Is it possible to effectively treat addiction without addressing the spiritual aspects of the problem

<p><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; background-color: #ffffff;"><div class="singlesubtitle" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px !important; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">The public struggles of celebrities like the late Amy Winehouse reveal how insensitive our society has become to drug and alcohol abuse. But the problem is real, says therapist LaTonya Mason Summers, and we need to reject the ugly trend of laughing at its destructive effects.</div><div id="attachment_17095" class="wp-caption alignright" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 7px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 24px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; float: right; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; width: 360px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-17095" height="255" src="http://www.urbanfaith.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Winehouse-reflection350x255.gif" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 640px; float: left; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;" width="350" /><p class="wp-caption-text" style="background-image: none; background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #666666; margin-top: 0px !important; margin-right: 10px !important; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px !important; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #ffffff; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px; float: left; font-weight: bold; width: 340px; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: repeat repeat; padding: 5px; border: 0px initial initial;">LOST SOUL: Amy Winehouse in London on July 23, 2009, exactly two years before her death. (Photo by Shaun Curry/Newscom.)</p></div><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">This week, <a style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: #666666; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;" href="http://news.yahoo.com/coroner-amy-winehouse-died-too-much-alcohol-123334324.html" target="_blank">Amy Winehouse’s official cause of death</a> was finally announced, three months after the singer was discovered dead in her London home on July 23. After initial autopsy results came back inconclusive, the coroner determined that Winehouse died from consuming an extreme amount of alcohol. According to test results, the 27-year-old singer’s blood alcohol level was five times the drunk-driving limit. Her doctor said the troubled star had resumed drinking in the days prior to her death, after a short-lived period of sobriety.</p><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Besides being a talented artist, Winehouse was emblematic of the numerous celebrities today whose public battles with substance abuse are regularly in the headlines. By the end of her life, Winehouse’s struggles had stretched to the point of becoming fodder for jokes and riddles (“Q: What was Amy Winehouse’s biggest hit? A: Her last one!”). Sadly, our society has grown so accustom to addiction that we now laugh it off. But for those in its grips, it’s no joke.</p><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">We asked LaTonya Mason Summers, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based mental health therapist, to comment on the realities of drug and alcohol addiction and what we can do to help those affected by it.</p><h2 style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; padding-top: 15px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: none; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">UrbanFaith: After Amy Winehouse’s death, the Huffington Post featured a commentary by Rabbi Shais Taub which asked the question, “<a style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: #666666; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-shais-taub/amy-winehouse-death_b_908050.html" target="_blank">Was the World Powerless to Stop Amy Winehouse?</a>” In other words, are there addictions so strong and pervasive that they’re beyond human understanding and control? How would you answer that?</strong></h2><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"></strong><strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">LaTonya Mason Summers:</strong> The word choice is interesting here, and I agree: the “world” was powerless to stop Amy Winehouse. But it was the “world” that fueled Winehouse’s addictions. Not “world” in the sense of the “earth,” but “world” as defined by Winehouse’s frame of reference — the background, culture, and lifestyle out of which she lived. Addictions are strong, pervasive and hard to understand and control, but it’s even more difficult when one tries to stop addiction by their own strength and understanding. It is reported that Winehouse died from alcohol poisoning. Drug and alcohol abuse is a byproduct of something far deeper. Oftentimes, it’s a symptom of low self-esteem, unresolved trauma and abuse, rejection and abandonment, and mostly fear. We do a great disservice to addicted persons when we focus on their addictions and ignore the underlying problems.</p><h2 style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; padding-top: 15px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: none; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">We see so many celebrity drug and alcohol addicts today that our culture has almost grown cold and callous to it. For instance, before her death there was a website devoted solely to the question of “<a style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: #666666; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;" href="http://www.whenwillamywinehousedie.com/" target="_blank">When will Amy Winehouse die?</a>” We see celebrities such as Winehouse, Lindsay Lohan, Whitney Houston, and Charlie Sheen, and we make jokes about them. How does this affect our culture’s understanding of addiction?</strong></h2><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"></strong>When we have a culture entertained by reality TV shows, court and crime TV, and sensationalized Web broadcasting — not to mention today’s popular music — we can’t help but have a desensitized society. We are no longer afraid of or empathetic toward anyone or anything because we’ve been there and done that through TV and the media. So, why wouldn’t we have a “When will Amy Winehouse Die?” website?</p><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Unfortunately, we live in a society that “dumbs down” addictions but tacitly gives a “thumbs up” to its portrayals. Remember when there used to be cautionary documentaries on drugs and alcohol, and on people who struggled with them? Now, we have reality shows that glorify dysfunctional behavior. No wonder we are ignorant. Understanding addictions is no longer newsworthy.</p><h2 style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; padding-top: 15px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: none; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">How do you counsel a person with a serious drug addiction? Where do you begin, and what kinds of things should family and friends understand as they’re trying to help that person?</strong></h2><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"></strong>I used to set up and run treatment programs for adolescent and adult substance abusers. I absolutely loved that line of work, but it was emotionally tough. After 11 years of doing it, I stepped away to work solely with mentally ill people. The public sees addicted persons as weak people who lack self-control and deserve every consequence they face. But can you imagine the level of shame, guilt, frustration, and hopelessness that those substance abusers felt by the time they got to me? Imagine having failed everyone, including yourself, family, friends, employers, and the legal system — not to mention God. I always started treatment by instilling hope and restoring the addicted person’s sense of worth. It was much easier to establish rapport, trust, and motivation that way.</p><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">God forbid I say this, but oftentimes the families were more sick than the addicts. In fact, family members would wind up on my couch before the addict would. Family work is important in substance-abuse treatment, because the family members can make recovery hard. They help too much. Their helping sometimes hurts the addict. When my patients had toxic families, I’d send my patient to a treatment program in another city or state so they could get better.</p><h2 style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; padding-top: 15px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: none; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Over the summer, former NBA star <a style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: #666666; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;" href="http://news.yahoo.com/jalen-rose-gets-20-days-jail-drunk-driving-160144351.html" target="_blank">Jalen Rose was sentenced to 20 days in jail</a> for drunk driving. Some wondered if the treatment was overly harsh because he was a black celebrity, since others have gotten off easier. Do you think jail time is an effective way to steer people clear of destructive behavior involving alcohol and drugs?</strong></h2><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"></strong>In my experience working in the court system as an advocate for my clients, the courts made it worse. The punishment given rarely fit the crime. The probation officers were inconsistent. The judges sent mixed messages by punishing minor crimes with maximum sentences and vice versa. Jail time is punitive, and punishment does not work when the drug or alcohol use is secondary to something else. Addicts don’t mind punishment because they typically feel useless and worthless anyway. That kind of punishment affirms what they believe about themselves. However, I am not saying they should not suffer consequences for drunk driving, drug use, etc. I am saying that offering them rehab while they’re incarcerated might yield greater results.</p><h2 style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; padding-top: 15px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: none; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">What kinds of miracles have you seen in your work with people battling addictions?</strong></h2><div id="attachment_17103" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 7px; margin-right: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; float: left; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; width: 160px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-17103" height="200" src="http://www.urbanfaith.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/LaTonya-Mason150x200.gif" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 640px; float: left; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;" width="150" /><p class="wp-caption-text" style="background-image: none; background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #666666; margin-top: 0px !important; margin-right: 10px !important; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px !important; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #ffffff; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px; float: left; font-weight: bold; width: 140px; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: repeat repeat; padding: 5px; border: 0px initial initial;">LaTonya Mason Summers</p></div><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Goodness, the stories I can tell. I’ve had a hand in imparting into the lives of addicted persons who are now pastors, business owners, and even addictions counselors. I had a 15-year-old girl whose parents brought her to me as a last resort. She had refused other counselors, and I assumed she would do the same with me. After I asked her parents to leave, the girl opened up to me like a book. (It wasn’t because of anything special that I said to her, but other professionals simply had failed to remove the parents.) The girl was a cocaine user and held me by her confidentiality rights, so I could not tell her parents. We made a pact that if she stopped using I would keep her secret. I cannot tell you the anxiety I had for weeks thinking something would go wrong. I collaborated with her physician to drug test her weekly to ensure the girl’s abstinence. After three months, her parents called thanking me for my help. The girl had returned to a healthy weight, her appetite had been restored, and her mood had improved. Today (four years later) she is a successful college student studying psychology.</p><h2 style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; padding-top: 15px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: none; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Among the celebrity success stories that stand out are Robert Downey Jr.’s eventual victory over substance abuse. It only came after several stints in jail and a long, public battle. What kinds of things contribute to a successful road to recovery, and when do you know that someone is legitimately recovered?</strong></h2><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">My biggest weapon is instilling hope. I do this by challenging the addicted person’s mentality and perspective. I am a cognitive behaviorist, which means I help change the way people think. I do not know what works, as I have often thrown up my hands on clients who later recovered. Then I have lost clients whom I thought had arrived. All I really know is, pray hard in each session. I ask for God’s help. I ask Him to give me the words to say, and I hold on to<a style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: #666666; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;" href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2050:1-7&version=NIV" target="_blank">Isaiah 50:1-7</a>, believing I am called as a therapist.</p><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">I honestly don’t know when a person is legitimately recovered, as I believe it’s a lifelong process. Like those of us who are not addicted, we have our own lifelong battles — we try to stop lying, cheating, stealing, yelling, cursing, overeating — everyone has a Goliath they must face. And can any of us say we’ll ever arrive in this world? From my perspective, messing up is just as much part of the recovery process as getting it right is. And, if you get it right all the time, how do you know you’re recovered?</p><h2 style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; padding-top: 15px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: none; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Is it possible to effectively treat addiction without addressing the spiritual aspects of the problem? </strong></h2><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"></strong>Absolutely not! I’ve had to learn how to minister without saying “God” and “Jesus,” so that I can reach everyone. However, I know how to make others want what I have. I was mentored by a man who told me, “I may not be able to make a horse drink the water, but I should be able to make him thirsty.” And that’s the approach I take in therapy. I see myself as sowing seeds, believing someone will come behind me and water them, and eventually increase will come.</p><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Addiction is spiritual. I believe an addict’s zealousness can be indicative of the great calling on his life. He just needs to move that zealousness away from destructive behavior to purposeful, life-giving behavior.</p></span></p>

