Heroin is sometimes laced with much stronger fentanyl, leading to increased and accidental overdose deaths. (Pixabay) The US House of Representatives and the Senate have each now passed bipartisan bills to fight the opioid epidemic and overdose (OD) death crisis. The two bills [...]
Photo of Mac Miller (2017) by Nicolas Völcker (Wikimedia commons) Rapper Mac Miller — who was open about his substance abuse in his music and interviews — died Sept. 7. As of this writing (Sept. 10), the toxicology reports had not been released yet, but no “apparent” [...]
Alcohol withdrawal can be deadly. (Wellcome Images via Wikimedia commons) The importance of family and friends to an addict’s decision to seek recovery should not be under-stressed. While it is true that the addict must want to recover and be willing to do [...]
It’s Independence Day, and even though it has the temerity and bad timing to arrive mid-week – demolishing any hope of squeezing a three-day or even a four-day weekend out of it – chances are you will want to celebrate. You can, even if you [...]
The existentialist philosopher Soren Kierkegaard wrote, "Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Or maybe, as William James remembered it, "We live forwards but we understand backwards". The point is that life is not a mathematical equation or, if it [...]
(Pixabay) It cannot be repeated too often that about half the people with a substance use disorder also have a mental illness or, more correctly, another mental illness. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), "drug addiction is a mental illness." When [...]
(Pixabay) Easter is a time of rebirth, renewal. Not only because it's the Christian's commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but also because (in the northern hemisphere) it's the early days of Spring following the vernal equinox, and the setting for many [...]
St. Patrick’s Day Safety Tips While in the U.S. St. Patrick's Day is mostly a day to celebrate Irishness and drink green beer, and a great deal of drinking does take place, it doesn't make the top five the worst driving periods of the year [...]
(Pixabay) This is (or was; the week's almost over) National Drug and Alcohol Facts Week. It continues through Jan. 28, with local events all over the country (check your community bulletin boards). NDAAW was designed by scientists with the National Institute on Drug [...]
