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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

THE WHOLE FAMILY ISN’T TOXIC – 

May 4, 2021 –  I had never before heard of the novel, called The Company You Keep, and I was quite sure the author, Neil Gordon, was a complete stranger to me. I’m happy to report that I am not now nor have I ever been a bouffanted cheerleader, a widow, or, perish the thought, a Republican. How had my name, always a bit comical and offbeat to my own ear, ended up in this book? Had Neil Gordon and I crossed paths? Had he perhaps known my father, also a writer? Was there a connection between us? In 2003 it wasn’t so easy to get an author’s address. I had to do some research to find a snail mail address and write Neil Gordon a letter:

Dear Mr. Gordon:

As far as I know, we have never me … I’m contacting you because you use my name for a character in your recently published novel The Company You Keep. Would you please let me know how and why you alighted on this name?

Neil Gordon swiftly emailed me back, saying that while it was surely odd for me to come across myself in his novel, it was astonishing for him to receive a letter from one of his own fictional characters! He politely explained that he didn’t know me and that the way he’d come to the name Molly Sackler was quite random. Molly was a schoolfriend of his daughter’s, I believe. Sackler, too, was an arbitrary choice. The coincidence was entirely accidental, not freighted with mystery or meaning at all.

more@VanityFair

The post “I Can’t Abandon My Name”: The Sacklers And Me appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

LISTEN – MONEY BUYS FREEDOM – 

May 3, 2021 – But a growing group of public officials and activists is mounting a last-ditch effort to derail the plan, describing it in legal briefs as an unethical, and possibly unlawful, use of the bankruptcy court’s power. Late last week, 24 state attorneys general as well as the attorney general for Washington, D.C., filed a new brief describing the proposed settlement as “unprecedented,” “unjust” and “unconfirmable as a matter of law.”

“The bankruptcy system should not be allowed to shield non-bankrupt billionaires,” said Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey in an interview with NPR.

“It would set a terrible precedent. If the Sacklers are allowed to use bankruptcy to escape the consequences of their actions, it would be a roadmap for other powerful bad actors.”

State AGs aren’t alone in objecting to the deal. In recent weeks, attorneys representing local and state governments, native tribes and opioid activists filed briefs raising legal and ethical concerns about the plan.

A division of the Justice Department that oversees bankruptcy cases also filed a brief questioning whether the bankruptcy court has the “authority and jurisdiction” to approve such a plan.

more@NPR

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

CALIFORNIA NODDING – 

April 22, 2021 – Supervised injection sites have emerged around the world in recent years, part of a movement to rethink treatment for people addicted to powerful opioids — including heroin, fentanyl and some prescription pain killers.

People get very sick when they try to stop taking the drugs, making it hard to stop using them. Overdose deaths have surged nationwide in recent years, prompting debates in state Legislatures about how best to tackle a problem that is rooted in public health and public safety.

These sites are legal in Canada, but illegal in the U.S. The former Trump administration sued to block a proposed injection site in Philadelphia and a federal appeals court sided with the government in January. But supporters are appealing that decision, hoping President Joe Biden’s administration might drop the lawsuit.

“Unlike the Trump administration, President Biden takes a science-based approach to addiction,” said state Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco who authored the California legislation. “We hope the administration will allow states to pilot evidence-based strategies like safe consumption sites.”

more@CBSSacramento

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

VIDEO – THE MOST TRAGIC IRONY – 

May 5, 2021 – A Modesto man devoted to living a better life was hit and killed by Brandon Howze, who was allegedly drunk at the time. Friends of Ray Galindo say the tragic irony is Galindo was leaving an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting when it happened.

Galindo spent over a decade in and out of the program. On Tuesday, friends and family attended his funeral. DUI arrest and crashes have been increasing in the Central Valley since the pandemic, according to Rhonda Campbell, Victim Services Specialist at Mothers Against Drunk Driving Sacramento.

“Drunk driving numbers were up six percent during the lockdown. I’m finding, as a victim advocate, as more and more things are opening up I’m getting more and more victim referrals,” she explained.

Campbell said with statistics showing 30 people dying every day in the United States from impaired driving, more needs to be done.

“Tougher penalties, it’s more consequences. I think the first couple of times people get a DUI ticket, it’s expensive but a lot of times that is not enough of a deterrent,” she explained.

AA brothers who spent years sitting next to Ray say his determination to be a better person will leave a lasting impact and serve as motivation in their own sobriety.

“It just makes me want to try hard to stay in the program and be a better person,” one person said.

more@CBSLocal

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

IF IT’S IN A PACKAGE, IT’S PROCESSED – 

May 7, 2021 – Scientists already knew prior to this study that the Western diet of heavily processed foods was linked to health issues.

“Broad changes in societal dietary habits, especially consumption of processed foods that are frequently rich in fats and simple carbohydrates but lacking in fiber are widely believed to have contributed mightily to the increased incidence of chronic inflammatory diseases that has accompanied industrialization,” the authors write at the start of their paper.

By contrast, non-processed foods are those which are closer to the form in which they would appear in nature such as vegetables, fruits and meats. Gewirtz elaborated on the broader problems with processed food, which refer to any kind of food that is created from highly refined ingredients.

As Gewirtz explained, processed foods are less healthy because of “natural components of unprocessed foods that they lack” as well as because of additives that are often “synthetic” and do not normally appear in foods. “Our research shows that one key component of fruits and vegetables that is lost in processing is fiber,” He added. Gewirtz also noted that many processed foods contain emulsifiers, which further harm the body.

more@Salon

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

STICK WITH THE WINNERS! – 

April 29, 2021 – Peter Werth was born in South La  and raised in a poor area of El Monte. My dad was a WW2 POW and when he came to America he carried back a lot of turmoil with him.  Soon after arriving in the states he joined the US army and became a sharp shooter in Korea where he proudly served his 4 year term. Honorably discharged with colors, the LAPD  recruited him to be a highly ranked DEA cop. Mix that with alcohol and a wife who was also a closet alcoholic and I was raised in a very “colorful” and violent home.

