tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90398625346968307992024-03-08T03:34:51.767-08:00Alcohologist.comAlcoholism and health news on which journalist Scott Stevens has reported, with additional commentary from the award-winning international self-help author. Scott Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05413534996048038292noreply@blogger.comBlogger479125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039862534696830799.post-42943576947526045472019-12-01T11:22:00.002-08:002019-12-01T11:22:11.660-08:00Oh-Crap Sunday: Addiction, Family, and the Holidays<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg75ryx65YSor-f5JDga_ctyoUdzmeP5S5EMtTlV1j42oqaXQCIUu-pquAjHvSbazCq2rNd4j5YYVS_sMZ_wBzqp4lLSLjED3iBY_HYYgZrtMG0WdjjRDCJ4H2hOd87D7MQB7fMRJ4sxwQ/s1600/Depositphotos_213577812_l-2015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="holiday, drinking, help, addiction, intervention" border="0" data-original-height="941" data-original-width="1600" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg75ryx65YSor-f5JDga_ctyoUdzmeP5S5EMtTlV1j42oqaXQCIUu-pquAjHvSbazCq2rNd4j5YYVS_sMZ_wBzqp4lLSLjED3iBY_HYYgZrtMG0WdjjRDCJ4H2hOd87D7MQB7fMRJ4sxwQ/s320/Depositphotos_213577812_l-2015.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
<h3 style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><b>The treatment discussion revs up
between Thanksgiving Thursday and Cyber Monday</b></i></h3>
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Real talk: If you put off the
substance use discussion until the New Year, you might not have a
chance to have the discussion. Addiction is a disease. People die.
And they only can dig themselves deeper into destruction during the
Holidays without help.</div>
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That's news as ice cold as Wausau,
Wisconsin or the turkey leftovers you stuffed into the back of the
freezer. By the way, you're never going to eat that. It tasted dry on
Thanksgiving... it won't get better by March by itself. Likewise, a
drug user won't get better by March (or Christmas) by himself.</div>
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Oh-Crap Sunday means more than you blew
through your entire holiday budget on Black Friday and Small Business
Saturday. It's more relevant than your favorite NCAA team getting
crushed on Rivalry Saturday, or your NFL team being worse than the
Bears on any given Sunday at the twilight of the calendar. Oh-Crap
Sunday is the pause at the start of the Holiday Gauntlet where you
have an a-ha moment after the first of the season's socializing,
realizing that a loved one is in over his or her head with alcohol or
other drugs. Oh. Crap.</div>
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<i><b><br />Help starts at home</b></i></div>
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What does 'in over their head' mean?
Noticing someone's drug use – alcohol is a drug – means it is a
problem. You don't notice someone's consumption otherwise. The
nodding off is more than turkey's tryptophan. The slurred speech
telling the same joke loudly for the third time isn't just because
Uncle Dan is mixing the drinks. The fragrance in the bathroom isn't
potpourri. Wise up. Trust your instinct. You're probably right about
a drug use problem. If you're wrong, what does it cost you?</div>
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We've normalized drug use in the U.S.
as pointed out in <i><a href="http://viewbook.at/gatewaydrug" target="_blank">Look What Dragged the Cat In</a>. </i><span style="font-style: normal;">With
it being normalized, the tendency is to blow it off until it gets
obvious. Then it's time to get help.</span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">In
looking for help, there is no substitute for intervention at home.
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">You can go to every slick
treatment website Google throws at you. Nobody's going for an
evaluation until the personal, charged conversation takes place at
home. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">Work with your M.D. or
a treatment professional to find the right path toward 'clean and
sober' after the Oh-Crap conversation. The first step is the
conversation.</span></div>
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<i><b><br />Drugs alter the mind, talk to the
heart</b></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF-GkFGrQrSBaj9YnUfNSAmclnWGo7pvbVPDNv8pIuGTgQYNrXgNJ7gEASDf7Vq1InIKDi4PIaEzHn1x2QxPFv_86sPNV3q9G77mrcdpjI7IFWJWZRD8cax4vGkVdVZc8PV0OFTrZlqv8/s1600/how-to-deliver-a-brief-intervention-13-638.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="479" data-original-width="638" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF-GkFGrQrSBaj9YnUfNSAmclnWGo7pvbVPDNv8pIuGTgQYNrXgNJ7gEASDf7Vq1InIKDi4PIaEzHn1x2QxPFv_86sPNV3q9G77mrcdpjI7IFWJWZRD8cax4vGkVdVZc8PV0OFTrZlqv8/s320/how-to-deliver-a-brief-intervention-13-638.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-style: normal;">Consider
that all drugs of abuse licit and illicit alter the mind. An altered
mind isn't going to decide for itself that it needs help. People
don't take drugs to feel good, they take drugs to feel less bad. If
the brain's user is going to feel more bad, he or she is going to be
messaged by that brain that the drug isn't </span><span style="font-style: normal;">a
problem. A person first needs to hear from family and friends that
the drug use is concerning.</span></div>
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The talk is harder than you think. But
not harder than talking to a corpse. <a href="http://alcohologist.com/">Alcohologist.com</a> has resources
like videos (see the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjWzBIfqWH4i9wzMCMt1mlg" target="_blank">New Year, New You</a> series opener here) that help ease into the
conversation. The three-question AUDIT is also an
ice-breaker/resolve-breaker.</div>
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Quick: What's the next holiday? Will
you spend it without him or her in your life?
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Image by Roman Stetsyk, used with permission.</span></div>
<br />Scott Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05413534996048038292noreply@blogger.com56tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039862534696830799.post-27867101523803399132019-04-07T19:26:00.000-07:002019-04-07T19:26:51.780-07:00Only officials drunk on alcohol money would call opioids the 'biggest health crisis'<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtiyyn61FaWRidt5zMUC-px8Om3ChgPsv491H73ea2dwU4rnVKjR6oCKbP8n7Cxg6VqTg4P_lWtoBe_K__KHdIrZ0iqsQikaJz92H51WC98seqli_rrdglbzblUbgA7rj6cSB76hWJ24w/s1600/Depositphotos_144110209_xl-2015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtiyyn61FaWRidt5zMUC-px8Om3ChgPsv491H73ea2dwU4rnVKjR6oCKbP8n7Cxg6VqTg4P_lWtoBe_K__KHdIrZ0iqsQikaJz92H51WC98seqli_rrdglbzblUbgA7rj6cSB76hWJ24w/s320/Depositphotos_144110209_xl-2015.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
maker of OxyContin, Purdue Pharma, and the company’s controlling
Sackler family agreed March 26 to pay $270 million to settle an
Oklahoma lawsuit claiming they helped create the opioid crisis with
aggressive marketing of the painkiller. “The $270 million is less
than what the lawyering would have cost Purdue. The did the 'right'
thing,” says author Scott Stevens.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">This
is the first settlement </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">emerging
from</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
wave of nearly 2,000 lawsuits against Purdue threaten</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ing</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
to push the company a bankruptcy safe-haven, says the author of </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Look
What Dragged the Cat In: The Rise of an Opioid Crisis. </span></i></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In
the book, presented in hardcover at academic conferences in Europe in
2018 and now available in e-book, Stevens demonstrates how the
neither the drugmaker – nor doctors – are to blame in the 'ab
irato' lawsuits. “Are their hands clean? No. But they didn't create
this crisis, or the two it's spawned (benzodiazepines and
methamphet</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">a</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">mine),”
according to Stevens.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Oklahoma
Attorney Gene</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ral
Mike Hunter announced the settlement, calling the crisis “this
nightmarish epidemic” and “the worst public health crisis in our
state and nation we’ve ever seen.” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Stevens
responds, </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">“First,
the death toll from opioids in Oklahoma is about 400. They're all
tragic. </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">No
question. </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Alcohol
kills at least 1,300 a year in that state. If opioids are an
epidemic, alcohol is a pandemic that costs their state $4.5 billion a
year, </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
the U.S. 90,000 lives and $250 billion a year.</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">”
His numbers are according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC). “We don't call out the real problem because the
alcohol business is an an advertiser, a campaign contributor, and an
adored </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
endorsed </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">part
of our culture.”</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
fifth book by Wisconsin author, Scott Stevens, calls out the beverage
alcohol business and a 'buzz' culture, not pharmaceutical companies
and doctors, as the culprits behind the opioid crisis. Stevens says,
“If you examine how many opioid-related deaths are alcohol-related,
the answer is that they all are. </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Two
thirds of illicit drug users point to alcohol as their first drug,
and all of us learn to self-prescribe from alcohol.</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">”</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
book </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">was</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
released Aug. 23, </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">2018</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
at the International Conference on Addiction Therapy & Clinical
Reports in Paris, France, </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">capping</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
two-years of research by the author into the escalation of opioid
overdoses. “It's the same root cause of every drug 'crisis' we've
observed. Cocaine in the 1980s, heroin again in the 1970s and before
that the 1920s, and between the two prior heroin crises, a
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">methamphetamine
crisis in the 1950s,” says Stevens. “The thread cinching all of
them together is alcohol: The drug we don't call a drug or treat as
the deadly drug it is. We encourage use of this drug, then when users
can't get where they want with alcohol, they up the </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ante
with other, harder drugs</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">No
runner runs a marathon as their first race out.”</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The
book examines the self-regulation of alcohol-industry ads, the
pricing, and availability of alcohol. “There really is a
straight-line relationship between the opioid crisis with the gateway
drug, alcohol.”</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The
World Congress on Addiction Science in London in Sept. 2018, as well
as the 2018 International Conference on Clinical Psychology in
Amsterdam, also were forums for launch of Stevens' work. He's now
doing radio and conferences in support of the e-book launch of the
book March 26.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Stevens
has no ties to the pharmaceutical industry, nor does he practice
medicine, yet he finds only moderate culpability for either
profession in the rise of the opioid situation. “They were
accomplices to some degree, but we fail to look deeper. What causes
problems is one. We just have this fear of tagging the alcohol
business because of our glorification of drinking.” The book points
out that society also has a notion that anything resembling reining
in the alcohol business looks like Prohibition, generally considered
a failure. Americans also don't 'want to believe alcohol is a drug or
a </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">problem
outside of car wrecks, cirrhosis, and disease of alcoholism. “We're
told we can drink responsibly when there is no responsible way to
drink a toxin and known carcinogen. Buying into the glamour of the
drug seduced Americans right into opioids.” </span></span></span></span></span></span>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Americans
defend the gateway drug, says the author. Among his solutions is a
strategy like the anti-smoking campaign that began with the Master
Settlement Agreement for tobacco companies in the 1990s. “We defend
drinking as some sort of rite. All we're doing by guarding drinking
as a personal choice is sacrificing our own children for a product
with zero life-extending or life-saving properties.”</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #5e5e5e; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14.85px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Stevens is author of five alcohol, health, and recovery books and is principal of </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://alcohologist.com&source=gmail&ust=1522920726884000&usg=AFQjCNFiZ--CzgKw10x3VXhc1vOnS3JA4g" href="http://alcohologist.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e93100; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">alcohologist.com</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">. He is a founding influencer of the world’s largest medical portal, </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://healthtap.com&source=gmail&ust=1522920726884000&usg=AFQjCNFnDYEiEadkUYNaDhtfKvp_AKbMSQ" href="http://healthtap.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e93100; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">healthtap.com</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">. He Chaired the 2018 International Conference on Addiction Therapy and Clinical Reports in Paris, France, where <i>Look What Dragged the Cat </i>In was officially launched. He's also the Chair for Addiction Science 2018, in London, UK.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #5e5e5e; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14.85px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #5e5e5e;">Image byTom Baker</span><span style="color: #3c3c3c; text-align: center;">, used with permission.</span></span><br />
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<br />Scott Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05413534996048038292noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039862534696830799.post-82376294344569850562018-09-12T10:00:00.001-07:002019-04-07T19:24:24.540-07:00Blame the opioid maker? Right church, wrong pew<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5uKwDW8kseHRFrnmjYYLtEFqNXwup8eU_V936jCNPkc3ZPQ-uxsjFnEl8PlW_S3MVmMtoCyz8ibikrlX5RQ8Cmk1lgaM1DPiGHyIx4m3074Lf46VTibXcsbb5vDJ6wvvEJNMNqXz8PTM/s1600/Depositphotos_154934616_l-2015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="opioid crisis, opioid epidemic, addiction," border="0" data-original-height="996" data-original-width="1600" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5uKwDW8kseHRFrnmjYYLtEFqNXwup8eU_V936jCNPkc3ZPQ-uxsjFnEl8PlW_S3MVmMtoCyz8ibikrlX5RQ8Cmk1lgaM1DPiGHyIx4m3074Lf46VTibXcsbb5vDJ6wvvEJNMNqXz8PTM/s320/Depositphotos_154934616_l-2015.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
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A new <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/9/7/17831710/richard-sackler-opioid-epidemic-buprenorphine" target="_blank">article appearing in VOX</a> notes that one member of the Sackler family, longtime overseers of <a href="https://www.purduepharma.com/" target="_blank">Purdue Pharma</a>, is helping the treatment industry clean up what the opioid crisis cat dragged in. Richard Sackler, former president of Purdue Pharma, is listed o<span style="font-family: inherit;">n the patent application for a new form of buprenorphine. Buprenorphine (trade names <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Buprenex, Butrans, Probuphine, and Belbuca) is an opiod agonist used in the medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid addiction.</span> The new product is a fast-dissolving wafer, designed to keep those administered the dose from cheeking the medication and sharing/selling it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">On one hand, 'Shouldn't we be applauding ANY help going to those w</span>ho need it?' is the easy question. That question is buried under the emotion of a very traumatic crisis, however. One editorial on the article went so far as to call Sackler the 'devil incarnate,' And the spin on the article is that Purdue helped spawn the opioid crisis with its drug, OxyContin, and Stackler made bank on that drug and now seeks to profit from cleaning up the mess.<br />
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Not so fast. OxyContin and Purdue are not the drugmakers that created this crisis. The drugmakers that created this crisis, every crisis before it, and the crises emerging now, are not in the pharmaceutical industry. The drugmakers who have groomed us for drug use, drug abuse, and drug addiction make the gateway drug, alcohol.<br />
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Two thirds of drug abusers identify alcohol as the first drug they used, according to an American Addiction Centers 2018 survey. The rest of us learned to take drugs from our cultural acceptance and endorsement of drug use aka drinking. What we ignore, we permit, what we permit, we condone.<br />
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The blame-game, legislation, lawsuits, etc. target Big Pharma, sketchy doctors, China, and dope dealers. Right church, wrong pew. <i><a href="http://viewbook.at/gatewaydrug" target="_blank">Look What Dragged the Cat In</a></i> details how the opioid crisis (spoiler: it's a crisis, not an epidemic) really emerged (spoiler: it wasn't the Sacklers) and how we can use the tragedy of this crisis to prevent the next one.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #5e5e5e; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14.85px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Stevens is author of five alcohol, health, and recovery books and is principal of </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://alcohologist.com&source=gmail&ust=1522920726884000&usg=AFQjCNFiZ--CzgKw10x3VXhc1vOnS3JA4g" href="http://alcohologist.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e93100; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">alcohologist.com</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">. He is a founding influencer of the world’s largest medical portal, </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://healthtap.com&source=gmail&ust=1522920726884000&usg=AFQjCNFnDYEiEadkUYNaDhtfKvp_AKbMSQ" href="http://healthtap.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e93100; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">healthtap.com</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">. He Chaired the 2018 International Conference on Addiction Therapy and Clinical Reports in Paris, France, where <i>Look What Dragged the Cat </i>In was officially launched. He's also the Chair for Addiction Science 2018, in London, UK.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #5e5e5e;">Image by </span><span style="color: #3c3c3c; text-align: center;">Santalucia Art Inc., used with permission.</span></span><br />
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<br />BlogTenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07260475810107647860noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039862534696830799.post-85452239565282245222018-07-16T07:44:00.001-07:002018-07-16T08:46:14.847-07:00Horrible medical advice in print when doctors shill for the alcohol industry<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnxQSAeZL1npRDEa4okNR24kuZO6gQ7cpRfbCWcmBSalT5w1ja4VDzW1GuIV4wpC9FQSkmXlQV_kmMGZ_NMOCePlS77A89JC6gmc2XKOUW1xDrZpG6m0hdOfcaFyF1-mQflqOzqlP2CFQ/s1600/Depositphotos_78603060_xl-2015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnxQSAeZL1npRDEa4okNR24kuZO6gQ7cpRfbCWcmBSalT5w1ja4VDzW1GuIV4wpC9FQSkmXlQV_kmMGZ_NMOCePlS77A89JC6gmc2XKOUW1xDrZpG6m0hdOfcaFyF1-mQflqOzqlP2CFQ/s320/Depositphotos_78603060_xl-2015.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Times-Colonist doctor uncaps a bottle of fooling-yourself alcohol-industry propaganda.</td></tr>
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'Moderate beer drinking never killed anyone.' Not all physicians are this foolish with advice advocating drinking a toxin and known carcinogen. Sadly, many still buy in to junk science touting health benefits of drinking alcohol. There are ZERO health benefits to even 'moderate' consumption of this drug in evidence-based studies.<br />
