Michael Stone, M.D., FAAFP, Board Certified in Addiction Medicine
Founder and Clinical Director, President
Dr. Stone founded Cornerstone of Southern California in 1984, when he recognized that many addicts, who needed help, could not afford hospital stays. He believes that not all addicts need to be in a hospital to get well. They can live in home-like settings and have time for social interaction and daily living skills, in addition to lectures and therapy.
Dr. Stone has treated over 70,000 addicts and their families' since 1969. He is well known and respected in the professional community. He has treated clients from all walks of life as well as celebrities and prominent business professionals from all over the world.
He graduated from Sheffield University Medical School, England in 1967. In 1969 he opened and directed the first hospital-based treatment center in Canada. He was Medical Director of Care Unit Hospital, Orange, a famous psychiatric hospital, at a time when alcoholism and drug treatment was coming out of the closet and becoming more acceptable. He and his team were asked to train the first medical director and family program director at the Betty Ford Center.
Dr. Stone is a caring professional who has committed himself to helping people with addictive diseases. Many of his patients have dual diagnoses and co-occurring disorders in addition to their addictive disease. Dr. Stone has been married for 50 years. He is extremely proud of his 3 adult children who work full-time at Cornerstone. He enjoys the beach, loves dogs, and reads science fiction novels in his free time. His special loves are his 5 grandchildren with whom he enjoys spending time.
First, who am I and why should you believe me? Well, as a young family doctor I arrived in the metropolis of Estevan, Saskatchewan (population 10,000) in the fall of 1969 just as the Sisters of St. Joseph decided to open an addiction treatment unit in their community hospital. None of the doctors in town wanted the job of Medical Director and neither did I. Anyway, another doctor and I were volunteered.
At the time my belief was that addicts were just weak people who needed to pull themselves together and stop drinking or using. I soon learned I was so wrong in my understanding of addiction. A lay person, Ray McNab, sat me down late in 1969 and read me the riot act. He was very clear, "How the heck are addicts going to get help/treatment if you so and so doctors cannot get your act together and start treating them for the disease they so clearly have?" He directed me to read some books, especially the Big Books of Alcoholics Anonymous, and attend some AA meetings. Luckily for my addict patients I quickly became educated in addiction medicine and got rid of my old ideas and feelings about "those" sorts of people.
Today I look back over the past 50 years and I am very pleased that I have been able to help over 70,000 addicts and their support systems in that time. I continue to practice addiction medicine as a family physician and love it most of the time.
Some of his credentials are:
- Board Certified in Family Medicine
- Board Certified by the American Board of Addiction Medicine
- Diplomat of the American Academy of Pain Management
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