The Big News

A nationwide ban on many flavored e-cigarette products is now in effect. The ban covers a number of kid-friendly flavorings, such as mint and fruit, though menthol and tobacco flavorings remain legal. The ban also only applies to specific types of devices: cartridge or pre-filled pod devices, like the ones made popular by Juul. All other devices remain on the market—including disposable varieties.

The ban is meant to curb e-cigarette use among children who have been attracted to cartridge vapes due to their flavors, cheap price and concealing features.

A day before the ban took place, Congress held a hearing with e-cigarette executives—another public reckoning with nicotine's threat to kids. A House oversight panel also released a memo of 60 responses from Juul about their marketing practices.

Unfortunately, vaping may be a health crisis that has only just begun—especially now that it has become a popular way of consuming marijuana concentrates, or dabs.

A joint today is roughly 25% THC—the chemical in marijuana that gets you high—and 3 to 5 times higher than the joints of the previous generation. A “dab,” increasingly popular with young Americans, can be up to 90% THC. But most Americans still aren’t familiar with dabs or dab pens, which are now exploding, especially among kids from wealthier areas who can afford them. The significant health risks associated with dabs need to be more widely known. It’s a good time to revisit our Emerging Drug Trends report on the topic. Learn even more in this new report by Axios.

The reality is that marijuana use is getting riskier while public perceptions of risk are going down—a bad combination. A new study in The American Journal of Health Promotion suggests that cannabis users’ beliefs about the drug’s risks and benefits are often out-of-step with scientific evidence.

Emory University and Hazelden Betty Ford have signed a letter of intent to create the Addiction Alliance of Georgia, a unique collaboration aimed at reducing addiction rates, improving recovery rates and saving lives throughout the state. A meeting last week with 175 community leaders in Atlanta kicked off efforts to secure philanthropic support to help advance the partnership. Stay tuned for more soon on this exciting collaboration!

It’s Children of Addiction Awareness Week. Our colleague Jerry Moe, national director of Hazelden Betty Ford Children’s Programs, will be the featured expert on an NPR-facilitated Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) this Thursday at 2pm Eastern time. The topic: helping a child whose parent is struggling with addiction. Our Children’s Program also is hosting a public art show Feb. 13 in Denver featuring the perspective of kids and teens impacted by a loved one's addiction. It promises to be powerful.

The White House released a new tool to help rural community leaders build an effective local response to the addiction crisis.

We like Oregon House Bill 4031, which would scrub all instances of “addict,” “substance abuser” “alcoholic” and other language that triggers implicit negative biases/stigma from hundreds of pages of Oregon law. If passed, Oregon will only use person-first language—e.g. “a person with addiction” or “people with substance use disorders”—for official business.

After Kansas City Chiefs Coach Andy Reid had hoisted the Lombardi Trophy and taken part in the obligatory Super Bowl postgame ceremony, his family gathered together on the confetti-covered field at Hard Rock Stadium to “cry and feel the spirit” of Garret Reid—who was lost to overdose in 2012—“looking down on us.”

This week’s featured media is the latest in our award-winning podcast series, with host William C. Moyers talking to three participants in our 2019 Summer Institute for Medical Students (see photos above and at bottom). Hear directly from them about the amazing stigma-smashing impact of learning alongside patients and caregivers, and see how the immersive experience informs their outlook as future physicians. It’s inspiring! Watch, listen or read.

We’re also big fans of the Mom Enough podcast. Today, it features a new episode with our colleague Helene Photias on parental addiction and how parents and their children can heal together.

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Treatment Industry Issues and Reforms

The first public charge under the federal Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act of 2018 has resulted in a Kentucky woman pleading guilty to soliciting kickbacks, making false statements to law enforcement agents, and tampering with records. Learn more →

Kaiser Health News highlights the unscrupulous practices—like kickbacks—that Hazelden Betty Ford and other addiction treatment leaders continue to speak up about as we advocate for reforms in our own field.

