Two Die in UK, Leads Back to Ecstasy?

The chemical dependency counseling community has always taken a firm stand against ecstasy and all its variations. Ecstasy is one of the most dangerous drugs you can take because it is never 100% Ecstasy. 

"Two clubbers have died and another is seriously ill in hospital, as police investigate whether they might have taken a rogue batch of ecstasy.

All three men had attended Alexandra Palace in north London, which regularly plays host to dance music events.

The dead men, aged 20 and 21, were admitted to hospital just after midnight and died hours later.

Alexandra Palace and Lock' N' Load Events, which organized the club night, said they were "deeply shocked".

Police said anybody who had taken drugs at the venue and now felt unwell should seek medical attention at once.
Drum and bass

A spokesman said there were indications that all three might have consumed what they believed to be MDMA, the active ingredient of ecstasy.

But he added that it would be impossible to know for sure until toxicology tests had been carried out.

The 20-year-old victim had attended a drum and bass and "dubstep" event on Friday night that continued into Saturday.

The other man who died, and the man, 20, who is in hospital, went to a separate dance event featuring Radio 1 DJ Pete Tong, which continued from Saturday to Sunday.

Det Insp Rita Tierney said: "Although it is too early to say what caused these men's health to deteriorate, we are investigating the possibility that illegal drugs may have been involved.

"If you have taken what you believed to be MDMA, or any other substance during this weekend's events at Alexandra Palace and are now feeling unwell, I would strongly urge you to attend your nearest hospital as soon as possible."
'Zero tolerance'

A London Ambulance Service spokesman said: "We were called at 3.40 on Saturday morning and again at six o'clock this morning about patients taken ill at Alexandra Palace.

"In both cases the patients were treated by private medical providers at the venue."

In a joint statement, Alexandra Palace and Lock' N' Load Events said: "Our deepest sympathy goes out to the family and friends of the men who passed away.

"Both the organizers and venue have a zero tolerance to drugs and employ security teams to enforce all measures possible to protect visitors.

"The authorities are being fully assisted in their investigations."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-15909496"

If you are interested in getting your counselor degree extremely fast to become a chemical dependency counselor, then feel FREE to visit CentaurUniversity.com!

Open UK Meeting- Advisory Council

I wanted to go ahead and post this for all of our UK viewers involved in the chemical dependency counseling community. This is a great opportunity to get involved and attend an open meeting on the Mususe of Drugs in the UK! 

"Thursday 1st December 2011- 10:00am – 4.15pm
Central London

OPEN MEETING
The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) invites members of the public to its cocaine evidence gathering meeting on 1st December 2011. The purpose of the meeting is to gather evidence, in public session, to consider the harms of cocaine use.

The ACMD is a statutory and non-executive non-departmental public body, established by the Misuse of Drugs Act (MDA) 1971. The ACMD has a statutory duty to keep under review the situation in the United Kingdom with respect to the misuse of drugs and to advise Ministers of the measures which they consider should to be taken to deal with social problems which arise from drug misuse. In addition, the ACMD has a duty to consider any matter relating to drug dependence or misuse that may be referred to them by Ministers.

Attending the meeting
The meeting will be held in London, commencing at 10:00am. You will receive details of the venue with your confirmation email. There will be an opportunity for attendees to participate in a short question & answer session.

Attendance is FREE but by registration only as places are limited and restricted to one person per application. Places will be issued on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. 

To register to attend please complete the registration form below (*see attached word doc) and email to ACMD@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk Seacole
or by post to:
ACMD Secretariat
3 Floor (SW Quarter)
Building
2 Marsham Street
London SW1P 4DF
Tel: 0207 035 0454/60"

Source: http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=172042#ixzz1eZgVOffY

If you are interested in getting your counselor degree extremely fast to become a chemical dependency counselor, then feel FREE to visit CentaurUniversity.com!

The 25 Years of Research

MAPS will be celebrating its 25 year anniversary in Oakland this December! If you have been keeping up with MAPS and their studies into addiction physiology and psychedelic studies then this conference will be a must..

"The Santa Cruz-based Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies will be celebrating 25 years of research and education, from December 8-12 in Oakland.

Everywhere I look, it seems, there are signs that the human species is becoming more and more comfortable with psychedelic mind states. 

While a lot of music and visionary art has long been influenced by psychedelics, and many artists and musicians have greatly valued the experience, the recently awakened acceptance of these forbidden fruits in respected cultural terrains, such as academia, medicine, and spirituality, is now, finally, seeping its way into the mainstream culture. 

A worldwide renaissance is presently underway, as medical studies with psychedelics are producing extraordinary results in treating a variety of mental illnesses. Positive articles about the potential benefits of psychedelic drugs have been featured in virtually every major magazine and television news show over the past few years, and this is an abrupt change from the decades where psychedelics have been demonized, ridiculed, or ignored.

For someone who has been carefully watching how psychedelics are represented in mainstream culture since the Sixties, these dramatic changes over the past few years have been hard to miss, and they offer tremendous hope for change, as these once-feared substances finally find acceptance as new medical treatments and psychotherapeutic tools, as well as creativity enhancers and spiritual catalysts.

