Answer Addiction

Tag: addiction documentaries

  • Ronnie Wood Details Excesses, Sobriety In New Documentary

    Ronnie Wood Details Excesses, Sobriety In New Documentary

    Somebody Up There Likes Me explores the highs and lows of the prolific guitarist’s life.

    Veteran English rocker Ronnie Wood said that he was once so entrenched in his drug addiction that he would carry a personal burner to parties in order to freebase cocaine.

    The story and other harrowing incidents are detailed in a new documentary, Somebody Up There Likes Me, which explores the heights of the guitarist’s fame as a member of the Rolling Stones and Faces, as well as the lows experienced along the way, including dependency to drugs, alcohol and tobacco, and a bout with cancer.

    Nine Years Of Sobriety

    Wood told The Mirror that after getting sober nine years ago, he works daily to maintain his music career and new life as a husband and father to three-year-old twin daughters. “I probably like things too much, which is harmless for some things, like music, but harmful in ways like dope or drink.”

    Wood said that he “enjoyed the s—t out of” freebase cocaine and took his burner with him everywhere, including parties. “I would go, ‘Everybody try this,’ get a great big Bunsen burner out, the pipes, the works, freebase and everything. And people would be going, ‘You’re f—king crazy.’ But I would love it.”

    But the potency of the high and the novelty of the portable works fell away, and Wood was left with a crippling dependency on cocaine. “I had no control over it,” he recalled. “It’s incredibly powerful. It ruled everything. Getting high with that pipe was frightening. [You] do anything for it, and I can understand why people went out and killed for it.”

    Eventually, Wood realized that he could die as a result of his addiction—a fate that had befallen some of his friends. “I have seen enough people go over the top,” he said. “Some of them didn’t make it. It was a really horrible thing, and you would learn a lesson from that.”

    Intervention Time

    The intervention of friends and peers, like his band mates in the Rolling Stones, as well as artist Damien Hurst, helped to steer Wood into treatment. Hirst recalled receiving an urgent call from professional snooker champion Ronnie O’Sullivan—both of whom had recently binged on cocaine and alcohol—to take Wood to rehab.

    “I picked him up with his son, [English musician] Jesse [Wood], and of course, he’s drinking,” said Hirst. “We went out and we went to a local pub on the way.” Wood reportedly underwent treatment seven times before gaining sobriety nine years ago.

    Wood’s circle of friends and collaborators stated their relief at his life change in the documentary. Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards—no stranger to dependency and recovery himself—said, “[Wood] has a great immune system. In fact, he is very like me, with a great pain threshold.” Drummer Charlie Watts—ever the sole of brevity—added, “If I was of some help, I am glad.”

    As for Wood, the work of remaining clean and sober is a daily requirement. “It’s very difficult, because you go through a period of dry, and you go, ‘I’ve done it. I’ve cleaned up now. I can have just one.’ And that is a big mistake, because you can’t have just one.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • New Documentary Explores Hollywood’s "Secret" Addiction Epidemic

    New Documentary Explores Hollywood’s "Secret" Addiction Epidemic

    The film purports to expose “how many A-list celebrities are becoming victims of Hollywood’s secret opioid epidemic and what role the studios will play in ending the crisis.”

    A new documentary titled Fatal Addiction: Hollywood’s Secret Epidemic attempts to shed light on the amount of drug use among actors and other stars, particularly focusing on opioids.

    Led by celebrity journalist Nancy O’Dell, the film purports to expose “how many A-list celebrities are becoming victims of Hollywood’s secret opioid epidemic and what role the studios will play in ending the crisis,” according to the synopsis.

    A review by entertainment reporter Amy Zimmerman of The Daily Beast paints a picture of a sensationalizing film that puts too much blame for the opioid epidemic and other drug crises on Hollywood but that offers some important insights into the problem of Hollywood drug use.

    Among the most notable insights are the stories about young actresses being pressured to take Adderall “so they can keep going and stay thin.”

    Cocktails of dangerous drugs, often involving opioids, have claimed the lives of many A-list celebrities, from Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe to Heath Ledger and Prince. Fatal Addiction tells stories of drug use that was expected and encouraged.

    “There was so much drug use on that set, it was kind of mind-numbing. And as a kid, you’re not sure how to negotiate that,” recalls Mariel Hemingway about her time filming Woody Allen’s Manhattan as a teenager.

    In the case of Prince, the iconic performer was first put on opioids due to “hip problems,” and years later, by the time of his overdose, “his house was full of pills, full of opioids.” The primary drug responsible for his death was fentanyl, the synthetic opioid up to 100 times more potent than heroin.

    The film does touch on the role of the pharmaceutical industry and doctors too willing to prescribe opioids in the epidemic and the deaths of many celebrities.

    “Anna Nicole Smith’s doctors, as one example, are called out for ‘unbelievably bad medicine,’” Zimmerman writes, “a point that could have been made without going into extreme, gruesome detail about Smith’s state at the time of her death.” 

    Smith was found dead in her hotel room in 2007 and was determined to have died of “combined drug intoxication,” with all the drugs in her system being legally prescribed medications. Many celebrity overdoses have resulted from a combination of substances, particularly opioids and benzodiazepines.

    “Fatal Addiction isn’t a paradigm of sensitivity and nuance, and often falters when it attempts to propose actionable solutions,” Zimmerman concludes. “But as a history of celebrity addiction and a testament to this particularly deadly era, it’s alarmingly successful.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Science Series NOVA Tackles US Drug Crisis in PBS' "Addiction"

    Science Series NOVA Tackles US Drug Crisis in PBS' "Addiction"

    The PBS documentary airs on October 19th.

