One in eight Arkansas adolescents has taken a prescription pain reliever medication illegally. One in 20 has done so in the past 30 days. And nearly seven percent admit to using an over-the- counter medication to get high, half of them within the past month. Surveys also show that teenagers are more likely to have abused prescription and over-the-counter drugs than street drugs like ecstasy, cocaine, crack and methamphetamines. Why is this important to know and deal with? Because … [Read more...]
Faced with five life sentences, inmate finds redemption
I used to be an over-the-road truck driver. Have you ever found yourself driving at night on a long unfamiliar stretch of highway in a place you’ve never been? After miles and miles, the reality that you’re lost sets in; by then, you’ve been lost for so long you can’t recall how many miles and how much time has passed. You start to wonder where you made your mistake, where you made your wrong turn. You ask yourself, “How can I turn around and find my way home? This is my story of a lost … [Read more...]
Vietnam war vet overcomes opiate addiction, Pioneers local Cocaine Anonymous meetings
By David Palmer Cocaine addicts are a special breed. That’s what Norith Ellison says. And he should know. Ellison, 60, is a recovering cocaine addict who has been clean and sober for 21 years and started the state’s first Cocaine Anonymous (CA) meeting in Little Rock in 1989. Widely known and respected in the community for his far ranging activities in the service of addiction recovery and an unsuccessful candidate for state representative in 2006 who will likely run again, Ellison is modest … [Read more...]
Celebrate Recovery: A Growing Global Ministry Offers Hope
The time has come, and from all over the world the faithful arrive. They fill the cavernous worship center at California’s Saddleback Church, and, murmuring with anticipation, they wait. Then, with hands held high, the percussionist, barely visible behind his drum set, clicks his sticks, and the “World’s Most Dangerous Recovery Band,” through condo-sized speakers, fills the air with sound. Three thousand wildly cheering believers, many of them tattooed and some with pierced ears, noses and … [Read more...]
