Psychedelics As a Healing Tool - Here Is the Current Research

Though we have a basic understanding of their processes, finding out what those changes are and what they mean to cognition and behavior is still in early stages of research. 

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By Sarah Bon

05/06/14

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In 1957, psychiatrist Humphry Osmond wrote in a letter to Aldous Huxley:

To fathom Hell or soar angelic

Just take a pinch of psychedelic. 

Osmond coined the word psychedelic, from Greek root words psyche (breath, life, spirit, mind) + delos (clear, manifest) to refer to a class of drugs that he had been conducting research on; a class of drugs which was thought to make consciousness visible. The psychedelic drug is a psychoactive hallucinogen, i.e., a drug that crosses the blood-brain barrier to induce altered states of consciousness. Classical psychedelics such as LSD, magic mushrooms, mescaline, and DMT (as opposed to other hallucinogens such as dissociatives,e.g., ketamine; and deliriants,e.g.,datura) are also known as serotonergic psychedelics. These serotonergic psychedelics are known as such because they are5-HT2a agonists, explanation follows.

Serotonin, a neurotransmitter (a chemical that transmits signals from one brain cell to another), activates the serotonin receptors, also known as the 5-HT receptors. The 5-HT receptors modulate the release of various neurotransmitters and hormones. These receptors play a role in biological and neurological processes, such as appetite, cognition, mood, and sleep. An agonist is a chemical that binds to a receptor and activates that receptor. 

Essentially, classical psychedelics activate the 5-HT receptors, and more specifically, the 5-HT2a receptors (though some activate additional receptors). The 5-HT2a receptor is expressed throughout the central nervous system, with high concentrations in the prefrontal (brain region considered responsible for the organization of thoughts in accordance with goals, among other responsibilities), parietal (integrates sensory information), and the outer layer of the cerebral cortex (associated with, not exclusively, memory, attention, thought, language, and consciousness). The 5-HT2a receptor modulates learning, anxiety, behavior, and neuronal excitation in the central nervous system. 

The molecular structure of many psychedelic drugs is very similar to that of serotonin. This may account for the psychedelic drugs' affinity for the serotonin receptor. Serotonin has been likened to a “key,” by Franz Vollenweider, in which the receptors are the lock. If the “key” is slightly different, it may still go in the lock, but it won’t quite fit, and will make modifications to the neural process. Given that the areas in which the 5-HT2a receptors are the most dense are associated with cognition and perception (the posterior cingulate cortex), and where the receptors are the least dense are associated with motor control (the primary motor cortex), it makes sense that subjective accounts of psychedelic drug use find that motor skills are not generally impaired, whereas consciousness is greatly altered. 

The theory that psychedelic drugs interact with serotonin receptors is widely accepted; largely because of work by Dr. Franz Vollenweider demonstrating that the hallucinogenic effects of psilocybin can be blocked by a 5-HT2a receptor antagonist like ketanserin. However, the serotonergic system is complex; while the drugs may begin in the 5-HT2a receptor, they go on to change intracellular signalling pathways, and possibly alter gene expression. How these drugs create changes in the brain, through their role as serotonin agonists, is becoming basic to the understanding of their processes; but finding out what those changes are, and what they mean to cognition and behavior is still in early stages of research. 

Franz Vollenweider, Director of the Heffter Research Institute in Zurich, has over 80 publications, most of which investigate the mechanisms of psychostimulants and hallucinogens in humans. In 1997, Vollenweider employed the functional imaging technique, Positron Emission Tomography (PET), to view the brain under the influence of psilocybin. The hypothesis was that excessive activation of serotonin receptors by psilocybin will result in a “sensory overflow of the frontal cortex associated with the sensory flooding and cognitive fragmentation seen in psilocybin and naturally occurring psychosis."

Ten volunteers with no drug experience were chosen from hospital and university staff. They were administered 15-20mg of psilocybin (depending on the weight of the volunteer) orally, via capsules, 90 minutes before the FDG injection (fluorodeoxyglucose - a substance necessary to the PET scan process). Vollenweider devised methods for plotting subjective data in order to compare it with objective readings from the PET scan, and reach working conclusions about the areas in the brain responsible for various processes - and how those processes are altered by psilocybin. He compared findings from the psilocybin scans to known information on the mechanisms of psychotic states. Vollenweider found that psilocybin, “variously increased absolute cerebral metabolic rates of glucose in most of the brain regions examined...Whole brain glucose metabolism was increased in all subjects” and that the increases significantly correlated with the amount of psilocybin administered. 

