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Heroin Trade on the Rise in New York, Alarming Law Enforcement Officials
/By Celia Vimont
May 20th, 2014/
Law enforcement officials in New York City say the heroin trade there is surging to the highest level seen in more than 20 years. The city has become a hub for the heroin market along the East Coast, The New York Times reports.
The city’s special narcotics prosecutor says the amount of heroin seized in investigations so far this year has already surpassed the total amount seized in 2013. Officials have not confiscated so much heroin since 1991, the article notes.
The heroin originates in Mexico. It is sold in New York to users all along the East Coast, in glassine envelopes costing between $6 and $10. Law enforcement officials say drug organizations are meeting the growing demand for heroin by setting up increasingly large and sophisticated operations in New York.
About one-third of heroin seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) nationwide since October was found in New York State. In previous years, New York heroin seizures have accounted for about one-fifth of the total.
“We’re kind of the head of the Hydra,” said Bridget G. Brennan, a special narcotics prosecutor. “This is highly organized, high volume, and it’s being moved much more efficiently and effectively to reach out to a broader user base.” She is scheduled to testify about heroin trends during a City Council budget hearing today.
“It’s cheap, it’s potent and there’s a user demand here right now and they’re flooding the market,” said James J. Hunt, head of the DEA’s New York office. “In my time, we’ve never seen the amount of large heroin seizures like this.”
/By Celia Vimont
May 20th, 2014/
Law enforcement officials in New York City say the heroin trade there is surging to the highest level seen in more than 20 years. The city has become a hub for the heroin market along the East Coast, The New York Times reports.
The city’s special narcotics prosecutor says the amount of heroin seized in investigations so far this year has already surpassed the total amount seized in 2013. Officials have not confiscated so much heroin since 1991, the article notes.
The heroin originates in Mexico. It is sold in New York to users all along the East Coast, in glassine envelopes costing between $6 and $10. Law enforcement officials say drug organizations are meeting the growing demand for heroin by setting up increasingly large and sophisticated operations in New York.
About one-third of heroin seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) nationwide since October was found in New York State. In previous years, New York heroin seizures have accounted for about one-fifth of the total.
“We’re kind of the head of the Hydra,” said Bridget G. Brennan, a special narcotics prosecutor. “This is highly organized, high volume, and it’s being moved much more efficiently and effectively to reach out to a broader user base.” She is scheduled to testify about heroin trends during a City Council budget hearing today.
“It’s cheap, it’s potent and there’s a user demand here right now and they’re flooding the market,” said James J. Hunt, head of the DEA’s New York office. “In my time, we’ve never seen the amount of large heroin seizures like this.”
Many “Super-Frequent” ER Users Have Substance Use Disorder: Study
/By Celia Vimont
May 20th, 2014/
Three-quarters of patients who visit a Detroit emergency room at least 10 times a year—known as “super-frequent” users—have a substance use disorder, a new study finds.
Doctors at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit also found 47 percent of these patients were addicted to painkillers such as Vicodin and Dilaudid, according to Newswise. Researchers found 44 percent were addicted to other illicit drugs such as cocaine or marijuana, and 35 percent were addicted to alcohol.
The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.
“Emergency departments cannot address the super-frequent users problem without addressing the underlying reason they’re here – their substance abuse problem,” study lead author Jennifer Peltzer-Jones, RN, PsyD, said in a news release. “Boosting federal and state funding for substance abuse programs could help alleviate some of the frequent use of emergency departments as sources of addiction care.”
The federal Drug Abuse Warning Network found an estimated 2.5 million emergency department visits involved drug misuse or abuse in 2011. Between 2009 and 2011, emergency department visits involving overall misuse or abuse increased by 19 percent, or by about 400,000 visits over the two years.
The study included 255 super-frequent users who were cared for at the hospital from 2004 to 2013. In 2004, the hospital created the Community Resources for Emergency Department Overuse (CREDO) to more effectively manage the increased frequent users in the emergency department with individual care plans. The researchers found before CREDO was created, the super-frequent users sought care in the emergency department an average of 32.4 times a year. Since 2004, the rate of super-frequent users who asked for narcotic painkillers in the emergency department decreased to 13.8 times annually.
/By Celia Vimont
May 20th, 2014/
Three-quarters of patients who visit a Detroit emergency room at least 10 times a year—known as “super-frequent” users—have a substance use disorder, a new study finds.
