Category: Addiction News

Family Of Woman Whose Obituary Went Viral Sue For Info About Her Death

According to the suit by the ACLU, police refused to provide Madelyn Lisenmeir with medical attention while being held in custody–neglect that may have led to her death.

When Madelyn Linsenmeir died after a battle with opioid addiction on October 7, 2018, her family penned a heartfelt obituary for the 30-year-old single mother and earned sympathy and praise across the globe for turning their tragedy into a plea to help other opioid dependency sufferers.

Now Linsenmeir’s family is suing the city of Springfield, Massachusetts and its police force to find out what happened to her in the days leading up to her death. According to the suit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Linsenmeir had requested and been refused medical attention while in police custody and remained in a woman’s correctional facility until October 4, when she was taken to intensive care. Linsenmeir died three days later, and her family is requesting that the Springfield police turn over any audiovisual recordings that would corroborate the allegations of neglect.

According to the suit, Linsenmeir texted her family on September 28, 2018 with complaints that she was “really sick” and needed to be hospitalized. The following day, Springfield police arrested her for probation-related violations, including providing a false name, according to their arrest log. She was transferred to the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department and held at the Western Massachusetts Regional Women’s Correctional Center in Chicopee, Massachusetts.

The ACLU suit then alleged that at the time of her arrest, Linsenmeir was allowed to call her mother, Maureen, with a Springfield police officer on the line. She reportedly informed her mother that she was not receiving medical attention, but as the suit alleged, “the police officer refused to provide medical attention and even made a sarcastic comment to Maureen after Maureen expressed concern that Madelyn was being denied care.”

On October 4, Linsenmeir was transferred by ambulance to the Baystate Medical Center’s intensive care unit and died there on October 7, still in police custody but with her family in attendance.

The ACLU alleged that the phone conversation with Linsenmeir’s mother confirms that the Springfield Police Department was aware she had been refused medical treatment and is “likely in possession of audiovisual recordings” that would corroborate their claim. In the suit, Linsenmeir’s family wrote, “release of the requested records would serve the public interest by supporting Madelyn’s family in their public advocacy for the humane treatment of opioid users and for increased access to medications and medical care for people suffering from opioid use disorder.”

According to the suit, the police department and city of Springfield have not responded to the family’s request. Hampden County Sheriff Nicholas Cocchi, whose department was not named in the suit, expressed his sympathies to Linsenmeir’s family in an statement to CNN.

The obituary that drew attention to Linsenmeir’s struggle, penned by her sister, Kate O’Neill, was brought to global attention through social media, where it was picked up by news media outlets. In the obit, O’Neill wrote, “If you are reading this with judgment, educate yourself about this disease, because that is what it is. It is not a choice or a weakness. And chances are very good that someone you know is struggling with it, and that person needs and deserves your empathy and support.”

View the original article at thefix.com

12 December 2018
Can Medical Marijuana Help Alzheimer’s Patients?

After nothing but marijuana edibles seemed to offer his Holocaust survivor father reprieve from Alzheimer’s, Greg Spier began funding medical marijuana research through the Spier Family Foundation.

When Greg Spier’s father Alex was dealing with late-stage Alzheimer’s disease, he was prone to experiencing delusions and irritability, behavioral problems that are common in dementia patients.

For Alex, who had survived three years in concentration camps during the Holocaust, this involved reliving some of his worst memories.

“It was the most difficult time of my life, having to see him deteriorate. My father spoke five languages, and he was speaking Dutch and German, reliving the three concentration camps he survived,” Greg Spier told ABC News, recalling how his father often pleaded, “Where is my mother?” in German.

Antipsychotic drugs, which are often used to control distress in dementia patients, did little to alleviate Alex’s symptoms, so Spier decided to try something more unconventional.

“The only thing that seemed to give him any reprieve was the marijuana,” Spier said. When he began feeding his father edibles up to four times a day, his dad was less distressed and better able to sleep.

Now Spier is helping to fund research into marijuana as a treatment for dementia symptoms through the Spier Family Foundation, the philanthropic arm of a successful realty and development corporation Alex founded after he emigrated to America after World War II.

