Answer Addiction

Author: The Fix

  • Is Drug Use Behind Rising Syphilis Rates?

    Is Drug Use Behind Rising Syphilis Rates?

    Syphilis rates have skyrocketed 156% for women from 2013 to 2017—and drug use may be making it worse.

    As public health officials grapple with the drug overdose crisis, they are also becoming alarmed at the increasing rate of syphilis diagnoses among heterosexual individuals.

    Syphilis is a disease primarily transmitted through sexual activity. Experts say that infection rates have coincided with the use of meth and injection drugs like heroin.

    The new Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyzed national syphilis surveillance data covering 2013 to 2017.

    The report gathered information from women, men who have sex with women only, and men who have had sex with men only, using the participants’ reported drug use in the last 12 months.

    The report found a large link between drug use and syphilis among women and heterosexual men. Women and men who reported the use of methamphetamine, heroin or injection drugs more than doubled from 2013 to 2017.

    Those who had partners who used these drugs also had higher rates of syphilis. Over one-third of women and one-quarter of heterosexual men with syphilis reported to the researchers that they had used methamphetamine within the previous year.

    This type of drug use makes people more likely to engage in risky behavior, such as not using condoms during sex, having multiple sex partners or exchanging sex for drugs and/or money, Sara Kennedy, medical director of Planned Parenthood Northern California, told BDN Health.

    “Two major public health issues are colliding,” Sarah Kidd, a medical officer at the CDC and lead author of this new report, told BDN Health.

    The syphilis diagnosis rate in the U.S. increased nearly two-fold from 2013 to 2014, with the highest diagnosis rates of 2017 among men who have sex with men.

    Syphilis is treatable with antibiotics, but when left untreated it can lead to organ damage and possibly death. Congenital syphilis, when a mother passes the disease to her unborn baby, can lead to increased premature birth and death rate.

    Antonio Urbina, MD, an associate professor of infectious disease at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, addressed the responsibility of doctors and the need for early diagnosis of syphilis.

    “We need that type of care to be built into general primary care. I think providers often feel embarrassed about asking those questions. Or, they feel like they’re going to come across as judgmental. You know, it’s actually the opposite because I think patients appreciate you asking, and they want to tell. In that same regard, if somebody does screen positive for syphilis, I say, ‘Hey, this is what you have. We’re going to give you treatment. It’s important that you wait a certain period of time after your treatment before you resume any sexual activity so you don’t infect your loved ones or partners or any others.’ Then I ask them to identify their sexual partners and say, ‘We need them to come in for a screening so we can offer them treatment as well.’”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Is Drug Use Behind Rising Siphilis Rates?

    Is Drug Use Behind Rising Siphilis Rates?

    Syphilis rates have skyrocketed 156% for women from 2013 to 2017 and drug use may play a prominent role in the transmission.

    As public health officials grapple with the drug overdose crisis, they also are becoming alarmed at the increasing rate of syphilis diagnosis among heterosexuals.

    Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection (STI) that until recent years had been considered almost eradicated.

    The new Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report analyzed national syphilis surveillance data covering 2013 to 2017.

    The report gathered information from women, men who have sex with women only, and men who have had sex with men only, using the participants reported drug use in the last 12 months.

    The report found a large link between drug use and syphilis among women and heterosexual men. Women and men who reported the use of methamphetamine, heroin or injection drugs more than doubled from 2013 to 2017.

    Those who had partners who used these drugs also had higher rates of syphilis. Over one-third of women and one-quarter of heterosexual men with syphilis reported to the researchers that they had used methamphetamine within the previous year.

    This type of drug use makes people more likely to engage in risky behavior, such as not using condoms during sex, having multiple sex partners or exchanging sex for drugs and/or money, Sara Kennedy, medical director of Planned Parenthood Northern California, told BDN Health.

    “Two major public health issues are colliding,” Sarah Kidd, a medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and lead author of this new report on the link between drug use and syphilis, told BDN Health.

    The US’ syphilis diagnosis rate increased nearly two-fold from 2013 to 2014, with the highest diagnosis rates of 2017 among men who have sex with men (MSM).

    Syphilis is treatable with antibiotics, but when left untreated it can lead to organ damage and possibly death. Congenital syphilis, when a mother passes the disease to her unborn baby, can lead to increased premature birth and death rate.

