Everything You've Wanted to Know About Drug Addiction | ENCOGNITIVE.

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Everything You've Wanted to Know About

Drug Addiction
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Drug Addiction
Tibor A. Palatinus is a trained Narconon Drug Prevention Specialist, Drug
Interventionist and Certified Chemical Dependency Counselor. Today, he
consults drug users and parents and friends of drug users on how to save an
addict's life by getting those in need to the Narconon Drug Rehabilitation
program. Since 2001 he has been the Executive Director of Narconon
Vancouver Society, in Vancouver, BC.

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Drug Detox and Rehab Consultant: Tibor A. Palatinus has talked to about 10,000 people
looking for help with an addiction problem. He and his consultants have sent almost 500
people to specific rehab programs. This has been a unique learning experience. Successful
rehab results require personal responsibility and family support. Fitting programs to people is
another key to success in rehab.

Drug Prevention
Specialist:
Tibor A. Palatinus trained at Narconon International
as a Drug Prevention Specialist in 2002. He has delivered prevention education in over 6 US
states and several Canadian provinces. He combines this knowledge and experience with 3
years training as a Toastmaster to bring a fun, refreshing and effective style to drug education
talks. Prior to his Drug Prevention Specialist training, Tibor had worked for over 5 years as an
educator, tutor and business academy supervisor.
Tibor experimented with drug use as a teenage due to a lack of knowledge of what drugs are.
Drug use adversely affected his education and physical health causing several life threatening
situations. Tibor has been there as a user and shares his experiences freely with the kids and
adults to bring reality to each of the Narconon Truth about Drugs talks.
The "Narconon Truth about Drugs Talks are delivered in a non-judgmental way without scare
tactics, to let the participants draw their own conclusions about drug use. The Narconon talks
draw heavily on the latest research of drug effects on the body, mind and abilities of a person,
combined with real life anecdotal stories which bring the facts to life.
As a teenager, Tibor tested many nutritional theories and practices, such as saunas, taking
vitamin B3 and other cleansing methods to achieve better health and improve well being. He
shared these discoveries with family, friends and clients to help others achieve better health
and happiness. This would mark the beginning of his research into nutrition and its connection
to well being. He maintains personal consultation with nutritional experts and continues to
read up on nutritional breakthroughs to keep up with this amazing technology.

