GOING TO ANY LENGTH – Aug. 17, 2022 – Rachel Dollard, 33, allegedly hid a balloon containing a half-ounce of speed in her mouth and passed it orally to Joshua Brown at the Turney Center Industrial Complex in Only in February, the Tennessee Department of Correction said in a statement Tuesday. Brown — who had been serving an 11-year sentence on drug-related charges — overdosed and died at a local hospital, the corrections department said. Dollard was arrested last weekend for the allegedly deadly smooch and charged with second-degree murder and smuggling contraband into the prison, according to officials. more@NYPost
Author: Leonard Buschel
THERE IS A SOLUTION – Aug. 17, 2022 – I wear a mask. The labels that represent me — committed Christian, talented author, well-connected publicist — do not tell the whole or even partial story of my life. My pride sometimes blocks authenticity. Though my ego has a vested interest in me looking like I have it all together, I have a pain that shatters me; I am the daughter of a drug addict. Having a dad with a substance abuse issue means that I learned long ago I could not trust my father to tell the truth. A father…
AUDIO – HOW MANY GET TO GO HOME? – Aug. 9, 2022 – “This is an expected type of patient presentation. Just like a heart attack or stroke or patient with sepsis, this is something that every emergency doctor working a clinical shift today is going to see in their shift.” Fentanyl is a powerful painkiller that officials say is 100 times stronger than morphine. More than 6,150 people died in Florida in 2020 from overdoses linked to fentanyl. State health officials say more died in 2021, according to preliminary data. The opioid epidemic in America began in the late…
THE FOG OF…WHAT? – Aug 17, 2022 – People who have had Covid-19 are at an increased risk of mental health and neurological conditions—including seizures, dementia, psychotic disorders and brain fog—two years after infection, according to a large study published Wednesday in the Lancet Psychiatry medical journal, shedding further light on the long-term health consequences of the virus as countries around the world prepare to live with it. An analysis of electronic health records from nearly 1.3 million people diagnosed with Covid-19 over a two-year period suggests there is an increased risk of developing conditions like dementia, seizures or…
LIKE DOING JAIL TIME? – Aug. 19, 2022 – Many young people increasingly choose to stay within a comfort zone of a small network of like-minded friends in which much of their social activity is virtual, according to mental health experts. While this can give them more control over some aspects of their lives, it can also lead to social anxiety when they have to interact with people offline, the experts added. Natalie Phillips, a psychotherapist who works with children and young people aged from 11 to 25, said: “I’m seeing a disproportionate increase in referrals for social anxiety, professional…
TO EACH HIS OWN – Aug. 18, 2022 – The contest asks 20 to 39-year-olds to share their business ideas to kick-start demand among their peers – whether it’s for Japanese sake, shochu, whiskey, beer or wine. The group running the competition for the tax authority says new habits – partly formed during the Covid pandemic – and an ageing population have led to a decline in alcohol sales. It wants contestants to come up with promotions, branding, and even cutting-edge plans involving artificial intelligence. Japanese media say the reaction has been mixed, with some criticism about the bid to…
AUDIO – IT’S NOT CRAZY TO SET BOUNDARIES – Aug 17, 2022 – Jonah Hill has released an open letter in which he announced that he will no longer promote his own movies for the foreseeable future in order to continue working on his mental health. Hill’s upcoming projects include a new documentary he directed titled “Stutz” and Netflix’s comedy movie “You People,” which Hill co-wrote with director Kenya Barris. Hill stars in the Netflix film opposite Eddie Murphy, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Molly Gordon, Mike Epps, Nia Long and David Duchovny. Hill added, “I usually cringe at letters or statements…
VIDEO – HERO’S JOURNEY – Aug. 16, 2022 – For several years, Keri Blakinger, led a double life. From the outside looking in, life looked perfect. Blakinger was pretty, super smart and a competitive ice skater with Olympic potential. Her schooling included Harvard, Rutgers and Cornell. Many didn’t know she was living in a parallel universe that included trauma, eating disorders, homelessness and drug addiction. more@KHOU
PILLS CAN BACKFIRE – Aug. 2022 – I had been a restless child. The first night I slept in a bed rather than a cot, I rolled on to the floor nine times. Even before I could walk, I was constantly wriggling, fidgeting, climbing things. My parents nicknamed me Tigger, after the perpetually bouncy Winnie-the-Pooh character. “You were cute and charming – but very annoying,” my mother recalls. Still, the idea that I might have ADHD never came up. In the UK in the 90s, it was cast as a disorder of naughty boys who struggled at school. I was…
