The Worst Addiction Epidemic in U.S. History

Moderators: Elvis, DrVolin, Jeff

Re: The Worst Addiction Epidemic in U.S. History

Postby Cordelia » Thu Mar 01, 2018 3:26 pm

Elvis » Thu Mar 01, 2018 6:09 pm wrote:
It's hard to ask for help if you're gonna be thrown in jail.


Yes and why are they? Mental and physical illnesses are not crimes (but then again, who would populate and enrich privatized jails?).

Image

The Curious (Dis)Connection between the Opioid Epidemic and Crime.

Szalavitz M1, Rigg KK2.

Drug epidemics often bring with them an accompanying rise in crime. The heroin wave of the 1970's and crack crisis of the 1980's were each accompanied by major gun violence, including large numbers of murders and violent property crimes. The current United States opioid epidemic, however, has not been associated with either a rise in homicide or in property crime. In fact, crime rates have been declining for decades, and are now less than half their 1991 peak, despite an unprecedented spike of opioid overdose deaths that began in the late 1990's. These facts do not fit with the usual narrative about the link between drug addiction and criminal behavior. While the drugs-crime connection has always been far more nuanced than the way it is typically portrayed, there wasn't such a glaring disconnect between reality and mythology during the drug epidemics of the 1970's and 1980's. The mystery of the missing opioid crime explosion offers unique insight into the myths and realities of drug addiction. To explore this issue further, this commentary briefly summarizes the drugs-crime connection, contrasts the current opioid crisis with drug epidemics of the past, and provides possible explanations for the absence of an opioid-fueled crime wave.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28952839
The greatest sin is to be unconscious. ~ Carl Jung

We may not choose the parameters of our destiny. But we give it its content. ~ Dag Hammarskjold 'Waymarks'
User avatar
Cordelia
 
Posts: 3697
Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2009 7:07 pm
Location: USA
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: The Worst Addiction Epidemic in U.S. History

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Mar 08, 2018 12:31 pm

New studies show that legal cannabis access reduces opioid abuse

Scientific data is growing nearly by the day in support of the notion that legalized cannabis can mitigate opioid use and abuse.

For instance, among states where medical cannabis access is permitted, patients routinely lessen their opioid intake. According to data published this week by the Minnesota Department of Health, among those patients known to be taking opiate painkillers upon their enrollment into the program, 63 percent “were able to reduce or eliminate opioid usage after six months.”


Minnesota’s findings are hardly unique. In 2016 there was data gathered from patients enrolled in Michigan’s cannabis access program reported that marijuana treatment “was associated with a 64 percent decrease in opioid use, decreased number and side effects of medications, and an improved quality of life.”
A review of state-registered patients from various northeastern states yielded similar results, finding, 77 percent of respondents acknowledged having reduced their use of opioids following cannabis therapy.

A significant percentage of respondents also reported decreasing their consumption of anti-anxiety medications (72 percent), migraine-related medications (67 percent), sleep aids (65 percent), and antidepressants (38 percent).

A 2017 assessment of medical cannabis patients in Illinois revealed that participants in the state-run program frequently reported using marijuana "as an alternative to other medications -- most commonly opioids, but also anticonvulsants, anti-inflammatories, and over-the-counter analgesics."

New Mexico patient data reports: Compared to non-users, medical cannabis enrollees "were more likely either to reduce daily opioid prescription dosages between the beginning and end of the sample period (83.8 percent versus 44.8 percent) or to cease filling opioid prescriptions altogether (40.5 percent versus 3.4 percent)."

Two just-published clinical trials from Israel — where medical cannabis use is legally permitted — further affirm this phenomenon. In the first study, which assessed cannabis use among the elderly, investigators reported that over 18 percent of the study's participants "stopped using opioid analgesics or reduced their dose" over a six-month period.

They concluded, "Cannabis can decrease the use of other prescription medicines, including opioids." In the second trial, which assessed the safety and efficacy of cannabis in a cohort of over 1,200 cancer patients, scientists reported that nearly half of respondents reported either decreasing or eliminating their use of opioids during the treatment period

Another recently published clinical trial provides insight into explaining this relationship. Investigators from Columbia University’s Medical Center assessed the efficacy of low doses of inhaled cannabis and sub-therapeutic doses of oxycodone on experimentally-induced pain in a double-blind, placebo-controlled model.

Researchers assessed subjects’ pain tolerance after receiving both substances separately or in concert with one another. While neither the administration of cannabis nor oxycodone alone significantly mitigated subjects’ pain, the combined administration of both drugs did so effectively.

Authors determined, “Both active cannabis and a low dose of oxycodone (2.5 mg) were sub-therapeutic, failing to elicit analgesia on their own; however, when administered together, pain responses … were significantly reduced, pointing to the opioid-sparing effects of cannabis.” They concluded, “Smoked cannabis combined with an ineffective analgesic dose of oxycodone produced analgesia comparable to an effective opioid analgesic dose without significantly increasing cannabis abuse liability.”

The data is consistent and clear. For many patients, cannabis offers a viable alternative to opioids. It is time for the administration to stop placing political ideology above the health and safety of the American public, and to acknowledge the well-established efficacy of medical marijuana in the treatment of chronic pain.