Questions and Answers

by Trung Nguyen
How did you become involved with the field of drug prevention?
I started in drug prevention innocently enough, looking for something to do as a public
speaker. I got thoroughly involved in drug prevention after learning of the real damage to
society that drugs bring. Life doesn't need to have this heaven and hell conflict all the time. I
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discovered we as society are responsible for both sides. I'm currently supporting the 'heaven
on earth' side.
Working in drug prevention requires a unique determination to make a lasting and effective
improvement in our social fabric. Drugs, pharmaceutical and illicit, combined with alcohol are
killing our kids, loved ones and rising stars faster than many of the wars in the world today.
After seeing that drug and alcohol abuse is a tool used to degrade people and destroy society,
I decided to do something, anything about it. I've lived mostly in Vancouver, BC - home of the
infamous Downtown Eastside (DTES) of Vancouver: a poverty stricken sore spot in the middle
of this northern paradise.
Ironically, the DTES is only the symptom of an even larger crisis. Drug & alcohol addiction,
both pharmaceutical and illicit, is prevalent in colleges, business and corporations. The DTES is
the tip of the iceberg, with 90% of the drug abuse problem out of sight to the majority of
society.
I don't work in the DTES. I'm more interested in the 90% of those whose drug abuse is still
out of sight. The easiest to handle are those who haven't gotten involved in drugs, that's why
prevention makes sense to me. Even a little bit of work goes a long way in prevention. It's
also a lot of fun working with kids and parents.
In the clients that you have worked with, would you say that narcotics addiction is
more of a physiological problem or a psychological problem? Or evenly both?
Narcotics addiction - meaning illicit drug use, including alcohol and pharmaceutical abuse, is a
combination of physiological, educational and spiritual problems. I'm going to keep the
psychological aspect out of it as I don't work as a psychologist.
Drug - illicit & pharmaceutical, and I'll include alcohol addiction with drug abuse, is an
attempted solution to a problem. Drug abuse remains a 'quick fix' solution as long as the
underlying problems that drug use temporarily 'solves' remains unresolved. The confusions as
to what the actual problems are, covers the roots of addiction and keeps it from being
unearthed. It's mostly the unknown factors which keep addiction alive not what every one
seems to know about. That's why addicts have to increase their abilities and awareness to
truly recover from drug addiction.
Simply, drugs serve a use for an addicted person. They hide his real problems from him or
her. These problems can seem devastating - like the death of a loved one, having to tell the
truth, talking in front of a group or an illness that is undiagnosed and poorly treated etc. Drugs
dull down the person's ability to perceive these uncomfortable situations and / or memories.
The person decays in health or wellbeing while on drugs; I'm sure you've seen examples of
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this.
Moreover, drugs store in the body fat or adipose tissue of a person for years. Simply stopping
drug use doesn't get that stored drug metabolite (residue) out of the fat tissue. Drugs are
essentially toxins or poisons. These drug toxins have a cumulative effect on the body systems.
The good news is that they can and are flushed out of the body with intensive sauna, exercise
and specific nutritional supplement treatment (see Townsend Letter - The Examiner of
Alternative Medicine #273)
To summarize, drug addiction is rarely a singular problem, however when it is, drug abuse is
far more easily solved.
What are some of the more memorable clients that you have worked with?
A client I sent to rehab was from a wonderful family. His father worked in his retiring years
volunteering for the ministry and also had a radio show. The client was addicted to heroin. It
took him two times through the Narconon program to end his addiction. The factors that made
this client special is that he was privately described to me by one of the directors as "an evilly
intentioned" person during his first time through the Narconon program. I thought he was
simply trouble.
Very early in his first program, his actions had resulted in several clients leaving. I wasn't
happy with his actions and was very clear with his father that his son had some amends to do.
Oddly enough, this man turned his life around and has been a model son and community
member since leaving the Narconon rehab center. Upon completing his programs, he became
an ethics counselor at the rehab and specialized in handling tough cases. After leaving the
center he continued helping others get to rehab. He later parlayed his way up from having
almost no money and now owns a very nice home in Texas. He even became a friend of mine.
It is funny how anyone can save themselves when they take responsibility for their
rehabilitation and for their lives.
In drug prevention education, I befriended a teacher at a school that I would return again and
again to. I found that this teacher always seemed to have pretty good kids in his class.
Conversely, another teacher always seemed to end up with the difficult kids.
I looked at what this teacher did or didn't do and discovered some interesting characteristics
to his teaching methods. The kids always knew where the lines of acceptable and
unacceptable behavior were. He would straighten out bad behavior but he wouldn't scold and
harshly condemn. Not true of the other teacher with the 'problem' kids.
I discovered that we as teachers, parents and adults play a major role in the development of
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the future society. I've asked the question, "What if there weren't 'good' kids and 'bad' kids?"
Perhaps there are just kids in front of us. And those kids are reacting to the influence of the
effective or ineffective teacher, parent or adult, in front of them.
This teacher with the good kids really opened my eyes to the influence people of good will and
skill have on the lives of the future generations.
What nutrients have you found to be effective in treating hard drugs such as
cocaine and heroin?
Cocaine withdrawal seems to be eased considerably by omega 3, 6 and 9, especially in
combination with B and C vitamins, magnesium and vitamins A, D & E. The amounts of these
vitamins seem to be under-dosed by many -- consider 2 grams of C every 4 hours while awake
along with a gram of buffered B3 every 4 hours to get an idea of correct dosing.
Complementary amounts of other vits need to be included, of course. Another mineral mixture
is very valuable to cocaine withdrawal, it's called Cal-Mag. I'll describe it next.
Heroin withdraw requires similar vitamins / minerals, but the Cal-Mag formulae, a proprietary
mixture, works amazingly well for withdrawal from opiates. Cal-Mag is 1 tablespoon of Calcium
Gluconate powder + teaspoon of magnesium carbonate powder with 1 tablespoon of lemon
juice, mixed together. Then add 1 cup of boiling water, stir until clear. If it doesn't go clear,
toss out and start again.
Cal-Mag is an amazing, inexpensive and simple nutritional formulae that reduces the muscle
spasms to almost nothing, cuts down the aches and pains and makes it possible to get rest or
sleep through withdrawal.
Youve written that, Drug abuse remains a 'quick fix' solution as long as the
underlying problems that drug use temporarily 'solves' remains unresolved. What
are some of the underlying problems that some of the addicts youve worked with
trying to solve?
Lost or failed life goals are the most common thread I see in my clients. They sometimes don't
point that out when looking for rehab. They are just trying not to feel like complete losers or
escape jail, etc.
Many of the 'good' kids want to regain the respect of their families and friends. Their rehab is
all about integrity and regaining respect from their peers. Ironically their problems were not
feeling good about themselves, or not feeling right with the world. They either lost their
direction or goals somewhere along the way and drug use filled in that gap.
The feelings and highs one gets by fulfilling major goals in life and connecting with people are
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worthwhile rewards. Drugs can almost approximate those feelings, but not quite.
What's worse is that drugs trigger unwanted emotions and memories, especially unconscious
past experience. These heavy experiences come into play to adversely influence the person's
moods, physical well being, emotions and even spiritual conditions. In short, drugs degrade
beings by triggering unwanted mental trauma from the past.
Drug addiction becomes a completely unfulfilling attempt to regain that evasive memory of 'a
high which once was' but can never be.
Would you more or less agree with the following statements:

A. Prescription drugs
are just as addictive
as illegal drugs.
Agree: Some Rx drugs are more addictive, some just as addictive and some not addictive at
all. Opiods are very addictive drugs. Benzo's are often more addictive than illegal drugs. Some
drugs have little addictive qualities, but that's only because people only take them a couple of
times, if ever.

