S05.E12: Drug rehabilitation clinics

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

Other segments: Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, proposed 2018 North Korea-United States summit

 

[Annber03]

....okay, those Harry and Meghan bathing suits are officially the stuff of nightmares. WOW. 

Also, can Bolton please go the way of virtually every other person who's worked for Trump thus far and be let go from the White House for good? Pretty please? 

[Lantern7]

Okay . . . the best way to kick addiction is to not get addicted in the first place. Otherwise, you’re prey to every Tom/Dick/Harry that calls itself a rehab center. And that one guy was such a dick. I kind of wanted the interviewer to fling him off the balcony.

[Robert Lynch]

I remember RAD! That took me back to my 4 year old self. I now laugh at those ads and shake my head. It was definitely one of those do as I say, not as I do comments. I think Corey Feldman did those, too. Nice 80s flashback.

Edited May 21, 2018 by Robert Lynch

[attica]

The changes in society in the past 15 years have been myriad. Some were huge but predictable, like the advance in LGBTQ rights, gay marriage, etc. One in particular, however, mystifies me beyond all others, alluded to by John last night: in the span of 10 years, we went from a 'constant yakking on the phone' people to a 'omg, I hate talking on the phone' people. I look at all the kids with phone-convo aversion, and think back to my own youth, where I could spend 3 hours after school on the phone with my peeps and go right back at it after supper. I think of how alien the 'Telephone' number from Bye Bye Birdie must appear to kids today, and not just because of the cords!  Who'd'a thunk?

[ganesh]

I knew Belinda Carlisle had issues, but 20 years of cocaine is a lot. 

The local news bits just killed me. I did like the anchors who said they wanted to get on the show again. I hope they watched!

I think I remember RAD spots on MTv. 

Edited May 21, 2018 by ganesh

[Annber03]

3 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

And that one guy was such a dick. I kind of wanted the interviewer to fling him off the balcony.

Oh, god, that guy. "I, uh, don't know where they are, but, um, I'm sure whatever they're doing is therapeutic." Unbelievable. Please somebody tell me he's up to his neck in lawsuits or something. 

So sad the guy who ranted about the horses died. 

1 hour ago, ganesh said:

I knew Belinda Carlisle had issues, but 20 years of cocaine is a lot. 

Seriously. She's very lucky to be alive. 

I seem to vaguely remember RAD ads, but I do remember a lot of celebrity-themed anti-drug commercials in general back in the day. I think this is probably the best ad of that sort that I've seen, though:

 

And then there was a similar one with a little more uplifting message some years later:

[iMonrey]

I've never seen a commercial for a rehab facility - I guess we don't have any of those pricey ones in our area. $70K for a stay at one of them? Yikes. However, I see the commercial for The Addiction Network all the time. It's especially memorable (I've commented about it in The Commercial Forum) - they have very generic looking actors playing former drug addicts giving black and white testimonials, one of which is this catalog model looking suburban white kid who claims he used crack cocaine. Now, I realize they don't want that ad to have any racial overtones, but I do not believe for one minute that Beaver Cleaver looking mofo was ever a crack head. 

[Sharpie66]

3 hours ago, attica said:

The changes in society in the past 15 years have been myriad. Some were huge but predictable, like the advance in LGBTQ rights, gay marriage, etc. One in particular, however, mystifies me beyond all others, alluded to by John last night: in the span of 10 years, we went from a 'constant yakking on the phone' people to a 'omg, I hate talking on the phone' people. I look at all the kids with phone-convo aversion, and think back to my own youth, where I could spend 3 hours after school on the phone with my peeps and go right back at it after supper. I think of how alien the 'Telephone' number from Bye Bye Birdie must appear to kids today, and not just because of the cords!  Who'd'a thunk?

Yeah, I am another one always surprised when someone tells me they hate talking on the phone. It’s even extended to my job—I had one co-worker who hated talking on the phone and would hand off tasks to me that required finding info by actually talking to someone. I’m a librarian dealing with legal stuff, so I am always calling state agencies, legislatures, and courts to get info/documents for my company. Although right now, the federal agencies are much more difficult to get info then they were pre-1/20/17, usually requiring FOIA requests for something I used to able to get emailed after a simple phone request.

