Vicious People Doing Vicious Things – January 31, 2019 – The team measured the US substance abuse market in billions of dollars, and noted that opioid addiction other than heroin had grown about 20% from 2000 to 2010. It was a business opportunity that Purdue staffers were told required their “immediate attention,” the complaint states. A chart created by staffers showed the progression from opioids and heroin to medication like Suboxone and behavioral therapy. Between 40% and 60% of people would relapse within one year, the chart noted, creating a market of repeat customers. Full Story @ BuzzFeedNews.com
Author: Leonard Buschel
Quality of Lifelessness – Jan. 30, 2019 – The overprescription and pervasive abuse of opioids has become well-worn news, as the nation grapples with millions addicted to both legal and illicit opioid drugs (mostly heroin), which have been the leading cause of accidental death in the U.S. for several years. In 2017, the drugs killed more than 70,000 people — more than any year on record, according to numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that were released in December. Overdose deaths in the most recently recorded data were so high that they contributed to a decrease in…
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t – January 23, 2019 – Investigators are going back three years to identify any doctors who may have prescribed the drugs inappropriately, even if it was not the fatal dose, and send them letters. Doctors who are found to have violated state law face public reprimands, probation, or even revocation of their medical licenses. When Jacintho received his letter, his first reaction was grief. But then he grew afraid, then indignant. The letter seemed to presume he did something wrong — it used words like “complaint” and “allegation.” But when Jacintho reviewed…
Always Be Closing (coffins) – January 31, 2019 – Purdue’s strategy for selling opioids was summed up with the tagline “We sell hope in a bottle,” The consultant (from McKinsey & Company) told Purdue that it could increase prescriptions by convincing doctors that opioids provide “freedom” and “peace of mind” and give patients “the best possible chance to live a full and active life.” Sales reps … were taught to “follow the money,” “never give someone more info than they need to act,” “expand the physician’s definition of ‘appropriate patient,’” and “ABC”—”Always Be Closing,” a reference to the movie Glengarry…
When the Bottom Line is Death – February 1, 2019 – Purdue Pharma helped plant the seeds of the opioid epidemic through its aggressive marketing of OxyContin. Even when the company knew patients were addicted and dying, it still tried to boost sales of opioids, the lawsuit alleges, adding, “All the while, Purdue peddled falsehoods to keep patients away from safer alternatives.”More than 130 people die each day in the United States — 47,000 in 2017 — after overdosing on opioids, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Full Story @ NYTimes.com
Super Bong – Feb. 2, 2019 – For decades, players have justified taking painkillers because the medication helped them earn big N.F.L. paychecks. Now, a growing number are saying the easy access to pills turned them into addicts. “I absolutely said, ‘When I’m not playing, I’m not going to have to do this,’” said Gibson, a 6-foot-6 first-round draft pick who played in the N.F.L. from 1999 to 2004. After he retired, he took as many as 200 pills a day before he stopped taking painkillers three years ago. “If I didn’t play in the N.F.L., I know I wouldn’t…
Sex or Food Addiction – NO LAUGHING MATTER – FEBRUARY 2, 2019 -plashing shamefully obvious double entendres onto millions of screens watched by children, Devour’s commercial treats porn addiction like a game. Worse, since the commercial likens it to the product the company is trying to make look appealing, Devour is not-so-subtly encouraging porn addiction. Even if not a single child is induced to laugh at something so dangerous, the commercial normalizes the destructive behavior of many of the adults who will be watching the Super Bowl. Porn addicts should not have their behavior excused. Marriages are being broken, lives…
An App a day keeps the relapse away – 2019 – The Loosid App connects you with a community of like minded individuals and gives you access to tailored experiences. Get access to dating, events, groups, travel and a suite of Recovery Tools for extra support! We are always looking for feedback in order to make our app better. If you have support issues or simply have an idea you would like to share, fill out the form and one of our staff will contact you as soon as possible. Full Story @ LoosidApp.com
Sunrise Sunset – January 30, 2019 – Prescribing a highly addictive opioid in any but the most dire cases should spark concern in any doctor’s mind. To quiet those Hippocratic alarm bells, prosecutors and court documents say, Subsys’s pharmaceutical sales team used a playbook that included a sizable helping of the seven deadly sins. They hired attractive sales reps in their 20s and 30s and encouraged them to stroke doctors’ hands while “begging” them to write prescriptions, Mother Jones reported. The company offered doctors hefty speaking fees, often for events attended only by buddies and people who worked in their…
