Author: Leonard Buschel

Buddhist Ballyhoo – June 28, 2019 – Affleck sought treatment at Buddhist-inspired recovery center last year and, in his declaration, credited Levine with turning his life around … Levine says an anonymous woman filed a police report against him, though no charges were ever filed. Levine has since been sued by the organization for trademark-related issues, and Affleck filed a declaration in defense of him as part of the lawsuit … Working with Noah and his Refuge Recovery program has, quite literally, turned my life around,’ Affleck said in his declaration. ‘Today I am sober, happy, healthy and have…

Singing a Sad Song – June 25, 2019 – After “getting cheated on in front of the entire world, like, a billion times” and splitting with rapper G-Eazy for good, Halsey has a much clearer conscience and has seemed to find her purpose. She managed to stay atop the charts for 12 consecutive weeks with “Closer,” her collaboration with the Chainsmokers — and also landed her a first number one solo single with “Without Me,” an ode to her breakup with the Bay Area emcee. In the lengthy artist profile, the “Ghost” performer who has been an advocate for…

They Get It – June 28, 2019 – “Drug decriminalization will indeed be a critical next step toward achieving a rational drug policy that puts science and public health before punishment and incarceration,” Dzulkefly said. “An addict shall be treated as a patient, not as a criminal, whose addiction is a disease we would like to cure.” He said the move mustn’t be mistaken as legalizing drugs as drug trafficking will remain a crime. More than 30 countries have adopted a drug decriminalization policy and research showed that it didn’t increase drug use or drug-related crimes but helped to…

With Love and Respect – June 28, 2019 – “Yes, I have hope. When I say hope, I am extending it beyond the next meeting … I was ignorant that I could choose to live differently; it was not something I was exposed to,” he replied when asked if the program is helping him. Kerns, who is in the regional jail on a probation violation, said his path in life has led him in and out of jails and courts on various drug or drug-driven crimes. The RSW program, he said, was his first opportunity to be exposed to a…

Save the Children – JUNE 29, 2019 – “Hella Sketchy’s tragic passing is a devastating loss,” Atlantic Records said in a statement. “He was an enormously creative, sensitive soul who was just beginning to show the world his talent and originality.” The Texas native was found unresponsive on June 13 and was taken to a hospital where he remained in a coma until his death, his father said in a series of tweets Thursday. Full Story @ NYDailyNews.com

Impulse Shopping? –  June 26, 2019 – The first-in-the-nation model has a twofold purpose, health officials said: Beyond treating the withdrawal symptoms that can result from a naloxone revival, administering buprenorphine on scene could serve as an immediate transition to longer-term treatment. The bold program is without precedent in the U.S., but serves as a testament to many states’ increasingly aggressive and innovative efforts to reduce drug overdose deaths. And while the announcement came as a surprise to many addiction experts, most applauded the effort. Full Story @ StatNews.com

Call Al-Anon 888-425-2666 – July 1, 2019 – One fifth of adults — or an estimated 53 million people in the United States — suffer from other people’s boozing annually, making this “a significant public health issue,” according to a new studypublished in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. “One thing to think about with the 1 in 5 number is that it is only limited to a snapshot in time of about a year. So, probably more people have actually been harmed by someone else’s drinking at other times in their life,” study author Katherine Karriker-Jaffe, a…

Gov. Pritzker is a Saint – JUN. 27, 2019 – In the lead-up to this year’s election, Gov. Pritzker campaigned in support of legalizing recreational marijuana, insisting that from a financial standpoint, his law would funnel upwards of $1 billion per year into the state. Pritzker highlighted how the war on drugs was specifically hard on minorities whose lives were damaged as a result. “The war on cannabis has destroyed families, filled prisons with nonviolent offenders, and disproportionately disrupted black and brown communities,” Pritzker said, per AP. “Law enforcement across the nation has spent billions of dollars to enforce…

What Are the Odds? –   JUNE 18, 2019 -Researchers then spent some time examining mice under the influence of various doses of CBD. Some of the animals received lower doses, while others were given more. The dosage is said to have been “the allometrically scaled mouse equivalent doses (MED) of the maximum recommended human maintenance dose of CBD in EPIDIOLEX (20 mg/kg).” Shockingly, researchers discovered that the mice given higher doses of CBD showed signs of liver damage within 24 hours. To that end, 75 percent of these animals in the sub-acute phase had either died or were on…

“Man, who is he? Too bad, to be the work of God: Too good for the work of chance!” —Doris Lessing

Young Smart Addiction Profiteer – June 26, 2019 – Managers of Real Life Recovery, a rehab center, and Halfway There, a sober-living house, allegedly offered patients free airfare, rent, and other perks, and ignored their continued drug use as long as they maintained insurance that would cover the expensive and often unnecessary treatments and tests they received there. Some patients Lubowitz sent to Florida were given urine tests up to four times a week, each costing as much as $9,000. In all, prosecutors said, the scheme generated $3 million to $9.5 million in fraudulent insurance billings for the centers’ managers…