Results were as expected, namely that psilocybin “leads to hyperfrontal metabolic pattern associated with acute psychotic symptom formation." However, it was noted that patients were able to recognize their altered consciousness as abnormal and attribute it to the drug. The findings are said to be in line with studies done on mescaline, and LSD testing in rats. 

The conclusion reached by Vollenweider was that an increase in metabolic activity in the frontal cortices of the brain might contribute to ego disintegration and derealization phenomena. It was also speculated that functional integrity, or the communication between brain regions was compromised by psilocybin. 

Functional connectivity under psychedelics is an idea explored in a study by Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris et al., Broadband Cortical Desynchronization Underlies the Human Psychedelic State, 2013. Post-doctoral researcher Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris at the Centre for Neuropsychopharmacology, Imperial College London, has conducted a number of clinical trials studying the effects of psychedelic drugs on the human brain. This is the first study to use the neuroimaging technique magnetoencephalography (MEG) to look at the brain under the influence of psilocybin. The MEG records magnetic fields produced by naturally occurring electrical currents in the brain. For this study, 15 volunteers with previous psychedelic drug experience, though not in the last 6 weeks, were administered 2mg of psilocybin intravenously. When administered this way, the drug takes hold within seconds. Similar in some ways to the results of the Vollenweider study, the functional connectivity of the brain was compromised. Meaning that areas of the brain which normally operate in conjunction, were no longer. There was a general collapse of the normal rhythmic structure of cortical activity. Particularly affected are key structural hubs within the brain; the medial prefrontal cortex (implicated in planning and personality) and the posterior cingulate cortex (implicated in emotion, autobiographical memories and awareness) significantly decreased in positive coupling under psilocybin. 

The MEG study also replicated the results of a number of other fMRI and EEG studies conducted by Carhart-Harris et al. Namely that psychedelics decrease cerebral blood flow in high-level association regions and important connector hubs.

It should be noted that many of the studies by Carhart-Harris have aspects that contradict those undertaken by Vollenweider and team. Whereas Vollenweider found increased activity in the brain,particularly in the frontal cortex, Carhart-Harris found that psilocybin caused a decrease in brain activity. However, the recent study by Carhart-Harris in conjunction with Suresh Muthukumaraswamy et al., reports the findings as entirely consistent with related research as “excitation of deep-layer pyramidal cells is consistent with decreased brain activity." Essentially, the cells that are excited by the presence of the psychedelic in turn decrease functional connectivity in high-level brain regions. 

Carhart-Harris has presented the most accessible model of the psychedelic effect on the brain, however reliable. His paper The Entropic Brain takes the current research a step further by updating Freudian psychoanalysis to reflect findings in neuroscience. He presents a theory of the brain which consists of two states: primary and secondary. The primary state is one of high entropy - disorganization - likened to that found in infancy, in dreams,in psychosis, and in the psychedelic state. The secondary state is one of low entropy - high organization - and likens an entropy-free brain to one of complete rigidity, as seen in sedation, seizure, OCD, depression, and addiction. His theory, based on sound neuroscience, though interpreted with certain enthusiasm, may be a way of understanding mental illness. 

The Default Mode Network is a central hub in the brain which organizes brain regions responsible for high-level thought (self-reflection, autobiographical memory, daydreaming). It is when this network is relatively suppressed and entropy is limited, that we are able to view a stable reality as opposed to one informed by wishes, fantasies and fears. 

Brain scans using fMRI of long term practitioners of meditation have found both long and short term differences within the main nodes of the Default Mode Network: the medial prefrontal and the posterior cingulate cortex. Namely, that the mPFC and the PCC are “less active in meditators." But interestingly, there is an increase in DMN connectivity, suggesting that the reduced mental activity during meditation is mediated by an increase in connectivity of networks controlling internal attention. The mind of the meditator is essentially trained, able to focus on internal processes without the negative rumination indicative of depression. 

Individuals with depression are thought to have overactive DMNs (specifically in the medial prefrontal cortex), i.e., to be low in entropy, which is somewhat of an antithesis to the psychedelic state. A drug like psilocybin has the ability to suppress the over-active Default Mode Network, allowing for disorganization; for well-tread paths to grow over; if only long enough that one can have a glimpse of a world outside of themselves. 

