This was performed at the “We Are One” Presidential Inaugural Concert, January 19, 2009.
Health Over Profits
Portugal’s approach to opioid addiction should be US model
In Portugal, when non-violent offenders are caught with what’s considered a 10-day or less supply of narcotics – for instance, 1 gram of heroin, ecstasy, or amphetamine, 2 grams of cocaine, 25 grams of marijuana, etc. – the user is given a citation to appear before a “dissuasion panel.” This panel consists of legal, social and psychological professionals who are trained in assessing these individuals and referring them to treatment programs. These programs are funded by money saved by not incarcerating drug users (according to the New York Times, confining one inmate costs about $168,000 dollars per year in New York City…) and not spending billions on futile attempts at controlling the country’s supply and demand of narcotics. In Portuguese society, where drug use is less stigmatized, users are much more likely to seek treatment.
Nutritional guidance often missing from substance abuse treatment
Even as more than 21 million Americans struggle with substance abuse issues, many addiction recovery programs overlook how nutritional support can increase treatment safety and success. Maria Schellenberger, a student in the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology Master of Science in Nutrition, Healthspan and Longevity program, said patients in recovery often face very high risks for malnutrition, eating disorders and dramatic weight changes, among other challenges. “Many clients enter treatment with significant malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies.
READ MORE @ USC NEWS
Science May One Day Do So – Not Today
Could a genetically-engineered virus cure alcoholism? VIDEO
Whether we like it or not, Ireland as a country has gained an international reputation as a country of heavy drinkers. Based on 2015 figures, every Irish person over the age of 15 drank the equivalent of 41 litres of vodka, 116 bottles of wine, or 445 pints of beer. Addiction to alcohol is a burden on many individuals and families in this country, but now a specially designed virus could prove the key to tackling those demons, if the promising results in mice are anything to go on. “Drinking alcohol may not change the whole brain and every neurone, but a neuron will be changed specifically,” professor Jun Wang told Vocativ. “We have to find this neurone and then we can target this neurone,” the academic added, outlining a type of “precision medicine” that would allow scientists to reduce alcohol consumption. Finding the specific neurones is easier said than done, what with the brain made up of almost 100bn individual ones.
“BBC Radio Covers Prescription Drug Addiction” 1Hr. AUDIO
The BBC has today broadcast a program on BBC 5 Live which reports on the BMA’s call for a 24-hour national prescription drug helpline. CEP co-founder Dr. James Davies also contributed to the program, citing recent analysis which suggests that there are over 250,000 long-term benzodiazepine users. “Long-term use and withdrawal is a very serious public health issue that requires more attention than it is currently receiving,” he added.
LISTEN HERE @ MadinAmerica.com
MEDIA: BOOK RECOMMENDATION
Compassion can help partners cope with loved ones’ addictions
Christopher Kennedy Lawford, author of best-selling books on recovery such as “Symptoms of Withdrawal and Moments of Clarity,” has joined up with family therapist Beverly Engel, an expert on abuse, to write “When Your Partner Has An Addiction: How Compassion Can Transform Your Relationship (And Heal You Both in the Process).” … Society has a habit of viewing any particular illness first as shame and then as triumph. Not too long ago cancer was something families hid – you didn’t even tell your friends you had the Big C and certainly didn’t mention it in the inevitable obituary … Addiction is following the same path. What was once – and to some still is – seen as a personal failing, weakness and sin is increasingly recognized as disease, a complex mix of genetic, biological, social and psychological pathology scything through society.
State officials have issued an urgent alert to administrators of naloxone after Teleflex Medical issued a nationwide product recall on the MAD300 nasal atomizer. The recall does not impact the medication itself, but rather a part of the device used to administer the drug. The recall was issued after it was discovered that faulty nasal atomizers shoot a stream of naloxone into patients’ noses rather than producing a mist, potentially making the overdose reversal drug less effective.
