Answer Addiction

Tag: News

  • Drew Barrymore Talks Past Drug Use: Cocaine Is My Worst Nightmare

    Drew Barrymore Talks Past Drug Use: Cocaine Is My Worst Nightmare

    The “Santa Clarita Diet” actress got candid about her past drug use on Norm Macdonald’s new Netflix talk show.

    Drew Barrymore’s past struggles with substance misuse are well-known. After she became a superstar with the success of E.T., she followed the path of many child stars, battling addiction which threatened to end her career.

    Now in a recent appearance on Norm Macdonald’s new talk show Norm Macdonald has a Show, Barrymore says she has no desire to go back to those days.

    When Macdonald asked Barrymore if she missed cocaine, she emphatically replied, “Oh, God. It’s been a very long time, but no. Nothing would make me have a panic attack and seem like a bigger nightmare.”

    Looking back in hindsight, Barrymore said her early fame was “like a recipe for disaster. You know what’s exciting? I got my s— over with at, like 14. Like, midlife crisis, institutionalized, blacklisted, no family. Got it done. And then [I] got into the cycle of being my own parent. It’s sad that there’s this weird alchemy about kids doing this line of work that f— all of them up, and I’m no different.”

    Barrymore admitted she still drinks, telling Macdonald, “I enjoy my life and get out of my own head. It’s not that I’m this militant person of clarity and presence but [cocaine] is like my worst nightmare right now.”

    Substance abuse ran in Barrymore’s family. Her father battled alcoholism and eventually wound up homeless. Her grandfather was Hollywood legend—and legendary drinker—John Barrymore. Drew had already taken a trip to rehab by the age of 12, survived a suicide attempt, and was then institutionalized for 18 months.

    She described her lowest point to The Guardian. “Just knowing that I really was alone… My mom locked me up in an institution. But it did give an amazing discipline. It was like serious recruitment training and boot camp, and it was horrible and dark and very long-lived, a year and a half, but I needed it.”

    Barrymore told Howard Stern in a past interview, “It was a very severe, locked down, no-Hollywood-rehab-30-day-Malibu-beachside-bullshit [place]… They saved my life.”

    After getting back into civilization, Barrymore lived with David Crosby, who was also in recovery, for two months, then worked a number of jobs before she rebuilt her acting career. She’s currently starring in the Netflix series Santa Clarita Diet.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Stephen Colbert Takes Aim At Big Pharma Over Opioid Crisis

    Stephen Colbert Takes Aim At Big Pharma Over Opioid Crisis

    “You know you’ve been bad when the government fines you one aircraft carrier.”

    Stephen Colbert publicly called out those responsible for the opioid crisis, as the Late Show host laid into Big Pharma during a segment last Friday (Sept. 14).

    “There are certain subjects that are genuinely hard to talk about like, the opioid crisis. It’s an epidemic that affects both political parties, Republican, Democrat, rich people, poor people, it does not discriminate,” Colbert said in the segment. “And a lot of people blame Big Pharma, but only because it’s their fault.”

    Colbert went on to single out Purdue Pharma, which manufactures OxyContin and is owned by members of the billionaire Sackler family. Colbert discussed the various lawsuits against the company accused of downplaying how addictive the medication could be “even as their sales reps used the words ‘street value,’ ‘crush’ and ‘snort’ in the late nineties.”

    “That’s what happens when the head of sales is El Chapo,” Colbert joked in the segment, referring to the former head of the Sinaloa drug cartel, who is now in U.S. custody.

    In 2007, Purdue was fined more than $600 million after pleading guilty to misrepresenting OxyContin’s potential for abuse.

    “You know you’ve been bad when the government fines you one aircraft carrier,” Colbert stated. “Of course, this same time they made $35 billion.”

    He went on to add that the Sackler family wants to expand globally and that they already own a lesser-known company called Rhodes Pharma.

    Colbert stated, “It was revealed just this week that they own a second, secret company, Rhodes Pharma, a little-known Rhode Island-based drug maker that is among the largest producers of off-patent generic opioids in the U.S.”

