The allegations coming out of Cornell are horrific. A former Cornell student, identified as Jane Doe, alleges that seven members of Chi Phi sexually assaulted her in October 2024 after a night involving alcohol, marijuana and ketamine. The men have not been criminally convicted. Some deny wrongdoing and maintain the sexual activity was consensual. New York has now reopened the criminal investigation, and Attorney General Letitia James has been appointed special prosecutor. (R

The University of Tennessee has alcohol rules, alcohol enforcement, alcohol intervention and medical amnesty for alcohol emergencies. Also: hurry up, the beer sale ends at ten. At 9 a.m. this morning, the University of Tennessee opened Neyland Stadium for its noon game against Texas. President Trump is attending, enhanced security is in place, and UT understandably wants more than 100,000 people through the gates early rather than attempting a human funnel into Secret Service

Hank Azaria, a mother’s grief, and a sober club in Midtown that finally gets it. The United Nations General Assembly was in town, which meant the East Side of Manhattan had become a hostage situation: motorcades, barricades and a cab driver who had made peace with never moving again. I walked the last several blocks to East 49th Street. I mention this so you understand my commitment to journalism. Bigvision’s is worth the schlep. It is bright, newly renovated and well appoin

Greg Abbott doesn’t care about public health. If he did, he’d be chasing guns, not gummies. Texas loses 480 kids a year to firearms. Cannabis kills zero. Zero. If Abbott were actually running a public safety operation, that math would matter. Instead he’s spending political capital criminalizing a plant while doing absolutely nothing about the thing that’s actually killing children. That’s not a safety policy. That’s a hobby. Here’s what he’s also ignoring: cannabis works. Pe

There’s a certain kind of recovery influencer who has discovered a very profitable higher power: hating Alcoholics Anonymous. You’ve probably heard the litany: “AA is a cult. AA is dangerous. AA doesn’t work. The Big Book is outdated. Sponsors are untrained. Powerlessness is harmful. God is a problem. Meetings are depressing.” Somewhere in there is usually a story about an overzealous sponsor, a terrible rehab, or something that happened in a church basement in Ohio in 1997,

Lately I’ve been thinking about the recovery influencer. Before I get accused of it, let’s get the obvious question out of the way. “Joe, are you just jealous?” I suppose there could be a little of that. I’d love a thriving practice. I’d love enough readers that I can continue seeing people who can’t afford to pay. I’d love for High Sobriety to become a successful business. But no. I have absolutely no desire to become the Kardashian of recovery. What bothers me isn’t that pe

Is shame more toxic than cannabis? I’ve been abstinent from all forms of intoxication for nearly thirty years. It is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Sobriety gave me a career, meaningful relationships, peace of mind, and a life that would have been impossible had I continued drinking. So when I say that cannabis can be a legitimate part of recovery for some people, I’m not saying it because I’m looking for permission to get high. I’m saying it because after three de

I’ve been sober for nearly 30 years. My recovery has been built on abstinence, community, purpose, faith, and a lot of help from other people. I don’t use cannabis, and I don’t encourage people to use cannabis. At the same time, I’ve spent decades as a social worker working with addiction, mental illness, trauma, and families in crisis. My job isn’t to tell people what they should think. My job is to help people make informed decisions that reduce harm and improve their lives

I was reading that Lucas Erceg recently celebrated another sober anniversary. Congratulations to him. And congratulations to his family, the Kansas City Royals, his teammates, and his fans. When a person gets better, the systems around them tend to get better too. There’s no way to know how many people—especially young athletes—have been helped simply by seeing a successful professional athlete say, “I struggled, and I got help.” Here’s what stands out to me: If Erceg doesn’t

I spend a lot of time around baseball players. Dugouts. Weight rooms. Bus rides. Bullpens. Batting cages. And despite what people assume, I’m usually not talking about baseball. I’m not fixing a slider. I’m not adjusting a swing. I’m not arguing about launch angle like a divorced dad on Facebook. I’m listening. The young man in this photo doesn’t need another adult screaming about performance. He already has coaches for that. He has scouts, rankings, private instructors, recr

Divorce feels a little like getting traded midseason. One day you’re part of a system. You know the signals, the routines, the team dynamics. Even if the dynamics were toxic, they were familiar. Then suddenly somebody hands you a duffel bag and says, “Good luck in Cincinnati.” Even if the marriage needed to end, even if everybody involved knows it wasn’t working, there’s still disorientation. You don’t just lose a partner. You lose structure, identity, rhythm, witnesses to yo

Returning to college is an exciting time, not just for the student but for the family. Gone are the days of admission predictability...

Joe Schrank, Founder and CEO of Core Company, speaks about addiction and recovery at the third annual TEDxBrooklyn conference, Community Thr

Joe Schrank is the Program Director for High Sobriety. High Sobriety is a harm reduction program that helps individuals move from using pote

Arise Entertainment 360 interviews addiction specialist Joe Schrank.