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Articles, Videos & Breaking News | Powered by Writers In Treatment
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July 11, 2017 Treatment Industry & Recovery Community News Vol. 4., No. 49
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A Star is Torn
Nelsan Ellis' Family Shares Circumstances of 'True Blood' Actor's Death
July 10, 2017 -
Nelsan's father has bravely agreed for me to share the circumstances of Nelsan's heart failure. Nelsan has suffered with drug and alcohol abuse for years. After many stints in rehab, Nelsan attempted to withdraw from alcohol on his own. According to his father, during his withdrawal from alcohol he had a blood infection, his kidneys shut down, his liver was swollen, his blood pressure plummeted, and his dear sweet heart raced out of control.
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NAATP to Launch Enhanced Ethics Compliance and Consumer Protection Initiative
July 6, 2017 -
The practice of high quality values-based addiction treatment is threatened by unprofessional, unethical, and illegal activity within the field. Abuses range from marketing deception to outright illegal activity. The impact of this conduct is profound. It harms both the consumer and the field of addiction treatment at large. While abusive profiteering is experienced in many fields, and while it is true that our field has experienced periods of inappropriate marketing in the past, never in NAATP's 40-year history have we seen abuses of this magnitude.
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Real Rogues Gallery - 28 MUG SHOTS
July 1, 2017 - The strategy appears to be working. Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg, who created the task force, has promised more arrests. "We're closer to the beginning than the end," Aronberg said of the investigation by the task force, which includes police, inspectors and agents from a dozen state and federal agencies.
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More Will Be Revealed ... or Reviled
July 6, 2017 - News that the FBI was looking at Sovereign Health as part of a criminal investigation didn't surprise former employees and family members of patients who say the Southern California-based drug rehab center used questionable practices that seemed to place profits over the wellbeing of clients ... Dr. David Shapiro, an Irvine psychologist, said he resigned from Sovereign after three weeks at the San Clemente location last year because of ethical concerns, including extending treatment in order to collect more insurance payments. "I don't think there was ever a mechanism by which a clinician would be allowed to advocate for anything other than maximum billing," ...
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Not Kosher
July 4, 2017 - A 20-year-old Hasidic woman died of a heroin overdose in Brooklyn last month - showing how even an ultra-insular religious community isn't immune to the nation's opioid epidemic. Malky Klein's mother discovered her daughter slumped over in bed and frothing at the mouth around 7:15 p.m. June 24 in their Borough Park home, according to police. The Jewish volunteer ambulance service Hatzolah was called and medics tried to revive the young woman before taking her to Maimonides Hospital.
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JUNE 29, 2017 - The investigations revealed how Alkermes marketers and lobbyists deride the daily administration of methadone and buprenorphine, two medicines that are the gold standard for treating opioid dependence. The sales pitch is that Vivitrol is an opioid blocker and "non-addictive." The company has blanketed New York and other cities with promotional materials, and has dispatched lobbyists to prey on well-placed community worries about the spiking number of fatal overdoses. Sales skyrocketed600% ...
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California Leads the Way VIDEO
July 4, 2017 - California lawmakers are getting ready to consider whether to legalize these sites. It's an unconventional idea but will it work or will it trigger more use? Dr. Taeko Frost has seen too many deadly overdoses in her lifetime - many she's successfully reversed. But she says the problem only gets worse when addicts use drugs alone ... Drug groups are promoting it as a lifesaving approach to the opioid problem and Democratic lawmakers are listening.
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How Scotland Sees Dope Sick America
July 1, 2017 - "You'd have a tough time finding somebody in the United States that doesn't know somebody, or have a friend, or the child of a friend, who's addicted to heroin," says Special Agent James Hunt, who runs the Drug Enforcement Agency's New York bureau. "It's that rampant and big a problem right now." ... On the campaign trail, Donald Trump repeatedly promised to "end the opioid epidemic in America," but as president, he has yet to hire a Director Of National Drug Control Policy and at one point threatened to cut the agency's budget by 95%, before backtracking under pressure from senators.
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Population Control?
