ACCOMPLICES TO MURDER FOR MONEY – Feb. 13, 2024 – “For more than a decade, Kroger flooded Kentucky with an almost unthinkable number of opioid pills that to addiction, pain, and death,” said Coleman in a press release. “Kroger, which families trusted for so long, knowingly made these dangerous and highly addictive substances all too accessible. Worst of all, Kroger never created a formal system, a training, or even a set of guidelines to report suspicious activity or abuse. The scourge of addiction that has plowed through graduating classes, work forces, and entire families is the devastating result.” READ@SupermarketNews
Author: Leonard Buschel
PUSHERS – Feb. 12, 2024 – Ashleigh Anderson, 41-year-old died after suffering a heart attack during her shift at CVS in 2021. Anderson was the only pharmacist on duty the day she collapsed. First responders could not resuscitate her, and she was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. “Maybe circumstances have given me a jaded view, but I think this ‘internal’ memo was created by CVS’ public relations team to be viewed by the public,” Anderson told FOX Business. In the memo, CVS Chief Pharmacy Officer Prem Shah said the company was saddened by the 41-year-old’s death,…
IT’S COMPLICATED – Feb. 13, 2024 – For patients, it means the majority will continue to suffer under the clinics’ culture of cruelty. “The decision to provide take-home doses rests with the treating practitioner and their use of clinical judgment.” Under the final rule, staff can at any time rescind take-home medication for myriad reasons, which they often do. This is devastating to patients. In case you didn’t know, SAMHSA has always had the statutory authority to remove or amend the patient care regulations it created. But with this new update, the agency chose to amend regulations instead of…
VIDEO – LET IT WORK IF IT WORKS – Feb. 15, 2024 – Advocates and lawmakers across the political spectrum are optimistic about its chances for approval and pushing for a speedy rollout of so-called “MDMA-assisted therapy,” which they say could finally reduce the more than 6,000 veterans who die by suicide each year. “Having served our Nation in combat I keenly understand the toll it takes on a Service Member’s mental health. We need an ‘all hands on deck’ approach to the suicide crisis impacting Service Members and Veterans,” wrote Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.), a retired lieutenant general…
“I’m not the one on trial.” – Fani Willis
LOADED – Feb. 2, 2024 – The owner of a faith-based sober living & behavioral health counseling non-profit in Lexington is facing several charges after police found drugs and guns at his home. Steven Smith, the owner and founder of The Walker House Inc. … Police allegedly found 63 not prescribed Alprazolam pills, liquid meth, Suboxone strips, Clonazepam pills, 12 glass meth pipes, $25,000 cash, illegal military-grade ammunition, four handguns, three automatic rifles, a digital scale, and two AR pistol build instruction sheets. Smith was already on parole for a felony narcotics offense from 2017, which he pleaded guilty to.…
NEW YORK TIMES – Feb. 4, 2024 – Notions of what constitutes sobriety and problematic substance use have grown more flexible in recent years as younger Americans have shunned alcohol in increasing numbers while embracing cannabis and psychedelics — a phenomenon that alarms some addiction experts. Not long ago, sobriety was broadly understood to mean abstaining from all intoxicating substances, and the term was often associated with people who had overcome severe forms of addiction. These days, it is used more expansively, including by people who have quit drinking alcohol but consume what they deem moderate amounts of other substances,…
LOOK BACK – DON’T GO BACK! – Feb. 8, 2024 – For many people who struggle with alcohol, becoming sober can feel almost impossible. There is hope, though. While attaining sobriety isn’t easy, there are untold everyday people out there who’ve managed to find a better life through quitting drinking. We asked members of the BuzzFeed Community: People who quit drinking, what was your rock bottom moment that made you stop? They bravely shared their stories, which hopefully will act as inspiration to anyone considering quitting themselves. Here are some of them: READ@BuzzFeed
TEACH, DON’T PREACH – Feb. 3, 2024 – Melanie Ramos was only 15 years old when she died of a suspected overdose in a high school bathroom in Hollywood. Police reported that she and a friend had purchased pills they thought were prescription painkillers but which were likely fakes containing fentanyl, a potent opioid incorporated into counterfeit pills widely available in the illicit drug market. Fentanyl has caused such overdoses to rise sharply despite declining drug use among young people. Recent data suggest it kills an average of 22 teens every week around the nation. Tragic stories like Melanie’s are…
UNTIL WHEN? – Feb. 6, 2024 – Young people seem to be getting the message about the dangers of alcohol use. Underage consumption has been decreasing steadily for decades, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Here’s the problem: Once young people — especially women — get into their late 20s, that responsible behavior often starts to slip. The challenge now is finding out a way to keep them on the right track. First, let’s look at the good news: Between 2002 and 2021, the prevalence of alcohol use in the past 30 days among 16-…
