(CNN) — People who abuse prescription drugs often do so believing the pills are safe because they are prescribed by doctors and approved by the Food and Drug Administration, addiction experts tell CNN.

In 2005, non-medical use of painkillers contributed to more than 8,500 deaths. Overdose deaths involving prescription pain relievers increased 114 percent from 2001 to 2005, the most recent year for which nationwide data is available, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Heath Ledger and Anna Nicole Smith, two celebrities whose deaths resulted from accidental overdoses, had each taken a lethal combination of prescription drugs — painkillers, anti-anxiety drugs and sleeping aids. The cause of Michael Jackson’s death remains under investigation, pending the result of toxicology screening.

Non-medical use of prescription drugs is most prevalent among young adults between the ages of 18 and 25, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

In a study of 1,000 teenagers between the ages of 13 and 18, 155 reported abusing prescription drugs. In the 2007 study, released by The Partnership for a Drug-Free America, teenagers reported obtaining the drugs through a friend or family member, or in a medicine cabinet, or at a party.

One trend is “pharming parties,” where teens raid their home medicine cabinets, put various pills in a bowl and pick which one to consume. Sometimes, they take the pills with alcohol which presents dangers, said Susan Foster, vice president and director of policy research and analysis at The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University in New York.

But older adults who take medication to treat pain, can also become addicted.

“Often what happens is someone experiences discomfort, anxiety, or pain. They start being treated with medicine, and need more,” said Dr. Steven Juergens, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Washington and a private addiction specialist in Bellevue, Washington.

They feel better when using the medication and often feel like “they need it,” he said.

“They’re caught in this hell of using the drugs illicitly, not seeing it as a problem,” said Juergens, who first reported the abuse of Xanax in the 1980s. “It takes a while to unravel that.”

People deny there is a problem and sometimes do not understand that their behavior is dangerous.

“I think people of all ages don’t take medication as seriously as street drugs,” said Dr. Marvin Seppala, the chief medical officer at Hazelden, a drug and alcohol treatment center. “There’s sort of a naïve belief they’re safer. The truth is pain medications are in the same exact class as heroin, morphine — they’re very addictive.”

Some people enjoy the calming and euphoric sensation and some take the pills to be more productive, Seppala said. While the pills are considered safe, continued heavy abuse could result in slowed breathing, respiratory arrests, reduced oxygen to the brain and overdose, Seppala said.

By 2008, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Web site, 38 states had passed legislation to create a database for physicians and pharmacists to prevent abusers from obtaining multiple prescriptions.

While laws vary from state to state, the monitoring programs are used to identify illegal activity such as prescription forgery, indiscriminate prescribing and doctor shopping, according to the DEA. Some programs notify physicians when their patients are seeing multiple prescribers for the same class of drugs.

But people with prescription drug addictions also have other methods.

“They get drugs through legitimate or illegitimate means,” said Foster. “There is feigning physiological and psychological problems, lying about losing their medications. They get them from the Internet by rogue pharmacies. Clearly there are dealers dealing on the street. There are people getting prescription pads and writing fraudulent prescriptions.”

Michael Jackson’s associates and a confidential document have portrayed a troubling picture of his prescription drug use. The document from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department contains confidential interviews conducted with two of Jackson’s former security guards as officials prepared for Jackson’s child molestation trial in 2005.

Citing that 2004 document, CNN reported last week that Jackson’s former employees told authorities the singer asked his staff to get the prescription medicine under different names. One of the employees said he took Jackson to doctors’ offices in other states and the singer appeared to be “out of it and sedated” after each visit.

In the document, a security guard told authorities that he expressed concern about the singer’s use of 10-plus pills a night to another staffer. The second staffer replied: “Jackson was doing better because he was down from 30 to 40 Xanax pills a night.” Xanax is used for the treatment of panic disorder.

The amount Jackson allegedly took is “is an extremely high dosage of Xanax,” said CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. “It is a huge red flag. … This dosage is exceedingly high for any human being.”

Last week, Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton said detectives have spoken to a number of doctors who treated Jackson over the years, and are looking into the singer’s prescription drug history.

Those who did not cooperate were issued subpoenas, a source told CNN.

Gil Kerlikowske, director of National Drug Control Policy, last week called Jackson’s death a “wake-up call to the country about prescription drugs.”

