April is Alcohol Awareness Month, highlighting serious consequences of drinking too much.
Excessive alcohol use contributes to more than 95,000 deaths each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Scott Itano, a family medicine physician at Kaiser Permanente Washington in Seattle, said the pandemic has exacerbated dangerous drinking habits.
"People used to have normal coping mechanisms such as travel, sports, seeing their friends," Itano explained. "And when they were locked into their houses in quarantine, they really had fewer outlets and some of them turned to alcohol. And then that alcohol use spiraled, I saw in some of my patients, and turned into alcohol use disorder."
Alcohol use disorder is the medical term for alcohol addiction, which is considered a disease. Itano noted it is possible to have a healthy relationship with alcohol, but as with other things, the problem is using it in excess. He advised the general rule is men should limit themselves to two drinks a day, and women one a day.
Itano pointed out alcohol use disorder has serious health consequences, including an increased risk of multiple types of cancers. He cautioned drinking is sometimes seen as a method of self-treatment for underlying mental-health concerns, such as depression or anxiety.
"If you ever feel like you're starting to go down that path where you're drinking more alcohol than you typically do, or you're feeling more stressed or anxious or depressed, and drinking at the same time, reach out early," Itano recommended. "That's our job here as primary care clinicians, and we're comfortable dealing with this and want to help."
Given how common the disease is, Itano emphasized most people know someone who has struggled with it or still is struggling. He suggested speaking directly to the person if you feel there is an issue.
"I think the important thing is just calling it out and having a face-to-face conversation, conveying your level of concern and that you care about them, and just what you've noticed and witnessed," Itano outlined. "And then, seeing what they say from there."
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While overdose deaths in the Commonwealth have declined, deaths among Black Kentuckians have increased by 5%, according to data from the latest Kentucky Overdose Fatality Report.
Organizations across the state are working to stem overdose deaths among residents of color. In Bowling Green, the nonprofit HOTEL INC. is focused on harm reduction.
Rebecca Troxell, HOTEL INC. lead navigator, explains the group's street teams go into homeless encampments and provide Narcan, fentanyl strips, hygiene packets and medical care.
"We have volunteer doctors, EMTs and nurses who go out with us, so we're able to provide medical care on site. We're able to provide educational components with that, as well, helping people understand what harm reduction really is," she said.
She added a recent SHIFT grant from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky will allow the street teams to reach more people. The program, which awards funding up to $50,000, aims to reduce disparities and other inequities worsened by the drug crisis.
In Lexington, the nonprofit agricultural organization Black Soil KY is adding Narcan boxes and educational materials to its farmers markets. They are also working to improve access to fresh food among Kentuckians in recovery.
Ashley Smith, co-founder and CEO of Black Soil, said farmers will also receive harm-reduction training: "We know having that unbarriered access to local goods, like seasonal produce, local meat within your recovery housing, just really provides an advantage for the overall outcome."
Kayla Migneron, director of the Louisville-based maternal health program Granny's Birth Initiative, said the SHIFT grant funding will help expand stigma-reduction training for doulas.
"Our main goal is that any person would be comfortable coming to get assistance from us, whether it's accessing resources using our stuff, even just asking for connections to other programming," explained Migneron.
Nationwide, overdose deaths among mostly younger Black women nearly tripled between 2015 and 2021.
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In Robeson County, the opioid crisis is exposing the need for increased addiction support. The Southeastern Prevention and Addiction Recovery Resource Center is tackling the issue by bringing together more than 70 organizations into a unified recovery network.
Jackie Davis, SPARC director, says its goal is to streamline services and improve access to comprehensive support.
"Robeson County has a high rate of usage, and so one of the main challenges has been services and then organizations and agencies working in silos," Davis said.
She added that before SPARC, local agencies were isolated in their efforts. Now with funding and support in part from the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trusts, she said community-based initiative is fostering cooperation to better serve the people of Robeson County, with plans to secure ongoing funding and improve access to care.
Davis said SPARC provides critical resources such as training, educational support and help securing opioid settlement funds. She said these efforts have improved patient care and developed long-term recovery strategies tailored to the community's needs.
"Health disparities here, we just want to reduce or even eliminate if we can, because we know that there are major differences from rural areas to urban areas or larger cities, and we just want better for our community," she said.
She noted that future goals include addressing transportation barriers to ensure access to services and ensuring sustainability through continued funding and support for member organizations.
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By Adam Pinsker for WISH-TV.
Broadcast version by Joe Ulery for Indiana News Service reporting for the WISH-TV-Free Press Indiana-Public News Service Collaboration
THC retailers across Indiana are being warned they could be violating Indiana law by selling cannabis products containing more than 0.3% of the chemical Delta-9, which can have an intoxicating effect and may cause some side effects.
Although no Indiana law regulates Delta-9, the Indiana Attorney General's Office issued an opinion in 2023 defining Delta-8 and Delta-10 as Schedule I drugs.
Vigo County Prosecutor Terry Modesitt says violators could be charged with a high-level felony.
"I personally felt the fair way to deal with this was to send a letter to all the businesses and advise them of the attorney general's ruling, and to give them some time to get these products off their shelves," the prosecutor based in Terre Haute said.
Modesitt estimates from 30 to 40 retailers in the county along I-70 on the Illinois border - many of them gas station convenience stores - are in violation.
"We've actually had our drug task force, since I've sent this letter, going around checking businesses," he said.
Modesitt said until state lawmakers pass legislation clearly defining how much cannabis can be sold in Indiana, he'll have to enforce the laws based on the attorney general's opinion.
Indiana State Police investigators secretly bought THC products and found some of them were mislabeled. In other cases, they found Delta-9 products had more than the 0.3% of THC allowable under a federal law passed in 2018.
State officials and CBD retailers have also expressed concerns that some THC products may have chemicals added to them.
Scott Hughes, co-owner of WildEye Lounge dab bar in Indianapolis, said he and his business partner, Nick Brown, test all of their cannabis products. "To show there is no heavy metals, to show there is no pesticides in the product, which we do regularly with all of our products before we release them."
Hughes urges customers to do their homework before purchasing any CBD product.
"You're not going to go to your mechanic to ask why your knee hurts. You're not going to go to your doctor to ask what is wrong with your car," Hughes said.
Adam Pinsker wrote this article for WISH-TV.
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