It has also been indicated in early studies with psilocybin and LSD that psychedelics are effective in treatments for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. The entropy theory rates OCD high on a scale of entropy suppression and rigidity, making it a candidate for the DMN suppressing qualities of psychedelic drugs, and in fact, research suggests positive results:

“...a study showing that psilocybin given on four different occasions at escalating doses (ranging from sub-hallucinogenic to hallucinogenic doses) markedly decreased OCD symptoms (by 23%-100%) on the Yale-Brown obsessive compulsive scale in patients with OCD who were previously treatment resistant."

Like depression and OCD, the Default Mode Network and its associated brain regions may have some role to play for those with addictions.

An analysis of data regarding LSD and the treatment of alcoholism over the past 40 years compiled by researcher Teri Krebs and clinical psychologist Pål-Ørjan Johansen finds a significant beneficial effect of LSD on alcoholism in the short and medium term. A total of 6 trials and 536 patients were analyzed. Participants were all involved in alcohol treatment programs, 38% of which showed improvement without LSD; 59% of which showed improvement after receiving between 210 and 800 micrograms. Given the results, the paper states that it is “puzzling why this treatment approach has been largely overlooked." 

In fact treating alcoholics with LSD was one of the earliest clinical uses of the drug. In 1952 Dr. Abram Hoffer and Dr. Humphrey Osmond began investigating LSD as treatment for alcoholism. Preliminary research was positive, and the word began to spread. Author Gerald Heard, friend and mentor to Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson introduced Bill to writer Aldous Huxley. Huxley is known for his experiments with psychedelic drugs and suggested to Wilson that he work with Hoffer and Osmond. Apparently, Wilson was initially “unthrilled” by the idea, but later found great value in their work. Of Wilson’s experience, Huxley has written:

A friend of mine, saved from alcoholism, during the last fatal phases of the disease, by a spontaneous theophany… has taken lysergic acid two or three times and affirms that his experience under the drug is identical with the spontaneous experience which changed his life...There is, obviously, a field here for serious and reverent experimentation.

- Aldous Huxley to Father Thomas Merton, 10 January 1959

Of psychedelics, pharmacologist Dr. David E. Nichols states that the feature which distinguishes them from other classes of drugs is their capacity to induce states of altered perception that are not otherwise experienced except in times of dreams or religious exaltation. A drug that can induce exaltation, epiphany, profundity, is by definition, in a class by itself. The study of these drugs is essential to the understanding of consciousness and psychiatric disorders. If not for the panicked response by the US DEA and FDA (as well as analogous organizations in other countries) to suppress 1960s counter-culture and control irresponsible psychedelic drug use by over-regulating professionals and ignoring high-level government experimentation (CIA), psychedelic drug research may be farther along today. With applications from alzheimer's to autism, psychedelic drug research is incredibly important to the future of cognitive neuroscience. 

Sarah Bon is a writer based in Ottowa. She last wrote about the connection between intelligence and addiction.

The Brilliant Diary of Mary Rose, Truthteller

An addict youth's tell-all for a new generation from Legs Mcneil and Gillian McCain. “I think for parents who actually talk to their kids, this book is a great conversation starter. For parents who don’t talk to their kids, this is going to be a time bomb.” 

authors via Jonathan Marder + Company

By Jessica Willis

05/09/14

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Mary Karr Names Names

Interview With the Drug Czar

Rockers Who Just Say No

Drugs Take Their Toll on Lou Reed

What lies at the intersection of the best years of your life, the best writing some of you may ever do, and abject humiliation? Ladies, you already know the answer. Gents, you may only have experience taking a knife to its cheap little lock.

I’m referring, of course, to your diaries. 

There is a lot of fun and misery to be had when you crack one open after, say, 30 years of closure, and have a read. That’s some good shit right there.

"I wish I had a dick, so I could tell the world to suck it," is one of co-editor Legs McNeil's favorite lines in Dear Nobody: The True Diary of Mary Rose (Sourcebooks), the new book under discussion today with McNeill and co-editor Gillian McCain.

Perhaps the modern batch of teen solipsists will quit the microblogging and go longhand, for a change.

A diary can equal some dollar signs, if you’re so inclined. There’s Lesley Arfin’s Dear Diary from 2007. In it, she looks up the players who starred in her entries during her ‘tweens to twenties and tries to find out what they remember. The original entries and the updates play side by side in her book. Doesn’t that kind of pervert the purity of the diary, though?