Is it possible to effectively treat addiction without addressing the spiritual aspects of the problem

The public struggles of celebrities like the late Amy Winehouse reveal how insensitive our society has become to drug and alcohol abuse. But...

Read more »

A chauffeur-driven bishop, and a Church that refuses sanctuary

<p> </p><p>Our capital city, with its historic buildings and rich cultural life, draws millions of tourists each year. But, despite the colossal wealth enjoyed by a tiny fraction of its population, London contains some of the worst pockets of poverty in the UK. This state of affairs has been put in the national spotlight by the actions of around 300 people, camping peacefully outside St Paul's Cathedral. Having initially allowed protesters to stay, St Paul's decided that for health and safety reasons the cathedral would close until the protesters leave. (It may re-open tomorrow.) Protest leaders and their lawyers have pleaded with St Paul's to explain the health and safety risks, but to no avail. Could there be ulterior motives? To all intents and purposes St Paul's owner, the Church of England, operates as an international corporation, with an investment fund of around £5.7bn secured through private equity income, stock exchange investments and a vast property portfolio. Related articles St Paul's tries to heal rifts and offers to open its doors Leading article: More right than wrong in the precincts of St Paul's Search the news archive for more stories The most senior cleric to intervene so far is the Bishop of London, the Rt Hon Dr Richard Chartres, whose private residence happens to be opposite the square the protesters occupy. Dr Chartres is the primary representative of the Church in the Royal Court. He has announced he would like the protesters to leave, but has made not a single mention of safety. Dr Chartres is renowned for his conservative political outlook, and has been criticised for his "chauffeur-driven lifestyle". Despite his professed fondness for the Oyster card, in the most recent year for which records are available he spent more than £17,000 on a private car and chauffeur. The Bishop and others in the church are entitled to a comfortable lifestyle and their own political standpoints, but when the central message of the church is called into question in a time of unparalleled greed and growing inequality, should it not do more to side publicly with the 99 per cent of the population who do not share the wealth of the few? A good start would be renewed dialogue with the protest movement, and potentially a new, and unprecedented, coalition to campaign for the social and economic changes both parties wish for, to transform their city and country for the better</p>

A chauffeur-driven bishop, and a Church that refuses sanctuary

  Our capital city, with its historic buildings and rich cultural life, draws millions of tourists each year. But, despite the colossal weal...

Read more »

The singer was found five times over the drink-drive limit, with three empty vodka bottles next to her.

<p><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; background-color: #d3dce2;"><div class="article-image fl-left" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: #fcd8d8; clear: both; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; background-position: 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><div class="image-caption" style="font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><img alt="Amy Winehouse in Concert, Serbia, June 2011 (Pic: Rex)" border="0" height="396" src="http://images.mirror.co.uk/upl/m4/jul2011/8/5/amy-winehouse-in-concert-serbia-june-2011-pic-rex-489016608.jpg" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: auto; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block; float: left; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;" width="610" /><p class="caption" style="font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: #ffffff; text-align: center; color: #000000; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Troubled: Amy Winehouse on stage in Serbia a month before she died</span></p></div></div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">TRAGIC Amy Winehouse died after a killer booze bender following weeks on the wagon, her inquest was told yesterday.</span></p></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; background-color: #d3dce2; font-size: medium;">She suffered alcohol poisoning but had told her doctor the night before: “I don’t want to die.”</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; background-color: #d3dce2;"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Back to Black star, 27, who had fought drug and alcohol problems for years, was discovered lifeless in bed at her North London home on Saturday, July 23.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In June, she had stumbled around the stage during a shambolic concert in Belgrade, Serbia, where she was booed off after slurring through songs.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And as tearful parents Mitch and Janis listened yesterday in the public gallery, the hearing was told Amy did not drink for the first three weeks of July.</span></p><div class="art-o art-align-left otm-59 article-image" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: #fcd8d8; clear: both; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; background-position: 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><img alt="Mitch Winehouse, the father of Amy Winehouse and her stepmother Jane arrive at St Pancras Coroner's Court (Pic: Getty)" border="0" height="396" src="http://images.mirror.co.uk/upl/m4/oct2011/0/6/mitch-winehouse-the-father-of-amy-winehouse-and-her-stepmother-jane-arrive-at-st-pancras-coroner-s-court-pic-getty-848244846.jpg" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: auto; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block; float: none !important; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;" title="Mitch Winehouse, the father of Amy Winehouse and her stepmother Jane arrive at St Pancras Coroner's Court (Pic: Getty)" width="610" /></div><p class="crosshead" style="margin-top: -15px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: center; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Tears: Amy's dad Mitch Winehouse and stepmum Jane arrive at the Coroners' Court (Pic: Getty)</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But she then hit the bottle days before her death – and the Mirror reported at the time she was spotted necking shots at the Roundhouse venue near her Camden home after dramatically falling off the wagon.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Giving evidence yesterday, her GP Dr Christina Romete said this fitted a pattern in which Amy would abstain from alcohol for weeks, only to drink again. The doctor revealed she warned the star of the many dangers if she kept drinking.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Dr Romete said: “The advice I had given to Amy over a long period of time was verbal and in written form about all the effects alcohol can have on the system, including respiratory depression and death, heart problems, fertility problems and liver problems.”</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Amy, who won five Grammy awards in 2008, was taking medication to cope with alcohol withdrawal and anxiety. She was reviewed last year by a psychologist and psychiatrist about her drinking but “had her own views” about treatment.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong><br /></strong></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The GP, who treated her for several years, said her patient fully understood the risks of continuing to drink. Dr Romete said the night before her death, Amy was “tipsy but coherent” and said she did not know if she was going to stop drinking but “she did not want to die”.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Amy had no illegal drugs in her system when she died but police found three empty vodka bottles in her bedroom – two large and one small.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">She was using alcohol withdrawal drug Librium and sleeping tablets but the inquest heard they had not played a part in her death.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">At St Pancras Coroner’s Court in London, it emerged she had 416mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood in her system, with the legal driving limit being 80mg</span></p><span style="font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><br /><br /><br /></span></span></p>

