where recovery can be solidified using a spiritual program similar to Alcoholics Anonymous.  The most common program offering recovery meetings is Narcotics Anonymous.

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