Treatment Industry Thrives on Drugs – March 8, 2018 – The rehab field is highly fragmented, with thousands of small providers offering treatment that often isn’t grounded in science. Some lack medical professionals or licensed counselors, reflecting the field’s roots in 12-step sobriety principles rather than medicine. Yet rehab services often cost big money, which insurers don’t always cover. Parents and family members desperate to keep their loved ones from overdosing find themselves shelling out again and again through rounds of recovery and relapse. Federal data show that 22.5% of admissions for substance-abuse treatment involve someone who has already had…
Author: Leonard Buschel
Player/Coach/Healer/Businessman – March 7, 2018 – “For the past 10 years I’ve had a plan for a place like this,” he says. “I believe there is a void for anyone who is struggling, anyone who is not thriving. The center, he says, seeks to provide resources for prevention, early intervention and a post-treatment foundation to sustain a healthy lifestyle. It also offers the residents (who will stay between 30-120 days) acupuncture, massage therapy, yoga, meditation. There will be a nutritionist assigned to each person, along with a life coach, a personal trainer, and more He long ago came to realize…
Collusion. Bribery, Blackmail? – March 11, 2018 – In 2014 and 2015, opioid manufacturers paid hundreds of doctors across the country six-figure sums for speaking, consulting and other services. Thousands of other doctors were paid over $25,000 during that time. Physicians who prescribed particularly large amounts of the drugs were the most likely to get paid … “It smells like doctors being bribed to sell narcotics, and that’s very disturbing,” said Kolodny, who is also the executive director of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing … Doctors who write the most opioid prescriptions get paid the most money by pharmaceutical companies…
The Big Book’s Value? PRICELESS – March 9, 2018 – The Alcoholics Anonymous book has stats most authors only dream of: more than 30 million copies sold. Translated into 67 languages. In 2012, the Library of Congress ranked it No. 10 in its top 25 “Books that Shaped America.” … Now, the original manuscript, lost for decades and containing handwritten notes by Wilson and his friends, will be auctioned off for millions May 5 after almost a year of legal wrangling, Profiles in History auction house announced this week. Alcoholics Anonymous World Services Inc., the publishing wing of A.A., tried…
Nikki Sounds Like a Prickki – March 9, 2018 – In her new cover story for Billboard, which was released on Thursday (March 8), the star, who is currently on the road with her “Tell Me You Love Me World Tour” with DJ Khaled and Kehlani, recalled the celeb-packed fundraiser and it wasn’t a fond memory. “I had a terrible experience,” Lovato admitted. “This one celebrity was a complete bitch and was miserable to be around. It was very cliquey. I remember being so uncomfortable that I wanted to drink.” As for who she could have been referring to, it…
Executions on the Mall – March 10, 2018 – President Trump on Saturday again called for enacting the death penalty for drug dealers during a rally meant to bolster a struggling GOP candidate for a U.S. House seat here … But on Saturday his call for executing drug dealers got some of the most enthusiastic cheers of the night. As Trump spoke about policies on the issue in China and Singapore, dozens of people nodded their heads in agreement. “We love Trump,” one man yelled. A woman shouted: “Pass it!” Full Story @ WashingtonPost.com
Big Fat Pharma Facts – March 05, 2018 – The family of a baby born addicted to opioids filed a class action lawsuit Wednesday against 20 pharmaceutical companies they accused of being negligent and responsible for the mother’s addiction to opioids and heroin. The lawsuit tells the story of a baby, only identified by his initials T.W.B. He was born March 21, 2017, and spent the first days of his life in “excruciating pain” as he was weaned from his opioid addiction, inherited from his mother. “Baby T.W.B. will require years of treatment and counseling to deal with the effects…
TIME MAGAZINE ‘The Opioid Diaries’ – March 7, 2018 – Photographer James Nachtwey presented a selection of his photographs from the March 5, 2018 issue of TIME Magazine, “The Opioid Diaries,” at an event Tuesday evening at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Nachtwey described the lives and struggles of individuals and communities behind the images, and related his experiences in pursuing the project. Nachtwey, who spent much of his career as a war photographer, said that on reading about the extent of the opioid epidemic in America, “I knew it was time to revisit my own country. What I found…
CHILDREN? – March 5, 2018- Children between the ages of 1 and 5 years were the second most-likely to be admitted for opioid overdose, accounting for over one-third of cases. The vast majority were likely the result of accidental consumption of medications such as methadone and oxycodone that had been prescribed to the children’s parents, according to Kane. “Children accidentally getting into medications is not a new phenomenon,” Kane said. “But this is probably a reflection of the massive amount of drugs — opioid drugs — that are available to children in the community.” In severe cases, opioid overdose can…
Don’t Forget to Tip … Over – February 26, 2018 – Most people don’t want abstinence,” said Alavida’s medical director and co-founder Dr. Diane Rothon. “They want to be able to have a cocktail at the end of the day or a glass of wine with dinner, go to a wedding and have a few drinks. They want to be able to fit in.” … Doctors at Alavida treat their outpatient clients with therapy, a smartphone app to track how many drinks they’ve had and medication. Most patients get a prescription for naltrexone pills to take as needed, an hour…
