Marijuana: Vote "NO" on legalization for recreational use and keep it out of the hands of addicts and people struggling to stay sober.
In memory of Don Simpson
Learning where to place the blame
by Alexandra D. Datig
No one can deny Don Simpson's contribution to the entertainment industry. His vision and ability to conceptualize a story has influenced film-making forever. Talking about story ideas with Don was always an adventure. He was delighted, even excited to talk to complete strangers about his or her ideas. He never ruled out the chances of success of any idea about a film project and would go into discussing every possible avenue of making a project into a viable, marketable product. When he was not under the influence of dangerous mind-altering narcotics, Don had a great sense of humor, loved movies, working with actors, story pitching, deal making, music and had a soft spot for children. He liked to ski, had a passion for high-performance cars, admired people who had exceptional skills and disciplines and had an immense appreciation for various forms of architecture, especially Japanese and Italian.Like most addicts, with blind, pre-meditated impulse and plenty of hurt emotions and fear of judgment and rejection to drive him, Don Simpson's hands moved faster than what his mind could process. He suffered like only a hardcore addict does and put himself through an enormous amount of self-loathing. At the same time, he tried to keep his outward composure and pretended the drugs he was taking had very little effect on him if any, to show his associates that drugs would not get in the way of his ability to produce a great product. His addiction was a tale of Hollywood legend for many years before I ever met Don. At times, when his addiction really had a hold of him and he felt most misunderstood, it made him see the world through a kaleidoscope of hostility, fury and anger. The effects of his addiction were not unique, they apply to many of us and they are parallel to others who have lost his and her life as a result of addiction.
In January of 1992 when I met Don, I was 22 years old and too young and inexperienced in life to grasp the realities and consequences of my own drug use, much less the complex and "sophisticated" method of Don's addictions. I had never been to an A.A. meeting , had no knowledge of any tools of recovery and felt like the effects of my addiction was just how life was supposed to be. Before I became witness to Don's behavior while he was intoxicated, I took a liking to him. I was saddened and dismayed by Don's unstoppable determination to use drugs 24/7 and naively wanted to rescue him emotionally. I was not the only one. Don not only insisted his drug use was casual, he also expected his friends and guests to indulge in the same dangerous experiments he would concoct with countless prescription pills and injectable potions he had in a closet in alphabetical order by his bathroom and a small mini-bar refrigerator, built into a wall by the stairs which lead to his bedroom. Don was completely obsessed with drugs and told me he spent years reading the PDR (Physicians Desk Reference) to learn new ways to stimulate his Central Nervous System and intoxicate himself by medicating his already altered state. Don had a wealth of knowledge about the effects of prescription drugs and spent hours explaining to me the information which he learned contained in the PDR. I really was not sure why all this was so important to him, but one thing was for certain: Don had a systematic approach to staying intoxicated around the clock. At the time I knew Don, he was planning to partner up with a doctor and buy his own pharmacy, a venture designed so he could cherry-pick the drugs he felt like using without being questioned and having to deal with the corrupt world of drug dealers and the risk of getting "bad drugs."
Prior to meeting him I had no idea who he really was. For that matter I also only had a faint idea of my own family ties to Hollywood. It was not till my early 30's that I found out my own grandfather Fred A. Datig Sr. who had worked in Hollywood as a highly successful casting director and deal maker was also one of the founding members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. In the beginning, when I first met Don, I spent a lot of time alone with him learning things about him and his career. He was intriguing and I was smitten by him. I remember one occasion especially when he brought me to his guest house and showed me all the awards he won for various films he produced. We had been up all night doing drugs and it was near daybreak. An earthquake shook the city and we sat there watching the water splash from one end of the pool to another wondering if there would be any aftershocks. Weeks went by and he would send beautiful flowers to my home with handwritten notes and we would visit and talk endlessly and got along well, at least for a while until others were introduced into the picture. When Don started to slowly reveal the darker "adult" side of himself he became distant as if he did not want anyone to know that he actually was a nice person who was easy to talk to.
