Wood County Prevention Coalition
Uniting For A Drug-Free Community Since 2004
Trump's Choice For Top Law Enforcer Has Cannabis Proponents Fearing Future
NPR November 20, 20163:46 PM ET by Nathan Rott
When Donald Trump offered Sen. Jeff Sessions the position of attorney general, the pick drew criticism from civil rights groups and immigrant advocates. In the fast-growing, multibillion-dollar marijuana industry, it is also raising fears.
Sessions is no fan of marijuana or its legalization, based on his previous comments, and as attorney general he would oversee federal prosecutors and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). At a Senate hearing in April, the Alabama lawmaker praised Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" campaign and criticized the Obama administration and cannabis legalization efforts.
"We need grown-ups in Washington to say marijuana is not the kind of thing that ought to be legalized, it ought not to be minimized, that it is in fact a very real danger," Sessions said.
Messaging should be clear, Sessions said, "that good people don't smoke marijuana."
That type of rhetoric is fueling concerns in the country's budding marijuana industry. Marijuana is still listed as a Schedule 1 substance under the Controlled Substances Act and is illegal under federal law, but a growing number of states have approved its legalization under the Obama administration.
Holiday season difficult for some
Jon Wysochanski | The Chronicle-Telegram
Published on Nov. 26, 2016
They say ’tis the season to be jolly, but unfortunately that isn’t always the case.
The holiday season can be stressful for anyone, but for those struggling with mental health issues the days leading up to Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day can be especially daunting.
According to an article published in Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience, there appears to be an increase in certain types of psychopathology during the Christmas season, including worsening of mood and increased alcohol-related fatalities.
The number of psychiatric patients in emergency rooms and inpatient wards is lower before Christmas as is the number of suicide attempts and completions, the study said, but after Christmas clinicians can expect to see an overall increase in patients seeking psychiatric care.
Rebecca Jones, Nord Center director of intake counseling, said the Lorain-based center sees a general increase in the number of people seeking mental health assistance during the holidays.
“Some clients need to be seen more frequently by their therapists,” Jones said. “We want to help people understand they can make meaning of a holiday even if your life isn’t how it used to be or how you’d like it to be.”
The Lorain County Board of Mental Health produces a booklet, “Coping with the Holidays,” that provides tips to make it through loss, change or struggles during the holiday season.
Prescription opioid producer based in Chandler under fire
Chandler-based Insys Therapeutics, a producer of a popular prescription opioid, is under fire for its practices of selling and allegedly indirectly promoting abuse of its painkiller called Subsys.
It’s most telling case involves two Alabama doctors who prescribed nearly $5 million of the highly-addictive painkiller to Medicare patients in 2013 and 2014, reports the Wall Street Journal.
According to the paper, Insys co-founder and billionaire Chairman John N. Kapoor personally visited with Drs. John Couch and Xiulu Ruan. The company additionally paid them about $270,00 in combined fees to work as consultants on behalf of Insys.
The prosecutors consider the fees bribes for the doctors prescribing the drugs more than any other doctors in the country, according to federal data. The pair wrote more than a quarter million prescriptions of Insys products, some which were allegedly used by addicts or “diverted to drug traffickers,” the indictment said.
The company produced large sums of Fentanyl — Subsys is a Fentanyl drug — an opioid that can be “up to 50 times as powerful as heroin” and, according to the charges, has aided the prescription drug addiction crisis in the United States.
The Wall Street Journal reports that data shows Insys promoted doctors to over-prescribe their products. "Of the top 20 physician-prescribers of Subsys to Medicare patients in 2014, more than half were also among the 20 largest recipients of consulting and other fees from Insys that year, a Journal analysis of recently released federal data shows."
Environmental Scans as Tools for Reducing Excessive College Drinking Webinar
Wednesday, Nov 30, 2016, 02:00 PM
Wood County Educational Service Center 1867 N Research Drive, Bowling Green, OH, United States
RSVPs are enabled for this event.
About Us
Our Vision: Helping youth be drug-free, productive and responsible citizens.
Our Mission: We are a coalition of compassionate community members working together to coordinate high quality programs for the prevention of youth substance abuse in Wood County.
Email: mkarna@wcesc.org
Website: wcprevention.org
Location: 1867 Research Drive, Bowling Green, OH, United States
Phone: (419)-354-9010
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WCPCoalition
Twitter: @woodpccoalition