B. Some prescription
drugs are more addictive
than illegal hard drugs
such as cocaine and
heroin.
Agree with conditions: Cocaine and heroin seem to produce heavy effects quickly. Newer pain
killers like fentanyl and sentinel are far more potent than heroin. Some become seriously
addicted to ecstasy and only a few years ago it was 'legal'.

C. There is a
misconception that
prescription drugs are
safe because they are
prescribed by medical
doctors.
Agree: In 2007, 1.7 million people in Canada had to go to emergency when correctly taking
their Rx meds. That stat occurred in a country of about 30 million people. Hope that puts that
question to rest forever.

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This is what youve written, drugs serve a use for an addicted person. They hide
his real problems from him or her. These problems can seem devastating - like the
death of a loved one, having to tell the truth, talking in front of a group or an
illness that is undiagnosed So habitual drug use, in some cases, could be a
symptom of something else. What are some illnesses that are common among drug
addicts?
Before drug use, the problems could be food allergies to leaky guts, or toxin exposure, ad
infinitum.
After drugs use, Hepatitis A, B and C, AIDS, STDs, HIV, brain damage due to toxic exposure,
stroke, heart tremors, cancer, . . . do I have to go on?
You've noted that, "The DTES [Vancouver Downtown East Side] is the tip of the
iceberg, with 90% of the Drug abuse problem out of sight to the majority of
society." Where is the other 90%? In the suburbs?
Glad you asked me to clarify this: Drug abuse is nation wide, in wealthy, middle class and poor
neighborhoods only the types of drugs change. Drug abuse is rampant in colleges, some
high schools and even elementary schools. In economically poor areas, glue huffing (sniffing)
is the leading addiction of street kids. In Vancouver, it's meth, especially smoked ice and
injected meth. Drug abuse is epidemic and pandemic in scope. I wish things were different.
The least I can do is warn parents and kids about the danger.
In my previous social circle, marijuana was seen as something that was harmless
and everybody did it. I no longer believe that. What is your view on marijuana?
Weed is the new tobacco. Just as a reminder, tobacco kills more people than all other drugs
combined. That's only because it is the most used drug product. I consider weed far more
damaging to people through the retardation of goal setting and achievement, especially in the
younger populations. Weed merchants like Mark Emery, a known felon and drug pusher,
needs weed to be legalized so they can continue doping the population and create future drug
addicts. Addiction is guaranteed repeat business. Marijuana has many addictive qualities
many think being stoned on marijuana is their lives. Many don't know what being clean is like
anymore. That's addiction, by the way.
I guess I'm older than you at 44. Not everyone smoked weed when I was in high school.
Although some of my friends got into it. The guys who didn't get involved knew it wasn't
harmless. My friends who smoked weed and didn't quit, got side tracked in some part of life
and never got out. Some were fortunate enough to have the drive to establish themselves in
long term carriers first; so their conditions were manageable.

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I had to get out of smoking marijuana by the age of 20; I've been 'finding myself' since then.
The journey required that I totally get off any drugs and alcohol. So I'm what most would call
a straight edge.
What is your view on methadoneusing a drug to treat a drug problem? Is it
effective?
The drug problem is mistakenly believed to be compulsively or obsessively abusing drugs.
Abusing drugs is the solution to other problems. Sometimes the drugs become the main
problem. That simply requires a straight forward detox. End of problem.
Drug addiction is only a problem because it is not being correctly treated. Example: everyone
knows if you have a cold, you stay warm, have hot drinks, get some rest, etc. Result: Cold is
cured. Addiction is really no different except that the person continues to do the same dumb
stuff, abusing drugs, and say to themselves and every one around, "I can't control myself".
Obviously a drug abuser doesn't know how to control their lives. They need to increase their
abilities.
Medicating drug abuse problems doesn't increase abilities. If you were talking about taking a
medication for a couple of days or a week, we probably wouldn't be having this interview,
as drug abuse would be a solved problem. Addiction hasn't been solved because the person
needs to rise out of the problem to solve it.
Any parting words for our readers?
Look to ways of increasing the number of activities you are involved in and play an active roll
in those. The way out of most unsolvable situations is to increase ones willingness to live life
and know more about life. My best solution to life problems is getting better problems. Drug
addiction, victimization, being degraded etc are lousy problems to have. Get rid of those
problems and get onto better problems in life: like learning how to live in peace with oneself
and others; finding new places to put all the extra money you made this year; building up
programs which challenge kids to live out their life goals.
Tibor A. Palatinus, CCDC (Certified Chemical Dependency Counselor)
Narconon Drug Prevention Specialist
Intervention Consultant
Phone: 1-604-873-1762
Email: drugfreecity@shaw.ca
Website: Narconon Vancouver

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