There’s been a lot of talk in the news and blogs lately about American soldiers suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome (PSTD) and how this often leads to substance abuse and addiction. Flawed, but at least effective in raising awareness, The New York Times published After the Battle, Fighting the Bottle at Home with an emotionally charged video that has been referenced ad nauseum by political forces on the left and the right.

Unfortunately they are far more concerned about using the problems of our soldiers as tools to promote their candidates and ideologies than talking about solutions. So this morning I visited my old first sergeant who now runs the Veteran’s Affairs office to refine the TDA stance on this issue. A veteran of two wars, combat experience, and a second career of taking care of “his” veterans… he is an authority on the subject and a very dear friend.

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If you are setting the bar for alcoholics, make sure it is very low unless you are speaking of taverns and watering holes. That is what I first thought of when I saw this article in the Anchorage Daily News. I guess a standard for alcoholics would include target goals for deceit, disappointment, as well as blood alcohol content benchmarks, but that is not the topic of the article. No, the topic is about alcoholics, both in recovery and relapsing, in the workplace.

I touched on this subject last week in the front page story Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell discussing the merits of speaking honestly about substance/alcohol use, drug testing, and being in recovery in one’s career. The gist of the story is that one cannot be fired for being an alcoholic, but should instead be judged by the same standards as all employees. An employee that comes in habitually late, under performs, or comes in smelling like a brewery should be terminated… regardless if they are an alcoholic or not. No need for a separate standard. Nothing new here, but what was interesting were some of the details in the article and accompanying comments.

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Will Smith’s character Hancock has been hyped as “not your average superhero”, unfortunately the movie named after the main character is also not your average Will Smith movie. In fact, it is an exceptionally below average Will Smith movie that has a weaker storyline than a 30 minute episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Much like a lovable drunk buddy, Hancock delivers the expected summer blockbuster laughs and special effects one expects from the king of July Fourth weekend movies. Following a formulaic plot of a flawed but promising character, Hancock finds a mentor who molds him into a true superhero with a fitting climax where he saves the girl and the day. The problem is that all this happens in the space of the first thirty minutes of the film.

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A United Press International (UPI) press release reads as if describing a modern witch trial with the headline “Lynda Carter Confesses to Alcoholism”. This story is just wrong in so many ways I have to wonder if it wasn't actually written by a computer that rolls relevant data into so-called breaking news stories. Hopefully no flesh and blood (but obviously no heart) journalist has beclowned themself by writing such a thoughtless piece.

First of all, one confesses to a crime or a sin... not a disease. This headline is absolutely insulting and the first line of the story follows suit as if Mrs. Carter in revealing her addiction has committed some crime. It is written as if she should be very ashamed now that she has been convicted of alcoholism.

WASHINGTON, July 5 (UPI) -- U.S. actress Lynda Carter of "Wonder Woman" fame has publicly admitted she is an alcoholic

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I decided not to shortchange the answer by writing just a quick reply and promised a full post after being asked this question.

Hi I just wanted to get your thoughts on POT because I have a problem with Alcohol but not with pot. Considering that it could be a legal alternative to Alcohol in the near future I wonder if you would ever consider recreational pot use acceptable for people who don't have an addiction.
Thanks,
Christopher

My thoughts are very simple when it comes to any type of alcohol or drug use for those of us in recovery regardless of “WHAT” we were addicted to in the past. Don’t do it, any of it. Recovery is about learning to deal with life without mood and reality altering substances regardless of their legality or how they are ingested. Just the very fact that an alcoholic is trying to rationalize smoking a joint, or a junky is considering taking to the bottle means that their disease is influencing both thinking and decision making. Trying to figure out new or safer ways to escape reality and stress is not an exactly healthy exercise for someone like me.

Also, I have a problem with alcohol and pot even for those that are lucky enough not to suffer from addictions.

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It has been my experience that people who worry about passing a drug screen test for employment usually have good reason. A rule of thumb is that those who ask the most questions about timelines and false positives, will be those that should not have wasted the money and everyone’s time on the testing kit in the first place.

Do yourself a favor, if you are a recreational drug user and need to be able to pass an initial or random drug test- just quit or find a job that doesn’t require a healthy lifestyle. If your drug use is that important to you or the ability to stop doesn’t seem to manifest, well then a drug test is the least of your worries. It’s ironic that some people stress weekly about a habit they claim helps them unwind and eliminates stress. I ran across an article discussing the merits of telling the truth about drug use to potential employers this evening that got me to thinking about the subject and another common question.

Do you need to “come clean” with a potential employer that you are a recovering alcoholic or addict?

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There’s an old saying that a relapse happens long before the first drink or drug use. For the alcoholic and addict, it is the planning and decision making behavior, the alcoholic thinking, which gets one in a position to buy that first drink or pill that is the actual start of a relapse.

Tatum O’Neal pled guilty today in court after being arrested last month for allegedly buying crack cocaine. Sounding more as if she was charged with jaywalking, she was ordered to attend two half day drug treatments and fined $95.

O’Neal recently confessed, “I was trying to relapse. I made a giant, horrible mistake that I regret and feel really ashamed and embarrassed about. I take full responsibility.” ~ The Celebrity Café

Full responsibility?

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A friend of mine sent me a link to a local news report when the Project Prevention van visited her area. I had initially titled this piece “An Uncomfortable Subject” because to be honest I’ve been sitting on this story for over a week now trying to figure out an official TDA stance on the issue and that was the best I could come up with… it’s uncomfortable.

In a nutshell, Project Prevention offers a cash reward to drug addicts and prostitutes if they will go on long term birth control like an IUD or be sterilized. The goal of course is avoid pregnant substance abusers and children born that have to be withdrawn from drugs.

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Yesterday I did a piece on the latest drunk driving support memo from Sarah Longwell of the American Beverage Institute. In this article she basically tries to minimize the damage caused by intoxicated drivers by saying that alcohol-related statistics are grossly exaggerated by activist groups.

The number of deaths that activist groups attribute to drunk driving is grossly exaggerated. Last year, federal statisticians classified almost 18,000 deaths as "alcohol-related." However, alcohol-related does not mean alcohol-caused. In fact, that figure includes anyone killed in a crash in which at least one person (driver, pedestrian, cyclist, etc.) was estimated to have had any trace of alcohol. ~ Tampa Tribune

Unfortunately it is Mrs. Longwell who is misrepresenting the statistics here, the average BAC of fatally injured drunken drivers is .16, that’s twice the legal limit. Just for the record, almost 80% of all alcohol-related traffic fatalities are caused by someone who is legally drunk. It has been my (considerable and relevant) experience that alcohol related accidents are actually underreported if anything. While on the topic I figured I would share just the latest exaggerated instance of an alcohol-related traffic death.

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Hat Tip and thanks to TDA reader AnnaZ for the heads up on this one!
Sarah Longwell is the managing director of the American Beverage Institute (ABI) in Washington, D.C. The ABI is an association of restaurants that just happen to make the majority of their profits not from food, but alcohol sales. So this puts her in the unenviable position of having to defend those that drink and drive to and from these particular profit centers.

I had dubbed her with the admittedly hyperbolic tag of Hitler’s cheerleader in past posts, but after reading her last rant about how the dangers of intoxicated driving are overblown I decided to promote her to one of Satan’s cheerleaders.

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