Author: The Fix

How Gigolos' Garren James Found Recovery and Success

The client base is diverse, ranging from the ladies who want to go out and have a fun night on the town to those who are recovering from a traumatic experience or dealing with a terminal illness.

Garren James is a man filled with surprises. The stunning former model is more than just a handsome hunk. He is the CEO, producer, and star of Cowboys 4 Angels, the male escort company featured on Showtime’s hit series, Gigolos, which is entering its seventh season. With a beautiful wife, kids, and successful career, James seems to have it all. But what many don’t realize is that the journey to this dream life was filled with obstacles that only he could overcome.

The innovative businessman recently celebrated ten years of sobriety. Rather than continuing to keep his recovery quiet, James felt he might be able to provide some hope or inspiration by sharing his experience, strength, and hope with a wider audience. Here, James shares his story publicly for the first time.

“I’m tired of hearing about people dying. Let’s equal it out, let’s talk about the successes,” he says when sharing his story with me. The Florida native had a slew of prior arrests. After numerous stints in various rehab centers that were not successful, James was finally ready to hit rock bottom. His addiction to crack, powder cocaine, and various other substances had completely taken over his life.

“I was living in a garage and the girl who was letting me stay there told me if I got high one more time that she would kick me out. So, I went out and I got high.”

To his surprise, she kept her word and he was out. James found himself with no place to go.

In desperation he chose to break into her property, hoping to retrieve something that could be pawned for cash. At the time he was in the height of his addiction and thought that she would surely understand what he was doing. She did not. The police were called and he found himself leaving with handcuffs shackled to his wrists and nothing to pawn.

“I was in a jail cell laying on the floor. I didn’t care.” Rather than looking back with regret, James speaks of his arrest with gratitude: “That was the day the Brown County Sheriff department saved my life,” he recalls. This was not his first experience with prison time, but he was hoping it would be his last.

For the next ten months he contemplated his future while behind bars. His situation improved when he was offered a chance to go to a halfway house. After getting involved in a 12-step recovery program and attending meetings within the system, he began to discover that life was worth living.

“I worked my ass off in recovery…I was loved back into being a person who had confidence.”

It’s normal to be fearful of life beyond your comfort zone, especially when it’s one in which you’ve been thriving and learning a new way of life. When it came time for James to seek employment, he was hesitant and nervous. Acclimating to life clean and serene was as intimidating as it was wonderful.

“I thought I should have been on disability. I was nervous about getting a job based on my past.” He was encouraged to try. Wearing a pair of slacks and an $8.00 shirt from The Salvation Army, he went in search of employment. Almost immediately, he was hired by an art gallery. From there, he began to rebuild his life.

His business, Cowboys 4 Angels, started slowly. First, he developed a website. Straight male escorts were available to provide companionship to females. It was a service that would provide compassionate and handsome men to women in need. His big break came when he was featured on The Tyra Banks Show. Before Tyra he was receiving a few calls a month; after his appearance, his business began to boom. He started getting up to 50 bookings a month and the website stayed near the top of Google searches.

The love that James received during his experience getting sober informs the way he runs his company, and especially when it comes to his interactions with the women who approach him. Cowboys 4 Angels’ client base is diverse, ranging from the ladies who want to go out and have a fun night on the town to those who are recovering from a traumatic experience or dealing with a terminal illness. It’s more than just a dinner date, it’s about having a connection with another human being.

Ten years later, James’ life has exceeded his expectations. Now happily married with children, with a business and television series on Showtime, he is in a place he never imagined. And James is adamant he has achieved this all because he has never lost sight of his recovery. That is where the real work started.

“With recovery, anything is possible,” he says with conviction.

One of his most recent and proudest achievements was rallying for a meeting to be held in the very prison he once did time in. This was finally approved and every other Sunday he personally visits the facility and works with the inmates.

All the while keeping his coffee commitment at his home group.

“There are no big shots in recovery.” Garren James says smiling.

Follow Garren James and Cowboys4Angels on Twitter and Instagram.

View the original article at thefix.com

21 September 2018
Senatorial Candidate Gary Johnson Reveals Cannabis Industry Connections

The former New Mexico governor disclosed his ties to the cannabis industry amid his run for U.S. Senate.

