This Isn’t the Picture Our Treatment Industry Wants the World to See
Rehab Owner Being Arraigned on 100 Counts of Sexual Assaults, and $175 Million in Insurance Fraud – Held on $7.5 Million Bail
Nov.10, 2016 After more than a year of investigations by the FBI, Sheriff’s Department, LAPD, California Department of Health and insurance companies, Chris Bathum – aka the Rehab Mogul – has been arrested on multiple charges of fraud, money laundering, grand theft and sexual assault … On Thursday morning, officers from the California Department of Insurance Fraud Division raided 15 sober-living houses under the Commonwealth umbrella throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties. L.A. Weekly obtained screenshots of security camera footage showing the raids from two of those sober-living homes … If convicted, Bathum and Wallace face up to 35 years apiece in prison. They are expected to be arraigned on Monday.
Depression Worsening in Teens, Especially Girls VIDEO
Most antidepressants don’t work for kids, study finds More and more teens say they’ve had serious depression, researchers reported Monday. But more are not being treated for it … The troubling trend suggests doctors are afraid to ask about and treat depression, which is a major cause of suicide, the researchers said … And they say it’s important to find out why rates are up. “The 12-month prevalence of major depressive episodes increased from 8.7 percent in 2005 to 11.3 percent in 2014 in adolescents and from 8.8 percent to 9.6 percent in young adults…”
Doctors work to fight against prescription drug addiction VIDEO
Forty-four Americans die every day from prescription pain killers such as oxycodone, hydrocodone and morphine, but they all include the drug heroin and new research and information is helping doctors learn more about the epidemic. “They are literally dying every single day,” said a former addict. When powerful pain killers are legal and easy to get, that’s a recipe for addiction, and all too often, death…” If you didn’t know someone who could get them, they knew someone who could get them, or somebody knew somebody,” said a former addict. The pain pills work, until that awful day they turn against you.
Teens who use e-cigarettes are more likely to smoke tobacco
Los Angeles teenagers are giving health experts a new reason to worry about electronic cigarettes. In a study of more than 3,000 students in L.A. County public schools, those who were vaping at the beginning of their sophomore years were more likely to become cigarette smokers over the next six months, compared with their classmates who didn’t vape. The vapers were also more likely to become daily smokers and to smoke more cigarettes … The findings, published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggest that public health officials have some justification…
Pharmaceuticals to Addicts: ‘No one was doing their job’ VIDEO
For 10 years, the government waged a behind-the-scenes war against pharmaceutical companies that hardly anyone knows: wholesale distributors of prescription narcotics that ship drugs from manufacturers to consumers … “Through the whole supply chain, I would venture to say no one was doing their job,” said Joseph T. Rannazzisi, former head of the DEA’s Office of Diversion Control, who led the effort against distributors from 2005 until shortly before his retirement in 2015. “And because no one was doing their job, it just perpetuated the problem. Corporate America let their profits get in the way of public health.
…Another controversial finding is that alcohol appears to have different effects on sex hormones in males and females. In females, alcohol consumption is associated with increases in both male and female sex hormones, affecting mood and behavior and a faster rate of progression towards alcoholism. There is evidence that women feel intoxicated more quickly than men, encouraging them to consume larger amounts of alcohol.
READ MORE @ Newsweek.com
I Shutter To Think…
Elton John Reveals How Getting Sober Sparked His Interest in Modernist Photography
“What drew me to photography was I got sober in 1990,” he said. “I’d had my pictures and photograph taken by a lot of great photographers and never knew anything about it as an art form whatsoever.” He snapped up his first images, black and white fashion photographs, while staying in France with a friend … Another, Man Ray’s Noire et Blanche, hangs in his bedroom when not in the show. “It hangs above my bed in Atlanta. So if I die and it falls off the wall at least I will have been killed by a Man Ray,” the star joked.
READ MORE @ Kildare-Nationalist.ie
Heroic
Local Hero Sheila Smyth hits the right note on fighting alcohol abuse
Every family in Northern Ireland is affected by alcohol abuse in some way says musician Sheila Smyth. And it’s this stark fact that inspires her to devote her life to helping people stay sober once they’ve beaten their addiction. “Through life’s pains people can turn to the wrong thing,” says Sheila. “But when you see someone like that recover, it’s like liquid gold. It’s beautiful.” Sheila’s devotion to her work at The Right Key, a musical group for recovering alcoholics at The Recovery Cafe in Dromore, Co Down, has made her another deserving Local Lidl Hero.
