Tag: News

Mackenzie Phillips Talks Addiction & "Orange Is The New Black" Role

“It was like, ‘Wow, I used to live this way.’ And now I get to act it out, and then walk away free and recovered. That in itself is magical.”

Actress-turned-recovery counselor Mackenzie Phillips plays Barb, one of the “Little Debbie Murderers” on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black.

The One Day at a Time star, who beat drug abuse in the limelight and is now owner and director of Breathe Life Healing Centers in Los Angeles, said it was an “exciting challenge” to play Barb, who is “dying with untreated mental-health and substance-use issues.”

“When I found out that [the character] was someone that struggles with a serious using problem, I was even more excited about it,” Phillips told People.

Phillips has been in and out of rehab “more than several” times, and appeared on Celebrity Rehab in 2010. She’s now using her experience to help others.

“I wanted to be on the forefront of this fight. I want to break the stigma. I want to be a part of hopeful healing,” she told The Fix in a 2016 interview. “I am enthusiastic and I am passionate about doing what I do today.”

Phillips is grateful that she had access to treatment for her drug use—she acknowledged that many people, like her character Barb, do not. “I’ve had access to the best behavioral health care for my own addiction over the years. But someone who’s in prison or someone who doesn’t have the resources or the good insurance that I have, doesn’t have the opportunity,” she told People.

A comprehensive treatment program is important to sustaining one’s recovery, she added. “So when you just take the substance out of the picture, all the behaviors are still in place and the only thing missing is the drug of choice. So real recovery comes through other channels, rather than just stopping using.”

Phillips’ extensive experience with drug use came in handy on set. She described one instance where she had to revise a scene that didn’t ring true: “Being the expert drug snorter, I was like, ‘No, no, no, that’s not the way she should do it. Let’s cut the straw at an angle,’” she told Vanity Fair. “It was weird. It was like, ‘Wow, I used to live this way.’ And now I get to act it out, and then walk away free and recovered. That in itself is magical.”

View the original article at thefix.com

2 August 2018
Keith Urban & Other Celebs Offer Demi Lovato Recovery Advice

Kelsey Grammer and Mackenzie Phillips are among the celebs who offered words of encouragement to the pop star.

Pop star Demi Lovato is expected to make a full recovery after landing in the hospital last Tuesday for an “apparent overdose.” CNN reports from a source close to the singer that the next step will be to enter a recovery program.

News of Lovato’s apparent overdose was especially striking; as the “Sorry Not Sorry” singer and Disney Channel alum has made a name for herself as a champion of mental health and recovery support. She celebrated six years of sobriety in March.

Fellow celebs in recovery have offered words of encouragement as the dust settles from last week.

While appearing on The Today Show in Australia, country singer Keith Urban, who has over a decade of sobriety, shared that it would benefit Lovato to have “good people around her and a willingness to want to live a different way if that’s what she wants to do.” He added, “It’s all up to her.”

The “Blue Ain’t Your Color” singer spent time at the Betty Ford Center in Palm Springs, California in 2007 for alcohol. “I wish I’d gotten sober many years earlier than I did, but it is what it is,” he said in March.

Kelsey Grammer, star of the classic sitcom Frasier, could also relate. “Forgive yourself. That’s about it,” he advised Lovato. “Somebody told me a long time ago, a pretty smart guy, [that] ‘Any kind of addiction is really the result of unsolved grief.’ And that has held true for me as I’ve gone through life ever since and that’s why I give that piece of advice.”

Grammer said last summer that alcohol and drugs were his way to cope with a series of family tragedies, including the murder of his father during a home invasion.

He was finally able to move on, with the help of the proper treatment. “I just put [that pain] where it is: in the past. But it’s a pain that you can always stumble into again—it’s with you 24/7, especially in the case of tragic death, and there have been a few of those. It’s just a part of life. Maybe I learned a little earlier than most, but it’s just the way it goes.”

Actress and recovery counselor Mackenzie Phillips also put a word in. “You’re talking about someone’s life. You’re not talking about a breadwinner, you’re talking about a human being who’s struggling with a real, real problem. And so people need to just let her do her thing and get well.”

