Recovery Advocacy News, Issues & Miscellaneous Musings (Nov 2022)
This was originally published for Hazelden Betty Ford’s monthly Recovery Advocacy Update. If you’d like to receive our advocacy emails, subscribe today.
Curation with occasional commentary by Jeremiah Gardner
📕 READ: Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, is calling for broad deregulation of methadone to make it more accessible.
📕 READ: Preliminary CDC data suggest U.S. overdose deaths — a record 107,000 last year — may be plateauing, but hope is muted by the reality that past plateaus didn’t last.
📕 READ: Actress Dedee Pfeiffer helped us celebrate the Betty Ford Center’s 40th anniversary — grateful to her!
📺 WATCH: Sober singer, actress and podcast host Christy Carlson Romano honored Aaron Carter in the podcast episode he was supposed to be on prior to his death, which his brother, Backstreet Boy Nick Carter, attributed to addiction and mental illness.
📕 READ: The CDC has issued new guidelines for prescribing opioids. Here’s what to know.
📕 READ: Proud of our Hazelden Betty Ford colleague Carrie Bates, a three-time Olympic gold medalist who was among the keynote speakers at Recovery Reinvented in North Dakota. Incredible every year, the 2022 event can be viewed via the recorded livestream at RecoveryReinvented.com.
📕 READ: United Airlines will pay $305,000 to a Buddhist pilot who refused to attend AA on religious grounds, a decision that cost him his job.
📕 READ: On an intense tour for his candid memoir, “Friends” star Matthew Perry is sharing his story of addiction and recovery everywhere.
📕 READ: From our friends at NASADAD, here’s a nice FAQ on President Biden’s recent proclamation to pardon simple marijuana offenses.
📺 WATCH: Former NBA player and current social media star Rex Chapman shared emotionally about his recovery journey on national TV.
📕 READ: The U.S. Senate passed the landmark Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act, previously approved by the House. The bipartisan bill streamlines the application process for marijuana research, encourages the FDA to develop marijuana-derived medicines, and requires HHS to report on the potential benefits and harms of marijuana use to Congress. Almost everyone supported the legislation, including Smart Approaches to Marijuana President and CEO Dr. Kevin Sabet, who said it “demonstrates that we can lower barriers to marijuana research without descheduling and legalizing marijuana.”
📕 READ: Illinois is fining an insurance company $1.25 million for violating federal parity and other laws.
📕 READ: The Wall Street Journal shines light on three individuals whose lives were cut short by fentanyl.
📕 READ: U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy released a new Surgeon General’s Framework for Mental Health & Well-Being in the Workplace
📕 READ: You’re not more creative on pot, research shows — you just think you are.
📕 READ: Bad idea of the month: Alcoholic Mountain Dew coming to Ohio.
📕 READ: The University of Colorado marked the 10-year anniversary of legal marijuana in the Centennial State with an article outlining what has been learned.
📺 WATCH: Reality met fiction when the White House held a table talk on mental health with the cast of West Wing.
📕 READ: Walmart is proposing to pay $3.1 billion to settle an opioid lawsuit, which would bring total settlements nationally to about $50 million.
📕 READ: Recovery advocate Bill Stauffer puts his finger on the historical moment — noting that while we have made good strides in confronting stigma with our faces and voices, stigma still looms large in our systems and institutions. Harder to see. Harder to change. But absolutely where our attention needs to be.
📕 READ: In another great post, Stauffer shares his interview with modern recovery advocacy pioneer Bev Haberle, whose important contributions include preserving the history of the original recovery advocate, Marty Mann.
📕 READ: The Economist, the British-based magazine that is one of the stalwarts of respectable conservative media, has called for the legalization of cocaine.
📕 READ: Powerful article about the role of peer recovery specialists in the lives of those in early recovery.
📕 READ: As the overdose crisis has deepened, so has the demand for naloxone in California — and the pinch is being felt by community groups.
📕 READ: Contingency management (e.g. paying people to change) is so effective at helping people with stimulant use disorder that California is set to become the first state Medicaid program to pay for the treatment.
📺 WATCH: Kate Middleton shared words of encouragement for the “Taking Action on Addiction” campaign, reminding people that addiction is a severe health condition that could affect anyone.
📕 READ: U.S. Senators are starting to look at legislation aimed at creating better care integration of mental and physical health care services.
🔊 LISTEN: Former NBA star JJ Redick talks mental health on ESPN Daily.
📕 READ: SAMHSA published an “Interim Strategic Plan” with a new mission and vision that emphasize a more person-centered approach, and brief descriptions of the agency’s priorities and principles.
📕 READ: Our CEO Dr. Joseph Lee is among the new board members at NAATP.
💥 COOL JOB ALERT: Faces & Voices of Recovery is seeking a director of public affairs.
😞 R.I.P.: Mitch Rosenthal, MD, who founded Phoenix House addiction treatment centers in 1967, passed away Monday, Nov. 14, at age 87. Dr. Rosenthal, who left Phoenix House in 2007, went on to found the Rosenthal Center for Addiction Studies.
Jeremiah Gardner is director of communications and public affairs for the nonprofit Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation.