Paul Armentano is the deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). He is the co-author of the book, Marijuana Is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink? And the author of the book, The Citizen’s Guide to State-By-State Marijuana Laws.
http://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/3 ... ioid-abuse
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)

Re: The Worst Addiction Epidemic in U.S. History

Postby Cordelia » Fri Mar 09, 2018 3:56 pm

Heroin's evil twin partner in despair and destruction......

Image

Meth, the Forgotten Killer, Is Back. And It’s Everywhere.

By FRANCES ROBLES FEB. 13, 2018

PORTLAND, Ore. — They huddled against the biting wind, pacing from one corner to another hoping to score heroin or pills. But a different drug was far more likely to be on offer outside the train station downtown, where homeless drug users live in tents pitched on the sidewalk.

“Everybody has meth around here — everybody,” said Sean, a 27-year-old heroin user who hangs out downtown and gave only his first name. “It’s the easiest to find.”

The scourge of crystal meth, with its exploding labs and ruinous effect on teeth and skin, has been all but forgotten amid national concern over the opioid crisis. But 12 years after Congress took aggressive action to curtail it, meth has returned with a vengeance. Here in Oregon, meth-related deaths vastly outnumber those from heroin. At the United States border, agents are seizing 10 to 20 times the amounts they did a decade ago. Methamphetamine, experts say, has never been purer, cheaper or more lethal.

Continued......
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/13/us/m ... -drug.html


Heroin and Meth: A Potent Combination:

Using Heroin and Meth Together: Dangers, Treatment, and Effects on Brain and Body

People who abuse drugs frequently combine different drugs to get enhanced effects of one or both substances. Often, this involves combining two drugs of the same type to strengthen the main effect of both drugs. However, in some cases, two drugs with different actions are combined because the combination can create a different effect, amplify the actions of both drugs, or counteract the negative effects of one substance.

One of these potent combinations occurs when mixing an opiate drug like heroin with a stimulant like methamphetamine (meth). While this combination is said to produce a significant high, it can also result in dangers and long-term health circumstances that pose relatively high risk for the person who decides to use them.

More...
https://americanaddictioncenters.org/he ... mbination/
The greatest sin is to be unconscious. ~ Carl Jung

We may not choose the parameters of our destiny. But we give it its content. ~ Dag Hammarskjold 'Waymarks'
User avatar
Cordelia
 
Posts: 3697
Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2009 7:07 pm
Location: USA
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: The Worst Addiction Epidemic in U.S. History

Postby Luther Blissett » Fri Mar 09, 2018 6:59 pm

Karmamatterz » Sat Feb 24, 2018 9:09 am wrote:
So what would happen if heroin and coke were legal? Just how messed up would things get? Would we be surrounded by addicts? My guess is that the mortuaries would be doing a more steady business. More kids would go without a decent meal and be walking around in filthy clothes.


Keep your eyes on Portugal, where everything is legal.
The Rich and the Corporate remain in their hundred-year fever visions of Bolsheviks taking their stuff - JackRiddler
User avatar
Luther Blissett
 
Posts: 4990
Joined: Fri Jan 02, 2009 1:31 pm
Location: Philadelphia
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: The Worst Addiction Epidemic in U.S. History

Postby Cordelia » Fri Mar 09, 2018 7:23 pm

^^^Thanks for that info.

fwiw, From 3 years ago..........

14 Years After Decriminalizing All Drugs, Here's What Portugal Looks Like
https://mic.com/articles/110344/14-year ... .wIwVlcPMn

If someone is found in the possession of less than a 10-day supply of anything from marijuana to heroin, he or she is sent to a three-person Commission for the Dissuasion of Drug Addiction, typically made up of a lawyer, a doctor and a social worker. The commission recommends treatment or a minor fine; otherwise, the person is sent off without any penalty. A vast majority of the time, there is no penalty.

Fourteen years after decriminalization, Portugal has not been run into the ground by a nation of drug addicts. In fact, by many measures, it's doing far better than it was before.
The greatest sin is to be unconscious. ~ Carl Jung

We may not choose the parameters of our destiny. But we give it its content. ~ Dag Hammarskjold 'Waymarks'
User avatar
Cordelia
 
Posts: 3697
Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2009 7:07 pm
Location: USA
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: The Worst Addiction Epidemic in U.S. History

Postby MacCruiskeen » Fri Mar 09, 2018 8:23 pm

Dr Gabor Maté,.who has many years of experience working closely with some of the most devastated addicts in North America, is the best writer and speaker I know of on this issue. There are several compelling talks by him on YouTube, and his book makes an unanswerable case.

Image

https://www.amazon.de/Realm-Hungry-Ghos ... 155643880X

Based on Gabor Mate's two decades of experience as a medical doctor and his groundbreaking work with the severely addicted on Vancouver's skid row, "In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts" radically reenvisions this much misunderstood field by taking a holistic approach. Dr. Mate presents addiction not as a discrete phenomenon confined to an unfortunate or weak-willed few, but as a continuum that runs throughout (and perhaps underpins) our society; not a medical "condition" distinct from the lives it affects, rather the result of a complex interplay among personal history, emotional, and neurological development, brain chemistry, and the drugs (and behaviors) of addiction. Simplifying a wide array of brain and addiction research findings from around the globe, the book avoids glib self-help remedies, instead promoting a thorough and compassionate self-understanding as the first key to healing and wellness.

