New Digs – August 14, 2019 – What our corporate team members all have in common is their dedication to best and most efficiently meeting the needs of our dynamic client population. In addition to providing our corporate team with individual offices and a reception area, Paradigm HQ also boasts a comfortable space for parent/teen education groups, monthly Continuing Education Unit (CEU) seminars for mental health industry professionals, and informational Q&A sessions with notable partners in the community. At Paradigm Treatment Centers we are dedicated to providing our clients with the best possible care and treatment available, and the quality…
Author: Leonard Buschel
Smart Devils – AUG. 15, 2019 – “By purchasing highly targeted strings of keywords that people are likely to use to find out more information about the articles, we can ensure that PurduePharmaFacts.com is at the top of a user’s search results,” a related PowerPoint presentation stated. “We’ve tailored the recommendation to capture only people searching for information related to the Times articles and to not interfere with Purdue’s marketing efforts surrounding OxyContin or spark curiosity where there was none before,” it said. Full Story @ LATimes.com
Guide This! – Aug. 16, 2019 – The Michigan Surgical Quality Collaborative and the Michigan Opioid Prescribing Engagement Network reviewed data on how 50,000 patients took opioids for pain management. New guidelines were developed for surgeons on how to prescribe opioids for nine common surgeries including hernia repair and gallbladder removal. About 12,000 patients were tracked across 43 hospitals. When more than half of those patients were interviewed about their pain levels, most didn’t report feeling an increase in them and were satisfied with their care. Full Story @ ACNews.com
Life in the Fast Lane – August 17, 2019 – This scary phenomenon even has a shiny new name: biohacking, a term that originated in Silicon Valley, a place where billionaires infuse themselves with the blood of healthy 20-somethings to increase their vitality; chill their bodies in cryo chambers; survive on meal replacement shakes like Huel and Soylent and monitor their blood glucose levels 24-7 with subcutaneous implants. Outside magazine has basically become the biohacking bible, featuring biohacker extraordinaire Ben Greenfield in many of its issues, including one last October that focused on every inch and organ of his body.…
Dealing in America – Aug 16, 2019 – Jonathan Paul “Smitty” Smith for insurance fraud and fraudulent use of personal identification. Smith said Tuesday he wasn’t familiar with the charges and couldn’t comment, but he did say, “I had no dealings with any pharmacies.” – Jessica Brosnick Silva for patient brokering. Her father, Glenn Brosnick, said Tuesday he was not familiar with the investigation and couldn’t comment. – Andrzej Jan Syzgiel for patient brokering, racketeering conspiracy, insuring fraud, money laundering and fraudulent use of personal identification. He did not return a telephone message. The report named other alleged participants but…
What’s In Your Device? – August 16, 2019 – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that officials are working with health departments in at least five states with confirmed cases — California, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and Wisconsin — to determine the cause of the condition after “a cluster of pulmonary illnesses linked to e-cigarette use” was reported among adolescents and young adults in recent weeks. In a call Friday with state health authorities, CDC officials said they were probing 94 possible cases in 14 states. To date, there is no consistent evidence that an infectious disease…
Alcoholic Mutants? – August 16, 2019 – Why do some people face a higher risk than others for alcoholism and drug abuse? A researcher at the OU College of Medicine, William R. Lovallo, Ph.D., recently published one of the field’s few studies focused on how a person’s genes contribute to addiction. Lovallo’s research showed that a tiny genetic mutation can put people at higher risk for alcohol or drug addiction. Many people ask whether addiction is caused by person’s genes or their family environment. The short answer is that it’s both. However, Lovallo’s research zeroes in on specific gene…
70,000 Less Job Applicants a Year? – August 13, 2019 – Paying more and asking for less to attract talent. Close to 40% of employers say they have loosened job requirements in order to recruit workers, according to a recent report from recruitment and staffing firm Adecco USA. “It’s an indicator of where we are and how hard it is to find talent,” said Bill Ravenscroft, senior vice president at Adecco, adding that it’s taking 10-15 candidates to find one who is qualified and wants the job. “A lot of these companies are also in a situation where they can’t…
Easy Come… – Aug. 14, 2019 – David Dennis is a chronic alcoholic with end-stage liver disease who was removed from the transplant waitlist. He has launched a formal challenge through the BC Human Rights Tribunal against the policy that transplant recipients must remain sober for six months before a liver transplant. Full Story @ CityNews1130.com
