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Category: Addiction News

  • Fentanyl Deaths Skyrocketed More than 1000% Over Six Years in the U.S.

    Fentanyl Deaths Skyrocketed More than 1000% Over Six Years in the U.S.

    Deaths from fentanyl skyrocketed more than 1000% from 2011 to 2016, according to new data released March 21 from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Its report not only took into account the rise in drug overdose deaths involving the synthetic opioid, but it also illustrated which age groups, genders, races, ethnicities and regions were most impacted.

    Rising Rates, Ongoing Epidemic

    In order to determine the number of fatalities associated with fentanyl, researchers analyzed death certificate information that included mentions of fentanyl and fentanyl analogs (other synthetic narcotics).  In doing so, they found that 2011 and 2012 remained about the same, each hovering around 1,600 deaths.  In 2013, the number began to increase a bit, with just over 1,900 fatalities.  After that, fentanyl-related deaths began to double each year, with fentanyl involved in 4,223 deaths in 2014, 8,251 deaths in 2015, and a whopping 18,335 deaths in 2016.

    Regarding gender, the researchers found that while men and women had similar rates of fentanyl-related deaths from 2011 through 2013, the rate for males began increasing more rapidly than the rate for females. By 2016, the rate of men dying from fentanyl overdoses was nearly three times (2.8) that of women.

    And while there were increases in fentanyl-related fatalities in all age groups from 2011 through 2016, the largest rate increases were among younger adults in both the 15-24-year-old and 25-34-year-old segments, with fentanyl overdoses increasing about 94% and 100% each year, respectively.  Adults aged 65 years and older, on the other hand, saw the smallest average annual percent change (41.6% per year).

    Who’s Hit Hardest

    Researchers also found that while whites had the highest overall rates of fentanyl fatalities, death rates among African Americans and Hispanics increased at a higher rate.  Between 2011 and 2016, African Americans had fentanyl death rates increase 140.6% annually and Hispanics had an increase of 118.3% annually.  Whites, on the other hand, experienced a 61% annual increase.

    Finally, the researchers found that certain areas were hit harder by fentanyl than others.  Overdose death rates rose most sharply along the East Coast, including in New England and the middle Atlantic, as well as in the Great Lakes region.

    With opioids ravaging the country, fentanyl has become the leading cause of overdose deaths.  As such, the researchers hope that understanding national trends and patterns for fentanyl-related overdose deaths may inform public health policies and practices moving forward.

    View the original article at recovery.org

  • Experimental Brain Implant To Curb Addiction Being Tested In China

    Experimental Brain Implant To Curb Addiction Being Tested In China

    Doctors in China have already completed multiple case studies on this treatment with varied results. 

    Researchers in China have been testing deep brain stimulation (DBS) on human subjects as a possible way to treat addiction, including to opioids, according to a report by the Associated Press.

    The process includes drilling holes into the skull in order to place electrodes in the brain that electrically stimulate the nucleus accumbens, which scientists believe are involved in addiction, in a fashion similar to a pacemaker.

    DBS has been used successfully to treat movement disorders like Parkinson’s disease, but results in the treatment of addiction have been mixed. Due to the complex nature of addiction disorders and ethical restrictions on such a radical therapy, as well as the high costs, human trials on DBS for addiction have been slow to come to the U.S.

    Two large-scale trials conducted five years ago in the U.S. for the treatment of depression failed, causing researchers to essentially start over in regards to their understanding of DBS for mental illness.

    “We’ve had a reset in the field,” said UCLA neurosurgeon Dr. Nader Pouratian. Despite the urgency around finding effective treatments for opioid addiction as overdose death rates have skyrocketed in recent years, Pouratian believes testing DBS treatment for the disorder should only be green-lit “if we can move forward in ethical, well-informed, well-designed studies.”

    In China, where ethical standards for medical testing are not as strict as they are in the U.S., doctors have already completed multiple case studies on this treatment with varied results. One patient fatally overdosed on heroin three months after receiving the brain implant. Others have remained sober for years.

