Warning: Campus Rape Epidemic!

A Rolling Stone article last month described the brutal gang rape of a U-Va freshman.   It was strewn with cynical descriptions of a campus rape culture fueled by alcohol and privilege and the implicit threat of permanent social banishment for anyone who might object.   For the past few years, scientists and psychologists have been sounding the alarm about the dangers of binge drinking and the potential for alcoholism in teenagers both of which can lead to risky behavior including rape, and stressing the importance of delaying ‘first use’ until the legal age of 21.  Researchers propose early detection and intervention for problem drinking behavior, especially for young women.

The Rolling Stones article caused a national furor over the rape crisis including fraternity protests, but was retracted when not a single fact of the young woman’s account could be corroborated. Continue reading Warning: Campus Rape Epidemic!

Winds of Change

I just got back from a couple meetings in Weho tonight.  I definitely think things are changing.  There was much less talk of the Steps, Big Book doctrine, mischief, disease and near-death experiences, and there was more talk of fellowship and the common types of problems that everyone experiences.  In particular, several people including the speaker talked about using opiates for medical treatment without any significant issues.  They used the word ‘disease’ sparingly.  They didn’t recount mischief or ‘almost died from my disease’, and the laugh lines were sparser.  Of course, “I always thought that drinking and drugs made people more interesting” got the usual round of hee-haws. Continue reading Winds of Change

A Thomas McLellan – Acclaimed Higher Power of Addiction Science

Every abomination to the Lord, which he hates, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters do they burn in the fire to their gods.  Deuteronomy 12:31

A Thomas McLellan was born in New York in 1949 and grew up in an age of rapid advances in science and technology which revealed profound truths about the world and promised to relieve man of suffering, cure his diseases, and even resolve the intractable ideological and religious differences at the root of wars and strife.  He earned a PhD in psychology in 1976, and took a job at a Pennsylvania VA to study alcoholism.  There he saw first hand the suffering of the alcoholics in his care, but at the same time witnessed the miraculous effects of the 12 Step programs that were at the time the only known effective treatment.   Continue reading A Thomas McLellan – Acclaimed Higher Power of Addiction Science