A Florida Attorney Is Disbarred for Drug Use and Other Misconduct

The media in Florida reports that a criminal defense attorney there has been disbarred for drug use and other misconduct.  She admitted to using methamphetamines, cocaine including crack, ecstasy, LSD; and taking Adderall, Xanax, and Oxycodone without a prescription.  She also had sex with her clients and phone sex with inmates.

For some attorneys, the legal profession has an unsustainable professional culture.  How bad is it?  Attorneys suffer from alcohol use disorders at a rate much higher than the general population or in other professions.  A recent study by the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation and the American Bar Association’s Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs reveals that 21 percent of working attorneys qualify as “problem drinkers,” 28 percent deal with depression, and 19 percent struggle with anxiety issues.  In comparison, 6.8 percent of adults nationwide suffered from an alcoholic disorder in 2014.

Drug abuse is also a problem for attorneys.  One site reports that 1) 18-20% of lawyers abuse drugs, and 2) 25% of lawyers facing disciplinary actions are found to be abusing drugs or alcohol, and suffering from a mental disorder.

Why?  In many law firms attorneys carry heavy workloads that require working 60-80 hours per week.  It should come as no surprise that this leads to significantly high rates of depression, anxiety, and stress.  Drugs and alcohol provide an unhealthy means of escape from daily problems. 

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How Would You React to a Colleague’s Substance Abuse: With Compassion or Disgust?

You are eating breakfast one morning before work.  Your television is on for the local news broadcast, but you’re not paying that much attention to it.  Except when the news anchor mentions the name of one of your work colleagues.  You glance at the TV to see a quick report of how he was arrested for public intoxication during the night.

How do you react?  With surprise at first.  But what are your follow-on thoughts?  Do you look down upon him from a high perch of moral superiority?  When you arrive at the office do you participate in negative gossip with fellow employees about your colleague’s drunken episode?  Should he be fired?  Will he tarnish your employer’s reputation, and you by extension? How could you work with such an undisciplined bum? 

Would your thoughts about your co-worker be different if the news report was about his diagnosis of cancer, or heart disease?  In that case your feelings would most likely be those of compassion and support.  But did you know that substance addiction has been recognized as a disease since this country’s early history? 

One of America’s Founding Fathers, Dr. Benjamin Rush (a signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence), was one of the first medical providers to use the term “addiction” in reference to the loss of control accompanying alcoholism.  Dr. Rush observed in 1805 that drunkenness resembles certain hereditary diseases.  He argued that “habitual drunkenness” should be regarded as a disease.  Modernly, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism continues to recognize alcoholism as a disease.  Formal diagnostic criteria for alcoholism are included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, published by the American Psychiatric Association, as well as in the International Classification Diseases, published by the World Health Organization.

In Bakersfield, California, an attorney for the public defender’s office was arrested and charged with being drunk in public.  But instead of throwing him to the curb, his office-mates have shown support for him, saying they will stand by him.  Now this is not to say that the attorney even has an addiction problem.  That’s not what we’re saying here.  It turns out that a death in the family may have precipitated the event.  The point is his office and co-workers showed him support, and not the door.
 
One of the Marine Corps’ 11 Leadership Traits is to “Know Your Marines and Look Out for Their Welfare.”  Do you as a civilian employer know your employees and look after their welfare?  Or do you know nothing about them, and cast them aside at the first bump in the road?   We think the Bakersfield Public Defender’s Office is made up of leaders. 

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California Lawyer Arrested Twice Has Some Explaining to Do

A California lawyer from Marin County has been arrested – twice – on drug related charges.  The story is here.  By the way, the paraphernalia in the photo is NOT from the attorney. 
Earlier in the month, the attorney was stopped by California Highway Patrol after he was allegedly driving almost 100 mph on Highway 101.  His car was searched when it was determined his license had been suspended and he had no proof of insurance.  A drug pipe, meth, prescription meds, and a possible counterfeit bill were found.  Later, the police continued with a search of the attorney’s home, where they found drug pipes, more meth, marijuana baggies, and more counterfeit bills.  As he was being processed for jail more meth was found on his person.

