Since 2002 the number of people dying from heart attacks in England has dropped by half, the study conducted by Oxford University found. But within that, regional data revealed there was a 'blip' in London that corresponded to the financial crash in 2008 and continued through 2009. Heart attack deaths have dropped due to better prevention of heart attacks in the first place with fewer people smoking and improvements in diet through lower consumption of saturated fat. The treatment of people who do suffer a heart attack has also improved leading to fewer deaths with faster ambulance response times, new procedures to clear blocked arteries and wider use of drugs such as statins and aspirin. The research published in the British Medical Journal showed around 80,000 lives have been saved between 2002 and 2008 as deaths from heart attacks declined.

Venezuela on Tuesday deported three suspected drug smugglers wanted in the United States, Canada and Colombia, touting the moves as proof the government of President Hugo Chavez is making strides in fighting trafficking. Those deported include Luc Letourneau, a Canadian wanted in his homeland on drug trafficking charges, Oscar Martinez Hernandez, an American wanted in Puerto Rico on charges including cocaine and heroin smuggling, and Colombian Adalberto Bernal Arboleda.Arboleda, known by his nickname “El Cali,” faces drug smuggling charges in Colombia and the United States. Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami trumpeted the deportations as evidence Venezuela is cracking down on drug trafficking. Venezuela is a major hub for gangs that smuggle Colombian cocaine to the United States and Europe, and U.S. officials have accused Chavez’s government of being lax in anti-drug efforts. Last year, President Barack Obama’s administration classified Venezuela as a country that has “failed demonstrably” to effectively fight drug trafficking. El Aissami dismissed that accusation, accusing U.S. officials of “defaming” Venezuela’s counter-drug efforts. Letourneau, 53, was captured in May on Margarita Island, a popular tourist destination. At the time of his arrest, Letourneau was planning to smuggle 110 pounds (50 kilograms) of cocaine into Canada, El Aissami said. Hernandez, a 44-year-old man who was nabbed by police on Jan. 4 in the western city of Maracaibo, faces numerous criminal charges ranging from drug trafficking to illegal possession of firearms and explosives. Arboleda was captured in the town of Mariara, in central Carabobo state, on Jan. 11. U.S.-Venezuelan counter-drug cooperation has been sharply scaled back since 2005, when Chavez suspended cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and accused it of being a front for espionage.

It never ceases to amaze me how much suffering can stem from things that were actually intended to be helpful. Case in point would be the latest drug epidemic that has seized our country, and more so our state.  Surprisingly, it doesn’t involve heroin, crystal meth or any of the many other illicit, designer drugs out there, although each certainly brings plenty of heartache and loss. Rather, the crisis that now challenges us involves the abuse of prescription painkillers. What many of us have had in our medicine cabinets at one time or another is now responsible for tearing apart the lives of thousands of individuals and families.    Let’s begin by wrapping our heads around some astonishing numbers. New York has seen a rapid escalation for these painkiller prescriptions, more than 22 million of them written in 2010, a 36 percent increase since 2007. Worse still, scripts for oxycodone, a widely-used narcotic, rose by a whopping 82 percent.  As a Newsday editorial so deftly pointed out, “Life hasn't gotten 82 percent more painful in three years.”  Nationally, the number of overdose deaths from these drugs is now greater than those of heroin and cocaine combined and before we mistakenly characterize this as a young people problem, middle-aged adults have the highest rates of painkiller overdose.  The non-medical use costs insurers about $72.5 billion per year and those costs inevitably work their way down to each of us.      What these numbers clearly indicate is addiction, lots of it, and the result has been a nationwide crime wave of pharmacy robberies with addicts going after pills, not money. Unfortunately, Long Island is at the center of this storm with two robberies that ended in the shooting deaths of six people.  So how do we fairly combat drugs that must also be available to those who legitimately need them? There are numerous ideas, everything from bulletproof pharmacy counters to long-term, mandatory addiction training for doctors and pharmacists. Many are potential tools that must be considered. I happen to support the much discussed statewide “real time” system for tracking the dispensation of narcotic painkillers. The participation of both doctors and pharmacists looks to be the best way to prevent addicts from "doctor shopping" to get multiple prescriptions. In my office I’ve focused on the startling reality that these opioids are often crushed so they can be snorted or injected for a high. However, there are “tamper-resistant” formulas that are impossible to break down or whose effect is negated when crushed. I believe they offer a sensible way of removing the lure of the drug while keeping its medicinal value intact for those who need it.  Currently, if a doctor prescribes this tamper-resistant version, pharmacies must substitute it with the cheaper, crushable, generic with no questions asked. The bill I have introduced (S6062) prevents the substitution without the prior, written consent of the prescribing physician unless the generic is also “tamper-resistant.” While I was originally concerned that this might give an unfair advantage to some pharmaceuticals, the fact is these formulas are clearly necessary and will inevitably spur development of cheaper tamper resistant generics. Patients can of course still request a generic from their doctors, but that would hopefully prompt a discussion about the doctor’s decision to write a “tamper-resistant” prescription. In that light, this legislation promotes the exchange between patient, pharmacist and doctor, possibly making it the first-step to addiction recognition and recovery. It prevents an addict from skirting a doctor’s decision and gives the discretion to a professional who can recognize signs of addiction– the doctor. This bill has the support of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, New York Osteopathic Medical Society, and the Center for Lawful Access and Abuse Deterrence.

This is your brain. This is your brain on Facebook, Twitter, or Match.com. A recent Chinese study found that the brains of people addicted to the Internet may see similar changes to the brains of those addicted to alcohol or drugs. Yahoo News reported that brain scans were conducted of 35 men and women aged between 14 and 21, and 17 of them were identified with Internet addiction disorder. Brain scans of those classified as addicted showed disruptions in the part of the brain that contains nerve fibers, and changes in the brain areas that are used in emotions, decision-making, and self-control. Some of the questions people needed to ask themselves to determine whether they were addicted were, according to the BBC: Do you feel the need to use the Internet with increasing amounts of time in order to achieve satisfaction? Do you use the Internet as an escape from feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety and depression? Have you put a relationship, job, or career opportunity at risk because of the Internet? Have you lied to people to hide the amount of time you spend on the Internet? According to safetyweb.com, an Internet monitoring service for parents, teenagers and young adults are the age groups that are more likely to be addicted to the Internet, and they are more likely to neglect work or school than older addicted adults. The Executive director of an Internet addiction recovery center known as restart says overexposure to the Internet can cause these symptoms in anyone’s brain. Hilarie Cash said to technewsworld.com, "We do a combination of psychotherapy and helping these people figure out the skills they need to function in the world. The road to recovery could include plenty of hiking and backpacking to get them both physically fit and reconnected to the world."

Thousands of children are being "needlessly dumped in prison" because of Britain's failing youth justice system, a think-tank has warned. The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) said courts and prisons were being used to "parent children" and were expected to sweep up problem youngsters inadequately dealt with by other departments, such as social services. In a new report, the group called for a radical overhaul in the way the Government deals with young offenders. It said there needed to be a drastic cut in the 5,000 children a year currently given custodial sentences, arguing the imprisonment of youths between the age of 10 and 17 should be limited to the "critical few" guilty of the most serious or violent crimes. The CSJ said too many children are being taken before the youth courts for trivial reasons. The report cited one example where a child who had thrown a bowl of Sugar Puffs at his care worker, jumped out of the window, then climbed back in, was held in a police cell over a weekend on suspicion of assault and attempted burglary. The independent think-tank, set up in 2004 by Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, urged a return to a "common-sense" approach to minor incidents with parents and teachers using their judgment to deal with them at a home or school level. It also criticised the widespread use of short sentences for young offenders, arguing they undermine justice and disrupt attempts to educate and rehabilitate them. Gavin Poole, executive director of the CSJ, said: "Many young people fall into the system unnecessarily and do not receive the help they need to free themselves from it. Custody is sometimes neither a protective nor a productive place for children, and community orders can be equally ineffective. Moreover, despite years of good intentions, many young people leaving custody are still not being provided with the basic support they need for rehabilitation." Among a series of recommendations, the CSJ said there should be no sentences shorter than six months and an emphasis should be placed on non-custodial punishments where underlying behavioural problems can be tackled more effectively. The group also said measures to prevent lawbreaking by young people should be the primary responsibility of child welfare services rather than the youth justice system. It added local services needed to work together to ensure that young people and their families receive the help they need early.

