TDAlcoholic

Bradley Jardis has joined a small group of current and retired law enforcement/criminal justice officials of a Massachusetts-based nonprofit organization called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, or LEAP. LEAP was formed to advocate the legalization and regulation of drugs as an alternative to what they describe a "failed war on drugs". Jardis, in a recent MSNBC article states the following:

Jardis believes drugs should be regulated by the government just like alcohol. "We treat alcoholism as a public health problem, but we treat drug addiction as a criminal problem, and that's wrong," he said.

While I too believe that our nation's current methods need revamped especially when it comes to education and emphasis on treatment (LEAP promotes both), but the legalizing drugs would be like jumping out of the pan into the fire if you ask me. Take Officer Jardis's statement on alcohol and its treatment as a "health problem". I guess if you want to call alcohol, a prevailing factor in 40% of all violent crime, a health issue you certainly can, but don't tell that to the victims or the prison population!

Until our society learns how to cope with this most destructive and costly substance (alcohol) that is already legal, I think it is foolish to submit any plan that suggests we can improve the current situation by legalizing drugs.

The F--k It Effect!

Abstinence-Violation Effect (AVE) is what Alan Marlatt, director of the Addictive Behaviors Research Center at the University of Washington, describes as the technical term for the relapse behavior commonly known in meetings across the world as the "f--k it effect". It's that feeling of total resignation to failure an addict or alcoholic gets after relapsing for the 100th time that often powers progressively worse binges. Check out this Time article in which Dr. Marlatt describes several ways to deal with and prevent future relapse including "urge surfing".

Call me old fashion, but I was just too embarrassed to use the title, this next one is just corny.

Trouble: Doing Shots with a Pistol in Rifle

That's right, just a few days before Christmas Heath Johnston of Rifle, Colorado killed his brother with a pistol after the two drained a bottle of whiskey.

Heath's defense? He said his depressed brother requested that he shoot him. It comes as no suprise that he wasn't too worked up at his initial hearing for first degree murder as "Johnston yawned as he took a seat next to a deputy public defender who spoke on his behalf." Maybe he is just masking his grief, nah.

My battle with the laptop nasties earlier this week has left me playing catch-up with work. Long work hours mean late night blog posts. Finding myself behind the eight ball, short on time, and staring at the computer it's unfortunate that I have a penchant for compounding the not enough hours in the day problem with indiscriminate surfing. I did however run across a blog of substance called Drugmonkey- incidentally proving the wired version of the infinite monkey theorem that states even a semi-intelligent recovering alcoholic will run across a worthy article given enough time. The post and comments that caught my attention were semantic not simian in nature discussing the finer points of the language of addiction.

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My take on the topic minus the cerebral nerd banter that I wish I had the smarts to join in on is the that drug monkey has it right. Most people think the definition of addiction is a one line entry when the truth of the matter is that every day there is a new volume written on the subject.

A substance or action can be addictive yet not cause an addiction. There is a considerable difference between a physical dependence causing "discontinuation syndrome" and addiction. These distinctions are generally lost on the public. Why is methadone maintenance as treatment for something as serious as an opioid addiction stigmatized while taking antidepressants for trivial matters is considered socially acceptable if not expected? There's thousands more but I'm tired, so go read the article yourself while I clumsily tie this profusion of monkey references and misleading headline photo into a relevant theme with a quote.

"Understanding a complex problem is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go of your assumptions at some point in order to move forward."

History is more or less bunk. It's tradition. We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker's damn is the history we make today. ~ Henry Ford

New Year's Day is a time of recollection and resolutions for most of the world, but I think it is important for those of us in recovery to remember that dwelling on the past and making promises for the future is something at which we have always excelled. The old cartoon above from 1905 is a great reminder that time marches on predictably, so we must act now before we are once again wistfully looking back at the past.

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Direct action is the key to a healthy recovery program. This does not mean one needs to set unreasonable or lofty goals; adding in simple, repetitive tasks of positive influence into our daily program like quality hygiene and family time is a great idea to mark progress and build self confidence. Confidence breeds success and before you know it, mastering the simple tasks carries over into the ability to tackle larger problems.

