VIDEO – ‘ULTIMATUM’ is the ULTIMATUM – Dec. 12, 2022 – Drug and alcohol addiction is one of the many themes tackled in their new documentary ‘Sr.’ which tells the story of Robert’s father, Robert Downey Sr. In the movie, shot in black and white, we get to know his late father, who used to go by Sr., including his work as a director, his personal life, and his own struggles with addiction. “It’s incomplete if you don’t,” Robert said of the choice to talk about their addiction struggles in the movie. “In a documentary, particularly if you’re working with…
Author: Leonard Buschel
MIAMI RICE – Dec. 15, 2022 – He only decided to turn his life around after he met his third wife, who finally made him happy. When he met Phleger, she was a schoolteacher at a Montessori school. He ran into her at a birthday party for San Francisco’s mayor at the time, and when he saw her, he knew he had to meet her. He did everything in his power to catch her attention, and when he finally spoke to her, they got along excellently. Click@AmoMama
VIDEO – CAN IT GET WORSE? – Dec. 13, 2022 – Recreational drugs like marijuana can be laced with Carfentanil. The drug can also be made into pressed pills. ”We had don’t do drugs, because if you do you could get addicted,” he said. “Now it’s don’t try drugs because you’ll die. Not just maybe you’ll die down the line, you’ll die,” Blair added. “It’s not something that is going to happen in time, it is something that is going to happen right then and there especially if you get fentanyl or Carfentanil.” The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reports…
UPWARD FACING DUDE – Dec. 14, 2022 – “As soon as I was willing to let go of being in charge of my own life, which I had messed up pretty badly, admitted my powerlessness over alcohol and drugs, and asked for help, help showed up,” he explained. With the support of his loved ones and case manager, Emily, Lewis moved into a homeless shelter called Transition House and took a job as a dishwasher at Santa Barbara City College. Humbly, he began to piece his life together. One day, in his fifth month of sobriety, he received a…
YOUNGSTER – Dec. 14, 2022 – He explained: “What I have been taught and shown is that it is impossible for a person like me to not drink and use drugs, unless I have sufficient ongoing support from people that understand what it’s like to feel that drugs or alcohol, or you know, certain behaviors, are necessary in order to feel okay.” Russell said the overall purpose of recovery is to wake up from a “world of attachment”, and it’s still an “ongoing process”. He added: “Because I still, every day at 20 years without crack and heroin, without alcohol,…
SELECTIVE SEROTONIN REUPTAKE THIS! – Dec. 13, 2022 – “Post getting divorced, I have not had a panic attack,” she said. “It’s like when you release the negative or the triggers from the past or something that may remind you of it. That was still in my body.” The discovery led her to talk to her doctor about the possibility of going off her meds completely. “To be honest with you, doc, I haven’t had an anxiety attack since I got divorced,” the Good Fight co-author recalled saying to her doctor. “In my mind, I was like, ‘Can I…
MEDS FOR ALL – Dec. 13, 2022 – The changes, which appear to have broad support across medical organizations and addiction advocacy groups, underscore how sharply the addiction treatment landscape has shifted in light of Covid. They also reflect a growing recognition from Washington that many Americans experiencing opioid addiction lack access to addiction medications. While methadone and buprenorphine are both controlled substances, the emergency measures significantly increased their availability. For the first time, doctors could initiate treatment with buprenorphine via telehealth instead of an in-person visit. Click@StatNews
JUST LIKE THE PHARMACIST – Dec. 14, 2022 – The prescriptions written by Jafari-Hassad had no legitimate medical purpose, according to officials. The doctor would also bill their insurance for a variety of charges, many of which were connected to procedures that never actually happened, authorities said. “As alleged, the defendant abandoned her medical oath to operate a pill mill in Nassau County, illegally dispensing oxycodone to patients for a cash fee,” stated United States Attorney Breon Peace. “This Office will continue to protect our community from bad actors who flood our streets with dangerous drugs, even if they hide…
HOW FUNNY CAN A SOBER HOUSE BE? – Dec. 13, 2022 – Johnny Knoxville (Reboot), Mo Amer (Mo) and Kate Upton (The Other Woman) will topline the indie comedy Sweet Dreams, from writer-director Lije Sarki. Additional cast set for the pic includes actor-comedians Bobby Lee (Reservation Dogs), Theo Von and Jay Mohr (The Cleaning Lady), as well as GaTa (Dave), Brian Van Holt (Joe vs. Carole), Jon “Dumbfoundead” Park (Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens), Adam Faison (Hellraiser) and Shakewell. Drawing on Sarki’s personal experience with sobriety, Sweet Dreams follows Morris (Knoxville) as he navigates his way through a mandatory…
IN REMISSION – Dec. 15, 2022 – “Nine out of 10 people couldn’t tell,” Worthington, who is now eight years sober, recalled. “They could probably smell it on me, but when they looked at me, they couldn’t tell. I was still doing my job — I just don’t think I was doing it very well.” The Australian actor’s alcoholism coincided with his rise to fame. Worthington was relatively unknown until the first Avatar film was released in 2009. Then, he somewhat reluctantly stepped into the leading man role with a string of blockbusters like Terminator Salvation and Clash of the…
