Author: The Fix

Italian Billionaire Tied to Ship Seized With 20 Tons Of Cocaine Onboard

The cocaine, worth $1.1 billion, was hidden inside dried goods, nuts and scrap metal on the ship.

A ship operated by Mediterranean Shipping Company and owned by JP Morgan was held for weeks after a bust found 20 tons of cocaine onboard.

While at port before embarking to the Netherlands, the ship was raided and the drugs—worth $1.1 billion—were found, hidden inside dried goods, nuts, and scrap metal.

“The MSC Gayane is the largest vessel seized in U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s 230-year history,” Casey Durst, CBP’s Director of Field Operations in Baltimore, said in a statement, according to Forbes.

Mediterranean Shipping Company

This was the third drug bust of 2019 on a ship operated by Mediterranean Shipping Company. MSC is owned by the billionaire couple, Gianluigi and Rafaela Aponte, who are worth $11.1 billion. The Apontes also control MSC Cruises, the fourth largest cruise ship company in the world.

MSC had been participating in a customs check program created by CBP called Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT). The program gives shipping companies the opportunity to speedily clear border checks in return for strengthening their security measures. MSC is now temporarily suspended from the program.

However, Forbes reported that according to CBP Press Officer Stephen Sapp, it is not the ships or the company that are the problem.

“It’s not indicative of any specific shipping company, it is specific to the source nations where they’re making port calls,” Sapp told Forbes. “Along that route, there are opportunities for people to seal drugs inside those containers.”

Crew members of the MSC Gayane were arrested and charged with possession. Jakob Larsen, head of security at the international shipping association BIMCO, told Forbes that drug traffickers often smuggle drugs onto large vessels.

MSC’s global PR manager, Giles Broom, told Forbes, “We have a very long track record of cooperation with authorities in the United States. It’s an industry-wide problem that we’re tackling at the moment, it impacts the entire shipping and logistics sector.”

U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain tweeted a statement on the seizure this past Monday. McSwain stated that a deal with two international shipping firms with financial interests in the MSC Gayane had been made. Millions of dollars of security and surety bonds were placed. The ship has been returned to commercial service.

View the original article at thefix.com

19 July 2019
New Jersey Cop Overdoses On Heroin While On Duty

The former police officer applied to participate in a drug court treatment program last week.

A New Jersey police officer who overdosed on heroin while at work lost his job but will avoid jail time if he completes a treatment program overseen by the state.

Matthew D. Ellery, a police officer for Franklin Township Police Department, was found unresponsive in his cruiser on April 7, according to USA Today.

Authorities first became concerned when dispatch tried to reach Ellery, but was unsuccessful. Another officer went to Ellery’s last known location and found him unresponsive. The officer administered two doses of the opioid-overdose reversal drug Narcan.

On Friday (July 12) Ellery pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled dangerous substance (heroin) and driving while intoxicated.

Will He Keep His Job?

He will not be formally sentenced until August 23, but on Friday Ellery applied to participate in a five-year Somerset County Drug Court Program.

If he does not successfully complete that alternative sentence, he will face three to five years in state prison. In addition, Ellery will no longer be able to work as a police officer, and he will lose his driver’s license for seven months, the plea deal said.

Ellery had been with the department since 2016.

Ellery is not the only police officer to face issues with substance abuse. Like any segment of the population, police officers are at risk for addiction.

Law Enforcement Officers & Addiction

“Not only are law enforcement officers not immune to addiction, but they are also more susceptible to addiction because the stress of their jobs renders them so,” Dr. Michael Genovese, a clinical psychiatrist and chief medical officer at Acadia Healthcare, told The Fix.

Genovese said the stress and trauma of the job can be too much for some officers.

“Police officers to whom I have spoken, who suffer from addiction, are not generally using drugs to get high or have fun; they are using them to numb emotions they find painful,” he said. “Every day, police officers witness things that are outside the scope of normal human experience, and the frequency and intensity of traumatic events are overwhelming to the officer’s brain, even if he or she thinks they’re not.”

Recently two officers—one in Maine and one in Maryland—fatally overdosed. Michael Koch, who worked as an officer for 15 years, said having access to drugs made it easier to fall into addiction.

“In 2010 a lot of heroin was on the streets and we were doing a lot of busts where we confiscated heroin, and also things like Oxys. I crossed the line and started taking things out of evidence for my personal use. I justified it by saying it was going to be thrown out anyway, but by that time I’m an addict and living a double life as a well-respected undercover cop and also as someone that was smoking a ton of heroin. Eventually, I got caught taking drugs out of evidence.”

View the original article at thefix.com

19 July 2019
Oklahoma Trial Of Alleged Opioid "Kingpin" Johnson & Johnson Ends

The judge’s ruling is expected by the end of August.

The trial of Johnson & Johnson came to a close on Monday (July 15). The judge’s ruling could be the first to hold a pharmaceutical company responsible for playing a significant role in fueling the opioid epidemic, NPR reported.

The company and its subsidiary, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, was the sole defendant in the lawsuit filed by the state of Oklahoma. Prior to the trial, the state reached settlements with two other defendants named in its lawsuit: Purdue Pharma (for $270 million) and Teva Pharmaceuticals (for $85 million).

