Feds Crack Down On Hundreds Of Medical Marijuana Shops In California

Associated Press

Federal prosecutors have sent dozens of letters warning medical marijuana shops in Los Angeles and Long Beach to shut down or risk potential criminal or civil action. Authorities say more than 100 pot clinics across Los Angeles County received the letters Tuesday. Lawsuits also were filed against two property owners in Long Beach, telling them it's illegal to allow pot sales in buildings they own.

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CA Doctor Indicted For Illegally Dispensing Oxycodone

Workerscompensation.com

Fresno, CA (WorkersCompensation.com) - On Thursday, a federal grand jury returned a 27-count indictment against Terrill Eugene Brown, 61, of Visalia, charging him with conspiracy to dispense oxycodone, dispensing of oxycodone and hydrocodone, and structuring currency transactions to avoid bank reporting requirements, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner and Fresno County District Attorney Elizabeth Egan announced.

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Embattled board mulls prescription abuse solutions

Los Angeles Times

Under pressure from state lawmakers to reform, the Medical Board of California on Tuesday embarked on a search for a new executive director and considered a host of proposals aimed at combating reckless prescribing by doctors that is contributing to overdose deaths.

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California: Marijuana Seller Takes Plea Deal

New York Times

A medical marijuana store owner whose prosecution by the federal authorities highlighted vast disparities in how California and the Justice Department are responding to the medical marijuana industry abandoned a six-month battle against Washington on Friday and pleaded guilty to 10 charges of marijuana cultivation and distribution.

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California Senate passes bill to curb prescription drug abuse

Los Angeles Times

The state Senate on Thursday unanimously passed the last bill in a broad package of proposed reforms aimed at combating prescription drug abuse and mounting overdose deaths in California. The bills, inspired by a series of investigative stories in The Times, would help authorities track drug abusing patients as well as doctors who overprescribe painkillers and other addictive narcotics. One bill would give the state medical board the power to immediately suspend the prescribing privileges of doctors suspected of putting patients at risk.

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Marijuana regulatory bill stalls in California Legislature (blog)

Sacramento Bee

Lawmakers quashed a bill that would have created a state agency to tax and regulate California's overgrown medical marijuana landscape on Friday. Since California voters gave the green light to medical cannabis in 1996, the state has seen cities and municipalities deal with quasi-legal pot in a variety of different ways, with critics saying many dispensaries serve all comers under the pretense of helping the sick.

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Viewpoints: Program aims to reduce teenage prescription drug abuse

Sacramento Bee

The Bee recently featured articles on the problem of prescription drug abuse and the need to talk with teens. While still a public menace, illicit substances like heroin and cocaine have taken a back seat to the abuse of legal prescription medications. Many of these medications when misused or altered in some way – melted, pulverized, mixed with some other substance, injected into blood vessels – are just as addictive as many illicit drugs and can have at least as harmful side effects and morbidity. Even worse, prescription drugs are the second most common cause of accidental death in the United States.

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Feds sue landlord of Berkeley marijuana dispensary

Fresno Bee

The federal government is suing Berkeley's largest medical marijuana outlet with the goal of seizing the property from its landlord. The Contra Costa Times reports the suit accuses Berkeley Patients Group of breaking federal drug laws by allowing the sale of marijuana. It claims landlord Nahla Droubi is subject to seizure of her property.

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California Supreme Court upholds medical pot bans

Los Angeles Times

The California Supreme Court on Monday unanimously upheld the right of cities to ban medical marijuana dispensaries. “While some counties and cities might consider themselves well suited to accommodating medical marijuana dispensaries, conditions in other communities might lead to the reasonable decision that such facilities within their borders, even if carefully sited, well managed, and closely monitored, would present unacceptable local risks and burdens,” Justice Marvin R. Baxter wrote for the court.

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Drug take-back events help state see record day

Merced Sun-Star

Last month's drug take-back event was a record-breaking one for Northern California, with Merced County playing a role in that effort. It was part of National Drug Take Back Day, which allows residents to take unused or unwanted prescription drugs to designated drop-off sites to dispose of them safely. Northern California had a record 211 collection sites held by 147 law enforcement agencies, according to an email from the Department of Justice. More than 18 tons of unused or expired medications were dropped off.

