Lawyers on Legal Speed – Oct. 18, 2019 – Summoned to the federal courthouse here by U.S. District Court Judge Dan Aaron Polster, state attorneys general, corporate executives and lawyers for 2,400 cities and counties that have sued the drug industry failed to agree on a proposed $50 billion plan to settle the lawsuits. That would have averted the first federal trial of the U.S. opioid epidemic. Unless the three groups can resolve their differences in less-formal conversations over the weekend, the trial that pits two Ohio counties against six drug companies is scheduled to start with opening arguments Monday…
Author: Leonard Buschel
Dying for Death – Oct. 16, 2019 – A year and a half earlier, 2,000 miles southeast of Grand Forks, a young Drug Enforcement Administration agent in West Palm Beach, Fla., named Mike Buemi was deep into his own investigation. The target was a drug ring that had been importing a product unrelated to fentanyl called Molly. In D.E.A. parlance, Molly was known as a new psychoactive substance, or N.P.S., a catchall term meant to encompass the growing class of mostly synthetic drugs that looked and acted like traditional drugs but that had been chemically modified just enough to avoid…
Stocks Shoot Up on Opioid Fix – Oct. 21, 2019 – Under the deal, Teva agreed to donate $23 billion in opioid addiction treatment drugs and pay $250 million over 10 years. The company said there is an agreement in principle with a group of attorneys general from North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and other defendants. “The company is pleased to positively contribute to solving the nationwide opioid epidemic,” Teva said in a statement. “Teva has consistently committed to complying with all laws and regulations regarding its manufacture and sale of opioids. Shortly after the announcement, CNBC reported that attorneys…
Compassion Can Come From Anywhere – October 19, 2019 – The “Transformers” star hit rock bottom while making the movie, about a man with the genetic disorder who dreams of becoming a wrestler, when he was arrested following a drunken rant in Savannah, Georgia in July 2017, reports aceshowbiz.com. LaBeouf was ashamed with himself after the incident, which could have cost Gottsagen his first movie role if production had been shut down, and promised to give up alcohol while finishing the film. “I can’t look anyone in the eye,” he told The Guardian narrating how he felt after the arrest.…
Obituary: RIP Rep. Cummings October 17, 2019 – Born to a family of Southern sharecroppers and Baptist preachers, Mr. Cummings grew up in the racially fractured Baltimore of the 1950s and 1960s. At 11, he helped integrate a local swimming pool while being attacked with bottles and rocks. “Perry Mason,” the popular TV series about a fictional defense lawyer, inspired him to enter the legal profession. Full Story @WashingtonPost
“No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.” ―Alice Walker
All The Right Notes – Oct 15, 2019 -An interview with professor and best-selling author Brené Brown kicks off an eight-part Glassdoor podcast series called “In Pursuit” that tells the stories of “extraordinary people navigating life’s most pivotal moments at the intersection of the personal and professional.” “I’ve had nothing but detours. I graduated from college with my bachelor’s degree when I was 29, and if there’s one mantra that I live by, it’s ‘nothing wasted.’ I learned more about empathy and people in that 12-year journey of bartending and waiting tables and hitchhiking through Europe than I ever could…
It’s An Inside Job – Oct. 10, 2019 – Addiction can be extremely isolating, and despite the storylines you may see on shows like “Intervention,” overcoming substance abuse is very much an individual battle. You can have relatives cheering you on from the sidelines and friends who hold you accountable. You can have a spouse who knows your triggers and helps you navigate them like a field of personal landmines. However, regardless of how many stakeholders are invested in your sobriety, the only person who can actually do the work of staying clean is you – and it’s hard AF…
Relax, This is from South Africa – Oct. 11, 2019 – The month is well underway, and to help those who are wanting to quit alcohol, Thandolwethu caught up with a representative from Alcoholics Anonymous. In the interview, they chat about the work that AA does and he shared some of the tools that could help in a journey towards sobriety. See the full list of group meetings in KZN here. For more info, call Alcoholics Anonymous on 0861 435 7221. Full Story @ECR
Do Tell! – October 12, 2019 – When fellow musician Bob Dylan recently asked the flamboyant pop musician, 72, a technical question about his hit song “Tiny Dancer,” John didn’t hesitate to describe it in lurid terms. “Writing a song like that’s a bit like having a wank, really,” he said, in a recent article in The Guardian newspaper. “You want the climax to be good, but you don’t want it to be over too quickly – you want to work your way up to it.” Promoting his new autobiography, “Me” which is due out next week, John dishes in…
Keep Coming Back – Oct. 12, 2019 – CDC did not reveal exactly how many cases of relapse have been reported, but Ms Schuchat said they are aware of fewer than five such cases among the 1,299 that have been reported. At least 28 people have died in the vaping-related outbreak. A 17-year-old male from the Bronx who died from vaping-related injuries 4 October had been hospitalised twice. He was first hospitalised in early September and readmitted later that month. New York officials reported his death on Tuesday. New York health officials are investigating the products he vaped. In Utah,…
