The Hidden Secret That's Destroying Many Family Businesses

Business News Daily

The greatest threat to the success of your family business may not be a bum economy or ruthless competition; it may be pills or booze. A new study shows that substance abuse and addiction may well be handicapping more than half of all family-owned businesses, experts say. In a study of 99 family businesses from a broad range of manufacturing and business services across the country, over half of the study's participants said they were coping with or were expecting to address a family-related addiction problem within the company. The study was conducted by ReGENERATION Partners, a family business consulting and advisory firm.

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Wrist Sensor Tells You How Stressed Out You Are

MIT Technology Review
Amid rising concerns over post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental illnesses, two MIT startups are developing wrist-worn sensors that can detect physiological changes—including perspiration and elevated temperature—that may signal the onset of events like anxiety attacks.The data collected by these devices can be fed into an algorithm that aims to learn what triggers anxiety, or when people may be about to engage in a risky behavior. One goal is to head off destructive behavior, from drug abuse to suicide and violent outbursts, and to help with treatment.
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California offered as national mental health model

Yahoo!News.com
In response to the killing of schoolchildren in Connecticut, the federal government should consider California's strategy for dealing with mental illness, experts and lawmakers said Thursday. The Mental Health Services Act passed by voters in 2004 levied a special tax on high-income residents to pay for housing, medication, therapy and other services. The tax has helped more than 60,000 Californians. A fifth of the money is dedicated to prevention and early intervention, though The Associated Press reported in August that tens of millions of dollars had gone to general wellness programs for people who had not been diagnosed with any mental illness. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said the act that he championed has been effective in promoting early and broad-ranging intervention.
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Silver tsunami of substance abuse

Town & Country Magazine
IN HER 46th year, Isabella's life began to disintegrate. First, her father died, and her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Then, without warning, her husband died of an aneurism. ''I just took to alcohol,'' she says. ''I didn't even really like it, I don't think. It was just to numb the pain and get out of the reality.'' And so it was for the next two decades of Isabella's life. Until that catastrophic string of events, she had been a social drinker. Then began a dark, double life of finding refuge in the booze, punctuated by episodes of getting on top of things. ''It's 20 years of like a revolving door,'' says the grandmother of four, whose experience is typical of an emerging crisis among older people who are turning to substance abuse in growing numbers.
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Belly up: Despite research, state cautions ‘no safe level of alcohol’ for pregnant women still holds true

Anchorage Press
Over the summer, the results of a study funded by the Centers for Disease Control dropped like a bomb in the online publication of BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Ganaecology. The study’s authors concluded that although there is no established safe level of alcohol consumption for pregnant women, “the present study suggests that small volumes consumed occasionally may not present serious concern.” The researchers gathered self-reports of average weekly drinking and binge drinking episodes during pregnancy, from women whose children of those pregnancies were about to turn five years old. Researchers then tested the five-year-olds on measures of intelligence and executive function, to determine what impact the consumption had on the children’s cognitive and behavioral performance.
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Can Washington learn from Californian budget compromise?

BBC News
Four years ago, the state of California was on the brink of bankruptcy. It had been hit hard by the financial crisis. Unemployment was higher than the national average, as was the rate of mortgage repossessions. Tax revenues were in steady decline, while expenditure had ballooned. California's budget deficit stood at $11.2bn (£7bn) and in the state legislature Republicans and Democrats were at loggerheads over whether to cut services or raise taxes. A budget was finally signed off by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger three months late. That included tough measures. State employees were asked to stay at home without pay for two days each month to reduce expenditure. State offices were closed on the first and third Friday of each month. But the situation did not improve. By the middle of 2009, the state government began issuing IOUs to meet its short term financial obligations. The rating agencies downgraded its bond-rating. Yet four years on, California is projecting a budget surplus of more than $1bn for the 2014-2015 fiscal year.
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Brown: Medi-Cal expansion could hit California Budget

