Ask Dr. Drew - Bubonic Plague Hits CA: “Housing First” Homeless Supremacy’s Latest Gift To America’s Cities w/ Chef Gruel, Art Kleinschmidt & Anthony Brown – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 525

Episode Date: September 1, 2025

In 2019, Dr. Drew went on TV to warn California if it didn’t get homeless camps and rat infestations under control, a bubonic plague outbreak was imminent. “I want to give you a prediction here. There will be a major infectious disease epidemic this summer in Los Angeles,” Dr. Drew told Fox News in 2019. But California didn’t listen. On August 21, 2025, the LA Times reported the plague “aka the Black Death, made a reappearance in California.” Chef Andrew Gruel, a food entrepreneur and Huntington Beach City Council member, slams Bill Gates’ fake butter for lacking key nutrients like C-15. Art Kleinschmidt, SAMHSA Acting Director, addresses mental health and substance abuse in homeless populations. Anthony Brown, once homeless and now founder of Brown Manor, shares his mission to provide shelter and recovery services. Chef Andrew Gruel is a food entrepreneur, Huntington Beach City Councilor, and founder of American Gravy Restaurant Group. He hosts American Gravy on Rumble. Follow at https://x.com/ChefGruel⠀Art Kleinschmidt, Ph.D., MBA, is a licensed mental health professional and addiction counselor, trained at Hazelden Betty Ford. As SAMHSA’s Acting Director, he leads mental health and substance use disorder treatment and prevention. Learn more at https://www.samhsa.gov⠀Anthony Brown, formerly homeless, founded Brown Manor and C.A.R.E. in Anaheim, CA. With a B.S. in Nursing, he provides treatment for mental illness and substance use disorders. He is the author of “From Park Bench To Park Ave.” Learn more at https://anthonyhowardbrown.com and support his work at https://gofundme.com/f/brown-manor-hope-for-the-homeless 「 SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS 」 Find out more about the brands that make this show possible and get special discounts on Dr. Drew's favorite products at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://drdrew.com/sponsors⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• FATTY15 – The future of essential fatty acids is here! Strengthen your cells against age-related breakdown with Fatty15. Get 15% off a 90-day Starter Kit Subscription at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://drdrew.com/fatty15⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • PALEOVALLEY - "Paleovalley has a wide variety of extraordinary products that are both healthful and delicious,” says Dr. Drew. "I am a huge fan of this brand and know you'll love it too!” Get 15% off your first order at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://drdrew.com/paleovalley⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • VSHREDMD – Formulated by Dr. Drew: The Science of Cellular Health + World-Class Training Programs, Premium Content, and 1-1 Training with Certified V Shred Coaches! More at https://drdrew.com/vshredmd • THE WELLNESS COMPANY - Counteract harmful spike proteins with TWC's Signature Series Spike Support Formula containing nattokinase and selenium. Learn more about TWC's supplements at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twc.health/drew⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 「 MEDICAL NOTE 」 Portions of this program may examine countervailing views on important medical issues. Always consult your physician before making any decisions about your health. 「 ABOUT THE SHOW 」 Ask Dr. Drew is produced by Kaleb Nation (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://kalebnation.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠) and Susan Pinsky (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/firstladyoflov⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠e⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠). This show is for entertainment and/or informational purposes only, and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I could not live with that going on in my city and yet, and as I was explained to Emily Campano there, and yet we have lived yet another six years with the same thing, worse, worse, worse, nothing better. Oh, I'm sorry, housing first. Oh, it must have done so much because that's a great approach. No, worse, many thousands have died. What are we doing here? To talk about that will be Art Kleinschmidt. Let me give you his official title.

Now, Art can be followed at samsa.com. up, S-A-M-H-S-A, the Substant Abuse Mental Health Services Association, I think. He is, of course, a Ph.D. and an MBA and a health professional, addiction counselor. He is the acting director of SAMHSA presently. And then we're going to talk to Andrew Gruel to open things up. You know Grohl from Gutfeld and also his stand against President New, excuse me, Governor Newsom, when he attempted to close down outdoor dining and restaurants. And then finally, Anthony Brown will join us.

He himself was formerly homeless. Now he's setting up programs and homes for people in recovery from drugs and homelessness. Stay with us. We're right back. Our laws as it pertain to substances are draconian and bizarre. The psychopaths start this. He was an alcoholic because of social media and pornography, PTSD, love addiction. Fentanyl and heroin.

Ridiculous. I'm a doctor for, I say, where the hell you think I learned that? I'm just saying, you go to treatment before you kill people. I am a clinician. I observe things about these chemicals. Let's just deal with what it's real. We used to get these calls on Loveland all the time. Educate adolescents and to prevent and to treat.

You have trouble. You can't stop and you want to help stop it. I can help. I got a lot to say. I got a lot more to say. Ontario, the weight is over. The gold standard of online casinos has arrived. Golden Nugget Online Casino is live.

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Eligibility restrictions apply. See Golden Nuggett Casino.com for details. Please play responsibly. I've spent most of my career dealing with illnesses that shorten life, and now we have ways to extend it and extend wellness. I've been working with the team over at V Shred to develop a product that has everything I want in a longevity supplement. NR boost has nicotinamide riboside. You know how metal can rust? Well, your body behaves in a similar way.

It's mediated through something called NAD. NAD falls as we age, so we're less able to fight off that oxidative process. We oxidize much like that metal. And NAD fights it, but nicotidamide riboside elevates NAD so we can push back on those oxidative stressors. improving health, improving longevity. The other product is Senosink, has phycin, one of the key molecules to fight off zombie cells, and we've added resveratrol to that, which is a well-known anti-aging antioxidant again. I don't like supplements that have a ton of ingredients.

To me, it suggests that none of it's working. When I prescribe a medication, I prescribe that medicine, because I expect that to work. That is exactly what I've done with these products. And I want you to go to Dr. Drew.com slash v shred MD for 10% off. Again, that is Dr.rew.com slash v. shredmd. Yeah, I was just thinking about that little opening sequence we have. I think when I was talking to Anderson Cooper in that particular clip saying you get treatment before you kill people, I believe I was talking about Sandy Hook that time.

That's when I started saying that. And I'm saying the same thing now with our current mass shooter crisis. And yet here's somebody that came for treatment and got a specific one. size fits all treatment rather than a careful neuropsychiatric assessment for a very complex set of problems. Is that person better off now because of what my profession did for them? Separate topic. We're not really getting into that so much today, though we certainly can if we need to. First up is chef Andrew Gruel. Gruel is a food entrepreneur in Huntington Beach, California, where he is also a city counselor, founder of American Gravy Restaurant Group,

host American Gravy on Rumble. Is that the name of the podcast? Andrew, you have to tell me about that. You can follow him on next at Chef Gruel. It's Chef, G-R-U-E-L. Andrew, welcome. Thanks for having me. It's always an honor.

