Barthwell: It's Time to
Unite A Divided Addiction Industry
In this time of dizzying challenges and opportunities for
the addiction treatment and prevention communities, Andrea G. Barthwell, MD,
knows that little will be accomplished by continuing to tell the various
sectors of the field what they want to hear. Bringing order to the issues that
cross multiple disciplines might mean ruffling some feathers now and then, for
the overall good of the industry and the individuals it serves. Please
click here to read the rest of this article.
Drug Courts, Meant To Aid
Addicts, Now A Battlefield Of Pot Politics
Attorney David West can't pinpoint precisely when he started
to sour on the rapid expansion of drug courts — but the karate episode stands
out. West, a criminal defense lawyer in the Atlanta area, was representing a
client busted in a town north of the city for possession of pot. Faced with the
prospect of losing his driver's license and being haunted by a criminal record,
the client opted for treatment. Please
click here to read the rest of this article.
Feds Test How Stoned Is
Too Stoned To Drive
A small group of volunteers spent much of the last year
getting drunk and stoned on marijuana furnished by the federal government
before getting behind the wheel. Please
click here to read the rest of this article.
Electronic Screening Tool
To Triage Teenagers And Risk Of Substance Misuse
An electronic screening tool that starts with a single
question to assess the frequency of substance misuse appears to be an easy way
to screen teenagers who visited a physician for routine medical care. Please
click here to read the rest of this article.
Reports of Alcohol-Related
Family Trouble Remain Up in U.S.
Thirty-six percent say alcohol has been a cause of trouble
in their family
More than one in three Americans (36%) say drinking alcohol
has been a cause of problems in their family at some point, one of the highest
figures Gallup has measured since the 1940s. Reports of alcohol-related family
troubles have been much more common in recent decades than they were prior to
1990. Please
click here to read the rest of this article.
Heavy Drinkers Are Prone
to Memory Problems in Old Age
People who have a history of drinking problems by the time
they are middle-aged are more than twice as likely to exhibit memory problems
in later life as those who don't, according to a study that followed 6,500
Americans for two decades. Please
click here to read the rest of this story.
House Passes Bill Aimed At
Reducing Prescription Drug Abuse
The House on Tuesday passed legislation by voice vote to
establish enforcement standards for prescription drug abuse.
Specifically, the measure would amend the Controlled
Substances Act to modify the definition of "imminent danger to the public
health or safety" so that it applies to drugs that pose present or
foreseeable health risks. Please
click here to read the rest of this story.
Reckitt Benckiser To Spin Off Heroin Treatment Business
Reckitt Benckiser plans to spin off its heroin-addiction
treatment in the next 12 months as sales slide under pressure from rival
copycat versions of the drug. Sales of Suboxone have slumped and Reckitt has
two new pharmaceutical projects that could diversify revenue and boost the
unit's market valuation. Please
click here to read the rest of this story.
This Is Your Brain on
Legal Drugs: Let's End the Drug War With a Minimum of Casualties by Following
the Science
Human beings sometimes have a troubling inability to hold
two thoughts in mind at the same time. This is true not only when the two
thoughts contradict each other but even when they simply appear to be in
conflict with each other but actually aren't. And nowhere is there a greater
need for us to get past this tendency than when discussing the ongoing war on
drugs and the growing movement for the decriminalization of marijuana. Please
click here to read the rest of this story.
Regular Marijuana Users
May Have Impaired Brain Reward Centers
New research shows that regular marijuana users show
impairments in the brain’s ability to respond to dopamine – a brain chemical
that is involved in reward, among other functions. Please
click here to read the rest of this story.
Booker and Paul join
forces to reform war on drugs
Condemning a war on drugs they call excessive,
counterproductive and discriminatory, Sens. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, and Cory
Booker, D-New Jersey, are pushing a new bipartisan bill to reform criminal
background checks and the juvenile justice system. The senators say their bill
– the REDEEM Act – will cut the cost and stigma of non-violent drug offenses by
limiting how long criminal records stick to ex-convicts.
Americans Favor Ban on
Smoking in Public, but Not Total Ban
A majority of Americans, 56%, are in favor of making smoking
in public places illegal. This is in line with what Gallup has measured since
2011. By contrast, until 2008, Gallup found most Americans were opposed to a
ban on smoking in public places, with as few as 31% in favor of such a ban in
2003. Please
click here to read the rest of this story.
The federal government’s
own statistics show that marijuana is safer than alcohol
Opponents of marijuana legalization return to one particular
number over and over in their arguments: the number of emergency room visits
involving marijuana. This ONDCP fact sheet breathlessly reports that
"mentions of marijuana use in emergency room visits have risen 176 percent
since 1994, surpassing those of heroin." The Drug Enforcement
Administration's "Dangers and Consequences of Marijuana Abuse," a
41-page tour-de-force of decontextualized factoids, reports that marijuana was
involved in nearly half a million E.R. visits in 2011, second only to cocaine. Click
here to continue reading.
Promising abstinence
outcomes in first year of CRC continuing-care initiative
Early returns from a continuing-care initiative that CRC
Health Group launched at its Sierra Tucson center around a year ago indicate
that the for-profit addiction treatment chain may be shattering some myths
about post-treatment support. CRC is attempting to demonstrate that it is not
only professional groups such as physicians and pilots who have the incentive
to follow through on continuing-care plans and achieve long-term recovery, and
it is doing that by taking the uncommon step of having another entity coordinate
its one-year post-treatment monitoring activity. Click
here to continue reading.
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