January 6, 2015                                                                                                            Volume 2., No. 20 
Testimonials

Carrying The Message to the Realm
Ex-addict Rewarded in Queen’s New Year’s Honours list    

A man who conquered a drug addiction and dedicated his life to helping others do the same is to receive a British Empire Medal after being included in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list. Richard Hall, 65, founded Falmouth-based Sailaday OKcorr in 2002 and lives in Reawla, near Hayle. Sailaday OK is an adventure therapy charity that supports rehabilitation centre programmes that are helping people recover from addictions, trauma and abuse by providing sailing therapy.

CONTINUED @ WestBriton.co.uk

Trigger Warning                VIDEO   
Rick Ross Explores Drug Addiction in ‘Nickel Rock’  VIDEO   

Rick Ross kicks off 2015 on a strong note with his new video for ‘Nickel Rock’ featuring Boosie Badazz. Opposed to the more light-hearted track like Kanye West’s ‘Only One,’ Rozay’s clip takes us to the streets and explores the trials and tribulations of drug addiction. The gritty visual follows a mysterious woman, who is actually a real-life addict, wallowing in drug addiction as she’s about to get her fix. Boosie Badazz lends a verse to the track and helps the Miami rapper delve into their thoughts about pushing and doing drugs.

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Unfathomable Yet Not VIDEO
Family of Accused Murderer Explains Drug Addiction VIDEO    

A family member is speaking News 13 after a North Carolina man accused of killing his parents took his own life over the weekend. Vincent Franklin was charged with the murders of his mother and stepfather in 2013. He was also a suspect in the death of his girlfriend, Cheyenne Van Treese, but was never charged. Franklin’s mother, worked hard to get him help up until days before her body was found. He says her attempts didn’t get the sincere attention they deserved. Maltry, himself says he didn’t understand the severity of his nephew’s addiction until recently.

CONTINUED @ WLOS.com 

Worse Than Losing Your Teeth   
Higher Risk
of Parkinson’s Seen with Methamphetamine Use
   

People who use methamphetamine have a greatly increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, according to a study published in the Jan. 1 issue of Drug and Alcohol Dependence. The researchers found that methamphetamine users were 3 times more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease. Cocaine users didn’t have an increased risk of Parkinson’s. The researchers also found that women who use methamphetamine appear to be nearly 5 times more likely to develop Parkinson’s than those who don’t use drugs. CONTINUED @ HCPlive.com  

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Essay of the Week
Why Do Men Stupefy Themselves? Leo Tolstoy on Why We Drink    

Decades before the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous and nearly a century before alcohol abuse was recognized as a disease by the World Health Organization, Tolstoy writes: What is the explanation of the fact that people use things that stupefy them: vodka, wine, beer, hashish, opium, tobacco, and other things less common: ether, morphia, fly-agaric, etc.? Why did the practice begin?

It’s About Time   
Lawsuit Seeks
to Make Drugmaker Pay for OxyContin Abuse
   

Prescription drug abuse has killed more than 20,000 Americans a year, filled jails and treatment centers and spawned a resurgence in heroin use. And nowhere is the pill problem more prevalent than in Kentucky’s Appalachians, where officials trace its roots to the aggressive marketing of one potent drug: OxyContin. Company lawyers in legal documents say more than a billion dollars is at stake and cite the potential for a “ruinous” verdict. As it’s typically difficult to find drug companies liable for harm caused by their products.

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COMING IN 2015! 

Especially on The Nile
Drink Less Alcohol To Help Keep Mosquitoes Away   

The American Mosquito Control Association, used human test subjects to determine whether ingesting alcohol would increase the likelihood of bites. Turns out mosquitoes like getting a little tipsy, because after just one beer, there was a significant increase in mosquito landings. They haven’t determined what it is exactly about the drink that mosquitoes find so tantalising, but if you’re prone to bites, imbibing at your backyard BBQ could up your chances.

Not So Sacred After All   
Hospital Administrators Plead Guilty
in Chicago Kickback Case
  

Two former Sacred Heart Hospital administrators in Chicago pleaded guilty Tuesday to their roles in a scheme to pay doctors illegal kickbacks to refer patients to the now-shuttered hospital. Anthony Puorro, the hospital’s former chief operating officer, and Noemi Velgara, a former hospital vice president, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Chicago to conspiring to pay kickbacks in exchange for the referral of patients covered by Medicare or Medicaid.