Did I get the name of the podcast, right? Is that the one you do with your wife? That's it, American Gravy. That's the one that, you know, you're a proxy partner on that one. I, Susan, you appreciate this. Poor Andrew. He's cooking away, he's going out, he's making sauces. I'm like, I can't eat that.

He's like, no problem, no problem. I got this. I was like, I felt so guilty. I was like, I hate that. But to that point, and I have somebody with a lot of food sensitivities, and it drives me crazy to have to say it to anybody. I don't like being that person. And yet now California's going to require all the sensitivities to put on the menu,

it sounds like. Tell me about that. Yeah, it's a new bill. They're pushing through where they're requiring every single restaurant, no matter the size, this isn't a large multi-unit approach. This is anybody and everybody who's ultimately selling and serving food to list all of the allergens and every single one of their ingredients on their menu. That is essentially not only a fool's errand, it's impossible.

Because humans can react to just about anything, any given human can have. And by the way, I'm sure they want sensitivity. People don't even know what allergy is anymore. You know, they've lost track what that word even means. It means a mass cell degranulation. It means runny nose. It means asthma. It means rash.

It doesn't mean, oh, my tummy hurts. Well, and on top of that is somebody who's tried to be very cognizant of people's allergies, especially in a commercial food environment, I'm always thinking about ways in which I can help these people and cook for them. And what I've learned the most, you know, the biggest threat is cross-contamination. So it doesn't matter if you list every single allergy. And if there's cross-contamination, it's irrelevant, right? And that's kind of where we see government stepping in, especially into the business world,

is they create this framework that's going to cost us a ton of money, time, effort, energy. And it's not even going to help anybody. And by the way, as someone with some food sensitivity, that's my thing to manage. Not yours. And I can either bring it up or not bring it up. That's up to me. But I feel bad when I do. Well, but tell us about Calico Fish House before I go any further.

Because speaking of food sensitivities, I love that place. Calico Fish. house. It's our family run restaurant right on the Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach, the sunset beach area of Huntington Beach, which is just a little bit further north towards Long Beach, Seal Beach. It's a indoor outdoor restaurant, full bar, casual dining, but as much farm and seat to table as possible. We work directly with the fishermen, the producers, and we're featuring a lot of great, and all of our meats now are actually coming from the wellness farm. So we're featuring all of our wellness farms products as well in the restaurant. That's how much

we stand behind them. So we're changing. menu frequently and it's really kind of curated by my wife and myself and my kids, I guess you could say, and ultimately the state of California when we list the nine allergens on the menu. So push, give us more on the wellness farm because you're sort of the figurehead of that. People know wellness. I've been my emergency kids here handy, but people know the wellness company from us on the medical side and on the sort of supplement and health side. But talk about the food side because they're very proud of what's going on there. I have not yet got a beef box.

I must tell you, I feel left out, but keep going. So the wellness farms is an arm of the wellness company, and essentially what they determined was, look, we've got all of these great products out there, farmers, ranchers, et cetera. And part of the reason why consumers can't access them is because they get sucked up into the supply chain. They get less than top dollar for their products

when they're doing all the right work. So how can we create a new conduit or even a new supply chain where we can get these products directly to the consumer? So the wellness farms actually integrated into the ranches and we're working through chicken and ultimately seafood as well such that we can take on the products from these producers that are doing things the right way and distribute them directly to the consumer through the wellness company's existing framework of distribution. It is what I've been harping about for years and how we need to create a separate supply chain, almost a parallel economy. I know that's been used a lot over the past four or five years, but it's really working now. and we can give it directly to the consumer the best of the best. I know the leadership went up to pick out the actual beef, the actual cows,

to make sure they're the absolute highest quality. So they're coming from very carefully single-sourced, not just ranches, but animals that are being used and, you know, stout to hoofs. Yeah, and I think that that's the important thing, is that there's a lot of times where some of these companies will put out kind of the marketing jargon and say, look, this comes from a collective of farmers and ranchers. etc but you're right i mean foster the ceo well the founder and then ultimately peter the CEO they did hand select these cattle this these the steer they went to the farms and they visited hundreds of

farms actually because i was putting them in contact with a lot of these producers some of which wanted to be a part of the wellness farms but they weren't able to produce enough or they weren't able to kind of stitch into that supply chain so we've got some really good partners here but there's really no fluff to this it goes directly from slaughter to the consumer you don't get fresher meat than this And with Dr. Ben Tapper, who's done a lot of analysis on the nutritional element of why this beef is much higher quality and I'm kind of on the more artistry culinary side of this and giving everybody obviously a portfolio of recipes from which they can choose, you know, it's really a kind of a full closed loop system. That's great. I'm going to have you talk about seafood in a second, but it just occurs me we should talk about Bill Gates and his butter and sort of faux foods generally. I, you know, I ate an impossible burger early on. I thought, wow, this is interesting.

Then I thought, what is, who God knows what this is? But tell me about these faux things like the Bill Gates butter. Yeah, this one definitely scares me a little bit. So what this is, it's produced by converting. So Bill Gates started this company, and it's called Saver. They're based out of Chicago. They're converting carbon dioxide, green hydrogen, in some cases, actually methane. And then they're working it through this kind of thermodynamics.

process into the same molecules that you would find in fat. So from a chemical perspective, it's similar. It's the same, right? And then they're adding back to that like sunflower less than and all of these other other products that. Seed oils. Yeah. Well, there's actually no seed oils in this, I will say. Instead, they're using different additives and preservatives to kind of give it the mouth feel and emulsifiers, right, to give it the feel of butter. So it looks like butter. It smells like butter, but it's not butter. And what concerns me about this is, number one, where they're capturing the carbon to get this. They can actually use, like, carbon emissions from industrial facilities in order to create those, kind of create the carbon from a chemical

perspective. The most important piece that nobody is talking about with this butter is that they are using the gross loophole to slip this through so that it gets no FDA oversight. You can right, you can determine through Gras, which is generally recognized as safe, which is something that RFK Jr. has actually been moving to eliminate for this very purpose, which is why I think they're rushing it to market. And you can say, oh, well, it's just basic ingredients found in nature, therefore it falls under this Gras loophole. And then you write your own self-affirming letter of certification. Of course, I'm going to certify myself as being healthy. And then it goes immediately to market.

somebody's i got to give this yours person credit for any of you that were around in the 70s and 80s Greg the baritone it's not nice to fool mother nature so that's pretty good because there's i always say there's no free lunch with nature there's a price to every you know every time you move away from it you there's a almost like a Newtonian force in the other direction so give everybody a quick primer on your seafood training through the, was it the Monterey or the Long Beach Aquarium? And your passion for that. And I feel like we were going, you told me there was some movement in the right direction

in terms of us getting our sourcing our seafood properly. But explain it to people. Yeah, I mean, as a chef, I always fell in love with seafood as the primary, you know, center plate protein. I love the ocean, marine conservation. If I had any science in my brain, I would have been a marine biologist. but I had an opportunity in 2009 to get out of the kitchen and actually work with a nonprofit with the Aquarium of the Pacific.