View the original article at thefix.com

2 August 2018
How Do Babies Born To Mothers With Addiction Fare Over Time?

A study explored the long-term development of babies that were born with neonatal abstinence syndrome.

Every 15 minutes, a baby is born dependent on opioids in the United States. The number of infants born with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), which causes the babies to experience withdrawal-like symptoms, has risen sharply during the opioid crisis, but researchers say that parents of children who are exposed to drugs in utero have reason to be optimistic.

“Most of these children do well, and they do within the normal range,” Dr. Stephanie Merhar, a neonatologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, told NPR.

Merhar led a study that examined the development of 87 two-year-olds who were born with NAS.

They found that about 3% of the children had a lazy eye, and some scored just below average for cognitive, language and development skills.

Overall, however, researchers found that opioids weren’t as harmful to a child’s development as other substances, including alcohol.

“It’s not like the fetal alcohol syndrome problem, where it really affects the brain,” Merhar said. “[Children with fetal alcohol syndrome] are at high risk of mental retardation and there are significant developmental delays.”

This is reassuring for parents of opioid-exposed infants, especially since mothers using medication-assisted treatment like methadone are generally encouraged to continue the treatment even once they know they are pregnant.

However, Dr. Jonathan Davis, chief of newborn medicine at Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center and chair of a Neonatal Advisory Committee for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), says that more research is needed into the long-term prognosis for babies exposed to opioids in utero. He would like to see a national registry of babies born dependent on opioids so that researchers can track their long-term outcomes.

“How are these children going to function when they get to school?” said Davis. “How are these children going to speak, socialize and interact?”

One of the most important indications for a child’s outcome can be whether their mother gets treatment for her opioid use, said Dr. Lauren Jansson, director of pediatrics center for addiction and pregnancy at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore.

“The one solid thing we can say about children who are exposed to substances prenatally is that their mothers need treatment,” said Jansson.

Amanda Williammee is one of those mothers, and she has been lucky enough to connect with a North Carolina program that allows her two-year-old daughter to be in daycare while she gets treatment and counseling. Hendrée Jones is executive director of the program, called Horizons.

Jones said that many of the mothers in the program have a history of trauma and unhealthy family structures in addition to their substance abuse. That can make it nearly impossible for them to know how to parent.

“There’s often times an unrealistic expectation by society,” she said. “They’re supposed to automatically know how ‘be good mothers’—how to be nurturing mothers. That’s like trying to teach somebody algebra when they’ve never even had addition.”

However, Jones recently led a three-year study of children exposed to opioids in utero, and said that these mothers have reason to be optimistic.

“The children through time tended to score within the normal range of the tests that we had,” Jones said.

View the original article at thefix.com

2 August 2018
Purdue Pharma Reportedly Worried About Losing Money To Rivals Amid Oxy Panic

A new report details the early rivalry among opioid drug makers who sought to follow in the profitable footsteps of Purdue Pharma.

As Purdue Pharma came under fire from federal investigators for unscrupulous advertising practices, the company was reportedly concerned about losing market share to other drug manufacturers, according to internal documents.

“Market research as well as reports from the sales force indicates that methadone use is increasing in both the management of cancer pain and non-malignant pain due to its low cost,” an internal Purdue memo from 1999 said, according to a report by Kaiser Health News.

OxyContin was brought to market in 1996, and by 1999 Purdue was planning to expand sales into the non-cancer market, setting the stage for marketing practices that would later land the company in lawsuits across the country for false and misleading advertising.

As part of the planned expansion, Purdue reportedly analyzed the market for pain medications in internal documents.

According to these internal documents, one competitor that Purdue was most concerned about was Janssen Pharmaceuticals, the maker of Duragesic, a fentanyl patch.

Purdue noted that Janssen, a part of Johnson & Johnson, was making “slow but steady” progress in marketing the patches.

In fact, Janssen tripled its advertising spending between 1998 and 1999 as regulators and clinicians first became aware of the dangers of OxyContin. Marketing materials from that time included the claims that the patch “has less potential for abuse than other currently available opioids.”

