I will have been sober for exactly 32 years this week. It’s a joyful anniversary, one that I’m sharing only to inspire others who may need to quit drinking but don’t think they can. more

This Christmas, will a new Smith & Wesson be under your tree? more

The drug addicts’ brain scans that Dr. Stephen Dewey takes appear in psychedelic shades of red, yellow, green and blue, each indicating a level of brain activity — or inactivity. Red means excited. Blue is dormant. Dewey is the laboratory director for behavioral and molecular neuro-imaging at the North Shore-LIJ Feinstein Institute for Medical Research. In that capacity, he’s put hundreds of addicts’ brains to the test — the positron emission tomography test, that is — seeking to understand precisely what happens to the mind when a pot smoker lights up or a heroin junkie shoots up. And, he has found, it isn’t pretty. more

One of Long Island’s largest nonprofit substance-abuse treatment agencies received three grants this winter that officials said will help them teach young people about the dire consequences of … more

School-aged children can use someone to talk to. Someone they can share their thoughts, goals and fears with who genuinely cares and wants what’s best for them. more