Dependency is a Devil – Oct. 9, 2019 – The electronic cigarette Juul was invented as a means to help its two co-founders quit smoking. But it’s surprisingly hard to quit the quitting tool. I found out 27 days ago when I took a final puff of my USB-shaped nicotine vape, which over the past year had become an extension of my arm. When I first picked up a Juul, it seemed innocent enough: I was out on a Saturday night and I felt itchy for a new vice. At 25, I had made it through most of my life…
Do The Right Thing – Oct. 13, 2019 – The news comes after DMX failed to show for a performance at Def Jam’s 35th anniversary party on Thursday. The rapper, born Earl Simmons, is no stranger to rehab facilities and he has been open and candid about his struggle with addiction. Back in 2011 he told TMZ that he had beat his addiction, saying: ‘I have 10 kids. I have to drive them in the right direction, so I let the cocaine go.’ But then in 2017, he canceled three shows so that he could again head to rehab. …
Paying Through The Lungs – Oct 12, 2019 – Companies like Prudential said that doesn’t matter. It will classify vapers as smokers, allowing them to charge higher insurance rates. “We see it as an attack on the industry to get us out of the way,” Landolfi said. “Why should insurance companies penalize people for trying to do something better? It’s just totally unfair to these people.” Landolfi said his business already took a big hit, amid the nationwide health scare. The CDC called the widespread vape-related illnesses a ‘very concerning outbreak.’ “After this last scare, our shop and a lot…
A Clean Hit – Oct. 13, 2019 – The Albany community heard from an addiction recovery advocate this weekend, one many know from Major League Baseball. Former star Darryl Strawberry spoke about his struggle with addiction at Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church. It’s one in a long series of speaking events for Strawberry who has spent years traveling the country to aid the fight against addiction. Strawberry says he believes the path to recovery lies in finding less destructive ways to, quote, “fill the void.” Full Story@SpectrumNews
Can This Be True? – Oct 9, 2019 – “I got to a point where I didn’t think anything would work,” Michel said, adding that his ex-wife, Johane Amirault, kept pushing their daughters to treatment. “I actually thought that this was probably hopeless and it was just a matter of time until the big disaster hits. But we had to keep trying.” Walled off from the rest of the American health care system, the rehab industry has failed to meet the same standards as other medical providers. Regulation, primarily by the states, is lax, letting facilities offer care that doesn’t…
Just Say No To ‘Just Say No’ – OCT 14, 2019 – Yesterday’s crisis was AIDS, caused by a virus spread primarily through unprotected sex. Today’s crisis is drug overdoses caused as people who use illegal drugs increasingly find the drug supply adulterated with potent fentanyl. And in both cases, education that emphasizes abstinence first, rather than pointing to pragmatic and realistic attempts to make behavior less risky, has proven to be counterproductive. Even mortality numbers look eerily the same. More than 700,000 people have died from AIDS-related causes in the U.S., and 700,000 people died from accidental overdose in…
It can App’en to anyone – OCT. 13, 2019 – You check the phone when it vibrates, when it pings, when you sit down to breakfast, get out of your car, get into the office, get in the elevator, get out of the elevator. In fact, Americans check their phones on average 52 times a day. Changing old habits or forming new ones is hard. Yet, some people seem to struggle less than the rest of us. Who are these people? Research shows that they understand how to make their habits work as a kind of “second self” directing their…
Sun, Sand and Sobriety? – OCT. 14, 2019- Bob Forrest owns Alo Recovery Centers, which provides treatment throughout L.A. County. He knows there are bad operators out there, but he says he has a good relationship with surrounding neighborhoods. “I don’t hide behind what’s called the Dole Act or the Disabilities Act which gives you the right to have a treatment center in a residential neighborhood. I like to talk to the neighbors, personally say this is my phone number. If there’s any problems, call me and a lot of treatment providers have done that,” Forrest said. “There’s great places…
Only One Boat – Oct. 12, 2019 – As Fromm says, it is to the very nature of a society we must look when seeking to understand the sources of mental illness or health. For ultimately, as humans, we are biopyschosocial creates, a fancy word that simply means our biology—including the biology of our brains—is inseparable from our psychological processes or from the social environment throughout the lifetime. The dynamic nature of what we call mental illness also means that healing is possible— it is the same dynamic moving in the other direction, from fragmented to whole. Healing is not…