Methamphetamine is a central nervous system stimulant that is similar in structure to amphetamine. Due to its high potential for abuse, methamphetamine is classified as a Schedule II drug and is available only through a prescription that cannot be refilled. Although methamphetamine can be prescribed by a doctor, its medical uses are limited, and the doses that are prescribed are much lower than those typically abused. Most of the methamphetamine abused in this country comes from foreign or domestic superlabs, although it can also be made in small, illegal laboratories, where its production endangers the people in the labs, neighbors, and the environment.

California attorneys suffering from substance abuse and addiction problems should consider calling the State Bar’s Lawyer Assistance Program, it’s confidential.   

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Alcohol: The Basics

Thanks to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism for the following facts.

Drinking alcohol is itself not necessarily a problem, but drinking too much can cause a range of consequences, and increase the risk that bad things will happen to you.

What are the Consequences?

Alcohol enters your bloodstream as soon as you take your first sip. Alcohol’s immediate effects can appear within about 10 minutes. As you drink, you increase your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) level, which is the amount of alcohol present in your bloodstream.  The higher your BAC, the more impaired you become by alcohol’s effects.  These effects can include:

• Reduced inhibitions
• Slurred speech
• Motor impairment
• Confusion
• Memory problems
• Concentration problems
• Coma
• Breathing problems
• Death

Other risks of drinking can include:
• Car crashes and other accidents
• Risky behavior
• Violent behavior
• Suicide and homicide

People who drink too much over a long period of time may experience alcohol’s longer-term effects, which can include:

• Alcohol dependence
• Health problems
• Increased risk for certain forms of cancer

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What Is A Standard Drink?

Our thanks to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism for the following information.

Many people are surprised to learn what counts as a drink.  The amount of liquid in your glass, can, or bottle does not necessarily match up to how much alcohol is actually in your drink.  Different types of beer, wine, or malt liquor can have very different amounts of alcohol content. For example, many light beers have almost as much alcohol as regular beer – about 85% as much.   Here’s another way to put it:

• Regular beer: 5% alcohol content
• Some light beers: 4.2% alcohol content

That’s why it’s important to know how much alcohol your drink contains.  In the United States, one "standard" drink contains roughly 14 grams of pure alcohol, which is found in:

• 12 ounces of regular beer, which is usually about 5% alcohol
• 5 ounces of wine, which is typically about 12% alcohol
• 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits, which is about 40% alcohol

How do you know how much alcohol is in your drink?

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Lawyers and Substance Abuse

You asked, we delivered.  Below are links to articles on the web concerning lawyers and substance  abuse.  As you know, attorneys suffer from substance abuse and addiction problems at rates higher than the general public.  The articles describe the problems and causes. 

Lawyers disproportionately suffer from stress, depression and alcohol abuse

Lawyers and alcohol

Lawyers and Drinking

Addiction and Lawyers: Substance Abuse in the Legal Profession

Lawyers battling addictions

Lawyers Prefer Coke

Addiction Strikes the Nation’s Best and Brightest Lawyers

Lawyers and substance abuse

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Allegedly Drunk Attorney Pisses People Off – Literally!

Ever imagine what must be the worst job? How about those people who conduct urinalysis tests and have to collect the urine samples. Okay, I admit it, one of my additional jobs in the USMC was as a substance abuse control officer. In that capacity, along with my usual duties associated with doing real Marine things, was to conduct random urine tests. Operation Golden Shower we always called it. Understandably, the Marines weren’t too happy about that, but none ever acted out. Just piss in the bottle and get it over with. None were ever drunk at the time, though.  

But this story shows what could have happened if one disgruntled test subject were to demonstrate their displeasure.

A North Carolina attorney is accused of misbehaving when asked to provide a urine sample. He allegedly threw the bottle of urine at a police officer. Oh, the indignity! That attorney is in trouble. For more than that.  The stinky event occurred at the end of a night of apparent drunken revelry. The evening’s festivities began when he had to leave a bar after having too much to drink. Things went downhill as this story illustrates. In the end, he was accused of resisting arrest, assaulting a female, second-degree tresspassing, and being drunk and disruptive in public.

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