Author: bkellaway

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

STICK WITH THE WINNERS! – 

Feb. 4, 2025 – I’m what some might call a modern-day renaissance man. During my multi-decade career, I’ve headed a successful entertainment PR firm, written, and produced two major motion pictures, owned a contemporary music record label, and created two podcast series. For a time, I was in the restaurant business, as one of the founders of LA’s Rainbow Bar & Grill. I’ve been clean and sober for over 42 years. I’ve also written three published books about addiction. 

Q. If you are in recovery, what was your drug(s) of choice and when is your sobriety date?

A. Mostly cocaine but dabbled in everything from psychedelics to heroin.

Q. What do you like most about 12-step meetings?

A. The connection to a community with a singleness of purpose. To stay sober and help others.

Q. Do you think addiction is an illness, disease, a choice, or a wicked twist of fate?

A. An illness but possibly a wicked twist of fate, as well!

CONTINUE@AddictionRecoveryeBulletin

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

ENERGY – 

Jan. 29, 2025 – Sure, along the way there are shining, brilliant moments of vitality. But as the weight of the years piles on, many of us fall into the rut of routine and the creative lights start to dim. This seems to be the case for everyone — well, everyone except Dorothy Martin. ach year, the fiery frontwoman of eponymous hard-rock band Dorothy seems to gain more life with every breath. She is about as exuberant and alive as a shaken-up soda, and that energy explodes over her music…

Dorothy — no more so than on her new and fourth album, The Way, a spiritually awakened, soul-stirring collection of high-powered rock & roll.

That next-level energy was stoked, in part, by producer Scott Stevens, who also produced and recorded “Rest in Peace” and “Black Sheep,” two standout tracks from Dorothy’s previous high-octane record, 2022’s Gifts From the Holy Ghost. “I was like, This is my partner in crime, he’s got to do the next album,” Martin says over a Zoom call. “I feel like it was the right decision because wow, this album feels really fiery. It’s heavier than anything I’ve done. It’s alive.”   

CONTINUE@Revolver

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

SOBER REWARD –

Feb. 2, 2025 –  I bared my life, I Went through so much, I dedicated myself to sobriety and God told me that I would be rewarded. That he would should me just how good it can get. And I have to thank God. 

CONTINUE@YahooNews

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE –

Jan. 29, 2025 -Kennedy now credits his faith; 12-step Alcoholics Anonymous-style programs, which also have a spiritual foundation; and the influence of a book by philosopher Carl Jung for helping him beat his own opioid addiction.  “I became a drug addict when I was 15 years old,” Kennedy said last year during an interview with podcaster Lex Fridman. “I was addicted for 14 years. During that time, when you’re an addict, you’re living against conscience … and you kind of push God to the peripheries of your life.”

If confirmed as head of the Department of Health and Human Services after Senate hearings scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, Kennedy would hold broad sway over many of the biggest federal programs in the U.S. tackling addiction: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.feature d- 

While campaigning for the White House last year, Kennedy, now 71 years old, laid out a plan to tackle the United States’ devastating fentanyl and overdose crisis, proposing a sprawling new system of camps or farms where people experiencing addiction would be sent to recover.

CONTINUE@NPR

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

DRUNKEN ENGLISHMEN/WOMEN –

Jan. 23, 2025 – Half of drivers pulled over on suspicion of drug-driving are found to be over the legal limit, an investigation has found, sparking calls for minsters to take fresh measures to tackle the ‘growing epidemic’. Data for the first seven months of 2024 also showed nearly half of drivers drug tested were in excess of the limit.

Drug-driving rules consist of very low limits for eight illegal drugs such as cocaine and cannabis, risk-based limits for eight drugs that have a medical use, and a separate approach to amphetamines that aims to balance legitimate medical use with abuse.

Roadside swab tests – commonly referred to as ‘drugalysers’ – are carried by road cops and can identify whether a motorist is under the influence of cocaine or cannabis.

If an officer thinks a driver is unfit to drive because of taking any drugs, they are arrested and transported to a police station to undergo blood or urine tests to identify if they have illegal levels in their system.