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Lindsay Lohan avoids jail — again

Fox4kc.com

Lindsay Lohan checked into a California rehab center early Friday, ending — at least for now — a drama that has had more twists and turns than a high-speed car chase. Shawn Holley, the lawyer who guided Lohan through years of legal turmoil until the actress abruptly fired her in January, helped her avoid jail once again by brokering a deal, her father told CNN Friday.

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Coalition working on ballot measure to limit prescription drug abuse

Los Angeles Times

Fearing lawmakers may fail to pass a package of medical reform bills, a coalition of consumer groups and trial lawyers is mounting a campaign to put before voters an even more ambitious slate of initiatives aimed at curbing prescription drug abuse and holding doctors more accountable for misconduct.

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Treatment Facility has no License

TMZ.com

The treatment facility Lindsay Lohan is currently at has NO LICENSE to provide rehab treatment because its license was REVOKED ... TMZ has learned. TMZ broke the story ... Lindsay has entered Morningside Recovery in Newport Beach ... even though prosecutors never signed off on the facility. The judge is giving prosecutors a week to investigate the facility, and here's the first thing they'll find.

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Huntington Beach detox facility in question over man's death

ABC 7

One year ago, Jason Redmer passed away and not a day goes by that his mother, Lynne, doesn't ask the question, "Why?" "He had a deep heart and he just loved life," the Orange County resident recalls. But behind his big smile was a decade long struggle with alcohol. "Whiskey is what he normally would drink," she said. "He said when he would go on trips and vacations he would take lots of pictures because he wouldn't remember the vacations." Redmer's family said he tried several times to get sober, only to relapse. After a work injury in 2010, his mother said he also became addicted to pain killers. "It was horrible because he was trying. He was trying so hard," the grieving mother said.

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California's medical board backs some prescription-drug-abuse reforms

Los Angeles Times

The Medical Board of California on Friday embraced a host of reforms aimed at combating prescription drug abuse and reducing overdose deaths but balked at a proposal to strip it of its authority to investigate physician misconduct. The board, meeting in Los Angeles, voted to support proposed legislation that would upgrade the state's prescription drug monitoring system, require coroners to report prescription drug overdose deaths to the board, and give the panel new power to halt a doctor's prescribing in some cases.

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California conservative defends state's pot law in Congress

Los Angeles Times

For more than a decade, conservative Orange County Rep. Dana Rohrabacher has formed an unusual alliance with liberals on an unexpected topic — the defense of marijuana. Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) and his allies have so far waged a futile effort to pass legislation that would prevent federal authorities from interfering with medical marijuana use in California and other places where pot use is permitted by state law.

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Be prudent in diagnosing, medicating ADHD

San Francisco Chronicle

Among all the changes that are about to happen in the way doctors diagnose psychiatric problems, I'm most concerned about the ones that could lead to adults and teens being misdiagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is the guide by which most doctors make a diagnosis. The newest edition, the DSM-5, includes a number of changes and will be published in May. ADHD is a behavioral syndrome that is characterized by multiple symptoms of inattention or hyperactivity.

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Son's overdose makes San Ramon woman a tireless crusader

San Jose Mercury News

Blindsided by the death of her 21-year-old son, Joey, from a combination of prescription drugs and alcohol in 2009, April Rovero has since made it her mission to help other parents avoid the nightmare she endured. For the past three years, few individuals have done more than Rovero to educate students, parents and lawmakers on the dangers of such prescription drugs as OxyContin, Vicodin and Ritalin. In 2010, Rovero, 60, founded the nonprofit National Coalition Against Prescription Drug Abuse to stem the rise in deaths and raise awareness of the problem nationwide.

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Capitol Alert: Bill setting 'zero tolerance' for driving on drugs stalls in Senate

San Luis Obispo Tribune

A proposal to create a "zero tolerance" policy for driving under the influence of drugs stalled in the California Senate on Tuesday. Senate Bill 289, by Democratic Sen. Lou Correa of Santa Ana would make it illegal to drive if the driver's blood contains any trace of drugs, including cocaine, heroin, marijuana and painkillers. Medications that have been lawfully prescribed, excluding medicinal marijuana, would be exempted.

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Teen girls less successful than boys at quitting meth in UCLA pilot research study

UCLA Newsroom

A UCLA-led study of adolescents receiving treatment for methamphetamine dependence has found that girls are more likely to continue using the drug during treatment than boys, suggesting that new approaches are needed for treating meth abuse among teen girls.

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