In Reference to “The Surprising Truth About Addiction” by Stanton Peele in bqr 18:2

tanton Peele does bqr readers, not to mention an addicted person or concerned family/friends, a disservice in his essay “The Surprising Truth About Addictions” in the last bqr.
Quitting the use of drugs and/or alcohol is fraught with failure for many who have tried on their own and suicide is often viewed as a solution. Government studies show that between twenty and 35 percent of suicide victims had a history of alcohol abuse or were drinking shortly before their suicides, in another study nearly 24 percent of suicide victims had blood alcohol concentrations (bacs) of .10 or greater (the legal level for intoxication in many jurisdictions), and in a study of all non-traffic injury deaths associated with alcohol intoxication over twenty percent were suicides. In another study of youthful suicide, drug and alcohol abuse was the most common characteristic of those who attempted suicide; fully seventy percent of these young people frequently used alcohol and/or other drugs.
Peele may also be unaware of cultural demographics when he speaks of the addict quitting “in order to achieve normalcy”. Many addicts are second, third or even fourth generation users and not only haven’t had a normal lifestyle to fondly look back upon or even aspire to, but have experienced positive reinforcement for the user/addictive lifestyle.
He laments that labeling a person an addict conveys no possibility for change. The basic tenets of Twelve Step Recovery Programs and conventional treatment for addicts are that change from the pain, isolation, poor health and dysfunctional lifestyle is not only possible—it’s the goal and promise.
Peele touts a physician led “brief intervention” as the most successful approach. This is naive. Problem drug and alcohol users avoid medical treatment except as a last resort, and those who do seek it, have had opportunity after opportunity for intervention botched due to disinterested, undereducated, and inattentive medical “help”. The average medical school class time devoted to addiction is thirty minutes.
Next, Peele suggests a behavioral treatment technique called “motivational interviewing” which is a recognized, useful, and successful method of dealing with any problem. If drinking, drugs, gambling, spending, are causing family, legal, or job problems, it is possible to change your thinking, attitudes and behavior. However, the acute symptoms of the addiction must be dealt with before addressing the chronic issues associated with it—you have to stop the bleeding before you figure out how you got cut. You may need professional help, you may need the help of non-professionals, but you need some type of help.
The Whale Foundation was founded as a result of, and named after, a tragically and fatally addicted individual. A need to educate and to offer help was recognized in the boating community to prevent more such tragedies. Using Stanton’s logic, boatmen and women should just suck it up, wait for life to get better and then “self-propel” their way through change to live happily ever after.
As evidenced in his own biography, “Dr. Stanton Peele is famous for his rejection of both the widely accepted Twelve Step Program developed by Alcoholics Anonymous, and of the concept that addiction is a biological disease.” He has a negative bias against programs that have worked for millions. There is ample room for different approaches and thinking, but to summarily dismiss the only programs that have worked for many is narrow minded, disrespectful and ultimately dangerous.

Blair Kuropatkin

In Reference to “Regan Dale” by Lew Steiger in bqr 18:2

Oh, please. More of Regan Dale’s photo’s of 1000 cfs in 1977. The picture of Lava Falls was really lovely. Can we please see Hance, Upset, Bedrock, Horn, Crystal…and more???

Roy Young

In Reference to “Take Me to the River” by Vince Welch in bqr 18:2

he story by Vince Welch in the latest bqr brought back some intense memories of a similar incident.
In the late 1950s or early 1960s, Jorgen Visbak, Paul Ganahl and I hiked into Supai with the intent of climbing Mount Sinyala. We stopped at the tribal office and paid our dollar, then spent some time with Vince Collins, an old friend who was the resident Indian agent at the time. Vince had been to Mount Sinyala and he gave us advice on how to get there, including the location of the Apache Trail, where one first climbed out of Havasu Canyon. Then we met with Lemuel Paya, one of the tribal elders who we had met with Bill Belknap on previous trips to Supai, and got some advice from him.
But the hike to Mount Sinyala did not go well, and when we figured that we did not have enough time to accomplish what we had intended, we returned to Supai and hiked to the river. This was not easy, since at that time there was no established trail below Mooney Falls, and we had to go through all of the grapevines, which was tough on our ankles.
When we got to the river, we found a troop of Boy Scouts there. They were having a ball, and they were playing in the water, of course. At the upstream junction of Havasu Creek and the Colorado, there is a flat rock projection at about river level. The boys were going out to that rock and diving into the river, then swimming across the mouth of Havasu Creek to the downstream ledges. It was great fun. But, as we watched, one boy dove in, but then misjudged the current and was swept past the downstream landing. He was headed down the main Colorado along the left bank ledges, and was surely going to disappear out of sight.
The Scoutmaster who accompanied the boys was a fat guy—really roly-poly, and he was dressed in a scout uniform and wore shorts. He really looked a bit strange to be at the river. But he saw the boy who was in trouble, and, of all things, he had a coil of rope hanging from his waist. He started to run along the ledges, and as he did so, he took the coil of rope from his waist. When he was just above the boy, he dropped the end of the rope to the boy, and amazingly enough, the boy caught it and held on. That act surely saved the boy’s life. I’ve often wondered if either the boy or the Scoutmaster realized that an heroic act had taken place, or how serious the consequences could have been if the Scoutmaster had not acted, or if he did not have a rope. I’ve wondered whether now, some forty years later, if either of them recalls the incident, or whether they have just passed it off as a minor item in an otherwise neat hike into Supai.
It is too bad that the woman in Vince’s story did not have the same bit of good fortune, but both incidents underscore the fact that one cannot underestimate what can happen if one does not understand or misjudges the potential dangers of the river.

William E. Mooz