Lawson for Congress

Over the past few months, I’ve been working with a friend and colleague Alex Scholz to create a public access television show: Taking the Pulse. Our show isn’t political, and it’s not associated with my congressional campaign. It’s simply a vehicle to highlight great people in our community who are working to make our community a better place. Hence the name, Taking the Pulse — it’s my chance to “take the pulse” of various challenges we face, and celebrate people who are making a difference.

In these times of economic uncertainty and rising crime, our first topic is critically important: substance abuse and addiction recovery.

As a physician, I’ve seen people at their best as well as people at their worst. We should never minimize the scourge of addiction, but we should also recognize that there are many kinds of addictive behavior.

Why is the nonviolent cocaine or heroin addict subject to incarceration and a criminal record, while the nonviolent nicotine or alcohol abuser is simply encouraged to quit? Perhaps there are more politicians smoking cigarettes and drinking martinis with lobbyists?

Seriously, though, we tried alcohol prohibition. Alcohol abuse remained, and violent crime skyrocketed as a result. Now we’ve criminalized certain drugs, and all we’ve done is encourage a violence-ridden global black market for illegal substances, while turning addicts into incarcerated wards of the state with greatly reduced chances of leading a normal life or finding legitimate employment.

Is there a better way? How can we constructively deal with the medical problem of addiction?

As it turns out, one of the best comprehensive addiction recovery programs in the country, if not the world, is right here in Durham, North Carolina: Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers, or TROSA.

TROSA has a fourteen year history of treating folks with addictions from across the state. They have a comprehensive two-year residential program that is completely free to its residents, and funds itself through its own local businesses as well as donations from the community. Just this past year they’ve begun to receive a bit of state funding, but the power of their model has been the way they’ve leveraged social entrepreneurship and private funding to maintain high levels of accountability.

I spent several hours visiting TROSA with its founder, President, and CEO Kevin McDonald. Kevin knows the problems of addiction and recovery intimately, and has assembled an amazing team of professionals along with a staff of recovering substance abusers to create an environment where people can literally change their lives.

TROSA exists to support and empower its residents as they remakes their lives, restore accountability and self-respect, and learn job skills that help every graduate transition to a life of productive employment in the community. This episode features extensive interviews with CEO Kevin McDonald, Organizational Development Manager and former resident Ty Dexter, current resident Trish Goodwin, and other residents in various stages of recovery:

The next topic is stopping problems before they start, and helping children reach their full potential inside and outside our education system: that’s where Blue Ribbon Mentor Advocate comes in.

I’ve previously featured Graig Meyer and Blue Ribbon Mentor Advocate in the campaign blog — it is a locally funded and locally driven mentorship and advocacy program for children geared towards maximizing their educational achievement.

As detailed here, the local control and accountability has made the program a stunning success. This episode highlights the program, as well as two participants — Jamison Richardson (mentee) and Richard Kwok (mentor):

We have more great episodes coming up, and I encourage you to join us as we explore current challenges, and our ability to change our world through local, community-based solutions.

Taking the Pulse airs on The People’s Channel 8 in Orange and Chatham counties, Tuesday at 8pm and Wednesday at 8am and 2pm. Episodes will be available online at takingthepulse.blip.tv after airing.

You can also stay tuned for updates via iTunes podcasting, or RSS.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 5th, 2008 at 8:55 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.