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Welcome to the Recovery Connections Network .We have spent the last ten years collecting resources so you don't have to spend countless precious hours surfing the Web .Based on personal experience we know first hand how finding help and getting those tough questions answered can be. If you cant find what you need here, email us recoveryfriends@gmail.com we will help you. Prayer is also available just reach out to our email !
- SRC Scottish Recovery Consortium
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Friday, April 18, 2014
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Google Isn’t Doing Enough to Stop Illegal Drug Sales Online, Some Attorneys General Say
By Join Together Staff | April 16, 2014 | Leave a comment | Filed in Legal,Marketing And Media & Prescription Drugs
Google is not doing enough to stop online sales of illegal drugs and fake prescription medicines, according to a group of state attorneys general. The company says it disabled 4.6 million pharmaceutical or health supplement ads last year.
Last December, 24 attorneys general sent a letter to Google outlining their concerns, The Washington Post reports. The letter led to private meetings with Google executives. Some attorneys general say they are satisfied with the company’s response, while others are not, the article notes.
The company says since it toughened its advertising policy in 2010, the number of ads placed by unlicensed pharmacies has decreased by 99.9 percent. In 2011, Google agreed to pay $500 million to avoid being prosecuted for aiding illegal online pharmaceutical sales. In the settlement, the company acknowledged it had improperly and knowingly assisted online pharmacy advertisers, allegedly based in Canada, to run ads for illegal pharmacy sales that targeted American customers.
Company emails, disclosed as part of a shareholder lawsuit, indicate the company knew of the risks of illegal pharmacy ads long before they stopped allowing them, the newspaper reports.
Google says it will hire 120 people this year to look for rogue ads and videos, and will eliminate 1,200 predicted search phrases, including “how to become a drug dealer,” which have led people to illegal web sites. Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood says he will pursue legal action if the company does not also remove sites that sell illicit drugs and other illegal products from its search results.
Private Equity Firm Hopes for Profits From Substance Treatment Facilities
By Join Together Staff | April 16, 2014 | Leave a comment | Filed in Addiction,Community Related, Insurance & Treatment
The private equity firm Bain Capital recently took over the largest chain of substance treatment facilities in Massachusetts, The Boston Globe reports. Bain, which usually makes investments in brand-name companies such as Dunkin’ Donuts, sees treating addiction as big business.
Bain paid $58 million for Habit OPCO Inc., which has 13 locations in Massachusetts. It made the purchase through another company it owns, CRC Health, the largest provider of substance abuse treatment and behavioral health services in the nation.
Substance abuse treatment is a $7.7 billion industry, and is growing at a rate of about 2 percent annually, the article notes. A growing number of people addicted to opioids are middle- and upper-middle class, according to Deni Carise, Deputy Chief Clinical Officer for CRC Health.
At Habit OPCO facilities, patients are charged $135 a week for methadone treatment, including daily doses of liquid methadone, access to healthcare professionals, and other services. While some patients have private insurance, others are covered through Medicaid or pay cash.
Dr. Kevin P. Hill, director of the Substance Abuse Consultation Service at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, says he is concerned about the care that some for-profit methadone clinics provide. “The problem I find with some of the for-profit clinics is the absolute minimum required by law becomes the absolute maximum they’re willing to do for their patients,” Hill said.
Habit OPCO and CRC staff say profits are not their main goal. “Frankly, the way to make a lot of money in this particular business is to do it badly,” CRC’s Carise said. “We’re just not going to do that.” She noted the Affordable Care Act, and a law that requires equal insurance coverage for mental health conditions, will give clinics more access to private health insurance. The new laws will help make treatment more affordable for people who previously had no insurance, she said.
Massachusetts Cannot Ban Zohydro, Federal Judge Says
By Join Together Staff | April 16, 2014 | Leave a comment | Filed in Community Related, Legal & Prescription Drugs
Massachusetts cannot ban the new pure hydrocodone drug Zohydro ER (extended release), a federal judge said Monday. The company that makes the drug, Zogenix, argued in a lawsuit that the ban is unconstitutional, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Last Month, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick announcedZohydro would be banned in the state. He cited a public health emergency stemming from opioid abuse.
The drug is a pure form of the painkiller hydrocodone. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Zohydro ER in October for patients with pain that requires daily, around-the-clock, long-term treatment that cannot be treated with other drugs. Drugs such as Vicodin contain a combination of hydrocodone and other painkillers such as acetaminophen. Zohydro is designed to be released over time, and can be crushed and snorted by people seeking a strong, quick high.
This week, U.S. District Judge Rya Zobel issued a preliminary injunction on the ban. The judge said the state appears to have overstepped its authority in banning Zohydro. She noted Zogenix was likely to be successful in pursuing a court order to permanently lift the ban. In her ruling, Judge Zobel said the ban would “undermine the FDA’s ability to make drugs available to promote and protect the public health.”
“Today’s legal ruling was a positive step forward for Massachusetts patients,” Roger Hawley, Chief Executive Officer of Zogenix, said in a news release. “We invite concerned officials to engage with us to discuss fair and appropriate safeguards for pain medications like Zohydro ER rather than seeking to ban or restrict one specific treatment.”
Governor Patrick said he was disappointed in the ruling, the newspaper notes. “Addiction is a serious enough problem already in Massachusetts without having to deal with another addictive narcotic painkiller sold in a form that isn’t tamper proof,” he said in a statement. “We will turn our attention now to other means to address this public-health crisis.”
Surge in Heroin and Prescription Opioid Use Has Deadly Consequences, Police Say
By Join Together Staff | April 17, 2014 | 1 Comment | Filed in Community Related, Drugs & Prevention
The surge in the use of heroin and prescription opioids is resulting in more deaths than violent crimes and car crashes in many communities, law enforcement officials said this week. They met in Washington, D.C. to discuss the problem and possible solutions.
Many overdose deaths are due to heroin, which is easily available and potent, USA Today reports. Heroin costs between $4 and $20 per bag, depending on the location—much less expensive than prescription opioids.
In 2012, there were 730 drug overdose deaths in New York City—nearly double the number of homicides, the article notes. A government report called the National Drug Threat Assessment found between 2009 and 2013, heroin seizures increased 87 percent. The average size of the seizures increased 81 percent during that period.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told law enforcement officials, “The consciousness of the nation has not really focused on the problem. People saw this more as a state and local problem. …This is truly a national problem. Standing by itself, the heroin problem is worthy of our national attention.”
Other meeting participants included FBI Director James Comey, Drug Enforcement Administration Chief Michele Leonhart and Michael Botticelli, Acting Director of the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, as well as small-town police officials.
Many police officials said they are hindered in their efforts to fight overdoses by the lack of current data, according to NBC News. Some local police are trying creative solutions. In Washington, D.C., police have started mapping locations where the drug overdose antidote naloxone is used by firefighters and emergency medical technicians, in order to pinpoint areas of high-drug use. New York City is trying to create similar data.
Introverts With Few Positive Feelings at Higher Risk of Drug Abuse: Study
By Join Together Staff | April 17, 2014 | 2 Comments | Filed in Addiction, Drugs& Research
Introverts who tend to have fewer positive feelings, or to not be attracted to rewards in life, are more likely to abuse drugs than more extroverted people with positive emotions, a new study suggests.
