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Mar. 3, 2015              A Weekly for the Treatment Industry & Recovery Community               Vol. 2., No. 28
Testimonials
The Recovery Oscars!
Joey Pants & Daniel Baldwin – Two of the Honorees at 6th Annual Experience, Strength and Hope Awards in Los Angeles. 

This year’s honoree was actor and writer Joe Pantoliano, best known for his portrayal as Ralph Cifaretto on The Sopranos. Bob Forrest walked up to say hi to D.H. Peligro, the drummer from the Dead Kennedys. I’ve known Bob for years. “I’ve been to every one of these things. Look at this (indicating that the room was packed). Leonard has gotten it together,” he said. All-in-all, an inspiring and amusing night, I thought,as I grabbed my gift bag and headed to the parking lot.  CONTINUED @ TheFix.com 

What A Concept   
Teaching Kids How to Learn Without
Study Drugs 

Work loads in high school can be extreme, causing some kids to think about cheating or taking study drugs. GSE senior lecturer Denise Pope comments on the problem and possible solutions, such as cutting homework load and ensuring kids get enough “play time, down time and family time. The question is do they really help normal people with learning,” Goldsmith said, “There hasn’t been any reason to study them because the risks are so significant.” Those risks include depression, psychosis, mood swings, suicidal thoughts, seizures, decreased appetite and insomnia.

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Now I Really Can See Russia
Alaska Third State To Legalize-It    

On the day Alaska became the third state in the nation to legalize recreational pot use, folks in this party town best known as the finish line for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race seemed more interested in watching snowmobile contestants blast into the city than smoking a joint.

WARNING: Not  Before Yom Kippur   
Religious Leaders Aim High To Make Marijuana Kosher   

Orthodox Jews in New York might eventually be able to celebrate the high holidays – actually high – under doctors’ orders.With collaboration from a Colorado drug firm and a Jewish group that offers kosher certification, cannabis could be available to Orthodox Jews by next year. The Orthodox Union, could offer certification to start selling legal, edible marijuana with a kosher stamp of approval, The Jewish Daily Forward reported on Monday.

Twelve Promises: Rewards of Recovery

Brandi’s Wish    

Even Beer
Lower IQ Linked to Increased Drinking in Young Adult Men    

It turns out that there may be a link between lower IQ and increased drinking among young adult men. While previous research has suggested a link between intelligence and health outcomes, this latest study shows that poor IQ does have something to do with riskier drinking. “In two studies where the CAGE questionnaire-a method of screening for alcoholism-was used, a higher cognitive ability was found to be associated with a higher risk for drinking problems.

Crash Course   AUDIO   
Drunkorexia: Swapping Meals For Drinks AUDIO   

A new phenomenon seems to combine these two common problems of undergraduate life into a bigger issue, and one that has its own name: “drunkorexia.” There’s little scientific research on drunkorexia, but some say they see it happening among college students. “Drunkorexia basically means somebody is using inappropriate eating disorder behavior, such as restricting or binge eating, in order to compensate for binge drinking later on.”

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Come to Denver This Spring    

Drunk Abroad
Korean Households Spend Record Amount on Alcohol in 2014    

South Koreans spent the most in over 10 years on alcoholic beverages in 2014, mainly on beer and soju, statistics agency said Monday, while demand for cigarettes fell, most likely from the price increase. Data provided by Statistics Korea said local households spent an average of 11,267 won (US$10.16) monthly to buy alcoholic beverages. This represents a 4.8 percent increase from the year before. The result from the survey conducted on households with two or more members is the highest tallied since the office started taking related data in 2003.

Not On The Curriculum 
12 at Wesleyan University Are Hospitalized for Drug Overdoses   

By the time the ambulances were through, 10 Wesleyan students and two guests had been admitted to hospitals for possible overdoses on Molly, a club drug also known, sometimes in different forms, as MDMA or Ecstasy, and which has been linked to a number of overdoses and deaths in recent years.

