A recent article in U.S. News and World Report talked about how the majority of Alcoholics Anonymous attendees drink coffee (90%) and smoke cigarettes (60%). Many believe that by helping to alleviate feelings of depression, anxiety and irritability, these “lesser” addictions can actually help alcoholics and addicts avoid relapse. Now, however, a researcher from the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center of the University of California, San Francisco is suggesting that recovering alcoholics who continue smoking cigarettes may actually have a higher chance of relapse. Because of this, she feels that nicotine and alcohol addictions should be treated at the same time.

The article doesn’t go into details about the evidence for this claim other than mentioning that animal studies have shown “that nicotine can cause relapses to alcohol drinking” and after reading it, I felt a bit uneasy. The idea that smoking can lead to higher rates of relapse amongst alcoholics is compelling and it would indeed be interesting to see if more AA members who smoke relapse than those who don’t. In the meantime however, without further research, I think it could be a bit risky to start advocating the idea that people who are trying to quit drinking should also quit smoking at the same time.

In my own experience getting sober, cigarettes (and coffee too for that matter), have played a fairly crucial role in my recovery. I got sober at 25 but it took me another 4 years to quit smoking and I still drink at least 2 or 3 cups of coffee a day. Certainly I’m not claiming that I couldn’t have gotten sober without these crutches because in retrospect, it’s impossible to say. What I do know is that at least for me, it made staying clean and sober easier, but not for the reasons that most people might expect. Yes, cigarettes did “take the edge off,” but my real motivation for continuing to smoke went deeper than that because to me, drinking, using, and smoking cigarettes were not just addictions, they were a part of my identity.

(More…)

• 	Posted by: Johanna Bailey | 7 Comment(s)
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So here’s the latest on Amy Winehouse according to the AP:

Soul diva Amy Winehouse has damaged her lungs by smoking crack cocaine and cigarettes, her father said in an interview published Sunday.

The Sunday Mirror quoted Mitch Winehouse as saying that Amy has early stage emphysema and an irregular heartbeat, and has been warned that she will have to wear an oxygen mask unless she stops smoking drugs.

“The doctors have told her if she goes back to smoking drugs, it won’t just ruin her voice, it will kill her,” Mitch Winehouse was quoted as saying. “There are nodules around the chest and dark marks. She has 70 percent lung capacity.”

Winehouse, 24, collapsed at her north London home Monday after signing autographs for a group of fans and was taken to a London hospital for tests. She remained there all week.

She is still scheduled to sing at a concert in London on Friday celebrating the 90th birthday of Nelson Mandela, the South African Nobel Prize-winner, and plans to take part in the Glastonbury music festival the following day.

Mitch Winehouse said it would be good for his daughter to perform.  “When she’s been inactive work-wise then that’s when the problems really start. The doctors have said that medically there isn’t any reason why she can’t do Glastonbury,” the paper quoted him as saying.

He also pleaded with her drug-taking friends to stay away from her.  “What hope does she have if people are taking drugs around her,” he said.

Chris Goodman, spokesman for Amy Winehouse, said “If that’s what Mitch says, that’s what he says. It sounds right.”  Mitch Winehouse could not immediately be reached for comment.

***

Can you imagine a 24-year-old with emphysema?  The entire Amy Winehouse story is such a tragedy.  Here is someone who is so talented and yet throwing her life away to her monstrous addictions. 

I don’t know how involved Amy Winehouse’s father has been in her life up until now – maybe very involved and swimming upstream against the “industry” and Amy’s circle of “friends” – but he certainly seems to be paying attention now.  This can only be a good thing.

• 	Posted by: Sarit Catz | 1 Comment(s)
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Smoking isn’t that bad for you?  It takes a while for the effects to catch up with you?  I don’t think so. 

 (Getty Images photo)

Read this story I found (you can’t make this stuff up): 

Police: Man Shoots Self During Robbery

KOKOMO, Ind. (AP) — A man accidentally shot himself in the groin as he was robbing a convenience store Tuesday, police said.

A clerk told police a man carrying a semiautomatic handgun entered the Village Pantry demanding cash and a pack of cigarettes. The clerk put the cash in a bag and as she turned to get the cigarettes, she heard the gun discharge.

Police say surveillance video shows the man shooting himself as he placed the gun in the waistband of his pants. The clerk wasn’t injured.

A short time later, police found 25-year-old Derrick Kosch at a home with a gunshot wound to his right testicle and lower left leg.

Kosch was released from the hospital Tuesday and booked into the Howard County jail on a charge of armed robbery, criminal recklessness and battery. He is being held on a $100,000 cash bail.

If the guy hadn’t smoked, he might have gotten away with the cash.  In other words, smoking is nuts - or in this case, nut. 

• 	Posted by: Sarit Catz | 0 Comment(s)
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This week at my kids’ elementary school it’s Red Ribbon Week.  What does that mean?  Well, this week the school presents programs designed to keep the kids from drinking, smoking and doing drugs. 

It’s never too young to start, of course, but at the elementary school level, this is a challenging proposition.  We’re talking about suburban kids fifth grade and under.  Really, how do you get kids whose friends are probably not drinking, smoking and doing drugs to understand how bad these things can be?

The school has an assembly in which a robot talks about taking care of your #1 machine, your body.  They also have the kids sign a pledge and they give out some red pencils.  Actually, you only get the pencils if you buy them for your kids.  I feel like every time I turn around the school is asking me for a check so I didn’t buy the pencils this year because my kids have forests worth of pencils already and to tell you the truth, I don’t know how a pencil is going to convince them not to engage in this self-destructive behavior.

So, on my own, I have come up with what I think is a virtually fool proof way to scare my kids off drinking, smoking and doing drugs.  A picture’s worth a thousand words…

…and about 3,000 pencils!                   (Getty Images)

• 	Posted by: Sarit Catz | 4 Comment(s)
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