Nearly a year after declaring America’s opioid epidemic to be a “public health emergency,” President Trump signed a sweeping bill on Wednesday aimed at disrupting the crisis. “Together, we are going to end the scourge of drug addiction,” Trump promised during a bill-signing ceremony. “Or at least make an extremely big dent in this terrible, terrible problem.” The bipartisan bill, known as the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act, is “the single largest bill to combat the drug crisis in the history of our country,” Trump added. While USA Today detailed the bill’s most significant provisions, it also cautioned that lawmakers will need to approve “billions” to properly support the law. The law promises more comprehensive recovery centers through the Department of Health and Human Services, better coordination between the US Postal Service and the US Customs and Border Protection department to curb illicit drugs from entering the country, new research into non-addictive painkillers, and opioid-inclusive changes to Medicare and Medicaid.
Binge Drinking Connected to Brain Chemistry, New Study Says
Scientists may have finally discovered why some people binge-drink more than others, according to Forbes. Researchers with the Center for Alcohol Research in Epigenetics at the University of Illinois say their findings could be a game-changer for alcoholism treatment. While it’s long been known that alcohol directly affects the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of the human brain, the study’s researchers believe the key is a specific potassium channel in the VTA—known as “KCNK13.” KCNK13 is blocked by alcohol, researchers say, which causes neurons to flood the brain with dopamine. Researchers reduced KCNK13 by 15% in some of the study’s lab mice, resulting in that same population of mice consuming 30% more alcohol. The results suggest that binge drinkers may simply have less KCNK13 in their VTA, which means new drug therapies could specifically target the potassium channel in order to curb alcoholism.
Boy George Reflects on a Decade of Sobriety
New-wave band Culture Club and its flamboyant lead singer Boy George were a cornerstone of 1980s-era MTV, but the band is now gearing up to release Life, its first album in 20 years. George (born George O’Dowd) revealed to Yahoo! his week that the album and tour follow a crippling, two-decade battle with heroin addiction that led to multiple arrests as well as the death of the band’s co-songwriter Michael Rudetsky in 1986. (Rudetsky was 27 when he overdosed at George’s home).“I got sober in 2008. March the 2nd, 2008. I know the date exactly,” George said. “I always think of that day as ‘the day that I became sane.’” He added that he was “really, truly unhappy” in his active addiction but it took years to finally surrender to recovery. “I remember one of the things I said to myself was ‘If you’re going to be Boy George, you might as well try and be the best Boy George you can be,’” he told Yahoo! “I have to say that things have got increasingly better and better and better the longer I’ve been sober.”
UN’s Global ‘War On Drugs’ Has Failed, Report Says
According to a brand-new report by the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), the United Nations’ decade-long drug strategy has been a massive failure. CNN reported that the UN’s “war on drugs” approach “has had scant effect on global supply while having negative effects on health, human rights, security and development.” In fact, drug-related deaths are up 145% over the last decade, CNN added. “This report is another nail in the coffin for the war on drugs,” Ann Fordham, the Executive Director of IDPC, said. “The fact that governments and the UN do not see fit to properly evaluate the disastrous impact of the last ten years of drug policy is depressingly unsurprising. Governments will meet next March at the UN and will likely rubber-stamp more of the same for the next decade in drug policy. This would be a gross dereliction of duty and a recipe for more blood spilled in the name of drug control.” Fordham firmly believes the report’s findings are a clear signal that UN officials need to immediately overhaul the global policy on drugs.
Texas Immigrant Children Forced to Take Drugs
A disturbing CBS News story argues that immigrant children held at a Texas detention center were forced to take drugs despite a judge’s order that barred it. Children were given injections of antipsychotics and forced to take drugs “with very limited FDA-approved uses in children and adolescents,” the story said. Civil rights attorneys helped implement the court order after written statements emerged from children held at Shiloh Residential Treatment Center. Still, despite the order, the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) continued administering the drugs without the required parental consent. “At Shiloh they give me three medications in the morning: Zoloft and two others they haven’t explained, and four medications in the night: melatonin and three others they haven’t explained to me. I see the doctor every two weeks. He tells me the drugs I need to take, but doesn’t explain why,” one 17-year-old detainee wrote in a statement. “The drugs make me feel really tired and sluggish. I have trouble concentrating in class. Sometimes I have stomach pain and a lot of headaches. Sometimes I feel numb on one side of my body. I tell the doctor about these problems, and he says it is all normal.” The ORR says it will issue a formal statement on the situation shortly.
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