Tag: News

Legal Marijuana Linked To Rise In Car Crashes

Legalizing marijuana isn’t completely harmless, according to a pair of new studies.

Car crashes went up by about 6% in states that have legalized recreational marijuana, a couple of new studies found. Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington have seen an increase in insurance claims for collisions, according to separate studies by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the Highway Loss Data Institute.

The institutes presented their research at the Combating Alcohol- and Drug-Impaired Driving Summit on Thursday.

The Highway Loss Data Institute focused on claims between 2012 and October 2017, comparing the results to four illegal states, including Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety observed a 5.2% increase in police-reported crashes after legalization in Colorado, Oregon, and Washington.

“States exploring legalizing marijuana should consider this effect on highway safety,” said David Harkey, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and Highway Loss Data Institute.

The findings are important as the tide is increasingly turning to favor the legalization of marijuana. Nine states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana, and Michigan and North Dakota are holding a vote on the issue next month. Canada has legalized it as well.

FIguring out who is or isn’t impaired by marijuana while driving is also a challenge, the institutes acknowledge. Marijuana’s active ingredient, THC, can remain detectable in a person for as long as 30 days—long after the high has worn off. Currently, there isn’t a reliable method to determine whether someone is currently high. But according to the studies, it’s clear that marijuana has some effect on driving ability.

“Despite the difficulty of isolating the specific effects of marijuana impairment on crash risk, the evidence is growing that legalizing its use increases crashes,” Harkey said.

The Center for Medical Cannabis Research at the University of California San Diego is undertaking studies to better understand the effects of marijuana on driving as well as methods to more reliably detect if a driver is currently under the influence.

Methods now used by law enforcement are notoriously unreliable, and as a result field sobriety tests for marijuana cannot be used as evidence in some cases.

View the original article at thefix.com

22 October 2018
Jamie Lee Curtis: Sobriety Changed Everything

The “Halloween” actress revealed in an interview that she would not be where she is now without sobriety.

Now coming up on her 60th birthday, movie star Jamie Lee Curtis is focused on her legacy.

“I want to die having said something,” she told USA Today.

Curtis stars in the newest Halloween film, re-assuming her debut role as Laurie Strode to once again face the masked murderer Michael Myers. Between that first starring role and this most recent redux, Curtis has played a wide range of characters in a variety of genres. But the road was not always easy, and it was during these times that Curtis used alcohol and opioids to deal with the stress. She recalls the summer of 1987, trying to balance work and family while shooting A Fish Called Wanda.

“My memory of A Fish Called Wanda is that I cried every day to and from work. Not that I laughed, not that it was super-fun, nothing,” she said. “My memory of A Fish Called Wanda was leaving my sleeping 6-month-old daughter, going to work an hour away and then working 12 hours, sometimes more, and then an hour back, often to a child asleep again. And that was like the beginning of it all for me.”

Looking back, Curtis realized she was forgetting to take care of herself.

“I think I was replicating my mom and really trying to just make everybody happy,” she reflected.

Curtis has been candid about her former addiction and her sobriety, now going on two decades. Of all the things she’s accomplished, Curtis once said she considers getting sober her number one accomplishment.

“As soon as I got sober, which is 20 years coming up in February, everything changed,” she said. “Because it was a big, big acknowledgment that I could not do all of the things I was trying to do.”

The secret, Curtis suggested, was in prioritizing what really matters.

“All I hear is the grading, the rank ordering in my industry. A-list. A-listers. I’m in B-movies. That’s how I’ve buttered my bread. And horror movies are like at the bottom end of the scale,” she said, referring to her legacy as a horror film scream queen. “…And yet I have navigated 40 years. I sold yogurt that made you poop for five years because it was a gig that allowed me to stay home and be a mom the way I needed to be a mom.”

The newest Halloween, starring Curtis, Judy Greer and Andi Matichak, arrived in theaters on October 19.

View the original article at thefix.com

22 October 2018
Fentanyl In Cocaine Could Be Unintended

One harm reduction expert thinks cross-contamination may be to blame for cocaine “laced” with fentanyl.

More often, fentanyl is being found in cocaine, increasing the risk of opioid overdose and leaving officials scrambling to figure out why the drugs are being mixed, and if dealers actually intend to combine them.

“It’s something we have to be very concerned about,” Dan Ciccarone, a public health researcher, told Rolling Stone. “[We have] to keep following the data.”

Fentanyl is dangerous enough in the heroin and opioid supplies. However, it is especially deadly for users of cocaine, many of whom do not know what they are ingesting. Because these people are not regular opioid users they have not built up a tolerance to the drug and are therefore more susceptible to overdose.

