What if you’re married to a cop and he beats you? Where do you go for help? The following is from Abuse of Power by Diane Wetendorf: Call the police—He is the police. Go to a shelter—He knows where the shelters are located. Have him arrested—Responding officers may invoke the code of silence. Take him to court—It’s your…
–In the U.S., 52,404 people have died from opioid-related deaths; more than from car accidents or gun-related deaths. —Princeton economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton –“Drug overdoses are the leading cause of death among Americans under 50.” —Sam Quiones, NYT, June 16, 2017 –“Middle-of-the-road” white Americans without a college degree are the most impacted.—Jared Keller, Pacific Standard…
I don’t like drugs and I don’t use drugs. However, I do support keeping medicinal marijuana legal and available to those who need it. Recently I received an e-mail from the Drug Policy Alliance (action@em.drugpolicy.org) alerting me to a letter sent by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to Congress demanding that members not renew the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, which protects…
“Some dogs just like to eat grass,” Dr. Whitaker, our veterinarian, said. “Some dogs eat grass because of a vitamin deficiency, and sometimes dogs will eat grass to help them vomit whatever is upsetting their stomach.” This had been my experience, too. However, last Tuesday evening, June 6th, our 6 1/2 year-old, fourteen-pound male dog,…
As I researched drug trafficking for my first novel, Busted, my opinion about illegal drugs changed. Previously I’d supported the war on drugs; after all, drugs are bad. Over time, I came to the conclusion that prohibition doesn’t work, and in fact, creates a black market where illegal and illicit substances thrive without regulations. My new philosophy…
Every 9 seconds in the U.S. a woman is beaten. That’s what was displayed on the video presentation at the Human Options annual fund raiser on May 20, 2017. (Human Options, located in Orange County, California, is a non-profit organization dedicated to ending domestic violence and abuse.) While staring at that number, waves of disbelief washed over me. I…
After spending eight and a half years writing and rewriting, I began submitting my novel a year ago April. I received twenty-five agent rejections, of which many were complimentary but didn’t want to do another story about drugs. Just one agent read the manuscript while the others had reviewed the first chapter; plus I had…