    Colbert went on to discuss the fact that Rhodes Pharma recently was granted a patent for a new medication—a “fast-acting form of buprenorphine”—that could potentially treat opioid use disorder. The new medication would be in wafer form rather than a tablet, meaning it would dissolve quickly and work faster. 

    “Another not-so-fun fact about Rhodes Pharmaceuticals is, in addition to selling all these off-brand opiates, they also just patented a new drug to help wean addicts off opioids,” Colbert said.

    “So, the Sacklers addicted the country to opioids, now they’re going to profit off the cure?” Colbert noted. “That takes a pair of swingin’ Sacklers.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Casey Affleck Opens Up About Ben's Alcoholism Struggle, Rehab Stay

    Casey Affleck Opens Up About Ben's Alcoholism Struggle, Rehab Stay

    “I think for his kids’ sake and for their mom, and for himself, he’s trying to do the work and get it together.”

    Actor and director Casey Affleck, brother of Ben Affleck, opened up about his brother’s ongoing struggle with alcohol, also revealing that it’s a family issue. He said that he and his brother “come from a long line of alcoholics.”

    “Ben is an addict and an alcoholic. Most of my grandparents are alcoholics. My father is an alcoholic, as bad as you can be, and he’s been sober for about 30 years,” Affleck, who is “about six years” sober, told ET.

    The Justice League star was admitted to a treatment facility in late August, with the support of estranged wife Jennifer Garner. The actor and director’s relapse attracted plenty of media attention as he sought treatment for the third time. Onlookers speculate that Affleck’s personal life, including a recent break-up, threw his recovery for a loop.

    His brother Casey says he is lucky to have “the kind of resources and time” to go to a good facility and get help.

    “It can’t be easier to have everybody looking at you and taking your picture as you’re walking out of an intervention. I don’t envy that. I saw my father struggle with it for many years and nobody was following him around with cameras and stuff,” said Casey. “It’s not a great look. But on the other hand, it’s nothing to be ashamed of and it’s good that he’s taken care of.”

    Ben sought treatment in 2001 and then in 2017. In March 2017 he released a statement via Facebook announcing that he had completed treatment for alcohol addiction.

    “I have completed treatment for alcohol addiction; something I’ve dealt with in the past and continue to confront,” he wrote. “I want to live life to the fullest and be the best father I can be. I want my kids to know there is no shame in getting help when you need it, and to be a source of strength for anyone out there who needs help but is afraid to take the first step.”

    His brother Casey says his family is the driving force of his recovery. “Alcoholism has a huge impact on not just the person, but also their family,” he told ET. “So, I think for his kids’ sake and for their mom, and for himself, he’s trying to do the work and get it together.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • New Dosage Strength Of Opioid Addiction Drug Approved By FDA

    New Dosage Strength Of Opioid Addiction Drug Approved By FDA

    The FDA commissioner noted that the approval will expand access for patients and reduce drug development costs.

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new dosage strength for a maintenance drug for the treatment of opioid addiction.

    Cassipa, which is a sublingual (applied under the tongue) film that combines the opioid treatment drug buprenorphine and the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone, will now be available in a 16 milligrams/4 milligrams dosage, and according to FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, should be used in conjunction with counseling and therapy.

    The new dosage strength is approved by the FDA in both brand name and generic versions, and in various strengths.

    The approval underscores the agency’s emphasis on greater development of and access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for substance use disorder. The full range of MAT is a key element of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Five-Point Strategy to Combat the Opioid Crisis, and was the focus of guidelines issued to drug manufacturers for evaluating the effectiveness of new or existing MAT products. 

    In a statement issued in April 2018, Gottlieb described the FDA-approved MAT drugs—methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone—as “safe and effective in combination with counseling and psychosocial support to stabilize brain chemistry [and] reduce or block the euphoric effects of opioids.”

    The FDA has also cited statistics from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which found that patients using MAT for opioid dependency have reduced their chance of overdose death by half.

    In addition to its suggested efficacy for opioid use disorder, Gottlieb noted that newer treatment options like the increased dosage strength for Cassipa will not only “broaden access for patients,” but may also “reduce drug development costs, so products may be offered at a lower price to patients” via the agency’s “streamlined approach to drug development for certain medication-assisted treatments that are based on buprenorphine.”

