High Truths on Drugs and Addiction (Dr. Roneet Lev)

For more information visit: HighTruths.Com

Welcome to High Truths on Drugs and Addiction.

In this introductory episode Dr. Lev gives an overview of High Truths, a new – fact filled – informative – podcast.

I am your host, Dr. Roneet Lev, an emergency and addiction doctor who has served at the White House and still practices on the front lines.

Every Monday staring January 2021 we will bring you unique episodes with nationally renowned experts to answer a question from you – our listeners

On High Truths we will answer questions such as is there enough marijuana research? 

A toxicologist will answer what is scromiting?

And join me as I takes a field trip to a marijuana dispensary for the first time. Would you want me to be your emergency doctor after using those products?

Come visit us on High Truths.com to submit a question, challenge yourself with a quiz, or download a free prescription for naloxone. 

How common is addiction? According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health 165 million people – or over 60% of Americans age 12 and older have used some type of addictive substance in the past month – substances such as any illegal drug along with alcohol, tobacco and kratom. The top three drugs were alcohol, tobacco and marijuana – in that order.

We will be talking about all types of drugs -opioids – including prescriptions, heroin and fentanyl; Non opioid prescriptions that can be abused such as benzodiazepines and sleep aids; stimulants and marijuana.

I want YOU decipher fact from fiction and come to your own conclusions about drug use.

Who should listen to High Truths? 

• Health policy professionals will be interested in a broad education from the various experts who talk on High Truths. 

• Medical professionals will be listening to learn science and evidence-based medicine as well as hear from patient experiences. We have an amazing line up of experts. 

• Parents will be listening to learn about what to say to their kids. Should parents be honest with their experimentation with drugs when they were young? How early should you talk to kids about drugs?

• Young Adults may listen to decide if experimenting with drugs is worth the risk.

• Seniors may be wondering if drugs such as marijuana and CBD are a good health choice. 

• People who use drugs will enjoy High Truths and find hope and strength to overcome their chronic relapsing brain disorder and get treatment from compassionate providers and without stigma.

My personal Mission

The mission of High Truths is to unite medical health, mental health and addiction. I aim to practice good medicine in the hospital and promote smart health policy for our nation.

I am an emergency and addiction physician who continues to practice medicine.  I started with advocating for my community in San Diego, to helping communities across our country.  I thought – if only I can get to Washington – I can fix the drug problem.

They say be careful what you wish for.

I became the first chief medical officer for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.  And… spoiler alert …  while I am proud of my achievements at ONDCP, I definitely fell short of the lofty goals of fixing the problems with drugs.  Along the way I learned how things work inside t...

A Kaiser doctor gives a marijuana “medical prescription” to a young man with history of depression and PTSD. As a drugged driver he kills 1 person and injures 5 others. Is the doctor liable? The courts dismissed the case and the poor young man ended his life in suicide. 

Edward Wood

Ed Wood founded DUID Victim Voices after the death of his 33-year old son Brian at the hands of two drug impaired drivers on marijuana, methamphetamine and heroin.  He has a B.S. in Chemistry from Harvey Mudd College and an MBA from University of Colorado and became the founding CEO of COBE BCT.   Mr. Wood has worked with victims, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, clinicians, drug recognition experts, law enforcement officers, toxicologists, legislators, state officials, and an international list of researchers and other specialists in his quest to increase public knowledge about DUID.  Mr. Wood has four peer-reviewed publications and wrote the 2017 law requiring Colorado to begin collecting and reporting data on drug-impaired driving.

www.duidvictimvoices.org

Don’t get behind the wheel of a car after ½ – 1 joint of 10 mg edible. 

• Myth – Marijuana does not impairs driving ability.

Marijuana’s ∆9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) impairs driving skills in a dose-related manner.  The more one consumes, the greater the effect.

THC causes a decline in motor performance resulting in delayed reaction times and a reduced ability to stay in one’s own driving lane.  Cognitive functions decline which reduces one’s ability to maintain sustained attention to driving conditions, leads to poor decision-making, impulse control and memory.^[i],[ii]

The adverse effects of THC on driving safety have been proven with controlled laboratory experiments^[iii], driving simulators^[iv],[v] and real-world driving experiments^[vi].

• Myth – Driving under the influence of marijuana is safe because drivers go more slowly and avoid risky situations.

This myth is supported by a scene from Cheech and Chong’s movie “Up in Smoke,’ but little else.  Subjects in some driving simulator studies were fairly self-aware of their impairment smoking marijuana and drove more slowly.  But those users were much less successful in compensating for their impairment under emergency driving conditions.  Researchers concluded that simulator studies were only able to show how marijuana users were able to drive after using the drug, rather than how they actually drove in the real world^[vii].

Both the California State Patrol and the Colorado State Patrol have reported that speeding, not slow driving, was the most common reason for stopping a driver who was ultimately arrested for driving under the influence of marijuana.

• Myth – Stoned driving is safer than drunk driving.

Statistically this is true, but statistics are of no consolation to a parent who had lost a child due to driving under the influence of marijuana.

Multiple epidemiological studies have determined the relative risk or Odds Ratio (OR) of fatal crashes after using alcohol, marijuana, or a combination of both.  Of those three conditions, the risk of a fatal crash is highest for drivers using a combination of alcohol and marijuana and the lowest for marijuana alone.  The wide range of results seen from similar studies by different researchers speaks to the difficulty of conducting such studies reliably.  Yet they all find that marijuana alone increases the risk...

What is scomiting? Dr. Jeff LaPoint explains scomiting, also known as cannabis hyperemesis syndrome. LaPoint is an emergency physician and toxicologist. He practices at Kaiser Hospital in San Diego and is the Director of the Division of Medical Toxicology. He extensive publications on Cannabis Hyperemesis Syndrome in peer reviewed research and medical textbooks. 

LaPoint went to medical school at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona and is emergency medicine training at Upstate University Hospital.  He trained as a fellow at the New York Poison Control Center at Bellevue Hospital. 

Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome: Public Health Implications and a Novel Model Treatment Guideline. Western Journal of Emergency Medicine. 2018.

It can be confusing…. parents tell kids not to use drugs, but we also teach that we should not stigmatize drugs… are sending mixed messages? Listen to the discussion between Dr. Lev and Harvard Professor and former ONDCP Deputy Director Dr. Bertha Madras, expert in the addicted brain.

 

About Dr. Bertha Madras

Current position. Professor of Psychobiology, Harvard Medical School (34 years) with office based at McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA; cross-appointment at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Educated at McGill University, Montreal with post-doctoral fellowships, MIT, Cambridge, MA. 

Translational Research. Addictive and therapeutic drugs: behavioral, molecular responses. Drug discovery: Novel brain probes, candidate therapeutics for neuropsychiatric disorders. Drug Policy

Authorship.  Author of over 200 scientific manuscripts, articles, book chapters, co-editor of books “The Cell Biology of Addiction”, “Effects of Drug Abuse on the Human Nervous System”, “Imaging of the Human Brain in Health and Disease”  

Inventions.  19 U.S. and 27 international issued patents, with collaborators 

Government service and public policy. Numerous NIH committees and other advisory boards 

• White House, 2006-2008: Deputy Director for Demand Reduction in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), Executive Office of the President, a presidential appointment confirmed unanimously (99-0) by U.S. Senate 
• White House, 2017:  Appointed by the President, as one of six members of the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis (Governors C. Christie, C. Baker, R. Cooper, Cong. P. Kennedy, AG P. Bondi). At request of Commission Chair Gov. Christie, she shepherded and wrote major portions of the final Commission report 
• World Health Organization: Sole author of a commissioned report, “Update of Cannabis and its Medical Use”; co-author of “The Health and Social Effects of Nonmedical Cannabis Use”
• U.S. Department of Justice: Sole expert witness for the U.S. Dept. of Justice in a landmark CA Federal Court decision on marijuana re-, or de-scheduling, which sustained DoJ position
• Vatican Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Narcotics Panel: Co-author and edited final statement 
• National Academy of Medicine: Current member, National Academy of Medicine Collaborative on the Opioid Crisis

Educator, Public Service 

• Course: Developed the first course (ABS elective) on addictions at Harvard Medical School
• Course: Developed first NIDA-sponsored international course on “Cell Biology of Addiction” at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory 
• Museum exhibition: Project Director, PI of NIDA-sponsored grant for exhibit, CD, play at Museum of Science, Boston “Changing your Mind: Drugs in the Brain”. Disney Corp. licensed the CD.
• Presentations: More than 750 public and professional presentations nationally, globally

Recognition

• Research Awards: NIH MERIT award, CPDD Innovator Award, Fishman Award, McLean Mendelson award, The Better World Report cited her brain imaging invention as “one of 25 technology transfer innovations (university to industry) that changed the world” 
• Public Service Awards: NIDA, CADCA, CPDD, Sweden, American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry Founders’ Award, others

Her expe...

Robert L. DuPont, MD

For 50 years, Robert L. DuPont, MD has been a leader in drug abuse prevention and treatment. He was the first Director of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (1973-1978) and the second White House Drug Chief (1973-1977). From 1968-1970 he was Director of Community Services for the District of Columbia Department of Corrections. From 1970-1973, he served as Administrator of the District of Columbia Narcotics Treatment Administration. In 1978 he became the founding President of the Institute for Behavior and Health, Inc., a non-profit research and policy organization that identifies and promotes powerful new ideas to reduce drug use and addiction. A graduate of Emory University, Dr. DuPont received an MD degree in 1963 from the Harvard Medical School. He completed his psychiatric training at Harvard and the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. DuPont maintains an active practice of psychiatry specializing in addiction and the anxiety disorders and has been Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Georgetown University School of Medicine since 1980. 

He is the author of Chemical Slavery: Understanding Addiction and Stopping the Drug Epidemic published in 2018.  

For more about Dr. DuPont’s work and the Institute for Behavior and Health, Inc. visit www.IBHinc.org, www.StopDruggedDriving.org, and www.OneChoicePrevention.org. 

CRISIS – watch trailer

NICHOLAS JARECKI (Director/Producer/Screenwriter) is a best-selling author, screenwriter and award-winning director who has produced five films. Crisis is his second picture as writer/director. His last movie, Arbitrage, was made for $13 million and went on to gross over $52 million in international theatrical and simultaneous video on demand rentals, making it the highest grossing ‘‘Day and Date’’ independent film in cinema history. Arbitrage received many

accolades and earned a “Best Actor” nomination for its star Richard Gere at the Golden Globes®. The National Board of Review named it one of its Top 10 Independent Films of 2012.

At 16 Jarecki was hired as a technical consultant on the 1995 film Hackers, where his job was to consult with the actors and director about computer hacking. Jarecki took an interest in filmmaking on the set of Hackers, recalling, “I kept noticing that there was this guy that the actors seemed to really look up to and respect, so I asked, ‘Who’s that?’ and they told me he was the director. Then I knew it was clear what I wanted to do.” 

At 19 Jarecki graduated from New York University and went on to try directing music videos to get noticed in the film community. After no one expressed interest in his video services he decided to interview his favorite directors to see how they got their start. A literary agent introduced by a family friend liked the idea and got Jarecki a $50,000 advance from Doubleday to write the 2001 book Breaking In: How 20 Film Directors Got Their Start. 

CRISIS – ON DIGITAL AND ON DEMAND MARCH 5th 

“Intense and timely… with exceptional performances, fine storytelling, and master craftsmanship.” – Marc Malkin, Variety

“Riveting, gripping, and provocative! A terrific thriller with superb performances across the board.” – Scott Mantz, KTLA-TV”

SYNOPSIS

“A multilayered dramatic thriller that tackles every vicious part of the opioid emergency. Gary Oldman, Armie Hammer, and Evangeline Lilly deliver urgent, powerful turns in this finely crafted film that is impressively up-to-the-minute.” – Joe Neumaier, WOR New York

A drug trafficker arranges a multi-cartel Fentanyl smuggling operation. An architect recovering from an oxycodone addiction tracks down the truth behind her son’s disappearance. A university professor battles unexpected revelations about his employer, a pharmaceutical company bringing a new “non-addictive” painkiller to market. Set...

Dr. Joy Wanner-Sweeney

Deputy Director, Training, TA, and Outreach

Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA)

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION:

Dr. Joy Wanner-Sweeney serves as the deputy director of the Training, Technical Assistance, and Outreach Department at CADCA where she oversees, directs, supervises and monitors quality standards for the daily operations of CADCA’s training programs to develop community coalitions in the United States.  During her years of service at CADCA, she is responsible for the development, administration, and implementation of CADCA’s training delivery systems, coalition development, and outreach throughout the United States.  Her work contributes to the support of over 5000 community coalitions in all 50 states and US territories with the active participation of more than 15,000 trained volunteers.  Dr. Sweeney also serves CADCA as the Opioid Response Network liaison for training, workforce development, and unique population education.   

Prior to joining the CADCA staff, Dr. Sweeney served as the CEO/Executive Director of the Council for Drug Free Youth (CDFY) which served seven counties throughout central Missouri.  She also served as the chairperson of the statewide organization that provides education regarding the unintended consequences of marijuana legalization, the treasurer of Tobacco Free Missouri, Capital Region Medical Center Board of Governors, as well as several other boards.  Joy was elected and served on the Jefferson City Public School Board, including one year as President.  She also owned and operated a small business for over twenty years.  Dr. Sweeney has presented at conferences throughout the nation on drug prevention, addiction, mental health, and the societal impact of substance misuse, including alcohol, tobacco, opioids, and marijuana.  Prior to her public health career on substance use and misuse, she earned a Doctoral degree in Organization Management from Capella University an MBA from American Intercontinental University and an Undergraduate degree in Business Administration.

CADCA is a nonprofit organization that is committed to creating safe, healthy and drug-free communities globally. 

CADCA 20^th Annual Mid-Year Training Institute

Countdown to Mid-Year, Virtual

July 11 – 15, 2021 

Enjoy world renowned prevention training!

Tobacco prevention has a proven public health strategy called also known as the “Vaccine”. It includes (1) Price increases (2) Smoke Free Policies (3) Media Campaigns, and (4) Cessation Access. Learn more from CADCA’s expert Andrew Romero.

ANDREW ROMERO, M.ED.

Director, GHEA (Geographic Health Equity Alliance)

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION:

Andrew Romero is the Director of the Geographic Health Equity Alliance (GHEA) at CADCA, a CDC funded National Network which works closely with state Departments of Health to reduce tobacco- and cancer-related health inequities. In this role, Andrew’s work is focused around preventing tobacco and e-cigarette use in Southeastern and Midwestern states, as well as in rural communities across the US. Prior to leading GHEA, he served as Director of Health Policy at the Florida Department of Health in Alachua County, where he led a team with a long list of Policy, Systems, and Environmental (PSE) Change accomplishments. In both his professional and volunteer life, Andrew is passionate about giving others the tools to do their very best work. After serving as an executive of a young professional leadership and advocacy non-profit for 7 years, he likes to volunteer his time as a mentor, helping other non-profits improve through better management and leadership practices. He also currently serves as the Vice-Chair of the City of Alexandria Public Health Advisory Commission.

CADCA represent over 5,000 community coalitions that involve individuals from key sectors including schools, law enforcement, youth, parents, healthcare, media and more. CADCA has members in every US state and territory and in more than 30 countries around the world. The CADCA coalition model emphasizes the power of community coalitions to prevent substance misuse through collaborative community efforts. 

Alcohol is part of the culture in Latin America, but the countries suffer harm due to alcohol. CADCA works with Peru, Brazil, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic to prevent alcohol addiction and subsequent health effects. The pandemic has increased alcohol access and use in Latin Youth. Learn about CADCA’s effort with expert Eric Siervo.

ERIC SIERVO, M.ED.

Vice President, International Programs

Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA)

Siervo serves as the vice president of the International Department at CADCA where he oversees, directs, supervises and monitors quality standards for the daily operations of CADCA’s training programs to develop community coalitions in foreign countries.  During his 13 years of service at CADCA,  he has been responsible for the development, administration, and implementation of CADCA’s international training delivery systems and international operations leading to the establishment of over 300 community coalitions in 28 countries on 5 continents in 7 languages with the active participation of more than 11,500 trained volunteers.  Mr. Siervo is also CADCA’s main point of contact for national governments, state department personnel, international governmental and non-governmental organizations. 

Prior to joining the CADCA staff, Mr. Siervo served as a board member for the National Capital Coalition to Prevent Underage Drinking (NCCPUD) and was a volunteer member of the D.C. Tobacco Coalition in the District of Columbia. He also served the National Latino Council on Alcohol and Tobacco Prevention (LCAT) in the capacity of Program Director. Prior to his public health career on substance use and misuse, he earned a Master’s degree in International Education from Framingham State University and a Undergraduate degree in International Relations with a Minor in Business from the University of Mobile.

CADCA represent over 5,000 community coalitions that involve individuals from key sectors including schools, law enforcement, youth, parents, healthcare, media and more. CADCA has members in every US state and territory and in more than 30 countries around the world. The CADCA coalition model emphasizes the power of community coalitions to prevent substance misuse through collaborative community efforts. 

Some people say that it is inevitable that kids use drugs. They are wrong. Be inspired by Rebekah Jin and learn from Angela Ampomah how nation wide youth are taught resiliency and making good choices about drugs.

Angela Ampomah, MPH is currently the Youth Leadership Associate and is responsible for interacting with youth in managing and developing CADCA’s youth trainers to ensure efficiency from the initial planning to onsite implementation of training. Angela has her Master of Public Health degree with a concentration in public policy. Angela has over 3 years of experience working with AmeriCorps as a Corps Member. She assisted with early literacy initiatives with children in Jamaica Queens, NY. She graduated from St. John’s University with a B.A in Sociology and a minor in Psychology. While in NY, she volunteered at the Grand Central Food Program, Coalition for The Homeless for the duration of her undergraduate career. She is involved in youth public health initiatives back in her native country of Accra, Ghana where she educates and empowers them to grow their communities to become a safe place to live and grow in.

http://youth.cadca.org

 

Rebekah Jin is a Chicago native and will be a senior at Adlai E. Stevenson High School this fall. Rebekah has been involved in substance abuse prevention work since middle school, and has since been a four year member of her coalition. Her freshman year of high school, she began working on marijuana policy with other members of her coalition where they presented their work at press conferences in Chicago and Springfield, Illinois. For two years, Rebekah presented and spoke on the harmful implications of marijuana usage to groups such as youth, law enforcement, lawmakers, village boards, and others in the Chicagoland area. As the topic of recreational marijuana legalization became a priority for Illinois legislators, Rebekah continued to educate people on marijuana’s harmful implications towards the youth in her state. In 2019, Rebekah served as a leader for events such as youth conferences, summits, and lobbying in Springfield, IL, Illinois. This past year, Rebekah was a director of over forty of her coalition’s middle school members. The group this year has spread awareness of substance abuse at middle schools through postcards, focus groups, health class presentations, and a Red Ribbon Week campaign. Rebekah will be the Vice President of her coalition’s high school club, Catalyst, this fall and is involved in other activities at Stevenson such as varsity field hockey, the Freshman Mentor Program, National Honor Society, and Spanish Honor Society.

