Heroin-Abuse Books

Dr. Beck's book gave me hope for my son. He has been addicted to heroin for 8 months. American psychiatrists need to read this and start a program here. It is needed so badly. Methadone only gives you another addiction to break and opportunity to sell again to support the heroin habit when the cravings kick in. The FDA needs to approve buprenorphine.Buprenorphine along with treating the underlying problems, usually ADD, is the key.The holistic approach is the only way to treat with permanent results. The underlying problems, usually ADD, are brought out in this book. When I read this book everything fell into place and made sense. I am now seeking people that may be able to promote this book and help get clinics open.

This book is what it would be like if addiction therapies were working perfectly and it would be smooth sailing. I believe that if addicts and their loved ones had plans like this they can be saved.
our families situation was like many others, my husband was an addict for at least 15 years. In and out of rehabs and jail - methadone works for awhile then they get sick of going everyday or they get dosed down too fast to make room for others. We thought we had a saving grace in suboxone. He was on Buprenorphine but his appointments were once a month and maybe 4-5 minutes long. His Dr. was the head of a psych dept in a major hospital in boston. The thing is insurance won't cover the appts so the Dr who would normally get hundreds of dollars an hour has to make it affordable for an addict so you get what you pay for. In our case it was 75$ for 5 minutes. My husband started to sell the suboxine on the street for heroin. With suboxine you can stay straight all week then get high on the weekends. If he went overboard and sold to many he would just buy them on the street for himself. It's sick and this needs to be solved with more contact between the dr and patient but can't until the government gets a grip and the insurance companies cover the visits like a normal treatment. Anyway this is exactly how my husband died dec 27, 07 20 minutes after selling his script. I literally had put all my hopes in this therapy. His Dr. never even called to give his condolences, I think he had a suspicion about what my husband was doing. This books approach will work but all the pieces have to be just so. You should bring this book to your appts and get specific with the doctors.

This book is very enlightening and informative, but I'm concerned that the powers that be in the Australian government giving the doctor so much grief about his treatment have done away with him. The emails and phone numbers on his Web site are inactive. I even tried sending a fax and it wouldn't go through. I was trying to get information on US treatment centers following the doctor's treatment plan. I hope this innovative pioneer has not been snuffed out by the system.

As an addiction medicine physician for the last 15 years, I feel that his book is extrememly helpful in educating on recovery from heroin addiction. I recommend it without reservation!
Sincerely,
Joel Nathan, MD
www.nabumed.com

This is a MUST HAVE for any physician, counselor, support person, or health care provider. I would like to see this book as University (or any teaching facility's) curriculum. It's a logical approach that should be applied in addition to or in lieu of a 12-step program. I say this because many addicts don't have the faith needed to rely on a "higher power"; they need alternatives and Dr Beck's theories address these alternatives.
Definately worth applying, especially when counseling for an addiction with a typically low recovery rate.

This is a tale about a family, love and compassion, facing the fragile nature of life we all share. It is a story of addiction, the monster heroin, the battle for a life. And it is the story that we all know, if we dare to read our own lives at the depths.

This is a fine book, well-written and heartfelt. The death of a young adult child, according to Darwin (who experienced this) is the hardest of all life's hard things. Worried parents of troubled children will have to ante up some gumption to read it. Non-Jews will envy the Waxlers' faith in their tradition, which seems to come from the inside, unmediated by a pastor's instructions or by the stiff martini resorted to by lonesome predestinarians. English majors and professors will be reminded of the deeply moral underpinnings of their vocations. People without children, once visiting this terrible story, will understand their friends with children better than they may understand themselves. Parents will see their children as never before, vulnerable in a hard world, today in an unnecessarily hardnosed American version of it. For parents who have lost a child, this book and the strength of this family may offer consolation-but the Waxlers advise never to give advice to people in this terrible position.

