Author: Leonard Buschel

Stick with the Winners! – Leelee Stranger is a Finnish-American Film-maker, Actor and Playwright. Her debut play “REBELLION DOGS” was a semifinalist in the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Convention in 2018. She trained as an acrobat at Circus Pilots 2004-2005 (Stockholm,Sweden) and as an actor with Jim Parrack and Andrea Dantas at Playhouse West Brooklyn Lab (2015-2017). She played Blanche DuBois in a “Streetcar Named Desire” at College of Marin in California, before relocating to NYC. Credits include “Traveling with Ani” 2016 (lead, co-writer), “Auratus” 2018 (lead, co-writer), “Elf Meets Man- An exploration into modern dating” 2019 (Co-writer, lead, director),…

GOAL! – July 8, 2019 – Brian could not make the trip to France to watch his superstar sister because he is booked into a San Diego rehabilitative program that allows an inmate to finish the final 12 months of their sentence taking classes outside of prison, according to ESPN. “Megs, breaks my heart that you couldn’t fly me out for an all-expenses-paid trip to France,” the brother texted his soccer-star sister ahead of the games. She replied: “Oh yeah, so sad I couldn’t pamper you for a month in France.” Full Story @ NYPost.com

Hard Day’s Night – JULY 5, 2019 – How do you stay in such great shape? I get up in the morning and I meditate. I go to the gym and I have a trainer, and I work out myself too, when I’m on the road. I’m a vegetarian. When we’re on tour, to get out of the hotel, I usually go to the local organic shop just to see what they’ve got. But I’m only a vegetarian, not a vegan. I eat goat cheese. A vegan is very hard, and they eat a lot of sugar. I’m careful about…

Crossroads – July 03, 2019 – “I was in that darkness,” Hunter explained. “I was in that tunnel — it’s a never-ending tunnel. You don’t get rid of it. You figure out how to deal with it.” Hunter told The New Yorker that he started drinking socially as a teenager. He later picked up smoking when he was a student at Georgetown in Washington, D.C. He said he even once tried crack after it was sold to him instead of cocaine. But despite not using the drug before or having the correct drug paraphernalia, he used it anyway, stuffing the…

Life Goes On – July 5, 2019 – That was July of 2008. Eric Van Horn was fresh out of an addiction treatment center. Katie had gotten clean about a year earlier and met Eric, a painter from Washington Township, Gloucester County, while they were both in recovery and going to 12-step meetings in Ocean City. Eric grew up vacationing there, surfing off of Seventh Street, fond memories from a happy childhood that bolstered his urge to get sober. Katie said Eric was tall, good-looking. The usual. She was flattered by his attention too, because she’d thought so little…

“Talent is God given – Be humble. Fame is man-given – Be grateful. Conceit is self-given – Be careful.” —John Wooden

Native Americans on the Ropes – June 26, 2019 – Brittany lives in Sandy Lake First Nation, a small remote Indigenous community in northwestern Ontario that is reachable only by plane. (The patients in this article asked to be identified only by first names.) When her fourth child was born in 2017, the baby exhibited withdrawal symptoms associated with neonatal abstinence syndrome. “I noticed she was jittery, she couldn’t eat and wouldn’t suck,” Brittany said. “She just kept coughing and was constipated.” North America’s opioid crisis has hit Indigenous communities hard. In northwestern Ontario, opioid use affects up to 30…

Blinded by the Light? – June 24, 2019 – The President’s Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) just released a new report on how to beat back America’s opioid crisis. The CEA highlighted as potential solutions measures like curbing illicit drug trafficking, reducing over-prescribing in doctors’ offices, and cracking down on drug distributors fueling the epidemic for profit. Those are noble goals, to be sure. But the CEA report lacks one crucial element in fighting this crisis: nurse practitioners. About 72,000 Americans died from a drug overdose last year, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Over…

It’s Complicated – June 28, 2019 – I scooted closer to my friend, trying not to make it obvious that I was embarrassed talking about porn when strangers were within earshot. He didn’t scoot in. He actually leaned back, casually talking about his struggles, his journey, and how he’s been clean for years. All in a voice that was three notches above a comfortable volume. The women definitely heard him. But he didn’t seem to care what they thought. Then he said something that lurched me from thoughts of how this coffee shop would be much better with massive sound-absorbant…

A New Freedom Is A Lot Like Freedom –  June 26, 2019 – The shift to seeing alcohol problems on a spectrum has numerous good things going for it. It makes it easier for folks who are experiencing a few consequences — hangovers, sleep disruption — to acknowledge them and decide to make a change. And any change that results in having fewer alcohol-related problems is a decision to be celebrated. It moves away from the judgmental position that results in the question, Do you have a problem (or not)? And the new sobriety can include drinking a little, just…