Two-time Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson has revealed his personal financial ties to the marijuana industry, which have some observers concerned about a possible conflict of interest in regard to his bid for New Mexico’s Senate seat.

Disclosing one’s financial investments is part of the campaign process, and in recent Senate filings, Johnson stated that he owns more than $250,000 in stock from the Las Vegas, Nevada-based cannabis company Kush, as well as profit shares from a cannabis industry funding group, and capital gains from stock from another cannabis company, for which he served as CEO.

Johnson, who previously served two terms as governor of New Mexico, has dismissed concerns about the potential conflict, stating that his political interests outweigh his connections to the industry.

Between bids for the White House on the Libertarian ticket in 2012 and 2016, Johnson earned at least $100,000 in capital gains from stock earned during his tenure as CEO of Cannabis Sativa, and participates in a profit-sharing arrangement with the investment fund CB1 Capital, which provides funding exclusively for cannabis industry entities. Johnson serves as one of the fund’s key advisers.

As the Albuquerque Journal noted, issues of conflict over Johnson’s connections to the cannabis industry arose in regard to his candidacy for the U.S. Senate, which he announced in August 2018. Johnson is running on the Libertarian ticket against Democratic incumbent Martin Heinrich.

Both Johnson and Heinrich are in favor of legalizing marijuana at the federal level, while Republican candidate Mick Rich is opposed to such efforts.

But Johnson has waved off such worries by noting that he has been in support of legalized marijuana since the 1990s, which he described as a “career-ending move” two decades ago. “The last thing that I ever dreamed of happening is that somehow I would make money off this,” he said.

Currently, medical marijuana is legal in the state of New Mexico, but marijuana for recreational use is not. New Mexico residents consume a considerable amount of marijuana from both the legal and black markets; approximately 27,000 individuals are registered medical marijuana patients, while more than 135,000 claimed that they consume recreational marijuana on a regular basis.

As High Times noted, if the state made marijuana legal, industry investors could stand to make a sizable profit from sales. Researchers have estimated that more than 57 metric tons would be used in the state annually, which could yield a profit of approximately $412 million, with the possibility of growing to as much as $677 million.

View the original article at thefix.com

21 September 2018
Brett Kavanaugh’s Classmate Detailed Drunken Behavior In Memoirs

Kavanaugh’s prep school classmate’s 1997 memoir features a drunken character named “Bart O’Kavanaugh.”

Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court is still under review, as the court looks into accusations of sexual assault brought against Kavanaugh by a former classmate, Christine Blasey Ford.

Details from the memoirs of Kavanaugh’s old high school friend, Mark Judge, may give important context.

Ford has come forward to assert that in the early ’80s at a high school party, a drunken Kavanaugh allegedly pushed her down in a bedroom, covered her mouth and attempted to pull her clothing off. Another drunken young man, Judge, “piled on” the two and knocked them over, allowing Ford to run and hide in a bathroom.

Ford’s accusation was backed by notes from her therapist in 2012 and 2013 when Ford discussed a sexual assault she endured in high school by an elitist prep, as well as a chilling detailed account recalled by a friend of Ford’s.

Judge has denied that he saw a sexual assault take place and that in addition, aggressive sexual behavior—as Ford described—was out of character for the young men attending Georgetown Prep at the time.

However, Judge’s own past writings illuminate a sex-driven, misogynistic and drunken culture at the school.

Judge has written two memoirs, both of which depicted Georgetown Prep as a sexually aggressive environment where students abused alcohol regularly and attended “masturbation class,” according to the Independent.

In his 2005 memoir, God and Man at Georgetown Prep, Judge wrote about his senior year, when he co-published the school’s underground student newspaper with a focus on the school’s intense party scene.

One issue co-published by Judge pictured a Georgetown music teacher at a bachelor party “chugging a beer, surrounded by a group of us with raised mugs, sitting down while being entertained by the stripper.”

Judge’s memoir Wasted even has a drunken, vomiting character named “Bart O’Kavanaugh.” Judge is now a self-claimed conservative moralist who has written that there is no excuse for rape.

He has also written that “social justice warriors” confuse rape with innocent demonstrations of masculinity. He continued that there is “an ambiguous middle ground, where the woman seems interested and indicates, whether verbally or not, that the man needs to prove himself to her.”

