The Partnership for a Drug-free America
Books – Decoder - Breaking down teen culture, substance abuse, and parenting

Notes From the Road

Mar 4, 2008 by David Sheff | Categories Addiction, Books, Drugs, General

So I’m traveling around with my son, Nic, talking about addiction. It’s a tour to promote our books, but it feels more like a continuation of a family weekend in rehab. Sometimes I look over at Nic and just melt. Everyday I’m reminded of how close I came to losing him—how close he came to losing his life. I’ve been on other book tours, but this is incomparable: being with Nic, meeting people whose lives have been, in many cases, devastated by addiction.

Indeed, many of the people who are coming to our readings bring with them their own stories. I’m humbled by them. Yesterday a man approached when I arrived at Starbucks at the library at George Washington University. He told me that his son didn’t make it; his child overdosed and died. I’ve heard about similar unthinkable catastrophes from other parents – and also from husbands and wives and children and partners and friends and others — people whose loved ones died. Each time I’m struck with a blow to my gut. Nic is only alive – I only have my son alive because of the luck of the draw.

As this kind, open, brave father reminded me, You can do everything right. You can do everything you can for the person you love. And sometimes they don’t make it. It’s the nature of disease. It’s like cancer, he said. Sometimes people pull through and sometimes they don’t. All we can do is try. If the disease claims them, all we can do is cry and talk and hold onto one another.

  • Posted by: David Sheff | 13 Comment(s)
    Share this : del.icio.us del.icio.us |  Digg Digg |  FaceBook Facebook  |  Newsvine Newsvine

“Beautiful Boy” Author David Sheff Joins Decoder as Guest Blogger

Feb 22, 2008 by Joe Keenan | Categories Addiction, Advice, Books, Drugs, Methamphetamine

We are thrilled here at the Partnership to have David Sheff, parent and author of “Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction,” as a guest blogger on our parent-to-parent blog, Decoder.

“Beautiful Boy” is an insightful memoir detailing David’s oldest son’s descent into a methamphetamine addiction. “Beautiful Boy” was also selected by Starbucks Entertainment as the next book to be sold in its more than 7,000 company-operated locations in the U.S, and for which David will embark on a 9-city book tour beginning February 26th in New York City.

Here’s a brief video clip of David. Check back soon or subscribe to the blog feed so you can be alerted when David begins blogging.

  • Posted by: Joe Keenan | 3 Comment(s)
    Share this : del.icio.us del.icio.us |  Digg Digg |  FaceBook Facebook  |  Newsvine Newsvine

Book Bind

Oct 3, 2007 by Sarit Catz | Categories Alcohol, Books, Celebrities

My nine-year-old daughter, Freckles, is a big reader. It’s great, although I think I’m single-handedly keeping Amazon in business. She’s at that “tween” stage where they read a lot of book series. All of Nancy Drew, Lizzie McGuire, Camp Confidential. Now she’s reading a series called the Beacon Street Girls. (www.beaconstreetgirls.com)

The Beacon Street Girls are a multi-ethnic group of friends in junior high. I read the back cover of a few of the books, they seemed appropriate. I bought them. Freckles read them. She wanted more. I bought the rest of the series to date online.

One night before bed, Freckles comes out of her room very upset. She’s crying, she’s panicky, she wants to do “that breathing thing.” In through the nose, hold, out through the mouth. You know. (More…)

  • Posted by: Sarit Catz | 0 Comment(s)
    Share this : del.icio.us del.icio.us |  Digg Digg |  FaceBook Facebook  |  Newsvine Newsvine

A Father and a Writer

Oct 3, 2007 by James Ponti | Categories Books, General, High School, Prom

I have found that being a father and being a writer have a lot in common. Both have the capacity to fill me with incredible joy and staggering self-doubt. Just when I think I have one really figured out, I usually fail on an epic scale. And, it is when I think I’m licked that I most often stumble upon a stroke of creative genius. (Unfortunately, I never seem to remember how I got there.)

But the biggest thing that they have in common is that they offer few definitive answers. Writing and parenting are so subjective that beauty and success often exist only in the eye of the beholder.

For me, writing and parenting have also travelled along intersecting courses. I have been writing for kids at the same time my wife and I have been raising two of our own. It’s not surprising that having children has helped my writing. My sons offer inspiration and insight and often influence my work in both direct and indirect ways. What has surprised me is how much working in the industry of entertaining kids has helped me better understand the world they face. (More…)

  • Posted by: James Ponti | 0 Comment(s)
    Share this : del.icio.us del.icio.us |  Digg Digg |  FaceBook Facebook  |  Newsvine Newsvine