VIDEO – CHOCOLATE OR WEED? – April 19, 2023 – “Many of my patients have struggled with depression and/or anxiety but failed to find a treatment that made them feel better. So, they resorted to alcohol, drugs or destructive behaviors to soothe themselves, as these offered short-term relief,” Dawn Johnson, a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner at the Indiana Center for Recovery in South Bend, said in a news release. “However, this behavior resulted in worsening mental health and destruction of their lives.” Click@NYPost
Author: Leonard Buschel
FLAVORS? – April 14, 2023 – The Ohio Narcotics Intelligence Center released a public safety bulleting Friday alerting Ohioans tot he various forms of fentanyl being found across the state. The Ohio Narcotics Intelligence Center said powder, tablet, chalk, roc, black tar and gum have all been reported to contain fentanyl mixed with other substances. Officials say additional forms of fentanyl that have been identified outside of Ohio include the substance molded into shapes such as pellets, popcorn, Lego-shaped blocks, puzzle pieces and confetti tablets. “The ONIC is sharing this information to warn Ohioans that dangerous and potentially lethal drugs…
VIDEO – VAPE BUYERS BEWARE – April 13, 2023 – Her son was buying vape cartridges from kids at Stanwood High School, but he had no idea nicotine wasn’t the only drug seeping into his system. The mom took several cartridges from her son and brought them to the Stanwood Police Department where an officer tested them. “We knew he was on drugs,” she said. “We knew it had to be something more than just a vape.” A police report obtained indicates at least one of the cartridges came back positive for heroin. The mom notified the school which put…
VIDEO – DON’T BUY FOOD AT A GAS STATION – April 20, 2023 – While it’s legal to buy and sell in Virginia, according to the CDC, the drug is used as an antidepressant and marketed to help with anxiety, among other things, in other countries but here in the states, the opioid-like drug is not approved by the FDA for any medical use. “Whenever you have non-medical use of a potentially potent drug, I think that’s a set-up for bad outcomes,” Rose said. Rose says if you’re not careful, this could be highly addictive. “That’s because most of the…
SOME NOT MOST – April 20, 2023 – He was advised against the long-term use of Suboxone, a medication often recommended to treat opioid addiction, because BRC does not consider it a form of abstinence. After an initial five-day detox period last April, McKegney’s care plan mostly included a weekly therapy session and 12-step group meetings, which are free around the country. McKegney said a BRC staffer recommended he stay a fourth month and even sat in on the call to his dad. “They used my life and [my] father’s love for me to pull another 20 grand out of…
VIDEO – PROTECT YOURSELVES – April 16, 2023 – There are many illegal drugs sold on San Diego’s streets and online that contains fentanyl, which is causing minors to die. “The topic of the project is very rarely talked about, especially to kids our age,” said Angel Sediego. Drug addiction is the topic, and according to 13-year-old Angel, parents don’t talk about it enough. “They would be very bland, they don’t go deep into detail, they would say, ‘don’t take drugs, don’t drink too much alcohol when you’re older,’ but they don’t tell us why or how it will affect…
IT’S A MOVEMENT – April 17, 2023 – Unlike past years when recovery advocacy groups and concerned individuals could attend summits and events by paying for admission, this year’s Mobilize Recovery will require attendees to fill out an application due to increased volume of participants and the unbridled growth of the Mobilize Recovery movement (with free admission to those who are accepted to participate). People in recovery, creators in the recovery community, non-profit leaders in the addiction recovery and harm reduction communities, and impacted individuals are all encouraged to apply to attend. The application process opens on Monday, April 17…
AUDIO – TELEVISION WITH HEART – April 20, 2023 – In the second season of Single Drunk Female, creator Simone Finch wanted to expand beyond Sam’s (Sofia Black-D’Elia) journey with physical sobriety and explore what comes next: emotional sobriety. “We wanted to talk more about what happens when you’re sober and you think that you have everything figured out,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter. The result is something equally as messy for Sam as season one, just in some compelling (and cringey) new ways. And as audiences see, her friends and family are not immune to season two’s mess. As a…
HOW SWEET IT IS – 4/20/23 – CNN Senior Data Reporter, Harry Enten, spends this April 20th looking at the amount of money Americans spent on legal marijuana in 2022. The number tops other recreational indulgences like chocolate… Click@CNN
BETTER HARM REDUCTION – April 14, 2023 – Swallow THIS makes an unapologetic case to abolish the methadone clinic system. It’s a call to action to finally free all people who take methadone from daily attendance at opioid treatment programs (OTPs), with their oppressive surveillance and constant threats of removing access to lifesaving medication. These form huge barriers to care amid an unprecedented opioid-involved overdose crisis. How many more people would still be alive today if methadone could be picked up at a local drug store once a month? The United States’ pandemic experience showed that allowing more take-home doses…
