Dr. Drew Is Wrong

Dr. Drew Pinsky is a celebrity doctor who has doled out medical advice on the radio for over 25 years. He is now a media franchise and has become the nation’s popular expert on addiction with his television shows Celebrity Rehab and Sober House. Unfortunately, several of his proclamations are wrong.

Willpower Does Work

Pinsky is a champion of the disease theory of addiction. In his words, “Addicts have intense neurobiological patterns in the brain that have a grip on them, and willpower doesn’t work.” (Hochman)

Studies have found the legal drug nicotine to be the most addictive substance. Yet roughly half of those who have ever smoked have quit without treatment. The percentage of former heroin, cocaine, and alcohol addicts who have quit without professional assistance is even higher. (Peele, p. 1)

As Dr. Stanton Peele, an addiction expert, explains, “an enormous treatment/recovery industry, backed by a large government bureaucracy” insists on perpetuating the myth that curing addiction cannot possibly take any route but their own. (Peele, p. 2)

The Damage Dr. Drew Causes

“Disease” centered treatment helps many people, however, by damning any other route to stability Dr. Drew does a great disservice. A 1996 study that tracked subjects in outpatient alcohol treatment found that “belief in the disease model of alcoholism” was one of two primary factors in predicting relapse. (Peele, p. 38)

This is common sense. If you brow beat someone into thinking they are a life-long addict with no will power is it surprising that they are more likely to behave like someone with no willpower?

Dr. Drew and Artie Lange

The addiction theory is an attractive concept to addicts as it excuses their actions and frees them from responsibility. But one addict who is not buying it is Artie Lange of The Howard Stern Show. (Read post about Lange’s addiction here.) On a Pinsky appearance on The Howard Stern Show (1/12/09) Pinsky said of Lange, “You have to see Artie as a heroin addict. Everything’s bullshit.” Lange responded re Pinsky’s rehab shows, “You wanna be famous and you’re exploiting people to get there.” Later adding, “[Pinsky’s] taking advantage of the biggest fuck ups in LA right now …. They’re not getting proper treatment.”

Lange has recently devised a new program for himself to stay off heroin which involves exercise and keeping two ex-cops by his side. Dr. Drew called Lange’s plans “self-will run riot” and said that as long as Lange is calling the shots for himself he will fail. Dr. Drew said Lange needs a six-month spiritual program of recovery and that his life depends on it. (Dell’Abate, 5/7/09) Lange was infuriated about this damnation and questioned Pinsky’s motives revealing that Lange had been offered $250,000 to do three weeks on Pinsky’s show, Celebrity Rehab.

Other Dr. Drew Myths

“Heroin addiction has a worse prognosis than cancer.” (Dell’Abate, 1/12/09) – A study of heroin users found the annual death rate to be 1%. Taken out of the criminalized context, in a three year heroin maintenance program with over 1,000 patients no one died.

“One out of ten heroin addicts beat it.” (Dell’Abate, 1/12/09) – I do not know Pinsky’s source but drug abuse studies are almost always skewed in that they focus on people in treatment. (Imagine how alcohol would be portrayed if all media and research coverage was of those in rehab.) One study that was drawn from a more general population of users was that of heroin addicts returning from Vietnam. Very few received treatment, and yet after leaving Vietnam only 12% continued to be addicted. (This cannot be attributed to availability as six in ten of those addicted in Vietnam used a narcotic after returning.) The relapse rate was actually higher for veterans who were treated for their addiction than those who were not.

If my kids ever did heroin I would load up their car with heroin and call the cops. (Dell’Abate, 1/12/09) – This claim led Lange to call Pinsky a “bullshitter.” I too question whether Pinsky would want his son to be imprisoned for years as a dealer and burdened with a criminal record so that every future employer would know about it. (How would George W. Bush and Barack Obama turned out if their relatives took the same tact with their cocaine use? LINK) As a public defender I saw many people who viewed drug use as a criminal matter quickly change their minds when their loved one was the one facing prison time.

“That part of the body wasn’t made for doing [anal sex], and I dread to see what will happen to these women down the line …. it won’t be pretty.” (Hochman) – According to Dr. Jack Morin, an expert in anal health, there is “no convincing evidence” that safe and responsible anal sex causes disease. (Morin, p. 223) In addition, the sphincter is a muscle and stretching it is no more damaging than stretching exercises are to any other muscles in the body.

More recent post on Dr. Drew Pinsky: Did Dr. Drew Lie About His Drug Use?

Sources:

1. Robert Arthur, You Will Die: The Burden of Modern Taboos (2008).
2. Gary Dell’Abate, The Howard Stern Show, Sirius XM Radio.
3. David Hochman, “Playboy Interview: Dr. Drew Pinsky,” Playboy, 1 July 2008.
4. Jack Morin, Anal Pleasure and Health (1998).
5. Stanton Peele, Seven Tools to Beat Addiction (2004).

Bill Hicks: Where Have All The Balls Gone?

