Tag: News

Could The Rebranding Of Sobriety Change Our Attitudes Toward Drinking?

Is the sober curious movement strong enough to change America’s relationship with alcohol?

Beyond the sober-friendly bars and fresh mocktails popping up on menus, there’s a whole world of workshops, online and real-life communities, alcohol-free parties and social media-based “programs” to help people cut down on drinking.

The growing “sober curious”—or “elective sobriety”—trend is attracting not just people forcing away a drinking problem, but the full spectrum of non-drinkers.

“Sobriety is getting rebranded,” as author Virginia Sole-Smith declared on the website Medium in April. Sole-Smith, the author of The Eating Instinct, examines this budding lifestyle movement. Is it a trend, or something more? In the writer’s own words, “Is this just wellness culture in overdrive? Or is the U.S. starting to change its relationship with booze?”

As Sole-Smith notes, while 64% of people keep their drinking at moderate, “low-risk” levels and do not qualify as having alcohol use disorder, that doesn’t mean their drinking habits are problem-free.

“We’re finding a lot of unhealthy patterning buried within that ‘moderate-drinking’ group,” said Timothy Naimi, MD, a professor at the Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health. “I think many of us now recognize that alcohol consumption exists on a continuum and a lot of us are consuming alcohol to excess on a regular basis.”

Joy Manning, who nurtures real-life and online sober communities with her friend Annie Baum-Stein, told Sole-Smith that their sober happy hours attract “the full spectrum” of people who choose not to drink.

“We definitely have people who strongly identify as alcoholics in recovery and are doing the whole 12-step lifestyle. But there are also people who just want to embrace an alcohol-free life and see that as a positive upgrade,” she said. “And then there are people who do drink, but are just sick of every event revolving around alcohol.”

“Sober experiments” like Dry January and Sober October challenge drinkers to lay off the booze for a month at a time. Even for people who don’t identify as alcoholics, it’s a chance to cut back and reflect on drinking habits.

“I think there are more and more people who are saying, ‘Hold on, I’m concerned about my drinking and I would love a way to work on that where I don’t have to explain it all to people.’ That’s what these sobriety experiments can be,” said Jessica Lahey, author of The Gift of Failure.

Lahey said that before she was ready to fully embrace meetings and around-the-clock sobriety, she would stop drinking here and there for months at a time. “I don’t see those as failed attempts at sobriety, I see those as times when I was starting to really look at my relationship with alcohol.”

As Erin Shaw Street of the Tell Better Stories movement told Sole-Smith, “The dominant cultural message is that alcohol is a lifestyle accessory.” But not for long, it seems. “Elective sobriety” is catching up to our attitudes toward drinking. Being sober is no longer lame—it’s a lifestyle choice. And there are a growing number of venues and supportive communities that now cater to this lifestyle.

This budding movement encourages us to be conscious of our drinking, no matter how disciplined we are. It offers a chance to step back and reflect. And that’s a good thing.

View the original article at thefix.com

8 May 2019
Cocaine-Related Deaths Skyrocket

In 2017, one-third of drug overdose deaths involved cocaine, or psychostimulants like MDMA.

The number of overdose deaths involving cocaine has risen rapidly in recent years, increasing 52.4% between 2015 and 2016.

That’s according to recently-released data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) which tracked deaths involving cocaine and psychostimulants. The increase can be largely blamed on the presence of synthetic opioids in the drug supply, the CDC says, although that does not fully explain the increase.

“Death rates involving cocaine and psychostimulants, with and without opioids, have increased. Synthetic opioids appear to be the primary driver of cocaine-involved death rate increases, and recent data point to increasing synthetic opioid involvement in psychostimulant-involved deaths,” the authors wrote.

In 2017, one-third of drug overdose deaths involved cocaine, or psychostimulants like MDMA. Although most overdose prevention and intervention programs focus on opioids, this research shows that a more widespread effort is needed, according to the report.

“The rise in deaths involving cocaine and psychostimulants and the continuing evolution of the drug landscape indicate a need for a rapid, multifaceted, and broad approach that includes more timely and comprehensive surveillance efforts to inform tailored and effective prevention and response strategies,” the authors wrote.

They went on, “Continued collaborations among public health, public safety, and community partners are critical to understanding the local illicit drug supply and reducing risk as well as linking persons to medication-assisted treatment and risk-reduction services.”

According to NBC News, Hans Breiter, a psychiatry professor at Northwestern University, said that despite the fact that dangerous synthetic opioids are being found more commonly in the cocaine supply, many people still think cocaine is a safer drug to use.