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The full article is at <a href="http://www.timescolonist.com/life/health/the-doctor-game-moderate-beer-drinking-never-killed-anyone-1.23368845">The Doctor Game: Moderate beer-drinking never killed anyone</a>, The gist of it is <span style="font-family: inherit;">"<span style="background-color: white;">The secret for longevity remains the same — following a healthy lifestyle early in life and sticking with it. Too many attempt it unsuccessfully at the end of life.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">"Add it all up, and it’s moderation throughout life that wins the day. Just consider alcohol. At least 20 studies show that moderate drinkers live longer than either teetotallers (sic) or alcoholics. [20 <a href="http://alcoholauthor.blogspot.com/2013/04/alcohols-health-benefits-wishful.html" target="_blank">wish-thing observational studies</a> which do not take into account other lifestyle factors] Alcohol lowers blood cholesterol [false, it increases <a href="http://alcoholauthor.blogspot.com/2014/01/resolutions-part-v-alcohol-leaves.html" target="_blank">triglycerides</a>] and decreases the risk of a fatal blood clot [also false, it is a <a href="http://alcoholauthor.blogspot.com/2015/09/immediate-and-long-term-stroke-risk.html" target="_blank">leading contributor to stroke risk</a>].</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">"So beer in moderation never killed anyone on the Mayflower, or anywhere else. Beer contains no cholesterol, fat, triglycerides or sugar, and is low in sodium. It also contains vitamins, calcium for bones [<a href="http://alcoholauthor.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-files-alcohol-z-for-alcohol_26.html" target="_blank">untrue nutritional claims</a>], potassium to lower blood pressure [alcohol use <a href="http://alcoholauthor.blogspot.com/2013/05/alcohol-and-blood-pressure-hypertention.html" target="_blank">increases, worsens hypertension</a>] and magnesium to regulate the heart’s rhythm. [Widely discredited <a href="http://alcoholauthor.blogspot.com/2014/07/new-study-says-alcohol-is-not-heart.html" target="_blank">heart health</a> benefits.]</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">"The government doesn’t prevent the sale of cars because some idiots drive too fast. Yet ironically, and possibly criminally, it prohibits beer and liquor companies from stating that moderate drinking is a healthy habit. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">My advice is buy a bathroom scale and step on it every day. This will help to keep you a moderate consumer of food, alcohol, and exercise. If the scale continues to show increasing weight, need I say more?"</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Yes, you need to say something honest about the drug you're proclaiming safe in moderation. There is no safe level when consuming a toxin and carcinogen, doct</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">or, according to scientists who don't shill for the alcohol industry. And 'moderate' beer drinking increases accident risk with <a href="http://alcoholauthor.blogspot.com/2013/05/new-05-bac-proposal-for-drinking-and.html" target="_blank">impairment beginning at .02</a> blood alcohol concentration (BAC). </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #3c3c3c; font-size: 12px; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Vladislavs Gorniks image, used with permission.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Stevens is author of four alcohol, health, and recovery books and is principal of </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://alcohologist.com&source=gmail&ust=1522920726884000&usg=AFQjCNFiZ--CzgKw10x3VXhc1vOnS3JA4g" href="http://alcohologist.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e93100; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">alcohologist.com</a><span style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">. He is a founding influencer of the world’s largest medical portal, </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://healthtap.com&source=gmail&ust=1522920726884000&usg=AFQjCNFnDYEiEadkUYNaDhtfKvp_AKbMSQ" href="http://healthtap.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e93100; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">healthtap.com</a><span style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">. He will Chair the 2018 International Conference on Addiction Therapy and Clinical Reports in Paris, France.</span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>BlogTenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07260475810107647860noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039862534696830799.post-35937324226426653102018-04-04T19:53:00.001-07:002018-11-16T10:39:40.175-08:00Look What Dragged the Cat In: The rise of an opioid crisis<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhLJynP85K9kj3Ig26XV8WzH2gfo2uVyAQzz7dukismx_ciHqoTkpGot2Bs3-iRPfRy6PMqLzS1uMDP_s-3iCiAClIg33Iq0a6WNYczoNlbB1hQG74mC6RWBrzN_8YGKWqZFHAfoEglOM/s1600/square+snake.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="701" data-original-width="724" height="309" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhLJynP85K9kj3Ig26XV8WzH2gfo2uVyAQzz7dukismx_ciHqoTkpGot2Bs3-iRPfRy6PMqLzS1uMDP_s-3iCiAClIg33Iq0a6WNYczoNlbB1hQG74mC6RWBrzN_8YGKWqZFHAfoEglOM/s320/square+snake.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Excerpted from the 2018 USA Best Book Winner, Look What Dragged the Cat In.</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The decade of the 2010’s shelled hospitals and first responders with an explosion of opioid-related illness, injury, and death. </span></span></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Preventable drug overdoses tallied 54,793 lives lost in 2016 – an increase of 391 percent since 1999. Accidental drug overdose deaths increased 327 percent over the same period. The majority of OD deaths (38,000) involve opioids, The drug category most frequently involved in opioid overdoses and growing at the fastest pace includes fentanyl, fentanyl analogs, and tramadol. The fentanyl category of opioids accounted for nearly half of opioid-related deaths. The dirty cat in the litter, h</span></span></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">eroin, accounted for the second highest number of deaths, claiming 14,606 lives.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">America struggles with what the opioid cat dragged in: Hard-to-treat opioid addictions, fatal relapses, and needless loss of mainly young lives. Now legislators, first responders, treatment pros, and those in the medical field are forced to focus not on the death toll the cat dragged in, but instead what dragged the cat in.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Every opioid related death is alcohol related</span></b></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The abuse of drugs, regardless of classification, begins with the permissiveness granted the world’s most lethal drug and third-leading cause of all preventable deaths: Alcohol. It’s a straight line.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Nearly every non-Muslim civilization on this rock has embraced alcohol. As a result, ours is largely a numbing planet, especially in the sedation-happy Americas. This is the root. This is the seed of the opium trade that has gone unstemmed since prehistory. There is legit medical use for opium derivatives: What has driven growth is demand – not by the sick but by people who cannot get the mind alteration they desire through alcohol use alone.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Alcoholics and non-alcoholics alike drink the first drink for the same reason: To relieve a stress. In the U.S., which has a laissez faire agenda toward alcohol since its prohibition failure, the culture embraces a drinking lifestyle. Americans normalize alcohol use. In other words, Americans (like many cultures) normalize </span></span></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;">drug use. </i></span></span></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The 1960’s have nothin’ on the 2010’s.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What you ignore, you permit. What you permit, you condone.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Opioid </span></span></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;">abuse</i></span></span></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> happens when a person can’t get where they want to get with alcohol. The opioid crisis wasn’t created by doctors overprescribing, manufacturers wooing doctors, China shipping heroin and cheaper fentanyl via cartels and the U.S. mail. Drinking, especially binge drinking, is the pandemic that dragged in the opioid ‘epidemic.’ Americans condone the buzz, the sedation. We created this monster on our own.</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What’s the way out?</span></b></span></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Legislative attempts to curb use of potentially lethal drugs resemble shooting an arrow and then drawing a target around where it hit. Locking up dealers and traffickers, creating prescription databases and prescribing limits, and promoting Narcan availability all deal with control of the supply and its aftermath. The demand is unchanged. Within a cultural adoration of the buzz, our current crisis can only be curbed by control of the demand. If a drug user wants a drug, they</span></span></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;">will</i></span></span></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> get that drug. It’s the American freedom thing.</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In 1967, 72 percent of adult men smoked. Today, 72 percent don’t. Prevention works. If there is genuine interest in healthy outcomes and preventing premature death from opioids, Americans’ permissiveness of the starter or feeder or gateway or predecessor drug has to be addressed on five levels to reduce demand for all antecessor drugs.</span></span></span></span></div>
<ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 24px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Advertising agencies court alcohol manufacturers with a promise of creating demand for the drug. You can ban advertising without banning the product. When cigarette marketing/advertising was banned, demand dropped without banning the product. The National Bureau of Economic Research (</span></span></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: navy; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span lang="zxx" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><u style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w7758" rel="nofollow noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e93100; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">NBER</span></span></span></a></u></span></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">) studied bans in 20 countries over 26 years. </span></span></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The results indicate that an increase of one ban could reduce alcohol consumption by five to eight percent.</span></span></span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 24px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Public drinking encourages drug use. Smoke-free regs cut down on the demand by curtailing where cigarettes can be smoked. Applying the same model for drinking – instead of popping up a brew pub on every corner – can reduce demand. The idea of having a cocaine bar on every corner is absurd, but a pub peddling a drug that kills more people (89,000 Americans per year) is somehow acceptable. </span></span></span>The availability of alcohol can be regulated either through restricting the hours or days it can be sold or by reducing the number of alcohol retail outlets, according the a World Health Organization (<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: navy; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span lang="zxx" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><u style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/alcohol.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e93100; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">WHO</a></u></span></span>) study. Logicaly, reduced sales hours have been found to be effective in lowering consumption. In the former Soviet union in the mid-1980s, strict alcohol regulation, which included among other measures restricted hours and fewer outlets, led to a dramatic reduction.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 24px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The ‘Smoking Stinks’ campaign brought an anti-smoking message down to the earliest grades. A modest effort to create similar anti-drinking messages demonstrating health risks of even moderate use (see </span></span></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: navy; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span lang="zxx" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><u style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://viewbook.at/prehab" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e93100; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">viewbook.at/prehab</span></span></span></a></u></span></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">) will stunt demand by discouraging the very first drink of the gateway </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;">drug.</span></span></span>The <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: navy; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span lang="zxx" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><u style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1653696/pdf/amjph00482-0055.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e93100; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">American Journal of Public Health</a></u></span></span> analysis of the anti-smoking campaign suggests that per capita consumption would have been one-fifth to one-third larger than it actually is, had the years of anti-smoking publicity never materialized.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 24px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Increase the tax on the gateway drug. The bottom line is that many states and municipalities balance their bottom lines with so-called ‘sin taxes.’ The sin taxes on alcohol haven’t kept pace with inflation</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. </span></span></span>These taxes are usually based on the amount of beverage purchased (not on the sales price), so their effects can erode over time due to inflation if they are not adjusted regularly. The Community Preventive Services Task Force (<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: navy; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span lang="zxx" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><u style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.thecommunityguide.org/content/increased-alcohol-taxes-can-prevent-excessive-alcohol-use-and-other-harms" rel="nofollow noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e93100; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">CPSTF</a></u></span></span>) recommends increasing taxes on the sale of alcoholic beverages, on the basis of strong evidence of the effectiveness of this pol<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;">icy in reducing excessive alcoho</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">l consumption and related harms. Opioid use </span></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is</i></span></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> a related harm. </span></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The CPSTF is an independent, </span></span></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">non-federal </span></span></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">panel of public health and prevention experts that provides evidence-based findings and recommendations about community preventive services, programs, and other interventions aimed at improvin</span></span></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">g population health.</span></span></span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 24px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Many will argue that legalizing recreational use of marijuana will reduce opioid abuse and erroneously point to Colorado as an example. (By the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (</span></span></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: navy; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span lang="zxx" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><u style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/drug_poisoning_mortality/drug_poisoning.htm" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e93100; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">CDC</span></span></span></a></u></span></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">) numbers, you can call BS: Colorado’s death rate from opioid overdose is barely in the top half of the state-by-state death-rate comparison … if you wanted to complete the morbid, pointless comparison. One death is too many.) What’s entirely missing from the debate is that no evidence exists that encouraging recreational use of another drug furthers public health in general. Marijuana is revenue-neutral when you subtract societal, medical, and legal costs.</span></span></span></span></li>
</ul>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">When we rethink the drink we can douse the pandemic that begat the current opioid crisis. Legislators and treatment experts must lead the transition from managing aftermaths of the current crisis to prevention of the next one. And phase out the ancient alcohol crisis – </span></span></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: navy; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span lang="zxx" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><u style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://bit.ly/price2high" rel="nofollow noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e93100; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">the elephant in the room</span></span></span></a></u></span></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> – America ignores.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Stevens is author of four alcohol, health, and recovery books and is principal of <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://alcohologist.com&source=gmail&ust=1522920726884000&usg=AFQjCNFiZ--CzgKw10x3VXhc1vOnS3JA4g" href="http://alcohologist.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e93100; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">alcohologist.com</a>. He is a founding influencer of the world’s largest medical portal, <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://healthtap.com&source=gmail&ust=1522920726884000&usg=AFQjCNFnDYEiEadkUYNaDhtfKvp_AKbMSQ" href="http://healthtap.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e93100; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">healthtap.com</a>. He will Chair the 2018 International Conference on Addiction Therapy and Clinical Reports in Paris, France.</span></div>
Scott Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05413534996048038292noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039862534696830799.post-71154679197472766212017-12-05T09:40:00.001-08:002018-11-28T15:27:54.115-08:00Don't become an ugly Christmas sweater: Dodge the holiday minefields<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeQRYRnTBj-D92bB-5ba0TH_OxXjOWgHh0yYksF9Wqto7e5Bf6xhzRdioYAdOm3jc5CHQukhzTcLvEE1hhFJbxoFzNNv8LoYSq51M_te996SOOQiPdrLnQbuTT7xmO2h0_ECdSCiIJl0o/s1600/ugly+christmas+sweater.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeQRYRnTBj-D92bB-5ba0TH_OxXjOWgHh0yYksF9Wqto7e5Bf6xhzRdioYAdOm3jc5CHQukhzTcLvEE1hhFJbxoFzNNv8LoYSq51M_te996SOOQiPdrLnQbuTT7xmO2h0_ECdSCiIJl0o/s320/ugly+christmas+sweater.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It'll come to you...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Relapse traps
sneakily pop up on any page of the calendar, but the 63 days between
Halloween and New Year's Day can be the trickiest gauntlet to run.
Sequestering in a bunker? Not an option. Here are nine tips for not sweating the
season of celebrations:</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">1) Stay out of your
medicine chest. Cough and cold season is here. It's especially easy
to overdo the cough meds. In typical addict fashion, the think the
dosage on the label is only a suggestion and if a small amount works,
the whole bottle will really kick the symptoms to the curb. Not so.
And the little buzz from an OD of the over-the-counter drug can lead
back to the drug of choice.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">2) Stay out of your
medicine chest: Part II. Another relapse trap in the medicine chest
is sleep aids. With the time change and extra holiday-season stress,
sleep is a casualty of the calendar. Alcohol is a depressant. Sleep
aids are depressants. The brain doesn't make such an exact
distinction between the two and, historically, drinkers have used
alcohol as a sleep aid – or excused their drinking by saying it
helps them sleep. It isn't just the prescription sleep aid like
Roseanne's favorite, Ambien. It's also the OTC one, and especially concoctions like
Motrin PM or Tylenol PM.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">3) Find sober
celebrations. Not as rare as you might think. If you're timid, take
someone along with you who might be even newer to sobriety. If there
aren't celebrations, it could be time for a diversion like a museum
or pick a dry theater and watch The Last Jedi. All the older kids are
doing it.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">4) Bail out. There
is nothing wrong with the word 'no.' We were all pretty creative with
excuses for our drinking. If you are even slightly apprehensive about
an event, put the same creativity to use for why you can't go. And if
you're busted telling a little white one… isn't it better than
possibly challenging your sobriety? Real friends understand.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">5) If you can't
bail, bring candy. Seriously. Satisfying an oral fixation can make a
difference. The taste on your palate will make alcohol flavorings
less inviting, too. If you've ever had a beer on top of a candy cane,
you know.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">6) Never stay late
if you do go. Our reputations as the last soldiers standing – gone.
Be the first leaving. Everyone has seen a dreaded morning after, or
the photos of the night before, and uttered the words, 'I shoulda
left way earlier.' The more tired you get, the weaker your defenses
become. My grandmother's rule was that nothing good ever happens
after 10 p.m. anyway.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">7) Go help another
alcoholic who might be struggling. The twelve-steppers founded their
fellowship on this simple act. Even if you're not a twelve-stepper or
vow to never become one, give this a try. It works. There's a flawed
thinking that the holidays are an inappropriate time to challenge
someone who's challenged by drugs including alcohol. It may be the
best gift you ever give the person with the disease of addiction –
and the family around him or her. Inside every sick person sick with
this disease is a trembling, sorry, sad person dying to feel well
again. Invite him or her out onto the path to recovery. In the case
of the disease of alcoholism, there's no worse time than waiting for
tomorrow or the New Year. You wouldn't imagine postponing treatment
for a chronic, fatal, progressive disease like cancer. Why postpone
it for a chronic, fatal, progressive disease like alcoholism? If the
worry is that it wouldn't be the holiday without that person near,
what have the past few holidays told you about that… and what if
there isn't a next holiday?</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xwmZMlzzEFs/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xwmZMlzzEFs?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">8) Breathe. The
holidays are loaded with financial stress, family stress, traffic
stress, cold-and-flu stress, and end-of-the-year work stress in
addition to the normal, everyday stress of life. Alcoholics and
non-alcoholics alike drink to relieve stress. There isn't a single
stressor that is cured by drinking: There isn't one that got worse
because you chose to just breathe rather than drinking it off the
calendar.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">9) Be brutally
honest with yourself. The biggest charge in the holiday minefield is
in the eight-inch gap between your left ear and your right. Nearly
every relapse comes in the collision between reality and the five
words, 'It won't happen to me.' Here's the very alcoholic reason why
I still have Ibuprofen PM in my own nightstand: Because it won't
happen to me, the second warning above is only for those other guys,
right? Right.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">By the way, these
nine aren't just for the end of the year and the start of the new
one. They work anytime.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>– Scott Stevens is
the author of five award-winning alcohol and health books, The
A-Files: Alcohol A-Z DVD series, </i><a href="http://alcohologist.com/" style="font-style: italic;">Alcohologist.com</a><i>, and the Alcohology
app for Android. He is a founding influencer of the world's largest
medical portal HealthTap</i><i>. </i><i> </i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">Image by </span></span><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #3c3c3c; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">Marina Gloria Gallud Carbonell used with permission.</span></span></div>
BlogTenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07260475810107647860noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039862534696830799.post-70452146859803904402017-11-09T06:24:00.000-08:002017-11-14T04:08:55.252-08:00 Wisconsin proposes creating the next generation of damaged adults because profit trumps health<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoAQKPA843B2eoB3mL7MPx6Xp-Ni8p2Qm3fSvojh5Nx0mV46RYLYeZ5yrR9uLZclAkZdDxg-8wLmao-NJQVW58ufoR8XgoGfVJSE1Vb4A24IihyphenhyphenqHK7lKOFzdEv8UqEslKI0jhFwARkiI/s1600/Depositphotos_2471082_l-2015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoAQKPA843B2eoB3mL7MPx6Xp-Ni8p2Qm3fSvojh5Nx0mV46RYLYeZ5yrR9uLZclAkZdDxg-8wLmao-NJQVW58ufoR8XgoGfVJSE1Vb4A24IihyphenhyphenqHK7lKOFzdEv8UqEslKI0jhFwARkiI/s320/Depositphotos_2471082_l-2015.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R - Burlington), became the voice of reason by not throwing in with special interests' Nov. 8 attempt to lower Wisconsin's drinking age, effectively killing the proposal's future. (<a href="http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2017/11/08/republican-lawmakers-bill-would-lower-drinking-age-19-wisconsin/845245001/" target="_blank">JournalSentinel article.</a>) Alcohol is a toxin and known
carcinogen. Instead of encouraging more people to drink by lowering
the drinking age to 19, Wisconsin might want to focus on educating
more kids about this drug.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The suggestions by
the bill's sponsors that lowering the age to legally use this drug
will save money is nearly as absurd as the concept that drinking a
toxin 'in moderation' somehow has health benefits. At legal age 21,
alcohol use – all alcohol use, not just drinking and driving or the
disease of alcoholism – costs the economy $250 billion a year,
mostly in lost productivity. That's enough to buy every man, woman,
and child in the U.S. a 55-inch, HDTV for Christmas… every year.
