| | “There’s a long life ahead of you and it’s going to be beautiful, as long as you keep loving and hugging each other.” – Yoko Ono
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| | February 14, 2017 Treatment Industry & Recovery Community News Vol. 4., No. 28
| | Before The Kids Are All Gone VIDEO
It’s called “Overdose Warning Network,” or “OWN.” It’s being rolled out right now by two men, one raised in New Haven, who are trying to save lives. “We want hospitals, EMT’s, your average citizen to use it when they come across an overdose, and they apply the naloxone,” said Adrian S. Hooper Jr. … Let’s say hypothetically a lot of people are coming down from Higganym or Middletown, and they’re buying heroin in New Haven, and they’re overdosing, all of a sudden we start to see tracking patterns between it, which informs treatment, planning and prevention efforts from the city where these people are coming from,” said Tim Cheney. | | | | PRISONER of GREED VIDEO
Boca Raton center owner charged with human brokering VIDEO Feb. 9, 2017 – A Boca Raton drug treatment owner with a history of fraud convictions was arrested on Wednesday and charged with 25 counts of patient brokering. The arrest of James Michael Tomasso, 57, came after the Palm Beach County Sober Home Task Force raided several of Tomasso’s businesses on Wednesday. According to the arrest report, Tomasso paid more than $68,000 to the owner of Hartnett Resource Services, which operates Infinity House sober home, to enroll residents of Infinity House in Tomasso’s treatment programs. Tomasso operated Pathways 2 Recovery in Boca Raton, Inspirations Recovery in Greenacres and Acceptance Recovery Center in Delray Beach from the offices of Global Recovery Resources, another business owned by Tomasso. WATCH MORE @ MyPalmBeachPost.com | | | Profiting from Youth
‘Dripping’ dangerous trend for teens who vape FEB. 6, 2017 – One in four high school teens who have used e-cigarettes have also tried a potentially dangerous new vaping method called “dripping” – dropping e-cigarette liquid directly onto the hot coils of the device to produce thicker, more flavorful smoke – a new study found. “Dripping,” which differs from normal e-cigarette use that slowly releases the liquid from a wick onto a hot atomizer, may expose users to higher levels of nicotine and to harmful non-nicotine toxins, such as formaldehyde and acetaldehyde – known carcinogens. | | | Advertising Conundrum?
Marijuana billboard battle aims to protect minors February 7, 2017 – For decades, a struggle has raged across California and America to protect young people from negative aspects of drinking beer and hard liquor. Now that fight has begun to spread to newly legalized recreational marijuana, with several state legislators trying to ban pot advertising along state highways. | | | Healing Not Hell
Baltimore offers drug users, prostitutes treatment rather than jail time Feb, 7, 2017 – Minor drug offenders and sex workers in Baltimore may soon have a choice between enrolling in a treatment program or spending time behind bars, as part of a joint pilot scheme between the city’s police department and a mental health organization. The Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program was announced by Baltimore Police and Behavioral Health System Baltimore (BHSB) at a news conference on Monday. The program will allow police officers to refer low-level drug or prostitution offenders to case managers, instead of sending them to jail. Those case managers will help them get access to drug treatment centers, mental health services, and housing assistance. | | | Anonymity: A New Paradigm?
