Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 08-08-25_FRIDAY_7AM

Episode Date: August 8, 2025

08-08-25_FRIDAY_7AM

The Bill Myers Show podcast is sponsored by Klausur drilling. They've been leading the way in southern Oregon well drilling for over 50 years. Find out more about them at Klausor drilling.com. Mr. Outdoors, Greg Roberts from Rogueweather.com, is on. Here it is August 8th. My sister's 63rd birthday, Diana, 63, and this is also the anniversary of Richard Nixon. This is the day he reside.

Do you remember that? Mr. Outdoors, I do. I do. I do that. Yep. that's that's one of those that events that hit when you know I'm definitely old enough I have memories of that I think where my my memories about things in life really kicks in pretty consistently would be 1969 on and I have scattered memories of things happening

before that, for example, I definitely, I think it was because of my mom's strong reaction to it. I can remember Bobby Kennedy being assassinated. Yes, I agree. And I think it was my mom's reaction to it, that even though I was definitely a little youngster, I do remember when that happened. Mm-hmm, indeed. That was certainly a memorable. moments, same with

well, the lunar moon landing. And of course, I know that the conspiracy theorist will. I do remember that too. I know. But hey, one way or the other, it was a good show. I know the conspiracy. Like every other American, we were riveted to the TV and the images and all of that.

So, yeah. I know that the conspiracy theorist will now write me about that. We never went there. But, okay, it's fine. If that's the case, that's the myth I'm going to believe. We won't evolve and yet devolve. all at the same time. That's a great example of it. All right. Let's go, though, where we're headed. It's going to be a warm weekend,

but not really record-breaking, nothing like that. In fact, you were saying it was that we had some record-setting heat on this date and starting in this heat a number of years ago, or there was another big heat wave, right? Yeah, 1981 in Medford in August. And I don't know how many people are even going to remember this. I don't know how many people lived here, were even alive, but we entered a prolonged hot streak that started on the 8th, and then it rolled all the way through the 13th, and we had a daily high of at least 108 in Medford every single day, and it peaked on August 11th when we hit the second highest recorded temperature in Medford of 114 degrees. And again, this is 1981.

And part of why that really sticks with me, I was working for the A's farm team here in Medford at that point, and we were doing everything we can to keep the catchers and the umpires from getting heat illness. I mean, we were putting ice packs on our catchers between innings. We were pumping as much cold water and gatorade as we could into the umpires, given them ice packs in between innings. I have vivid memories of because the A's were home that week, all of those games, temperatures were well up into the 90s, even at the end of the games.

It was just an unbelievably oppressive heat wave. Medford National Weather Service actually gave it a name. They called it the Inferno. No kidding. Well, that was 44 years ago. So I imagine, yeah, anybody who remembers it is a little bit older now at this point. But, yeah, we're looking for nothing like that this weekend. But there is, what, we do have, red flag warnings and fire danger,

things that we do have to watch out for real. What are we looking at, huh? Well, that's actually the red flag warnings. The heightened fire risk is going to be today and tomorrow due to strong easterly winds. And even though they do cover Jackson County with it, the east side of the county, the foothills of the Cascades, where the real concern is at is Western Josephine County and then all of Curry County right down through Brookings because there is a Chetco effect going, and you've got that hot, dry air, and then you've got those

strong winds. So, in a matter of speaking, everybody's very well aware of the Santa Ana winds in Southern California, we get the exact same kind of wind up here, but we call it the Chetco effect, and it's definitely snapped on. And then coming right out of that, we're going to see the heat increase here in the inland valleys for Sunday, Monday, and persisting into Tuesday. And again, based on what I just said happened in 1981, our peak temperature looks like it's going to be Monday when Medford's now projected for 107. But that's still going to fall short of records because of what happened in 1981. All right. Now, plenty of opportunity then for Pacific Power to shut the power off, I would imagine. Yeah, you know, and it's kind of funny. They bombarded

every form of media they possibly can, with the exception of rogue weather, with these messages going, hey guess what we're going to shut your power off and trying to sell it like it's a great thing well when they just arbitrarily decide to shut your power off and especially in the middle of a heat wave no i don't think too many people are going to agree with them that it's a great thing on the other hand it just proves that once again they truly don't care about you they definitely care about their bottom line and their liability and that's why they're doing it I don't think you can be quite, I don't think you can be quite that dismissive about it because, remember, there were several billion dollars in judgments that they had to pay out of wildfire lawsuits. So it's not a little amount of money, you know?

