Placebo, Pot, and Pain

...how cannabis is covered in the media reinforces and can strengthen the user’s faith in the value of cannabis – well beyond the science, as the saying goes.

I think the very first time I heard someone use the phrase “86” was many years ago, in group therapy. One group member was describing his most recent binge, the one that landed him in detox for the fifth or sixth time (that I was aware of, at least).

”I don’t remember much about that evening,” he admitted. “But I must’ve been shitfaced. Because my girlfriend told me I have been permanently 86ed from the 2 AM Club.“ Meaning summarily banned.

”I didn’t think that was possible,” mumbled his roommate. Apparently, the 2 AM Club had a well-deserved reputation for tolerating even a patron’s worst behavior. Our group member had nonetheless managed to fall below those minimal expectations.

Anyway, “86ing” involved nothing more than a firm instruction to beat feet, and shut the door behind you, never to return.

So I was indeed surprised to see the phrase pop up again, in the context of charges filed against former FBI Director James Comey on the basis...

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A New Czar at ONDCP

...newly appointed Drug Czar is Sara Carter, a 45 year-old investigative journalist best known for her reporting on the US-Mexico border, and her appearances as a contributor on the Fox News Network

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Bad Call on Vaping

Where did all this “pressure” come from? You guessed it: The White House, in response, it appears, to the desperate appeals from industry lobbyists

Addicted to Exercise?

Like addicts deprived of their drug of choice, the compulsive exerciser may report a deep sense of loss, accompanied by symptoms such as  sleeplessness, irritability, depression, anxiety.

Bad Call on Vaping

Where did all this “pressure” come from? You guessed it: The White House, in response, it appears, to the desperate appeals from industry lobbyists

Life in a Hot Spot

Make it a continuing effort, using strategies based in evidence, and harnessing the power of human interaction-- instead of relying on a burst of anti-drug education, however intense.

The Storytellers

One young man explained that he avoided speaker meetings because the “drunkalogues” he heard triggered in him an awful craving for a drink.

PAP or Pill?

Those humble antidepressants have their own advantages, of course. For one thing, they’re likely to be cheaper, more readily available.

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Overdiagnosed?

She wasn’t seeking medication for the disorder. She was simply using ADHD as a way to understand some of the mysteries of her past behavior.

Overdiagnosed?

She wasn’t seeking medication for the disorder. She was simply using ADHD as a way to understand some of the mysteries of her past behavior.

Parenting Under The Influence

Children raised in such families are more likely to be exposed to violence, to initiate their own substance use at an earlier age, and to have mental health problems in childhood.

Is This Recovery?

...there are other folks out there like these— pretending to sobriety yet still secretly using, and hoping to avoid the sort of trouble that haunted them in the past.

Officers in the House

...with law enforcement agencies taking on vastly different roles, planning and practicing our response appears more important than in the past.

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A Novel Approach

...the author, who grew up in and around the region, chose to use its earnings to found Higher Ground, a home for recovering women.

A Novel Approach

...the author, who grew up in and around the region, chose to use its earnings to found Higher Ground, a home for recovering women.

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