The Kingpin

In his closing argument, Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter called Johnson & Johnson the “kingpin” of the opioid crisis. During the seven-week trial, state attorneys argued that the company created a “public nuisance” by causing harm to the public including injury to public health.

“What is truly unprecedented here is the conduct of these defendants on embarking on a cunning, cynical and deceitful scheme to create the need for opioids,” said Hunter.

The state’s expert witness, Dr. Andrew Kolodny, testified that the company not only practiced deceptive marketing of its opioid products, but until 2016 also benefited by manufacturing and selling raw ingredients for these drugs to other pharmaceutical companies including Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin.

“Purdue Pharma and the Sacklers have been stealing the spotlight, but Johnson & Johnson in some ways, has been even worse,” Kolodny said.

Larry Ottaway, who defended Johnson & Johnson in the trial, argued that the company’s opioid products had just a small market share in Oklahoma compared to competitors. Ottaway further argued that the company made every effort to prevent abuse and that it was providing important medication for people living with debilitating chronic pain.

Compensation

Oklahoma wants the company to pay $17.5 billion over a 30-year period to compensate the state for the public health crisis.

Judge Thad Balkman’s ruling, which is expected by the end of August, may influence the outcome of nearly 2,000 similar opioid lawsuits across the U.S. pending in federal court.

According to NBC News, both the state and Johnson & Johnson have indicated that, if they lose, they will appeal the judge’s decision.

View the original article at thefix.com

18 July 2019
Joe Biden Applauds Son For Speaking Out About Addiction Struggles

In a recent New Yorker profile, Hunter Biden went on the record about his long-time addiction struggles.

Presidential hopeful Joe Biden and his wife Jill are speaking out about their son Hunter’s experience with addiction after the publication of a New Yorker profile that detailed Hunter’s decades-long struggle with substance misuse.

“Hunter’s been through some tough times, but he’s fighting, he’s never given up. He’s the most honorable, decent person I know,” Joe Biden said in a CNN interview, according to The Hill.

Biden added that Hunter’s participation in the New Yorker profile “took enormous courage.”

In the profile, Hunter spoke out about his drug and alcohol abuse.

“Look, everybody faces pain,” Hunter told the magazine. “Everybody has trauma. There’s addiction in every family. I was in that darkness. I was in that tunnel—it’s a never-ending tunnel. You don’t get rid of it. You figure out how to deal with it.”

Red Flags

Hunter admits that during college he drank socially and used cocaine. When cocaine was unavailable once, he smoked crack. “It didn’t have much of an effect,” he said.

However, as his career as a lobbyist and consultant took off, he began drinking more. When he started staying in Washington rather than getting on his commuter train home, it was a red flag.

“When I found myself making the decision to have another drink or get on a train, I knew I had a problem,” he said.

His wife at the time urged him to try a sober month. “And I wouldn’t drink for 30 days, but, on day 31, I’d be right back to it,” he said.

After connecting with AA, Hunter was sober for seven years before relapsing in 2010, and again in 2013. In 2014 he was discharged from the Navy after testing positive for cocaine.

In 2015, Hunter enrolled in a treatment program, followed by another in 2016. However, later that year he admits to buying crack, and drug paraphernalia was found in his vehicle.

Divorce proceedings from 2017 included the claim that Hunter had “created financial concerns for the family by spending extravagantly on his own interests (including drugs, alcohol, prostitutes, strip clubs, and gifts for women with whom he has sexual relations), while leaving the family with no funds to pay legitimate bills.”

More recently, Hunter said that his father’s support has helped him endure his addiction. In May he told his father, “Dad, I always had love. And the only thing that allowed me to see it was the fact that you never gave up on me, you always believed in me.”

Facing Addiction

Joe Biden has continued to stand by Hunter.

“Everybody has to deal with these issues in a way that’s consistent with who they are and what they are,” he said this week. “The idea that we treat mental health and physical health as though somehow they’re distinct—it’s health.”

Jill Biden, Hunter’s stepmother, said that her family, like many others, has had no choice but to face addiction head-on.

“We’ve seen his struggle and we know most American families are dealing with some sort of struggle like we are, and I think they can relate to us as parents who are hopeful and are supportive of our son,” she said.

View the original article at thefix.com

18 July 2019
Tiffany Jenkins, Blogger & Viral Video Star, Talks Addiction, Recovery

“It was so quick. It was like, five seconds ago I was in a halfway house, and now I’m a married mom of three,” Jenkins said.

Tiffany Jenkins, well-known for her blogging and viral videos, continues to be candid about her struggles with substance use disorder.

On Thursday, July 13, she visited with Today and discussed finding out she was pregnant early in her relationship, while she was still living in a halfway house.

“That was not part of my plan,” Jenkins told Today. “I was like ‘I can’t do this.’ And I went and told him about it, and he was, like, stoked! And I was like, ‘I’m in a halfway house, why are you so excited? What are we going to give this baby? What are you doing?’ And he was like ‘I feel like it was fate.’”

Starting A Family

From that moment on, Jenkins life quickly changed. She married the baby’s father three months later, then their son was born. Six months after his birth, Jenkins found out she was once again pregnant, this time giving birth to a daughter. Then, two months later, she says a “bonus daughter” was added to the equation as well.