Mercurynews.com
Expanding the state's Medi-Cal program to meet new federal guidelines could add up to $4 billion a year in costs at the same time California is implementing federal health reform, potentially putting its budget "right out of whack," Gov. Jerry Brown said Thursday. In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Brown said his administration is seeking federal waivers for some of the proposed expansions to California's health care program for the poor. The changes could add more than a million people to the 7.7 million already served under the state's version of Medicaid. "We're very interested in seeing everyone -- as many people as possible -- covered, but I am very concerned that negotiations in Washington could have huge negative impacts in California by loading billions of dollars of new and unexpected costs that will just take our budget and put it right out of whack," the Democratic governor said. Supporters of the expansion said the $4 billion figure was grossly inflated.
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DHHR Agrees to Medicaid System

Charleston Daily Mail
After a months-long saga, the state Department of Health and Human Resources agreed this week to pay up to $248 million over the next decade for a complex Medicaid computer system. The contract goes to the lowest bidder, California-based Molina Medicaid Solutions, which handles the existing system for the state. The deal, signed earlier this week, apparently ends a DHHR bidding process that created unflattering headlines for much of the year. (Losing bidders have a few days to challenge the bid, but it was unclear Thursday if any would choose to do so.) The contract had already been rebid twice. DHHR has never given a public reason for the first failure. The second bid was scrapped in March after it became tainted by a conflict of interest.
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State Senate leader backs Medi-Cal expansion

Los Angeles Times

The Democratic leader of the state Senate urged Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday to expand the state's public health system as part of the implementation of the federal healthcare overhaul signed by President Obama in 2010. Sen. Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) told reporters Thursday that he looked forward to an expansion of Medi-Cal, the state's public insurance system for the poor, during the next year. In its ruling upholding the federal law earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme court said the federal government could not force states to expand their public insurance programs. In California, the Medi-Cal program already serves about 8 million people, and could serve hundreds of thousands more as insurance coverage is expanded. Expansion of the program would require a bill to pass through the Legislature and receive Brown's signature. 

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Leave No Veteran Behind

Normantranscript.com

Cleveland County officials want no veteran needing help to be left behind — even those who have had a brush with the law. Veterans may come home to a hero’s welcome, but those happy homecomings don’t mean their lives will transition smoothly. Some veterans suffer from issues such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and depression. The U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs, National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics estimates there are around 23 million veterans in the nation. Of those, some eventually come into conflict with the law and end up in jail and the court system. In response, veterans court programs have begun springing up to help veterans with mental health and substance abuse issues and to connect them with resources.

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At VA, peer counselors connect with struggling veterans

Nextgov.com

A decade ago, gripped by alcoholism and drug addiction, Navy veteran Albert Krull contemplated jumping off the Tobin Bridge spanning the Mystic River in Boston. Instead, Krull decided to seek treatment at the nearby Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Bedford, Mass., where today he serves as a peer counselor for other veterans at the same hospital that helped restore his life. Jason Zimmerman, an Army medic who served in both Bosnia and Iraq, experienced horrors he said most civilians cannot begin to comprehend, such as “your friends dying, no matter what you do.”

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Gambling Industry Bets Virtual Money Turns Real

Wall Street Journal
Americans can't yet play slot machines on their smartphones. But that isn't stopping the gambling industry from getting them in the habit. Gambling companies have been acquiring and cutting deals with firms that develop simulated casino games for devices like the iPhone, a bet that they will be able to build a user base that could pay off if online betting is legalized in the U.S. Slot machine maker International Game Technology bought casino app maker Double Down Interactive in January for $250 million in cash, plus another $250 million in potential payments. Last year, casino operator Caesars Entertainment Corp. bought a company called Playtika, maker of another popular smartphone gambling game called Slotomania. The real jackpot could come as various states work through plans to legalize online bets in light of new Justice Department guidance that could allow it in most cases. On Thursday, for instance, the New Jersey legislature approved a bill to allow online gambling, though it could still be vetoed by the governor.
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Marijuana, Not Yet Legal for Californians, Might as Well Be

New York Times
Let Colorado and Washington be the marijuana trailblazers. Let them struggle with the messy details of what it means to actually legalize the drug. Marijuana is, as a practical matter, already legal in much of California. No matter that its recreational use remains technically against the law. Marijuana has, in many parts of this state, become the equivalent of a beer in a paper bag on the streets of Greenwich Village. It is losing whatever stigma it ever had and still has in many parts of the country, including New York City, where the kind of open marijuana use that is common here would attract the attention of any passing law officer.
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Teen Marijuana Use Shows No Effect On Brain Tissue, Unlike Alcohol, Study Finds

Huffington Post – Los Angeles
A teen who consumes alcohol is likely to have reduced brain tissue health, but a teen who uses marijuana is not, according to a new study. Researchers scanned the brains of 92 adolescents, ages 16 to 20, before and after an 18-month period. During that year and a half, half of the teens -- who already had extensive alcohol and marijuana-use histories -- continued to use marijuana and alcohol in varying amounts. The other half abstained or kept consumption minimal, as they had throughout adolescence. The before-and-after brain scans of the teens consuming five or more drinks at least twice a week showed reduced white matter brain tissue, study co-author Susan Tapert, neuroscientist at UC San Diego, told HuffPost. This may mean declines in memory, attention, and decision-making into later adolescence and adulthood, she said. The teens who used the most marijuana did not show a change in brain tissue health, according to the study. The researchers did not test performance; they only looked at brain scans.
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Mother charged with dosing 9-month-old with methadone

Record Searchlight
A 24-year-old Shasta County woman is facing a felony child abuse charge after allegedly feeding her infant daughter liquid methadone for months. Melissa Martyn Mayberry pleaded not guilty at her arraignment in Shasta County Superior Court Tuesday. According to police documents, Mayberry said she would never give "something so strong" to her daughter, now 15 months old. But she was charged with child abuse in connection with a June 29 incident, when her sister took the baby after Mayberry allegedly said she'd been feeding the girl drops of methadone, police documents said.
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State Moves to Close HB Detox Center Where OC Man Died

Los Alamitos Patch
The state is moving to shut down a Huntington Beach drug detox center following the death earlier this year of a San Juan Capistrano man, Patch has learned. Investigators say West Coast Detox Center was at least partly responsible for the death of Jason Redmer, who was found unresponsive in his bedroom at the treatment home April 16. By the time emergency workers arrived, it was too late. The coroner still hasn't released an autopsy, but the state Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs conducted its own investigation and concluded that certain actions – including the storage of unlocked medications and the staff’s failure to seek medical help when they discovered Redmer had purloined and ingested some of the drugs – “contributed to or caused” his death.
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The Mysterious Death of Jason Redmer

San Juan Capistrano Patch
When San Juan Capistrano resident Jason Redmer entered a residential detox center in April, he hoped it would help him finally get his life in order. Hours earlier, the 28-year-old alcoholic had met with a private therapist, even making the call to the detox center from her office. Without insurance, Redmer had sold his truck, his only possession of monetary value, to pay for the detox. He was ready to start anew. As his mom, Lynne, drove him to the West Coast Detox Center in Huntington Beach, he prayed God would take away the curse of alcoholism. He was positive and hopeful, according to his mom and counselor. Four days later, he was dead.

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Jail designated as mental health facility

Hanford Sentinel
Kings County supervisors voted Tuesday to allow treatment of mentally ill patients in the county jail. The move allows medications and other services to be provided to people who may be mentally unfit to stand trial. The problem is that more and more mentally dysfunctional defendants are flooding the jail, many for infractions related to substance abuse. Those prisoners the judge orders to be evaluated to determine if they are fit to stand trial can languish for more than six months in jail before a bed space opens up at Atascadero State Hospital. State hospital staff can fully evaluate the prisoners and return them to Kings County if they’re deemed competent. Before Tuesday’s decision, the prisoners couldn’t be given medication by jail staff unless they specifically requested it. Since many are unfit to even make the request, jail staff can now prescribe medication and administer it against the person’s will if necessary.

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Researcher digs for roots of binge drinking

Star News Online
What if a simple test could predict which children are at risk of becoming binge drinkers? That's one goal of a research project being conducted by a UNCW psychology professor with the help of the New Hanover County Department of Social Services. Kate Nooner, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, spoke this week before a meeting of the New Hanover County social services board, which approved Nooner's request to follow for three years as part of her study 30 maltreated youth ages 11 to 13 who are in the DSS system. "Alcohol is really damaging to the entire brain," Nooner said, while other substances, such as cocaine, affect only a portion of the brain. "And it typically is one of the first substances that children use when they start using substances."
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First human tests of meth medication completed

