Saving Citizens – Dec. 13, 2018 – “It is important that people are aware that they can also go to their local pharmacy on any day to get the overdose reversal medication naloxone,” Dr. Levine said. “This medication reverses the effects of an opioid overdose and gives the patient a chance at recovery.” The kits being given away Thursday each contain two doses of the nasal spray form of naloxone that’s held under the victim’s nose. Full Story @ PennLive.com
Author: Leonard Buschel
By Staying Clean? – Dec. 12, 2018 – Hemphill’s 11-year drug addiction, her criminal record, her struggles as a mother — they were now everybody’s business, splashed across the news and social media with a new genre of American horror film: the overdose video. As opioid deaths have soared in recent years, police departments and strangers with cameras have started posting raw, uncensored images of drug users passed out with needles in their arms and babies in the back seats of their cars. The videos rack up millions of views and unleash avalanches of outrage. Then some other viral moment comes along,…
Say It Isn’t So – December 2018 – Ms Hutton claimed volunteer numbers had tailed off for various reasons, adding: ‘We recognised there were issues with people’s motivation about four or five months ago and we have voiced our concerns for months about this. ‘Many people will understand that a huge part of one’s addiction is boredom. We have only provided recovery options for our volunteers, but the cafe is just not enough for people to maintain their interest. Full Story @ ArgyllshireAdvertiser.co.uk
Drugs for Drug Addicts – Dec, 14, 2018 – WEST PALM BEACH — A pharmacist and a “middleman” conspired to split thousands of dollars in insurance reimbursements from fraudulent prescriptions with an undercover police officer pretending to own a drug-treatment center, authorities said in announcing their arrests. Richard Vallette and Todd Mulvaney are facing patient-brokering and insurance-fraud charges following an investigation by the Palm Beach County Sober Home Task Force and several other agencies, including the West Palm Beach Police Department and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. Full Story @ PalmBeachPost.com
SHOCKING – Dec. 7, 2018 – Sarah Kordenbrock’s addiction started when she was just 18 years old. She was prescribed pain killers for an injury, but those quickly turned into a need for heroin. She was on her way to becoming one of the thousands who lose their lives to drug overdoses. Even after she did overdose, she still felt compelled to use. Soledad O’Brien talks with Sarah and her family about her long road to recovery… Full Story @ WCVB.com
She’d Rather be Called DEAD? – Dec. 13, 2018 – Dick was in her mid-20s, working full-time as a medical administrator and living with her mother, when she began experimenting with cocaine and heroin. She became ill and thought she had the flu, until a friend told her she was experiencing symptoms of withdrawal. “At that point I was absolutely terrified that anyone would ever find out,” she said. “It’s still very shameful, and I think a lot of people are very hesitant to seek help and treatments because there’s this perception that you’re a bad person.” Full story @…
Dr. Dealer – December 14, 2018 -The indictment alleges a pattern of conduct by Orusa whereby patients were prescribed oxycodone and other Schedule II controlled substances without obtaining the patient’s prior medical history; performing a credible physical examination … “Physicians who prey upon an already addicted population; steal from public healthcare programs; and engage in such reckless disregard for patient safety, as alleged here, will face a vigorous prosecution by this office,” said U.S. Attorney Cochran. “Anyone who contributes to the opioid epidemic plaguing this nation should expect to be targeted by our law enforcement partners and held accountable.” Full…
60 Minutes Special Report – Dec. 16, 2018 – Mike Moore says he’s, “just a country lawyer from Mississippi.” But this country lawyer has engineered two of the most lucrative legal settlements in American history. As Mississippi’s attorney general, he engineered the historic 1998 settlement under which Big Tobacco paid billions to address smoking-related health issues. In 2015, he convinced BP to settle multibillion-dollar lawsuits over its huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Now Mike Moore has taken aim at the manufacturers and distributors of opioid painkillers, claiming they should pay for the epidemic of addiction and death…
Telling Truth to Powerlessness – Dec. 15, 2018 – Ryan agreed and pointed out the different culture in America, before Gary added: ‘I would spend a lot of time going out, and if I wasn’t able to find someone I would go out any way.’ The Chasing Cars hitmaker confessed that he didn’t wake up needing a drink, but noticed he’d crave it as the day went on. He said: ‘I wouldn’t wake up wanting to drink but I would get to mid afternoon and I’d need to. ‘I was always a very happy drunk, it was just the drinking…
She’s taking the right steps – December 12, 2018 – Support and understanding, not shame, she told me is crucial to helping addicts. “Addiction is a tremendous, terrible disease in this country and for decades the [American Medical Association] has recognized it as a disease. But there are far too many families and companies and organizations in this country who do not treat it like a disease, they treat it as a character flaw or a moral failing or weakness and it’s not.” Full Story @ NBCNews.com