Reduce HIV – June 26, 2019 – Braynon’s bill still bars state funds from being used but would allow counties and municipalities to divert funds to help support the exchanges. In order to participate, a county must pass an ordinance approving the program, enter an agreement with the Department of Health, and partner with approved organizations to operate the program. While critics have worried giving clean needles to addicts will promote drug use, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes the exchanges can prevent the spread of HIV and other diseases by ensuring addicts use clean needles. Full…

Can You See Bogart Vaping? – June 26, 2019 – A 2018 Journal of American Medical Association study utilizing past PATH data suggests that high concentrations of toxicants in dual users could be a function of cigarette smoking frequency. Out of 982 dual users in that study, 82 percent reported daily cigarette smoking, which was shown to be positively correlated with the presence of chemicals like NNK. The reasons for this phenomenon remain unclear. The JAMA study states that “Further investigation can identify contributing factors resulting in higher toxicant concentrations among dual users.” “The most likely explanation is that e-cigarette…

Profits Speak Louder Than Morals – June 26, 2018 – Some illegal drugs, including cocaine, heroin, cannabis and cannabis resin, were evaluated up to 30 years ago or have never been evaluated, Dreifuss said, which seriously undermines their international control. Asked whether these drugs should be reclassified, Juan Manuel Santos, the former president of Colombia, replied “yes”. “The scientific basis is non-existent,” Santos told journalists at an online briefing to discuss the commission’s report. “It was a political decision. According to the studies we’ve seen over past years, substances like cannabis are less harmful than alcohol,” he said. “I…

Cutting the Rug, Not a Line –  June 27 2019 – Joe started drinking a lot and then his life spiraled out of control. He was convicted of drunk driving and lost his license, his job and his home. He moved into a friend’s basement, but they were squatters and there was no heat. One night he took someone’s car keys without asking. “If I had got pulled over I would have been busted with a car that wasn’t mine, I was driving on a tether for drunk driving, wasted off my butt, completely annihilated,” he said. “I probably would…

Uncover Discover – May 2019 – When we finally make the decision to get sober, it is often because we’ve reached a point where we know we can’t sustain our lives as they were. We can’t hope to be happy or healthy if we continue making the same mistakes, perpetuating the same cycles of self-destruction, causing ourselves and our loved ones so much pain. We don’t know what the future holds, and we can be filled with extreme fear and uncertainty, but we know that we must make a change. Something has to give. We simply can’t keep going the…

May Affect Your Future – June 28, 2019 – Less than half of American adults are aware of the connection, which amounts to a “crisis” in cancer prevention awareness, according to an American Institute for Cancer Research survey. “The disconnect between alcohol’s impact on cancer and the awareness of that impact should raise alarm bells,” said Thomas Gremillion, director of food policy at CFA. “The industry has succeeded in putting a health halo around alcohol. The government has the responsibility to give consumers the scientific information they need to make informed decisions about alcohol, just as it does with tobacco.”…

Hollywood Ending – June 28, 2019 – It had all started when he was 11-years-old and started using marijuana. It helped him at a time when he felt uncomfortable in his own skin. And while he’s hesitant to call marijuana a gateway drug, it began his spiral into using many different drugs. He recounted a turning point for his struggle with addiction. One night, when Nic didn’t come home, his father David Sheff began dialing hospitals and police. He called so many times that he was told to call the morgue in search of his son, Nic said. ut…

Animal Enabling – June 28, 2019 – “Narcotics investigators arrested one man and are looking for another after they executed a search warrant Monday that yielded meth, drug paraphernalia, body armor, and a squirrel,” the sheriff’s office said on June 18. Paulk uploaded a video on Facebook after the raid from the apartment with the squirrel. He acknowledged that the squirrel is aggressive and had bitten people, but denied that the rodent was trained to attack. Full Story @ NBCNews.com

No Treatment Beds for Americans? – JUNE 29, 2019 – Nearby, a mentally and physically ill woman who uses drugs was in tears. Her tent had collapsed. She lifted her shirt and showed me a feeding tube, still attached to her belly button after a recent hospitalization. Around her neck was a tracheostomy collar, and the outreach team I was traveling with said she had to have it cleaned out recently because it was filled with maggots. The team called to get her additional medical assistance Friday morning. Across from City Hall, a pregnant heroin addict leaned against a…

Happy Hour at the Xanny Bar –  June 28, 2019 – …yet Xanax (known by its generic name alprazolam) often will differentiate itself by having a shorter half-life, meaning that it rids itself from the body’s system a bit quicker. Xanax usually stays in one’s bodily system for about 12-15 hours at a time. In addition, Xanax shows quick symptom relief – typically within one or two hours after you’ve ingested it. Like other benzodiazepines (benzos), Xanax is used to treat anxiety and panic attacks since it enhances the effects of GABA, a chemical found in the brain that creates…

