Tag: News

David Cassidy Revealed He Was Still Drinking, Didn't Have Dementia Prior To Death

Cassidy made the confession to a producer in a recorded conversation, which will air as part of an upcoming documentary about his life.

Last year, Partridge Family star David Cassidy announced that he was suffering from dementia. But just two months before he died last November, Cassidy admitted that he never had dementia, but was struggling with alcoholism throughout the end of his life.

“There is no sign of me having dementia at this stage of my life. It was complete alcohol poisoning,” Cassidy explained to A&E producer Saralena Weinfield in a recorded conversation that is now part of a documentary called David Cassidy: The Last Session, which will air on June 11.

According to People, Cassidy went on: “The fact is that I lied about my drinking,” he said. “I did this to myself to cover up the sadness and the emptiness.”

It was no secret that Cassidy battled alcoholism. He was arrested for driving under the influence three times in five years. However, after he went to inpatient rehab in 2014 he told friends and family that he was sober.

“If I take another drink, I’m going to die, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. I’m dead,” Cassidy told Piers Morgan during an interview following that rehab stay. “You know, they say it’s a slippery slope… It’s not a slippery slope. It’s from 12:00 to 6:00 on the clock and the whole face is ice. One sip, one drink, because there is no such thing, not to an alcoholic. You have one and you’re done. I’d be done.”

In 2017, footage of Cassidy during a live performance appeared to show that he was drunk. It was after that performance that he said he was suffering from a major medical issue—dementia.

However, just before his death Cassidy revealed that this was never the case.

“I have a liver disease,” he told Weinfield after he was rushed to the hospital after falling. Two months later Cassidy died of organ failure at the age of 67. Not even his two children knew that he was still problematically drinking alcohol, according to People. However, not everyone was shocked.

“Part of alcoholism is lying,” Partridge Family costar Danny Bonaduce said. “When you’re an addict, you know you can’t be honest with people. You say what you want them to hear. I can’t be mad at David for that, but it’s still a tragedy.”

Ultimately, documentary producers said that they decided to use the confession because they felt that Cassidy wanted it made public.

“He wanted to share this very private part of his life, and to be honest once and for all. And I think he succeeded in doing that,” said producer John Marks.

View the original article at thefix.com

8 June 2018
Artie Lange Receives Sentence For 2017 Heroin Bust

Lange took to Twitter after the sentence to praise the judge, his lawyer and the prosecutor for their efforts.

Comedian Artie Lange was sentenced to four years of probation for drug charges stemming from a May 2017 arrest for heroin possession.

New Jersey State Superior Court Judge Nancy Sivilli handed down the sentence to the Crashing star on June 1, along with orders to complete an outpatient drug treatment program and 50 hours of community service.

In a tweet issued the following day, Lange wrote that the judge’s decision was “very fair,” but also added “4 yrs [sic] probation is a long time.” The arrest and sentence is the latest in a string of run-ins with the law and treatment for Lange, who has struggled with drug dependency since his tenure on Mad TV in the mid-1990s.

Both Lange and his lawyer, Frank Arleo, asked for probation, citing that lack of work would be both financially and personally devastating for the comedian and his family; Lange noted that his mother relies on his financial support, and claimed that he was “happiest… and most productive when [he works].”

Lange and Arleo stated that with a second memoir due in July, combined with a tour and promotional duties, as well as his work on the Judd Apatow-produced HBO series Crashing, and stand-up engagements, he’s “going to be busy,” as Arleo said.

Both were also sanguine about Lange’s health and dependency issues. Arleo said that he had been frank with Lange about how he needed to adhere to the terms of probation: “He knows he’s at the end of the road,” he told Judge Sivilli.

For his part, Lange said that he has “an issue that needs to be taken care of,” and it would be best served by being allowed to continue to work.

