Claus Mogensen 45 years old is a chronic drug addict who lives in Arhus,Denmark.

Clause takes a nap at his room to cool down his system.

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Waking up every day with a craving for a substance which has not only destroyed your life but has also taken away your brother,everyone's trust in you, and puts you in the
same categories as the lowest members of society,ever wondered what is it like?
Claus Mogensen 45 years old is a chronic drug addict who lives in Arhus,Denmark.He is noticeably shaking and restless as he sits down on the mattress in the
small, dirty living room.The surroundings seem to lack everything, as if all the valuables and appliances that once sat in this small, deteriorating room has been used to barter for
more drugs.Claus goes to his empty fridge and removes three small bottles of Methadone dosage prescribed by his doctor which he has to take everyday.
Methadone is a narcotic pain reliever, similar to Morphine. It reduces withdrawal symptoms in people addicted to heroin or other narcotic drugs without causing the "high"
associated with the drug addiction.Clauses older brother was on heroin and died six years ago due to overdose. "That shocked the sense out of me,but i haven`t been able to stop using it"says Claus.
I remember smoking tobacco when i was 14 and was given cigarettes by my friend.During lunch hour at school we used to sneak out to smoke. I continued smoking until i was 18 years old then I started using Marijuana."I did not feel high i wondered why people smoke it" he says.
I smoked it because my friends used it,peer pressure you could call it. His school grades started dropping down because he lost concentration in class due to excess of marijuana.He then dropped out of school and never continued with his secondary education.At the age of 19, during a new year party there were people taking cocaine and some of my friends talked me into trying some.I remember feeling so warm and secure.At this point Claus would do just a little bit of it at a time to make the feeling and the supply last as long as possible.I started out doing it only on the weekends.

Then it wasn’t long afterwards, he started buying for his own. Soon he was doing it every weekend. It became the main focus of all his activities.I liked traveling a lot and everywhere I went with my friends we wanted to have cocaine.It made the experience a lot more fun and enjoyable.Other friends we met really appreciated us having some really good stuff and it made me feel like I was important and gave me a powerful sense of control.
He takes a one minute nap while seated at a chair during the conversation and immediately wakes up and apologizes.

He used cocaine for some years before his taste in drugs turned to heroin.At the age of 24 he became addicted to it.On the 6th December 1989 he was admitted at a psychiatric
hospital for mental disorder because of excessive usage of heroin. "I dont know what happened but i became dependant on it and i kept using more" he says.
Claus has been in and out of the psychiatric hospital for many years.The treatment did not only work on his mental health but also his love life,in 2004 while at the hospital he fell in love with 55 years Lene who was also undergoing treatment on mental disorder at the time. They both fell for each other and have been together for six years now. "I used to feel rejected and lonely but after meeting her ,it made me feel appreciated and loved despite the fact that i have my addiction,"he says.
Both live apart and don`t have kids.

He admits that he cannot perform any job without a dose of Cocaine fuelling his system and that does not come cheaply since one dose of the kill-me-slowly powder costs
DKK180. “Drugs have definitely become part of my body system and I cannot do without. I don’t even fear the police or dread contracting diseases any more,” he says.
In February this year Denmark opened its first clinic equipped to distribute free heroin under medical supervision to people heavily addicted to the drug.The clinic is set to serve
only 120 of some 300 hard-core heroin addicts.The objective is not to cure heroin addicts, but to help those who are not satisfied by Methadone by providing them with clean
heroin, allowing them to avoid disease and the temptation of criminal acts to obtain the drug.
Clause is one of the beneficiaries.He receives his doses everyday and he prefers methadone to injecting himself but still he sniffs cocaine. He receives DKK 13,000 per month
from the government for his upkeep which mostly he uses to buy cocaine. Each cocaine addict needs roughly DKK 300 a day to satisfy his or her crave. This amounts to DKK 109,500 Thousand per year to spent on cocaine alone.

According to the 2009 report on the drug situation in Denmark prepared by the National Board of Health, the Danish “Focal Point”,there are an estimated 13,000 intravenous drug users in Denmark.It also states that In 2008, more than half (61%) of the young population aged between 18 and 24 years was admitted to treatment for cannabis use as their primary drug, whereas 17%, 6% and 2%, respectively, of the young population were admitted to treatment for use of amphetamine, cocaine and ecstasy as their primary drug. Globally, United Nation Office On Drug and Crime estimates that between 155 and 250 million people, or 3.5% to 5.7% of the population aged 15-64, had used illicit substances at least once in the previous year. Cannabis users comprise the largest number of illicit drug users(129-190 million people). Amphetamine-type stimulants are the second most commonly used illicit drugs, followed by opiates and cocaine. However, in terms of harm associated with use, opiates(Heroin, Morphine)
would be ranked at the top.

