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Special Opiate Crisis Edition
This Should Scare You More Than Terrorism:
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Articles, Videos & Breaking News | Powered by Writers In Treatment
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June 27, 2017 Treatment Industry & Recovery Community News Vol. 4., No. 47
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Maia Szalavitz Explains Why:
JUNE 20, 2017 - "The simple story is that addiction happens all the time when people get opioids for pain and that simple story is clearly wrong," If opioids were highly addictive for pain patients, we'd expect to see tens of millions of people with addiction and hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths ... the idea that patients who take medications as prescribed are the cause of this problem is inaccurate. While the media loves to highlight "innocent victims" who became addicted through medicine, the fact is that this group is a minority.
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Are They, or Aren't They?
June 21, 2017 - We are thrilled to see that several communities across the country are suing Big Pharma and seeking to make them pay for their role in this widespread abuse of the prescription pain killers they have been improperly marketing for years ... There are also some patients who make poor decisions that lead to their addiction and, often, death. For many others, however, they did not choose their paths of addiction, and better choices by drug companies, healthcare providers, and others could have prevented their addiction and devastation to their lives.
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Newest American Mass Murderers
June 23, 2017 - The Oklahoma attorney general has charged a 67-year-old doctor with five counts of second-degree murder, accusing her of prescribing excessive amounts of "dangerous" medications to patients "without legitimate medical need" and causing the deaths of at least five patients.
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People Dying for Profit VIDEO
June 22, 2017 - A 74-year-old doctor is under arrest and accused of running a pill mill that pumped $40 million worth of oxycodone onto the streets of Staten Island. Located right in the heart of Staten Island, DEA officials say a doctor's office was just a cover for a massive illegal pill operation...
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Suboxone and Vivitrol for Sobriety
June 19, 2017 - Rhode Island residents seeking treatment for opioid addiction have a new option. The Lifespan Recovery Center opening Monday will provide medication-assisted treatment coordinated with the patient's primary care doctor. The program includes peer recovery coaching and psychotherapy and case management services. The Providence Journal reports that the center will offer the medications Suboxone and Vivitrol to treat addiction...
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More Harm Than Good?
When presenter Ant McPartlin confessed to his wife Lisa and his TV partner Declan Donnelly last week that he had become addicted to the Class C opiate-based painkiller tramadol and needed to go into rehab, he reportedly broke down and cried ... It's unlikely he would have been aware of tramadol's increasing reputation as a source of serious addiction or that last year, it was linked to 33 deaths in Northern Ireland in 2015 - more than heroin and cocaine combined.
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NBC Exposé - BUT THERE ARE STILL GREAT REHABS in Florida VIDEO
 JUNE 25 2017 - an investigation by NBC News has found that many of these vulnerable patients have become grist in an insurance fraud mill. Crooked treatment centers partner with "body brokers" and operators of so-called "sober homes" to find patients with good health insurance. Brokers and sober home owners offer those trying to get clean free rent and grocery store gift cards, cigarettes and manicures in exchange for going to a specific treatment center, which pays kickbacks for every client.
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1-800-YER-FCKED
JUNE 23, 2017 - Last September, West Chester addiction psychologist Drew Alikakos made a jarring discovery: His patients were disappearing! ...
Just Google Philadelphia rehab and dial a few numbers you find and see where it leads you," said Al Johnson, Florida's chief assistant state attorney and head of a task force looking into the scheme. "You're at the risk of being hijacked. And Florida is ground zero for people in the Northeast being steered by hijacked Google searches."
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MEDIA: Film Review
Buschel Reviews Trainspotting 2
 Danny Boyle's Trainspotting is an iconic film of the 1990's. That isn't something you can plan in advance. The right film, at the right time, in the right style, becomes a manifestation of both the glory and mystery of cinema...
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National Outcry VIDEO
June 23, 2017 - Dr. Reef Karim on CNN
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For Political Junkies Only...
June 20, 2017 - But this isn't the first time Christie has been conspicuous by his silence. He didn't say much after Trump's budget called for a $616 billion cut in Medicaid over the next decade, on top of the $834 billion that would be cut under the American Health Care Act that passed the House last month. And as experts warn that such cuts would destroy treatment efforts, lawmakers offer canards:
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Better Safe, Than Dead
June 21, 2017 - A Hudson man is hopeful an inexpensive test strip might help drug users avoid fentanyl, the powerful synthetic opioid analgesic that killed his son and hundreds more in the past few years in Northeast Ohio. Greg McNeil, the founder of opioid addiction awareness organization Cover2Resources, is working with several local agencies to buy test strips that could be used to detect fentanyl when it is mixed with heroin and other drugs.
