“Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness.” – George Washington, First Annual Message to Congress, 1790 Last January a report on alcohol and health was posted by the US Department of Health and Human Services for public comment, Draft Report: Scientific Findings of the Alcohol Intake & Health Study for Public … Continue reading Public Interest or Industry Interest: the Economics and Politics of Minimizing Alcohol Harm
Tag: Alcohol
Nonabstinence in recovery(?) from what?
Several months ago, The Journal of Addiction Medicine published an article on the prevalence of alcohol and other drug use among adults "in recovery." It drew from the 2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health and looked at the prevalence of alcohol and other drug use among people who answered yes to the following … Continue reading Nonabstinence in recovery(?) from what?
Drugs and alcohol in the NY Times
The NY Times had a couple of pieces on alcohol and drug problems this week. (credit: Jonas Bengtsson) First, an audio story about a Maine doctor operating a MOUD clinic in a county jail. Her commitment and advocacy are admirable. There are a couple of striking things to the story. First, she makes a case for … Continue reading Drugs and alcohol in the NY Times
Moderation or abstinence? The right endpoint for the right problem type
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb2-R6nDzDc I've seen this segment from the PBS News Hour get some attention recently. Segment Summary The focus of the segment is the use, more specifically the lack of use, of naltrexone for alcohol problems. It rightly points out that the scale and toll of alcohol problems dwarf most other drugs. Deaths attributed to heavy … Continue reading Moderation or abstinence? The right endpoint for the right problem type
the evolving drug tastes of society
Here are a few sentences to ponder, as we process the latest data on the overdose crisis: Most drug epidemics don’t simply disappear: they transform themselves into something else. For example, periods of excessive stimulant use are often followed by periods of rising alcohol, sedative and opiate use. There are drug-facilitated cycles of stimulation, introspection, … Continue reading the evolving drug tastes of society
Nora Volkow on More Realistic And Pragmatic Addiction Treatment
(This post was originally published on 2/6/2022) Source: NIDA There is and can be no ultimate solution for us to discover, but instead a permanent need for balancing contradictory claims, for careful trade-offs between conflicting values, toleration of difference, consideration of the specific factors at play when a choice is needed, not reliance on an … Continue reading Nora Volkow on More Realistic And Pragmatic Addiction Treatment
Top ten of 2021 #1 – Nothing to mourn; just a drug addict
A tweet from a colleague affected me this week. The subject was stigma in substance use disorders and he related how, at the funeral of a relative who had died very young from a heroin overdose, a family member callously slandered the dead man and skillfully ‘othered’ him. The message was ‘he was not at … Continue reading Top ten of 2021 #1 – Nothing to mourn; just a drug addict
Alcohol deaths response – a whimper rather than a bang?
Given that there was a 17% year on year increase in fatalities and that the number of alcohol-specific deaths is a significant underestimate of deaths in which alcohol plays a part, I wondered in a tweet why there was a more muted reaction to the alcohol deaths than to the drug deaths. This touched a nerve it seems. A lot of responses were generated and I wanted to share some of the themes here.
Nothing to mourn; just a drug addict
A tweet from a colleague affected me this week. The subject was stigma in substance use disorders and he related how, at the funeral of a relative who had died very young from a heroin overdose, a family member callously slandered the dead man and skillfully ‘othered’ him. The message was ‘he was not at … Continue reading Nothing to mourn; just a drug addict
Drinking when in recovery from other substances
Drink does not drown care, but waters it, and makes it grow fasterBenjamin Franklin When we consider the things that make us vulnerable to addiction – trauma, poverty, lack of opportunity, stress, stigma, genetics and environment, it’s no surprise that relapse and the development of problems with other substances occur after treatment. These problems don't … Continue reading Drinking when in recovery from other substances
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