TV PRESENTER DR Phil McGraw has said that reports his show gave alcohol to addicted guests and helped others source drugs are “errant nonsense”.
The reports emerged in Stat News and the Boston Globe, which interviewed Dr Phil guest Todd Herzog, who appeared on the show in 2013.
Herzog, who was battling alcoholism, claimed that he was put into a dressing room that had a bottle of vodka in it, which he drank. He said he was also given a Xanax for his nerves.
The Stat/Boston Globe investigation was told by another person that she was “directed by a show staff member to an open-air drug market to find heroin for her detoxing niece”.
Reporters approached McGraw for an interview, but he declined.
The investigation centres on shows featuring people with drug or alcohol addictions, and a treatment called Dr Phil’s Path to Recovery.
The two-part investigation raises questions about Dr Phil’s promotion of addiction treatment centres.
In a statement, the Dr Phil Show said that the Stat article “does not fairly or accurately describe the methods of the Dr. Phil show or its mission to educate millions of viewers about drug and alcohol addiction. The show does not give drugs or alcohol to its guests and any suggestions to the contrary are errant nonsense”.
For the past 16 years, the Dr. Phil show has provided valuable information to viewers by telling compelling stories about people who are fighting the battle to overcome alcohol and drug addiction. Unfortunately, addicts often lash out at the very people who are trying the hardest to help them break the cycle of addiction. Although terribly unfortunate, this is an understandable part of the behavior of addicts on their journey to recovery.
This will not deter the Dr. Phil show from its commitment to educate and inform the public about the worsening epidemic of addiction.
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