Best of the Week: November 29–December 5

COMING UP IN THE FIX// A Day with Cambodia’s Needle Exchange * Interview with Drug Policy Alliance Director Ethan Nadelmann * Death Row Drugs * Hep C Q&A * Have We Grown Past Anonymity? * Freedom and Recovery * Sober in Mexico* PLUS: Other incisive articles

	IN THE ROOMS// Is AA at Fault for the Murder of One of its Members? No. But that isn't stopping AA critics from seizing on a tragedy to state their case. By Zachary Siegel
	ART// The Man Behind 'Faces of Addiction' “I have a few rules. I don’t get intimate with anyone and I don’t buy or do drugs. Everything else is open.” ~ Chris Arnade By Regina Walker
	PROFESSIONAL VOICES// Inside the Mind of An Addiction Medicine Physician The Director of Stanford's Addiction Medicine Program, caught between protocol and her own bruised ego. By Dr. Anna Lembke
	TREATMENT// Shortcuts to Recovery A survey of four medical treatments to aid recovery. By Jeanene Swanson
	WILD LIFE// Animal Addicts How monkeys, elephants, dolphins and cats get high, and how it could change the war on drugs. By Daniel Genis

 

BEST OF THE QUICK FIX Covered Insurance Deductibles May Mean Lower Treatment Costs at Year’s End Kansas Law Requires Drug Testing of Welfare Applicants California Parolees Getting Arrested on Purpose to Smuggle Drugs Into Jail

Michigan Approves, Florida Rejects Welfare Drug Testing Smart Drug Modafinil Doesn’t Work If You’re Already Smart Wes Bentley: There's Life After Heroin Addiction

COMMENT OF THE WEEK

Light Up The Rooms This week, Zachary Siegel pondered who was to blame when someone is murdered in AA. Readers sympathized and contemplated the root cause:

This death is a great tragedy. Whether or not AA is responsible, or found responsible, this case has brought into the light a darker side of AA which many people are familiar with, but which an even greater number of people seem to be unaware of or turn a blind eye to. This is getting some media attention, and I wonder if shining the light on these issues will have any sort of disinfecting effect on the more toxic side of AA culture, even nothing becomes of this legal murder case in question. I agree with the author that the problem is actually much larger than AA, is systemic in nature and has to do with how our society tackles addiction and social dysfunction. Many people in America still assume that all places offering help for addiction are safe places, but maybe now the rose tinted glasses are slowly being lowered. -France