How To Fight Pot Addiction

Playing golf is Garrigus' addiction now | Philadelphia Inquirer | 2011-07-01

Robert Garrigus appeared to be on top of the world Thursday after walking around a beautiful golf course on a gorgeous early summer day and shooting a 68 to be near the lead on the opening day of the AT&T National at Aronimink.

But the golf course could have been a weed-choked track in the middle of nowhere and Garrigus still would have been a happy man. He is grateful that he gets to play golf for a living, a living that almost didn't happen because of his addiction to drugs and alcohol years ago.

It wasn't until 2003, when he sat on his couch in a marijuana-induced haze and saw an infomercial on television at 3 in the morning that he finally checked himself into a rehabilitation clinic and got clean and sober.

"I was an idiot," Garrigus said Thursday. "I was crazy doing all that stuff. I enjoy life now, I'm sober, and I'm never going back to the way I used to be.

"It's just who I was back then. I'm not that guy anymore, so I don't care to talk about it. It's just who I was. Now I am who I am."

Garrigus, 33, who was born in Idaho, raised in Oregon, and now lives in Phoenix, hung out with the wrong crowd at Scottsdale (Ariz.) Community College and spent what he has estimated as $70,000 on marijuana. He has admitted getting high before rounds and taking hits of pot during rounds, even on the Nationwide Tour.

Finally, he persuaded himself to check into Calvary Ranch, a drug rehabilitation center near San Diego, where he spent 45 days kicking the habit. His golf game steadily got better. After two years on the Nationwide Tour, he qualified for the PGA Tour in 2006 and has been playing there ever since.

And he couldn't be having more fun.

"If I was 8 over, I'd be doing the same thing," he said. "I've always been a guy that is not going to get down on myself and be a jerk to somebody because I'm over par. That's just not who I am. I enjoy my life. I enjoy everything I do. I'm the luckiest guy on the planet to be able to play golf for a living. Regardless of where it's at, it's a great job."

Garrigus, who won the season-ending Children's Miracle Network Classic in 2010 for his first tour win, perhaps pulled off his greatest professional achievement two weeks ago in the U.S. Open, finishing in a tie for third - deadlocked with Kevin Chappell for low American - and qualifying for the Masters. He finished by draining a 25-foot par putt at 18.

"It was so much fun to be part of that atmosphere," he said. "I've gotten a lot of notoriety for being the low American. But I want to do that in the Masters and be No. 1, or in the PGA. That'd be a lot more special.

Effective Treatment Methods of Marijuana Abuse | Fight Drug Abuse

Treating marijuana abuse takes a lot of effort and patience from the patient-users and from the people who love them. This is the time when they will need solid support from their family, friends and loved ones to help them fight addiction. Although it’s not easy, it is also not impossible.

Marijuana treatment can be approached using two methods — the use of medication and the employment of behavioral treatment.

Using medications to treat marijuana addiction is a fairly new approach; in the past, this method was only used for addiction to other hard types of drugs. Rimonabant and Lithium are two main drugs used for treating marijuana addiction. Rimonabant blocks the effects that marijuana has to a person’s mind and body making their cravings more manageable. Lithium is used primarily to control withdrawal symptoms because this is considered as an anti-stress medication that relieves the anxiety of people quitting marijuana use.

When it comes to behavioral treatment, there are many different styles used to help varying degrees of addiction. Support groups can help overcome marijuana addiction by letting them share their experiences to others undergoing the same struggles. One-on-one counseling sessions help the patient at an individual level by discussing reasons for quitting, help them avoid relapse, and suggest ways to overcome their condition. There are also residential treatment facilities that help marijuana abusers overcome their addiction by taking them away from an environment of drug use.

No matter what method is used, it is very important that the person undergoing treatment feels the support from loved ones to get them back on the right track.

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