Category Archives: addiction

In the Hood: Wanted sex offender in Martin County John Michael Janaskas turns himself in, Someone please let the Sunshine In.

So according the news John Michael Janaskas, who was court ordered to drug rehab in Jensen beach, was dropped off at a Walmart because the rehab center “didn’t want the heat.” The news reported that “Martin County sex offender” was taken to another rehab in Miramar. We still have lots of questions.

I want to be very clear. I am very much for good treatment. Our citizens do not have the option of a special treatment houses. They have nothing. Our mentally ill end up in jail. Or they get 15 minute at New Horizens to get their prescription refilled.  I worked on a great CD unit in Ft Lauderdale. In order to work there I had to be credentialed. A few months ago I had an issue with urinating for my urine test. I had to pay 250 dollars for a blood test and I was happy to do so. But I (The RN with no record is guilty and has no to proven innocent). These guys are just innocent and through some loop hole they do not have to obey the same laws and rules as the rest of us.

Why won’t our legislators do something about this?

http://www.wptv.com//news/region-martin-county/wanted-martin-county-sex-offender-john-michael-janaskas-will-turn-himself-in?audiencePageId=1362175385

How is it that people are getting court ordered to Jensen Beach from up north?

http://www.wflx.com/story/30483914/wanted-sex-offender-in-martin-county-john-michael-janaskas-turns-himself-in

How does a person who is a sex offender get court ordered to Jensen Beach to a licensed drug rehab around the corner from me and then get dropped off at Walmart? Do these people have the good sense to do business and keep the the rest of us safe?

The news  reported they could not say which recovery center because it was protected by HIPAA. People are protected by HIPPA not buildings. Rehabs, sober houses etc are a matter of public record.

The place that dropped him off is Pathway’s Recovery Center in Jensen Beach.

Here is their website.

So yesterday I heard a bunch of things. I was told these places cannot be regulated. This place can and is regulated under the laws of the State of Florida which means it follows the rest of the rules that we all do. They will be investigated but we still have not answered the question as to why are people being ordered for treatment in Florida a state with such an incredible huge drug problem. This is like the issue of the Lost dogs of South Carolina. Why are we bringing more dogs to a state that has a huge amount of homeless dogs that are being euthanized.

So someone needs to find out about this. How does this work?

The treatment center dropped him off at Walmart and not the Martin County Sheriff’s office because “They didn’t want the heat.”
So in fact, the people that put us in danger was the treatment center and the person in question found his way to another treatment center because he knew he was in deep doodoo.

Apparently, when he got kicked out of the treatment center he reached out to the outreach coordinator at the facility in Jensen Beach who got him here in the first place. This person got him into the center in Miramar.  Where was the person when the BOLO went out?  Did this person call the police explain the situation?

So the treatment center has a lot “splainin to do.
And they will. They have lots of people to answer to.

The good news is this issue has put this issue front and center.  I wrote last week about motels being bought up and turned into treatment centers, sober homes, half ways houses for the people up north is really coming to light. The fact Martin County has allow these place to sprout up everywhere in our neighbors it seems they have a lot of “splanin to do.

Instead of repeating the same thing over and over again there are things that can be looked at. There is a difference between a “sober home” and a licensed facility.

The sheriff himself confused calling this a sober home when it’s not. It’s a licensed drug rehab. So someone please educate him as to the difference.

“A lot of people have reached out to me this week which is great. What I heard is this: “They are popping up everywhere and people are worried. One person said she is constantly calling the police and no one is doing anything.  I heard the problem is Epic is Rio. That MCSO has no interest. There is drug abuse and distribution and break ins.”

Which is why I laugh when some guy want’s to build some massive yuppie land in Rio. Who is going to buy these places between the drug issues and the train horns and the filthy dirty stinky water?  A lot of people. Want to know why? All this will get sweep under the rug. It won’t get dealt with.

We know this happens because we see it. I see it in FIsherman’s Haven. I see it at the corner store when someone asks me for money to buy pot. Everyday it  get scarier over there.

