Tag: addiction

  • Legal ≠ Harmless

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    GuidaBrown
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    Somehow along the way, we’ve made a distinction between “hard” drugs and, well, other drugs, as though only “hard” drugs cause problems. We’ve forgotten that those other, less “hard” drugs are also dangerous. We’ve also stopped thinking of alcohol as a drug at all, despite it being one of the most abused and dangerous drugs…

  • The “Addictive Personality” Misnomer

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    GuidaBrown
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    I’m often asked if there’s an addictive personality…as though people with substance use disorders (SUDs) can be identified through that one trait, but there’s not. There are, however, common personality traits that those with SUDs tend to have.   See if you recognize anyone in these traits: impulsivity, disinhibition, manipulative tendencies, a lack of accountability, a…

  • Testing for Truth

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    GuidaBrown
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    A recent edition of the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse reports that of the 1,300+ children, aged 9 to 13, surveyed, 9% more tested positive using hair testing for substance use than the 10% who self-reported use. Wait, now…  The report indicates that 5% of 8th graders — children aged 13-14 — are reporting cannabis use…

  • Where’s the Rx?

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    GuidaBrown
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    Over the last few days I’ve been confronted – again – with the realization that far too many people don’t believe addiction is a disease, no matter what they actually say about it. First, the municipality where I live, one where no cannabis use is legal, decided to drop the first possession ticket to a…

  • Our Next New Drug Crisis

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    GuidaBrown
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    Ketamine has a long and storied history. Developed in the early 1960s as an anesthesia, it was deemed too dangerous for people due to its “intense, prolonged emergence delirium that ultimately made it undesirable for human use.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5126726/ More studies; more testing; and the end result — well, maybe not the END result, but the…

  • Death by Degrees?

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    GuidaBrown
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    “Harm reduction” has been defined myriad ways. The “Godfather of Harm Reduction,” Dan Bigg, referred to it as “the principle of reducing the negative consequences associated with drug use.” The organization he co-founded, the Chicago Recovery Alliance (CRA), uses the phrase “any positive change.” (https://www.thechicagoschool.edu/insight/news/any-positive-change/) The National Harm Reduction Coalition says that “harm reduction is a…

  • Weed in the NBA

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    GuidaBrown
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    Big news before 4/20 was that the new NBA collective-bargaining contract will not require testing for THC. This new contract comes on the heels of the NBA having temporarily suspended testing of THC over the last three seasons, in part as a response to the COVID pandemic. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has gone on record…

  • My Friend Michael Is Dying

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    GuidaBrown
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    To be honest, I’m not even sure what he’s dying from, which makes helping him that much more difficult. It may be cancer, or it may be that his disease of addiction has finally sped up his demise…from cirrhosis or whatever else a body does when it’s had enough. And, given the fragmented systems of…

  • The “Marty Mann Test for Alcoholism”

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    GuidaBrown
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    I recently watched a TikTok from jennabobenna9 who BRILLIANTLY said, “It’s not the number; it’s the fact that you’re doing the math in the first place. That’s a red flag,” explaining to viewers that the number of drinks or sips (or, if I may, lines or hits or pills) doesn’t matter. What matters is if…

  • We Can’t Incarcerate Nor IGNORE Our Way Out

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    GuidaBrown
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    To be clear, addiction is a chronic, progressive, lethal brain disease. We don’t criminalize other diseases by virtue of having the disease. That is, if someone with type 2 diabetes is under supervision through the criminal justice system for a crime, he doesn’t get sanctioned for having a diabetic episode – because society recognizes that…