Census data shows Latinos now outnumber whites as the largest ethnic group in California, the CDC says heroin use has doubled since 2002, the latest sports news.
Understanding America’s heroin problem
A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals some grave details about the prevalence of addiction in America.
More than two out of every 1,000 people in the U.S. over the age of 12 have used heroin at some point between 2011 and 2013 -- a 63 percent increase from a similar survey conducted nearly 10 years earlier.
In addition, the report revealed that heroin-related deaths have quadrupled over the past decade. While no two cases are alike, the CDC says people who depend on opioid pain relievers, like Vicodin or Oxycontin, run a significantly greater risk of developing a heroin addiction. The new report confirms what addiction treatment specialists like Dr. Karen Miotto have known for some time.
“It’s the No. 1 reason we see people coming to the addiction medicine clinic,” Miotto said. “It’s been growing over the past several years, as people have been exposed to more opiate pain medication, and tragically, transition to heroin.”
Miotto is the director of addiction medicine at UCLA, and she says she’s started to notice a trend.
“I would say 30 to 35 percent of the people we see start off using pain pills, whether for treatment for a painful condition, or they obtain the pills that [family] or friends were using for pain,” she said.
Miotto says opioids can affect patients in a variety of ways. “With opiates, there’s a very powerful withdrawal. [I] think people, as well as doctors who are treating people for pain, don’t realize how medications can develop a life of their own,” she said.
According to Miotto, if patients and doctors aren’t vigilant, what was once legitimate treatment can turn into real addiction.
San Francisco resident Tracey Helton knows this all too well. Helton struggled with a black tar heroin addiction for eight years before she finally got clean.
“I was abusing prescription opiates for about a year, then I was introduced to heroin,” Helton said.
Her first real experience with opiates came at age 17, after she had her wisdom teeth removed. As she transitioned to college, she continued to experiment.
“I had done some appropriate experimentation with alcohol and marijuana, but I just remember the opiates giving me the feeling of euphoria,” she said. Continued use took an increasingly negative toll on Helton’s life. “I had multiple rock bottoms. [Going from] a college student at the University of Cincinnati with a future, to sticking a needle in the holes of my feet behind a shopping cart in an alleyway, and that’s where I lived … and that’s not really even the bottom …”
Press the play button above to hear more about Tracey’s story and heroin addiction in California.
Latinos now outnumber whites in CA, census data shows
According newly released data from the Census Bureau, Latinos now outnumber whites as the largest ethnic group in California.
The latest tally of population figures shows that as of July 1st, 14.99 million Latinos live in California, followed by 14.92 million whites.
Matt Barreto, professor of political science and Chicano studies at UCLA and co-founder of the polling and research firm Latino Decisions, joined Take Two to discuss the implications of the demographic milestone.
One year after Gaza war, resident describes recovery
Today marks one year since Israel began airstrikes into Gaza in response to Hamas militants launching rockets toward Israel.
The United Nations has since accused both sides of war crimes during the fighting. It released an investigation last month that said Hamas sent thousands of rockets to Israel. It also found that, of the more than two thousand Palestinians killed, the majority were civilians.
The fighting last year devastated Gaza, the small coastal strip that's home to some of the most crowded neighborhoods in the world.
Lara Aburamadan is a resident of one of those crowded neighborhoods in Gaza City. A year ago, she and her husband, Jehad Saftawi, live-streamed their view of the city from their apartment balcony during the airstrikes. Tens of thousands of viewers from around the world tuned in to watch.
To find out what life was like for the residents of Gaza during the conflict, Take Two spoke to Aburamadan one year ago. Since, Aburamadan says recovery has been slow, and in some respects, non-existent.
To hear more about what life is like for Aburamadan and other residents now, please click on the audio player above.
Impatient: Making cancer treatment choices easier
When a patient is diagnosed with cancer, the doctor will usually explain that there are several treatment options, including the standard treatment and a new option.
The doctor asks the patient which treatment he or she prefers. It's no easy choice, but the American Society of Clinical Oncology wants to help make it easier.
Rebecca Plevin, Southern California Public Radio's health reporter, explained more. You can also read more on her blog, Impatient.
Listen to the full interview by clicking the blue audio player above.