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2014-03-08/news/fl-sober-homes-state-crackdown-20140308_1_sober-houses-sober-homes-group-homes
“For years, the proliferation of sober houses has been a source of frustration for city leaders and neighbors.
Both groups groused about the lack of regulation in place to govern sober houses, which are group homes that shelter people recovering from drug and alcohol addictions.
“It’s the wild west,” Delray Beach Mayor Gary Glickstein said.
Sober houses dot the landscape in several Broward and Palm Beach county communities, including in Delray Beach, Boca Raton, Deerfield Beach and Pompano Beach.
But now two proposals aim to bring order to what many say is a chaotic situation.
A proposed state law under consideration in the annual Florida legislative session would impose regulations on the facilities.

“Unfortunately, there are houses popping up everywhere which are “addiction counseling” houses. Some on my very street. When I asked what I can do about it, the city basically said “Follow your instinct. We can’t refuse because it is an ADA compliance.”

The measure would require registration with the state, including disclosure of the number of people served at each site, and implement background checks. Operators would have to show proof of fire, safety and health inspections and compliance with local zoning ordinances. And felons convicted of violent crimes wouldn’t be allowed as owners and operators.
Neighbors seethe over unsupervised residents congregating in and around the homes and city officials complain they’re powerless to do anything, even in the face of problems, because people recovering from addictions are protected under federal fair housing and disability laws. Clemens, Glickstein and Hager said government officials don’t know who’s staffing the homes, what kind of people are residing in them, or even basic numbers about how many exist and how many residents are there.
“Unregulated sober homes are popping up in the middle of neighborhoods and in many cases essentially changing the character of those neighborhoods,” Clemens said. Hager said the sober homes “have been plaguing our cities and our residents.”
Glickstein and state Rep. Gwyndolen “Gwyn” Clarke-Reed, D-Deerfield Beach, said the number of sober homes increased during the real estate meltdown, during which foreclosed houses were bought cheaply and turned into sober homes.
“Something definitely has to be done,” Clarke-Reed said.
Not so fast, said James Green, a West Palm Beach lawyer who has repeatedly and successfully challenged cities’ attempts to restrict sober homes in South Florida. He said people in recovery are a protected class under the Fair Housing Act and Americans with Disabilities Act.
“It’s a problem that’s motivated by hostile neighbor prejudice against people in recovery,” Green said, urging people to substitute blacks or Jews for people in recovery. “If there was neighborhood opposition to people who belong to other protected groups, we’d be saying that they were racist or anti-Semitic.”
Efforts to impose restrictions amount to politicians pandering to “the voices of intolerance,” he said. “It’s more easy to demonize than understand.”
He said the model of having people “who are committed to sobriety” living and working together is a successful way to help people stay away from drugs and alcohol.”

This is great but it’s not what is happening.

The issue I have with Mr Green is this. I understand what he is saying. but we have no idea who the people are that are running these places. Are they even licensed mental health counselors. We are all for recovery. What we are not for is becoming alcoholic/drug center of the universe. There is no regulation. I’m a nurse and in order to work with people who are protected under the American’s Disabilities Act I have to be credentialed. Finger prints. urine tests, FBI background checks, physicals, tb tests, cpr and more. It cost’s me a fortune to stay credentialed.  If a person is protected under the American’s Disabilities Act then the people taking care of them need to be credentialed. It’s not intolerance. It’s keeping the people safe.

This is Florida. Land of the Scam. If there is a loophole it will be found and only until something tragic happens will something maybe be done.
Again and again the people of Martin County are not protected.  We are the Cassidaga of drug addiction.  Send us your heroin addicts. We don’t have enough of our own.

So these are the big ticket items that we need to know about.

  1. Who is running these sober homes? Are they credentialed under the State of Florida?
  2. Why are people getting court ordered from Florida? How does that work?
  3. Is there a limit to how many facilities can go into a county.
  4. Why are these places even here and our citizens do not have any services? (Who does that)
  5. Are the police going to clean up Rio and other areas where drug abuse, drug distribution is rampant

This morning there is nothing on the new about John Michael Janaskas. Why is that?

In the Hood: Worse than I thought. Rapist on the loose. BOLO

In the Hood: Worse than I thought. Rapist on the loose.

