In a definitive move to keep itself on the forefront, Sober College hires an admission’s professional who holds a Master’s Degree in Addiction Counseling to head up its’ enrollment process.

Woodland Hills, CA (PRWEB) October 20, 2011

“The complexities of addiction treatment, substance abuse and young adult chemical dependency have definitely changed in the past five years,” explains Robert Pfeifer, MSW, founder of Sober College. “Additionally, the challenges of managing the admissions process for a stabilized program with limited beds, requires a certain level of sophistication. With the recent and continued demand we are facing, we have to be careful in our selection process. Iris brings that presence to our team and allows us to do the best job possible in assisting prospective families and coordinating with referral sources.”

“Owning my own business in the fitness industry taught me what I know about customer relations and PR, however, my past five years at the Family Foundation School, were invaluable in learning this industry, addiction treatment and residential programs,” explains Maclean. Located in upstate New York, the Family School is a therapeutic boarding school for adolescents. During her tenure, Iris spent the majority of her time in admissions and some time working with students in the program.

“As a part of my Sober College orientation process, I spent the afternoon at Trapeze Therapy and it only served to solidify my decision”, explains Maclean. “Urban Experiential Activities like this really set the program apart and align with everything I know personally, professionally and academically about addiction treatment and its’ related issues. I am excited to do all I can to assist parents and referring professionals.”

About Sober College:

Sober College, headquartered in Southern California, is a small private institution providing alcohol and drug treatment environments for young adults age 17 to 25. The Sober College curriculum builds core competencies in life skills, employment, academics, emotional well-being and fitness. For further information visit our website at http://www.sobercollege.com or call 800-465-0142.

Contact Information:

Admissions: 800-465-0142

Phone: 818-415-3456

Fax: 818-274-0309

Address: 6233 Variel Ave, Woodland Hills, CA 91367

# # #

Robert Pfeifer
Sober College
(818) 415-3456
Email Information

October 20

By John Richardson jrichardson@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

PORTLAND – It takes Blake Carver just a few minutes to walk down the front steps of Serenity House, shaking hands with the men gathered to congratulate the house’s newest “graduate.”

But it has been a long journey to get here — years of addiction to prescription pills followed by years of prison for burglarizing houses to feed the habit.

“I didn’t know where to go and I didn’t see a bright future for myself,” he said. “I feel great today.”

That is the good news about Maine’s painkiller abuse epidemic, experts say: Opiate addiction is treatable.

The bad news is that Maine doesn’t have enough treatment options for all of the people who want or need it.

“There are tens of thousands of Mainers who have serious opiate addictions and who have no access to care,” said Mark Publicker, a physician and addiction specialist at Mercy Recovery Center in Westbrook.

Officially, about 300 people are on waiting lists at treatment programs around the state at any time, according to the Maine Office of Substance Abuse. But experts say many more Mainers go without help because it’s not available in their communities, they don’t have insurance to cover it, they’re too embarrassed or ashamed to seek help, they can’t leave jobs or children, or they simply don’t know where to turn.

“When we have people come in here, that’s the tip of the iceberg. There’s many more people out there,” said Virginia Blake, clinical supervisor at Discovery House, a methadone clinic in downtown Calais.

Instead of getting treatment, many addicts continue to use whatever pills they can get on the street, dealing and stealing if necessary. Or they try to quit on their own and, experts say, inevitably fall back into addiction.

“People with opiate addiction cannot stop without treatment,” Publicker said. “Willpower doesn’t work with pills.”

The number of people who seek treatment for painkiller addiction has been steadily rising. Nearly 4,000 were admitted for prescription opiate addiction treatment in Maine last year, second only to the number who sought alcohol abuse treatment — about 5,500.

Despite the demand for more treatment services, Maine is struggling to maintain existing programs.

The LePage administration proposed a $4.4 million cut to substance abuse treatment funding this year, potentially closing as many as 10 small residential programs. All but about $400,000 was restored to the budget before it passed, and the remaining cut was spread out to avoid eliminating any individual programs. The budget included limits on MaineCare eligibility, however, which left an unknown number of addicts without health insurance to pay for treatment.

In a visit to Serenity House in Portland in July, Gov. Le- Page said his administration is continuing to review treatment funding. “We’re looking at every program and evaluating what are we doing,” he said.

The cost of treatment varies depending on the type of program. A month of treatment at a methadone clinic can cost nearly $400, while a month of intensive counseling can cost $1,200 or more. MaineCare provides comprehensive coverage for addiction treatment, while private insurance is variable, depending on the plan.

Every dollar spent to treat an addict saves an estimated $12 in avoided health care costs and crime-related costs that would come with continued addiction, according to the Office of Substance Abuse.

Treatment can be a long process. Detox, the process of breaking the body’s acute dependence on opiates, is not considered treatment, although it can be the first step.

“You can’t just detox and be OK, because your brain chemistry has been altered,” said Blake, at Discovery House. “This is a very involved disease.”

Treatment includes intensive counseling to understand the addiction and develop the tools to manage it. Some unknown percentage of patients will relapse, and it’s not uncommon for addicts to go through treatment two or three times. But, the experts say, many people do get well.

“I’ve seen people who I thought were never going to get clean and sober, and they did,” said Dr. George Dreher, a Portland-based psychiatrist and addiction specialist. “It can be very discouraging after you go through treatment a few times and keep relapsing. It doesn’t mean it won’t work the next time. There’s always hope. It is a treatable disease.”

Addicts may also need counseling and treatment for underlying medical problems that could lead to relapse, such as depression or stress from being sexually abused as a child. And some have to deal with new trauma related to the addiction itself, such as women who trade sex for pills. “We get a lot of women who come in here pretty damaged from having to do that,” said Blake.

The clinic that Blake supervises is one of eight in the state that provide methadone to about 4,500 addicts statewide. Its 200 patients start filing into the nondescript Calais storefront at 5:30 a.m., often before heading out to work on lobster and fishing boats.

The line of patients ebbs and flows throughout the day. Whenever a bell rings, the first patient in line enters a private dosing room.

Inside, an attendant behind a thick glass partition checks identification and enters the person’s individual dose. A machine pours the precise amount of red liquid into a small plastic cup, and the patient drinks it down as the attendant watches.

“It was embarrassing when I first came here,” said Tasheena Fitzsimmons, 26, of Calais. “When I realized how much it helped, I wasn’t embarrassed anymore.”

