Category: Addiction News

Are Police At Risk Of Overdose From Accidental Fentanyl Exposure?

Medical professionals discuss the likelihood of first responders overdosing from accidental fentanyl exposure.

Since fentanyl use has become widespread, there have been many reports of first responders overdosing accidentally through exposure at emergency calls. The Drug Enforcement Administration even issued an officer safety alert urging first responders to be careful to avoid exposure.

However, medical professionals say the risk of accidental overdose to first responders is vastly overstated.

Toronto-based doctor David Juurlink, a researcher at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, said that police officers and other first responders overdosing is highly unlikely.

“I would say it’s extraordinarily improbable that a first responder would be poisoned by an ultra-potent opioid,” he told The New York Times. “I don’t say it can’t happen. But for it to happen would require extraordinary circumstances, and those extraordinary circumstances would be very hard to achieve.”

Still, officers and other first responders are regularly warned about the dangers of being exposed to even trace amounts of synthetic opioids. Some people are concerned that being overly cautious will cause first responders to hold back on potentially life-saving treatments for people who call 911, in much the same way some doctors were afraid to treat HIV patients during the AIDS epidemic.

At Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital in Boston, emergency room doctor Jeremy S. Faust, has a message for first responders.

“I want to tell first responders, Look, you’re safe,” Faust said. “You can touch these people. You can interact with them. You can go on and do the heroic lifesaving work that you do for anyone else.”

Despite the fact that an overdose from accidental exposure is very unlikely, police officers sometimes report feeling symptoms of overdose when they respond to opioid-related calls. Scottie Wightman, a Kentucky emergency medical technician, went unresponsive after one call. He was treated with naloxone, but a drug test later showed there were no drugs in his system. These symptoms are essentially a placebo effect, experts say.

Still, many people have been charged with crimes after calling 911 for fentanyl-related emergencies. Eric Weil, of New Hampshire, called police when a person staying in his house overdosed. Weil found fentanyl in his house, and after handling it, blew the drug off his hands.

Police later said that Weil blew “a large cloud” toward them. He was charged with reckless conduct, the same charge he could get for brandishing a gun. He was convicted, but the verdict was eventually overturned. Still, Weil said he will not be calling 911 again.

“If ever I go into a situation where somebody’s O.D.-ing, I’m going to stand over them and watch them die,” he said. “If they say, why didn’t I call? Are you out of your mind? The last time I called somebody, I got a Class B felony.”

Still, the police chief in the town where Weil was charged said that he needs to be proactive about protecting officers from synthetic opioids.

“I never want to be in a position where I have to go see a family member, a wife, kids, and explain to them why their father or husband is not coming home that evening, or ever, for that matter,” he said. “Everybody knows it’s a dangerous substance.”

View the original article at thefix.com

20 December 2018
New Zealand To Vote On Marijuana Legalization

New Zealand could become the third country to legalize marijuana in 2020.

New Zealand will likely become the first country to hold a national referendum on legalizing recreational cannabis, after the government announced this week that a vote will take place during the 2020 general election.

New Zealand’s justice minister, Andrew Little, said a referendum question would be on the ballot during 2020, although he added that there is “a bit of detail still to work through,” according to The New York Times. That includes exactly what the referendum question will cover.

Marijuana proponents hope that the government will draft a law before the referendum that will lay out exactly how New Zealand would handle marijuana legalization. This would include details like whether sales would be legal or just personal use, and what age limits will be for cannabis use.

Chlöe Swarbrick, a member of Parliament from the Green Party who is also a spokesperson for Drug Law Reform told Newshub that by drafting the law ahead of time, “You can remove all the moral panic and what-ifs from the debate, and there would be clarity and hopefully maturity and respectability in the public debate.”

In November, the country eased restrictions on growing medical marijuana, and polling shows that 46% of New Zealanders are in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana, while 41% are opposed.

Despite the relatively close margins, legalization gained a political foothold when the ruling Labour party was forced to join with the Green Party to form a government. As part of the negotiations, Labour leaders agreed to allow a vote on legalization.

Swarbrick said marijuana use is already widespread in New Zealand and that prohibition disproportionately affects minorities. Legalizing cannabis would allow policy to catch up with the current reality, she said.

“What we have to realise is that our legislative and regulatory response to problems can either exacerbate or minimise harm,” Swarbrick said. “We have to bring the problem out of the shadows and into the light.”