Just last week I wrote this blog post about Motels being bought and turned into drug rehabs.

Not one or two but many. Not for our citizens but for people from out of state. As far as I can tell there is no regulation. This happened

bolo

From the Martin County Sheriff’s office

“CITIZEN’S BOLO, ABSCONDED SEX OFFENDER, PLEASE SHARE

The Martin County Sheriff’s Office is seeking information about 29-year old, John Michael Janaskas. Janaskas is a registered sex offender, who recently relocated from Pennsylvania to a alcohol and drug rehabilitation facility in Jensen Beach.

Over the weekend, representatives from the facility transported Janaskas to the Stuart Walmart, where they dropped him off. No further contact, or forwarding information was taken. Due to federal HIPAA Laws, we cannot disclose the name of the facility. The circumstances surrounding this incident are under investigation.

(I don’t think that’s true. It the patient that is protected not the building.)

Janaska’s crimes include the rape of a child under 14. He is a known drug user, and is considered to be a danger to the public. If you see him, or have information on his whereabouts, you are asked to call the Martin County Sheriff’s Office.

Florida law requires sex offenders and predators to register with the Martin County Sheriff’s Office, so our detectives know, at all times, where they can be located. Janaskas did not register, nor were we notified that Janaskas was dropped off at this public venue, in Martin County without forwarding information, until today.”

This unknown protected HIPAA place took two days to report this. Two days. Two days they have let a known rapist into our community.
Yesterday I was told that nothing could be done because these criminals that are being imported from up north are protected by law. I’m pretty sure not any other state takes rapists into their communities.
Yesterday My friend Victoria found that one company is buying up all these places. They are also the people who are importing criminals from up north. I don’t have all my facts but when I do I’ll put them here UNLESS the news and the police actually do it first. I won’t hold my breath.
Enough is Enough.
You have not protected us from anything. Not the discharges. Not the trains. Not criminals and rapists. nothing.
Our beautiful Stuart and Jensen Beach are being destroyed bit by bit.
It’s time for people to do their jobs.

In the Hood: Motels turn into rehabs for people out of state.

In the Hood: Motels turn into rehabs for people out of state.

So this morning I saw this email from a friend of mine.

“JUST SAYING- Monterrey Inn and Marina closed now too. It has become a half way house with the same owner from my understanding. It seems like a number of motels have turned into rehabs or half way houses. It must be very profitable because they’re popping up everywhere. Someone told me that Blue Heron might also be doing the same. I have not confirmed that and I’m wondering if that’s what is going to happen to Jensen Beach Waterfront Inn which is closed for remodeling but nothing seems to be happening there since it was sold.”

So very interesting and has a lot of connotations.

First of all I’m psych nurse with years of experience in adult and adolescent drug abuse and alcoholism. So I’m totally for treatment. But I have some questions.

Did these motels close down because they had to because of water being so disgusting? Is this what happened? The Economic council of Martin County and  Jensen Beach Better Business Association has totally ignored the pollution. Is the end result our friends and neighbors going out of business?

Why are these services not being offered to our own citizens who really have nothing unless they have money to pay for it?  I do know these places exist. When I worked in Ft Lauderdale we had a lot of people flown in for detox and then sent to fancy rehabs in Boca Raton.

I knew I felt this change. People shooting up in the corner store. This guy in front of me upset because he had to spend his four quarters on gas when instead he needed to buy his marijuana.  People asking for money to buy pot. I had to point out how stoned this guy was to the cashier. The time I asked the police about anything was a few years ago when these people were walking up and down the street knocking on doors during the week and peaking into windows. I found some local police at their speed trap hangout and asked them and they were not too interested in this. They totally rolled their eyes.

I just told someone last week that I thought there were a lot of addicts  around here. More than I have ever seen. Out or proportion for such a little county. Drugs everywhere.

I was told people come down from NY and New Jersey. They pay cash. Someone said that some are run by people who are still actively using. Some one else said if they fail the program they are released out to our community.

