It’s a ‘We’ program – JAN. 9, 2020 – He also joked a little about the National Board of Review during his acceptance speech. “I know very little about the National Board of Review,” he said. “You guys have been around for a century? I know so little, other than you love films. I started to Google you, look you up and I thought, ‘Fuck it! I love films too. That’s good enough for me.” The Ad Astra actor joined Alcoholics Anonymous after divorcing Angelina Jolie in 2017 and has been sober ever since. In an interview with GQ Magazine…
Author: Leonard Buschel
“Whatever you’re meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always impossible.” –Doris Lessing
One pill makes you smaller… – Jan. 8, 2020 – We’re all familiar with the mind-bending properties of psychedelic drugs – but it turns out ordinary medications can be just as potent. From paracetamol (known as acetaminophen in the US) to antihistamines, statins, asthma medications and antidepressants, there’s emerging evidence that they can make us impulsive, angry, or restless, diminish our empathy for strangers, and… Full Story @BBC
Behind Closed Cells – Dec 23, 2019 – On June 3, Jimenez is accused of meeting Alberts in the parking lot of Legacy Emanuel Medical Center and giving him heroin, which Alberts then smuggled into the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility. “The cost of any narcotic inside a correctional facility is much higher than the cost on the street and jeopardized the safety of inmates there,’’ Gabriel told U.S. Magistrate Judge John Jelderks. Alberts, through his lawyer Stephen Doyle, entered not guilty pleas to the charges in U.S. District Court in Portland Monday afternoon. He’s been on paid leave from his…
I Woke Up Alone? – Jan. 1, 2020 – THE BENEFITS. Quitting an alcohol habit isn’t just trendy; it’s healthy. In a study done at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, researchers found that people who took part in a Dry January reported higher energy levels and healthier body weight than their drinking counterparts. And after a month of abstaining, their desire to drink fell, lasting several months after participating in the study. If you ask anyone who’s done an alcohol-free experiment, they’ll likely tell you that they do feel better. My biggest, most immediate improvement was sleep.…
Death don’t have no mercy in this life – December 31, 2019 – Losing a loved one to drug addiction can be difficult, but a local group gets together at the end of each year to celebrate the life and memories of their dearly departed. It’s a story that’s become all too familiar across the country, and it’s a story that some want you to remember. “Cody first started with pills and marijuana,” Tracy Burtis, Cody’s mother and the Founder of Families Fighting Addiction, says. Drug addiction isn’t just a statistic. It has a name and a face. “The addiction…
New Doors to Open – Jan. 1, 2020 – Richardson said it can be problematic for a recovering alcoholic to be in a place that reeks of beer or is full of rowdy drunk people — but they might feel like they have to put up with it if they want to keep hanging out with their friends. She said getting sober in a city like Halifax can be challenging. “Before I quit … I said I can’t get sober because I live in a port city, there’s universities, everyone drinks. It’s just part of our culture,” she said. “It’s…
Addicts’ Lives Matter – December 31, 2019 – Watch his story on the news:… Full Story @KRCRTV
Profile in Courage – Dec. 31, 2019 – Drug and alcohol addiction began at his home in Chamblee when he wasn’t yet a teenager, most likely triggered by the traumatic deaths of his adoptive father and grandfather. Addiction proceeded to consume his life for decades. It led to estrangement from his family, homelessness, a failed marriage. Working in restaurants, he easily fed his need for booze and drugs — caring for patrons while letting his own well-being suffer … Thanks to intervention by his restaurant colleagues, as well as his own efforts in recovery, Palmer is a success story and…
Speedy Results? – Dec. 31, 2019 – The research team said that the people who stopped taking opioids once are now taking methamphetamine. People are who are addicts to substances, they are having substance use disorders and they don’t take only one drug. The methamphetamine problems seem to be worse than that of opioid and they are not that much prepared to control the meth crisis. There are no such medications available to treat meth addiction. Drugs that control the opioids crisis like Suboxone and Vivitrol can be useful when prescribed with proper counseling and other behavior therapies, a practice…
Less Is More – December 31, 2019 – Some 24 million people are in long-term recovery, having benefited from treatment, recovery support and/or a variety of mutual aid organizations. Considerable innovation occurs regularly in the system, including motivational/cognitive-behavioral approaches, recovery community organizations, and harm reduction strategies such as needle exchange and naloxone distribution. The addiction and recovery field can justifiably point to the success of its evolution and the important outcomes that benefit so many Americans. Notwithstanding the above, however, there is a problem at the core of this enterprise that has long been avoided and now requires systematic and…