READ MORE @ HometownStations.com
Beautifulness
This happens when alcoholics get sober – in 12 photos
Keith Urbowicz is a former alcoholic, and now a viral image. He posted two pictures side by side, showing just how different he looked after only seven months sober. He called it ‘My Sobriety’. “I was floored at the comparison so I posted them on Reddit,” Urbowicz told indy100. It’s mind-blowing looking back on how I looked. Like, that’s what I was used to. I was always afraid to look in the mirror in the morning. The picture has received around 6000 comments in just four days. “I have had about 100 direct messages of people reaching out for help,” Urbowicz says. “I’ve also gotten texts and emails from people I haven’t heard from in years.”
Anthony Weiner has checked into a SEX ADDICTION treatment center
Anthony Weiner, the husband of Hillary Clinton’s closest aide Huma Abedin, has checked into a rehab facility for treatment of sex addition. Out-of-control Weiner, who has been sending sexually-charged messages and obscene pictures to women and at least one teenage girl for years, is now in a treatment facility, DailyMail.com has learned exclusively. Friday’s dramatic disclosure by the FBI that it had discovered new emails relevant to their investigation into Hillary Clinton’s secret server was a shock unprecedented in electoral history. At the center of it, however, is the tragedy of Anthony Weiner’s sex addiction.
Action News found 3 out of 4 nurses disciplined in Pennsylvania are done so for drugs or alcohol. And over the past 12 months, the number has exploded. “All narcotics are accessible to you, like easily accessible. So if there’s an inkling of addiction, it’s there. It’s easy,” said Gerry Dolan, former addict. Gerry Dolan knows the depths of addiction. For a decade, she couldn’t function without Ativan, an anti-anxiety medication. At her lowest point, she was popping 20 pills a day. “It would give me the energy. I could get through my day. I could perform my tasks,” said Dolan. Walk into a hospital ER or ICU unit, and the odds are a nurse is fighting addiction.
Watch JoJo Open Up About Losing Father to Drug Addiction VIDEO
JoJo reveals the deeply personal reason why she makes it a point to vote for politicians who will implement public health programs to aid opioid addicts. “I vote because I want to see reform in the way that we deal with addiction in America,” the pop singer says in the latest installment of Vevo’s “Why I Vote” series. JoJo lost her father to a drug overdose last year. “I see [the opioid epidemic] destroying communities in New England. I see it destroying families. I see the way it’s broken my own family,” JoJo says. She became aware that her father was struggling with drug addiction when she was a teenager. “I don’t feel like he had the resources or tools available to help himself,” the singer says. “I don’t want other families to be broken up and have their lives ruined.”
How drug addiction led to more grandparents raising grandchildren
“When we are seeking caregivers for a child, you want to see who that child has relationships with. You’re removing them from their [nuclear] family. To minimize the trauma and help them feel some normalcy, you obviously want to seek out whoever is closest to that child.” … “Most of us are on Social Security. When the family grows, the Social Security does not. You have to make do with whatever you were getting, and that’s kind of hard.”
There are many different treatments available for those suffering with alcoholism, with the most well-known being Alcoholics Anonymous, a 12-Step abstinence program that has helped many people by connecting them to something beyond themselves – a higher purpose… But a study conducted at the University of New Mexico has found that psilocybin, the active hallucinogenic compound found in “magic mushrooms,” can effectively, and lastingly, treat this disease. Interestingly enough, this isn’t the first time that the use of psychedelics as a treatment for alcoholism has been considered. About 20 years after co-founding Alcoholics Anonymous, Bill Wilson said that LSD could help “cynical alcoholics” achieve a “spiritual awakening” to help start their path to recovery.
Founding member of The Cure talks about alcoholism, recovery
It took writing a book for Laurence “Lol” Tolhurst to realize the life he’s had. As a founding member of English band The Cure, Tolhurst worked hard, toured the world and lived a life of luxury. Until it came crashing down on him in 1989. Battling an alcohol problem, Tolhurst left the band. And through it all, he and the band’s lead singer, Robert Smith, remain friends. “Our relationship did get strained,” he says. “But we’ve known each other since we were 5 years old. We’ve been through a lot.”
