May 29.2019
Dear Hossein,
Thank you for the wonderful photos of Ramadan activities within Congress 60 that you and Ehsan sent me. When you send such photos, I try to imagine what it would be like for me to be there with you and all the members of Congress 60. I always look at the faces and touched by the degree of health to which so many have been restored. Congratulations on your loss of weight during Ramadan. I gained a few extra pounds while my sisters were visiting that I will try to lose in the coming weeks.
You are right about some of the negative side-effects of technology. Many of the overdose deaths and cases of narcotic addiction here in the U.S. are being called “diseases of despair”—a byproduct of people being displaced by technology (losing jobs they have worked in for most of their lives) with the accompanying decay of local communities. New industries are emerging but not fast enough to reclaim the same income of the lost jobs and to restore the health of all those communities where industries have closed. The technology also seems as you suggest to have contributed to a greater since of social isolation, loneliness and loss of meaning. That combined with ever more potent drugs and every more reinforcing methods of drug administration have set the stage for a great loss of life and the need for improved treatment of addiction in the U.S.
Thanks for also for your description of A Window in the Sky. I look forward to hearing about audience responses to its presentation.
Our prolonged “War on Drugs” has filled jails and prisons but provided no sustained solution to the problem of addiction. There is a growing awareness that we as a country cannot arrest and incarcerate our way out of the addiction problem, but moving toward better alternatives is slow with much resistance. There are more efforts to bring treatment into the criminal justice system and to divert people who have been arrested to treatment as an alternative to jail. Though debates continued about the effectiveness of coerced treatment, many people now in treatment in the U.S. enter under some form of external pressure. Is Congress 60 an option for people who have been arrested for narcotics in Iran? If so, how well do such people do in terms of long-term recovery?
My daughter Alisha and her husband arrive for a visit in early June. They are both university teachers and have most of the summer off so are able to travel to Florida to visit us. We are quite eager to see them as we have not shared a visit for many months now. We hope to visit some of the nature preserves while they are here and Alisha’s husband Stewart wants to go fishing while they are here, which should be enjoyable.
I continue to write my weekly recovery blog and offer guidance via email and telephone to some of the recovery advocacy organizations around the U.S. I am no longer leading any research studies but still consult on a few studies led by scientists interested in addiction recovery. My energies and capabilities slowly ebb, but I continue to do what I can and feel good about those who are now filling in for the work I once did. I am enjoying this continued role of elder and guide and enjoy the increased time I have for rest and reflection.
Please extend my best to your family and to the Congress 60 community.
Friends and Brothers Forever,
Bill