Soul-wrenching and life-changing. Robert and Linda Waxler, with their incredible faith and love for their son, find a way to articulate what it means to be a parent. Through their loss and subsequent struggle to survive it, Robert Waxler beautifully and powerfully gives us a much greater awareness and consciousness of our own love and committment to our children. This book also drills home the absolutely terrifying reality that everyone's children are vulnerable to the dangers of drugs. I knew Jonathan personally and went to school with him throughout high school. He was an intelligent, witty and extremely nice guy. He was one of those people that everyone liked and assumed would be a success in life. The face of a potential addict is every child - not just those who had a hard childhood or who were unloved. Jonathan was loved and the Waxler's ability to give us the gift of his and their story is possible because of the power of that love. Read it and become a better person and parent.

This is a beautiful, heart-felt story about family tragedy and love. It is a story that should remind everyone that the stereotypes we have about drug addiction and parental grief are wrong and too simple. It shows the complexity of human experience and gets us to face our own mortality.It is a story that could happen to anyone--and it does!!

This book gives the reader a sense of the wonders of Jonathan - the aliveness and excitement of his life and the positive effect he had on everyone he touched. Through the eyes of his mother and father you see beyond his terrible struggle to the light that glowed around him.

From the nomadic tribes of the Middle East centuries ago, to the streets of America's cities today, to suburban homes tomorrow; "Heroin" offers an in-depth review of every aspect of the drug as we know it. Humberto Fernandez has crafted a finely detailed look at a killer that we know too little about. With personal stories from recovering and active addicts, Fernandez shows us the every day life of an addict. His detailed account of the origins of the heroin trade points out the incredible staying power that this drug has shown. The author also goes into great detail explaining the history of medical treatments that we have tried using to get the drug under our control. All in all, "Heroin" is a comprehensive and educational look at a subject that we all might be a little scared to face head on. Fernandez has done an excellent job at helping us take that first peek.

As a heroin addict I loved this book, I read it over and over the stories were very real and the information very correct, I highly recommend this book to anyone... esp if you are a family member of an addict, an addict or work in the field of addiction, I myself have spent 28 days at The Betty Ford center, in addition to at least 39 other programs so I have a fair amount of knowledge of the subject and I still learned much from this book.

The best book on the subject I've ever read. Brilliant, incisive and comprehensive. Highly recommend this book! Great for students, educators or concerned readers.

I found "Heroin", by Humberto Fernandez, a fascinating read. I especially enjoyed the personal stories. It's an indepth and engaging look at this terrible drug. I really feel it is a useful tool for anyone touched by Heroin. A powerful and important book.

This is a beautifully written, deep and wide-ranging examination of the origin, use, effect and politics of heroin. It reports with great feeling and power the personal stories of those caught up in this life-destroying drug. It should be must reading for every legislator, community leader, drug counselor -- and parent.

A must read for mother's of addicts

About 10 pages in the beginning, where I couldnt connect with the Jewish funeral and such, I stuck it out and found it to be a very human and painful truth about a mother and son dealing with addiction..I reccomend it to every mother who is suffering with the imperfections of a son who's addiction is running both their lives.

The first two sentences of "One-Way Ticket" by Rita Lowenthal, are: "At 38, Josh was dead from a heroin overdose. In 1970 at the age of 13, he went from shooting hoops in the suburbs to shooting heroin in the ghetto.

Of course we want to know how? why? when and where? and how does a mother cope with this tragedy?

Rita Lowenthal tells us their story:hers and her son Joshs'. For Rita there was eternal hope that the next drug rehab. would present the magic cure. In her 25 year quest for a solution to Joshes' addiction she learned slowly how the system deals with drug addicts (more and more serious jail sentences). She also learned how impotent she was to enter that entrenched system. In Joshes' own words he tells her: "There is nothing you can do, mom. You can't compete with heroin."

We hear the voice of Josh through his letters from prison and from the streets he haunts. He, like his mother, is smart, funny, and a keen observer of people and places. His encounters in jails, in the family or with his girl friends are brilliantly observed and chronicled.

We get to know these two well--Rita and Josh, through the descriptive writing of their struggles to maintain a loving relationship under impossible circumstances.

I recommend this book highly, not only to those involved with addiction problems, but to all who have a social conscience and worry about our continuation of a failed drug abuse policy.