“There’s been a lot of bad press about other drugs,” Brieter said, adding that today’s young people haven’t seen firsthand the dangers of cocaine like people saw during the 1970s, so they are more likely to believe it is safe.

“Absolutely, there is a generational piece to this,” Breiter said.

Daniel Raymond, deputy director of the Harm Reduction Coalition, said that drugs come in and out of style, and cocaine is becoming a popular choice on the party scene once again.

“Right now we’re seeing an uptick in cocaine use, and we’re hitting that point in the cycle where we’re starting to see more fatal overdoses,” he said.

Officials have also warned that more people are using cocaine in conjunction with heroin, known as a speedball, Breiter said.

“People will use heroin to blunt the severity of coming down from the high of cocaine. It can be quite severe.”

View the original article at thefix.com

8 May 2019
Johnson & Johnson Accused Of Marketing Opioids To Children

A rep for the company says Johnson & Johnson discussed children’s pain relief, but never targeted children with its drugs.

Johnson & Johnson contributed to the opioid crisis in Oklahoma in part by marketing opioid drugs to children, according to allegations made by the state of Oklahoma in a lawsuit against the company.

“In perhaps one of the most reprehensible documents produced by defendants, this shows the depths to which J & J would go to earn a profit on their products—target potential ‘replacement customers’ at an early age to get them using (and addicted to) opioids,” one court document reads, according to The Washington Post.

The company strongly denies this claim. A representative said that Johnson & Johnson, whose subsidiaries manufacture opioid products, discussed children’s pain relief, but never targeted children with its drugs.

However, Bradley Beckworth, an attorney who is representing Oklahoma in the lawsuit, said that targeting children with dangerous products is not unheard of.

“The recruitment of children… is the same kind of thing the tobacco industry did,” he said. “It’s the same kind of thing that other drugs companies do. Just marketing opioids to cancer patients and surgery patients was not enough. They wanted to expand the customer base.”

The allegations stem from a lawsuit that Oklahoma brought against Johnson & Johnson, Purdue Pharma and Teva Pharmaceutical, which makes and distributes generic opioids.

In March, Purdue Pharma settled with the state for $270 million without admitting wrongdoing.

Since then, the state has been focused on Johnson & Johnson and Teva Pharmaceutical. The lawsuit alleges that both companies, which provided materials for opioids, contributed quietly to the crisis behind the scenes.

“Johnson & Johnson helped create the worst public health crisis in United States history,” said Bradley Beckworth. “They grew the demand. They spread the lies and they fed it with their own product… We’ll show that at trial.”

The state’s lawsuit aims to hold the drug manufacturers liable for the harm caused by their products under the state’s public nuisance laws. University of Oklahoma College of Law professor Andrew M. Coats said that the case is fairly solid.

He said, “It has a good deal of merit to it, because our statute on public nuisance is pretty broad,” he said.

However, a representative for Johnson & Johnson said that the company was following the law.

“The production of raw materials and active pharmaceutical ingredients used to manufacture Schedule II medications in the U.S. is strictly controlled, limited and monitored by the DEA, FDA, and other regulators,” a statement from the company read. “The DEA sets quotas based on the agency’s assessment of the need for medicines containing these substances, and our businesses complied with these laws and regulations.”

View the original article at thefix.com

7 May 2019
Ayesha Curry, Willow Smith Open Up About Anxiety On "Red Table Talk"

Curry and Smith discussed how they manage their anxiety on the show’s latest episode.

On the latest episode of Jada Pinkett Smith’s Facebook series Red Table Talk, Willow Smith opened up about her struggles with anxiety.

The episode’s conversation was wide-ranging, but when the subject came to anxiety, Jada asked her daughter Willow, “What are some of the things that you do? What are some of your techniques to deal with your anxiety?”

Willow responded, “Recently I have been, like, I just get really frustrated and I just feel like there is so much energy. I get frustrated and then in my head I feel manic.” So when anxiety hits, Willow says she “[drops] down” and starts doing push-ups.

Chef Ayesha Curry, wife of NBA superstar Steph Curry who was a guest on the show, confessed that she suffers from anxiety as well. “I have anxiety too, really bad, to the point where I actually take medication for it. And I think it’s something that everybody, in some way, has moments. I think open communication and putting your feelings on the line, that helps me a lot, [and] just letting someone know, ‘I’m kind of having an anxiety attack now.’”

