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Rio Rancho, New Mexico Drug Abuse Rehabs
Rio Rancho is located in Sandoval County, New Mexico, and with a population of 51,765 and approximately 3 people to every household, it is the largest and fastest-growing city in New Mexico. The Rio Rancho commission works closely with producers and moviemakers to bring film productions to the city to take advantage of its gorgeous natural scenery. Visitors to Rio Rancho can take hot-air balloon rides over the dramatic nearby Rio Grande River, play on over a dozen golf courses, or attend one of the city’s many festivals, which include Port N Brew, a BBQ state championship competition, and the Rio Rancho International Balloon Festival. The City of Rio Rancho has museums, art galleries, a zoo, and an impressive aquarium. But despite all the delights it offers, this growing, dynamic city still has a drug problem.
What Drugs are Available in Rio Rancho?
The United States Drug Enforcement Administration has reported that marijuana is the most frequently seized drug in the New Mexico area. Often the loads seized by law enforcement in New Mexico are destined for distribution in eastern markets. Five hundred to eight thousand pounds of marijuana is found and seized from private vehicles and tractor-trailers each year.
Cocaine is also widely available throughout New Mexico and in Rio Rancho. Local consumers purchase it in quantities that range from individual grams to ounces. Rio Rancho local law enforcement consistently rank cocaine and crack cocaine as two of the most frequently abused drugs in the region. Crack comes from cocaine HCI supplied by Mexican drug trafficking organizations. Urban gangs are the number one distributors of crack cocaine. In Rio Rancho distributors of crack and cocaine can be found in all social and economic levels of the community.
Heroin is smuggled into Rio Rancho in secret compartments in private vehicles and sometimes concealed on individuals known as couriers who carry it across the border. Mexican Black Tar is readily available in the city and is widely abused. It has been reported that the availability of heroin is steadily increasing over the past five years, and it is particularly widespread in Northern New Mexico. Two markers of the general increase in availability are the rise of kilogram seizures, and a steady decrease in price. The Espanola Valley, an area north of Santa Fe, is consistently rated by the United States Department of Health and other statistical reporting agencies as having the highest per capita heroin overdose death rate in the U.S.
Methamphetamine abuse is also prevalent in Rio Rancho. Meth is available in multi-kilogram quantities. Over the past year, clandestine lab seizures in New Mexico have dropped quite steeply—minus 200% according to statistics obtained from the Clandestine Laboratory Seizure System—apparently due to the dramatic increase of seizures involving Mexican-produced meth at Border Patrol Checkpoints and highway interdiction stops. The majority of what is seized originates in Mexico, however it also arrives in New Mexico from distributors in Los Angeles, CA, and Phoenix, AZ, who operate as part of larger Mexican poly-drug trafficking organizations. Investigations into methamphetamine labs are widely accepted in the area known as the Four Corners region, where the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah meet to form a common border, as well as along the eastern New Mexico/Texas border. You will usually find small clandestine laboratories set up in remote and rural locations.
MDMA (Ecstasy), Ketamine, LSD, and GHB are available in Rio Rancho. On any given evening it’s possible to attend a rave party where these drugs are in wide supply; quite frequently, these parties are held on U.S. Forest Service lands. Local law enforcement has attempted and succeeded in infiltrating some of these parties, leading to the arrests of low-level dealers. Seizures that cut off distribution account for the bulk of club drugs and hallucinogens seized, and the majority of these originate in the Los Angeles and Phoenix areas.
Prescription drug abuse is also a big problem in Rio Rancho. Two of the most widely abused prescription medications are Oxycodone and Hydrocodone. Illegal and improper prescription practices are a primary means of illegally obtaining prescription drugs, but authorities have also indicated that prescription drug smuggling from Mexico contributes as well, since many of these are sold over-the-counter there. Another facet of the problem is that New Mexico suffers a severe shortage of qualified medical personnel, and for this reason state authorities have granted prescriptive licenses to practitioners not licensed in other states. New Mexico has recently become one of the few states to grant prescribing authority to psychologists who have no medical or pharmaceutical training.
