When Ashlee Chaidez’s black Lab mix, Duck, charged toward her and rubbed his face — a little more gray than the last time she had seen him — against her cheek, she knew her struggles over the past several months had been worth it.
Six months ago, Chaidez, 27, and 6-year-old Duck were living out of her car around the Front Range. Chaidez dropped Duck off at doggy daycare to get him out of the summer heat while she delivered orders for Instacart, narrowly earning the money to board her beloved dog.
Chaidez barely broke even financially, was off her mental health medication and needed help, she said. But the thought of giving up Duck — her best friend and reason for getting up in the morning — while she sought inpatient psychiatric care was a blow that felt insurmountable.
After reaching out to animal shelters, Chaidez learned about a program through the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals that finds foster caregivers for people’s pets while they recover from addiction, abuse or mental health problems.
Through that program, Duck lived with a foster family while Chaidez got back on her feet.
“One of the main things preventing me from getting help was that I didn’t want to give him up because he’s my family,” Chaidez said. “This gave me the peace of mind to get the help I needed, and I don’t think I would be where I am now without this program.”
The program, Pawsitive Recovery, launched in Denver in 2021 and is so popular that the organization is looking to expand it across the country.
“This program gave me a lot of hope when I didn’t really see any,” Chaidez said.
Serena Saunders got sober from alcohol about five years ago through an inpatient program. The former veterinary technician told her therapist at the time that she wished she could work with dogs while going through recovery. That was the impetus for Pawsitive Recovery, a nonprofit Saunders started out of her Denver home, where she cared for the cats and dogs of people in recovery.
Two years ago, Saunders met an employee with SPCA International who became interested in her work. The longstanding animal advocacy organization hired Saunders and folded her nonprofit into their mission.
“It was probably the best decision of my life,” Saunders said.
Pawsitive Recovery partners with mental health treatment and sober living facilities across Colorado. People who need inpatient care but have pets they don’t want to leave behind get referred to the SPCA and connected with a foster caregiver.
The organization and its host of volunteers care for around 30 to 40 animals at a time — mostly cats and dogs, although Saunders has looked after 10 tarantulas in her office and found temporary homes for guinea pigs, too.
The fosters are typically volunteers from the recovery space — therapists, people in long-term recovery, parents of family members impacted by addiction, Saunders said. (Anyone interested in volunteering or getting connected with the program can find information at spcai.org/our-work/pawsitive-recovery.)
Sometimes, due to challenges like homelessness, the pets have trauma that can lead to behavioral issues, Saunders said. The program partners with a training facility in Brighton that takes on behaviorally challenged animals, she said.
Ashlee Chaidez, right, hugs SPCA volunteer Sara Broene after being reunited with her dog, Duck, after six months apart while Chaidez sought psychiatric care, on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, at Hounds Town dog daycare and boarding in Denver. (Photo by Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post)
They also have a standing arrangement with local boarding facility Hounds Town, which can take in pets quickly, Saunders said. A fast placement can be critical if a client is escaping a domestic violence situation and needs to leave right away, she said.
“We are not limited to dogs that are in perfect shape,” Saunders said. “We can take broken ones, too, which is amazing because the dog and the person get to heal simultaneously.”
Pawsitive Recovery commits to fostering pets for six months, giving the person in recovery time to figure out their next move, Saunders said. The SPCA charges $100 per month for a boarding fee, which Saunders described as an accountability tool for the person in recovery.
“It’s part of their responsibility, having a little skin in the game when it comes to the care of their animal,” Saunders said. “If they’re in treatment, a lot of these people are not working, so what we do is set up a fundraiser for them, and as they start rebuilding their life, they can go in and make payments. It’s all situational.”
For Chaidez, the program was life-changing.
She got the medical care she needed, secured a job at a Starbucks in Vail and got her own apartment.
When times in recovery got hard, the thought of reuniting with her furry friend kept her motivated, she said.
Ashlee Chaidez give a kiss to her dog, Duck, after being reunited after six months apart while Chaidez sought psychiatric care, on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, at Hounds Town dog daycare and boarding in Denver. (Photo by Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post)
“I didn’t really notice how much he helped me out until I didn’t have him anymore,” Chaidez said. “He’s my best friend. He’s the whole point.”
On the day of reunification — a Saturday in mid-December — Chaidez grew nervous that Duck might not remember her or might be angry with her for leaving him.
But Duck was elated to see his favorite human again.
“I took a big sigh of relief because I made it,” Chaidez said.
That night, when Chaidez crawled into bed with Duck sleeping at her feet, she realized what a big milestone she had achieved.
“I did it,” Chaidez said. “I was in my own place, I have my own bed, my dog is back, and it really clicked. Even though it was so hard to give him up, I made the right decision.”
Some might say the new Aurora Regional Navigation Campus that opened recently in a former 255-room hotel is undergirded by one of humanity’s seven deadly sins — envy.
The intent is to turn that feeling into a motivational force. For his part, Mayor Mike Coffman prefers to refer to the three-tiered residential system at the homeless navigation center as an “incentive-based program” — one that awards increasingly comfortable living quarters to those showing progress on their journey to self-sufficiency.
“The notion here is (that) different standards of living act as an incentive,” Coffman said in early November during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the campus, which occupies a former Crowne Plaza Hotel at East 40th Avenue and Chambers Road. “The idea is to move up the tiers into much better living situations.”
Clients in the new facility, which opened its doors on Nov. 17, start at the bottom with a cot and a locker. They can eventually migrate to a hotel room, with a locking door and a private bathroom.
