latest blog....

pass this around....it might help somebody????

http://drug.addictionblog.org/my-son-is-on-drugs-what-do-i-do/

New blog.....

Hey all, I get these assignments from the woman who runs AddictionBlog.com. Sure, I'd rather be writing something wild and crazy, like how masturbation can help people struggling with recovery.

True story, the chemicals released in the brain at the time of orgasm, that euphoric blast, are very similar to the chemicals released in the brains of drug addicts. Amazing!

However, there is much more to come on that topic and other controversial steps to recovery in my pamphlet, The Truth about Addiction – Coming Soon.

Anyway, below is a link to my latest blog. I'm committed to my goal of helping 1000 people in 2012. Therefore, I welcome the assignments from Lee at AddictionBlog.com and although I may not like them, I refuse to let my ego get in the way.

Beside, more than 100K people go to that sight for answers and guidance. Who the hell am I to balk at the opportunity to help somebody survive the hell of addiction.

Peace and Love!Please email this around!

http://drug.addictionblog.org/signs-my-son-is-a-drug-dealer/

First blog published on AddictionBlog.org

Today marks the beginning of my 2012 goal to spread goodwill and help save people suffering from the insidious clutches of addiction. As I wrote before Christmas 2011, AddictionBlog.org will now be hosting my End Addiction 2012 Blog. They are a wonderful organization run by Lee Weber and her husband, both soundly committed to bringing knowledge about addiction to the masses.

After reading my first blog of 2012 link below, you'll see that I promise to "tell it like it is!" If we are to win this war against addiction, we must change the game plan. No longer can we afford to be soft as hundreds, thousands of young teenagers and adults needlessly die. The time has come to wake up the powers controlling addiction recovery in America.

My goal this year is to add 100 volunteers to my End Addiction 2012 Campaign. I need volunteers to email my blog post to the local and national media, radio and television talk show, and free sites that allow links to be attached.

If we join together, if you send this blog and every blog I post to three people, we'll change the outcome of those battling addiction in 2012.

Now of course I chose AddictionBlog.org because 100, 000 people go to their site. But I need you to help me succeed. Without you, it's just words of advice sitting nicely on a large internet website. Please consider volunteering your time to spread the word.

Peace and Love,
Richie Farrell
http://drug.addictionblog.org/signs-my-kid-is-on-drugs/

Step out of the shit!

I’ve written two blogs for AddictionBlog.org since I stopped posting them to Facebook. But with Christmas knocking at our door, I suspect my “End Addiction 2012 Blog” will not click in to their system until after the holidays. In a way, I’m pleased with the delay. Both blog entries lend powerful advice for parents who have a child addicted to drugs.  I’m certain more people will benefit from it after January 1, 2012.

But I had to write a quick blog entry for my friends on Facebook, a Christmas message. I think a message everybody should consider as the year winds down and we look toward a new beginning in 2012.

Bottom-line, you do not need to stand in the shit anymore. And if you decide to stand and continue the same madness in 2012, well consider this, that decision is a conscious decision you make. It has absolutely nothing to do with circumstances or factors beyond your control.

Stop right now as you read this. Look at where you are in life at this second. Write down where you want to be this time next year and make a fucking plan to get there. End of story. Step out of the shit.

You know, I’m a big fan of Steve Jobs. And I wasn’t until after he died. Since, I read everything I can about his life. I watch all his speeches on YouTube over and over.

This morning, something Jobs said struck me hard, something obvious. He said, “Ask for help! Reach out to people who have done something you want to accomplish. Don’t be afraid to ask for help! Most will help you.”

I just had to pass this message on. Make a decision right now to step out of the shit and ask for help in 2012!

Best wishes to everybody for a wonderful Christmas and a happy, healthy 2012!

http://www.addictionblog.org/

Addiction Blog

Good news. My blog has been picked up by AddictionBlog.org. They have 100,000 visitors every month and I'll be able to get my message out all over the world. So it may take a few days to get into their system, but I'll notify you when they officially begin.

It's a wonderful website designed to help everybody struggling with addiction. Check it out:

http://addictionblog.org/

and of course my website at www.whatsleftofus.com

 

I'm a heroin addict!

    The following is an excerpt from my memoir, "What's Left of Us." It's how I lived 25 years ago. It's also a perfect example for somebody struggling with addiction. Bottom-line, if I can do it -- anybody can!

    It may be longer than my usual blog, but it moves fast. Print it or email it to somebody you know struggling with this insidious disease.

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    I am a heroin addict. My life is limited to three concerns. The first thing I gotta figure out every morning is how to get a bag of heroin into my arm no more than ten minutes after I wake-up. If I fail, I’m dope sick. The cramps inside my lower stomach go on a full-scale attack. I can’t stand. I can’t walk. The diarrhea squirts out like a water hose. But I’m damn good at getting high now. I hardly ever stay dope-sick long.

     The second issue is drawing a “hot shot” or a “beat-bag.” The majority of heroin in Lowell originates from New York City. Puerto Rican gangs bring it here by the kilo. The drug dealers on Adam Street who package the heroin from one pound bricks into grams and half-gram are no Einsteins. They cut the heroin or add fake shit to stretch quantity for profit. Some dealers cut it in half and double their money. Most use quinine, which gives the bitter taste, and an Italian baby laxative called Manatol because its fine white granules have almost the identical weight of pure heroin.