The Crime Rate in Rio Rancho
According to the Rio Rancho Department of Public Safety Administration, Rio Rancho is one of the safest cities in New Mexico. In a 1994 study, the Rio Rancho crime rate was lowest for cities with more than 10,000 people. In that report Rio Rancho was shown to have 28.3 crimes for every 1,000 people. According to the director, there are a number of reasons why Rio Rancho has such a low crime rate. The Department of Public Safety has a high visibility rate and patrol level. The number of police around is one of the first things people notice about the city, and this undoubtedly affects the crime rate. The number of Department of Safety sworn officers is 96, while 15 years ago it had just 8. These reports were printed in 1997. Below is a key to show crime information, as reported by nmhomes.com.
SANDOVAL COUNTY CRIME STATS 2002:
Accidents 333
Adult arrests 595
Arson 2
Assault/Battery 115
Residential Burglary 84
Commercial Burglary 9
Property Damage 69
DWI 135
Homicide 1
Juvenile Arrests 65
Larceny 62
Rape 11
Robbery 1
Stolen Vehicles 27
Suicide 1
The figures on how many of these crimes were drug related were not available at this time.
The Downward Spiral in Rio Rancho
An addict is often drawn into what has been called a downward spiral—a path leading further and further into depression, hopelessness, and feelings of being out of control. The time to act is before this spiral reaches its lowest point—when the addict winds up in jail, or even dead of an overdose or accident.
The addict’s past may be full of failed attempts to overcome addiction, whose lack of success only pushed him further down the spiral. But what Rio Rancho residents need and want is a truly effective means of accomplishing drug and alcohol rehabilitation, a way to treat not just the symptoms of abuse and addiction, but their underlying causes as well. Finding the root cause of drug addiction is simply the most effective method for ending it. So if you’re looking for treatment for yourself or a loved one, find a drug rehab treatment center that promises these kinds of goals. Get your loved one to a center that doesn’t rely on a time schedule, or that uses another drug to get the addict off of the original one which he abused—this only creates a cycle of substance dependence.
Addicts require reliable, proven programs that can make their drug addiction a thing of the past and enable them to live full, productive lives free of substance abuse.
How Communities are Effected by Addiction
In Rio Rancho, as in so many other towns, it can be difficult to discern the full consequences of a single individual’s drug addiction. The first and most obvious effect is that the abuser is causing harm to himself, as drugs fill his body with toxins and, additionally, disrupt healthy patterns of sleeping and eating. But almost always the abuser also begins to unintentionally harm his family and friends. He feels he must lie to them in order to disguise his addiction. Then, should his problem reach a point where he cannot work properly, and is frequently late or just not performing well, he quite often loses his job. Without income, addicts then are compelled by their drug dependence to steal from people he knows, or from local businesses. All the while, the abuser lies to himself and others about his behavior. When things reach the point of criminal activity, it becomes obvious how the addict’s entire community is harmed—the tax-payers who fund law enforcement and health services have these resources needlessly stressed due to the consequences of drug abuse.
What Kind of Treatment Center for your loved one
New Mexico has many different types of drug rehab and treatment facilities, which use a diverse variety of techniques and methods. There is the twelve-step program, relapse prevention, one-on-one counseling, drug rehabilitation, behavior modification, support groups, and outpatient drug rehab programs. The options can be very confusing. Many attempts are made each day in Albuquerque to rehabilitate those with drug addictions, but statistics show a low success rate.
To navigate the maze of treatment options, you must consider certain key factors. Does this form of treatment grant the recovering addict a safe, quiet place to detox, or does it require him to go through this difficult process while continuing to be surrounded by the troubles of his usual life? Quite often, an addict has many potential upsets in daily life—unable to handle tough situations, he turned to drugs in order to escape them. And once this means of coping becomes habitual, it’s hard to stop. So when you are looking for a treatment center, make sure that it will be one in which he can go through the tough processes of withdrawal and detox one at a time—then, once he’s done this, he will be much better prepared to take on larger life troubles. To enable the abuser to resolve these latter problems without resorting to drugs or alcohol, he will need a rehab center that teaches real-life skills such as communication and strategies for handling hard emotions. Armed with these skills, the addict can find productive, satisfying, and healthy ways to cope with the ups and downs of daily life. And that’s what we do at our drug rehab centers. We help get former addicts back to their families and communities in the city of Rio Rancho, New Mexico, as productive, responsible, and loving people.
For information on drug rehabilitation treatment centers in other parts of New Mexico, please visit the following links: