Beautiful inside and out?

There are 3 women in my house and enough hair and skin care products to drowned in. All kinds of different products and different brands. We always have to have the newest brands in shampoo and makeup. What girl doesn’t? They may all be different but they almost all have something in common. The companies behind them labeling them as “green” or “eco-friendly”. Greenwashing is everywhere and the beauty industry is no exception. With products that so many people use especially topically and daily of course they want people to believe they are getting the safest and most “organic” products they can. Most women would be surprised the brands that claim they are. In an article I read brands such as Aveda, Herbal Essences, LUSH, Organix, Origins, Covergirl, and The Body Shop are just a few of the brands who use false labeling to trick the consumer. The words “clean’ and “natural” are tossed around a lot in beauty products but there is a big gray area when it comes to labeling and what is really being regulated when making these products. Often the levels of “organic” or “natural” ingredients is not specified, many think it may be 100% natural when the level may be much lower. “Some deceiving brand owners go as far as to say that they’re organic on their packaging, even though they have just one drop of an organic essential oil,” says Rose-Marie Swift, the founder of “green” beauty brand RMS Beauty. Women be careful and do your research when buying your products!

Heroin in Cincinnati

            Heroin is never something I never really thought would ever affect anyone I know or myself. Especially living in a city drugs are always around somewhere. It comes with the music scenes and the party life, between college parties and music festivals I have seen a fair share of drugs floating around. There is your typical weed smokers, kids tripping on acid having a good time. Where is it crossing the line though? Are these things really gateways to something much worse? I have seen people that I know and love progress from these simple, what seem to be harmless, tasks to ruining there whole life. I had a family friend die of heroin overdose not too long ago. A husband and a father who selfishly gave up caring for his next high. Should people feel bad because he needed help, or should they be angry he couldn’t get it together? Another person I am close friends with I recently found out was doing heroin. It was a classic case of she started out doing your typical party drugs to chasing an even better high. This led her to trying heroin and changing her whole life. In and out of rehab moving from Nashville to L.A.,  calling late at night needing a hotel room and lying to her parents so she can continue to use.

In recent months heroin has swept through this city and become what they are calling an epidemic. I read an article that over 200 people have overdosed in Cincinnati in just that last two weeks. Its a scary thought, that could be somebody you know. There are saying heroin is being cut with opiates such as fentanyl and more recently carfentanil, which is used in tranquilizing  large animals such as elephants. The rate of overdose deaths have doubled over the last year, and detox centers can’t keep up with that amount of people that need help. Medical personal are having to use double sometimes triple the amount of Narcan, the drug used to stop an overdose, when treating patients and they are seeing much more deaths. Hopefully something can be done to stop this madness and get people to stop killing themselves with this harmful dug.