Author: The Fix

Can Combining Opioids And Benzos Increase Overdose Risk?

The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that more than 30% of all overdose deaths that involve opioids also involve benzodiazepines.

When used in combination with opioids, benzodiazepines such as Xanax and Valium can make an individual five times more likely to overdose, a new study published in JAMA Network Open has determined.

The study found that benzodiazepines, which are often prescribed for anxiety, can increase the likelihood of overdose when used with opioids, especially in the first 90 days they are used together.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) reports that more than 30% of all overdose deaths that involve opioids also involve benzodiazepines.

The new study looked at data from over 71,000 people on Medicare Part D. Researchers divided patients into two groups: those who had taken only opioids prior to overdosing and those who had both opioids and benzodiazepines. Researchers “subdivided [the second group] by the cumulative number of days the patients had taken an opioid with a benzo,” Forbes states.

The results showed that for individuals taking both forms of medication, overdose risk was five times higher during the first three months when compared to those using only an opioid.

For the 90 days after the first three months, the risk of overdose doubled. After six months, the risk decreased to the same likelihood as taking only opioids.

“Patients who must be prescribed both an opioid and a benzodiazepine should be closely monitored by health care professionals due to an increased risk for overdose, particularly in the early days of this medication regimen,” lead study author Inmaculada Hernandez, assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy, said in a press release.

A 2017 study published in the BMJ found that from 2001 to 2013, simultaneous opioid and benzodiazepine prescriptions in 315,000 privately insured patients increased by 80%.

As such, one of the factors that researchers considered was the number of clinicians involved with a patient. They found that the more clinicians there were prescribing drugs to a single patient, the greater the risk of overdose.

“These findings demonstrate that fragmented care plays a role in the inappropriate use of opioids, and having multiple prescribers who are not in communication increases the risk for overdose,” said senior study author Yuting Zhang, PhD, of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, according to Forbes.

This study is not the only one of its kind, as the relationship between opioids and benzodiazepines and the associated risks has been studied previously.

Additionally, earlier in 2018, the FDA published a warning about the potential for respiratory depression issues when taking both medications together, since both depress the central nervous system.

View the original article at thefix.com

28 June 2018
Sean Penn's Son Hopper Settles Drug Possession Case

In April, police reportedly confiscated a variety of drugs from Penn and his girlfriend during a traffic stop.

Hopper Penn, son of actors Robin Wright and Sean Penn, pleaded no contest regarding an April misdemeanor drug charge, according to USA Today.

In April, the 24-year-old actor was pulled over by police for failure to signal on a Nebraska highway with his girlfriend, Uma Von Wittkamp. Penn and Von Wittkamp were both charged with possession of psilocybin mushrooms, while Penn had an additional charge of marijuana possession and Von Wittkamp was charged with possession of amphetamines, reportedPeople magazine.

In total, police confiscated 14 grams of marijuana, four amphetamine pills, and three grams of psychedelic mushrooms.

Penn and Wittkamp were both released on separate bonds of $25,000.

Originally Penn and Wittkamp were both charged with a felony. In Nebraska, possession of a controlled substance is a felony that is punishable with a maximum of two years in prison, one year of post-release supervision, and a $10,000 fine.

However, the couple pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of attempt of a felony. In addition, they each paid a $1,000 fine. A no contest plea allows a defendant to acknowledge that there might be enough evidence for a conviction without admitting guilt.

In an interview with the Evening Standard, Hopper Penn had described how a traumatic brain injury, surgery, the subsequent loss of his passion for skateboarding, and his parents’ divorce, led to problems at age 16.

“I was doing a lot of stuff,” he says, “but meth was the main one that brought me down. I went to rehab because I woke up in a hospital and my dad was like, ‘Rehab? Or bus bench?’ I was like, ‘I’ll take the bed.’ Thank God I got out of that because that was the worst time in my life. Because it’s not fun when it gets to a point where you just need it.”

Radar Online reported that Sean Penn had bailed his son out of jail with the order that he go to a long-term rehabilitation center.