But that upgrade comes with a price.
“To get a room here, you have to be working full time,” Coffman said.
It’s an approach that the mayor says threads the needle between housing-first and work-first, the two prevailing strategies for addressing homelessness today. The housing-first approach emphasizes getting someone into a stable home before requiring employment, sobriety or treatment. A work-first setup conditions housing on a person finding work and seeking help with underlying mental health and addiction problems.
“We’re providing a continuum of services that starts with an emergency shelter,” said Jim Goebelbecker, the executive director of Advance Pathways.
Advance Pathways, the nonprofit group that ran the Aurora Resource Day Center before its recent closure, was chosen through a competitive bidding process to operate the new navigation campus in Aurora — with $2 million in annual help from the city. Goebelbecker said the tiered approach at the new facility “taps into a person’s motivation for change.”
The Aurora Regional Navigation Campus’ debut nearly completes a mission that has been in the works for more than three years. It is the fourth — and penultimate — metro Denver homeless navigation center to go online since the Colorado General Assembly passed House Bill 1378 in 2022.
The bill allocated American Rescue Plan Act dollars to stand up one central homeless navigation center. The plan has since shifted to five smaller centers, with locations in Aurora, Lakewood, Boulder, Denver and Englewood. The Colorado Department of Local Affairs in late 2023 approved $52 million for the centers. The final center, the Jefferson County Regional Navigation Campus in Lakewood, is undergoing renovations and will open next year.
Aurora’s center, with 640 beds across its three tiered spaces, is by far the largest of the five facilities.
Cathy Alderman, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, said the opening of Aurora’s navigation campus is “a really big deal.” Aside from serving its own clientele, she expects the center to send referrals to the coalition’s newly opened Sage Ridge Supportive Residential Community near Watkins, where people without stable housing go to address their substance-use disorders.
“A person can go to one place and get multiple needs met,” Alderman said, referring to the array of job, medical and addiction treatment services that give homeless navigation centers their name. “We are excited that the new campus is now up and running.”
The new Aurora Regional Navigation Campus, operated by Advance Pathways, photographed in Aurora on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
‘How do I move up?’
Walking into the Aurora Regional Navigation Campus feels like walking into, well, a hotel.
The swimming pool was removed during renovation, as was a water fountain in the lobby. Everything else stayed, including beds, bedding, furniture — even a stash of bottled cocktail delights. But not the alcohol to go with it.
“They left everything, down to the forks and knives and a wall of maraschino cherries,” said Jessica Prosser, Aurora’s director of housing and community services, as she walked through the hotel’s industrial kitchen.
The kitchen, which was part of the $26.5 million sale of the Crowne Plaza Hotel to Aurora last year, was a godsend to an operation tasked with serving three meals a day to hundreds of people. The city spent another $13.5 million to renovate the building.
“To build a new commercial kitchen is a half-million dollars, easy,” Prosser said.
The layout of the navigation center was deliberate, she said. The hotel’s convention center space is now occupied by Tier I and Tier II housing. The first tier is made up of nearly 300 cots, divided by sex. There are lockers for personal belongings and shared bathrooms. Anyone is welcome.
On the other side of a nondescript wall is Tier II, which is composed of a grid of 114 compartmentalized, open-air cubicles with proper beds and lockable storage. The center assigns residents in this tier case managers to help them treat personal challenges and get on the path toward landing a job.
The Tier II “Courage” space, which offers overnight accommodation for people who are working on recovery, employment and housing pathways at the new Aurora Regional Navigation Campus in Aurora, on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
Tier III residents live in the 255 hotel rooms. They must have a full-time job and are required to pay a third of their income to the program. Residents in this tier will typically remain at Advance Pathways for up to two years before they have the skills and stability to find housing on the outside, Goebelbecker said.
People living in the congregate tiers can house their dogs in a pet room, which can accommodate 40 canines. (No cats, gerbils or fish). The center also doesn’t accept children. Around 60 staff members, plus 10 contracted security personnel, will work at the facility 24/7.
Shining a bright light on the path forward and upward inside the facility — the windows of some of the coveted private rooms are fully visible from the lobby — is an “intentional design feature,” Prosser said.
“How do I move up?” she mused, stepping into the shoes of a resident eyeing the facility’s layout. “How do I get in there?”
The Tier III “Commitment” space, which provides private rooms that will serve people who are in the workforce and are building towards financial independence, seen at the new Aurora Regional Navigation Campus in Aurora on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
It’s a system that demands something of the people using it, Coffman said, while at the same time providing the guidance and help that clients will need.
“This is not just maintaining people where they are — this is about moving people forward,” the mayor said.
The approach is familiar to Shantell Anderson, Advance Pathways’ program director. She told her life story during the ribbon-cutting ceremony, bringing tears to the eyes of some in the audience.
A native of Denver’s Park Hill neighborhood, Anderson fell in with the wrong crowd. She became pregnant at 15 and got hooked on cocaine. She spiraled into a life on the streets that resulted in her children being sent to an aunt for caretaking.
But through treatment and by intersecting with the right people, she recovered. She earned a nursing degree and worked at RecoveryWorks, a nonprofit organization that operated a day shelter in Lakewood, before taking the job at Advance Pathways.
The Tier I “Compassion” emergency shelter, which provides immediate short-term shelter for those in need at the new Aurora Regional Navigation Campus in Aurora on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
“This is a system that honors people’s dignity,” Anderson said, her voice heavy with emotion.
