About Lloyd L. Freeberg

“I have a constant problem, which is convincing people that drug rehab actually works. Perhaps the greatest experience I’ve had along those lines was one day a few years ago, when I was sitting having lunch with a couple of deputy district attorneys. Two gentlemen walked up to me, younger guys, and one guy said to me, “Hey, do you have a minute?”

I said, “Yeah, sure.” I didn’t know this guy from Adam, but we walked out to the front of the restaurant and he reached into his pocket and he said, “I promised when I got one of these, I was going to give one to you and one to my wife.”

His friend with him then said, “Oh, is this the lawyer you’re always talking about in your rehab?” And the young man proceeded to introduce me to his friend by name and what he pulled out of his pocket was a 20-year AA chip.

He proceeded to thank me for getting him into rehab a little over 20 years before. And my standard response was, “You don’t owe me anything, you’re the one who did all the work.” But what was also gratifying was his friend, Richard, chimed in and said, “I got tired of seeing Glenn go to these meetings alone, so I started going with him and now I’ve got 10 years sober.”

I didn’t hesitate to go back and share the conversation with my lunch partners, because they need to be constantly reminded and have it reinforced that this stuff really works.”