Tag: News

Meth Seizures Skyrocket

Overdoses are rising as well.

While the nation focuses on fighting opioids, more people are turning to methamphetamine. Seizures of the drug are rising, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

According to Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officials, seizures of methamphetamine rose 118% between 2010 and 2017, according to the Cato Institute. In 2017, law enforcement conducted 347,807 seizures of meth.

At the same time, overdose deaths from the illicit stimulant are rising, reaching more than 10,000 in 2017.

While meth has been more common in southern and western states, it is now showing up regularly in areas where it wasn’t prevalent before, including New England. There, DEA officer Jon DeLena said that the alarming trajectory of meth use reminded him of another drug that has rocked the region.

“Everybody’s biggest fear is what it’s going to look like if meth hits us like fentanyl did,” DeLena told The Wall Street Journal.

The influx in meth is said to be driven in part by increased production of cheaper and more potent product by Mexican cartels. While in the past, meth production happened on a small scale, cartels have the means and motivation to push larger quantities into more regions.

That is why Dr. Jeffrey A. Singer, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, argues that the U.S. should stop focusing on “fighting” the war on drugs, and instead focus on treating the underlying conditions that leave people vulnerable to substance abuse.

“Meth’s comeback shows why waging a war on drugs is like playing a game of ‘Whack-a-Mole,’” Singer wrote for the Washington Examiner last year. “The government cracked down on Sudafed (affecting millions of cold and allergy sufferers) while SWAT teams descended on domestic meth labs, and Mexican cartels popped up with a cheaper and better manufacturing system.

“In the case of opioids, authorities reduced opioid prescription and production, and nonmedical users migrated over to more dangerous heroin and fentanyl, driving up the overdose rate.”

In response to the most recent numbers, Singer wrote, “In 2005 Congress acted to address the ‘Meth Crisis.’ Shortly thereafter it turned its attention to the ‘Opioid Crisis.’ Now it is dealing with a fentanyl crisis and a replay of the meth crisis. How many more will die or suffer needlessly before lawmakers wise up?”

As meth overdoses become more common, it has highlighted the limits of addiction medications. While opioid overdoses can often be reversed with Narcan (naloxone) and opioid use disorder can be treated with medication, there are few medical options to help people who abuse meth.

“We’re realizing that we don’t have everything we might wish we had to address these different kinds of drugs,” psychiatrist Margaret Jarvis, a distinguished fellow for the American Society of Addiction Medicine, said earlier this year.

View the original article at thefix.com

22 March 2019
Dax Shepard Starts His Day Thinking About Addiction

“You’ve got to acknowledge you are an addict every day, first thing, right when you wake up,” the actor said on a recent episode of his podcast.

For 12 years, actor Dax Shepard started his day by taking time to acknowledge that he is an addict.

“You’ve got to acknowledge you are an addict every day, first thing, right when you wake up, you write a page,” Shepard told Gwyneth Paltrow on his Armchair Expert podcast. “It doesn’t even have to be about being an addict. It’s just this physical activity there to remind myself, ‘I have a thing that I’ll never not have.’”

The daily ritual cemented the Parenthood star’s recovery.

“I wrote a page in my journal every single morning because I had this thought that if I can’t commit 20 minutes to remember I’m an addict each morning, I’m going to end up blowing nine hours a day as an addict. I have to be able to say, minimally this is your commitment.”

Shepard, who is going on his 15th year of sobriety, said he has only recently relaxed the ritual.

“In general, I’m embarrassed to admit this. For the very first 12 years of sobriety, I didn’t miss a single day, not one. I get crazy superstitious about it.”

Even though he has achieved long-term sobriety, Shepard said that he continues to grow in his confidence and self-love.

“At a certain point, you’re like, ‘F**k it.’ I’m going to be who I am, I’m not going to look in the mirror and be so critical of everything, and I’m not going to rehash every mistake I’ve ever made in my life and flagellate myself for it. I really did feel when I turned 40 I could feel a real shift,” said the actor, who is 44. “I was like, ‘I’m not going to do that anymore.’ Because I was ruled by my insecurities, and like by the idea that I was unlovable, and I kept just trying to prove that out.”

