This Digital Journal report highlighted the issue of methamphetamine addiction and the serious issue it has become for society. The rise of mobile labs is a growing problem as producers aim to make it more difficult for detection. At the same time, mobile meth labs have also become around-the-clock operations.

As a problem drug, meth was reportedly wiped off the streets in the 1970s, likely replaced by more powerful or elite drugs. Meth came back with full force in the 1990s, however, and the steady increase has kept law enforcement searching for new methods of attack.

Detection and prevention of these labs are difficult, however, as they replaced the need for the larger lab. As a result, more labs are popping up almost consistently, and the mobility of the lab puts more people at risk.

Hospitals are now being overwhelmed with meth burn victims, children are at an increased risk, costs associated with meth injury and addiction are on the rise and the criminal justice system is bearing much of the burden in the battle to reverse the trend.

The cost to medical facilities and society as a whole should spur citizen action. According to the Associated Press, the average meth patient is uninsured and receives $130,000 work of treatment for meth-related burns. Another figure cited by the AP was $6,000 per day for the treatment of meth burn patients.

As long as these mobile meth labs continue to populate the landscape, non-addicts will bear the burden of the consequences.

Of course, if you (or someone you love) are struggling with an addiction but it’s only in the early stages, you are fortunate (even though it may not feel that way). If you get into treatment now or in the near future, you can offset much of the devastating costs of addiction that long-term addicts experience.

But even if you’ve been an addict for years or even decades, it doesn’t mean it’s too late for you. Treatment and recovery are always better late than never – as none of us knows how much time we have left. It would be truly tragic to assume that these are so great in your life that there’s no longer any point to make recovery a goal. Today will always be the first day of the rest of your life – and that’s worth a lot no matter how short or long the "rest" may be.

Hopefully, the very act of taking an inventory of those costs (both current and future) will motivate you to get help (if you’ve yet to recover) or strive to remain clean and sober if you’ve already done the hard work of treatment.

The 7 Main Areas

The costs of addiction are felt in 7 main areas of your life. They include your

• self-esteem
• personal relationships
• job or career
• finances
• physical health
• emotional / mental health
• time

Acknowledging the Costs

Since denial is one of the hallmarks of addiction, it can be very difficult to acknowledge that you’re an addict. It takes a tremendous amount of courage and honesty to take this vital first step. Sometimes, it can help by first acknowledging these areas that are impacted by the costs of addiction. Once you are able to step back and do that, you’ll be better able to recognize and accept that if something doesn’t change soon, these costs will only continue to devastate your life (and often the lives of those closest to you as well).

Another hallmark of addiction is rationalization – the endless excuses for your behavior that often continue for a very long time. After all, you somehow have to find a way to reconcile in your mind why it is you are doing something that is so destructive and costly to your life. So, you minimize it or explain it a way – in a desperate attempt to somehow justify the severe costs of addiction in all of these areas.

You minimize how much and how often you use or engage in the addictive behavior; you minimize the impact it’s having on each of these areas in your life. And you rationalize your behavior by saying things like:

• "It’s just the way I am"
• "I don’t have a problem because I can stop any time"
• "I’m doing the best I can"
• "This is how I cope"
• "I’m under a lot of stress"
• "I need it to relax"
• "Everyone has a vice – this is mine"

For a little while, at least, you feel better…

It’s important to really take a close look at the costs of addiction in each of these important areas of your life:

Your self-esteem: Almost every addict feels a significant amount of shame on some level – even though he or she will strive to suppress it as much as possible. In fact, that underlying, painful shame is almost always one of the things that fuels the addiction. It becomes a vicious cycle: you feel the shame – you don’t like the feeling – you want it to go away – you engage in the addictive behavior to numb the feeling or take your mind off of it – you hate yourself for the behavior – you feel the same all over again – and so on.

Every time you go through that cycle you likely feel out of control – powerless to stop it because over and over again, the painful feeling (combined with the compulsion to repeat the behavior) is just too much to resist. And your self-esteem plummets lower and lower as the little voice inside your head taunts you for being weak; for failing yet again. The feelings of worthlessness and guilt cut deep.

As you incur more and more losses due to your addiction (e.g. financial problems, loss of a significant relationship, health issues related to the addiction), your self-esteem shrinks even further.

Your personal relationships: Addiction takes a huge toll on close relationships. Your significant other, your family, and your close friends are all affected. For many addicts, the costs of addiction in this area involve break-ups or divorce, loss of custody, loss of friends, and alienation by family members who’ve have had enough.