Increasing the number of legal drinkers is going to reduce the cost?
A fine piece of fiction.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YibB9sq8bVY/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YibB9sq8bVY?feature=player_embedded" style="clear: right; float: right;" width="320"></iframe></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Of greater
importance is the health impact. Increasing the drinking age was never about highway money or
reducing drinking and driving, although they are lovely benefits.
There are health consequences for developing brains. Cognitive damage
in a developing brain lasts well past the hangover. Drinking in any
amount reduces brain myelin, impairs cognitive and behavior control,
and physically alter brain structure. This. Toxin. Changes. DNA.
Lowering the drinking age will ultimately lead to impairments in
brain function in adulthood. Since the brain's frontal lobes develop
into the mid-20's, if we want to reduce social costs associated with
drinking, raising the age of legal use would be more practical.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Brain damage is so significant it overshadows the cancer risk of a known carcinogen. The concern is especially acute for women drinkers of the only dietary link to an increased risk of breast cancer. The younger a woman starts, the higher the risk. Breast tissue is developing at age 21... again a case for increasing the drinking age rather than lowering it.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The public and
political appetite (FYI: Beverage alcohol is among the top-spenders
in elections) for raising the drinking age isn't there. And it isn't
practical. What's practical is beginning alcohol education at
earlier grades in the same fashion we start tobacco education. At
it's simplest, it starts will calling alcohol a drug.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">With that in mind,
shame on the sponsors for suggesting the fictional cost savings from
lowering the drinking age would be used for drug treatment. Treatment
of the same drug you're peddling? Or were you only suggesting that to
ride the coattails of the public interest in the opioid topic when
you're fully aware that the accountability for actually spending the
money for treatment doesn't exist?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #5e5e5e; font-family: roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">Scott Stevens, is the author of four alcohol books including the December 2016 release, I Can’t See The Forest With All These Damn Trees In The Way: The Health Consequences of Alcohol. Get the new BookLocker title now on Amazon (<a href="http://viewbook.at/prehab" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; color: #74a3d0; transition: 0.15s linear;">viewbook.at/prehab</a>), alcohologist.com, and everywhere you buy books. Click <a href="http://bit.ly/AlcoLie" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; color: #74a3d0; transition: 0.15s linear;">Alcopocalypse</a> for the author’s 2017 Alcohol Awareness Month whitepaper. Image by Peter Lecko, used with permission.</em></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Image by Andrew Jalbert, used with permission.</span>Scott Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05413534996048038292noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039862534696830799.post-59145520764987556882017-10-08T21:16:00.001-07:002017-11-09T06:30:43.978-08:00Michelob targets teens on Instagram: Self-regulation's epic fail<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZXeeRJE5fjVjwsMJwyX6LPw8fOYalNXv20HtJPGpkIaAmQDpMq15P1JlgKQIDMj50a4bBzwd_bQ3l9RumxMHhZrUfakNhT7J661eV55mVOi4ynvfn-BvB3-EKb44gDYElXpwv_Ee028c/s1600/4082_1507494828520.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="michelob, ad, alcohol" border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="901" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZXeeRJE5fjVjwsMJwyX6LPw8fOYalNXv20HtJPGpkIaAmQDpMq15P1JlgKQIDMj50a4bBzwd_bQ3l9RumxMHhZrUfakNhT7J661eV55mVOi4ynvfn-BvB3-EKb44gDYElXpwv_Ee028c/s320/4082_1507494828520.jpeg" title="" width="180" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In the process of running an ad on social media platforms, a business is able to target ads by any combination of 'interests' or location or age or gender. This ad above was delivered to a high school senior, Sunday, Oct. 8, in his Instagram feed. His user profile indicates he is seventeen. The browser history shows ZERO visits to alcohol profiles or pages.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Anheuser-Busch Companies, maker of Michelob Ultra, is one of several alcohol manufacturers capitalizing on the perfect storm of the untamed Wild West of social media combined with an industry permitted to police itself.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Although alcohol is a legal substance for adults age 21 or older, it is the leading drug used by underage American youth. The drug is one of the three leading risk factors for global disease burden according to study appearing in <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(12)61766-8/abstract" target="_blank">Lancet</a> in 2012. In adolescents in particular, alcohol use increases the likelihood of injury, addiction and death, and of course the risky behaviors teens are known to find tempting... but it also damages a brain that isn't fully developed until their 20's. </span><br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YibB9sq8bVY/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YibB9sq8bVY?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Exposure to alcohol marketing has been identified as one factor that may lead to underage alcohol consumption. While nobody really needs a 'longitudinal study' to come to that conclusion, one was done and the hard numbers appeared in <a href="http://www.addictionjournal.org/press-releases/new-study-supports-link-between-alcohol-advertising-and-adolescent-drinking" target="_blank">Addiction</a> in Oct. 2016. A previous <a href="http://alcohologist.com/">Alcohologist.com</a> <a href="http://alcoholauthor.blogspot.com/2014/07/new-study-says-ads-spur-kids-to-drink.html" target="_blank">article</a> noted that the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University (<a href="http://www.camy.org/" target="_blank">CAMY</a>) has found that youth in the United States were 96 times more likely per capita to see an ad promoting alcohol than an industry ad discouraging underage drinking.</span><br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">No clear rules, no independent review of content</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Industry watchdog, California-based <a href="http://alcoholjustice.org/" target="_blank">AlcoholJustice</a>, keeps tabs on the sketchy practices engaged by the alcohol makers and the ad agencies pimping them. "Alcohol ads are ubiquitous on public transit, billboards, sports stadiums, and digital media. Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter offer inexpensive, virtually unregulated promotional platforms to alcohol producers and marketers, who encourage youth to build relationships with their brands."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Alcohol ads are shown to a somewhat gullible, very impressionable, and ultimately naive audience that isn't even old enough to purchase, possess. or consume the drug because there's a 'bro code' in the alcohol industry: Their ad policies are voluntary and self-regulated. As a result, teens <i>are</i> going to get served the ads because the fox is supervising the chicken coop. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (<a href="http://www.ttb.gov/" target="_blank">TTB</a>) has guidelines defining everything from blogs and social networks to video sharing sites and micro blogging services as 'advertising.' As such, "any use of social media by industry members is subject to the same limitations, requirements and restrictions as any other form of advertising previously has been, among other guidelines...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">... ads must be limited to an audience where at least 70 percent are of drinking age. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It's a guideline, remember. And it's self-policed. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Where does the 70 percent figure come from? The overall census of the U.S. says 70 percent of us are 21 or older. The census of social media platforms doesn't mate up well with the overall population however. <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/08/19/the-demographics-of-social-media-users/" target="_blank">Pew Research</a> (click on their link to the complete .pdf report) shows 72 percent of its users are under age 18. </span><br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Of the 500,000 advertisers on Instagram, you wouldn't count on seeing a business that has a self-imposed rule of not advertising to minors</span></h3>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjyK4rHKp_Dd2qiJOkwKogbbvZrop9zk6YKxpU046lwVL8Y8tqFS3ywyn0DLIJ17S6cKN7Gf0QntcVataQEK-jxwNBFPB5WYxzOEeUdc5Q7RWuClblw1_3ts98Z-jCzumJ-7QKOyYRi18/s1600/statista.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="632" data-original-width="883" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjyK4rHKp_Dd2qiJOkwKogbbvZrop9zk6YKxpU046lwVL8Y8tqFS3ywyn0DLIJ17S6cKN7Gf0QntcVataQEK-jxwNBFPB5WYxzOEeUdc5Q7RWuClblw1_3ts98Z-jCzumJ-7QKOyYRi18/s400/statista.JPG" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">By the way, Instagram only appeals to four percent of adults over 65 years of age. As for American teenagers, in a Piper Jaffray semi-annual <a href="http://www.piperjaffray.com/3col.aspx?id=4035" target="_blank">Taking Stock With Teens</a> survey, 32 percent described Instagram as their most important social network, second only to Snapchat. <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/419380/us-teen-instagram-users-gender-age-reach/" target="_blank">Statista</a> shows the share of teenagers in the United States who were Instagram users as of March 2015, sorted by gender and age group. During that period of time, 64 percent of female U.S. teens aged 15 to 17 years used the social networking app. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Advertising a label or a company to establish brand identity is what companies do. In the uber-competitive beverage industry, brand loyalty is everything. It would appear the alcohol makers are attempting to establish their brand with would-be users of their beverage when they're old enough. Which all seems odd when we're talking about a toxic, carcinogenic drug rather than Kool-Aid.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We do more to curtail junk-food advertising aimed at young people than we do to prevent them from soaking in alcohol ads. “There’s very strong evidence that underage drinkers are not only exposed to the advertising, but they also assimilate the messages,” says James D. Sargent, MD. “That process moves them forward in their drinking behavior.” Sargent is the study author of a Jan. 2016 report in <a href="http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2089643" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">JAMA</a> linking the ads kids see and what they do with the information. He’s professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine. And he’s summarized the same message a dozen other reports have stated since 1996.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">"Underage drinking harms teens, their families and their communities,” adds Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (<a href="http://www.cdc.gov/" target="_blank">CDC</a>) Director Tom Frieden. "E</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">xposing teens to alcohol advertising undermines what parents and other concerned adults are doing to raise healthy kids.”</span><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">If OxyContin was advertised to teens on social media, the FTC, mainstream media, and the Attorneys General of 50 states would be on drug maker Purdue Pharma like a hobo on a ham sandwich. A deadlier teen drug is promoted on teens' favorite app and everyone takes a nap.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Federal Trade Commission (<a href="https://www.ftc.gov/" target="_blank">FTC</a>) has overall oversight of advertising and has been conducting a study for more than a year on alcohol-beverage companies’ use of online advertising, with the results yet to be released. FTC will focus on age verification – a subject the TTB guidelines on social media do not address.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Like the Michelob Ultra sponsored post shown above, kids are being delivered ads where they live: Instagram and other popular platforms that are saturated with adolescent users. They'll get Ultra right alongside the selfies, Selena Gomez posts, and the snap of the pizza slice a friend is about to down. Self-regulation. It works until it doesn't. Just ask the financial services industry.</span><br />
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<h3>
Don't just fix the shocks, fill the potholes.</h3>
Even the addiction recovery professional and paraprofessionals nap on such front-end, front-line issues. Things like this advertising issue on Instagram are barely on the radar of recovery advocates, be they treatment centers or interventionists. They're overburdened as it is with treating the ill and have little time or disposable assets to address prevention. Aside from the massive economic and public health concern America's insatiable appetite for alcohol creates (see related video), no alcoholic ever became alcoholic without taking the first drink. Period.<br />
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Certainly not everyone who drinks becomes alcoholic, but a <a href="https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/early-drinking-linked-higher-lifetime-alcoholism-risk" target="_blank">report from the National Institutes for Health</a> definitively links teen use with higher alcoholism risk later in life. In a nerdy analysis, it would seem a recovery advocate would be sacrificing job security by supporting prevention efforts. Not true. There will always be drug users and those genetically predisposed to the disease of addiction. Recovery advocacy is crucial... prevention is essential. It's like being part mechanic, part street crew: You put new shocks on cars that have run through potholes and sooner rather than later you just fix the stupid potholes. Instagram's Michelob ad...that's a pothole.<br />
<br />
---<br />
<i>For more reading on alcohol advertising, see </i><br />
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: white; color: #5e5e5e; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; position: relative;">
<i><a href="http://alcoh%20olauthor.blogspot.com/2013/04/alcohol-advertising-in-sports-blasted.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Alcohol advertising in sports blasted for 'grooming child drinkers,' bans becoming popular internationally</span></a></i></h3>
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<br />
<em style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #5e5e5e; font-family: roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">Scott Stevens, is the author of four alcohol books including the December 2016 release, I Can’t See The Forest With All These Damn Trees In The Way: The Health Consequences of Alcohol. Get the new BookLocker title now on Amazon (<a href="http://viewbook.at/prehab" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; color: #74a3d0; transition: 0.15s linear;">viewbook.at/prehab</a>), alcohologist.com, and everywhere you buy books. Click <a href="http://bit.ly/AlcoLie" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; color: #74a3d0; transition: 0.15s linear;">Alcopocalypse</a> for the author’s 2017 Alcohol Awareness Month whitepaper. Image by Peter Lecko, used with permission.</em>Scott Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05413534996048038292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039862534696830799.post-80869891709148625832017-09-29T14:32:00.001-07:002017-10-08T21:19:00.643-07:00Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Revealing alcohol's role begins to unravel the ribbon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKnrEZ61zJ-UXItZon_OlDlqDfU90E1LAfSdsabcRKD5MMDa51XYA_rU_eF_JQ7IgtrCGiFv8PWUOXKMrLHqkzsvaf3yKIkG5QVwBs7SWML-fMoS34YVIZV37o_l2t1wwm-nuLh1Z-RX8/s1600/happy+hour2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTbk90qjchISgwsSsGyDybJKTeFmdENdHwveyaJUjq4pKfOz3C_9jT94kccZ4NkPknGF24SJO-MBTJ7_aZbUrh7eON4_wjLVbm4oLL6_AOwZ5RAqSgXWeHSSp6QoChMaHb4Rmy2NgqZqY/s1600/happy+hour4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="breast cancer, alcohol, awareness month" border="0" data-original-height="638" data-original-width="1200" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTbk90qjchISgwsSsGyDybJKTeFmdENdHwveyaJUjq4pKfOz3C_9jT94kccZ4NkPknGF24SJO-MBTJ7_aZbUrh7eON4_wjLVbm4oLL6_AOwZ5RAqSgXWeHSSp6QoChMaHb4Rmy2NgqZqY/s400/happy+hour4.jpg" title="" width="400" /></a></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Ladies... and men who care... listen up: There is one and only one unchallenged dietary link to an increased risk of breast cancer. That link is alcohol consumption.</blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">To date, the only dietary link to an increased risk of breast cancer is alcohol use. One in eight women will have an encounter with breast cancer in her lifetime. It takes relatively little alcohol to boost the cancer risk. As little as one drink a day can provide a double digit increase in the chance of getting the disease. Three or more servings of alcohol per day gives you the same risk as a daily pack of cigarettes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Think about that for a minute: With all the news regarding the link between smoking and cancer, the alcohol link is as strong and well documented, but far less publicized. For now. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBVlqoi710aR1PNUrmsVG89dD4xG5-wKYz7truTerZf2PiFwVDhW6ChUGYs-h_Tp2H-u24NhvF2z3TGWjleATMFmefGxMgfYweJi4O9ei1ayNAY_KkudfBQkSIaTDKhyphenhypheng-8KeYZQc6JYk/s1600/alcopo+cover.JPG.opt469x599o0%252C0s469x599.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="469" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBVlqoi710aR1PNUrmsVG89dD4xG5-wKYz7truTerZf2PiFwVDhW6ChUGYs-h_Tp2H-u24NhvF2z3TGWjleATMFmefGxMgfYweJi4O9ei1ayNAY_KkudfBQkSIaTDKhyphenhypheng-8KeYZQc6JYk/s320/alcopo+cover.JPG.opt469x599o0%252C0s469x599.JPG" width="250" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
The whitepaper, <a href="http://www.alcohologist.com/resources/FINAL%20alcopocalypse.pdf" target="_blank">Alcopocalypse</a>, predicts the next 10 years for the alcohol business will look like the last 20 have for tobacco. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Alcohol's causal relationship with breast cancer isn't new. </span>More than 100 studies 1920-2017 have conclusively linked alcohol consumption to increased breast cancer risk. <span style="font-family: inherit;">New research continues every year, delving deeper into the link, especially how alcohol disrupts hormones and even genes. </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5rem;">
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<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5rem;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/0DY1jbUqZy8/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0DY1jbUqZy8?feature=player_embedded" style="clear: right; float: right;" width="320"></iframe><span style="font-family: inherit;">Alcohol increases production of estrogen. Estrogen increases are behind 80 percent of breast cancers. Toxic alcohol also creates another toxin – acetaldehyde. That second toxin has been shown to alter DNA and breast tissue in younger drinkers, leading to increased cancer risk later in life. A </span><a href="http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Journal of the National Cancer Institute</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> report showed a double-digit increase in breast cancer risk for women who drank as little as one drink daily between the first menstruation and the first pregnancy. The results were independent of drinking after first pregnancy. That study also discovered an increase in benign breast disease, a non-cancerous condition which accounts for 80 percent of breast lumps. These benign lumps do increase the risk of breast cancer by 500 percent. The more alcohol consumed between the onset of the first menstrual period and the first pregnancy, the greater the risk for both benign breast disease and breast cancer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In another recent study, a University of Houston researcher and his team have discovered an important link between alcohol and breast cancer by identifying a cancer-causing gene triggered by alcohol. The <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0145061" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">2015 Houston research</a> shows alcohol enhances the actions of estrogen in driving the growth of breast cancer cells and diminishes the effects of the cancer drug Tamoxifen on blocking estrogen by increasing the levels of a cancer-causing gene. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">A consensus panel formed by the American Institute for Cancer Research (<a href="http://www.aicr.org/research/research_science_expert_report.html?legacy==res_report_second&20110809&mjm" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">AICR</a>) a decade ago concluded: "The evidence on cancer justifies a recommendation not to drink alcoholic drinks" ... a recommendation still maintained by the organization.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Only one in 10 adults knows alcohol is a carcinogen. 'Why haven't consumers been advised of the increased risk?' is a simple question to answer. Where do most people get information about alcohol? From the alcohol <i>makers</i> or from studies <i>funded by the</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>m</i>. </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Their information has been manipulated to protect the profitability of the drug they make, according to a new study by London School of Hygiene <span style="font-family: inherit;">and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and Sweden's Karolinska Institute. The</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> study claims alcohol giants are not exactly striving to educate consumers and marketers are misleading customers by hidieng facts from the public about cancer links to alcohol. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Published in the Sept. 2017 journal </span><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/dar.12596/full" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">Drug and Alcohol Review</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, the study found in 2016, that 30 companies misled the public about alcohol's connection to breast cancer risk. See <i><a href="http://alcoholauthor.blogspot.com/2017/09/hey-alcohol-90s-called-they-want-their.html" target="_blank">Hey Alcohol Biz: The 90's called and wants their liars back</a>.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Bottom line: Alcohol is a drug that's toxic and carcinogenic. Drinking it and expecting healthy results is like peeing in a Mr. Coffee and expecting Starbucks.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #5e5e5e; font-family: roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">Scott Stevens, is the author of four alcohol books including the December 2016 release, I Can’t See The Forest With All These Damn Trees In The Way: The Health Consequences of Alcohol. Get the new BookLocker title now on Amazon (<a href="http://viewbook.at/prehab" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; color: #74a3d0; transition: 0.15s linear;">viewbook.at/prehab</a>), alcohologist.com, and everywhere you buy books. Click <a href="http://bit.ly/AlcoLie" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; color: #74a3d0; transition: 0.15s linear;">Alcopocalypse</a> for the author’s 2017 Alcohol Awareness Month whitepaper. Image by Peter Lecko, used with permission.</em></span></div>
Scott Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05413534996048038292noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039862534696830799.post-35535521811579630222017-09-20T18:16:00.001-07:002017-09-29T10:43:33.948-07:00Busting the flashy car for 75 mph to let the 250 mph Peterbilt pass<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAMcBogdXS7LC8aGhKroFb_1jmBUlzJG4eO9o72Cnde3Hgsvk1q8JYl9NvsNWFb2PZxSdjTfppZpDHrM7OvSgxdHYjG93ioK-tHjNOMLcMa0OBp-55rD0AOVVH0RgISdKme0lerEHkGvA/s1600/buickimg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="drug epidemic, opioid crisis" border="0" data-original-height="843" data-original-width="1123" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAMcBogdXS7LC8aGhKroFb_1jmBUlzJG4eO9o72Cnde3Hgsvk1q8JYl9NvsNWFb2PZxSdjTfppZpDHrM7OvSgxdHYjG93ioK-tHjNOMLcMa0OBp-55rD0AOVVH0RgISdKme0lerEHkGvA/s320/buickimg.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
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<h4 style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">The public relations approach
to hiding an alcohol pandemic</span></i></h4>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In opioid news this week, state attorneys general across the
country are stepping up their game against the opioid crisis. Awhile
back, the AGs sent letters to insurers, asking them to do more to
curb the opioid epidemic. Now, they say they're expanding an ongoing
investigation into pharmaceutical companies make or distributing
opioids. That's according to <a href="https://www.medpagetoday.com/Neurology/GeneralNeurology/68003" target="_blank">MedPage Today</a>.