As regular readers of my column are aware, much of the acceptance of psychedelic drug research in modern medicine and mainstream culture is due to the hard work of my colleagues at the Santa Cruz-based Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). MAPS is currently conducting studies with MDMA, LSD, ibogaine, and other psychedelic drugs, in an attempt to develop them into legal prescription medicines, in order to treat a variety of difficult-to-treat illnesses.

MAPS will be celebrating 25 years of scientific research and education from December 8-12 in Oakland.

Come join us!

Cartographie Psychedelica, as the celebration event is called, will feature five days of lectures, performances, workshops, art, honorary benefit dinners, and parties. Many pioneers, researchers, and psychotherapists who have worked with psychedelic drugs will be there, including Stanislav Grof, Charles Grob, Michael Mithoefer, James Fadiman, Ralph Metzner, and MAPS founder Rick Doblin. 

There will be visionary art workshops by Alex and Allyson Grey, as well by Andrew and Phaedrana Jones, who will also be giving a live performance. 

Early morning cruises on the San Francisco Bay will be available (the “Floating World”), and there will be a mind-blowing, eye-popping visionary art gallery (the Kaleidoscope Vault), late-night dance parties (the Medicine Ball), a large arena of vendor booths, and other exciting delights for psychedelically-minded visionaries and connoisseurs of hallucinogenic creativity, as well as those who are simply interested in the scientific research and medical applications of these extraordinary substances.

All of the proceeds from this event will go to support psychedelic drug research and education. 

This is an event that you most definitely will not want to miss. Every year, psychedelic drug conferences become larger and more confident in their approach, and this one promises to be the biggest and most exciting one yet. Looking forward to seeing you there!

To learn more about the MAPS 25th Anniversary celebration see:

www.maps.org/conference/25/

November 16, 2011
Source: http://santacruz.patch.com/articles/...ted-cdeb0922#c"

If you are interested in getting your counselor degree extremely fast to become a chemical dependency counselor, then feel FREE to visit CentaurUniversity.com!

 

Cocaine use Starting to Decline

Some good news for the chemical dependency counseling community, Europes' Centre for Drugs has found a decline in the use of cocaine over the year 2011. Here's more on the article/study...

"Rates of cocaine use have started to decline across Europe, according to the 2011 annual report from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).

The countries with the most significant cocaine problems – Spain, Italy, Denmark and the UK – all reported a fall in ‘last-year’ use among 15 to 34-year-olds, mirroring similar trends in the US and Canada. The UK, however, remains the European country with the highest rate of use among this age group. 

With an average price of between 50 and 80 Euros per gram, regular cocaine use may have become a ‘less attractive option in countries where austerity is now the order of the day’, says the EMCDDA, although the drug remains the continent’s most widely used illicit stimulant, with around 17 per cent of those entering treatment reporting it as their main problem substance.

Levels of heroin use have remained largely unchanged, although there are still more than 1.3m regular opioid users in the EU and Norway. Clients in treatment are generally older, however, and the proportion reporting injecting is also declining in most countries, with just 40 per cent of those entering treatment for opioid problems regular injectors. Around 700,000 opioid users received substitution treatment in Europe in 2009, 50,000 more than in 2007, although coverage continues to vary greatly. Worryingly, however, Greece – traditionally a country with a low HIV prevalence – has reported a significant outbreak of new HIV infections among injecting drug users. 

Although drug use as a whole appears to be ‘relatively stable’ across Europe, and cannabis use continues to decline among young people, there are ‘new threats’ from the rapidly evolving synthetic drugs market, and widespread polydrug use, says the report, adding that European drug policies and responses will need to adapt accordingly. 

Thirty-nine new drugs have been reported so far this year via the European early warning system (EWS), on top of the 41 new substances notified to the EMCDDA and Europol last year (DDN, June, page 5). Drug manufacturers are also playing ‘cat-and-mouse’ with the authorities in terms of the imported precursor chemicals used to synthesise the drugs, the report states, using increasingly sophisticated techniques to bypass regulations. These include synthesising precursors from ‘pre-precursors’ or masking them as non-controlled chemicals, which are then reconverted after importation. 

‘The fast moving and increasingly joined-up world we live in is mirrored by an increasingly fast moving and joined-up drug market which appears quick to adapt to both threats and opportunities’, said EMCDDA director Wolfgang Götz. ‘This is reflected not only in the sheer number of new substances appearing on the market, but also in their diversity and in how they are produced, distributed and marketed. We need a proactive strategy that allows us to rapidly identify new drugs and emerging trends so that we can anticipate their potential implications. We also need to coordinate our responses across Europe as, without doing so, individual national efforts are likely to prove ineffective. These two factors are crucial if we are to stay ahead in this rapidly developing game of cat and mouse’."

16 November 2011

Source: http://www.drinkanddrugsnews.com/ViewNews.aspx?id=851

If you are interested in getting your counselor degree extremely fast to become a chemical dependency counselor, then feel FREE to visit CentaurUniversity.com!

A Talk with Bob Forrest

"Hollywood (CNN) -- One by one, the famous train wrecks and no-name junkies come to see the addict whisperer in his sunny aerie above the fabled corner of Hollywood and Vine. Eleven stories above the strip clubs and head shops and crowded sidewalks embedded with shiny golden stars, they seek Bob Forrest's help in fighting their demons.