Dr. Brent Forester, chief of the division of geriatric psychiatry at Harvard’s McLean Psychiatric Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, said private funding is important for marijuana research, which receives very little federal funding because cannabis is a Schedule I controlled substance.

Forester said that research suggests cannabis might be beneficial for dementia patients and that it has different effects on older brains than it does for younger users.

“We really need to open up opportunities to study medical marijuana for this particular indication. I think there’s enough evidence from the synthetic THC as well as anecdotal reports that it’s certainly worth studying,” he said.

One study Forester ran found that treatment with a medical form of THC provided relief for dementia patients who were experiencing distress or psychotic symptoms. Another study found that low doses of THC can improve cognitive function in older mice, the opposite effect that it had on younger mice. In addition, animal research has shown that THC may increase the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, the same way that the FDA-approved dementia drug Aricept does, and that the compound can slow the accumulation of amyloid beta plaques, which are a telltale characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease.

Forester theorizes these protections might help reduce the distressing behaviors people with Alzheimer’s often exhibit. The Spier family hopes that by funding this research, they can help other Alzheimer’s patients and their families find more peace during the final stages of the disease.

View the original article at thefix.com

12 December 2018
How to Talk with Clients about Chronic Pain and Opioids
ARTICLE SUMMARY: These guidelines will help you bring hope and healing to clients who may be in the midst of a battle with opioid addiction and dependency, stemming from chronic pain.

ESTIMATED READING TIME: 7 Minutes.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Need to Talk

Although I have written at length about The Opioid Crisis, it remains a long-term public health concern for Americans. In fact, the latest death toll estimates from the CDC put the number at 72,000 fatalities from overdose in the first half of this year.

Chronic pain, which is one of the leading drivers of opioid overprescribing and subsequent addiction, affects 133 million Americans and 65% of them seek care for persistent pain at some point in their lives, reports the American Cancer Society. And the National Institutes of Health reports that an estimated $100 billion is spent annually to manage pain, including healthcare expenses, lost income, and lost productivity at work and home.

Since this is an issue that impacts many families, friends colleagues, and loved ones in every stretch of the country, I’ve developed some tips for opening honest dialogue about this issue for healthcare professionals, clinicians and therapists to talk with their clients.

Guidelines for Talking to Clients

As a clinician and interventionist, I know first-hand how it can be difficult to broach this topic in an informed and compassionate manner. However, with these guidelines you’ll be able to bring hope and healing to clients who may be in the midst of a battle with opioid addiction and dependency, stemming from chronic pain.

1. Meet Your Client Where They Are.

I recently wrote The Definitive Guide to Addiction Intervention: Collective Strategies. In this textbook, I discuss the importance of starting where your client is. This means understanding who they are, where they come from, their family dynamics, experiences and their place in the world. The best theory in the world won’t take into account this human element. With unique people, a multitude of cultures, gender expressions and the changes in our genetic diversity, we must embrace difference as a teacher. That way you can help plan a strategy that meets their unique needs, not a preconceived cereal box of a model.

This approach also leaves judgment at the door. Addiction – in all its forms – is a disease, not a moral failing, and should be discussed in terms of the best way to bring healing to the person experiencing the disease. When we do this, we see the person for who they are and that can open the door to recovery.

2. Understand Your Client’s Trauma and Talk About It.

Trauma is defined as an overwhelming experience that cannot be integrated and elicits animal defense mechanisms and dysregulated arousal. It can come from a host of experiences – a car accident, a dislocated knee or strained back, physical and sexual abuse, etc.

Trauma can be both objective and subjective:
- Objective trauma is the event that took place
- Subjective trauma is how the person perceives what took place and the emotional aftershocks
When we understand and discuss the trauma that took place, we then see how the door was opened to an opioid misuse problem. For example, a client may be a collegiate baseball player who tore his rotator cuff during a game. He undergoes two surgeries to fix the rotator cuff and is prescribed pain killers to aid in the healing process. But the player does not want to miss any more games, so he misuses the amount of painkillers he should take in order to “play through the pain” and stay in the game. As such, he develops an addiction and continues to take pills long after the rotator cuff healed. That you discuss the trauma in relation to the client’s pressure to succeed as a baseball player illuminates a detailed treatment plan for recovery.

