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BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. Ariella Morrow, an internal medicine doctor, gradually slid from healthy self-esteem and professional success into the depths of depression.

This story also ran on LAist. It can be republished for free.

Beginning in 2015, she suffered a string of personal troubles, including a shattering family trauma, marital strife, and a major professional setback. At first, sheer grit and determination kept her going, but eventually she was unable to keep her troubles at bay and took refuge in heavy drinking. By late 2020, Morrow could barely get out of bed and didnt shower or brush her teeth for weeks on end. She was up to two bottles of wine a day, alternating it with Scotch whisky.

Sitting in her well-appointed home on a recent autumn afternoon, adorned in a bright lavender dress, matching lipstick, and a large pearl necklace, Morrow traced the arc of her surrender to alcohol: Im not going to drink before 5 p.m. Im not going to drink before 2. Im not going to drink while the kids are home. And then, it was 10 oclock, 9 oclock, wake up and drink. Ariella Morrow, a Los Angeles-area internist, fell into a deep depression and started drinking heavily after a succession of family traumas and a major professional setback. She finally sought help for alcohol dependence and depression at a clinic in Texas.(Bernard J. Wolfson/KFF Health News)

As addiction and overdose deaths command headlines across the nation, the Medical Board of California, which licenses MDs, is developing a new program to treat and monitor doctors with alcohol and drug problems. But a fault line has appeared over whether those who join the new program without being ordered to by the board should be subject to public disclosure.

Patient advocates note that the medical boards primary mission is to protect healthcare consumers and prevent harm, which they say trumps physician privacy.

The names of those required by the board to undergo treatment and monitoring under a disciplinary order are already made public. But addiction medicine professionals say that if the state wants troubled doctors to come forward without a board order, confidentiality is crucial.

Public disclosure would be a powerful disincentive for anybody to get help and would impede early intervention, which is key to avoiding impairment on the job that could harm patients, said Scott Hambleton, president of the Federation of State Physician Health Programs, whose core members help arrange care and monitoring of doctors for substance use disorders and mental health conditions as an alternative to discipline.

But consumer advocates argue that patients have a right to know if their doctor has an addiction. Doctors are supposed to talk to their patients about all the risks and benefits of any treatment or procedure, yet the risk of an addicted doctor is expected to remain a secret? Marian Hollingsworth, a volunteer advocate with the Patient Safety Action Network, told the medical board at a Nov. 14 hearing on the new program.

Doctors are as vulnerable to addiction as anyone else. People who work to help rehabilitate physicians say the rate of substance use disorders among them is at least as high as the rate for the general public, which the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration put at 17.3% in a Nov. 13 report.

Alcohol is a very common drug of choice among doctors, but their ready access to pain meds is also a particular risk.

If you have an opioid use disorder and are working in an operating room with medications like fentanyl staring you down, its a challenge and can be a trigger, said Chwen-Yuen Angie Chen, an addiction medicine doctor who chairs the Well-Being of Physicians and Physicians-in-Training Committee at Stanford Health Care. Its like someone with an alcohol use disorder working at a bar. Email Sign-Up

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From Pioneer to Lagger

California was once at the forefront of physician treatment and monitoring. In 1981, the medical board launched a program for the evaluation, treatment, and monitoring of physicians with mental illness or substance use problems. Participants were often required to take random drug tests, attend multiple group meetings a week, submit to work-site surveillance by colleagues, and stay in the program for at least five years. Doctors who voluntarily entered the program generally enjoyed confidentiality, but those ordered into it by the board as part of a disciplinary action were on the public record.

The program was terminated in 2008 after several audits found serious flaws. One such audit, conducted by Julianne DAngelo Fellmeth, a consumer interest lawyer who was chosen as an outside monitor for the board, found that doctors in the program were often able to evade the random drug tests, attendance at mandatory group therapy sessions was not accurately tracked, and participants were not properly monitored at work sites.

Today, MDs who want help with addiction can seek private treatment on their own or in many cases are referred by hospitals and other health care employers to third parties that organize treatment and surveillance. The medical board can order a doctor on probation to get treatment.

In contrast, the California licensing boards of eight other health-related professions, including osteopathic physicians, registered nurses, dentists, and pharmacists, have treatment and monitoring programs administered under one master contract by a publicly traded company called Maximus Inc. California paid Maximus about $1.6 million last fiscal year to administer those programs.

When and if the final medical board regulations are adopted, the next step would be for the board to open bidding to find a program administrator.

Fall From Grace

Morrows troubles started long after the original California program had been shut down.

