Restored funding for prescription drug-monitoring program urged

Los Angeles Times

California Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris on Thursday called on Gov. Jerry Brown to restore funding to a prescription drug-monitoring program that health experts say is key to combating drug abuse and overdose deaths in the state. Harris' appeal to restore funding to CURES, as it is known, follows an article in The Times last month that reported that the system, once heralded as an invaluable tool, had been severely undermined by budget cuts and was not being used to its full potential.

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Carmel may consider ordinance aimed at underage drinking

Monterey County Herald

The city of Carmel is being asked to add another layer of protection to separate alcohol from minors. The city will consider joining other communities in putting a "social hosting" ordinance on its books that proscribes adults — aside from private family gatherings, religious observances and the like — from making alcohol available to minors in their homes, even if they are away.

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County realignment plan increases rehab, prevention services for offenders

Mount Shasta News

It has been a little over a year since the state's controversial prison realignment plan went into effect following the passage of Assembly Bill 109. While the new legislation has received harsh criticism statewide, local officials say one thing is certain: now, more rehabilitative services and prevention programs are available to Siskiyou County offenders than ever before, and in their experience, this means a lower recidivism rate.

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A Commissioner wants power to reject health insurance rate increases

Fresno Bee

State Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones says President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act will make for a healthier California, but some parts of the law may prove ineffective unless his office is given the power to reject unreasonable health insurance rate increases.

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California budget has money for promised raise for state workers, but little else

Sacramento Bee

With state employee contract talks just weeks away, Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday rolled out a budget that included money for long-promised pay raises and little else – at least for next year. California state government would pay about $501 million more for its employees in fiscal 2013-14, according to the governor's proposal, while the number of positions would remain essentially flat.

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Governor says new budget attacks debt, increases education, health care investments

Lake County News

After several years of tight budgets, cut services and deficits, the governor on Thursday proposed a budget for 2013-14 that he said will be balanced while still making increased investments in key areas of California life. Gov. Jerry Brown said his budget will boost funding for education, implement health care reform and keep California on a long-term path to fiscal stability, while building on the work of the last two years to eliminate the state’s deficit.

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New York City to Restrict Prescription Painkillers in Public Hospitals’ Emergency Rooms

New York Times

Some of the most common and most powerful prescription painkillers on the market will be restricted sharply in the emergency rooms at New York City’s 11 public hospitals, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Thursday in an effort to crack down on what he called a citywide and national epidemic of prescription drug abuse.

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FDA might tighten reins on Vicodin

USA Today

The DEA for nearly a decade has pushed for tighter restrictions on Vicodin, the nation's most widely prescribed drug. The chronic abuse of such painkillers, and devastating toll associated with this abuse, has reached epidemic proportions in the United States. The agency could get its wish later this month when the Food and Drug Administration considers the DEA's request to put Vicodin in the same category as OxyContin and other powerful narcotics.

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Mayor, city attorney lock horns over marijuana

San Diego Union-Tribune

Mayor Bob Filner said he’ll work over the next few weeks to create an ordinance that allows medical marijuana dispensaries to operate within city limits and then told an enthusiastic crowd in favor of safe access to the drug that he’ll stand beside them in their legal battles.

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Study: Parkinson's disease itself does not increase risk of gambling, shopping addiction

Medical Xpress

Parkinson's disease itself does not increase the risk of impulse control problems such as compulsive gambling and shopping that have been seen in people taking certain drugs for Parkinson's disease, according to new research published in the January 8, 2013, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Calif. insurance chief criticizes Anthem rate hike

Associated Press

California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said Tuesday that Anthem Blue Cross' proposed rate hike for some of its small-group members is unreasonable, but the insurer says the increase reflects the rising cost of health care. Jones said that, unlike insurance regulators in many other states, he has no authority to stop the rate increases, which will take effect this month. Anthem's increase will average 10.6 percent a year, and the two-year increase could be as high as 19.4 percent for some customers, he said.

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Health insurance to rise 20% or more in California

NBC Nightly News (Video & Video Transcript)

Several states including California, Florida and Ohio are facing double-digit health insurance rate increases. On Tuesday, the California insurance commissioner deemed one proposed group insurance increase unreasonable and accused companies of trying to maximize profits. NBC’s Lisa Myers reports.

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Medicaid expansion could bring big benefit to state with little investment

Sacramento Business Journal

California has an opportunity to significantly increase health coverage at a minimal cost to the state budget by expanding its Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act, a new study concludes. More than 1.4 million California adults under age 65 will be newly eligible for Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, under federal reform.