Kitchen Table Conversation with Leonard Buschel “Recovery is, first and foremost, a decision; then it’s a lot of vigilance, service, self reflection, self discovery and developing a joie de vie while using all the tools of recovery. For me, I put those tools in alphabetical order: Attention, Brains, Consciousness, Defiance, Enthusiasm, Friendliness, Gratitude, Humor, Introspection, Joy, Kindness, Love, Mindfulness, Navigation, Observation, Playfulness, Quiet, Resolve, Sharing, Talking, Understanding, Vitality, Wonder, X-ray vision, Youthful and Zestful.” READ MORE @ LivsRecoveryKitchen.com | | | Making REEL Recovery Addiction Film
Short Film on WNY Opioid Addiction VIDEO In recent years we have had to inform you of the growing number of deaths from the opioid epidemic which has gripped our area and our country. Now 2 On Your Side takes a behind the scenes look at the local production of a new film depicting the horror of addiction … Filmmaker and scriptwriter Greg Robbins got BPD cooperation after speaking with Mayor Brown. He got help to film including this climactic scene where Camryn’s character shoots up and dies from an overdose at a 190 overpass off Niagara Street where others have died in real life. His target audience is the families of addicts who may not recognize the danger. Robbins says “I think when people see this … unfortunately it’s very raw, it’s very real and hard to watch … but I think we all need to see this.” WATCH MORE @ WGRZ.com | | | It Takes a Family
Finally a Center for Families “At the Center for Families, we embrace families with open arms,” said Jamison Monroe Jr., founder of the center. “We subvert the stigma and shame associated with mental health struggles and substance abuse by providing our community with compassion and connection.” … Center for Families, the first of its kind in the greater Philadelphia area, is a safe place for teens and families to find support, education, and sustainable healing for mental health and substance abuse struggles. Staffed by clinicians with more than 100 years of combined experience in the field of adolescent mental health, the center staff walks parents and teens through all stages of the healing process and addresses specific needs of each family. READ MORE @ DailyLocal.com | | | American Drug Lords
Senators question Kaleo’ $4,500 tag on overdose treatment U.S. Democrat Senator Claire McCaskill on Thursday asked Kaleo Pharmaceuticals to justify the more than 550 percent surge in the price of its device to treat painkiller overdoses, becoming the second senator to question Evzio’s $4,500 price tag … Evzio contains the overdose-reversing drug naloxone and can be used in emergencies by people without medical training. Privately held Kaleo has raised the price of a twin-pack to $4,500, from $690 in 2014. | | | Community Intervention
Addiction Treatment Grew Under Health Law. Now What? In Kentucky about 11,000 people were receiving addiction treatment through Medicaid by mid-2016, up sharply from 1,500 people in early 2014, according to the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky … Others note that even with more treatment options, the number of deaths in places like New Hampshire continues to rise. The state ranks first nationwide in per capita overdose deaths from fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that is now killing more people here than heroin. Republicans here have also criticized state health officials for not tracking how many Medicaid enrollees who receive addiction treatment end up relapsing. | | | Right On Time
“Expect Delays: How to Reclaim Your Life, Light and Soul After Trauma” February 10, 2017 – Taking enough time to heal from personal trauma and emerging stronger from the experience is the subject of a new book by Crisis Counselor, Doctor of Theology, Addiction Aftercare Specialist, Interventionist, Public Speaker, Media Personality and now Author, Dr. Danielle Delaney. In EXPECT DELAYS: How to Reclaim your Life, Light and Soul After Trauma, Dr. Delaney draws upon her own life experiences, including the lessons she has learned about how to survive deep trauma and some of the common stumbling blocks to avoid, creating a roadmap for you to follow. | | | Trauma on Day One
Woman gives birth on jail cell floor Preston had been jailed for driving on a suspended license. Though it was her first offense, a judge ordered her to stay in jail for the 14 days leading up to her court date after she failed to pay a $10,000 cash bond..’We don’t believe you,” Preston told the news outlet. “‘We think you’re lying and you’re not in labor. We’d be able to tell. There are certain things that are more apparent, so go back to your cell.'” … She said she rang a second time for help at 11:30 a.m., and video shows her being escorted to the medical area again. Preston claims staff called her a liar and sent her back. About 90 minutes later she returned for a third time with blood on her leg… READ MORE @ FoxNews.com | | | Testimonial
‘I knew I had to stop drinking when I was waking up in urine-soaked sheets’ She regularly drove her son to school after a big night of drinking, stayed in bed for hours and missed precious milestones in his childhood. Her rock-bottom came when she woke up, unable to open her eyes, in a urine-stained bed and heard her children asking the question she had heard too many times before, “Why is mum still in bed?” Her partner, and childrens’ father replied, ‘mummy is just tired’. It was New Year’s Day 2015, and Kate decided that enough was enough. The now-single Victorian mum is two years sober… | | | On The Rocks VIDEO