Forrest is a former rocker known for his intoxicated rants and onstage antics as the lead singer of the post-punk band Thelonious Monster. Yes, he fell off the stage and set the props on fire. That was part of the draw. Yes, he cursed out Jesus, said scary things about the first George Bush and mangled "The Star Spangled Banner." That was over the top. And yes, he planned to kill himself on stage during a concert but chickened out. That was the monster talking.

He was one of the worst heroin junkies on the Hollywood club scene until he shocked everyone by getting sober in 1996. He says he delivered cocaine, crystal meth and heroin to some of the most famous people in the world. Helping addicts stay sober is his shot at redemption, or as Forrest puts it, "breaking even on some of the sh---y things I did in the past."

Heads turn when Forrest strolls down Hollywood Boulevard. Some people recognize him as Dr. Drew Pinsky's trusty sidekick from VH-1's "Celebrity Rehab." He refers to himself as "the guy in the hat," and it's hard to miss that trademark fedora atop a shoulder-length reddish mop. His pale blue eyes peer out at the world from behind thick, black spectacles -- the type musician Elvis Costello wore as an angry young man.

Forrest's lined, pockmarked face is a road map of what a couple of decades of hard drinking and drugging can do to a person. He laughs when he tells the story about being mistaken for a panhandler when he showed up earlier this year for a guest appearance on Piers Morgan's CNN show.

But Forrest knows his look resonates with clients, most of whom are twentysomething and see him as "this cool old guy." His footnote in music history -- his band opened for The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane's Addiction -- and stories of rock 'n' roll excess give him street cred with the addicts he counsels in his office at Hollywood Recovery Services. He takes on about eight clients at a time -- some famous, some wealthy, some with no money to pay him.

He's undeniably charismatic and articulate and funny. And, he has an uncanny way of getting through to even the most defiant addicts.

"Bob hasn't forgotten what it's like to be a junkie," says actress and "Celebrity Rehab" alum Mackenzie Phillips. "He doesn't talk down to you."

Actor Eric Roberts (brother of Julia, father of Emma) is another "Celebrity Rehab" grad who kicked cocaine years ago and is on a mission to abstain from marijuana for 1,000 days. He calls Forrest "an instinctive genius."
"Dr. Drew is a little clean-cut for my taste, but Bob is Mr. Funky," he says, stopping by Forrest's office one morning. "Don't get me wrong, though. Bob will kick your ass."

Now that he's 50, and with 16 years of sobriety behind him, Forrest has found his niche in Hollywood. He's a homegrown addict with a unique perspective on the deadly cocktail of addiction and fame.

As Forrest recounted his life story late last month, the sordid details of Michael Jackson's overdose death were being detailed in court, starlet Lindsay Lohan and her father were in and out of jail again, and the final word came down on what killed singer Amy Winehouse: alcohol poisoning. It was just another week in the endless real-life drama of celebrity addiction.

What does Bob Forrest, addict whisperer and self-described straight shooter, have to say about fame and flameout? Plenty.

"I live in the belly of the beast. I have an office here in Los Angeles, and I have an office in Las Vegas. I don't know how you could possibly see any more of this fame and ridiculousness."

Experience has been his teacher.

The monster comes knocking
"My life is measured by album releases and the deaths of friends," Forrest says. And the reign of the monster.

Recalling those times, this natural-born raconteur mixes up names, dates, and even the cities he was in. Is that the result of decades of drug abuse, or simply a function of being 50? Hard to say.

He tells a hilarious story about shooting cocaine in a motel with a famous rock star in Cleveland -- or was it Chicago? -- and hearing helicopters outside. Paranoid, they were sure the cops were coming with a SWAT team. Let's pretend we're asleep, they decided, crawling under the covers of the two queen beds.

What seemed like hours later, Forrest says he whispered, "Dude, we've got our clothes on. They're gonna know we're faking." By then, the sun was up. They peered out the window and realized why they'd heard helicopters: The motel was next to the airport.

Forrest's relationship with drugs may have its roots in childhood trauma, which he and PInsky see as the perfect petri dish for addiction. His life started out smoothly; he was a privileged kid -- and a decent golfer -- who was the center of attention at home in Palm Springs.

Sure, his parents drank, but didn't everyone's? One day, while they were drinking, a secret slipped out and the bottom dropped out of Forrest's world. His sister, he learned, was actually his mother. "Sister mom," he calls her. And the people he thought were his parents were his grandparents.

Forrest was 13, and he remembers feeling angry that his family had lied, but he didn't ask questions. He holed up in his room, reading. A passage from Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" became his credo:
"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow Roman candles ..."

He longed to be like Kerouac and was so deeply affected by a biography of comedian Lenny Bruce that he thought shooting heroin might be cool. He'd do just that for the first time at 21, with a blues musician named "Top Jimmy."
But first there were the rum and Cokes. The alcohol helped soothe the pain of a sudden fall from the upper-middle class when the man Forrest knew as his father died and, at 15, he moved with his family to a trailer park.

"I knew I was an alcoholic at an early age because I drank with people in high school who really didn't want their parents to know and didn't want to go home and were worried," Forrest says. "I wasn't worried. I wanted to drink until the sun came up. And then I found other people who wanted to drink until the sun came up."