    Antonio Urbina, MD, an associate professor of infectious disease at Manhattan’s Mount Sinai Hospital, addressed the responsibility of doctors and the need for early diagnosis of syphilis.

    “We need that type of care to be built into general primary care. I think providers often feel embarrassed about asking those questions. Or, they feel like they’re going to come across as judgmental. You know, it’s actually the opposite because I think patients appreciate you asking, and they want to tell. In that same regard, if somebody does screen positive for syphilis, I say, ‘Hey, this is what you have. We’re going to give you treatment. It’s important that you wait a certain period of time after your treatment before you resume any sexual activity so you don’t infect your loved ones or partners or any others.’ Then I ask them to identify their sexual partners and say, ‘We need them to come in for a screening so we can offer them treatment as well.’”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Cory Booker Introduces Marijuana Legalization Bill

    Cory Booker Introduces Marijuana Legalization Bill

    “We must also repair the damage caused by reinvesting in those communities that have been most harmed by the War on Drugs,” Booker said in a statement,

    Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) introduced a bill on Thursday (Feb. 28) that would legalize marijuana at the federal level, an effort that immediately garnered widespread support from other prominent Democrats, including presidential hopefuls. 

    The Marijuana Justice Act would remove marijuana from the list of controlled substances, and would expunge records of people who have marijuana-related offenses. Booker previously introduced the bill in 2017 but it did not make any progress.

    This year, however, the measure seems to have more support from the party, including Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Michael Bennet (D-CO), according to CNN. 

    In addition to legalizing cannabis, Booker has been outspoken about correcting the racial disparities in how marijuana prohibition has been enforced. 

    “It’s not enough to simply decriminalize marijuana. We must also repair the damage caused by reinvesting in those communities that have been most harmed by the War on Drugs,” he said in a statement, according to Rolling Stone. “And we must expunge the records of those who have served their time. The end we seek is not just legalization, it’s justice.”

    He continued, “The War on Drugs has not been a war on drugs, it’s been a war on people, and disproportionately people of color and low-income individuals. The Marijuana Justice Act seeks to reverse decades of this unfair, unjust, and failed policy by removing marijuana from the list of controlled substances and making it legal at the federal level.”

    Democratic Representatives Ro Khanna and Barbara Lee, both of California, introduced a version of the bill in the House. 

    “Communities of color and low-income communities have been devastated by the War on Drugs,” Lee said in a statement released through NORML. “As Co-Chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, I’m proud to sponsor legislation that would legalize marijuana at the federal level, address the disproportionate impact of prohibition on people of color by expunging criminal convictions, and promote equitable participation in the legal marijuana industry by investing in the communities hardest hit by the failed War on Drugs.”

    According to NORML, the bill would remove marijuana from the list of controlled substances, but that would not automatically make cannabis legal in all state. Instead, the bill would incentivize states to change their laws if current legislation and prohibition disproportionately affects minorities. It would automatically expunge the federal records of people convicted of marijuana-related offenses, and allow those in prison to petition for resentencing, while redirecting funds to job training and reentry programs. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Opioid Addiction Isn't Just A Rural Problem

    Opioid Addiction Isn't Just A Rural Problem

    While the epidemic has been framed as one that mostly affects rural America, new research shows that overdose rates are actually higher in urban areas.

    The common narrative of the national opioid crisis has been that this “disease of despair” has affected rural areas the most.

    However, a new working paper argues that economic depression and access to opioids are the biggest determinants of overdose rates in both rural and urban areas. 

    “I really do want to push back against this cliche that addiction does not discriminate,” Shannon Monnat, the paper’s author and a sociologist at Syracuse University, told Pacific Standard. “The physiological processes that underlie addiction themselves may not discriminate, but the factors that put people in communities at higher risk are are not spatially random.”

    Looking at non-Hispanic whites and controlling for demographics, Monnat found that overdose rates were highest in urban areas. The rate decreased the further one moved from cities, a trend that held true for all racial groups. Overall, urban counties had an average of 6.2 more deaths per 100,000 people than rural counties. 