The publication also reports the Substance Abuse
and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) offered up an
additional $144 million in grants for preventing and treating opioid
addiction … a crisis costing the economy $78.5 billion a year.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">That's correct. Opioid use and addiction costs the U.S. $<i>78.5
billion. </i></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Alcohol
use and addiction costs the U.S. </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">$250 billion</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> a year, using the same
measurements of health care costs, lost productivity, and legal
system expenses.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We focus on an epidemic, so we don't have to focus on a pandemic.
The 75 mph 'vette gets the ticket. The 250 mph Peterbilt gets a
pass. Classic PR.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The public relations tactician works it something like this: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Pick a drug</b> – One that is sold only by prescription, generating
profit for a few, wealthy souls vs. a drug sold nearly everywhere in
the U.S., generating profit (and tax revenue… but not as much as
you think) for every restaurant, bar, retailer, grocer, hotel, gas
station, henhouse, outhouse, and doghouse where it's sold. Villify
alcohol? Not on your life.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Draft in support</b> – According to FollowTheMoney.org, Big Pharma
contributed $163 million to local, state, and federal candidates in
2016… alcohol interests (manufacturers, distributors, retailers)
donated $219 million. Don't bite the hand.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Choose an opponent you can outspend</b> – BusinessInsider.com put
beverage alcohol spending at $421 million in a single calendar
quarter. Every one of those ads tells Americans we can drink a toxin
and known carcinogen 'responsibly.' You're not going to run with
these big dogs. Stay on the porch.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Capitalize on ignorance</b> – Fewer than 1 in 10 Americans know
that alcohol kills three times as many people as opioids (89,000/yr.
vs. 30,000/yr). Less than 1 in 4 know that alcohol's a carcinogen and
a third of the 22,000 annual alcohol-related U.S. cancer deaths
occurred in people who had downed one and a half drinks a day or
less. Alcohol is legal. Legal equals 'safe' in our society. Except
for those nasty drunk drivers, binge-drinking college kids and
hard-core, red-nosed alcoholics, this isn't a drug: It's responsible
and fun in moderation. Opiates and opioids are controlled substances,
illegal without a prescription, and have a high risk of addiction
and/or overdose. Nevermind the medicinal relief in chronic pain
situations: Opioids are definitely the baddie.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Don't make them think, either</b> – There is a short line between
opioid use and overdose death. Drinking alcohol is more like stepping
out onto the highway and waiting for the Peterbuilt to hit you: It
could take years or decades. Too many dots to connect – and other
causes to which to pin the death while you're waiting. Brevity is
better in our 'always-on' planet. A recent <a href="http://www.elon.edu/e-web/predictions/expertsurveys/2012survey/default.xhtml">Pew
Internet study</a> in the US suggests that people benefit from
instant access to a wealth of information from numerous sources, but
their attention span and desire for in-depth analysis is consequently
diminished. That's how we got the term bounce rate. “If you start a
message and I can't see the end from the beginning, I will find it
elsewhere… and bounce.” Opioid tragedies tell what time it is…
alcohol deaths tell how to build a watch.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Sell the sizzle, not the steak</b> – There are 91 deaths a day from
opioid overdose. <a href="http://alcoholauthor.blogspot.com/2017/04/dope-101-opioids-opiates-six-of-one.html" target="_blank">Opiates and opioids</a> take lives in a single-dose for some people. And
sadly, the lives are often kids and young adults that society
wouldn't have picked out as a drug user. The old newsroom saying
was, “If it bleeds, it leads.” Crass and cynical? Yes. Accurate?
Pretty close. Stories of an honor student dying are tragedies with
great images on par with hurricanes, school shootings, and blazes…
compared to someone dying a death from alcohol-related illness like
heart attack, stroke or cancer.
</span><br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnePjXfOHIQ/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LnePjXfOHIQ?feature=player_embedded" style="clear: right; float: right;" width="320"></iframe><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Wag the dog</b> – We have a genuine health crisis. The opioid
problem is real and tragic and a worthwhile fight. Now, if we turn a
genuine health crisis and spin it up to an epidemic… maybe we don't
have to talk about a pandemic or other health crises like fetal
alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) which are now more prevalent than
autism. It's the sleight of hand performed by politicians, PR wags,
confidence men, and magicians for millennia: Watch what I do with
this hand, while the other takes your wallet. Or your health. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>And, most importantly of all, don't make enemies</b> – According to
the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), 86.4 percent
of people ages 18 or older reported that they drank alcohol at some
point in their lifetime; 70.1 percent reported that they drank in the
past year; 56.0 percent reported that they drank in the past month.
Even if you went with the lowest figure, 56 percent of adults used
alcohol in the last thirty days. That's 137 million adults. By
American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) stats, 2.5 million
adults have substance use disorder involving prescription pain
relievers or heroin. You've got a good shot at convincing me
something is bad if you're not doing it. You're even more effective
telling me something is bad if I'm not doing it.</span><br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It's not the back bumper of the Peterbilt that hits you</span></h3>
What we've got here, is failure to communicate: There's a drug
<i style="font-family: inherit;">acceptance</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> problem in the U.S. There's not just an opioid
overdose crisis. There isn't only an alcohol pandemic. There isn't a
weed legalization debate. The problem is cultural in the way we
normalize drug use, stigmatize those who've become ill from them, and
throw too little money, too late, at treatment instead of prevention. Did any alcoholic become alcoholic without taking the </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">first </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">drink? Is any case of alcohol-related injury or illness possible without a </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">first </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">drink? Giving a 'gateway drug' a free pass negates prevention efforts on other drugs we find less 'responsible.'</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">No amount of PR is going to paper over it for long before it becomes
fiscally unsustainable.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #5e5e5e; font-family: roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">Scott Stevens, is the author of four alcohol books including the December 2016 release, I Can’t See The Forest With All These Damn Trees In The Way: The Health Consequences of Alcohol. Get the new BookLocker title now on Amazon (<a href="http://viewbook.at/prehab" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; color: #74a3d0; transition: 0.15s linear;">viewbook.at/prehab</a>), alcohologist.com, and everywhere you buy books. Click <a href="http://bit.ly/AlcoLie" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; color: #74a3d0; transition: 0.15s linear;">Alcopocalypse</a> for the author’s 2017 Alcohol Awareness Month whitepaper. Image by Peter Lecko, used with permission.</em>Scott Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05413534996048038292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039862534696830799.post-14875695413741701242017-09-12T11:03:00.000-07:002017-09-20T18:03:11.656-07:00Gambling with FASD and the unborn: What. If. They're. Wrong.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9szHKaRQO3jWr6muAZxJhFcEl1yepU2FvTAg9k64fCSrfbEoeYoWnEKo3Sdcz5C_yxQgbaT_biVO4O99Fgazp7MV90sf5-MQ6slsWZgTZ3Zw7ehfbzo8l451FnOuL-KmvmN0MceYwm6I/s1600/Depositphotos_60942921_l-2015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="FASD, alcohol myths" border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9szHKaRQO3jWr6muAZxJhFcEl1yepU2FvTAg9k64fCSrfbEoeYoWnEKo3Sdcz5C_yxQgbaT_biVO4O99Fgazp7MV90sf5-MQ6slsWZgTZ3Zw7ehfbzo8l451FnOuL-KmvmN0MceYwm6I/s320/Depositphotos_60942921_l-2015.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">A widely reported Sept. 8, 2017 analysis, based on data published
in the online journal <a href="http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/7/7/e015410" target="_blank">BMJ Open</a>, indicates the possible harmful
effects of light or occasional alcohol consumption during pregnancy
is “surprisingly limited.” While the point of the study was that there <i>is</i> damage to the unborn no matter the quantity of alcohol...the article was spun up by the alcohol industry (and media in a rush to appease alcohol advertisers -- which Facebook actually did with this alcohologist.com post to kowtow to alcohol advertisers) as "there isn't much to worry about so drinking a little is ok while expecting." </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">That's relieving news to an expectant mom, right? What if the
seemingly unchallenged and widely reported news is wrong?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The analysis is contrary to common sense, and does not mesh with
pediatricians' recommendations. The American Academy of Pediatrics
reiterated in a 2015 report that no amount of alcohol in any
trimester is safe. Authors said in the report: First trimester
drinking (vs. no drinking) produces 12 times the odds of giving birth
to a child with FASD, first and second trimester drinking increases
FASD odds 61 times, and drinking in all trimesters increases FASD
odds 65 times. (For more on FASD, see the video below, or follow <a href="http://alcoholauthor.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-files-alcohol-z-for-alcohol_7.html" target="_blank">the transcript</a>)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/d_Hf8g6Wzss/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/d_Hf8g6Wzss?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This new report doesn't pass the smell test and its broad
distribution comes courtesy of the clout of the alcohol industry, <a href="http://alcoholauthor.blogspot.com/2017/09/hey-alcohol-90s-called-they-want-their.html" target="_blank">known for distorting and denying the health consequences</a>
of the drug they manufacture. That, and a cultural willingness to believe in unicorns and other wishful thinking (<a href="http://alcoholauthor.blogspot.com/2017/07/drugging-drinking-and-grasping-at-straw.html" target="_blank">see related story</a>).
The new report was based on observational studies. <a href="https://youtu.be/dJkmyUYK_bk" target="_blank">Observational studies</a> do not take into account all the other lifestyle factors of a
mom-to-be. Or misinformation. Face it: When questioned by a physician
– facing possible stigmatizing comments or fearing being 'reported'
somewhere – what new mother is going to admit to the amount or
frequency of alcohol use during pregnancy?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) are now more common than
autism and a child is born with one in the range of FASDs every 4.5
minutes. There is nothing in any evidence suggesting drinking this 'safe' amount of alcohol during pregnancy will <i>lower </i>that statistic.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The unborn use the same blood and therefore have the same
blood alcohol concentration (BAC) as the mother. The fetus lacks the
ability to process the alcohol the way an adult does, so the BAC
remains high for a long time, causing a number of physical,
cognitive, social and neurological problems that are permanent and
irreversible. And sometimes fatal. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">As many as 40,000 babies are born with
an FASD annually, costing the U.S. up to $6 billion annually in
institutional and medical costs. Costs of FAS alone are estimated at
between 1 and 5 million dollars per child.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And what of a child exposed to alcohol in-utero who doesn't
develop FASD? A 2016 study conducted by the <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26876534" target="_blank">Center
for Development and Behavioral Neuroscience</a> even suggests the
child exposed to alcohol in the womb, with or without an FASD, is
more prone to alcohol use disorders the rest of his or her life.
Something you wouldn't wish upon your worst enemy.
</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<em style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #5e5e5e; font-family: roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">Scott Stevens, is the author of four alcohol books including the December 2016 release, I Can’t See The Forest With All These Damn Trees In The Way: The Health Consequences of Alcohol. Get the new BookLocker title now on Amazon (<a href="http://viewbook.at/prehab" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(233, 233, 233); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #74a3d0; transition: 0.15s linear;">viewbook.at/prehab</a>), alcohologist.com, and everywhere you buy books. Click <a href="http://bit.ly/AlcoLie" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(233, 233, 233); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #74a3d0; transition: 0.15s linear;">Alcopocalypse</a> for the author’s 2017 Alcohol Awareness Month whitepaper. Image by Peter Lecko, used with permission.</em><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Scott Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05413534996048038292noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039862534696830799.post-53963488697696542782017-09-08T11:18:00.000-07:002019-06-11T20:57:59.472-07:00Hey, Alcohol biz: The 90's called. They want their liars back.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdoIqr32aedkDNu8wUi77286y7b4LPG8ZWGnAbDbEidQm6mKi9xGQ35tRS6fgQQqzTwx5XOqOrdRyoGIZ7RBOmZLG3BgkPCGIRuK_fMxzoRp0dkiCwpmJJEmGKu3Kir1gjAwpYX-3wdTQ/s1600/1994+smoking.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="587" data-original-width="1061" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdoIqr32aedkDNu8wUi77286y7b4LPG8ZWGnAbDbEidQm6mKi9xGQ35tRS6fgQQqzTwx5XOqOrdRyoGIZ7RBOmZLG3BgkPCGIRuK_fMxzoRp0dkiCwpmJJEmGKu3Kir1gjAwpYX-3wdTQ/s320/1994+smoking.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sept. 2017 research by the
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Karolinska
Institute in Sweden has revealed the extent to which the alcohol
industry is denying alcohol's causal role in cancer. In other words,
the alcohol industry has torn a page from the tobacco playbook of two
decades ago to take a 3-D approach to marking a known carcinogen:
Deny. Distort. Distract.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In an infamous
Congressional hearing in 1994, the leaders of the tobacco industry
(pictured above) swore under oath that nicotine was not addictive and
that smoking did not cause cancer. Notable among them was Andrew
Tisch, then CEO of the Lorriland brands of smokes. The executives
denied conclusions of a consensus of independent scientists and
health experts that their product caused cancer. It was later
revealed that the companies knew the cancer link decades before their
Congressional 'come-to-Jesus' meeting and the Tobacco Settlement
three years later.