MedicalXpress.com
The medication is expected to significantly reduce or prevent the euphoric rush that drug users crave by keeping methamphetamine in the bloodstream and out of the brain, where the drug exerts its most powerful effects. In the Phase I trial, 40 healthy volunteers who do not use methamphetamine received the medication over the past eight months and experienced no serious side effects. "While we still have lots of work to do, this is a significant milestone for this research," said Brooks Gentry, M.D., a UAMS professor and InterveXion's chief medical officer who is overseeing the clinical trial phase. "Many experimental drugs fail during the first phase of a clinical trial, so we're excited that we can now look forward to testing in methamphetamine users who want help reducing their meth dependence."
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Endo Loses Bid to Stop Generic Version of Its Painkiller

Wall Street Journal
Drug maker Endo Health Solutions Inc. failed in its legal bid to halt generic versions of its Opana painkiller Wednesday, clearing the way for cheaper copies of the drug to appear in the U.S. as early as next month. The prospect of a new generic opioid painkiller has raised safety concerns because the pills are often abused. Endo reformulated Opana in March 2012 to make the pills harder to crush, snort or inject, and it withdrew the original formulation from the market. It asked the Food and Drug Administration to rule that the old Opana was withdrawn for reasons of safety, something that would block generic competitors from coming to market. Endo later filed a lawsuit against the FDA, contending the agency had failed to make a decision in a timely manner. Under the terms of a previous settlement, Impax Laboratories Inc. is due to be able to start selling several higher doses of extended-release oxymorphone, the generic name of Opana, in January.
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California Republicans Target Top U.S. Public-Worker Pay

Bloomberg.com

Republicans in the California Senate are drafting legislation targeting state worker compensation that exceeds pay levels for public employees elsewhere in virtually all wage categories and job descriptions. Payroll data compiled by Bloomberg on 1.4 million public workers in the 12 most populous states show how managers and employees throughout California government ignore limits on accrual of paid vacation and other leave, leading to lump severance payouts of as much as $609,000 to one state employee last year. The state’s obligation for accumulated time off grew to $3.9 billion last year from $1.4 billion in 2003. “The Bloomberg series highlighted some shocking abuses and problems in California,” said state Senator Ted Gaines, a Republican from Rocklin who serves on the Public Employment and Retirement Committee. “I am working on legislation for this session that attacks these issues, protects taxpayers and restores some sanity to our state.”
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Gov. Jerry Brown gets high marks for effectiveness in report card

Los Angeles Times
The year shouldn't slip by without giving Gov. Jerry Brown his annual report card. And that's tough. Not the grading: He obviously deserves high marks if the yardstick is effectiveness. And that's my yardstick. The only decision is whether to give him a B-plus, an A-minus or a full A. The tough part is acknowledging that Brown, who regards himself as the smartest man in the room and tends to let people know it, usually is. Certainly he was in 2012. This was the year Brown delivered what he was selling when he ran for election in 2010: political know-how, inherited from his father Pat Brown's genes and developed over decades of trial and error; the governor uniquely qualified by experience and wisdom to clean up Sacramento's fiscal mess.
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State data on hospitals shows costs are rising

Modesto Bee

A state agency released data Wednesday on the financial health of hospitals in California, showing a dramatic rise in labor costs across the industry and an increase in uncompensated care at public hospitals. From 2006 to 2010, county and city hospitals provided far more uncompensated care than did facilities run by investor-owned companies or large nonprofit corporations. The rate rose from 23.5 percent to 25.5 percent of gross revenue for public hospitals, but it was only 4 percent for investor-owned or nonprofit hospitals.

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New report embraces Medi-Cal expansion

Los Angeles Times

Gov. Jerry Brown’s top healthcare official appeared to embrace an expansion of the state’s Medi-Cal system as California moves to implement the healthcare overhaul signed by President Obama in 2010. A new report from the Let’s Get Healthy Taskforce, co-chaired by Diana Dooley, Brown’s secretary for Health and Human Services, says “expansion of coverage through the Health Benefit Exchange and Medi-Cal will be an important step” that can particularly help African American and Latino populations, who together comprise nearly half of the state’s estimated 8 million residents without health coverage.
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VA touting progress on homelessness

JournalStar.com

Not so long ago, and more than once, the dimensions of homelessness among veterans in the United States was called a national shame. Headed toward 2013, Linda Twomey thinks solving the problem is becoming an example of national resolve. “I think, if we continue to use our resources and make this goal a priority, we could get it down to zero -- or next to nothing,” said Twomey, mental health specialty programs director for the Veterans Administration in Omaha. She touted better news at the national and Nebraska level as she got ready to take part in a Homeless Veterans Stakeholder Meeting at Mahoney State Park on Wednesday. “I think we’re gaining the upper hand,” she said. “The Veterans Administration in 2009 estimated that there were 132,000 veterans homeless on a given night in America. Just in this current year, that’s estimated at about 69,000.”