Tootoo needed to be better. Like most of his family and friends, Tootoo fell into the culture that permeates the Rankin Inlet of the Nunavut Territory in northern Canada, which included little talking (“in the arctic it’s too cold to talk, so no one communicates,” he says) and the abuse of alcohol. “Growing up, it was just a part of life,” Tootoo says. “For a lot of people in the north and in isolated communities it’s a way of life to use and abuse drugs and alcohol. Basically what I knew growing up was to … wash away (everything) and not talk about it.” Together with his brother, Terence, and their best friend, Troy Aksalnik (“when you saw one of us the other two were usually right beside,” Aksalnik says) they did what teenagers did in Rankin Inlet: Play hockey and drink alcohol. | | | It’s About Time
Shattering the Stigma of Addiction Their message is consistent, their belief in change impassioned and their goal to get government funding earmarked for recovery and detoxification programs is part of their daily work. And the members of Friends of Recovery want everyone to know, addiction is not a crime. “We are here to shatter the stigma,” said Ashley Livingston, co-chair of Friends of Recovery for Washington and Warren Counties. “Addiction is chemistry not character.” READ MORE @ PostStar.com | | | Welcome to 2017
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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 & the general public. Addiction/Recovery eBulletin Publisher & Editor: Leonard Buschel © 2017 Addiction/Recovery eBulletin® | | | | Back to The Garden
Bayer-Monsanto Set to Take Over Marijuana Industry February 5, 2017 – The 66 million-dollar merger between Monsanto and Bayer has a lot of people watching. The potential legalization of marijuana also has a lot of people watching, including the CEOs of Monsanto and Bayer … and George Soros. The merger, as reported time and again is the largest agricultural merger of all times. The Bayer-Monsanto merger will result in a 29 percent ownership of the global seed market and a quarter of the pesticide market. If you throw in the other giants DuPont and Dow with their own merger and Syngenta, 64 percent of the world’s pesticides and seed market are controlled by these three corporations alone. READ MORE @ SecretsoftheFeds.com | | | BREAKTHROUGH?
Can This Drug Treat Alcoholism? Feb 6, 2017 – A new study has researched the effects of a drug used to treat asthma in Japan as an effective alcoholism cure … Alcohol dependency has – until now – been treated almost solely with mental and emotional healing, like going to AA meetings and working with a sponsor. However, scientists at University of California, Los Angeles believe that an anti-inflammatory drug, commonly used to treat asthma in Japan, just may be the key to treating alcoholism … “We found that ibudilast is safe and well-tolerated,” Lara Ray, the study’s lead author and a UCLA professor of psychology, said in a statement. “This medication can be safely administered, including when people are drinking alcohol.” | | | A Gulp of Relief
Methadone: Managing addiction with controlled withdrawal 02/07/17 – Heroin and other opiates are among the most powerfully addictive drugs known to man, and at the center of addiction recovery is the painful process of detoxification and balancing brain chemistry thrown off-kilter by drug use. Opiate-addicted brains have often at least temporarily lost the ability to manage pain, which magnifies every discomfort and destroys the pain tolerance of the user, increasing the likelihood that a person will go back to using drugs … Ted Fields, who is the program director at the clinic, likens an addict using methadone to a diabetic using insulin. READ MORE @ TheMorningSun.com | | | Life Goes On
Patients treated by foreign-educated doctors are less likely to die Elderly hospitalized patients treated by doctors who graduated from non-US medical schools are slightly less likely to die within 30 days than those treated by graduates of US medical schools, according to a study published Thursday … America “attracts the very best and the very brightest,” Jha said. “Certainly that’s true in science, and our paper says that’s true in medicine as well.” But Trump’s entry ban “sends a signal that America is not going to be as open anymore,” he added. “The ones who will lose will be American patients.” | | | Sobriety Becomes Her VIDEO
02/07 2017 – Las Vegas is a place where people can reinvent themselves, and for most people, the reinvention occurs by way of a new job or a new place to live. But for others, the changes are quite profound. Take Terri Williams; a 42-year-old woman’s whose previous life led her down the dark tunnel of drugs and prostitution. But for the first time in Williams’ life she has a good job, a car, and a place to live. For the last quarter century, Williams has scratched out a living on the mean streets of Las Vegas as a prostitute addicted to cocaine. Williams said she’d been arrested more than 80 times. | | | And Still Very Funny VIDEO