Paul Simon says there's always been a spiritual dimension to his music. But the overt religious references in his most recent album, So Beautiful or So What, surprised even him. There are songs about God, angels, creation, pilgrimage, prayer and the afterlife. . Simon says he has many questions about God and explores them through his music. Enlarge By Todd Plitt, for USA TODAY Paul Simon performs at Ground Zero during a 10th anniversary ceremony of the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Simon says he has many questions about God and explores them through his music. Ads by Google 1st Dual Core Mini-ITX VIA EPIA-M900 wi Nano X2 CPU, DDR3 up to 8GB, 2 SATA, 8 USB2.0, 4 www.viaembedded.com Simon says the religious themes were not intentional — he does not describe himself as religious. But in an interview with the PBS program Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, he said the spiritual realm fascinates him. "I think it's a part of my thoughts on a fairly regular basis," he said. "I think of it more as spiritual feeling. It's something that I recognize in myself and that I enjoy, and I don't quite understand it." BLOG: Is heaven Simon's stunning infinity? REVIEW: 'So Beautiful' sums up Simon's latest STORY: 'So Beautiful' is beautifully familiar Simon may not understand it, but he's been writing and singing a lot about it, and that has generated attention. One Irish blogger suggested So Beautiful or So What could be the best Christian album of 2011. Sojourners' Cathleen Falsani, an evangelical who writes frequently about religion and pop culture, called it "one of the most memorable collections of spiritual musical musings" in recent memory. "It's a stunningly beautiful … album, and he's a great surprise to me and frankly a huge blessing," Falsani said. During a career that has spanned half a century, Simon has received numerous awards, including 12 Grammys. His first Grammy came in 1968 for best contemporary vocal duo, along with his musical partner Art Garfunkel. Their 1970 Grammy-winning song Bridge Over Troubled Water was influenced by gospel music. Simon comes from a Jewish background. "I was raised to a degree enough to be bar mitzvahed and have that much Jewish education, although I had no interest. None," he said. Now at 70, he said he has many questions about God. In his song, The Afterlife, he speculates about what happens after death. He imagines waiting in line, like at the Department of Motor Vehicles. As the chorus goes: "You got to fill out a form first and then you wait in the line." But there's a serious aspect as well, as the song continues: "Face-to-face in the vastness of space/ Your words disappear/And you feel like you're swimming in an ocean of love/ And the current is strong." "By the time you get up to speak to God, and you actually get there, there's no question that you could possibly have that could have any relevance," Simon explained. One of the most unusual songs on the album, Getting Ready for Christmas Day, includes excerpts of a sermon preached in 1941 by prominent African-American pastor J.M. Gates. Simon heard the sermon on a set of old recordings and said he was drawn to the rhythms of Gates' "call and response" style of preaching. The song Love and Hard Times begins with the line: "God and His only son paid a courtesy call on Earth one Sunday morning." According to Simon, "To begin with a sentence that is the foundation of Christianity, I said: This is going to be interesting. Now what am I going to say about a subject that I certainly didn't study?" The song ends with a love story, which he says is really about his wife, and a repetition of the line, "Thank God I found you." "When you're looking to be thankful at the highest level, you need a specific and that specific is God. And that's what that song is about," he said. Simon said the beauty of life and of the earth often leads him to thoughts about God. "How was all of this created? If the answer to that question is God created everything, there was a creator, than I say, Great! What a great job," he said. But he said he won't be troubled if it turns out there is no God. "Oh fine, so there's another answer. I don't know the answer," he said. Either way, he added, "I'm just a speck of dust here for a nanosecond, and I'm very grateful." Simon has sought input on his questions from some religious leaders, including the Dalai Lama. He once spent hours talking with British evangelical theologian John Stott, who died last year. Simon said Stott made a big impression on him. "I left there feeling that I had a greater understanding of where belief comes from when it doesn't have an agenda," he said. Many of Simon's songs raise universal questions about things like destiny and the meaning of life. "Quite often, people read or hear things in my songs that I think are more true than what I wrote," he said. Falsani calls Simon a "God-chronicler by accident." "He looks at the world and kind of wonders what the heck is going on, like many of us do. He asks good questions and seems to have his finger on the heartbeat spiritually of a culture," she said. Simon said he's gratified — and somewhat mystified — that some people have told him they believe God has spoken to them through his music. "Is it a profound truth? I don't know," he said. "I feel I'm like a vessel, and it passed through me, and I was the editor, and I'm glad."

 Darlington man Paul Brett was at the head of a well organised empire that tried to flood the area with more than £1m of cocaine. The gang was disrupted after an 18-month undercover operation – the biggest in Durham Police history – culminated in raids last year. Brett, 25, was jailed along with five others from Darlington, Teesside and Merseyside. Detective Chief Superintendent Jane Spraggon said afterwards: “This operation proves no one is untouchable.” Brett’s right-hand man, Mark Dee, 25, was jailed for seven years, while fellow Darlington organiser David Pierce, 41, was jailed for five years. Teesside Crown Court heard that they fixed up deals in Liverpool and arranged for couriers to travel across the Pennines and bring back drugs. In Ronald Bennett’s house in Liverpool, police found an industrial blender, cocaine and a 20-tonne hydraulic press. Market trader Bennett, 57, was the “packager” who Judge Tony Briggs said was crucial to the success of the gang. He was jailed for eight years. Lance Kennedy, 24, from Birkenhead, and Craig Costello, 29, from Middlesbrough, were each jailed for 15 months for money laundering. The pair were caught with nearly £20,000 after police watched Brett hand over a holdall at a McDonald’s car park in Darlington. Brett, a one-time fitness instructor who had never worked during the surveillance and had no bank accounts in the UK, made regular trips abroad. He was pictured in a newspaper flanked by two glamour girls at the opening of a Dubai nightclub and stayed at £800-a-night hotels in Thailand. Dee, a joiner, was said to have been paid only £1,500 for arranging deals. Bennett’s barrister said his client was the one who got his hands the dirtiest. Lawyers for charity fundraiser Kennedy and offshore worker Costello said they were unaware the money was from drug-dealing. Brett, of Yiewsley Drive, Darlington, admitted a fraud charge and converting criminal property and conspiracy to supply Class A drugs. Richard Littler, in mitigation, said he deserved credit for being the first to plead guilty, forcing the others to do so. Bennett, of Fairfax Road, Liverpool, and Dee, of Honeywood Gardens, Darlington, also pleaded guilty to being part of the conspiracy. Pierce, a former amateur boxer and shop-fitter, of Kilmarnock Road, Darlington, was found guilty of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs. Tom Mitchell, in mitigation, said: “He falls to the bottom of whatever he finds himself involved with.” Kennedy, of Livingstone Street, Birkenhead, and father-of-three Costello, of St Cuthbert Avenue, Marton, Middlesbrough, admitted conspiracy to transfer criminal property.

Bacon or sausage? You might want to rethink that decision. Consuming processed meat regularly may increase a person’s risk of developing pancreatic cancer, though the risk is still low, says a new study. A meta-analysis of 11 studies involving 6,643 people with pancreatic cancer suggests an elevated risk of the disease when consuming processed meat such as bacon, cold cuts and sausages. In the study, men who ate red meat also showed an elevated risk of the disease, while women did not. The authors believe this is because men generally consume more red meat than women. For every 50 grams a person adds of processed meat to their diet, the risk of pancreatic cancer increased by 19 per cent, according to the study. "When results from all studies were combined, an increase of 50 grams per day of processed meat consumption was associated with a statistically significant 19 per cent increased risk of pancreatic cancer," the authors wrote. For the study, 120 grams was deemed a serving of red meat per day, while 50 grams represented a serving of processed meat. A typical hot dog is about 45 grams. "Processed meats are usually preserved with nitrite and may also contain N-nitroso compounds," write the authors. They say these compounds can also be formed in the stomach from nitrites and from compounds found in animal products and are potent carcinogens that have been shown to induce pancreatic cancer in animals. The study was conducted by Swedish researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and published Thursday online in the British Journal of Cancer.

A young man has been jailed in South America for attempting to traffic drugs just three weeks after sneaking out of his Thornton Heath home without telling his mother. Former Stanley Technical School pupil, Nishit Patel, 21, left his home in Attlee Close, in secret on Christmas Day before flying 4,500 miles to Guyana. The next time his mum, part-time Tesco worker Amita, heard from him was on January 3 phoning from a Guyanese jail after being caught boarding a plane with 29 pellets of cocaine worth more than £20,000 inside him. On Monday, January 9, he was sentenced to four years in jail after he admitted drug trafficking. He was also fined $30,000 Guyanese dollars, about £95. Mrs Patel, 46, said she last saw her son, who changed his name to Nikesh after being teased at school, after lunch on Christmas Day. She said: “I came home and he had bags packed. I asked if he was leaving and he said no. I never know where he is going, he tells me nothing. “I didn’t even know where Guyana was. I asked why did you do it, and he said for the money.” On December 31 Guyana’s Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) at Cheddi Jagan International Airport saw Patel acting suspiciously and arrested him. Dennis Mahase a senior supervisor with CANU said Patel, who has spent his whole life in Croydon, missed his earlier flight home and was picked up by officials while he waited. He said: “When the officials began questioning him he complained about feeling unwell. After further question he admitted swallowing the pellets.” Taken to Woodlands Hospital in Georgetown, the country’s capital, Patel, was x-rayed and the pellets, containing 352 grams of the drug with a street value of around £20,000, were found. Mr Mahase added: “He admitted to us he had done this before in November and got away with it.” Mrs Patel said Nishit went off the rails after his grandparents and father died in quick succession four years ago. She said: “He was such a good boy. Very caring. It changed him. A son listens to his father but to his mother, not so much. It was very hard.” The family will now fight to have him extradited to the UK. She said: “I want to be able to see him. I know he has done wrong but he is my son. I have no idea what a jail out there is like.” A foreign office spokesman said: “We can confirm the arrest of a British national on December 31 in Guyana. “We are providing consular assistance.”

Harley Medical Group (HMG), responsible for one in three operations using the French-made implants, said it would go out of business if made to meet the full cost of removal. HMG's position makes it more likely the other two main players, Transform Cosmetic Surgery and The Hospital Group, will also ignore pleas for private clinics to pay for surgery. Should they follow HMG's lead, the bill to taxpayers could feasibly top £100 million as the NHS will be forced to perform the corrective surgery.The big three firms are likely to have performed around two thirds of enlargement operations using faulty implants in Britain. There are around 40,000 women in the UK who have been fitted with the controversial implants and operations to remove them cost around £3,000. Mel Braham, chairman of HMG, claimed the Government had the "moral responsibility" to pay for removal operations, as the regulator meant to ensure the safety of medical devices had failed in its duty.