In an interview, she said assuming the burden to improve her situation was critical to her transformation.
“I actually did that — no one gave me anything,” said Anderson, 48. “If it was handed to me, I didn’t appreciate it.”
How much responsibility to place on the people being helped by such programs is still a matter of intense debate by policymakers and advocates for homeless people. The housing-first approach favored by Denver and many big cities across the country is anchored in the idea that work or treatment requirements will result in many people falling through the cracks and staying outside, particularly those who face mental-health challenges.
The Bridge House in Englewood, one of the five metro area navigation centers, follows a “Ready to Work” model that is similar to that of the upper tiers of the Aurora Regional Navigation Campus.
Opened in May, the Bridge House has 69 beds. CEO Melissa Arguello-Green said the organization asks its clients (called trainees) to put skin in the game by landing a job with Bridge House’s help and then contributing a third of their paycheck as rent.
“We help them find employment through our agency so they can leave our agency,” she said. “We’re looking for self-sufficiency that will get people off system support.”
Arguello-Green said she would like to see more coordination between the metro’s five navigation centers, though she acknowledged it’s still in the early going.
“We’re missing that come-to-the-table collaboration,” she said.
Advance Pathways volunteer outreach coordinator Evan Brown organizes the clothing bank before the Aurora Regional Navigation Campus’ grand opening ceremony in Aurora on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
Homeless numbers still rising
Shannon Gray, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, said her department had started convening quarterly in-person meetings across the locations.
“While each navigation campus is unique and reflects community-specific strategies, they are all a part of a regional effort to bring external partners together onsite to provide needed services and referrals,” Gray said. Together, they are “building towards a larger regional system to connect homeless households to a larger network of opportunities.”
The centers are permitted to “tailor their approach to their unique needs and vision,” she said. While Englewood and Aurora use a tiered system, Gray said, the other three centers don’t.
“It is important to understand that DOLA serves as a funder for these regional navigation campuses — we do not oversee their operation or maintenance,” she said.
Denver’s navigation center, which opened in December 2023 in a former DoubleTree Hotel on Quebec Street, offers 289 rooms to those in need, said Julia Marvin, a spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Housing Stability.
She called the facility an “integral component of Denver’s All in Mile High homelessness initiative,” Mayor Mike Johnston’s ambitious effort to appreciably reduce homelessness in the city. The center is just one of several former hotels and other shelter sites in the system.
Earlier this year, his administration cited annual count numbers showing a 45% decrease in the number of people sleeping on the streets since 2023 — dropping from 1,423 to 785 people, despite overall homelessness continuing to increase in that time.
In fact, homelessness numbers are still going in the wrong direction across the seven-county metro, per the latest Point-in-Time survey from the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative, which captures a one-night snapshot. The January count revealed that 10,774 people were homeless on the night of the survey, up from 9,977 in the count the year before.
Anderson, the Advance Pathways program director, said the new Aurora facility was opening at just the right time. Despite a recent calming in runaway home values in metro Denver, the $650,000 median price of a detached home in October still demarcated a housing market that was out of reach for many.
“I am excited,” Anderson said of the Aurora navigation campus’ debut. “I’m waiting for people to walk through the door and start the next chapter of their journey.”
WOBURN — A case that stretched more than eight years reached its conclusion this week, as retired Dracut physician, Dr. Richard Miron, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and other charges tied to the illegal prescribing of opioids that led to a Lowell patient’s death.
Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office said Miron, 83, became the first doctor in Massachusetts to be convicted on involuntary manslaughter for prescribing opioids — a conviction that stemmed from the 2016 death of 50-year-old Michelle Craib. He also pleaded guilty to defrauding MassHealth and illegally prescribing medication to patients for no legitimate medical purpose.
Miron was ultimately sentenced in Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn on Monday to what amounts to five years of probation, allowing him to avoid prison time.
Miron’s attorney, Stephen Weymouth, said on Wednesday that he was prepared and confident to go to trial in a case that has faced a series of delays over the years, but after a conversation with his client earlier this month, the main concern became the possibility of serving time behind bars.
“From the very beginning he said, ‘I didn’t do anything wrong, and I want to go to trial,’” Weymouth said about Miron. “But then he said he did not want to go to jail.”
Weymouth pointed out that Miron was facing 47 charges, and any one of them could have resulted in a jail sentence. He said that prosecutors had previously sought four to five years in a plea deal, and the involuntary manslaughter charge carried a maximum of 20 years.
“Going to trial would have been a mistake because all it would have taken was one guilty hook and he would have gotten a pretty lengthy sentence, and I just couldn’t do that. I just couldn’t take any chances,” Weymouth said. “If he had gone to trial and lost, who knows what would have happened.”
Miron was indicted by a Middlesex County grand jury in December 2018 following an investigation that began in September 2017 by the AG’s Office, then headed by now-Gov. Maura Healey. Aside from involuntary manslaughter, he was charged with 23 counts of illegally prescribing controlled substances and 23 counts of filing false Medicaid claims.
From September 2015 to February 2016, the AG’s Office said Miron, a solo practitioner of internal medicine, was the largest provider of high-dose, short-acting oxycodone prescriptions among all MassHealth care providers statewide.
The Chief Medical Examiner’s Office determined Craib’s death was caused by acute intoxication from the combined effects of fentanyl, morphine, codeine, and butalbital — all prescribed by Miron. The AG’s Office said Miron was aware that Craib had previously overdosed on opioids he had prescribed, yet he continued to issue large doses to her on multiple occasions leading up to her death.
