Ottawa Narcotics Anonymous Member Arrested In Mass Marketing Fraud Against Seniors In Canada and the United States

Another financial scam by Narcotics Anonymous Members against vulnerable seniors.

Single Ottawa mom could face jail time for Narcotics Anonymous ‘grandparents scheme’

 By Chloé Fedio, OTTAWA CITIZEN June 14, 2013
OTTAWA — A judge told a single mother he was “very reluctant” to send her to jail for her role in a “grandparents scheme” that defrauded seniors in Canada and the United States out of $45,000.

But Carolyn Palmer must prove that she is making real efforts to pay that money back before he will rule it out.

“I need to see some action,” Ontario Justice Robert Fournier said Friday afternoon.

Palmer was depressed that she could not afford Christmas for her young son when she was approached by another member of Narcotics Anonymous to take part in a mass marketing fraud, her lawyer argued at her sentencing hearing. Continue reading

Musician Charged With Arriving at AA Meeting Very Drunk With Distressed Daughter

Birmingham Magistrates Court: A mother who is a well-known musician will appear on here Thursday charged with being drunk in charge of a child under seven years old

Actually this is not an uncommon occurrence contrary to popular belief. There is only a request for a desire to not drink or do drugs. Meaning people are welcomed to both AA and NA meetings drunk and strung out. Many AA members bring their children along too.

Musician to face court charged with taking her daughter to an AA meeting WHILE DRUNK

  • 40-year-old was ‘heavily intoxicated’ when she showed up for late-night meeting, it is claimed
  • Officers took her to a police station and her ‘distressed’ daughter to a ‘place of safety’
  • It is understood the mother is well-known in entertainment and regularly travels abroad for work Continue reading

Meth Addicts Rejected By Recovered 12 Stepper Meth Guys

This is a sad state of affairs on aiding meth addicts in this jail. AA is not working, and even the few who have  recovered in the county Jail Alcoholics Anonymous are rejecting meth addicts. They do not want anything to do with them! Continue reading

EX-AA Member Bashes AA To Judge Stating They Depress Everyone Around Them

Michael Braun 23, was on his 3rd DWI, and had been mandated to AA before. It obviously had not worked for him, and he told the judge as much. He asked that he not be mandated to Alcoholics Anonymous this time stating ” “They’re not happy people,” Braun said. “They depress everyone around them.” 

Continue reading

‘Mothers With A Purpose’ Fighting Teen Drug Problems Sends Them To AA Meetings

These two Mom’s met at an AA meeting and ended up starting ‘Mothers With A Purpose’. If you notice all they are offering the teens is to attend AA and NA meetings. They do not point out that AA and NA have no meetings for minors. There are only adult meetings with court mandated felons. It is great to see an effort being put out to reach teens.
They need to offer them something other than the 12 step program. www.smartrecovery.org has teen literature for those that want to start a teen meeting in their area that is non-religious and science based.

Local Moms Fighting That Drug Problem on Our Doorstep
Meet the Pleasanton moms and founders of Mothers with a Purpose, who want to beat the pervasive drug problem through education.

By Autumn Johnson and Tanya Rose Email the authors March 8, 2012

In July of 2010, when Donna and Kelly spearheaded Mothers With a Purpose, a group that provides support and raises awareness for families battling prescription pill addictions, they had no idea they would end up foraging friendships from working through the pain. The duo met when Kelly recognized Donna’s son while attending an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting with her own son. The two mothers connected and realized their children were going through a similar battle of prescription drug addiction.

After meeting for hours and crying over the agony of the opiate addictions their children were fighting, they decided to take action and to start a support group. They have asked that their last names not be used, to protect the privacy of themselves and their families. Donna recruited other families in the community who were suffering from the same problem. The group rapidly grew from the two tenacious mothers to now close to 100 people.

“Forty years ago, addicts were seen as the scum of the earth,” said a former addict, who has spoken before the group about his own struggles in an effort to help Pleasanton kids who are suffering. “Today, it can be a child from a family that makes a million dollars. It’s not someone who lives in alleys; it’s your own neighborhoods.”