Doctors at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit also found 47 percent of these patients were addicted to painkillers such as Vicodin and Dilaudid, according to Newswise. Researchers found 44 percent were addicted to other illicit drugs such as cocaine or marijuana, and 35 percent were addicted to alcohol.
The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.
“Emergency departments cannot address the super-frequent users problem without addressing the underlying reason they’re here – their substance abuse problem,” study lead author Jennifer Peltzer-Jones, RN, PsyD, said in a news release. “Boosting federal and state funding for substance abuse programs could help alleviate some of the frequent use of emergency departments as sources of addiction care.”
The federal Drug Abuse Warning Network found an estimated 2.5 million emergency department visits involved drug misuse or abuse in 2011. Between 2009 and 2011, emergency department visits involving overall misuse or abuse increased by 19 percent, or by about 400,000 visits over the two years.
The study included 255 super-frequent users who were cared for at the hospital from 2004 to 2013. In 2004, the hospital created the Community Resources for Emergency Department Overuse (CREDO) to more effectively manage the increased frequent users in the emergency department with individual care plans. The researchers found before CREDO was created, the super-frequent users sought care in the emergency department an average of 32.4 times a year. Since 2004, the rate of super-frequent users who asked for narcotic painkillers in the emergency department decreased to 13.8 times annually.
More Than 10,000 Toddlers Get ADHD Medication Outside Guidelines
/By Celia Vimont
May 20th, 2014/
A new government study finds more than 10,000 toddlers in the United States are receiving medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) outside established guidelines. The report found children covered by Medicaid are most likely to receive drugs such as Ritalin or Adderall.
The American Academy of Pediatrics does not have guidelines for use of ADHD medications in children ages 3 and younger, because their safety and effectiveness in that age group has not been established, The New York Times reports.
“It’s absolutely shocking, and it shouldn’t be happening,” said Anita Zervigon-Hakes, a children’s mental health consultant to the Carter Center in Atlanta, where the data was presented last week by researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “People are just feeling around in the dark. We obviously don’t have our act together for little children.”
A California behavioral pediatrician, Dr. Lawrence H. Diller, told the newspaper, “People prescribing to 2-year-olds are just winging it. It is outside the standard of care, and they should be subject to malpractice if something goes wrong with a kid.”
Adderall is the only drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treating children below age 6 for ADHD. After some studies suggested use of Ritalin in preschool children with ADHD may be helpful, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued guidelines that authorize use of the drug in 4- and 5-year-olds, but only if formal training for parents and teachers to improve the child’s environment were not successful.
Several experts said hyperactivity and impulsivity are developmentally appropriate for toddlers, and more time is needed to see if they truly have ADHD.
A study published in 2012 found use of drugs for ADHD in children jumped 46 percent from 2002 to 2010. Ritalin was the top drug prescribed for teenagers, with more than four million prescriptions filled in 2010.
/By Celia Vimont
May 20th, 2014/
A new government study finds more than 10,000 toddlers in the United States are receiving medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) outside established guidelines. The report found children covered by Medicaid are most likely to receive drugs such as Ritalin or Adderall.
The American Academy of Pediatrics does not have guidelines for use of ADHD medications in children ages 3 and younger, because their safety and effectiveness in that age group has not been established, The New York Times reports.
“It’s absolutely shocking, and it shouldn’t be happening,” said Anita Zervigon-Hakes, a children’s mental health consultant to the Carter Center in Atlanta, where the data was presented last week by researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “People are just feeling around in the dark. We obviously don’t have our act together for little children.”
A California behavioral pediatrician, Dr. Lawrence H. Diller, told the newspaper, “People prescribing to 2-year-olds are just winging it. It is outside the standard of care, and they should be subject to malpractice if something goes wrong with a kid.”
Adderall is the only drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treating children below age 6 for ADHD. After some studies suggested use of Ritalin in preschool children with ADHD may be helpful, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued guidelines that authorize use of the drug in 4- and 5-year-olds, but only if formal training for parents and teachers to improve the child’s environment were not successful.
Several experts said hyperactivity and impulsivity are developmentally appropriate for toddlers, and more time is needed to see if they truly have ADHD.
A study published in 2012 found use of drugs for ADHD in children jumped 46 percent from 2002 to 2010. Ritalin was the top drug prescribed for teenagers, with more than four million prescriptions filled in 2010.
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
MAY 20 v 24 TWELVE STEPPING WITH POWER IN THE PROVERB
The Lord directs our steps,
so why try to understand everything along the way?
STEP 2 - Came to believe that GOD could restore us to sanity.
