Addiction affects 7 out of 10 people. I call it the wrecking ball of ALL relationships – marriages, family ties and even friendships. Everyone is affected in some capacity. Whether you’re a loved one of an addict or you, yourself, are questioning your relationship with drugs or alcohol, listen in to learn valuable information about addiction.

My name is India Kern, and I am a Certified Divorce Coach that specializes in working with women caught off guard by divorce. I help them feel confident, find a sense of security and be HAPPY again.

When it comes to divorce, you have a choice, to either get “bitter” or get “better.”

Are you ready to get “better?

Let’s talk! Email me at connect@indiakern.com to schedule a 30-minute FREE consultation.

India: (00:05)
Welcome to the Divorce Recovery Podcast. My name is India Kern. My intention is to encourage and guide you through the valley of divorce. It doesn’t matter what stage you are in because we all need a little help navigating the road from “married” to “divorced.” I’ve been there and I know how it is. So sit tight, listen up and enjoy the podcast. Welcome to the divorce recovery podcast. Today I have Scott Silverman as my guest. Scott is a crisis coach, a family navigator, a motivational speaker, and an author of, “Tell Me No, I Dare You.” Thank you so much for being here.

Scott: (00:41)
Thanks so much for having me.

India: (00:42)
Well today, the intention of this episode is to better understand addiction from the perspective of a loved one, and then we’re going to move to the perspective of a person who may be struggling with drugs or alcohol.So as you know, there’s so many forms of addiction and more than just alcohol, so and drugs, but today we’re going to focus on those two and that will be plenty to cover. So we might even make this more than one episode. I read that 21 million Americans struggle with some form of addiction. So most everyone in the US is affected in some capacity. Right? And you know, this hits really close to my heart because I was raised in addiction. I was born into it. My father was a severe alcoholic. It eventually destroyed my parents’ marriage. We had, you know, all kinds of problems with kids. Even some of my siblings even went that route too now are recovering. So it definitely touched my family and um, it caused also me to seek dysfunctional relationships and I had to then learn what healthy even looked like, which I think is pretty common.

Scott: (01:56)
Right? It’s, it’s actually classic. Have you think about it? Yeah. You know, when you have a family that has it’s predisposed with addiction, uh, unfortunately that maladaptive behavior impacts everyone.

India: (02:09)
Right? Right. And then it’s just like the wrecking ball of relationships, right? And so, um, especially marriages and since this is the Divorce Recovery Podcast, that’s where I want to go with this. So addiction is one of the greatest challenges as we just mentioned. And is also the most frustrating because usually one person looks at the addicted spouse and says, why can’t you stop, look at what you’re doing to our marriage and um, and I want you to shed some light on what happens in addiction for everyone involved. So I gathered some commonly asked questions and I thought I would just ask, jump right in and you help us, you know, unpack this.

Scott: (02:51)
That’d be great. I hope that your listeners will follow up with you once they’ve heard this and ask you more specific questions on what they could do to help navigate what next steps look like cause the disease of addiction, and I call it a disease, is a disease of denial and the inability to feel feelings. So when you talk to somebody who has the problem, they’re going to tell you A, I don’t have a problem. And B, if you weren’t in the room breathing, I wouldn’t have to drink. So it’s always somebody else’s fault. Cloudy skies, the, you know, sunny afternoons, the dolphins off the coast. It doesn’t matter when someone has this issue, they believe it’s some other person’s fault. Meaning not their’s.

India: (03:38)
My mother was the reason my father drank according to my dad in the room breathing.

Scott: (03:42)
It’s a classic relationship, you know, antidotes that you hear constantly. The, you know, I used to joke with my wife sometimes, you know, sometimes when you’re in the room breathing, I get irritated and it’s not her that’s irritating me. It’s just me having a really bad day or I’m not processing my feelings and I’m reacting to it. And then if I were to still be drinking, you know, I would be reacting, reacting, to it differently within an hour after being, you know, self-medicating.

India: (04:07)
Right. Let’s just jump right in the question go. How do you know when a loved one is addicted to a substance?

