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March 29, 2016                   Treatment Industry & Recovery Community News                   Vol. 3., No. 33
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Brave New World
BREAKING NEWS: Obama Announces New Moves to Treat Opioid and Heroin Abuse     

The Obama administration is making it easier for doctors to use anti-addiction drugs in the fight against an exploding epidemic of prescription drug and heroin abuse…Medication-assisted treatment with drugs like methadone and buprenorphine is a key component of the administration’s attack on the opioid epidemic … Michael Botticelli, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said, “Expanding access to medication-assisted treatment for opioid-use disorders has been a top priority…

CONTINUED @ CNN.com   

UK Recovery – In The News
Inside Alcoholics Anonymous…     

In the back room of a suburban church hall a group of people sit clutching coffee mugs. They’re a diverse bunch. From the middle-aged barrister in the corner to the timid checkout girl at the back, they could hardly be more different. Yet they’re all part of what has been called the most exclusive club in the world, where the 2.2 million members have one thing in common: a crippling addiction to booze. This is one of thousands of meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous taking place every day. First to speak is the barrister. “Hi, my name’s James,” he says. “And I’m an alcoholic.”… Despite their awful experiences, these people insist they are the lucky ones. At the end they join hands in a circle to recite the “serenity prayer”.

CONTINUED @ Mirror.co.uk  

Good Job, Well Done, Success!
Nixon Aide Reportedly Admitted Drug War Was Meant To Target Black People 

…In other words, the intense racial targeting that’s become synonymous with the drug war wasn’t an unintended side effect – it was the whole point … The quote kicks off Baum’s “Legalize It All,” the cover story for Harper’s April 2016 issue. Read the whole article, which is a comprehensive argument for drug legalization, here.

CONTINUED @ HuffingtonPost.com 

They Make You Feel Real Good VIDEO
FDA adds Strongest Warning to Popular Painkillers VIDEO     

“Unfortunately, it has taken FDA far too long to address the grave risks of these drugs that have claimed the lives of thousands this year alone,” said Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass … “We have such a huge epidemic in this country. Over 200 million prescriptions were given out in 2014,” CBS News medical contributor Dr. Tara Narula told “CBS This Morning” last week. “Forty people die every day from opioid overdoses. Two million people are dependent or abuse opioids.”

CONTINUED @ CBSNews.com 

Truth Be Told
Moderate drinking: many studies reporting health benefits are ‘flawed’     

From analyzing 87 studies that looked at the effects of alcohol consumption on death from all causes, the team identified a number of flaws in the way the studies were designed … “There’s a general idea out there that alcohol is good for us, because that’s what you hear reported all the time. But there are many reasons to be skeptical.”

CONTINUED @ MedicalNewsToday.com 

Sticking With The Winners
Hollywood Actor Reveals How He ‘Discovered’ God During His Battle for Sobriety     

“[Faith is] really important to me,” the “Dallas” and “Desperate Housewives” actor told the outlet. “I really discovered a connection with a higher power and with God as I understand him probably five years ago when I got sober through the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.” “A large part of that program is giving the will and character life over to God – or a God as you understand him – and prayer is also a big part of that program as well,” he told Fox 411. “I feel that that really helped me overcome a difficult time in my life and since then has really deepened and enriched my life in a lot of ways.

CONTINUED @ TheBlaze.com 

RIP Mayor Ford
Reaction to Rob Ford’s Cancer Proves We Don’t Take Addiction Seriously 

There’s just the one thing about the message his treatment conveys to others suffering from addiction. Overwhelmingly, Rob Ford is seen as a criminal, rather than a very ill man. It’s simple. As a society, we lack sympathy for addiction. So it’s acceptable to profit from someone suffering a mental health issue. But cancer? That’s real. Tragically, Rob Ford is dealing with both.

CONTINUED @ HuffingtonPost.ca  

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I Can Deal Wit That


Chocolate Makes You More Clever 

The suspicion is that eating the nutrient increases blood flow to the brain, which in turn improves a number of its functions. Also, chocolate contains methylxanthines, plant-produced compounds that enhance various bodily functions, among them, concentration levels.

CONTINUED @ Independent.co.uk  

MEDIA: FILM: Krisha Review
“KRISHA” Review by James Lattimer at Slate Magazine 

There’s barely a moment in Krisha that doesn’t flaunt the tormented state of its titular protagonist, with the quivering strings that score the slow opening zoom onto her clenched visage already screaming that this is a woman under the influence. In the same way that Krisha (Krisha Fairchild) can’t help returning to the bathroom to ingest yet another illicit substance, writer-director Trey Edward Shults’s film is unable to escape its one-note perspective on its protagonist, ramming home her relentless downward spiral though an incessant parade of grandstanding stylistic flourishes.