And we worked with the National Marine Fisheries Service and other like-minded NGOs and organizations. But essentially, I mean, we were working within the whole seafood supply chain, both domestically and internationally. And we were certifying aquaculture operations, working with scientists as well as fisheries experts to determine, number one, what types of seafood we should be eating. But furthermore, how we can get Americans to eat more seafood. We need that healthy omega-3 fatty acid.

profile that comes and everything else that comes with seafood. We have the lowest per capita consumption of seafood of most developed countries in the world. And I think that personally, that's part of the problem that we face with our Western diet where we have this imbalance of omega-6 fatty acids and omega-3 fatty acids. So what I've been preaching, I guess you could say, for years is that, number one, the United States has some of the most sustainable fisheries in the world. Actually, they have the most sustainable fisheries in the world. That is a legislative of fact by virtue of the Magnus and Stevenson Act, all of our fisheries from zero to 200 miles off the coast, which falls in our exclusive economic zone. And it's been the engine of activity

for centuries in the United States until recent decades where overregulation and, you know, really it is overregulation, labor issues and international trade issues have forced us to start buying all of our seafood internationally. And that's a problem because right now, 80% of the seafood we consume in the United States is international. And it's being treated with tons of chemical. That's so crazy. Every time you say that I have to, I literally doesn't stay with me, it seems so incomprehensible. And we have these sustained fisheries, we have the source.

And then we go for the frozen bullshit, chemically enhanced food from somewhere else where we have no idea what's gone on. Well, or you could even now make the joke radioactive shrimp, right? Look, we just caught it. that the shrimp that was being imported was radioactive, and I said that. And actually, when I went back and looked at the updated number, it's 1% or less of all of our imported seafood that gets inspected by the FDA. So I'm actually surprised that we caught this to begin with.

And what they were saying was the only reason they caught it was because they were picking up some kind of detection activity by virtue of the storage container, not the seafood itself. So it was almost serendipitous that they found out that it existed and therefore it was through the seafood. And that's why I have harped on the need for domestic consumption to go up, not just for the purposes of eating more healthy seafood, but for national safety. Because ultimately, it's going to become a bioengineered weapon that comes in through a food source.

And what's the number one food source, seafood? Oh, my goodness. I didn't even thought, my brain doesn't go there. But I guess now that you've been on a city council, you start to think about diabolical manipulation. by government, how has that experience been? It's been wonderful because we have a lot of like-minded folks here on city council. Now, we disagree on a lot of different stuff, but there is a genuine desire to actually

problem-solve a lot of the issues that we're facing as a city, but that forces us to also understand what's coming down from Sacramento and the insanity, and ultimately, how do we put firewalls up to prevent Huntington Beach from being kind of infected by this insane bug coming out of Sacramento where they're not thinking about what's good for the people of California. They're thinking about what's good for their partners and their own pocketbooks. The first thing that I did as a city council member, we actually found some land that was available to the city and all we had to do was go to the county and get it deeded back over to the city. And we're now using that land to set up a multi-trophic integrated aquaculture

system. So we're setting up a huge community garden that's going to have multi-trophic aquaculture. It's going to be available to the city. It's going to be a public project. It's not going to cost us really any money at all. We'll probably be able to get some public funds, but we're going to show people how they can get closer to their environment and actually understand where their food comes from. Well, and this is something that people don't know about Hineson Beach, at least here in California,

is the estuary is there responsible, I think, it seems like to me most of the sea birds, it seems like that's where they would go. And I've noticed we've had some problems. I watched the populations go up and down of mammals and birds, And I always know what's happening. You saw that the tape rolled in here where I was talking about how the stools and pee and vomit from the homeless population just gets hosed into the L.A. River. So you have essentially the city of the size of Pasadena excrement going directly into the ocean without treatment, without sewage treatment.

And of course that affects the well-being of the animals and the birds and the mammals especially. I'm imagining the sea, the fish as well, no? 100%. People don't realize how powerful the biodynamic nature of the marine ecosystem, especially the coastal marine ecosystem is, right? And you would think that in a state that's got the California Coastal Commission and Carb and all these other, you know, single-letter agencies that we would have the cleanest oceans, but we actually have the dirtiest oceans.

We also have the dirtiest cities. You know, a report just came out yesterday, the top 10 dirtiest cities in America. and four of them are in Southern California, Los Angeles being the first. So it's very difficult. We're probably going to get the radiest too. We're number two, but I think we're going to be number one this year for rats,

which is where we're getting the typhus and the plague and all that nonsense that's coming in. And predictably, I picked it at six years ago. It's just not something that could go otherwise. People go, how could this happen in a modern city? If you allow medieval conditions to prevail, that's exactly what happens. You get medieval diseases come in when medieval conditions prevail.

and people die at the same rate as they did back in medieval times if you don't treat them with modern medicine. But back to what is swept into the ocean, Adam Corolla, our mutual friend, put a video up, oh, there you go. The little did I know that it was a viral epidemic that was going to sweep in. But he put a video up talking about how he couldn't saw a single board in half because of some environmental potential of there being contamination of the ocean. had to be done within a certain number of miles from the ocean. And yet every house at the Pacific Palisades that burned out was built with treated wood and all that flew directly into the ocean. Thousands and thousands of metric tons of that nonsense.

It's because they seem unable to understand policy and how good intentions lead to bad outcomes. They can't think things through. well it's all performative and that's what i'm learning being in politics is so much this is performative and a lot of people you know what else i noticed too and i have to force myself to not become you know kind of conditioned to do the same thing is is that everyone's thinking about their next race they're always campaigning so they don't have a long-term vision when it comes to managing public resources because they just want to get re-elected and who cares what happens they're after and i always put my citizen

hat on when i'm looking at things through the dyes but i got to tell you you know what's funny about the point that Adam made is that the unintended consequences of all of the government action. In the 2020 wildfire season, the fires themselves emitted 100, I think it was 130 million metric tons of carbon, okay? Between 2003 and 2019, all of the regulations in California saved us, ready for this, 60 million metric tons. And it cost us billions and billions of in changes in manufacturing and the cost of the regulations. But in one fire season, we almost doubled that because of negligence when it comes to preventing wildfires just strictly through cleaning up our brush.

