PRO-A

02/24/2026

Ma*****na Could Break Your Heart—Literally | Opinion

Love smoking w**d? Prepare to get your heart broken—literally. A flood of recent studies have detailed the damage ma*****na does to your mental health, bringing the risks a renewed level of media attention. Weed's linked to everything from psychosis to violent behavior to dementia. But 2025 has been dominated by another piece of bad news about ma*****na: that it's just as bad for your cardiac health as it is for your mental health.

Consider a meta-analysis from BMJ Heart which appeared just last month. The authors examined dozens of studies on ma*****na users and found a two-fold—yes, you read that right—risk of cardiovascular death corresponding to w**d use, as well as a 29 percent higher risk of major cardiac events. Many of America's policymakers and all its addiction profiteers keep insisting w**d is safe, healthy, and natural. But the BMJ data are just the tip of the iceberg.

A May study from the University of California San Francisco found that ma*****na was associated with vascular dysfunction in chronic users—regardless of whether they were smoking it or using edibles. March saw a meta-analysis come out from the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) on 12 studies examining more than 75 million cases to investigate heart attack risk in w**d users. The results? Users are 51 percent more likely than nonusers to have had a heart attack.

Link: https://www.newsweek.com/ma*****na-could-break-your-heartliterally-opinion-2099201?fbclid=IwY2xjawP27N5leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEebTpRwZdl-WBFnQa0OPrXztdOyUmX8mZk2rWJg82CLmrgatqWnsPAyvUD504_aem_gLMXua95_iG7oIP0ScbE6g

A flood of recent studies have detailed the damage ma*****na does to your mental health. But 2025 has been dominated by another piece of bad news.

02/23/2026

Join us on The CALL on Tuesday, February 24th. PRO-A's Patti Baranowski will have Guest Kevin McCloud speaking on Black History Month.

To Register for The CALL: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwkc-yqpzkuE9zK4qvzHhf1N8EVXyZ_wGIs?fbclid=IwAR2wdT_5LAH5UqYn7RMwtXrZBCM5N54slnSl3UVCgAYN5w-Q7PYAbrdvCvs #/registration

What is it: PRO-A the statewide recovery community organization holds statewide weekly ZOOM call to support Recovery Community Organizations and members of the recovery community and strengthen recovery focused efforts across Pennsylvania.

All in PA are welcome to participate on THE CALL. Our Goals:

To understand what is happening to you, your organizations and your local community right now.

To support our fragile care recovery care system and support for our communities across Pennsylvania.

To help support each other and seek solutions for caring for ourselves and our community members as we strengthen recovery capital at the individual, family and community levels.

02/19/2026

AShapiro Administration Releases 2025 Transparency in Coverage Report Providing Consumers with More Information to Help Understand Insurance – November 2025

During 2024, around 500,000 Pennsylvanians enrolled in plans in the individual market (Pennsylvanians who bought their own insurance) and submitted over 20.7 million health insurance claims. Insurers denied about 3 million of those claims, resulting in a claim denial rate of 14.8%, which is 3% less than the 2024 national claim denial rate of 17.8%.

The TiC Report found that:
- The number of claims submitted by Pennsylvanians increased 34% from 15.5 million (2023) to 20.7 million (2024);
- The percentage of claims denied increased from 13.8% to 14.8%, still below the national average. The aggregated claim denial rate has been relatively stable since 2020, between 12.6% and 14.8% of all claims received;
- The percentage of overturned internal appeals dropped from 48.4% to 35.7%.
- Pennsylvania’s internal appeal rate fell slightly. Both Pennsylvania and national consumer internal appeal rates are below 1%.

Link: https://www.pa.gov/agencies/insurance/newsroom/shapiro-admin-releases-2025-tic-report-consumer-info-help-understand-insurance

PRO-A KNOW YOUR RIGHTS! Information Sheet - U.S. DOL Parity Enforcement and Info Links -https://pro-a.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/PROA-DOL-SUD-Parity-Info-Sheet-Feb-2022.pdf

Report summarizes claims and appeals data for people who bought their insurance in Plan Year 2024.

02/18/2026

PRO-A Trainings - PRO-A is dedicated to supporting the recovery community in the Commonwealth by providing education and training tailored to those serving individuals with Substance Use Disorders (SUD).

- We offer a variety of continuing education trainings and are a certified to train for the PCB Certified Peer Recovery Support Specialist credential.
- We train Peers on the Peer Recovery Support Specialist Certification through PAAP. PRO-A provides training for the Pennsylvania Certified Peer Recovery Support Specialist (PC-PRSS) credential, an alternative to the PCB-CRS credential, recognized in 45 states through NAADAC and PAAP.
- Customized SUD training available: PRO-A offers a range of training topics that can be individualized to meet organizational needs, with fees based on continuing
education hours.
- Extensive CEU training topics: Available trainings cover diverse subjects including Codependency, Burnout, Recovery Concepts, Peer Integration, Supervision, Ethics, Stigma, Resiliency, and Organizational Wellness among many others.

Contact PRO-A for trainings that aren’t listed at

Training Programs Our Training Institute Program offers training sessions that can be offered as a series or as individual sessions. Training & Education PRO-A Training Institute PRO-A WORKS Project Connections Matter Upcoming Events See What’s Happening PRO.A Advocates Creating a Network Mobilize...

02/17/2026

Public Interest or Industry Interest: the Economics and Politics of Minimizing Alcohol Harm

In the broadest sense, the provision of accurate data plays a foundational role in a free society. Liberty depends not just on the right to choose, but on the capacity to choose wisely. When citizens have access to truthful, timely, and comprehensible information, they can evaluate policies, hold leaders accountable, consent meaningfully to laws, and pursue their own interests without manipulation. People who are informed about the health risks may well choose to drink alcohol, but when data is distorted, hidden, or selectively presented, our society suffers.