    This approach is the abbreviated 505(b)(2) pathway under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which allows manufacturers to use the FDA’s findings regarding the safety of their product to grant approval.

    The FDA is advising that Cassipa should be used in conjunction with a complete treatment plan that includes counseling and other support, and should only be used after the patient is introduced to the drug and stabilized up to a dose of 16 mg of buprenorphine using another marketed product. Additionally, Cassipa can only be prescribed by Drug Addiction Treatment Act-certified prescribers.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Man Sentenced For Role In Amtrak Drug-Trafficking Ring

    Man Sentenced For Role In Amtrak Drug-Trafficking Ring

    The man helped direct the shipment of thousands of kilograms of heroin and cocaine from Los Angeles to Chicago. 

    A California man was hit with a 35-year prison sentence last week for his role in overseeing an international drug-running ring on Amtrak train lines, according to court records.

    Edgar Roque headed up the cocaine-dealing crew for at least six years, shipping thousands of kilograms of illicit drugs from Mexico across the United States.

    “This is criminal conduct of the worst kind,” federal prosecutor Paul H. Tzur wrote in a sentencing memorandum. “Edgar Roque’s leadership role directing the mass movement of heroin and cocaine into the Chicago area and elsewhere showed that he had absolutely no regard for the safety and well-being of addicts and the communities into which he delivered the drugs.”

    With at least 20 confederates—including men with names like “Lil Pimp” and “Traps”—Roque hauled in wholesale amounts of heroin and cocaine from cartel-level suppliers in Mexico, authorities said.

    After getting the drugs to California, Roque would have them shipped to Chicago where his accomplices would pick them up at Chicago’s Union Station and disperse them to stash houses across the Windy City. 

    After off-loading the goods, the lieutenants in Roque’s criminal circuit would hop on a commercial airline and fly the cash proceeds west, typically carrying $150,00 at a time.

    A multi-agency task force probed the underbelly of the organization for years, under the aegis of an investigation known as “Operation Derailed.”

    Months after the 32-year-old pleaded guilty to drug and money laundering charges, a federal judge on Tuesday sent him to prison. A number of Roque’s associates have either pleaded guilty or already been sentenced.

    Phillip Diaz netted more than 20 years in prison for helping ensure delivery of the drugs and maintaining bank accounts to launder the proceeds, prosecutors said.

    Anthony Koon of Colorado got nine years in prison for delivering almost 20 kilograms of heroin valued at around $1 million. Gerardo Sanchez of California helped launder the profits and accepted delivery of heroin to a Tinsley Park hotel room, which netted him a 17.5-year sentence. 

    Jorge Luis Ochoa-Canela was sentenced to five years behind bars for moving massive amounts of money back to suppliers. And Amtrak employee Roy Griffin netted an 18-month sentence for scheming to steal a package of cocaine arriving into Union Station. 

    Four other defendants have pleaded guilty and are scheduled for sentencing before the end of the year. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Dealers Remain An Issue On Instagram Despite Crackdown Efforts

    Dealers Remain An Issue On Instagram Despite Crackdown Efforts

    The company is now working to make treatment options more readily visible as well with their new “Can we help?” pop-up.

    After repeatedly fielding allegations that their platforms helped fuel the opioid crisis, Facebook and Instagram are now taking extra steps to combat social media drug-selling and help divert users into treatment. 

    Last month Facebook announced plans to redirect drug-seeking social media users to a help box offering support suggestions and, months after blocking targeted hashtags, Instagram recently decided to take a similar approach. 

    “As part of Instagram’s commitment to be the kindest, safest social network, we’re launching a new pop-up within the app that offers to connect people with information about free and confidential treatment options, as well as information about substance use, prevention and recovery,” a spokesperson for the photo-sharing platform told TechCrunch in a statement.

    Social media community guidelines generally ban selling drugs online, but dealers have brazenly skirted those guidelines and the law, listing their goods online with relevant hashtags to attract would-be buyers.