She argued that by legalizing cannabis, the country will be able to control the drug better and keep profits out of the hands of criminal enterprises.

“There is no quality control of this stuff – people are not consuming with any guidelines or education. Drug dealers also aren’t checking IDs. If somebody in this country wants to get access to it there is literally no stopping them,” she said. “We also have the situation whereby because it is so accessible in this country, it’s helping to finance criminal underground activity and is held by the gangs.”

View the original article at thefix.com

20 December 2018
Family Creates Christmas Light Show To Highlight Addiction Struggle

A Maryland couple have dedicated their massive Christmas light show to their daughter who is battling opioid addiction.

In 2015, Jim Kurtz created a spectacular Christmas light show dedicated to the addiction recovery of his daughter, Caroline, and to those everywhere struggling with addiction. The light show was not only visually captivating but also synchronized the blinking lights to hit songs.

In a newly released video reported by The Maryland Patch, the Kurtzes say that their daughter has relapsed and is again in recovery. Caroline has been in 22 recovery facilities in four states over the past seven years.

This year, Caroline’s mother and father have dedicated a special song in the light show to their daughter: “This Is Me” from the 2017 film The Greatest Showman.

The Kurtz light and musical show can be seen from half a mile away. Their home in Harford County is decked out with blinking lights, including a 50-foot-tall pine tree, which is the tallest decorated tree in town, as far as they know. The tree is visible from a Starbucks off MD 543 and is hung with oversized, old-fashioned and brightly colored bulbs. Jim Kurtz appreciates the show himself, telling The Patch, “It is amazingly beautiful.”

Kurtz originally began the light and music show in 2012 and received internet fame for the set piece orchestrated to the hit song, “Call Me Maybe.” Families struggling along with their loved ones battling addiction are becoming more transparent in an attempt to defeat the stigma of drug and alcohol addiction. Memoirs such as Beautiful Boy by David Sheff, and Tweak by Nic Sheff, are gaining national attention. Beautiful Boy is now a movie starring Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet.

Jim Kurtz gave The Patch the 2018 show scheduled songs and home information for anyone visiting or local who would like to take in this show dedicated to recovering from addiction.

The light show features “The Greatest Show,” the theme from Star Wars, a dubstep version of “The Nutcracker,” Griswold track, “12 Days of Christmas,” “Christmas Vacation,” “A Mad Russian’s Christmas,” “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” “This Is Me” and “God Bless the USA.”

Where: 1205 Corinthian Court, Bel Air, MD

When: Friday, Dec. 7, to Monday, Dec. 31

Hours: 5-9 p.m. from Sunday to Thursday; 5-10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday

How to tune in: Listen to 87.9 FM for the music.

Guests are asked to drive slowly and to refrain from blocking driveways in the neighborhood.

View the original article at thefix.com

20 December 2018
A Christmas Gift from the Dopeman

You know what sucks about being an addict? A ten mile walk in the freezing cold to get pills on Christmas morning because you have no other options.

You know what sucks about telling your family you’re an addict right before the holidays? Everything.

I come from a very large Puerto Rican family. So usually for the holidays, we pick a house and see how many people we can cram into it while we stuff our faces with some of the best cuisine known to man. There’s music of course, and lots of love and laughter.

A few weeks before our annual Christmas party, I told my family I had been using drugs for a few years. My mom’s house was the lucky one picked to host the festivities that year and I was going to do my best to be a good little junkie and try not to ruin it like I had just ruined the last 10 years of my godforsaken life.

In the days leading up to the party, I had successfully weaned off the crack and was only shooting up opioids. I didn’t want to be too fucked up once family started to arrive.

You know what doesn’t suck about Christmas parties? All the purses, wallets, and car keys all over the house. I had only confessed to my mom and my brother about my substance abuse and I don’t think my mom had told anyone. I hadn’t yet graduated to fucking over every family member so the forecast to get over on a few aunts and cousins was looking really bright.

But I had to be on my best behavior, so I put that thought out of my mind. Just for tonight, I will not steal from my family. I shot up the rest of my pills earlier that day and decided I would just drink all the holiday beverages my family would take part in. I can do that, right? A little controlled drinking? Sure I can.

Keeping Up Appearances

You know what’s worse than drinking with family members who know you’re a junkie? Not being able to drink the way you want to, like a drunk. It’s a special kind of hell. Even before they knew, get-togethers and dinners sucked. They could all have a sip here and there, maybe get a little buzzed. But me, I just want to finish everyone’s glasses. Can’t they see the alcohol stuck on that ice cube?

