Tag: News

San Francisco DA Expunges More Than 9,000 Pot Cases

The move makes San Francisco the first county in California to fully comply with the requirements of the state’s recreational marijuana legalization bill.

Calling it a “matter of dignity,” San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón announced that he will expunge 9,362 marijuana-related convictions—some dating back to 1975—and reduce felony and misdemeanor charges to misdemeanor and infraction, respectively.

The expungement is a joint effort between the DA’s office and the nonprofit, Code for America, which uses an algorithm to identify eligible cases.

The move makes San Francisco the first county in California to fully comply with the requirements of AB 1793, a regulation of Proposition 64—the state’s recreational marijuana legalization bill—which required automation of the charge reduction or expungement process for eligible marijuana convictions.

Prior to Gascón’s announcement on February 25, the San Francisco Chronicle noted that just 23 people petitioned to have their cases reclassified or expunged. The newspaper cited Gascón’s assessment that the low number was due to the difficulty of the process, which required an attorney and took considerable time and effort to complete.

But the partnership with Code for America, which was launched in May 2018, offered a chance to automate the process by using a computer-based algorithm dubbed “Clear My Record.” Prior to that, Gascón’s office had identified some 3,000 cases eligible for expungement.

According to the Associated Press, the program quickly determines eligible cases and then automatically fills out the forms required by the court to process expungement. At Monday’s announcement, Gascón said that the work had been completed ahead of the expected timeframe for completion—which was initially set at a year’s time—and under budget.

“It’s incumbent that we, as law enforcement leaders, continue to evolve how we advance fairness and public safety in our respective communities,” he said. “I hope that our success with Code for America can act as a catalyst for other leaders looking to engage in similar innovative and out-of-the-box methods to reform and rethink what our criminal justice system looks like.”

Code for America director Jennifer Pahlka said that her organization was already working with several other district attorneys in California to provide the same service for their marijuana cases.

Prosecutors in cities across America have already launched or announced similar expungement efforts, including Baltimore, Seattle and Chicago; New York District Attorney Cyrus Vance announced the vacation of more than 3,000 outstanding warrants for misdemeanor and violation cases involving cannabis consumption and possession in September 2018.

Expungement and reduction of these charges can allow thousands of individuals to pursue housing, job and educational opportunities that in may cases were not available to them because of their convictions.

“Even convictions from many years ago can have an impact on people’s lives now, and this will ensure that it doesn’t happen,” said Drug Policy Alliance deputy state director Laura Thomas to High Times. “We hope that other prosecutors around the country follow Gascón’s lead.”

View the original article at thefix.com

1 March 2019
Chris Cornell’s Widow To The Opioid Task Force: No More Shame

Since losing her husband, Vicky Cornell has become an advocate for improving addiction treatment and spreading awareness about addiction.

Vicky Cornell, widow of Soundgarden and Audioslave singer Chris Cornell, went before the Bipartisan Heroin And Opioid Task Force on Monday to make a case for better training and education on addiction for doctors.

Chris Cornell died by suicide in 2017 after struggling with depression and addiction for many years, and multiple medications were found in his system by the autopsy, including a barbiturate sedative and the benzodiazepine anti-anxiety medication Ativan. The drugs had been prescribed to him, leading Vicky to file a malpractice suit against the doctor.

Although it was determined that the drugs did not directly contribute to Chris’ death, Vicky released a statement to the press soon after her husband’s death blaming the substances for causing a lapse in judgment that led to his death.

“We have learned from this report that several substances were found in his system,” the statement read. “After so many years of sobriety, this moment of terrible judgment seems to have completely impaired and altered his state of mind. Something clearly went terribly wrong and my children and I are heartbroken and are devastated that this moment can never be taken back.”

Since losing her husband, Vicky Cornell has been an advocate for improving addiction treatment and promoting the proper education in medical fields and for the general public.

“The part that hurts most is Chris’ death was not inevitable, there were no demons that took over,” she said to the task force. “Chris had a brain disease and a doctor who unfortunately, like many, was not properly trained or educated on addiction.”