Radar quoted a source who said of Sean Penn and his son, “He wants him to check into a long-term facility and clean himself up for good, or else. This is the last straw for him and as much as this pains him, Hopper is just lucky he is still alive.”

Hopper Penn isn’t the only one struggling in the family—unfortunately his sister, Dylan Penn, also has issues with addiction. Radar reported that in 2015, Dylan was arrested for DUI and subsequently spent three month in a rehabilitation facility. She is on parole until 2019.

View the original article at thefix.com

28 June 2018
Harm Reduction: How to Engage Parent Advocates Effectively

I’ve had to correct parents whose first line to any policymaker is “my kid was from a good family, not just some homeless person.”

“I never thought I would end up here, but here I am. I choose to create beauty in the space left in this world that my daughter used to occupy” – Lettie Micheletto, mother of Megan McPhail, 1987-2014.

Lettie Micheletto never thought she’d find herself on the steps of the General Assembly advocating for better treatment of people who use drugs. Neither did Shantae Owens, Tanya Smith, or Kathy Williams, all parents united by the loss of a child to drug poisoning. Stunned and grieving, these parents nevertheless possess a raw passion that makes them a force to be reckoned with. Like so many others across the country, they are mobilizing to demand change to how society treats people who use drugs and to memorialize the children they have lost.

Undeniably, there is power behind directly impacted parents. In my years as a lobbyist for drug policy reform, I’ve seen the hardest, most tough-on-drugs legislators dissolve under the gentle tears of a mother pleading for reform. There is a connection between legislators and parents that no lobbyist or well-executed advocacy campaign could dream of forging alone. But at the same time, there are challenges to working with new, often unpredictable allies. So I thought I’d lay out, from my own experience, the top benefits and challenges of involving parents in harm reduction advocacy.

Benefit #1: Effectiveness

Parents who have lost a child to the drug war are a potent force for change. They have drive, motivation, and a unique ability to elicit sympathy. Nothing changes hearts and minds quite like a compelling, emotional story of personal loss. In some states, efforts to change drug policy have been led almost entirely by parent groups. In Georgia, parents rallied to pass one of the country’s most progressive 911 Good Samaritan laws. In Florida, a coalition of moms has been the driving force behind expansion of naloxone access. In Iowa and Illinois, parents are leading efforts to legalize syringe exchange programs. Everywhere, parents are standing up to declare that their children are more than just statistics.

“If no one speaks up for our children and sheds the truth on the fact that they were bright, wonderful kids who had an illness that they simply couldn’t battle, nothing will change,” says Tanya Smith, who helped advocate for a Georgia’s 911 Medical Amnesty Law in 2014 after her daughter, Taylor, died of a reaction to methamphetamine the year prior.

Parents can unravel the false narrative of drug users as inherently deviant or immoral and paint a true, complex portrait of people who use drugs and people who love them. They can show the devastation of loss on families and communities. Most importantly, they can help battle the number one obstacle to meaningful reform – stigma.

Benefit #2: New Allies

Most movements start with a small group of people with similar ideas who are passionate about reform. But in order to evoke lasting change on a macro level, movements need to expand – and that means welcoming new allies into the fold. This isn’t always easy. New allies don’t have the institutional history and knowledge of the movement. Sometimes they have more social or political power than the original group of activists, which is good for expanding influence, but can threaten to hijack the founders’ original intent. The harm reduction movement has seen a lot of this dynamic as it has grown in recent years, accruing allies such as faith leaders, recovery communities, first responders, public health professionals and impacted parents. There have been some growing pains and continued debate over the allies’ role, but the expansion has led to wider conversations about harm reduction and more advocacy wins. Parent advocates have played a large role in bringing conversations about harm reduction into homes and communities that were previously silent on drugs.

Benefit #3 Finding an Outlet for Grief

For many parents who have lost a child, simply getting through each day can be an enormous challenge. But pain can also be a powerful agent of change. Lettie Micheletto lost her 27-year-old daughter, Megan, to heroin poisoning in 2014. Since then, she has been part of bringing awareness about drug laws to other parents.

“About six months after Megan’s death I crawled out from under my rock and began to work with a local coalition in my hometown to help educate and bring awareness of the opioid epidemic,” says Micheletto. “I am obsessed with spreading the message and talking to everyone I can, everywhere I go. I have many friends who have lost children, other family members or friends to overdose. It is a nightmare that many people live and many others ignore.”

Thanks to Micheletto’s efforts, a North Carolina lawmaker recently included $100,000 in the state budget to raise awareness about the state’s 911 Good Samaritan law. For many parents, advocacy creates a much-needed opportunity to channel grief into purpose.

Challenge #1 Working with Newbies

Though there are many advantages to working with parent advocates, these efforts are not without challenge. Of course many parents are or have been involved with drug use themselves, but it seems the majority of parent advocates today had little knowledge of drugs, drug policy or harm reduction until it impacted their children. In many cases, they didn’t even know their child was experimenting with drugs until after his or her death. Then suddenly they are thrust into a world of grief and new concepts that seems foreign and daunting. They want to act, but they lack institutional knowledge of harm reduction, drug policy and the criminal justice system. This can create some very uncomfortable situations.

Some of my most memorable face-palm moments have come from bringing well-meaning, but very green parents to advocate at the legislature. I’ve spent many an afternoon with parents trying to explain the problems with involuntary commitment laws or to untangle the save-the-user but kill-the-dealer narrative. I’ve had to correct parents whose first line to any policymaker is “my kid was from a good family, not just some homeless person.” Sometimes step one is just to teach the parents to stop using stigmatizing language like “addict” to describe their own child.

It takes patience to educate a parent who has been steeped in stigmatizing attitudes towards people who use drugs until the problem hit home and to help change the way they think about drugs and drug policy. There are so many wonderful parent advocates today who understand harm reduction and how all of us – users, sellers and people who have never touched illicit drugs – are caught up in the net that has killed so many people. They didn’t all start out with that knowledge, but by meeting them where they are at, we can get them there.

Challenge #2 White Power

It is frequently pointed out that the rhetoric around drug policy has softened since opioids started killing children from white, affluent communities. Certainly the majority of parent advocates who appear in the news are white and middle-class. And while there is nothing wrong with parents of any race or class becoming vocal advocates for reform, the stark homogeneity of media coverage doesn’t reflect the rapidly changing demographics of drug-related deaths, especially around opioids. According to the Centers for Disease Control, from 2015 to 2016 the age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths involving any opioid rose by 25.9% among whites in the United States, but 32.6% among Hispanics, 36.4% among Asian/Pacific Islanders, and a whopping 56.1% among black Americans.

Diversity is an important, and often missing component to parent advocacy. Correcting this can mean making the extra effort to pro-actively reach out to under-represented groups and create space for their voices. Out in rural Brunswick County, North Carolina, Kathy Williams and Alex Murillo are teaming up to do just that. Kathy Williams lost her 32-year-old daughter, Kirby, to an overdose in 2016. The following year she helped found B.A.C.K. O.F.F., an organization of feisty families who are fed up with losing their kids and have started to organize for change. Kathy and Alex are working to welcome Hispanic families into the group.

“We had two recent deaths in the Hispanic community due to drugs,” says Murillo, who lost his 19-year-old nephew last year to an overdose. “I want to help get the Hispanic community involved in education around drugs, but it’s hard because parents won’t admit there is a problem. Here, if a child dies of an overdose, the parent will say they died in their sleep.”

Overcoming cultural and even language differences to organize a diverse group of parent advocates can be difficult. Many of us, myself included, don’t do this as often as we should. But that extra effort can go a long way to showing policy-makers the true breadth and complexity of drug use.

Shantae Owens, a parent advocate from New York, lost his 19-year-old son to heroin poisoning in 2017. “Whether it’s a white kid from Richmond or a black kid from New York, we need to put aside our differences and come together to solve a common problem,” says Owens. “The longer we keep looking at the one thing that separates us, the more people will die.”