“If we can save lives and if we can bring to the attention of the people the dangers of prescription drug abuse, I think there is some benefit to this country,” Kerlikowske said.

In my work at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton, Massachusetts and in my private practice at Newton Counseling Center, I often teach patients the importance of becoming resilient. Resiliency is a life skill that all of us need to learn. Those with addictions and those without addictions need to be able to bounce back from adversity.

The following is the text of a handout that I often use to teach the concept of resiliency.
Resiliency refers to:

• The ability to cope well with high levels of ongoing disruptive change;

• Sustaining good health and energy when under constant pressure;

• Bouncing back from setbacks;

• Overcoming adversity or challenges;

• Changing to a new way of working or living when an old way is no longer possible; and

• Doing all of the above without acting in dysfunctional or harmful ways such as using drugs.

Some suggestions for becoming more resilient and happier:

• Develop healthy relationships with other healthy people who are supportive of you and your recovery (i.e., a family member, a friend, a sponsor, a therapist, a priest, a doctor, or a coach).

• Have faith and pray to a higher power. Develop a sense of spirituality. Engage in activities such as attending a religious service of your choosing, reading a religious book of your choosing, meditating, taking a walk in the woods, going to the ocean, or listening to music.

• Learn how to reframe. Reframing is at the heart of resilience. It is about having a healthy perspective. It is a way of shifting focus from the cup half empty to the cup half full. Reframing helps one become optimistic. For example, is it possible to view your relapse as a potential learning opportunity instead of just a failure?

• Express gratitude, whenever possible. We too often take our lives for granted. Learn to appreciate and savor the wonderful things in life, from people to food, from nature to a smile.

• Remember the mind-body connection. What we do—or don’t do—with our bodies influences our mind. Regular exercise, adequate sleep and healthy eating habits lead to both physical and mental health.

**the above appeared at addictionpro.com**

CNN Senior Producer

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — Crack-addicted Felicia Anderson was pregnant with her third child when an ultrasound changed the direction of her life.

After inpatient rehab, Felicia Anderson sought help from Mothers Making a Change to help beat her addiction.

“You could hear that baby’s heartbeat strong and steady. Really, that’s her personality today, a strong, vibrant little girl. And at that time, laying there, tears starting rolling down my face,” Anderson, 44, recalled.

In that moment, Anderson vowed to stay off drugs, something she’d been unable to do in more than a decade addicted to crack cocaine, even when she was pregnant with her first two children.

Anderson didn’t think she could do it alone, so, like almost 2 million Americans a year, she entered a treatment program. Anderson spent three weeks in residential treatment — all she could afford — but didn’t think that was enough, so she enrolled in Mothers Making a Change, a year-long outpatient drug and alcohol program in Atlanta, Georgia.

Three times as many Americans choose outpatient treatment as residential treatment, or rehab. It costs less, is more likely to be covered by insurance and does not require participants to leave work or their families for a month or more.

The outpatient program Anderson chose, Mothers Making a Change, is designed especially for pregnant women and women with young children. Anderson was both. At the time, her oldest daughter, Sierra, was 5; her middle child, Anicia, was almost 2.

In addition to therapy and education, Mothers Making a Change provided transportation and offered free child care while Anderson was there. When she completed the program, Mothers Making a Change helped her find a job.

“I can say with everything in me, with every bit of my breath, that program helped me turn my life around,” said Anderson, who now runs a program to help the developmentally disabled in DeKalb County, Georgia.

Like most programs, residential or outpatient, Mothers Making a Change is built on the 12 steps pioneered by Alcoholics Anonymous. Among them: Admit you’re powerless over your addiction, and turn your life over to a higher power.

“It’s important in my opinion to have a connection with your spiritual world, your higher power,” Anderson said. “So I thank God, first of all, for giving me a second chance in life.”

Anderson began drinking and smoking marijuana in high school. She moved on to snorting cocaine and then smoking it. She said her drug use began spiraling out of control when her husband, an Army infantryman, committed suicide after returning from Operation Desert Storm. She said the crack numbed her pain.

Anderson tried to hide her addiction, but the lies became harder to maintain. She lost weight. She couldn’t keep a job. And she began stealing to keep her children clothed and fed and to support her habit. She even stole their Christmas presents.

“The gifts would be under the tree, and I needed some crack, and I would take whatever present was there,” Anderson recalled.