The singer was found five times over the drink-drive limit, with three empty vodka bottles next to her.

Troubled: Amy Winehouse on stage in Serbia a month before she died TRAGIC Amy Winehouse died after a killer booze bender following weeks on ...

Read more »

You shoot a police officer, you’re going to get shot back at

<p><img alt="" src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_606w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2011/10/10/Foreign/Images/AP110608041916.jpg" /></p><p> </p><p>A little before dawn on a sticky summer night in June, one of Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s Ranger Reconnaissance Teams was running a clandestine operation along the Rio Grande when its surveillance squad came across a Dodge Durango pickup truck loaded with bales of Mexican marijuana. Bad idea, messing with Texas. 37 Comments Weigh InCorrections? inShare Gallery  The Texas governor is seeking the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. Gallery  Mexico's ongoing drug war continues to claim lives and disrupt order in the country. More On This Story Read more on PostPolitics.com Rick Perry a hawk on Texas border security Perry and Romney dominate GOP fundraising Cain defends ‘9-9-9’ tax overhaul plan View all Items in this Story The lawmen chased the truck along the river, with a Texas Department of Public Safety helicopter swooping overhead and Texas game wardens roaring down the Rio Grande in boats, state authorities said. In minutes, the traffickers had ditched the truck in the muddy water and were rafting the dope back to Mexico. Then the shooting started. Alone among his Republican rivals running for president, the Texas governor has a small army at his disposal. Over the past three years, he has deployed it along his southern flank in a secretive, military-style campaign that his supporters deem absolutely necessary and successful and that his critics call an overzealous, expensive and mostly ineffective political stunt. A hawk when it comes to Mexican cartels, Perry said in New Hampshire this month that as president he would consider sending U.S. troops into Mexico to combat drug violence there and stop it from spilling into the United States. The June incident along the Rio Grande was typical of Perry’s border security campaign: a lot of swagger, with mixed results. The initial news release said the Texas Rangers team came “under heavy fire” by members of the Gulf cartel, though officials later said it was “four to six shots.” The Texas Rangers and their multi-agency task force, which included U.S. Border Patrol agents, returned fire — big time — lighting up the Mexican riverbank with 300 rounds. “You shoot a police officer, you’re going to get shot back at,” said Steven McCraw, Perry’s homeland security chief and director of the Texas Department of Public Safety.</p>

You shoot a police officer, you’re going to get shot back at

  A little before dawn on a sticky summer night in June, one of Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s Ranger Reconnaissance Teams was running a clandestin...

Read more »

Frightening 'Drug Threat Assessment' for the USA and Mexico

<p> </p><p>The National Drug Intelligence Center, a branch of the U.S. Department of Justice, recently released a document entitled the "National Drug Threat Assessment 2011."  You can read the document online here.  The document paints a gloomy picture for both the U.S. and Mexico. The Assessment's Executive Summary begins: "The illicit trafficking and abuse of drugs present a challenging, dynamic threat to the United States.  Overall demand is rising, largely supplied by illicit drugs smuggled to U.S. markets by major transnational criminal organizations (TCOs).  Changing conditions continue to alter patterns in drug production, trafficking, and abuse. Traffickers are responding to government counterdrug efforts by modifying their interrelationships, altering drug production levels, and adjusting their trafficking routes and methods. Major Mexican-based TCOs continue to solidify their dominance over the wholesale illicit drug trade as they control the movement of most of the foreign-produced drug supply across the U.S. Southwest Border. "The estimated economic cost of illicit drug use to society for 2007 was more than $193 billion...." One of the contributing factors is the high demand for drugs in the United States. This high demand finances the drug cartels, allowing them to spend more and expand their operations.   According to the 2011 Assessment, that demand is growing. The document reports that "The abuse of several major illicit drugs, including heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine, appears to be increasing, especially among the young."  Elsewhere it says that "Overall drug availability is increasing."  One exception to this tendency is cocaine - its availability and use are down.   The document states that "The Southwest Border remains the primary gateway for moving illicit drugs into the United States.  Most illicit drugs available in the United States are smuggled overland across the Southwest Border...."  The Southwest Border is comprised of the southern borders of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas with Mexico. Then there is the tunneling: "Despite enhanced detection efforts and better countermeasures, Mexican drug traffickers will continue to build tunnels under the Southwest Border." In the U.S., Mexican cartels have cornered the market.  The 2011 Assessment states that "Mexican-based TCOs [transnational crime organizations] dominate the supply, trafficking, and wholesale distribution of most illicit drugs in the United States."  Elsewhere, it predicts that "Major Mexican-based TCOs and their associates are solidifying their dominance of the U.S. wholesale drug trade and will maintain their reign for the foreseeable future." The Mexican cartels are active in many urban areas.  The Assessment calculates that "Mexican-based TCOs were operating in more than a thousand U.S. cities during 2009 and 2010...." And, "Mexican-based trafficking organizations control access to the U.S.-Mexico border, the primary gateway for moving the bulk of illicit drugs into the United States.  The organizations control, simultaneously use, or are competing for control of various smuggling corridors that they use to regulate drug flow across the border. The value they attach to controlling border access is demonstrated by the ferocity with which several rival TCOs are fighting over control of key corridors, or ‘plazas.'" The document says that seven major Mexican drug cartels are supplying the United States, but that "... the Sinaloa Cartel is preeminent - its members traffic all major illicit drugs of abuse, and its extensive distribution network supplies drugs to all regions of the United States." U.S.-based gangs are involved in the distribution north of the border: "The threat posed by gang involvement in drug trafficking is increasing, particularly in the Southwest Region. With gangs already the dominant retail drug suppliers in major and midsized cities, some gang members are solidifying their ties to Mexican TCOs to bolster their involvement in wholesale smuggling, internal distribution, and control of the retail trade." The Assessment reports that "Criminal gangs - that is street, prison, and outlaw motorcycle gangs - remain in control of most of the retail distribution of drugs throughout much of the United States, particularly in major and midsize cities." The document predicts that "Collaboration between U.S. gangs and Mexican-based TCOs will continue to increase, facilitating wholesale drug trafficking into and within the United States.  Most collaboration occurs in cities along the U.S.-Mexico border, although some occurs in other regions of the country. Some U.S.-based gangs in the Southwest Border region also operate in Mexico, facilitating the smuggling of illicit drugs across the border." The 2011 Assessment paints a gloomy picture of the drug trafficking situation, drug cartels, and the safety and security of both the U.S. and Mexico.</p>

Frightening 'Drug Threat Assessment' for the USA and Mexico

  The National Drug Intelligence Center, a branch of the U.S. Department of Justice, recently released a document entitled the "Nationa...

