Addiction and Recovery

Latest Articles

A clean mind and dirty hands

Moral dilemmas for the Maine Clean Election Fund
Three people walk into a bank ...
By AL DIAMON | February 10, 2010

The Big Hurt: Dispatches from Splitsville

FOB fall out; Scorpions subsist; Tyler frightens shoppers
Ladies and gentlemen, the unthinkable has happened: Fall Out Boy have split up.
By DAVID THORPE | February 09, 2010

Civil Liberties Dept.
Rhode Island's tragic collision with teen drinking in recent years has heightened concern about substance abuse in the state's school districts.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | November 11, 2009

Fresh Lobsters bring the crowds

Shoe Fly Dept.
Stinking junkies weren't the only ones sleeping on Harvard Square sidewalks this past week. More than 300 sneaker heads queued outside of street-shoe mecca Concepts, on Brattle Street, for five days and nights in anticipation of last Saturday's release of the world's only 260 pairs of Nike Blue Lobster SB Dunks.
By CHRIS FARAONE | June 24, 2009

From the mouths of innocents

Modern poverty
It has become an unwelcome reality, living from paycheck to paycheck and worrying about job stability, but what about being born a guiltless young person growing up with a drug-addicted parent, no job skills, and no home?
By SONYA TOMLINSON | May 13, 2009

He's not a doctor . . .

. . . but he plays with one in LA. As hip-hop's newest secret weapon, Dawaun Parker is helping resuscitate rap's biggest stars.
Around this time four years ago, contemporary hip-hop tastemaker Dawaun Parker faced the same dilemma that most soon-to-be music-school grads negotiate: should he become a performer, a songwriter, or a barista?
By CHRIS FARAONE | May 18, 2009

40. Mickey Rourke

SCARFACE
Consider it a badge of honor, Mick: if they gave out Oscars for unsexy, you’d have a mantle full. We predict his comeback won’t last too long, but he might be able to extend his stay at least a little by leaving the hair extensions on the cutting-room floor.
By Boston Phoenix Staff | March 25, 2009

Housing First proves successful, especially with chronic cases

Homelessness
Take homeless people whose lives are a mess — even addicts, alcoholics, and schizophrenics who won't take their meds — and give them their own apartments, without requiring that they clean up first, get a job, or "behave."
By MARION DAVIS | December 17, 2008

Is he being served?

Tony Millionaire's still best on the page
In the first animated adaptation of Tony Millionaire's sumptuously debauched comic strip Maakies , the soused Drinky Crow was voiced by erstwhile Conan O'Brien sidekick Andy Richter.
By MIKE MILIARD | November 18, 2008

Sexual Politics

Everybody wants some, but women don’t call it an illness
Duchovny, now 48 and with a nearly complete doctorate from Yale in English lit, says he is back in rehab for sex addiction.
By MARY ANN SORRENTINO | October 09, 2008

Movies on the Midcoast

From simulated battlegrounds to Bristol Bay at the Camden International Film Festival
Yet again, this year’s festival tackles an admirable hodgepodge of subjects — online gaming junkies, Harry Potter fanatics, and even Cockney gangsters in London’s East End.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | September 24, 2008

Priorities, rediscovered

In her first book, actress Debra Winger focuses on home, not Hollywood
Instead of checking into rehab, the actress spoke her mind.
By JENNY HALPER | June 19, 2008

Will Harvard drop acid again?

