June 22, 2007 at 1:19 pm ·
Filed under General
A reader asks about young adults who get into trouble and go to jail, and how not to let that screw up the rest of their lives?
One key to not letting jail screw up the rest of a life is to explain and emphasize that the person can never, ever drink or use other drugs again. To increase the odds of this, regular testing is never a bad thing.
Early in my 12 years of research and writing on alcoholism I was particularly struck by two comments in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. One was a lifer explaining he was in the pen because whiskey made him feel like he was God. Another said, if AA could be in every ...
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June 22, 2007 at 1:09 pm ·
Filed under General
A query that has been weighing on my mind recently is does rehab really work, given the amount of recidivism currently seen among today's celebrities and non-celebrities alike?
I'm beginning to think that most rehabs are not designed to work. They make money by attendance. So, if they can get the addict sober but fail to instill in the addict a need to _stay_ sober, they might get a repeat customer.
While not all rehabs operate under this principle, some obviously do from the anecdotes, particularly of celebrities. And privately some in the field have told me statistics ballied about are wrong. One rehab that claims an 85% success may have long-term success of only 10%. Perhaps it's a ...
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June 22, 2007 at 1:02 pm ·
Filed under General
A journalist asked about meth abuse and the extreme lengths an addict will go for a meth high.
I responded: Addicts do anything to get high. The question of what they use hinges on availability. In Russia, addicts use rocket fuel and toothpaste. Meth addicts, if they can't get their meth, will use any substitute that works.
Meth itself is extreme. Consider what it consists of: red phosphorus, crystal iodine, hydrochloric acid, ephedrin and pure ethanol. Now ask yourself, would any rational person in his right mind ingest such substances? No. It takes a brain-damaged individual--often someone who is already addicted to another drug such as alcohol. Because alcoholics think they are invincible and that they can control their use ...
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June 20, 2007 at 3:29 pm ·
Filed under General
Anne Heche claims she was abused by her father, who died of AIDS. Someone's an alcoholic--if the abuse if true, her father; if not true, her (false accusations are an all-but-certain indication of alcoholism). She admits to using Ecstasy in her autobiography and her husband details several incidents in which he claims she was drunk and belligerent. She was found under the influence in 2001 on a farm near Fresno, obviously confused, thinking aliens were coming to take her to heaven.
She's likely an alcoholic. Like Patty Duke, it may have triggered what appear to be Personality Disorders, but the alcoholism almost always comes first.
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June 20, 2007 at 1:54 pm ·
Filed under General
A journalist asks about the financial and investment decisions causing physicians to file for bankruptcy. How could highly educated doctors succumb to such financial devastation?
My first book, "Drunks, Drugs & Debits: How to Recognize Addicts and Avoid Financial Abuse", details story after story of financial abuse by alcohol and other-drug addicts. I'm well qualified to have analyzed such stories, since I'm an Enrolled Agent (tax pro), Certified Financial Planner and addiction researcher. I found that almost every instance of financial disarray in my clients' lives over the years resulted from alcohol/other-drug addiction either in the client or in a person who financially abused my client.
Unfortunately, most doctors seem to think they need a CPA to do their tax work, ...
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June 18, 2007 at 4:07 pm ·
Filed under General
A journalist asks whether unlicensed drivers are more likely to cause an accident than someone with a license. My response:
Of course. They are more likely alcoholics and, therefore, more likely than others to drive while under the influence and, therefore, more likely to cause accidents. To give an idea of the gravity of the problem, consider the fact that only 10% of Americans (and, one might safely assume, drivers) are alcoholics, who drive while under the influence maybe 20% of the time (2% of total road miles) and cause at least 40% of fatalities. Wow.
BTW, how do we know that unlicensed drivers have a higher probability of addiction than the overall population? Because it's just one more way by which ...
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June 18, 2007 at 3:44 pm ·
Filed under General
A journalist asks about causes and remedies of road rage. I respond:
The cause of road rage is likely no different from that which causes rage in general--alcohol or other drug addiction.
The closest proof of this is a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study in which driving behaviors were linked to likelihood of DUI. There were, apparently, not enough road rage incidents to glean reliable statistics for that particular misbehavior, but there were enough incidents in which obscene gestures were made (often a precursor to rage). The study found the likelihood of DUI in someone making such a gesture was 60%. I anecdotally suggest that most of the other 40% were addicts between drinking/using episodes.
Another study from which we might logically ...
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May 25, 2007 at 11:01 am ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Phil Spector "
Confused or Crazy, His Antics are Rooted in Alcoholism
After a gunshot rang through retired music producer Phil Spector's home on February 3, 2003 at 5 a.m., he walked outside in a daze and told his driver, Adriano DeSouza, "I think I just killed someone." He didn't say, "I didn't kill anyone," or "I definitely did not kill Lana Clarkson," or anything else denying culpability for the actress's death. Yet, if Spector has the disease of alcoholism, he could either have been confused, or culpable.
