Doug Thorburn, addiction expert, addiction contrarian and author of the recently released ?Alcoholism: Myths and Realities: Removing the Stigma of Society?s Most Destructive Disease,? while featuring Octomom Nadya Suleman as the ?Story of the Month,? had a number of fascinating ?Runners-up for Top Story of the Month. Thorburn, a contrarian in terms of the prevailing opinions on addiction, brings to light a number of stories behind the headlines which have been served up lately.
In addition to the Story of the Month and the Runners-up the TAR, also known as the Thorburn Addiction Report, includes a host of interesting sections like Enabler of the Month, Under Watch, Book Review and others.
Runners-up for Top Story of the Month:
John C. Odom, the minor league baseball player traded for 10 maple bats who died November 5 at age 26, only recently determined by a medical examiner to have died from an ?accidental overdose.? The combination of drugs, heroin, methamphetamine, the stimulant benzylpiperazine and alcohol, suggest that the ?accident? should be re-stated as "death contributed to or caused by distortions of perception from brain damage rooted in alcohol or other-drug addiction?)*. At the time, the former prospect in the San Francisco Giants? chain seemed to handle the trade well, kidding that the kooky deal would make a great story if he ever reached the major leagues. Dan Shwam, who managed Odom last year, felt otherwise: ?I guarantee this trade thing really bothered him. I really believe, knowing his background, that this drove him back to the bottle, that it put him on the road to drugs again.? However, he added, ?But there?s no way to really know whether the trade did it, is there?? Indeed.
*Please see the top story on actor Heath Ledger?s death in the March 2008 issue of TAR, posted at
http://preventragedy.com/pages/TAR/038.mar08.html, for my views on such ill-defined terms as ?accidental overdose.?
Aaron Billington, the chef at the Brudenell Hotel on England?s Suffolk Coast, who trashed Jamiroquai front-man Jay Kay?s $1.4 million Ferrari Enzo after the rock star belittled the lesser vehicles of his drinking companions. This understandably angered Chef Billington, who was later seen throwing rocks at the Enzo, shattering the windscreen and smashing the driver?s side window. Billington later told the local court he committed the crime in a ?moment of madness.?
Kay, obviously oblivious to the role that alcoholism may have played in the behaviors, did nothing to expunge the myths of alcoholism when he remarked, ?It?s disappointing. It says something about the British psyche.? Correction: it says something about alcoholism, British or otherwise. Interestingly, the Enzo is the same car Swedish playboy-convicted counterfeiter-failed businessman Stefan Eriksson slammed into a power pole in Malibu in February, 2006 at 162 mph, a story that made antic-of-the-month in the March 2006 TAR
http://www.preventragedy.com/pages/TAR/019.mar06.html). Alcoholics, in an effort to inflate their egos, tend to have flashy vehicles in the early rocket-to-the-moon stage of their disease.
R&B singer Chris Brown, accused of punching, biting, threatening and choking his girlfriend Rihanna during an argument after a booze-filled evening and midnight ride in a sleek Lamborghini (there you go!) through the Hancock Park section of Los Angeles. The argument was over?well, it doesn?t matter. When there?s alcoholism, any excuse will do. She?s already forgiven him and they are, once again, a couple. Something tells me this will not end well.
Japan?s now ex-finance minister Shoichi Nakagawa, apologizing for slurring his speech and repeatedly appearing to doze off at a meeting of finance ministers focusing on the world?s economic mess. He claimed he drank less than a glass of wine at a luncheon toast and took too much medicine, including a cold remedy, on the day of the news conference. If you see his performance at www.crossingwallstreet.com/archives/2009/02/shoichi_nakagaw.html, you may agree he must have forgotten the gallon of sake he drank that morning. You might also find that it sheds light on the world?s financial travails, particularly if he is any example of those who determine economic policy. Further (for me) incontrovertible evidence of alcoholism can be found in the Wikipedia description of his behaviors following the meeting: ?Approximately 15 minutes after the end of the press conference, Nakagawa visited the Vatican Museums using public funds. He touched various exhibits, even though touching the exhibits is prohibited.
Additionally, he climbed over a protective barrier surrounding the [extraordinary sculpture known as Laocoon], setting off an alarm, and then proceeded to sit on the exhibit. Nakagawa's office admits that he entered an off-limits area and that he set off the alarm, and apologized for ?causing inconvenience?.? (Can you imagine how drunk you?d have to be to cross barriers and sit on an exhibit at a museum containing a 500-year-old collection of priceless works of art?especially containing something that looks like this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laoco%C3%B6n ?) His staff would have shed more light by apologizing for his alcoholism, but he?s the one who needs to apologize?not his codependent enablers.
David Paradiso was on trial for stabbing his girlfriend in the neck while riding in the back seat of a car driven by his mother and dumping the body near a road. He was shot and killed by a Lodi police officer in a Stockton, California courtroom after he lunged at Superior Court Judge Cinda Fox with a crude cutting instrument. Paradiso, 29, had been testifying on his own behalf that he was suffering from paranoia after taking methamphetamine when he killed his girlfriend of two weeks in December 2006. He said he believed she was going to kill him that night if he didn?t kill her first. His mother testified that she heard no argument before the stabbing and that her son forced her to drive to a neighboring county to dump the body. The Lodi News-Sentinel reported that her family had tried to warn jailers that her son had a weapon, which he had been bringing into the courtroom. Defendants are not bound and hog-tied over fears that this might sway jurors to convict based on appearance. For the same reason, defendants are allowed to hide tattoos and dress in suit and tie. Hmmm.
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