LISTEN – Jan. 18, 2025 – Michael Meade suggests that because we live in a time of change, if we can allow ourselves to participate in the change, then we can find meaningful purpose that awakens the heart and leads us in the right direction in the world. The idea of a threshold is something that exists before one state and another, before one place and another. Being on the threshold involves awakening to the purpose of our life and following our calling and destiny. To handle increasing levels of uncertainty and overwhelm in the world by drawing on the…
Author: Leonard Buschel
STICK WITH THE WINNERS! – Jan. 21, 2025 – Mel Pohl, MD, DFASAM is a Family Practitioner and the Senior Medical Consultant to the Pain Recovery Program at The Pointe Malibu Recovery Center in Malibu, California. He is the author of several books including The Pain Antidote – Stop Suffering from Chronic Pain, Avoid Addiction to Painkillers, and Reclaim Your Life. CONTINUE@AddictionRecoveryeBulletin
VIDEO – MUSICAL INTERLUDE – 1961- 7,995,592 views as of Jul 30, 2013, In the 1961 film version, Anita, played by Rita Moreno, still sings in favor of the United States while Bernardo, played by George Chakiris, replies with corresponding criticisms of America and American ethnic prejudice, especially against Puerto Ricans (“Life is alright in America/If you’re all White in America”) In the original stage version, Anita – the girlfriend of Bernardo, the leader of the Sharks, and the most important female character after Maria – praises America while a fellow Puerto Rican, Rosalia, supports Puerto Rico.[1] This version of…
CHOICE OR CHANCE OR GRACE – Jan. 15, 2025 – A recent analysis published by CBC News concluded that there is no clear evidence showing efficacy for forced treatment for individuals suffering from addiction disorders. “There is a lack of high-quality evidence to support or refute involuntary treatment for [substance use disorders],” concluded the report. “More research is needed to inform health policy.” In addition, criticisms of involuntary drug addiction treatment also noted that implementing involuntary treatment for substance addiction would require a province to amend its healthcare consent legislation. “We have to be realistic about the fact that addiction…
MAGGIE’S FARM? – Jan. 18, 2025 – In dark bluejeans and work shirt, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stood in a Texas farm field, faced a camera and outlined his plan to combat drug addiction. “I’m going to bring a new industry to these forgotten corners of America, where addicts can help each other recover from their addictions,” he said in a documentary, “Recovering America: A Film About Healing Our Addiction Crisis.” “We’re going to build hundreds of healing farms where American kids can reconnect to America’s soil, where they can learn the discipline of hard work that rebuilds self-esteem and…
VIDEO – MUSICAL INTERLUDE – 1982 – A great performance from Gil Scott-Heron and the Midnight Band, live at the Wax Museum Nightclub. So beautiful, it’s my favorite. The melancholy trumpet and the fluttering bird like flute on its barren treetop. It feels very apt for today. Long Live Democracy. CONTINUE@YouTube
TALKING ADDICTION – Jan. 11, 2025 – In videos shared by The Shade Room from Weslie Fowler’s Instagram livestream, she speaks openly about everything, from the current state of her family after Stephen “tWitch” Boss tragically died by suicide in December 2022. Additionally, she firmly stood by her mom, Allison Holker, after Allison went viral for discussing Boss’ alleged drug use. During the stream, Weslie made it clear that her mom never called Stephen “tWitch” Boss “an addict.” However, se called out trolls for twisting her mother’s comments about Boss. She explained that tWitch took on a fatherly role in…
WITH CLEARER HEADS – Jan. 13, 2025 – The proportion of people who don’t drink alcohol is almost double that of those who don’t eat meat – which brings big implications for bars and restaurants. Teetotallers are like vegetarians – suddenly they’re everywhere. Actually, only 7% of Britons call themselves vegetarians (and 4% vegan), while 16% say they are non-drinkers. If you don’t drink, what’s there to plan? Just enjoy yourself the best you can until it’s time to drive me home. One in three visits to pubs, bars and restaurants in the UK are alcohol-free. Eighteen percent of Britons…
MURDERERS? – Jan. 17, 2025 – Filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the complaint says the drugstore chain’s pharmacists filled controlled substance prescriptions with clear red flags that indicated they were highly likely to be unlawful. Walgreens also systematically pressured pharmacists to fill prescriptions without taking the time to confirm their validity. The lawsuit says Walgreens filled “unlawful” prescriptions in violation of the federal Controlled Substances Act and sought reimbursement from federal health care programs for them in violation of the False Claims Act. Walgreens, one of the country’s largest pharmacy chains, with over 8,000…
