In The Rooms To Host Michael Botticelli Forum on June 6th
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In The Rooms To Host Michael Botticelli Forum on June 6th

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ITR_Botticelli_RosenTwo of our favorite addiction and recovery champions are soon going to be in the same room, virtually that is. Our friends at In The Rooms are maintaining their hero status with a very special, live, interactive event to kick off the summer. Perhaps you’ve heard of Michael Botticelli? We’re pretty much his groupies over here at AfterParty. He’s a two time AfterParty Hero thanks to his fearless, honest work as the [sober]White House Director of Drug Policy. Now he’s bringing the tireless fight to improve the status of sobriety and recovery in this country by appearing live in this special forum. The actual meeting will be taking place here on Monday, June 6th at 8:00 pm est / 5:00 pm pst. The forum will be facilitated by another recovery powerhouse: AfterPartyPod guest, Ask The Experts contributor and Recovery 2.0 founder, Tommy Rosen. Botticelli will be talking about the state of addiction in our country as well as any other addiction-related topics brought to the floor.

I spoke to In The Rooms co-founder Kenny Pomerance who says the intended format is for Botticelli to speak for roughly 30 minutes followed by 30 minutes of questions fielded by Rosen. They’re excited to have an opportunity to put the director in direct contact with their membership, which is the largest group of recovering people anywhere online.

As the technology partner that’s enabling the event and allowing it to reach a much broader percentage of the demographic, TokBox is another hero involved in this whole thing. People can access the event through tablets or phones; in other words, there’s really no excuse for anybody not get to a meeting, or take an opportunity to interact with a kick-ass drug czar.

When I asked Pomerance what topics he thought would take center stage, he said, “We’re getting questions—the big thing our membership wants to know about is Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT). Many of us are in long-term recovery with decades under our belt. People are looking at withdrawal medication like Suboxone with a little suspicion. Everybody’s focused on evidence-based treatment rather than abstinence; there is concern about that. Is that the way it’s headed? Is that the way administration is going?”

The questions have already been flooding in to In The Rooms and some can be viewed here. People are concerned about the stigma of addiction that continues to plague how it’s handled in the context of our legal system, as well as the notion that those truly suffering with chronic pain might not be getting the help they need due to newfound doctor paranoia around narcotic addiction.

More details about this event can be found in the I Love Recovery Cafe.

Photo courtesy of Kenny Pomerance. Used with permission.

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About Author

Mary Patterson Broome has written for After Party Magazine, Women's Health Magazine Online, AOL, WE TV and Mashed. She has been performing stand-up comedy at clubs, colleges, casinos, and festivals for over a decade.