AUDIO – KEEP TRYING – Nov. 15, 2024 – A new synthetic opiate that’s even deadlier than fentanyl is showing up in America’s illegal drug supply, officials warn. Nitazines were developed in the 1950s as painkillers, but they were too powerful and never received FDA approval. Now, illegal drug manufacturers are making them and mixing them into cocaine, meth, heroin, and counterfeit pills, according to Matthew Allen, special agent in charge for the DEA in Los Angeles. “The amount of fentanyl that would fit on the top of a pen, you know, is deadly, and with nitazines being even more…
Author: Leonard Buschel
ROMANCE IMBALANCE – NOV. 11, 2024 – THE DARKEST moment in Courtney Barrows McKeown’s path to recovery came when she considered driving over a bridge. As she tells it, she had been drinking from a bottle of wine and contending with feelings of hopelessness and shame; a routine test had come back positive for alcohol, and she had just learned she’d been fired from her surgical fellowship as a result. After half an hour, she decided to call her psychiatrist, who set in motion a series of supports that brought McKeown back from the edge. She said it was a…
I LOVE LA – Nov. 16, 2024 – Actor and playwright Cyrus Deboo is using his artistry to give back to the community. His one-man show, There’s Something Seriously Wrong with Cyrus, will hit the stage at the Zephyr Theatre, located at 7456 Melrose Ave, on December 8, at 7 p.m. Proceeds from the performance will benefit the new West Hollywood Recovery Center Log Cabin Project, The performance is part of the 2024 Soaring Solo Studios STARS Series, spotlighting exceptional talent at the Zephyr Theatre on Melrose Avenue. “My heart is filled with the belief and determination that this performance…
VIDEO – AT THE GATES OF SALVATION – Nov. 18, 2024 – “He checked into rehab in Florida fairly recently,” the insider said of Pete. “He flew in on a private jet.” “He’s in pretty bad shape this time around,” the insider added. “He’s not in a good place.” Nov. 18, 2024 – “He checked into rehab in Florida fairly recently,” the insider said of Pete. “He flew in on a private jet.” “He’s in pretty bad shape this time around,” the insider added. “He’s not in a good place.” Pete’s latest rehab stint comes after a secret romance with…
VIDEO – MUSICAL INTERLUDE – May 30, 1965 – I’m stunned after watching this. Possibly THE most brilliant performance ever. The ultimate rendition of this song. Anthony Newly ? What can you say ? Unique. Singular. Different. Moving. There’s only one Newly and thank god , I wouldn’t want it any other way. CONTINUE@YouTube
STICK WITH THE WINNERS! – Nov. 26, 2024 – Amee Gray is a social anthropologist and an educator. She has mostly worked in healthcare for the majority of her career but was also an elementary school teacher. Amee was born in Ohio and grew up in Massachusetts, but has spent most of her adult life in California. She is a survivor of some things. A single mom. And is having a human experience every day. Q. If you are in recovery, what was your drug(s) of choice and when is your sobriety date? A. Nicotine July 17, 2004. I don’t…
SAVE THE CHILDREN – Nov. 20, 2024 – Harlow Babbitt looks over her shoulder at her mother as she waits patiently for lunch. Nichole Babbitt fixes her daughter Harper Babbitt’s hair while her other daughter Harlow Babbitt walks around the living room of their North Austin home. The 3-year-old twins stayed with family friends while their mother got clean from methamphetamines. She wants to be more present in her children’s lives, and by being clean and sober, she is achieving that. CONTINUE@Statesman
WE ALL ARE – Nov. 2024 – Dear Annie: I’m writing in response to your column about the woman whose marriage had become strained due to her husband’s drinking. Kudos for emphasizing that he needs Alcoholics Anonymous, but I’d like to encourage you to highlight the importance of Al-Anon for family members a bit more strongly than just one sentence. Al-Anon has been a lifeline for countless family members of those struggling with alcoholism. It’s not just a place to heal; it’s a community where people can vent, relate, and share their struggles and solutions. The support offered in Al-Anon…
VIDEO – HE IS THE MAN – Nov. 26, 2024 – Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee c/o Stamp Development U.S. Postal Service 475 L’Enfant Plaza SW, Room 3300 Washington, DC 20260-3501 – I would like to propose American born, William Griffith Wilson (November 26, 1895-January, 24, 1971). He is otherwise known as Bill W, Co founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, the 12 steps, and Co Author of the Big Book. AA is the fellowship and structure that aids over two million members with sobriety in over 115 countries and is the cornerstone of treating alcoholism and addiction.…
HEALTH WARNING – Nov. 24, 2024 – A new study on a drug widely prescribed for asthma is binding itself to receptors in the brain and is linked to severe mental health issues and suicide. The following are some of the side effects of the drug, according to the Cleveland Clinic:, Anxiety, Nervousness, Confusion, Hallucinations, Irritability, Hostility, Thoughts of suicide or self-harm, Worsening mood, Depression. In 2019, over 20 years after Singulair hit the market, thousands reported having neuropsychiatric episodes after being prescribed the medication. Dozens of patients had also committed suicide. “A wide variety of mental health side effects…