"In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts "argues persuasively against contemporary health, social, and criminal justice policies toward addiction and those impacted by it. The mix of personal stories--including the author's candid discussion of his own "high-status" addictive tendencies--and science with positive solutions makes the book equally useful for lay readers and professionals.

https://www.hugendubel.de/de/taschenbuc ... Q40W42V30R
"Ich kann gar nicht so viel fressen, wie ich kotzen möchte." - Max Liebermann,, Berlin, 1933

"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts." - Richard Feynman, NYC, 1966

TESTDEMIC ➝ "CASE"DEMIC
User avatar
MacCruiskeen
 
Posts: 10558
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2006 6:47 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: The Worst Addiction Epidemic in U.S. History

Postby MacCruiskeen » Fri Mar 09, 2018 9:05 pm

And of course, follow the money:

The Spoils of War: Afghanistan’s Multibillion Dollar Heroin Trade
Washington's Hidden Agenda: Restore the Drug Trade
By Prof Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research, January 27, 2018

27.01.2018 - Afghanistan produces over 90 percent of the opium which feeds the heroin market. In turn, the US is now sending more troops to Afghanistan. Lest we forget, the surge in opium production occurred in the immediate wake of the US invasion in October 2001.

[...]

https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-spoil ... n-trade/91


Some of the world's juiciest profits are to be made by breaking people, and then by storing their broken remains:

War on Drugs: How Private Prisons are Using the Drug War to Generate More Inmates

By Robert Taylor | Dec. 5, 2012
It is customary for American politicians and the media to publicly scold and criticize other countries for their human rights abuses and authoritarianism. But more often than that, the crimes U.S. officials have committed are just as bad, if not worse, than those they are chastising. Aggressive wars, sanctions, and torture instantly come to mind, but even less discussed has been the establishment of a prison-industrial-complex in the U.S.

[...]


[T]he U.S. has the infamous distinction of having the most people behind bars, on parole, or probation. Not just per capita, but more than China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and the rest of the countries U.S. politicians like to lecture. In fact, there are more Americans locked up than the Soviets had in their gulags.

How could this be? Are Americans extraordinarily violent criminals? According to the FBI, violent crime has actually been on the decline for the last few decades.Throughout American history, the amount of prisoners per 100,000 people has remained about 100 to 110. But since 1980, the incarceration rate has nearly tripled, and is now almost 800.

Most of this increase can be traced to the federal government's misnamed "war on drugs" that was put into overdrive beginning in the Reagan administration. As the incarceration rate numbers show, it really is a war on people and has been by far the biggest reason for government encroachment on our civil liberties and the increased prison population. Combine the drug war with a merger of state and corporate power, and you have the rise of private prisons eager to profit off of caging people. [...]

https://mic.com/articles/20186/war-on-d ... .zStmWbMnc
"Ich kann gar nicht so viel fressen, wie ich kotzen möchte." - Max Liebermann,, Berlin, 1933

"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts." - Richard Feynman, NYC, 1966

TESTDEMIC ➝ "CASE"DEMIC
User avatar
MacCruiskeen
 
Posts: 10558
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2006 6:47 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: The Worst Addiction Epidemic in U.S. History

Postby Cordelia » Sun Mar 11, 2018 4:28 pm

mentalgongfu2 » Sat Feb 24, 2018 11:34 am wrote:
On the other side of things, the opiate war has made it nigh impossible for people with legitimate pain issues to access opiods through the American medical system, at least in my state.


Essay in today's WaPo addresses one such struggle:

The other opioid crisis: pain patients who can’t access the medicine we need


Changing guidelines for prescriptions have left people like me without care.

By Anne Fuqua March 9

When you hear the words “opioid crisis,” you probably think about tragic deaths from addiction. But there is another opioid crisis, one I know well: the inability of pain patients to access the medication they need to function.

I was diagnosed with primary generalized dystonia in my late teens. It’s a neurological disorder that causes involuntary movements and painful muscle spasms. I was unable to tolerate most of the medications used to treat Parkinson’s disease, which are commonly used against dystonia. The ones I could tolerate didn’t help. But for reasons doctors don’t fully understand, opioids have a dramatic effect on my symptoms. My body is not nearly as rigid and jerky. The spasms that pulled my body to the side, making it difficult to sit up straight, are gone. My fingers are no longer clenched.

But my situation has gotten more complicated. At first it was small things. In 2014, my doctor started requiring more frequent appointments to keep writing my prescriptions. I didn’t mind. Next, my doctor decided to no longer participate in my insurance. It cost me $150 out of pocket for each visit, but it was worth it to be able to continue the life I had worked so hard to build.