     So picture this, four of five Puerto Rican males in a poorly-lit room with the combined education of maybe the 8^th grade, whacked on heroin or cocaine, drunk on port wine, with about fifty or sixty small piles of white powder lined out on a old door top propped on two twenty-gallon plastic paint containers being used as a cutting table. You don’t have to be a fuckin’ rocket scientist to figure out they ain’t gonna be able to get the proper distribution of cut to heroin every time. Too much pure heroin in a half-gram package equals a “hot shot.” You’re history, because five minutes after the rush your heat stops. Too little or no heroin in a half-gram package gets you dope-sick.          

     But my major concern on Adam Street is “cotton fever.” I’d rather be dope-sick all day than get what the Puerto Rican junkies down here call “cotton shot rush.” It’s when a dirty piece of cotton fiber used to filter the heroin makes it into your bloodstream. The sweats and shakes that ransack your body are nothin’ compared to the fire under your skin. I’ve watched junkies do everything imaginable, cry hysterically, beg to die, boot two additional bags of heroin and overdose just to kill the sickness. A doctor in the emergency room once told me it comes from bacteria or fungus on the cotton, and not the cotton itself. To me the argument is pointless, you get “cotton shot rush” —it doesn’t matter from where it came from.  

     Heroin is not a cold-shake like cocaine. The impurities used to cut heroin need to be cooked off in boiling water before you shoot it intravenously. Down here we all do it the same, bite the heroin package open carefully, taste it, gag or dry heave on the bitterness, empty the heroin into a cooker, (either a spoon or the bottom of a tonic can), draw 50cc of water into the syringe, fill the cooker until the heroin drowns, and light a match.

     After you see tiny bubbles dancing in the cooker you place a small sliver of cotton or a piece of a cigarette’s filter into the liquid. With one hand firmly steadying the cooker, the tip of the needle is guided into the cotton or filter with the other hand. The plunger is moved upward slowly by biting firmly on to the tip and moving the head upwards. If all goes well the syringe fills with about 20cc of heroin. The task of hitting a good vein is next. And nobody down here takes the time to wrap a belt around their arm and whack the skin over a vein. That’s fuckin’ Hollywood. If you make it to where I am-- you’re an expert at veins. After contact, you watch your blood snake into the syringe, you pull the trigger, hot liquid moves quickly up your arm, your heart tingles, and you feel an immediate rush of adrenaline guzzle your brain in one swift sip.

     From there it’s a crapshoot. Most addicts don’t carry sterile cotton balls or Q-tips in their back pocket. If you’re lucky you have access to a clean filtered cigarette. But most of the time you have to find a cigarette butt on the ground, in an ashtray, or a garbage barrel. “Cotton shot rush” is perfect example of life as a heroin addict. You live for the moment. If it happens, it happens. But there is no mistaking it when it hits. Ten to twenty minutes after you pull the trigger it whacks you like you’re in the third day of the flu virus. The ears give it away: if they start to ring you’re fucked. Pressure begins to mount on each side of your temple like a vise squeezing slowly together. Sweat pours off your brow but at first there is no temperature associated with it. The shakes progress quickly to trembles. Chills hit immediately after and the body’s temperature spikes to over 102.  Sometimes the brain fogs and things appear that aren’t there. I’m not sure why some cases are more extreme than others. On occasion it can last only an hour, most times it resolves itself within 12 or 24 hours. But if the bacteria takes up residency in your heart and you don’t seek medical attention, you’re dead. I roll the dice about a dozen times a day.

http://www.whatsleftofus.com/

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It's Simple: Be Positive, Live Longer

Almost 25 years ago, I walked away from a heroin habit that had completely destroyed my life. How? I did it one-day-at-a-time. But that’s easy to say right, it’s a group words, they sound good, but putting them into action is another ball game. How did I do it? Quite simple actually, with a positive attitude, I'm an optimist, not a pessimist!

Optimism is defines as the expectation that good, rather than bad, things will happen. Think about it, listen to people today, most expect the worst. They speak badly of people, places, and things. But a simple change in how you think and talk today, can and will change the outcome of your day.

In fact, medical science backs this up! A University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study reported exciting new findings about the impact of optimism on the health of 100,000 post-menopausal women. The news is very good for those with a hopeful attitude!

In short, “Women who were optimistic and held the expectation that good things, as opposed to bad things, would happen to them were 30% less likely to die from heart disease than their pessimistic counterparts." The study also found "that positive, trustful people were 23% less likely to die of cancer than their cynically hostile or highly mistrustful counterparts.”

There you go, it’s a done deal, proven, a positive approach to living will extend your life. That said, remember this, a pessimistic “woe is me” attitude toward life opens one up to illness and can shorten one’s life.

So, try this, today, keep it positive. If a negative thought enters your brain, kick it out. If you can’t say something good about something or somebody, don’t say anything.

www.whatsleftofus.com