Judge concluded, “If that man is any kind of man, he’ll allow himself to feel the awesome power, the wonderful beauty, of uncontrollable male passion.”

This thought was linked to a scene from the 1981 film Body Heat—the same time period that Ford alleges she was attacked by Kavanaugh—in which a man shatters a large glass window and then violently throws the woman on a table, where they have sex.

View the original article at thefix.com

20 September 2018
"Drug Llama" Allegedly Sold 50,000 Fentanyl Pills On Dark Web

Investigators say the woman who reportedly calls herself “The Drug Llama” also sold Oxy, Percs and amphetamines through a dark web marketplace.

A California woman known on the dark web as “The Drug Llama” is accused of shipping more than 50,000 fentanyl pills to consumers across the United States since 2016.

Melissa Scanlan, 31, is facing federal charges in Illinois and is also being investigated for two deaths in San Diego, where she lives, according to The San Diego Union Tribune.

In those cases, investigators allege that she sold fentanyl that led to the deaths of a 10-month-old boy and a 41-year-old woman. The baby died after his father bought fentanyl—allegedly from Scanlan—and left it within reach of the child. The boy was found unresponsive in his parents’ bed.

These might be two of many deaths allegedly caused by Scanlan’s drugs. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sherri Hobson told a federal judge that Scanlan has trafficked more than 50,000 fentanyl pills, although the indictment against her only covers 400 grams of fentanyl.

Scanlan was the subject of a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) undercover operation in both San Diego and St. Louis. As the scope of the investigation expanded, the Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Department of Homeland Security also became involved.

Investigators say that Scanlan was selling drugs on the dark web marketplace called Dream Market, where she was known as “The Drug Llama.”

In addition to selling fentanyl, she also offered oxycodone, amphetamines, morphine, Percocet, temazepam, flexeril, and an “opiate powder pack,” according to federal documents. Her fentanyl was pressed into blue pills that were disguised as oxycodone. The drugs arrived in leather pouches much like those sold by a company Scanlan owns.

Federal investigators ordered drugs from the “Llama” in July and were able to track Scanlan using the return address on the packages. The address listed was associated with an old business of Scanlan’s, and the name listed—Samantha Cooper—was later found to be the names of her two dogs. A Paypal account also linked Scanlan processed thousands of drug-related transactions.

In August, Scanlan was arrested on state drug charges after a search of her home. However, shortly after she was released she traveled to Mexico to arrange the shipment of more fentanyl to her house, and redirected her customers to another dark web marketplace where they could purchase the drugs.

She was arrested again on September 4 and admitted to buying fentanyl from a Mexican cartel. This time, federal prosecutors are arguing that she is a flight risk and a danger, noting that Scanlan is five months pregnant but continuing to engage in criminal activity.

View the original article at thefix.com

20 September 2018
No More Attendance Sheets In AA

Having court-ordered people at our meetings is like being, “a little bit pregnant.” We are either anonymous or we are not anonymous.

Our Traditions are important to Alcoholics Anonymous. We also want to see AA continue to provide a way out for alcoholics.

The responsibility statement located on so many meeting walls says it all. AA is an all-inclusive organization, too. We offer aid to anyone who needs help in their drinking life. However, that comfort and aid are meant to be given in an anonymous way.

My question is, how anonymous is a court-ordered person who leaves our meetings with a signed attendance sheet? Surely everyone can remember hearing someone at an AA meeting state, “You can say that you were at this meeting but you cannot tell them I was here.”

What good is that statement when we then turn around and sign attendance sheets? Having court-ordered people at our meetings is something like being, “a little bit pregnant.” We are either anonymous or we are not anonymous. Let’s look at some of the results of our current practice.

In order to clear out overcrowded prisons, criminals have been released if they agree, in part, to getting attendance vouchers signed at AA meetings. One of those parolees killed an AA member in 2011 and a lawsuit against AA was filed.

We didn’t hear about that from the General Service Organization or their Public Information Coordinator, and that is where the legal papers were delivered.

Instead, the news broke at some later time on television. While the suit was eventually dismissed, that AA member surely would not have been murdered and that lawsuit filed if we did not sign attendance sheets.