Time Out – JANUARY 3, 2020 – The team’s decision to end my role forced me to look into the mirror and decide whether I wanted to continue living a damaging lifestyle or get help. I decided to get help. I turned to professionals in the field of alcohol abuse for their guidance and counseling. It has been an overwhelming and a very humbling experience knowing that I am not alone. “Today, with the unconditional support of my wife and family, and many close friends, I took another step forward by admitting myself into an inpatient residential program, where I…
Unemployment Kills – January 2, 2019 – She was curious how the regional decline might have shaped her subjects’ politics. But she quickly noticed a startling trend alongside the growing unemployment: Her subjects and their families were struggling with opioid abuse. At community meetings, doctors and coroners would debate solutions to the problem. Should they be arresting people? Should they be creating support groups? She describes one desperate parent who asked whether Donald Trump’s proposed border wall would keep black tar heroin from getting to Pennsylvania. Silva’s interviewees might have been representative of an awful connection between job loss and…
Brain Salad Surgery – Jan. 2, 2020 – Ryan says that could compel a teen to use gaming as a means of coping that could eventually affect other aspects of their lives. “When your kid starts acting like you don’t know that person and they’re behaving in a way that seems odd or strange or completely out of character.” “What is this particular behavior, in this case gaming, doing for the person or fulfilling for the person that any other ways they can’t get it,” said Arturo Hernandez. Hernandez is an addiction specialist, he said this change in behavior starts…
Everyone Can Heal – Jan. 1, 2020 – After multiple arrests for drug possession, Douglas’ most serious run-in with the law came in 2009, when he was arrested during a sting at the Gansevoort Hotel in Manhattan. He pleaded guilty to heroin possession and conspiracy to distribute drugs and was sentenced to five years — only to be slapped, in 2011, with an additional 4.5-year sentence for possessing items that tested positive for cocaine and heroin, which he scored from fellow inmates. (Douglas was granted early release in 2016 and transferred to a halfway house). It was during his final…
Food for Thought – Jan. 3, 2020 – Tindal estimates that she was around 340 lbs. when she went away for college. There, unlike most freshmen, she started losing weight. “I was around people all the time so I couldn’t really hide food, and I didn’t feel inclined to,” she says. “I was busy and walking everywhere, and I felt like I had more choices in what I was eating. I kind of had the opposite of the freshman 15.” Those changes were largely physical, but Tindal noticed that her mindset was shifting, too. “I was finding myself,” she says.…
That’s Depressing – Jan. 5, 2020 – Many antidepressants lower libido and interfere with sexual pleasure. There is even a medical name for this condition: treatment emergent sexual dysfunction (TESD). The official prescribing information for drugs like fluoxetine minimizes this problem. For example, the DailyMed data on Prozac (fluoxetine) suggests an incidence of 3% to 11%. Studies in healthy volunteers, on the other hand, indicate that between 50% and 80% of people report sexual dysfunction (Journal of Clinical Medicine, Oct. 7, 2019). A few antidepressants may be less likely to flatten sex drive. Ask your doctor whether bupropion or mirtazapine…
OBITUARY – Jan. 3, 2020 – The result of her work, in 1999, was “Benzodiazepines: How They Work And How To Withdraw.” Now known simply as “The Ashton Manual,” it has become a cornerstone for those looking to quit the drugs safely. Addiction researchers worldwide still cite it in studies on benzodiazepines. And patient support groups have translated and distributed it in about a dozen languages. Dr. Ashton died on Sept. 15, 2019, at her home in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. She was 90. Her death, which had not been widely reported, was confirmed by her son John … “Heather…
Keep Coming Back – Jan. 3, 2020 – The attorney general’s office said the new agreement came after it found that Adapt Pharma, which has since been bought by Rockville, Maryland-based Emergent, had the exclusive rights to sell the drug using Aptar Pharma’s nasal spray technology. The drug is still in the pipeline and is not on the market, though. “Given the tragic, devastating effects of the opioid crisis, and the urgent need for additional drugs for the emergency treatment of opioid overdoses, my office will do whatever possible to ensure that there are no unnecessary impediments to the development…
There is no money in good health – Jan. 5, 2020 – That’s the conclusion of two Princeton University economists, Angus Deaton and Ann Case, who have been studying opioid addiction. In a panel discussion of their new book, “Deaths of Despair,” at the American Economic Association annual meeting this weekend, Case and Deaton said the crisis was caused by the healthcare system. Pharmaceutical companies introduced the product and set something in motion that was hard to stop. Doctors were too careless prescribing the drugs, and the Food and Drug Administration didn’t stop to think how the drugs would influence…