Eva Menkin, M.A.
Marriage and Family Therapist, Ret.
Santa Barbara, Ca.

With honesty, compassion and humor, Rita Lowenthal shares the heartbreaking story of her son Josh's addiction to heroin. While she doesn't beat you over the head with statistics, it is clear that the author hopes you will come away feeling less angry with yourself and your addict. She has placed the anger where it belongs--with the criminal justice system.

Rita Lowenthal has written a heart-braking but powerful book about her beloved son Josh's addiction and how it affected her, her husband and Josh's brother as well as other rlatives and friends. She shares her feelings and actions with an amazing ability to write with honesty, humor and purpose.

All parents with an addicted child must read this inciteful book. I read through tearful eyes and by the end I had learned that addiction is not a crime to be punished by being sentenced to prison but rather a disease, an illness to be treated.

I was also helped by the realization that parents who have a child with an addiction or even an other deeply troubled mental problem are not alone. How important it is to understand too that the parents are not to bleame for their child's addiction nor should they feel guilty.

ONE-WAY TICKET is a serious but readable true story that is very helpful to parents in dealing with an extremely difficult problem.
One of my friends who has an addicted son was reluctant to read the book when I sent it to her, but thanked me after she did read it.

One-Way Ticket is the story not only of Josh Lowenthal, but of his courageous mother, Rita. How much easier to leave unasked the painful questions about how someone like Josh, with all the advantages of socio-economic position, rare intelligence and tremendous personal charm, could find himself battling his way through each and every day as a heroin addict. Rita Lownenthal re-lives the confusion, fear, frustration and abiding grief of mothering this wonderful young man who was a full fledged herion addict before he even had a glimpse of life's panoramic choices. Josh was a devoted musician. When I learned of his suicide, I could hear his tired voice saying, "take two." If he could read his mother's amazing tribute to his life of struggle, I know he would join me in saying, "Bravo!"

I live less than a mile from the facility in this book. I grew up here in Lexington during the Narcotics Farm hey day and knew very little about it. This is a great account, with lots of pictures to show how it was. This account shows how much we have gained as well as how little we truly know about addiction, drug abuse & the criminal aspects associated with it. This book is great fro any one working in Corrections (as I do), in a medical field or in drug rehab & treatment. I highly recommend it. It would also make a great gift for anyone in those fields or anyone in Central Kentucky interested in the history of the area.

Having spent some federal prison time at "The Narco Farm" I can tell you it was a gallant if failed experiment. In the early days it was a voluntary treatment center but as "the War On Drugs" raged on it became the concentration camp for addicts and dealers. The European approach of "Harm Reduction Therapy" seems to be the best course of action. Less harm to society, the addict's health, and the government in general. Let's hope that the seven million people in Federal, State and County jails will not be the wave of the future.

Opened in 1935, the Lexington (Kentucky) Hospital of the United States Public Health Service was for four decades the only place that persons dependent on narcotics could go for help. It was a pioneering effort on the part of a then enlightened federal government to assist a population that was, and still is, almost universally shunned. Although I was on the staff of the hospital for a period of two years, the book contains views of parts of the institution that I never saw; it is highly comprehensive. Many of the photographs are themselves works of art, and all are an important part of the historical record of this now-vanished institution, which established the base of what is now known about narcotic addiction. Lexington was a noble effort, and here it is finally given its due. I understand that the book is the basis for a PBS documentary that will air later this fall.

"The Narcotic Farm" is the first book to tell the many-faceted story of The Narcotic Farm, a federal hospital/prison for drug addicts in Lexington, Kentucky that opened in 1935 and closed forty years later. Though it failed to cure addiction, Narco (as locals called it) pioneered most of the treatments used today, and trained many of the leaders of addiction research. Campbell, Olsen, and Walden tell it all: the hopes attending its founding, the experiences of its inmates from admission through rehabilitation to release - and readmission, the pioneering treatments and scientific research, the ethical quandaries that finally shut it down. They tell it well; the style is clear and jargon-free, and the photographs, culled from attics and archives, bring the story to life. And they tell it like it was. As a "Narco Brat" who grew up on the grounds, I had the run of the place. Everything in this fascinating book jibes with my memories -- the patients and the doctors, the cows and the jazz.

