The 3 Minute Alcohol and Abuse Daily News Review: The goggles/wetsuit/duct tape no drinking solution, another city alcohol fee controversy and a discouraging national drug survey result

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A Daily Review of Breaking News, Facts and Studies, Stories of Recovery & Tips and Leading Blogs covering the topic of Alcohol and Abuse.

First, I wanted to give you a quick update. You may have noticed that I haven’t posted in a week and I have to apologize. I have spent the last week getting things setup, like a Facebook Fan Page (please visit it here and hit the LIKE button), a YouTube channel (if you spend much time on YouTube you might want to subscribe to it here), and getting a new logo and banner for the site. And that is just a few of the things .

So I have been busy, but I am really looking forward to doing this at least 5 days a week. I will try 7, but I don’t want to promise something that I am not sure I can deliver. After all I do have a day job.

Last, I decided to do these all in text and VIDEO format, so I’m really excited about that. So for each day you can choose which option is preferable. I would love to get any feedback below.

Why is Baseball Star Josh Hamilton is Going to Wear Goggles, Duct Tape over his Mouth and a Wetsuit?

I think this is just great and I have to thank @choosehelp for tweeting about it or I might have missed it in the news. Those of you that don’t know Josh Hamilton’s story of recovery, it is an amazing one. I don’t have time to cover it here, but I wanted to share something he recently said. As an admitted and somewhat avid fantasy baseball player I especially like this story.

USA Today shared his quote to the Fort-Worth Star Telegram that “I’m going to have goggles on, duct tape over the mouth and either a wetsuit or raincoat. It can’t get on your skin. It’ll soak through your skin. I don’t want to send the wrong message to people who might see pictures and think I’m not serious about recovery or what it stands for.”

Once again, one of my favorite topics to cover is how even leaders in sports, medicine, movies, TV and you name it struggle with alcohol, abuse and addiction. You are not alone. And when you do recover look what is possible. He is one of the leading MVP candidates this season for a team heading to the playoffs.

Controversial Alcohol Services Fee in San Francisco

KTVU in San Francisco states “A 35-cent fee would be assessed for every gallon of beer sold by wholesalers in the city. For wine the fee would be $1 per gallon, and for hard alcohol, $3.20 per gallon.”

The fee is to cover expenses by the city for alcohol and abuse related costs. I have read enough studies, and done enough radio interviews to know that the costs incurred for alcohol and abuse, let alone other addictions, are very real for local communities.

There is some room for debate around the “normal” drinker and whether they should be forced to cover the costs for the not so normal drinkers, but I think part of the problem lies in the fact that even the normal drinker is known to sometimes cause issues.

In my opinion the costs of alcohol and abuse are well documented and no city should have to take money away from other expenses to cover this. If you consider alcohol a good thing to have around, there is going to be some bad side effects that come with it and that is the “cost” of keeping it available. People don’t tend to argue this with cigarettes, so the same logic applies. Thoughts? Share them below.

National Drug Survey Results Released – Not Encouraging

Director Kerlikowske released the results of the 2009 National Survey On Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) and overall it showed an increase in illicit drugs and that youth attitudes about the dangers have lessened.

They state that the good news is they know what to do. I am going to address this topic further tomorrow, but I find this study concerning. I know I would like more information on where meth fits into all of this, as it seems advertising campaigns around the dangers of meth have been in full force in communities around the country. And I had heard they were working, so it is possible just with meth they are, but there is progress to be made with marijuana and other drugs.

I will touch on the advice the gave tomorrow as I think it is important. And now these will be going out to my email lists, so don’t miss on signing up below. As always I would love any feedback on the topics discussed around alcohol and abuse.

Thanks, Dave Andrews