Happy New Year STOCKHOLDERS – January 1, 2020 – “Hard-working Americans don’t deserve to pay such high prices for the drugs they need. We are fighting DAILY to make sure this HAPPENS,” he tweeted in November. Many drugmakers had pledged to keep their US list price increases below 10 percent a year, under pressure from politicians and patients. Bristol-Myers raised the price on 10 drugs on Wednesday, including 1.5 percent hikes on cancer immunotherapies Opdivo and Yervoy and a 6 percent increase on its blood thinner Eliquis, all of which bring in billions of dollars in revenue annually. The company…
Author: Leonard Buschel
Island Relief – December 30, 2019 – Kirenia Medina: I must have been about 15 years old and my boyfriend at the time was 18. Every time we met up with his friends, it was pretty normal for a bottle to be passed around. Of course, one bottle wasn’t enough. In the beginning, I tried to keep away from it, but there were other girls my age in the group who were also drinking, and I didn’t want to be the odd one out. HT: Did your family know what was going on? KM: No, it was normal for…
Strumming Towards Sobriety – January 3, 2020 – The heritage of handcrafted stringed instruments runs deep in this tiny Appalachian village (pop. 770) stretched along the banks of Troublesome Creek. The community has been known as the homeplace of the mountain dulcimer ever since a revered maker, James Edward (“Uncle Ed”) Thomas, pushed a cartload of angelic-sounding dulcimers up and down the creek roads, keeping a chair handy to play tunes for passers-by. Hindman is the seat of Knott County, one of the poorest regions in the United States and one that continues to grapple with overdose death rates that…
Clarity NOT Claret – December 30, 2019 – The four characters sit around a kitchen table drinking endless glasses of gin and talking about love. And a lot more. Carver, often regarded as one of America’s greatest short story writers. was also a legendary drunk. He sobered up the last 10 years of his short life, dying at 50 from lung cancer. It got me thinking about alcohol and its complex role in American literary history. Undeniably brilliant, creative work has been written by dipsomaniacs. And just as undeniably, many a potentially brilliant piece of writing has been derailed by…
Actions Speak Louder Than Words – December 30, 2019 – Intentions matter the most. Where you’re coming from is the biggest determining factor of the end result. Intentions determine everything from the first action you take, to your commitment level, to how you finish. This is true for all your relationships, your interactions, and your personal habits. I first learned about the importance of intentions when I first “tried” to get sober in 2007. The time came time to make amends to my ex-girlfriend. I wanted to say sorry, but my intention was to get her back; that was it.…
Tension in the air – Dec. 24, 2019 – Benzodiazepines like Valium, Xanax, Ativan and Klonopin have been traditionally prescribed to treat anxiety and insomnia, but doctors have started handing them out as substitute for opioids, Calello said. “As a nation, we’re trying to cut down more and more on opioid prescribing,” Calello said. “Medications like this may be a substitute and may be more available.” She and her colleagues found nearly 297,000 benzodiazepine cases reported to U.S. poison control centers between 2000 and 2015. The proportion of cases rose from 17.7 per 100,000 children in 2000 to a high…
Opiates – Jan. 3, 2020 – On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 2,561 people have been hospitalized with vaping-related lung illness and 55 have died. That’s one more death and over 50 more hospitalizations from two weeks earlier … CDC says 80% of hospitalized patients who had complete information about their products reported vaping THC; 13% said they vaped just nicotine. Most everyone I talk to — even some doctors — say nicotine vaping and Juul, especially, is what’s clogging kids’ lungs. If it is, it hasn’t been identified by any of the many state or…
“Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.” —Rene Descartes
Couple of Swells – December 31, 2019 – Gimenez announced the news of her engagement to Ryan — the subject of the 2018 A+E documentary special Dope Man — back in June, taking to Instagram to share a sweet pic of herself and Ryan, which also showed off her sizable sparkler. “This just happened! We are engaged!!!,” she captioned the pic. “I Love You @TimRyanDopeToHope.” #TimJenn #PowerCouple #WeAreAForce #WeAreEngagedMyHusband #ILoveYou #Marriage #Recovery #Happiness #RecoveryDoesNoSuck #SoberAF #SoberIsSexy Full Story @ETOnline
Start the Presses – December 21, 2019 – Their reporting showed that when facility operators stand to gain from relapses, patients are routinely paid — in money, drugs, free flights, and more — to attend rehabs. Reporting on the dramatic increase in opioid addiction, from prescription pills to heroin and fentanyl, the Connecticut Health I-Team used data to show the effect in the Naugatuck River Valley. For example, one pharmacy in Ansonia sold 5.4 million pills, or 272 pills for every woman, man and child in the town. An MLK50 and ProPublica investigation into the rapacious debt collection practices of…
How do we do that? – Dec. 25, 2019 – There was so much we didn’t know about Victoria until reading her journal. Victoria had a weight problem in her early teens, but blossomed. We didn’t realize that she had an eating disorder and was using drugs to stay skinny and fit in. She tried so hard and got in with a bad group of people. That may have been her downfall. She started to hate school and was skipping class. I don’t think we would have known the true extent of her drug use without her sharing her journal…
Chew On This – Dec. 25, 2019 – In March 2010, McAuliffe, then 42, was arrested and booked into the Coweta County jail. He had hidden his cocaine use — which started when he was a teenager — from many in his life, but the father of five couldn’t hide any longer. He was the “Bubble Gum Bandit” and his mugshot made the news. “I just about ruined my life and my relationship with everybody,” McAuliffe told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. That isn’t where his story ended, and McAuliffe knows just how lucky he is. But moving beyond his darkest days…
TOO HIGH – December 23, 2019 – At Caron, the number of patients who were admitted with a primary diagnosis of cannabis use disorder increased more than 22% from 2014 to 2019. In those five years, people admitted to treatment for marijuana addiction rose from more than 27% of Caron’s total admissions to nearly 40% … Independence Blue Cross, the region’s largest health insurer, has seen claims for cannabis use disorder treatment rise substantially. Between 2012 and 2018, there was a 180% increase in marijuana treatment claims. That included a 100% claim rise for patients ages 19 to 25. Claims…
Home Sweet Home – December 25, 2019 – After years of anguish and many overdoses, the monthly medication Vivitrol has given Kaitlin her life back. “It’s so worth it. To be there for your family and yourself, your friends,” Harvey said. “I go to church. I’m there for the people at church. I pray. I feel like I’m someone God can be proud of again.” Cavanaugh wrote a book about their journey, titled “If You Love Me.” She also created an organization called Magnolia New Beginnings. There are 25,000 members in her online support groups. She said the best gift…
Father and Son – Dec. 26, 2019 – He continued: ‘This last time he made a promise & he stuck with it … One of our first Christmas Moments together & it was one to capture because he got his first pair of Jordan’s … boy was he LIVE!’ In the brief clip, the father can already tell what the gift is before opening the box of shoes. ‘I know this isn’t what I think it is,’ the man states. ‘I know this isn’t what I think it is.’ And once he opens the box of shoes – a pair…
Prison Is Not Forever! – Fall 2019 – In 2018 the McShin Foundation located in Richmond, Virginia started the Recovery and Reentry Program at RSW Regional Jail in Front Royal, VA. Founded with the help of McShin Foundation President and Cofounder; John Shinholser and McShin Foundation Assistant Director of Operations; Christopher “Cricket” Ronquest this program was born with a vision to effectively reduce Recivisim rates in the Virginia Prison System. Follow two of the former inmates in their Journey to a new life possible from release to life in Recovery from Peer-to-peer delivered Recovery Support Services offered through the Addiction…
Faith and Alcohol – 2019 – The Bahái Faith and Views on Alcohol The Bahái faith has clear views on drinking that prohibit members from overindulging or becoming tempted to drink alcohol. The Most Holy book states drinking wine is discouraged as it “causes chronic disease, weakens the nerves, and consumes the mind.” A weakened mind cannot make sound decisions both in a religious context or an interpersonal one. A member of the Bahái faith recalls the issues with drinking within the Bahái community. First, they recall the impact of generational alcohol abuse, citing the fact that children who see…
Watch Out Down Under – Dec. 27, 2019 – NSW was rocked this year when MDMA was involved in the death of six people at music festivals. The NSW Poisons Information Centre’s Professor Andrew Dawson said the new strand was extremely highly-dosed. The seized LEGO-shaped MDMA had an average dose of 150mg. “While one MDMA tablet/capsule alone can cause life-threatening toxicity, the risk is greatly increased if high doses or multiple MDMA tablets or capsules are consumed over a short period, or if MDMA is consumed in combination with alcohol or other stimulants,” Prof Dawson said on Saturday. “Hot weather…
House calls on the Homeless – December 28, 2019 – Though the city has worked to expand the availability of medications like buprenorphine, convincing people to enter treatment can be difficult. For people in active addiction, avoiding the pain of withdrawal is paramount, and can make long waits for a prescription or a spot in a treatment program impossible. Project RIDE is part of a two-year study looking at how to get addicted patients into treatment as quickly as possible. The van parks at Broad Street and Passyunk Avenue on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and provides free treatment for 30…
Getting the monkey off their (bar) back – December 29, 2019 – “What we do differently is that we have a safe place,” Pfeiffer said. “They can come and shoot pool; they come in here and throw darts; they can listen to music and they can even meet with their sponsor or other people in recovery … It’s a place to come have fun but not have the temptations of the elements out there. And that’s because this place is absolutely drug- and alcohol-free.” He calls his bar at 4416 E. Fourth St. the Cuffed Monkey with the premise for…
Cleaning up this meth – December 27, 2019 – Although it may not make headlines like the opioid crisis, deaths involving meth addiction are on the rise. In the U.S., overdose deaths involving meth have soared since 2012, while amphetamine-related hospitalizations have more than doubled from 2008 to 2015. Dwoskin says that while the opioid problem may be diminishing, the methamphetamine problem is on the rise. “In Kentucky, people who are studying opioids find that a lot of the people who, once they stopped taking opioids, they’re taking methamphetamine. Most people who use substances and have substance use disorders, they…
Wrong Time at the Wrong Place – DECEMBER 30, 2019 – When Thomas McCue moved into a “sober home” in St. Paul in 2017, his parents felt hopeful that he was finally getting his life back on track after years of substance abuse and depression. The 23-year-old had just completed intensive residential treatment and was preparing to return to college to study art and business. Staff at the sober home promised to help McCue with a supportive and “highly structured” environment that would be drug-free, his parents said. Five months later, McCue died of a fatal injection of heroin that…
If you work it… – December 22, 2019 – We spoke with recovery community members to learn what changes, if any, they’ve seen over the past year in their experiences with finding and receiving opioid addiction recovery services. “The Doorway is the entrance into recovery,” says Jason Barrows, one of six recovery community members, all Manchester residents, we spoke with on a recent visit to the Hope for New Hampshire Recovery center in downtown Manchester. “They get you into treatment, and really it’s up to you after that to continue with it. You have to put in the work.” Hope…
Savage Capitalism – Sept 4, 2019 – Full Story @DavidIcke
Call 911 – Dec. 23, 2019 – Among those with a drug problem, 2.1% had been arrested for threatening, attacking or sexually assaulting their wife, girlfriend or ex – seven times higher than average – the BBC reported. The alcoholics were 1.7% more likely to get in trouble with the law for such offences, six times higher than normal. England alone is thought to have 586,780 dependent drinkers, of which less than a fifth (18%) are receiving treatment, Alcohol Change statistics show. When it comes to drugs, around one in 11 (9.4%) adults aged 16-to-59 in England and Wales took…
In It For the Money – December 26, 2019 – “The opioid crisis has just presented such an emergency and it’s called for quick action,” Zimmerman said. “To the extent that it hasn’t worked, I don’t think that’s necessarily the fault of Judge Polster as much as just the extremely complicated nature of this litigation.” Thousands of states, local governments, school districts and Native American tribes have sued drug companies for aggressively marketing prescription opioid medications while allegedly downplaying the risks of addiction and overdose. More than 400,000 Americans have died during the epidemic that began in the 1990s. The…
Decision Time – December 27, 2019 – Speaking to an expert might be what you need to quit for good. While you might not find a rehab center near you that treats only nicotine addiction, most rehab centers for alcohol and other drugs are equipped to treat nicotine addiction. For a more personalized approach, try outpatient counseling that includes cognitive behavioral therapy and motivational interviewing. You can also use a free, confidential text or call line to talk to an expert about addiction. The National Institutes of Health offers both a call lineand an online chat system, and provides nicotine…
Hard Luck – December 28, 2019 – The youngest person receiving treatment for gambling addiction last year was just 15, according to the NHS data, as new technologies make gambling more visible and accessible for young people. Previous research by Regulus Partners revealed that nearly half of the £1.5bn spent on advertising by betting firms annually is on direct online marketing. Concerns have also been raised over the proliferation of ‘loot box’ mechanicsinside video games targeted at children, which encourage the spending of real-world currencies and simulate gambling activities. The Royal Society of Public Health recently called for loot box…
Not just skin deep – December 28, 2019 – But rather than turn his back on what were some of his darkest times, and the struggles he’s seen friends go through since, Oakhem has immortalized them in a massive back tattoo that depicts what he has seen the City of Quincy lose to the opioid epidemic. “It’s one of those tattoos that takes a lifetime of experiences to come to life,” he said. “It’s not sugar-coated, and it shows what the epidemic has taken away from me and from the Quincy I knew.” He was a self-described punk, a kid…
Serving Up Sobriety – Dec. 29, 2019 – Alcoholism had crept up on me, disguised as a friend to ease the social anxieties of newfound minor fame, a lubricant for awkward situations and parties where people I recognised from television peered over my shoulder while making small talk, looking for someone more noteworthy to flit off to chat to. I filled in trauma wounds with ethanol, I became louder, bolder, wearing my booze-soaked persona like armour against impostor syndrome and rooms full of thinner, more beautiful people … I found myself pinned to walls by household-name male journalists, who forced…