There may not be a name in this country more synonymous with drug rehab than Dr. Drew Pinsky.
Since 1984, when Pinsky first appeared on a Los Angeles radio show talking about everything from teenage sexual relationships to overcoming addiction to drugs and alcohol, he has become one of America’s most prominent addiction recovery experts.
Pinsky, now 64, although he looks 20 years younger, is the keynote speaker Oct. 27 at The LCADA Way’s annual Pearl of Wisdom Benefit and Recognition Dinner.
The LCADA Way, a private nonprofit founded in 1981, cares for individuals and families struggling with drug and alcohol addiction.
The event, which will take place at the Embassy Suites Cleveland Rockside, 5800 Rockside Woods Blvd. in Independence, starts at 5:30 p.m.
Tickets still are available.
For more information go to thelcadaway.org/event/2022pearls/.
Pinsky, who lives in Pasadena, Calif., and personifies West Coast cool and casual when on TV and radio, said he’ll tailor his keynote speech at the event to one that will involve the audience.
His famous Loveline radio show, which was syndicated nationally for years and co-hosted with comedian Adam Carolla, was driven by audience participation.
“I’ll try to interact with the audience a bit,” Pinsky said. “Usually, there are a lot of people who have either had or have family members with this condition (addiction).
“I try to flesh out people’s understanding of what they are contending with, what this thing is, what this common brain disease is and how distorted we are in terms of our dealing with it and our understanding of it.”
Also, look for Pinsky in his talk to mix in his feelings on the push to legalize marijuana and what problems that could bring.
“We are sort of dealing with cannabis the same way we did with cocaine in the ‘80s,” he said. “It’s not addictive, it’s a party drug, it’s good for you and it might be an antidepressant.
“We did the same thing with cocaine.”
Pinsky makes it clear he won’t take a public stance on whether the drug is good or bad.
“I’m not taking a position on it,” he said. “I just want us to have a rational discourse on it.
“If you want another drug alongside alcohol and tobacco, which are the kings and queens of hurting people, in the lexicon of hurting humans, if you want to put another one into that lexicon, great, OK.
“That’s not for me to decide. I just want to talk about it rationally like we talk about cigarettes and alcohol rationally.”
Pinsky said he likely will point out in his talk the underreported harm of fentanyl.
He said the synthetic opioid is showing up everywhere, and it’s killing more and more casual drug users, not just hard-core addicts.
“Opiate addicts kind of learn how to use it,” Pinsky pointed out.
But because distributors are putting it in everything, non addicts, users who may just be experimenting for the first time with a few lines of cocaine at a party, for example, are dying after being exposed, he said.
“That is a monstrous problem and is affecting people far more than the world knows yet,” Pinsky said.
He said he has an opinion on why drug dealers put fentanyl in their products, even when they know it can be lethal in such small doses.
“They don’t want to kill their customer base,” Pinsky said. “I can’t get in their mind, but they probably think it’s going to get people hooked and that their supply will be known for having a little more kick.
“These aren’t pharmacologists. They are doing it willy-nilly.”
Pinsky, who for years practiced medicine full time and did TV and radio, dialed back on his medical practice around 2010, he said, to do more media.
Not that his hectic media schedule early in his career ever interfered with his real-life duties as a physician, but he said when he did radio, the show always was from 10 p.m. to midnight.
“I’d get up at 5 a.m., work until 6 p.m. and go to the radio at 10,” Pinsky recalled.
When he did his show on MTV with Carolla from 1996 to 2000, they taped the shows on Fridays and Saturdays when he had free time.
When he was doing “Celebrity Rehab” on VH1, the show was produced over two weeks.
“It just never got in the way of my day,” said Pinsky, who has been a regular guest on “Ellen,” “Oprah,” “Rachael Ray,” “The View,” “Dr. Oz,” “Steve Harvey Show,” “Wendy Williams,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” “Good Morning America,” “Today Show,” CNN and the Fox News Channel.
Pinsky also said he doesn’t like to be known as a celebrity doctor.
“The term sounds pejorative to me,” he said. “I have a public life where I try to do some good, to make a difference, and I’m a doctor.
“Putting the two together sounds weird to me.”
And while the news on drug addiction in the country and world continues to be flooded with bad news and pessimistic projections for the future, Pinsky said his experience working and helping addicts recover always gives him hope.
“I’m never hopeless,” he said. “I’ve seen extremely difficult cases that I didn’t give much of a chance for thriving again … so it keeps me very hopeful for all of them.”