The daughter of a prominent cosmetic surgeon, Morrow grew up in Palm Springs in circumstances she describes as beyond privileged. Her father, David Morrow, later became her most trusted mentor.

But her charmed life began to fall apart in 2015, when her father and mother, Linda Morrow, were indicted on federal insurance fraud charges in a well-publicized case. In 2017, the couple fled to Israel in an attempt to escape criminal prosecution, but later they were both arrested and returned to the United States to face prison sentences.

The legal woes of Morrows parents, later compounded by marital problems related to the failure of her husbands business, took a heavy toll on Morrow. She was in her early 30s when the trouble with her parents started, and she was working 16-hour days to build a private medical practice, with two small children at home. By the end of 2019, she was severely depressed and turning increasingly to alcohol. Then, the loss of her admitting privileges at a large Los Angeles hospital due to inadequate medical record-keeping shattered what remained of her self-confidence.

Morrow, reflecting on her experience, said the very strengths that propel doctors through medical school and keep them going in their careers can foster a sense of denial. We are so strong that our strength is our greatest threat. Our power is our powerlessness, she said. Morrow ignored all the flashing yellow lights and even the red light beyond which serious trouble lay: I blew through all of it, and I fell off the cliff.

By late 2020, no longer working, bedridden by depression, and drinking to excess, she realized she could no longer will her way through: I finally said to my husband, I need help. He said, I know you do.

Ultimately, she packed herself off to a private residential treatment center in Texas. Now sober for 21 months, Morrow said the privacy of the addiction treatment she chose was invaluable because it shielded her from professional scrutiny.

I didnt have to feel naked and judged, she said.

Morrow said her privacy concerns would make her reluctant to join a state program like the one being considere by the medical board.

Physician Privacy vs. Patient Protection

The proposed regulations would spare doctors in the program who were not under board discipline from public disclosure as long as they stayed sober and complied with all the requirements, generally including random drug tests, attendance at group sessions, and work-site monitoring. If the program put a restriction on a doctors medical license, it would be posted on the medical boards website, but without mentioning the doctors participation in the program.

Yet even that might compromise a doctors career since having a restricted license for unspecified reasons could have many enduring personal and professional implications, none positive, said Tracy Zemansky, a clinical psychologist and president of the Southern California division of Pacific Assistance Group, which provides support and monitoring for physicians.

Zemansky and others say doctors, just like anyone else, are entitled to medical privacy under federal law, as long as they havent caused harm.

Many who work in addiction medicine also criticized the proposed new program for not including mental health problems, which often go hand in hand with addiction and are covered by physician health programs in other states.

To forgo mental health treatment, I think, is a grave mistake, Morrow said. For her, depression and alcoholism were inseparable, and the residential program she attended treated her for both.

Another point of contention is money. Under the current proposal, doctors would bear all the costs of the program.

The initial clinical evaluation, plus the regular random drug tests, group sessions, and monitoring at their work sites could cost participants over $27,000 a year on average, according to estimates posted by the medical board. And if they were required to go for 30-day inpatient treatment, that would add an additional $40,000 plus nearly $36,000 in lost wages.

People who work in the field of addiction medicine believe that is an unfair burden. They note that most programs for physicians in other states have outside funding to reduce the cost to participants.

The cost should not be fully borne by the doctors, because there are many other people that are benefiting from this, including the board, malpractice insurers, hospitals, the medical association, said Greg Skipper, a semi-retired addiction medicine doctor who ran Alabamas state physician health program for 12 years. In Alabama, he said, those institutions contribute to the program, significantly cutting the amount doctors have to pay.

The treatment program that Morrow attended in spring of 2021, at The Menninger Clinic in Houston, cost $80,000 for a six-week stay, which was covered by a concerned family member. It saved my life, she said.

Though Morrow had difficulty maintaining her sobriety in the first year after treatment, she has now been sober since April 2, 2022. These days, Morrow regularly attends therapy and Alcoholics Anonymous and has pivoted to become an addiction medicine doctor.

I am a better doctor today because of my experience no question, Morrow said. I am proud to be a doctor whos an alcoholic in recovery.

This article was produced by KFF Health News, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.

Bernard J. Wolfson: bwolfson@kff.org, @bjwolfson Related Topics California Health Industry Mental Health States Doctors Hospitals Substance Misuse Contact Us Submit a Story Tip

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Who was Charlie Kirk? The young MAGA influencer ‘admired’ by Trump

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Who was Charlie Kirk? The young MAGA influencer 'admired' by Trump

Right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk has died after being shot while speaking to a large crowd on a university campus in Utah.