CADCA

CADCA represent over 5,000 community coalitions that involve individuals from key sectors including schools, law enforcement, youth, parents, healthcare, media and more. CADCA has members in every US state and territory and in more than 30 countries around the world. The CADCA coalition model emphasizes the power of community coalitions to prevent substance misuse through collaborative community efforts. 

Alcohol Use Disorder remains the largest cause of substance use disorder in our country. Sadly, the COVID pandemic has exacerbated the problem. There are science based dietary guidelines for alcohol consumption with definitions on how much is one drink. Test yourself to find out if you are a High Risk drinker by using the ReThinking Drinking calculators. Listen to Dr. George Koob, the leading scientist in the world on alcohol as he explains the pandemic effects on alcoholism as well as innovative solutions.

George F. Koob, Ph.D., is an internationally-recognized expert on alcohol and stress, and the neurobiology of alcohol and drug addiction. He is the Director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), where he provides leadership in the national effort to reduce the public health burden associated with alcohol misuse. As NIAAA Director, Dr. Koob oversees a broad portfolio of alcohol research ranging from basic science to epidemiology, diagnostics, prevention, and treatment.

Dr. Koob earned his doctorate in Behavioral Physiology from Johns Hopkins University in 1972. Prior to taking the helm at NIAAA, he served as Professor and Chair of the Scripps’ Committee on the Neurobiology of Addictive Disorders and Director of the Alcohol Research Center at the Scripps Research Institute. Early in his career, Dr. Koob conducted research in the Department of Neurophysiology at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and in the Arthur Vining Davis Center for Behavioral Neurobiology at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. He was a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Experimental Psychology and the MRC Neuropharmacology Unit at the University of Cambridge.

Dr. Koob began his career investigating the neurobiology of emotion, particularly how the brain processes reward and stress. He subsequently applied basic research on emotions, including on the anatomical and neurochemical underpinnings of emotional function, to alcohol and drug addiction, significantly broadening knowledge of the adaptations within reward and stress neurocircuits that lead to addiction. This work has advanced our understanding of the physiological effects of alcohol and other substance use and why some people transition from use to misuse to addiction, while others do not. Dr. Koob has authored more than 650 peer-reviewed scientific papers and is a co-author of The Neurobiology of Addiction, a comprehensive textbook reviewing the most critical neurobiology of addiction research conducted over the past 50 years.

Dr. Koob is the recipient of many prestigious honors and awards for his research, mentorship, and international scientific collaboration. In 2018 Dr. Koob received the E.M. Jellinek Memorial Award for his outstanding contributions to understanding the behavioral course of addiction. In 2017 Dr. Koob was elected to the National Academy of Medicine(NAM).  In 2016 the government of France awarded Dr. Koob with the insignia of Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honor) for developing scientific collaborations between France and the United States.   [View the video: World-class scientist Dr Koob receives t...

ONDCP Director Carroll discusses the issues of addiction.

For more information visit: Hightruths.com

James “Jim” Carroll

Director, White House Office of National Drug Control Policy

The Honorable James W. “Jim” Carroll was sworn in as the Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) on January 31, 2019 following a unanimous confirmation by the United States Senate. Mr. Carroll previously served as the Acting Director and Deputy Director of ONDCP from February 2018 to January 2019. His strategic vision for the organization is best summarized in two words: “Be Relentless.” It’s the advice President Trump gave Director Carroll when he nominated him to lead ONDCP, and the North Star that drives his vision in support of the organization’s mission to stop the flow of illegal drugs in the United States and connect those suffering from substance use disorder with the tools they need to be put on the path to recovery.

Under the leadership of President Trump and Director Carroll, the United States saw its first annual decrease in overdose deaths for the first time in 30 years; the amount of drugs seized by law enforcement at our Nation’s borders stands at all-time highs; and record Federal grants have been awarded in support of drug interdiction and public health programs.

In his role as “Drug Czar,” Director Carroll serves as the principal advisor to the President of the United States on drug policy and oversees a passionate staff of approximately 100 professionals. He oversees a budget of more than $35 billion and coordinates the activities and related funding of sixteen Federal government agencies and departments to reduce the supply of and demand for illicit substances.

Prior to joining the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Director Carroll served as Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff at the White House. Previously in the Administration, Mr. Carroll served as General Counsel of the Office of Management and Budget and as Deputy Assistant and Senior Counsel to the President. Before joining the Trump Administration, Mr. Carroll served as Washington Counsel at the Ford Motor Company and as General Counsel of the Ford Motor Company Fund, the company’s philanthropic arm that supports non-profit organizations and initiatives.

This is Director Carroll’s second time serving the American people in support of the President of the United States. During the George W. Bush Administration, Mr. Carroll held several positions including Special Assistant and Associate Counsel to the President at the White House, Deputy General Counsel and Acting General Counsel at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and as an attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice. Mr. Carroll began his career as a state prosecutor in Virginia after earning his bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and his J.D. from the George Mason University School of Law.

Overdose deaths are escalating in the United States as our country is under attacked by illicit fentanyl. How do we get to the source of the killer drugs and prevent the devastation?

James Rauh is the founder of Families Against Fentanyl (FAF), a national nonprofit organization with a mission to have illicit fentanyl declared a Weapon of Mass Destruction. Following the death of his son Tom from fentanyl poisoning in 2015, James started Families Against Fentanyl to compel new, innovative actions by the federal government to combat the rise in illicit fentanyl across the United States and its concerning potential to be used as a chemical weapon. A longtime businessman in the plastics industry, Mr. Rauh brings his deep understanding of science and chemistry to his work at FAF. A resident of Akron, Ohio, he has been profiled on 60 Minutes and featured in numerous media outlets including The Hill, RealClearHealth, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and more. Visit familiesagainstfentanyl.org for more info.

What can you community do TODAY to help with the fentanyl crisis? All hospital in America, all of them, should be including fentanyl as part of a urine drug screen. If a provider  wants to test for THC, PCP or Methamphetamine, they should be just as concerned about fentanyl.  A positive change would change the diagnosis and the treatment. Check out the Fentanyl Testing Tool Kit to learn how to bring fentanyl testing to your community.

Fentanyl Testing Tool Kit

https://www.sandiegorxabusetaskforce.org/fentanyl-toolkit

 

 

For every 1 adult who maybe stops smoking cigarettes by vaping, 80 new adolescents will take up vaping who would otherwise never have started. Let’s ban tobacco, but bring on vaping. These are frankly stupid health policies.

Listen to what Aaron Byzak has to say on the manner.  A man who defeated the odds of a 9 on adverse childhood event (ACE) score to become a very successful man.

Aaron Byzak joined Tri-City Medical Center as the Chief External Affairs Officer in May 2018. In this role, Aaron is responsible for the medical center and healthcare district’s marketing, communications, government affairs, and community engagement activities.

For more than two decades, Aaron has served in positions of progressive leadership in Emergency Medical Services, health policy, healthcare management, and consulting. He has received numerous best practice awards and national recognition for his leadership and work in healthcare, public health, advocacy, and communications including four Emmy Awards. Aaron was recognized by the Health Care Communicators of San Diego County with the Communicator of the Year Award in 2017 and was chosen for the San Diego Business Journal’s 500 Most Influential list in 2019 and 2020.

 

A well-known advocate in the area of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug (ATOD) prevention, Aaron has served on the board of directors for the North Coastal Prevention Coalition (NCPC) since 2003, including eight years as president. A national leader in the development of innovative drug prevention programs, practices, and policies, NCPC earned the 2008 Got Outcomes! Coalition of Excellence/National Coalition of the Year from Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) and two National Exemplary Awards (2010, 2018) from the National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors (NASADAD).

 

Aaron was the founding chair of the Rx Abuse Task Force of San Diego County, is the recipient of the Red Ribbon Week Campaign/Drug Enforcement Administration’s Excellence in Prevention Advocacy Award in 2015, and was recognized in 2013 by the Alcohol Policy Panel of San Diego County for his leadership.

 

Aaron is also founder and chief advocate of Hazel’s Army, a community advocacy and education group that in 2014 helped pass the most comprehensive assisted living reform agenda in California’s history.

 

He earned his Master of Business Administration in Healthcare Management and Policy from

UC Irvine’s Merage School of Business and a Bachelor’s degree in Social Science from Chapman University. Additionally, Aaron earned certificates in leadership from Cornell University and UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. He is Board Certified in Healthcare Management as a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE). Aaron resides in Vista with his family.

 

This is most stimulating episode of High Truths. Seriously! We will be talking about a brain stimulator.  While it is not approved for use in addiction, is can help insomnia and depression. Not every problem needs a drug as a solution. It is refreshing to learn about alternatives.

Charles “Chip” Fisher

Founder Fisher Wallace Laboratories

Charles Avery Fisher, known as Chip, is a lifelong New Yorker. He earned his BA from Harvard University, and started his career with IBM’s Data Processing Division, winning the Top Salesman award in under two years. He later founded and sold several companies before establishing Fisher Wallace Laboratories with the late Martin Wallace, PhD.

Chip serves on the board of the Avery Fisher Artists Programs and Virtual Music Academy. Over the years he has been active in many nonprofits including being one of the founding board members for City Harvest.

In late 2006, entrepreneur Chip Fisher joined Dr. Martin Wallace, PhD, CCN, CAd to purchase the patents of an FDA-sanctioned medical device that treats depression, anxiety and insomnia that produces a small dose of alternating current, of the same voltage level as a mobile home phone.

Developed by NASA engineer Dr. Saul Liss in 1990s, reviewed and approved by the FDA at the time, the Fisher Wallace Cranial Stimulator is used to increase levels of dopamine, serotonin and also lowers cortisol, the stress hormone, without the use of pharmaceutical drugs.

Peer reviewed studies have been published in noted medical journals and research has been conducted at some of the country’s top medical schools and hospitals, including Harvard Medical School, Columbia Medical School, Mass. General Hospital, NYU Medical Center, NYC’s Mount Sinai Medical Center (Beth Israel Hosp.), and the University of Maryland.

Fisher Wallace has been well-positioned to take advantage of the movement away from pharmaceuticals as the only option for treating mental health symptoms. Treatment of depression, anxiety and insomnia across the board has seen great advancements in non-pharmacological methods. Many individuals are either not suited for pharmaceutical drugs for reasons of health, age, or ideology.

In addition, drugs have significant side effects and for many, are not the treatment of choice given effective alternatives. Treatment with the Fisher Wallace Stimulator has no noteworthy side-effects, is a mobile and an at-home treatment, requires 20 min sessions up to twice a day, and has results showing great effectiveness for more than 70% of those who use it.

Fisher Wallace Stimulator

Fisherwallace.com

Circadia.info

 

This episode starts with a game – Fact or Fiction on Medical Marijuana. Test your knowledge and then listen further to learn from Dr. Kevin Sabet whether the “war” or “battle” on marijuana legalization is lost, and what that means.

KEVIN A. SABET, PHD

Dr. Kevin Sabet is an affiliate of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies and the Medical School at Yale University, and dubbed by NBC News as the “prodigy of drug politics,” author, consultant, and advisor to three U.S. presidential administrations, Kevin A. Sabet, Ph.D., has studied, researched, written about, and implemented drug policy for 25 years. He is currently the President and CEO of SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana), a non-profit organization he founded with Congressman Patrick Kennedy and David Frum. His latest book, Smokescreen: What the Marijuana Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know, is distributed by Simon & Schuster. He is the only person appointed by Republican and Democrats to work at the White House drug office,  and he is a columnist for Newsweek. He received his doctorate from Oxford University.

 

Addiction is a treatable disease, but how can people differential between quality care and fraud? Dr. Rosenthal dispels the truth on quality treatment.

Mitchell S. Rosenthal, MD

Mitchell S. Rosenthal, M.D., the founder of Phoenix House, one of the nation’s leading non-profit substance abuse treatment organizations, is president of the Rosenthal Center for Addiction Studies. The Center plays an increasingly significant role in the treatment field, providing a valuable platform for advocacy and the formulation of public policy. Its surveys, investigations, publications, and substantial presence on the Internet provides critical information on substance abuse issues to policymakers, healthcare professionals as well as families and individuals coping with addiction.

Dr. Rosenthal has served as a White House advisor on drug abuse, a special consultant to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, chairman of the New York State Advisory Council on Drug Abuse, and president of the American Association of Psychoanalytic Physicians. He is a lecturer in psychiatry at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Dr. Rosenthal is a psychiatrist whose research, clinical skills, and advocacy have produced model treatment protocols, widely replicated throughout the country and abroad. His pioneering efforts in substance abuse treatment date from his work at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Oakland, California (1965-1967), where he formed the first service-sponsored therapeutic community for the treatment of addiction. As deputy commissioner of New York City’s Addiction Services Agency, he created the Phoenix House citywide network of treatment facilities in 1967. In 1972, he resigned his city post to become president of the now independent Phoenix House Foundation and oversee the national expansion of its treatment and prevention services over the following three and a half decades.

Dr. Rosenthal earned his B.A. from Lafayette College and his M.D. from the State University of New York’s Downstate Medical Center. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, deputy chair of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, and serves on the board of the Partnership for Drug Free Kids and Delancey Street Foundation.

 

The pain of stigma comes out as Gary Mendell, CEO of Shatterproof talks about his son Brian. It is now his life mission to make a difference, and Shatterproof is doing just that. Shatterproof, under Gary’s leadership shows that words matter. For example, addiction is not just a chronic disease of the brain – it is a treatable chronic disease of the brain. Treatment gives hope. But how do we balance stigma as a stool for prevention – “don’t smoke” “drugs are bad” while we eliminate the stigma against a human being with a problem? Listen to Dr. Lev and Gary discuss this issue.

Gary Mendell, Founder and CEO, Shatterproof

Gary Mendell is the founder and CEO of Shatterproof, a national nonprofit dedicated to reversing the addiction crisis in the United States. After losing his son Brian to addiction in 2011, Gary founded Shatterproof to spare other families the tragedy his had suffered.

Since founding Shatterproof, Mr. Mendell has been recognized as a national leader in the addiction space, working to transform how opioid and substance use disorders are treated. His priorities include advocating for state and federal policy change, ending the harmful stigma of addiction, and supporting and educating our communities.

Mr. Mendell has testified in front of the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis and his opinions are frequently reflected in the media.  He also serves on the Executive Advisory Board of the University of Pennsylvania’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, is a member of the National Quality Forum’s Technical Expert Panel for Opioid and Opioid Use Disorder, and is an advisory member of The Opioid Policy Research Collaborative at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University.

Before Shatterproof, Mr. Mendell spent decades as an entrepreneur. He founded HEI Hotels & Resorts, a multi-billion-dollar company that oversees a portfolio of approximately 70 first class hotels.

Mr. Mendell received his B.S. from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration and his MBA with distinction from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Shatterproof.orgLearning Points:

Ending the stigma of addiction

1. Education – that addiction is a treatable disease
2. Appropriate Language – make an impact on attitude
3. Policy changes

 

What is the aftermath of the COVID pandemic in terms of damage from drugs? What is the science behind helpful or harmful effects of marijuana? What are the strategies in treating methamphetamine use disorder? What is universal prevention in terms of protection from addiction. Learn all this and more from a key national leader, Dr. Wilson Compton.

Dr. Wilson Compton

Dr. Wilson M. Compton serves as the Deputy Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) of the National Institutes of Health.  NIDA supports most of the world’s research on the health aspects of drug abuse and addiction related to preventing drug abuse, treating addiction and addressing the serious health consequences of drug abuse, including related HIV/AIDS and other health conditions. In his current role, Dr. Compton’s responsibilities include working with the Director to provide scientific leadership in the development, implementation, and management of NIDA’s research portfolio in order to improve the prevention and treatment of drug abuse and addiction.

Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Compton served as the Director of NIDA’s Division of Epidemiology, Services and Prevention Research from 2002 until 2013. In this leadership role, he oversaw the scientific direction of a complex public health research program of national and international scope addressing: 1) the extent and spread of drugs of abuse, 2) how to prevent drug abuse, and 3) how to implement drug abuse prevention and treatment services as effectively as possible.  Of note, since 2010 he has led the development of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health study (PATH), a large scale longitudinal population study with 45,971 baseline participants ages 12 and older. Jointly sponsored by NIDA and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), PATH includes prospective data collection using both surveys and biological assessments to inform the development of tobacco regulations in the United States.

Before joining NIDA, Dr. Compton was a tenured faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry and Director of the Master in Psychiatric Epidemiology Program at Washington University in Saint Louis, as well as Medical Director of Addiction Services at the Barnes-Jewish Hospital in Saint Louis.  Dr. Compton received his undergraduate education from Amherst College. He attended medical school and completed his residency training in psychiatry at Washington University.

During his career, Dr. Compton has achieved multiple scientific accomplishments: he was selected to serve as a member of the DSM-5 Revision Task Force; is the author of more than 200 publications including widely-cited papers drawing attention to the opioid crisis in the U.S.; and is an invited speaker at multiple high-impact venues, including multiple presentations to federal judges in presentations sponsored by the Federal Judicial Center.  These judicial presentations have focused on how the science of addiction may improve policy and practices related to persons with addiction within the criminal justice system. Dr. Compton is a member of numerous professional organizations, including the Alpha Omega Alpha medical education honor society. Dr. Compton is also the recipient of multiple awards, including the Senior Scholar Health Services Research Award from the American Psychiatric Association in 2008 and the Paul Hoch Award from the American Psychopathological Association in 2010. The FDA selected him to receive the Leveraging Collaboration Award in both 2012 and 2013 as well as a cross-cutting award in 2017. In 2018, Dr. Compton received the James W. West award from the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers. Dr. Compton also received the Health and Human Service...

What does law enforcement do beside arrest people for drugs?  You will be surprised about the collaboration of law enforcement with the medical community, drug treatment, and drug prevention. Listen to Dr. Lev talk with High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Director David King.

DAVID L. KING

Director of San Diego – Imperial Valley HIDTA

 David King is the Director of San Diego – Imperial Valley HIDTA (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas). He brings more than 25 years of experience in law enforcement including positions with the California Department of Justice – Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement and Bureau of Investigations.

