Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Asleep at the wheel –

Oct. 7, 2020 – The FDA estimates that 92 million benzodiazepine prescriptions were dispensed from U.S. pharmacies in 2019.

In addition, an estimated 50% of patients in 2018 took benzodiazepines for two months or longer, even though the recommended use is no more than a few weeks or months, according to FDA statistics.

Patents have expired on familiar brand names like Xanax, Klonopin and Ativan, meaning versions can now be manufactured by pharmaceutical companies that make lower-cost generic drugs. Today, there are about 20 companies in the U.S that manufacture these medications.

All will need to comply with the new warning to continue selling the drugs. Genentech, the manufacturer of Klonopin, told ABC News that “patient safety is of the utmost importance to us and we take our responsibility very seriously. We are aware of the class label update for all benzodiazepines, which includes Klonopin, and we are working with the FDA to update the medicine’s label.”

more@ABCNews

The post FDA says anti-anxiety medications highly addictive: But is the warning too late? appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

So we stay online longer? –

Oct 7, 2020 – Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have put their weight behind a measure to decriminalize all drugs in Oregon. The couple contributed $500,000 to the campaign, which would also earmark a significant amount of state cannabis tax revenue toward substance abuse treatment.

Measure 110, the ballot item in question, aims to change the narrative around drug use in the state. Instead of treating drug users as criminals, campaign organizers believe substance abuse should be treated as a public health issue.

“The war on drugs has created stereotypes and misinformation about people who are addicted to drugs and people who use drugs and made it easy to make it afraid of people who use drugs,” Yes on 110 campaign manager Peter Zuckerman told The Willamette Week. “Our biggest obstacle is the stigma.”

more@LAWeekly

The post Zuckerberg Donates Half a Million to Decriminalize All Drugs… appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Time to read? Time to read –  

Oct. 2, 2020 – I recently came to terms with my own problematic relationship with alcohol, and my one solace has been in books. I’ve dug into memoir after memoir, tiptoed into the hard science books, and enjoyed the fiction from afar. The following are a smattering of the books about alcoholism I’ve found meaningful. 

Trigger warnings: addiction and alcoholism, amid other mental illnesses. 

The first book on this list was the one to really set my mind toward easing off the alcohol. Did you know that getting blackout drunk on the regular is not normal? I didn’t. I’d always been drinking toward blackout, assuming that was the same goal everyone had on a night out. I thought the point of drinking was to lose hours of your life to darkness. Reading about someone else’s experiences shocked me, yet I told myself I’m not like them. I don’t need to drink every day. I just don’t want to feel. I know it’s bad—so that means I’m different, right?

more@BookRiot

The post 11 Gripping Books About Alcoholism and Recovery appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – Moms are the saddest –  

Sep 27, 2020 – On Sunday, Coleman’s family held a birthday party and balloon release in Chris’ honor at Lees Lane Park. His mother has also created a support group called Chris Rest Easy Son to help other families who are struggling. Four years ago, Rhonda Coleman’s son passed away from a heroin overdose at just 20 years old. Now, she wants to stress to the public how wide-ranging drug addiction is and how families can get help. 

more@WDRB

The post Mother who lost son to overdose hopes to raise awareness about drug addiction appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

LISTEN – Public Radio –

Sep. 28, 2020 – For those experiencing homelessness, navigating life during coronavirus brings some unique challenges.  

“The fact that the current opiate epidemic isn’t being addressed with the same type of force of any type of epidemic that is killing a particular group of people in of itself sort of speaks to forms of prejudice that is triggered by stigma against those people who may be suffering,” said Jeffrey Schonberg, a lecturer in the department of Anthropology at San Francisco State University

Schonberg is also a fellow at the Berkeley Center for Social Medicine at the University of California Berkeley. He’s co-author of “Righteous Dopefiend”— a book for which he and Phillipe Bourgouis spent several years doing participant observation with the homeless in San Francisco.  