Last year on Red Table Talk, Willow also opened up to her mother about practicing self-harm. She experienced fame at a young age with her debut single “Whip My Hair,” and she confessed, “I feel like I lost my sanity at one point. It was after that whole ‘Whip My Hair’ thing and I had just stopped doing singing lessons and I was kind of just in this gray area of, ‘Who am I? Do I have a purpose? Is there anything I can do besides this?’ And after all of that kind of settled down and it was like a kind of lull, I was listening to a lot of dark music. It was just so crazy, and I plunged into this black hole, and I was, like, cutting myself.”

It was a secret she apparently kept from her mother, and Willow added, “I never talk about it because it was a short, weird point in my life. But you have to pull yourself out of it.”

View the original article at thefix.com

7 May 2019
Did "13 Reasons Why" Really Cause Teen Suicide Rates To Rise?

The results of a new study involving the show has sparked a heated debate about its complicated subject matter.

Ever since the debut of the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why—about a high school girl who left behind audio tapes listing the 13 reasons why she ended her life—controversy has swirled over the graphic nature of the show.

Critics of the show accuse it of romanticizing suicide. Some school officials voiced concern around the show’s debut that it would produce a “contagion effect” among students already at risk of depression or self-harm.

The debate has reignited with the release of a new study in April that claimed the show “was associated with a 28.9% increase in suicide rates” among U.S. youth ages 10-17 in the month that followed the show’s March 2017 debut.

“The results of this study should raise awareness that young people are particularly vulnerable to the media,” said study author Lisa Horowitz, PhD, in a statement. “All disciplines, including the media, need to take good care to be constructive and thoughtful about topics that intersect with public health crises.”

However, as BuzzFeed News reported, the study determined correlation, not causation. Therefore, as some mental health experts say, it is not only unfair but also inaccurate to blame 13 Reasons Why for rising youth suicide rates.

“People tend to sort of read the headline and jump to some kind of conclusion, when these things are really complicated,” said Victor Schwartz, medical director at the Jed Foundation, a non-profit organization supporting youth mental health and suicide prevention.

“This is sort of the culmination of a series of reports that seem to corroborate some of the concerns that many of us expressed when the show came out,” Schwartz added. “But again, obviously, with any of these things, it’s always difficult to prove causation.”

The show, which will continue with the release of Season 3 sometime this year, has been dealing with this kind of backlash since the beginning.

Since then, Netflix has updated the trigger warnings that appear before episodes and created Beyond the Reasons, a behind-the-scenes documentary discussing the thought behind the show and why they chose not to shy away from difficult scenes.

Jay Asher, the author of the novel that the series is based on, said the difficult subject matter depicted on the show is worth talking about. “The whole issue of suicide is an uncomfortable thing to talk about, but it happens. And so we have to talk about it. It’s dangerous not to talk about it.”

Netflix also created the website 13reasonswhy.info where you’ll find suicide prevention resources.

Helen Hsu, a California-based clinical psychologist who served as a “mental health consultant of sorts” on the show, was not convinced by the findings of the new study. “Everybody wants a simple answer for a very complex social problem,” she told BuzzFeed News.

“Nobody’s randomly doing this show for shock value. I think we all feel really strongly that stigma has to be broken and these things have to be talked about,” said Hsu.

View the original article at thefix.com

7 May 2019
Kim Kardashian Helps Free Man Serving Life For Low-Level Drug Offense

“He served too much time but it gives me so much joy to fund this life-saving work,” Kardashian West tweeted.

While Kim Kardashian West may be best known for being a social media star and for being married to Kanye West, she has also helped get low-level drug offenders out of prison.

According to People, Kardashian announced on Friday (May 3) that she helped release a man named Jeffrey Stringer, a low-level drug offender who has spent over 20 years in jail.

“We did it again!” she tweeted. “Had the best call w/ this lovely family & my attorney who just won release for their loved one Jeffrey in Miami. He served 22 years of [a] life sentence for [a] low level drug case. He served too much time but it gives me so much joy to fund this life saving work.”

Brittany Barnett, an attorney who worked with Kardashian to get Stringer released, told NBC Miami, “Someone’s life is in your hands. Their entire life. I don’t take it lightly. It’s an honor and a privilege for me to do this work and for Jeffrey to trust me with his life… To have served 22 years in prison, laboring under the dark cloud of dying there, and to get a second chance at life, it’s beautiful.”

Kardashian petitioned President Trump last year to help free Alice Marie Johnson, another nonviolent drug offender who was slapped with a life sentence. When Johnson was sentenced in 1996, she was a first-time drug offender, and she had no opportunity for parole.

Johnson told CNN she was “a telephone mule, passing messages between the distributors and sellers. I participated in drug conspiracy, and I was wrong.”