Diaries don’t even have to be real in order to sell. They just have to reek of a lurid tell-all. When I was devouring the classic Go Ask Alice back in my wasteoid salad days, I assumed the entries from a nameless good girl gone way bad in the late 1960s were all real. It turns out the author (billed as Anonymous on the book cover) was a novelist named Beatrice Sparks. Knowing this now turns the diary writer’s death by O.D. at the end of the novel into a cheesy cautionary tale: One more “drugs are bad” rant.

Good thing I had my own real diary going, where the drugs were very, very bad indeed. That is, when they weren’t being gooood.

An addict without a diary is sorry indeed. For the junkie and boozer who cheats death every day and gets amnesia almost as soon as anything happens, the diary is a way to remember - or to rewrite history, if the first version didn’t suit you. 

It’s also a message to whomever - or whatever - follows in the wake of your certain death.

Which brings us back to Dear Nobody: The True Diary of Mary Rose, a teenage girl’s collection of diary entries written in the late '90s. Unlike Go Ask Alice, the entries are real; unlike Arfin’s Dear Diary, the entries stand alone without the author’s present-day meddling.

Mary Rose couldn’t meddle even if she wanted to. She died of cystic fibrosis when she was 17. As she journaled, she knew the disease would eventually kill her. And if the cystic fibrosis didn’t get her, her boozing and drugging - including heroin - may have finished the job. According to McNeil, Mary Rose didn’t bother sobering up because she knew she didn’t have long to live. Her illness “makes it kind of moot,” he says. “‘Oh, you should stay sober, you shouldn’t do drugs.' Why? Why not.”

BOREDOM AND BAD HYGIENE

Mary Rose owes a lot of her style to McNeil, who co-founded Punk, the seminal '70s magazine dedicated to soft-spoken, marginalized people who make loud music; he was also a founding editor atSpin and currently writes for Vice. She also owes a debt to McCain, the New York-based writer and poet who was at one time the president of The Poetry Project. The duo's Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk is unarguably the definitive book about the culture of Punk.

Which turned out to be one of Mary Rose’s favorite books. This isn’t surprising; the spirit of Please Kill Me’s players in the seminal days of punk - by turns sweet and nihilistic - is mirrored in Mary Rose. Her writing has a gleeful “I don’t give a fuck” mentality without any preachy overtones.

“What I found remarkable about Mary Rose was that she knew she was an alcoholic and drug addict at such a young age and she wasn’t in denial about it,” McCain says. “I think that’s pretty rare.”

No, Mary Rose wasn’t in denial, and she was very funny about it. “My life has become a dormant haze of boredom and bad hygiene,” she writes at one point. In that one sentence, she captures all of the squalor of being young and fucked up.

One facet of Dear Nobody's inception is that while McNeil has an affinity for much of this material, his partner in crime McCain is coming from a somewhat more prosaic perspective. "Legs has had a much more wild past than me," she says about the process of co-editing Please Kill Me and, perhaps, of their current project. "And [he has] first-hand experience with addiction. But i think it was beneficial to have someone who hadn't been 'there' at the time to partner in the book. He was the seasoned professional who had lived the life, I was more like the wide-eyed girl who moved to the city in order to meet all of these people. And to write a book like this!"

Dear Nobody could have been consigned to the closet or the couch if McNeil hadn’t asked his postmaster’s daughter what she had been reading lately.

“She listed the popular titles of the day but then she said ‘but the best thing I’ve ever read were these diaries that my best friend’s older sister wrote,’” he says.

McNeil and McCain began reading the diaries and they were enthralled. Working with Mary Rose’s piles of spiral bound notebooks - filled with 600-plus pages of short stories, schoolwork, poetry, and diary entries - they edited the work down to 330 pages of teen joy and misery compressed: abuse, pleasure, fighting with her mother, being wasted, coming to terms with the reality that, in her words: “I will never be the happy, healthy girl with the nice boyfriend and the perfect home. This is my reality … I awake to the bitter veneration of nauseating medicine as the taste of a ‘treatment’ fills my mouth and lungs.”

“You could really see her experimenting and trying to become a better and better writer,” McCain says.

Would Mary Rose have wanted her diary to reach the public? McCain thinks Mary Rose would be tickled by it.

“She was such an extrovert,” McNeil adds. “She liked having all the attention.”

It’s true; at the end, Mary Rose writes that she hopes her death is mourned with honor and respect. She doesn’t want to be forgotten.

Or, as she whiplashed between the poles of love/hate about a boyfriend: “God I love him. It’s just like every once in a while, he’ll say something really brilliant and pretty … [t]hen he’ll say something really stupid and I’ll think he’s fucking retarded.” And her parting salvo to him, shortly before her death: “You’re a loser and a dickhead fag asshole. There is no life after Mary Rose. You’ll be sorry babe. Goodbye.”

