Norman, Oklahoma:
Drug Abuse

Norman, Oklahoma
(Photo by Ken Wolter/Shutterstock.com)

Norman, Oklahoma: Alcohol and Drug Addiction Information

Norman, Oklahoma has a population of 95,694 and is located in Cleveland County. 

Norman is best known as the home of University of Oklahoma with approximately 35,000 full-time students.

In 2008, Money Magazine ranked Norman as the sixth best place to live in the United States, the highest rating of any city in Oklahoma. The city is the nation’s center for the study of severe weather and is home of the National Storm Prediction Center, National Severe Storms Laboratory, and the National Weather Center.

Annual events include Jazz in June, Mardi Gras, Norman Music Festival, and Medieval Fair.

Norman tends to rate higher than the National Average in most crime rates including forcible rape and burglary. Norman also has an ongoing drug problem.

Norman Oklahoma’s Drug Situation

Oklahoma map
For many years, methamphetamine was the most serious threat to Norman and Oklahoma. Over time, methamphetamine has dwindled as a threat although in Cleveland County, a few meth labs show up every year.

Changes in legislation have cut back on the number of precursor chemicals available to meth cooks but a few people still bake up small batches for themselves and a few other people who are helping them cook. Most meth now comes across the Mexican border and up through Texas. Meth can make it from Mexico to Norman in less than a day.

Along with methamphetamine comes heroin, small amounts of cocaine, and marijuana—the most frequently abused drug in the state. With the University of Oklahoma based in Norman, there will be higher rates of drugs like pot, Ritalin, Adderall, Ecstasy, GHB and alcohol in neighborhoods around the university.

Painkiller abuse has long been a serious problem in Oklahoma and the state has a rate of overdose deaths at the high end of the scale, when compared to other U.S. states. Only five other states have higher overdose rates.

Of the drugs sending people to rehab, alcohol has long been the leader, although its lead is dwindling. Methamphetamine and marijuana both send almost as many people to rehab. Cocaine use is declining and with it, the number going to rehab from use of this drug.

The Dwindling Spiral Will Continue

Crack pipe

Bringing a person back from the mental, physical and emotional deterioration of addiction is a difficult and heart-wrenching task.

A good rehab with an effective program and caring staff can make short work of this task. But many rehab programs are either outpatient (which means that the individual has opportunities to be swayed back into drug or alcohol use) or they rely on medicating the recovering person as an integral part of the program.

When an addicted person is treated with methadone or buprenorphine, they may appear to be able to establish a safer lifestyle, but they do not gain the strength to build and maintain a sober life. Nor do they get to experience the joy of being truly drug-free and knowing they have the skills to stay drug-free in the future.

No drugs are ever used as part of the Narconon drug and alcohol rehab program. The program focuses on helping each person recover from the trauma and guilt of the past, sharpening their perceptions, taking back control of their thoughts and actions from drugs, and learning how to make the right decisions that keep life on a sober path. It takes most people eight to ten weeks to complete this program.

Every Narconon center has accommodations for those in recovery. Being in residence means that each person has 24-hour support and supervision to protect them while they gain the skills to make sober decisions.

When a family looks for a drug rehab center for a loved one, or an individual looks for one for himself (or herself), what should they look for?

It’s hoped that most families would prefer their loved one to come home free from reliance on any medications such as methadone, buprenorphine or benzodiazepines (anti-anxiety drugs).

The family should ask enough questions that they understand how a person can learn to build a new, sober life with their own skills and knowledge by completing this program.

The philosophy of the program should make sense to the family and should include activities that the family would not mind their loved one experiencing. For example, some rehabs utilize criticism and accusation from other people in rehab to “tear down a person’s defenses” and force the addict to admit wrongdoing. Families may object to a center’s concept of treatment including this kind of abuse.

The Narconon program has a completely different philosophy. This is an educational model. We teach people how they have lost their own self-respect and how they can regain it. We then support and guide them while they utilize this new skills until they experience the relief of self-forgiveness.

We have found that nearly every person truly wants to be honest and to respect themselves and others and they will respond to education on how to overcome their guilt. Therefore, we do not incarcerate as jail does, or attack like some groups do. We enable a person to discover their own truths.

Should the Drug Rehab Location Matter When It Comes to Finding a Solution to Addiction?

Man leaning on wall

The location of a drug rehab program can make a huge difference.

The first requirement is that it should be a safe environment in which to make changes.

It can be difficult and take some time for a person new to recovery to begin to trust the people he (or she) is working with. After all, he is coming from experiences with associates who could not be trusted to protect his life.

It also helps many people in recovery to be far from their drug-using associates and drug dealers of his past life.

By changing environments and traveling to a distant rehab, a person is not faced with all the usual triggers that might compel him to use drugs or drink: triggers like a location where he once overdosed, the home he lost to financial disaster, the jail he was in and much more.

In a fresh environment, he has a chance to build up his ability to confront life’s issues and his sober decision-making skills. Then when he goes home, he can practice the skills he has learned.

This is such a powerful factor in recovery that eight out of ten of our students come from a long distance away for our rehab program.

Narconon New Life Retreat Helps END Addiction and Alcoholism FOR GOOD.

At a Narconon rehab center, even our deep detoxification step is designed to make recovery last. Years of drug or alcohol abuse results in an accumulation of toxic residues from those drugs. They tend to remain lodged in fat tissue which has less circulation and less ability to release toxins.

Our detox—called the New Life Detoxification Program—utilizes nutritional supplements, moderate daily exercise and time spent sweating in a dry-heat sauna to activate the body’s ability to wash out old toxins.

During the sweating in the sauna and enhanced by the nutritional regimen each person follows, these residues are sweated out. A person may even be able to sense the effects of the drugs briefly as they are released from the fat.

The result of this phase of the program is a person who can think more clearly, freed from the deadening effect of these residues. It’s common for people to say they have a brighter outlook on life and often that their physical cravings for drugs are manageable or even gone. This is a big step forward for a person who now will learn how to restore relationships and regain personal integrity.

A Narconon Program Graduate:

  • Has successfully completed each step of the Narconon drug and alcohol rehab program
  • Has been supported through a drug-free but tolerable withdrawal
  • Has washed away the toxins from past drug or alcohol abuse and gained a new ability to think clearly
  • Has learned why some people could send him back into addiction and others are more likely to support his sobriety and how to handle each
  • Has discovered the relief of regaining his own personal integrity
  • Now knows how to make the right decisions to protect his sobriety

Call any time to speak with one of our counselors about our program. We will take the time to answer your questions whether you are looking for help for yourself or a loved one.

It is possible to replace the loss and pain of alcohol or drug addiction with a productive, enjoyable life.

Call now.