Amateurs.

I just want to feel good. I want to feel normal. Everyone is smiling and having a good time. I’m over here nursing this Bud Light about to freak the hell out. It’s amazing the torture we put ourselves through while trying to keep up with appearances. I’m talking way before we hit the fuck-it button and stop giving a damn about what they think. I was still trying to save face but oh god, the pain. The withdrawals from the opioids are sneaking up and my thought is: if I’m not going to get right the way I want, I can at least get shit-faced off of this free liquor being sipped on by my family.

Fuck. There are too many people here and my brother is watching every move I make. I know he’s concerned. I can see my mom texting my brother to check up on me and it’s pissing me off. I go out front to have a smoke and bring two beers with me. I can kill these quickly and ditch the bottles before anyone comes to join me. That way they don’t ask me if I’ve had too many.

This party sucks. I want to get high.

I text the closest dealer to me, a guy who lives about four miles away. I ask him if he’s got any pills on him. It’s about 9:30 p.m. when I get a text back. He tells me he’s good and that this pill is on the house because it’s Christmas Eve.

How nice, my dealer is giving me a free pill for Christmas. What a guy! The only problem is, he’s not delivering. It’s Christmas Eve and he’s spending it with his family. What a devoted baby daddy.

Now I gotta figure out a way to get to him. My car was repossessed when I was in jail back in November and I’m sure as hell not asking a family member to go on a drug run with me.

It’s 9:45 and 50 degrees out, that’s not too bad. What a beautiful night to take a stroll. I mean, the temperature is dropping quickly but fuck it, let’s just walk out of this party with everybody you know and go for a quick little four-mile stroll. Who’s gonna notice?

Scoring Dope on Christmas Eve

I grab my hoodie and hit the block.

I scroll to a playlist filled with the most gangster, hood, female-degrading, drug-referencing music I can find. It’s funny how music can move an individual. It’s interesting to track the music we listen to when we get sober and how it changes when we morally begin to transform. Music is powerful. I’m a firm believer of the saying “garbage in, garbage out” and sometimes when someone shares their music with me in recovery, it reminds me of using or brings me to a mindset of just wanting to do hoodrat shit. It’s not healthy.

And what the fuck is up with everyone in early sobriety listening to Kevin Gates and these other mumble rappers?! But I digress.

I find the playlist I want to walk to and get to steppin’. I make it about two miles down the road before I start trying to flag down cars. The clock is ticking and I’m afraid my dealer is going to be asleep by the time I get there.

Have you ever tried to wake up a drug dealer in the middle of the night to score? It’s not a pleasant experience.

It’s getting really cold out. I should’ve worn pants. Dumbass.

Hey! I see a car slowing down. A half hour of waving my thumb out is finally paying off. I’m going to get a ride to my dealer’s house!

As the car gets closer, I realize it’s my brother. Fuck. He pulls up next to me and very wearily and with a tone of disappointment asks: “What are you doing, man?” I tell him I needed some fresh air and I was just going for a quick stroll. I know he doesn’t buy my response but he tells me to get in. We drive back home.

Damn. Two more miles, that was it. Just two more miles and I would’ve had my drugs.

I am pissed.

We get back to the house and the party has died down. Most of the family has left, the food has been put away, and the music has been turned down. I call my dealer to see if he’s still up. He tells me he’s about to go to bed but that he’ll leave the pill underneath the only green coffee cup in his cupboard. He tells me to call his baby momma when I get there and she’ll let me in. I tell him that I’ll probably be on foot so it’ll be an hour or two. It’s not a problem.

Okay, so all I have to do is wait for my brother to leave, which shouldn’t be long. My mom is already in the shower, that means she’ll be in bed in fifteen minutes. Alright, I got this.

Tomorrow we have to be up early to drive to my aunt’s house for breakfast and exchanging gifts with the rest of the family. It’s tradition. No worries. As long as I have my dope, I’m good.

A half hour goes by and it’s time to hit the block again. My mom is sleeping and my brother is gone.

I’m walking again and it’s cold. My dumbass didn’t think to throw pants on because I was too concerned about leaving as soon as I could.

