November 19, 2009 at 11:21 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Headline of the month:
“Teen Burglary Ring Rooted in Friendship.” So headlined the story reporting a gang of suspects arrested on suspicion of burglarizing Lindsay Lohan and other Hollywood celebrities from October 2008 through September 2009 on www.popeater.com. No it isn’t. The ring is rooted in alcohol and other-drug addiction, along with possible codependency; where alcoholism is involved, friendship is secondary. Most of the group, including Nicholas Frank Prugo, 18, Alexis Neiers, 18 (sister of Playboy playmate Tess Taylor), Rachel Lee, 19, Diana Tamayo, 19 and Courtney Ames, 19, were classmates at a continuation campus for high school drop-outs in Agoura Hills. Prugo pled guilty to possession of cocaine in February and agreed to an 18-month drug diversion program. Lee, reportedly ...
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November 19, 2009 at 11:21 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Quotes of the month:
“I guess all the rumors our parents told us about drugs and alcohol are true. I was just dying an alcoholic death….I had to be putting poison in me 24/7. It went on for quite awhile.” So said Kevin Green, would-be Mammoth Lakes, California king of real estate, now 20 months sober and making amends to those he harmed. On a personal note, back in late 2005 my wife and I traded two of our three overpriced Mammoth vacation rentals for real estate outside the bubble states (Tennessee, to be precise—but the idea was to go anywhere else). We kept the third because it’s very cute (and available for rent), we love Mammoth and I figured, hey, ...
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November 19, 2009 at 11:18 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Sometimes, it takes an addict:
Dickie Peterson, the bassist and lead singer for the heavily amped Blue Cheer, dead at age 63 of metastasized prostate cancer. Best known for its name (a potent strain of LSD) and a 1968 rendition of the classic “Summertime Blues,” Blue Cheer members were not only enraged over Viet Nam, but “we were outraged at society in general and we were expressing it in a way that had never been done” in a style that The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll says was a “heavy-metal landmark.” While Peterson admits that band members took “a lot” of drugs, he acknowledged that while he still believed “LSD and such drugs have a positive effect…we took it ...
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November 19, 2009 at 11:17 pm ·
Filed under 2 - Movie & Book Reviews
“Law & Order: SVU Hammered”
Rarely does the small screen accurately portray alcoholism and even less frequently, if ever, does it do so in one show with two very different strains. The episode of “Law & Order: SVU” entitled “Hammered” does so, and does it well.
IMDB.com summarizes the plot: “An alcoholic who fell off the wagon is charged in the brutal rape and murder of an abortion doctor. His defense argues that alcoholism is a disease, but why is ADA Paxton so bitterly opposed to the claim?”
ADA Sonya Paxton, played by Christine Lahti, is bitterly opposed because (warning: spoiler alert!) she turns out to be an alcoholic, although one with a dramatically different style.
Dalton Rindell, played by Scott Foley, wakes up ...
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November 19, 2009 at 11:16 pm ·
Filed under 3 - Dear Doug...
I have a secret
Dear Doug:
My father and I have always had a terrible relationship. Throughout my youth, he often yelled at me and was frequently extremely rude, boorish, critical, sarcastic and angry for no apparent reason. One time he was so angry he threw me out of a slow-moving car. I attempted suicide in my late teens and 20s three times and Dad refused to visit me in the hospital. He acted the same way to my mother and sister.
He recently developed some life-threatening medical problems, which have me greatly concerned that I will never carry on any meaningful dialogue with him. And, I have a terrible secret I’d like to tell him before he dies. How do I tell ...
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November 19, 2009 at 11:14 pm ·
Filed under 4 - Alcoholic Myth of the Month
“The fact that they would dirty their own nest, as it were, is peculiar to me and suggests a level of mental illness or sickness.”
So said forensic psychologist N.G. Berrill, director of the New York Center for Neuropsychology and Forensic Behavioral Science, in hypothesizing that mental illness must play a role in the aberrant behavior of a killer like Anthony Sowell, who not only committed atrocities close to and in his home, but kept the trophies there as well.
Perhaps. However, the classic video of a bewildered Jeffrey Dahmer in prison, long sober, is revealing: he could be any John Smith. The common thread is more likely alcohol and other-drug addiction. It may or may not trigger mental illness, but without ...
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November 19, 2009 at 11:11 pm ·
Filed under 4 - Alcoholic Myth of the Month
“A power company spokesman said the incident is an example of the danger of [electrical] substations to untrained people.”
So wrote Trace Christenson in an article reporting that a 27-year-old man had been found with burned skin, singed hair and serious internal injuries inside a fenced electrical substation, apparently having been shocked with 46,000 volts of electricity. Trace is merely reporting what someone else said, but still. Several paragraphs later we read what is to the addictionologist obvious: the man “had been drinking.” Reporting myths sends the wrong message. More accurately, the incident is an example of the danger of unchecked alcoholism.
