“My neighbors son died the other day. He was a beautiful kid only twenty-one years into this world. Police and ambulance sirens blared as they raced up our street in an effort to revive him, but the sirens served only as an alarm that a life had been extinguished much too soon.” Steve Straessle, principal at Catholic High School for Boys in Little Rock, wrote these moving words about a young student’s death a decade ago, and we still ask ourselves, “How on earth are we to respond as parents … [Read more...]

Easter weekend is a good time to reflect on redemption. I refer here to the redemption of Ron T. a “hopeless drunk and drug abuser.” I met Ron at an AA meeting 30 years ago—Little Rock's Cosmopolitan Club--and when I heard his story, which involved alcohol and a variety of drugs (heroin, LSD and others), I was awed by what he had been able to achieve doing his “one day at a time”recovery Ron had always wanted to be a pilot, and American Airlines took him on, trained him (he was a … [Read more...]

                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...]