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Lottery tickets a dangerous gift for teens, gambling experts warn

Montreal Gazette

There’s no doubt stocking stuffers are a challenge for teenagers, but gambling experts are warning people not to succumb to the lure of lottery tickets as an easy solution to Christmas gift-giving. It’s not appropriate and it can lead to gambling disorders. That’s the warning from the International Centre for Youth Gambling Problems and High-Risk Behaviours at McGill University along with the National Council on Problem Gambling. Many lottery corporations, including Loto-Québec, collaborate during the holiday season to increase public awareness about the impact of giving lottery products as gifts to minors.
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Vista ban frustrates medical marijuana patients

U-T San Diego

Medical marijuana users in Vista say the city is discriminating against them by refusing to allow dispensaries in town and suing three such businesses that were operating without a license. The patients being served by one of the dispensaries include a 23-year-old woman who suffers from cerebral palsy; a 23-year-old former Marine who served in Afghanistan and has PTSD; and a 48-year-old man who had polio as a child and has had to walk with crutches all his life. The three patients said medical marijuana helps them deal with various problems associated with their conditions, including pain, anxiety attacks and lack of appetite. They are members of the North County Botanicals dispensary, which the city sued in March.

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Drunken driving campaign targets downtown Sacramento

Sacramento Bee

Starting tonight in Sacramento and three other California cities, holiday revelers will see an odd, potentially sobering vehicle parked in front of popular bars and nightspots. The vehicle's front half will look like a blue and white police car. "This ride costs up to $10,000," lettering on the front door reads, referencing the potential long-term costs of a drunken driving citation. The back half, painted orange and black, looks like a taxi. "This ride costs $40," its door reads. The vehicles are the latest tool in a state and national campaign to encourage people in their 20s and 30s to think twice before drinking and driving.

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Battle over nation's largest pot dispensary heads to U.S. court

Los Angeles Times

A showdown over the fate of the country's largest medical marijuana dispensary heads to federal court here Thursday, and the outcome could hint at what lies ahead as a growing number of states opt for legalization. This fall, Oakland became the first municipality to sue federal prosecutors in an attempt to block them from shuttering a medical cannabis facility. Harborside Health Center, with facilities in Oakland and San Jose, has more than 108,000 members in its patient collective. The first hearing in the high-profile case comes a month after Colorado and Washington voters legalized the use and sale of small amounts of recreational marijuana — prompting President Obama to raise the possibility of relaxing enforcement of some federal anti-pot laws.

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Rogue pharmacists fuel addiction

Los Angeles Times

Joey Rovero's quest for pills ended at Pacifica Pharmacy. It was the same for Naythan Kenney, Matt Stavron and Joseph Gomez. All four were patients of a Rowland Heights physician who was a prolific prescriber of narcotic painkillers and other addictive drugs. To get their fix, they needed more than a piece of paper. They needed a pharmacist willing to dispense the drugs, and at Pacifica they found one. All four died of drug overdoses after filling prescriptions at the tiny pharmacy in Huntington Beach, court and coroners' records show.

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Anti-Drug Program to Expand to Middle Schools

WaynePatch.com
The school district’s Be Proud program, a drug and alcohol prevention program high school students can voluntary participate in, will be offered to eighth graders beginning in January. The change was announced at an anti-drug presentation at Wayne Hills High School recently. The 7-year-old program is designed to give students an incentive to resist the temptation to take drugs or alcohol. Students and teachers in the program staged a special presentation about the dangers of underage alcohol and drug use in October.