The whole time I’m walking to his house, I’m thinking about how utterly powerless I am. It’s Christmas fucking Eve and I’m walking a total of now six miles to acquire one fucking Dilaudid. One. I am a hopeless piece of shit that cannot go a few hours without a fix.

It’s two in the morning when I get to his house and she’s not answering. I call her ten more times, still no answer. I start to blow his phone up, nothing.

I’ll be damned. I am not leaving this house until I get my drugs. It’s Christmas, damn it.

I start knocking on the front door which is a big no-no with this guy but I really need this pill. No answer. I walk to the end of his driveway and light a cigarette. I’ll smoke the whole thing, and try calling again. If no one picks up, I’ll try knocking one more time and if that doesn’t work, I’ll just call my mom and make up some sob story for her to come pick me up. No big deal, right?

I take two long drags from the cigarette, throw it out, turn around, and begin banging on the door.

A Gun to the Head

His half-asleep girlfriend opens the door and points a gun to my head. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

Without flinching I tell her my name, tell her about the arrangement with her man and walk right past her and the pistol and straight into the kitchen. I open up the cupboard and look for the green coffee cup. Found it! I lift it up and can’t believe my eyes.

Either my dealer is super generous or he royally fucked up. There’s a bag with nine pills in it. I grab the bag and walk out the door. I turn around and tell his girlfriend that I’ll be by in the morning with the money.

I’m sure he’s gonna freak the hell out when she wakes him up and tells him I was in his house at two in the morning and took the whole bag. He knows where I live and he has a bad temper. I used to ride around with him to help “collect” his debts and needless to say, you don’t want to be in debt to this guy.

I begin to run as fast as I can. If I can at least get off his street, I know I’m good. It’s too late for him to do anything this early in the morning.

Six miles, 40 degree weather, two in the morning on Christmas Day, and now I have to walk four more miles to get back to the house and get right.

You know what sucks about being an addict? A ten mile walk in the freezing cold to get pills on Christmas morning because you have no other options.

When I finally got home, I couldn’t feel my face and my legs literally felt like Jello. My mom was awake and freaking out because she didn’t know where I was. I told her I was just walking around the neighborhood smoking and that it wasn’t a big deal.

I couldn’t even enjoy shooting up the pill because my body was so sore. I just fell asleep.

But at least I had more dope when I woke up to take part in all the Christmas festivities the next day. I felt like such a loser being with my family that Christmas. I spent the whole day in and out of the bathroom, getting right every 45 minutes.

A New Tradition

I love being able to look back on that Christmas and know that I don’t have to live like that anymore. The best gift I can give my family today is to show up this year to their party completely present and sober. It’s what I did last year, it’s what I plan on doing this year. No one is hiding their purse or wondering where I am going when I step out to smoke. I’m just a son and a brother enjoying his family. I look forward to Christmas parties now. Dread and anxiety has turned into excitement and joy and gratitude.

If nobody told you today that they love you, fuck it, there’s always tomorrow.

View the original article at thefix.com

20 December 2018
Vaping Rates Double Among Teens, While Opioid Use Declines

Results from the 2018 Monitoring The Future survey show that teens have turned to vaping nicotine and marijuana and away from binge drinking and opioid use.

The percentage of teens who reported vaping nicotine nearly doubled this year, representing the largest increase in use of a substance since the national Monitoring the Future study began.

“To put the nicotine vaping increase in context, it is the largest out of more than one thousand reported year-to-year changes since 1975 for use of substances within the 30 days prior to the survey,” according to a press release from the University of Michigan, which conducts the annual survey of about 50,000 8th, 10th and 12th graders.

About 20% of high school seniors reported vaping nicotine in the past 30 days. In addition, more than a quarter of teens reported vaping “just flavoring,” but researchers believe these students may be confused or ill-informed about what they’re consuming, since many popular vaping devices don’t have nicotine-free options. Marijuana vaping also increased.

“Teens are clearly attracted to the marketable technology and flavorings seen in vaping devices; however, it is urgent that teens understand the possible effects of vaping on overall health; the development of the teen brain; and the potential for addiction,” Dr. Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse said. “Research tells us that teens who vape may be at risk for transitioning to regular cigarettes, so while we have celebrated our success in lowering their rates of tobacco use in recent years, we must continue aggressive educational efforts on all products containing nicotine.”

Overall, 28.5% of high school seniors reported using nicotine of some variety in the past 30 days. Tobacco use was down slightly in 2018 but not a statistically significant amount. This shows that prevention efforts need to target teens who may see vaping as a safe alternative to smoking.

