Tag: News

"Breaking Amish" Star Almost Died of Heroin Overdose

Reality star Sabrina Burkholder opened up about the overdose on Facebook.

Sabrina Burkholder, a star of TLC’s reality television series Breaking Amish, revealed to her fans on Facebook that she recently suffered from an overdose that nearly took her life. She wrote that the incident happened while she and her boyfriend Jethro were out and about in June.

“A few days before my 32nd birthday, almost 2 months ago, Jethro and I were with our friend Sean in York County, PA,” she wrote on the Facebook post. “I was almost a year clean from heroin. For whatever reason that day, I was in a mood. We all were.”

Her friend Sean then produced drugs for the trio to take.

“We did the molly and then Sean did some heroin and handed me a capful of it. I asked him if it was all for me because it looked like a lot. He was like ‘Yeah happy birthday.’ So I mixed it up and shot it,” she recalled on the post.

The next thing she knew, she woke up to paramedics and her distressed boyfriend around her.

“I remember feeling very weird and that was my last conscious thought. Half an hour later I woke up surrounded by paramedics,” she continued the post. “I remember seeing Jethro staring at me with tears running down his face. And I was suddenly hit with memories of what happened when I was dead. Yes, dead.”

It turns out that while she was unconscious, both Sean and Jethro were fighting for her life.

“Sean did CPR on me and kept on going even after my heart had stopped beating. Jethro was kneeling on the ground crying out to God to save me,” she wrote in the post. “Sean and Jethro both told me later that Sean tried to stop after he realized I was gone, but Jethro kept screaming at him to keep on going and wouldn’t let him stop giving me CPR.”

Fortunately, paramedics were able to revive her with Narcan, which reversed the effects of the overdose to keep her alive.

“They had to narcan me twice to bring me back. They only had 2 narcans on them; had I needed another, I wouldn’t be here,” she recalled. “That experience shook me to my core and forced me to look at the shitty person I’ve allowed myself to become.”

Burkholder is now focused on recovery, according to a more recent post.

“Trying not to lose my mind on this road trip… I am so excited to get to rehab,” she wrote on August 4. “3 more hours of this bs and then I’m off the map. Adios.”

The incident represents only the latest of her struggles. On the show Breaking Amish, Burkholder was one of a handful of Amish or Mennonite people who traveled to New York to experience the outside world. Fans of the show have been following her struggle with sobriety since season one in 2012.

In 2017, Burkholder was charged with manufacture of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance and criminal conspiracy.

View the original article at thefix.com

13 August 2018
Kelly Osbourne Discusses Relapse, Celebrating One Year Sober

“To cut a long story short things got really dark. I gave up on everything in my life but most of all I gave up on myself.”

When Demi Lovato ended up hospitalized last month for an apparent overdose, one celebrity to speak out and support her was Kelly Osbourne.

Osbourne has been public in the past about her own battles with substance use, but she only recently spoke out about her own relapse and celebrating one year of sobriety in a post on Instagram.

“To cut a long story short things got really dark,” she wrote. “I gave up on everything in my life but most of all I gave up on myself. Life on life’s terms became too much for me to handle. The only way I knew how to function was to self-medicate and go from project to project so I never had to focus on what was really going on with me.”

Osbourne thanked her family for the role they have played in the past year of her sobriety.

“I want to take this time to thank my brother @jackosbourne who answered the phone to me one year ago today and picked me up from where I had fallen yet again without judgment,” she wrote. “He has held my hand throughout this whole process. Thank you to my Mum and Dad for never giving up on me.”

In 2009, Osbourne spoke to People about her battles, beginning at the age of 13.

“I had my tonsils taken out, and they gave me liquid Vicodin,” she told People. “I found, when I take this, people like me. I’m having fun, I’m not getting picked on. It became a confidence thing.”

In the next few years, Osbourne says she started seeking out pills from friends and doctors. In 2002, during filming of The Osbournes, she says she was self-medicating every day to manage her anxiety and “not be me.”

In 2004, People reports, Osbourne’s parents sent her to Promises Treatment Center in Malibu. Then, in 2005, she went to treatment again. For the following three years she lived in London, with what she tells People were high and low points.

When she returned to Los Angeles in 2008, Osbourne says she hit an ultimate low and an intense relapse. When her friends and family stepped in and demanded she get help, she says she was relieved.

“I knew if I didn’t go, I would die,” she told People. “I thought, ‘Thank God someone’s going to make this pain go away.’”

While it isn’t clear how long of a stretch of sobriety Osbourne had previous to this relapse, she says she is now content with where she is and where her sobriety stands.