David was born in Philadelphia, PA to a family who values public service as his father, Dr. David O. King, served three terms in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. David grew up in Reno, NV, and then he moved to California where he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of San Diego. After graduating from the San Diego County Sherriff’s Academy, he worked as a Senior Police Officer for the San Diego Harbor Police Department. He was honored as the San Diego County Peace Officer of the Year in 1995.

In 1997 he became a Special Agent for California Department of Justice (DOJ) – Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement (BNE) and was assigned to the San Diego Regional Office Special Operations Unit and DEA Group Four Clandestine Laboratory Program. He also served as a Field Training Officer. David was a California Narcotic Officer’s Association (CNOA) Region Chairman from 1999 to 2000 and is a lifetime member of the CNOA.

As a Special Agent Supervisor-Task Force Commander for California DOJ – BNE, from 2001 to 2005, David served on several HIDTA initiatives including being a Task Force Commander for ICE San Diego Maritime Task Force and Task Force Commander for the BNE San Diego Regional Office Clandestine Laboratory Program. He worked with local police departments, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) on major cases.

From 2005 to 2010 David held several positions for California Department of Justice – Bureau of Investigations including Executive Director Imperial Valley Drug Coalition, Law Enforcement Coordination Center, Special Agent in Charge. He led the HIDTA initiative, directing the planning and implementation of a counterdrug strategy for 19 federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies operating along the southwest border. In this capacity he delivered high level briefings to executive level law enforcement personnel and public officials from U.S. Congress, U.S. Senate, and the California State Assembly. David graduated from the FBI National Academy (240th) Session.

As the Senior Special Agent in Charge (SSAC) for the California DOJ, BNE Riverside Regional Office from 2010 to 2012, David directed daily operations and 10 narcotic/gang task forces located in Riverside, San Bernardino and Imperial Counties. He also had executive oversight for a HIDTA initiative, Inland Crackdown Allied Task Force (INCA), comprised of special agents from DOJ/BNE, HSI, DEA, CHP, and local law enforcement investigators. The team was awarded the California Attorney General’s Award of Excellence for INCA in 2012.

From 2012 to 2017 David served as the Executive Director of L.A. IMPACT, the Los Angeles Interagency Metropolitan Police Apprehension Crime Task Force, which is the nation’s largest narcotic task force operating under a Joint Powers Authority (JPA), comprised of 48 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. His talented team received numerous HIDTA awards for outstanding investigative efforts. Add...

What is going on with Oregon Drug Laws? The state of Oregon made history, the first state in the United States to decriminalize the possession of all hard drugs on November 2020.  Marijuana was legalized in Oregon since 2014.

Is this a good idea, a bad idea, or a yet to be determined social experiment?

Oregon Measure 110, a ballot initiative funded by the Drug Policy Alliance, an advocacy group that promotes drug normalization, and passed with more than 58% of the vote. Possession of heroin, cocaine, meth, ecstasy or other drugs is no longer a criminal offense in Oregon. Possession may be a civil, not a criminal violation that may result in a fine or court ordered therapy, but not jail.

People in Oregon can carry small amounts of drugs. What is a small amount? Less than 1g of heroin, less than 2 g of meth, less than 40 pills of oxycodone.  You can judge if you think that is small or large.

Are safe injection sites good for public health? What is the line between harm reduction and drug normalization? Do people who inject drugs or use drugs prefer to go to a site or do they prefer use in the comforts of their residence wherever that is? Do safe injection sites decrease deaths? Do they connect people to treatment? Listen to Tom Wolf, a man with lived experience in injecting drugs, living on the streets, and a true understanding of what addiction is and what is takes to recover.

 

Thomas Wolf

Tom Wolf is a formerly homeless recovering Heroin addict from San Francisco.  In 2018, he spent 6 months homeless on the streets of the Tenderloin neighborhood struggling with Heroin and Fentanyl addiction.  Thomas was arrested 6 times for holding drugs for street-level drug dealers and other offenses and went to jail before going to a 6-month inpatient treatment program where he found recovery. He is now an advocate for drug policy reform and recovery in San Francisco and beyond. Thomas is very active on social media and his story has been featured in local, national, and international news including CNN and the New York Times. You can find out more about Thomas at www.tomwolf.org

Follow him on Twitter @MyTwolffamily

There are thousands of publications each year, but the American Heart Association (AHA) publication stands out – it is special – a landmark article. The AHA has made a bold move in highlighting and sticking to the science when it comes to protecting the heart from marijuana.

American Heart Association Statement: Medical Marijuana, Recreational Cannabis and Cardiovascular Health. A Scientific Statement.

Robert Lee Page II, PharmD, MSPH

Robert Page is a Professor in the Departments of Clinical Pharmacy and Physical/Rehabilitative Medicine at the University of Colorado Denver, Schools of Pharmacy and Medicine (Aurora), and the clinical pharmacy specialist for the Division of Cardiology Section of Advanced Heart Failure and Heart Transplantation. He is also the Clinical Lead for the Colorado Evidenced Based Drug Utilization Program.

Dr. Page received his bachelor’s of science degree in biology and chemistry from Furman University (Greenville, SC); bachelor’s of science in pharmacy and Pharm.D. degrees from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC; Charleston); Masters of Science in Public Health with an epidemiology focus from the University of Colorado School of Medicine (Denver); and specialty residency in pharmacotherapy with a focus in cardiology from MUSC. He is a board-certified pharmacotherapy specialist with added qualifications in cardiology, a Board Certified Geriatric Pharmacist, and a Fellow of the following organizations: the Heart Failure Society of America, the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, the American Heart Association (Council on Clinical Cardiology), the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists, and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. Dr Page has served on numerous AHA, HFSA, and ACC committees and is past chair of the Clinical Pharmacology Subcommittee of the Council on Clinical Cardiology, and has been an external reviewer for several ACCF/AHA cardiovascular management guidelines. Dr. Page has 20 years of clinical expertise in the management of patients with heart failure in both the outpatient and inpatient setting. He has published over 200 peer reviewed manuscripts, abstracts, and book chapters in the management of patients with cardiovascular disease.

For more information visit: HighTruths.com

Ken P. Finn, M.D.

Dr. Finn graduated Medical School from the University of Texas Health Science Center-Houston (’90). He completed residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation from the University of Utah (’94), and is board certified in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (’95) as well as Pain Medicine (’98), and Pain Management (’00). Practicing medicine in Colorado Springs since 1994, Finn serves on the American Board of Pain Medicine Exam Council (’01), Appeals Committee (’14), and Executive Board (’14).  He is the President-Elect of the American Board of Pain Medicine (’20).  Finn served on the Colorado Governors Task Force on Amendment 64, Consumer Safety and Social Issues Work Group (’12) and served 4 years on the Colorado Medical Marijuana Scientific Advisory Council (’14-’18). He was an Executive Board member of El Paso County Medical Society (’14-’18) and helped Colorado Medical Society and Colorado Pain Society develop their position statement on cannabis (’18) as well as the El Paso County Board of Health (’14) and Medical Society (’14) on their statements. Finn is a voluntary clinical instructor for the University of Colorado Medical School-Colorado Springs Branch (‘17-’20) and sees pain patients at the Colorado Springs Rehabilitation in Colorado.

 

Drugged Driving is a national problem – both from legal and illegal drugs. Listen to High Truths Expert Dr. Phillip Drum discuss the problem with Dr. Lev.

Phillip A Drum, PharmD, FCSHP

Phillip A Drum, Pharm, D., FCSHP received his doctorate in Pharmacy from the University of California – San Francisco.  He is a 30+ year licensed pharmacist who has had a wide range of experiences – from community pharmacy practice, a residency in Hospital Pharmacy, practice as a hospital-based Oncology pharmacist, Pharmacy Administration work as a Clinical Coordinator and later a Regional Manager and leader of regional pharmacy training and patient safety programs. He has been active in Pharmacy Associations and has spoken state-wide and nationally on various pharmaceutical topics.  As a result of a family tragedy, he has been active in research on driving and marijuana and educating the public over the dangers of marijuana in society.

Lecture Link: Marijuana Impaired Driving – What the Data Shows

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=n+american+cannabis+summit+2019+driving&docid=608026602150367093&mid=43064431A6100B05AC3443064431A6100B05AC34&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

Learning Points

• Properly trained law enforcement agents (DRE – drug recognition experts) can detect marijuana impairment at the roadside
• States with legalized marijuana use have resulted in increased traffic collisions
• FDA placed warning on THC and CBD products – do not drive while taking medication
• April 20, (4/20) – has 12% increased fatalities than other days, and is also Hitler’s Birthday
• Drunk driving occurs late at night when bars are closed, and streets are empty
• Marijuana impaired driving occurs before and after work during high traffic

Smoke free policies are aimed at protecting the non-smoker. What are the effects of secondhand marijuana smoke? Learn fro High Truths expert, Dr. Paula Gordon.

Paula D. Gordon, Ph.D.

Paula D. Gordon, Ph.D. is an educator, writer, analyst, researcher, speaker, consultant, and independent contractor. She has taught at many institutions including the California State University System, the George Washington University, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Richmond. Her current teaching includes the Auburn University Center for Governmental Services and Eastern Kentucky University. Visit her websites at GordonHomeland.com, GordonPublicAdministration.com, GordonDrugAbusePrevention.comand GordonCancerTheory.com. Her newest website, GordonHumankind.com, includes a two-part copy of her dissertation, “Public Administration in the Public Interest” and a newly updated piece entitled “Wishes for the Family of Humankind”. The latter is also posted on the newly launched Global Futures Intelligence Systems website of The Millennium Project in the Global Ethics section at https://themp.org/challengegroup/15/resources/.

Dr. Gordon has taught a wide variety of courses at many different institutions of higher learning throughout the nation. Topics have included Homeland Security Policy; Leadership in Challenging and Catastrophic Situations; Planning and Preparedness for Homeland Security and Emergency Management Post 9/11 and Post Katrina; Some Key Challenges Facing Homeland Security and Emergency Management Post 9–11 and Post Katrina; Critical Infrastructure; Management and Organizational Behavior; Leading Organizational Change; Women and Leadership; Organization Development Theory; Policy and Complex Global Challenges; Marketing and Business Ethics; Public Administration; Public Policy Analysis; Management Decisions: Tools and Judgment; Organization, Management, and Leadership; Managerial Communication; Strategic Planning; Project Management; Group Dynamics; Unleashing Creativity; Problem Solving; and Organizational Health; and Service-Oriented Marketing and Business Practices.

Full Bio: http://lifeboat.com/ex/bios.paula.d.gordon

pgordon@starpower.net

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gordonpaula/

http://GordonPublicAdministration.com

http://GordonHomeland.com
http://GordonDrugAbusePrevention.com

http://GordonHumankind.com (including “Wishes for the Family of Humankind”)

Doctoral Dissertation: Public Administration in the Public Interest
http://GordonPublicAdministration.com

Drug testing became a standard after a landmark even in 1981 when a marine warfare jet slammed into the USS Nimitz’s flight deck.  Autopsies on 6 out of 14 crew men showed evidence of heavy marijuana use.  This led to President Ronald Regent issue Executive Order #12564 instituting a Zero Tolerance policy for federal employees.  Jo McGuire joins Dr. Lev in discussing the nuances of work place drug testing that exist today.

Jo McGuire

Jo McGuire is a known advocate for safe and drug free workplaces, families, and communities with over ten years of experience in the drug and alcohol testing industry. She was appointed to serve on the Taxation, Banking & Civil Law workgroup for the Governor’s Task Force to regulate Amendment 64 in Colorado due to her expertise in the field of workplace drug and alcohol testing and represented the industry during the United Nations General Assembly on the World Drug Agreements. As a recognized subject matter expert, Jo is a highly requested national conference speaker, writer, and public policy advisor.

5 minutes of courage

National Drug & Alcohol Screening Association, NDASA

Perhaps 100 young people may be prescribed opioid pain killers for extracts wisdom teeth or a broken bone and only a handful may feel a strong pull of addiction after a single pill.  The problem is we do not know who that vulnerable handful is.  That is why prevention of exposure is important. It does not mean prohibition of opioids, but it does mean innovations in pain management that avoid opioids when possible.

The opioid epidemic has a silver lining. It engaged the medical community in solution. All medical specialties have been activated in the issue of addiction and pain. And the medical community is rallying – with solutions and innovation in managing pain better with less addiction.

Alexis M. LaPietra, DO, FACEP

Dr. Alexis LaPietra is System Chief for Pain Management and Addiction Medicine as well as the Fellowship Director of the Emergency Medicine Pain Management Fellowship and Emergency Medicine Addiction Medicine Fellowship at St Joseph’s Health in NJ. She created the St Joseph’s Health Alternatives to Opioids (ALTO ^SM) program and founded the Pain Management/Addiction Medicine Section of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP). She has been involved in multiple national educational initiatives with ACEP and is the current Chair for the PACED (Pain and Addiction Care in the ED) Accreditation Program.

In 2016 she received the Emergency Care Innovation of the Year Award from G.W. University Center for Healthcare Innovation as well as the American College of Osteopathic Emergency Physicians Practice Innovation Award. Dr. LaPietra’s work has been highlighted in The Annals of Emergency Medicine, NPR, NBC, The New York Times, Fox News, and CNN. Her work was the basis for the “ALTO in the ED Act,” part of the legislation included in the H.R.6- SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act signed into law by President Trump in October 2018.

Glenn Ignazio lived his dream of being a decorated air force pilot and it all came crashing down after a terrible accident. He became addicted to opioids, lost his beloved career, faced divorce, and dealt with the pain of friends dying from suicide.  He seemingly lost everything as he was learning to walk again.  What is the secret to his resiliency?  Glenn explains Failing Forward.

About Glenn Ignazio

Glenn Ignazio is a military expert and public speaker, with experience in technology solutions for intelligence, defense, and Special Operations. His background as a Retired Air Force Special Operations commander and Defense Intelligence Technology innovator has made him a sought-after public speaker, media contributor, and inspiring storyteller.

Glenn is best known for his experience translating complex technology into tactical operations that strategically position critical solutions for commercial, defense, and government organizations. This reputation has led to professional expert and advisory engagements with the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for C4ISR, members of the UAE Royal Family, and defense agencies throughout Europe and Asia.

He has used various sensor and unmanned systems in security operations that included the protection of borders, ports, economic exclusion zones, and critical infrastructures. Further, he has conducted anti-piracy and counter-smuggling operations across the globe, including detecting, deterring, and preventing the illicit movement of weapons, drugs, trafficked humans, and technology.

In addition to his advanced technological expertise, Glenn has also conducted numerous civilian and combat rescues. Among these lifesaving rescues, Glenn personally negotiated a hostage release of a senior executive in the Middle East. He is also highly decorated with Air Medals, Air Force Commendation Medals, Special Operations Citations, and received United States Congressional Recognition for Combat Operations.

In 2022, Glenn will release a book where he chronicles the lessons of resilience, from high to low moments of his personal and professional life.

You can follow Glenn in Instagram: @theglennig and Facebook: @glennignazio, or on his website:https://www.glennignazio.com/

 

Can you have less pain, less opioids, and faster and better recovery after surgery? Absolutely! ERAS, Enhanced Recovery After Surgery optimizes care before, during and after surgery in terms. Learn about ERAS from the President of ERAS USA.

Dr Mike Scott  MB ChB FRCP FRCA FFICM

Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at the Hospital of the University of PennsylvaniaDivision Chief Surgical & Neuroscience Critical Care Medicine
Medical Director, PENN E-LERT Telemedicine ICU Program
University of Pennsylvania

Biography

Dr. Mike Scott undertook his undergraduate medical training in the UK and Postgraduate training in the UK and Australia. He trained in internal medicine before doing anesthesiology and critical care medicine and has Fellowships with the Royal College of Physician’s, Royal College of Anaesthetists and Faculty for Intensive Care Medicine.

He was one of the first clinicians to adopt Enhanced Recovery after Surgery (ERAS) principles in 2001 at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford UK and has championed it ever since. He was appointed a National Clinical Advisor in Enhanced Recovery for NHS Improvement in 2012. Mike has a keen research interest and has been investigator / Chief Investigator for multiple studies in analgesia, haemodynamic monitoring, fluid therapy and the stress response for surgery within an ERAS Protocol. He advocates opioid sparing analgesia and hemodynamic monitoring including bedside ultrasound as a standard of care. He was lead author of the Perioperative Quality Initiative for opioid sparing analgesia and recently co-author of the international multidisciplinary consensus statement on the prevention of opioid-related harm in adult surgical patients.

Dr. Scott is President of ERAS USA and co-author for some of the ERAS Society Consensus Guidelines, Chair of the ERAS Education Committee and is on the ERAS Society Executive Committee. Mike has lectured extensively around the world and has published clinical trials, editorials and review papers. He is Senior Editor for Anesthesia and Analgesia.

Dr. Scott moved to the USA from the UK at the end of 2016 to take up the position of Medical Director for Clinical Effectiveness and Division Chief of Critical Care medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, Richmond, Virginia.

He moved to take up the position of Division Chief at the University of Pennsylvania at the beginning of 2020 just in time for the COVID pandemic!

ERAS Resources

• Enhanced Recovery After Surgery
• Statement on prevention of opioid-related harm in surgery from international multidisciplinary healthcare professionals.

 

Was I duped by Big Pharma?  Early in my career I was told “You and your colleagues are undertreating pain.” When I served as Vice Chair of on the California Medical Association Council on Legislation, we passed laws that mandated pain education for doctors and eliminated specialized prescription pads for potent opioids. But then it became ridiculous.  In 2013, I counted 20% of all my emergency patients were there to get opioids. I was one of the first physicians to resist this trend, and when I did, I was accused of lacking compassion. I realized that well intentioned physicians simply did not face mothers who lost their son or daughter from a prescription by doctors who thought they were being compassionate.

Gerald Posner’s book Pharma uncovers the history of the pharmaceutical industry and the reasons behind distrust.

About Gerald Posner

The author of thirteen acclaimed books, including New York Times nonfiction bestsellers Case Closed, Why America Slept and God’s Bankers. Posner was a finalist for the Pulitzer in History. “A merciless pit bull of an investigator” concluded the Chicago Tribune. The New York Times said his latest book (2020), PHARMA, was “a withering and encyclopedic indictment of a drug industry that often seems to prioritize profits over patients…[it] reads like a pharmaceutical version of cops and robbers.”

