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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Collateral Damage –  

Sep. 30, 2020 – The study authors behind the model projected mortality risks based off of behaviors like frequency of injection use and risky practices, like equipment sharing and skin hygiene.

Twenty-year-olds classified as “males” who inject once or more per day and practice risky injection techniques are at the greatest risk of dying from infective endocarditis, facing a more-than 53 percent chance of death by 2030. Those who inject less than once per day, even while practicing risky techniques, face a somewhat lower mortality probability of 44 percent. Decreasing injection frequency also reduces mortal risk for similarly positioned people classified as “females.”

“Until recently, injection-related infections were not as common as HIV, hepatitis C, and overdose. But then fentanyl hit the drug market. And polysubstance injection use became more common. Both of these lead to increased injection frequency,” said Barocas. “That, coupled with an inadequate supply of sterile injection equipment, increases the risk of bacterial infections like endocarditis. We’re seeing more people without access to sterile equipment who are injecting more frequently—a perfect storm for bacterial infections.”

Overdose tends to be seen by the public and politicians as the dire mortal health crisis facing people who inject opioids. As the study authors predict, almost one-third of the subpopulation overall face a 10-year mortality projection from overdose, compared to 20 percent for infective endocarditis.

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

32 years in prison for non-violent drug offense –

Oct 2, 2020 – During the days of the interview, Wershe wanted to visit a home in Southfield. He said it was the last place things felt normal to him.

“I walked out of this house Jan. 15, 1988 in the morning and never returned until now,” he said. “I’m a little emotional, (it’s) been a long time. Had a lot of good memories here, a lot of good memories. I considered this my home.”

Nearly 33 years after leaving the home in Southfield, he returned and found some memories still feel like yesterday.

There has also been a book deal, and another documentary soon to come

“I don’t think I should have done 5 or 6 years for the crime I committed, if that.

“I sold drugs. I’m not proud of it. But, I was pushed into that life by our law enforcement and our government,” he added. “I didn’t learn to sell drugs and my family didn’t teach me. Law enforcement taught me to sell drugs. Wershe was an underage FBI informant living a fast life, trying to get ahead on the city’s east side in areas you can still see blight today.

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

I Kant, we can –

Oct 7, 2020 – He started school anyway, and after a stint in rehab, finished the term with straight A’s. He went on to earn two undergraduate degrees over the next three years. “I’m so glad I stayed,” he says. “If I had left behind philosophy, I would probably still be using today.”

Cooney wrote his philosophy honors thesis, “Overwhelmed and Undermined: The Use of Psychoactive Substances and the Problem of Meaninglessness,” on how a lack of meaning in life can help explain addiction. “The thesis was a long, drawn-out therapy session between me and these other thinkers,” he says. “It involved a lot of self-reflection and thinking about the reason for my actions.” In the paper, Cooney describes how he was first drawn to German philosopher Immanuel Kant’s “categorical imperative,” hoping he could stay off drugs if he adhered to a supreme principle of morality. “But I found that it doesn’t work,” he says. “Human life is way too nuanced to have one formulation that can encompass human or moral life in general.” After a thorough reading of Camus, he writes, he realized that his drug use was an attempt to address a fundamental lack of meaning in life. “I began to see my story as one of the individual struggling with the absurd,” he says. “At times the recognition of the absurd can be felt very viscerally, but sometimes it is more of a constant humming that we feel or hear that we can’t put a finger on. Every person experiences it differently.” After a thorough reading of Camus, he writes, he realized that his drug use was an attempt to address a fundamental lack of meaning in life. “I began to see my story as one of the individual struggling with the absurd,” he says. “At times the recognition of the absurd can be felt very viscerally, but sometimes it is more of a constant humming that we feel or hear that we can’t put a finger on. Every person experiences it differently.”

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

O Canada –  

October 7, 2020 – James Helm, 76, and his wife, Sandra, 70, were kidnapped by four men from their home Sept. 27 in Moira and transported over the border with coverings over their heads, according to a complaint filed in federal court.

The next day, James failed to show up for work as town highway superintendent. One of the couple’s sons went to their house to check on them, found the front door open and called state troopers, authorities said. The son later got a phone call from a man who said he and his associates were holding the couple.  The caller said they wanted to exchange them for the 110 pounds of cocaine they believe was stolen by someone authorities identify in docs only as “Individual 1” — or for the $3.5 million the stash was worth. The court document doesn’t say whether “Individual-1” had any relationship to the Helms, but their grandson, Macenzie Helm, 28, and his mom, Michelle Helm, had been busted a week earlier in Burlington, Vermont, for allegedly transporting cocaine for a larger organization. The Drug Enforcement Administration seized 110 pounds of cocaine from a rented van, but the bust wasn’t made public so any associates wouldn’t have known, CTV News reported. 

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

An Actual First Lady –

Oct 5, 2020 – The project calls for removing four of the current residential buildings and replacing them with a pair of two-story residential buildings, which each would house 46 beds. Each of the two buildings would be 30,935 square feet.

Additionally, a new one-story, 22,748-square-foot day-treatment facility would be built on what is currently a vacant portion of the center’s campus. The facility would be able to accommodate 44 day-treatment patients. The building would also include additional administrative space, a computer lab and a lecture hall.

These plans would increase the Betty Ford Center’s capacity from 100 beds to 156 beds and increase the total campus from 137,200 square feet to 170,000 square feet.

“By expanding our capacity by 56 beds, several hundred more people will be able to get the help they need each year,” Yadron said. “We’ll also be increasing safety, improving access by implementing the very latest ADA requirements, and expanding our ability to improve outcomes by keeping people engaged in a long-term continuum of care.”