“I still don’t know who the fuck I am or what the fuck I want but I can wholeheartedly confess that I’m finally at peace with myself and truly starting to understand what true happiness is,” she concluded in her Instagram post.

View the original article at thefix.com

13 August 2018
Long-Term Opioid Use Linked To Wisdom Teeth Extraction

Researchers examined whether opioids prescribed to manage pain from wisdom teeth extraction heightened the risk of long-term use.

Nearly 85% of people will need to have their wisdom teeth extracted at some point during their lives, and a new study shows that this routine dental procedure can have severe consequences—with young people who use opioids after the procedure three times more likely to fill opioid prescriptions long-term.

“From our findings, we should strongly consider not prescribing any opioids routinely after wisdom teeth are pulled. Particularly since there is evidence that anti-inflammatories may be just as good, if not better, for pain management after wisdom teeth are pulled,” Dr. Calista Harbaugh, lead study author and a general surgery resident at the University of Michigan, where the research was conducted, told ABC News.

For the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on August 7, researchers looked at 71,000 insured people from 2009 to 2015.

About 60,000 filled prescriptions for opioids intended to relieve the pain from the tooth extraction. Researchers then looked at future opioid use and found that young people were most likely to fill additional opioid prescriptions in the future.

This is not the first time that researchers have connected dental work with risk for long-term use of opioids. Last summer, another study published in JAMA warned that doctors and dentists should be weighing opioid dependence as a potential complication from surgery.

“New persistent opioid use represents but previously underappreciated surgical complication that warrants increased awareness,” they wrote.

Harbaugh said wisdom tooth extraction is especially risky because it comes at a time when people may be more likely to become addicted, and it is a very common procedure, with more than 3.5 million extractions taking place each year.

“Teens and young adults are an important population to understand the effects of exposure to opioids for predictable reasons, like having wisdom teeth pulled,” she said. “They are vulnerable from the standpoint of ongoing development as well as social pressures.”

Despite increased awareness about the dangers of opioids, dentists have been accused of over-prescribing painkillers as rates of opioid prescription continue to climb. In March, the American Dental Association announced new guidelines meant to limit opioid prescribing.

“As president of the ADA, I call upon dentists everywhere to double down on their efforts to prevent opioids from harming our patients and their families,” ADA President Joseph P. Crowley said in a news release. “This new policy demonstrates ADA’s firm commitment to help fight the country’s opioid epidemic while continuing to help patients manage dental pain.”

The newest study suggests that these efforts are critical.

“It will be important to find areas where we can help eliminate the exposure to opioids in this group to show long-term decrease in opioid use,” said Dr. Chad Brummett, an assistant professor of anesthesiology at the University of Michigan.

View the original article at thefix.com

11 August 2018
Chinese National Pleads Guilty To Importing Opioids

The businessman would receive large shipments of opioids from China and mail them out domestically.

A Chinese businessman living in Massachusetts has pled guilty to charges of importing opioids.

Bin Wang, 42, was arrested in July and charged with importing shipments of carfentanil, fentanyl and other opioids. Wang would receive large shipments of opioids from China and mail them domestically, including to buyers in Ohio, according to a press release by the Ohio U.S. Attorney’s office.

On Tuesday, Wang pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court to importing and distributing opioids. He will be sentenced on November 13.

Opioids, particularly powerful synthetics, are reportedly made in China and shipped into the U.S. using couriers like FedEx and even the U.S. Postal Service.

“Increasingly, the opioids that are killing our friends and neighbors are being sent here from China,” said Acting U.S. Attorney David Sierleja. “Shutting down this pipeline will help in our efforts to turn the tide on the opioid epidemic. We will focus on prevention, education, and aggressive law enforcement, both here and around the world.”

This requires a new approach to intercepting drugs.

“The importation of opioids and other synthetic drugs from China has played a significant role in America’s current drug use epidemic. Over 60,000 people a year die from drug overdoses in this country, and halting all methods of drug trafficking—including by way of the Internet—is a top priority of the DEA,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Timothy J. Plancon. “This investigation makes clear that geographic and technological hurdles will not stop DEA and our partners from bringing to justice those responsible for the illegal distribution of drugs in the U.S.”

Despite that tough stance, it is reportedly very difficult to catch opioids coming into the country from China. In part, that is because the shipments are small, and the volume of mail coming into the country makes it difficult to pinpoint suspicious packages. In addition, prosecuting Chinese manufacturers can be difficult.

Officials first started investigating the drugs that led to Wang in 2016, after a series of fatal overdoses in Ohio. They determined that the drugs were bought online through a Chinese website, and that a Chinese man known as “Gordon Jin” was shipping the drugs to Wang in Massachusetts, who then distributed them domestically.