Yeah, that's what I just said at the end. But again, they got sued. And so this is the end result. You know, it's not like they just sit back and say, oh, sure, sue us. then they start looking for ways to mitigate their liability, which they do by shutting off the power. And those lawsuits help trigger some of the biggest rate increases in the United States here in Oregon for Pacific Power and Light that, you know, again, things have consequences. And we're going to deal with the consequences of what happened with the lawsuits because they're going to figure out a way to avoid. that and the easiest way to avoid it, shut the power off, and they don't care how hot

it is. There we go. And so we have to behave appropriately because we know what's going on now, and I have my generator. I'll bet you have generators, too, despite everybody does. One thing I was going to mention, though, I went to the unveiling, you know, they had that press conference at the Wildfire Intelligence Center out there on Foothill Road in Medford, where they have the banks of computers and the, you know, all the screen.

and everything that they're keeping an eye. It's pretty impressive as it goes as far as, you know, gathering intelligence about where the fires could be breaking out. That's all fine and good. But I did ask their spokesperson, Simon Gutierrez was his name. He was the one that was talking to all the media folks there. And I asked what was the long term. And he didn't really have a good answer. I'm going to try to get to the bottom of that because remember what I was telling you about up on Gold Hill, Nuggett Butte, how over the winter, Pacific Power, had a crew go out.

out there and just those masticator things that just chew everything down to the ground and there's no way a wildfire would break out up there on those power lines going up the mountain side to the communication towers and I was saying you know when is this going to be happening to the rest

of their of their right-of-ways because you know they're always shutting the power off out in the Applegate in Jacksonville right now and I go up the KLDZ the other day and I just noticed how the power lines are running right through the trees right through the trees they just got them right just above the trees and I can see why when the wind comes they're they're shutting them down now but those trees shouldn't even be there really should they well I mean yeah yes they should but on the other hand failure to maintain those power line right away is keeping the brush down keeping the trees cut back that's actually had devastating consequences now here in Oregon I honestly

Honestly, I have not been aware of anybody suing them to prevent them from maintaining those power line right-of-ways and keeping the brush down and the trees trim back. They did in California, and that definitely was a contributing factor on the campfire that just destroyed Paradise. because if you can't maintain those power line right-of-ways, eventually what's going to happen, you're going to have trees grow into them or brush going to make contact with something, and you're going to get a fire start. And that is exactly what started the campfire that, like I said, you know, one of the most catastrophic destructive fires we have seen. And, you know, I don't know what people experience.

the power companies to do, but like I said, here in Oregon, I'm not aware that they've been sued over it, and they definitely do a better job of maintaining the power line right-of-ways through the forest here. But, you know, sometimes growth happens, things happen. They don't hit every power line right away every year. So some of what you're describing, yeah, I mean, it just also shows the continual need to either maintain the right-of-ways or stick everything down in the ground, which now in California, PGE is doing because the liability cost, suddenly the cost of grounding, putting all of the power lines and stuff in the ground, now what used to be cost prohibitive, putting everything in the ground, is now cost acceptable because

of the lawsuits and everything. I know, except it's about six to seven times the cost of just the standard way that it's been done for forever. To convert the existing power grid and put it in the ground is going to be hugely costly, so expect your rates to go up, and it's going to take a long period of time. I've been working with a student from Princeton University on a thesis paper that she's writing about fire out here, and when she originally... originally was looking at this, she actually was paying attention to a paper that came out,

the read paper, I can't remember the exact year. Anyway, the read paper theorized about forest fires being used literally as weapons of terror or, you know, for other nefarious purposes. Like, well, urban renewal of sorts. We had out here in 2020, Almeda, Open Chain. That's the closest I've seen to something like that. But I said, but here's the thing. And I got a lot of experience during the Timber Wars about this.