Chris Cornell often spoke about his experience with mental illness, drug use, and addiction. In 2006, he told Spin that he was diagnosed with panic disorder and believes it was a direct result of a bad experience with PCP that left him “more or less agoraphobic.”

After that, he avoided drugs until his 20s, but started drinking at a young age and became an alcoholic. After Soundgarden broke up and his first marriage began to fall apart, Chris began experimenting with OxyContin. He entered rehab in 2002 and was able to quit using alcohol and tobacco by 2005.

Years later, according to Vicky Cornell’s suit, her husband’s doctor prescribed him the Ativan, a drug widely considered to be addictive, for 20 months without seeing the patient for a checkup. Chris told Vicky on the night of his death that he had taken an extra Ativan and was acting strangely.

Now, she wants to make sure it never happens again.

“We must integrate addiction treatment into our health care system,” she said on Capitol Hill. “No more false narratives about the need to hit rock bottom, no more secret societies, no more shame — we must educate health care providers on how to treat addiction and best support recovery.”

View the original article at thefix.com

1 March 2019
How Working Long Hours & Weekends Affects Mental Health

Working longer hours during the week increased depression symptoms in women, according to a new study.

Working longer hours is associated with increased risk of depression in women, but not men, while working weekends increased symptoms of depression in both genders, according to a recent study.

The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, found that men who worked all or most weekends had 3.4% more symptoms of depression than men who didn’t work weekends, while women who worked weekends experienced 4.6% more depressive symptoms than their counterparts who didn’t work weekends.

Interestingly, working more hours during the week increased depression symptoms in women, but not in men. Women who worked 55 hours a week had 7.3% more depressive symptoms than those who worked 30-40 hours.

Lead study author Gill Weston told Science Daily that there are likely social aspects at play to explain the difference between how men and women respond to extra work hours.

“This is an observational study, so although we cannot establish the exact causes, we do know many women face the additional burden of doing a larger share of domestic labor than men, leading to extensive total work hours, added time pressures and overwhelming responsibilities,” Weston said.

The results also likely have to do with the type of jobs that people are working, she added. The study found that people of both genders who worked weekends were less satisfied with their careers and were more likely to be doing low-skilled work.

“Additionally women who work most weekends tend to be concentrated in low-paid service sector jobs, which have been linked to higher levels of depression,” Weston said.

She added that factors outside of work hours also contribute to the risk of depression.

“Women in general are more likely to be depressed than men, and this was no different in the study,” she said. “Independent of their working patterns, we also found that workers with the most depressive symptoms were older, on lower incomes, smokers, in physically demanding jobs, and who were dissatisfied at work.”

Weston suggested that having more flexible schedules could help counteract depressive symptoms that are connected to work, particularly for women.

“We hope our findings will encourage employers and policymakers to think about how to reduce the burdens and increase support for women who work long or irregular hours—without restricting their ability to work when they wish to. More sympathetic working practices could bring benefits both for workers and for employers—of both sexes.”

View the original article at thefix.com

1 March 2019
Top Doctor Details Opioid Addiction, Going To Rehab

When she was caught stealing meds from work, a top anesthesiologist was taken to rehab to deal with her addiction and save her career.

As a top anesthesiologist in Georgia, “Alison” had accepted a job as the medical director of the anesthesiology department and was the most-requested anesthesiologist by both patients and surgeons. Her addiction almost cost her that position.

Alison gave an in-depth interview to Marie Claire, exposing the details of both her opioid addiction and undergoing treatment once she was found out.

Alison explained that as a child growing up in a big family, perfection was the minimum expectation. All of her siblings are overachievers—three are physicians, one worked for the CIA, and one chaired a university department. Alison enrolled in medical school at 19 and went on to become a successful anesthesiologist, once administering to a sitting president.

After a short affair with a nurse she met at work, her 11-year marriage ended. Alison married the nurse after a few years of dating him on and off. Their relationship was emotionally strained and combustible—another addiction, Alison realized, looking back.