Undercover agents purchase opioids from Jin, and were able to track the shipments to Wang, who was operating companies from a warehouse in Woburn, Massachusetts.

“This investigation is a great example of a collaborative effort of federal agencies and a local drug task force working together to identify and track down people and organizations that are responsible for the ever-increasing shipments of very powerful synthetic opiates into Ohio,” said Don Hall, director of the MEDWAY Drug Enforcement Agency.

View the original article at thefix.com

10 August 2018
"Hilarious World of Depression" Podcast To Feature Andrew Zimmern, Neko Case

The hit podcast is set to return for its third season on August 13th.

TV personality and chef Andrew Zimmern will be a guest on this season’s Hilarious World of Depression podcast, the podcast that sheds light on the dark world of depression.

In each episode, host John Moe and his guests untangle the mystery (and stigma) of depression through candid conversation.

Rachel Bloom, co-creator and star of the TV series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, was a guest last season. Moe described her character, Rebecca Bunch, as “one of the most truthful portrayals of mental illness that I’ve seen, both the devastating effects and the just-getting-through-the-day parts.”

The pair discuss Bloom’s childhood in Manhattan Beach, her upbringing, love of musical theater—and, of course, her history with depression.

“At around age 9, I started to develop really, really intense, intrusive looping thoughts,” she told Moe. “And so for me, depression has always been wrapped up in intrusive, looping, negative thoughts.”

Former guests also include singer-songwriter Aimee Mann and Jeff Tweedy of the band Wilco.

Moe shared that the new season will incorporate the podcast’s listeners more, so they may comment and ask questions.

“This is our audience season. We will continue to have celebrity guests and hear their stories, but we’re also going to have more of our listeners be part of the podcast,” said Moe. “This show has evolved to become part of the mental health discussion, and that brings even more voices to the conversation.”

The Hilarious World of Depression is part of the Make It OK campaign by HealthPartners, to reduce stigma surrounding mental health issues.

“Humor can open a door for conversation about mental illnesses and begin the healing process,” says Donna Zimmerman, HealthPartners senior vice president for government and community relations. “The Make It OK campaign works to reduce the stigma of mental illnesses and we are delighted to continue our partnership to reach new audiences this season with messages of hope and recovery.”

Season 3 is set to debut on Monday, August 13. This season will also feature Scott Thompson (Kids in the Hall), singer-songwriter Neko Case, and comedian and actor Charlyne Yi, among others.

View the original article at thefix.com

10 August 2018
HIV Outbreak In Massachusetts Linked To Injection Drug Use

Between 2015 and 2018 there were 129 new HIV cases linked to drug use in two Massachusetts cities.

Fentanyl use in two Massachusetts cities is driving an HIV outbreak that officials say could be forecasting a national public health crisis.

Lawrence and Lowell Massachusetts, two cities along the New Hampshire border, have seen such a sharp spike in new HIV cases that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has become involved, according to The Huffington Post.

Between 2015 and 2018 there were 129 new HIV cases linked to drug use diagnosed in the cities. In the four years prior to that there were only 41 new cases of HIV related to injecting drugs diagnosed annually in the entire state.

“This tells us we cannot rest on our laurels,” said Thomas Stopka, an infectious disease epidemiologist and assistant professor at Tufts University School of Medicine. “There are potentially other communities that are at great risk as well. HIV can and is raising its head again in places where risks align.”

In 2015, opioid injecting was linked to an HIV outbreak in rural Indiana. The risk factors in the Massachusetts outbreak are similar, but in an urban setting. One risk is pervasive fentanyl use. Because the synthetic opioid has a shorter half life than heroin, users inject more often. This means they have more opportunity to be exposed to dirty needles.

In addition, neither city had a needle exchange program before the outbreak, although both have since established exchanges. Finally, high rates of homelessness compound health risks, as does the fact that doctors don’t routinely screen for HIV, even among intravenous drug users.

“This may be forecasting what could conceivably happen around the country,” said Amy Nunn, executive director of the Rhode Island Public Health Institute.

This spring, epidemiologists from the CDC spent time in Lawrence and Lowell to try to establish why the outbreak was occurring. They presented their findings in a meeting on July 24.

“The most striking finding was the sheer number of cases,” said Stopka “[It] was substantially higher than what was seen in years prior.”

The number of new drug-related HIV cases “definitely caught a lot of folks’ attention and really spoke to the great need in terms of a response,” he said.

Most of the new cases were among white men ages 20-39, men like Mark, a 29-year-old who injected drugs before finding out that he was HIV positive.