    The AP report focuses on “Yan,” a young Chinese man who has been struggling with meth addiction for years and has relapsed multiple times after stints in rehab. When given the option, he jumped at the chance to receive the DBS surgery. He had already lost his job and his family to his addiction and feels that he has weak willpower.

    After getting the brain implant, doctors inserted a battery into Yan’s chest to power the device. With the press of a button, his doctor has been able to change his mood from happy to agitated and back. 

    “This machine is pretty magical,” Yan says. “He adjusts it to make you happy and you’re happy, to make you nervous and you’re nervous. It controls your happiness, anger, grief and joy.”

    Yan has been sober for six months after the surgery and reported being able to refuse drugs when offered. 

    Back in the U.S., the FDA has green-lit a single small human trial testing the use of DBS for opioid addiction, which is tentatively scheduled to begin in June at the West Virginia University Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute.

    “People are dying,” said the leader of the study Dr. Ali Rezai. “Their lives are devastated. It’s a brain issue. We need to explore all options.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Inside Mexico’s Plan To Decriminalize Drugs

    Inside Mexico’s Plan To Decriminalize Drugs

    President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s wants the country to treat drug use as a health issue rather than a crime. 

    Mexico’s president has given his firm endorsement of decriminalizing drugs, Forbes reported.

    President Andrés Manuel López Obrador recently unveiled his National Development Plan for 2019-2024, which includes a plan for decriminalizing all drugs including heroin and cocaine.

    The president unequivocally acknowledged the failure of the “war on drugs,” and the need for a wholly different approach. By decriminalizing drugs, it would be treated as a health issue rather than a crime.

    “The only real possibility of reducing the levels of drug consumption is to lift the ban on those that are currently illegal, and redirect the resources currently destined to combat their transfer and apply them in programs—massive, but personalized—of reinsertion and detoxification,” Obrador said in his policy statement.

    Arrests would be replaced by “enforced medical treatments,” Forbes reported.

    When the drug war was escalated under former President Felipe Calderón, violence escalated as well. In 2006, Calderón deployed 6,500 soldiers to fight drug traffickers. This resulted in an estimated 150,000 deaths attributed to organized gang killings, according to a 2018 report by the Congressional Research Service.

    Neither drug trafficking nor drug use have declined over the past decade but instead have risen to record levels, according to a report by the International Drug Policy Consortium.

    “Public safety strategies applied by previous administrations have been catastrophic: far from resolving or mitigating the catastrophe has sharpened it,” said Obrador.

    The war on drugs approach is “unsustainable” for many reasons, said the president. It is bad for public safety and for public health. “Worse still, the prohibitionist model inevitably criminalizes consumers and reduces their odds of social reintegration and rehabilitation.”

    It is “conceivable” that legislation will be drafted to make Obrador’s proposal a reality in the coming year, according to Marijuana Moment.

    While Obrador’s plan may seem “radical,” Mexico would not be the first country to decriminalize drugs. Nor would it be the first time the country attempted to reform its drug policy in this manner.

    In 2009, under Calderón, Mexico decriminalized small amounts of drugs including marijuana, cocaine, heroin, LSD and methamphetamine.

    However, the policy “achieved little in practice,” according to a 2014 report from the Research Consortium on Drugs and the Law. Why? The maximum limits for personal use set by the law were too small to make a real difference—5 grams was the legal limit for marijuana, half a gram for cocaine, 50 milligrams for heroin, 40 mg for meth and 0.015 mg for LSD. The policy resulted in “little more than quasi-decriminalization,” Talking Drugs reported at the time.

    Mexico, one gateway for illegal drugs destined for the U.S., has seen firsthand the brutal violence associated with the lucrative drug market that the U.S. offers. As a result, the country is finally acknowledging the need to break the status quo. 