Two of my favorite sayings are , Keep it simple and , one day at a time . God created you and this world and there is a purpose too everything and you could be the smartest person in the world and still not know everything . Why do we spend so much time trying to figure everything out. We are left with more questions than answers and I think that's the way God wants it . We are His kids and what do kids do when they are trying to figure something out . That 's right they seek out a parent .That's who God is , A Dad and our creator and He wants too help you along in life . All of your days are numbered and one day you will return home too Him . Someone mentioned too me , that we are spiritual beings having a human experience .So why not try and enjoy it . Instead we spend all our time trying to make life happen causing all types of stress and sickness . Then we self medicate to cope with the stress and rejection and depression . God has a plan start with the twelve steps and read the Proverbs. You just got to make up your mind to take it easy and enjoy life .
Provervb 3 v 5 v 6 -Trust in the lord with all your heart;
do not depend on your own understanding.
Seek his will in all you do,
and he will show you which path to take.
By Joseph Dickerson
A Drug Treatment Center Unlike Any Other
Sober College is a drug treatment center that specializes in helping young adult men & women ages 17 to 26.
Call us to learn about our innovative and effective approach to drug treatment: 877.628.6224.
HERE IS WHAT SETS OUR DRUG TREATMENT CENTER APART:
Tailored treatment for young adults: To be in treatment with people your own age, is much more appealing. Willingness in our drug treatment center is increased because our staffing and programming is specifically designed to capture the attention of young men and women aged 17 to 26.
Clinical care that treats the addicted brain: Since 2006, Sober College’s entire focus, curriculum and treatment methodology target healing the addicted brain. This was five years before the definition of addiction was re-defined by the American Society of Addiction Medicine as a disease of the brain.
Long-term rehab for life-long sobriety: For someone to maintain successful long-term recovery from drug and alcohol addiction, 30 to 60 days of treatment is not enough. We create life-long success through our innovative, long-term approach.
Don’t put your life on hold for rehab: Let’s face it. No one wants to be in treatment. At Sober College we understand this and have created a unique delivery that says, “If you have to be in treatment, then let’s make it as appealing as possible.”
High school or college, we’ve got you covered: Our groundbreaking “College and Rehab Under One Roof” is available to students in high school AND college. Call us today to find out more!
An Educated Addict’s Mom is an Empowered Addict’s Mom.
Are you an addict’s mom who needs help with codependency?
Debbie Sherrick, a codependency coach who is offering a free class to our TAM members.
About Debbie Sherrick:
Debbie Sherrick is a Holistic Codependency Coach. Motivated by my own personal journey to healing myself from the Inside Out, I love sharing my story of coming out of the shame, low self-esteem and the pain of codependency. I am a certified Holistic Health Counselor and Codependency Life Coach teaching people how to unite mind, body and spirit for a successful healthy life style to achieve more self-love and empowerment in their relationships and personal life. My passion is to educate and encourage others to become healthy emotionally, physically and to develop a deep spiritual connection in taking control of their own lives in these areas.
Information on Empower Hour Codependency Class:
On Tuesday, May 20th, 8pm EST Debbie Sherrick will be offering a free class “Why Detaching Never Fails” on the Empower Hour Show on Google+.
Debbie say’s “When it comes to codependency, some people are confused. We will be discussing some of the behavioral signs of codependency and the myths and confusion of what it "is not". We will see that it’s not so much what we do as WHY we’re doing it and why we struggle with our relationship with self and others.”
"The event is FREE but you must register to attend at www.empowerhourshow.com/live
Much love to all addict’s moms and their families....Barbara Theodosiou founder of The Addict’s Mom.
Visit The Addict's Mom at: http://addictsmom.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network
Daily Quote
"There is absolutely nothing in ordinary human experience to compare with the joy of the presence of the Love of God. No sacrifice is too great nor effort too much in order to realize that Presence. " - David R. Hawkins
Today's Online Meetings
AA Meeting - 8:00 pm CST: "Face to Face"
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Sunday, May 18, 2014
MAY 18 v 24 TWELVE STEPPING WITH POWER IN THE PROVERB
There are “friends” who destroy each other,
but a real friend sticks closer than a brother.
STEP 8 - Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
What kind of a friend are you ? Misery loves company is what they say and it is one of the truest statements we will hear today . We can tell a lot about a person just by the people they associate with . People will come into your life for a reason ,season or a lifetime . You will know whose who soon enough but in the meantime be your own person .Do not shape your lives to please others or become what they are. Come out be separate and independent you have a destiny and you must live life to the fullest and I guarantee being an addict is not what God has planned for your life. According to the Bible you are a special treasure so believe it and live it.
