DR. DREW PINSKY IS A REHAB QUACK in my opinion

QUACK QUACK – I KNOW A DUCK WHEN I SEE ONE

DR. DREW PINSKY IS SUPPOSED TO BE AN EXPERT

But I saw how he “helped” the late JEFF CONWAY right into the grave

CELEBRITY REHAB is bullshit and it shows celebrities at their lowest points and for anyone to enjoy this type of programing is sick.

My partner’s late mother, a registered nurse practitioner for a famous NJ rehab where the famous and rich came to get help, got the help they needed and were released without further incident, into the cruel cruel world and many are still alive in some small part to my partner’s mom.

CELEBRITY REHAB is first and foremost a TV reality show that offers no real proof that anyone in Pinsky’s care has been treated and released and LIVED.

How many people have died after attending CELEBRITY REHAB with Dr. Drew?

The company that produces CELEBRITY REHAB pays the celebrity to attend the show…ridiculous.

Now I hear that Dr. Drew and crew have dropped the celebrities and are casting everyday people…and it’s not going to be aired on VH-1.

Frankly, I find the idea sickening and is NOTHING SACRED ANYMORE?

——————– Bonju

Taken from wikipedia:

Despite the involvement of former Alice in Chains bassist Mike Starr as well as an appearance by Nancy McCallum, mother of the original AIC singer Layne Staley, who died of an overdose in 2002, the remaining original members of AIC, guitarist Jerry Cantrell and drummer Sean Kinney, have criticized the show, calling it “disgusting”.^[29] Kinney said of the program, “It exploits people at their lowest point, when they’re not in their right mind, and the sad part is, this is like entertainment for people when it’s actually a life and death situation. I don’t think it helps anybody and it makes entertainment out of people’s possible death, and that’s pathetic and it’s stupid.”^[30]

Columnist Drew Grant called for an end to the series because of its “warped sense of priorities”, opining that the practice of assembling celebrities with serious drug addictions with others that, according to Grant, either do not suffer from addiction or whose addictions are self-diagnosed, like Rachel Uchitel and Gary Busey, for the purpose of creating entertainment, serves to encourage the “celebrity narcissism” that Pinsky himself has criticized.^[31][32]

Check below for Season 1 – 3 and their outcomes:

Season 1

Cast

Cast member	Notability	Addiction
Seth “Shifty Shellshock” Binzer	Lead singer of rap rock band Crazy Town	Cocaine (powder and crack)[35]
Daniel Baldwin	Actor (Departed the show in episode four)	Cocaine[35]
Mary Carey	Porn actress and former candidate for California Governor	Alcohol[35]
Jeff Conaway	Actor	Alcohol; cocaine; painkillers (Vicodin, OxyContin, Xanax, Zoloft, Ambien)[35]
Jaimee Foxworth	Former child actress	Marijuana[35]
Joanie “Chyna” Laurer	Actress and former professional wrestler	Alcohol[35]
Brigitte Nielsen	Actress and former model	Alcohol[35]
Ricco Rodriguez	Mixed martial arts fighter and former UFC Heavyweight Champion	Cocaine; marijuana; benzodiazepines (Valium)[36]
Jessica Sierra	Singer and former American Idol contestant	Cocaine; alcohol[35]

Outcome

Sierra, Binzer, and Carey agreed to enter a transitional sober living home in the season finale. All three, as well as Laurer and Foxworth, would eventually relapse; some re-entered treatment. VH1 aired a reunion special detailing the patients’ lives since filming. Although Conaway was able to maintain sobriety from alcohol and cocaine, he continued to abuse analgesics for his back pain, and would re-enter treatment in the show’s second season. Binzer also appeared in several episodes of the second season for his relapses, as well as the Sober House spin-off series.

Laurer was hospitalized in December 2008 and was reportedly going back to rehab.^[37]

Nielsen and Rodriguez have reportedly maintained their sobriety. Pinsky has said on numerous occasions that Nielsen has quit drinking and also gave up smoking.^[9] Nielsen has also appeared on his radio shows to talk about her sobriety. In 2009, she appeared as a panel speaker to another group at the Pasadena Recovery Center, in which she anticipated the upcoming two-year mark of her sobriety that July, as seen in a third season episode of the series, which aired in February 2010.^[38]

Sierra has tested “clean and sober” for a year and a half following a court-ordered year of treatment at the Pasadena Recovery Center,^[39] She also appeared with Nielsen in the aforementioned third season episode, marking her 18 months of sobriety.^[38]

The status of Baldwin’s sobriety is unknown. As of May 2009, Foxworth is reportedly sober and gave birth to a son.^[40]

Carey relapsed and returned to porn, starring in and directing a parody film called Celebrity Pornhab with Dr. Screw, a decision that Pinsky said saddened him.^[41] Regarding her sobriety, Pinsky commented in a January 2010 TV Guide story, “She puts together, like, six weeks at a time of sobriety, then drifts away. We’re trying to get her to stay with it once and for all.”^[9]

Season 2

Season 2 of Celebrity Rehab premiered on October 23, 2008.