Prosecutors also said Miron illegally prescribed opioids to several other at-risk patients for no legitimate medical purpose. The illegal prescriptions Miron issued led pharmacies to unknowingly submit false bills to MassHealth for medication.
MassHealth terminated Miron from its program in September 2017, and he stopped practicing medicine in November 2018, following an agreement with the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine.
In 2023, Miron’s daughter, Linda Miron, penned a 17-page letter to the AG’s Office urging that the case be dropped. She argued that prosecuting her father — who had already relinquished his medical license and lived under pretrial probation since 2018 — was not in the interest of justice.
“To bring this flawed case to trial does not seem to me to be the best use of the Commonwealth’s resources, and I urge you to drop your prosecution of this case in the interest of justice,” Linda Miron said in the letter. “More broadly, I fear that prosecuting someone who was willing to take on disenfranchised, medically and psychologically complicated patients here in the Commonwealth, when some other physicians refused to take on MassHealth patients, will further discourage other physicians from treating these patients who deserve compassionate care.”
The case marched on until Monday, when Miron appeared in Middlesex Superior Court before Judge Cathleen Campbell, where it was finally resolved.
According to the AG’s Office, Miron was sentenced to two and a half years in a house of correction on illegal prescribing, suspended for five years — meaning he will serve the term as probation rather than prison time, unless he violates probation, in which case the sentence could be imposed. He was sentenced to five years of probation on the involuntary manslaughter charge. For Medicaid fraud, Miron was sentenced to six months in a house of correction, suspended for five years.
As part of his probation, Miron was ordered to pay full restitution to MassHealth and barred from practicing medicine or seeking reinstatement of his license.
According to Weymouth, Miron was glad to put the case behind him and most of all to avoid prison time. He noted that Miron had already given up his medical career and had no intention of practicing again.
In a press release announcing the case’s conclusion on Tuesday, the AG’s Office said the case reflects their “commitment to addressing the root causes of the opioid crisis and holding companies and individuals accountable for their role in contributing to the nationwide epidemic.”
Earlier this year, the release states, Campbell helped negotiate a $7.4 billion settlement in principle with Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family, which is expected to bring up to $105 million to Massachusetts. To date, the office said they have secured more than $1 billion in opioid-related recoveries, with more than $390 million already received. Those funds are being directed to the state’s Opioid Recovery and Remediation Fund and distributed to cities and towns to support prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery efforts.
The AG’s Office added in the release that valuable assistance with the investigation into Miron’s case was provided by the Lowell Police Department, the State Police, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and MassHealth.
Follow Aaron Curtis on X @aselahcurtis, or on Bluesky @aaronscurtis.bsky.social.
Prison cells once used at the California Institution for Men in Chino. (Photo courtesy of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.
It’s been nearly a year since Californians overwhelmingly approved Proposition 36, a tough-on-crime measure providing what backers called “mass treatment” for those facing certain drug charges.
But few defendants have found a clear path to recovery under the law, according to new data released by the state.
Prop. 36 gave prosecutors the ability to charge people convicted of various third-time drug offenses with a so-called treatment-mandated felony, which would give them a choice between behavioral health treatment or up to three years in jail or prison. If they accept, they would enter a guilty or no contest plea and begin treatment. Those who complete treatment have their charges dismissed.
In the first six months since the law took effect, roughly 9,000 people have been charged with a treatment-mandated felony, according to the first-of-its-kind report released this month by the state’s Judicial Council. Nearly 15% — or 1,290 people — elected treatment.
So far, of the 771 people placed into treatment, 25 completed it.
The data reflects how different counties are using the law, with the highest number of treatment-mandated felonies charged in Orange County at 2,395. Kings and Napa counties each had one such charge.
San Diego County accounted for roughly one-third — or 427 of 1,290 — cases in which defendants chose to pursue treatment, but did not report how many were placed into treatment or completed it.
The report notes that this missing data contributes to “a substantial portion of the drop-off” in regards to the overall number of people who elected treatment but have not yet been placed.
Francine Byrne, director of criminal justice services at the Judicial Council, said counties are still figuring out how to implement the law — and in many jurisdictions, it can take people a while to opt-in to treatment as they move through the court process.
“It’s not acceptable that so few people are actually going into treatment,” said Jonathan Raven, an executive at the California District Attorneys Association, which supported the measure. “The goal of this ballot measure was to take that population of people who have a substance use disorder and get them help, find them a pathway out of the criminal justice system and dismiss their cases. And that doesn’t seem to be what’s happening across the state.”
Raven said that district attorneys have been trying to implement Prop. 36 based on the will of the voters, but have been doing it “with one hand tied behind their back.”
The measure did not include dedicated funding when voters passed it, which was one of the reasons why Gov. Gavin Newsom opposed the measure. Behavioral health experts have long sounded the alarm over the lack of behavioral health treatment and staffing across California, but proponents argued that Prop. 36 would be the great “forcing function” for the state to scale up treatment.
Since the law passed, Republican and Democratic state lawmakers requested upwards of $600 million annually to implement it. Newsom and the Legislature ultimately approved a one-time state budget allocation of $100 million.
On top of that, Newsom last month announced that the state had awarded $127 million in grant funding to build more behavioral health treatment capacity. Those funds were made available through Proposition 47, a 2014 voter-approved measure that reduced the penalties for certain non-violent drug and property crimes and stipulated that the resulting savings would be used for, among other things, substance use disorder and mental health treatment.
