May 12,2019
Dear Hossein,
Pardon my delay in responding. Rita and I have just returned from a week’s vacation with two of my sisters. We rented a house on the beach large enough to accommodate all of our family members. It was a wonderful week of family sharing and time for relaxation and reflection.
I would like to know more about “A window to the sky” and when it will be produced. The pace of your writing continues to inspire me. It is wonderful that Shani will be serving as an assistant. I also look forward to viewing her short videos when the English subtitles are completed. I continue to write, but I have ceased doing videos as it is getting harder for me to do them effectively these past few years. Fortunately, there are quite a few of my earlier video presentations on YouTube that convey some of my more important ideas about recovery. I look forward to viewing the recent videos that you have done.
Congratulations to the members of your beach rugby team. The Congress 60 teams continue to assert faces and voices that challenge the belief that addicts cannot recovery. They are living proof of that lie.
The opioid epidemic continues to rage here in the U.S. There were more than 70,000 overdose deaths in 2018. The continued increase is primarily due to opioids and particularly the increased availability of fentanyl. The governmental response to this epidemic has been far to slow and misdirected. People in recovery have been advocating more effective policies and more assertive responses but our progress remains limited. Rather than wait for further governmental action, local groups of people in recovery are being formed to help reach people still suffering and link them to recovery support resources.
The study I was involved in comparing NA in Iran and the U.S. is about to be published in the Journal of Addiction Medicine. I will send you a copy of that study when it is finally published,
I would like to ask you how addiction is portrayed in the media (film, television, newspapers) in Iran. In the U.S., the media has demonized addiction with extreme caricatures and rarely ever conveyed the story of long-term recovery. I wrote about this some time ago and if it is of interest I’ve attached one such essay.
I wish you and everyone in Congress 60 a joyous spring and summer.
Friends and Brothers Forever,
Bill