After high school, he attended Los Angeles City College and discovered the clubs and the emerging punk-grunge scene. He dropped out and was working as a DJ when he befriended a couple of guys named Flea and Anthony. They also liked to party until the sun came up, and he let them sleep on the floor of his apartment.

The L.A. club scene in the 1980s was burbling with talent and creative energy. Courtney Love was there and maintains a friendship with Forrest to this day. Jane's Addiction was on the rise. Forrest's friends -- Flea, whose given name is Michael Peter Balzary, and Anthony Kiedis -- formed the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Forrest fronted Thelonious Monster. Another hard-partying friend, John Frusciante, was about to sign with Forrest's band but joined the Chili Peppers instead.

The 1988 overdose death of the Chili Peppers' guitarist, Hillel Slovak, was enough to convince Kiedis to enter rehab, but Forrest wasn't ready. His band was getting some buzz, and he didn't want the party to end.

That year, he was invited to talk about a new album on an L.A.-based radio show, "Loveline," but he showed up wasted. The show's host, Dr. Drew Pinsky (who would go on to create a prime time show on HLN, CNN's sister network) wrote him off as someone not long for this Earth.

"He was a horrific drug addict," Pinsky recalls. "I told him if he took care of himself he could do great things. I declared to everybody, 'This guy is dying.' There was no way he could survive that kind of addiction."

But he did, and if anything, it only got worse. By 1993, Thelonious Monster was on the verge of breaking up. Other bands were passing them by, and it ticked Forrest off. He didn't stop to think the reason might be that he, the band's front man, was a full-fledged heroin addict.

"I was crashing down," he recalls, "I spent so much money on drugs and lawyers and trying to get out of trouble that I didn't even have a place to live, even though I had albums out and was playing concerts. I had gotten to a place where I was spending $300 to $500 a day on drugs."

When the tour ended, all he had waiting for him was a crack motel. "So I just decided to go out with a bang."

He'd kill himself onstage at the annual Pinkpop Festival in the Netherlands and make the front pages of newspapers around the world.

"I had planned to climb to the top" of one of the speaker towers "and jump off," he says. "That is how far gone I was -- mentally ill, drug addicted, hopeless and caught up in this whole stupid idea of what people say about me is so important, but what I internally have is just nothingness and darkness."
In the end, he couldn't do it. "I got up there and got scared. I became paralyzed."

What happened next can be seen on YouTube and is painful to watch. Back on stage, he runs in circles and tries to wrap one of his bandmates in duct tape. He gets tangled in the microphone wire, slips and falls. Someone untangles him but he just lies there, and then slowly begins to curse out Jesus.
Finally, he finds his way to a speaker, where he sits slumped over as he finishes the song.

The crowd eats it up.

Fame and flameout
Addiction's "friend" can take many forms: companions, lovers, family, managers, assistants, fans, wannabees -- even doctors

After his flirtation with death at Pinkpop, Forrest saw the powerful role the audience can play. The publicity boost his aborted suicide gave Thelonious Monster kept the band going for several more months, he says. His bad behavior was being rewarded.

"People are watching you self-destruct and then you in turn feel like you need to reciprocate with them by self-destructing."

It's a celebration of the negative -- and a constant dance in Hollywood, if headlines are any indication. In the end, only the addict can control how the journey ends. But along the way, there is no shortage of enablers.

"Michael Jackson was enabled to death," says Tatum O'Neal, a longtime friend of Jackson's who has fought addiction. "Everyone around Michael Jackson, shame on all of them," she scolds. "What no one is saying is Michael Jackson was an addict. He had no veins left. His behavior was drug-seeking."

Anyone who says so faces a Twitter fury. "They're like bullies," O'Neal says, adding that she received a barrage of hateful tweets after suggesting on Piers Morgan's show that Jackson had a problem with controlled substances. 

Mackenzie Phillips also received hate tweets after speaking out about Jackson's drug issues.

But the sad truth was borne out by testimony at the manslaughter trial of his personal doctor and underscored by Jackson's own slurred voice, captured on Conrad Murray's iPhone.

Families of celebrity addicts become the worst enablers when they have a financial stake and can't say no, Forrest says. They fear being cut off, emotionally and financially.

"If you're generating revenue, then nobody questions you," Forrest says "And so, Michael Jackson being the greatest revenue generator in music history, no one questions him. Not his family, who are living off him. Not his managers, because he can always get another manager.
Secret audio of Jackson plays in court

"I feel for the family of Michael Jackson, who have to come to grips with woulda, shoulda, coulda. They're at this dilemma constantly: 'What do we do? We can't stop him.' And you can't. With people that powerful and that wealthy, the only thing that gets them sober is the fear of death."

Murray's trial focused the national conversation on the role of unscrupulous doctors and prescription drugs in the ever-evolving world of addiction. District Attorney Steve Cooley said Murray's conviction serves as a warning to every "Dr. Feelgood."

It's about time, Forrest says.

"When Heath Ledger died, I thought people would be all over the prescription drug tsunami that is killing young people all over America," he says. "But instead, within 72 hours it was all about how Heath Ledger couldn't (move on) from 'Batman.' Where did that narrative come from? He couldn't stop being Joker? Really? That's why he choked on his own vomit? I hate to be so rude, but honesty is the only way we're going to get some sanity about this enabling."
Narcissism, unlimited cash, childhood trauma, chaotic families and star-struck hangers-on are all it takes to feed an addiction, he says, and Hollywood has those ingredients in spades. If you are famous, your doctor is impressed and even your drug dealer feels important, he adds.

