Response to Stanton Peele in The Fix
On February 2 of this year, The Fix published a piece by Stanton Peele entitled “Legalizing Drugs Challenges the Addiction Brain Disease Theory.” I’ve never heard anything in my understanding of...
View ArticleWhat’s Up in Tennessee? Redux
About a year ago I wrote a blog titled What’s Up in Tennessee? looking at the unenlightened state policies that I thought would make that state’s addiction problem, particularly addiction involving...
View ArticleDrug of Choice
When I think about it, there are few terms in the addiction treatment field that are more silly than “Drug of Choice.” As if we get to choose which drug makes the brain go BAM. When you talk to an...
View ArticleDisease, Ignorance, and Cruelty
I want to tell you a story about disease, ignorance, and cruelty. To make it interesting, we’ll make you the protagonist. The year is 1665, and you live in London. You’re trying to stay away from...
View ArticleThe ICU
The young woman walked out of the ICU knowing she’d never see her friend again. At age 26, this was the second time she’s said good-bye to a childhood playmate in this ICU. When the first of her...
View ArticleThe Big Short
By now, most American’s have heard of the book, The Big Short by Michael Lewis, and the movie of the same name. (To short is to sell something you don’t own because you believe it will go down in price...
View ArticleYou’re Sick and You Almost Died, So Don’t Come to my Wedding
The other day I heard from a friend about his son who has addiction. There was a recent overdose on opioids in which he almost died. Luckily there was someone with him to get him help, and he survived....
View ArticleLinearity vs Cycles
Take a deep breath. Now hold it. Without letting it out, take another deep breath. You can’t do it can you? Now go back to breathing normally before you pass out. The point of all that was to show you...
View ArticleThe Kissinger Cross and Beginner’s Mind
The Kissinger Cross I learned about the Kissinger cross from an economist named Jim Rickards (twitter: @JamesGRickards). You may have guessed that the Kissinger Cross was named after former Secretary...
View ArticleWhat Did He Die Of?
A colleague asked a group of us Addiction Medicine specialists if we had any guesses of what killed a patient who died in his care. If reading a clinical description of a death or the thinking that...
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