And forestry management and water management and preparedness, absolutely 100%. I brought that up to that billionaire guy, Steve something, who put that crazy policy in place that California has to be all electric vehicles by 2030 or something. I said, okay, I put those numbers in front of him. said, why don't you, if you really want to do something about carbon emissions, why, if that's really your motivation, why aren't you fixing the number one source? Number one. Why order some magnitude? That's just one year you're talking about. We have these things year upon year. No, unbelievable. Okay, I got to wrap it with one last

topic, and that is gerrymandering. What is going to happen to Huntington Beach if gerrymandery goes through in California? Well, Huntington Beach right now is a solidly conservative, but moderately conservative district, right, part of California District 47, we're going to now get lumped into most of Long Beach so that we're going to be stuck with the same policies as Long Beach, which is an entirely different city, entirely different demographics, with entirely different needs, right? You've got to understand Long Beach is behind a break wall. We are open oceans.

Our sand restoration and replenishment needs are completely different than Long Beach. It will force us to fight amongst ourselves within the district, number one, it's not good and nobody's getting represented that way by way of these new kind of Pollock-style gerrymander maps. But I need to tell you something here that people don't realize. This isn't just happening on a state-slash-federal level. There are lawsuits throughout the entire state,

most of which are being one, to redistrict within cities as well. So we're like Huntington Beach is being pushed right now to redistrict within the city to break up any of the political majorities. And when you redistrict even within a city, you actually force people within the city, the city to fight against each other district to district. So it's a very scary proposition that

does absolutely nothing for the people of California. How are you going to do without your great city attorney who's now the second in command under Hermit Dillon at the Department of Justice? Well, you know what? His expertise is definitely being utilized on a federal level and we appreciate that. We have a wonderful city attorney right now, Mike Vigliotto, who was formerly the deputy city attorney. So he worked under Michael for years and years. And he is an absolutely brilliant attorney. Michael's still vested in Huntington Beach so we get his wise wisdom on a consult basis.

Andrew, great to see you. We appreciate your service for this great city of Huntington Beach. I have family that live in and around there. And it's all we got, I'm still trying to figure out a way we can end up on Gutfeld at the same time. They seem to be intentionally like separating us,

but we'll figure it out, at least in New York at the same time. But any event, Seattle Lauren, for us and we'll talk to you very soon. Thank you so much for having me. It's always an honor. it. You got it.

And Calico Fish House, if you live anywhere near Huntington Beach, as God is my witness. Sunset Beach. Well, if you live anywhere near Huntington... It's like North Huntington. Right. If you live anywhere near Huntington Beach, as God is my witness, you should have no trouble getting to Calico Fish House, or even if you live in Long Beach. It's really good.

It is... It's right next to Seal Beach, if you're in Seal Beach. It is on the Coast Highway. It is ridiculously good. Am I overstating it? No, sir. Yeah. It's ridiculously good. You're right, you're right. The only reason we don't go there is we feel guilty, it treats us so well.

It's the only resistance we have to go in there. We go every day. And it's, you know, it's beautiful weather. It's nice. It's phenomenal. All right. So, my next guest is Art Kleinschmidt. Art, we're going to talk a little bit about homeless and many things.

But I want to get an update on what's going on at SAMHSA. You can follow at SAMHSA. Uh-oh. Yeah, SAMHSAGov is on X. Samh S-S-A-Gov. You're right. It's pronounced SAMH-S-A. S-A-M-H-S-A. It doesn't sound like that, though.

I know. S-A-M-H-A-Gov, Instagram, SAMH-A-Gov, and SAMH-SA-Gov is where you can go to the website. Art, welcome. Congratulations on your position there, and good to see you, my friend. Good to see you again. Very honored to be on your show. Very appreciative, and I'm very appreciative of all the work you've done in this area. in this field.

How's your knee? It's sore. I took the Uber in today. So it was a little rough. I'm almost three weeks total knee replacement, but I'm hanging. Yeah.

So the knees are tough. Those are tough uppers. It'll get your attention. It's sort of surprising. It does. So I'm not telling you something you don't know. But I want to know so just before you were appointed i was sort of involved in the rfk junior world and people

were talking about this position and who it should be and i when they mentioned you i was like oh my god oh my god please please there's so many people like you and baticharya and people in positions it's weird dream people in the the positions i want them in but they were sort of you know what would you do for samson i said what would i do what would me what would i do i'd go shut it down So I want you to tell me what you've learned about the organization from where you sit and what it does. And convince me that would have been a bad plan. Well, right now we are the nation's leader in mental health and addiction services for the federal government. This is my second tour duty at SAMHSA.

So I got a crash course last time. I came directly from working in the clinical environment, working with individuals with serious. mental illness and severe drug addiction issues. So that was my first time. So you could have content knowledge and then you got to learn how to actually work in the federal government and how that works. So right now we're in the process of doing an overhaul. I changed some of the direction of SAMHSA to the point that I want to focus on the actual American people and not so much on just feeding the federal system.

So part of that is a person I've worked on a long time on a multidisciplinary team. So I take, instead of staffing a particular patient, we're staffing America sort of as it is in finding where the treatment needs to be delivered. So in that context, I've already sort of been in Kensington working with the folks in Philadelphia. I spoke to, you know, people in Los Angeles County, Catherine Barger, in a number of people. I've been to sort of New Orleans. And so what I really been sort of concentrating on is it's not enough to say somebody's out there suffering with mental illness, drug addiction, co-occurring disorders. It's like, how do you reach that person, get them from point A suffering with a disease, right?

Getting them into treatment. And the other thing is I'm really focused on like backdoor step-down level care. So to that effect, we just put out, you know, a supplement of $43 million to have. actually allow a struggling population of people between 18 and 24 to get funding to go into recovery housing and this is recovery housing for sobriety so we're moving away from like say harm reduction activities and focusing on sobriety and moving people from addiction mental illness into life of self-sufficiency that is a departure from the last oh my god is it ever and it's such a breath of fresh air because in the past they took the position that that was impossible.

And if that was impossible, why are you sitting here and why did I spend 30 years doing that for thousands of people? If it was impossible. I guess I was deluded. I was having hallucinations that people were getting better and were turning to their lives. It's so disgusting. Yeah. And there was actually a very reluctant. I sort of been in some discussions here about bringing sobriety into recovery. For the past at least four years, They diminish the concept of sobriety and recovery. And you almost can't get from point A to point B unless you stop doing self-destructive activities, right? So, and if you want to look at recovery as a miracle, when somebody gets into recovery, learning sobriety,

they take all their problems, all their shame, all what they feel is something they need to sort of hide from, say, their weaknesses or their other sort of things. And you could get into recovery and start turning that into an asset. Right? So that's why I referred to recovery. You, RFK Jr., you guys are living, breathing proof. And Michael, who I'm going to speak to, Anthony, who I'm going to speak to in a few minutes, you guys are all living proof of the miracle of sobriety, which is not, it's, anybody who does the work will get there eventually. It's just you got to do the work.