Manic depression is a frustrating mess… – April 24, 2019 – “The story Harrington tells is one of push-and-pull, back-and-forth …I ntricate and winding, though her prose remains clear and crisp.”– Jennifer Szalai, New York Times “Superb … nuanced … In Mind Fixers, Anne Harrington has written an excellent, engaging guide to what biological psychiatry has accomplished—and not accomplished—so far.”– Richard J. McNally, Wall Street Journal “A tale of promising roads that turned out to be dead ends, of treatments that seemed miraculous in their day but barbaric in retrospect, of public-health policies that were born in hope but…

She’s Sober Now – June 17, 2019 – It’s kind of like having a cup of coffee in the morning to wake up and a glass of wine in the evening to wind down — or using meth on Monday to get to work and heroin on Friday to ease into the weekend. Amelia says that’s how her drug use evolved to include meth. At first, drugs were just a fun thing she would do on the weekend — ecstasy and cocaine with her friends. Then, on Monday, Amelia would just go about her workweek. “I’m a horse trainer, so…

Difficult to Tackle –  June 12, 2019 – “Why would they design a product that takes 8,000 flavors? They do it on purpose because they know that appeals to young people,” said Massachusetts Sen. John Keenan, a Quincy Democrat. He and Rep. Danielle Gregoire, a Marlborough Democrat, are pushing legislation to ban flavored tobacco products. But school officials, pediatricians and parents say they’re already scrambling to treat a generation that’s quickly becoming hooked on e-cigarettes. More than 150 municipal health boards have passed restrictions on flavored nicotine sales, but students who are already exposed to e-cigarettes say they can easily…

Jewel of the West –   June 18, 2019 – E-cigarette company Juul, which is based in San Francisco, frames vaping as a healthier alternative to smoking tobacco. Juul has said it has taken steps to deter children from using its products. The company said in a statement that it has made its online age-verification process more robust and shut down its Instagram and Facebook accounts to try to discourage vaping by those under 21 years old. “But the prohibition of vapor products for all adults in San Francisco will not effectively address underage use and will leave cigarettes on…

What a long strange trip… –  June 19, 2019 – Here is GQ’s depiction of Weir’s addiction and recovery: “This motion”—he mimics strumming a guitar—“this one limited motion, repeated a million times, has turned my right rhomboid muscle into a strip of gristle that gets extremely painful after a couple of hours, to the point where it’s like trying to play with an ice pick in your back. I went to doctors. I went to physical therapists. But the only thing that really worked was opiates, and so I got good and strung out on them. I would have to…

Attraction and Coercion – June 20, 2019 – Several times she’s told KOMO she would like to not use heroin, but she can’t seem to quit. Overdoses killed both her boyfriend and her father. Lauren Davis had a friend like Paige — Ricky Garcia. The two met as teenagers and stayed best friends. Early on, Ricky began to drink, then smoke marijuana, eventually leading to harder drugs like heroin. She says he was taken to an emergency room 75 times, was hospitalized six times and assigned to three different psychiatric treatment centers after trying to commit suicide several times.…

Heart Opening – June 20, 2019 – “I almost died three times,” Gonzalez said. Heroin took everything from her. “It controlled my life,” Gonzalez said. In May, Gonzalez’s mother saw our story about meth’s impact on San Antonio. She called our station and we connected her with Valerie Salas, a recovering drug addict who we featured in our story. “Valerie came and picked me up,” Gonzalez said. Salas said she could tell Gonzalez was living a tough life. “I broke my foot in three places and I was walking on it for four weeks,” Gonzalez said. Her future was bleak.…

Dry and High – June 23, 2019 – At 8 p.m. on a Saturday night, people are starting to pack into a popular bar calledHarvard & Stone in an East Los Angeles neighborhood. The chatter gets louder as the booze begins to flow. In the far corner, about a dozen women in a group are clearly enjoying themselves too, but they are not drinking alcohol. They’re sipping handcrafted mocktails, with names like Baby’s First Bourbon and Honey Dew Collins, featuring nonalcoholic distilled spirits. They’re part of a sober social club, made up mostly of women in their 30s who want…

The Machine Keeps Going – June 19, 2019 – The singer mused over the idea that her younger self would probably find her current lifestyle boring, adding: ‘’I wonder if my young self would be horrified at my Friday nights now: eating pasta and watching TV with someone who is nice to me. Would she think me mundane?… I’m no longer sure about the rock ‘n’ roll behaviour often expected of artists. ‘’Too many talented people have died, and the world feels too fragile to be swigging champagne and flicking the finger at it.’’ Full Story @ RTE.ie