https://youtu.be/JvoegCNvla0
SWEET – Dec. 14, 2018 – The 43-year-old comic has recalled how he reached a low point in his life that saw him sneaking off to use heroin and crack cocaine in friends’ bathrooms. He said in a video uploaded to his social media channels: “I remember being eggshell fragile, this time sixteen years ago. On 12 December, the day before, 2002 … Jesus. I’d scored two brown – that’s heroin, two white – that’s crack. It may be a little more, I can’t remember. Just tryna, need to big up my last use, but anyway I remember using it…
United States of Death – Dec. 12, 2018 – As an example, roughly 40 percent of people listed as dying of a cocaine overdose also had fentanyl in their system. After fentanyl, heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine were the deadliest drugs in 2016. After declines earlier in the decade, the report said, overdose deaths from both cocaine and methamphetamine were starting to rise again. The study said illegal drugs such as fentanyl and heroin were the primary causes of unintentional overdoses, while prescription drugs such as oxycodone tended to be used in suicide overdoses. Full Story @ USAToday.com
Little Brains on Fire – Dec 10, 2018 – Susie Steimle reports on National Institute of Health study on impact of screen time to brain development in children… Full Story @ YouTube.com
Boys Do Cry – December 15, 2018 – Boys see seeking help as “a sign of weakness,” said Dennis Barbour, president of the partnership for male youth. Compounding the problem, almost half of adolescents with mental health issues don’t receive care. Experts say the unique challenges and needs of young men are not receiving enough attention. Doctors, teachers and family members may not recognize the symptoms of depression, which in men can include anger, irritability and aggressiveness, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Full Story @ NBCNews.com
Blame It On the Alcohol – December 10, 2018 – Alcohol misuse occurs when a person drinks in a manner, situation, amount, or frequency that could cause harm to that individual or those around them. The data and statistics on alcohol misuse, paint a clear picture of the continual threat alcohol poses both in the United States, and internationally. In the U.S. alone, one in ten deaths among working-age adults are due to alcohol misuse, and more than 88,000 people die from alcohol-related causes each year—making it the third leading preventable cause of death. Full Story @ PsychologyToday.com
American Scream – Dec. 13, 2018 – But the lives of these people, like all lives, are more than their lowest points; there is boredom, laughter, fatigue, friendship, scheming, desperation, love, loss and death. The addiction just lies beneath it all. Since 2012, Mark E. Trent has been recording this life in his native Greenbrier County in West Virginia, the state with the country’s highest death rate from opioid addiction. One afternoon, sitting in the grass watching a softball game with his friend Allie Rambo, he told her that he had been struggling, as a photographer, to find a way to…
42 Reviews of “Ben Is Back” – NOW PLAYING – VIDEOS – Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges pour their hearts and souls into the unflinching and unforgettable addiction drama about a mother who can’t quite trust the son she loves. Full Story @ RottenTomatoes.com
The Rolling Stoned – Dec. 7, 2018 – “You might not like it,” Dr. David Casarett, chief of palliative care at Duke University Medical Center, tells fellow physicians. “You might not believe in it. But your patients are using this stuff.” He and Dr. Joshua Briscoe, a psychiatrist at Duke also trained in palliative care, have mixed feelings about that. Co-authors of a recent article on medical marijuana and older adults in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, they support legalization for medical use. They hope the federal government will reclassify cannabis (“a huge undertaking,” Dr. Briscoe admitted), reducing…
Sober Dying – December 3, 2018 – Officials charged Tyler Castro with principal to second-degree murder in the in the death of Dylan McClendon Friday, November 30. Two other men, Baylor Johnson and Lambert Louviere III, were booked into East Baton Rouge Parish Prison Monday, December 3 on charges of principal to second-degree murder for their role in McClendon’s death. East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office reports the three men met McClendon while living in a “sober living facility” located on Antioch Boulevard. While in the facility, Johnson allegedly told Castro he’d relapsed on drugs with Louviere. Castro allegedly told…
More Money – Dec. 4, 2018 – In fact, deaths from synthetic opioids now outpace deaths from heroin or other opioid drugs in the U.S., according to federal data. But why cut heroin with fentanyl in the first place? Researchers in California say there are two reasons. “It’s cheaper than heroin, and it’s smaller, lighter and easier to smuggle,” said Sarah Mars, who studies drug addiction and policy at the University of California San Francisco. Mars and colleagues have been interviewing drug users across the country, along with some street-level dealers who also use their own products. They also delved…