ANOTHER DROP IN THE BUCKET – August 17, 2022 – A federal judge on Wednesday ordered three of the nation’s largest pharmacy chains — CVS, Walgreens and Walmart — to pay $650.5 million to two Ohio counties, ruling that the companies must be held accountable for their part in fueling the opioid epidemic. The decision is a companion piece to a November jury verdict that found the companies had continued to dispense mass quantities of prescription painkillers over the years while ignoring flagrant signs that the pills were being abused. The ruling is the first by a federal judge that…
VIDEO – EUTYLONE EUTYLONE EUTYLONE – Aug. 13, 2022 – Florida is leading the nation in overdose deaths with a new synthetic drug called eutylone. more@YouTube
JOIN THE CLUB! – Aug. 15, 2022 – Josh Peck has described sobriety as the “bedrock” of his life. The former ‘Drake and Josh’ star previously battled drink and drug addiction before entering rehab in 2008 which helped him turn his life around by embracing a 12-step program – and he’s adamant the techniques he learned in treatment are still helpful 14 years later. Speaking to New York Post gossip column PageSix, he explained: “I’m lucky to have found recovery through a 12 steps program almost 14 years ago and it’s something that I still do regularly to this…
THE EVIL MEN DO – Nov. 14, 2014 – The criminal trial of employees of Chemie-Grünenthal, the German company that created and marketed thalidomide, opened in the pretty town of Alsdorf, near Aachen, on 27 May 1968. It promised to be comparable in scale and emotional intensity to Nuremberg. Thousands of deformed babies had died or been allowed to die. Many families with surviving children filed civil suits, but all the victims had to wait years without support because the criminal trial took precedence. Grünenthal had insisted that it was blameless: the thousands of abnormal births were an act of…
VIDEO – IT HURTS – Aug. 15, 2022 – Heche’s injuries left her brain-dead. On Sunday, her family took her off life support. I wonder whether it’s enough to satisfy those who have been calling for her head. They have it now. As I read the comments, the word that popped out at me was “choice.” “There are accidents and there are choices,” said one of the many Instagram users pummeling Baldwin, adding that “her choice burned down a family’s home.” I will make no friends for saying so, but I’m not sure Heche did make a choice. The…
VIDEO – STARING IN THE FACE OF HOPELESSNESS – Aug. 16, 2022 – “It just doesn’t feel comfortable for me to continue to drive through this area, walk through this area, catch the train, pass this area, and do nothing about it,” Ali said. While many are aware of the drug addiction that plagues certain sections of Kensington, seeing its effects is completely different – and for Harriston it’s personal. “My little cousin passed away two years ago from an overdose of fentanyl,” he said. “So it kind of hit home for me.” Ali and Harriston have been telling…
VIDEO – THIS IS MY AMERICA – Aug. 18, 2022 – Officers have partnered with an embedded social worker to try to get people the addiction and mental health treatment they need. The mission of the Law Enforcement Embedded Social Worker (LEESW) program is to help clients navigate the complex social service system and to remove the barriers that exist between addiction, homelessness and mental health issues to sobriety and housing. The program has had promising success. Since 2018, the team has contacted 2,868 people. 472 of those accepted help and many now have jobs and housing. Officer Mike Buell…
VIDEO – HI, MY NAME IS JOSH – Aug. 16, 2022 – Knowing that the second word in Alcoholics Anonymous does not apply to him, Guillory admitted: “And Look, I’m an alcoholic, so I have two options — I either drink or I don’t.” He says his rehab lasted 21 days. However, a news release on July 25 announced that he had entered a facility — four days before the public was notified. Then on Friday, August 12, we were informed that he had returned after a successful completion.“It was 21 days — started on a Thursday and ended…
SHE KNOWS THINGS! – Aug. 8, 2022 – During the three years I spent working on my new book, Raising Lazarus, my elderly mother kept asking me what it was about. At 93 with advancing dementia, no matter how often I reminded her, she couldn’t remember. I kept the description simple: “It’s about addiction,” I said. So it went, every half hour or so. Each time I answered, Mom would shake her head disapprovingly. She knew firsthand how sad the subject was, having been raised by an alcoholic and then marrying one. “You should write a love story instead,” she…
ONE BREATH AT A TIME – Aug. 18, 2022 – It’s about being human and in this moment — no matter how distracted this moment is. There is no such thing as being good or bad at meditation. That’s just not the point. Every time you get distracted, you start again, so noticing the distraction is actually proof of success, says Jeff Warren, a meditation teacher who has A.D.H.D. and is a co-author of “Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics.” Another tool for fighting back against mid-meditation feelings of failure is something experts call “loving kindness meditation,” which can help you forgive…