    Interestingly, supply and demand interacted differently in rural and urban settings. In the city, supply of drugs seemed to have the biggest effect on overdose rates. In rural areas, economic distress was the stronger predictor of overdose rates.

    “A lot of what’s going on here are regional effects,” she said. “You get regional levels of despair and distress that seemed to reinforce and exacerbate the problem.”

    Monnat did find that some of the things associated with rural living were connected with an increased risk for overdose. For example, areas with an economy heavily dependent on mining or the service industries had higher rates of overdose. Controlling for how many drugs were supplied to an area, places with higher economic distress had higher overdose rates. 

    “What that means is that drug mortality rates aren’t higher in economically distressed places simply because they’ve had a greater supply of opioid prescribing there,” she said. “There’s something about economic distress in and of itself that helps to explain the variation that we’re seeing across the country and the magnitude of the drug crisis.”

    Places hardest hit by the crisis, like West Virginia, had both economic vulnerabilities and an excessive supply of opioids, Monnat said.

    “It’s no coincidence that widespread opioid prescribing first started in the most economically vulnerable places of the country—there was vulnerability there. These places had been primed to be vulnerable to opioids, which are drugs that numb both physical and mental pain, through decades of economic and social decline.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • San Francisco DA Expunges More Than 9,000 Pot Cases

    San Francisco DA Expunges More Than 9,000 Pot Cases

    The move makes San Francisco the first county in California to fully comply with the requirements of the state’s recreational marijuana legalization bill.

    Calling it a “matter of dignity,” San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón announced that he will expunge 9,362 marijuana-related convictions—some dating back to 1975—and reduce felony and misdemeanor charges to misdemeanor and infraction, respectively.

    The expungement is a joint effort between the DA’s office and the nonprofit, Code for America, which uses an algorithm to identify eligible cases.

    The move makes San Francisco the first county in California to fully comply with the requirements of AB 1793, a regulation of Proposition 64—the state’s recreational marijuana legalization bill—which required automation of the charge reduction or expungement process for eligible marijuana convictions.

    Prior to Gascón’s announcement on February 25, the San Francisco Chronicle noted that just 23 people petitioned to have their cases reclassified or expunged. The newspaper cited Gascón’s assessment that the low number was due to the difficulty of the process, which required an attorney and took considerable time and effort to complete.

    But the partnership with Code for America, which was launched in May 2018, offered a chance to automate the process by using a computer-based algorithm dubbed “Clear My Record.” Prior to that, Gascón’s office had identified some 3,000 cases eligible for expungement.

    According to the Associated Press, the program quickly determines eligible cases and then automatically fills out the forms required by the court to process expungement. At Monday’s announcement, Gascón said that the work had been completed ahead of the expected timeframe for completion—which was initially set at a year’s time—and under budget.

    “It’s incumbent that we, as law enforcement leaders, continue to evolve how we advance fairness and public safety in our respective communities,” he said. “I hope that our success with Code for America can act as a catalyst for other leaders looking to engage in similar innovative and out-of-the-box methods to reform and rethink what our criminal justice system looks like.”

    Code for America director Jennifer Pahlka said that her organization was already working with several other district attorneys in California to provide the same service for their marijuana cases. 

    Prosecutors in cities across America have already launched or announced similar expungement efforts, including Baltimore, Seattle and Chicago; New York District Attorney Cyrus Vance announced the vacation of more than 3,000 outstanding warrants for misdemeanor and violation cases involving cannabis consumption and possession in September 2018.

    Expungement and reduction of these charges can allow thousands of individuals to pursue housing, job and educational opportunities that in may cases were not available to them because of their convictions.

    “Even convictions from many years ago can have an impact on people’s lives now, and this will ensure that it doesn’t happen,” said Drug Policy Alliance deputy state director Laura Thomas to High Times. “We hope that other prosecutors around the country follow Gascón’s lead.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Chris Cornell’s Widow To The Opioid Task Force: No More Shame

    Chris Cornell’s Widow To The Opioid Task Force: No More Shame

    Since losing her husband, Vicky Cornell has become an advocate for improving addiction treatment and spreading awareness about addiction.

    Vicky Cornell, widow of Soundgarden and Audioslave singer Chris Cornell, went before the Bipartisan Heroin And Opioid Task Force on Monday to make a case for better training and education on addiction for doctors.