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Detox With Dignity Now 

Cure This!
City of Malibu Sues, Demands Passages Rehab Shut Down    

“Passages Malibu describes itself as the ‘number one rehab in the world’ whose ‘flagship drug and alcohol treatment center is in Malibu, California on a 10-acre property that features a breathtaking Pacific Ocean view, tranquil setting, and palatial estates that house [its] residential and treatment facilities. Yet, despite Passages Malibu’s promotion of its operations in the City of Malibu as a comprehensive, sprawling, singular rehab center, and despite evidence supporting this characterization, the California Department of Health Care Services outright refused to regulate Passages.”

CONTINUED @ MalibuTimes.com 

Follow The Money   
CDC: Deaths Soared as Narcotic Painkillers Grew Popular   

The CDC has called prescription painkiller abuse an epidemic. In 2012, 16,007 people died i from overdoses involving opioid painkillers, triple the number who died in 1999, a 5% decrease from 2011 when 16,917 people died, the CDC reported last year. In September, Attorney General Eric Holder expanded a prescription drug return program that allows hospitals and pharmacies to accept excess drugs, including narcotic pain relievers.

Bridges To Recovery


His House & New Creation Treatment  

24/7    VIDEO
Amber Portwood on Her Drug Addiction: I Took Drugs “24 Hours” VIDEO    

Fans got a chance to catch up with Teen Mom’s Amber Portwood during her recent Getting To Know special on MTV, and let’s just say this girl opened up and then some about her past. Amber is on the record as saying that she was high for almost all of Teen Mom, and she explained to her family and producers how she started doing drugs after giving birth to her daughter Leah on MTV’s 16 and Pregnant.

CONTINUED @ WetPaint.com 

Too Many Kids Dying   
Mother of Son who Died of Overdose Calls for More Narcan Awareness   

Twin Cities: State lawmakers passed a law last year expanding access to a key anti-overdose drug. While the law has been credited with saving lives, now there is growing concern that the drug’s distribution remains too limited – and that not enough people know about it. Nothing brought that fact home for drug-treatment advocates more than two recent overdoses north of the Twin Cities.

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Like GPS for Your Soul
Overcoming Addiction With an App    

Can a game installed on your smartphone help you to overcome an addiction? Soon this will be a possibility. Marloes Postel, a lecturer at the University of Twente, observed the need for easily accessible care for people with addictions. This has led to the development of an app version of an existing computer course used for training the brain to break free from acquired patterns of thought.

 Bet Yes    VIDEO 
Is A ‘Sobriety Pill’ In Our Future? VIDEO   

Imagine, then, if problem drinkers could be given a pill that makes them less likely to drink, less intoxicated if they do drink and more capable of enduring the potentially life-threatening alcohol withdrawal syndrome that emerges shortly after going “cold-turkey”. Recent research exploring interactions between the neuropeptide oxytocin and alcohol gives some grounds for hope that such a pill might one day exist.

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver  VIDEO
Marketing Drugs to Doctors   VIDEO  

Pharmaceutical companies spend billions of dollars marketing drugs to doctors. We have a few issues with that. Poignant, funny and disturbing!

Sober Love Hormone ? VIDEO   
Love Hormone Has Sobering Effect VIDEO   

The findings could pave the way for the development of drugs that help treat alcoholism in humans. “We found that oxytocin blocks alcohol’s intoxicating effects and it prevents alcohol from acting at the sites in the brain that are involved in alcohol’s intoxicating effects,” says team member Dr Michael Bowen, from the University of Sydney’s School of Psychology. The findings, reported today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, were quite “serendipitous” says Bowen.

Keep Your Shirt On Next Time VIDEO
Russell Brand Attacks the Sex and Porn Industry VIDEO

Brand, who has previously come under fire for his string of sexual encounters, has now decided to take on the sex juggernaut that is the porn industry – calling it ‘corrupt’. Not because viewers see ‘too much’ but because people are shown ‘too little’. He also lashed out at soft porn film 50 Shades Of Grey. Could this be the first time we actually agree with Brand (despite his lack of clothes)?