I did find this article

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2014/06/23/chris-christie-has-very-complicated-views-on-drugs/

“Christie is dealing with a full-blown crisis of heroin and prescription drug abuse in New Jersey. According to the state attorney general’s office, there were 449 overdose deaths from heroin and morphine — an opiate that heroin sometimes appears as during an autopsy — in New Jersey in 2012”

It say’s a lot people are send their children here because there is no place in New Jersey to send them.

Just in Jensen Beach

http://www.rehabs.com/local/jensen-beach-fl/

Someone else said

“ know someone who owns one…interesting fact ..he said the reason that there are so many in Florida now is because NY and NJ won’t accept their addicts recovering in their state..insurance won’t cover it or something ..so they send them to Florida..and my friend says only 8% of addicts stay clean..and most of the rest of them stay in Florida cause they were in a bad situation where their from and don’t want to go back..and Florida is awesome so they don’t leave..so we end up with a lot of addicts.”

( see article above. They only get so much treatment in NY. Down here they can pay in cash.)

Here are some other places that were mentioned.

Caribbean shores-female rehab
Jensen beach waterfront in
Eden lawn plantation

A place in Rio on Kubin.

My friend also said that she has been approached in the past to do the same thing with her motel.

All these people are imported from other places into out neighborhood with out any guarantee they will go home afterwards or stay here, go on Medicaid, food stamps and use our local services that our own people do not have any access to.

It takes a long time to be seen at New Horizons. If your mentally ill around here you’ve got nothing. If your bipolar and your escalating you’ve got no choices really but jail. If you have a person in a mental crisis you have a better chance of winning the lottery to get the instant care you need. I have no idea how many of these people end up in jail but I bet it’s a lot.

I have friends with a Bipolar daughter and they tell me there is no halfway houses for them. No safe place to go. No help. No support. Yet, we have people invading us from up north that get luxury accommodations because they have cash.

My friend also said

“What is really needed are housing for mentally ill women. there are no specific shelters for bi-polar women who need housing. They can’t stay in hospitals and if they are criminally inclined they don’t go to jail either. They end up homeless and victims of abuse from men and cops. I think we need more specific shelters around Jensen Beach or Stuart. just my 2 cents.” (From a parent)

If your 65 and on Medicare there is no place to go. You might be able to go to Port St Lucie hospital but in all likelihood you’ll get put on the geri unit and not get the benefit of what you need because you’ll be in a mixed unit and not necessarily  have the staff who specializes in CD.

If you want services Martin County is not the place to live. It is what it is. There are hardly any buses. I think it was Sara Heard who said “People drive their cars.” Totally unaware that there are elderly people who are literally shut ins because they cannot drive. I’ve called to make an appointment for people on MTM bus. Those people need lessons in customer service. Most of the people I know that live here are ok with that. They understand.  This is their home. But to have these services for people from out of state who their families have sent to us and don’t want back. Well, that’s a different story.

Remember when we all yelled tourism and no one listened?

Who let this happen?

Who is keeping tract of the recidivism and where these people are going?

What is the plan here?

Here is an interesting article that I found.

http://www.wbez.org/news/puerto-rico-exports-its-drug-addicts-chicago-111852

Puerto Rico exports its drug addicts to Chicago

Island police and mayors direct heroin addicts to Chicago and other cities with promises of housing and treatment.

April 10, 2015

Adriana Cardona-Maguigad

(Adriana Cardona-Maguigad)
Over the summer Angel and Manuel lived together in an empty house near 51st and Throop, an area where vacant homes are common.

It all started about a year ago when I began noticing more homeless men in the Chicago neighborhood where I work. Back of the Yards is a community that faces some of the city’s toughest problems: joblessness, crime, drug use.

Many of these men would be sitting in doorways or shuffling along, many times asking for money.

One day, I asked one of them: “Where are you from?” He told me a story that I later heard again and again and again.

The men told me they were  from Puerto Rico. They were addicted to heroin and they ended up in Chicago because someone in Puerto Rico drove them to the airport and put them on a plane with a one-way ticket to Chicago.

Just again to set the record straight. I’m all for treatment. But not for a few things.