Studying personality may help scientists better understand and treat substance use problems, according to the researchers from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Researcher Dr. Sergi Ferré said people who are extroverted and have more positive emotions may be more open to rewards other than good feelings that come from using a drug. For instance, they may feel rewarded by certain social situations such as winning a game or receiving a promotion.
In contrast, people who are introverted and have fewer positive feelings may have less interest in these rewards, and instead be more influenced by pleasant sensations that come from using drugs.
The researchers found having a tendency to experience negative emotions, such as anxiety or depressed mood, is associated with substance use disorder. Having a difficult time stopping a behavior or action once it is started is also linked with an increased risk of substance abuse, The Huffington Post reports.
The researchers noted the likelihood a person will abuse drugs involves many factors, including genes, personality, environment and past drug use. The findings appear in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
Commission Asks For Shorter Drug Trafficking Sentences
By Join Together Staff | April 17, 2014 | Leave a comment | Filed in Drugs &Legal
The U.S. Sentencing Commission, which advises federal judges, is recommending shorter prison sentences for most federal drug trafficking offenders, according to Reuters. Up to 70 percent of these offenders would receive shorter prison sentences if the commission’s recommendations are not opposed by Congress.
“This modest reduction in drug penalties is an important step toward reducing the problem of prison overcrowding at the federal level in a proportionate and fair manner,” Commission Chair Judge Patti B. Saris said in a news release. “Reducing the federal prison population has become urgent, with that population almost three times where it was in 1991.”
Last month, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder testified in favor of changing federal guidelines to reduce the average sentence for drug dealers. He told the Sentencing Commission the Obama Administration supports changing guidelines to reduce the average drug sentence by about one year, from 62 months to 51 months. The proposed changes would reduce the federal prison population by about 6,550 inmates over the next five years, the article notes. Currently, half of the 215,000 inmates in the federal prison system are serving time for drug crimes.
The new rules will go into effect on November 1, unless Congress votes to stop the sentencing guidelines, the article notes. Drug traffickers with the greatest quantities of drugs would not receive reduced sentences.
Reducing sentences could result in less leverage for prosecutors, warned Scott Burns, Executive Director of the National District Attorneys Association. He said district attorneys often use the threat of long sentences to convince drug offenders who have witnessed larger crimes to cooperate. “They can use the leverage of the threat of harsher punishment in order to solve murder cases and prosecute drug kingpins,” he said.
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
APRIL 16 v 33 TWELVE STEPPING WITH POWER IN THE PROVERB
We may throw the dice,
but the Lord determines how they fall.
but the Lord determines how they fall.
STEP 3 - Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God.
What are you waiting for ! HE HAS A PURPOSE ! HE HAS A PLAN ! You can roll the dice all you want but you will never control the outcome . Haven ' t you made enough of a mess ! All you need to do is step three pray , relax , live , laugh , love , forgive , forget , and breathe !
Romans 12 : 2 - And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and
acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
By Joseph Dickerson
Almost One-Fourth of Pregnant Women on Medicaid Filled Opioid Prescriptions: Study
By Join Together Staff | April 15, 2014 | Leave a comment | Filed in Parenting & Prescription Drugs
Almost one-quarter of pregnant women enrolled in Medicaid in 2007 filled a prescription for opioids, a new study finds. The risks of opioids to a developing fetus are largely unknown, The New York Times reports.
An estimated 1.1 million pregnant women were enrolled in Medicaid in 2007. The program covers medical expenses for 45 percent of births in the United States, according to the newspaper. The study, published in Obstetrics & Gynecology, found the rate of opioid prescribing is on the rise—18.5 percent of pregnant women enrolled in Medicaid in 2000 filled opioid prescriptions, compared with 23 percent in 2007.
“To hear that there’s such a high use of narcotics in pregnancy when I see so many women who worry about a cup of coffee seems incongruous,” Dr. Joshua A. Copel, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the Yale School of Medicine, told The New York Times.
The reason for the increase in opioid prescribing for pregnant women is unclear, but may be partly due to back pain.
An article published earlier this year in Anesthesiology, which included 500,000 privately insured women, found 14 percent were given opioid painkillers at least once during their pregnancy. Both studies found codeine and hydrocodone were the most commonly prescribed opioids during pregnancy. Most of the women took the drugs for a week or less.
The Medicaid study found stark regional differences in opioid prescribing. Among pregnant women in Utah, 41.6 percent were prescribed opioids, compared with 35.6 percent in Idaho, 9.6 percent in New York and 9.5 percent in Oregon. “The regional variation really concerned me the most,” said Dr. Pamela Flood, a professor of anesthesiology and pain medicine at Stanford University. “It’s hard to imagine that pregnant women in the South have all that much more pain than pregnant women in the Northeast.”
Almost one-quarter of pregnant women enrolled in Medicaid in 2007 filled a prescription for opioids, a new study finds. The risks of opioids to a developing fetus are largely unknown, The New York Times reports.
An estimated 1.1 million pregnant women were enrolled in Medicaid in 2007. The program covers medical expenses for 45 percent of births in the United States, according to the newspaper. The study, published in Obstetrics & Gynecology, found the rate of opioid prescribing is on the rise—18.5 percent of pregnant women enrolled in Medicaid in 2000 filled opioid prescriptions, compared with 23 percent in 2007.
“To hear that there’s such a high use of narcotics in pregnancy when I see so many women who worry about a cup of coffee seems incongruous,” Dr. Joshua A. Copel, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the Yale School of Medicine, told The New York Times.
The reason for the increase in opioid prescribing for pregnant women is unclear, but may be partly due to back pain.
An article published earlier this year in Anesthesiology, which included 500,000 privately insured women, found 14 percent were given opioid painkillers at least once during their pregnancy. Both studies found codeine and hydrocodone were the most commonly prescribed opioids during pregnancy. Most of the women took the drugs for a week or less.
The Medicaid study found stark regional differences in opioid prescribing. Among pregnant women in Utah, 41.6 percent were prescribed opioids, compared with 35.6 percent in Idaho, 9.6 percent in New York and 9.5 percent in Oregon. “The regional variation really concerned me the most,” said Dr. Pamela Flood, a professor of anesthesiology and pain medicine at Stanford University. “It’s hard to imagine that pregnant women in the South have all that much more pain than pregnant women in the Northeast.”
Bipartisan Senate Group Forms to Fight Prescription Drug Abuse
By Join Together Staff | April 15, 2014 | Leave a comment | Filed in Government, Prescription Drugs & Prevention
A bipartisan group of senators has formed to fight prescription drug abuse, according to The Hill. The group will look for innovative solutions to opioid abuse.
The Prescription Drug Abuse Working Group, part of the Senate Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, will convene a series of meetings about prescription drug abuse, involving local, state and federal officials, private coalitions, and companies developing novel technologies for combating abuse. The group will focus on hydrocodone, oxycodone and other narcotics that can be easily abused, according to HELP Committee Chairman Tom Harkin of Iowa.
Committee Ranking Member Lamar Alexander of Tennessee has been an outspoken critic of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of the pure hydrocodone drug Zohydro. In February, he and two other Republican senators wrote to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg to protest the agency’s decision to approve the drug. They wrote, “We believe the approval of pure hydrocodone products without methods to prevent abuse, misuse, and diversion, including abuse-deterrent formulations, poses a significant danger to our constituents, as it could worsen the drug abuse epidemic in our country.”
