WHAT CAN BE DONE? – April 26, 2021 – Mr. Wolf, whose mother immigrated from Mexico, spoke to the dealers in Spanish and helped them wire money to their families in Honduras. They showed him pictures of the homes they were building with their drug earnings. Mr. Wolf noted the fancy furnishings and the new cars in the driveways. Eight of the people Mr. Wolf met when he was on the streets are now dead from overdoses. Mr. Wolf was arrested five times between April and June 2018 for drug possession. The sixth time, he was jailed and charged with…
Author: Leonard Buschel
SPEEDING TOWARDS OUR DEMISE – April 27, 2021 – As the pills piled up, Jon DeLena was shaken. He’d lived through a spike in cocaine trafficking in Miami in the early 2000s and the dramatic rise in heroin and fentanyl use in New England in more recent years — the one that had left thousands dead because of overdoses. But the veteran Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent in charge of the New England Field Office had never seen such a stark uptick as what he was seeing with methamphetamine use, and its ingenious delivery method: fake Adderall pills. These…
DEPENDS ON WHO YOU ASK – Nov. 16, 2013 – “I didn’t know you could overdose on Suboxone,” Mr. Verrill said in an interview at a federal prison in Otisville, N.Y. “We were just a bunch of friends getting high and hanging out, doing what 20-year-olds do. Then we went to sleep, and Miles never woke up.” Suboxone is the blockbuster drug most people have never heard of. Surpassing well-known medications like Viagra and Adderall, it generated $1.55 billion in United States sales last year, its success fueled by an exploding opioid abuse epidemic and the embrace of federal officials…
TWELVE STEPS ARE WAITING – April 21, 2021 – Even before the pandemic began, some Americans were drinking significantly more alcohol than they had in decades past — with damaging consequences. In 2020, researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (N.I.A.A.A.) found that from 1999 through 2017, per capita consumption increased by 8 percent and the number of alcohol-related deaths doubled, many caused by liver disease. The trends are particularly concerning for women: Whereas the number of men who reported any drinking stayed mostly the same, the proportion of women who did so increased 10 percent, and…
WATCH – VIDEO WORTH WATCHING – April 27, 2021 – “It’s called the CAGE test – C is for cut-down meaning if you think that you need to start cutting down on your intake,” Dr. Garcia said. “The A is for annoyance- if you become annoyed by somebody asking you to cut down – and that’s point 2. The G is for guilt – there’s guilt surrounding your alcohol consumption and finally, E is for eye-opener. You wake up in the morning and the only way to function is by cracking that beer or having that shot then if you…
WHO CAN WE TRUST? – April 29, 2021 – What his family didn’t know was that Addiction Specialists Inc., often known as ASI, had a history of violating state rules. In a later federal investigation into the facility’s billing and drug distribution practices, a grand jury concluded that a litany of problems occurred at the business many months before and after Adam’s arrival. In the wrongful death suit, a lawyer for the Kalinowski family alleged Adam wasn’t evaluated by a physician when he arrived at ASI, didn’t receive the medication or treatment he needed, became increasingly uneasy and anxious throughout…
MAKES OPIATES LOOK LIKE CANDY APRIL 29, 2021 – According to a team of researchers led by Leonardo Trasande, organophosphate pesticides, of which chlorpyrifos is the most widely used, accounted for an estimated $594 billion in societal costs, including added health care and education, between 2001 and 2016. The EPA was poised to ban chlorpyrifos in 2016, but the Trump EPA changed course the next year without providing any scientific justification for its decision. The reversal, made under EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, has been tied to a $1 million contribution to President Donald Trump’s inaugural fund from Dow Chemical Company,…
KIDS NEED A DRINK? – April 28, 2021 – The study comparing millennials with Generation Z found rates of depression among adolescents had surged from fewer than one in ten (nine per cent) to more than one in seven (16 per cent) in the 10 years between the two generations. By contrast the proportion who had smoked in adolescence had almost halved from nine per cent to five per cent, while the number trying alcohol before the age of 14 dropped from 52 per cent to 48 per cent. Generation Z were, however, more likely to be worried about their…
GIVE PILLS A CHANCE – April 27, 2020 – Because of how opioids act on the brain, people dependent on them get sick if they stop using. Withdrawal can feel like a bad flu with cramping, sweating, anxiety and sleeplessness. Cravings for the drug can be so intense that relapse is common. Buprenorphine helps by moving a patient from powerful painkillers or an illicit opioid like heroin to a regular dose of a legal opioid-based medication. Besides doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, certified nurse midwives and some other types of nurses will be able to prescribe buprenorphine without first getting…
“I think a future flight should include a poet, a priest and a philosopher … we might get a much better idea of what we saw.” —Michael Collins (Get-Away-Driver on Moon mission, 1969)
