Enrique “Kiki” Camarena: Remembering Why We Have A Drug War

For anyone who would like to check his or her conscience, Drug Wars: The Camarena Story, is a reaffirmation that marijuana has a dark and evil history.  This is a fact that cannot be changed.  When we look back at the story of tortured and murdered DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, we get a renewed sense of how much evil is associated with marijuana.  Camarena’s story is a profound cautionary tale for anyone who believes that history is our most important reason for the drug war.  Camarena lost his life to vicious cartel members, who (at the time) with the assistance of the Mexican government and doctors to keep him alive, was kidnapped and viciously tortured for three days.  This in retaliation after Camarena initiated the 1985 raid of the largest marijuana plantation in Mexico.

Drug legalizers are not willing to look at the facts as they are and are short sighted when they say marijuana is a harmless drug.  Marijuana is not harmless and the people using it and dealing it have been known to be out of touch with reality, are mean-spirited, evil, and dangerous.  If we look at the tactics of today’s marijuana movement we find our cities being sued by the drug lobby, surrounded by a new brand of drug trafficking crimes and anti-establishment spokes people who speak on behalf of the drug lobby, insisting that they are entitled to break the law if they so choose. 

When we think about marijuana, we should think about all of the history it has, not just what sounds politically convenient.  When we are out shopping for a used car and find one we like but then find out before we owned it there was a murdered body found in the trunk, would we still buy it?  If we went shopping at a second hand store and bought an outfit we really liked and then found out it was worn by a rapist, would we still want it?  The answer seems pretty simple.  Of course we would not want this kind of gloomy history in our lives.  The idea of making marijuana legal will never take away marijuana’s dark, reprehensible stigma.  Enrique “Kiki” Camarena’s story will always be a reminder of that.

RTD&U: Finding Reasons to Drink and Use? Don't.

This Memorial Day, the best advice I could give is “don’t drink or use at all.”  There are plenty of fun things to do without getting hammered and loaded.   More than anything we should remember that Memorial Day is about our fallen heroes who died so that we could be free and they deserve our respect.  We should also be mindful of veterans here in the U.S. who have been looking to the bottle and drugs to overcome war trauma.  Saying a prayer for them and their families is a prayer they surely can use.


People in recovery know, holidays should never be reasons to abuse and use alcohol or drugs.  But alcohol marketing is all about “this Bud’s for you.”  Some people are able to drink alcohol because they like it and nurture it like they might nurture a cup of tea.  But others find social acceptance by saying things like “I’m having this drink for you” even if they don’t really want to drink it.  And then they still drink it.

So please, don’t drink and drive and don’t drug and drive.  Try to have a safe and healthy, drug and alcohol free Memorial Day.

Rock Center Investigative Report Shows Pot Laws Being Badly Abused

For the full story click here

Recovery is about Conscience

When we get into the rooms of recovery or find the help we need with a therapist, social worker, a family member or within the faith-based community, we know while we were using and abusing drugs and alcohol, we have lived a life of getting away with things.  This has been the case for some of us more than others.  People who love us unconditionally and people who hate us for what we have become in our addiction, make us aware of this more than we care to remember. In recovery however, this becomes our "to do" list for making amends.

How do we pay it back, make it right and make the people we’ve taken things away from whole?  We know, forgetting about it and just moving on is not enough.  Clearing the path to a clear conscience is a humbling experience.  Not everyone wants to see us succeed or is ready for us to come back into their life to make amends and right the wrongs.  That is why we must remember that forgiveness is a process that in some cases can take a lifetime.

If we go on the path of making amends and we try to find the way back to a clear conscience, in the process we discover something else.  We discover the hurt that drove the addiction and we discover how and why we buried it deep inside ourselves.  Sometimes parents cause this hurt when we are small children and sometimes strangers or those close to us inflict pain and instill fear in us that we never let go of, until we learn how to ask for help. 

Sometimes we were victims and this later made us victimize others.  Drugs and alcohol use and abuse fuel our rage and in this clouded rage we wrongly try to make others understand our pain and desperation.  Drugs and alcohol bring about behavior that leaves us blind to understanding exactly why we act the way we do.  Other times we let go of a joyful life because we do not have the tools to cope with what happened to us.  In either situation, our perpetrators and drug dealers have us where they want us and while they know we are afraid of what drugs have done to us, they now become the people who try to control us so they can keep doing us harm and taking things from us. 