From Law to Writing

Posner was one of the youngest attorneys (23) ever hired by Cravath, Swaine & Moore. A Political Science major, he was a Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, where he was also a national debating champion. At Hastings Law School, he was an Honors Graduate and was the Law Review’s Associate Executive Editor. He was a litigation associate at the Wall Street law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore before leaving in 1981 to co-found Posner & Ferrara, a New York public interest law firm. Several years of a pro bono legal representation on behalf of surviving twins of Nazi experiments at the Auschwitz death camp led him to coauthor his first book in 1986, MENGELE: The Complete Story, a bestselling and critically acclaimed biography of the infamous Nazi “Angel of Death,” Dr. Josef Mengele. Read a profile on Gerald on how the Mengele book led to him to leave the law. Publishers Weekly explains how he changed from being a Wall Street lawyer to a bestselling nonfiction author. In the past, he was a regular panelist on the History Channel’s Sunday current events program.  He has been a freelance writer for many news magazines, and a regular contributor to NBC, the History Channel, CNN, FOX News, CBS, and MSNBC. He is represented by BrightSight Group for lectures about investigative journalism and his books. His wife, author, Trisha Posner, works with him on all projects.

https://www.posner.com/bio

 

In this episode we bring together two individual retired men who live in different parts of the United States, but have a common story. They are both fathers to adult children who struggle with addiction. They both have suffered with strained relationships that comes with the disease of addiction, and after many years of pain, they are finally at a good place. Both these fathers requested to stay anonymous because they did not want to rock the boat with the good relationship they have with their kids.  Yet they wanted to speak out and thereby help other parents who are in the same difficult situation.

If you go the emergency department with a broken arm, you will get an x-ray, a cast, and be referred to see an orthopedic specialist. If you have a serious heart problem you will be referred to a cardiologist.  What happens if you come to the hospital with endocarditis – an infection of the heart caused by drug use?  You will see a heart specialist, an infectious disease doctor, but will you see a specialist who can help treat the cause of the problem – the addiction?  Addiction Medicine specialty care should be available just like a pain specialist or palliative care specialist.

Dr. Timothy Brennan is one of the pioneers who is out to make addiction medicine specialty medical care more available in America.

Timothy K. Brennan MD, MPH

Dr. Brennan is the Director of the Addiction Institute at Mount Sinai West and Mount Sinai St. Luke’s Hospitals. He is also the Director of the Fellowship in Addiction Medicine Program at the Icahn School of Medicine Mount Sinai. Dr. Brennan has spoken at local, state, national and international levels about addiction policy issues, particularly as related to young adults. He is the co-editor of Lippincott’s “Essentials of Addiction Medicine”, and was appointed by Governor Cuomo to serve on the Medical Review Board at the New York State Justice Center.

He is a frequent contributor in the media regarding addiction issues and has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CBS News, and NPR. Dr. Brennan volunteers as a member of the Adolescent Advisory Panel at the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services.

Dr. Brennan completed his Fellowship in Addiction Medicine at The Addiction Institute, a Fellowship in Medical Ethics at Harvard Medical School, and a Residency in Pediatrics at New York Presbyterian Hospital / Weill Cornell Medical College. He also completed an intern year in Internal Medicine at Georgetown University Hospital. He received a BS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, and a combined MD/MPH from Tulane University School of Medicine and School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

He is Board Certified in Pediatrics by the American Board of Pediatrics and Board Certified in Addiction Medicine by the American Board of Preventive Medicine.

The American College of Academic Addiction Medicine – ACAAM

Additional Information on Dr. Brennan

https://www.mountsinai.org/profiles/timothy-k-brennan

The ASAM Essentials of Addiction Medicine

Visit: HighTruths.com

Joe Eberstein

Joe Eberstein works for the Center for Community Research Inc. and expert on prevention of drugs and addiction. He is the Program Manager for the San Diego County Marijuana Prevention Initiative (MPI). He is a California Certified Prevention Specialist with over 12 years working in the field in both San Diego and Los Angeles counties. He is a featured speaker and subject matter expert regarding youth marijuana use and vaping.  His role includes raising awareness about the public health effects of marijuana and vaping on youth and developing regional prevention campaigns to reduce use.  He is a member of SAMSHA region 9 Prevention Technology Transfer Center and the California Department of Health Care Services – Prop 64 Advisory group.

How to Talk To Your Kids About Drugs if you did drugs yours – Partnership Drug Free.org

Secretary Ben Carson

17^th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

On March 2nd, 2017, Dr. Benjamin S. Carson, Sr., M.D., was sworn in as the 17th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

For nearly 30 years, Secretary Carson served as Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, a position he assumed when he was just 33 years old, becoming the youngest major division director in the hospital’s history.   In 1987, he successfully performed the first separation of craniopagus twins conjoined at the back of the head.  He also performed the first fully successful separation of type-2 vertical craniopagus twins in 1997 in South Africa.

Dr. Carson received dozens of honors and awards in recognition of his achievements including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. He is also a recipient of the Spingarn Medal, the highest honor bestowed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Dr. Carson authored nine books, four of which he co-wrote with his wife Candy.  The U.S. News Media Group and Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership named him among “America’s Best Leaders” in 2008.  

Dr. Carson and his wife co-founded the Carson Scholars Fund, which recognizes young people of all backgrounds for exceptional academic and humanitarian accomplishments.  The Fund is currently operating in 50 states and the District of Columbia, and has recognized more than 7,300 scholars, awarded more than $7.3 million in scholarships, and installed more than 150 Ben Carson Reading Rooms around the country. 

Born in Detroit to a single mother with a 3rd grade education who worked multiple jobs to support their family, Secretary Carson was raised to love reading and education.  He graduated from Yale University and earned his M.D. from the University of Michigan Medical School.  He and his wife are the proud parents of three adult sons and three grandchildren.

Top Messages from Secretary Carson

• In many high-cost areas of our country, especially along the West Coast, the severe shortage of affordable housing is manifesting itself on our streets. 

• It is impossible to serve those needs at all, if we do not put Housing First. A man will not beat addiction from a gutter, he will not get psychiatric help underneath a bridge, and he will not find a steady job without a steady address.  

• But, it’s not simply Housing First—it’s Housing First, Second, and Third.
  • First, we make sure a person gets permanent place to stay.
  • Second, we must diagnose what left this unfortunate individual without a home.
  • Third, once we figure out what went wrong, we start putting things right. For each diagnosis, there will be a different prescription.
• You can read all we’ve been able to accomplish at HUD by going to HUD.gov and clicking on the “Accomplishments” page, including:
  • Establishing EnVision Centers Across the Country
  • Focusing on Foster Youth
  • Creating Healthy Homes
  • Enhancing Financial Integrity
  • Bringing revitalization to ‘forgotten communities’
  • Reducing Regulatory Barriers

Many people have heard about the risk of your BRAIN on drugs, but what about your SKIN on drugs? Your skin, your epidermis is the largest organ of your body and is about 20 square feet. Dr. Antley is a dermatopathologist and talks to High Truth about whether marijuana products can help acne or harmful to the skin.

Catherine Antley, M.D.

Catherine Antley, M.D. graduated from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, completed her residency in anatomic and clinical pathology at Duke University Medical Center and fellowship in dermatopathology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.  She is board certified in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology and in Dermatopathology and is a Fellow of the American Society of Dermatopathology. For 20 years she has served as laboratory director of Vermont Dermatopathology, a woman owned, independent dermatopathology lab serving VT, NY, and NH.  She has a strong interest in public health and prevention and exploring the impact of policy on addiction and health care costs. She has co-authored a number of Vermont Medical Society resolutions on cannabis and recently organized and led a delegation of 10 Vermonters to Iceland to learn about their 20 year history bringing down the country’s high addiction rates using their successful, science based prevention model. She recently contributed a chapter “Cannabis in Dermatology” to the textbook “Cannabis in Medicine, an Evidence Based Approach” edited by Dr. Ken Finn and published by Springer Nature.

Cannabis in Medicine: An Evidence Based Review

 

What is the role of faith in treatment and prevention of addiction? Bishop Jethro James give advice for all religions.

Bishop Jethro C. James, Jr.

Bishop Jethro C. James, Jr., Senior Pastor of Paradise Baptist Church, was born in Paterson, New Jersey, the eldest of seven children to the late Jethro Sr. and Mary James.  Most of his childhood years were spent in Powhatan, Virginia where he attended the public-school system before returning to Paterson, NJ with his family.   He continued his education in Paterson, graduating from John F. Kennedy High School and furthered his education at Bergen Community College and Rutgers University earning a certificate in Labor Studies.  He attended the Lamb’s School of Ministry in Brooklyn, New York and Christian Bible Institute of New Jersey where he received a Doctor of Divinity Degree. Gifted to serve the church community as mentor and advisor to pastors and congregations, alike he was consecrated to the office of Bishop on April 17, 2010.  He was affirmed as a Bishop in the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship International on April 23, 2014, under the leadership of Bishop Paul S. Morton, International Presiding Bishop. He currently serves the Fellowship as the New Jersey State Director of Social Action under the leadership of Bishop Rudy V. Carlton, Regional Bishop Kenneth L. Robinson, Presiding Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III and Founder, Bishop Paul S. Morton.

Bishop James is President of the Newark/North Jersey Committee of Clergy.    He is also a member of several civic and fraternal organizations and is very active within the community.  He serves as a chaplain for New Jersey State Police Departments and has been appointed by the Supreme Court of the State of New Jersey to serve a member of the Attorney Legal Ethics Committee.  In addition, he serves as chairperson of the Human Services Advisory Council of Essex County, chairperson of appropriations committee of FEMA, Community Advisor to the State of New Jersey Office of Homeland Security, along with a host of other affiliations.  He is certified by the State of New Jersey as a Social Worker.  An eloquent informed speaker Bishop James is often sought to address political and civic organizations nationwide. Bishop James served as a member or the Law & Justice Transition Team for Governor Phil Murphy and a Senior Advisor for NJ R.A.M.P. (Responsible Approached To Marijuana Policy).

In June 2006, after thirty-eight years of dedicated service, Bishop James retired from Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) in Newark.   Prior to his retirement, Bishop James was an Urban Development Executive, responsible for the urban centers from Paterson to Camden.

Bishop James is married Dr. Kim Yancey James.  They are the proud parents of a son, Terrill, a daughter, Danielle and chosen daughter, Tanisha.  They are also the grandparents of a 2 granddaughters, Taylor Jewel and Sofia-Jo  and 2 grandsons; Isaiah Nathaniel and Micah Elisha.

What is a popped lung?  It is called called a pneumothorax and a collapse of a lung – like a popped balloon.

Is a serious and potentially life threatened problem because the lung is not working causing lack of oxygen.  It can even progress to a tension pneumothorax which is a restriction on the heart preventing it from beating normally.

Chris’s Chest X-ray

 Chris came to the emergency department with chest pain on August 2020, in the midst of a pandemic. He was taken straight to the COVID section of the emergency department as medical staff dressed in helmets, masks and gowns treated him for possible COVID.  His chest x-ray told a different story.  His diagnosis was pneumothorax from marijuana use. Anxiety and isolation during the pandemic increased his marijuana use by smoking with a bong and by vaping.

The right side of the X-ray picture is Chris’s normal left lung. It has white hazy marking throughout the properly inflated lung going from top to bottom of the rib cage. Think of the lung as a balloon that is inflated. The left side of the X-ray represents Chris’s right collapsed lung.  The balloon has popped. The dark, blacker area is air with no lung. The white hazy part of the lung close to the midline and away from the outer rib cage is the collapsed, deflated balloon. The collapsed lung takes up only a small section of the total chest area and does not expand throughout the entire field as it should.

It not uncommon to suffer pulmonary barotrauma associated with deep inhalation and holding the breath while using marijuana. It happens with vaping, inhaling a joint or bong.

Chris was treated with a chest tube that reinflated his lung. He has not smoked since this happened to him. Chris is an intelligent high functioning young man who read about harms of smoking during a pulmonary pandemic but also read about possible immune benefit of marijuana. He admits to having an addiction and reading sources that supported his habit.

Thank you Chris for bravery in sharing your story. You will be educating others about the reality of marijuana use.

Learn more about pulmonary issues with cannabis in the IASIC library,  the International Academy on Science and Impact of Cannabis.

 

 

Patrick Foley

Patrick Foley has over 20 years of experience in the addiction treatment field. Patrick currently works for McAllister Institute, serving people with various dependency issues. Mr. Foley is a coaching consultant and a frequent speaker and subject matter expert regarding adolescent dependence promoting solution-based goals that navigate clients through the recovery process. Patrick is certified by CCAPP as licensed treatment professional.

McAlister Institute

 

Dr. Kolodny chats with Dr. Lev about the Opioid Lawsuits. They say people who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat history.  The history for tobacco, opioids, vaping and marijuana follows a pattern:

1. Health claims
2. Normalization of use
3. Disaster is finally recognized
4. Lawsuits

Andrew Kolodny, M D

Dr. Kolodny previously served as Chief Medical Officer for Phoenix House, a national non profit addiction treatment agency and Chair of Psychiatry at Maimonides Medical Center in New York City. Dr. Kolodny has a long-standing interest in public health. He began his career working for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in the Office of the Executive Deputy Commissioner. For New York City, he helped develop and implement multiple programs to improve the health of New Yorkers and save lives, including city-wide buprenorphine programs, naloxone overdose prevention programs and emergency room-based screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment (SBIRT) programs for drug and alcohol misuse.

Dr. Kolodny’s testimony before for the United States Congress is available here.

Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control. May 14, 2014
America’s Addiction to Opioids: Heroin and Prescription Drug Use

Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. January 17, 2018
Unintended Consequences: Medicaid and the Opioid Epidemic

Committee on Energy & Commerce, Subcommittee on Health, U.S. House of Representatives. February 28, 2018
Combatting the Opioid Crisis

See the listing of Dr. Kolodny’s publications on PubMed
here.

Awards and Honors

• University of Chicago Leon I. Goldberg Award (2019)

The Least of Us

About Sam Quinones

Sam Quinones  is a Los Angeles-based freelance journalist and author of four books of narrative nonfiction. His latest book is The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth.

In The Least of Us (published October 2021), Quinones chronicles the emergence of a drug-trafficking world producing massive supplies of dope cheaper and deadlier than ever, marketing to the population of addicts created by the nation’s opioid epidemic, as the backdrop to tales of Americans’ quiet attempts to recover community through simple acts of helping the vulnerable.

The Least of Us follows his landmark Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic (Bloomsbury, 2015), which ignited awareness of the epidemic that has cost the United States hundreds of thousands of lives, and become deadliest drug scourge in the nation’s history.

Dreamland won a National Book Critics Circle award for the Best Nonfiction Book of 2015.

It was also selected as one of the Best Books of 2015 by Amazon.com, Slate.com, the Daily Beast, Buzzfeed, Seattle Times, Boston Globe, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Entertainment Weekly, Audible, and in the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg Business by Nobel economics laureate, Prof. Angus Deaton, of Princeton University.

In 2019, Dreamland was selected as one the Best 10 True-Crime Books of all time based on lists, surveys, and ratings of more than 90 million Goodread readers.A Young Adult version of Dreamland was released in July of 2019.

His first two highly acclaimed books grew from his 10 years living and working as a freelance writer in Mexico (1994-2004).

True Tales From Another Mexico: The Lynch Mob, the Popsicle Kings, Chalino and the Bronx was released in 2001. It is a cult classic of a book from Mexico’s vital margins – stories of drag queens and Oaxacan Indian basketball players, popsicle makers and telenovela stars, migrants, farm workers, a narcosaint, a slain drug balladeer, a slum boss, and a doomed tough guy.

In 2007, he came out with Antonio’s Gun and Delfino’s Dream: True Tales of Mexican Migration. In it, Quinones narrates the saga of the Henry Ford of Velvet Painting, and of how an opera scene emerged in Tijuana, and how a Zacatecan taco empire formed in Chicago. He tells the tale of the Tomato King, of a high-school soccer season in Kansas, and of Mexican corruption in a small LA County town. Threading through the book are three tales of a modern Mexican Huck Finn. Quinones ends the collection in a chapter called “Leaving Mexico” with his harrowing tangle with the Narco-Mennonites of Chihuahua.

Sam Quinones is formerly a reporter with the L.A. Times, where he worked for 10 years (2004-2014).  He is a veteran reporter on immigration, gangs, drug trafficking, the border.

Contact him at www.samquinones.com or samquinones7@yahoo.com.

Supply & Demand...

Methamphetamine, a potent stimulant, is rampant on the West Coast of the United States and part of the trifecta of homelessness, mental health and methamphetamine use.  Dr. Richard Rawson is one of the nation’s experts on research and treatment for stimulant use disorder.

Richard A. Rawson, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus at the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and a Research Professor at the Vermont Center for Behavior and Health at the University of Vermont.  He received a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the University of Vermont in 1974. Dr. Rawson conducted numerous clinical trials on pharmacological and psychosocial/behavioral addiction treatments for the treatment of individuals with cocaine and methamphetamine disorders. He has conducted numerous treatment service evaluations including an evaluation of the Vermont Hub and Spoke treatment network.  He was a member of the Federal Methamphetamine Advisory Group to Attorney General Janet Reno (1996-2000) and has represented the US at numerous international meetings on methamphetamine.  He has led addiction research and training projects for the United Nations, the World Health Organization and the U.S. State Department, exporting science-based knowledge to many parts of the world. Dr. Rawson has published 3 books, 40 book chapters, and over 250 peer-reviewed articles and has conducted over 1,000 workshops, paper presentations, and training sessions.

Contingency Management Mobile Applications

• DynamiCare
• reSET
• WEconnect

Contingency Management Resources

• The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) Network online course Contingency Management for Healthcare Settings (https://attcnetwork.org/centers/northwest-attc/news/new-online-course-contingency-management-healthcare-settings).
• The Motivational Incentives Suite—a collection of tools and other resources to help organizations understand and implement CM (http://www.bettertxoutcomes.org/bettertxoutcomes/).
• The ATTC Network’s guidance on the founding principles of CM (https://attcnetwork.org/centers/network-coordinating-office/contingency-management-part-2-founding-principles).

 

 

Is Marijuana use associated with psychosis and schizophrenia or does marijuana actually causes schizophrenia? What about Suicide? Dr. Christine Miller has meticulously studied the medical literature and the Bradford Hill criteria. The Bradford Hill criteria is the standard used to prove causation. This methodology was used to prove tobacco smoking causes various health effects. This interview was recorded November, 2020.

Christine L. Miller, Ph.D.