“We all use,” Mark said. “We all know the other one has it. We don’t tell each other. People will lie right to your face about having it. It’s spreading around like wildfire.”

Stigma around HIV — even among drug users — keeps them from disclosing their status even if they know if. In addition, the draw of a high can cause people to put their health on the back burner, Mark said.

“People just don’t care,” he said. “When it comes down to it, if you’ve got a bag in your hand and somebody next to you’s got a dirty needle, you’re not going to run and find a clean one.”

View the original article at thefix.com

10 August 2018
How Racism Brought About Acupuncture For Addiction Treatment In The US

Community leaders in the Bronx in the ’70s were wary of using methadone to treat addiction so they opted to take a holistic approach.

A distrust in the profit-driven pharmaceutical establishment formed the roots of acupuncture for addiction treatment in the United States, according to a report in The Atlantic.

According to writer Olga Khazan, it all began with community activists in the Bronx. During the 1970s, the northernmost New York City borough faced a daunting drug problem with few resources to fight it.

Community activists the Young Lords and the Black Panthers, and their supporters, rallied for the creation of an in-patient drug treatment program at Lincoln Hospital, and won.

About 200 people were in line at the opening of Lincoln Detox, but according to Khazan, the community, including detox staffers, were not convinced that methadone was the answer to the Bronx’s drug problem.

As Samuel Roberts, professor of history and sociomedical sciences at Columbia University, explained, this sentiment was rooted in a distrust for the establishment disseminating the pharmaceutical drug. “Methadone was highly regulated—it’s run by white doctors, in white coats, in white hospitals,” Roberts told Khazan.

This fueled a growing interest in acupuncture—a staple of Traditional Chinese Medicine that involves inserting thin needles at strategic points to balance the body’s flow of energy—because it did not require medication and facilitated the idea of community members treating one another.

Some traveled to Montreal to receive training in practicing acupuncture, which they would bring back to Lincoln Detox. (Tupac’s stepfather Mutulu Shakur was among these people. He’d later found his own organization, the Black Acupuncture Advisory Association of North America.)

Lincoln Detox would later drop methadone altogether, opting instead to offer acupuncture treatment and other holistic treatment instead.

Bob Duggan, who founded Penn North, a recovery center in Baltimore, learned about acupuncture for addiction recovery from Lincoln Detox, and brought it to Baltimore. Daily acupuncture is a mandatory part of the center’s recovery program.

There are currently more than 600 recovery programs in the United States that use acupuncture, according to the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association (NADA).

While there’s no clear consensus among the research community in the efficacy of acupuncture for addiction recovery, Sara Bursac, executive director of NADA, says the practice is effective as part of a multi-faceted program that includes counseling and 12-step meetings.

View the original article at thefix.com

10 August 2018
Alaska Congressman Shares Story of Granddaughter's Addiction

During a public forum, US Rep Don Young revealed that his 27-year-old granddaughter battles addiction and has relapsed three times.

U.S. Representative Don Young (R-Alaska) gave voice to the emotional toll taken on family and friends of individuals with substance dependency when he spoke about his granddaughter’s struggle for sobriety at a public forum on August 1, 2018.

Speaking at an event on Alaska Native issues in Juneau, Young—who has a history of blunt and occasionally inflammatory statements on various social and political topics—spoke movingly about the sadness and frustration he has experienced while trying to help his granddaughter. He also noted that expanded access to treatment facilities is a requirement to assist those who hope to break the cycle of dependency.

Young, who at 85 is the longest currently serving member of the House of Representatives, visited the Juneau forum as part of an extended stay in southeast Alaska during the House’s August recess. He was queried on a variety of subjects by members of the audience, including increased funding for the Indian Child Welfare Act and the National Rifle Association, which he supported.

The focus turned to drug and alcohol dependency when Juneau resident Logan Henkins spoke about his battle with substance abuse, from which he said that he had been sober for 60 days. Young told the assembled audience that he was personally acquainted with the struggle through his 27-year-old granddaughter, whom he said had relapsed three times.

“The challenge we have is when she goes to rehab,” said Young. “Where does she go when she gets out?” He noted that his granddaughter will experience weeks of sobriety before “she falls back to those that she ran with before. That is what drives me crazy,” he said.

Young opined that stronger punishment of drug dealers, whom he told the audience were “killing your kids,” would offer a solution, but also said that access to treatment is crucial for helping individuals like his granddaughter. “Support forces, halfway houses, some place you can stay away… we ought to have that,” he stated.

Young, who is seeking re-election this year, also touched on substance dependency when he was asked to support Savanna’s Act, a bill that would increase support for tribal governments to investigate missing and murdered Native American women. Young, who said that he would consider the legislation, added that the reason for these incidents is “mostly” related to drugs and alcohol, and added that tribal leaders needed to address the issue within their own ranks.