Do you know who John Kelly is? I do. Yes, because he would be a great asset for you. Yeah, he'd be a great asset for you guys to help bring this. he's done a lot of ways he has yes good he has all the science that shows the importance of this approach

and the cost effectiveness of this approach so anyway I don't want to preach about that I want to try to get off that point but how do you help California which is the one I'm most familiar with which is a state that will not grant anybody a status of gravely disabled which used to be how people

were brought in for care they were so sick you just brought them in no greatly disabled insufficient number of psychiatrists, insufficient number of psychiatric beds, lowfully few residential beds. What do we do with this date? Well, we need to start to actually look at this in real terms.

A lot of times they want to say, oh, it's stigma to do this, but actually the most stigma-inducing thing is to allow people to live in no sort of degradation, that sort of self-infirmed... Art, I want to interrupt you. When you were in your disease, did you feel stigma? And if not, what were you interested in?

Getting high. So that's really sort of what a... That is every drug addict I know. That is every drug addict I know. No drug addicts ever come to you. I've treated 10,000. No one ever said, oh, I can't get treatment because I feel stigmatized. Ever, ever.

What they said was, I need more drugs. Period. That's the disease. That's how it works. And the family may still stigmatized. I get that. And if you're catering to that disease. This is crazy.

That disease. Yeah, you're right. It's absolutely crazy, right? Stigma's never a bridge too far when it comes to getting your drugs. Stigma only. Of course not. You know what I mean? But if you cater to stigma too much and allow people to suffer in the street, you know, what's more degrading than that?

So it's actually sort of time to get a feel about a lot of these things. Now, I know California is unique, but the challenges, and unfortunately, a lot of California's problems are related to policy. and it's going to be. All of it is. Art, it all is that. A hundred percent of it. We could take care of these people, no problem. I mean, not all of it. Let's face it. We need some beds. We need more psychiatrists. But like, I've been in Florida a lot these days, and Florida has some wonderful problem. I'm amazed at what they can do. And so I know it's possible in the United States. Florida is doing it the right way. We recently, we do have an executive order that SAMHSA was heavily involved in, but the president's sort of signed. And it's all about. about getting people off the streets into treatment into a life of self-sufficiency. So with the executive order, we will be more empowered. I am working to get, you know, more, California, like more AOT type of treatment where people with serious mental illness could actually sort of be structured to get the sort of help

their need. And I also want to start putting in more recovery housing and more supports for those individuals who also have serious mental illness, co-occurring type of need. disorders. I, I, um, you and I are going to have to work, uh, I keep here, I was talking to Oz the other day and he said that the addiction piece is going to, the RFK Jr. obviously is very committed to recovery. He's a recovering addict himself. And he got sober at a residential program of a sort of a work farm kind of situation. He's sent many people there. It's inexpensive.

It's, you know, sobriety base, whatnot. But you and I are going to have to get involved in helping him understand what it's going to take to get people in the condition where they can go to places like that and what's needed to get people, you know, what kind of services are going to be needed to provide enough to get them to that place where they can. I'm in agreement with that. I thought also, like I said, I went to Baton Rouge. I'm in Louisiana, but I went with like a peer community that went out and physically intervened on some of the homeless people there and got them to get the bus ticket to go. home to her family and that sort of a thing. But you're 100% right.

It's more, it begins at the first phase of intervention. You could always say there's a treatment center over there. Then how do you move somebody to point A to point B? And then how do you close the door to where they can actually start getting a life of self-sufficiency within a structured environment? I don't want to bring somebody to this conversation. It's not here. But your wife knew how to do that.

And I hope she's advising on how we create sort of law enforcement structure to help. help with all that? She is. Yeah, she's very sort of committed to the cause, as you know. And she's, yeah, she's very involved and very supportive of all of this. And she's been actually helping move my knee a tremendous amount. So there's that. I'm aware.

Yeah, but the executive board, we're working in conjunction with law enforcement to actually sort of help move people into a life of purpose and meaning. So I'm going to take a break. and just second here. We're going to bring Art back in a minute. But just know that Art and I were planning to walk skid row, much the way I did with Emily Campano in that video you saw there with Reverend Bales,

if we can get him. And your wife texted me one day, because you thought you were still going to make this to walk, you know, this month sometime. Yeah, I was a little optimistic. Dude. I wasn't going to have. He goes, dude.

I was like, yeah, I don't think he'll get the best. No reality speaks into dreams, right? Yeah, of course. I have the same problem. All right, we'll take a little break. Art Kleinschmidt in here. Do you want people to go to SAMHSA.gov? Is there anywhere else you want people to go to find more information?

Sansa.gov is great. You can go to HHS as well. Like I said, as you know, the secretary is very supportive of our efforts here. Yeah. So stay right there, Art. You all stay right there as well. We're going to be right back. Pay attention to these are all people we stand by.

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That is Dr. Drew.com slash Paleo Valley. Dr. Drew said the best way to quit drinking is by going cold turkey. And he's a doctor. So why would you question doctors? Dr. Drew called me unfixable. We are truly blessed to have the people that support this program. They're all such high quality, and I hope you'll support them as well. Art Klein Schmidt from SAMHSA, where he is the director presently,

samsa.gov, where we can find out more. Let me just see if there's anything I've left out here, Art, from... So what do we do... Let me ask you this. How do you... In California, we have this delusion that putting people with serious mental illness and brain diseases of all type magically get well when you put them in a house

or in four walls. What do we do with those guys? How's the government kind of address that? Well, we actually have that in the executive order. We're getting addressing housing first. That's more of a HUD issue. But that's part of why SAMHSA released the money to subsidize the state opioid response grant

with recovery housing. Recovery housing, you know, has sobriety requirements. And it's where somebody leaves treatment. has the supports that they need to get on to self-sufficiency. Now, I've seen just what you're talking about. I've worked at a treatment center where for severe cases, but some who have means, and when a client was able to, like, avoid a recovery house referral and get an apartment in the neighborhood, we always ended up with a new crack house in the neighborhood or another

shooting gallery that people would go to. And some dead patients. What's that? And some dead patients. You do. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, 100%. And that's unfortunate.

That's what would happen. So that's a policy that we're actually removing and we work. It's in the executive order to rid of that. And you're also, when you create like a housing first type of policy, you're allowing people to go untreated. You're almost mandating that they can't be treated. And that's not, that's another one of those enabling. In this county, you're not almost, you're mandating it. You don't dare.