The bibliography and research notes alone justifies the price of the book. The stories of one small town and of 20th Century Globalism are artfully interwoven. Altogether, it's inspiring in a painful, eye-opening sort of way.

Contrary to "About the Author", Chellis Glendinning is a she, not a he.

Chiva paints a picture of Chimayó New Mexico, number one per-capita consumer of heroin in the number one per-capita consumer state in the United States. The book also offers a well-researched history of the global heroin trade from past to present. The picture is ugly indeed.

For those advocating legalization (of hard drugs) as the remedy to this problem, I suggest reading this and then asking yourself: is this the kind of country I want to live in? And for those that think the current plan in the war on drugs is working, I have the same suggestion. Quite obviously it is not working and will not cure the problem.

The author points out that at one time heroin was legally introduced to China. The result: over one quarter of the adult population became hopelessly addicted. In Chimayó, the supply was plentiful, with an individual dose costing $15, but anyhing not nailed down was likely to be stolen. Overdoses and shootings were common events. A friend of mine from a barrio full of tecatos in Juarez speaks of the same.

Anywhere heroin has been introduced without control to a population, usage of the drug has increased exponentially. With disastrous consequences.

The writing is good and kept me interested from start to finish. But I think the weakness of the book comes near the end where solutions to the problem are offered. There, you'll find more questions than answers.

I highly recommend Chiva for anyone interested in the drug problem or the region described in the book.

Every now and then somebody comes along who acts as a bridge or emissary between two cultures. Not as a missionary out to "improve," "evolve," or Christianize the natives, or to sell them slicker TV sets; not to study them like infusoria under a microscope; not to turn their gods into meteorology; but to listen, deeply, into the patterns of their life and language, and then--strictly by invitation within that community--to create a thing of beauty that casts a circle of illumination over what had remained hidden in the shadows cast by the mainstream.

In Chimayo, New Mexico, that emissary is Chellis Glendinning.

At one time Chimayo ranked #1 in drug overdoses in a state (New Mexico) that also ranked first in this grim category. This book is a story--personal, cultural, wrenching, hard to read in places because disturbing in its detail--of how the Chicanos and Mexicanos of Chimayo went back to their cultural roots to push the dealers out of their town, then apply the wisdom of those roots to healing the victims of the dragon Chiva, "heroin."

The use of "roots" is deliberate, because as the author makes clear, the drug problem is a product of a long tradition of colonial expansion and devastation in which a land-based people have been globalized, exploited, and thrust into poverty on soils their ancestors once cultivated and loved. From out of that soil came the remedies to combat sniffed, smoked, and injected poisons which users employ to forget for a moment that they are poor; that they have few options and scarce employment; that they are seen by the culture that has alienated them as aliens.

Whence this black-market plague of Thebes? Nations in which the United States Government has intervened to make the world safer for its businessmen: Afghanistan, Columbia, the Asian Golden Triangle, where farmers made poor by either military activity or "free" trade (free for whom?) are forced to grow opiates for sale to Europe and, of course, the United States of the Fifties, where 20,000 users would soon swell into millions.

Their supply? Substances sold by "freedom fighter" drug lords (remember Air America? Burma, now Myanmar? the Afghanistani Northern Alliance?) in the pay of the CIA--even while conservatives sold the sham of a righteous war on drugs. Just say no, except that "like a McDonald's hamburger, heroin can be had just about anywhere in the world."

Chimayo said no and meant it, and although overdoses continue, the last part of this book could be used as a manual for how healing practices implemented locally--NOT from the top down or imposed from outside--successfully grapple on many levels (land, culture, faith, mentoring, and ceremony) with a scourge of the colonialism that continues today transnationally.

One difficulty with positive reviews is that there seems to be so few ways to say you like the book. Bad books are bad in their own way, but good books only seem to be good in one way.