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November 19, 2009 at 11:10 pm ·
Filed under 5 - Amazing Alcoholic Antics
Story from “This is True” by Randy Cassingham, with his “tagline:”
“FATHER OF THE YEAR: A man was arrested in a hospital in Ogden, Utah, after allegedly groping a nurse. Adam Jay Manning, 30, wasn't a patient at the McKay-Dee Hospital: he had brought his girlfriend there to give birth to his child. Manning looked ‘up and down’ at the nurse and told her ‘how attractive she was, how cute she was,’ said police spokesman Lt. Loring Draper. The nurse ignored him, but he tried to massage her shoulders and then grabbed her breast, Draper said. She pulled away, but Manning kept after her and allegedly grabbed her again. ‘After the second time, the nurse asked what he was doing,’ Draper ...
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October 15, 2009 at 4:40 pm ·
Filed under General
I was blown away by the near-perfect portrayal of two alcoholics and of alcoholism in last night's Law & Order: SVU entitled "Hammered." Lucky for all of us--it's being repeated on NBC this Saturday night, October 17 at 10pm and again on USA network on October 27th at 11pm.
If you view the three previous episodes of the series first ("Unstable," "Sugar" and "Solitary"), you'll get even more out of watching the latest entree. You'll see what I mean. Let's just say that someone ordered a copy of Drunks, Drugs & Debits: How to Recognize Addicts and Avoid Financial Abuse for Christine Lahti in July.
Although it requires registration, we believe you can view all of the episodes here: www.prepelix.com
It is truly ...
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October 15, 2009 at 4:36 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
There’s an addict behind almost every crime, especially heinous ones. Phillip Garrido, who kidnapped and raped 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard, is no different from the rest. The only question is whether he was a dry or active drunk.
Phillip Craig Garrido, 58, a registered sex offender and parolee, was recently arrested for having abducted 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard in 1991 and holding her in captivity ever since. While their Antioch, California neighbors knew something was “off” about him, they saw only an overgrown backyard filled with sheds and tents and never detected the wailing or screaming one might expect of an abductee. Instead, they occasionally heard children, who “sounded normal.” The neighbors had no idea that Dugard gave birth to these ...
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October 15, 2009 at 4:35 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Runners-up for top story of the month:
Celebrity disc jockey Adam “DJ AM” Goldstein, 36, found dead with eight undigested OxyContin pills in his stomach and a ninth in his mouth, along with cocaine, hydrocodone (Vicodin), Ativan, Klonopin, Xanax, Benadryl and Levamisole (a drug use to cut cocaine) in his system. Goldstein was famous for spinning records for as much as $25,000 for a three-hour set at some of the world’s most exclusive parties, including private events for Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Stiller. Throughout his early 20s he struggled with drugs and his weight, reaching 300 pounds before getting sober and undergoing gastric by-pass surgery. After surviving a fiery Learjet crash barely a year ago on the runway of ...
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October 15, 2009 at 4:31 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Under watch:
Five actresses from the CW’s “The Vampire Diaries,” arrested in Georgia for dangling from the side of a bridge and exposing their breasts to passing motorists. A Sheriff’s deputy spokeswoman (we’ll pass on the obvious jokes about “under watch” and “spokeswoman,” not “spokesman”) said that “one girl was holding another girl’s ankles and hanging her over the bridge like she was going to drop her.” Nina Dobrev, 20, Sara Canning, 22, Kayla Ewell, 24, Krystal Vayda, 23 and Candice Accola, 22, were arrested along with cameraman Tyler Shields, whose footage confirmed (to the spokeswoman) several dozen drivers’ accounts of the escapades. The idea that none of the above may have been sober is supported by the fact that Canning ...
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October 15, 2009 at 4:29 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Alcoholic victims of the month:
Residents of the motor city, Detroit, Michigan, who suffer with the likes of Renee Jason Beavers, 33, arrested with a 24-ounce can of beer between her legs on charges of auto theft and driving without a valid license—for the 45th time; and Ahmed Malik, 31, arrested for having an improper license plate—the latest in his transgressions that include 52 license suspensions and 18 warrants for his arrest.
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October 15, 2009 at 4:29 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Enablers of the month:
Marsha Polk-Townsend, who described her brother Brownie Polk, 46, as not being “a violent guy” after causing a disturbance at a liquor-store and confronting police with a hatchet. After ignoring “numerous” commands to drop the weapon, he held the hatchet over his head and advanced on the officer, who shot him several times, killing him. While Polk-Townsend disputes the story, a security camera recorded the entire incident and corroborates the officer’s account. Polk-Townsend claims, “He would never charge at police with a hatchet.” No, Ms. Polk-Townsend, the brother you knew would never do that. Meet Mr. Hyde, who would.
An un-named resident of Malibu Colony, referring to Cheronda Guyton, who was responsible for Wells Fargo Bank’s foreclosed commercial ...
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October 15, 2009 at 4:25 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Disenabler of the month:
Frank Canale, 83, and his daughter, who were on their way to a wedding when Canale’s car was rear-ended by a hit-and-run driver. Canale, realizing the man was under the influence and fearing he “could kill someone,” called 911 and followed the culprit for 15 miles from New York into the man’s Danbury, Connecticut driveway, where Canale remained until police arrived. By the time they finished filing police reports in two states, the wedding was over.
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