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The “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” keeps its fans on their toes, but the drama hit home hard for Kim Richards. The 47-year old long-time costar of the reality series has battled alcohol addiction for seasons upon seasons, but she has never admitted to an alcohol problem. Until  now.

Richards recently admitted to alcoholism in a reunion show that aired in a three part series on January 30, February 6 and February 13. The Bravo show recounts the star’s struggles in a face-to-face interview with host Andy Cohen.

Cohen bluntly asks Richards, “Can you tell us what you sought treatment for?” Richards answers with some difficulty, “Yeah, I’m an alcoholic. I’m an alcoholic.”

Thankfully, Richards has received the initial alcohol treatment she needed, and as costar Adrienne Maloof said, she is now one step closer to resolving her difficulties with alcoholism. Richards’ sister Kyle may also become one of her biggest recovery supporters, since Kyle has made comments in the past about Richards’ excessive drinking.

As stars begin to seek alcohol treatment, there is hope that fans who may also suffer from alcoholism will be inspired to seek alcohol treatment themselves. Richards’ very public admittance to alcoholism could be a turning point in the lives of fans as well.

For those living in New Mexico, Vista Taos Renewal Center can be the saving grace in alcohol treatment that these fans need. There, alcoholics can receive caring support from an understanding staff along with treatment for underlying issues that may have contributed to alcoholism in the first place.    

Tragically, Whitney Houston passed away on Saturday, February 11th, at the Beverly Hills Hilton. The singer was found submerged in the hotel bathtub not even an hour after she entered, and emergency responders tried to revive her before pronouncing her dead at 3:55 p.m. She was 48-years old.

Known best for her legendary role as a singer in “The Bodyguard,” Houston also had a long singing and acting career, which won her 415 career awards over her lifetime. Hits include: “I Will Always Love You”, “I Wanna Dance with Somebody”, and “So Emotional”, among several other top billboard hits.

Her success came with a price: Houston became addicted to drugs, including cocaine. Performances in the late 1990s and in the 2000s suffered after her marriage to Bobby Brown, a person believed to be an influence in Houston’s illicit drug use, and Houston fell from popularity.

After divorcing Brown in 2007, Houston made plans to complete a comeback tour, and in 2009, she finally admitted in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that she used drugs with Brown, sometimes daily. In May 2011, she checked in to a drug treatment center to obtain inpatient rehab.

However, it is known that she has battled an addiction to drugs and alcohol for many years, which included attempts at drug treatment and admissions of drug use to the press. There were prescription drugs found in her hotel room.

Moving forward through the aftermath of her death, we can look at Whitney Houston’s life as one filled with success; success in her career and success in attempting to complete drug treatment, an action that in and of itself proves a strength of nature. Please, find the courage to seek drug treatment if you have an addiction. This was likely an accidental death due to a combination of prescription drugs and alcohol; it can happen to anyone. Vista Taos Renewal Center in New Mexico is ready to help you take that first step towards sobriety.

Citizens caught driving drunk in 15 US states may face the issuance of a vehicle interlock system as part of their penalty, effective Jan. 1. On the first of January, Connecticut became the 15th state to require the interlock system for all drivers – even first time offenders – who are convicted of driving with a blood alcohol content (BAC) above the legal limit.

Other states also participate in the interlock program, to a lesser degree; 24 other states require that repeat offenders or highly drunk drivers (those with a BAC above 0.15) have the interlock system installed in their cars after conviction.

The interlock system is a device that is installed into the ignition of the car. When installed, the car cannot be started until the driver cleanly blows into a breathalyzer. A sober driver may drive; a driver influenced by alcohol may not.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the group that has most heavily pushed for the state-mandated interlock system, believes that the device can save lives. If a driver who is under the influence of alcohol tries to start his car, he will not be able to until he sobers up, meaning that fewer drunk drivers will be on the road to cause harm.

As more and more states join the current 15 who immediately issue interlock systems for any driver convicted of driving while drunk, more people speculate that other states will join the less lenient program – or even require the system be installed in all cars, regardless of a drunk driving conviction.