Earth First, Earth Liberation Front, when they're doing things like that, they immediately took responsibility for it because they wanted you to know it. To the best of my knowledge, no organized group has ever claimed responsibility for the fires of 2020. So as we started going around, we went through the Almeida Burn at various points, kind of revisited some history, but show what we learned and showed her that the trailer parks that are coming back in down there along Bear Creek and the Greenway, the major differences they're doing now with those. But then yesterday we went up on East Hillcrest, got up into the mountains, and I was able to show her entire air. areas up there of how overgrown it is, how trees are dying because there's so many trees per acre, you don't have enough water to sustain them all. So you're getting die off, even on north-facing slopes where normally moisture holds better and is cooler. And documented this, and

I said, now, you're looking at just that one, maybe 1,000-acre patch right there. We've got millions upon millions of acres of this going on all over the West. And every time we try to propose using the two most effective wider spread ways to address it, controlled fire or logging, it immediately turns into a battle because half the people don't want to see fire at all, and the other half of the people don't want to see logging at all. And so what winds up happening is we get stuck and we can't make meaningful changes and the threat just keeps growing. And I said, this isn't necessarily a climate change issue. This was the failure of management of the landscape.

Yeah. Because climate change doesn't dictate how many trees per acre you have. It may impact and help cause drought stress, which helps kill trees. and I showed her examples of that, but at the end of the day, it's still the lack of management because if we had had proper management of the landscape going on, I will go to my grave believing our fire situation wouldn't have gotten as bad. All right, point well taken. Hey, Greg, as far as outdoor recreation, what do you think is probably the best thing in a pretty warm,

or maybe check-co windy sort of situation. What would you think? Get to the Upper Rogue area where we still have all that nice big, old growth, shading, everything. And then you've got streams like Union Creek, Mill Creek, the Upper Rogue River. That water, believe me, is still plenty cold, but for the kind of weather we're going to be seeing, especially Sunday through Tuesday, that's where you're going to get. your best relief. And there are also fishing opportunities there because ODF and W stalks the waters above prospect every week. So the Upper Rogue River above prospect in multiple locations.

Union Creek literally right there on the bridge on 62 going over Union Creek. They also stock Mill Creek. They stock other creeks up there. So there will be fishing opportunities. and like I said, you get into that bigger old growth forest up there, much, much cooler, a lot more shade. And then if it is getting warm, well, you've got water right there that'll provide relief. And then Saturday night, I'm going to be up there anyway. I'm doing a Bigfoot outing with a guy who won the contest when I did my Bigfoot talk at Butte Falls Library. and we're going out on Saturday night because that will be the peak of what's called the sturgeon moon, the first full moon in August, and from 1984 through now, I've always had some of my very best activity with Bigfoot on this full sturgeon moon. It's almost bright as daylight out in the woods, and also with the heat, everything starts moving in the dark.

And it's just, it's an incredible time to be in the woods, and I'm looking forward to the adventures we're going to have on Saturday night. All right. I want a full report, okay? We'll definitely give you the full report. All right. Hey, Greg, I appreciate the take on it, and we'll catch you back next Friday and let's something really breaks here on fire or whatever. Hopefully we'll get through the fire conditions peaking up this weekend without too, too much trouble. and like I said, no record-setting temperatures like you had mentioned, but it is definitely going to be warm.

Greg Roberts at rogueweather.com. Thanks for the report, okay? You take care. You got it, Bill. Rogueweather.com. 731 at KMED. This is the Bill Meyer Show and the outdoor report, sponsored by Oregon Truck and Auto Authority on Airway Drive. American Industrial Door has security and storm shutters and mesh for commercial and residential applications. These shutters protect storefronts, windows, retail counters, product cases, whatever needs, instant protection against burglary, and severe weather. With a touch of a button, you can secure an entry point or space with style and color. American Industrial Door has affordable scissor gates too. See all the security shutter options at American Industrial Door on Union Avenue and Grants Pass and on Crater Lake

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Interesting story about the upcoming special session, what we've been talking about here in the last few days. And then we have Doug Gould in studio. And we're going to be talking about rock recovery. What is going on. You've got a big event that they're in the process of getting set for on September 6th and why you should want to or be interested in this. What's going on when it comes to addiction recovery? All coming up on the Bill Myers Show.