    The growing trend sparked condemnation from Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb earlier this year. 

    “Internet firms simply aren’t taking practical steps to find and remove these illegal opioid listings,” Gottlieb said in a speech at the National Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit in April, according to Engadget. “There’s ample evidence of narcotics being advertised and sold online. I know that internet firms are reluctant to cross a threshold, where they could find themselves taking on a broader policing role. But these are insidious threats being propagated on these web platforms.”

    Instagram initially responded by shutting down potentially problematic search phrases like #fentanyl and #oxycontin—but dealers just shifted to unblocked hashtags instead.

    Then in August, Facebook took action by adding a “Can we help?” pop-up offering links for treatment referrals to anyone searching certain drug-related phrases like “buy OxyContin” or “buy Xanax.” At the same time, the company blocked words like “OxyContin” and “Xanax” from turning up any search results for Pages and Groups. (However, it’s still possible to find profile accounts with drugs included in the user name—such as the many users who simply list “Oxy Contin” as their names.) 

    Then in recent weeks, Instagram reevaluated its blocking-only approach.

    “Blocking hashtags has its drawbacks,” Instagram told TechCrunch. “In some cases, we are removing the communities of support that help people struggling with opioid or substance misuse.” 

    Although those blocked hashtags will stay blocked, now the company is working to make treatment options more readily visible as well with their new “Can we help?” pop-up.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Purdue Pharma Accused Of Targeting Seniors For Oxy Sales

    Purdue Pharma Accused Of Targeting Seniors For Oxy Sales

    The lawsuit claims Purdue had salespeople downplay the harmful risks and side effects of OxyContin.

    Oregon’s Department of Justice claims that pharmacy giant, Purdue Pharma, lied to the state and misled customers to drive sales.

    Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum filed a lawsuit against Purdue Pharma on Thursday, accusing the company of lying to the Oregon State Board of Pharmacy to obtain permission to sell in Oregon, as well as targeting senior citizens with its products.

    The violations against a settlement with Oregon goes back 10 years, according to a June 27 filing. Rosenblum’s office is demanding Purdue submit to the terms of a 2007 settlement or risk legal consequences.

    In the Thursday filing, Rosenblum’s office is demanding Purdue Pharma pay $1 million and abide by a prohibition against marketing to Oregon’s senior citizens.

    According to the lawsuit, Purdue released misleading publications and had its salespeople downplay the harmful risks and side effects of OxyContin, and specifically targeted disabled and senior citizens.

    Purdue also stands accused of lying in its application to renew its license to sell OxyContin in Oregon, erroneously claiming that the company had not faced state or federal punishment. In the past, they’ve been made to pay fines, and some of its top executives faced charges related to the company’s OxyContin marketing practices.

    “Ten years later, it is clear Purdue has flouted the judgment and ignored the severe federal penalties,” reads the lawsuit.

    Advocates for substance abuse prevention lauded the move, praising it as holding pharma companies accountable, to push them to cooperate in combating the opioid epidemic.

    “My hope is that this action will help establish some accountability and bring them to the table to help solve this,” said Dwight Holton, CEO of Lines for Life. “They ought to be helping us and they haven’t been.”

    Representatives of Purdue, however, disagree with this assessment of the situation.

    “We vigorously deny the state’s allegations,” said Purdue spokesperson Robert Josephson, according to the Oregonian. “The state claims Purdue acted improperly by communicating with prescribers about scientific and medical information that FDA has expressly considered and continues to approve. We believe it is inappropriate for the state to substitute its judgment for the judgment of the regulatory, scientific and medical experts at FDA. We look forward to presenting our substantial defenses regarding this lawsuit.”

    Working to improve its image in the shadow of the opioid crisis, Purdue has eliminated 350 sales positions, closed its “speakers” program that paid doctors and other professionals to sing OxyContin’s praises, and reshuffled its efforts towards researching cancer-fighting drugs.

    However, the opioid crisis has already damaged the state. Oregon saw a spike in opioid-related deaths in this past year, with Oregon’s Jackson County seeing a 70% increase in such deaths in just the first quarter of this year.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Juul Faces Criticism, Concerns Amid Rising Success

    Juul Faces Criticism, Concerns Amid Rising Success

    The company is accused of marketing its product to teens. 