Spector, 68, turned rock'n'roll into "symphonies for teenagers." Working with the Beatles, the Righteous Brothers and the Ronettes, he became a multi-millionaire by his early 20s. His main claim to fame until now, the "wall ...
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May 25, 2007 at 11:01 am ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Runners-up for top story of the month:
St. Louis Cardinals relief pitcher Josh Hancock, killed when he ran his Ford Explorer into a tow truck that had stopped ahead of him in the left lane of a St. Louis freeway at 12:35 a.m. The tow truck had its lights flashing, Hancock was believed to be driving at or barely above the speed limit and there were no alcoholic beverage containers found in the vehicle. However, the fact that he headed straight for the flashing lights suggested there might be more to the story.
Years ago, the California Highway Patrol was baffled over the fact that many DUIs ran smack into patrol cars on which lights were flashing. They finally figured out that ...
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May 25, 2007 at 10:59 am ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
In pictures reminiscent of the mug shot of actor Nick Nolte, a video of actor David Hasselhoff taken by his 17-year-old daughter Taylor was, according to Hasselhoff, "maliciously" released by "individuals who are not worthy of mentioning... for their own self purpose." Hasselhoff lies on a floor shirtless, attempting to eat a hamburger while obviously stinking drunk. His daughter, off-screen, begs her father to stop drinking and asks, "Why do you like doing this to yourself?" "'Cause I'm lonely," Hasselhoff responds. "I don't have any children in my life." Videos are an excellent tool not only for interventions, but also as reminders. While the tape was never intended to become public, perhaps it will serve to remind Mr. Hasselhoff what ...
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May 25, 2007 at 10:58 am ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Hall of Famer and seven-time All-Star Orlando Cepeda, clocked at 83 mph in a 65 mph zone and pulled over by a California Highway Patrol officer, who smelled the unmistakable odor of marijuana emanating from his car. The officer found a white-powder substance that was likely methamphetamine or cocaine, along with marijuana and a syringe, and arrested the 69-year-old Cepeda on suspicion of felony possession. After his playing career ended, Cepeda was convicted in 1976 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, of smuggling marijuana. It is believed that Cepeda, who works for the San Francisco Giants as a community liaison and ironically speaks to at-risk children about the dangers of alcohol and other drugs, was not under the influence at the ...
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May 25, 2007 at 10:57 am ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
The people of the central Asian country of Kazakhstan, who likely will now be ruled by "President" Nursultan A. Nazarbayev, 66, until he dies. The Parliament of the oil-rich country of 15 million approved a package of constitutional amendments that remove term limits for the President. Kazakhstan has never had an election that outside observers have judged fair and free. His rise to the top is described by the Russian word, hitryi, which translates roughly as "tricky" or "cunning," like a fox, which describes many alcoholics. How about, "liars"? When opposition leader Zamenbek Nurkadilov was found dead from a gunshot wound to his chest and another through his head, police determined that the cause of death was suicide. Nazarbayev was ...
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May 25, 2007 at 10:57 am ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
The United States government, again enabling North Korean despot Kim Jong Il. I wrote in the "codependent of the month" section of the July 2006 issue, "The six nations attempting to control Kim Jong Il's North Korea qualify for codependents of the month, and perhaps the decade. Like any other addict, Kim makes numerous promises he never keeps. Like other codependents, those dealing with him try negotiation, logic and reason. As pointed out in Alcoholism Myths and Realities: Removing the Stigma of Society's Most Destructive Disease, 'Attempting to negotiate with a brain affected by alcoholism is like trying to be rational with a reptile....The brain of the practicing alcoholic, soaked in acetaldehyde, is not a rational one. The addict cannot ...
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May 25, 2007 at 10:56 am ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Former Russian president Boris Yeltsin, dead of cardiovascular problems at age 76. Except for the fact that he didn't seem to crave totalitarian power--but given Soviet circumstances, he may have not been in a position to wield it--he exhibited many of the classic symptoms of middle- to late-stage alcoholism while in power. He was erratic and he thrived on crises, seemed bored by normalcy, was guided not so much by reason as gut instinct and was defiant. He went into tirades during which he publicly criticized communist party leadership during Gorbachev's perestroika, including Gorbachev and even his wife Raisa, resulting in his expulsion from the Politburo. When elected president of the Russian Federation in 1991, he wasted little time in ...
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May 25, 2007 at 10:55 am ·
Filed under 6 - Public Policy Recommendations
Allow Admission of Prior Bad Acts
The judge in the Phil Spector case, Larry P. Fidler, has allowed admission of testimony by four women whose stories appear similar to that which Lana Clarkson might have told had she lived. However, he rejected prosecutors' requests to introduce six other incidents into evidence. Two misdemeanor gun charges from the 1970s were considered too old; others, including one in which Spector allegedly pushed the barrel of a gun into a woman's cheek were ruled too dissimilar to be "relevant." The law generally proscribes the introduction of evidence of prior bad acts.
It should not.
Prior bad acts can show that a defendant has a propensity to commit crime. This is particularly true if the person was ...
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