Colosians 3 10 _ put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
There are “friends” who destroy each other,
but a real friend sticks closer than a brother.
STEP 8 - Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
What kind of a friend are you ? Misery loves company is what they say and it is one of the truest statements we will hear today . We can tell a lot about a person just by the people they associate with . People will come into your life for a reason ,season or a lifetime . You will know whose who soon enough but in the meantime be your own person .Do not shape your lives to please others or become what they are. Come out be separate and independent you have a destiny and you must live life to the fullest and I guarantee being an addict is not what God has planned for your life. According to the Bible you are a special treasure so believe it and live it.
Colosians 3 10 _ put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
By Joseph Dickerson
We are excited to announce
TAM Healthy Moms a new closed group focusing on the health and wellness
of Addict's Moms; We are proud to announce TAM NY State Coordinator Debbie Gross-Longo will be working in this group focusing on a healthier you to join visit https://www.facebook.com/
Visit The Addict's Mom at: http://addictsmom.com/?xg_
How Rock 'N Roll Can Save A Kid's Life
In New York, one program is bringing teens back from trouble with the power of black skinny jeans and electric guitars.
THE FIX
By Neville Elder
05/14/14
About 45 minutes from Grand Central Terminal the Graham school sprawls across 48 acres in the town of Hastings, New York. Elegant Victorian buildings peer down the Hudson river towards New York City. It could be a small university or an exclusive private school. It’s not. The Graham school was the first foster care institution in the US. It started the concept of foster care. Now it houses over 300 ‘at-risk’ day and resident students from New York City.
Downstairs in the canteen a dozen teenagers fill two hexagonal canteen tables with fixed seats. Other tables are stacked in the corner, the room is empty of furniture but full of life. A dozen girls and boys between 14 and 16 sit around and sulk, and chat and gossip. They doodle on notebooks and journals. They talk with staff, occasionally having to be gently reprimanded. They talk constantly, some never looking up from phones. One has a Fender Bullet electric guitar. I sit with him and try to tune it with an app on my phone, but the phone struggles to find the pitch without amplification. As stragglers shuffle in they have to knock on a heavy locked door to get access.
The whole idea is to say fuck you to society and fuck you to the fact you think these kids are garbage and you want to lock them away.
I’ve come to watch the beginning of the Road Recovery’s (RR) workshop. It’s an organization that connects musicians and the arts with vulnerable and troubled kids in care. RR partners with the institutions in a unique way to help change the course of their lives for the better.
Adam Roth is pure rock‘n’roll. With his grey hair slicked back over shaved sides, his guitar-pickin veteran hands are covered with old-school tattoos. He’s tall and skinny with a boyish face and wears desert boots with black skinny jeans. He’s been sober for ten years. He opens a guitar case and takes out a beautiful vintage Hofner hollow-body guitar and plugs it into an amplifier with an electronic ‘squawk.’ He sits down amongst notebooks and backpacks and strums a few chords. The amp stirs the empty room with a natural reverb. Some of the kids look up.
“Who’s got some words? Who wants to go first?” says Adam, a gold tooth gleaming in his beaming grin.
This is their last chance. The children who come here to Graham from the care of NYC social services are in serious trouble. Many have problems with drugs and alcohol. They’re not yet adults but if they don’t get their shit together soon they’ll be flushed into the New York State penal system.
Cheyenne, 15, sits down on the seat next to Adam and without too much encouragement starts singing a lilting bluesy ballad a capella. She reads from a crumpled piece of paper torn from a legal pad.
“We try so hard to be different - but it’s never gonna be alright,
This is the present - my life is a constant fight...”
Her voice is sweet and surprisingly well rounded. Something like Macy Gray meets Billie Holiday. A natural vibrato lifts above her shyness and above the hum of conversation.
“Like a decaying flower - everything just dies,
I will some-day have the pow-er I’m tired of these lies..”
Adam strums his guitar gently with his thumb and fingers, his head tilted towards her song picking out the root notes for her sad melody. He finds the chords easily and they grow stronger as Cheyenne’s voice repeats the phrases to her song. They go around again. She closes her eyes and repeats the phrases, gently swaying to the guitar player's swinging 6/8 rhythm, it’s got an almost Cuban feel and on the last lines - No more judging.. no more fighting - Adam lets the strings ring out and instinctively Cheyenne takes the cue to deliver the last line.
“I will survive.”
