Try Everything – June 16, 2018 – Before she’d meet up with her meth dealer first thing Monday mornings, Kim would impatiently count down the weekend. The weekend was the time of the crash, the lethargy, depression and mood swings that set in when she laid off the highly addictive, illicit drug. It was miserable, but she wasn’t going to use around her husband, who’d surely leave her this time, she figured. Kim is one of more than two-thirds of a million Americans battling an addiction to methamphetamine, the stimulant drug surging in popularity in the shadow of the opioid…
Author: Leonard Buschel
The Conversation Continues, Just Like Life – June 16, 2018 – Trigger warning: This story addresses suicide. If you or a loved one is struggling, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) … No one can say definitively why Kate Spade or Anthony Bourdain died by suicide. But I can tell you why I tried to kill myself. Twice … My friend—and full disclosure, literary agency client—the writer Mary Karr, has been sober for nearly 30 years. She classifies her suicidal depression this way: “I speak as a drunk drug addict myself, and suspect I am more like…
MEDIA: BOOK Recommendation – JUNE 8, 2018 – Want to book plane tickets? Order a pizza? Check college courses? Write a note to Aunt Sally? Chances are you’ll use a smartphone (or laptop or desktop or smartwatch or Amazon Echo) for that. In an “always on” society — with mini computers in reach at all times capable of solving nearly any problem or desire with a tap, pinch, or click — it’s harder than ever to escape the ever-increasing role that computer technologies play in daily life. But is this “new normal” quite so normal when it comes to human…
Big Tobacco in Ashes? – June 18, 2018 – The new figures released Tuesday mean there are still more than 30 million adult smokers in the U.S., he added. Teens are also shunning cigarettes. Survey results out last week showed smoking among high school students was down to 9 percent, also a new low. In the early 1960s, roughly 42 percent of U.S. adults smoked. It was common nearly everywhere — in office buildings, restaurants, airplanes and even hospitals. The decline has coincided with a greater understanding that smoking is a cause of cancer, heart disease and other health problems.…
It Works If You Work It – JUNE 25, 2018 – Jack Malone has a designated parking space at Lebanon Pines and a story similar to the men who come to the residential substance abuse treatment facility when alcohol or drugs has taken over their lives. The 62-year-old Norwich native, a Navy veteran, former newspaperman and longtime state representative, had his last drink on June 20, 1993. His sobriety date is June 21, the day he entered a two-week rehabilitation facility in New Hampshire. On Monday, he is planning to go to his regular Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, where he expects…
Dirty Laundry – Jun 21, 2018 – son’s 21st birthday last year: $40,000…Medical Bills after son knocks his father unconscious and uses ‘alcoholism’ as scapegoat: $10,000 … Son acting like a victim on social media on father’s day: Priceless.” He then posted an image signifying a mic drop. Tommy’s son Brandon himself responded on Instagram Tuesday afternoon, writing: “I thank my Dad for paying for my treatment. It’s the best thing he’s ever done for me. Today I am almost two years sober. Every day that goes by I feel ever more grateful. My clear mind has allowed me to…
UK Scandals – June 15, 2018 – This weekend, hundreds of people from all walks of life will gather for a party in the splendid grounds of a former stately home in Wiltshire to celebrate the fact that they are alive and well. There will be music, yoga sessions and a stall selling self-help books. But this will be no quaint village fete. It is a reunion, and all the people standing in the shadow of Clouds House, a world-famous residential addiction treatment centre, will be a testament to the powers of stable recovery. Full Story @ TheGuardian.com
We Are All One – June 18, 2018 – Some have imminent court appearances this summer, including alleged drug-ring operators Michael and Joseph Calabria and a current NYPD detective charged with lying on the stand during a trial. Here is a look at some of the defendants and where their cases stand … Joseph Calabria has a severe learning disability and will undergo a psychological exam by a court-appointed doctor, officials said. The former felon is charged with conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute oxycodone, and has been incarcerated since his arrest in February 2017. In…
JUMP for Your Love – June 22, 2018 – Olympian Luvo Manyonga has spoken of the power of sport in helping him fight back from drug addiction to become long jumpworld champion. The 27-year-old South African said sport had been very important in his life, especially as it “gave him something” during the depths of his addiction to tik, a variant of methamphetamine … Manyonga was born in a township in Paarl, a city near Cape Town. As a child, he was spotted during a track and field event, and local coach Mario Smith developed his talent. In 2010, aged…