Two-thirds of smokers in the UK, approximately six million people, will try and quit the habit in January, but half of them will fail within a week, new research suggests. According to the study, commissioned by Pfizer Limited in support of its Don't Go Cold Turkey disease awareness campaign, one in ten of these attempts will not last beyond 24 hours. Typically, smokers admit to having unsuccessfully attempted to quit three times before, with 51 per cent confident they can kick the habit in the next six months. Some 45 per cent say they attempt to quit by 'going cold turkey' or giving up the immediately and relying on willpower, however only three per cent of these people are found to be smoke free after a year. Nearly a quarter of former smokers recommend that people trying to quit consult a healthcare professional. Dr Sarah Jarvis, BBC medical correspondent and practising GP, said: "Even a brief conversation with their healthcare professional or local stop smoking service can increase [a smoker's] chances of success by up to four times, compared to going 'cold turkey'. "People should consider how they can positively influence their chances of quitting." According to Cancer Research UK, 86 per cent of lung cancer deaths are caused by tobacco smoking.

Twelve Step people who study A.A.'s Big Book are, of course, familiar with Bill Wilson's medical mentor, Dr. William Duncan Silkworth. Bill called him the benign "little doctor who loved drunks." Silkworth, a psychiatrist, had treated thousands of alcoholics and was director of Towns Hospital in New York where Bill had several times sought help. Though Silkworth had explained the disease of alcoholism to Bill, Bill continued to drink until he met his "sponsor" Ebby Thacher, who had recovered through the spiritual program of the Oxford Group. Ebby had also gone to Calvary Rescue Mission, run by Dr. Sam Shoemaker's Calvary Episcopal Church in New York; and Ebby had there made a decision for Christ. Wilson went there for the same purpose and, according to a conversation the author had with Dr. Shoemaker's widow (Helen Smith Shoemaker), Bill Wilson made a decision for Christ at the Rescue Mission. Bill stayed drunk for a few days and then checked into Towns Hospital and again sought help from Dr. Silkworth. And it was during this stay, that Bill took the life-changing steps of the Oxford Group, had his "hot flash experience," reported it to Dr. Silkworth, and was told by Silkworth that he (Bill) had better hang on to what had happened to him. Silkworth later was asked to write the "Doctor's Opinion" that opens the basic text of the Big Book. Silkworth's picture appears in A.A.'s Pass It On, the biography of Bill's life.

        Shortly before his death, the author spent an hour with Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, friend of A.A., the Rev. Sam Shoemaker, and Bill Wilson. Dr. Peale told me of the conversations he had with Bill Wilson about Bill's conversion. However, until 1997, I had never heard the following account by Peale about Dr. William Duncan Silkworth. It can be found in Norman Vincent Peale, The Positive Power of Jesus Christ (New York: Foundation for Christian Living, 1980), pp. 60-61. It appears under the title "The Wonderful Story of Charles K.":

        Charles, a businessman in Virginia, had become a full-fledged alcoholic; so much so that he had to have help, and fast, for his life was cracking up. He made an appointment with the late Dr. William Duncan Silkworth, one of the nation's greatest experts on alcoholism, who worked in a New York City hospital [the Charles Towns Hospital]. Receiving Charles into his clinic as a patient, the doctor gave him treatment for some days, then called him into his office. "Charles," he said, "I have done everything I can for you. At this moment you are free of your trouble. But there is an area in your brain where you may hold a reservation and that could, in all likelihood, cause you to return to your drinking. I wish that I might reach this place in your consciousness, but alas, I do not have the skill."

        "But, doctor," exclaimed Charles, "you are the most skilled physician in this field. When I came to you it was to the greatest. If you cannot heal me, then who can possibly do so?" The doctor hesitated, then said thoughtfully, "There is another Doctor who can complete this healing, but He is very expensive."

        "That's all right," cried Charles, "I can get the money. I can pay his fees. I cannot go home until I am healed. Who is this doctor and where is he?"

        "Oh, but this Physician is not at all moderate as to expense," persisted Dr. Silkworth. "He wants everything you've got. He wants you, all of you. Then He gives the healing. His price is your entire self." Then he added slowly and impressively, "His name is Jesus Christ and He keeps office in the New Testament and is available whenever you need Him."

        Dr. Peale then describes the healing of Charles through the power of Jesus Christ. 

Matt Maden, now 26, has been living on borrowed time since he was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis five years ago. Despite his desperate need he has only a 20 per cent chance of getting an organ because of the growing demand. ‘It’s really scary living with the knowledge that the odds are so heavily against you,’ he said. His condition was detected when he spent two weeks in hospital in an alcohol-induced coma – but even then he refused to believe he had a problem. ‘My immediate thought was, “It’s not the drink”,’ he said. The first time Mr Maden got drunk was at 15. ‘I remember waking up the next morning and my first thought was, “When can I do that again”,’ he said. Within a year he went from drinking eight cans of lager in a session to 16 in order to get a buzz. ‘After a couple of years I’d have to have maybe a bottle of spirits to go along with that,’ he added. ‘For a lot of years alcohol gave me  confidence. Little did I know it would actually turn on me and it would start to control me.’ After his health scare Mr Maden left his home in Oxford to check into a rehab clinic in Bournemouth and has not touched a drop since 2007. His physician, Dr Varuna Aluvihare, from King’s College London, believes the binge-drinking culture is behind the increasing number of young people needing liver transplants. ‘Tragically, every year we fail to keep someone like Matt alive,’ he said.

Those who go cold turkey have just as much chance of quitting the habit long-term, the study published on Monday added. A total of 787 adult smokers trying to quit were followed over five years by researchers at Harvard School of Public Health. One in three relapsed with the numbers spread equally between those going ‘cold turkey’, those using nicotine patches, gums or sprays, and those combining nicotine replacement with counselling. Heavy smokers who used nicotine replacement products without any professional therapy were twice as likely to relapse. Lead author Hillel Alpert said: ‘Some heavily-dependent smokers perceive nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) as a sort of “magic” pill. ‘Upon realising it is not, they find themselves without support in their quitting efforts, doomed to failure.’ But the findings sparked a backlash from the NRT industry, which is worth £150million in Britain and £520million in the US. GlaxoSmithKline, which makes Nicorette gum, said studies show NRT products, combined with support, ‘can double’ smokers’ chances of quitting

When Adrian Weldon has a few minutes to spare, he's probably going to use them to text. "I came here to kill time and text," he said, sitting at Lakebottom Park Thursday afternoon. "At least it's not driving and texting." Weldon said he uses his phone mostly for texting, sending quick messages while he's at work and can't call people on the phone, and when he's bored. If you ask him if he's addicted, he says he's not sure. "My girlfriend says I am," he said. If Weldon is addicted to his phone, he's not alone. While addiction to apps or text-ing is not a recognized medical condition, there have been numerous studies produced on whether the technology causes more harm than good. A study by Case Western Reserve School of Medicine found that teens who spend a lot of time on texting or on social media are also more like to use drugs or alcohol and get into fights. Using a smartphone or computer just before bed can lead to sleep loss, according to a study from the National Sleep Foundation. But ignoring your phone can be difficult. A recent article in the New York Times by author and brand consultant Martin Lindstorm claimed the top three most powerful affecting sounds in the world are baby giggles, the Intel chime and a vibrating phone. Weldon confesses to feeling lost without his phone. He never turns it off. "Even when it's charging, it's on," he said. "I left it once Advertisement and went home on my lunch break just to get it." Smartphones also can be habit-forming, according to a study by Helsinki Institute for Information Technology and Intel Labs. Researchers found that smartphone users in the U.S. and in Finland checked their phone repeatedly throughout the day, usually for less than 30 seconds. They observed that the checks are usually triggered by the same things -- a person may always check email while commuting or always check the news when bored. "It's a boredom buster," said Mary Virginia Wehrenberg. She said she typically uses her smartphone truly as a phone, but the apps and texting also poses a great distraction when you're stuck waiting for something. Sharlene Brown said she tries to ration the time she spends on her smartphone. She's a fan of Words with Friends -- a popular Scrabble-like game -- and frequently plays using a dictionary app so she can check to make sure she's using real words. "I don't win as often but I love it." She said it's easy to waste time on her phone, especially on rainy or lazy days. Her kids -- ages 8 and 4 -- like playing games on her phone, too, but she only lets them use it for 15 to 30 minutes a day. "I do limit the time," she said. "Children shouldn't have it all the time." But there are benefits to the apps and texting a smartphone offers. Brown said there are math and word games available for her kids, like Quizard, an app that lets you create your own educational flashcards. "It's interactive. They get an immediate response." Texting also gives her more time with her kids, because she's not always on the phone. "It's an easier way to communicate. You send them a quick text," she said. "You don't want to take away from time with kids."

