A Report from the Foundation for Advancements in Science and Education
(FASE)
"The use of morphine in the place of alcohol is but a choice of
evils, and by far the lesser."
-- Cincinnati Lancet-Clinic. 1889
"Heroin will take the place of morphine without its disagreeable
qualities."
-- New York Medical Journal. 1901
"Some (heroin) addicts readily admit that they prefer methadone as
their drug of abuse."
-- International Journal of Pharmacology. 1975
"Clonodine has recently gained prominence as chemotherapeutic
agent for the detoxification of individuals dependent upon…methadone."
-- NIDA Treatment Research Monograph. "Research
on the Treatment of
Narcotic Addiction" 1983
The war against drugs, now well into its third decade, is faltering.
The disturbingly high rate of recidivism, even after repeated treatments,
has been unchanged by the panoply of strategies implemented at federal and
state levels. The fact that they have failed to prevent a majority of drug
users from returning to their addictive behavior has led some experts to
conclude that addiction is incurable.
A review of the literature regarding existing drug rehabilitation
techniques reveals many uncertainties. In fact, none of the prevalent
approaches to treatment has been conclusively established to be reliable.
Success rates as low as 33%, not substantially higher than those
anticipated from no treatment at all or treatment with placebos are
generally considered to be very good.
In view of this, it is surprising that such hazardous measures as
electric shock, drug-induced nausea, and chemically-introduced respiratory
failure continue in current use. The application of such "aversion
therapy" techniques has been particularly discouraging.
"Behavioral Therapies for Substance Abuse," published in 1985 in
the International Journal of the Addictions. Examined more than two
decades of research in the use of behavioral interventions for the
treatment of drug and alcohol abuse. The authors concluded, "none of
the studies using chemical or electrical stimuli with drug abusers has
demonstrated physiological evidence of conditioned aversion."
Psychotherapy and drugs NOT effective
FASE Associate Dr. Bernard Rimland, himself a psychologist, is
convinced that psychotherapy has proved equally ineffective as a means of
resolving drug abuse. "Psychotherapy has not demonstrated value in
any sort of disorder," he says. "Not depression, not
delinquency, not schizophrenia, not neurosis, not phobias, nothing. It's
absolutely worthless, as far as all the research goes, and yet it's a very
common component of so many drug and alcohol treatment programs."
The use of comparatively "benign" drugs as a means of
breaking an addiction to dangerous drugs has also proved to be
frustrating, as the journal citings referenced above illustrate.
Repeatedly the intended medicine has itself become a substance of abuse.
For example, the usefulness of methadone in reducing drug cravings
remains questionable. A study completed this year by the General
Accounting Office (GAO) found that between one-third and one-half of the
patients at 15 methadone clinics continued to use heroin, cocaine, and
other illegal drugs while receiving methadone. Nonetheless, the insistence
on the use of chemicals to handle chemical abuse is so ingrained that the
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) currently defines drug
detoxification as "planned withdrawal from drug dependency supported
by the use of a prescribed medication."
More than 6 million Americans are estimated to require treatment for
drug abuse problems. New approaches to treatment are urgently needed.
Nutritional approach gains acceptance
An increasing number of researchers are moving away from a reliance on
Pavlovian conditioning techniques such as aversion therapy, and
questioning the advisability of using drugs to combat drugs. They have
begun to examine the biochemical imbalances, which are created by drug
abuse, and to develop means of treating them with nutrients rather than
further medication. Promising research is also being done regarding the
use of detoxification - in a more complete and accurate sense of the word,
the elimination of accumulated drug residues from body tissue - as a
treatment approach.
Dr. Rimland is convinced that a nutritional approach will prove to be
as effective in treating drug problems as it has been found to be in
resolving disorders such as autism and schizophrenia. "If there's any
approach that's going to work," he says, "it's going to be
changing the body chemistry using original equipment, like vitamins and
fatty acids, amino acids, minerals and so forth."
Although not always widely acknowledged, support for the use of
nutritional supplements to combat drug and alcohol dependence has been
accumulating for several decades. The use of the amino acid glutamine in
the treatment of alcoholism was described in the literature as long ago as
1957. Nutrients such as niacin ( vitamin B3 ), zinc, magnesium, and
vitamin B1, among others, have also been reported to be effective means of
treating substance abuse. Bill W., the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous,
advocated the use of vitamin B3 in the treatment of alcoholism.