Fitzsimmons has been coming to the clinic for three years and has gradually reduced her dose from 135 milligrams a day to 24, she said. She works with the counselor in hopes of getting off the medicine entirely someday. But she is under no time limit.

“It’s unique for every person,” said Blake, the clinical supervisor. “The brain is healing and they are changing their lifestyles.”

Methadone itself is a highly addictive synthetic opiate, and it’s commonly prescribed for pain in pill form. In controlled doses, addicts get just enough of the drug to keep from experiencing cravings and withdrawal.

“I feel completely normal,” said Rick Fitch, 30, after drinking his daily dose. He has been coming to the clinic every day before work for two years, he said.

Some addicts and treatment counselors view methadone therapy as trading one addiction for another. Methadone providers, on the other hand, say the clinics have reduced emergency room visits, crime and other problems.

The daily doses come with required counseling visits and periodic urine tests to make sure patients are taking only the methadone they get at the clinic. Anyone caught taking other drugs, some of which can cause deadly interactions with methadone, faces additional counseling and monitoring, and may get cut off from the treatments.

Methadone was the first opiate-replacement therapy drug in Maine, but it is no longer the most common. Dozens of Maine physicians have been trained and certified to treat opiate addicts with a drug called buprenorphine.

The drug, usually prescribed under the trade name Suboxone, contains an addictive synthetic opiate as well as an opiate blocker that’s intended to discourage abuse. Buprenorphine carries less risk of contributing to overdoses, because it doesn’t last in the body the way methadone can.

“It is extremely valuable. It can save people’s lives,” said Publicker. He has 100 patients at Mercy Recovery Center who receive prescriptions for the drug — the maximum allowed for one doctor.

But buprenorphine is no wonder drug. It controls cravings and prevents withdrawal, but addicts still need counseling and treatment.

Suboxone patients manage their own medication and don’t have to show up every day for a dose. They do face regular urine tests and other monitoring to make sure they are taking the medicine, and not other drugs.

Not all addicts in Maine have access to the drug.

Some of Dr. Steven Weisberger’s patients drive two hours to his office in Jonesport to get refills of their Suboxone prescriptions. He has the maximum 100 addiction patients and 25 on a waiting list.

Not only is there a shortage of addiction doctors and treatment centers in his part of the state, there are shortages of psychiatrists, substance abuse counselors and pain specialists to help care for his patients, Weisberger said. “In Washington County, you’re on your own,” he said.

Physicians who prescribe Suboxone as part of their primary care practice can get treatment to addicts who wouldn’t otherwise seek help, said Dr. Ira Stockwell, a licensed Suboxone prescriber in Westbrook.

“I think more family practice doctors should do it,” Stockwell said.

James Cox, 31, a recovering addict from Jonesboro, takes 4 milligrams of Suboxone a day, in a thin strip that dissolves under his tongue.

“It’s not sober, but it’s pretty damn close for me,” said Cox, who has been taking the drug for three years and is gradually reducing his dose. “Basically, it keeps me going. I can go to work. I can be with my kids. I can be a father.”

Many adult addicts go through treatment without taking replacement drugs. They may detox in a jail or in a hospital, then enter outpatient or residential treatment.

Replacement drugs are not typically prescribed to teenagers. But treating kids also can be a slow process, said Don Burke, outpatient director at Day One, a South Portland-based treatment agency for teenagers and young adults in southern Maine. Nearly all of Day One’s patients — more than 400 a year — have been referred by schools, courts or parents.

“They’re not embracing treatment,” Burke said. “They’re in a battle with it.”

Residential treatment is the most intensive, and allows addicts to begin recovery in a supportive, sober environment. But it is not an option for many women who have children to care for, said Nikki Oliver, program manager at Crossroads’ halfway house in Portland. Budget cuts have left the agency with space for only two mothers to bring their children to a 60-day residential treatment program.

“The waiting list is really long (for the two slots), so they have to make a choice between the treatment and their children,” Oliver said. Even after a two- or three-month residential program, recovering addicts need outpatient counseling and community support to prevent relapse, Oliver said.

“If it was about just putting down the drink or the drug, it would be no big deal. It’s a disease that needs treatment,” she said.

Blake Carver said the three months at Serenity House, a treatment center for men, changed his life.

“You understand now it’s possible to get over these things that seemed so bleak before,” he said.

And, on his graduation day, he promised his housemates that he would prove it by staying clean.

“You watch and you see.”

Staff Writer John Richardson can be contacted at 791-6324 or at: jrichardson@pressherald.com

 

10:26 AM

By John Richardson jrichardson@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

BANGOR — Mariah arrived this summer, on schedule and weighing in at 7 pounds, 2 ounces.

To her much-relieved mother, she looked and behaved like a normal newborn: very cute and very sleepy.

By Mariah’s third day, however, it was clear she had not escaped her mother’s addiction to pills.

Whenever the baby was awake, she cried. What little she ate, she spit up. Her entire body was stiff, as if all of her muscles were cramping.

Her mother knew what Mariah was feeling. She had experienced the pain of opiate withdrawal once herself.

“I feel bad that she’s in this situation,” said her mother, a thin, soft-spoken 20-year-old from the Rockland area.

Mariah’s mother, like others who were interviewed for this story, agreed to talk about her addiction and her daughter’s withdrawal, but she did not want her name published.

As addiction to prescription painkillers spreads in Maine, it touches even some of the most innocent and fragile.

More than 570 babies were born last year to mothers who used prescription painkillers or other drugs while pregnant, according to hospital reports to the state. The number more than tripled in six years, and it doesn’t include the mothers who didn’t tell their doctors about their drug habits.

Most of the drug-exposed newborns experience opiate withdrawal and require weeks of hospital treatment, often with small daily doses of morphine or methadone, a drug to treat adult opiate addicts. It costs about $25,000, on average, to treat each baby in withdrawal.

The most fortunate babies have mothers who got into addiction programs during pregnancy and took controlled doses of a treatment drug. The long-term effects on the children are still unknown, but most of the babies go home after two to four weeks of detoxification with no immediate complications.

On the other hand, an unknown number of pregnant addicts do not get treatment. They take street drugs throughout their pregnancies, or they try to quit cold turkey in the belief it will help their babies. In both cases, doctors say, the women are much more likely to miscarry or give birth prematurely to babies with higher rates of birth defects.

“When someone is using street narcotics, it’s a seesaw of high, low, high, low. For a baby, that’s very dangerous,” said Dr. Brenda Medlin, a pediatrician who cares for drug-affected babies at Maine Medical Center in Portland.