In 2015, the state of Alabama began sending mandatory prescription monitoring reports to physicians who prescribed patients high doses of opioids, along with a form letter encouraging doctors to carefully consider whether their patients should be receiving this dose. My doctor, who had treated me for nine years, was apologetic. I could see the sadness in his expression as he explained that he would need to reduce my dose. That first reduction was small, and I tolerated it easily. The second reduction, however, brought the return of pain and several of my dystonia symptoms, problems I had not dealt with in years. My doctor was distressed, and he decided to put me back on my original dosage.

My relief was short-lived. A few months later, my doctor chose to leave pain management. He told me he could no longer stand the paperwork and stress involved with being a pain specialist and trying to decide between protecting his ability to provide for his family and protecting his patients.

What followed was the hardest time of my entire life. I had to taper my medication while searching for a new doctor. I became completely debilitated and could barely manage on my own. Pain and spasms feed on each other, creating a vicious cycle. Moving from one chair to another was once again a very difficult task. I could no longer drive the van I had worked to purchase.


Continued..........
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/ ... 5ba514b7fa


He told me he could no longer stand the paperwork and stress involved with being a pain specialist and trying to decide between protecting his ability to provide for his family and protecting his patients


This brings to my mind the tragic trend that fewer physicians are practicing privately; many are quitting or are lured to join medical behemoths (that network outpatient care, hospitals, physical rehab ctrs., etc... and where patients are more likely to be treated by a one-size-fits-all approach) because of the increased time spent in administration, insurance demands, coding..

I’ve ‘learned’ to 'cope' with chronic years-long pain w/o rx pain killers because, I dunno, lots of reasons I guess. Last year, the doctor I saw for a routine appointment misunderstood a question I asked, and, thinking I was requesting something opioid, literally widened her eyes and began walking backwards to the door saying, “We no longer prescribe pain medications here; I’ll need to refer you to a specialist in our network.” The office has become a revolving door of doctors and I imagine, the next time I go in, she’ll no longer be there but somewhere else in their sinuous ‘system’. Which will be too bad, because I liked her.
The greatest sin is to be unconscious. ~ Carl Jung

We may not choose the parameters of our destiny. But we give it its content. ~ Dag Hammarskjold 'Waymarks'
User avatar
Cordelia
 
Posts: 3697
Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2009 7:07 pm
Location: USA
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: The Worst Addiction Epidemic in U.S. History

Postby lucky » Mon Mar 12, 2018 6:46 am

Elvis » Thu Mar 01, 2018 7:09 pm wrote:
Burnt Hill wrote:US government and Pharmaceutical industry are absolutely complicit in our addiction crisis.


More responsibility to bear, for sure.

And when unemployment rises, so does drug addiction. That's just a fact. If a government make jobs a priority, addiction is countered.

Same thing when "austerity" programs take away social and health benefits.

It's hard to ask for help if you're gonna be thrown in jail.


I remember back in the early 80's a piece of graffiti in central london that read ' Cheap heroin Maggie's answer to unemployment' One of those things i will never forget - and true.
There's holes in the sky where rain gets in
the holes are small
that's why rain is thin.
User avatar
lucky
 
Posts: 620
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2006 8:39 am
Location: Interzone
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: The Worst Addiction Epidemic in U.S. History

Postby MacCruiskeen » Mon Mar 12, 2018 11:46 am

lucky » Mon Mar 12, 2018 5:46 am wrote:
Elvis » Thu Mar 01, 2018 7:09 pm wrote:
Burnt Hill wrote:US government and Pharmaceutical industry are absolutely complicit in our addiction crisis.


More responsibility to bear, for sure.

And when unemployment rises, so does drug addiction. That's just a fact. If a government make jobs a priority, addiction is countered.

Same thing when "austerity" programs take away social and health benefits.

It's hard to ask for help if you're gonna be thrown in jail.


I remember back in the early 80's a piece of graffiti in central london that read ' Cheap heroin Maggie's answer to unemployment' One of those things i will never forget - and true.


^^Yep. Smack flooded Glasgow too at that time. Result: Practicallly overnight, thousands of teenage & older addicts appeared like mushrooms all over the council estates and in the town centre, petty & serious crime shot up, and chemists shops,(pharmacies) had to introduce iron shutters to ensure they weren't burgled or their employees held up at at knifepoint or gunpoint.

It was an epidemic, and everyone was wondering how the hell it had broken out so suddenly.
"Ich kann gar nicht so viel fressen, wie ich kotzen möchte." - Max Liebermann,, Berlin, 1933

"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts." - Richard Feynman, NYC, 1966

TESTDEMIC ➝ "CASE"DEMIC
User avatar
MacCruiskeen
 
Posts: 10558
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2006 6:47 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: The Worst Addiction Epidemic in U.S. History

Postby Cordelia » Sun Mar 25, 2018 2:04 pm

Spending a lot of money on great commercials........


He gets creepier and creepier as his second year progresses.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyrLCWVpIdM

I know Trump's advocacy for implementing punishment-by-death for some drug dealers has been much highlighted, but other promises include funding research into developing non-addictive pain killers along with.......