In recovery we learn to understand these circumstances in ways that are thorough, so that we can assess these events and find maturity and peace within ourselves.  Letting go is a slow and personal process but we find that by helping others and by making a difference in our community, the healing process back to a natural self, reflects well on our character.  We know we have arrived in recovery when we exercise a disciplined sense of conscience each day, for the benefit of others and the betterment of ourselves.

Why People See Rehab as a Joke

Every time we hear a celebrity say they are going to go to rehab we know, chances that this is not going to work are great.  This is a disturbing societal perception, but with all the people who have gone back out, can anyone be blamed for this perception?   Rehab for some, is like a way-station to stop family and loved ones from worrying about a drug or alcohol problem.  It’s used by some as a tool to shut people up for a while, which is a sure way to lose the respect from the few friends we still have left by the time we enter rehab.

What rehab should mean however, is to make a decision to be ready to ask for help and make real life changes.  This is a very sacred process.  We know we have to make these changes and letting go of our old life, means being ready to take direction and especially knowing when to ask for help.

When we end up in rehab, we are confused from drug abuse and we have developed a cycle of poor decisions that we take along with us into recovery.  The poor decision making process is something we are not fully conscious of, as our thoughts stay clouded for quite some time while we try to get sober.  It is in that time we are most vulnerable and it is this time that counts the most in terms of severing our ties with party friends who can make us not take our recovery seriously.  This does get better though and eventually our senses return and we are in charge of our life again.

But this can only happen if we are willing to make the commitment it takes to get sober.  And that means, before we go in to rehab, we must be committed to change once and for all.  We must also make clear to those closest to us, who look out for our wellbeing, that we are serious about our recovery and that we are not just going in to clean up so we can go back out.  Real recovery is a commitment, a life-long bond you make with yourself.  You must be accountable.  You must manage your life and if you don’t know how to live sober, you must be willing to ask for help, learn and do whatever it takes to stay sober.

Support The CASE Act, the Californians Against Sexual Exploitation Act

Just last week, a very important ballot initiative called the CASE Act, qualified for the November 2012 ballot.  The CASE Act stands for Californians Against Sexual Exploitation Act.  This law, if it were to pass, would protect young girls and boys from being forced into human slavery and sexual exploitation, creating harsh penalties for the evildoers who take advantage of children. 

When I was 16 years old, I was approached by a man who wanted to exploit me, who propositioned me to sleep with men for money.  I told him I was not about to do this kind of thing and even though I dodged a bullet for a little while, the fact that I was even propositioned was horrifying to me.  I was already an alcoholic teen and substance abuser at that time and I remember that night I went home, I looked in the mirror and felt a hopelessness and dark feeling come over me.  I remember saying to myself “is this really what it’s come to?  If someone thinks I should be a prostitute, I must look like and be a terrible person.”     


That day took away so much from me.  It was as if someone had stolen away my dignity.  From that day on, my self-esteem became lower and lower and the thought that someone believed I should be a teen prostitute, stayed on my mind and I never told anyone until I went into treatment years later.  What this indecent proposal did to my inner dialogue was horrific.  I used drugs over it, which lead me to further behavior that was to my near self-destruction.  Because I never told anyone as a teen and lacked counseling, my secret grew in the dark.  In my early 20’s I was again propositioned several times and by the time drugs and lack of good opportunity became the ill-conceived, self-rationalizing factor, I decided not to ask for help and give in to the pimps for a short while.  


At the age of 22, I took drastic measures to put a stop to the people who tried to sexually exploit me by assisting to turn them in to the authorities.  The CASE Act would help create preventative efforts to help law enforcement be trained to handle the sensitive issues that keep children in fear of their procurers and would get them into counseling early on.   Sexual exploitation of children is a psychological and sometimes violet game that will haunt a child into adulthood and can make it impossible for a victim to have a normal relationship with a partner, if left untreated.  It involves drug addiction, humiliation, degradation and the refusing of all rights a child has to a happy, healthy and natural childhood.  Please join with me and support this very important initiative to help stop child sexual exploitation, The CASE Act.

For more, please visit:  www.caseact.org

Addiction Took my Dreams and Turned them into Nightmares

This gallery shows images of me when I was between 20-24 years of age.  While I was very serious about perusing a career in modeling and fashion design, by the time these pictures were taken however, I had already been molested as a child, raped twice as a minor and had been assaulted.  While there was concern for me and advice for me to receive counseling, I never got the help I needed, not till many years later.  As a way to cope, I became an alcoholic and hard drug user. Even though these images may not show it, they are the halfway point of my 13-year drug and alcohol addiction. 