    Chris Cornell died by suicide in 2017 after struggling with depression and addiction for many years, and multiple medications were found in his system by the autopsy, including a barbiturate sedative and the benzodiazepine anti-anxiety medication Ativan. The drugs had been prescribed to him, leading Vicky to file a malpractice suit against the doctor.

    Although it was determined that the drugs did not directly contribute to Chris’ death, Vicky released a statement to the press soon after her husband’s death blaming the substances for causing a lapse in judgment that led to his death.

    “We have learned from this report that several substances were found in his system,” the statement read. “After so many years of sobriety, this moment of terrible judgment seems to have completely impaired and altered his state of mind. Something clearly went terribly wrong and my children and I are heartbroken and are devastated that this moment can never be taken back.”

    Since losing her husband, Vicky Cornell has been an advocate for improving addiction treatment and promoting the proper education in medical fields and for the general public.

    “The part that hurts most is Chris’ death was not inevitable, there were no demons that took over,” she said to the task force. “Chris had a brain disease and a doctor who unfortunately, like many, was not properly trained or educated on addiction.”

    Chris Cornell often spoke about his experience with mental illness, drug use, and addiction. In 2006, he told Spin that he was diagnosed with panic disorder and believes it was a direct result of a bad experience with PCP that left him “more or less agoraphobic.”

    After that, he avoided drugs until his 20s, but started drinking at a young age and became an alcoholic. After Soundgarden broke up and his first marriage began to fall apart, Chris began experimenting with OxyContin. He entered rehab in 2002 and was able to quit using alcohol and tobacco by 2005.

    Years later, according to Vicky Cornell’s suit, her husband’s doctor prescribed him the Ativan, a drug widely considered to be addictive, for 20 months without seeing the patient for a checkup. Chris told Vicky on the night of his death that he had taken an extra Ativan and was acting strangely. 

    Now, she wants to make sure it never happens again.

    “We must integrate addiction treatment into our health care system,” she said on Capitol Hill. “No more false narratives about the need to hit rock bottom, no more secret societies, no more shame — we must educate health care providers on how to treat addiction and best support recovery.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • How Working Long Hours & Weekends Affects Mental Health

    How Working Long Hours & Weekends Affects Mental Health

    Working longer hours during the week increased depression symptoms in women, according to a new study.

    Working longer hours is associated with increased risk of depression in women, but not men, while working weekends increased symptoms of depression in both genders, according to a recent study. 

    The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, found that men who worked all or most weekends had 3.4% more symptoms of depression than men who didn’t work weekends, while women who worked weekends experienced 4.6% more depressive symptoms than their counterparts who didn’t work weekends. 

    Interestingly, working more hours during the week increased depression symptoms in women, but not in men. Women who worked 55 hours a week had 7.3% more depressive symptoms than those who worked 30-40 hours. 

    Lead study author Gill Weston told Science Daily that there are likely social aspects at play to explain the difference between how men and women respond to extra work hours. 

    “This is an observational study, so although we cannot establish the exact causes, we do know many women face the additional burden of doing a larger share of domestic labor than men, leading to extensive total work hours, added time pressures and overwhelming responsibilities,” Weston said. 

    The results also likely have to do with the type of jobs that people are working, she added. The study found that people of both genders who worked weekends were less satisfied with their careers and were more likely to be doing low-skilled work. 

    “Additionally women who work most weekends tend to be concentrated in low-paid service sector jobs, which have been linked to higher levels of depression,” Weston said. 

    She added that factors outside of work hours also contribute to the risk of depression. 

    “Women in general are more likely to be depressed than men, and this was no different in the study,” she said. “Independent of their working patterns, we also found that workers with the most depressive symptoms were older, on lower incomes, smokers, in physically demanding jobs, and who were dissatisfied at work.”

    Weston suggested that having more flexible schedules could help counteract depressive symptoms that are connected to work, particularly for women. 

    “We hope our findings will encourage employers and policymakers to think about how to reduce the burdens and increase support for women who work long or irregular hours—without restricting their ability to work when they wish to. More sympathetic working practices could bring benefits both for workers and for employers—of both sexes.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Top Doctor Details Opioid Addiction, Going To Rehab

    Top Doctor Details Opioid Addiction, Going To Rehab

    When she was caught stealing meds from work, a top anesthesiologist was taken to rehab to deal with her addiction and save her career.