By 2000, the Food and Drug Administration noted that Janssen had disseminated “false or misleading” advertising, including that safety claim.

Despite Purdue’s own claims about the safety of its drugs, the company was allegedly quick to acknowledge the trouble that the competition was in.

“It has been reported that Janssen sales representatives are using improper techniques to capitalize on the negative press surrounding OxyContin tablets and the issue of abuse and diversion,” Purdue marketing materials noted in 2002.

At the same time, Purdue noted that methadone was claiming market share for pain patients, despite the 2006 FDA warning of deaths and dangerous side effects in “newly starting methadone for pain control and in patients who have switched to methadone after being treated for pain with other strong narcotic pain relievers.”

In a statement to Kaiser Health News, Janssen said that the marketing procedures for the fentanyl patch were “appropriate and responsible,” and that the company “acted quickly to investigate and successfully resolve FDA’s inquiries.”

Janssen stopped “actively marketing” Duragesic in 2008.

Purdue has also denied false or misleading advertising, telling Kaiser, “We vigorously deny these allegations and look forward to the opportunity to present our defense” in a series of lawsuits.

View the original article at thefix.com

1 August 2018
Woman In Recovery Gives Anonymous Surprise To First Responders

“We were all a little fried after Thursday night, and so getting that thank you note, it was the nicest thing anyone could have ever done for us,” said one EMT.

Sometimes giving back is the best way to thank those around you—and that’s the route a woman in New Jersey took when she saw a group of six EMTs out for breakfast.

According to CNN, the EMTs wrapped up their meal only to find it had already been paid for. The person who paid had left a note reading, “Paid, thank you for all you do! Have a great day!” It was signed “Recovering Addict.”

Alyssa Golembeski, the captain of the Toms River First Aid Squad, said the waitress came to the table to inform them of the woman’s deed.

“EMTs do not eat light,” Golembeski told CNN. “We racked up a $77 bill.”

Golembeski then asked the waitress if the group could thank the woman, but the waitress said she wanted to keep her identity private.

“We were all a little fried after Thursday night, and so Friday morning, getting that thank you note, it was the nicest thing anyone could have ever done for us,” Golembeski said.

The group shared a photo of the receipt on Facebook, in hopes that the woman may come forward. However, that has not happened yet.

“To the woman who paid our tab today at IHOP, thank you so much for paying for our breakfast,” the EMTs wrote. “This gift was amazingly thoughtful, and brought our table of tired EMTs to tears. We are so blessed to be able to serve you and everyone else who lives and works in the greater Toms River area. Good luck on your journey of recovery!”

The post garnered more than 1,000 likes, 700 shares and 70 comments.

“I still thank the police officer who found me behind a store leaning against a dumpster,” one Facebook user wrote. “This was in 2005, we weren’t far from a hospital so he put me in his car and rushed me there himself. Him and his wife reached out to me afterwards and we remain close to this day. I know some people think we should just be allowed to die, but y’all work on us no matter what. I’m sober over 11 years now, I’m alive because someone in a uniform thought I was worth it. Thank you for what y’all do… Sincerely, thank you.”

Commenters also offered their support to the anonymous woman.

“To the woman who is remaining anonymous, I hope you find the strength to keep going forward on your journey,” another Facebook user wrote. “I will keep you in my prayers and hope that if you are reading this, that you know there are people who support you and hope to see you continue on you journey to recovery.”

Golembeski tells CNN she and her coworkers have two messages they would like to pass on to the woman.

“First of all, thank you for buying our breakfast and for literally making my whole week,” Golembeski said. “I couldn’t stop smiling that entire day. Second of all, I just want to commend you for getting into recovery and for beating the disease that is addiction.”

View the original article at thefix.com

1 August 2018
Video: Activist Pours Fentanyl On Hands To Dispel Exposure Myth

Chad Sabora performed the experiment to reassure first responders that may be reluctant to perform CPR in the early moments of an overdose.

Harm reduction experts are pushing back on what they believe is a dangerous myth circulating among emergency responders and the general public.

Illicit fentanyl and its analogues are increasingly contaminating batches of heroin sold on the street, and contributing to skyrocketing overdose rates. Thanks to naloxone, people experiencing an opioid-related overdose have a fighting chance—if first responders get to them in time.

