World Health Organization to issue a two-page statement on the topic. “Avoid alcohol altogether so that you do not undermine your own immune system and health and do not risk the health of others,” it advises. “Heavy alcohol use is a risk factor for acute...

Across the U.S., governors are terming alcohol sales an essential business and loosening restrictions to permit home delivery and carryout cocktails, Are alcohol sales actually essential? According to the federal government, just over...

How do you feel now you’re a non-smoker?  My answer came spontaneously  – LONELY – he (my therapist) looked surprised and I felt embarrassed, why did I say lonely??  It’s like I’m saying cigarettes were my friends – I know they were not my friends, but...

Psychiatrist M. Scott Peck, a self-confessed nicotine addict and author of The Road Less Traveled, offered his perspective in a 1991 lecture, “Addiction: The Sacred Disease.” Dr. Peck’s thesis: At birth, humans become separated from God. Everyone is aware of this...

Five things you may not know about alcohol, the most commonly used drug in the world 1) Alcohol is a Group 1 carcinogen according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC; i.e., it is known to cause cancer) and...

Opioid use disorder seems to be driven by physical or psychological pain as often as it is driven by a vulnerability to recreational opioid use. Those who began using primarily for the treatment of pain, however, view themselves as fundamentally different from...

I’ve been thinking of Dr Frank Plummer who I posted about on 21 January 2020 as I remembered he was recognized for leadership roles in the Sars, H1N1 flu and Ebola epidemics.  I was hoping that his brain surgery for alcohol addiction had worked and that he...

Once, millions of people were gathering at a religious place of pilgrimage. There was a very saintly old person who couldn’t really walk that far distance to join everyone. He had a small hut somewhere on the way, but it was hundreds of miles away. The pilgrims were...

In September 2004, Forbes magazine published a Satel article under the headline, “OxyContin doesn’t cause addiction. Its abusers are already addicts.” In an article for The Wall Street Journal headlined “Oxy...

In 2007, Purdue pleaded guilty to federal charges of understating the risk of addiction and agreed to pay $600 million in fines and penalties. Still, the company argued publicly that OxyContin has “done far more good than harm,” and it sought to place...

Studies show that African American and Latinx individuals are far less likely than white people to complete outpatient and residential substance use disorder treatment. The inequity is also in access to medication. NPR highlighted a...

Nicotine Anonymous 12 Step Recovery Program for freedom from nicotine addiction The 12-Step fellowship, Nicotine Anonymous (NicA), has grown in 37 years to have over 700 weekly ongoing face-to-face mutual support groups in 32 countries. At meetings members share their...