Pinsky studied the link between narcissism, celebrity and addiction, and published his findings in a book, "The Mirror Effect." He says narcissism is grounded in childhood trauma that leaves a person feeling empty and incomplete. Narcissists gravitate toward fame as a way to fill the void, and addiction is another way to relieve the feeling of emptiness, he says. Celebrities are insulated and famous addicts can avoid consequences until the problem is severe.

As celebrity addicts spiral, the people around them get sleazier. "I watched that with Tom Sizemore," Forrest says. The acclaimed actor got addicted and went to jail after assaulting his girlfriend and fellow addict, Hollywood Madam Heidi Fleiss. "He's over two years sober now, but he just kept getting sleazier and sleazier managers and taking lamer and lamer roles," Forrest says. "You're building a career from 'Natural Born Killers' and 'Saving Private Ryan' to this slow downward spiral. Guys who don't even have offices are your manager; they manage with cell phones in their cars."

Celebrity addicts acquire "too much posse," he says, surrounding themselves with sycophants and parasites who pose as friends. Mackenzie Phillips, who relapsed after a decade of sobriety, says she moved some "old friends" -- translation: drug dealers -- into her house to keep her cocaine supply flowing.
"When you're going down like that and you're crazy, only the weirdos of Los Angeles latch on to you, because you're providing a free place to live and free drugs and free sex and cable TV," Forrest says. "The people hanging out with you are opportunistic, gutter-dwelling people. I was that, so I can judge. I was that to a lot of people in this town."

'Why does this keep happening?'

"Want to see where I died? It's right around here," Forrest says, suddenly steering his Prius off Melrose Avenue and onto LaBrea. He pulls a U-turn and glides up behind a bus in front of Pink's iconic hot dog stand, which has stood at the corner for more than 70 years; its famous chili dog is a favorite celebrity snack to top off a night of club hopping or awards show photo ops.

He idles the Prius and tells the story: It was some time in 1993 or early 1994 and he'd just gotten out of jail, scored some heroin and used the last of his money on a cab. When he overdosed in the back, the driver dumped him on the street, sometime before the sun came up. Forrest got lucky. He was near the bus stop popular with employees at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. A nurse gave him CPR and called 911.

He refused to go back to rehab because he saw his overdose as "a simple mistake." It would take a couple of more years, several more jailhouse detoxes and several more overdoses.

"Being high is extraordinary," Forrest says, "beyond the place of worry, like being safe and warm. Detox is a hell unlike any other, like a terrible flu combined with panic and fear and hate."

During detox, addicts don't sleep and can't eat. They have stomach cramps and throw up.

"You're exhausted, suicidal, crying, feeling great sadness and grief, all rolled into one big nothingness," Forrest adds. "You feel everything. One addict told me, 'My eyelashes hurt.'

"I formally detoxed 24 times in rehab. But probably 50 times I have gone through that," he says. He finally got clean in 1996 after waking up in the rain, "soaking wet, toothless and down to 120 pounds." He asked himself, "Why does this keep happening?" And then it dawned on him: It's the drugs.
Ten years after he wrote Forrest off as hopeless, Pinsky was surprised to run into him again at a seminar on chemical dependency. Forrest was a star AA sponsor by then, and was spending most of his time volunteering at the Musicians Assistance Program, helping the music industry's endless supply of addicts.

"He'd added the hat and the glasses, and I thought, 'That guy looks like Bob Forrest but there's no way Bob Forrest is alive,'" Pinsky recalls. "But it was Bob and he was working in recovery. And he was good."

Pinsksy offered Forrest a job at Las Encinas Hospital, where he was working in addiction medicine. Forrest says he took the job because he was running out of money and thought he might as well get paid for what he was already doing free. The deal struck, Pinsky advised Forrest to clean up his rock 'n' roll way of speaking, especially his penchant for dropping f-bombs.

"Get a dictionary," he said. "You work in a hospital now."

Life after heroin
Life is good when the monster is sleeping.

These days, Forrest is enjoying being present in his life. He has a year-old son named Elvis, and Forrest and his much-younger girlfriend, Sam, are fixing up a house in Encino, the suburban heart of the glitz-free San Fernando Valley.
He loves Hollywood and musicians and drug addicts, and he's cool in the manner of underground hipsters. That is unlikely to change, even if he moves to the suburbs. He's just not a Dockers kind of guy.

"I don't think you get sober to shop at Wal-Mart and become like everybody else," he says.

He buys records and devours music magazines, even if he doesn't play in the clubs anymore. He used to fear performing would make him want to get high; now he just thinks aging rockers are "pathetic."

Most weekends, he can be found on the film-festival circuit promoting "Bob and the Monster," a documentary about his life that is due in theaters in January. Later this month, he can be seen back at the Pasadena Recovery Center when VH-1 airs more installments of "Celebrity Rehab Revisited." Forrest has a book deal in the works. And there's the weekly radio show, "All up in the Interweb," on indie1031.com.

Once again, Bob Forrest is almost famous.
The radio show is a labor of love; there's no paycheck and one of his producers, "Nate the Man" Pottker, holds down a day job as Bob Forrest's favorite Starbucks barista.