In a news release announcing the new Senate working group, Alexander said, “Not a day goes by that we don’t hear news of how prescription drug abuse is harming Americans across the nation, including in Tennessee. We are launching this working group to look at the problem from all angles—particularly what the federal government is doing to enable the mayors, governors, and law enforcement and public health officials who are working hard to address the problem.”
By Join Together Staff | April 15, 2014 | Leave a comment | Filed in Government, Prescription Drugs & Prevention
A bipartisan group of senators has formed to fight prescription drug abuse, according to The Hill. The group will look for innovative solutions to opioid abuse.
The Prescription Drug Abuse Working Group, part of the Senate Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, will convene a series of meetings about prescription drug abuse, involving local, state and federal officials, private coalitions, and companies developing novel technologies for combating abuse. The group will focus on hydrocodone, oxycodone and other narcotics that can be easily abused, according to HELP Committee Chairman Tom Harkin of Iowa.
Committee Ranking Member Lamar Alexander of Tennessee has been an outspoken critic of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of the pure hydrocodone drug Zohydro. In February, he and two other Republican senators wrote to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg to protest the agency’s decision to approve the drug. They wrote, “We believe the approval of pure hydrocodone products without methods to prevent abuse, misuse, and diversion, including abuse-deterrent formulations, poses a significant danger to our constituents, as it could worsen the drug abuse epidemic in our country.”
In a news release announcing the new Senate working group, Alexander said, “Not a day goes by that we don’t hear news of how prescription drug abuse is harming Americans across the nation, including in Tennessee. We are launching this working group to look at the problem from all angles—particularly what the federal government is doing to enable the mayors, governors, and law enforcement and public health officials who are working hard to address the problem.”
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
April 15 v 22 TWELVE STEPPING WITH POWER IN THE PROVERB
Plans go wrong for lack of advice;
many advisers bring success.
many advisers bring success.
STEP 1 - We admitted we were powerless against addiction - that our lives had become unmanageable.
Sometimes it takes a village to raise a child. When it comes to sobriety the same is true . I have seen many including myself under the direction of my old prideful thinking that I can white Knuckle my recovery in the beginning and then I would be fine. It was that kinda of thinking that kept me stuck for so long. Addiction is the only war you will win when you surrender, Our nature as humans is to dominate and stay in charge.The step tells us we are powerless and that is only true if we think we can do this on our own. Surrendering and admitting your whipped breaks the grip of your foolish pride .Once its grip is loosened you have to cry out for help from others like yourself who have been right where you are . The more brothers and sisters you surround yourself with and talk to the more likely your chances of success will be.
Psalms 13: 3 - 6 - Consider [and] hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the [sleep of] death;
By Joseph Dickerson
Largest Health Insurer in Massachusetts Has Cut Narcotic Prescriptions
By Join Together Staff | April 9, 2014 | 1 Comment | Filed in Community Related, Insurance, Prescription Drugs & Prevention
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the state’s largest health insurer, announced it has reduced prescriptions of narcotic painkillers by about 6.6 million pills in the past 18 months. The insurer limited the amount of opioids that members could obtain without prior approval of the company, WBUR reports.
Since the changes were implemented in July 2012, prescriptions for opioids including Percocet have declined by 20 percent, and those for long-lasting drugs such as OxyContin have declined by 50 percent, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts President Andrew Dreyfus told The Boston Globe.
An initial review of prescription information, launched in 2011, revealed more than 30,000 of the company’s members received opioid prescriptions that lasted for more than 30 days. “What we found out is in looking at patients who deserved to get pain medications or needed pain medications, many of them were getting significantly more than they would need,” Dr. John Fallon, Senior Vice President and Chief Physician Executive, told WBUR.
Under the program, patients are initially given shorter-term prescriptions for opioids. Patients seeking long-term prescriptions must go through a review process. Before patients are given more medication beyond the new limits, they must be assessed for the risk of addiction, and must agree on a treatment plan with their doctor.
Patients with cancer or other terminal illnesses are exempt from the rules.
“In the past, physicians said that no one should be in pain, and people gave more prescription medication than they probably needed, and that led to supply sitting around, which was then used for inappropriate reasons,” Fallon said. “Now I think there’s an awareness in the physician community how hazardous these medications are.”
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the state’s largest health insurer, announced it has reduced prescriptions of narcotic painkillers by about 6.6 million pills in the past 18 months. The insurer limited the amount of opioids that members could obtain without prior approval of the company, WBUR reports.
Since the changes were implemented in July 2012, prescriptions for opioids including Percocet have declined by 20 percent, and those for long-lasting drugs such as OxyContin have declined by 50 percent, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts President Andrew Dreyfus told The Boston Globe.
An initial review of prescription information, launched in 2011, revealed more than 30,000 of the company’s members received opioid prescriptions that lasted for more than 30 days. “What we found out is in looking at patients who deserved to get pain medications or needed pain medications, many of them were getting significantly more than they would need,” Dr. John Fallon, Senior Vice President and Chief Physician Executive, told WBUR.
Under the program, patients are initially given shorter-term prescriptions for opioids. Patients seeking long-term prescriptions must go through a review process. Before patients are given more medication beyond the new limits, they must be assessed for the risk of addiction, and must agree on a treatment plan with their doctor.
Patients with cancer or other terminal illnesses are exempt from the rules.
“In the past, physicians said that no one should be in pain, and people gave more prescription medication than they probably needed, and that led to supply sitting around, which was then used for inappropriate reasons,” Fallon said. “Now I think there’s an awareness in the physician community how hazardous these medications are.”
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expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits." - Hannah
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Monday, April 14, 2014
APRIL 14 V 17 TWELVE STEPPING WITH POWER IN THE PROVERB
Short-tempered people do foolish things,
and schemers are hated.
and schemers are hated.
STEP 9 - Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Manipulation of others at this point should not bet an option in your toolbox for life. From time to time I catch myself thinking the way I used too think and how can I get over on someone who is just not following my rules . It is that kinda of thinking that made me sick. My short temper made many in my life run away and I only have myself too blame . Looking at the Proverb and the step make me realize I was a real piece of work and their were many victims of my insanity . Regret is an anchor that will slow your recovery process down . Say your sorry try to make it up too them and move on . Some of your victims want nothing too do with you apologize and leave them alone . NO more games ! Its called maturity and sobriety ! Pray for what you need , always remain calm and wait , if what your praying for does not come it means God has something better .
Colossians 1:11-12 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
By : Joseph Dickerson
Sunday, April 13, 2014
APRIL 13 V 15 TWELVE STEPPING WITH POWER IN THE PROVERB
A person with good sense is respected;
a treacherous person is headed for destruction.
a treacherous person is headed for destruction.
STEP 4 - Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Who are you ! Are you someone heading to hell in a hand basket or are you someone with good sense .Step four will help you figure this one out . My life was a mystery for thirty two years all that time growing up and living in active addiction had me convinced I was someone else . After hitting bottom and finding the steps , I began to discover I was not who I was pretending to be. Step four solved the mystery and brought freedom I never thought possible in life .
Proverb 21 v 2 - Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.
BY : Joseph Dickerson
Ten Ways the War On Drugs Violates the U.S. Constitution
How our government's ongoing policy on drugs threatens all of us in unexpected ways.
shutterstock
By Clarence Walker
04/10/14
Share on facebookShare on twitter | More Sharing ServicesShare
An Inside Look at the Drug War Vs. Civilization
Art Exhibit Confronts Race and the Drug War
Blacks In Government Blast "Racist" Drug War
Is Drug Testing an Invasion of Privacy?