[Enigma X]

I am one of those people who hates talking on the phone. Of course, I will do so when needed. If it is part of my job duties, or if I need to get or give information via the phone, it would be ridiculous not to do so.

[Annber03]

I don't mind talking on the phone for work purposes, but yeah, I'm one of those who was never big on chatting on the phone for hours just for the heck of it. I'm just not much of a chatterbox sort in general. Usually when I would talk on the phone with friends or relatives, they were the ones yapping away for much of the time, so even if I were the sort who wanted to chat, I had a hard time getting much of a word in :p.

Plus, when it came to talking with my friends, given I'd seen them at school that day, and would see them again the next, I often felt like there really wasn't much to talk about on the phone that we hadn't already talked about, or wouldn't soon talk about, either at school or whenever we'd next hang out. 

[ganesh]

I don't chat, but we just had a work call where I needed to obtain an insurance waiver. I'd rather use email because then there's a record of it, but email is largely misused in this capacity, and sometimes 10 minutes on the phone accomplishes a lot. 

[peeayebee]

4 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I've never seen a commercial for a rehab facility - I guess we don't have any of those pricey ones in our area. $70K for a stay at one of them? 

Since most of what I watch is DVR'd, and I FF thru commercials, I don't know how many play around here. And even if I did see one, they're so bland that I would probably tune it out.

I never really thought about how worthless so many rehab places are. It definitely needs some regulation, which of course is a dirty word these days. 

Those Harry and Meghan swim suits were awful. I like that the one woman pointed out the beard of the Harry suit was in an unfortunate place.

[Robert Lynch]

The highlight to me was Gayle King's ramblings about bottoms and such was so funny. However, the look the Queen gave when listening to the pastor was the best wtf face I ever saw. The Royal Wedding was the highlight in John's segment. Especially people mimicking English accents. Oh, boy...

[ganesh]

42 minutes ago, Robert Lynch said:

The highlight to me was Gayle King's ramblings about bottoms and such was so funny.

I was wondering if she might have had a few. 

[Rilla-my-Rilla]

11 hours ago, ganesh said:

The local news bits just killed me. I did like the anchors who said they wanted to get on the show again. I hope they watched!

They're on a radio station in Milwaukee. I checked the twitter feed for the station and they totally saw it. They have some tweets like we made it on HBO/LWT again!!!

[Xantar]

I legit gasped out loud when John revealed that the drug czar's son died and so did the guy who hated horses. That was a gut punch. 

[Danny Franks]

 The Royal Wedding. The epitome of bread and circuses distractions. In a week when there was another mass shooting in a US school, a plane crash in Cuba that killed over 100 people, North Korea lashing out over comments by the Trump administration, the threat of Theresa May packing the House of Lords with loyalists to force through unfavourable Brexit policies, and lord knows what else, the main topics on the news were what Meghan Markle's dress was going to be like, which celebrities were invited, and the shocking news that a married man was going to wear a wedding ring. How easily people are distracted by complete frivolity.

Bolton mentioning Libya really shouldn't be big news, other than it highlights how incompetent he is. Kim Jong Un is fully aware of what happened to Gaddafi, after he made an agreement with the US, and what happened to Saddam Hussein after he was such good friends with the US in the 1980s. And he's aware of just how much the word of the US is worth, as highlighted by the Iran deal. Don't worry about denuclearization talks, because nothing will come of them, no matter how wisely people choose their words.

The main segments of this show are depressingly predictable, now. Of course the rehab industry is packed full of charlatans taking advantage of the vulnerable.  Of course there's barely any regulation or minimum qualification requirements to open one. Of course these people are exploiting the insurance industry, and passing costs on to customers. Of course there are secondary industries, cutting themselves a piece of the pie.

I did laugh at the guy who pointed out the rather glaring flaw in equine therapy. "I don't even fucking like horses!"  These vague, untested, unresearched treatments, just dreamed up as new ways of fleecing people out of their money. And, as that man was sadly an example of, these people don't care if you die, as long as they have your money.