Read more »

many teens were using the Internet as a tool for exploring questions of personal identity, successfully building their own future lives using what they discover on the Web

<p> </p><p>The risk of youth wasting huge amounts of time on social networks like Facebook and Twitter as well as the shared videos of YouTube is well known, but a Tel Aviv University researcher claims that these resources can actually promote psychological development. Prof. Moshe Israelashvili of TAU’s Jaime and Joan Constantiner School of Education, with his master’s degree student Taejin Kim and colleague Dr. Gabriel Bukobza, studied 278 teenage girls and boys from schools throughout the country. They found that many teens were using the Internet as a tool for exploring questions of personal identity, successfully building their own future lives using what they discover on the Web. The study, published in the Journal of Adolescence, encourages parents and educators to look at engagement with the online world as beneficial for teens. Social networking, Israelashvili says, is a positive example of Internet use: “Facebook use is not in the same category as gambling or gaming,” he insists, and as a result researchers should redefine the characteristics of the disorder called “Internet addiction” in adolescents. The teens were asked to rate themselves in terms of Internet use, ego clarification and self-understanding and how well they related to their peer groups. The researchers discovered there was a negative correlation between Internet overuse and the teens' levels of ego development and clarity of self-perception. This, he said, is an indication that some Internet use is destructive and isolating while some is informative and serves a socializing function. These results show that the current understanding of adolescent Internet addiction demands redefinition. Psychiatrists now classify an “Internet addict” as a person who spends more than 38 hours on the Internet every week. But it’s the quality, not the quantity that matters, argues Israelashvili. The researchers determined that many teens who participated in the study met the psychiatric standard of “Internet addiction” but were actually using the Internet as a tool to aid in their journey of self-discovery. There are two different kinds of teenage Web addicts, he continued. The first group is composed of adolescents who really are addicted, misusing the Internet with things like online gaming and gambling or pornographic websites, isolating themselves from the world around them. The second can be defined as “self-clarification seekers” whose use of the Internet helps them comprehensively define their own identities and place in the world. They tend to use the Internet for social networking and information gathering, such as on news sites or Twitter. Parents and educators should change the conversations they have with teens about Internet use, the researchers urge. The Web is a big part of our modern lifestyle, and both adults and children are spending more time there. As a result, what is important is how that time is used. Students must learn to use the Internet in a healthy way – as a source of knowledge about themselves in relation to their peers around the world, recommends Israelashvili. If parents still don't like the amount of time their teens are spending in front of the computer, they should consider becoming an information resource for their adolescent children, encouraging a healthy flow of conversation in the household itself. “Too many parents are too preoccupied,” the researcher says. “They demand high academic achievements and place less importance on teaching their children how to face the world.” Teens won't give up the Internet, but they may spend less time online if family interactions meet some of the same needs. “By the time teens reach the age of 18 or 19 they enter a new phase of life called ‘emerging adulthood,’ in which they take the lessons of their adolescence and implement them to build a more independent life. If they have spent their teenage years worrying only about their academic performance or gaming, they won't be able to manage well during their emerging adulthood and might have difficulties in making personal decisions and relating well to the world around them,” he concludes.</p>

many teens were using the Internet as a tool for exploring questions of personal identity, successfully building their own future lives using what they discover on the Web

  The risk of youth wasting huge amounts of time on social networks like Facebook and Twitter as well as the shared videos of YouTube is wel...

Read more »

prescription painkiller addiction

<p> </p><p> Painkillers in Maine: A cure that came with a curse Maine’s out-of-control pill habit is among the worst in the nation, and all of us bear the costs of its abuse. By John Richardson jrichardson@mainetoday.com Staff Writer First of six parts click image to enlarge A pharmacist counts out Vicodin pills at a pharmacy in Portland last week. Maine was one of the first states to see an explosion of painkiller addiction and it remains among the worst states in the nation for pill abuse. The human and societal costs associated with the epidemic – almost 1,400 Maine people have died from pharmaceutical drug overdoses in the past decade and thousands more need treatment for addiction – are staggering, experts say. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer click image to enlarge . Ten years ago, Maine’s former U.S. attorney called prescription pain-pill abuse “the greatest criminal problem and possibly the greatest social problem facing Maine.” The problem, as it turns out, was just getting started. Maine was one of the first states to witness the explosion of prescription painkiller addiction, and its pill habit, still out of control, is among the worst in the nation. The damage continues to pile up. Nearly 1,400 Mainers have died from pharmaceutical drug overdoses in the past decade. And all residents bear the costs of the abuse. They pay for the pills, police the crime and care for and treat the addicts. Substance abuse in Maine is now estimated to cost $1.18 billion a year, or $900 for every man, woman and child, and much of that comes from misuse of prescription drugs. “It’s extraordinary how deep this epidemic has gone,” said Dr. Mark Publicker, an addiction specialist in Westbrook. “It was eating its way through the culture, and it was diagnosed too late.” Now human and social costs are at historic highs, leading to a renewed urgency to fight back. • Overdose deaths from pharmaceuticals in Maine set a new record in 2009 – 165 – and for the first time exceeded the number of Mainers killed in motor vehicle accidents. One hundred and sixty-two Mainers died from the drugs in 2010, the second-highest year on record. • Pill abuse continues to rise among teens, according to experts. Nearly one in four high school seniors in 2009  – 23.6 percent – said they have used prescription drugs that were not prescribed to them. • A record number of Maine babies – 572 – were born last year to mothers who were known to have used painkillers or other drugs during pregnancy, more than triple the number in 2005. Most of the babies experienced painful opiate withdrawal and spent their first two weeks in the hospital. • Crimes driven by pill addiction – especially pharmacy robberies and home invasions – are becoming more common and more dangerous, according to police statewide. These crimes have turned county jails into busy detox centers. • Prescription pain pill addicts are seeking treatment in record numbers – nearly 4,000 last year. Maine has more people per capita in state-funded treatment than any other state, eight times the national average, according to federal and state data. After a decade of efforts to contain the abuse, Maine’s Legislature and the Attorney General’s Office are among those calling for a more aggressive, coordinated response. A seven-year-old effort to track opiate prescriptions statewide, for example, has never been put to full use because of limited resources and participation. “I think there’s enough fault to go around for everybody,” said Jay McCloskey, who sounded the alarm as Maine’s U.S. attorney a decade ago and is now in private practice. FERTILE GROUND The 10-year toll and Maine’s inability to contain the epidemic come as little surprise to those who have experienced addiction. “It just really quickly takes control. And then it takes and takes,” said Daryl Blums, a 27-year-old recovering addict from the Sanford area. Painkiller abuse is the side effect of powerful new pain relievers introduced more than a decade ago. Drug makers targeted Maine physicians with promises that the pills were safe and effective. And doctors who took an oath to relieve suffering felt they could no longer allow pain to go untreated, at least not without violating their oath and losing patients. Maine’s fishermen, loggers and other physical laborers provided plenty of demand for the new pain medications, and the prescriptions flowed. Maine has been a consistent leader in the prescribing of narcotic painkillers such as oxycodone. Teens and others quickly figured out how to crush the pills and snort the powder to get the full euphoric rush of the synthetic opiates, which are as powerful and addictive as heroin and morphine. As a rural state at the end of the distribution network, Maine didn’t have a lot of experience with hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine. But now, here was a drug delivered to every community in pure, pharmaceutical-grade, precisely measured doses. Experienced drug users loved the pills because they could trust them to work. The inexperienced considered them safer than street drugs. And there was a ready appetite for the pills, especially among teens and among adults wanting to wash away depression or escape the stress of unemployment and financial insecurity. Police, meanwhile, were all but powerless to keep the pills out of the wrong hands. “Drugs used to come from foreign countries and people would smuggle them in,” said Penobscot County Sheriff Glenn Ross. “Today, they are in the medicine cabinets of our homes.” HIGHLY ADDICTIVE At first, prescription opiates – also called opioids – give a warm, on-top-of-the-world feeling, users say. Pretty soon you need larger amounts to get high. Then one day you feel like you have a horrible flu – pain, vomiting, sweats and chills – and you realize it’s because you missed a dose. Opiate receptors in your brain, spine and intestines have gone into a kind of shock. Opiate withdrawal doesn’t kill you, but addicts say you wish it would. “You don’t have a care in the world when you’re on it. And when you can’t get it, it’s the worst experience in the world,” said Chuck Lawson, a recovering addict in Portland. Some addicts say it took them as little as two weeks of regular use to get hooked. The extreme highs and lows physically change an addict’s brain. Getting the next dose becomes the first thing – and sometimes the only thing – on an addict’s mind. Some addicts, chasing the high and trying to avoid withdrawal, mix painkillers with Xanax or other anti-anxiety pills or dissolve the pills and inject them directly into their veins. Both push addicts closer to a potentially fatal overdose. “Once you got past a certain point, there is no going back,” said 31-year-old Nicole Martin, a recovering addict who injected the drugs and used heroin when she couldn’t get pills. “Anything you say you haven’t done yet, you will do eventually.” WIDELY AVAILABLE Finding the drugs is rarely a problem, addicts say. Users share them, buy them, steal them, forge prescriptions for them and, if desperate enough, trade sex for them. Some go out of state to get the drugs, including to Florida’s so-called “pill mills” – clinics that offer painkiller prescriptions for cash. Many addicts get prescriptions from their local doctors – sometimes for real pain and often not. Some are even bold enough to file false police reports of pill theft so they can convince their doctors to give them more. Those with their own prescriptions get their pills on the cheap – MaineCare and private insurance cover most of the cost. And they quickly learn they can sell their pills for as much as $30 to $100 apiece depending on the type and strength. Addicts buying their pills on the street can spend $100 to $400 a day to feed their habits. That gets very expensive, said Blake Carver of Portland. Carver, now 24, was a teenager when he started breaking into houses looking for money to buy “Oxys,” he said. And he always cleaned out the medicine cabinets in the homes he robbed. “Even if there wasn’t something I wanted, I knew somebody who would,” he said. ‘NO FAMILY IS IMMUNE’ The epidemic has affected Mainers of all ages and backgrounds – middle schoolers and senior citizens, clam diggers and doctors. “No family is immune from this particular issue,” said Troy Morton, chief deputy of the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office.  “They are the youngest of kids, in their early teens, and people in their 70s. They are the poorest of the poor and the richest. There are no boundaries.” Abuse often starts among teens, who don’t understand the danger and are more vulnerable to addiction. Addiction, meanwhile, is most common among young adults who were in their teens when the pills first flooded into Maine communities. Thirteen percent of Mainers age 18 to 25 said they abused painkillers in the past year, according to the 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the most recent available. The rate is 6 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds and 4.7 percent of all Mainers over 12 – a total of 52,000 people. The overall cost of painkiller abuse in Maine is not known. Through taxes, health insurance premiums and higher medical costs, Mainers are helping to supply the pills, pay for emergency room visits, investigate crimes, lock addicts in jails and provide the treatments to help them get sober. Opiate addiction treatment alone costs Maine taxpayers millions of dollars a year. The state spends about $12 million a year on substance abuse treatment programs, not including its share of MaineCare coverage for treatment services. Painkiller addiction accounts for about one-third of substance abuse treatment admissions. However, every dollar spent on treatment saves as much as $12 in medical care and crime-related costs, according to Maine’s Office of Substance Abuse. Opiate abuse – including both heroin and prescription painkillers – was responsible for 30,451 emergency and outpatient hospital visits in Maine in 2008, a 28 percent increase from the year before, according to a May report. Pharmacies have banklike security, with surveillance cameras and tracking devices, and still get robbed repeatedly in some cases. County jails and state prisons are straining financially to hold and care for all the addicts arrested for drug-related crimes. RENEWED URGENCY State government, the medical community, law enforcement, drug makers and others have all taken action to try to contain the problem. There are new prescribing guidelines, tamper-proof prescription sheets, overdose prevention campaigns and collection drives for unused drugs. Experts say many of the efforts have helped keep the abuse from doing even more damage. But frustration is clearly peaking after a decade of watching the problem steadily worsen. “It just seems that if we’re leading the way with this problem, we ought to show some leadership in dealing with it,” said Rep. Jon Hinck, D-Portland. Hinck proposed a bill in the Legislature earlier this year that would have established new rules for doctors, including a requirement that they check patients’ medication records before prescribing them painkillers. The proposal failed, but lawmakers instead created a study group that is due to propose policy changes by Dec. 1. McCloskey, the former U.S. attorney, said the state and federal governments have not devoted enough resources to educating kids about the dangers of abuse. “It hasn’t been a priority,” he said. McCloskey, meanwhile, took criticism himself after leaving the federal government in 2001 and working as a consultant for the maker of OxyContin. McCloskey still maintains the pharmaceutical industry is not to blame for the abuse. “If we don’t reduce the demand for drugs we’ll never be successful.” Most now agree that pill abuse is so entrenched in Maine’s culture it will take more than doctors or state agencies or police alone to control it. “People want to point a finger. Let’s blame the pharmaceutical companies. Let’s blame the physicians. Let’s blame the druggies. (Some) people still think it’s a problem of will power,” said Marcella Sorg, a forensic anthropologist at the University of Maine’s Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center. “The reason we haven’t been able to tackle it is because it’s so darn complicated.” Maine Attorney General William Schneider has invited leaders in government, law enforcement, medicine, education and addiction treatment to attend a one-day summit Oct. 25 and come up with a coordinated action plan. “It’s staggering,” Schneider said. “I don’t think it’s going to be solved by any one particular tactic, but I think if we choose several different tactics we can make a difference.” Those who have experienced addiction first-hand have no easy answers, either. The pills are too easy to get and too powerful, said James Cox, a 31-year-old recovering addict in Jonesboro. “I don’t think they’ll ever get rid of it,” he said.</p>

prescription painkiller addiction

   Painkillers in Maine: A cure that came with a curse Maine’s out-of-control pill habit is among the worst in the nation, and all of us bea...