December 18, 2017

Opioid Abuse May Be Curbed by New Vaccine

A new vaccine technology takes a slightly roundabout path to blocking the psychoactive effects of opioids, but it could have straightforward benefits, helping prevent opioid overdoses, which kill 91 Americans every day. The technology induces antibodies to bind to opioids such as heroin to prevent them from crossing the blood–brain barrier.

This technology, which was developed by researchers with the U.S. Military HIV Research Program at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), can overcome a significant challenge to the design of a heroin vaccine. The difficulty is that heroin and its metabolites are haptens that are unable to induce antibodies by themselves

More https://www.genengnews.com/gen-news-hig ... e/81255284


The vaccine coming from military R&D at Walter Reed may make sense given that tens of thousands of vets are addicted (probably considered by the VA to be one of their few veteran benefits). Will the vaccine become part of the inoculation regime for all new recruits? Won’t that present a conflict of interest w/those in high places who benefit from the flow of narcotics by cutting their customer base? Will it be available to the public for parents to make yet another vaccine choice, in order to prevent their children from becoming junkies? Will it become mandatory for all school students? Will it require boosters? etc.....

But wait, some Opioids like...

Although the use of opioids for pain management in people suffering from addiction is of concern, researchers found that methadone, tramadol, fentanyl, sufentanil, nalbuphine, and buprenorphine did not bind to the antibodies, indicating that they could be used if acute pain treatment is required for emergency use in vaccinated patients. Researchers also found that there was no binding to the nonnarcotic pain relievers like aspirin, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen, so these would likely remain effective.


(Hope they don’t invent a caffeine vaccine before I even try to wrap my brain around some of the implications. :cofee:)
The greatest sin is to be unconscious. ~ Carl Jung

We may not choose the parameters of our destiny. But we give it its content. ~ Dag Hammarskjold 'Waymarks'
User avatar
Cordelia
 
Posts: 3697
Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2009 7:07 pm
Location: USA
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: The Worst Addiction Epidemic in U.S. History

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Apr 05, 2018 9:49 am

Group With Ties to Trump Opioid Chief Scores Big


The Trump administration has awarded $24 million in grants to a small New England nonprofit group with ties to President Donald Trump’s opioid czar — Elinore F. McCance-Katz — a WhoWhatWhy review of government documents reveals.

The American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP), based in East Providence, RI, has been awarded $12 million per year for each of the next two years — the largest government grant the AAAP has ever received, an analysis of government records shows. AAAP will be paid to distribute and monitor billions in federal funds designed to help states cope with the opioid epidemic.

The grant comes through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), an agency run by McCance-Katz. She is the AAAP’s former president, one of its 26 distinguished fellows, and is still listed as an associate editor of its house journal.

The grant also comes at a time when McCance-Katz is slashing spending to other outside providers as part of a decades-long struggle over differing approaches to mental health. The AAAP approach is the “medical model” of mental health. (See below).

In a statement sent through her agency’s spokesman, McCance-Katz rejected any suggestion that she had influenced the grant decision.

“I had no role in the selection or awarding process,” the statement read. “I went so far as to decline meeting with AAAP and other organizations that potentially could have interests pursuing the grant opportunity.”

‘American Carnage’

.

Opioid abuse and addiction have arguably become America’s worst public health crisis since the early days of the AIDS epidemic. Every day, nearly 115 people die from an overdose, according to federal statistics. Nearly 50,000 Americans died from opioid overdoses last year. That’s almost as many Americans as were killed in a decade of war in Vietnam.

opioid overdoses
Quarterly rate of suspected opioid overdoses, by US region. Photo credit: CDC / Drugabuse.gov

The opioid crisis is also an issue that the Trump administration cannot afford to mess up. The president’s “American carnage” rhetoric was aimed at the epidemic’s victims — at least one 2016 study found that Trump’s biggest support came from places most stricken by opioids.

The nomination of McCance-Katz was taken by many — including some critics — as a rare sign of seriousness by the administration.

Medical v. Recovery

.

A psychiatrist trained at the University of Connecticut and Yale, McCance-Katz has spent most of her adult life treating addiction. From 2013 to 2015, she was the first full-time chief medical officer at SAMHSA. She is now the first person ever appointed deputy secretary for mental health and substance abuse at the Department of Health and Human Services, a near-Cabinet-level job created by Congress in part to respond to the opioid crisis.

McCance-Katz has been a champion of the so-called “medical model” of mental health — where the emphasis is on medicating and even hospitalizing people with mental illness or addiction.

Her appointment raised concerns among other practitioners who support what is known as the “recovery model,” addiction treatment that emphasizes more community supports — like job-training and placement — and strengthening family ties.

McCance-Katz announced her intentions in a statement posted on SAMHSA’s website on January 11. In it, she heaped scorn on a mental health regime she claimed had been hijacked by the recovery model. She criticized “practices and programs submitted by outside developers,” that she said had created “a skewed presentation of evidence-based interventions” that “did not address the spectrum of needs of those living with serious mental illness and substance use disorders.”

Instead, her agency would redirect funds so that it could offer “targeted technical assistance and training that makes use of local and national experts and that assist programs with actually implementing services that will be essential to getting Americans living with these disorders the care and treatment and recovery services that they need.”