Applause breaks out. It’s a song, virtually fully formed in three takes. Everyone is impressed. Cheyenne giggles, reveling in her moment.
By the end of the hour Adam has helped two more kids write songs. These will form the basis for a live concert in 14 weeks' time. It will include dance, art and just about anything else the kids enrolled in the RR program can get excited about.
Gene Bowen, one of the founders of RR, believes that building a relationship with these children through music and art will get them off the fast track to prison.
“A lot of these kids have never had a solid continuous committed relationship in their life. We say, we're going to be here every Thursday night at 6pm for 14 weeks. Even that basic thing.. seems like a foreign idea [to them].”
Adam, like other sober musicians, brings a unique cachet to the project. Rock ‘n’ rollers are anti-establishment by their very nature. They bring their experiences into the Graham school and say:
I identify with you.This is what I did to get myself out of these situations and I’m in recovery from drugs and alcohol. This is where it took me. No one else gave a shit so I had to take responsibility. Whether you can see it or not this is an opportunity. I know, because I’ve been down this road.
Bowen, a former tour manager with the Allman Brothers Band and Alice In Chains, was brought to his knees by his addictions. From touring the world with the biggest rock bands he ended up turning a wrench at a venue in New Jersey, building the stages for the stars he once hung out with. When he got sober in 1993 his life turned around and he got a gig working for Columbia Artists Management putting together tours for orchestras and ballet companies. It kept him busy and kept him off the road. A couple of years later, Jack Bookbinder - who was managing Jeff Buckley for Sony - asked him go out on the road. Jack wanted Gene because he was sober. He refused. If he wanted to stay sober the madness of a rock ‘n’ roll tour was precisely the last place he could go.
“Sony’s hierarchy at the time was full of sober people who knew they needed a babysitter for their ‘pet rock.’ They’d made a huge investment [in Buckley], they knew they needed someone sober to protect their investment.”
Jack persisted. Exasperated, Gene made them an offer he knew they’d refuse. But they didn’t. Gene demanded that if he felt squirrely or freaked out at any time on the tour he could bail. Suddenly, he was back on the road, but this time with a network of sober people embedded in the entertainment industry.
What I saw in the canteen with Adam and the kids was the beginning of the RR program. Gene told me what comes next.
“We build a relationship, we build trust organically over a period of time - which is how we effect change, right? You’re 15, everyone’s told you’re a fucking a loser, a waste of time. We’re saying you have value. I’m 50 you’re 15 guess what? I can save your ass and you can save mine, we can do this together.”
As for the musicians, Adam says:
“We’re working as equals. I’m a rock ‘n’ roll guy - what could be better than writing a bunch of songs and then putting on a show. Fucking great, you know?”
Gene looks for a ‘seamless partnership’ with the methodology of the institution. The Graham staff must interact with the activities.
“It’s the only way this works - no bystanders! You want to be in the room? Beat a drum! And support us with eyes and ears. [Obviously] RR staff don’t have the skills to spot behavior that may result in further problems. We had one kid handing a RR staff member poetry. That gesture, which seemed to be building confidence, was actually acting out. They [Graham school staff] spotted it. They said: ‘this is what you need to do - if this kid is going to be affectionate don’t be affectionate back.”
When the Graham staff engage in the workshops, when they themselves are vulnerable, it breaks down barriers and opens up lines of communication. The kids then tend to seek out those staff members outside of their RR time. Perhaps they’ve been working on dance moves for the workshop, so they’ll take their ideas to that staff member who has been with them in the workshop stumbling around with two left feet.
“We do a newsletter,” Gene told me. “All our staff have to shoot me an email with a synopsis of their workshops. I send it through the hierarchy and let everyone at Graham know what’s going on so when a Graham staff member sees a kid around the school, he says ‘hey you’re working on that song? That’s cool, how did you write it?' It brings everyone together. Pretty soon it becomes part of the culture of the institution.”
But it’s not all ‘High School Musical’. Some of the children at Graham have severe behavioral problems. What I saw with Adam was only the second workshop of that series. It was beautiful and the mood was upbeat and supportive. But tempers can flare from time to time and the Graham school staff then step in to break things up.
“We’ve had riots,” Says Gene, his eyes twinkling, “But you know, if it doesn’t go in a ditch at least once, it isn’t going to work.”
The successes are hard won. But they’re worth it.