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Visit Millet Construction.com. From the KMED News Center, here's what's going on. Jackson and Josephine counties will be facing hot weather and a variety of risks today through the weekend. Today we're under a red flag warning with highs in the mid-90s and possible wind gusts up to 25 miles an hour. Saturday, that shifts to a fire weather watch as temperatures brush 100 degrees. Then Sunday through Monday and extreme heat warnings in effect as temperatures both days are expected to hit around 106 degrees. With a special session pending to fund the Oregon Department of Transportation, Governor Tina Kotech rolled out her full plan Thursday. It includes raising the state's gas tax by

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The intelligence scandal. Part of this was a Hillary Clinton plan, but part of it was an FBI plan to be an accelerant. It was essentially a years-long coup that was launched against President Trump. How deep does it go? They were looking for the intelligence community assessment. That's why they rated our law. I believe it had to be one of the things that they were looking for. It doesn't have teeth.

I don't think statute of limitations are going to impact. Talk about it here. That report is pretty Tammy. On News Talk 106-3, KMED. Hi, I'm Deb with Father and Son Jory, and I'm on KMED. And we appreciate you being here, waking up. This is the Bill Meyer show, 739, and we have Doug Gould in studio with me. Doug Gould is with Rock Recovery Center.

Doug, it's good to have you on. Welcome. Thanks for having me back, Bill. It's good to be here. For those who don't know, by the way, does the rock stand? for something? Yes, it stands for restoring our community. It's actually from the scripture, Psalm 7835, and there they will remember that God was their rock, and they will be restored. And that's what we're trying to do through the rock is restore lives, out from

addiction. Yeah. Now, coming up on September 6th, though, we're talking a little less than than a month from now. You're doing the Strong and Courageous Recovery Festival. This is going to be over at Harry and David Ball Field, and the Lithia Field number nine, which is what's going on. Sure. And we'll talk more about the actual nuts and bolts of the recovery process and what you're thinking, though. Sure. But tell us about the big event and what is the purpose of it. Yeah, the big event started back in 2011 by the late Steve Hale. He wanted to put a festival together to embrace and celebrate recovery. And so years ago, in 2011 at Trail Christian Fellowship, there was a music festival. And then unfortunately, we lost Steve in 2012. And I took over at that time

Foundation for Recovery. Then in 2018, we started the Rock Recovery Center, but we wanted to keep that idea going, that vision of bringing the community together to let people know there's life after addiction and to let families know that there are resources in our community that would like to help. And so we bring the organizations together in our community, but you know, you got to have fun, you know, because there is fun after addiction. And so as long as it's not getting re-addicted. Absolutely. And so what we've done, we've brought organizations together. We play softball, we've done bowling, we've done all sorts of things. But this is our actually, other than the year for the COVID, this is actually our 15th year of doing a summer event

of bringing the community together and letting people know that recovery is possible. So it's a big softball tournament, so you have various teams that are going to be there. Sure. That are. Give me an example of what they would expect. What does it cost? How can you help? And what does the money end up doing? I mentioned it has to be a fundraiser, right? Absolutely. It's our major. fundraiser for the year and all the funding that we we collect from it. Go right back into our recovery program for low-income families and people that are in need. But yeah, we have a great

time. This year, Recovery Cafe is the defending champions of our last softball tournament. So they're going to be coming involved. But we have great teams. We've got Hope City. We've got the Rock, of course. Painted Horse, an organization at Roseburg coming down and enjoying. Oh, so this is like a battle of the recovery. Oh, yeah. We've got options of Southern Oregon. We have a group from AA and NA that's going to be putting a team together. Yeah. And so it's going to be great. So when people come out to the ballpark, it's free admission. We do have a concession stand. We have a family fun zone, carnival booths, pony rides, just all for the kids. And then starting at 8 o'clock, our tournament starts on two fields on Herring David and Lithia Field number nine.

and then it breaks down into the championship series, best two out of three of the winners. And then that night we have the police against the fire department. Oh, guns and hoses. In guns and hoses. And that is always a kick. And then at that game, we have four major raffle prizes that we're giving away and they have to be present to win. So we want the families come out. We want them to enjoy.

We want people to know that if you've got loved ones caught in addiction, this is a great way to have them come out to the ballpark. so they don't feel the stigma of their shame and see, see what recovery looks like, you know, because there's life after addiction. You know, I'm glad to hear this. I wanted to get your take on it, though. And by the way, where do you go to find out more about it? Because I'll put all the information. Sure.