“Vaping is reversing hard-fought declines in the number of adolescents who use nicotine,” said Richard Miech, the lead author and investigator of the study. “These results suggest that vaping is leading youth into nicotine use and nicotine addiction, not away from it.”

He said vaping is popular because it is easy to conceal.

“If we want to prevent youth from using drugs, including nicotine, vaping will warrant special attention in terms of policy, education campaigns, and prevention programs in the coming years,” Miech said.

The survey found that binge drinking and use of opioids and tranquilizers decreased significantly, while use of other drugs, including meth, marijuana and molly remained stable.

“With illicit opioid use at generally the lowest in the history of the survey, it is possible that being in high school offers a protective effect against opioid misuse and addiction,” Volkow said. “We will be focusing much of our new prevention research on the period of time when teens transition out of school into the adult world and become exposed to the dangerous use of these drugs.”

View the original article at thefix.com

20 December 2018
How Physical Therapy May Help Reduce Opioid Use

Researchers combed through insurance claims of chronic pain patients to determine if physical therapy could help reduce their pain enough to cut back on their pain meds.

Getting physical therapy early on may help pain patients reduce their long-term opioid use by about 10%, according to research published this week in the journal JAMA Network Open.

“By serving as an alternative or adjunct to short-term opioid use for patients with musculoskeletal pain, early physical therapy may play a role in reducing the risk of long-term opioid use,” the study authors wrote. “Early physical therapy appears to be associated with subsequent reductions in longer-term opioid use and lower-intensity opioid use for all of the musculoskeletal pain regions examined.”

To conduct the study, researchers reviewed the insurance claims of 88,985 patients with shoulder, neck, knee or low back pain. They found that using physical therapy, as recommended by best practices, is associated with reduced opioid use. Since long-term opioid use can lead to dependence and addiction, physical therapy could potentially help reduce those conditions.

“Using early physical therapy, consistent with recent clinical guidelines, could play an important role in reducing the risk of transitioning to chronic long-term opioid use for patients with shoulder, neck, knee, and low back pain,” researchers wrote.

The director of the division of integrative pain management at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, Dr. Houman Danesh, said this study shows how important physical therapy can be in long-term pain relief.

“You can take an opioid for a month, but if you don’t get at the underlying issue [for the pain], you’ll go back to where you started,” Danesh, who wasn’t involved with the study, told WebMD. Getting physical therapy can help patients address the underlying cause of their pain.

However, he pointed out that it’s critical to have access to high-quality physical therapists.

“Physical therapy is highly variable,” he said. “Not all physical therapists are equal — just like not all doctors are.”

Dr. Eric Sun, who teaches anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine at Stanford University and who led the study, said patients should consider trying physical therapy instead of relying solely on opioid pain relief.

“For people dealing with these types of musculoskeletal pain, it may really be worth considering physical therapy — and suggesting that your health care provider give you a referral,” he said.

Sun pointed out that the study merely established a link between physical therapy and lower opioid use; it did not prove that physical therapy causes people to use fewer opioids.

“Since physical therapy is more work than simply taking an opioid, patients who are willing to try physical therapy may be patients who are more motivated in general to reduce opioid use,” he said.

View the original article at thefix.com

19 December 2018
Former Police Lieutenant Details How Past Addiction Changed Everything

The former police lieutenant hopes that by sharing his story he can help other cops have courage to get treatment before addiction derails their lives.

Dan Gosnell was a star with the Aberdeen, Maryland police department. At 35, Gosnell became a lieutenant in charge of the criminal investigation division, one of the youngest officers in a leadership position with the department. By that time, however, his opioid addiction had already started to take hold.

“It started initially as taking the pills as prescribed, one to two pills every two to four hours as needed for pain. Being a large person as I am and building up a tolerance rather quickly, that progressed to three pills at a time rather than two, and then eventually four pills at a time,” Gosnell said in a video for The Baltimore Sun. “And then, rather than every two to four hours, it was every hour, or every two hours at the most. I would take three to four pills and that just progressed until eventually I was taking five, six, eight at a time, depending.”

Eventually, Gosnell was taking up to 24 pills a day, according to a story in The Baltimore Sun.

At first he began using leftover pills in his own home or leftover pills from family and friends.