    Arguably the most well-known e-cigarette on the market, Juul has seen skyrocketing sales in the past year, increasing 800%. But the success of the company isn’t without concern.

    According to CNBC, Juul founders James Monsees and Adam Bowen, both former smokers, initially started a company called Ploom, which later became known as Pax Labs. In 2015, they introduced Juul, a type of e-cigarette. Two years later, it broke off into its own company called Juul Labs.

    The team that initially created Juul was made up of about 20 people on a $2 million budget, CNBC states. Since then, the product has seen exponential growth. Today, the company is valued at $15 billion and makes up about 75% of the e-cigarette market.

    “What we realized is people don’t want a safer cigarette, they want to move past cigarettes,” Monsees told CNBC. “It’s hard to imagine an area that can be more powerful to public health in particular than to eliminate cigarettes from the face of the earth. It is one of the most successful consumer products of all time, if not the most successful, and yet it kills more than half of all people that use them long term. We always intended to build this company around the idea of making cigarettes obsolete. We knew Juul would be the way to do that.” 

    Juul contains about 40 milligrams of nicotine per cartridge. It works by vaporizing a liquid containing nicotine salts which is then inhaled by the user.

    “There’s a lot of misunderstanding about this category and about nicotine,” Bowen told CNBC. “Many people think that it’s deadly, a serious disease agent—when really alone, nicotine is quite benign. It’s a mild stimulant, and is habit-forming and can lead to dependence, and for that reason alone, no non-smoker should ever touch this product.”

    While Juul’s growth has been widely successful, it hasn’t been without obstacles. The company has faced various lawsuits, as well as new FDA regulations. 

    “If you’d have interviewed me two years ago, I’d have said they’re maybe 25% as dangerous as a cigarette,” Stanton Glantz, UCSF Center for Tobacco Control and Education Director, told CNBC. “Now, I think they’re somewhere between three-quarters as dangerous as a cigarette and as dangerous.” 

    A main criticism of the product is that it appeals to youth. One reason for this is that Juul comes in a variety of flavors. Additionally, it appears as compact as a flash drive, making it possible for kids to bring into schools without raising suspicions.

    “Kids who use them have more asthma, more days off school,” Glantz told CNBC. “There is evidence linking them with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other diseases. Addiction is not a phase, it’s not something kids grow out of.”

    Juul’s early marketing was also accused of being problematic due to making the product appealing to youth with its social media-based campaigns. Now, the company has shifted to marketing by using testimonials from adult users of the product.

    Both founders Monsees and Bowen say it’s important to focus on tobacco use prevention among youth, and have invested $30 million into that cause.

    Juul must submit its product to the FDA for review by August 2022.

    “We estimate we switched over a million smokers to Juul in just three years, but there are about 38 million left in the U.S. so there’s still a lot of room to grow,” Bowen told CNBC.

    Juul Labs released the following statement to The Fix: 

    JUUL Labs’ mission is to eliminate cigarette smoking by offering existing adult smokers with a better alternative to combustible cigarettes. JUUL is not intended for anyone else. We strongly condemn the use of our product by minors, and it is in fact illegal to sell our product to minors. No minor should be in possession of a JUUL product.

    Our goal is to further reduce the number of minors who possess or use tobacco products, including vapor products, and to find ways to keep young people from ever trying these products. We approach this with a combination of education, enforcement, technology and partnership with others who are focused on this issue, including lawmakers, educators and our business partners.

    Nicotine is addictive. An individual who has not previously used nicotine products should not start, particularly youth. Recent science raises serious concerns about the adverse effect of nicotine on adolescent neurodevelopment.

    We encourage parents to talk with their children about the dangers of nicotine. As a company we also continuously seek ways to contribute to this dialogue and knowledge base.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Ariana Grande’s Brother: Mac Miller Helped Me Get Sober

    Ariana Grande’s Brother: Mac Miller Helped Me Get Sober

    “He was the reason I went to the rehabilitation center where I was detoxed safely from all of the drugs alcohol and medications I was taking.”