NOW WE KNOW – Dec. 16, 2022 – By the end of 1992, Chris Farley was already riding an incredible wave. Farley, who had joined the cast of “Saturday Night Live” in 1990, had already done several characters that had proven popular with audiences–like the famous Chippendale’s Audition or Bill Swerski’s Superfans— and appeared in his first movie, “Wayne’s World.” However, Farley’s addictions were already a well-known fact to those who worked with him. In “The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts,” brother Tom Farley and co-author Tanner Colby compiled an oral history of Chris Farley’s life,…
ORIGINAL SINS RETURN – Dec. 17, 2022 – But the circumstances behind the cousin’s disappearance were peculiar, Stewart said later. The cousin called her family and told them she was in Phoenix, but didn’t say how she got there or why. The answers to those questions surprised Stewart when she drove out to get her cousin. “They told me they knew my brother,” Stewart remembered her cousin telling her. “We were going on a one-day trip and they would bring me home the next day. It only started with four people in that Suburban but more got in later. One…
TO MEDICATE OR MEDITATE? – by Claire Wilcox Dec. 12, 2022 – “It was very confusing in the beginning,” says Rifka Stern, community addiction treatment physician in New Mexico and member of the Bernalillo County Addiction Treatment Advisory Board. She said that providers would initiate patients on buprenorphine using old protocols and put them into precipitated withdrawals. “We just didn’t understand what was going on,” says Stern. For providers like Stern, there has been nowhere to turn for answers. The evidence base has not had time to catch up. “It’s like the wild west again,” says Snehal Bhatt, Division Chief,…
VIDEO – GO BACK IN TIME – Dec. 13, 2022 – Doctor Brian Boxer joined us with tips on how to recognize and overcome social media addiction. Click@Fox5DC
SOBRIETY THEIR WAY – Dec. 18, 2022 – Kelly Osbourne, who previously talked about being sober for six years, revealed in April 2021 that she had suffered a relapse and was working on next steps. “Not proud of it. But I am back on track,” she wrote via Instagram at the time. Two months later, the former Fashion Police star explained how the COVID-19 pandemic caused her relapse during an appearance on Red Table Talk. “I was alone, sitting by a pool and waiting for somebody to come have a meeting with me. And I saw this woman and…
FOR RODENTS – Dec. 15, 2022 – Now, researchers at the University of Houston say in a statement they have a potential solution that could be a “game-changer” in the fight against opioid overdoses: a new vaccine that blocks fentanyl from entering the brain. In a study published in Pharmaceutics, scientists tested their vaccine on 60 rats. The immunized animals could produce anti-fentanyl antibodies that stop the drug’s effects, allowing it to exit out of the body via the kidneys. This blocks the “high” caused by fentanyl, and it would theoretically make it easier for people to quit using the…
IRONIC? – Dec. 14, 2022 -“We’ve all been there,” Riedel, 27, says. “I started to question myself, like, ‘Why is this happening?’ And then of course, as an app developer, I tried to find solutions.” The solution Riedel settled upon was simple: remove the element of instant gratification that makes opening social media apps so addictive. He designed an app that would activate whenever his finger clicked the Instagram icon, and force him to wait for about 10 seconds before continuing. During the intermission, the app would invite him to take a deep breath. Just by introducing that tiny element…
GOING BACKWARDS TO STAY AHEAD – Dec. 15, 2022 – “Lots of us have read this book called ‘Into the Wild,’” said Lola Shub, a senior at Essex Street Academy, referring to Jon Krakauer’s 1996 nonfiction book about the nomad Chris McCandless, who died while trying to live off the land in the Alaskan wilderness. “We’ve all got this theory that we’re not just meant to be confined to buildings and work. And that guy was experiencing life. Real life. Social media and phones are not real life.” “When I got my flip phone, things instantly changed,” Lola continued. “I…
CORRUPTION STRUDEL – Dec. 9, 2022 – “It’s incredibly influential so if the Academy is corrupt then nutritional policy in the US is going to be corrupt,” said Gary Ruskin. The findings are a part of a recently published peer-reviewed study that examined a trove of financial documents and internal communications obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (Foia) request. “It’s incredibly influential so if the Academy is corrupt then nutritional policy in the US is going to be corrupt,” said Gary Ruskin, executive director of US Right to Know, and a co-author of the study. The investigative non-profit developed…
THEY STILL CAME OUT AHEAD – Dec. 13, 2022 – In total, corporations have had to pay $54 billion in settlements. Walmart agreed last month to pay more than $3 billion to states, while four pharmaceutical companies – Johnson & Johnson, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson — agreed to pay $26 billion in February. Deaths from opioid drug overdoses were 8.5 times higher in 2020 than in 1999. More than 564,000 people died from opioid drug overdoses during that time period,according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The opioid crisis began in the 1990s with prescription opioids, while…