"All Up in the Interweb" is laced with Forrest's social commentary and much of it centers on addiction and recovery. He believes the "anonymous" part of Alcoholics Anonymous is outdated, especially in Hollywood. Rather than protecting an addict's identity, he says, it now implies a stigma. And, asking an addict if he or she is willing to give up everything for a cure rings hollow to affluent celebrities, he says, who "are accomplished artists and musicians and have houses all over the world."

He opened Hollywood Recovery Services after growing dissatisfied with what he calls "the for-profit recovery industry" and its "cookie-cutter" emphasis on placing "heads on beds." He prefers the old-fashioned, one-on-one approach of talk therapy, and he believes it takes a year or more to fully regain sobriety -- not just the 28 days in "the rehab bubble" that is covered by insurance.
Society needs to stop looking at addiction as a moral issue, Forrest says. "When friends get cancer, everybody goes on the Internet and tries to find out everything about cancer. But when they have addiction, it's just like, 'Oh, whatever, they need to grow up.'"

The point was embraced recently by the American Society of Addiction Medicine, which updated its definition of "addiction." It is now considered a chronic brain disorder, not simply a behavioral problem.

"Let's get the stigma out of this," Tatum O'Neal agrees. "We're not bad people. We're not immoral people. We're not weak people. We're sick people, and we need help. We don't deserve the scarlet letter."

Prescription pain medications kill 15,000 people in the United States each year, more than heroin and cocaine overdoses combined, according to a report this month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the center of that epidemic is Bob Forrest.

On the walls of the waiting room at Hollywood Recovery Services, he has hung two black and white photos of punk rockers. One is of Darby Crash, a heroin addict who died of an overdose. The other features Ian MacKaye, who started the "straight edge" punk movement, whose adherents avoid drugs, alcohol, promiscuous sex -- even meat.

Forrest could have gone either way, but ultimately found a third path. He didn't burn out, but he didn't fade away, either.

"I think it's extraordinary that he recovered and continued his passion for life and wanting to make changes," says Keirda Bahruth, the documentary director. "That's what the Kerouac passage was all about. He still has his youthful rebellion and hope and energy."

He remains "mad for living," as Kerouac so famously described it. "The problem is," Forrest says, "people have to stay mad for living the whole time." And so, he blends early inspiration with his own hard lessons in the lyrics of "Burn, Burn, Burn," a song he wrote for the documentary:
"Don't have a religion, but I do have faith
Love is the answer to the burnin' ache
'N friends have come, you know, 'n friends have gone
To throw your life aways, so f---in' wrong
The trick is to burn, burn, burn but don't burn out."

As Bob Forrest likes to say, "It's worth sticking around just to see what happens.""

By Ann O'Neill, CNN
updated 10:18 PM EST, Sun November 13, 2011

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/13/showbi...rrest-profile/

Drug Use now Highest Among Teens

A new analysis has released to the public and the chemical dependency counseling community revealing that Drug use is highest in teens now. This isn't very suprising, but it is frightening to hear. We need to step up now more than ever to help fight the War on Drugs in America by getting these teens to chemical dependecy counselors. 

"USA- A national analysis of drug abuse among teens released yesterday – among the most comprehensive to date – found that Native American, Latino and white adolescents have the highest rates of drug-related disorders.

In culturally diverse California – where recent illicit drug use among teens has climbed to nearly 11 percent – the findings have implications for the state’s prevention and treatment policy.

“This is a national study, but California is the prototypical state where there is a mixture of individuals across racial and ethnic groups," said Dan G. Blazer, a Duke University psychiatry professor and co-author of the study. "In terms of looking at comparisons across races, this study is very relevant to California.”

According to a state tally, there were 23,322 teens in publicly monitored and funded treatment programs in 2009.

The study analyzed federal surveys of more than 72,000 youth between ages 12 and 17. Thirty-seven percent said they had used alcohol or drugs in the past year, and about 8 percent misused substances to the extent that they had a “substance use disorder."

After researchers controlled for variables like age and socioeconomic status, they found “elevated odds of substance-related disorders” among Native American, white, Latino and mixed-race teens. African American and Asian youth had the lowest rates of substance use.

The study largely confirms what studies using smaller sample sizes have shown: There are high rates of substance use and abuse in the Native American community.

“We know it; we deal with it all the time,” said Molin Malicay, CEO of the Sonoma County Indian Health Project. “This is not surprising to us.”
Blazer said the study should underscore the importance of early intervention with youth, which is crucial for successful addiction prevention and treatment.

“Substance use is a big problem in this country, and it’s a big problem among adolescents,” he said. “If you identify these individuals (with substance use disorders) early on and get them into treatment in their adolescence, it will hopefully lead to higher levels of responsiveness to treatment and a higher level of abstinence once they enter into adulthood. Identifying the problem and getting them into appropriate treatment programs is extremely important.”

Although California has the highest concentration of Native Americans in the country, state health advocates say not enough resources are dedicated to addressing teen drug use and abuse.

“I don't know anyone who works with (Native American) youth with these types of problems who think there are enough resources dedicated to substance abuse prevention and treatment,” David Sprenger, chief medical officer for the California Area Indian Health Service, wrote in an e-mail. “More funding would be tremendously helpful in addressing substance abuse problems in the (Native American) adolescent population.”

