by William C. Moyers

In the past few months, I’ve had an opportunity to speak to students at a high school for adults in Minnesota and criminal defendants in the judicial system in Texas. The students know almost nothing about addiction. The felons know everything. They’re at opposite ends of the spectrum that separates fiction from fact. And both are crucial to changing the debate about alcoholism and drug addiction in America.

At the Lehmann Center School, in a gritty Minneapolis neighborhood of emigrants from all over the world, older students striving to get their high-school diplomas never had heard about alcoholism…

I was engaged in a dialog over on Dean’s World about the disease concept of alcoholism and the need/not need for absolute abstinence among recovering people. Without opening that can of worms for the moment, in the process we began discussing the idea of “outside help” in the 12-step programs.

Most of us who have been around the rooms for very long have heard some old mustache pete pipe up and say that he (sometimes she) got sober in the rooms of AA (this seems to be more common at AA meetings) and the Program Of Recovery As Laid Out In The…

by William C. Moyers

What is success?

And at what price?

Finding answers to these questions is a challenge for people trying to decide where to seek treatment for addiction to alcohol and other drugs. Complicating the effort is the emotion of the crisis that usually precedes a decision. And misperceptions and expectations about treatment often exacerbate the process.

“We are such a ‘fix’ and ‘cure’ culture that we often get confused about the goal of addiction treatment,” said Ron Hunsicker, the president and CEO of the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers. “It is important to remember that addiction is a chronic disease…

Broken lives and fractured families, dashed dreams and financial ruin, and physical, emotional or mental distress; such are the harsh consequences for people addicted to alcohol or other drugs.

Even for those who do stop drinking and drugging and find recovery, it’s not unusual to experience these misfortunes, sometimes months or even years later. It can takes years to clean up the messes from the past.

Dear Mr. Moyers: Last fall, my son was kicked out of high school for drug possession. He went to treatment in another state. The good news is that today he is clean and sober; that’s not…

In a recent column about marijuana, I made these three key points: It is a mood- and mind-altering drug; it is illegal; and for some people, it causes serious consequences, including addiction.

Some readers responded with support for my perspective. “Pot made me infectiously goofy, wonderfully giddy and incredibly introspective before it caused me to not care anymore, and then I lost my job, my bank account, my girlfriend,” wrote Paul D. from Des Moines, Iowa.

A few others pushed beyond my position that marijuana should remain illegal. “Anything that affects how we feel or how we think is dangerous and should…

by William Cope Moyers

I usually preface my advice with a short editorial comment about a current event related to addiction. Not today. Here are pleas for help that remind us all of the private tragedies that never make news, even though they happen to families across the country all the time.

Dear Mr. Moyers: My 53-year-old wife, a successful executive, relapsed after seven years of sobriety, and unfortunately, this time we will not get back together. I need to know “why.” I need to get inside the head of a drug addict. Do you know of any books or DVDs made…

by Mark Harris

It’s the primary season here in Oregon, having already voted, I’m pretty much over it, but amused at the smoke and mirrors drama around Senator Obama and his former pastor.

Statements that the pastor said, made many, including myself, consider statements of fact, regardless of the Senator’s disavowal of them. In any case, if you are willing to believe your government is capable of doing nasty things to you, what are you willing to do to protect yourself beyond complain? Conspiracy theories while entertaining, really engage your fear, and not so much your faith in yourself, essentially creating a…

by William Cope Moyers
The end of the school year is here for millions of college students. It’s a time for final exams and report cards, commencement ceremonies and parties. And while many will celebrate what they’ve learned over the years, their eduction won’t include lessons on the dangers of alcohol and other drugs. Some are likely to pay for their ignorance with serious consequences.

Dear Mr. Moyers: I’ve worked as a substance abuse counselor for over 20 years. The last three, I have been employed at the university level as their prevention person and counselor. I also teach a substance-abuse class…

I watched my story in multiple parts on The Second Road’s home page and felt like I’ve stripped naket in cyberspace. I’ve shared my story in private and very public forums now for years, I’ve had the most inimate details published all over but haven’t experienced this before. Now, my drug story is “out there” memorialized on the internet. I can imagine now being held to a standard where every future deviation from the video version will be subject to criticism a la the author of “A Million Pieces” I’ve no doubt offended many of the same traditional recovery stakeholders.…

by William Cope Moyers

My soon-to-be-16-year-old son, Henry, took the written exam for his driver’s permit this week. He didn’t pass. I shared his disappointment. And I admired his commitment to study harder for too much and got behind the wheel — it’s that simple. — Melissa W. in Atlanta

Dear Melissa: Your family’s tragedy will never disappear. Neither will the woman’s responsibility for causing it. What she did was wrong. But perhaps there is some good that can come from this. On a personal level, only you can decide if meeting with her is the right thing to do

.

I’m sure it…

Each week, I get scores of letters and emails pleading for help. Usually they are framed by circumstances and conditions intended to explain or otherwise mitigate reality’s harsh truth. While there are a lot of reasons why people get in trouble when they get high, there is only one reason they keep getting high despite those consequences. They’re addicted to alcohol or other drugs.

Only infrequently do I receive a short and to-the-point inquiry from a person in trouble who already knows they need help and isn’t looking for an easier, softer way to find it. Here’s one:

Dear Mr. Moyers: I…

What better way to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the end of Prohibition in America than with a cold beer. That’s exactly what some of the nation’s brewers did last week to mark the end in 1933 of our 14-year failed experiment in enforced sobriety. They had a party.

“April 7th is a day to recognize the past 75 years of beer and the beer community’s contribution to Americans’ quality of life. The explosion of creativity and innovation by those who make beer is an American success story,” said Charlie Papazian, president of the Brewers Association.

Perhaps. But the end of Prohibition…

Employers soon may have to start providing employees with equal coverage for mental and physical health care if a mental health parity bill is signed into law. And while many business groups endorse the basic concept, many say they are concerned about the legislation’s potential impact on health care cost and coverage.

Lawmakers currently are hammering out a compromise proposal on mental health parity legislation that would marry elements of House and Senate bills (S. 558, H.R. 1424). If passed, the legislation would expand the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 and require employers to offer employees the same level of…

If you’re like most people who learn that a family member has cancer or another life-threatening illness, you instinctively react with compassion, a desire to help and support. But more often than not, family members don’t know what to do when their loved one is struggling with alcoholism or drug dependence. Some of them even go so far as to feel guilty or shameful about trying to help that person.

Dear Mr. Moyers: I am throwing everything else on the line right now because I don’t know what else to do. My father, 50, is a successful attorney in Indiana. He…

On vacation with my family this week in Florida, I am reminded of the never-ending debate about drinking and young people.

It’s spring break, and this annual migration of teenagers and college students to warmer climes, mostly without a parent or teacher escort anywhere in sight, highlights the role alcohol plays in defining good times and bad on these trips.

At 2 a.m. in the hallways of a hotel near the Fort Myers airport, roving knots of young men and women with half-empty 12-packs of beer seem intent on making sure they aren’t the only ones who stay awake all night. If…

In March, 2007, HBO presented the series “Addiction”, which covered the topic of substance abuse from A to Z, showing 13 installments over a 4 day period. The premier held in Richmond, Virginia, was filmed by The Second Road and the following are interviews with audience members after viewing the first installment in the series.

By William C. Moyers

Two events occurred recently that remind me of the stakes in getting the public to accept addiction as a disease that affects the entire family — but one that is treatable with benefits for everyone.

On March 5, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation to expand private insurance coverage for people seeking treatment for drug dependence or alcoholism. It’s the first time the House has ever voted to require insurance companies to treat addiction like other chronic illnesses. It follows by a few months similar action in the Senate.

“We’ve waited 12 long years for this historic day,”…

This is an astonishing article I found on CNN.com on how America’s drinking water holds many different types of pharmaceuticals…

(AP) — A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.

Officials in Philadelphia say testing there discovered 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in treated drinking water.

To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe.

But…

By William C. Moyers

I spoke at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., the other night. It was a remarkable moment for me. There I was, in a national monument of spirituality — “America’s house of prayer for all people” — telling my story of addiction, redemption and recovery. From the floor of a crack house in Atlanta in 1994 to the sanctuary of the cathedral 14 years later … go figure.

Of the several hundred people in the audience were a group of women from N Street Village. It’s an organization dedicated to preventing and eliminating homeless, and it starts by…

This article is from Newsweek’s cover story on Science. Very interesting…

Addiction isn’t a weakness; it’s an illness. Now vaccines and other new drugs may change the way we treat it.

Photographs by Gerald Forster for Newsweek

Faces of Recovery: (Clockwise from top left) Alvin O. Taylor, Megan Pudliner, Brandal Mitchell (with his mother, Chase), Christine Kelly, Sam Stanford and Annie Fuller each tell their stories

By Jeneen Interlandi | NEWSWEEK

Mar 3, 2008 Issue

 

Annie Fuller knew she was in trouble a year ago, when in the space of a few hours she managed to drink a male co-worker more than twice her size under the table.…

Here’s a little info on the interesting VH1 series, “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew“…

“Celebrity Rehab” is the first television series to chronicle the dramatic, unscripted real life experiences of a group of actual celebrities as they make the life-changing decision to enter themselves into a drug, alcohol and addiction treatment program with the sincere desire to achieve true rehabilitation and recovery.