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New Year's Resolutions: Tasks for California's Exchange in 2013

California Healthline

All the way back in August 2011, HHS awarded California more than $38 million to begin work on its health insurance exchange under the Affordable Care Act. Flash forward to 2013, and the exchange already has cleared the sale of certain health plans and adopted a new name: Covered California.

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Researchers find minimal state cost from Medicaid expansion in California

Medical Xpress

As the California Legislature prepares to consider bills relating to implementing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and expanding Medicaid, the state has the opportunity to significantly increase health insurance coverage at minimal cost to the state budget, according to a joint study by the University of California, Berkeley's Center for Labor Research and Education and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

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Contingency Management May Cut Drug Use, Hospitalization

Medscape Today

Contingency management may lead to significant reductions in stimulant and alcohol use as well as in psychiatric hospitalizations in patients with substance addiction and serious psychiatric disorders, a new randomized controlled trial suggests.

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Social media influence on binge drinking

Gateway (University of Nebraska)

New Year’s Eve, while synonymous with optimistic new beginnings and resolutions, is equally known for its promotion of all things bubbly and alcoholic. For Mason Sumnicht, a 21-year-old senior and fraternity pledge at Sigma Pi at Chico State University in California, he didn’t get the chance to watch the ball drop into 2013 because he had imbibed one too many drinks this November.  He died after attempting to down 21 shots for his 21st birthday.

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Fighting Prescription Drug Abuse Becomes Privacy Issue

WSAZ News

The war on prescription drug abuse has been strengthened by access to a computer database that includes that information. The process allows investigators to see what doctors are prescribing and who is receiving those prescriptions.

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Newswire: Substance abuse fuels incarceration rates for Black men

Greene County Democrat

A recent study reports that treating substance abusers, especially African Americans, could save the nation billions of dollars at a time when all eyes are glued to debates over how to solve the country’s national debt. The study by researchers at Meharry Medical College School of Medicine in Nashville, Tenn. linked the prevalence of substance abuse disorders to the high rates of incarceration among Black males.

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Tribes Take on Youth Suicide With Skits, Ceremonies and Mustangs

Indian Country

On the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, youngsters perform skits they hope will lower their tribe’s youth-suicide rate. Playing with mustangs helps prevent self-harm among the children of the Gila River Indian Community. On the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, tribal members who’ve lost family to suicide heal by grieving together. In each of those communities, youngsters kill themselves at a rate at least triple the United States average.

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Addressing an epidemic of Rx deaths

Los Angeles Times

Prescription drug overdoses killed more than 37,000 Americans in 2009, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control; that death rate has tripled since 1990. The increase is not surprising, considering these additional CDC statistics: The number of prescriptions for painkillers has more than quadrupled since 1999, and more than 12 million Americans reported using prescription painkillers for non-medical reasons during 2010. In emergency rooms, more than 1 million patients were treated in 2009 for problems involving prescription painkillers or psychotherapeutic drugs such as anti-anxiety and sleep medications. It's a terrible and hideously expensive toll, made even sadder in California by the fact that the state has the data in its hands to help stave off some of the injury and death but isn't using the information effectively.

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California can target bad physicians, fatal overdoses

San Francisco Examiner (editorial)

Someone needs to ask Kamala Harris how much she thinks a life is worth. The California attorney general, who was San Francisco’s district attorney before assuming statewide office, has information at her fingertips that could be used to stop doctors from overprescribing deadly medicine. But her excuse for not taking action is the cost. The Los Angeles Times, in one part of a series about prescription drug overdoses, highlighted the power of something called the Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System, more commonly referred to as CURES. That statewide system was created to document what prescriptions patients were filling and where they were doing it so they could not use one prescription repeatedly at different locations. Physicians, pharmacists and the Attorney General’s Office have access to the information.

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Medical marijuana: Aaron Sandusky sentenced to 10 years in federal prison

Contra Costa Times

Aaron Sandusky has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison. The former G3 Holistic Inc. medical marijuana dispensary president was sentenced today in Los Angeles federal court for operating medical marijuana dispensaries in Upland, Colton and Moreno Valley.  "In this case, as the defendant was warned, the court's hands are tied," U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson said. "Whether you agree with the defendant's position or not." Sandusky was convicted in October of two counts of violating federal marijuana law, one for conspiracy to manufacture marijuana plants, possess with intent to distribute marijuana plants, and to maintain a drug-involved premises, as well as a second count of distributing marijuana plants, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Officials hurry to set up California health benefit exchange

Ventura County Star

At a mid-November conference in Sacramento on implementation of the federal health care overhaul in 2014, California Health and Human Services Secretary Diana Dooley outlined the political aspects of the task ahead. Though President Barack Obama had been re-elected in part on the promise of expanding access to health care, Dooley said, voters will hold her boss to a higher standard if he seeks re-election in November 2014. They will judge Gov. Jerry Brown in part on how well the state delivers on that promise.