And yet this is the same girl who could write “I’ve just got to remember to be nice and warm-hearted in my overall relations to people.” But of course.

AND HOW WILL YOUNG ADULTS RESPOND?

Dear Nobody is being marketed to a young adult audience; this is a population that doesn’t get a great deal of non-fiction. Or they get something that looks like a memoir, like Go Ask Alice. It’s a “convoluted” terrain, McCain points out: some readers don’t know the difference between fiction and nonfiction. 

So when Dear Nobody drops into a kid’s grimy hands, what will happen? Will this be the book that sends the kid down the vodka and heroin highway? The book that doesn’t glamorize addiction and abuse -but still makes partying in the woods, and being incoherent and angst-ridden, seem like the best solutions to the problems at hand.

“I think for parents who actually talk to their kids, this book is a great conversation starter. For parents who don’t talk to their kids this is going to be a time bomb,” McNeil says.

He didn’t think Dear Nobody would send anyone down a path they hadn’t already chosen.

“If kids are going to get fucked up and get high they’re going to find an excuse,” he says. “It’s like people who went and read Burroughs so they could do heroin. And all the people who read Bukowski who wanted to go drink. I think the kids that are not gonna get high are not gonna get high from reading this book. And the kids that are gonna get high - who have the genetic predisposition for alcoholism and addiction - will get high, sure.”

However, a good drug book may be found, not coincidentally, at the bedside of a dead addict.

“People died from heroin overdoses [while] reading Please Kill Me,” McNeil informs, adding that he believes Smashing Pumpkins keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin was reading the newly released book when he died of a heroin overdose in 1996.

Every generation needs its Go Ask Alice. Hopefully Mary Rose, with her big loopy girly handwriting (“she almost had hearts over the "is" but didn’t,” McCain says) and her sweet spirit in a damaged body will speak to a new generation of addicts, near-misses, or teen addicts-to-be. Perhaps the modern batch of teen solipsists will quit the microblogging and go longhand, for a change.

“Maybe this will spur other kids on to keep old-fashioned journals,” McCain says.

Along with Go Ask Alice, maybe Dear Nobody will be a Naked Lunch or Fear and Loathing for some other unsuspecting slob: It will be the book that sent you on your junkie boozer way. The manifesto for a very different and dirtier way of life. Perhaps it will be like Please Kill Me was for Mary Rose and so many of us.

“You surround yourself with things that make you happy,” McNeil says. “And if heroin makes you happy, then you surround yourself with Please Kill Me, you know?”

Jessica Willis, a former editor at Time Out New York, has written for the New York Press, New York Times and Black Book among others.

May 9, 2014Lighthouse Network's Weekly eNews Update

Featured in this issue:

News: May is Mental Health Month

Dr. Benzio Joins Focus on the Family Physicians Resource Council

Resources: Made for Good Works

Free Stepping Stones Devotional

Mental Health Month Aims to Grow Awareness, Dispel Stigmas

Mental health issues affect millions of adults and children in America, along with countless others when spouses, families, friends and co-workers are considered. 

"A healthy mental state, whether dealing with depression, addictions, eating disorders or a multitude of other issues certainly involves every part of the human being-the mind, body and spirit," said Lighthouse Network's Dr. Karl Benzio." To be healthy mentally, we must also nurture our bodies and feed our spirits. When Lighthouse recommends counseling or therapy, we always ensure that the entire person is being treated, looking at health from a three-pronged view." Continue reading...

Dr. Karl Benzio Joins Focus on the Family Physician Resource Council

Dr. Karl Benzio is pleased to announce that he has joined the Focus on the Family Physicians Resource Council.

The goal of the Physicians Resource Council is "to professionally strengthen and spiritually equip medical doctors and their spouses." 

Benzio will be one of five psychiatrists on the council. 

Resources: Made for Good Works

DVD (25 mins) with Karl Benzio, MD

This video focuses on assessing your options and making good choices. In this video you will learn about the Lighthouse Network decision making process, S.P.E.A.R.S. This process walks you step by step through the characteristics of every decision and situation that you encounter in your life. By learning this process and implementing it's methods you will have a tool for evaluating your life situations, understanding the feelings you are encountering, evaluating your options, effectively responding to life situations, and evaluating the outcomes of your choices. God has specially designed us all for good works and to be about His will and plans. This video will help you determine how to make decisions in line with your beliefs and life goals. 