I was in a movie theatre last week when that new warning cartoon came on urging us not to talk or text. Suddenly I remembered those old no-smoking signs they had outside theatres decades ago - and I realized the transformation is complete. The cellphone has become the cigarette. Everywhere you look, people hold phones instead of cigarettes up to their mouths - exhaling words instead of smoke. Meanwhile, the anti-cell lobby is becoming as visible as the anti-smoking one. How else does the cellphone resemble the cigarette? - First, cigarettes were an ideal way for fidgety people to do something with their hands, whether they were rolling, lighting, twirling, tapping or dragging on them. But the cellphone has just as many rituals to keep fidgeters busy. You check your messages, organize your mail, then reorganize it - along with texting, Skyping, surfing, checking the weather for the 42nd time, or just fondling the keys. Instead of making smoke rings, the cellphone just rings - and while you light up a cigarette, your phone lights up itself. - Physically, phones have shrunk from the size of a brick to the size of - a cigarette pack. Men often carry them in their shirt pockets like they do their smokes. Women dump them in their purse like cigarette packs and spend just as much time looking for them. But at least you can phone your phone in your purse, while you couldn't phone your cigarettes. It won't be long before men start slipping their phones up their T-shirt sleeves, like they did cigarette packs decades ago. - In restaurants you lay your phone right on the table for instant access just like you did your cigarette pack when you were still allowed to smoke in restaurants. Cells are addictive like cigarettes, too - we clutch them needily while walking, driving, eating and even talking to others. I suspect that after sex, many people now reach over to check their messages, or text, instead of grabbing a smoke. - Just like cigarettes, the Big Phone Industry grows by targeting the young with cheap plans aimed at hooking them for life. A three-pack-a-day smoker smoked 60 cigarettes daily. Today's average teenager sends over 100 texts a day, according to recent figures - that's probably as much time texting as smoking. - For decades, cigarettes were an omnipresent movie prop that filled the screen with swirls of smoke - and film characters often smoked as they spilled their intimate secrets to the camera. Today, cigarette smoke is largely gone from the screen but cellphones ring constantly behind many scenes and are often used as props for characters to spill their intimate secrets. If Hamlet were written today, his anguished words spoken to Yorick's skull would probably be replaced by a cellphone soliloquy. - Cigarette pollution aggravates us - but cells create noise pollution that's just as annoying. Instead of second-hand smoke, you get second-hand conversation. In fact, a phone can pollute a room quicker than a cigarette, as in a supermarket line when you hear someone hollering: "They're out of salmon steaks, honey, so I'm getting tilapia, okay? But we need a side dish - look in the pantry to see if we have potatoes!! WHAT? - Honey - I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" Meanwhile, in the next aisle a teenager is anxiously saying: "Like I called him like an hour ago, but like, I don't like think he likes me anymore like I like him, like." - One big difference is that smok-ing definitely causes cancer while studies are inconclusive on cellphones. The science isn't there, though the fear is growing fast. Many people wear headsets for protection just like smokers used cigarette filters. But you don't see as many headsets in Montreal as in Toronto. Quebecers always liked strong, unfiltered cigarettes like Gitanes - and they don't like to filter their phones either. We give babies fake cellphones for their cribs like we used to give them chocolate cigarettes. - Now that cells are more common than cigarettes, anti-cell advocates are as zealous as anti-smokers. There are no-cell sections in many trains, hotels and restaurants, instead of no-cigarette sections. Most flights have banned cells just like they did cigarettes. We will probably live to see cells banned in bars too, so you'll have to phone outside in the cold. How long before we see class actions against Big Phone companies for deliberately addicting our kids to the nicotine of words, with cheap all-you-can-speak plans? How long before the first cellphone noise pollution settlement? How long before there's a cigarette app on your phone that lets you flick a video flame and safely inhale a tobacco-flavoured scent? You will virtually be smoking your cellphone.

It was a big win for addicts everywhere. Disgraced Catholic Bishop Raymond Lahey Wednesday talked a court into letting him off with time served for storing 155,000 pornographic images of young boys on his computer and handheld. He just couldn’t help himself. “I have come to recognize that I became addicted to Internet pornography on a very indiscriminate basis,” Lahey, 71, told the nice judge. “This was an addiction powerful enough that, despite my own distaste for it and my own internal convulsions, I could not break it.” Convulsions indeed. Lahey’s massive stash included 63 videos of bondage and torture, replete with rosary beads, crucifixes and monks beating naked boys with paddles. Lahey, whose computer was examined at Ottawa airport after officials noted his repeated trips to Southeast Asia and other countries rife with industrial child porn, was in the grip of the demon “addiction.” But so is everyone now. Addiction is a casual word used to excuse the pleasure forced in this ample age on helpless people by food, sex, work, coffee, gambling, rye and ginger, shopping, cosmetic surgery, Satanism, wheat flour, love, arson, notoriety, paint thinners, exercise, work, cheap thrills, etc. As if these things stood in doorways with a glint in their eye and offered you free samples. Addiction is a profitable, rehab-financing word for “habit.” And, if men like Lahey didn’t have this habit, it wouldn’t be profitable for children to be sodomized on film. This is the prosecutor’s motivation here (hopelessly addicted to protecting children), in case you’re puzzled that Lahey was convicted despite not appearing in the porn himself. No one knows what created Lahey’s attraction to pedophilia, but his “addiction” is his excuse for pure fun. People like this sort of thing, if this is the sort of thing they like. I am always puzzled by the conservative clamour for more consumer choice. We are spoiled for choice. I choose puce-toned nail polish and a mordant view; Lahey chooses Argyle sweater vests and Catholic-themed child torture. Are we both victims of the free market? Blaming the thing itself is not helpful, unless you’re an old bishop in Ottawa — who has been told to stay away from playgrounds, but strangely, not computers — in which case, it’s a brilliant move. I’m addicted, too. Pity me. On Boxing Day, I began watching The Killing, (Forbrydelsen), a Danish TV murder drama that I bought in a DVD box set for my husband (to whom I am addicted, although the addiction literature presumes I have resented him from the start) for Christmas. I spent 20 hours hunched in front of the TV shouting at a certain Det.-Insp. Lund, “Watch out, he’s behind you!” until I became ill from tension and eyestrain. But I didn’t go to the doctor, because what are doctors but addiction enablers? The release of discovering the true killer was addictive. I have now ordered Forbrydelsen from Europe and a backup all-regions DVD player at great expense, but I am hooked on Scandinavian detectives in their unfortunate fisherman’s knits. I blame the producers, Danmarks Radio. It’s not my fault. And it’s not the baby-faced bishop’s fault either. “Disgraced bishop Lahey may face Vatican discipline,” CBC.ca’s inadvertently amusing headline read. The church is famous for its “addiction” to laxity in this field. They have had years since his arrest to deal with an employee who, by chance, oversaw a church sex abuse settlement in his own Antigonish diocese. Lahey’s defence lawyer said the poor man, now being sued , is wearing a scarlet letter, but one of the prosecutors, David Elhadad, said acidly that the victims of child pornography bear “marks that are invisible to the naked eye but are of psychological harm, knowing that their photographed and videotaped sexual encounters are out there for eternity. They are the true victims.” And addicted to it now, no doubt.

The new pills contain the highly addictive painkiller hydrocodone, packing up to 10 times the amount of the drug as existing medications such as Vicodin. Four companies have begun patient testing, and one of them — Zogenix of San Diego — plans to apply early next year to begin marketing its product, Zohydro.

If approved, it would mark the first time patients could legally buy pure hydrocodone. Existing products combine the drug with nonaddictive painkillers such as acetaminophen.

Critics say they are especially worried about Zohydro, a timed-release drug meant for managing moderate to severe pain, because abusers could crush it to release an intense, immediate high.

“I have a big concern that this could be the next OxyContin,” said April Rovero, president of the National Coalition Against Prescription Drug Abuse. “We just don’t need this on the market.”

LIST: The Prescription Drug Overdose Epidemic, Plus 7 Other Health Stories to Watch in 2012

OxyContin, introduced in 1995 by Purdue Pharma of Stamford, Conn., was designed to manage pain with a formula that dribbled one dose of oxycodone over many hours.

Abusers quickly discovered they could defeat the timed-release feature by crushing the pills. Purdue Pharma changed the formula to make OxyContin more tamper-resistant, but addicts have moved onto generic oxycodone and other drugs that do not have a timed-release feature.

Oxycodone is now the most-abused medicine in the United States, with hydrocodone second, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s annual count of drug seizures sent to police drug labs for analysis.

The latest drug tests come as more pharmaceutical companies are getting into the $10 billion-a-year legal market for powerful — and addictive — opiate narcotics.

“It’s like the wild west,” said Peter Jackson, co-founder of Advocates for the Reform of Prescription Opioids. “The whole supply-side system is set up to perpetuate this massive unloading of opioid narcotics on the American public.”

The pharmaceutical firms say the new hydrocodone drugs give doctors another tool to try on patients in legitimate pain, part of a constant search for better painkillers to treat the aging U.S. population.

“Sometimes you circulate a patient between various opioids, and some may have a better effect than others,” said Karsten Lindhardt, chief executive of Denmark-based Egalet, which is testing its own pure hydrocodone product.

The companies say a pure hydrocodone pill would avoid liver problems linked to high doses of acetaminophen, an ingredient in products like Vicodin. They also say patients will be more closely supervised because, by law, they will have to return to their doctors each time they need more pills. Prescriptions for the weaker, hydrocodone-acetaminophen products now on the market can be refilled up to five times.

MORE: Could Medical Marijuana Reduce Patients’ Need for Painkillers?

Zogenix has completed three rounds of patient testing, and last week it announced it had held a final meeting with Food and Drug Administration officials to talk about its upcoming drug application. It plans to file the application in early 2012 and have Zohydro on the market by early 2013.