Go to our website at rock recovery center.org. You can call the Office 541, 200,000, 3,000. If you need to put a poster up, if you want tickets, give me a call. We're out there in the community. Yeah, I just want to make sure and hit all this. Hey, this is what's going on. And then I want to talk a little bit deep, more. deeply then about the actual addiction issue here in Southern Oregon. How is Southern Oregon

dealing with it overall right now? I'm talking about it from a 50,000 foot level. You're looking down because every time I talk to anybody, it's involved, whether it's, you know, the people involved with the homeless shelters and various other things. We're always hearing addiction, addiction, addiction and that it is a big part of the homelessness. But then I imagine there's also a big part about this just with families in crisis just in the regular homes. We don't hear enough to the same extent as we do to the homeless. What are we looking at right now? Well, first of all, the Rock wants to advocate for recovery. And seeing that's why we started. And I want to give a shout out to Central Point School District. Right now, we have a school program at the Rock called

Michelle's message. And this past year, we were able to speak to over 2,000 students at Cedic Middle School, Cascade Christian High School, and also Crater High School. Medford, do you need to get on board? You need it for us to come. If we can reach now, the young people today, Bill, here's an interesting

fact that 40% of our teens, ages 12 to 18, are now on anti-anxiety and depression nationwide. Really? Yes. And the reason is, is that stupid social media stuff regarding this you know believe or not there's a lot of a lot of people that don't know this but there's actually an approval addiction right people need approval people need acknowledgement people need to feel accepted and and value well you know the psychiatrist we call

it the the dopamine hit perfect that you get from the the like or the share absolutely i'm being approved right absolutely and michel rosenthal has a book life after trauma she says when we humans go through any type of pain and discomfort, we will develop a behavior that gives a safety, comfort, control. And that's what addiction is. And so if we can reach our teens now, Mefford School District, everybody else, if we can reach our teens now, they're not going to come to our agencies later. Now, here's the cool thing. Over the past year in 2024, we lost in Jackson County over 1,800 people overdose. We are down 21 percent. And by the way, Go ahead.

Now, was that mostly fentanyl? Yes, opiate fentanyl-related. So in 2023, we lost 1800. In 2024, we lost 1,400. So we were down 21%. But still, even 1400 is not a small number. It's not. But Jackson County is on the move, okay?

And so places like the Rock Recovery Cafe on track, purely his, hoping of future ministries, walking tall ministries, these organizations coming together going, We need to reach our youth now. We need to continue to have a program to let people know that there is a way out of this stuff and through education and peer mentoring. Now, peer mentoring. Now, the Rock offers peer mentoring training. And I've been doing this training for at least probably 14 years now, Bill.

And what better way of helping people in struggling with addiction than actually talking to somebody that's been there with lived experience? So that's why we're seeing the numbers being reduced. But we're also seeing the growth of recovery here in Jackson County because of peer mentoring. And so we're more organizations on track, ARC, addiction recovery center, pathfinders. They are seeing the benefit of now hiring peers with lived experience being able to counsel and guide other people out of addiction. I've been through it. Absolutely.

Were you through it at some point? I had 21 years of sobriety. I gave up that 21 years after I went through a divorce and the death of my parents, and now I have 15 years. Is there a difference in the addiction based on generational changes? And I bring this up because I've noticed that is it millennial or Gen Z that does not tend to be as much into, let's say, drinking as, you know, me being a younger boomer, 1961 era, you know, on the end of that. you know in high school what we were worried about okay you had a little bit of pot it was so hard to get it was not you know that big of a deal it was the booze it was the beer that was where we tended to see most of that and then as you went through the 80s it was you know the cocaine and

crack and various other things now we hear about fentanyl and the other opiates and i'm just curious how is this breaking down from what you see well realistically that the top five in oregon of course is your marijuana, your opiates, your meth, your alcohol. No, what, marijuana is healthy. We're told the state. Yeah, you know what, we did it. I'm being sarcastic. Yeah, I know you are, Bill. I can see it on your face. I will tell you, we did a disservice in the state of Oregon when we legalized it.