Click here for more information or to order.

Free Stepping Stones Devotional

Click here to receive The Stepping Stones Daily Devotional, which will encourage and challenge you while helping you grow in your daily walk with God. 

If you or someone you love needs help, 

call our FREE 24/7 Lighthouse Network addiction and counseling helpline, 1-844-LIFE-CHANGE. 

Lighthouse Network 

800 W. State Street, Suite 302 

Doylestown, PA 18901 

www.LighthouseNetwork.org | Email | 1.844.LIFE.CHANGE

Connect with Lighthouse Network:

Forward this eNews to others so they can sign up and receive 

e-alerts, news, upcoming event info, and more.

About Lighthouse Network: 

Lighthouse Network is a Christian-based, non-profit organization that offers an addiction and mental health counseling helpline providing treatment options and resources to equip people and organizations with the skills necessary to shine God's glory to the world, stand strong on a solid foundation in the storms of their own lives, and provide guidance and safety to others experiencing stormy times, thus impacting their lives, their families and the world. 

Lighthouse Network offers help through two main service choices:

Lighthouse Life Change Helpline (1-844-LIFE-CHANGE), a 24-hour free, national crisis call center, where specialists (Care Guides) help callers understand and access customized treatment options.

Life Growth and self-help training resources for daily life, including online and DVD series and training events to help individu

MAY 9 TWELVE STEPPING WITH POWER IN THE PROVERB

Instruct the wise,

and they will be even wiser.

Teach the righteous,

and they will learn even more.

STEP 12 - Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others , and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

We never stop learning or growing . I try too stay tuned too all the latest treatment methods , laws , treatment centers and the list goes on and on. Whats most important is , continue to pray and seek GOD in all you do. Never , ever forget where it is you came from and how hard it was too get where you are now . Complacency can take out the most seasoned recovery veteran if we are not careful . Always open your heart too others who are still enslaved and suffering , never give up on anyone . GOD still does miracles !Make sure your feet are on solid ground pray in all situations be positive , encourage , support and if its working don't change it .

1 Corinthians :13 4: 5 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

By : Joseph Dickerson

Infant Who Swallowed E-Cigarette Refill Liquid Highlights Emerging Danger: Report

By Join Together Staff | May 8, 2014 | Leave a comment | Filed in Tobacco &Youth

Doctors in Philadelphia say a 10-month-old infant who was rushed to the emergency room after swallowing e-cigarette refill liquid is one of a growing number of children who have been harmed by the fluid.

In this week’s New England Journal of Medicine, the doctors describe the incident. The child recovered, HealthDay reports. But just “one teaspoon of a 1.8 percent nicotine solution could be lethal” to a person who weighs 200 pounds, the doctors note.

The baby boy was taken to the hospital after swallowing a small amount of e-liquid nicotine. He began vomiting after drinking the liquid. His heart rate increased and he showed signs of losing muscle control. His symptoms gradually subsided after about six hours in the hospital.

“With the growing use of e-cigarettes, physicians need to be alert for nicotine poisoning,” the doctors wrote. “They also need to educate patients and parents about this danger and advocate for measures that will help prevent potentially fatal liquid nicotine poisoning of infants and young children.” The liquids do not come in child-protective packaging, and many refill vials have colorful labels and cartoons, they noted.

Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported poison control centers are receiving an increased number of callsabout nicotine poisoning from e-cigarettes. This February, centers received 215 calls, compared with about one per month in 2010. About half of calls related to nicotine poisoning from e-cigarettes involved children ages 5 or younger.

DEA Arrests at Least 150 People in Synthetic Drug Operation in 29 States

By Join Together Staff | May 8, 2014 | Leave a comment | Filed in Drugs,Government & Legal

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced Wednesday it conducted a major crackdown on synthetic drugs that involved the arrest of at least 150 people in 29 states, and the seizure of more than $20 million in products and cash. Hundreds of thousands of packets of synthetic drugs were seized.

The operation comes a week after more than 100 people in Texas became ill from synthetic marijuana, the Los Angeles Times reports. “There’s a cluster of people with severe anxiety, some with seizures, that could be because of synthetic cannaboids,” Dr. Miguel Fernandez, Director of South Texas Poison Center, told the newspaper. “I would caution people not to use them because they are not like typical marijuana.”