IS IT MADISON, WI.? – 2022 – The best city for sober living in the U.S. was Madison, WI. Madison scored very well in the infrastructure and community categories, thanks to a high number of SAMHSA health treatment centers and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meetings per capita. The city also has easy access to parks and many opportunities to get involved in volunteer work, like helping the Friends of the State Street Family provide homeless people with meals, clothing, and other essentials. Harrisburg, PA, was just barely edged out of first place. Harrisburg scored well because of the number of social…
CROSS ADDICTION! – Nov. 14, 2022 – Amphetamine withdrawal symptoms, including depression, are not easily addressed with other kinds of drugs. So as countless individuals are confronting having to rapidly taper or stop, we’re facing a real possibility of a public health disaster on a scale not seen since the prescription opioid crisis that began a decade ago. Instead of enduring withdrawal, other individuals cut off from Adderall are likely to turn to alternative stimulants like crystal meth, fueling a much broader crisis. The early 2010s taught us that dependence and addiction don’t simply disappear when the pills do.…
MANY A NITE – Dec. 14, 2022 – The allegations are part of a lawsuit brought by three Canadian parents against Epic Games, the developer of “Fortnite.” The parents argue the game is addictive and has upended their children’s lives. “There is no doubt that the defendants have achieved their objective of making FORTNITE as addictive as possible,” the class-action lawsuit alleges, “and have therefore knowingly endangered the health of users without warning them of the danger associated with the use of FORTNITE.” Click@WashingtonPost
AUDIO – TETRIS IT’S NOT – Dec. 28, 2022 – “My only comfort is that he has been keeping his promise to stay offline overnight,” one father said, as another confided that their child had been attending a rehab day camp. The group’s founder, Sakiko Kuroda, said children in Japan now start playing video games early in primary school, and pandemic restrictions mean many are playing for longer. Many parents do not know how to deal with the issue, and there is “a lack of action by the government and the gaming industry,” said Kuroda, who started the group…
“A lion doesn’t concern himself with the opinions of a sheep.” – Lionel Messi
TAKING A MACHETE TO SUFFERING – Dec. 8, 2022 – The actor-author was humbled by the recognition for his New York Times best-seller, but what really makes Trejo happy is when readers come up to him and say the book resonated with them or made them feel seen.”I was really glad I wrote it. I was really proud that [co-writer] Donal [Logue] and I put it together,” Trejo said. “People were telling me to write a book for years and I would have people help me write it, but I don’t use words like ‘prolific.’ It’s ‘a bunch,’ so I…
ONE MORE SHIRLEY TEMPLE? – Dec. 9, 2022 – Interestingly, the researchers also stumbled upon sex-specific data, in course of the study. “The relative increase in AUDIT scores based on the increase in ACE scores was more pronounced in female students compared to male students; however the cumulative proportion of drinkers in any ACE category was higher in male students.” In other words, compared to the male participants, the link between ACE and AUDIT scores was stronger among the female participants — despite the baseline drinking between male students being, generally, higher. A 2002 study had also found that multiple…
VIDEO – ARTIST/ACTIVIST IN EVERY WAY – Dec. 4, 2022 – Poitras deftly weaves Goldin’s activism into the bigger story of her life and art, including the rawly intimate photographic projects such as The Ballad of Sexual Dependency and Sisters, Saints and Sibyls, that reflect how deeply the two are intertwined. From the off, her photography drew directly on her life and her circle of friends: bohemians, transexuals, addicts and fellow self-made artists in her native Boston and later in New York. Her style, often described as diaristic, has been enormously influential and made her one of the world’s most…
CORN FLAKES, MILK & NARCAN – Dec. 4, 2022 – But after a minute, she returned to the bedroom. The noises he was making were disconcerting. And when she shook him, he didn’t respond. Kyle was not asleep. He had overdosed, and the opioids in his bloodstream were blocking his brain’s commands to his body to breathe. He was suffocating. If you’re a parent of a teen, you may have already read a number of stories like this, terrifying articles about parents discovering their children after an overdose. The articles feature grim photos of the survivors looking into the distance,…
HOME SPEED HOME – Dec. 6, 2022 – In your book The Least of Us and in an Atlantic piece last year, you wrote about the rise of very pure meth, which is produced in a different way than the variety that used to flow into the U.S. The effects have been devastating, but this still seems like a fairly under-the-radar phenomenon. Has it gotten more attention since you wrote about it? My book highlighted this problem that people were seeing all across the country, and now people are trying to understand why it’s happening. And I think more…