STICK WITH THE WINNERS! – Nov. 25, 2025 – In her 20s, Jo Weatherford was a drug-and alcohol-addicted model, partying with celebrities in Hollywood. After an arrest and failed suicide attempt, she knew it was time to get clean. She went back to school to get her master’s degree in Human Development, and spent the next 12 years teaching courses on addiction at the University of Nevada. Q. If you are in recovery, what was your drug(s) of choice and when is your sobriety date?A. I went alcohol free on June 5, 2012!Q. Is there anything special in your sobriety toolkit…
Author: Leonard Buschel
ACT NATURALLY – Nov. 19, 2025 – When Lithuanian actor Arūnas Sakalauskas looks back on his childhood, alcohol was always present, but never in a good way. His father drank heavily, and as a boy he learned to associate alcohol with shouting, shame and loss. “I promised myself I would never be like my father,” he recalls. For years, he kept that promise. But in Lithuania, as in much of Europe, alcohol was everywhere. In small towns, not drinking alcohol was what made you stand out. “If you didn’t drink, you were the strange one,” he remembers. Like many young…
VIDEO – THANKSGIVING MUSICAL INTERLUDE – 1.3 Million Views since 2013 – The song arose from a personal experience of Berlin when his doctor suggested he try “counting his blessings” as a way to deal with insomnia brought on by stress. It was nominated for an Academy Award as “Best Song” but was defeated by “Three Coins in the Fountain” from the film of the same name written by Jule Styne and lyricist Sammy Cahn.[4] It was performed on the 1955 Academy Awards telecast. See Website
VIDEO – IN THEIR NAMES – Nov. 21, 2025 – When DaVonne Garner walks through her newly-opened crisis recovery center, she feels the presence of her identical twin nephews Taj and Najee. After graduation they hit both fell into opioid addiction and mental health struggles. Taj died at 21 and Najee passed just two years later at 23. “They were loved, they were nurtured and still they found themselves in really precarious situations,” Garner said. She went down a path to find evidence-based treatment that could save people just like her nephews. That path led to her opening the Taj…
LEAD HER TO SOBRIETY – Nov. 22, 2025 – The Blindspot Star reflected on her struggle with alcoholism and the moment she nearly died after her appendix ruptured. She said was in the worse pain of her life when she “heard a voice” telling her to never drink again. She’s been sober ever since, adding, “It took almost dying for me to wake up and start living.” The 41-year-old explained that she was the type of alcoholic who would “drink heavily, make terrible decisions, and justify some pretty s— behavior.” However, she didn’t realize she had a problem until she…
AUDIO – MIND BLOWING – Oct. 30, 2025 – One day, Elizabeth brought home a brochure from the Castlewood Treatment Center. It looked like a luxury retreat. — “After she testified — and it was the most glaringly sexual, disgusting, deviant testimony you ever heard — she gets up and she pirouettes like a ballerina out of the courtroom,” Bobby says. “It was heartbreaking.” Bobby denied the allegations then and still does. “I was investigated by everybody — state troopers, Child Protective Services, my local police,” he adds. They probed Irene, too, who was at risk of losing custody of…
NO KIDDING – Nov. 15, 2025 – The killing has already started. Since September, the military has carried out 20 strikes on boats supposedly smuggling drugs in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific, killing at least 80 people. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth celebrates these “lethal kinetic strikes” by posting aerial footage of the explosions on social media. Mr. Trump lies when he says each destroyed boat saves the lives of 25,000 Americans. The brazenness is shocking. There is apparently no time to nitpick about imposing the death penalty on civilians never formally accused of a crime or to consider the…
ADD-A-GIRL – Nov. 20, 2025 – Ruthia He, founder and CEO of Done Global, and David Brody, president of Done Health, were convicted on one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, four counts of distribution of controlled substances, and one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, A federal jury in San Francisco convicted two executives at Done for their roles in illegally distributing Adderall and other stimulants online to patients. The company bought over $40 million of what DOJ called “deceptive advertisements” on social media to promote its sale of ADHD medications during the height of the…
TRUE LOVE – Nov/ 15, 2025 – Supermodel Gigi Hadid has reportedly given up alcohol. This significant lifestyle change is a show of support for her boyfriend, Bradley Cooper. The actor is famously committed to his sobriety. This move highlights the depth of their relationship. She is aligning her habits with Cooper’s long-standing sober lifestyle. This decision comes as their relationship continues to grow more serious. The source explained that Cooper is very up-front about this part of his life. His sobriety is a one-day-at-a-time endeavor. It is a core part of his identity in Hollywood and beyond. Hadid is…
VIDEO – SURPRISE – Nov. 21, 2025 – This year Millie Mackintosh released a book called Bad Drunk. In it, she recounts her experiences of alcohol abuse, anxiety and the moments that inspired her to give up drinking for good.‘A best friend said, I just can’t see you do this to yourself anymore. Six months later, I stopped drinking. In an appearance on The Well Enough podcast she delved deeper … deeper into the stories in the book and reflected on the impact alcohol had on her health and what might have happened had she carried on drinking. “I’ve had…