Addiction Treatment Advocate Reacts To Trump Win AUDIO
Marvin Ventrell is the Executive Director of the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers. He served as keynote at the annual Rosecrance Forum on Thursday. Rosecrance offers addiction services for teens and adults at more than 40 locations in Chicago and Northern Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa. “The Affordable Care Act says, as one of the essential health care benefits, that if you are traded on the exchange…” Donald Trump has vowed to undo the Affordable Care Act … Ventrell stressed the importance of public-private partnerships to help fund addiction treatment.
Essay: Shift the Focus – Families suffer from addiction too
I have spent time sharing how addiction affects the family as a unit. I want to “Shift the Focus” now to the caretakers/ parents living with a child who has a substance use disorder. Let’s begin by getting one thing straight. The most prominent characteristic is, we, the parents of children who abuse drugs and alcohol, love our children! This is clearly forgotten by some who refer to our children as “junkies, fiends or losers.” If you are one of these people, please have some compassion as these “junkies” are someone’s child, brother or sister. Many people are quick to judge not only the addict but the type of home they must have grown up in or the types of parents they must have had.
READ MORE @ CecilDaily.com
Weed Will Have to Wait and Seize
What Will President Trump Do About Marijuana Legalization? VIDEO
In April 1990, addressing the War on Drugs, Trump told the Miami Herald that the United States needed to legalize all drugs and use the tax revenue to educate Americans about the dangers of drugs. More recently, the president-elect said it isn’t the federal government’s business. “In terms of marijuana and legalization, I think that should be a state issue, state-by-state,” Trump said during a Nevada rally in Oct. 2015…Trump has made seemingly supportive statements for marijuana legalization in the past, but the potential inclusion of politicians who are traditionally conservative on drug policy in his future administration – such as Rudy Giuliani, Chris Christie and Mike Pence – has harshed some legalization supporters’ mellow.
Straight A student turned pregnant prostitute overdoses in new Dr. Phil footage VIDEO
Nikki is eight months pregnant and living with her fiance Jessey, but instead of shopping for baby clothes or a stroller, the couple spends their days looking for ways to feed their heroin and crack addictions. “I chose to give up everything, and I chose to put drugs above everything else,” she says in a video montage shown on the talk show…Nikki, who admits grew up in a privileged family, says she first tired heroin with a boyfriend who was using a few years ago. The full episode aired Thursday.
Alcohol Addiction: Smartphone App ‘Breindebaas’ Uses Brain Training To Help Address Alcohol Abuse
Alcohol abuse is a serious problem that affects millions worldwide, but many are reluctant to seek professional help with their addiction, or struggle to carry on once treatment has ended. A new smartphone app called Breindebaas aims to address this by offering a quick and easy game to help rewire the brain away from alcohol addiction. Although the app alone is not meant to help “cure” alcohol abuse, it could be used in addition to therapy to help ensure minimal relapse risk, or may serve as the first step towards recovery for those who are not yet ready to seek out professional help.
By providing a safe atmosphere and stable access to services, we can help those struggling with substance use disorder to establish positive relationships with service providers, build trust and begin tackling the challenges in their lives, including substance use. This strategy requires investment, but the reality is it works. In the Canadian facility, clients increased their use of detox services more than 30 percent in just one year.
READ MORE @ BaltimoreSun.com
And Which Drugs are Illegal?
Tobacco use linked to 40% of cancer cases, not just lung cancer
Cancers associated with tobacco use make up 40% of all United States cancer diagnoses, and tobacco use remains the leading preventable cause of cancer and cancer deaths in the United States, according to a recent CDC Vital Signs report.CDC officials also said the cigarette smoking rate has reached an all-time low, thanks in part to state and local groups’ efforts, but stressed more work must be done … Tobacco use and the cancers related to it remain a “persistent and preventable health threat in this country,” CDC Director Thomas Frieden, MD, MPH, said in a news briefing. “…Although smoking rates are at an all-time low, tobacco causes cancer of at least 12 parts of the body, accounts for three in 10 cancer deaths and will kill six million current smokers unless we implement programs to help them quit,” he said … in addition to lung and head and neck cancer, tobacco use is associated with cancers of the rectum, colon, cervix, bladder, liver, pancreas, kidney, and stomach, and acute myeloid leukemia, as well as cardiovascular problems, such as heart attack and stroke, and pulmonary problems.