HEALTH-CARE IS WEALTH-CARE – Feb. 7, 2024 – The report highlighted questionable practices at treatment facilities and sober living houses that the state has been investigating for years. They included allegations of “patient brokering.” Investigators also found instances of tax evasion and fraud. And concerns about false marketing. “Fraud, unethical conduct and wrongdoing were found in businesses at every stage of the recovery process, sometimes starting as early as an overdose victim’s first encounter with an addiction professional at their hospital bedside or during an online search for treatment,” investigators wrote. Investigators identified several peer recovery coaches — people who…
AIN’T ENOUGH – Feb. 2, 2024 – “When you visit a physician, you do not expect that the details of your most intimate and personal struggles with illness and pain will be converted into pharmaceutical product marketing materials to be used to increase opioid sales,” said Attorney General Platkin. “I can’t think of a better example of an ‘unconscionable’ commercial practice than exploiting the suffering of patients in order to grow profits.” Officials said that in addition to harvesting data from recordings of patient-provider conversations and engineering the strategy of using patients’ electronic health records to remind providers to…
SINGING A NEW TUNE – Feb. 3, 2024 – In 2020, Johnson told his story about how he initially got started in music: his mother having a keyboard around the house and learning how to play the piano. Over the last four years, he was introduced to drugs. One of his biggest inspirations is his best friend Jacob Bauer, who Johnson described like a brother. After Johnson’s mother passed away from a drug overdose about three years ago, Bauer and his girlfriend allowed their friend to move in with them for a year-and-a-half to get back on his feet. During…
VIDEO – WEED=WHEEZE – Feb. 2, 2024 – “In the first nationally representative study of cannabis use and asthma in the U.S., a consistent positive linear relationship (dose-response) was observed between frequency of cannabis use and asthma prevalence among both youth and adults,” Renee Goodwin, CUNY SPH professor and lead author of the study. Exposure to secondhand smoke has historically been a key factor in childhood asthma, the researchers noted. There are currently some 4.5 million children under age 18 living with asthma in the U.S., according to the Allergy and Asthma Foundation of America. As Goodwin pointed out,…
WHO YOU GONNA CALL? – Feb. 3, 2024 – Last year, 10,000 sham papers had to be retracted by academic journals, but experts think this is just the tip of the iceberg. Tens of thousands of bogus research papers are being published in journals in an international scandal that is worsening every year. Last year the annual number of papers retracted by research journals topped 10,000 for the first time. Most analysts believe the figure is only the tip of an iceberg of scientific fraud. “The situation has become appalling,” said Professor Dorothy Bishop of Oxford University. “The level…
AUDIO – THEIR NOT A SLIP? – Feb. 8, 2024 – In 1933, the founder of AA, Bill Wilson, achieved his abstinence as a result of a psychedelic experience, and when LSD was made available for research in the Fifties, he helped persuade the US government to fund six trials in alcoholism. There are studies in depression to Prince Harry’s use to deal with his psychological problems. These revealed that just one or two LSD doses as part of a traditional abstinence-based programme doubled the outcomes. This effect lasted for many months and was much greater than any subsequent medicine…
THE LOST WEEKEND FOUND – Feb. 8, 2024 – As a person who is a recovering alcoholic, I was always looking for this kind of play. I’ve never quite seen a story like this on stage, or read it. I read it furiously in a couple of hours one afternoon, because my wife was sweet enough to watch our kid for me. And I was just like, whatever I have to do to get an audition for this, this has to happen. Joe Tapper is reprising his role from the 2019 bow as the central character Steven. Tapper has been…
AND OLD CREATIVES TOO – Feb. 8, 2024 – For filmmaker Molly Manning-Walker – whose astonishing and critically-acclaimed debut film How to Have Sex perfectly distils British drinking culture – her experience with drinking was a little like her film characters. She was drawn to alcohol early on – like a lot of Brits, she was partying in her early teens, getting blackout down the park with her mates. But I realised I had lacked an off button.” In her second year of uni, she took a step back. How to Have Sex wouldn’t have been made had Molly, now…
AUDIO – ONCE A CATERPILLAR – Feb. 8, 2024 – Her latest release, ‘Butterflies’, can be considered her most intimate and introspective work to date. Within the lyrics lies a subtle nod toward her struggles with mental health and an honest representation of her path to sobriety. At a time when feelings of isolation are rampant, this track resonates deeply with the widespread yearning for genuine connections. Sumi X, an artist based in Los Angeles, is dedicated to crafting pop music for like-minded dreamers who embrace boundless possibilities and seek to live authentically. Following her successful departure from a tech…
MAN’S BEST FRIEND – Feb. 5, 2024 – Washington State has advanced a bill to train drug-sniffing dogs to detect fentanyl—and limit police liability in civil lawsuits over damages that result.Police wouldn’t be liable if a K-9 bit someone wearing a fentanyl patch prescribed cancer pain. Police dogs apprehend suspects by biting their arm or leg and not letting go, often for minutes at a time. They’re trained to bite hard, and can exert about twice the force as an average dog. Because of this, wounds resulting from K-9 apprehensions are prone to infections and long-term complications. And yet,…