My Grandfather, Fred A. Datig Sr.
Me in 1992, modeling photo
One of the nights I was alone with Don and we were in an intense long phase of discussion, something Don enjoyed very much, I asked him if he ever planned to settle down or start a relationship with a woman. He told me all bets were off and that he swore off romantic love forever. He said while he was a young man growing up in Alaska, he was very much in love with a woman who he walked in on one day while she was making love to another man, specifically stating the man was a black man. At that point he just wanted me to "understand" and be done with it. He expressed to me that after the devastating effects this had on him the subject of love was over and that he would never give his heart to anyone ever again.
Don was so powerful that his money and notoriety could get him anything he wanted. I found it odd that he complained about how expensive things were all the time and sensed he had a low level of trust in people in general. In his addictive state, Don took full advantage of his power to insane measures. I soon realized his will to destroy himself with drugs was beyond what anyone could control or do anything about that I knew of and it was nothing Don could recognize. Blind to the chaos, he became a dictator of his own world; a world he built with a wall around himself so no one could reach him, along with a small army of people he often treated like hostages; who were asked in lieu of being fired to ignore his behavior and do what he demanded.
Once in a while Don would bring up the Canyon Ranch Spa Resort in Arizona a highly credible and popular establishment for overall wellness, where he would visit once in a while to regain "temporary health and clarity." The Canyon Ranch, which does not serve as a recovery establishment for hardcore addiction issues seemed more like a shield to diffuse any witness to Don's hardcore addiction as Don probably knew if he really wanted to quit he would have to check into a place for a lot longer than a few weeks. By bringing up the Canyon Ranch on occasion, Don was also "acting as if" everything was under control and that the treatment they had to offer was all the therapy he needed to regain his overall wellness. Many years later I found out that it is a known fact in the world of recovery that if an addict is to succeed with his or her recovery, 30 days in a sober living establishment is required and 90 days is recommended. This after two weeks of detox. If Don really would have wanted his recovery, he would have had to abandon the way of his life as he knew it forever. He would have had to take a sabbatical from his career for at least a year to regain mental health and he would have had to do this with many professionals at his side, away from the judgments and negative influences of Hollywood.
When I decided to walk away from Don's drug-induced, soul crushing sarcasm and toxic-psychosis, he became extremely threatened by me, even later relaying a message to me that he was going to have me "taken care of." At first I thought it was nonsense however only days and weeks later I did receive death threats on several occasions by phone from an unidentified man and a call from a woman who frequented Don's home, telling me she would be waiting for me on the corner of the street where I lived. This placed deep fear in me that he was really serious and for more than a year I contemplated if I should take measures to stop him. It was odd to me, but no one wanted to take the initiative to stop Don. Could anyone have stopped him? How does anyone give one of the most powerful men in Hollywood an ultimatum to get sober? History shows that many tried and all failed.
I wanted to end Don's game of Russian Roulette with dangerous drug combinations and outrageous behavior. But even the detectives I reported him to were baffled on how to proceed in an investigation as they needed someone who would actually have access to Don's home which was protected like a fortress. I drew several maps for the police, indicating where the drugs were located. At my further dismay the detectives could not guarantee my safety in an investigation against Don and I reluctantly gave up, falling into a deep addiction myself with Methamphetamine.
Several years later, in the winter of 1994, after a bitter and long feud with Don, we met in Aspen where we warmly embraced and called a truce. He whispered into my ear "you and I are going to have a very long talk." At the time we were both different people from when we had met. Don was weak from his days of using and I was heavily addicted to Methamphetamine.
