Goliath vs. David? – May 7, 2019 – STATEMENT OF THE CASE 1. NAATP is an addiction treatment industry trade association that has positioned itself as the de facto regulator of the addiction treatment industry. NAATP, under the guise of consumer protection, has lied to members of the United States Congress, Google, and the public at large, promoting a malicious and divisive “good guys versus bad guys” narrative about addiction treatment providers. This deceptive, egregious behavior has been part of NAATP’s strategy of controlling and interfering with critical advertising markets, locking AAC out of them, and damaging AAC financially. More…
Author: Leonard Buschel
Suffering Is Optional – May 2, 2019 – We return to our suffering because, fundamentally, we’re trying to make the negative experience come out a different way. If we can just understand our pain more clearly, spend more time with it, we’ll be able to figure it out and make it go away. If we can know the cause, who’s to blame, and what needs to be done about it, we’ll be okay. At an existential level, returning to our suffering allows us to feel a primal sense of I-ness, to feel that we exist. To give up ruminating over…
Game of Thorns – May 6, 2019 – The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, accuses the NAATP of leading a coordinated campaign designed to defame AAC in order to benefit the trade organization’s nonprofit members. AAC (NYSE: AAC), which reported $295.8 million of revenue for 2018, has struggled financially in the past 14 months. Shares of AAC, valued at nearly $13 per share in March 2018, were priced at $1.81 per share as of Monday afternoon. AAC operates 11 inpatient facilities, 24 standalone outpatient centers and four sober-living facilities across the U.S.…
Temptation Strengthens Sobriety – 2019 – Dopamine is often referred to as the pleasure chemical but the problem is that dopamine does not actually produce pleasure. We are taught to believe that the higher your dopamine levels, the happier you will be, but this isn’t always the case. Both low levels and high levels of dopamine can be problematic and disruptive to the body. But how do you balance those levels? When it comes to alcohol use disorder, and the recovery process, it’s important to understand how dopamine actually works and how alcohol (and/or other drugs) impact the dopamine system. Here’s…
Sweet & Sober Icon – MAY 02, 2019 – In recent years, in addition to having continued success with her career, Collins has written about her personal difficulties. A 2003 memoir, “Sanity and Grace: A Journey of Suicide, Survival and Strength,” chronicled her healing process in the aftermath of her only son’s 1992 death. A second memoir, “Sweet Judy Blue Eyes,” was a deeply personal account of her life, her relationships and her music that helped define a generation. JUDY COLLINS: “Hi there.” LEHIGH VALLEY MUSIC: Let me start by asking what the presentation’s going to be like? JC: “It’s…
Cash Devourers Souls – May 2, 2019 – Drug manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies are already facing hundreds of civil lawsuits by states and cities seeking to recover the costs of the epidemic on public finances, from increased crime to addiction treatment and care for orphaned children. On Thursday, the drug distributor, McKesson, agreed to pay West Virginia $37m to settle a lawsuit over flooding the state with millions of opioid pills without abiding by proper controls. But there is mounting anger that corporations have spent years paying civil settlements as “the cost of doing business” while continuing to rake in…
Pill Bottle Art – April 26, 2019 – The event featured the 34-foot-long Opioid Memorial Wall, which displayed 4,200 pill bottles, one for every 10 Americans who died by heroin and prescription opioid overdoses in 2016. The wall is part of a campaign developed to encourage addicts to seek treatment. Addiction is a prevalent problem in Colorado, which has seen a steady up tick of overdose deaths. In 2017, more than 1,000 residents died of an overdose, including 560 from opioid-based substances, such as heroin. In 2017 and 2018, heroin waned as a drug of choice, said Dr. Dan Caplin,…
Smokin’ Hot and Sober – April 29, 2019 – Last autumn, it was revealed Kate had been teetotal for an entire year after deciding to focus on her health following the premature deaths of some of her closest friends. A source told The Sun on Sunday: ‘Kate is like a new woman and a much better version of herself. She is focused, professional and glowing with health. ‘Everyone is amazed at how well she has done in not drinking for a whole year, considering what she used to be like. But she has found it easier as time has gone…
No Hangovers Either – April 23, 2019 – His friend Sohang Gandhi, who’s 38 and sober, credits the good vibe to a sweeping sense of relief: Finally, a cool, dry place where he didn’t have to “feel weird” about ordering a seltzer. “People that don’t drink also want a hip environment,” says the engineer. “[They don’t want to be] stuck going to restaurant or a movie.” That makes total sense to Lorelei Bandrovschi, founder of the sober-friendly pop-up party Listen Bar. “Right now we live in a culture that claims drinking as a default,” says Bandrovschi, who’s 32 and an…
Breach of Confidentiality – April 22, 2019 – Independent researcher Justin Paine discovered the database last month. He said it contained nearly 5 million documents involving what he estimates at about 145,000 patients. Those records included names along with other specific details including the types of treatment they received, treatment dates and how much they cost. After his discovery, he reached out to the website hosting company and that database has since been taken down. This certainly isn’t the only potential data breach involving medical records. There have already been at least two over the past couple of months, one…