Greg Hardy, a former NFL player banned from the league after being charged with beating his girlfriend, has been sentenced to three AA meetings per week rather than going to jail. Look at pages 155 and 156 of the Twelve and Twelve. It states that judges would gather derelicts from society and, “parole them into our custody. We’d spill AA into the dark regions of dope addiction and criminality.”

Look, too, at page 190 where it states that we are not to, “lend the AA name in either a direct or indirect manner to anyone.”

Our founders predicted back in the 1950s this very situation happening today.

The Second, Seventh and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeal have all ruled that sending criminals to AA meetings is illegal. It’s in violation of the First Amendment. That public controversy would not have happened had we kept our meetings anonymous.

What if AA decided to stop signing attendance sheets? What could the courts do? Are they able to set up their own classes to teach lessons about alcoholism and addiction? Could the courts take their own attendance?

The Traditions allow AA members to go to those classes and talk about alcoholism. We could still offer aid and support to alcoholics without signing attendance sheets.

After the above-mentioned murder, the GSO has felt compelled to hand out the Safety Card for AA Groups statement to clean up this situation. They did so without fully explaining to the public the issues noted here. Perhaps this is the time to reevaluate things more closely.

Maybe this is an opportunity to gather the insight and courage to see if we are compromising our Traditions as well as our Alcoholics Anonymous name when signing attendance sheets.

The author is a member of AA and chooses to remain anonymous.

View the original article at thefix.com

20 September 2018
The Cannabis Industry Wants You To Ditch The Word "Stoner"

A new ad campaign is pushing to end marijuana-related stigma.

The word “stoner” immediately brings to mind a specific stereotype: a low achiever clouded in smoke and looking for a snack. Now, a retail pot company in California has launched a $2 million advertising campaign trying to convince the public to let the world stoner go up in smoke.

“That word can be used to negatively stereotype people,” Daniel Yi, senior vice president of communications at MedMen, which operates 14 retail pot stores, told The LA Times. “We want to take that stigma away. We want to make marijuana mainstream.”

The ads feature actors dressed as police officers, nurses, teachers and other professionals. Next to the individual is the word “stoner” with a slash through it. Yi said the ads are meant to address the stigma that still exists around smoking pot, even in states like California where recreational use is legal.

Yi said that the recent controversy over Elon Musk smoking marijuana on a YouTube show shows that there is still a long way to go before cannabis is accepted as mainstream.

“The Stephen Colbert show (on CBS) does this thing where Colbert takes shots of tequila with some of his guests,” Yi said. “That doesn’t show up on the front page of the LA Times. But Musk smokes one blunt on “The Joe Rogan Experience” and it gets lots of press coverage. Alcohol is acceptable, marijuana isn’t.”

MedMen’s ads are just one way that the marijuana industry is trying to rebrand smoking cannabis. Other retailers won’t use the term “pot.”

“It’s legal now,” said Brooke Brun, cofounder of Kb Pure Essentials, a company that makes CBD products marketed for health and wellness. “People don’t feel so bad about asking for it, or being seen at a CBD booth.”

However, industry insiders said that stigma will be reduced the most as marijuana use becomes legalized with no social consequences.

“The negative prophecies didn’t come true,” said Dallin Young, executive director of the Assn. of Cannabis Professionals in San Diego. “California hasn’t turned into some Mad Max world.”

While some people took issue with the ads, other residents of San Diego — where some of the billboard are located — said the campaign is really nothing new.

“The alcohol industry has for eons shown advertisements of imbibers in all professions appearing to lead normal, healthy lives,” Don Paret of San Diego said. “Why (shouldn’t) the pot industry do the same? MedMen’s attempt to create a more legitimate image of pot users is no different than the alcohol industry portraying a similar image.”

Others weren’t sure that people would be able to stop using the word ‘stoner.’

“While ‘stoner’ may conjure images of a permanently buzzed Jeff Spicoli-type [from Fast Times at Ridgemont High], I think trying to stop people from using it is a pointless and losing battle,” said California resident Gary Deacon. “Either embrace and reclaim the epithet by showing that ‘stoners’ can be productive contributors to society, or promote an alternate term for people to use.”