In those years, I was still able to drink and use on a semi-social basis, though things turned from “fun” to necessity quicker than I realized.  My whole world collapsed because of my own poor choices 
and because of the people I associated with.  Looking at these pictures is not easy because I see a person who really tried to succeed and wanted to get away from a bad life. 

Had I known how hard I had to work to get my life back and the struggle I would have go through, I don’t think I would have taken the chances that I have.  Drug and alcohol abuse destroyed all that I ever wanted to be in those years.

Today, I understand that I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude some really terrific people who took a chance on me and gave me a new start.  I keep those people in my thoughts and my prayers each day.  

Drug Legalization Would Condemn Addiction and Recovery

It is quite unsettling how in the last few years the voices of the drug legalization movement have been making every argument in favor of drug use, while ignoring the consequences of addiction.  At the same time those opposing drug legalization have also let their voices be heard in opposition to this and rightly so.  Yet there is still a major void in the discussion in terms of recovery and most people in recovery with the exception of an uncounted few, have decided that it is best to stay out of such a complex and messy debate.  

Additionally, it is quite troubling that while we lack real solutions to the problems of addiction that can work for everyone, there are those who turn a blind eye to this reality.  Make no mistake about it; addiction is pure hell and in the mind of an addict, the language of our disease has nothing to do with whether drugs are legal or illegal.  We wrongly think about whether our drugs are easy to get, if we can afford them and whether and for how long we can hide our drug use from those we love.

The most tragically convenient thing that could happen to a drug addict, would be that drugs were legal.  Legal drugs would feed the addiction and would keep an addict afflicted, numb and out of touch, which is most simply put, part of the nature of addiction.  That is until the addiction kills because we can be sure about one thing:  A real addict is not someone who sees him or herself actually quitting.  Ever. It takes serious measures and even consequences to change the way we see things. 

Our greatest social problem is that addiction has it’s own dialogue and is in part socially condoned.  Take for example so-called “Medical Marijuana.”  People who know they do not meet the criteria of a seriously ill cancer patient, that “just want to get high”, are willing to call themselves patients, lie about aliments so they can obtain a doctor’s recommendation and have not a moment of conscience about it.  By condoning this behavior, we are raising a new breed of liars who are not willing to own up to their behavior.  

If we don’t draw the line and send a message that this is not acceptable, we will keep on condoning drug abuse through inaction.  Legalization of drugs would be the ultimate condoning of such inaction and would reward the disgraceful behavior of those breaking drug laws. 

Owning up to drug use means calling things what they are.  Owning up to our behavior in recovery means surrendering to the game of drug abuse and stepping into life on life’s terms.  In recovery we have to own up to who are, who we were, what we were and who we have become because of it.  As we grow, people in recovery find that there is a worthwhile life waiting for us if we are willing to take charge of our life and grow towards becoming mature human beings with a purpose. Drug legalization crushes such promise.

Healthy Self-Image: Vouge Magazine Makes The Pledge

Teen Challenge: Henry Lozano Discusses New Pot Study

For more about Teen Challenge visit:  www.teenchallenge.org

Heavy Marijuana Use Up 80 Percent Since 2008, One in Ten Teens Reports Using Marijuana at Least 20 Times a Month

New, nationally projectable survey results released today by The Partnership at Drugfree.org and MetLife Foundation found that past-month marijuana use – particularly heavy use – has increased significantly among U.S. high school students since 2008.

The Partnership Attitude Tracking Study, sponsored by MetLife Foundation, found that 9 percent of teens (nearly 1.5 million) smoked marijuana heavily (at least 20 times) in the past month. Overall, past-month heavy marijuana use is up 80 percent among U.S. teens since 2008.

Concerning Trends in Teen Marijuana Use According to the New PATS Data (2008-2011)

Past-month use is up 42 percent (up from 19 percent in 2008 to 27 percent in 2011, which translates to about 4 million teens).

Past-year use is up 26 percent (up from 31 percent in 2008 to 39 percent in 2011, which translates to about 6 million teens).

Lifetime use is up 21 percent (up from 39 percent in 2008 to 47 percent in 2011, which translates to nearly 8 million teens).

This marks an upward trend in teen marijuana use over the past three years. The last time marijuana use was this widespread among teens was in 1998 when past month use of marijuana was at 27 percent.