Purdue Pharma and Cephalon, a Frazer, Pa.-based unit of Israel-based Teva Pharmaceuticals, are conducting late-stage trials of their own hydrocodone drugs, according to documents filed with federal regulators. In May, Purdue Pharma received a patent applying extended-release technology to hydrocodone. Neither company would comment on its plans.

Meanwhile, Egalet has finished the most preliminary stages of testing aimed at determining the basic safety of a drug. The firm could have a product on the market as early as 2015 but wants to see how the other companies fare with the FDA before deciding whether to move forward, Lindhardt said.

Critics say they are troubled because of the dark side that has accompanied the boom in sales of narcotic painkillers: Murders, pharmacy robberies and millions of dollars lost by hospitals that must treat overdose victims.

Thousands of legitimate pain patients are becoming addicted to powerful prescription painkillers, they say, in addition to the thousands more who abuse the drugs.

Prescription painkillers led to the deaths of almost 15,000 people in 2008, more than triple the 4,000 deaths in 1999, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last month.

Emergency room visits related to hydrocodone abuse have shot from 19,221 in 2000 to 86,258 in 2009, according to data compiled by the Drug Enforcement Administration. In Florida alone, hydrocodone caused 910 deaths and contributed to 1,803 others between 2003 and 2007.

MORE: Are Doctors Really to Blame for the Overdose Epidemic?

Hydrocodone belongs to family of drugs known as opiates or opioids because they are chemically similar to opium. They include morphine, heroin, oxycodone, codeine, methadone and hydromorphone.

Opiates block pain but also unleash intense feelings of well-being and can create physical dependence. The withdrawal symptoms are also intense, with users complaining of cramps, diarrhea, muddled thinking, nausea and vomiting.

After a while, opiates stop working, forcing users to take stronger doses or to try slightly different chemicals.

“You’ve got a person on your product for life, and a doctor’s got a patient who’s never going to miss an appointment, because if they did and they didn’t get their prescription, they would feel very sick,” said Andrew Kolodny, president of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing. “It’s a terrific business model, and that’s what these companies want to get in on.”

Under pressure from the government, Purdue Pharma last year debuted a new OxyContin pill formula that “squishes” instead of crumbling when someone tries to crush it.

But Zogenix, whose drug is time-released but crushable, says there is not enough evidence to show that such tamper-resistant reformulations thwart abuse.

“Provided sufficient effort, all formulations currently available can be overcome,” Zogenix said in a written response to questions by The Associated Press.

MORE: A Brief History of OD’ing in America

At a conference for investors New York on Nov. 29, Zogenix chief executive Roger Hawley said the FDA was not pressuring Zogenix to put an abuse deterrent in Zohydro.

“We would certainly consider later launching an abuse-deterrent form, but right now we believe the priority of safer hydrocodone — that is, without acetaminophen — is a key priority for the FDA,” Hawley said.

FDA spokeswoman Erica Jefferson said the agency would not comment on its discussions with drug companies, citing the need to protect trade secrets.

Drug control advocates say they’re worried the U.S. government is too lax about controlling addictive pain medications. The United States consumes 99 percent of the world’s hydrocodone and 83 percent of its oxycodone, according to a 2008 study by the International Narcotics Control Board.

One 41-year-old loophole in particular has fed the current problem with hydrocodone abuse, critics say. The federal Controlled Substances Act, passed in 1970, puts fewer controls on combination pills containing hydrocodone and another painkiller than it does on the equivalent oxycodone products.

A Vicodin prescription can be refilled five times, for example, while a Percocet prescription can only be filled once.

The Drug Enforcement Administration and Food and Drug Administration have been studying whether to close this loophole since 1999 but have made no decision. Congress is now considering a bill that would force the agencies to tighten the controls.

“This is a problem that is fundamentally an oversupply problem,” said Jackson, the drug-control advocate. “The FDA has kind of opened the floodgates, and they refuse to recognize the mistakes made in the past.”

MORE: Taking Just a Little Too Much Tylenol Each Time Can Be Deadly

Pure hydrocodone falls into the stricter drug-control category than hydrocodone-acetaminophen medications, meaning patients would have to go to their doctors for a new prescription each time they needed more pills. But Jackson said that’s no guarantee against abuse, noting that dozens of unscrupulous doctors have been caught churning out prescriptions in so-called “pill mills.”

The Drug Enforcement Administration, which enforces controls on medicines along with the FDA, said it could not comment on drugs that have not yet been approved for sale.

However, Zogenix has acknowledged the abuse issue could become a liability.

“Illicit use and abuse of hydrocodone is well documented,” it said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in September. “Thus, the regulatory approval process and the marketing of Zohydro may generate public controversy that may adversely affect regulatory approval and market acceptance of Zohydro.”

14-year-old Alaska girl was in critical condition days after a 26-year-old man injected her with heroin at his Anchorage home, authorities said Tuesday.

Sean Warner is charged with a drug-related felony and other counts. Court documents say he tried to revive the girl himself and didn’t immediately call police.

“Her condition is dire,” Assistant District Attorney Regan Williams said Tuesday, adding the girl was on an artificial respirator. “The real sadness is that there’s not that much brain activity.”

The girl was taken to an Anchorage hospital Friday with a drug overdose, police said. Charging documents say the girl, identified only as J.D., was found to have heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine in her system. Medics told authorities she had sustained damage to her brain and heart.

Charging documents say the type of heroin used is known on the street at “China White.”

Police said the drug tends to be more potent than the more common tar heroin. It is sold in powder form and can be cut with varying ingredients in varying amounts, said Sgt. Kathy Lacey, who heads the Anchorage Police Department’s vice unit.

“The problem is you don’t know what it’s cut with,” Lacey said. “You have no idea what you’re getting.”

When asked where the girl’s parents were that night, Williams indicated she was not living at home and doesn’t come from a “typical family environment.” He declined to elaborate.

Warner’s bail was set at $90,000. A booking official said Warner remained in custody.

Warner is being represented by the Public Defender Agency, but it was unclear if he has been assigned to a specific attorney yet.

KTUU reported that Warner’s father and a friend dispute the allegations and they say Warner is a Navy veteran who saved lives as a medic in Afghanistan. The two said Warner had struggled since returning from the war.

According to the court papers, two others went with Warner to pick the girl up Thursday night and take her back to Warner’s home to hang out. Williams said both of the witnesses are men.

Warner was sharing a gram of heroin with the men, and the girl said she was willing to try something “new” but didn’t want to inject herself, according to the documents. Warner tried to inject the girl, but failed, so he had her lie down on his bed and hold out an arm, then used his belt as a tourniquet and shot 25 to 30 units of heroin, taking several times to find a vein, the papers say.

The two witnesses told authorities they left the girl on the bed and found her the next morning, face down in her vomit, according to the papers.

“They felt for her pulse, sat her up, and grew concerned at her condition and upset at Warner’s ambivalence,” the documents state.

Warner did not want to call 911 because he didn’t want authorities to find drugs, so instead he placed a tablet of Suboxone — a prescription drug that’s used to treat opiate addiction — under the unconscious girl’s tongue, according to the court papers. A couple hours later, the girl began convulsing and Warner called 911, the papers say.

The girl was rushed to Providence Alaska Medical Center.

Responding officers did not find drugs because Warner had locked his bedroom door and told police it belonged to a roommate, the court documents state. After police left, Warner and one of the witnesses put needles and other “related evidence” into a box then dumped it behind a trash bin at a nearby business, according to the papers, which say police later recovered paraphernalia including syringes.

Warner is charged with delivering a controlled substance to a minor who is at least three years younger than the accused, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and evidence tampering. He also is charged with theft, accused of stealing a $900 surveillance system from Costco on the same day he took the girl to his home, according to the documents

Babies as young as six months develop a taste for salty food, say researchers.

A new study shows infants who have been introduced to foods such as bread and breakfast cereals have a greater preference for salty tastimeals than those not yet eating them. 

Babies who were used to salt in their food consumed 55 per cent more during a preference test than those who were not.


Infants become addicted to salt at an early age, research has revealed

By the age of four, the same youngsters were more likely to eat plain salt, says a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Lead author Leslie Stein, a physiological psychologist at the Monell Centre in the United States, said 'More and more evidence is showing us that the first months of life constitute a sensitive period for shaping flavour preferences.

In the study, the salt preference of 61 babies was tested at both two and six months of age. At each age, the infant was allowed to drink from three bottles for two minutes each. 

One bottle contained water, another contained a moderate concentration of salt (one per cent, about the saltiness of commercial chicken noodle soup) and the third bottle had a higher concentration of salt of around two per cent, which tastes extremely salty to adults.

Preference for salty taste was calculated at each age by comparing the amount the baby drank of a given salt solution to the amount of water it consumed.

If the infant drank more of the one per cent salt solution than water, it was considered to have a preference for the one per cent solution and at two months infants were either indifferent to or rejected the salt solutions.


Research has shown by the age of four children who were given salt at six months were more likely to want more on their meals

But by the age of six months, there was a link between the preference of babies for salty food and their previous exposure to starchy meals containing salt, including processed foods.

Altogether 26 infants already eating starchy foods preferred both salt solutions to water, while 35 babies who had not yet been introduced to these foods remained indifferent to or continued to reject the salt solutions.

The researchers focused on starchy table foods because they include processed foods, such as breakfast cereals, bread and crackers, frequently are used to wean children.

Dr Stein said 'Our findings suggest that early dietary experience influences the preference for salty taste.'