Once Johnson was free, a new piece of legislation, the First Step Act, was approved by Congress, and Trump signed it into law in December 2018.

As the First Step Act’s official website explains, “The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have voted overwhelmingly to pass the First Step Act… On December 21, 2018 President Trump signed the bill into law, bringing us one step closer to fixing a broken criminal justice system that has torn too many families apart and destroyed too many lives.”

“I never in a million years thought we would get to the point of getting laws passed,” Kardashian said. “That was really a turning point for me.”

Kardashian is currently studying to be a lawyer, and she hopes to take the bar exam by 2022.

View the original article at thefix.com

7 May 2019
Ohio May Be First To Approve Medical Marijuana For Depression, Insomnia

The state is set to vote on whether to add depression and insomnia to the medical marijuana program’s qualifying list of conditions.

A diagnosis of depression or insomnia may qualify Ohioans for the state’s medical marijuana program.

In June, state officials will vote on whether to add five more ailments to its list of qualifying conditions for medical marijuana—anxiety, autism spectrum disorder, opioid use disorder, depression and insomnia. If they vote to add depression and insomnia to the list, Ohio would be the first state to do so.

Currently 33 states have established medical marijuana programs, with a different set of qualifying conditions for each state.

Ohio’s list includes rare conditions, the Cincinnati Enquirer notes, such as sickle cell disease, fibromyalgia and Tourette’s syndrome. Ohio is also currently the only state that allows marijuana for the treatment of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease seen often in football players, boxers and military veterans caused by repeated head trauma.

Treating opioid use disorder with medical marijuana is already allowed in 4 states—Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Anxiety is a qualifying condition in New Jersey and West Virginia. Autism spectrum disorder is a qualifying condition in Colorado, Delaware, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, South Carolina and Utah.

Ohio approved medical marijuana in 2016 with 21 initial qualifying conditions that allow residents to obtain a medical marijuana card with a doctor’s recommendation. This is the first time since then that the State Medical Board has used its power to add to the list of qualifying conditions. The board will hold a final vote on adding the five conditions on June 12.

The Enquirer found that at least 3.5 million Ohioans suffer from at least one of the 21 qualifying conditions on its current list. If all five conditions are approved by the State Medical Board in June, the number of eligible Ohioans will nearly double.

The Enquirer’s report emphasized that there is little clinical research on marijuana “since the federal government considers marijuana as dangerous as heroin”—i.e., as long as marijuana remains in Schedule I, a category of drugs defined as having no medical value and a high potential for abuse, it will remain difficult to conduct research on it.

It seems inevitable that this will change, however. Ten states have decided to legalize marijuana for not only medical use, but recreational use as well. The state of Illinois may join them next. Governor J.B. Pritzker announced plans to legalize marijuana on Saturday (May 4).

And last week it was reported that Harvard and MIT alumnus Charles R. Broderick donated $9 million to both schools to study cannabis.

View the original article at thefix.com

7 May 2019
Walgreens To Train Staff In Mental Health First Aid

The 8-hour course will teach pharmacists mental health “literacy” and “how to help someone in crisis and non-crisis situations.”

Walgreens’ latest public health initiative aims to teach pharmacists and staff how to identify and respond to signs of mental health or substance use issues.

Through a partnership with the National Council for Behavioral Health and the American Pharmacists Association, the national drug store chain is training staff in mental health first aid—an 8-hour course on “mental health literacy, understanding risk factors and warning signs for mental health and addiction concerns, and strategies for how to help someone in both crisis and non-crisis situations,” the company stated.

“With the growing need for services and resources to help those living with mental health conditions, as well as substance use and addiction, we can play an important role by giving our pharmacists and certain team members the training to help those in crisis,” said Alex Gourlay, chief operating officer of Walgreens Boots Alliance.

More than 1.5 million people in the U.S. have completed the course.

“One in five people experiences a mental health or substance use issue in a given year and it’s likely that most of those individuals use a pharmacy’s services during that year,” said Linda Rosenberg, CEO of the National Council for Behavioral Health.

This year, Walgreens will have installed safe medication disposal kiosks at all of its locations. It also offers naloxone without the need for a prescription.

In 2016, the company launched Walgreens.com/MentalHealth in collaboration with Mental Health America to provide a resource that connects people with treatment options, free screening tools and information such as “How to Manage Anxiety Medications” and “Helping a Family Member Who Has PTSD.”

Another major retailer, Walmart, is supporting community mental health by establishing a mental health clinic in a store in Texas.

