Tag: News

Oakland Could Be Next City To Decriminalize Psilocybin, Other Entheogenic Plants

Earlier this month, Denver became the first US city to decriminalize psilocybin.

The city of Oakland, California may become the second city in the United States to decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms (i.e. magic mushrooms), following the recent example of Denver.

Early May, voters in Denver, Colorado approved a ballot initiative to decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms by a narrow margin, with 50.64% voting in favor of Ordinance 301. The measure does not legalize magic mushrooms, but effectively prohibits the city from prosecuting or arresting adults for possession.

Now, Oakland city officials are considering doing the same.

Oakland’s resolution, provided by Decriminalize Nature Oakland, specifically refers to the decriminalization of “entheogenic plants,” which in addition to psilocybin include ayahuasca, cacti (mescaline) and iboga—i.e. “the full spectrum of plants, fungi, and natural materials… that can inspire personal and spiritual well-being, can benefit psychological and physical wellness, and can reestablish human’s inalienable and direct relationship to nature.”

The federal government has long classified psilocybin mushrooms under Schedule I—the category of drugs that are defined as having no medical value and a high potential for abuse. Drug policy reform advocates disagree with the federal government’s decision to classify drugs like psilocybin and cannabis under Schedule I, where heroin also resides.

NBC Bay Area reported that Oakland officials planned to discuss the issue on Tuesday (May 28) at a public hearing before the City Council’s public safety committee. The issue could go before the full council as early as June 4, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Councilman Noel Gallo introduced the resolution after being approached by Decriminalize Nature Oakland. Gallo told the Chronicle that the city’s mental health problem may benefit from the decriminalized use of psilocybin mushrooms, which has been studied for its medical properties.

“We need all the help we can get to deal with the mental health issues that we have. If I can bring it publicly and talk about the benefit and talk about (how it can) deal with the mental illnesses that we have in the city, why not?” said Gallo.

Researcher Matthew Johnson of Johns Hopkins University says there is reason to be optimistic about psilocybin’s abilities to have a positive impact on mental health issues such as PTSD, depression, addiction and more. “The data are really impressive,” he told the Chronicle. “We should be cautiously but enthusiastically pursuing these threads.”

The Oakland measure also has the support of Council President Rebecca Kaplan. “I believe we need to continue to support efforts to help end mass incarceration and I recognize that the war on drugs has been a racist, expensive, wasteful failure. I also believe there are strong public health reasons to support this change,” she told the Chronicle.

View the original article at thefix.com

30 May 2019
Lamar Odom: I Didn’t Overdose, Brothel Owner Tried To Kill Me

“I think Dennis Hof… I don’t know what he had against me, but I didn’t do drugs that night, to be honest with you,” Odom said on The View this week.

Former NBA star Lamar Odom said that he did not overdose on drugs back in 2015 during a trip to a legal brothel in Nevada, but that the brothel owner Dennis Hof tried to kill him.

“I think Dennis Hof… I don’t know what he had against me, but I didn’t do drugs that night, to be honest with you,” Odom, 39, said on The View this week. “So I don’t know if he tried to poison me, or… I don’t know what he had against me. He tried to kill me.”

Odom said that his lawyer had found workers at the brothel who agreed this was the case. He said that he hasn’t pressed the issue, despite the media frenzy over his apparent near-fatal overdose.

“He almost succeeded [in killing me], though. I didn’t [take drugs that night],” Odom said. “I’ve been at odds with my daughter [Destiny] about this. She’s like, ‘Leave it alone.’ I would like to clear my name.”

Hof died of a heart attack last year at the age of 72, so he is unable to respond to the allegations. When he was asked by TMZ what Hof’s motive might have been, Odom had no explanation. “I would like to ask him that question, too. I don’t know,” Odom said. “That’s a question I asked myself when I was waking up.”

Odom was going through a divorce with reality television star Khloe Kardashian at the time of the overdose. Kardashian paused their divorce proceedings and supported him through his recovery.

“He OD’s during the divorce and I was his next of kin, even though it was still—the divorce was still—it was on the judge’s desk. It was like two years, or like a year or two, of us trying to get the divorce going and then this happened,” Kardashian said on the podcast Divorce Sucks With Laura Wasser earlier this month. “We paused the divorce, not for any romantic reasons but I wanted to be able to take care of him and make sure that he would be okay again.”

Odom recently wrote a book in which he seems to take more responsibility for his behavior during that period.

“I could not handle the lethal cocktail of the spotlight, addiction, a diminishing career and infidelity,” he wrote in his memoir. “Oh, did I mention the anxiety, depression… I couldn’t keep my dick in my pants or the coke out of my nose. Drug addicts are incredibly skilled at hiding their habit.”

