AHS Views

When I saw the news items last week about Al Gore III, 24, son of former vice-president Al Gore, being stopped for driving over 100 miles per hour at 2 a.m. on a California freeway with marijuana and illicit prescription drugs in the car, I had an eerie sense of deja-vu. When young Gore opened the window, the Orange County Sheriff’s deputy smelled marijuana, searched the car and turned up some pot and the prescription drugs Xanax, Valium, Vicodin and Adderall. Gore did not have prescriptions for any of them. Later that day the family announced that they were just happy young Gore was safe, and that he was entering drug rehab.

Yes we’ve heard something like this before. In August 2000 in North Carolina, police charged Al Gore III with reckless driving and speeding for driving 94 mph in a 55-mph zone. More family lawyers and some time later, the reckless driving charges were dropped, he was fined $125 for speeding and his driving privileges in the state were suspended.

And there’s more. In September 2002, military police ticketed Gore for drunk driving near a military base in Virginia. He was not taken into custody at that time.

In 2003, police in Maryland pulled Gore over for not using his headlights. They smelled marijuana and Gore was busted again. The family’s lawyers worked out a plea bargain, and in 2004, Al Gore III was sentenced to enter a drug rehab program, which according to news reports, he did.

I consider it a very serious matter when someone uses or is addicted to substances that can possibly kill them. But it’s even more serious when the user indulges in behavior that risks the lives of others – such as speeding 105 mph down a highway while stoned on drugs.

Gore has been doing this sort of thing for at least seven years that I know of, in spite of several arrests and a 2004 drug rehab. Speaking of which, what happened between 2004 and 2007? In 2004, Gore completed a private, family-supported, drug rehab program. Did it work? His recent speeding-and-drugs bust in Orange County answers that question loud and clear: No way.

Gore junior’s recent arrest illustrates an “inconvenient truth” about drug rehab programs: they are not all the same. Some work, and some don’t.

You see the results of this all the time in the news when this or that celebrity is reported to be “entering drug rehab – again!” There are so many drug rehab methods, models, treatments and opinions, trying to choose the one that will work for you can be overwhelming. The drug rehab professionals at Addiction Help Services can provide you with answers and help direct you to a successful drug rehab program.