STILL NEEDS ALANON – April 22, 2021 – Alongside a screenshot of an app which tracks his sobriety, he wrote: “It’s not that it get easier or harder, It’s just that it’s life on life’s terms. If anyone is trying to get sober, know that it possible if you are willing to do the work. Sending lots of love to my people who have been on this journey with me. #sobersbetter (sic)” Jack frequently opens up about his addiction battle and his journey to sobriety, especially through his multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis in 2012. Last April, the star explained in…
Author: Leonard Buschel
IT’S SIMPLE & IT’S COMPLICATED – April 23, 2021 – The difference is still clearly evident when comparisons are made of the full detoxification treatment packages. In our calculations, the costs of a 3-week in-patient detoxification programme are nine times those of an 8-week out-patient programme. A more informative calculation of the relative cost-effectiveness of the detoxification in the two settings can be made by adjusting the costs of the treatment packages according to their observed success rates. The costs of the in-patient detoxification programme should therefore be divided by 0.81 to adjust for the 81% abstinence rate of patients…
DOCTOR’S DILEMMA – April 23, 2021 – We heard from someone who has reached the end of his rope: “In June, I will have suffered from severe chronic pain for 28 years. I will be dead before then. My doctor has cut me back from 180 mg of methadone and 75 mcg of fentanyl to 80 mg of methadone, along with Robaxin. When I was first put on methadone and fentanyl after 13 years of pain, I was pain-free for nearly 14 years. “My doctor wants me off all opioids. I have three different types of severe pain. “I also…
LITTLE LATE for 2021, but GREAT IDEA! – April 20, 2021 – “Just for 24 is a day to celebrate your recovery and support your friends in recovery by having fun in the name of sobriety,” she added. She said that the festivities on Saturday, April 24 will begin at 10 a.m., with a trip to the Lower East Side’s booze-free bottle shop Spirited Away “to load up on booze-free beverages” she said, “then off to Brooklyn for some roller skating [at Pier 2] and wrapping at PS Kitchen with an event with prizes from REVA Recovery Support, Soylent, Athletic…
WATCH – BACK TO BASICS – April 20, 2021 – “I really, really resonated with the episode,” the 37-year-old songwriter expressed, adding how amazed he was by Shepard’s ability to be “vulnerable and honest” with his fans. “It was within two months of my COVID relapse, and the disease of addiction is crazy,” said Macklemore, whose real name is Benjamin Haggerty. The Grammy winner furthered that speaking about the struggles with sobriety “lets other people feel that they’re not alone.” “It made me feel, as someone that had relapsed again, like a month or two before, that I’m not alone,”…
FLORIDA RETIREMENT COMES EARLY – April 23, 2021 – Said Aronberg, “Mr. Lohan was investigated by our Sober Homes Task Force and he’s being charged with receiving kickbacks for referring patients to drug treatment. Patient brokering corrupts our health care system because decisions are motivated by greed instead of a patient’s needs. This is our Task Force’s 117th arrest and will not be our last.” Heidi Perlet, Lohan’s attorney, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. According to the charging documents, an investigator spoke to Lohan on April 8, 2021, when he denied being involved in patient brokering.…
WHEN WILL IT STOP? – April 22, 2021 – Data analysis published in the American Journal of Public Health, which analyzed overdose deaths across 31 states, found West Virginia’s increase during that month to be significantly higher than any other state. “I wish I could say I’m surprised, but I’m not,” said Jon Dower, the executive director of West Virginia Sober Living and an adjunct professor at West Virginia University. “People lost in-person services and they lost stability.” The deaths, according to the data provided by the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, were driven primarily by an…
IMAGINATION – April 19, 2021 – From the outside, she said, she was keeping it all together, but internally, she said she realized she was “not doing so good.” But Taylor, who now considers herself in recovery, realized when she stopped drinking how integral it had been to both her social and business lives. She was inspired to learn about drink options for people in recovery that would still allow them to feel included, and came up with a few nonalcoholic “mocktail” recipes while researching business options. Taylor also wondered, after working for years in tech, if she was ready…
HIGHER POWER WORKS – April 22, 2021 – At the age of 20, Barr was held down by a group of friends while they injected heroin into his veins, which started his 22-year drug addiction. At the height of his addiction and during his darkest hour, his father came to him. He didn’t start preaching at Barr, telling him that he needed to quit. He didn’t talk about the hurt and the pain that Barr was causing his family. He didn’t even tell Barr about the damage that he was doing to himself. He just opened the Bible to a…
WATCH – ALL IN A DAY’S WORK – April 23, 2021 – Said Aronberg, “Mr. Lohan was investigated by our Sober Homes Task Force and he’s being charged with receiving kickbacks for referring patients to drug treatment. Patient brokering corrupts our health care system because decisions are motivated by greed instead of a patient’s needs. This is our Task Force’s 117th arrest and will not be our last.” Heidi Perlet, Lohan’s attorney, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. According to the charging documents, an investigator spoke to Lohan on April 8, 2021, when he denied being involved…