“The crack was my friend. The crack was my job. The crack was my children. You know, it was my life. So no matter how bad I wanted to stop, I couldn’t stop,” she said.

Anderson said she even smoked crack as she went into labor with her second child.

“That’s to tell you how bad off, how out of control, how much it didn’t matter,” she said. “But I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t stop.”

Caught shoplifting repeatedly, Anderson said, she was facing a five-year prison sentence in Maryland for violating probation when her brother Brian Robinson intervened. He convinced the judge to let Anderson and her two daughters come to Georgia with him and to let his sister check into rehab instead of going to jail.

Like many addicts, Anderson hit rock bottom before seeking treatment. Counselors and others say most addicts get help only when they get in trouble at home, at work, with their health or with the law.

Anderson went for her ultrasound and had an epiphany.

“Something inside me — and I would say it’s the voice of God — saying, ‘You can do this.’ And laying there at that moment, I did say to myself, ‘I can do this. Let me try to do this.’ That was a turning point for me,” Anderson said. “That baby that was born was born drug-free.”

Anderson said that she has been drug-free for 12 years and that she’s lucky: Her older two children did not suffer any health consequences from her addiction.

Anderson now has everything she had lost for a big part of her adult life: a stable home life, a job. Also, she’s engaged.

“There’s all kinds of beautiful things happening for me and my daughters right now.”

Nic Sheff loved drugs. Nic Sheff, 26, has fought addiction and relapse since his adolescence. Crack. Powdered cocaine. Ecstasy. Heroin. And his favorite, crystal methamphetamine.

“When I did crystal meth for the first time, it was like the answer to my problems. I felt strong and confident, just like a superstar or something,” said Sheff, who is 26.

He kicked his addiction and wrote “Tweak,” a popular book about the toll drugs took on his life. His recovery looked like a success. Everyone, including Sheff, thought he had beaten his disease. But he went over the edge again. He relapsed last May and again in October. Sheff, who has bipolar disorder, said a split with his girlfriend and an episode of manic behavior precipitated his return to drug abuse.

“I am isolated, alone, disgusted with everything and, most especially, myself. I am filled to overflowing with pain and torment and weight,” Sheff wrote in a remarkable four-page letter to CNN. 

 Sheff admitted to taking prescription drugs and smoking pot. “I just felt like a needed relief so badly,” he said. The peril of relapse haunts most addicts.

“Relapse is certainly sometimes part of the disease process,” said Dr. Kevin Clark, medical director at the nonprofit Hazelden addiction treatment center near Minneapolis, Minnesota. “Our figures are about 53 percent to 56 percent of patients remain abstinent for a year.”

‘Addiction: Life on the Edge’ Dr. Sanay Gupta follows a mother, a writer, a student and a husband — each an addict on a journey through recovery and relapse. Sat & Sun, 8 p.m. ET on CNN.

That means about half relapse. Hazelden, one of few rehabs to publish results, hopes to improve its abstinence rate to about 75 percent over the next five years, Clark said. Quitting is difficult, many experts say, because addiction is a brain disease.

 ”People who are out of control in their habit are taking more than they want to take, and when they want to stop, they really can’t stop. And we can link all of these feelings to the circuitry of the brain,” said Edythe London, a neurobiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Some of the most profound changes, for example in the dopamine system, can take years to resolve completely.”

Sheff understands the challenges. Dr.Gupta talks to Nic about his rocky road to recovery » “I have a disease, and my brain is different than other people’s, and that’s really nothing to be ashamed of,” he said. Sheff’s descent into addiction began in San Francisco, California, the beautiful city by the bay. But not for Sheff. He calls it “the poison city.” He took his first drink when he was just 11. Enough liquor to puke and black out. A year later, his father found pot in a backpack.

“I was blown away,” said David Sheff, Nic’s father. “We had talked a lot about drugs, and I had given him warnings, and I felt that I would know. And I was so blindsided.”

Sheff eventually tried different drugs. Harder drugs. He wound up homeless, sleeping in city parks or in his car. He hustled men for money to buy his next fix. “I didn’t know what else to do but keep using drugs,” he said. His father could see that he was losing his son. Sheff’s abuse was out of control.

