TDA Advocacy Update

The chain of events I am about to describe started out on my birthday that just so happens to coincide with the annual National Drug and Alcohol Recovery Month. I made a resolution that day to speak in public on behalf of the occasion and to personally raise the awareness of those around me about the disease of addiction and benefits of treatment. Call it serendipity or seizing the moment but a week or so later I ran into the Bob Riley, the Governor of Alabama, and introduced myself as an alcoholic and an advocate for recovery. To his credit, the Governor responded by asking how he could help. In response, I sent him a letter detailing my thoughts on the subject and also a plea for help on a local recovery issue.

Well I am proud to say that the Governor has come through on both points. Through his request, I was contacted by the Alabama Associate Commissioner for Substance Abuse who is setting up recovery advocates for every Alabama County… I’m in. Also, Mr. Riley has forwarded my concerns on the establishment of the new methadone clinic to the Executive Director of the State Health Planning and Development Agency (see letter to the left, enlargement here).

While none of this is a slam dunk by any means but it is a good start. So Kudos to Governor Riley, he is one of the few politicians I consider worthy of a TDA salute. I am meeting the other recovery advocates next month in a luncheon at the capital, so afterwards hopefully I will have some goods news for the next update.