There is a growing belief, however, that risk of exposure to these powerful synthetic opioids is so high that mere contact with an overdose victim’s sweat—or even inhaling a small amount of powder—is enough for a potentially fatal amount of the drug to get into the bloodstream.

If true, first responders fearing exposure might be reluctant to perform CPR during the critical early moments of an overdose, so Chad Sabora, Executive Director of the Missouri Network for Opiate Reform and Advocacy (Mo Networks), decided to perform an experiment to reassure them.

Sabora, in a video he posted on Facebook, took a bag of street heroin that he confirmed through a strip test contained acetyl fentanyl and carfentanil, poured the powder in his hand and waited.

Moments later, the naloxone standing nearby stayed in its box, unused, and Sabora appeared to be exhibiting no signs of an overdose.

“[This is] the same dope that has caused ‘overdoses’ in first responders,” Sabora told The Fix. He obtained the tainted batch from one of the participants of Mo Network’s syringe exchange and naloxone distribution programs, known as a “second-tier exchange,” where an active heroin user brings sterile needles and overdose reversal kits to hand out on the street.

Sabora is the first person to attempt to deliberately overdose in order to show that the risk to first responders may be an overblown and even dangerous myth. As a former prosecutor and someone in long term recovery himself, Sabora brings a unique perspective to his work in advocacy.

“This belief is validating people that don’t want to rescue users. I used to be in law enforcement, I know it’s a very difficult job, but we have to bring balance through education and awareness while still respecting the job they’re doing,” he said.

Last spring, journalist and The Fix contributor Zachary Siegel, dedicated the entire first episode of Narcotica, a podcast he co-hosts, to dispelling the myth that fentanyl or its analogues can cause an overdose through skin absorption.

“I spent weeks researching this phenomenon for [the episode]. Every toxicologist, pharmacist, physician, and researcher I spoke with said hands down, illicit powdered fentanyl is not skin-soluble,” Siegel tweeted.

A lethal dose for fentanyl in humans is around 3 milligrams, so appropriate precautions are certainly recommended for anyone who may come in contact with the drug.

But in a position statement published in the journal Clinical Toxicology by the American College of Medical Toxicology and the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology, the task force authors concluded that for inhalation exposure risk, “At the highest airborne concentration… an unprotected individual would require nearly 200 minutes of exposure to reach a dose of 100 mcg of fentanyl.”

And for dermal exposure risk, “it is very unlikely that small, unintentional skin exposures to… [fentanyl] powder would cause significant opioid toxicity…”

Sabora hopes the video will make an impact, but he admits, “there’s not much more I can do, but between myself, writers like [Siegel], and a lot of others out there, we’ll keep doing our best to hammer the truth home.”

View the original article at thefix.com

1 August 2018
How Rising Temperatures May Affect Mental Health

A new article examined the grim link between high temperatures and suicide rates.

Not only is climate change dangerous to the natural environment, one writer posits, it can negatively affect mental health as well.

In a new article, Bloomberg columnist Leonid Bershidsky cites research that has found that rising temperatures can increase the likelihood of suicide.

Most recently, a report by Marshall Burke and his colleagues of Stanford University, estimated that a “1 degree Celsius increase in average monthly temperature produces a 0.68% increase in the monthly suicide rate in the U.S.,” Bershidsky wrote. In Mexico, the resulting increase in the monthly suicide rate was even higher—2.1%.

This year’s North American heat wave may have come and gone, while western Europe is predicted to be hit next with dangerous heat during the first week of August, average temperatures are on the rise.

According to the U.S. Office for Coastal Management, the five warmest years on record in the United States all have occurred since 2006.

This research is significant given that average temperatures are predicted to continue to rise. According to the Office for Coastal Management, if we continue on this trajectory, by 2050, “the average American will likely see 27 to 50 days over 90 degrees (Fahrenheit) each year.”

According to Burke’s research, this could have a grim impact on people’s mental health. His team calculated that a 2.5 degree increase in U.S. average temperatures by 2050 would increase the suicide rate by 1.4%, causing more than 14,000 more suicides.