“It was so quick. It was like, five seconds ago I was in a halfway house, and now I’m a married mom of three,” Jenkins told Today. “It changed everything. Having this little person depending on me really fueled my journey.”

It was then that Jenkins began sharing her journey on social media. She says that so often, she would find herself scrolling through feeds that highlighted only the positive parts of life, rather than any struggles or negatives.

Opening Up To The World

“I couldn’t relate to any of it, so I started writing and saying the things that I wished somebody would say to me,” she said. “I started writing for it to be therapeutic, and I found that the more honest I was in my blog, that the more people resonated towards it. And so I decided to just put it all out there.”

Jenkins also began releasing videos on social media, in which she played various characters. The videos quickly gained traction.

“I was like, ‘I’m onto something. My weirdness is being accepted; what is going on?’” she told Today. “And then I couldn’t stop. It just exploded. And all of this has happened in just two years.”

Today, Jenkins has authored a best-selling book called, High Achiever: The Incredible True Story of One Addict’s Double Life, as well as began touring across the country.

Her goal is to communicate that there is hope even in the midst of a serious struggle with substance use disorder.

“There was a point where I didn’t want to live; I didn’t know how to live,” she told Today. “And now, I just celebrated six years clean of drugs and alcohol — which is a miracle, because I couldn’t go six minutes before.”

“An amazing life after addiction is possible,” she added.

View the original article at thefix.com

18 July 2019
Liv Tyler Discusses Anxiety, Going To Therapy

Tyler revealed that she uses coginitive behavioral therapy and meditation to manage her anxiety.

Actress Liv Tyler, most recently of Hulu’s Harlots, spoke on her struggles with anxiety and her decision to attend cognitive behavioral therapy in a recent interview with The New York Times.

Tyler, the daughter of Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler, admitted that she doesn’t enjoy the spotlight, yet she loves the creative process of her work, and is trying to change her priorities and thought patterns to make the fame part—and her life in general—easier.

“That is definitely the great puzzle and mystery of my entire life,” she said. “I’m always trying to learn as much as I can about myself, both from my mind and anxiety in general. I definitely have a side to me that’s very shy, or shy in certain situations. I’m better one-on-one, I think. I’m trying to articulate it. I’m still trying to understand it.”

Handling Fame

According to the Times, Tyler started attending cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) this year to help reduce the anxiety that so much attention from her career has brought her. She also spoke on her personal fascination with the human mind and her desire to better understand herself.

“I tend to ask a lot of questions so that I can understand the world more, people more,” said Tyler. “It’s fascinating, people, how they think, how the brain works.”

Tyler also practices transcendental meditation in order to help her cope with the stress of her career and motherhood. She spoke about this coping technique in 2013, saying that “it helps me make better decisions and be a better mother, and just deal with the daily stress of the modern world that we live in.”

The pressure of the world, particularly as it embraces social media as an everyday part of life, caused Tyler to consider quitting acting altogether in 2017, according to The Irish Examiner.

Finding The Balance

Due to her natural shyness, she had trouble learning how to promote herself online through this increasingly essential medium, and she wasn’t sure she liked it.

“A world changing so much, I was just kind of trying to find my place in all of that.”

Today, Tyler is still working on achieving a balance that works for her and her family. She calls herself a perfectionist and says she has trouble with time management and tends to overextend herself.

“I’m always striving to achieve balance, which I think is a very tricky thing in the world today in general. I think our society is not really set up for balance, a lot of extremes going on.”

View the original article at thefix.com

18 July 2019
Where Can I Find Rehab for Morphabond Addiction?
Questions about Morphabond’s effects and risks? Use this helpful guide to learn all you need to know about this opioid pain reliever.

1. What is Morphabond?
2. Uses of the Morphabond drug
3. Morphabond addiction and problems with addiction
4. Addiction and withdrawal symptoms of Morphabond
5. How can Morphabond Rehabs help patients recover from drug abuse?
6. Payment for Rehab loans and insurance
7. Conclusion

What is Morphabond?

Drug addiction has become a severe issue with teenagers and adults from all around the world. The rise in drug addicts has seen an unfortunate and tremendous growth in the last few years. Many lives have been lost through addiction from one drug or the other. Even though several measures are taken to stop this problem by the governments of various countries, we as a society are still not in a great place when it comes to eradicating the present issue of drug addiction. The most commonly used recreational drugs like cocaine, marijuana, and other pharmaceutical drugs like Opioids and Ibudone, are claiming lives, especially when they’re used in large amounts for a long time and without a doctor’s prescription.

Morphabond is one such drug. Morphabond is a drug that’s used for for extreme pain relief. This drug is normally used for treating cancer patients who experience intense pain. It’s taken in oral form and is classified as an opioid agonist, specifically a full opioid agonist which means it binds completely to the opioid receptor providing maximum results. Some full agonists are codeine, fentanyl, methadone, morphine, etc. When these components bind tightly with receptor chemicals, they work very effectively as medicinal drugs.

Uses of the Morphabond drug

The active ingredient of morphabond is morphine, so when it binds to opioid receptors, it releases morphine into the patient’s body and brain which gives them relief from the pain that cancer may cause; morphabond is a significant drug prescribed to cancer patients. Since the drug has an opioid in it and it’s quite a strong medicine, it has various side effects as well. When a morphabond (long-acting morphine tablets) pill is taken, it can make the patient drowsy. Side effects, when the tablets are taken in quantities exceding the dosage recommended by a doctor can include difficulty breathing, which can lead to death.

Morphabond tablets are prescribed as a whole tablet, which means you should not take it by dissolving it with any liquid, chewing it, or by breaking or crushing it. There are different strength levels of Morphabond to treat the different levels of pain in patients; the strength that reduces the pain level might vary from person to person. While a Morphabond tablet with lower strength may not work correctly if your pain is high, a tablet of Morphabond with high strength may have adverse effects on the user, thereby causing an accidental overdose which is why it is importand for doctors to find the correct dose for each patient.

The Morphabond drug is commonly known as Morphine Sulfate, or simply Morphine, which is also the active ingredient of the drug. Well-known among the masses for effectively reducing pain, Morphabond is a prescription drug; this means you can’t purchase the drug over the counter. If you purchase it without a prescription, it’s considered a criminal offense. When a person is prescribed Morphabond, the doctors and physicians should monitor the user so that they don’t abuse or misuse the drug and take it only at prescribed dosages.

If the users are found having problems breathing after the consumption of the drug, the doctor should be called without any delay, as the side effects can be deadly. If anyone in your family is taking Morphabond tablets, make sure to keep the drug in a place where children or even adults can’t reach. Before taking this medicine, the patients are advised to let the doctors know if they have any allergies to any medication, or other health problems like lung problems, asthma, or any other issues that may react with Morphine and cause serious health issues.

Morphabond addiction and problems with addiction

Addiction of any kind is typically described as a condition where a person continues using a substance and can’t stop the consumption even when they no longer need it to treat the condition for which it was prescribed. This condition can be physiological but also psychological because even when the body recovers from the illness, for which they were consuming the drug, their brain still thinks that if they cease taking medicine, they will go back to extreme suffering.

Addiction can cause a problem not only to an individual’s body but to their personal / social lives as well. Often, addicts can lose their jobs or run out of money to buy the drugs and their friends and family are the ones who have to face the addict’s mood swings, ill temper, and behavioral changes. Although Morphabond Rehab services can be availed, addicts may not be able to pay for treatment because it can be expensive.

Morphabond is a highly addictive drug because of its main ingredient, morphine, which is an opioid. Not only do they bind with opioid receptors to decrease the pain level of the user, but it also triggers a rush of dopamine in the body as well, dopamine gives the patient a sense of euphoria and calmness. Once a person starts taking morphine and does not stop the consumption when they no longer need the medication, their body adapts to the high, and it slowly progresses into an addiction.

Morphabond always comes with a warning of accidental overdose that may lead to death, so you must use the drug only for the duration the doctor has suggested; following the prescription is significant and necessary. Abusing the drug to feel the dopamine high when you’re no longer in need of it is illegal, and so is selling and purchasing the medication without a doctor’s prescription.

Addiction and withdrawal symptoms of Morphabond

As we dive deeper into the addiction symptoms of any drug, in this case, Morphabond, it’s essential to keep in mind that misusing Morphabond and getting addicted to it are two different things. However, addiction is the process of using a drug for a prolonged period where the ability to give up its intake is wholly lost. To avoid any addiction or dependence, you should stop using the drug once the course of the medication is not needed anymore.

An addiction to any drug including Morphabond will have adverse effects on your health. So, what are the symptoms of Morphabond abuse and addiction, and how can you detect them in the early stages?

Morphabond abuse symptoms can include consuming higher doses in tablet forms than the prescribed amount, crushing the tablets to powder and then snorting them, and taking more than one dose of Morphabond within 12 hours; this amount can be fatal. If someone uses Morphabond without a prescription, then it counts as substance abuse, as well. When you’re taking a prescribed Morphabond dose, but you start showing signs of drowsiness, dizziness, and confusion, then your friends and family should check the dosage you have consumed because this could be one of the early signs of Morphabond addiction.

If you stop taking it entirely, instead of reducing the amount of intake slowly, you may experience withdrawal. The withdrawal symptoms of Morphabond can be painful. The user can suffer from restlessness, watery eyes, nausea, muscle aches, and a lot more symptoms. So, instead of ceasing the use of the drug all at once, doctors recommend lowering the dose gradually until the patient is clean or until they don’t exhibit withdrawal symptoms.

How can Morphabond Rehabs help patients recover from drug abuse?

Drug abuse is quite prevalent among youngsters; they are vulnerable to its effects and enjoy the effects more than adults. Authorities from all over the world have tried to stop substance abuse by supporting rehab centers. Various Morphabond rehab centers have been set up to help patients get rid of their addiction, yet the percentage of abusers has not reduced significantly. During the Morphabond rehabilitation period, patients are kept under supervision. The first phase of treatment is usually detox. Medical detox is a process where the user is given medications such as sedatives to mitigate the adverse effects of withdrawal as they are weaned off the drug.

There are three main types of Morphabond Rehab:
- Inpatient Rehab: Inpatient rehab for Morphabond is where a patient needs to reside in a hospital or rehab facility 24/7 for a limited period. They share an environment that is under the supervision of drug experts, and it’s completely safe. The patients will undergo treatment, therapy, and counseling. Friends and family are welcomed to participate with the patient during the therapy sessions and provide them with mental support.
- Outpatient Rehab: Outpatient rehab is a treatment plan where a patient doesn’t need to stay in a facility or hospital. They could live in their own homes and visit a clinic or rehab center during their allotted time and seek support from counselors. One can participate in outpatient rehab on their own, or they could participate in this process after they have been through inpatient rehab treatment.
- Residential Rehab: Residential Rehab is a setting more like a house than a hospital where the patients can choose to live in a residential setup and still seek help from therapists and counselors. While choosing both residential and inpatient rehab, patients should leave their work, college, or school routines for the period the session is meant to last.
Payment for Rehab loans and insurance

It’s no secret that the cost of rehab can be expensive. Often patients have depleted their savings by the time they decide to seek help. If the person has insurance, their policy may or may not cover all of the treatment expenses. Sometimes patients need to get a loan from a lending institution.

However, if the person doesn’t have a good credit score or no credit score at all, it would be a problem to secure a loan as well. So, taking financial help from friends and family by borrowing money from them can also be a viable option. Before applying for a loan in a financial institute, ensure that the amount would be able to cover the whole rehab process, and also be midnful of the interest rate.

Conclusion

It’s vital for everyone to support a person seeking help through the whole process. Attending the rehab session where the clinics allow friends and family members and understand where you stand in this process is instrumental in recovering from addiction. It’s essential that, as a patient, you’re assured that there is a world outside drugs and addictions while going through the process. As a loved one, you have to take special care of what you say and what you do, so you don’t trigger a relapse. Provide the patient a place to stay after they finish their rehab session, if possible. Keep them engaged in activities as alternatives to drug use.

Before choosing a rehab center, ensure that it’s the correct center for their problems. Research about the treatment they provide, the counselors work record and the aftercare they provide. Choosing a random clinic just because you want to help your friend or family is not the way to go.

The times might be hard during the rehab process, but in the end, everything will be worth it. There are many people who have successfully completed rehab programs and are doing wonders with their lives. If they can, you can too. That’s the mindset one should have to successfully complete the process and lead a healthy life.

View the original article at thefix.com
18 July 2019
How to Find the Best Rehab for Ativan Addiction
Find out everything you need to know about Ativan addiction and treatment by consulting this helpful guide.

1. What are the Uses of the Drug, Ativan?
2. What are the Precautions to Be Taken?
3. Addiction to Ativan and withdrawal symptoms
4. Drug rehabs are helping patients all over the world
5. Financing the rehab process
6. Conclusion

When talking about addiction and how it has increased in recent years and has affected the country’s economy severely, you might wonder how common addiction really is. Is it really as bad as everyone says? Or is it, in fact, underestimated? In the United States itself, in the last couple of decades, the addiction problem has shot up to many times the amount of what it was in 1999. More often than not, it is people aged between 18-25 that experience drug addiction.

While people find it easy to get high on recreational drugs, there are also a few pharmaceutical drugs that can be abused by addicts. Medicines that are used to treat pain and anxiety can be quite addictive, so someone using the drug could easily become addicted to it without realizing that they have become dependent. One such drug is Ativan.

Ativan is a brand name for Lorazepam, which is a drug that doctors prescribe patients to treat anxiety and depression caused by anxiety. It’s prescribed by doctors as a short-term relief drug for anxiety episodes and depressive symptoms caused by anxiousness. Ativan addiction is not uncommon among users of the drug. As the drug brings them instant relief from bad feelings, the users are sometimes unknowingly becoming addicted to it. Apart from treating anxiety related issues, Ativan can also be used to treat seizures during alcohol withdrawal, as well as nausea, and vomiting that can be caused when someone is going through the process of chemotherapy.

What are the Uses of the Drug, Ativan?

As already mentioned, Ativan is used to treat anxiety, depression caused by anxiety, and alcohol withdrawal, but it is also one of the commonly prescribed drugs for use in the treatment of insomnia or agoraphobia (fear of particular places, or of certain situations.) Ativan belongs to the class, benzodiazepines, which means when these drugs are consumed, it works on bodies, brains, and central nervous system to provide rapid relief from anxiety or panic. Ativan is a sedative, and it cannot be purchased without a doctor’s prescription.

Ativan is not approved for consumption by children under the age of 12 or below. It can also be used to give relief to patients who have anxiety before going through any kind of surgical procedure. The drug should only be taken as prescribed by the doctor. The dosage may vary according to the users’ age, medical condition, and response to the treatment they are receiving. This medicine is supposed to be taken orally, so it should not be diluted in any kind of liquid, powdered or mixed with other kinds of medicine; this can lead to many other severe health-related dangers.

If used for a prolonged period of time, there is the potential for Ativan addiction. It’s only to be used for short term medical use, and taken only a couple of times a day. The Ativan tablets should be kept away from children and adults for safety purposes, and it should be stored in a tightly closed bottle at room temperature.

Ativan, being one of the benzodiazepines, has chemical effects on the central nervous system of the drug user. So there are a number of side effects that a person could experience when they use the drug. The side effects may include but are not limited to fatigue, drowsiness, amnesia, confusion, disorientation, headache, visual disturbance like blurry visions, and slurred speech. However, if the patient takes the medicine as prescribed by their doctors, there is less of a chance of these side effects taking a toll on the patient. However, if problems continue for a long time, patients should get in touch with their doctor. If prolonged side effects occur or if they become more severe, talk to a medical professional immediately; on occasion, complications may result in fatal conditions.