LESSONS FROM THE ANIMAL KINGDOM – Nov. 12, 2024 – In the roughly 5,500 years since their domestication, horses have continuously been in our service, whether it’s to charge into battle; race chariots; hunt buffalo; bust sod; carry the mail; run, leap and pull at our bidding; treat addiction or, more recently and mundanely, tote kids around a ring in a county 4-H show. Despite this long and intimate association, interspecies communication can be tricky, and things between horses and people don’t always go so well. Horses can shy or bolt. They can buck, bite or plant their feet and…
MORE ANXIOUS NOW? – Nov. 21, 2024 – The Pennsylvania-based drug maker Endo announced this week that it is expanding its recall of clonazepam tablets because some cartons bear the incorrect drug strength and wrong drug code. The new recall affects 16 lots of Clonazepam Orally Disintegrating Tablets, USP (C-IV), with doses ranging from 0.125 milligrams to 2 milligrams. The packages feature 10 blister strips that each contain six tablets. They are due to expire between August 2026 and February 2027. Clonazepam is a benzodiazepine used to treat panic disorder and certain types of seizures. Endo warns that consuming a…
FOOD CHOICES – Nov. 18, 2024 – The food choices people make when stressed can influence the effect this tension has on heart health, experts say. But now a small study has found that drinking cocoa (the key ingredient in chocolate) high in flavanols with a fatty meal can mitigate some of the impact the food has on the body. Flavanols are compounds found in some foods and drinks, like apples and tea … For people who are likely to reach for a fat-rich treat when stressed, or because it is quick or convenient, adding a cup of minimally processed…
HIGH FUNCTIONING – Nov. 20, 2024 – “Wine is very tricky. It’s very slow. It ain’t like, boom, all of a sudden,” he added, talking about his vice. “I never got strung out on heroin. Never got strung out on coke. Never got strung out on hard drugs. I shot dope just like they shot dope, but I never got strung out… And I never got strung out on liquor. I had this ideal idea of wine tastings and all that—which is what it was at first. And that’s a very subtle thing. I mean, I drank the best.” That…
AND THEY’RE FREE – Nov. 19, 2024 – We propose that breathing supplements our diet with essential nutrients such as iodine, zinc, manganese, and some vitamins. This idea is strongly supported by published data. So, why haven’t you heard about this until now? We breathe in about 9,000 liters of air a day and 438 million liters in a lifetime. Unlike eating, breathing never stops. Our exposure to the components of air, even in very small concentrations, adds up over time. To date, much of the research around the health effects of air has been centered on pollution. The focus…
VIDEO – GIVING BACK – Nov. 20, 2024 – ‘Full circle’: Fresno man opens recovery center after struggling with addiction. CONTINUE@YouTube
VIDEO – JELLY ROLL DONUTS? – Nov. 21, 2024 – “The battle was with the food addiction, changing the way I’ve looked at food for the last 39 years,” he told the outlet. “I’ve never had a healthy relationship with food, so that was the hard part. But once you get into that discipline and commitment, it’s like an avalanche. Once that little snowball started rolling, it was on its way.” The singer estimated he lost about 60 to 70 pounds on his “Beautifully Broken” tour, which began in August and will conclude later this month. In addition to the…
“I wanted to be an English teacher. I wanted to do it for the corduroy jackets with patches on the side.” – John Krasinski
TIME WILL TELL – Nov. 11, 2024 – President-elect Donald Trump is expected to come to the White House with a laundry list of policies he wants to change or reverse. The Biden administration has moved to ease longtime restrictions on cannabis — so, what might Trump’s arrival mean for the push to legalize marijuana? President Biden’s administration has proposed removing marijuana from the list of Schedule I controlled substance and making it a Schedule III drug, a category that acknowledges medical benefits. Along with its implications for potential markets and consumers, the move would boost medical research into cannabis.…
POT IS SO OBSOLETE – Nov. 15, 2024 – Cannabis is a “genotoxic” substance because it damages a cell’s genetic information, which can lead to DNA mutations, accelerated aging, and cancer. To make matters worse, this genotoxicity may be transmitted via damaged egg and sperm to the cannabis user’s offspring, making the risk of cannabis use trans-generational. In a recent publication in Addiction Biology researchers from The University of Western Australia have made a link between established knowledge that cannabis use damages cellular energy production by inhibiting mitochondria and new cancer research published in Science showing that mitochondrial dysfunction drives…