Instead of fixating on his insecurities, Shepard now focuses on building his relationship with his wife, actress Kristen Bell, who has been supportive of his sobriety. Bell went on Instagram last year to celebrate the work that her husband puts into his recovery—both morning and night.

“I know how much you loved using. I know how much it got in your way. And I know, because I saw, how hard you worked to live without it,” she wrote when Shepard celebrated 14 years sober.

“I will forever be in awe of your dedication, and the level of fierce moral inventory you perform on yourself, like an emotional surgery, every single night.”

View the original article at thefix.com

22 March 2019
Wendy Williams Reveals She's Been Living In a Sober Home

Williams detailed her sober living situation during a recent episode of her talk show.

Wendy Williams took two months off from her show before returning to reveal that she has been living in a sober home.

“For some time now, and even today and beyond, I have been living in a sober house,” Williams said on Tuesday’s episode of The Wendy Williams Show. “And you know, I’ve had a struggle with cocaine in my past and I never went to a place to get the treatment. I don’t know how, except God was sitting on my shoulder and I just stopped.”

Williams’ revelation came after a two-month hiatus from taping her show. She explained she had been dealing with Graves’ disease during her time off.

In 2017, Williams fainted during a taping of her show. She later explained that she had a heat stroke—and was going through “what middle-aged women go through.”

The TV personality wanted to be transparent with her fans, who know her to be a “very truthful and open person.” She stated that the only other person who knew what was happening was her husband, Kevin Hunter, according to BuzzFeed News.

“There are people in your family, it might be you, who have been struggling, and I want you to know more of the story,” she said. “So, this is my autobiographical story, and I’m living it. I’m telling you this.”

Williams shared her routine with viewers: daily pilates and sober “meetings around town in the tristate area,” then her 24-hour sober coach brings her home, “with a bunch of smelly boys who have become my family.”

“They hog the TV and watch soccer, we talk and read and talk and read, and then I get bored with them. Doors locked by 10 p.m. Lights out by 10 p.m.,” Williams said.

“So I go to my room, and I stare at the ceiling and I fall asleep to wake up and come back here to see you. So that is my truth. I know, either you are calling me crazy or the bravest woman you know,” she said. “I don’t care.”

Williams also promoted her family’s foundation, the Hunter Foundation, which offers a 24-hour hotline service that Williams said, “already successfully placed 56 people in recovery centers around the world.”

CNN anchor Don Lemon tweeted his support of Williams, writing, “I say bravest woman I know. @WendyWilliams finally speaks her truth about recovery.”

View the original article at thefix.com

22 March 2019
Is Neurotechnology The Future Of Mental Health Treatment?

Scientists believe that one day neurotechnology may be able to erase mental illness from the brain.

Imagine being able to completely erase any unpleasant thought from your brain.

For some future-oriented people, this idea may not be too far-fetched. According to OZY, some believe that one day, humans may be able to erase depression and other mental health issues from our brains via neurotechnology.

In simple terms, neurotechnology has to do with mapping activity in the brain and stimulating the brain via magnetic pulses. Neurotechnology could allow a medical professional to examine the brain and determine which parts link to depression, then deactivate that area.

Although the idea exists, the implementation is a ways off.

“First, we need to better understand the neural circuits that are responsible for those kinds of mental states,” E.J. Chichilnisky, lead researcher in the Stanford NeuroTechnology Initiative, tells OZY. “In the future, the hope is that, rather than just hit a reset button, we can dialectically manipulate the system in order to put things in a better state.”

But if it comes to the point where this type of neurotechnology is possible, it begs the question: just because we can, does that mean we should?

In his book The Hypomanic Edge, psychiatrist John D. Gartner points out that in some cases, those with diagnoses such as bipolar disorder actually experience benefits, too, and disabling that portion of the brain would rid them of those.