Few celebrities are willing to take on the drug war. To do so would risk alienating fans, and more importantly, sponsors. Two decades ago there was a man who had the balls. His name was Bill Hicks.

Hicks not only related his positive experiences with drugs beyond marijuana, but he also assailed prohibitionist myths with gusto:

If I were going to legalize a drug it sure wouldn’t have been alcohol. Sorry. There’s better drugs and better drugs for you. That’s a fact. You may stop your internal dialogue. “But Bill alcohol is an acceptable …” Shut the fuck up. You’re wrong. Kay? Kay?

He addressed the hypocrisy of the government’s anti-drug ads that ran beside alcohol ads. He addressed the bias of the media that only covered drug scare stories and only featured users who were morons:

You never see positive drug stories on the news do you? Isn’t that weird. Since most of the experiences I’ve had were real fucking positive … How about a positive LSD story. Wouldn’t that be newsworthy? Just once to base your decision on information rather than scare tactics, and superstitions and lies. Just once. I think it would be newsworthy.

Despite his own problems with alcohol, Hicks fiercely defended the right of adults to use whatever substance they wanted. Hicks died of pancreatic cancer in 1994 at the age of 32. The cancer was not related to his drug use but the truth has never bothered those whom Hicks railed against:

Oh, yeh, Bill Hicks, hes the moron who used massive amounts of cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs until his body broke down and rewarded him with cancer for his lack of self-respect and he died young. In other words, a typical hippie Democrap. I wonder if he was a Community Organizer, too?

To read the words of another comic who took on the drug war go to “Chris Rock on Drugs.”

Sources:

1. Bill Hicks, Live (2004).
2. Last quote from “CharlessMartel” on YouTube messageboard. LINK

Howard Stern, Artie Lange, and Heroin Legalization

On other shows, cast member Artie Lange’s heroin addiction would have been covered up. On The Howard Stern Show it has been openly discussed. Thanks to this honesty, heroin and opiate addiction myths have been toppled for millions of Howard Stern listeners. Some of these misconceptions are:

1. Heroin Affects Your Functioning – Opiates do not substantially interfere with functioning like alcohol does. They can with extreme usage, but even for hard-core addicts maintenance levels do not necessarily create functional differences. Studies have found that doctors addicted to opiates are just as proficient as their peers. The cast of The Howard Stern Show has not been able to tell when Lange is using. Lange has been extremely tired on some shows, but this was because he had a brutal schedule and was up all night driving to Delaware for his heroin – not from the pharmacological effects of heroin. Moralistic listeners want Lange kicked off the show for his usage, but as Howard Stern has said, “He does a great job … I don’t have a problem with him. He does what he is supposed to do.” (1/5/09)

2. Heroin Users Are Monsters – The large majority of people who try heroin do not go on to become addicts. [On the show it has been revealed Stern, Chris Rock (9/24/08), and David Arquette (4/16/07) have used heroin and never become addicted.] And many people who do become addicted lead relatively normal lives and never resort to criminal behavior. Of course, these responsible and conscientious addicts are invisible to mainstream America because they hide their habits well and do not get caught up in the criminal justice system. It is the out-of-control and dysfunctional users whose asinine behavior gets them in the papers and on COPS. Heroin and opiates do not chemically change your moral compass. Other cast members of The Howard Stern Show have accused heroin of turning Lange into a liar. But as Lange has argued repeatedly, he only lies when honesty about his usage would endanger his job.

3. Legalized Heroin Would Be Dangerous – At the time of this posting, Lange had been using the prescription opiate, Subutex, off and on for four years. Although heroin has the most evil reputation, all opiates work in the same manner. Heroin has the same effect as morphine. It is simply three times as potent in the body. Subutex is 25 times as potent as morphine. Declaring a war on heroin is similar to declaring a war on wine but not beer or liquor. When Lange went on Subutex it felt like, “[he] was flying, completely normal, and high too,” and “within a month, [his] life had turned from complete darkness to amazing light.” On Subutex, Lange was able to do The Howard Stern Show while simultaneously making his movie, Beer League. On Subutex he no longer had to lie about his behavior, he didn’t have to drive to Delaware, and the threat of accidental overdose virtually disappeared.

As a public defender I was always surprised how people did not think drugs should be legalized, but when their loved one was busted for drugs she or he was not a criminal. The same phenomenon occurred on The Howard Stern Show. No one clamored for Lange to be prosecuted. In Lange’s rarified showbiz world it was inconceivable to some of his peers that he could even be arrested. [Show co-host, Robin Quivers, “What’s he going to go to jail for?” (1/6/09)] Lange supports legalization of all drugs. (12/1/08)

To learn the fascinating truth behind other myths surrounding drugs and sex read You Will Die: The Burden of Modern Taboos.

Sources:

1. Robert Arthur, You Will Die: The Burden of Modern Taboos (2008).
2. Gary Dell’Abate, The Howard Stern Show, Sirius XM Radio.
3. Artie Lange, Too Fat to Fish (2008), pp. 264-265.

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