HIPAA, We Hardly Knew Ya – August 14, 2019 – “If providers are unable to get the full picture of a patient’s condition, it can often have tragic consequences,” Blumenauer said in a statement to Modern Healthcare. “The AMA’s recognition of this has provided momentum in Congress to make meaningful reforms that will ensure physicians have all of the necessary information to provide care to all patients regardless of the possibility that they are suffering from a substance-use disorder.” The bill was close to making it into opioid package, but the AMA expressly opposed it and the effort died. Then…
Tell That to the Police – AUGUST 16, 2019 – IN 1988, THE SUPREME COURT DECIDED A CASE IN WHICH THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS (VA) WOULDN’T GRANT MORE TIME FOR TWO VETERANS WHO WERE PRIMARY ALCOHOLICS—OR HAD ALCOHOLISM UNRELATED TO A PSYCHIATRIC CONDITION—TO USE THE EDUCATIONAL BENEFITS ALLOWED UNDER THE GI BILL. THIS TIME, THE AMA GOT INVOLVED BY FILING AN AMICUS BRIEF, WHICH THE COURT REFERENCED IN ITS OPINION THAT SIDED WITH THE VETERANS. Veterans must use their benefits within 10 years of leaving the military unless granted an extension because “a physical or mental disorder…
Northern Exposure – August 15, 2019 – Approval rates for safe injection sites and needle exchange programs were similar at 59 per cent and 58 per cent respectively. “Canadians who voted for the Liberal Party (77 per cent) and the New Democratic Party (64 per cent) in the last federal election are supportive of supervised injection sites,” said Mario Canseco, president of Research Co. “However, only 48 per cent of Conservative Party voters in the 2015 ballot concur.” Full Story @ CTVNews.ca
MEDIA: Book Article – August 16, 2019 – “I hope by disclosing my personal dysfunction, my mental malady, during and after my active drinking days, that I can put in simple words the experience of addiction,” Steele says. “I hope my story will benefit addicts, loved ones and all affected by addiction.” Steele was responsible for a car accident that took the life of the driver when she was 48. She was sentenced to seven years in prison. “Because of me, a man lost his life,” Steele says. “I cannot change what happened, but I can go forward honoring his…
Once A Star… – Aug. 19, 2019 – On using his struggles with sobriety to help others. “I had a big problem with alcohol and pills and I couldn’t stop. Eventually things got so bad that I couldn’t hide it, and then everybody knew… The interesting reason that I can be so helpful to people now is that I screwed up so often. It’s nice for people to see that somebody who once struggled in their life is not struggling any more.” … On the possibility of a ‘Friends’ reboot. “I have this recurring nightmare – I’m not kidding about…
Good News – August 20, 2019 – Today, SAMHSA released the latest data findings from the 2018 NSDUH. NSDUH provides estimates of the use of illegal substances, prescription drugs, alcohol, and tobacco, as well as mental disorders, treatment, and co-occurring substance use and mental disorders in the United States. NSDUH data also help to identify the extent of substance use and mental illness among different sub-groups; estimate trends over time; and determine the need for treatment services. Full Story @ SAMHSA.org
Not High In High Society – August 15, 2019 – The seventh wedding I attended fell on my one-year sober anniversary. At a cliff-side ceremony in Maine, the clouds rolled in. By the time the sun came out again, my friends were married. As I watched them exchange their first kiss as husband and wife, I realized that I truly didn’t want to escape. For years, I had been approaching weddings as just another night out, a chance to drink and dance with my own inner demons. But it took giving up alcohol to realize what may have been obvious…
Introspection Disconnection – Aug. 14, 2019 – Teenagers should get nine to 10 hours of sleep per night, according to Ashton. In addition, it’s important that teens keep their sleep schedules consistent, instead of skimping during the week and trying to make up for it on the weekends. “There are cardiovascular, heart disease effects, mental health effects to inadequate sleep,” said Ashton, noting that parents and medical providers “need to think of the long game” when it comes to teens and sleep. The study’s authors also recommended including “efforts to prevent or increase resilience to cyberbullying” as an intervention to…
11 Years and Counting – August 13, 2019 – #Jackass legend #SteveO tells @grahamwire how he got #sober, got through uncomfortable times and what those struggling can do. Full Story @ YouTube.com
Powerless Over Everything – August 16, 2019 – Grounded in the healing power of ritual, Schmidt’s peer-to-peer support group, Good Grief, mirrors the format of Alcoholics Anonymous. Schmidt, whose parents battled addiction, spent years in the support group Adult Children of Alcoholics. Similar to AA’s 12-step program, the Good Grief Network is based on 10 steps designed to help people navigate feelings of powerlessness in the face of climate change and other systemic social ills like racial conflict and gun violence. Wildfires are ravaging California. Heatwaves sweep through the U.S. and Europe. Extreme storms erupt with increasing frequency. As…
Please Sir, Can I Have Some More? – August 11, 2019 – “The person who eats 400 pounds of animal meat every year is treading on the environment for others, and so a meat tax could be implemented as a matter of protecting personal liberty,” he wrote. “Eating that way wouldn’t be illegal, but people who choose to do it would have to pay for the imposition of their choices on others.” Raising livestock is one of the most environmentally harmful activities out there, because it uses up so much food, water, land, and energy, and because cattle produce…