“We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed. Everything needs to change – and it has to start today.” —Greta Thunberg
LIVING BODY SNATCHERS – April 20, 2021 – Members of the Sackler family who own bankrupt OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma LP are worth approximately $11 billion, documents released Tuesday by a congressional committee show. Members of the Sackler family have agreed to pay $4.28 billion over the next decade as part of a proposal for Purdue to exit bankruptcy and settle thousands of lawsuits filed by states, local governments and individuals blaming the company and its owners for helping fuel the nation’s opioid crisis. Summaries of the family wealth, turned over to Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D., N.Y.), also were seen by…
“YOU’RE A GOOD MAN, ANTHONY BROWN” – April 17, 2021 – Growing up in Ohio to a single mother who was an alcoholic and suffered from depression, Brown never met his father and was the victim of severe physical abuse. On many occasions, his mother used an extension cord, and he recalls his worst beating was after he had stolen money from her job. She stood on his neck and beat him so much, she needed to take a break. He ran to a friend’s house, where she followed him, beat him there and continued to beat him on the…
NOW HE’S RISING UP – April 17, 2021 – Lost his business, his home, the car he was living in, and landed on the streets of Los Angeles. For about six years, home for him and his common-law husband was a lean-to near 7th and Hobart in Koreatown. And like a lot of L.A.’s sizable homeless population, Pleasants was addicted to methamphetamine, a cheap and abundantly available drug. “It always felt to me like I’d fallen off a fire escape, and once you get on the ground, the ladder is 12 feet up in the air,” Pleasants told me. “I…
MAKING MONEY BURYING OUR CHILDREN – April 16, 2021 – J&J in a statement called its marketing of the drugs “appropriate and responsible,” Israel-based Teva said it will defend itself against these “unproven allegations.” Endo and Allergan declined to comment. More than 3,400 lawsuits brought largely by states and local governments are pending against companies accused of fueling the opioid epidemic. The state of Oklahoma in 2019 won a $465 million judgment against J&J in only such trial so far. Opioid cases that were set to go to trial in 2020 were put off as a massive new public health…
I LOVE YOU LIKE CRAZY April 15, 2021 – I remember receiving my diagnosis clearly; it was May 2014. I was 33 years old. I was seated across from a man I’d never met before, after being involuntarily hospitalized. One way to get involuntarily hospitalized, I discovered, is by attempting to flee the ER, wearing only a hospital gown and men’s tube socks, possessing the sudden belief that humans can fly. My sister took me to the ER after I announced on Facebook that I had a very important meeting with then-President Barack Obama; we were going to discuss health care. I…
ONE ON ONE – April 3, 2021 – Peers are a growing workforce in behavioral health, with an estimated 30,000 or so workers employed nationwide. Additionally, over three-quarters of states reimburse peer services through Medicaid, but not all payers are as progressive. Still, she stressed their importance to providers in the space. “These are people with lived experience [dealing] with substance use and mental health,” Knutson said. “Bring in peers to help align with people [and meet] them in the community. These are … things that we can do to help improve the access and … the quality of care…
ROYAL BLOOD – April 16, 2021 – “There are people in my life now who have got sober, and now helping fucking crack addicts,” says Kerr. “It’s amazing. Someone reached out to me that way. I feel like I have a responsibility to myself through lyric-writing. It was important for me to be open about it, because I know I’m not alone in these experiences. I had the confidence to do that because I was clean and sober. I didn’t need to hide behind anything any more. When the album comes out I’ll probably feel like, ‘Oh my goodness! Here’s…
SMOKE GETS IN THEIR EYES – April 7, 2021 – “No one noticed at first,” the comic reads in the beginning. “The changes were subtle.” So subtle, in fact, that a basketball player emanates billowing clouds of green gas from his body as his teammate, terrified, looks up at him from the floor. It only gets worse. A girl who “usually maps out her whole year before breakfast” has no summer plans. The basketball player can’t make a shot. Oblivious to this looming threat, two young scientists in the school lab—Javier and Amy—have meanwhile invented a device to see into…
IT’S ALL IN THE BOOK – April 12, 2021 – Audrey told me they fought a lot when he stayed with her. She didn’t want him doing drugs in her house, and often noticed cash missing. “I was so furious with him when you were there over the weekends and I could tell he was high,” she told me, her voice cracking a little. She said that she was never sure if he actually liked her or if he just didn’t want to have to take a bus to work every day. She was not holding back. She was telling…