Quitting altogether during pregnancy threatens the unborn baby because the mother’s body rebels, causing the uterus to twitch and contract, said Dr. Mark Brown, neonatalogist at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. “We don’t want (expecting) mothers in withdrawal.”

Treatment during pregnancy with controlled doses of methadone or suboxone dramatically improves the babies’ chances of avoiding complications, doctors say. It doesn’t mean the babies will be spared all the effects of their exposure to the drugs.

The newborns are watched closely. About 55 percent of the opiate-exposed babies begin showing symptoms a day or two after birth, as their bodies cry out for another dose.

“It’s very difficult to see a baby go through withdrawal,” Brown said. “They’re not cuddly; they’re not lovable. They can’t engage their surroundings. They can’t even eat.”

Doctors and nurses assess the severity of each baby’s symptoms, including fever, diarrhea and vomiting. A baby in withdrawal will often have all of his or her muscles contracted.

“They are very stiff. If you try to lift them up, instead of their head hanging back a little, they are like a board.” Medlin said.

Once they’re certain that a baby is experiencing withdrawal, not gas or some other discomfort, doctors begin administering medication. They use medicine droppers to put small doses in the babies’ mouths and typically taper the doses off over about two weeks.

Several days into her methadone treatments, 1-week-old Mariah slept peacefully in her mother’s arms. The private hospital nursery room was quiet, and dark except for the light coming through a large window overlooking the Penobscot River.

Mariah’s mother sat in a rocker, a towel draped over her shoulder. She had the tired look of a sleep-deprived new mother, but the shadows under her eyes were especially dark. She didn’t smile.

“It doesn’t feel real good, seeing her like that,” she said quietly.

Mariah’s mother started taking Percodan and OxyContin pills when she was 18. She had a 2-year-old daughter at the time and lived with the girl’s father, a lobsterman who bought the pills and crushed them into powder so they could snort them and get high together.

After just two weeks of using the drug every day or two, she was addicted, she said. “One day I just woke up and I was throwing up and felt sick. Then I used (the pills), and I felt better.”

That’s when she started using the pills not so much to get high, but to keep from being sick.

Three or four months later, she started addiction treatment at a methadone clinic in Rockland. For a year, she took daily, measured doses of the powerful narcotic and attended counseling in hopes of gradually reducing her dependence.

In August 2010, the clinic closed. She went back to getting pills on the street, she said.

She started taking buprenorphine, or Suboxone. The drug is used to treat addiction but has become a street drug for addicts who are desperate to get high or avoid withdrawal.

In October, Mariah’s mother realized she was pregnant and knew immediately that the unborn baby could be in trouble. The only treatment program within reach of her home couldn’t help her, she said.

“They put you closer to the top of the waiting list when you’re pregnant, but you’re not in automatically,” she said.

Treatment centers across the state say they give first priority to pregnant mothers because of the risks to their babies.

Her doctor could not help because he was not licensed to prescribe buprenorphine. He effectively sent her back to the street to medicate herself, and her baby.

“He told me ‘Don’t stop taking it,'” she said. “Some days I would go without and I felt so bad. I didn’t want it to affect her.”

Finally, about four months into the pregnancy, she went to a hospital, suffering from withdrawal. Her body ached, she had sweats and chills, and she was vomiting and unable to eat.

“I hadn’t had any in about a week and I was getting pretty sick, and I didn’t want the baby to … I didn’t want to miscarry,” she said.

She was taken into a treatment program and put on controlled doses of buprenorphine for the rest of her pregnancy.

Three weeks after Mariah’s birth, she was still at the hospital. But the baby was eating well, cuddling in her mother’s arms and nearly ready to go home, her mother said.

Some babies have withdrawal symptoms, such as crying or irritability, for months. It’s not known what long-term physical effects may await Mariah and the other babies.

Researchers haven’t had time to answer that question. However, there is cause for concern about the effects of opiate exposure before birth, as well as the withdrawal process and drug treatments that newborns experience in their first days and weeks of life, said Marie Hayes, a professor of psychology at the University of Maine.

“The little brain is in a critical period,” she said. “There is actually potential damage to the brain from the withdrawal process itself.”

Hayes and a team of Maine researchers have been studying the effects in about 150 children during their first year of life. Brain wave tests have shown developmental delays in a higher percentage of babies who go through opiate withdrawal, but it is too soon to know whether the children will have long-term problems. “Are those enduring (developmental) deficits?” Hayes said. “We don’t know.”

It’s also difficult to sort out the effects of the opiates from the effects of alcohol exposure and other factors.

Among the risks that most concern Hayes are the sleep deprivation and fragmentation that accompany withdrawal. She fears that sleep disturbances at such a sensitive time may make the babies less arousable and more at risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

The most immediate concern about the babies’ future well-being is that their mothers could start abusing drugs again. Pregnancy brings many mothers into treatment for the first time.

“They’re really taking a step in the right direction. Our role is to welcome them with open arms and to not alienate them from treatment,” said Brown, at Eastern Maine Medical Center.

Simply discharging the mothers back to their communities with new babies to care for is risky for both. So the hospitals work with community agencies to set up supports so the mothers continue treatment.

“Addiction is a chronic medical disease. …,” said Mark Moran, a social worker at Eastern Maine Medical Center who works with the new mothers. “You have to manage that over a long period of time.”

Hospitals also notify the Maine Department of Health and Human Services whenever babies experience opiate withdrawal.

The DHHS sends a public health nurse to work with the mother and baby. As long as the mother is getting treatment and there are no other circumstances that jeopardize the child, such as domestic violence, the state does not move to take custody of a child from her mother.

More than 95 pecent of the opiate-affected babies born at Eastern Maine Medical Center go home with their parents, Moran said.

Two years after giving birth, 27-year-old Sarah of Brunswick is confident that her daughter made it through the experience unscathed.

The little girl shows no visible effects of her mother’s addiction. She walks around her mother’s apartment with a sippy cup, feeds her crackers to the dog and likes to try to climb the stairs.

Sarah, who did not want her last name published, continues to take Suboxone to control her cravings for OxyContin and other drugs.

“I think about the pills still now,” she said, “but I haven’t acted on it. … I never want to do it again, because of my daughter.”

At Maine Medical Center, Dr. Medlin checked on a 3-week-old boy who was nearly ready to go home to Biddeford with his mother and father.

The baby, who weighed 5 pounds, 12 ounces at birth, had to be fed through a tube during withdrawal. At three weeks, he was eating from a bottle and gaining weight.