Some people have also experienced a small decrease in their blood pressure, which is nothing to be worried about. However, if the issue continues or worsens, they should get in contact with the doctor who has prescribed the medicine. When the patient visits the doctor, they should let their doctors know if they have any kind of allergic reactions to any kind of drug, as it might have an adverse effect on their bodies. Pregnant women are not to be prescribed this drug, as it may cause weakness and trouble in breathing, which could prove fatal to the baby.

What are the Precautions to Be Taken?

When the doctor prescribes this medicine, patients should let the doctors know not only about allergies to any kind of drugs but also of kidney disease, liver disease, breathing problems, mental disorders, etc. When you’re open about your health condition to your doctors, then they can prescribe you the right medicine.

Ativan users are discouraged from sharing medicine with anyone. They should not use it longer then they are supposed to. High doses of Ativan can lead to death by overdose. Drinking alcohol is strictly prohibited while taking Ativan. It’s possible that drinking alcohol while taking Ativan could lead to overdose and cause harm or even death to the patient.

Addiction to Ativan and withdrawal symptoms

A person is considered an addict if they cannot stop using a specific drug, pharmaceutical or recreational, for a long time, and they become dependent on it. Sometimes, dependency causes a person to be unable to hold down a job or perform well in school due to the effects of the drug and its withdrawal symptoms.

Ativan addiction is no different. It was first approved for sale in 1977. Ever since then, the users of Ativan are only growing every year. Addiction does not happen in a day or two. It sneaks up on a person without them even realizing it. When they do, it’s already too late for them to get rid of the substance as, without it, they feel like depressed, anxious and useless. As Ativan is a drug that mainly deals with calming of nerves when a person is anxious or panic, the primary instinct of a user is to get their hands on the drug every time they feel anxiety.

It takes 12 hours for an Ativan tablet to be completely absorbed into the user’s system, so taking more than one dose within 12 hours may not feel like much at first, but this is what ultimately turns into addiction at a later stage. However, the time period that Ativan stays in a person’s system might also depend on age, weight, kidney function, metabolism, and genetic factors. So the timing may vary from person to person. So it’s important for everyone to follow your doctor’s instructions very carefully while taking Ativan to avoid any kind of Ativan addiction.

When a person is using Ativan for a long time, it would also be painful and hard for them to stop using the drug all at once, completely. They would suffer from acute withdrawal symptoms, which include but are not limited to insomnia, mood swings, panic attacks, difficulty concentrating, muscle pain or stiffness, headache, and sweating, etc. So, instead of ceasing the consumption of the drug entirely, decrease the intake dose slowly and then come to a stop. However, it’s easier said than done. When a person’s body is so used to consuming a certain kind of drug, it’s not easy for them to stop consuming it on their own. Visiting a doctor in such cases would help them understand the procedure and how to deal with every kind of withdrawal symptom that the patient might suffer from.

These are the reasons why a person should consider checking into a rehab program to help with their Ativan addiction. Accompanied by those common withdrawal symptoms, the patient might also have hallucinations, weight loss, and other complications. The return of anxiety and insomnia is considered to be one of the most common withdrawal symptoms. A person uses Ativan to get rid of these problems in the first place. So when a person becomes totally dependent on the drug, they could get some sleep, and reduce their anxiety attacks to a managable level, but when they stop taking the medicine after they realize how addicted they have become, it’s common for them to experience difficulty dealing with their daily lives.

Insomnia, another common side effect of withdrawal, could lead to mood changes, which is not a good thing for a working person or a student. Gradually, they would lose interest in their jobs, or studies leading them to lose their jobs, or failing their classes. So it’s crucial for drug users to attend rehab sessions and get the therapy they require to lead a healthy life after their system is free of the drug.

Drug rehabs are helping patients all over the world

Transitioning from a life where substance abuse is common to a life without the substance is not easy. It’s easy to say that love from family and friends help, and in fact, it does, but there are moments when a person would want to slip back into old unhealthy habits. Resisting this urge is achievable by the strong will of the person in question, help from professionals, and of course, immense support and love from family and friends.

In some countries where substance abuse is a huge problem there is usually available treatment, which is hopefully easily accessible by the public. When someone has been using drugs for a long time, it is helpful to have professional involved in treating their addiction. Depending on the person, the time they have been using the drug, and even the rehab center itself, the process can differ.

Although there are four major steps for a person with an addiction problem to get their treatment, some rehab facilities might not include a crucial step, detoxification. In those cases, the patients need to go through the detoxification process on their own or with the help of someone who is experienced in the field. The other steps of the rehab process include intake, rehabilitation, and aftercare.
- The intake process consists of evaluating the severity of substance abuse of the patient and planning the rehab process accordingly, and the time they would require to go through the process.
- The detoxification process (if available) is all about helping the person through the withdrawal symptoms when they stop using the drug that their body is so accustomed to.
- The rehabilitation process includes therapy and extensive counseling sessions that provide the patient with care and correct their drug-related antisocial behaviors. They also provide ways to teach a person how to cope without drugs and teach them how to not turn to drugs even when the times get hard. Most rehab facilities allow friends and family of the said person to attend therapy sessions so that they understand the severity of the problem and how to help the patient throughout and after the rehab process to lead a clean, normal life.
- The aftercare process typically includes providing long-term support to the patients who went through the rehab process in their clinic and help them to keep control in a situation that could possibly trigger a relapse. There is nothing worse than a relapse because it’s like all the hard work, patience, time, and money spent to get through the rehab goes down the drain. No one would want it to happen. So aftercare is essential in identifying the situations that could be triggering.
Ativan addiction can be caused by various factors including genetic predisposition, environment, and peer pressure. Whatever the reason is, everyone deserves to get the help that they seek. Since family issues could take a toll on children, many kids turn to drugs as an outlet for their problems.