Read more »

Justin Townes Earle looks back at year of recovery

<p> </p><p>In the days following Justin Townes Earle's arrest last September in Indianapolis, he slipped so deeply into a cocaine psychosis it began to change his personality. Gone was the brash, cocksure young singer-songwriter who against the steep odds of addiction and a tough upbringing had transformed himself into a true artist with the critical acclaim to prove it. In its place was a 150-pound wraith haunting the East Village in New York City with an overriding paranoia brought on by an eight-ball of cocaine and a half-gallon of vodka every day. The continuous binges were destroying his talent and making his intense live shows occasionally forgettable. They were destroying his friendships one by one. Nearly six years of sobriety, all gone during an increasingly tight downward spiral over a year's time. Earle fixated on an erroneous news report that said he hit a woman while destroying his dressing room in an Indianapolis club. For a man raised by a single mother, the idea he would hit a woman was devastating. It prompted a five-day bender. "I'd just be walking down the streets in Manhattan thinking everybody was looking at me," Earle said. "I thought everybody knew about what happened and it absolutely was just crushing me. I remember vaguely calling my publicist at the time — I fired my manager not long before that had happened, and my publicist and my booking agent were the only people still working for me — and just hysterically crying and saying I just didn't want to do this anymore. I didn't want to tour any more. I didn't want to make records." Not long after, Earle entered formal treatment for the 13th time. In the 10 months since he completed rehab, the 29-year-old son of country rebel Steve Earle has experienced a series of highs and lows he shared in several interviews. He's slipped back into heroin use and rallied, turning to a new treatment that seems to have helped him settle into a healthier routine. He's been hailed as a new voice for his generation and targeted by cruel attempts at gallows humor. He split with his old girlfriend and started a new relationship that's brought him back to his hometown. Today he's on the "marijuana maintenance plan" and enjoying the benefits of anti-addiction drug Soboxone. He's exercising and feels as fit as he ever has. He's touring much of the fall and is preparing to record his fifth record, a significant step that has Earle pointed directly into the future. "And I'm as content as I've ever been," Earle said. "Which doesn't mean I'm content, but I'm as content as I've ever been. I'm still always going to be a little bit discontent because I'm a little bit crazy and I'll always want more than I have. That's what keeps me going. That's what keeps me driven to keep on doing what I'm doing." Perhaps it's that drive that's kept him alive so long. ___ Sometimes, Justin Townes Earle is amazed he's still above ground. Images flashed through his head as he sat backstage at The Mercy Lounge last November, staring out a window at bejeweled luxury high rises. The Nashville he's looking at doesn't much resemble the lazy town with the seedy side he grew up in during a nearly feral, often lonely and always confusing childhood. At the same time, some things look very much the same. "I remember when you'd look out this window and there wasn't (expletive) anything there," he said. "It was a rail yard. Well, hell you can still buy crack on 8th Avenue." A few weeks out of rehab, Earle admits his mind is often on drugs. He catches himself falling prey to the classic addict behavior of daydreaming about scoring. "I feel good now, but at least once a day I come up with some kind of hare-brained scheme to get high and get away with it," he said with a laugh.</p>

Justin Townes Earle looks back at year of recovery

  In the days following Justin Townes Earle's arrest last September in Indianapolis, he slipped so deeply into a cocaine psychosis it be...

Read more »

Food addiction, although controversial, has recently gained attention in scientific literature and comes under the realm of atypical eating disorders.

<div></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="color: #3f3f3f; float: left;"><div id="sshow"><div class="cnt" style="margin-top: 3px; margin-right: 10px; width: 310px; display: inline; float: left;"><div id="bellyad" style="padding-left: 3px;"><div class="mainimg1" style="position: relative; float: left; display: inline; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: #cccccc; padding-bottom: 10px; margin: 0px;"><div style="float: left; position: relative;"><span style="color: #336797;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/thumb.cms?msid=10376638&width=300&resizemode=4" style="display: block; margin-right: 5px; border: 4px solid #e1e1e1;" vspace="0" width="300" /></span><span style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 20px; bottom: 7px; left: 275px; position: absolute;"><img align="left" alt="" border="0" src="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/photo/5766056.cms" style="display: block; margin-right: 5px;" /></span></span></div><div class="zoomimg1" style="right: 4px; bottom: 4px; width: 300px;"><div style="font-size: 11px; text-align: left; padding-right: 5px; color: #757575; font-style: italic;">Are you addicted to food? (Thinkstock photos/Getty Images)</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="Normal" style="font-size: 15px; font-family: georgia; line-height: 20px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #336797;"><em><br /></em></span><br /><span style="color: #3f3f3f;">We all over-eat occasionally. However, a food addict eats too much food and wrong kinds of food all the time. It may be associated with an obsessive/compulsive relationship to food - where an individual indulges in frequent episodes of uncontrolled eating, else experiences anxiety if he is unable to do so. However, this may have serious health implications in due course. </span><br /><span style="color: #3f3f3f;">Nutritionist and </span><span style="color: #336797;">obesity</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f;"> consultant Naini Setalvad says, "Food addiction basically means a person eats uncontrollably, for reasons besides</span><span style="color: #336797;">hunger</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f;">. One reason for this is the neurobiological imbalances in the levels of the chemical, serotonin. Once its levels drop in the body, a person feels low and needs to eat again. This leads to overeating, which in turn leads to feelings of guilt, depression, </span><span style="color: #336797;">mood swings</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f;">, weight gain and a reinforcement of low self-esteem. Because of this, a person looks to food for comfort and the vicious cycle continues." </span><br /><span style="color: #3f3f3f;">How can one overcome it? "One way is by breaking the cycle. If it is a severe case, then psychological treatment must be accompanied with a healthy food plan. Replace addictive foods with healthy ones, which also boost the mood and serotonin levels. Stick to whole grains, fresh fruits, nuts, seeds and make </span><span style="color: #336797;">vegetables</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f;"> a habit. Also, drink lots of water. These foods not only comfort a person, but also take away the 'guilt' factor. You can eat three mangoes and not worry about the amount of fat you have eaten, since there is none. </span><br /><br /><span style="color: #3f3f3f;">However, the natural sugar in mangoes perks a person and makes him feel better," says Setalvad. If you are addicted to food, it's time to take an honest look at your life and make a commitment to loving yourself. </span></div></span></div>

Food addiction, although controversial, has recently gained attention in scientific literature and comes under the realm of atypical eating disorders.

Are you addicted to food? (Thinkstock photos/Getty Images) We all over-eat occasionally. However, a food addict eats too much food and wrong...

Read more »

