Judge sets bail after Palm Beach VA drug raid

Judge sets bail for woman arrested in drug raid at the VA Medical Center
By CYNTHIA ROLDAN AND CYNTHIA ROLDAN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, Aug. 22, 2011

WEST PALM BEACH — Terri Guerra went before a judge Monday morning hoping to get some leniency.

But even after listening to the Jupiter woman's attorney try to explain why federal agents found hundreds of prescription pills and thousands of dollars in cash in her home, Circuit Judge Joseph Marx ordered Guerra held on $50,000 bail. And if she posts bond, he ordered that she be placed under house arrest.

Guerra, 53, also ordered not to travel and have no contact with controlled substances, is scheduled to return to court for a status hearing on Sept. 9.

Last Thursday, she was among 17 people arrested during a raid at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Riviera Beach. Unlike the rest, however, Guerra's bond hearing was postponed at the request of her attorney, Joseph R. Atterbury.

Waiting to go before Marx at the downtown courthouse on Monday allowed time for Atterbury to bring in a character witness, the pastor of her church. Meanwhile, Assistant state Attorney Phil Wiseberg brought in an agent of the Office of Inspector General at the VA and an agent of the Multi-Agency Diversion Task Force.

Wiseberg argued that Guerra, who faces conspiracy to distribute oxycodone charges, was well aware of her son's illegal activities. Federal authorities arrested Larry J. Dorsey, 32, in July on the same charge as his mother.
read more here

Obama drug strategy focuses on vets, women and college kids?

We need to take this problem seriously because drugs do a lot more damage to more than the person taking the drugs. They destroy families as well as futures. That said, when I read this, I had to laugh. Considering that some drugs are good and others are bad in the eyes of the government, it doesn't make sense to put PTSD veterans on medication then tell them they can't take drugs.

The easy response from too many in mental health is to tell veterans to take pills. The hard work comes in with therapy but there are too few providing the therapy and too many providing the prescriptions. Now they want to curb the use of prescriptions but don't seem as interested in doing something about the need for them.

They are given prescriptions for mental issues to address sleeping problems, waking up, calming down and eating. What did they expect would happen when they told them to take these drugs?

Obama drug strategy focuses on vets, women and college kids
Obama drug strategy focuses on veterans, women, college students.
By Gary Martin
gmartin@express-news.net


WASHINGTON — In promoting a government-wide anti-drug strategy, a White House official said Monday that he is focused on curbing the abuse of prescription pills, particularly among veterans and college students.

Gil Kerlikowske, the administration's National Drug Control Policy director, touted the 2011 National Drug Control Strategy in Ohio, saying the roadmap would require collaboration from a variety of sectors, including law enforcement, recovery communities and parents.

Three at-risk populations — women and their dependent children, college students and veterans — have been identified because of high rates of substance abuse.

Among veterans, about 375,000 Veterans' Administration hospital patients suffered such problems, according to a 2007 study. And recent Justice Department surveys of state and federal prison inmates show that about 60 percent of the 140,000 incarcerated veterans are struggling with substance abuse.


Read more: Obama drug strategy focuses on vets, women and college kids

Nearly 3.8 million prescriptions for pain medications given by military doctors

They come home addicted to prescribed drugs the military doctors give them to keep them going and then we dare wonder why they end up in so much trouble back here? They get a drug to calm them down and then wind them up, another to fall asleep and then another to wake them up. They are give pain medications with most of them leading to addiction to them. It is not longer just bullets and bombs they have to worry about but the threat of their own military getting them hooked on drugs.

MILITARY: Abuse of pain meds by vets skyrockets

By RICK ROGERS - For The North County Times

Post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury remain the most common combat maladies arising from service in Afghanistan and Iraq. But abuse of prescribed drugs, particularly pain medications, is on the rise, and its effects are being felt in San Diego County.

Phil Landis, chief executive officer of Veterans Village of San Diego, has witnessed a six-fold increase in young, homeless veterans in the last two years, and many of them are struggling with addiction to prescription medications.

"Almost 10 percent of our vets here are post-9/11. By the time they get to us, they have fallen through about every other support net," Land is said. "The younger veterans we're seeing have really fallen hard and they've fallen fast. Many of them are addicted to prescribed drugs. We don't see that much among our other veterans here.

Landis said the connection between drug abuse and homelessness is well known from the experience of Vietnam vets. But what is critically different now is the speed with which today's veterans are plunging into homelessness. A downward cycle that used to take eight to 10 years to land a veteran on the streets is now down, in some cases, to less than a year.

Finding a cause for the surge in over-the-counter drug abuse might be as easy as reviewing government records.

Military doctors wrote service members nearly 3.8 million prescriptions for pain medications in 2009, up from 866,773 such prescriptions in 2001, according to data from the Defense Department.

Pentagon records also show that abuse of prescription drugs by the military is more than twice that seen in the civilian population ---- 5 percent compared to 11 percent, according to a 2008 military survey measured against a 2007 civilian survey.

The drugs most abused were painkillers, such as Vicodin and OxyContin, although alcohol abuse continues to be a concern.

