As a society we should be embarrassed by how many of our citizens are in prison due to problems associated with untreated addiction. We have the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world with approximately 2.3 million people behind bars. If we add those on probation and parole the number jumps to almost… [Continue Reading]
College on Problems of Drug Dependence
For the past half-dozen years, I have been attending The College on Problems of Drug Dependence, better known as CPDD. The conference has been in existence since 1929 and this year is celebrating 75 years! It is the longest running conference on drug addiction problems in the US and is attended by the brightest minds in the… [Continue Reading]
Homelessness and Addiction: Part 2
It was early summer and I was deep into my counseling internship at the behavioral health clinic. I was lucky enough to have a giant corner office with many windows overlooking downtown Portland – room enough to conduct both my individual sessions and run groups. It was so big that I decided to bring in… [Continue Reading]
Homelessness and Addiction: Part I
In recent months my travels have taken me to Philadelphia and New York City, two of the most amazing cities in America. While I have enjoyed staying at comfortable hotels and dining on delicious food, it has been impossible to ignore the significant number of homeless people on the streets, begging for money and food…. [Continue Reading]
Addiction Treatment System 14 Years Later
This past week The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University released a scathing report of our addiction treatment system: Addiction Medicine: Closing the Gap between Science and Practice. While the report says nothing new, it does a nice job of summarizing the fact that we have made little progress since the… [Continue Reading]