“I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, and compassion. These three are your greatest treasures.” – Lao Tzu
EACH ONE, TEACH ONE – April 7, 2023 – Data from drug abuse statistics dot org say that 16.4% of adults in Virginia over 18 binge drink at least once a month. While the option not to drink is often on the table, sobriety can still be socially isolating, which is why two women from Chesapeake have created a way to make more people feel less alone. Every story of sobriety is different. There’s Christina Kimbrough’s story of being sober for about 3 years and struggling with an addiction to alcohol. And then there’s Elena Thorstensen who didn’t have a…
WHAT PRICE AFFECTION AND EUPHORIA? – April 13, 2023 – New research suggests that is not the case. The findings, published in Sexual Health & Compulsivity, indicate that love addiction and sex addiction are two distinct phenomena. Love addiction is a kind of obsession with one or more people that is “characterized by a maladaptive, pervasive and excessive love interest.” It’s not an official condition yet, and experts are still debating whether it should be recognized as one. One way to understand love addiction is through the Components Model of Addiction, which holds that it is characterized by six discrete…
AND ONLY ONE MAN – April 11, 2023 – Back when I was drinking, sex was easy for me. Without booze, I was modest, a chronic overthinker who flinched when she undressed, but pour a bottle of Malbec in me and I became an exhibitionist, all my windows open. It’s not that I didn’t care about being so vulnerable with another person; it was that I couldn’t feel: The self-consciousness that tyrannized me in daylight turned to an endless series of Why not?s. The high stakes of any erotic engagement — where this was headed, what he thought about me,…
VIDEO – HEROIN STARS AS THE VILLAIN – April 10, 2023 – The loneliness of addiction – and the toll it can take on an individual’s psyche and their relationships – is intimately explored in Paloma Sermon-Daï’s unassuming yet poignant documentary. In his small Belgian village, 43-year-old Damien Samedi has been known as Petit Samedi since childhood, an endearing nickname that bittersweetly reflects his state of arrested development. Having struggled with drug dependency for most of his adult life, Damien attempts to turn over a new leaf with therapy and the support of his mother, Ysma. As Damien speaks about…
GO BACK TO BOOZEHOUND? – April 12, 2023 – Are there any reasons why we should still use the a-word? Someone with an alcohol use disorder may prefer the term alcoholic when referring to themself. In fact, the term alcoholic is an important term for many members of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Moving away from the a-word, in general, should not prevent people from referring to themselves using this term if they prefer to do so. At the same time, it is important for people to reflect on what this word means to them and whether it empowers them or holds…
VIDEO – YOU ONLY HAVE ONE MUMMY – April 8, 2023 – This impressionistic British documentary collage, collectively made by Selby, co-director Rebecca Lloyd-Evans, Alex Fry, Josie Cole and producer Natasha Dack Ojumu, explores motherhood, addiction, inherited pain and artistic growth with candour, reflection and love – complicated, knotty, conflicted love, but love nonetheless. It’s a remarkable work, which deservedly won the audience award at the London film festival last year. And it’s an act of real artistic generosity and bravery on the part of Selby, who bares her rawest emotional wounds and shares her lowest moments on this quest…
VIDEO – ONE LESS IQ POINT AT A TIME – April 3, 2023 – It’s a vicious circle. The more useful our phones become, the more we use them. The more we use them, the more we lay neural pathways in our brains that lead to pick up our phones for whatever task is at hand – and the more we feel an urge to check our phone even when we don’t have to. Worries about specific aspects of our hyperconnected world – like social media and its increasingly hyper-realistic beauty filters – aside, what is our reliance on these…
VIDEO – THRIVING IN SOBRIETY – April 11, 2023 – The breakthrough came when he travelled beyond the London borders that he could see from his eighth-floor window, towards the sea. Ever since his bankruptcy, the Kent coast had become a place of recuperation; now it became an inspiration. Once lockdown ended, Wolf left London for a terrace house near the sea, set up his studio in a garden shed and started a Patreon as a source of income and means of reconnecting with his earlier work and still-devoted fans. Each day, he ran along the shore to a derelict…
VIDEO – THE HOLY GRAIL? – April 5, 2023 – After losing custody of her kids due to one of his arrests, Chouinard injected meth for the first time. “Within six months I was homeless living in a minivan and hopping around. I stayed in trap houses,” said Chouniard. Eventually, drug court set Chouniard on a path to recovery. A recovery she credits in part to Kyros, a recovery management platform that allows users to find help with programs, transportation, meetings, and other resources. “We know Minnesota does a really good job at treatment, they do not such a good…
