Tag: recovery
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Clean and Sober: Recovery After Suboxone
The opioid trail is a long difficult road. I appreciated Felice Freyer’s article in the Aug. 19 edition of the Boston Globe, which was about getting help for opioid addiction in Massachusetts. I am a person with a Substance Use Disorder in “remission.” It took me a long time to get where I am. I’m 72…
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From Recovery to Revolution: Russell Brand talks addiction and recovery
Photo by Louise Haywood-Schiefer The Big Issues of the United Kingdom and Australia have gone Russell Brand daft in recent issues. In this conversation from a church in central London, the eccentric actor, writer, comedian and activist talks with a group of Big Issue vendors about what drives their addictions and how they overcame them.…
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New Boston Initiative Aims to Help People in Recovery Succeed
On Sept. 21, Mayor Marty Walsh and the Boston Office of Recovery Services announced the launch of the Personal Advancement for Individuals in Recovery (PAIR) initiative. It’s a pilot program that tackles housing, education, and employment by granting money to individuals who are in early recovery and looking to shape up their life from substance…
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At The Speed of Life
I was late to graduation, just like I was late for everything. Flying down the right-hand lane on South Livingston Avenue, doing close to 90 miles an hour with my 1958 Plymouth Belvedere convertible top down, when I heard a police car hit the wailers and saw the lights in my rear-view mirror. I pulled…
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To thine own self be true: Slaine talks big pharma, music and recovery
Slaine Carroll beat addiction and is now making a name for himself in the Boston music scene. Courtesy photo Slaine Carroll is as embedded in hip-hop as hip-hop is embedded in him. Writing his first rhyme at the age of nine after hearing the Beastie Boys’ “License To Ill,” the Boston native knew he wanted…
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Two transitional programs closing in Boston due to HUD budget changes
A row of bunk beds at 112 Southampton Street Shelter. Photo: Zengzheng Wang. Two Boston transitional programs designed to help homeless addicts recover and find housing while providing them shelter and aid are closing down due to a change in funding at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The two programs are currently…
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City Offers Update on Homeless and Recovery Services
When Boston closed down the Long Island health campus in 2014, it lost over 400 shelter beds and over 200 recovery beds. Two years later, the city has restored over 600 beds, rivaling 2014’s numbers. The city revealed the numbers at a press roundtable in early October to highlight the early success of their Boston’s…
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Long Road to Recovery
Drug addiction destroys the “American dream” for many people. According to the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2014 approximately 25,000 men and women lost their lives due to prescription drug addiction. My mother, Betsy Cartagena, from Roxbury, Massachusetts, lost her chance at the dream when she…
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Voices from the Streets: A Hidden Violation (Conclusion)
Read part one here. (I had just gone into the courtroom, attempting to take care of a matter that was more serious than I had presumed: a felony possession of heroin with a suspended sentence.) I placed my hands on the rail so Judge Luby wouldn’t see them shaking. My public defender explained that I…
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Treatment on Demand
Photo: Zengzheng Wang More and more, we see the opiate epidemic dominating the conversation in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. What was once thought to be only an inner-city issue is now affecting every social class in every corner of the state, in every community, whether rich or poor, high, middle or lower class. The need for treatment…