He was speaking to students about mass shootings on Wednesday when he was shot in the neck, leading students to flee and triggering a manhunt for the killer.

The 31-year-old Trump faithful was used to scores of people listening to him, both in person and online, as he advocated for conservatism among younger generations and became a leading voice in the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.

“No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us,” the president wrote on Truth Social after his death.

But who was Charlie Kirk, what were his views and how did he become so influential?

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Who was Trump ally Charlie Kirk?

From high school protests to the president’s ally

Despite being younger than many of his contemporaries, Mr Kirk, born in Chicago in 1993, had been a staple of the right for some time.

His first taste of activism came when he and a classmate launched a protest against the rising price of food at his high school cafeteria. Soon after, as a high school senior, he wrote an opinion piece for the conservative news site Breitbart, in which he discussed liberalism in textbooks.

Kirk in 2017. Pic: Colin Young-Wolff/Invision/AP
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Kirk in 2017. Pic: Colin Young-Wolff/Invision/AP

It catapulted him into politics, helping him get appearances on Fox News and at right-wing rallies, where he soon met activist Bill Montgomery.

Live updates on manhunt for Kirk’s killer

They co-founded Turning Point USA, a non-profit aimed at mobilising college-age Republicans, when Mr Kirk was just 18, in 2012.

Turning Point would soon attach itself to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016, and went on to become a hugely successful entity, raising hundreds of millions of dollars as it helped build a coalition of young conservatives around the country.

The group’s website says it has 450 members of staff and presences in 3,000 high schools and college campuses.

While the organisation thrived, Mr Kirk became the young face of the MAGA movement on social media platforms, pushing Mr Trump’s big points, including his false claim that the 2020 election was stolen.

A day before the January 6th riots in 2021, he wrote on X that he was organising for “buses of patriots” to Washington to “fight for the president”.

At the time of his death, father-of-two Mr Kirk had become one of the biggest online voices on the American right, with 7.3 million followers on TikTok, 7 million on Instagram, 5 million on X and 3.5 million on YouTube.

His podcast, The Charlie Kirk Show, is downloaded between 500,000 and 750,000 times each day, according to NBC News, and consistently charts highly on Spotify and Apple.

His influence was not lost on Mr Trump.

Donald Trump and Charlie Kirk in July 2022. Pic: AP
Image:
Donald Trump and Charlie Kirk in July 2022. Pic: AP

He often spoke favourably about Mr Kirk, including multiple times on the campaign trail last year.

During a rally in Washington, the day before he was sworn in for a second term in January, Mr Trump told attendees: “Charlie Kirk is here. And I want to thank Charlie. Charlie is fantastic. I mean, this guy.”

He also appeared last October at a Turning Point USA political rally in Phoenix, saying: “I want to express my tremendous gratitude to Charlie Kirk. He’s really an amazing guy. Amazing guy.”

Kirk shot while holding debate on mass shootings

He was fierce in his right-wing views and a strong communicator, making him a polarising figure.

Critics accused him of promoting falsehoods and conspiracy theories on issues including COVID-19, climate change and the 2020 US election.

Kirk at a Turning Point conference in 2024. Pic: Reuters
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Kirk at a Turning Point conference in 2024. Pic: Reuters

Yet Mr Kirk, however firm his beliefs, was always keen to hear opinions he disagreed with, often setting up “prove me wrong” tables at university events where people were encouraged to challenge his views.

He would regularly debate left-wing students on contentious topics like gun control, free speech LGBTQ+ rights and abortion rights.

It was during one of his “prove me wrong” segments at Utah Valley University – this one centred on mass shootings – that he was shot.

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Students flee after Charlie Kirk shot dead in Utah

His friend Hogan Gidley, who was deputy press secretary for Mr Trump between 2019 and 2020, says what Mr Kirk did for MAGA and for conservatism is “unparalleled”.

“At the same time, what he did to try to showcase the importance of discussion, just getting out there and saying your ideas, that’s what’s unbelievable,” he adds, speaking to Sky’s Trump 100 podcast.

“He kind of paved the way for so many in the younger generation to say, you don’t have to be violent, you can use your words, you can use information, you can use data… he was a pioneer in that way.”

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Witness: I knew he wasn’t going to survive

Mr Kirk’s own death was entirely against what he stood for, Mr Gidley says.

“He changed some hearts, he changed some minds – he made people angry,” he says. “But that’s OK, because that’s part of discussion and honest debate.

“What this devolved into… was something that was violent and that was disgusting and deplorable. It has no place in American politics, but debate and discussion absolutely do and Charlie Kirk led that way.”