Even while marijuana legalization has been approved in some states, the War on Drugs remains the biggest and greatest violation and imminent threat to our civil liberties and the preservation of the Bill of Rights under the Constitution. The War on Drugs is an enemy to the rights and privacy of U.S. citizens everywhere. And this war not only targets guilty drug users or traffickers; it is also waged against innocent Americans who may think they are safe from draconian drug war policies.
This belief is a myth, and here's why: even if you don’t use marijuana, cocaine, pop pills or inject heroin—the drug war can still target you as a suspect. It doesn't matter if you're at work, picking up mail, applying for a job or even purchasing cold medicine at drug stores like CVS or Walgreens, the drug war has boldly established a 24-7 disturbing presence in the lives of American citizens.
The drug war is also responsible for the past and present illegal surveillance of people's cars and property and even plays a vital role in collecting information through illegal spying. The government's drug policies have unequivocally undermined basic civil rights and gutted the constitutional amendments. And it's not coincidental that much of the eroding civil rights in the "war on terror" came directly from the war on drugs.
Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall once summed up the drug war by reminding his fellow justices that "there is no drug exception to the Constitution."
The drug war is a war on everyone. So who is the real enemy? Drugs are not the enemy because drugs are chemicals. We have a war on drugs no more than we have a war on fruit trees. Just read the Constitution and there's nothing in it that says our government can pass laws to prohibit citizens from injecting narcotics or smoking marijuana; our brains and bodies don't belong to the government.
In a recent email, Phil Smith, editor of Drug War Chronicle, slammed the drug war this way: "One area of constitutional violations is in the realm of mandatory, suspicionless drug testing. The federal courts have held repeatedly that a drug test is a search under the Fourth Amendment and have generally barred government from requiring such tests, although they carved out a handful of exceptions for public safety-sensitive positions such as law enforcement, and for students engaged in extracurricular activities."
Smith points out the differences in how the Constitution functions against the government and private entities. "The Fourth Amendment protects us from the government, not privatization. That's why private employers can demand a drug test for no reason, but the government cannot demand welfare recipients take a drug test for no reason."
According to drugpolicy.org and Forbes, here are the stats proving the failure and institutionalized racism of the drug war:
• More than $51 billion has been spent annually in the U.S. on the drug war.
• 1.55 million people were arrested in 2012 on non-violent drug charges.
• 749,825 people were arrested that same year for marijuana drug violations. Of those, 658,231 were charged with possession only.
• Over 200,000 students lost federal financial aid eligibility due to a drug conviction.
• Studies show that the amount of tax revenues drug legalization would rake in annually is estimated at $46.7 billion dollars if current illegal drugs were taxed at rates comparable to alcohol and tobacco.
• African Americans represent an alarming 62 percent of all drug offenders sent to U.S. state prisons, yet they only represent 12 percent of the American population.
• Black men are sent to prison on drug charges at a rate that is 13 times that of white men.
• Out of 25.4 million Americans arrested on drug charges since 1980; approximately one-third of them were black
Here are prime examples of how the drug war policies violate the Constitution:
(1) Facts Behind How DEA Designated Marijuana as a Schedule 1 Drug: Long ago the federal government defined marijuana as a schedule 1 drug with no scientific accepted medical use. Apparently the feds intentionally ignored how marijuana is beneficial for people to treat serious ailments like arthritis, diabetes, glaucoma, Crohn's disease, and Parkinson’s disease and marijuana is also used to relieve joint pain as well as relieve nausea that cancer patients feel after undergoing chemotherapy. Further, marijuana has been used to treat depression and other mood disorders.
Plus we must not forget how the DEA and conservative lawmakers have tried to block legislation for states to pass medical marijuana laws. Thousands of chronically ill patients have suffered unnecessarily due to this opposition. In states where medical marijuana is legal the DEA along with city and county law enforcement officers continue to raid marijuana businesses, and arrest patients and legal pot growers.
Warning: Anyone living in a state without medical marijuana laws can be arrested for buying it to treat a medical condition. Under federal law marijuana is illegal even if a particular state legalizes it for medical or recreational purposes.
(2) Millions of Americans are Drug-Tested Each Year: Remember the job you applied for where the hiring requirements included submitting to a drug test? Well approximately 84 percent of U.S employers drug-test current employees including anyone considered for hiring.
So here's the kicker: what if a potential employee confides to a prospective employer that he takes prescribed legal opiates like oxycodone for pain, or a legal amphetamine like Adderall for ADHD, or even medical marijuana? The potential employee has just set himself up for rejection; even though he takes legally prescribed medication, this testing mandate actually gives employers unlimited power to discriminate against millions of workers based on private health decisions.
shutterstock
By Clarence Walker
04/10/14
Share on facebookShare on twitter | More Sharing ServicesShare
An Inside Look at the Drug War Vs. Civilization
Art Exhibit Confronts Race and the Drug War
Blacks In Government Blast "Racist" Drug War
Is Drug Testing an Invasion of Privacy?
Even while marijuana legalization has been approved in some states, the War on Drugs remains the biggest and greatest violation and imminent threat to our civil liberties and the preservation of the Bill of Rights under the Constitution. The War on Drugs is an enemy to the rights and privacy of U.S. citizens everywhere. And this war not only targets guilty drug users or traffickers; it is also waged against innocent Americans who may think they are safe from draconian drug war policies.
This belief is a myth, and here's why: even if you don’t use marijuana, cocaine, pop pills or inject heroin—the drug war can still target you as a suspect. It doesn't matter if you're at work, picking up mail, applying for a job or even purchasing cold medicine at drug stores like CVS or Walgreens, the drug war has boldly established a 24-7 disturbing presence in the lives of American citizens.
The drug war is also responsible for the past and present illegal surveillance of people's cars and property and even plays a vital role in collecting information through illegal spying. The government's drug policies have unequivocally undermined basic civil rights and gutted the constitutional amendments. And it's not coincidental that much of the eroding civil rights in the "war on terror" came directly from the war on drugs.
Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall once summed up the drug war by reminding his fellow justices that "there is no drug exception to the Constitution."
The drug war is a war on everyone. So who is the real enemy? Drugs are not the enemy because drugs are chemicals. We have a war on drugs no more than we have a war on fruit trees. Just read the Constitution and there's nothing in it that says our government can pass laws to prohibit citizens from injecting narcotics or smoking marijuana; our brains and bodies don't belong to the government.
In a recent email, Phil Smith, editor of Drug War Chronicle, slammed the drug war this way: "One area of constitutional violations is in the realm of mandatory, suspicionless drug testing. The federal courts have held repeatedly that a drug test is a search under the Fourth Amendment and have generally barred government from requiring such tests, although they carved out a handful of exceptions for public safety-sensitive positions such as law enforcement, and for students engaged in extracurricular activities."
Smith points out the differences in how the Constitution functions against the government and private entities. "The Fourth Amendment protects us from the government, not privatization. That's why private employers can demand a drug test for no reason, but the government cannot demand welfare recipients take a drug test for no reason."
According to drugpolicy.org and Forbes, here are the stats proving the failure and institutionalized racism of the drug war:
• More than $51 billion has been spent annually in the U.S. on the drug war.
• 1.55 million people were arrested in 2012 on non-violent drug charges.
• 749,825 people were arrested that same year for marijuana drug violations. Of those, 658,231 were charged with possession only.
• Over 200,000 students lost federal financial aid eligibility due to a drug conviction.