Assistant prosecutor Tony Gutierrez painted a different picture of Lange’s probation request. He cited past instances of Lange being asked to leave treatment in New Canaan, Connecticut for possessing OxyContin, and said that long-term in-patient programs would be more effective as treatment. And providing him with funding from his book and promotional tour would only give him more opportunities and funds to use drugs, he said. “He is not doing the right thing to help himself,” said Gutierrez.

Ultimately, Gutierrez sided with Lange, but added a stern warning about his behavior while in probation. “Mr. Lange, the ball’s in your court now,” she said, after recounting his long struggle with dependency. After citing a note in his medical records from a doctor who suggested that Lange could die if he relapses, she said, “You’re getting too old for this.”

In tweets issued on June 2, Lange praised not only Arleo but also the prosecutor and judge for their efforts. “I truly feel he wants the best for me,” he wrote about Gutierrez, whom he thanked along with Arleo and Sivilli, whom he described as “a woman on the bench who commands respect! She has mine.”

In addition to adhering to his probation, Lange must submit to urine screenings and provide information on his participation in an outpatient drug treatment program within 10 days. If he violates these terms or garners new charges, he could face up to five years in jail.

View the original article at thefix.com

8 June 2018
The 1975's Matty Healy Discusses Addiction, Equine-Assisted Rehab

“I was exhausted and at the [risk] of being another statistic in that prescription drug opioid crisis that hit America, because that’s the way I dealt with things on tour.”

Matty Healy is sharing his truth through music. In a new interview, the lead vocalist and guitarist of the English rock band The 1975 discussed escaping to rehab after the band’s last album, “to really get away.”

Healy revealed that after winding down the band’s promotion of their 2016 album, I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it, the musician “wasn’t in a good place.”

“I was experiencing [some problems] and also thinking, fuck I need to make a record out of this without making a ‘poor me’ record. It’s so boring when you hear people do that, because they become unrelatable,” Healy said in the interview with DIY Magazine. “At the end of that album I was very concerned about the truth of what I was saying and the truth was me turning into that.”

But by sharing his bit of truth—by including the line in the band’s new single “Give Yourself a Try” about “get[ting] addicted to drugs”—Healy knows that plain honesty can resonate more than anything else.

“I don’t have anything else… I always talk about myself and people go, oh there’s a bit of me in that. And then you do that enough and it touches the world. That’s what people want. That’s what I want as well. Tell me the fucking truth,” he said.

“Let’s make this exchange really honest and I will, as a fan, give myself to you and not judge you if you just tell me the truth. And it makes far more interesting art, and that’s what I’m here for now I’ve decided.”

Healy admitted that he had a problem—“Oh yeah! Full on!”—which triggered his getaway to the island of Barbados. “When I went away to Barbados, I actually went to rehab… I went and worked with horses for seven weeks,” he said. “I didn’t get dragged away to rehab, I was exhausted and at the [risk] of being another statistic in that prescription drug opioid crisis that hit America, because that’s the way I dealt with things on tour.”

He continued, “I knew that I wasn’t going to detox myself, so I went away and I got clean. I wasn’t going there to get straight edge, I didn’t have a drinking problem or anything else, I was just chemically dependent on a substance and I didn’t wanna make a record as a fucking junkie. Who wants to hear that?”

The 1975’s third album A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships is due for release this coming October.

View the original article at thefix.com

8 June 2018
The US Workforce Is Taking More Drugs

A new study about workplace drug testing found that opioid use declined between 2016 and 2017, while use of other drugs is on the rise.

Members of the workforce in the United States are testing positive for drugs more often than they have in the past 10 years, according to a new study that analyzed more than 10 million drug test results.

The study, conducted by Quest Diagnostics, painted an interesting picture of the ways that drug use is affecting different areas of the country. Overall, 4.2% of people drug tested at work tested positive, up from 3.5% in 2012, which was a 30-year low.

“It’s unfortunate that we mark 30 years of the Drug-Free Workplace Act with clear evidence that drugs continue to invade the country’s workplaces. Not only have declines appeared to have bottomed out, but also in some drug classes and areas of the country drug positivity rates are increasing,” said Barry Sample, senior director of science and technology at Quest Diagnostics.

