The Wednesday Weekly Addiction + Recovery News Clips - March 13, 2024
The Wednesday Weekly is a collaboration of Sober Linings Playbook and Recovery in the Middle Ages Podcast.
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Highlights
National
Ibogaine getting renewed attention as treatment for opioid addiction | How U.S. is “sabotaging” most effective tools to treat opioid epidemic
State and Local
OR Gov. Kotex signs bill to recriminalize possession of drugs | Advocates raise concerns about Kentucky House Bill 5 and criminalization of addiction
Studies/Research in the News
Addictive, long acting opioids can be avoided after knee replacement | Does gut biome contribute to alcohol addiction?
Opinion
NY Times’ Nicholas Kristoff audio essay on a treatment program with promise | Support for the federal Alternatives to Prevent Addiction in the Nation (Alternatives to PAIN) Act
Books and Movies
Former NBA star Rex Chapman’s addiction memoir written for his kids | Mass. Doctor hopes son’s story can help others
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National State/Local Studies/Research Opinion Reviews Comments
National
Single dose of LSD provides immediate, lasting anxiety relief, study says
A clinical trial’s encouraging results won US Food and Drug Administration breakthrough therapy status for an LSD formulation to treat generalized anxiety disorder, Mind Medicine Inc. announced Thursday. The biopharmaceutical company is developing the drug.
CNN - March 7, 2024
Tarpon hunting gives solace to recovering addict
Hours wrestling a 200-pound tarpon isn’t everyone’s idea of peace, but it is Jill Sanders’. Because when you’re a recovering addict, keeping busy helps. “I don’t have any bad things going on in my life right now, but I want to always reflect on the past and when I do that I get into a dark place and fishing brings me out of it,” Sanders said.
WINK - March 7, 2024
How Hunter Biden's sobriety is linked to Joe Biden's presidential campaign
The public nature of his struggle, and its potential fallout, present valuable opportunities for us all to understand the strife of addiction that so many in this country face. Shame is commonly understood today as contributing to addiction. But shame is also a powerful driver of recovery. If we didn’t feel shame for certain behaviors, we wouldn’t be motivated to change them. Shame can help propel us into recovery, and avoiding the larger shame of relapse can sometimes help keep us there.
MSNBC - March 6, 2024
Powerful Psychedelic Gains Renewed Attention as a Treatment for Opioid Addiction
New research is stirring interest in ibogaine, which appears to help ease the agony of detox and prevent relapse. Used in other countries, it remains illegal in the U.S. scientists who have studied ibogaine have reported startling findings. According to a number of small studies, between a third and two-thirds of the people who were addicted to opioids or crack cocaine and were treated with the compound in a therapeutic setting were effectively cured of their habits, many after just a single session.
New York Times - March 5, 2024
U.S. sidelines methadone and buprenorphine despite opioid crisis: How the U.S. is sabotaging its best tools to prevent deaths in the opioid epidemic (Part I of the STAT investigative series “The War on Recovery”)
The U.S. has the tools that are highly effective at preventing overdose deaths: methadone and buprenorphine. These medicines are cheap and easy to distribute. People who take them use illicit drugs at far lower rates, and are at far lower risk of overdose or death. But a yearlong investigation by STAT shows that virtually every sector of American society is obstructing the use of medications that could prevent tens of thousands of deaths each year. Increasingly, public health experts and even government officials cast the country’s singular failure to prevent overdose deaths not as an unavoidable tragedy but as a conscious choice.
STAT - March 5, 2024
What to Know About Ibogaine, a Psychedelic
A naturally occurring psychoactive compound, ibogaine comes from the iboga tree, a rainforest shrub native to Central Africa. Some researchers hope the drug, still illegal in the United States, may be considered as a treatment for addiction, PTSD and brain injuries.
New York Times - March 5, 2024
Can weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy treat alcohol addiction?
Doctors are seeing a surprising possible side effect of weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy: a diminished craving for alcohol. Janet Shamlian reports.
CBS - March 4, 2024
Overcoming poverty and addiction, he passed the bar exam. Then his prescription got in the way.
Experts say discrimination against people who use medication to treat their opioid use disorder is rampant. The Justice Department is trying to change that. Though it’s not well known, the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination against people with substance use disorder. Those protections extend to people who use what are known as medications for opioid use disorder, or MOUD, which include buprenorphine and methadone.
NBC - March 2, 2024
National State and Local Studies in the News Opinion Reviews Comments
State / Local
Oregon: Gov. Kotek signing expansive drug addiction bill while reviewing other proposals
Gov. Tina Kotek said she plans to sign the centerpiece bill that lawmakers passed in response to the state’s soaring drug addiction and fentanyl overdoses. House Bill 4002, a compromise proposal that won bipartisan support, will recriminalize possession of small amounts of hard drugs, reversing part of Measure 110, which voters approved in 2020. The bill has provisions to offer drug users multiple opportunities to enter treatment after an encounter with a police officer.
Oregon Capital Chronicle - March 8, 2024
California: The Salvation Army's Culinary Training Academy helps aspiring San Francisco chefs to overcome homelessness, addiction
The Salvation Army's Culinary Training Academy hosted its first tasting event to highlight the talent of aspiring chefs. It's part of a program designed to help people struggling with addiction and homelessness."From knife training to life coaching, we're helping them in all facets of their life," Chef Timothy Tucker said.
ABC 7 - March 7, 2024
Oregon Legislature allocates millions for adult addiction, stumbles on funding for children
Oregon lawmakers failed to put nearly $18 million into school-based health centers that provide drug and mental health counseling among other services. Children’s health advocates and lawmakers were confident the Legislature would support the expansion of school-based health centers this year after legislative leaders declared that fighting the fentanyl addiction crisis was a priority this session.