And I get pushed back. Every time I talk about this, I did a workshop called Up and Smoke, right? And we talked about, you know, even our vaping among our young people are on the rise. And so what we're seeing in the trend is people will find, anything that they can get that dopamine hit, that rush, to fill a little relief today. So it doesn't matter what the chemical is. We have to get to the source of why people are going toward that chemical. And that's usually pain and trauma if someone going through, they're uncomfortable with life. And so they're going to find something that gives us a sense of relief.

How is it, though, that some people are able to have trauma and you can have a bad time? and you somehow manage to avoid this. Maybe I was just lucky or something. You know, I've had some rough times in life. I think we all have, but I never had the opportunity, if you want to call it that, to fall in. What's the difference? Is there any, is there any, you know, markers of, you can say, oh, yeah, this person's probably going to go off the wagon. Another person.

Now, for me, you know, I would tend to eat when I'm stressed out. That was my deal. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. So when there was disturbance in the Doug home, Doug would leave the area of the disturbance and go hide in his bedroom through the kitchen. So what did I learn in early childhood development? And I learned in early childhood development that if I can find some type of comfort. So yeah, not everybody goes to the chemical. A lot of people will go toward their isolation because isolation feels comforting for me. Now this is where I get a lot of pushback from colleagues because I will tell you.

you that depression, anxiety, and isolation, things of this type of behavior compulsively to an emotional sense, what I mean is if I find comfort in a type of behavior that I'm comfortable with, I will go back to that behavior, including my isolation that fuels my depression, right? People will actually create chaos in their life so they can have anxiety because that's a sense of control for them. I remember hearing about children of divorce being described this way that if their home life was chaotic,

they would, they will create chaos in their life because that's what they felt comfortable with. Absolutely. And so not, absolutely. And so not everybody goes down the road of addiction, right? But I will tell you something, and why is it that there are some people more addicted to this

chemical than this chemical? And the reason is, is because addiction, now here's where I get another people ask me, especially in the, in the faith community, the last me, Doug, is a addiction, a moral failure, or is it a disease? And my answer is yes. So it's both? Yes, because I picked up that drink. Little did I know, I did not know how alcohol was going to hit my brain mechanism. And so when that, the quicker the chemical goes to the mid-brain or the limbic system, the faster hits that dopamine receptor, there's a higher possibility

that is going to create some type of addiction. That's what we call the disease of addiction, right? And so, therefore, when it rewires the brain, the neuroplasticity of the brain, that person's going to continue to go down that pathway for that comfort. What we do, and most organizations do, let's rewire that brain. Let's show them a different way that they can go instead of going down that chemical. Because here's the thing, and this is what I tell parents and spouse family members at our parent support group is that this very thing that we look at is why can't they stop

is the very thing that's giving them comfort right but it's making them sick so what we have to do is rewire that brain mechanism that's really interesting i'm glad that you talked about it as both a disease and a and a moral issue and i that's that's very healthy thank you because one of the concerns i had is that there's a lot in the addiction recovery community that's a oh addiction is a disease and they just leave it at that as if we have no agency and no power sure in our own lives to be able to you know to affect it's almost i think a desire then that uh you make it a medical syndrome and it opens up pharmaceuticals and all sorts of exactly bill and one of the one of the biggest lies out there well i'm an addict once an addict

always an addict and i totally do not agree with that and we try to teach and i try to teach through the trainings I do through the peer support. And if you want to get involved in adult addiction services, the Rock offers a state certification training for peer support and certified recovery mentors. And one of the things I teach is, wait a minute, stop. It doesn't have to be that way. Once an addict, always an addict. Now, for me, because I've got this overwhelming understanding that my, if I go back to alcohol,

which I did after 21 years of sobriety, I was out. for 13 years. I thought 21 years as a bride, I could have one drink after my divorce and death of my parents. It didn't happen. So I ended up with the Rogue Valley Hospital. Blood pressure 220 over 180, hit with the paddles twice. I was lucky. The idea is I know I need to maintain that pathway over there. I can't go ever again, right? But I don't even have a desire. There's no compulsiveness to go to that because I've rewired the brain. I know that in this conversation But addiction and homelessness and families in crisis and all the rest of it. Doug Doug Gould, by the way, is with me, and he's with the Rock Recovery Center.