CONTINUED @ SlantMagazine.com 

With PR Like This…  VIDEO
American Airlines pilot arrested in front of passengers after failing sobriety test VIDEO

Amanda Albrecht, a teenage passenger who snapped a photo of the handcuffed pilot – which she tweeted using the hashtag #qualityhire – told WXYZ that she had not heard back from the airline. “I honesty just couldn’t believe – I was speechless – that something like that could happen and, again, that he could get that close to the aircraft,” she told the station. “I kind of just wanted American Airlines to be like, ‘Hey, sorry, can we do something about it?'”

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Bill White’s Newest Article
Rethinking the Characterization of Addiction as a “Relapsing Condition”  

Defining addiction as a “chronically relapsing” condition, in spite of its advocacy by leading organizations in the addictions field (see here and here), has generated unintended but harmful consequences. Such language should be abandoned and replaced with words that more accurately depict the variable course of substance use disorders (SUDs) and that are more personally and professional empowering.

CONTINUED @ WilliamWhitePapers.com 

Alanon Anyone?? VIDEO
Scheana Marie News: ‘Vanderpump Rules’ Star on Mike Shay’s Addiction, Sobriety VIDEO 

Scheana Marie spoke of her husband’s addiction struggles during the Vanderpump Rules reunion special. After facing marital troubles due to Mike Shay’s pill use last year, Scheana Marie addressed her suggestion to Shay, in which she claimed he should continue to consume alcohol, but not get drunk.

CONTINUED @ EnStarz.com 

From Bad to Worse VIDEO
Smoking Too Much Marijuana Brings You Down VIDEO     

People who smoke cannabis heavily in their youth end up worse off than their parents both economically and socially, a new study finds. The study doesn’t prove cause and effect, but it does suggest that people who do use marijuana on most days end up worse off than people who don’t – and it suggests that it’s not their family situation that’s causing their decline.

CONTINUED @ NBCNews.com 

Implant Students In Elementary School?
Can an Implant Stop Heroin Addiction?     

Researchers at Harvard University analyzed why in the first large-scale study of opioid treatment at Harvard University in 2011. Their results reflected what doctors had been reporting. Close to 50 percent of patients were able to get off opioids during 12 weeks of suboxone treatment. But when they stopped it, relapse rates skyrocketed. In the end only 8.7 percent of the participants stayed in recovery.

CONTINUED @ TheDailyBeast.com 

Boston Globe Columnist Shares…
Life changes, one day at a time     

One frigid night last February, walking home from yet another bar, I knew I was done. I called a friend in Alcoholics Anonymous who offered to take me to a meeting at 7:30 a.m on a Saturday. My first thought: “Don’t they have any later meetings?”… I don’t drink alcohol. More precisely, I don’t drink anymore. For some people, this is not the kind of thing that would be worth mentioning publicly. But for me, quitting is a relatively recent development, a revelation, and – quite possibly – a lifesaver. I stopped drinking a little over a year ago. That was years after I noticed that I drank a lot more than I used to.

CONTINUED @ BostonGlobe.com 

Officer Hypocrite
Ex-Baltimore Cop Recounts His Heroin Addiction To “Humans of New York” 

“I was a police officer in Baltimore for 21 years. I was addicted to heroin the entire time I was on the force. A lot of the guys had their addictions. I don’t think people understand the fear involved in the job. We were scared all the time. Baltimore was the murder capital of the world.”

CONTINUED @ PINAC.com 

It’s Never Easy
San Rafael Treatment Center Sued by Dead Client’s Father     

The father of a man who died at a Center Point drug treatment center in San Rafael three years ago has sued Center Point, alleging the facility’s failure to follow state regulations led to his son’s death. Nathan Eaton, 32, was found dead in his room … at 7:05 a.m. March 9, 2013, according to the county coroner’s report. Dr. Joseph Cohen, the county’s chief forsenic pathologist, concluded Eaton died of “acute methadone intoxication.” … According to the coroner’s report, Eaton told the Manor’s program manager the night before that he had taken five 10-mg methadone pills that afternoon when he left the center for a dentist’s appointment.