A WORTHY INVESTMENT – April 28, 2021 – The Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage is getting set to launch its most significant expansion since opening almost four decades ago, it was announced Tuesday. The four-year, $30 million project — to include construction of three new buildings and updates to the grounds — will break ground May 4 and is slated to transform the treatment center founded by former First Lady Betty Ford and former U.S. Ambassador Leonard Firestone in 1982. The center is the nation’s largest nonprofit system for addiction treatment and co-occurring mental health care, recovery and related…
MUSICAL INTERLUDE – Randy Travis, is an American country music and gospel music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor. more@YouTube
5.7 MILLION FANS LOVE HIM FOR BEING GAY & SOBER – April 26, 2021 – He now has 5.7 million followers. Fans, old and new alike, were cheered by his quirky posts delivered in Jordan’s distinctive Southern drawl. Jordan’s newfound reach has meant he’s also been able to indulge in his love of Christian hymns with an album called “Company’s Comin.’” The “American Horror Story” star says that when he first arrived in Hollywood in 1982, he was hungry for fame. “I didn’t care about the money or work, I wanted to be famous” he detailed. “I remember reading that…
SO MUCH WORK TO DO – April 2021 – Some people fail to respond to treatments because they have an untreated dual diagnosis. A dual diagnosis is a situation in which a patient has to deal with an untreated problem like depression or anxiety along with drug addiction. People who suffer from this can have a lot of problems, especially mental problems, which do not get proper treatment because of their substance abuse problems. This results in creating other problems which force patients to lose focus on their treatment for drug addiction, and consequently, the treatments fail to produce any…
EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN – April 23, 2021 – At the four-and-a-half year follow-up, 71 to 100 percent of participants credited improvements in levels of anxiety and depression to the single-dose psilocybin and therapy combination of the study. The participants further “rated it among the most personally meaningful and spiritually significant experiences of their lives.” Though further research needs to be done, it’s thought that because psilocybin can affect mood and perception to “regulate arousal and panic responses,” the drug interacts with the networks of the brain to shape it into being more amenable to entertaining new thought patterns.…
HYPOCRITICAL SOCIETY – April 24, 2021 – A man who prosecutors say ran an extensive network selling psychedelic and party drugs around the Santa Cruz area, including at UC Santa Cruz, was sentenced to a decade in federal prison, court records show. Matthew Wilcox Hutchings, 26, was sentenced April 20 to 10 years in federal prison, followed by five years supervised release, by U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman. At an earlier hearing, Hutchings pleaded guilty to selling LSD, psilocybin mushrooms and MDMA, court records show. On top of this, prosecutors said that when Hutchings was in jail, he was…
HIS WORK CONTINUES – April 1, 2021 – I benefited from this article as much as any information I received while in treatment. The insight and knowledge I gained has compelled me to pass it on to patients, students, and colleagues ever since. As an aside, a couple of decades later I filmed a talk based on the same information which has become my best-selling rehab video. The information is as relevant today as it was when he first went public with it in the late 1980s. In the fall of 1999, I had the honor of meeting Gorski when…
WATCH – FAMILY LOVE – April 2021 – She continued for three pages, detailing the pain she felt after her parents’ divorce — mostly because of her dad’s addiction — and how her father finally sought rehab after he slammed into another car one day while driving drunk. There were injuries, but none serious. It was a wake-up call. “My dad never would have gotten sober without [the accident],” she wrote. “He had to hit rock bottom before he could get the help he needed.” Preslee’s teacher gave her an A on the paper, and the teacher mentioned to her…
WATCH – IT TAKES ALL KINDS – April 20, 2021 – Dedee Pfeiffer, best known for her role in the hit ‘90s sitcom “Cybill”, is back on the small-screen after taking a 10-year break to sober up and get her masters in social work. While speaking with ET Canada’s Morgan Hoffman, the actress, who is also the younger sister of Michelle Pfeiffer, speaks candidly about her road to sobriety and how she used that journey to bring her “Big Sky” character to life. more@ETCanada
JUST LIKE MOTHER TERESA – April 22, 2021 – Oh, and the pandemic. She almost did not have time for it, she says. She’s not being cavalier or reckless, Ross says. “I have literally just been so busy,” she said. “It’s scary,” Ross said of working directly with clients during the coronavirus pandemic. She was diagnosed with Lupus 20 years ago, an autoimmune disease that puts her at high risk, but while addiction and recovery would not take break during the coronavirus, neither would Ross. She masked up and went to wherever clients needed her — bedsides, police stations –…
WATCH – SO MANY GONE – April 20, 2021 – Debbie had walked downstairs in her home that morning to where Matthew and his young son were sleeping. “I found Matthew collapsed on the floor and I knew he was gone,” she said. “From that point, it was just like a fog. I just couldn’t believe it.” She and her daughter Heather Parish are now speaking out on recreational prescription drug use. “The scary thing about fentanyl is that it can be laced into so many things that people don’t realize what they’re taking, and it takes such a small…