KILLING TO MAKE A KILLING? – Jan. 13, 2025 – “Preying on consumers suffering from addiction and other substance use disorders is wrong, and it’s illegal,” said Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection. “The use of deceptive online ads to trick consumers into selecting one clinic over another is unacceptable, and the Commission will continue taking action against clinics, marketers, and others in this space, as well as their executives, when they break the law.” According to the complaint, Evoke tricked consumers into contacting Evoke’s call center by using deceptive Google search ads that appeared to be from the…
A WORLD INSANE – Jan. 21, 2025 – Journalist Naomi Klein and trauma expert Dr. Gabor Maté explore the complex intersection of collective trauma, political power, and memory. Drawing from Naomi’s recent analysis of how trauma has been weaponized in current conflicts, and Gabor’s deep understanding of trauma’s psychological impacts, their conversation examines how media narratives and political rhetoric weaponize fear and trauma to gain public support for military and political crimes. The discussion will address the troubling speed at which the Oct 7 Jewish trauma is now converted into a spectacle through virtual reality experiences, museum exhibitions, and immersive…
A STAR IS REBORN – Jan. 12, 2025 – New year, new me’ and all of that is really at that crucial point now where people start to drop off or, people start to really hold on. Often included in those resolutions is drink less alcohol, to have a crack at Dry January or to go fully sober for the long-run. There’s various reasons why you might be ditching drink, with sobriety advocates recently revealing to LADbible how alcohol took away their ‘hopes and dreams’ and how sobriety had an impact on their ADHD. So, here’s a look at some…
“I keep my ideals, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.” – Anne Frank, 1929–1945
“Negativity is the enemy of creativity.” – David Lynch, Jan. 20, 1946 – Jan. 16, 2025
A VISION OF LIFE – Jan. 2, 2025 – Every Friday after work was a write-off: Let’s get drunk and have a good time. I didn’t have bad experiences, but I would drink enough so that I would ruin my next day,” he explained, apparently adding that the aftereffects of his weekend drinking were intense enough that he talked to his doctor about his liver health. According to the Men’s Health profile, Holland “found his first month of sobriety unsettlingly difficult,” and shared that one particular night out with his brother made him decide to commit to a longer stretch…
RETHINK IT – Jan. 6, 2025 – The gateway drug theory and many other ideas about drug use have been put into question in recent years as more resources are dedicated to understanding substance use, which has been highly stigmatized for decades. After initially labeling cannabis as a gateway drug in 2010, President Joe Biden even later walked back his stance, saying in 2019: “I don’t think it is a gateway drug. There’s no evidence I’ve seen to suggest that.” his team found that adolescents who initiated substance use had differences in certain brain structures compared to kids who didn’t…
OR MINE! – Jan. 9, 2025 – I was addicted to booze and benzos for 20 years on and off, from the late 1970s until the early 2000s. Although my drinking career began more or less normally, it ended in a grave repetitive soul-sickness, in a very-near-death experience. If I was awake, I was drinking … I was drinking and taking my pills. Sleeping involved falling unconscious from drinking, and waking was coming to because I needed to drink, akin to the way normal sleep can be interrupted by needing to pee—not at all like waking up to meet a…
A MATTER OF TASTE – Jan. 4, 2025 – The two most common varieties are Coffea arabica and Coffea robusta. Arabica beans are often celebrated for their sweet and fruity flavor … Teeny tiny compared to a typical eight or 12-ounce cup of joe, one espresso shot is only a single ounce. While espresso can be sipped on its own, it’s often used as the base of so many beloved coffee drinks like lattes and mochas.The petite espresso demitasse might seem laughably small in a culture obsessed with oversized everything—from Big Gulps to Venti lattes. But that’s the whole point.…
MEETINGS SAVE LIVES – Jan. 9, 2024 – A study of more than 40,000 American adults has revealed that the timing of coffee consumption is likely just as important as how much coffee we consume when it comes to living a longer life. “Given the effects that caffeine has on our bodies, we wanted to see if the time of day when you drink coffee has any impact on heart health.” The experts classified coffee drinkers into two key groups: morning-type drinkers, who consume most of their coffee between 4 a.m. and noon (36% of the participants) and all-day-type drinkers,…
GREED IS GOOD – Jan, 7, 2025 – Selling body parts without consent and billing desperate parents $97,599 for air transport among worst examples. Also the outdated practice of baby tongue-tie cutting, which continues to be falsely touted as a cure for several ailments, from sleep apnea to nursing trouble. Shady billing practices from Zynex Medical, a company specializing in nerve-stimulation devices used for pain management, took the No 8 slot. Patients received Zynex devices understanding the expense would be covered by insurance, according to a report from Stat News. Users then got unsolicited supplies of items like batteries and…