The data, perhaps unsurprisingly, showed that marijuana use is up in states that have legalized recreational use. It also indicated that use of cocaine and methamphetamine is on the rise.

“These changing patterns and geographical variations may challenge the ability of employers to anticipate the ‘drug of choice’ for their workforce or where to best focus their drug prevention efforts to ensure a safe and healthy work environment,” Sample said.

Cocaine use increased for the fifth year in a row. The jump was particularly sharp in Nebraska (which had a stunning 91% increase between 2016 and 2017), Idaho (88% increase) and Washington (31% increase).

Use of methamphetamine was up in midwest and southern states. Between 2013 and 2017 positive tests for methamphetamine positivity increased 167% in the region covering Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin; 160% in the region covering Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee; 150% in the region covering New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania; and 140% in the region covering the eastern seaboard from Delaware to Florida.

The number of people testing positive for opioids declined 17% between 2016 and 2017, suggesting that efforts to address the opioid epidemic have been paying off.

“The depth of our large-scale analysis supports the possibility that efforts by policymakers, employers, and the medical community to decrease the availability of opioid prescriptions and curtail the opioid crisis is working to reduce their use, at least among the working public,” said Kim Samano, scientific director at Quest Diagnostics.

Matt Nieman, general counsel at the Institute for a Drug-Free Workplace said that the opioid numbers were encouraging, but there was still work to be done.

“The 10-year high in positivity rates—spurred by nationwide surges in cocaine and methamphetamine positivity as well as double-digit marijuana spikes in states with newly implemented recreational laws—serves as a stark warning that efforts to prevent substance abuse in the workplace are as important today as ever,” he said.

View the original article at thefix.com

8 June 2018
Synthetic Marijuana Makes Comeback With More Disturbing Side Effect

“We are now in our eighth generation of synthetic cannabinoids and they just keep getting more powerful and unpredictable.”

Despite a brief decline in poison center calls regarding synthetic marijuana, also known as K2 or Spice, use of the drug is back on the rise, according to the Daily Beast.

This spring, a new, more disturbing, side effect surfaced—severe bleeding.

About 56 such cases were reported in the Chicago-central Illinois area. The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) reported: “All cases have required hospitalization for symptoms such as coughing up blood, blood in the urine, severe bloody nose, and/or bleeding gums.”

In Philadelphia, there has been a “remarkable increase in the use of synthetic cannabinoids among IV drug users” in recent months, according to the Daily Beast.

Some are “add[ing] hits of K2 to their daily cocktail of heroin and cocaine”; one user said “it mixes well with dope.” Another user said, “I swear some people are actually smoking [K2] instead of doing dope.”

While the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office recorded no deaths attributed solely to synthetic cannabinoids, the city’s Episcopal Hospital reports seeing more people coming in showing signs of K2 intoxication—two to three people on average, daily.

“We see a lot of K2 overdoses. This is really fucking nasty stuff. I mean when we come upon an overdose we just don’t know what’s in it. Sometimes they’re extremely agitated. And there’s no antidote,” said Joann Conti, a paramedic with the Philadelphia Fire Department. “So all we can do is restrain them and take them to the emergency room. I’ve intubated people after smoking this stuff who never get extubated. They live on a ventilator.”

Treating K2 intoxication is a challenge. According to the Daily Beast, there are now at least 700 possible varieties of synthetic cannabinoids, with dozens more popping up each year.

“We are now in our eighth generation of synthetic cannabinoids and they just keep getting more powerful and unpredictable,” said forensic narcotics expert David Leff. “You have no idea what you’re actually consuming. These are substances that have never been tested on humans.”

Given the huge variety, there is no standard for treating K2 intoxication.

“All we can really do is treat their symptoms and release them. Very little is known about these substances, so we have no idea what they ingested or what the long-term consequences could be,” said Dr. Edward Fishkin, chief medical officer of Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center in Brooklyn, New York, where more than a dozen people were hospitalized in one night in May, K2 being the chief suspect.