"These findings are deeply disturbing as the increases we're seeing in heavy, regular marijuana use among high school students can spell real trouble for these teens later on," said Steve Pasierb, President and CEO of The Partnership at Drugfree.org. "Heavy use of marijuana – particularly beginning in adolescence – brings the risk of serious problems and our data show it is linked to involvement with alcohol and other drugs as well. Kids who begin using drugs or alcohol as teenagers are more likely to struggle with substance use disorders when compared to those who start using after the teenage years."

Teen Marijuana Use Has Become a Normalized Behavior

Teens now report seeing more of their peers smoking marijuana and only 26 percent agree with the statement, "in my school, most teens don't smoke marijuana" (down from 37 percent in 2008). Also, 71 percent of teens say they have friends who use marijuana regularly (up from 64 percent in 2008).

Teen past-month "heavy" marijuana users are significantly more likely than teens who have not used marijuana in the past year to:

use cocaine/crack (30 times more likely)

use Ecstasy (20 times more likely)

abuse prescription pain relievers (15 times more likely) 


abuse over-the-counter medicines  (14 times more likely)

Social disapproval of marijuana among teens remained the same, with 61 percent of teens saying they disapprove of their peers using marijuana. (About 41 percent say they 'strongly disapprove'). The PATS data also found an erosion of anti-marijuana attitudes among teens, with only about half of teens (51 percent) saying they see "great risk" in using marijuana, down significantly from 61 percent in 2005.

"We have also seen a considerable decline over the past five years in the proportion of teens seeing great risk associated with marijuana use," says Professor Lloyd Johnston, the principal investigator of the nationwide Monitoring the Future study conducted at the University of Michigan. "We believe that this decline in perceived risk has played an important role in the increases in teen use of marijuana, as it has done in the past. The fact that perceived risk is still falling portends a further increase in use."

As teen drug use takes a turn for the worse, a heavier burden is placed on the shoulders of parents to play a more active role in protecting their kids from the health risks posed by drug and alcohol abuse.

The removal of critical pieces of our national prevention infrastructure across the country – The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, which was highly focused on educating youth about the dangers of teen marijuana use, and the elimination of the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program – left a gaping hole where drug and alcohol education resources should be.

"The latest findings showing an increase in marijuana use among teens is unsettling and should serve as a wake-up call to everyone in a position to prevent unhealthy behavior," said Dennis White,

President and CEO of MetLife Foundation. "While it may be difficult to clearly understand just how dangerous marijuana use can be for teens, it is imperative that we all pay attention to the warning signs and intervene anyway we can. Early intervention is critical to helping prevent teens from drug abuse and addiction."

Teen Rx Medicine Abuse Remains High, but Relatively Unchanged, Parents Not Safeguarding Medicines at Home and Misusing Rx Medications Themselves

While the new PATS data did not show similar increases in teen abuse of medicines, prescription (Rx) and over-the-counter (OTC) drug abuse remain at unacceptably high levels, which lead to considerable damage to young lives. The study showed teen lifetime abuse of medicines is holding steady at 17 percent for Rx drugs and 12 percent for OTC cough and cold medicines. Among teens, past year abuse of the prescription pain relievers Vicodin and OxyContin, for example, has plateaued at about 10 percent.

However, it's important to note that parental action does not appear to be contributing to the relative flattening of teen abuse of medications, as fewer parents report safeguarding Rx medications at home. The number of parents who agree with the statement "anyone can access prescription medicines in the medicine cabinet" is up from 50 percent in 2010 to 64 percent in 2011, meaning the medications are more readily available to anyone in their homes. Fewer parents also report communicating the risks of getting high, or any other reason for abuse, from prescription medicines with their children; down from 82 percent who said they communicated the risks of Rx drug abuse to their kids in 2009 to 69 percent in 2011. The number of parents who say they "keep alcohol locked in a cabinet at home" is also down from 32 percent in 2009 to 25 percent in 2011.

PATS also found that an increased number of parents report misusing or abusing prescription medications themselves. More than one in ten parents (15 percent) say they've used an Rx medication not prescribed for them at least once in the past year, a 25 percent increase from 2010 to 2011.

Teen Boys and Hispanic Teens Leading Marijuana Increases, Fewer Teen Girls Abusing Rx Medicines

The PATS survey confirms that teen boys are leading the overall increases in marijuana use. Past year use among teen boys is up 24 percent (from 34 percent in 2008 to 42 percent in 2011) and past month use among teen boys is up 38 percent (from 21 percent in 2008 to 29 percent in 2011). Additionally, boys' heavy use – smoking marijuana at least 20 times a month – is higher than that of their female counterparts (11 percent for teen boys vs. 6 percent for teen girls) and boys' heavy marijuana use is up an alarming 57 percent, from 7 percent in 2008 to 11 percent in 2011.