Federal policy in respect to informing the public on the associated risks of alcohol consumption should rest on several key points, principally that accurate data:
- Enables informed choices: Americans deserve the best available data so that they can decide how much to drink or to drink at all. Consumer freedom is only free if it is properly informed.
- Prevents industry manipulation: Misinformation or selective information sets up dynamics in which Americans may make decisions about how much to drink influenced by an industry that profits off what they do not know. In this way what we do not know does in fact kill us.
- Supports industry accountability: The broad dissemination of accurate data in respect to the health impacts of alcohol use would foster a culture of accountability. This would be a check and balance against an industry that by
definition is interested in profiting off of harm. The industry should not call the shots but rather consumers do so based on the best information we can give them. Our government should side with people and not industry.
- Supports the Health of the American People: The very strength of our nation rests on a healthy populace. Alcohol saps the vitality of our nation. It is costly in lives and resources. A healthy America is in fact a strong America, and taking and educated look at our alcohol consumption is a step towards improving it.

At the end of the day everyone reading this piece would want to make decisions about and choices that they make based on the best data one can get. In this respect we should provide what we would want for ourselves to every family
across America and that is the best information we have. We must base our evidence base on the evidence in respect to the use of Alcohol. We should publish guidelines based on the best available evidence and support the health and welfare of the American people.

Link:

“Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness.” – George Washington, First Annual Message to Congress, 1790 Last January a report on alcohol and health was posted by the US De…

02/16/2026

Join us on The CALL on Tuesday, February 17th. PRO-A's Bill Stauffer will be discussing current issues and dialog with the Recovery Community and allies.

To Register for The CALL: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwkc-yqpzkuE9zK4qvzHhf1N8EVXyZ_wGIs?fbclid=IwAR2wdT_5LAH5UqYn7RMwtXrZBCM5N54slnSl3UVCgAYN5w-Q7PYAbrdvCvs #/registration

What is it: PRO-A the statewide recovery community organization holds statewide weekly ZOOM call to support Recovery Community Organizations and members of the recovery community and strengthen recovery focused efforts across Pennsylvania.

All in PA are welcome to participate on THE CALL. Our Goals:

To understand what is happening to you, your organizations and your local community right now.

To support our fragile care recovery care system and support for our communities across Pennsylvania.

To help support each other and seek solutions for caring for ourselves and our community members as we strengthen recovery capital at the individual, family and community levels.

02/12/2026

"With these drugs, it's really about supply creating demand" - A conversation about synthetic illicit drugs and how they've transformed addiction and trafficking with journalist Sam Quinones

The opioid addiction crisis changed the United States and its relationship with Mexico, opening a new chapter in the war on drugs. On Dec. 15, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order designating illicit fentanyl and its core precursor chemicals as “Weapons of Mass Destruction” and has made it clear that this is America’s new globalized War on Terror. Although drug overdose deaths started a steady decline in 2023, they are still the leading cause of death for adults 18-44 years old in America.

Reporter Sam Quinones was one of the first to tell this story—on both sides of the border—in his 2015 book “Dreamland,” followed in 2021 by “The Least of Us,” about the epidemic of fentanyl and m**h addiction. Quinones lived and worked as a freelancer in Mexico from 1994 to 2004, and in our conversation, we discuss his experiences at that time, how the shift from plant-based to synthetic illicit drugs has supercharged both addiction and trafficking profits, and how he thinks unchecked capitalism has contributed to the expansion of an addiction economy—legal and illegal—in the world today.

Full article Link: https://www.themexpatriate.com/p/fentanyl-us-mexico-drug-war?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true

A conversation about synthetic illicit drugs and how they've transformed addiction and trafficking with journalist Sam Quinones

02/11/2026

Discover Training Opportunities with the PRO-A Training Institute

We’re proud to offer a wide range of training sessions designed to support your organization’s goals. Each training can be customized to fit your team’s unique needs or combined with other modules for a more comprehensive learning experience.
Training fees are based on the number of continuing education hours provided.

📘 Browse our full training catalog: https://pro-a.org/training/

📩 To schedule a session or learn more, contact Patricia Baranowski at patti.b@pro-a.org

02/10/2026

Healing the moral wounds: Distrust of medication in the recovery community – William Stauffer Alcohol & Drug Abuse Weekly - First published: 09 January 2026

The Hippocratic oath asserts that we should do no harm. It is also true that there are no gold standard treatments with all upsides and no risks or downsides, just as the quote at the top of this article suggests. New medications have long been marketed in ways that hide or downplay their risks. Harm occurs and the communities end up distrusting drug interventions. To add insult to injury, the reasons behind the distrust for these interventions over the course of our history are not discussed, and the dominant narrative instead paints the community as ignorant. This is a rough equivalent to the old school addiction counseling strategy of yelling at patients, telling them they are wrong and ignoring their views while demanding compliance.

Link:

02/09/2026

Join us on The CALL on Tuesday, February 10th!

To Register for The CALL: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwkc-yqpzkuE9zK4qvzHhf1N8EVXyZ_wGIs?fbclid=IwAR2wdT_5LAH5UqYn7RMwtXrZBCM5N54slnSl3UVCgAYN5w-Q7PYAbrdvCvs #/registration

What is it: PRO-A the statewide recovery community organization holds statewide weekly ZOOM call to support Recovery Community Organizations and members of the recovery community and strengthen recovery focused efforts across Pennsylvania.

All in PA are welcome to participate on THE CALL. Our Goals:

To understand what is happening to you, your organizations and your local community right now.

To support our fragile care recovery care system and support for our communities across Pennsylvania.

To help support each other and seek solutions for caring for ourselves and our community members as we strengthen recovery capital at the individual, family and community levels.