The same children were checked at pre-school age when mothers completed questionnaires about the children's dietary behaviour.

These showed that 12 children who were introduced to starchy table foods before six months of age were more likely to lick salt from foods and also were likely to eat plain salt.

Babies as young as six months develop a taste for salty food, say researchers.

A new study shows infants who have been introduced to foods such as bread and breakfast cereals have a greater preference for salty tasting meals than those not yet eating them.

Babies who were used to salt in their food consumed 55 per cent more during a preference test than those who were not.


Infants become addicted to salt at an early age, research has revealed

By the age of four, the same youngsters were more likely to eat plain salt, says a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Lead author Leslie Stein, a physiological psychologist at the Monell Centre in the United States, said 'More and more evidence is showing us that the first months of life constitute a sensitive period for shaping flavour preferences.

In the study, the salt preference of 61 babies was tested at both two and six months of age. At each age, the infant was allowed to drink from three bottles for two minutes each.


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One bottle contained water, another contained a moderate concentration of salt (one per cent, about the saltiness of commercial chicken noodle soup) and the third bottle had a higher concentration of salt of around two per cent, which tastes extremely salty to adults.

Preference for salty taste was calculated at each age by comparing the amount the baby drank of a given salt solution to the amount of water it consumed.

If the infant drank more of the one per cent salt solution than water, it was considered to have a preference for the one per cent solution and at two months infants were either indifferent to or rejected the salt solutions.


Research has shown by the age of four children who were given salt at six months were more likely to want more on their meals

But by the age of six months, there was a link between the preference of babies for salty food and their previous exposure to starchy meals containing salt, including processed foods.

Altogether 26 infants already eating starchy foods preferred both salt solutions to water, while 35 babies who had not yet been introduced to these foods remained indifferent to or continued to reject the salt solutions.

The researchers focused on starchy table foods because they include processed foods, such as breakfast cereals, bread and crackers, frequently are used to wean children.

Dr Stein said 'Our findings suggest that early dietary experience influences the preference for salty taste.'

The same children were checked at pre-school age when mothers completed questionnaires about the children's dietary behaviour.

These showed that 12 children who were introduced to starchy table foods before six months of age were more likely to lick salt from foods and also were likely to eat plain salt.

Estell "Hump" Hobbs ran a Houston record label with up-and-coming hip-hop artist, Lil' Flip, and had a deal with Sony potentially worth millions of dollars.

The agreement quickly crumbled under the weight of legal disputes and the two parted ways.

Hobbs has since worked in remodeling and construction as he seeks to resurrect the label, and now keep his freedom.

The 52-year-old father of four with no criminal record was recently charged with being part of a cocaine-distribution network that over 15 years reached from Mexico, through Houston and on to Chicago, Mississippi and elsewhere.

"It is stressful, it is painful to see my family worried for me after so many years of hard work and dedication to the label, the city and the family," Hobbs told the Houston Chronicle Friday. "It is crazy. They are trying to take my house."

Reflecting on his life and passion, he said he's been influential in helping performers from hip hop's "Dirty South" to beat the streets, and notes that his label, Suckafree Records, is looking for its next gospel singer.

On the advice of his lawyer, he said he would not discuss the charges or the criminals making accusations against him.

"It is always when you do the work of God that the devil tries to stay busy," he said.

Hobbs is described by those who have known him as hard-working and active in his community as well as religious rap.

"I hate to see him in that type of trouble," Lil' Flip's father, Wesley Weston Sr. said. "The person I know him to be is a very good person," said Weston, who is no longer in touch with Hobbs.

Alleged trafficking ties

The alleged conspiracy cuts a unique path as it connects what prosecutors said was a predominantly African-American distribution group directly with Mexican traffickers.

Defense lawyer Robert Pelton notes Hobbs has never before been prosecuted for a crime.

He points to back to when Suckafree donated 150 bicycles to children for Christmas, and when Hobbs was recognized by the Hip Hop Summit, which has mobilized thousands of youth to vote.

"Mr. Hobbs has done a lot to help his family and people not only in the music industry, but the entirety of Harris County community," Pelton said.

The man, who also goes by Duane and got the nickname "Humpty Hump" as a child, has not been known to flash cash, and has lived in the same modest house for years.

He is charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine and launder money, and if convicted faces 10 years to life in federal prison without parole.

His supposed role is unclear, but nobody contends he was a kingpin or a killer.

Authorities announced they intend to seize his house, a Hummer and other property on the grounds they are tied to illegal activity.

A judicial buzz saw has already convicted 38 people in the investigation, including one who allegedly told the Drug Enforcement Administration he delivered more than 100 kilograms of cocaine on multiple occasions to Hobbs.

All pleaded guilty as part of agreements to cooperate with authorities for leniency.

Hobbs, who is free on bail, is scheduled to be back in court at the end of January for a hearing that may reveal whether he and nine remaining defendants are taking deals rather than risking trial.

A hidden past?

Prosecutors contend that Hobbs has a past hidden in a conspiracy that lasted from 1995 to 2010.

Eric Davis, a Harris County sheriff's deputy assigned to a DEA task force testified that informants have said Hobbs was at the scene of numerous deals.

David also said Hobbs was recorded in "several" phone conversations talking to an associate, Abraham Woods, who shortly after being released from custody following a drug bust in 2009 was found dead in a Houston apartment.

Woods, who was the group's primary link to Mexican traffickers, was tied up and shot execution style, with two bullets to the back of the head. A pillow case had been pulled over his eyes.

The attack remains unsolved.

The drug investigation has also drawn links to Jaime Zamora, who is serving life in prison after being convicted earlier this year for ordering a Houston drug hit that killed an innocent man in a case of mistaken identity. That bloodshed was part of a back-and-forth feud between Zamora and a rival that claimed lives in Houston and Mexico.

Ron Wilson, a former state representative who served for 29 years, and has been Suckafree's lawyer, said he was "very close" to the Hobbs family. Hobbs said he considers him a big brother.

Wilson testified he knows Hobbs, his wife and his children, and he's never known him to carry wads of cash or keep company with drug dealers or other criminals.

"No, I have not seen that," Wilson said.

Pelton said Hobbs is being framed by desperate criminals willing to lie: "A bunch of guys in the drug business, not any normal citizens, but a bunch of dope fiends."

Hobbs said he's taking things day by day and staying close to his family.

It is not easy. I am human. I worry about it, but I know God will not let anything come to me that I couldn't deal with," he said. "I am surrounded by praying warriors."

His son was supposed to meet him and his wife for dinner but never showed up. Joe Klein got a call from police the next night instead.

Most parents would be surprised to receive a phone call regarding their son’s death, but as parents of a heroin addict, Klein and his wife knew it could come at any time.

“Obviously I was sad, but it wasn’t something that was entirely unexpected.” Klein, whose son died of a heroin overdose after eight years of battling addiction, said. “He was always kind of a risk-taker, he was always the kind of kid who would stand on his tiptoes to get on a roller coaster.”

Timothy Klein, 31, died at a friend’s apartment on the corner of Wilson and Broom Street in June of 2008. His was one of 21 overdoses in Dane County in 2008 that have contributed to the rising trend in heroin use and overdoses in Madison and throughout Dane County in recent years.

According to the Madison Police Department, the number of heroin overdoses in Dane County so far in 2011 is 131, over six times higher than in 2008.

“As much as I hated to see it happen, I can tell you one thing: Since that day [he died], my life’s been a lot better,” Klein said. “It really has because it was a constant, constant either aggravation or worry.”

Madison’s heroin problem has increased substantially over the last 10 years, with a spike around five years ago, according to Skye Tikkanen, a counselor at Connections Counseling in Madison and a former heroin addict.

Mayor Paul Soglin has called the city’s heroin problem “an epidemic,” because of “the loss of life of productive people … the costs related to the expense of the drug” and major traffic problems.

Police have reported 12 traffic accidents in 2011 in the Madison area in which drivers operated vehicles under the influence of heroin.

Lt. Brian Ackeret of the Dane County Narcotics and Gang Task Force said although he is unsure whether many of these users attend college, he said police would be “naïve to think that there are not heroin users on the UW campus.”

The increase in overdoses has most affected the 18 to 24-year-old age bracket, Ackeret said.

Heroin users often finance their addictions through burglarizing and reselling valuable items to pawn shops for quick money, which places students in a highly vulnerable position, Soglin said.

“Students are trusting with roommates and dozens of people coming and going every day,” he said. “And students have what’s marketable: electronics.”

Klein was forced to put a lock on his bedroom door after Timothy repeatedly stole his debit card and his wife’s expensive guitar. He sold them at pawn shops for easy money to fuel his addiction.

“It just turns a good person into a monster,” Klein said. “He got caught stealing copper and embezzling from his job, writing bad checks, just a litany of things, one after another.”

The drug, which is circulating through Madison from bigger cities like Chicago and Milwaukee, “puts everyone at risk,” Soglin said.

“It puts anybody who is active who might have say a sports-related injury,” he said. “That would tend to be younger people, students.”

But the heroin problem in Madison, Dane County and throughout the U.S. did not spring up out of nowhere. Rather, it surfaced from increased addictions to painkillers prescribed by doctors nationwide.

“The first place [painkiller addicts] look is to get the same medicine on the street,” Soglin said. “That’s very expensive. So then, as the addiction [and] the dependency increases, heroin becomes a cheaper substitute.”