Elinore McCance-Katz
Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use Elinore McCance-Katz, M.D., Ph.D. Photo credit: SAMHSA

“We must do this now,” McCance-Katz said. “We must not waste time continuing a program that has had since 1997 to show its effectiveness.”

A week later, the AAAP announced that it had received the multimillion-dollar grant to “lead the coalition of national professional organizations on the front lines of the opioid crisis in a state-based effort to expand the availability of treatment for opioid use … by providing training, educational resources and clinical mentoring for healthcare providers and community health centers across the country.”

‘The Way SAMHSA Does Business’

.

McCance-Katz followed up her January statement with a blog entry posted on SAMHSA’s website in late March. In it, she announced that she was cutting contracts to technical assistance providers that had helped the agency administer grants for decades.

“Changing the way SAMHSA does business — to be less reliant on an antiquated system that has depended on external contractors — will enable the agency to realize millions of dollars in savings,” she said. “These savings will be turned back to America’s communities through the funding of more grants to implement the much-needed programs and services for those living with mental and substance use disorders.”

Within hours of the blog’s posting, dozens of companies received notice that their contracts would be terminated, one contractor told WhoWhatWhy.

The Professional Services Council, a trade association that represents government contractors, is “troubled” by McCance-Katz’s decision, council spokeswoman Ashlei Stevens said in an email statement.

Billions are flowing out of Washington in the midst of a national crisis, and the disruption caused by sudden contracting changes could “harm SAMHSA’s ability to achieve its mission outcomes, and ultimately erode needed capabilities that support the agency’s important work and the millions of American families that depend on it,” Stevens said.

‘How Do We Rebuild Lives?’

.

For communities that have been ravaged by opioids, medicine alone isn’t the answer, said Natalie Andrews — a licensed clinical social worker in rural Illinois, where opioids are now responsible for more deaths than homicides and car crashes.

“This is a public health issue. It’s a public health epidemic,” Andrews said.

Andrews has lobbied for medicinal interventions and seen them work effectively. But opioids are tearing holes in the social fabric of small towns, and kicking addiction is merely one stitch. Addicts often need job training — not to mention jobs — so it’s “not just rehabilitation and recovery” that need government focus, “it’s how do we rebuild lives?” Andrews said in an interview with WhoWhatWhy.

A Big Bet on a Small Group

.

Whatever the merits of the medical-versus-recovery argument, the new grants are a boon to the group. The $24 million in opioid grants is nearly twice the total amount of grants the group received in the previous 15 years combined, an analysis of government records reveals.

According to the academy’s most recent tax return, the group handled fewer than $2 million in federal grants in 2016, disbursing about $800,000 to other organizations. Its payroll was around $622,000 and its highest salary went to Executive Director Kathryn Cates-Wessel, who was paid nearly $186,000 in 2016.

Kathryn Cates-Wessel
Kathryn Cates-Wessel, Chief Executive Officer at American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP). Photo credit: SAMHSA / YouTube

Like McCance-Katz, Cates-Wessel lives in Rhode Island. The two also worked together on the planning committee at Brown University’s Office of Continuing Medical Education.

Cates-Wessel did not respond to requests seeking comment.

Three of the addiction academy’s four largest federal grants have been awarded while McCance-Katz was at SAMHSA, government records show.

‘No Accountability’

.

When Trump nominated McCance-Katz last year, few spoke out against her. One exception was a conservative Congressman, who might otherwise have been one of McCance-Katz’s staunchest defenders. Then-US Rep. Tim Murphy, a Republican from Pennsylvania, had co-authored the legislation that created McCance-Katz’s new job, had advocated for the medical model of mental health for years, and had been one of Trump’s most loyal backbenchers.

Yet McCance-Katz’s nomination “stunned” him, Murphy said at the time. He had seen her work in her previous government tour, as SAMHSA’s chief medical officer under President Barack Obama. During McCance-Katz’s tenure, he charged, the agency suffered from “questionable hiring practices,” and provided “no accountability for federal grants.” He even blamed McCance-Katz for the very approach she has skewered others for — “an anti-medical approach to serious mental illness and substance abuse treatment” contributing to “the continued upward rise of suicide and substance abuse deaths.”

Meanwhile, opioid casualties have continued to mount. Emergency room runs for opioid overdoses grew by 30 percent between July 2016 and September 2017, the most recent federal statistics show. The Midwest saw the biggest increase in overdoses, at 70 percent, but overdoses in big cities leapt by 54 percent over the same time, the government says.
https://whowhatwhy.org/2018/04/05/group ... cores-big/
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)

Re: The Worst Addiction Epidemic in U.S. History

Postby chump » Sun Apr 29, 2018 9:07 pm


A CNN SPECIAL REPORT: Dr. Sanjay Gupta WEED 4: Pot Vs Pills

Image



(April 18, 2018) Politicians promise to lead the country out of the worst drug crisis in its history, but opioid abuse continues to kill Americans in record numbers.  Are our leaders ignoring a lifesaving solution?  Over 115 Americans die every day from opioid overdoses, more than those killed in car accidents, from breast cancer or even guns.  Nearly 2.5 million Americans struggle with opioid addiction, and though controversial, some people believe a potentially lifesaving solution may lie in medical marijuana.  In the fourth installment of his groundbreaking series, [b]CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes an in-depth look at marijuana’s potential as both an alternative to opioids in treating pain and in ending opioid addiction.  

