Author: Leonard Buschel

EAT YOUR HEART FAILURE – July 20, 2021 – “If the problem with ultra-processed foods turns out to be their sugar and salt content, for example, then the issue would be with sugar and salt, not with whether we bought a burger from a fast food restaurant … or made our own burger at home.” — Beth Skwarecki, Lifehacker Many ultraprocessed foods aren’t actually food at all “I felt pretty confident that junk food was bad. That didn’t stop me from eating it, however. Learning about UPF is a different experience — you begin to realize that some of this…

THE 3 FACES OF EVIL – July 25, 2023 – Under a deal reached last year with thousands of state and local government entities, the company is to become a new entity, with its profits being used to fight the opioid epidemic. And Sackler family members are to pay up to $6 billion over time. The Purdue deal is one of the bigger ones in a series of corporate opioid settlements worth a total of more than $50 billion so far. Unlike most of them, it includes funds for people who were victims of the crisis and their families. In…

PAY THEM MORE – July 27, 2023 – While the survey did not do a census of every 911 center, “the clear response from the sample is that most centers are understaffed,’ NENA CEO Brian Fontes told Axios. Respondents cited stress and low wages as the main obstacles to attracting and keeping employees. 74% of respondents said their centers are facing staff burnout, with many others showing mental health warning signs like anxiety, fatigue and low energy levels. Holmes attributes part of the struggle to attract workers to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Great Resignation, and the 2020 Black Live…

BEING A TEAM MEMBER – July 25, 2023 – “The 51-year-old soon learned that the driver who picked him up was not taking him to his hotel but directly to set to begin shooting. Lee said he didn’t even know what he was shooting, and his “face just split open” and he “became drenched with sweat.” “I remember going [to set] being so high and drunk, and when I was reading the paper, the script, I couldn’t even understand what the f— it was even saying,” he recalled. “And it was the most difficult scene too. I had to…

“When you live with the Devil you learn there’s a God very quickly.” – Sinead O’Connor, b. Dec. 8, 1966 – d. July 26, 2023

Nothing Compares 2 Her – July 26, 2023 – In a statement, the singer’s family said: “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Sinéad. Her family and friends are devastated and have requested privacy at this very difficult time.”… WATCH@YouTube

AUDIO – MAKE UP-FREE? – July 14, 2023 – Jessica Simpson is no stranger to blowing fans away with super-glamorous selfies on Instagram. However, the Open Book author stripped it all back in honor of her 43rd birthday on July 10th, as she took off her makeup to treat her 6.3M followers to a breathtaking makeup-free selfie. And all we can say is wow! The mom-of-three captioned her glowing picture: “43 makeup free (kinda. Ha. I did curl my lashes.)” The picture showed Jessica wearing a red top, an elegant necklace, and simple silver hoop earrings, and flashing a…

AUDIO – TALK ABOUT IT! –   July 15, 2023 – Last July, the cumbersome 10-digit National Suicide Prevention Lifeline became 988. The easy-to-remember lifeline was created to help people dealing with issues like depression, substance use and suicidal ideation get immediate help and be guided to additional resources. At the one-year mark, there’s some success to report: Texts to the lifeline increased dramatically and average wait times across the line plummeted from 2 minutes 39 seconds to 41 seconds. “I am gratefully surprised at how smoothly everything has worked,” says Jennifer Battle, who runs 988 for the Harris Center…

NOT EVERYONE IS AFRAID OF GOD – July 14, 2023 – Whenever a movie or television show depicts a person attending a recovery meeting, it is invariably AA. The vast majority of treatment facilities offer only 12-step programs; very few even make their clients aware of alternative options. When complying with probation or parole requirements, people are often mandated to have an AA (or Narcotics Anonymous) sponsor. But sponsors are not a part of most secular options. In my work as Minnesota outreach coordinator for SMART Recovery, I deal on a daily basis with people who prefer a secular…

BRAIN SCIENTISTS ONLY – July 15, 2023 – These individual differences in neuronal sensitivity may have implications for understanding addiction susceptibility and developing personalized treatments or preventive measures. The new findings have been published in the journal Addiction Neuroscience. The researchers conducted this study to investigate why only a subset of individuals who try drugs like cocaine develop problematic use and addiction. They aimed to understand the underlying differences in neuronal processing that predict drug abuse vulnerability, which could potentially improve addiction prevention and treatment strategies. “Substance use disorders continue to be a major public health problem, and we saw…

GETTING BACK SANITY? – July 11, 2023 – It came up with this definition after assembling unidentified “leaders in the behavioral health field, consisting of people in recovery from mental health and substance use problems” and engaging in further “consultation with many stakeholders,” who were also unnamed. The 2010 SAMHSA document identifies 10 “Guiding Principles” of recovery including “hope,” “person-driven,” “holistic,” “peer support,” and “relational.” While there was opportunity for public input in 2011, the working definition does not appear either at the time or since to have been subject to any external, formal peer review or public comment period.…