Edited May 22, 2018 by Danny Franks

[DEL901]

On 5/21/2018 at 8:35 AM, Lantern7 said:

Okay . . . the best way to kick addiction is to not get addicted in the first place. Otherwise, you’re prey to every Tom/Dick/Harry that calls itself a rehab center. And that one guy was such a dick. I kind of wanted the interviewer to fling him off the balcony.

Your first statement is true but much harder than it used to be.  Coke, heroin.  Those substances could be avoided easily, if you wanted to.  But opiods... they didn't exist a couple of decades ago and the differ from the illegal drugs because they generally start out as being prescribed for a legit reason by a legit doctor.  Then the patient gets hooked.  

[Chaos Theory]

23 hours ago, Enigma X said:

I am one of those people who hates talking on the phone. Of course, I will do so when needed. If it is part of my job duties, or if I need to get or give information via the phone, it would be ridiculous not to do so.

I hate talking on the phone.  I actually didn’t take a job once because it was heavy phone.  My current job I was told it was “light phones”.  I don’t know what the definition of light phones is ahhhhhhh.   Been at the job a decade now.  Got use to it.  Still prefer email.  

 

As for addiction it’s easier said then done.  I get bad migraines and I am probably addicted to my migraine pills which have codein in them.  I almost definitely take more then I need to but they work so I don’t really care.  I have friends who have gotten into trouble with pain pills.  A friend of the family who ended up in jail for awhile.  He’s ok now but when a doctor gives you a RX it’s a different matter.

Edited May 22, 2018 by Chaos Theory

[Sesquipedalia]

I found it jarring to see C-3PO in bed with a woman. I guess I always unconsciously assumed he was gay.

 

I always tell people that if you didn't give birth to me, it's unlikely I will be calling you. But when I was a kid I would spend hours on the phone with friends like a stereotypical teenage girl of the 80s. I always assumed I just grew out of it, but apparently it's part of a widespread cultural shift.

The report on rehab clinics was very informative! I hope some law-makers were watching because this is something that should clearly be addressed as part of the response to the opioid epidemic.

[attica]

4 hours ago, Danny Franks said:

How easily people are distracted by complete frivolity.

I, for one, got up early to watch the wedding, just because the rest-of-the-world shitshow has given me insomnia, and the beauty of all that transpired in the wedding Made. Me. Feel. Better. Better able to face the next round of worldwide shitshow. To paraphrase the famous labor poem, we need roses as well as bread.

[iMonrey]

Quote

The epitome of bread and circuses distractions. In a week when there was another mass shooting in a US school, a plane crash in Cuba that killed over 100 people, North Korea lashing out over comments by the Trump administration, the threat of Theresa May packing the House of Lords with loyalists to force through unfavourable Brexit policies, and lord knows what else, the main topics on the news were what Meghan Markle's dress was going to be like, which celebrities were invited, and the shocking news that a married man was going to wear a wedding ring. How easily people are distracted by complete frivolity.

On the other hand, given the litany of horrors you've enumerated here, is it any wonder people would be desperate to take their minds off of those things in favor of something positive, if only for a few hours? I don't have any issue with the fascination with the royal wedding personally, and I think we'll go right back to being inundated with disasters and scandals now that it's over, so I don't blame anyone who wanted a break from the incessant shit show that is current politics and worldwide woes. 

[Danny Franks]

19 minutes ago, attica said:

I, for one, got up early to watch the wedding, just because the rest-of-the-world shitshow has given me insomnia, and the beauty of all that transpired in the wedding Made. Me. Feel. Better. Better able to face the next round of worldwide shitshow. To paraphrase the famous labor poem, we need roses as well as bread.

 

9 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

On the other hand, given the litany of horrors you've enumerated here, is it any wonder people would be desperate to take their minds off of those things in favor of something positive, if only for a few hours? I don't have any issue with the fascination with the royal wedding personally, and I think we'll go right back to being inundated with disasters and scandals now that it's over, so I don't blame anyone who wanted a break from the incessant shit show that is current politics and worldwide woes. 