    The past several Mexican presidents—Enrique Peña Nieto, Vicente Fox and even Calderón—have acknowledged the failure of the war on drugs. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • NBA Star Kevin Love Talks Anxiety, His First Panic Attack

    NBA Star Kevin Love Talks Anxiety, His First Panic Attack

    Love described having his first panic attack to Men’s Health.

    Kevin Love is the five-time All-Star forward of the Cleveland Cavaliers who helped lead the team in winning a 2016 NBA championship. Since suffering a panic attack during a game, Love has also been an outspoken advocate for mental health awareness.

    Love can remember the exact date he had his panic attack, November 5, 2017, right after halftime during a game against the Atlanta Hawks. He told Men’s Health, “I couldn’t catch my breath. I was sticking my hand down my throat, trying to clear my air passage. I thought I was having a heart attack and ended up unconscious on the floor of our head trainer’s office.”

    At one point, Love thought “this could be it,” that he was actually dying, but then he also became terrified that his teammates would think he was “not reliable,” and he kept his anxiety attack a secret.

    As Love recalled to The Player’s Tribune, his panic attack “came out of nowhere. I’d never had one before. I didn’t even know if they were real. But it was real—as real as a broken hand or a sprained ankle. Since that day, almost everything about the way I think about my mental health has changed.”

    Love said that when he was younger, “You figure out really quickly how a boy is supposed to act… It’s like a playbook: Be strong. Don’t talk about your feelings. Get through it on your own. So for 29 years of my life, I followed that playbook. These values about men and toughness are so ordinary that they’re everywhere… and invisible at the same time, surrounding us like air or water. They’re a lot like depression or anxiety in that way.”

    Love has since learned to face his anxiety through therapy, spending time with his dog, taking medication and practicing meditation. He has also launched The Kevin Love Fund, a charity that works in tandem with the Movember Foundation and Just Keep Livin.

    “These superheroes that we look at, whether it be somebody in the entertainment industry or an athlete, we also have these layers that we deal with on a daily basis. Know that you’re not alone. You’re not different. You’re not weird. And we can do this stuff together,” said Love.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Famous San Francisco Neighborhood Grapples With Drug Dealing

    Famous San Francisco Neighborhood Grapples With Drug Dealing

    Tackling drug dealing in the Tenderloin district cost the city more than $12.5 million from 2017-2018.

    San Francisco is home to the priciest apartment rental market in the country—but it is also home to “widespread and endemic” drug dealing relegated to the city’s poorer neighborhoods.

    A report by the SF budget and legislative analyst revealed details of drug dealing activity in the Bay Area, particularly in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district where more than half of drug arrests were made from 2017-2018.

    Of 883 people who were arrested or cited in San Francisco for selling drugs during that time period, 56% were from Tenderloin, according to the report.

    “There are dozens of people selling drugs at any given hour, including around our parks and schools and in the neighborhood,” said district supervisor Matt Haney, who represents Tenderloin.

    Haney held a Board of Supervisors hearing in April to discuss the drug problem in Tenderloin, Mid-Market and South of Market—which are all within Haney’s District 6. Haney acknowledged that “what we’re doing right now is not working,” hoping to develop a “comprehensive citywide strategy” that is currently lacking.

    “I’m not saying that people need to get a long-term prison sentence,” Haney said. “But each arrest costs us something like $10,000, so when we do arrest someone we should be smarter about what happens next.”

    According to the report, tackling drug dealing in Tenderloin, South of Market and Mid-Market cost the city more than $12.5 million from 2017-2018.

    Prosecutors say that “current sentencing practices do not deter” drug sellers from returning to their posts—which has resulted in what SF Chronicle has called a “revolving door of drug dealers.”

    As The Chronicle reported, “Prosecutors… say it takes an average of 244 days—about eight months—for a felony like selling drugs to make its way through the courts. Often as not, the suspected dealers are released by a judge pending the outcome of their cases. And just as often, the dealers head back to the Tenderloin and start selling drugs again.”

