Stick with the Winners! – Ahbra Schiff is proud to be a sober member of Alcoholics Anonymous, a mom, and part of Leonard Buschel’s Writer’s In Treatment, and the media produced under its auspices.“My life has changed because of sobriety and one of the best things I do now is to work with young women who are in the county’s juvenile detention centers.” This is not her first time in production as Ahbra is credited with co-producing her three amazing children, Joshua, 26, Jordyn, 23 and Ellie, 16 — a job which also allowed her to get her feet wet in Operations…
Author: Leonard Buschel
From Grief to Gift – June 6, 2018 – Jon Orens closed his first sale 30 years ago at 3900 Ford Rd., selling a property in Northwest Philly’s Park Plaza condos. Since then, he’s made a name for himself as a real estate developer, building in just about every neighborhood the city has to offer. Orens visited that same Ford Road complex again last week for a different reason: the soft opening of an an addiction recovery center named for his son, who died from a drug overdosein November 2016. The Daniel J. Orens Center for Life is the first…
Unblinking – June 9, 2018 – “In America, the professional kitchen is the last refuge of the misfit,” Anthony Bourdain once wrote. “Admittedly, it’s a life that grinds you down,” he added. “Most of us who live and operate in the culinary underworld are in some fundamental way dysfunctional.” That declaration served as an in-your-face summation of Bourdain’s 1999 New Yorker piece that did much more than launch his celebrity career. It dragged the stresses and mental health rigors of working in the restaurant industry into the open, both for those people seated at the front of the house and,…
Help Is Available – June 4, 2018 – Colorado’s $1.8 million Lift The Label campaign is all about challenging the perceptions of people with opioid addiction and encouraging them to get help. The campaign leverages a memorial wall, as well TV and online ads and a detailed website to lift the taboo around addiction. Former television reporter Dana Knowles, a married mother of three, is one of 15 Coloradans sharing their story. In one ad, Knowles spoke directly at the camera and said “I am a recovering opiate addict and this can happen to anybody.” Knowles got hooked on prescription…
Crime and Punishment – JUNE 5, 2018 – An Essington man was sentenced to life in federal prison Tuesday for having a drug rival murdered to edge out competition in the region’s lucrative opioid market. But neither the defendant, Anthony Vetri, nor his victim, Gbolahan “Bo” Olabode, were typical players in a routine drug world drama. Both were self-made men and successful entrepreneurs — Vetri as a licensed electrician and house flipper, Olabode as a Nigerian immigrant who paid his way through Temple University to become a partner in a chain of local pharmacies. Both came from loving, relatively well-off…
There is Help Available – June 8, 2018 – Suicide is a leading cause of death in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that suicide rates increased by 25 percent across the United States since 1999, and that, in half of the states, increased more than 30 percent. Suicide is a serious public health problem that causes immeasurable pain, suffering, and loss to individuals, families, and communities nationwide. The causes of suicide are complex and determined by multiple combinations of factors, such as mental illness, substance abuse, painful losses, exposure to violence, and social…
Jackass Was a Big Hit on TV – June 9, 2018 – Don’t pathologize the despair that is a rational response to a culture that values people based on ever escalating financial and personal achievements … In September of 2004, I received the call that every person dreads: my father had dropped dead of a heart attack at the age of 61. It came at a time I was already grappling with other issues, including watching my mother fight breast cancer for the preceding six months, a breakup with a boyfriend and a lack of structure in my life as…
Are You Eating While You Read This? – June 5, 2018 – The list of substances or behaviors to which adolescents can become unhealthily attached, even addicted, can seem endless to a parent inclined to be caring and protective: alcohol, smoking, drugs, gambling, video games, social media, internet, cell phones, sex, shopping, eating … Wait, eating you say? Yes, eating. Or food. It depends. There’s a debate over whether the problems are the same thing. Some say that someone who craves the same food, say sweets or salty chips, and consumes it in unhealthy amounts might be considered a food…
MEDIA: NYT Book Review – June 4, 2018 – Michael Pollan has long been concerned with the moral dilemmas of everyday life. “Second Nature,” his first book, was ostensibly about gardening, but really about ways to overcome our alienation from the natural world. “A Place of My Own,” his second, chronicled the “radically unhandy” Pollan’s construction of his writing studio. “The Botany of Desire,” his third and possibly greatest book, put him back in the garden, though in a more global state of mind. He then went on to write four searching books that wrestled, in one way or another,…