Shantae, Alex, Kathy, Lettie, and Tanya are among thousands of family members across the country united by tragedy, but also by strength. They may not have wanted or imagined ending up in this place, but they are here, creating beauty in the space where their loved ones used to be.

View the original article at thefix.com

28 June 2018
States Consider Foster Care Alternatives As They Grapple With Parental Addiction

Some states are taking approaches that focus on reducing the trauma of separation from the child while encouraging parents to continue treatment.

A new report from The Hill notes that the rise in the number of children who enter foster care has forced state governments to rethink the notion of separating families while parents undergo treatment for substance dependency.

States such as New Jersey, which has struggled with high rates of opioid overdose, and Colorado are implementing programs which allow children to remain with the parent in treatment, or combinations of care by relatives with enhanced mental health services for the parents.

In both cases, the hope is twofold: to reduce the trauma of separation from the child and encourage the parents to continue with treatment.

Statistics have shown that after a decade of decline in the number of children entering the national foster care system, caseloads in 36 states rose by 10% between 2012 and 2016. The opioid epidemic was credited with much of the increase in many states, which treated substance dependency in a home with children as a form of abuse and therefore worthy of removing the children.

However, as the numbers for both opioid dependency and foster care admission continue to rise, state agencies have begun to regard the approach as “impounding trauma upon trauma,” as Jason Butkowski, a spokesperson for New Jersey’s Department of Children and Families, stated.

“Children do better when they’re with family,” said Wendi Turner, executive director of the Ohio Family Care Association. And several states have launched a variety of programs designed to enable that arrangement. In Nebraska, the state Division of Children and Family Services initiated its Mom and Me program, which grants long-term residential treatment for mothers in recovery and allows them to remain with dependent children ages eight and under.

In New Jersey, state services do not equate exposure to substances taken by mothers as a form of child abuse, which grants the state more options to provide assistance to adults and their dependent children.

And in Washington, D.C., foster care numbers have declined due to their use of kinship care programs, in which a relative takes in a child deemed at risk instead of a state program, along with Medicaid-funded treatment programs.

In all cases, states are taking the stance that by eliminating the potential for stigma or trauma on children, parents may be more willing to seek treatment and hopefully keep their families together. New Jersey spokesperson Butkowski noted that in some cases, “folks aren’t reaching out for services because addiction is such a charged term.”

Colorado has embraced this notion through its Lift the Label campaign, which seeks to inform the public about opioid dependency and recovery, and “provide a message of hope from people who used to feel hopeless,” according to a Department of Human Services press release.

“We want people to know if they are ready to seek help, we’ve got their back,” said department head Reggie Bicha.

In all cases, states hope that the sympathetic approach will generate greater interest in their various treatment programs and in turn, bring down foster care numbers.

“Put the person first,” said Butkowski. “We’re asking the question, ‘What happened? Why are you in this place in your life?’ rather than ‘What did you do? How can you make it better?’”

View the original article at thefix.com

28 June 2018
Can Blue Lights Deter Public Drug Use?

Public health experts say the blue lights make people more prone to hurting themselves and further stigmatize those who struggle with addiction.

As the nation struggles with an ever-worsening opioid epidemic, some retailers are experimenting with an innovative solution to curb the drug use that takes place in their facilities.

According to USA Today, a number of convenience stores and supermarkets have installed blue-colored lightbulbs in their restrooms. The strategy is simple; the blue lighting makes it all but impossible for people to see their veins, which retailers hope will prevent them from shooting up.

“The hardest-core opiate user still wants to be accurate. They want to make sure the needle goes in the right spot,” said Read Hayes, the director of the Loss Prevention Research Council.

The Council develops methods to deter theft and violent crime at retail stores. When it comes to drug users shooting up in the semi-privacy of public bathroom stalls, Hayes hopes to “disrupt that process” with the blue lights.

Turkey Hill Minit Markets, a Pennsylvania chain of convenience stores with over 260 locations, partnered with the Loss Prevention Research Council to test whether the blue bulbs will do the trick in driving down drug use. While the study is just six months old, early word from its 20 test stores has been positive.