    Of 173 convictions cited in the report, 80.3% (or 139) of them received probation with some time served while just 18.5% (or 32) received longer sentencing.

    “Most of the people arrested or convicted get probation, which begs the question, How can we make probation effective and not have these guys go right back on the street?” said Haney.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Pin Project Helps Servers Tell People They’re Abstaining From Alcohol

    Pin Project Helps Servers Tell People They’re Abstaining From Alcohol

    The pin initiative allows servers to nonverbally communicate to coworkers and patrons that they won’t be drinking during a shift.

    For people working behind a bar, drinking during a shift can be a way to socialize with colleagues, keep patrons happy and keep work fun. However, one sober bartender wants to make it easier for servers to let people know that they’re not drinking that shift, with no messy explanations. 

    Mark Goodwin, who has been sober for 10 months, founded The Pin Project as a way for servers to send a signal to their communities. The small pins that he will soon be selling for $15 tell coworkers and patrons that a server won’t be drinking during that shift.

    “Bartenders are surrounded by alcohol, but we rarely talk about that as putting ourselves in a risky situation,” Goodwin told Vinepair. “For some of us, it really is.”

    However, the pin isn’t just for people in recovery—it’s for anyone who wants to pass up drinking for their shift for any reason. This aspect is very important, Goodwin said. 

    “It’s not a sobriety token,” he said. Rather, the pins “let the people around you know that you’re making a choice not to imbibe that shift… You could be on antibiotics, or you might have to pick someone up from the airport, or maybe you have a substance problem.”

    Everyone can use the pin to steer their own relationship with alcohol at work, without intrusive questions. “You could put the pin on and wear it forever,” Goodwin said. “But what’s really important is that it’s now.”

    The Pin Project received a grant in 2018 from Tales of the Cocktail Foundation, which supports service industry workers. 

    “Whether it’s just a night off, or many nights off, we hope The Pin Project helps bartenders (and patrons alike) remove the stigmas around not drinking,” said the organization’s Executive Director Caroline Rosen. 

    The Bay Area is the first region where Goodwin will promote the pins, but he hopes to have the initiative take off in other major cities as well. Half of the proceeds will go toward funding the Pin Foundation, which will support counseling and mental health services for hospitality workers. 

    Goodwin knows that making the pins mainstream will take a lot of effort. “There’s a lot of work left to do,” he said. 

    However, he is hopeful that the Pin Project will make it easier to talk about not drinking in the heart of the nightlife scene, and he is happy to see the positive response that the initiative has received thus far. 

    “I’m really honored and humbled to see people taking interest in this little idea that started over a couple of hungover breakfasts,” he said.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Elizabeth Warren Outlines Opioid Response Plan

    Elizabeth Warren Outlines Opioid Response Plan

    Warren says an aggressive response is needed to turn the tide on the opioid epidemic. 

    If she is elected President of the United States, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) will spend $100 billion on responding to the opioids crisis, she said in a post on Medium. 

    Warren’s plan is an updated version of the CARE Act, which she introduced along with Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD). The legislation never gained much traction, but Warren said that an aggressive response is needed to turn the tide on the opioid epidemic. 

    Warren compared her opioid response plan to the Ryan White CARE Act, which funded a national response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and ultimately helped to bring down the death rate.  

    “This is not the first time our country has faced a national public health crisis of great magnitude. When deaths from HIV/AIDS grew rapidly in the 1980s, our country’s medical system was ill-equipped to respond,” Warren wrote. “In 1990, Congress passed the Ryan White CARE Act, which finally provided significant new, guaranteed funding to help state and local governments combat the growing epidemic and provided a safety net for those living with the disease. A similar national mobilization is needed to confront the opioid epidemic today.”

    Warren said that her plan would provide “resources directly to first responders, public health departments, and communities on the front lines of this crisis — so that they have the resources to provide prevention, treatment, and recovery services for those who need it most.”

    The funds would be distributed over 10 years to governments and nonprofits that are working to respond to the opioid epidemic. However, organizations would be given leeway to use the funding in the way that they believe would be most effective. 