Law enforcement officials and prosecutors have found it difficult to win convictions against makers of synthetic drugs, who are constantly changing the chemistry of the products to stay one step ahead of the law. In order to convict a synthetic drug maker, officials must prove the person sold the drug, and that the drug was substantially similar to a specifically banned substance. All a drug maker has to do is make small chemical changes to the products so they are not considered “analogues,” or chemical compounds that are similar to banned drugs.

Last year, the DEA and authorities in three other countries announced the arrests of dozens of people involved in trafficking designer drugs such as bath salts and synthetic marijuana. In the United States, the enforcement operations took place in 49 cities, and targeted retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers. The operations included more than 150 arrest warrants and almost 375 search warrants.

In 2013, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported 29,000 emergency department visits nationwide in 2011 resulting from use of synthetic marijuana, up from 11,000 in 2010.

Pentagon Targets Alcohol Consumption in Effort to Reduce Sexual Assault in the Military

By Join Together Staff | May 8, 2014 | Leave a comment | Filed in Alcohol,Military & Prevention

The Defense Department (DOD) will target alcohol consumption as part of its campaign to reduce sexual assault in the military, Stars and Stripes reports. There were more than 5,000 reports of sexual assault by service members last year—a 50 percent jump from the previous year.

More than two-thirds of the reports involved alcohol use by either the victim, the assailant, or both. “[The alcohol policies] will be revised, where necessary, to address risks that alcohol poses to others, including the risk that alcohol is used as a weapon against victims in a predatory way,” said Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel.

Major General Jeffrey Snow, the Director of DOD’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO), said the department will encourage responsible sales practices and train bartenders and other alcohol providers in communities around military installations.

Nate Galbreath, a senior adviser to SAPRO, told the newspaper several states, including California, have programs that the DOD could use as a model. California’s Responsible Beverage Service program is designed to prevent bar and restaurant patrons from getting dangerously drunk. Bar and restaurant workers are told to provide a food menu to someone who orders a drink, and to encourage them to eat something to slow the absorption of alcohol into the system. “You [also] look at times associated with when you sell things. Do you really need to sell someone five-fifths of bourbon at 2:00 in the morning? Probably not,” he said.

Last October, the Marines announced Marine Corps Exchange stores around the world would impose new limits on alcohol sales in an effort to limit irresponsible drinking. Earlier last year, the Navy announced it would be cutting back the sale hours for alcohol at base stores, in an effort to reduce sexual assaults. The Navy also made changes to its policy about alcohol placement in stores.

MAY 8 v 17 TWELVE STEPPING WITH POWER IN THE PROVERB

“I love all who love me.

Those who search will surely find me.

STEP 2 - Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity .

Its a cold , cold world in which we live. Addiction is that false god we run to when we are afraid and alone , when we cant take what this world dishes out. The problem is that false god (addiction) will steal your friends , family , health and your sanity . We run to addiction in every situation good or bad , We will steal and maybe even kill for that false god (addiction) . The problem with the false god of addiction is it will enslave you steal your soul so not only will it destroy you in the here and now it will destroy you for the here after . Now there is a real GOD we seek HIM in step one and once we find HIM we hand our lives over too HIM in step two. The Proverb is the promise and it says the one and only true real GOD LOVES us , is that not what we are all looking for . Someone who will love us unconditionally , meet us right where we are at and not judge, The GOD who created you me this world and everything in the universe . GOD who has a plan for your life and wrote it down before you were born . GOD who misses you in this life and earnestly awaits your return in the here after . GOD who loved us so much that HE gave HIS only son JESUS CHRIST to die for us on a cross . We all have too pay for the bad we do and GOD knew we couldn't so HE gave HIS son JESUS in our place . There is a two thousand page plus book that GOD has written for our lives , because he loved us so much HE knew we couldn't go it alone. Who do you want to follow the false god (addiction) who promises slavery , depression , fear , guilt , rejection , and a eternity spent in a lake of fire . Or the one and only true GOD who promises acceptance , forgiveness , peace , love , joy , freedom , and everlasting life . THE CHOICE IS A NO - BRAINER. !

(Ephesians 2:8,9 ) "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast."