June 27, 2017 - Opioids could kill nearly half a million people across America over the next decade as the crisis of addiction and overdose accelerates. Deaths from opioids have been rising sharply for years, and drug overdoses already kill more Americans under age 50 than anything else. STAT asked leading public health experts at 10 universities to forecast the arc of the epidemic over the next decade. The consensus: It will get worse before it gets better ... Most of the forecasts produced by STAT predict the annual death toll will increase by at least 35 percent between 2015 and 2027. Under the gravest scenarios, it could triple - to more than 93,000 deaths a year.
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We Must Succeed
June 27, 2017 - STAT has identified 12 potential game changers that could begin to bend the curve of the opioid epidemic. Some of these are experimental ideas, not yet subjected to rigorous clinical trials or peer review. But they're intriguing enough that public health experts and addiction counselors are eager to learn more ... Men and women working in classrooms and courtrooms, in private labs and public offices, in clinics and on the street - all trying to find the next big way to save lives.
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Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán is Jealous
June 26, 2017 - Lawyers for a medical news publication want a Kentucky appeals court to release secret testimony from a member of the family that controls one of the country's largest manufacturers of prescription painkillers.
Fleischaker said the case involves "records relating to a criminal enterprise" that caused countless "expenditure of dollars, medical funds and heartache to the citizens of Kentucky and to the nation as a whole." Photo: The Sackler family, which owns Purdue Pharma.
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Bodies in the Background NBC VIDEO
America can't quit its meth habit. After a brief lull caused by a crackdown on domestic manufacturing techniques, the highly addictive stimulant is blooming across the country again, this time in the shadows of the opioid epidemic. Because meth kills slowly, and at lower rates, it isn't getting the attention that many researchers, law enforcement officials and health workers say it deserves.
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OPINION: by STAMPP CORBIN
July 1, 2017 - The focus has been upon the bad players within the substance abuse treatment industry. There are thousands of organizations within California that provide mission critical treatment to those suffering from substance use disorder. Yet, there has been little coverage of ethical, for-profit and non-profit organizations that provide this life-saving care. Rather, the belief seems to be that the substance abuse treatment industry is comprised of organizations that are fraudulently billing insurance companies and embracing unethical marketing practices, as well as accepting kick-backs. Nothing could be farther from the truth. There are bad organizations within the substance abuse treatment industry, but there are many more good organizations; both for-profit and non-profit.
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This doesn't include the eBulletin
July 4, 2017 - Have the peddlers of high-tech systems, in their obsession to quench our short-term desires for their own profit, inadvertently become part of the problem rather than the solution? In a forthcoming book entitled, The Hacking of the American Mind, Robert Lustig, a paediatric endocrinologist with a background in neuroscience, makes a compelling argument that this may indeed be the case ... according to Dr Lustig, is that in the modern age we have come to conflate pleasure with happiness. Pleasure, he notes, is all about the phenomenon of reward. This can be achieved by way of everything from impulsive shopping to outright substance abuse. Happiness, on the other hand, is a state of general contentment that requires little in the way of a trigger.
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Time to Fall Out of Alcoholism
July 4, 2017 - 'In the last three to four years he has become, he would admit, an alcoholic,' Mr Levet said. 'He ingests large amounts of alcohol at every available opportunity.' ... Monastirski was drunk when arrested at the Pad Thai restaurant on Oxford Street in inner-city Darlinghurst about 10.40pm on February 24 last year. He had been stumbling between tables, annoying waiters and diners, even putting headphones on some as they tried to eat. Police arrived to find him swaying, slurring his words...
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Punishing the Traumatized
Jul 3, 2017 - You go to jail, you meet more criminals, you learn how to do more things that are crooked," said Farinacci. "In fact, I had people waiting downstairs as soon as I came out the doors, and then, they'd have alcohol and drugs with them." Pew found similar results. The study showed no significant relationship between the states' drug offender imprisonment rates and three measures of drug problems: rates of illicit use, overdoes deaths and arrests.
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JULY 7, 2017 - Many patients have no idea how their insurance coverage was obtained or that they are part of a scam ... Hislop said he had been naive about the legality of patient brokering when he founded his company, Barnowl Treatment Options LLC, which arranged for 55 to 60 Massachusetts residents to travel to Florida last year for drug addiction treatment. He admitted to receiving payments to place patients in centers in Florida, as well as enrolling some of them in Blue Cross plans in other states where they didn't live. He said he sometimes paid their premiums, and also paid for airfare for people he sent to Florida, which in some cases can be considered an illegal inducement under state and federal health care law.