Yeah, that's what's meant by bread and circuses. A big spectacle, to distract people from everything that's actually going on. And maybe in the US, it was only a few hours. In the UK it's been weeks, months of nonsense, coming from all sides. Meanwhile, the country is in the throes of utter chaos, with Brexit and the Irish border and government instability, economic stagnation and relations with Russia practically at Cold War levels. But it's apparently vital that we know what sort of dress Meghan Markle is going to wear.

And it's still going on.  Now they're married we're inundated with reviews of the wedding, official photos and discussion about them, opinion pieces about the cereomony, discussion of what their duties will be now they're married.

Edited May 22, 2018 by Danny Franks

[attica]

Well, actually, no. Bread and circuses refer specifically to a regime-sponsored distraction, i.e. the gladiator fights put on by the Caesars. Two people getting fancy-married in another country is not that. It's a pleasant respite, not a cynical trick.

[Chaos Theory]

52 minutes ago, Danny Franks said:

 

Yeah, that's what's meant by bread and circuses. A big spectacle, to distract people from everything that's actually going on. And maybe in the US, it was only a few hours. In the UK it's been weeks, months of nonsense, coming from all sides. Meanwhile, the country is in the throes of utter chaos, with Brexit and the Irish border and government instability, economic stagnation and relations with Russia practically at Cold War levels. But it's apparently vital that we know what sort of dress Meghan Markle is going to wear.

And it's still going on.  Now they're married we're inundated with reviews of the wedding, official photos and discussion about them, opinion pieces about the cereomony, discussion of what their duties will be now they're married.

 

4 minutes ago, attica said:

Well, actually, no. Bread and circuses refer specifically to a regime-sponsored distraction, i.e. the gladiator fights put on by the Caesars. Two people getting fancy-married in another country is not that. It's a pleasant respite, not a cynical trick.

But the horror the horror.  I have no time for people who have no opinion on anything other then the horror.  I know a few people like that and you even try to talk about something pleasant any they look at you like you are evil incarnate.   Sometimes yes watching a stupid wedding is just nice.  

[Danny Franks]

1 hour ago, attica said:

Well, actually, no. Bread and circuses refer specifically to a regime-sponsored distraction, i.e. the gladiator fights put on by the Caesars. Two people getting fancy-married in another country is not that. It's a pleasant respite, not a cynical trick.

Well actually, the original use of the term didn't specify regime-sponsored distraction, it was used as a way of dismissing the trivial, short sighted interests of the common people, which could be taken advantage of by the regime. And one of the specific ways they took advantage was to limit the rights of citizens while they were distracted. Not so different to today.

If people want to focus on it, then fine, whatever. But the news should not be leading with this crap. Stick a wedding special on Channel 5 or somewhere and leave actual current events programmes to cover relevant current events.

Edited May 22, 2018 by Danny Franks

[Lantern7]

4 hours ago, DEL901 said:

Your first statement is true but much harder than it used to be.  Coke, heroin.  Those substances could be avoided easily, if you wanted to.  But opiods... they didn't exist a couple of decades ago and the differ from the illegal drugs because they generally start out as being prescribed for a legit reason by a legit doctor.  Then the patient gets hooked.  

I didn’t mean to sound superior. The situation is parallel to teaching abstinence. . . sure, it’s basically dividing by zero, but hormones and urges never factor into mathematics. There should be ways to recover without losing something altogether new.

Also, am I a bad person to want John to tell people that opioids are NOT “anal discomfort for Ron Howard”?

[Victor the Crab]

Couldn't give a shit about the royal wedding. Hell, I personally couldn't give a shit about regular weddings, period. Maybe the Harry and Meghan nuptials were a needed distraction from the shitshow that's going on right now, mostly caused by Drumpf. But even in the best of times they are too much, like the coverage of the William and Kate wedding.

I hope Ollie is right, and that John Bolton will be kicked to the curb, or steps down, because of his gross incompetence. But I've got a bad feeling that he will stick around for quite awhile. People like that tend to stick it out because they have personal motives of their own that they want carried out. Jeff Sessions is another person that comes to mind.