“So there’s this kid. . . every time I see this kid he says ‘Fuck you..! I want to kill you.' That's my whole conversation with him! I don’t know what to do with him! All he wants to do is play basketball - I don’t like sports but I ask him: ‘You any good? Can you dribble?' He says: ‘Fuck you, of course I can dribble.’ ‘Can you dribble two balls?.. How bout you dribble two basketballs and create a drum beat?’ Suddenly he’s involved, and he’s on stage at the final concert as the backbone for a dance."
"The whole idea is to say fuck you to society and fuck you to the fact you think these kids are garbage and you want to lock them away. But there is hope, they can become productive members of society.”
Gene waited ten years to lean on his connections in the music industry. He didn’t want RR to turn into a circus and perhaps endanger the kids. New York City is a pilot for a bolder, more remarkable project.
Recovery on the road. The idea Gene was kicking around started on the first Buckley tour in 1996. It was to use sober musicians and road crew when they’re on tour, passing through the cities where they put on the shows, to reach out to the local community and help kids in trouble, kids trying to get clean, to introduce the ideas I saw in Adam Roth’s workshop in the Graham School.
When he was out on the road it was the downtime that bothered Gene - all that sitting around waiting for something to happen. When he came back from the Jeff Buckley tour, Gene was still part of the team but as Jeff was writing a new album Gene was sitting on his hands, trying to figure out what to do next. He didn’t want to be a tour manager for the rest of his life but he’d committed to another four years on the road with Jeff. He talked with Jack Bookbinder and Jeff Buckley about the Road Recovery idea, about maybe taking it out on the next tour. They loved it. But then tragically, Jeff Buckley died. Everything fell apart. In the chaos that followed Gene found an unlikely ally in Buckley’s mother Mary. She saw Road Recovery as a beautiful memorial for Jeff.
“‘I’m going to help you get this going,' she said. She [gave me] a good kick in the ass! She was [the] cheerleader! And she’s still on the board of RR. In those darkest hours she kept pushing me with the words: ‘random acts of kindness.’ She wanted [Road Recovery] to be Jeff’s legacy.”
The plan to set up programs within local communities by piggybacking on the rock shows on tour should work on two simple principles. The workshops must be a ‘seamless partnership’ with the institutions that host them, and once up and running they must sustain themselves when the Road Recovery staff withdraw.
“The crew going in is the tip of the iceberg. Local people, local sober musicians take over and [the local community] become[s] self-sufficient.”
“Getting the seed money to start things was hard work, everyone was saying when you’ve got something we can see working we can talk again, well now [Jack Bookbinder and myself] have proved it.”
It’s been fifteen years since Road Recovery began and now there are self-sustaining programs in such far-flung places as Texas, New York, Alaska and Oklahoma. How does that Jonathan Richman song go? Oh yes!
"1,2,3,4,5,6 Roadrunner roadrunner..."
Neville Elder is a regular contributor to The Fix. He recently wrote about online dating in sobriety and the incompetence behind lethal injections.
In New York, one program is bringing teens back from trouble with the power of black skinny jeans and electric guitars.
THE FIX
By Neville Elder
05/14/14
About 45 minutes from Grand Central Terminal the Graham school sprawls across 48 acres in the town of Hastings, New York. Elegant Victorian buildings peer down the Hudson river towards New York City. It could be a small university or an exclusive private school. It’s not. The Graham school was the first foster care institution in the US. It started the concept of foster care. Now it houses over 300 ‘at-risk’ day and resident students from New York City.
Downstairs in the canteen a dozen teenagers fill two hexagonal canteen tables with fixed seats. Other tables are stacked in the corner, the room is empty of furniture but full of life. A dozen girls and boys between 14 and 16 sit around and sulk, and chat and gossip. They doodle on notebooks and journals. They talk with staff, occasionally having to be gently reprimanded. They talk constantly, some never looking up from phones. One has a Fender Bullet electric guitar. I sit with him and try to tune it with an app on my phone, but the phone struggles to find the pitch without amplification. As stragglers shuffle in they have to knock on a heavy locked door to get access.
The whole idea is to say fuck you to society and fuck you to the fact you think these kids are garbage and you want to lock them away.
I’ve come to watch the beginning of the Road Recovery’s (RR) workshop. It’s an organization that connects musicians and the arts with vulnerable and troubled kids in care. RR partners with the institutions in a unique way to help change the course of their lives for the better.