Not a STROKE of genius – Apr 25, 2019 – You think diet soda is the healthier alternative because it’s lower in calories, right? Experts say for women it’s more harmful than harmless. “The more diet sodas you drink, or if you drink more than two a day, there is a specific risk that heightens around stroke,” said the executive director for the American Heart Association of Augusta, Kayla Kranenberg. Researchers believe it is the artificial sweetener causing the problem. Among those who do have it, about 3 in 10 will develop heart disease. 23-percent of them are more likely…
What Sobriety Can Do – Apr. 25, 2019 – “I don’t want to reach my hand into that fire again,” he continued. Hooked on drugs in high school, Dalla Riva wound up in prison for more than two years. He spent another year on the streets. Then he found faith and a second chance at the Phoenix Rescue Mission. “I look at it as a glorious thing, that I’m not that person anymore,” he said. Fast forward four years, Dalla Riva is now a husband, a father, a son, a student, a counselor, a mentor, an inspiration and a success.…
Heal Thyself First – May 2019 – The number of people on pain pills grew from a tiny fraction of Ortenzio’s practice to well over half of his patients by the end of the 1990s. The shift was gradual enough at first that he didn’t recognize what was happening. The more drugs Ortenzio prescribed, the more he was sought out by patients. Ortenzio should have noticed what the pills were doing, to his patients and his community, but he was less and less himself. After his late-night encounter with Vicodin in 1988, he had begun his own slide into addiction.…
That’s Pushing It – April 25, 2019 – Experts say the overdose epidemic is rooted in a boom in opioid painkiller prescriptions that began more than 20 years ago, which they say fostered addictions that later shifted into use of heroin and other drugs. The AP-NORC poll was conducted this month amid a legal storm: About 2,000 lawsuits have been filed in the past few years seeking to hold the drug industry responsible for the nation’s drug overdose crisis. Some of the people participating in the poll said they were following the news and felt manufacturers should be held accountable.…
It’s an Inside Job – Apr 26, 2019 – “Because my brain thinks I enjoy it. My heart wants to know what the f**k is going on. Why am I wasting my time and money and friendship and love and energy and creativity on some grotty dessert?” Asked if he’d like to be clean, he added to The Guardian newspaper: “Yes, a part of me would. Just so I can feel things. There are so many people in my life who deserve better. It really is a mental deficiency.” The 40-year-old musician thinks he’d be much better off if he…
Twenty-six weeks without drinks – April 25, 2019 – “It’s a day filled with blessings, I cannot tell you how proud I am. 6 months of sobriety, it brings tears to my eyes to see your strength and passion for life. Your my hero and my inspiration. I love you my angel. Congratulation @lalakent,” the producer wrote. Kent said in an Instagram Stories video in March she struggled with alcoholism following her father’s death in April 2018, according to Us Weekly. She joined Alcoholics Anonymous and credited the program with helping her cope. “The program has allowed me to sit…
That’s how they got pregnant in the first place – April 25, 2019 – “One of the things I would like consumers to know is that cannabinoid products can be impairing,” said study co-author Angela Eichelberger, a senior research scientist with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. “And different products and methods of ingestion might have different effects.” Another concern, she said, is that some of the people who tested positive may have been impaired. In October, two studies found a rise in the number of highway crashes in four of the states where the recreational use of marijuana has…
OBITUARY – Excellence Under Pressure! – April 25, 2019 – “Havlicek stole the ball” is still one of the great rallying cries in sports history, shouted by announcer Johnny Most and quietly repeated by countless numbers of aspiring players in pickup games across the region for years after … John Joseph Havlicek, whose father emigrated from Czechoslovakia, was born in a coal-and-steel town in eastern Ohio and lived in a house above his parents’ grocery store. His grandfather and uncles worked in the mines. Although he was frequently unwell as a child (“Crying and sickness were my trademarks’’), Mr. Havlicek…
Knew how to handle situations… – April 27 , 2019 – He told the Press Association he could not imagine how he would have coped with the situation if he had still been “all f***** up”. Inez said: “We played a show in Auckland, New Zealand, and it was my 10-year sober birthday. Then I went to Sydney to play these festivals … “She held on until I got home. God bless her for holding on. She was my closest relative. But that happening and that 10 years of sobriety really helped me.” Full Story @ BT.com
No High Hopes For These Addicts – April 24, 2019 – Methamphetamine is not a new drug to the United States. Yet with cheaper and more potent forms from Mexico flooding U.S. communities in recent years – as well as instances of people using meth alongside opioids or other substances – its growing presence highlights the challenges of providing adequate treatment for those who want to enter recovery. There (are) no (Food and Drug Administration)-approved medications to treat methamphetamine … and although the majority of the more than 70,000 U.S. drug overdose deaths in 2017 were related to opioids like…