Scott: (04:15)
You know that that’s first of all, it’s a great question. How do you know if someone’s addicted? You know it. I call this a disease and according to science, 15% of the country has an active addiction issue that will erupt this next year, which is an even higher number than you read because the data that we have out there is three to four years old. And most people aren’t going to raise their hand and go, Hey, I have an alcohol problem. Hey, I suffered from addiction, from opioids, so it’s really hard to get, you know, accurate data in a timely way and the way the government does it, it takes years to gather and the reports are usually a couple of years behind. One of the key pieces that you know, families ask me all the time is how do I know if they’re telling the truth? I’m going to kind of work backwards to your question and my answer is this. If some, if you think somebody has a problem, then you pretty much know or have an idea or think they do. The question then begs is, how do I know when they’re telling me the truth? My answer is simple. If their lips are moving, they’re lying.

India: (05:10)
My mother used to say that all the time.

Scott: (05:13)
That their lips are moving, they’re lying, and now that doesn’t make them a bad person, but most people are not going to be candid, forthright, and transparent. Come forward and tell you that they have a problem. They’re going to be self-medicating or they’re going to be taking something into their body for their mind and soul, if you will, to help numb whatever’s going on. I call it a form of anesthesia. So when someone’s behavior is such that they’re either out of control or you know it’s inappropriate or they’re screaming, you know, at the wind for no reason whatsoever, there’s probably an issue going on. For example, if somebody had a broken arm, it’s crystal clear they have a broken arm or broken leg, right? You know, or someone poked him in the eye or their eyes watering. It’s clear, it’s easy, you go to the ER, you get it fixed. But with substance abuse and with addiction, you know, when you’re self-medicating, it’s kind of opaque. But you, most people can see this behavioral change and they may not be sure what it is, but they know something’s not right. And that’s really when they have to reach out and talk to experts about what’s going on and try to get an idea.

India: (06:12)
Right. And that leads me to the next question. How do you know if it’s not just abusing the substance rather than being addicted to the substance?

Scott: (06:21)
There’s a, there’s a fine line between abuse and addiction. And the interesting thing is you can simply go online and just Google, you know, how do I know if I have an addiction problem, how do I know if I’m drinking too much? And there are questionnaires online, right? And I think the average is about 21 questions and when you ask those questions and then you answer those questions, you’ll get a pretty good idea because you’re right, there is, there are people who abuse it. There are people who party a lot, right? And there are people who have an addiction and I was a partier abuser and was an addict, but it didn’t really evolve until over time for me. And that’s what happened to me personally. And people don’t normally have their first drink and then have a problem. But there are people who have their first drink and have a blackout and they’re predisposed.

India: (07:04)
So, okay, thank you. That was great information. So why can’t they stop using when they can see the damage is causing, like say their marriage?

Scott: (07:13)
Right. You know, and again, a great question, you know, why, why, why would somebody pick something up or put something in their body that they know would hurt them? And that’s a real interestingly organic issue. For example, if somebody knows that by drinking or by smoking marijuana or by taking medication, they’re impaired, but yet they get behind the wheel of a vehicle. That’s probably the clearest example. We read the newspaper almost daily now. So why would someone do that? Well, if you and I were talking about diabetes and I had diabetes and I was eating inappropriately and I was getting sick and I was diagnosed and I was told to take, you know, my blood sugar levels throughout the day and I was required to put insulin in my body and I wasn’t doing it, I got sicker. Clearly the outcome would be crystal clear. But when it comes to substance abuse and it comes to self-medicating, most people don’t want to admit they have the problem. Again, disease of denial. And secondly, if they do admit that they have the problem, then they’ve got the stigma they have to deal with the family.

India: (08:18)
Okay, so I, I like this question a lot. What I’m about to ask you, what’s the difference? Okay. What’s enabling first and then what’s the difference between enabling and supporting?

Scott: (08:29)
Great. Well, enabling is a example. You know, when I used to drink we’d go out socially and then I’d wake up Sunday morning and my wife would give me a list of people and phone numbers and I go, what’s this? You need to call these people and apologize. That was a form of enabling and you know, as far as the other part of that was supporting is.

India: (08:49)
What’s the difference between supporting and enabling?