OTC or DOA? – January 18, 2019 – The FDA has developed a model Drug Facts Label (DFL) with “easy-to-understand pictograms on how to use the drug” … “FDA’s development work here is extraordinary, and reflects their longstanding desire to see a pharmaceutical company take naloxone OTC (over-the-counter),” says Amy Arthur, director of public and government relations at Harm Reduction Therapeutics, a non-profit trying to develop an over-the-counter naloxone product … with the FDA leading development and comprehension testing of the Naloxone DFL, “Responsibility now falls squarely on the shoulders of industry,”… Full Story @ FilterMag.org
A Look Inside – January 17, 2019 – In late 2015, photographer Lili Kobielski began visiting inmates in Cook County Jail. Her new book, I Refuse for the Devil to Take My Soul: Inside Cook County Jail, is a powerful examination of the intersections between poverty, mental illness, mass incarceration, and race. Said Kobielski, “Mental illness is something that has affected people close to me, and it’s something that I care about. What is special about Cook County Jail is that the social workers screen every single arrestee for mental illness.” Full Story @ Vice.com
Chief Administrator – January 25, 2019 – Decker deftly administers Narcan, an overdose-reversing medicine, and soon the woman comes to. “In my first 15 or 20 years of service, I bet I didn’t administer Narcan no more than a dozen times,” says Decker, who’s now in his 27th year as a firefighter. “In the last two-and-a-half or three years we’ve probably given 100 doses of Narcan on runs I’ve been on.” In 2016 there were 18 overdose deaths in Newark. One year later, that number shot up to 41. Most of those deaths, Decker says, are a result of opioids.…
Sadism Works? – Jan. 24, 2018 – Sims, a former White House communications aide, writes about the episode in his new book, “Team of Vipers: My extraordinary 500 days in the Trump White House,” a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO. The Oval Office meeting between Sims, Conway and Trump took place just days before White House staff secretary Rob Porter became engulfed in scandal over allegations of spousal abuse, and is largely emblematic of how the president crafts his messaging — trading polished rhetoric for graphic descriptions and imagery. Full Story @ Politico.com
Free Housing – January 24, 2019 – A lack of community-based mental health housing facilities have left mentally ill inmates incarcerated months past their release dates — including some in solitary confinement, a new lawsuit alleges. “Our clients are told, often on the day they expect to be released from prison, that they will not be leaving and must stay until community housing is located,” The Office of Mental Health, issued a response challenging this claim, “New York funds one of the most robust supportive housing networks in the nation for individuals with mental illness. The State invests close to…
Drug-Free Country – JANUARY 26, 2019 – “It’s been since I was like 19 that I’ve had a clear outlook mentally on my life and perception wasn’t muddied by something,” he said, and noted he’s committed to sobriety but doesn’t begrudge those partying around him. “I enjoy absorbing merriment. I like having a good time. It doesn’t mean I have to wreck my life while I’m living it.” Full Story @ HoustonPress.com
Older Not Wiser – January 25, 2019 – “For most people, alcohol misuse starts young: they may begin drinking in college and struggle with it thereafter. But for a smaller number of people, problems with alcohol don’t start until later in life. This is considered late-onset alcoholism. And drinking at 65 looks very different than it does at 25.” Life changes often trigger alcoholism in older adults, Worth reports, and more often in women than men. Such events might include a spousal death, divorce, movement to a fixed income or inability to do normal physical tasks. Educated and affluent people…
Someone left the cake out in the rain… – Jan. 25, 2019 – Police also allegedly found “several empty bottles of pure vanilla extract” in the car. After she failed field sobriety tests, she was arrested but later refused a blood alcohol test, police said. Vanilla extract is made from vanilla beans and contains no less than 35 percent alcohol by volume, per the U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines. Full Story @ USAToday.com
Too hard to eat a 6-month chip? – January 26, 2019 – Before the hospitalization, Lovato had celebrated six years of sobriety. But in her song “Sober,” released last June, Lovato opened up about a relapse. “Mama, I’m so sorry I’m not sober anymore/And daddy please forgive me for the drinks spilled on the floor,” she sings in the lyrics. “To the ones who never left me/We’ve been down this road before/I’m so sorry, I’m not sober anymore.” The honesty of her song lyrics shows how tough addiction is — but she’ll never stop fighting. Full Story @ Yahoo.com
Dream On – Jan. 26, 2019 – “The interesting thing about this study is that it suggests that real-life factors such as sleep might affect how fast the disease spreads through the brain,” said study author David Holtzman in a statement. “We’ve known that sleep problems and Alzheimer’s are associated in part via a different Alzheimer’s protein – amyloid beta – but this study shows that sleep disruption causes the damaging protein tau to increase rapidly and to spread over time.” Full Story @ Forbes.com
Advertised on the Internet. Where else? – Jan. 27, 2019 – We’re all mildly addicted. I think that’s obvious to see in our behavior,” said psychiatrist Kimberly Young, who has led the field of research since founding the Center for Internet Addiction in 1995. “It becomes a public health concern obviously as health is influenced by the behavior.” Psychiatrists such as Young who have studied compulsive internet behavior for decades are now seeing more cases, prompting a wave of new treatment programs to open across the United States. Mental health centers in Florida, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and other states are…