Team Player

Team Player

   

Teen Talk Line Host, Joelle Jacobson Joins Betty Ford Center Team 

Joelle Jacobson, M.A., L.M.F.T., P.P.S. has been working in the mental health field for over a decade in private practice, as a school counselor and in the recovery field. Prior to joining the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation in the Business Development Department, Joelle provided clinical outreach for the Center for Discovery. By providing resources to professionals and those in need, Joelle honors her commitment to help people recover from addiction.

CONTINUED @ Hazelden.org  

Alcoholism at Ten Minutes In   AUDIO
Greta van Susteren & Laurie Dhue:  The Drunken Story Behind the News  AUDIO    

She was a news anchor and a host known across cable TV – Laurie Dhue is a familiar face, who has worked at all the major cable news channels. She worked closely with such stars as Bill O’Reilly and Geraldo Rivera. But as Dhue tells Greta van Susteren in this episode of Greta Talk, there was a lot going on in her world that the audience never saw.

Staying Healthy   
Heavy Drinking at Middle Age Increases Stroke Risk by 34 Percent   

Alcohol consumption in middle age can increase the risk of stroke by as much as 34 percent, according to a new study. Consumption of large amounts of alcohol by people in middle age was found to increase the risk of stroke by a greater degree than diabetes or hypertension.  Strokes also began five years earlier among heavy drinkers than among those who consumed little alcohol.

Life Was Not a Bowl Of Cherries
Marijuana Farm Beneath Brooklyn Cherry Factory Leaves Many Mysteries    

Much about the hidden operations of Mr. Mondella, 57, who shot and killed himself on Tuesday as investigators found his marijuana plants, remains frustratingly out of reach. Investigators do not know how he distributed the marijuana, how long he had grown it or who helped him. Most baffling of all are Mr. Mondella’s reasons for hiding his operation under a thriving business and for taking his life so suddenly when he was caught.

Young Sweet Tooth Alkies

Young Sweet Tooth Aes

   

Underage Drinkers of Flavored Alcoholic Beverages Increase Risk of Alcohol-Related Injuries   

“It is impossible to discuss harmful alcohol consumption among youth and not include supersized alcopops,” said David Jernigan, PhD, director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “These low-priced and sweet-tasting beverages are associated with reports of dangerous consequences among youth.”

CONTINUED @ USNews.com 

MADNESS
Deadly addiction: Heroin Deaths in Connecticut up 86% from 2012 to 2014    

Of the 558 accidental drug overdose deaths reported in the state last year, heroin was involved in 58 percent, or 325, of those deaths. That is more than an 86 percent jump from the 174 heroin-related deaths reported in 2012. Many of the deaths were people with multiple drugs in their system, according to the medical examiner.

Important Conversations VIDEO   
Drug Addiction and What It Means in a Path to Recovery VIDEO   

Project Director Linda Sarage is a recovering alcoholic who discovered that its not just about treatment. She said, “Our job here at the Recover Project is to say- And then what, and then what?”  Sarage said their goal is to create a sustainable lifestyle with peer-to-peer support for recovering addicts. “We’ve decided in recovery that no longer can we keep silent.”

CONTINUED @ WWLP.com 

State Prescribes Vivitrol – Buy Stock Now! 
“A Shot At Life” Drug Treatment Trial    

“A Shot at Life” – Nassau’s new Pathway to Recovery program, provides counseling with monthly injections of the non-narcotic medication Vivitrol, which caps the Opiate receptors in the brain, blocking the drug’s euphoric effects. Unlike other “daily dose” medications long-used to treat Opiate and heroin addiction, Vivitrol cannot be abused, “My administration has combated heroin and opioid abuse through a comprehensive strategy that includes enhanced enforcement, education and awareness,” said County Executive Mangano. “Nassau County is offering those battling addiction ‘A Shot at Life’ and freedom from narcotics.

Psychologists Believe…

Psychologists Believe…

   

Personal Stories Are Carefully Edited During Addiction Treatment   

People’s perceptions of their own life stories are carefully and methodically changed during the course of treatment for drug addiction, according to an ethnographic study published in Sociology of Health and Illness. And some self-perceptions and stories are significantly less welcomed by treatment providers. Andersen found that “stories of change function locally as an institutional requirement” and that these stories change the way that people make sense of their own past, present and future.