View the original article at thefix.com

7 June 2018
Trump Commutes Drug Offender's Sentence After Kim Kardashian Push

This is the first commutation of Trump’s presidency.

On Wednesday (June 6), President Trump commuted the prison sentence of Alice Marie Johnson, a non-violent drug offender, after meeting with fellow reality TV veteran Kim Kardashian West, who urged the president to reconsider Johnson’s life sentence.

This is the first commutation of Trump’s presidency. Kardashian met with the president at the White House last Wednesday (May 30) to discuss prison and sentencing reform, including the possibility of revisiting Johnson’s case. Johnson, 63, was sentenced in 1996 as a first-time, non-violent drug offender, with no chance of parole. At the time of her release on Wednesday, she had served more than 21 years in prison.

In her essay for CNN—“Why Kim Kardashian Wanted President Trump to Free Me”—Johnson describes how she got involved with drug sellers. “This was a road I never dreamed of venturing down. I became what is called a telephone mule, passing messages between the distributors and sellers. I participated in drug conspiracy, and I was wrong,” she recalled.

Johnson had applied for clemency during the Obama administration three times, with no success. President Barack Obama commuted a total of 1,715 prison sentences during his time in office—this included 568 life sentences. The majority of these were for non-violent drug crimes.

While serving time, Johnson was described by her warden Arcala Washington-Adduci as a “model inmate who is willing to go above and beyond in all work tasks.” Johnson has spent her time becoming an ordained minister and mentor to young women in prison. “And if I get out,” Johnson said at the time, “I have a job secured, and plan to continue to help those in prison and work hard to change our justice system.”

“Justice has been served today, and it’s long overdue. Alice has more than paid her debt to society as a nonviolent drug offender,” said Johnson’s attorney Brittany K. Barnett in a statement. “Life in prison without the possibility of parole screams that a person is beyond hope, beyond redemption. And in Alice’s case, it is a punishment that absolutely did not fit the crime.”

In its own statement, the White House said, “While this Administration will always be very tough on crime, it believes that those who have paid their debt to society and worked hard to better themselves while in prison deserve a second chance.”

View the original article at thefix.com

7 June 2018
Catching Fentanyl Shipments Is "Death By A Thousand Cuts"

“You used to have the tractor-trailer running up the interstate, that had to be met by someone and distributed. Now, you have an individual sitting somewhere in middle America ordering this thing, and it arrives as a parcel at their house.”

Despite knowing that fentanyl is being shipped into the United States using the U.S. Postal Service, UPS and FedEx, law enforcement officials are largely unable to stop trafficking of the deadly synthetic opioid.

“The sheer logistical nature of trying to pick out which packages contain opioids makes it much more challenging,” Robert E. Perez, an acting executive assistant commissioner at United States Customs and Border Protection, part of the Department of Homeland Security, told The New York Times. “It’s unlike anything we’ve encountered.”

Fentanyl shipments are difficult to detect because they are so small. A dose of fentanyl the size of a grain of sand can be deadly, and since it is powerful in such small amounts drug dealers can turn a huge profit shipping tiny packages.

“When you’re dealing with very small, minute quantities, it’s kind of like death by a thousand cuts,” said Patrick J. Lechleitner, the special agent in charge of the Washington office of Homeland Security Investigations, a division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

A kilogram of cut fentanyl costs about $80,000, and can be sold on the street for a profit of $1.6 million, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), making it about 20 times as profitable as heroin.

“This is what makes the opioid crisis so unique and dangerous,” said Peter Vincent, who led ICE’s international operations during the Obama administration. “Traditionally, law enforcement has focused on large quantities of drugs like marijuana and cocaine. But very small amounts of opioids can bring tremendous profits.”

In addition, the fact that fentanyl can be shipped directly to residential addresses after it is bought online makes it even more difficult to intercept.