WONDERFUL AUDIO –   July 16, 2023 – Bush, a peer advocate for people in recovery, recounted his “rock bottom” before a crowd at the second Recovery Speaks event at Nick’s Ride 4 Friends in Auburn Saturday. Over 60 people were gathered outside the addiction recovery nonprofit as different speakers talked about recovery and related subjects. Telling the attendees he had tried to recover on his own for years only to reach the same results, Bush said he had been dealing with addiction for 20 years back in 2013. At that point he had been in and out of recovery…

STOP THE DYING – July 13, 2023 – New York health officials on Tuesday launched a public service campaign highlighting the importance of naloxone, a medication that is used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose when administered in a timely manner. The campaign is set to run through Aug. 30 and is being funded in part by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It will appear on social media and digital platforms, including streaming spots to emphasize the signs and symptoms of an overdose and a reminder that naloxone is safe and legal to carry. “The…

CAN YOU SHOVE IT? – July 15, 2023 – Ozempic, the diabetes drug that went viral for its ability to help people lose weight and eat less, is back in the news this week. The EU announced that it would investigate Ozempic and Saxenda (a similar drug in the same general class, known as semaglutide) for causing patients to think of suicide or self-harm. In addition, researchers are looking into whether Ozempic could be used to curb drug addiction, and Novo Nordisk, the $270 billion (market cap) pharmaceutical giant that makes Ozempic, is cracking down on pharmacies selling generic…

SOUNDS LIKE A MIRACLE DRUG – July 7, 2023 – The drug works by binding to the same opioid receptors in the brain, activating them less intensely than opioids. Thus buprenorphine decreases the craving for opioid stimulation and symptoms of withdrawal in the patient but does not trigger intense feelings of pleasure and euphoria like street drugs. Opioid receptors, found in the spinal cord, brain, and other organs, are a group of receptors that help with pain-blocking once opioids bind to and activate them, triggering a dopamine release. When discussing opioids, it is essential to differentiate between exogenous opioids—those…

LEGALIZE IT – July 9, 2023 – While the bill claims to go after high-level dealers and “drug kingpins,” it would actually make it easier for someone simply in possession to be brought in on intent to distribute — and make it more difficult for law enforcement and prosecutors to distinguish between someone’s personal supply and someone dealing. I have experienced this firsthand. When I was using, resupplying was dangerous, so when I bought drugs, I would get enough to last a week. Back in 2017, during a time I was trying to get help, my co-defendant and I were…

WHO KNEW? – July 18, 2023 – A new finding from Northwestern Medicine scientists provides a new avenue to develop more effective drugs to treat the debilitating symptoms of schizophrenia. Traditionally, researchers have screened antipsychotic drug candidates by evaluating their effects on mouse behavior, but the approach used by a Northwestern lab outperformed these traditional approaches in terms of predicting efficacy in patients. The study discovered that antipsychotic drugs—which inhibit the overactive dopamine causing the symptoms of schizophrenia—interact with a completely different neuron than scientists originally believed. “This is a landmark finding that completely revises our understanding of the…

VIDEO – LET THEM EAT DEATH – July 18, 2023 – “Simply flooding the community with paraphernalia, making it easier to abuse drugs, is not the answer. I’m calling on the county to come back with real solutions like treatment, counseling and other services and job training,” said Dane White, Mayor of Escondido. “We want to be clear that we support Narcan, we support overdose intervention, we support life-saving measures, but we oppose those measures that seek to normalize and expand illicit drug use instead of those that would seek to treat those who suffer from addiction,” said John Franklin,…

GOVERNMENTAL FUNDING – July 19, 2023 – The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through its Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), is announcing awards in five grant programs devoted to combating multiple facets of substance misuse and the nation’s overdose epidemic. The grant awards total up to $47.8 million. The grant awards facilitate ongoing efforts throughout the nation in prevention, treatment, recovery support and harm reduction – the pillars of the HHS Overdose Prevention Strategy. The Overdose Prevention Strategy helps advance the Biden-Harris Administration’s National Drug Control Strategy, which delivers on the call to action…

AUDIO – MUSICAL INTERLUDE – RIP Tony Bennett –   April 15, 2014 – Fly me to the moonLet me play among the starsLet me see what spring is like onA-Jupiter and MarsIn other words, hold my handIn other words, baby, kiss me WATCH@YouTube

THE GOOD LIFE – July 21, 2023 – No less than Frank Sinatra called the former singing waiter “the best singer in the business” after he became a star in the 1950s. Bennett went on to win 20 Grammy awards, including a lifetime achievement award….  READ@Reuters