The people in your life get tired of the empty promises, the manipulative behavior, the excuses, and the lies that so typically accompany addiction. No matter how much they love you and care about you, they’re still human and they have their limits.

Your job or career: Although some types of addiction impact this area more than others, any addiction can interfere with your work. If you have an addiction to drugs or alcohol, one of the costs of addiction is the impact it has on your job performance. When your job performance suffers, it can lead to probation, suspension, demotion, and even getting fired. Of course, this almost always affects your marriage and your finances as well.

If you’re involved in a line of work in which safety is crucial, the costs of an alcohol or drug addiction can be tragic. Impaired judgment due to the effects of a substance can cause injury and even death. This is particularly true for fields like medicine, construction, aviation, fire safety, or law enforcement. When accidents occur at work, there may be serious legal costs as well.

Your finances: Another one of the serious costs of addiction is in the area of your finances. No matter what your addiction – drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex, and even food – it costs money to maintain it. Drugs and gambling are often the most expensive. Addicts often incur a lot of debt – to family, friends, and credit card companies. They may also steal if they’re desperate and have exhausted all their other resources. And of course, losing a job due to your addiction can quickly devastate your financial situation.

Your physical health: Addiction almost always adversely impacts your physical health. The physical costs of addiction can be very serious. These may include STDs, injuries from physical abuse or accidents, liver damage, kidney damage, brain damage, heart problems, hepatitis-C, stress-related health problems, dental problems, obesity, and even death.

Your emotional and mental health: The stress of being an addict often takes a severe toll on your emotional and mental health in addition to your physical health. Feelings of hopelessness and despair are two of the emotional costs of addiction that often plague addicts. It’s not uncommon for depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues to accompany addiction – sometimes leading to it and other times as a result of it.

Your time: One of the often overlooked costs of addiction is your time. If you’re like most addicts, you spend a lot of valuable time either engaging in the behavior itself or looking for ways to satisfy your cravings. If you’re addiction is to alcohol or drugs, you likely lose a lot of time due to being passed out or high – time that can never be retrieved. The time you lose can cost you in other areas as well, particularly your finances, relationships, and work.

Addictions are extremely costly on a personal level. If you’re already in recovery, congratulations for finding the courage and strength to put a halt to these high costs of addiction in your life. If you’re not quite there yet – perhaps you’re not ready to admit that your problem is serious, or the idea of treatment still feels too scary – hopefully you will take the time to seriously consider just how many different ways the costs of addiction are ruining your life. It’s never too late to get help – especially if you consider that the ultimate cost of addiction could someday be your life.

The charges surrounding Hurd are for intended distribution of cocaine to almost two dozen NFL players that apparently are being investigated by local Chicago police. This story could pose a major scandal for NFL owners and their top officials as the league assesses how to prevent these types of issues from affecting the game.

According to a recent article, Hurd was arrested last week on an alleged attempt to buy cocaine from an undercover agent. He was reported to have purchased around $700K in marijuana and cocaine.

Chicago authorities portray Hurd as one of the most prominent drug dealers in the Chicago area and say he was involved in roughly $2 million of drug business each month and aspired to do more. If the allegations pan out to be true, it would appear his primary occupation was as drug dealer and football was secondary.

Hurd will likely face a trial scheduled for next year and if convicted he will face somewhere between five and 40 years of prison time. His career is definitely in danger as he was waived just last Friday by the Chicago Bears. The NFL has had several scandals in recent years with Michael Vick and Plaxico Burress and now will be facing some troubling questions about their players who choose to engage in illegal activity.

This incident raises concerns as to how the Bears organization could not have known about this if Hurd was such a prominent drug dealer in the Chicago area.

Rather than finding an honest support group of other moms who find the job a bit bigger than they anticipated, sometimes mothers fall into the trap of thinking that they just aren’t up to the task and masking their distress in excessive alcohol use. This produces a negative cycle with repercussions for everyone in the home – especially the kids.

Turning Point is the name of a United Kingdom organization which provides health services including drug and alcohol abuse treatment along with mental health care. The organization has released information which shows that the abuse of alcohol within the nuclear family is rising in that country. Turning Point released its findings in a report titled: Bottling It Up: The Next Generation. The report focused not only on adult misuse of alcohol, but on how misuse by parents negatively impacts the lives of children in the home.

The report says that for the year 2010-2011, a stunning 12,248 persons came to Turning Point to receive treatment for abuse of alcohol. Of that number, half (5,326) were moms and dads. The report suggests that in the U.K., approximately 2.6 million kids have at least one parent who would be considered a problem drinker.