    As a top anesthesiologist in Georgia, “Alison” had accepted a job as the medical director of the anesthesiology department and was the most-requested anesthesiologist by both patients and surgeons. Her addiction almost cost her that position.

    Alison gave an in-depth interview to Marie Claire, exposing the details of both her opioid addiction and undergoing treatment once she was found out.

    Alison explained that as a child growing up in a big family, perfection was the minimum expectation. All of her siblings are overachievers—three are physicians, one worked for the CIA, and one chaired a university department. Alison enrolled in medical school at 19 and went on to become a successful anesthesiologist, once administering to a sitting president.

    After a short affair with a nurse she met at work, her 11-year marriage ended. Alison married the nurse after a few years of dating him on and off. Their relationship was emotionally strained and combustible—another addiction, Alison realized, looking back.

    The second marriage wasn’t working. They fought often, and Alison learned that her husband was using the synthetic opioid, fentanyl, a drug that she regularly administered in her line of work. Her husband insisted that he wasn’t addicted, and Alison told Marie Claire he “was the first face I ever put to drug use, and I worshipped the ground he walked on at that point, so I thought: this person is not a loser, he knows what he’s doing, he’s good at what he does.”

    Alison began bringing home leftover fentanyl from surgeries for her husband to use, and one day—on an impulse—she shot a tiny amount into a vein in the back of her hand. “All of a sudden, everything was OK,” Alison said. “I would say it’s like immediately going from zero to the happiest buzz you’ve ever had.”

    After a year of increasingly heavy and disruptive drug use, in March 2016, Alison’s boss, Lindsay Dembowski, was notified that Alison was stealing narcotics from the hospital—sufentanil, which is 5 to 10 times stronger than fentanyl.

    She could hardly believe it. “I thought, There is absolutely no way,” Dembowski told Marie Claire. “Of all the people—Alison was my best doctor—she would have been the last one on my list of suspects.”

    Dembowski confronted Alison, and they embarked on a two-hour drive to a treatment center in Atlanta.

    Alison was taken to Talbott Recovery, established in 1989 by George Talbott, an internist with alcohol use disorder who created the first treatment program specifically for doctors like himself. Dr. Talbott wanted to not only help physicians, but also help them get their jobs back.

    Alison was at Talbott for 90 days of rigorous treatment.

    Opioids are the second most frequently abused substance among physicians, after alcohol. So many at Talbott were also physicians experiencing opioid addiction.

    Once home, Alison signed a five-year monitoring agreement with Georgia’s physician health program (PHP). A PHP allows physicians in recovery to continue to practice medicine as long as they maintain their sobriety, and agree to drug tests and support group meetings. If they do not comply or other negative events occur, the PHP may need to report the doctor to the medical board.

    In the U.S., every state has a PHP except for California, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. 

    The Journal of Substance Abuse published a national study in 2009 which found that of 904 physicians enrolled in 16 state PHP programs, 78% had no positive test for either drugs or alcohol during the five years of intensive monitoring, and 72% continued practicing medicine.

    Alison and her second husband divorced, but she remains clean and sober and working as an anesthesiologist in a new hospital 30 minutes from her home. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Women Launch "Joy Tour" To Raise Mental Health Awareness

    Women Launch "Joy Tour" To Raise Mental Health Awareness

    Two women are on a nationwide mission to spread awareness about suicide prevention. 

    Two women have given up their jobs and are traveling to all 50 states on what they call a “Joy Tour.” 

    More specifically, the women—Shontice McKenzie and Cedrica Mitchell—are doing the tour in hopes of raising awareness around the increase in suicide in the United States. 

    According to AL.com, the two have made one-month long stops in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and now Alabama for the month of February.

    The suicide rate in Alabama has been higher than the national average for the past 29 years. The rate there is 16.2 per 100,000, in comparison to the country’s average of 13.9.

    According to the Alabama Department of Public Health, suicide is the second-leading cause of death for those ages 10 to 24. 

    During their tour, McKenzie and Mitchell are hoping to break down the stigma around mental health and increase access to outlets like yoga, meditation, exercise and the arts as a whole.