• Studies show that the amount of tax revenues drug legalization would rake in annually is estimated at $46.7 billion dollars if current illegal drugs were taxed at rates comparable to alcohol and tobacco.
• African Americans represent an alarming 62 percent of all drug offenders sent to U.S. state prisons, yet they only represent 12 percent of the American population.
• Black men are sent to prison on drug charges at a rate that is 13 times that of white men.
• Out of 25.4 million Americans arrested on drug charges since 1980; approximately one-third of them were black
Here are prime examples of how the drug war policies violate the Constitution:
(1) Facts Behind How DEA Designated Marijuana as a Schedule 1 Drug: Long ago the federal government defined marijuana as a schedule 1 drug with no scientific accepted medical use. Apparently the feds intentionally ignored how marijuana is beneficial for people to treat serious ailments like arthritis, diabetes, glaucoma, Crohn's disease, and Parkinson’s disease and marijuana is also used to relieve joint pain as well as relieve nausea that cancer patients feel after undergoing chemotherapy. Further, marijuana has been used to treat depression and other mood disorders.
Plus we must not forget how the DEA and conservative lawmakers have tried to block legislation for states to pass medical marijuana laws. Thousands of chronically ill patients have suffered unnecessarily due to this opposition. In states where medical marijuana is legal the DEA along with city and county law enforcement officers continue to raid marijuana businesses, and arrest patients and legal pot growers.
Warning: Anyone living in a state without medical marijuana laws can be arrested for buying it to treat a medical condition. Under federal law marijuana is illegal even if a particular state legalizes it for medical or recreational purposes.
(2) Millions of Americans are Drug-Tested Each Year: Remember the job you applied for where the hiring requirements included submitting to a drug test? Well approximately 84 percent of U.S employers drug-test current employees including anyone considered for hiring.
So here's the kicker: what if a potential employee confides to a prospective employer that he takes prescribed legal opiates like oxycodone for pain, or a legal amphetamine like Adderall for ADHD, or even medical marijuana? The potential employee has just set himself up for rejection; even though he takes legally prescribed medication, this testing mandate actually gives employers unlimited power to discriminate against millions of workers based on private health decisions.
Erasing Your Traumas
Could it be possible to erase memories of "people, places and things" that trigger us, including into addictive behaviors?
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By Jeanene Swanson
04/09/14
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Can Blocking Memories Help Addicts Recover?
Drunk Brains Forget Facts But Not Feelings
10 Memorial Days to Forget
New National Crisis: People Who Forget To Do Drugs
There are, undoubtedly, many memories that addicts would love to forget. For most recovering addicts and alcoholics, encountering the so-called “people, places, and things” that remind them of using bring on the strongest cravings. Research has shown that repeated exposure to these cues—and then not getting to use—may temporarily ease cravings, but the association returns over time.
And, cravings equal relapse for the majority of addicts within the first year of sobriety. “Dealing with cravings is a major obstacle to recovery,” says Michael Saladin of the Medical University of South Carolina, “so it’s a natural target” for treating addiction. Saladin is one of a few clinical investigators who is looking at ways to interfere with cravings on the molecular level, such that these emotional memories can be erased.
As with most things in life—and addiction—there will be no easy fix.
Over the past several decades, science has slowly but surely upturned the entrenched idea of memory being relatively static—or, consolidated from “short-term” to “long-term” storage in the brain once and then left to deteriorate over the course of a lifetime. There is considerable evidence that memory can be interfered with during the initial consolidation period—both drugs that block protein synthesis in the brain and electroconvulsive shock can disrupt the formation of memories. It wasn’t until the late 1990s that researchers began really looking into the process of reconsolidation—what happens to memories when they are re-activated, or, recalled after they have been put into long-term storage.
In fact, recent research has found that memories are actually labile, in other words, open to being updated or changed during a short period of time after being recalled. A now-landmark study from 2000 out of Joseph LeDoux’s lab at NYU, and co-authored by Karim Nader, now at McGill University, found that they could erase fear memories in rats by injecting a chemical into their brains that stopped protein synthesis during a timeframe of about 6 hours after recall—they called this the “reconsolidation window,” and just like with new memories, reconsolidated memories require new proteins to be made. This reconsolidation window has most recently appeared on the radar of addiction treatment specialists as a way to interfere with—and possibly “erase”—craving memories.
There have been many studies looking at memory reconsolidation since 2000, but most have been done on rats. In all these studies it is important to understand the concept of fear extinction training. Harkening back to Pavlov’s classical conditioning studies, a neutral stimulus (say, a bell ringing) can be paired with a fearful stimulus (say, a shock to the rat’s foot) such that the rat learns to associate the neutral stimulus with the shock. After a while, the neutral stimulus alone will elicit a fear response. In fear extinction training, the subject is repeatedly exposed to the neutral stimulus—and continues to experience the fear without the actual shock—until the fear goes away. However, the extinction training can “wear off,” so to speak—this explains in part why addicts go back to using when they re-enter their old environments away from rehab, or simply, after a long enough period of time passes. Finding a way to interrupt memory reconsolidation in recovering addicts would go a long way toward preventing cravings and relapse.
Pharmacological intervention
Since drugs that block protein synthesis aren’t safe to use in humans, scientists have turned to drugs like propranolol (trade name Inderal), an FDA-approved beta-blocker that is already widely used to treat hypertension and stage fright. It works by lowering levels of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine, which, as it turns out, can also interfere with memory reconsolidation—norepinephrine is required for protein synthesis.
In the late 1990s, researchers at UC Irvine showed that propranolol could affect the emotional salience of a memory—while it can’t erase a memory, it can make it less emotionally relevant. The application of this work can be found in recent studies involving patients with PTSD—it might help victims of trauma dissociate their emotional memory from cues that remind them of what they went through, whether war-torn violence or domestic partner abuse. After decades of groundwork research, Harvard’s Roger Pitman found in a 2002 pilot study that exposing patients to propranolol immediately after a traumatic event might prevent them from developing PTSD.
Shutterstock
By Jeanene Swanson
04/09/14
Share on facebookShare on twitter | More Sharing ServicesShare
Can Blocking Memories Help Addicts Recover?
Drunk Brains Forget Facts But Not Feelings
10 Memorial Days to Forget
New National Crisis: People Who Forget To Do Drugs
There are, undoubtedly, many memories that addicts would love to forget. For most recovering addicts and alcoholics, encountering the so-called “people, places, and things” that remind them of using bring on the strongest cravings. Research has shown that repeated exposure to these cues—and then not getting to use—may temporarily ease cravings, but the association returns over time.
And, cravings equal relapse for the majority of addicts within the first year of sobriety. “Dealing with cravings is a major obstacle to recovery,” says Michael Saladin of the Medical University of South Carolina, “so it’s a natural target” for treating addiction. Saladin is one of a few clinical investigators who is looking at ways to interfere with cravings on the molecular level, such that these emotional memories can be erased.
As with most things in life—and addiction—there will be no easy fix.
Over the past several decades, science has slowly but surely upturned the entrenched idea of memory being relatively static—or, consolidated from “short-term” to “long-term” storage in the brain once and then left to deteriorate over the course of a lifetime. There is considerable evidence that memory can be interfered with during the initial consolidation period—both drugs that block protein synthesis in the brain and electroconvulsive shock can disrupt the formation of memories. It wasn’t until the late 1990s that researchers began really looking into the process of reconsolidation—what happens to memories when they are re-activated, or, recalled after they have been put into long-term storage.