There are three types of rehab facilities that are available where patients can get help.
- Inpatient rehab: In these kinds of rehab facilities, the patients stay in a hospital or clinic under the observation of doctors and experts. They are supervised during treatment so docctors can chart their progress and see how they are responding to treatments provided to them.
- Outpatient rehab: In these kinds of rehab facilities, patients are allowed to stay in their own homes and attend rehab clinic for their therapy session at a time slot allotted for them. This rehab procedure is also available to patients after they go through the inpatient rehab process to keep tabs on their progress, especially those who have a history of long term drug use.
- Residential Rehab: Instead of staying in a hospital or clinical environment, a residential rehab facility allows patients to stay in an environment that is set up in a way like a home would be. During the term of their treatment, the patients are required to stay in the residential setup, and they are provided with all the help they need.
Financing the rehab process

It’s no secret that rehab can be expensive. It’s highly unlikely that everyone looking for the help they deserve would be able to cover the expenses with their savings. If a patient has health insurance, they should ask their provider if the policy covers drug rehab. If it does, then it’s good for the patient. If not, various financial institutions provide loans for the rehab process. There is also an option of getting financial help from friends and families. However, if the patient has a good credit score, there would still be various financial centers that would not hesitate to give out a loan.

Conclusion

Ativan addiction is not uncommon among teenagers, youths, and adults as well. So if a friend or person in the family shows addiction symptoms, it’s your duty to get them the help that they deserve. Everyone deserves to live a normal life, so if someone wants to get help and stay clean for the rest of their lives, turn their life around for the better, we can always provide them with help and care. We should also be able to provide them with an environment where they would not even think about going back to their lives where the drug was their only outlet for pain and stress.

View the original article at thefix.com
18 July 2019
Warning: Detoxing in Jail May Lead to Severe Injury or Death

Given the undeniable and inextricable link between jails and dangerous withdrawal from drugs and alcohol, isn’t it time that more jails had adequate detox infrastructure and medical personnel?

In January, Frederick Adami was detained in Bucks County Correctional Facility in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Soon, he began vomiting and defecating profusely and persistently. His cellmate’s pleas for medical assistance were ignored for hours. The next morning, guards found Adami dead in his cell. The cause of death was opioid withdrawal – a condition that, when properly medically supervised, has a near-zero mortality rate.

In March, an inmate in a Delaware County, Ohio jail died from opioid withdrawal despite being on the facility’s medical addiction protocol. A sheriff’s office spokeswoman felt “pretty confident that there were no red flags … that there was nothing more that we could have done.” In nearby Logan County, a pending lawsuit charges that an inmate died last June after being strapped to a chair while withdrawing from alcohol — a drug whose legality belies the grave risks of nonclinical detoxing, including seizures and the substance-specific delirium tremens.

Hard Facts and Half-Measures

The story of withdrawal oversight in our nation’s jails is one of convincing facts met with half-measures. According to an instructive paper published by the Center for Health & Justice titled “Safe Withdrawal in Jail Settings,” 64,000 Americans died from drugs in 2016 (the number climbed to 72,000 in 2017), and 20.1 million people reported substance abuse issues in 2016.

The paper then cites a truly eye-opening statistic: nearly two-thirds of people serving sentences in jail meet the diagnostic criteria for drug dependence or abuse. Incredibly, that data is from 2007-2009 – before the current opioid crisis and its record addiction and death totals. And since these detained people with addictions to alcohol or drugs are separated from their substances by metal bars, jails are often ground zero for withdrawal symptoms to both begin and worsen.

Alarmingly, these hard facts are followed by soft recommendations. The paper concludes that “medically supervised withdrawal from alcohol or illicit substances is ideal whenever possible,” and that “partnerships with local medical providers can help jails safely manage withdrawal syndrome.”

“Ideal whenever possible” is official-ese for “if it’s convenient for you” and especially “if you can afford it.” And “partnerships with local medical providers” is an intentionally vague phrase providing more cover for jails than coverage for the jailed.

Wardens Are Not Equipped to Treat Withdrawal

Isn’t it the duty of law enforcement officials to prevent unnecessary injuries and deaths in their own jails? High, drunk, or sober, shouldn’t concern for inmate safety be a priority? What’s more, as withdrawal tends to occur early in the detention process, it undoubtedly affects many detainees who haven’t even seen a judge yet, much less been convicted of a crime.

Given the undeniable and inextricable link between jails and dangerous withdrawal from drugs and alcohol, isn’t it time that far more jails had adequate detox infrastructure and medical personnel?