Oregon Capital Chronicle - March 7, 2024
West Virginia: A story of addiction and drug trafficking
The first day of testimony in the alleged drug-related murder of Matt Moore in Monongalia County told a story of addiction and escalating tensions that resulted in the May 2022 shooting on Round Bottom Road.
West Virginia Metro News - March 6, 2024
Mississippi: She overcame trauma and addiction but still went to prison
Georgia Sloan lived half her life in trauma and abuse when she started using drugs. At age 31 she stopped, setting her on a course for a new life. In December, the 34-year-old was called back to court on an old drug charge, and Sloan hoped the judge overseeing her 2022 drug sale case would see that she was a changed woman. The answer was no. Lowndes Circuit Court Judge James “Jim” Kitchens opted for the maximum eight-year sentence with four years to serve and four years suspended.
Mississippi Today - March 6, 2024
Kentucky: Addiction recovery advocate shares concern over House Bill 5
“Incarceration is not going to work to fix the addiction problem in Kentucky,” said John Bowman/, the Kentucky Senior Campaign Organizer at dream.org. Bowman’s concern is, with the way the bill is written now, that people possessing and using drugs, like fentanyl, will be charged with Class B felonies. He fears they’ll be locked up for years, with no treatment, and the cycle of addiction and incarceration will continue.“The bill is going to round up people who are in the throws of addiction, people just trying to feed their addiction, and not the high level distributors and traffickers they want to get with the bill.”
WKYT - March 1, 2024
National State/Local Studies/Research Opinion Reviews Comments
Studies/Research in the News
Addictive, long-acting opioids can be avoided after knee replacement
It's well known that long-acting opioid meds raise the odds for addiction in users -- including folks dealing with pain after an orthopedic surgery. Now, new research suggests that patients fare just as well if doctors prescribe less risky immediate-release opioids following a knee replacement surgery. "If you can move from long-acting to immediate-release opioids without increased pain or other adverse effects, that's a win," said study co-author Judith Barberio, a clinical associate professor with Rutgers School of Nursing in New Jersey.
UPI - March 8, 2024
Could the gut give rise to alcohol addiction?
Microorganisms in the gut might make a person more vulnerable to substance-use disorders. Andrew Day, a molecular microbiologist at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, is four years sober. His journey to this point inspires his work, which he hopes might help others who are struggling with alcohol. Over the past decade, research has begun to highlight a link between the gastrointestinal microbiome — the microorganisms that live inside our digestive tract — and addiction.
Nature - March 7, 2024
National State/Local Studies/Research Opinion Reviews Comments
Opinion
Kansas physician backs Alternatives to PAIN Act to end opioid addiction
The FDA is on the verge of approving a non-addictive, non-opioid medication(s) for acute pain management. This could be a defining moment in our struggle against the opioid crisis, providing patients a chance to heal without the fear of addiction. But for this promising breakthrough to assist all who need it, it requires legislative support and public awareness. At the federal level, the Alternatives to Prevent Addiction in the Nation Act (Alternatives to PAIN Act) represents a bipartisan commitment to make non-opioid pain treatments accessible and affordable for the 65 million seniors who depend on Medicare, the federally run health care program.
Topeka Capital-Journal - March 8, 2024
State Senator Ginny Lyons: Vermont has drug problems
Has anyone not heard about drug addiction problems in Vermont? About substance use in municipalities and neighborhoods? Overdose deaths in Vermont in 2021 totaled 217. In 2022 the final count of deaths from overdose is predicted to be over 243. These are preventable deaths, and this is an unacceptable trajectory. We will complete legislative work on S.186 and H.72 in the next few weeks. H.72 will allow for the establishment of a safe haven for those with addiction at overdose protection centers. They have been called safe injection sites or harm reduction centers and they can help save lives. S.186 would establish a system of recovery. The bill helps coordinate recovery residences of different levels for patients in recovery.
Vermont Community Newspaper Group - March 7, 20224
Answer to America’s Addiction Crisis Could Come Out of Tulsa
Nicholas Kristof has spent a lot of time reporting on addiction. “My own community in Oregon has suffered a great deal from it. I’ve lost a lot of friends to it,” he says. In a recent trip to Tulsa, Okla., Kristof visited Women in Recovery, an addiction treatment program showing what’s possible. In this audio essay, he introduces us to a program graduate, Katelyn Fullbright, who struggled with cocaine and meth addiction but now holds a full-time job she enjoys.
New York Times - March 6, 2024
National State/Local Studies/Research Opinion Reviews Comments
Books and Movies
This Mass. doctor hopes his son’s addiction story can help others
Dr. James Baker's new book, "This Monstrous Obsession: Hard Lessons Learned About Addiction," tells the story of his son's opioid addiction and eventual overdose death.
Mass Live - March 7, 2024
Rex Chapman's book on drug addiction battle written for his kids
Rex Chapman battled a drug addition that he chronicles in his newly released memoir, “It’s Hard for Me to Live with Me.” Chapman, who has spoken openly about his addiction challenges for the past decade, teamed with sportswriter Seth Davis to tell his story to the public at a broader scale. He told Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta on Wednesday that his drive was to reach his children and those close to him — people he disappointed. Chapman was arrested in 2014 for shoplifting from an Apple Store in Arizona, and that was the turning point for him to seek further help.
Arizona Sports - March 6, 2024
National State/Local Studies/Research Opinion Reviews Podcasts Comments