In fact, recent research has found that memories are actually labile, in other words, open to being updated or changed during a short period of time after being recalled. A now-landmark study from 2000 out of Joseph LeDoux’s lab at NYU, and co-authored by Karim Nader, now at McGill University, found that they could erase fear memories in rats by injecting a chemical into their brains that stopped protein synthesis during a timeframe of about 6 hours after recall—they called this the “reconsolidation window,” and just like with new memories, reconsolidated memories require new proteins to be made. This reconsolidation window has most recently appeared on the radar of addiction treatment specialists as a way to interfere with—and possibly “erase”—craving memories.
There have been many studies looking at memory reconsolidation since 2000, but most have been done on rats. In all these studies it is important to understand the concept of fear extinction training. Harkening back to Pavlov’s classical conditioning studies, a neutral stimulus (say, a bell ringing) can be paired with a fearful stimulus (say, a shock to the rat’s foot) such that the rat learns to associate the neutral stimulus with the shock. After a while, the neutral stimulus alone will elicit a fear response. In fear extinction training, the subject is repeatedly exposed to the neutral stimulus—and continues to experience the fear without the actual shock—until the fear goes away. However, the extinction training can “wear off,” so to speak—this explains in part why addicts go back to using when they re-enter their old environments away from rehab, or simply, after a long enough period of time passes. Finding a way to interrupt memory reconsolidation in recovering addicts would go a long way toward preventing cravings and relapse.
Pharmacological intervention
Since drugs that block protein synthesis aren’t safe to use in humans, scientists have turned to drugs like propranolol (trade name Inderal), an FDA-approved beta-blocker that is already widely used to treat hypertension and stage fright. It works by lowering levels of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine, which, as it turns out, can also interfere with memory reconsolidation—norepinephrine is required for protein synthesis.
In the late 1990s, researchers at UC Irvine showed that propranolol could affect the emotional salience of a memory—while it can’t erase a memory, it can make it less emotionally relevant. The application of this work can be found in recent studies involving patients with PTSD—it might help victims of trauma dissociate their emotional memory from cues that remind them of what they went through, whether war-torn violence or domestic partner abuse. After decades of groundwork research, Harvard’s Roger Pitman found in a 2002 pilot study that exposing patients to propranolol immediately after a traumatic event might prevent them from developing PTSD.
Are These Fifteen Behaviors Addictions or Compulsions?
The word "addiction" gets thrown around a lot these days—anything from sex to eating dirt—but what's the difference between an actual addiction and a compulsive behavior?
By Chris Bisogni
04/08/14
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To the layman, there is a fine line between indentifying the symptoms of an addiction, as opposed to what is known as compulsive behavior. There are many cases of such confusion; we often read or hear about those who are “addicted” to the likes of cleanliness, tanning, hoarding, cosmetic surgery and tattoos, to name a few. Debate continues as to whether these are addictions or compulsive behaviors.
By definition, a compulsion is a behavior which occurs in response to an obsessive thought that will only be relieved by engaging in the behavior. Therefore when the obsessive thought returns, as thoughts do, there is a perceived need to act on it, and the compulsion occurs. This stops the obsessive thought temporarily. An addiction is due to a brain chemical (dopamine), and is acted upon to elicit a desired heightened state of elation.
According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine (AMSAM), the “Short Definition of an Addiction” is a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry. Dysfunction in these circuits leads to characteristic biological, psychological, social and spiritual manifestations. This is reflected in an individual pathologically pursuing reward and/or relief by substance use and other behaviors.
The fact that AMSAM, as recently as August 2011, issued a statement announcing its new definition of addiction is evidence to suggest diagnosing actual addictions is not set in stone.
“At its core, addiction isn’t just a social problem or a moral problem or a criminal problem. It’s a brain problem whose behaviors manifest in all these other areas,” said Dr. Michael Miller, past president of ASAM. “Many behaviors driven by addiction are real problems and sometimes criminal acts. But the disease is about brains, not drugs. It’s about underlying neurology, not outward actions.”
Armed with this information, we have handpicked 15 addictions/compulsive behaviors (yes some of them are extreme) and put them to the test to see just where they sit when put to the both the layman’s and expert’s opinion.
Eating dirt
As kids, many of us probably did this at least once, or knew someone who did, and there is a significant number of those who carry this onto into adulthood. Pica, as it is known, can be treated but if we address the AMSAM definition, there surely can be no reward for eating dirt. Verdict: Compulsive behavior
By Chris Bisogni
04/08/14
Share on facebookShare on twitter | More Sharing ServicesShare
To the layman, there is a fine line between indentifying the symptoms of an addiction, as opposed to what is known as compulsive behavior. There are many cases of such confusion; we often read or hear about those who are “addicted” to the likes of cleanliness, tanning, hoarding, cosmetic surgery and tattoos, to name a few. Debate continues as to whether these are addictions or compulsive behaviors.
By definition, a compulsion is a behavior which occurs in response to an obsessive thought that will only be relieved by engaging in the behavior. Therefore when the obsessive thought returns, as thoughts do, there is a perceived need to act on it, and the compulsion occurs. This stops the obsessive thought temporarily. An addiction is due to a brain chemical (dopamine), and is acted upon to elicit a desired heightened state of elation.
According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine (AMSAM), the “Short Definition of an Addiction” is a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry. Dysfunction in these circuits leads to characteristic biological, psychological, social and spiritual manifestations. This is reflected in an individual pathologically pursuing reward and/or relief by substance use and other behaviors.
The fact that AMSAM, as recently as August 2011, issued a statement announcing its new definition of addiction is evidence to suggest diagnosing actual addictions is not set in stone.
“At its core, addiction isn’t just a social problem or a moral problem or a criminal problem. It’s a brain problem whose behaviors manifest in all these other areas,” said Dr. Michael Miller, past president of ASAM. “Many behaviors driven by addiction are real problems and sometimes criminal acts. But the disease is about brains, not drugs. It’s about underlying neurology, not outward actions.”
Armed with this information, we have handpicked 15 addictions/compulsive behaviors (yes some of them are extreme) and put them to the test to see just where they sit when put to the both the layman’s and expert’s opinion.
Eating dirt
As kids, many of us probably did this at least once, or knew someone who did, and there is a significant number of those who carry this onto into adulthood. Pica, as it is known, can be treated but if we address the AMSAM definition, there surely can be no reward for eating dirt. Verdict: Compulsive behavior
The Crescent and the Needle: The Remarkable Rise of NA in Iran
Narcotics Anonymous has thrived in Iran since 1990, second in membership and groups only to the United States. The Fix takes a look inside the phenomenon.
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By John Lavitt
04/07/14
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Afghan Kids Caught Up in Heroin Trade With Iran
Iran Deals Death to Drinkers
Despite Strict Prohibitions, Iranians Still Able to Get Drunk
AA vs. NA—What's the Difference?
Confessions of a Modern-Day Opium Fiend
As of 2012 there were 61,800 Narcotics Anonymous meetings worldwide. 27,650 in the USA and 15,955 in the rest of the world, except for Iran. There are 18,195 weekly NA meetings in Iran where Narcotics Anonymous was voted the top NGO by the government. How did such a paradoxical reality come to pass?
