NJ Governor Signs Measure Requiring Treatment for Low-Level Drug Offenders

By Join Together Staff | July 20, 2012 | Leave a comment | Filed in Community Related, Drugs, Legal, Legislation & Treatment

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on Thursday signed a measure that requires treatment for low-level drug offenders who otherwise would go to prison, according to The Star-Ledger.

The law establishes a $2.5 million pilot program that will expand drug courts in three New Jersey counties. It also expands the types of crimes that make inmates eligible for drug court, which will now be mandatory for those inmates. The article notes drug court programs require inmates to undergo intensive outpatient or inpatient treatment. In order to qualify, inmates must have a drug addiction, be receptive to treatment and be deemed able to be helped by treatment. The inmates appear regularly before judges, who determine whether they are meeting the terms of the five-year program.

“When I outlined this proposal six months ago, I made it clear that our commitment to our most vulnerable was not just a matter of dollars and cents, it was about reclaiming lives. No life is disposable and every life can be redeemed, but not if we ignore them,” Governor Christie said in a news release. “Once again by putting people before partisanship, we are providing optimism and hope to individuals and families torn apart by addiction. Once fully phased in over five years, this program will provide mandatory drug treatment to appropriate offenders who are not a threat to society and who suffer from the disease of addiction—redeeming lives and healing families.”

New Jersey spends $42,000 to house an inmate for one year, compared with $11,300 for drug courts, according to the newspaper. Governor Christie wanted inmates in every county to qualify for mandatory drug treatment, but Democratic legislators objected to the cost. The governor agreed to their suggestion of a five-year period to phase in the program to all counties, to allow the state time to fully fund the program, while giving private treatment facilities time to expand.

THE PARTNERSHIP OF DRUGFREE NEW BILINGUAL RESOURCES

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Clear, understandable content is brought to life with customized checklists, how-to guides and videos featuring Hispanic parents and experts touching on various aspects of substance abuse for those who are at different stages in raising their children.

I sat down with Telemundo television network to tell them more about this unique resource – take a look at the extensive news coverage that helped us reach more families in the Hispanic community.

I also spent time talking directly with Latino parents on Univision Radio’s popular, live call-in program, "The Doctora Isabel Show,” where we discussed new research showing that rates of substance abuse among Hispanic teens are at much higher levels than those of teens from other ethnic groups.

Working together, we can protect our children from the dangers of drugs and alcohol abuse. Please tell a friend about “Habla Con Tus Hijos” today.

Thank you,

Monica Liriano
Associate Director, Consumer Research & Multicultural Programs
The Partnership at Drugfree.org

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Commentary: Illegal Online Pharmacies: A Potentially Fatal Threat to Consumers

By Marjorie Clifton | July 20, 2012 | Leave a comment | Filed in Community Related & Prescription Drugs


Over 96% of websites claiming to sell prescription medications are out of compliance with U.S. pharmacy laws and practice standards—a statistic that may come as a surprise to the average American consumer.[1] While this statistic may seem irrelevant to Americans who have never considered using the Internet to purchase products such as antibiotics or allergy medications, prescription drugs are among the most sought after e-commerce products — the 13th most purchased product online behind categories such as furniture, baby products and household supplies.

Getting a prescription filled online is not necessarily bad; it can be convenient and sometimes cheaper. However, there are important factors to consider when purchasing pharmaceuticals over the Internet: (a) the sellers of online medications are atypical; (b) medicine from unsafe sources can be toxic; and (c) the criminal networks behind these websites don’t care about your health – only your money. The newly formed Center for Safe Internet Pharmacies (CSIP) is working hard to address all three factors, and underscoring the importance of knowing who you are buying from.

While most consumers think they can spot a “good” versus a “bad” pharmacy website, they are often indistinguishable. Internet-based prescription drug dealers (or “illegitimate online drug sellers”) are very good at mimicking legitimate online pharmacies — even going so far as to display forged, seemingly authentic pharmacy licenses on their websites — which is why intuition alone is not enough. Most importantly, one should know a legitimate online pharmacy will always require a valid prescription. This means a prescription obtained by a practitioner who has examined the patient at some point. Illegitimate online drug sellers may require a prescription, but source the drugs from unverified supply chains, unregulated for safety or authenticity. Alarmingly, some physicians are not trained to make this distinction and unknowingly promote illegitimate online drug sellers to patients.

So who buys medication online? Although the “typical” online medication buyer is over the age of 55, there are growing numbers of young adults buying online without a prescription. 1 in 6 American adults, approximately 36 million people, are estimated to have bought medication online without a valid prescription.[2] This can be a deadly or life-altering prospect. Craig Schmidt, a 30-year-old plastics salesman, purchased Xanax (an anxiety drug) and Ultram (a pain drug) from an online pharmacy without ever seeing or speaking to the doctor that prescribed the medications. The Xanax tablets that Schmidt received contained quadruple the active ingredient that a doctor would prescribe. As a result of this overdose, Schmidt nearly died and has been left permanently impaired with widespread brain damage that inhibits him from driving or even walking without stumbling.[3] Unfortunately, stories like Craig Schmidt’s are not as uncommon as one would hope.