Mothers With a Purpose meets on the second and fourth Thursdays of every month at Foothill High School in Pleasanton. They welcome anyone who wants to attend and both say it takes courage to walk through the door of those meetings to face and work through their worst fears.

The former speaker said that before Mothers with a Purpose, there wasn’t really an organization out there solely for support.”The best way to get help was to talk to another parent in the same situation,” he said. “There’s no place to turn — it’s not like you can go to church and ask around. It’s really a hidden thing.”

“Everyone is hurting from something,” says Donna.

According to Donna, the mission statement of the group is to provide total awareness, support and resources to those children and families confronting and struggling with the disease of addiction.

The group, which has recently become a non-profit organization, has had overwhelming support from the Pleasanton Police Department, the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, the Mayor’s Office in Pleasanton and the Pleasanton Unified School District.

In addition to the bi-monthly meetings and a website that offers many resources, Donna and Kelly attend local drug and alcohol forums. They often bring children to speak who are recovering addicts. After the forums, parents usually thank the pair for their candor. Both agree that the disease of addiction, specifically prescription pill addiction, is a nation-wide problem. Locally, they say the knowledge of this problem in the schools and in the community still shocks residents.

Donna says every parent should have to go through a class before their kids start school. “[This experience] teaches you different areas you need to balance,” says Kelly. “I look at life differently now. When it happens, you are a fish out of water. It is a life-time journey.”

Donna says her biggest challenge in starting the group has been standing up in public forums. For Kelly, the biggest challenge has been getting parents to listen. “Listening is what is going to cause change,” said Kelly. “The only way to beat this is to educate people.”

“It is our recovery too,” added Donna. “If I had had this education growing up, maybe things would have been different,” the forum speaker said. “I didn’t even know what an alcoholic was; I just knew that I did drugs and I did it well and I loved it. Every day, I struggled with addiction but now I have tools so I don’t need to do drugs. I can cope with life.

“It is all about the parents being educated,” he says, noting that he knows of a parent of a drug-addicted teen who wanted to take her own life, because she didn’t know what else to do and felt so desperate.

http://pleasanton.patch.com/articles/prescription-pill-problem-on-your-doorstep

Tatum O’ Neal Rejects 12 Step Dogma Enters Non 12 Step Rehab

This article is unbelievable! Because Tatum O’Neal is doing a smart thing by rejecting the 12 step dogma, she is considered doomed for failure. Of course they think it is great her brother Redmond is in a 12 step facility. We know how well 12 step has helped Redmond- NOT ! I wish her the best of luck. She is so talented and beautiful.

Tatum O' Neal

Tatum O’ Neal ‘voluntarily returns to rehab after cocaine relapse’
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
29th February 2012

The daughter of actor Ryan O’ Neal has voluntarily returned to rehab after a ‘cocaine relapse.’
Academy Award winning actress Tatum O’Neal, 48, allegedly checked back into rehab after having a full-fledged relapse last month.
She has battled an addiction to drugs for most of her adult life.

Actress Tatum O’ Neal has reportedly checked into rehab after relapsing into drug use
‘Tatum allegedly made the decision to voluntarily check into rehab after having a relapse about a month ago when she began using cocaine again,’ a source told Radaronline.
However, Tatum is at a rehab facility that doesn’t follow the 12 step AA model, which doesn’t bode well for her success, according to the source.
‘Tatum is doing really, really bad at the facility she is at. Tatum isn’t at a 12 step based treatment program, and that is a huge problem because someone with Tatum’s addiction needs to be at a rehab facility like Betty Ford or Cirque Lodge which adhere to the 12 step model,’ the source says.
‘Tatum is essentially in denial about how bad her addiction is. Tatum is refusing to embrace the 12 step AA model to get sober.’

In contrast, her brother Redmond is in a very strict facility that offers intensive treatment based on the 12 step AA model.
Tatum has had a long well-dcoumented battle with drugs, and a difficult realtionship with her father.
She has said: ‘My father had an abusive streak a mile wide.
‘There was always a slugging thing. Or a backhand, or a throwing out of the car, or whatever. It was rough, just rough around the house.’