May the last quarter of 2011 be your BEST 3 months EVER

<p><span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; font-size: xx-large;"><strong><em><br /></em></strong></span></p><div><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #ffffff;"><table style="width: 100%;" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; width: 802px; padding: 1.5pt; margin: 0px;" width="100%"><div><div><div><strong><span style="color: black;"> </span></strong><span style="color: black;"> </span><br /><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; padding: 0cm; margin: 0px;" valign="top"><div><p style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 18pt; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">May you ALWAYS make the right move</span></strong><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; color: white; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; color: #0000a0; font-size: 13.5pt;"><img alt="cid:1.3093232749@web83604.mail.sp1.yahoo.com" height="309" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=3b30568af3&view=att&th=132f8cc41f8f07c6&attid=0.1&disp=emb&zw" width="492" /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 18pt; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">May your cup runneth over with love</span><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; color: #0000a0; font-size: 10pt;"><img alt="cid:2.3093232750@web83604.mail.sp1.yahoo.com" height="327" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=3b30568af3&view=att&th=132f8cc41f8f07c6&attid=0.11&disp=emb&zw" width="484" /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 18pt; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">MAY YOU ALWAYS FIND SHELTER FROM ANY STORM</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; color: black;"><img alt="cid:3.3093232750@web83604.mail.sp1.yahoo.com" height="342" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=3b30568af3&view=att&th=132f8cc41f8f07c6&attid=0.12&disp=emb&zw" width="540" /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; color: black;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 18pt; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">May you remain good looking and looking good.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; color: black;"><img alt="cid:4.3093232750@web83604.mail.sp1.yahoo.com" height="326" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=3b30568af3&view=att&th=132f8cc41f8f07c6&attid=0.8&disp=emb&zw" width="490" /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; color: black;"><br /></span><strong><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 18pt; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">May you find the perfect diet for your body and your soul.</span></strong><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; color: black;"><br /><img alt="cid:5.3093232750@web83604.mail.sp1.yahoo.com" height="366" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=3b30568af3&view=att&th=132f8cc41f8f07c6&attid=0.3&disp=emb&zw" width="548" /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; color: black;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 18pt; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">May you find perfect balance in the company you keep.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; color: black;"><img alt="cid:6.3093232750@web83604.mail.sp1.yahoo.com" height="322" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=3b30568af3&view=att&th=132f8cc41f8f07c6&attid=0.7&disp=emb&zw" width="548" /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; color: black;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 18pt; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">May you have as much fun as you can before someone makes you stop.</span><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; color: white; font-size: 18pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; color: black;"><img alt="cid:7.3093232750@web83604.mail.sp1.yahoo.com" height="360" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=3b30568af3&view=att&th=132f8cc41f8f07c6&attid=0.5&disp=emb&zw" width="540" /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; color: black;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 16pt; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">May the worst thing that happens to you come in slobbery pink and furry TAN.</span><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; color: white; font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; color: black;"><img alt="cid:8.3093232750@web83604.mail.sp1.yahoo.com" height="415" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=3b30568af3&view=att&th=132f8cc41f8f07c6&attid=0.10&disp=emb&zw" width="548" /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; color: black;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 18pt; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">May  you  manage  to  MAKE  time  for  Time Out!</span><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; color: #ce0000; font-size: 18pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; color: black;"><img alt="cid:9.3093232750@web83604.mail.sp1.yahoo.com" height="364" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=3b30568af3&view=att&th=132f8cc41f8f07c6&attid=0.9&disp=emb&zw" width="548" /><br /><br />  <br /></span><strong><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 18pt; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">May all the new folks you meet be interesting and kind.</span></strong></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; color: black;"><img alt="cid:10.3093232750@web83604.mail.sp1.yahoo.com" height="428" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=3b30568af3&view=att&th=132f8cc41f8f07c6&attid=0.2&disp=emb&zw" width="501" /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; color: black;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; color: black; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span><strong><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 18pt; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">May you always know when to walk away</span></strong><strong><span style="font-family: 'MS Gothic'; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 18pt; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" lang="JA">・</span></strong><strong><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 18pt; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">.. and when to </span></strong><strong><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; color: #c00000; font-size: 18pt; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">RUN</span></strong><strong><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 18pt; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">!</span></strong></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; color: black;"><img alt="cid:image013.jpg@01CA8877.8F1B0980" height="334" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=3b30568af3&view=att&th=132f8cc41f8f07c6&attid=0.4&disp=emb&zw" width="548" /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; color: black;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 16pt; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">AND MAY YOUR FRIENDS & FAMILY ALWAYS BRING YOU JOY</span></strong></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; color: black;"><img alt="cid:14.3093232750@web83604.mail.sp1.yahoo.com" height="616" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=3b30568af3&view=att&th=132f8cc41f8f07c6&attid=0.6&disp=emb&zw" width="419" /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong><em><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; color: red; font-size: 36pt;">May the last quarter of 2011 be your BEST 3 months EVER!!!</span></em></strong></p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong><em><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; color: red; font-size: 28pt;">May this time only hold good health, successful projects, professional growth and happiness for</span></em></strong><strong><em><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; color: red; font-size: 48pt;">y</span></em></strong><span style="color: red; font-size: 48pt;">o</span><span style="color: red; font-size: 48pt;" lang="EN">u</span><strong><em><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC'; color: red; font-size: 28pt;"> and your loved ones!</span></em></strong></p></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table></span></div>

May the last quarter of 2011 be your BEST 3 months EVER

    May you ALWAYS make the right move May your cup runneth over with love MAY YOU ALWAYS FIND SHELTER FROM ANY STORM May you remain good lo...

Read more »

Addiction Recovery:

<p><a href="http://almostthetruths.blogspot.com/2010/02/many-of-us-have-wasted-lot-of-time.html">Addiction Recovery: Many of us have wasted a lot of time doing that and it doesn't work. You can easily see why.</a></p><blockquote>We usually conclude the period of meditation with a prayer that we be shown all through the day what our next step is to be, that we be given whatever we need to take care of such problems. We ask especially for freedom from self-will, and are careful to make no request for ourselves only. We may ask for ourselves, however, if others will be helped. We are careful never to pray for our own selfish ends. Many of us have wasted a lot of time doing that and it doesn't work. You can easily see why.</blockquote>

Addiction Recovery:

Addiction Recovery: Many of us have wasted a lot of time doing that and it doesn't work. You can easily see why. We usually conclude the...

Read more »

Addiction Recovery: age of miracles is still with us. Our own recovery proves that!

<p> </p><blockquote>age of miracles is still with us.  Our own recovery proves that!</blockquote>

Addiction Recovery: age of miracles is still with us. Our own recovery proves that!

  age of miracles is still with us.  Our own recovery proves that!

Read more »

Addiction Recovery

<p> </p><blockquote>However mean your life is, meet it and live it: do not shun it and call it hard names. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble your- self much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Things do not change, we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see that you do want society.</blockquote>

Addiction Recovery

  However mean your life is, meet it and live it: do not shun it and call it hard names. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do...

Read more »

NJ Town First to Consider Medical Marijuana

<p> </p><p>Medical marijuana could get a little closer to sprouting in the Garden State, as one licensed dispensary heads to the zoning board in the town of Maple Shade, NJ. Authorities in March licensed six non-profit alternative treatment centers across the state, but they’ve largely been in a holding pattern ever since. On Wednesday, Compassionate Sciences Inc. will be the first center to seek local approval. The firm wants to convert an old furniture store into a 5,000 square foot center, with consulting rooms for patients to discuss the controlled substance, a lab to conduct research and, as spokesman Andrei Bogolubov describes it, a very secure vault for the marijuana. “There's a lot of controls, a lot of safeguards, and the state's going to do a site visit to make sure those systems are in place before they issue the permit and let us open the doors,” he said. Even if it gets a local go-ahead, Compassionate Sciences and the other approved dispensaries are still waiting for New Jersey to issue final regulations. Each center will grow and harvest its own crop of marijuana and Bogolubov estimates it will take about nine weeks to generate enough to supply customers. About 30,000 of them are expected state-wide. Governor Chris Christie, a former federal prosecutor, has said he would not have signed the bill into law. He wants to make sure the drug only gets to people who need it for pain relief from illnesses such as cancer and multiple-sclerosis. He said he is determined to avoid “abuses” that he said have plagued medical marijuana programs in Colorado and California.</p>

NJ Town First to Consider Medical Marijuana

  Medical marijuana could get a little closer to sprouting in the Garden State, as one licensed dispensary heads to the zoning board in the ...