Like a Lady? – June 21 2018 – Demi Lovato has released a surprise single, “Sober,” about her real-life break from sobriety after six years abstaining from alcohol. “Momma I’m so sorry I’m not sober anymore / And Daddy please forgive me for the drinks spilled on the floor / To the ones who never left me, we’ve been down this road before / I’m so sorry, I’m not sober,” she sings in the song, adding: “I’m sorry for the fans I lost, who watched me fall again / I wanna be a role model, but I’m only human.” Lovato…
Follow the Money, What Money? – Jun 19, 2018 – Sovereign Health, a rehab center for mental health and substance abuse, was forced to kick patients out, Monday. This comes after the Department of Children and Families (DCF) declared the center not financially viable. “You either go to rehab and get better or you stay out on the street and die,” said Dominick Crocilla, a former patient of Sovereign. Croilla says he attended the center for drug addition in March and completed the program in May. He tells Fox 4, during his time there he noticed the staff having trouble…
Telling It Like It Was – June 24, 2018 – We’re either told to do it, or we have to because we’re sick … They should get a chance to go to rehab, not jail,” said 25-year-old Ashley Mullins. Between the two undercover street prostitution stings Chillicothe police did in 2017, they arrested three women and 20 men. While all three of the women who had offered sex acts to an undercover officer were found guilty and fined, charges were dismissed for more than a third of the men accused of trying to pay the undercover officer for sex acts.…
Unsold Real Estate for Addicts Only – June 19, 2018 – In the woods of New Canaan, Connecticut, a one-hour drive from the skyscraper canyons of Manhattan, an elegant mansion has found new life as a “halfway house” for Wall Street executives recovering from alcoholism and drug addiction. Although, when it’s this exquisite, please call it a sober living residence.The New Canaan mansion was built in 2003 to look like a century-old Shingle-style home from America’s Gilded Age, with turrets and gables galore. Before it was leased as a recovery facility in January 2017, it had sat on the market…
There’s Still a Constitution? – June 25, 2018 – If addiction is a disease, should a relapse send you back to jail? A first-in-the-nation court case could decide. Full Story @ WBUR.org
Why Can’t We All Just Get Along – June 2018 See Video @ YouTube.com
Dealers Out of Work… – June 19, 2018 – Purdue Pharma, the company that manufactures the highly addictive painkiller OxyContin, laid off its entire sales force Tuesday, effectively ending an era for the drug that at one point was a top-seller and became synonymous with the nation’s opioid crisis. Purdue, the $3 billion private company owned by the Sackler family, had already laid off half of its approximately 600 sales reps back in February, when it announced that it would no longer be promoting OxyContin to doctors. But on Tuesday, Purdue Pharma confirmed to VICE News that it had effectively…
Dr. Pill Takes Over – June 23, 2018 – Dr. Elinore McCance-Katz, the Trump administration’s director of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, helped pioneer opioid addiction treatment with buprenorphine in clinical trials in the 1990s. She also helped create the training for doctors who want to prescribe it. What follows is a condensed interview with her. How much of your time is spent addressing the opioid epidemic? I probably spend half of my time on it. I also, of course, spend time on serious mental illness issues, and on planning; keeping the organization running; making sure all…
Feel Like Spooning? – June 22, 2018 – The sculpture, about 10 feet long and weighing some 700 pounds, is a huge depiction of the sort of spoon addicts use to cook heroin before injecting it. On Friday morning, the spoon, by the Boston-based sculptor Domenic Esposito, was unloaded here outside the headquarters of Purdue Pharma, the makers of the painkiller OxyContin. Some of Mr. Esposito’s work exploring the ways that addiction affects lives will appear in a new exhibition at a gallery a few blocks away. He and the gallery owner, Fernando Luis Alvarez, said they were at Purdue…
Love In Vein – June 24, 2018 – Colored bulbs cast an eerie blue glow in the restroom of a convenience store where people who inject heroin and other drugs have been seeking the relative privacy of the stalls to shoot up. The blue lights are meant to discourage people from using drugs in store bathrooms by making it more difficult for them to see their veins. It’s an idea that’s been around for years but is getting a fresh look as a result of the nation’s opioid epidemic. “The hardest-core opiate user still wants to be accurate. They want…
They Lied and So Many Died – June 22, 2018 – One of the largest suppliers of OxyContin said this weekend it will no longer promote the powerful painkiller to doctors. CBS News’ Nikki Battiste reports on the opioid market shakeup. Full Story @ CBS.com
The FINAL Solution? – June 22, 2018 – The House on Friday overwhelmingly passed sweeping bipartisan opioid legislation, concluding the chamber’s two-week voteathon on dozens of bills to address the drug abuse epidemic. The measure combines more than 50 bills approved individually by the House focusing on expanding access to treatment, encouraging the development of alternative pain treatments and curbing the flow of illicit drugs into the U.S. It was passed 396-14, with 13 Republicans and one Democrat voting against the package. Full Story @ Politico.com