NPR AUDIO – STICK WITH THE WINNERS! – Nov. 14, 2024 – “I don’t shoot up that much,” said Brian, one of the clients. “But someone will give me something and if it’s late at night, I don’t want to use their needle but I really want to do this, you know. “ The vending machine has many items — like Narcan and condoms — that are available for free to anyone passing by. Previously, Brian would try to clean needles with bleach to avoid exposing himself to hepatitis C, a virus that can spread through intravenous drug use. (NPR…
NEW BOOK! READING MATTERS – Nov. 15, 2024 – “This is a pointed and urgent challenge not just for those suffering addiction, but for all of us who care about the dignity of the human person and sacredness of human life. Sure, there’s a lot of bad news about addiction, but there’s a lot of good news as well. My friend Dr. Russell Surasky gives us hope for a culture of recovery.” — Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York Dr. Russell Surasky is a board-certified neurologist and addiction medicine specialist. Dr. Surasky attended medical school at NYCOM, where…
DON’T MISS THESE – 2023 – 1. “Barfly” (1987) Directed by Barbet Schroeder and based on the life of poet Charles Bukowski, “Barfly” is a darkly comic, semi-autobiographical account of Bukowski’s ye struggling writer. The film features Mickey Rourke in a highly acclaimed role as Henry Chinaski, a downtrodden alcoholic who finds solace in the bottom of a bottle and the comfort of his local “Clean and Sober” (1988) Michael Keaton stars in this film about a real estate agent’s desperate struggle to… CONTINUE@MSN
NOT WHAT YOU THINK – Nov. 9, 2024 – She reached out her other hand and gently touched my nose with her index finger. She’d never touched me this way before. At first, I thought she was saying I see you or I know you. But she was trying to make a point. She then took the same finger and touched her own nose. In the faintest but clearest voice she said one word: “Lucky.” Lucky. I let the word wash over me. I wanted Mom to know I’d heard her, and I repeated back the same word. When I…
JUST AS HANDSOME NOW – Nov. 12, 2024 – Boy Meets World is one of those classic shows that’s become even more popular due to streaming. Amid that, the show has been re-evaluted, with series cast members Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong and Will Friedle even rewatching it for a podcast. One low for Strong, apparently, was the infamous alcoholic episode, and he explained just why it marked such a “miserable” experience for him. Despite Boy Meets World being a family-friendly show, the hilarious sitcom featured dramatic moments from time to time. One might recall the time that Eric Matthews decided…
FAMILY VALUES – Nov. 11, 2024 – As a recent father to two, John Mulaney is dedicated to remaining sober with the help of his wife, Olivia Munn. Mulaney’s star-studded intervention involving Fred Armisen, Nick Kroll, Natasha Lyonne and Seth Meyers has become folklore, in the GQ piece Munn opened up about her part in Mulaney’s sobriety journey. Munn told GQ she’d staged an intervention for Mulaney when she was six months pregnant with their son, Malcolm Hiệp Mulaney, who is nearly 3 years old. Together, the couple decided she would administer random drug tests — a practice they still…
VIDEO – MUSICAL INTERLUDE – July 9, 1981 – QUINCY JONES – cond, GREG PHILLINGANES – keyb, ROD TEMPERTON – keyb, CARLOS RIOS – g, LOUIS JOHNSON – bg, JOHN ROBINSON – dr, JERRY HEY – flug, JEROME RICHARDSON – sax, fl, PETER CHRISTLIEB- sax, OLLIE BROWN – perc, PATTI AUSTIN – voc, JAMES INGRAM – voc, JANNA TYLER – voc, PEGGY LIPTON JONES – CONTINUE@YouTube
STUNNING DECLINE – Nov. 13, 2024 – The decline in U.S. drug overdose deaths appears to have continued this year, giving experts hope the nation is seeing sustained improvement in the persistent epidemic. There were about 97,000 overdose deaths in the 12-month period that ended June 30, according to provisional Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data released Wednesday. That’s down 14% from the estimated 113,000 for the previous 12-month period. “This is a pretty stunning and rapid reversal of drug overdose mortality numbers,” said Brandon Marshall, a Brown University researcher who studies overdose trends. CONTINUE@PBS
NPR AUDIO – USA USA USA – Nov. 12, 2024 – In a short video on his campaign website, Trump says cities in the U.S. have been surrendered to people who are unhoused, drug addicted and, quote, “dangerously deranged.” To the American public, he makes this promise. “We will use every tool, lever and authority to get the homeless off our streets.” “urban camping will be banned,” he says, “violators arrested.” TRUMP 45TH US PRES/US PRES-ELECT: We will then open up large parcels of inexpensive land, bring in doctors, psychiatrists, social workers and drug rehab specialists and create tent cities…
EVERYONE IS A PHOENIX – Nov. 13, 2024 – On September 11, 2023, Juanita spent the entire day getting high. After midnight, she started having difficulty breathing and passed out. She later woke up in a hospital, where doctors told her she had suffered a heart attack, had an embolism in her lung, and also had pneumonia. The frightening experience marked a turning point in her life. “It scared me waking up in the hospital and not knowing how I got there,” she said, tears streaming down her face. “That’s what woke me up, and I said to myself, I’m…