CORONATION Street’s Curly Watts’ cheery and lovable character on-screen marked a stark contrast with actor Kevin Kennedy’s battle with alcoholism as he admitted he always “had a drink to hand” on the set of the soap. The actor, who starred on the cobbles until 2003, made his confession as he opened up on his battle with booze on ITV breakfast show Good Morning Britain … He then revealed it was only when he was confronted with death that he decided to quit for good. Kevin told presenters Susanna Reid and Ben Shephard: “A balance is hard to find. “When you went too far, you were visibly drunk. | | | LANGUAGE
Does calling someone with a ‘drug use disorder’ a junkie make matters worse? February 08. 2017 – Words matter, and on the front line in the fight against drug addiction some say they matter a lot. That was the message from the Partnership for a Drug Free New Hampshire as the organization launched “Speak Up NH,” a public awareness campaign designed to change the conversation around addiction and the words we use to describe it. Gov. Chris Sununu lent his support to the effort at a press conference… READ MORE @ UnionLeader.com | | | Tian Dayton Psychologist, Author
What Happens to Children of Addiction When They Grow Up? One of the characteristics of PTSD is that we remain glued psychologically and emotionally to problems from the past that feel unsolvable. Our mind keeps looking for a solution and feeling pain from the past as if it is still happening in the present. Consequently ACOA’s tend to be anxious and often have repetitive ruminations, we analyze, scrutinize and go over and over and over again, those relational dynamics that felt so confusing and painful. Our sense of hurt, helplessness and resentment gets intertwined and we get lost in our own circular thinking… | | | Those Promises Do Come True VIDEO
The 60-year-old onetime megastar actor and director offered up information about his sobriety, as well as his involvement with Alcoholics Anonymous and its 12-step program, as assurance that he’s no longer the same angry, arrogant person who made abusive, racist and anti-Semitic statements over the years in various contexts. “I am a member of 12-step program and I achieved sobriety like that,” the star of “Lethal Weapon” and “Braveheart” said in the interview with Australia’s Sunday Night Channel 7. “I’ve got 10 years of sobriety under my belt.” | | | Los Angeles Skirball Cultural Center – 2017
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, Bruce Davison
Guest Singer, Sherri Lewis
Special Presenter, Joe Walsh
Spoken word performance by author Dejuan DJ Verrett
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SPECIAL COMEDY performance, from South Florida to you, SARGE (He’s half Jewish and half Black. What could possibly go wrong?)
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Previous Honorees: Christopher Kennedy Lawford, Lou Gossett, Jr., Buzz Aldrin, Duran Duran’s John Taylor, Carrie White, Joe Pantoliano, Mackenzie Phillips
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| | | Life and Death
First responders see 40+ overdose calls in one day A growing drug problem in Louisville Metro has first responders labeling it an “epidemic.” By 10 p.m. Thursday, they responded to 43 overdose calls, including a driver who overdosed at a busy intersection … “It’s terrible, especially in the middle of the day, right here on Westport Road, right in the middle of traffic,” driver Arnold Steyn said … Mitchell Burmeister, a spokesmann with Louisville EMS said Thursday’s runs were not out of the ordinary. “This past month, we had 695 overdoses we responded to as EMS. That’s a 33 percent increase up from last January.” READ MORE @ InsiderLouisville.com | | | Alcohol is Legal, Why Not Heroin? VIDEO
This country cut drug addiction rates in half by rejecting criminalization VIDEO …Professor Alexander built Rat Park. It is a lush cage where the rats would have colored balls and the best rat-food and tunnels to scamper down and plenty of friends: everything a rat about town could want. What, Alexander wanted to know, will happen then? In Rat Park, all the rats obviously tried both water bottles, because they didn’t know what was in them. But what happened next was startling. The rats with good lives didn’t like the drugged water. They mostly shunned it, consuming less than a quarter of the drugs the isolated rats used. None of them died. While all the rats who were alone and unhappy became heavy users, none of the rats who had a happy environment did… WATCH MORE @ DemocratNation.com | | | License To Kill VIDEO
The young generation of Britain is increasingly opting for e-cigs inn place of traditional smoking. The rate of turning to electronic cigarettes is the highest in Europe, a new report mention. The researches reveal that every four minute one British switch to vaping and this is continued since past four years, reports Eucrative. In total, the report reveals that 2.2 million British people now use e-cigarettes representing a 55% increase in just three years, followed by 1.5 million French, 760,000 Italians, and 750,000 Germans. The figures are increasing incessantly and a huge number of new vaping fans is expected to add to the existing numbers, the health experts warn. | | | No Pill is Going to Solve This Problem
Another week, another cluster of overdoses. This time it happened in Louisville, Kentucky, where Louisville Metro Emergency Services responded to 52 overdose calls between midnight Wednesday and 8 a.m. ET Friday, said agency spokesman Mitchell Burmeister. That was a big jump over the 25 overdose calls received in the same 32-hour time frame last week. | | Addiction/Recovery eBulletin
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