“He looked like he’d been through hell,” recalled David Sheff. “I said, ‘Nic, we need to get some help.’ And he said, ‘I know.’ ” The Sheffs selected a recovery center in San Francisco, but Sheff relapsed after only three days of sobriety. The family tried again. Another rehab. Sheff stayed clean for a month. It took three more rehabs and years of turmoil, but Sheff was doing better. His decision last May to take pills and relapse again was so impulsive, so instantaneous, he said, that there was no thought process involved.

In his letter to CNN, he wrote that while looking for toothpaste in his mother’s bathroom, he found something much more appealing: the prescription drugs Klonopin, an anti-anxiety medication, and Darvocet, a narcotic pain reliever. He took one of each without even thinking twice. “Instantly, the craving was set off in me,” Sheff said. He spiraled downward. “I was like, well, I’ve already relapsed so I might as well take these, and then when once I was taking those, I was like, well, I might as well go get pot from this guy,” Sheff said. On the outside, he kept holding it together. The success story. But it was a lie. Struggling to find the words, Sheff revealed that he even smoked pot before taking a taxi to an airport to speak to a group of young addicts about his book and recovery. “That morning, I smoked pot. Yeah. Before I went to talk to that boys’ rehab about sobriety,” he said. “It was just so crazy how it went from zero to 60 in a day and a half or something, and that’s what really scared me.”

Sheff sought help quickly and checked into a seven-day group therapy program. Later, he moved into a sober living house.  “I was trying to do it on my own and be really strong on my own, and if this process has taught me anything, it’s that I really have to reach out to other people for help,” he said. In sober living, Sheff was once again back in meetings, trying to follow the 12 steps of recovery.

“I really struggle with it,” he said. “I wish I didn’t struggle with it, because I see it work for so many people, and I’m very envious of people’s ability to be so swept up in it and have it help them so much.” The meetings weren’t enough to prevent another relapse in October. This time, the drug of choice was Vicodin, an opiate. Sheff said the relapse had a lot to do with his fears about being in a new relationship and the relapse of a close friend. He told CNN in late March that he has remained sober since early December.

In speaking so publicly about his addiction and relapses, Sheff hoped to continue his healing. “Internally, the gift that I’ve given myself to be honest has maybe saved my life,” he said. He was excited about the journey of recovery that still lies ahead, but somewhat fatalistic about his urge to use. “You know, it doesn’t make sense. It’s not fun. At a certain point, it’s not even giving me that relief anymore. It’s just this compulsion that I can’t break. In that sense, I’ll always be a drug addict,” Sheff said. “I think I can be someone who no longer uses drugs,” he added.

Sarah Moses
Cumberland Times-News

OAKLAND — Now in operation for about three months, the Garrett County Health Department’s acupuncture detox therapy continues to gain new interest.

“We’ve had a very positive response,” Bob Stephens, director of behavioral and family health, said. “We have clients who are coming back every week. … It needs to be offered in conjunction with therapy. What we have found is that it provides some stress reduction to folks who are addicted.”

The acudetox, Stephens said, was something that he and staff heard about at a state-sponsored training session. Kathy Beals, an addictions therapist, and Stephens were present for a demonstration. He said they decided to pursue the program as a way to “enhance services we have in the community.”

In mid-January, the county became certified to offer acudetox, but Stephens said it has been practiced in other parts of the state for years.

The program accompanies other addictions treatment options for smoking, alcohol and drug abuse. The acupuncture therapy is believed to reduce or eliminate cravings while revitalizing the body’s major organs. The use of acupuncture in detox was developed in 1974 at New York City’s Lincoln Hospital and is now used in 1,200 addiction treatment programs across North America.

Beals provides the five-needle acudetox treatment under the supervision of a licensed acupuncturist in a small group setting.

The single-use sterile needles are all placed in the ear, and according to reports have shown to reduce symptoms of addiction, reducing cravings and withdrawals such as headaches, body aches, sweats and anxiety.

Stephens said they are hearing from clients that the program is helping them through their addiction.

The belief is that the system turns on the production of the body’s “feel- good” chemicals like dopamine and endorphins that can be depleted by regular use of drugs and alcohol.

“In the health department’s clinic,” Beals said, “acudetox is never used as an isolated treatment, but rather is integrated into a more comprehensive addiction wellness program.”

Stephens said the program isn’t offered as part of the county’s mental health program. The department only has the ability to provide it to those coping with addiction.