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MEDIA: Featured Book
Dr. Danielle Delaney holds the distinction of being the youngest and the only woman of color to own a Sober Companioning business in the United States of America.
The County of Los Angeles Office of Protocol has hailed Danielle as a "proven asset to the City and County of Los Angeles." REVIEW: In her March 2017 book, "Expect Delays" author Danielle Delaney shares a veritable road map of tried and true ways to heal from trauma after she was raped, beaten up and horrendously violated. To recover from trauma is not a road for the fainthearted.
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MEDIA: NYT Book Review
JULY 7, 2017 -
In the early 20th century, Henry F. Milans, an alcoholic ex-journalist, had heard a doctor tell medical students of his condition: "This man can never be cured! He must die as he has lived, a drunkard. Nothing can save him." Finan writes that Milans very likely joined the United Order of Ex-Boozers, a group of mutually supportive alcoholics organized by the Salvation Army. It was a precursor of sorts to Alcoholics Anonymous, the creation of which is detailed in "Drunks," including the organization's early wrestling with how explicitly religious it should be. One of its 12 steps originally stated that "God could restore us to our sanity." God was revised to a "Power greater than ourselves."
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Seems Flaccid Enough VIDEO
July 6, 2017 - there are 247 recovery residences in the city limits. A recovery residence is a home where a group of unrelated people live together while they receive outpatient treatment for drug or alcohol abuse at a separate facility. The ordinance for discussion Thursday implements two main changes: 1. Requires all group homes be 660 feet apart from one another. The distance of a typical city block. 2. Requires all recovery residences to be certified with the Florida Association of Recovery Residences.
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See The Light(er)
July 5, 2017 -
1.Unnatural Happiness/Euphoria, Heroin users like the drug due to its ability to invoke feelings of pleasure and euphoria.
2. Chronic Sleepiness, Due to heroin's sedative effects.
3.Neglect for Responsibilities.
4. Covering Up.
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MALIBU, CA, July 13-14, 2017
Adolescent + Young Adult Collective, LOS ANGELES
 Keynote Speaker, Holly Robinson Peete - Actress, author, talk show host, activist and philanthropistThe mission of the Adolescent and Young Adult Collective is to bring together leaders in the treatment community directly working with clients and their families. Our program offerings will directly impact client outcomes. This includes: therapists, clinicians, educational consultants, educational attorneys, physicians, psychiatrists and treatment providers.
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Let Them Eat Death VIDEO
July 6, 2017 - Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones says his deputies won't carry Narcan ... "I don't do Narcan," Jones told me. He's the only sheriff in Southwest Ohio whose department doesn't use it ... Jones told me residents, even social workers, frequently ask him why law enforcement continue to revive people who overdose multiple times ... The sheriff said his deputies don't.
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Still Wanna Use DHL?
July 5, 2017 - Junior Larry Hillbroom has had a wild life. As an 11-year-old, he prevailed in a legal battle to gain access to his deceased father's fortune. During the trial, the salacious details of DHL founder Larry Hillblom's life were laid bare for the court. The shipping tycoon's proclivity for sex with underage girls shocked the world.
A bit more than 33 years ago, Junior's father, Larry Hillblom, the H in DHL, met a very young teenage girl in a bar. She was just one of the estimated 132 of acts of pedophilia the eccentric millionaire took part in around the Pacific Rim after he resigned from the day-to-day business of running DHL.
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Progress Towards Sanity
July 7, 2017 - The Oregon legislature passed two bills Thursday decriminalizing small amounts of six hard drugs, including cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and ecstasy. The first of the two bills now headed to the governor's desk, HB 2355, decriminalizes possession of the drugs so long as the offender has neither a felony nor more than two prior drug convictions on record...
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July 6, 2017 - Don't mix this cocoa powder with milk hoping for chocolate milk. It's a new powdered chocolate product that teens are using to get high. This new way of getting a rush is inexpensive, widely available, perfectly legal and causing great concern among parents. It's called
"Coco Loko," and it is a powder that users can snort.