“He’s just like a normal baby,” said his mother.

The 20-year-old first-time mother, who also wanted her name withheld, said she grew up around drugs and started taking pills when she was in eighth grade. It took pregnancy to get her into treatment, she said. She wasn’t alone.

“When I went to detox, every girl there but two were pregnant. There were maybe eight women there,” she said.

Now, even though she will return to the same community where pills are easy to get, she is determined to stay clean and protect her son, she said.

“He did change my life,” she said. “I wouldn’t think of messing up now.”

By the time Mariah left the hospital in Bangor, her mother was feeling optimistic, too.

She broke up with the boyfriend, who had gone to jail for selling pills, she said. She also cut off contact with all of her old friends. She, Mariah and her older daughter were moving in with her parents in Rockland.

“It’s starting to look a lot better,” she said. “I wouldn’t ever do that again.”

 

Posted: October 18
Updated: Today at 9:56 PM

By John Richardson jrichardson@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

BANGOR — Mariah arrived this summer, on schedule and weighing in at 7 pounds, 2 ounces.

To her much-relieved mother, she looked and behaved like a normal newborn: very cute and very sleepy.

By Mariah’s third day, however, it was clear she had not escaped her mother’s addiction to pills.

Whenever the baby was awake, she cried. What little she ate, she spit up. Her entire body was stiff, as if all of her muscles were cramping.

Her mother knew what Mariah was feeling. She had experienced the pain of opiate withdrawal once herself.

“I feel bad that she’s in this situation,” said her mother, a thin, soft-spoken 20-year-old from the Rockland area.

Mariah’s mother, like others who were interviewed for this story, agreed to talk about her addiction and her daughter’s withdrawal, but she did not want her name published.

As addiction to prescription painkillers spreads in Maine, it touches even some of the most innocent and fragile.

More than 570 babies were born last year to mothers who used prescription painkillers or other drugs while pregnant, according to hospital reports to the state. The number more than tripled in six years, and it doesn’t include the mothers who didn’t tell their doctors about their drug habits.

Most of the drug-exposed newborns experience opiate withdrawal and require weeks of hospital treatment, often with small daily doses of morphine or methadone, a drug to treat adult opiate addicts. It costs about $25,000, on average, to treat each baby in withdrawal.

The most fortunate babies have mothers who got into addiction programs during pregnancy and took controlled doses of a treatment drug. The long-term effects on the children are still unknown, but most of the babies go home after two to four weeks of detoxification with no immediate complications.

On the other hand, an unknown number of pregnant addicts do not get treatment. They take street drugs throughout their pregnancies, or they try to quit cold turkey in the belief it will help their babies. In both cases, doctors say, the women are much more likely to miscarry or give birth prematurely to babies with higher rates of birth defects.

“When someone is using street narcotics, it’s a seesaw of high, low, high, low. For a baby, that’s very dangerous,” said Dr. Brenda Medlin, a pediatrician who cares for drug-affected babies at Maine Medical Center in Portland.

Quitting altogether during pregnancy threatens the unborn baby because the mother’s body rebels, causing the uterus to twitch and contract, said Dr. Mark Brown, neonatalogist at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. “We don’t want (expecting) mothers in withdrawal.”

Treatment during pregnancy with controlled doses of methadone or suboxone dramatically improves the babies’ chances of avoiding complications, doctors say. It doesn’t mean the babies will be spared all the effects of their exposure to the drugs.

The newborns are watched closely. About 55 percent of the opiate-exposed babies begin showing symptoms a day or two after birth, as their bodies cry out for another dose.

“It’s very difficult to see a baby go through withdrawal,” Brown said. “They’re not cuddly; they’re not lovable. They can’t engage their surroundings. They can’t even eat.”

Doctors and nurses assess the severity of each baby’s symptoms, including fever, diarrhea and vomiting. A baby in withdrawal will often have all of his or her muscles contracted.

“They are very stiff. If you try to lift them up, instead of their head hanging back a little, they are like a board.” Medlin said.

Once they’re certain that a baby is experiencing withdrawal, not gas or some other discomfort, doctors begin administering medication. They use medicine droppers to put small doses in the babies’ mouths and typically taper the doses off over about two weeks.

Several days into her methadone treatments, 1-week-old Mariah slept peacefully in her mother’s arms. The private hospital nursery room was quiet, and dark except for the light coming through a large window overlooking the Penobscot River.

Mariah’s mother sat in a rocker, a towel draped over her shoulder. She had the tired look of a sleep-deprived new mother, but the shadows under her eyes were especially dark. She didn’t smile.

“It doesn’t feel real good, seeing her like that,” she said quietly.

Mariah’s mother started taking Percodan and OxyContin pills when she was 18. She had a 2-year-old daughter at the time and lived with the girl’s father, a lobsterman who bought the pills and crushed them into powder so they could snort them and get high together.

After just two weeks of using the drug every day or two, she was addicted, she said. “One day I just woke up and I was throwing up and felt sick. Then I used (the pills), and I felt better.”

That’s when she started using the pills not so much to get high, but to keep from being sick.

Three or four months later, she started addiction treatment at a methadone clinic in Rockland. For a year, she took daily, measured doses of the powerful narcotic and attended counseling in hopes of gradually reducing her dependence.

In August 2010, the clinic closed. She went back to getting pills on the street, she said.

She started taking buprenorphine, or Suboxone. The drug is used to treat addiction but has become a street drug for addicts who are desperate to get high or avoid withdrawal.

In October, Mariah’s mother realized she was pregnant and knew immediately that the unborn baby could be in trouble. The only treatment program within reach of her home couldn’t help her, she said.

“They put you closer to the top of the waiting list when you’re pregnant, but you’re not in automatically,” she said.

Treatment centers across the state say they give first priority to pregnant mothers because of the risks to their babies.

Her doctor could not help because he was not licensed to prescribe buprenorphine. He effectively sent her back to the street to medicate herself, and her baby.

“He told me ‘Don’t stop taking it,'” she said. “Some days I would go without and I felt so bad. I didn’t want it to affect her.”

Finally, about four months into the pregnancy, she went to a hospital, suffering from withdrawal. Her body ached, she had sweats and chills, and she was vomiting and unable to eat.

“I hadn’t had any in about a week and I was getting pretty sick, and I didn’t want the baby to … I didn’t want to miscarry,” she said.

She was taken into a treatment program and put on controlled doses of buprenorphine for the rest of her pregnancy.

