Ole Opry

Ole Opry

Nashville Drug Rehabs need more Drug Prevention and Education

Nashville drug rehabs are without question in need of all the help they can get with drug prevention efforts. Nashville, nicknamed "Music City" has many appealing qualities with music and musicians and the Grand Ole Opry but is unfortunately terribly plagued with substance abuse and addiction problems.The burden of substance abuse is staggering and pales in comparison to the seemingly insurmountable growing addiction problem not only in Nashville but Tennessee as a whole.

The Nashville-Davidson area has a growing population with over 630,000 people with substance abuse growing right alongside. Over seven percent of Tennessee's population has used an illicit drug in the past month according the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). That's over 45,000 people in the Nashville area alone, not to mention alcohol those with prescription drug addiction.

The Tennessee Drug Task Force reported 1972 meth busts in 2010, up over 50% of the previous years. Tennessee has yet to follow Missouri or Oregon in making the key ingredient, pseudoephedrine, illegal to be sold over-the-counter. Regardless the effort made by these states, meth production is climbing in those areas. Ironically, often meth addicts are treated with even more addictive prescription drugs. This leads to other issues as meth abusers find ways around obtaining the chemicals needed or move onto other more readily distributed legally prescribed drugs like Adderrall or opioid painkillers.

Media outlets consistently report Tennessee doctors under investigation for prescription fraud, nurses getting caught high on the job and millions in Medicare fraud. These stories are all too common in Nashville and Tennessee as a whole which have health officials more than concerned. These substance abusers will abuse drugs undetected of without supervision for years, possible decades before being cornered to face the music in rehab, loss of job, freedom or all three.

Over the past few years there have been several instances in Nashville brought to light of nurses abusing prescription drugs which could have been prevented if they had asked for help. A zero tolerance policy that requires termination for nurses caught abusing drugs prevents those that might ask for help from doing so. This prolongs the abuse and subsequently puts patients at risk. If this were not the case more nurses would enter drug rehabs in Tennessee and get help.

The prescription drug addiction problem continues to rise and so much so that it has become a major concern for local, state, and federal agencies. Drug diversion investigators with the Drug Enforcement Administration and Tennessee Bureau of Investigations (TBI) are now aggressively pursuing those who overprescribe, "doctor shop" or illegally sell scheduled prescription drugs.  This (TBI) Drug Investigation Division has become actively involved in the creation of a Statewide Drug Diversion Task Force. The criminal diversion of these drugs encompasses everything from prescription fraud by individual addicts to profit motivated traffickers.

Addiction problems like these make drug education and prevention efforts all the more important as costs are grossly unbalanced. For every $100 spent on substance abuse in Tennessee, 96¢ went toward prevention, treatment, and research, compared with $98.63 to cover the burden incurred by public programs such as criminal justice, school aid, Medicaid, child welfare, developmental disabilities and mental illness.

There are about 105 Nashville drug rehabs centers each offering a variety of treatment services which is not nearly enough. What should happen are widespread rehabilitation and prevention efforts along with health care reforms and change in attitudes about drug addiction issues.

With that substance abuse and health care professionals should see the overall problem concerning the addict's life, and not just prescribe more drugs, which actually suppress the addict's abilities as a whole. Improving the abilities of anyone will greatly increase the odds of overcomeing any problems he or she may have, prescribing drugs to address these issues inhibits the addicts own determinism from truly confronting the issues.

If more education and prevention efforts were employed drug use statistics would recede. Those that think abusing drugs is a good idea cannot fathom the intensity of drug cravings, and what level they will degrade themselves to obtain these drugs once addicted. Its almost unbelievable to many, and yet thousands of teenagers try drugs each day with nearly 20% becoming addicted.

 

About the Author

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 on Rehab Tennessee about the drug problems and effective rehabilitation methods.

What would you wear if you were going to a concert at the grand ole opry?

I am 25 year old woman and I want to wear pants.

sharp jeans ,, nice western type blouse ( nothing over the top ) wedges for shoes , maybe a cute bendable hat western style ,,, or even try some turquoise jewelry instead

Steve Martin performs on the Grand Ole Opry