What’s a few more bodies… – June 21, 2019 – Nine years later, Cardinal Health would pay a $44 million fine to the DEA for failing to report outsize, or “suspicious,” orders. Cardinal Health is among the 10 opioid manufacturers and distributors facing more than 1,600 lawsuits blaming them for starting and sustaining the opioid epidemic that has killed more than 400,000 Americans. The lawsuits, in which plaintiffs seek billions in damages, have been consolidated in a federal courtroom in Cleveland, Ohio. The report prepared by the Cardinal consultant was unearthed during the discovery process for the suits. Full Story…

Just like Romeo and Juliet – June 23, 2019 – Despite his wild past – including an addiction to cocaine – the ‘Poison’ rocker is in good shape thanks to playing golf and eating well and he doesn’t think he will be giving up the ghost anytime soon thanks to his strong genes. Speaking about his 96-year-old mother, Ella Mae Furnier, Alice – whose real name is Vincent Damon Furnier – told The Mirror Online: “She’s indestructible. It must be in the genes.“I’m 71 and weigh the same I did when I was 30.“I’ve got that body that doesn’t…

Abstinent Not Obstinate – June 24, 2019 – Also during his interview with Us Weekly magazine, Wahler admitted that because he was in the midst of his addiction during his first stint on the show, he didn’t make much of an effort to get to know his co-stars. “My perception was so skewed back in the day. I wasn’t in a place to really get to know anybody. I mean, I didn’t know myself, you know, so I was not in a position to be able to connect with anybody else,” he explained. Full Story @ Inquisitr.com

Sobriety Unleashed –   June 18, 2019 – Jennifer Gimenez was arguably one of the original sober influencers. Before pop culture’s lifestyle icons lived on the internet, they lived on reality television. Shows like The Real World, The Challenge, and Flavor of Love capitalized on the drunken antics of their casts. It made perfect sense, then, that shows like Sober House and Celebrity Rehab followed, documenting the consequences of all that “fun.” In 2008, Gimenez, a model and actress who was sober two years at the time, was asked to be a coach on Celebrity Rehab; the following year, she…

Strength in Numbers – June 22, 2019 – @Mr Omega Thanks Omega, I don’t know who you are and have never met you but please know that someone out there cares about your wellbeing–me. This moved me to tears. I have struggled with addiction and suicide for the past 6 years of my life, and am now finally making great progress. The key is to surround yourself with truly good people and express to them your struggles. I thought I was alone until I told my boss at work that I relapsed. I was so embarrassed, but there was no…

Socratic rap, not a rap sheet – June 21, 2019 – That conversation convinced him to go get treatment for his addiction, he said. Now almost four years into his recovery, he walks the streets he once sat on, working with the Boston Police to reach out to people whose shoes he was once in. “It gives them hope to lead them to believe that they could do the same thing,” Perryman said. As the addiction epidemic across the country continues to break records, police departments are rethinking their approach to how they interact with people with substance abuse disorder.…

On the Rocks Down Under – June 22, 2019 – Lead researcher Associate Professor Yvonne Bonomo said almost 6000 Australians die from alcohol-related harm each year. “That’s about one person every 90 minutes,” she said. “Yet up to half a million Australians are unable to access the help they need from alcohol and other drug treatment services, with the largest unmet demand being for alcohol dependence.” Associate Professor Bonomo said while there was no doubt crystal meth and heroin were causing profound challenges, the dangerous effects of alcohol cannot be ignored. The costs of alcohol to the Australian community is…

What’s good for the goose… –   June 22, 2019 – The FDA acknowledged that it’s not clear how Vyleesi acts in the brain to affect sexual desire or distress. It advises women to use no more than one dose in 24 hours or eight a month. And there’s disagreement about whether drugs are the right approach — low sexual desire can be a result of numerous psychological, physiological or external factors, including stress — and how widespread the condition really is. One study estimated that as many as one out of 10 women may have low sexual desire, and…

Time to Quit? – June 22, 2019 – Experts say a new network of “dayhab” centres will offer functioning alcoholics and drug addicts the chance to treat their problems by day, while living at home. The new chain of private centres, run by a former government advisor who helped Russell Brand come off heroin, says the method will offer therapy at a fraction of the cost of traditional residential programmes. The first unit, which will open in West London next month, follows warnings that those in their 50s are now most likely to be drinking at harmful levels, as millennials…

Fleeing the ship? –   June 21, 2019 – Nanko’s resignation comes at a particularly perilous time for AAC (NYSE: AAC), which reported $295.8 million of revenue in 2018. The company’s first-quarter revenue dropped by almost $22 million compared to the same period last year, and AAC’s stock price has plummeted — from more than $9 per share when Nanko joined the company in January 2018, to 69 cents per share as of Friday morning. AAC operates 11 inpatient facilities, 24 standalone outpatient centers and four sober-living facilities across the U.S. Full Story @ BizJournals.com