Tuesday, December 10, 2013
New Silk Road Operator: Illegal Drug Website Has Backup Locations Worldwide
By Join Together Staff | December 9, 2013 | Leave a comment | Filed in Drugs & Marketing And Media
The operator of the new Silk Road website, which sells illegal drugs, says he has distributed encrypted portions of the site’s source code to 500 locations in 17 countries. He claims this will allow the site to be relaunched immediately if law enforcement shuts it down again.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation shut down Silk Road in October, and arrested the operator in San Francisco on narcotics and money-laundering charges. Silk Road could only be accessed by using encryption software called Tor, which shields computers’ IP addresses, allowing people to make purchases anonymously. Silk Road facilitated more than $30 million in sales annually. It had been online since February 2011.
In November, a new online marketplace that sells illegal drugs opened. It also calls itself Silk Road. The new website looks the same as the shuttered Silk Road. It lists hundreds of ads for drugs including marijuana, cocaine and Ecstasy, and uses bitcoins, the anonymous digital currency used by the old site.
The new site says it includes measures to keep users from losing bitcoins if the site shuts down. Like the old site, the new Silk Road can only be accessed by using Tor encryption software.
Last week, the new Silk Road operator said the new backup scheme also includes distributing portions of the site’s cryptographic keys, to decrypt pieces of the site’s source code, to locations around the globe. According to Forbes, “the backup system may be a first step towards a decentralized system without a single point of failure for law enforcement to attack.”
Senators Tell FDA They Disagree with Decision to Approve Pure Hydrocodone Drug
By Join Together Staff | December 9, 2013 | 2 Comments | Filed in Government & Prescription Drugs
Four U.S. senators told the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) they disagree with the agency’s decision to approve a pure version of the painkiller hydrocodone, Newsday reports.
Senators Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Dianne Feinstein of California, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, wrote to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg that the decision “will only contribute to the rising toll of addiction and death” caused by the prescription drug epidemic.
In October, the FDA approved the first pure hydrocodone drug in the United States. The drug, Zohydro ER (extended release), was approved for patients with pain that requires daily, around-the-clock, long-term treatment that cannot be treated with other drugs. Drugs such as Vicodin contain a combination of hydrocodone and other painkillers such as acetaminophen.
In December, a panel of experts assembled by the FDA voted against recommending approval of Zohydro ER. The panel cited concerns over the potential for addiction. In the 11-2 vote against approval, the panel said that while the drug’s maker, Zogenix, had met narrow targets for safety and efficacy, the painkiller could be used by people addicted to other opioids, including oxycodone.
The agency will require postmarketing studies of Zohydro ER to evaluate the known serious risks of misuse, abuse, increased sensitivity to pain, addiction, overdose, and death associated with long-term use beyond 12 weeks.
Zohydro is designed to be released over time, and can be crushed and snorted by people seeking a strong, quick high. The opioid drug OxyContin has been reformulated to make it harder to crush or dissolve, but Zohydro does not include similar tamper-resistant features, the newspaper notes. The senators said it was irresponsible of the FDA to approve Zohydro without similar safeguards.
In an email to the newspaper, FDA spokesman Morgan Liscinsky said “abuse-deterrent formulations” are not available for some extended-release painkillers.
Monday, December 9, 2013
POWER IN THE PROVERB
December 9v6 POWER IN THE PROVERB
Leave your simple ways behind, and begin to live ; learn to use good judgment.
STEP 3 : We made a decision to turn our wills and our lives over to the care of God.
How long is gona take to realize life was not meant to be lived this way.Looking back I was a rebel without a clue wreckless and senseless.Hopefully those of you who are still struggling listen to the Proverb and take that step before its too late.There are way too many who leave this world way too soon.
For more Power in the Proverb and other great recovery resources Visit www.joseph
-recoveryconnections.blogspot.com
STEP 3 : We made a decision to turn our wills and our lives over to the care of God.
How long is gona take to realize life was not meant to be lived this way.Looking back I was a rebel without a clue wreckless and senseless.Hopefully those of you who are still struggling listen to the Proverb and take that step before its too late.There are way too many who leave this world way too soon.
For more Power in the Proverb and other great recovery resources Visit www.joseph
-recoveryconnections.blogspot.com
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Ken Seeley
Founder at Intervention911
Calling All Treatment Professionals ,
Intervention 911 is excited to announce two upcoming events:
Our next Intervention Training will be held in
Delray Beach Florida January 30-Febuary 1st 2014
We are proud to announce that this training has been approved by the Pennsylvania Certification Board and attendees will receive 28 CE hours specific to intervention that will qualify for the 80 CE hours required for the new Certified Intervention Professional (CIP).