By Jerry Gjesvold For The Register-Guard

Recently, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, released the results of a major national poll. The survey looked at American attitudes toward alcoholism and drug addiction, recovery and treatment. We can be optimistic about the results. By a large margin, Americans are now aware of recovery as an option for someone with an alcohol or drug problem. Most know someone in recovery personally, and most believe that it is possible for people recovering from chemical dependency to return to being productive members of their communities. This is progress. We don’t have to look back very far to the time when having a drinking problem created a lifelong stigma. Even if a person hadn’t had a drink for years, the knowledge that he or she was once an active alcoholic could, and did, derail careers. The new research shows that this misunderstanding lingers for some. For example, while half of those older than 65 believe that a person in recovery can live a productive life, 70 percent of those 25 to 34 believe it is possible. That’s promising. It’s also encouraging to see that Americans have a high level of confidence in the effectiveness of prevention and treatment programs. Almost two-thirds believe that drug addiction is preventable and that treatment works for those who do become addicted. Overall, the report is good news for anyone interested in this major health issue. It shows that as a society, our understanding of chemical dependency is growing clearer. We have more knowledge about the problem and what to do when someone we know faces it. It also shows that we understand better how widespread the problem is. On the public policy level, that should make us more inclined to allocate adequate resources to meeting the challenge. On the individual or household level, it should also reduce the shame that prevents some people from seeking help. The more open we can all be about the realities of chemical dependency, the more successful we’ll be at helping people find recovery. As much progress as we are making, we still have ground to cover. I haven’t done a scientific study, but I do work every day with businesses throughout the state. It sometimes seems that supervisors and business owners are slowly growing less accepting of people with chemical dependency problems. They can seem impatient with treatment. I don’t think this is a lack of compassion. Rather, it’s the result of financial pressure. Health insurance companies tend to authorize the lowest level of care they can. Although some alcoholics and addicts succeed at that level, many don’t. Employers, frustrated by their workers’ failures, don’t realize that the treatment approach may have been insufficient from the start. Businesses are under equally high pressure to limit their liability insurance premiums, so they will tend to fire someone with a substance abuse problem — even those in stable recovery. Again, my information is anecdotal, but this might explain in part why layoffs sometimes seem to include a disproportionate number of people in recovery. Still, I think we can be optimistic about the direction we’re heading as a society. Greater understanding will come in time. We’ve come such a long way already. Like other treatment professionals, I welcome every step forward in society’s awareness of the nature of alcoholism and drug addiction. It will help us make better decisions.

15% or 200,000 new inmates…the overall prison population rise in the US from 2000 to 2007

The ongoing fiscal crisis is driving a lot of discussion of how to cut spending.  A lot of critics are calling for a reform to laws that land tens of thousands of non-violent drug offenders in state and federal prisons.  Legislators in certain states are trying to give judges the discretion to send first time drug offenders to rehabilitation programs rather than prison.  Other reform proposals are insisting that improvements are made to inmate treatment that can help drive down repeat offenders.  This country’s criminal justice system has been built around a punishment-based philosophy for decades, but the worsening financial state might help usher in some changes that support better treatment alternatives for drug offenders and improvements to the rehabilition agencies state by state.

What are your thoughts on how to improve laws related to drug offenses?  Or do you think the laws we have now are effective?

What’s happening in your community that you feel is working or not working to improve rehabilitation options and reduce drug-related crimes?

Rev Leo Booth
Unity minister, published author and conference speaker

We start to recover or heal when we are willing to admit that there’s something wrong. If a person is unwilling to face their particular issue it is next to impossible to help them.

• Families and friends of alcoholics
• Survivors of incest and sexual abuse
• Gamblers
• Sex addicts
• Compulsive eaters
• Obsessive shoppers

And there are many other programs based upon The Twelve Steps.
Actually, because everyone in the world faces some problem or challenge, it would not be difficult to take The Twelve Steps and apply them.

Eg: We admit we were powerless over our rage –that our lives had become unmanageable.

And so, if you are reading this article but do not belong to a ‘specific Twelve Step Program’ you could still apply it to your life; or if you know somebody who is isolating or confused because of a challenge in their life share this article with them. It really is a simple formula; somebody with a challenge finds somebody with a similar challenge and they share and talk together. I truly don’t know anybody who need be excluded, from the racist to the kleptomaniac!

What are some of the spiritual principals that make Twelve Step such a healing and miraculous program?