There are also few treatment facilities for Native American youth. The California Area Indian Health Service, a federal agency, estimates that 5,000 Native American teens in the state are in need of residential care, with about 100 currently sent out of state for treatment. But California is the only region in the country without a treatment facility for Native American youth.

According to a federal law amended in 1992, California is required to build two treatment facilities. Steve Zerebecki, the health service's facility planner for California, said these centers are “usually in the top three priorities for tribal leaders and tribal health programs; they are a longstanding need.”

Federal funding and the siting of these projects has been a challenge in California, Zerebecki said. “Indian Health Services has several significant facility development projects in planning and development stages nationally, and the project costs year after year exceed the congressional appropriations,” he said.

Finding a suitable location for both facilities in California on a $2.7 million budget has been difficult. In Southern California, the agency purchased land in Hemet for a facility that will take a few years to build. In Northern California, a recent effort to build a treatment center in Yolo County was stalled in late August.

Physicians say factors such as genetics and poverty help explain the high rate of addiction among Native Americans. Sprenger, of the Indian Health Service, says another potential cause is higher levels of psychosocial stress related to experiences such as the loss of culture.

As a Native American who grew up in Santa Rosa, Malicay, of the Sonoma County Indian Health Project, agrees that cultural factors are one reason drug and alcohol use are high.

“In general, Native Americans or Indians come from a history of trauma,” he said. “I had great-grandparents who went through the marches where they were maimed, and there is a lot of hate because of what they have seen. All of that is passed on to us, and it’s passed down in many ways. And on the reservations, there’s gloom, unemployment, no one works and there is a lot of drinking and a lot of drugs there. You grow up with little hope. It has to do with the environment you live in and history.”

The health effects of historical trauma also can be exacerbated by teenage experimentation with alcohol and drugs, said Tahnee Camacho, a youth program manager at the Native American Health Center in Oakland.

“It’s not just Native American youth, but in youth culture, they are dabbling with drinking and drugs,” she said. “We lack resources for the 12-to-17 age bracket. It’s frustrating for me as a youth worker because if dabbling becomes an issue, there’s not a lot I can refer them to.”

The health center has begun incorporating traditional ceremonies and cultural practices into its prevention efforts, a tactic that has been shown to be effective. According to the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs, Native American youth who identify with their culture are less likely to abuse drugs.

The overall dearth of prevention and treatment programs for adolescents is an issue that the California Society of Addiction Medicine, a consortium of physicians, is working to address by working with Los Angeles public schools.

“You would think that there are lot of programs funded locally or statewide for these adolescents, and there are not,” said Dr. Jeffery Wilkins, president of the California Society of Addiction Medicine and medical director of addiction medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. “Adolescents are a group for which we still don’t have a real dedicated effort. We need to recognize the future of America is in these adolescents and children, and we really have to find a way to make sure that they don’t destroy their brains or impact the formation of their brains through use of drugs. Alcohol is a monster in this problem as well.”

The society also has been critical of the state’s efforts to address adolescent substance use. According to a policy paper [PDF] it released, “California’s approach to misuse of alcohol and other drugs by adolescents and young adults continues to demonstrate a pattern of ineffectiveness. It is characterized by grossly inadequate funding for prevention and treatment that is often irrationally separated into substance abuse and mental health silos.”

The organization recommended improvements to early diagnosis of substance abuse and creation of a statewide network of residential treatment centers.

Duke researchers say that while the study confirms a number of findings related to Native Americans, it also challenges notions that African Americans are using drugs at high rates.

“I think there’s a myth out there that there is a big problem of substance use among African Americans, and many studies show that they are highly involved in treatment,” Duke's Blazer said. “This study shows that among adolescents, the rates of use and developing substance-related disorders is actually lower.”

This article comes to us courtesy of California Watch.
By Bernice Yeung

Bernice Yeung is an investigative reporter for California Watch, a project of the non-profit Center for Investigative Reporting. Find more California Watch stories here.

Source: http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=171101#ixzz1dLKfUkB7

If you are interested in getting your counselor degree extremely fast to become a chemical dependency counselor, then feel FREE to visit CentaurUniversity.com!

Counselor Receives National Leadership Award

These awards have always been a great way to show appreciation for people involed in the chemical dependency counseling community and those in addiction physiology. I wanted to post this one in particular to give respect for Amy Sturm who has worked very hard as a counselor to recieve this award! 

"COLUMBUS, Ohio – Amy Sturm, assistant professor of clinical internal medicine in the division of human genetics and certified genetic counselor at The Ohio State University Medical Center and its Center for Personalized Health Care, is among only a few National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) leadership award winners honored for their dedication and significant contributions to the organization.

Sturm is the recipient of NSGC’s 2011 Outstanding Volunteer Award, which was presented recently at the society’s annual national conference held in San Diego. She was recognized for her volunteerism toward the progress of various committees, task forces and specific projects aiming to advance multiple roles of genetic counselors in health care by promoting education, research and public policy to ensure the availability of quality genetic services.