Read more »

The Netherlands is embarking on a crusade against its multi-billion-euro marijuana industry

<p> </p><p>The Netherlands is embarking on a crusade against its multi-billion-euro marijuana industry, with significant implications both for its economy and its famously liberal approach to life. Along with tighter control of legalized prostitution and a swing to the right in attitudes toward immigration and Islam in recent years, the clampdown is seen as further evidence of an erosion of tolerance in a country known for its liberal social policies. The push to clamp down on soft drugs has come mainly from the Christian Democrats, the junior partner in the minority government and one of the larger parties in a fragmented political landscape. "There's clearly a shift in the moral debate. It's all about the culture of control," said Dirk Korf, professor of criminology at the University of Amsterdam. Instantly recognizable from the sickly sweet, burned-leaf smell that wafts out onto the street, the Netherlands' world-renowned "coffee shops" are almost as common as supermarkets in big cities such as Amsterdam and Rotterdam and in certain border towns. Like trained sommeliers, the staff or "bud tenders" are experts on the flavors and after-effects of whatever is on the menu -- white widow, vanilla kush, or hazers like amnesia "known for its extreme, almost paranoid psychedelic high, with an unforgettable strong fruity taste and smell." Counter staff do a brisk trade in plastic sachets of loose grass, ready-rolled joints and chunks of hashish for those who want take-away. The Netherlands tolerates the sale of up to 5 grams per person per day of marijuana and hashish in the controlled environment of the coffee shops. It also tolerates the home cultivation of marijuana plants, within a limit of five plants per person, but any cultivation larger than that is illegal. Strong demand has spawned secret cannabis plantations that provide a so-called back-door supply to the coffee shops and are a headache for Dutch authorities who have to find and raid them. DRUGS TOURISTS On a typical Saturday evening, the coffee shops in central Amsterdam are packed with smokers. The clientele is middle class, the voices mostly foreign -- Italian, Spanish, French, German, English. Concerned about this influx of soft-drugs tourists, not to mention what it sees as the associated crime, nuisance and health risks, the Christian Democrat Party wants to see the country's 700 or so coffee shops shut down, but for the moment is settling for introducing restrictions on their activities. A measure expected to be passed in parliament by the end of this year will have coffee shops operate as members-only clubs, meaning that only local residents will be eligible to register for "weed passes," effectively barring foreigners from buying soft drugs. Already, some cities have introduced tighter restrictions, limiting the coffee shops' proximity to schools or relocating them to the outskirts. On October 1, coffee shops in the southeastern city of Maastricht banned all foreigners except for neighboring Germans and Belgians, as a first step toward introduction of weed passes. Crime expert Korf says there is little justification for the clampdown, with scant evidence that the Dutch public supports the change. "No serious polls have been conducted, we don't know if opinions about coffee shops have even changed," said Korf. "Before coffee shops we had street dealing, they were selling marijuana in the street and ripping off tourists. The whole drug problem is nothing compared to (what we had in) the 1980s, 1990s -- we don't have a heroin problem." The Trimbos Institute, which studies addiction and mental health, said 5 percent of Netherlands citizens smoked weed or hashish in the past year, against an EU average of 7 percent. GLOBAL CONFUSION Policymakers around the world are seeking fresh ideas on how to combat drug abuse, opening up a debate on policies on soft drugs. In June, a high-profile group of global leaders declared the "war on drugs" a failure and urged governments to consider decriminalizing drugs in order to cut consumption and weaken the power of organized crime. The Global Commission on Drug Policy -- which includes former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and British billionaire Richard Branson -- said a decades-long strategy of outlawing drugs and jailing users while battling drug cartels had not worked. It recommended that governments experiment with the legal regulation of drugs, especially cannabis, citing the successes in countries such as the Netherlands, Portugal and Switzerland, where drug consumption had been reduced. Portugal, for instance, has gone much further than the Netherlands by decriminalizing all drugs, replacing jail time with counseling and treatment. The Christian Democrats disagree and say the Dutch policy has had a negative effect on public health and crime. "In other countries there is no tolerance. The Dutch coffee shops attract a lot of foreign drug tourists, especially in the border region, causing much nuisance," according to a statement published on the Christian Democrat Party website. The centrist party has cast doubt on the rationale for allowing coffee shops, which was to separate the soft and hard drugs markets, and said that people who smoke cannabis often turned to other drugs. It also argues the active substance in cannabis is much stronger than twenty years ago, putting it on a par with harder drugs -- a reflection of years of cultivation of new varieties by growers. A Dutch commission earlier this year found that hashish and marijuana on sale in the Netherlands contain about 18 percent of THC, the main psychoactive substance, and said a level above 15 percent put the drugs on a par with heroin or cocaine. Maxime Verhagen, a Christian Democrat who is deputy prime minister, said on October 7 the government would ban the sale of cannabis whose concentration of THC exceeds 15 percent. The Christian Democrats also want tougher regulations on the so-called cannabis plantations. In addition to illegally supplying the coffee shops, "much of the illegally cultivated cannabis in the Netherlands is exported abroad. There is an extensive network illegally created in the grip of organized crime," the party said in its statement. Dutch authorities already devote considerable resources to tracking down these large-scale plantations. The police work with the local electricity company to detect unusual consumption patterns, for example round-the-clock usage in sheds and attics, and have used tiny sniffer-helicopters which can detect the smell of pot plants wafting from ventilation shafts and chimneys, according to media reports. Rotterdam city council recently distributed "scratch and sniff cards" to households, hoping that concerned citizens would tip off the police if they recognized the smell of illegal cannabis plantations in the neighborhood. PUSHBACK AT HOME There is plenty of opposition to the crackdown. Dutch smokers do not welcome the idea of having to register for weed passes. "Many of my customers are locals, artists, writers, doctors, lawyers, professionals. They don't want their name on a register -- they don't know who could see it or use it. So they may go to other sources on the street," said Paula Baten, manager of the Siberie coffee shop in central Amsterdam. "This government is more Christian, more right-wing. They don't want drugs but they forget about the effects of alcohol." Already, there's talk of how foreigners can circumvent the new rules, for example by asking Dutch citizens to buy soft drugs on their behalf to take away, and concern that dealing in soft drugs will go onto the street. Some politicians oppose the proposals. Eberhard van der Laan, the mayor of Amsterdam, says restricting the activities of coffee shops would lead to greater health risks, nuisance and drug dealing on the streets. As mayor, he could simply choose not to enforce the weed pass regulations. "At the moment the mayor is in conference with the minister to convince him that the measures regarding coffee shops will be counterproductive for Amsterdam," the mayor's office said in a statement to Reuters. Others cite the likely economic impact. The Netherlands, like other European countries, has had to introduce austerity measures and cut spending in the wake of the credit crisis, when it pumped 40 billion euros into rescuing financial institutions. Tax revenue from the coffee shops is estimated at about 400 million euros a year. Studies by the finance ministry and academics estimated that if the Netherlands legalized the "back-door" supply, bringing it "above board," it could collect as much as an additional 400-850 million euros a year, including savings on the cost of law enforcement. Then there's the tourist revenue. In Maastricht, which gets a lot of day tourists because it is so close to the German and Belgian borders, a study commissioned by an association of coffee shop owners calculated that visitors to the city's coffee shops spent about 119 million euros a year, mostly on shopping and eating out. A study by Professor Korf of the University of Amsterdam found that tourists who visited coffee shops in central Amsterdam had similar spending habits to other tourists, and were just as likely to spend 200 euros or more on a hotel room, or splash out at smart restaurants or nightclubs. The Bulldog and Barney's -- the big names in the industry -- run coffee shop chains, and many coffee shop owners also make money from lodgings and related businesses. Hundreds of tourists attend the annual cannabis cup award for the best new strains, and the local edition of Time Out runs monthly weed reviews. Jackie Woerlee, who runs customized cannabis tours, said that among her recent tour guests were members of one of the Middle East royal families who rented a luxury apartment for several weeks and spent several thousand euros shopping at luxury stores. "Customers might easily spend 100 euros in a coffee shop, but it's not just that, it's the hotels, the eating out, renting apartments," Woerlee said. "These people spend."</p>

The Netherlands is embarking on a crusade against its multi-billion-euro marijuana industry

  The Netherlands is embarking on a crusade against its multi-billion-euro marijuana industry, with significant implications both for its ec...

Read more »