Turkey Hill reports that employees haven’t found any used needles or people slumped over from an overdose. Matt Dorgan, Turkey Hill’s asset protection manager, knew it was time to take action in neighborhoods that have been slammed by the opioid crisis.

“We realized we need to do something to protect our associates and our customers,” Dorgan said. “We’re not finding hardly anything anymore. It’s a pretty dramatic reduction. We haven’t had a single overdose.”

Not everyone is convinced that blue lights are the answer, however. In previous research studies, opioid users said they’d shoot up anywhere “if it meant avoiding withdrawal symptoms,” USA Today reported.

Public health experts also say the blue lights only make people more prone to hurting themselves, not to mention further stigmatizing those who struggle with addiction.

Also, people who are accustomed to injecting themselves won’t be deterred by a room bathed in blue light. Someone suffering from withdrawal “is going to want to use as soon as possible, even if the location is not optimal,” said Brett Wolfson-Stofko, a researcher at the National Development & Research Institutes, who has studied injection drug use in public places.

Other experts advocate for more practical solutions like needle disposal containers.

Meanwhile, some areas have taken the blue-light concept to new levels, USA Today reported. The city of Philadelphia, wracked by a 30% increase in opioid overdoses last year, has started distributing “needle kits” to its residents. The kit includes “a blue bulb for the front porch, no-trespassing signs, a tool to pick up used syringes, a needle disposal box and contact information for social services.”

The city has given out over 100 kits since January. If the kits prove successful, the program could be expanded and potentially become a solution for similarly hard-hit areas.

View the original article at thefix.com

27 June 2018
China Presses US To Reduce Opioid Demands

“When fewer and fewer Americans use fentanyl, there would be no market for it,” said one Chinese official.

China’s drug control agency has challenged the U.S. to sharply reduce its demand for opioids, The Hill reported. The agency specifically called out the United States’ role in driving demand for drugs like fentanyl.

“It’s common knowledge that most new psychoactive substances (NPS) have been designed in laboratories in the United States and Europe, and their deep-processing and consumption also mostly take place there,” said Liu Yuejin, deputy chair of China’s National Narcotics Control Commission. “The U.S. should adopt a comprehensive and balanced strategy to reduce and suppress the huge demand in the country for fentanyl and other similar drugs as soon as possible. When fewer and fewer Americans use fentanyl, there would be no market for it.”

While the U.S. doesn’t deny the situation, a congressional report from 2017 singled out China as the “top source” of all fentanyl in the U.S. The year-long probe found that fentanyl could be easily purchased online from Chinese labs and mailed to buyers in the U.S.

Last November, on a state visit to Beijing, President Trump said that China and the U.S. would work together to curb the “flood of cheap and deadly” Chinese-made fentanyl from making it stateside. China quickly disputed the claim that it was responsible for the “flood” of fentanyl into the U.S.

A recent Bloomberg feature called fentanyl “an Internet-era plague,” though fentanyl has been around since 1960.

At the time, it was the world’s “strongest opioid approved for human medical use,” and intended to treat extreme pain and to help put surgical patients to sleep. Fentanyl is said to be 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine.

In 2014, Bloomberg noted, fentanyl killed 5,000 people in the U.S. By September 2017, the drug was responsible for more than 26,000 deaths, accounting for more than half of all opioid-related deaths that year.

“China’s drug control agencies, now and in the years to come, will place greater emphasis on drug control cooperation between China and the United States,” Liu insisted. “But I believe that to resolve this the more important issue is for the United States to strive to reduce and compress the great demand and drug consumption markets of opioids.”

China doesn’t deny that some of the NPS in America were manufactured on Chinese soil, but said that “the substances are not yet readily abused and trafficked in China itself,” The Hill noted.

Liu contends that Beijing has already taken steps to curb the production and export of synthetic drugs like fentanyl. They have even gone so far as to place fentanyl and 22 other compounds on a controlled-substances list. Liu also said that current political tensions between China and the U.S. wouldn’t affect China’s resolve in putting an end to the manufacture and trafficking of those drugs.

“The U.S. should strengthen its crackdown on distributors, traffickers and drug-related criminal rings,” Liu argued, adding that it should “investigate and arrest more lawbreakers.”