A military survey released a year ago found that, out of nearly 30,000 troops, 1 in 4 admitted abusing prescription drugs, most of them pain relievers, in a one-year period.
read more here
Abuse of pain meds by vets skyrockets

Wounded Times was right about Michael Jackson before US Magazine

It's nice to be right before "reporters" are. I do suggest you go to the site to watch the video. It's better than the one I found online and posted on the original post. I still think that this accident could have set off PTSD and that would account for the changes in him.

How Michael Jackson's Pill Addiction Began
Wednesday July 15, 2009
The harrowing, never-before-seen footage of the singer's 1984 Pepsi commercial accident



Wednesday July 15, 2009
The harrowing, never-before-seen footage of the singer's 1984 Pepsi commercial accident


Usmagazine.com has exclusive, never-before-seen footage of Michael Jackson's Pepsi commercial accident, filmed in L.A.'s Shrine Auditorium on Jan. 27, 1984.

Look back at Michael Jackson's most unforgettable moments.

The clip (watch above) shows one take where the pyrotechnics exploded as planned -- after Jackson descended the stairs and began performing with his brothers.

See Michael Jackson's life in photos.

On the sixth take, though, things went horribly wrong: The fireworks erupted too early, igniting Jackson's head in flames. Jackson is at first unaware he's on fire, and continues dancing.

See 32 photos from inside Michel Jackson's Staples Center memorial.

He was never the same after the accident, reports the new issue of Us Weekly, on stands today.

How Michael Jackson's Pill Addiction Began

linked from RawStory

Monday, June 29, 2009

Is this the minute that changed Michael Jackson's life?

Critics hit Army's treatment of drug abuse

Critics hit Army's treatment of drug abuse
Seattle Post Intelligencer - USA
By ALAN SCHER ZAGIER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. -- Spec. Jeremiah Thomson didn't know what was worse: excruciating back pain from a combat explosion in Baghdad or the prescription drug addiction he developed trying to ease the suffering once home.

The Army was quick to prescribe Percocet, Vicodin, Oxycontin and similarly powerful painkillers to Thomson and other injured soldiers at Fort Leonard Wood, Thomson testified in a court-martial hearing. He's now serving a three-year sentence for illegally buying prescription drugs - the sellers included a former commanding officer in Iraq - and selling the pills to eight other soldiers.

As more troops return home with war injuries, the Army is prescribing more pain medication to treat those wounds. But a military system that relies on discipline as well as treatment is drawing fire from some prominent critics, including those inside the system.

"It's a terrible problem," said Barbara McDonald, a civilian social worker and Army drug abuse counselor, describing a recent surge in prescription drug abuse and the Army's handling of the problem.

Legal painkiller use by injured troops has increased nearly 70 percent since the start of the Iraq war six years ago, according to Army records. Surveys show that more soldiers are struggling with prescription drug addiction - and seeking help from Army doctors and counselors.
click link for more

Military Rise in drug prescriptions may signal abuse

Rise in drug prescriptions may signal abuse
By Gregg Zoroya - USA TodayPosted : Saturday Nov 1, 2008
The sharp rise in outpatient prescriptions paid for by the government suggests doctors rely too heavily on narcotics, says Army Col. Chester “Trip” Buckenmaier III, of Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

Recently, at least 20 soldiers in an engineer company of 70 to 80 soldiers at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., shared and abused painkillers prescribed for their injuries, according to court testimony.

“The groundwork for this toxic situation was laid out through the continual prescription of highly addictive, commonly overused drugs,” said Capt. Elizabeth Turner, the lawyer for one defendant in the case.

In response to six suicides and seven drug-related deaths among soldiers in Warrior Transition Units — created for the Army's most severely injured — aggressive efforts are underway to manage prescription drugs, says Col. Paul Cordts, chief of health policy for the Army surgeon general. These include limiting prescriptions to a seven-day supply and more closely monitoring use.
click link for more

Company asks pharmacists, hospitals to return 65 drugs

Company asks pharmacists, hospitals to return drug
Associated Press
Published: Friday August 1, 2008


WASHINGTON -- A New Jersey company is asking pharmacists and hospitals to return all prescription drug products made at one of its facilities because it did not pass health authorities' standards.

A Food and Drug Administration inspection at the Little Falls, N.J., facility of Actavis Totowa LLC "revealed operations which did not meet the FDA's or Actavis' standards for good manufacturing practices," according to a company statement issued Friday.

The recall, only on the pharmacy and retail level, includes about 65 different prescription drugs, such as pain killers, antidepressants, diet medication and drugs for blood pressure and hypertension.

Only pharmacies and hospitals should return the prescription drugs. Patients who may have the drug should continue to take them in accordance with their prescriptions, the Morristown, N.J. company said in a release. The company said that suddenly stopping needed medication before obtaining replacement drugs may place patients at risk.

For more information on the recall, consumers can visit
(go here to see the list)
http://www.actavis.us/en/media+center/newsroom/articles/RecallFAQ.htm
Linked from RawStory