This compelling true account of addiction, healing, and redemption is being supervised with great compassion and insight by renowned addiction and recovery expert Dr. Drew Pinsky, Medical Director of the Department of Chemical Dependency Services at Southern California’s Las Encinas…

Here is an interesting article we found on Methadone treatment and the number of deaths connected to the drug. Definitely worth a look…

By Joanna Kiernan
Sunday January 27 2008
The drug substitute methadone is leading to the deaths of more addicts than heroin, disturbing figures have revealed.A report by the Dublin City Coroner has shown that of the 87 inquests heard in his court last year, pure heroin was found to have caused the deaths of 14 people and contributed to a further 12. However, methadone, the legal substitute used to treat those with a heroin addiction, was found to have caused…

An article from News 14 Carolina on mothers who used meth in order to cope with their family life. Check out the video link on this page…

January 20th 2008
By Ivanhoe Newswire
News 14 Carolina

PHOENIX, Ariz. — According to government statistics, women make up 49 percent of all patients treated for a primary addiction to meth. Long-term effects of taking meth can be devastating, and more and more mothers are turning to this dangerous drug. The results can be disastrous.
Jasmine Trujillo loves her daughter Savannah, but until recently she also loved something else. “Meth became my higher power, it was something I…

Grammy’s Says “Yes, Yes, Yes” to Winehouse
By Nekesa Mumbi Moody
Associated Press
Trapped half a world away by the place she promised to never “go, go, go,” a vibrant, exuberant Amy Winehouse dominated the Grammys on Sunday night, winning five awards and delivering a defiant performance of her autobiographical hit “Rehab” via satellite from London.Winehouse, nominated for six awards, lost the final prize in a shocker when Herbie Hancock took album of the year for “River: The Joni Letters.””You know it’s been 43 years since the first and only time that a jazz artist got the album of the year award,” Hancock said, then…

An interesting excerpt from the San Diego City Beat on Methadone…

Methadone is the ‘gold standard’ for getting addicts off heroin–just not in San Diego County
By Kelly Davis
January 29th 2008

No one’s quite sure how addiction works—why among a group of friends who share a few lines of coke or a balloon of heroin at a party, one becomes an addict and the other nine never pass the point of being recreational users. Or why one person can toss out a bottle of leftover Vicodin once he’s recovered from his back sprain while another finds himself doctor shopping for prescriptions, unable to function…

Ledger Toxicology Report Released
NEW YORK - Actor Heath Ledger died as a result of accidental overdose of prescription drugs.

An autopsy into the star’s death in January failed to establish the cause of his death, but an overdose was suspected because a number of prescription medicines were found in his Manhattan apartment.

Toxicology test results released on Wednesday established six different drugs were found in the actor’s system, including painkillers, sleeping pills, anti-anxiety pills and antihistamines, when he died.

A statement from the Medical Examiner reads, “Mr. Heath Ledger died as the result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone,…

An interesting article on drug use in schools amongst children.

By Angelique Serrao

Six years ago, the average age of a first-time drug user was 19. Today it’s 10. It has become so bad that experts say every school in the country now has a drug problem and that it’s out of control.

A member of the drug training and awareness centre at the SA Police Service’s Organised Crime Unit, Jan Combrink, who has visited schools to teach children about the dangers of drug abuse, has found children as young as 4 using drugs.

Drug abuse among the youth has become so bad that…

January 30, 2008

Visiting a faith-based addiction treatment program in Baltimore, President George Bush referenced his own past drinking problems in telling program participants, “I understand addiction, and I understand how a changed heart can help you deal with addiction.”

The Associated Press reported Jan. 29 that Bush visited Baltimore’s Jericho Program, a project of Episcopal Family Services of Maryland, and spoke for the second time in as many months about his personal struggle with addiction.

“Addiction is hard to overcome. As you might remember, I drank too much at one time in my life,” Bush said. After asking two program participants how they…

IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, January 24, 2008
CONTACT:
Contact: Jennifer de Vallance, ONDCP, (202) 395–6648
Rosanna Maietta, Fleishman-Hillard, (202) 828–9706
ONDCP LAUNCHES FIRST MAJOR INITIATIVE TO COMBAT TEEN PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE
New Ad Campaign Debuts During Super Bowl

(Washington, D.C.)—The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) is launching its first major Federal effort to educate parents about teen prescription drug abuse. This national public awareness campaign will begin with advertising during this year’s Super Bowl, and is ONDCP’s first paid TV advertising targeting parents in nearly two years. The effort includes broadcast, print, and online advertising, community outreach, and new print and online resources…

Kathy Lynn, writer for the blog Gospodi Pomiluj takes a look into therapy…

Monday, January 14, 2008
Therapy and Centering Prayer
Well the 2 things I am checking out this week.

Therapy: I appreciated the comments from Irish Friend and johno on this topic. I’m not pro or con, and I am not at a critical point as a result of my fourth step, not falling apart or anything. (well, except when distant priests say, whoa, heavy!) Not really sure what I’m looking for. I’ve seen a therapist once before. I was falling apart when I started taking care of my Mom. I went to a…