I like the quote cited from Henry Ford, it is very similar to the stress placed by AA on living for the day. Ford's assembly line produced complex machines in this manner, by having workers become adept at the simple tasks that were part of the larger process. A recovery program should follow suit with the end goal being becoming efficient... at staying sober; leaving us time to work on the larger process of building a successful life. If we never master the ability to successfully navigate the day, then all we have to do to see our future is to look back at our history.

Exactly eighty years ago tonight Indiana police introduced unsuspecting New Year's revelers to the Drunkometer, the first utilitarian device that was used to calculate the blood alcohol level of drivers by breath testing. But it wasn't until 1954 when Robert Borkenstein developed the Breathalyzer, a more stable and portable device, that highway police were able to use the alcohol breath test as a routine procedure to accurately distinguish intoxicated drivers as "over the limit".

As a practicing alcoholic I wasn't scared of drunk driving or the possible deadly repercussions, but I did fear the breathalyzer and the loss of freedom it represented. In recovery and as an advocate I am all too aware of dangers of DUI and routinely deal with the aftermath, now I see the Breathalyzer as a benevolent tool. Much like Dr. Frankenstein's creature, many see only the monster while those that look deeper will see an invention that reflects the struggle of man dealing with the vagaries of modern advances.

So on this New Year's regardless if you view the Breathalyzer as good or evil; just be sure to stay safe and make wise decisions. If you drink designate a sober driver, because Borkenstein's monster will definitively be haunting the roads tonight.

Posts on how the recovering alcoholic/addict can stay safe during the New Year festivities are a dime a dozen right now. Have an escape plan, always keep a glass in your hand, have support on call; all these things are not bad ideas, but the sure way to stay safe on this holiday eve is just to avoid alcohol and drugs. If you are so worried about drinking that you need a sponsor on speed dial, let me make the decision for you, don't go. The very fact that an alcoholic/addict feels it's necessary or worth the risk to join others in a farewell toast to the year while still struggling with sobriety is indicative of addictive thinking.

But staying safe doesn't mean staying locked away.

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There is no law against celebrating the holiday sober. No written rule that prohibits spending the night with a loved one watching a movie marathon. Go bowling with strangers. Do a midnight clink of the cheap mugs at Waffle House and usher in a scattered, smothered, and covered New Year.

If deciding what to do on the holiday becomes too stressful- skip it. That's right, just don't participate at all. Strip some furniture or clean the house, getting a head start on the new year is better than barricading up in a depressive funk. It may not be a memorable night, but it's better than not have any memory of the night as millions will experience the next morning along with a pounding headache.

A few days back TDA reader Norm sent me an article about UK insurers raising life insurance rates on people who exceed the recommended alcohol limit. Now in the ping pong match that is my cognitive process I moved quickly from this story to New York's proposed obesity tax, then to California's alcohol tax (still much smaller than originally proposed), but the volley stopped at our President-elect's proposed universal health care (UHC).

The ball came off the table at UHC because at this point I (and you) become responsible for the foreseeable consequences of other people's voluntary health risks. Avoid the fat tax, don't drink soda. Keep away from the alcohol tax, eschew beer. With UHC however, there will be no avoiding paying for the wino's new liver and the smoker's lung regardless of how healthy we live our own lives. But never fear, surely the government will come to our aid to reduce taxes by implementing a public awareness blitz, a new temperance movement.

Sounds like a TDA dream right? Not.

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Movements like this are hard to stop, take the organization and enforcement ability of the government and combine it with today's pervasive healthcare technology... and prohibition may be closer than you think.

Only this prohibition might go much further than just alcohol because it's a wired world these days; UHC could go so far beyond Hillarycare it's scary. In the old days a pledge card like the one above was the feeble reach of accountability, now current wireless and sensing technology enable real time monitoring of key physical parameters and body chemistry variables. Thinking along these lines it doesn't take a prognosticator to see how government run healthcare would become not only pervasive, but perverted.

Cigarettes, marijuana, and all illicit drugs would be the first to be monitored and taxed- it's called lifestyle incentive management. Next would be junk food and "unhealthy proportions". All of these I've mentioned so far the government already has or is attempting to either ban or tax so we are not talking about much of a stretch. How about forcing people to exercise? If you neglected reaching your target heart rate three times a week then the penalty of being bumped up a tax bracket might actually have the same effect.

I'll be the first to speak on behalf of a new temperance movement, but I'm keeping a tinfoil hat handy just in case UHC and pervasive healthcare technology spark a neo-prohibition.