Mexico opposition may work with criminals

<p> </p><p>Mexican President Felipe Calderon has said politicians in the main opposition party may consider deals with criminals, opening an inflammatory new front in the nation's presidential election campaign. Calderon's blunt remarks about the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which is favored to win the July 1, 2012 election, are unusual in a country where the president is expected to stay largely aloof from party politics. Centering on the policy that has dominated his presidency -- an aggressive army-led crackdown on drug cartels -- his comments risk polarizing opinion on how to restore stability to Mexico, where the drug war has killed 44,000 in five years. Leading members of Calderon's conservative National Action Party (PAN), other PRI opponents and political analysts have accused the once-dominant party of making secret deals with drug cartels in the past to keep the peace in Mexico. In a weekend New York Times interview published a day after he said a state governed by the PRI had been left in the hands of a drug gang, Calderon was asked whether the opposition party might pursue a corrupt relationship with organized crime. "There are many in the PRI who think the deals of the past would work now. I don't see what deal could be done, but that is the mentality many of them have," said Calderon, whom the law prevents from seeking a second six-year term. Calderon's office later issued a statement saying the newspaper had expressly noted when posing the question that the PRI had a reputation for making deals with organized crime. His office underlined that the president recognized many in the PRI did not favor this approach and supported his policy. Analysts say Calderon is bitterly opposed to the PRI, which dominated Mexico for seven decades until PAN won the presidency in 2000 under its candidate Vicente Fox. The tide of drug war killings has eroded support for the PAN, and the PRI's main hopeful, the telegenic former governor of the State of Mexico, Enrique Pena Nieto, has around twice the support of his nearest rival. NAMING NAMES The PRI has attacked Calderon for the spiraling death toll, and analysts said the president's remarks were tailored for the election, putting in jeopardy any hope of passing many pending reforms that have been stalled in Congress. "This is really serious," Javier Oliva, a political scientist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), said of Calderon's comments about the PRI. "The president has an obligation to prove this now. To name names." "The president is regressing into a negative stance of being president of the PAN, and not president of Mexico." The Times noted that Calderon "looked disgusted at the mere mention of the PRI" during the interview. The statement issued by his office said Calderon mentioned the ex-PRI governor of Nuevo Leon state, Socrates Rizzo, as someone who had pointed to the existence of such pacts. Rizzo's comments, which were reported early this year, were rejected by leading PRI figures at the time. The PRI's national chairman, Humberto Moreira, told El Universal's Sunday newspaper his party did not want to make deals with organized crime and that Calderon was trying to exploit the issue of public security for political ends.</p>

Mexico opposition may work with criminals

  Mexican President Felipe Calderon has said politicians in the main opposition party may consider deals with criminals, opening an inflamma...

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Mexico’s military says soldiers freed 61 men being held captive by the Zetas drug cartel for use as forced labor

<p> </p><p>Mexico’s military says soldiers freed 61 men being held captive by the Zetas drug cartel for use as forced labor. The army says the men were found guarded by three Zetas kidnappers in a safe house in the border city of Piedras Negras on Saturday. Soldiers made the discovery during a security sweep in the area that also turned up an abandoned truck filled with 6 tons of marijuana. Loading... Comments Weigh InCorrections? In a press conference Sunday, Gen. Luis Crescencio Sandoval Gonzalez said one of the captives was from Honduras and others were from various parts of Mexico. He said the three kidnappers were arrested. Piedras Negras sits across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas, in the Mexican state of Coahuila, which has been the scene of ongoing battles between drug gangs.</p>

Mexico’s military says soldiers freed 61 men being held captive by the Zetas drug cartel for use as forced labor

  Mexico’s military says soldiers freed 61 men being held captive by the Zetas drug cartel for use as forced labor. The army says the men w...