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.
“It’s a unique service to addicts and their families.”
“It’s a unique service to addicts and their families. And an informational periodical for the rehab industry. If I don’t ingest the Addiction/Recovery eBulletin, then I immediately need a fix.”
Paul Krassner
American author, journalist, comedian, and founder of the magazine The Realist. Krassner became a key figure in the counterculture of the 1960s as a member of Ken Kesey‘s Merry Pranksters.
Addiction/Recovery eBulletin Fan Mail
“Please continue your work.”
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Johanna O’Flaherty, PhD
Her doctorate in clinical psychology is from Pacifica Graduate Institute.
Flavored Harm Reduction
Vaping Is Gateway to Quitting
Survey data indicate that millions of Americans have used electronic cigarettes to quit smoking, thereby dramatically reducing the health risks they face. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is unimpressed … “The plural of anecdote is not data,” Frieden recently told The New York Times. But when it comes to the dangers that vaping poses, he abandons his scientific stance, claiming without evidence that “many kids are starting out with e-cigarettes and then going on to smoke conventional cigarettes.”
READ MORE @ Reason.com
Who Cares?
Prisons fight opioids with $1,000 injection: Does it work?
U.S. prisons are experimenting with a high-priced monthly injection that could help addicted inmates stay off opioids after they are released, but skeptics question its effectiveness and say the manufacturer has aggressively marketed an unproven drug to corrections officials. A single shot of Vivitrol, given in the buttocks, lasts for four weeks and eliminates the need for the daily doses common with alternatives such as methadone. Each shot costs up to $1,000, and because the drug has a limited track record, experts do not agree on how well it works..
Folk singer Judy Collins sings through lifetime of strife
Judy Collins has had her share of challenges. But, through depression, an eating disorder, alcoholism, the death of a son and a lifetime in show business, she still has her voice… “I was a child prodigy,” she said. “It was very exciting – I was 13, I was at the top of my game. I was bound to have my career … on the concert stage.” But it was a rocky time in the Collins household. Her father was “admired, respected,” she said. “He had wonderful, wonderful talent. But he also was an alcoholic.”
Margaret Cho Reveals She’s Residing in Sober-Living House
“I bring the real me and my truth to my work. It’s not perfect, it’s not manufactured, it’s real,” outspoken comedian Margaret Cho has said. She did just that on The Comedy Store stage Nov. 3, revealing that she has been in a sober-living facility for five months post-rehab after an intervention by friends. Cho – sharing the marquee with comics Lachlan Patterson, Iliza Shlesinger, Moshe Kasher and host Joe Praino – joked that she brought wine to her intervention thinking she was going to a friend’s party. She got drunk anyway, and has been in living in the sober facility since, she noted at the event.
Alcoholics Anonymous South Africa (AASA) which has helped and guided thousands of South Africans to recover from alcoholism since the end of the second world war, turns 70 years this year. AASA – which operates under the umbrella of the worldwide (USA founded) Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous – came into existence in Johannesburg, when the first South African recovery group opened its doors on 18th October 1946 … In 1946, Readers Digest published an article entitled “…
READ MORE @ RisingSunOverport.com
Supporting Treatment Helps VIDEO
Deputy Inspired to Fight Addiction after Stepdaughter’s Death VIDEO
That’s the question Sgt. Douglas Chapman with the Shiawassee County Sheriff’s Office in Michigan asked the county drug court Wednesday. It was part of an urgent message after losing his own stepdaughter to heroin just 10 days earlier. Looking at Meghan Reid’s picture, you would never guess it would be her. That’s why Sgt. Chapman brought her picture. He said Meghan helped him heal after the loss of his own daughter in a car accident. “She filled a void in my life and I became very close to her,” he told the room.