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Science May One Day Do So…
Testing Anti-Drinking Drug with Help of a Fake Bar    

The tequila sure looks real, so do the beer taps. Inside the hospital at the National Institutes of Health, researchers are testing a possible new treatment to help heavy drinkers cut back – using a replica of a fully stocked bar. The idea: Sitting in the dimly lit bar-laboratory should cue the volunteers’ brains to crave a drink, and help determine if the experimental pill counters that urge.

CONTINUED @ AssociatedPress.org  

HIGH School     
Memory Loss from Excessive Drinking is on the Rise with Teenagers   

A “blackout” is a phenomenon caused by the intake of any substance, in this context alcohol, or in which long term memory creation is impaired, therefore causing a complete inability to recall the past. Blackouts tend to occur when a person’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is likely significantly above what is considered legal intoxication. New research suggests that it is a  misconception that blackouts occur only in alcoholics.

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Little Murderers
After Another Baby Dies of Liquid Nicotine Overdose, Cuomo Pitches Legislation    

After the accidental death of a 1-year-old boy earlier this month, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced legislation requiring childproof containers for liquid nicotine. The concentrated nicotine found in e-cigarettes is highly toxic if ingested, and particularly lethal for infants and small children.A report from the Centers for Disease Control said calls to poison control centers involving the nicotine have increased to 215 calls per month.  A boy from Montgomery County suffered an overdose after accidentally swallowing the liquid.

California Stories     
Salvation Army Helps Oakland Man Beat Addiction   

Jerrell Loggins was losing a recurring batttle with drug addiction earlier this year, sending him on a downward spiral. Amid a fog of continuous substance abuse, one day he had a clear revelation about why he should turn his life around — being a good father for his young child. Loggins turned to the Salvation Army of Alameda County, whose faith-based programs quickly stopped his slide and steered him toward sobriety.

Please Sir, Can I Have Some More?
Pharmaceutical Company to Promote Drug for Treating Obesity    

Danish pharmaceutical group Novo Nordisk plans to use 500 of its 3,000-strong sales force in the United States to promote its new obesity drug, executive vice president Jakob Riis told reporters on Monday. The U.S. health regulator has approved a formulation of Novo Nordisk’s diabetes drug, liraglutide, for treating obesity, which affects 1 in 3 Americans.

CONTINUED @ DailyTimes.com 

Deadly Indulgence   
Another Lover of Banana Mogul Dead of ‘coke overdose’   

This ménage à trois has now gone double fatal. The former girlfriend of imprisoned Long Island “Banana King” Thomas Hoey died Wednesday from a suspected cocaine overdose, sources said. Nicole Zobkiw, 31, notoriously survived a wild three-way sex romp that ended in the 2009 overdose death of personal trainer Kimberly Calo, 41. “There are three adults here all making bad choices: One’s in prison and two are dead. It’s terribly tragic but all the fault doesn’t lie in one man.”

Why Writers Drink AUDIO
The History Of Three Square Meals & Following The Path Of 6 Literary Alcoholics AUDIO    

The image of the family gathered at the table for the evening meal is a durable American tradition. Only it’s a myth. On today’s show, a food historian describes how most families ate for most of American history Then, we move from food to booze: hard drinking writers, like Ernest Hemingway and John Cheever fortified the myth of the alcohol-soaked genius. An author who explores why writers drink, and dispels any myths about booze as muse.

The New Jim Crow? Or Not?     
Is Obama Finally Ready To Dial Back The War On Drugs?   

Some critics of the war on drugs-a crusade that Obama had declared “an utter failure” in 2004-predicted that he would improve in his second term. Safely re-elected, he would not have to worry that looking soft on drugs would cost him votes, and he would finally act on his avowed belief that the war on drugs is unjust and ineffective.

Three Good Test Questions  VIDEO
Three key signs of a possible addiction to Oxycodone  VIDEO    

Three key signs of a possible addiction to the medical drug Oxycodone, which is sold as Oxycontin in the USA, from Dr. Paul Hokemeyer in this Howcast video. 

Quit for Life   
How To Quit  Cigarettes   

More than 70 percent of all smokers want to quit, according to the U.S. government, but sometimes it takes more than mere resolve. Smoking is one of the hardest bad habits to correct, largely because nicotine is so addictive. Below are 10 tips to help you realize your 2015 New Year’s Eve resolution and finally give up cigarettes. CONTINUED @ IBTimes.com 

When It’s Almost Too Late
Heroin Use Is A Public Health Emergency That Calls For Legislative Solutions 

MORE PEOPLE are killed now by drug overdoses than by homicides in many states, prompting alarmed state lawmakers and attorneys general to search for legislative fixes. The sense of urgency, impelled especially by a spike in lethal heroin overdoses, is justified. Some of the measures proposed to address the problem may not be. The new focus on heroin use coincides with very sharp increases nationally in overdose deaths in middle-class and predominantly white communities. It’s a shame that that’s what it took to rally the authorities to action; still, better late than never.