Deadly Drug Overdose Leads to Pill-Pushing Doctor

 

Montgomery County doctor and his son surrendered to police Thursday morning after investigators discovered that they were supplying known drug addicts with large supplies of narcotics, according to authorities. At least one person died of an overdose on Dr. Richard Ruth's drugs, police say. Ruth, of Souderton, was performing insincere medical exams for drug seekers and then providing them with prescription drugs that often ended up being sold in large quantities on the street, police say. Ruth has been running this drug operation for years, authorities say. The lengthy police investigation into Ruth's alleged crimes was called "Operation Pill Pusher." "We know that this community has been plagued by prescription drug abuse and overdoses and this was the go-to guy in the community," said District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman. Ruth’s son, Michael Ruth, was his medical assistant. "For them to come in and say he’s unlawfully doing things is just an atrocity," a teary-eyed Michael told NBC Philadelphia’s Denise Nakano. Michael also faces charges in the drug scheme that involved charging patients for the narcotic prescriptions and insurance companies for the bogus office visits, police say. Police were tipped off to Dr. Ruth’s drug dealing scheme when sources told them last September that they were able to obtain large amounts of oxycodone from the doctor. In addition to providing drugs to people who dealt them on the street, Dr. Ruth ignored pleas from family members of the drug-addicted patients who asked him to stop prescribing drugs like Percocet and Oxycodone, police say. Dr. Ruth was charged with more than 40 counts of fraud, knowingly prescribing to drug addicts, prescription fraud, and conspiracy, among others. His son Michael was charged with similar crimes.

Is it possible to effectively treat addiction without addressing the spiritual aspects of the problem

The public struggles of celebrities like the late Amy Winehouse reveal how insensitive our society has become to drug and alcohol abuse. But the problem is real, says therapist LaTonya Mason Summers, and we need to reject the ugly trend of laughing at its destructive effects.

LOST SOUL: Amy Winehouse in London on July 23, 2009, exactly two years before her death. (Photo by Shaun Curry/Newscom.)

This week, Amy Winehouse’s official cause of death was finally announced, three months after the singer was discovered dead in her London home on July 23. After initial autopsy results came back inconclusive, the coroner determined that Winehouse died from consuming an extreme amount of alcohol. According to test results, the 27-year-old singer’s blood alcohol level was five times the drunk-driving limit. Her doctor said the troubled star had resumed drinking in the days prior to her death, after a short-lived period of sobriety.

Besides being a talented artist, Winehouse was emblematic of the numerous celebrities today whose public battles with substance abuse are regularly in the headlines. By the end of her life, Winehouse’s struggles had stretched to the point of becoming fodder for jokes and riddles (“Q: What was Amy Winehouse’s biggest hit? A: Her last one!”). Sadly, our society has grown so accustom to addiction that we now laugh it off. But for those in its grips, it’s no joke.

We asked LaTonya Mason Summers, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based mental health therapist, to comment on the realities of drug and alcohol addiction and what we can do to help those affected by it.

UrbanFaith: After Amy Winehouse’s death, the Huffington Post featured a commentary by Rabbi Shais Taub which asked the question, “Was the World Powerless to Stop Amy Winehouse?” In other words, are there addictions so strong and pervasive that they’re beyond human understanding and control? How would you answer that?

LaTonya Mason Summers: The word choice is interesting here, and I agree: the “world” was powerless to stop Amy Winehouse. But it was the “world” that fueled Winehouse’s addictions. Not “world” in the sense of the “earth,” but “world” as defined by Winehouse’s frame of reference — the background, culture, and lifestyle out of which she lived. Addictions are strong, pervasive and hard to understand and control, but it’s even more difficult when one tries to stop addiction by their own strength and understanding. It is reported that Winehouse died from alcohol poisoning. Drug and alcohol abuse is a byproduct of something far deeper. Oftentimes, it’s a symptom of low self-esteem, unresolved trauma and abuse, rejection and abandonment, and mostly fear. We do a great disservice to addicted persons when we focus on their addictions and ignore the underlying problems.

We see so many celebrity drug and alcohol addicts today that our culture has almost grown cold and callous to it. For instance, before her death there was a website devoted solely to the question of “When will Amy Winehouse die?” We see celebrities such as Winehouse, Lindsay Lohan, Whitney Houston, and Charlie Sheen, and we make jokes about them. How does this affect our culture’s understanding of addiction?

When we have a culture entertained by reality TV shows, court and crime TV, and sensationalized Web broadcasting — not to mention today’s popular music — we can’t help but have a desensitized society. We are no longer afraid of or empathetic toward anyone or anything because we’ve been there and done that through TV and the media. So, why wouldn’t we have a “When will Amy Winehouse Die?” website?