“We have a responsibility within our own tribes,” he said. This prompted a response from Richard Peterson, president of the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, who said, “We’re in this together, and we have to remember that. I remind you, congressman, sovereignty doesn’t mean that we’re alone.”

View the original article at thefix.com

10 August 2018
Students Allowed To Use Medical Cannabis In School Under New Illinois Law

Both students and parents must first meet specific requirements in order to administer the product on campus.

A bill that will allow parents or guardians to give medical cannabis to children in school was signed into law by Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner.

HB 4870 was signed on August 1, 2018 after passing the Illinois House and Senate with near-unanimous support in May; the bill amends the state’s School Code to authorize parents or guardians to administer a “cannabis-infused product” to qualifying students on school property or a school bus.

Both students and parents must first meet specific requirements, including double certification from registered physicians, in order to administer the product.

The bill, sponsored by State Rep. Kelly Cassidy (D- Chicago), is also known as Ashley’s Law, after Ashley Surin, who filed a federal lawsuit against the state and the Schaumberg School District 54 in 2018 for the right to use medical marijuana in school to treat debilitating seizures.

As High Times noted, HB 4870 parents and child cannot use medical marijuana on school property without first meeting several requirements.

Both parties must enroll in the state’s Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program Act and receive a registry identification card.

Parents or guardians must also have a registration card identifying them as a designated caregiver, while students must be qualifying patients as established by the Act, meaning that they have been diagnosed with one of a number of “severe, debilitating or life-threatening” medical conditions, including cancer, HIV/AIDS, muscular dystrophy, PTSD and seizures, including those related to epilepsy.

The medical marijuana used by parents and children also cannot disturb the school’s environment or other students, which means that smokeable cannabis or vaping is prohibited.

Students can use orally-ingested cannabis oil or tinctures, transdermal patches or topical ointments. The law also states that a school nurse or other staff is not required to administer medical cannabis to students.

“This will open the door potentially for kids like Ashley and other kids in Illinois to have medical marijuana on school grounds that can be administered in a situation where it’ll regulate these type of illnesses,” said Ashley Surin’s father, Jim Surin, in conversation with WCIS, the ABC affiliate serving Springfield and Decatur.

View the original article at thefix.com

9 August 2018
Poppy Seed Bagel Triggers Positive Drug Test For New Mom

The new mom told the doctor she had eaten a poppy seed bagel but the state had already been notified of the positive drug test.

On the day of her daughter’s birth, Elizabeth Eden, a mom from Baltimore County, Maryland, did not expect to fail the routine drug test because of her breakfast that morning.

“I was in labor. I was sitting in bed. I was having contractions. I was on a Pitocin drip, and the doctor came in and said, ‘You’ve tested positive for opiates,’” the new mom said, according to WBAL-TV. “I said, ‘Well, can you test me again? And I ate a poppy seed bagel this morning for breakfast,’ and she said, ‘No, you’ve been reported to the state.”

That was in April. Beatrice, the newborn, was monitored in the hospital for five days, and the state did a home check-up. The case is now closed, but Eden said the ordeal was “traumatizing.”

She’s written a letter to St. Joseph Medical Center, urging the hospital to raise the threshold for a positive drug test, or at least inform new moms about it.

Poppy seeds come from the same opium poppy plant that heroin, morphine and oxycodone are derived from, and can thus trigger a positive result on a drug test.

Research has shown that just a teaspoon of poppy seeds can raise a person’s opioid levels to 1,200 nanograms per milliliter. However, St. Joseph’s threshold is much lower—300 nanograms per milliliter.

The chief of the department of OBGYN at the hospital explained that the low threshold is meant to be on the safe side. If you raise the bar, “you would only identify true positives, but you would also miss quite a few individuals who did use drugs and were considered screened negative,” said Dr. Judith Rossiter-Pratt.

This isn’t the first time a new mom was snagged by a drug test because of a seemingly innocent meal.

In April 2010, new parents Elizabeth Mort and Alex Rodriguez, of New Castle, Pennsylvania, were settling in with their infant daughter, when state authorities arrived at the home with a “court order to remove the three-day-old infant,” the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania reported.

Mort had yielded a positive drug test in the hospital, only to find out later that it was triggered by an “everything” bagel from Dunkin’ Donuts she’d had two hours before arriving at the hospital.

Another woman from the same Pennsylvania county had had a pasta salad with poppy seed dressing, triggering a positive result, and the state to take her newborn for 75 days.

View the original article at thefix.com

9 August 2018