“Hypomania is a kind of sub-manic state where people with bipolar have an enormous amount of energy, confidence, drive and creativity,” Gartner writes.

While this type of neurotechnology does not yet exist, other helpful technologies could be closer to reality. According to OZY, a neural implant could one day help predict depression symptoms before they take hold.

Then there’s the technology that already exists, OZY points out, such as the mobile app 7 Cups which allows users to anonymously reach out for help via their phones.

“People have 2,600–2,700 touches on their cell phones per day,” Arpan Waghray, psychiatrist and chief medical officer for Well Being Trust, tells OZY. “We now have a way in which we can continuously monitor for certain symptoms.”

Despite the forward steps in technology, the future of mental health isn’t all focused there. In fact, going back to the basics continues to be vital for maintaining one’s mental health.

According to OZY, one example is getting good quality sleep. In 2007, founder of the Huffington Post Arianna Huffington fell and broke her cheekbone due to exhaustion. After the experience, she started Thrive Global, an organization that promotes a healthy lifestyle.

“Chronic sleep problems are found in 50 to 80 percent of those seeking help for mental health issues,” Huffington said. “Sleep deprivation always predisposes us to rumination, to negative bias, to those things that, if they’re not arrested, become depression and anxiety.”

For more information on these topics, check out OZY’s new podcast, The Future of X.

View the original article at thefix.com

22 March 2019
Obama Administration Failed To Act On Fentanyl Crisis

Health experts reportedly urged the administration to declare a public health emergency during the drug’s rise in 2016.

The Obama administration was warned about the spiking rates of fentanyl overdoses in 2016 but took no action, according to a report in The Washington Post.

A group of 11 national health experts pleaded with high-level officials in the administration in an urgent letter to declare a public health emergency in response to the influx of new, extremely potent opioids on the illicit drug market. The letter addressed then-President Obama’s appointed drug czar and the chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“The fentanyl crisis represents an extraordinary public health challenge—and requires an extraordinary public health response,” it read.

The opioid epidemic had been ramping up for years, but new policies cracking down on the over-prescription of drugs like OxyContin and Vicodin could not properly combat the scourge of illegal fentanyl that was being shipped into the country from Mexico and China.

Cities were now contending with mass overdose cases as street heroin became contaminated with fentanyl, making it many times more potent.

The administration declined to act, according to the Post.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more powerful than heroin and is largely responsible for the spikes in overdose deaths from 2015 to 2017 that shocked the nation. In 2017, fentanyl was involved in nearly as many overdose deaths as heroin and prescription opioids combined.

While the Obama administration did take some steps to address the increasing threat of opioids in 2016 and early 2017, any news over the dire warnings about the drugs was overshadowed by the unexpected results of the 2016 presidential election.

By this time, fentanyl overdose rates had risen by 800% in the state of Maryland over the space of four years.

In 2017, President Donald Trump declared the long-overdue national health emergency over the still-raging opioid epidemic. However, other than making the declaration, the Trump administration has taken little action on the problem, according to a 2018 report by the Government Accountability Office.

While the CDC has issued new guidelines for prescribing opioid painkillers like OxyContin and increased funding for addiction treatment is beginning to see positive results, local police and hospitals are still struggling to cope with overdose cases caused by fentanyl.

Unfortunately, those hit hardest by fentanyl are those with addiction disorders and chronic pain patients—many of whom turned to heroin as prescription opioids became harder to access as the government cracked down on opioids. The stigma of addiction has stood in the way of many individuals who need treatment.

Luke J. Nasta, executive director of the largest drug treatment facility on Staten Island, compared it to the AIDS epidemic of the ’80s.

“There was a stigma about being gay,” he said. “There is also a stigma about being addicted to drugs. The entire society is suffering and the government can’t seem to get their arms around this epidemic.”

View the original article at thefix.com

22 March 2019
How Alcohol Can Harm People Who Don't Drink

A new study examined the ways that alcohol can cause third-party harm.