Unfortunately, we live in a society that “dumbs down” addictions but tacitly gives a “thumbs up” to its portrayals. Remember when there used to be cautionary documentaries on drugs and alcohol, and on people who struggled with them? Now, we have reality shows that glorify dysfunctional behavior. No wonder we are ignorant. Understanding addictions is no longer newsworthy.

How do you counsel a person with a serious drug addiction? Where do you begin, and what kinds of things should family and friends understand as they’re trying to help that person?

I used to set up and run treatment programs for adolescent and adult substance abusers. I absolutely loved that line of work, but it was emotionally tough. After 11 years of doing it, I stepped away to work solely with mentally ill people. The public sees addicted persons as weak people who lack self-control and deserve every consequence they face. But can you imagine the level of shame, guilt, frustration, and hopelessness that those substance abusers felt by the time they got to me? Imagine having failed everyone, including yourself, family, friends, employers, and the legal system — not to mention God. I always started treatment by instilling hope and restoring the addicted person’s sense of worth. It was much easier to establish rapport, trust, and motivation that way.

God forbid I say this, but oftentimes the families were more sick than the addicts. In fact, family members would wind up on my couch before the addict would. Family work is important in substance-abuse treatment, because the family members can make recovery hard. They help too much. Their helping sometimes hurts the addict. When my patients had toxic families, I’d send my patient to a treatment program in another city or state so they could get better.

Over the summer, former NBA star Jalen Rose was sentenced to 20 days in jail for drunk driving. Some wondered if the treatment was overly harsh because he was a black celebrity, since others have gotten off easier. Do you think jail time is an effective way to steer people clear of destructive behavior involving alcohol and drugs?

In my experience working in the court system as an advocate for my clients, the courts made it worse. The punishment given rarely fit the crime. The probation officers were inconsistent. The judges sent mixed messages by punishing minor crimes with maximum sentences and vice versa. Jail time is punitive, and punishment does not work when the drug or alcohol use is secondary to something else. Addicts don’t mind punishment because they typically feel useless and worthless anyway. That kind of punishment affirms what they believe about themselves. However, I am not saying they should not suffer consequences for drunk driving, drug use, etc. I am saying that offering them rehab while they’re incarcerated might yield greater results.

What kinds of miracles have you seen in your work with people battling addictions?

LaTonya Mason Summers

Goodness, the stories I can tell. I’ve had a hand in imparting into the lives of addicted persons who are now pastors, business owners, and even addictions counselors. I had a 15-year-old girl whose parents brought her to me as a last resort. She had refused other counselors, and I assumed she would do the same with me. After I asked her parents to leave, the girl opened up to me like a book. (It wasn’t because of anything special that I said to her, but other professionals simply had failed to remove the parents.) The girl was a cocaine user and held me by her confidentiality rights, so I could not tell her parents. We made a pact that if she stopped using I would keep her secret. I cannot tell you the anxiety I had for weeks thinking something would go wrong. I collaborated with her physician to drug test her weekly to ensure the girl’s abstinence. After three months, her parents called thanking me for my help. The girl had returned to a healthy weight, her appetite had been restored, and her mood had improved. Today (four years later) she is a successful college student studying psychology.

Among the celebrity success stories that stand out are Robert Downey Jr.’s eventual victory over substance abuse. It only came after several stints in jail and a long, public battle. What kinds of things contribute to a successful road to recovery, and when do you know that someone is legitimately recovered?

My biggest weapon is instilling hope. I do this by challenging the addicted person’s mentality and perspective. I am a cognitive behaviorist, which means I help change the way people think. I do not know what works, as I have often thrown up my hands on clients who later recovered. Then I have lost clients whom I thought had arrived. All I really know is, pray hard in each session. I ask for God’s help. I ask Him to give me the words to say, and I hold on toIsaiah 50:1-7, believing I am called as a therapist.

I honestly don’t know when a person is legitimately recovered, as I believe it’s a lifelong process. Like those of us who are not addicted, we have our own lifelong battles — we try to stop lying, cheating, stealing, yelling, cursing, overeating — everyone has a Goliath they must face. And can any of us say we’ll ever arrive in this world? From my perspective, messing up is just as much part of the recovery process as getting it right is. And, if you get it right all the time, how do you know you’re recovered?

Is it possible to effectively treat addiction without addressing the spiritual aspects of the problem? 

Absolutely not! I’ve had to learn how to minister without saying “God” and “Jesus,” so that I can reach everyone. However, I know how to make others want what I have. I was mentored by a man who told me, “I may not be able to make a horse drink the water, but I should be able to make him thirsty.” And that’s the approach I take in therapy. I see myself as sowing seeds, believing someone will come behind me and water them, and eventually increase will come.

Addiction is spiritual. I believe an addict’s zealousness can be indicative of the great calling on his life. He just needs to move that zealousness away from destructive behavior to purposeful, life-giving behavior.