You're kidnapping if you try to treat somebody. That's really unfortunate. And I don't know, like, they must have a perverse view on compassion. That's not compassionate. The compassionate thing is to see somebody with a disease and actually sort of treat them. That's right. So let's think about it. Let's think about it.

So here's what it is. First of all, first of all, you have hospitals without. out walls that are being run by social workers who are not trained to do this. They're wonderful, but they're not trained to take care of these severely mentally ill patients. The most severe psychiatric cases you can possibly have are on our streets. They are not trained for that. And doctors and nurses are not allowed to interact in this open-air hospital. This is what you have in California.

And it's so mind-boggling. And I talked to a kid on my podcast a few months ago who wrote a book. called Crooked Smile and he was telling me he's now Carpenter, he's made it off, he's in recovery, he's doing great and, but he said at the end he was being given his heroin, given his rigs, given his fentanyl by the city and the county

and then patted on the back and told the following he said by every person he encountered at the end this, don't worry about this you'll get better once we get communism in place. Can you imagine? Yeah. I do imagine that's you know, that should be governmental malpractice.

You're actually feeding somebody sort of a disease. I mean, would they do that for somebody good donuts to diabetics? They don't generally sort of do that. And if you want to talk about stigma-inducing, that is it right there. You're actually working to destroy somebody's life. I don't see how they get to the term of compassion, right? So you're minimizing somebody's ability to be human, plus their ability to accomplish and achieve for the sole purpose of, I guess, their own self-gratification. But that is, to get back to the early question, so why do we need SAMHSA or want to be burned down?

But we have an opportunity now to use a federal resource to start trying to change the culture on those disastrous policies. Yes. Just having you in this position gave me hope and now hearing what you're saying about what you guys are doing gives me not just hope. It fills my lungs with air. My heart swells with it. I do believe you're going to run into a buzzsaw here in California. But get ready to fight that fight and let's go do it. Because it's thousands of lives. I'm going to look at the tinderloin and then we're going to go to L.A. And the other thing, I do have a question. So like I spoke to Superintendent Catherine Barger. And she had her crew, and they're talking about Los Angeles. But when you go to the websites of all these NGOs and organizations in California, they say what a great job they're doing. So is there like a true disconnect and reality there? Yes, profound. And in fact, even when you talk, even when you talk to the,

I've been interacting a little bit with some of the housing people, and they go, oh, we're doing such a great job getting people in housing. But once they're in, it turns out we're not done. I'm like, no shit. No shit, you're not done. You've done nothing. You've done exactly nothing. You've spent a lot of money and you've lined a lot of pockets, but you've not done anything for these people who are dying on the street.

So when you get here, we'll do a full comprehensive review of all this. You'll get a sense. It is disgusting what is allowed to go on, not discussed from the standpoint of it being, which it is, and it's contaminating everything and causing typhus outbreaks and plague outbreaks. and we have where the number one rodent, you know, rat population of the country because they're doing nothing. I just saw an article to that effect just earlier this morning about the rodent issue that's going on. Well, don't worry because California, in its infinite wisdom of do-gooting and compassion, has taken away the, you are not allowed to legally use anything that kills rodents. You're not allowed to. It's against the law now. So we have typhus. It's increasing rapidly.

we have plague now, here we go. So, I don't know. It was predictable. I did it in 2019. I, I remember, yeah. You were one of the first guys bringing that up. I remember that, yeah, when you were doing that. So it's interesting.

So I'm going to look forward to doing that, working with you, going out there and seeing it. Like I said, I toured Kensington as well just recently. So I'll be looking forward to getting out there to California. California and seeing what we can accomplish. This will be great. I'll be inspired to, I'll be great to see you, but I'll be inspired to hear what you have to say. And it will be,

and you'll be walking on a new knee. It'll feel a lot better. Trust me. He's taking security with you? I look forward to that. We usually take, we usually take, what's his name? Reverend Bales.

We're Reverend Bales we take, but there's a cop that used to work the beat there that usually goes with us too. Okay. Because it's not what it used to be. No, it's very gang infested. There's a lot of, because the gangs don't want it undone it. They charge rent for that.

They actually charge rent for the sidewalk space. Are you aware of that? No, I didn't know that. I used to talk about all the women. A group in Venice Beach was talking about how gang infested it was out there. I did see gang Venice Beach a number of years ago when it was a mess. but I don't know how it looks today. Well, we will find out.

Last time I was there, they were trafficking the women, all the women eventually, and we're charging, they were taking, these people are all on general relief, so they get disability checks, and it goes to the gangs for the space and the drugs. So good times, everybody. This is a genius setup that our city has. But hopefully, Catherine Barger will go with us. Okay. Cool.

That'd be good. I'll see what I can do. So, yeah, I'm really looking forward to it, and I appreciate all your support. And like I said, you've been a real pioneer on this issue. So I'm very appreciative of all the work that you've done. You know, thank you, Art, but pioneer is the wrong word. I'm not a pioneer. I'm a time traveler.

I'm an old-timey. I'm a time traveler. I'm here to tell you, I've done this for 40 years, and I know what works, and I know what doesn't work. I'm not a pioneer. The pioneers were the guys I learned from, but I learned from them 40 years ago. and I saw it work and how it works and I've done it and done it I'll change that to the leader about that

we'll say you've been a big leader on this so I very much appreciate it I'll take it I'll take it all right thanks for having to be on anytime and you listen to your wife on that knee she's got better judgment than you or I make you sound old I think she does yeah and if I don't

believe her she'll let me know that she may call me too get talked hard so we'll see what's that sorry dr drew thank you so much i really i really appreciate it i look forward to getting together soon 100% uh you got it susan you were trying to ring it with something said pioneer makes you sound old time traveler doesn't make me sound old

i guess i could be a young person coming forward in time that way you i'm a if i've been in a time machine but the time traveled has has had its way with me all right so Now I'm going to welcome Anthony Brown. Anthony was actually walking Skid Row with me that day with Emily Campano and Reverend Bales. Anthony has moved to Ohio where he is actually making a difference by building a large facility. He wrote the book, Park Bench to Park Avenue. And he's got a great story.

You can follow him on Anthony Howard Brown.com. Also on X. Brown underscore Manor. Brown Manor is the facility he's building. Instagram is brown dot manner it looks like to me and YouTube Anthony Howard Brown Brown 9107 Okay Anthony welcome Hey Dr. Drew, how are you? Good to see you

So you know on that little day of walking around Do you remember the name of the cop we were walking with? Do you remember his name? I do not but I do remember that day because we were spotting drug transactions and things of that nature we weren't spotting them you were spotting them

and I was like how the hell did you see that you're like okay this one's got the meth and they're lined up over here for her and he's going to transport you saw things they were invisible to me

so tell me what that was well I know my kind you know I've been out there in the streets for a long time from 14 to 37 doing drugs and hustling and being around Skid Row, I'm just back in my natural environment.

