Commission Asks For Shorter Drug Trafficking Sentences

By Join Together Staff | April 17, 2014 | Leave a comment | Filed in Drugs &Legal

The U.S. Sentencing Commission, which advises federal judges, is recommending shorter prison sentences for most federal drug trafficking offenders, according to Reuters. Up to 70 percent of these offenders would receive shorter prison sentences if the commission’s recommendations are not opposed by Congress.

“This modest reduction in drug penalties is an important step toward reducing the problem of prison overcrowding at the federal level in a proportionate and fair manner,” Commission Chair Judge Patti B. Saris said in a news release. “Reducing the federal prison population has become urgent, with that population almost three times where it was in 1991.”

Last month, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder testified in favor of changing federal guidelines to reduce the average sentence for drug dealers. He told the Sentencing Commission the Obama Administration supports changing guidelines to reduce the average drug sentence by about one year, from 62 months to 51 months. The proposed changes would reduce the federal prison population by about 6,550 inmates over the next five years, the article notes. Currently, half of the 215,000 inmates in the federal prison system are serving time for drug crimes.

The new rules will go into effect on November 1, unless Congress votes to stop the sentencing guidelines, the article notes. Drug traffickers with the greatest quantities of drugs would not receive reduced sentences.

Reducing sentences could result in less leverage for prosecutors, warned Scott Burns, Executive Director of the National District Attorneys Association. He said district attorneys often use the threat of long sentences to convince drug offenders who have witnessed larger crimes to cooperate. “They can use the leverage of the threat of harsher punishment in order to solve murder cases and prosecute drug kingpins,” he said.

APRIL 16 v 33 TWELVE STEPPING WITH POWER IN THE PROVERB 

We may throw the dice,
    but the Lord determines how they fall.

STEP 3 - Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God.

  What are you waiting for ! HE HAS A PURPOSE ! HE HAS A PLAN ! You can roll the dice all you want but you will never control the outcome . Haven ' t you made enough of a mess ! All you need to do is step three pray ,   relax , live , laugh , love , forgive , forget , and breathe ! 

Romans 12 : 2 - And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

By Joseph Dickerson
  

Almost One-Fourth of Pregnant Women on Medicaid Filled Opioid Prescriptions: Study
 

By Join Together Staff | April 15, 2014 | Leave a comment | Filed in Parenting & Prescription Drugs


Almost one-quarter of pregnant women enrolled in Medicaid in 2007 filled a prescription for opioids, a new study finds. The risks of opioids to a developing fetus are largely unknown, The New York Times reports.

An estimated 1.1 million pregnant women were enrolled in Medicaid in 2007. The program covers medical expenses for 45 percent of births in the United States, according to the newspaper. The study, published in Obstetrics & Gynecology, found the rate of opioid prescribing is on the rise—18.5 percent of pregnant women enrolled in Medicaid in 2000 filled opioid prescriptions, compared with 23 percent in 2007.

“To hear that there’s such a high use of narcotics in pregnancy when I see so many women who worry about a cup of coffee seems incongruous,” Dr. Joshua A. Copel, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the Yale School of Medicine, told The New York Times.

The reason for the increase in opioid prescribing for pregnant women is unclear, but may be partly due to back pain.

An article published earlier this year in Anesthesiology, which included 500,000 privately insured women, found 14 percent were given opioid painkillers at least once during their pregnancy. Both studies found codeine and hydrocodone were the most commonly prescribed opioids during pregnancy. Most of the women took the drugs for a week or less.

The Medicaid study found stark regional differences in opioid prescribing. Among pregnant women in Utah, 41.6 percent were prescribed opioids, compared with 35.6 percent in Idaho, 9.6 percent in New York and 9.5 percent in Oregon. “The regional variation really concerned me the most,” said Dr. Pamela Flood, a professor of anesthesiology and pain medicine at Stanford University. “It’s hard to imagine that pregnant women in the South have all that much more pain than pregnant women in the Northeast.”

