Chief Clinical Editor for Narconon, Claire Pinelli
Claire Pinelli has been a teacher and counselor for over 45 years. Claire has always been interested in helping others, even while working on her degree in mathematics. Eventually, Claire took a year off to follow her passion, then returned to finish her degree graduating Cum Laude for Brooklyn College, CUNY.
Throughout the 1970s Claire continued to counsel others, moving to Los Angeles before eventually settling in New York City where she married. While in New York Claire began a new chapter in her life by teaching in the New York City School System, where she helped establish the first computer science curriculum for the New York City School System. Despite her busy schedule, Claire found the time to earn her Master of Science Degree, Cum Laude, in Computer Engineering from Polytechnic Institute of New York (now New York University).
In 1985 she left New York with her husband and moved to Los Angeles finding herself managing a multi-specialty medical clinic in Los Angeles. As time went on, Claire’s family grew to 3 children and with her husband, they made the decision to move to Northern California for her children to have a quality education. It was here that Claire began one of the most fulfilling chapters in her life when a local Narconon drug and alcohol rehab center asked for her help. She agreed, and it was there she realized her passion and ability to use her counseling skills to help those addicted to drugs and alcohol as well as their families. While there, she was able to put in a standard withdrawal protocol and double the program enrollment.
In 2004 she moved on to work at a larger Narconon facility in Oklahoma. Here she was met with a new challenge. Over the course of her 2-year tenure, Claire saw the enrollment double as she supervised treatment for over 200 clients at a time. Her skills as an administrator as well as a counselor were put to good use as she helped thousands of addicts discover how to live life free from drugs and alcohol. After ensuring a smooth transition, in 2007 she decided to move to Houston, Texas, where she and her family live today. In Houston, she and her husband founded Q.U.A.D. Consultants of Texas, Inc. A Texas corporation whose goal is to help people Quit Using Alcohol and Drugs by treating and educating not only the addict, but the counselors, the family and the facility as well.
Over the years, she never stopped learning and advancing her knowledge and certification to increase her expertise and skill to help others. She became an LADC with Clinical Supervision Certification from the Oklahoma Board of Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselors; an Internationally Certified Advanced Alcohol and Drug Counselor (ICAADC) and a Certified Clinical Supervisor (CCS) from the International Certification and Reciprocity Consortium; a Registered Addiction Specialist (RAS) from the Breining Institute in California; and a Master’s Level Certified Addiction Professional and Certified Addiction Professional (MCAP) from the state of Florida.
Claire has been doing talks and lectures on drug addiction and treatment as well as classes for professionals since 2005.
She currently is living in Houston with her family and consulting for several facilities and creating and delivering Board Approved Continuing Education training for professional and lay people alike.
Many of us silently cheer when we hear about a mega-corporation losing a lawsuit against an underdog. This particular aspect of human nature is evidenced in Hollywood films, music, books, pop culture, and bedtime stories.
When we examine drug and alcohol addiction as a severe humanitarian crisis, the first place we’re going to look is within our own families. We’ll check close to home, as this is the area that impacts our lives the most.
Drug addiction in the United States is an expanding problem. While we might not want to admit it, much of what created the addiction epidemic that we face today was the rapid expansion of the pharmaceutical industry, the lack of regulation in that industry, and the mass proliferation of addictive pharmaceuticals (such as opioid painkillers) into the hands of the American people.
In a concerning research paper published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it was found that more than half of the 4.2 million people in the United States who misused prescription opioids between 2012 and 2014 also struggled with binge drinking habits.
In our efforts to study, research, treat, and understand addiction, it is safe to say that we have learned quite a bit about the subject as a whole. One of the principles we’ve been able to arrive at is that addiction is not merely a crisis that comes out of nowhere and besets a person.
I saw an article in U.S. News that shed entirely new and unique light on addiction and drug overdoses. This news piece sought to determine the correlation between increasing overdose statistics and cold weather.
When we think of addiction, our thoughts often go to illegal drugs, and narcotics that are bought and sold on the streets and back alleys of inner cities and bad neighborhoods. However, one of the most addictive drugs in the world is entirely legal, very easy to get, and almost universally accepted. We are speaking, of course, of alcohol.
Over the last 50 years, the way we look at addiction has evolved. Then, as in earlier times, it was seen as a moral failing or weakness. Individuals who found themselves addicted felt they had nowhere to turn for help, and the social stigma of addiction created barriers to those desperately trying to find recovery.
Can you imagine drug use becoming so prolific, so frequent, so regular and mainstream that our waterways would become contaminated with drug residues? It’s almost unfathomable to imagine this as a true fact, but news stories, research papers, and opinion pieces paint a dire picture that this is the
It is safe to say that treating oral pain problems is something that dentists often have to do. But how they go about treating such symptoms is another matter entirely.
I understand the media has to get its headlines somehow, so I’m usually not surprised by what I see in the news. But the most recent issue of U.S. News had an article titled, “Could CBD Treat Opioid Addiction?“ Such a statement is undoubtedly an eye-grabber, and it’s a dangerous statement too.
After working with hundreds of people who struggled with addiction over the last eight years, I’ve often wondered if our country’s drug problem has an end in sight. I’ve seen addiction in my fellow man in one form or another all my life.
When people think of drug and alcohol addiction, they generally think of a heroin addict or a cocaine addict or a pill addict or an alcoholic . They associate just one type of drug or substance with the individual, as though the individual is addicted to x drug and nothing else.
We might not think of alcohol when we think of the world’s most addictive or harmful drug, but alcohol is up there, completely dwarfing narcotic drugs and mind-altering substances. Alcohol is a drug, in every sense of the word, and just because it is legal in the United States and other countries does not mean it is harmless.
According to the Treatment Episode Data Set Report (a research project done by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration), about 50 percent of treatment center admissions in rural America are for alcohol.
For years, finding data on young adult and adolescent opioid prescribing was more akin to a deep sea treasure hunt than a cursory scan of the internet. There just wasn’t a lot of information out there. But now that’s changing. People are becoming more aware of adolescent opioid prescribing.
Opioid addiction is the most discussed, most concerning, and most lethal drug addiction problem in the United States today. News of opioid dependence hits media headlines weekly. It is a national public health emergency that threatens the very viability of our country.
Drug addiction is a complicated affliction. There is no denying that. And now that drug addiction issues have expanded to include an entire range of pharmaceutical substances, this evolution of the drug scene has complicated the issue even further.
As our great nation continues to struggle with a sweeping drug problem, the American people have attempted to create new ways and means of addressing that problem. Not all such approaches have been successful or sensible.