An Administration official explains how the President’s new budget proposals will help people who are facing addiction and serious mental health disorders. Among the proposals: reform of the Institutions for Mental Disease payment exclusion, the long-standing policy that prohibits federal reimbursement for many Medicaid-eligible patients who receive care in certain inpatient facilities.

The Colorado Legislature is considering a bipartisan proposal that would have the state’s Medicaid program reimburse for peer support services.

A new company called Boulder has raised millions of dollars to reach people suffering from opioid addiction on their own schedule. Instead of traveling to a dedicated treatment center that may not be close to home, a patient will—if all goes as envisioned—be able to access Boulder’s services at a local hospital via telemedicine and online prescriptions.

Our colleague Janelle Wesloh co-wrote a case study focused on the launch and integration of our digital patient portal into the continuum of care.

The issue of involuntary commitment (to addiction treatment) is getting some debate at the capitol in Washington state.

Reminder: ONDCP Director James Carroll will testify at a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on Feb. 27 about the recently released 2020 National Drug Control Strategy and the Administration’s response to the ongoing addiction crisis, including the need to expand access to evidence-based treatment.”

Cannabis

Another bad idea that should be rejected: opening a pot dispensary next to an addiction treatment center. Learn more →

New research suggests that cannabis significantly affects users’ ability to recognize, process and empathize with human emotions like happiness, sadness and anger.

The legalization conversation heats up in Vermont and Connecticut.

People in Pennsylvania are wondering why legalization has not reduced marijuana-related arrests more.

In Illinois’ first month under its legal marijuana law, consumers bought almost $40 million of weed.

The DEA’s annual Drug Threat Assessment shows marijuana potency and demand increasing, and black market operations thriving.

Opioids

The top 1% of opioid prescribers in the U.S. are responsible for 49% of all opioid doses and 27% of all prescriptions, according to a study that suggests efforts to combat overuse of prescription painkillers should concentrate on these heavy prescribers. Learn more →

A recent analysis found that 14.6% of adult emergency department visitors were prescribed opioids at discharge during the 2016 to 2017 time period. That’s a 6.9% decrease since 2010-2011.

In 2015, the Ohio General Assembly approved a law allowing pharmacists to provide naloxone to patients without a prescription. Since that law was passed, distribution of naloxone increased by a whopping 2,328% in the state’s Medicaid population.

A new study indicates that treatment using buprenorphine or methadone is the most effective way to prevent overdoses and hospitalizations, but that people are still much less likely to have access to those medications than to other treatments.

About 40 percent of counties in the U.S. did not have a single provider certified to prescribe buprenorphine in 2018. A new analysis recommends that federal efforts to increase buprenorphine access focus on high-need counties.

When six people met to begin a Christian Book Club in Seattle and discovered they had something else in common—a family struggling with addiction—the club quickly morphed into an opioid support group.

The Finding Fixes podcast recently began its second season of exploring solutions to the opioid crisis.

An electronic health record system developer agreed to pay $145 million to settle federal charges that it was involved in a kickback scheme to increase opioid prescriptions.

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board questions critiques of the Administration’s record on opioids.

Reminder: the deadline for Americans affected by the opioid crisis to file individual claims against Purdue Pharma is June 30.

Alcohol

In a move to crack down against underage drinking, major spirits brands are adding written age restrictions to labels. Learn more →

Jameson wants folks drinking at breakfast.

Another trend from the CDC’s recent report on alcohol: binge drinking is on the rise, especially for men aged 35-44.

As student drinking moves off campus at one Midwestern university, students and administrators struggle to find common ground on alcohol policy reform.

Listen Bar, the popular non-alcoholic bar concept, is going global.

According to a new study, 12th-grade binge drinking is a robust predictor of early adulthood DWI, RWI, blackout, extreme binge drinking, and risky driving.

Health Care Reform and Parity

A look inside one measuring stick of parity compliance: “Non-quantitative treatment limits.” Learn more →

A new Congressional proposal to protect people from surprise medical bills was introduced in Congress last week.

Advocate Spotlight From our friend Tim Rabolt, in recognition of Black History Month: “Most people don't know how much Jackie Robinson accomplished after his playing days.