The second marriage wasn’t working. They fought often, and Alison learned that her husband was using the synthetic opioid, fentanyl, a drug that she regularly administered in her line of work. Her husband insisted that he wasn’t addicted, and Alison told Marie Claire he “was the first face I ever put to drug use, and I worshipped the ground he walked on at that point, so I thought: this person is not a loser, he knows what he’s doing, he’s good at what he does.”

Alison began bringing home leftover fentanyl from surgeries for her husband to use, and one day—on an impulse—she shot a tiny amount into a vein in the back of her hand. “All of a sudden, everything was OK,” Alison said. “I would say it’s like immediately going from zero to the happiest buzz you’ve ever had.”

After a year of increasingly heavy and disruptive drug use, in March 2016, Alison’s boss, Lindsay Dembowski, was notified that Alison was stealing narcotics from the hospital—sufentanil, which is 5 to 10 times stronger than fentanyl.

She could hardly believe it. “I thought, There is absolutely no way,” Dembowski told Marie Claire. “Of all the people—Alison was my best doctor—she would have been the last one on my list of suspects.”

Dembowski confronted Alison, and they embarked on a two-hour drive to a treatment center in Atlanta.

Alison was taken to Talbott Recovery, established in 1989 by George Talbott, an internist with alcohol use disorder who created the first treatment program specifically for doctors like himself. Dr. Talbott wanted to not only help physicians, but also help them get their jobs back.

Alison was at Talbott for 90 days of rigorous treatment.

Opioids are the second most frequently abused substance among physicians, after alcohol. So many at Talbott were also physicians experiencing opioid addiction.

Once home, Alison signed a five-year monitoring agreement with Georgia’s physician health program (PHP). A PHP allows physicians in recovery to continue to practice medicine as long as they maintain their sobriety, and agree to drug tests and support group meetings. If they do not comply or other negative events occur, the PHP may need to report the doctor to the medical board.

In the U.S., every state has a PHP except for California, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

The Journal of Substance Abuse published a national study in 2009 which found that of 904 physicians enrolled in 16 state PHP programs, 78% had no positive test for either drugs or alcohol during the five years of intensive monitoring, and 72% continued practicing medicine.

Alison and her second husband divorced, but she remains clean and sober and working as an anesthesiologist in a new hospital 30 minutes from her home.

View the original article at thefix.com

28 February 2019
Women Launch "Joy Tour" To Raise Mental Health Awareness

Two women are on a nationwide mission to spread awareness about suicide prevention.

Two women have given up their jobs and are traveling to all 50 states on what they call a “Joy Tour.”

More specifically, the women—Shontice McKenzie and Cedrica Mitchell—are doing the tour in hopes of raising awareness around the increase in suicide in the United States.

According to AL.com, the two have made one-month long stops in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and now Alabama for the month of February.

The suicide rate in Alabama has been higher than the national average for the past 29 years. The rate there is 16.2 per 100,000, in comparison to the country’s average of 13.9.

According to the Alabama Department of Public Health, suicide is the second-leading cause of death for those ages 10 to 24.

During their tour, McKenzie and Mitchell are hoping to break down the stigma around mental health and increase access to outlets like yoga, meditation, exercise and the arts as a whole.

“We have met so many families who are still in denial about a family member who completed the act of suicide because they don’t want the backlash from the public,” McKenzie said. “They should have received more support around the topic. Then we can prevent suicides. That’s what the Joy Tour is about.”

The Joy Tour was sparked as part of McKenzie’s nonprofit H.U.M.A.N.I.T.Y 360, INC. The women conclude their month-long state visits with what they call a “Joy Jam.”

The Joy Jam is a free event that offers food, connections to mental health resources, and the chance to be educated about different holistic approaches to mental health.

While their visit to each state has varied, McKenzie says the one thing that has remained steady is the fact that people struggle to access appropriate mental health resources.

“Most of these people in these communities are contained in their environment. So, they rarely go outside of their environment,” McKenzie tells AL.com. “I don’t know many mental health resources that are coming to them by going inside of these places. So, we are coming to them.”

After leaving Alabama, McKenzie and Mitchell will head to Tennessee in their 2002 Chevy Trailblazer, which boasts more than 246,000 miles. They hope to eventually replace it with an RV. As of now, the two women plan to conclude the Joy Tour in 2023 in the state of Hawaii.

