Doug Thorburn on Early-Stage Alcohol and Drug Addiction

What would you do…if you desperately wanted a copy of the latest Playboy magazine? (TAR Lite # 7)

May 16, 2012 at 7:28 am · Filed under So...What Would You Do?

Would you: 1. Go to the store and buy a copy? 2. Ask to borrow a copy from your girlfriend's son? 3. Ask your girlfriend's son to return home where you all live, argue over it and, when you are refused the magazine, beat the crap out of him? Congratulations if you selected # 3, which is what 42-year-old Randall Keith Rumfelt allegedly did. Rumfelt asked his girlfriend’s son, 24-year-old John Edward Pack, Jr. who was visiting his grandmother a few doors down, to come home. Pack, who is handicapped, told officers that Rumfelt wanted to take his copy of Playboy. An argument broke out and, apparently while defending himself, he hit Rumfelt, after which Rumfelt went into attack mode with Pack’s mother / ...

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What would you do…if you were mailing a package containing hallucinogenic mushrooms and other controlled substances to your daughter in another state? (TAR Lite # 6)

May 8, 2012 at 11:42 am · Filed under So...What Would You Do?

Would you: 1. Make darned sure you include proper U.S. postage and triple-check both your return address and the address to which you’re sending the package? 2. Send the package via UPS or FedEx, which you might think would be less likely to intercept the illicit package than the U.S. postal service? 3. Figuring you can decrease the odds of FBI involvement by avoiding the mail, you drive to your daughter’s home and hand-deliver the package? 4. Mail the package via U.S. mails short of proper postage and with the wrong return address on the package? Congratulations if you selected # 4, which is what Marilyn Howell, 63, allegedly did. The return address was that of a complete stranger, who notified police (one can only ...

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What would you do…if a 19-year-old member of your family runs a red light, fails to pull over for officers, leads police on a high-speed chase on the streets of Los Angeles, pulls over and threatens officers with what appears to be a gun, and then gets shot to death by police? (#5)

May 2, 2012 at 10:55 am · Filed under So...What Would You Do?

Would you: 1. Apologize to the motorists, police and taxpayers of Los Angeles for the inexplicable behaviors of your family member? 2. Since you are too shamed to say anything to anyone, quietly plan the young man’s funeral and try to move on with your life? 3. Apologize to everyone, explaining that while the young man was generally a good kid, no one could stop him from using whatever drugs he was on and that this is the sort of horrifying behavior that drugs can cause in susceptible individuals? 4. Bring a wrongful death claim against the Los Angeles Police Department for $120 million dollars, blaming them for the death of your family member? Congratulations if you selected # 4: this is ...

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What would you do…if you’re pulled over for running a red light but, although you’ve always wanted to become a cop, you’re afriad of the police? (#4)

May 1, 2012 at 10:39 am · Filed under So...What Would You Do?

Would you: 1. Pull over, roll down your window, put your hands on the wheel of the car and apologize to the policeman for having run the light? 2. Pull over, roll down your window, put your hands on the wheel and, after asking the officer why you are being pulled over, politely respond you didn't realize the yellow light was so short and you certainly didn't intend to run a red light? 3. Pull over, get out of the car, face the car and put your hands on the roof, because you think that at age 19 and having dangerously run a light the officer might be concerned you are armed? 4. Continue driving, leading the police on a ...

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What would you do…if you’re checking into a juvenile detention center and approaching the security checkpoint with pot in your pocket? (#3)

April 27, 2012 at 7:21 am · Filed under So...What Would You Do?

Would you: 1. Stop, realize you are going to make a bad problem worse and turn around and go home? 2. Stop, turn around and head to the nearest trash bin to empty your pockets before returning to the security checkpoint? 3. Keep the pot in your pocket, keep walking and hope nobody checks before you can hide the pot somewhere inside the facility? 4. Take five bags of marijuana out of your jacket pocket and put them in a bin to be scanned by the metal detector? Congratulations if you selected option # 4, which is exactly what 19-year-old Devante Saxton did at the River Valley Juvenile Detention Center in Joliet, Illinois. Contrast alcoholics and other-drug addicts, who lie, cheat and ...

