March 8 Chp 73 v 26 TWELVE STEPPING WITH STRENGTH FROM THE PSALMS

My health may fail ,and my spirit may grow weak ,but God remains the strength of my heart ;He is mine forever . 

(GODS BIG BOOK)

STEP 11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. 

God is our core !He is Holy and just ,and seems too be a million miles away because you  drove him there. Let me explain and make this real simple ! Does mustard and mashed potatoes go together ,or does peanut butter go with Mayo . Of course not ! So God cant be apart of all the craziness and wickedness (SIN) in your life . If you want to keep Him near to you ,your gonna have to start living good and what I mean by Good is love God and love you neighbor as you would love yourself .Jesus said we do  these two things then we have completed all that is written in GODS BIG BOOK and that contains two thousand pages plus. As we grow older the time will come (death) and we will cross over and when we do its gonna be GOD and you and He is gonna want an account of what you have done with your life. When we cross over its gonna be too late to change ,so do it now ! I know its hard I was the chief of SIN and I was a slave to multiple addictions and I drove GOD as far away as possible and when GOD did come close I would run because I couldn't love the monster I had become. God is waiting for you to Step 1 2 and 3 He wants to forgive and heal your heart so HE can be your strength throughout your Life and for eternity. By Step 11 you should have a relationship with God you two talking it out like you would your sponsor knowing that know your good and everything is gonna be alright.

1 Peter 5:6-7 - Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may promote  you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

(GODS BIG BOOK) By Joseph Dickerson

Only 53 Percent of Doctors Use Their State Prescription Drug Monitoring Program: Study

/

BY JOIN TOGETHER STAFF

March 3rd, 2015/

Only 53 percent of primary care physicians use their state prescription drug monitoring program, according to a new survey. The national survey found 72 percent of doctors were aware of their state’s program.

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health surveyed 420 primary care physicians about their knowledge of prescription drug monitoring databases, which are designed to reduce prescription drug abuse. The databases can help physicians spot patients who are “doctor shopping,” or obtaining prescriptions from multiple physicians. Every state except Missouri has such a program in place, MedicalXpress reports.

Most of the programs require doctors and/or pharmacists to enter information about prescriptions and dispensing of medications so they can be tracked. In some states, law enforcement can access the data.

The survey found 31 percent of doctors who used the database found accessing the data to be very easy, while 38 percent found it somewhat easy. Fifty-eight percent said the information was too time-consuming to access, and 28 percent said the information was not provided in a format that was easy to use.

The findings are published in Health Affairs.

“The success of these programs depends on physicians’ knowledge, impressions and use of them,” study leader Lainie Rutkow, JD, PhD said in a news release. “While awareness of the programs is relatively high, barriers exist. The information in our report about the barriers physicians face will give states something to focus on.”

Rutkow said a challenge for the programs is the lack of information sharing between states. “It’s a goal of course to ultimately have interstate interaction, especially in large urban areas that span multiple states,” she noted.

A special thank you to the Fix in particular John Lavitt whose dedication to educating others on addiction has helped so many. Great Article! Trouble in Paradise—The State of Addiction in Hollywood By John Lavitt http://www.thefix.com/content/adverse-state-addiction-hollywood-mirrors-country

Visit The Addict's Mom at: http://addictsmom.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

Doctors and Nurses Should be Tested for Drugs and Alcohol: Medical Ethicist

/BY CELIA VIMONT

March 4th, 2015/

Doctors and nurses should undergo random drug testing, argues a leading medical ethicist. “I am sorry to say that addiction and the abuse of drugs are not really a part of the discussion about making medicine safer,” says Arthur L. Caplan, PhD.

“The medical profession has an ethical duty to do a better job of monitoring drug abuse,” says Dr. Caplan, the Founding Director of the Division of Medical Ethics in NYU Langone Medical Center’s Department of Population Health. “Why is it OK to test airplane pilots, train conductors and truck drivers, and not doctors and nurses, who also have a lot of lives in their hands?” He added, “You have to assume some medical errors are due to drug or alcohol abuse.”