People who don’t drink a drop can still be harmed by alcohol, according to a new study.

The study, published in BMC Medicine, looked at the health consequences of alcohol, even for people who don’t drink. The researchers found that through car accidents, physical assaults, and the effects of alcohol on pregnancy, thousands of people who do not drink are hurt or killed by alcohol each year in Germany.

Although researchers looked at only one country, they say the study proves that alcohol can cause third-party harm or loss of life.

“These study’s estimates indicate there is a substantial degree of health harm to third parties caused by alcohol in Germany. While more research on harms to others caused by alcohol is needed to provide comprehensive estimates, the results indicate a need for effective prevention,” the study authors wrote.

The authors took a fairly conservative approach to estimating the number of car accidents, violence and birth defects where alcohol was a contributing factor. They found that alcohol was involved in 45.1% of third-party traffic fatalities (this did not include drunk drivers who killed themselves).

In addition, alcohol was estimated to be a factor in 14.9% of deaths caused by interpersonal violence. It also contributed to birth defects in nearly 3,000 babies born in 2014 alone.

“The harmful effects of alcohol on others need to be recognized as a public health problem in the same way as are the harmful effects on the drinker or the costs to society,” the study authors wrote. “The present findings of harms to others related to alcohol use during pregnancy, drunk driving, and interpersonal violence using the best available data reveal that alcohol may not only cause harm to the drinker but may also harm a substantial number of third parties.”

The study authors pointed out that most research has focused on alcohol’s harms to drinkers, while other studies have focused on the financial cost to society. However, interpersonal harm from alcohol hasn’t been studied in depth because it can be hard to measure.

Although the authors focused on harms from three conditions that are relatively easy to measure, they pointed out that alcohol can also cause social harms that are more difficult to study.

“Sober people walking home at night may be harassed and injured by drunken pedestrians or may be attacked while attempting to separate intoxicated young people who are fighting,” they write. “Children may suffer problems caused by a drinking father or mother, and continued heavy drinking during pregnancy may severely harm the health of the newborn.”

View the original article at thefix.com

22 March 2019
Does Gender-Based Violence Affect Opioid Misuse?

Many women who experience violence and other traumatizing situations use opioids to self-medicate, an expert suggests.

Gender-based domestic violence plays a role in the opioid epidemic—as it relates to why women use opioids, when they access treatment, and how they are treated during overdose emergencies.

Writing for The Conversation, Nabila El-Bassel, professor of social work at Columbia University, said that just like women were at increased risk during the HIV epidemic because of domestic partner violence, they are at increased risk for opioid misuse today.

El-Bassel shared the story of Tonya, who used heroin when she anticipated being abused by her boyfriend.

“Tonya is only one of the hundreds of women I’ve interviewed for my research with similar stories in the span of my nearly 30-year career studying the links between intimate partner violence, sexual coercion, substance use disorders and HIV,” El-Bassel writes.

Many women who experience violence and other traumatizing situations use opioids as a way to self-medicate, just as Tonya did. Women who deal regularly with domestic violence often use opioids as a way to help control their emotional pain.

“Treatment must address the need for escape that these women seek,” El-Bassel writes.

Yet, many women in abusive relationships have trouble accessing treatment. Partners—especially those contending with substance abuse themselves—will often undermine a woman’s attempt to get sober. This becomes yet another way that abusive partners exert dominance over the women in their lives.

“They can control their ability to engage in treatment, deny them potential sources of protection, and jeopardize the custody of their children to maintain control over them and, for some men, have women take care of them,” El-Bassel writes.

Women who are in abusive relationships often don’t feel that they can protect themselves by demanding safe sex or clean needles. Oftentimes, their partners don’t give them a choice in the matter. Because of this, harm-reduction strategies like needle exchange fail to help the most vulnerable, El-Bassel writes.

“Studies have shown that women are often physically or sexually abused when negotiating safe sex or refusing to engage in drug risk,” she said.