Last year Walmart opened its first clinic in its Carrolton, Texas store, with plans to open more nationwide. The clinic is staffed by a licensed social worker and offers treatment for anxiety, depression, grief, relationship issues and more.

“People don’t know how to find a behavioral health or mental health professional. People don’t know where to go and what to do,” said Dr. Russell Petrella, president and CEO of Beacon Health Options, the company that collaborated with Walmart to open the clinic. “We’re trying to mainstream behavioral health services.”

View the original article at thefix.com

7 May 2019
New Law Allows Washington Students To Use Medical Marijuana On Campus

Prior to the passing of the new law, students would have to leave campus and miss school to take their medication.

The recent signing of a bill will allow students in the state of Washington to use medicinal marijuana at schools.

According to High Times, the signing of Ducky’s Bill by Gov. Jay Inslee will allow the use of medicinal marijuana in public schools, with a few provisions: it must be given in liquid form and can only be given by a parent of the student.

Previously, Inslee told K5 News that the goal of this bill is to keep students in school for more time rather than face losing that time because of having to be given their medication.

“Currently children who need medical marijuana… have to leave school. They’re missing valuable time,” he said.

According to High Times, the bill is named after 9-year-old River “Ducky” Barclay of Aberdeen, Washington. Barclay suffers from a genetic disorder referred to as Batten disease.

Because of this, she suffers from seizures. However, when the girl was in second grade, her parents found that the use of cannabis oil decreased her seizure activity and also lead to her being more focused during her classes.

As a result, Barclay and her father, John, began advocating for the use of such medications on school property. Her father was present at the bill signing, but reportedly said his daughter was too sick to be present.

According to her father, Ducky can no longer speak and is now blind. She is not expected to live past the age of 14. However, John says, she seemed to understand when he told her the bill had been passed.

“All I could say was, ‘I have the good news.’ She reacted very happily to it,” he said.

According to Washington state Rep. Brian Blake, who sponsored the bill, Ducky’s story has been inspiring.

“Like Ducky, there are other children in our state who struggle with seizures or other disorders and I am convinced that these bills will make their lives better,” Blake told KXRO. “It doesn’t have to be this way. We can help these kids so they can have the same opportunity to learn and enjoy school as any other Washington student.”

For Ducky’s father, the chance to see the lives of other students improve due to his daughter’s action is meaningful.

“It’s humbling and overwhelming,” he said.

Similar bills have been passed in other states, the High Times reports, including New Jersey and Colorado.

View the original article at thefix.com

6 May 2019
Burger King Serves Unhappy Meals for Mental Health Awareness Month

The fast food chain wants to serve customers with meals for every mood with its “Real Meals.”

Burger King is serving up Real Meals for Mental Health Awareness Month, giving customers who aren’t happy to eat something that better matches their head space. The meals are almost certainly a dig at McDonalds’ Happy Meals, which Burger King seems to believe do not accurately reflect the human condition.

Instead, the May meal lineup includes a red Pissed meal, a sad Blue meal, a teal Salty meal, a purple YAAAS meal, and a black DGAF meal.

“With the pervasive nature of social media, there is so much pressure to appear happy and perfect,” the company said in a press release. “With Real Meals, the Burger King brand celebrates being yourself and feeling however you want to feel.”

Burger King is undertaking the stunt in partnership with a non-profit organization called Mental Health America.

For those hoping that each meal reflects the mood labeled on the box, there’s bad news: they’re all the same on the inside. Each meal comes with a Whopper, fries and a drink. They also aren’t on the menu everywhere, only in Austin, Seattle, Miami, Los Angeles and New York.

The campaign also includes television spots that feature people experiencing a range of emotions and the hashtag #FeelYourWay. At the end of the roughly two-minute advertisement, the campaign’s motto splashes across the screen: “No one is happy all the time, and that’s OK.”

Some Twitter users found the whole campaign a bit tone-deaf, particularly in equating emotions like YAAAS to real mental health threats such as depression.

“wow thank you for raising awareness about ‘yasss,’ it claims too many lives every year,” wrote one Twitter user.

“Just punched a hole in my wall thinking about all the money I could have saved last year by just having Burger King instead of having to go to the psychiatric hospital,” posted another.

Some felt that the campaign’s slogans and wrappers did not treat such a complex and harmful problem with due sensitivity.

Burger King is no stranger to socio-political publicity stunts. When the Trump administration moved to end net neutrality, the fast food chain made a “social experiment” video that featured a Whopper “fast lane” to demonstrate the injustice of being able to pay for Internet speed.

View the original article at thefix.com

6 May 2019