Psychedelic research returns to Crimsonland
In a moment of delightful whimsy in the annals of drug history, Albert Hofmann, after purposely ingesting LSD for the first time, rode his bicycle home and experienced all manner of beatific and hellish visions.
By PETER BEBERGAL | June 09, 2008

Unspeakable

What lies ahead in the trial of two former CVS officials?
Just when you thought Hillary Clinton couldn’t be more vile or shameless, along comes her remark about Bobby Kennedy’s assassination on the campaign trail.
By PHILLIPE + JORGE | May 28, 2008

The failure of ‘tough-on-crime’ tactics

Left untreated, drug addicts pose greater costs for everyone else
It was after midnight, and Dawn Jacques lay sleepless in her cell at the Adult Correctional Institutions, shuddering. Bathed in sweat, she stared at the ceiling for hours until it blurred.
By TE-PING CHEN | May 08, 2008

The addicted city

Why is it that one out of 125 Gloucester residents is a junkie?
This article originally appeared in the April 1, 1988 issue of the Boston Phoenix.
By RIC KAHN | April 03, 2008

One for the books

Can tales of the Democratic party’s glory days help Obama and Clinton?
It’s hard to believe that we just had a week without a primary.
By STEVEN STARK | February 27, 2008

O, Canada!

Cowboy Junkies, k.d. lang, and Kathleen Edwards are not hockey pucks
You’d be forgiven for assuming that nothing’s been going on in Canada for the last few years beyond the interconnected shenanigans of that country’s indie-rock elite.
By MIKAEL WOOD | February 19, 2008

Yule appeal

Aimee Mann’s Christmas show hits the road
Aimee Mann has written many songs about heroin addiction so it’s pretty remarkable — even comic — that she launched a Christmas variety show last year.
By COLE HADDON | December 10, 2007

The problem with heroes

Lessons from the build-them-up, tear-them-down Boston firefighter backlash
Even the hardest-hearted news consumer had to wince this past week when the private autopsy results of Paul Cahill and Warren Payne were leaked to some of the press.
By ADAM REILLY | October 10, 2007

Hooks, harmony, and heartbreak

Squeeze and Crowded House reunite
Squeeze and Crowded House weren’t just two of the finer pop bands on the charts during the mid ’80s — they were virtually the only bands.
By BRETT MILANO | July 25, 2007

Playlist: July 13, 2007

Brian Coleman: “Boston band reunions that should happen in 2007, dammit”
TDS Mob, Hell Toupee, Kustomized, and more.
By BRIAN COLEMAN | July 10, 2007

Still waters

Great Lake Swimmers, Middle East Upstairs, June 5, 2007
On record, Toronto’s Great Lake Swimmers trot between the countrified rock of the Cowboy Junkies and the somber folk of latter-day Neil Young.
By JON MEYER | June 12, 2007

War and peace

Cowboy Junkies expand their reach
More often than not, when an artist gets airplay covering a decades-old song, it’s out of desperation — the sign of a career on its way down.
By TED DROZDOWSKI | May 08, 2007

Betting your brain

You just think you’re going to win
It's no surprise that it feels good to win money.
By SAMANTHA HENIG | April 25, 2007

Flash!

Sedaris busted for unreal humor, apathetic Oxycontin addict discovered in California!
David Sedaris, laughing gnome of NPR and bestselling humorist, may — in the course of trying to be funny — have made a few things up.
By JAMES PARKER | March 20, 2007

Bishop Allen

Music seen, March 1, Jack McGee’s Pub, Bowdoin College, Brunswick
The kids aren’t all right. They’re obnoxious, ignorant alcoholics, and they ruined my night.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | March 07, 2007

Wasted again

Factory Girl isn’t the bio-pic Edie deserves
Who was Edie Sedgwick? Was she a muse who inspired some notable work by Andy Warhol and Bob Dylan or just a footnote in their careers? Did she have any talent or accomplishments of her own? Why, in short, does she deserve a bio-pic? Watch the trailer for Factory Girl (QuickTime)
By GARY SUSMAN | February 07, 2007

Paula Spencer dries out

Roddy Doyle’s heroine recovers
Purgatory offers less inherent drama than Hell.
By CLEA SIMON | January 30, 2007

Can RI back away from the war on drugs?

Deficits and prison crowding propel the search for a more effective approach
When Rhode island voters narrowly approved a measure last November to allow felons on probation to vote, it marked an important step away from the kind of supposedly “tough on crime” policies that have long typified American criminal justice policy.
By IAN DONNIS | January 24, 2007