The project will be built over three phases, with the single-story day treatment building slated to be built first. Phase two will see the old residential buildings demolished and one new residential building constructed. The final phase will see the construction of the second residential building.

The project also includes modifications to landscaping, parking spaces and the development of a new driveway onto the campus from Vista Del Sol.

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – What about the Pope? –

Oct. 2020 – Jim joined Matt Austin and Ginger Gadsden from his Fort Lauderdale home for this week’s edition of Florida’s Fourth Estate to talk about being in recovery for 32 years now, and what it took to get him there to begin with.

Jim says he knows during the pandemic that people with addictions are suffering.

He said people who suffer from addiction or mental illness are fragile.

“Recovery is connection. It’s love. It’s friendship,” he said. “Addiction is the opposite. It’s isolation. It’s loneliness. It’s depression. We’ve been forced into a depressive state.”

In a pandemic, when you’re forced to isolate, he says it has done a number on many who turn drugs and alcohol for escape.

He encourages those struggling to reach out and not be ashamed to ask for help.

At the age of 22, Jim found himself in prison for the second time for breaking into a police officer’s home.

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

She’s not the only one… –

Oct 9, 2020 – Davis’ most iconic role came after she checked herself into a rehab program. During a sit-down interview with James Andrew Miller for his podcast, Origins, Davis admitted that she began drinking at a very young age to dull her senses and her anxiety. She noted that she only got serious about sobriety when she found her acting was suffering. Davis didn’t share exactly when she checked herself into rehab, but reportedly it occurred before she landed her breakout role in Sex and the City. Before the series, Davis appeared in General Hospital and Melrose Place. Her role in General Hospital lasted for 23 episodes in 1991. She appeared in Melrose Place for two seasons before her character, Brooke Armstrong, was killed off.

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Stick with the Winners!

October 8, 2020 – Award winning director, writer, actress Christina Beck began her career as a punk rock teenager acting in cult films such as Suburbia, Boys Next Door, and Dudes all directed by Penelope Spheeris. She studied at Playwright’s Horizons in New York City forming an all-female theatre company, POW (Power of Women) productions, and wrote, produced and starred in “From the Heart” premiering at the Samuel Beckett Theatre. After writing, directing and acting in numerous Los Angeles theatre productions, Christina wrote and starred in her first short film, DISCO MAN, followed by the noir comedy, BLOW ME, which screened in the New York, Chicago, and Seattle Underground Film Festivals. 

Q. If you are in recovery, what was your Drug of Choice? When did you stop using?
A. I’m gratefully clean and sober for over twenty-seven years.

Q. Do you think addiction is an illness, disease, a choice or a wicked twist of fate?
A. It’s an individual path. For me, using any substance was a way to disconnect from trauma. I grew up in a home with active addiction and I believe my parents truly did the best they could. I don’t bother with questioning if it’s a disease etc. … I just feel lucky to have tools for recovery and to be sober today. 

Q. Do you log on to ZOOM 12-step meetings? How often? Do you share?
A. I’ve been very fortunate with the habit of going to lot’s of meetings. At least one meeting a day either on Zoom or socially distant with a mask in a park. 

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – What goes around…  –  

OCT 5, 2020 -”DELONTE WEST IS JUST LIKE ANYONE ELSE THAT PROBABLY HAS SOME DEEP-ROOTED ISSUES THAT HAVE NEVER BEEN DEALT WITH, YA KNOW? PUTTING ON A BASKETBALL UNIFORM AND BEING SUCCESSFUL, THAT JUST COVERS UP EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS TO A PERSON.”

Strawberry continued … “It reflects back to when he was probably young somewhere, some kinda trauma, abuse or something affected him and it can leave you crippled and paralyzed. So, no one signs up to be in that situation he is. I didn’t sign up to be in that situation.”

But, Darryl — who now runs Strawberry Ministries with his wife, Tracy — isn’t just talking about West’s struggles … he actually wants to work with Delonte.

“I would love to help him.”

Strawberry says he doesn’t want to interfere with Delonte’s current treatment program … but after he completes rehab, Straw wants West to know he’ll be around to help keep on the right back.

“My hopes and thoughts and prayers are with him. Here was a guy that was successful playing in the NBA, and here he is struggling. He’s down and out.”

“I just want him to know that people like me, that are in recovery, been for a long time, is praying for him and thinking about him,” Darryl tells us.

“If there’s anything I can ever do to encourage him and sit down and have a talk with him, I just hope he can reach out and do that.”

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Treat people with care and respect –

Oct 8, 2020 – What happened in Pittsburgh is instructive because the steel industry collapsed, and, along with that, communities collapsed, and drugs came in. When communities and cultures are wounded, drugs are more likely to come in. 

What we’ve seen is a trend from primarily alcohol dependence in the country, to cocaine and prescription opiates, followed by intravenous heroin, supplanted by intravenous fentanyl. 

Now the scary thing that we’re facing is increases in combinations of fentanyl with cocaine, and fentanyl with methamphetamine. What the cartels are doing is combining fentanyl with cocaine. People may not be aware that they’re using fentanyl, which may be one of the reasons that can account for the increase in overdose death rate over the last year or so. 

In this state we’ve been largely spared methamphetamine. But no longer. Over the last year and a half it’s flooded into the state. The drug problem is quite severe and not showing any signs of slowing. In the midst of all of this, hidden, is high rates of alcohol dependence. Attention to it has been orphaned by the prescription opiate epidemic. It definitely kills more people per year than opiates do.

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