"So, how much is this going to cost me WITH tax?"
Great blog post today by Kevin Lynn of WILK News Radio (AM/FM Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, PA):
Millions of us dopers are apparently “at war,” with our government. We don’t want to be at war. You’ve heard of the “war on drugs.” My government is apparently fighting people like me, who have used illegal drugs. We don’t want to be at war with our government anymore. No, we want to help! —Kevin Lynn
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"New York" Magazine (August 22, 1994)
What Really Killed Anna Nicole Smith?
by Maxim W. Furek, MA, CAC, ICADC
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On February 8, 2007, the front desk staff at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, FL, made a desperate 911 call: “We need assistance to room 607 at the Hard Rock. It’s in reference to a white female. She’s not breathing and not responsive…actually, it’s Anna Nicole Smith.” Anna Nicole Smith was found lifeless in room 607 after bodyguard Maurice “Big Moe” Brighthaupt called the hotel front desk from Smith’s sixth floor room. Brighthaupt, a trained paramedic, administered CPR before Smith was rushed to Memorial Regional Hospital at 2:10 p.m. The TV reality star and former Playboy Playmate of the Year was pronounced DOA at 2:49 p.m. (CNN.com, 2007).
After a seven-week investigation, the official death report and autopsy were publicly released. The March 26, 2007, report acknowledged that Smith’s death was not due to homicide, suicide, or natural causes, but was caused by an accidental drug overdose. During his press conference, Dr. Joshua Perper, Broward County Medical Examiner and Forensic Pathologist, stated that Smith died of “combined drug intoxication,” with the sleeping medication chloral hydrate being the “major component” in her death. No illegal drugs were identified but there were a total of seven prescription drugs, usually prescribed for anxiety, depression and insomnia, found in her bloodstream. Smith, it was also revealed, had injected herself with shots of Vitamin B-12 (cyanocobalamin) and human growth hormone, as an anti-aging strategy. That brought the total number of substances in her bloodstream to nine.
“You can get over an addiction, but you will never get over a conviction.”
—Jack A. Cole, Executive Director of LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition)
I am not really into checking my “stats” (detailed statistics on how many people visit this website, etc.).
Really, I try not to focus on them too much. Probably because I already receive much more traffic than I ever imagined for such a narrow subject like painkiller addiction.
But, of course, every so often I do check… and I gotta tell you, when I see how many people have clicked on my Get Help! link—it feels great. It feels great to know that perhaps in some small way, SWALLOW has helped these people to make that first frightening step toward recovery.
So… while we are on the subject… how about you?
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A little over a week ago, I had a chance to attend what I am now respectfully-referring-to as “The Maxim Furek Show”. The occasion was a lecture on the subject of Prescription and OTC Drug Abuse presented by Maxim at the Swartz Center for Spiritual Life on the campus of Marywood University.
If you are working in the recovery field or perhaps even, like myself, are simply interested in the subject matter, I would highly recommend attending one of Maxim’s talks. He is a very engaging speaker, and is able to convey all of the relevant survey and study data without overwhelming. But most importantly, he knows his stuff.
Though in principal I loathe “litmus tests”, I still (of course) end-up utilizing them, and Maxim passed one of my big ones straight-away.
Namely the “Hillbilly Heroin” myth. Hillbilly Heroin and Poor Man’s Heroin are some of the ill-applied media-monikers for the opioid analgesic OxyContin which came into use because some of the earliest reports of abuse of the drug had come from rural areas of Appalachia.
The use of this terminology has led some to believe (incorrectly) that OxyContin is cheaper than heroin, and it was interesting—if not a bit shocking—to see how many of those in attendance seemed not to have been aware of this (false) perception.
There were many other interesting revelations of course, and it was clear by the end that most everyone in attendance would be leaving not only armed with the hard stats, but also with a deeper understanding of the complex issues surrounding prescription and over-the-counter drug abuse.
Maxim is also author of the book The Death Proclamation of Generation X: A Self Fulfilling Prophesy of Goth, Grunge and Heroin. I happen to be a member of “America’s 13th Generation”, and I found the book to be incredibly insightful.
If you haven’t read the book yet, I highly recommend it. You can order a copy directly from Maxim’s Garden Walk Recovery website, or online from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
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SWALLOW Flashback: My April ‘08 riff on “Hillbilly Heroin”
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