Scott: (08:52)
Well, the thing is this, when somebody’s got a problem and your supporting it, you know in some ways, for example, you’re, you’re saying, Oh, I want to let them have a beer to a dinner because I want them to feel better because I don’t want to have to live with the behavior and the attitude and the personality that comes if they don’t drink. That’s a high level of enabling and supporting is trying to find ways to, you know, to give that individual alternatives. The difficulty with that is if they have this disease in their mind, they don’t, they’re not making a conscious choice. I’d rather get drunk and blackout and have an argument with my spouse than I would take this, you know, other way or path to feel better. It’s really, you’re not giving, it’s not a conscious choice. For example, I hear it all the time. If somebody just was at a bar, they’d pick up a drink. Would they have a drinking problem? Well, it’s different for someone who’s predisposed and has the addiction and they have the disease. They don’t really have a choice in their mind. They don’t have a problem. So they’re drinking. Yeah. I mean, it’s classic. Look at my family, five of us, two of us end up being a, having a problem. Correct. So it definitely trickles down the family tree,

Scott: (10:00)
A compulsive, obsessive, addictive behavior. And by the way, there are good things like sports, nutrition, you know, fashion, right way we take care of our own bodies, mind and soul, you know, and we actually do better with our cars than we do our own bodies when you think about it.

India: (10:14)
Yeah. Yeah. So, okay, so a lot of people, you know, you Alanon or 12 step is pushed for the loved one, right? So a classic question is why do I need help if she or he has the problem, my spouse?

Scott: (10:28)
The, and there’s all kinds of different, um, you know, anonymous programs out there today or people who can go see experts who aren’t associated with the recovery program. But what happens is when somebody has a, here’s an interesting statistic, if 15% as I said earlier of the population has a problem according to science. If you are an active individual who’s active in your disease and you’re acting out, you’re self medicating, the science shows that you will impact seven people negatively every day. So if 15% of a problem at seven and seven out of 10 are going to be, now that’s anywhere from a family member. Right. You know, but leaving the house to going to work, to being on the road, to being impaired, to interacting with friends, family throughout the day. So when an individual has the problem, they’re going to act out the way they act out and the person who’s living with them or who is close to them, who is watching this happen is being impacted by that behavior. So what they also need to do, if they’re sitting there and they’re watching it and they’re exposed to it, it’s like PTSD. Science is showing that if an individual comes back from a military environment, has PTSD and it goes untreated, the whole family can have it spill over to them and they can suffer from PTSD. So what happens with this disease is the significant other, the children are all reaping kind of like a water fountain. It just trickles down on them and they can’t avoid it because it’s in their environment and if they don’t get support or treatment, they’re basically becoming a victim to that behavior. And if that goes untreated, you know, pressure bust pipes, they’re going to have a negative impact. It’s going to have a negative impact on them as well.

India: (12:12)
Yeah. I always say, or I heard someone say, a therapist once, we’re waiting for the bus that takes us back home. And that’s so true. I did it. Um, so I’m a product of that.

Scott: (12:23)
I think the key behind, you know, these, these are great questions is also a heightened awareness that if it’s going on, because if you don’t believe you have a splinter, you’re not going to try and take it out. But there’s something that’s irritating you. You don’t know what it is. That’s where you have to seek help and talk to experts.

India: (12:40)[inaudible] what’s the first step I should take if I think my loved one does have a problem?

Scott: (12:46)
Well a couple of things. You can quickly go online, do some research. I would say start with an expert. You know, maybe talk to your primary caregiver, talk to your faith based leader, talk to a friend, talk to someone who’s been through it, you know, call India, talk with her, you know, call me, talk with Scott. There are people out there, thousands in this community that are clinicians, their therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists who all have expertise with behavioral health. And, and if you’re not sure what to do, talk to someone who had been there and done that. If you can. And if you can’t identify that person, talk to someone you trust because the odds are in today’s world, everybody knows somebody who’s got an issue. And most people have a pretty good idea of maybe what direction to point you in. Then it’s up to you to take that action.

India: (13:29)
Let’s talk about treatment really quick. So are there effective treatments for drug and alcohol addiction? And you know, we talk about relapse as part of being part of recovery. Can you touch on that a little bit?