In 2010, the U.S. market alone accounted for an estimated $75 billion in sales for counterfeit drug makers; a lucrative prospect for criminal networks. There has also been a rising trend of malware appearing on illegal pharmacy sites – designed to steal your information and used for credit card or identity theft. GoDaddy.com took action on 47,000 illegal pharmaceutical sites last year alone and 27,000 of them contained malware.

How can this problem be fixed? The prevalence of illegal online drug sellers has made it virtually impossible for the law enforcement community to address the problem alone. So, in late 2010, CSIP was created to provide a first-ever private sector solution, and among the first public-private partnerships, formed to protect consumers from rogue Internet pharmacies. The mission of the organization is four fold: to educate consumers about the threat of illegal pharmacies, to work with law enforcement to eliminate the criminal networks, to share information among companies about illegal sites and to aid in building a “white list” of safe sites.

Currently, CSIP members include 11 corporations who are part of the Internet ecosystem. These companies will be announcing their partnership with U.S. Government agencies to tackle the problem of illegal online drug sellers at the White House on July 23, 2012. The event will kick off CSIP’s public education campaign, which will include a website with: a URL checker where consumers can confirm the legitimacy of online pharmacy websites, search engine advertising and public service announcement videos.

To learn more, visit the Center for Safe Internet Pharmacies’ website at www.safemedsonline.org.

Marjorie Clifton, Executive Director, Center for Safe Internet Pharmacies

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NY Officials Call State’s New Prescription Drug Monitoring System a Model for Country

By Join Together Staff | July 17, 2012 | Leave a comment | Filed in Community Related, Legislation, Prescription Drugs & Prevention

New York’s new prescription drug monitoring system, which will show pharmacists in real time whether patients have been “doctor shopping” for drugs, is a model for the rest of the country, state officials said Monday.

The Internet System for Tracking Over-Prescribing, or I-STOP, was recently approved by both houses of the state legislature, according to the Associated Press. It is awaiting the signature of Governor Andrew Cuomo, and will go into effect next year, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said.

Under the new system, physicians and pharmacists will be required to monitor a patient’s prescription history before they write or dispense prescriptions for painkillers that contain oxycodone, such as OxyContin, Percocet and Percodan.

Since the new system will operate only in New York, there is no way to ensure that patients are not getting prescriptions filled in other states, Schneiderman said. He is urging other states to adopt the system, and added that the best solution would be a federal drug monitoring database.

“With I-STOP, we are creating a national model for smart, coordinated communication between health care providers and pharmacists to better serve patients, stop prescription drug trafficking, and provide treatment to those who need help,” Schneiderman said in a news release.

Earlier this year, several state medical groups said they opposed the system, including the Medical Society of the State of New York, which represents 30,000 doctors. The group said it was concerned that the system would create a burden on physicians’ practices. The Pharmacists Society of the State of New York also said it opposes I-STOP because of added demands the system would create for pharmacies.

Advocates Seek to Exclude Death Penalty for Defendants With Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

By Join Together Staff | July 16, 2012 | Leave a comment | Filed in Alcohol,Community Related, Legal & Mental Health

A growing number of murder cases nationwide seek to exclude the death penalty for defendants with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), The Seattle Times reports.

In one such case, advocates are trying to prevent the death penalty for Mark Anthony Soliz, a convicted murderer on death row in Texas. His mother drank heavily, used drugs and sniffed paint while she was pregnant, the article notes.

Those who favor eliminating the death penalty for people with fetal alcohol syndrome point to the U.S. Supreme Court decision to abolish the death penalty for defendants with mental retardation. “The damage to the executive functioning of the brain is as severe as someone who is intellectually disabled,” said John Niland, Director of the Capital Trial Project with the Texas Defender Service.

Victims’ advocates and prosecutors say such a decision would let killers off easy. “FAS should not be used as an excuse for intentionally and knowingly murdering another person,” victims’ rights advocate Andy Kahan told the newspaper. “Clearly, the defendant has been able to make law-abiding decisions on a daily basis, and they obviously know right from wrong. FAS is yet another hurdle for surviving family members of homicide to overcome to secure justice for the coldblooded murder of their loved ones.”

Another Texas death-row inmate, Yokamon Laneal Hearn, who was also diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome, is set for execution Wednesday. He was convicted in the shooting of a stockbroker during a robbery. Amnesty International is urging a letter-writing campaign for clemency to Texas Governor Rick Perry. The article notes the U.S. Supreme Court has already rejected a request to review a fetal alcohol case, which involved Louisiana death-row inmate Brandy Holmes, who was named after her mother’s favorite liquor.