My drinking career started when I was a very young which began my slide into being a full-blown alcoholic with all its incumbent struggles and consequences.  I had run-ins with the local police, truancies and everything else that comes with being a teenage alcoholic. 

I was exposed to AA at age 14 when a judge sent me to six meetings for buying beer at a 7/11 with a fake ID. Little did I know that was the first of many more face to face scoldings and nudges from the judge !!!

Q. If you are in recovery, what was your Drug of Choice? and when did you stop using?
A. Alcohol/Cocaine 4/28/17

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

Q. Do you log on to ZOOM 12-step meetings? How often? Do you share?
A. Several times a week. Yes, I share 

more@AddictionRecoveryeBulletin

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

TURNING HEARTACHE INTO HEALING – 

May 5, 2021 – I am an anesthesiologist who administers fentanyl every day to patients. I have also heartbreakingly lost both of my adult sons to accidental opioid overdoses. I came to understand what opioid addiction looks like from a parent’s perspective, but, in the beginning stages it was very hard to detect, even for me. Everything that I share here, I have seen up-close in my home. I’m sharing these details so other parents can understand.  The first signs of drug use are subtle.

First, you might find a few pills either in a pocket wrapped in foil or dropped in the bathroom. They soon develop an increasing preoccupation with money, followed by missing cash. You know you took $100 out of the bank, but yet you only seem to have $60 in your wallet. They frequently go missing for extended periods of time where they are unreachable by their cellphone via calls, texts, or tracking.

Another clue is that they start falling asleep a lot. I’m not talking about sleepiness because your teen stayed up late studying. This is falling asleep eating at the dinner table or standing at the refrigerator looking for a snack. It’s called dipping out, and it becomes more exaggerated if they progress to intravenous opioids. The opioids provide a degree of muscle rigidity that holds them slightly upright, but very far tilted. Anyone sober would wake up and jerk themselves upright. An impaired person will fall oh-so slowly right into their dinner plate, taking slow, deep, noisy breaths.  Start paying attention to bathroom habits. All opioids and heroin cause constipation, so if a bottle of stool softener or laxatives suddenly find their way to your kid’s bathroom, ask questions. IV drugs can cause urinary retention and users might fall unconscious on the toilet because they can’t pass urine. They know they have to go, but they just can’t, and fall asleep sitting there.

more@USAToday

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – DID DO HARM – 

April 30, 2021 – They had a short break on Friday before returning to one of the longest running deliberations in the history of the Oklahoma County courthouse.

“They’ve never told us they’re deadlocked,” said attorney Tommy Adler. “They’ve just told us they want to keep working.”

Adler has been representing Nichols for four years. He was hired to fight the murder charges state Attorney General Mike Hunter brought against the physician for the deaths of five of her patients.

Prosecutors accused the doctor of running a “pill mill” and claimed she showed a pattern of overprescribing that turned her patients into addicts. Some of them were taking hundreds to thousands of highly addictive pills a month.

Adler told jurors Nichols was not a murderer and cared deeply for each of her patients.

“We obviously believe very strongly in our case, “ said Adler. “We believe very strongly Dr. Nichols was a legitimate doctor, treating legitimate patients with legitimate, serious medical needs. We hope she’s vindicated.”

He knows that is the jury’s decision to make. A verdict that could set a precedence.

“Again, I think we’ve got a fantastic jury,” said Adler. “Their families should be proud of them; their community should be proud of them. The way they’ve paid attention, the way they’ve listened to the evidence and their endurance in working on this is extremely rare.”

more@News9

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – FOREVER GRIEF – 

May 6, 2021 – She said she has struggled with her own mental health and addiction issues and said more resources need to be made available to help both adults and kids struggling with substance abuse.

“She grew up way too fast and I wish I could have helped more but unfortunately, I tried my best but given my circumstances and my problems, and the fact that I haven’t gotten help for my problems my whole life, it really didn’t give me the ability to help her,” Londono said. The BC Coroners Service is still investigating what led to Ally’s death and the Ministry of Children and Family Development said it cannot comment on specific cases due to privacy reasons.

more@GlobalNews

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

AND NO MORE SUNRISE DESPERATION – 

May 4, 2021 –  What was your sex life like before you got sober?

TAWNY: My sex life was very performative. It was for the other person. I had fun and it felt good—don’t get me wrong—but I was more concerned with pleasing the other person than figuring out what I actually wanted.

What were your initial conceptions about what sober sex was going to be like?

TAWNY: I thought sobriety was going to be the worst thing ever. I thought, ‘I’m not going to have any friends. I’m never going to date again. I’m never going to have sex. I had applied alcohol to everything in my life, and I didn’t even know, like, how am I going to hang out with my friends if it’s not for a drink?

But it actually sounds like getting sober shifted how you prioritized your own pleasure.

TAWNY: It’s almost like I’m in Sex 101, where I’m learning my body, learning what turns me on, and then gaining the confidence to share that with someone that I trust. It was really scary to do that—to tell him, ‘Look, I used to fake orgasms, but I don’t want to do that with you.’ 

When it comes to consent, did cutting out alcohol help you pick up on partners’ non-verbal cues?

NICK: It’s more than just consent. Let’s say consent is a baseline, where a hundred percent of sex sessions start with that. That’s the 101 level. If you’re drunk, you’re [also] not going to get the Master’s class or the triple Ph.D. I want to know what Tawny wants, because it makes me a better lover to be receptive to her needs.

more@MensHealth

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