Category: From Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

ONE FROM THE HEART – 

Feb. 26, 2021 – Cannabis, or marijuana, is increasingly used both recreationally and therapeutically worldwide. 7,8 Particularly, the major chemical compounds excreting these effects are D-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). While the benefits of cannabis are numerous, few of them are cardiovascular-related, and cannabis’ true risk to the cardiovascular system is poorly understood. In terms of adverse cardiovascular consequences, THC appears to impart most of the negative impact, but larger and longer-term outcomes are lacking. 7,8 Mechanistically, THC stimulates the sympathetic nervous system while concurrently inhibiting the parasympathetic nervous system, leading to increased heart rate and elevated blood pressure, which effects myocardial oxygen demand (Table 1). Furthermore, it appears THC can lead to platelet activation and overtime associated endothelial dysfunction and oxidative stress. In addition, impurities in cannabis products can induce or exacerbate these effects.

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

AT LEAST YOU HAVE TO KNOW SOMEONE – 

March 4, 2021 – It has spread throughout the United States, as well as worldwide. Each Al-Anon Family Group has but one purpose: to help families of alcoholics. We do this by practicing the 12 steps of AA ourselves by encouraging and understanding our alcoholic relatives, and by welcoming and giving comfort to families of alcoholics. We, too, are a 12-step program of our own recovery and our own return to sanity. “Progress begins when we stop trying to control the uncontrollable and when we go on to correct what we have the right to change,” from “One Day at a Time” — March 26.

We welcome you into our program and to visit a meeting. We realize the trepidation of entering our doors for the first time. Each of us went to a first meeting also. Bring a friend if you like. We invite you to experience, with us, the opportunity to grow and to experience the awareness that the program can…

more@IdahoStateJournal

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

AND OF BEING EARNEST – 

March 3, 2021 – As human beings, we are all defined by our personal experiences, both positive and negative. Our experiences make us who we are, and in many ways, they connect us to the people in our environment.

We’re naturally drawn to people who share similar experiences, particularly difficult ones. That’s why support groups are so impactful when it comes to grieving, coping and recovering. People who have been diagnosed with cancer find solace and support in the presence of other cancer sufferers. The same is true for mothers who have lost children or people who have loved ones in prison.

more@Forbes

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

UNCIVIL WAR – 

March 3, 2021 – Jenkins, who lives in upstate New York, says her mom, Sonya Hughey, had a hard life, first using crack cocaine when she was a teenager. 

The loneliness and isolation of the pandemic made Hughey’s substance use disorder worse. She was using methamphetamines and in November she was arrested. According to Jenkins, her mother tried to get help. “She asked, you know? Can I get the rehab? I have a drug problem. They said no. Rehab wasn’t an option for her.”

In December, Hughey who was 48 years old used methamphetamines contaminated with the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl. “We got a phone call from my mom’s boyfriend that he found her dead,” Jenkins said. 

Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say fatal drug overdoses nationwide have surged roughly 20% during the pandemic, killing more than 83,000 people in 2020.

more@NPR

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

GIVE HIM AN A+ – 

March 5, 2021 – He started writing that book in March 2020 and finished it in October; “Battling Addiction, Bondage and Temptation” was published in January. Cobb said he struggled with nicotine addiction and anxiety problems.

“Tobacco really took a toll on me, physically and spiritually,” Cobb said. “I felt shame all the time. I prayed God would help me get through it.”

Although he lives in Dallas with his parents, Darrell and Pamela, Cobb spent summers, holidays and spring breaks in Tupelo with his grandfather, Henry Cobb. The elder Cobb taught automotive technology at Tupelo High School for more than 30 years.

After high school, Cobb attended Mississippi State University, where he graduated in the fall of 2020 with a degree in kinesiology. He hopes to be accepted into an occupational therapy school this year.

Cobb said “Battling Addiction, Bondage and Temptation,” which is geared toward teens and young adults, wasn’t hard to write.

more@DailyJournal

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

ADDICTION RULES – 

March 2, 2021 – “The U.S. Attorney’s Office is committed to stopping drug-dealing doctors like Rodos,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Williams. “As a physician, he was well aware of the inherently dangerous nature of the drugs he was selling.  But because of his greed and sometimes to satisfy his own lecherous intentions, he took advantage of vulnerable people struggling with addiction, piling on to the enormous opioid epidemic ravaging the neighborhoods of Philadelphia.”

“It’s hard to understand how a longtime physician, trained to help and to heal people, could be this depraved,” said Michael J. Driscoll, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Philadelphia Division. “Dr. Rodos used his patients’ addictions against them, readily doling out powerful opioids in exchange for money or sex acts. The FBI and our partners are doggedly working to put drug-dealing doctors like him out of business, as we battle our country’s opioid epidemic.”