Christine L. Miller received her B.S. degree in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the Neuroscience Training Program at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Her academic career with the University of Michigan and Johns Hopkins University, was devoted to researching neurobiological mechanisms that underlie psychotic disorders. Now retired from academia, she volunteers her time as a science advisor for Smart Approaches to Marijuana www.learnaboutsam.org and Moms Strong www.momsstrong.org, educating the general public and legislators about the causal link between marijuana use and serious mental health impacts, including psychosis and suicide. Dr. Miller has continued to author scientific papers and reviews, most recently book chapters entitled “The Impacts of Marijuana on Mental Health”, published by Oxford University Press in 2018 and “Marijuana and Suicide: Case-control Studies, Population Data, and Potential Neurochemical Mechanisms”, published by Springer Press in 2020.

Dr. Miller reviewed the Bradford-Hill Criteria for epidemiological causation verses association as it related to marijuana and psychosis.

1. A strong association
2. A dose-response relationship
3. Timing of the association
4. Administration of THC in the clinic
5. Drug-seeking behavior risk does not seem to explain the impact
6. Quitting the habit resolves psychosis (in 50%)
7. Plausible biological mechanism

You can find more details on the Bradford Hills Criteria on the IASIC website library under Psychosis, the International Academy on the Science and Impact of Cannabis.

Dr. Miller’s Marijuana Psychosis Facts:

• 5x risk chronic psychotic disorder for heavy marijuana users
• 7 x increase risk suicide attempt in Caucasians who begin using in teens
• Recovery of a psychotic break from marijuana occurs 50% of the time compared to recovery other drugs 70% – 95% recovery
• Risk of violence in any drug induced psychosis is 9-fold increase compared to those with psychosis has nothing to do with drugs
  • Violence risk is 18-fold from marijuana induced psychosis compared to controls
• Psychotic individual who are not using drugs and taking medication are very unlikely to commit violence

Dr. Miller is honored by the introduction in this podcast, but wishes to make clear her knowledge is based on the meticulous work of renowned epidemiologists, for which she can take no credit.

 

 

Addiction Medicine intersects with all aspects of medicine from primary care, pediatrics, OBGYN, surgery, cardiology, gastroenterology, and of course, emergency medicine.  Building up the addiction medicine workforce and integrating key aspects of addiction medicine into medical education is important.

Anthony P. Albanese, MD

Dr. Albanese is a gastroenterologist, hepatologist and addiction medicine specialist who has over 25 years of experience in clinical medicine and medical education. He works with VA medical centers and their university affiliates to enhance interprofessional faculty education and develop, expand, and enhance Graduate Medical Education (GME) in accordance with the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability (VACAA) and MISSION Act initiatives. Dr. Albanese is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the UC Davis School of Medicine and is Chief of the Hepatology Division for the VA Northern California Healthcare System based in Sacramento.  He is President of the California Society of Addiction Medicine and Chairman of the State Chapters Council for the American Society of Addiction.  Albanese attended Oral Roberts University for undergraduate and medical school training. He trained in internal medicine in New York at St Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital and continued for gastrointestinal and addiction medicine fellowship. He obtained further training in hepatology at the University of Miami.

ASAM, American Society of Addiction Medicine

 

Get ready to have your jaw drop when you learn about babies who overdose on drugs. Babies and kids under 5 are getting into the adult drug supply of marijuana gummy bears as well as fentanyl. Learn more from child abuse specialist, Dr. Natalie Laub.

Natalie Laub MD, MHSP 

Dr. Natalie Laub is an attending Physician at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego where she is the Program Director for Child Abuse Pediatrics. She is an assistant professor of pediatrics at UCLA.

Dr. Natalie Laub  is an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego and serves as the fellowship director for the Child Abuse Pediatrics fellowship program. She completed residency in Boston and her child abuse fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia before she finally left the east coast for sunny San Diego. Her research interests include improving systems of care to better identify child abuse victims, illicit ingestions in children, and physician wellbeing.

 

CDC announced 100,000 overdoses in the past 12 months – an airplane a day falling out of the sky. What is it like for first responders who arrive at a death scene? Team 10 leader Ed Byrne has responded to 400 deaths since recording this episode. He also assisted in the HBO documentary, Crime of the Century.

Since recording this episode, Senator Melissa Melendez, California, will sponsor the Fentanyl Bill Dr. Lev wrote that will include fentanyl in all drug screens when ordered in a hospital.

Edward Byrne

Edward Byrne is a Special Agent with Homeland Security Investigations, currently assigned to the San Diego Office and is a member of Narcotics Task Force (NTF) Team 10 that is tasked with investigating opioid overdose deaths in San Diego county. He has expert experience working border cases involving fentanyl and 4ANPP, the immediate precursor to fentanyl, and works in partnership with other agencies, including U.S. Postal Service, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and local police departments regarding fentanyl investigations.

Special Agent Byrne is involved in federal investigations related to the emerging international trends of the illicit manufacturing and smuggling of fentanyl and it’s analogues.

HBO Special. Crime of the Century. 

 

 

The Western States are experiencing a greater problem with methamphetamines than with opioids. What are some treatment options for stimulant use disorder? Listen to Dr. Sokolowska who works on this issue for the FDA. Marta Sokolowska, PhD Marta Sokolowska, Ph.D., joined the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2018 as Associate Director for Controlled Substances at the Center for Drug Development and Research.  She provides strategic leadership in development and implementation of policies related to controlled substances including advising on all matters related to domestic and international drug scheduling. Dr. Sokolowska is a recognized expert in drug abuse potential assessment and scheduling strategies. Throughout her career she has focused on facilitating initiatives to improve public health by advancing the science of assessing abuse liability. Her past leadership roles include serving as Vice President of Medical and External Affairs at Depomed Inc. and Head of Medical Affairs and the Center for Abuse Prevention and Evaluation at Grunenthal USA. Dr. Sokolowska earned her doctoral degree in psychology from McMaster University in Canada. Learning Points:

• Clinical Trials.gov – This is the website to look up drugs or devices that are waiting for FDA approval
• GPA does not improve by using stimulants for people who do not have a clinical diagnosis of ADHD
• Stimulant misuse often translates to polysubstance misuse.
• An FDA box warning is a warning that appears formatted inside a box at the top of a prescription package insert. It is the strongest warning that the FDA requires, and signifies that medical studies indicate that the drug carries serious or even life-threatening adverse effects.
• There are 4 steps in New Drug Development according to the FDA. The process can take 10 years.
  1. Discovery and Development – in the lab
  2. Preclinical Research – animal testing
  3. Clinical Research – human testing
  4. FDA Review – approve or not approve
  5. FDA Post-Market Safety Monitoring

This podcast was recorded in February 2021.  

Welcome to the High Truths on Drugs and Addiction Season Finale.

This High Truths finale is dedicated to you and to answering your questions.

The CDC announced that our predicted 12-month overdose rate has exceeded 100,000 people. That’s like an airplane a day falling out of the sky. More people 18 to 45 year old died of fentanyl then died of COVID. And while fentanyl is the driver of deaths, I have not met a single patient that used fentanyl that did not start out priming their brain at a young age with marijuana. Not one.

Listen to our esteemed experts as they share High Truths Highlights of 2021 and Hopes for 2022.

Dr. Bertha Madras is a professor of psychobiology at Harvard Medical School and former Deputy Director for Demand Reduction at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, ONDCP. She has numerous scientific publications, courses, patents, and awards. I followed Dr. Madras’s service at ONDCP and she has been an invaluable mentor.

Dr. Ken Finn practices pain medicine in Colorado, he is the editor of the first medical textbook on Cannabis in Medicine, is President of the American Board of Pain Medicine, and is my colleague as Vice President of IASIC, the International Academy on the Science and Impact of Cannabis.

Joe Eberstein is a certified prevention specialist and member of SAMHSA region 9 Prevention Technology Transfer Center. He is the program manager for the San Diego Marijuana Prevention Initiative and is my colleague at CCR, Center for Community Research.

Welcome to 2022 and Season 2 of High Truths on Drugs and Addiction.  I wish you all a healthy and happy new year.

Listen and learn why I am jealous of diarrhea.

I will list the top 10 accomplishments of 2022, Failures, and Hope for the future.

Here are links to:

International Academy on Science and Impact of Cannabis

Fentanyl Testing Tool

Emergency Department Drug Surveillance

Here are 6 reasons I envy infectious diseases:

#1:  Mapping

#2:  Treatment

#3: Contact tracing and Friend treatment

#4: Removing the source of disease

#5: Recuperation Hotels

#6:  Primary prevention, or Vaccines

 

 

 

 

Rachel L. Levine, M.D.

Admiral, U.S. Public Health Service

Assistant Secretary for Health

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

 Admiral Rachel L. Levine serves as the 17th Assistant Secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the head of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. She fights every day to improve the health and well-being of all Americans. She’s working to help our nation overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and build a stronger foundation for a healthier future – one in which every American can attain their full health potential. ADM Levine’s storied career, first, as a physician in academic medicine focused on the intersection between mental and physical health, treating children, adolescents, and young adults. Then as Pennsylvania’s Physician General and later as Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Health, she addressed COVID-19, the opioid crisis, behavioral health and other public health challenges.

Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health (OASH)

HHS Overdose Prevention Strategy 2021

 

What is the relationship of cannabis/ marijuana with psychosis and schizophrenia? Learn from the father of schizophrenia research, Professor Sir Robin Murray.

Sir Robin Murray, FMedSci FRS

Professor Sir Robin Murray is a Professor of Psychiatric Research at the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP), King’s College London and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He is ranked as one of the most influential researchers in psychiatry by Thomson Reuters’ Science Watch and 3rd in schizophrenia research. He is one of only 5 psychiatrists ever elected as Royal Society Fellows. In 2011, he was awarded a Knighthood for services to medicine. He has won most of the major prizes in psychiatry and has been honored with awards from countries throughout the world including the USA, Germany, Finland, Italy, Brazil and Denmark. In 2005, he was chosen as one of the top role models in medicine by the British Medical Association.

Murray is the recipient of the Schizophrenia International Research Society (SIRS) Lifetime Achievement Award for 2020. His work challenged the prevailing view of schizophrenia as an adult-onset brain disease, instead demonstrating that it is in part a neurodevelopmental disorder fueled by insults to the brain during early life. He has identified that environmental and social factors are of great importance in determining susceptibility to psychosis. He found that migrants to the United Kingdom have a much greater incidence of psychosis than their counterparts back home, which appears largely due to social adversity. Robin also identified an increased risk of schizophrenia following heavy use of cannabis, particularly in adolescence, and often speaks publicly about this.

He currently researches the molecular effects of THC, the main psychotogenic ingredient of cannabis, and another component known as CBD, which appears to partly block the effects of THC; the high THC/CBD ratio in modern skunk cannabis carries more risk than traditional marijuana. Robin is now most interested in the interaction between predisposing genes and environmental factors in causing psychosis. He treats patients within the National Psychosis Unit at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust.

Professor Sir Robin Murray graduated in medicine at University of Glasgow in 1968 and began his training in psychiatry in 1972 at the Maudsley Hospital in London.  He started researching at the IoP in 1975 where he has, for the most part, remained ever since.

 

 

High potency THC is associated with psychosis and schizophrenia. Why are we not following the science?

Elizabeth ‘Libby’ Stuyt, MD

Dr. Stuyt is a board-certified Addiction Psychiatrist and has worked in the addiction/behavioral health field since 1990. She was the Medical Director for the Circle Program, a 90-day inpatient treatment program, funded by the state of Colorado, for persons with co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse who have failed other levels of treatment from 1999 to 2020. She retired from this position in May 2020 in order to spend more time attempting to educate as many people as possible on the un-intended consequences she has seen from the commercialization of marijuana in Colorado, focusing primarily on the deleterious effects of high potency THC on the developing brain and mental health.

Take off the "Beer Goggles" when thinking about Drugged Driving. Driving while impaired is illegal whether it is from alcohol or any other drugs. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration drug use among fatally injured drivers who were tested fro drugs rose fro 25% in 2007 to 42% in 2016, and marijuana presence doubled in that time frame. Marijuana users were about 25% more likely to be involved in a crash than drivers with no marijuana use. Jennifer Cifaldi Jennifer Cifaldi has served as the Illinois Traffic Safety Resource Prosecutor since 2016 and is employed by the Univ. of Illinois, Springfield through a grant provided by the Illinois Department of Transportation.  She is a nationally recognized expert and speaker on impaired driving.  She has served on the Lifesaver’s Speaker Proposal Committee and Drug Recognition Expert Conference Speaker Proposal Committee.  She has presented several times at these and other national conferences.  She also serves on the Speaker’s Bureau for the National Marijuana Initiative and has trained thousands of officers, prosecutors, probation officers, victim advocates, and judges both in her state of Illinois and nationwide. From 1996-2016, Jennifer served as an Assistant State’s Attorney in the Adams County States Attorney’s Office prosecuting tens of thousands of impaired driving cases.  In 2007, Jennifer developed a DUI No-Refusal search warrant model that has now been adopted as the standard for law enforcement agencies and prosecutor offices across Illinois.  She authored a manual on how to implement a “No-Refusal” program for prosecutors.  She has conducted numerous training sessions on the topic for law enforcement personnel, as well as other prosecutors.  Additionally, she is a regular instructor at Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement programs and at Drug Recognition Expert schools.  During her time in the State’s Attorneys Office, she presented to thousands of high school students at assemblies during prom and homecoming and was a regular instructor in the driver’s education programs in her area. In the spring of 2018, with support from the Buffett Foundation, Jennifer implemented the Illinois Law Enforcement Phlebotomy Program (ILEPP).  She assembled a team of Drug Recognition Experts and academia from Macon County, Illinois, and they traveled to Phoenix, Arizona to attend the forensic phlebotomy training that Arizona has been utilizing for nearly 25 years.  The Illinois officers have been successfully performing their own venipunctures at their departments since that time.  Jennifer has worked with Richland Community College to assist them in developing the curriculum and has instructed at the forensic phlebotomy course currently offered.  She served as the interim Illinois State Phlebotomy Coordinator from 2018-2020.  She also drafted the ILEPP standards and procedures.  There are now over 25 officers in Illinois who are part of the ILEPP.  This training allows officers to perform blood draws on impaired drivers in a safe and efficient manner and alleviates the need to involve hospitals in their investigations. In 2016, Jennifer was the recipient of the National Traffic Safety Prosecutor of the Year award presented to her by the National Association of Prosecutor Coordinators.  She was also the recipient of the MADD Hero award in 2011 for her work on prosecuting DUI cases.  And in 2014, she was awarded the 2014 Murphy Leadership award for her vision, execution, and relentless effort to eliminate impaired driving and underage drinking.  Additionally, she serves on the Illinois Impaired Driving Task Force Committee and the Illinois Traffic Records Coordinating Committee. Jennifer earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Law and Society from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana in 1993 and her Juris Doctorate from Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana in 1996.  She also was an Adjunct Professor at Hannibal LaGrange University teach...

The question posed to High Truths and Dr. Lev is “why do people use drugs?” To answer this question Dr. Lev interviews Robert, a young man who struggled with a deadly addiction to intravenous drugs while living on the streets.

Be inspired by Robert’s journey from homeless and deadly. heroin addiction to becoming a straight A student in computer science.

From Robert:

My name is Robert.  I was born in Spokane, Washington in 1988.  I have three siblings; two older sisters and a twin brother who I consider my best friend.  I grew up in in a rural area outside of my hometown, and my first job was at a ranch supply store.  After high school, I worked as an automotive mechanic and battled several addictions.  I’ve been to three different treatment centers, but only graduated from one.  Late December of last year, I had a major infection caused by self-injection that required a total of six surgeries that kept me in the hospital for three months.  Those surgeries left me with major scarring on my left arm, but they were also the final motivation I needed to put my life back together.  I’m now a thirty-two year old freshman at Mesa College, studying to become a computer scientist.  I have now been sober for 305 days as of this writing, and I’ve never been happier in my entire life.

Psychosis.  A Night In Jail is inspired by Heidi's brother's true life story of homelessness, drug addiction, and schizophrenia. He went to jail 18 times. Heidi talks with Dr. Lev about psychosis. Heidi Anderson-Swan is the co-author of A Night In Jail. Adapted as a novella, film and play, this gritty Young Adult fictional story is the first to illustrates Cannabis - Induced Psychosis (a diagnosis in the DSM-5). A Night In Jail is inspired by her brother’s true life as a homeless drug addict with schizophrenia who went to jail eighteen times. With advocates from MomsStrong.org, and led by long-time Schizophrenia Researcher, Dr. Christine Miller, Heidi met with the Drug Advisors for then-Senator Kamala Harris and Senator Dianne Feinstein. As a consultant, she worked with Los Angeles Defense Attorney, Bob Schwartz. In partnership with Behavioral Health Services (a contractor with Los Angeles County Substance Abuse Prevention and Control), she co - sponsored in-person and virtual events utilizing the film and play, A Night In Jail. As a speaker, Heidi has presented for the 2nd Annual Teaching Cannabis Awareness and Prevention Virtual Conference (co - chaired by Stanford’s Bonnie Halpern), Smart Approaches to Marijuana, Alcoholics and Substance Abuse Providers of New York State, NAMI in Long Beach and Solano County, and many other organizations. As a board member of Parents Opposed to Pot, she has been interviewed by Fox.com. NBC-LA interviewed Heidi and Kirk about their short film and its goal to prevent homelessness. Heidi is also on the Advisory Board of Johnny’s Ambassadors.

