Pubdate: Tue, 13 Sep 2005
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2005 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.mercurynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390

DRUG ADDICTS FACE NEW CHALLENGES AFTER STORM

Before Katrina hit, untold numbers of its victims already were suffering a 
different wrath: drug addiction. Now, thousands of addicts are thought to 
be among the hundreds of thousands displaced by the storm, seeking drug 
fixes, recovery or simple compassion in the new places they are temporarily 
calling home.

The diaspora has created challenges in communities from Alexandria, La., 
and Baton Rouge, to Houston and San Antonio, where taxed addiction 
counselors already have full caseloads and, in some cases, all staffed 
treatment beds are full.

Some addicts who relocated to shelters have sought prescriptions for the 
painkiller OxyContin and other narcotics. Others tell intake workers they 
are users or in a perilous phase of recovery -- in need of methadone to 
keep withdrawal and drug cravings at bay. Still others are given away by 
the body tremors, sweating, diarrhea or vomiting that withdrawal can bring.

"They thought they had a viral infection going through the 'dome, there 
were so many people going through withdrawal," Robert Bacon, a psychiatrist 
at a methadone clinic in Houston, said about illness among evacuees at the 
Astrodome.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman