Naked Came I – Oct. 24, 2019 – That band became the Red Hot Chili Peppers and persevered for three wild, shirtless decades, weathering the loss of members to addiction and attrition, not to mention the waning of alternative rock as a commercial force. In March, the band performed at the Great Pyramid of Giza, like Frank Sinatra and the Grateful Dead before them. In September and October, they played Rock in Rio in Brazil, a Formula 1 racing event in Singapore and a festival on a man-made island in Abu Dhabi. They’ve reached the point where traditional rock autobiographies…
Author: Leonard Buschel
The Daily Dose – OCTOBER 29, 2019 – Liquid Handcuffs: A Documentary to Free Methadone is a feature documentary, created by Filter Senior Editor Helen Redmond and Marilena Marchetti, that shines a light on the secretive world of methadone clinics. These clinics have been operating for over 40 years in the United States, but few people know what goes on inside. Methadone is the world’s most successful treatment for opioid addiction, and proven to cut the death rate by half or more when used long-term. So why is it still easier to get dangerously-adulterated street heroin than methadone? Mass media…
Being Sober Can Be Scary – OCTOBER 27, 2019 -Wearing a dark suit and a skull mask, the 47-year-old actor, who opened up about his recovery on Instagram earlier in the day, @benaffleckVerified – HA, you got me. I’m dating. But let’s be serious for a moment and talk about something that is actually important. I have been in recovery for over a year and part of that is helping out others. @themidnightmission is an incredible organization that helps those in need with housing, training, development and recovery. I’m making a donation today because there are people battling addiction every…
Let Them Eat (newcomer) Chips – Oct. 25, 2019 – Demi Lovato pulled off an incredible transformation for Halloween this year. The “Sorry, Not Sorry” singer unveiled her costume, channeling Marie Antoinette, in a series of Instagram snaps on Thursday. She created the look with the help of celebrity makeup artist Etienne Ortega and celebrity hairstylist Paul Norton. Full Story @GMA
“Being honest may not get you a lot of friends, but it wall always get you the right ones.” —John Lennon
Friendly House – OCTOBER 27, 2019 – Demi Moore has also been vocal about her battle with addiction and the toll it has taken on her family and career. The veteran actress walked hand-in-hand with Dunham through a flurry of flashbulbs inside the ballroom. After the other honorees — Friendly House Emeritus board member Marcia Harrow and meditation guru Bob Roth — accepted their accolades, Moore took the stage to present Dunham with the Woman of the Year Award. Full Story @ChicagoTribune
NYC Installing Toll Booths in Downtown Sewers? – OCT. 24, 2019 – They constructed a tiny car out of a clear plastic food container on wheels, with an aluminum floor and three copper bars functioning as a steering wheel. When a rat stood on the aluminum floor and gripped the copper bars with their paws, they completed an electrical circuit that propelled the car forward. Touching the left, centre or right bar steered the car in different directions. The team encouraged the rats to advance their driving skills by placing the food rewards at increasingly distant points around the arena.…
Teamwork – Oct. 10, 2019 – It was just really cool that somebody went out of their way to have that made,” said Waller, who keeps the coin in his backpack. “That was incredible. People that are fighting the same fight as us. It’s a serious thing. It’s a brotherhood. It’s a sisterhood. We try to look out for one another, and that was just a small token of it. You learn how to be generous in recovery, so that was incredible.” The Raiders’ tight end’s story of addiction and recovery went viral when “Hard Knocks” cameras followed him to…
Warm Turkey – October 10, 2019 – Entirely discontinuing opioids for a chronic pain patient is not always appropriate, according to the guidelines: “Unless there are indications of a life-threatening issue, such as warning signs of impending overdose, HHS does not recommend abrupt opioid dose reduction or discontinuation.” Giroir says the agency’s move to issue these guidelines is a reflection of the current data. “There is a very large body of data across the scientific and medical literature that would say that abrupt discontinuation or abrupt reduction in dosage can be harmful to patients,” says Giroir. Still, he says…
Someone You Know? – October 18, 2019 – But if a friend or loved one’s behaviors change or they start to withdraw and you feel worried, “trust your gut,” says Dr. Christine Moutier of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. “If they are talking about feeling trapped, like they’re a burden to others, overwhelmed, hopeless, desperate, in pain, any of those indicators, that is your cue to be able to say, ‘When you talk about that level of pain or desperation’ — use their words — ‘it makes me wonder if you’ve thought of ending your life.’” It’s a “complete…
Bamboozling Women Daily – Oct. 18, 2019 – “There’s a lot of money to be made,” said Dr. Steven Woloshin, director of the Center for Medicine and Media at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, who published a study in January showing that the health care industry spends $30 billion a year on marketing. KHN’s investigation shows that industry money has shaped policy, public opinion and patient care around 3D by: Paying influential doctors. In the past six years, 3D equipment manufacturers – including Hologic, GE Healthcare, Siemens Medical Solutions USA and Fujifilm Medical Systems USA…
Lame Excuses – October 16, 2019 – For instance: 62% of surveyed physicians think the opioid crisis could well be supplanted by some other sort of prescription drug addiction epidemic. Then there’s the matter of trust and confidence. While 72% of doctors think their patients can be relied on to take opioid medications as prescribed, other data show that 51% of patients misuse them. To complicate matters, doctors are largely hesitant (81% of them, according to the report), aren’t exactly willing to “take on” patients who are prescribed opioids. That may well have to do with a balance of chronic…
CA Cookies Anonymous or OA? – October 18, 2019 – They’re not only delicious, but they can also be dangerously addictive. A 2013 paper published by researchers from the University of Bordeaux suggests the ingredients in a chocolate chip cookie triggers the same addictive response in the brain as cocaine and marijuana. A traditional chocolate chip cookie contains 2.5 teaspoons of sugar, which the study says induces some of the same responses as cocaine. As for chocolate, it contains small amounts of a compound that trigger the same part of your brain as the addictive ingredient marijuana, THC, the study…
Who Won The War? – Oct. 19, 2019 – Unlike in the United States, where these pills are commonly dispensed after surgeries and medical procedures, opioids have never emerged as a front-line medical treatment in Germany. “Among the most important reasons we do not face a similar opioid crisis seems to be a more responsible and restrained practice of prescription,” said Dr. Peter Raiser, the deputy managing director at the German Center for Addiction Issues. Doctors must first try alternative treatments, which the nation’s universal health insurance system typically covers. Before prescribing opioids, physicians must get special permission and screen…
The Heroin Journey – Oct. 19, 2019 – His addiction led him to the some of the shadiest parts of Eureka where he saw young girls strung out and preyed upon by older men. He bought drugs in horrifying situations with stacks of guns and cash sitting next to piles of heroin and meth. His addiction and lifestyle led to him getting stabbed four times in the stomach behind the Bayshore Mall when he was caught by a rival group transporting heroin in Eureka. But that is in his past now. Henderson — the Outpost is withholding his real…
Death Match – Oct. 16, 2019 – Tobacco smoking causes about half a million U.S. deaths annually, of which 50,000 are among nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke (3, 4). More than half of all long-term smokers die from a tobacco-caused disease, with an average loss of at least 10 years of life (3). Smoking causes 87% of lung cancer deaths, 61% of pulmonary disease deaths [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and emphysema], and one in three cancer deaths. In the 50 years following the U.S. Surgeon General’s first report on tobacco (1964–2014), 20 million Americans died from smoking, and an…
In New York, Nov. 7. Village East Cinema – October 16, 2019 – Taron Egerton may not have been the obvious choice to play the pop star, but through movies like “The Kingsmen,” he has proven he has a particular charm and charisma that make him ideal. And factoring in his singing and dancing skills, his performance becomes something truly special. Belting out such well known tunes as “Crocodile Rock” and “Saturday Night’s Alright,” Egerton gives one of the best performances in recent memory. His Elton John isn’t simply a musical genius who loves cocaine and shopping. He is…
Longevity Counts – Oct. 16, 2019 – Jen Carvalho, the CEO of Azure Acres, said the field of addiction treatment has undergone significant transformation over the past two decades. “There have been such dramatic changes in the treatment industry in the last 20 years. In some ways it is unrecognizable,” she said. In the past, alcoholism and addiction were viewed as moral defects or an inability to get one’s life together. There was a shift in the 1970s toward helping individuals maintain sobriety through more therapeutic means. According to Carvalho, substance use disorder treatment has been fully integrated into health…
He Wrote His Own Story – Oct. 20, 2019 – “Recordings, movies, radio, television: He would cast his presence over them all, a mob-culture Renaissance man,” he wrote of Martin. “And he would come to know, as few ever would, how dirty the business of dreams could be.” For Mr. Tosches, Martin was a celebrity who beat the unrelenting fame machine, the one that often ground stars up and consigned them to early deaths. (Martin himself died in 1995 at 78.) “I would describe Dean as a noble character in an ignoble racket in an ignoble age,” Mr. Tosches told…
No Rehab For You – Oct 19, 2019 – A community in Throgs Neck is celebrating a decision by the state to shut down a plan for a drug treatment facility that people had been protesting for years. Miracle City — a provider of health services for people with mental health and substance issues — operates a counseling center at 2800 Bruckner Blvd., where it was trying to establish outpatient services. The New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services, or OASAS, denied that request. The office didn’t specify why, but it issued a statement that says, “OASAS…
OPINION Curious? – Oct. 18, 2019 – Note that your brain calculates what you might learn in the short term — your long-term interests aren’t a factor. That’s why a cardiac surgeon who is passionate about her job will nevertheless find a conference presentation on the subject boring if her brain decides that the talk won’t add to her knowledge. Conversely, when a friend persuades her to watch a documentary on type fonts, her brain may calculate that this will be a rich source of information — and she finds herself fascinated. Full Story @NYTimes
Amen. – October 18, 2019 – Interview Highlights Pat St. James on the origins of the Serenity Song and Serenity ProjectI wrote it for a client who wrote a play called Recovery, which was going to play off-Broadway last year. And she was just talking to me about wishing that she knew someone who could write a song based on the Serenity Prayer, which is used in the play and as well as in many treatment programs. So I volunteered to do it, much to her surprise. Full Story @WBUR
Pat on the Head – Good Dogs – OCT. 21 2019 – Four large drug companies reached a last-minute $260 million legal settlement on Monday over their role in the U.S. opioid addiction epidemic, striking a deal with two Ohio counties to avert the first federal trial over the crisis. However, drug distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson and drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical fell short of a wider deal worth tens of billions of dollars to end all opioid litigation against them. The distributors, which handle around 90% of U.S. prescription drugs, will pay a combined $215 million immediately. Israel-based drugmaker…
The Promises – October 18, 2019 – Earlier this year, Pink released his song “90 Days” as a duet with Wrabel, and the pair performed the ballad together on her Beautiful Trauma World Tour while he was on the road opening her. And in September, the rising star released his soulful new EP One of Those Happy People, which he is currently promoting on his own headlining tour. “I don’t tend to look back often,” says Wrabel, “but it’s been a very onward and upward kind of path.” Here, Wrabel looks back on how his all-star collaborations — and his…
Honest Conversation – OCTOBER 16, 2019 – Eden Sassoon ended up in her closet hearing the voice of her dead father telling her to stop drinking. She’s now coming up on 7 years sober. In this episode, Eden discusses her sister’s overdose, the pressures of living under her famous hairdresser father Vidal, dating sober, and being on the cast of “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.” Full Story @KTLA
A Family That Heals Together… – October 16, 2019 – Addiction has touched the Douglas family in many ways over the years, and as Cameron shares in an upcoming memoir, Long Way Home, excerpted exclusively in this week’s issue, the journey has been anything but easy. Michael, now 75, checked into rehab in 1992 for “drinking and drugging,” Cameron writes in Long Way Home. The Kominsky Method actor’s half-brother, Eric, died of a drug overdose in 2004 after a long battle with drugs and alcohol. He was 46. Cameron’s grandfather, the legendary actor Kirk Douglas, 102, spoke to ABC News…
And Desire – OCT. 17, 2019 – Compared to research subjects who discussed their pain and opioid use in group sessions for eight weeks, those who focused on their breathing, bodily sensations and emotions showed evidence of reduced drug-craving and greater control over those powerful impulses. The brains of subjects who got mindfulness training also evinced a renewal of pleasure in people, places and things that typically falls away as addiction takes hold. The brain activity of those who attended group sessions showed no evidence of having recaptured a sense of joy in life’s positive offerings. Full Story @LATimes
Addicting Babies for Fun and Profit – Oct. 17, 2019 – Frequently marketed for picky eaters, these milks prey on parents nervous about the frequency and quantity of toddler feedings. They often make nutrient claims — “DHA and iron to support brain development” — but Harris said there are no legal requirements that these front-of-package claims be supported by sound scientific research. These products are typically composed of powdered milk, corn syrup solids and vegetable oil, with more sodium and less protein than whole cow’s milk. A Go & Grow toddler drink from Similac contains 150 calories, with 15 grams…
PLEA BARGAIN – Oct. 16, 2019 – The possible settlement that would include $22 billion in cash and $29 billion in drugs and distribution, according to two people familiar with the talks. Those involved cautioned that talks are ongoing and the parameters of any deal are fluid. McKesson, Cardinal Health and Amerisouce Bergen Corp would give $18 billion to be used for treatment and prevention over 18 years. Johnson and Johnson would provide $4 billion. Teva Pharmaceutical would provide $29 billion worth of drugs as well as money to pay for the cost of distributing those drugs over 10 years.…
To Drink or Not to Drink? – Oct. 17, 2019 – Drugs and alcohol aren’t the only addictions being plumbed for dramatic effect. “Octet,” a well-received a cappella musical by Dave Malloy that opened at the Signature Theater Company last spring, is set in a 12-step program for internet addicts. It’s a topic Malloy found himself writing about after noticing his own increasing time online. “I tend to make work on things that I’m obsessed with,” he said. Although he isn’t in recovery, Malloy said he visited a variety of addiction groups for research, including those dealing with sex and…