Alarmingly, it’s not just intimate partners who put women at higher risk for opioid abuse. Systematic gender biases also affect access to treatment, El-Bassel writes. She points to a recent study that found that women are three times less likely than men to be treated with naloxone during an overdose.

This “is likely due to their being devalued,” El-Bassel writes. “Emergency responders and police officers as well as family members and peers must be trained to overcome this gendered barrier and recognize signs and symptoms of overdose.”

Overall, the treatment community needs to do a better job of understanding risk factors unique to women and providing interventions that work for this population, El-Bassel says.

“These issues must be changed if we are serious on addressing the opioid epidemic among women,” she writes.

View the original article at thefix.com

22 March 2019
Woman Sues To Continue Methadone Treatment In Prison

“I am afraid for my life and my safety if the Bureau of Prisons withholds medicine that I know I need,” the woman said in court filings.

For Stephanie DiPierro, methadone has been a lifesaving treatment. It helped her get sober from an opioid addiction in 2005, and since then has helped her stay away from illegal opioids.

Now, DiPierro is suing the federal prison system for her right to use methadone while she serves her sentence.

“Methadone gave me my life back,” DiPierro wrote in court filings, according to The New York Times. She said that without methadone, her life is at risk. “I will lose control of my addiction and I will relapse, overdose and die.”

Next month, DiPierro, who has bipolar disorder and anxiety, is set to start serving a year-long prison sentence. However, she argues that the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ ban on inmates (other than pregnant women) using methadone amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

In court filings she wrote, “I am afraid of what it will mean to lose my methadone treatment at the exact moment when I am put in the most anxiety-producing situation of my life. I am afraid for my life and my safety if the Bureau of Prisons withholds medicine that I know I need.”

DiPierro is being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. ACLU staff lawyer Jessie Rossman says that in addition to being cruel and unusual punishment, denying DiPierro methadone treatment is discrimination.

“The Bureau of Prisons is denying her a reasonable accommodation for her disability, and also discriminating between different disabilities. Inmates with chronic conditions like diabetes are allowed to continue to take their medically necessary treatment,” Rossman said. “What’s now coming across loud and clear is that the standard of care to treat opioid use disorder is medication-assisted treatment, and it’s ineffective and unlawful to prevent individuals from accessing their treatment and medication for that disease.”

Jails and prisons generally do not allow methadone. Some argue that this is because methadone is an opioid that can be diverted and abused, while others argue that it’s an arbitrary rule based on discrimination against people with substance use disorder.

Last year, Rossman represented a Massachusetts inmate who was looking to continue methadone treatment in county jail. A district court judge in Massachusetts issued a ruling that denying inmates methadone treatment is in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act and the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Former head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Michael Botticelli, executive director of the Grayken Center for Addiction at Boston Medical Center, told The New York Times that the ruling would likely set the stage for far-reaching change.

“One thing this ruling says is that, one way or another, either by legislation or by legal mandate, jails and prisons are going to have to do this,” he said.

View the original article at thefix.com

19 March 2019
Demi Lovato Reflects On Recovery, "Mistakes" On Would-Be 7th Sober Anniversary

“I don’t regret going out because I needed to make those mistakes, but I must never forget that’s exactly what they were—mistakes,” Lovato said.

Demi Lovato is making the most of her journey in recovery, and chose to celebrate rather than mourn what would have been her seven-year sober anniversary.

Us Weekly reports that Friday (March 15) marked what would have been that milestone for the singer and actress, if not for her frightening overdose last July that landed her in the hospital.

“Today I would’ve had 7 years sober,” Lovato shared on her Instagram story. “I don’t regret going out because I needed to make those mistakes but I must never forget that’s exactly what they were: mistakes.”

“Grateful that AA/NA never shuts the door on you no matter how many times you have to start over,” she added. “I didn’t lose 6 years, I’ll always have that experience but now I just get to add to that time with a new journey and time count.”