  1. Literally being surrounded by treatment centers
  2. Having people come and use up our resources when we have very little without even a discussion on how to get mental health services for our citizens.
  3. The destruction of our Rio/Jensen beach motels/hotels. Just follow this ball. All these places close down and we loose a whole of rooms that can be counted so new people can come in build because they will say we don’t have enough hotels rooms. Like the guy that wants to annex the land to Stuart to build a new hotel or the people that want to build their little place on the river. Have you been to the St Lucie RIver? This past weekend I took my dog for a walk thru the nature center and had to leave because the stink was so bad.

So this is all I have right now. If anyone has any information please let me know. There is lots to talk about here and it’s conversation time.


Happy Birthday Tom Glazer. Innocent times. Sing along!

Happy Birthday Tom Glazer.  Innocent times. Sing along!

tomglaz

Every morning I hit up my music birthday list and tweet out a song. I do this for myself. I can start my day off with music.  I got a song to carry around all day.  Sometimes when things get tough I can sing the song in my head. Hopefully it makes a difference in days of my friends.

Music makes us happy. It lights up our nucleous  acumbans. It’s the same place that light’s up when people do cocaine. Music, for many of us, is our drug of choice for which there does not need to be any rehab.

So this morning it was Tom Glazer’s birthday.

To be honest I had no idea who Tom Glazer was but I knew his music.

“Glazer moved to Washington D.C. and began work at the Library of Congress.[2] There he met Alan Lomax who worked for cataloguing American folk songs, and who was a great influence. Glazer began performing as an amateur and was invited by Eleanor Roosevelt to perform at the White House for soldiers working there as guards. He made a successful professional début at the New York City Town Hall in January 1943 during a blizzard, and in 1945 had a radio show Tom Glazer’s Ballad Box.[1] His songs of the period, such as “A Dollar Ain’t a Dollar Anymore”, “Our Fight is Yours”, “When the Country is Broke”, and “Talking Inflation Blues” took strong social stands.[1] Glazer’s songs were recorded by Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Burl Ives, the Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul and Mary, Perry Como and Frank Sinatra. He was part of the strong folk music scene in New York in the 1940s, and with Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Josh White helped prepare for the commercially successful folk revival of the 1960s.[1][2] “He wasn’t fancy,” Seeger reported after his death “He was just straightforward. He had a good sense of humor.”

These are the two songs I tweeted out this morning.

If your child ever sang “Battle Hymm of the Children” today they would be marched to the principals office, the police would be called and they would be featured on cable news, ripped apart by Nancy Grace,  Fox News would probably make sure you knew the parents were Democrats and the songwriter was a “Folk singer! A socialist from socialist times! Then somehow connect them with Hillary’s emails. Then the next morning would be the second story on Today Show (After Hillery’s emails). Matt Lauer will get all judgy with the parenting skills. Then we would all mourn that John Stewart who is not here to humanize the whole thing. In fact. I bet you he sings “On top of spaghetti.” with his kids.

So today in honor of Tom’s Birthday and our lost innocent times let’s have a sing a long! Sing with me! It will really make you feel better! Better than Prozac! Come on you know you want to.

I’m Sober, Now What?

Guest Blog: Thank you Darcy Flierl!

I’m Sober, Now What?

by Darcy Flierl

Don’t ask me what to do when you become sober. I’ve yet to successfully give up anything. Rather, I’m a “replacer”.   I gave up nicotine last year, I replaced it with walking and eventually I replaced it with food. Now, I’m struggling with what to replace my poor eating habits with and it’s looking like I’m replacing it with research on how to eat better. I don’t know if I’m actually eating better, but I sure can tell you a lot about it.

An old friend suggested I write about how a recently sober person can manage the first year of sobriety, how to manage the discomfort and emotion that comes up when one gives up their drug of choice. First, let’s review the difference between use, abuse and addiction. We also need to clarify that drug use, abuse or addiction is all about dopamine and that our drug of choice can be prescriptions, weed, alcohol, heroin, sugar, coffee, sex, porn, exercise, even a person or relationship!