“Of course my favorite is the advocacy work he did around addiction and recovery. Jackie's son was in recovery from addiction before dying in a car accident in 1971. For the next year, Jackie Robinson traveled the country speaking up about addiction and treatment. He planned to be in DC on October 24th, 1972 for a symposium about addiction and recovery. Unfortunately he died that morning due to a heart attack. He fought TWO of the largest social justice battles our country has ever seen. He knew that equality was needed, regardless of any internal or external identity. I feel like a significant number of the opportunities we all have today is in-part due to everything he did off the field. Thank you, Jackie.” Learn more →

A Nevada mom is celebrating two sons’ recovery at an advocacy event today in Las Vegas.

Emily Ligawiec owes her recovery to collaboration between police and public health.

Singer, actress and entrepreneur Jessica Simpson discussed with Dr. Oz her recovery from alcohol problems, abuse and anxiety. Our friend, recovery advocate Kelley Rompza Kitley from Illinois, makes a cameo, thanking Simpson via video “for using her platform to share her experience, strength, and hope to help others.” Simpson, who is promoting a new memoir, also appeared on TODAY and other shows.

On Friday, former Denver Broncos running back Montee Ball tweeted: “4 years ago today, I was sitting inside of a jail cell watching the Broncos win the Super bowl. Now today, I am preparing a speech that I will share in front of 250 therapists who all work in the state of Wisconsin. Rock bottom was not the end of my story. It was only the beginning.” He reflected further on Broncos Country Tonight and in other interviews.

A national recovery advocate is in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons after getting arrested on serious charges and denied bail last week in New Jersey—giving rise to this Recovery Community Responsibility Agreement on Change.org.

Miscellaneous Musings The Pharmacist, a new four-part docuseries on Netflix, is devastating.

We watched over the weekend and were struck with profound sadness by the real-life story of a Louisiana pharmacist who solved the mystery of his own son’s own drug-deal-murder and later helped blow the lid on a pill mill as his community became an early ground-zero in the national opioid epidemic. The Pharmacist features our friend Dr. Anna Lembke from Stanford, whose informative insights throughout remind us, painfully, that the opioid epidemic could have, and should have, been prevented. It’s a call-to-action for everyone committed to avoiding similar disasters in the future. Learn more →

• Seattle now has two Recovery Cafes.
• Recovery community centers (RCCs) are the “new kid on the block” in providing addiction recovery services, adding a third tier to the two existing tiers of formal treatment and mutual‐help organizations like AA. Research led by our friend John Kelly, PhD, begins to examine their benefits more closely.
• Another new study by Dr. Kelly includes some interesting findings on the role of spirituality and religiousness in aiding recovery.
• Click here to voice support the Family Support Services for Addiction Act—which would create a $25 million grant program over five years to help national and local nonprofit organizations provide family support services for addiction treatment.
• A new study suggests that addressing psychological and behavioral health issues early in life might be an effective strategy for reducing later socioeconomic inequalities in mental and physical health.
• Starting this summer, San Francisco will have a 24-hour sobering center for people high on meth.
• Our 2020 Awareness Hour series in Rancho Mirage, Calif., continues Saturday with Louise Stanger’s talk: What's a Family to Do?
• An Ohio county is looking at the potential of opening a treatment center specifically for some crime suspects, as a way to reduce its incarcerated population and better help some people.
• Last week, we shared a story about how digital assistants like Alexa and Siri aren’t yet much help when it comes to addiction. However, a day later, our colleague Jerry Moe let us know that a woman called and registered multiple kids for our Minnesota Children’s Program after learning about it by asking Siri for help on her mobile device. The future is now!
• Harvard studies look at the role sadness may play in addictive behaviors.
• William White remains on a break from his blog, so this week we share a paper he published four years ago with Mark Sanders about African Americans who have made (and are making) a difference in promoting resistance to and recovery from alcohol and other drug problems.
• Thank you for reading. What do you think? Send us a note anytime, and have a great week!