There's been talk that there is more need of this in the criminal justice system. Would you agree with that? Is that the best way to deliver it or not? Well, the way I look at it, and I tell families this, unless the addict or alcoholic can feel the consequences of their behavior, there's no motivation for change. I don't have a problem with being, I don't have a problem with incarceration. I do, and this is why I'm involved with Susan Wall over there at the drug court, I do believe in treatment, right? However, if we continue to go down, you know, years ago, Bill, we decided to minimize the consequences of drug use here in Oregon. And what did that do? It did nothing.

It escalated drug use. It did. Okay? Because I will tell you, anybody in addiction, we're very smart regarding weights and measures. We know what we can carry without getting in trouble, things of the nature. And so passing that law years ago didn't do anything for us. The point being I'm trying to make is we're all searching for giving somebody second chances. I'm that way, right? I believe people need second and third chances. However, there is also a possibility that somebody may need the consequences of their behavior.

But let's try treatment first. And that's why you see on track building a new facility there on Riverside. You see our friends over at Addiction Recovery Center doing their thing. You see Recovery Cafe enlarging their facility there on Main Street. You see the Rock Recovery Center. Thank goodness for Grace Point Fellowship. We took the building across the street. And now we're in the old Rebel Holmes building, which is three stories, 24,000 square feet.

And I don't even know what to do with it all, Bill. But I will tell you this, we're using it. and we're seeing more people walk through the doors to get help. So I believe in treatment. I appreciate that. And the other thing I wanted to ask you is I'm also told that you have to want to. Is that true? Sure.

Sure. There's no way that a recovery can be forced upon someone. Well, it can be forced. Yeah. But if you're not ready, you know, I just had this conversation with Mifred PD and the livability team. You know, we can give everybody the tools to change. but if it's not heartfelt, if the soul doesn't change, if the inner person doesn't change, you know, there's a possibility we can go back to it.

I had to get to the point. I know my family wanted me to get clean and sober, right? And I did too. I don't know how many times I hug the toilet again and saying, God, you know, take this drink away from me. But I needed someone to come alongside of me, and that was the late Steve Hale, who took time along and came alongside of me and got me clean and sober. But I had to get to the point where I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. Right? I was so bad, Bill, that I had a city map of city of Medford at Central Point, and I would label all the convenience stores, and I would date the last time I was there buying liquor, right? Because I didn't want anybody to think I was an alcoholic.

Ah, right? You needed to hide that. Exactly. I needed to hide that. But until I surrendered, and that's what it is, surrendering. It's interesting what will penetrate the armor that someone might have against going to the recovery. I was talking with a police officer. Heard the story about a police officer. I'm going to leave the agency out of it. And there was a gentleman that was being taken to jail here in southern Oregon. And the police officer was telling this guy who actually had wonderful wife and family and home. They were trying to do with him.

It's like, what the F are you doing? What is going on with you? Yadda, yada. Why are you doing? You got a great mind. You could have a great career. And the cop is just berating this guy, you know, and getting personal with him, right? And then a few years later, I guess they end up seeing each other once again.

And he says, you know, every time I was ready to take, they think it was an opiate or something like that. I always heard this police, I heard your voice in my head going, what the F is wrong with you? And it finally kind of stuck. Yeah. Well, my niece is the same thing. Yeah? Yeah, my nephew and my niece-in-law, they came over one night, and I told them, I was just basically lying bill. See, addiction has no respecter of persons, all walks of life.

And for this pastor, I just, I couldn't get it. And all of a sudden, I remember her screaming at me, what is wrong with you? And that stuck in my head, right? But I was, I was a fortunate one. You know, we lose people to this disease and we lose, you know, but. But I will tell you, one of the things I just want to also mention that what the Rock is doing through this event, we just started, we just started a new program called Rock the Church, because only 10% of churches nationwide have anything to do with mental health and addiction. We want the churches to know in our faith community that the Rock wants to come alongside of you. There's people sitting in silence in churches today, right, because of shame and stigma.

And so we need to change that. We want to come alongside of our faith community as well. and bridge the gap between the recovery community and the faith community. And that's what we do through the festival. Very good. Doug Gould. I appreciate you coming in here from Rock Recovery Center. I'm going to get all the information up is available on KMED.com.