PROZAC FLUOXETINE POISON? – Nov. 22, 2025 – A medication meant to lift spirits may be falling flat. An antidepressant commonly prescribed to children and teens may not be as effective as once thought. Now, some experts are raising doubts about whether young people with depression should be taking the drug at all! Better known by its brand name Prozac, fluoxetine is one of the most widely prescribed antidepressants for children and adolescents in the US. It’s recommended as a first-line pharmacological treatment for pediatric depression and is the only antidepressant approved by the FDA for treating major depressive disorder…
FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE – Nov. 19, 2025 – In a chilling and heartbreaking twist, she found herself testifying in her own murder trial after being doused with petrol and set ablaze. Judy Malinowski had a joyous childhood before she was thrust into a world of opiate addiction. Sadly, the cherished daughter passed away at the tender age of 33, succumbing to the horrific injuries she sustained from being turned into a human inferno. The Ohio woman used to participate in beauty contests before she was devastatingly diagnosed with ovarian cancer as a young woman. She bravely fought and defeated the disease, but the cancer returned in her early twenties, according to WOSU, reports the…
WHY NOT? – Nov. 19, 2025 – We Can’t Fix the Opioid Crisis If We Don’t Know What’s Killing People. Much of our country still relies on toxicology panels built for yesterday’s drug supply. These panels can reliably identify heroin, oxycodone, and fentanyl, but fail to catch nitazenes, brorphine, or other new synthetic analogs. This gap means that policymakers and public health professionals chase outdated trends. Meanwhile, drug manufacturers exploit loopholes, evading detection and remaining a step ahead. This is exactly what happened with the rise of xylazine, the veterinarian tranquilizer that doesn’t respond to Narcan, which has significantly complicated…
“Common sense prevents you from thinking. Have less sense and you will make more sense.” – Yoko Ono
ZERO to HERO – Nov. 10, 2025 – When city leaders gave Dani Sims a proclamation recognizing how her program helped people struggling with addiction, few may have realized what it took for her to get there. Today, Sims serves as the assistant director of the Recovery Resource Center (RRC), a statewide program of the Crisis Center…Sims first began drinking at 19, not realizing how quickly it would take over her life. “From the moment I got tipsy, I knew I wouldn’t want to give it up,” Sims says. “Alcohol made me feel like I was floating, like I didn’t…
NICE STORY – Nov. 12, 2025 – Selina Baylis, 44, said she is now the woman she was always meant to be. Describing herself as having been an alcoholic since her teens, Selina is now living in her own flat and plans to volunteer for the church after getting sober and moving past the trauma of her past. She said: “I’m just back to who I am now – who I was supposed to be, and who God created me to be.” Describing herself as having been an alcoholic since her teens, Selina is now living in her own flat…
UNPLUG NOW – Nov. 12, 2025 – She had a burgeoning internet and technology addiction that drove her to contemplate suicide. Lauren says, she’d scroll for hours on end. She didn’t take care of her apartment, which became infested with fleas. She didn’t take care of herself, either. She put off eating, drinking water and going to the bathroom. She couldn’t sleep. Life, she says, felt unbearable. “It just felt like this kind of living nightmare,” Lauren says. “I felt like I had no quality of life. I was miserable the whole time, and I couldn’t really explain to people…
CAPITALISM – Nov. 7, 2025 – Diego Bonillo, 31, admitted to sharing when he was working and his lane assignments at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry with a drug trafficking organization, which allowed vehicles carrying fentanyl, methamphetamine, and heroin to pass undetected into the United States. On one occasion, Bonillo informed traffickers that a driver was being followed by law enforcement officers, which prosecutors say allowed the driver to abandon the vehicle in a shopping center and flee through the back door of a convenience store. Prosecutors say Bonillo allowed these cars to cross 15 times between October of…
AUDIO – JUST DO IT – Nov. 12, 2025 – The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie goes deep with the artists, activists, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and visionaries who are making the world a more libertarian—or at least more interesting—place by championing free minds and free markets. Today’s guest is Katie Herzog, co-host of the popular Blocked & Reported podcast and author of the paradigm-shattering new book Drink Your Way Sober. Katie writes about her and other people’s experiences with The Sinclair Method—a medication-assisted approach to alcoholism where you use one drug to counter problematic use of another. Her story—and the cutting-edge…
TUTANKHAMUN JUNKIE? – Nov. 12, 2025 – Examination of an ancient alabaster vase in the Yale Peabody Museum’s Babylonian Collection has revealed traces of opiates, providing the clearest evidence to date of broad opium use in ancient Egyptian society. The finding suggests that similar ancient Egyptian alabaster vessels—all made of calcite mined from the same quarries in Egypt—including several exquisite examples discovered in the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun—could also contain traces of ancient opiates, said Andrew J. Koh, YAPP’s principal investigator and the study’s lead author. “Our findings combined with prior research indicate that opium use was more than accidental…