The issue clearly isn’t getting the attention it deserves. New York City — a historically forward-thinking city whose mayor, Bill de Blasio, is among the country’s most progressive — is a prime example, since its jail system has been a focal point of change in recent years.

New York plans to replace its notoriously decrepit jail at Rikers Island with a number of smaller jails spread throughout the city. Despite improved safety being a key tenet of the long overdue initiative, the word “withdrawal” can be found exactly zero times in its 50-page roadmap plan.

Granted, the plan does include a program called HealingNYC, which treats opioid-dependent inmates with methadone, a known treatment for weaning. However, merely distributing meds won’t matter if an inmate shows the types of severe symptoms — including relentless vomiting and defecating — that can lead to long-term health issues or death. Further, methadone won’t do a thing for those withdrawing from alcohol.

Though no national record is available detailing withdrawal deaths in jails, the scenario is far from far-fetched: according to HealingNYC, 17 percent of the 55,000 people admitted annually to NYC’s jails are in acute opioid withdrawal. Investigative reporting by Mother Jones found 20 lawsuits filed between 2014 and 2016 alleging that an inmate died from opiate withdrawal complications — a figure that, according to an attorney for one of the victims, likely represents a mere fraction of the actual total.

And neither figure includes people going through alcohol withdrawal, a condition with even more dangerous complications.

These situations call for medical personnel, not just medicines. As a larger report on our jail system’s healthcare crisis in The New Yorker noted, “withdrawal can require close monitoring and specialized treatment that jail wardens are not equipped to provide.”

Healthcare Behind Bars: Profits Over People

And while many local jail systems have turned to private entities to provide healthcare for inmates, unsurprising reports have surfaced that many of these organizations place profits over people, and tend to operate only as effectively as they are overseen. In Arizona, which employs a private healthcare provider called Corizon, a pending lawsuit accuses the state of care so shoddy that it violates the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

As a recovering alcoholic, I’ve both heard and witnessed frightening accounts of alcoholics and addicts detoxing without medical assistance. Too many of these stories unfolded in jails following recent arrests; in 2011, my final drinking spree ended with 30 hours in a lower Manhattan jail following a DUI. Fortunately my withdrawal symptoms were minor, but I have no confidence in the ability of that antiquated facility — so dank and dungeon-esque it earned the nickname “The Tombs” — to handle serious withdrawal.

Nobody is expecting perfection. Compared with larger, more concentrated state and federal prisons, jails are inherently scattered, transitional facilities operated by county or municipal law enforcement departments. With more than 3,000 jails across the country housing some 700,000 detainees, it’s unrealistic to mandate each be fully staffed and equipped to treat all facets of drug and alcohol withdrawal.

However, we can and should do far better. Amid recent encouraging changes in the way the criminal justice system treats drug-related offenses — reduced sentencing, increased redirection and referrals to rehabs, equipping police officers with the fast-acting opioid overdose-preventing drug naloxone — it only makes sense to improve the way we deal with addiction and alcoholism at a detainee’s first true danger point. Increased funding for proper detox facilities and trained medical personnel at jails should be considered another stepping stone in an ongoing fight to reduce drug- and alcohol-related injuries and deaths.

View the original article at thefix.com

18 July 2019
Inside Ohio’s First Recovery High School

School officials say that the key to their students’ success is having access to recovery coaches, programs and the support of young people like them.

Heartland High School welcomed its inaugural class last September, as it established itself as Ohio’s first and only recovery high school.

Heartland is one of about 40 recovery high schools in the United States, residing in the Broad Street Presbyterian Church in Columbus. With a total of five students, each are able to receive special attention from faculty and staff.

They have all struggled with substance abuse and completed a treatment program to get into Heartland. School officials say that the key to their students’ success is having access to recovery support (recovery coaches and programs) and perhaps most important of all, the support of young people like them.

Peer Pressure

A common problem for young people in recovery is having to go to school where they are surrounded by peer pressure to use drugs and alcohol. A past study found that “virtually all adolescents” returning to school from a treatment program were offered drugs on their first day back.

“When you go back to your school of origin, you’re around the same people you used with before, the same people who might be dealing to you,” said Paige Stewart, a clinical psychologist and the head of Heartland. “You’re around the same stressors. And now you have extra stressors, because now you’re that kid who comes back to school that’s been to rehab, so there’s stigma there.”

One student, Alyssa, began using drugs and alcohol at 13. She relapsed after returning to school from a treatment program, caving in to the peer pressure around her. “All these people are attacking me, and saying, ‘Oh you’re lame because you don’t want to go to an after party for homecoming’ or whatever. And I was like, I don’t want to use drugs. I don’t smoke, I don’t drink anymore. ‘What’s wrong with you, why don’t you want to party, why don’t you want to be a normal high schooler?’” Alyssa told WOSU.

Peer Support

Now at Heartland, Alyssa is surrounded by people who are supportive of her recovery. “You put me in a sober environment and I hear all these sobriety terms and recovery words and that’s what I’m going to want, ya know? That’s what I’m excited to want.”

One should note that for families who have already spent a significant sum on treatment programs for their children, the $20,000 tuition for a regular school year at Heartland may sting.

But the school is working on securing money to fund its students’ education year round. So far it will be able to provide its summer program this year, which normally costs $500, for free.

View the original article at thefix.com

17 July 2019