“You used to have the tractor-trailer running up the interstate, with its contraband, that had to be met by someone and distributed,” Lechleitner said. “Now, you have an individual sitting somewhere in middle America ordering this thing, and it arrives as a parcel at their house.”

Authorities have made some progress in stopping fentanyl shipments, most of which are said to come from China and Mexico. Last year, border security seized 1,485 pounds of fentanyl, and this year they have already seized 1,060 pounds of the drug. People have been arrested and charged after receiving mail-order fentanyl shipments.

This year, President Trump and Congress have approved more than $80 million to aid in the detection of opioids. Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) said that the funding is key to making a difference in the amount of deadly opioids reaching Americans.

“There’s no doubt that more funding is an important component if we’re going to make real progress,” said Portman.

Despite that, many border officials continue to feel like they’re looking for a needle in a haystack when it comes to detecting fentanyl shipments.

View the original article at thefix.com

7 June 2018
Opioid Antidote Naloxone Recalled By Manufacturer

A batch of units sold between February 2017 and February 2018 are being recalled by the manufacturer.

The life-saving opioid overdose antidote naloxone has been recalled by its manufacturer, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced.

Drug company Hospira and its parent company Pfizer issued the recall on Monday, CNN reported, after discovering “loose particulate matter on the syringe plunger.”

While no one has yet reported problems with the drug, Pfizer isn’t taking any chances. “In the event that impacted product is administered to a patient, the patient has a low likelihood of experiencing adverse events ranging from local irritation, allergic reactions, phlebitis, end-organ granuloma, tissue ischemia, pulmonary emboli, pulmonary dysfunction, pulmonary infarction, and toxicity,” the drug maker said in its recall.

Known by its brand name Narcan, naloxone has made headlines in recent years for its role in the nation’s opioid crisis, as it rapidly reverses the effects of overdoses.

The drug is widely carried by ER doctors, paramedics and specially trained first responders, as well as the family members of people addicted to prescription painkillers and opioid users. (Previously, the drug was only available through hospitals, CNN noted.)

First developed in 1961, naloxone quickly proved itself to be as effective as it is fast-acting. The drug has virtually no side effects and only stays in a person’s system for up to 90 minutes.

“The sooner the drug is given, the better the result, because the brain of a person who isn’t breathing is being deprived of oxygen,” the Cleveland Clinic’s Dr. Thomas Waters told Health. It doesn’t reverse alcohol or non-opioid drug overdoses, though.

There are currently three FDA-approved forms of naloxone, including injectable vials, autoinjectable devices and a pre-packaged nasal spray.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, naloxone acts as an opioid antagonist, binding to opioid receptors in the brain: “[The drug] can very quickly restore normal respiration to a person whose breathing has slowed or stopped as a result of overdosing with heroin or prescription opioid pain medications.”

The drug recall affects single-use sterile cartridge units “with lot numbers 72680LL and 76510LL in 0.4 mg/ml, 1 mL in, and 2.5 mL strengths,” CNN reports.

CNN added that the units were sold to wholesalers, hospitals and distributors in the United States, Puerto Rico and Guam between February 2017 and February 2018.

Fortune noted that the naloxone recall is just “the latest black eye” for Hospira, citing manufacturing shortages, lawsuits, staff cuts and warning letters from the FDA as problems that have plagued the company in recent years. The company’s Puerto Rico facilities, where many generic injectable and IV drugs were made, were shuttered after the “bombshell of Hurricane Maria” last year.

View the original article at thefix.com

7 June 2018
Stone Sour Guitarist Josh Rand Returns To Band, Now Sober

“I just felt like every day was a burden. I was just like, ‘This is crazy. I know I don’t have to feel like this.’”

Stone Sour guitarist Josh Rand is back in the band after a brief hiatus during which he focused on getting sober. It was a much-needed break, he told Loudwire, that allowed him to regroup and see life from a new perspective.

“In January, I just hit a wall with things, felt just terrible and decided that it was in my best interest and the band’s best interest to step aside and get stuff sorted,” he said.