Adam Roth is pure rock‘n’roll. With his grey hair slicked back over shaved sides, his guitar-pickin veteran hands are covered with old-school tattoos. He’s tall and skinny with a boyish face and wears desert boots with black skinny jeans. He’s been sober for ten years. He opens a guitar case and takes out a beautiful vintage Hofner hollow-body guitar and plugs it into an amplifier with an electronic ‘squawk.’ He sits down amongst notebooks and backpacks and strums a few chords. The amp stirs the empty room with a natural reverb. Some of the kids look up.
“Who’s got some words? Who wants to go first?” says Adam, a gold tooth gleaming in his beaming grin.
This is their last chance. The children who come here to Graham from the care of NYC social services are in serious trouble. Many have problems with drugs and alcohol. They’re not yet adults but if they don’t get their shit together soon they’ll be flushed into the New York State penal system.
Cheyenne, 15, sits down on the seat next to Adam and without too much encouragement starts singing a lilting bluesy ballad a capella. She reads from a crumpled piece of paper torn from a legal pad.
“We try so hard to be different - but it’s never gonna be alright,
This is the present - my life is a constant fight...”
Her voice is sweet and surprisingly well rounded. Something like Macy Gray meets Billie Holiday. A natural vibrato lifts above her shyness and above the hum of conversation.
“Like a decaying flower - everything just dies,
I will some-day have the pow-er I’m tired of these lies..”
Adam strums his guitar gently with his thumb and fingers, his head tilted towards her song picking out the root notes for her sad melody. He finds the chords easily and they grow stronger as Cheyenne’s voice repeats the phrases to her song. They go around again. She closes her eyes and repeats the phrases, gently swaying to the guitar player's swinging 6/8 rhythm, it’s got an almost Cuban feel and on the last lines - No more judging.. no more fighting - Adam lets the strings ring out and instinctively Cheyenne takes the cue to deliver the last line.
“I will survive.”
Applause breaks out. It’s a song, virtually fully formed in three takes. Everyone is impressed. Cheyenne giggles, reveling in her moment.
By the end of the hour Adam has helped two more kids write songs. These will form the basis for a live concert in 14 weeks' time. It will include dance, art and just about anything else the kids enrolled in the RR program can get excited about.
Gene Bowen, one of the founders of RR, believes that building a relationship with these children through music and art will get them off the fast track to prison.
“A lot of these kids have never had a solid continuous committed relationship in their life. We say, we're going to be here every Thursday night at 6pm for 14 weeks. Even that basic thing.. seems like a foreign idea [to them].”
Adam, like other sober musicians, brings a unique cachet to the project. Rock ‘n’ rollers are anti-establishment by their very nature. They bring their experiences into the Graham school and say:
I identify with you.This is what I did to get myself out of these situations and I’m in recovery from drugs and alcohol. This is where it took me. No one else gave a shit so I had to take responsibility. Whether you can see it or not this is an opportunity. I know, because I’ve been down this road.
Bowen, a former tour manager with the Allman Brothers Band and Alice In Chains, was brought to his knees by his addictions. From touring the world with the biggest rock bands he ended up turning a wrench at a venue in New Jersey, building the stages for the stars he once hung out with. When he got sober in 1993 his life turned around and he got a gig working for Columbia Artists Management putting together tours for orchestras and ballet companies. It kept him busy and kept him off the road. A couple of years later, Jack Bookbinder - who was managing Jeff Buckley for Sony - asked him go out on the road. Jack wanted Gene because he was sober. He refused. If he wanted to stay sober the madness of a rock ‘n’ roll tour was precisely the last place he could go.
“Sony’s hierarchy at the time was full of sober people who knew they needed a babysitter for their ‘pet rock.’ They’d made a huge investment [in Buckley], they knew they needed someone sober to protect their investment.”
Jack persisted. Exasperated, Gene made them an offer he knew they’d refuse. But they didn’t. Gene demanded that if he felt squirrely or freaked out at any time on the tour he could bail. Suddenly, he was back on the road, but this time with a network of sober people embedded in the entertainment industry.
What I saw in the canteen with Adam and the kids was the beginning of the RR program. Gene told me what comes next.
“We build a relationship, we build trust organically over a period of time - which is how we effect change, right? You’re 15, everyone’s told you’re a fucking a loser, a waste of time. We’re saying you have value. I’m 50 you’re 15 guess what? I can save your ass and you can save mine, we can do this together.”
As for the musicians, Adam says:
“We’re working as equals. I’m a rock ‘n’ roll guy - what could be better than writing a bunch of songs and then putting on a show. Fucking great, you know?”
Gene looks for a ‘seamless partnership’ with the methodology of the institution. The Graham staff must interact with the activities.
