The Drug Pandemic: An American Tragedy

By Kent I Phillips MS MSAC APA

“Working with Kent Philips in a clinical setting, he has a full and valuable understanding of the addiction world. This treatise examines multiple aspects and failures in terms of addressing the opioid and drug crisis in the U.S. He takes us on a journey through foundations and expansions of drug availability in our communities, government failures in halting, shortcomings of our prevention programs, and the weakness of treatment protocols and therapeutics. This work is a must-read for anyone with an interest or involvement in addiction”

- Bonnie Dendooven
Author of Mawasi Index, trainer at international institute of trauma and addiction professionals.

“Mr. Kent Phillips masterfully provides an insightful and comprehensive overview of the current state of opioid crisis and the overall changes in the American addiction treatment system. Drawing from his successful business executive experience and personal recovery journey, he engages the reader in trying to find better and more efficient solutions to the deadly disease of addiction. Brilliant and thrilling, a must read!
- Dr. Elena Volfson
Addiction psychiatrist, assistant professor of psychiatry, Mayo Clinic Medical School

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669843634

Kent I Phillips MS MSAC APA

Addiction specialist, Kent I. Phillips shares a lifetime addiction experience and training. Thirty years in Alcoholics Anonymous, plus a bachelors and a master of science in addiction counseling (MSAC). He is experienced at both the personal and the clinical level. Born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1946. Mr. Philips currently resides in Indiana with his wife for 50 years, two sons and two grandchildren. Philips is a national contractor in addiction counseling and provides treatment protocols to multiple treatment centers.

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THE DRUG

PANDEMIC

An American Tragedy

An Introduction to Harmonic Dualism

Kent I Phillips, MS, MSAC, APA,

Copyright © 2022 by Kent I Phillips, MS, MSAC, APA,.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 11/22/2022

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

845263

CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1:   Research Void

Chapter 2:   Why Are There Addicts?

Chapter 3:   Family Dynamics: The Evolution Of The American Family

Family Dynamics

Chapter 4:   Substance Nation

Chapter 5:   Warning Signs: Discovery And Confrontation

Warning Signs Of Addiction

The Confrontation

Chapter 6:   Enabling Or Tough Love

Chapter 7:   Journey To Addiction

A Fountain Of Stimuli

Cell Phones

Sugar And Caffeine

Chapter 8:   Government Failures

Prison

Chapter 9:   Generation Or Genetics?

The Addiction Gene

Chapter 10: The Fuel Of Addiction: Defiance, Boredom, And Anger

Defiance

Boredom

Anger And Anxiety

Chapter 11: Paths And Obstacles To Change

Clinical Scope

Logic

Psychological Testing

Comorbidities

Chapter 12: Medically Assisted Treatment

Suboxone

Naltrexone

Vivitrol

Chapter 13: Harmonic Dualism

Two People

Harmonic Dualism And Group Therapy

The Group Recovery System

Group Therapy Classrooms

Clinical Harmonic Dualism

Aftercare

PREFACE

In the following pages, much of what I say about the treatment industry may strike many counselors and treatment professionals as unfair. But what is truly unfair is that the addiction facilities are billing Insurance companies billions of dollars to continue with what they call evidence-based treatment, although few are clear on what this means. What evidence-based seems to mean is that a treatment protocol has been used over and over by many professionals all over the country and has been approved by industry leaders. So evidence-based might best be replaced by the term results-based.

The problem began when we started classifying young drug addicts as experiencing addiction in the same way that an alcoholic does, and then using the old treatments developed for alcoholics for the hard drug addict (HDA). I can assure you that a patient addicted to alcohol does not resemble a teenage heroin or methamphetamine addict in any way. Yes, they may be suffering from general addiction, but each group requires different treatment and result-based protocols. It’s like expecting the same treatment to cure all cancer patients, regardless of what kind of cancer a patient has.

This book is a warning. During these times when we have feared contracting a virus, our attention has drifted away from the most important public health challenge to America. The Centers for Disease Control published figures recently charting 100,000 opioid overdose deaths in 2021. This number is expected to grow by 20 percent each year. Opioids and other deadly drugs are for sale in your schools, in your towns, and your neighborhoods. Giant organizations, mainly from Mexico, target suburbs and small towns because that is where kids have money. The most lethal drugs of late are Percocet pills laced with unknown amounts of fentanyl.