    The opioid crisis affects entire communities across the United States—yet there is still much about opioid abuse that is poorly understood.

    A new documentary airing on PBS aims to change that by exploring the crisis from different angles.

    ADDICTION, produced by NOVA, tackles both the science of addiction and the real impact that it’s had on Americans.

    “Nearly every family in America has been affected by addiction—the biggest public health crisis facing us today—yet it remains poorly understood, largely stigmatized, and finding treatment can be a daunting process,” said Paula S. Apsell, Senior Executive Producer of NOVA. “NOVA helps cut through the confusion by presenting the latest science on what we now know is a treatable brain disorder, and not a hopeless diagnosis.”

    The documentary explores harm reduction programs across North America and the impact they’ve had—from Insite in Vancouver, Canada (the first supervised injection facility in North America) to West Virginia, which has adopted a harm reduction approach to the drug problem there.

    Under West Virginia’s public health commissioner Rahul Gupta, who will step down from his post in November, the state dispatched a free mobile unit and volunteer medical team to offer a host of harm reduction services including needle exchange, HIV and hepatitis testing, and free naloxone, (the anti-opioid overdose medication).

    A major benefit to investing in a harm reduction approach is financial. Gupta says that with every $1 spent on harm reduction, we save $7 in medical costs, in addition to being able to guide people toward treatment.

    “The costs are really unsustainable if we continue on this path, losing over half a trillion dollars a year for multiple years in our economy. We’ve got to be smart about addressing addiction,” said Gupta. “We have to find ways to prevent it from happening in the first place.”

    Dr. Laura Kehoe oversees a unique program at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston that offers medication to overdose survivors to control cravings.

    “We’re seeing people come that day and engage in care, and the vast majority of them, 75 to 80% are returning,” she said. “Tragically, evidence-based treatments are not widely available in the U.S., and patients and families have to navigate a very broken system of care.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • "Dopesick Nation" Chronicles Struggle To Find Addiction Treatment

    "Dopesick Nation" Chronicles Struggle To Find Addiction Treatment

    “TV is typically the domain of heroes and monsters and we don’t believe in either.”

    A new docu-series shows the day-to-day struggle of finding help for people with substance use disorder.

    The first episode of Dopesick Nation, a new 10-part series that premiered on VICELAND last Wednesday (Sept. 12), follows Frankie and Allie as they seek treatment for Nate and Kelly, two drug users in South Florida.

    Frankie and Allie, who are in recovery themselves, explain the root of South Florida’s current heroin and fentanyl crisis—going back to the feds’ crackdown on prescription pills and the subsequent rise of heroin and fentanyl. 

    South Florida’s recovery industry is among the most notorious—people flock there to get help because it is “brimming with treatment centers on every corner,” Allie explains. Many are “predatory” in nature.

    “I have family in South Florida and they started to tell me about this billion dollar rehab industry. It seemed like everyone down there had a finger in that pie. It was a big, dark, open secret,” producer Ian Manheimer told The Fix via email. “In my research, I met a lot of people who were making a piles of fast money in this industry. Their incentives weren’t necessarily aligned with those of their clients and it led to a lot of horrible things happening.”

    The documentary follows Frankie as he tries to get Nate into treatment. He secured a scholarship for Nate, but they must wait for a bed to open up before he can be admitted. Until then, all Nate can do is wait and do his best to survive, one day at a time. “I don’t know if I can make it through another night,” he says as he is forced to wait longer than expected. “I fucking hate everything about what I’m doing.”

    Viewers can feel the frustration of this waiting game. It’s clear that Nate is sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. He’s ready for change, and to be present for his son.

    Frankie asks him, “Are you tired, and just done man?” Nate says, “It’s more of a mental/emotional thing, not as much of a physical thing like my body’s tired or my arms hurt, or I don’t have any veins left—you know, all those different reasons why people would stop getting high. Just emotionally and mentally drained as fuck, you’re like just done. It’s never been this bad before for some reason. I just want to have my family back.”

    Nate’s experience is like any other individual who is ready to quit, but can’t stop. After using for so long, Nate is physically addicted to heroin. If he can’t get professional help, the only thing that will make him feel better is heroin or Suboxone, a medication for opioid addiction.

    “This is a God-given opportunity. I’m not supposed to have this. And for whatever reason, I got it,” Nate said about the scholarship that Frankie got for him. “I need to take advantage of it because I can’t keep doing this anymore. This can’t define who I am. This isn’t me. Because I have more potential than that,” he says before he hits his pipe.

    At the end of the first episode, Nate is finally admitted to a treatment center, and is out in 30 days. He looks different—healthier and happier.

    Kelly, on the other hand, is harder for Allie to keep track of. She’s enthusiastic about recovery one day, but is no where to be found the next. But Allie, who met Kelly on her path to recovery, isn’t about to let go of her friend. “I’ll never give up on Kelly. Unless Kelly gives up on Kelly,” she says.

    As the series continues, we’ll meet more young men and women at the height of their crisis, Manheimer says. “Maybe they’re prostituting. Maybe they’re stealing. They’re homeless. Allie and Frank will have to convince them, against all odds, to get into detox before someone else takes the scholarship they have lined up.” 

    Dopesick Nation is about showing the raw reality of people’s experiences, without labels or judgment. “We wanted to make something real,” says Manheimer. “TV is typically the domain of heroes and monsters and we don’t believe in either.”

    Watch the first episode of Dopesick Nation here.

    View the original article at thefix.com