Category: From Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Madness of America –  

Dec. 18, 2020 – New York City struggled and then regained its footing after becoming the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic last spring. Like the rest of the United States, it is again experiencing a spike in the number of new cases, increased hospitalizations, and deaths. The first vaccines have now gone into the arms of American essential care workers, but the pandemic will continue to inflict disease and death on thousands more citizens over the next few months. New York City is a bellwether for the United States as social isolation and economic despair threatens lives and livelihoods amidst the already half a million unemployed in New York City and millions across the United States. Nearly a year of physical restrictions between friends and family have increased anxiety and depression, as fallout of this public and mental health crisis.

The Mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, and his wife, First Lady Chirlane McCray recently welcomed the Morning Joe Field Team onto the porch of their home at the historic Gracie Mansion. Our discussion focused on the devastation the past year has wrought on those with mental illnesses and addiction issues. Just over five years before the first COVID-19 case was identified in New York City, Chirlane McCray spearheaded the launch of ThriveNYC. It was an unprecedented commitment by the City of New York to work towards a mental health system for all, regardless of means. At the foundation of the initiative is the acceptance and understanding that mental illness is pervasive, but treatable. “I think during the coronavirus, people have come to understand mental health challenges reach into every American family,” Mayor de Blasio said. “It is astounding, figures are that one in five Americans deal with some kind of mental health challenge. And when you think about something that pervasive, how is it that it is not front and center in our healthcare approach? People need a place to turn to. We need a hotline with trained counselors, 24-7, in multiple languages, where people get immediate help…The sad reality we have seen in the opioid crisis is people without any kind of guide in the wilderness, Thrive seeks to change, to give people a connection point.”

more@NBCNews

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Crime pays, for a while – 

Dec. 16, 2020 – The defendants “specifically recruit boosters who are opioid addicts and who use the proceeds of their ‘sales’ to purchase illegal drugs,” IRS special agent Giulio Scoccia wrote in each criminal complaint. “This easy access to cash has increased the demand for and use of opioids in the community, thereby fueling the current opioid crisis.” In many instances, Tribunella and Shadders provided lists of desirable items to boosters, or people recruited to steal for the scheme, Scoccia wrote. 

The 36-page criminal complaint affidavit filed against Tribunella and Shadders outlined the tactics they allegedly employed to profit, and the lengths to which they went to sell high-demand, still-in-package items on eBay. 

Tribunella is charged charged with wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, selling and conspiring to sell stolen goods across state lines, and engaging in financial transactions involving the proceeds of the operation in November 2019.

more@D&C

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

LISTEN – I wish this was fake news – 

Dec. 18, 2020 – Rick Ganley: Yeah, and per your reporting this week, clients and staff say a lot of this could have been prevented if the company had just been prepared for it.

Lauren Choolijan: Yeah, exactly. And I should say more tips have been coming into my inbox ever since the story came out. And I also want to add that Granite Recovery Center CEO Eric Spofford has said that his company has been complying with CDC guidelines since the beginning of the pandemic. Granite Recovery Centers is the company that manages Green Mountain Treatment Center and a bunch of other treatment properties around the state. But despite my many attempts, Spofford and his press spokesperson have declined to respond to these complaints from clients and staff.

Rick Ganley: We mentioned that Granite Recovery Centers is one of the biggest providers in New Hampshire. The state has spent millions fighting drug addiction in recent years. What’s the company’s relationship like with the state?

Lauren Choolijan: Yeah, so Granite Recovery Centers plays a pretty big part in New Hampshire’s response to addiction. And CEO Eric Spofford is pretty well known. His company receives a significant amount of state funding. I mean, one go to example is this no bid contract they got in 2019 for respite beds. They were awarded $1 million by the state. And as I understand it, that money wasn’t conditional on filling those beds. It was just to have them available for people who are homeless or waiting for a spot to open up at a treatment center.