WEED 4: POT VERSUS PILLS will air on CNN, Sunday, April 29th at 8pm ET.
In the special, Gupta meets pioneers in the field of pain management as well as addiction research who believe that marijuana is the next best hope for treating both.  He also speaks with those who have struggled with addiction including an exclusive interview with NFL running back Mike James.  In 2013 James suffered a devastating leg injury during a Monday night football game.  He was given opioids after surgery to treat his pain, and months later he found himself addicted.  Scared and worried, his wife suggested he try marijuana, a drug that is banned by the NFL and could cost any player their careers.  Today, James is making history as the first player to file for a therapeutic use exemption for cannabis with the NFL.

Many states have begun to take steps toward cannabis as a possible alternative in stopping the opioid crisis that has crippled their areas.  Gupta visits Maine where lawmakers and residents are committed to cannabis as a way to get people off opioids.  He speaks with a woman who is opening a rehab center where she will use cannabis to wean patients off of opioids.  He also talks with several state legislators who are working to change the laws and allow those addicted to have access to medical marijuana.

As the state of Maine looks to cannabis as a possible solution, many lawmakers, as well as Attorney General Jeff Sessions, continue to fight changing the scheduling of marijuana, which would allow for further access and research.  Gupta delves into the history of how marijuana became a Schedule I drug, considered equal to heroin, LSD and ecstasy, while cocaine, methamphetamines, and many opioids including OxyContin, fentanyl, Dilaudid and Vicodin are Schedule II drugs.  He talks to several advocates and critics about research behind their positions.

http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2018/ ... -vs-pills/

User avatar
chump
 
Posts: 2261
Joined: Thu Aug 06, 2009 10:28 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: The Worst Addiction Epidemic in U.S. History

Postby Iamwhomiam » Mon Apr 30, 2018 4:31 pm

Your problem days are over, young man; we've got just the thing for you - a lifetime supply of methadone, no more nasty needles! Please pay the cashier before picking up your pick-me-ups.
$$$

Thanks ever so much for your help getting me off heroin.
User avatar
Iamwhomiam
 
Posts: 6572
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2007 2:47 am
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: The Worst Addiction Epidemic in U.S. History

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed May 02, 2018 8:26 am

What Happened to Matthew Mellon - The New York Times

April 20, 2018

Nicole Hanley and Matthew Mellon in 2014.Desiree Navarro/WireImage

Four years ago, Matthew Mellon was living in an art-filled apartment in the Pierre hotel with his young second wife, Nicole Hanley. He had three young children, the eldest of whom lives with his first wife, Tamara Mellon, a founder of Jimmy Choo.

His marriage to Ms. Hanley was breaking up by 2015. The next year, he told the New York Post he had been taking 80 OxyContin pills a day, spending $100,000 a month on the habit.

And, last weekend, Mr. Mellon traveled by private plane to Cancun, Mexico. He was going to get a “touch-up treatment” at a rehab facility he had visited earlier this year, said Mr. Mellon’s stepfather, J. Reeve Bright — and had been sober for about 70 days.

He never made it there.

“He was supposed to check in Monday morning but we received word around 9 a.m. that he has passed away,” said Dr. Alberto Solà, the medical director of Clear Sky Recovery, an ibogaine treatment center. Mr. Mellon's family is awaiting results of an autopsy and toxicology tests being conducted by the Mexican government, Mr. Bright said.
Earlier in the week, Mr. Mellon visited with his parents in Delray Beach, Fla., where he was raised. “We had dinner with him on Saturday night, a joyful dinner and a very memorable dinner, more than we realized at the time,” Mr. Bright said. “He hugged and kissed his mother and he hugged and kissed me. He said, ‘I love you, Dad,’ and I said that I loved him. And 48 hours later he was dead.”

In Search of the New

Mr. Mellon was a member of one of the country’s oldest banking families: the great-great-great grandson of Judge Thomas Mellon, the Mellon Bank patriarch. Matthew Mellon’s father, Karl N. Mellon, died in 1983 at the age of 45, by suicide.

Matthew’s last name and social connections resulted in a lot of breathless press coverage of his wealth. It's unclear how much he actually inherited or earned, and what remained after many years of substance abuse. (Dominick Dunne said that Mr. Mellon received $25 million when he turned 21.)

Mr. Mellon, who had dyslexia, attended Phelps, a boarding school outside of Philadelphia. He was raised by his mother, Anne, and Mr. Bright; they married in 1975. Mr. Mellon received a bachelor’s degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1989.

According to his first wife, Tamara Mellon, he took his first trip to rehab while still in school. After college, he tried for careers in the music and fashion industries, marrying Ms. Mellon in 2000. The two met in a 12-step program.

