Drug addiction in San Bernardino

San Bernardino, Californias 18^th largest city, is home to an estimated population of 198,580 residents as of 2008. Located about 65 miles from LA, San Bernardino is not very far from Californias drug trafficking belt. Fortunately, street enforcement teams in San Bernardino have shown excellent results in the last few years. Special investigative and task force teams have consistently been trying to keep a check on San Bernardino drug abuse.

From occasional busts to large scale illicit drug recovery, special investigative teams have forced the drug trafficking groups to scale down their operations. From Victorville to Barstow, street enforcement teams work across the entire high desert region of San Bernardino. Their main focus is to address and handle the root causes of drug addiction in San Bernardino.

Anti-drug operations often primarily deal with street level drug offenders and raid various premises suspected to be the manufacturing bases for illegal drugs. In the past few years, many manufacturing bases of crystal meth have been sealed by the authorities in San Bernardino, California. This was a great step in reducing drug abuse; however, meth production is so easy that almost anyone can do it by using some simple products.

Street level drug dealers and users are also handled by the East Valley Drug Enforcement Team, whose priority is to investigate the entire neighborhood of San Bernardino in order to prevent the inflow or outflow of hard and illegal drugs. The target cities for investigation by this team are Highland, Grand Terrace, Redlands, Roma Linda, Highland and Mentone. All investigative teams have been brought to action keeping in mind the staggering drug abuse statistics for San Bernardino.

Since alcoholism and tobacco consumption are socially acceptable, they are difficult to prevent by law enforcement. Tobacco and alcohol, though far less dangerous than hardcore drugs, do give way to long term damages. Alcoholism or drug addiction related cases should be handled with great care, as addicts tend to deny treatment of any sort at first. Until the painful symptoms begin to emerge, addiction seems to be a tolerable journey. Without intervention from family or friends, this journey can end with a painful death.

Abuse of prescription drugs for excitement and short term pleasure is increasing over the years. Young students start using these prescription drugs without asking a medical practitioner for guidance. Some of addicts are also known to have considered prescription drugs to be safer than others. A small injury is enough to introduce a young student to a prescription drug. Apart from such drugs, young students are also known to abuse various inhalants that produce toxic fumes. As such, family members must check to see if cleaning and painting products are being abused by children in the house. Public participation is also very important to fight drug abuse in San Bernardino, CA.

It is a worrisome fact that nearly 20% of the US population has used prescription drugs for non-medical reasons in the last few years. Sedatives, tranquilizers and stimulants are frequently abused by people who have no clue about their ill effects and addictive nature. OxyContin is one such prescription drug that is widely used all over United States by patients suffering from cancer, back pain, arthritis and physical injuries.