Bershidsky cites other research that came to similar outcomes, showing that hotter temperatures affected suicide rates.

A report in 2007 from Lisa Page and colleagues at the London Institute of Psychiatry discovered that with “each degree above 18 degrees Celsius (64.4 degrees Fahrenheit), the suicide rate increased 3.8%.”

But despite discovering these correlations, it’s still a mystery as to why exactly weather can affect people in this way.

“While speculative, perhaps the most promising mechanism to link suicide with high temperatures is a psychological one,” wrote Page. “High temperatures have been found to lead individuals to behave in a more disinhibited, aggressive and violent manner, which might in turn result in an increased propensity for suicidal acts.”

Bershidsky concludes that based on this research, communities should make a “better effort” to deal with the effects of climate change by investing in mental health support.

During a heat wave, defined as a prolonged period of abnormally hot weather, it is advised to drink plenty of water and avoid strenuous activity during the midday and afternoon to avoid heat exhaustion or stroke, and to take care that the elderly, children and pets, especially, are kept out of the heat.

View the original article at thefix.com

1 August 2018
Device To Test Drivers For Cannabis Impairment Approved In Canada

After legalizing cannabis in June, Canada’s government is cracking down on drugged driving.

Our neighbor to the north has settled on a method that law enforcement officers will use to test motorists for cannabis impairment.

Canada became the first major economy, and the second country in the world after Uruguay, to legalize cannabis this past June. With legal sales to begin on October 17, it appears that Canada won’t have to wait for a reliable test that can detect cannabis impairment in motorists.

Immediately following the decision to legalize (with Bill C-45), Canada made major changes to its impaired driving laws with Bill C-46, High Times noted.

This included the use of roadside drug tests, but now, the government has approved a specific device for the job—the Dräger DrugTest 5000, a roadside saliva drug test device that analyzes a mouth swab for the presence of THC.

The device was approved by Canada’s Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould, following a review of its effectiveness by an independent panel of traffic safety experts and toxicologists.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the device—already in use in Germany and the UK—tests for the presence of cannabis, cocaine, opiates, methamphetamine, amphetamine, methadone and benzodiazepines, but does not measure the level of intoxication.

Gauging if someone is “high” on cannabis is more complex than testing for alcohol intoxication. It’s uniquely difficult to test for impairment from cannabis because THC can remain in a person’s system for weeks, therefore its presence does not necessarily indicate that a person is impaired.

This has presented a challenge as more federal and local governments choose to legalize cannabis in some form.

While the Dräger device does not specify impairment, neither does Bill C-46, which gives police officers broad discretion when it comes to motorists who come up positive for THC. They are allowed to charge a driver with drug-impaired driving “based solely on the presence of THC,” High Times reported.

However, officers will still need “reasonable grounds of suspected drug activity” to administer a drug test on a driver.

The Canadian government will continue to invest in improving drug testing to counteract drugged driving. According to High Times, the national government has allotted $81 million over five years to purchase drug-testing devices and toward training police officers on how to use them.

View the original article at thefix.com

1 August 2018
Utah Medical Marijuana Vote Creates Rift Among Mormons

As the vote nears, Church policy looms large in a state where more than 60% of residents identify as Mormon.

When Brian Stoll fractured his back in college, he was put on opioid painkillers to manage his discomfort. The pills helped, but Stoll was wary of becoming addicted. He wanted a more natural pain relief method, and he found it in marijuana.

“Marijuana is a gift from God,” Stoll told the Los Angeles Times.

However, when Stoll wanted to get married he had to make a choice: continue using cannabis to treat his pain, or get married in the church where he and his fiancée wanted to wed.

As Mormons, the couple needed to be in good standing with the church in order to be married in the temple, and because marijuana was an illegal drug, Stoll’s use of it was against church teaching.

“This was devastating… I had to choose between my health and my fiancée,” Stoll said. “It seemed asinine that if I lived in another state, I wouldn’t have to make such a difficult decision.”