There’s gold in them there bladders – June 1, 2018 – Two men connected to a Delray Beach-area lab linked to kickbacks for urine tests for people in treatment and recovery for substance abusehave been arrested, a day after three men also were charged in the scheme. Christopher Kristiansen, 27, and Alex Kane, 30, who list the same address in Delray Beach, were booked late Thursday at the Palm Beach County Jail. Each is charged with aiding in patient brokering and receiving patient-brokering kickbacks. Kane faces a third charge of conspiracy to commit patient brokering … In court Friday, Kristiansen…
Younger than Springtime – June 6, 2018 – She said abuse of substances such as heroin is on the rise. Buckley said in 2016, 23 percent of the admitted patients were diagnosed with opiate addiction. So far in 2018, 32 percent of such patients have that diagnosis. “We’re only halfway through this year and we’re already more than what we were for all of last year,” she said. There’s a monthlong waiting list to get one of the 14 beds reserved for 16- to 20-year-olds. To keep up with demand, the facility has doubled the number of beds for 12-…
A Daughter’s First Person Account – Originally published: May 19, 1996 – The blood was like Jell-O. That is what blood gets like, after you die, before they tidy up. Somehow, I had expected it would be gone. The police and coroner spent more than an hour behind the closed door; surely it was someone’s job to clean it up. But when they left, it still covered the kitchen floor like the glazing on a candy apple. You couldn’t mop it. You needed a dustpan and a bucket. I got on my knees, slid the pan against the linoleum and…
Out of the FOG – Into the FOG – June 9, 2018 – The nation’s ongoing opioid and heroin abuse crisis isn’t just big business for street-corner drug dealers and unscrupulous medical and pharmaceutical professionals. It’s becoming a big, largely unregulated, business for outfits purporting to treat the addicted in group settings, causing Pennsylvania officials to issue a consumer fraud alert. State Insurance Commissioner Jessica Altman and Jennifer Smith, secretary of the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, advised residents to be wary of advertisements from out-of-state drug treatment centers. Many are from so-called “sober living homes” or “recovery houses”…
AA Indian Style – June 11, 2018 – “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.” Every AA meeting starts with the group chanting this Serenity Prayer, originally by Reinhold Neibuhr. Alcoholics Anonymous, popularly known as AA, is an international mutual-aid fellowship of, and for, men and women battling alcoholism. This fellowship, which celebrated its 83rd anniversary on June 10, was founded in 1935, by Americans Dr Bob Smith and William Griffith Wilson. Today, it enjoys worldwide recognition for their 12-Steps…
High Times – June 10, 2018 – Imagine stopping 115 needless deaths in the U.S. every day. It’s not a guarantee, but with recent developments in cannabis research, experts believe it could be on the horizon. Opioid drug overdoses claim those 115 lives every day in this country. About 60% of opioid addictions are rooted in prescription drug use for a number of ailments, ranging from chronic pain to sports-related injuries to personality disorders. That’s where many see cannabis products coming in to help. Read More About Investing In Cannabis Via Real Money “One-hundred fifteen people die every day as…
Jesus, NO! – June 10, 2018 – According to police, there was no signs of foul play. Authorities said an investigation is ongoing and details surrounding the actor’s death have not been released. Odell is seen on The Goldbergs sitting on the couch in a grey shirt Authorities said an investigation is ongoing and details surrounding the actor’s death have not been released. Odell, who launched his acting career at the age of 12, also starred in Judy Moody, Not Bummer Summer and in several hit TV shows including iCarly, Arrested Development and Modern Family. The Colorado native was also…
Dr. John Mann – Columbia University – June 11, 2018 Full Story @ DemocracyNow.org
AA @ 83 with MAT, Magical Assisted Treatment – June 9, 2018 – The pilgrim wore a silver skull ring that had ruby-color eyes. He stood in the rain Saturday at Akron’s Mount Peace Cemetery and turned over some of the sobriety coins left atop the tombstone of Dr. Bob, the Akron surgeon who co-founded Alcoholics Anonymous in the Rubber City in 1935. The pilgrim — Trapper S. of Traverse City, Mich. — rode 432 miles on his Harley to be in Akron for the 83rd Founders Day weekend honoring the day Dr. Bob took his last drink, June 10.…
Let’s Never Forget LOVE – June 10. 2018 – A full day with the city’s lovers and their endless expressions of romance, from hand holding to getting married, shopping at Ikea to attending sex parties… Full Story @ NYTimes.com
What Took So Long? – June 5, 2018 – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced that it has warned nine online networks, operating a total of 53 websites, that they must stop illegally marketing potentially dangerous, unapproved and misbranded versions of opioid medications, including tramadol and oxycodone. Companies who fail to correct the violations, as outlined in the warning letters, may be subject to enforcement action, including product seizure or injunction. “The FDA is taking additional steps to protect U.S. consumers from illicit opioids by targeting the websites that illegally market them and other illicit drugs. The internet…