DANGEROUS, BULLSHIT OR GENIUS? – Jan. 6, 2025 – “The lovely, relaxed feeling that alcohol gives without the negative impact” The brainchild of Professor David Nutt and his team, the non-alcoholic drinks from Sentia Spirits are designed to be an ‘effective alternative to drinking low levels of alcohol’. In order to replicate the hard stuff, the drinks essentially trick the brain’s internal chemistry into thinking it’s tipsy. In an interview with The Independent, Professor Nutt explained: “It’s a drink that is based on the science of alcohol, particularly the low doses of alcohol that relax you and make you more…
TO EACH HIS OWN – Jan. 4, 2025 – ‘What a lot of people don’t know about withdrawing from alcohol is that there are serious dangers if you are drink dependent. In some cases, withdrawal can even result in death. ‘Events like Dry January don’t work for everyone because many people don’t realise that they are drink dependent.’ An estimated 200,000 people took part in Dry January in 2024, according to Alcohol Change UK. Meanwhile, more than a quarter of UK adults regularly binge drink, and government estimates suggest there are over 600,000 people in England alone who are dependent…
DO LESS HARM – Jan. 8, 2025 – The medical community is willingly under-medicating the entire nation for pain, and we have a national calamity with Fentanyl overdoses. Doctors share the blame because their culpability in the opiate crisis is at the heart of all of this. The “pendulum swing” from over-medicating patients to under-medicating them is part of the problem. Prescribed by a doctor, a person in legit pain or an addict can measure the amount of opiate they are taking. It is much safer if you can measure the drug. Yes, we had addicts on that side of…
ALL TOO REAL? – Jan. 8, 2025 – According to various estimates, only about 10% of people with drug and alcohol addiction in the United States receive qualified help Many people believe that rehab is the last resort to get their normal life back. That it is possible to live with addiction for a certain period of time and even give up using drugs and alcohol on your own. As practice has shown, very few people manage to do this. Everyone else gradually sinks to the bottom, deteriorating their health more and more, worsening social ties and losing their jobs.…
BE OF GOOD CHEER – Jan. 8, 2024 – Two years ago, I got so drunk on Aperol Spritzes at a bbq that when I came home, I crawled around my teenage daughter’s bedroom floor, giggling uncontrollably. To my shame, her 14-year-old boyfriend was there too. So far, so embarrassing. A mad dash to the bathroom followed, where I vomited so violently it was like the head-spinning possession scene from The Exorcist. I’ve barely touched alcohol since. Now, I only drink once or twice a year. I love champagne, bellinis and piña coladas but the reality is I’m a lightweight.…
VIDEO – BEEN THERE, DONE THAT – Jan. 10, 2025 – CaraMia Bacchiochi founded Hope On A Mission after overcoming her own struggles with homelessness and addiction. A passion project for her, Hope On A Mission has been serving men and women on the streets for nearly a decade. As she put it, Hope On A Mission is the result of a journey to “become the woman I needed when I was homeless and addicted.” According to the organization’s founder who won her battle with homelessness and addiction, “there wasn’t anything like this when I was going through this. It’s…
VIDEO – BUSINESS AS USUAL – Jan. 9, 2025 – State Farm reported that it wasn’t renewing 69.4% of policies, equal to 1,626 policies, in the 90272 zip code, which is the zip code for the Pacific Palisades. Since 2017, insurance companies in California have frequently opted not to renew policies due to wildfire risk. Strong Santa Ana winds and drought conditions have led to a number of devastating fires in and around Los Angeles this week, including one in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood that has been described as one of the most destructive natural disasters in Los Angeles history.…
VIDEO – MUSICAL INTERLUDE – Dec. 15, 2022 – 151,545 views NON-ATTACHMENT is out now on all platforms “It’s so good to hear from Scribe again. Still a fave in my household. Sharing all of his music with my kids.” CONTINUE@YouTube
TASTY DEATH – Jan. 10, 2025 – You may want to think twice before adding soda to your shopping cart. New research shows that not only do sugary drinks increase your risk for serious conditions such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes, but they are also linked to hundreds of thousands of deaths every year. A study published in Nature Medicine analyzed global data on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) consumed around the world from both observational and randomized studies, as well as diabetes and cardiovascular disease prevalence. On a global level, researchers found that 2.2 million new cases of type…
HE CAN AFFORD IT – Jan. 9, 2025 – Trump has cranked up the pressure on Danish officials to sell the strategically important North American island, turning to his go-to tactic: Threatening tariffs. Massive ones. During a press conference on Monday, Trump vowed to slap “very high” tariffs on Denmark if it doesn’t sell the island to the United States. Trump considers military force to seize Greenland. Broadly speaking, high tariffs on Denmark might not cause significant trouble for American consumers because Denmark is not a huge trading partner with the United States. Danish goods account for less than half…