Don’t miss the opportunity to be grandfathered in (NO TEST REQUIRED) and secure your CIP prior to April 1, 2014.
For more information please see the link below
http://thetreatmentcommunity.com/training/interventionist/
________________________________________________________________________
Our Next Treatment Center Seminar
will be held at The Hardrock Hotel Palm Springs California
February 7- 8 Working With Difficult Clients
Sponsored by: Alere & Sovereign Health
This two-day seminar gives you the opportunity to reach out and explain to your colleagues what you do and what your facility is about – to meet, dine and socialize with like-minded professionals to learn from each other and – to grow our outreach together to reach more of those in need then just doing it alone.
For more information please see the link below
http://thetreatmentcommunity.com/training/treatment-centers/
For further information on attending any of our events please email Chelsea@intervention911.com
Just a sneak peek at what we have going on in 2014:
Treatment Center Seminar 2014
Feb 7-8: Working With Difficult Clients
May 2-3: Dissecting The Family Systems
Aug 1-2: Aftercare: How Long & Best Practices
Nov 7-8: Marketing Strategies For A Changing Landscape
Intervention Training 2014
March 25-28: Atlanta
June 20-22: San Francisco
July 30- Aug 1: (TBD) Nashville- Memphis- DC
October 17-19: Palm Springs
Reply to Ken
TIP You can respond to this message by replying to this email
Founder at Intervention911
Calling All Treatment Professionals ,
Intervention 911 is excited to announce two upcoming events:
Our next Intervention Training will be held in
Delray Beach Florida January 30-Febuary 1st 2014
We are proud to announce that this training has been approved by the Pennsylvania Certification Board and attendees will receive 28 CE hours specific to intervention that will qualify for the 80 CE hours required for the new Certified Intervention Professional (CIP).
Don’t miss the opportunity to be grandfathered in (NO TEST REQUIRED) and secure your CIP prior to April 1, 2014.
For more information please see the link below
http://thetreatmentcommunity.com/training/interventionist/
________________________________________________________________________
Our Next Treatment Center Seminar
will be held at The Hardrock Hotel Palm Springs California
February 7- 8 Working With Difficult Clients
Sponsored by: Alere & Sovereign Health
This two-day seminar gives you the opportunity to reach out and explain to your colleagues what you do and what your facility is about – to meet, dine and socialize with like-minded professionals to learn from each other and – to grow our outreach together to reach more of those in need then just doing it alone.
For more information please see the link below
http://thetreatmentcommunity.com/training/treatment-centers/
For further information on attending any of our events please email Chelsea@intervention911.com
Just a sneak peek at what we have going on in 2014:
Treatment Center Seminar 2014
Feb 7-8: Working With Difficult Clients
May 2-3: Dissecting The Family Systems
Aug 1-2: Aftercare: How Long & Best Practices
Nov 7-8: Marketing Strategies For A Changing Landscape
Intervention Training 2014
March 25-28: Atlanta
June 20-22: San Francisco
July 30- Aug 1: (TBD) Nashville- Memphis- DC
October 17-19: Palm Springs
Reply to Ken
TIP You can respond to this message by replying to this email
December 7 v 2 v 3 POWER IN THE PROVERB
Obey my commands and live!
Guard my instructions as you guard your own eyes.[a]
Tie them on your fingers as a reminder.
Write them deep within your heart.
STEP 11 :Sought through prayer and meditation on God's word to increase our Fellowship with Him, praying continually for the knowledge of His will for us and the power of His might to
accomplish it.
Living sober and sane is His will for us.We were created with the ability to choose.What GOD seeks is a personal relationship with us HIS children.My choices kept me far from HIM because my choices were wrong and sinful. Some people rebel against their heavenly father like they do with their earthly father.That does not make us bad kids , it makes us human .GOD wants a real relationship with us and step eleven helps us develop that. GOD has dreams for your future and wants you to reach your maximum potential. That's why the Proverb is so important .GOD is not telling you what to do ,but showing what to do in order to reach your maximum potential. Next time you walk pass a cemetery take a moment to think that each one of those stones is a story . How many never made it to step eleven and are forever separated from HIM. GOD loves us so much not only did HE give us HIS only SON to die for us ,HE wrote us a one thousand page plus instruction manual ,now that's love.
For more of POWER IN THE PROVERB and other great recovery news ,events and free resources.