Scott: (13:41)
A variety of modalities for treatment. You know, it’s unfortunate in this industry, it’s a $40 billion industry that the structured treatment deliverable, uh, components, and according to science, if all you do is a 28 day inpatient program and no follow up, there’s a 95% chance you’re gonna relapse. So it’s, it’s, it’s an interesting journey that one needs to take. For example, back to diabetes. You get diagnosed, you get assessed, you’re gonna have to make lifestyle changes for the rest of your life, but only a little bit, only every day and only for the rest of your life. But at the end of the day, there are mechanisms for that. So when it comes to recovery, depending upon the level of need that individual has, there’s, there’s detox, there’s medically supervised detox, there’s inpatient residential programs, there’s outpatient programs, and there’s also longterm support. You know, confidential recovery is what I run. We’re an outpatient program non-residential. We’re working people, professionals can come 10 hours a week, work with a clinician, but that’s only 10 hours a week. They still have to work on their own recovery. They still have to, the social model has gotten a lot of great, you know, uh, accolades, if you will. And that works a lot. And there’s a lot of 12 step anonymous programs out there. There’s refuge, there’s, you know, there’s recovery, there’s life ring, there’s all kinds of modalities out there. So the excuse, you know, that I’m ever hearing, you know, Oh, you know, that’s religious program or you know, I don’t want to go in there and talk about God. Right. You know, or don’t. But don’t use that as a mechanism to not participate in something that’s going to help you feel better. Right. Nobody who’s ever been a triathlete has done it all on their own. Nobody who’s ever tried to find the best way to build a better body, mind, soul, and gut has done it on their own. Right. You know, and when you want to learn how to write or you want to learn how to be an artist or you want to learn how to deal, get into a profession, it’s never done alone. It’s done in a classroom environment. You haven’t facilitated. There’s an advocate there, there’s mentors, there’s all kinds of ways to get help today. That’s why I don’t like to even hear from somebody when they say, well, you know, I couldn’t find the right appropriate help. Okay, well then let’s talk about how we help you navigate to get to what that is. And sometimes you know, you meet a therapist, you don’t like them, okay? It doesn’t mean you give up on therapy for the rest of your life.

India: (15:49)
I heard a quote today that is perfect for now and it is by the writer of Roots. And he said, when you see a turtle on a fence post, you know he had help. And I love that because you need help, right? And it’s okay to be humble and ask for help when you need it because this is a time when you’re going to need it.

Scott: (16:08)
By the way, “I need help” are three of the hardest words in the English language. And if you can overcome that and you can say, I need help, everything and anything is possible.

India: (16:22)
Yeah. So now I’d like to switch to the one that may be questioning whether they have a problem with a substance. So some of the questions that they asked, so I only drink on the weekends. Can a person be addicted to a substance even though you don’t use or drink every day?

Scott: (16:40)
Yes. There’s actually a term, it’s called weekend alcoholic. And how do I know that? Because I was one I had people who asked me, he said, you know, maybe you have a drinking problem. You know what would happen if you stopped? And I thought, well, okay. So I challenged myself and what I ended up doing is when I slowed down my alcohol, I increased my cocaine. So you know, it was substitution. So the thing is this, if you’re generally asking yourself that question, the odds are pretty high, you may have an issue. Now you may not have an addiction, but you may have an issue. Right? So, for example, if you were drinking on weekends, abusively now what’s abusively mean? Three classes of wine, nine glasses of wine, a pint of whiskey, a quart of whiskey? You know, are you taking edibles and Xanax and alcohol? So the question really begs what you’re really doing, and by the way, lying, cheating and manipulating are the three best tools of someone who’s suffering from an addiction? So when you’re talking to somebody who says, Oh, I only had four glasses of wine, well that’s wonderful. You know, I do though in my business of being a behavioral health consultant, I asked the question, well, when, what time did you have that wine? Oh, I had it between six and nine. Well that’s great. So let me ask you this. From the time you woke up in the morning, you know, what time did you wake up? Well, by about eleven well, why so late? Well, I have a little bit of a hangover from night before. Right? Okay. So when you woke up before you had your first cup of coffee, what did you do between eleven and six when you had that first glass of wine? Well, I had a couple of vodkas because I couldn’t get through the day without it. So now we’re talking a couple of vodkas, four glasses of wine that said, when you went to sleep that night, did you take anything to help you? Well yeah, you have to take something to help me sleep. So all of a sudden they’re asking direct questions. By the way, I do not suggest a family member do this. Not interview your spouse and go through that. Have them call me. Let me do it for yo cause that’s what I’m good at. And I’m happy to ask those questions. And I’m looking, I’m not looking to judge, I’m looking to get informed so I can reflect and give advice and make suggestions.