“ In the brain, dopamine functions as a neurotransmitter—a chemical released by nerve cells to send signals to other nerve cells. The brain includes several distinct dopamine systems, one of which plays a major role in reward-motivated behavior. Most types of reward increase the level of dopamine in the brain, and a variety of addictive drugs increase dopamine neuronal activity. Other brain dopamine systems are involved in motor control and in controlling the release of several other important hormones.” (Desai, Vishal. “Role of Copper in Human Neurological disorders”. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Retrieved 15 Aug 2015.) Basically, whatever your drug of choice is, you are searching to increase your dopamine levels. The danger of some drugs is that when consumed, you are increasing your dopamine levels to unnatural states that are impossible to duplicate without the drug.

dopamine

So, what makes an addiction anyway? Last night I had 2 drinks. I used alcohol. Five years ago, during my divorce, I was consuming a bottle of red wine a night, I was likely abusing alcohol to avoid uncomfortable feelings.   When you “use” your “drug”, you get some personal enjoyment, a nice dose of dopamine, but no one gets hurt because all returns to normal and you are back to living your life and your brain is accepting of that. Abuse is shakier ground. Likely you are seeking out that dopamine to avoid feelings, thoughts or responsibilities. When you abuse a substance, you may be doing it unconsciously, but it truly is a choice, on some level. When we “abuse” our “drug”, we begin to suffer some negative consequences. This IS the crossroads. This is the moment one does or does not cross the threshold into addiction. I’ve never crossed the threshold of addiction with alcohol or anything else I may have dabbled in throughout my life, with the exception of nicotine. Nicotine, taught me ALL about addiction. Nicotine is almost worse than other drugs because although no longer considered “sexy” and even with the grim reaper effect, one doesn’t suffer social consequences like jail, so it makes it much easier to continue the addiction.

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How to Love an Addict

How to Love an Addict

by Darcy Flierl

Addiction. We’ve made progress over the last decade. The stigma is decreasing and we are openly discussing it. Once upon a time, if your parent, spouse, or child suffered from alcohol or drug abuse, it was the family secret. Now, I talk to people every day who are open about how addiction has afflicted their lives. Perhaps it’s because loved ones are dying due to this disease? Perhaps it’s because as individuals we are becoming more aware of our own dependencies? The fact is, it’s everywhere, and the proof is in the increase in substance abuse providers popping up daily. The proof in in the number of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings one can find on any given day. The proof is in our county jails and the proof is in the ache of our own hearts, especially if you’ve ever loved an addict.

wine-600134__180

As a an addictions professional and expert in prevention, I’m often asked, “How do I help my child….my friend….myself?”. There is no shortage on research, books and articles on this subject. Resources from support groups and treatment centers are plentiful, yet lovers of addicts are always left feeling hopeless and frustrated. I wish there a was Wiki- How to Love and Addict Guide and one could just follow the prescribed 10 steps on Voilà your loved one is healed and the family is on the road to recovery!

The truth is there is not one thing any one of us can do to help our loved one stop using alcohol and drugs but there are many things we can do to help our loved ones not use alcohol and drugs. Confusing? Contradictive? Yes! Just like addiction.

Here are my- 3 steps to helping your loved one suffering from the Disease of Addiction:

  1. Set up boundaries- this is an individual process and a mental health professional can assist you in establishing these boundaries that are unique to your situation. Boundaries might include limiting assistance: house, food, money, transportation and even termination of the relationship.
  2. Only give what you have to give-Many families will invest countless hours and thousands and thousands of dollars in services for their loved ones. If you have the resources and the individual is open to treatment, than by all means provide the help. If providing these resources is a detriment to your physical or emotional well being, than it’s not a healthy decision. Remember that helping isn’t always helping. Sometimes it’s called “enabling”. Enabling is a term every addict lover needs to understand. In addictions, enabling is the act of making excuses, stopping the bottom of falling out for the addict and leads to an obsession surrounding the addicts behaviors.
  3. Get a therapist- For yourself! Loving an addict is a long, difficult and painful road and sometimes doesn’t have a happy ending. Guilt, shame and desperation are often many of the “rest stops” along this journey. A Therapist can provide ongoing education and empowerment to you as you come to terms with the fact that in the end, everyone makes their own decisions in life and ultimately we are all powerless. If you don’t have the financial resources for a therapist, there are many helpful on line support groups.

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