The Big News

State and federal health officials are urging people who use electronic cigarettes and other vaping products to stop while the CDC and FDA investigate five deaths from a mysterious lung illness that may have affected more than 450 people in 33 states. Though the cause of the illnesses is unknown, health authorities have linked them to the vaping of cannabis or nicotine products, and say most of the cases seem to be cannabis-related. Consumer warnings emphasize that people should avoid buying vaping products on the street and “refrain from using THC oil or modifying/adding any substances to products purchased in stores.” Here’s what you need to know at this stage in the outbreak. Expect more news and revelations throughout the week and beyond. Now that a new substance-delivery system has been introduced and mainstreamed into the culture, it may be difficult for researchers to keep up with the different ways people will seek to use it. The expanding cannabis market; growing misperceptions about cannabis being benign; and inconsistent, insufficient cannabis regulations add to the challenges.

That’s why it’s so important to drive science-based messaging like the Surgeon General’s new national advisory warning teenagers and pregnant women about the well-established health risks of using marijuana. “Marijuana's increasingly widespread availability in multiple and highly potent forms, coupled with a false and dangerous perception of safety among youth, merits a nationwide call to action,” wrote Surgeon General Jerome Adams, whose advisory includes action steps for parents, parents-to-be, young people, public officials, and health professionals.

We also published a new Emerging Drug Trends report highlighting a lack of robust scientific evidence to support the oft-cited claim, or hope, that increasing access to marijuana would help reduce addiction to opioids and other drugs. The report—produced in collaboration with our partners at the University of Maryland School of Public Health—aims to clear up confusion about the known science on this topic. It concludes that marijuana is not a public health solution to the opioid crisis and that the strongest existing research points to marijuana use actually increasing people's risk for misusing opioids and other substances.

In other news, the Administration is in court trying to block the nation’s first supervised drug injection site from opening in Philadelphia. Here’s the latest, along with a look at the legal case for and against such sites.

Another presidential candidate—this time, Andrew Yang—has announced a plan to address the opioid crisis. Among Yang’s priorities: decriminalization of small quantities of opioid use and possession; a quintupling of funding for treatment supported by a new tax on opioid companies; and three days of mandatory treatment for people revived from an overdose.

We’ve been sharing candidate positions on our issues regularly here, as they appear in the news. The Wall Street Journal recently reviewed candidates’ positions, too, and a coalition called “Mental Health for US” published survey responses from the top candidates concerning the nation’s mental health and addiction crises. The coalition is also holding a series of forums on these issues starting Sept. 27 in Des Moines.

This week’s featured media is the latest episode in our Let’s Talk podcast, with host William C. Moyers talking to our good friend, John Solomon, an indie-rock musician now working as an addiction and mental health counselor above the Arctic Circle. Watch, listen or read.

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Cannabis

U.S. college students are using marijuana at the highest rates in 35 years, according to a a new study published by the University of Michigan. Learn more →

A Massachusetts mayor has been charged with extorting marijuana companies for hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes.

As the NFL kicked off its 2019 season, a series of player-wellbeing initiatives kicked in. Each team must now retain a behavioral health clinician to be available for players at the training facility at least eight hours a week. Teams have also been told to designate a pain management specialist and monitor all drugs — including opioids — prescribed to players. In addition, the league is studying pain treatment alternatives, including cannabis, saying science will ultimately determine its policy on pot.

Former House Speaker John Boehner’s drastic reversal on marijuana policy is an example of how money interests are driving views on marijuana policy.

New York has begun the process of expunging the records of about 160,000 people convicted of low-level marijuana crimes.

Opioids

National settlement talks with Purdue Pharma have broken down, and officials now expect the company to file for bankruptcy, leaving virtually every state and some 2,000 local governments that have sued Purdue over its role in the opioid crisis to battle it out in bankruptcy court for the company's remaining assets. It looks like the nation’s opioid cases are going to get messier. Learn more →

A third company—Mallinckrodt—has settled to avoid a trial in an opioid lawsuit filed by two Ohio counties. Next month’s trial is expected to be a bellwether for the larger consolidated national lawsuit pending in Ohio.

Questions surround the wealth of the Sackler family, owners of Purdue Pharma, whose money is reportedly shielded in a complex web of companies and trusts.

America’s opioid crisis could still get worse if fentanyl moves West, according to a new analysis by RAND.

Sadly, Britain may be developing its own opioid crisis, and Australia already has one, as this harrowing profile of a mother and addicted son highlights. Could India be next?

More than 60 doctors have been formally accused of wrongdoing under the Medical Board of California’s “Death Certificate Project,” which aims to hold physicians accountable for unsafe prescribing practices.

Recovery advocate Ryan Hampton, lobbyist Andrew Kessler and two others appear to have launched Opioid Settlement Community Advisors, offering consulting services to jurisdictions involved in litigation against opioid companies. Hampton has appeared on national news recently, sharing his views.

A toxicology report found that Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs had a mix of opioids and alcohol in his blood when he died in July at age 27. Major League Baseball and the players’ union are now expected to discuss whether to expand the league’s drug-testing program to include random screenings for opioids.

A report by Cleveland.com reveals how a small-town Ohio physician became one of the nation's top opioid prescribers.

The Administration announced it is awarding $1.8 billion in grant funding to state and local governments to bolster addiction treatment and prevention efforts. A response to the nation’s opioid overdose epidemic and broader addiction crisis, the grants follow more than $1 billion in grants awarded in September 2018 to states and communities.

People around the world observed International Overdose Awareness Day on Aug. 31, and it was nice to see lots of local news coverage around the country, raising awareness. Marguerite Ward, editor for TODAY.com, also used her national platform to share her family’s story.