View the original article at thefix.com

30 May 2019
"Even Stevens" Star Christy Carlson Romano Opens Up About Depression, Self Harm

“During a period of time in my life, I grappled with depression, drinking, and more, desperate to find fixes for how I felt.”

As a star on the Disney Channel hit shows Even Stevens and Kim Possible, Christy Carlson Romano came across as poised and polished—but really she was struggling with depression and tendencies toward self-harm.

“I am not a victim, but I have never been perfect or pulled together as my reputation or the successes of my young adulthood might suggest,” Romano wrote in an essay for Teen Vogue. “During a period of time in my life, I grappled with depression, drinking, and more, desperate to find fixes for how I felt.”

Although Romano had career success at a very young age, she wasn’t able to experience a normal childhood, she wrote. That loss affected her social and emotional development, she said.

“While I was adept at change and very driven in my art form, I was delayed in some developmental milestones that one often has in their preteen years that adequately inform their early adulthood and help them make the right decisions during hard times,” she said. “I only learned to ride a bike at 12 years old because I had a callback for a cereal commercial. I had very few friends my own age and lacked the ability to communicate my emotions effectively due to my insecurities with being different. Needing to be liked was my full-time job and constant concern of mine.”

After leaving Disney, Romano tried her hand at New York theater, where her mental health began to slip.

“I became a bit harder-edged, binge-drank more at loud nightclubs, and started to accept the transient natures of love, sex, and friendship,” she said. “Then I began to flirt with other methods of self-destruction. I tried to scratch my skin with my fingernail because I was too scared to use a knife. I chickened out and honestly felt like I had failed some important race to win the trophy for ‘most tragic, beautiful girl.’”

When a so-called psychic approach Romano, the star formed a relationship with her, eventually paying $40,000 for a crystal that the psychic promised would change her life.

“I felt marked, used, and violated so I started to blame myself for everything instead of learning from my past mistakes and growing as a person,” she said.

After ten years, Romano said she got her life on track when she met her husband, with whom she now has two daughters. Today she is sober and has a more robust sense of purpose.

“I haven’t had a drink since before my first pregnancy and am going to continue to abstain from alcohol so that I can continue to make clear-headed decisions that keep me on the right path,” she wrote.

She’s now able to look back on her life and see where she went wrong, and she has some advice to share with others.

“Having a clear understanding of your personal value helps to positively shape everything you do. If you don’t, if you aren’t careful, you just might end up getting what everyone else wishes for but wondering what you want yourself.”

View the original article at thefix.com

30 May 2019
Video Game Addiction Is Officially Classified As A Mental Disorder

WHO’s decision has been met with opposition from the gaming industry and other critics.

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that “gaming disorder” will be included in an upcoming revision of its International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-11).

The disorder is defined as a “pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behavior” which manifests itself in a variety of symptoms, including “impaired control over gaming.” The decision has garnered controversy from both the entertainment software community and some mental health professionals, who have described the decision as a “junk diagnosis.”

Gaming disorder will be listed in ICD-11 as part of its chapter on “mental, behavioral or neurodevelopmental disorders.”

As Polygon noted, the language for the disorder – which was finalized in 2018 and formally adopted May 25, 2019 – is nearly identical to ICD-11’s description of “gambling disorder,” which precedes it in the chapter.

Gaming disorder applies to behavior exhibited during “digital gaming” or “video-gaming” which may be online or via gaming systems. Those diagnosed with “gaming disorder” may exhibit “impaired control over gaming,” as well as “increased priority” to gaming “to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other life interests and daily activities.”

The revision that will include gaming disorder will take effect on January 1, 2022.

Response from the gaming industry has been largely negative; a joint statement issued by European industry members and seven other nations noted that the disorder “is not based on sufficiently robust evidence to justify its inclusion in one of the WHO’s most important norm-setting tools.”

The Entertainment Software Association also voiced its opposition in 2018, writing that the inclusion in ICD-11 “recklessly trivializes real mental health issues like depression and social anxiety disorder.”

Some mental health providers have also voiced opposition to the WHO’s decision. “It’s really a junk diagnosis,” said Christopher J. Ferguson, Ph.D to Polygon 2018. Ferguson co-authored a journal article, which was published in Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, which said that the organization’s definition of gaming disorder showed “little clarity… regarding diagnostic criteria and appropriate symptoms.

Ferguson’s co-author, Anthony M. Bean, also suggested to Polygon in 2017 that the WHO was pressured into adding gaming disorder to ICD-11 by Asian member states, where gaming addiction is widely considered to be a serious problem to be dealt with through strict, often draconian measures. The WHO responded to the article by noting that their decision was based “entirely on the available scientific evidence and experiences with such health conditions in different countries, not limited to Asian countries.”