Addiction starts young but reaches peak in addicts’ mid-20s and early 30s
Joe Valenti describes his bout with drug addiction as switching seats on the Titanic. “No matter what seat you take,” he said, “you’re still on a sinking ship.” But Valenti, 32, eventually took a seat on a lifeboat – sobriety – 3½ years ago. He suspects the sinking ship will loom in the back of his mind the rest of his life, but he’s vowed to never board it again. At the height of their struggle with addiction, he and his wife – 31-year-old Stephanie Valenti, a fellow addict in long-term recovery – lost everything: their home, their children, their cars and each other. Today, the Stow couple has reformed their life together.
READ MORE @ Ohio.com
Smells Like Teen Healing
Alateen helps kids deal with alcoholics
Jerry, a middle schooler, thought it was his fault. Nancy, a sophomore, was angry at the world. Bob, a senior, retreated into his own world away from his family. All three have an alcoholic father. And all three are trying to learn to deal with it through Alateen. Alateen is for young people ages 11-19 who have been affected by someone else’s drinking – a relative or even a friend. It is highly underutilized locally, especially considering how rampant drinking alcohol is. Alateen is free, and the weekly meetings are run by the teens, with help from a trained supervisor, in this case Joe. It is not a program for young people seeking sobriety.
FOO FIGHTERS To Honor TOM PETTY as 2017 ‘MusiCares Person Of The Year’
Tom Petty will be honored as the 2017 MusiCares Person Of The Year in celebration of his extraordinary creative accomplishments and significant charitable work. Proceeds from the annual Person Of The Year tribute – now in its 27th year – provide essential support for MusiCares, which ensures music people have a place to turn in times of financial, medical, and personal need. The 2017 MusiCares Person Of The Year gala will be held on Friday, February 10, 2017 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, West Hall in Los Angeles, California. The event will begin with a reception and silent auction offering an exclusive and unparalleled selection of luxury items, VIP experiences, and one-of-a-kind celebrity memorabilia for bidding guests. The reception and silent auction will be followed by a gala dinner, a tribute concert featuring renowned musicians and other artists, and the award presentation.
We are a world of comparisons. And when it comes to understanding the implications something has on our health, what better way to drill it through people’s heads than to compare it to something that has, for decades, been shown to significantly harm health and even cause death? I am referring to sugar, which many are now referring to as ‘the new tobacco.’ Our overconsumption of this sweet substance has created a health crisis that only stands to worsen unless we change our ways. Sugar consumption has skyrocketed by 30% in the last 30 years, with the average American adult consuming 22 teaspoons of it daily. And children are faring even worse…
We remember her as really strong and brave and full of confidence, but she wasn’t so self-assured when she was in those early days of political life in Washington … She really suffered with insecurities and feelings of low self-esteem at that time, and the drugs and alcohol played on that vulnerability,” Kalb says. Ford started taking prescription drugs, originally to treat a pinched nerve. She hated “feeling crippled,” so she took more drugs – to the point where she popped as many as 25 pills a day, and “alcohol became a soothing elixir,” Kalb writes in the chapter. “I had a gourmet collection of drugs – I did a little self-prescribing; if one pill is good, two must be better – and when I added vodka to the mix, I moved into a wonderful fuzzy place where everything was fine, I could cope,” Ford recalled.
is a social, educational, networking and recovery forum showcasing first-time filmmakers and experienced professionals who make films about addiction and recovery. Our audience is treatment professionals, people in recovery, members of the entertainment industry, media representatives, educated moviegoers & the general public.
Conference highlights addiction epidemic’s effects on kids
The effect includes the physical problems of the addicted newborns and the chaos older children experience as a result of their parents’ addictions, said Dr. Kathy Wedig, a neonatologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Such children “cannot have what we would consider is a normal childhood,” Wedig said. Wedig says the epidemic is affecting society overall because of the cost of treating and helping such children. Tuesday’s conference at Xavier University drew hundreds of doctors, nurses, social workers and addiction specialists.
