Addiction Recovery Bulletin
Feb. 7, 2025 – Three men parked in a quiet car park in the southern English market town of Abingdon-on-Thames. The men, returning from a night out, had pulled over to smoke heroin. Unknown to them, the drug had been fortified with a nitazene compound called isotonitazene, a highly potent new synthetic opioid.
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Addiction Recovery Bulletin
Feb. 7, 2025 – Roe and Bacon effectively portray the troubled couple, still in love with each other but facing different ends of the addiction spectrum. If some scenes in the film seem like clichés, it’s really unavoidable, since there’s nothing as numbingly repetitive as living like this. Filmed on location in Harlan County, Kentucky (with cinematography by Matthew Boyd and production design by Michael McKowen), Hazard vividly captures the empty lives of a people in a town that’s in the process of slowly disappearing, Will (Alex Roe) spends his days wandering around his nearly abandoned town, either searching for drugs or under the influence himself. He makes sure that his coal miner father (Steven Ogg), who suffers from chronic pain, gets his regular fix.
Every day he goes to visit his wife, Sara (Sosie Bacon) and their young son. He longs to be part of the family again, but she’s forbidden him to come back home until he gets clean as she has. It’s clear, however, that her hold on sobriety is tenuous at best. She fears that he’ll drag her back into the addict’s life.
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Addiction Recovery Bulletin
Feb. 18, 2025 – Joan Borsten Vidov was born and raised in Los Angeles. Her mother was one of the Navy’s first female officers (then known as WAVES). Her father had a long career in the entertainment industry. Joan graduated UC Berkeley with a degree in comparative literature, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Panama, and received a graduate degree from USC in bi-lingual education. She worked as a journalist from 1974-1985, first for Israel’s English language daily “The Jerusalem Post.” She then became a regular contributor to the LA Times Calendar (Entertainment) section.
Q. If you are in recovery, what was your drug(s) of choice and when is your sobriety date?
A. Not in recovery.
Q. What do you like most about 12-step meetings?
A. Inspirational speakers.
Q. Do you think addiction is an illness, disease, a choice, or a wicked twist of fate?
A. For many a genetic predisposition, for others an escape.
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Addiction Recovery Bulletin
Feb. 14, 2025 – An addiction recovery organization is remembering the woman who inspires their work.
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Addiction Recovery Bulletin
Feb. 13, 2025 – With the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the US is heading into its next chapter of healthcare policy. Kennedy has received both criticism and praise for his proposed policies throughout his confirmation process, however, one potential focus that has garnered substantial interest is his plan to reform addiction medicine treatment. The goal, he states, is to battle the ongoing opioid epidemic.
He has shared his personal experience with opioid use disorder (OUD) on various media platforms, which has undoubtedly driven his desire to improve treatments and outcomes. Yet, the question has become, what should that focus actually be?
In recent interviews, Kennedy has noted how instrumental 12-step style programs have been in his own journey, especially with regard to establishing a spiritual foundation. Not only has he shared his desire to expand such programs if given the chance to lead the public health administration, but he also has proposed creating a system of rural/farm-centered rehabilitation programs where people with addiction could recover.
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Addiction Recovery Bulletin
Feb. 13, 2025 – The clinic claimed the injections were steroids that would relieve her pain, Shaw said, but with each shot her agony would grow. Shaw said she eventually tried to decline the shots, then the clinic issued an ultimatum: Take the injections or get her painkillers somewhere else. “I had nowhere else to go at the time,” Shaw testified, according to a federal court transcript. “I was stuck.”
Shaw was among thousands of patients of Pain MD, a multistate pain management company that was once among the nation’s most prolific users of what it referred to as “tendon origin injections,” which normally inject a single dose of steroids to relieve stiff or painful joints.
As many doctors were scaling back their use of prescription painkillers due to the opioid crisis, Pain MD paired opioids with monthly injections into patients’ backs, claiming the shots could ease pain and potentially lessen reliance on painkillers, according to federal court documents.
Now, years later, Pain MD’s injections have been proved in court to be part of a decade-long fraud scheme that made millions by capitalizing on patients’ dependence on opioids.
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Addiction Recovery Bulletin
Feb. 8, 2025 – It’s the ancient ritual that unites millions of Christians in faith – but the Church of England is facing accusations that holy communion excludes non-drinkers or worshippers with dietary intolerances. C of E guidance determines the type of bread and wine that can be consecrated as part of the Eucharist ritual, which symbolises Jesus Christ’s sacrifice, death and resurrection and commemorates the Last Supper.
But after being asked to consider non-alcoholic and wheat-free options, church leaders have ruled these cannot be used.
Ahead of the meeting of the General Synod, taking place in London for five days from Monday, the Rev Canon Alice Kemp asked: “Can consideration be given to enable the legal use of gluten-free and alcohol-free elements at the Eucharist to remove the injustice of this exclusion?
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Addiction Recovery Bulletin
Feb. 14, 2025 – The Charity Commission said it was told that Brand’s Stay Free Foundation “no longer operates and should be removed from the register of charities”.
The charity, which was described on its website as an organization that focuses on “supporting people through recovery from addiction, their mental health issues and the non-profit organizations that help them”, was removed officially in January.
Brand stepped back from his role at the charity last year and other trustees closed it and asked for it to be removed from the register, the Charity Commission said.
The Charity Commission’s website said it had total income of £126,130, and expenditure of £52,353 as of June 2023.
Following a joint investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4 Dispatches, which was published in September 2023, a number of charities including the Trevi Women & Children’s Charity and the Treasures Foundation cut ties with Brand and his foundation.
Brand has been outspoken in his memoirs and comedy shows about being rehabilitated from heroin addiction in 2003.
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Addiction Recovery Bulletin
Feb. 8, 2025 – Residents, already upset over the possibility of a nearby La Quinta hotel being converted into low-income housing for seniors, showed up in force at a zoning hearing Thursday, Feb. 6, to vehemently protest plans for a 100-bed, 31,000-square-foot drug rehab facility. “The older they get, the more cantankerous they become,” said Jeffrey Lynne, attorney for Zinnia Health.
Residents testified they were concerned about drug rehab patients wandering into Century Village late at night and breaking into condos. Lynne called the concerns totally unfounded, noting that the clients will be there voluntarily to overcome their addiction and that the project will actually make the neighborhood safer. Cameras would be installed, the facility will have its own security and any client who takes a walk would be accompanied by a staff member.
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Addiction Recovery Bulletin
Feb. 13, 2025 – One month after 13 Investigates reported on a troubling pattern of problems inside addiction treatment centers operated by Landmark Recovery, another patient has died inside a Landmark facility. According to police and the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office, 48-year-old Holly Knight was strangled by another patient, who is now charged with her murder.
Internal sources tell 13 Investigates the suspect entered Knight’s room around 8:54 p.m. with a towel around her neck and then closed the door.
A post-arrest complaint says surveillance footage from inside the addiction treatment center shows the victim was standing upright at the time the suspect entered the room. The suspect then left the room four minutes later, at which point Knight appeared to be laying on the ground. Surveillance footage then showed the suspect re-entered the room multiple times, never notifying staff of Knight’s condition.
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