</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<h3 style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
Here we are again.</span></h3>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Over the past two
decades, numerous studies have shown a strong link between even
moderate drinking and cancer. (See related A-Files segments on the
cancer connection: <i>Episode B: Breast Cancer</i> <a href="https://youtu.be/0DY1jbUqZy8" target="_blank">video</a> <a href="http://alcoholauthor.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-files-alcohol-z-for-alcohol_2.html" target="_blank">transcript</a>,
<i>Episode C: Cancer</i> <a href="https://youtu.be/4o0oyGAzdTE" target="_blank">video</a> <a href="http://alcoholauthor.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-files-alcohol-z-for-alcohol_4.html" target="_blank">transcript</a> and <i>Episode Z: Zero Health Benefit</i> <a href="https://youtu.be/6x4yRjGI044" target="_blank">video</a> <a href="http://alcoholauthor.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-files-alcohol-z-for-alcohol_30.html" target="_blank">transcript</a>,
as well as the book <i><a href="http://bit.ly/seduced2ruin" target="_blank">I Can't See the Forest With All These Damn Treesin the Way: Health Consequences of Alcohol</a></i>.) Bottom line: Scientists
estimate that alcohol is responsible for at least four percent of new
cancer diagnoses annually. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services lists it as a known carcinogen. You wouldn't know it by listening to
the alcohol industry. But would you really expect your mother-in-law
to be a fair arbiter of your marital dispute?</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The study authors
looked at 30 websites from alcohol trade groups in the U.K., Europe,
the U.S., Canada and Australia. One – The Wine Information Council
– even claimed that wine actually protects against several forms of
cancer including breast, lung and kidney. Another – U.S.-based
International Alliance for Responsible Drinking – said that light
to moderate drinking was 'not significantly' associated with an
increased risk of tumors.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The authors said the
tactics used by the alcohol industry were very similar to those used
by tobacco firms for 50 years to play down the risk of lung cancer
and were particularly misleading about the link between breast
cancer. Alcohol use is the only dietary link to an increase risk of
breast cancer.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Professor Mark
Petticrew, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine,
concluded: "The weight of scientific evidence is clear that drinking alcohol increases the risk of some of the most common forms
of cancer. Our analysis suggests that the major global alcohol
producers may attempt to mitigate this by disseminating misleading
information about cancer through their 'responsible drinking'
bodies.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"This has obvious
parallels with the global tobacco industry's decades-long campaign to
mislead the public about the risk of cancer, which also used front
organizations and corporate social activities.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The alcohol industry
response is that the research was 'misleading' and said they were
already advising consumers to drink responsibly. As if it were
possible to consume a toxin and carcinogen 'responsibly.' Henry
Ashworth, president of the International Alliance for Responsible
Drinking, said: ”We do not agree with the conclusions reached in
this paper. We stand by the information that we publish on drinking
and health.” That sounds an awful lot like Tisch's statement that,
“Smoking does not cause cancer.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Public awareness
of alcohol/cancer connection is low. It has been argued that greater
public awareness, particularly of the risk of breast cancer, poses a
significant threat to the alcohol industry. So we trudge back to the
90's and dig up some lies that only flew within the board rooms and
marketing departments of companies profiting from the unobstructed
flow of the drug, alcohol.</span></div>
<h3 style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Deny. Distract.
Distort.</span></h3>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The alcohol industry
has the normal duty of any manufacturer to ensure that it does not
market a defective product and that its products are as safe as
possible. Alcohol – a toxin and known carcinogen – is not safe in
any amount, for either gender, at any age.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #5e5e5e; font-family: roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">Scott Stevens, is the author of five alcohol books including the acclaimed Look What Dragged the Cat In: The Rise of an Opioid Crisis. Get the new BookLocker title now on Amazon (<a href="http://viewbook.at/gatewaydrug"><span style="color: #74a3d0;"><span style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.15s; transition-property: all; transition-timing-function: linear;">viewbook.at/</span></span>gatewaydrug</a>), alcohologist.com, and everywhere you buy books. Click <a href="http://bit.ly/AlcoLie" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; color: #74a3d0; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">Alcopocalypse</a> for the author’s 2017 Alcohol Awareness Month whitepaper. Image by Kevin Carden, used with permission.</em></span></div>
Scott Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05413534996048038292noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039862534696830799.post-89172265244540670162017-07-24T08:17:00.001-07:002017-09-12T10:48:46.159-07:00Drugging, drinking, and grasping at straw<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim3F_TlK8-n9Xy8At0SbMMD9Ga_tTQHFrtRLFKym97zsO5lTgYOn4ji84oFT_3cx1VZKaJDBw3UF2rkKeTgJt_7SP5RdriU6JVoG-8IRHtDL89_pewlVImOttRDQQv_VN9Pz8HOWc5Ouo/s1600/Dusan+Petrovic+Depositphotos_22421621_original.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="drug use, drug, addiction" border="0" data-original-height="1384" data-original-width="1600" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim3F_TlK8-n9Xy8At0SbMMD9Ga_tTQHFrtRLFKym97zsO5lTgYOn4ji84oFT_3cx1VZKaJDBw3UF2rkKeTgJt_7SP5RdriU6JVoG-8IRHtDL89_pewlVImOttRDQQv_VN9Pz8HOWc5Ouo/s320/Dusan+Petrovic+Depositphotos_22421621_original.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic;"><br /></strong>
<span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic;"><b>The real power drugs hold is how they make the user accept magical thinking as real</b></span></div>
<div style="background-color: #fafafa; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 15px; text-align: justify;">
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 15px;">
In the 16<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 10.5px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> century, Sir Thomas More originated the idiom ‘grasping at straws’. In actuality, the lawyer, philosopher, and Roman Catholic saint was referring to straw – cattle bedding – and that a drowning man will grasp at anything floating, even straw, to try to stay afloat (paraphrasing). It’s a perfect idiom 483 years later to illuminate how drug use is rationalized by the user and by American society.</div>
<h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.1; margin: 10px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;">
Any drug use. Any time.</h3>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 15px;">
Every rational man and woman knows the risk of addiction – and death – from using <a href="http://www.addictedminds.com/dope-101-opioids-opiates-six-one-isnt-half-dozen/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-shadow: none !important; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">opiates and opioids</a>, for example. There is a well-documented history of addiction and death from this class of drug, dating to it’s first cultivation and use 3,400 years BCE. Why is it still around? Because people will use it. That’s why.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 15px;">
One of the first affects of any mind-altering drug is that it convinces the user it is somehow safe and the consequences are for the other guys. Magical thinking. Like a drowning man believing a single stalk of dried grass in an ocean will buoy him and float him to safety. Once the drug of choice takes over that human, the magical thinking gives way entirely to chemical dependence.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 15px;">
Even when the drug use doesn’t escalate to dependence – or I should say ‘especially’ when it doesn’t – magical thinking trumps intellect every and <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">any </em>time a person is under the influence.</div>
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A recovery pioneer and modern-day anti-alcohol trailblazer in the 1970’s, Father Martin, put it succinctly in his <i style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.15s linear;">Chalk Talk. </i>He said the human mind works best when it operates as Intellect over Emotion, or I/E. Add a mind-altering drug, any of them, and the equation flips to Emotion over Intellect, E/I. That’s a good explanation to why we say and do incredibly stupid stuff while impaired. Your grandmother was right when she said, “That’s not your Rhodes Scholar Grandpa, it’s the booze talking,” right after he declared he was going to shave the cat.</div>
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We do dumb stuff, and believe dumb stuff</h3>
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A lot of recovery professionals, especially in court-ordered programs, see the aftermath of the dumb stuff followed by some more magical thinking. Every single person charged with DUI or other drug-related crime believes in magic. He or she will be sentenced lightly because of their unique situation, or get off on a technicality, or the evidence will be lost because it happened to his ‘guy’ ‘a couple years ago’ and the ‘law is muddy on this issue.’</div>
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When a drug tells the same brain it’s poisoning that the stuff isn’t so dumb, we do the dumb stuff. Including rationalizing the use of the drug. Two common examples are the well-funded oversimplifications of marijuana benefits, and the widespread acceptance of alcohol risks.</div>
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A medical user of marijuana dislikes the getting stoned part. Just like a medical user of Oxycontin doesn’t care for the high. When a recreational pot smoker wants to rationalize use, however, out comes the Emotion. Drinkers… well, there isn’t medical use and there aren’t any health benefits. It’s all about the buzz.</div>
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Send life rafts, not more straw</h3>
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They’ll trot out the ‘medical benefits’ to support their continued consumption of a drug… when the medical benefits are far from their reason for smoking dope. They’ll roll out the frequently misquoted safety argument in favor of the drug. It sounds like ‘nobody ever died from smoking weed’. True, nobody overdosed on weed, put the drug is linked to more deaths and health consequences than can be dismissed as coincidence. They’ll spout the long history of smoking herb, embraced by cultures vastly older than ours. Drowning… grasping at any fleck of straw that will keep them afloat.</div>
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The scientific evidence on alcohol as a toxin and carcinogen is even more concrete than the evidence of health damage from marijuana use. The drug can change DNA! It begins damaging otherwise healthy tissue from sip one. It’s so poisonous that if the liver had pain nerve endings, none of us would take sip two. Very scientifically sound and highly intellectual. However, even moderate use of the drug alcohol flips the I/E equation to E/I.</div>
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The grasping for straw sounds something like: ‘It’s legal’… ‘It relaxes me’… ‘Moderation is safe, the ad said so’… ‘It’s good for the heart’. That last point has been discredited for more than a decade, by the way. Rationalizations… buoying a drug-altered brain modified to E/I by the same drug that’s killing it. When someone is drowning, they want to believe in the straw. What if you drift to them a <a href="http://bit.ly/seduced2ruin" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-shadow: none !important; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">life raft of facts</a>instead? We have to deliver them back safely to the boat off which they jumped. That boat – society and social behavior – may not be Utopia (Sir More’s more famous work), but it beats drowning.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Scott Stevens, is the author of four alcohol books including the December 2016 release, I Can’t See The Forest With All These Damn Trees In The Way: The Health Consequences of Alcohol. Get the new BookLocker title now on Amazon (<a href="http://viewbook.at/prehab" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">viewbook.at/prehab</a>), alcohologist.com, and everywhere you buy books. Click <a href="http://bit.ly/AlcoLie" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">Alcopocalypse</a> for the author’s 2017 Alcohol Awareness Month whitepaper. Image by Kevin Carden, used with permission.</em></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo by Dusan Petrovic, used with permission.</span></i></div>
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Scott Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05413534996048038292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039862534696830799.post-41602201879695807642017-05-15T07:03:00.001-07:002017-07-24T08:08:33.450-07:00 Alcohol, addiction, education… and the barbarians at the gate<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg4gkbXgCyhpn3voi_WM7Ghduk1pE_8ipNpeHnkZ1ODbXEDUG6EjtImV2ALpUC8XacUfBZX-zS9U0jGlFoWrpaag4x0REgfx2mL9fm13o4zZ6_DqCeQJPPK8WHN7VlNACRBrNfbhh3KiA/s1600/sparta+falls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img alt="medicine, health, alcohol, alcohol policy, CDC, NIH, ONDCP" border="0" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg4gkbXgCyhpn3voi_WM7Ghduk1pE_8ipNpeHnkZ1ODbXEDUG6EjtImV2ALpUC8XacUfBZX-zS9U0jGlFoWrpaag4x0REgfx2mL9fm13o4zZ6_DqCeQJPPK8WHN7VlNACRBrNfbhh3KiA/s320/sparta+falls.jpg" title="" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">(Originally on <a href="http://www.addictedminds.com/alcohol-barbarians-at-the-gate/" target="_blank">Addicted Minds</a>)</span></div>
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Archaic, or ancient, Greece saw unequaled advances in art, medicine, poetry, science, technology, and philosophy. Before this period, around 800 BCE, people lived scattered in small farming villages. Around 1,000 BCE, villages grew. People became closer. Some villages built walls. Most built a market and a community meeting place, developed governments, and organized their citizens according to some of laws. It was the rise of the city-state humankind, being social creatures, was destined to populate. What did we know in Archaic Greek times? That alcohol is a toxin and some of our neighbors were no damn good when they drank alcohol. You couldn’t witness either when people were nomadic or living is sparsely populated villages.</div>
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Here are two important factors in which to frame the discussion of this drug:</div>
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A) Alcohol is a mood-altering drug. Case closed. Every physical and mental health professional since Hippocrates knows this clinically if not from personal consumption. This fact has been undisputed for millennia or the human race would have abandoned the relationship with this toxin and known carcinogen before the rise of the first city-state, Sparta.</div>
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B) Today exists a mountain of conclusive evidence that it is a mind-altering drug, impacting at the molecular level the organ that houses it, the brain. Evidence-based research in the later half of the 20th Century has demonstrated it damages or destroys other organs and tissues as well.</div>
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So why is this drug still so widely used today? Go back to A. It’s damn effective. Alcohol users, advertisers, brewers, distillers, and economic engineers who insists on alcohol’s pertinent role in commerce will do anything to preserve the dominance of A over B. There is no amount of wishful thinking, junk science, or fantasy those with a vested interest in alcohol use won’t embrace to preserve the status quo. Follow the money behind every observational study appearing in mainstream media in favor of this drug’s use – theorized health benefits, for example – and here’s who you’ll find writing the check: Alcohol users, advertisers, brewers, distillers, and economic engineers who insists on alcohol’s pertinent role in commerce.</div>
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Not physicians. Not mental health professionals.</div>
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David v. Goliath</h2>
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It’s not that people trust ads more than doctors as much as that human nature supports keeping doing what we’re doing. Change isn’t on fleek.</div>
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What this spells is out is the David v. Goliath battleground onto which every puny addiction professional trods every day. Helping professionals aren’t just trying to reach an altered brain with no interest in stopping A. They also battle a culture, family, friends, and economy that are so immersed in A that they’ve become alco-centric when it is killing clients.</div>
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Nobody seeks out a helping professional because they want change. They seek out to keep doing what they’re doing and just feel better about doing it. I wrote that for 2012’s <a href="http://viewbook.at/relapse" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud</em></a> in respect to how addiction runs counter to common disease procedure. When I have a tumor, I ache. So I see a professional to change. When my blood sugar is out of whack, I’m lethargic and achy. So I see a professional to change. When I am drinking, I feel crummy only when I stop. So I don’t really want to change because I don’t feel achy when I do it. To put it another way, when a physical system driven by the brain becomes dependent on a drug that alters the brain, the physical system is at dis-ease when it’s NOT getting the drug. The defense mechanisms to preserve A come out in full force <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">despite</em> B.</div>
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That alone is reason enough why addiction treatment isn’t immediately effective. Throw in alco-centric attitudes in society telling everyone ‘moderation is safe and even healthy’ and Goliath has an AR-15 compared to David’s slingshot. That’s why it sometimes takes two or four or fourteen kicks at the cat to make the transition to long-term recovery.</div>
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Succeeding against drug use requires a talented professional or para-professional who can battle through the defense mechanisms to demonstrate the consequences of B outweigh any benefit of A. That’s the case-by-case victory everyone in this profession takes on daily. A larger battle stays largely unfought. We fight tooth and nail to save the life of someone addicted, but expend very little energy in preventing use in the first place. It isn’t a desire to preserve job security that addiction pros will always have someone to save. Instead, it is unwinding centuries of accepted use of the drug that predate Sparta by about four thousand years.</div>
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Barbarians at the gate</h2>
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We’ve already convinced most of the 7.5 billion people on this rock that this drug is ok, safe, fun, ceremonial, and celebrated. So what if some will use it and become addicted to it… it’s good for the economy, healthy, and a rite of passage. We fix the addicts or cast them out. We don’t prevent them from using the drug in the first place.</div>
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Have we created the same aura of safety around cocaine? A little use is ok… more, not so much? Is there a meth bar on Main Street? Have we identified a moderate use of heroin? Do we have crack and smack ads? What is the suggested daily intake of tobacco smoke as part of a healthy diet, two Pall Malls? No. Preposterous. We have prevention education that talks about health consequences beyond addiction or car wrecks for those drugs.</div>
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We lack meaningful prevention education for the world’s deadliest drug, alcohol. Alcohol advertisers provide their own at $1.5 billion a year.</div>
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The ‘alcohol-is-the-antidote-for-wellness’ message has been out there for decades on page three (if covered at all) buried behind the slick alcohol ads and front-page, above-the-fold article on alcohol health promises and underneath the announcements for the church beer tent at the fall festival. For the last 36 months, in fact, <a href="http://www.alcohologist.com/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">alcohologist.com</a> has tracked that for every pro-alcohol study mention in an article on Google (109 studies, 10,419 mentions) there were three evidence-based research projects (320 studies) on adverse health consequences of alcohol released… but a 10th of the mentions (1,022).</div>
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Where the dialogue is moving is that it is not just the addicted who become sick. Every user faces an increased risk of physical illness and disease from any use of the drug. Even moderate users.</div>
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Prevention of alcohol use disorders starts with prevention of alcohol use. It is the same tape the tobacco industry has heard for the last two decades: We prevent substantial loss of life and productivity by keeping people from smoking in the first place. We still make cigarettes. And we’ll still make alcohol, even when it isn’t glorified any longer.</div>
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The tide began to turn against tobacco in 1964. The U.S. Surgeon General issued a landmark report on health problems related to a very popular thing to do: Smoking tobacco. Thirty-four years later, the U.S. had the unprecedented Tobacco Settlement, capping a shift in education. The anti-tobacco sentiment took 34 years to soak in sans the internet. Last fall, the U.S. Surgeon General issued a landmark report on the health problems related to a very popular thing to do: Drinking alcohol. The public sentiment toward the drug is beginning to shift as indicated in this very clear signal to change the current alcohol policy costing the U.S. economy $250 billion a year.</div>
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It won’t take 34 years this time.</div>
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To the citizenry of Archaic Greece, a barbarian was anyone who was not of their extraction or culture. Because these ‘strangers’ regularly challenged Greece’s established ways, ‘barbarian’ gradually evolved into a negative term… only because the history books were written by Greeks. The truth is that they were far from barbaric and they were actually enjoined with the Romans, who took over the joint. Those who challenged the established Greco lifestyle were of nutty acts and opinions, not welcome, and kept outside the gates… no matter what their beliefs… only because they didn’t drink the same KoolAid as the Greeks.</div>
