Banned Song VIDEO – December 2018 – Full Video @ YouTube.com
Author: Leonard Buschel
Treatment Industry – Dec. 7, 2018 – Word of the cuts comes a month after AAC Chairman and CEO Michael Cartwright and his team said their third-quarter results had badly missed the mark in part because a change this summer in Google’s health and wellness search algorithms had severely disrupted its referral pipelines. The job cuts are significant: AAC employed 2,100 people at year-end — which was before it completed its $85 million acquisition of AdCare in New England. “We fully realize that our recent performance was unacceptable,” Cartwright said in a statement. “We hit unanticipated headwinds in August that…
Race to the Morgue – December 9, 2018 – Drugs called “medicines” were used by the “kinds of people” that reformers liked — “white people of respectable means,” Herzberg explained. “Drugs that weren’t medicines were ones used by immigrants or African-Americans.” As a result, “medicines” received less scrutiny and regulation than other drugs because they were thought to be used by “trustworthy” people, he said. Ironically, that evolved into the U.S. opioid crisis when highly addictive “medicines” went mainstream. ‘The pharma industry … put enormous money behind the people pushing for’ opioid prescriptions… Full Story @ Yahoo.com
Drinks Again – Dec. 3, 2018 – The star went on to discuss his highly-public love life. The star recently ended a 14-year relationship with Kimberly Buffington. Since then, he’s fallen in love with 32-year-old French-Canadian model Santa Azuina. “I met [Santa] very close after my ex and I were separated,” Quaid said. “I was just going to be single and that was just going to be it when it came to love. And then Santa came along.” The star also opened up about his most public divorce to date with fellow actress Meg Ryan. He revealed that the circumstances…
Doing No Harm – December 9, 2018 – Lindsay Bunker woke up from a nightmare. The 32-year old lives with her 6-month old daughter on the Lac Courte Oreilles Indian Reservation in northern Wisconsin. She’s struggled with addiction for over 10 years, mostly to heroin. Then came the nightmare: She dreamt two men were attacking her baby while she could only think about drugs. “In my mind I was thinking, ‘If I can just get one hit, if I can get one line, I can save her,” she recalls, pausing before continuing, “I woke up and I was panicking. How…
Investigation Underway – December 10, 2018 – Brandon Nelson arrived at Sovereign on Feb. 23 to forge a new path forward. Two weeks later, he was dead. The Nelsons were steered toward Sovereign Health, a behavioral and mental health company with residential programs based in San Clemente. Sovereign operated addiction treatment centers but also ran residential programs specifically for mental illness.” Full Story @ OCRegister.com
Life in the fast lane – Dec. 7, 2018 – Xanax was the benzodiazepine which saw the biggest rise — its use among young people needing treatment rose almost seven-fold, from eight people to 53. Overall, two thirds of the young people seeking help for substance abuse were male, while three-quarters were between 15 and 19, PHE said. But their report also found a disparity between genders, with girls more likely than boys to disclose a mental health issue. While 37% of girls starting treatment for substance addiction reported a mental health issue, only 22% of boys did. Full Story…
It’s Cheesy… – December 16, 2018 – In a recent study, pizza was ranked as the food most associated with symptoms of addiction, according to the Yale Food Addiction Scale, a tool that assesses the diagnostic criteria for substance-use disorders in reference to highly processed foods. The psychological response to pizza’s ingredient combinations is partially explained by the fact that highly processed foods like pizza, with added amounts of fat, refined carbohydrates and salt, are most associated with behavioral indicators of addiction, such as loss of control over consumption, cravings and continued consumption despite negative consequences, according to Erica M.…
You Are What You Ate – Dec. 3, 2018 – Whole foods that are rich in L-glutamine. L-glutamine is an amino acid that offers immune and antioxidant benefits, among others. L-glutamine can help reduce sugar cravings, which can be common during early recovery. Research has linked sugar consumption to higher rates of anxiety, depression and inflammation, which can potentially hamper progress in a plan of addiction treatment. Dark, leafy greens like kale, spinach and parsley are great for boosting L-glutamine levels. Some other natural sources for this amino acid include beets, carrots, beans, Brussels sprouts, celery, papaya and protein-rich foods…
Joint Relief – December 4th 2018 – Doctors prescribed the 32-year-old with morphine and fentanyl, an opiate 50 times more powerful than heroin. She described the experience as leaving her feeling like “a zombie” and “completely out of it”. Moreover, she was still unable to live life as she done before the stroke. Full Story @ iNews.co.uk
American Addiction Centers stock drops from $46.60 to $2.00 Closures, layoffs – plot thickens – December 6, 2018 – The Current has obtained an email addressed to all AAC staff, in which CEO Michael Cartwright notifies employees of the closure of the company’s San Diego Addiction Treatment Center, discloses the layoffs, and says the company is “exploring strategic options” for facilities in Louisiana. “While AAC will continue to save lives of those seeking our help, as a publicly-traded company, we have a responsibility to be good stewards of our financial resources: this responsibility includes a strategic focus to improve the…