UNLESS IT IS – April 3, 2023 – Neither my wife nor I use Adderall with any regularity. A 60-count “break-in-case-of-emergency” supply might last the Bateman family ‘til death do us part. But the same cannot be said for millions of others who are reliant on the drug: since last August, the world has experienced a shortage of Adderall. This is probably tied to manufacturing and supply chain issues combined with rapidly increasing demand — though nobody knows for sure. It has had a particularly acute effect on the US. A high-income country of 330 million people is bound to…
ONLY IN AMERICA – April 8, 2023 – We have to take into consideration their developmental age and the psychological development that’s happening in adolescence, which is very different from adults. Oftentimes, this is the first point of entry into opioid use for these kids. Fentanyl, which is one of the most powerful opioids of abuse out there, is the first point of entry into opioid use for these children. Where for adults, they might have been prescribed pain medications. Or they might have started on opioids through other routes and might have used less potent products before transitioning to…
BET ON IT – April 10, 2023 – A millennial who grew his net worth to $600,000 explains what it took to dig his way out of debt after overcoming a gambling addiction. In 2011, Ambus Hunter said his only debt was a car lease and he had $2,000 in savings — then he visited Las Vegas for the first time. He became entranced by the “highs and lows” of roulette. Initially, it was all fun and games. But then things quickly came crumbling down. “I had become so obsessed with gambling that I was no longer taking care of…
VIDEO – NEVER TOO LATE – April 10, 2023 – Patton grew up in a catholic school, and his father was a protector of their community as a police officer. Everything changed when Patton found drugs. “I started smoking pot at the age of thirteen,” said Patton. What Patton calls a gateway drug led to darker days. “Crack, heroin, meth, multiple years in prison, 21 felonies,” said Patton. Patton had battled addiction for 36 years, but before being admitted to rehab for the 28th time, he said he thought help couldn’t save him anymore. “Here I am, I’m 52 years…
NEW YORK TIMES ESSAY – April 12, 2023 – He insisted he was fine and said he could stop using on his own if he wanted to, but he didn’t want to. Once he was 18, I couldn’t force him. He had to decide for himself — and yet he was in no condition to do so. “I was completely out of my mind, unable to make rational decisions,” he says now. Most people who are seriously ill want to get better and, if given the opportunity, will choose to be treated. However, addiction can defy logic. “You can only…
SOUNDS LIKE IAN FLEMING – April 5, 2023 – Then there was the win rate. Tosa’s crew didn’t hit the right number on every spin, but they did as often as not, in streaks that defied logic: eight in a row, or 10, or 13. Even with a dozen chips on the table at a total cost of £1,200 (about $2,200 at the time), the 35:1 payout meant they could more than double their money. Security staff watched nervously as their chip stack grew ever higher. Tosa and the Serbian, who did most of the gambling while their female companion…
VIDEO – DON’T FORGET AL KAPP – April 10, 2023 – “Al was, at heart, a rascal,” said John Ficarra, a former Mad editor-in-chief who worked with Jaffee for more than 35 years, according to the tribute. “He always had a playful twinkle in his eye and brought that sensibility to everything he created.” “Al Jaffee was an incredibly gifted man who touched our hearts and never failed to make us laugh,” Jim Lee, chief creative officer and publisher of DC, said in a statement on the site. “He garnered the highest accolades and praise in the world of illustrations…
A MUSIC ICON – April 16, 2023 – He was also, in the 1950s, among the first African American performers who publicly adopted the Muslim faith. Mr. Jamal’s preferred musical format was the trio, and he found critical success with a quiet, understated rhythmic style and dramatic use of silence between notes. His trademark was an ingeniously airy approach to classic pop standards such as “Love for Sale,” “A Gal in Calico” and “Don’t Blame Me” or in his own groove-inflected compositions such as “Ahmad’s Blues,” a song that became part of the jazz repertoire. His group was the house…
LET’S GO LENA – April 10, 2023 – “5 years ago today, I set foot — trembling like a little kid — into treatment for substance misuse,” she began her caption. “My parents hugged me goodbye, I changed into house slippers and there I was. The struggle with addiction hit me little by little, then all at once.” She wrote: “It’s a cliche for a reason — asking for help was the hardest part (I mean, aside from the other hard parts, but each step from there got easier And ease was always the goal — ease in my body,…
ANONYMOUS NO MORE – April 13, 2023 – Kyle Draper is currently looking forward to doing the play-by-play announcing for Sacramento Kings games in the team’s first playoff series since 2006. As he recently told Michael Grant of Awful Announcing, such a career highlight seemed tougher to imagine prior to when he stopped drinking. In an expansive interview, Draper — who worked for NBC Sports Boston as a reporter, host, and play-by-play announcer prior to his move to Sacramento — opened up about his struggle to confront being an alcoholic, as well as recently marking six years of sobriety. Click@Boston