On the Tobacco Road – OCT. 8, 2019 – “What bans like this are likely to do is increase the use of illicit products and decrease regulation, which ironically will expand the use of the products that are causing folks to get sick,” said Leo Beletsky, a public health professor at Northeastern University. Some officials have compromised by banning only flavored tobacco products, which are particularly appealing to young people and linked to the surge in high school use of e-cigarettes. A 2019 national survey by the University of Michigan found that 1 in 4 of the nation’s 12th-graders have…
More from Sir Elton – October 13th, 2019 – In particular, John opened up about the important role his drug addiction and eventual sobriety have played in his life’s story. Sir Elton explained that when he originally got into cocaine in 1974, his first taste made him throw up. However, he quickly went back for more—”Because I wanted to join in so much and be part of the gang, I went back and asked for another line,” he said. “Isn’t that crazy? But that’s what being a drug addict is, crazy. I so wish I’d never taken a drug. But…
Some are much sicker than others! – Oct. 10, 2019 – Brown provided her with Xanax knowing she was intoxicated, the affidavit says. The woman later told police Brown had sexual contact with her, and provided text messages showing Brown’s admission they had sex. The woman told police she was not in a romantic relationship with Brown and any sexual contact was unwanted and nonconsensual, according to the affidavit. Brown later denied sexual intercourse with the woman, but admitted to Olathe police that he sent the text messages saying he was, “sort of in a fantasy world” and that “physiologically…
Colorful Recovery – Oct. 7, 2019 – Even though it’s gonna be 12 years in July that I celebrate being clean from drinking and drugs, I still clearly remember the physical pain from withdrawals, the profound desire to die, and the overwhelming sense of loneliness I felt that day I decided to quit. You quickly realize who your real friends are when you make such big changes. And to be honest, I was left with almost no one. On day two of detoxing, I was failing to talk myself out of killing myself when a friend came over, and found…
A Safe Projection Sight – October 9, 2019 – Stories of addiction and recovery are inherently dramatic, traumatic and, occasionally, laugh-out-loud funny — which is why the former pot dealer/current drug and alcohol counselor along with writer/producer Robert Downey, Sr. started Writers in Treatment in 2008: to tell those stories. From Writers in Treatment sprang the REEL Recovery Film Festival, because great stories make great movies. Full Story @HollywoodTimes
One man’s ceiling… – 10/11/19 – Vin LoPresti, a stroke survivor, wrote that he took prescription opioids until 2017, when he said federal regulations made the drugs too difficult to obtain. Since then, medical cannabis helped, but it’s become less effective, and more expensive, the more his condition deteriorates. “Currently, I spend most of my time in my home and home city because everything else is too demanding. Meanwhile, I spend far too much money on Cannabis to control my pain,” LoPresti wrote. “In other words, my quality of life has gone seriously downhill.” Terri Simpson said she used to…
American Horror Story – Oct. 11, 2019 – Cody is still homeless in Las Vegas and I have not heard from him in weeks now. Hearing how bad he is doing is hard but not hearing at all is worse. The unknown is what makes A person not sleep at night. It is hard to understand how someone who has families and children who love and need them live the life they do. I have turned it over to God and pray that he decides he is tired of living like this and wants to come home to get help.…
Waiting to Exhale – October 13, 2019 – “It’s about creating a balance of public safety and fairness,” Lynn said. “I’ve seen the tragedies resulting from impaired driving up close. And I have a good idea how challenging it is at the roadside to know whether someone smoked pot recently. But I believe if someone is not stoned, they shouldn’t be arrested.” Blood tests for marijuana can return a positive result even if someone has used cannabis within the last three weeks. Lynn claims that his device can detect whether someone has smoked or ingested a marijuana edible within the…
C is for Compassion – October 10, 2019 – Salia explains that addiction is “getting attracted to something so you keep doing it over and over again. It makes people feel like they need drugs and alcohol to feel OK.” She then discusses her parents’ recovery mechanisms, including journaling, drawing and meditation. “It feels good to help other children who went through what I went through,” she says. “I’m proud of Mom and Dad for asking for help and not using drugs and alcohol anymore.” Creators of the show — which has tackled homelessness, incarceration and death — said they…
Tasty Looking – October 12, 2019 – Psychedelic research, while promising, still has a long way to go to make up for the lost time that was collateral damage of the culture war of the 1960s. Both Grob and Nichols point to the credibility and respect Johns Hopkins commands as being key for advancing the field, even beyond the research that the center will eventually support and publish. (The large investment to fund the Center doesn’t hurt, either.) “I think this is very big,” says Grob, who admits to being a bit biased about Hopkins — he trained there, worked…