The interlock system is only one step to keeping drunk drivers off the roads. Helping alcoholics recover at a substance abuse treatment center is also integral to minimizing drunk driving. Substance abuse treatment centers can help alcoholics realize how much harm drunk driving can cause.

For more information about alcohol rehab, please call Vista Taos Renewal Center, a premier substance abuse treatment center located in New Mexico, one of the first states to require the interlock devices for drunk driving offenders.

People these days are beginning to become addicted to hard drugs like heroin through legal substances like pain pills. With about ten percent of young adults reporting they have taken prescription medications without a prescription, DEA agents are beginning to crack down on the doctor’s offices that may prescribe medications too easily. 

In a sting operation earlier this year, DEA agents investigated many doctor’s offices that had been reported as easy prescribers. They found that some patients jump from one easy-prescribing office to another in search of narcotic drugs. The drugs were then available for young adults to purchase on the black market or pilfer from adults’ medicine cabinets.

Once these young people became addicted to legal narcotic drugs, they often found that drugs like oxycodone and Vicodin were too expensive on the black market. So many young adults sought cheaper illegal drugs that could offer the same kind of high, like heroin. In essence, legal narcotic pain pills have become the new gateway drug to heroin abuse.

Since possession of legal narcotic drugs is not illegal, it has been a little more difficult for the DEA to investigate the trend. Agents must dig deeper to determine whether a young adult in possession of a narcotic drug is a legitimate act of pain prevention or an illegal act of drug addiction.

Since drug overdose is the number one cause of accidental death in New Mexico, many rehabilitation centers like the New Mexico’s own Vista Taos Renewal Center have been focusing on helping people overcome heroin abuse and other addictions. If you or a loved one suffers from heroin abuse, you may wish to contact a rehabilitation center immediately; kicking heroin abuse can help many people live more meaningful lives. Don’t wait until it’s too late; jail is no place to detox from heroin. The detoxification process from drugs like heroin (and prescription drugs) can be very painful and even dangerous. Symptoms of withdrawal should be monitored by a medical professional during the detox phase. Steps can be taken; you can comfortably detox from heroin. Let Vista Taos help you safely get away heroin before it takes your life.

Charlie Sheen’s twin boys may have another troubled parent in their lives. The boys’ mother, Brooke Mueller, was arrested on Saturday, December 3, 2011 for assaulting a woman in a popular Aspen bar. Mueller was also in possession of cocaine, which she intended to distribute. Cocaine possession with intent to distribute is a felony.

Mueller is no stranger to drug and alcohol charges. In September 1996, she was arrested for driving under the influence. In March 2001, Mueller faced charges for cocaine possession, but since she had no drugs in her system, the charges were dropped. In May 2011, Mueller entered an outpatient drug and alcohol rehabilitation program, which she completed.

As the primary custodian of her twin boys, Mueller has been the more stable influence in the twins’ lives. Sheen assaulted Mueller on Christmas Day 2009, and his past drug and alcohol abuse has been extensive. Sheen has recently battled and overcome his abuse issues very publicly, and now he appears to be back on track in all aspects of his life. In fact, in August 2011, Sheen and Mueller vacationed together, and they have recently tried to resolve their conflicts.

Unfortunately, despite Sheen’s ability to turn his drug abuse around, his ex-wife appears to be on track to a potential cocaine addiction. At this point, since charges are only pending (until her court appearance on December 19), the twins still remain in her custody.  

It is hopeful that Mueller can get the help she needs for her cocaine addiction through a drug rehabilitation program, like Vista Taos Renewal Center. Getting her life back on track and battling her cocaine addiction could very well be the stability that her twin boys need.

At the end of 2011 a number of breakthroughs have occurred in the treatment of addiction. 

2011 saw the definition that addiction is a medical disease – a multi-decade effort made irrefutable by the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) in conjunction with every other branch of medical science. There has been an emergence of research in 2011 underscoring the profound poisonous effects of ‘bath salts,’ ‘spice’, essentially 2 designer substances now illegal in all countries in Europe as well as the United States.