Giving It a Shot – April 28, 2019 – The hope is that the ease of it all will lighten their burdens and clear barriers on the path to better lives, said Municipal Court Judge Eileen Paley, one of the drivers behind the program. There’s no question that it is a different approach, but a necessary one, Klein said. When it comes to treating underlying addictions and mental-health needs, the criminal-justice system has “been an abysmal failure,” Klein said. “It’s ruined lives and it has cost billions nationally and we have nothing to show … that what we’re doing did…
The Tiniest Victims – April 26, 2016 – The Urgent Love Initiative – a pilot project focused on fighting addiction, initially within 26 counties and 12 cities in southwestern Virginia – teamed up with ad agency Grey New York to launch the nationwide campaign, which features ads on Facebook and Instagram. Users can go to the Opi’s Baby website and purchase each of the baby-geared products, though they won’t actually receive one: Funds will go to the Urgent Love Initiative for treatment and social support for moms and babies in the Virginia region it serves. The campaign hopes to spread…
Hard Time Pill to Swallow? – April 23, 2019 – “This prosecution is the first of its kind: executives of a pharmaceutical distributor and the distributor itself have been charged with drug trafficking, trafficking the same drugs that are fueling the opioid epidemic that is ravaging this country,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman said in a statement. “Our Office will do everything in its power to combat this epidemic, from street-level dealers to the executives who illegally distribute drugs from their boardrooms.” … Pietruszewski, 53, pleaded guilty last week. Doud, 75, surrendered to authorities…
Reality Bites – April 25, 2019 – “At this point, our focus is installing them where employees need them,” a spokesperson for Starbucks told TODAY. “The opioid crisis is affecting people across the country and our partners sometimes see that, and it’s important to not put employees in uncomfortable situations. I think there’s been an industry-wide concern.” The move to protect Starbucks workers started in the fall of 2018, according to the spokesperson, when the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) investigated a cafe in Oregon after two of its employees reported being stuck with hypoallergenic needles while cleaning the…
Lying for Money? – April 28, 2019 – Though Juul supports numerous state bills that would raise the legal age for buying vaping and tobacco products to 21, some of those bills contain minimal sanctions for retailers. Others fine only the clerks and not the owners for violations. “Juul is attempting to rehabilitate its public image by posing as a public health advocate while working behind the scenes to weaken or defeat tobacco control proposals and prevent communities from even considering policies to curb tobacco use,” said Nancy Brown, chief executive of the American Heart Association, whose network of lobbyists…
Teacher Teacher – Apr. 27, 2019 – “It was just a rough patch,” Leaf said. “We’re all flawed human beings trying to be better every single day. Sometimes we forget that when we’re placed on this pedestal. That’s the main thing I try to make them understand, that they’re no better or worse than anyone else, regardless of what you do or how you’re perceived. It just took me a longer, up-and-down journey to find that.” As he says, it wasn’t until 26 months into his sentence that he found guidance, and it was in the form of his prison…
A Star is Gone – April 29, 2019 – “When I was 18, I saw ‘She’s Gotta Have It,’ ” Mr. Singleton said, referring to Mr. Lee’s 1986 breakthrough film, in a YouTube video in 2013. “The movie was so powerful to me, as a young black teen who grew up seeing movies with not a lot of people who looked like me.” He was 22 when he began shooting “Boyz,” which follows Tre (played by Cuba Gooding Jr.) and his friends Ricky (Morris Chestnut) and Doughboy (Ice Cube) as they try to avoid gangs and drugs. When Ricky is…
Thanatos Delivers On Promises – April 28, 2019 – By now, you may know a family shattered by the opioid epidemic. In 2017, there were 47,000 opioid deaths. That’s more Americans than were killed in vehicle accidents or by firearms. One drug, fentanyl, is like rocket fuel in the sharp rise of this crisis. Fentanyl is a painkiller invented in the 1960’s and used to relieve the agony of advanced cancer. It is 50 times more potent than heroin. But today fentanyl can be ordered on the internet, by drug dealers and addicts, for an online overdose. Tracking the source…
Treat & Teach, Not Prisons for Profits – April 24, 2019 – Treating drug users as criminals isn’t working, especially those in the cold grip of substance-use disorders. It’s expensive to arrest people, put them on trial and send them to prison. The return on investment appears to be nil, or negative. A stint in jail does nothing to help a drug user deal with their problems – health care in jails is lacking, for one – and a criminal record weighs heavily on efforts to get a job and rehabilitate one’s life. And the looming threat of criminal prosecution…
Cocktails Anyone? – April 23, 2019 – We’re told at the same time, Britney’s doctors were adjusting her meds which had lost their efficacy. Britney’s mental health issues were stabilized with a cocktail of medicines that were designed specifically her. Over time, those meds were increasingly ineffective and doctors needed to create a new cocktail. We’re told there were problems. First, they had to wean Britney off the existing meds. This cannot be done quickly and there’s a risk of suicide if it’s not done right — it’s that serious. As doctors weaned her off the meds, they created a…