Pinsky saw musician Steven Adler as this season’s “problem child”, describing his behavior as “suicidal”, and related that Adler had to be put into a psychiatric hospital for two weeks prior to going into rehab. Jeff Conaway was also a grave concern, according to Pinsky.^[25]

Actor and recovering cocaine addict Gary Busey entered the program, claiming to do so not as a patient, but as a mentor to assist others in their recoveries. This was stated in his contract, and confirmed by VH1′s official press release about Season 2.^[42][43] Pinsky disputes this, however, stating, “I was confused too. But that’s not my problem. My problem is that I’ve got a guy who needs help and I’ve got to figure out a way to get him into treatment. Gary [ends up having] a really inspirational experience. But it’s a good 10 days before he comes around.^[25]

Cast

Cast member	Notability	Addiction
Steven Adler	Former Guns N’ Roses drummer	Valium; alcohol; heroin; cocaine[44]
Seth Binzer	Singer, returning from Season 1 after Dr. Drew learned of his relapse	Stimulants (crack cocaine)[45]
Gary Busey	Actor	Recovering cocaine addict, clean and sober for 13 years, though Pinsky questions his current use of medicinal marijuana for his asthma.[44] He appears as a counselor to the other patients. (See above)
Jeff Conaway	Actor, returning from Season 1 following back surgeries that increased his painkiller addiction	Opiates (Oxycontin); cocaine[44]
Rodney King	Became a U.S. civil rights figure when videotaped in 1991 being beaten by L.A.P.D. officers, whose later acquittal sparked violent riots in L.A.	Alcohol[44]
Tawny Kitaen	Actress and former model	Painkillers (Demerol and Vicodin) and cocaine[44]
Nikki McKibbin	Singer and former American Idol contestant	Cocaine, alcohol, Adderall,[44] painkillers[46] (Vicodin[47]); (McKibbin was formerly addicted to ecstasy as well.[46])
Amber Smith	Actress and model	Depressants and opiates (Adderall, Dexadrine, Valium, Xanax, Klonopin, Suboxone)[44]
Sean Stewart	Son of singer Rod Stewart.[43]	Alcohol; ecstasy; Vicodin; morphine; Fentanyl; cocaine; heroin[44]

On October 1, 2008, rock band Alter Bridge, in conjunction with VH1, released a video for their single “Watch Over You” containing clips from the upcoming season of Celebrity Rehab.^{[citation needed]}

Outcome

Most of the celebrities (except for Kitaen, Busey and Stewart) agreed to make a transitional move into a sober living home which was filmed for Sober House– although Busey expressed interest in attending sober living as a speaker. Conaway was released early from the center during the final episode of Season 2 after kicking his girlfriend in the ribs during an argument. As soon as Conaway returned to his home, he continued abusing pain killers. During the course of Sober House, Adler, Smith and Binzer relapsed. Adler has made repeated appearances on Loveline talking about his success with sobriety and how his life is drastically different for the better. On September 26, 2009, Kitaen was arrested for drinking and driving.^[48] Amber Smith later appeared in the spinoff Sex Rehab.

In 2009 Rodney King and Amber Smith appeared as panel speakers to a group of addicts at the Pasadena Recovery Center, marking 11 months of sobriety for King, and a year and a half of sobriety for Smith.^[38] Nikki McKibbin marked a year of sobriety on June 10, 2009.^[28]

On May 11, 2011 Jeff Conaway was hospitalized for pneumonia, for which he was placed in an induced coma.^[49] He later died after being taken from life support on May 27, 2011.^[50][51] He was the second Celebrity Rehab cast member to die in 2011, following the death of Mike Starr two months prior.^[52] Pinsky attributed Conaway’s death to his addiction, stating, “What happens is, like with most opiate addicts, eventually they take a little too much…and they aspirate, so what’s in their mouth gets into their lungs…That’s what happened with Jeff.”^[53]

Season 3

On April 22, 2009, it was announced on the Futon Critic that Celebrity Rehab had been renewed for a third season and that a new spinoff titled Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew was being put into production.^[54] Sex Rehab premiered on November 1, 2009. Season 3 of Celebrity Rehab premiered on January 7, 2010.^[55]

Patient Heidi Fleiss was shown to be living in solitude in the wilderness of Nevada while caring for 25 parrots.^{[23][56][57][58]} Pinsky did brain scans of her that showed significant frontal lobe dysfunction, which Pinsky theorized was behind her inability to empathize with people, and her affinity for doing so with birds.^[23]

