The Big News

Enjoy the last week of National Recovery Month! About 30,000 gathered Saturday in Philadelphia for the nation’s largest recovery walk (shown here), and the Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery hosted its 20^th annual recovery walk (one of the nation’s longest running), which served as this year’s National Rally for Recovery hub event. We are closing out the month with our own Recovery Month Kickball Day at the Park event this Sunday in St. Paul.

In opioid lawsuit news, OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma warned a bankruptcy court that the Sackler family members who own the company “may be unwilling—or unable” to contribute billions to a national settlement if other lawsuits against them are allowed to proceed. Amid all the civil litigation, some are wondering about criminal charges and why they aren’t being pursued, too.

Ubiquitous advocate Ryan Hampton launched the Recovery Advocacy Project (RAP), a new grassroots network of people and organizations across the country advocating for addiction recovery policies.

Walmart joins the growing list of businesses that will no longer sell e-cigarettes due to health concerns and regulatory uncertainty. Health officials continue to investigate an outbreak of mysterious vaping-related lung illnesses, and at least eight deaths have now been confirmed. The FDA also is engaged in a criminal probe. Most, but not all, of the 530 people sickened said they used e-cigarettes for marijuana. Vaping—especially among youth—has exploded in recent years due to the belief that it is, in some regards, a safer way than smoking cigarettes to consume nicotine. It also has become a popular way to consume marijuana products due in part to the discreetness it affords. Several states and cities have banned or are now looking to ban kid-friendly e-cigarette flavors; meanwhile, federal regulators and some in Congress are aiming to ban flavored e-cigarettes nationally. Not surprisingly, with a national ban looming, some e-cigarette users are beginning to stockpile flavors, and vaping advocates and lobbyists are pushing back.

Amid all the vaping news, the U.S. House could vote on allowing the marijuana industry access to banks as soon as Tuesday. Some worry that will put the pedal to the metal on establishing the next Big Tobacco. Our friends at Smart Approaches to Marijuana have created a form making it easy to write your representative in Washington urging opposition to any bill expanding invetsment in the marijuana industry. 

This week’s must-read article is by a North Carolina advocate who explores racial disparities in recovery and recovery advocacy—a significant issue that deserves everyone’s attention. In one of the communities we serve—the Twin Cities of Minnesota—an advisory council mentioned in this story has begun looking at disparities experienced by African-Americans. We’re supporting the council, which will ultimately report recommendations to Minnesota state officials. We are pleased that one of the council’s members, Pearl Evans, was also appointed last week to serve on Minnesota’s new Opioid Epidemic Response Advisory Council, which meets for the first time this week and will help determine how best to spend $20 million annually from new licensing fees on the pharmaceutical industry.

Our friend and fellow advocate Jocellyn Harvey in Vermont recently shared with us about Shari Hampton, who founded an exciting organization and podcast called Served Up Sober. It offers weekly events in San Diego that focus on food, exercise, group support and spirituality. Please check out the great work of Shari and Served Up Sober, and keep sending tips about people and stories to highlight.

Finally, like millions of others who benefitted from her work and life, we are remembering the late journalist Cokie Roberts. A close friend of the Ford family—who blazed trails for women just as Betty Ford did—Roberts eulogized Mrs. Ford in 2011 and also spoke at the dedication of the Betty Ford Women’s Recovery Center five years ago at Hazelden Betty Ford in Center City. In her remarks then, Roberts spoke eloquently about the power of advocacy and the need for it in our field. Her funeral mass was held yesterday.

This week’s featured media is a great new episode in our Let’s Talk Podcast series, with host William C. Moyers talking to three young adults about reimagining their lives after initiating recovery from addiction. Watch, read or listen.

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Treatment Industry Issues and Reforms

Important reforms may finally be coming to California’s addiction treatment industry, thanks to four bills waiting for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature—including one to require that outpatient treatment providers be licensed. Having supported such reforms for years, our CEO sent the governor a letter asking him to sign the legislation.  Learn more →

We were among several healthcare stakeholders that also sent a letter to the DEA last week, encouraging regulators who are writing rules for a new telemedicine law to ensure patients in rural and other underserved communities are able to get timely access to prescriptions for medications used to treat substance use disorder.

HHS released a new report with some interesting conclusions about assessing the nation’s addiction treatment needs and capacity.

Cannabis

A new Colorado report compiled by the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area finds marijuana-positive traffic fatalities, hospitalizations, marijuana use, and illegal market activity have exploded since marijuana legalization. Learn more →

Chicago is working hard to limit where pot can be sold and consumed.  

An Illinois lobbyist has staked a personal claim in the state’s increasingly lucrative pot business.