CONTINUE@ThisIsMoney

The post Half the Drivers Tested at the Roadside were Over Legal Limit appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

VIDEO – LISTEN GOOD – 

Jan. 2025 – In this eye-opening episode of Finding New Waters*, we sit down with acclaimed journalist and author Sam Quinones, whose investigative work has redefined how we understand addiction and community resilience. Known for his groundbreaking books *Dreamland and *The Least of Us*. 

CONTINUE@FindingNewWaters  

The post Sam Quinones: The Stories Behind America’s Drug Epidemic  appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

VIDEO – STOP THE MADNESS – 

Jan. 29, 2025 – Mayor Lurie’s ordinance aims to cut through the city’s red tape to address the fentanyl crisis.

“People in San Francisco are suffering, every day that we don’t act is another day of life lost to addiction, to overdose and to despair. our response must be just as urgent as the crisis that we are facing,” Lurie said.

If the board of supervisors approve this plan, it would essentially give the mayor’s office the power to approve city contracts that would normally go through the board.

But this isn’t quite a slam dunk for Lurie.

Supervisor Shamann Walton says he agrees with the end goal but still thinks the overall plan lacks details and he doesn’t think supervisors should be giving the mayor what he calls, “dictatorship authority.”   

CONTINUE@ABC7News

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

IT’S NOT SNAKE OIL – 

Jan. 30, 2025 – Alice Cooper has been sober for 42 years, but the shock rocker recently shared in a new interview with People that you don’t need alcohol to embody a punk rock spirit. Cooper is promoting his new partnership with WhistlePig that has produced an alcohol-free version of an Old Fashioned dubbed, The Sex, Drugs, Rock & Dry Cocktail.  The drink is paired with a special rye-infused vinyl pressing of Cooper’s 2019 EP, Breadcrumbs, with 100% of the proceeds going to Giving Kitchen, which provides assistance to food service workers. Cooper says his sobriety hasn’t hindered his rockstar persona. “Rock ‘n’ roll is more of an attitude,” Cooper says. “You don’t have to be drunk or high to be a rocker, you know. It’s just an attitude.” He praises the positive shift in the music industry’s attitude towards sobriety since the ‘70s, as he prepares to embark on his Too Close For Comfort World Tour on January 31.   

CONTINUE@XRock1039

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

DEPENDS – 

Jan. 30, 2025 – During his Senate confirmation hearing to serve as Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. suggested antidepressant drugs may be as addictive as heroin — a claim contradicted by research. “Antidepressants and heroin are in different universes when it comes to addiction risk,” says Keith Humphreys, who studies addiction at Stanford University. “In my 35 years In the addiction field, I’ve met only two or three people who thought they were addicted to antidepressants versus thousands who were addicted to heroin and other opioids.”

A study published in the medical journal the Lancet found significant withdrawal symptoms only affect about 1 in 35 people who use antidepressants. It is important to be in a doctor’s care when going off SSRIs and to taper off gradually.   

CONTINUE@NPR

The post Antidepressants Harder to Quit than Heroin? appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

VIDEO – WHO AM I? – 

Jan. 28, 2025 – An example is checking your blind spot when driving down the road,” Gowin said. “When you look back in front of you, you need to remember what you saw in the blind spot before you can make a good decision if you want to change lanes or not. “Losing working memory means that retaining that information might require more effort and be more challenging.” “For years, clinicians, family and friends who knew heavy cannabis users understood that their memories were ‘shot’ — there’s even a term for this, ‘stoner,’ as in ‘forgot the grocery list, couldn’t follow a recipe, couldn’t get it together,’” she said.

However, the study could not determine if working memory comes back if a heavy user quits and is a nonuser for an extended period of time, she added.

“Can the adolescent who used cannabis more than 1000 times between the ages of 15 and 20 years of age, but stopped using at 20 years, demonstrate improved working memory 10 years later?” Boyd said via email. “That is my 64-dollar question — where is the hope for the person with a chronic use disorder who wants their memory back?”   

CONTINUE@CNN

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