The Strong and Courageous Recovery Festival, Saturday, September 6th, so I guess it's going to be, what, four weeks from tomorrow. Yeah, you know, really. And a big recovery, All-Star, A-Team, Softball Tournament, Fundraising, all this sort of stuff. We'll get all the information up and get in touch. One more time. Rock Recovery Center.orgie is our website and 541,200, 3,000. All right. Appreciate you coming in.

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click kiammedford.com. This is KMEDE, KMED, HD1EG grants pass. I don't know if I gave the legal ID before. Sometimes I just forget about it and think I did, but I did now. All right. Hi, good morning. Who's this? Welcome.

This is Bill. This is Logan, Bill. Hey, Logan. How you doing? Good. Hey, I just wanted to offer a kind of a different perspective. I really appreciate, you know, we have a, I know there's the U-75, one of ministries. They do a lot of great in our valley and the Rock.

you know, just what Doug does. And these are good resources, but at the same point, it's kind of a double-edged sword. Because ultimately, I believe what you and I would share the sentiments, and I think all of your listeners, is that down the road, ultimately, we would want this business to fail because we don't, I want to live in a place where there aren't people who need recovery, who people where everyone's recovered. Now, I understand there's always going to be that portion of the population. But in essence, if you really want what's best for Medford, you would want to see these businesses eventually have to shut their doors.

And honestly, I think if you were to talk to it, Doug, I bet you he would be thrilled if there was no need for it, wouldn't you think? I think he understands that there is no benefit of going through addiction. Well, he'd be looking for another job. I know that. Yeah. But, you know, I think from hearing is hard, I agree with you, Bill. You know, I believe that probably there's a lot of people hire in positions that don't share necessarily that, you know, oh, I want to see people recover. But, you know, $60,000 a year or whatever, that's a pretty, you know, it's a job. So, you know, you do have to look at both forms of that.

I just wanted to offer the other side of the coin is, you know, it's, I know you've used the term and I've used it a ton. build it, they will come. And watching even the grants pass city council meetings and just what's going on in our region here, it's, it's incredibly sad, and they just had specifically their last meeting, they brought that up a bunch of grants passes, is these resources, it's getting to the point where we just have freeloaders that are just are taking advantage of the system. And I think, though, that ultimately the contortions going on in the financial system,

the end of the Western welfare state, because we're running out of other people's money. I mean, the debt kind of shows this. Some of that will probably be taken care of because there just won't be funding for it, Logan. And I don't say that happily,

but I'm just saying that, you know, we're going to be seeing a lot of come to Jesus. Well, probably, well, maybe come to Guy, in the case of Oregon state government, they would never mention Jesus for anything except to take it in vain, okay?

But I would dare say that what we're noticing here in this special session coming up and everything is all indicative of they've lost control of the narrative that you can just absolutely pay for anything no matter how stupid, no matter how insane, no matter how immoral, and that the money will just keep coming.

Do you see where I'm coming from? that? I do, but it's the boiling of the frog term. They're either going to have to pull us out of the water or just turn it up and then throw us in. Yeah, well, I vote for pulling out of the water. How about you? And that's where I'm at. But unfortunately, Oregon is, the corruption is so entrenched here that we have so many between our Republicans, our elected Republicans, are on the dole from these pharmaceutical companies. They're just, they're just wolves and sheep's clothing for lack of a better term. And there's no way to stop it because what are you going to do, vote harder? Well, they control the machine. I hate to sound like that. It is what it is.

Yeah, I understand. And you are right about this. Well, and I notice how even Leader Drazen is an example puts out today, oh, this is horrible what Governor Kotech wants to do in the session. We're going to raise taxes on working Americans, yada, yada, yada, and then, of course, left on set is, and the Republicans are cooperating to provide quorum to enable what to happen. there we go it's it's controlled opposition is what it is all right hey logan we'll have to talk about this maybe a little bit later here uh i'm just uh running behind on my schedule but i'm glad to give you a couple on that okay thanks so much thank bill i appreciate it okay let's catch up on town hall news here in just a moment david bonson will be joining me he's a big financial guy

and we'll talk tariffs and is the is the market looking frothy and he has a interesting take on things from the bonson group this summer has been hot have you enjoyed