Among those who came to Turning Point for help, 1,925 were mothers. Many of the moms reported that a perceived pressure to be "supermom" led them to abuse alcohol. Mothers who find a disparity between what they feel expected to achieve as a mom and what real life is like are looking to the escape alcohol provides – but at great cost.

Moms who feel pressure to be a perfect parent with perfect children are struggling, but the study shows that drinking only makes the problem worse. Children of alcohol-abusing parents tend to experience greater instances of depression, anxiety and other mental health disorders. In fact, of 100 parents surveyed by Turning Point:

• 55 percent said that they noted increased hostility, depression and anxiety in their children
• 28 percent reported that their child either missed school or had difficulty focusing at school
• 52 percent of them reported allowing their children to drink alcohol
• 77 percent said they allowed children under the age of 16 to drink
• 6 percent admitted allowing children under the age of 10 to drink

Mom is an important role model and influence in the lives of her children. That can be great when mom accepts that she will never be perfect yet gives her 100 percent best effort toward child-rearing. It can be devastating when mom gives in to discouragements over less-than-perfect performances and abrogates her responsibility by seeking escape through alcohol. Parents have positions of influence which can be positive or negative. When parents abuse alcohol, the negative impact on children touches them today and into their futures.

Between 1993 and 1998, Ms. Butler performed the starring role in ABC television’s blue collar comedy Grace Under Fire. The show enjoyed great success ranking among the top ten television programs for two of its seasons. Personally, Butler also found success and was honored twice for her work by being nominated to receive a Golden Globe award. The show was favorably compared to the prior major success sitcom Roseanne. Ms. Butler was receiving accolades, but was evidently stingy when it came to sharing the joy.

Lacking Grace Under Fire

According to her own account, Ms. Butler spent her years on Grace Under Fire behaving badly and treating people around her with disrespect. The former television star says that she was abusing drugs during those years but failed to see the impact her drug habit was taking on her career and on her working relationships. She reports berating co-workers over dialog down to the choice of a single word in a 22 minute script.

Though she didn’t realize it at the time, she now sees how she was making those around her miserable. In an attempt to paint a picture of her diva-like behavior, Ms. Butler recounted an incident when she placed a call to her then-manager in order to complain about the color of the limousine which had been sent to carry her to an awards event. Looking back, Ms. Butler acknowledges she ought to have been told to be grateful for the luxury ride. Instead she was coddled.

From LA Mansion to Homeless Shelter

Her drug use and rude behavior caught up to her one day in 1998 when the show’s creator decided everyone, including himself, had had enough and asked Ms. Butler to leave. The show was cancelled and Ms. Butler entered drug rehab. Ms. Butler entered drug rehab several times in fact, describing her LA rehab experiences as carrying a hefty price tag ($30,000/month), offering sous chef menus but not registering with her. It was at this point that the actress gave up her LA mansion, left Hollywood and headed to a farm in Georgia. There, Butler lived with 15 pets until her bank account ran dry.

Out of work and out of money, Butler ended up living in a homeless shelter. Speaking with utter frankness, the comedic actress said she nearly died from drug use and compared herself to the late Michael Jackson. When pressed to be more specific about her drug problem, Ms. Butler replied that she "did all but crack and needles" during the worst of her drug abusing. The actress said she doesn’t concentrate on what is past. The past is filled with regret.

Butler was willing to say that she now wishes she could undo former mistakes and her bad behavior toward co-workers. She expressed a hope that former colleagues will be able to forgive her. Perhaps trying to undo past mistakes, Butler is once again in LA, this time performing stand-up comedy at the Downtown Comedy Club. She spoke of her desire to put together a reality-based TV show with herself as the center. She knows it will be hard slogging and referred to herself as a Kentucky Derby racehorse looking to make a comeback. Best of all, she verbalized a healthy desire to forgive, be forgiven and to keep laughing.

Johnny Jolly was a defensive lineman for the Green Bay packers and performed his role well. Jolly was a starter in 32 games over two NFL seasons (2008-2009) during which time he completed 82 tackles (2008) and 75 tackles (2009) respectively. The sixth round draft pick out of Texas A&M was a force to be reckoned with. When he was required to leave NFL play due to drug charges, the Packers struggled to fill the hole he left behind. Jolly also struggled to fill the hole that football left in his life.

Jolly says that he was first introduced to codeine during high school when classmates offered him the drug in syrup form mixed with sprite and jolly rancher candies. The codeine concoction is known on the street as "purple drank". Jolly refers to hometown Houston as the "city of syrup."