FASE Associate Dr. Joseph Beasley is a member of the American Medical
Society on Alcoholism and Other Drug Dependencies, and Medical Director of
Brunswick House, the largest private alcoholism treatment facility in New
York State. "A wide-ranging treatment protocol, with a strong
nutritional component, results in comfortable abstinence for more than 70%
of our patients with very low attrition," he says, "We have
observed this kind of success even in patients cross-addicted with drugs,
a condition we find in 40% of those we treat."
Fat tissues contain drug residues
The accumulation of drug residues in the adipose tissue is a
consequence of drug use which is not addressed by most treatment programs.
Once lodged in fatty tissues, drug residues may subsequently be released
into the blood. Some researchers believe that this ongoing exposure could
be the basis for the "flashback" phenomenon, and contribute to
continued cravings for drugs.
To examine the phenomenon of drug storage and to determine the extent
to which true drug "detoxification" is possible, FASE associates
have endeavored to track body burdens of commonly used drugs. A 1982 study
examined the presence of THC (the active ingredient in marijuana) and its
metabolites in the blood, urine, fat, and sweat of persons undergoing
treatment with the Hubbard detoxification method. (It is noteworthy that
although a number of studies have demonstrated the method to be an
effective procedure for reducing body burdens of commonly encountered
environmental compounds, its developer, L. Ron Hubbard, originally
conceived it to alleviate problems associated with drug accumulation.)
Analysis of samples taken before and after detoxification verified the
presence of the compounds, as well as their reduction at the completion of
detoxification. Body fat was shown to be the major storage compartment for
marijuana, with levels in fat tissue up to 80 times the level in the
blood. An additional finding was that among the components of THC found,
the hydroxy-metabolite was the most predominant. Earlier studies have
demonstrated the hydroxy-metabolite to be many times more potent than THC
itself, and more likely to enter the brain.
Additional research suggests strongly that cocaine, diazepam (Valium),
and PCP ("Angel Dust") also store in fat deposits of the body,
resulting in a slow, prolonged release of drug residues into the plasma
long after the discontinuation of drug use. (Fate and Distribution of
Cocaine, Diazepam, Phencyclidine (PCP) and THC (Marijuana) A Technical
Review, FASE. August. 1985.)
Survey information "intriguing" - researcher
In order to further investigate the relationship between the reduction
compounds accumulated in body fat and future drug use, a survey was
recently made of persons with known histories of drug abuse that have
undertaken treatment with the Hubbard program to assist in the recovery
from addiction.
"This survey has disclosed some intriguing information," says
Science Director Dr. Shelley Beckmann. "The success rate - as
measured by continual abstinence from drug use for greater than a year
after detoxification - appears to be surprisingly high. We were able to
contact 45 of the 79 patients treated specifically for drug abuse over the
last six years. Of the 45, none now use cocaine, heroin, amphetamines,
antidepressants or hallucinogens, though 41 of them had used such drugs
prior to treatment.
"The alcohol recovery rate is difficult to assess due to
occasional social drinking," Dr. Beckmann says. "Twenty-three of
those surveyed no longer use alcohol, of the other 22, 13 commented that
they drink infrequently." Significant improvements in family
relations were reported, with many of the patients recommending the
program to others with like difficulties.
These findings are of particular interest, as current treatments for
drug abuse do not employ methods designed to actively remove drug
residuals. "Although the persons interviewed for this survey would be
characterized as moderate drug users - neither crack cocaine users nor
heavy heroin users were included - the fact that such a large number had
not returned to drugs is significant," says Dr. Beckmann. "The
findings definitely warrant further study to determine to what extent the
pattern will be duplicated among heavier users. If a correlation can be
established between reduction of adipose levels of drug residues and
lowered recidivism rates it may help to explain the failures of programs
that do not include detoxification as a component of rehabilitation."
For a summary of FASE studies regarding the use of the Hubbard
methods in the reduction of tissue levels of foreign compounds. See
"Detoxification A Retrospective" in FASE Reports Vol. No. 2.
Winter 1988
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