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Money or cocaine? It all depends on timing
People who are looking for treatment for their cocaine addiction still really like cocaine, but they’ll choose money as an immediate reward if they can only get their drug of choice later. Cocaine or money? Depends on how long the wait is Although it might be somewhat surprising, the above finding is the result of…
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Shame on me – Stigma and addiction in treatment
I keep hearing that back in the old days of addiction treatment, shame was the main motivating factor used by rehab counselors. Everyone admits that it proved to be a horrible motivator. It simply didn’t work! With all the advances in research into addiction, that must have changed, right? I don’t think so. I see…
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Is personal experience necessary for successful addiction treatment?
In the “recovery” community, one often hears about how the best person to reach an addict is another addict in recovery. The question is whether personal experience with, and victory over, addiction is necessary for a counselor or therapist to be successful in providing successful addiction treatment? I’ll spoil the surprise by telling you that…
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Global Commission on Drug Policy: Legalization, decriminalization, and the war on drugs
A commission made up of some big names, though not really any names of addiction or drug researchers I noticed, just released a report that’s making a lot of noise throughout every news channel including NPR (see here, and here for stories) and others (see CNN). They want the debate about the current state of…
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Two Million Dollars a piece – The cost of drug use and violence
The average cost to society of a lifelong criminal = About $2 million I’ll get into more of this in later posts (I already talked about the cost of addiction prevention versus treatment versus enforcement), but if that cost of drug use and violence doesn’t cry out for a better application of money to prevention…
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West Cost Symposium on Addictive Disorders – Addiction education with A3 discount
You already know how much of a supporter of addiction education and training I am. I think that there are thousands of ways to treat any given addict and unless those of us in the addiction treatment profession keep up with information, we’re neglecting our clients and giving them less than a full chance at…
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Rehabing Rehab – How we can fix America’s addiction treatment system
When Charlie Sheen finally entered rehab, it wasn’t terribly shocking news. But what most people did find surprising was that instead of checking into a swanky Malibu addiction treatment center as he has done in the past, Sheen opted to receive in-home rehab. Immediately the media began criticizing his choice and questioning his commitment to…
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The cost of quitting alcohol and drug addiction – treatment tips for addicts
Many users are discouraged by the cost of drug and alcohol addiction treatment programs. The treatment programs that advertise, which are normally the only ones most people hear about (you know them: Passages, Promises, Betty Ford and more) may offer services that are worthwhile, but they may not and consumers have no way to evaluate…
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Is abstinence the only option? Moderate alcohol drinking is possible and there’s help
I can’t even think of how many times I’ve heard the notion that complete, total, abstinence should be the only goal for all people who abuse drug or alcohol. This idea is so pervasive that most addiction treatment providers actually expel clients for relapsing, a notion that makes no sense to me especially if you…