    “Resources would be used to support the whole continuum of care, from early intervention for those at risk for addiction, to harm reduction for those struggling with addiction, to long-term support services for those in recovery,” Warren wrote. “Along with addiction treatment, the CARE Act would ensure access to mental health services and help provide critical wraparound services like housing support and medical transportation for those who need them.”

    In addition to crafting a proactive response, Warren said that she would like to see the executives of companies that have contributed to the opioid epidemic held criminally responsible. 

    “The opioid epidemic teaches us that too often in America today, if you have money and power, you can take advantage of everyone else without consequence. I think it’s time to change that,” she wrote. 

    She continued, “Rather than blaming the victims, we need to make sure a crisis like this never happens again.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Screening Job Applicants For Marijuana Use Is Now Against The Law In NYC

    Screening Job Applicants For Marijuana Use Is Now Against The Law In NYC

    NYC is the first jurisdiction in the U.S. to explicitly prohibit this practice.

    Most New York City employers can no longer require a marijuana test from job applicants as a condition of employment. The new law, which the City Council “overwhelmingly” passed in April with a 40-4 vote, will take effect in May 2020.

    “If we want to be a progressive city, we have to really put these things into action,” bill sponsor and NYC public advocate Jumaane D. Williams said at the time.

    NYC is the first jurisdiction in the U.S. to explicitly prohibit this practice.

    While Mayor Bill de Blasio had said that he would sign the legislation—calling it a “healthy step” and “part of how we change our culture to be less punitive and exclusionary”—he ultimately did not sign.

    Marijuana Moment reports that it is “unclear what changed” between then and now. Regardless, the law will take effect in one year.

    The bill’s text reads: “[E]xcept as otherwise provided by law, it shall be an unlawful discriminatory practice for an employer, labor organization, employment agency, or agent thereof to require a prospective employee to submit to testing for the presence of tetrahydrocannabinols or marijuana in such prospective employee’s system as a condition of employment.”

    Certain occupations—“safety and security sensitive jobs”—are exempt from the rule including construction, law enforcement, child care, medical care, truck driving and aviation.

    Federal or state employees and government contractors are also exempt as they do not fall under the city’s jurisdiction. Employers may also test workers if they appear to be under the influence of marijuana at work.

    Williams, who authored the legislation, says the city will not wait for the state government to legalize marijuana for it to start reforming marijuana policies. “NYC must lead the way on this issue,” he stated.

    New York’s efforts to legalize marijuana for recreational use have lost momentum ahead of the time remaining in New York’s legislative session.

    The New York Times notes that while it is still possible for the state to “legalize it” by late June, it’s unclear whether NY lawmakers have finally come to agree on the details of the marijuana legalization initiative.

    “It’s clear that we cannot wait until legalization on the state level before moving to reduce the impact that marijuana prohibition has had on individuals and communities,” said Williams. “Testing isn’t a deterrent to using marijuana, it’s an impediment to opportunity that dates back to the Reagan era—a war on drugs measure that’s now a war on workers. We need to be creating more access points for employment, not less—and if prospective employers aren’t testing for past alcohol usage, marijuana should be no different.”

    If legalization does not happen this year, the state is planning to expand its medical marijuana program, NYT reported.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Pot-Smuggling Arrests at LAX Up 166% Since Legalization

    Pot-Smuggling Arrests at LAX Up 166% Since Legalization

    Arrests at California’s busiest airport rose to 101 in 2018, up from 38 in 2017. 

    The Los Angeles Times has reported that drug trafficking arrests at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) have surged 166% since the state legalized recreational marijuana in 2018.

    Arrests at LAX, which is the busiest airport in the state of California, saw 101 trafficking arrests in 2018, up from 38 in 2017. Other California airports, including Oakland and Sacramento, are reporting similar increases.