And so it's easy for me to point out like-minded behavior. And so I just recognize it. And so, okay, well, that's what's going on there. And that's what's going on there. And, you know, go from there. You, you, I remember it because you said something, one actually startling about one woman. And I'm not sure if you're prepared to repeat what you told me.

But let's just say she had, inspecated some meth which is a word for taking internally. Yeah, she was putting it in her purse. She was putting it in her purse.

She didn't carry that purse. That purse was part of her body. And I'm like, Anthony, how did you know that? He goes, yeah, she's got it up there. And these are the guys that are trafficking and bringing it to these guys. And I was like, wow, that was unbelievable.

Yeah, it's quite a system. I will never forget it. But you also, you also have one of the greatest, I love when addiction makes us do funny things. It's just, because it does the funniest stuff sometimes. And part of your recovery story to me is one of the great, you've got to find the humor in all these things. But tell them what happened to you after multiple times in prison getting picked up on

this one street corner, well, different street corners I give atch, ultimately. And what did you decide? was what was wrong and something was wrong. You were clearly, something was up with your life. Yeah, well, you know, as I shared numerous times, my addiction, and it is a disease, it just caused me to do the same thing over and over and expect a different result. And I would go to a place in Coast of May to Harbor & Wilson and try to sell drugs. And it didn't dawn on me that there's not too many African Americans hanging out at 2 o'clock in the morning at the same spot. And so I would get arrested in Harbor and Wilson, go to jail, think, okay, something

has to change. Okay, my best solution, maybe I can hide it in my sock, go back to Harbor and Wilson, you know, get arrested, go back to prison again, think something's got to change. Okay, I'm going to hold it in my hand. Well, I'm an addict. I get too loaded. I forget it's in my hand, and they picked me up on Harbor and Wilson. And, you know, until finally, I really got smart and say, okay, I'll move one block south to Harbor and Victoria. And that's just insanity. of the disease of addiction and so going through all that and finally

a cop had to ask me if I needed some help I didn't even know I was you know I knew something was wrong but I didn't know what was right and so after you asked if I wanted some help he had a friend put me in treatment got introduced to

you know the 12th up way of living and here I am 26 years later and you know I could be a nurse practitioner well let me let me I want to gloat about you a little bit Anthony is not just a nurse he was a director of nursing for a large psychiatric facility and then he's been since he moved to build his manner which I want you to talk about just a second he became a nurse practitioner now he's seeing people on an outpatient basis he's a highly highly highly skilled professional and to go from where you'd been living so chronically to who and where you are now to me is like we need to bottle that you just you just showed that wherever you can because that's what I wish for everybody who's on the street, everybody's suffering with addiction, and you are living proof that it is possible. Yeah, and it is.

And what's fascinating, and I love the guy that went on prior, is that whole stigma thing. You know, stigma really doesn't affect the addict. It doesn't, you know, but it affects the individual that has the stigma because you don't want to offer as quality help to that person that's out there. And so one of the things I do, since I'm so open about my life, is I want to break that stigma. You know, that person on the street is well worth the investment. I mean, look, I'm a poster shop. But life still happens.

And, you know, this whole thing about, you know, housing first, not has to be housing plus. You know, I believe that, you know, you can't think your way to better living. You have to live your way in a better thinking. And so we just told that structured living environment. There's a structured treatment environment. And so tell us about Brown matter. What are you doing there? A brown manor, we're doing good.

We're still in the construction phase. Again, I'm an example. I got a job, got my life in order, made a ton of money, and then I took all my money and put in this abandoned house, which is great because I need people to see that a person who was homeless can do bigger things. I mean, I thought being a nurse practitioner was one thing, but putting together, structuring a living program is a whole different animal, but it's well worth it because I get to see people from two different, people see this from two different perspectives. I have the homeless people or the person who has environmental illness or substance use get to see a guy rising up the ladder.

And then on the other side of society, they get to see a guy who can achieve things and become a professional. And they want to support that. I know out here in Ohio people like a Dan Zackman, a Bill Freitag, beneath the shoulders, all of them are supporting what we're doing because it's a community thing. And the beauty is people are starting to believe that we all can make a difference. And so we're all pitching in. We're all doing this deal in a brown manor.

I just love it. You know, it's taken forever because I'm broke, but that's all right. You know, I believe in miracles. Well, you're getting, I feel like you're about to get some real traction. I mean, you've got the attention of something. Is that a state senator that you have attention of or is that a federal senator? He's a state senator around here. It's Mark Romachuk.

And he's a pretty cool dude, you know, and I'm not political. I am not. I have no clue on how to do I mean, I'm barely learning how to talk to you, you know. But I'm learning how to get along in certain environments. Because, again, transitioning from where I come from, And so this life always calls it Slairsville, but getting able to navigate this part of the world can be challenging. It is, you know, and it's really fascinating because I will always be an addict, Dr. Drew, period. That'll never change.

I have that genetic makeup. I can't take one, a lot of nothing. And so having to navigate those feelings and that thinking while being in this new challenging environment can be difficult. because life hasn't stopped. Life still continues. It's just different levels that I get to exercise my skills in and the different stressors and things like that.

So working with different people on government levels and even on the city level can be challenging and putting Brown Manor together and having to learn how to go through codes and permits. I mean, I thought that, hey, you know, I can just buy a house and put up some drywall and everything will be crazy. No, it doesn't work that way.

You know? No, you have to go. Yeah, you have to go through the city process and get permits and wait until they're done. And, you know, patients sometimes isn't good for a person with an addictive mentality. I want it done yesterday. And that's not the way reality works. And so being able to navigate that and having a support system and an outlet so that I just don't think that my only option is just to give up isolate and maybe it necessize myself because it's going to feel better. I don't do that.

No, no, no. that please don't do that we will have lost an important asset if you do that but uh we need to get you hooked up with uh art climb schmidt i feel like the two of you guys could you know change the world uh and who knows samsa may have some grants or something you right you said you did you tell me you'd written a grant recently yeah i wrote my first grant um and i'm super excited about it and i've discovered and a lot of people may not realize this but you have way more power within yourself than you even know I know you tell me this all the time it's like my outside um my inside thinking doesn't match my outside reality um I've sat down and I read and I

studied and I figured out how to write a grant and so I wrote my first grant and I'm super excited just to even see where it goes you know and the beauty of this is is even if I don't get what I'm asking for at least I have the knowledge and the skills on how to do it and then just continue to practice until I get better at it. So yeah, I wrote my first grant. I would love to meet Art and get involved with some stuff on the SAMHSA level and, you know, just keep on going because the solution to homelessness is how do you change the individual that's out in the street concept of what their reality is?