3. Teach Your Clients About Opioids and Chronic Pain.
- The National Survey on Drug Use & Health found that 92 million US adults, or about 38 percent of the population, took a legitimately prescribed opioid like OxyContin or Percocet in 2015. Prescription opioids are easy to come by and are impacting people from all walks of life.
- 11.5 million people, or nearly 5 percent of the population, misused prescription opioids they obtained through illicit means.
- In 2015 more than one third of all adults were prescribed opioids.
- Over 259 million prescriptions were written in 2012, which is enough to give nearly every person in the US regardless of their age their own prescription bottle
- A study authored by Bradley Martin, a professor of pharmaceutical evaluation and policy at the University of Arkansas for Medical Science, found that with a one-day supply of prescription painkillers, there’s about a six percent chance “of being on opioids for a year or longer.” A five-day supply jumps to 10 percent. And a ten-day supply bumps the user to a 20 percent chance they’ll still be using a year later.
- Pain has been considered the fifth vital sign. That being said, 90 percent of all pain is emotion.
- The differences between acute & chronic pain. See chart below:
4. Educate Your Clients on Alternative Pain Management Solutions.

There are emerging evidenced based methods to help individuals, including:
- CBT
- Breathing exercises
- Qi chong
- Physical therapy
- Acupuncture
- Mindfulness
A study published in the journal Addiction in 2016 by a team from the Veterans Administration Ann Arbor Healthcare System’s Center for Clinical Management Research found a non-drug approach that combines psychological therapies with a social element. In the study, 55 veterans took part in therapy rooted in the psychological theories of pain and felt the effects last up to a year.

The theory behind this approach is a self-management of pain. According to Medline Plus, the person experiencing the chronic pain needs help learning to think, feel, and do better, despite the persistence of pain. Self-management programs engage the individual in problem-solving, pacing, decision-making, and taking action to manage their pain. And they do it in a supportive environment where the social element plays a huge role because research shows that there is a link between pain and depression. Pain is responsive to mood and mood is responsive to social support, thus working through pain in a social environment posts strong results in healing.

With research showing that the support of others aids in recovery, centers willing to address the issues of pain management and recovery, and the medical community rethinking how opioids are prescribed, there are new ways developing to more effectively deal with chronic pain and the mental health and lifestyle issues that arise from these conditions.

Another alternative pain management solution that is gaining traction is meditation. Scott Weiss, clinical director at Bodhizone Physical Therapy and Wellness in New York City, who works with professional athletes, regularly prescribes meditation. “People often find meditation hard to swallow,” Weiss tells Outside Magazine, “but with the right instructor, they can start finding relief in just one session.” In fact, Weiss claims that half of the injured athletes he sees use meditation, and of those, 80% report reduced pain.

A Call to Action

I urge all of my colleagues in behavioral health care to rethink how we talk to our clients about opioids. We must educate them on the risks of taking prescription opioids, open up honest dialogue, and work with friends, families, coworkers and communities to promote lasting change. Lastly, since chronic pain is a leading driver of opioid use and opens the door to addiction, we must educate our clients in alternative pain management forms to promote healthier ways of living. These changes begin with open dialogue with our clients, so we can work through this crisis together.

If you have a client that is experiencing difficulty with depression, anxiety ,chronic pain and/or opioid misuse, please give me a call. There is hope and solutions!

View the original article at addictionblog.org
12 December 2018
The Other White Powder: My Addiction to Sugar

In that first meeting I went to for my sugar addiction, I heard others admit to doing the same things I did. Sneaking. Lying. Throwing food in the bin to halt a binge only to come back later and fish it out to eat.

It was right in front of my face but I couldn’t see it for what it was for years: Addiction is a wayward beast. Christ knows you can’t see much when you’re laid flat on your back, pinned down by invisible yet ferocious forces.