Natural Born Killers – December 4, 2018 – It didn’t sell well, at least at first. That changed, federal prosecutors have alleged, when Kapoor and other executives essentially bribed doctors to prescribe it for everything from chronic pain to back aches, and defrauded insurance providers who were reluctant to approve prescriptions for off-label use. In some cases, doctors were paid more than $200,000, prosecutors said at the Nov. 28 hearing where Burlakoff pleaded guilty. Full Story @ Bloomberg.com
When the Music Stops – DECEMBER 4, 2018 – A new trailer for Loud Krazy Love, an upcoming Showtime documentary about Korn guitarist Brian “Head” Welch, documents the musician’s struggles with addiction and his turbulent relationship with daughter Jennea. The clip opens with Korn at their peak in popularity in the Nineties, riding a wave of awards and platinum-selling singles like “Freak on a Leash.” But the guitarist describes how the band’s excessive lifestyle, fueled by drugs and alcohol, drove him to addiction – and pushed him to quit the lineup in 2005 to focus on raising Jennea. “I was…
It’s Complicated – DECEMBER 4, 2018 – As a result, most of the focus has been on pressing health care practitioners to decrease their prescribing, imposing guidelines and ceilings on daily dosages that may be prescribed, and creating surveillance boards to enforce these parameters. These guidelines are not evidence-based, as Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb seems to realize, and have led to the abrupt tapering of chronic pain patients off of their medication, making many suffer desperately. An open letter by distinguished pain management experts appeared last week in the journal Pain Medicine criticizing current policies for lacking…
Addiction Horror Film – Dec. 5, 2018 – The rest of “Ben Is Back,” written and directed by Peter Hedges (father of Lucas), sustains and intensifies that clammy, anxious feeling. The suspense is generated by a deceptively simple question, one that haunts most stories of addiction: Will Ben use again? He has sworn that he won’t, and part of him doesn’t want to, but the other part has made him a liar, and worse, many times before. The questions his behavior creates for the people who love him are equally excruciating. Can they trust him? Should they believe him? How…
Never Give Up – November 27, 2018 – After years of drug addiction and homelessness, Kenny Sawyer found himself staring at a job application at Hypertherm , a New Hampshire company that makes industrial cutting tools. He was sober at last. He really wanted this job. But the application asked whether he had been convicted of any felonies. Sawyer hadn’t. But he decided later that the company would want to know he had been jailed for misdemeanor assault after a fight over a crack purchase years earlier. He called to volunteer that information, well aware that a scrape with the…
Majoring in Sobriety – Nov 23, 2018 – “Interest in the minor grew rapidly, and there have been 177 graduates with the minor as of June,” said Tricia Witte, UA coordinator of the undergraduate minor in addiction and recovery. “We found over time that a lot of students want a career focused in this field, so we decided to put together a major for those who really want to master this subject.” The program will offer an in-depth examination of the development and progression of addictive disorders and the process of recovery. Students will also learn methods for preventing and…
Easy Does It – Nov. 27, 2018 – For those experiencing the most serious symptom of withdrawal – the shaking, shivering, sweating and confusion of delirium tremens, or the DTs – the death rate has been estimated as high as 4 percent, or 1 in 25. Of patients admitted to one hospital in Spain with alcohol withdrawal syndrome from 1987 to 2003, a research team there found, 6.6 percent died. That’s roughly 1 in 15. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counted 831 deaths in 2016 that could be characterized as related to alcohol withdrawal. The National Institutes of…
He Knows Everything, Not! – NOV. 27, 2018 – For one thing, he supports the use of buprenorphine. Drugs like buprenorphine lessen withdrawal symptoms and the cravings that lead to relapse and overdose. While in rehab, Grinspoon was told, ‘A drug is a drug is a drug.’ “This mentality does not allow for a difference between the powerful opiate fentanyl, which kills thousands of people every year, and buprenorphine, which is a widely-accepted treatment for OUD,” he posted. Grinspoon also sees a problem with the abstinence-only approach many rehabilitation centers have adopted. “I have come to believe that an uncompromising…
Live and Learn – Nov. 25, 2018 – Dayton, a hollowed-out manufacturing center at the juncture of two major interstates, had one of the highest opioid overdose death rates in the nation in 2017 and the worst in Ohio. Now, it may be at the leading edge of a waning phase of an epidemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of people in the United States over the last decade, including nearly 50,000 last year. Full Story @ NYTimes.com