Ms. Mellon installed her new husband as the creative director of Jimmy Choo’s collection of men’s shoes, but their relationship was turbulent in the office and at home. In 2003, Mr. Mellon started his own shoe company, Harrys of London. “When your wife makes $100 million during the course of your marriage, it’s quite a shocker,” he told W magazine in a 2007 interview. “I felt like my masculinity had been stripped from me. I was no longer the big man in the relationship. I feel like my balls are in a jar, like a Damien Hirst artwork on the mantelpiece. And here I am, ball-less.”

The divorce was acrimonious, and Mr. Mellon was tried in a British court amid allegations he had tried to hack into his wife’s email. He was cleared of the charge. His lawyer argued in court the Mr. Mellon was too disorganized to have pulled off the crime. “His former wife spent most of her 90-minute testimony portraying Mellon, a former cocaine addict, as a loving but bumbling incompetent. She said he ‘missed planes like other people missed buses,’” the Telegraph reported at the trial’s conclusion. The exes eventually became friends.

Mr. Mellon remained interested in fashion for several years. He started another label, Degrees of Freedom, a luxury athleisure brand, with his fiancée Noelle Reno.

They never wed, but in 2010, Mr. Mellon married Ms. Hanley, herself a member of a wealthy family (her father was inducted into the Petroleum Hall of Fame in 2015). They had two children and together built a fashion line, Hanley Mellon, which was the subject of a New York Times story in 2014 that exposed the two to mockery. By 2015, the marriage was dissolving.

Mr. Mellon remained close to both his former wives. “His ex-wives are possibly even more devastated than his mother and I are,” Mr. Bright said. “We were laughing as we were looking at pictures earlier. There was a picture of Matthew standing between Tamara and Nicole and all of them are smiling. I don’t know how he did it!”

Most recently, Mr. Mellon had been spending time with Kick Kennedy, the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Ms. Kennedy, who had been working on her uncle Chris Kennedy’s bid for the Illinois governorship, declined to comment on the nature of their relationship. Mr. Mellon, once chairman of the New York Republican Party Finance Committee, donated more than $5,000 to Mr. Kennedy’s unsuccessful campaign. Mr. Mellon was also a Republican National Committee delegate for the 2012 presidential election.

The Crypto-Ambassador

Toward the end of his marriage to Ms. Hanley, he expanded his professional interests to bitcoin, the cryptocurrency.

“Matthew was very interested in the idea of the blockchain and what bitcoin could be very early on,” said David Marshack, who was an adviser to Coin.co, a bitcoin payment processor, along with Mr. Mellon. “He didn’t understand the underlying 0’s and 1’s of the technology but understood that the technology could make things cheaper, faster, more efficient.”

In 2014, Mr. Marshack and Mr. Mellon formed their own company, MellonDrexel, that allowed them to consult companies in the nascent cryptocurrency sector. Mr. Mellon was particularly taken with one of those companies, Ripple, for which he became a global ambassador, using his connections to market the company to banks and to his rich or famous friends. He took much of his compensation in its currency, called XRP.

“He risked everything on it and toward the end of last year, it exploded and made him an awful lot of money,” Mr. Marshack said. “It made a bunch of people second-guess their early criticisms. Though, to be fair, the criticisms were completely valid at the time they were made.”
In Treatment

Throughout his adult life, Mr. Mellon wrestled with drug addiction and was in and out of rehab. “Matthew has struggled,” his stepfather said, speaking of his son in the present tense. “There is no question that he has struggled. He has gone through some difficult things in his life. But he pushed and pushed and pushed himself.”

Friends described Mr. Mellon as an avid experimenter who wanted to be an early adopter of the new next thing — a good coffee, a good movie or a new apartment. That excitement, they said, may have lent itself to his addiction.

“Matthew’s head was always in the clouds,” Mr. Marshack said. “But he was warm and generous and compassionate. The thing that made him excited about everything was the same thing that got him sick. It was part of him trying to do more, see more, experience more.”
By 2016, he had become involved in the opioid-addiction treatment called ibogaine, posting from Cancun, “#ibogaine Let me know if you ever hit a wall in life and you need help I will send you here for free on me!” Ibogaine is a plant-based substance banned in the U.S. that provokes hallucinations but also, proponents say, can decrease users’ cravings and symptoms of withdrawal.

He sought treatment at Clear Sky earlier this year.

On April 8, a week before he died, a photo was posted to what appeared to be one of Mr. Mellon’s Instagram accounts. In it, he is smiling — and, according to the caption, sober.

A week later, he was on a plane headed back to Clear Sky. But upon landing in Mexico, he checked into a hotel rather than going directly to the rehab.

His stepfather cried as he discussed the man he and Mr. Mellon’s mother had raised. “When we found out he died, we sat down and we said to each other, ‘We know he is in heaven and now all of his struggles are behind him,’” he said. “He was a kind, caring, generous person. We firmly believe he is now in Heaven.”

Mr. Mellon’s family has planned a funeral service to take place next weekend at St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church in Boynton Beach, Fla.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/20/styl ... -dead.html
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)

PreviousNext

Return to General Discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 38 guests