Editorial Comment 4/7/2020: Every Marine a Rifleman

Editorial Comment 4/7/2020: Every Marine a Rifleman

The past week – past month, truly – has been filled with abrupt, unfamiliar, seemingly overwhelming tasks.  In that space, ASAM chose to bring about an annual conference that customarily occupies 2-1/2 days plus two, day-long added courses, in a medium in which it has had some practice;  but never with such ambition.  Courses were re-formatted, re-scheduled, re-organized to meet the academic commitments of the original in-person event.  Speakers were trained to use unfamiliar media, under curtain-raising and deadline demands rarely experienced in the luxury of the big-tent conferences.  It was Chautauqua and Graduate School and prime-time TV, all gemischt.  Registrations needed modifying or refunding, venue commitments required re-negotiating, insurance providers engaged, disappointed and angry and just unhappy folks needed solace and aid.   That’s not half of it.  …It is a course still accessible for three years with attendant CME.

Simultaneously, the work of the policy volunteers and staff proceeded with more intensity and more required haste: if anything, legislators and executives were (necessarily) more isolated and less-readily engaged; “lobbying” became more of an anachronism than ever, as no one was permitted to assemble in lobbies or most anywhere else.  Effective legislative advocacy included groundbreaking exemptions for telemedicine and a relaxation of prescriptive requirements.  Separately and happily, coordination succeeded with the American College of Academic Addiction Medicine, surrounding ACAAM’s annual meeting and shared workshops.

With the impending retirement of the remarkable Penny Mills, CEO, irreplaceable yet needing replacement, designated members in a recruitment task force met coast-to-coast and beyond, repeatedly over months, most intensely in this week.

A task force of members and staff was assembled to provide resources to the ASAM community and beyond, for management of the unique needs of our patient population during the Covid-19 pandemic.

And still the routine went on, right down to this, this little digest of significant contributions to the understanding of addiction, this Weekly.  Dr. Nick Athanasiou, Ms. Deedee Camara, and Mr. Bob Davis went right ahead as if the world was somehow not shifting on its axis, and produced this issue. Again.

So, what’s the story about “Every Marine a Rifleman?”  The Marines, as the other military services, have specialty designations.  Whether in artillery, diesel repair, finance, culinary service – all have one fundamental obligation that takes precedence over all the others, when strife eventuates:  to pick up a rifle and move forward into whatever position needs filling (even their Navy medical services companions carry weapons with which to protect their patients; but that’s a separate discussion).  Planning and rehearsal are required. It is a tenet of Marine service that allows maximum effective response in crisis, and we see it in the ASAM Staff and volunteers, the membership, at such times: the job designations fall away in common service.  The cubicle walls are, metaphorically, knocked down, as if for General Quarters.  And it unremarkably gets done.

- Editor-in-Chief: Dr. William Haning, MD, DFAPA, DFASAM