“It’s the only way this works - no bystanders! You want to be in the room? Beat a drum! And support us with eyes and ears. [Obviously] RR staff don’t have the skills to spot behavior that may result in further problems. We had one kid handing a RR staff member poetry. That gesture, which seemed to be building confidence, was actually acting out. They [Graham school staff] spotted it. They said: ‘this is what you need to do - if this kid is going to be affectionate don’t be affectionate back.”
When the Graham staff engage in the workshops, when they themselves are vulnerable, it breaks down barriers and opens up lines of communication. The kids then tend to seek out those staff members outside of their RR time. Perhaps they’ve been working on dance moves for the workshop, so they’ll take their ideas to that staff member who has been with them in the workshop stumbling around with two left feet.
“We do a newsletter,” Gene told me. “All our staff have to shoot me an email with a synopsis of their workshops. I send it through the hierarchy and let everyone at Graham know what’s going on so when a Graham staff member sees a kid around the school, he says ‘hey you’re working on that song? That’s cool, how did you write it?' It brings everyone together. Pretty soon it becomes part of the culture of the institution.”
But it’s not all ‘High School Musical’. Some of the children at Graham have severe behavioral problems. What I saw with Adam was only the second workshop of that series. It was beautiful and the mood was upbeat and supportive. But tempers can flare from time to time and the Graham school staff then step in to break things up.
“We’ve had riots,” Says Gene, his eyes twinkling, “But you know, if it doesn’t go in a ditch at least once, it isn’t going to work.”
The successes are hard won. But they’re worth it.
“So there’s this kid. . . every time I see this kid he says ‘Fuck you..! I want to kill you.' That's my whole conversation with him! I don’t know what to do with him! All he wants to do is play basketball - I don’t like sports but I ask him: ‘You any good? Can you dribble?' He says: ‘Fuck you, of course I can dribble.’ ‘Can you dribble two balls?.. How bout you dribble two basketballs and create a drum beat?’ Suddenly he’s involved, and he’s on stage at the final concert as the backbone for a dance."
"The whole idea is to say fuck you to society and fuck you to the fact you think these kids are garbage and you want to lock them away. But there is hope, they can become productive members of society.”
Gene waited ten years to lean on his connections in the music industry. He didn’t want RR to turn into a circus and perhaps endanger the kids. New York City is a pilot for a bolder, more remarkable project.
Recovery on the road. The idea Gene was kicking around started on the first Buckley tour in 1996. It was to use sober musicians and road crew when they’re on tour, passing through the cities where they put on the shows, to reach out to the local community and help kids in trouble, kids trying to get clean, to introduce the ideas I saw in Adam Roth’s workshop in the Graham School.
When he was out on the road it was the downtime that bothered Gene - all that sitting around waiting for something to happen. When he came back from the Jeff Buckley tour, Gene was still part of the team but as Jeff was writing a new album Gene was sitting on his hands, trying to figure out what to do next. He didn’t want to be a tour manager for the rest of his life but he’d committed to another four years on the road with Jeff. He talked with Jack Bookbinder and Jeff Buckley about the Road Recovery idea, about maybe taking it out on the next tour. They loved it. But then tragically, Jeff Buckley died. Everything fell apart. In the chaos that followed Gene found an unlikely ally in Buckley’s mother Mary. She saw Road Recovery as a beautiful memorial for Jeff.
“‘I’m going to help you get this going,' she said. She [gave me] a good kick in the ass! She was [the] cheerleader! And she’s still on the board of RR. In those darkest hours she kept pushing me with the words: ‘random acts of kindness.’ She wanted [Road Recovery] to be Jeff’s legacy.”
The plan to set up programs within local communities by piggybacking on the rock shows on tour should work on two simple principles. The workshops must be a ‘seamless partnership’ with the institutions that host them, and once up and running they must sustain themselves when the Road Recovery staff withdraw.
“The crew going in is the tip of the iceberg. Local people, local sober musicians take over and [the local community] become[s] self-sufficient.”
“Getting the seed money to start things was hard work, everyone was saying when you’ve got something we can see working we can talk again, well now [Jack Bookbinder and myself] have proved it.”
It’s been fifteen years since Road Recovery began and now there are self-sustaining programs in such far-flung places as Texas, New York, Alaska and Oklahoma. How does that Jonathan Richman song go? Oh yes!
"1,2,3,4,5,6 Roadrunner roadrunner..."
Neville Elder is a regular contributor to The Fix. He recently wrote about online dating in sobriety and the incompetence behind lethal injections.
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