The narrative was just so unfamiliar that I doubted it was real. Where were the used syringes, grubby spoons, and Ewan McGregor swimming in a lav to Brian Eno music? Where were the gin and tequila bottles strewn next to stained ashtrays?

A glance into my dependence only revealed brightly colored plastic wrappers and packaging, crumbs strewn on the car floor, stomach pains, abominable flatulence, and soft velvety chocolate stains on the couch and seat of my pants. Far from Trainspotting or Leaving Las Vegas, this was more like Leaving Seven Eleven.

It was almost laughable, only it wasn’t, it was excruciating. I ate the way an alcoholic drinks and an addict uses. The notion that food could derail a person the way hard drugs or booze can sounds extreme. And whilst the destruction is not as ostensibly violent and as speedily lethal, my spirit was decaying.

When you’re enslaved by compulsion and obsession, no matter what the substance or behavior — you suffer. Your inner freedom withers away and you are caught in a most painful cycle.

I could not stop binge eating. And for some reason I never equated my lawless benders on sweet things as a bona fide addiction. Denial is blinding but it wasn’t only mine. I was seeking the help of health professionals — psychologists and health counselors — who were also missing the reality of the problem. They would say “But it’s not that bad, right?” and minimize my behavior in an attempt to make me feel better. But it was that bad, and their diminishing comments made me feel worse.

They were kind and well intentioned and approached the issue by trying to help me find moderation in my relationship with food, namely sugar: my white powdery blow. I’d find that balance for periods — sometimes days, weeks or even months — but I’d inevitably topple into blowout. And I’m not talking a couple of pieces of cake or a tub of ice cream.

There is a cultural denial around the legitimacy of sugar and food addiction and treatment for disordered eating is usually centered around balance. And that is the ideal solution. But what if that doesn’t work? What if the notion of moderation is the very thing that keeps some of us monumentally stuck?

My continual failure to eat “normally” left me bereft and berating myself for my inability to halt this self-abuse. I couldn’t implement what I was being advised to do. What in hell was wrong with me? I’ve never had a DUI for drunk driving, but I have shamefully dinged my car (and others) more than once as I scoffed food blindly from the passenger seat.

I’d swear off bingeing; writing and typing up resolutions only to rip them up or delete them when I’d inevitably slide into another spree.

Then one day the penny dropped when a health counselor I’d been working with for four years said, “I’ve got it…You’re addicted to sugar!” Well yeah…anyone could see that, but what was her point?

She told me I needed to treat it like a legitimate addiction, find a support group, and face the fact I couldn’t eat processed sugar in moderation, which meant not eating it. At all.

At all. The suggestion seemed not only cruel, but blatantly impossible. I didn’t know a single person who didn’t eat sugar. What a farcical idea. And yet I knew she spoke the truth so I went out and binged.

I googled and found a 12-step group for overeaters. Begrudgingly and only because she kept hassling me, I went as I was desperate and had begun to experience the onset of chronic pain and digestive problems: the inescapable physical consequences of treating my body like a garbage bin.

In that first meeting I listened to others talk about doing the same shameful things with food that I did. Sneaking. Lying. Throwing food in the bin to halt a binge only to come back later and fish it out to eat. Feeling as if your insides were going to erupt with fullness and being unable to stop stuffing your face.

Shame released its chokehold on me as I saw I wasn’t alone. And I was okay. I wasn’t a bad person even if I continued to binge. I was doing something that was bad for me, but I wasn’t bad. Self-loathing gave way to…well, it must’ve been grace, and I felt an ache for the girl in me who’d strained for so long under the weight of something much bigger than her.

For the first time in over 15 years, and at the age of 34 with three young children, I had the wherewithal to choose. Prior to that I hadn’t perceived the freedom of choice. I’d been ruled by compulsion. All I knew was I didn’t want to live out that painful cycle anymore.

So I surrendered to reality. And I kept going to meetings, connecting with others who had been or were struggling like me. Doubt would creep in at times as to whether this was the right path, but I kept going along that bumpy path, and somehow, one day at a time, I let go of my sweet poison.