AA PROMOTION? – April 21, 2021 – We discovered that we had an illness called alcoholism – often referred to by the medical community as “Alcohol Use Disorder.” We found out that many people suffered from the same feelings of guilt, loneliness and hopelessness that we did. We decided to get honest about what alcohol had done to us. And we shared our experience, strength and hope with others. And we have recovered by helping others do likewise. Without expense and never as reformers, we offer our experience only to those who want our help. We in A.A. believe alcoholism…
YOU CAN GO HOME AGAIN – April 13, 2021 – One unique addition Boyd brings to his Petaluma location is equine therapy, where clients feed, groom, and ride horses. This therapeutic approach helps build communication, interpersonal connections, impulse control, and spiritual connections that are integral to one’s journey in recovery. The horses used in the program aren’t simply rented animals either. Boyd actually purchased his own horses and stables them himself to ensure his clients always have the right to them. Boyd’s efforts have helped countless people recover from addiction, even numerous high-profile celebrities. He co-produced the A&E series “The…
CALIFORNIA DREAMING – April 22, 2021 – The State Senate Republicans noted they are fighting to combat the deadly fentanyl epidemic, while their Senate Democrat colleagues appear to be normalizing substance abuse. “Missing from this bill are any strategies to appropriately utilize methadone alternatives, mandatory treatment protocols, onsite drug counseling, or even efforts to gradually wean an addict off the cycle of dependence,” bill analysis in opposition to SB 57 says. “This is like giving a person struggling with alcoholism a gift card to BevMo. The Democrats are the party of enablers right now – and at taxpayer expense,” said…
THE BEDROOM IS THE PLAYGROUND FOR ADULTS – April 24, 2021 – But from my experience, recovery from alcoholism is an ongoing cycle of Pain-Growth-Slide, no matter what the topic. This means: There’s going to be pain, for sure, but growth and slide round out the recovery experience. I like the growth, but I especially love the slide part. To get to the slide, though, requires I do what might be uncomfortable, with my eyes oh-so-wide open. How about you? Do you want to stay awake in your sobriety so you can be an authentic sexual YOU in your sobriety?…
NO DULL READING – April 24, 2021 – Okay, so we can blame excess inflammation for killing brain cells. How do we get them back? Actively working to fight off inflammation. This not only prevents neurons from dying, it actively leads to brain cell growth, as well, according to Dr. Ramsey. When it comes to brain cell growth, though, it’s important to understand the connection between neurogenesis and neuroplasticity—two words that sound similar, but mean different things—says Dr. Begeti. While neurogenesis refers to new brain cell growth, she explains that neuroplasticity is where existing neurons grow and form different connections…
IT’S ALL IN YOUR HEAD – April 24, 2021 – I felt fortunate that I had the means to see a psychiatrist when I was 17. After my psychiatrist tapered me rapidly off Klonopin in approximately a week, my perceived luck had quickly transformed into complete and utter despair. I spent the next 15 years trying to find answers for the life-altering and persistent symptoms that I continue to experience to this present day. The theologian Ivan Illich put iatrogenesis at the centerpiece of his ideology. He described clinical iatrogenesis as the injury done to patients by ineffective, toxic, and…
WATCH – MORE SUNSCREEN PLEASE! – April 23, 2021 – The expanding shell of gas and dust that surrounds the star is about five light-years wide, which equals the distance from here to the nearest star beyond the Sun, Proxima Centauri. The huge structure was created from one or more giant eruptions about 10,000 years ago. The star’s outer layers were blown into space—like a boiling teapot popping off its lid. The expelled material amounts to roughly 10 times our Sun’s mass. These outbursts are the typical life of a rare breed of star called a luminous blue variable, a…
MUSICAL INTERLUDE – 1968 – The Rolling Stones performing “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” From The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus Recorded before a live audience in London in 1968, The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus was originally conceived as a BBC-TV special. Directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, it centers on the original line up of The Rolling Stones — Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman (with Nicky Hopkins and Rocky Dijon) -— who serves as both the show’s hosts and featured attraction. For the first time in front of an audience, “The…
WHAT A LOVE STORY!!! – April 19, 2021 – They divorced in 1952; Mr. Albin’s mother cited “extreme cruelty and gross neglect of duty.” Mr. Albin said his father had once shot his dog to teach a lesson. Jerry Lee left home at 15, after hitting his father with a shovel during a fight. He settled in Los Angeles and then served as a cook in the Army between 1962 and 1963. After his discharge he began to drift. He lived without a home for stretches of time, and soon joined a branch of the Hell’s Angels. In 1965, a…