Sturm specializes in genetic counseling and risk assessment for adult-onset genetic conditions, and is clinically interested in inherited forms of heart disease. She sees patients in the Medical Genetics Program and also coordinates and sees patients in The High Risk Family Heart Clinic and The Hereditary Heart Rhythm Disorders Clinic, both part of Ohio State’s Richard M. Ross Heart Hospital. Sturm is one of two genetic counselors at Ohio State’s Medical Center working with the ongoing Coriell Personalized Medicine Collaborative. She also collaborates on a research project involving Family HealthLink, an online tool that assesses risk for cancer and coronary heart disease, and is a founding member of the National Society of Genetic Counselors Personalized Medicine Special Interest Group.

The National Society of Genetic Counselors is a professional society established in 1979 to integrate genetics and genomics. NSGC promotes professional interests of genetic counselors and provides a network for professional communications, local and national continuing education opportunities and discussions about human genetics."

Source: http://medicalcenter.osu.edu/mediaroom/releases/Pages/Ohio-State-Genetic-Coun...

If you are interested in getting your counselor degree extremely fast to become a chemical dependency counselor, then feel FREE to visit CentaurUniversity.com!

National Drug Facts Week

This is a GREAT opportunity to reach out to teens that have no clue about the drugs they are curious about or are already doing. If you are involved in the chemical dependency counseling community or just want to help out, tweet or share this post somewhere and start passing out drug facts! Visit CentaurUniversity.com to get your counseling certification, if you want to take things to the next level! 

"ONDCP Joins NIDA in Celebrating National Drug Facts Week 2011

Posted by ONDCP Staff on October 28, 2011 at 05:11 PM EDT

As reflected in the 2011 National Drug ControlStrategy, a key ingredient for preventing drug use is ensuring that communities, parents, and especially our youth, have the most up-to-date scientific information about drug use and its consequences. National Drug Facts Week provides young adults with science-based facts and information about drug and alcohol use, and empowers them to make healthy decisions as informed consumers.

By joining forces and bringing young adults and scientific experts together with a common goal, National Drug Facts Week aims to shatter the myths that surround teen drug use and underage drinking, and provides an invaluable opportunity for youth to find out the true facts. The fifth annual National Drug Facts Chat Day on November 1st will provide further opportunities for teens across the country to engage in meaningful conversation and receive honest and factual answers to their questions. In addition, the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s (NIDA) Sara Bellum Blog highlights people from across the country who are participating in CyberShoutout! And helping to raise awareness about drugs and drug abuse.

Experience shows we can continue to make progress in reducing drug use by supporting balanced and evidence-based approaches, and ONDCP commends the NIDA for providing a free program that encourages science based information sharing. ONDCP encourages you to take advantage of the instrumental and innovative opportunities that National Drug Facts Week provides for young adults, and also parents, educators, and the community at large.

Learn more about NIDA and National Drug Facts Week 2011.

Source: The White House

See also:

National Drug Facts Week 2011!

National Drug Facts Week is Monday, October 31st through Sunday, November 6th, 2011.

This year's National Drug Facts Week promises to be bigger and better than last year! We've updated the Shatter the Myths booklet and created a new Drug IQ Challenge.

* Find out more about how to host your own
National Drug Facts Week Event
* Order or download the new Shatter the Myths booklet
* Learn more about the Grammy Contest
* Questions? e-mail, edited out

What is National Drug Facts Week?

National Drug Facts Week (NDFW) is a health observance week for teens that aims to shatter the myths about drugs and drug abuse. Through community-‐based events and activities on the Web, on TV, and through contests, NIDA is working to encourage teens to get factual answers from scientific experts about drugs and drug abuse. Download the NDFW Info Sheet! [PDF format, 86KB]
How do I Participate in National Drug Facts Week?

* CyberShoutout on October 28.
Tweet, blog, or update your Facebook status on October 28th to help spread the word about NDFW. Share information with your family and friends that will shatter the myths about drug abuse. Go to CyberShoutout for suggestions on how to create your messages.
* Host or Sponsor a NDFW Event!
Bring together the science and teens by having a scientific expert come to your event, or using NIDA's educational materials. The NDFW toolkit will show you how -‐ with step by step suggestions on planning and promoting events. After registering your event, order a "Drug Facts: Shatter the Myths" booklet for every teen attending your event! This booklet provides answers to teens’ most frequently asked questions about drugs.
* Tweet About NDFW!
If you're Tweeting about NDFW, be sure to use our hashtag #drugfacts2011
* Take the National Drug IQ Challenge!
During National Drug Facts Week and year round go to Link - edited out - to test your knowledge on drugs and drug abuse by taking the interactive National Drug IQ Challenge quiz. New 2011 Challenge just launched!
Drug Facts Chat Day - November 1, 2011

Registration Now Open!
* Chat Day 2011 coming November 01, 2011
Since 2008, NIDA scientists have a Web chat with thousands of teens who ask questions about drugs. Every year teens ask many more questions than the scientists can answer, so registration is limited. Learn more about Chat Day. Read last year's transcripts.

Who are our Partners?

NIDA's Partners in spreading the word about NDFW include: federal, state, and local agencies as well as media companies like MTV and Scholastic, Inc.. There’s a way for everyone to learn the facts and shatter the myths about drug abuse during National Drug Facts Week!

Source: Drug Facts Week"

Source: http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=170454#ixzz1cUumGUlZ