And the inhumane fate of a life without sugar? It was revealed to be the very opposite and I began over time to experience a newfound freedom with food and in life.

Having long struggled with bouts of suicidal depression and anxiety, the improvement in my mental health was indisputable. Not only to me, but to those around me including my husband and mum. I knew my sugar habit was unravelling my life, but I had no concept as to how much my life could blossom when I became unstuck.

I’m not an advocate for demonizing sugar, or booze, or whatever substances or activities people indulge in for pleasure. The reality is many people can and do enjoy these things and I reckon that’s great.

But for me, I crossed a tipping point somewhere along the line where a chocolate brownie was no longer a single chocolate brownie that could be eaten and left at that; it opened up an insatiable craving for more, and with that came far more pain than joy.

I had given up all hope that I could ever find peace from this affliction. And ironically it was throwing in the towel in desperation that allowed me to succumb to the truth and seek the help I needed to change. Even when you think it doesn’t exist, there is always, always hope.

Have you faced food and/or sugar addiction? Tell us about it in the comments.

View the original article at thefix.com

12 December 2018
Mental Health Specialists Strike Over Staffing, Resource Issues At Kaiser Permanente

Approximately 4,000 mental health specialists are expected to strike over Kaiser Permanente’s lack of mental health staff and resources in California.

Thousands of mental health workers began a five-day strike on December 10, 2018 to protest what they view as shortages in patient resources at Kaiser Permanente facilities across California.

Approximately 4,000 psychologists, therapists, nurses and addiction specialists are expected to picket the non-profit HMO’s medical centers in Sacramento, Modesto, Stockton and other locations in an attempt to demand increased staffing for mental health patients, whom the union claims often have to wait more than a month for appointments due to a lack of medical professionals.

Kaiser Permanente condemned the strike as “disheartening,” especially at the holidays, when patients may need more mental health assistance.

The strike was organized by the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), which has reportedly been locked in conflict with Kaiser for years. At the heart of the union’s concerns is what they described in a statement as a “long history of forcing patients to endure extensive waits for therapy appointments.”

The union cited a 2013 fine imposed on Kaiser by the California Department of Managed Health Care (DHMC) for violating the state’s Mental Health Parity Act, which requires insurers to provide equal coverage for physical and mental health conditions and Timely Access to Care standards, which limits wait time for access to care. The statement also claimed that in 2017, the DHMC required Kaiser to accept outside monitoring of its mental health services.

Though Kaiser patients can now see physicians within state-appointed timeframes, the union stated that many have to wait one month or more for a follow-up appointment. It also claimed that 1/3 of patients in Southern California are sent out of Kaiser’s network for therapy and must find quality, affordable treatment on their own while dealing with what the union said are serious mental health issues. Addressing these concerns would require the HMO to reduce follow-up wait times for appointments, the number of patients sent to non-Kaiser treatment and balance the number of returning patients to intake patients.

“When you delay treatment appointments, it substantially delays recovery times, and it increases morbidity rates and mortality rates,” said Fred Seavey, the union’s research director, to USA Today. “It has huge implications for people’s lives . . . It has impacts on their incomes, their families and their relationships with loved ones.”

In response to the union’s claims, Josh Nelson, vice president of communications at Kaiser, called the strike “completely unnecessary” and pointed to a 30% increase in the number of mental health professionals statewide since 2015 as evidence of its compliance with patient needs. “When necessary, we contract with community providers to further ensure its members have access to the care they need,” he added.

A statement from Michelle Gaskill-Hames, chief nurse executive for Kaiser Permanente in Northern California, claimed that the strike was “particularly disheartening” during the holidays, “when many of our patients with mental health needs may be at their most vulnerable.” But Sonoma County Supervisor Shirlee Zane is galled by the notion that Kaiser would decry a five-day strike as harmful to patients.

