Category Archives: Drug Dependency

Published: Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 10:20 p.m. Last Modified: Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 10:20 p.m. LAKELAND | The Florida Department of Health has suspended the license of registered nurse Damian Slifer, accusing him of drug use and not complying with substance-abuse treatment. The chain of events leading to Slifer's emergency suspension last month began on April 16, 2012. A Winter Haven Hospital human resources manager contacted Intervention Project for Nurses, a program for impaired nurses, and said Slifer was believed to be diverting pain medicine from work for his own use. Two days later, the emergency suspension order says, Slifer contacted the intervention program. He said he worked part time at Winter Haven Hospital and full time at Lakeland Regional Medical Center. He admitted to using both Dilaudid and fentanyl, another pain drug, the order says. Slifer, in his mid-20s, said he had experimented with drugs previously. He said he hurt his back in January 2011 and used leftover morphine from work to relieve the pain, the order says. Since it relieved his pain, Slifer said he began diverting more pain medication. He was using it daily by August 2011, the order says. A doctor who examined him … Continue reading →

Legal Aspects during M A http://www.macouncil.org/ We are dedicated to identifying best practices and establishing standards for M A. On behalf of the Leadership Council's Advisory B... By: MALeadershipCouncil … Continue reading →

April Never Ending Video By: SoberCollege … Continue reading →

People in Buttes legal and health care services are anxious about the countys transition from its chemical dependency treatment program to a contracted provider. The Council of Commissioners and others heard from people in that industry during an informational meeting Tuesday aboutthe changeover. Chief Executive Matt Vincent called the meetingto give the public an update onthe process. In February, the county decided to abandon its county-run chemical dependency unit after it had been running a budget deficit of about$1 million since 2005. The county will now call for bids and contract with a private firm to provide this service. The goal is to have a contract by July 1. Joan Cassidy, chief of the states Chemical Dependency Bureau, said the state will review each candidate to be sure they are qualified; the council will have the final say on choosing the provider. While the council will not oversee the operations of the new provider, it will control the money. Cassidy said the money comes from alcohol taxes, and other state and federal dollars. Butte-Silver Bow is the last county in the state to run its own chemical dependency treatment center. There are about 30 contracted providers in the state. Ken … Continue reading →

MALIBU, Calif., April 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- California's worker's comp regulations have had the tragic unintended consequence of creating lifelong drug addicts. Faced with more restrictive rules than before, workers compensation lawyers have been scrambling to figure out ways to increase the value of their clients' cases. In order to receive the largest payouts possible, a cadre of unscrupulous lawyers and medical doctors have teamed up to exacerbate workers' reported medical conditions. When workers with back injuries see these lawyers, they are sent to doctors who overprescribe addictive pain medication, creating lifelong addiction in their clients that can then be termed a permanent disability, which receives the highest payouts from insurance carriers. This practice not only bilks insurers, it destroys the lives of injured workers. More and more, injured workers are filing worker's compensation for back pain along with psychological disorders. This is a new trend. In 1961, heart disease and stroke accounted for 25% of disability claims. Today, back pain and mental illness make up 53% of claims, according to the Social Security Administration. Workers in these cases may ask for full disability benefits based on permanent back injury and psychological distress caused by the injury. The disability caused … Continue reading →

Apr. 7, 2013 Vemurafenib-resistant tumors in patients with melanoma showed reduced growth after cessation of treatment, and in animal models, drug resistance was prevented by intermittent treatment, according to data presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013, held in Washington, D.C., April 6-10. "It was exciting to witness the discovery of BRAF mutations in melanoma and the translation of this discovery into an effective therapy with vemurafenib," said Darrin Stuart, Ph.D., senior research investigator at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research in Emeryville, Calif. "It was, however, disappointing to see patients stop responding to such a promising therapy after six to eight months of treatment." BRAF mutations are found in more than half of all cases of melanoma, and previous studies have shown vemurafenib increases survival for these patients, according to Stuart. However, most patients relapse with lethal, drug-resistant disease. In a previous study to investigate the mechanisms causing melanomas to become resistant to vemurafenib, Stuart and his colleagues grew patient-derived tumors expressing BRAF mutations in mice and demonstrated that not only do these tumors develop vemurafenib resistance, but they become dependent on the drug to grow. Tumors stopped growing and regressed after cessation of the drug in these animals. … Continue reading →

Butte-Silver Bow is bringing the state of Montana in on a search to find a new service provider for the county chemical dependency services. Chief Executive Matt Vincent is holding an informational meeting on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the council chambers of the courthouse to discuss the matter. He said Tuesdays meeting will cover the process of having the help of the Department of Public Health and Human Services to select a new service provider. In February, Vincent announced that the county could no longer afford to run the chemical dependency center. A budget analysis showed the program had run about $1 million in the red since 2005. Vincent said he hoped the county could find a new provider by the beginning of the next fiscal year in July. Butte-Silver Bow is the only municipality in Montana with a local government-run chemical dependency center. Reporter Piper Haugan: 422-3114,piper.haugan@mtstandard.comor Twitter.com/Piper_Haugan Read more: Meeting tonight on drug treatment center … Continue reading →

Overcoming obstacles: One local woman helps twin daughters overcome symptoms of autism Stephanie Brausey has encouraged her two twin girls, who were diagnosed with autism at the age of three, to overcome obstacles and learn life skills be getti... By: logannews … Continue reading →

Inching slowly up the stairs of a gray and nondescript apartment block in the northwest border town of Cheb, a group of anti-drug police officers - some kitted out in full riot gear - prepare to raid the home of two suspected methamphetamine dealers. Without so much as a warning knock, one of the officers forces open the front door with a battering ram before the others storm past, all shouting at the occupants to get down on the floor. Once inside, they confirm their suspicions by discovering around 30 grams of a "crystalline substance" and various pieces of drug-making equipment. The items are seized, and a 28-year-old man and a 37-year-old woman are arrested. Incidents such as this, shown in a video made public by the authorities in February, are commonplace here. According to Jakub Frydrych, head of the anti-drug police, officers shut down 235 so-called "kitchen" methamphetamine labs in 2012, compared with 388 the year before. Although it might seem like a step in the right direction, Frydrych says the labs, despite being fewer in number, are getting bigger in size and cooking up larger quantities of the drug. "Organized criminal groups, often of Vietnamese origin, are able … Continue reading →

BLOOMINGTON The case against a father accused of giving his 1-year-old daughter an unintentionally fatal dose of a prescription drug was essentially gutted by a judges ruling on the mans drug use history, prosecutors said Wednesday. Martin Stevenson, 26, of Normal is charged with endangering the health of a child resulting in a death. He is accused of allowing Laina Stevenson access to Suboxone, a drug prescribed to treat opiate dependency, in May 2012. In response to a motion from defense lawyer Steve Skelton, McLean County Judge Scott Drazewski ruled that evidence of Stevensons prior drug use and the reason he was prescribed Suboxone are irrelevant and may not be presented to the jury at an April 15 trial. While not suggesting that the state should have filed a murder charge against Stevenson, the judge commented that the act of administering a drug is outside the evidentiary bounds of the current charge against the defendant. In his arguments that the jury should know about Stevensons drug history, First Assistant States Attorney Bill Workman disclosed the states theory as to why the father allegedly gave Laina the drug he takes as part of his treatment for an addiction to prescription pain … Continue reading →