"Genius and Heroin" is a collection of weird stories about famous people. It tries to position itself as a study of the connection between artists and self-destruction. But, really, it's slumming. It just wants to dish the dirt and parade the freaks, and I'm happy with that. It's a great collection, and that's speaking as the proud owner of the"People's Almanac" series, "An Incomplete Education," John Scalzi's "The Book of the Dumb" and the highlight of my collection: "Who's Had Who," which compiles chains of people linked by "rogers" (I have to mention that you may know two of the authors: Helen "Bridget Jones' Diary" Fielding and Richard "I wrote all those BritRomCom movies starring Hugh Grant that your girlfriend loved and you hated" Curtis).

"Genius and Heroin" is a high-end bathroom book. It's beautifully laid out. The tall trade book fits easily into one hand, and the text is an attractive mix of fonts and interspersed with photos, quotations, clip art, movie posters, Japanese prints and even briefer sidebars. An entry on Lulu Hunt Peters, the 1920s diet guru who died of we now recognize as anorexia, is accompanied by a note about Karen Carpenter; the death of River Phoenix -- see what I mean about this not being a book about geniuses? -- is followed by a list of other actors who died young from drug overdoses.

Author Michael Largo did quite a lot of research. His entries are packed with facts and some of the entries have the depth and flavor of the best biographies. Moreover, for all the obvious candidates (Virginia Woolf, Vincent Van Gogh, Hunter S. Thompson), there are plenty of lesser-known figures, from the classical era (Lucan, Seneca) to today (John Minton, Jaco Pastorius and Louis Verneul, the popular playwright -- now forgotten -- who filled his bathtub with blood from his slashed throat).

I could go on, but you get the ideal. My liking for "Genius and Heroin" is turning into an obsession, so I have to finish this review and put the book out of sight before I pick it up and spend another pleasant hour or two thumbing through its pages. Now, I wonder where my copy of "Who's Had Who" went?

This book made me think about creativity and self-destruction in a new way. The author includes many well known icons, as well as an equal number of writers, musicians, and other geniuses who used some kind of drug, drink or obsession to help create. I get that the "heroin" in the title is a synonym for all kinds of behavior that took these greats to the edge and over. Many I never heard of before and I had no idea so many masterpieces were inspired under such conditions. By focusing on the personal "bad" habits of these creative-types, and not on the standard biographical fare, the book makes for an interesting addition to my "Literary Decadence" bookshelf.

A harrowing look at the seedy underbelly of post-beat '70's Venice, California. It's meant to be challenging, both in tone and subject matter, and I found it well worth the effort.

Plesko takes the reader on a journey into the terrible clutches of drug addiction, then does something more difficult: he transcends the crushing realities of his characters through the power and lyricism of his prose. Last Bongo Sunset is a absorbing account of a rare triumph over addiction written with compassion, skill, and wisdom.

It changed mine for the better. My hope was renewed. It reminded me just how big and loving that God is. Even when we think we have totally missed the mark, when our plans seem to have failed, He has a bigger and better plan. What the world may view as useless, God has a purpose for. After reading this book in 2001, God blessed me with an opportunity to visit the Betel in Birmingham, England, as a missionary. The people there captured my heart, just as the book had. I have returned to Birmingham every year since. God willing, I will continue these yearly visits.It goes beyond missions, it's friendships. This book changed my life. Let it, Let God, change yours.

Gotta get it. I've already read it twice. It is so humbling and challenging to read about these awesome men and women doing great exploits who only years or months before would have been considered the less-than-nothing of society. Great for non-Christians too.

Whatever you thought you knew about heroin, this book will tell you something you didn't.
Mary Kenny gently challenges her reader to face up to the melancholy realities of drug addiction, just as she and others had to when they lost family members to the affliction. She sensitively recounts the tragic histories of heroin users who lost their lives to the drug, and tells the heart-wrenching stories of those who fought to recover.
'Death by Heroine' is an important education for everyone, which should help to banish social prejudice against junkies and to reform the way we deal with drug abuse.