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A weird bit of irony, the story of the leveraged buyout of RJR/Nabisco (a major tobacco stakeholder) is entitled <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Barbarians at the Gate</em>. The real moment the barbarians arrived on the tobacco doorstep was the 1964 Surgeon General’s Report. The 2016 report is a barbarians-at-the-gate moment for the alcohol industry. The Surgeon General fired the starting gun for practitioners who have not already incorporated prevention into their practice to do so today and be at the forefront of change the way the American Legacy Foundation – today known as the Truth Initiative – is at the forefront of smoking education and prevention.</div>
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In 1967, 72 percent of adult men smoked. Today, 72 percent don’t. Those who challenged at the gates of the establishment won the public dialogue with facts. The same ones we all have at our disposal. Remember, Greece fell because the Romans outGreeked the Greeks. The ‘barbarians’ made the thing better than being Greek was being a non-Greek. As we figure new dimensions in treating alcoholism, we need to establish that the only thing better than being a drinker, is being a non-drinker.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Addicted Minds’ Editor-in-Chief, Scott Stevens, is the author of four alcohol books including the December 2016 release, I Can’t See The Forest With All These Damn Trees In The Way: The Health Consequences of Alcohol. Get the new BookLocker title now on Amazon (<a href="http://viewbook.at/prehab" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">viewbook.at/prehab</a>), alcohologist.com, and everywhere you buy books. Click <a href="http://bit.ly/AlcoLie" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">Alcopocalypse</a> for the author’s 2017 Alcohol Awareness Month whitepaper. Image by Kevin Carden, used with permission.</em></div>
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Photo by Remy Musser, used with permission.<br />
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Scott Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05413534996048038292noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039862534696830799.post-49213871508418656032017-04-19T10:41:00.000-07:002018-03-28T08:22:44.795-07:00Resurrected: Five addiction recovery tips from the original millennial<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHLouDR4fW2Jp-e9oSQW2cKFX_ivUmAUKDJKRVZbMY_tXgJTbq3sZdSQJYF3thdxbG4RABk7dZAxLv_qvMS49hARYeUk_tb3JAmpezmK9EfSo0Gcgj7oWkRlMG-WcNry_50ZGgz4tyCEk/s1600/Depositphotos_8340176_l-2015+kevin+cardena.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="addiction, recovery, help, dependence, health" border="0" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHLouDR4fW2Jp-e9oSQW2cKFX_ivUmAUKDJKRVZbMY_tXgJTbq3sZdSQJYF3thdxbG4RABk7dZAxLv_qvMS49hARYeUk_tb3JAmpezmK9EfSo0Gcgj7oWkRlMG-WcNry_50ZGgz4tyCEk/s320/Depositphotos_8340176_l-2015+kevin+cardena.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It isn’t out of reach to consider recovery from addiction as a sort of ‘rebirth’ or ‘resurrection’ of life within the man or woman challenged by substance abuse. No, we didn’t die. Some of us came gruesomely close – a lot closer than most acknowledge – as a result of dependence on chemicals human tissues don’t favor much.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Each Spring, Christians around the world commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth around 33 A.D. The man was executed in the Roman tradition of the time: Crucifixion. Christians believe Jesus rose from the dead three days later when the tomb was found empty. He then ascended into heaven 40 days after being put to death. By all historical accounts, he (He) really lived and really was put to a gruesome death.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Whether you fancy yourself to be a non-believer or just choose to believe something else, the Biblical story of Jesus’s resurrection carries a few lessons about the metaphoric resurrection addicts in recovery experience.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Don’t be afraid to come back</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Jesus was slain. Martyred. The man’s body was nailed to a cross and pierced. The Romans at the time were a brutal cast of characters and this was their method of public infliction of pain for those who dared cross Rome, and creating stigma by terrorizing and shaming those who would ever think to run afoul of Caesar. Those crucified are nailed or roped to an elevated cross beam and left for dead. In reality, they died agonizing deaths from bleeding out, exhaustion, suffocation, exposure, or any combination of the four. The Romans did this for centuries. They got it from the Greeks: Alexander the Great humiliated his conquests with public crucifixions 300 years before Jesus lived.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">When the Romans did it in Jerusalem it was because the Romans had the city within their empire. They lived there. Jesus came back to the same land where people KILLED him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">When we come back from our addictions, home awaits. Regardless of what transpired or who we hurt. Go back. You have a new life. Live it where you want.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Be humble</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Look, nobody is going to build a shrine to any of us just because we got sober or got off the pipe. Recovery doesn’t work that way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Jesus wasn’t revered and shrines weren’t built in his honor because he came back from the dead either. He embodied humility. Most martyrs throughout history are known for decent, humble lives of service, not for miracles. The lesson of Jesus life was simple: Although revered as the Son of God, he washed the feet of peasants and common folk. He helped others out of a willingness to do so, not for reward. Jesus saw a need and filled it without consideration of money or notoriety.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Be prepared to prove yourself</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">One great Biblical account of Jesus and his rising from the dead in the Christian New Testament is his encounter with one of his followers. His friend Thomas was notably absent when the resurrected Jesus first appeared to other followers. Thomas – throughout history known as Doubting Thomas – would not believe Jesus was for real unless he got to probe the crucifixion wounds. He needed proof.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">There are people who will require proof from you of your sobriety or abstinence. Some people will require years of it. Some people will never be satisfied with your recovery no matter what evidence you present. Nobody says you have to prove them wrong. It’s not their lives you’re living, it is your new one. However, the worst possible scenario for your new life, is to prove the doubters right.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Even if you relapse, you’ve proven only that you have a chronic, relapsing, progressive, fatal disease. Go back to bullet point one. Face them another day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Be visible</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The main reason Jesus’s followers believed in the resurrection is that they saw Him alive after He was dead. Jesus hung around for 40 days after his come back. He presented Himself alive on a number of different occasions to His followers. This firsthand evidence is a powerful argument for the believers in Christ. It’s going to be a part of people believing in you once again once you’re done with your drug of choice.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Take your time in recovery. There isn’t a need to rush back out to every social event. However, the hard work of rebuilding your life means nothing if you don’t leave your living room.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In my <a href="http://viewbook.at/stigma" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">third book</a>, I wrote about becoming a PANonymous alcoholic: One who doesn’t hide the disease and is visible in recovery. It helps others to see that recovery is possible. And it helps reduce the ridiculous public stigma attached to addiction that all in its grip are forever hopeless degenerates.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Know when to leave</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Jesus was visible for more than a month after dying. So isn’t it conceivable that He could’ve just gone back to what he was doing? Or stayed and lived a resurrected life indefinitely? Theologians will argue that because there is a huge worldwide following and an addiction recovery article mentioning him two millennia later, Jesus in fact lives today. Converting you to that mindset isn’t the point. The point is that Jesus knew when to leave.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">You don’t need to show up for every event to which you’re invited. You never <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">have to</em> stay. Nobody has to participate in every argument brought to your doorstep. In fact, the greatest gift we learn from our walking away from a drug that once controlled us is that we can walk away. From anything.</span></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Scott Stevens is the author of four alcohol books including the December 2016 release, I Can’t See The Forest With All These Damn Trees In The Way: The Health Consequences of Alcohol. Get the new BookLocker title now on Amazon (<a href="http://viewbook.at/prehab" target="_blank">viewbook.at/prehab</a>), alcohologist.com, and everywhere you buy books. Click <a href="http://bit.ly/AlcoLie" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0a83b6; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">Alcopocalypse</a> for the author’s 2017 Alcohol Awareness Month whitepaper. Image by Kevin Carden, used with permission.</em><br />
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Scott Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05413534996048038292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039862534696830799.post-47831819778871186872017-04-12T09:42:00.001-07:002017-07-24T08:08:58.525-07:00Addiction recovery’s low, low admission price: Own your $#1+!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXU02yJbLgcyxEJPtoIpCtG4o3AoGPO06Co9E3diV7ZtHUNexGmDP7vk0Ktwiyg7_dWbLEkxg-btgFCkW627Xe3G7aiUcncgXz7ZyszG0GE6in_kd7T4a7gXt8a7fFZnK0txrpJKV5ssg/s1600/Depositphotos_120252162_l-2015-own-your-shit-Ivan-Zamurovic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXU02yJbLgcyxEJPtoIpCtG4o3AoGPO06Co9E3diV7ZtHUNexGmDP7vk0Ktwiyg7_dWbLEkxg-btgFCkW627Xe3G7aiUcncgXz7ZyszG0GE6in_kd7T4a7gXt8a7fFZnK0txrpJKV5ssg/s320/Depositphotos_120252162_l-2015-own-your-shit-Ivan-Zamurovic.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(originally posted to <a href="http://www.addictedminds.com/addiction-recoverys-low-low-admission-price-1/" target="_blank">Addicted Minds</a>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Admission. Great noun. It means two related things when it comes to addiction recovery: <span lang="en-US" style="box-sizing: border-box;">A)</span> <span lang="en-US" style="box-sizing: border-box;">The right to enter, and B) a</span> <span lang="en-US" style="box-sizing: border-box;">voluntary acknowledgment/concession of a fact or truth. There is no A) without B) in our family.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Caveat: Most normies – so called ‘normal’ people – have no clue how great we have it so they don’t bother with admission. Either definition.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Drug of choice doesn’t matter. Pills, weed, alcohol, meth, fill-in-the-blank. While active with a drug of choice addicts concede very few facts about their own condition. The reason, the drug alters the function of the same organ responsible for the voluntary acknowledgment of fact. The result, as expected, is the continued use of the same drug of choice until death. Sometimes it is the drug actually causing the death. Other times it just hastens the journey. Addiction is that way when it comes to choices. Addiction means lack of choices and you have exactly two: Admission. Or shorter life expectancy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Owning your addiction begins to slam the door on the less desirable of the two choices.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Slam the door</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">You begin to admit other things on the path back to society once you’ve crossed addiction’s Rubicon by admitting your problem is <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">your </em>problem. “I did really crummy things when I drank. I’m sorry.” “I stole from you to get more because I am addicted to more. Let me make it right.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="en-US" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Sounds quite 12-steppish </span><span lang="en-US" style="box-sizing: border-box;">(ninth, to be precise)</span><span lang="en-US" style="box-sizing: border-box;">, so how about a history lesson.</span> Stepping back to admit so you can move forward is much older. There’s a Latin phrase, ‘mea culpa.’ <span lang="en-US" style="box-sizing: border-box;">The literal translation from the Latin is ‘through my own fault.’ Yes, the Roman Catholics use it in their Mass, but don’t get your shorts in a knot over the AA connotation or the religious affiliation: Geoffrey Chaucer used it in </span><span lang="en-US" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Troilus and Criseyde</em>, </span><span lang="en-US" style="box-sizing: border-box;">a poem, in 1374.</span> Six-hundred-<span lang="en-US" style="box-sizing: border-box;">plus</span><span lang="en-US" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> years later, we just say, ‘My bad.’</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In doing so an addict isn’t saying he or she is a bad person. Just flawed. (Guess what? Normies are flawed, too.) It’s a liberating moment. No longer does an addict blame his buddies or a crummy childhood or her despotic husband. He or she takes responsibility for his addiction being nobody else’s. We own our $#1+. We move on from that point. We become people in (or aspiring to) long-term recovery.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Own your $#1+. Admit it. Your admission gains admission to the prestigious and graciously welcoming recovery family. It beats the other choice. And you have only two.</span></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Addicted Minds’ Editor-in-Chief, Scott Stevens, is the author of four alcohol books including the December 2016 release, I Can’t See The Forest With All These Damn Trees In The Way: The Health Consequences of Alcohol. Get the new BookLocker title now on Amazon (<a href="http://viewbook.at/prehab" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">viewbook.at/prehab</a>), alcohologist.com, and everywhere you buy books. Image by Ivan Zamurovic, used with permission.</span></em><br />
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Scott Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05413534996048038292noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039862534696830799.post-22583431894130453882017-04-06T04:30:00.000-07:002017-09-26T09:27:20.739-07:00Alcohol: America’s elephant in the room<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNV3YvSgYgcakbzlEqiasmQjjL4sW9RTFyTfB4Lj8EwxH8cooIl79gF-JuuNsbfhRoQnU3SFOHQcKaXzZ9ueFYsKzDprLELPIlGS3JSJhkvZJcGQRsnYoMJKtF58Uw1f28cwnXxN9y3P0/s1600/Elephant+in+the+room.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="alcohol, health, medicine, alcohol policy, drug policy" border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNV3YvSgYgcakbzlEqiasmQjjL4sW9RTFyTfB4Lj8EwxH8cooIl79gF-JuuNsbfhRoQnU3SFOHQcKaXzZ9ueFYsKzDprLELPIlGS3JSJhkvZJcGQRsnYoMJKtF58Uw1f28cwnXxN9y3P0/s320/Elephant+in+the+room.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">America's myopic view on alcohol, its unanimous drug of choice, unravels all efforts to make healthcare affordable. The view creates drug crises, like the opioid one the country is mired in. It shortens life expectancy, smothers productivity, and snuffs out lives.</span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The very problem originates with the last effort to rid the nation of alcohol harms: The failed American experiment of Prohibition. Once the country was back on the sauce and legit merchants replaced mobsters as the distributors, we gained a taxable commodity. Drunk on alcohol tax revenue and woozy from the Prohibition drama, no politician would throw his neck into the drug policy noose ever again when it comes to this drug. <em>Laissez</em>-<em>faire </em>defines our drug policy when it comes to alcohol.</span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The closest we came to reframing the view on the toxin was in the Lyndon Johnson administration. President Johnson declared the drug 'America's leading health and economic problem.' Then he went about talking to the paintings in the White House and was voted out. We didn't talk about this elephant in the room again until the U.S. Surgeon General's 2016 Report on Alcohol, Drugs and Health. This was the first time the office ever addressed the $250 billion in annual economic harm caused by alcohol. Not a hard thing to do when your party is getting voted out, but still a landmark moment in U.S. drug policy.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><b>Changing the alcohol dialogue</b></span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Where society fears to tread is moving the dialogue beyond car wrecks and the disease of alcoholism. We know these are 'bad,' but generally, the alcohol business and our own experimentation tell us the drug is otherwise safe and it's capitol-F FUN. Reality – in the form of evidence-based science – has a funny way of changing that perspective.</span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) convinced America that alcohol-related car wrecks were going to be our legacy if we continued to pave our roads with the bodies of young motorists and pedestrians. And they were right. Their laudable movement recently reached its maximum potential, reducing alcohol-related road fatalities to 30 percent of all road fatalities. Eliminating the last 30 percent is possible with technology, but politically unacceptable. America loves alcohol. So we're stuck at around 10-11,000 alcohol-related traffic fatalities year in, year out.</span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There are 89,000 alcohol-related deaths every year. That's the elephant. Drinking and driving carves away on one in eight of those fatalities. Alcoholics die of cirrhosis, right? About 4,000 do. Yep, that's it. So we eliminate the alcoholics and the drunks behind the wheel and there are still more than 70,000 alcohol-related deaths every year because alcohol is 'safe in moderation.'</span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span data-mce-style="color: #000000;"><b>The numbers game</b></span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The numbers say otherwise. Twenty-to-forty percent of general-use hospital beds go to treating alcohol-related complications. Wounds heal more slowly under the influence. Blood pressure increases. Stroke risk doubles. Prediabetes throws blood levels out of whack. Alcohol causes heart disease. Alcohol causes cancer. Eight types to be precise. Drownings. Suicides. Household accidents. All of these consequences stem from even moderate use of the drug.</span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It's a toxin. Destructive to the point of altering DNA. And you're not alone for not hearing about that: Presently the alcohol industry directs the alcohol dialogue. They can get behind MADD because the product they make just got in the hands of all the wrong people. They can't very well go out and advertise that they are making a toxic drug with no health benefit. Nobody would ask the mom-in-law to come in and help resolve a marital dispute. So don't expect the industry creating the problem to highlight it.</span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Remember smoking? So glamorous. Some MadMen-era clown even professed smoking was healthy. Smoking used to be a numbers game. In 1964, 72 percent of adult men smoked. Profits tumbled in by the bale. The Surgeon General came out with a report on the health impact of tobacco smoke. Today, 72 percent of adult men don't smoke. What happened in between is that the big numbers of smoking related costs and deaths became more of a priority than tobacco profits. Tobacco companies even tried to dismiss their own data on the health hazards. </span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They ran into a tide of education that turned Americans from dumb smoking sheep into informed consumers.</span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The takeaway here is that tobacco is still profitable today. And fewer people are killing themselves over its drug nicotine, but they still can choose to do so.</span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><b><span data-mce-style="color: #000000;">Starting from the start</span></b></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The status quo with this drug has reached unsustainability. The $250 billion is half of U.S. military spending. It's the equivalent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the 40<sup>th</sup> largest economy on the globe. The 89,000 deaths rank it third in preventable causes of death. The toxin, even in moderation, is clinically linked to more than 60 diseases. No alcoholic – and there are 20 million of them in the U.S. – ever became alcoholic without first taking a drink.</span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Reinventing the the alcohol dialogue begins before use. Would anyone take a swig of perfume or down a bottle of cologne? No. Not even the worst parent would model that for their kid. No TV commercial would tell them it's safe. No primary grade teacher would profess it to be ok so long as you didn't get behind the wheel on perfume or get hammered on it.</span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What's perfume got to do with it? The body breaks down alcohol by metabolizing first into acetaldehyde: A colorless flammable liquid used to manufacture... perfume. Acetaldehyde is too volatile to use straight-up in perfume or cologne so it is mixed with other ingredients in everything from cheap stinks like Hai Karate to whatever high-buck Euroscents the Kardashian clan pimps. Your body turns alcohol into the same rapid-evaporating fragrance carrier the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) lists as a group one carcinogen.</span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Get the picture? Your body can't not make acetaldehyde from alcohol. Alcohol intoxication just makes you do stupid stuff by lowering inhibitions, intelligence, and rational thought. Acetaldehyde. Damages. Tissue. It permanently alters DNA. You don't see that in a wine commercial, or many classrooms or doctor offices for that matter. When educating about alcohol, we need to get back to the basics on what it is we're drinking and point that out early and often.</span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><b>Changing alcohol education solves several problems</b></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Whether the approach to alcohol is laissez-faire, or just plain lazy, the vast and unwavering worship of the mind-altering, mood-altering elixir has become the proving ground for what we have in our treatment facilities today. Alcohol is a gateway drug, meaning people get their appetites for other drugs by experimenting with with this drug first. If, culture-wide, we're embracing a gateway drug as socially acceptable and 'safe,' we cannot realistically expect to keep any kid off drugs, especially other depressants like our current crisis-du-jour, opioids.</span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If we change the dialogue on this drug, do we cease creating more addicts or alcoholics-in-training faster than we create alcoholics-in-recovery? Nothing will stop a person who wants to use a drug from using that drug. Period. So we keep it legal, like tobacco… tax the hell out of it… and educate (or re-educate) America that what causes problems, is one.</span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><em style="background-color: #fafafa; box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Scott Stevens, is the author of four alcohol books including the December 2016 release, I Can’t See The Forest With All These Damn Trees In The Way: The Health Consequences of Alcohol. Buy the new BookLocker title now on Amazon (<a href="http://viewbook.at/prehab" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">viewbook.at/prehab</a>), <a href="http://www.alcohologist.com/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">alcohologist.com</a>, and everywhere books are sold. Stevens also heads up <a href="http://www.blog-tender.com/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">BlogTender LLC</a>, a content marketing firm headquartered in Lake Geneva, Wis. </span></em></span></span><em style="background-color: #fafafa; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">Image by Luis Chumpitaz, used with permission.</em></div>