HOW MUCH BETTER…? – Feb. 10, 2024 – In 1962, Mantle wasn’t exactly a young buck anymore. Before notions like staying hydrated and getting enough sleep, they all must’ve been miserable, and his devastating leg injury shortly after made things even more difficult. Through these circumstances he won his final AL MVP and the Yankees captured the World Series title, plus pennants in the following two while he dealt with the effects of the injury. After ‘64, Mantle never played a postseason game again, but fought through it enough to post a 145 wRC+ in his last four years…
VIDEO – A TRAILBLAZER – Dec. 2023 – U.S. Representative Abigail Spanberger today honored Virginian John Shinholser on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives for his dedication to Virginians seeking recovery from substance use disorder. Shinholser recently announced his upcoming retirement as President of the McShin Foundation. Since 2004, John has served as the President and Co-Founder of the McShin Foundation, a substance use disorder recovery organization that provides lifesaving resources to Virginians who are struggling with substance use disorder. These services range from medical detox to sober living — and from providing peer-to-peer mentorship to advocating for…
WHAT A LIFE – Feb. 8, 2024 – “Part of why I’m single now is because I had so much fun. Part of why I don’t miss drinking is because I did. I’m glad I had a nudist, exhibitionist, wildflower, wild-child, little wood nymph time,” she said. Barrymore continued,”I’m glad I partied. I’m glad I was wild with boys. I’m glad I was wild in every way, shape and form because it led to my contentedness with a quiet life now. And it was fun. I’m not apologetic. I’m not mad at myself about it.” The actress added that…
LIVES TO TELL THE TALE – Feb. 3, 2024 – Garrett Morris has had quite the Hollywood ride.”Some producers didn’t want a Black cast member but Lorne Michaels knew the show needed one,” Morris, who just received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on his 87th birthday, tells PEOPLE. “I dealt with some racism there, but never with Lorne. He doesn’t have a racist bone in his body.” Morris says that during his five-year tenure on the show, he was also heavily addicted to cocaine — not unlike his costar John Belushi. “We lost one of the…
THE END – Feb. 3, 2024 – She walked upstairs, looked out the large back windows and saw a grisly tableau on the snow-covered patio. Mahoney first spotted the frozen body of one man, David Harrington, seated upright in a lawn chair. She was so upset that she did not immediately see that her fiancé was also dead on the ground, beside a third man, Ricky Johnson, who was also dead. “April saw David and she totally panicked and almost couldn’t breathe and she called the police,” Clayton’s uncle, Jim McGeeney told The Post. “The cops showed up within…
BUREAUCRACY NOW – Feb. 7, 2024 – Historically, addiction has often been seen as a criminal problem. The addicted person acts wrongly or illegally, and the problem of addiction is one of assigning blame and, where appropriate, punishment. Many of us have come to see this conception of addiction as basically mistaken. Instead, we should see addiction as a fundamentally political problem. Addicted people are systematically exploited and discriminated against, and the problem of addiction is how to ensure equitable treatment—in health care but also society at large—for an often marginalized group of people. This broad approach to addiction is…
YOUR 15 MINUTES IS OVER – Feb. 8, 2024 – ‘You Don’t Need To Document Everything’ questioned it all. The essay was promoted by a video taken on New Year’s Eve in Paris, which showed hundreds of people recording the fireworks and countdown on their phones. Instead of being fully immersed in the excitement of another year coming to a close … the crowd was watching the festivities, or more accurately, recording them through their phones. India writes that people excuse their worrying need to document everything by arguing that they ‘just want to remember things’, but she challenges that…
VIDEO – YOU CAN’T LOSE, IF YOU DON’T BET – Feb. 7, 2024 – Brian Meister once gambled and lost a year’s salary in one night of sports betting. He is a recovering sports gambling addict who now shares his story in the hopes of helping others avoid a similar fate. “It wasn’t about winning or losing,” Meister said. “It’s about being in action.” Meister’s gambling career was before the onset of casino sports books and 24-hour-a-day internet sports gambling options. Therapists said the opportunities for sports betting these days have led to a huge increase in gambling addictions.…
HOLLYWOOD ROYALTY – Feb. 3, 2024 – I was an opiate addict, and I liked to get opiate buzz,” the “Halloween Kills” star explained on July 2023. “And if fentanyl was available, as easily available, as it is today on the street, I’d be dead.” Curtis said she considered herself “incredibly lucky” to have not ended up down that path or in prison, recognizing, “I was headed there.” Jamie Lee Curtis proudly commemorated a major milestone in her sobriety journey. “25 years clean and sober,” the Oscar-winning actress, 65, captioned via Instagram Saturday a black-and-white photo of herself holding up…
SAD FOR THE LOCALS – Feb. 3, 2024 – Minnesota teens struggling with drugs or alcohol have few options for help after several treatment centers closed last year. Clinics that prescribed opioid addiction medication shut down in Duluth and Inver Grove Heights in the fall, as did a decades-old residential treatment program in New Ulm. And as 2023 came to an end, so did a nonprofit’s drug treatment program for mothers at a St. Louis Park housing complex. Addiction treatment providers stopped services in at least 10 Minnesota locations in 2023, often citing a lack of staff and perilously…