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Four former members of the Colombian army's special forces are training members of Los Zetas

<p> </p><p>Four former members of the Colombian army's special forces are training members of Los Zetas, considered Mexico's most violent drug cartel, the Bogota daily El Tiempo reported Sunday. The retired soldiers - two captains and two sergeants - served time in Colombia for human rights violations. "The identities of the soldiers have not been released because charges have not been filed against them," El Tiempo said, adding that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Mexican police and Colombian police were tracking their movements.</p>

Four former members of the Colombian army's special forces are training members of Los Zetas

  Four former members of the Colombian army's special forces are training members of Los Zetas, considered Mexico's most violent dru...

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You shoot a police officer, you’re going to get shot back at

<p><img alt="" src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_606w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2011/10/10/Foreign/Images/AP110608041916.jpg" /></p><p> </p><p>A little before dawn on a sticky summer night in June, one of Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s Ranger Reconnaissance Teams was running a clandestine operation along the Rio Grande when its surveillance squad came across a Dodge Durango pickup truck loaded with bales of Mexican marijuana. Bad idea, messing with Texas. 37 Comments Weigh InCorrections? inShare Gallery  The Texas governor is seeking the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. Gallery  Mexico's ongoing drug war continues to claim lives and disrupt order in the country. More On This Story Read more on PostPolitics.com Rick Perry a hawk on Texas border security Perry and Romney dominate GOP fundraising Cain defends ‘9-9-9’ tax overhaul plan View all Items in this Story The lawmen chased the truck along the river, with a Texas Department of Public Safety helicopter swooping overhead and Texas game wardens roaring down the Rio Grande in boats, state authorities said. In minutes, the traffickers had ditched the truck in the muddy water and were rafting the dope back to Mexico. Then the shooting started. Alone among his Republican rivals running for president, the Texas governor has a small army at his disposal. Over the past three years, he has deployed it along his southern flank in a secretive, military-style campaign that his supporters deem absolutely necessary and successful and that his critics call an overzealous, expensive and mostly ineffective political stunt. A hawk when it comes to Mexican cartels, Perry said in New Hampshire this month that as president he would consider sending U.S. troops into Mexico to combat drug violence there and stop it from spilling into the United States. The June incident along the Rio Grande was typical of Perry’s border security campaign: a lot of swagger, with mixed results. The initial news release said the Texas Rangers team came “under heavy fire” by members of the Gulf cartel, though officials later said it was “four to six shots.” The Texas Rangers and their multi-agency task force, which included U.S. Border Patrol agents, returned fire — big time — lighting up the Mexican riverbank with 300 rounds. “You shoot a police officer, you’re going to get shot back at,” said Steven McCraw, Perry’s homeland security chief and director of the Texas Department of Public Safety.</p>

You shoot a police officer, you’re going to get shot back at

  A little before dawn on a sticky summer night in June, one of Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s Ranger Reconnaissance Teams was running a clandestin...

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Frightening 'Drug Threat Assessment' for the USA and Mexico