Medication-Assisted Treatment for Opoid Dependence
By John R. Knight MD and Melissa M. Weiksnar | December 6, 2013 | 9 Comments | Filed in Addiction, Healthcare & Prescription Drugs
Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) for opioid dependence is a science-based and proven-effective option for teens and young adults. It should be administered with age appropriate psychosocial therapy and drug testing. Unfortunately, it has been subject to controversy and stigma. Yet the neuroscience of addiction and cravings helps explain why MAT, when properly used and overseen, can be truly life saving for adolescents, young adults, and their families. I see it working all the time. When kids come into treatment, their lives are just chaotic. Parents are desperate — they don’t know what to do or where to turn. The most important thing is to bring stability into the situation, and the best way to do that is with medication.
The scientific evidence is incontrovertible: addiction is a brain disease – and can be especially severe when substance abuse starts early in life. Since the brain continues to grow and develop through the twenties, it’s very vulnerable to the effects of any exogenous substance. Early drug use makes almost permanent changes to both the structure and function of the brain, which has profound implications for the rest of a person’s life.
A parent bringing their child into treatment wants to maximize the chance that the child can abstain from the drug so the brain can heal and preclude the lifelong struggles of adult addiction. Scientific studies show that psychosocial treatments alone (i.e. without medication) show relatively poor results. Part of the reason has to do with cravings. Here’s why.
When a person takes a drug, the brain feels an enormous “high” in the reward system. It then implants a memory in the limbic system — the “lizard brain” — where memories of pleasures such as food and sex are stored. Anything having to do with procuring or using the drug becomes part of the memory and can produce a craving years later, even if a person hasn’t used the drug. The “trigger” could be a happy event, sadness, or seeing a syringe or some white powder or smelling an alcohol wipe. All of a sudden that memory flooding in generates an enormous craving to use the drug again.
One of the medications used in treatment, buprenorphine, is a partial agonist of the brain’s opiate receptors: when it “locks in”, it both eliminates cravings and blocks the “high” should someone inject heroin or take an opioid painkiller. As a partial agonist, buprenorphine has advantages over methadone, a full agonist, whose side-effects can include sleepiness, shallow breathing, or even death.
Studies suggest that over 60 percent of people on buprenorphine therapy have very positive outcomes. In our highly-structured program at Boston Children’s Hospital about a third of the children remain completely free from any alcohol and drug use. About another third remain free from opioid use but they might have an occasional slip on alcohol or marijuana. (We tend to not approve of that behavior and keep working with them). And the remaining third, particularly early on, will try opioids once or twice. But even after those early slips they show dramatic improvement over time.
In my 30-plus years as a pediatrician, I’ve always believed that the best treatment occurs in the least restrictive environment. Therefore our clinical program is outpatient-based. These children are living at home, and their parents are an integral part of the treatment team. We empower parents to supervise the prescription-taking, and both adolescents and parents participate in a 13-week education and support group.
As far as stigma, it breaks my heart when kids hear that “You’re not really clean and sober. Buprenorphine is just a substitute addiction.” I tell them, “Listen, you’re on replacement therapy. It does not make you high. It stabilizes your brain cells until they can recover. Please give it a year. Then we can talk about tapering off. OK?”
My advice to parents and teens is: check out medication in a reputable program. It could make the big difference in helping your child turn the corner and find sobriety. Over time medication can be tapered down. Does it always work? No. Are there accounts of abuse and unscrupulous practices? Unfortunately yes, and they must be investigated. But these negatives don’t negate MAT’s lifesaving value in helping treat the disease of addiction.
If someone says, “Well your child isn’t really clean,” walk away because those people just don’t know. The folks disseminating this misinformation are really doing a disservice because if we dissuade families from using this life-saving therapy we’re going to lose kids. We have to remember the tragedies: when kids are taken off or deprived of this medication they can die. And we don’t have any teens to spare. Not one. I’m not willing to see any more needless deaths.
John R. Knight, MD with Melissa M. Weiksnar
John Knight, MD, is a leading pediatrician at Harvard Medical School, specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of adolescent substance abuse. He is the Director of the Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research at Children’s Hospital Boston, and a nationally recognized advocate for families’ involvement in adolescent addiction treatment.
Melissa Weiksnar is a Program Coordinator at the Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research (CeASAR) at Boston Children’s Hospital. She is a also a writer, speaker, and advocate for substance abuse prevention and treatment. She earned an S.B. in Economics from MIT and an MBA from Harvard.
