In March of 2009, I went to the Hazelden Center For Youth & Families in Plymouth, MN to receive dual diagnosis treatment for alcoholism/addiction and bipolar disorder. Thankfully, both my addiction and mental health have been in check over the… Read More ›
Drug News
The Click (Or, How I Came To Realize I Was An Alcoholic)
After 16 months of languishing in a storage locker just outside of Baltimore, I finally managed to schlep the bulk of my worldly belongings back to my apartment in Cincinnati. Moving is never fun, but sometimes the process can unearth… Read More ›
Dope Sick With Mouths To Feed: The Struggles of American Women in Active Addiction
~~~~~~~ Author’s Note ~~~~~~~ On the night before I was to publish this article, one of my cousins died at the hands of this insidious disease of addiction. The last time I saw her was early Thursday morning after a… Read More ›
The Drug Dealer in the Cupboard: How The Prescription Drug Epidemic Revived Heroin in America
It pains me to say this, but after more than 5 years of continuous sobriety—5 years in which I lived in rehabs and halfway houses, worked in the drug and alcohol treatment industry, and spent thousands of hours attending 12-step… Read More ›
Real People, Fake Weed: A Slice of Life High on Spice
There are few things in this world that feel sketchier than meeting up with a person you’ve never met before in a random gas station parking lot. One of those things happens to be meeting up with a person you’ve… Read More ›
Krispy Kremes & Strip Clubs: A Trip To The Id of America
By the time I hit Sahara Ave, all of the phosphorescent glitz of the Vegas Strip had petered out behind me. Streets that had been teeming with fanny packed families and booze-besotted co-eds just a quarter mile earlier were suddenly… Read More ›
An Open Letter to Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley Concerning New Foundations Transitional Living
Mayor Cranley, In your mayoral acceptance speech this past November, you pledged to turn Cincinnati into a more inclusive city; a city where government can find solutions that will bring disparate groups together while building communities that work for everyone. It… Read More ›
The War on Drugs Won’t Go Quietly, So Let’s Get Loud
Anyone who knows me well will likely be familiar with the fact that objectivity is not exactly my strong suit. However, I like to think that I normally manage to approach issues that I am passionate about with something resembling… Read More ›
Red Eyes, Full Bongs, Can Lose
There is nothing in recent memory to suggest that the referenda that were passed to legalize weed in Washington and Colorado this November will be anything more than a confirmation that public sentiment regarding “soft drugs” has shifted substantially in… Read More ›