<p> </p><p>The National Drug Intelligence Center, a branch of the U.S. Department of Justice, recently released a document entitled the "National Drug Threat Assessment 2011."  You can read the document online here.  The document paints a gloomy picture for both the U.S. and Mexico. The Assessment's Executive Summary begins: "The illicit trafficking and abuse of drugs present a challenging, dynamic threat to the United States.  Overall demand is rising, largely supplied by illicit drugs smuggled to U.S. markets by major transnational criminal organizations (TCOs).  Changing conditions continue to alter patterns in drug production, trafficking, and abuse. Traffickers are responding to government counterdrug efforts by modifying their interrelationships, altering drug production levels, and adjusting their trafficking routes and methods. Major Mexican-based TCOs continue to solidify their dominance over the wholesale illicit drug trade as they control the movement of most of the foreign-produced drug supply across the U.S. Southwest Border. "The estimated economic cost of illicit drug use to society for 2007 was more than $193 billion...." One of the contributing factors is the high demand for drugs in the United States. This high demand finances the drug cartels, allowing them to spend more and expand their operations.   According to the 2011 Assessment, that demand is growing. The document reports that "The abuse of several major illicit drugs, including heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine, appears to be increasing, especially among the young."  Elsewhere it says that "Overall drug availability is increasing."  One exception to this tendency is cocaine - its availability and use are down.   The document states that "The Southwest Border remains the primary gateway for moving illicit drugs into the United States.  Most illicit drugs available in the United States are smuggled overland across the Southwest Border...."  The Southwest Border is comprised of the southern borders of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas with Mexico. Then there is the tunneling: "Despite enhanced detection efforts and better countermeasures, Mexican drug traffickers will continue to build tunnels under the Southwest Border." In the U.S., Mexican cartels have cornered the market.  The 2011 Assessment states that "Mexican-based TCOs [transnational crime organizations] dominate the supply, trafficking, and wholesale distribution of most illicit drugs in the United States."  Elsewhere, it predicts that "Major Mexican-based TCOs and their associates are solidifying their dominance of the U.S. wholesale drug trade and will maintain their reign for the foreseeable future." The Mexican cartels are active in many urban areas.  The Assessment calculates that "Mexican-based TCOs were operating in more than a thousand U.S. cities during 2009 and 2010...." And, "Mexican-based trafficking organizations control access to the U.S.-Mexico border, the primary gateway for moving the bulk of illicit drugs into the United States.  The organizations control, simultaneously use, or are competing for control of various smuggling corridors that they use to regulate drug flow across the border. The value they attach to controlling border access is demonstrated by the ferocity with which several rival TCOs are fighting over control of key corridors, or ‘plazas.'" The document says that seven major Mexican drug cartels are supplying the United States, but that "... the Sinaloa Cartel is preeminent - its members traffic all major illicit drugs of abuse, and its extensive distribution network supplies drugs to all regions of the United States." U.S.-based gangs are involved in the distribution north of the border: "The threat posed by gang involvement in drug trafficking is increasing, particularly in the Southwest Region. With gangs already the dominant retail drug suppliers in major and midsized cities, some gang members are solidifying their ties to Mexican TCOs to bolster their involvement in wholesale smuggling, internal distribution, and control of the retail trade." The Assessment reports that "Criminal gangs - that is street, prison, and outlaw motorcycle gangs - remain in control of most of the retail distribution of drugs throughout much of the United States, particularly in major and midsize cities." The document predicts that "Collaboration between U.S. gangs and Mexican-based TCOs will continue to increase, facilitating wholesale drug trafficking into and within the United States.  Most collaboration occurs in cities along the U.S.-Mexico border, although some occurs in other regions of the country. Some U.S.-based gangs in the Southwest Border region also operate in Mexico, facilitating the smuggling of illicit drugs across the border." The 2011 Assessment paints a gloomy picture of the drug trafficking situation, drug cartels, and the safety and security of both the U.S. and Mexico.</p>

Frightening 'Drug Threat Assessment' for the USA and Mexico

  The National Drug Intelligence Center, a branch of the U.S. Department of Justice, recently released a document entitled the "Nationa...

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many teens were using the Internet as a tool for exploring questions of personal identity, successfully building their own future lives using what they discover on the Web