Last year, Trump labeled the opioid crisis as a public health emergency (stopping short of calling it a full-scale national emergency), and promised a comprehensive awareness campaign to help deter people from abusing drugs.

View the original article at thefix.com

27 June 2018
Massive Drug Spoon Sculpture Dropped At Purdue Pharma HQ

The message behind the guerrilla art exhibit is to call attention to the potential danger of prescription opioids.

A gallery owner was arrested Friday morning (June 22) after placing a sculpture of a massive steel spoon at the headquarters of Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin.

Fernando Louis Alvarez was arrested and charged with obstruction of free passage, a criminal misdemeanor. The sculpture was displayed in front of the Stamford, Connecticut office for about two hours until it was hauled away by city workers.

The 800-pound, 10.5-foot-long work of “guerrilla art” appears burnt and bent at the handle, a sight familiar to people who heat up and inject heroin. The artist, Domenic Esposito, of Westwood, Massachusetts, described how his family was affected by his brother Danny’s nearly 14-year addiction to heroin, which began with OxyContin and Percocet.

“My mom would call me in a panic… screaming she found another burnt spoon. This is a story thousands of families go through. He’s lucky to be alive,” he said, according to the Hartford Courant.

“The spoon has always been an albatross for my family. It’s kind of an emotional symbol, a dark symbol for me,” he added.

The message behind the art exhibit is to call attention to the potential danger of prescription opioids, and to call on the federal government to “step in and do something,” Esposito said. Danny has been sober for the last four months.

Purdue Pharma is among several pharmaceutical companies being targeted by lawsuits across cities, counties, and states that believe these entities had a hand in worsening the opioid crisis. Purdue, specifically, is accused of using deceptive marketing and downplaying the risk of addiction to promote OxyContin.

The company has since announced that it will no longer market OxyContin to doctors, and just last week, laid off its entire sales team.

Purdue released a statement on Friday regarding Esposito’s sculpture: “We share the protestors’ concern about the opioid crisis, and respect their right to peacefully express themselves. Purdue is committed to working collaboratively with those affected by this public health crisis on meaningful solutions to help stem the tide of opioid-related overdose deaths.”

The night of the guerrilla art display, Alvarez hosted the opening of a full exhibit on the opioid crisis at his art gallery in Stamford.

The spoon has reportedly been submitted as evidence.

View the original article at thefix.com

27 June 2018
FDA Approves First Cannabis-Based Drug For Debilitating Seizures

The DEA must re-classify cannabidiol (CBD) before the medication can be available to patients.

On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Epidiolex, a cannabidiol (CBD) treatment for debilitating epilepsy beginning in children as young as 1 or even younger.

Cannabidiol is a chemical compound (cannabinoid) of the cannabis plant known for its pain-relieving and anti-seizure properties, among others. However, it differs from THC, another cannabinoid, by not producing the “high” that marijuana is known for.

Epidiolex was approved for the treatment of Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome, both characterized by frequent and debilitating seizures that severely delay or limit a child’s development.

Lennox-Gastaut syndrome can appear in children as young as 3-5 years old, while Dravet syndrome appears during infancy.

According to STAT News, Epidiolex was shown to reduce the number of seizures by about 40% in patients with either disorder.

“The FDA is committed to this kind of careful scientific research and drug development,” FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a statement. “Controlled clinical trials testing the safety and efficacy of a drug, along with careful review through the FDA’s drug approval process, is the most appropriate way to bring marijuana-derived treatments to patients.”

However, drug maker GW Pharmaceuticals will have to wait until the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) decides whether to re-classify cannabidiol before it can be available to patients.

Currently CBD is classified as a Schedule I drug, meaning that, by the federal government’s definition, it has no medical value and a high potential for abuse. STAT News reports that the DEA will make a decision in the next 90 days.

Drugs that mimic the anti-nausea and appetite-inducing properties of THC have long been FDA-approved for treating chemotherapy patients and HIV/AIDS patients.