READ MORE @ TheDailyTimes.com
Oh CANADA!
Days before release, man dies of heroin overdose in jail
Justin Thompson was supposed to get out of an Ontario jail this week, after beating his main charges and finishing up a minor sentence. Instead, he died Monday in his London provincial jail cell of a drug overdose, just days before completing his 21 days for failing to get fingerprinted. Both men, sources say, fell victim to illegal drugs – this time, likely heroin – at the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre (EMDC), a frequent flashpoint for troubles in Ontario’s correctional system. Drugs are banned behind bars, but their use is so widespread one lawyer says it can be easier to score them in jail than on the street.
READ MORE @ News.NationalPost.com
Dying for a Beverage?
Soda Industry Pays Scientists To Say Soda is Healthy
They found about 60 studies that were fairly rigorous in their methodology. When the studies were led by independent researchers, they showed a clear link between soda consumption and obesity or metabolic disease. But notably, 26 of the studies reported no link between sugary soft drinks and poor health. What was different about the studies that found no connection to health problems? They were all carried out by researchers with financial ties to the beverage industry.
The Gateways are … A Gateway, a Bridge, an Opening into living the Spiritual Life that the Steps promise! What YOU get from this is TOOLS, Inspiration, Time to release the Shame and move into the FREEDOM. Is there more to recovery than just staying sober and clean? Dr. Jane Galloway offers an emphatic “yes” to this question in her groundbreaking 12 Step companion guide, The Gateways: The Wisdom of 12-Step Spirituality. Galloway presents the 12 Steps squarely in the context of 21st-century spirituality with breadth, skill, and sensitivity that helps readers of any faith (or none).
What Happens When a Drug Overdose Photo Goes Viral VIDEO
On a Saturday afternoon in late October, Jami Smith got a call from the police in her hometown of Hope, Indiana, asking if she knew someone named Erika Hurt. “That’s my daughter,” Smith replied. The officer told Smith to meet them at a nearby Dollar General Store, where she found Hurt, 25, in the parking lot, unconscious at the wheel of a car, needle in her hand, her 10-month-old son in back…” They said it was a teaching tool. I say they wanted to bring big news to a small town,” Smith said. “Unfortunately, my daughter gave them that opportunity.” Hurt had first gotten hooked on pain pills when she was 21, and eventually graduated to heroin, sinking deep after the death of her father, Smith said. The drugs got her in trouble with the law, and while in jail two years ago she got clean, Smith said.
Is Sex Addiction Real? Everything You Need To Know About Anthony Weiner’s Predilections
Sexual addiction isn’t a disorder in the technical sense of the word. The most recent Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the standard guide to mental health classifications used by professionals, doesn’t list sex addiction or hypersexuality anywhere in it. The American Society of Addiction Medicine defines addiction as a disorder characterized by an “inability to consistently abstain, impairment in behavioral control, craving, diminished recognition of significant problems with one’s behavior and interpersonal relationships and dysfunctional emotional response.” The details briefly touch upon gambling and sex as possible examples, but no official recognition is given to “sex addiction.”
Young adults who are problem drinkers tend to suffer from more health problems later in life than non-drinkers, even if they conquered their alcoholism years earlier, a new study indicates. Men with alcohol dependence in young adulthood had, on average, three medical conditions in their 60s, while non-drinkers only reported two, researchers found in an analysis of Vietnam-era veterans. In addition, drinkers’ scores on a depression scale were about twice as high as those of non-drinkers.
He got 300 painkillers, died of a heroin overdose. Will doctors order fewer pills? VIDEO
About 18 months later, Kimel filled a one-month prescription from Dr. James Jacobs for 300 oxycodone pills. Six weeks later, a friend found Kimel dead in a Raleigh apartment. An autopsy revealed Kimel, 36, died on May 2, 2014, from a heroin overdose. Law enforcement and acquaintances told his parents he was selling his prescription drugs and buying heroin. Experts say Kimel’s death illustrates how too many physicians have failed to heed warnings from the federal government and leading medical organizations about the addiction risks from OxyContin, Percocet and other widely used painkillers. Jacobs was reprimanded by the North Carolina Medical Board.