“Doctors are expected to help their patients, not take advantage of them,” said Maureen Dixon, Special Agent in Charge for the Office of the Inspector General, Department of Health and Human Services. “HHS-OIG and our law enforcement partners will continue to work together to protect patients from illegally prescribed prescription drugs.”

more@Justice

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

ALWAYS ROOM FOR ONE MORE – 

March 2, 2021 – “Just for anonymity purposes,” Steve explained. “It’s our AA tradition.”

Steve says the last year has been rough for recovering alcoholics, and not just because of the stress of living through a pandemic. Not being able to see supportive AA members in person has been particularly hard.

“You lose some of that connection online and it’s so important, especially for people who are just finding their way in recovery,” Steve said.  

Face-to-face meetings are starting to open back up again as COVID-19 restrictions ease. According to Steve, more people are seeking help too because some have crossed that line between drinker to alcoholic during the pandemic.

“There is absolutely going to be an influx,” Steve said. “It’s happening already and it will continue to happen.”

He says it’s a great thing if they do see membership of the nonprofit rise because that’s the most important step in recovery.

more@KTVB

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

BE DELICATE – 

2021 – Instead let us be present for our friends and loved ones and say:

• I hear you
• I am listening to you
• I am here for you
• Let me help you

It is tough that all is so overwhelming right now. The world is upside down:

• You have my support 

And let us validate our words through actions:

• A phone call
• A safe in person visit
• A listening ear
• A small token

Or help your family, friend, work associate get the help they need by getting them the emotional support they need.

more@AllAboutInterventions

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

THEY SING THE BODY ELECTRIC – 

Feb. 28, 2021 – Now McGregor has called on ministers to properly consider NET, suggesting they start by watching the documentary he narrated called The Final Fix.

He said: “This film takes a hard look at this different kind of treatment and it really seems to work. I would hope that the authorities would take notice and perhaps explore for themselves. It’s at least worth exploration. Current treatment for drug addiction often utilises other addictive drugs and that may not be the answer.”

Heroin substitute methadone has been central to the government’s drugs policies but critics of the programme suggest it merely substitutes one drug for another and traps users in addiction.

Meanwhile, the number of rehab beds has fallen from around 700 to less than 200.

NET was developed in the 1970s by Hong Kong-based Scottish surgeon Meg Patterson. She believed a low-level current, delivered painlessly to the brain from two small electrodes behind the ears, caused the development of chemicals which allowed addicts to detox without the painful and distressing side-effects of withdrawal, and could be adjusted to treat different opioids.

more@SundayPost

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

OXYMORONs – 

March 3, 2021 – According to Chesterfield Sheriff Karl Leonard, the alleged drug smugglers exploited a regulatory loophole regarding legal mail that is addressed to inmates.

While jail staff conduct thorough examinations of all general mail addressed to inmates, they are prohibited from applying more than a cursory level of scrutiny to correspondence from an attorney, judge, clerk of court or other legal entity.

In this case, the Suboxone strips were concealed between two sheets of letter-sized paper that had been glued together and mailed to the jail. The envelope was addressed to an inmate and contained a typed return address label purporting to be from a local law office.

“It’s very upsetting that in a facility where we try to help people overcome opioid addiction, others would try to bring these drugs into our jail,” Leonard said in an interview last Thursday. “I find it personally offensive.”

The county jail’s landmark addiction recovery program HARP (Helping Addicts Recover Progressively) marks its fifth anniversary this month. Leonard noted that none of the four inmates implicated in the Suboxone plot were housed in jail pods designated for HARP participants.

Three of them – Jersey James Grant, Feraud Tyrell Freeman-Butler and James Logan Williams – were already in the Chesterfield jail awaiting trial on other charges. The fourth, Devonte Anthony Terrell Boucher Jr., was serving time for grand larceny, felony probation violation and failure to appear in court.

All four men are facing additional felony counts related to the drug scheme, in which two women also are accused of participating.

Samantha Daulton, of the 800 block of North Hamilton Street in Richmond, and Erica Freeman-Butler, of the 200 block of Secretariat Court in Ashland, have been charged with conspiracy to deliver drugs to a prisoner. The Class 5 felonies come with a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Freeman-Butler briefly was at large last week. She was taken into custody after voluntarily reporting to the county jail Feb. 25, then released on a $1,500 bond.

“We’re pretty confident this has not been a long, ongoing operation. We were able to nip it in the bud before it became a major issue,” Leonard said.

Following his office’s investigation, county administration authorized the sheriff to hire a part-time civilian to handle processing and distribution of general inmate mail. That freed up a full-time sworn deputy to be assigned to handle inspections of “legal mail.”

more@ChesterfieldObserver

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