Soglin said the U.S. Conference of Mayors has pushed the medical community to reformulate painkiller drugs to be less addictive or to find alternative therapies for pain.

Breaking a heroin addiction can be nearly impossible, and an addict can suffer multiple relapses before a full recovery is possible, according to Tikkanen.

Klein sent his son to rehab three or four times. With the money he spent hoping he would recover, Klein said he probably could have sent Timothy to Harvard.

“When someone has a relapse, our stance at Connections is that it’s not a failure of them, it’s not a failure of treatment; it’s just part of the process of recovering,” Tikkanen said. “So we really try to take the relapse as a learning opportunity.”

But addicts often fall victim to an overdose before the recovery process is complete.

Klein’s son would often be clean for a year or more after rehab until old friends would reappear in his life and expose him to the drug once again.

“[Timothy] told me, ‘Dad you just can’t … never having taken heroin, you can’t imagine what it feels like, it is the most amazing feeling there is in the world,” Klein said.

Reality hit Klein and his wife when they noticed teaspoons missing from their kitchen cupboard and discovered needle syringes among their youngest son’s belongings.

Shallow breathing and “slowed down” behavior are also major indicators someone may be using heroin, Tikkanen said.

When he was addicted, Timothy’s parents often considered throwing him out of their house and turned him in to police more than once to limit his access to the drug.

“People who haven’t experienced living with an addict just don’t have any idea what it’s like,” Klein said.

The epidemic in Madison has gotten to the point that Soglin and Dane County Executive Joe Parisi put forth an initiative to combat the issue.

They announced the plan Oct. 19.

The plan will cost $60,000, money that will be split between city and county budgets. The initiative outlines six steps to hinder the use and spread of heroin in Madison and Dane County.

But Soglin said it is too early to tell its progress.

Life will “never be a bed of roses” for addicts’ families once an addiction begins, Klein said.

“The best I can [tell anyone to do] is pray,” he said. “Because the light’s got to go on in the addict’s head.”

former senior police officer has been jailed for 22 years for his part in an international drug-smuggling ring. Mark Standen, a former assistant director of New South Wales Crime Commission, was convicted of trying to import 300kg of psuedoephedrine. The drug is mixed with other substances to make crystal methamphetamine. He conspired with an informant to import the drug from Pakistan. Judges said he was given the maximum term because he had shown no remorse. Justice Bruce James said he had used his inside information on law enforcement built up over 30 years to commit his crimes. "A matter seriously aggravating the prisoner's criminality was his misuse of knowledge and contacts he had acquired in his career as a law enforcement officer, and the abuse of his position with the NSW Crime Commission," said the judge at the New South Wales Supreme Court. Before his role with the crime commission 54-year-old Standen had worked for the police and customs. Standen, who has been in jail since 2008, will be eligible for parole after 16 years of his sentence.

It is a common misconception that people under the age of 18 will be tried as minors if they are caught smuggling drugs into the United States, especially in Yuma County, said U.S. Border Patrol officials. From Jan. 1 through the end of September, 74 percent of juveniles arrested for drug smuggling were tried as adults, said Yuma Sector Agent Spencer Tippets. “It's not just going to be a slap on the wrist, it will stay with you for the rest of your life,” he warned, noting that drug smuggling is a felony that can ruin job opportunities. “The more good choices you make, the more choices you will have in the future. If you make a lot of poor choices, it limits the options you have.” Tippets and fellow agents Robert Lowry and Kyle Estes have been traveling to high schools in Yuma to speak with freshmen about the dangers and consequences associated with drug trafficking through a presentation called “Operation Detour.” During a presentation at Harvest Preparatory Academy on Tuesday, the agents asked students whether they think these types of situations happen in Yuma. Most teens in the audience were not convinced. He then shared a story of a Yuma-area high school student found on the other side of the border fence who had barbed wire wrapped around her neck and had been shot. “This happens,” he said. Tippets said drug-trafficking organizations have recently stepped up their efforts to recruit juveniles to smuggle drugs into the U.S. To further verify that statement, when students were asked how many of them had been approached to take drugs across the border, some raised their hands. Tippets explained that once someone gets involved with drug cartels, there are only two ways to get out: jail or the grave. There is a detour, though, he said: talking with parents, teachers, school counselors, principals, law enforcement officers or an adult they trust about the situation. Students asked, “What if you're just walking down the street and they threaten to kill you if you don't do it?” Tippets responded, “It's not very common for someone you don't know to approach you to try and get you to smuggle drugs. If that did happen, there are officers all around you when you cross the border. Let someone know what's going on and ask for help.” Most of the time, Lowry interjected, students are approached by people they know. Good decision-making is key, he added, and if someone you know approaches you at a party to smuggle drugs, you probably shouldn't be at that party or hanging around with those people in the first place. “If you're in a place where there's drugs and there's alcohol and gangsters — why would you be there? Avoid those types of situations.” Smuggling drugs won't just impact the person involved, but also their friends and family, said Lowry. Chances are, he said, if you're working with a cartel, they know where you live and where you work. “If somebody is that interested to have you drive something through the checkpoint, tell them to do it themselves. You have to think about why they're wanting you to do it. It's because they don't want to be the fall guy. Cartels are willing to do whatever they need to do to make sure they're not the ones that end up in jail.”