Shattering Expectations
Rebecca had experience being in tough situations at 3 AM in the morning. In the thick of her heroin addiction, she had been in jeopardy countless times. As the Assistant Executive Director of the Narcotics Anonymous World Services Office, she had traveled all over the world. She had led workshops for emerging NA fellowships in many Third World countries. Still, nothing had prepared her for standing in line at customs at the Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport in 2006.
Standing next to NA Board Member Tom M. from Hawaii, Rebecca leaned on her old friend for reassurance. As a six-foot-tall blond woman with a poorly-tied impromptu veil, she knew she stood out; an American in the wrong place at the wrong time. Although Tom reassured her that everything would be all right, Rebecca kept thinking of the tabloid reports about Iran in the American media. She came of age during the Iranian hostage crisis. Night after night, the images of bound and blindfolded hostages on Ted Koppel’s Nightline had been downright terrifying.
After passing through customs, Rebecca and Tom were greeted by Siamak, the office manager of NA World Services Iran, and several other enthusiastic Iranian NA members. She was surprised they had stayed up so late. Rebecca felt her fears evaporating as she was met with smiles and respectful embraces. They got their luggage and headed into the city. “Tehran is huge,” Tom wrote in his Iran Diaries, “The city at 3:00 AM was still bustling.”
After a quick bite to eat, they wondered if they could take a rest. Siamak let them know that wouldn’t be possible until later because there was so much to do and see. There were people to meet and things to accomplish. Most importantly, the fellowship had set up a Narcotics Anonymous meeting where they would share their stories through translators.
With so many NA members wanting to attend, the fellowship had rented out a local sports arena. When Rebecca and Tom heard this, they looked at each other, a bit confounded. Rebecca thought, “I mean, a sports arena? How many people will be there?”
When they arrived at the Arena in mid-afternoon on a workday, the car had to navigate through a maze of parked vehicles to reach the back entrance. Ushered down the kind of hallway where one usually only sees professional athletes, rock stars and security guards, Tom could hear the roar getting louder and louder. In the Iran Diaries, he described the experience of entering the arena:
“…the members all started clapping and then chanting as they clapped. You know why they are clapping and you know exactly who you represent. I thought holy shit, this is off the charts. Rebecca says to me, ‘What did we ever do to deserve this experience?’ I said we shot a lot of dope, that's all, and beyond that we have just showed up like any other member.”
Over 24,000 Iranians in recovery greeted the NA World Services representatives in celebration. But it wasn’t Tom and Rebecca they were cheering; it was NA itself. Coming from the United States, they represented the birthplace of Narcotics Anonymous, a program that had saved so many lives and become such a force for good in Iran.
All of Rebecca’s fears of going to a fundamentalist country as an American citizen evaporated as the tradition of Persian hospitality, the passionate belief of the Iranian NA members and a truly universal celebration of recovery became the zeitgeist of the moment. Tears came to her eyes as she looked up to see banners hanging in the arena with the traditional recovery proverb written in English specifically for them, “Just For Today.”
Tom described the power of the moment when he wrote, “There were several rows of women in the back of the room. Becky shared as a woman with 27 years clean. You can imagine the impact that had. When we spoke and said how long we were clean they all chanted out something in Farsi that I later found out meant, ‘and may nothing ever take it from you.’”
May nothing ever take it from you because recovery from the depth of addiction is a blessing and a miracle all over the world. It doesn’t matter the name of the country or the tenor of the politics. But the looming question is how did this happen? How did Narcotics Anonymous become so successful in Iran?
The Quality Of Narcotics Anonymous In Iran
Founded in the United States in 1953, Narcotics Anonymous officially describes itself as a "nonprofit fellowship or society of men and women for whom drugs had become a major problem.” Since the rocky beginnings of this 12 Step program in California when police harassment was common, the fellowship has spread and today can be found in over 130 countries across the world. After the United States, the country with both the most weekly meetings and the largest population in the fellowship is the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Rebecca described her impression in an interview with The Fix, “What we talk about as principles in 12 Step fellowships, the Iranians in NA live and embrace in a way that impacted my own recovery for the better. The lengths they will go to help an addict in need was inspiring; a lesson in true recovery.”
The NA World Service office in Chatsworth has become accustomed to excluding Iran from worldwide reports; the Iranian phenomenon skews the figures. Statistics From the 2008 NAWS Report include the following:
1. Iran accounted for 126,000 copies of 447,000 Basic Text sales worldwide (the Basic Text is to NA what the Big Book is to AA)
2. The Iran office distributed one million key tags, including 200,000 multi-year key tags: 9% more than the United States
3. Iran distributed 1.7 million NA information pamphlets; this number was greater than the rest of the world combined
Since the Islamic revolution in 1980 that overthrew the corrupt regime of the Shah, Iran often has found itself at odds with the Western world in general and the United States in particular. But the story of Narcotics Anonymous in Iran has nothing to do with politics or international conflicts or religious fundamentalism. The surprising success of NA in Iran is based on a remarkable commitment to recovery by the fellowship and an ardent focus on continuing to reach out to the newcomer.
NA World Services was not aware of the true success of Narcotics Anonymous in Iran until 2003 when Iranian members started reaching out for guidance. Chatsworth knew that NA in Iran existed, but, according to Rebecca, their impression was that it was a struggling movement. The movement did have a bumpy start in October 1990 when Mohsen T. returned to Iran from the United States and tried to start a NA meeting in an Iranian rehab center.
At the time, Mohsen had only one year clean. He had joined NA while living in Los Angeles and was so taken with the program that he hoped to bring it back to his home country. Unfortunately, the Iranian rehab tried to co-opt that first NA meeting and attach their name to it. Not wanting to violate the traditions, Mohsen had to abandon the project.
Later, according to an anonymous source for The Fix from the NA WS office in Iran, Mohsen started meeting in private homes with three other Iranians who had experience in 12 Step programs in the United States and Canada. These men bumped into each other by happenstance, an example what people in recovery call a God Shot.
Since they were all newcomers, according to a NA member from Iran, “It was another 4 years before NA really took hold in Iran. Once members accumulated some time and worked the steps, they began translating NA literature into Farsi and the fellowship took off.”
When the NA World Service office was contacted in 2003, the initial reaction was nothing less than utter surprise. The movement had grown so big and so fast that the office staff in Chatsworth thought surely something had gone wrong. Had the government become directly involved? Had NA in Iran become co-opted by a religious movement?
In order to find out what was really happening, Rebecca described the next steps taken: “In 2004, someone from the region we trusted went to check it out and discovered that NA in Iran was not only like NA as we knew NA, but it was even better. Better in the enthusiasm, better in carrying the message to the addict who still suffers, better in terms of a commitment to their own recovery and helping others find the same path. In May of 2005, a branch office of NA World Services was opened in Iran.”
When asked why Narcotics Anonymous proved to be so successful, a member of the NA WS Iran office told The Fix:
a) The early and continuing efforts to translate NA literature into Farsi and distribute it to NA members
b) A powerful service structure with dedicated trusted servants
c) The traditions of Persian culture that worked so well in conjunction with the 12 Steps and 12 Traditions of NA.
Shutterstock
By John Lavitt
04/07/14
Share on facebookShare on twitter | More Sharing ServicesShare
Afghan Kids Caught Up in Heroin Trade With Iran
Iran Deals Death to Drinkers
Despite Strict Prohibitions, Iranians Still Able to Get Drunk
AA vs. NA—What's the Difference?