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FDA Seeks to Balance Opioid Pain Needs With Addict Risks

Bloomberg Business Week
The Food and Drug Administration plans a two-day public hearing starting Feb. 7 after receiving “comments, petitions, and informal inquiries concerning the extent to which opioid drugs should be used in the treatment of pain.” The meeting is intended to help understand how doctors define pain and measures used to limit opioid use, the agency said today in a statement. The balancing act was highlighted two weeks ago when San Diego-based drugmaker Zogenix Inc. (ZGNX) failed to persuade FDA advisers to support approval of the first single-ingredient hydrocodone pill. While the company showed the medicine worked and presented patients from a trial who said the pill filled a need in the market, advisers at the Dec. 7 meeting were swayed by other stories of addiction and death.

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Survey: Record number of teens smoking pot

USA Today
As more states adopt laws allowing medical marijuana, fewer teens see occasional marijuana use as harmful, the largest national survey of youth drug use has found. Nearly 80% of high school seniors don't consider occasional marijuana use harmful -- the highest rate since 1983-- and record numbers smoke it regularly, according to the annual survey of eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders made public Wednesday. More than one in five high school seniors said they smoked marijuana in the month before the survey, and more than a third smoked marijuana during the previous year, according to Monitoring the Future's survey of 45,449 students from 395 public and private schools. The survey has measured drug, alcohol and cigarette use since 1975.
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The Buzz: California judges still at odds over budget structure

Sacramento Bee
California's civil war of the judges apparently will continue, even though a rebel organization scored a major victory this year. The state budget incorporated many provisions of legislation that the breakaway Alliance of California Judges had sought over the opposition of Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye in a quest for more local control of court funds. However, with the Brown administration likely seeking further court cuts, the alliance has elected one of its most combative members, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Steve White, as president.

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California Assemblymembers Brian Nestande and Kristin Olsen Re-Introduce Measure to Eliminate Education Budget Deferrals

Sierra Sun Times

Today, Assemblymembers Brian Nestande, R- Palm Desert, and Kristin Olsen, R-Modesto, introduced Assembly Constitutional Amendment 2 (ACA) that will stop the practice of balancing the state budget on the backs of our schools. “The practice of deferring education dollars to pay for other state programs has gotten out of control.  Our schools are going bankrupt over this scheme and it is not fair to our students, teachers, or schools,” said Nestande.  “It is time we have an honest budget that give our schools what they are constitutionally owed.  Our children deserve nothing less than that.”

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California taxes dip in a weak month for revenue

Los Angeles Times
California tax revenue has slipped further below goals set by Gov. Jerry Brown's administration, according to a state report released Tuesday. As of the end of November, taxes were 3% short in the fiscal year that started in July, a gap of $936 million. A month before that, they were only 0.7% short.  H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for Brown's Department of Finance, said November was a particularly weak month because tax revenue related to Facebook stock came in earlier than expected. That boosted October taxes higher, while decreasing November revenue. On top of that, the struggling stock has been trading at a much lower price than finance officials had expected. The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office estimated that the state would face a $1.9-billion deficit next year, much smaller than in recent years.  Brown is expected to release in January his own deficit estimate and a budget plan to cover that gap.
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For veterans with other-than-honorable discharge, benefits not guaranteed

KOSU News
When we talked recently about veterans and prison, Sister Kateri Koverman told me about the veterans she encountered during her time as a social worker with Catholic Relief Services during the Vietnam War. “Many of them were less-than-honorably discharged, which for me is a very sad reality,” she said. An other-than-honorable discharge can be triggered by many things, but is usually the result of a pattern of behavior considered unbefitting a service member: violence against other service members, drug abuse, security violations — even adultery. Sister Koverman’s experience during the war has given her deep perspective into her work with incarcerated veterans today. “Having been in Vietnam, I know well that so much about how an incident is written up [in the military] depends on your commanding officer. You could have the same action and one officer would say, ‘Go get a good night’s sleep and we’ll talk about this tomorrow,’ while somebody else might say, you know, “That’s cause for Article 15′” — non-judicial punishment. “Those things are with you for life.”
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Decorated Bay City veteran gets help from the system in battling drug addiction