Unless you have experienced the overdose death of a friend or relative, you may not have an emotional response to many of the following chapters. But the image most Americans have of opioid addicts as someone sleeping in the gutter downtown is inaccurate. We are losing some of the best and brightest of our youth at a faster rate than in World War Two.

Many in the treatment industry will criticize my conclusions and observations. Remember, however, that the underlying reason for this book and my conclusions is that our addiction treatment system in America is not working.

Drug relapse rates following treatment are above 80 percent, although no reliable statistics truly exist. What we do know is that drug addiction and deaths from drugs are everywhere. We used to envision drug use as an urban phenomenon; today, it is also a suburban phenomenon. We all hear of someone’s son or daughter dying from a drug overdose. Note that when 100,000 deaths by overdose occur, 100,000 families are emotionally destroyed as well.

This book will isolate every step of addiction development, incarceration, treatment protocols, and long-term recovery. Please accept this work with the realization that no one truly has an answer to the drug problem. My comments and suggestions are just that: alternative ways to approach what we do in jurisprudence, treatment, and aftercare that might help. At the very least, this work will challenge our current processes. In fact, I hope to challenge the entire drug enforcement system, assessments, treatment, and aftercare.

My experience in the treatment of addiction began in 1988, when I entered a treatment support group. However, I must recognize the three most important experts whose thoughts and insights inform my approach in this book. I consider Bonnie Dendooven to be America’s Master of Counseling, the top therapist in the nation. I would like to thank the brilliant Dr. Elena Volfson for her help and mentorship. Dr. Volfson, who trained at the Pavlov Institute in St. Petersburg and the Mayo Clinic, always zeroes in on the patient’s issues. Acknowledgment also goes to Anne Fletcher, author of Inside Rehab, who first looked at the treatment industry and observed its faults and opportunities. And a final salute to Randy Dannheim of Crossroads Recovery in Phoenix, who remains a friend and supporter.

INTRODUCTION

The US Centers for Disease Control recently stated over 100,000 opioid overdose deaths were reported in the last twelve months. At the current rate, drug overdose will have killed as many youth under thirty in thirty-six months as we lost in all of World War Two! Overdose is killing some of our best and brightest, and death tolls are rising rapidly. Who is to blame?

To start, our government—including the FBI, DEA, ICE, and a million local law enforcement police—have failed to protect us. No American was ever supposed to have access to street drugs such as methamphetamine, cocaine, and opioids or to synthetics like fentanyl. The government has failed to protect us.

Drugs are available in just about every city in America, and addicts exist everywhere. Drug dealers realized in the first decade of this century that the real money is not in the inner city but the suburbs and small towns. Owing to universal distribution by illicit organizations bigger than Upjohn or Eli Lilly, kids in their early teens often sample one of these drugs and begin to use it regularly until they are addicted. And the assumption that only stupid people would ever use drugs is false. The average addict is highly intelligent and possesses a high Intelligence Quotient (IQ).

Americans’ first instinct when they discover that a loved one has a problem is to send them to treatment. Around the year 2007, addiction treatment centers began to receive a flood of young drug patients. However, the centers were equipped only with antiquated protocols developed in the 1950s and 1960s to treat alcoholics. The treatment world decided drug addicts and alcohol addicts belonged to a single group of afflictions called addiction. Now they treat drug addicts with the same protocols as alcoholics and consider them all to have this disease of addiction.

While this is convenient from a profit standpoint, to consider alcoholism and heroin addiction as the same disease is ridiculous. Throughout this book, and particularly in chapters 2 and 11, we will return to this topic to understand why these types of addictions are unalike and require their own unique treatments.

This book is titled The Drug Pandemic because the problem is worldwide. Here in America we have failed to protect ourselves, and the treatment methods in place to help us have failed. Currently, the relapse rate for hard drug addicts under thirty is about 80 percent in the first month following treatment. Why do Americans seem so indifferent to the loss of our youth? Why have we not conducted the research necessary to develop treatment protocols that work for hard drug addicts, and why have