Addiction, Treatment and Recovery

Mr. Tieman has spent more than 30 years in the addiction treatment field in treatment center and industry leadership positions. He began his career with the Hazelden Foundation and has served as chairman of the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers and a member of the American College of Addiction Treatment Administrators. Mr. Tieman has been the president and CEO of Caron Treatment Centers, one of the largest addiction treatment centers in the nation, since 1995. Caron participates in studies with leading research universities including the University of Pennsylvania’s Treatment Research Institute, Penn State College of Medicine/Hershey Medical Center, the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health, and Stanford University.

In 2017, The Philadelphia Inquirer named Mr. Tieman an “Emerging Icon” for his work in advancing addiction treatment and research. Mr. Tieman is also an author, having published several treatment sector-related articles and the book Flying Over the Pigpen: Tried and True Leadership Lessons from Growing Up on a Farm.

Andrew Kolodny, M.D., is one of the nation's leading experts on the prescription opioid and heroin crisis. He is the Co-Director of The Opioid Policy Research Collaborative at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management. His primary area of focus is the prescription opioid and heroin crisis devastating families and communities across the country. He is also the executive director of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing, an organization with a mission to reduce morbidity and mortality caused by overprescribing of opioid analgesics.

Dr. Kolodny previously served as Chief Medical Officer for Phoenix House, a national non-profit addiction treatment agency and Chair of Psychiatry at Maimonides Medical Center in New York City. Dr. Kolodny has a long-standing interest in public health. He began his career working for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in the Office of the Executive Deputy Commissioner. For New York City, he helped develop and implement multiple programs to improve the health of New Yorkers and save lives, including citywide buprenorphine programs, Naloxone overdose prevention programs and emergency room-based screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment (SBIRT) programs for drug and alcohol misuse.

Dr. Provet has been the President and CEO of Odyssey House, a leading, multi-site, non-profit substance abuse and mental health treatment organization. Previously, Dr. Provet was Vice President and Director of Adolescent Programs and Clinical Support Services at Phoenix House, where he ran the largest adolescent treatment system in the country. He has more than 25 years of clinical experience treating people with addictions and mental illness.

Paula Norris Mestayer, M.Ed, LPC, FAPA, is the founder of Springfield Wellness Center, a mental health clinic that specializes in treatment for addiction and other brain diseases. In his 40-year career as a practicing physician specializing in psychiatry, Dr. Mestayer has helped countless men and women overcome chemical dependencies, traumatic stress, depression, anxiety, panic, and affective personality disorders. As the Medical Director of Springfield Wellness Center, he is pioneering a proprietary formula of NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) called BR+/ NAD, which is used for the treatment of addiction, chronic and post-traumatic stress, depression, anxiety, neurodegenerative diseases, aging, and disorders reflective of mitochondrial dysfunction.

Paula Norris Mestayer, M.Ed, LPC, FAPA, is the founder of Springfield Wellness Center, a mental health clinic that specializes in treatment for addiction and other brain diseases. She is the author of Addiction: Dark Night of the Soul; NAD+: The Light of Hope, Balboa Press, 2019

My guest today is Kevin Sabet. Dubbed by NBC News as the “prodigy of drug politics,” author, consultant, advisor to three U.S. presidential administrations, and assistant professor, Kevin A. Sabet, Ph.D., has studied, researched, written about, and implemented drug policy for more than 20 years. He is currently the President and CEO of SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana), a non-profit organization he founded with Congressman Patrick Kennedy and David Frum.

My guest today is Alex Berenson, author of the book Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence. With the US already gripped by one drug epidemic, the book makes readers consider if marijuana use is worth the risk.