View the original article at thefix.com

20 September 2018
Science Series NOVA Tackles US Drug Crisis in PBS' "Addiction"

The PBS documentary airs on October 19th.

The opioid crisis affects entire communities across the United States—yet there is still much about opioid abuse that is poorly understood.

A new documentary airing on PBS aims to change that by exploring the crisis from different angles.

ADDICTION, produced by NOVA, tackles both the science of addiction and the real impact that it’s had on Americans.

“Nearly every family in America has been affected by addiction—the biggest public health crisis facing us today—yet it remains poorly understood, largely stigmatized, and finding treatment can be a daunting process,” said Paula S. Apsell, Senior Executive Producer of NOVA. “NOVA helps cut through the confusion by presenting the latest science on what we now know is a treatable brain disorder, and not a hopeless diagnosis.”

The documentary explores harm reduction programs across North America and the impact they’ve had—from Insite in Vancouver, Canada (the first supervised injection facility in North America) to West Virginia, which has adopted a harm reduction approach to the drug problem there.

Under West Virginia’s public health commissioner Rahul Gupta, who will step down from his post in November, the state dispatched a free mobile unit and volunteer medical team to offer a host of harm reduction services including needle exchange, HIV and hepatitis testing, and free naloxone, (the anti-opioid overdose medication).

A major benefit to investing in a harm reduction approach is financial. Gupta says that with every $1 spent on harm reduction, we save $7 in medical costs, in addition to being able to guide people toward treatment.

“The costs are really unsustainable if we continue on this path, losing over half a trillion dollars a year for multiple years in our economy. We’ve got to be smart about addressing addiction,” said Gupta. “We have to find ways to prevent it from happening in the first place.”

Dr. Laura Kehoe oversees a unique program at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston that offers medication to overdose survivors to control cravings.

“We’re seeing people come that day and engage in care, and the vast majority of them, 75 to 80% are returning,” she said. “Tragically, evidence-based treatments are not widely available in the U.S., and patients and families have to navigate a very broken system of care.”

View the original article at thefix.com

20 September 2018
Kristen Bell Reveals She Smokes Weed Around Sober Dax Shepard

“I smoke around my husband and it doesn’t seem to bother him. Weed rules. Weed is my drug of choice, for sure.”

Actress Kristen Bell recently posted a heartfelt tribute to her husband Dax Shepard on social media congratulating him on his 14th year of sobriety.

However, that doesn’t mean The Good Place actress has to walk on eggshells to protect his sobriety, she revealed in a new episode of WTF with Marc Maron.

“I like my vape pen quite a bit,” she said on the podcast. “I smoke around my husband and it doesn’t seem to bother him. Weed rules. Weed is my drug of choice, for sure.”

“Once a week, if I am exhausted and we are about to sit down and watch 60 Minutes, why not?” she added.

Shepard is candid about his past drug and alcohol use, which he admitted was one thing that contributed to the couple’s early relationship woes. “I just loved to get fucked up—drinking, cocaine, opiates, marijuana, diet pills, pain pills, everything,” he said in a past Playboy interview. “Mostly my love was Jack Daniel’s and cocaine. I lived for going down the rabbit hole of meeting weird people.”

Shepard said he was lucky he didn’t land himself in jail. He is now fully invested in his recovery, which is why Bell can use cannabis around him. “He likes drugs and alcohol. He’s just aware that he lost his privilege with them because he can’t handle it,” said Bell. “His brain does not have the chemistry to handle it.”

On September 1, Bell posted an open letter to the Without a Paddle star on Instagram in honor of his 14th sober anniversary. “I know how much you loved using. I know how much it got in your way. And I know, because I saw, how hard you worked to live without it,” she wrote.

“I will forever be in awe of your dedication, and the level of fierce moral inventory you perform on yourself, like an emotional surgery, every single night.”

“I’m so proud that you have never ben ashamed of your story, but instead shared it widely, with the hope it might inspire someone else to become the best version of themselves. You have certainly inspired me to do so,” she added.

View the original article at thefix.com

20 September 2018
Are Teens' Brains More Vulnerable To Addiction?

It all comes down to the developing brain.