Actor Tom Sizemore had been approached to appear in Season 1, but declined. He met with Pinsky about appearing in the second season, sitting in Pinsky’s office for two hours, as Pinsky tells it, “sweating and completely high on drugs, talking a million miles an hour, acting like he was going to do it then deciding he didn’t want to.” He ultimately decided to appear in Season 3, but did not arrive in the season premiere with the others, forcing Pinsky’s colleague Bob Forrest to seek him out. Pinsky adds in the season’s fourth episode that he believes Sizemore’s girlfriend is also a user, and that their relationship is a threat to his sobriety.^[59] Pinsky points to Sizemore’s story as emblematic of the difficulty of getting an addict to commit to rehab.^[23] Because of the tumultuous prior relationship between patients Sizemore and Fleiss, their consent to being cast together during the same season was obtained prior to filming.^[9]

Commenting on Dennis Rodman‘s detachment from the rehabilitation process, Pinsky said that Rodman was “hyper-focused in some ways, and in others, completely blank”, and observed that Rodman didn’t comprehend what the other patients were experiencing, or how they perceived him. Pinsky concluded that Rodman may have Asperger’s syndrome, a diagnosis with which a colleague from UCLA Medical Center concurred.^[9]

Mackenzie Phillips had accomplished several months of sobriety before checking into the Pasadena Recovery Center.^[60]

Joey Kovar, who previously sought treatment for his addiction to cocaine and alcohol during his stint on 2008′s The Real World: Hollywood,^[61] was spurred to return to rehab for his recurring addiction by the impending birth of his and his girlfriend Nikki’s^[59] child.^[62]

Pinsky commented on Lisa D’Amato by saying, “I would classify her as an addict in denial. This is the only disease you have to convince people they have.”^[60]

Following her ejection from Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew, Kari Ann Peniche was allowed back to the Pasadena Recovery Center after she called Pinsky and asked for help. Pinsky, who explains in this season’s fourth episode that treatment for drug addiction must take place before treatment for sex addiction, revealed that her aggressive behavior during Sex Rehab was derived from drugs she smuggled in a teddy bear, and which were difficult to detect during drug testing because of the medication Peniche took for attention deficit disorder. Irwin says her behavior had changed by her second appearance, though she did punch a camera man at one point.^[9]

Cast

Cast member	Notability	Addiction
Lisa D’Amato	Model and electro rock musician[63]	Alcohol;[64][65] marijuana; amphetamines; cocaine; mushrooms[65]
Heidi Fleiss	Former American madam[63]	Methamphetamine;[64][65] Valium; Xanax; Vicodin (Fleiss states that she is coming off a prescription for Suboxone.)[65]
Joey Kovar	Cast member on The Real World: Hollywood[63]	Alcohol; cocaine; ecstasy;[64][65] methamphetamine; steroids[64]
Mindy McCready	Country music singer[63]	OxyContin; alcohol;[64][65] (McCready states that she takes prescription Xanax for anxiety as needed, and that the painkillers found among her belongings during Intake were for her shoulder, which was dislocated a month prior.[65])
Kari Ann Peniche	Miss Teen USA 2002 and subject of a Playboy pictorial[63]	Methamphetamine[66]
Mackenzie Phillips	Actress[63]	Heroin; cocaine[64][65] (Formerly used marijuana.[65])
Dennis Rodman	Former basketball player[63]	Alcohol[64][65]
Tom Sizemore	Actor[67]	Opiates; benzodiazepines; methamphetamine;[68] marijuana;[68][66] heroin; Klonopin (formerly used cocaine from 1991-1996)[66]
Mike Starr	Former Alice in Chains bass player[63]	Heroin; methadone; methamphetamine; cocaine; marijuana.[64][65]

Outcome

Peniche, Starr, Fleiss, Sizemore and Rodman all agreed to attend a sober living facility after treatment,^[69] which was chronicled on the second season of Sober House.^[70] Kovar indicated that he would get a sponsor, go to meetings, and go to sober living after his girlfriend moved into their new home. McCready, who cited the need to return to her son, indicated that she would go to Al-Anon.^[69]

Since completing treatment, Pinsky says that D’Amato, who declined sober living, but agreed to go to meetings,^[69] “seems pretty good to me. My bet is she’ll continue to flirt with using, but will have a deeper understanding now of her behavior.”^[60]

Phillips and McCready appeared with Pinsky in a segment on women and addiction on the March 17, 2010 episode of The View.^[71]

Mike Starr was arrested February 18, 2011 on two felony counts of possession of a controlled substance for 6 pills of the painkiller Opana and 6 pills of Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug.^[72] Starr was later found dead on March 8, 2011 in Salt Lake City, Utah.^[73]

D’Amato would later return to television following her recovery to compete in the 17th cycle of America’s Next Top Model, deemed America’s Next Top Model: All-Stars. D’Amato won the competition.