Why there’s gridlock in Congress on the marijuana issue.

Opioids

In a weekend piece entitled "Flailing on Fentanyl", the Washington Post investigates Congress's failure to address fentanyl as the overdose death rate surged. Learn more →

A DEA database obtained earlier by the Washington Post continues to drive crucial coverage of the opioid crisis nationally.

The USA Today highlights the fact that most opioid use disorder patients also use other substances—one reason opioid treatment medications alone are often not enough. That’s why COR-12, our comprehensive treatment for opioid use disorder, combines the choice of medications with evidence-based clinical therapies and peer support. Our Emerging Drug Trends report entitled Opioid Crisis About Much More Than Opioids explains more.

As recently as last year, the U.S. government was weighing using fentanyl for executions.

Some are upset about the Sackler family office in West Palm Beach.

An Alaskan describes how health clinics there unwittingly enabled the opioid crisis—thanks, he says, to Big Pharma and the FDA.

Purdue Pharma, facing thousands of lawsuits and bankruptcy, wants to pay ‘certain employees' $34 million in bonuses.

Alcohol

Our five-year study under way with Mayo Clinic—a project that aims to advance personalized medicine for patients with alcohol use disorder—continues to get attention. Learn more →

A look at why the alcohol-free movement is becoming fashionable, and why some feel it’s dangerous to talk about sobriety as a “wellness trend.”

The relationship between snoring and drinking.

In Russia, priests are confronting widespread addiction by dumping holy water out of planes. 

Overseas, universities welcoming new students are being urged to help prevent deaths from binge-drinking.

Health Care Reform and Parity A lawsuit seeking class-action status has been filed against United Behavioral Health, alleging that the subsidiary of insurance giant UnitedHealthcare has wrongfully denied $9.3 billion in mental health and addiction treatment claims.

Meridian Treatment Center of Florida, Serenity Palms Treatment Center of California, and Hollywood Harmony Treatment Center of California lead the lawsuit as named plaintiffs. They hope to represent more than 10,000 addiction and mental health treatment centers if a judge approves class-action status. This case follows a recent federal court decision, which found that for the past eight years, UBH illegally denied mental health and addiction treatment benefits to maximize profits and save costs with little regard for its members. Learn more →

Walmart has opened a pilot comprehensive primary care retail clinic in Dallas, Ga. The clinic, called Walmart Health, offers services priced at about 30% to 50% lower than physician office visit costs, and lower than other retail health clinics.

Despite all the excitement around social determinants of health, a new study found that only 24% of hospitals and 16% of physician practices are screening for five key social determinants needs.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's release of her drug pricing plan last week means that both chambers of Congress are officially working to pass drug pricing legislation, with the White House closely monitoring.

Advocate Spotlight Melissa O’Mara, a county prosecutor in New Jersey, shares her own personal story of recovery and describes how fulfilling it is to help others. Learn more  →

SAMHSA is hosting two more Recovery Month webinars this week, featuring individuals living in recovery who are now working in the field to help and support others.

This writer celebrates another recovery anniversary this week.

Miscellaneous Musings

We announced CenterPointe Hospital in Missouri as the newest member of our Patient Care Network, and also a new partnership with longtime PCN member Oklahoma State University Medicine. Learn more →

• Hearing a lot about recovery coaches but not sure what they do or what role they can play? Here’s a bit of a primer.

• Several hundred people tuned in to our latest professional development webinar to hear Stephen Delisi, M.D., explain how traumatic experiences affect the brain and can increase the risk of addiction. Register to get free access to the recording.

• The latest addition to the fleet of discreet — some would say camouflaged—vaping devices that have teachers and parents struggling to monitor usage: the vaping hoodie.

• The New York Times asked readers which topics need more attention in upcoming presidential debates. Our friend Bill Williams’ response was among those published. He wants a discussion about solutions to the addiction crisis. We do, too!

• Reminder: “Mental Health for US” is holding a series of presidential candidate forums on mental health and addiction starting Friday in Des Moines.

• What does the future hold for Ritalin, which is 75 this year?

• A new report says YouTube and Facebook have an illegal steroid problem.

• Congratulations to Renee Most, the new director of StepUP, the collegiate recovery program at Augsburg University! Renee has a master’s degree from the Hazelden Betty Ford Graduate School of Addiction Studies, and her experience includes almost five years as a Hazelden counselor.

• In his latest blog post, William White introduces the newest addition to his treasure trove of a website: A Photographic History of Addiction Recovery In the U.S.

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

• (NOTE: Photo in the Health Care Reform and Parity section created by rawpixel.com—www.freepik.com.)