Three weeks after Mariah’s birth, she was still at the hospital. But the baby was eating well, cuddling in her mother’s arms and nearly ready to go home, her mother said.

Some babies have withdrawal symptoms, such as crying or irritability, for months. It’s not known what long-term physical effects may await Mariah and the other babies.

Researchers haven’t had time to answer that question. However, there is cause for concern about the effects of opiate exposure before birth, as well as the withdrawal process and drug treatments that newborns experience in their first days and weeks of life, said Marie Hayes, a professor of psychology at the University of Maine.

“The little brain is in a critical period,” she said. “There is actually potential damage to the brain from the withdrawal process itself.”

Hayes and a team of Maine researchers have been studying the effects in about 150 children during their first year of life. Brain wave tests have shown developmental delays in a higher percentage of babies who go through opiate withdrawal, but it is too soon to know whether the children will have long-term problems. “Are those enduring (developmental) deficits?” Hayes said. “We don’t know.”

It’s also difficult to sort out the effects of the opiates from the effects of alcohol exposure and other factors.

Among the risks that most concern Hayes are the sleep deprivation and fragmentation that accompany withdrawal. She fears that sleep disturbances at such a sensitive time may make the babies less arousable and more at risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

The most immediate concern about the babies’ future well-being is that their mothers could start abusing drugs again. Pregnancy brings many mothers into treatment for the first time.

“They’re really taking a step in the right direction. Our role is to welcome them with open arms and to not alienate them from treatment,” said Brown, at Eastern Maine Medical Center.

Simply discharging the mothers back to their communities with new babies to care for is risky for both. So the hospitals work with community agencies to set up supports so the mothers continue treatment.

“Addiction is a chronic medical disease. …,” said Mark Moran, a social worker at Eastern Maine Medical Center who works with the new mothers. “You have to manage that over a long period of time.”

Hospitals also notify the Maine Department of Health and Human Services whenever babies experience opiate withdrawal.

The DHHS sends a public health nurse to work with the mother and baby. As long as the mother is getting treatment and there are no other circumstances that jeopardize the child, such as domestic violence, the state does not move to take custody of a child from her mother.

More than 95 pecent of the opiate-affected babies born at Eastern Maine Medical Center go home with their parents, Moran said.

Two years after giving birth, 27-year-old Sarah of Brunswick is confident that her daughter made it through the experience unscathed.

The little girl shows no visible effects of her mother’s addiction. She walks around her mother’s apartment with a sippy cup, feeds her crackers to the dog and likes to try to climb the stairs.

Sarah, who did not want her last name published, continues to take Suboxone to control her cravings for OxyContin and other drugs.

“I think about the pills still now,” she said, “but I haven’t acted on it. … I never want to do it again, because of my daughter.”

At Maine Medical Center, Dr. Medlin checked on a 3-week-old boy who was nearly ready to go home to Biddeford with his mother and father.

The baby, who weighed 5 pounds, 12 ounces at birth, had to be fed through a tube during withdrawal. At three weeks, he was eating from a bottle and gaining weight.

“He’s just like a normal baby,” said his mother.

The 20-year-old first-time mother, who also wanted her name withheld, said she grew up around drugs and started taking pills when she was in eighth grade. It took pregnancy to get her into treatment, she said. She wasn’t alone.

“When I went to detox, every girl there but two were pregnant. There were maybe eight women there,” she said.

Now, even though she will return to the same community where pills are easy to get, she is determined to stay clean and protect her son, she said.

“He did change my life,” she said. “I wouldn’t think of messing up now.”

By the time Mariah left the hospital in Bangor, her mother was feeling optimistic, too.

She broke up with the boyfriend, who had gone to jail for selling pills, she said. She also cut off contact with all of her old friends. She, Mariah and her older daughter were moving in with her parents in Rockland.

“It’s starting to look a lot better,” she said. “I wouldn’t ever do that again.”

It was the sop lawmakers tossed to Floridians apprehensive about the social effects of legalized gaming: Don’t worry. Some portion of these suckers’ losses will fund a prevention program for problem and pathological gambling.

Governors Chiles and Bush both championed these programs. And Florida voters, contemplating a constitutional amendment to legalize slot machines in South Florida in 2004, were led to believe that prevention services were part of the package.

In 2005, a mechanism to provide prevention funding, including money for outreach, advertising, a 24-hour helpline and training for casino employees, was included in the enabling legislation for the new racinos. It was the law. The language was unambiguous. Florida statute 551.118 required: “The compulsive or addictive gambling prevention program shall be funded from an annual nonrefundable regulatory fee of $250,000 paid by the licensee to the division.”

Note the verb “shall.” Which, according to my American Heritage Dictionary, connotes “an order, promise, requirement or obligation.” None of the above, apparently, in Tallahassee.

Every year, the five South Florida pari-mutuels with slots have each ponied up $250,000, a total of $1.25 million, to go along with $1.1 million in prevention money collected from the Florida Lottery. Somehow, when the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation added up the money this year, the total came to $264,000. The other $2.1 million, despite state law, despite the escalating need, simply vanished into the department’s general fund.

Pat Fowler, director of the Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling, the non-profit contractor providing the state’s training and outreach, said Monday that even that last $264,000 seems to be jeopardy for next year. (At least the Seminoles, who voluntarily provide $1.75 million a year to fund actual treatment for gambling addiction, haven’t welched on their deal.)

Fowler said Tallahassee invariable invokes the Council “when the state wishes to expand gambling and the gambling industry wishes to expand.” Such talk always comes with the promise of a dedicated funding source to “address the negative impact of gambling.”

“Only to find out later that the money is gone,” she said.

Money to alleviate gambling dependency is disappearing even as the state’s dependency on the gambling industry escalates. A proposal for three big Vegas-style resort casinos in South Florida has support in Tallahassee. Which has set off a clamor for more games and less taxes from South Florida racinos and for video gambling terminals for the state’s other pari-mutuels. Meanwhile, a thousand utterly unregulated gambling arcades have been allowed to flourish in neighborhood strip malls.

Florida, plainly, has a gambling addiction. Someone in Tallahassee should call the hotline. Quick. Before the funding runs out.