View the original article at thefix.com

30 May 2019
Instagram Co-Launches Mental Health Awareness Campaign

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and Instagram have partnered up to start #RealConvos about mental health.

A new public awareness campaign is working to shed light on the conversation about mental health.

According to the Washington Post, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and Instagram have teamed up for the campaign in hopes that it will lead to more conversation around the topic.

The idea is that Instagram users will tag content with #RealConvo when a post discusses mental health.

As a kickoff to the campaign, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Instagram account featured what they called a “grid takeover” in which the organization shared video stories of nine individuals who spoke candidly about mental health and the importance of sharing one’s struggles on social media (in addition to victories).

Some well-known names participated in the campaign, including Pretty Little Liars actress Sasha Pieterse.

“I think a lot of people are scared of the term mental health,” Pieterse wrote in one post. “Why is it so taboo to talk about? We as a society seem to be way too concerned about what people think. We are all guilty of it. We are all guilty of comparing ourselves to others, feeling like we aren’t valuable, like we don’t deserve or aren’t worthy of the things we hope for in life.”

Pieterse also touched on the campaign specifically, pointing others to use the hashtag and encouraging them to learn more about the efforts.

“Everybody should be doing their best to keep their mental health in check, and that means we should be having #realconvo’s about the way we feel and why,” she added. “Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to be raw. That’s where we find the diamonds within us.”

Even if someone is not comfortable sharing their own story, others tagging posts allows them to search the hashtag as well and realize they are not the only ones struggling.

According to the Washington Post, searching #RealConvo “reveals graphics, photos and personal stories aimed to inspire, reduce stigma, reframe how people think of mental health, and help people get help if they need it. Candid personal stories give difficult issues—such as anxiety, self-criticism, grief and post-traumatic stress disorder—faces and names.”

As always, social media is not a replacement for real help. If you or someone you know is in crisis, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or text TALK to 741741 to the Crisis Text Line.

View the original article at thefix.com

30 May 2019
Opioid Manufacturer Teva Reaches $85 Million Settlement With Oklahoma

Teva did not acknowledge any wrongdoings in the settlement.

The state of Oklahoma has reached an $85 million settlement with Teva Pharmaceuticals, the world’s largest manufacturer of generic drugs.

The settlement was announced on Sunday, ahead of a trial slated to start on Tuesday (May 28). Purdue Pharma had previously reached a $270 million settlement with the state in the case, but the trial will move forward with Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries, which have not reached a settlement.

“Today’s announcement is a testament to the state’s legal team’s countless hours and resources preparing for this trial and their dedication and resolve to hold the defendants in this case accountable for the ongoing opioid overdose and addiction epidemic that continues to claim thousands of lives each year,” Attorney General Mike Hunter said in a statement. “Nearly all Oklahomans have been negatively impacted by this deadly crisis and we look forward to Tuesday, where we will prove our case against Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries.”

Teva, like Purdue, did not acknowledge any wrongdoings in the settlement.

“The settlement does not establish any wrongdoing on the part of the company,” Teva representatives said in a statement, according to The Oklahoman. “Teva has not contributed to the abuse of opioids in Oklahoma in any way.”

“The company has resolved this matter in a way that benefits the people who have suffered from abuse of opioids and to help stop the effects of the opioid crisis,” the statement said. That much is true—the state will allocate the funds to combat the opioid epidemic and increase access to treatment.

Teva faces other ongoing opioid lawsuits, including a large suit in federal court in Ohio.

“While the company has long stated that the courtroom is not a place to address the crisis, Teva is pleased to put the Oklahoma case behind it and remains prepared to vigorously defend claims against the company, including the upcoming federal court trial in Cleveland where the majority of the cases are pending,” the company’s statement said.

Hunter told NPR ahead of the trial’s start on Tuesday that he is confident that he can make the case that Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries are responsible for the opioid epidemic in the state.

“We have looked at literally millions of documents, taken hundreds of depositions, and we are even more convinced that these companies are the proximate cause for the epidemic in our state and in our country,” Hunter said.

Richard Ausness, a law professor at the University of Kentucky, said that the settlements and outcome in the Oklahoma case will set a precedent for the federal case.

“Lurking in the background is the multi-state litigation in Cleveland, where there will ultimately be a settlement in all likelihood, but the size of the settlement and the terms of the settlement may be influenced by Oklahoma,” he said.