Making a Living From Death – June 7, 2019 – Investigators, officials said, then moved in to arrest Yescas, Flores, and 34-year-old Ines Acosta, but all three tried to flee. Yescas jumped into a car that was being driven by Acosta, and they tried to flee the area by driving over a curb. The escape routes were blocked by other units, and the three were then taken into custody. The fentanyl pills, according to MCSO officials, were found in two large packages and had an estimated street value of $154,000. All three are booked into the 4th Avenue Jail on…

I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar – July 1, 2019 – On July 11, she’s heading to Mobilize Recovery, a leadership development conference in Las Vegas that helps local advocates around the country make action plans to combat addiction in their home states. The conference is headed by Ryan Hampton, a former White House staffer in the Clinton administration who struggled with a decade-long opioid addiction, and supported by a grant from Facebook’s Community Leadership Program. He hopes to give local leaders the resources to advocate for issues such as the need for more recovery housing and work to reduce…

Gone Surfin’? –   June 27, 2019 – One provision of the previously unpublicized agreement required the rehab to drastically cut the annual pay of executive director Mason Henderson, which had topped out at $500,000, far eclipsing his peers at other Hawaii rehabs. Sand Island agreed to increase the independence and number of board members, impose term limits on them and come up with a plan for Henderson’s succession. Henderson, meanwhile, was supposed to pay back some of the salary the consultant found to be excessive. In early May, a week after Civil Beat published an investigation of Sand Island…

#1 Killer, But is Now the Time to Quit? –   June 25, 2019 – The protesters say the ban dissuades people from entering treatment if they can’t smoke inside. They also say it makes people more likely to leave treatment early against medical advice and is causing people to get kicked out of treatment. Brooke Feldman, who is in long-term recovery and works as a social worker at an outpatient treatment center, organized the protest. At a time when Philadelphia is experiencing unprecedented overdose numbers, she said, the city’s addiction treatment centers need to meet people where they are.…

Stick with the Winners! – With over twenty years of experience, Wendy Adamson is a seasoned professional in the field of mental health and substance abuse. She not only has a vast knowledge of addiction, but as a sober woman, she has a deep understanding of the recovery process as well. Wendy received her Certification in Alcohol & Drug abuse from UCLA in the mid-nineties and has been helping individuals who are suffering ever since. Wendy is also a published author with articles in the Huff Post, Singular Magazine and the Fix.com. In May, Wendy’s debut memoir, Mother Load was released, that shares her…

MEDIA: Poisoned! Book Review – May 13, 2019 – At first, things went nicely. Hamied’s business, Cipla, founded in 1935, quickly grew adept at reverse-engineering drug formulas, and by midcentury it was supplying India and other countries with low-cost versions of important Western medicines. In the 1980s, when the United States began allowing the import of such generics, Cipla and other generic makers became heroes to critics of Big Pharma. This admiration grew when Cipla revealed in the early 2000s that it would provide an H.I.V. drug that cost roughly a dollar a day — about 4 percent of Big…

Moving On! – June 25, 2019 – As readers know, Bynes claimed last summer that she had been sober for three years, following a decade of mental health battles and drug addictions. At the same time Radar learned the actress ditched her longtime life coach just before entering rehab … This June, Radar learned Bynes was being sued by Creative Care Inc., a mental health facility located in Woodland Hills, California, for not paying $2,500 for inpatient treatment. The suit was later dropped. Full Story @ RadarOnline.com

Sure, why not? – June 29, 2019 – According to a study published in the journal Pharmacotherapy, common antidepressants interact with the opioid, tramadol, making it less effective for pain relief by a factor of three or four. These findings from University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center have important implications for people suffering in pain, as some are suspected of drug-seeking, but may in fact be under-medicated and just are seeking more effective pain relief. These findings also could help explain why some people exceed the prescribed dose of tramadol. Researchers reviewed the medication records of 152 patients at UH…

Where Two or More Are Gathered… – June 28 2019 – Saying almost every households are facing the brunt of alcoholism of members of their families, Manikanta said that alcohol use disorder or alcoholism is a chronic disease which destroys families and society as a whole. The habit of a man drinking from morning till dawn will have no positive impact on the family and society. This habit of uncontrolled drinking will damage his heart, liver and influence his thinking and actions. Such a person will only give pain to his surrounding, he said. He also criticised the “rampant use…

Another schmuck gets busted – June 26, 2019 – John Hanley, 52, was booked Monday night at the Palm Beach County Jail. He was released late Tuesday after posting a $21,000 bond. He is charged with five counts of patient brokering and one count of soliciting patient brokering. Hanley is represented by a public defender; that office does not comment on cases. A telephone call to a number listed for Hanley in a police report was not returned. The report does not indicate why Hanley just now was arrested. Under Florida law, it is illegal for a lab or a…