India: (18:48)
Right. So when you’re trying to manage your consumption, like okay, I’m only going to have X amount, would that be a pretty good sign that you may have a problem?

Scott: (18:57)
Well, think about what your question is. Managing consumption. I would say yes, that if one is trying to manage one’s consumption, the odds are they’re probably consuming more than they should be because of you need management tools to try to adjust your intake or monitor your intake or try to split your intake over a period of time. Your level of consciousness around that kind of self manipulation. Usually as a clear sign, something’s going on. Right. For example, when I went to a professional and I said, I’m drinking a lot because I’m depressed, why are you depressed? Well, you know, I, I, I feel like I’m not moving forward fast enough in my life. You know, I work in a family business, I’m not good enough for them. I never seem to meet the minimum threshold criteria. You know, I’m having an issue in a relationship I’m in. And so it sounds like if I could help you with the depression, you may not need to drink. So that was my motivation again and the drinking and the depression, they contaminated each other.

India: (20:00)
Right. And that’s right. And that’s actually a good point cause I’ve heard people say that drugs and alcohol quiet the noise of the brain. So right and underneath the addiction lies the inability to tolerate negative feelings. What’s your take on that?

Scott: (20:17)
Well, you know, negative feeling, positive feeling. The reason I say that is because I know I’ve talked to enough addicts and family members over the years. You know I’ve been sober a little over 35 so probably thousands of people. And what I hear is sometimes success can be a barrier. Failures familiar, you know, oh that’s like a nice sweater, I can wear that. You know, failure is familiar and success sometimes can be a big challenge as well. So I think it works both ways. What it is is the inability to process feelings, I think in a normal way kind of goes into this one portal. It gets stuck there and spins around and while it’s spinning around your head hurts, your gut hurts. And the only way to stop the noise sometimes is to take something in that puts the noise and, and you know subdues it quiets, sit down. Yeah.

India: (21:02)
Right, right. And another thing that, you know, a lot of controversy. I know, I mean I know the answer to this, but I just want to talk about marijuana and how, um, it’s addictive qualities. Um, is it addictive?

Scott: (21:18)
You call it addictive qualities?

India: (21:20)
Well, I, I, I’m asking for the people, sorry, I’m asking for the people because I see it, I see the argument on Facebook all the time. And of course I believe it is, I’ve seen the effects of it. I’ve seen loved ones smoke and numb out and yes, in my book, it’s addictive. But then you see, you know, it’s being legalized and there’s this, uh, it’s almost, I don’t know, I mean alcohol also is legal and it’s addictive. So tell me what your, tell me a little bit about marijuana.