A. Admittance: (Step One)

This is a most important principal because it confronts the issues of shame that were seeded by religious and judgmental morality. For years, alcoholics saw themselves as willful, irresponsible, selfish…sinners. They died trying to be righteous!

I’ve written extensively in this newspaper about religious abuse and it is my considered opinion that The Twelve Step Program is anything but a cult, rather does it embrace a spirituality that is based upon what we believe or affirm; for this reason you will meet every type of human being in a meeting and all are welcome.

C. Cleaning House: (Step Four – Step Nine)

Long before physicians and therapists began to talk about Wellness Programs, A.A. felt that it was necessary to direct alcoholics, who wished to recover, to free themselves of unhealthy attitudes or behavior that were related to their drinking escapades.

The arguments, lies, manipulations, sarcasm, violence…all need to be ‘cleaned up’ so that a new spiritual journey of living can begin. And it is certainly true that a new freedom is experienced when sincere amends are made and forgiveness is experienced. It just simply feels good.

D. The Journey Continues: (Step Ten & Eleven)

Most addictions, personality defects and life challenges cannot be removed permanently; it’s not like a flu-germ that we can get rid of. Also The Twelve Step Program, again ahead of it’s time, saw the value of utilizing prayer and meditation in the on-going healing process.

Today, statistical surveys suggest that people who pray on a regular basis or engage in the art of meditation are more serene, healthy and at peace in their world. A.A. was suggesting this years ago! Wellness is recovery and recovery surely requires wellness.

E. A Spiritual Awakening = Service: (Step Twelve)

The last principal that is reflected in The Twelve Step Program suggests that after practicing the principals of
(a) Admittance,
(b)Discovering a God…as we understand Him,
(c) Cleaning House,
(d) Continuing the Journey
…we then experience a spiritual awakening. Something happens to us; we recognize that we have changed, we feel better, we are living (in all areas of our lives) the spiritual life. And this experience we need to share in service. The recovery paradox is affirmed:

If you want to keep a thing then you must be willing to give it away!

One person shares, another listens. Stories are spoken and people identify. What we enjoy we want to give away. And all the above helps to keep us sober.

Now as I said at the beginning, this ‘simple program’ can be applied to any life situation and the result I believe, would be ‘a healing’. These spiritual principals are to be found in all the great religions and philosophies of the world…but nowhere are they quite so profoundly simple. And these principals lead to this Powerful Promise:

We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will nor regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves. (Alcoholics Anonymous page 83-84)

BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―

A Maryland priest who struggled with alcohol was remembered Friday for teaching hundreds of thousands of others how to stay sober.

Suzanne Collins reports Father Joseph Martin continued to minister to others up until a week before his death.

Not a single seat remained empty at the Baltimore Basilica of the Assumption for Father Joseph Martin’s funeral. The priest touched many lives in his work helping people battle alcoholism and drug addition.

“He was able to re-establish my faith in God to give me the strength and courage to face one day at a time,” said Dick Mikulski.

Father Martin took his understanding of the disease of addiction and put it in simple terms in a chalkboard talk that became legendary. He founded Father Martin’s Ashley, a sprawling treatment center on the water in Harford County. People say he used storytelling skills and humor to give people real tools they could use to change their lives.

“And he had the ability of going in deep and touching you, where it most counted and was able to explain,” said Brenda Poole.

A fellow priest says Father Martin was compassionate and always showed the utmost respect for those he helped.

“Yet it was none of these strengths that led Father Martin to his greatest ministry, but his personal weakness. He was a wounded healer,” said Father David Carey.

Father Martin took his talk around the world and impressed many people. A number of them came from far away to pay their last respects Friday.

“He accepted people. He tried to help everybody. He lifted everybody up emotionally. When you saw Father Martin, even if you didn’t get a chance to say anything to him, you felt better,” said Tom Tibbals from Ohio.

A fellow priest says Father Martin’s spiritual journey went far beyond his wildest dreams.

Father Martin was ordained in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary 60 years before his funeral there Friday.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

http://wjz.com/video/?id=52608@wjz.dayport.com

October 12, 1924 – March 9, 2009

Viewing:

Thursday, March 12th, 2009
From 1p-9p
St. Mary’s Seminary
Laubacher Hall
5400 Roland Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21210

Funeral Mass:

Friday, March 13th, 2009
10 am
The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
409 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201