<p> </p><p>The risk of youth wasting huge amounts of time on social networks like Facebook and Twitter as well as the shared videos of YouTube is well known, but a Tel Aviv University researcher claims that these resources can actually promote psychological development. Prof. Moshe Israelashvili of TAU’s Jaime and Joan Constantiner School of Education, with his master’s degree student Taejin Kim and colleague Dr. Gabriel Bukobza, studied 278 teenage girls and boys from schools throughout the country. They found that many teens were using the Internet as a tool for exploring questions of personal identity, successfully building their own future lives using what they discover on the Web. The study, published in the Journal of Adolescence, encourages parents and educators to look at engagement with the online world as beneficial for teens. Social networking, Israelashvili says, is a positive example of Internet use: “Facebook use is not in the same category as gambling or gaming,” he insists, and as a result researchers should redefine the characteristics of the disorder called “Internet addiction” in adolescents. The teens were asked to rate themselves in terms of Internet use, ego clarification and self-understanding and how well they related to their peer groups. The researchers discovered there was a negative correlation between Internet overuse and the teens' levels of ego development and clarity of self-perception. This, he said, is an indication that some Internet use is destructive and isolating while some is informative and serves a socializing function. These results show that the current understanding of adolescent Internet addiction demands redefinition. Psychiatrists now classify an “Internet addict” as a person who spends more than 38 hours on the Internet every week. But it’s the quality, not the quantity that matters, argues Israelashvili. The researchers determined that many teens who participated in the study met the psychiatric standard of “Internet addiction” but were actually using the Internet as a tool to aid in their journey of self-discovery. There are two different kinds of teenage Web addicts, he continued. The first group is composed of adolescents who really are addicted, misusing the Internet with things like online gaming and gambling or pornographic websites, isolating themselves from the world around them. The second can be defined as “self-clarification seekers” whose use of the Internet helps them comprehensively define their own identities and place in the world. They tend to use the Internet for social networking and information gathering, such as on news sites or Twitter. Parents and educators should change the conversations they have with teens about Internet use, the researchers urge. The Web is a big part of our modern lifestyle, and both adults and children are spending more time there. As a result, what is important is how that time is used. Students must learn to use the Internet in a healthy way – as a source of knowledge about themselves in relation to their peers around the world, recommends Israelashvili. If parents still don't like the amount of time their teens are spending in front of the computer, they should consider becoming an information resource for their adolescent children, encouraging a healthy flow of conversation in the household itself. “Too many parents are too preoccupied,” the researcher says. “They demand high academic achievements and place less importance on teaching their children how to face the world.” Teens won't give up the Internet, but they may spend less time online if family interactions meet some of the same needs. “By the time teens reach the age of 18 or 19 they enter a new phase of life called ‘emerging adulthood,’ in which they take the lessons of their adolescence and implement them to build a more independent life. If they have spent their teenage years worrying only about their academic performance or gaming, they won't be able to manage well during their emerging adulthood and might have difficulties in making personal decisions and relating well to the world around them,” he concludes.</p>

many teens were using the Internet as a tool for exploring questions of personal identity, successfully building their own future lives using what they discover on the Web

  The risk of youth wasting huge amounts of time on social networks like Facebook and Twitter as well as the shared videos of YouTube is wel...

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prescription painkiller addiction