Zane’s husband struggled with anxiety and depression and sought treatment with Kaiser therapists in 2010. He was instead sent to an anxiety group and finally saw a therapist in late December of that year. After two appointments, the therapist told him that he was ineligible for a follow-up for two months. Three days later, Zane’s husband took his own life.

Zane, who told USA Today that Kaiser asked her to remain neutral in the strike, said, “They’re making the point that somehow or other, this is irresponsible for therapists to leave their patients for five friggin’ days. They could put a patient on a five-week waiting list and not blink an eye, and then they’re worried about five days?

“My husband’s dead, my kids don’t have a father, my grandkids don’t have a grandfather,” she said. “I’m glad these therapists are striking.”

View the original article at thefix.com

12 December 2018
Julia Roberts Shines In Powerful Addiction Drama "Ben Is Back"

Ben is Back follows the Burns family over the course of a turbulent 24 hours as Holly tries desperately to save her son, who’s fresh out of rehab, from danger.

Ben is Back is an acclaimed new film about a mother whose son is struggling with opioid addiction. Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges, who play mother and son in the addiction drama are both receiving rave reviews for their performances.

In Ben is Back, Ben Burns (played by Lucas Hedges) unexpectedly returns to his family’s home on Christmas Eve, a time that can be even more tumultuous for those with addiction. The film follows the family over the course of 24 hours as Roberts tries desperately to save her son from danger, as he’s fresh out of rehab. The film showcases the toll that addiction takes on the loved ones of those dealing with the disease.

In researching his role, Lucas spent time with Roberts’ family, and as the Oscar-winning actress told The Daily Beast, that quality time together “served us in the dark, cold night of shooting. We had these sunny days to reflect back upon.”

Ben is Back was written and directed by Peter Hedges, Lucas’ father, who also wrote and directed What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. Addiction ran in Peter’s family. His mother battled alcoholism and became sober when Peter was 15.

Hedges told The Hollywood Reporter he was struggling with writer’s block, but after the death of a friend from an overdose, and the subsequent death of Philip Seymour Hoffman, he became obsessed with the subject of addiction.

Once the Ben is Back screenplay was finished, Disney quickly snapped it up, and producer Nina Jacobson said it was “the fastest journey I’ve ever taken from script to screen.”

As Lucas explains, “I think the movie is a reflection of my dad’s passion for triumph in family. He’s always had an intense gift in being able to see the innocence and beauty in people who struggle with addiction, because that’s very close to his own story with his family and how he relates to his mother who struggle with it.”

Lucas also feels that Ben is Back has great potential to help other families who are suffering from addiction to heal as well. “I felt like this movie was an opportunity for us as a family to confront something that’s hereditary and that maybe it would be easier going forward for what maybe my kids will have to deal with.”

“This is a lot of families,” Roberts says. “It’s such a huge issue. I just don’t know that there could be anyone who could sit in a room and say is there anywhere here who could say alcohol abuse, drug abuse, addiction has not touched your life in some way.”

View the original article at thefix.com

11 December 2018
Patrick Kennedy On The State Of Addiction, Suicide Rates

“If this were some other illness that evoked the same type of compassion that other illnesses receive, we would be spending dramatically more money to combat these rising suicide and overdose rates,” Patrick Kennedy said.

Patrick Kennedy recently spoke to US News about the latest statistics on addiction and suicide and what he believes could be at the root of the problem.

Kennedy says recent news about the drop in US life expectancy due to suicide and drug overdose deaths was “extremely shocking, but frankly, not surprising.”

He added, “As a nation, we’re absolutely in denial about how bad this crisis is. If this were some other illness that evoked the same type of compassion that other illnesses receive, we would be spending dramatically more money to combat these rising suicide and overdose rates.”

Kennedy has been very vocal about the stigma surrounding addiction and mental health. In his book, A Common Struggle, he detailed his own experience of living with addiction and bipolar disorder. Kennedy believes stigma plays a massive role in preventing people with addiction and/or mental health issues from getting the treatment they need.

“The real tragedy is what it says about the people who suffer from these illnesses – they’re still shamed by their illness, they’re overwhelmingly stigmatized,” he tells US News. “They’re relegated to a system of care that is substandard at best.”