And Spofford has really made himself available to kind of bail out the state when it’s in a tough spot. Like listeners might remember the back and forth over the homeless encampment in Manchester about a month ago. Many news outlets reported that the state actually called Eric Spofford for help. And he went out to the encampment in Manchester himself and offered beds to people. And he ended up moving some of them. I’m not sure how many, but he moved them to one of the properties he runs in Derry.

Rick Ganley: Okay, so there is a relationship here between the state and Garntie Recovery Centers. Has the state mentioned anything about your reporting this week?

more@NHPR

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WHY? – 

Dec. 17, 2020 – The primary driver behind the record-breaking numbers appeared to be the use of synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, which increased 38.4%.

Of 38 U.S. jurisdictions with available synthetic opioid data, 37 reported increases in synthetic opioid-involved overdose deaths. In 18 of these jurisdictions, the increase was greater than 50%. Ten Western states reported a more than 98% increase in synthetic opioid-involved deaths, the researchers said.

“We must continue to focus our efforts on prevention and treatment for opioid use disorder, including ready access to naloxone for all people who receive an opiate prescription,” said Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency room physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

“Data indicates that this is one area where education about the proper use of naloxone can save lives. Families, significant others and relatives who have access to naloxone are able to intervene and save lives, before people become statistics,” said Glatter, who was not part of the study.

While opioid overdose deaths were skyrocketing, overdose deaths involving cocaine also increased by 26.5%. Based upon earlier research, these deaths are likely linked to co-use or contamination of cocaine with illicitly manufactured fentanyl or heroin. Meanwhile, overdose deaths involving psychostimulants, such as methamphetamine, increased by 34.8%.

more@USNews

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Holiday Fun – 

2015 – So, you’ve got your score. Now what?

First, remember that the ACE score isn’t a crystal ball; it’s just meant as guidance. It tells you about one type of risk factor among many. It doesn’t directly take into account your diet or genes, or whether you smoke or drink excessively — to name just a few of the other major influences on health. To learn more, check the CDC’s ACE Study website. You’ll find, among other things, a list of studies that explore the ways adverse childhood experiences have been linked to a variety of adult conditions, ranging from increased headaches to depression to heart disease.

Remember this, too: ACE scores don’t tally the positive experiences in early life that can help build resilience and protect a child from the effects of trauma. Having a grandparent who loves you, a teacher who understands and believes in you, or a trusted friend you can confide in may mitigate the long-term effects of early trauma, psychologists say.

more@NPR

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – Music soothes the savage addiction –  

December 18, 2020 – Katie Crutchfield grew up in Alabama and lives in Kansas City, but the story behind Saint Cloud, her fifth and best album as Waxahatchee, begins in Barcelona. That’s where Crutchfield decided to get sober, right in the middle of touring her previous album, 2017’s Out In The Storm. 

It’s a story Crutchfield told countless times this year while promoting Saint Cloud, a story that has become intertwined with the record’s surrounding narrative of recent sobriety. “I had gone back and forth a lot about my substance issues,” Crutchfield told Pitchfork last spring, “and I woke up one day and said, ‘I’m done with this forever.’ I went and got my own hotel room in Barcelona and started to work on music. I remember thinking, ‘This is the beginning of a new chapter of my life.’”

Saint Cloud, the resulting album, does sound like a new beginning. It’s an airily beautiful album, and an endlessly giving one, full of open spaces and moments of exhilarating simplicity. Crutchfield chose to paper over the roiling angst of Out In The Storm with open-hearted Americana inspired by Lucinda Williams, but she couldn’t have known she was delivering a beacon of comfort and empathy at a moment of immense, world-historic catastrophe. Saint Cloud became counter-programming in a year of destabilization. Musically, the album, with its ringing major chords and unfussy arrangements, feels like a direct antithesis of the other hugely acclaimed singer-songwriter album from last spring, Fiona Apple’s Fetch The Bolt Cutters. There are no cacophonies of makeshift percussion or howling dogs. Just songs.  Crutchfield’s willingness to speak and write plainly about her experiences with alcoholism is invaluable to fans coping with their own addictions in private. But it doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Saint Cloud feels like the culmination of a recent trend of great songwriters — particularly within the indie-rock realm — confronting sobriety and recovery directly in their songwriting. 