WATCH HERE @ KXII.com
Skirball Cultural Center
8th Annual Experience, Strength & Hope Awards – Feb. 23 in LA
Broadcast giant and Recovery advocate PAT O’BRIEN is set to receive the Experience, Strength and Hope Award presented on Thursday, February 23, 2017 Guest host, Ed Begley, Jr., Guest Singer TBA SPECIAL COMEDY performance, from South Florida to you, SARGE (He’s half Jewish and half Black. What could possible go wrong?) Previous Honorees: Christopher Kennedy Lawford, Lou Gossett, Jr., Buzz Aldrin, Duran Duran’s John Taylor, Carrie White, Joe Pantoliano, Mackenzie Phillips Previous Participants: Danny Trejo, Tony Denison, Robert Downey, Jr., Ione Skye, Bobcat Goldthwait, Joanna Cassidy, Alonzo Bodden, Mark Lundholm, Dan Fante, Bob Forrest, Sharon Lawrence, Barry Diamond, Jack McGee Event Will Sell Out – Book now to avoid disappointment
Woman charged – stealing $82K from drug treatment program
A Des Moines woman is jailed on suspicion of embezzling more than 82-thousand dollars from the Substance Abuse Treatment Unit of Central Iowa. Thirty-six-year-old Amy Howell was arrested and charged with theft, ongoing criminal conduct and forgery. Administrators at Substance Abuse Treatment Unit of Central Iowa, or SATUCI, told Marshalltown police that $82,269 had been stolen from the company between April 2014 and July 2016. The police investigation lead them to Howell, the former finance coordinator for the company.
What to Know About Marijuana Legalization in California VIDEO
By a margin of about 56% to 44%, voters passed Proposition 64, making California the fifth state to legalize recreational pot, after Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska. Later in the evening, results came in showing that voters in Massachusetts and Nevada did the same. The vote happened 20 years after California became the first state to legalize medical marijuana in 1996…Adults cannot smoke or ingest weed in public. Though Proposition 64 will eventually allow for licensed on-site consumption – Reiman imagines this will happen in the Amsterdam coffee-shop vein, given that no business can sell alcohol or tobacco as well as marijuana…
Viral Photos of Drug Overdose Victims Expose Pitfalls in Fighting Addiction VIDEO
The images are both repellent and captivating: men and women, often with children in their care, passed out from drug overdoses in near-death moments captured just after cops arrive at the scene. In another era, they might have only appeared in tabloid newspapers, like the work of street photographer Weegee. Instead, they catch fire first on social media, rocketing across the internet and turning what would have been an anonymous, small-town tragedy into a public spectacle … police must also anticipate how the community might react to the photos, Bueermann said. If there is a relative lack of sensitivity among locals, then police risk fueling backlashes against the overdose victims…
Mum’s agony after teen took own life by overdosing on anti-depressants VIDEO
A tormented schoolgirl took her own life by overdosing on antidepressants given to her during secret visits to her GP. Britney Mazzoncini, aged 16, ended her life in July, just days after hitting out at bullies on Facebook. Her heartbroken mum is now fighting for a change in the law which allowed her daughter access to powerful drugs without her knowledge … Britney, who had dreamed of becoming a police officer, was prescribed dozens of high-dosage antidepressants in the days before her death.
Alcohol drives high Native American arrest rate but recovery possible
Gary Gishie lives his life one day at a time. The 31-year-old recovering alcoholic is one of the great success stories to come out of the Coconino County DUI/Drug Court and the Coconino County Detention Facility in Flagstaff’s Exodus substance abuse rehabilitation program. Gishie is open, hard-working, well-spoken and likable. It is hard to picture him being arrested more than 20 times for low-level crimes he committed while intoxicated after he moved from the Navajo Nation onto the streets of Page and Flagstaff.
READ MORE @ AZDailySun.com
Advice from US News & World Reports
Choosing Friends in Sobriety
So why do you need sober friends? One of my favorite quotes of all time is by American entrepreneur Jim Rohn: “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” This is true, especially on the road to recovery. If you surround yourselves with people on the verge of relapse, you will likely stand on the brink of relapse as well. If you surround yourself with active addicts and alcoholics, you will likely go back to the drink or the drug. In order to establish a healthy and fruitful recovery, you must accept that your community largely determines the quality of your sobriety. So, if the quality of friendships is so important, how do you choose your friends?
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