September 13, 2005 at 11:28 am ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Under watch: Acting San Diego Mayor Michael Zucchet and Councilman Ralph Inzunza, convicted of trading political favors for campaign contributions with a strip-club owner. The 35-year-old Democrats agreed to try and ease the prohibition on nude dancers from touching their customers in exchange for $23,000 in contributions. Deputy Mayor Zucchet had taken over Mayor Dick Murphy's job the previous business day. Murphy had resigned over controversy relating to his handling of the city's $2 billion pension deficit. Six former pension board members face criminal charges of conflict of interest. The question of the decade for the beleaguered city of San Diego, once considered one of the best governed in the country, is who are the addicts?
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September 13, 2005 at 11:27 am ·
Filed under 5 - Amazing Alcoholic Antics
Amazing Antics: Stories of Alcoholism-Driven Behaviorsâ„¢
Just what was the officer thinking?
"THE GLAMOROUS SIDE OF DRINKING: A trooper investigating a single-car accident in Woodville, Maine, says that driver Peter Bradley Murray, 42, appeared intoxicated and had urinated on himself. But he could still see straight. "He said, 'You have beautiful green eyes,' and he started touching my arm," State Trooper Jennifer Fiske said. She started to handcuff him, but only got one side on when he pulled away and tried to lock her in the other cuff, saying "I just want us to be tied together." She whacked him with her baton and finished cuffing him. "What did he think I was going to do? Go out on a date ...
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September 13, 2005 at 11:25 am ·
Filed under 4 - Alcoholic Myth of the Month
Alcoholic Myth-of-the-Month: It's the families' fault
"The family can do more than the law in stemming drug use."
"I'm going to continue to make a hard run at the families of these gang members. You are responsible, partially, for the lack of help your child gets.â€
So said Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, stepping up his pressure on parents to take responsibility for their children in the wake of the cold-blooded murder of Deputy Jerry Ortiz, allegedly by known gang member Jose Luis Orozco.
One of the more obvious problems with this is that Orozco is 27. His parents, described as "religious and hard-working"by a former neighbor who was "offended"by Baca's remarks, moved to Las Vegas two years ago to get away ...
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September 13, 2005 at 11:24 am ·
Filed under 3 - Dear Doug...
Dear Doug: Party-hardy momma
Dear Doug:
My mother owns a successful business, but she's hanging out with a crowd of divorcees who drag her to bars. We share a car and I suspect her of smoking, which she denies. After dad leaves for work at night I see mom doing a lot of drinking. When I confront her about my concerns, she makes up excuses and goes further to hide her problems and booze. I'm told that people abuse alcohol because they are depressed, but we had a great family life until recently. What do you suggest I do?
Signed, Concerned Daughter
. . . . . .
Dear Concerned Daughter,
Other columnists might suggest that while your parents need professional help, ...
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September 13, 2005 at 11:24 am ·
Filed under 2 - Movie & Book Reviews
The war on drugs allows the worst to create untold wealth
Movie Review: "Batman Begins," "A License to Kill," and "Trafficâ€
You wouldn't think a comic strip hero, James Bond and a movie about drug trafficking would have something in common. Yet each, in its own way, reinforces the idea that illegality creates high prices not only worth killing over, but also untold billions for those willing to take extraordinary risks.
The biggest risk-takers are alcohol and other drug addicts. Distortions of perception cause impaired judgment. In particular, the addict comes to think he can do no wrong, which creates a sense of invincibility. A "rules don't apply to me"attitude often becomes all-pervasive. This can be observed in many addicts that, no ...
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September 13, 2005 at 11:23 am ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
It's time to narrow the focus of the war on drugs
Top Story: Everyone suffers from the war,
except the drug lords
"Prohibition is an awful flop. We like it.
It can't stop what it's meant to stop. We like it.
It's left a trail of graft and slime,
It don't prohibit worth a dime,
It's filled our land with vice and crime.
Nevertheless, we're for it."
" Franklin P. Adams (1931)
Hoping to appease a violent minority of coca farmers organized by Evo Morales, two Bolivian presidents have stepped down from office in two years, the latest in June. In a seemingly unrelated development, also in June, police Commander Enrique Cardenas, responsible for policing the Mexican town of Nuevo Laredo across the border from Laredo, Texas, was ...
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September 13, 2005 at 11:21 am ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories, General
Runners-up for top story of the month: Russell Crowe, whose wife Daniell Spencer had already asked him to stop drinking because it "seems to make him so aggressive,"assaulting a New York hotel employee with a phone and blaming it on "jet lag, loneliness and adrenaline."He explained that he was trying to call his wife to let her know that "I'm at home, I'm in bed, I haven't had too much to drink and, primely important, that I'm alone."At 4 a.m. He wore very dark sunglasses as he was escorted out in handcuffs. At 4 a.m. (A week later he was spotted joking about the incident -- while drinking at a Canadian pub.) Nineteen-year-old Sydney Simpson, following in her famous father's ...
