Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly articles from September 2006

Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly archives from September 2006

New welfare regulations may force states to cut treatment for women with children.
September 25, 2006... While states struggle to make substance abuse treatment available for addicted women with children, a new regulation is about to come crashing down that could put this treatment in jeopardy. New regulations governing the work requirements for...

New codes could encourage more screening and brief intervention.
September 25, 2006... The federal government has just given screening and brief intervention (SBI) official codes that doctors can use to "report" or bill for it. Adding a billable service that has its own code will encourage doctors to perform the...

Betty Ford Institute will support research, policy development.
September 25, 2006... Approaching its 25th anniversary as a national leader in addiction treatment, the Betty Ford Center has announced the establishment of an independent institute that will support and conduct research, education, policy development and...

Court blocks enforcement of law to alter Prop. 36.
September 25, 2006... An Alameda County, Calif. judge this month issued an injunction that bars California officials from placing into effect a law that would give judges more latitude to sanction offenders in the landmark Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act...

A film series about addiction and recovery marks recovery month events.(From the Field ...)
September 25, 2006... Earlier this month the Landmark E Street Cinema in downtown Washington, DC was the site of the rollout of the 2006 film series Under the Influence. Conceived and produced by recovery entrepreneur Robyn Leary, president of the Recovery Network...

Treatment centers join with Congressmen to demand parity.(Betty Ford Center and Caron Treatment Centers )(Brief article)
September 25, 2006... The parity bill--proposed legislation that would require insurance companies to treat addiction and mental health disorders the same way they treat other diseases--got a boost from the Betty Ford Center and Caron Treatment Centers, which...

Texas Tech distributes curriculum for on-campus recovery.(Briefly Noted)(Brief article)
September 25, 2006... Texas Tech University's Center for the Study of Addiction and Recovery has printed approximately 1,000 copies of its curriculum to establish recovery communities on college campuses, modeled after its own pioneering program. This is the...

Study finds poor outcomes for early alcohol dependence.(Briefly Noted)(Brief article)
September 25, 2006... The earlier someone consumes alcohol, the more likely that they will become dependent on alcohol, according to a study funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and published in Pediatrics. The analysis from the...

Intervention works for reducing youth meth use.(methamphetamine abuse )(Brief article)
September 25, 2006... In the first clinical study to examine the efficacy of preventive intervention on methamphetamine abuse among youth, Richard Spoth of Iowa State University and colleagues found that a combination of programs reduced lifetime methamphetamine...

Alcoholics' brains can heal with sobriety.(Briefly Noted)(Brief article)
September 25, 2006... In a recent study published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, author George Fein with Neurobehavioral Research Institute and his colleagues report "virtually full recovery" in mental and cognitive abilities in the...

Odyssey House to offer housing assistance.(Briefly Noted)
September 25, 2006... The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has awarded $200,000 to Odyssey House, allowing the comprehensive treatment provider to offer housing placement assistance to its residents. The New York City-based...

Problem gambling prevalent in workplace.(Briefly Noted)(Brief article)
September 25, 2006... The American Psychological Association estimates that 2 to 4 percent of Americans have a gambling problem. According to Bensinger, Dupont & Associates, a Chicago-based provider of employee assistance programs (EAPs) and an operator of problem...

Ann Richards, former Gov. of Texas, recovering alcoholic.(Obituary)
September 25, 2006... Ann Richards, the former Gov. of Texas, died on September 13 at the age of 73, following a battle with esophageal cancer. In a September 16 tribute in The New York Times, published under the title, "Ann R., Alcoholic," Maura J. Casey wrote...

Coming up ...(Calendar)
September 25, 2006... NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals, will co-sponsor its annual conference with the California Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors (CAADAC) and the National Association of Lesbian and Gay Addiction...

In case you haven't heard ...(cocaine trafficking with pets )(Brief article)
September 25, 2006... Animals have been making drug news lately: Police raiding an apartment in Worcester, Mass. for drugs found macaws, a small alligator, a boa constrictor, and other exotic pets. The owners were arrested on charges of cocaine trafficking, and...

Success story: partnership between TC and methadone clinic.
September 18, 2006... Not long ago, it was unthinkable for a therapeutic community (TC) to provide methadone treatment to its clients, much less have an active collaboration with a methadone provider. Now, however, methadone-to-abstinence programs are increasingly...

Counselors--and management--of color needed in treatment field.
September 18, 2006... While there is a dearth of statistics, anecdotal reports indicate that the majority of new counselors coming into the treatment field are white females, with older counselors of color "aging out" or not able to afford to go back to school to...

Seabrook House establishes self-pay program for mothers.
September 18, 2006... Building on the success of a residential treatment program designed for mothers in danger of losing custody of their children, Seabrook House in southern New Jersey is about to launch a similar treatment program for mothers with the financial...

Incarcerating with treatment, or treatment as an alternative.(Reports from Kentucky and Illinois)
September 18, 2006... Reports from two states, Illinois and Kentucky, reflect very different perspectives on treatment of drug offenders in the criminal justice system. In Illinois, according to a study released last month by the Chicago-based Roosevelt...

Alcohol abuse most prevalent in West, Midwest.(Briefly Noted)(Brief article)
September 18, 2006... Last year's National Survey on Drug Use and Health, issued by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA), compiles three years of data for estimates of alcohol dependence or abuse across 340 substate areas (regions...