CONTINUED @ Marinij.com 

What a Journey

Grammy winning songwriter shares story of alcoholism, recovery     

Paul Williams – an actor, Oscar and Grammy winning songwriter, and Wilson High School graduate – had a simple message for hundreds of people who attended the … 2016 Good Friday breakfast:..”It occurs to me that there was a transformation of that song and the meaning of that song and the power of that song and the life of that song that was the result of great human kindness and talent … people walking up to me in my life and saying – here, let me make this part of your life better,” he said. “This is about transformation. Good Friday is about transformation. Easter is about transformation.

CONTINUED @ PressTelegram.com 

Poetry Heals

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Uncover, Discover, Disrobe
Comedian Nikki Glaser on Sex, Sobriety, Flemish, and More Sex     

I didn’t realize how awkward we were with sex until I quit drinking over four years ago. We rely on alcohol to have sex so much. Everyone does. Often in my standup I ask people in the audience who has had sex with someone for the first time when they were stone-cold sober? No one can ever say that they’ve done it!  

CONTINUED @ Maxim.com 

Dancing Through The Steps
Jodie Sweetin’s Drug Addiction Memoir Helps Highlight Her Joy     

Jodie Sweetin’s appearance on Dancing With the Stars Season 22 is really against all odds. The child actress traveled a dangerous road that took her on a perilous journey of drug and alcohol abuse — beginning when she was just 14. That was just after Full House ended and she was no longer Stephanie Tanner, the role for which she is still most recognized. Sweetin ended up in rehab after the drinking and pot smoking became a full-blown coke and methamphetamine problem.

CONTINUED @ 2Paragraphs.com 

Time To Share VIDEO
Kim Richards, Now Sober, Reveals the Truth About Her Longtime Struggle with Alcoholism VIDEO 

“I had my first real drink at 24,” Richards tells PEOPLE exclusively in this week’s issue. The former child actress, who now stars on Lifetime’s The Mother/ Daughter Experiment: Celebrity Edition, says prior to that she had “sips every now and then,” but the problem developed during the painful end of her 2nd marriage.

CONTINUED @ People.com 

If She Can… VIDEO
Former Homeless Tenderloin Addict Pens Memoir VIDEO     

A Bay Area woman is offering hope for heroin addicts. She was one herself.  Tracey Helton Mitchell says she spent eight years addicted to heroin and homeless on the streets of San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood.She tells KTVU she hopes by talking openly and publicly about her experience, she can help others … The 45-year-old says she’s proof that recovery is possible and getting help she needed saved her life. Helton Mitchell now works at San Francisco General running a mental health program.

CONTINUED @ KTVU.com 

Staying Safe
Depression, Addiction Common Among Young Transgender Women     

For the new study, the researchers interviewed 300 transgender women in Boston and Chicago between 2012 and 2015. The participants, who ranged in age from 16 to 29, were sexually active and were participating in an HIV prevention study. Overall, about 42 percent had one or more health or addiction diagnoses.

CONTINUED @ FoxNews.com 

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Chocolate for Sale – Sweet & Raw

MEDIA: FILM ‘Krisha’ Review
Portrait of a Recovering Alcoholic     

Some members of the ensemble are professional actors, notably Fairchild, whom her director nephew swears is nothing like movie-Krisha in real life. Others are non-professionals and family members taking part in Shults’ bittersweet labor of love. You don’t notice anybody’s acting. The film’s chronology, thanks to Shults’ free-association editing, has a way of keeping us off-balance; the same goes for composer Brian McOmber’s nervous, skittery musical score.

CONTINUED @ ChicagoTribune.com 

Need A Chinese Sponsor?
Battling Drug Addiction with Confucian Wisdom 

Authorities in an east China province are drawing on old wisdom to blaze a trail in treating drug addiction, borrowing the concepts of Confucius to help addicts stay clean. Shandong Province recently established the Confucius Institute at Jidong compulsory detoxification center in Jinan, capital city of Shandong, sparking heated discussions on how ancient Chinese philosophy can help treat the modern-day problem of drug addiction.

CONTINUED @ ShanghaiDaily.com 

What’s Going On
The color of heroin addiction – why war then, treatment now?     

With an almost unanimous vote, the Senate approved legislation earlier this month designed to fight opiod, including heroin, abuse. The bill, which still must be considered by the House, would encourage the use of naloxone, a drug that can reverse heroin overdoses. Cummings directed some of his fire toward Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, which makes naloxone. The drug was praised at the hearing for its effectiveness.