To: HEALTH, MEDICAL AND STATE EDITORS

Contact: Christine Anderson, +1-651-213-4231 or canderson@hazelden.org

NEW YORK, Oct. 17, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Philip Gianelli, M.D., medical director of Hazelden in New York City and director of addiction psychiatry at the West Midtown Medical Group, has been named 2011 Addiction Physician of the Year by the New York State Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS). Hazelden, one of the world’s largest and most respected private, nonprofit alcohol and drug addiction treatment centers, operates residential and outpatient programs in New York, Minnesota, Oregon, Florida and Illinois.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20061128/CGTU038LOGO)

The annual award recognizes an addiction physician whose work reflects the highest level of professionalism and dedication in serving individuals and families who suffer from addiction.

“Dr. Philip Gianelli … has distinguished himself through his more than 20 years of unfailing support, enthusiasm and patient-centered addiction services powered by his humane, warm and spirited communication style,” reads the OASAS award proclamation.

In addition to serving as a national mentor for the physicians’ clinical support system for treatment of opiate dependency, Dr. Gianelli has developed a protocol for use and management of benzodiazepines and instructions for staff regarding suicide prevention in outpatient addiction treatment programs. He provides medical management of the neuro-psychiatric side effects of patients under Hepatitis C care, and support for interns under Columbia University’s study on motivational interviewing.

“Dr. Gianelli brings unmatched knowledge, experience and dedication to his work on behalf of Hazelden patients,” says Barbara Kistenmacher, Ph.D., executive director of Hazelden’s programs in New York. “He is highly regarded by patients and their families, and is widely respected by colleagues in the field.”

Hazelden’s Chelsea center, at 322 8th Avenue, provides outpatient addiction treatment and recovery support services for adults. Its soon-to-open Tribeca facility, located at 283 West Broadway, will provide outpatient addiction treatment services for adults as well as a first-of-its-kind collegiate recovery housing program.

About Hazelden

Hazelden, a national nonprofit organization founded in 1949, helps people reclaim their lives from the disease of addiction. Built on decades of knowledge and experience, Hazelden offers a comprehensive approach to addiction that addresses the full range of patient, family, and professional needs, including treatment and continuing care for youth and adults, higher education, research, public education and advocacy, and publishing. For more information, visit hazelden.org.

SOURCE Hazelden

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In addition to its highly regarded men’s sex addiction program, The Ranch now offers comprehensive and separate, gender-specific treatment for women struggling with sex, relationship and love addiction.

Nunnelly, TN (PRWEB) October 17, 2011

Contrary to popular media portrayals and gender stereotypes, men are not the only ones suffering from sex and love addiction. An estimated 8 to 12 percent of those seeking relationship and sex addiction treatment are women, though many more are likely suffering in silence.

As awareness of these problems grows, women are increasingly reaching out for help. Responding to that need is The Center for Relationship and Sexual Recovery (CRSR) at The Ranch, a residential rehabilitation center in Nunnelly, Tennessee, which recently launched the nation’s first structured and manualized all-female residential sex and love addiction treatment program.

The CRSR treats women struggling with the full spectrum of relationship and intimacy issues, including those who use sex to gain power over others, are endlessly pursuing “the one,” have anonymous or unsafe sex, get lost in online relationships and porn, have multiple affairs, and engage in other acting out behaviors. In addition to addressing sex, relationship and intimacy issues, CRSR offers comprehensive treatment for common co-occurring disorders, including eating disorders, substance abuse and trauma.

“Although women’s sex and relationship problems can assume different forms than that of male sex addicts, the negative consequences of their acting out are just as destructive to their physical and emotional health, families, and careers,” said Robert Weiss, LCSW, CSAT-S, the internationally known author, addiction specialist and educator who developed both the men’s and women’s relationship and sex addiction programs at The Ranch.

Sex and love addiction treatment at The Ranch is highly structured and individualized based on each client’s needs. Following a thorough assessment, an experienced female therapist designs a personalized treatment plan that typically includes daily group therapy, individual therapy, 12-Step meetings and a family program, among other interventions.

“The Ranch offers cutting-edge treatment for sex and relationship issues, but it does much more,” said Karen Brownd, the director of the CRSR. “Treatment is a journey of empowerment that allows women to find their own voice – beyond seduction and romance – leading them toward healthier, more fulfilling lives.”

Therapy for sex and love addiction addresses acting out behaviors as well as underlying issues that support unhealthy patterns in intimate relationships. Each week, clients have an opportunity to participate in equine, art and other experiential therapies. Because many women sex and love addicts have experienced trauma, often in the form of abuse, neglect or betrayal, CRSR provides gender-specific, trauma-focused therapy with a trauma specialist. Trauma specialists at The Ranch utilize treatment methods that include EMDR, Somatic Experiencing, mindfulness techniques and others.

Female clients at the Center for Relationship and Sexual Recovery live in a gender-separate living, eating, recreational and treatment environment with other women who are experiencing similar struggles. In a safe, supportive environment women learn to establish healthy boundaries, build genuine self-esteem and improve their relationships.

“What women find at The Ranch is peace,” said Brownd. “The serene atmosphere on the ranch affords women time to look at themselves and the opportunity to do the deep emotional work they need to do to heal from sex and love addiction.”

About The Ranch

Since 1997, The Ranch has provided comprehensive therapeutic programs that treat the underlying causes of eating disorders, addictions and other self-defeating behaviors. The Ranch offers innovative therapies to address the multidimensional aspects of the whole person while teaching personal accountability in a safe, nurturing, real-life environment. Located on a working horse ranch in the beautiful rolling hills of Nunnelly, Tennessee, The Ranch offers programs with a variable length of stay, which allows each client to anchor new recovery behaviors needed for lasting change. For more information about The Ranch, visit http://www.recoveryranch.com.

The Ranch is part of Elements Behavioral Health, a family of behavioral health care programs that includes Promises Treatment Centers and the Sexual Recovery Institute. Elements offers comprehensive, innovative treatment for substance abuse, sexual addiction, trauma, eating disorders and other mental health disorders. We are committed to delivering clinically sophisticated treatment that promotes permanent lifestyle change, not only for the patient but for the entire family system. For more information about Elements Behavioral Health, visit http://www.elementsbehavioralhealth.com.

###

Dr. David Sack
Elements Behavioral Health
562-741-6471
Email Information

1:00 AM

There is no such thing as a typical drug abuser. But some are more likely to become hooked.

By John Richardson jrichardson@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

Second of six parts

Prescription painkillers are known as an equal opportunity drug.

Widely available and highly addictive, the pills can ensnare people who might never be exposed to illicit drugs, such as cocaine or heroin.