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Scott Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05413534996048038292noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039862534696830799.post-3987517518010693462017-04-05T04:30:00.000-07:002017-07-21T12:22:31.303-07:00Barney, participation trophies, and Nintendo: We didn’t see an opioid crisis coming?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">(Originally posted on </span><a href="http://www.addictedminds.com/addiction-anything-hide/" style="font-size: x-small;">AddictedMinds.com</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">)</span></div>
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Overdose deaths involving <a href="http://www.addictedminds.com/dope-101-opioids-opiates-six-one-isnt-half-dozen/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">opiates and opioids</a> have quadrupled since 1999, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Using information from death certificates compiled for the CDC’s Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (<a href="https://wonder.cdc.gov/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;" target="_blank">WONDER)</a> database, almost half of the 13,000 heroin overdose deaths in 2015 (5,941) were to people born between 1981 and 2000. Prescription opioid drug overdose deaths match the same age bubble.</div>
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Clearly, a single generation or demographic isn’t involved in the crisis. If half of the deaths occur to one age band, half don’t. However one half is a statistically significant batch of dope deaths.</div>
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There are those who would direct the anger about this at pharmaceutical companies. They made stronger opioids and aggressively marketed them by the truckload to every doc with a prescription pad. There would be no supply, however, without demand. Economics. So what spiked the demand? A purple dinosaur, a medal for everyone, and constant entertainment with a reset button. They could be as much to blame as overzealous Rx writers and an uninterrupted flow of street smack.</div>
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<b style="box-sizing: border-box;">An entire generation programmed for susceptibility</b></h2>
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Barney, the purple dinosaur, became a phenom with the Pack-n-Play set in 1992. It was geared toward kids aged 1 to 8 years with sometimes educational value. Barney had kids singing, “I love you, you love me” etc. until the runaway hit was canned in 2009. It lives on today in syndication.</div>
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One specific rub on Barney is that the show didn’t help kids learn how to deal with negative feelings and emotions. As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=11217210197395702980&hl=en&as_sdt=2&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">one commentator</a>put it, the real danger from Barney was, “denial: the refusal to recognize the existence of unpleasant realities. For along with his steady diet of giggles and unconditional love, Barney offers our children a one-dimensional world. Everyone must be happy. Everything must be resolved right away.'” Ouch.</div>
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On the topic of not dealing with unpleasant realities is that there is, in the real world, a concept of winning and losing. They are not two separate and unrelated concepts: You cannot have all winners and no non-winners. We used to call them ‘losers,’ a la racer Dale Earnhardt once proclaiming ‘second place is the first place loser.’</div>
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It’s hard to peg an exact year when the everyone-gets-a-trophy movement began but a 2015 episode of the <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2015/07/20/hbos-real-sports-looks-into-americas-trophy-culture/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">HBO Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel</a> documentary points to the late 1980’s or early 90’s as well. It was initially a California phenomenon. It was to boost the self-esteem of inner city youth. “We thought, especially for kids in struggling communities, if we just told them they were great they would believe it. Then they’ll achieve more because they were certain they were great,” researcher Ashley Merryman told HBO.</div>
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The first gaming system to reach mega-saturation in American households was the 8-bit Nintendo. It launched in October 1985 and Mario Bros. could be spotted babysitting millions of kids by the next fall. In fact, the entire gaming industry was $100 million in 1985: In 1986 it was $430 million, $310 million of it was Nintendo’s share.</div>
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<b style="box-sizing: border-box;">Not blaming the opioid victim</b></h2>
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Sociologists are big on generational cohorts like GenX or Millennials or Baby Boomers and enjoy painting with a broad brush the ills or successes of each cohort. The ones turning to the relief they find in opiates and opioids are not the ones to find fault with. Who gave them Barney, participation trophies, and gaming systems?</div>
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The Recession stymied economic growth, halted job creation, kept older Americans in the workforce longer, and encouraged younger American couples to have two wage earners. That Recession was 1982, NOT the most recent one of 2008. The opioid tragedy of those born 1981-2000 was written before many of them had even learned to read. GenX and Baby Boomer parents and grandparents who authentically loved and cared for kids, hobbled the same kids. How? By setting up an unrealistic world of expectations that all things are resolved in an hour, everyone gets an award and we must all be entertained all the time.</div>
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The grave consequences of an opioid crisis for this generation were entirely foreseeable – in hindsight. It’s like when the world first heard that Queen’s Freddie Mercury was gay. When we went back and watched the old videos we collectively said, ‘Well, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">that</em> makes sense.”</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #868686; font-size: medium;">Addicted Minds’ Editor-in-Chief, Scott Stevens, is the author of four alcohol books including the December 2016 release, I Can’t See The Forest With All These Damn Trees In The Way: The Health Consequences of Alcohol. Buy the new BookLocker title now on Amazon (<a href="http://viewbook.at/prehab" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0a83b6; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">viewbook.at/prehab</a>), <a href="http://www.alcohologist.com/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0a83b6; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">alcohologist.com</a>, and everywhere books are sold. Stevens also heads up <a href="http://www.blog-tender.com/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0a83b6; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">BlogTender LLC</a>, a content marketing firm headquartered in Lake Geneva, Wis.</em><br />
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Scott Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05413534996048038292noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039862534696830799.post-52038681237688559772017-04-04T04:30:00.000-07:002017-04-04T05:26:26.910-07:00Dope 101: Opioids, opiates… six of one isn’t a half-dozen of the other<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">(Originally posted on </span><a href="http://www.addictedminds.com/addiction-anything-hide/" style="font-size: x-small;">AddictedMinds.com</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The terms opioids and opiates are frequently – and mistakenly – used as interchangeable words for the same drug when they really mean two related drug classes. The media doesn’t get that. Nor do they have to when they ring the ‘epidemic’ bell to get more viewers. For the record, we have a drug crisis, not just an opioid or opiate crisis.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>An opiate is a natural narcotic analgesic (e.g. painkiller) derived from the opium poppy. Think opium, morphine, and heroin.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>An opioid is a synthetic narcotic analgesic created in a lab to mimic or intensify or attempt to remove undesired inconsistencies of the natural product. Think Oxies.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Physicians used to prescribe the former. They now prescribe the latter when other pain meds like ibuprofen or acetaminophen aren’t strong enough. Street dope used to be only the former. Now street dope can be purely the former, impurely the former, or even mixed with the latter with usually disastrous outcomes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">From a dependency treatment standpoint, both classes are essentially equal in their abilities alter neurochemical processes in the body and change how the brain and body work over time. With the opioids, the carnage is often quicker. To explain the reason for that, I’m tossing out two words that will slay your opponent is Scrabble: Dolorimetry and pharmacopeia.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Big words, bigger problems</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It all starts with pain. Dolorimetry (dolor is Latin for pain) is the measurement of pain in animals and, notably, humans are animals. If humans can measure it, they next want to fix it. There’s a long human history of not tolerating pain and seeking a remedy for it. And from that we get the ancient Greek word pharmacopeia, the science or study of drugs, their preparation, properties, uses, and effects.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">For thousands of years, opium was used to treat the pain. In the 1500’s, laudanum (opium dissolved in alcohol) became the next generation. In the early 1800’s, the most active part of opium, morphine, was extracted. A less active part – codeine, about two percent of opium – was also extracted. Merck went commercial with morephine in 1827. Tens of thousands of Civil War soldiers became addicts. In 1874, heroin was first made by boiling down morphine in an attempt to find something twice as strong but less addictive. They got it half right… and by most accounts a century and a half later: ALL wrong.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Opioids speeding the way to ruin</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Opium was banned in the U.S. in 1905 and set in the opioid lab race, which really took off later that decade when Bayer (yes, THAT Bayer) stopped mass production of heroin because of its dangers. Oxycodone was born in the lab in 1916. It was hoped that oxycodone would retain the analgesic effects of morphine and heroin with less dependence. Nope. But it still lives on today as OxyContin and Percocet. Hydrocodone was first synthesized in 1920, approved in the U.S. in 1943 and became Vicodin in 1984. Hydromorphone (Dilaudid) was first synthesized in 1924. Methadone was created in a lab in 1937 to find something, again, less addictive than morphine and heroin in surgery. Epic fail. Janssen Pharmaceuticals gave us fentanyl in 1959.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Which leads us to the latest trend is mixing into cheap street heroin even cheaper, illegal modifications of fentanyl (like carfentanyl) thousands of times more powerful than morphine or heroin.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">By the way, that old opiate, morphine, is still among the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines because of its relative safety in comparison to the misbegotten offspring. However, we can’t put the pharmacopeia toothpaste back in the tube and we have a drug crisis today.</span></div>
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<em style="background-color: #fafafa; box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Addicted Minds’ Editor-in-Chief, Scott Stevens, is the author of four alcohol books including the December 2016 release, I Can’t See The Forest With All These Damn Trees In The Way: The Health Consequences of Alcohol. Buy the new BookLocker title now on Amazon (<a href="http://viewbook.at/prehab" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">viewbook.at/prehab</a>), <a href="http://www.alcohologist.com/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">alcohologist.com</a>, and everywhere books are sold. Stevens also heads up <a href="http://www.blog-tender.com/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">BlogTender LLC</a>, a content marketing firm headquartered in Lake Geneva, Wis.</span></em>Scott Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05413534996048038292noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039862534696830799.post-82880982005038019032017-04-03T04:30:00.000-07:002017-04-03T04:30:09.722-07:00Alcohol Awareness Month resources available at alcohologist website<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieMCdB5MeM_VK-clw40QToIfaOqDHqIYbwCliiqV8p3hPoxvet-1uX87rM_AChH03Qh9eJCD0Zoqqe-K6GEbTx8Ys1LMTD680jDEjqMQTVUgeRiAOrfXUsq6QvJgvFuxscInkBleKStZA/s1600/Untitledaam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieMCdB5MeM_VK-clw40QToIfaOqDHqIYbwCliiqV8p3hPoxvet-1uX87rM_AChH03Qh9eJCD0Zoqqe-K6GEbTx8Ys1LMTD680jDEjqMQTVUgeRiAOrfXUsq6QvJgvFuxscInkBleKStZA/s320/Untitledaam.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<em style="background-color: #fafafa; box-sizing: border-box; color: #868686; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The free Alcohol Awareness Month Alcopocalypse whitepaper is available for download at <a href="http://www.alcohologist.com/">www.alcohologist.com</a>. <a href="http://bit.ly/AlcoLie" target="_blank">Paper copies</a> for mailing to U.S. addresses are available for $1 each (includes postage) or $6 per 10 to a single address. </span></span></em><br />
<em style="background-color: #fafafa; box-sizing: border-box; color: #868686; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></em>
<em style="background-color: #fafafa; box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Stevens's four books on alcohol and health are available on the website and everywhere books are sold. Of note for the 31st Alcohol Awareness month is the newest title, <a href="http://bit.ly/seduced2ruin" style="color: black;" target="_blank">I can't see the forest with all these damn trees in the way</a>. His 2016 Alcohol Awareness Month educational DVD series, <a href="http://bit.ly/TheAFiles" style="color: black;" target="_blank">The A-Files: Alcohol A-Z</a> is available on Amazon in a limited-stock re-release. In 2015, the author released the <a href="http://bit.ly/alcohology" style="color: black;" target="_blank">Alcohology app</a> still available for Android<span style="font-family: inherit;"> devices.</span></span></span></em><br />
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<em style="background-color: #fafafa; box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; text-align: left;">Founded and sponsored by The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD), </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; text-align: left;">Alcohol Awareness Month</span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-align: left;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; text-align: left;">is recognized every April. It </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; text-align: left;">was established in 1987 to help reduce the stigma so often associated with alcoholism by encouraging communities to reach out to the American public each April with information about </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; text-align: left;">alcohol</span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; text-align: left;">, alcoholism and recovery. Stevens points out the effort is great on informing the public about alcohol-related car wrecks and the disease of alcoholism, but "there is far more to this drug. It's a toxin and known carcinogen with no health benefit, for either gender, at any age, in any amount."</span></span></em><br />
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<em style="background-color: #fafafa; box-sizing: border-box; color: #868686; font-family: roboto, arial, sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Addicted Minds’ Editor-in-Chief, Scott Stevens, is the author of four alcohol books including the December 2016 release, I Can’t See The Forest With All These Damn Trees In The Way: The Health Consequences of Alcohol. Buy the new BookLocker title now on Amazon (<a href="http://viewbook.at/prehab" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0a83b6; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">viewbook.at/prehab</a>), <a href="http://www.alcohologist.com/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0a83b6; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">alcohologist.com</a>, and everywhere books are sold. Stevens also heads up <a href="http://www.blog-tender.com/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0a83b6; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">BlogTender LLC</a>, a content marketing firm headquartered in Lake Geneva, Wis.</em>Scott Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05413534996048038292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039862534696830799.post-31253867650595885332017-04-02T06:03:00.001-07:002017-04-02T06:28:10.025-07:00Alcohol Awareness Month whitepaper foretells sea change for alcohol industry <div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP_NL3EG9KPqvLWxy1z8L_BdBue6tdZHVLnqMM2bQJUl2X9a8F9_wWOo-J-b8FPligzlcJuRHiQmmjGrAbkrFQN_QBvprxc82GDU32RvhuMPhxA0hmq-dptsFbxaTn4oQu4I8T8OBijpw/s1600/alcopo+cover.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP_NL3EG9KPqvLWxy1z8L_BdBue6tdZHVLnqMM2bQJUl2X9a8F9_wWOo-J-b8FPligzlcJuRHiQmmjGrAbkrFQN_QBvprxc82GDU32RvhuMPhxA0hmq-dptsFbxaTn4oQu4I8T8OBijpw/s320/alcopo+cover.JPG" width="250" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">A whitepaper called <a href="http://www.alcohologist.com/" style="color: #1c6094; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Alcopocalypse: Six signs the next 10 years for alcohol will look like the last 20 for tobacco</a> is available for free download during Alcohol Awareness Month this April. The paper looks at how American opinion toward alcohol as a drug and the $250 billion it costs the economy each year signal a shifting future for the beverage alcohol business. “Don't worry,” says author Scott Stevens, “there isn't a second coming of Prohibition. Alcohol is going to remain a profitable industry the same way the tobacco industry remains solvent. The tide is turning however.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">April 2017's thirty-first observance of Alcohol Awareness Month is the first since the U.S. Surgeon General signaled a shift in alcohol policy. The Surgeon General's Nov. 2016 Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health was the first time the office took on the health impact of alcohol use in a manner similar to the way the same office took on tobacco smoke in 1964.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Stevens, an award-winning author of four alcohol/health best-sellers, says, “All alcohol use impacts health, healthcare costs, and the economy. Just like smoking does. With alcohol, it's no longer a dialogue exclusively concerning impaired driving or the disease of alcoholism. The dialogue on this drug is changing from what it does for the drinker, to what it does to the drinker.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Immediately after the Surgeon General's “unprecedented” report Stevens released <a href="http://bit.ly/seduced2ruin" style="color: #1c6094; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">I can't see the forest with all these damn trees in the way: The health consequences of alcohol</a>. Alcopocalypse also appears as an appendix in the book. “Alcohol use is a cost driver for the health system because more long-term health consequences from moderate drinking are coming to light… while more ‘benefits’ of 'responsible' drinking are being debunked.” The cost and the health impact are two of his six topics in Alcopocalypse. “I was born in 1967. Then, 72 percent of adult men smoked. Today, 72 percent don't, because America changed that dialogue following the Surgeon General's direction.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Among the other 'signs' in the whitepaper is the prevalence of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs). They carry a lifetime cost of $2 million for each individual and FASDs are now more common in the U.S. than autism. “Autism isn't preventable. FASD is 100 percent preventable. People have been Madison-Avenued into a way of thinking that tells them this is a 'safe' drug. It's anything but safe, even in moderation, especially for the unborn.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Stevens also notes data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that indicates 20-40 percent of hospital resources go to treating alcohol-related complications. “It's easy to see what causes the problem, is the problem. It's not just about alcoholism or drinking and driving. It's about taking a drug, a toxin and carcinogen in any amount. People routinely complain about healthcare costs and sagging productivity… over a beer or a shot. They’re not seeing the forest. Just the trees.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The free whitepaper is available for download at the author's website www.alcohologist.com. An option to order printed copies is also available, as is ordering information for the four books from Stevens and his 2016 Alcohol Awareness Month educational DVD series, The A-Files: Alcohol A-Z. For 2015, the author released the Alcohology app still available on Android devices.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Stevens says “Alcopocalypse encourages informed decisions about using alcohol based on evidence-based science. Informed decisions don't come from advertising, observational studies and wishful thinking.”</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.prbuzz.com/health-a-fitness/417785-alcohol-awareness-month-whitepaper-foretells-alcohol-industry-challenges.html#.WOD2SsqPBok.blogger">Alcohol Awareness Month whitepaper foretells alcohol industry challenges</a> news release on PRBuzz.<br />
