The Wednesday Weekly - Aug. 11, 2021
Questions about the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy plan and the opioid settlement, Kathy Griffin and Lil Peep in the news, Ibogaine as therapy for addiction?, dispelling myths about sober men, reviews of Hulu’s ‘Dopesick’ and Michael Pollan’s latest book, and more
National
Warren, Blumenthal, Maloney and DeSaulnier urge DOJ to immediately appeal Purdue Pharma’s Bankruptcy Plan that would shield Sackler family from accountability for opioid crisis
If the Bankruptcy Court confirms the plan at the confirmation hearing set for next week, the Sackler family would be released from individual accountability for the opioid crisis they helped create. Victims and several state Attorneys General who want to litigate their cases against the Sacklers would be unjustly denied the opportunity to pursue their claims.
U.S. House of Representatives – Aug. 6, 2021
Consultation on increasing frontline access to drug overdose medication
The opioid antagonist naloxone could soon be made available to more health and frontline workers under new plans to tackle the record high drug-related deaths in the UK.
Medscape – Aug. 4, 2021
Endo, Arnold & Porter deny deliberately withholding opioid evidence
Endo International PLC and its law firm Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer have denied willfully withholding evidence from New York and two counties accusing the company of fueling an opioid epidemic, urging a judge to deny the state's motion for default judgment.
Reuters – Aug. 5, 2021
Time to revamp CDC’s problematic 2016 opioid Rx guideline
The AMA argues the CDC’s opioid prescription guidance has “gone astray.” According to the AMA, “opioid prescriptions have dropped more than 44% since 2011, and patients are suffering from the misapplication of the guideline, undertreatment of pain and the stigma of having pain.”
American Medical Association – Aug. 4, 2021
Kathy Griffin refuses narcotic painkillers after lung surgery: ‘I fear drugs’ more than cancer
Kathy Griffin is updating fans about her recovery from lung surgery, saying she won't take narcotic pain killers after battling a prescription pill addiction. The 60-year-old comedian, who revealed her stage 1 lung cancer diagnosis earlier this week, took to Instagram and Twitter on Wednesday to share that the surgery she underwent to remove half her left lung "was a little more than I had anticipated." "Tonight will be my first night without any narcotic pain killers," she added. "Hello Tylenol, my new best friend!"
USA Today – Aug. 4, 2021
Endo faces default over hiding ‘smoking gun’ opioid evidence (again)
A New York judge has ordered Endo International PLC and its law firm Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer to show cause why he should not enter default judgment that the drugmaker is liable for fueling an opioid epidemic, after the state accused it of withholding damning evidence.
Reuters – Aug. 3, 2021
Ibogaine: A promising psychedelic therapy for drug addiction
Although the drug can lead to some short-term effects like anxiety during or after the experienced hallucinations, it has been proposed as a potential treatment to devastating addiction problems to substances such as opioids, methamphetamine, and even cocaine, which are some of the most addictive substances.
Medium – Aug. 3, 2021
Kathy Griffin battles lung cancer, shares about dark chapter of addiction
Kathy Griffin has had quite a year navigating the darkest chapter of her life, and is now battling lung cancer. She’s used to weathering storms, including living through her fair share of controversy. By June 2020, she was in the throes of a painkiller addiction and even attempted suicide. Yet, she’s still here.
ABC News – Go.com – Aug. 2, 2021
State / Local
Press Release: New Hampshire hospital gets $1 million to expand drug use treatment
A New Hampshire hospital will use a $1 million grant to expand substance abuse prevention, treatment and recovery services in rural communities.
AP News – Aug. 8, 2021
Press Release: Indiana Governor Holcomb announces $1.3 million for naloxone distribution
Overdose Lifeline, Inc., an Indiana nonprofit will distribute 35,000 doses of naloxone to first responders, families, friends and others who are likely to be the first on the scene if someone overdoses. This is the state’s third investment in naloxone distribution since May 2020, when Holcomb announced the state would earmark $1 million for 25,000 doses of the medication amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. “Each dose of naloxone represents another life that could be saved and another opportunity to engage individuals with substance use disorder in treatment,” Gov. Eric Holcomb said in a statement Thursday.