View the original article at thefix.com

28 February 2019
How Sobriety Changed One Restaurant's Culture

One Montreal chef’s journey to sobriety inspired his staff to change their relationship with alcohol at work.

When David McMillan and Fred Morin opened the Montreal restaurant Joe Beef in 2005, they strove to be a destination where people could enjoy all the food and drink that they could possibly want.

“I want people to drink and eat to excess. I promote it,” McMillan told Bon Appetit in a recent interview. However, McMillan said that while he enjoyed excess in his 20s and 30s, the thrill wore off in his 40s and he realized it was time to reevaluate his relationship with indulgence.

“It started to unravel when I was 40. I couldn’t shut it off. All of a sudden, there was no bottle of wine good enough for me. I’m drinking, like, literally the finest wines of the world,” McMillan said.

He realized that he was living an unhealthy lifestyle, and it was affecting his career and family.

“I started asking myself questions about alcoholism. What was I showing my children by eating and drinking like a Viking in front of them at the cottage? I wasn’t acting on many opportunities because I was hungover most of the time. I was medicating with food. I was medicating with alcohol. And finally it just got to a point where I was just really unhappy.”

He took to Google to try to find out how to stop drinking, but he wasn’t able to make the changes on his own.

“I’ve done a thousand Google searches over five years. I’ve tried to quit drinking 100 times and failed 110 times,” he said.

Then, last year, his managers intervened and connected McMillan with rehab. There, he immersed himself in learning about sobriety, recovery and health.

“I wasn’t resistant, because I was so unhappy. I learned a whole bunch of things about myself, about sobriety, about traumatic events that had happened to me in my childhood. I didn’t even know what the word ‘codependent’ meant before I went to rehab. I didn’t know what people-pleasing meant. I didn’t know what an enabler was. Ultimately I took a crash-course in alcoholism, wellness, and the language of sobriety.”

McMillan knew that he wouldn’t be able to avoid the restaurant scene or alcohol entirely, since his career was built around his restaurant and his wine company. However, he eased into work, beginning in a friend’s restaurant and sipping San Pellegrino instead of wine.

“And I got my courage back about working in a restaurant without consuming alcohol,” he said. “At that point I went back to my own restaurant, and I worked in my restaurant and applied what I had learned.”

He realized that the staff that looked up to him began to change their behaviors, following his lead.

“As I started taking care of myself, the staff started mimicking me,” he said. Rather than celebrating the end of the shift with wine, they began drinking kombucha instead, and building genuine connections rather than drinking buddies.

“When I became sober, there was this openness from the staff, because I spoke a different way,” McMillan said. “I got to know people again through tea and coffee with people. …Now I actually care about the happiness of these people I’ve been working with for 15 years.”

He even inspired his business partner, Fred Morin, to get sober as well. Now, the duo are open about how their sobriety has changed their restaurant.

“I built the company on my liver,” McMillan said. “Now I have to take care of myself.”

View the original article at thefix.com

28 February 2019
Clark Gable III, Grandson of Hollywood Legend, Dies At 30

The 30-year-old actor had reportedly battled addiction prior to his death.

Television host and actor Clark Gable III, whose grandfather was iconic Hollywood actor Clark Gable, died on February 22, 2019 in Dallas, Texas.

Variety confirmed with the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office that the 30-year-old Gable, who was the host of the TV show Cheaters, was found unresponsive in his home in Dallas by his girlfriend that morning and transported to an area hospital, where he died from undisclosed causes.

In an interview with Radar Online, an ex-girlfriend of Gable’s claimed that he had suffered from substance abuse issues. Heather Chadwell claimed that he had struggled with addiction during the course of their relationship.

“We were together on-and-off for several years, and during that time, we went through a lot,” said Chadwell. Gable would disappear for “days on end,” which strained their relationship. “We were battling our own addiction issues, and it was too much.”

Chadwell also said that after the pair split, she received a call from a hospital where Clark was being treated for a stab wound in his lung. The lung later became infected and collapsed, according to Chadwell, and required surgery. “It was just so hard on him, and it was hard to watch him suffer.”