Bipartisan Senate Group Forms to Fight Prescription Drug Abuse
By Join Together Staff | April 15, 2014 | Leave a comment | Filed in Government, Prescription Drugs & Prevention

A bipartisan group of senators has formed to fight prescription drug abuse, according to The Hill. The group will look for innovative solutions to opioid abuse.

The Prescription Drug Abuse Working Group, part of the Senate Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, will convene a series of meetings about prescription drug abuse, involving local, state and federal officials, private coalitions, and companies developing novel technologies for combating abuse. The group will focus on hydrocodone, oxycodone and other narcotics that can be easily abused, according to HELP Committee Chairman Tom Harkin of Iowa.

Committee Ranking Member Lamar Alexander of Tennessee has been an outspoken critic of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of the pure hydrocodone drug Zohydro. In February, he and two other Republican senators wrote to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg to protest the agency’s decision to approve the drug. They wrote, “We believe the approval of pure hydrocodone products without methods to prevent abuse, misuse, and diversion, including abuse-deterrent formulations, poses a significant danger to our constituents, as it could worsen the drug abuse epidemic in our country.”

In a news release announcing the new Senate working group, Alexander said, “Not a day goes by that we don’t hear news of how prescription drug abuse is harming Americans across the nation, including in Tennessee. We are launching this working group to look at the problem from all angles—particularly what the federal government is doing to enable the mayors, governors, and law enforcement and public health officials who are working hard to address the problem.”

April 15 v 22 TWELVE STEPPING WITH POWER IN THE PROVERB

Plans go wrong for lack of advice;
    many advisers bring success.

STEP 1  - We admitted we were powerless against addiction - that our lives had become unmanageable.

Sometimes it takes a village to raise a child. When it comes to sobriety the same is true . I have seen many including myself under the direction of my old prideful thinking that I can white Knuckle my recovery in the beginning and then I would be fine. It was that kinda of thinking that kept me stuck for so long. Addiction is the only war you will win when you surrender, Our nature as humans is to dominate and stay in charge.The step tells us we are powerless and that is only true if we think we can do this on our own. Surrendering and admitting your whipped breaks the grip of your foolish pride .Once its grip is loosened you have to cry out for help from others like yourself who have been right where you are . The more brothers and sisters you surround yourself with and talk to the more likely your chances  of success will be. 

Psalms 13: 3 - 6 - Consider [and] hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the [sleep of] death;

By Joseph Dickerson

Largest Health Insurer in Massachusetts Has Cut Narcotic Prescriptions
 

By Join Together Staff | April 9, 2014 | 1 Comment | Filed in Community Related, Insurance, Prescription Drugs & Prevention


Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the state’s largest health insurer, announced it has reduced prescriptions of narcotic painkillers by about 6.6 million pills in the past 18 months. The insurer limited the amount of opioids that members could obtain without prior approval of the company, WBUR reports.

Since the changes were implemented in July 2012, prescriptions for opioids including Percocet have declined by 20 percent, and those for long-lasting drugs such as OxyContin have declined by 50 percent, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts President Andrew Dreyfus told The Boston Globe.

An initial review of prescription information, launched in 2011, revealed more than 30,000 of the company’s members received opioid prescriptions that lasted for more than 30 days. “What we found out is in looking at patients who deserved to get pain medications or needed pain medications, many of them were getting significantly more than they would need,” Dr. John Fallon, Senior Vice President and Chief Physician Executive, told WBUR.

Under the program, patients are initially given shorter-term prescriptions for opioids. Patients seeking long-term prescriptions must go through a review process. Before patients are given more medication beyond the new limits, they must be assessed for the risk of addiction, and must agree on a treatment plan with their doctor.

Patients with cancer or other terminal illnesses are exempt from the rules.

“In the past, physicians said that no one should be in pain, and people gave more prescription medication than they probably needed, and that led to supply sitting around, which was then used for inappropriate reasons,” Fallon said. “Now I think there’s an awareness in the physician community how hazardous these medications are.”