Bravo! – June 22, 2018 – Congratulations, Selma Blair! The 45-year-old actress took to Instagram on Thursday, June 21 to celebrate two years of sober living. “Two years sober. Two years feeling everything and nothing. Two years of extreme gratitude and humility and grace,” she captioned a photo of herself blowing out candles on a birthday cake. “I thank the lord and my friends. Thank you for the most special birthday week … I prayed for a miracle at my lowest points. I am a living miracle. Thank you. Thank you.” Full Story @ CloserWeekly.com
Broken System – June 18, 2018 – More than 115 Americans are dying every day from an opioid overdose. But a study out Monday finds that just three in 10 patients revived by an EMT or in an emergency room received the follow-up medication known to avoid another life-threatening event. The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, followed 17,568 patients who overdosed on opioids between 2012 and 2014 in Massachusetts. It looked at survival rates over time and whether or not patients received medicines that treat addiction. Of the patients who did receive medication, 17 percent took buprenorphine,…
Starting Them Young – June 20, 2018 – Migrant children, traumatized from being detained under the Trump administration’s zero tolerance immigration policy, are being forcibly injected with powerful psychotropic drugs that can lead to movement disorders, cause obesity, and have other long-lasting, harmful effects on children, according to new legal filings. Children held at Shiloh Treatment Center, a government-funded facility in Manvel, Texas, described being placed on multiple psychotropic medications without their parents’ consent. One patient was prescribed a combination of four different drugs that conflicted with professional association guidelines and is known to increase the risk of Type 2 diabetes,…
Netflix Addiction Now? You’ll Never Run Out! – June 20, 2018 – The World Health Organization recently classified obsessive video-gaming as an addiction. Not to sound like a compulsive gambler, but I bet it will not be long until “gaming disorder” is joined in the WHO’s International Classification of Diseases by another modern, screen-based malady: “Netflix disorder”. Full Story @ TheGuardian.com
Too Much Joy Sticking – June 18, 2018 – In its latest revision to a disease classification manual, the U.N. health agency said Monday that compulsively playing video games now qualifies as a mental health condition. The statement confirmed the fears of some parents but led critics to warn that it may risk stigmatizing too many young video players. WHO said classifying “gaming disorder” as a separate addiction will help governments, families and health care workers be more vigilant and prepared to identify the risks. The agency and other experts were quick to note that cases of the condition are…
Brain Damages – June 15, 2018 – Diego was a 20-year-old college junior who was brought to the emergency room by the police. They were called by his resident advisor for bizarre behavior in the dormitory. Diego was anxious, frequently glancing around the room, and talked in a disorganized manner about the Illuminati, Freemasons and the end of the world. A urine drug screen was positive for cannabis. When asked later during the hospitalization, his resident advisor reported Diego smoked marijuana daily, and Diego admitted to being a daily marijuana smoker since arriving at college. Full Story @ MiamiHerald.com
Good to Know – June 6, 2018 – On the surface, the behavior of alcoholics and binge drinkers appears very similar: excessive drinking and the inability to control their drinking,” Kristin Wilson, MA, LPC, Vice President of clinical outreach at Newport Academy, tells Bustle. “Both types may appear to be the life of the party, even though the mechanisms underlying the drinking are different. Furthermore, binge drinking and alcoholism (even high-functioning alcoholism) have very similar short-term consequences, including greater risk of accidents, death, violence, and injury; and long-term consequences, including damage to relationships, serious health conditions, and a greater risk…
Not Bluffing Anymore – June 11, 2018 – The world of poker is replete with stories of great success and massive failure, the game bringing riches and ruin in equal measure, and Greg Merson has tasted both, but today the 2012 Main Event champion shared his latest sick brag and it had nothing to do with cards … Merson has been one of the few to openly share his trials and tribulations with drug addiction, cocaine, heroin and Adderall all masters of his life in years past. Now even cannabis and smoking are off the agenda, replaced with yoga and…
Sugar Babies – June 11, 2018 – We’ve long known that processed sugar is bad for kids. And yet new data presented this week (June 10) at the American Society for Nutrition’s annual meeting show that American infants are consuming excessive amounts of added sugar in their diets, much more than the amounts currently recommended by the American Heart Association (AHA) and other medical organizations. The study, conducted by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, looked at added sugar consumption—sugars in your diet that are not naturally occurring, like those found in fruit and milk, but rather…