CONTINUED @ MadeInAmerica.com 

Moderation Is The Key
How Scientists Rank Drugs from Most to Least Dangerous    

Experts see the rankings as deeply flawed, largely because they present the harms that come from drugs in a rather crude, one-dimensional manner. Even Nutt has acknowledged that the study is imperfect. This may seem like a petty academic squabble, but it’s quite important as researchers and lawmakers try to advance more scientific approaches to drug policy. Finding the best method to evaluate the risks of drugs is much more complicated than assigning numeric rankings.

Doctors In Denial   
Primary Care Residents Unlikely to Detect Hazardous Alcohol Use   

Binge drinking can result in accidents leading to acute-care visits. However, only 17 percent of the physicians in the study asked patients about hazardous drinking at this type of visit. Most of the residents (60 percent) said they “usually” or “always” screen patients for alcohol misuse at initial clinic visits, but over 80 percent reported using questions incapable of picking up binge drinking.

50 Shades of Recovery   VIDEO
Confessions of a Sex Addict: From 3 Men in a Night to Bringing Sex Toys to Work VIDEO  

In an anonymous confession to the Gold Coast Bulletin the woman reveals: ‘I once had sex with two guys in one night before going to meet up with the guy I was supposed to be seeing at the time. “This all got a little messy when at one stage I was seeing three men by the same name, in the same week.” Sex addiction is described by the relationship counseling service Relate as any sexual activity that feels out of control. Yet some scientists argue there’s no such thing as a clinical addiction to sex and ‘sufferers’ are simply making excuses for their lack of self-restraint.

An Illness That’s A Choice?    
If Addiction is an illness, Josh Hamilton Shouldn’t Be Suspended    

Everybody has habits that are hard to break, some more destructive than others-whether you want to call it a choice or a disease or not. What’s to be gained by throwing Hamilton under the bus? He has a serious problem he’s battling. And, as I said earlier, he has checks and balances to help keep him sober-checks and balances that HE has chosen to have in his life, since we’re talking about choice. If any of you all have some experience or expertise regarding addiction, I’d ask that you weigh in in the comments.

Celebrity Sobriety
Annual Awards Show Highlights Overcoming Stigma of Addiction 

On Thursday night at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, the 6th Annual Experience, Strength and Hope Awards Show celebrated the close connection in Hollywood between recovery and entertainment. Honoring actor and author Joe Pantoliano, and presented by Sharon Lawrence for Writers In Treatment and Leonard Buschel. Receiving the Experience, Strength and Hope Award for demonstrating “character, courage and creativity in recovery,” Pantoliano was enthusiastic and forthright. 

CONTINUED @ TheFix.com   

WRITERS IN TREATMENT

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Attention Can Equal Prevention
Turkish singer attempts Guinness Record to Draw Attention to Drug Addiction   

Turkish famous rock singer Haluk Levent will attempt to hit a Guinness record by giving concerts 100 days successively to draw attention to drug use. Haluk Levent who has broken another record by staying on stage for 10.5 hours uninterruptedly, stated to journalists that he came out with this idea after use of drugs especially bonsai apparently increased in the country in the recent years. This time the famous rock singer will try another record attempt by giving series of concerts 100 days successively across Turkey.

CONTINUED @ Cihan.com 

The Debate Continues     
Few Believe Methadone Treatment For Heroin Is Best, More Favor Cold Turkey     

Researchers estimate that about 23 percent of people who use this heroin will become dependent on it. Now, a new YouGov/Huffington Post survey of finds that just 19 percent of 1,000 surveyed adults believe heroin addicts trying to quit their habit should be medically supervised and provided with synthetic opiates like methadone. Exactly half of those surveyed recommended instead that addicts attend Narcotics Anonymous meetings and detox completely as they believe it’s most important to get an addict off drugs entirely. A third of respondents said they were unsure of the best method for treating addiction.

Addiction Recovery eBulletin March 3, 2015