Word Buzz Wednesday: pseudoaddiction, Twinkie defense, gastfreundschaft

Twinkies: Comics Lied!

Welcome to Word Buzz Wednesday, your go-to place for the most interesting words of the week. The latest: a questionable condition, a questionable defense, a cozy feeling.

pseudoaddiction

“At one point, during an appointment to which Moore accompanied him, a doctor assured him that he suffered from pseudoaddiction—and needed not fewer opioids, but more.”

Esme E. Deprez and Paul Barrett, “The Lawyer Who Beat Big Tobacco Takes On the Opioid Industry,” Bloomberg, October 5, 2017

Pseudoaddiction, says Bloomberg, is a “questionable condition” in which: 

behaviors normally associated with addiction—requesting drugs by name, displaying a demanding or manipulative manner, or seeking out more than one doctor to obtain opioids—might be signals that a patient needs more pain medication, not less.

The concept was coined in 1999 by J. David Haddox, a pain doctor and employee of Purdue Pharma, the maker of the pain medication, OxyContin. The idea of pseudoaddiction was promoted in Responsible Opioid Prescribing, a 2007 publication “distributed by the Federation of State Medical Boards and co-sponsored by Purdue.”

bump stock

“Officials confirmed that Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock had 12 rifles fitted with bump stocks in the hotel suite he used to stage his attack.”

Lois Beckett, “The NRA made a concession on bump stocks – but did we all just get played?” The Guardian, October 6, 2017

According to The Guardian, a bump stock is “a device that allows semi-automatic rifles to mimic the rapid fire of a fully automatic weapon.” While Democratic gun control advocates proposed an outright ban of the device and and some Republican Congress members might support the ban, the National Rifle Association (NRA) suggested only “additional regulations.”

Sixties Scoop

“A class-action lawyer is applauding the federal government’s decision to give Sixties Scoop adoptees financial compensation.”

Jillian Taylor, “Sixties Scoop settlement ‘in the best interest of all class members’: Lawyer,” CBC News, October 6, 2017

The Sixties Scoop took place in parts of Canada in the 1960s, in which children of Aboriginal peoples were “scooped up” from their families and placed in foster homes or adoption. The practice seems to have been along the same lines of the residential school system that was in effect from the 1880s until 1996. The idea was to “educate” these children on “Euro-Canadian and Christian values so they could become part of mainstream society.”

Twinkie defense

“In reality, the Twinkie defense is a form of diminished capacity defense.”

Robin L. Barton, “Understanding the So-Called ‘Twinkie’ Defense,” The Crime Report, October 5, 2017

The Crime Report says the term Twinkie defense was coined by the media during the 1978 coverage of the trial of Dan White, “who was charged with murder for the shooting deaths of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.” The defense “presented evidence that White suffered from mental illness, including depression,” which was further exacerbated by his “excessive consumption of junk food—including Twinkies.”

Since then the Twinkie defense has become “shorthand for any defense in which the accused blames the consumption or use of some substance for his or her actions.”

gastfreundschaft

“No matter what form they take, the common denominator for the best German bars — besides beer, wurst and sauerkraut — is a sense of what’s called ‘gastfreundschaft,’ says Marco Santomauro, the general manager of New York City’s Paulaner Brauhaus.”

Albert Stumm, “Best German bars around the world,” CNN, October 10, 2017

Gastfreundschaft is a German term that means cozy and homey, says CNN, but also “being surrounded by good people that you like.”