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What would you do…if you faced drug trafficking charges and were making your first court appearance? (#2)

April 25, 2012 at 2:39 pm · Filed under So...What Would You Do?

Would you: 1. Show up in coat and tie, apologize to the court for your behaviors, promise to change and ask for mercy? 2. Show up in coat and tie and explain you are an addict and would like help, but will take whatever consequences the court metes out? 3. Show up in a sweatshirt printed with instructions for making crack cocaine? Congratulations is you selected option 3, which is what an unidentified man did in a Broward County, Florida courtroom. An attorney commented, "I couldn't believe the gumption this person had." Mr. Attorney: addicts have what appears to be gumption because, due to damage to the frontal lobes of the brain, they will take risks the sober among us would never consider. This ...

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What would you do…if you’re driving to court for a preliminary hearing on possession of methamphetamine? (#1)

March 21, 2012 at 4:52 pm · Filed under So...What Would You Do?

Would you: 1. Drive at or below the posted speed, 65 mph, scrupulously obeying every traffic law en route? 2. Drive with the flow of traffic, often at 72 mph, being careful to obey the spirit of traffic laws while en route? 3. Drive at 102 mph and cited by a sheriff's deputy for speeding; a few minutes later clocked by another officer at 98 mph and again cited; no more than an hour later, pulled over yet again by a third trooper for doing 92 mph? Congratulations if you figured out option 3 is correct! Jose Romero-Valenzuela, 34, claimed "the car was going within the 65 mph speed limit." After driving on Oregon roads at such dangerously high rates of ...

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Intro to issue # 68: Karl Marx makes this the most important issue ever.

January 19, 2012 at 5:16 pm · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

January - February 2012 Viewing the news through the lens of alcohol and other-drug addiction Well over a decade ago, when I was doing research for my first book, Drunks, Drugs & Debits, I had several discussions with the gentleman I view as my greatest mentor, James Graham, about the great and horrific despots that fill the history books. I suggested, based strictly on behaviors, Adolf Hitler must have been an addict; Graham, who wrote The Secret History of Alcoholism, responded that being a child of a particularly awful alcoholic (referring to Hitler’s father, Alois) was enough to turn someone into a mass murderer. Besides, he added, Hitler was a known teetotaler. I was skeptical and thought there had to be some ...

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The Burkhart duo: just a crazy mother-son fraud and arson team, or amphetamine addicts?

January 19, 2012 at 5:13 pm · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

A Con-Artist for a Mother, An Arsonist for a Son and Amphetamines May Explain it All: The Case of Dorothee and Harry Burkhart The New Year’s headline in the Los Angeles Times read, “Arson Wave is Worst Since Riots,” referring to the 1992 riots that began when a nearly all-White jury (ten Whites, one Hispanic and one Asian) acquitted one Hispanic and three White police officers of using excessive force in the beating of a drug-addled Rodney King following a high-speed pursuit. Nearly all felonious crime is committed and instigated by alcohol or other-drug addicts. There’s no doubt about King’s polydrug addiction, and there’s little doubt that most if not all of the rioters were alcohol or other-drug addicts. The cause ...

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Runners-up: Kim Jong-un takes over the rein of terror and Rhod Blagojevich gets locked up.

January 19, 2012 at 5:12 pm · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Runners-up for top story of the month: Kim Jong-un, the 28-year-old heir to the North Korean Kim dynasty following in his father’s (Kim Jong-il) footsteps as ruler of what will likely be considered the most totalitarian state ever by future historians. Kim-the-younger is depicted in U.S. intelligence assessments as a “volatile youth with a sadistic streak” and “may be even more mercurial and merciless” than his father, which is difficult to fathom. Imagine the alcoholic serial murderers Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer ruling 20 million extremely unlucky victims and you might get a picture of life under the Kim’s. Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, sentenced to a 14-year prison term for what U.S. prosecuting attorney Patrick Fitzgerald called “the most staggering crime ...

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“Under watch:” Durkee and CA psychologist Martinez, who faked a rape; the U.S. govt. (continues) enabling N. Korea; Martinez’s husband disenables.