<p> </p><p> Painkillers in Maine: A cure that came with a curse Maine’s out-of-control pill habit is among the worst in the nation, and all of us bear the costs of its abuse. By John Richardson jrichardson@mainetoday.com Staff Writer First of six parts click image to enlarge A pharmacist counts out Vicodin pills at a pharmacy in Portland last week. Maine was one of the first states to see an explosion of painkiller addiction and it remains among the worst states in the nation for pill abuse. The human and societal costs associated with the epidemic – almost 1,400 Maine people have died from pharmaceutical drug overdoses in the past decade and thousands more need treatment for addiction – are staggering, experts say. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer click image to enlarge . Ten years ago, Maine’s former U.S. attorney called prescription pain-pill abuse “the greatest criminal problem and possibly the greatest social problem facing Maine.” The problem, as it turns out, was just getting started. Maine was one of the first states to witness the explosion of prescription painkiller addiction, and its pill habit, still out of control, is among the worst in the nation. The damage continues to pile up. Nearly 1,400 Mainers have died from pharmaceutical drug overdoses in the past decade. And all residents bear the costs of the abuse. They pay for the pills, police the crime and care for and treat the addicts. Substance abuse in Maine is now estimated to cost $1.18 billion a year, or $900 for every man, woman and child, and much of that comes from misuse of prescription drugs. “It’s extraordinary how deep this epidemic has gone,” said Dr. Mark Publicker, an addiction specialist in Westbrook. “It was eating its way through the culture, and it was diagnosed too late.” Now human and social costs are at historic highs, leading to a renewed urgency to fight back. • Overdose deaths from pharmaceuticals in Maine set a new record in 2009 – 165 – and for the first time exceeded the number of Mainers killed in motor vehicle accidents. One hundred and sixty-two Mainers died from the drugs in 2010, the second-highest year on record. • Pill abuse continues to rise among teens, according to experts. Nearly one in four high school seniors in 2009  – 23.6 percent – said they have used prescription drugs that were not prescribed to them. • A record number of Maine babies – 572 – were born last year to mothers who were known to have used painkillers or other drugs during pregnancy, more than triple the number in 2005. Most of the babies experienced painful opiate withdrawal and spent their first two weeks in the hospital. • Crimes driven by pill addiction – especially pharmacy robberies and home invasions – are becoming more common and more dangerous, according to police statewide. These crimes have turned county jails into busy detox centers. • Prescription pain pill addicts are seeking treatment in record numbers – nearly 4,000 last year. Maine has more people per capita in state-funded treatment than any other state, eight times the national average, according to federal and state data. After a decade of efforts to contain the abuse, Maine’s Legislature and the Attorney General’s Office are among those calling for a more aggressive, coordinated response. A seven-year-old effort to track opiate prescriptions statewide, for example, has never been put to full use because of limited resources and participation. “I think there’s enough fault to go around for everybody,” said Jay McCloskey, who sounded the alarm as Maine’s U.S. attorney a decade ago and is now in private practice. FERTILE GROUND The 10-year toll and Maine’s inability to contain the epidemic come as little surprise to those who have experienced addiction. “It just really quickly takes control. And then it takes and takes,” said Daryl Blums, a 27-year-old recovering addict from the Sanford area. Painkiller abuse is the side effect of powerful new pain relievers introduced more than a decade ago. Drug makers targeted Maine physicians with promises that the pills were safe and effective. And doctors who took an oath to relieve suffering felt they could no longer allow pain to go untreated, at least not without violating their oath and losing patients. Maine’s fishermen, loggers and other physical laborers provided plenty of demand for the new pain medications, and the prescriptions flowed. Maine has been a consistent leader in the prescribing of narcotic painkillers such as oxycodone. Teens and others quickly figured out how to crush the pills and snort the powder to get the full euphoric rush of the synthetic opiates, which are as powerful and addictive as heroin and morphine. As a rural state at the end of the distribution network, Maine didn’t have a lot of experience with hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine. But now, here was a drug delivered to every community in pure, pharmaceutical-grade, precisely measured doses. Experienced drug users loved the pills because they could trust them to work. The inexperienced considered them safer than street drugs. And there was a ready appetite for the pills, especially among teens and among adults wanting to wash away depression or escape the stress of unemployment and financial insecurity. Police, meanwhile, were all but powerless to keep the pills out of the wrong hands. “Drugs used to come from foreign countries and people would smuggle them in,” said Penobscot County Sheriff Glenn Ross. “Today, they are in the medicine cabinets of our homes.” HIGHLY ADDICTIVE At first, prescription opiates – also called opioids – give a warm, on-top-of-the-world feeling, users say. Pretty soon you need larger amounts to get high. Then one day you feel like you have a horrible flu – pain, vomiting, sweats and chills – and you realize it’s because you missed a dose. Opiate receptors in your brain, spine and intestines have gone into a kind of shock. Opiate withdrawal doesn’t kill you, but addicts say you wish it would. “You don’t have a care in the world when you’re on it. And when you can’t get it, it’s the worst experience in the world,” said Chuck Lawson, a recovering addict in Portland. Some addicts say it took them as little as two weeks of regular use to get hooked. The extreme highs and lows physically change an addict’s brain. Getting the next dose becomes the first thing – and sometimes the only thing – on an addict’s mind. Some addicts, chasing the high and trying to avoid withdrawal, mix