“If you’re alive today, you can make it back,” Lovato concluded. “You’re worth it.”

Fans of Lovato appreciated the message and took the time to let Lovato know.

“I‘m so proud of you,” one Twitter user wrote. “You have all my respect and I look up to you in every way possible.Thank you for giving us strength and showing us that it‘s ok to ask for help. You are the living proof that recovery is possible and that you can come back stronger than ever.”

On January 25, Lovato shared that she was celebrating six months of sobriety after her hospitalization and treatment since the summer.

“Demi is doing great and is in a much healthier place,” someone close to Lovato told Us Weekly at the time of the celebration. “She is learning how to take care of herself better and put her needs first.”

Since treatment, Us Weekly reports, Lovato has been putting effort into self-care. On March 7, after a breakup, she sent herself flowers and shared what the card read on her Instagram story.

“You’re beautiful, you’re loved, and you’re worthy of a happy and healthy life,” she wrote.

Lovato has been vocal about her recovery journey from substance use disorder and an eating disorder. Two years ago, on her five-year sober anniversary, Lovato shared another message on Instagram.

“So grateful. It’s been quite the journey. So many ups and downs,” she wrote at the time.

“So many times I wanted to relapse but sat on my hands and begged God to relieve the obsession. I’m so proud of myself but I couldn’t have done it without my higher power (God), my family, friends, and everyone else who supported me. Feeling humbled and joyful today. Thank you guys for sticking by my side and believing in me.”

View the original article at thefix.com

19 March 2019
Johnson & Johnson Called Opioid "Kingpin" In Oklahoma Lawsuit

The lawsuit names the multinational company as a “top supplier, seller and lobbyist” for prescription opioids.

Johnson & Johnson is being named as a “kingpin” of the opioid epidemic in the first big trial targeting opioid manufacturers, which is set to take place in May 2019.

The lawsuit, brought by the state of Oklahoma, is naming the multinational company as a “top supplier, seller and lobbyist” for prescription opioids, according to a report by Axios.

Although Purdue Pharma is the most commonly cited company associated with the opioid crisis, there are several other pharmaceutical companies being targeted by the many hundreds of lawsuits being brought to court by local governments as well as individuals.

Johnson & Johnson, most often associated with baby powder and lotion products, is classified as a pharmaceutical company.

Prior to the Axios report, Johnson & Johnson came under fire when it was discovered that the brand’s baby powder contained asbestos. The company was ordered by a California judge on Wednesday to pay $29 million to a woman who sued based on the claim that the powder was a “substantial contributing factor” in the development of her terminal cancer.

In addition to everyday home products, Johnson & Johnson “produced raw narcotics in Tasmanian poppy fields, created other active opioid ingredients, and then supplied the products to other opioid makers—including Purdue Pharma,” according to the report.

The company also allegedly boasted about the high morphine content of its poppies, targeted children and the elderly in its marketing, and funded multiple “pro-opioid groups.” A brochure made by one of the company’s subsidiaries even claimed that “opioids are rarely addictive.”

The lawyers representing Oklahoma in the upcoming case have asked a court to release millions of pages of Johnson & Johnson’s confidential documents to the public, based on the fact that the company has divested from the opioid business and therefore shouldn’t have to worry about losing trade secrets.

“The public interest in this information is urgent, enduring and overwhelming,” wrote Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter.

Johnson & Johnson provided Axios with a statement in the company’s defense, claiming that it “appropriately and responsibly met all laws and regulations on the manufacturing, sale and distribution of APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients) and the raw materials that go into them” and that its “actions in the marketing and promotion of these important prescription pain medications were appropriate and responsible.”

The company claims that it accounted for “less than one percent” of the total market share for opioid medications.

However, the Axios report points out that Johnson & Johnson made $1 billion in 2015 by selling the opioid Nucynta and $2 billion from the fentanyl patch Duragesic, which it still sells to this day.

View the original article at thefix.com

18 March 2019