    “We have met so many families who are still in denial about a family member who completed the act of suicide because they don’t want the backlash from the public,” McKenzie said. “They should have received more support around the topic. Then we can prevent suicides. That’s what the Joy Tour is about.”

    The Joy Tour was sparked as part of McKenzie’s nonprofit H.U.M.A.N.I.T.Y 360, INC. The women conclude their month-long state visits with what they call a “Joy Jam.”

    The Joy Jam is a free event that offers food, connections to mental health resources, and the chance to be educated about different holistic approaches to mental health. 

    While their visit to each state has varied, McKenzie says the one thing that has remained steady is the fact that people struggle to access appropriate mental health resources. 

    “Most of these people in these communities are contained in their environment. So, they rarely go outside of their environment,” McKenzie tells AL.com. “I don’t know many mental health resources that are coming to them by going inside of these places. So, we are coming to them.”

    After leaving Alabama, McKenzie and Mitchell will head to Tennessee in their 2002 Chevy Trailblazer, which boasts more than 246,000 miles. They hope to eventually replace it with an RV. As of now, the two women plan to conclude the Joy Tour in 2023 in the state of Hawaii. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • How Sobriety Changed One Restaurant's Culture

    How Sobriety Changed One Restaurant's Culture

    One Montreal chef’s journey to sobriety inspired his staff to change their relationship with alcohol at work. 

    When David McMillan and Fred Morin opened the Montreal restaurant Joe Beef in 2005, they strove to be a destination where people could enjoy all the food and drink that they could possibly want. 

    “I want people to drink and eat to excess. I promote it,” McMillan told Bon Appetit in a recent interview. However, McMillan said that while he enjoyed excess in his 20s and 30s, the thrill wore off in his 40s and he realized it was time to reevaluate his relationship with indulgence. 

    “It started to unravel when I was 40. I couldn’t shut it off. All of a sudden, there was no bottle of wine good enough for me. I’m drinking, like, literally the finest wines of the world,” McMillan said. 

    He realized that he was living an unhealthy lifestyle, and it was affecting his career and family. 

    “I started asking myself questions about alcoholism. What was I showing my children by eating and drinking like a Viking in front of them at the cottage? I wasn’t acting on many opportunities because I was hungover most of the time. I was medicating with food. I was medicating with alcohol. And finally it just got to a point where I was just really unhappy.”

    He took to Google to try to find out how to stop drinking, but he wasn’t able to make the changes on his own. 

    “I’ve done a thousand Google searches over five years. I’ve tried to quit drinking 100 times and failed 110 times,” he said. 

    Then, last year, his managers intervened and connected McMillan with rehab. There, he immersed himself in learning about sobriety, recovery and health. 

    “I wasn’t resistant, because I was so unhappy. I learned a whole bunch of things about myself, about sobriety, about traumatic events that had happened to me in my childhood. I didn’t even know what the word ‘codependent’ meant before I went to rehab. I didn’t know what people-pleasing meant. I didn’t know what an enabler was. Ultimately I took a crash-course in alcoholism, wellness, and the language of sobriety.”

    McMillan knew that he wouldn’t be able to avoid the restaurant scene or alcohol entirely, since his career was built around his restaurant and his wine company. However, he eased into work, beginning in a friend’s restaurant and sipping San Pellegrino instead of wine. 

    “And I got my courage back about working in a restaurant without consuming alcohol,” he said. “At that point I went back to my own restaurant, and I worked in my restaurant and applied what I had learned.”

    He realized that the staff that looked up to him began to change their behaviors, following his lead. 

    “As I started taking care of myself, the staff started mimicking me,” he said. Rather than celebrating the end of the shift with wine, they began drinking kombucha instead, and building genuine connections rather than drinking buddies. 

    “When I became sober, there was this openness from the staff, because I spoke a different way,” McMillan said. “I got to know people again through tea and coffee with people. …Now I actually care about the happiness of these people I’ve been working with for 15 years.”

    He even inspired his business partner, Fred Morin, to get sober as well. Now, the duo are open about how their sobriety has changed their restaurant. 

    “I built the company on my liver,” McMillan said. “Now I have to take care of myself.”

    View the original article at thefix.com