UK doctors are warning that the explosion of Bitcoin trading has triggered the rise of a new form of gambling addiction, The Sun reported. The online trading of the cryptocurrency, critics and therapists say, can “totally consume participants” and swiftly ruin the lives of those who gamble with Bitcoin.
“Compulsive gamblers like it—it’s mysterious, not really regulated and you can make huge gains—and huge losses—in a single day,” gambling therapist Chris Burn told news.com.au. “People dive in because they don’t want to miss out on a good thing and they start putting money in without thinking about the consequences. But the reality is (cryptocurrency) trading is a fascinating idea, but it can do a great deal of harm.” The story notes that about 13 million people in the world trade Bitcoin and that several hospitals, including Castle Craig in Scotland, have launched treatment programs aimed at treating people who’ve become hooked on trading the digital currency.
Latin America Should Legalize Drugs, An Official Says
A United Nations official argued that Latin American should seriously consider legalizing drugs in order to save lives, Newsweek reported. Alicia Bárcena, the head of a UN economic commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, says that the region needs to take a fresh look at the impact of the drug trade. In Mexico, thousands of people die annually in connection to narcotics. In fact, 2017 was the worst year yet for drug-related murders. According to Time, Mexico had nearly 30,000 murders last year (the Interior Department reported 27,213 homicides), which is “more than 2011 at the peak of Mexico’s drug cartel-stoked violence.” What’s worse is that Mexico’s death toll is the highest-ever since the government began keeping homicide records in 1997.
Roseanne Barr Blames Ambien For Racist Rant
Comedienne Roseanne Barr, whose revival of the ABC sitcom Roseanne proved hugely popular this past season, found herself out of a job on Tuesday. Barr made racially charged comments on Twitter about former Obama White House aide Valerie Jarrett on Tuesday morning. The fallout was swift: not only did the Disney-owned ABC network cancel the series, but Viacom has pulled all Roseanne reruns from the Paramount Network, CMT and TV Land. Barr, however, blames Ambien for the tweet: “It was 2 in the morning and I was Ambien tweeting,” she explained. Early Wednesday, she added: “I’m sorry 4 my tweet, AND I will also defend myself as well as talk to my followers. so, go away if u don’t like it. I will handle my sadness the way I want to. I’m tired of being attacked & belittled more than other comedians who have said worse.” (Amazingly, Ambien’s manufacturer, Sanofi, issued a statement on Wednesday morning saying racism was not a “known side effect” of the medication.)
Is America’s Opioid Crisis “Contagious?”
A fascinating op-ed in The Guardian this week asked whether America’s current opioid epidemic is “contagious.” The piece, written by Matt Noffs, noted that Americans consume four times as many prescription painkillers as almost any other country—a staggering statistic that’s overshadowed only by the fact that “Americans use over 80% of the world’s supply of opioid medications, yet they represent under 5% of the global population.” Noffs contends that while regulation is the key to controlling any drug market, it’s an “oversimplification to blame doctors and poor regulation” for the epidemic. Australian physician Nick Lintzeris agrees, but admits that his country is “over-medicated” and that “our use of prescription drugs is amongst the highest in the world, for benzos and opioids and everything else.” Still, Lintzeris and others don’t believe Australia is next in line for a national drug epidemic, given that America hasn’t yet mastered the four-pronged approach that what many other countries have when it comes to opioids: limited marketing in the pharmaceutical industry, guidelines that govern how doctors prescribe opioids, a strategy for assisting the elderly with chronic pain, and strict regulations around prescription painkillers.
Most Americans See Drug Addiction as a Local Problem
According to a brand-new Pew Research Center survey, Americans “overwhelmingly” see drug addiction as a problem in their community. As fatal overdoses rise (especially in relation to opioids), 90% of Americans “who live in a rural area say drug addiction is either a major or minor problem in their community, as do 87% in urban and 86% in suburban areas,” the Pew Research Center reported. Urban, rural and suburban areas have all been hit with drug overdoses, with the number steeply rising in recent years. Urban counties reported 19,172 fatal overdoses in 2016 (a 25% increase over 2015) while suburban counties had a 22% increase. Interestingly, the “age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths in suburban counties was 21.1 per 100,000 people in 2016, compared with 18.7 per 100,000 in rural counties and 18.5 per 100,000 in urban counties.”
Five Finger Death Punch Bassist Finds Sobriety
Bassist Chris Kael of the American heavy metal band Five Finger Death Punch opened up about his newfound sobriety on a Milwaukee, Wisconsin radio station this week. Kael noted that he followed lead vocalist Ivan Moody in seeking treatment: “By necessity, just to save my own life and save my own happiness, I hit rehab myself, and things are going great,” he admitted. “I think I’m 104 days [sober]right now, and I’m thinking clear-headed. I remember how I felt 105 days ago, and I never wanna go back to that.” He even noted that he finds it easier to maintain sobriety on the road than at home: “Honestly, it’s harder off the road than it is on the road, because you’re alone with no schedule trying to find things to do. So, just in my own sobriety, I’ve been really on top of maintaining a schedule. I got real used to not really having a schedule and being able to do whatever I want, and that led to a place that I don’t ever wanna be again.”
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