Let’s Play Monopoly – FEB 23, 2018 – “To them it’s competition for chronic pain, and that’s outrageous because we don’t have the crisis in people who take marijuana for chronic pain having overdose issues,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York said. “It’s not the same thing. It’s not as highly addictive as opioids are.” … Gillibrand, in an appearance on Good Day New York on Friday morning, was responding to a question about whether marijuana is a “gateway drug” that leads people to try more dangerous substances … “I don’t see it as a gateway to opioids,” she said.…
Music Time – Feb. 28, 2018 – War calls it “a very personal song about my struggle with alcoholism, my dysfunctional love life and the confusion I face daily participating in this rat race society … In 2009, Sunny was hailed by LA Weekly as one of LA’s up and coming self-made success stories, having found her voice busking on Venice Beach, signing a publishing deal with BMI and getting a sponsorship with Gibson all by the age of 18. Nine years later she no longer has that sponsorship (her guitar was summarily stolen) or that publishing deal. War is…
Gold Mining – Feb. 26, 2018 – An 11Alive Investigation uncovered a surge in drug tests paid for with Georgia Medicaid funds, highlighting an industry some believe takes advantage of unnecessary expensive tests and vulnerable patients trying to get sober. The Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH) pays the drug testing for patients covered under Medicaid. According to records the 11Alive Investigators obtained from the agency, the number of drug tests Georgia paid for jumped from 178,000 in 2015 to 247,000 last year. Full Story @ 11Alive.com
No Shoot Sherlock – Jan. 28, 2018 – Kombucha is a wildly popular drink that has devotees believing it can help asthma, high blood pressure and prostate problems, even cancer. About $600 million a year is being spent on it, with yearly growth of 25 percent expected. But there are new concerns about its alcohol content. Kombucha has been around for thousands of years and is a non-alcoholic tea brewed from yeast and bacteria. The claim to fame for most of these elixirs is their live probiotics. Full Story @ Fox6Now.com
Jail as Permanent Detox? – Feb. 28, 2018 – An inmate in the Chemung County Jail died after reportedly overdosing on narcotics. According to the Chemung County Sheriff’s Office, it happened Tuesday morning. The Sheriff’s Office says correctional staff were conducting a housing unit search when Leo Disbrow, 35, allegedly swallowed an illegal narcotic contraband. Officers reportedly did not know the inmate had allegedly swallowed the drugs. The Sheriff’s Office says Disbrow started showing overdose symptoms a short time later. He was taken to a local hospital where he later died. Full Story @ WENY.com
Grand Old Dame – Jan. 29, 2018 – Drug and alcohol treatment center, the Beacon House is proud to announce that 2018 marks its 60th Anniversary. Established in 1958 by Mary Clark Ross and Dr. Donald Taugher, colleagues of Marty Mann, founder of the National Council on Alcoholism (now the NCADD); the mission at Beacon House still holds true today, treating the human spirit with dignity; and utilizing the latest research and modalities that support the 12 – Step model of recovery. Full Story @ BeaconHouse.org
Where Will It End? – March 3, 2018 – The statistics record damaging changes to people’s mental states as a result of taking illicit drugs, such as cannabis and cocaine, and also from the use of painkillers, alcohol and solvents. Victims have needed urgent medical attention for acute intoxication due to drugs, and symptoms of both dependence and withdrawal from them, as well as psychotic disorders and amnesia caused by taking them. The numbers also include people who are delirious or exhibiting other signs of harmful effects of drug taking … The biggest rise has been been among people in…
Cinema Intoxication – MAR 2, 2018 – Victory came at a cost. The isolation, tension and high-stakes living resulted in an addiction to anxiolytics, painkillers and amphetamines just to function: sleep, talk, think. But her true addiction, according to her overbearing psychologist father, was her need to control powerful men; stemming from her disappointment with her own unfaithful father. Gambling is also a type of addiction, which many of the poker players developed. Contrary to her belief, Molly did not directly cause her high-end poker players to develop an addiction to gambling; but she was an enabler. Full Story @…
No Crime, No Fentanyl, NO DEAD – June 20, 2017 – In the main treatment room, a familiar smell of rubbing alcohol lingers in the air — the kind of scent I associate with getting a vaccine shot. At Crosstown, the smell is the remnants of the medicine that 130 to 150 patients inject themselves with multiple times a day at the clinic. Except the injection here isn’t a vaccine. It’s medical-grade heroin. A clinic where patients use heroin may sound shocking and irresponsible, particularly now, as a deadly and devastating opioid epidemic ravages North America. But this approach is…
Films Can Save Lives Too – March 4, 2018 – Documentary filmmaker Elaine McMillion Sheldon chose Huntington as the setting for her short doc about America’s opioid crisis, Heroin(e). It’s now nominated for an Oscar. One those heroines is the town’s fire chief, Jan Rader. She spends her days in an endless cycle of trying to revive addicts who have overdosed. In the film, she conservatively estimates that Cabell County — home to Huntington and to around 96,000 people in total — spent $100 million in healthcare costs associated with IV drug use in 2015. Another heroine is Patricia Keller.…