painkillers with Xanax or other anti-anxiety pills or dissolve the pills and inject them directly into their veins. Both push addicts closer to a potentially fatal overdose. “Once you got past a certain point, there is no going back,” said 31-year-old Nicole Martin, a recovering addict who injected the drugs and used heroin when she couldn’t get pills. “Anything you say you haven’t done yet, you will do eventually.” WIDELY AVAILABLE Finding the drugs is rarely a problem, addicts say. Users share them, buy them, steal them, forge prescriptions for them and, if desperate enough, trade sex for them. Some go out of state to get the drugs, including to Florida’s so-called “pill mills” – clinics that offer painkiller prescriptions for cash. Many addicts get prescriptions from their local doctors – sometimes for real pain and often not. Some are even bold enough to file false police reports of pill theft so they can convince their doctors to give them more. Those with their own prescriptions get their pills on the cheap – MaineCare and private insurance cover most of the cost. And they quickly learn they can sell their pills for as much as $30 to $100 apiece depending on the type and strength. Addicts buying their pills on the street can spend $100 to $400 a day to feed their habits. That gets very expensive, said Blake Carver of Portland. Carver, now 24, was a teenager when he started breaking into houses looking for money to buy “Oxys,” he said. And he always cleaned out the medicine cabinets in the homes he robbed. “Even if there wasn’t something I wanted, I knew somebody who would,” he said. ‘NO FAMILY IS IMMUNE’ The epidemic has affected Mainers of all ages and backgrounds – middle schoolers and senior citizens, clam diggers and doctors. “No family is immune from this particular issue,” said Troy Morton, chief deputy of the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office.  “They are the youngest of kids, in their early teens, and people in their 70s. They are the poorest of the poor and the richest. There are no boundaries.” Abuse often starts among teens, who don’t understand the danger and are more vulnerable to addiction. Addiction, meanwhile, is most common among young adults who were in their teens when the pills first flooded into Maine communities. Thirteen percent of Mainers age 18 to 25 said they abused painkillers in the past year, according to the 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the most recent available. The rate is 6 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds and 4.7 percent of all Mainers over 12 – a total of 52,000 people. The overall cost of painkiller abuse in Maine is not known. Through taxes, health insurance premiums and higher medical costs, Mainers are helping to supply the pills, pay for emergency room visits, investigate crimes, lock addicts in jails and provide the treatments to help them get sober. Opiate addiction treatment alone costs Maine taxpayers millions of dollars a year. The state spends about $12 million a year on substance abuse treatment programs, not including its share of MaineCare coverage for treatment services. Painkiller addiction accounts for about one-third of substance abuse treatment admissions. However, every dollar spent on treatment saves as much as $12 in medical care and crime-related costs, according to Maine’s Office of Substance Abuse. Opiate abuse – including both heroin and prescription painkillers – was responsible for 30,451 emergency and outpatient hospital visits in Maine in 2008, a 28 percent increase from the year before, according to a May report. Pharmacies have banklike security, with surveillance cameras and tracking devices, and still get robbed repeatedly in some cases. County jails and state prisons are straining financially to hold and care for all the addicts arrested for drug-related crimes. RENEWED URGENCY State government, the medical community, law enforcement, drug makers and others have all taken action to try to contain the problem. There are new prescribing guidelines, tamper-proof prescription sheets, overdose prevention campaigns and collection drives for unused drugs. Experts say many of the efforts have helped keep the abuse from doing even more damage. But frustration is clearly peaking after a decade of watching the problem steadily worsen. “It just seems that if we’re leading the way with this problem, we ought to show some leadership in dealing with it,” said Rep. Jon Hinck, D-Portland. Hinck proposed a bill in the Legislature earlier this year that would have established new rules for doctors, including a requirement that they check patients’ medication records before prescribing them painkillers. The proposal failed, but lawmakers instead created a study group that is due to propose policy changes by Dec. 1. McCloskey, the former U.S. attorney, said the state and federal governments have not devoted enough resources to educating kids about the dangers of abuse. “It hasn’t been a priority,” he said. McCloskey, meanwhile, took criticism himself after leaving the federal government in 2001 and working as a consultant for the maker of OxyContin. McCloskey still maintains the pharmaceutical industry is not to blame for the abuse. “If we don’t reduce the demand for drugs we’ll never be successful.” Most now agree that pill abuse is so entrenched in Maine’s culture it will take more than doctors or state agencies or police alone to control it. “People want to point a finger. Let’s blame the pharmaceutical companies. Let’s blame the physicians. Let’s blame the druggies. (Some) people still think it’s a problem of will power,” said Marcella Sorg, a forensic anthropologist at the University of Maine’s Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center. “The reason we haven’t been able to tackle it is because it’s so darn complicated.” Maine Attorney General William Schneider has invited leaders in government, law enforcement, medicine, education and addiction treatment to attend a one-day summit Oct. 25 and come up with a coordinated action plan. “It’s staggering,” Schneider said. “I don’t think it’s going to be solved by any one particular tactic, but I think if we choose several different tactics we can make a difference.” Those who have experienced addiction first-hand have no easy answers, either. The pills are too easy to get and too powerful, said James Cox, a 31-year-old recovering addict in Jonesboro. “I don’t think they’ll ever get rid of it,” he said.</p>