AP News – Aug. 7, 2021
Viral video on San Diego deputy’s fentanyl exposure raises questions
Sheriff's body camera video of a deputy apparently passing out after a superior cautioned him that the drugs he had seized were "super dangerous" went viral with national news coverage Friday, but not before some experts expressed doubts about the scenario. Some experts expressed doubts about the scenario. “You can’t just touch fentanyl and overdose,” physician Ryan Marino said.
NBC News – Aug. 7, 2021
Pennsylvania’s 15th opioid disaster declaration to be the last, lawmakers say
Legislators will not extend Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s opioid disaster declaration when it expires Aug. 26, leaders from the House and Senate said Thursday. House Speaker Bryan Cutler, R-Quarryville, and Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, R-Bellefonte, sent a letter to the governor promising legislative action to further combat the ongoing opioid crisis in the state instead. They pointed to more than a dozen bills enacted since 2016 that tackle the state’s response to rising overdose deaths and made assurances about a joint "commitment to continuing our vital work in the weeks, months and year ahead."
Washington Examiner – Aug. 6, 2021
“We cannot go on in this condition” N.Y. AG tells opioid trial judge
Lawyers for New York and two counties on Friday said that there was no choice but to hold Endo International PLC liable by default of fueling an opioid epidemic after the company produced "vast troves" of late discovery during a jury trial. "We cannot go on in this condition," John Oleske of the New York Attorney General's office told Justice Jerry Garguilo at a hearing in Suffolk County, saying that the state's and counties' trial strategy could have been drastically different if they had earlier received the materials, including records of sales representatives' visits to doctors.
Reuters – Aug. 6, 2021
West Virginia lawsuit against opioid makers set for 2021 trial
A lawsuit filed by the state of West Virginia accusing several drug manufacturers of misrepresenting the risks of their painkilling drugs will go to trial next April, Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said Thursday.The Mass Litigation Panel, a group of state judges in Kanawha County, granted a motion by the state to expedite the trial, Morrisey said in a news release. The lawsuits were previously filed separately in Boone County in August 2019.
AP News – Aug. 5, 2021
Sunrise Recovery Ranch awarded $100,000 grant to help fight opioid crisis
Sunrise Recovery Ranch, one of California’s leading addiction and mental health disorder treatment facilities, has received a grant to provide treatment for lower-income individuals who have been impacted by the nation’s ongoing opioid crisis. The $100,000 MAT Access Points Project grant, which is available to Riverside County residents, is funded through the Department of Health Care Services California MAT Expansion Project and administered by The Center at Sierra Health Foundation.
AP News – Aug. 4, 2021
Lil Peep tour manager denies giving Xanax to Long Island rapper before his fentanyl death, asks to postpone trial
Lil Peep’s former tour manager is adamant she didn’t give the Long Island rapper any Xanax or fentanyl before his 2017 overdose death and says the upcoming trial over his mom’s wrongful-death lawsuit should be postponed.
NY Daily News – Aug. 4, 2021
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong commits $300 million from opioid settlement toward treatment, recovery and prevention
Attorney General William Tong doubled down on his pledge to direct Connecticut’s portion of the funds from a $26 billion settlement with the nation’s largest pharmaceutical distributors and drugmaker Johnson & Johnson toward mitigating the opioid epidemic in a letter to lawmakers Tuesday.
Yahoo News – Aug. 3, 2021
Press Release: The MolinaCares Accord donates $100,000 to the peer and family career academy in support of mental health and substance abuse programs in Arizona
The MolinaCares Accord (“MolinaCares”), in collaboration with Molina Complete Care of Arizona, has donated $100,000 to The Peer and Family Career Academy to help provide peer support specialists for those experiencing mental health or substance abuse issues.
AP – Aug. 4, 2021
Studies in the news / Research
Patients on high doses of opioid painkillers risk overdose when tapering, study finds
Researchers at the University of California, Davis, looked at a database of more than 113,000 patients prescribed higher doses of opioid painkillers between 2008 and 2019 -- an average of about 50 morphine milligram equivalents per day -- for at least a year. From there, they identified patients who had tapered their dose, which researchers defined as reducing it by at least 15% over a 60-day period. Researchers found that the group of patients who tapered experienced a 68% increase in overdoses and twice the number of mental health crises compared with patients who stayed on their normal dose of medication, according to a university news release.