Mr. Jolly said that he was first attracted to the taste of purple drank, but over time began using it on both good days and bad days in order to get going. Though he used the drug during high school and college, Jolly says that his use spiraled out of control following his indefinite suspension from the NFL during the offseason in 2009.

At that time Jolly had been arrested three times in three years on charges associated with codeine. He had also failed NFL drug testing. As a result, the former defensive end sat drunk and alone in a hotel room in February of 2011 watching his teammates battle out a Super Bowl victory.

In an ESPN interview Jolly reported feeling as if codeine was his only friend during that period. Jolly told the reporter that by then he was using the drug daily in order to numb himself to the pain of losing football, which he compared to losing a bunch of loved ones in a single blow.

Jolly’s parents also had a history of drug addiction. Jolly’s father was in prison during many of his young years as a result of crack use. Jolly’s mother, also once addicted to crack, got help and has been sober for over 20 years. Her hopes that her son would follow her footsteps into drug rehab were brought low when Jolly was recently arrested for the fourth time for possession of codeine. On November 17, 2011 the former NFL star was sentenced to six years in prison for violating the conditions of his parole.

The codeine syrup abused by Johnny Jolly is routinely glorified to youth through hip-hop music. Why glorify something that costs people all the things that they value most in life? What is there to celebrate in a youth of numbed feelings and stripped of relationships?

Johnny Jolly will be eligible for parole in January of 2013, hopefully then he will be ready to re-start his life without drugs. His own mother’s life is testimony that long-term changes are possible.

In 63% of the cases, the victim is a woman, and three out of four victims are over 21 years old. In 60% of the cases, people are drinking alcohol. Perpetrators used illegal drugs such as marijuana, ecstasy, stimulants, or cocaine in about one-third of the cases, and prescription drugs, particularly ones for insomnia, anxiety and pain, were involved in 20% of the cases. The most life-threatening combination, alcohol mixed with drugs, occurred 46% of the time. Over 65% of the cases included mixtures of more than one drug. The SAMHSA research team used data collected by its Drug Abuse Warning Network, using statistics from hospital staffs of emergency rooms in the year 2009 only.

SAMHSA experts acknowledge that the number of people being treated for intentional poisoning is only a small fraction of the 4.6 million patients who are treated at ERs every year. However, they also believe that many more people are being intentionally poisoned and are being victimized, but they simply do not remember or report the incidents. Intentional poisonings have been implemented in an estimated three million rapes of American women, and the figure could be higher, according to SAMHSA officials.

"They are talking about a relatively small proportion of all the emergency room visits for intoxication of any kind," said Dr. Michael Brodsky, a psychiatrist at the University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine, noting that 15,000 such visits a year amounts to five per day. "However, I wonder if these numbers are actually an underestimate, because younger people under the age of 21 –say, bystanders at a fraternity or dorm who come upon an underage student who passed out– are less likely to call for an ambulance or health care personnel in these kinds of situations because they do not want to be implicated, so there may be many more serious examples of this that do not end up in the ERs."

Dr. Peter Delany, director of SAMHSA’s Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, agreed that intentional poisonings were a serious situation, but not an epidemic. He said the key to stopping intentional poisonings is better public awareness of the problem.

"This is an educational issue," Dr. Delany said. "This is really a prevention issue. We are never going to stop it 100%. But we can help by really reaching out to the community to young adults to say, ‘Look, when you go into these situations, it can be dangerous."

Another expert said that the best advice is from Alcoholics Anonymous, where members are told, "If you do not want to slip, stay out of slippery places."

Dr. Robert DuPont, director of the Institute for Behavior and Health, a nonprofit drug policy organization in Maryland, said, "Intentional poisonings occur almost exclusively in very slippery places. The public health message from these disturbing new statistics is: ‘Stay out of slippery places.’"

Mr. Hammond says that during his childhood, he found his father difficult, maybe even frightening to be around. Hammond’s father was a war veteran who was deeply troubled by recurring dreams and ghoulish images relating to his combat experiences. Although this was troubling to his young son, Hammond says his father never abused him in any way. Unfortunately, Hammond’s mother was not a safe haven, either.

Instead, Hammond describes life with his mother as systematic and lengthy brutality. According to Mr. Hammond, his mother not only beat him, but also stabbed him and subjected him to electrical shocks. Mr. Hammond has carried the scars of those childhood abuses and fears into adulthood where, despite the veneer of laughter and comedic incisiveness, just below the surface he was struggling just to function. The abuses committed against him by his mother eventually transformed into abuses against himself.

