Not enough help for addicts

Dear editor,

IT'S A SHAME!!! IT'S WORKING!!!!!

There's something that's been bothering me for a long time and I need to get it off my chest!

It's no secret that drug abuse is a "HUGE" problem in our local area. But what I don't think people are aware of is how many young addicts try to get help and are either told no, go away we don't want your kind here, are given only as little help as required, or are being withheld life saving measures.

I have seen all these things happen first hand. My daughter became a heroin addict in 2009. In the past 4 years she and I had to jump through hoops to get her medical assistance to get help that she wanted, to go to rehab. Now you may be asking yourself, why should our tax $ pay for something like this?

Well when, a family has paid into the system for many years, never used it and her grandfathers both fought in World War II, I didn't feel any thing wrong with her getting assistance. Anyway, over the years she went to rehab several times, Carbon County medical assistance would ok a 30 day stay, then come approx. day 11ish they would call the rehab and tell them she had to go, "no more funding available."

Now this was not only done to my daughter but lots of other Carbon County residents in rehab. So they would pull these people out of rehab mid way through, without learning any coping skills and send them right back to where they came from.

"Go to your local meetings," they would tell them. Well, let me tell you, I have gone to the local meetings and they are made up of all older alcoholics who want nothing to do with today's youth and their problems. It's a shame they don't realize alcohol is just their drug of choice. It's no different from crack, heroin, or any other substance. An addict is an addict, plain and simple.

I can remember one young man who was actually told to leave a meeting in Lehighton because he stood up and said "I am a drug addict." He was told "we don't want your kind here" and was asked to leave. That same young man died less than a year later from a drug overdose.

And speaking of overdoses, I had a conversation with a certain Lehighton police officer who told me that he was annoyed that they had to go out on all the overdose calls. He said he told the EMTs to start taking their time getting to the scene, and then maybe there would be one less addict in the area to worry about. I was speechless.

Soooo. Like I said in the beginning, it's a shame, it seems its working. The area will do nothing to help these young people who want help to sustain sobriety, but only make matters worse by:

PULLING THEM FROM TREATMENT TOOO SOON

TELLING THEM "GO AWAY WE DON'T WANT YOUR KIND HERE"

OR

EVEN WORSE, LETTING THEM DIE!!!!

So it's a shame! Don't give those help; either they go to jail possibly for life, move away or die. No matter what the assistance "people," the meetings "people" and the authorities "people" win!

Hope they can sleep at night, meanwhile the parents, friends, and family of these genuinely loving human beings lives are crushed.

Sincerely,

Off my Chest!!!!

Margaret Ringer