As a child O’Neal took her to Hugh Hefner’s Playboy mansion, where sex and debauchery was rampant, and she also slept in the same bed as him and his girlfriends.
When she was 15 and struggling with a weight problem, she alleges her father went so far as to tell her to use cocaine as a way of combating it.
She said she began to lead a cocaine-fuelled life, to escape the reality of her star-crossed existence.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2108165/Tatum-O-Neal-returns-rehab-cocaine-relapse.html

Veteran Drug Treatment Courts Mandate Alcoholics Anonymous

It appears even the veterans of this country are having their constitutional rights trampled on by the court system as well. Veteran Drug Treatment Courts are mandating Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings.

At one of the meetings with the court team it is said that ‘All have addictions or mental illnesses that were factors in their criminal activity.’ I wonder if they are really getting professional help for the mental illness or addictions
they have.

Here we have in black and white that the mentally ill criminals are mixed in with minors.

Veterans Treatment Courts

Gazette opinion: Court marshals community to rebuild vets’ lives

Posted: Sunday, February 19, 2012

LARRY MAYER/Billings Gazette
Veterans treatment court team members gather with District Judge Mary Jane Knisely on Wednesday.

Twelve people sat around the jury table next door to a sixth-floor courtroom and a few more sat along the wall. Shortly after daybreak Wednesday, the Yellowstone County Impaired Driving Court and Veterans Treatment Court team assessed the past week’s progress and problems for 42 offenders. Most have convictions for drunken or drugged driving. Five are military veterans. All have addictions or mental illnesses that were factors in their criminal activity.
At 9 a.m., the courtroom was nearly full when Knisely called the first name, a veteran making his first court appearance since completing a 90-day jail-based addiction treatment. Now out of jail and living with other veterans at Independence Hall, he is attending regular Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and looking for a job.
“You have 104 days sober today,” Knisely told him, presenting him with coins for 30, 60 and 90 days of sobriety. “Congratulations, we’re happy to see you.”
Everyone in the courtroom applauded.

http://billingsgazette.com/news/opinion/editorial/gazette-opinion/gazette-opinion-court-marshals-community-to-rebuild-vets-lives/article_d54e8beb-e1ca-54d8-9598-640e32449a4d.html

The Big Book And Alcoholics Anonymous Saved My Life Says Newt Gingrich

Even though Newt Gingrich has denied having an alcohol problem,he says the Big Book saved his life. He might of even committed suicide without it. Rather strange for someone to turn to the Big Book who does not have a drinking problem, or admit to some form of addiction. Yet he does not offer any explanation. But based on his statements accusing our government of ‘ secular bigotry’ gives a hint to his radical views. This country actually routinely denies Americans secular alternatives in recovery, going against what our constitution states.

Newt Gingrich on the first day of office wants to wipe away every policy that adversely impacts religion. Wow. We are in big trouble for the small gains we have made in this country in separation of church and state issues. Newt wants to reverse all such gains.

Here is an in depth article about Newt and AA, including Newt’s position on the Drug War. He once believed in mass executions of drug dealers in this country. Really hard core stuff. The Fix is a pro-AA site, yet they do not seem impressed with Gingrich.

Newt Gingrich: ‘AA Saved My Life’

The much-maligned Republican front-runner says the Big Book made him see the light. But his critics are not convinced.

By Walter Armstrong

12/12/11

 When presidential candidates—especially the current crop of Republican hopefuls—need to cite a text on spirituality, they usually thumb through carefully selected Bible passages or the Ten Commandments. But Newt Gingrich has always liked defying convention. A startling video of the former House Speaker, who’s enjoying a widening double-digit lead over Mitt Romney just three weeks before the Iowa Caucuses, shows the Roman Catholic convert speaking not of God or Jesus, but of a “greater authority,” as described in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. Although careful to avoid official AA language like a “higher power,” Gingrich offers plenty of clues that in the two decades since he left the House of Representatives, he’s acquired a more than passing familiarity of Bill W.’s spiritual treatise.