Stoll stopped smoking pot and began taking Tramadol—an opioid painkiller—every day. It helps with his pain, but leaves him feeling drowsy. Even his wife Rachael, said that Stoll was better off when he could use cannabis. Because of that, husband and wife are both advocating for the legalization of medical marijuana in Utah.

“As a family, we need this to become law,” Rachael said. “We pray for this.”

Voters in Utah are consider legalizing medical marijuana in November. As the vote nears, church policy looms large in a state where more than 60% of residents identify as Mormon.

According to polling, two-thirds of voters are in favor of medical marijuana, but the leadership of the Mormon church has taken a less enthusiastic stance.

In April, the church praised the Utah Medical Association for “cautioning that the proposed Utah marijuana initiative would compromise the health and safety of Utah communities.”

Utah was among the first states to ban marijuana in the early 1900s, reportedly after Mormon missionaries tried the drug in Mexico.

The state’s governor, Gary Herbert, a Republican and a member of the Mormon church, has said that he has reservations about legalizing medical cannabis.

“I am concerned about this initiative because of the lack of medical science on the safety, efficacy and proper dosage for compounds found in cannabis,” Herbert said in an email to the LA Times. “We should have clinical studies—just like we do for any other FDA-approved medicine. We need to isolate what helps and heals from what harms.”

People like Stoll, however, wholeheartedly hope that the measure passes, legalizing marijuana and making its use acceptable in the eyes of the church.

“This is something that if I drive east or west—to Colorado or Nevada—is 100% legal and helpful to my situation,” Stoll said. “We’re not talking about recreational. This is simply for medical.”

View the original article at thefix.com

1 August 2018
After Losing 2 Sons To Overdose, Mom Shares Their Story To Help Others

Becky Savage is on a mission to help parents understand the dangers of prescription pills.

Losing a child is a parent’s worst nightmare. For Becky Savage, that nightmare became a reality twice within the same day, when her teenage sons Nick and Jack were both pronounced dead in her home after overdosing on prescription opioids.

On the evening of June 13, 2015, the boys attended a graduation party, and came home to check in with their mom just after midnight. On June 14, Savage noticed that Jack wasn’t breathing. She called 911 and frantically yelled for Nick, who was sleeping in the basement.

The paramedics arrived and tried to resuscitate Jack, before heading downstairs.

“I had no idea at that point what they were doing in our basement,” Savage said to CNN. “And then I remember one of them coming up and asking for a coroner. That’s the last thing that I remember that day.”

The night before, Jack and Nick had combined hydrocodone and alcohol, “a bad choice that unfortunately cost them their lives,” Savage said.

At first, Savage, her husband and her two younger sons were just focused on surviving their grief. “Everything just kind of seemed like a blur that day,” Savage said. “Your mind is not really meant to process something that extreme.”

However, more than a year later Savage was asked to speak about underage drinking. She thought she would be talking to about 20 people, but 200 showed up.

“It was just overwhelming,” she said. That’s when Savage realized that sharing her story and speaking openly about Jack and Nick’s deaths could potentially save other families from tragedy.

The Savage family started the 525 Foundation, named after the boys’ hockey numbers (Jack’s 5 and Nick’s 25). Now, Savage focuses on sharing her story with as many people as possible, and helping parents understand the dangers of prescription pills.

“We’ve talked to our kids about drinking, but we had never talked to them about prescription drugs, because it wasn’t even on our radar,” she said. “In different communities, there are still people who are unaware of the dangers. After I get done talking to them, the first thing they say is they’re going to go home and clean out their medicine cabinets.”

Since 2016, Savage estimates that she has spoken to more than 23,000 students. She has also testified in front of a Congressional committee, and the 525 Foundation has started organizing events to collect unused prescription pills. At just three events they’ve collected 1,500 pounds of pills.

“If you think about how much one pill weighs, that’s a lot of pills collected,” Savage said. “And when you think that one of those pills could take a life, that could potentially be a lot of lives saved.”

For Savage, this is a small silver lining to the unimaginable heartbreak of losing her sons.

“By me telling their story, they’re still able to make a difference in the lives of others,” she said. “There can’t be a better goal than that.”

View the original article at thefix.com

31 July 2018