Trump ‘filled with grief and anger’

Friends, admirers and those on the other side of politics have been paying tribute to Mr Kirk.

Among them has been the president, who hailed him as a “great, and even legendary” figure who was “loved and admired by all, especially me”.

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Trump: A dark moment for America

In a video message, he said: “I am filled with grief and anger at the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk.

“He inspired millions and tonight all who knew him and loved him are united in shock and horror.

“This is a dark moment for America,” Mr Trump added, as he vowed a crackdown on “political violence”.

Read more:
Killing could be a moment of jeopardy for America
Eyewitness: Even as mourners gathered, the blame game began

Tributes have also come from former liberal presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama.

“This kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy,” Mr Obama said. “Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.”

What is happening now?

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Manhunt for killer under way

A manhunt is under way for Mr Kirk’s killer, which began on the university campus but has now extended beyond.

Two people were arrested after the shooting, but neither was determined to have any connection with the shooting and were later released, according to Utah public safety officials.

As of late on Wednesday, no one was in custody, but the authorities are searching for a new person of interest.

“This is a dark day for our state. It’s a tragic day for our nation,” said Utah governor Spencer Cox. “I want to be very clear, this is a political assassination.”

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Tesla owner admits to driving drunk on Full Self-Driving, proving Tesla needs to do more

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Tesla owner admits to driving drunk on Full Self-Driving, proving Tesla needs to do more

A Tesla owner admitted on video that he drives drunk on Full Self-Driving (FSD) – showing that Tesla doesn’t do enough to prevent abuse of its driver assist system.

29-year-old social media personality Landon Bridges went on comedian Bert Kreischer’s cooking show ‘Something’s Burning’ this week.

During the show, they were drinking, and Bridges admitted to being drunk. While visibly intoxicated, he accepted another drink from Kreischeir and then added:

“You know what’s the biggest game changer for me in 2025? I bought a Tesla, and it has Autopilot.”

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He then looked at Kreischer suggestively – hinting that you can use it when drunk.

Kreischer responded: “Does it work like that?” – suggesting that it is good enough to use while intoxicated – and then said in a drunk voice: “Tesla, take me home.”

The only answer here would be: “No, it’s a driver assistance system and the driver is always responsible for the vehicle and therefore, they can’t be intoxicated to supervise the system.”

Instead, Bridges said:

Yeah. That’s the problem. That’s literally the problem. I’ll go after it. I’ll press the home button (in the navigation system), and as long as you look forward, you are home.

He then suggested that Kreisher, known for his heavy drinking, should consider getting a Tesla with Full Self-Driving.

Here’s the part of the episode where they have the conversation:

Electrek’s Take

This is wild. He openly admits to a potential felony on a YouTube show. The way he is thinking proves that Tesla is not doing enough to communicate to its owners that FSD is not a self-driving system, but rather a driver assistance system that requires the driver’s full attention, meaning sober, at all times.

He says “Autopilot”, but the way he describes the system points to it being “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” as Autopilot wouldn’t be able to take you through surface streets to take you home.

Tesla has been extremely careless in how it discusses its system publicly.

For example, Tesla recently tweeted that “FSD Supervised gives you back time”:

This suggests that you can do something else while driving, but this is not true based on the automaker’s own warnings and owner’s manual. The driver needs to be paying attention to the vehicle’s driving at all times and be ready to take control.

It is a direct contrast to how Tesla discusses FSD in court after being sued over the numerous accidents involving Autopilot and Full Self-Driving.

In court, Tesla is quick to remind everyone that the driver is always responsible for the vehicle and that, despite its name, Full Self-Driving is only a level 2 driver assistance system, not a level 3-5 automated driving system.

Tesla needs to bring that same energy to its communications with buyers. Otherwise, it contributes to these morons thinking that they can use FSD drunk.

I hope Bridges realizes the carelessness and the danger of his behavior and suggests that others, like Kreischer, should do it.

But it wouldn’t be the first time a Tesla owner would think it OK to use FSD while drunk. We even learned of a crash in 2022 where a Tesla employee decided to use FSD, according to a witness, after day drinking, and his drive ended in a crash, leaving him dead.

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New Black Hole Merger Gives Clearest Test of Einstein’s Relativity

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LIGO has detected GW250114, the loudest gravitational-wave signal yet, marking ten years since its first breakthrough. The event confirmed Einstein’s relativity, Hawking’s horizon theorem, and Kerr’s spinning black hole model. By capturing the merger of two 32-solar-mass black holes, scientists gained the clearest view of black hole physics, offering new insight…

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