prescription painkiller addiction

   Painkillers in Maine: A cure that came with a curse Maine’s out-of-control pill habit is among the worst in the nation, and all of us bea...

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Justin Townes Earle looks back at year of recovery

<p> </p><p>In the days following Justin Townes Earle's arrest last September in Indianapolis, he slipped so deeply into a cocaine psychosis it began to change his personality. Gone was the brash, cocksure young singer-songwriter who against the steep odds of addiction and a tough upbringing had transformed himself into a true artist with the critical acclaim to prove it. In its place was a 150-pound wraith haunting the East Village in New York City with an overriding paranoia brought on by an eight-ball of cocaine and a half-gallon of vodka every day. The continuous binges were destroying his talent and making his intense live shows occasionally forgettable. They were destroying his friendships one by one. Nearly six years of sobriety, all gone during an increasingly tight downward spiral over a year's time. Earle fixated on an erroneous news report that said he hit a woman while destroying his dressing room in an Indianapolis club. For a man raised by a single mother, the idea he would hit a woman was devastating. It prompted a five-day bender. "I'd just be walking down the streets in Manhattan thinking everybody was looking at me," Earle said. "I thought everybody knew about what happened and it absolutely was just crushing me. I remember vaguely calling my publicist at the time — I fired my manager not long before that had happened, and my publicist and my booking agent were the only people still working for me — and just hysterically crying and saying I just didn't want to do this anymore. I didn't want to tour any more. I didn't want to make records." Not long after, Earle entered formal treatment for the 13th time. In the 10 months since he completed rehab, the 29-year-old son of country rebel Steve Earle has experienced a series of highs and lows he shared in several interviews. He's slipped back into heroin use and rallied, turning to a new treatment that seems to have helped him settle into a healthier routine. He's been hailed as a new voice for his generation and targeted by cruel attempts at gallows humor. He split with his old girlfriend and started a new relationship that's brought him back to his hometown. Today he's on the "marijuana maintenance plan" and enjoying the benefits of anti-addiction drug Soboxone. He's exercising and feels as fit as he ever has. He's touring much of the fall and is preparing to record his fifth record, a significant step that has Earle pointed directly into the future. "And I'm as content as I've ever been," Earle said. "Which doesn't mean I'm content, but I'm as content as I've ever been. I'm still always going to be a little bit discontent because I'm a little bit crazy and I'll always want more than I have. That's what keeps me going. That's what keeps me driven to keep on doing what I'm doing." Perhaps it's that drive that's kept him alive so long. ___ Sometimes, Justin Townes Earle is amazed he's still above ground. Images flashed through his head as he sat backstage at The Mercy Lounge last November, staring out a window at bejeweled luxury high rises. The Nashville he's looking at doesn't much resemble the lazy town with the seedy side he grew up in during a nearly feral, often lonely and always confusing childhood. At the same time, some things look very much the same. "I remember when you'd look out this window and there wasn't (expletive) anything there," he said. "It was a rail yard. Well, hell you can still buy crack on 8th Avenue." A few weeks out of rehab, Earle admits his mind is often on drugs. He catches himself falling prey to the classic addict behavior of daydreaming about scoring. "I feel good now, but at least once a day I come up with some kind of hare-brained scheme to get high and get away with it," he said with a laugh.</p>