Over a dozen U.S. states have passed legislation specifically to allow CBD for debilitating epilepsy, many of them to help children.

The FDA’s decision gives hope to families living in non-medical marijuana states who have struggled to legally obtain and use CBD products for these conditions.

Alexis Bortell is one patient who could have benefited from legal CBD in all 50 states.

Bortell made headlines last year for being the 12-year-old girl who sued Attorney General Jeff Sessions for promoting the anti-marijuana policy that made it difficult for her to treat her intractable epilepsy that she’s suffered since she was 7 years old.

Her family ultimately moved from Texas to Colorado—where cannabis is legal for both medical and adult use—so they could legally access CBD medication, which she says has allowed her to be seizure-free for about three years now.

View the original article at thefix.com

27 June 2018
Gene Simmons On Why He Joined The Cannabis Movement

The outspoken rock legend explains why he decided to become a cannabis ambassador despite his long-standing abstinence from drugs and alcohol.

KISS founder and bassist Gene Simmons is a tireless promoter and pitchman for both the dizzying array of merchandise for his band (including coffins and cremation urns) and other businesses, ranging from life insurance to car racing leagues and beverages.

His latest entrepreneurial move has linked him with an industry with which he’s maintained some distance in the past: Simmons will serve as “Chief Evangelist Officer” for Invictus MD Strategies Corp., a publicly traded Canadian cannabis production and distribution company.

The move may seem contrary to Simmons’ long-standing abstinence from drugs and alcohol, from which he’s abstained for more than four decades, but the Rock & Roll hall-of-famer had a change of heart after learning about how marijuana use has appeared to improve the health and lives of many individuals.

Simmons has described himself as “a straight guy who’s never smoked and never been drunk,” and took a fairly hardline approach to cannabis use in the past. “I was one of those people who said cannabis is the same thing as heroin,” he told High Times. He also admits that his initial interest in Invictus was purely motivated by financial opportunity. “[Cannabis] is a remarkably expanding marketplace, which means people want it.”

But after delving into some of the research about marijuana’s medicinal properties, especially in regard to aiding individuals with serious medical conditions, including severe epilepsy, Simmons stated that he “was arrogant about the whole thing” and believed that marijuana “has great medical potential,” adding, “I want lawmakers to really get educated on cannabis-related topics. I want them to get their information from people who don’t have a political agenda, like a six-year-old girl with epilepsy being prescribed cannabis-based products, which seem to be miraculously either minimizing or completely curious various ailments.”

As Invictus’ Chief Evangelist Officer, Simmons will help raise public awareness about the company’s upcoming projects as its spokesperson and media consultant.

“Gene will lead marketing initiatives that will help spread the positive messages that dwell at the heart of Invictus,” said CEO Dan Kriznic. The timing for such a media push couldn’t be better for the company, given Canada’s recent and historic vote to legalize marijuana.

Simmons appeared to embrace his new role as cannabis ambassador. “When I show the research to my family and friends, everyone is really excited and positive about it, because this is a good thing,” he said. “I have still never smoked or done any kind of cannabis products, but you can bet your bottom dollar [that] if my children were suffering from an ailment and a doctor said they could benefit from a cannabis-based product, I would not hesitate for an instant.”

View the original article at thefix.com

27 June 2018
Men… I’ve Always Been Obsessed With Them

It’s not him, it’s the version of him I’d chosen to focus on, ignoring all the bad behavior which followed, as I have way too many times.

“Addicted to Love” is a great song––it’s also a not-so-great running theme in my life. Last week, at 62 ½, it dawned on me that there’s never been a time––nary a day of my life––when I haven’t had, first a boy, then a man, front and center in my brain. Attempting to add up the hours––the real estate––and what I might’ve done with both had I been more focused on me––rather than them––is depressing as hell.

I can remember being a little girl of not quite 8, chasing 10-year-old Andy Helfman––all day, all summer long––for at least three years running. I eventually caught him and got the chaste kiss I sought, and the satisfaction of discovering he liked me, too. Returning to the city from the Catskills, there was Roy. I picked him on the first day of school; in June he asked me out. I fell for Paul when I was barely 12. I harbored that love for years until he returned it, in his fashion––breaking my heart and hymen. There was Lenny––unrequited; with Randy, I came to wish it was unrequited; Vinny #1, and then Vinny # 2––both mine for the having, and both exceedingly inappropriate.