“We’ve had a 70-year-old grandmother whose doctor prescribed it for chronic pain. The Yarmouth soccer mom. The 20-year-old. I have to laugh when people say the typical drug abuser. What’s that?” said Shannon Trainor, clinical director for Crossroads for Women, a Portland-based substance abuse treatment agency.

At the same time, experts say, there are definite risk factors that make some people more vulnerable to the changes in brain chemistry that lead to addiction. While access to the drugs and social factors fuel abuse, these risk factors can determine how fast a user gets hooked:

• Youth — Not only are teenagers more likely to experiment with the pills, their developing brains are much more susceptible to addiction.

• Past abuse or trauma — Sexual abuse as a child is a common experience among a surprisingly high number of addicts.

• Mood or anxiety disorders — Many people drawn to the numbness of an opiate high are drowning the symptoms of some underlying medical problem.

• Family history — Someone with alcoholic or drug-addicted relatives may have what is called the “addiction gene.”

Addiction is a disease of the brain, a change in chemical pathways caused by the highs and lows of repeated drug use.

The human brain is built to pursue pleasure and avoid pain, and opiates are especially potent hijackers of the pleasure and pain signals in the brain.

The drugs, especially when abused and taken in intense doses, shift the brain’s ability to experience pleasure beyond its natural range. Soon, the brain craves the drug to feel normal.

Opiate withdrawal, meanwhile, is intensely painful. Opiate receptors in the brain and different parts of the body go into a kind of shock. It doesn’t kill you, addicts say, but you may wish it would.

“There is nothing as traumatic as unmedicated opiate withdrawal,” said Mark Publicker, an addiction specialist at Mercy Recovery Center in Westbrook. “You’re in hell.”

Once an addict gets a taste of withdrawal, avoiding it becomes the brain’s top priority, sometimes at the expense of virtually everything else in an addict’s life.

It’s no accident that Mainers in their 20s have the highest rates of painkiller abuse. OxyContin and other prescription painkillers first hit Maine’s middle schools and high schools 10 years ago. The second-highest rate of abuse is among people now in their teens.

“Kids don’t even realize it’s an opiate. They don’t know what they are taking,” said Eric Heintz, a substance abuse counselor at Day One in South Portland.

Nearly one-quarter of Maine high school seniors in 2009 — 23.9 percent — said they had taken the drugs at least once, according to state data. Eleven percent of Maine’s eighth-graders — mostly 13-year-olds — had used prescription drugs in their lifetimes, according to the survey.

“Opiate addiction is a pediatric onset disease in Maine,” Publicker said. “Vicodin is more of a gateway drug than marijuana at this point.”

Vicodin, which is a commonly prescribed painkiller for broken bones and wisdom tooth extraction, is often most available to teenagers.

The teenage years, when brains are still developing, are an especially bad time to take the pills, experts say.

Teenagers are more likely to become addicted, and heavy use at that age can have more long-lasting effects on the brain.

Teenagers or others who have family histories of alcoholism or drug addiction are well known to be at higher risk. It’s effectively the same reason heart disease, depression and some cancers can run in families, doctors say.

The strong link between opiate addiction and child abuse is a relatively new discovery.

“It’s something that we as a profession had missed,” Heintz said. “Only recently has it become a focus in assessment and treatment.”

Heintz estimates that 70 percent to 80 percent of the adolescents who come to Day One with prescription drug problems say they had been abused in some way, often sexually.

Publicker estimates that more than 90 percent of the people he treats were molested as children.

Dr. Mark Brown, a Bangor pediatrician who cares for the babies of opiate-addicted mothers, said he sees the same pattern in the women.

“That’s pain that just doesn’t go away,” he said. “You medicate it away, and that’s how it (addiction) happens.”

Dr. Robert Blaik, a psychiatrist at Maine General Psychiatry in Portland, treats dozens of addicts and said virtually all of them are trying to blot out an untreated mental health problem. The addicts often describe it simply as feeling down, blue, sad or empty.

“All it takes is one experience with a short-acting opioid to realize” it can drown out such symptoms for a little while, he said. “Then you get into a course of up-down and up-down and you’re hooked.”

Blaik said economic insecurity can play a role, too, by intensifying mood and anxiety disorders. That may help explain why Maine and other poorer, rural states have been hit hardest and why abuse, addiction and crime continue to grow.

“You can’t ignore it,” Blaik said, “the self-medication issue is huge.” 

Staff Writer John Richardson can be contacted at 791-6324 or at:

jrichardson@pressherald.com

THE SECOND OF SIX PARTS

Posted: October 17
Updated: Today at 9:42 PM

Sexual abuse as child frequent denominator

By John Richardson jrichardson@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

Prescription painkillers are known as an equal opportunity drug.

Widely available and highly addictive, the pills can ensnare people who might never be exposed to illicit drugs, such as cocaine or heroin.

“We’ve had a 70-year-old grandmother whose doctor prescribed it for chronic pain. The Yarmouth soccer mom. The 20-year-old. I have to laugh when people say the typical drug abuser. What’s that?” said Shannon Trainor, clinical director for Crossroads for Women, a Portland-based substance abuse treatment agency.

At the same time, the experts say, there are definite risk factors that make some people more vulnerable to the changes in brain chemistry that lead to addiction. While access to the drugs and social factors fuel abuse, these risk factors can determine how fast a user gets hooked:

* Youth — Not only are teenagers more likely to experiment with the pills, their developing brains are much more susceptible to addiction.

* Past abuse or trauma — Sexual abuse as a child is a common experience among a surprisingly high number of addicts.

* Mood or anxiety disorders — Many people drawn to the numbness of an opiate high are drowning the symptoms of some underlying medical problem.

* Family history — Someone with alcoholic or drug-addicted relatives may have what is called the “addiction gene.”

Addiction is a disease of the brain, a change in chemical pathways caused by the highs and lows of repeated drug use.

The human brain is built to pursue pleasure and avoid pain, and opiates are especially potent hijackers of the pleasure and pain signals in the brain.

The drugs, especially when abused and taken in intense doses, shift the brain’s ability to experience pleasure outside of its natural range. Soon, the brain craves the drug to feel normal.

Opiate withdrawal, meanwhile, is intensely painful. Opiate receptors in the brain and different parts of the body go into a kind of shock. It doesn’t kill you, addicts say, but you may wish it would.

“There is nothing as traumatic as unmedicated opiate withdrawal,” said Mark Publicker, an addiction specialist at Mercy Recovery Center in Westbrook. “You’re in hell.”