STARBUCKS SAVES LIVES – Nov. 10, 2025 – More than 10 million people in the US have been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, a condition colloquially known as A-fib that causes palpitations as well as potentially heart failure, blood clots and strokes. Johanna Contreras, a cardiologist at New York’s Mount Sinai Fuster Heart ospital, remarked to NBC that her takeaway from the study published on Sunday was that it was fine for those with atrial fibrillation to consume coffee… The Does Eliminating Coffee Avoid Fibrillation (Decaf) clinical trial found 200 patients with persistent irregular heartbeats had a “significantly” lower risk of…
IT’S AN INSIDE JOB – Nov. 10, 2025 – “Our findings show that alcohol doesn’t just damage the liver directly, it hijacks the body’s sugar metabolism in a way that enhances drinking behavior and worsens liver injury,” said Miguel A. Lanaspa, DVM, PhD, “By targeting fructose metabolism, we may be able to break this cycle and develop new treatments for both alcohol addiction and liver disease.” Because both alcohol-associated liver disease and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) involve fructose-driven processes, the study indicates that therapies aimed at blocking fructose metabolism could help a wide range of patients with liver…
ALL IN – Nov. 11, 2025 – Betting: today’s sports gamblers can bet on much more than just the winner of a game. Sports gamblers can bet — during the game — on hundreds and potentially thousands of discrete events. Any aspect of a team or player’s performance or activity that can be measured is now a potential wager. This shortens the lag between bet and reward, increasing the speed and frequency of gambling, which increases the risk of problematic behavior. Professional Athletes Frequently Gamble on Sports: Sports gambling is widespread among professional athletes. While no study of gambling among…
DE-LEGALIZE IT – Nov. 13, 2025 – Donald Trump has signed a spending bill that includes provisions to ban most consumable hemp products. Hemp advocates have said the ban will apply even to nonintoxicating CBD products that people use for medical reasons. While the hemp ban is only one component of the proposal, a White House spokesperson said on November 10 that the president supports the specific language. There were attempts by GOP lawmakers in both chambers to strike the hemp prohibition provision. But proposed amendments from Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) did not make it…
NOT JUST FOR ADDICTS – Nov. 12, 2025 – The obvious places to stock FTS are school bathrooms and locker rooms. Bars, nightclubs, festivals, dormitories—all the places frequented by people who don’t identify as drug users, but who do use drugs. They could be $1 each, in dispensers next to the tampons. The original purpose of FTS was urinalysis testing, and so because they’re designed to pick up fentanyl after it’s been metabolized and peed out—rather than dipped into it directly—they’re extraordinarily sensitive. They can pick up trace quantities of fentanyl that even the higher-tech drug-checking technology can’t. The Drug…
PARKER POSEY – Nov. 14, 2025 – The latest season of “The White Lotus” delivered big ratings for HBO — and fueled a surge of Google searches for a risky antianxiety prescription drug featured on the show. Sedative drugs are highly effective but should not be used longer than two to four weeks because of the risk of dependence. “Very rarely are people adequately educated about that before they’re given a prescription for these meds,” Ritvo said. The medical community has long known about the dangers of prolonged use of benzodiazepines, or benzos, as they are often called. In 2020,…
VIDEO – MUSICAL INTERLUDE – 828,617 views since Aug 6, 2020 – “Naima” (/naɪˈiːmə/ ny-EE-mə) is a jazz ballad composed by John Coltrane in 1959 that he named after his then-wife, Juanita Naima Grubbs. Coltrane first recorded it for his 1959 album Giant Steps, and it became one of his first well-known works. “The tune is built … on suspended chords over an E pedal tone on the outside. On the inside – the channel – the chords are suspended over a B♭ pedal tone.”[1] The composition, on that recording, is a slow, restrained melody, with a brief piano solo…
MURDERERS ROW – Nov. 14, 2025 – In thousands of lawsuits, Purdue and members of the Sackler family were later accused of aggressively marketing OxyContin, while misleading doctors and patients over its addiction and overdose risks. Purdue pleaded guilty in 2020 in a separate criminal case brought by the Department of Justice. But that agreement did not address lawsuits brought by local, state, Native American tribal governments and others, which had helped to precipitate the bankruptcy. A previous settlement, which the Supreme Court struck down last year, would have shielded members of the Sackler family from future civil lawsuits over…
STICK WITH THE WINNERS! – Nov. 18, 2025 – Art was my healing process when I finally decided to stop using drugs and alcohol. It would quiet my mind to be able absorb the recovery process with the 12 steps, filming, painting, and writing were my first forms of self-expression. Q. If you are in recovery, what was your drug(s) of choice and when is your sobriety date?A. Alcohol and crack cocaine, Jan. 16, 2012.Q. Is there anything special in your sobriety toolkit that helps keep you sober?A. If I don’t give the dope man any miner I won’t get high.Q. Do…
SOBER GLOW – November 9, 2025 – The soap actress, 44, has put her party days behind her as she acknowledged six years away from alcohol, declaring to fans that she’s got the ‘sober glow’. Despite announcing her former love of drink, Charlie said she ditched the booze for good after a loop of ‘regret, shame and fear’ plagued her for years – and described it as the “best thing I’ve ever done”. Acknowledging her journey to sobriety, Charlie shared an image of herself cracking open a can of Stella Artois and pouring it into a pint glass on her…