By :Joseph Dickerson

The Council of Southeast Pennsylvania and PRO-ACT bring you Recovery in Our Communities May 6, 2014
To Start Your Day You don't have to see the whole staircase,  just take the first step. . . ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS Welcome to the first edition of our weekly newsletter. "Recovery in Our Communities" is devoted to making it easier for you to contribute to your community. Each week, we will connect you to the people, resources and opportunities that bring help, hope and healing to southeast Pennsylvania.  As volunteers, storytellers and advocates for health, wellness and recovery, you lead the way. Together, we will accomplish our task of helping more individuals and families achieve and sustain a happy and meaningful life. Together, we will recover our communities through prevention, education, advocacy, intervention and recovery support services. We will inspire real hope by working to establish the resources and opportunities needed to reduce the impact of addiction and trauma in our communities.  Several times throughout the year, we will also be conducting surveys to seek your opinions and suggestions on what's important to you. "The smallest act is greater than the best of intentions." Please join us in working to make our families, neighborhoods and region healthier, happier and safer.            Bev Haberle, MHS, LPC, CAADC Executive Director RAYS OF HOPE Personal Profile: Jan L's Pathway to Hope "The word 'hopeless' has always stirred up sadness in me.  It seems so final, lacking any room for progress.  I've been hopeless. I've been called hopeless. I've heard friends whisper behind my back that I lost the willingness to live. They were right.... Then life as I knew it changed. . . . "  Read Jan's Story on our blog by clicking here.   PREVENTION AND EARLY INTERVENTION:  WHAT YOU CAN DO Promote constructive lifestyles and norms that discourage drug use Prevention and early intervention programs work, so what is your community doing?  Get educated and get involved to make sure that your community is doing all it should to increase awareness; strengthen families; empower youth; establish pro-social activities; provide free drug and alcohol screenings; teach resilience and life skills for youth; etc.   May 18 - 24 is National Prevention Week. For SAMHSA's prevention toolkit, please click here.  FAMILIES ON THE LINE PRO-ACT's Family Education Program provides hope and guidance in how to stay strong and ready to support loved ones struggling with addiction. Some do not perceive themselves as having a problem, so they may need help to initiate the recovery process. This Program is facilitated by family members who have walked the walk and is available in all five counties. For more information click here.   RECOVERY RADIO Listen to Clean & Sober, a weekly radio program devoted to paths to recovery, broadcast locally on WWDB - AM (Talk 860), Fridays10 - 11 am.   PRO-ACT Philadelphia Coordinator Fred Martin and Sean Brinda, Senior Peer Services Coordinator at our Philadelphia Recovery Community Center, took part in a recent broadcast discussing the vital role of recovery supports in accessing and sustaining long-term recovery.  Listen Here.  INSURE RECOVERY The Affordable Care Act has declared the treatment of substance use disorders and recovery support services an essential health benefit.  However, primary care and emergency room physicians are not prepared for the front lines of addiction prevention and early intervention. Treatment Research Institute (Tom McLellan) is engaged in an initiative to educate "the next generation of physicians on how to identify and treat emerging substance use disorders." For more information click here.  THE COUNCIL SALUTES NATIONAL NURSES WEEK May 6 through May 12, 2014 Our communities' nurses deserve special recognition for all their efforts in leading the way in caring for their patients and improving our healthcare system. Thank you!  For more information, please click here.   PRO-ACT Recovery Walks! 2014 There has never been a time in our history when the voice of the recovery community needs so badly to be heard.    On September 20, 2014, please come to Penn's Landing on the Philadelphia waterfront where 20,000 voices will celebrate recovery. You will find all the information you need to register, form a team, make a donation, or sign up for the Honor Guard by clicking here. If you are interested in sponsorship, please contact Marita here. The deadline to have your logo on the I-95 billboard is July 7, and for other sponsors, August  1. Some Upcoming Events  May 19-June 23, 2014: CRS Training, Southern Bucks Recovery Community Center, 1286 Veterans Highway, Suite D-4, Bristol, PA 19007. Click here for information. May 21, 2014: Meet The Council, 8-9 am at 252 W. Swamp Rd., Bailiwick Office Campus, Unit 12, Doylestown, PA 18901 June 11, 2014: Help, Hope & Healing Fundraising Breakfast, Spring Mill Manor, 171 Jacksonville Road, Ivyland, PA 18974. For more information, please contact Michael here. September 12, 2014: 7:05 pm. Recovery Night at the Baseball Game, Phillies vs. Marlins, Citizens Bank Park. Click here for tickets.  September 20, 2014: PRO-ACT Recovery Walks! 2014, Great Plaza, Penn's Landing, Philadelphia. Click here to register and get more information. Employment Opportunities: Please click here     Like us on Facebook                  www.councilsepa.org           Follow us on Twitter         Information and Recovery Support Line (24/7): 1-800-221-6333

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