MLB All-Star snubs, Women's World Cup
In this week's sports roundup with
:
- Who was snubbed from the MLB All-Star roster
- Candidates for the MLB's Comeback Player of the Year
- Florida State dismisses QB Deandre Johnson
- Why some were disappointed during the Women's World Cup awards ceremony
Listen to the full interview by clicking the blue audio player above.
LA Galaxy's British invasion continues with Steven Gerrard
One of England's finest players, midfielder Steven Gerrard, had his first training session with the LA Galaxy on Tuesday.
The 35 year old has played for the soccer premiership side, Liverpool, his entire career. But who is he? And can he bend it anything like former Galaxy player, David Beckham? BBC Sport correspondent Katie Gornall explained more.
Listen to the full interview by clicking the blue audio player above.
Vote gives more power to LA County Board of Supervisors, less to CEO
The five-member Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors controls a budget of $27 billion and a staff of 100,000. But a recent vote could give the supervisors even more control over the vast government agency.
Raphe Sonenshein, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at Cal State L.A., explained more about what this means for residents.
Will economic inequality turn LA into a 'Third World' city?
The city of Los Angeles has sometimes been called a melting pot. That metaphor implies that different elements of the city — racial, ethnic, and economic — have melted together into one harmonious whole. But the city's history has hardly been one of overall harmony; certainly not economically in recent years.
Affordable housing is hard to come by. Homelessness continues to rise in LA County. The gap between the 'haves' and 'have-nots' continues to widen.
In an opinion piece for The New York Times, journalist and award-winning author Hector Tobar argues that the widening gap between the 'ultrarich' and poor Angelenos is turning Los Angeles into a 'Third World' city — a label he used to reject:
"As a native of the city, I was offended to hear it tagged with such a denigrating label. But in recent years, and for different reasons, I’ve come to believe that a metropolis of the 'developing world,' to use a more polite expression, is being born here."
"Its center is not in East Los Angeles, or any other Latino neighborhood; nor in our recently christened 'Little Bangladesh.' The third world exists everywhere here — in the spread of inequality."
Tobar spoke with Take Two about the socioeconomic changes he's observed across Los Angeles over his lifetime, and how he sees the "city of a developing world being born in LA...in the extremes of wealth and poverty."
"Just in the area where I live...in northeast Los Angeles, to see the real estate prices zooming, to where a 3-bedroom house in a very middle class neighborhood can cost you a million dollars, and you're a block away from a homeless camp? That's not the LA that I grew up in," Tobar said.
To listen to Take Two's entire interview with Hector Tobar, please click on the audio player above.
Hector Tobar's most recent book is, "Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine and the Miracle That Set Them Free."
Tourism to the Hollywood sign sparks a lawsuit
Los Angeles' most iconic landmark is also the center of a fight between tourists who snake through neighborhoods to see it and residents who live there.
A local group Homeowners on Beachwood Drive United, comprised of people living in the Hollywoodland neighborhood, is taking the city of L.A. to court over access to the Hollywood sign.
"What we want is that the illegal access at the end of our street be closed," says resident Sarajane Schwartz.
To get to the Hollywood sign, hikers can walk up N Beachwood Dr and cut through a fence located at Sunset Ranch Hollywood that leads to a trail (via Google Maps)
Right now, hikers can walk up North Beachwood Drive and cut through a gate near Sunset Ranch Hollywood to access a trail leading up to the famous marker.
Schwartz argues that the path is dangerous for residents and tourists because there is no designated parking for them – they must park on the street – nor are there sidewalks to protect people from traffic.
"You have thousands of people literally in the street," she says.
She also says there's more congestion in her neighborhood now, and is worried emergency vehicles would have trouble maneuvering around cars.
It wasn't always like this. Schwartz moved to the neighborhood in the late 1970s, but she says this tourism boom is pretty recent.
She believes information about the route published online helped to drive up awareness, but also blames now-retired L.A. City Councilman Tom LaBonge, who she says promoted the sign as a tourist destination.
Schwartz and other residents want is for the city to invest in other routes into the park that could be developed with infrastructure like parking and public bathrooms.
"This can't continue this way. It's Russian roulette," she says. "It's very dangerous."
Unsuspecting LA drivers photographed for 'Car Culture' series
One enterprising photographer saw the static nature of L.A.'s traffic as an opportunity for a photography series, tentatively titled "Car Culture."
Jonathan Castillo is the photographer behind the idea, and he told host Tess Vigeland all about the project.
Listen to the full interview by clicking the blue audio player above.