WATCH HERE @ SacBee.com
Perseverance Furthers
Robert Moore releases his third self-published book
His first drink at 13 made Robert Moore feel invincible, empowered and helped him suppress his emotions. For the next 18 years, he was in and out of jail, living on the streets for seven of those years and slept in snowbanks, always next to a liquor store. “I would wake up and have change in the morning to buy my drink,” said Moore, an Orillia resident. “If I didn’t have change, I’d bum for change. Historically, nobody has been through as much as I have been through with alcoholism and addiction.” Several years of sobriety later, when he now looks back at his life, it feels as if he is watching a movie.
Should “Marketers” Be Licensed as Interventionists?
A few years ago I bumped into Carey Davidson (MAC, CIP, ICADAC, CAI) at a conference where we were both commiserating the then-state of affairs of the treatment industry. Carey Davidson is a Board Registered Intervention Specialist and a Certified Intervention Professional who entered the field of addiction out of a sincere desire to help others. Carey holds a Master’s Degree from the esteemed Hazelden Graduate School of Addiction Studies. Carey is President of the Network of Independent Interventionists, sits on the Board of Certification of Addiction Counselors, and is a member of the Association of Intervention Specialists. He recently shared with me his October 31, 2016 article entitled “An Ethical Compass: Navigating the Maze of Addiction Treatment.”
Tests confirm Utah teens overdosed on new synthetic drug
Nearly eight times stronger than morphine, U-47700 has been connected with at least 50 deaths nationwide as the U.S. struggles with an epidemic of opioid use. It was found in pills at Prince’s estate after the entertainer overdosed on another synthetic opioid, the painkiller fentanyl. U-47700 was developed by a pharmaceutical manufacturer in the 1970s as a possible alternative to morphine. Now, chemists in places such as China and Eastern Europe can make it with recipes published in online patent records and old scientific journals.
READ MORE @ FoxNews.com
Need A Light?
Every year of smoking causes DNA mutations that make cancer more likely
The threat doesn’t stop there, according to a study in Friday’s edition of the journal Science. After a year of smoking a pack of cigarettes each day, the cells in the larynx pick up roughly 97 new mutations, those in the pharynx accumulate 39 new mutations, and cells in the oral cavity gain 23 new mutations. Even organs with no direct exposure to tobacco smoke appear to be affected. The researchers counted about 18 new mutations in every bladder cell and six new mutations in every liver cell for each “pack-year” that smokers smoked.
Russell Brand checks UK star Kenny Sansom in to Coventry clinic for battle with alcoholism
England legend Kenny Sansom was treated for alcoholism at a centre in Coventry – after being checked in by Russell Brand. The 86-times capped player was due to spend 18-weeks at the unnamed centre to try and beat his long-running battle with booze. Now Sansom, who played 51 times for Coventry City between 1991-93, is worried he could lose his fampus left foot after doctors told him the bone was infected … The limping star checked himself into casualty twice in six days and is worried he will end up in a wheelchair.Best friend Tom Bell, 34, said: “Kenny is in a really bad place at the minute. He’s drinking three or four bottles of dry white wine a day and is struggling to cope with his life.
The Trend Toward Legalizing Recreational Marijuana
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Friday that she plans to vote in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana in California. “I will vote for it, but I have not made a public statement about it until right this very second,” Pelosi, who represents the district that serves San Francisco, told the editorial board and reporters at the Los Angeles Times. Pelosi’s stance on the issue makes her one of the highest ranking politicians in a relatively small group openly supporting legalization of the drug for recreational use. It’s more common for lawmakers to support its medical use. The state ballot measure in question is California’s Proposition 64, which if passed would treat marijuana much like alcohol. Recreational marijuana would be legal for those over the age of 21, and the state would tax its growth and sales in addition to regulating its distribution.
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