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September 13, 2005 at 11:19 am ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories, General
Under watch: New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, finally confronted in the courtroom by one of his business targets, former Bank of America broker Theodore Sihpol, in a match reminiscent of David and Goliath. The jury found Sihpol's after-market-close trading, which Mr. Spitzer called criminal, to be commonly accepted practice. Sihpol was acquitted on 29 counts, with the jury hung on four others, for which a single juror held out for conviction. Sihpol had refused a plea offer that included jail time, putting himself at risk for a 30-year term. Other business targets have caved into Spitzer's prosecution-by-press-release and threats of indictment or the destruction of an entire company, paying enormous fines (often with shareholder funds). None had previously risked ...
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September 2, 2005 at 9:35 am ·
Filed under General
I may expand on this for the Addiction Report, but here are my initial thoughts:
I recently asked some recovering addict gang members what percentage of gang-bangers are addicts. They all agreed at 100%. I think we can safely conclude almost all of the thuggery in New Orleans is, therefore, committed by addicts.
Addicts are capable of anything. The looters--who later graduated to violence and arson--needed to be stopped without compromise from the start. Better yet, we need to act to get gang members clean and sober now, before disasters occur. Only in our worst nightmares can we imagine the consequences to civil society of an 8.0 earthquake in Los Angeles.
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August 30, 2005 at 9:16 am ·
Filed under General
A client in the reality TV business recently confirmed my suspicions that such TV is purposely filled with likely alcoholics. He said flatly, certain people become so much more interesting for the viewing public when the producers ply the participants with liquor--and the producers no this.
Other than flipping channels, seeing the players in Survivor, and quickly concluding there were many likely alcoholics, I'd never before watched reality TV. I decided to try and see as many Big Brother 6 episodes as I could. I quickly found several likely alcoholics, but slowly discovered a couple of possibilities that I didn't at first suspect.
First, I'll the likely non-addicts include James, the loss prevention manager, despite the fact that everyone seems to hate ...
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August 29, 2005 at 2:43 pm ·
Filed under General
I wrote the following letter to The New Yorker, responding to Malcolm Gladwell's piece entitled "The Moral Hazard Myth," in the August 29, 2005 issue:
Dear Sir:
Malcolm Gladwell is right in suggesting that the sick pay more for health care. However, his argument that overall costs will not drop as increasing numbers are given an ownership stake in their care flies in the face of reality. While many do not pig out at all-you-can-eat diners, some do, increasing overall costs. If we want to decrease these costs, which help the sick and well alike, we need to create incentives to conserve scarce resources. Destroying the price mechanism, which universal care does, guarantees overuse. Health Savings Accounts go far in creating ...
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August 23, 2005 at 11:07 am ·
Filed under General
Beverly writes:
"I am a long time member of the Al-Anon/Alateen Family Groups and I hope that in your literature that you have made a reference to us. All those that are addicted affect so many other lives and those others can get the support and recovery they need by attending Al-Anon/Alateen meetings. "
I responded:
Yes, I mention Al-Anon, especially in my first book (Drunks, Drugs & Debits). While it's an excellent organization with many meetings in which there is good, solid recovery, I have some issues with many members. One is with the idea that many Al-Anoners seem to have: alcoholism in a close person is "not our business" and we cannot or should not diagnose alcoholism in others. Yet, ...
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August 23, 2005 at 11:06 am ·
Filed under General
It is amazing to think back in my own experience and find undiagnosed alcoholism all around me. I could have written what Mark writes, obvious though it may seem now--with 20-20 hindsight and a new worldview of addiction. But back then, like Mark, I didn't have a clue. His letter to me was heartwarming and at the same time tragic, but it offers all sorts of openings for instructive ideas.
Mark writes, with my comments in quotes, along with a mention of which of my books is likely the best source for additional information (DDD refers to Drunks, Drugs & Debits; AMR is Alcoholism Myths and Realities; H/A is How to Spot Hidden Alcoholics; GOW is Get Out of the Way! ...
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July 19, 2005 at 11:24 am ·
Filed under General
A good friend asks:
"I understand the lack of acetate production in alcoholic drinkers. Does this physiology apply to other drugs?"
I cannot so easily explain the other drugs and why addiction to those is so often linked to addiction to alcohol.
I am beginning to say, "My hypothesis of the conversion of alcohol to acetaldehyde to acetate is but one hypothesis, and may be just one biological component to addiction to psychotropic drugs. It is, however, at the least a useful paradigm through which to view the biochemistry, since it serves to explain the differences between the alcoholic and non-alcoholic. However, it may be far from the entire picture of biochemistry."
We do know there must be brain damage, since we ...
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July 8, 2005 at 3:21 pm ·
Filed under General
In the final thoughts on the libertarian list thread, one writer says:
"Maybe that explains why there are so many drunks in the legislature and so few principled libertarians with the true wellbeing of the people at heart." He also mentions that a person on the list in whom I suspect alcoholism either in himself or a parent has "some pretty good insights at times. But then again so did Edgar Allen Poe."
Another writer says:
An "inherited tendency does exist, but it does not equal alcoholism. Alcoholism means the abuse (= irresponsible use) of alcohol. Period.
"Those who inherit a genetic 'tendency to alcoholism' may have a harder time controlling their behavior than other people, but most manage it. The person ...
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