That's the solution. You know, it's not about self-esteem or self-worth. You can take away the alcohol and drugs, and you're still going to have that thinking or that belief system. Because I've discovered that even working with some people around here, I can take them out the park. And the minute they get bored, they go right back to the park. And so if we can get people to understand that you're an individual that's just navigating a complex life imperfectly, then you have a better chance, you know, instead of just saying, okay, I'm going to take you here, dust you off, give you a few medications and all as well. No, it's a cognitive behavioral structure.

And that's what Brown Man is all about. well and will you be doing some of the clinical stuff there too or supervision at least oh absolutely absolutely yeah yeah because i've been through and i've seen a lot of different systems out there i mean i managed the psychiatric hospital i've been in recovery homes i see all that but the thing is i have lived experience i understand i have empathy And so me being there and teaching and letting people know that, hey, I'm not just the president. I'm going to, you know. And so, yeah, I'm definitely going to have hands on.

I look forward to it. And I get super excited over stuff like this. You know, I. Susan, remember when Anthony was managing the hospital during COVID? Had to be COVID outbreak in his hospital. Oh, my God. That was crazy. Yeah, that was. That was bananas. But everything's great. And, you know, one thing I've learned, too, and this can help anybody. Whenever you have difficulties, there's troubles, just journal that stuff down. Get it off your head. And that's what made me come up with that book. And the same thing with my second book, The Ghetto Practitioner, and I just journal everything that's going on because life threw me a few curb balls. And I still made it. I know I called you several times going, oh, my God, you know, how am I going to get through this? And you're like, just breathe, you know. And

Because, you know, this is my anniversary right now of first discovering Seymour. This time last year. So suddenly Seymour, I wrote down. Suddenly, do you know the little shop of horrors, the song Suddenly Seymour? Well, this happened to Anthony. Go ahead. Yeah. This time last year, I was getting prepped to have surgery because I get diagnosed with colon cancer.

And talking about having an addict throwing a curveball. and I didn't know what to deal. I'm like, I'm sitting here at Prams. Like, you know, I've been through substance abuse. I've been through homelessness. I've been through addiction. I've been in jail. And I got my life in order and all of a sudden, whammo, you have cancer.

And I'm like, what am I supposed to do? My mind went all over the place. And I, and I called Dr. Drew. I'm like, I'm freaking out. It's like, just breathe and take the next indicated step. And because of your guidance, I was able to make it. And it's really interesting because I just, journal through that whole thing in the ghetto practitioner in my new book. And I needed an outlet

because I can't drink or use. I can't fight. I can't act out. I still got to go to work. And I'm stressing now that I have cancer. And I laugh because a year ago today is when I was doing prep to go into the hospital to deal with this. And here I am a year later. I feel good. I just seen my doctor the other day and it's like, you know, if life can throw me these curb balls and I still don't drink and use and I still want to go forth and help people,

then, you know, anybody can. Anybody can. Well, it's also much clearer that you must. Right? So the mandate is clear. Well, Anthony, listen, I love you. I love what you're doing. Please tell people where they can go to support you.

There's a lot of people listening and you know, if we could reproduce what you do them thousand times the place would world be a better place but go ahead i'm not going to subject you to that but but but go ahead tell me where they should go to support you um they can go to my website anthony howard brown dot com we have a non-profit now um the genet jones aford foundation you can go there and donate to brown menor you can just google brown menor um you You can reach me. I'm on Facebook.

I'm all over the place. And so, and, you know, if you're, if you're in Ohio and you want to see a band in 1916 mention come to life, come to Mansfield, Ohio, you know, and you get to see this whole thing. But that's, you know, that's all of my connections and contacts. And, you know, just, and just buy the book, you know, buy from Park Beach to Park Avenue. My information is there together. A practitioner. The information is going to be in there. you know whatever it is because all proceeds go towards helping somebody else become me

and I'm more than happy to be there to guide and so yeah just all health can do I'm not afraid to ask for a hand out you know so that I hope people get a hand up so here I am all right my friend we'll talk soon take care all right thanks Dr. Drew you got it so that was an interesting survey of kind of well obviously we're talking about addiction about failed policies in California but in terms of walking away a little bit of

inspiration I mean all three of these guys were terribly inspirational in spite of these roadblocks that we are finding needless roadblocks so frustrating from our government but you see what can be done what should be done and how it can be done and these guys are all three living examples of it now you've got to make sure they're all talking to each other because they're more powerful as an army

All right. Let's put up what's coming up here, Caleb. I think Tuesday we've got Chloe Carmichael coming in. It's a reschedule to talk about people following in love with their bots. Susan, that should be interesting. These AI bots, people are falling in love with them. Chloe's going to come back and talk to us about that. Roseanne's going to come in with Allison Morrow. Salty Cracker, Zach Levy on the 16th.

Gabe, I wrote the pronunciation, was a T-A-Eb. Eltaab, who's a cartoonist, as a comedic cartoonist, a celebrity cartoonist, yeah. Yeah, so hopefully, oh, I hope we can do 9-3. We don't get jury duty. Yeah, we have allegedly jury duty that week, so we'll see if that's a real thing or not. I'll host it.

All right. I'll just host it with Roseanne. It'll just be a Caleb and Roseanne show. It'll be interesting. So, Caleb, any thoughts for you? No, that was, that's very, interesting. I always love hearing, especially from people who were formerly homeless and have gone on to build big things. And even more so, Anthony is working to help people from the community that he was in before. He's experienced and knows what he's talking about. Yeah, a lot of people come out of recovery, out of addiction and they feel a need to make meaning and to give back because somebody did that for them and they appreciated it so much. And there literally aren't enough professionals on earth to meet the needs of the recovering community. That's why. And the Covering community knows that and mobilizes and literally sits on the people earlier in their program to give them what they need.

And one day they will do that for somebody else. All right. So we will see you on Tuesday at 2 o'clock. Do support all the people to support us and we will see you then. Ask Dr. Drew is produced by Caleb Nation and Susan Pinsky. As a reminder, the discussions here are not a substitute for medical care, diagnosis, or treatment. This show is intended for educational and informational purposes only. I am a licensed physician, but I am not a replacement for your personal doctor, and I am not practicing medicine here.

Always remember that our understanding of medicine and science is constantly evolving. Though my opinion is based on the information that is available to me today, some of the contents of this show could be outdated in the future. Be sure to check with trusted resources in case any of the information has been updated since this was published. If you or someone you know is in an immediate danger, don't call me. Call 911. If you're feeling hopeless or suicidal, call the National Suicide Prevention Law. Lifeline at 800, 273, 8255. You can find more of my recommended organizations and helpful resources at

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