The most profound re-discovery is that there is no one cure for addiction – it’s clearly a very complex disease affecting the human body and brain in ways yet to be discovered.  The diverse branches of medical science will continue to discover and uncover the many ways that mood altering substances bombard the brain and body with toxicity as well as reveal a multitude of new ways we can heal from addiction.

Research was introduced confirming that children with high IQs are more likely to become addicted to illicit substances. This substantiates the belief among substance abuse specialists that addicts are typically bright, creative and exceptionally talented individuals.

The correlation between underweight and overweight teenagers and illicit drug use is confirmed.  Again, as the result of so much advertising and societal pressure we are given unhealthy messages about our body types, bizarre messages about what constitutes healthy food and very sparse information on preventing food and eating as mood altering behaviors for children, adolescents and adults.  However, there have been efforts by schools to limit – or even better eliminate – high sugar and high fat foods to students. 

Best Practices among addiction treatment programs now cite an increasing array of interventions.  While there is no one best path, there is a growing movement toward providing smaller scale treatment communities and more training and professionalism for practitioners.  2011 saw repeated research that the following therapies help addicts quit and stay quit: cognitive behavior approaches such as ‘Mentalizing’ and ‘DBT;’ holistic practices such as nutrition supplements like amino acid therapy, Yoga as virtually parallel in efficacy as SSRIs in treating depression and experiential therapy such as equine therapy and challenge courses continue to be extraordinarily insightful for people in addiction treatment.

2012 will be another year with more discoveries on treating addiction.  The breakthroughs in the neurochemistry of addiction have been exponential during the past decade and will continue as we learn more about the more subtle complexities of how our brains work.  More negative myths about addiction will be dispelled such as categorizing addiction as a moral or simply genetic dysfunction.  Strategies on healing the families and those affected by the addict will emerge as well as refining techniques already in practice.

In summation, it is clear that addiction treatment has advanced tremendously and will continue to progress through this decade.

Tragically, a man driving drunk killed his entire family on Wednesday, November 9, in Valencia County, New Mexico. Possibly, and more tragically, the father will not release the remains of the children to their grandmother for burial.

James Woolbert was driving drunk with the mother and the two children as passengers on Wednesday when he crashed the car in Meadowlake. The children were not in the car seats, and they were thrown from the vehicle. They were 2 years old and 4 years old. The mother, Dawn, also suffered fatal injuries.  

The children’s grandmother, Pauline Jaramillo, has requested the remains of the children be released to her for burial, but Woolbert has been uncooperative with her request. Jaramillo, who helped raise the children, is heart stricken and has sought the assistance of a lawyer in the matter.

To complicate matters, Woolbert is currently recovering from his own injuries at the University of New Mexico Hospital. As soon as he has recovered, he will be arrested and await trial. The matter of the releasing the remains may be drawn out even more for these reasons.

Sadly, this tragedy may end in more tragedy, with the burial delayed and the father sentenced to prison. On a positive note, Woolbert may receive the alcohol rehabilitation he needs to prevent future lives from being lost.

While alcohol rehabilitation often takes place in rehabilitation centers like Vista Taos Renewal Center in New Mexico, Woolbert may receive his treatment while in prison. Jail is never the ideal environment for detoxification from drugs or alcohol, as the reoccurrence rate is high. Before you or someone you love is behind bars, get to an alcohol addiction center and seek proper treatment, outside of prison walls.

Not one, but three healthy young adults experienced heart attacks in the Dallas Texas area after smoking the synthetic marijuana: K2/Spice. Doctors are curious if there was something particularly dangerous in that specific batch, though all synthetic drugs are showing a high rate of illnesses associated with using them. These drugs are legal to purchase, but the FDA has been working hard to stop the production of these cannaboids. It seems as soon as one is outlawed, the makers manufacture another one to take its place.