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SUCCESS STORIES Sticking with the Winners
Life after opioid addiction: three women tell how they got clean
June 25, 2017 - Addiction is not a deat
h sentence, even though it can seem like one when an estimated 91 Americans are dying every day from opioid overdoses...
We spoke to three women who emerged from dark, destructive periods of opioid addiction to a life fuller and more satisfying than the one they had had before. In Ivana Grahovac's final semester of college, her mother escorted her to and from every class, and sat by her through each course.
This extreme supervision was needed to ensure Grahovac, a former White House intern, graduated from university despite a debilitating heroin addiction that began in 1999 ...
Nearly 10 years later, the woman who needed supervision to attend college classes graduated from the University of Michigan with a master's degree and started
an addiction support group for college students
that eventually expanded to more than 160 campuses across the country.
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Homes of Delray
June 20, 2017 - "Sober home, sober home, sober home, sober home," said Marc Woods, a housing inspector for the city, as he gestured out the car window along one block of single-family houses. He turned the corner. "Sober home, sober home." Hundreds of sober homes - some reputable, many of them fraud mills and flop houses for drug users - sprawl across Delray Beach and several surrounding cities. No one knows exactly how many exist.
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Free Detox Available VIDEO
6/21/17 Because of the growing epidemic, jails in Ohio are treating opioid addicts. MSNBC's Jacob Soboroff Reports...
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I See Dead People
Michigan has MORE annual opioid prescriptions than people
 June 26, 2017 -
How big is Michigan's issue with opioids?
Consider this: Michigan health-care providers wrote 11 million prescriptions for opioid drugs in 2015 and another 11 million in 2016 - enough to provide every Michigan resident with his or her own bottle of narcotics, according to state data.
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One Med at a Time
June 12, 2017 - According to SAMHSA's latest Behavioral Health Barometer, released Monday, more patients are receiving medication-assisted therapy. Between 2011 and 2015, methadone use increased by 16%, with nearly 357,000 people now receiving the medication, and use of buprenorphine more than doubled, with nearly 76,000 people now receiving the medication. But treatment delivery for substance use disorders still falls short overall, considering the size of the population in need of care.
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At Home
June 16, 2017 - Josie Voorhies, a church member, approached Edwards to tell him about the work she did with the McShin Foundation helping inmates at Pamunkey Regional Jail get their GED certificates. The pair wondered if there was another way to partner with the McShin Foundation, a nonprofit that helps people dealing with substance use disorders. Edwards and Voorhies eventually met with John Shinholser, McShin's president and co-founder, who told them the best way to help was with funding a sober home.
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Pep Talk from a Star VIDEO
Emma Stone is an actress. We asked what she'd like to tell her younger self. "To be a sensitive person that cares a lot, that takes things in in a deep way, is actually part of what makes you amazing."
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Time to Write a Will?
June 20, 2017 - And people recovering from addiction may no longer qualify for the block grant funding, but need ongoing supports and other services to stay drug-free that would fall outside narrow service definitions of targeted grant programs but would have been paid for under Medicaid. In short, not only is $45 billion not enough, but grants are not a substitute for health care coverage and cannot be enough to tackle this complicated epidemic.
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Start Making Sense NPR AUDIO
June 20, 2017 - NPR's Audie Cornish speaks with Dr. Traci Green, deputy director of injury prevention at Boston Medical Center about the stunning show increase in the number of hospital visits related to opioids.
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YES, Comedians Are Well Read
June 2017 - I just finished Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opioid Epidemic by Sam Quinones. He brings together the economics of the painkiller epidemic and how it led to the black-tar heroin epidemic, and how drug dealers spread dope to all these cities that never had it before. I couldn't put it down. It's like Fast Food Nation for heroin.
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Boy Meets Girl on AA Campus
June 19, 2017 - In the video, two strangers meet at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting after they each hit rock bottom in their personal lives. The flashback scenes are pretty dark, as you see the guy and the girl in the throes of their battle with alcohol. The video doesn't wallow in that darkness, though. Dan + Shay have scored another number one hit with their latest single, "How Not To," a powerful ballad about a guy trying and failing to get over his ex-girlfriend.
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Who Needs Shakespeare
June 20, 2017 - Halloran Richard Keeling, 28, was found dead in temporary accommodation after taking an overdose of morphine, an inquest heard...But outside the hearing, mother-of-nine Fiona MacKeown said her oldest child never got over 15 year-old Scarlett's brutal rape and murder in India ... Halloran had been due to go on the family holiday to Goa, where Scarlett was found dead in 2008 but had been unable to get his passport sorted in time. Their mother, 52, said Halloran felt directly responsible as he believed he would have protected her from harm if he had been on the trip.