Justin Townes Earle looks back at year of recovery

  In the days following Justin Townes Earle's arrest last September in Indianapolis, he slipped so deeply into a cocaine psychosis it be...

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Food addiction, although controversial, has recently gained attention in scientific literature and comes under the realm of atypical eating disorders.

<div></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="color: #3f3f3f; float: left;"><div id="sshow"><div class="cnt" style="margin-top: 3px; margin-right: 10px; width: 310px; display: inline; float: left;"><div id="bellyad" style="padding-left: 3px;"><div class="mainimg1" style="position: relative; float: left; display: inline; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: #cccccc; padding-bottom: 10px; margin: 0px;"><div style="float: left; position: relative;"><span style="color: #336797;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/thumb.cms?msid=10376638&width=300&resizemode=4" style="display: block; margin-right: 5px; border: 4px solid #e1e1e1;" vspace="0" width="300" /></span><span style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 20px; bottom: 7px; left: 275px; position: absolute;"><img align="left" alt="" border="0" src="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/photo/5766056.cms" style="display: block; margin-right: 5px;" /></span></span></div><div class="zoomimg1" style="right: 4px; bottom: 4px; width: 300px;"><div style="font-size: 11px; text-align: left; padding-right: 5px; color: #757575; font-style: italic;">Are you addicted to food? (Thinkstock photos/Getty Images)</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="Normal" style="font-size: 15px; font-family: georgia; line-height: 20px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #336797;"><em><br /></em></span><br /><span style="color: #3f3f3f;">We all over-eat occasionally. However, a food addict eats too much food and wrong kinds of food all the time. It may be associated with an obsessive/compulsive relationship to food - where an individual indulges in frequent episodes of uncontrolled eating, else experiences anxiety if he is unable to do so. However, this may have serious health implications in due course. </span><br /><span style="color: #3f3f3f;">Nutritionist and </span><span style="color: #336797;">obesity</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f;"> consultant Naini Setalvad says, "Food addiction basically means a person eats uncontrollably, for reasons besides</span><span style="color: #336797;">hunger</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f;">. One reason for this is the neurobiological imbalances in the levels of the chemical, serotonin. Once its levels drop in the body, a person feels low and needs to eat again. This leads to overeating, which in turn leads to feelings of guilt, depression, </span><span style="color: #336797;">mood swings</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f;">, weight gain and a reinforcement of low self-esteem. Because of this, a person looks to food for comfort and the vicious cycle continues." </span><br /><span style="color: #3f3f3f;">How can one overcome it? "One way is by breaking the cycle. If it is a severe case, then psychological treatment must be accompanied with a healthy food plan. Replace addictive foods with healthy ones, which also boost the mood and serotonin levels. Stick to whole grains, fresh fruits, nuts, seeds and make </span><span style="color: #336797;">vegetables</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f;"> a habit. Also, drink lots of water. These foods not only comfort a person, but also take away the 'guilt' factor. You can eat three mangoes and not worry about the amount of fat you have eaten, since there is none. </span><br /><br /><span style="color: #3f3f3f;">However, the natural sugar in mangoes perks a person and makes him feel better," says Setalvad. If you are addicted to food, it's time to take an honest look at your life and make a commitment to loving yourself. </span></div></span></div>

Food addiction, although controversial, has recently gained attention in scientific literature and comes under the realm of atypical eating disorders.

Are you addicted to food? (Thinkstock photos/Getty Images) We all over-eat occasionally. However, a food addict eats too much food and wrong...

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