The late Dr. Conway Hunter used to sponsor an annual, four-day Thanksgiving retreat at St. Simons Island off the Georgia coast for people in recovery from substance addictions, mainly alcohol. In November of 1990, I joined a contingent from Little Rock led by the late Dr. Don Browning and his wife, Joanne, to the retreat. I was about ten years sober, and felt in need of a spiritual jolt. A … [Read more...]

America’s growing opioid epidemic and untreated mental illness are having a devastating impact on communities nationwide. Nearly 10 million adults, research shows, have serious mental illness, and 20 million have a substance use disorder. Drug overdoses alone now top annual death rates from car crashes and gun violence. Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), formed in 1935 in Akron, Ohio, a year after the failed prohibition experiment, has been a huge success and provides a sturdy foundation as far … [Read more...]

    Over the past 30 years, a shrewd and expensive lobbying campaign has made Americans more tolerant of marijuana (also known as Cannabis or Pot). In November 2018, Michigan became the 10th state to legalize recreational Marijuana use. Arkansas, New Jersey and others are likely to follow. Already more than 200 million Americans live in states that have legalized marijuana for medical or recreational use. Yet even as marijuana use has become more socially acceptable, … [Read more...]

“I grew up in Chicago in a high rise apartment building,” Vincent Talley says, “I learned early about how to hustle from my shoe shine box.” He also learned, he says, “how to drink, do drugs, and be with women.” The apartment where everyone congregated,” he says, “belonged to a woman named, Tiny. It's where all the pimps and drug dealers hung out.” “Usually,” Talley says, “it was safe, but the one time there was violence on our floor was when this guy got his brains blown out. We … [Read more...]

Towanda, age twenty-nine, six months pregnant, and in search of a fix, walked up the steps to the front door of a frame house in a bad neighborhood, reached through the top of the screen door, which had no screen, and undid it. The inside door was slightly ajar, and she pushed on it until it hit something. Squeezing through, she looked down and met the lifeless stare of a man with a bullet in his head. Terror stricken, she backed out, fell off the porch, got up, and ran. This was … [Read more...]