Patty McCarthy Metcalf is New Executive Director of Faces & Voices of Recovery

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December 16th, 2014/

Faces & Voices of Recovery announced the organization’s new Executive Director is Patty McCarthy Metcalf, MS, a longtime board member.

McCarthy Metcalf comes to Faces & Voices of Recovery from the Center for Social Innovation, where she served as a Deputy Director of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Bringing Recovery Supports to Scale Technical Assistance Center Strategy initiative.

Previously, she served for a decade as the Director of Friends of Recovery-Vermont, a statewide recovery community organization promoting the power of long-term recovery to improve the health and quality of life of Vermonters.

In addition to public policy and education, her work has focused on community mobilizing, peer-based recovery support services and peer workforce development. She has been instrumental in the development of a national accreditation for recovery community organizations and in the development of peer support standards.

McCarthy Metcalf is a woman in long-term recovery from alcohol and drug addiction, since 1989.

Medicare Starts Identifying Doctors Who May Prescribe Too Many Painkillers

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December 18th, 2014/

This year Medicare has started examining prescribing data to identify physicians who write large numbers of prescriptions for narcotic painkillers and stimulants. Next year Medicare will be able to kick doctors out of the program if they are found to be prescribing in abusive ways, USA Today reports.

Twelve of Medicare’s top 20 prescribers of drugs such as oxycodone, morphine, fentanyl and Ritalin faced disciplinary actions by their state medical boards or criminal charges related to their medical practices in 2012. These are Schedule 2 drugs, meaning the government classifies them as having a high potential for abuse. One doctor in Huntsville, Alabama, wrote more than 14,000 Schedule 2 prescriptions in 2012. He had his controlled-substances certificate suspended by the state medical board, and surrendered his medical license.

Medicare’s drug program, Medicare Part D, pays for more than one-fourth of prescriptions dispensed in the United States, the article notes. The program covers about 38 million seniors and disabled people.

An analysis by ProPublica found 269 providers wrote at least 3,000 prescriptions for Schedule 2 drugs in 2012. The largest number of these doctors were concentrated in Florida (52), followed by Tennessee (25). In September, Medicare sent letters to 760 physicians who prescribed the most Schedule 2 drugs in their medical specialty and state. The agency also sent information about 71 doctors for possible investigation to the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services.

“Simply being an outlier doesn’t establish that you’re doing something wrong,” said Shantanu Agrawal, Director of the Center for Program Integrity at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “What we are trying to do is give physicians the ability to assess themselves, given their comparative data.”

Keep Up Fight Against Prescription Drug Abuse, Senators Urge

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December 18th, 2014/

A group of senators working to reduce the toll of prescription drug abuse sent letters to government officials and health groups this week, urging them to continue fighting what they called a national epidemic.

The bipartisan group of senators who wrote the letters are members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, The Hill reports. The senators called for increased public education on the issue, as well as training of law enforcement officials.

“With our shared goal of preventing and reducing prescription drug abuse in this country — a crisis that demands continued action, we expect that your activities in this area will continue, and we stand ready to assist you,” the senators wrote.

The senators wrote to officials at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the National Governors Association, the National Association of City and County Health Officials and other health advocacy groups.

They noted prescription drug overdose death rates have more than tripled in the United States since 1990.

In a letter to HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell, the senators encouraged her agency to continue evaluating prescription drug monitoring programs, which they called “an important tool in preventing and detecting abuse.” They also asked HHS to provide additional guidance on the standards to achieve labeling of abuse-deterrent formulation drugs.

Many Parents Know When Their Teens are Hosting Parties With Alcohol: Study

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December 16th, 2014/

A new study finds that when teens host parties where alcohol is available, their parents are often aware of the underage drinking.

The study, published in the Journal of Primary Prevention, included 1,100 teens in Northern California. Lead researcher Bettina Friese of the Prevention Research Center in Oakland found 39 percent of teens hosted parties with alcohol. Seventy percent of these teens said their parents knew there was drinking going on, and an additional 24 percent said their parents probably knew.

In a previous study published in the Journal of Drug Education, Friese found parents have a variety of reasons for allowing underage drinking, NPR reports. They say they want to pass on knowledge about drinking responsibly and appreciating alcohol. They may feel pressure from other adults to let their teen drink. Some say they are concerned that forbidding underage drinking would harm their relationship with their teen and potentially lead to drunk driving.

Cities and communities around the country have passed some sort of social host law, which holds adults responsible for any underage drinking that occurs on their property.

In Ventura County, California, a person can be fined $1,000 if they are 21 or older and host a party where alcohol is available to minors. If police are called to the same location twice in one year, the fine doubles to $2,000. The parents are also charged for the cost of city services if the fire department or other emergency services are called. Underage drinking has decreased in the county since the law was passed six years ago, the article notes.

Another recent study found teenagers are less likely to drink at parties if their community has strong social hosting laws. The researchers looked at 50 communities in California, half of which had social hosting laws. Teens were less likely to say they drank at parties if they lived in communities with especially strong social hosting laws.

More States Considering Ban on Powdered Alcohol

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December 16th, 2014/

Lawmakers in a growing number of states are considering banning powdered alcohol, a product that has not yet arrived in stores, according to the Associated Press.

Alaska, Delaware, Louisiana, South Carolina and Vermont already have banned powdered alcohol, also known as “Palcohol.” Minnesota, Ohio, New York and Colorado also are considering bans, the article notes.

Critics say Palcohol could increase underage drinking. It is marketed as an ounce of rum or vodka in powdered form, which is mixed with water. Lipsmark, which owns Palcohol, says each serving is the equivalent of a shot of liquor.

“I think being proactive and jumping out in front of the problem is probably the right thing to do,” said Chris Johnson, Executive Director of the County Sheriffs of Colorado. “It really doesn’t have any place in our society, powered alcohol. We have enough problems with the liquid kind.”

Mark Phillips, who created Palcohol, says in a video on the product’s website that it would be sold only at liquor stores to people who are at least 21 years old. The company says the product will not be available in stores until this coming spring at the earliest. It must first receive labeling approval from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

Earlier this year, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer of New York urged the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to prevent federal approval of Palcohol. He said it could become “the Kool-Aid of teen binge drinking.” He asked the FDA to investigate the potential harmful effects of the product.

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