Addressing the increased rates of addiction and suicide, Kennedy said, “There is obviously great complexity to all of the causes and how they converge together to create the crisis that we’re in right now,” and he also felt “there’s a well-established narrative here that pharma had a huge responsibility for this, and there should be a huge national settlement in helping to create this crisis…”

Kennedy added, “I think that both insurance companies and Big Pharma made a lot of money in this process, and a lot of people died. And I think if we’re going to go after the pharmaceutical industry, then it would be absolutely inexplicable why we would not also go after the insurance industry with the same fervor for their part in letting this crisis unfold without doing what we needed to do to address it.”

Kennedy also took time to reflect on the 10-year anniversary of the Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, which he called “a medical civil rights bill” where people are treated for mental health and addiction on the same “primary care level, secondary care level and tertiary care level as you would find when treating any other medical surgical illness.”

Yet Kennedy recently acknowledged that the act still has a long way to go, and he started a website in October called Don’t Deny Me, where people can report insurance companies that won’t cover their addiction and mental health issues.

He told The Washington Post, “There are plenty of solutions to bring people the care they need, but what is missing is the political will and the economic and legal pressure to make it happen and that’s why we’re marking the anniversary.”

View the original article at thefix.com

11 December 2018
How Cannabis Sales Are Affecting Canada’s Employment Rate

A new report suggests that the recent legalization of cannabis in Canada has made a positive impact on unemployment rates.

Canada’s unemployment rate is the lowest since 1976 – and the country may have the legalization of cannabis to thank.

According to new data from Statistics Canada, the legalization and growth of the cannabis industry have played a role in the drop in unemployment.

High Times pointed out that the unemployment rate decreased by 0.2% in November, bringing the rate to 5.6%. In six different Canadian provinces, the rates increased, and the report stated that “private sector jobs” grew the most while public sector jobs and self-employment remained fairly unchanged. Cannabis was legalized in Canada in October.

Part of the report focused specifically on the cannabis industry and stated that in November, the month following legalization, there were 10,400 jobs related to the industry. In comparison, last November there were 7,500 fewer jobs in the industry, meaning that in one year, the jobs more than doubled.

More specifically, 58% of those jobs were in agriculture, while the other 42% ranged from educational services to health care to retail. Those working in the industry were also making more wage-wise than average, at about $29.58 per hour in comparison to the average of $27.03.

The report also states that men were more likely to work in the industry than women, as men made up about 79% of jobs in the cannabis industry.

Alison McMahon, founder and CEO of Cannabis at Work, tells The Growth Op that the biggest demand for jobs is coming from licensed producers needing assistance with growing, cultivation, quality checks, post-production and order fulfillment. And the market will likely keep growing, as McMahon adds that “we expect to see a lot of jobs emerge around extraction, formulation and product R&D (research and development).”

In fact, there is even a new job engine dedicated solely to cannabis-related jobs. Brian Sekandi, the co-founder of Careers Cannabis, agrees that more and more research related jobs will be emerging over time. He also tells The Growth Op that he thinks jobs will be opening in the marketing of cannabis as more products hit the market.

“With the massive restrictions on brand marketing and advertising the cannabis industry is faced with now, the big challenge is on how to educate consumers – particularly those who may be new cannabis users – about the different types of cannabis that are available to them and what the effects are of using cannabis,” Sekandi said.

Sekandi added that as of now, those working in the industry in Canada are ahead of much of the world.

“Things are only going to go up from here for people gaining skills and experience in the Canadian cannabis industry,” he said. “The trend is definitely toward more liberalized cannabis laws being introduced around the world, so anybody who starts working in the industry in Canada today has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be at the ground floor of a global industry and to help shape it for years to come.”

View the original article at thefix.com

11 December 2018
"Real Housewives" Luann de Lesseps Takes Sobriety "Day By Day"

“Rehab saved my life. It was the best thing that I could do for myself and I’m so glad I did that,”Real Housewives of New York City’s Luann de Lesseps said in a recent interview.