Former president Bill Clinton talks to experts in a new episode of the "Why Am I Telling You This?" podcast entitled “The Opioid Crisis in America: Working Together to Save Lives.”

A Healthline report says there is a lack of a gender-based approach to determining the differences (and treatments) for women with an opioid use disorder.

Naloxone, the medicine that reverses opioid overdoses, can now be made available at pharmacies in Washington state to anyone without a prescription.

Alcohol

CBS News looks into the pervasive and problematic drinking culture on college campuses. Learn more →

With college classes resuming, a Colorado newspaper also took an in-depth look at the drinking culture on our campuses, with a focus on Greek life.

The alcohol-enhanced seltzer White Claw, often paired with the electronic cigarettes Juul and dubbed “Juul Water” is so popular it’s running out nationwide—and the internet is freaking out.

A writer for International Policy Digest posits that, “Given the high cost of both addiction and higher education, universities do well to expand sober living arrangements to accommodate more students hoping to embrace a healthy lifestyle. Such dorms not only change lives for the better, but they also allow students to fully apply their gifts and achieve their academic goals.” Cheers to that!

Advocates in Ireland say alcohol consumption there remains 80% above the global average—which makes this booze-free Irish bar especially unique.

The country with the highest rate of drinking? Moldova, where one in four deaths is related to alcohol.

A recent study finds that Alzheimer’s drug Donepezil successfully reverses neurological damage caused by alcohol.  

A new medical journal article urges Canadian doctors to talk to their patients routinely about alcohol use.

A team of researchers in Korea and the U.S. got rats addicted to alcohol, then attempted to alleviate their withdrawal symptoms using acupuncture. And according to their data, the treatment was fairly successful.

According to new survey results in the UK, the vast majority of 40 to 64-year-olds acknowledge they should drink less, but only 49% have attempted to do so.

Health Care Reform and Parity

A federal judge in Mississippi ruled that the state had violated federal civil rights law by not providing mental health patients enough care in their communities, forcing them to essentially be segregated in state-run hospitals. Learn more →

Is a big, bipartisan deal on drug prices still possible? The path to a deal is complicated.

Eleanor Health, an addiction treatment startup, formally launched this week with a clinic in North Carolina and plans to open 10 to 15 more sites in the coming year. The company says its focus is on value-based care delivery and payments.

Advocate Spotlight Happy National Recovery Month! Our teams will be out and about all month, raising awareness about addiction and promoting the promise of recovery. It’s fun to see all of the Recovery Month activity on social media.

Our friend Donald McDonald, for example (shown here with Faces and Voices of Recovery UK founder Annmarie Ward), took his recovery message from North Carolina across the Atlantic, where many are also celebrating Recovery Month. Learn more →

Broken: My Story of Addiction and Redemption, the memoir by our colleague and longtime recovery advocate William C. Moyers, recently turned 13! First published on Aug. 28, 2006, it reached the top-20 on the New York Times bestseller list in October of that year. Still in print today, it continues to inspire others to seek help, and this televised discussion with his parents and radio host Jim Bohannon is as relevant as ever.

In a new profile by the New York Times, actor Brad Pitt talks about getting sober with the help of a mutual aid group.

Actor Charlie Sheen, talking about his own sobriety, says, “It just hit me that it was time to make a change.”

Abby Honold, a Minnesota advocate for reform on behalf of sexual assault victims, celebrated a year of sobriety over the weekend.

Our friend and fellow advocate Kris Kelly has helped spearhead Sunday Sober Suppers, which kick off Sept. 22, at a restaurant in Minneapolis.

Miscellaneous Musings

• More than half of Philadelphians surveyed by the Pew Charitable Trusts this spring said they believe people with opioid addiction brought their condition upon themselves, and that addiction is not like contracting a disease. Disappointing results but motivation for everyone’s continued advocacy. Learn more →

• An advocate writes that corporations have a social responsibility to actively recognize addiction as a human problem and commit to reducing the stigma associated with it.

• The She Recovers Creating Connections Tour, which we’re sponsoring, arrives in Seattle this Saturday.

• Johns Hopkins is opening a new center to research psychedelic medicine.

• During National Recovery Month, Massachusetts General Hospital is putting a spotlight on addiction- and incarceration-related racial inequities.

• Addiction’s impact on young kids in the family continues to get too little attention. Our colleague Jerry Moe is spreading the word, though, and sharing what we do help those members of the family. He’ll be speaking on Capitol Hill to the bipartisan Freshmen Working Group on Addiction later this month and also at a free public event—Kids in Crisis: The Youngest Victims—that we’re hosting this Thursday in Fort Myers, Fla.

• New research confirms the obvious: more young people are getting exposed to second-hand vapor from e-cigarettes. The question that needs more research: What’s the health impact?

• A treatment center CEO in Pennsylvania has pleaded guilty in a “multi-layered scam that took advantage of vulnerable people suffering from substance use disorder to generate millions in profits.”

• It’s great to see advocates starting more recovery community organizations, like Recovery Alliance Duluth in northern Minnesota, which held its second annual recovery walk

• An online petition asks California lawmakers to stop the sale of nitrous oxide in tobacco shops.

• In his latest blog post, William White offers several observations about how recovery, like addiction, can run in families, suggesting that the topic represents an important research need. In another post, he revisits lessons and principles that he first shared in 2000 to help guide the new recovery advocacy movement, inviting readers to judge how they have stood the test of time.

• Thank you for reading. What do you think? Send us a note anytime, and have a great week!