He was on his way to Canada with the band when he made the decision to hit the brakes. He decided at the last minute at the airport that he couldn’t go on any longer.

“Everybody backed the decision… I had just spun into a funk, depression thing. I just wasn’t happy and so that’s why I made the decision. I just felt like every day was a burden. I was just like, ‘This is crazy. I know I don’t have to feel like this,’” said Rand.

Up until that point, the guitarist described having trouble getting out of bed and missing studio sessions “because I was just that down.” This made working on the band’s 2017 album Hydrograd all the more difficult for Rand.

But after three months of focusing on his recovery, Rand says he’s already reaping the rewards. “I have this new appreciation for everything,” he told Loudwire.

Like his fellow bandmate Corey Taylor, who is also a vocalist for Slipknot, part of Rand’s recovery is living a healthy lifestyle, eating right and “spend[ing] hours” exercising.

“The other thing I’m still working on… I was a person that would really never speak their mind and just bottle everything up,” he said. “That didn’t help me in many ways over the years, I’m sure. The band, we have a very open communication with the five of us and [are] truly a brotherhood.”

Taylor himself, the vocalist of the Grammy-nominated band, has been sober since 2006, after fighting his own battles with substance abuse and suicidal ideation. Last year he was honored for his recovery advocacy at the Rock to Recovery benefit, for speaking up about his trauma and his recovery.

“I knew that if I could open up and take away that stigma and show people that there’s absolutely fucking nothing wrong with sitting down with someone and talking about possible traumas that have happened in your life, or just talking about your problems, then you can help yourself a million times over, and you can help other people as well,” he told Rolling Stone.

View the original article at thefix.com

7 June 2018
New Apple Technology Aims To Address Tech Addiction

“There’s clearly users out there worried about the amount of time they’re spending, or the amount of distraction or interruptions that they get. So we thought really deeply about this,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Smartphones have been blamed for the fact that many people are increasingly reliant on technology, spending hours each day swiping and scrolling. However, the newest software unveiled this week by Apple aims to address concerns over technology addiction by helping iPhone users to more tightly control the time they spend on their phones.

According to the LA Times, two features in particular aim to help people break from the constant temptation to pick up their phones. Apple started by updating the “Do Not Disturb” setting on the iPhone, which allows people to keep their phones on without receiving noise from notifications.

Apple also introduced a new feature called Screen Time. This gives users an activity report showing how much time they’re spending on individual apps, how often they pick up their phone and which apps are sending them the most notifications. People can limit the time that they are able to spend on certain apps, and when the time limit is reached the iPhone will not let them access the apps unless they change the setting.

“There’s clearly users out there that are worried about the amount of time they’re spending, or the amount of distraction or interruptions that they get. So we thought really deeply about this,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an interview with NPR. “Essentially it’s about giving you insight, so you know how much time you’re spending, where you’re spending it, how many times per hour you’re picking up a device, how many notifications you get, who’s sending those to you.”

This can empower the user to make their own decision about limiting technology use, he said.

“Right now we can all almost kid ourselves a bit about how much time we’re spending, and whether we’re distracted or not. There’s nothing like getting a report of facts to see what is happening to you,” he said.

Asked if he believes that the term “addiction” is appropriate when it comes to technology, Cook hesitated. “I’m not a clinician and so, uh, I don’t know. What I do know is, that you can use something too much. And I know some users are—I don’t know really what percentage, but I know some users are concerned about it. And I’m concerned about it.”

He rejected the idea of technology as a social ill, but did say that users need to be aware of how their tech use is impacting their lives.

“I think there are cases in life where anything good, used to the extreme, becomes not good,” he said.

In addition to empowering users, the new technology will enhance parental controls, something that is important for many parents who worry about their teens’ use of technology.

“Parents are obviously very interested in having this for their kids as well,” Cook said. “We’ve been doing things for parental control since the creation of the App Store, but this gives parents another huge tool to use.”

View the original article at thefix.com

6 June 2018