    Frankie Grande paid tribute to Mac Miller in an Instagram post, stating it was thanks to the late rapper that Grande got sober.

    “I am beyond heartbroken over Malcolm’s death. He was a good friend and was wonderful to my sister,” Grande posed, referring to the relationship his sister, Ariana Grande, and Miller shared. “He was the reason I went to the rehabilitation center where I was detoxed safely from all of the drugs alcohol and medications I was taking, when I couldn’t imagine living without them. It was the place where I found the community of support that showed me that living life without drugs was a possibility and I would have never discovered that if it weren’t for Malcolm.”

    Grande went on to recount all the times Miller showed up to support Grande’s sobriety milestones before calling for sympathy for those who suffer from substance abuse disorders.

    “I am beyond heartbroken over Malcolm’s death. He was a good friend and was wonderful to my sister,” Grande wrote in the caption. “He was the reason I went to the rehabilitation center where I was detoxed safely from all of the drugs alcohol and medications I was taking, when I couldn’t imagine living without them. It was the place where I found the community of support that showed me that living life without drugs was a possibility and I would have never discovered that if it weren’t for Malcolm.”

    Grande recounted all of the times Miller showed up to celebrate his sobriety milestones, treating him with gifts and “words of encouragement.”

    “Addiction is a TERRIBLE disease… many people are suffering from addiction like I am and many many of them are losing,” he  wrote. “Those of us who are struggling with addiction must stay strong. We must continue to work HARD on ourselves every single day and help each other. Our disease is strong but WE ARE STRONGER and I vow to work every moment of my life to have myself sober so that i may be there for others.”

    Grande included several numbers to resources that anyone who may need help with substance abuse.

    “Malcolm my friend, you will be dearly missed,” he added. “And I know you will be looking down on me from heaven, proudAF for every day I live my life clean and sober… 453 days and counting… Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Doctors Gave No Reason For Writing Opioid Scripts In Nearly 30% Of Cases

    Doctors Gave No Reason For Writing Opioid Scripts In Nearly 30% Of Cases

    A new study uncovered that doctors were prescribing opioids for hypertension and high cholesterol when no pain diagnosis was recorded. 

    A team at Harvard Medical School and the Rand Corp. combed through medical records from 2006 to 2015 and found that physicians gave no explanation for writing an opioid prescription in 29% of the cases.

    According to NBC News, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been working to get doctors to pull back on opioid prescriptions, citing careless prescribing as one cause of the opioid crisis. In 2016, more than 42,000 people died of opioid overdose, according to the CDC.

    The new study was led by Nicole Maestas, professor of health care policy at Harvard. Maestas and study coauthors went through tens of thousands of medical records, and then honed in on more than 31,000 physician surveys that included an opioid prescription.

    In two-thirds of the prescriptions, some type of pain diagnosis was present.

    The report, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, then concluded, “No pain diagnosis was recorded at the remaining 28.5%.”

    “At visits with no pain diagnosis recorded, the most common diagnoses were hypertension, hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol), opioid dependence and ‘other follow-up examination,’” the research revealed.

    This over-prescribing could be unfairly impacting people who do have serious pain conditions and are finding it difficult to access the opioids they need to manage their pain due to new restrictions and doctors who fear that they will be targeted for over-prescribing.

    Dr. Tisamarie Sherry, who worked on the study, was reported in NBC News as emphasizing, “Whatever the reasons, lack of robust documentation undermines our efforts to understand physician prescribing patterns and curtails our ability to stem overprescribing.”

    The study also showed that 24% of youth who appeared with an opioid use disorder did not have a prescription to a medication-assisted treatment (MAT) drug to control their cravings.

    Drugs like buprenorphine and methadone are approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of opioid use disorder.

    “In this multistate study of addiction treatment and retention in care, we found that three-quarters of youths diagnosed with opioid use disorder received treatment within three months,” researchers wrote in JAMA Pediatrics. “However, most treatment included behavioral health services only, and fewer than one of four youths received timely buprenorphine, naltrexone or methadone treatment.”

    View the original article at thefix.com