Scott: (21:50)
Well, marijuana, you know, when I was smoking marijuana didn’t have the potency it does today, it’s like 20 times more potent than it was 15 years ago. And that’s an issue. And the reason I say that is the THC content and marijuana today is so strong, it’s so strong. So what happens is people are smoking it, but the impact it’s having on them and the damage that it’s doing, especially with young people and the science already shows us that, you know, in the teens up to 25 if you’re smoking marijuana on a daily basis, your brain stops developing period. It just stops developing. So if you start smoking marijuana today in today’s world, you know, 2020 and you smoke it for 10 years, by the time you get to 25 your, your mental capacity hasn’t really changed a whole lot from the age of 15 plus. Once you start taking in mood altering substances, you stopped growing emotionally. So if you’re 35 years old and you’ve been drinking and smoking through your teens and twenties you’ve got the maturation rate of a 15 year old. Yes. And people will go, Oh, sorry to hear this and go, Oh, you know, that’s right. My significant other is still acts like an idiot whenever they put that stuff in there. So marijuana is much stronger than ever has been before. We also have edibles today and what’s happening with edibles is people take them in and they go, you know, this isn’t really effective. And they then they take another one and then they get high and then leave them around the table and then they’re their pets and their children gets expose terms like pediatric morbidity. I didn’t even know what that was four years ago. And that’s what’s happening. Kids are picking this stuff up and as we legalize it across the country, I mean look, there are, there are other parts of the world that have legalized everything and they’ve found a way to manage the addiction issue. The problem is in our country right now, what we’re doing is we’re trying to find ways to just say, well, let’s just make it legal. And then that way that the outside manufacturers can’t impregnate our society, the fentinol and you know, cocaine. But the problem is if you don’t provide opportunity for recovery and for treatment and support, it doesn’t matter because what happens is our society today, we’re taking in more mood altering substances. We’re seeing more overdoses than we’ve ever seen before and marijuana does impair people and when you’re driving impaired, you can have the same issue. You know, as somebody who’s had a, you know, a fifth of alcohol, right? And that is becoming legal and the feds are talking about making it legal nationally right now. And my only concern is let’s take, if you’re going to do it, I know California, is that we’ll take half the money, the profits, the state will make put it into education, prevention and treatment. Yeah. I mean I just talked to a guy today, two weeks, he’s been trying to get into treatment and he can’t because he’s on social security insurance. I, I’m right in the middle. He goes , I can’t go to this place because I have an income and I can’t go to that place because I don’t have enough income. And he says, this whole thing’s about we were, he was arguing with me, he says, I’m so upset about it. It’s about money. I said, no, there are facilities you can go to. Just have to wait, be patient and do some research. But hang in there and I said, call me later and we’ll help you navigate some more. And that’s part of the problem. Yeah. Here we are. 2020 people don’t know where to go get help. That is insane. And when you think about our little, I don’t want to minimize it, the flu epidemic. We’ve lost some kids and some adults and it’s horrible. But at the end of the day, you know, we’re losing over plus 200 people a day just over opioids. This country, 200 a day. That doesn’t include alcohol or methamphetamine or other prescription meds.

India: (25:14)
Yeah. What about the synthetic drugs? Can you speak about that? Like what, what does that,

Scott: (25:19)
Are you talking about counterfeit medication?

India: (25:21)
Well, just this, don’t they have synthetic marijuana and things like that or?

Scott: (25:25)
there are different things out there. Yeah, there’s ketamine, you know, but that’s a tool for helping. Uh, but if you abuse it, you know, and now what’s happening this, this counterfeit medication, for example, people are buying a Xanax, you know, and what they’re doing is they’re, they think that’s what it is. But actually what it is, it’s manufactured in a way where they put fentanyl in it. Yeah. Counterfeit medication they call it. So you know when kids are going to parties today where they each bring something in their pocket and they put it in a bowl and at a certain time the green light goes on and everybody goes to the bowl and grabs something. You know, and I don’t believe in telling a kid you shouldn’t do something. Cause generally what that usually means is go have some fun later. That’s what it translate in their head or, or thank you, I’m going to hide from you more now. But they grab these things. They have no idea what they’re putting in their body. And with fentanyl coming in from China, you know, and with cocaine coming in from South America and with methamphetamine coming in from Mexico and then you and I haven’t even talked about the dark web. I mean, you can go on the dark web today with Bitcoin and have no trace of your transactions and you can purchase everything we’ve talked about today and more, have it delivered to your house through USP S and no one’s going to know.

India 🙁26:30)
Oh wow. Well, you know, another thing I saw yesterday on NPR was, um, an interview and it was, uh, it was with two addicts recovering. One of heroin cause they turned to heroin because they couldn’t get prescription medication. So turned to that. Right, which is classic, right? I mean when you can’t get what you need and, um, there’s an app now that, that shares where the bad batches are now you would think people would run from him. [inaudible] the hardcore drug addicts go to the bad batch areas to get it cause they’re like, Oh, that’s really good stuff. That’s unbelievable. Now this, this podcast was all about, um, the epidemic, the drug epidemic, mostly opioids, um, but also Narcan, the Lazarus drug, um, because it, you know, revives a person. So, um, I couldn’t believe that people would actually go for the bad batches. That that was just…