“Part of the challenge is just how potent fentanyl is that even a small amount, particularly in someone who doesn’t regularly use opioids, can be so deadly,” said Dr. Sarah Wakeman, an addiction medicine physician. “More and more, we’re hearing stories of people who either have only used cocaine and are not a person who uses opioids, or who says ‘I bought what I thought was cocaine,’ and they suffer an overdose and it turns out to be fentanyl.”

To make matters worse, most dealers don’t even realize that their product contains fentanyl. “The street dealers are just as clueless as the users are at this point,” Ciccarone said.

In order to address the issue, experts are trying to figure out how and why fentanyl is making its way into the cocaine supply.

“Lots of experts are being asked this question and making guesses, but they are all guesses,” said Keith Humphreys, a Stanford professor and drug policy expert. “It’s quite possible that this is happening way up stream over the head of dealers, and it’s something higher up in the supply chain that isn’t very well understood.”

Although putting fentanyl in cocaine might seem malicious, experts say that likely isn’t the intent.

“Nobody wants to kill off their customer,” said Tino Fuentes, a harm reduction and overdose reversal specialist. Some people have hypothesized that dealers are trying to get customers hooked on opioids, which are more addictive than cocaine, but Fuentes said this is unlikely.

“Nobody’s trying to put fentanyl in their shit to get their coke customers [to switch] over to heroin when their business is coke,” he said.

Fuentes says that cross-contamination may be to blame.

“They’re not cleaning the scales. They’re not cleaning the grinders. They’re not cleaning the strainers,” he said. “So whatever’s left there is going to be picked up in the first batch of coke.”

View the original article at thefix.com

20 October 2018
Surgeon General On Safe Injection Sites: There Are More Viable Options

“From a physician’s point of view, there’s no such thing as a safe injection site. You can still die,” Adams said at a recent conference.

Surgeon General Jerome M. Adams has again expressed reservations about supervised injection sites, also known as safe injection facilities (SIFs), as a harm reduction strategy for fighting the opioid crisis.

Speaking at a conference hosted by the Independence Blue Cross Foundation in Philadelphia—titled “Someone You Know: Facing the Opioid Crisis Together”—Adams voiced support for the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone and medication-assisted treatment (MAT), but in regard to SIF, Adams doubled down on previous statements that urged caution before communities embraced such sites.

“From a pragmatic point of view, let’s crawl first before we try to figure out how to sprint—particularly on controversial policy solutions,” said Adams.

At the same time, Adams stated that he did not want to dismiss SIFs as an alternative form of treatment. “It’s not to discourage discussion,” he said. But he also noted that “from a physician’s point of view, there’s no such thing as a safe injection site. You can still die. You can still get an infection. You can still get endocarditis. You can still have negative outcomes even when you’re injecting in a supervised fashion with illegal substances.”

In its coverage of the conference, Philly Voice quoted Adams’ comments about strategies that have shown to be more effective than granting access to supervised injection.

“There’s still a lot of low-hanging fruit out there, a lot of evidence-based interventions which have been accepted by the community that still needs to be optimized,” he said, referring to both MAT and naloxone. “There’s still so many more things we could be doing to optimize warm handoffs in connection to treatment. Let’s focus our energy on the things that already exist and aren’t optimized.”

Adams’ stance on SIF differs in tone from that of the Trump administration, which has expressed no reservation in opposing such facilities. Both also contrast the opinion of Luke Gorman, co-founder of the recovery support group The Flock, who was also on the panel with Adams at the conference.

“It’s my personal opinion that [SIFs] would be an incredible effective measure to save lives,” said Gorman, who is in recovery from opioid dependency. “Right now, with the epidemic and the proportions that it’s reached, saving lives should be in the forefront of all of our minds.”

Gorman’s take was echoed by Daniel J. Hilferty, CEO of Independence Blue Cross and another speaker on the panel. “It’s not up to us as to whether we’re pro-safe injection sites or we’re opposed to safe injection sites,” he said. “We just want to create a web, as a company connected with other partners, to catch every single person that we can and help them find that right path to true professional services and treatment.”

View the original article at thefix.com

19 October 2018
How Parents Can Support Teens’ Mental Health

Parents play a key role in connecting teens with mental health treatment and helping them learn to live with their diagnosis.

The parents of teenagers used to fret about whether their kids were sleeping too much or “just saying no” to drugs, but today’s parents are more in tune with the mental health needs of their children, recognizing that many mental illnesses start during adolescence.