Emergency rooms all over the United States have been reporting side-effects from these products, including nausea, convulsions, elevated blood pressure and many more. Now they can add heart attacks to the already long list of health issues associated with synthetic marijuana. Thankfully, the three young men who suffered the heart attacks in the Dallas area are healthy, and are lucky the heart attack didn’t bring about any other problems; they’ve all made a full recovery.

Doctors are warning people to stay away from these drugs and if needed, seek help for addiction at a drug treatment center. Spice and K2 may seem appealing because they are able to be obtained easily, cheaply and won’t show up on common drug screening tests, but the side-effects are not worth the risk. Though no reports link K2 to deaths in Texas, there have been reports in other parts of the country, such as Iowa.

Vista Taos Treatment Center is located in New Mexico, and able to assist those in the Dallas Texas community who need help with substance abuse. Let these stories be a warning to you; addiction does not end well for those who do not hurry and get on the right path to wellness. Please let Vista Taos show you the path to sobriety.

It seems that children have now joined the drug smuggling game, acting as deflectors for their drug dealing parents. In the last few weeks, agents at checkpoints have found around six children were used as decoys in their parents’ drug smuggling. And many of these parents were mothers.

As most people know, drug smugglers try to blend in with traffic so that they are not stopped at checkpoints for a search. Children help them blend in more, in hopes that checkpoint agents, who only have seconds to ascertain whether or not a traveler is worthy of a vehicle search, will let them pass.

In fact, a Tombstone, Arizona, checkpoint was one of the most recent drug seizures that involved a child. The eight year old child was used as a decoy, but when agents stopped the mother to search the car, they found 104 pounds of marijuana in the trunk.

In another case, a different eight year old was used by her mother as a decoy, and agents found 50 pounds of marijuana in the spare tire.

Child decoys are not only used in drug trafficking but in smuggling illegal aliens as well. Recently, a mother was stopped for search, and the officers found several illegal aliens in the vehicle. The mother’s children were also with her.

Drug abuse is on the rise in the United States, and unfortunately, mother smugglers see no reason to leave their children out of the smuggling operation. As drug abuse and demand continue to rise, these smugglers may have to take even more extreme measures to fit in with the crowd.

Fortunately, if we stop the chain of drug abuse and dependence, we can stop this form of child abuse. Drug rehabilitation centers like Vista Taos can help those dependent on drugs break the cycle. Vista Taos Drug Abuse Center is in Taos, New Mexico and can cater to many people living in the southern United States dealing with substance abuse.

Popping pills may not be the recreational past time people once thought it to be. Prescription drug death rates are rising across the United States, topping the death rates for cocaine and heroin use combined. Particularly, the death rate for narcotic pain pills has increased to four times the narcotic pill death rate in the previous decade.

Of course, pain pill use of this magnitude must be prescribed, and there has also been in increase in the numbers of prescriptions written that corresponds with the death rate. Sometimes narcotic drugs are prescribed for legitimate pain, but other times the narcotics are prescribed by “pill mill” doctors, who hand out prescriptions to addicts for cash. These doctors only have interest in money, not treating people for the betterment of their lives. If reviewed further, many of these doctors have faced legal issues surrounding malpractice laws and find that pill mills are the best way to make money and not be held accountable for their diagnosis.

Often, the start of addiction begins because of legitimate pain. When the patient is prescribed heavy-duty narcotic pain meds, they could become addicted quite quickly. Therefore, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have issued a caution to doctors, requesting that they carefully screen their patients before prescribing narcotic pain pills.

 The death rate for narcotic pain medications is highest in New Mexico, and the highest abuse rate is in Oklahoma. Overall, the death rates are the highest in poor or rural counties, and the death toll is higher among whites and Native Americans, including Alaskan Natives than other races.

Prescription drug abuse can be treated, so if you know anyone suffering from prescription drug abuse, getting them to treatment centers like the Vista Taos Renewal Center, located in the number one state for pill deaths: New Mexico, could save their lives and improve their level of life enjoyment. Prescription drug abuse is not automatically a death sentence; help is waiting. Don’t become another statistic.