January 19, 2012 at 5:10 pm · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Under watch: In an early 2009 piece on white collar crime, The Economist magazine mentioned something those who have read my books would predict: “Many [Club Fed and other white collar] prisoners suddenly discover, post-conviction, that they had a drinking problem….” I would add that those who don’t figure this out might benefit from greater introspection. In the spirit of The Economist’s discovery, two recent stories follow for which the evidence of alcoholism is in the crime itself. Kinde Durkee, 58, previously charged with using funds from clients’ accounts to pay her own bills, now charged with practicing accounting without a license. The scope of the embezzlement is likely on par with some recent Ponzi schemes: she controlled more than 360 bank ...

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The courts are filled with addicts vs. addicts. Sports agent Leigh Steinberg is likely among them.

January 19, 2012 at 5:07 pm · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Addict v. addict v. addict Sports agent Leigh Steinberg, who represented Ben Roethlisberger among many other highly successful NFL’s pros, filing for bankruptcy protection. Steinberg, who was the inspiration for the movie “Jerry Maquire” (“Show me the money!”), admits his alcoholism caused impaired judgment resulting in his financial collapse. What he won’t say—but we will—is that he was likely taken down by other alcoholics. Taking responsibility for the debts, he avoided filing bankruptcy for years after a 2003 incident in which one of his employees, without his knowledge, took a $300,000 loan from one of his NFL clients. Aside from the fact that such loans are specifically forbidden by the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) regulations, apparently the loan went unpaid and ...

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A question for Captain Schettino, a quote by a CIA profiler re: Kim Jong-il and a headline on Kim, who “baffled” the world (not when we understand alcoholism).

January 19, 2012 at 5:06 pm · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Question of the month: “Just how drunk were you, Francesco Schettino, Captain of the Costa Concordia? And were you a relapsing (and hidden from those that matter) alcoholic?” Several reports on the listing of the ship include clues suggesting the answers to the questions are “very” and “yes.” Clue # 1: Pier Luigi Foschi, the chairman and chief executive of Costa Cruises, reportedly said he believed that Captain Schettino “never drank alcohol.” Yet, a Dutch survivor claimed she “saw him drinking with a woman on his arm at the ship's bar.” Clue # 2: Prosecutors allege he was showing off by sailing past the Tuscan island of Giglio, where his head waiter lived, with some claiming he was piloting the cruise ...

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Obit’s for a number of alcoholics: despot Kim Jong-il, soccer player-philosopher Socrates, author Christopher Hitchens, producer Bert (“Easy Rider”) Schneider and director Ken (“Altered States”) Russell.

January 19, 2012 at 5:04 pm · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Sometimes, it takes an addict: Kim Jong-il, North Korean ruler since 1994, dead at age 69 or 70. I was a Ron Paul-style non-interventionist libertarian until I began studying alcoholism and realized there’s only one way to deal with an alcoholic sitting on nukes: take him out. (I’m with Paul on practically all domestic matters, as I believe it’s the height of arrogance to suggest I know better how to run your life and spend your money than you do—but not in this case, where his hands-off foreign policy is, I believe, naïve.) Kim is such a classic study of alcoholism and the abuse of power it’s hard to know which example of abuse to mention. However, three prime examples may ...

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I long wondered if I would ever prove Marxism is rooted in alcoholism. Proof at last.

January 19, 2012 at 5:01 pm · Filed under 2 - Movie & Book Reviews

Karl Marx, Alcoholic A historian fails to diagnose the obvious Alcoholics have had an enormous effect on human history, with both positive and negative results. As I’ve argued throughout my work (beginning with Drunks, Drugs & Debits), the effect is so immense it’s impossible to make sense of our past without understanding alcoholism. The great includes the likes of Thomas Paine, Ignaz Semmelweis and Ayn Rand. The horrific includes Jeffrey Dahmer, Ivan the Terrible, Josef Stalin and Kim Jong-il. I’ve long suspected that, if able to dig deep enough, we would find alcoholism explaining the life and thinking of Karl Marx, but until I stumbled upon historian Paul Johnson’s book, Intellectuals, I had been stymied. The book, described by Johnson as “an examination ...

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