Reading Time: 3 minutes We’ve learned a thing or two about addiction since AA’s Big Blue Book was published in 1939. Giving yourself over to a ‘higher power’ and avoiding the subject of your addiction forever is not the only way toward recovery.
David Weidman
David Weidman is the regional coordinator for SMART Recovery (Self-Management And Recovery Training) in Los Angeles with over 5,000 hours of in-person meetings for sufferers and their loved ones. SMART places an emphasis on tools from Cognitive Behavior Therapy and other modes to encourage wise choices in a non-stigmatizing and non-faith-based environment.
Posted inNews
New Texas amendment requires ‘God’ in public schools
Reading Time: 2 minutes Texas students may notice new religious signs in their public schools this fall. A law passed in 2021 goes into effect this year requiring public schools to display “In God We Trust” posters in public spaces if donated to the school or purchased with money from donations. On June 21, 2021, an amendment to the […]
Posted inClimate Crisis
Colorado River system on verge of ‘catastrophic collapse’
Reading Time: 2 minutes The Colorado River system, primary source of water for nearly 40 million people, 5.5 million acres of land, and 11 national parks, is on the verge of a “catastrophic collapse” according to Tanya Trujillo, assistant secretary for water and science at the US Department of Interior. Experts say that if the states that draw on the […]
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Atheist ‘Street Pirates’ are removing religious signage in Los Angeles
Reading Time: 2 minutes The Atheist Street Pirates are dedicated to removing religious signage that is posted on dumpsters, highway overpasses, and throughout other public spaces in Los Angeles. The group was created by Evan Clark, who as Executive Director Atheists United Los Angeles, wanted to find a way to remove religious signage from public spaces when local governments […]
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‘Chaos’: JWST spots mangled, post-collision galaxy
Reading Time: < 1 minute The Cartwheel Galaxy is not having a good eon. A new infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows the aptly-named galaxy distorted by a “high-speed collision” with another, smaller galaxy in the Sculptor constellation, 500 million light-years away. The resulting distention of the structure of the Cartwheel galaxy has been characterized by NASA […]
Posted inHealthcare
Labs refusing to draw blood on some monkeypox patients recalls AIDS hysteria
Reading Time: < 1 minute Phlebotomists at two of the country’s largest labs, Labcorp and Quest Diagnostics, are refusing to draw blood on patients with potential monkeypox infections. Such actions potentially constitute cases of prejudice, reminiscent of the early days of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s when discrimination ran rampant. It is unclear whether the behavior is a result […]
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Is it too late to control the monkeypox virus?
Reading Time: < 1 minute On Monday, Los Angeles became the third city in the US to declare monkeypox a public health emergency, alongside New York City and San Francisco. New York, Illinois, and California, three states containing the nation’s most populous cities, had already declared themselves in a public health emergency vis-a-vis monkeypox. And the WHO declared it a […]
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Experts claim stigma and discrimination harmful in addiction recovery
Reading Time: 2 minutes In an editorial on July 6th for the Journal of the American Medical Association’s JAMA Psychiatry, authors McLellan, Koob and Volkow argue in favor of adopting the term ‘preaddiction’ in order to assist addiction professionals in identifying people who are likely to be in the very early stages of failing to successfully manage their maladaptive […]
Posted inDrugs
Magic mushroom therapy could be saving lives, but taboo stands in the way
Reading Time: 3 minutes An abundance of ongoing research regarding psychedelics, including psilocybin or ‘magic mushrooms,’ supports their strong potential to assist in altering maladaptive behaviors from cigarette smoking and substance disorders to depression and stress-related disorders such as PTSD. Especially interesting is its potential regarding alcohol and substance abuse. Since mental health treatment for these taboo behaviors has […]