In the midst of front page news about the coronavirus, the Weinstein convictions, the ups and downs of competitors to capture the Democratic presidential nomination, I bet you missed the shocking news that children as young as 6 years old are being taught how to administer Narcan to save their mother or father from an overdose. Carter County Tennessee, next … Read More
Corporate Greed Fuels the Opioid Crisis
For some time the focus of the opioid crisis has been on the doctors who run pill mills, the pharmacies who dispense opioid pills by the thousands, and the Sacklers, the family that controls and profits from Purdue Pharma, the makers of OxyContin. Now the attorneys general in New York, Vermont, and Washington State are going after the distributors of … Read More
Good News in Dayton: Drug Deaths Decline
This year drug deaths in Dayton, Ohio are down by 54% compared to last year. A manufacturing center at the junction of two major interstates, Dayton had one of the highest opioid overdose death rates in the U.S. in 2017. For the first time in years the number of opioid deaths nationwide have begun to decline according to the CDC … Read More
72,000 Overdose Deaths in 2017
Coroners in San Diego County have taken a bold new approach to persuade doctors to curb opioid prescribing. The San Diego County’s chief deputy medical examiner, Dr. Jonathan Lucas, sent letters to physicians about their possible role in the escalating opioid abuse epidemic. The doctors received a letter stating: “This is a courtesy communication to inform you that your patient … Read More
We Need a Cultural Shift in How We Think about Addiction
The recent The Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health calls for a cultural shift in how we think about addiction. For too long, many people have viewed addiction as a moral failing. This stigma has created an added burden of shame for people with substance use disorders which makes them less likely to come forward and seek help. … Read More
Let’s Try Portugal’s Solution to the Heroin Epidemic
Last year approximately 64,000 Americans died of overdoses, as many as were killed in the Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq Wars combined. More than fifteen years ago both Portugal and the U.S. were struggling with illicit drug use. The U.S. cracked down, spending billions of dollars incarcerating drug users. Portugal, on the other hand, decriminalized the use of all drugs in … Read More
Drug Deaths Accelerate in 2016
Drug overdoses are the leading cause of death for Americans under 50 because of synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl and its analogues. Drug overdoses killed about 64,000 people in the United States in 2016, which is an increase of 22% over drug deaths recorded in 2015. Drug deaths involving fentanyl more than doubled from 2015 to 2016. There has also been … Read More
Grieving the End of Addiction
This is a guest post by Helen Jenkins about the stages of grief experienced by some who give up an addiction When we force a loved one in rehabilitation to immediately be happy or pick up where they left off, we deny them the right to grieve. Systemic therapist, Lindsay Kramer, notes that drug use can be intimate in nature: … Read More
Surgeon General: Addiction is a Disease of the Brain, Not a Moral Weakness
Remember the 1964 Surgeon General’s report on smoking and health that first linked cigarettes to cancer? Well, even if you don’t, it led to a successful national campaign against tobacco use. Yesterday, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued a call for a cultural shift in how we think about addiction in his 426 page report “Facing Addiction in America.” In it, … Read More
Four Traits that Put Kids at Risk for Addiction
On Tuesday, voters approved the legalization of marijuana in California, Massachusetts, Nevada, and most likely in Maine, although that may face a recount. I did not support the initiative to legalize pot in California because I have seen too many students lose their edge and ambition as a result of heavy pot use and become passive zombies. Maia Szalavits, author … Read More
Smaller than a Snowflake
A synthetic drug called carfentanil, in an amount smaller than a snowflake, is killing people. More than 200 people in the Cincinnati area have overdosed on the drug in the last three weeks leaving 3 people dead. Similar overdoses have occurred in Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia and the Gulf coast of Florida overwhelming ambulance crews and emergency rooms. Carfentanil is … Read More
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