Two years ago, the Canadian punk band Dilly Dally released one of the best songs in this category: “Sober Motel,” a raw, howling ode to sobriety that singer Katie Monkswrote for a bandmate dealing with addiction while immersed in a touring culture that romanticizes it. The song raises a middle finger at that culture: “Fuck the notion / That you should be higher / I’ve been lost in a fog for forever,” Monks sings in her exhilarating, charred voice.

more@Uproxx

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – America should do one… – 

Dec. 9, 2020 – Ten Australians fighting their addictions. What does it take to change a life? New series, Addicted Australia. We gain extraordinary access to the lives of a group of Australians and their families as they confront their addiction head on. Signed up to a unique six-month treatment program, we follow their heart wrenching journey from despair to hope and possible recovery.

more@SBS

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – The sumptuousness of sobriety –  

Dec. 7, 2020 -The recovery center offers a non-clinical approach to the problem of drug and alcohol dependence by using the 12 steps.

“Hard things happen in life, but we develop those tools on how to be okay in here, regardless of what happens out here,” said White. “We learn how to adjust our sails to the wind. We can’t adjust the wind.”

In a release, the Sereno Ridge team described the center:

The expansive 16,500 sq. ft. facility features resort-style amenities, including an indoor heated pool, fitness center, chef-prepared meals, spacious rooms, and more. The 176-acre campus has extensive hiking trails, water fountains, and meditation gardens. While the lodge is spacious, there is a 16-person capacity, ensuring a discreet environment and small, intimate groups.

more@WHNT

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

War on Addicts! – 

Dec. 10, 2020 – But there’s also fallout from alcohol and even second-hand smoking. Both these legal drugs often have unwanted side effects on the individual who chooses to use them. We deal with alcohol and tobacco in a completely different way than the way we treat illegal drugs. We consider them a health issue – unless someone is assaulted or run over because the offender was drunk – yet still, the offender is not arrested for using alcohol per se but for the consequences of its use.

Somehow we still continue treating illicit drug use as a crime and, I might add, with little success.

Recently it was revealed the NSW government was reconsidering how to deal with this issue. It has looked at recommendations from last year’s ice inquiry. These are unsurprisingly seen by a few former top cops as a sensible way forward.

The word “decriminalisation” has been bandied about a lot over the past week but while the term means slightly different things to different people it is clear the NSW government is reluctant to go there.

They are, however, considering a much humbler but nevertheless worthwhile step towards “diverting” drug users away from the criminal justice system – a “three strikes” policy that would see a person initially given a warning or a fine instead of being charged.

more@TheGuardian

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Creep of the Week – 

Dec. 9, 2020 – He took particular interest in his younger patients who were struggling with substance abuse and prescribed them powerful narcotics in exchange for sexual favors, officials said.

“These patients were all under the age of 40 and wouldn’t normally be treated by a geriatric care physician,” according to prosecutors.

“Many of these patients were dealing with pain and addiction, and instead of getting help from their doctor, they were drawn deeper into the cycle of drug abuse,” said New Jersey US Attorney Craig Carpenito in a statement.

The Drug Enforcement Administration began investigating Santiamo in 2017 after learning that patients were traveling great distances to score powerful narcotics prescriptions and using multiple pharmacies to fill them, according to court papers.

“Santiamo wrote prescriptions for controlled substances in doses that far exceed what might be medically necessary for an ordinary patient,” the complaint states.

Santiamo, who is free on $250,000 bond, is scheduled to be sentenced April 12, 2021, and faces up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine, court records show.

“This defendant not only violated his oath to help people, he took advantage of them when they were most vulnerable for his own selfish needs,” said DEA Special Agent.

more@NYPost

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