The United States of Despair – January 2, 2020 – Everyone has his or her own definition of a political crisis. Mine is when our collective mental health starts having a profound effect on our politics — and vice versa. It cannot be a simple coincidence that the two have declined in tandem. The American Psychiatric Association reported that from 2016 to 2017, the number of adults who described themselves as more anxious than the previous year rose 36 percent. In 2017, more than 17 million American adults had a new diagnosis of a major depressive disorder, as well as…
It’s No Longer a Crime to Inhale – Jan. 1, 2020 – “The war on cannabis has destroyed families. It has filled jails and prisons with nonviolent offenders. It has disproportionately affected black and brown communities,” Pritzker said at a press conference Tuesday. Forty-three marijuana stores in Illinois have received permission to sell recreational cannabis. Buyers must be 21 years of age and show a valid state ID or driver’s license. Recreational cannabis is also fully legal in Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Vermont. More than 30 states allow the sale of marijuana for medical…
Medications Make Mad Money – Dec. 31, 2019 – At recent conferences about correctional health care, Merck, Gilead, AbbVie, and other big pharmaceutical companies have staged “product theaters” or “education luncheons” that show how their products could help treat inmates. The criminal-justice system isn’t just a lucrative market because of current inmates; it also introduces incarcerated people to medication that they might continue using after they’re released. (The full cash price of Aristada is about $1,300 for a four-week shot. The drug is covered by Medicaid and Medicare but can still require hefty copays.) Full Story @TheAtlantic
63 out of 100 – December 31, 2019 – When state epidemiologist Amy Curtis became chief administrator of the health department’s Adult Mental Health Division in July, she made a small switch in the clinic’s survey to get a more holistic understanding of methamphetamine’s prevalence by including a new question: Has this patient ever used meth? … Past surveys distributed to clinicians at the state hospital and 16 community mental health centers did not include specific questions about methamphetamine, and meth use tends to be underreported by patients on admission surveys. The epidemiology department found 63% of patients at the…
The Door Opens Inward – Dec. 30, 2019 – In 2020, my ReSOULution is to delve deeper into my soul and claim the space that I longed for when I had an eating disorder. I am writing this blog from Australia, where I returned for my father’s memorial service. I admit that this experience takes the ReSOULution concept to a new level. There’s nothing like the death of a dear loved one that encourages us to reflect on how we want to move on in life. My Dad was an amazing artist; he was talented and prolific. As children, we…
Keep His Side of the Street Clean – Dec 26, 2019 – In today’s addiction treatment field, the Big Book is still held up as the primary text and answer for people with addiction. The field is split between those who feel that treatment should be for a spiritual malady and those who believe addiction is a biological illness. I’m caught in the middle. As a recovering person who has learned how to effectively use step work, some of my colleagues tell me that the program should play no role in addiction treatment. As a doctor who uses medicine in…
Not Roll Models – January 3, 2020 – “These findings represent an ideal of beauty that continuously moves further away from the characteristics of the average American woman,” says a news release accompanying the study. Victoria’s Secret did not reply to an emailed request for comment. In 2019, with ratings low, Victoria’s Secret canceled the fashion show, saying it needed to evolve and be rethought for a new media era. Full Story @WBUR
Poetry Lives – 2019 – As a 16-year-old student who had never been in trouble, Betts hijacked a car at gunpoint, confessed to the crime, was “certified” an adult despite his age, and sentenced to nine years in prison, serving eight years and three months. He spent 14 months in solitary confinement for various infractions against spoken and unspoken rules (such as cursing and touching a guard’s arm). One day someone slipped an anthology of poetry under his cell door: “The Black Poets,” edited by Dudley Randall, Detroit’s first poet laureate. Betts had already been writing, but now began a…
Watched People Die Every Day – Dec. 30, 2019 – “What’s surprising here is the design of the program was deficient from the start,” said Caleb Alexander, the senior author of the study, who serves as a paid expert witness in litigation against opioid manufacturers and distributors. “It’s unclear why the F.D.A. didn’t insist upon a more scientifically rigorous evaluation of this safety program.” Dr. Andrew Kolodny, the co-director of opioid policy research at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis, said the safety program was a missed opportunity. He is a leader of a group of…
It’s the American Way? – Jan. 6, 2020 – Over a period of several months, both the FDA and the DoD were either unwilling or unable to articulate to me how an opioid made it onto a list supposedly reserved for life-saving medical products, when acute pain is not a life-threatening condition. (Medications that manage chronic pain can indeed be life-saving for patients who might otherwise be driven to suicide over time, but Dsuvia’s whole thing is that it’s for very short-term use only; you’re not even supposed to take it home.) The DoD offered conflicting or off-topic answers or…