    But while it’s legal to carry up to 28.5 grams of marijuana at LAX, travelers may run afoul of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents, who as federal employees must uphold the federal government’s prohibitive stance towards marijuana.

    The Sacramento Bee outlined the issue in its coverage of the Times‘ reporting. Per LAX policy, travelers are allowed to carry 28.5 grams of marijuana and 8 grams of concentrated marijuana for personal consumption.

    The Bee quoted Los Angeles Airport Police spokesperson Alicia Hernandez who said, “We’re not going to arrest you or confiscate marijuana.”

    However, since commercial planes fly through federal airspace, travelers must still check in with TSA agents at LAX and other California airports, and the rules that apply to airport police regarding marijuana are not the same for federal agents. “TSA can deny you coming through the checkpoint,” said Hernandez. “The checkpoint is their jurisdiction.”

    TSA spokesperson Lorie Dankers outlined the administration’s policy regarding marijuana in an email to the Bee. “TSA’s screening procedures, which are governed by federal law, are focused on security and are designed to detect potential threats to aviation and passengers.”

    So if TSA agents find marijuana on a traveler or in their luggage, they must refer the issue to local law enforcement, even if the state or country where the airport is located—or where the traveler is heading—allows legalized marijuana. From there, law enforcement will determine “whether or not the passenger is allowed to travel with marijuana.”

    Hernandez again asserted that travelers stopped by TSA at LAX will face no arrests. But as the Bee noted, missing a flight due to law enforcement intervention remains a possibility.

    To that end, LA City Councilman Mitch Englander has suggested the implementation of “amnesty boxes,” where travelers can deposit marijuana before entering a TSA checkpoint. McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada has 20 such boxes available for travelers. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • “Rock Doc” Continues To Prescribe Addictive Drugs Despite Indictment

    “Rock Doc” Continues To Prescribe Addictive Drugs Despite Indictment

    Prosecutors say his bail should be revoked.

    The man who fancies himself as the “Rock Doc” is seemingly unfazed by the recent federal indictment against him. Since his release in April pending trial, prosecutors say that Jeff Young, a nurse practitioner based in Jackson, Tennessee, is still open for business. Now, they are trying to have his bond revoked.

    In April, Young was one of 60 medical professionals—doctors, nurse practitioners, pharmacists and more—charged with illegal prescribing of controlled substances.

    According to the indictment filed by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, “Young issued prescriptions for controlled substances, including the Schedule II controlled substances Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, and others, and the Schedule IV controlled substances Alprazolam, Diazepam, Clonazepam, and others… outside the course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose. Young’s motives in prescribing controlled substances to his patients were often to obtain money, notoriety, and sexual favors.”

    The Rock Doc—“a brash, tattooed 45-year-old” as the Daily Beast described him—abused his position to promote himself and prey on women, the indictment alleges. “Young used his power to prescribe controlled substances to promote his television pilot and his podcast, and to have sex with women, including women who were his patients.”

    He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

    A 10-minute pilot of a reality show about his practice from 2016 is still available to watch on YouTube. Apparently it never took off.

    Following the indictment, all 60 defendants were released on bond. But Young has continued to write prescriptions haphazardly. Federal authorities say he should be detained.

    While Young is no longer permitted to prescribe opioid drugs, he can still prescribe benzodiazepines like Xanax or Valium, per a 2018 settlement with the Tennessee Board of Nursing. Young has allegedly continued to prescribe these to patients who have been “doctor shopping.”

    Andrew Pennebaker, the Department of Justice trial attorney prosecuting Young, says the Rock Doc’s continued prescribing activity requires special attention. “The Court should do what the Board did not: stop Young from further harming the community by prescribing dangerous substances and exploiting his patients in the process. The only way to ensure this is to detain Young pending trial.”

    Pennebaker cites a history of violence that makes Young a special case. “Even among other defendants presumed to be dangerous, Young stands out: he has demonstrated a history of violence against women, intimidation and threats, and disregard of judicial and administrative orders.”

    View the original article at thefix.com