More than 17 million American teenagers have a mental, behavioral or emotional disorder, according to USA Today, and many times parents are key in connecting these individuals with treatment and helping them learn to live with their diagnosis.

With suicide being the second-leading cause of death among people ages 10-34 in the U.S., talking about mental health with young people could very well save a life.

Still, many parents aren’t sure what the warning signs of mental illness are, especially since teenagers are general apt to be moody and withdrawn. Parents should look for sudden changes in behavior—a quick drop in school performance, a change in sleeping or eating habits, or physical pains such as stomach issues. All of these can be signs of mental illness in teens.

Myths and stigma about mental illness can hinder access to treatment, so it’s important to remember that mental illnesses are biological conditions, not caused by bad parenting, personal weakness or character flaws. Just like physical illnesses require expert care, so do mental illnesses.

It’s important that parents consult with professionals such as counselors and primary care physicians to get teens the help they need. Most mental illnesses that emerge during the teenage years will become lifelong conditions. Although this is scary, connecting with the best treatment as soon as possible will help teens learn to cope with their illnesses.

Even when parents are able to identify that their child has a mental or emotional issue confronting them, it can be hard to talk about. However, talking is key. Ask your child how he or she is doing. If they’re not receptive to conversation, just try again later rather than pushing the issue.

If you suspect that something is wrong but your child insists that he or she is fine, turn to other adults in their life, like coaches, teachers or school counselors. Ask if they’ve noticed changes or behaviors that they find concerning.

Although a medical professional may not be able to give you information about your teenager due to patient confidentiality, they are always able to listen to your concerns.

Finally, connecting with teenagers is important for controlling and preventing mental illness. Take walks together outside or play sports. Eat dinner together. These activities allow you to connect with your teen without the pressure of a sit-down conversation.

View the original article at thefix.com

19 October 2018
Walmart Canada Considers Selling Marijuana Products

The mega chain is reportedly investigating the viability of carrying CBD products in their stores.

As a growing list of major companies either embrace or consider the option to include cannabidiol (CBD)-based products in their retail offerings, a representative from Walmart Inc. in Canada told the Vancouver Sun that the mega-chain has conducted research into the viability of carrying CBD products on store shelves.

Diane Medeiros, a spokesperson for Walmart Canada, said that while the company does not have plans to carry CBD products at this time, it “has done some preliminary fact-finding on this issue.”

The timing of their investigation coincides with the legalization of marijuana at the federal level throughout Canada on October 17, 2018.

In an email exchange with the Sun, Medeiros said that the review of CBD-based products—goods that contain the active but non-psychoactive compound cannabidiol—is standard operating procedure, something they carry out for “any new industry.”

As High Times noted, the investigation is also good business practice, as Canadians are expected to drop $1 billion on marijuana in the first three months after legalization. Response to the company’s announcement also proved positive for Walmart, whose shares rose nearly 3% in afternoon trading that day.

And while Walmart is apparently not ready to offer CBD-based product to its customers, other brands, both global and regional, have already announced their intent to cater to the new market.

In Canada, the drugstore chain Shoppers Drug Mart was approved as a licensed medical marijuana producer, which will allow them to dispense cannabis to their customers, while the Montreal-based Molson Coors Canada has entered into a joint venture with The Hydropothecary Corporation to produce non-alcoholic, cannabis-infused beverages.

The Coca-Cola Company, too, has reported making inroads towards CBD-based products with a beverage produced in conjunction with Aurora Cannabis, while Estee Lauder has added Hello, Calm—a face mask infused with sativa—to its line of cosmetic products.

Several U.S. breweries like Lagunitas and Coalition Brewing have already begun selling CBD-infused beer products, and the vegan chain By Chloe offers CBD-based products in its nationwide locations.

And, as the Vancouver Sun noted, companies that have refused to expand its offerings to CBD product may experience a setback: PepsiCo’s declaration to not sell CBD-infused goods resulted in a decline in its market share.

Cowen & Co. analyst Vivien Azer underscored the retail industry’s growing focus on CBD-based products in a research note that stated, “Health and wellness consumers are beginning to find value and use cases from CBD-based oil extracts, tinctures, topicals and capsules to improve everyday life. We expect to see CBD used as a functional ingredient in non-alcoholic beverages.”

View the original article at thefix.com

19 October 2018
Church Of Safe Injection Sings The Praises Of Harm Reduction

The harm reduction initiative is applying for an exemption from federal drug statutes to operate legally.

Jesus supported safe injection—that’s the message behind the Church of Safe Injection.