THE WARM BEER? – July 16, 2023 – A whole industry has sprung up around the case, including books, exhibitions and tours around the streets of the Whitechapel district where the women were killed. Bax Horton said she had identified Hyams, an epileptic and alcoholic who was in an out of mental asylums, as the likely culprit. Witnesses at the time described a man seen with the victims who was in his mid-30s, with a stiff arm, irregular gait and bent knees. The author, whose book “One-Armed Jack: Uncovering the Real Jack the Ripper” comes out next month, unearthed…

AND SO IT IS – July 16, 2023 – And honestly, life is going to throw us some difficult days. I certainly don’t need to be adding any extra ones to that list.” Richards joked that she still does “stupid things” and will “beat [herself] up about it,” but she has also learned that she is “still fun” without drinking. “I’ve learned that I still over share but at least I don’t have the ‘hanxiety’ thinking about it,” she quipped, referring to a feeling of anxiety typically brought on by a hangover. Celebrity real estate broker Fredrik Eklund also chimed…

VIDEO – STAFF OR CLIENTS? – July 14, 2023 – The employee says he’s been tasked with responsibilities that he is in no way qualified for and weren’t part of the job description, such as full body cavity searches, caring for patients with serious mental health diagnoses, and now searching for drugs. The employee claims other female employees started sexual relationships with some of the patients and eventually helped them get drugs while inside the facility. Now, out of concern for his position at the company, we’re not showing this employee on camera. But he did allow us to record…

VIDEO – HIGH HISTORY LESSON – July 18, 2023 – Psychiatrist Halpern and writer Blistein begin with the bad news. “In 2017,” they write, “47,600 people died of opioid-related overdoses—more than gunshots and car crashes combined and almost as many as were killed in the entire Vietnam War. The disease is straining our prison system, dividing families, and defying virtually every legislative solution to treat it.” Rewinding the clock, the authors explain that no wild poppy produces as much opioid-rich sap as Papaver somniferum, so it was likely a mutation preserved by prehistoric humans. For millennia, physicians and writers praised…

THE DISEASE OF MORE? – July 18, 2023 – That same day on the medical wards, an overhead speaker pages a “rapid response” announcement to my elderly patient’s room; she cannot wake up. And down the hallway, a middle-age finance manager is causing a scene because he isn’t prescribed the IV medication he wants. All of these scenes happen on a daily basis, not just in my hospital but in those around the country. And all three of these patients’ ailments have the same cause: opioids. Over the past three years, I’ve been taking care of patients stricken with…

THE SILENT KILLER – July 14, 2023 – Rapper Lil Peep, a friend of Post Malone, died in 2017 from taking Xanax laced with fentanyl. The next year Miller, another rapper, died from a fatal dose of fentanyl in cocaine. Lovato almost died the same year from a similar cocktail. Law enforcement and public health officials have been warning about fentanyl for years. But the number of fatal overdoses linked to the lethal opioid continues to hit record levels. The US saw 102,429 drug deaths last year — with the vast majority having fentanyl to blame. Fueling the flood of…

HEROIN WASN’T BORN YESTERDAY – July 10, 2023 – n 1944, Baja California governor, Gen. Juan Felipe Rico declared open war on opium trafficking after another massive amount of narcotics destined for California was seized in the Valley’s sister city of Mexicali. On April 23, 1952, standing before the Kiwanis Club at Hotel De Anza, Customs Agent Rae V. Vader would share that the answer to the rapidly increasing use of narcotics among local teenagers was “not new laws, but education.” In 1962, Detective Sergeant Joe Sutton ran for County Sheriff because of the rising threat of youth drug…

DAMAGE CONTROL – July 14, 2023 – Lovato previously revealed in their 2021 docuseries “Demi Lovato: Dancing With the Devil” that they experienced several strokes, a heart attack, pneumonia and multiple organ failure as a result of their near-fatal overdose in July 2018. This left them “legally blind when I woke up,” but they regained some eyesight after. ‘I just got tired’ Demi Lovato opens up about updating pronouns last year. “Speaking of gratitude, it could have been so much worse,” Lovato told Cohen. “So it’s a reminder that I came close to it being so much worse, and…

QUITTING FOR A PRICE – 2023 – The Pursuitist, the ultimate luxury insider, has explored the world and brought back the inside scoop on the most exclusive and expensive addiction treatment centers for the rich and famous. As rates of drug and alcohol addiction continue to rise, even among the wealthy, demand has grown for high-end rehab facilities that cater to VIP clients with amenities like private villas, equine therapy, and even helicopter transport. After surveying the top facilities across the globe, the Pursuitist has compiled the definitive list of the top 5 most popular luxury rehabs for the…