Fresh Air recently aired a great interview on the marijuana legalization. It spent a lot of time looking at the medical marijuana regulation in Colorado and how that will be the model for full legalization. The interview was balanced and informative. (A very rare thing for drug policy discussions.) He also wrestled … Continue reading Legal weed
Tag: United States
WTH?!?!? (What the heck)
I'm not, in any way, against efforts to develop pharmaceutical treatments for addiction. However, I'm of the opinion that there is a culture problem among researchers and some members of their universe. Does any serious, knowledgeable person with an eye toward practice believe that a stimulant drug is going to be an effective treatment for alcoholism? Yet, … Continue reading WTH?!?!? (What the heck)
One way?
So much for the frequently asserted but bogus argument that 90%+ of treatment providers in the US are one-true-way 12 steppers: The researchers surveyed 913 members of the National Association of Alcoholism and Drug Addiction Counselors from across the United States. About 50 percent of the respondents said it would be acceptable if some of … Continue reading One way?
Treatment is big money
From Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly: In September, when Tennessee-based Acadia Healthcare Company paid $90 million for Timberline Knolls, a 122-bed inpatient treatment program in Chicago, treatment providers wondered if their programs were worth that kind of money, bed for bed. Other deals in recent months, including Foundations Recovery Network’s acquisition in early October by … Continue reading Treatment is big money
Sentences to ponder
From the ASAM blog: ...is there any evidence that the general public requires less treatment than do healthcare professionals and pilots? I would further ask, given the excellent outcomes generally obtained by PHPs and pilot recovery programs, why there have been no studies in which members of the lay public go through identical programs to … Continue reading Sentences to ponder
Beware of misleading headlines
A new article discussing the expanding use of medications in addiction treatment has the following sub heading: Experts are pushing for a truly medical approach to treating addiction as a disease rather than relying solely on longtime unproven therapies like 12-step programs. Unproven? Twelve Step Facilitation (TSF) is the treatment of choice for addicted physicians and they … Continue reading Beware of misleading headlines
More on methadone
Points is publishing a series on methadone and offers a case for methadone without resorting to describing it as "the most effective treatment for opiate addiction." It's a pretty fair piece. I had only one quibble with the facts of the story. This is unusual and very welcome. However, the author and I disagree starkly … Continue reading More on methadone
Integrated care?
Pat Deegan bites her nails at the prospect of integrated care for mental health care (The same thing is happening with addiction treatment): Is recovery going the way of the dinosaur? Is recovery-transformation an old idea that should give way to more enlightened policies of integrated, co-located behavioral and physical healthcare services? These days, I … Continue reading Integrated care?
Residential?
From the United States Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control: 11. Finding: Traditionally, U.S. Presidents – through ONDCP – have divided drug demand reduction into two main categories: prevention and treatment. However, the Obama Administration has added a third area: recovery. For the first time ever, in its 2010 National Drug Control Strategy, ONDCP focused on the need to invest in … Continue reading Residential?
What we spend on health
This infographic is from a report on obesity and it's set off a debate its accuracy. But it gets at a point I've made before. And, the more I learn, the clearer it becomes that this general principle applies to medical problems, mental health problems and addiction. To me, this doesn't make a case for … Continue reading What we spend on health
Recovery Review 