An enthralling collection of short fiction and nonfiction that draw upon McLoughlin's three-decade career in the criminal justice system. “A wistful Irish sensibility and memories from a 30-year career as a peace officer in the New York City criminal justice system haunt this solid collection . . . With spare prose, McLoughlin creates memorable vignettes of urban life. Fans of Kent Anderson’s Liquor, Guns & Ammo will want to check this out.” —Publishers Weekly “Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms couldn’t be more New York. Tim McLoughlin drops a ton of big-city knowledge and wisdom, rich in lived-in detail, with humor that’s hard as the sidewalk.” —John Strausbaugh, author of City of Sedition In Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, Tim McLoughlin draws upon his three-decade career in the criminal justice system with his characteristic wit and his fascination with misfits and malfeasance. A lifetime immersed in New York City feeds short stories that evoke a landscape of characters rife with personal arrogance and misjudgment; and nonfiction essays about toeing the line when the line keeps disappearing. An opioid-addicted catsitter electronically eavesdrops on his neighbors only to hear devastating truths. A degenerate gambler stakes his life on a long shot because he sees three lucky numbers on the license plate of a passing car. In the nonfiction essays, we learn that the system plays a role in supporting vice, as long as it gets a cut. Altar boys compete to work weddings and funerals for tips in the shadow of predatory priests. Cops become robbers, and a mob boss just might be a civil rights icon. McLoughlin shines a light on worlds that few have access to. A recurring theme in his urban, often New York–centric work is chronic displacement, people standing still in a city that is always changing. These are McLoughlin’s ghosts, these casualties of progress, and he holds them dear and celebrates them.

Alcohol and nicotine addiction mostly occur together. Over the last ten years therapeutic aspects and motivational strategies have been considerably improved. Hence, groups and subgroups have been defined and can be treated with specific medication and tailor-made psychotherapies, leading in the long term to considerably better and more effective results than the once broadly applied, rigorous abstinence -based therapies. However, alcohol and nicotine addiction still represent major medical and social problems. In this book, new therapeutic approaches are comprehensively described, outlining the different interactions between personality, environment and the effects of the substance. In addition to prevention-based therapies and diagnosis, essential psychological and sociological strategies, as well as medication-based therapies, are also presented in detail. All of these therapies have realistic aims and are of global validity. In addition, the book provides a broad overview of the American and European epidemiology of alcohol and nicotine addictions. The book is written for all those who care for and offer professional therapy for alcohol and nicotine-addicted patients.