Points has a post on the history of black support for the war on drugs. When I began researching grassroots responses to crack-cocaine I found myself—albeit naively—both surprised and confused by heavy-handed, aggressive calls for more policing and harsher sentencing from working and middle class black urbanites. Was this unique to the period? Did this … Continue reading Black-lash
Category: History
The Game
Cabinet Magazine has an article on the bizarre history of Synanon from beginning to end: Soon the number of people wanting to join Dederich’s after-hours sessions grew too big for his living quarters. This was largely due to an influx of drug addicts who had heard of Dederich’s ability to keep people straight. For the … Continue reading The Game
One way?
So much for the frequently asserted but bogus argument that 90%+ of treatment providers in the US are one-true-way 12 steppers: The researchers surveyed 913 members of the National Association of Alcoholism and Drug Addiction Counselors from across the United States. About 50 percent of the respondents said it would be acceptable if some of … Continue reading One way?
Treatment is big money
From Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly: In September, when Tennessee-based Acadia Healthcare Company paid $90 million for Timberline Knolls, a 122-bed inpatient treatment program in Chicago, treatment providers wondered if their programs were worth that kind of money, bed for bed. Other deals in recent months, including Foundations Recovery Network’s acquisition in early October by … Continue reading Treatment is big money
Detroit, Booze and Temperance
The Detroit News offers a little history lesson on alcohol and temperance in Detroit. I guess we've always been a In 1834 — with a population under 5,000 — 100 people were licensed dealers selling liquor in Detroit; there was no estimate of the unlicensed. It was said there was a bar for every 13 … Continue reading Detroit, Booze and Temperance
Collecting Opium Paraphernalia
An antique collector has a new book about collecting opium smoking paraphernalia. Collector's Weekly has an interview with the author: What drew you to antique opium paraphernalia? Steven Martin: There was something dark about it. People collect all sorts of weird things, like old torture mechanisms, just bizarre stuff. I think this falls into the same … Continue reading Collecting Opium Paraphernalia
Following alcoholics for decades
McLeans has an interesting interview with George Vaillant about, "the surprising things you find out about people if you follow them for long enough." What's so different and interesting about this study is that it followed the subjects for decades from a pretty young age. Their subjects were college sophomores when the study began and … Continue reading Following alcoholics for decades
“Disease” and recovery
“Once I became my diagnosis, there was no one left to recover.” Yesterday's Pat Deegan post led me to Dr. Daniel Fisher's work on mental illness recovery. He promotes an "empowerment" model of recovery that he contrasts with a "rehabilitation" model of recovery. According to this vision, one is capable of recovering from the mental … Continue reading “Disease” and recovery
A Brief History of Queer Experience with Addiction and Recovery
There are a lot of generalizations about LGBT communities and treatment, but this is an interesting commentary on the place of addiction and recovery in the queer health agenda: As early as 1970, gay activists in recovery began to challenge AA in the flurry of queer-positive activity that followed Stonewall, petitioning AA for the right … Continue reading A Brief History of Queer Experience with Addiction and Recovery
The ancients on will and addiction
It took me a few reads, but Alan Brody suggests that addiction is a combination of impaired will and impaired evaluative faculties that lead to poor choices in how to exert our will. Then again, I'm not sure I know where he stands. He guides through some philosophical musings about addiction and will. He presents … Continue reading The ancients on will and addiction
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