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Will Live Stream on Facebook
July 6, 2017 - How can people who narrowly survive a drug overdose put their lives in danger again by immediately returning to substance use? And what can be done to put them on the road to recovery rather than back on the path of addiction? Those important questions will be explored at America's Opioid Crisis: A National Town Hall, a free public event to be held at
7 p.m. on July 12 in the Lisner Auditorium on the campus of George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
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July 9, 2017- I
grew up during the last gasp of Empire in the late Sixties. Despite society there being dominated by the three Bs - boredom, booze and bonking - it was scandalous when my parents divorced in 1967. I was 10 and it irrevocably divided my life into "before" and "after".
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Jimmy Page, Arts & Sobriety VIDEO
Thursday drop-in theatre session in which our participants produced pieces of graffiti poetry which attended "to opportunities for beauty in a city environment".
Finally, watch a video in conversation with our patrons, Jimmy Page and Simon Woodroffe, alongside our good friend David Charkham.
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Fitting In, or Stigmatized? NPR AUDIO
July 8, 2017 - When young people struggle through addiction or substance abuse, there's also the question of school. Getting behind academically can be detrimental to learning and future success, but traditional school can be tough for kids whose peer groups use drugs or alcohol and where treatment resources can be limited.
Research shows that students in recovery schools, to meet both academic and therapeutic needs, have better sobriety levels - and usually better grades, than students with addiction who remain in regular class settings. Across the U.S., there are just a few dozen so-called recovery schools.
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New Advertising Rates for 2017
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Sobriety INK
July 08, 2017 - The famous tattoo artist celebrated a special anniversary on Friday -a full decade of sobriety. "Today I celebrate 10 years of sobriety," the 35-year-old artist wrote on Instagram, alongside a black heart emoji.
"Personally, being sober means that I operate better and I function better; I believe I am meant to be that way. Although I'm just returning to where I'm supposed to be, it remains important to me," she confessed. "I am quite vocal about it, not for the praise or to get a cake, but it's basically to be of service.
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Legal! Delicious & Deadly in Excess
Jun 28, 2017 - An ongoing drug epidemic has swept the US, killing hundreds and sickening thousands more on a daily basis. The widespread use of a substance called "alcohol" - also known as "booze" - has been linked to erratic and even dangerous behavior, ranging from college students running naked down public streets to brutal attacks and robberies... Federal officials suggest this drug has already been linked to 88,000 deaths each year across the country, including traffic accidents caused by drug-induced impairment, liver damage caused by excessive consumption, and violent behavior.
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"Addiction/Recovery eBulletin is a regular fount of fresh information and wide-ranging perspectives on addiction as it manifests in our culture, and especially in the creative/theatrical/artistic community. Each issue is an entertaining compendium that fascinates, challenges and teaches."
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Treatment Industry Shines
In 2013, I created the Addiction Recovery eBulletin to insure every counselor, treatment provider, mental health practitioner; addiction survivor and the general population would have easy access up-to-date articles, videos, essays and professional opinions regarding the universe of addiction and treatment. I wanted the eBulletin to encourage the saved to stay that way and the afflicted to seek help before its too late. Please share the good news - treatment works, recovery is possible and preferable. Thank you for your readership and advertisements. We could not continue to publish without the generous and fearless support of our advertisers.
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Everyone's Looking For God
JULY 7, 2017 - "There were so many people in there it looked like they were waiting for Mass to start," the man reported ... That's when he saw the mess of needles carpeting the floor and pews - and the figures moving in the darkness ... In the half-light, they could make out thin forms. Some shot heroin in the pews, some laid half-naked on mattresses. Others stumbled past in their stupor, not noticing the priest and nun in their presence. Father Murphy did all he could think to do. He began to bless them.
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July 10, 2017 - The statement says that the Senate's version of health care repeal would "cripple national efforts to address the opioid epidemic." "One of the major benefits of expanding health care, getting more people on insurance, is it allows people to seek the care they need at an earlier stage of their various diseases," Robert Heimer told WNPR.
Artwork by
Manny Mendez
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