Do we still have a war on drugs? Listen to a conversation with Former DEA director, Uttam Dhillon. Uttam Dhillon is a principal of Michael Best Consulting LLC, a management consulting firm specializing in drug-related and law enforcement issues.  He is also a member of the board of directors of Opioid Clinical Management, Inc. and a member of the board of advisors of DisposeRx, Inc., and Gatekeeper Innovation, Inc., companies dedicated to reducing drug addiction and drug overdose deaths. Mr. Dhillon served as the fifteenth director of INTERPOL Washington—the U.S. National Central Bureau (USNCB)—until January 2021.  As Director, Mr. Dhillon acted as the official U.S. representative to the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), the world’s largest police organization, and its 194 member countries. From 2018 to 2020, Mr. Dhillon served as the Acting Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration where he led a workforce of over 15,000 and oversaw a budget of $3.2 billion. Mr. Dhillon was responsible for DEA’s enforcement, intelligence, administration, and regulatory activities worldwide. Mr. Dhillon has also served as Deputy Counsel and Deputy Assistant to the President, as an Associate Deputy Attorney General, and as a federal prosecutor.  In 2006, Mr. Dhillon was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate as the first Director of the Office of Counternarcotics Enforcement at the Department of Homeland Security.  Mr. Dhillon has significant Congressional experience including serving as Chief Oversight Counsel for the House Financial Services Committee, Chief Counsel and Deputy Staff Director for the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, and Senior Investigative Counsel for the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight. dcconsult.us Newsweek article: Congress must act on fentanyl. Feb 11, 2022

When Colorado voted to legalize marijuana, did they also mean to legalize high potency THC products that acts more like methamphetamine than marijuana? Listen to Dawn Reinfeld the woman behind Colorado cannabis reform legislation adding consumer protection from the new engineered products. Dawn Reinfeld Dawn Reinfeld is the co-founder and Executive Director of Blue Rising and Blue Rising Together. Having grown up in New York, Dawn has lived in Colorado for thirty years. She is an artist by trade and became active in Democratic politics after the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Dawn spent years advocating for gun safety legislation, developing skills in strategy, outreach and organizing. Her interest and commitment to issues surrounding the harms of high potency THC are a direct result of raising two teenagers in Boulder, Colorado and seeing first-hand the harms that this drug was causing for our youth. Through her role at Blue Rising Together, Dawn has spent the past two years advocating for and crafting legislation to address the loopholes in Colorado’s framework of cannabis regulations. These efforts ultimately resulted in the passage of HB21-1317, which the Denver Post called, “the most sweeping regulatory bill for the cannabis industry since legalization.”

  Brian Hurley, MD, MBA, DFASAM is an addiction physician and the Medical Director of the Division of Substance Abuse Prevention and Control in the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. He is the President-Elect of the American Society of Addiction Medicine and gives presentations around the world regarding addiction medicine. He co-chairs the SafeMedLA Medications for Addiction Treatment Action Team and is the Clinical Director of the Treatment Starts Here program through the Center for Clinical Innovation, focused on increasing the delivery of medications for addiction treatment in California’s community health centers. He is a senior researcher at the Friends Research Institute and is a primary investigator on a Tobacco Related Disease Prevention Program-funded project integrating smoking cessation services into community mental health centers and patient-centered medical homes and is the grant lead for three Medications for Addiction Treatment Access Points projects funded by the Sierra Health Foundation supporting access to medications for addiction treatment across Los Angeles County. He is also a co-investigator for several Rand Corporation projects evaluating the integration of substance use disorder and mental health treatment within community health settings. He also serves on the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology’s Addiction Psychiatry Examination Writing Committee. Brian completed the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and is an alumnus of the Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital Psychiatry Residency Training Program and the New York University Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship. On the Episode we talk about Emergency Department Drug Surviellance. This shows interesting data from 5 different hospitals across the country.

What is the difference between recovery and sobriety? Have many chances should people get for recovery - 2? 3? 27? Listen to Dr. Lev and Kevin Lee discuss recovery. Kevin D. Lee Most of Kevin Lee’s working life has been focused on behavioral health start-ups and those companies have been driven to achieve better outcomes than other providers. During the last 30 years he has founded or co-founded six behavioral health companies including two during 2021, Recovery Club America and InHome Recovery. Recovery Club America serves individuals with mental illness and/or addiction. Recovery Club’s purpose to help each Club Member stay healthy and that is done with a customized “toolkit” for mental fitness and an online community. InHome Recovery provides detoxification services in the homes of the individuals it serves and assists each person in getting into an effective and efficient treatment program that is intended to continue for a year. This addiction treatment model is intended to help individuals have minimum interruption in their lifestyle and achieve better outcomes than residential treatment centers. In 2014, Mr. Lee co-founded JourneyPure, a company that grew through start-ups to operate 15 residential and outpatient facilities for addiction treatment in Florida, Kentucky and Tennessee. JourneyPure earned productive relationships with all major health insurance plans and many large employers as a result of excellent clinical outcomes. Prior to JourneyPure, Mr. Lee co-founded two companies that started 20 psychiatric hospitals and psychiatric units within general hospitals and several freestanding outpatient clinics. He began his career as an accountant with Ernst & Young in Nashville, Tennessee. https://recoveryclubamerica.com  

Is you had Glaucoma, a disease that can make you blind, would you trust eye drops from a pharmacy or marijuana? Would you want to get medical advise from Dr. Google, Dr. Legislator or Dr. Jean Hausheer, a board certified ophthalmologist?   Jean R. Hausheer, MD, FACS Dr. Hausheer practices comprehensive cataract and refractive eye care in Lawton Oklahoma with a predominantly native American, military, and rural patient base as Clinical Professor Dept of Ophthalmology, with the Dean McGee Eye Institute, affiliated with the University of Oklahoma. She also works as Adjunct Clinical Professor of Rural Health with Oklahoma State University Family Medicine and Emergency Medicine residency programs in Lawton. She obtained her medical degree from the University of Missouri Kansas City School of Medicine, and Internship and Ophthalmology residency training at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota. Prior to coming to Oklahoma in 2012, Dr. Hausheer was ophthalmology residency program director at the UMKC Department of Ophthalmology where she achieved the academic rank of Professor. She has served as Executive Editor of the Second and Third Editions of the AAO Basic Techniques in Ophthalmic Surgery textbooks, and in 2018 completed a Master Certificate in Healthcare Management. She is past president of both the Missouri Society of Ophthalmological Surgeons and the Oklahoma Academy of Ophthalmology. Dr. Hausheer is past president of the Oklahoma State Medical Association, and for two years has served on the Oklahoma Opioid Overdose Fatality Review Commission as appointed by the Oklahoma Attorney General. She is current president of the Great Plains County Medical Society and has served on the Hearts That Care free medical clinic board of directors in Lawton since 2013. Publishing this coming summer, Hausheer has co-authored a book chapter on Ocular Conditions and the Endocannabinoid System for the medical textbook, “Cannabis in Medicine: An Evidence-Based Approach”. Currently Dr. Hausheer serves on the Oklahoma Health Care Authority as board member, and chairs Administrative Rules and serves on Pharmacy Advisory Committees to the board. Since 1994, Dr. Hausheer has served as Oral Board Examiner to the ABO and has also served as written and oral exam writer over the years. Since April 2020, Dr Hausheer has led the Healthier Oklahoma Coalition COVID 19 Task Force which includes leadership from Oklahoma Hospital Association, Oklahoma State Medical Association, Oklahoma Osteopathic Association, Oklahoma Nurses Association, Oklahoma Academy of Pediatrics, and Oklahoma Academy of Family Medicine. Since early December 2020 she has led statewide weekly hour-long press conferences on COVID 19, which are directed towards the public.

Can Public Health and Public Safety overcome suspicion of each other and create a partnership to prevent overdoses? Follow the North Star is the key such partnerships according to Chauncey Parker. Learn about the ONDCP - CDC Overdose Response Strategy. Chauncey Parker Chauncey Parker is the Director of the New York/New Jersey HIDTA, a federally-funded program that invests in federal, state and local law enforcement partnerships designed to build safe and healthy communities. He also serves as Deputy Commissioner for Community Partnerships in the New York City Police Department. A veteran of over 35 years in criminal justice, Mr. Parker began his career in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, serving for five years. Mr. Parker next served for ten years as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.  Mr. Parker left the Southern District to serve for five years as the Director of Criminal Justice for New York State and Commissioner of the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services under Governor George Pataki, where he oversaw all state criminal justice agencies.  Mr. Parker is a member of the Board of the Joyful Heart Foundation.  He is a graduate of Rollins College and Duke University School of Law.  

The cannabis industry is marketing to women with creams, lotions, shampoos, makeup and hair products. How do you know what is safe and what isn't? What are the consumer protections? What about athletes? Does THC enhance or deter from athletic performance? Is it ergogenic or ergolytic? Listen to Dr. Lev's conversation with Dr. Bader. Dr. La Tisha Bader

Dr. Bader has worked in the field of mental health and addiction for more than 18 years. She graduated from the University of North Texas in 2007 with a PhD in counseling psychology and specialization in sport psychology, and completed her postdoctoral fellowship in Chemical Dependency at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. She is a Licensed Psychologist and Licensed Addiction Counselor, in addition she also a Certified Mental Performance Consultant working with elite athletes and teams.

Dr. Bader has worked in a variety of treatment settings including residential, outpatient, private practice, and Native American health care. She spends time in the sport environment in collegiate athletic departments, working with professional teams, and Olympic athletes. She currently compliments the multi-disciplinary team at Women’s Recovery by serving as the Chief Clinical Officer, advancing treatment for women. In addition, she maintains a private practice offering counseling, consultation, educational presentations, and sport psychology services. She authored a chapter in the evidenced based book, Cannabis in Medicine. She serves on the Speakers Bureau for the National Marijuana Initiative as a subject matter expert on emerging research, addiction and treatment.

Marijuana use is common, normalized and even glamorized. How do we protect our youth and the growing brain from harm?

Aaron Weiner, PhD, ABPP

Aaron Weiner is a board-certified Psychologist and addiction specialist, and speaks nationally on the topics of addiction, behavioral health, and the impact of drug policy on public health.   He earned his doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and completed his fellowship in Addiction Psychology at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System.  His perspective is informed by years of experience growing and directing addiction service lines for hospitals and healthcare systems, the current state of medical and psychological research, and his own observations in private practice.  Dr. Weiner is the President-Elect of the Society of Addiction Psychology, a member of the Physician Speakers Bureau for the National Safety Council, and on the Science Advisory Board for Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

Dr. Aaron Weiner’s website.

Dr. Weiner’s article in Newsweek

Mental Health Hygiene article

Drug Cartels vs Criminal Organizations - who is responsible for fentanyl flooding and killing Americans? Join Luis Chaparro, investigative journalist for an inside scoop of drug labs in Mexico.

Luis Chaparro

Luis Chaparro is a freelance journalist working at the border between Texas and Mexico. He specializes in investigative journalism in Latin America criminal organizations, drugs and immigration.

Instagram: @LuisKuryaki

Twitter: LuisKuryaki

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LuisChaparro

Website: https://www.lchaparro.com

March and Ash is a legal recreational marijuana dispensary in San Diego. Dr. Lev takes a field trip with eye opening conversations. Is this the apple store or a pot shop? The difference is the heavy security, two ATM machines and shoppers leave with little bags instead of big boxes. Is the store manager practicing medicine? Would you want your doctor to be high on these drugs while treating you?

Cannabis can Weed-Whack your DNA. Genotoxicity describes the property of chemical agents that damages genetic information or causes mutations. These mutations can lead to cancer. Listen to Dr. Reece talk about his genetic research. Thank you High Truth Listeners for making us #11 in 60 Best Addiction Podcast to Follow in 2022

Stuart Reece, MD

Dr. Stuart Reece is a family physician working in Brisbane with a special interest in the medical treatment of drug addiction.  He is interested both in the underlying pathophysiology of drug addiction – how drugs work on the body and becomes so destructive to long term health – and also in the treatment of drug addiction including its radical cure.  He is one of the Australian pioneers of the use of both implant naltrexone and flumazenil infusions and implants for drug addictive disorders.  Dr Reece has written many papers on the pathophysiology of opioid addiction.  Dr Reece has a long-standing interest in cannabis dependency particularly as it relates to its neurotoxicity in both the adult and developing human organism, and cannabis genotoxicity, epigenotoxicity and chromosomal toxicity which has downstream effects lasting for multiple generations.  For these reasons, Dr Reece has done research on cellular and organismal aging in multiple addictions, and cannabis induced neurotoxicity and genotoxicity as reflected in the incidence of both birth defects and cancer development both in exposed adults, and in the offspring of exposed individuals and subsequent generations.  Dr Reece extensively uses advanced space-time statistical analytical techniques and the formal techniques of causal inference to analyze not just associations across space and time simultaneously but also to quantitatively evaluate the evidence for truly causal relationships.  Dr. Reece was appointed and now re-appointed a Professor in the School of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences at both the University of Western Australia and Edith Cowan University in recognition of his many contributions to our understanding of the toxicophysiology and treatment of drug addiction.

Cannabis Exposure and Pediatric Cancers.

Thank you High Truth Listeners for making High Truths on Drugs and Addiction #11 in the Top 60 Addiction Podcasts in 2022 according to FeedSpot. What are ways of treating addiction without medications? Is addiction treatment different for men vs women? What is toxic masculinity? Marc Azoulay

Marc is a psychotherapist in private practice in Boulder, CO and the past President of the Four Corners Group Psychotherapy Society. He helps clients that have a harmful relationship to their inherent aggression or who are stuck in the pain of their repetition compulsions. Many of his clients struggle with addiction, anxiety, and self-sabotage. Marc helps people uncover and destroy the unconscious barriers that cripple them by using a blend of Modern Psychoanalytic and Contemplative Psychotherapy. His therapeutic style can best be described as irreverent with surprising moments of profound depth. Listen to Marc's podcast, From The Ashes.

 marc-azoulay.com

Collaboration yields better results. Breaking silos between public heath and public safety while integrating prevention is key in decrease addiction and the harms from drugs. San Diego CReDO Task Force, Community Response to Drug Overdose is an example of such collaboration Drs. Close and Grover have similar solutions in Monetary, California.

Reb Close, MD

Dr. Close is an Attending Emergency Physician, currently in the process of becoming board-certified in addiction medicine in addition to Emergency Medicine and the lead clinical physician for the Monterey County Prescribe Safe Initiative. The Monterey County Prescribe Safe Initiative is a collaborative effort in Monterey County to promote the safe use of prescription drugs, promote safe pain management, reduce overdoses, and address substance use through preventative efforts and treatment. She has been a Regional Director for the California Bridge to Treatment Program since 2019. Dr. Close attended medical school at UCLA, and completed residency in Emergency Medicine at UCLA-Olive View Medical Center in Los Angeles. She has been on staff at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula since 2003.

 Prescribe Safe website:

https://www.montagehealth.org/about/prescribe-safe/

Casey Grover MD

Dr. Grover is an Emergency Physician at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula. He attended medical school at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He completed his residency in emergency medicine at Stanford University. He is currently the physician champion of the Monterey County Prescribe Safe Initiative and is currently in the process of becoming board-certified in addiction medicine in addition to Emergency Medicine. He also serves as Vice Chief of Staff at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula.

Link to Dr. Grover Podcast:  https://anchor.fm/casey-grover/

Peer  support is a blessing for many individuals with substance use disorder. Listen to Dominique's inspiring journey and how he gives back to the community in San Francisco.

Dominique McDowell

Mr. McDowell joined the leadership team to create an innovative Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) program to serve those struggling with opioid or alcohol addictions and also Contingency Management Program (CM) for patients struggling with Methamphetamine use . His program has received statewide and national acclaim, and allowed MCHWC to bring important substance use and homelessness services to southern Marin. He is trained as a Relapse Prevention Specialist (RLPS), Gorski-CENAPS, Housing Active Users, is certified by the California Consortium of Addiction Programs and Professionals (CCAPP), CASIII-Clinical Supervisor, Substance Abuse Certified Counselor (SUDCCII) and teaches anger management and conflict resolution. Mr. McDowell brings tremendous knowledge, expertise and empathy to this role, as a service provider and recovering individual. Previously, Mr. McDowell was Program Manager of the Marin County Safety Net at Ritter Center, Substance Abuse Counselor at Marin Outpatient Recovery Services, and HIV Counselor with the SF Department of Public Health. Throughout his career, he has worked with high-risk clients in chronic disease management, including HIV and Hepatitis C, and has assisted individuals and families with disparities, such as post-incarceration referrals to treatment. He is committed to a harm reduction model around addiction, I.V. drug use, safe sex and health awareness, and is actively owner of the JustUs sober living home in Marin County (Justussle.com). Mr. McDowell graduated from SF State with a degree in Public Health, specializing in Addiction Studies.

Cannabis use is associated with alarming increase in mental health crisis, especially in youth. High potency THC products are the driving this problem. Dr. Levy sees this in her clinic treating kids with cannabis use disorder.

Sharon Levy, MD, MPH

Sharon Levy, MD, MPH is a Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrician, Addiction Medicine specialist, Director of the Adolescent Substance Use and Addiction Program at Boston Children’s Hospital and Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School.  Over the past 20 years she has evaluated and treated thousands of adolescents with substance use disorders, and she has written extensively on the topic.  In 2016 she established the nation’s first accredited Pediatric Addiction Medicine Fellowship training program.  She has expertise in the integration of substance use treatment services into pediatric primary care.

Preventing youth from using marijuana is key in preventing drug addiction and psychosis. Laura Stack has practical and life saving advice for parents and those interested in drug prevention. Do you have a code word with your kids? The code means come get me wherever I am, no questions asked. Laura Stack is Johnny Stack’s mom and the Founder & CEO of Johnny’s Ambassadors. In the business world, Laura was better known by her professional moniker, The Productivity Pro®. She is a Hall-of-Fame Speaker and corporate spokesperson for many major brands. Laura is a bestselling author of eight books on productivity and performance topics with a large social media following, and she has given keynote speeches and training seminars to major corporate, association, and government audiences for over 30 years. On November 20, 2019, Laura suddenly acquired the undesired wisdom of knowing what it’s like to lose one’s child, when her 19-year-old son, Johnny, died by suicide. He became psychotic after dabbing high- potency marijuana concentrates and thought the mob was after him. Laura’s world took a 180. She filed for and received 501c3 nonprofit status for Johnny’s Ambassadors, Inc., with the mission to educate parents and teens about the dangers of today’s high-THC marijuana on adolescent brain development, mental illness, and suicide. She wrote the blockbuster book, The Dangerous Truth About Today’s Marijuana: Johnny Stack’s Life and Death Story, with 300 pages about what happened. Described as a woman with unstoppable drive and unwavering purpose, Laura hopes to help other parents, grandparents, teachers (and frankly all adults with teens in their lives) by honestly and boldly sharing Johnny’s story of his high-potency marijuana use, psychosis, and suicide. The devastating loss of her child gives Laura a powerful voice and a platform for change. Laura sees it as her responsibility to share Johnny's warning to prevent other families from having to go through what she did and save other young lives. Laura’s platform now brings marijuana education, awareness, and prevention curriculum around the U.S. to raise awareness of THC use, mental illness, and suicide. She presents live and virtual keynotes, breakout sessions, and training for parents, teens, schools, healthcare, anti-drug coalitions, community- based prevention organizations, corporate wellness programs, and government agencies. Laura is the recipient of the Drug-Free America Foundation’s Moxie Award for protecting youth from substances, as well as the Leadership in Advocacy Award from the National Speakers Association. By sharing Johnny’s own warning about marijuana, Laura is determined to start a movement to bring teen marijuana use, mental illness, and suicide into the spotlight and get them to #StopDabbing. Laura lives with her husband near Denver, Colorado and has two surviving adult children, ages 26 and 20. “Forge ahead despite your pain and give meaning to your loss.” – Laura Stack

What's the overlap in mental health and marijuana? Congressman Patrick Kennedy notes that Addiction for Profit Industry in Preying on Vulnerable populations including children.