Confessions of a Modern-Day Opium Fiend
As of 2012 there were 61,800 Narcotics Anonymous meetings worldwide. 27,650 in the USA and 15,955 in the rest of the world, except for Iran. There are 18,195 weekly NA meetings in Iran where Narcotics Anonymous was voted the top NGO by the government. How did such a paradoxical reality come to pass?
Shattering Expectations
Rebecca had experience being in tough situations at 3 AM in the morning. In the thick of her heroin addiction, she had been in jeopardy countless times. As the Assistant Executive Director of the Narcotics Anonymous World Services Office, she had traveled all over the world. She had led workshops for emerging NA fellowships in many Third World countries. Still, nothing had prepared her for standing in line at customs at the Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport in 2006.
Standing next to NA Board Member Tom M. from Hawaii, Rebecca leaned on her old friend for reassurance. As a six-foot-tall blond woman with a poorly-tied impromptu veil, she knew she stood out; an American in the wrong place at the wrong time. Although Tom reassured her that everything would be all right, Rebecca kept thinking of the tabloid reports about Iran in the American media. She came of age during the Iranian hostage crisis. Night after night, the images of bound and blindfolded hostages on Ted Koppel’s Nightline had been downright terrifying.
After passing through customs, Rebecca and Tom were greeted by Siamak, the office manager of NA World Services Iran, and several other enthusiastic Iranian NA members. She was surprised they had stayed up so late. Rebecca felt her fears evaporating as she was met with smiles and respectful embraces. They got their luggage and headed into the city. “Tehran is huge,” Tom wrote in his Iran Diaries, “The city at 3:00 AM was still bustling.”
After a quick bite to eat, they wondered if they could take a rest. Siamak let them know that wouldn’t be possible until later because there was so much to do and see. There were people to meet and things to accomplish. Most importantly, the fellowship had set up a Narcotics Anonymous meeting where they would share their stories through translators.
With so many NA members wanting to attend, the fellowship had rented out a local sports arena. When Rebecca and Tom heard this, they looked at each other, a bit confounded. Rebecca thought, “I mean, a sports arena? How many people will be there?”
When they arrived at the Arena in mid-afternoon on a workday, the car had to navigate through a maze of parked vehicles to reach the back entrance. Ushered down the kind of hallway where one usually only sees professional athletes, rock stars and security guards, Tom could hear the roar getting louder and louder. In the Iran Diaries, he described the experience of entering the arena:
“…the members all started clapping and then chanting as they clapped. You know why they are clapping and you know exactly who you represent. I thought holy shit, this is off the charts. Rebecca says to me, ‘What did we ever do to deserve this experience?’ I said we shot a lot of dope, that's all, and beyond that we have just showed up like any other member.”
Over 24,000 Iranians in recovery greeted the NA World Services representatives in celebration. But it wasn’t Tom and Rebecca they were cheering; it was NA itself. Coming from the United States, they represented the birthplace of Narcotics Anonymous, a program that had saved so many lives and become such a force for good in Iran.
All of Rebecca’s fears of going to a fundamentalist country as an American citizen evaporated as the tradition of Persian hospitality, the passionate belief of the Iranian NA members and a truly universal celebration of recovery became the zeitgeist of the moment. Tears came to her eyes as she looked up to see banners hanging in the arena with the traditional recovery proverb written in English specifically for them, “Just For Today.”
Tom described the power of the moment when he wrote, “There were several rows of women in the back of the room. Becky shared as a woman with 27 years clean. You can imagine the impact that had. When we spoke and said how long we were clean they all chanted out something in Farsi that I later found out meant, ‘and may nothing ever take it from you.’”
May nothing ever take it from you because recovery from the depth of addiction is a blessing and a miracle all over the world. It doesn’t matter the name of the country or the tenor of the politics. But the looming question is how did this happen? How did Narcotics Anonymous become so successful in Iran?
The Quality Of Narcotics Anonymous In Iran
Founded in the United States in 1953, Narcotics Anonymous officially describes itself as a "nonprofit fellowship or society of men and women for whom drugs had become a major problem.” Since the rocky beginnings of this 12 Step program in California when police harassment was common, the fellowship has spread and today can be found in over 130 countries across the world. After the United States, the country with both the most weekly meetings and the largest population in the fellowship is the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Rebecca described her impression in an interview with The Fix, “What we talk about as principles in 12 Step fellowships, the Iranians in NA live and embrace in a way that impacted my own recovery for the better. The lengths they will go to help an addict in need was inspiring; a lesson in true recovery.”
The NA World Service office in Chatsworth has become accustomed to excluding Iran from worldwide reports; the Iranian phenomenon skews the figures. Statistics From the 2008 NAWS Report include the following:
1. Iran accounted for 126,000 copies of 447,000 Basic Text sales worldwide (the Basic Text is to NA what the Big Book is to AA)
2. The Iran office distributed one million key tags, including 200,000 multi-year key tags: 9% more than the United States
3. Iran distributed 1.7 million NA information pamphlets; this number was greater than the rest of the world combined
Since the Islamic revolution in 1980 that overthrew the corrupt regime of the Shah, Iran often has found itself at odds with the Western world in general and the United States in particular. But the story of Narcotics Anonymous in Iran has nothing to do with politics or international conflicts or religious fundamentalism. The surprising success of NA in Iran is based on a remarkable commitment to recovery by the fellowship and an ardent focus on continuing to reach out to the newcomer.
NA World Services was not aware of the true success of Narcotics Anonymous in Iran until 2003 when Iranian members started reaching out for guidance. Chatsworth knew that NA in Iran existed, but, according to Rebecca, their impression was that it was a struggling movement. The movement did have a bumpy start in October 1990 when Mohsen T. returned to Iran from the United States and tried to start a NA meeting in an Iranian rehab center.
At the time, Mohsen had only one year clean. He had joined NA while living in Los Angeles and was so taken with the program that he hoped to bring it back to his home country. Unfortunately, the Iranian rehab tried to co-opt that first NA meeting and attach their name to it. Not wanting to violate the traditions, Mohsen had to abandon the project.
Later, according to an anonymous source for The Fix from the NA WS office in Iran, Mohsen started meeting in private homes with three other Iranians who had experience in 12 Step programs in the United States and Canada. These men bumped into each other by happenstance, an example what people in recovery call a God Shot.
Since they were all newcomers, according to a NA member from Iran, “It was another 4 years before NA really took hold in Iran. Once members accumulated some time and worked the steps, they began translating NA literature into Farsi and the fellowship took off.”
When the NA World Service office was contacted in 2003, the initial reaction was nothing less than utter surprise. The movement had grown so big and so fast that the office staff in Chatsworth thought surely something had gone wrong. Had the government become directly involved? Had NA in Iran become co-opted by a religious movement?
In order to find out what was really happening, Rebecca described the next steps taken: “In 2004, someone from the region we trusted went to check it out and discovered that NA in Iran was not only like NA as we knew NA, but it was even better. Better in the enthusiasm, better in carrying the message to the addict who still suffers, better in terms of a commitment to their own recovery and helping others find the same path. In May of 2005, a branch office of NA World Services was opened in Iran.”
When asked why Narcotics Anonymous proved to be so successful, a member of the NA WS Iran office told The Fix:
a) The early and continuing efforts to translate NA literature into Farsi and distribute it to NA members
b) A powerful service structure with dedicated trusted servants
c) The traditions of Persian culture that worked so well in conjunction with the 12 Steps and 12 Traditions of NA.
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