View the original article at thefix.com

29 May 2019
Hunter S. Thompson Nearly Became Sheriff Of Aspen With "Free Weed" Campaign

The book Freak Power: Hunter S. Thompson’s Campaign for Sheriff provides more mind-blowing insights into this bizarre campaign.

Hunter S. Thompson, the late journalist famous for both his writing and his unabashed use of any drug he could get his hands on, ran a campaign to become the sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado in 1970, according to a report by Leafly.

Though he ultimately lost, it was a surprisingly tight race considering the outlandishness of Thompson’s proposed policy changes and the campaign itself.

Digging through the Hunter Thompson archive via the UC Santa Cruz’s McHenry Library, David Bienenstock unearthed campaign posters featuring a raised fist clutching a peyote button and slogans such as “today’s pig is tomorrow’s bacon.”

The book Freak Power: Hunter S. Thompson’s Campaign for Sheriff provides greater and more mind-blowing insight into this bizarre campaign.

Thompson became interested in Pitkin County politics after purchasing his cabin just outside of Aspen. Shortly after he moved in, the local coal mining operation designated a spot right next to his new property for a slag heap – a pile of mining refuse and waste material. At the same time, the police were conducting a harsh campaign against what was seen as an invasion of hippies and other “undesirables” into Aspen.

This included an incident in which the Pitkin County Sherrif himself searched every locker and bag in an entire high school because an alleged anonymous tip said someone had marijuana. No contraband was found.

The Hunter S. Thompson for Sheriff campaign promoted policy ideas that are extreme even by today’s standards, but that were embraced by the local “Freak Power” movement that nearly propelled him to victory. The journalist promised to disarm the police, aggressively pursue land developers and mining companies, replace concrete streets with sod, and to not only decriminalize cannabis possession but to publicly shame those who would charge money for it.

“My first act as sheriff will be to install on the courthouse lawn a platform and a set of stocks in order to punish dishonest dope dealers in a proper public fashion,” said Thompson. “It will be the general philosophy of the Sheriff’s office that no drug worth taking should be sold for money.”

Though many viewed the campaign as an elaborate prank, something else Thompson was famous for, his ideas quickly gained momentum until he had to clarify that, “despite the natural horror of seeing myself as the main pig,” he was indeed seriously running for sheriff.

The local Democrats and Republicans eventually banded together to defeat Thompson, but the spirit of his campaign continued.

“In the next election, the entire Aspen City Council was voted out and replaced by Joe Edwards and other counterculture types,” Bienenstock writes. “Then in 1976 Sheriff Whitmire was removed from his post amid accusations of misappropriating funds from the jail, and an ally of Hunter Thompson took over and enacted many of the Freak Power movement’s proposed reforms.”

Colorado also became one of the first states to legalize recreational marijuana in 2012.

View the original article at thefix.com

29 May 2019
People Who Lost Loved Ones To Opioids Invited To Sign Heroin Spoon Sculpture

Artist Domenic Esposito is using his symbolic sculpture to confront the opioid crisis head-on.

Since last summer, a giant 800-pound spoon—burnt and bent at the handle—has been drawing attention to the opioid crisis. The massive sculpture is a symbol recognized by people who have been affected by a loved one’s opioid and heroin use. Its sheer size and weight of its meaning make it hard to look away.

“There’s a negative memory attached in many people’s heads because you think your loved one is doing better, you find a burned spoon and you realize they’ve relapsed,” said artist Domenic Esposito. “It’s the reality of the situation and resonates with a lot of families.”

Now Esposito has created a brand new spoon that will tour New England—with stops in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. Esposito has invited people who have lost a loved one to the opioid crisis to come and sign the sculpture.

“It’s a blank canvas,” said Esposito. “It becomes very therapeutic for people to be there and sign because they know someone is listening—someone is acknowledging that they’ve had to go through all this horror. It’s just like this disease that basically takes entire families with it.”

The 10.5-foot-long guerrilla art exhibit has confronted drug companies about their role in exacerbating the epidemic of opioid abuse in the United States. Last June, the original spoon sculpture appeared outside of Purdue Pharma headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut.

And in February, it was placed outside Rhodes Pharmaceuticals in Coventry, Rhode Island. Last fall, the Financial Times reported that Rhodes was founded in 2007 by members of the Sackler family, who also own Purdue Pharma, just “four months after Purdue pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges that it had mis-marketed OxyContin over the previous decade.” Rhodes is “among the largest producers of off-patent generic opioids” in the U.S.

“It was really about pointing fingers to, in my mind, the architects of the opioid epidemic,” Esposito told the Concord Monitor.