During much of that time, both Schonberg and Bourgouis lived and even slept outside along with the homeless population in San Francisco, and experienced a lot of stigma. Schonberg has also witnessed examples of this stigma during the pandemic among healthcare workers. 

more@UPR

The post DEBUNKED: Intersections of Addiction, Homelessness and the COVID-19 Pandemic appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Doing the right thing –

Sep. 30, 2020 – When images of Delonte West emerged online showing the former NBA star begging for money, the basketball community instantly rallied behind him.

Fans, TV personalities and big-name players all urged the NBA to step in an help the struggling 37-year-old who had clearly fallen on hard times.

West, who enjoyed an eight-year career in the NBA, has clearly fallen on hard times recently after various footage emerged of him begging on the streets and even being beaten up. It’s understood West made upwards of $16 million during his time with the Boston Celtics, Seattle SuperSonics, Cleveland Cavaliers and most recently the Mavericks. But West’s fall from grace meant he was forced to turn to the streets.  Now, though, it appears he has checked in to a rehab clinic under the guidance of Dallas’ owner Cuban.

more@Sportbible

The post Mark Cuban Helps Homeless NBA Player Check Into Rehab appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Lock them up! –

Sep. 30, 2020 – “We need to stabilize the city now and there is a lot of anxiety,” Cuomo said. “I have seen this city go through cycles. Most of the younger guys—you’ve only seen an upcycle. You don’t remember what the city was like because you weren’t born. In the 60s, when it was really bad, and the ‘70s.” The governor’s remarks were markedly different from his rhetoric earlier in the briefing, when he questioned why an armed police officer would be the responding authority during 911 calls regarding substance abuse or mental health issues. Cuomo made the remarks as he introduced a five-point plan to stabilize NYC, which had few details besides listing off NYC’s cascading crises, which included gun violence, cleanliness, and the economy.

Overdose prevention advocates were dismayed Cuomo’s directive to crack down on people using drugs in public.

The vice president of public policy advocacy at the Legal Action Center, Tracie Gardner, called it a “step backwards.”

“We’re supposed to be the leader in responding to people who use drugs,” said Gardner, who worked for the Cuomo administration for three years. “This is not leadership.”

more@Gothamist

The post Cuomo Calls for Arrests of Public Drug Users appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

It’s Complex –  

2020 – The mother wound is not a specific diagnosis — although it can hurt so much that you’re sure it warrants one. While both daughters and sons can feel the impact of the under-mothering that leads to the mother wound, it’s typically considered a mother-to-daughter wound.

Thanks to psychologist Mary Ainsworth and her attachment theoryTrusted Source, we know that the trust that a mother instills in childhood positively affects not only the child’s present, but also their future relationships. Meaning, a child who acquires the mother wound is most likely to perpetuate this type of relationship with their own children. In patriarchal societies, it may be easier for mothers to pass on their own mother wound to their daughters. Women who have internalized stereotypical beliefs that relegate women to second-class citizens are more likely to consciously or unconsciously transmit these beliefs to their daughters.

Daughters in these societies may find themselves caught in a double-edged dilemma: Accept what Mom believes in so that we’re in the same boat and she keeps on loving me, or fight for my own beliefs and aim for empowerment. It’s no easy feat to take up the fight.

more@Healthline

The post What Is the Mother Wound and How Do You Heal? appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Remember Hash? –  

Sep.30, 2020 – LAS PALMAS, Spain (Reuters) – Spanish authorities have seized about 30 tonnes of hashish hidden in four sailing boats, in their biggest drug bust at sea, local authorities said on Wednesday.

Nine Bulgarian and Russian citizens were arrested in the raid.

“The logistical capacity of the Bulgarian criminal organizations’ top leaders engaged in drug trafficking in recreational vessels has been hit, preventing new routes from emerging or that they take advantage of the pandemic,” police and tax authorities said in a statement.

Earlier this year 4.6 tonnes of hashish were seized in two sailing boats from the same criminal group near the Balearic Islands.

more@Reuters

The post Spain seizes 30 tonnes of hashish hidden in sailing boats appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.