Confessions of a Big Book Sponsor | Big BookStudies,The Steps in 4 hours

Related Categories: Big Book Sponsorship I remember asking someone in the fellowship a few years ago, "Are you working your program?" He replied, "Yes I went to a meeting today." I responded, "No, that's not what I'm talking about. Are you working with someone?" He said, "Yes, I have a sponsor." I replied, "No, that's not what I'm talking about. Are you working with a newcomer?" He said, "I'm just a few months sober. I'm only a newcomer. This is selfish program, I need to work on myself first." I never saw him again. Who Am I? I am a Big Book Sponsor. I practice the 12 Step Program as outlined in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, the original recipe for recovery as practiced by the original 100 who recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. By working the Twelve Step program as described in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, I have had a spiritual awakening. The obsession to drink and use has been removed. My progressive alcoholic/addiction illness has been arrested. My disease has been placed into remission. I have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. As a result, I am able to remain, almost effortlessly, abstinent from alcohol and all mind-altering substances. I have ceased fighting anything or anyone, even alcohol and drugs. My sanity has been returned. I am not fighting temptation, nor am I avoiding people, places and things on a trigger list. I feel as though I had been placed in a position of neutrality safe and protected. I have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for me. I am neither cocky nor am I afraid. This is how I react so long as I keep in fit spiritual condition. Furthermore, by living in the disciplines of Steps 10, 11 and 12 everyday, I have a daily program of action that really works in rough going. I have way of living without alcohol or drugs. You can recognize me at 12 Step meetings because I am the one who brings my own Big Book. To show other alcoholics/addicts precisely how I recovered is the main purpose of this book. I carry a common solution--a way out on which we can absolutely agree and upon which we can join together as brothers and sisters in harmonious action. My deportment shouts that I am a person with a real answer. I carry no attitude of Holier Than Thou. I do not talk down to the alcoholic/addict from any moral or spiritual hilltop. I ask for no payment. I have no axes to grind nor people to please. You can expect to endure no lectures from me. My only desire is to be helpful. I offer friendship and fellowship. What I do You will find me at 12 Step meetings armed with the facts about myself. As an ex-problem drinker/user, you will see me making an approach to the newcomer--looking for someone who needs and wants hear about our common solution--someone with an honest desire to stop drinking or using--someone who wants what I have and is willing to follow the instructions as outlined in the Big Book--someone who wants to be joyous and free of active alcoholism and or addiction. When I find someone who really wants to stop drinking or using, we go to a coffee shop and, together we read and study the first 164 pages of the Big Book. When we come to a Step instruction, we take the Step together as instructed in the Big Book. I practice co-sponsorship--two addicts, working one-on-one, seeking a Higher Power. Because lack of power is our dilemma, we meet three to four times a week, working quickly, all 12 Steps in 30 days or less. My purpose for sponsorship is to teach others how to teach others how to work the 12 Step program as outlined in the Big Book of A.A. Therefore, once the new person has learned and worked all 12 Steps and is living in the disciplines of Steps 10 and 11 on a daily basis, I help my sponsee find a qualified addict who wants to stop and get them working together on their 12 Step journey. Thus, I conclude my formal sponsorship with my sponsee, knowing that they have a dependence, not on me, but upon their Higher Power. Moreover, I rest easy, knowing that the fellowship has one more teacher amongst its members, freeing me to commence looking for another willing, honest and open-minded addict to instruct and repeat the process. Working with other alcoholics/addicts I have carried the message of the Big Book to many alcoholics and addicts and rarely have I seen a person fail who thoroughly follows our path. Untreated alcoholic/addicts are unlovely people. My struggles with them are strenuous, comic and tragic. Those who could not or would not see our way of life are often consumed by their temptations which leads them to the gates of insanity or death. Helping other addicts is the foundation stone of my recovery. A kindly act once in a while isn't enough for me. I have shared time, energy and money. My business and personal life has been interrupted by the telephone ringing at any time of the day or night. My spouse sometimes feels neglected. I have made innumerable trips to police courts, detox centers, hospitals, jails and asylums. I have counseled frantic spouses and relatives. Occasionally I have to meet such conditions. I have worked hard with many alcoholics/addicts on the idea that only an addict can help another addict. I have had many failures. I once asked another Big Book Sponsor about their success rates and she replied, "I am 100% successful". Astounded, I asked how is that possible? She replied, "I'm still sober". That to me is one of the best kept secrets in our fellowship today. I often hear that this is a "selfish program", but whenever I put my sobriety first I could never stay sober. When I started showing the newcomer how to stay sober, I have found no trouble staying sober. As Doctor Bob once remarked, "strenuous work one alcoholic with another was vital to permanent recovery". Love and tolerance of others is my code In the 12 Step rooms I have been accused of being a Step Nazi, Big Book Thumper, a Holy Roller, a Zealot, and most recently I was called a "Steptard". I have been thrown out of groups and asked not to come back. I have been asked not to bring my Big Book into some A.A. meetings. I have been physically and verbally threatened by members of the fellowship for teaching that our 12 Step Program can be learned in an afternoon. I have been blamed for killing people with the Big Book. When confronted with such animosity, my program tells me I have to look at my part. Have I been crusading, righteous, or critical? Have I been engaging in frothy debates or windy arguments? Have I been demonstrating an attitude of intolerance? Yes, there have been times when I have been all these things, but I claim spiritual progress not perfection and I am no saint. I confess that I am a Big Book fundamentalist. I work my Big Book like a recipe for recovery. When I follow the 12 Step instructions as outlined in the book, it awakens my mind and I make conscious contact with my Higher Power. I must remember that when I focus my mind on what is wrong with the fellowship and the meetings today, the more I become restless, irritable and discontented. I must remember that the meetings are filled with many suffering and untreated addicts. Therefore, I practice acceptance and focus on what is good about the meetings and the fellowship. I try to see what I can positively add to the meeting--my only desire is to be helpful. Sometimes I have charged the "meeting makers" of killing people with their, "Don't drink and go to meetings" mantra. In return, they, the "Meeting Makers Make It" sect, have accused me of killing people with my Big Book thumping attitude. What I have learned is this: it is not the "Meeting Makers" that are killing people nor is it the "Big Book thumpers", it's the 20 to 30 years of abusive drinking and using that kills the alcoholic/addict. I must remember that I have no monopoly on recovery, but I do know that the Big Book solution works. Why do I continue to work with other alcoholic/addicts? Having had a spiritual experience, I try to practice the 12 Step principles in all my affairs. First, I take care of family, for sobriety is not enough and I am a long way from making good to my spouse, parents and children whom for years I have so shockingly treated. Second, I take care of my business, for there can be no family if I am not self-supporting. And third, in my spare time, I carry this message to other alcoholic addicts. For me, this approach, in this order, is a balanced program. Over the years I have witnessed a fellowship grow up about me. I have watched the spirit grow in the eyes of a suffering individual and seen them recover from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. I have seen them make a 180 degree turn in life, only to help some other suffering addict do the same. This is the experience I would not miss. I know you will not want to miss it either. Frequent contact with newcomers and other Big Book sponsors is a bright spot in my day. My life has taken on a new meaning and I seem to be of benefit to others. I have found a new freedom and happiness. I know serenity and peace. I continue to lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in the people in my life. My attitude and outlook on life has changed. Fear and economic insecurity is down and I know how to intuitively handle situations which use to baffle me. I realize that my Higher Power does for me what I could not do for myself alone. A Vision For You Thus I grow spiritually and so can you with a Big Book in your hand. It contains all you will need to begin working with the addict who still suffers. I know what you are thinking, "I'm a newcomer myself and I do not have enough sobriety time to be of use to anyone. What could I possibly offer another newcomer? Maybe I should wait a year or two." Rubbish! By working the Big Book solution, you will tap a source of power greater than yourself. To duplicate, with such backing, what I have accomplished is only a matter of willingness, patience and labour. Remember your reliance is always upon your Higher Power. It will show you how to create the fellowship you crave. Ask in morning mediation what you can do for the addict who still suffers. The answers will come if you work your program. But if you are shaky you had better work with another alcoholic/addict instead. Remember you have recovered and have been given the power to help others. You will soon find out that when all other measures fail, work with another alcoholic/addict will save the day. Give freely of what you have been shown and join us on the Broad Highway of the Fellowship of the Spirit. You will surely meet some of us as you trudge the Road of Happy Destiny. Trust God, Clean House, Help Others. Cameron F. Toronto, ONDISCLAIMER:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder. Posted 1 week ago by Reporters Labels: Confessions of a Big Book Sponsor 0 Add a comment Big BookStudies,The Steps in 4 hours The book that introduced the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous to the world has never appeared on any best-seller list. It is not advertised or promoted. And its authors will never appear on talk shows. Yet this book, now in its fourth edition, has sold over 23 million copies in English and is published in 48 languages. That book is "Alcoholics Anonymous"--affectionately known to AA members as the "Big Book." Classic Flipcard Magazine Mosaic Sidebar Snapshot Timeslide DEC 7 DREAMWARRIOR IN RECOVERY The sea is merging with the sky and clouds obscuring the high mountains of the Morrocan coast.Gazing down the valley the bright sunlight flashes off the surface of the lake below me.The cry of a disgruntled chicken drifts up the valley from below me, making me aware of the gentle twitter of tiny bir Life is not impossible........Life is improving Life is not impossible........Life is improving.Each day,each hour thanks to the new found acceptability to a personal,loving higher power.Your will not have an insane,controlling self-will running your life.The exercise of unburdening myself of self will in my meditation makes me realize I no longe something quiet, calm and hidden is happening and certain people are being called by a higher light. On the surface of the Earth exactly now there is war and violence and everything looks horrible.  But, simultaneously, something quiet, calm and hidden is happening and certain people are being called by a higher light. A quiet revolution is settling from the inside out.  From bottom to top. Confessions of a Big Book Sponsor Posted At : April 24, 2010 2:21 PM | Posted By : Admin Related Categories: Big Book Sponsorship I remember asking someone in the fellowship a few years ago, "Are you working your program?" He replied, "Yes I went to a meeting today." I responded, "No, that's not what I'm talking about. Take 5 seconds just to be quiet. Take 5 seconds just to be quiet. If Life has no interest in the past, why should you? It doesn't matter what it is--an atom, a thought, a sound, a situation, a body, a mental state, a plant a storm, a mountain, or a galaxy--everything that we know of is changing What we think, we become DREAMWARRIOR teaches how to become fundamentally present and how to arise in mastery of your mind and ego The world we see merely reflects our own internal frame of reference As Bill Sees It-Selfish? - SoberRecovery : Alcoholism Drug Addiction Help and Information AA First and the “Selfish” Program « Don't Drink and Don't Die A Selfish Program? the Internet has many of us on a very short leash – an addictive one. Vision is, I think, the ability to make good estimates,

Take 5 seconds just to be quiet. | Big BookStudies,The Steps in 4 hours

Take 5 seconds just to be quiet. Everything that disappeared in those 5 seconds for you, that’s what’s not real. So when you are not thinking, everything that disappears… that’s what’s not real. For most people, that’s about 99% of their whole experience of life… their whole world.

I can watch my serenity level rise when I discard my expectations. But then my “rights” try to move in, and they, too, can force my serenity level down. I have to discard my “rights,” as well as my expectations, by asking myself, “How important is it, really? How important is it com­pared to my serenity, my emotional sobriety?” And when I place more value on my serenity and sobriety than on anything else, I can maintain them at a higher level—at least for the time being.   -- Doctor, Alcoholic, Addict, Alcoholics Anonymous, page 452 (3rd Ed.) -- Acceptance Was The Answer, Alcoholics Anonymous, page 422 (4th Ed.)

Anti-narcotics agents working for the US government have laundered or smuggled millions of dollars in drug proceeds to see how the system works and use the information against Mexican drug cartels, The New York Times reported Sunday. Citing unnamed current and former federal law enforcement officials, the newspaper said the agents, primarily with the Drug Enforcement Administration, have handled shipments of hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal cash across borders. Some 45,000 people have been killed in Mexico since 2006, when its government launched a major military crackdown against the powerful drug cartels that have terrorized border communities as they battled over lucrative smuggling routes. According to these officials, the operations were aimed at identifying how criminal organizations move their money, where they keep their assets and, most important, who their leaders are, the report said. The agents had deposited the proceeds in accounts designated by traffickers, or in shell accounts set up by agents, the paper noted. While the DEA conducted such operations in other countries, it began doing so in Mexico only in the past few years, The Times said. As it launders drug money, the agency often allows cartels to continue their operations over months or even years before making seizures or arrests, the report said. According to The Times, agency officials declined to publicly discuss details of their work, citing concerns about compromising their investigations. But Michael Vigil, a former senior official who is currently working for a private contracting company called Mission Essential Personnel, is quoted by the paper as saying: "We tried to make sure there was always close supervision of these operations so that we were accomplishing our objectives, and agents weren?t laundering money for the sake of laundering money."

Understanding how our states of mind are easily prompted by others, we can also see the importance of spiritual friendships. Whether in meditation communities, churches, group psychotherapy, or AA, the help we provide for one another is critical. At one time the Buddha's attendant Ananda asked if spiritual friendship was not half of the holy life. In response, the Buddha declared, "Spiritual friendship, association with wise and noble firends, and wise and noble deeds are the whole of the holy life," No matter what our intentions, we all need help from others around us as mirrors. Sometimes we need prompting in the form of fierce critical support from our AA sponsor or the honest feedback of our friends when we go astray. We also need the prompting of those who can see our goodness and who can speak with wisdom and courage to our good heart.