The “church” is a harm reduction initiative in Portland, Maine—with plans for offshoots in other cities—spearheaded by local activist Jesse Harvey.

“[Jesus] would have supported safe injection,” Harvey argues in a new essay published in the Portland Press Herald. “All too often today, people who use drugs are offered only two choices: Get sober or die. Jesus would have rejected this shameful and lethal binary.”

Harvey said there was a need for a church to apply harm reduction to the drug using community because “overwhelmingly, the churches I’ve reached out to aren’t interested in helping people who use drugs.”

They may act like they want to help, Harvey said, “but they won’t really embrace them as Jesus would have done.”

He adds, “They won’t provide them with what they often need most: sterile syringes, naloxone and nonjudgmental support.”

The “church” already has three sister churches in Bangor, Lewiston and Augusta, with plans for more in New Hampshire, Philadelphia, Rhode Island and Nepal.

“It is our sincere religious belief that people who use drugs (PWUD) don’t deserve to die when there are decades of proven health intervention solutions that can be implemented to save their lives and reduce the harms they face,” Harvey writes on his official website.

The Church of Safe Injection is applying for an exemption from federal drug statutes under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, that will allow them to operate legally. Under this law, “other churches in this country have secured the right under the First Amendment to consume otherwise illegal drugs,” Harvey writes.

One example is a federal court’s decision to allow the ceremonial use of peyote by members of the Native American Church.

“We’re not even arguing that it is our right to use drugs or get high… We do not encourage drug use,” writes Harvey, who himself is in recovery and is the founder of Journey House Sober Living and Portland OPS (an advocacy group). “However, it is our sincere religious belief that people who use drugs do not deserve to die, not when there is a proven, cost-efficient, feasible, compassionate solute that can be so easily implemented.”

Mayor Ethan Strimling is among those in support of safe injection in Portland. “I’m always looking for new ways of trying to confront the opioid crisis, and what I’m intrigued about with this idea is it creates yet another opportunity for somebody who is using to have an interaction with a medical professional,” he said according to WGME.

Seattle and San Francisco officials are considering safe injection in their cities as well.

View the original article at thefix.com

19 October 2018
Wendy Williams Promotes Addiction Treatment With New Billboard

Williams, who has battled cocaine addiction in the past, recently launched a campaign geared toward addiction-recovery through her nonprofit.

Talk show host and actress Wendy Williams has launched a Times Square billboard promoting her talk show and her non-profit organization that provides grants for drug education, prevention and rehabilitation programs.

Williams has previously talked openly about her substance use disorder, and aims to “bring light” to the fact that addiction “doesn’t have to be your demise,” she told Page Six.

Williams has a history of cocaine addiction. She says that her substance abuse affected her life, even while she was successful.

“I lost a little over 10 years of my life regarding substance abuse, but I’m now going into Season 10 [of The Wendy Williams Show],” she said. “I’m married, I have a great career and a flourishing business … it’s not that you fall down, it’s how you rise. And if you rise, then you reach back. This is a reach back.”

Williams has said in the past that she was able to abuse drugs while in the spotlight because she was so good at her job.

“I was a functioning addict though,” she said. “I would report to work on time and I walked in and all of my coworkers, and including my bosses, would know but instead of firing me, you see, I would grab my headphones and arrogantly walk into the studio and dare them to fire me because I was making ratings.”

After her own experience with addiction and seeing her son take K2, or synthetic marijuana, Williams launched The Hunter Foundation to provide education and prevention programs. Earlier this year the foundation launched the Be Here campaign, which is focused on increasing access to treatment.

“We want to be here for the people who need us, and we want them to be here for the graduations, the first steps, the recitals, the laughs, the journeys and more,” the campaign’s website says. “Our goal is to support the treatment and recovery of those facing drug addiction, work towards creating lasting solutions through legislation and support innovative treatment.”

Using statistics about the prevalence of addiction and overdose death rates, Williams’ organization insists “This is everyone’s problem.”

Williams hopes that by sharing her family’s experiences she can help others.

“I have seen addiction up-close,” she said. “As a mother, wife, daughter, and friend, I cannot stand by and do nothing while there are people struggling to overcome substance abuse. Life is too short and we need to come together to help others.”

View the original article at thefix.com

19 October 2018
Lack Of Mental Health Resources A Global Issue

“All countries can be thought of as developing countries in the context of mental health,” says a new global mental health report.

A lack of resources for those dealing with mental health issues is a major problem around the world, a new report has found.

The report by the Lancet Commission on Global Mental Health, which took three years to compile, was released last week at a London summit.