Destiny, Fate, Chance, Mistake or Disease? – Nov. 29, 2018 – New numbers Thursday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that drug overdoses killed more than 70,000 Americans in 2017, a record. Overdose deaths are higher than deaths from H.I.V., car crashes or gun violence at their peaks. The data also show that the increased deaths correspond strongly with the use of synthetic opioids known as fentanyls. Full Story @ NYTimes.com
We Can Try – Nov. 3, 2018 – In May of 2017, Louise decided that her life was just too difficult, so she’d end it. In the previous four years, three siblings and a half-sibling had died, two from disease, one from fire and one from choking. Close friends had moved away. She felt painfully, unbearably alone. It would be the fourth time Louise (I’m using her middle name to protect her privacy), then 68, would attempt suicide, and she was determined to get it right. She wrote a letter with instructions on where to find important documents and who…
MORE DRUGS! – Nov. 27, 2018 – Thousands of New Yorkers on Medicaid kept getting opioid prescriptions while simultaneously receiving similar drugs through addiction-treatment programs that didn’t check a crucial drug oversight tool. The failure resulted in potentially unnecessary or dangerous opioid prescriptions reaching 18,786 people in recovery, including nearly 500 who needed medical care due to drug overdoses. Of those, 12 people died in connection to the overdoses. Those are some of the findings of a striking report by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli about addiction treatment programs in New York. Auditors found many treatment programs were not checking a…
Money Talks, Nobody Squawks – Nov. 27, 2018 – Last week I discussed the many issues surrounding the “chatter” of a Kohlberg, Kravis, and Roberts & Co. (NYSE: KKR) bid to purchase Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc. (Nasdaq: ACHC). Reports by Josh Kosman of the New York Post and David Faber of CNBC seem to conflict. So, given the murky waters of merger and acquisition buzz, it would seem fair to consult the leadership at Acadia. However, on the 2018 Q3 earnings call, my request to ask a question was not honored, and CEO Joey Jacobs prefaced the “buyout buzz” with…
A Decade of One Day at a Time – November 28, 2018 – Eliza Dushku just hit a major milestone in her sobriety and says she’s incredibly “grateful” to be at this point in her life. The Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum, 37, celebrated 10 years of sobriety on November 27 and marked the accomplishment with a heartfelt post on Instagram. Dushku shared a picture of the Roman number X on the social media site, along with the caption, “#grateful #sober #X yrs today. holy sh*t. #aa #twelvesteps #willingness a #sponsor #fellowship #service & asking for help #odaat saved my…
Disease as defense, or just a douche? – Nov. 28, 2018 – “In the interest of allowing the CDP’s independent investigation to move forward, I do not wish to respond to any of the specific allegations. However, I will use the time I am on leave to immediately seek medical intervention to address serious, ongoing health issues and to begin treatment for what I now realize is an issue with alcohol.” Full Story @ NYPost.com
Stick with the Winners! — Morgan Gliedman is the Vice President of Education and Engagement at the Addiction Policy Forum. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Vox, and The Fix. A lifelong New Yorker, she received her Bachelor of Arts from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University. Q. If you are in recovery, what was your DOC and when did you discontinue its use? A. My drug of choice was heroin; I’ve been in remission from opioid use disorder for six years. Q. Do you believe leaders are made or born? A. I think…
Wipe Out? – NOV. 29, 2018 – According to police records, Irons was booked for dui drugs, possession of a controlled substance without prescription and driving without a valid license. Bail was set at $2,500. Bruce Irons is a legend in the surf world — he’s won several tournaments over the years including the 2008 Rip Curl Pro Search. He also famously beat Kelly Slater at the 2001 Billabong Pipeline Masters. Bruce is also the younger brother of surf legend Andy Irons — the 3-time world surfing champion who died in 2010 from a drug overdose at a hotel in…
Grateful TV Husband – November 28, 2018 – “Around Christmas time three years ago, I started my journey of becoming my best self,” he said, adding the best present he has received is “the gift of sobriety.” With his “Jersey Shore” family on the nice list, Sorrentino said he is “handing out clues” to his co-stars this Christmas. “Ron, run the tape, and never let your emotions rule your intelligence,” Sorrentino said. “Vinny, stay away from bottle girls and for the love of God, eat the pizza and treat thyself. Full Story @ PageSix.com
That’s where I want to go – November 28, 2018 – The Mental Health Services Protection Act would also launch a new self-funded regulatory college dubbed the College of Counselling Therapy. That body could then determine everything from the scope of practice to treatment centre prices to the basic requirements needed to get a professional licence. Professional titles will also be protected, and those who don’t have the appropriate credentials could be fined. This will apply to counselling therapists, addiction counsellors, drug and alcohol counsellors, and child and youth care counsellors. The title of psychotherapist will also be protected, limiting…