CONTINUED @ WashingtonPost.com 

Everyone Has a Theory VIDEO
Neuroscientist Tackles Addiction in Lecture VIDEO 

“The phenomenon of the village drunkard was easily understood,” Ragan said. “He was simply the person in town of the lowest moral fiber.” Ragan was consistent in driving home the point that the disease of addiction plagues America, but that the public has in the past viewed it as something that can be controlled. “Addiction is no different than any other disorder,” Ragan said. “I don’t want to go soft on addicts, but let’s use the same treatment rigor as other diseases.”

CONTINUED @ UTDailyBeacon.com 

Prisoners Lives Matter
Heroin Overdose Antidote Offers Hope for Vulnerable Inmates     

When he was a teenager, Lee Gonzales could not save his uncle from a heroin overdose. Now he worries that the same drug could kill him after he gets out of jail. As Gonzales remembers, he had rousted his uncle from previous heroin stupors by propping him up and splashing water on his face. But there was no one around to help that day. And there was nothing available like the bright orange prescription bottle the 32-year-old heroin addict held in his hand on a recent morning.

CONTINUED @ ABCNews.Go.com 

USA
Cultural collapse ‘creating zombies’ through drug addiction    

…one of America’s leading cultural critics warns this is simply the latest expression of a nation gone mad, as Americans are being driven over the edge and are seeking escape by any means possible. Dr. Lee Hieb, past president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons and the author of “Surviving the Medical Meltdown,” argues the use of dangerous drugs such as “spice” is a consequence of the war on drugs. “.

CONTINUED @ WND.com 

Neighborly Love?
San Juan Capistrano Approves Year-long Moratorium on New Sober Living Homes 

After approving a 45-day moratorium in November on permitting or establishing congregate living facilities in residential zones, the San Juan Capistrano City Council approved the adoption of a new year-long temporary moratorium on such facilities, also known as sober living homes, at its March 15 meeting … residents spoke of issues with parking problems and homes being run like “medical clinics where drugs are administered.” Residents referred to the situation as “ridiculous” and “anarchy,”…

CONTINUED @ TheCapistranoDispatch.com 

Taking Steps
Clean addicts protest outside sober house where three overdosed last week     

Young recovering addicts – frustrated with the pace of the investigation of shady business practices in the sober home industry – continued their efforts to crack down on what they say are corrupt sober homes by protesting outside a Lake Worth apartment complex where three addicts overdosed last week…Vied, who has been clean and sober for 2 years, said he hoped the protest would show the community that addicts can get clean and are concerned about their perception in the community. He vowed to protest outside a sober home every two weeks.

CONTINUED @ MyPalmBeachPost.com 

Dealing Death
Coroner Starts Ruling Heroin Overdose Deaths as Homicides 

A county coroner in Pennsylvania has started ruling heroin overdose deaths as homicides, saying drug dealers are murderers … Charles Kiessling Jr. had been marking overdose deaths as accidental, which he called standard practice, but said he’s trying to raise awareness of a heroin epidemic that contributed to a 13 percent increase in overdose deaths in Pennsylvania in one year … Nationally, since 2000, there has been a 200 percent spike in the rate of overdose deaths from opioid pain relievers and heroin…

CONTINUED @ WTAE.com 

Rigorous Honesty
The Voice Contestant Beth Morris Speaks Out About Drug Addiction     

The Voice contestant Beth Morris has said she is keen to continue recovering from her drug addiction after pulling out of the singing competition. The BBC confirmed Morris, from Maidenhead, had left the show in a statement on Saturday. While the BBC said she left for “personal reasons”, Morris told The Sun on Sunday she had relapsed after gaining treatment for a “problem with drugs”.

CONTINUED @ Independent.co.uk  

The Faces of Evil
Kickbacks, Bribes, and the Horrifying Truth Behind California’s Largest Medical Fraud Scandal 

Long Beach hospital owner Michael Drobot spent decades bilking the state of millions for unnecessary surgeries with allegedly bogus hardware, and plenty of doctors went along with him – … But there is more to the story than kickbacks and creative accounting. Drobot and his associates are also being accused in a cascade of civil lawsuits of supplying surgeons with substandard, knockoff hardware that sometimes broke apart in patients’ bodies.

CONTINUED @ LAMag.com 

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Addiction/Recovery eBulletin Publisher & Editor:  

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March 29 Addiction Recovery eBulletin