As with many professions, it is likely that only a small percentage of people have a problem with drugs and alcohol, Dr. Caplan notes. But those few make patients unsafe. “If you’ve been convicted of drunk driving four or five times, you shouldn’t be seeing patients,” he argues.

Dr. Caplan discussed drug testing in health care workers at the recent annual meeting of the New York Society of Addiction Medicine.

Alcohol, narcotic and sedative addiction is as common among physicians as the general population, according to an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2013. “The problem is particularly serious among doctors and nurses in anesthesiology—the more you are around drugs, with easy access to pain medications, the bigger the risk,” Dr. Caplan notes.

Doctors’ groups have argued that the medical profession can regulate itself. “There’s some denial that there’s a problem, and fear about false positives,” he says. “There’s some notion that the problem requires therapy, rehabilitation and collegial monitoring, not drug testing. Doctors have put so much time into getting trained, and they don’t want to discuss something that could potentially be a career-ender.”

In November, California voters rejected a measure that would have required doctors in the state to submit to random drug and alcohol tests. The measure, known as Proposition 46, was opposed by doctors, hospitals and medical insurance companies. Currently no state has such a requirement.

Doctors are not the only medical professionals who should be tested, Dr. Caplan says. “There are likely to be more nurses than doctors with addiction problems, because there are more of them, not because they have a higher percentage of addiction. They can make mistakes that can kill patients, too.”

Consequences for drug or alcohol use should vary according to the circumstances, according to Dr. Caplan. “For a first offense for alcohol, a doctor or nurse should go into a mandatory treatment program, and have their license suspended until they stay sober for a certain amount of time. Someone who has had repeated offenses with opiates may need to have their license taken away.” Decisions about drug and alcohol offenses should be made by a hospital’s chief medical officer and/or board of trustees, he said. A medical license board may need to get involved in cases that involve repeat offenses.

He concludes, “With all the problems with prescription and recreational drug abuse, I would expect more leadership from the medical profession about treating addiction.”

Short College Programs Only Briefly Successful in Helping Students Reduce Drinking

/BY JOIN TOGETHER STAFF

March 5th, 2015/

Brief alcohol education programs are only temporarily effective in convincing college students to reduce their drinking, a new study suggests.

The study included more than 1,000 college students who had been through some type of alcohol education program, such as an online course, a computerized lab session or one-on-one counseling, NPR reports. After one month, 82 percent of students said they drank less, regardless of which program they participated in. After one year, 84 percent said they had increased their drinking, often to dangerous levels.

The programs were more effective for women, and for younger, more inexperienced drinkers. For about 10 percent of students, most of them men involved in Greek fraternity life, the programs had no effect on their drinking. The heaviest drinkers, who averaged 32 alcoholic drinks on their heaviest drinking weeks, were more likely to play drinking games. They were also most likely to be freshmen.

The study appears in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

Lead researcher James Henson of Old Dominion University said the findings indicate colleges need to keep reminding students who do drink to be aware of their limits, pace themselves and keep hydrated. “You need to remind students that people can still have fun and consume alcohol without hurting themselves,” he said. Some colleges send out reminder emails about drinking, he noted. Henson is developing a system that will send students text reminders when they are out partying.

“When you’re young, your brain isn’t fully developed,” says George Koob, Director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. This means that college freshmen are especially likely to be making bad decisions about drinking, he adds. “Plus on campuses there’s this perception that it’s OK to drink and it’s OK to drink as fast and as much as possible,” he said. “So this is obviously a very complicated problem.”

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/You-re-Invited---March-14--RIR-Unplugged-Free-Community-Meet---Greet-.html?soid=1102906894456&aid=flG8WLGxvuA

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/You-re-Invited---March-14--RIR-Unplugged-Free-Community-Meet---Greet-.html?soid=1102906894456&aid=flG8WLGxvuA