Gable’s mother, Tracy Scheff, told Radar that she learned about her son’s death from his girlfriend, Summer, with whom he had a daughter in 2017. “I got a call from his girlfriend, and I didn’t even know what she was saying, she was so hysterical,” said Scheff. Gable’s sister, actress Kayley Gable, posted a tribute to her sibling that same morning.

“My brother was found unresponsive this morning… I love you Clarkie, I’m so sorry we couldn’t save you,” she wrote. “My heart is broken and shattered.”

In 2011, Gable served six days in jail for pointing a laser at a Los Angeles Police Department helicopter as it flew above Hollywood Boulevard. He later apologized for the incident and said he was glad to have served his time and be “able to set an example.”

At the time of his death, Gable was reported to have appeared in a feature film, Sunset at Dawn, which also featured his father, John Clark Gable. He was also reportedly working on a documentary about his grandfather, who starred in such films as Gone with the Wind.

View the original article at thefix.com

28 February 2019
Everclear's Art Alexakis, Nearly 30 Years Sober, Talks Addiction & Recovery

“I spent most of my teens trying new drugs, and learning how to lie about them. My priorities in my teens and early 20s were drugs, alcohol and sex,” Alexakis revealed.

The lead singer of the band Everclear, Art Alexakis, has been sober since June 15, 1989, which is one of his proudest accomplishments.

As My Horry News reports, Alexakis spoke about his long-term recovery at an addiction and recovery event at Horry-Georgetown Technical College.

For Alexakis, June 15 is a remarkable date because it was the date his older brother died of an overdose in 1974. On the same date in 1984, Alexakis himself almost died from an overdose. And finally, on the same date, he was ready to clean up his life in 1989.

Alexakis told the audience, “People like to tell me their war stories and ask, ‘What was your drug of choice?’ I tell them, ‘Whatddaya got?’”

In addition to the trauma of losing his brother, Alexakis also confessed that he was sexually abused when he was eight years old. He smoked his first joint when he was 9, and took LSD at a concert at 11.

Then Alexakis discovered that a local ice cream man was a heroin dealer, and Alexakis’s brother helped him sell drugs as well.

“I spent most of my teens trying new drugs, and learning how to lie about them,” Alexakis continued. “My priorities in my teens and early 20s were drugs, alcohol and sex.”

One night, Alexakis suffered a near fatal overdose after injecting cocaine. His heart stopped, and thankfully a next-door neighbor who was an EMT saved his life with a defibrillator.

Six months later, Alexakis stopped the drugs, but he kept drinking heavily. Finally, a record store clerk called him out by saying, “You know, you have a problem,” and offered to take him to a meeting.

After going on a bender, Alexakis decided he was ready to get sober. He went to two meetings in a day, which cemented his desire to get sober.

Before hitting the road in early recovery, where temptation is everywhere, Alexakis would hit up meetings to prepare himself.

“It’s all about choices,” Alexakis added. “Don’t put yourself in places you don’t want to be. If you can’t make good choices in those places, don’t go to those places. You have to find that desire to be clean and sober and to be in recovery.”

Without getting sober, Alexakis says, “I’d be dead. It’s not even a maybe. I’d have been dead.”

View the original article at thefix.com

28 February 2019
Nurses Speak About Risk For Opioid Addiction

One nurse in recovery says that easy access to medications heightens the risk of addiction among people in her occupation.

With long hours, stressful shifts and easy access to prescription medications, nurses are at high risk of opioid addiction, according to people who work in the industry.

According to a recent report by Fox13 Memphis, 114 nurses lost their licenses (or had them suspended) because of addiction issues over the course of one year in Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas.

“I would say 20 to 25 percent of nurses probably have an addiction problem,” said Deena Coleman, a nurse who has been in recovery for 10 years, and now helps other nurses connect with treatment. “I don’t know, 20 to 25 percent are seeking treatment. But it would be my guess.”

Coleman said that with medications everywhere, it’s simple for nurses to cross the line.

“We are very bright people. We can figure out how to get what we want. And I think nurses see things lying around. They see how things go,” she said. “And it takes them a very short time to say, ‘Okay, that would be easy to pick up and put in my pocket.’”