Real Housewives of New York City’s Luann de Lesseps is more than 120 days sober and says she is taking her recovery one day at a time after a rocky year that involved two stints in rehab.

“It’s not easy, but I take it day by day,” the 53-year-old reality star explained. “I feel so much better and happier without it, so it works for me.”

Last December, de Lesseps was arrested on New Year’s Eve for being drunk and disorderly. She pleaded guilty to the charge and had to attend two AA meetings a week as part of her plea deal. Shortly after that, she checked into rehab after realizing that her drinking had gotten out of control.

“I had two or three [martinis], then I think two bottles of rosé wine by myself, and then I probably had a six-pack of beer or something,” de Lesseps said. “I was dancing in my kitchen with a bikini on.”

Initially, she was successful in recovery.

“At this point in my life, I don’t want to drink, nor do I have interest in drinking,” she told Extra in April. “Rehab saved my life. It was the best thing that I could do for myself and I’m so glad I did that.”

In July she posted that she was celebrating six months of sobriety by spending Independence Day with her family, with whom she has a fraught relationship. However, shortly after that she checked into rehab again.

Still, de Lesseps didn’t shy away from her struggles during a recent conversation with Fox News.

“It’s something that happened very publicly to me, so it wasn’t easy going through,” she said, adding that she hopes other people who are struggling with alcoholism will see her story and know that they can get help — even when things don’t quite go as planned.

“I think it’s important for people to see that even if everything implodes, you can pick yourself up,” she said. “For me, it was getting on the cabaret stage, and then, of course, filming another season of the show.”

de Lesseps is able to continue filming, even though her co-stars still drink.

“The girls are very supportive of my sobriety and I’m able to do the new season without too many problems,” she said. She doesn’t expect others to change their drinking habits to accommodate her.

“That’s life in general,” she said. “It’s going to always be there. Temptation is always there. It’s up to me to not pick up and drink, but the girls have been very supportive of my sobriety, and that’s made it a lot easier for me.”

View the original article at thefix.com

11 December 2018
Jada Pinkett Smith Gets Candid About Father's Addiction Struggles

“Once he did get sober, he was really a gentle soul. Now that I’m older, I have so much more compassion in knowing what he had gone through,” said Jada Pinkett Smith about her late father.

Actress Jada Pinkett Smith opened up last week with tough memories about her father and his struggle with addiction before his 2010 death from a drug overdose, according to USA Today.

Joined by her mother, daughter and half-brother Caleeb, Pinkett Smith delved into the “shared source of pain” during her Facebook Watch show Red Table Talk, which drew more than 5 million views in less than a week.

“He told me at 7, ‘I can’t be your father. I’m a criminal, I’m an addict and that’s just what it is,’” the 47-year-old Matrix actress said. Growing up, she said, Robsol Pinkett Jr.’s addiction was a source of resentment for the rest of the family.

“We had that feeling like we had to be responsible for him,” Pinkett Smith said, “but he never had to be responsible for us, and that was a hard pill for me to swallow.”

For years, the family weathered his abusive behavior, even when at times he was “typically drunk,” Pinkett Smith said. Eventually, though, he sobered up.

“Once he did get sober, he was really a gentle soul,” she said. “Now that I’m older, I have so much more compassion in knowing what he had gone through.”

Then, just before his death, the actress and her father got in a fight.

“The most difficult part of him dying like that is because he and I had had a horrendous fight when I found out that he relapsed,” she said. “I was like, ‘I don’t owe you nothing. You didn’t do shit for me, you didn’t do shit for Caleeb. I don’t owe you nothing.’ It was one of those.”

It was only after he died that Pinkett Smith and her siblings were able to find forgiveness.

“I had the most startling realization that Rob’s life wasn’t about him being my father,” she said. “Rob’s life was about Rob being on his journey, and it just so happened along the way that he gave me life.”

It was an “aha” moment, she said.

“I realized he was not born to be my dad,” she explained. “That wasn’t the only thing he was here to do. He’s a person first, with his own journey.”

View the original article at thefix.com

11 December 2018