Former U.S. Representative Patrick J. Kennedy

During his time in Congress, Patrick J. Kennedy was the lead author of the landmark Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (Federal Parity Law), which requires insurers to cover treatment for mental health and substance use disorders no more restrictively than treatment for illnesses of the body, such as diabetes and cancer. In 2013, he founded The Kennedy Forum, a nonprofit that unites advocates, business leaders, and government agencies to advance evidence-based practices, policies, and programming in mental health and addiction. In 2015, Kennedy co-authored the New York Times Bestseller, “A Common Struggle: A Personal Journey Through the Past and Future of Mental Illness and Addiction,” which details a bold plan for the future of mental health care in America. In 2017, he was appointed to the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis.

Kennedy is also the founder of DontDenyMe.org, an educational campaign that empowers consumers and providers to understand parity rights and connects them to essential appeals guidance and resources; co-founder of One Mind, an organization that pushes for greater global investment in brain research; co-chair of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention’s Mental Health & Suicide Prevention National Response to COVID-19 (National Response); and co-chair of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Behavioral Health Integration Task Force.

Dr. Di Forte is world renowned expert in cannabis induced psychosis research and risk factors for schizophrenia.

Dr Marta Di Forti is a Clinical Reader in Psychosis Research at the Dept of Social, Developmental and Genetic Research, Institute of Psychiatry, and Honorary Consultant Adult Psychiatrist, Lambeth EI Community team, South London and Maudsley NHS foundation Trust. She leads the first Cannabis Clinic for patients with Psychotic disorders in UK. She was recently awarded the Royal College of Psychiatrist Researcher of the year prize.  In 2020 she was granted a MRC Senior Research Fellowship to expand her research in the role of cannabis use in psychosis and its underlying biology. With her team she showed for the first time that use of high potency types of cannabis e.g. "skunk" carries a higher risk of psychosis than use of traditional types and that it affects rates of Psychotic disorders across Europe. Though it still remains unclear who are those cannabis use most at risk. Her future work aims to investigate the interaction between cannabis use and genes predisposing to schizophrenia, and how cannabis changes the epigenome.

Lancet Article: Daily High Potency (10%) Cannabis Use is associated with nearly 5 fold increased odds of Psychotic Disorder

What does Dr. Profeta tell college kids about drugs? He shows them what it's like for him, as an emergency physician, to tell their parents they died of an overdose. That's the worse horror for a doctor.

Dr. Louis M. Profeta is a nationally recognized, award-winning writer and Emergency Physician at St. Vincent Hospital of Indianapolis. He is clinical instructor of Emergency Medicine at Indiana University and Marian University Schools of Medicine. A graduate of Indiana University and its School of Medicine, Dr. Profeta completed his post-graduate training in Emergency Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.  He is a dynamic and sought-after public speaker and writer as well as a frequent guest on TV and radio who has gained critical acclaim for his essays on topics such as his eye-opening look at our national preparedness for influenza pandemics in What Scares Me More than Ebola. 

In 2015, 2016 and again in 2017 he was named LinkedIn Top Voice for readership in health care. In 2020 he was recognized by LinkedIn as one of the Top Voices In Health Care related to Covid-19. The Society of Professional Journalism honored his scathingly sarcastic but passionate essay, Your Kid and My Kid Aren’t Playing in the Pros, as one of the best articles on sports in 2014. In 2018 he was honored by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists for his contributions to online media.

Dr. Profeta's best-selling book, The Patient in Room Nine Says He’s God, continues to earn critical acclaim as a poignant and passionate look at society, God and life through the eyes of an ER doctor. His essay  I Know You Love Me--Now Let Me Die has been read more than five million times on LinkedIn, the Huffington Post and NPR and has sparked a whole new debate on end-of-life care. His 2017 essays, When the Lion Kills Your Child ,  A Sunday Talk on Sex, Drugs, Drinking and Dying with the Frat Boys and I'll Look at Your Facebook Profile Before I tell Your Mother You're Dead, are three of the most read and shared articles ever on LinkedIn, exposing the disastrous consequences of the opiate epidemic, drug and alcohol abuse, and sexual assaults on college campuses.  He is quickly becoming one of the most widely read opinion essayists in America.

Dr. Profeta and his wife Sheryl are p...

Can the public health solution to drug overdoses follow the public health model for COVID?Can we do contact tracing for overdoses like we do for infectious diseases? Dr. Tom Frieden, former CDC director say yes.

Dr. Tom Frieden is a physician trained in internal medicine, infectious diseases, public health, and epidemiology. He is former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and former commissioner of the New York City Health Department. Dr. Frieden is currently President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives.

Dr. Frieden began his public health career in New York City confronting the largest outbreak of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis to occur in the US. He was then assigned to India, on loan from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he helped scale up a program for effective tuberculosis diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring.  Asked to return to New York City to become Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s Health Commissioner, he directed efforts to reduce smoking and other leading causes of death that increased life expectancy by 3 years. As Director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Frieden oversaw the work that helped end the 2014 West Africa Ebola epidemic. He now leads Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of the global health organization Vital Strategies, that works with countries to prevent 100 million deaths and to make the world safer from epidemics. During the Covid pandemic, Dr. Frieden has overseen an expansion of Resolve to Save Lives activities including policy and program innovations in the United States, counsel to multilateral institutions, and support for rapid response, health care worker safety, and data-driven decision-making in more than 20 countries.

Dr. Frieden is also Senior Fellow for Global Health at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Asleep at the Switch - Dr. Frieden publication on applying public health strategies to non communicable diseases The Health Impact Pyramid - Dr. Frieden publication

Dr. Lewis Nelson myth busts alleged fentanyl overdose cases in passive handlers. He explains the nocebo effect, opposite the placebo effect. It is true that 2 grains of fentanyl can kill, but it have to be 2 grain of pure fentanyl and it has to be consumed. Touching fentanyl does not kill - people who deal drugs as well as healthcare workers touch fentanyl regularly and do not overdose. "Dose makes the Poison" is the hallmark of medical toxicology.

Lewis S. Nelson, MD is Professor and Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine, Chief of Service of the University Hospital Emergency Department, and Chief of the Division of Medical Toxicology at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, all in Newark, NJ. He is also a Senior Consultant to the New Jersey Poison Information & Education System. He is board certified in emergency medicine, medical toxicology, and addiction medicine. Dr. Nelson is an editor of the medical toxicology textbook Goldfrank’s Toxicologic Emergencies and on the editorial boards of several peer-reviewed journals. He is a member of the board of the American Board of Emergency Medicine and several other academic organizations and is Past President of American College of Medical Toxicology. Dr. Nelson serves as a long-standing consultant to CDC, DHS, and FDA. Some of his areas of interest include non-opioid pain relief strategies, opioid overdose and management, addiction and withdrawal management, and health policy focused on issues related to medication safety and substance use.

 

Dr. Lev continued her visit at March and Ash marijuana store. After meeting Terry the store manager in Part 1, she meets sits with the store owner in Part 2.

Brett, the owner tells stories of people who died after using marijuana, kids who need marijuana for pain, and teens who develop terrible addiction. Learn about the initiatives that are important to the legal marijuana industry.

Listen to the conversation and ask yourself if marijuana is really a medicine. Compare the ethics of a marijuana store that sells what is legal if people ask for it – to physicians who practice in hospitals and clinics and must balance risks and benefits before recommending a medicine or prescription. It would be malpractice to recommend or prescribe any medication that is known to harm someone, even if it is legal.

Ben Cort Ben’s passion for recovery, prevention and harm reduction comes from his own struggle with substance abuse. Sober since 6/15/96, Ben has been a part of the recovery movement in almost every way imaginable; from a recipient to a provider to a spokesperson. Cort has a deep understanding of the issues and a personal motivation to see the harmful effects of drug and alcohol abuse minimized. From non-profits to hospitals to private programs Ben has been a leader inside of many forms of addiction treatment and prevention. From 2017-2020 Ben was a consultant to various treatment programs, state governments, professional and collegiate athletics and labor. He is now CEO of the Foundry Steamboat Springs, an inpatient treatment program for men in the mountains of Colorado. Ben is a Jr Fellow at the University of Florida inside of their drug policy institute, a board member for NALGAP (National Association of Lesbian, Gay Bisexual, Transgender treatment providers and their allies), a Board member at SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana) and faculty at numerous institutes. He is a published author (Weed Inc, Simon and Shuster 2017) and his TED talk “Surprising Truths about Legalizing Cannabis” has been viewed over 4 million times.

Dr. Josh Bloom is an organic chemist who debunks Junk Science in his work with the American Council on Science. Hear what he has to say about opioids and pain, fentanyl, methamphetamine, benzodiazepines, and cannabis. Do Dr. Lev and Dr. Bloom agree or disagree on issues of addiction? You judge.

Dr. Josh Bloom, ACSH's Director of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Science, earned his Ph.D. in organic chemistry at the University of Virginia, followed by postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania. His career 20+ year first career was drug discovery research at Wyeth. During this time he participated in research in a number of therapeutic areas, including diabetes and obesity, new antibiotics, HIV/AIDS, and hepatitis C. His group discovered the novel antibiotic Tygacil®, which was approved by the FDA for use against resistant bacterial infections in 2005. He is the author of 25 patents, and 35 academic papers, including a chapter on new therapies for hepatitis C in Burger’s Medicinal Chemistry, Drug Discovery, and Development, 7th Edition (Wiley, 2010).

Dr. Bloom, who joined the American Council on Science and Health in 2010 as Director of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, has published more than 75 op-eds in numerous periodicals, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, New Scientist, The New York Post, National Review Online, The Boston Herald, The Baltimore Sun, The Chicago Tribune, and The New York Daily News. He has also done numerous radio and television shows and podcasts on topics related to drugs, chemicals, and most importantly, the plight of pain patients – the innocent victims of the misguided war on opioid drugs.

He is now recognized as an expert in government opioid policy and was the first journalist to write a nationally published opinion piece about the unintended consequences of a governmental crackdown on prescription pain medications (New York Post, 2013). Since that time he has published more than 20 op-eds in regional and national newspapers on different aspects of the crisis.

He was also the first writer (2016) to study, dissect and ultimately debunk the manipulated statistics used by the CDC to justify its recommendations for opioid prescribing, which have resulted in Draconian requirements for prescribing pain medications as well as government-mandated, involuntary tapering of patients receiving opioid treatment, both of which have caused great harm and needless suffering to chronic pain patients. His 2016 article, "Six Charts Designed to Confuse You," is considered to be the seminal work on CDC deception and has been adopted by patient advocacy groups. It has been sent to governors, senators, and state legislatures.

This is a special episode of High Truths featuring the voices of California Cannabis Victims. These are parents who's children died because of cannabis addiction. They brave the cruelty of people who bully them, judge them, and hit them when they are down. They risk attacks in order to spare other parents from similar tragedy. May the memory of these children be a blessing and may other children live from their sacrifice. Learn more at

• IASIC
• Mom Strong
• Every Brain Matters

  Daniel Reader, 1995 - 2020 Shane Robinson, 1996 - 2012 Jolo Talay, 1996 - 2018 Trevor Leopold, 2001- 2019 Kevin Bright, 1989 - 2018        

What are the leading issues for Hospitals and Heathcare? Is it COVID, medial education, universal healthcare? And what about the over 100,000 people a year who die from drugs? Scott Becker shares his perspective as a national expert in hospital and healthcare affairs.

Scott Becker is a partner in the healthcare department at McGuireWoods. He previously served on the Board of Partners of the firm and chaired the healthcare department for nearly 13 years. Scott is the founder and publisher of Becker’s Hospital Review and Becker’s Healthcare. He represents hospitals and health systems, healthcare companies, surgery center chains, large practices, and private equity funds. Scott is a Harvard law graduate and certified public accountant.

What are the environment impacts of cannabis grows? The carbon foot print for tomato grows is 2 kilograms, much different than for cannabis grows is 3600 kilograms. Cleaning up illegal cannabis grows cost more money than cleaning up an oil spill. Hear from Dr. Greta Wengert, and ecologist working in California public lands and witnesses the effects of illegal marijuana grows on water theft, damage to wild life, and effects of pesticides.

Dr. Greta Wengert is the Executive Director of Integral Ecology Research Center, a non-profit research organization. Greta earned her B.S. in Natural Resources at Cornell University, her M.S. in Wildlife Ecology at Humboldt State University, and her Ph.D. in Ecology at the University of California Davis, and has over 20 years of ecological research experience throughout California and Oregon. Her research focuses on the relationships among forest vertebrates and how these relationships are impacted by natural and human influences. Since 2012, her research has focused on the environmental impacts from trespass marijuana cultivation centering mainly on direct effects on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems from the pesticide use and habitat manipulation associated with cultivation. She speaks regularly on this topic to local and nationwide audiences to spread awareness on this growing environmental issue, and to encourage the development and funding sources for solutions to this problem.

Candy (Candace) Lightner, founder of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and We Save Lives is recognized nationally and internationally as the moving force behind reshaping the nation's attitude toward drunk driving (as well as drugged and distracted driving).

Recognizing her years of dynamic leadership, the media voted Ms. Lightner as “one of the most influential American citizens of the twentieth century.” People Magazine called her “the Conscience of a Nation” and books have referred to her as the “Mother of Movements.”

She founded MADD after her 13-year-old daughter, Cari, was killed by a multiple repeat offending drunk driver. Lightner has been credited with saving more than 400,000 lives. Armed with her anger and passion, she set out to change the system and the prevailing attitude of societal acceptance about the most often committed crime in the country.

The mother turned activist not only led the movement that made drunk driving socially unacceptable, she became a leading victim’s advocate, teaching victims and survivors how to fight for justice in the courtroom.

As MADD's Founding Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman of the Board, Lightner masterminded MADD from a small California grass roots organization into an international corporation with 400+ chapters worldwide and an annual budget of more than 12 million dollars. Under her leadership, MADD’s membership base grew to more than two million

Does marijuana cause mental illness and violence? Alex Berenson published a doctorate type research in his book - Tell Your Children. Alex is also known for being cancelled by Twitter for his views on the COVID vaccine.

Alex Berenson was born in New York in 1973 and grew up in Englewood, N.J.  After graduating from Yale University in 1994 with degrees in history and economics, he joined the Denver Post as a reporter. In 1996, he became one of the first employees at TheStreet.com, the groundbreaking financial news Website.

In 1999, he joined The New York Times. At the Times, he covered everything from the drug industry to Hurricane Katrina; in 2003 and 2004, he served two stints as a correspondent in Iraq, an experience that led him to write The Faithful Spy, his debut novel, which won the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best First Novel. He left the Times in 2010 to devote himself to writing fiction. But conversations with his wife led him to begin researching the science around cannabis and mental illness, a project that became the book Tell Your Children, published in January 2019.

He has now written twelve John Wells novels and two non-fiction books, The Number and Tell Your Children. Alex lives in the Hudson Valley with his wife, Dr. Jacqueline Berenson, a forensic psychiatrist, and their children.

FDA Label for Marinol, THC

FDA Label for Epidiolex, CBD

 

How many second chances should people get on drug addiction and treatment? Listen to Danny Darko Marciano as he drives to the Grammy's in Las Vegas and judge for yourself and Danny shares his dramatic life journey. Danny Darko Marciano is a recovered heroin addict and ex-convict turned Children's book author and entertainer. He has been nominated for best new rapper by the San Diego Music Awards in 2019 and now is a member of the Grammys, Los Angeles Recording Academy. Most recently he can be seen on season 3 of Mayans M.C. The Microphone Doctors Pandora Links to Danny's Music  

Where do doctors go for advice if they need help treating patients with addiction? NCCC is like the National Poison Center but with a focus on drug addiction. NCCC provides free advice from national experts to doctors and clinicians treating patients with addiction. On this podcast hear from the NCCC experts on how doctors give advice to other doctors.

NCCC - National Clinician Consultation Center

For 30 years, the National Clinician Consultation Center (NCCC) has offered free, on-demand tele-consultation on HIV and viral hepatitis to health care providers across the U.S.  In 2015, with support from the Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC) at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the NCCC launched a new National Substance Use Warmline (855.300.3595) to address providers’ clinical questions regarding substance use disorder prevention, evaluation, and medical management.  The Warmline’s multi-disciplinary team of experienced addiction medicine professionals has provided over 3,000 individually tailored consultations across a broad range of topics, such as novel buprenorphine initiation strategies; alcohol withdrawal management for older adults with complex comorbidities; and pharmacotherapy considerations for pregnant and parenting individuals.  The Warmline welcomes calls from any U.S.-affiliated clinician, especially providers working in safety net healthcare systems and rural communities.  More information is available at: nccc.ucsf.edu.

Brenda Goldhammer, MPH  - NCCC Program Director

Brenda Goldhammer has been working in the HIV/AIDS field for nearly 30 years.  She received her Master’s in Public Health from the University of California at Los Angeles where she was awarded the Improving Public Health in Southern California Fellowship for her work with social service providers serving people who are unhoused and the University Fellowship for academic excellence.  Before joining the National Clinician Consultation Center, Ms. Goldhammer launched her career with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) at the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies as an HIV/AIDS Intervention Specialist.  As Program Director for the National Clinician Consultation Center based out of UCSF, she provides operational and strategic leadership including overseeing the program’s technological and infrastructure improvements.  She also manages the projects collaborative partnerships and public relations.

  Jesse Ristau, MD - NCCC Physician Consultant

Dr. Jesse Ristau completed her M.D. at Boston University Medical Center, Primary Care Internal Medicine residency at UCSF and Primary Care and Addiction Medicine Fellowship at UCSF. Dr. Ristau is now an Assistant Professor on faculty at UCSF Health Division of General Internal Medicine and practices primary care and addiction medicine. She also provides addiction consultation with the UCSF NCCC Substance Use Warmline and clinical care for inpatient and outpatient addiction specialty clinics in San Francisco.

 

Mishka Terplan, MD MPH FACOG DFASAM - NCCC Physician Consultant

Dr. Mishka Terplan is board certified in both obstetrics and gynecology and in addiction medicine. His primary clinical, research, public health, and advocacy interests lie along the intersections of reproductive and behavioral health. He is Medical Director at Friends Research Institute and adjunct faculty at the University of California, San Francisco where he is a Substance Use Warmline clinician for the National Clinician Consultation Center. Dr. Terplan has active grant funding and has published over 140 peer-reviewed articles with emphasis on health inequities, discrimination, and access to treatment. He has spoken a...

