Doug Thorburn on Early-Stage Alcohol and Drug Addiction

Great quotes on the value of ultimatums, how awful the behaviors of a practicing addict can be v. their true self, and on paying amends.

October 15, 2009 at 4:24 pm · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Quotes of the month: “I have never had anyone call me or e-mail me to say they wished they wouldn’t have given someone an ultimatum. But I have a couple of dozen times had some[one] contact me to tell me that they wish they wouldn’t have backed down or waited, because now the person is dead.” So said interventionist Jeff Van-Vonderen matter-of-factly in a newspaper article on whether traditional intervention, in which the addict is given an ultimatum, might have worked on Michael Jackson. This pretty much puts to rest the idea that ultimatums should not be given and that they should, instead, be offered at every opportunity. “My father was not a bad man. He was a very sick man….He was ...

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Understanding Ted Kennedy requires that we understand alcoholism. And sometimes, it really does take an addict.

October 15, 2009 at 4:17 pm · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Sometimes, it takes an addict: Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy, dead from brain cancer at 77. Kennedy’s life was filled with the conflicts, inconsistencies and enigmas that are rarely explained by anything other than alcoholism. Although he reportedly sobered up in the 1990s, to the end he continued to manipulate the system wherever he could and maintain he was not drunk the night he left a party in 1969 and drove his chauffeur’s limousine off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island into Poucha Pond, leaving Mary Jo Kopechne to drown. However, the facts belie the claim: he swam to shore and walked back to the party, past several houses and a fire station. (Kopechne had scratched the upholstered floor above her head in ...

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Employers need to screen out alcoholics. A credit check, while imperfect, is one way that can protect them–and help the addict to his or her bottom.

October 15, 2009 at 4:16 pm · Filed under 6 - Public Policy Recommendations

Public Policy Recommendation of the Month A bill that would prohibit credit checks for most California job applicants is on the governor’s desk. Many think a credit check uncovering poor credit is unfair to honest hard-working people who have had a streak of bad luck. Many prospects, who might be perfectly decent employees, find it more difficult to get a job. Pulling credit reports discriminates against the young and immigrants who haven’t yet built any credit. Divorce and identity theft can contribute to a low credit score, which can make getting a job more difficult. However, the damages from errant employees far outweigh these concerns. Destructive employees are usually alcohol and other-drug addicts. Employers already have very little protection against them and, ...

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Don’t send a Veteran who’s an alcoholic to the VA. Send him to an AA meeting and rehab.

October 15, 2009 at 4:15 pm · Filed under 3 - Dear Doug...

Veteran finds good jobs and gets fired...What might explain that? Dear Doug: My significant other, Allen, has no trouble finding good jobs. Then he gets depressed, drinks too much and gets fired, or decides the job isn’t right and quits. He spends his money wantonly and often gets evicted for non-payment of rent, ending up on my doorstep. I think Allen, who is a veteran and eligible for Social Security, needs more help than I can give him. What should I do? Signed, Baffled . . . . . Dear Codependent, Other columnists might tell you that Allen needs professional help to learn why he sabotages his jobs and spends his rent money. They’d suggest that he head straight to his local VA for assistance and that ...

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CEOs with an over-sized ego are more likely to commit fraud. Ok, so where did that oversized ego come from? Hello?

October 15, 2009 at 4:14 pm · Filed under 4 - Alcoholic Myth of the Month

“The biggest risk factor for fraud is a CEO with a truly oversized ego.” So found an academic review of 15 Canadian corporate fraud cases between 1995 and 2005, which pointed out that a list of common warning signs of potential fraud is missing this most important item, which includes being “lauded by the media or by analysts.” According to Janet McFarland in Toronto’s The Globe and Mall, Michel Magnan, one of the report’s authors, argues that “generous doses of external praise can lead an egotistical executive to [result in] an exaggerated sense of self-confidence that leads CEOs to believe they can do whatever they want and get away with it.” Magnan, a business professor at Concordia University, seemed surprised that ...