The report, which is 45 pages long, details the state of mental health treatment around the world. According to the authors—28 mental health researchers, clinicians and advocates from five continents—there are “pitifully small” levels of financial support from governments and assistance groups when it comes to mental health research and care.

Low-income communities, according to NPR, are being hit particularly hard. The report states that in developing countries, only one in 27 people with depression receive the necessary treatment. And in countries with more money, the care isn’t necessarily better. In fact, the report states that “all countries can be thought of as developing countries in the context of mental health.”

The financial aspect, according to the report, is the main problem. The Lancet Commission states that funding availability is “alarmingly low” when compared to what was spent on other diseases in 2013 in comparison to mental illness.

For example, for every year of healthy life lost to mental illness, the report found that global health donors had provided $0.85. But for HIV/AIDS, they had provided $144 for every year, and $48 for TB and malaria.

According to psychiatrist Julian Eaton, part of the reason for the lack of funding has to do with cultural differences.

“In the academic world there has been an ongoing sometimes quite angry debate about whether it’s appropriate to export Western ideas about mental ill health to other countries,” Eaton told NPR.

The stigma surrounding mental health issues also plays a role. Janice Cooper, who runs the Carter Center’s mental health center in Liberia, tells NPR that stigma is a problem in developing and developed countries.

“There’s ignorance, there’s the perception of contagion, there’s the notion that in some quarters this is not important,” she said.

According to NPR, the Commission recruited 15 youth leaders from around the world to spread messages about mental health on social media and get younger generations discussing it.

Twenty-five-year-old Grace Gatera of Rwanda is one of the 15. She says the conflict in the country resulted in PTSD for her, as well as two suicide attempts. She tells NPR that the government doesn’t make mental health a priority.

“It’ll be like let’s deal with this crisis and deal with the crisis that comes after that and maybe when we get time we’ll talk about mental health,” she said.

Eaton says that despite the report’s findings, she and other commissioners were excited to receive the support for the summit from some international and British government organizations in addition to some private ones. They were also encouraged when royals Prince William and Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, attended the summit.

“But people are yet to sign the checks,” Eaton said.

View the original article at thefix.com

18 October 2018
Marijuana Is Now Legal In Canada

While cannabis enthusiasts rejoiced, policymakers cautioned that the legalization effort would have unpredictable, wide-ranging effects.

While the United States has dabbled in legalizing marijuana in piecemeal legislation passed through the states, our neighbors to the north have fully ended the prohibition on cannabis, becoming just the second country in the world to legalize marijuana.

The new law took effect Wednesday at midnight, with Canadians from coast to coast hosting parties to smoke in freedom, according to The New York Times. The legalization fulfilled a campaign promise by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“The fact that we are moving away from a Prohibition model is a victory for human rights and social justice, an economic windfall for the Canadian economy and a sign of social progress,” said Adam Greenblatt, a director at Canopy Growth, a producer that has been valued at more than $10 billion, told the Times.

While cannabis enthusiasts rejoiced, policymakers cautioned that the legalization effort would have wide-ranging effects, some of which would be hard to predict.

“Legalization of cannabis is the largest public policy shift this country has experienced in the past five decades,” said Mike Farnworth, British Columbia’s minister of public safety. “It’s an octopus with many tentacles, and there are many unknowns. I don’t think that when the federal government decided to legalize marijuana, it thought through all of the implications.”

The Canadian Medical Association Journal took a strong stance against the move, calling the legalization plan an “uncontrolled experiment in which the profits of cannabis producers and tax revenues are squarely pitched against the health of Canadians.”

Under the new law, Canadian adults can possess up to 30 grams of marijuana and have up to four plants growing at home. The logistics of the legislation—like setting up marketplaces—was left up to municipalities, meaning that it will vary across the country. The federal government will also be examining how to adjust the criminal records of people with marijuana-related offenses.

To deal with intoxicated driving, the number of police certified in sobriety tests will double over the next few years. However, other than keeping risky drivers off the road, the police did not seem too concerned with the change in the law.

“Fentanyl kills 11 Canadians a day,” Adam Palmer, Chief Constable of the Vancouver Police Department and the president of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police said. “Marijuana does not.”

While many people celebrated legalization, some cannabis consumers said that it was just a way for the government and big business to get their hands into the pot industry, which was estimated to be worth $5.6 billion in Canada last year.

“People don’t want to buy government-approved joints,” said Jodie Emery, a leading cannabis activist in Vancouver. “Legalization is little more than the whitewashing of cannabis culture.”

View the original article at thefix.com

18 October 2018