[Sharpie66]

I have been so disconnected from the royal wedding stuff that I had no idea that the bride was biracial until Friday night. I still dvr’d the ceremony and watched it on Saturday night, just for the fluff of the pageantry and celeb spotting. I had watched Charles and Di, Andrew and Fergie, and Kate and William all get married, so I figured why not get the set? 

[msrachelj]

i know it's done every time but i wish he wouldn't spend half the show on one topic. the first half is fast moving, and the second is like a completely different show. i wind up deleting it after a few minutes (the one topic at the end) 90% of the time. not the one about russell crowe/koala chlamydia (sp). !!     

[ElectricBoogaloo]

On 5/21/2018 at 6:57 AM, attica said:

The changes in society in the past 15 years have been myriad. Some were huge but predictable, like the advance in LGBTQ rights, gay marriage, etc. One in particular, however, mystifies me beyond all others, alluded to by John last night: in the span of 10 years, we went from a 'constant yakking on the phone' people to a 'omg, I hate talking on the phone' people. I look at all the kids with phone-convo aversion, and think back to my own youth, where I could spend 3 hours after school on the phone with my peeps and go right back at it after supper. I think of how alien the 'Telephone' number from Bye Bye Birdie must appear to kids today, and not just because of the cords!  Who'd'a thunk?

The crazy thing is that when I was about 12, my best friend and I spent hours on the phone every single day after school talking about everything and nothing. Now she HATES talking on the phone. We can still talk for hours in person (apparently we haven't run out of things to talk about) but she can't stand doing the same thing on the phone. What I don't get is people who are okay skyping but not talking on the phone. I'd rather talk on the phone (non-Facetiming) because then you can't see if I'm in my pajamas or multitasking or whatever.

10 hours ago, Sharpie66 said:

I have been so disconnected from the royal wedding stuff that I had no idea that the bride was biracial until Friday night. I still dvr’d the ceremony and watched it on Saturday night, just for the fluff of the pageantry and celeb spotting. I had watched Charles and Di, Andrew and Fergie, and Kate and William all get married, so I figured why not get the set? 

Not only is she biracial but she's an untitled foreigner (American) who is divorced. If that had been allowed 80 years ago, then Charles and William wouldn't be in line for the throne. The only reason Elizabeth is queen now is because her father's brother Edward wanted to marry a divorced American and in order to do so, he had to abdicate.

[Robert Lynch]

On 5/22/2018 at 6:54 PM, Victor the Crab said:

Couldn't give a shit about the royal wedding. Hell, I personally couldn't give a shit about regular weddings, period. Maybe the Harry and Meghan nuptials were a needed distraction from the shitshow that's going on right now, mostly caused by Drumpf. But even in the best of times they are too much, like the coverage of the William and Kate wedding.

I hope Ollie is right, and that John Bolton will be kicked to the curb, or steps down, because of his gross incompetence. But I've got a bad feeling that he will stick around for quite awhile. People like that tend to stick it out because they have personal motives of their own that they want carried out. Jeff Sessions is another person that comes to mind.

Is there not anything caused by Trump himself? He is a person of egotism and incompetency all rolled into one. He is a freakin' real life Dorian Gray. So nothing should surprise me about that. Vanity has no limits.

Edited May 24, 2018 by Robert Lynch

[Jamoche]

On 5/21/2018 at 8:11 AM, ganesh said:

I knew Belinda Carlisle had issues, but 20 years of cocaine is a lot. 

I remember her pitch, all smug "I beat drugs so I'm better than you". And I never started, but even at 18 I knew it had nothing to do with moral superiority, just physiology - even the good stuff I got after my wisdom teeth came out didn't do anything beyond make it stop hurting.

I've seen the ads for the resort rehab places and thought "damn, that looks like a nice vacation spot". But there was nothing in the pitch to say it was anything more than that, and I could see the drug-seeking stepbrat just having the nice vacation and then coming back unchanged.

 

On 5/23/2018 at 9:12 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Not only is she biracial but she's an untitled foreigner (American) who is divorced. If that had been allowed 80 years ago, then Charles and William wouldn't be in line for the throne. The only reason Elizabeth is queen now is because her father's brother Edward wanted to marry a divorced American and in order to do so, he had to abdicate.