While teenagers have always experimented with mind-altering substances, they are at more risk of addiction than ever. The combination of modern drug availability and the specific vulnerability of the teen brain make the teen years a higher risk for addiction than in adulthood.

The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention reports that nearly 35.6% of high school students say they have tried marijuana, 60.4% have tried alcohol, while 14% say they have misused opioids to get high.

The teenage human brain is not “fully wired” Dr. Frances Jensen, chair of neurology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, told the Philly Voice. Because the teenage brain is literally still growing—still building the synapses that connect portions of the brain and create connections for memories, skills and rewards—it has high synaptic plasticity.

And this, the Philly Voice note, makes the teenage brain is specifically vulnerable to addiction.

While this plasticity allows for powerful healing properties as well as learning abilities, it also leaves the brain more vulnerable to addiction.

It has been widely discussed in the last decade that the teen brain has an undeveloped frontal lobe, the area that primarily responsible for ultimately making decisions.

Teens are notoriously prone to impulsive decisions and struggle to see future consequences as a reality.

The connections in the teen frontal lobe are not yet covered with the myelin sheath, the covering that allows signals to travel rapidly throughout the brain.

“That plays into getting addicted in the first place,” Jensen told Philly Voice. “There’s this increased propensity to take risks and try substances – despite the fact that you might know it’s really bad for you.”

Yet Jensen points out a bright side, “If you can get them into rehab, you have better results in rehab. You can undo the circuit. You still have a better ability to remold the circuit – if you can capture it.”

This is why programs for drug and alcohol rehabilitation often incorporate cognitive behavioral therapy for teenagers struggling with addiction.

“They are really good learners at this age,” Jensen told the Philly Voice. “They’re very interested in their brains. They’re very interested in what drives their behavior and why they did that stupid thing on Saturday night.”

View the original article at thefix.com

20 September 2018
Meth Use Rises Among Youth, Heroin Use Declines

The results of a new survey from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration revealed some positive movement for the opioid crisis.

In another reminder of how complicated addiction and addiction treatment is, compiled survey results from 67,500 Americans in 2017 found that while new heroin users in certain age groups have almost declined by half, methamphetamine and marijuana use has increased.

The survey, conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, (SAMHSA) parsed survey takers by age groups, types of drugs used, amounts of drugs used, and the starting point for the usage or abuse of each drug.

The most dramatic, positive findings were around new heroin users; 81,000 reported using heroin for the first time in 2017, less than half of the 170,000 reported the year before.

However, when looking at the age group of 18-25, the decline in new heroin users was “almost imperceptible” according to USA Today.

The 18 to 25 category also reported less prescription opioid abuse. SAMHSA estimated that in 2015 8.5% of people in this vulnerable age range misused prescription opioids; In 2017 the percentage was at 7.

Yet marijuana and meth use for youths 12-17 increased from all previous years. Marijuana use for both youth and adults was associated with opioid use, heavy alcohol use, and major depressive episodes.

The concerning effects of heavy marijuana use on mental illness has been somewhat put to the backburner as popular culture embraces the positive aspects of the drug. Some research show a direct correlation between marijuana overuse and mental distress and illness.

With all the publicity surrounding deaths from heroin laced with fentanyl, addiction specialist Sally Satel says most addiction experts had anticipated a move away from opioids and toward another drug.

“I was waiting for this,” Satel told USA Today, “This is how it works. People still want to alter their mental state. So they look for what’s cheap and what’s available and the reputation of the drug.”

Jim Beiting, CEO of Transitions, Northern Kentucky’s largest drug treatment and recovery organization, told USA Today that meth is “magnetic” for people with addiction trying to move from opioids. “It’s cheaper,” he says. “It’s more readily available, (and) the potency is higher than it used to be.”

Other positive news from the SAMHSA report reveals that more people struggling with heroin addiction are seeking treatment, up 53.7% from previous years. This seems to reflect on the increased funding, country-wide, into access and quality of addiction treatment services.

The news is mixed but overall illuminates how bad the addiction crisis remains in our country. James Carrol, acting director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, told the Washington Times, “Use of marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine are all up. So we aren’t just in an opioids crisis. It’s an addiction crisis.”

View the original article at thefix.com

19 September 2018