Harm Reduction Radio - HAMS

Our first guest is Allan Clear, executive director of the Harm Reduction Coalition, who will tell us about HRC's functions as a harm reduction trainer and coordinator as well as some of the history of needle exchange and harm reduction in the US. Our first guest is Stacia Cosner from Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP http://ssdp.org) who will tell us why and how students oppose the war on drugs.Stanton Peele closes with his thoughts for the week.

Due to a communications error our first guest missed the show and I did a monologue abut HAMS--he is interviewed at a later date. Our second guest is Dee-Dee Stout, the author of "Coming to Harm Reduction Kicking & Screaming: Looking for Harm Reduction in a 12-Step World." Ms. Stout is a bridge-builder between the traditional treatment paradigm and the harm reduction approach. Stanton Peele joins us to close the show.

Our guest is harm reduction pioneer Dan Bigg from the Chicago Recovery Alliance who will share his experiences in harm reduction with us. Stanton Peele closes the show with his thoughts for the week.

The media and movies like "New Jack City" paint a picture of crack cocaine as a black ghetto drug which is immediately addictive, totally uncontrollable, and leads to an epidemic of crack babies. But is there really any truth to this media hype? Experts Mark Kinzly and Kevin Irwin join us to dispel the myths about crack and give us the real facts without the hype.

Our first guest is Melanie Solomon, author of "AA Not the Only Way." Melanie is one of many people who did not find the 12 steps helpful in dealing with her addictions and as a result has devoted herself to making a compendium of alternatives for all who can benefit from a different approach. Our second guest is Terry Morris who works at The Speed Project in San Francisco. The Speed Project is a harm reduction project for gay men who use methamphetamine. Terry will be sharing with us her experiences with harm reduction support groups and harm reduction techniques for meth users. As always Dr. Stanton Peele will close the show with his thoughts for the week.

SPECIAL: Dr. David Sinclair will be visiting us from Finland to tell us about The Sinclair Method of pharmacological extinction of alcoholism using naltrexone. The Sinclair Method has been adopted as a standard treatment protocol in Finland and boasts up to an 80 or 90% success rate.

Our first guest is Dr. Henry Steinberger who will tell us about SMART Recovery and Cognitive Behavioral approaches to substance abuse problems. Dr. Steinberger is a past member of the SMART Recovery board and currently practices psychotherapy in Madison Wisconsin. Our second guest is Reverend Raquel Algarin who is the executive director of the Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center in Manhattan. Rev. Algarin will tell us about the wide variety of harm reduction services offered at her facility--it is a lot more than just needle exchange. As always we reserve the final 10 minutes of the show for Stanton's Corner, where Dr. Stanton Peele will comment on addiction issues of the day.

Our first guest is Dr. Amanda Reiman of UC Berkeley. Dr. Reiman has made an in depth study of medical marijuana dispensaries and the use of cannabis to treat addiction. Her publications include "Cannabis as a substitute for alcohol and other drugs" (PMID 19958538). We will be discussing the success rates of marijuana maintenance programs. Our second guest is Dr. Ed Wilson from Non 12 Step Alcoholism Treatment http://www.non12step.com . Dr. Wilson will be discussing with us the fact that it is possible to recover from alcoholism without spirituality or a higher power, and that secular programs which rely on science have far higher success rates than do 12 step programs which require a spiritual solution. We will close with our regular weekly feature--Stanton Peele's thoughts of the week.

Dr. Mary Ellen Barnes, president of Non 12 Step Treatment, will be our first guest of the evening and she will discuss the evidence-based treatment protocols which she uses at her alcoholism treatment facility in California. Her web site is http://www.non12step.com Our second guest is James Gierach from Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP www.leap.cc). Mr. Gierach is a Former Cook County, Illinois State Prosecutor who will be speaking out against the war on drugs. As always we reserve the final 10 minutes of the show for Stanton's Corner, where Dr. Stanton Peele will comment on addiction issues of the day.

Dr. Stanton Peele has revolutionized the way we view addiction with the publication of such books as "Love and Addiction," "The Diseasing of America," "7 Tools to Beat Addiction" and "Addiction-Proof Your Child." Dr. Peele has been an outspoken critic of addiction treatment programs such as AA and 12 step programs which are based on divine revelation rather than clinical research. Dr. Peele has also long been an advocate of evidence based approaches to addiction treatment such as Harm Reduction, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and the Community Reinforcement Approach. We are most pleased and proud to bring you an interview with Dr. Peele on this our first show.