HAND TO HAND COMPASSION – April 14, 2021 – HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, New England non-profit, The Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery (CCAR), has developed an industry-leading training department that has trained a total of 55,000 individuals and grown markedly during COVID-19. Building on a history of service to the recovery community, CCAR has worked since 1998 to support individuals and communities affected by substance use by providing recovery support services, advocacy efforts, and training initiatives. The role of recovery coach as an integral part of systems of care for those affected by substance use disorder (SUD) has grown rapidly in the…
THE WORLD AT YOUR FINGERTIPS – April 13, 2021 – Peter T. has authored eight books, and very few folks know his full name. Such is a life and a lifestyle shaped by Alcoholics Anonymous. In early 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic slammed the brakes on most travel, Peter put the finishing touches on the seemingly oxymoronically named Liquid Sober. It was the seventh and final installment in a series of themed coffee table-style books showcasing how truly global an organization Alcoholics Anonymous has become – and how internationally binding its principles are for those living in recovery. Upon…
BOOZY ESSAY – April 15, 2021 – I got bored of so much drinking. One night, I looked down into my half-empty stem glass and sighed, like, “You again?” It became as monotonous as remote learning, and it wasn’t rewarding anymore. After the first few sips, I found myself chasing a feeling that had abandoned me, like trying to feel the heat of the sun after it had set. The second and third glasses just made that wonderful sunny feeling, and all feelings, more elusive. The evening slid by in a haze of sauvignon blanc and streaming TV. In the…
WATCH – HARM REDUCTION ARGUMENT – April 15, 2021 – Five years after B.C. declared the overdose and illicit drug crisis a public health emergency, a panel of community advocates discuss how far Canada has come in its fight against illicit drugs and how much still needs to be done. more@CBC
FOR THE FEEL OF THEM? – April 2021 – Professor Andrew Gerstle teaches pre-modern Japanese texts at the University of London. He explained to the BBC the term might be older than you think – it can be found in print as early as 1879, meaning it was likely in use before that. The word “doku” can be used as a verb to mean “reading”. According to Prof. Gerstle, the “tsun” in “tsundoku” originates in “tsumu” – a word meaning “to pile up”. So when put together, “tsundoku” has the meaning of buying reading material and piling it up. “The…
WATCH – LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD – April 14, 2021 – “It’s always about how can you make the world a better place,” Irsay said. “If you’re involved in the business, in this case of entertainment – we are blessed to be the most watched and entertaining sport in the world. With that, I’m just really excited that we can go at this area and really try to help and change the world and society because really, in 2021 it is still not where we need to be, nowhere close when we look at mental illnesses in our society. It…
LISTEN – JUST ANOTHER KILO AT THE DEALERS – APRIL 14, 2021 – A joint report by think tank InSight Crime and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, an NGO based in Switzerland, said that the combined cocaine production in Colombia, Bolivia and Peru – the three largest producers of cocaine in Latin America – doubled between 2013 and 2018. Traffickers have increasingly focused more on Europe rather than the saturated North American market, the report noted, due to its “potential for growth,” lower risks of seizure of assets, as well as the lure of greater profits. (A kilogram…
LEAVING LAS VEGAS FOREVER – April 17, 2021 – “Clark County fentanyl deaths are on par with the “alarming” 30% increase in total overdose deaths in 2020, when 768 people succumbed to them, compared with 591 in 2019,” Pelletier said, adding that 31 people were killed in the county in August, an average of about one per day. Last week, Metro Police announced the creation of the Overdose Response Team, a task force comprised of local police and federal agencies. The task force would pursue murder charges for dealers accused of killing clients with drugs. Another issue in Las Vegas…
ACTUALLY A NO BRAINER – March 29, 2021 – The new study, published in JAMA Pediatrics and led by a team of scientists at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, sought to gain a better understanding of how adolescent brains respond to a variety of recreational drugs. Previous research suggested that early exposure to marijuana, nicotine and alcohol might lead to faster development of substance use disorders. But the new analysis cast a wider net, looking at the effects of nine different drugs, including opioid painkillers, stimulants, marijuana, alcohol, cigarettes, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and tranquilizers … The researchers used data…
WATCH – UPLIFTING STORY – April 16, 2021 – “I know that it might make you blush a little bit, but they’re one of the things we don’t realize ‘oh wow that’s really a need’,” said Jessica Stump, the intake coordinator for Jill’s Place. Jill’s Place is a faith-based residential program in Lee County, operated through the nonprofit St. Matthew’s House. It’s located in Alva and can house up to 23 women at a time. They have a constant need for undergarments and hygiene products. She’s not the only one who goes there with nothing but the clothes on her…