The Party Never Stops – August 16, 2019 – I KNOW. Drinking doesn’t make you cool is exactly what PSAs told us when we were kids, and it was an idea I railed against for 28 years of my life. Anyone who said that obviously didn’t know me; I could drink whiskey and beer, stay up all night, and party beyond reason. That’s fun—I was fun! I jumped off cliffs into lakes, I dove headfirst down icy driveways, I got in cars driven by people I knew were wasted and I didn’t say anything about it—see? Fun! Being not-boring—being cool—meant…
Good Morning Heartache – AUGUST 12, 2019 – When Prohibition ended in 1933, drug enforcers finally had a new agency they could call their own, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. This launched the career of its first commissioner, Harry Anslinger, the person most synonymous with the phrase “war on drugs”—in fact, the first person to use it—and likely the first person, outside of any royal family, to be referred to as a “czar.” Between 1930 and 1962, Anslinger established the standards that continue to serve as basic tools of the trade for America’s drug enforcement, such as dramatic drug busts,…
Removing the Smoke Screen – August 15, 2019 – Other color illustrations would warn smokers that cigarettes can cause heart disease, impotence, and diabetes. The labels would take up more than half of the front of cigarette packages and include text warnings, such as “Smoking causes head and neck cancer.” The labels would also be on tobacco advertisements. The current smaller text warnings on the side of U.S. cigarette packs have not been updated since 1984. They warn that smoking can cause lung cancer, heart disease, and other illnesses. These warnings “go unnoticed” and are effectively “invisible,” the FDA…
Paris is Burning…Crack! – Aug. 18, 2019 – “We had our share of burned cars, weed trafficking and prostitution,” said Rafia Bibi, a 59-year-old Tunisian woman who has lived in the area for the past 15 years, and who can see La Colline from her 17th-floor apartment. “But the violence and misery among migrants and drug addicts have made this neighborhood barely livable.” At La Colline, crack is available and on open display 24/7. Hundreds come every day to buy a smokable rock, known as a “galette” in French, for 15 euros, or about $17. Dozens of addicts live there…
Exporters of Death – AUG 18, 2019 – Over a period of a year, posing as an interested customer, I messaged with or spoke to 17 Yuancheng salespeople, sometimes for hours at a time. These were wide-ranging conversations that touched on the company’s products, practices, and working environment, and even the employees’ philosophies about selling such destructive chemicals. The salespeople called themselves names like Julie, Sean, and Demi, and, according to an article in the Changjiang Daily, were recruited in part for their English abilities. One salesman, the director of Yuancheng’s Shenzhen branch, told me that his Chinese name…
Finally, A Solution? – AUGUST 13, 2019 – The task force defined illicit drug use as both taking illicit drugs and using prescription drugs for nonmedical purposes — meaning for reasons, durations, frequencies, or in amounts other than prescribed. In 2008, the task force, which advises the federal government and makes recommendations for primary care providers, concluded that there was not enough evidence to recommend for or against screening in adults or adolescents. But after reviewing recent studies, it determined there are adequate tools available and sufficient care systems in place to recommend screening in adults, which can help…
“Sobriety is not a limitation – it’s a superpower” —Brene Brown
Riding Into The Sunset – Aug. 16, 2019 – That movie tells the story of two hippie bikers on a cross-country trip fueled by drugs and the thrill of youth and freedom. It came to be seen as emblematic of the freewheeling, anti-establishment spirit of the 1960s. Mr. Hopper directed the film, which featured Jack Nicholson in one of his earliest film roles. Mr. Fonda’s next appearance on a list of Oscar nominees was for best actor in “Ulee’s Gold” (1997), in which he played a beekeeper. Full Story @ TheGuardian.com
A Look Back by Leonard Buschel – August 6, 1969 – “Do you want to go to Woodstock?” Joe asks. “Well, we sure can’t go back to Atlantic City to do our radio show, might as well get out of Philly. It starts in a week. We’ll go a couple days early and get tickets there. We can scope out a good place to camp near the lake. We can take our rods to do some fishing. Maybe can catch some bass and throw them on the Coleman”. Bethel, New York was about 3 and a half hours from…
Ocala Style Magazine – July 31, 2019 – Everyone’s story starts before treatment. The deep emotional injuries we receive often go unwitnessed and unacknowledged. The hurt and the shock embedded by these painful memories can cause a sense of disconnection from our bodies and impair our ability to process our true feelings. At The Guest House, they strive to create an environment of emotional intimacy, connection and trust that allows us to experience real forgiveness and reconciliation. They believe sharing our darkness in a sanctuary of love and compassion is a birthplace of transformation. Full Story @ OcalaStyle.com