Scott: (27:22)
Let me take what you heard at step further, which is more scary. Uh, there was a guy here at San Diego that was busted about a year ago and I heard this from somebody in law enforcement and he was asked in the interview, you know, after the arrest, why would you sell a product that kills your customer? Why would you even distribute something that could actually kill your consumer? And the answer was, whenever the news picks up an overdose of fentanyl or heroin or carfentanil or counterfeit medication, he goes, my business spikes, my business spikes the quote unquote. So, and I look at that as my competition. The person who’s manufacturing or distributing or selling or marketing illicit substances with absolutely no cure in the world because they don’t have to worry about quality control. Their product’s not sold in a pharmacy. The DEA doesn’t monitor what they’re making. They do all this underground and you know, after hours. And it’s done in a way with, with the, uh, with the idea in mind that when their consumer gets connected to it, addicted, they’re going to build business. I mean, there are methamphetamine. Just real quick, 10 years ago, a pound of methamphetamine in San Diego was around $11,000 today it’s 1100. Wow. Wow. It’s 10 times less than it was 10 years ago. But see what’s even more scary is methamphetamine, which mostly comes from super labs in Mexico. If you were to go out today and purchase methamphetamine, 10 times less money, right? The purity 10 years ago was about eight or 9%, the purity today is 90% plus. So what’s happening is they’re able to make it cheaper, make it more potent, and it’s more addictive. Wow. So, and you know, you don’t even hear about crack anymore because between methamphetamine and fentanyl and heroin, and by the way, a lot of people that are smoking heroin, when it’s cut with fentanyl, a lot of people that are smoking methamphetamine, it’s cut with fentanyl. We add a couple overdoses here in San Diego where fentinol was actually in marijuana.

India: (29:25)
That’s, yeah, I heard that. That’s so scary.

Scott: (29:28)
To your point earlier, why would someone take something knowing that it could kill them? Because the person, the drug seeker at the moment, if it’s not peer pressure, but it’s self indulgence, right? They’re not going to believe it’s their turn. They’re not going to believe this could happen to them.

India: (29:40)
Right. Right. And a lot of times they’re like, well, we know the person and he has only good stuff. Well, is he the Guinea pig? Is he testing it out? Because..t

Scott: (29:53)
There is no quality control when it comes to the illicit drugs and who are they going to be responsible to and why would they even take the time to do it? So you don’t know if you’re getting something that’s 5% pure or 50% pure or 80% pure and what the dose looks like.

India: (30:05)
Right, right. All right, Scott, that’s a lot of information and it’s all very, very valuable. But I want the listeners to know if they have a problem, if they think a loved one has a problem, what should they do right now?

Scott: (30:20)
Well, I want you to, I’d like to encourage them to call me. Let’s start there and make a phone call. I’m a crisis coach in a family navigator, you know, and I charge a fee for my time, but if you call me, I’ll give you 10 minutes free cause I’m on India’s show. And I’m happy to do that because I want you to know that if you don’t make a phone call, we’re going to be going to a funeral. So they can simply call me at area code (619) 993-2738 that’s (619) 993-2738 or go to my website, www.yourcrisiscoach.com or Google me, Scott H. Silverman. I’m on the net. You can find me anywhere on LinkedIn or Facebook or you know, Instagram. I’m there and text me if you’re concerned and you know, star 67 if you want to call me with an unknown number, it doesn’t matter. But if you don’t ask for help, I don’t know how you expect to see change start. So if you want to get into action, you know, and if you know India, call her, she’ll give you my contact info and if there’s anything that, anything that I can do, I’m on this big campaign in 2020 I call it “funeral avoidance I don’t want to go to any more funerals. I don’t want to hear family say I wish I knew about you three months ago. I tried to get out there. I tried to make myself available and if I can’t get back to you within the hour, I certainly will within 24 so again, (619) 993-2738.

India: (31:42)
All right. Thank you so much Scott. Today was, I find it fascinating and like I said, it hits close to home. If anyone is interested in navigating a marriage that might be suffering from some substance abuse, please contact me as well. You can contact me at connect@indiakern.com or go to my website www.indiakern.com. So Scott, thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate it. Thank you listeners for tuning in and have a beautiful day.

Scott Silverman

Crisis Coach • Family Navigator

http://yourcrisiscoach.com/

(619) 993-2738