In late November, at a televised GOP candidate forum in Iowa hosted by a Christian evangelical group—a “Thanksgiving Family Forum”—Gingrich stole the show. Asked to elaborate on his religious beliefs, he told an anecdote about “a doctor friend in Atlanta” who gave him “the two books that make up Alcoholics Anonymous”—the Big Book and the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions—and spoke movingly about how AA’s principles had saved him from a professional and personal crisis two decades before.

“I wasn’t drinking, but I had precisely the symptoms of somebody who was collapsing from under its weight,” he said, skirting discussion of his divorces and infidelities. ‘My life was full of accomplishments and achievements,” but “there was part of me that was truly hollow. I had to recognize how limited I was and how much I had to depend on the spiritual.”

And then he discovered AA: “Had I not had that intervention, I might have collapsed totally. That was the beginning of turning my life around,” Gingrich said.

Rick Santorum and Michelle Bachman, who claim a direct line to Jesus Christ Himself, could only stare at the prop pumpkin at the center of the cozy wooden table, their frozen smiles melting into consternation and confusion, as if wondering for the first time, Is the drunks-in-recovery vote big enough to court?

snip

Last June, with his campaign floundering, Gingrich started to once again talk up his affection for AA. On Fox and Friends, he defended President Obama against host Gretchen Carlson’s charges of hypocrisy for invoking “God” and “prayer” in a speech despite the fact that the president does not attend church every Sunday. Gingrich said, “Look, in my new book To Save America: Stopping Obama’s Secular-Socialist Machine, I reprint the entire 12-step program from Alcoholics Anonymous. Six of the 12 steps involve a higher authority…” The relevance of his statement to the issue at hand was less then exact, apart from it being a plug for his book. But it was notable, nonetheless, because Gingrich, never hesitant to heap forgiveness of himself, struck this tone of forgiveness toward the president, and forgiveness is an ethic central to AA.

snip

And for a man who says he was saved by the Big Book and the Twelve And Twelve, he seems deficient in the very quality—empathy—that drives the thriving fellowship in the rooms. Gingrich may have found his Higher Power, but he seems to have missed AA’s deeper point as articulated in the Twelfth Step: “the art of helping others and selfless service.” “Addictive drugs deprive you of full citizenship and they lead you to a dependency which is antithetical to being an American,” he said in November, laying on the stigma pretty thick.

http://www.thefix.com/content/video-new-gingrich-thumps-big-book8787?page=1

PORT ST.LUCIE SMART RECOVERY MEETINGS NOW AVAILABLE!

SMART RECOVERY Meetings starting in St.Port Lucie in St Lucie County!

Wednesday 6:15 PM to 7:45 PM Weekly.

8433 S.US 1 (2nd floor) Port St.Lucie Florida

e-mail- slc.smart@gmail.com  772-812-2429

Call for additional information or just attend! SMART RECOVERY is the nations leading alternative to AA/NA meetings.No lifelong meetings, no sponsors, no labels or names.

SMART RECOVERY promotes empowerment-not powerlessness.

SMART RECOVERY offers education based on Science not 12 steps.

NEW SMART RECOVERY MEETINGS IN ST. AUGUSTINE FLORIDA!

SMART Recovery meetings have started in St. Augustine Florida located in St. Johns County.  www.smartrecovery.org 

SMART is an alternative to AA or NA meetings.Smart Recovery is based on Science based research and encourages empowerment! They are non religious and not 12 based. People of any faith or atheists are welcomed as the SMART Recovery program is not centered on religion like Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous is.

St. Johns Drug Court located in St.Augustine Fl is now accepting SMART Recovery meetings as an alternative to AA or NA meetings for their Drug Court requirements, as well as the entire 7th judicial district which includes Flagler, Volusia and Putnam counties. Please drop us a line at info@nadaytona.org if you are having problems with the 7th Judicial District Drug Court or your probation officer! They are supposed to allow you choices in treatment and not mandate AA or NA without a secular option.

www.smartrecovery.org also has court approved online meetings as well!

Call Mark Fitzpatrick at 904-797-5680 for more info on SMART Recovery meetings.

http://www.smartrecovery.org/meetings_db/view/showalpha_state.php?search=F