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25th March 2024
Author: Wulf Livingston Posted: 25th March 2024
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Introducing Gary Rutherford of ARC Fitness

In this interview with Gary, we capture so much about what has inspired us to do this series. We have a recovery leader, a champion, who has taken his own personal recovery journey and understanding, and transformed it into a vibrant and thriving recovery community.
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25th March 2024
Author: Wulf Livingston & David Clark Posted: 25th March 2024
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Gary Rutherford

There is an infectious enthusiasm that runs through the interview. It is combined with a real sense of passion and drive. We hear of Gary’s own formative experiences and use. His move out of addiction and into nursing, and from this the recognition of a void in support for others. This void was initially filled in by Gary in his spare time...
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23rd March 2024
Author: David Clark Posted: 23rd March 2024
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Government Strategies & Failures: Tim Leighton

The UK’s first drug strategy, Tackling Drugs to Build a Better Britain, was based on an attack on drug-related crime. Drug problems were treated as a criminal justice, rather than a health, issue. Huge numbers of people were put on opioid substitution (mainly methadone) treatment.
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22nd March 2024
Author: David Clark Posted: 22nd March 2024
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My ‘Background Briefings’ in Drink and Drugs News

Claire and Ian, and their team, have done a remarkable job with DDN over the years. Today, it still remains a magazine of the highest quality. It helped realise my (and Simon Shepherd’s) dream of seeing a field that is much better informed than it was all those years ago when...
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21st March 2024
Author: David Clark Posted: 21st March 2024
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Tim Leighton: My Reflections & His Story

On 18 March 2009, Tim and I both spoke at a conference in London organised by Action on Addiction and my grassroots initiative Wired In, with the main speaker being leading US recovery advocate Bill White. Recovery advocates from around the UK attended the conference...
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20th March 2024
Author: David Clark Posted: 20th March 2024
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Theme Clip Playlist: Tim Leighton

... Bill White pointed out that there was a paradigm shift occurring in the addiction world, from a pathology and intervention paradigm to a recovery management paradigm, where the role of professionals is to introduce people to recovery and connect them to recovery resources which can help them create a meaningful life...
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19th March 2024
Author: Wulf Livingston Posted: 19th March 2024
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My Conversation With Tim Leighton

Our latest release is an Interview with Tim Leighton, in which the abundance of value and values comes across very strongly. In this conversation, we have managed to catch from Tim a beautiful integration of community, educational, personal, political, professional, research and theoretical understandings about recovery.
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18th March 2024
Author: David Clark Posted: 18th March 2024
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Our ‘Extras’ Section of Recovery Voices

I just wanted to remind you about our five sections of Extras that you can find on our website. They contain a wide range of content (66 pieces) that I have written over the years for our sister website Recovery Stories. Sections include one with 15 articles about addiction, recovery and treatment, some focused on Wired In research...
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15th March 2024
Author: Wulf Livingston & David Clark Posted: 15th March 2024
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Tim Leighton

Tim is someone I have always admired ever since first encountering him in the stimulating environment of New Directions. In this interview, Tim shares with us his own journey into drug use, counselling, education and academia.  At its heart, however, this is very much a conversation about recovery.
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15th March 2024
Author: David Clark Posted: 15th March 2024
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Happy 1st Anniversary, The Scheme

In such a short space of time, the charity, set up by Aidan Martin and Mark Deans, has seen more than 1,100 attendees at its various workshops, including creative writing, lego, film making and art. An incredible 200 people turned up to the film group's premiere video. The charity also carries out work in Addiewell Prison...
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14th March 2024
Author: David Clark Posted: 14th March 2024
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The Healing Forest: Don Coyhis

'It means that we must actively heal the community and its institutions at the same time an individual works on his or her own healing from alcohol or drugs or other unwell behaviours. The individual affects the community and the community affects the individual. They are inseparable from the point of view of addiction recovery.'
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13th March 2024
Author: David Clark Posted: 13th March 2024
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2021 ‘No Shame’ Campaign: ARC Fitness

I am inspired and deeply moved by the 'No Shame' Campaign that ARC Fitness organised in 2021. Gary Rutherford ran five marathons in five days, all while wearing a 22lb weight vest to symbolise the heavy burden of shame that often acts as a barrier to recovery. He fractured his leg on the second day, but continued...
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12th March 2024
Author: David Clark Posted: 12th March 2024
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37th Anniversary: John Crace

'Barring any last minute relapses, tomorrow will be the 37th anniversary of my getting clean. No drugs, no alcohol. I call that a result. I had no idea what I was doing really when the 30-year-old me walked through the entrance of the rehab centre on the morning of 9 March 1987. I had even brought a cassette player...' 8 March
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11th March 2024
Author: David Clark Posted: 11th March 2024
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Zooming in on Marcus Fair and NWRC Members

I spent an interesting early evening last Friday here in Perth, Western Australia, when I joined members of North Wales Recovery Communities (NWRC) at their Community Meeting & Breakfast (I didn't get any) at Penrhyn House in Bangor... via Zoom. I was able to see and hear guest...
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8th March 2024
Author: David Clark Posted: 8th March 2024
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The Culture of Addiction, Part 2: Bill White

When a drug is classified as illegal or prohibited, a powerful social stigma develops that impacts on the emotions and behaviour of people who use the substance. This arises because of the attitudes of society towards users of prohibited drugs—drug users become...
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