Bad Medicine – June 6, 2018 – Test-referral scams. Running pill mills to dispense powerful painkillers. Medicare fraud. In recent years, eight doctors who either practiced or lived on Staten Island have been criminally convicted, mainly on federal charges. Five were convicted in a scheme in which patients were told to take blood tests at a specific lab in New Jersey. The doctors received tens of thousands of dollars in kickbacks while generating more than $2 million in business for Biodiagnostic Laboratory Services, prosecutors said. Two other doctors dispensed thousands of oxycodone prescriptions to patients who didn’t need the drug,…
Only One more month on Broadway – GO NOW! – June 1, 2018 – One of the most sought-after tickets on Broadway these days is “Angels in America,” a revival of Tony Kushner’s seminal play about the AIDS crisis and its aftermath. While only a few of us will be fortunate enough to see the show in person, everyone can benefit from the following insight: When the play originally debuted in 1991, HIV/AIDS was considered a death sentence and slapped with a stigma that isolated and ostracized those with the disease and their families. The same type of stigma is…
If I Had a Hammer… – June 7, 2018 – The White House is starting an anti-opioid advertising campaign targeting young people Thursday, one of its most concrete steps to address opioids since the Trump administration declared the epidemic a public health emergency in October. Actors in the new public education campaign reenact the actual stories of young adults — with only their last names missing — when they were in the throes of opioid addiction. It was created by the Truth Initiative, which helped bring down cigarette smoking among young people over the last 20 years with its “truth…
Is Anyone Safe? – June 3, 2018 – While America was diverted by homegrown terrorism, economic stress and mass shootings, another scourge quietly moved to the fore. Drug addiction is nothing new. What is new is which part of the population it strikes. All have been hit at different times but right now, it seems to be middle-aged white Americans battling opioids. Opioids come in many forms, including the street drug heroin and garden-variety prescription pills found in bathroom cabinets. The latter have been making headlines and dubbed a gateway to addiction. President Trump declared America is in a state…
Tough Love or Tough S**t – June 4, 2018 – As soon as Julie Eldred was granted probation for stealing jewelry to buy drugs, she got busy fulfilling the judge’s conditions. She began an intensive outpatient treatment program. She even went an extra step and started daily doses of Suboxone, a medication that can quell opiate cravings. Then she relapsed and snorted her drug of choice — fentanyl. To stop from plunging into free fall, she asked her doctor for a stronger dose of Suboxone. She stayed clean the next day. And the next. But the following morning, 11 days…
China White Death – June 1, 2018 – From January through March, 86 people died of overdoses, down from 89 such deaths during the same time period in 2017, according to the Maine Attorney General and Medical Examiner’s offices. A record 418 people died of drug overdoses in 2017. More people now die from drug overdoses than motor vehicle accidents, according to federal statistics. Although the total number of deaths declined during the first three months of 2018, more people who die from overdoses were killed by illegal substances, including fentanyl, as opposed to pharmaceutical opioids. About 65 percent of…
Good Insurance – May 30, 2018 – The owner of a Temecula substance abuse treatment facility, who allegedly submitted dozens of false claims to a health insurance company and collected more than $250,000 before the scheme was uncovered, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to 30 counts of insurance fraud. David Leo Johnson, 55, is accused of ripping off Health Net over a 15-month span ending in May 2016. Johnson was arraigned before Riverside County Superior Court Judge David Gunn, who scheduled a felony settlement conference for June 4 and set the defendant’s bail at $270,000. Johnson is being held at the…
School for Soberites – May 28, 2018 – Step Up” at Augsburg University in Minneapolis allows students to experience collegiate life substance-free, and with access to counselors and peers fighting the same battle. Full Story @ NBCNews.com
Hitting the Right Notes – May 28, 2018 – Macklemore, R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, Pearl Jam’s Jeff Ament and Julien Baker were among the musicians who contributed to influential Seattle public radio station KEXP’s recent “Music Heals: Addiction & Recovery” programming event. The station hosted a full 15 hour block of programming on May 24 dedicated to stories of addiction and recovery from high-profile musicians, KEXP staff and listeners. Macklemore, the Grammy Award-winning rapper behind such hits “Glorious” and “Good Old Days,” had a history of binge drinking and an addiction to OxyContin. “You’re not alone in your struggle,” he told…
Attraction Not Coercion – May 29, 2018 – Mandatory treatment is defined as “treatment ordered, motivated, or supervised under the criminal justice system.” Going beyond the more common drug court approaches that offer a person charged with a crime the choice of treatment instead of incarceration, several US states mandate that people with addiction enter treatment against their will, and that trend is expanding. Mandating addiction treatment is highly controversial, however, both ethically and practically. At a 2016 United Nations High Level Meeting on HIV in New York, Fabienne Hariga, MD, MPH, senior adviser to the United Nations Office on…