Broken No More logo

Tamera Olt talks About Reducing Risk

A well-deserved thank you to Dr. Tamara Olt (Chairperson, Broken No More/GRASP), Chris Schaffner, and Jolt Harm Reduction for doing all they can to save lives

Dr. Tamara Olt Featured in 25 Women in Leadership

Tamara Olt, MD, BNM Board Member, was recently featured in week.com in 25 Women in Leadership news.

NHPCO Interdisciplinary Conference 2018

Sam Snodgrass, PhD, BNM Board Member, to Speak at NHPCO’s Conference

NHPCO’s Interdisciplinary Conference
Preconference Dates: November 3-4, 2018;
Main Conference Dates: November 5-7, 2018
Hyatt Regency New Orleans, New Orleans, LA

NHPCO’s 2018 Interdisciplinary Conference will offer extensive and intensive intermediate and advanced educational sessions that will address these specific topic areas:

  • Community-Based Palliative Care
  • Interdisciplinary Team Leadership
  • Medical Care
  • Quality & Regulatory
  • Strategic Innovation
  • Supportive Care (psychosocial, spiritual and bereavement)

Sam Snodgrass, PhD, and GRASP Board Member, will be speaking on the issue of Opiod-related Deaths: Hospice Bereavement Programs Respond.

More than 42,000 Americans died of opioid overdoses in 2016,*a 28% increase over 2015. In the US, life expectancy at birth declined for the second consecutive year in 2016, fueled in part by the rise in deaths from drug overdoses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Our nation’s communities are working tirelessly to respond to the opioid epidemic, while each day more family members join the ranks of the bereaved.

>> Please click here for complete details on the conference. Or visit: https://www.nhpco.org.

International Overdose Awareness Day 2018

Sam Snodgrass will be speaking at the International Overdose Awareness Day event on August 31. 

article on decriminalization of certain drugs

Orange County Activist Joins Delegation to Portugal

Orange County Activist Joins Delegation to Portugal March 19-22 to Learn from Country’s Groundbreaking Drug Decriminalization Policy.
Portugal’s Dramatic Declines in Overdose Deaths, HIV Infections & Drug-Related Arrests Draw Those Hit Hardest by U.S. Drug War to Investigate Further

Cities Adding Safe Spaces for Heroin Injection

American cities are slowly rallying around a new response to the opioid epidemic: safe spaces for using heroin.

the power of words

The Power of Words: Changing the Language of Addiction

Words matter. They determine how we understand and perceive our world. They carry power, for good and for ill. Stigma is driven by the pejorative words, the labels, that are used to describe us. This is not a matter of political correctness. Until we are seen as people, until we are provided the same respect and dignity as everyone else, we will continue to die. We have to change the cultural perception of those with an opioid disorder. To do that we have to first change the language of opioid addiction:

Broken No More logo

Harris Wittels Loss To Heroin

Harris Lee Wittels died on February 19, 2015 of a heroin overdose alone in his Los Angeles home. He was 30 years young.
He was my son. He was the world’s comedian. My son grew up in an affluent, white suburban neighborhood. He was a “nice Jewish boy.” His dad is a physician and I am a retired teacher. My son would never, ever take that drug called heroin! These kinds of kids don’t do such a thing! I am sharing this story because I want other families to hopefully know what we did not know.

Naloxone availability

Preventing Empty Spaces – Using Naloxone

This is an important film by the Chicago Recovery Alliance and Greg Scott. Everyone should watch this film. And carry naloxone. Thank you, Kim Brown, and Ted and Marilee Odendahl.

Broken No More logo

The Faulty Logic Of The War On Drugs

This epidemic of opioid addiction and death that we are living in is not the result of the use of opioids per se, but by society’s response to this use. What the “War on Drugs” has accomplished has been to turn what is a chronic but treatable, manageable, disease into an epidemic of addiction and death.