Mr. Hammond reveals that he kept alcohol in his desk at work. Alcohol became a sedative to combat his frayed nerves and the images which, similar to his father, began to trouble his mind. Sometimes alcohol didn’t do the trick, and when that happened, the comedian says that he would cut himself. He says he remembers cutting himself for the first time when he was only 19 years old, but that over time, it became a habit.

Few not close to the scene would have guessed that Mr. Hammond’s personal terrors and addictions were bad enough that the actor had to be taken in a straitjacket with a police escort from NBC to NY Hospital in 1998. Mr. Hammond reports being so incoherent that when his wife arrived, he couldn’t even recognize her.

This sad episode was followed by worsening addictions. In 2002, Mr. Hammond says that he began to add cocaine abuse to his list of destructive behaviors. There was a stint in drug rehab, but Mr. Hammond still continued his downward plunge.

In 2009, Hammond tried crack. In fact, the actor admits to spending time in a Harlem crack house. The pattern of binging and hospitalizations became almost cyclical. Mr. Hammond says that doctors in the psych ward gave him a different diagnosis each time. According to Hammond, he was variously diagnosed as being schizophrenic, having bipolar disorder and suffering from multiple personalities. He recalls that at one point he was on seven separate medications. Doctors, he says, really had no idea what was wrong with him.

Those SNL performances were given through a haze of medications which Mr. Hammond initially referred to as soul-killing. The SNL environment was one in which performers were expected to perform and Mr. Hammond took the necessary medications so that he could meet the expectation.

As he began to view himself as a victim of trauma, he gained appreciation for the medications that help trauma patients to stabilize and cope. Mr. Hammond is not ashamed of his struggles, which he describes as being hit by a Mack truck. Falling down after being hit is nothing to be ashamed of. Mr. Hammond focuses instead on his repeated efforts to get back up. In his words, "I kept trying to get back up. And then, I did."

Among the celebrities on Dr. Drew’s Celebrity Sex Rehab is Phil Varone, former Skid Row rock band drummer. Part of the controversy over Varone’s sexual addiction has been spurred by his activities outside of the Dr. Drew show, including participating as a product model for a sex toy manufacturer and posting videos of himself in sexual encounters with numerous fans. He has called it part of the "entertainment" element of being a celebrity.

The question, say recent blog posts, is that if people with sexual addictions seek treatment but also act out sexually in these public ways, can their condition be viewed in the serious perspective of addiction? After all, addiction is progressive, destructive and consuming and warrants professional help for true recovery.

The reality for many people with sexual addiction is that the excessive, compulsive sexual behaviors are a way to avoid or cope with negative emotions. Many have lifelong problems with intimacy and sexual acts become a quick "fix," similar to drugs or alcohol.

Because celebrities with sexual addiction may act out in ways that capture the public eye, their symptoms of sexual addiction are more noticeable and seem more controversial. At the core of all sexual addiction, regardless of the ways the person exhibits sexual behaviors, is an inability to control their actions even when the consequences are severe and known. Like other addictions, recovery from sexual addiction is possible, but requires professional help and a commitment to learning new ways to cope with triggers and stressors.

De La Hoya’s battle with alcohol began as early as age 8 at family functions where drinking was the norm. He drank when training for fights, preparing for public appearances and promoting events for his company. His alcohol problem, which was compounded by cocaine abuse and infidelity, got so bad he told reporters, “I’m surprised it hasn’t killed me.”

When a party in Los Angeles ended in yet another blackout, De La Hoya recognized that he couldn’t win this fight without professional help. Like many others who have gone before him, De La Hoya chose Promises drug rehab center to begin his journey of recovery. After living with alcoholism for 30 years and attempting alcohol rehab many times before, he checked himself in for a 30-day stay, and extended for another three weeks.

Now De La Hoya publicly boasts being happier than he has ever been. He spends time with his two children and has found healthier ways to de-stress. Recognizing that addiction recovery requires ongoing effort, De La Hoya reportedly has continued to receive treatment and stays involved in Alcoholics Anonymous.

Although the sports world doesn’t talk much about the prevalence of addiction in its ranks, De La Hoya’s struggles make clear that no one is immune to the disease of addiction. And now, months after completing drug rehab, his courage in the ring has been outshined by his courage in battling this chronic, progressive illness.

De La Hoya’s openness and humility about his struggles with substance abuse send a powerful message that addiction doesn’t care who you are, how many people idolize you or how talented you are. Even “high-functioning” addicts who win world titles and oversee corporations can be secretly battling addiction. And it can knock you out in one round if you don’t get help.