Bottom Line is Paramount – March 2, 2018 – The Beacon House is one of the granddaddies of addiction treatment in California — a nonprofit founded in 1959, situated in a grand Victorian estate on the scenic Monterey Peninsula. If you searched Google for “Beacon House Monterey” just a few months ago, a list of ads for Beacon would have popped up. If you clicked through and called the contact number, you might have learned that the Beacon House in Monterey was, unfortunately, full. But you also would have been told that there were great spots for you in top-notch…
Endless War – Feb. 28, 2018 – …Sessions unveiled a new task force that would target the epidemic. But Sessions’ new group, led by Mary Daly, a former US attorney who supervised narcotics units in Virginia and New York, is focused almost exclusively on law enforcement, and not on treatment or rehabilitation. Prosecuting opioid crimes, investigating opioid-related health care fraud, and increasing funding to state and local law enforcement are necessary measures, but, as we learned in the 1980s, we can’t arrest our way out of the drug war. With 174 Americans dying of an overdose each day, the opioid…
Studying the Studies – March 4, 2018 – A MEDICATION THAT had been hailed as “a wonder drug” to treat alcoholism has been found by a new study to less effective than had previously been hoped. Baclofen has been used since the 1970s primarily as an anti-spasticity treatment but more recently it has been used as a treatment for alcohol use disorders … baclofen did not increase abstinent days or decrease the number of heavy drinking days during treatment, neither did it reduce rates of alcohol craving, anxiety or depression. Full Story @ TheJournal.ie
Drink of Life – March 4, 2018 – This week’s In Depth looks at where methadone treatment fits in with the opioid crisis killing tens of thousands of people each year in the U.S. It’s a treatment that has been around since the 1960s but, despite its solid scientific footing, has been slow to be embraced by many mainstream addiction programs. Union-Tribune reporter Kristina Davis, who has been covering the drug epidemic, talks about the story behind the story … Some rehab centers will have a hard time with the shift in philosophies, but others are excited to be able…
Northern Sanity – Feb. 26, 2018 – Two of Canada’s three major political parties are considering removing criminal penalties for the personal possession and use of all drugs – a step that health and drug policy experts say is critical in treating problematic substance use as a health issue. At a national convention in Ottawa last weekend, the federal New Democratic party passed a resolution to end the criminalization of the personal possession of all drugs, a move in line with leader Jagmeet Singh’s position that problematic drug use should be treated as a social-justice and health-care issue rather than…
Killer Idea – Dec. 5, 2017 – In 2001, nearly two decades into Pereira’s accidental specialization in addiction, Portugal became the first country to decriminalize the possession and consumption of all illicit substances. Rather than being arrested, those caught with a personal supply might be given a warning, a small fine, or told to appear before a local commission – a doctor, a lawyer and a social worker – about treatment, harm reduction, and the support services that were available to them. The opioid crisis soon stabilized, and the ensuing years saw dramatic drops in problematic drug use, HIV and…
Greedy Bastards – March 2, 2018 – In desperation, a nurse did something that would not happen in a hospital. She dialed 911. By the time an ambulance delivered Tam to the emergency room, the 58-year-old mother of three was lifeless, according to the report. If Tam had been operated on at a hospital, a few simple steps could have saved her life. But like hundreds of thousands of other patients each year, Tam went to one of the nation’s 5,600-plus surgery centers. Such centers started nearly 50 years ago as low-cost alternatives for minor surgeries. They now outnumber hospitals…
OK it’s TMZ – FEB. 26, 2018 – DENNIS RODMAN SAYS HE’S 38 DAYS BOOZE-FREE — BUT ADMITS HE STILL THINKS ABOUT ALCOHOL ALL THE TIME AND NOW REALIZES STAYING SOBER IS A SERIOUS “STRUGGLE.” The good news … Rodman seemed very serious about continuing down the sober path when we spotted him out over the weekend — telling TMZ Sports he just wrapped up his 2nd Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in L.A. “I feel great, man,” Rodman said … “It’s kinda weird not to have a cocktail on a beautiful day in California but like I said, it’s just one…
Honor System? – Feb. 28, 2018 – On February 22nd, New Hampshire’s House of Representatives passed HB 1283,a Republican-led bill that would prohibit police from conducting sobriety checkpoints in the state. The bill’s text consists simply of the following: “Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, no law enforcement officer or agency shall establish or conduct sobriety checkpoints.” The bill was prefiled back in November 2017 ahead of the 2018 legislative session. The House vote follows the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee’s 12-8 recommendation to go forward with the legislation; the next step for HB 1283 is…
Label THIS! – March 1, 2018 – The 36 “internationally renowned and respected mental health experts, leading social scientists and academics from research centers and universities” in publishing a new research paper arguing against the WHO. The paper, titled “A Weak Scientific Basis for Gaming Disorder: Let us err on the side of caution,” going further in-depth to all the aforementioned points, can be found here at the link. “Worldwide opposition to the WHO’s controversial and unproven classification of ‘Gaming Disorder’ continues to grow,” Michael D. Gallagher, president and CEO of the ESA said. “The WHO’s process lacks transparency, is…