On August 15, 1995, Dr. Stephen Ammerman who had been staying at Don's home to help Don with an illegal detoxification program was found dead in the guest house. Court records described that the scene where Dr. Ammerman, a man with a "drug background" was found, appeared to be "sanitized." (Los Angeles Superior Court, Case No. BP038756)
A lot had happened in my life and I started to believe my addiction was becoming a serious threat to my life. Even so I could not find the will to quit. I felt perhaps I did not have much time left and should write down my story so others could learn from my mistakes. But who was I to help anyone? I couldn't event help myself! I hadn't a penny to my name and was being evicted out of my apartment. In the Summer of 1995 I went to a publisher, I was broken by my own addiction and in no condition to be promoting anything other than my own sobriety. Enter the book"You'll Never Make Love In This Town Again" which held the #4 spot on the New York Times best-seler list for four months. Even though I did not wish to endorse the content and spent five years in court over said content, the book changed my life whether I liked it or not. It was a Hollywood intervention unlike anything anyone had ever seen and I did not understand it's intention. After many years of fighting about it, I accepted the book for what it was. A vague, ambiguous and sensationalized truth in one way and completely false and contrived in another, yet still about some of the behavior of every addict in one one way or another.
Three days after the book came out and unbeknownst to me, one month after Don's longtime partenr severed his ties from Don for good, Don who was in the book, died from an accidental drug overdose with 20 prescription drugs found in his system. The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office concluded Don died from "combined effects of multiple drug intake" and ruled his death to be "accidental" - Case No. 39619007760. (Elvis Presley had 10 drugs in his system at the time of his autopsy.) Don's death made me realize I could no longer blame anyone for my addiction and that every addict is the target of a drug peddler or a "willing" physician. It was time to take a real good look at myself.
Don was my wake-up call. It was time for a change. In 1996, I was able to kick Meth and in 1999 I became fully and completely sober off of all substances designed to be intoxicating. I had to learn how to forgive Don as part of my emotional healing, whose charades of ego driven malice was nothing more than a house of cards, built by a man who was afraid of being alone, afraid of finding the way back to a sober sanity. In some ways he was just like me.
Sobriety and self-searching for a place of humility in my own heart for many years made me understand what happened to Don. Drugs made him into his own worst enemy. Later it became clear to me that Don's addiction was fueled by people who wanted to change him. Don wanted to live his life by his own power and by his own choices. He had every right to want that, however for some unexplained reason he just didn't want it to his own benefit.
Don's story is a unique cautionary tale about a man who was so badly and blindly addicted he no longer knew himself, becoming both a danger to himself and others. He was once someone's son and brother. Someone's friend, business associate, employer, neighbor and our fellow man.
I live my sober life in memory of Don and share the lessons in my recovery that I wish I knew back then.
The Lanterman-Petris-Short Act of 1967
What could have been done in Don's case
We have the tools we need to help our loved ones. There are laws which allow us to take action and protect our loved ones from injury at the hands of drugs and alcohol. The Lanterman-Petris-Short Act outlines the alternatives families have to involuntarily committ their loved ones to various forms of psychiatric holds for life-saving evaluation and treatment while they are in protective custody. The Lanterman-Petris-Short Act was designed "to protect mentally disordered persons and developmentally disabled persons from criminal acts." Families who want to help their loved ones, must be made aware that these tools are available to involuntarily commit a loved one to save his or her life.
The Los Angeles County Superior Court lists all elements of the Welfare and Institutions Code (WIC) in the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, including:
WIC 5150 hold - 72 hour evaluation
WIC 5250 hold - 14 day evaluation
WIC 5270.15 hold - 30 day evaluation
WIC 5300- Also known as a 180 day Post-certification.
"Post-certification Procedures for Imminently Dangerous Persons" for a period of 180 days beyond WIC 5250, the first 14 day hold, for persons who allegedly have made a serious threat of substantial physical harm or attempted or inflicted physical harm on another due to a mental disorder (See WIC 5300 for more detail).
For a full list, itemizing all the legislative content of the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, please click on the following link:
What we can do today about threats
California Penal Code 422
"Any person who willfully threatens to commit a crime which will result in death or great bodily injury to another person, with the specific intent that the statement made verbally, in writing, or by means of an electronic communication device, is to be taken as a threat, even if there is no intent of actually carrying it out, which on its face and under the circumstances in which it is made, is so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to convey to the person threatened a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution of the threat, and thereby causes that person reasonably to be in sustained fear for his or her own safety ..." - More info here