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<em style="background-color: #fafafa; box-sizing: border-box; color: #868686; font-family: roboto, arial, sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Addicted Minds’ Editor-in-Chief, Scott Stevens, is the author of four alcohol books including the December 2016 release, I Can’t See The Forest With All These Damn Trees In The Way: The Health Consequences of Alcohol. Buy the new BookLocker title now on Amazon (<a href="http://viewbook.at/prehab" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0a83b6; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">viewbook.at/prehab</a>), <a href="http://www.alcohologist.com/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0a83b6; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">alcohologist.com</a>, and everywhere books are sold. Stevens also heads up <a href="http://www.blog-tender.com/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0a83b6; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">BlogTender LLC</a>, a content marketing firm headquartered in Lake Geneva, Wis.</em>Scott Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05413534996048038292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039862534696830799.post-24168375503257226672017-03-20T12:15:00.001-07:002017-03-20T12:15:35.184-07:00NEWS RELEASE: Upcoming Alcohol Awareness Month about more than alcoholism, drunk driving<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHkq3xNG3Tkk0dwi0ZVMa0nNtsyPsOl1tDVfhEtH0Y-DrmR9z89QnF1MnhMoJNxKXrFqruPkFgYeOJUiuPtolwrxaB-eBiUn_CwyKOLdDWzjByD8A7LSencL-KHjVCTLPi5BwFKhqAjL0/s1600/17310922_1631463396869364_6780239383860704617_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHkq3xNG3Tkk0dwi0ZVMa0nNtsyPsOl1tDVfhEtH0Y-DrmR9z89QnF1MnhMoJNxKXrFqruPkFgYeOJUiuPtolwrxaB-eBiUn_CwyKOLdDWzjByD8A7LSencL-KHjVCTLPi5BwFKhqAjL0/s400/17310922_1631463396869364_6780239383860704617_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Orignal post on <a href="http://bit.ly/alcomyth" target="_blank">PRBuzz.com</a></span></div>
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April 2017's thirty-first observance of Alcohol Awareness Month is the first since the U.S. Surgeon General signaled a shift in alcohol policy. The Surgeon General's Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health marks the first time the office took on the health impact of alcohol use in a manner similar to the way the same office took on tobacco smoke in 1964. Award-winning alcohol and health writer, Scott Stevens, says, “All alcohol use impacts health, healthcare costs, and the economy. It's not just about impaired driving or the disease of alcoholism anymore. The dialogue on this drug is changing from what it does for the drinker, to what it does to the drinker.”</div>
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Stevens released <a href="http://viewbook.at/PREhab" style="color: #1c6094; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">I can't see the forest with all these damn trees in the way: The health consequences of alcohol</a> December 2, immediately after the Surgeon General's “unprecedented” report. “Alcohol use is a cost driver for the health system because more long-term health consequences from moderate drinking are coming to light… while more ‘benefits’ of 'responsible' drinking are being debunked,” Stevens says. “I’ve championed this theme since my first book in 2010 and in each of the two books that followed.”</div>
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Among the scientific findings on alcohol use:</div>
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The carcinogen alcohol causes eight types of cancer. It is the only dietary link to increased breast cancer risk and the second-leading cause of oral cancers.</div>
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...Stroke risk doubles immediately on a single drink and remains elevated two hours later.</div>
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...Heart disease is not prevented by alcohol: It is caused by and worsened by alcohol use.</div>
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...Plus 60 more pages on the evidence-based health fallout from so-called moderate use.</div>
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Twenty-to-forty percent of hospital resources go to treating alcohol-related complications according to the National Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence, Inc. (NCADD). The economy takes a $250 billion annual hit from alcohol costs, mostly lost productivity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Stevens adds, “It's easy to see what causes the problems, is the problem. Alcohol's consequences aren't just for hard drinkers and certainly aren't limited to alcoholism or drinking and driving.This is a drug, a toxin, and a carcinogen in any amount. People routinely complain about healthcare costs and sagging productivity… over a beer or a shot. They’re not seeing the forest. Just the trees.”</div>
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The book is available at Amazon, other online and bricks-and-mortar booksellers, and the author's website <a href="http://www.alcohologist.com/" style="color: #1c6094; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">www.alcohologist.com</a>. It is the second release by the author in the past year, preceded by an educational DVD series, The A-Files: Alcohol A-Z.</div>
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Each of Stevens's three books includes a chapter on the health fallout of drinking alcohol. “It's not about discouraging drinking, except for the alcoholic. It's about making informed decisions about using alcohol based on evidence-based science. Informed decisions don't come from observational studies and wishful thinking.”</div>
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About the Author</div>
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The noted journalist on alcoholism is a founding influencer of the world's largest medical portal, HealthTap.com. His books on the disease include 2010's What the Early Worm Gets, 2012's Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud, which earned finalist honors in the Indie Book Awards and USA Best Books Awards in 2013, and Adding Fire to the Fuel, a 2015 USA Best Books Awards Finalist and 2016 Book Excellence Award winner. He also created the Alcohology mobile app.</div>
Scott Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05413534996048038292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039862534696830799.post-6570827130047948142017-03-18T07:34:00.001-07:002017-07-09T18:30:21.010-07:00An addiction is anything you have to hide<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqljo-nAWQ22lpM8t6nkkUtTw2T1mTY_WwAkWncHaqYLfiXKsbwHl9mKqsS6AhRr9Le9yA_mas4rb08zlkr2loYqGTkRZvozdpKcKMEgmTpxwrtnXgsSapLI2xIDh69EmnOgKPIj_fy2M/s1600/Depositphotos_49880203_l-2015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqljo-nAWQ22lpM8t6nkkUtTw2T1mTY_WwAkWncHaqYLfiXKsbwHl9mKqsS6AhRr9Le9yA_mas4rb08zlkr2loYqGTkRZvozdpKcKMEgmTpxwrtnXgsSapLI2xIDh69EmnOgKPIj_fy2M/s320/Depositphotos_49880203_l-2015.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">(Originally posted on <a href="http://www.addictedminds.com/addiction-anything-hide/">AddictedMinds.com</a>)</span></div>
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A many-faceted challenge for families, interventionists, and other addiction pros alike is defining an addiction. We have textbook definitions. We have tests. But when it comes down to addressing the addiction with an addict in denial that he or she has one, we are consistently challenged with breaking down denial.<br />
Signaling the problem, we turn to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). The latest version is October 2016’s DSM-5. Its 11-part impersonal analysis for any substance use disorder:</div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 15px;">Taking the substance in larger amounts or for longer than the you meant to</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 15px;">Wanting to cut down or stop using the substance but not managing to</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 15px;">Spending a lot of time getting, using, or recovering from use of the substance</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 15px;">Cravings and urges to use the substance</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 15px;">Not managing to do what you should at work, home or school, because of substance use</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 15px;">Continuing to use, even when it causes problems in relationships</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 15px;">Giving up important social, occupational or recreational activities because of substance use</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 15px;">Using substances again and again, even when it puts the you in danger</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 15px;">Continuing use, even when you know you have a physical or psychological problem that could have been caused or made worse by the substance</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 15px;">Needing more of the substance to get the effect you want (tolerance)</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 15px;">Development of withdrawal symptoms, which can be relieved by taking more of the substance.</li>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Signs, signs, everywhere signs</span></h2>
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The DSM 5 allows clinicians to specify how severe the addiction is, depending on how many of the 11 signs are present. Two or three symptoms indicate a mild substance use disorder, four or five symptoms indicate a moderate substance use disorder, and six or more symptoms indicate a severe substance use disorder.</div>
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BOOM! That was easy.</div>
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Now tell the addict he or she is one and needs help. The 947 pages of the American Psychiatric Association’s ‘bible’ do little for that discussion. Assume very few people under the influence of a mind-altering drug have the capacity to use that same mind to analyze (honestly) the symptoms.</div>
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A simple pair of personal questions gets at the a-ha moment the impersonal DSM can’t get at eyeball-to-eyeball:<br />
Are you hiding your use? Why?</div>
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The answers are C-R-I-T-I-C-A-L to making change. You can get at any of those 11 DSM criteria with those two questions. We hide use because we don’t want anyone to see. Or judge. Or evaluate us on a DSM scale. We don’t want them to see because we don’t want to hear that it’s “wrong” or “shameful” or fill-in-the-blank. Yet, family sees. Counselors see. The addict needs that vision and it comes from that introspection. And very few – if any – are ever asked directly what they are hiding, and why are they hiding it.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Scott Stevens is the author of four alcohol books including the December 2016 release, I Can’t See The Forest With All These Damn Trees In The Way: The Health Consequences of Alcohol. Buy the new BookLocker title now on Amazon (<a href="http://viewbook.at/prehab" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">viewbook.at/prehab</a>), <a href="http://www.alcohologist.com/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">alcohologist.com</a>, and everywhere books are sold. Stevens also heads up <a href="http://www.blog-tender.com/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.15s linear;">BlogTender LLC</a>, a content marketing firm headquartered in Lake Geneva, Wis.</em></div>
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Photo by Vasilisa Karpova, used with permission.<br />
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Scott Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05413534996048038292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039862534696830799.post-73622551016594525932017-01-14T06:18:00.000-08:002018-10-06T07:54:47.219-07:00American Beverage Institute declares war on common sense<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmxk6tinzq-XFUPfojz-JX2ul9hgPXjIoi5V3F2QVl0FJXFgbOnhM_K7HmhgOiniGJvqbiRbNhDTy1XsB0NIuUk1-5O5bkcC0lhKBgahAqVkStrdtYG4MqkscpVdd4TbJyKjryJCVioSA/s1600/photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmxk6tinzq-XFUPfojz-JX2ul9hgPXjIoi5V3F2QVl0FJXFgbOnhM_K7HmhgOiniGJvqbiRbNhDTy1XsB0NIuUk1-5O5bkcC0lhKBgahAqVkStrdtYG4MqkscpVdd4TbJyKjryJCVioSA/s320/photo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sarah Longwell is rolling a clown car full of falsehoods through every Main Street news outlet that will run it. The term 'red herring' comes to mind when reading this opinion in the Modesto Bee, <a href="http://www.rrstar.com/opinion/20170113/my-view-prohibitionist-thinking-creates-war-on-moderate-drinking">Rockford Star</a>, and the <a href="http://www.journalstandard.com/opinion/20170113/my-view-prohibitionist-thinking-creates-war-on-moderate-drinking">Journal Standard</a> (Jan. 13) and the <a href="http://www.tribdem.com/news/sarah-longwell-alcohol-ads-showdown/article_00b03d90-f0b2-11e6-9cbf-03515ae5bed5.html" target="_blank">Tribune/Democrat</a> (Feb. 11) because the supplier of this viewpoint is the American Beverage Institute: The largest liquor lobby in the country. (click on any of the links to read the Institute's ad) </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Why not give it inches of column space to roll out the same alarmist language ('prohibition') and tired, discredited OBSERVATIONAL studies in favor of drinking a toxin and known carcinogen? This is not an op-ed piece. It is an advertisement. Follow the money: Who pays Sarah? Alcohol. She KNOWS what she is writing is a retread of alcohol's parade of junk science without medical or scientific basis. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Surgeon General's report, while falling short on all the alcohol harms beyond the disease of addiction, does signal a shift in American alcohol policy. One that would leave Sarah dramatically underemployed. Don't fall for special interests declaring a self-serving war on facts: There are NO evidence-based health benefits to drinking alcohol. The 'overwhelming scientific evidence' mentioned at the end of her editorial points to a $250 billion national health pandemic and a proven health problem causing 89,000 deaths a year.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.701961);">Scott Stevens is the author of four alcohol books including the December 2016 release, </span><em style="border: 0px; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I Can't See The Forest With All These Damn Trees In The Way: The Health Consequences of Alcohol. </em><span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.701961);">The new BookLocker title is available now on Amazon (</span><a href="http://viewbook.at/prehab" rel="nofollow noopener" style="-ms-word-wrap: break-word; border: 0px currentColor; color: #8c68cb; cursor: pointer; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">viewbook.at/prehab</a><span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.701961);">), </span><a href="http://www.alcohologist.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="-ms-word-wrap: break-word; border: 0px currentColor; color: #8c68cb; cursor: pointer; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">alcohologist.com</a><span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.701961);">, and everywhere books are sold. </span></span>Scott Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05413534996048038292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039862534696830799.post-74174489553571490472017-01-02T08:26:00.000-08:002017-07-09T18:28:30.380-07:00Seven clues that 2017 will be the Year of the Pandemic<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.701961); font-family: "source serif pro" , serif; font-size: 21px;">Much of the decade leading up to 2017 has been characterized by an Opioid Epidemic, according to author Scott Stevens. For the final 1,000 or so days of the decade, America will continue to gain ground against painkiller and heroin deaths. However, according to Stevens, 2017 will “mark a switch in the dialogue from illicit drugs developed in pharmaceutical labs or grown in faraway lands to a homegrown pandemic that claims 90,000 American lives.” Here are the award-winning author's seven reasons why the U.S. will finally talk about the drug we love – alcohol – instead of the drugs we loathe.</span><br />
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<strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1) Pro-marijuana factions are forcing the attention away from the problems created by their drug to the one that's already legal.</strong> Recreational pot — legalized and/or decriminalized in eight states now — is 'less dangerous' than both alcohol and tobacco. Granted, one side of the Titanic may, in fact, have been safer than the other, the 'safety' of marijuana versus booze is not a new claim. Well-bankrolled pro-marijuana interests are making hay with what they claim is, for the first time, research measuring the potential harm of these drugs in a more quantitative way. Their findings showed the dangers of marijuana "may have been overestimated in the past, while the risk of alcohol has been commonly underestimated.” They are at a minimum half correct no matter where you fall on the legalization/decriminalization argument. As the pro-pot teams swarm the media, America can't help but hear that it's wishful thinking that their favorite drug-of-choice is safe because it is legal.<br />
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /><b>2) Our new president is a teetotaler.</b></span> Donald J. Trump doesn't drink. Like so many Americans he has a family history including the disease of alcoholism. He gets that it is a disease related to the use of a socially and physically toxic drug. But beyond alcoholic drinking, Trump doesn't buy that the moderate drinking (use of a drug) is acceptable.<br />
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /><b>3) Our new president is a business owner.</b></span> He's not shy about talking about increasing efficiency in Making America Great Again. Among the measures a business owner uses is productivity. Even moderate use creates absenteeism (a productivity drain), and increased risk of accidents/injuries (another productivity drain). Tardiness/sleeping on the job. Hangovers and withdrawal affecting job performance. Poor decision making while under the influence of a central nervous system depressant. All clobber productivity.<br />
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Seventy percent of the $250 billion alcohol costs the U.S. economy every year comes from losses in productivity resulting from premature death, impaired productivity, institutionalized populations, incarceration, crime careers, and victims of alcohol-related crime. Other effects on society included crime, social welfare administration, motor vehicle crashes, and fire destruction and cost more than $40 billion. Government, private insurance, and victims bore most of the economic burden of alcohol and drug problems. That's a not-so-great anymore America he wants to make great again.<br />
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /><b>4) The Fourth Estate continues to become less dependent on the Big-Alcohol teat. </b></span>History lesson… When much of the Glass/Steagall Act was repealed in 1999, financial services advertising rocketed to the top five of advertisers, and negative stories about the industry fell to the back page or out of the newscast. Would Enron, the Tech Collapse and the Mortgage Crisis have happened if news operations had been less beholden to the financial services industry? Yep. But would those calamities happened as swiftly and destructively? Doubtful.<br />
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Conversely, alcohol advertising has today tumbled out of the top-ten. Alcohol ads typically tie brands with cool, sexy, stylish, on-Fleek people and fun times. Ultimately, these concepts come together to suggest: if I use this product, I too can be cool, sexy, on-Fleek and successful like the people in the ad, having fun like they seem to be. Ads so influence young people that media is under pressure from groups like AlcoholJustice and The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) to keep the ads off air, out of public view in neighborhoods, off social media, and out of print. News outlets beholden to their advertisers – or at least not airing stories that will cost an advertiser business – are seeing less advertising from brewers and distillers. The result: More of the negatives from alcohol use can make it onto your laptop or into your living room.</div>
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<strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">5) American losses are too staggering to ignore any longer.</strong> More Americans die each year from alcohol than the number of Americans killed in the <em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 0.975em; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">entire</em> Korean and Vietnam conflicts <em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 0.975em; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">combined. </em>More than<em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 0.975em; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </em>twice as many people die an alcohol-related death in the U.S. than die an opioid-related death (90,000 vs. 33,000). When opiates killed 10,000 in a single year it was an 'epidemic.' When the flu killed 30,000 in a year, vaccination levels ballooned. People did something. Three times as many die each year from moderate to heavy use of alcohol. People are starting to take note of what alcohol does to them rather than what they think it does for them.<br />
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This number of alcohol-related deaths is rising, too, not falling.</div>
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<strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">6) Healthcare reform reform will add the prevention element on which it has missed the mark. </strong>Twenty to 40 percent of general use hospital beds in the U.S. – those not used for specialties like maternity and birth – are used to treat alcohol-related complications. Two hospital admissions each minute are alcohol-related. Alcohol is a substantial driver of healthcare utilization.</div>
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And it is a substantial driver of illness. Alcohol is listed as a known (not a suspected) carcinogen by the Department of Health and Human Services. Eight cancers are directly tied to alcohol use: The higher the use, the greater the risk. It's the only dietary link to an increased risk of breast cancer. More than 60 diseases are linked to alcohol use. More than 200 prescription and over-the-counter remedies react adversely with this toxin. We've had a history lesson above in #4. Here's a math problem: More sickness + hospitalization = higher medical costs = higher insurance premiums. What causes problems, is one.<br />
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /><b>7) The status quo is unsustainable.</b></span></div>
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Addicted Minds' Editor-in-Chief, Scott Stevens, is the author of four alcohol books including the December 2016 release, <em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 0.975em; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I Can't See The Forest With All These Damn Trees In The Way: The Health Consequences of Alcohol. </em>The new BookLocker title is available now on Amazon (<a href="http://viewbook.at/prehab" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #8c68cb; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">viewbook.at/prehab</a>), <a href="http://www.alcohologist.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #8c68cb; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">alcohologist.com</a>, and everywhere books are sold. See this release on <a href="http://www.prlog.org/12610739-seven-for-2017-why-the-new-year-will-be-the-year-of-the-pandemic.html" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #8c68cb; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">PRLog</a>.<br />
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Scott Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05413534996048038292noreply@blogger.com0