None of that funding was available during the time period associated with the report, which looked at case counts between Dec. 18 and April 30.
Kate Chatfield, executive director of the California Public Defenders Association said the data proves that Prop. 36 “is a fail” — not because people are treatment resistant but because treatment is not available.
“There’s no indication that anything will change,” she said. “Meanwhile, proponents are spending precious county resources on prosecution and incarceration in local jails and saying — magically — some money will appear for treatment. Proponents are the ones preventing those resources from being spent on treatment.”
Cayla Mihalovich is a California Local News fellow. CalMatters is a nonpartisan and nonprofit news organization bringing Californians stories that probe, explain and explore solutions to quality of life issues while holding our leaders accountable.
Overdose deaths in Virginia fell 43% in one year. The head of addiction services at Inova Health System says while that’s encouraging, more needs to be done.
The number of drug overdose deaths in Virginia is down 43% in one year, according to the head of addiction services at Inova Health System. She said while the number is encouraging, more needs to be done to prevent people from dying.
Dr. Zeina Saliba, chief of addiction services at Inova Health System, said the availability of naloxone, or Narcan, “certainly has something to do with the decrease in overdose deaths,” in 2024.
Preliminary data provided by the Virginia Department of Health shows about 1,400 overdose deaths statewide in 2024, down 43% from 2023, with 79% involving fentanyl or similar synthetic opioids.
Saliba told WTOP that naloxone is an example of harm reduction: “It can be seen as a set of strategies or practices that ultimately decrease the harms that are associated with the use of substances.”
Other common harm reduction methods include needle or syringe exchange programs, fentanyl testing strips and supervised consumption sites.
To those people who question the practice of supporting people using illegal substances, Saliba said: “People who use substances deserve safety and dignity. … They’re not using drugs as some sort of moral failing.”
She offered the following analogy: “When we have patients who have diabetes, they might make some choices that are not in the best interest of their health,” Saliba said. “Yet, we don’t keep them from their insulin or other treatments.”
Citing a recent study, Inova said 53% of survey respondents had never heard of the term ‘harm reduction,’ but 92% agree that it saves lives.
“Awareness is strongest among Millennials (55%) and Gen Z (47%), suggesting the effectiveness of progressive, digital-first outreach,” according to an Inova news release.
Stigma prevents many from seeking help
Nearly three-quarters of survey respondents cite fear of exposure or stigma as a major barrier to care, according to Inova.
“This impacts communities and it impacts families,” said Saliba, referring to stigma. “So, there is a much wider reach than just the individual.”
Another barrier, according to the Inova survey, is that 75% of respondents believe they can solve their personal substance use on their own.
“There may be some who do that, but for a lot of people, having support from a professional and other people with lived-experience is really important, Saliba said.
And even if a substance user becomes comfortable with the idea of seeking care, Saliba said it’s important that “we remove the potential negative consequence,” which extends beyond the discomfort of acknowledging a substance use problem.
“If, in fact, someone coming to see me may result in their loss of job, or an increase in the cost of their health insurance, all of these factors are really important,” Saliba said. “Stigma is not just an idea by itself.”
Discovery Academy celebrates with a ribbon cutting, Aug. 28, 2025. Photo courtesy Cailene Creatives.
Salem, Ore. – Oregon’s first recovery high school with on-site addiction recovery services opens to students next week.
Discovery Academy is a small public school in Salem, operating under the Willamette Education Service District. It initially opened last spring with just a handful of students, all in recovery. Principal Max Preminger says when the school reopens Tuesday, it’ll offer expanded services, marking a first in the state, “The first one that will have the community center, the clinical services, the family engagement and the recovery high school all under one roof.” He says will be allowed to stay on campus for 12 hours, with access to mental and behavioral health services and mentorship. “They’ll get three meals, have a safe space to be, and have recovery oriented activities and a full day of recovery.” The school day will run 9 to 3:30.
Willamette ESD partnered with 4D Recovery for the expanded services. Dr. Nicholas Crapser, with 4D, says students attending Discovery Academy can just walk down the hall when they’re ready for treatment, “Having it in the same spot, you can strike while the iron’s hot. With adolescents sometimes that motivation is just a quick spark.” It also fills a need for the broader region, “To be able to provide, not only services to the folks that are going to Discovery Academy, but also Salem and Marion County at large. There’s just not the services for youth that there should be anywhere in the state, but in Marion County, there’s just nobody providing services.”
Discovery Academy is one of three recovery high schools in the state, serving just a fraction of Oregon teens struggling with addiction, “If we all operated at maximum capacity, we’d be getting about 100 kids or so,” says Preminger, “Oregon Health Authority data showed from January 2022 to May 2023, there was 1,117 youth, between the ages of nine and 17, who received services for substance use.” Dr. Crapser says working with addicts as teens can be very effective, “If we don’t address the problem now, they just become adults with the problem. And it’s much easier to address it now.”
Principal Preminger believes all 25 student slots will be filled by November.
A D.C. woman has pleaded guilty in the death of her 3-year-old daughter after the young girl accidentally ingested pills containing fentanyl in 2022.
A D.C. woman has pleaded guilty in the death of her 3-year-old daughter after the young girl accidentally ingested pills containing fentanyl in 2022.
On Tuesday, 28-year-old Sasha McCoy pleaded guilty on the charge of voluntary manslaughter. Her plea calls for an agreed upon 4-to-10-year prison sentence, followed by five years of supervised release.