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Multi-Status Families Brace for Health Care Reform

Voice of San Diego

When Norma Navarro takes her kids to the doctor, she knows what to expect. It’s not the cost of treatment that gets to her — although that weighs on her, too. The thing she dreads is having to explain to her little boy and little girl why they don’t get the same treatment. Angel, 7, receives coverage through the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Navarro's daughter, Aneth, 10, only gets coverage once a year through the state’s Children’s Health Development Program, and then for just one month after her checkup. After that, the family has to scrape together the money to get her help, or forgo it.

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California Democrats outline broad agenda

San Diego Union-Tribune

Firmly in command of the policy agenda and controlling a state budget that is in its best shape in years, California Democrats are expected to push a broad agenda of fiscal and social change in 2013. The vast list includes new taxes, revamping education spending formulas, gun control, health care, highway expansions and redefining Proposition 13, the landmark property tax protection measure passed by voters in 1978. At the same time, Democratic leaders and many in the rank and file are urging self-restraint, knowing that voters could strip their supermajority powers in the next election if their reach is overly ambitious — particularly when it comes to taxes and spending.

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Plan to End Methadone Use at Albuquerque Jail Prompts Alarm

New York Times

It has been almost four decades since Betty Jo Lopez started using heroin. Her face gray and wizened well beyond her 59 years, Ms. Lopez would almost certainly still be addicted, if not for the fact that she is locked away in jail, not to mention the cup of pinkish liquid she downs every morning. “It’s the only thing that allows me to live a normal life,” Ms. Lopez said of the concoction, which contains methadone, a drug used to treat opiate dependence. “These nurses that give it to me, they’re like my guardian angels.”

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Hamilton methadone clinic doc facing hearing

CBC (Canada)

The owner of a Hamilton methadone clinic is facing a 10-day hearing before the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario for “disgraceful” and “unprofessional” conduct. Dr. Michael Varenbut's hearing begins in February and will deal with allegations that he “failed to maintain the standard of practice of the profession” and that he “engaged in disgraceful, dishonourable or unprofessional conduct in relation to his treatment of and dealings with a patient between approximately 2002 and 2009.” The Hamilton clinic at 397 Main Street East, which opened in March 2005, has 203 clients and is one of about 50 methadone clinics owned by Varenbut who is founder of Ontario Addiction Treatment Centres.

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Narconon Drug Rehab Lawsuit - Victim Tortured and Abused

Examiner.com

Another Scientology drug rehab center, Narconon Fresh Start in Nevada (Rainbow Canyon Retreat), is facing a lawsuit concerning a 15-year-old who was bullied, abused and branded with a hot iron. This disturbing story broke this morning on Tony Ortega’s website “The Underground Bunker.” The parents, Mark and Nicole Peet, represented by lawyer Richard W. Sears from Nevada, are suing for the $39,000 they paid to Narconon and for medical bills, pain and suffering, and punitive damages.

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Antipsychotic Trial for Meth Addicts

DailyRx

As of yet, there is no pill on the market for treating methamphetamine addiction. Researchers will have to continue to test and investigate for a solution. A recent clinical trial tested the use of an antipsychotic in combination with substance abuse counseling on a group of people addicted to methamphetamines. After 12 weeks, urine tests showed fewer people using meth, but the reduction was found in those who took the drug and those who did not.

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UA students' anti-binge drinking PSA with Shaq to air during BCS Championship

Alabama Live

University of Alabama students have more than just football to look forward to on Monday. UA advertising and public relations students created a PSA on the consequences of binge drinking back in April of last year and they had help from a special athlete, former NBA superstar and future hall-of-famer Shaquille O'Neal. Shaq first got involved after the students started a Twitter campaign. It was all part of their student-based anti-binge drinking campaign, LessThanUThink, which started in 2010. Now they are able to get a national audience when their PSA is aired live during the first quarter of the BCS National Championship game, which is sponsored by Bacardi USA.

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