For several decades drug and alcohol addiction has been viewed as an incurable brain disease by the scientific, medical and psychiatric communities. However, in a statement released by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), the director contradicted herself by claiming that “drug addiction is a brain disease,” in one sentence and then saying that abnormalities have been discovered in “the brains of some, but not all, addicted individuals.”

A new Treatment Improvement Protocol released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) claims that 50-75 percent of patients in substance abuse treatment programs have co-occurring mental illness.

SAMHSA's 2003 National Survey on Drug Use and Health suggested that about 4.2 million adults aged 18 and older met their criteria for both substance abuse and mental illness, yet these claims are based on subjective diagnoses instead of factual data.

Concurrent with the theory of addiction being a brain disease the NIDA director also asked for more “contributions of the pharmaceutical industry in developing new medications.” The problem with this, as evident by the recalls, law suits, black box warning labels and the seemingly endless list of side-effects, is that putting people on more drugs doesn’t help them in the long run and certainly doesn’t fit the definition of rehabilitation.

A person cannot be considered clean and sober if they are on mind-altering drugs, whether they are legally prescribed or not. According to Gary Smith, Executive Director of Narconon Arrowhead, “Our goal is the total eradication of substance abuse.

It is possible, but we as individuals, agencies, communities and as a nation must agree that it can be done and support programs that show results. We can’t keep pouring money into ineffective measures while the social fabric continues to decay because of drugs.

” Narconon Arrowhead is the nation’s leading drug-free rehabilitation and education program. With a success rate of approximately 70% of program graduates remaining drug-free, its application of L. Ron Hubbard’s drug rehabilitation methodology has proven to be successful for many years and has been validated by research studies as well as ongoing empirical evidence.

The more science and medicine focus on the chemical composition of human beings' brains and develop more drugs to treat symptoms such as anxiety, depression and other observable behavioral indicators that are normal for a drug addict to experience, the more we as a nation are denying these individuals the ability to overcome their addiction.

In the substance abuse field, there are simple and extremely effective rehabilitation strategies that don't use drugs to treat individuals or subjectively evaluate people. Thousands of former addicts around the world are now living healthy, productive and drug-free lives because of the tools provided to them by the Narconon® Drug Rehabilitation and Education Program, most of whom had tried traditional medical approaches first only to find no results.

To get free information about substance abuse or to get help for a loved one in need, contact Narconon Arrowhead today at 1-800-468-6933 or log on to
www.stopaddiction.com.