In October 2022, McCoy found her daughter unresponsive after putting her down for a nap. A small bag containing pills was later found on the bed. Her daughter later died at the hospital “from fentanyl and fluorofentanyl intoxication,” a medical examiner said.
A drug analysis later found one of the pills was half a Xanax, and the others contained fentanyl along with other substances.
Medical examiners concluded that the little girl died from fentanyl and fluorofentanyl intoxication, according to a Justice Department news release.
McCoy was charged with the girl’s death in February 2024, with prosecutors alleging that McCoy allowed her daughter to ingest a lethal dose of fentanyl.
She is due back in court for a sentencing hearing on Jan. 3, 2025.
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TRIGGER WARNING: The following images and stories from The Addict’s Diary are graphic in nature and depict drug use, alcohol use, and addiction.
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Andre Petroski made fighting in the UFC look easy on Saturday night at Ball Arena.
In the UFC’s return to Denver for the first time in six years — a period in which Petroski’s been in recovery from drug addiction — he won by unanimous decision over Englewood resident Josh Fremd in a middleweight preliminary bout. Petroski entered the night coming off consecutive losses and admitted the possibility of getting cut from the promotion with another defeat loomed in his mind.
But for someone who battled heroin addiction and came out the other side, a fighting career hanging in the balance is small potatoes.
“I really have been through so much (adversity) in my life, with the drugs and substance abuse, going through treatment and getting arrested,” Petroski said. “I’ve been through way worse positions than losing a fight or losing two fights in a row. If I don’t wake up and have to go find $10 to get high, then I’m winning at life.”
With that mindset and a well-constructed game plan, Petroski defeated Fremd 30-27, 30-27, 30-27 as the former college wrestler capitalized on his clear edge in grappling. Petroski took down Fremd in each round, and each time, the Factory X fighter was unable to get off the canvas.
“I had done some training with Josh in the past, and I knew where I had the advantage over him,” Petroski said. “I think that I’m a better striker than Josh, but I also knew my grappling was so much better than him.
“I was in a position where I’m coming off two losses and it’s not about getting a highlight or anything like that. It’s about doing what I have to do to win and keep this career going and provide for my family.”
Petroski improved to 6-2 in the UFC with the victory, while Fremd fell to 2-4. Petroski paid no mind to the deafening cheers for Fremd when the local stepped into the Octagon, nor did Petroski mind the chorus of boos that rained down on him throughout the fight and after he was declared the winner as the crowd expressed its distaste for the one-sided wrestling match.
Andre Petroski (white trunks) controls Josh Fremd (black trunks) during a UFC Fight Night middleweight bout at Ball Arena in Denver on Saturday, July 13, 2024. Petroski won the fight via unanimous decision. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
The Philadelphia fighter held Fremd down for the majority of the first round, nearly submitted Fremd via a triangle in the second round, and then fended off a quick flurry of punches from a desperate Fremd in the final round to eventually notch another takedown.
After the victory, Petroski reveled in the win and recalled how six years ago, he was an amateur fighter who was winning on the regional scene but his body was “depleting” as he battled his intravenous heroin addiction.
Now, he’s a father of three, including a newborn son who arrived two months ago amid his training camp for Fremd.
“(In 2018), I tried really hard to kick it, and ended up getting high and overdosing and got arrested,” Petroski said. “After that, I went through treatment and was able to get clean and go pro. My life has been constantly getting better (since that point).
“Me overdosing was my act of providence. Because I couldn’t stop. I had tried a million times to stop getting high and I couldn’t, but that happening was the interference from God. … The hardest reminder for me is seeing the guys I was in treatment with, and a lot of them are still getting high. I’m so many worlds moved on from that, and I’m so grateful that I’m not there anymore.”
Montel Jackson (white trunks) celebrates after defeating Da’Mon Blackshear (black trunks) during a UFC Fight Night bantamweight bout at Ball Arena in Denver on Saturday, July, 13, 2024. Jackson won the fight via first-round knockout. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
Lightning-quick knockout. The highlight of the preliminaries came in the bantamweight fight when Montel Jackson knocked out Da’Mon Blackshear in just 18 seconds.
Jackson, who has now won five bouts in a row, hadn’t fought in over a year. His knockout of Blackshear came on a slick one-two combo where he connected with Blackshear’s face with a straight left punch.
“(Blackshear) came out a little passive, so I knew I could get on the gas and I went for it,” Jackson said. “… A lot of these (other bantamweights), they’re ducking…. eventually, I’m going to see everybody. I want to fight again ASAP. If something comes up on short notice, if somebody drops out, I’ll say yeah, even though I’m not sure if they’d say yeah to me.”
Cody Brundage (black trunks) winces after taking blows from Abdul Razak Alhassan (white trunks) during a UFC Fight Night middleweight bout at Ball Arena in Denver on Saturday, July, 13, 2024. The fight was ruled a no contest after Brundage was unable to continue as a result of incidental blows during the first round. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
Controversial finish. The first fight of the main card came to a controversial ending 37 seconds into the first round after Cody Brundage, a Parker resident who trains at Factory X, could not continue.
Brundage’s opponent, Abdul Razak Alhassan, landed a couple of blows to the back of Brundage’s head as the Ghanaian had Brundage on the ground. The referee stopped the fight, and Brundage appeared confused as he took several minutes to get off the canvas, repeatedly asking his corner, “What happened?”
After being evaluated by medical personnel, it was deemed Brundage could not continue. The crowd was not pleased, and a loud chorus of boos permeated the arena. Alhassan was clearly furious at the stoppage of the fight, pacing around the octagon and cursing.