“Eventually it got to the point where that was no longer feasible,” he said. “I couldn’t go getting drugs off of friends and family that I knew happened to have them sitting around.”

That’s when Gosnell turned to the prescription drug drop box that the station maintained.

“I made the unfortunate decision to actually seek the drugs out of that location and supplement my addiction that way,” he said.

However, soon even the pills from the drop box were not enough to stave off withdrawals.

“It escalated just like many other addicts; their addiction from opiates escalates. Pills become harder and harder to find . . . That was what brought me to the evidence room, and then I started taking actual drug evidence from the Aberdeen Police Department,” Gosnell said.

By the time his deputy chief confronted him, Gosnell tested positive for cocaine, marijuana and opioids. However, he said after years of concealing his addiction, getting caught was a relief.

“Of course you have that panic moment of, ‘Oh my God, my career and my life is completely over because they’ve got me; they’ve caught me,’ but that wasn’t the overpowering sensation that I felt. What was more overpowering was the sense of absolute and utter relief,” he said.

Gosnell received a 10-year suspended sentence and had to go through drug treatment. Today his law enforcement career is over and he works in the treatment industry. However, he hopes that by sharing his story he can help other cops have courage to get treatment before addiction derails their lives.

“The message would be to not sacrifice your integrity in order to save your career or your life,” he said. “It is not worth flushing your integrity and life down and going the road that I went. . . . I walked that road for you so you don’t have to.”

Gosnell said that if he had gotten help sooner, he may have been able to continue his police career.

“There is a life after law enforcement and police work,” he said. “But if you get this caught early enough and you actually ask for the help that I was afraid to, that you might not get to the point where you’re doing the things that I was doing.”

View the original article at thefix.com

19 December 2018
Sarah Hyland Talks About Depression That Came From Chronic Illness

The Modern Family star suffers from kidney dysplasia, and she’s been battling it alongside the depression that comes with it.

Sarah Hyland, who plays Haley Dunphy on Modern Family, has gone through serious trials and tribulations with her health. Now she’s talking to Self about how she’s been battling the depression that can come with a chronic illness.

Hyland suffers from kidney dysplasia, an illness she was born with. Her kidneys weren’t fully developed when she was forming in the womb. (Dysplasia causes the kidneys to develop cysts, which stops the kidneys from filtering out waste from the bloodstream.) Hyland has had to endure about 16 surgeries, including six trips to the operating room in the last 16 months, and two kidney transplants.

Hyland got a kidney from her father, but her body rejected the organ and she had to go on dialysis, which she had to do three times a week for four hours each visit. (Hyland also got another kidney from her brother Ian.)

Hyland has been able to fit her dialysis treatments around her Modern Family shooting schedule, and as she told Self, “That’s why I’m so independent. In some areas of my life, I literally have no choice but to be dependent. I’ve been going through this for 28 years, and I still am learning how to let go of control and how to be patient.”

Hyland’s health problems would eventually take a toll on her mental health as well. “I was very depressed,” she explains. “When a family member gives you a second chance at life, and it fails, it almost feels like it’s your fault. It’s not. But it does. . . . For a long time, I was contemplating suicide, because I didn’t want to fail my little brother like I failed my dad.”

Hyland felt like she was a burden to her family, “always having to be looked after, having to be cared for,” which was a distortion because her family didn’t feel that way towards her at all.

Eventually Hyland reached out and talked about her suicidal thoughts with a close friend. “It’s not shameful,” she continues. “For anybody that wants to reach out to somebody but doesn’t really know how because they’re too proud or they think that they’ll be looked upon as weak, it’s not a shameful thing to say.”

In addition to finding comfort with her pet dogs, who give her unconditional love, Hyland also feels, “My work is my therapy. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for my work.”

View the original article at thefix.com

19 December 2018
Elderly Man, Evicted For Using Medical Marijuana, Allowed To Return Home

“I can tell you I really don’t want to move back there,” he said. “I was just kicked out by those lovely people there, in the cold.”

A disabled New York senior citizen evicted from his apartment for using state-approved medical cannabis has returned home after his plight was made public in the media. John Flickner, 78, who is confined to a wheelchair, was evicted from his apartment on Dec. 4 after employees of the government-subsidized Niagara Towers in Niagara Falls, New York discovered his doctor-prescribed cannabis during an apartment inspection. The Tennessee-based LHP Capital, which owns the building, enforced its strict drug policy and evicted Flickner from the apartment. But coverage in the New York press drew national attention, as well as a rebuke from Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Administrator Lynne Patton, and spurred a reversal by the Niagara Towers landlord, who permitted Flickner to return to his apartment.