Different Strokes – JANUARY 26, 2019 – But after years of trying to get better, the 44-year-old from Sandringham in Victoria was finally able to have his last drink on February 8, 2013. He recalled the first five days of sobriety were a life-threatening rollercoaster as he went through detox without any help, something he said was dangerous and did not recommend. “One the hardest things to come to terms with in the early days is not being able to comprehend not ever drinking again,” he said. “I stumbled here so many times because I was in so much physical…
Rehab South African Style – Jan. 27, 2019 – A drug cocktail called nyaope is destroying young lives in South Africa’s townships. It is a heroin-based drug, often mixed with antiretroviral medication or rat poison, and can be injected or smoked with cannabis. Full Story @ BBC.com
We are PTSD’d off – January 19, 2019 – Ramos-Gomez served in the Marines from 2011-14, during which time he received accolades including a national defense service medal, a global war on terrorism service medal, an Afghanistan campaign medal, and a combat action ribbon. Upon returning home, the ACLU says he was “a shell of his former self,” and suffered from PTSD as a result of things he’d seen in combat. Full Story @ FoxNews.com
Mobius Strip – JAN. 17, 2019 – “I think we’re all wondering about the connection between suicide deaths and opioid deaths. And it’s likely that there are some connections for some of the deaths, and then for other deaths, not as much of a connection,” said Jill Harkavey-Friedman, vice president for research at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. “The issue is that many times people who are suicidal might be using substances like opioids or vice versa. There can be a lot of overlap, and it can be very hard to tell when somebody’s died, was it an accident…
A Drop in the Bucket – January 8, 2019 -“Making sure Pennsylvanians receive the substance use disorder benefits to which they are entitled under their health insurance coverage is a key part of Gov. Wolf’s battle against the opioid crisis,” Insurance Commissioner Jessica Altman said. Specific violations included incorrect application of copays, coinsurance, and visit limits, as well as violations involving prior authorization for treatment and step therapy, the department said. Full Story @ Philly.com
There is Always MA – January 25, 2019 – Links to psychosis Dr. Erik Messamore is a psychiatrist who specializes in psychotic disorders. He has more than 20 years of experience treating patients with schizophrenia, the most common psychotic disorder. While working at the Oregon State Hospital, he noticed a startling correlation among his patients. He estimates that he treated more than 1,000 people with schizophrenia each year at the state hospital. They all had one thing in common. “One-hundred percent of them were adolescent-onset, regular cannabis users,” Messamore said. Full Story @ SteamBoatPilot.com
Higher and Higher – January 22, 2019 – A year ago this exchange would have been inconceivable on the streets of Kensington—even though they have echoed for decades with the shouts of dealers hawking branded heroin and almost every other mood-altering drug … Because until quite recently, Kensington was all but devoid of crystal meth … Last year federal officials identified crystal meth as the number one “threat” facing the Atlanta metro area. Full Story @ FilterMag.org
Killers at the Top – Jan. 26, 2019 – The Sackler family pushed doctors to get “more patients on opioids, at higher doses, for longer, than ever before” while paying “themselves billions of dollars,” Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey told CBS This Morning on Thursday. “They don’t want to accept blame for this. They blame doctors, they blame prescribers and worst of all, they blame patients,” Healey added. Even as company managers were aware of how powerfully addictive their product was, former company president Richard Sackler urged pushing the blame for overdose deaths on the victims, according to Healey. Full…
Art Injected with Reality – Jan. 25, 2019 – With “Honey Boy,” LaBeouf has scripted a rambling, understated autobiographical summation of his troubled youth, pinning much of his rough entryway into young adulthood on his abusive father — an exuberant role that the actor himself embodies with plenty of unsettling machismo, but it’s one of only a few meta flourishes in an otherwise straightforward addiction drama. Directed by expressionistic documentarian Alma Ha’rel in her narrative debut, “Honey Boy” benefits from the filmmaker’s keen eye, even as it stuffs real-life trauma into conventional beats. Full Story @ IndieWire.com
Funny how much he thinks he knows… – Jan. 27, 2019 – There are occasional irritations. Vocabulary is in places needlessly obscure (“prognathic”, anyone?) or misused (“inhere” is a repeat offender), and at times the poetry is overstretched beyond sense. Some of the content alienates. Brand writes: “You know when someone says, ‘Come and stay at our ashram in southern India’?” No, actually. And with an obliviousness that was highlighted in a recent interview in which his lack of familiarity with the more hands-on aspects of childcare became apparent, he says that “all my mentors have floated into my life,…