Hear and heed the recovering addict
News organizations frequently ask me to help them find young people and parents willing to share their experiences with addiction. I try to assist when and where I can — but these aren’t easy connections to make. Many people in substance recovery fear the...
Some days, it’s best to ignore journalists
Watching news coverage and commentary about marijuana is utterly painful for me on so many levels. We’re talking chronic pain that would easily qualify me for a medical-pot license in Colorado. Take this week, when Reporter Will Ripley of Denver’s NBC...
Response to ‘A Judge’s Plea for Pot’
The New York Times on May 16, 2012 ran a guest column written by Gustin L. Reichbach, a justice of the New York State Supreme Court in Brooklyn. Let’s just say this is the second pro-marijuana-legalization piece spun out of the NYT to catch my eye in recent...
Sure would love to see these everywhere …
While en route to Stockholm to meet members of the World Federation Against Drugs, my husband, Dr. Chris Thurstone, and I hopped a connecting flight at Liberty International Airport in Newark, N.J. This ad was the first thing to greet us as we headed into the terminal...
Lazy journalism in the NYT compounds ignorance
I love journalism. I love many journalists. I have a long track record of going to the mat to improve and protect journalism. Lazy journalism? That’s a different story entirely. Please, allow me to dissect (or is that “rip to shreds?”) a New York...Read the book
Clearing the Haze is a guide designed to help parents determine whether their child may have a substance problem and, if so, how to begin to address it. This book includes the voices and insight of experts in substance abuse counseling, young people in recovery, and parents who have lived the nightmare of adolescent addiction.