As reported by High Times and other sources, Flickner uses medical marijuana to treat pain from spinal injuries incurred in a 1968 skydiving accident. When Niagara Towers employees conducted an inspection of his apartment in June 2018, they found botanicals he had obtained in Canada, and notified the police. Since that form is not authorized in New York, law enforcement did not arrest Flickner but instead told him to get a New York State medical marijuana card, which he was able to obtain, along with a vaporizer and cannabis oil.

Despite his compliance with the police request, LHP decided to continue with the eviction process. Amy Styles, a spokesperson for LHP Capital, told The Buffalo News on Dec. 7 that the company “does not allow marijuana of any kind – liquid, smoking, whatever.” Federal lawcurrently allows landlords of government-subsidized housing like Niagara Towers to exercise their own discretion in evicting residents whom they believe are using an illegal substance. Since marijuana of any kind remains a Schedule I drug, LHP was within its rights to remove Flickner. After a brief November 1 hearing, he was removed from the apartment on Dec. 4.

Flickner eventually found temporary shelter at local missions, and his plight was taken up by The Buffalo News and other newspapers. Word of his eviction spread to national media like High Times and was addressed in a Twitter post by Lynne Patton, who oversees HUD for Region II (New York and New Jersey). She admonished state and federal law regulations that allow such evictions, stating that they “need to catch up with medicinal marijuana usage and require private landlords to legally permit the same. Period.”

On Dec. 10, The Buffalo News reported that LHP had allowed Flickner to return to Niagara Towers. In a statement, the company stated that they would “[rescind its] decision and [revisit its] policy. We’ve spoken with Mr. Flickner to let him know he is welcome to return to Niagara Towers. He was appreciative and will let us know in the next day or so.”

Flickner’s response, as noted in The Buffalo News, was decidedly less effusive. “I can tell you I really don’t want to move back there,” he said. “I was just kicked out by those lovely people there, in the cold.” But he also acknowledged that the apartment was “a roof over my head.” His attorney has requested that LHP submit in writing that they will allow him to use his medical marijuana device without interference.

View the original article at thefix.com

19 December 2018
Ellen DeGeneres Reveals Depression Struggle

The week of the release of her new Netflix stand-up special, Relatable, Ellen DeGeneres is speaking openly about her struggles with depression.

The talk show host and comedienne told USA Today that she was depressed and felt alienated after she famously came out of the closet, and she fought back against it through “meditation and being quiet. For a long time, there was a lot of fear that (being gay) was going to influence people’s opinions about me and so I didn’t ever have the confidence I should have had. Because whenever you carry shame around, you just can’t possibly be a confident person.”

On the Armchair Expert podcast, DeGeneres said, “Because there was so much talk about [coming out] . . . Even Elton John said, ‘Shut up already. We know you’re gay. Be funny.’ I had never met him and I thought, ‘What kind of support is that from a gay person?”

When her show, Ellen, finally went off the air, DeGeneres spiraled deeper. “I was looked at as a failure in this business. No one would touch me. I had no agent, no possibility of a job, I had nothing.”

DeGeneres said, “It took a while to shake off that judgment and the attacks I felt . . . I was fully honest with myself and that gave me confidence. I think that helps with depression. Depression eats away at your confidence and you get lost in that, and forget that you’re enough just as you are.”

When she moved out to the industry town of Los Angeles, DeGeneres felt more isolated and reluctant to reach out to others for help. “If you ever have experienced depression, you isolate yourself and don’t reach out for help. You don’t say, ‘I’m hurting, I need help’ – you kind of crawl further into that dark hole, so that’s where I was for a while.”

In addition to meditation, DeGeneres told Good Housekeeping she “started seeing a therapist and had to go on anti-depressants for the first time in my life . . . I slowly started to climb out of it. I can’t believe I came back from that point. I can’t believe where my life is now.”

DeGeneres says her new special is called Relatable because even though she’s a celebrity, “we’re all relatable. I didn’t have money for a long, long time. I’ve been doing this (talk) show for a long time and now I do have money, but I’ve always been the same person. Just because we have different experiences, at the core we’re all the same.”

View the original article at thefix.com

19 December 2018