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A variation of “My addict would never do THAT!”: the case of father John and daughter Mackenzie Phillips

October 15, 2009 at 4:13 pm · Filed under 4 - Alcoholic Myth of the Month

Mini-myth of the month: “He was incapable, no matter how drunk or drugged he was, of having such a relationship with his own child.” So said John Phillips’ third wife, Genevieve Waite, in response to the claim by stepdaughter Mackenzie Phillips that John raped her when she was 19 and carried on an incestuous affair with her for much of the next 10 years. Sorry Ms. Waite, but addicts are capable of anything. That includes things that make the rest of us recoil. She also said, “John was a good man who had the disease of alcoholism and drug addiction.” You’d think, then, that she’d know better. We need to remember one thing when dealing with practicing addicts: we cannot predict how destructive ...

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Exotic animals at home can be a clue to underlying alcoholism

October 15, 2009 at 4:11 pm · Filed under 5 - Amazing Alcoholic Antics

Story from “This is True” by Randy Cassingham, with his “tagline:” “NICE DOGGIE: Pat Yoes, a spokesman for the St. Charles Parish, La., Sheriff's Office, says he doesn't know where Terron D. Ingram, 38, got the alligator, or what he was planning to do with it. But deputies saw Ingram riding a bicycle down the street with the 3-foot-long animal resting on his shoulders. When deputies stopped him, he ran -- leaving both his bicycle and his leathery friend behind. The gator was caught and released into a nearby marsh; Ingram was caught and housed in the jail, charged with resisting arrest, cruelty to animals, and possession of drug paraphernalia. (New Orleans Times-Picayune) ...Yeah, it's no surprise to me that the ...

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Diane Schuler: A Tragic Case of Hidden Alcoholism–replete with myths

August 13, 2009 at 9:47 am · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Diane Schuler: A Tragic Case of Hidden Alcoholism Diane Schuler’s husband, Daniel Schuler, told investigators that everything seemed fine when she left a Sullivan County, New York campground with her 2-year-old daughter, 5-year-old son and three young nieces at 9:30 a.m. on July 26. He was going fishing, while his wife was heading home. When he heard from police a few hours later that she was involved in a wrong-way head-on collision that killed everyone in both vehicles except for the 5-year-old, he—and the press—had no idea what could have possibly gone wrong. For days, cops and family members were “baffled” about what made her drive so recklessly. Six other drivers called 911 before the collision, as she straddled two lanes, tailgated, ...

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George Sodini proves, in a case of mass murder, that we cannot predict how destructive an alcoholic may become, or when

August 13, 2009 at 9:39 am · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Runners-up for top story of the month: Systems analyst and loner George Sodini, 48, who walked into a Pittsburgh gym, shooting and killing 3 women, wounding 9 women, terrifying dozens of others and then killing himself. In his personal blog, he recounted years of loneliness and rejection, along with his plans for committing mass murder, which he delayed twice. He knew that liquid courage was required for him to pull it off. He wrote on May 5: “To pull the exit plan [i.e., murder-suicide] off, it popped into my mind to just use some booze….I stopped at Shop N Save and got a fifth of vodka and a small bottle of Jack Daniels. I haven't had a drink since September 1, ...

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Former centerfielder Lenny Dykstra, bankrupt alcoholic and pro-football Hall of Famer Bruce Smith, charged with DUI–yet again.

August 13, 2009 at 9:36 am · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Former New York Mets and, later, Philadelphia Phillies centerfielder Lenny Dykstra filing for bankruptcy the day before his mansion was to be auctioned in a foreclosure sale. Dykstra, who reported an estimated $58 million in net worth as recently as early 2008, listed less than $50,000 in assets against $10-$50 million in liabilities. His storied career includes a DUI after demolishing his Mercedes roadster in 1991 in a 1 a.m. spin-out with his BAL at .179 percent, an arrest for making sexual advances to a 17-year-old worker at his Simi Valley car wash in 1999 (for which he was later cleared), being the target of at least two dozen legal actions since 2007 and a business empire that appears to ...

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Addict v. addict: Jesse James Hollywood convicted of murdering a likely addicted kid and American Idol contestant Alexis Cohen, addict, killed by Daniel Bark, addict. It’s more common than you think.