I sound insanely fickle. And yet, I was fairly easy on the fickle, heavy on the insane. These were not short impetuous crushes. I harbored all of them well past their expiration dates, either until I got them or until the next one took hold, oft with some heart-breaking overlap.

Looking back––how much of my quest was about the conquest? The chase. Winning. Ownership. Not to amass bounty, but to capture––love. To fill a hole, to prove my worth––which I could never seem to do with the people I deemed most important, including my rarely-considered self. I never thought of it in those terms––yet now––it’s impossible for me not to see the pattern.

How many times have I given my time, attention, and power to a guy who either didn’t ask for it, didn’t appreciate it, or used it more as a means to control rather than love.

I followed one boyfriend to the college of his choice, and another, post-degree, to the city of his––in both cases putting aside my own desires. I married the second one, knowing he was a volatile alcoholic. But, he was my volatile alcoholic. I waitressed, putting my career on hold, so he could… sleep. So what if there were holes in the walls behind every picture? You couldn’t see them, so I could pretend they weren’t there. I spent the majority of our years together obsessing… about how to get away from him.

It took falling in love with someone else to manage it.

My second marriage grew from a years-long professional friendship. The romance was built on mutual respect, affection, and ultimately, love. In my mid-thirties, almost immediately, I shifted my focus from my career to managing his and to starting a family. It was my choice, my great privilege and pleasure. For a decade, as his star ascended, our kids blossomed and thrived. When his up came crashing down, it took our love with it. We spent the next 10 years struggling over what once was, trying like hell to get it back––unsuccessfully. Graciously, the kids continued to bloom––magnificently.

As a middle-aged single mom, without a career or a man, I obsessively struggled to find both. My long-starved creative passions swiftly found their voice and vision, and have met with some success. The money and the manhunt have been an exhausting, heartbreaking, ego-crushing exercise in futility. In spite of all the years, and lessons learned, I’m struggling to find my way with both. I’m still giving men who don’t deserve it––and sometimes don’t even know it––my time, energy, and my power. And, there’s always a man––and a way to stalk him.

Back in the day, I did it with the phone: I’d call the object of my desire, hear his voice, or,sometimes hell-forbid, his parent’s voice, and hang up. I graduated to the walk-by––finding any excuse to pass his house, or where he hung out, in hopes of catching a glimpse––a smile––or a moment of his time. What a waste of mine.

Facebook, Twitter and, Instagram took my occasional insanity and turned it into an ongoing opportunity to “check-in” on the latest object of my obsession affection.

Dating apps are an even bigger nightmare, with distance offered at any given moment. Twenty-three miles? Hey! Where the hell are you?

Finally, two weeks ago, I freed myself from the now daily insanity. Julian, my latest (mind) fuck, doesn’t utilize social media (talk about insanity). I had no way to monitor him other than to glimpse What’s App to see when he’d last been on. Why exactly? What did I gain by such behavior? Heartache. I knew when he was communicating, I also knew it wasn’t with me.

I tried weaning myself from looking, but just as it was with pot 17 years ago, I had to quit cold turkey. I’ve stuck to it for 14 days, and it’s working. As each day passes with zero connection, he fades from my mind, and perhaps more importantly, from my heart. With distance, the rose lenses are clearing their hue––less obstructing my view. I’ve come to appreciate that I’d been romanticizing him, focusing on the alchemy of the connection, whilst ignoring the harsh cruelty of the abrupt disconnection. It’s not him, it’s the version of him I’d chosen to focus on, ignoring all the bad behavior which followed, as I have way too many times.

For the first time in memory, there’s no man in my head. I’ve stepped away from the swipe. That leaves a lot of time and space to think about worthy people, ambitions, and causes––and maybe, at last, to include myself as one of them.

View the original article at thefix.com

27 June 2018