More spoons were placed in front of the Massachusetts State House in Boston as a gift to state attorney general Maura Healey for her efforts in holding Big Pharma accountable, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Esposito drew from his own experience watching his brother Danny struggle with heroin addiction to create his sculptures. “The spoon has always been an albatross for my family,” Esposito said last year. “It’s kind of an emotional symbol, a dark symbol for me.”

Through his installations, Esposito is hoping to “protest and hold accountable the people who in our minds have created this epidemic that has killed close to 300,000 people.”

View the original article at thefix.com

29 May 2019
Kit Harington of "Game of Thrones" Enters Rehab

Harington is reportedly being treated for “stress, exhaustion and also alcohol.”

Kit Harington, who played Jon Snow in Game of Thrones, has been in a Connecticut rehabilitation center for nearly a month.

Page Six reported that Harington checked into rehab for exhaustion, stress, and alcohol abuse treatment. Harington had the backing of his wife, Rose Leslie, who played his love interest, Ygritte, on the HBO mega hit.

An unnamed source claiming to be a friend of Harington told Page Six of the actor, “The end of GoT really hit Kit hard… He realized, this is it, this is the end. It was something they had all worked so hard on for so many years. He had a moment of, what next? He’s in the clinic predominantly for stress and exhaustion and also alcohol. His wife Rose is being extremely supportive. Everyone close to him really wanted him to get some rest. Right now, he just needs peace and quiet.”

*This portion of the article contains Game of Thrones spoilers*

Harington had recently been in the media spotlight for his emotional response at a table reading for the final episode of Game of Thrones, where he (and the rest of the cast) found out that it was his character, Jon Snow, who kills his on-air love, the dragon queen Daenerys.

In the documentary footage of The Last Watch, Harington reads out loud the fate of the two characters, and sits back with tears in his eyes while holding his head with one hand.

Harington has been public about how difficult ending the beloved show was for him. In a recent Esquire interview he described crying on the last day of filming, and feeling sad as the character’s costume was taken off of him.

Harington described the tremendous emotional weight he felt when his character, Jon Snow, became the focal point of Game of Thrones. “It wasn’t a very good time in my life,” he told Variety. “I felt I had to feel that I was the most fortunate person in the world when actually, I felt very vulnerable. My darkest period was when the show seemed to become so much about Jon when he died and came back,” he explained. “I really didn’t like the focus of the whole show coming onto Jon.

“When you become the cliffhanger of a TV show, and a TV show probably at the height of its power, the focus on you is f—ing terrifying. That was a time when I started therapy and started talking to people. I had felt very unsafe, and I wasn’t talking to anyone.”

View the original article at thefix.com

29 May 2019
Ben Affleck To Star in New Addiction Drama

Affleck will play a former basketball star whose struggles with alcohol addiction led to the end of his marriage.

Ben Affleck will produce and star in a new feature film about a former basketball star in recovery, slated for release during the 2019 awards season, Variety reports.

Affleck, who is no stranger to recovery off-screen, will re-team with Gavin O’Connor, who directed him in the 2016 action film The Accountant. O’Connor co-wrote the film and will also direct. Warner Bros. has scheduled the drama, which is currently untitled, to debut in theaters on October 18, 2019.

As Variety noted, Affleck will play a former basketball star whose struggles with alcohol addiction led to the end of his marriage. As part of his recovery, Affleck’s character takes a job as a coach for a high school basketball team at his alma mater. Affleck will star opposite Janina Gavankar (True Blood), comedian and former Daily Show correspondent Al Madrigal, and Australian actress Rachel Carpani.

Affleck’s production company, Pearl Street, which he shares with fellow actor-writer Matt Damon, will oversee production of the drama, which was known at various times as Torrance and The Has-Been.

People magazine reported in 2018 that the Oscar-winning actor began preparing for this film, which included daily training and meetings with a basketball coach while completing a 40-day stay in rehab for alcohol dependency. The highly publicized 2018 stint was his third go-around in treatment, following stays in 2001 and 2017.

“Battling any addiction is a lifelong and difficult struggle,” Affleck wrote on social media after completing his treatment in 2018. “So many people have reached out on social media and spoken about their own journeys with addiction. To those people, I want to say thank you.”

“With acceptance and humility, I continue to avail myself with the help of so many people, and I am grateful to all those who are there for me I hope down the road I can offer an example to others who are struggling.”

Affleck, who can currently be seen in the Netflix action drama Triple Frontier, has won two Oscars—for Best Writing on Good Will Hunting, which he co-wrote with Damon, and for Best Picture on Argo, which he directed and co-produced with George Clooney and Grant Heslov. He also won a Golden Globe for Best Director on the latter film.

View the original article at thefix.com

29 May 2019