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California governor signs some addiction treatment reform measures, rejects...
Gov. Gavin Newsom (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, D-Laguna Beach, center, announced a new bi-partisan Legislative Substance Abuse Treatment Working Group to push for...
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Rehab Riviera: Addiction takes up residence on Sesame Street
Move over, Elmo; Karli has arrived on Sesame Street, and her mom is struggling with addiction. In another bold stroke for the beloved children’s show, the nonprofit Sesame Workshop launched Karli‘s...
View Article5 arrested in $3.2 million Southern California sober living home fraud scheme
Five people have been arrested in connection with an alleged $3.2 million sober living home fraud scheme that preyed on vulnerable substance abuse patients to swindle millions of dollars from an...
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Sobriety in the time of coronavirus: ‘Stay connected, even if remotely’
A strong social support system is vital to maintaining sobriety for those struggling with addiction, study after study has found. So how does one do that in the age of coronavirus? “Addiction is an...
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Coronavirus means new rules, old problems for addicts in treatment
Nearly overnight, the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation switched 1,300 patients from traditional face-to-face addiction treatment to an online platform that, just days earlier, was viewed as a pilot...
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Doctor’s life of luxury built on backs of drug users, prosecutors say
Before landing in the Orange County Jail, they were remodeling a $3.2 million mansion — with “jetliner” views of the Pacific Ocean, Santa Monica mountains and downtown Los Angeles; complete with lap...
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Smart. Curious. 14. Dead. Fentanyl’s reign of terror widens during pandemic
Alexander Hastings Neville, 14, of Aliso Viejo, died after taking a pill he thought was Oxycontin, but was apparently fentanyl. (Courtesy Neville family) From the boy’s obituary: “Alexander Hastings...
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Timmy Solomon, a guide through the Rehab Riviera system, dies of overdose at 31
Timmy Solomon, whose drug treatment odyssey was profiled in Southern California News Group’s law-changing Rehab Riviera series, died in early September. The 31-year-old overdosed at a house in Buena...
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Users need to know that killer chemical lurks everywhere, say parents whose...
Dylan Kai Sarantos, 18. Thought he was taking ecstasy. Died May 8 in Los Angeles. Alexandra Capelouto, 20. Thought she was taking Percocet. Died Dec. 23 in Temecula. In a donated ballroom in Columbus,...
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Rehab doctor jailed for ‘patient brokering’ released to luxury home after...
Randy Rosen. (Courtesy of Orange County District Attorney’s Office) The Beverly Hills doctor accused of building a luxurious life on the backs of desperate drug users — and contributing to some of...
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Fentanyl bill reintroduced in California Legislature as overdose deaths surge
They were as young as 14, 16, 18. Seeking celebration, relief, escape. Many were inexperienced users who thought they were taking OxyContin, or ecstasy, or cocaine, but were fooled by an even more...
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Movie about drug rehab’s dark side sparks pushback, even as legislators seek...
The fast-cut trailer to the new movie “Body Brokers” is a dizzying and seductive collage of guns, cash, addiction and prostitutes, punctuated by a nicely dressed man holding a finger to his pursed lips...
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Parents demand social media giants boot online drug peddlers
The Instagram accounts belonged to “fentanyl_top” and “mass_chemical_drugs” — the 21st century cyber street corners teens visit when looking for an escape, a high, a party. Alexander Neville (Courtesy...
View ArticleDept. of Justice: Orange County is now nation’s center for addiction fraud
The Dept. of Justice is filing criminal charges against ten people who run drug and alcohol addiction businesses in Orange County, saying the county has overtaken South Florida as the national...
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Rehab Riviera: Insurer wins big racketeering, fraud verdict against defunct...
It was a vicious back-and-forth over who was truly evil — the big bad insurance company, refusing to pay for desperately needed addiction treatment for vulnerable patients? Or the greedy, manipulative...
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Rehab doctor Randy Rosen pleads guilty to insurance fraud
The surgeon who was accused of building a luxurious life on the backs of often-desperate drug users eager to make a buck — even if it meant enduring unnecessary surgeries, getting unnecessary lab tests...
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Rehab Riviera: New law hopes to keep rehabs from misleading patients, families
“Medically supervised!” boast so many addiction treatment centers — even though they’re explicitly “non-medical.” Matthew Maniace died in a Lake Arrowhead detox that said it was “clinically supervised”...
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Strips to test drinks and pills for ‘date rape’ drugs and fentanyl are...
I will be dropping my daughter off for her freshman year of college in less than two weeks. I am a quivering, gelatinous mass of maternal angst. But I, along with the rest of California, got an assist...
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New Tyler’s Law aims to curb fentanyl deaths with ER screening
When you lose a child, the what-ifs can be paralyzing. Juli Shamash is part of an unfortunately robust army that’s channeling that agony into change, to spare others from ever having to endure it. Her...
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Rehab doctor jailed for ‘patient brokering’ released to luxury home after...
Randy Rosen. (Courtesy of Orange County District Attorney’s Office) The Beverly Hills doctor accused of building a luxurious life on the backs of desperate drug users — and contributing to some of...
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