“You’re on earth. There’s no cure for that.” – Samuel Beckett
VIDEO – Walgreens Guilty as Sin – Aug. 10, 2022 – Amanda Starrantino reports on a judge ruling in San Francisco’s favor in opioid lawsuit against Walgreens. – Video Only more@YouTube
VIDEO – Walgreens Sucks – Aug. 10, 2022 – The Tennessee Attorney General is suing Walgreens for selling over a billion pills, saying the company contributed to the opioid crisis in Tennessee. more@YahooNews
VIDEO – HE WALKS THE WALK – Aug. 9, 2022 – HENRICO COUNTY, Va. — A man who has dedicated his life to helping people overcome substance use disorder is now celebrating 40 years in recovery. “Every picture, every book, everything tells a story in here,” John Shinholser, the president and co-founder of the McShin Foundation, said. A look around his office is like flipping through pages of his biography. “And this is just a drop in the bucket, you know. I got boxes of stuff,” Shinholser. While much of his story has been put to paper, some is still…
I LIKE TO WATCH – Aug. 11, 2022 – With booze swapped for green juice, a yoga mat tucked under her arm, and a renewed sense of determination, eight-part Irish comedy drama The Dry (described by The Guardian as ‘like an Irish Fleabag’) sees Shiv (Roisin Gallagher) return to Dublin in hopes of a much needed fresh start. Though her grandmother’s death, not to mention her inability to pay her rent in London, might have hurried the decision along a bit, family is what she needs right now, and Ireland is where she is supposed to be. Isn’t it?…
VIDEO – READING IS FUN – Aug. 10, 2022 – “A lot of communities are up to speed on the best ways to turn this crisis around. I thought let me go give attention to these creative, gritty, on-the-ground folks who are really doing the lord’s work because they inspired me, and hopefully, by telling their stories they can inspire some of these gatekeepers who will decide what to do with the money and how best to spend it,” Macy said. The book will hit store shelves on August 16. more@WSLS
CONCENTRATION MATTERS – Aug. 10, 2022 – In this study, researchers directed a Preferred ReportingItems for SystematicReviews and Meta-Analyses(PRISMA) systematic review of peer-reviewed literature. They analyzed the peer-reviewed literature to observe the effects of psychiatric disorders on SUDs and how pharmacological treatments may alleviate these effects. Terms entered in the PubMed database included: mood disorder, bipolar disorder, depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, psychotic disorder, drug therapy, substance use child, childhood, adolescent, alongside others. Studies published between 1976 and 2021 with adolescents and young adults included were also examined. After excluding duplicates and irrelevant articles, alongside others which failed to meet…
HAPPINESS? – June 24, 2022 – For many of us, the first thing we think about when we wake up is coffee. Whether you prefer it hot or cold, it’s the beverage that is synonymous with morning and the start of a fresh day. While the first thing that comes to mind upon our first sip is the benefits of coffee (hello, focus!), we tend to forget that there may be some negative side effects of consuming this caffeinated beverage every day. To get the whole picture, we asked dietitians all about the side effects of drinking coffee every…
VIDEO – A CANDIDATE FOR NARCAN – August 10, 2022 – Police were told Saturday, July 30 began at a golf tournament at the Cazenovia Country Club, where the people admitted to drinking alcohol and using marijuana. To continue partying, a group of five moved on to Moses’ lake house on Tuscarora Lake in Erieville. A witness interviewed by investigators said he “observed Eno and Moses cutting up a white powdery substance on top of the stove/cooktop,” organized into “three individual lines of what appeared to be cocaine.” In what was described as a rush to clean it up before…
LEGALIZATION IS HARM REDUCTION – Aug. 9, 2022 – However, those numbers may now be declining in states in which the use of recreational marijuana is permitted, said Tracy Klein, assistant director for the Center for Cannabis Policy, Research and Outreach at Washington State University in Vancouver, Washington. She’s the lead author of a study that found calls to poison centers about synthetic cannabinoid fell by more than a third between 2016 and 2019 in states that have legalized marijuana for recreational use. “These products are made in a powdered format and could be sprayed on or added to…
JUST LIKE BILL W. AND DR. BOB – Aug. 11, 2022 – JackassSteve-O and Bam Margera sat down to discuss Bam’s sobriety. Steve-O starts the interview below with a clip saying this was recorded a while back. Airing it at this time is certainly interesting but Steve-O clearly believes it’s in the best interest of Bam to show fans everywhere that he was serious about getting sober. I’ve transcribed a bunch of the internet for you to read through but also hit that ‘play’ button and subscribe to Steve-O’s channel. more@Brobible