One nurse who spoke with Fox using the pseudonym “Sophie” said that a doctor she worked with got her started using opioids recreationally. Soon she was using them to get through her shifts.

“Eventually I took narcotics from work and was caught. And was charged with obtaining narcotic by fraud,” she said.

She said that she knows her drug abuse affected the patients that she was caring for. “I would be foolish to say no it didn’t. Yes, it did. It had to have. There was no way that I could use opioids,” she said.

In Mississippi, nurses need to document a year of sobriety—proven by drug tests—in order to be able to regain their license.

“They make it difficult for you to get your license back. Yes, it is fair. You are taking care of people,” said Sophie. Now six years sober, she is hoping to return to nursing. “There is absolutely hope,” she said.

In Massachusetts, the Board of Registration in Nursing runs a Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Program for nurses who are coping with addiction. Nurses who complete the program can keep their licenses after they complete the course.

David Kelly, a former registered nurse who became addicted to opioids said that he was lucky to be in a state with such a program. However, he said that opioid addiction needs to be talked about more openly among healthcare professionals.

“We have great recovery programs in this state, but our outreach needs to improve,” he said during a talk at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston in 2017.

View the original article at thefix.com

28 February 2019
Former Commissioner Blames FDA For Opioid Crisis: "No One Stopped It"

“There are no studies on the safety or efficacy of opioids for long-term use,” said former FDA commissioner David Kessler in a recent “60 Minutes” interview.

The former Food and Drug Administration commissioner expressed regret that the agency allowed drug companies to promote the idea that opioid painkillers were safe for long-term use in a recent 60 Minutes interview.

Dr. David Kessler was FDA commissioner during the ’90s, when Purdue Pharma’s prescription opioid OxyContin was approved. Shortly after, Purdue began an aggressive marketing campaign to both prescribers and consumers, including chronic pain patients.

In 2001, the FDA changed the indication on the label for prescription opioids to say that it was safe for long-term use, allowing drug companies to market them as such. However, Dr. Kessler now says that there were no studies on the long-term effects of regular, ongoing opioid use at the time.

“There are no studies on the safety or efficacy of opioids for long-term use,” said Kessler in the interview. “The rigorous kind of scientific research the agency should be relying on is not there.”

The former commissioner also appears to regret allowing the methods of the OxyContin marketing campaign, which were unprecedented in the prescription drug market. Soon, companies like Purdue were convincing doctors to prescribe more pills at higher doses — something that experts believe fueled the current epidemic of opioid-related addiction and overdoses.

Dr. Kessler is now on retainer by cities and counties that are suing Perdue Pharma and other drug companies for the damage caused by the opioid crisis. He officially left the FDA before the drugs were proclaimed safe for extended use, but laments that no one stopped it from happening.

“You have a system of pharmaceutical promotion that changed the way medicine practiced and no one, all right, stopped it,” he said. He later blames this on understaffing in the FDA marketing department.

Current FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb declined to be interviewed, instead providing a written statement.

“Many mistakes were made along the way,” it reads. “While the agency followed the law in approving and regulating opioids, we at the FDA include ourselves among those that should have acted sooner.”

On another 60 Minutes segment three days later, drug manufacturer Ed Thompson indicted “his own industry” and agreed with Dr. Kessler’s assessment that the label change was what sparked the opioid epidemic.

“The root cause of this epidemic is the FDA’s illegal approval of opioids for the treatment of chronic pain,” Thompson said. “Without question, they start the fire.”

Thompson himself is now suing the FDA in an attempt to force the administration to change the label on prescription opioids once again to say that it’s only safe for short-term use. As a maker of these drugs, he stands to lose billions if he’s successful. Thompson is going ahead with the suit, however, refusing to sell what he calls “snake oil” to consumers.

“You’re using high-dose, long-duration opioids when they’ve never been designed to do that,” he explained to the 60 Minutes host. “There’s no evidence that they’re effective. There’s extreme evidence of harms and deaths when you use them.”

View the original article at thefix.com

27 February 2019