Can’t Hurt – Dec. 8, 2018 – Dan Ciccarone, who leads the Heroin In Transition research team at the University of California at San Francisco, argues that the U.S. at least needs to rapidly scale up the use of medications like methadone and buprenorphine, which only a select group of doctors are legally allowed to prescribe. As for heroin as a treatment option, he noted that the age groups in heroin-assisted treatment trials abroad skews older, even though the current heroin and fentanyl epidemics are much worse in younger age groups. “Few studies on agonist substitution are specifically done with…
MEDIA: Book Suggestion – DECEMBER 05, 2018 – Near-death experiences and unforeseen miracles brought author Herb Klingele to a new understanding and appreciation for life. Klingele’s debut memoir, “Soul Sanctuary: Notorious nonfiction stories of romance, suspense, and miracles” (published by Balboa Press), presents those events as well as how he was able to turn his life around. Over the course of his life, Klingele had trouble with the law and struggled with alcoholism and drugs. It wasn’t until his third wife left him, that his life changed. The author describes how he was able to recover with the help of…
More Pills – Dec. 1, 2018 – Finances: Insurance companies created financial incentives in the 1980s and 1990s to abandon multidisciplinary treatment for chronic pain and rewarded medication-only care. Insurance companies will likely reimburse ED buprenorphine but not the long-term medical and social care that sustain sobriety. Ease: Withdrawal medications (comfort packs) are complex, potentially dangerous, and a challenge to administer and prescribe. It’s much easier to use buprenorphine to treat-and-street opiate use disorder patients. Legislation: Politicians often practice medicine through laws that restrict or compel elements of practice. Given the outcry about the opioid crisis, some legislators will support…
Tell It Like It Is – Dec. 03, 2018 – Figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal that overdose deaths have more than tripled for cocaine and quadrupled for meth since 2012. A UN report shows Colombian coca production more than tripled between 2012 and 2016; over the same period, prices fell 23 percent while purity increased nearly 20 percent. Lower prices and more purity helped contribute to an 81 percent increase in the number of first-time cocaine users in the U.S. since 2013. The U.S. High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) program, run from the U.S.…
By Columnist Megan McArdle – Dec. 4, 2018 – If drugs were comic book villains, fentanyl would be the pitiless 20-story-tall super-robot towering over lesser henchmen such as heroin or oxycodone. Those older drugs are ultimately based on natural compounds found in opium poppies; fentanyl is entirely synthetic, made from precursor chemicals. This means it’s comparatively cheap to make — no worries about poppy blight or drug-enforcement agents destroying the crop you’ve spent months tending. More importantly, Fentanyl binds more effectively to neurological receptors than the naturally derived drugs, meaning that a tiny amount is incredibly powerful — up to…
NO MORE FENTANYL – December 6, 2018 – The report authors also talked to researchers and public health officials in countries that tried the practice, as well as officials, doctors, and sheriffs in Ohio and New Hampshire with high overdose death rates. The big hurdle to prescribing heroin this way is its illegal status in the US, they concluded, even more restricted than often-abused drugs such as cocaine or strong opioid painkillers such as hydromorphone. For that reason, Kilmer’s team recommended trying the prescription heroin approach in medical studies in a few cities, the only currently legal way to provide…
Morphine MORE FINE – Dec. 4, 2018 -Beecher, an ear, nose and throat specialist who had a practice in Warren, pleaded guilty on Sept. 19 to second-degree conspiracy and distribution of a controlled dangerous substance (oxycodone) and surrendered his medical license as a result of the guilty plea. Beecher’s charges were a result of the investigation dubbed “Operation Busted Script,” which was led by the Attorney General’s Prescription Fraud Investigation Strike Team — a group of detectives and attorneys in the Division of Criminal Justice Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau that targets corrupt healthcare professionals and “pill mills.” Full Story…
State of Compassion – DECEMBER 6, 2018 – Pennsylvania is handing out anti-opioid-overdose medication across the state next week, including more than a dozen locations in Philadelphia and the surrounding counties. KYW Newsradio’s Suburban Bureau Chief Jim Melwert reports. Full Story @ KYWNewsRadio.com
Going Too Far? – Dec. 7, 2018 – “Bill Cosby ruined it for everybody,” Susan Loesser, 74, told NBC News on Thursday. “Way before #MeToo, I would hear from time to time people call it a date rape song. I would get annoyed because it’s a song my father wrote for him and my mother to sing at parties. But ever since Cosby was accused of drugging women, I hear the date rape thing all the time.” Full Story @ Chicago.SunTimes.com