MichiganLive.com
In the fall of 2012, decorated veteran Benjamin O. Green received two strokes of good fortune — the birth of his daughter and the Veterans Administration telling him it was stepping forward to help him overcome his drug addiction. Green’s fourth daughter, Georgia, was born Sept. 7. The same day, he received a call from the VA letting him know the agency was reimbursing him for two years’ worth of funds he’d spent on methadone dosages. The VA assured it would foot the bill for his ongoing treatment. Green is using methadone as a substitute for the painkiller addiction he acquired after dental care while in the Marines.
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U.S. Military Rolls Out New Initiatives Targeting Binge Drinking Troops

USNavySEALs.com (blog)
The U.S. military has imposed new strategies aimed at reducing binge drinking in the armed services, the NBC News reports. Among the new initiatives include giving random breathalyzer tests to Marine Corps members; limiting overnight liquor sales for U.S. military personnel in Germany; and preventing American troops in Japan from leaving their residences after consuming more than one alcoholic beverage. The restrictions came three months after a U.S. Department of Defense-sponsored report found that binge drinking by active duty personnel increased from 35 percent in 1998 to 47 percent in 2008. In order to effectively address excessive drinking and substance abuse use in the military, the report suggests that DOD adheres to evidence-based strategies for prevention, screening, and treatment.

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Excessive alcohol when you're young could have lasting impacts on your brain

Medical Xpress
"Young people are particularly vulnerable to the damaging effects of alcohol misuse," said Dr Hermens. Most people have their first alcoholic drink during adolescence and while they drink less frequently than adults, they tend to drink more on each occasion - binge drinking. The early functional signs of brain damage from alcohol misuse are visual, learning, memory and executive function impairments. These functions are controlled by the hippocampus and frontal structures of the brain, which are not fully mature until around 25 years of age.
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22 fraternity members facing charges in U.S. after student dies following binge drinking

Associated Press
Nearly two dozen fraternity members at Northern Illinois University were charged Monday with hazing-related counts after a freshman was found dead at their fraternity house following a night of drinking. DeKalb police and prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 22 members of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity in DeKalb. Five members are charged with felony hazing, while the other 17 members are facing misdemeanor hazing charges.
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State Treasurer Lockyer wants pension funds to purge some gun investments

Sacramento Bee
Treasurer Bill Lockyer has asked the state's two largest public pension funds to purge their portfolios of gun manufacturers that make firearms that are illegal in California. Lockyer, a board member of both the public employees' and teachers' retirement systems, made the request Monday afternoon following revelations that CalSTRS has a stake in the company that makes rifles like the one used in last week's Newtown, Conn., school shooting. CalSTRS has put a combined $600 million into investments set up by a hedge fund firm that in turn put some of the money into a global firearms conglomerate, Freedom Group. Freedom Group's holdings include Bushmaster Firearms International.
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Medi-Cal cuts worry Merced area health organizations

Merced Sun-Star
A 10 percent cut to the Medi-Cal reimbursement rate would make it more difficult for patients who use it to get the care they need, said Christine Muchow, executive director of the Merced-Mariposa County Medical Society. Last week, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that California can cut its Medi-Cal reimbursement rate by reversing an earlier decision that blocked the cuts, according to the California Medical Association. Medi-Cal is the state's Medicaid program. It provides health coverage for low-income families. "I believe that we would have a bigger problem with access to care," Muchow said of the reimbursement cut. "The other problem with that is that it causes congestion at the emergency room because they can't get access." The state had proposed the cut in 2011 to help solve its budget woes. Molly Weedn, spokeswoman for the California Medical Association, said her group is hoping the state will reevaluate the cut because its financial situation is better now than when it was first proposed.
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Watch for holiday pitfalls

Gate House News
Mal Duane calls the time from the day before Thanksgiving until the day after New Year’s Day, “Hurricane Season.” The five-week stretch of big meals, social drinking and family gatherings provides enough temptations and opportunities for disappointment to trip up the sturdiest souls. A former alcoholic and “recovery coach” who now helps others get back on their feet, the Framingham author of “Alpha Chick” should know. “Hurricane season is a time when people struggling with alcohol or any addiction issues get in the most trouble […]”
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Illinois rings up $1M from video gambling in Nov.

