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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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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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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Florida Times Union
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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Orange County Register
Battered by budget deficits and a deep recession, analysts predict California can look forward to a new year of fiscal stability and economic recovery. Unless, that is, we tumble over the "fiscal cliff." Then we're in for more of the same. Despite voter support for new taxes to balance the budget, and despite modest economic growth following the housing collapse, California dreaming of a sunnier tomorrow is in serious jeopardy if Congress and the president can't agree on what to do about several automatic tax increases and spending cuts scheduled to kick in on Jan. 1.
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Sacramento Bee
Sometime before Christmas, Gov. Jerry Brown will close the books on a proposed 2013-14 budget. A few weeks after that, Brown will deliver that budget to the Legislature and we'll learn whether voter approval of Proposition 30, Brown's sales and income tax increase, will make a big difference in the state's finances. Supposedly it would, because, the Capitol assumes, it will generate about $6 billion in extra revenue for 2013-14. However, much of that money must go to schools under the state constitution's school finance requirement, Brown has said he wants to spend much of it to reduce the "wall of debt" that the state has erected in recent years and, finally, other revenue is coming in under projections and overall state spending is running over budget.
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Associated Press
Despite years of prodding and pleading by the Obama administration, close to half the nation's governors will not take a critical step to implement the president's health care law next year, leaving the job of running new insurance markets for their residents to the federal government. But what was once viewed as a setback for the Affordable Care Act is increasingly seen as a blessing by consumer advocates, many of whom doubt that officials in some Republican-controlled states are committed to implementing a law they fervently oppose. "I'm happy this will be run by the federal government," said Sue Berkowitz, director of South Carolina Apple Seed Legal Justice Center.
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