The Philadelphia Inquirer – Aug. 5, 2021
George Washington University researchers to study impact of mobile health services on intravenous drug users
A team of researchers from the George Washington University (GW) has been selected as one of five groups that will participate in the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) INTEGRA study (HTPN 094), which will determine whether using mobile health units to deliver integrated health services can improve HIV and substance use outcomes among people with opioid use disorder who inject drugs. The four-year study is sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases with funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, both part of the National Institutes of Health.
GW Today – Aug. 5, 2021
Pennsylvania patients swear by cannabis as a tool to fight opioid addiction. The research still isn’t there
Pennsylvania remains an outlier in its approach. The Department of Health allows doctors to approve cannabis as a supplement to conventional opioid use disorder therapies, such as buprenorphine and methadone, which are approved by the federal government and studies have found to be highly effective. One of the main reasons the state’s former health secretary, Dr. Rachel Levine, approved opioid use disorder as a qualifying condition was so eight medical schools could study cannabis’ impact on it. The American Society of Addiction Medicine tells health care professionals not to recommend cannabis for the treatment of opioid use disorder and urges those professionals to use “great caution” when recommending it for any reason to someone who has a substance use disorder.
Spotlight PA – Aug. 5, 2021
Opinion
Four myths about sober men
One of the many reasons preventing men from engaging in addiction treatment is the stigma surrounding recovery.
Medium – August 4, 2021
Opioid peddlers get a free pass, but the fight is not over
No amount of money can bring back the half million Americans who have died as a result of the opioid epidemic. But the proposed settlements by the corporations that helped fuel the crisis make a mockery of even limited accountability. State Attorney General Bob Ferguson is right to object to any agreement that would deny justice and shortchange Washington communities ravaged by death and addiction. It may ultimately be a lost cause, but it’s a fight worth fighting.
The Seattle Times – Aug. 1, 2021
Reviews
‘Dopesick’ trailer: Michael Keaton’s Hulu limited series takes on big pharma
“Dopesick” examines how one company triggered the worst drug epidemic in American history. The series takes viewers to the epicenter of America’s struggle with opioid addiction, from the boardrooms of Big Pharma, to a distressed Virginia mining community, to the hallways of the DEA.
IMDB – Aug. 6, 2021
This is Your Mind on Plants by Michael Pollan – the trip of a lifetime
[I’m sharing this slightly dated review instead of the one from this week’s NY Times book review because this one has no pay wall to break through] This book, which concerns our species’ symbiotic entanglements with three potent plant-derived substances – opium, caffeine and mescaline – is a further development of a lifelong inquiry, which began, Pollan writes, when he took up gardening as a teenager and attempted to grow cannabis.
The Guardian – July 20, 2021
Podcasts: The Weekly Roundup
Let’s Talk Addiction and Recovery (Hazelden Betty Ford) – How faith leaders are planning to disrupt the opioid epidemic
Alongside Chris Thrasher from the Clinton Foundation, Rabbi Schusterman sits down with host William C. Moyers to discuss: How can faith leaders interrupt the opioid epidemic, where does hope come in and what does "hope" really mean?
Recovery in the Middle Ages – Nat and Mike take the week off.
Rehab Confidential – Sheila Vakharia, Deputy Director of the Department of Research and Academic Engagement of the Drug Policy Alliance.
Joe and Amy discuss with Ms. Vakharia the misunderstandings about harm reduction, whether cannabis causes violence and mental illness, why booze is overlooked as a toxic drug and the efficacy of the treatment industry.
Dopey – Dopey 315: Tom Arnold, Fame, Trauma, Crack, Meth, Rosanne, Relapse, Recovery
This week on Dopey! Comedian, actor, writer, philanthropist, producer and stand-up comic Tom Arnold is on the show to share about his lowest of lows in addiction and some of his trials and tribulations in recovery.
The Addicted Mind Podcast -- 140: Stop Hiding and Start Healing with Craig Brown
What happens when your pain is greater than your fears? Duane speaks with Recovery Pastor Craig Brown and author of the book, Stop Hiding, Start Healing.