Charlie Sheen’s mornings look different these days. The actor told People in a new interview that next month marks six years since he quit drinking alcohol.
In 2017 and prior, he said, “I loved drinking in the morning. Loved some scotch in the coffee.” Now? “I wake up early, around 4:30 or 5 a.m., get an early jump on the news, work out, answer emails.”
Sheen disclosed in 2015 that he has HIV, which he was diagnosed with in 2011. He publicly struggled with addiction to various substances on and off for decades, and was dismissed from his long run on the sitcom Two and a Half Men as a result of his behavior. In a memorable instance amid a drug relapse, he claimed to be fueled by “tiger blood” and coined his #winning hashtag. In a 2021 interview, a decade after the fact, he told Yahoo! Entertainment he regretted the period immensely.
“People have [said to] me, ‘Hey, man, that was so cool, that was so fun to watch. That was so cool to be a part of and support and all that energy and, you know, we stuck it to the man,’” he said. “My thought behind that is, ‘Oh, yeah, great. I’m so glad that I traded early retirement for a fucking hashtag.’”
He said when he decided to stop drinking, he’d already quit using drugs, but it was one of those bygone booze-infused mornings that prompted Sheen to quit drinking, cold-turkey, six years ago.
“One morning I’d forgotten my daughter had an appointment I’d promised to drive her to, and I’d already had a couple of pops that day,” he said. (He shares daughters Sami, 19, and Lola, 18, with ex-wife Denise Richards.) “So had to call my friend Tony to take us. We got her there on time, but it broke my heart because she was in the backseat and I could just tell she was thinking, ‘Why isn’t dad driving?’ So I got home and sat with that for the rest of the day. And the next morning I just stopped.”
What started as one month “just to see,” in Sheen’s words, has now grown to over a half-decade of healthier habits and abstaining from alcohol.
“I’m like, all right, I’m going to go another month. And then it got traction. I had momentum,” he said. “There was just instant evidence that this was the side I needed to be on. I couldn’t be in denial about it anymore.”
Now, after his early morning start, he helps his 14-year-old twin sons Max and Bob get ready for their own day. “It’s all about single dad stuff,” he said. (The twins’ mother is Sheen’s ex-wife Brooke Mueller.)
After that broken promise to his daughter prompted a lifestyle overhaul, Sheen said he’s happy with who he is now.
“I’m proud of the choices that I’ve made and the changes I’ve made to live a life today that will never look like that mess,” he said of his past. “That was some alien version of myself.”
Representatives for Charlie Sheen did not immediately return requests for comment.
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Rob Lowe marked the milestone of 33 years of sobriety this week, sharing an image worthy of an inspirational office poster on his Instagram. In the photo, the shirtless Lowe is submerged in the ocean up to his collarbone, a sunset beaming through clouds behind him.
“[Thirty-three] years ago today I found recovery and a tribe that has sustained me on my incredible, grateful journey,” Lowe captioned the pic. “My life is full of love, family, God, opportunity, friends, work, dogs and fun. If you or someone you know is struggling with any form of addiction: hope and joy are waiting if you want it, and are willing to work for it!”
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Lowe’s struggle with alcohol peaked in the late ’80s, after he’d broken out with a role in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Outsiders. While promoting his 2011 memoir, Stories I Only Tell My Friends, Lowe told NPR that beer was provided on the Outsiders set, even to underage actors.
Soon enough, Lowe told NPR, drinking had become a major part of his life. “Without even knowing it, it became just a big part of my life to the point where…I decided that I needed to go and get help,” he said. His troubles hit the national spotlight when a tape of Lowe having sex with an underage girl and a woman surfaced. The incident happened while Lowe was attending the 1988 Democratic National Convention to support Michael Dukakis. Lowe, who denied knowing the girl was underage, settled a lawsuit with her family and was not charged with a crime. He once called the sex tape “the best thing that ever happened to me,” due to that scandal’s role in forcing him to change his life. Just less than two years later, he entered rehab. “It got me sober,” he said.
“One of the great gifts of recovery is that you start living your authentic life. You start living your actual values and living as who you truly are,” Lowe told Variety in 2021. His true rock bottom, he told the magazine, actually came when he got a phone call from his mother.
“My mother called me, and I could hear her voice on the answering machine. I didn’t want to pick up because I was really, really hungover and I didn’t want her to know. She was telling me that my grandfather, who I loved, was in critical condition in the hospital and she needed my help,” he said. “And I didn’t pick up. My thought process in that moment was, I need to drink a half a bottle of tequila right now so I can go to sleep, so I can wake up so I can pick up this phone.”
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Two years after Oregon residents voted to decriminalize hard drugs and dedicate hundreds of millions of dollars to treatment, few people have requested the services and the state has been slow to channel the funds.
When voters passed the state’s pioneering Drug Addiction Treatment and Recovery Act in 2020, the emphasis was on treatment as much as on decriminalizing possession of personal-use amounts of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and other drugs.
But Oregon still has among the highest addiction rates in the country. Fatal overdoses have increased almost 20% over the previous year, with over a thousand dead. Over half of addiction treatment programs in the state lack capacity to meet demand because they don’t have enough staffing and funding, according to testimony before lawmakers.
Supporters want more states to follow Oregon’s lead, saying decriminalization reduces the stigma of addiction and keeps people who use drugs from going to jail and being saddled with criminal records. How Oregon is faring will almost certainly be taken into account if another state considers decriminalizing.