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State Sues Drug Pushers VIDEO
Hawley, a Republican, filed suit St. Louis Circuit Court, naming Endo Pharmaceuticals, Purdue Pharmaceuticals and Janssen Pharmaceuticals. Hawley said at a news conference that the suit will seek "hundreds of millions of dollars" in both damages and civil penalties ... Hawley said any money awarded in the suit should go toward drug rehabilitation services and efforts to help families affected by drug addiction.
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Sharing Recovery, 1 Family at a Time
June 19, 2017 - Malibu's Alo House Recovery Center hosted Bob Forrest, a recovered addict himself, on Wednesday, June 14, at its free, weekly Families United for Recovery support group meeting. Forrest lived a drug-infused celebrity life in the fast lane when he was lead vocalist and lyricist for Thelonious Monster and the Bicycle Thief in the 1980s and 1990s before he became a drug rehabilitation counselor who spearheads a new approach to addiction treatment programs.
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Music Heals
JUNE 21, 2017 - U2's Adam Clayton has long spoken openly of his struggles with substance abuse and has been a longtime supporter of recovery programs, particularly MusiCares and the MAP Fund. The organization is honoring Clayton Monday in New York with its Stevie Ray Vaughan Award in recognition of his support - MusiCares has distributed $48 million to musicians and music-related people since it was founded in 1989, and $10 million over the past 10 years to nearly 3,000 substance-abuse clients.
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Horrific VIDEO
JUNE 20, 2017 - A heroin epidemic has brutalized addicts and their families across America in recent years and shows no signs of slowing down. And though this murder trial is primarily about little Bella's death, it has provided a disturbing glimpse into heroin's power over her short life. McCarthy, 37, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. Prosecutors say he killed his then-girlfriend's daughter, put her in a trash bag and dumped her in the waters of Boston Harbor.
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Better Sweat The Small Stuff
June 21, 2017 -
Katie Delatouche, 30, became one of the first in Britain to be issued with one of the hi-tech ankle devices which monitor alcohol intake through sweat ... She was ordered to wear one for 60 days after baring one of her breasts at Andreas Jershov who ordered her and a pal out of his store for being drunk after an all-day binge. The duo kicked a store display, threw stock onto the floor and pushed the owner in the chest before he managed to force them outside and lock the door.
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Born to be Sidled AUDIO
The first is going through detox and going into treatment immediately after. That often includes severe vomiting, seizures and swinging body temperatures, which Ruth said can pose a threat to the fetus ... That can result in miscarriage. But the other option, medication-assisted treatment, is controversial, too. It relies on a prescription drug like naloxone or buprenorphine to help wean the patient off drugs, and some of the babies born to these mothers will go through neonatal abstinence syndrome.
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New Advertising Rates for 2017
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"YOUR FIRED" Surgeon General
June 22, 2017 - Ultimately, the AHCA would place coverage out of reach and weaken patient protections for millions struggling with addiction. This means more lives lost, more communities torn apart, and more people like Crystal and her children left behind ... Martin Luther King Jr. said, "The time is always right to do what is right." It's time to put people over politics and expand coverage and access to addiction treatment for millions of Americans who need it ...Vivek Murthy was surgeon general of the United States from 2014 to 2017.
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Down The Rabbit Hole
By the time Marshall Carpenter's father broke down the barricaded door of his son's apartment and physically ripped him away from his electronic devices, the 25-year-old was in a bad way. He could not bear to live a life that didn't involve hours upon hours of uninterrupted screen time. "I was playing video games 14 or 15 hours a day, I had Netflix on a loop in the background, and any time there was the tiniest break in any of that, I'd be playing a game on my phone or sending lonely texts to ex-girlfriends," Carpenter says.
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Is this ho·me·op·a·thy?
June 22, 2017 - Tragically, no major American institutions were in attendance at the University of British Columbia's international symposium ... "Heroin-assisted treatment is just like any other medical treatment," says Eugenia Oviedo-Joekes, an associate professor at the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia. "We don't just see the drug, which is just one piece to the puzzle. We see the person, and we're treating them and their pain."
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Introspection Time
June 22, 2017 - As sober-living and group homes continue to sprout up, the city is grappling with ways to regulate the facilities and address complaints from residents and business owners who view them as a threat to neighborhoods. This week, the City Council set aside $125,000 in its 2017-18 budget to fund a state employee to inspect its state-licensed homes, which are exempt from the city's sober-living ordinances. The idea is to create better oversight of drug and alcohol treatment centers within its borders...