They could've made it work if they'd wanted to, but it was a nice excuse to kick the Nazi-sympathizer out.

 

I don't think there's anything new about hating talking on the phone - my brother loved it, I can't deal with not seeing body language.

On 5/21/2018 at 9:42 AM, iMonrey said:

one of which is this catalog model looking suburban white kid who claims he used crack cocaine.

The line readings from those actors reminds me of this scene from Office Space - it cuts off before he reveals that it's just the sales pitch:

[OneWhoLurks]

Quote

 

While Oliver gave a skillful overview of some of the rampant problems, an ongoing investigation by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting picked out a particularly egregious case this week—Recovery Connections Community, a rehabilitation program outside of Asheville, North Carolina.

There, director Jennifer Warren spent years recruiting poor and desperate patients suffering from drug addiction into her rehabilitation program, offering free treatment in exchange for unpaid labor. With the promise of counseling and a path to recovery, patients cleaned her house, babysat her children, cared for her large collection of exotic pets, and worked 16-hour days at adult care homes—with little to no state-required training.

“It’s like slavery,” Denise Cool told Reveal. Cool was addicted to crack cocaine when a judge ordered her to Warren’s program in 2011. It was “like we were on the plantation,” she added.

 

Quote

 

Despite those stories, some still say that the therapy Warren promised rehab patients was the worst part of the program. In the little time when rehab patients weren’t working, patients recounted traumatic therapy sessions involving patients hurling insults and screaming at each other to break people down. The tactic has its roots in the controversial Synanon organization, which has been called a cult.

Meanwhile, Warren benefited from her patients. She reportedly took lengthy vacations at the beach and places such as Paris and Greece. She had rehab participants solicit donations for the program—which she set up as a nonprofit—but kept those donations for herself, including concert tickets and free appointments at beauty salons (meant as empowering opportunities for low-income rehab patients.)

In 2015, Warren pled guilty to illegally collecting thousands of dollars’ worth of food stamps. Rehab participants told Reveal that Warren continued to take their food stamps to stock her own kitchen despite the legal trouble.

 

“Like slavery”: Rehab patients forced into unpaid labor to cover “treatment”

[msani19]

On 5/21/2018 at 11:11 AM, ganesh said:

The local news bits just killed me. I did like the anchors who said they wanted to get on the show again. I hope they watched!

That was hilarious and my local news anchor has made it into the local news segments more than a few times. Those terrible "British" accents were painful. Of course, all Brits say cheerio, tally-ho, 'ello governor, have a spot of tea, like all the time /eyeroll. They should have been deeply embarrassed. 

On 5/21/2018 at 4:55 PM, peeayebee said:

Those Harry and Meghan swim suits were awful. I like that the one woman pointed out the beard of the Harry suit was in an unfortunate place.

Those bathing suits were the stuff of nightmares. WHY did someone makes those, and more importantly WHO bought them!

I found some of John's jokes during the first half of the show not quite that funny and they went just a tad bit too long. 

I had no idea how that rehab facilities have no regulations, standards or seemingly accountability. As I watched the segment, I just thought this explains why so many people end up in and out rehab. The insurance aspect is certainly not helping anything either. 

[Hanahope]

On 5/23/2018 at 12:12 PM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Not only is she biracial but she's an untitled foreigner (American) who is divorced. If that had been allowed 80 years ago, then Charles and William wouldn't be in line for the throne. The only reason Elizabeth is queen now is because her father's brother Edward wanted to marry a divorced American and in order to do so, he had to abdicate.

Actually, Elizabeth would be queen today even had Edward not abdicated.  He didn't have any children, so after her father's death (before Edward's), Elizabeth would have become the heir presumptive and then queen in 1972.  Of course, history would still be different because of Edward's Nazi sympathy.

Totally not surprised that rehab facilities need no licensing or any other real supervision by the government.  Just like pregnancy crisis centers, anyone can open one, do whatever they want (as long as its not actually practicing medicine), and charge whatever they want.  Rehab centers must make bank with more insurance policies covering treatment.  You'd think that the insurance companies would at least provide some oversight with their paying for the "services."