August 13, 2009 at 9:34 am · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Jesse James Hollywood, runner-up in the June 2009 TAR, convicted of first-degree murder in the 2000 slaying of 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz even though he didn’t pull the trigger. The jury found that “friends,” eager to clear the books of drug debts, followed his orders to kill by shooting Markowitz nine times. The gun, which was buried with Nicholas, belonged to Hollywood. One journalist reporting the conviction reminded readers that the case inspired the 2006 movie “Alpha Dog,” which “depicted a dark side of middle-class suburbia, a world of frequently stoned young people who were willing to take orders from a criminal mastermind.” Correct me if I’m wrong, but this seems to imply that this middle-class world consists of stoners taking ...

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Second-in-command of the California prison system, Scott Kernan, and a police chief, David Baker, both prove that alcoholism explains any misbehaviors that close people may observe.

August 13, 2009 at 9:30 am · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Scott Kernan, 47, appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in November 2008 as undersecretary for prison operations for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, suspended for six weeks without pay as punishment for driving his state-provided car while under the influence. Kernan, whose position places him as the second-ranking administrator of California’s prison system, says he is “deeply remorseful” and will plead guilty. But Mr. Kernan, will you seek sobriety? And will you begin to inspire those serving under you to do the same? Alexandria, Virginia police chief David Baker, arrested on charges of DUI after crashing his unmarked city vehicle. Baker’s blood alcohol level was .19 percent, for which anyone Baker’s age, 58, is almost certain proof of alcoholism. Baker ...

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We often can’t prove addiction in corrupt public figures. However, addiction is the best explanation for the behaviors of attorneyMarc Dreier, former Congressman William Jefferson, a bunch of rabbis and officials in New Jersey and New York, and a couple of Ponzi operators named Bravata and Trabulsy.

August 13, 2009 at 9:27 am · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Under watch: In an early 2009 piece on white collar crime, The Economis magazine mentioned something those who have read my books would predict: “Many [Club Fed and other white collar] prisoners suddenly discover, post-conviction, that they had a drinking problem….” I would add that those who don’t figure this out might benefit from greater introspection. In the spirit of The Economist’s discovery, a litany of recent cases follow for which the evidence of alcoholism is in the crime itself. Disgraced lawyer Marc Dreier, sentenced to 20 years after admitting to selling $700 million in fake promissory notes and to stealing client funds. Dreier, who was featured in the January 2009 TAR “under watch” section, explained that his crimes “in part” grew ...

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Lily Burk: possible victim of the War on Drugs, incompetence (and naivete)

August 13, 2009 at 9:24 am · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Alcoholic victim of the month: Lily Burk’s body was found in a car in downtown Los Angeles. Her neck had been slashed a bit over 12 hours earlier. Shortly after her murder, Charlie Samuel, 50, was apprehended for public intoxication and having a crack pipe in his pocket. Two days later, Samuel was charged with Burk’s murder after police matched his fingerprints with those found in the car. Samuel was a drug addict with a “colorful” criminal history, including convictions for assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping and robbery. He was given early parole because California’s prisons are arguably filled with too many non-violent offenders and, while he should have been tried and convicted on a third strike under California’s “three ...

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Sarah Palin’s resignation: the inexplicable explained by addiction in close people.

August 13, 2009 at 9:20 am · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Co-dependent of the month: Former Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who announced she is resigning as Alaska’s governor without an explanation that makes sense. When something doesn’t make sense, addictionologists know that addiction likely lurks just beneath the surface. Evidence supporting the idea that Palin’s reaction is to alcoholism in those close includes: 1. Daughter Bristol has been reported to be a dope-smoking underage drinker and party girl. 2. Bristol’s estranged boyfriend, with whom she bore a son, appears to consume alcohol and other drugs addictively. 3. The boyfriend’s mother Sherry was arrested and charged with six felony drug charges late last year. Addiction sheds light on the behaviors of many politicians. The behaviors of many non-addicted politicians could be explained by ...

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