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A Way Out of No Way
June 23, 2017 - Catherine Monson: I grew up in an abusive, alcoholic home. My mother was an alcoholic. I was the oldest of four. My mother blamed the unhappiness in her life on me ... At the time, I was a committed Christian. I said to my mother, "Satan, in the name of Jesus Christ be gone." She shrieked like a wild animal, picked up a big glass bowl that was a piece of décor and broke it across my forehead. I picked her up and I literally threw her across the room..
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Pet Story of The Week
June 22, 2017 - Wally was taken to the Dewdney Animal Hospital in Maple Ridge, British Columbia as veterinarians there believed the dog was suffering from hypoglycemia. After the dog did not respond to treatment, veterinarians asked the dog's owner if it was possible that the dog had consumed any narcotics. After the owner said it was possible the dog ingested fentanyl, Wally was given Naloxon to reverse the overdose.
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Now He Has To Follow It
 June 25, 2017 - "I've spoken out because I think it's important that people ask for help if they're going through a rough time and get the proper treatment to help their recovery." As Ant battles his demons, Robbie Williams has reached out to the TV presenter and offered his advice. A source told The Sun, 'Robbie has battled the same demons as Ant and come out the other side, so he knows he must be going through hell.
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Losing The War At Home
Solutions Recovery Creates Role for Veterans Struggling with Addiction
 June 23, 2017 - Solutions Recovery is excited to announce that it has created a new role designed for the specific needs of veterans and their interaction with the office of Veteran's Affairs. The veteran's affairs coordinator role, filled by Veteran Jane Schmidt, MS,LADC, is a combination of clinical duties and case management...Solutions Recovery's model for chemical dependency and addiction treatment is a multidisciplinary approach. It combines a psychiatrist, a counselor, a clinician, and a case manager... Solutions Recovery is contracted as a Veterans Choice provider for U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
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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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In December of 1999, when I was very busy worrying about Y2K, my 19-year-old son came home one day and says, "Dad, I want to go to treatment." I did a double take. I knew he loved pot (having been busted in Weed CA, appealing to our family's appreciation of irony); he also could not control his drinking, at all. I immediately called my alma mater, and they offered him a very generous partial scholarship. I told him he had to come up with the $3000. on his own, investing in and owning his process. He borrowed the cash from a family friend and did pay it back within 6 months of graduating the rehab program. On Jan 2, 2000. I had the unscheduled joy and privilege of driving Ben to Betty Ford for his Berlitz-like total immersion course in sobriety.
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JUST IN...
MONDAY June 26 2017 -
"Having a mental health disorder was associated with essentially a doubling of the likelihood that you would receive a prescription from your physician for an opioid," he said...
"The disproportionate prescribing to patients with mental health disorders was really, really concerning to us," he said. "We know that this is a vulnerable population in respect to the opioid-related side effects, such as overdose, addiction and long-term use." - The Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center study examined data from 2011 and 2013 gathered by the federal government.
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Vein of Gold
California the over-regulator? Not for addiction treatment
June 23, 2017
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"It's so bad right now I get three to four calls a month from people who tell me they want to open up a 'detox center' and can I help them," said Mick Meagher, an Escondido-based attorney and consultant to the addiction treatment industry...
"California"stands in sharp contrast to New York, Massachusetts and a dozen other states, where would-be rehab operators must prove there's a local demand for their services and obtain a "certificate of need"
Malibu has 47 licensed centers, the same number as the entire state of Rhode Island. Costa Mesa has 102 licensed centers, more than the states of Mississippi, Nevada, Alaska, Arkansas and Montana, according to state and federal data...
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Time for a Change?
June 22, 2017 - Urgent attention is being devoted to every facet of the epidemic except one: how to think about drug addiction itself. As the opioid crisis deepens, it's time to examine whether current thinking about addiction limits our understanding of the epidemic and impedes our efforts to contain it. There is little that the National Institute on Drug Abuse an do for those "dying of a broken heart," as President Bill Clinton described white Americans who lack diplomas and face diminished life expectancies. That kind of renewal is a daunting cultural project. At the very least, however, NIDA should stop promoting rhetoric that needlessly narrows our thinking about addiction.
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Opioid epidemic is so bad, librarians learning to treat overdoses
June 23, 2017 - T
"She's not a paramedic," the guard, Sterling Davis, said later. "She's just a teen-adult librarian -- and saved six people since April. That's a lot for a librarian."...
"We have to figure out quickly the critical steps that people have to take so we can be partners in the solution of this problem," Julie Todaro, president of the American Library Association, told CNN....
"I understand where they're coming from and why they're doing it," she said of heroin users. "I just keep faith and hope that one day they get the chance and the opportunity to get clean. A lot of things have to line up perfectly for people to enter recovery long-term.
"
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