Steve Allen, behavioral health director of the Oregon Health Authority, acknowledged the rocky start, even as he announced a “true milestone” has been reached, with more than $302 million being sent to facilities to help people get off drugs, or at least use them more safely.
“The road to get here has not been easy. Oregon is the first state to try such a bold and transformative approach,” Allen told a state Senate committee Wednesday.
One expert, though, told the lawmakers the effort is doomed unless people with addictions are nudged into treatment.
“If there is no formal or informal pressure on addicted people to seek treatment and recovery and thereby stop using drugs, we should expect continuing high rates of drug use, addiction and attendant harm,” said Keith Humphreys, an addiction researcher and professor at Stanford University and former senior adviser in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Of 16,000 people who accessed services in the first year of decriminalization, only 0.85% entered treatment, the health authority said. A total of 60% received “harm reduction” like syringe exchanges and overdose medications. An additional 15% got help with housing needs, and 12% obtained peer support.
The Drug Addiction Treatment and Recovery Act, also known as Measure 110, has become a campaign issue this year as Republicans seek to wrest the governorship from Democrats, who have held it since 1987.
“I voted no on Measure 110 because decriminalizing hard drugs like heroin and meth was and is a terrible idea,” said GOP candidate Christine Drazan, who supports asking voters to repeal it. “As expected, it has made our addiction crisis worse, not better.”
Unaffiliated candidate Betsy Johnson, a former veteran lawmaker, said she would work to repeal what she called a “failed experiment.”
A spokeswoman for Democratic candidate Tina Kotek, a former House speaker, said Drazan and Johnson “want to go against the will of the voters. … Oregonians do not want to go backward.”
“As governor, Tina will make sure that the state is delivering on what voters demanded: expanded recovery services statewide,” spokeswoman Katie Wertheimer said.
Under the law, people receive a citation, with the maximum $100 fine waived if they call a hotline for a health assessment. But most of the more than 3,100 tickets issued so far have been ignored, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. Few people have dialed the hotline.
Tera Hurst, executive director of Oregon Health Justice Recovery Alliance, which is focused on implementing Measure 110, said coerced treatment is ineffective. Hurst said it’s important to focus on “just building a system of care to make sure that people who need access can get access.”
Allen called the outlay of million of dollars — which come from taxes on Oregon’s legal marijuana industry — a “pivotal moment.”
“Measure 110 is launching and will provide critical supports and services for people, families and communities,” he told the Senate committee.
It will take time, though, to use the funds to build out the services.
Centro Latino Americano, a nonprofit serving Latino immigrant families, plans to use its $4.5 million share to move treatment services to a bigger space and hire more staff, said manager Basilio Sandoval.
“Measure 110 makes it possible for us to provide this service free of charge,” Sandoval said. “This allows us to reach people we could not serve previously because of a lack of insurance.”
Scott Winkels, lobbyist for the League of Oregon Cities, said residents are running out of patience.
”People are going to need to see progress,” Winkels said. “If you’re living in a community where you’re finding needles, how many times do you need to see a needle in a park before you lose your cool?”
HOUSTON, February 16, 2022 (Newswire.com)
– David Howell’s new release, Breaking Into Prison, presents God’s unfathomable love, grace, and kindness through the showcasing of God’s glorious working through the transformation of an unredeemed life to be filled with zeal to spread the Gospel to prisons and detention centers across the United States and abroad. God in His kindness brought the author out of his old ways of being self-centered, a drug addict, an alcoholic and a womanizer to reveal an unending story of God’s abundant Grace.
Prison evangelist, multi-published Christian author and businessman, David Howell, has a call from God to “Reach millions with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Yet, this book is not a biography on David Howell. This book reveals how God wastes nothing, even past failures, and creates a new vessel of honor and glory to represent God and in such a way that is pleasing to God. Faith, hope and the new life in Christ are found. Freedom and peace can be one’s portion in life.
Howell’s book sheds light on the importance of the atonement of Christ, God’s gracious gift of salvation, and is bringing freedom in Christ to millions of prisoners. His ministry and books offer an in-depth and an easy-to-understand format with Scripture and visual representation that helps prisoners grow spiritually. Foundational truths of coming to Jesus represents the importance of the regeneration of the spirit, the renewal of the mind in Christ Jesus and brings the truth of the Gospel in simple ways. David Howell also includes shocking statistics of prisons, jails, and detentions centers, that despite the common myth that Christian material is easy to come by in prison, the material is often missing and insufficient.
David Howell’s nationwide prison ministry is serving the local prison, chaplains, and inmates with salvation and true discipleship. As founder of Prison Evangelism (www.prisonevangelism.com), his books have reached over 5 million in prison. Lives and families are being transformed through such. David Howell’s Prison Evangelism’s mission and goal is to fully “reach the incarcerated for Christ in Federal, State, and local prisons, jails, and detention centers throughout the United-States and beyond.”
A hard copy of Breaking Into Prison will be mailed to media persons on request to: davidhowell@prisonevangelism.com.
As a multi-published author, David Howell, has published next step books such as: How to be a Child of God (Witness Edition), Fully Alive and Finally Free / Knowing God as Father, and Seeking God Through Prayer and Meditation.
Breaking Into Prison Publisher : David Howell, Author (November 5, 2021) Language : English Paperback : 244 pages ISBN-13 : 978-0578923550
For more information about David Howell (author), his prison ministry, or his books, visit: prisonevangelism.com, howtobeachildofgod.com, or davidhowell@prisonevangelism.com or call him at 713-623-0690.