With No Reservations VIDEO   
Native Americans Start the New Year Sober at Red Road Pow Wow  VIDEO   

Tribal members are bringing in the New Year by honoring their ancient culture and celebrating sobriety. “My heritage is my life,” said Eddie Greenflag. “And it’s a way to live today.” Greenflag of Tehachapi is a member of the Paiute and Shoshone tribes this annual event changed his life. “This is an annual sobriety pow wow and I been coming here for the last ten years,” said Greenflag. “Ten years clean and sober with my new life here and its beautiful and I look forward to it.”

Good For Business
U.S. Incarceration Rate Far Exceeds that of Every Other Nation    

Currently, some 2.2 million people are doing time in our nation’s prisons and jails. That is a phenomenal 500 percent increase in four decades. The reason for this surge has not been a surge in crime rates. Rather it’s been a change in sentencing policies. The consequences have been prison overcrowding-and an attempt to relieve it with one of the worst ideas ever to get widely adopted in the States: private prisons. 500,000 Americans are doing time for drug-related crimes.

Jack Daniels in the Front Row     
Why Country Music Was Drunk All Year in 2014   

If you went to a concert in 2014 you may have noticed that country music is a drunken mess. The year was country’s Summer of Lush and nowhere was the stumbling state of the bro-dominated genre more on display than at Luke Bryan’s Pittsburgh stadium show on June 21. Sure, the bill boasted four of country’s biggest names – Dierks Bentley, Lee Brice, Cole Swindell and Bryan – but the day’s defining moment wasn’t on the stage but in the parking lot, where police made dozens of arrests, paramedics responded to more than 100 911 calls and revelers left behind thousands of pounds of garbage.

Tender is the Heart
The Anguish of Breaking Up:
From Chest Pain
to Drug-like Withdrawal    

They say love is a drug, and it turns out people do suffer withdrawal symptoms from their partner after splitting up, similar to the cravings drug addicts experience for cocaine. The anguish experienced during a split activates the same part of the brain that is stimulated during addiction, according a Stony Brook University. Analyzing brain scans of the broken-hearted, they found similarities between romantic rejection and cocaine craving.

Marijuana High On the List     
Top Alcohol and Drug Stories of 2014   

The use of synthetic marijuana became more widespread, prescription drug abuse continued to be an issue for healthcare providers, and an upsurge in heroin overdose deaths caused more first responders to begin carrying naloxone. We discovered in 2014 that Americans spend $100 billion a year on illicit drugs, even casual drug use can cause brain damage, and parents found that even the lyrics to the songs their children listen to can influence them to binge drink.

Excitation of Central Amygdala Anyone?
What Causes ‘Tunnel Vision’
in Addiction?    

Activating the amygdala, an almond-shaped part of the brain that processes emotions, can give rats an addictive, intense desire for sweets, say researchers. Most people encounter and consume highly delicious foods, such as chocolate chip cookies and candy, and addictive substances like alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine on a regular basis. For many people, these rewards act as pleasurable treats that are both wanted and liked, but for the most part consumed in moderation.

NEW FEATURE – Original Content     
Anonymity –
A New Paradigm?
 
AA is not the Cosa Nostra, the KKK, the Skull & Bones

Society or the 

Illuminati. Indeed, one of Alcoholics Anonymous’ favorite aphorisms is, “You’re only as sick as your secrets.” So why do we continue to deny our association with this life-saving program? Times and attitudes towards addiction have changed radically in the past twenty years. Isn’t it time for A.A. to change with them?

Los Angeles Residents Celebrate Recovery
6th Annual Awards Honoring Joe Pantoliano

Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015 

This year’s honoree is actor and author Joe Pantoliano. With more than 100 film, television and stage credits to his name, Joey joined the cast of The Sopranos, and won an Emmy Award. He’s also the author of Asylum, his deeply moving and inspiring memoir. This Award is given in recognition of an individual’s honest memoir, including their journey through addiction to recovery, and their dedication and enthusiasm for carrying the ‘message’ to a society awash in addiction.

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WRITERS IN TREATMENT

Writers In Treatment 
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REEL RECOVERY FILM FESTIVAL 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 and the general public.   

Addiction/Recovery eBulletin Publisher & Editor:  
Leonard Buschel   

Addiction Recovery eBulletin Jan 6, 2015