Medical Examiner

 Dr. Steven C. Campman is San Diego County’s Chief Deputy Medical Examiner.  He earned his B.S. in Biology from Loyola Marymount University in 1987; graduated from Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, in 1992, and then completed residency in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology at the University of California, Davis Medical Center, in 1997.  Following fellowship training in Forensic Pathology with the Northern California Forensic Pathology Group at the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office in 1998, he went to work for the US Air Force and was stationed at the Office of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner, the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, in Washington DC, as Associate, then Deputy and Chief Deputy Medical Examiner for Medicolegal Operations and Investigations, until he went to work for the County in 2001 (later continuing to serve in the Air Force Reserve as a Regional Medical Examiner until he retired).  He is Board Certified in Anatomical/Clinical, and Forensic Pathology, continues to regularly perform autopsies while managing the Pathology Division of the Medical Examiner’s Department, and testifies regularly in CA Superior Court. 

Learning Points:

• Deaths due to drug overdoses and drug toxicity are preventable deaths.
• Drugs taken not from a pharmacy – should be considered deadly.
• A Medical Examiner is a medical doctor and a coroner is a law enforcement professional. Most of the United States has coroners.
• Death Certificates are not always accurate. There is an art and education in completing these correctly.
• Most people do not obtain an autopsy upon deaths. Only about 10% or less of deaths are investigated.
• Association of death are not typically included in a cause of death. For example, a person who died in a car collision while intoxicated on alcohol and drugs will have a cause of death listed a accident due to blunt force trauma.
• Fentanyl deaths have more than doubled in San Diego in the past year. Fentanyl deaths can happen fast. Fentanyl has been found in fake pills, methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, and even vaping products.
• Hospitals should include fentanyl in urine drugs testing in an automatic and universal manner.
• This episode was recorded at the end of October when COVID did not attack California. Since then, California has led the nation in COVID deaths.

How do you talk to your children about drugs? There is increase normalization and commercialization of drugs, especially marijuana, preying on kids. If parents don't talk to kids about drugs, they will learn about it from Snap Chat or Drug Dealers. Addiction is a disease on the young brain with serious health harms.  Dr. Shannon Murphy is a pediatrician and expert in messaging to children and young adults. Dr. Shannon Murphy is a pediatrician who currently volunteers her time in drug education. Dr. Murphy received her undergraduate degree at Vanderbilt University and her M.D. from Emory School of Medicine. She completed her pediatric training at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and subsequently worked as a primary care pediatrician in a community group practice in Alabama. She has served on a Practice Advisory Committee on Adolescent Substance Use for the American Academy of Pediatrics and currently sits on the Board of Directors for National Families in Action (NFIA), a national non-profit substance use prevention organization. Additionally, Dr. Murphy serves on the Expert Physician Council for the International Academy on the Science and Impact of Cannabis (IASIC), an international non-profit organization of doctors educating on marijuana. Dr. Murphy’s primary focus is on adolescent health and well-being. She is actively involved in developing education-based community outreach programs throughout the state with a concentration on marijuana education for teens, parents, and community organizations. NIDA - is a resource Dr. Murphy referred to.

Rarely is there a new medication that is really new and innovative. Imagine a drug that deactivate methamphetamine within 2 minutes and excretes it from the body within 2 hours. CS1103 is that drug. Listen to this episode from the drug developers at Clear Scientific and learn about this magically innovation.

Clear Scientific

Clear Scientific was founded in Cambridge, MA, in 2019. The heart of our mission is saving lives. We are a biopharmaceutical company pioneering novel therapies for life-threatening and debilitating conditions caused by an excess of harmful substances in the body.www.clearsci.com

We are advancing a pipeline of innovative medicines in four therapeutic areas: Overdose caused by methamphetamine, fentanyl and their co-use; Accidental ADHD medication poisoning in children (Adderall and Ritalin); Reversal of neuromuscular blocking agents in anesthesia; Metabolic and neurodegenerative condition-induced CNS dysfunction.

Our pioneering work has produced a first-in-class treatment, CS-1103, for methamphetamine overdose, a critical public health crisis.

Mitch Zakin, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer

• 35+ years experience developing technologies for life sciences and chemical/biological defense
• Former DARPA Program Manager, Visiting Scholar Wyss Institute for Bio-Inspired Engineering at Harvard Med School; Co-Founder Soft Robotics Inc.
• , Physical Chemistry, Harvard University; BS, Chemistry CCNY

Winston Henderson, JD, General Counsel

• 25+ years experience in intellectual property/corporate law and working in technology startups from founding to exit
• Work experience Kenyon & Kenyon, Anderson Consulting, Surface Logix, Active member Board of Trustees at Boston Children’s Hospital
• JD, Duke University School of Law; BSE, Biomedical Eng & Electrical Engg.

Is drug testing important? Does it make a clinical difference? I discuss this question with Drs. Dawson and Passik from Millennium Health. Millennium Health Millennium Health is an accredited specialty laboratory with over a decade of experience in medication monitoring and drug testing services, helping clinicians monitor use of prescription medications and illicit drugs and analyzing specimens to find nationwide drug use trends. Eric Dawson, PharmD

Eric Dawson, PharmD brings a diverse background of over 20 years of clinical experience, research, and education. He has a particular interest in the issues surrounding appropriate opioid prescribing as well the consequences of drug abuse, misuse, and diversion.  He is passionate about educating clinicians on the topic and has given many lectures to pharmacists, nurses, and physicians. Dr. Dawson has also authored or coauthored several publications in JAMA, JAMA Network Open, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, etc. on drug use. He earned his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Auburn University graduating with highest honors. He is also a licensed pharmacist in the state of Alabama.

Steven Passik, PhD

After a 25-year career as an academic clinical psychologist working with cancer and non-cancer pain patients and their families, Dr. Steve Passik has now been in industry for nearly 10 years. Having worked at the interface of pain and addiction both clinically and conducting research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, University of Kentucky and Vanderbilt University, Dr. Passik came to industry to contribute to safer pain management and improved addiction recognition and treatment.

He initially began working at Millennium Health with an eye toward strengthening the evidence base underpinning urine drug testing in pain and addiction management. He then spent several years in pharma working to help in the development of safer opioid formulations.

He returns now to Millennium Health as VP, Scientific Affairs and Head of Clinical Data Programs, working primarily on expanding work begun at MH using aggregated urine drug testing results from around the country to inform clinicians, policy makers and public health officials on the changing landscape of substance use to help facilitate a data driven approach to this enormous public health problem.

 

Paramedics are doing more than naloxone for drugs overdoses. They are starting addiction treatment and Suboxone right on the streets.  Listen to Martha Waller and Tara Tucker talk about their prehospital Suboxone project. This is a pilot project and there are still kinks to work out before this can be implemented on a wide scale. But Martha and Tara are innovators, think outside the box, and bring hope and solutions to the issue of addiction.

Martha Waller, Ph.D.

Dr. Martha Waller is a Senior Program Evaluator I and has been with PIRE since 2003. She received her Ph.D. in Maternal and Child Health with a minor in Epidemiology from the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005 and her M.A. in Social and Experimental Psychology from New Mexico State University in 1999. Dr. Waller was a Fellow in the Maternal and Child Health-Public Health Leadership Institute (MCH-PHLI). This prestigious Fellowship is a year-long leadership development program targeted to upper-level leaders in State Title V programs, family advocacy, and other organizations that work on behalf of and promote healthy families, particularly the maternal and child health populations in the US and its territories.

Dr. Waller has served as lead evaluator for the New Mexico Office of Substance Abuse Prevention since 2007, evaluating the SAMHSA funded NM SPF SIG, SPE, PFS II, PFS 2015, SPF Rx, and PDO grants and all SAPT Block grant substance abuse prevention programming. She has extensive experience working with communities and state agencies to build capacity around each step of the SPF model including needs assessment, building community readiness and coalition capacity, strategic planning, program implementation, evaluation, cultural competency, and sustainability.

She also leads a grant from the National Center for Responsible Gaming to assess problem gambling among at-risk youth and adults in NM. Most recently, she received a NIDA R21 to evaluate an innovative approach to opioid overdose prevention in Forsyth County, NC where community paramedics create a bridge to MAT immediately following reversal by offering up to seven days of buprenorphine while collaborating with peer navigators to provide motivational interviewing and support until the person is enrolled in MAT. Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina also funded Dr. Waller to conduct a similar study in Stanly County, NC.

Dr. Waller has worked on several NIH longitudinal studies using Add Health data examining health behaviors and outcomes among adolescents and young adults, with a particular focus on mental health, substance use, sexual risk taking, and sexual orientation. She led an NIAAA R03 that examined the role of alcohol outlet density on drinking behaviors and intimate partner violence using Add Health.

Finally, Martha led an Indian Health Services grant to provide evaluation training and TA to eleven Tribal HPDP grantees across the county. Her research interests include exploring the effect of environmental characteristics associated with risk behavior and health disparities and environmental-level prevention strategies particularly among adolescent and young adult populations. She enjoys being involved in both research and evaluation opportunities.

Tara Tucker, Paramedic

Tara is a Paramedic and Mental Health Professional, leads Forsyth County’s Opioid Task Force. She has been instrumental in pulling together community partners to work on fighting the opioid epidemic from a variety of angles. Currently, she serves as a Captain with Forsyth County Emergency Services and developed the foundation for their Mobile Integrated Heal...

Methadone Clinic give methadone, but can they use other medications to treat addiction or assist with other drugs such as methamphetamine? Listen to the conversation with our nation's leader of opioid treatment programs, Mark Parrino. Mark W. Parrino, MPA President, American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence, AATOD Mr. Parrino has been involved in the delivery of health care and substance abuse treatment since 1974. He received both a Baccalaureate in Psychology (1974) and a Masters in Health Policy, Planning and Administration (1982) from New York University. Mr. Parrino served as the Director of the Gramercy Park Medical Group, an outpatient methadone treatment program, from 1980 to 1994. He also served as President of the National Development and Research Institutes, Inc. (NDRI). Mr. Parrino served as the Chair of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) Consensus Panel for State Methadone Treatment Guidelines, the first Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) published for national distribution. Currently, Mr. Parrino is the President of the American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence (AATOD) and continues to be responsible for the development and implementation of the Association's organizing initiatives. He also serves as the Vice President of the World Federation for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence (WFTOD).

Chris lost everything and ended up in jail. There he discovered his love for cooking. He now feeds the "homeless", or who he calls the outside community. Chris's cooking is given for free and with love, with a taste that will challenge Phil's Bar-B-Q. Should you give the outside community money? How should you treat people who live outside?  Chris shares his opinion.

Christopher Ibanez is the senior servant and administrator of God’s Kitchen, a mobile van that provides 200 home cooked meals for the outside community that challenges the taste of Phil’s BBQ. Chris refers to what some call the homeless, as his brothers and sisters. Chris has a BS in business management and organizational leadership. He is a recovered addict and author of the book 9:11: The House of Steel,  available on Amazon.

Pamela McColl met the Pied Pipers of Pot and watched them lead Canada, American and a global following of marijuana. Where there warning signs of the medical and societal harms before legalization?

Pamela McColl

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_McColl

Principal and Publisher, Grafton and Scratch 

Pamela's Book

The Pied Pipers of Pot: Protecting Youth from the Marijuana Industry

When the product should not be used according to Pamela's Research

Cannabis should not be used if you:

• are under the age of 25
• are allergic to any cannabinoid or to smoke
• have serious liver, kidney, heart or lung disease
• have a personal or family history of serious mental disorders such as schizophrenia, psychosis, depression, or bipolar disorder
• are pregnant, are planning to get pregnant, or are breast-feeding
• are a man who wishes to start a family
• have a history of alcohol or drug abuse or substance dependence

Talk to your health care practitioner if you have any of these conditions. There may be other conditions where this product should not be used, but which are unknown due to limited scientific information.

Tyler's Law, SB 864 is a California Law signed by Governor Newson in September 2022 that would require all hospitals to include fentanyl whenever a urine drug screen is ordered in a hospital setting. Most people who learn about the bill ask, "isn't that already happening?" Surprisingly, no. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that does not show up on routine hospital opiate screens. To detect fentanyl hospitals, need to purchase a specific fentanyl reagent that averages 75 cents a test.

Watch Fox News Story on SB 864 Melissa Melendez was elected to represent California’s 28th Senate District in May 2020 Melissa Melendez represented California’s 67th Assembly District from 2012 to May 2020. She is a veteran of the United States Navy where she became fluent in Russian and one of the first women approved to fly aboard an EP-3 reconnaissance aircraft overseas. She served her country for ten years in the Navy, during the Cold War, Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. After leaving the Navy, Melissa started her own small business providing transcription services to high-level Pentagon officials. She was elected to serve on the Lake Elsinore City Council in 2008 where she also served as Mayor.  Melissa has her Bachelor’s degree in History and Political Studies and a Master’s degree in Business Administration. She lives in Lake Elsinore with her husband Nico, also a Navy veteran, and their five children. Juli Shamash is mother of Tyler who died of fentanyl after a negative drug screen at an emergency department. After Tyler's death Juli established the Drug Awareness Foundation to provide education and advocacy on drug deaths.  

Drug Trends are important for public health and public safety.  As a physician if there is a new disease such as COVID or Monkeypox, I need to knew the signs, symptoms and treatment. Similarly if there are new drugs and poisoning I need to be able to make the diagnosis and apply appropriate treatment. That is why find it important to work with law enforcement and our medical examiner who are the first to identify drug trends. Dr. Eric wish tracks drug trends nationally.

Dr. Eric Wish received his Ph.D. in psychology from Washington University in St. Louis. He subsequently completed a NIDA post-doctoral fellowship in psychiatric epidemiology in the Department of Psychiatry at the Washington University School of Medicine. Between 1986 and 1990, Dr. Wish served as a Visiting Fellow at the National Institute of Justice in the Department of Justice, where he supervised the development and launching of the Drug Use Forecasting (DUF, later ADAM) program. In 2013, Dr. Wish developed the Community Drug Early Warning System (CDEWS), a new system for detecting emerging drugs by expanded testing of urine specimens obtained from criminal justice drug testing programs. In 2014, Dr. Wish received a 5 year award from NIH/NIDA to establish the Coordinating Center for the National Drug Early Warning System (NDEWS). As part of NDEWS, he oversaw the Drug Outbreak Testing Service (DOTS) pilot study, which collected and analyzed urine specimens from hospitals and treatment facilities. Also, from 2017-2020, he served as Co-PI of the MPowering the State Initiative’s Opioid Use Disorders Project. As part of the MPower project, Dr. Wish led development of the Emergency Department Drug Surveillance (EDDS) system to track drug toxicology trends using de-identified electronic health records (EHR) from 7 hospitals in Maryland. In 2021 he received funding from the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) to expand the EDDS system to collect EHRs and urine specimens from five hospitals nationally to monitor urine drug trends and identify emerging drugs being used by drug overdose patients. EDDS is now being further expanded to include 20 additional hospitals across the United States. Dr. Wish has published numerous articles and spoken widely about such issues as synthetic cannabinoids and other new psychoactive substances, recent increases in heroin and fentanyl use, the identification of drug use in offenders, relapse to heroin use by Vietnam veterans, and the validity of self-reports of drug use. Since 1990, Dr. Wish has been Director of the Center for Substance Abuse Research (CESAR) at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Sara Whaley worked on a model to make sure opioid settlement dollars are distributed fairly and effectively. The  historic pattern with tobacco has been: Health Claims - Normalize Use - Health Harms - Lawsuits. Then again with Opioids: Health Claims - Normalize High Dose Use - Health Harms Lawsuits. Big Pharma will be paying $32 Billion for lying about the harms of chronic and high dose prescription opioids that killed people. Are lawsuit a deterrent for future public health lies or is lying about public health a good business model? What have we learned from tobacco settlement dollars that can be applied to opioid settlement dollars? Is Big Marijuana next to follow the pattern of Health Claims - Normalize Use - Health Harms and Lawsuits

Sara Whaley, MSW, MPH, MA

Sara Whaley is research faculty at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and is the Program Manager of the Bloomberg Overdose Prevention Initiative. Sara is a member of the team at JHSPH that coordinated the creation of the Principles for The Use of Funds From The Opioid Litigation and is a member of the Working Group that coordinates efforts to support state and local governments in the effective use of litigation dollars. She began her career providing direct service to individuals with behavioral health needs and those who use drugs. She brings this experience to her research and to projects providing technical assistance to state governments and local service providers. Her goal is to use data to inform effective policy that improves the health and well-being of individuals who use drugs and their families

Resources:

www.opioidprinciples.jhsph.edu

https://www.opioidsettlementtracker.com/settlementspending

https://www.nashp.org/how-states-administering-opioid-settlement-funds/

 

Is vaping helping people quit smoking or creating new smokers? In a simulation model, scientists calculated 3000 years of life gained in smokers who quit through vaping. They also calculated 1,500,000 years of life lost in teens and young adults who started vaping who otherwise would have never smoked. 3000 years gained verses 1.5 million year lost.  What a terrible public health choice. Dr. William Lynch discusses vaping.

William J. Lynch Jr. received his pharmacy degree from Rutgers University and is a practicing clinical pharmacist with Jefferson Health System where he is a member of the Pain Management & Addiction Committee. He serves as Adjunct Faculty at the Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine. His pharmacy background includes over 35 years of clinical practice at Jefferson and Rowan and also as Adjunct Faculty Clinical Preceptor for Rutgers University, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy and Thomas Jefferson University College of Pharmacy. He is a clinical scientific expert member of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, National Marijuana Initiative Speakers Bureau (ONDCP HIDTA NMI) and the International Academy on the Science and Impact of Cannabis (IASIC). He is also a health care professional partner of the Keep Delaware Safe & Healthy Coalition, the State of Delaware Substance Abuse Epidemiological Outcomes Working Group and the Central Virginia Overdose Working Group. Bill serves as an Advisory Board Member with atTAcK addiction and is also a member of the Camden County New Jersey Addiction Awareness Task Force where he serves as the Education and Prevention Committee Co-Chair. He is a certified State of New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety Division of Criminal Justice Police Training Commission Instructor. He also serves as the Gloucester Township Police Department SAVE Program Adviser and as a New Jersey State Police Regional Operations Intelligence Center Drug Monitoring Initiative Fusion Center partner and Health and Prevention Sharing Network partner.