SAMHSA awards Recovery Health Services grants.(Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration)(Brief article)
September 18, 2006... The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has announced the recipients of its Recovery Health Services grants, created to "deliver and evaluate peer-to-peer recovery support services that help prevent relapse and...

Teens exchange sex for drugs and money.(Brief article)
September 18, 2006... In the first study of its kind, researchers with the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) have discovered that close to 650,000 American Teens have exchanged sex for drugs or money, reported PIRE on August 15. In this study,...

Parents pay the price when teens drink at home.(Brief article)
September 18, 2006... Nationally, there appears to be a surge in local laws and ordinances that punish parents who allow underage drinking in their homes, reported The Associated Press, shifting the blame from teens to parents. At the 7th Annual National...

Study links alcohol abuse and suicide.(Brief article)
September 18, 2006... On September 8 the Canadian Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) released the results of a new study suggesting that high levels of alcohol consumption are correlated with an increased rate of suicide mortality, particularly among...

Do alcohol ads continue to target youth?(youth advertising bans for alcohol industry)(Brief article)
September 18, 2006... A new Centers for Disease Control report suggests that the alcohol industry is falling short of its self-imposed September 2003 pledge to ban ads on radio programs in which 30 percent or more of the audience is under 21, reported the...

Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association.(Mark Fontaine appointed as Executive Director)(Brief article)
September 18, 2006... The Board of Directors of the Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association (FADAA) has named Mark Fontaine its new Executive Director, effective October 23. Fontaine, who is a Certified Addiction Professional, a Certified Criminal Justice...

Beginning September 11, Henry F. Zwack has assumed Shari Noonan's responsibilities in handling the day-to-day operations of New York State's Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS), while maintaining the title of Executive Deputy Commissioner.(Names in the News)(Brief article)
September 18, 2006... Beginning September 11, Henry F. Zwack has assumed Shari Noonan's responsibilities in handling the day-to-day operations of New York State's Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS), while maintaining the title of Executive...

Coming up ...(Calendar)
September 18, 2006... NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals, will co-sponsor its annual conference with the California Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors (CAADAC) and the National Association of Lesbian and Gay Addiction...

In case you haven't heard ...(Recovery Mentor Carolann Kane-Cavaiola of New Jersey suspended with pay)(Brief article)
September 18, 2006... Okay, if things go on like this in New Jersey, the recovery mentors we wrote about last week will be the only constant. History: The much beloved Carolann Kane-Cavaiola was suspended with pay in April, allegedly over her close ties to the...

New Jersey's recovery mentor initiative increases workforce.(Access to Recovery)
September 11, 2006... Figuring out how to use federal Access to Recovery (ATR) funds can be a challenge, but New Jersey has responded with a program using recovery mentors that is a boon to treatment providers and clients alike. Not counselors, recovery...

More good news for youth in annual survey, but treatment gap persists.
September 11, 2006... The downward trend in drug abuse by adolescents is continuing, and for the first time, even alcohol use is going down, according to the 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). However, the percentage of people who say they need...

Review shows no beneficial link between ONDCP campaign, youth use.(Office of National Drug Control Policy's)
September 11, 2006... A contractor's national evaluation of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy's (ONDCP's) high-profile National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign has found no evidence of a reduction in teen drug use, and in a few instances...

Theme at annual forum is change and journey into the future.(Conference Update: Therapeutic Communities Meet in NYC)
September 11, 2006... "While moving forward, we are not forgetting our roots," said Charles J. Devlin, senior vice president of Daytop Village, in welcoming the 700 attendees at the opening session of the 23rd world conference of the World Federation of...

Reversal of doctor's conviction calls attention to pain management.(prescribing pain killers regulation under scrutiny)
September 11, 2006... The complexities surrounding the prescribing of drugs to treat chronic pain and the risk of illegal diversion continue to be played out in the federal courts, as an appellate court has overturned the conviction of a Virginia physician whose...

NIDA studies the genetics of addiction.(National Institute on Drug Abuse)(Brief article)
September 11, 2006... National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Director Dr. Nora Volkow said that the results of a recent NIDA study are "a tremendous step towards more effective prevention and treatment approaches" for alcoholism and other addictions. The National...

Texas prison expansion could focus on treatment programs.(Briefly Noted)(Brief article)
September 11, 2006... The Texas Department of Criminal Justice will request $520 million to support a "multipronged approach" to growing the prison system, as part of the agency's 2008-2009 budget plan. The Austin American-Statesman reported on August 19 that the...

Cultural rift over role of khat.(somalis ignorance of illegal smuggling of Khat)(Brief article)
September 11, 2006... The recent arrests of 14 members of Seattle's Somali community have placed a spotlight on the complicated role that culture can play in the world of drug enforcement, reported the LA Times on August 22. The suspects are members of a...

Coming up ...(Calendar)
September 11, 2006... The Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) Network National Office has announced a professional development opportunity for individuals in the addiction field, held from September 11 through October 27." The Training Point: an uncommon...

In case you haven't heard ...(Drug Overdose Reduction Act to make naloxone availability)(Brief article)
September 11, 2006... When 17-year-old Joseph Krecker died from an overdose of fentanyl-laced heroin in June, his father, Deputy Chief of Police Jack Krecker of Franklin Park near Chicago, played an important role--one of "tenacity and determination" according to...