More than two thirds of today's teenagers try alcohol, and half take other drugs before they reach their high school senior year. In the past two decades, the range of overdose deaths among teens has tripled according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. We need to expand our focus from simply warning kids about drugs to better understanding why teens use them and giving them facts to counter destructive … [Read more...]

  Recovery can be difficult at times, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. Stop using, go to Alcoholics Anonymous or another 12 Step meeting, get a sponsor and a job, if you don't have one, and begin making your amends. Okay. It's simple. But it can be tough. Michael Graubert, a best selling author and recovering alcoholic, notes in a recent article, on the Hazelden Betty Ford web site, says, “an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA), or any other Twelve … [Read more...]

There is no cure for alcoholism or addictions to opioids, heroin and most other narcotics. Addiction to these drugs and others like them is like a chronic disease—like diabetes or hypertension. Those who have developed a drug addiction, if they are to survive and live a normal life, must let go and move on. There is no cure, but then again with abstinence, there is no disease. Over the years, millions of people, me included, have restored their lives and families and moved on. It's … [Read more...]

There has been a significant upward trend in funding for nonprofit companies in the U.S. according to the Harvard Business Review. Non-profits, the Business Review says, have become America's biggest employer. There are almost one million non-profit organizations in the social sector, and donors, polls reveal, want to elevate the game beyond simply funding homeless shelters and food pantries. They want to end homelessness, hunger and drug addiction. Too ambitious? Perhaps, but … [Read more...]

                Is it odd, or is it God? You are sitting at your desk trying to balance your checkbook and discover there is $2,000 missing. You panic and call the bank in a rage which becomes elevated when the automated system ignores your loud entreaties. You retaliate by tricking the system into thinking you want to open a new account and once you have a live operator you demand an immediate audience with a real person at the … [Read more...]