Daily Chronicle, Illinois
Illinois and local cities and towns are starting to cash in on new video gambling terminals. The Southern Illinoisan reported the state took in nearly $1 million in additional income in November from more than 1,400 video terminals.
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Shop Smart: Avoid Gambling Games for Children

WBOY News
When shopping for a child this holiday season, you may want to consider not only what will be fun for him or her right now, but how certain games or toys may affect them in the future. Patty Deutsch is the program director of the Problem Gamblers Help Network in West Virginia. She said that some games have gambling undertones and can gear a child towards the gambling lifestyle later in life.
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Marijuana use among students to be said higher than average

Tehachapi News
Tehachapi Unified School District's Chief Administrator of Instructional Service and Technology is concerned about a possible increase in use of marijuana by students, particularly following the passage of California's medicinal marijuana initiative, which legalizes possession of the drug for adults with prescriptions. Six weeks after the California Healthy Kids Survey reported higher than state average drug use rates among Tehachapi high school and middle school students, the numbers of fifth grade school children that have used marijuana were equally as shocking, as this year's results reported a one-percent higher marijuana use rate than the Kern County average of two percent.
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Motorists reminded to prepare for new laws

Lake County News
Driving under the influence, alcoholic beverage or drug (AB 2552, Torres): Although this change in the law does not take effect until Jan. 1, 2014, it distinguishes whether an individual was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Ultimately this change, singling out drugs with its own subsection in the Vehicle Code, will make it easier to track the prevalence of drugged driving in California. This new law, coupled with the efforts requiring the use of Ignition Interlock Devices, will help reduce impaired driving throughout California.
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'Anti-gambling' pill goes to trial

World News, Australia
Half a million Australians are at risk of becoming, or already are, problem gamblers, according government figures. It's a vexing social issue, which costs the community $4.7 billion a year. But a controversial drug is about to be trialled in Melbourne in a clinical experiment described as the first of its kind: a pill that researchers hope will cure problem gamblers. In the US, gambling addiction is expected to be clinically re-classified next year by the influential American Psychiatric Association. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is the standard classification of mental disorders used by the US healthcare system and the fifth edition in expected to be released in May 2013.
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Once the leader, Calif. now looks to other states for legalization of pot

San Jose Mercury News
Many marijuana activists always thought California would be the first state to legalize the drug for recreational use, but their dreams faded in 2010 when the state's voters rejected Proposition 19. Yet the legalization measure's poor timing, lackluster funding and vague regulatory plan offered vital lessons that allowed activists in Colorado and Washington State to succeed last month where California had failed. Now activists in the Golden State are, in turn, scrutinizing those states' successful campaigns to prepare themselves for another California measure down the road.
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Prescription drugs: ‘The new killer for young and middle-aged people’

Park Rapids Enterprise
For the first time in history, more people died last year from prescription drug overdose than from accidental overdose of illegal drugs, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC reports that overdose deaths have “skyrocketed” in the past decade, largely because of prescription painkillers. Most of these pills are prescribed for a medical purpose, but many end up in the hands of people who misuse or abuse them. “Prescription drug abuse is the new killer for young and middle-aged people,” said Dr. Christopher Boe, emergency room physician and medical director of the Emergency Department at Altru Health System in Grand Forks.
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Oregon's success in treating addicts is a lesson for Kentucky

Courier Journal
The guiding principle behind addiction treatment in Oregon is simple: Pay for it now, make it easy to get and you’ll save money and lives down the road. Research from across the nation shows that treatment reduces crime and medical expenses while boosting employment, meaning every dollar spent on treatment actually saves an average of $7. “There’s absolutely solid, irrefutable evidence that there is a savings — always — in funding addiction treatment and prevention,” said Karen Wheeler, addiction programs administrator for the Oregon Health Authority. “You pay one way or the other.” That philosophy fuels Oregon’s nationally reputed system of addiction care that officials, health experts and treatment professionals say provides lessons for Kentucky as it struggles with a crippling prescription drug-abuse problem and an overwhelmed treatment system.
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Recovery Kentucky centers use a supportive program in which the clients hold one another accountable

Courier Journal
A program to treat teenagers with drug and alcohol problems is coming to Jacksonville drug courts as part of a $1.3 million federal grant. Last week the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention with the U.S. Department of Justice awarded the money to Jacksonville. It comes through the Justice Department’s partnership with Reclaiming Futures, a nonprofit that assists teenagers in avoiding trouble with drugs, alcohol and crime.
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