According to the new data, half of Hispanic teens (50 percent) report that they have used marijuana in the past year (versus 40 percent for African Americans and 35 percent for Caucasians). This means

Hispanic teens are nearly twice as likely (43 percent) as Caucasian teens to have smoked marijuana in the past year (50 percent vs. 35 percent) and 25 percent more likely than African-American teens.

The study also found that fewer teen girls are abusing Rx medications. Teen girls' abuse of a prescription drug "to get high or alter your mood" is down 30 percent since 2010 (from 23 percent in 2010 to 16 percent in 2011) and is down a total of 24 percent since 2009 (21 percent in 2009). Rx drug abuse among teen boys has remained relatively flat over the same time period.

Teens are starting to view medicine abuse as less socially acceptable and the percentage of teens who "strongly disapprove" of peers using prescription drugs to get high has gone up significantly – from 52 percent in 2010 to 58 percent in 2011. Fewer also say it's "very" or "fairly" easy for teens to get prescription pain relievers, down 25 percent from 57 percent in 2008 to 43 percent in 2011.

"These data set the scene for a 'perfect storm' that will threaten the health of a generation of American teens," said Pasierb. "Science has shown that adolescent brains are still developing and are more easily harmed by drug and alcohol use than fully developed adult brains. Dramatic increases in teen marijuana use, coupled with entrenched behavior of abuse of Rx and OTC drugs, puts teens at greater risk for substance use disorders, academic decline and other problems. With government budgets slashing the national prevention infrastructure and many prevention programs already eliminated, parents must step up to fill those voids, to protect their children's health and futures."

Mixed Results on Teen Abuse of Cigarettes, Inhalants, Alcohol, Meth, Cocaine/Crack, Ecstasy

Smoking rates have declined with 22 percent of teens reporting smoking cigarettes in the past month – this is down 19 percent from 27 percent last year.

Past-year inhalant abuse dropped from 10 percent in 2010 to 7 percent in 2011, yet only 64 percent of teens strongly agree that "sniffing or huffing things to get high can kill you," significantly less than the 70 percent of teens who said the same in 2008 .

Past-year alcohol use is holding steady at 56 percent and past month is at 38 percent (since 2008).

Past-year methamphetamine use is holding at 4 percent (since 2008).

Past-year cocaine/crack use remains at 7 percent (since 2008).

Past-year use of Ecstasy is up 50 percent since 2008 (from 6 percent in 2008 to 9 percent in 2011).

New Resource for Parents to Help Prevent Adolescent Drug and Alcohol Use in Their Families

The Partnership at Drugfree.org, in collaboration with the Philadelphia-based Treatment Research Institute (TRI), has released a new tool to help parents and caregivers possibly prevent adolescent drug and alcohol problems. The "Six Components of Effective Parenting," based on scientific research, is the product of the new Parents Translational Research Center – a National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded center involving The Partnership at Drugfree.org and TRI. The resource is comprised of "how-to" parenting tips organized around six principles specifically designed for parents, guardians and other caregivers who can play an active role in helping prevent substance abuse in their families.

The Partnership at Drugfree.org Announces New "Wake Up to Medicine Abuse" Initiative

The Partnership at Drugfree.org is launching a first-of-its-kind, week-long public education and mobilization campaign, "Wake Up to Medicine Abuse," this fall. This initiative will bring the public and private sectors together in a national education effort and call to action to curb the abuse of medicine, one of the biggest drug problems in the United States today. "Wake Up to Medicine Abuse Week" will take place September 23-29, 2012, and will both encourage and help parents and the public-at-large to take action: first, by talking with the kids in their lives about the dangers of abusing Rx and OTC medicines, and second, by safeguarding and properly disposing of unused medications.

PATS Methodology

The 23rd annual Partnership Attitude Tracking Study (PATS) of 3,322 teens in grades 9-12 and 821 parents is nationally projectable with a +/- 3.0 percent margin of error for the teen sample and +/- 3.4 percent for the parent sample. Conducted for The Partnership at Drugfree.org and MetLife Foundation by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Corporate Communications, the 2011 PATS teen survey was administered in private, public and parochial schools, while the parent survey was conducted through in-home interviews by deKadt Marketing and Research, Inc.

SOURCE The Partnership at Drugfree.org