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Anders Brun and colleagues, Neuroimaging Research Center, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA. ©Copyright Anders Brun/McLean Hospital 2013. All rights reserved.
Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) for opioid dependence is a science-based and proven-effective option for teens and young adults. It should be administered with age appropriate psychosocial therapy and drug testing. Unfortunately, it has been subject to controversy and stigma. Yet the neuroscience of addiction and cravings helps explain why MAT, when properly used and overseen, can be truly life saving for adolescents, young adults, and their families. I see it working all the time. When kids come into treatment, their lives are just chaotic. Parents are desperate — they don’t know what to do or where to turn. The most important thing is to bring stability into the situation, and the best way to do that is with medication.
The scientific evidence is incontrovertible: addiction is a brain disease – and can be especially severe when substance abuse starts early in life. Since the brain continues to grow and develop through the twenties, it’s very vulnerable to the effects of any exogenous substance. Early drug use makes almost permanent changes to both the structure and function of the brain, which has profound implications for the rest of a person’s life.
A parent bringing their child into treatment wants to maximize the chance that the child can abstain from the drug so the brain can heal and preclude the lifelong struggles of adult addiction. Scientific studies show that psychosocial treatments alone (i.e. without medication) show relatively poor results. Part of the reason has to do with cravings. Here’s why.
When a person takes a drug, the brain feels an enormous “high” in the reward system. It then implants a memory in the limbic system — the “lizard brain” — where memories of pleasures such as food and sex are stored. Anything having to do with procuring or using the drug becomes part of the memory and can produce a craving years later, even if a person hasn’t used the drug. The “trigger” could be a happy event, sadness, or seeing a syringe or some white powder or smelling an alcohol wipe. All of a sudden that memory flooding in generates an enormous craving to use the drug again.
One of the medications used in treatment, buprenorphine, is a partial agonist of the brain’s opiate receptors: when it “locks in”, it both eliminates cravings and blocks the “high” should someone inject heroin or take an opioid painkiller. As a partial agonist, buprenorphine has advantages over methadone, a full agonist, whose side-effects can include sleepiness, shallow breathing, or even death.
Studies suggest that over 60 percent of people on buprenorphine therapy have very positive outcomes. In our highly-structured program at Boston Children’s Hospital about a third of the children remain completely free from any alcohol and drug use. About another third remain free from opioid use but they might have an occasional slip on alcohol or marijuana. (We tend to not approve of that behavior and keep working with them). And the remaining third, particularly early on, will try opioids once or twice. But even after those early slips they show dramatic improvement over time.
In my 30-plus years as a pediatrician, I’ve always believed that the best treatment occurs in the least restrictive environment. Therefore our clinical program is outpatient-based. These children are living at home, and their parents are an integral part of the treatment team. We empower parents to supervise the prescription-taking, and both adolescents and parents participate in a 13-week education and support group.
As far as stigma, it breaks my heart when kids hear that “You’re not really clean and sober. Buprenorphine is just a substitute addiction.” I tell them, “Listen, you’re on replacement therapy. It does not make you high. It stabilizes your brain cells until they can recover. Please give it a year. Then we can talk about tapering off. OK?”
My advice to parents and teens is: check out medication in a reputable program. It could make the big difference in helping your child turn the corner and find sobriety. Over time medication can be tapered down. Does it always work? No. Are there accounts of abuse and unscrupulous practices? Unfortunately yes, and they must be investigated. But these negatives don’t negate MAT’s lifesaving value in helping treat the disease of addiction.
If someone says, “Well your child isn’t really clean,” walk away because those people just don’t know. The folks disseminating this misinformation are really doing a disservice because if we dissuade families from using this life-saving therapy we’re going to lose kids. We have to remember the tragedies: when kids are taken off or deprived of this medication they can die. And we don’t have any teens to spare. Not one. I’m not willing to see any more needless deaths.
John R. Knight, MD with Melissa M. Weiksnar
John Knight, MD, is a leading pediatrician at Harvard Medical School, specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of adolescent substance abuse. He is the Director of the Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research at Children’s Hospital Boston, and a nationally recognized advocate for families’ involvement in adolescent addiction treatment.
Melissa Weiksnar is a Program Coordinator at the Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research (CeASAR) at Boston Children’s Hospital. She is a also a writer, speaker, and advocate for substance abuse prevention and treatment. She earned an S.B. in Economics from MIT and an MBA from Harvard.
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Anders Brun and colleagues, Neuroimaging Research Center, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA. ©Copyright Anders Brun/McLean Hospital 2013. All rights reserved.
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