Once an addict gets a taste of withdrawal, avoiding it become’s the brain’s top priority, sometimes at the expense of virtually everything else in an addict’s life.

It’s no accident that Mainers in their 20s have the highest rates of painkiller abuse. OxyContin and other prescription painkillers first hit Maine’s middle schools and high schools 10 years ago. The second-highest rate of abuse is among people now in their teens.

“Kids don’t even realize it’s an opiate. They don’t know what they are taking,” said Eric Heintz, a substance abuse counselor at Day One in South Portland.

Nearly one-quarter of Maine high school seniors in 2009 — 23.9 percent — said they had taken the drugs at least once, according to state data. Eleven percent of Maine’s eighth-graders — mostly 13-year-olds — had used prescription drugs in their lifetimes, according to the survey.

“Opiate addiction is a pediatric onset disease in Maine,” Publicker said. “Vicodin is more of a gateway drug than marijuana at this point.”

Vicodin, which is a commonly prescribed painkiller for broken bones and wisdom tooth extraction, is often most available to teens.

The teenage years, when brains are still developing, are an especially bad time to take the pills, experts say.

Teens are more likely to become addicted, and heavy use at that age can have more long-lasting effects on the brain.

Teens or others who have family histories of alcoholism or drug addiction are well known to be at higher risk. It’s effectively the same reason heart disease, depression and some cancers can run in families, doctors say.

The strong link between opiate addiction and child abuse is a relatively new discovery.

“It’s something that we as a profession had missed,” Heintz said. “Only recently has it become a focus in assessment and treatment.”

Heintz estimates that 70 to 80 percent of the adolescents who come to Day One with prescription drug problems say they had been abused in some way, often sexually.

Publicker estimates that more than 90 percent of the people he treats were molested as children.

Dr. Mark Brown, a Bangor pediatrician who cares for the babies of opiate-addicted mothers, said he sees the same pattern in the women.

“That’s pain that just doesn’t go away,” he said. “You medicate it away, and that’s how it (addiction) happens.”

Dr. Robert Blaik, a psychiatrist at Maine General Psychiatry in Portland, treats dozens of addicts and said virtually all of them are trying to blot out an untreated mental health problem. The addicts often describe it simply as feeling down, blue, sad or empty.

“All it takes is one experience with a short-acting opioid to realize” it can drown out such symptoms for a little while, he said. “Then you get into a course of up-down and up-down and you’re hooked.”

Blaik said economic insecurity can play a role, too, by intensifying mood and anxiety disorders. That may help explain why Maine and other poorer, rural states have been hit hardest and why abuse, addiction and crime continue to grow.

“You can’t ignore it,” Blaik said, “the self-medication issue is huge.”

 

Michael M. Miller: Treatment, prevention needed to address Dane County’s opioid addiction and overdose problem

Dear Editor: The recent media attention to the epidemic of opioid addiction and overdose deaths in Dane County is quite appropriate. Nationally, prescription drug overdose deaths (largely opioids and benzodiazepines) have overtaken motor vehicle deaths as a cause of accidental deaths, and prescription drug overdoses are the largest cause of accidental deaths in young adults.

Most persons begin with nonmedical use of prescription pain killers that have been diverted from their intended purpose, and they transition to heroin, which they often find to be more affordable and even easier to access than prescription drug supplies.

This is a personal tragedy for so many families, and public safety aspects are becoming more conspicuous, with drugged driving putting innocent third parties at risk.

Even when this epidemic began in the mid 1990s (with a much steeper slope in the last five years), the media seemed to first turn to law enforcement to get information for their stories. When you get “behind the story,” law enforcement and judicial professionals will be the first to tell you that what they offer is not a solution to this problem. This is a public health problem, and the director of the City/County Health Department is certainly concerned about it. Overdoses are usually associated with addiction, a brain disease where the solution is intervention and treatment. Communities must be committed to improving screening and case finding, and improving access to treatment of opioid addiction, treatment which has the adequate intensity and duration to address this illness and keep it in remission. Treatment and prevention, which are medical and public health interventions, must get more attention, and not just the criminal justice and public safety aspects of this tragic plague on our communities, especially our young people.

Michael M. Miller, M.D.

Madison

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Dave Searles: Add Ron Johnson to pols who should be recalled

Dear Editor: We also need to target Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson for recall. He is nothing but a shill and a whore for the rich, big business and corporations. He does not represent the majority of Wisconsinites. Some of the letters and messages I have received from him in response to my public interest lobbying in such areas as the environment, science and social issues are unbelievable. He just does not have a clue. He brags about representing Wisconsinites and then goes against the best interests of Wisconsinites.

The Republican candidates running for retiring U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl’s seat are no different. They are also bought and paid for by corporations and ultra conservative groups.

Dave Searles

Brodhead

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Elliot Christensen: Taxpayer dollars should not go to subsidize unhealthy foods

Dear Editor: We as Americans are being exploited by our own government. As a Native American born on a reservation, I have seen the exploitation of people firsthand.

Right now, billions of our tax dollars are being used each year to subsidize unhealthy foods like corn syrup and hydrogenated soy oils. My culture is plagued with diabetes. In fact, it is the No. 1 killer of Native American elders. These deaths are linked to these unhealthy food subsidies.

Is it ethical that hundreds of billions of tax dollars are going to subsidies for high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated soybean oils while one in three children in this country is overweight or obese and so many are suffering from diabetes? The clear answer is “no.” We should not have to pay for these subsidies with our taxpayer money when this money could be better utilized in so many other capacities. It is time for these subsidies to end now.

People who would like to see an end to this irresponsible and wasteful way of farming should contact Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, and ask her to co-sponsor the REAPS Act.

Elliot Christensen

Madison

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Donald A. Moskowitz: Military funeral picketers are anti-American

Dear Editor: The Supreme Court decision this spring upholding the First Amendment right of the Westboro Baptist Church, Topeka, Kan., to picket at the funerals of military personnel was a victory for our constitutional rights but a defeat for morality in this country.

The followers of this so-called church typically gather at the funeral ceremonies of our fallen heroes, accusing them of condoning homosexuality within the military.

These misguided disciples are reminiscent of the Nazis and other fascist elements who persecuted gays, the clergy, Jews, gypsies and various ethnic peoples in the 1930s and 1940s. They should be looked upon as anti-American bigots who are trying to undermine our military and tear at the fabric of our country.

States should pass laws which prohibit such provocative and anti-American behavior within one mile or more from a funeral ceremony.

Donald A. Moskowitz

Londonderry, N.H.

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