Season 4

In May 2010, model and reality TV veteran Tila Tequila, who disclosed an addiction to prescription medication, was the first cast member announced for season four.^[74] However, on July 12, it was announced that she withdrew from the cast.^[75]

Filming on season four ended the week of August 1, 2010.^[76] It began airing on December 1, 2010.^[77][78]

On August 31, RadarOnline reported that Rachel Uchitel, who had been living at a sober living facility in Malibu, California, left the facility with Pinsky’s permission in order to visit the World Trade Center site, where her fiance, James Andrew O’Grady, was killed during the September 11, 2001 attacks,^[79] which Uchitel has explained was when her life began to unravel, culminating in a “massive breakdown” two years later. Uchitel spoke to other 9/11 families at the site, and was moved by her encounter with them.^[80]

Cast

Cast member	Notability	Addiction
Jason Davis	Actor, socialite[81]	Heroin; OxyContin; Xanax[82]
Janice Dickinson	Model, fashion photographer, actress, author and agent.[81]	Alcohol; cocaine (Dickinson says she formerly took Ativan, and that she takes one prescription Ambien a night to sleep.)[82]
Leif Garrett	Actor, singer, and TV commentator[81]	Cocaine; heroin[82]
Jeremy London	Actor, best known for his regular roles on Party of Five, 7th Heaven, and I’ll Fly Away.[81]	Marijuana; painkillers[82]
Francine “Frankie” Lons	Star of the BET reality show Frankie & Neffe, and mother of singer Keyshia Cole.[81]	Alcohol; crack cocaine[82]
Eric Roberts	Actor, known for his Oscar-nominated performance in Runaway Train and TV shows such as Less Than Perfect and Heroes.[81]	Marijuana (Formerly used cocaine and a variety of psychotropic drugs such as Prozac.)[82]
Rachel Uchitel	Nightclub manager, correspondent for Extra, and one of Tiger Woods‘ mistresses.[81]	Alcohol; Opiates including Vicodin; benzodiazepines including Valium, Klonopin, and Xanax[82]
Jason Wahler	Reality television personality known as a second season cast member on Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County[81]	Alcohol[82]

Outcome

In a December 2010 interview in TV Guide, Pinsky stated that Dickinson was “doing so well”, in stark contrast to her struggles documented during filming.^[83] During the cast reunion show, Jason Davis claimed that he had relapsed twice but was currently sober. However, on January 27, 2011 he was arrested for drug possession and subsequently charged with felony possession and being under the influence of narcotics.^[84][85]

Season 5

On March 3, 2011, Amy Fisher, Jeremy Jackson, Bai Ling, Michael Lohan and Michaele Salahi were announced as fifth season participants.^[86][87] Subsequent cast members added to the season roster later that month include Season 2 participant Steven Adler,^[88][87] actress Sean Young,^[89][87] former Major League Baseball pitcher Dwight Gooden^[90][87] and Survivor second runner-up Jessica “Sugar” Kiper.^[91] Michaele Salahi was later removed from the show because, according to TMZ sources, she harbored “no addiction,” and thus had “no reason to be there.”^[92][93] Season 5 premiered on June 26, 2011, though a “Sneak Premiere” was made available on Vh1′s website as early as June 22.^[21]

Cast

Cast member	Notability	Addiction
Steven Adler	Former Guns N’ Roses drummer, returning from season 2	Marijuana[17]
Amy Fisher	“Long Island Lolita” who shot her then-lover Joey Buttafuoco‘s wife, Mary Jo, in the face.	Alcohol[94] (She was stated in the season premiere to have suffered prior addiction to unspecified pills,[95] but this was indicated to be an ongoing problem in in a season finale bonus clip.[96])
Dwight Gooden	Former Major League Baseball pitcher.	Cocaine; alcohol; Ambien[17]
Jeremy Jackson	Actor, best known for his role on Baywatch as Hobie Buchannon.	Steroids[94]
Jessica Kiper	Actress and television personality, best known for appearing twice as a contestant on Survivor.	Alcohol; marijuana; cocaine (former user); opiates, particularly Vicodin; benzodiazepines including Valium and Xanax[18]
Bai Ling	Actress.	Alcohol[94]
Michael Lohan	Father of actress Lindsay Lohan.	Alcohol (formerly used cocaine, but quit six years prior)[94]
Sean Young	Actress.[97]	Alcohol[94]

Related articles

• VH1 Benches Celebrity Rehab and Sober House (seattlepi.com)
• Is Dr. Drew’s ‘Celebrity Rehab’ Canceled? (huffingtonpost.com)
• Rehab with Dr. Drew drops the celebrities (realityblurred.com)
• ‘Rehab With Dr. Drew’ Is Now Casting Everyday People (livelyindepthmusicent.com)